Beware Of Gold, Continued

Please people if you must own gold use a regulated ETF or mutual fund or buy off a regulated futures exchange. The coins they sell on TV should be judged the same way you’d judge jewelry or commemorative plates — you’re paying for the design and will only realize a return if it becomes huge with a very small number of collectors and hobbyists. If you want the spot price of gold you have to buy a regulated investment product.

Beck, just another arm of the right-wing fear-mongering crowd that is Fox News with lady Sarah and the “drug”myster.

People who buy gold to drive up the price are no better than the house flippers of recent years. Is the operative word here “sucker” or “——”?

So Conservative commenters exploit people’s inattention to details to sell them something that runs directly counter to their own self-interest.

Thanks for this opportunity to explain an entire movement in a single sentence.

“This suggests that Weiner may have motivations beyond protecting the nest eggs of Goldline clients.”
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I can understand why Politico is immediately suspicious of Congressman Weiner’s actions in this situtation. After all its Glenn Beck’s and Fox News’ jobs to make sure Americans are making sound investments. In gold Use Goldline. Got Gold yet?

Yes, in criticizing people for hawking Goldline, it was blatantly unfair to criticize someone who actually hawks Goldline.

Actually the report doesn’t target Glenn Beck in particular. It reads:
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Fred Thompson, Dennis Miller, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larson, Michael Smerconish, Monica Crowley and Mike Huckabee are all paid spokespeople for Goldline.
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Glenn Beck was also at one point a paid spokesperson but is no longer because it violated
Fox news rules. Goldline does however sponsor his program and he commonly encourages his viewers to purchase gold, without mentioning that Goldline is a sponsor of his show.

Scherer raises questions about Weiner’s motivations without raising a single objection to any of Weiner’s factual statements. This suggests that Scherer may have motivations beyond accurately reporting the news to Time readers.

From the key findings section of the report, page 3:

 Goldline Formed An Unholy Alliance with Conservative Pundits to Drive a False
Narrative
On numerous occasions, Glenn Beck has dedicated entire segments of his program to
explaining why the U.S. money supply is destined for hyperinflation with Barack
Obama as president. He will often promote the purchase of gold as the only safe
investment alternative for consumers who want to safeguard their livelihoods. When
the show then cuts to commercial break, viewers are treated to an advertisement from
Goldline.

Why didn’t Bleck criticize Weiner on his TV SHOW vs. his far-less popular radio one? Did he think no one was gonna notice a) he’s getting rich off the poor and b) he’s playing them for fools?

OK, Paul D answered #8 for me. But it’s still mighty fishy to launch into a rant about how the dollar’s going to pot, then cleverly scheme to invite viewers into a sucker’s bet. Fox “News,” indeed.

Fox news rules.
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What neocons read from your post.

I actually wrote what I wrote all wrong. What I meant to say is that Politico seems to have little interest in the larger story of a News Organization allowing itself to captured by scam artists, but instead want to make sure attention is drawed on the guy whose job is supposed to be protection of Fox News viewers as consumers.

How about this right wing pitch from skinny Rush:

But the right wing media is all about giving us the whole truth and looking out for the little guy (and helping grow – a few inches in the waist.)

In Gold We Trust

Haven’t many of the commenters on here been saying that Glenn Beck is a no good lying snake that takes advantange of people’s ignorance just to line his own pockets?

He cries like a little girl and is an alcoholic too. Maybe those are his good points.

Exactly. I’ve had money in GLD for 3 years now and have done very well with it (one of those rare cases when I hit the timing right). I would only buy coins if I was more interested in the coin than in the investment.
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Beck’s response tells you everything you need to know about Beck. He’s very concerned about possibly losing his sponsor, but not concerned at all about the people that believe his BS and wind up getting cheated out of their money. Beck is just like any other charlatan. He has no respect for the people he leads — they’re merely sheep to be shorn.

