Jack Lawson Sends: Olson on Precious Metals and Other Items of Financial Value, Part One – Dispelling Myths

Here is the latest excerpt from Jack Lawson’s magnificent book series, the Civil Defense Manual. You can grab a copy of his book here. Jack is a strong supporter of American Partisan, and even had NC Scout write the chapter on Radio Communications (Chapter 17 in Volume I). I bought my copy the day it become available and I highly recommend you do as well.

“Everything you wanted to know about Gold and Silver as Precious Metals but had no one to ask…”

From Jack Lawson, the Author of the Civil Defense Manual…

There are many types of items of value and many justifications as to what makes that item valuable. Thoughts on the fundamental value of rare or Precious Metals, diamonds… to “art work,” Crypto Currencies (aka ‘Bitcoin) and other investments abound.

This essay is edited by an Old School Person (Jack Lawson) as written by a qualified Old School Precious Metals and Fundamental Tangible Investments Dealer (Clay Olson-Contributing Author). We are not dinosaurs nor do we have our “heads buried in the sand.”

To the contrary, we have our “heads on a swivel” as they say in Special Operations ready for anything thrown at us from any direction. Well, at least Clay has his on a swivel regarding Tangible Investments… as he’s experienced about every type of Tangible Investment under the sun in his time.

Looking at their “binary worth.” The financial disaster of people who don’t spread out their financial investments.

Experience always outperforms ideas and new enthusiasm. And Clay has 40 years of his own experience plus being born into a family that’s been eating, sleeping and breathing Precious Metals and investments for decades even before he was a twinkle in his Daddy’s eye. Still, he’s always evaluating sound new investments. The trouble is… there is very little in new Tangible Investments.

History shows that by and large those who “Err on the side of caution” regarding financial issues… usually prevail… and don’t lose their investments.

Maybe a few ‘miss the boat’ on opportunities, but we also realize our limitations and who we are, as you should… common people… not the Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk type who live in a different world than us.

Especially when it comes to the Mother of All Issues that affects most people… financial security. Like Clint Eastwood said in the movie “Dirty Harry” “…a man has got to know his limitations!”

You might say to us… “You old fools… you have to change with the times!” Realize one thing… like Laws of Physics do not change… the Laws of Finance and Investments do not change… they are finite. Face it… you are not as smart or devious as some people who stay up until 3 AM to concoct these investment vehicles and schemes… through which they make fortunes… and you lose yours.

Real Estate is not included in this essay evaluation of worth. That would take books to explain and largely determined on the “By guess and by golly” principle. I know people who have lost ten million… to hundreds of millions of dollars in Las Vegas real estate holdings in the 2008 housing collapse that hit the United States… Las Vegas, Phoenix and Sacramento the hardest.

I look in the mirror every morning while shaving and see one of them who lost the lower millions amount. A better investment would have been buying HO Scale Model railroad trains. HO Scale Model trains are two to five times the value now than back then… even though they have little real intrinsic value, unlike grid down useable items.

Art Work

Art Work Pieces may merit a brilliant underlying and visual message and technique, but as a financial investment we do not recommend them.

Let’s get one ‘investment’ out of the way. Art Work, history has determined, is diametrically the opposite of winning the musical chairs game. With the musical chairs game, when the music stops, hopefully you have a chair to sit in, or you lose the musical chairs game. In comparison to, when the real-life disaster of financial chaos or disruption comes, it is best to be the opposite of the musical chairs game and “not to have a chair” …that meaning not being the owner of Art Work… as you lose with them as an investment.

Art Work, by historical record, goes by “The Greater Fool Theory” …that there is always a Greater Fool out there ready to pay the unfounded and ridiculous price that the former Greater Fool who owns Art Work is selling it for. And, that the Greater Fool to hold it when financial chaos or disruption comes… loses his money.

I recently told a family member obsessed with investment in Art Work, because of the increasing value of them and what he considers “rock bottom prices” on some he speculates will go up in price like a rocket blasting off…

“Buy edible and combustible Art Work, at least that may keep you fed when the value of it is the caloric food content it has or the heat you can get off it for warmth, boiling water and cooking from it… when it burns.”

Art Work’s value, with a few exceptions, has always been that in times of abundance and expansion of the monetary system through unjustifiable fiat money growth (see the definition), the price of Art Work is driven to its own unjustifiable value by abnormal economic mechanisms and illogical investment thought. If you think I am wrong… good luck to you!

