Why buy gold?

calling those dumb and stupid for buying gold yet you have no idea what your talking. I own gold and silver, and its hidden in many different locations separated by miles.

Why do I own gold and silver? because in its physical form, it cant be manipulated. Its been the currency of the world for 1,000's of years all the way up to the 1970's when Nixon took us off the gold standard. the time frame we are in now is quite the anomaly to not have moneys (paper currency) not back by anything. the average country to not have there currency back only lasted 40 years on average. we are now around 45 years without a back currency. the clock is ticking.

Rome feel after coming off the gold standard

Why is it that all major country's are buying gold hand over fist? why are banks buying gold hand over fist? because its real money. it holds value. it take 100's if not 1,000's of man hours to produce gold and silver when found. Paper money takes the push of a button and can be printed in to infinity.

my grandpas been buy silver when it was $1.50 an ounce and gold was at $150 an ounce back when the dollar was stronger. because its value has fallen, the price of metals has increase.

and holding your money in a "high yeld savings bond" at 0.25% is not betting inflation. lol hahaha

I bought silver when it was low a few years ago and sold a lot of it at 34$/oz and I made a great profit. I stick with silver because its cheaper and I can buy more of it and I also advocate people keep as much money out of the banks as possible. If I a tad richer I'd buy gold too but as far as I am concerned people who have precious metals are a lot better off when the economy tanks, which I believe it will. If every one pulled their cash out of the banks and bought silver/gold we would take so much power back from the elites and it would be more effective then any protest ever could achieve.

a reply to: LittleByLittle

> Implying Warren Buffet doesn't make his money by investing in shares

LOL they only way he received any bailout money is indirectly - that is by investing in companies that received bailouts.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Lol, I didn't say keep all your money in a savings account. Invest and make your money work for you.

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

My problem with gold is that it is hella more harder to sell in bar/coin form when you feel the need to and there is a loss (i.e. retail buys/sells at a different price)

Gold certificates is a solution to this, but people here are so against it. I guess you can't trust that there is actual gold backing the certificates.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Fun fact: an ounce of silver today will buy you roughly the same amount of gas as an ounce of silver would in 1963. You certainly couldn't say that about a dollar.

FUN FACT: That's the stupidest thing I ever read. Numerical values won't change. $1 will still be $1 in 10 years, but inflation will reduce the buying power of that $1. However, if that $1 is invested in say a savings account (not in America since apparently they pay you close to nothing interest) or better yet shares, you can beat out inflation.

a reply to: camaro68ss

>implying Rome fell for coming off the gold standard instead of by the fact that it didn't have enough resources to be outstretched to so many territories and its political situation at home became ever more chaotic and that there were various groups, the huns, the goths, the vandals etc to fill the void
>implying that societies did not use other various arbitrary forms of currency such as seashells

Lol yeh dumby dumb dumb

a reply to: Slickinfinity

The economy tanked in 2008. Money did not disappear. Why not invest the money you have invested in precious metals into shares?

Also, if everyone pulled out all their cash from the banks, and banks no longer existed. Where would we get massive loans from? The economy would stop growing and the collapse all of you seem to want would happen.

Seriously, I want to see a panel of 10 ATS members run the US economy. Probs would destroy it overnight.

This radio station the other day was saying gold is going to go up during the next few years due to the hundreds of millions of Chinese having money in their pockets to spend on consumer goods for the first time. I dunno, but that's what they said, apparently the new middle class in China is mad for gold, plus Scottish whiskey and Mercedes Benz?

originally posted by: SpeachM1litant
a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Fun fact: an ounce of silver today will buy you roughly the same amount of gas as an ounce of silver would in 1963. You certainly couldn't say that about a dollar.

FUN FACT: That's the stupidest thing I ever read. Numerical values won't change. $1 will still be $1 in 10 years, but inflation will reduce the buying power of that $1. However, if that $1 is invested in say a savings account (not in America since apparently they pay you close to nothing interest) or better yet shares, you can beat out inflation.

If that's the stupidest thing you've ever read, then I'm assuming that you've never watched Mad Money with Jim Cramer. Here's my favorite:



That was on a Friday when Bear Sterns was over $60.00 a share. By the following Tuesday it was down to $2.00 a share.

