Trophies, silver, and traditional cities

The trophy hunt

So what really happened in the Bin Laden raid? Assuming there really was one, I mean. There have been so many official statements followed by official denying the previous statements, combined with a complete lack of any evidence whatsoever, it all seems tailor made for the conspiracy crowd. All we have so far is the word of a not very credible government. Who knows what the government really does? After all, it's not as if we live in an open democracy, or something.

One small point made by an administration spokesperson I'll take issue with, is the idea that the trophy shot is not in the American character. I couldn't disagree more. Here's a trophy shot from the 1930's of Bonnie and Clyde.



There's plenty more where that came from. In fact, one of the first uses of the camera, after it was invented, was capturing the slaughter of the Civil War.



There's plenty more where that came from too. And, just to put a final point on it, here's a trophy shot from the family archive.



Way to go, Ricky! Nice one.

Physical silver versus paper silver

Rumors were flying late last week that a number of banks and hedge funds were taking short positions on silver futures. Apparently, those rumors were true. The old Wall St. adage, "sell the rumor, buy the news" is just as true in commodities as it is in equities. Here's one silver ETF to illustrate the point.



It also illustrates another Wall St. adage, "bulls climb the stairs, bears fall out the window."

Contrast that with what happened in the spot silver market.



None of the reasons for silver's rise have changed. The dollar is still in decline, the Fed is still out of control, and Wall St. and congress are still full of crooks. If you have a stash of silver, there's no reason to panic. If you prefer paper silver, well, I hope you got out in time.

In praise of narrow streets

I'm probably late to the game on this one, but I happened across an idea that is new to me. It's called the "Traditional City."

Nathan Lewis, along with being an authority on the gold standard, is also a proponent of the traditional city. A good primer on the idea, with lots of links and pictures, is here:

http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2010/031410.html


It got me thinking about Reno's alleys. Downtown Reno is already a walking town, but did you know that the alleys used to be more than a place to park the dumpsters? Here's a postcard showing Douglas Alley during the 1940's.



If the alleys were to stage a comeback, we'd need something other than casinos and pawn shops, as well as an alternative location for the dumpsters. Maybe the city counsel or some other group has already thought of this. It seems to tie in well with the Riverwalk and so forth. Anyway, it's something I'll be researching more in the future.