I don’t write off JS as a kook, though he definitely has some “tout” (to put it into a single word) characteristics. Indeed, he is eminently qualified to speak to gold and its various whatevers, having written about gold from long ago and far away. He’s been an advocate (not a permabull) for many, many years. More importantly, he has called the major moves in the gold market for at least 40 years. Including the massive dump post-1980, which he said (at the time) would take 15 years to play out (it took 20) He’s been the CEO of several companies (now: Tan Range Gold in Tanzania) and has been head of several trading and market making firms. Should you study the gold (or silver) market you’ll find there are maybe 20 guys who are the acknowledged gurus and he’s one of them.
this article may give you a better idea of where he comes from than the snippet originally posted.
http://www.futuresmag.com/2012/05/01/jim-sinclair-has-something-to-say?t=regulations&page=2
Anyway, I’ve been into precious metals for many, many years and have more often than not thought that the stack of dumb metal piled up in the corner is smarter than the smartest smarties there are. One either buys the metal and holds it for time indefinite, or not. The type of broad-brush, all encompassing “this will never happen” statement covering 4 distinct aspects (possible confiscation of physical, the taxation of phys sales, the taxation of stock (GLD) sales, the potential reinstatement of a gold standard) all of which are large if not giant topics, I am not comfortable with.
But...he’s been in the gold market decades longer than I have.
Maybe Mr. Sinclair is correct - look at this way.
Leaving aside (for the moment) the “unfunded” obligations of Social Security and Medicaire, estimated somwhere between 120 and 220 Trillion, there is currently (that we know about, anyway) 16 Trillion dollar debt that is owed.
How much would that be in gold? Well, a lot. I’m not the best at math, but if I recall correctly, gold is measured in Troy ounces, not avoirdupois. So, a “ton of gold” would be, or pretty close to 32,150 Troy ounces.
Now, since we’re buying in quantity - we get a discount to current spot price @ $1750 smooth, - and so the current national debt as it stands now is approx. equal to 284,381 tons of gold. Current stock of US Monetary gold stands at around 8,000 tons, so we’ve got a bit of work ahead of us.
Then we can get serious about Social Security, and Medicaire, and Obamacaire, and Carbon Tax.. etc.
Because of this, I can pretty much guarantee that you and people like you were not standing in line Thanksgiving night in a cold parking lot, elbowing others, waiting to save $35.00 off a pair of sneakers.