I couldn’t find any reference to it, but, I am nearly positive that Air America was, also, sponsored by gold companies.

However, I think the big deal is that Fox alters their “news” and commentary to boost sales.

“I still have not heard anyone explain why it is a smart thing…”
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Um, we’re talking about the choices of the right-wing base here right?

He’s a gold-recovering alcoholic

I can’t wait for Congressman Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y to issue a report on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how the Democrats have misled taxpayers for years.

Yeah one could hope. Why deal with an issue that is bankrupting this country when you can kick conservatives.

An ex-friend (he quit speaking to me because I’m a socialist/communist) had been investing in those commemorative coins. His wife told me he bought nearly $10,000 worth. His son says it’s well over $50,000. I have a roll of Susan B. Anthony dollar coins.
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And I’M a liberal loon?

I expect you are correct.
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Hearing the pretty great Thom Hartmann do live reads for Goldline always made me cringe.

If I don’t move out to the suburbs in a few weeks (which I may) I am thinking of working on Wiener’s campaign.
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It’s great when you have a congressman who you agree with on almost nine out ten issues.
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Freeinpa, you just believe whatever the right wing tells you to do.
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Is it true that Sean Hannity sold you a share of the Brooklyn Bridge?

Another liberal who refuses to deal with reality. Fannie and Freddie has taxpayer on the hook for about $12 trillion and they continue to be the biggest owner of Alt-A mortgages.

Seems you bought the whole Brooklyn Bridge

Have you noticed that the surge in gold WORLDWIDE (They have vending machines in the Middle East dispensing gold coins) began in earnest right around the time Obama started with many of his “America saving” policies.

Has Glen Beck become the Al Gore of the conservatives with the notable exception that the U.S. money supply is destined for hyperinflation with Barack
Obama as president. will prove Beck right. Meanwhile Al Gore the the looney left will continue to manufacture and “adjust” data to prove global warming.

Could it be that some combination of the facts that the recession had just become explicitly evident (September 08), that gold always goes up whenever there’s a recession as people flock to it for stability, and that the right wing started going “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” as soon as Obama was sworn into office that might have spurred the insanity?

“He cries like a little girl and is an alcoholic too. Maybe those are his good points.”
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You just described any member of the Kennedy family. I thought liberals loved empathy and human vices. Oh that’s right for the hypocritic left its only a plus if you are part of the looney left.

His alcoholism is a good point, but not his crying. Considering his crying is used to enable his playing upon people’s ignorance, it’s amongst his most vile traits.

“Considering his crying is used to enable his playing upon people’s ignorance, it’s amongst his most vile traits”
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You mean like Al Gore did at the Demo Convention crying over his sister and the evils of Big Tobacco while the family fortune was made on growing tobacco. A vile trait like that?

I will grant you Beck doesn’t have the great nuanced mind of a liberal…
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There are few people in American public life as openly hostile to Christianity as media mogul Ted Turner.

“Christianity is a religion for losers,” he once said. On another occasion, Turner joked that the pope should step on a landmine. Seeing CNN employees wearing ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, he remarked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.” He is so viscerally uncomfortable with the Christian faith that he blamed his divorce from his third wife, Jane Fonda, partly on her decision to become a practicing Christian.”

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“CNN founder Ted Turner, who thinks Christianity is a “religion for losers,” apparently believes that the Gulf oil spill could actually be God sending us a message that drilling for oil is bad”

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You got to love that nuanced thinking.

freeper: Why do you insist on using the “so’s your old man” mantra? It is tiresome and proves nothing.

I refuse to give Politico any clicks. The media is so enthrall of their shallow reporting they don’t need my attention.
Was it mentioned that Beck has lost about 60 sponsors because of his extremism? The Gold swindlers are about all he has remaining. And when did ethics matter to Fox or their personnel?

So’s your old man!

“Fannie and Freddie has taxpayer on the hook for about $12 trillion and they continue to be the biggest owner of Alt-A mortgages.”

