Chinese Physical Gold Investment Demand Surges While Americans Pile Into Stock & Crypto Bubbles

a reply to: SkeptiSchism

Sorry, but I have to question China's ability to sustain anything they build. Modern China operates on the CHEAP-FAST principles. No matter what, when buying something... people can only choose 2 of the 3... GOOD-CHEAP-FAST. Since China chooses CHEAP & FAST, GOOD will naturally be lacking. Its weird in China... people are saving like mad, but its all being invested in garbage.

Go to the average apartment complex in China, and its run down. Never any maintenance, and there's no order to what they're building... it's just stuff that costs money and is there.

Some may see that Silk Rd. project to be an asset to the future. Unless it's fit to support an AI network of autonomous vehicles, it's just going to be the second version of The Great Wall of China. TGWOC is nothing but the longest decorative fence in the world.

Those issues aside, the U.S. is on a full on battle of wits with China. 80% of commerce runs through China government, so the common Chinese citizen is being teased by the luxuries of democracy. China is in a full on effort to take over the new financial network that is AI based, so they can control the bulk of funds... hoping it will stretch into balancing out the effectiveness of military operations. Meanwhile, back in the U.S. the biggest export it has going for it is the internet, and they are pumping each and every Chinese freedom to the nation they can. When China is trying to make a move on the U.S.'s super power status, the Chinese citizens will revolt against the harsh rule of China's storng arm government style.

China thinks they will have their citizen's support to sustain a push on super power status, but I feel the general Chinese citizen will choose the internet and attached luxuries as opposed to the firm hand of government in the end. If I were trading with China, I'd only sell them what they are willing to pay a premium for. If China stops building ghost cities, Australia will be the 1st country to sink. China pulls value into their problems, and has no care if investors lose out on the back end.

I can't see any value in anything past their aspirations. The lack of maintenance and lack of care for fellow neighbors and properties is just absurd. They don't rebuild their history... they just keep plopping more crap manufactured goods in the most convenient spot they can find at the time. Hell... they don't even have building codes... its just a free for all that can't stand the tests of time.

Saw this earlier, it's sort of related

How China is locking up critical resources in the US’s own backyard

While iron ore and copper have been the hot targets of overseas acquisitions by Chinese firms as they seek to feed an economy that up until 2015 was growing at double digits, the Chinese have also gone after gold, nickel, tin and coking coal. More recently the most desired metals are those that feed into a tectonic global shift from fossil fuels to the electrification of vehicles. This has meant a hunt for lithium, cobalt, graphite, copper and rare earths - metals that are used in electric vehicles, of which China has become the world leader.

The most interesting part of this trend is not that China is acquiring mines and mining company stakes abroad - that has been going on for at least a decade - but that the overt attempts to lock up the world’s mining and energy resources, some of which are critical to the future world economy, are happening under the nose of the United States in Latin America, in countries previously subject to the Monroe Doctrine and in one case, right in their own front yard.

In 2016 Molycorp’s Mountain Pass Mine in California was shut down because it couldn’t compete with the low rare earth oxide prices coming out of China - which has cornered the market in REOs with about 95% of the world’s production. The timing was bad because Molycorp had just invested $1.25 billion to expand the light rare earths facility. It was forced into bankruptcy, until last summer when an investor group with ties to the Chinese government bought the mine for $20.5 million, beating out American bidders including ERP Strategic Minerals.

While this purchase likely flew under many radars (rare earths haven’t been in vogue among investors for years), it should be greeted with considerable alarm. The Coalition for a Prosperous America is calling on the US government to block the sale on national security and economic grounds. Why? Because rare earths are critical to US military technology, and Mountain Pass was the only rare earths mine in the country. Electric systems in manned and unmanned aircraft, atomic batteries that power guided missiles, and lightweight materials used to make jet engines and rocket noses, all rely on REEs. Without a domestic supply, the Americans must rely on Chinese sources of rare earths to build “made in America” military and space equipment.

aheadoftheherd.com...

a reply to: midnightstar


China works on Chinese time. They were incredibly stable and independent , and didn't want anything to do with the "Barbarians" Then they traded tea and silk for gold and silver, they wouldn't back trade as they didn't need to, they became rich. Then the tea was grown in India, and silk worms were smuggled out, then the Indian grown Opium was sold in China for Gold and silver, then China became unstable. Now they have the control back, the Imperial Communist dynasty, stopped opium smoking overnight and has got all their gold and silver back, plus some. They don't want paper, so when we light our fires with worthless dollars, and want to send the old car to a mechanic to give it a re bore. You had better be sure that you have a trained mechanic who can do a re bore, because they are all in China now. The Kid who should have been a mechanic is having a sex change,and cant get his nails broke.

