James Turk has a reputation for making outlandish predictions. He was practically alone in his calls for gold to hit record highs during the traditionally slow summer months last year, but the yellow metal did just that.
Of course, Turk’s not entirely an impartial observer. He’s the founder of GoldMoney, a company that gives consumers a way to buy goods and services in gold rather than cash (online at GoldMoney.com).
He has a vested interest in driving consumers toward precious metals. But, it’s always admirable when someone lays out public predictions – particularly when they name specific price points and time frames. Turk did just that two weeks ago when he said he expects silver to double over the course of two to three months to $70 an ounce.
That monstrous climb won’t start until silver can break out above $35 an ounce, Turk believes. And the metal has gotten very close to that $35 mark recently. It closed above $34.50 for the first time since October 2011 last Wednesday.
Could the pendulum be swinging from gold to silver? Citigroup analysts seems to think so. A few days ago I detailed their predictions that the gold-silver ratio is about to undergo a shift in my post Silver ready to outperform gold.
“There is a bubble today, but it is not gold,” Turk wrote last week on GoldMoney. “It is the debt instruments of the US government and indeed, other governments that have also made far too many financial promises. Many of these promises will be broken and many debts repudiated, but most people do not understand or refuse to accept this reality. Ignoring prudent financial analysis and even the lessons of history, they still believe government debt is a safe haven.”
Once investors wake up to the realities of our country’s debt situation, perhaps they will pile into metals. Whether or not they push silver up 100 percent in two months is yet to be seen, but we have to admit the market’s done well of late. It climbed 15 percent in January. Let’s keep an eye on that $35 an ounce mark and hold Turk to his word.
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1) The Empire State Building. Obviously, the Empire State Building serves as more than just office space; it’s a tourist mecca that draws more than 3 million visitors a year. Those visits aren’t free, either. “The average ticket revenue per admission for each of the 11 years from 2000 through 2010 increased at a compound annual growth rate of 9.9% and the growth rate during each of those years, on a year-over-year basis, has never been negative,” ESB writes in their S-1 filing. Today, the average visitor shells out $18.61 to journey to the top of the Empire State Building. Those tourists alone generated $156.7 million in revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30.
Their reasoning? The gold-silver ratio is tilted too far toward gold. “The 200-day (gold/silver ratio) moving average is at 47.64, which we suspect will be tested,” analysts wrote. As it stands right now, the gold-silver ratio is hovering around 51.
Since copper is so integral to the expansion the global economy, economic growth means higher copper prices. The numbers are skewed toward China, though. Last year, the PRC alone accounted for 40 percent of global refined copper demand. We can get an idea of just how much growth analysts expect to see in China and around the world in 2012 by taking a look at their copper price predictions for the year. Here are five of them:
How? The seller no longer has a mortgage to deal with, and they get a tax deduction for paying rent. The REIT gets a steady stream of income in the form of rent checks. 
Facebook filed its 200-page Form S-1 on February 1, 2012. The SEC, NASD and state securities organizations must approve the S-1 before Facebook shares can start trading. That process takes anywhere from 20 to 60 days. That means Facebook shares could start trading as early as the end of February. In all likelihood, though, it will probably take longer for Facebook’s S-1 to get approved.
REITs make money by borrowing gobs of cash at low interest rates, then using those greenbacks to buy higher-yielding mortgage securities (things like rental properties, derivatives or office space). It’s similar to how banks work. They borrow cash from the Federal Reserve at near-zero percent interest rates, then loan that money out to home buyers and small businesses at rates starting around 3.5 percent.
There’s this tendency to believe we need a revolutionary idea in order to get rich. The fact is, most of the world’s millionaires (and billionaires) got rich off of industries we probably thumb our noses at: fertilizer companies, trailer parks, and lawncare franchises work just as well as founding the next Zynga, Twitter or Facebook.
Hindsight is 20/20. I could have went to college and studied programming for mobile phones. I could have been a mid- to senior-level programmer by 2007 when the first-generation iPhone came out. I could have founded a mobile game development company and, well, started driving a Bentley. 
1) Stroller Strides. Stroller Strides offers fitness programs for new moms and their babies. Since the business serves new mothers, it makes sense to have mothers run the company’s franchised outlets. Currently, Stroller Strides boasts of more than 1,200 locations in 44 states. Start-up costs range from $4,000 to $18,000 (per 
3) Buildingstars. A commercial cleaning company based in St. Louis, Buildingstars added 34 new franchisees in 2011. The company’s emphasis on “green cleaning” could be a part of that as it not only lowers costs for businesses, but protects the environment, too. Start-up costs range from $2,200 to $52,800 (per Entrepreneur). 
