Pity the rubes who watched Glenn Beck and bought gold at $800
by Don Surber
August 24, 2011
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/40815#more-40815
In late 2009 and early 2010, when liberal smug was at its peak, the Obamanauts went after Glenn Beck, a heretic at Fox News who did not believe in Saint Barack and who had this weird notion that the Constitution protects the public from the government. Liberals organized a boycott and succeeded in getting 400 companies that had never advertised on Glenn Beck’s TV show promise to never advertise on Glenn Beck’s TV show. Goldline and its competitors continued to peddle their ware on Glenn Beck’s show — and that stuck in the craw of throats of liberals.
Billionaire George Soros-funded Media Matters For America did some digging and discovered that Glenn Beck and his sponsors got along swell. A secret investigation, which consisted of actually watching the TV show, revealed:
Gold Firms Have Long History Of Buying Ads On Beck’s Shows
Gold Sellers Advertised On Fox News’ Glenn Beck In 2009. Among the precious-metals sellers advertising on Beck’s Fox News show in November 2009 were Rosland Capital, Goldline International, Merit Financial, Investment Rarities Incorporated, Wholesale Direct Metals, and Superior Gold Group.
Beck Shilled For Gold Without Disclosing His Status As “Paid Spokesman” For Goldline. While Beck suggested on his Fox News show that viewers could “protect yourself” from “the end of the almighty dollar” and possible hyperinflation by purchasing gold, Goldline International was describing Beck as a “Paid Spokesman” for the company and itself as “exclusive precious metals sponsor of the Glenn Beck radio show.”
In a video Beck made for Goldline, Beck invoked the Founding Fathers, saying that a letter exchange between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams discussed “what the future of America was going to be like and how bright it was going to be. And then it was going to shake apart and there would be troubled times, but then it would reset itself and it would be great again. But I’d like a little bit of insurance. That’s why I want to talk to you a little bit about Goldline.”
Goldline later stopped referring to Beck as a “paid spokesman” after Fox News, which says it has a policy of prohibiting on-air talent from endorsing products or services, asked Beck to clarify his relationship with Goldline.
Shocking. Glenn Beck was pitching gold at $800 a troy ounce to the rubes. And one of his sponsors was Rosland, whose spokesman is G. Gordon Liddy. Liberal wattles quivered so rapidly on that one that it looked as though those wattles vibrated. As the price of gold rose to $1,200 a troy ounce, liberals tried to warn the rubes of the folly of following Glenn Beck.
From CNN:
The coming gold bust
When gold prices turn skyward, like they did for the past two weeks before some recent flattening, some mix of greed, fear and uncertainty are likely ruling the market. What better time to remember what really drives prices over the long-term: market fundamentals. Through that lens, gold might not be such a hot investment.
The gold market works much like any other, with supply and demand eventually equalizing, and runaway prices returning to long-term averages. Since 1980, the price of gold has averaged about $440 an ounce in U.S. dollars. But much like U.S. home prices over this decade, it can take some time for prices to return to normal.
Barclays Wealth in London predicts gold will fall to a fair value of $800 an ounce by 2012, as investors eventually dump it for riskier trades; Societe Generale, the French bank, in April 2009 predicted $800 gold by the end of 2010, though it has reversed its stance since then. Analyst John Nadler of gold deal Kitco predicts gold will fall to $900 in 2011.
Their reasoning is simple: investors are keeping prices high even as demand from non-investors is cratering.
Take gold jewelry, which accounts for more than half of the world’s gold market. Demand there fell 8% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and is likely to continue to fall amid high prices that turn off shoppers. For example, in India, the largest gold buying country, high gold prices this week kept Indians from purchasing metal for the gold-buying festival of Akshaya Tritiya, which in turn drove down prices.
Then there’s price pressure from the supply side. Higher gold prices mean miners work overtime. The supply of mine gold around the world jumped 7% last year to 2,572 tons-the second largest increase in history.
Gold bullion dealer Kitco says places like China and Russia will help boost the amount of gold from mining by 4% to 6% a year through 2014. Because it costs miners about $480 on average to extract an ounce of gold, they plow ahead when prices are high, eventually leading to an oversupply situation.
Gold as $1,200 also brings out the sellers and resellers. In 2009, scrap supply-all those gold pendants, necklaces and coins people have lying around-hit an all-time high of 1,700 tons. All those “we buy gold” signs, Internet advertisements and late night television commercials? Well, they’re starting to work.
That scrap supply high is actually a 27% rise from 2008, according to Kitco. “So long as prices remain above $1,000-$1,100 we will continue to see a river of secondary gold actually starting to compete with mine production,” says Jon Nadler, a Kitco analyst.
Do you see what is happening? The rising price of gold will bring more gold to the market, which means the price of gold will fall. Never mind the fall of the dollar, folks. But the rubes do not watch CNN and so the warnings went unheeded. More drastic measures were needed. A rising star in the Democratic Party was brought in to call for congressional action. From CBS:
Rep. Anthony Weiner today criticized precious metal dealer Goldline, Inc. for using what a release from his office described as “aggressive sales tactics, conservative spokespeople and rhetoric to sell over-priced gold coins to unsuspecting consumers.”
Goldline is associated with talk radio and Fox News host Glenn Beck, who has often mentioned it on his Fox show and radio program. Goldline is also sponsor of the radio show.
Weiner accused Beck and other conservative spokespeople (among them Mark Levin and Fred Thompson) of using “their shows to prey on the public’s fears of inflation and socialist takeovers while actively promoting the purchase of gold coins as insurance against this purported government overreach.”
“Simply put, Goldline is little more than a gold peddler posing as an investment advisor, an unfortunate byproduct of the Tea Party movement,” Weiner’s office said.
Weiner has released a report detailing what he calls Beck and Goldline’s use of “tall tales about the future of gold” to sell gold coins. In it, he says Goldline “grossly overcharges” for coins and “formed an unholy alliance with conservative pundits to drive a false narrative” that they are a good investment.
And Politico’s Kenneth Vogel reported: “A member of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Weiner said he plans this week to introduce legislation to require Goldline and other precious metal retailers to fully disclose all their fees, how much the price of gold would need to rise in order for their customers’ investments to yield a profit, and the purchase price, melt value and resale value of the metal that constitutes their products. And he called on the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Federal Trade Commission to investigate ‘the shady business practices conducted by Goldline International’.”
God bless you, Anthony Weiner, for trying to protect people from buying gold at $1,300 a troy ounce — the price when he made this report came out. America is a great nation that should be thankful that it has this outstanding young man who stands up for morality and fairness, because if there is anything that Anthony Weiner represents, it is full disclosure.
That was in May 2010. Now 15 months later, I am happy to report that Glenn Beck is no longer on Fox News. But sadly, gold no longer sells for $1,300 or $1,200 or even $800 a troy ounce.
Looks like it is headed for $2,000.
Rubes.
{Dripping sarcasm now switched off. B.}
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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