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Government support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

In addition to the government conservatorship, which CBO estimates will increase the federal government’s net liabilities by $238 billion, several government agencies have taken steps to increase liquidity within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Among these steps includes:[33]

1. Federal Reserve purchases of $23 billion in GSE debt (out of a potential $100 billion) and $53 billion in GSE-held mortgage backed securities (out of a potential $500 billion).
2. Federal Reserve purchases of $24 billion in GSE debt.
3. Treasury Department purchases of $14 billion in GSE stock (out of a potential $200 billion).
4. Treasury Department purchases of $71 billion in mortgage backed securities
5. Federal Reserve extension of primary credit rate for loans to the GSEs
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_takeover_of_Fannie_Mae_and_Freddie_Mac#National_debt_accounting
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You’re only about 50,000% off.
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That is, for the mathematically illiterate, you multiplied the actual number by $500.
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Sorry, facts foil freeper again.

This week Rupert Murdock officially announced that Fox would nominate Sarah Palin to be the Fuheress of the Fourth Reich.
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In his strange way of thinking, he called anybody who disagrees with him a fascist.
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Making up things with no source whatsoever is fun.
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As long as I put two equals signs between thoughts
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I might convince people that this is true.
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Wouldn’t you agree Reichmeister Freeper?

I can’t wait for Congressman Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y to issue a report on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and how the Democrats have misled taxpayers for years.”
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Instead of pathologically (and idiotically) blaming Democrats for everything, perhaps you should take some of the credit yourself since you voted for this idiot. Twice!

From his earliest days in office, Mr. Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own home with his conviction that markets do best when let alone.
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He pushed hard to expand homeownership, especially among minorities, an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent — and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors. But his housing policies and hands-off approach to regulation encouraged lax lending standards.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?_r=1

I don’t understand what the issue here is. How is his being uncomfortable with Christianity in particular incompatible with a belief that God caused (or allowed) the spill to occur?
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Unless you’re implying that all non-Christians are atheists . . . which would be really quite strange, given the numbers of deists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Ba’hais, Jains, etc., etc. there are out there. (And that’s just the monotheists.)

Glen Beck=Jimmy Swaggart

Free, there you go again talking about what you don’t know. Why don’t you just avoid speaking of financial matters in general, because you sound like a complete moron when you do.
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Gold started its upward trajectory back in 2002, from below $300/ou. and the dollar hit a high vs. the euro. It’s been steadily climbing since, as people have steadily gone to it as a traditional store of wealth and hedge against inflation, along with certain currencies that have also played that role. Any numbnut can go to any financial site and overlay the charts and see that they are almost exactly inversely related. Of course, that is beyond you and you have to come here and spout idiot Obama conspiracy theories. Please spare us all if you insist on being that stupid.

While GLD and gold mining stocks and mutual funds are the simplest way to go, there’s nothing wrong with buying legit gold coins, as long as they are from legitimate coin dealers.
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Perhaps I’m heartless when it comes to stuff like this, but I’m of the caveat emptor school of investing: If you are so stupid that you get your investing advice from Glenn Beck, then you deserve what’s coming to you, a good old fashioned fleecing. I felt the same way back in the tech heyday when morons were daytrading NASDAQ and penny stocks based on rumors and gossip from the corner deli.
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If people want to be so careless about their money that they refuse to do any research or consult someone who actually might be helpful, then they deserve to lose it and I’ll feel no sympathy in the matter.
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The best thing is if Goldline got all their patsies from Beck’s audience, which is kinda slick on their part. After all, Beck’s viewers must be among the most gullible rubes in America.

@porkdumpling: I’d add some caveats to that though I understand the desire to own physical gold:

1) Know if you’re buying it for the commodity or for the coin. If the design of the coin is going to factor into its value, you’d better know something about coins. Right, I mean a dubloon from a sunken Spanish frigate is worth more than what you can melt it down for.

