Was founded in 1973 by Jim Cook, and has since grown to be one of the nation’s leading silver and gold dealers. In the 51 years of service, IRI has logged 400,000 transactions for 60,000 customers equaling $3 billion sold and delivered.
Get the James Cook Market Update Newsletter in the mail
Edited by best-selling author James Cook
SIGN UP FOR FREE
Get the latest analysis and hard-hitting commentary from top analysts on precious metals, economics and big government.
FROM THE DESK OF JIM COOK
FREE MONEY
I’ve always believed that the U.S. economy would eventually crash and burn. People in the gold and silver business uniformly hold that view. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet, only means that a national bankruptcy is still to come. Mr. Trump could postpone the “big one” with his conservative policies, or he could miscalculate and plunge us into hyperinflation or depression. It’s the liberal agenda that will ultimately do us in. At some point in the future, liberals will be governing again, and their runaway spending could be the final nail in our coffin.
This is the last thing Ted Butler wrote for us. He was trying to summarize what he saw happening in silver. His illness was making it difficult to write, but he did a good job of conveying his final thoughts.
Price volatility in silver has been heavy recently, but two conditions point to much greater price volatility ahead. Currently, bearish futures-market positions on the COMEX feature an unprecedented short position by a single managed-money trader of some 13,000 contracts (65 million ounces). This is combined with a heavy commercial short position. The short position by a big managed-money trader is particularly concerning since it is larger than what the largest silver mines produce in a year and is clearly not a hedged position, but purely speculative, appearing to violate speculative position limits. While bearish on its face, should this big short get caught in a squeeze, all heck could develop on the upside.