Free The Aftershock Investor: A Crash Course in Staying Afloat in a Sinking Economy by David Wiedemer, Robert A. Wiedemer, Cindy S. Spitzer

data on the following web site: www.sprottphysicalgoldtrust.com/NetAssetValue.aspx . Historical data can also be found at the site.

Silver and Commodities
    In the long run, we expect silver to track gold pretty closely, meaning it will go up over time. In the short run, however, we expect silver to be more volatile than gold. This is partly because silver is an industrial metal as well as a monetary metal. Over half of silver’s production each year is used for industrial purposes. Silver’s long-term rise will be tempered over the next year by the declining demand for electronics, particularly from China.
    Most commodities, including silver, are dependent on demand from China, which in recent years has radically increased its demand for food, coal, metals, and other commodities. This doesn’t bode well for the commodities market, because there are signs the Chinese economy is slowing down dramatically. It’s difficult to be precise because the Chinese government has a tendency to be less than truthful with its economic statistics. So don’t expect economic readings from the Chinese government to indicate that. Most likely, Chinese government statistics will indicate perfect government management of a controlled slowing of economic growth from white hot to red hot. Would you expect anything less from a dictatorship and heavily state-run economy? Of course, many people on Wall Street will believe it because they want to believe it. Also, inaccurate inflation reporting, as here in the United States, can make many economic numbers look better than they are.
    But given the dramatic slowdown of export-led economies like Brazil (whose growth has fallen to near U.S. levels), Canada, Australia, as well as Asian economies that are closely tied to China, especially Hong Kong (which is nearly in recession), it’s very unlikely that the Chinese economy is really growing at nearly 9 percent as the government claims. Falling Chinese demand will take a big toll on commodities over the next few years, so we would expect some downward pressure on commodities in 2012. The International Energy Agency just announced that it expects very limited growth in oil demand this year due to the slowdown in the world economy. China is terribly important in commodities such as steel. As an example of that, China now consumes more steel for its construction industry alone than the demand for steel for all uses in the United States, Europe, and Japan combined . As further evidence of its voracious demand, it uses almost half of the cement production in the world. A big decline in Chinese construction demand would have a big effect on commodities.
    Offsetting this to some degree will be money printing by the Fed, which could cause a temporary upturn in commodities. Of course, as inflation begins to get stronger, commodities will push upward even with declining demand.
    A Note on Oil : The big variable with oil is Iran. Political tensions have been heating up between Iran and the West lately. As this escalates, it could lead Iran closer and closer to war. If war with Iran does occur, oil prices will skyrocket.

The 2012 Presidential Election
    No investment outlook written in mid-2012 would be complete without some mention of our upcoming presidential election. Of course, by the time you read this book, you will likely know much more than we do right now, so we (once again) are going out on a prediction limb to tell you what we think will happen and why—in this case, not about who will win in November, but how whoever wins will likely impact the economy in the short term.
    While many people will find this disappointing, the truth is that the outcome of this election will likely have very little long-term impact on the fate of the U.S. economy. However, there are a few short-term potential impacts worth mentioning. Before we do, we would like to remind you once again that we have no political agenda in writing these books; we are simply trying to provide