2) Don’t forget that you might have to pay money to store it safely and to insure it.

@destor: I too am not talking about collectibles so much as gold coins as stores of wealth, like American eagles, Canadian maples and krugerrands, which are currently minted (and silver coins too for that matter). A legit coin dealer will charge a premium above current gold price, of course, for the coin but not outrageously so. I know as I’ve bought/sold gold coins (not too many) since 2003.
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Contact the US Mint and they send you a nice brochure with a list of (not too shady) American eagle dealers, which is how I got started. Shop around and hopefully, develop a relationship with a good dealer. With luck they won’t scr*w you.
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And insure it? Nah, unless you’re super paranoid. A safe or bank deposit box is good enough.
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That said, I’m out of gold. $1200 was my target and I’m glad to be done.

Yeah
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Tammy Fay Baker = Ann Coulter
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No.
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Maybe I just totally missed Apr’s point.

“Have you noticed that the surge in gold WORLDWIDE (They have vending machines in the Middle East dispensing gold coins) began in earnest right around the time Obama started with many of his “America saving” policies.”
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Just a coincidence, I’m sure, but wouldn’t that also be around the time that everyone realized that bankers couldn’t be trusted with money.

Anyway, porkdumpling has a point (listed somewhere among words I thought I’d never say). A better example would be the wingnuts clearing out the stores of guns and ammunition almost immediately upon Obama’s election. Again, there’s no rational reason for it, Obama has only liberalized gun rights. Oh, now I see why you didn’t think that was a good example.

Congressman Weiner’s so called report on Goldline and by implication Glenn Beck has some questional activities associated with it. Like most political stories there are two sides to be considered.
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Some interesting facts.
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“The Better Business Bureau, which has given Goldline an A+ rating, said Tuesday that it was standing by that. A representative of the bureau said it had recently re-reviewed Goldline in response to Mr. Weiner’s accusations and saw no reason for a change. “It’s a company with not that many complaints,” said Gary Almond, from the bureau. When compared with other companies that sell gold, “there was a remarkable difference in how each one addressed complaints,” noting that some of those other companies had F ratings.”
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The same day Weiner released his attack on Glenn Beck, he had an up close and personal meeting with President Barack Obama! I wonder what they talked about when the cameras weren’t rolling? President Obama has singled out Beck as an opinion host he does not care for. Could this tie in with the president’s anti FOX News campaign?
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Who is this Congressman?
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The FEC (Federal Election Commission) had two cases (MURs, or Matters Under Review) related to Congressman Weiner. Both cases have the same name, Friends of Weiner. MUR 4995 resulted in a $47,000.00 fine (“civil penalty”) against Weiner because of financial misconduct in one of his reelection campaigns. MUR 5429 involved an illegal $28,000.00 loan that was made to one of his campaign committees.
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On May 14th 2010 Weiner was a guest on the Imus in the Morning program and was railing against Arizona’s Immigration Law. Imus asked if he had read the law and he said “No.” Imus asked how he could have an opinion without reading the law and he said his opinions were based on the commentary he’s read.
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Sounds like Weiner is a piece of work. More like a political hack. Hopefully his constituents will send him packing in November.

Here’s an update on Congressman Weiner again illustrating his honesty.
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Weinerbucks flow both from Weiner, and to Weiner.
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Rep. Anthony Weiner is directing $238,000 of this year’s federal budget to a Brooklyn nonprofit whose backers have showered him with campaign contributions, records show.
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At least four board officers of the Sephardic Addiction and Family Education (SAFE) Foundation have, together with their families and close associates, directed more than $160,000 to Weiner’s campaigns, including more than $100,000 for this year’s mayoral race.
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I don’t think I would trust anything this guy says. He is definitely a piece of work.

I love that this article is about Goldline grossly overcharging people, when there is a banner ad at the top of this article that is selling Morgan Dollars for $29. A coin that should sell for $20. Ironic don’t you think.