Guilty Pleasure Reading + Goldline.com

I have a few guilty pleasures, I like to read an article on CNN and then go and look at the same story on FoxNews and HuffingtonPost. If you really want to be scared about our society read some of the people who comment on the Obama articles on FoxNews. I'm not talking about the usual battles between big government and smaller government, I'm talking scary "end of times" talk, you know the birthers and the socialism conspiracy ala the Manchurian Candidate. I wish I could tell you that the messages on HuffingtonPost or NPR are as scary but I guess I must have some bias OR they are less apocalyptic and really don't jump out at me. I mean the 9-11 conspirators who think our own gov't attacked us would fit this description - I just haven't seen that on there recently.

In a similar vein, you've probably seen the commercials for GoldLine. It's a major scam about buying gold coins etc but... a new fun place to get the latest "rumors" and "inside scoop" is the Goldline.com bulletin board where real Goldline.com members can tell you all about how the world is coming to an end and our currency is about to crumble (thanks to Obama and General Mao apparently).

I don't have time to post my blog of "controlled inflation is good and any deflation is a depression" but I will say that there seem to be people who think that inflation is one of the seven horsemen in revelations signaling the rapture.

I for one am not likely to buy into these end of times debates. I think if you believe that the government and the printing of money (which it does) will lead to inflation (which it does) but at such a catastrophic rate that you will be left penniless unless you own gold - I am all for you paying up to $1,500 per oz for gold coins when gold is trading at $1,088 per oz. I won't call goldline a scam but it is. (PS whenever something becomes "mainstream" like gold is now - you missed the run up, it's like when everyone and their brother was thinking they should be flipping houses - you then have already missed the prime house flipping time).

BUT - before you buy overinflated gold (pun-intended) you should know that the richer you are the more at risk you are for inflation. The ones crying foul when the government prints money are those who have the largest savings. For those living paycheck to paycheck it is basically a push as you live in the moment and begin to make more but things cost more at a relatively even rate. It is the "space-time" disconnect of savings that inflation preys upon. So NET I am just saying if you have millions of dollars in the market you might want to hedge your bets with some gold for the long term (if you do buy an ETF instead of Gold Bullion from scammers) - however if you have relatively modest means, buying gold is not a magic bullet for savings, especially if you are buying at 50% premiums. Otherwise I have a lot of P&G stock to sell you at $100 per share too.

PPS - Anytime a commercial basically says "I'm afraid" it's just playing on human fears. Same with politicians. So if Goldline's selling line is "I'm affraid of all of this government spending and inflation"... run the other way! If they don't use fear - then maybe listen (maybe) but in general most "investments" you don't understand are ways to scam you out of your money.