Next banking crisis is already well underway

[Vol Texan]

Anybody know how to buy actual, physical gold and silver with the least possible coinage/commission overhead?

If it gets so bad that I need to have gold and silver, then I’m sure I’ll be glad that I actually invested in lead.

[tomneal]

In Houston, I would try

https://uscoinsandjewelry.com/bullion

They are located on I10 between I610 and Beltway 8

I've bought gold at a place near the Coca-Cola bottling plant on Bissonett but I don't remember the name or the exact address.

[tomneal]

A fictional detective named Harry Bosch keeps "earthquake" money. Just in case. Seems like a reasonable idea.
Physical gold and silver would work hand-in-hand with 'earthquake' money.
1/10oz Gold American Eagle -Assorted Dates- As Low as $264.83
Might be enough to buy a weeks worth of supplies.

I read somewhere that back in the day, you could buy a suit for a $20 in gold piece. The same gold piece will still buy me a really nice suit.

I too have lead (but only a Texans starter amount). Same for can goods and 'earthquake' money.

[PriestTheRunner]

Believe it or not, Reddit PMsforsale. Also Silverbugs on reddit. Both good resources.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pmsforsale/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Silverbugs/

[Paladin]

Leaked Document Reveals Amazon To Dump Office Space, In Cost-Cutting Move Amid CRE Tower Crisis

A leaked document by Business Insider reveals that Amazon is trying to save $1.3 billion over the next three to five years. A person familiar with the new strategy said the company plans to "let certain leases naturally expire, stop the use of some office floors, and negotiate early lease terminations for some buildings."

Amazon is one of many companies that have been shrinking its corporate footprint. Many other big tech firms have been slashing square footage as office space floods the market, pressuring tower values lower and leaving owners with a difficult decision to either refinance (if they can) or default.

[Rafe]

Thanks for the info, folks. I was kinda sorta half-joking...but now I'm looking at it more seriously. Not that I have much money to worry about, but the speed at which the buying power of the dollar has nosedived the past four years plus the conversation about the very real possibility of a multi-pronged banking crisis (as opposed to the essentially single-sector residential mortgage-driven Obama recession)...well...

And thanks, Tom, for the U.S. Coins and Jewelry info. A visit may be in the future.

In addition to regular ol' money, I guess there's zombie apocalypse money, earthquake/hurricane money, and stop-the-inflation-madness money.

In a TEOTWAWKI apocalypse, I'm thinkin' ammo is gonna be at least one of the transactional staples. That's one reason I'm loath to sell off some of mine even if I'm not shooting as frequently as I used to. For example, back around 2010 I stocked up on new .45 ACP FMJ range ammo from a major manufacturer for $10.49 per box of 50. The same ammo today lists for $23.99 at Midway USA.

But that isn't very practical earthquake/hurricane money. If it's just that gas stations are dry and banks are closed for 10 days, trying to barter with a neighbor using some Prvi Partisan 5.56 ain't really gonna be a typical thing.

I try to keep a relatively small amount of cash on hand--equivalent to about a month's income--but I've just watched that devalue by 19.9% from sittin' there stagnant while Uncle Joe's campaign machine touts Bidenomics.

I'd thought I might want to steer clear of coins since I don't know anything at all about numismatics and thought the mark-ups might be as much about the coin itself as the material it's made of. But maybe the smaller items like the 1/10 ounce gold coins commodity pieces might make sense here. If we start going the way of Zimbabwe and the exchange rate for the dollar begins to plummet, having small coins with a gold-content value of a few hundred dollars (in today's money) might not be a bad idea...as opposed to 1-ounce bullion which is currently over $2,200 per. Easier to trade/exchange the smaller item.

As for stop-the-inflation-madness, I think that may be where the bullion bars could come in. For "liquid" and "FDIC secured" (in quotation marks in case we have a for-real banking collapse) savings accounts, Bankrate shows, of their top picks for money market accounts, a current average APY of 4.38%. But just 2 years ago, in April 2022, the U.S. Money Market Treasury Yield was a paltry 0.08% compared to 5.33% today. And it was below 1% from April 2020 all the way through July 2022 when it finally climbed to 1.58%. So that sure as heck hasn't kept up with Biden's 19.9% aggregate inflation since January 2021.