Go to the average apartment complex in China, and its run down. Never any maintenance, and there's no order to what they're building... it's just stuff that costs money and is there.

Not sure about your AI obsession, but you are correct on the above. It's a weird existence.

While I don't think any one currently existing coin will eventually dominate, I do think the methodology behind crypto currency will be the future of money. Guess we'll just have to see.

Personally, I think the value on precious metals will eventually become obsolete.

a reply to: ttobban

Or.... They're preparing for something big.


With all those ghost cities, lets just say that China could swoop into a country on the brink and 'rescue' their people and put them up in all these beautiful ghost cities.... Instant ready made city. The savior of peoples, they might say.

It could happen.

a reply to: StallionDuck

I am on board with that idea, and I am actually prepping for exactly that scenario.

In my opinion, those types of things aren't built without a full on purpose, and we have yet to learn what that reasoning is.

I feel China is essentially trying to be the first Walmart government. Where sellers of goods are so dependent on the China consumer currency to keep business going that China government will have full control of the switch... it will be China's influence and say that matters most.

The only thing working in China's favor is the cost of manufacturing goods... outside of that its just gigantic spec homes that they add floors to be attached to government money. Too bad for China that AI will make all goods and services so cheap and way better quality then we know of now, that AI will look at China as the largest cleanup project on the face of the Earth... maybe next to India.

personally, these China ghost cities make no sense. Moving the rural population and a resulting population boom makes sense in a socialist model, but not if the rural population lacks needed skills in a city. its putting the cart before the horse.

a reply to: Gazrok

I totally disagree because our energy returned over energy invested ratios of our fossil fuels is declining, and we are soon going to hit the Seneca cliff.

It took lots of energy and labor to mine, refine and cast silver or gold bars, and that was all done while energy was cheap, high density fuel sources.

Once we've gone over the Seneca cliff, then obtaining precious metals will become exponentially more expensive. Then we'll see encrypted databases do what they were meant to do, allow people to build coins off known reserves of copper, silver, gold, etc.

Encrypted databases for real bills essentially will eliminate modern banking as we know it.

a reply to: ttobban

I'm going to go full blown white rabbit here...

What if:

What if Satoshi Nakamoto was a Chinese government mastermind.
- Created Bit Coin to destabilize the dollar.
- Pushed the coin and put money behind it over a period of years to get more and more people interested.
- Pushed the coin to heights were it got everyone's attention.
- Started stocking up on gold.
- Russia may have been in on it
- Russia stopped their people from dealing in it (but let them at first so not to arouse suspicion).
- Other in the know countries followed suit.
- China finally stops it's own peoples from dealing in Crypto (but let them at first so not to arouse suspicion).
- Invested in more gold.
- Makes price crash to very low lows (wants more people on board).
- Slowly at first, price starts going up again. More and more and more people jump on board because this time, they wont want to miss the wave as they've done the last 2 times.
- Finally China sees enough Americans drowning in their bit coins and pulls the plug. All that money gone and in the pockets of Chinese companies that were really hosting the exchanges through plants.

Now China has the gold as it skyrockets and all the money people threw away for imaginary tokens that are now worthless.

"China has your gold"!
"China have all your feeble American dollars"!
"China watch silly Americans starving in shame"!

"China have big cities with food and work and no one to live in them. China be your savior... you just have to live under China's Imperial Rules"!

Silly, feeble Americans. You so easy!

a reply to: StallionDuck

Awesome post! Now that's the ATS I miss right there!

Have you looked into the China/Estonia connections... where most of Estonia's citizens are digital???



This white rabbit is real... yes, digital countries are a real thing, and China is in on it!

a reply to: StallionDuck
That right there is where my suspicions have been at for the last six months, and is why I have been skiddish about Bitcoin and the crypto craze in general. Well that and the whole mark of the beast implications.
a reply to: Gazrok
its a communist society. The government says DO IT, and they have no choice but to comply. Besides for the most part it is already happening. The rural farmers kid's are moving to the cities. Their parents will be replaced with machines as they pass on, and the cities start to fill up with eager tech hungry next geners who easily adapt and learn the skills of the future.

They literally have 1/5 of the worlds population. If up and comers from other nations also look to China as the new place to move to and raise their family (citizens from less developed/poorer surrounding Asian countries) those cities will fill up over the next decade or two. Sucks for them though, they will be moving into buildings that are already decades old before anybody ever lived in them. Even assuming they are kept shut off to reduce wear and tear of the infrastructure, they will be starting life off in housing that is requiring maintenance from the get go.

I guess thats no different than moving into an established home though.