Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
Proverbs 3:13,14

The following list was composed by gold and investment expert Jim Cedarstrom of Discount Gold and Silver Trading on his broadcast aired (WBCQ 7.415 MHz shortwave) January 15, 2002 (Dow 9927, S&P 1146, NASDAQ 2000, gold 284.70, silver 4.55). Thanks Jim.

Twenty-Five Reasons to be Out of the Stock Market and into Gold

1. The trade deficit is hitting all-time highs.
2. We have the worst corporate drop of earnings in history.
3. We have record filings of bankruptcy—both personal and corporate.
4. Manufacturing has been in decline for 14 consecutive months and that hasn't happened since the Great Depression.
5. Layoffs are running at a torrid pace, far eclipsing 1991.
6. We've had 12 interest rate cuts, another one coming, and the stock market has fallen for 12 months in a row. That's the first time ever, since 1932, that they've attempted a massive interest rate campaign and the market's gone down. We're at interest rate levels right now not seen since the thirties. It's not helping you. It's not helping me. You can't get a home loan today any cheaper than a year ago. It's the same price. The banks aren't going to lend you money for less. The only way you get a car for less is that the people that make the cars finance them at zero percent interest—not the banks. The only thing that the interest rate cuts have done is save bank failures, but they're coming; because they've got a whole bunch of bad loans.
7. We've had two years of decline in all three indexes, the S&P, the Dow, and the NASDAQ. That hasn't happened since 1973 and 1974 and in the Great Depression prior to that.
8. If you really want to look at “market cap” if we look at top-to-bottom wipeout, the market right now is where it was three years ago in 1998 in market cap. Do you think our economy right now represents anything close to what it was in 1998? No, it doesn't.
9. The accounting scams, we've got Enron, Dollar, and more. For each one that comes out, people lose faith in the stock market.
10. There is no surplus. There never was a surplus. It was accounting gimmickry but now it's clear and evident. There isn't going to be a surplus for one heck of a long time—which means interest rates have to go one way, and that's up.
11. Social Security and Medicare are going broke by the day—no doubt about it, and the taxes are going up.
12. We have this quasi-war on terrorism. I can't figure it out. We spend billions of dollars to get one guy and we can't get him. Where are we going next—Iraq, Iram, Libia, Chad? Are we going to 20 countries? Are we going to put our military everywhere? Are we going to bomb everybody? When does this end? And when's the next attack on America? How many more countries are going to hate us?
13. America, for the first time since the Great Depression, has a negative savings rate. That's right. Every month we spend more than we make.
14. Personal and corporate debt and government debt is at a record high.
15. Unemployment is rising everywhere—but China. In Europe, in Germany, Australia, Canada, United States, South America, unemployment is rising. It's rising everywhere except for Communist China.
16. Indonesia is on the verge of political and economic chaos.
17. Argentina is in a collapse and moving south every day.
18. Japanese banks are ready to collapse on trillions of dollars of debt.
19. India and Pakistan are ready to go to war.
20. Israel and the Palestinians are fighting again.
21. We've got states now, all of the sudden, are in the hole. The state budgets, the municipal budgets, they're all going broke. Why? Because they don't have the tax revenue.
22. Because we're in a depression.
23. The valuations in the stock market right now, you take the S&P, the NASDAQ, are the highest. You're going to pay more for every dollar earnings buying stocks right now than ever in the history of the stock market. Does that make any sense to you to do that? Why? Because they've already priced in 15 percent growth next year for corporations and it's not going to happen.
24. The [Bank of England gold] auctions end in March. Gold has gone up right with the dollar.
25. Through this whole deal, the crash of 2000, the panic of 2001, and the Greater Depression of 2002, there's not been a brokerage firm, there's not been anybody that's been negative, that's had sell ratings on the stock market or told you to get out or protect your 401K. And the public has never been negative. Through all of this, they haven't sold their stocks enmass. Right now they are more bullish on the stock market than they've ever been. This entire public is in denial. They wiped out seven trillion from top to bottom and it's like it didn't happen. “Oh, that's okay.” They're still looking for the Holy Grail on Wall Street, and it's gone.