TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY--THAT IS QUESTION-post 75

Hi,

Lots of investors this week bought U.S. Government Treasury bonds and gold stocks to get their money out of riskier stocks and into safer territory. Bonds were at a lower percentage THAN THEY'VE BEEN IN YEARS.

For the small investor, T-bills are a better choice. Hard cold GOLD in the safety deposit box is also a better choice than gold stocks if you need to liquidate some of your portfolio. It is definitely the time to get out of risk stocks and bonds and stick with SOMETHING safer LIKE T-BILLS which are paying almost nothing but so far are stable.

Gold showed up at $1800.+ an ounce and you thought it was expensive at $800. an ounce several years ago. It's up 48% from a year+ ago. The prediction that I heard on TV by a gold expert is that it will top out at $3000. BUT REMEMBER, IT IS A RISKY COMMODITY!!!!!!!! IT GOES DOWN AS FAST AS IT GOES UP!!!!!!!!! So don't mistake it for a safe investment. It's speculative. BUY IT TO PUT AWAY in a vault FOR A RAINY DAY (THIS IS NOT NEARLY RAINY YET!!!!!!)

SILVER for those who can't bear to pay the price for GOLD is a usable commodity in bad times. Some favor coins and if they become numismatic, that's all to the good. Silver (not ersatz plated) is always good for the food and other necessities. Gold goes to taxes and big ticket problems. SILVER IS ALSO VALUED AT THE PRICE OF SILVER bullion NOT JUST THE COIN VALUE!!!! TEAPOTS, SILVER PLATTERS AND SILVERWARE RATE RIGHT UP THERE WITH GOLD FOR the big ticket items. It's hard for a grocer to give change on an order paid by a TEAPOT. SILVER CARRIES THE SAME RISKS AS GOLD IN FLUCTUATING PRICES but coins in the vault can be a comforting feeling when ALL ABOUT YOU IS RAINING DOWN ECONOMIC LOSS. Remember the German debacle when their money had to be carried in bushel baskets for a loaf of bread!!!!!For the lady investors, remember DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND as well as rubies, sapphires and emeralds--again not the ersatz kind. FIND A JEWELER YOU CAN TRUST!!!!!!!!

Let's face it , folks, economies can fail!!!!!!!Witness Greece and in the past Brazil but unless President Obama continues to spend from the Treasury like the other drunken sailors in our erstwhile government, AMERICA is still the safest and best economy going.

No matter what the Communists tell us in their propaganda, the Capitalist system is being taken on all over the world (including China). Capitalism is KICKING Communist BUTT and is winning over minds and hearts. THAT'S WHY THE HARD PUSH ON US IN AMERICA. THEY FIGURE IF WE GET ON THE BANDWAGON THEY CAN TURN THINGS AROUND!!! But because CAPITALISM is getting popular and being used by countries that have never had a free economy, there's a lot of error being made. (OR DOWNRIGHT CROOKED DEALING.) Our system has been in place with all kinds of checks and balances that MAY NOT exist in other stock markets opened across the world. REMEMBER WE NOT ONLY HAD ONE OF THE FIRST FINANCIAL MARKET PLACES BUT FOR A LONG WHILE OUR STOCK MARKET WAS A RARITY!!!!!!!!!

WE ALSO NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT a lot of what the wealthy used to call the NOUVEAU RICHE (that's the middle class--folks!!!!!!) are in the stock market today and are neophytes and not used to the ups and downs that are a regular event in stock trading. Liken it to SKIING, THERE'S A LOT OF UPS AND DOWNS, AND FALLS ALONG THE WAY UNTIL YOU PERFECT YOUR TECHNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!Even then there are a few embarrassing pratfalls.

SO THE STOCK MARKET is reflecting the fear of a lot of individual and new investors which drives it down as they sell, sell, sell to protect their assets. It, therefore, is not acting as a growth market but a very speculative market with severe trends. Unfortunately, this is not what the market is truly about. Yes, there are areas of risky speculation and like Las Vegas, winning is to be anticipated if not won. BUT THE MAIN THRUST OF THE MARKET SHOULD ALWAYS BE LONG TERM GROWTH!!!!!!!

A long term market is a slow climb based on companies and commodities that reflect steady growth and although WITHOUT flashy winners show financial gains over a long term. THEN AND ONLY THEN are your assets really in good hands. SENIORS SHOULD BE MOSTLY IN SAFE ASSETS since they're into utility not growth.

That's what the old term (which you no longer hear) BLUE CHIP STOCKS was all about. In those days that included General Motors (now a Government bail out), General Electric, Railroads, Utilities and certain rating top-starred companies. If a stock was rated tops then downgraded by Standard and Poors, it became an orphan outside ITS BLUE CHIP COMRADES.

Speaking of COMRADES, CHINA has a vital capitalistic system working through its Communistic shrouds and has dumped many of its former Government business ventures as too costly and too poorly run by the bureaucrats. They are attempting to run the two systems side by side but it's not going well for Communist idealists, who are finding little Government funding for their projects. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN, EXACTLY?????????? WHO THE DICKENS KNOWS BUT THIS BLOGGER'S GUESS IS AS GOOD AS ANY!!!!

It probably means what many of us believed, IT'S JUST TOO DAMNED EXPENSIVE to let ONLY IDEALS RULE!!!!!!!!!GOOD FINANCIAL PLANNING WITH PROFIT AND....LOSS CAN MAKE THE IDEALS WORK!!! AND COME TO FRUITION. Not the OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!!!! MOST OF US HAVE ALWAYS WANTED THE BEST FOR ALL but it has to come out of REALITY NOT A DREAMER'S PIPE.

And as more people recognize this, stock markets appear TO RULE, based on CAPITALISM, but it's going to take time for the REALISTS AND THE DREAMERS TO MAKE A PACT, JOIN HANDS, AND FINALLY provide the DREAM. THE LEARNING OF A NEW SYSTEM based on CAPITALISM is going to take most places in the world a while to assimilate but it may be the case that when they do, they will be better at it than Americans!!! OH, HORRORS!!!!!!!!!! HOIST ON OUR OWN PETARD AGAIN!!!!!

The gist of all this is that as we have INVESTORS APPEARING ALL OVER THE WORLD, our stock market will become financial fodder as well (and has) and be a lot more erratic and volatile than it may have been in the past. (WELL, THAT'S A STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION!!!)
We have become so global (world-wide) with the Internet and all the technology that America can no longer depend on a nice neat AMERICAN BLUE CHIP standard. However, it is possible to eventually have a GLOBAL BLUE CHIP PORTFOLIO appear and offer some real prosperity to many.

So tuck away a little gold and/or silver (that way you'll eat, buy jeans, and pay the mortgage) then hunker down for the LONG HAUL!!!!!!!!In the the long run if your portfolio has been well chosen, you will begin to earn again and your money will provide the comfort you seek.

CHEERS, CONNIE