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1. American Eagle 1 T.O. gold coins are available from some dealers, but they are asking bullion value plus 8%, rather than the 4% usual markup. Nobody would sell them over the counter at the conference.
2. There is essentially NO uranium produced today in the USA. Whatever we need for nuclear power plants comes from either mines elsewhere (mostly Canada) or from recycled Russian nuclear weapons. So we are dependent on others for two of the more common forms of energy, petroleum and uranium. Thank goodness we have lots of coal!
3. In real money (gold), crude oil is about the same price it was 10 years ago!
4. According to long term market charts, we are facing the worst depression in the last 300 years... worse than the 1920's... worse than the 1870's. US stock market has already lost 40% and could lose another 40%. As usual at these investment conferences, not everyone agrees, but there are strong cases being made for a deflationary correction for the next 12 months or so, followed by runaway inflation that will wipe out the US national debt. One speaker echoed my speculation that the US mint has stopped minting gold coins to hold onto the gold the Treasury has left. He even suggested a gold-backed dollar (or whatever it ends up being called) will replace the current currency when it becomes essentially worthless and US needs to reestablish its reputation in the global financial world.
Three more days of this... I'm not sure I can take it with the market continuing to tank, but there are some smart people here who offer a lot of food for thought.
By the way, Canal Street and The French Quarter look pretty much as they did on my last visit three years ago. It's as if Katrina never visited the city. Harrahs new hotel is very nice. There's an underground tunnel (Ã la Lake Tahoe) connecting to the casino across the street. The doorman wears a top-hat. All the elevators requre a room key to select your floor, apparently to keep out the street people [g].
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