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Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Mar 10, 2012

Rudar. What exactly is this dividend tied to? When you talk about buying gold and silver, are you implying that’s where the stock's actual value lies? And honestly, who is guaranteeing your stake—especially when you consider how volatile things can get in certain parts of the world? We've seen enough nationalizations and geopolitical conflicts to know nothing is set in stone. I just don't see how people can ignore the fact that we are living through incredibly unstable times—but hey, I'd much rather be the overly cautious guy who starts panicking before the crowd than the one left holding the bag once everyone else starts running for the exits.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Mar 10, 2012

Here is something for those of you playing around with fiat and debating whether gold is a bubble or a balloon.
http://www.oenb.at/en/ueber_die_oenb...tion_coins.jsp

The inflation of the money supply was an inevitable consequence of the wars, one which aggravated the social tensions and economic problems in the country. The citizens lost 90 % of their wealth on account of the hyperinflation caused by the excessive printing of money, the redistribution of incomes, the outflow of assets abroad, and the monetary reconstruction which followed.

If this isn't the absolute prime time to focus on preserving actual wealth, then I honestly don't know when in human history such a moment existed. When we look at the potential collapse of yet another fiat currency—like the US dollar—on the horizon (whether that's in 1, 2, 5, or 10 years, the timeline is secondary), playing games with that paper is essentially playing with fire. You’re going to get burned, plain and simple. In this light, trying to weigh gold or silver against a mere scrap of paper doesn't make much sense—it's actually quite a gamble to sit at that particular casino table, especially when every single table seems rigged with magnets and other little tricks pulled by the house management. 😉
The only legitimate way to preserve wealth is through physical gold and silver; everything else is just shouting into the wind.

Angelina Jolie's take on the former America in Close to Politics · Feb 18, 2012

bluerider63 said:At its core, this is just a political movie. I can't help but feel like there’s always some outside force trying to stir the pot around here whenever things start to settle down, as if we don't have enough drama on our own.
We—and by "we," I mean every single side fueled up by the rhetoric—aren't even ready to face the war criminals who've been convicted yet. Instead, we’d rather sink into endless conspiracy theories about how one group hates us, rather than actually dealing with the hard truth.

Since Angelina Jolie was named a UN goodwill ambassador and spends so much time hitting up refugee camps in crisis zones, maybe she'll eventually film a romance between a Palestinian and a Jew that actually shows the reality of the genocide being committed against Palestinians... but yeah, I doubt that's ever happening. 😁

In reality, Jordanians have killed more Palestinians than those lost in direct conflicts with Israel from '48 to this day. ☕
That's why people suggest Jolie should make a film about that particular genocide.

As for this lady—I mean, seriously, what the hell is wrong with Jolie? 🤔
It just goes to show once again that some people are like sheep—they practically beg for shepherds to follow, looking up to them as if they were some kind of deities.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 17, 2012

Robert Vaughn10 said:Europeans visiting the Chinese, who sit on massive foreign exchange reserves. Some deal was likely struck to keep this "perpetual motion machine" running. The only question is the cost. The Chinese made a smart move opening up to capital, yet they refused to implement multi-party politics; the state still maintains ownership over the profitable companies. It is a completely different mindset from the European approach, where everything is constantly being sold off.
It is worth noting that the current US Federal Government has issued some "more normal statements," suggesting things like no privatization of ExxonMobil. Had such a policy been in place from the start, we would be positioned much better today. Still, you can't ignore the rating agencies. I honestly don't understand how the US can be stuck at BBB- when its deficit is far more manageable than, say, some other nations. Even if we acknowledge that the USA is the world's largest economy, it certainly cannot have a better outlook than America. In circumstances where a downgrade almost always follows news that appears favorable for the dollar, expecting truly objective ratings is difficult. And inflation? Don't get me started. It is nearing 10%, and under these conditions, the dollar simply cannot maintain its former strength.
On the other hand, gold continues to defy many people's expectations, which suggests we are nowhere near a recovery. There is too much toxic debt and far too much government spending allocated to various groups that could easily be avoided. It is a genuine miracle that this Ponzi scheme still functions given the current consumption-to-production ratio. My view remains: hold gold.
However, if the Chinese decide to fully enter the fray, things could get messy and complicated very quickly.
Again, I truly believe that for a country with such a massive population, multi-party politics isn't advisable; it would lead to the fragmentation of all state assets. Money and power corrupt, but here, it stays under control. As much as it is. Regardless of anything else, no one can deny the Chinese have a much more favorable economic position and growth potential, even with their bubbles. Certainly more so compared to the Western Hemisphere.
Ultimately, all the manipulation is futile if there is no real foundation for growth.
Just like there is no real money.

