can you walk into a TD, or RBC bank (or any bank for that matter) and buy a ounce of 24kt. (tangible) gold?

Gold and silver are commodities of limited economic use and are the currency of fear. In the current economic climate, which some have called the Economic Winter Season, the price for gold and silver has risen sharply in response to fears about an economic collapse. Now I am not a gold bug, nor am I a gold-hater. I am merely an observer of economies, markets and trends. Whenever the economy heads into the tank, then precious metals have risen in value in the past. Conversely, if there is a belief that the economy improves, then precious metals decline in price. Please note that very recently on June 19, 2013 the Federal Reserve announced after their monthly meeting that the economy is improving and they will ease up on buying federal debt instruments. After that announcement, gold declined by more than 5% and silver declined by over 9% in just that single day. So, if you believe that the economy will be getting worse, then by all means buy gold and silver. But if you believe, as I do, that the economy is gradually improving, then stay away from precious metals and buy common stock.

BTW, what have those precious metals done recently? Gold has already declined by over 35% and silver even by a massive 60% since their all-time highs 2 years ago. But you don’t see the advertisements on TV by the gold and silver dealers talk about that. I believe we have not yet seen the bottom of that decline yet. My prediction is that sometimes next year gold will be selling at less than $1,000/oz. and silver at about $15/oz. or less, although it is possible that it may temporarily go back up but nowhere close to their old highs. But then again, that’s just my opinion. And did you know that silver was way up at about $50/oz. way back in 1981 and gold was around $860/oz. then? And the purveyors of those commodities claim these metals to be an inflation hedge!!! But then you also need to consider that these commodities are subject to manipulation as the Hunt’s brothers did quite successfully by cornering the market in 1980/81, at least until the bubble burst.

I just recently ran across some old paperwork from 1970 about the precious metals market and how there was a developing shortage of silver and everyone including 3rd world nations were buying gold. And you know what? I could simple have changed the date on that memo to July 2013, since all the same argument are still made today more than 40 years later.

That of course is just my prediction, but I don't expect to be far off course. And even in Europe, the economy can only go up. Forget about Spain and Greece though.