Rope, Tree, Politician...

Over at the Economic Collapse blog, an article about just how corrupt US politics has become. Americans need to wake up and stop voting for a candidate because of the letter after their name. It's already too late to avoid massive heartburn over the remedies, but the effects of the collapse could be mitigated if we had leaders with intelligence, fortitude, and a willingness to be a one-term candidate.

I Hate To Say I Told You So, But...

It's now so obvious that even the mainstream media is reporting it: CNBC reports Inflation Actually Near 10%.

Apparently somebody in the newsroom was surfing the IntarWebz for porn and ineptly stumbled across John Williams' Shadow Governement Statistics. Such quality and timely reporting.

"...going by recent strong comments from Federal Reserve officials, even members of the central bank must believe inflation is being underreported..."

Duh. Winning.

CPI as measured before the numbers were monkeyed with by the
Reagan and Bush administrations... courtesy of Shadow Stats

Never Get Between a Frenchman and his Chocolate

If you owned any cocoa, hopefully you sold already, you evil war profiteer: Ivory Coast dictator captured; cocoa plunges.

Now maybe these fellows can get back to earning a living,
and I can afford a cup of hot chocolate again. Vive le France!

Alaska Mining Stocks

My kids recently expressed their frustration that we don't own any shares of mines in Alaska. My single gold mining stock hasn't performed nearly as well as my silver mining stocks, so I've been looking to diversify. Here's a list of some publicly-traded Alaska miners:

Teck (TCK - Red Dog)
Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX - Donlin Creek)
Novagold Resources (NG - Donlin Creek, Rock Creek)
Anglo American (AAUKY - Pebble)
Northern Dynasty Minerals (NAK - Pebble)
Hecla Mining Company (HL - Greens Creek)
Kinross (KGC - Fort Knox)
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co (STMNF - Pogo)
Fire River Gold (FVGCF - Nixon Fork)
Niblack Mineral Development (NIBMF - Niblack)
Heatherdale Resources (HTRRF - Niblack)
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (CDE - Kensington)
Freegold Ventures (FGOVF - three projects in Alaska)
BHP Billiton (BHP - Western Arctic coal)
Rubicon Minerals (RBY - exploration in Alaska)
Kiska Metals (KSKTF - three projects in Alaska)
International Tower Hill Mines (THM - Livengood project)
Tri-Valley Corporation (TIV - two projects in Alaska)
Full Metal Minerals (FLMTF- seven or more projects in Alaska)

I'll try to post a brief profile of each of these as I decide which one(s) to invest in.

Disclosure: I do not directly own shares of any of the stocks mentioned, but plan to purchase one or more of them within the next two months. I do own Rubicon and International Tower Hill indirectly through the Market Vectors Junior Miners ETF (GDXJ), but have no plans to sell in the foreseeable future.

Update (4/11/11): Added Full Metal Minerals, who were doing all the work at Lucky Shot in Hatcher Pass, a few miles from my house.
Update (5/16/11): The ticker symbol for Full Metal Minerals was incorrect.

Silver not done yet

Today, the price of silver in worthless paper dollars is sitting at $40.91, about a 4% gain over yesterday's London PM fix. Silver is now up 44% since February 1. Here's today's chart, courtesy of Kitco:

Silver mining stocks are running up as well, particularly the junior stocks. Since February 1, Revett Minerals is up 40%, US Silver is up 53%, Canadian Zinc is now up 73%, and a new one I've recently added to my portfolio, Tinka Resources, is up 129%. If one had invested $5000 on February 1 in a balanced portfolio of silver and these four stocks, it would now be worth $8390, a 68% growth. Try getting a return like that in any instrument your bank offers. As I've said before, if you're not getting a 10% return, you're losing to inflation.