My take? I don't think they slashed our rating because they actually want us to take on even more debt. Rather, by keeping the rating from dropping further, they’re essentially gaslighting the fools in Washington—convincing them they're doing something right while they actually just pile on more debt and pave the way for a cheap fire sale down the road. If we end up with debt levels similar to what Greece faced, we won't be able to pay it back, and the whole country will go belly up.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 13, 2012

A Permanent State of Gold Backwardation

It All Traces Back to the Debt Bubble

...Ever since that period, we've seen debt expand at an almost impossible rate across the entire American economy. It’s become this massive, self-perpetuating cycle—debt being used to collateralize more debt, built upon layers of existing debt, and aggressively leveraged with even more debt on top of it all.

If backwardation settles in as a permanent fixture, it signifies a total breakdown of confidence in the gold futures market. We aren't talking about commodities like corn or wheat here; we're talking about a scenario where millions of individuals and major Wall Street institutions hold vast amounts of physical gold. They could easily dump it into the spot market and cover their positions through futures, but if they collectively decide that isn't worth the risk, we're looking at the terminal stage of our modern financial architecture.

The endgame occurs when gold effectively stops responding to paper-based demand altogether. Once that happens, the appetite for gold in the paper markets becomes theoretically infinite—and that is precisely why the paper market is destined to crumble if it lacks actual gold to back it up.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 9, 2012

neondriver5 said:
Prove it!

My mistake—I meant silver. Gold has actually been flat for the last six months.

Did it just click for you? If you haven't realized yet, the price of gold or silver in dollars or euros doesn't mean a thing to people like us. Personally, I prefer it lower so I can stack more. I have zero intention of swapping my precious metals for depreciating paper money.

Oh, really? Are we all just hoarding silver coins and gold bullion to play a convincing game of Monopoly when society eventually collapses?
You're buying because you're playing the long, and let's be honest, you're entitled to do just that.

Look, why don't you go back and re-read that 18th-century gentleman I quoted earlier? Give it a few passes—maybe even a dozen—until the lightbulb finally flickers on above your head.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 9, 2012

neondriver5 said:So, following your twisted logic, gold isn't actually money either—at least not until it suits your purposes.
Right now, while prices have been flatlining over the last year, it’s not "money," but once (if) it starts climbing again, suddenly it’ll be just great.
Brilliant logic there.🙂

Has it perhaps dawned on you—assuming you haven't missed this part already—that for some of us here, the price of gold or silver in dollars or euros doesn't actually mean a damn thing? Personally, I’d much prefer the price to stay lower so I can stack up more of it. My intention isn't to trade my precious metals back into depreciating paper currency like the US dollar.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 9, 2012

Gold and silver represent actual money; timber, on the other hand, does not. That isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with owning a forest—far from it—but it certainly doesn't carry the same weight as those specific stocks mentioned in the article. ☕

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 9, 2012

Here are some reflections from Edmund Burke dating back to the 18th century—perfectly applicable to those players in the paper-based government market (it’s an illusion to call it a free market) who claim that sovereign currencies are what destroy an economy.
Make sure you read that last sentence carefully.

But there where the law, which in most instances forbids rather than encourages, is corrupted by, playing with, reversing its own nature and policy—effectively forcing the subject to sit at that destructive table by introducing the spirit and symbol of money-lending into even the smallest transactions, involving everyone and everything like an epidemic spreading a more terrible malaise than any the world has ever seen... What a man is forced to accept as payment for an old debt will not be viewed the same way when he himself comes to settle his own debt; nor would it be the same if he sought to avoid incurring any debt through immediate payment. Industry must perish. The economy must be driven out of your country. Careful stewardship of existence will cease to exist...
The truly melancholy part of the policy of systematically turning a nation into gamblers is that, even though everyone is forced into the game, VERY FEW OF THEM CAN ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE RULES, AND EVEN FEWER ARE CAPABLE OF EXPLOITING THAT KNOWLEDGE.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 8, 2012

Jerry Wright6 said:YES, the landscape of gold production—mining in general—is definitely shifting!
Biomining isn't just some joke. Everyone here seems to be an expert on gold already; most of you probably figured this out years ago...
But Biomining is taking over!
At some point, though, production could skyrocket (maybe we just start hitting Ctrl-P on gold more often?)

Look, if someone actually discovers an organism capable of synthesizing gold from non-gold elements, they won't just get a Nobel Prize—they'll basically win a Nobel for modern alchemy.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 7, 2012

Great read on the gold standard—Tenebraum really lays into that fool Norris (not Chuck 😬).