Dictionary Definition

fiat

noun

fi·​at \ ˈfē-ət

Definition of fiat: In the case of money or other financial instruments… that which is created by an authoritative decree, sanction, or order. Money made out of thin air by a decree based on Babylonian Money Magic Principles, an arbitrary decree or pronouncement, especially by a person or group of persons having absolute authority to enforce it such as… “The king ruled by fiat.” Fiat money is usually a government-issued currency that is not backed by a physical commodity, such as Gold, Silver or other items of intrinsic value, but rather by the government that issued it. Thus, the American Dollar is backed only by the FIAT statement of the Federal Reserve Bank… “Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States Government.” That is the value that backs the American Dollar… those words… only.

Origin: From Latin ‘fiat…’ “let it be done” (used in the opening of 1630’s Medieval Latin proclamations and commands), of fieri “be done, become, come into existence,” used as passive of facere “to make, do.” Meaning “a decree, command, order.”

Crypto Currencies

This form of investment should be next to the word ‘Fiat’ or ‘Ponzi Scheme’ in the dictionary as a definition example. Crypto currencies are the ultimate in value by decree. They are only as worthy of value as are the magnetic ones and zeros of the binary digital world (the basic calculation and information coding system of all computers) and ‘Block Chain Economics’ and expressed in the unit ‘bitcoin’ or other.

Crypto Currency reminds me of a 1960s futuristic movie, where in the future, money is spoken of not as Dollars, Pounds, Francs, Marks, Krona, Yuan or Yen… but units called ‘credits.’ Definitely hot air value… which Crypto Currencies are helping to move us towards… a cashless digital ‘credit’ currency. Currency will be nothing of form you can hold in your hands… except computer entry displays or paper print outs.

A more dangerous aspect of these digital currencies is that they can be used to control where, how and when you spend them… also known as… controlling you. What is further alarming is that they can be taken from you in a computer instant… as punishment for you being a defiant and naughty citizen.

A Definition of Block Chain Economics from Wikipedia (Wikipedia is a Leftist controlled and edited information source, but since this issue isn’t really political and they have no reason at this time to twist the information to fit Leftist agendas… I’ll use their definition)…

“A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was published in order to get into its hash”

Titanium Nitrate (T/N) plated ‘Gold looking’ coins representing the only physical presence of the “Bit Coin” Crypto Currency… but is not used as a physical coin. In reality, the Bit Coin is represented by ‘ones’ and ‘zeros’ as a computer binary code. Ever lose some computer data?

If that convinces you of fundamental value… then good luck. ‘Block Chain security,’ verification puzzles, government involvement, ‘peer to peer’ control, or not… both Clay and I believe Crypto Currencies are nothing more than a Ponzi scheme… not controlled by one person like the late Bernie Madoff, but by all holders of Crypto Currency. In our opinion, that makes Crypto Currencies a mob controlled and a decentralized Ponzi/Madoff scheme.

Information on the internet can evaporate like the clouds on a hot Summer’s day and these different crypto value systems have had massive hacking and theft of billions of ‘bitcoins.’

Plus, new ‘government’ involvement should alone warn you of the dangers of Crypto Currency. They are getting into these currencies, not for the benefit of the currency or holder, but for their eventual control, regulation and spending.

Secure? I don’t think so. These massive thefts have generally been glossed over in the scramble of governments and banking systems to establish their creation and control of Crypto Currencies. And then just like governments and Central Banks have done with paper currencies… they can dissolve these or let Crypto Currencies take the path of massive deflation. What are you going to do then… storm the Crypto Currency ‘bank’ computer with the family shotgun and blow holes in it if it doesn’t hand over your magnetic ones and zeros?

My friend Vito P., extremely well-to-do financial wizard extraordinaire, retired Army Colonel and attorney, who has lived in the Washington D.C. swamp for decades and was one of the head executives of a former President’s business group said to me… “You’d never find a moment in my life where I’d own ten-cents worth of Crypto Currency!”

I had the feeling from the tone of his voice that he’d rather stand on the corner of a busy street with his pants down first when I asked him his opinion of Crypto Currencies and whether he’d own them. This guy knows virtually all of the major players in D.C., many on first name basis. He is a realist who understands how government and finance works.

The latest theft of $320,000,000 dollars in Crypto Currency has been “restored” according to those involved with the maintenance and security of this particular Crypto Currency system. With what!? Real money…? No, just more magnetic ones and zeros of the digital binary world … money created out of thin air and electrons.

