INSIGHTS: A young Fil-Am’s take on Barack Obama's re-election

Primo Leone ... Gold and silver better than the greenback.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

PORT MORESBY: At about 2.30am on  Wednesday, November 7 (PNG time), I called my son to greet him on his 34th birthday.

Juan, aka Primo Leone -- the name he uses as weekend Rap Artist -- lives in Vallejo, CA with his wife Andrea and two young kids – Nailani, 15 and Llano, 4.

After a brief exchange about his health and that of his young family, I casually asked: Whom are you going to vote? I was referring to the presidential election unfolding on that day across the US. It was 8.30am in CA.

“Nah … they are both screwed up (referring to President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.”

“Obama is screwed up… Romney is screwed up.

“I’m not a Democrat … not a Republican … I prefer to be independent … I will not vote as I have never voted in my life…”

 

Juan Hernandez aka Primo Leone

Urged on to talk some more, Juan said: “It (Obama win) will be great for precious metals. More money printing and currency debasement! Higher food prices, gas prices and I’m working twice as hard for the same amount of money.”

You see, Juan trades in gold and silver – two precious metals which he said will save anybody from bankruptcy, whoever keeps them. This is his bread-and-butter alongside a good-paying job at AT&T Wireless.

Describing how it has been for him as a middle-class white-collar jobber since Obama became president four years ago, Juan rattled off: My health care costs has increased in terms of what I pay for my wife and kids to see the doctor and purchase medicine. 

On the present goings-on on American banks, he said that banks are penalizing savers because the amount of interest paid (if an) is drastically at lower rate than the rate of inflation.

“That’s why I hold precious metals like physical and tangible assets such silver coins and (silver) bullion.

He said that “it’s not that these every day things are getting more expensive … it’s just the overall purchasing power of the dollar is just dying!”

Monitoring his Facebook postings in recent past would disclose how my son has adored his silver – bullion and coins – urging friends and those looking for ways to beat the cost of lowering dollar value to hoard silver and of course, gold.

I knew that he monitors the hourly fluctuations of silver prices in the trading floor via the Internet, especially on weekends when he has time to stay late and follow the ever-changing price of silver bullion that is traded across the globe in real time.

How he adored his silver is very evident, when he said: “Precious metals measure the overall health and condition of the (US) dollar.”

And giving his take on fellow Americans, he declared: I think many citizens are so brainwashed into irrelevant consumerism that they fail to realize what real money was or how it all works!

“Either way, regardless of who won, it will not bode well for the middle-class across America (with the re-election of Obama).

“I have stayed successful because of my strict and rigid financial household management.

“Housing market will not recover … the big QE 3 (till infinity) is a failed design to re-inflate the housing bubble.

He said the aim is “to give the homeowner a sense of wealth by seeing increasing home prices”. 

It would be recalled that the property market collapsed a few years ago after thousands of Americans, who were not supposed to acquire home, were allowed to secure loans for new homes although they did not have the capacity to repay the amortization.

When it was time to collect, the financing company realized that they were holding useless documents that would not let them recover their money, forcing them to repossess those homes, and at the same time throwing out of the house the supposed homeowners. 

Meanwhile, thousands of unoccupied homes piled up across the US and no-one was buying, forcing property prices to drop and sending property developers and home financing companies to seek bankruptcy. 

Juan said that during Obama’s second term, financing companies will find ways to make new homeowners feel wealthy by increasing the value of their homes they are amortizing.

“This is to make them feel as if their wealth is increasing so they have a reason to refinance and spend that borrowed wealth on things they don't need. 

“It's a flawed plan and is mathematically calculated for failure. 

“Financial collapse is mathematically inevitable.

“Obama is screwed. Americans will get screwed too."

It the Americans would vote for Obama despite his mess, they will do so because of their fear of seeing more of this mess under Romney's government, he said.

In short, Romney, at the end of the day, would feel vindicated on his loss.

For comment, email the writer: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg  alfredophernandez@y7mail.com