The Price of Gold

Gold was $1,835.40 per ounce as of January 8, 2021, and Biden's inauguration. Today, it closed at $2,254.80 per ounce. Since Biden took office, gold is up $419.40 per ounce, or 22.85%.

The Value of a Dollar

One dollar as of the beginning of 2021 would today be worth $1.20, the result of a 19.9% cumulative inflation under Bidenomics. Across the board, everything is costing us 19.9% more than it did just over three years ago.

So the value of the dollar has decreased by 19.9% while the price of gold has gone up 22.85%. Ten, 1-ounce gold bars purchased for $18,354 in January 2021 would sell for $22,548 today...while your initial cash outlay of $18,354, if left in your pocket, would today have the spending power of just $14,701.55.

I can shift some of my IRA into gold futures, of course, but in the end all that is just paper, just data records. If name-your-investment-firm-here does a Sam Bankman Fried crash-and-burn, you're left trying to find a way to recover your money. On the other hand, with physical bullion you have the matter of storing it securely...and if the bank's doors close having it in a safety deposit box could get iffy. But another great thing about guns is that they usually mean just about the most secure and fire-proof residential safes you can buy without engineering an at-home bank vault. And one ounce of gold is awfully darned small.

Gives me some stuff to think about. If/when I pay a visit to U.S. Coins and Jewelry in Houston, I'll report back.

[tomneal]

I found the place I actually went to:
http://www.hnex.com/
Houston Numismatic Exchange
2486 Times Blvd
Houston

I took what I considered a large chunk of cash and a full size .45 (concealed)
There was an armed officer at the door.
I waited while a scruffy looking guy completed his transaction. He converted rolls of 1oz gold coins into a cashiers check.
I realized that my "large chunk of cash" wasn't that much after all.

Now my "earthquake" money includes a few gold coins.

There is an old joke: The only time you can have too much ammo is when you're swimming or on fire.
My gold coins would not impact my swimming abilities.

[Rafe]

Rolls of 1-ounce gold coins?!

I think a roll of silver dollars is 20 of 'em. So one roll of 20 1-ounce gold coins would come in at around $44,000 or more today.

Yeah; no. Any gold I buy won't weigh enough to impede my swimming. At all. One ounce equals the weight of about 28 standard paperclips. I'd never be able to own enough paperclips to even begin to slow me down...

[RSX11]

Anybody know how to buy actual, physical gold and silver with the least possible coinage/commission overhead?

If it gets so bad that I need to have gold and silver, then I’m sure I’ll be glad that I actually invested in lead.

Brings to mind a saying from Machiavelli - "Gold can't always get you good soldiers, but good soldiers can always get you gold".

[Paladin]

Office Tower Vacancy Rate Hits Record High

There are more dormant office towers in the United States than at any point since 1979, according to a new report from Moody's Analytics, which began tracking office leasing vacancies that year.

This is a bit deeper analysis:
Vacant Offices: How Far Will It Go?

There’s no great solution. Most cities are floating quixotic proposals to turn empty offices into apartments to “fix” the crisis, but this is often too expensive to be practical and requires navigating lots of bureaucratic red tape, like changes to zoning laws.

office loan delinquencies were up a shocking four times compared to the previous year. In under two years, commercial real estate loans totaling $1.5 trillion are due to expire, portending disaster for the economy when the bill comes due and office owners can’t pay it. According to data from the St. Louis Fed, delinquency rates on commercial real estate loans have already ticked above their Covid peak:

[Paladin]

Federal Reserve Admits Losing $114 Billion

So how did the Fed lose so much money?

Some of it comes from their paying Wall Street to park money at the Fed, which it does to hide inflation and because it likes handing money to Wall Street.

But the bulk of the Fed’s losses are because they printed trillions to finance Covid lockdowns, and used those trillions to buy bonds — mainly government debt. Then when they panic-hiked rates to try and choke off inflation, bond prices collapsed.

Meaning the Fed’s pile of $9 trillion worth of bonds started losing money hand over fist. In fact, estimates of unrealized losses — meaning money the Fed has lost but hasn’t yet fessed up to — could be well over a trillion dollars at this point.

No worries, they will just print more.