I watch a lot of "American Greed" on TV. I've seen a lot of people on that show go broke investing in some legitimate-seeming ponzi scheme. I've never come across a story of someone going broke buying physical gold or silver. The closest would be the Hunt brothers, but they weren't buying physical metal, they were trying to corner the silver market.

But, again I ask, why try to convince us stupid, broke conspiracy theorist not to buy gold? Why not try to convice the US Government to liquidate its gold at Ft. Knox and invest that money in the stock market? Sounds like they could pay off the national debt that way.

a reply to: SpeachM1litant
Yea I actually do want the economy to collapse and I think if it doesn't the world will just keep getting more corrupt and controlled by the 1%. I also think we are living in a technological dark ages because of the plutocracy we live in. We actually do not need banks and there system of debt and interest but they need us. So many things which are destroying our planet and the life that's on it because profit comes first and so many other things wont see the light of day because they don't generate profit or replace a thing that does.

I'd rather live through a complete financial collapse and hope something better could be built then ever have faith or buy into this complete farce we call the banking industry or stock market. Its been proven only the few benefit from the system and many are left to starve. In 200 years I think they will teach children in school just how stupid our system is and how it almost destroyed humanity.

a reply to: Slickinfinity

unfortunately i doubt a collapse will set us free from the 1% as they'll own most of the resources that will still retain value after it happens, not to mention the police and the army... i'd wish though

originally posted by: SpeachM1litant
a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Fun fact: an ounce of silver today will buy you roughly the same amount of gas as an ounce of silver would in 1963. You certainly couldn't say that about a dollar.

FUN FACT: That's the stupidest thing I ever read. Numerical values won't change. $1 will still be $1 in 10 years, but inflation will reduce the buying power of that $1. However, if that $1 is invested in say a savings account (not in America since apparently they pay you close to nothing interest) or better yet shares, you can beat out inflation.

He's not talking about the numerical value. a silver dollar has .77 ounces of silver in it. back in 1963. .77 ounces of silver equaled a dollar hence it being in the currency. that same silver dollar today is worth $18 dollars based on the amount of silver in the coin. its numerical value is the same but the silver content is what's worth more. because of inflation since 1963 that same silver dollar is worth 18 times more then it did 51 years ago.

since we were taken off the gold standard, inflation has slowly eroded the purchasing power of the USD. It use to take once person working in a house hold in 1963 to provide for the family now takes two people working plus living off credit cards to make ends meat.

The USA standard of living is degrading and doing so at a faster and faster pace.

you can invest in whatever you want but im not investing in a stock market that reaches new highs daily. Im not going to invest in US bonds that don't beat inflation, im going to invest or preserve my wealth via gold and silver. its been money for 1,000's of years. if its worthless. why are all the central banks around the world trying to horde gold?

do as the central banks and governments do, buy gold

originally posted by: camaro68ss
since we were taken off the gold standard, inflation has slowly eroded the purchasing power of the USD. It use to take once person working in a house hold in 1963 to provide for the family now takes two people working plus living off credit cards to make ends meat.

I have to slightly disagree with that. Nixon took the country off the gold standard in 1971, and the economy tanked and gas prices soared almost immediately. Nothing slow about it. It was "slow" erosion before 1965, after 1971 dollar devaluation kicked into high gear. The only thing that slowed dollar devaluation from 1971 to now has been a series of "bubbles", computers, tech, internet, dot-com, real estate, etc. The current bubble is quantitative easing, where the Fed is just dumping "money" into Wall St.

I don't know what the Fed is going to do when the QE bubble bursts, but it looks like the government is laying the groundwork for "austerity measures" and direct wealth confiscation.

originally posted by: VictorVonDoom

originally posted by: camaro68ss
since we were taken off the gold standard, inflation has slowly eroded the purchasing power of the USD. It use to take once person working in a house hold in 1963 to provide for the family now takes two people working plus living off credit cards to make ends meat.

I have to slightly disagree with that. Nixon took the country off the gold standard in 1971, and the economy tanked and gas prices soared almost immediately. Nothing slow about it. It was "slow" erosion before 1965, after 1971 dollar devaluation kicked into high gear. The only thing that slowed dollar devaluation from 1971 to now has been a series of "bubbles", computers, tech, internet, dot-com, real estate, etc. The current bubble is quantitative easing, where the Fed is just dumping "money" into Wall St.

