Price Controls
By: Bill Hoyt | 29 April, 2006
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| The process of demonization is beginning anew. Naturally some of the blame for higher gas prices goes to a market that is topped out and oil companies that take every advantage to ensure their product's price is high. Do I blame them? Not at all. I take every advantage to ensure that every one of my books sells for the highest price at which it will move, and I make no apologies nor excuses for that. Full Story |
The Game
By: Bill Hoyt | 25 March, 2006
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| I had a dream last night, or rather this morning, the kind of dream you sometimes have after you wake up early and spend the next 20 minutes floating into and out of sleep. In it, I ran into my old high school teacher, who was having trouble teaching economics, so I decided to create a game for her to help her get through to her class. But it wasn't quite a board game, or if it was one it was so big (or we so small) that we were able to walk around on it like living game pieces, creating it as we talked. Full Story |
Arguing With The Radio
By: Bill Hoyt | 12 March, 2006
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| I was pretty surprised this morning when the preacherman on my radio started talking about inflation. “Inflation,” he said in his impressive Australian accent, “is an increase in supply. And America has lately seen an inflation in the supply of many things, including knowledge, entertainment, and money.” “So far, so good,” I thought. But I was soon thankful that the country roads on which I drive are sparsely traveled in the early mornings, for his next sentence nearly sent my car careening into the ditch. Full Story |
Nothing is Over
By: Bill Hoyt | 17 December, 2005
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| A look at the ‘79-‘80 silver blowoff is illustrative. If one looks at a chart of physical supply (they are found in many articles explaining the current silver deficit), the deficits of the ‘70s are replaced by surpluses in the ‘80s as high prices brought new mines and old silverware into the equation. In addition to the new supply, the ‘81-‘82 recession killed off visible inflation, resulting in a demand for long bonds over physical bullion. But there was a resolution: the problems which caused the rise were resolved through pain. Then the deficits began building again. Full Story |
The A-Team
By: Bill Hoyt | 22 November, 2005
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| When I was a kid, I used to love to watch “The A-Team” on TV. This quartet of lovable fugitives, upon finding themselves in weekly hot water, would always manage to fight their way out using the most creative – and unlikely – of means. But my favorite part of the show was its consistent finale: that point at which Hannibal Smith would chomp down on a cigar while overlooking whatever mayhem the team had just caused and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Full Story |
Of Honest Money and Old Books
By: Bill Hoyt | 24 October, 2005
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| Being the owner of a bookstore, I’m blessed to have a continuous stream of old and obscure economics books crossing my desk. Honestly, I prefer the old to the new, and I’d rather read Harry Browne’s “How to Profit During the Coming Devaluation” than Bonner and Wiggins’ “Financial Reckoning Day,” even though I highly recommend them both. Full Story |
Silver Summit
By: Bill Hoyt | 16 September, 2005
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| The first rush was fueled by bad intentions. Not started, mind you. When Andrew Pritchard found gold in the north fork of the Coeur d’Alene River, it was real gold. And like all gold, it was worth finding. But when the Northern Pacific Railroad which plastered the country with handbills promising free gold in north Idaho for the price of a ticket, the thousands of men who rode to this scenic paradise didn’t find gold, or as least not enough of it to make the Coeur d’Alene Mining District famous. What they found, instead, was silver, more than a billion ounces of it. Full Story |
Of Gasoline and Silver
By: Bill Hoyt | 22 August, 2005
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| According to the Silver Institute, world supply of silver in 2004 was about 880 million ounces, within 10% of the supply from every year going back to 1996. In fact, as prices rose from less than $5 at the end of 2000 to $6.65 in 2004, supply dropped marginally and has been unchanged since 2001. That’s inelastic supply, and it comes about because silver is a byproduct metal. Full Story |
Bastille Day
By: Bill Hoyt | 14 July, 2005
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| Silver kills bugs dead. Not silver bugs, of course, but micro bugs. The Greeks and Romans knew it, even though they didn’t know about bugs or “super bugs”. Your grandmother knew it – that’s why she used to drop a silver dollar into the milk to keep it from spoiling. And while certain bugs have been able to adapt to resist the finest antibiotics man has developed, I have not heard of one that has been able to develop a silver resistance. Resistance to silver seems unique to humans. Full Story |
Unintended Consequences
By: Bill Hoyt | 21 June, 2005
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| Though I don’t expect that the violence that is an unintended consequence of drug laws will take place in the silver market, I fully expect violence of another sort, a violent price squeeze that drives the price high enough to open mines, re-engineer production processes, and encourage investors who have been taken on the ride of their lives to dishoard all the silver they squirreled away when it was cheap and plentiful. And I don’t expect that price will be anywhere near the current price of $7.50. Full Story |
Gonna Buy Me a Dog
By: Bill Hoyt | 6 June, 2005
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| As silver investors have looked over their portfolios in the last few months, a once-familiar grumble has re-appeared on their lips. “Dog.” “Dog. Dog. Dog.” It’s understandable, because many silver stocks are down 50-80% from their annual highs, even as the price of silver sits on the bright side of $7.50, and even as the ubiquitous uses of silver continue to bode well for the future price of the metal. For the first time in what seems like ages, serious money is being spent on exploration, which ought to bode well for the future of the industry, especially the juniors. Full Story |