Recession's Three Gs - Fearful Santa Feans buy gold, guns and generators
Arizona Coin Collector
I should take a road trip to New Mexico. :)
-------------------------------------------------
FROM:
http://sfreporter.com/stories/recession_s_three_gs/4312/
Santa Fe Reporter - Local News And Culture
Recession's Three Gs - Fearful Santa Feans buy gold, guns and generators
By: Corey Pein 12/10/2008
So much for hope. Even Barack Obama says the economy will
get worse before it gets better.
In the meantime, freaked out New Mexicans are putting
their money where they can see it: at home, under lock
and key. And they're packing heat, just in case.
(Story Photo Image)
Gun sales are up at Outdoorsman of Santa Fe this year.
http://sfreporter.com/site_images_upload/photo/2008/12/10/09/Gun-shop-CP-l.jpg
For metals dealers like Gregg Hoffman, an owner of
Premier Precious Metals on Cerrillos Road, the
financial crisis has provided a kind of vindication.
"For many years, stockbrokers treated metals-silver
and gold-as being something that only nuts and idiots
would have anything to do with," Hoffman says.
"Well, it seems like there's a lot more nuts and
idiots."
To those who still make a living in traditional
finance, hoarding gold is just as crazy and stupid
as ever. "Gold is not an investment. Gold is pure
speculation," Santa Fe investment adviser Keith
Anderson says. State regulators agree. Gold bullion
is "not really what we would consider an investment,
and it's not monitored by the state," Bob Hagan,
who leads New Mexico Regulation and Licensing
Department's investment education program, says.
"People need to be cautious," Hagan warns. "What
we're worried about most is people taking
inappropriate risks with their savings in an
attempt to recoup their losses."
Anderson says the move toward so-called alternative
investments is driven by "greed and fear, greed
and fear." And panic makes for bad judgment. In
the early '80s, he notes, "gold was about $850 an
ounce. Today, it's $770 an ounce or less. If you
bought gold 20 years ago, you'd be down."
Hoffman's customers view the current low prices for
metals more optimistically. "With prices down, it
looks like a bargain to people right now," he says.
A bargain, if you can hold on to your stash. After
"frequent" calls from customers who kept their coin
collections under their beds, only to have them
stolen by burglars, Hoffman tells customers to store
their coins in a safety deposit box at their local
banks.
But then, if they don't trust the financial markets,
why should gold hoarders trust the banks?
John Cunningham, who owns AB1 Locksmith Services
on Cerrillos Road, says sales of home safes have
increased 60 percent in the past three months.
"You can tell people are changing their saving
habits," Cunningham says.
And if a half-inch of steel doesn't make a gold
hoarder feel his or her "investment" is secure,
perhaps 9 millimeters of lead will do the trick.
Tina's Range Gear on Airport Road has been doing
brisk business in firearms of all types. Assault
rifles are back-ordered nearly seven months,
employee Bruce Yilek says. Following a nationwide
trend, demand for guns has been "out of sight,"
Yilek says, because the recession has people
feeling "paranoid, rightly or wrongly."
Bill Rooney, who owns Outdoorsman of Santa Fe at
DeVargas Center, has seen a similar run on guns.
"I'm not going to give percentages, but it is
significantly higher this year," he says. "It's
a nice aberration, really."
Rooney says in addition to the prospect of stricter
gun laws under an Obama administration, the
relentlessly bad economic news has customers worried.
"In uncertain economic times, people invest in
precious metals and firearms-and these are
uncertain economic times," Rooney says.
(The New Mexico Department of Public Safety received
1,016 new applications for concealed handgun licenses
in September, October and November of this year-a
54 percent increase from the same period last year,
according to DPS Sergeant Suzanne Skasik.)
Precious metals and live ammunition may provide
reassurance should civilization fall. But what about
creature comforts?
Jose Perez, an assistant manager at the Home Depot
on Richards Avenue, says sales of gasoline-powered
electrical generators are up; sales of wood stoves
for home heating have "spiked."
The survivalist economy has its own bizarre
trickle-down effect. Along with the trend toward
wood stoves, there has been a surge in chain saw
sales, according to Loren George, who manages his
family's business, Santa Fe Power Equipment Sales
Inc. on Jorgensen Lane.
"There's a lot of people cutting wood now that
didn't have to before-trying to save a buck,
right?" George says. "It seems like when times
are bad, our business flourishes."
As a bonus, a chain saw can double as a home
protection device, should you run out of ammo.
..
Arizona Coin Collector
In reading this again, the very last paragraph just
cracks me up.
--- The hills have eyes ---
"It's feeding time".
-----------------------------------------------------