I don't know what the Fed is going to do when the QE bubble bursts, but it looks like the government is laying the groundwork for "austerity measures" and direct wealth confiscation.

well we can both agree that hard time are on the way.

a reply to: SpeachM1litant Gold seems to be the in-thing nowadays

Edit: NM, responded to a 2 year old thread bump.

Edit *sigh* fell for the 2 year old bump.

2 year old post anniversary, referencing to a 7 year old post, here it is, All Paper is STILL a short position on gold, especially paper gold being the worst thing to save. Currency is not going away, civilization will continue, a functional change in the utility of physical gold as a trade balancing mechanism between currency zones will restore the world economy from this global stagnation. Paper gold is only for trading profits until you loose. Physical gold brings back the winning state to those who understand Exeter's pyramid is not built on exponential debt.

"But I do understand why you think the way you do. You are 26, right? Born in 1982? You see, ever since 1971 the establishment has convinced you and almost everyone else that they successfully moved the very foundation of the inverse pyramid and placed it up amongst the investments categories:" All Paper is . .

This conversation is one of those endless conversations. So I'll just throw in a couple things to think about. When you buy gold you pay for it with your local currency. When you sell gold you are imagining that you'll receive your local currency. But wait a minute. Isn't your gold buying plan supposed to protect you from the devaluation of your local currency? The idea with gold is that it is the currency of Earthlings. Supposedly in any country on Earth you can sell gold and receive the local currency. In a massive meltdown you can jump from one country to another with your gold and land safely in a place that will accept your gold and give you some local currency. But is that really a good thing? How do you transport yourself and your gold during this possible future meltdown event? There really is something truly bizarre about this whole gold idea. In my mind, the thing to do is to achieve a mastery of the exchange markets. In other words, become really adept at exchanging one thing for another so that you are always bringing in some sort of surplus of local currency. Most of us achieve this by exchanging our labor skills for the local currency and then getting on with life instead of worrying about meltdown events. A few are able to deftly trade the trade and be on the correct side of the settlement. Trading is the ultimate job. Trade your skills for local currency. Do it legally. You'll be alright. Even in the event of a total freaking meltdownocalypse you'll be one of the skilled people who can help rebuild the local currency printing press.

When you buy paper gold you are talking about stock certificates or futures contracts. The stock certificate fluctuates. The futures contract can fluctuate wildly. You can get stopped out if you don't have enough cash to continuously back your futures contract. So called "paper" gold is very dangerous. Gold in your hand is real gold. And sometimes worth less than you paid for it when the time comes to liquidate. Obviously, holding for really long time periods is helpful, but not always beneficial. Many people lose over time when holding property. Even real estate holdings can prove to be completely disastrous if you fail to generate enough local currency to pay the property tax. Again, the key to the situation is to stay current with the situation. It is a going concern of each individual to maintain some sort of income in the local currency. Otherwise, you'll be stopped out.

And this brings us to the bank's role in Capitalism. The bank is the only thing that keeps paying you for doing nothing. When you are capitalized you are literally in the position to do nothing and yet receive income. When the interest rate is low you need more capital to maintain the income to which you have grown accustomed. When the interest rate is high you will get more and more income. Low interest rate environments are engineered to test the capitalization of each going concern. Those who are under-capitalized can get stopped out.

The stock market is the main competitor for the bank's business. A similar thing happens in the stock market game when you buy shares of a company that pays dividends. Those dividend payments are the "interest" you receive even while your share prices fluctuate. Of course, the company can cease dividend payments and you can lose everything if the share price falls to zero, so you better maintain some sort of local labor skill in order to replenish your capital pool.

The bottom line is... play the game with skill and diversify. You've got to have several irons in the fire at all times.

Capitalism is the greatest concept ever. It rewards society in general and individuals who are very skillful in particular. In this way the entire group of Earthlings can achieve, and are achieving, the greatest benefits from life on Earth. The momentum that is built into Capitalism is a very important (and Conservative!) concept. The idea is that society gets to vote with its dollars on the style of life that the whole population imagines to be the best style of life at that particular moment. Anybody that would want to tear it all down must be mentally defective. If fact, anybody that wants to bring the system down will ultimately have to answer to the system itself.

And the conversation continues. For ever and ever.