The U.S. supposedly exited the recession in June of 2009, but are we truly on the road to recovery? What has improved since then? Have prices gone down on any goods or services you can think of? Things to ponder…..

• The housing industry continues to feel tremendous strain. New housing construction is at a 40 year low and some predict will not improve until 2015.
• Unemployment figures, official and real, continue to increase. While the official rate is around 10%, some economists believe the rate is closer to 22% since the government does not account for the long-term unemployed who have stopped their job search. We can expect that the housing market will not start to improve until people are back to work.
• The government is attempting to stimulate the economy by quantitative easing, or printing money. It is intended to replace the lack of spending normally done by individuals and corporations, but only serves to increase our nation’s debt figures.
• Anyone approaching or already at retirement age has legitimate concerns about the country’s ability to fund social programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Those not at retirement age are wondering if these programs that they pay into will exist by the time they are eligible for them.
• We are seeing the first signs of pensions running out of funds as a result of the benefits promised exceeding the level organizations have provided for. Depending on how many of these plans run out of money, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), who insures certain benefits under private defined benefit pension plans may be up against an unforeseen amount of claims. What levels will they be able to handle before they run out of funds as well?
• The cost of healthcare is increasing dramatically and affects an organization’s ability to stay profitable and in many cases the rising costs are passed on to employees. Obama Care plans to solve this problem, but there is significant uncertainty relating to the design of the plan and the delivery of healthcare services.
• The cost of tuition is rising exponentially. Are college aged students really receiving a better education than students who graduated 15 years ago? The answer is no, so why has the cost gone up more than 400%? Even parents who are still gainfully employed may not be able to cover the exorbitant tuition costs facing them and if they can’t, what kind of financial burden does that place on today’s youth who will be graduating with a mortgage-sized student loan?
• Now, look outside our country’s borders. The current economic crisis is not just a problem for the U.S., but has created global instability in many other countries including Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland, Spain and Italy.

The majority of Americans have either been, or have had someone close to them, directly affected by one or more of the above circumstances. As a result, we have seen a large increase in the number of customers investing in gold and silver for the first time. People’s concerns are not unfounded and we hope that everyone is taking whatever steps they deem appropriate to protect their financial future.

-Courtney Williams

__________________________________________________