Financial Sense Newshour Archive

Jim welcomes back Ross Hansen, founder of Northwest Territorial Mint, now the largest private mint in the US. Ross discusses the recent high demand for physical precious metals, and notes that the fundamentals of the market have not changed. At the moment, there is a shortage of product, specifically gold and silver coins. Ross advises to not pay the current higher premiums on coins, but just buy the rounds or bullion. He sees the “fast money” crowd trading in and out of the paper gold market, but the demand for physical precious metals continues to rise. Jim and Ross also discuss the current situation in Cyprus.

Jim welcomes back Eoin Treacy, Global Strategist at Fullermoney, a division of Stockcube Research Ltd. in London. Eoin is favorable toward US markets, noting contracting P/E’s and rising dividend yields on US stocks. He believes the US has an advantage over other countries, and sees US multinational stocks leveraged to the global economy as the best place to invest. Bond investors are reluctant to change their strategy, and Eoin doesn’t see them moving into stocks until they start losing money in bonds.

Jim is pleased to welcome back Dr. Robert Hirsch, Senior Energy Advisor at Management Information Services Inc. and an authority on Peak Oil. Dr. Hirsch has just returned from an historic peak oil conference in Doha, Qatar, the first ever initiated by Gulf State oil producers. Dr. Hirsch believes there will be a “sea change” coming to the Middle East, once peak oil is reached. The timing of its arrival is difficult to predict, but it will likely be sooner than the global economy is prepared for. He makes the point that most people don’t understand that peak oil is a “liquid fuel problem”, and thus wind and solar technology will never solve the problem. Dr. Hirsch also sees the current projections of future US energy independence as “pure fiction”.

Jim is pleased to welcome back Brian Pretti CFA, Managing Editor at ContraryInvestor.com. Brian says to brace yourself for the flight of global capital coming into the US later this year. For now, all roads lead to the dollar. Brian believes the first wave will come from capital fleeing both Europe and Asia. Brian and Jim also discuss the new Japanese monetary policy and how this will unleash a flood of cheap money on the globe. This will encourage sophisticated investors to borrow in Japan, invest in the US, and pay back the loan in cheaper Yen, increasing the return substantially.

This week Jim and Cathlyn use the case study of Joe and Irene Turner to illustrate several issues facing today’s retirees. These issues include Long Term Care and medical expenses, fear of the financial markets, inflation, the difficulty of maintaining quality of life in a 0% interest rate environment and reconciling budgets versus sources of income. The guest this week is Dr. Bonnie Olsen of the National Center on Elder Abuse at UC Irvine. Dr. Olsen discusses financial fraud and abuse on the elderly and how to avoid it.