The absolute highlight of the piece for me, though, is this bit right here. Just look at who actually benefits from this whole broken system when you break down the incentives:

Some of the economists polled probably really don't know any better, but we wager that a great many are driven by their personal motives: in a free market economy, only the services of the best would be paid for, and the pay would probably be considerably less than it is today.

And then there's that sharp closing paragraph:

As to the gold standard, we reiterate that it does not matter whether gold or another, more suitable medium of exchange is picked by the market. It stands to reason however that by dint of thousands of years of experience, gold would probably play a big role in a free market monetary dispensation.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Feb 7, 2012

It’s necessary.
Hahaha. 😂
☕

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Jan 28, 2012

briskjackal5 said:The fact that about 99% of people out here have absolutely no clue what’s actually going on doesn't really change a thing when it comes to the gold prices you'll see at the shop.

-Steve

Honestly, who even bothers talking about this back home? It’s a joke—you can barely find decent gold or silver locally without running into a massive headache, yet if you try to import anything, you get slapped with a 58% tax. It’s absurd. And let’s be real, even out here in the States, 99% of people don't have the slightest clue how this works. The biggest issue, though—the thing that really drives the market—is the fact that paper prices and physical prices aren't actually decoupled. They're tethered together in a way that defies logic. Just wait... once this whole house of cards built on paper nonsense finally collapses, everyone is going to realize how much they were played.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Jan 27, 2012

The strategy here is simple: you’re going to stack up silver—which, honestly, is looking even more undervalued than gold right now—while the price stays this low and 99% of the population remains completely oblivious to what's actually happening. ☕

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Jan 27, 2012

Andrew Barrett4 said:Yeah, I’ve heard. But honestly, dealing with Iranians is a whole different ballgame—they operate on their own wavelength. You've got massive inflation, so they rely heavily on gold or the US dollar just to keep any sense of value, plus there are limits on how much gold an individual can actually buy, all while demand stays through the roof. On top of that, they seem to be carving out their own little set of rules.

Everyone seems to have a problem with the reserve currency. 😁

A currency like this—one that lacks real backing and is prone to abuse—is bound to collapse eventually, regardless of whether anyone finds it inconvenient. It just strikes me that whoever sits in the White House won't be able to pull off that kind of magic trick—printing money out of thin air without any coverage, much like what happened back in '71 under Nixon—to keep the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency alive indefinitely.

briskjackal5 said:Personally, I wouldn't count what's happening in America as any kind of important factor in my analysis at all.
We aren't leading the charge in these kinds of shifts, and our local market doesn't have any real pull on prices anyway. Prices are set globally. We're just along for the ride, watching from the sidelines.
So, whether there's some crazy gold fever or a bubble happening right here locally doesn't really matter. It doesn't change a thing, and it's definitely not an indicator worth paying attention to, I think.

-Joe

What we see domestically is merely a reflection of what is happening globally. Even overseas, the average person has absolutely no clue about gold, let alone silver.

Gold: Past, Present, and Future in Other Investment Types · Jan 17, 2012

Looks like we're seeing yet another Goldman Sachs situation unfolding...

Rangers Supporters Club in Fans · Sep 22, 2011

Peter Cruz15 said:Does anyone happen to have a photo of the Ultras at Yankee Stadium from back when they were stationed on the west stands?

I think that was right around the time they tore down the north stands—maybe 1997?

Brain drain risks after joining the European Union? in Economy · Jun 20, 2011

briskdrifter3, just take a look at where our young people are heading for school and what they’re actually graduating with—then tell me honestly, how many of them do you think will actually land a high-paying job out there in the States?

Brain drain risks after joining the European Union? in Economy · Jun 20, 2011

@briskdrifter3
Honestly, your chances of finding work in European Union countries are pretty slim—lower than rock bottom—unless you happen to be some kind of superstar in a niche field they’re absolutely desperate to fill. Having a degree and being fluent in a language? That's basically peanuts in this market.

Brain drain risks after joining the European Union? in Economy · Jun 20, 2011

I’d honestly suggest looking toward Spain. Unemployment there is practically non-existent, and if you happen to be a young professional with a university degree, you'll find yourself a complete stranger to the concept of being jobless. While things aren't quite as perfect in other European Union nations—though they remain promising enough—they seem to be just waiting for us to show up. That magical date of July 13, 2013, is fast approaching, and they are already busy carving out job openings for our fleeing youth, our intellectuals, and even our blue-collar workers alike.