INVESTMENT RARITIES INCORPORATED
was founded in 1974 by Jim Cook, and has since grown to be one of the nation’s leading silver and gold dealers. In the 44 years of service, IRI has logged 400,000 transactions for 60,000 customers equaling $3 billion sold and delivered.
From the desk of Jim Cook
Perfect Storm
A number of factors have coalesced into a powerfully bullish case for silver. The current price may be as cheap as silver has ever been. It was certainly more valuable in Roman times when it was used for coinage, jewelry and utensils. The Romans employed 40,000 slaves to mine silver from Spain and this silver contributed greatly to the wealth of Rome. Silver had worldwide usage as money until the twentieth century. Today it could not be money because enough silver no longer exists. That’s because silver became an important industrial metal and the aboveground supply was used up. In 1940, the U.S. government owned 5 billion ounces of silver. That hoard is gone forever. Only tiny amounts of silver are used in most applications and that can’t be recovered. Silver’s scarcity, its low supply, its growing industrial usage and its reduced production from mining are converging bullish factors. READ MORE
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INSIGHTS from TED BUTLER
Day of Reckoning
It has now been ten business days since the end of 2019. That’s ten days for the CFOs and top risk officials at the 7 largest shorts in COMEX gold and silver futures to ponder what to do about the record large mark-to-market losses booked at the end of last year. On Dec 31, the 7 biggest shorts in gold and silver booked a mark-to-market loss of $3.8 billion, or just over $540 million per trader on average. While the big shorts have been underwater on their concentrated short positions since the summer, they were able to rig gold and silver prices sharply lower into the end of the third quarter, September 30, when the open losses were reduced to around $2 billion. That’s of lot better than the $5 billion they were out at the price highs in early September. READ MORE