If that doesn’t convince you of the worthlessness of Crypto Currency as a form of fundamental value… go back to reading your Captain Marvel Comic Books as you await the Good Captain’s appearance to straighten out the injustices of the world. At least with fiat paper money and financial instruments in a worst-case scenario you can hold the value in your hand… that of the paper. The worth of that may be dubious, but it can be used as wallpaper or burned for warmth when it finally collapses.

If you think Crypto Currencies are a real investment or THE investment, you’d better read this first…

https://jacobinmag.com/2022/01/cryptocurrency-scam-blockchain-bitcoin-economy-decentralization

So, if you heed this warning and do what a logical person would do… cash out all or most of your Crypto Currencies… write out an I.O.U. to Clay Olson and Jack Lawson for 10% of the amount you cashed out, then out of honesty and decency, pay Clay and me when Crypto Currencies show their real value… when they evaporate into the same thin air that they were created out of. When they are as worthless in reality as they are in the illusion of present time.

What is covered in this essay is Gold and Silver, ‘Old School’ rare metals that most people hold as investment hedge or safeguard against fiat ‘currencies’ and other fiat financial instruments. Palladium and Platinum are two other Precious Metals that people hold in physical form… that you have to investigate for yourself.

Gold and Silver coins
(Courtesy of The Motley Fool at Fool.com)

Also, Grid Down items that we only touch on here maintain or increase in value…Food, ammunition, medicines, finger nail clippers and many items that there would be a temporary absence of or that would soon disappear from society, may be items of value. None of these have lost value in the last 100 years… quite the opposite… they have gone up.

Intangible Values that are worth something

Never forget the value of skills to your “tribe,’ people, Neighborhood Protection Plan^TM Group Members or area… such as people experienced in, and who can adapt quickly to Grid Down basic conditions… (an environment of no or little electricity, no testing methods, shortages of food, water and medicines, heat or cold, and an environment of poor cleanliness and sanitation) …providing skills such as…

• Medical professionals skilled in blood transfer, poison treatment, rehydration, surgery and triage medicine.
• Shoe repair, cobbler.
• Metal work blacksmithing.
• Expert mechanics.
• Hunters who can bleed, skin and process an animal.
• Gardeners who are experienced.
• Animal husbandry (those who know from experience how to raise hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, milk cows).
• People who know how to preserve perishable foods Grid Down.
• Chefs who can cook in Grid Down conditions.
• Scroungers (People who can find anything).
• Masons and concrete experts, carpenters and construction people versed in Medieval construction techniques… see…

https://civildefensemanual.com/protecting-your-neighborhood-insights-from-medieval-fortresses/

• The “project and people organizer” leadership person.
• Experts in wild edibles of your area.
• Experts in tree knowledge and lumber making.
• Balanced, knowledgeable, tolerant and level headed leaders.
• Military leadership in tactics and command.
• Long range firearms marksmen experts.
• Teachers in contact martial arts and knife, hatchet, machete fighting.
• Experts in bow & arrow and or crossbows.
• Seamstresses, soap makers, weavers and string/rope makers.
• Communications and electronics repair people.
• People qualified for children’s care, education and activities.
• Chemists, especially with knowledge of medicines, mortar making, gun powder formulation and water treatment.

Hyperinflation

Here we will cover the normal economic ups and downs, or cycles of economics, not fully including an issue that is now rearing its ugly head and will drive most of the words we write here off the paper and your computer screen as meaningless…

…the total destruction of financial being and worth through hyperinflation.

Read…

https://civildefensemanual.com/warning-posted-by-capitalist-eric/

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO COMING OUT TOMORROW

The Author advises the Reader… that the Author, the Contributing Authors, Publisher, Copyright Holders, Website Administrators are not attorneys and some recommendations or actions in this book that the Reader takes may lead to loss… financial and otherwise. The Author, the Contributing Authors, Publisher, Copyright Holders The Author, the Contributing Authors, Publisher, Copyright Holders, Website Administrators will not be liable for situations that arise from the Reader’s interpretations of material in this essay/article/supplement, the Civil Defense Manual, the Reader’s instructions to others, the Reader’s actions or implementation of recommendations and information or misinformation from this book or essay/article/supplement… that leads to the Reader’s liability, loss of their money or that of others or any other damages. You’re all adults… behave as responsible, safe, compassionate, common sense, lawful adults. Verify your Federal, State and Local laws and ordinances before using the information in this book or essay/article/supplement. As an adult… make your decisions independent of advice, information or misinformation from the Civil Defense Manual and any and all essays/articles/supplements. Wear big people’s pants and live with the decisions you make as your decisions… made by your independent thinking mind… and don’t blame others for your mistakes or misfortune… and that includes us.