qwerty

These type of cashiers are the one's I really hate...They seem to delight in looking at your accounts...

 

I am sure they are on commission, everytime I go and put a cheque in the bank, it is always the same - "You can get a better savings rate if you open new XYZ account today"...I think that they think that anyone with savings is a complete idiot and require their financial advice...

Try getting your own money out !.

When making a large cash withdrawl cashier asked

"What are you going to do with the money?."

"Why I replied"

"It's my job I have to ask it's the rules!"

looking her firmly in the eye I replied

"So you've done your job, you asked!" and walked out.

Hmm, looks like Marc Faber's jumped off according to this Bloomberg report . . .

Yes they like to misquote

As markets may recover from now to next March, the full sense of security will come back into the market, and people will not be that interested in gold,''

He said a "false sense of security"

Also said US and other governments close to becoming bankrupt an the US will sooner or later.

His newsletter still advises buying gold on the dips.

Interview here top right corner.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=ayQbaoc.5lLE

Austria witnesses new gold rush

By Bethany Bell

BBC News, Vienna

 

There's a new gold rush.

 

The financial crisis is prompting people to look for safer forms of investment than stocks and shares.

 

The interest in gold coins is so great that many of the world's major mints are struggling to keep up with demand, including the Austrian Mint, which produces the Vienna Philharmonic - one of the best-selling bullion coins worldwide.

 

Sales of Vienna Philharmonic gold coins have gone up by more than 230% since last year.

 

Kerry Tattersall, the director of marketing at the mint, says production has gone into overdrive.

 

"We are running at present something like three shifts on all of the machines, on the presses, producing both gold and the silver bullion coins.

 

"We've actually got delays in delivering orders in silver. With gold, we are just about keeping pace, but it is a bit of a struggle."

 

In September alone, the mint sold 100,000 ounces in gold coins - in normal times it would take three to four months to sell that much.

 

Mr Tattersall says people are looking for security.

 

"We are seeing a lot of panic buying at the moment. People are losing confidence in the economy - whether that is justified or unjustified is a matter of opinion. But we are seeing a lot of people looking for a safe haven."

 

King's ransom

 

In the mint, chunks of gold are melted down in a fiery furnace. Then a stream of molten metal is formed into a thin strip of gold, out of which the blank coins are cut. Later the blanks are struck with the design of violins and musical instruments.

 

The Austrian mint, in the heart of Vienna, was founded more than 800 years ago to make coins out of the silver ransom paid for King Richard the Lionheart, who was taken prisoner in Austria on his way home from the Crusades.

 

It is a sign of the importance people have attached to precious metals over the centuries.

 

But there is no such thing as a completely safe investment.

 

Gold, like all commodities, is vulnerable to fluctuations in price.

 

Prices tumbled in 1999 when Gordon Brown announced a decision to sell off some of the Bank of England's gold reserves.

 

Robert Stoeffele, an analyst at Austria's Erste Bank, says until recently there was less interest in gold as an investment.

 

"We forgot the appeal of gold in the last 28 years because we had a bear market in gold. But within the last few years we have seen a huge fundamental bull market for gold.

 

"Gold is like a thermometer for the financial markets. I'd say we've got fever," he said.

 

Life savings

 

But rising demand for gold is not just a phenomenon of global finance.

 

Ordinary Austrians, shocked by the precipitous falls in their own stock market - which was suspended this week for the first time ever - are also looking for a more solid store of wealth.

 

The shop at the Austrian Mint usually specialises in selling collectors' coins. But these days, a number of customers are buying bullion there - in bulk.

 

I saw one middle-aged couple handing over thousands of euros in cash, in exchange for dozens of 1oz Vienna Philharmonic gold coins.

 

A little later, a Viennese pensioner took a thick wad of 500-euro notes out of her handbag, and gave it to the sales assistant. He sold her a large gold bar, which looked as though it weighed a kilo.

 

"I have taken one piece of gold," she told me.

 

"You see, I am old, and I have earned money all my life and now I have the money in the bank and I am afraid of the financial situation, that it will disappear. Gold is safe, I think."

The other day I read a good post at goldismoney about how to hide stuff at home from burglars. It was a longish post which was an accumulation of research, some from conversations with an ex-burglar. I'll see if I can find the thread again and post it here.

 

Some main points which I remember: burglars want to get in and out quickly. He said on average they are in the premises for 8 minutes. So they want something of value quickly. So if they find something good in the more obvious places and suspect on the style of place that there's probably not much more to be found, they would likely be content and leave.

 

Failing that, they work through (and mess up) the less likely places. So split it and maybe leave a couple of hundred in a more obvious place (desk drawer or something, but not too openly obvious as these guys know what they're doing.)

 

I was thinking about posting about this the other day and regret that I did not.

Dont forget to put these on your Christmas list!.

http://spyville.com/brief-safe-underwear.html

The "Brief Safe" Underwear Hidden Safe

 

The "Brief Safe" is an innovative diversion safe that can secure your cash, documents, and other small valuables from inquisitive eyes and thieving hands, both at home and when you're traveling. Items can be hidden right under their noses with these specially-designed briefs which contain a fly-accessed 4" x 10" secret compartment with Velcro closure and "special markings" on the lower rear portion. Leave the "Brief Safe" in plain view in your laundry basket or washing machine at home, or in your suitcase in a hotel room - even the most hardened burgler or most curious snoop will "skid" to a screeching halt as soon as they see them. (Wouldn't you?) Made in USA. One size. Color: white (and brown).

Gold going back down again does not like round numbers!

"We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might have taken down all the rest in their wake. Therefore, at any price, at any cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it. It was very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now succeeded. The U.S. Fed was very active in getting the gold price down. So was the U.K."

Eddie George, Bank of England, September 1999

here are some guidelines for monday, remember, this is not a secure outlook, it is just an idea and it maybe wrong, always use stops:

Ker for those not trading gold futures etc how do your greatly appreciated charts look in sterling as most other available charts are $ based?

You didnt answer my question. If they have to pay spot price for the stock. And the next week the spot price drops $100. How can they make a profit. They make a loss. I am not interested in theories but hard facts.

You forget dealers do not pay spot price they buy around 5% lower.

Points taken. As implied, at least it's portable!

Providing it has not gone "off" (your bladder I hope)!Not the beer!?

Is that meant to make me feel better about spending a thousand bucks on a sliver of shiny metal?

 

It could have bought nearly 30 cases of high quality beer instead!

Now take your 30 cases of beer to any country in the world and sell them to the highest bidder.

Have you thought of Chinese Yuan? It could do very well with a sharp devaluation in the pound/dollar. Though I think Swiss Francs are good also.

 

Next time i am at the airport I am planning to buy a little of both.

I dont think you can buy Yuan at the airport difficult to buy ?

What are people's thought on Swiss Francs?

as for the Swiss Franc why bother ! you have seen the chart compared to gold

Helped persuade me there is only one currency really?.

Does anyone have a longer term chart?.Be interesting to see.

Whilst I agree that the movement of gold is well correlated with currency movements at the moment, if you check my previous posts you'll see that I've often pointed out this correlation with respect to the gold price. All it takes is look up the definition of currency and commodity to invalite the statements:

 

"gold is a currency"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/currency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency

 

"gold in not a commodity"

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/commodity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity

 

I'm not claiming that you said either of these, only that I've seen these statements paired many times. I'd rather see people discussing correlations, than making assertions, .

Maybe this will help from Marc Faber. Money?

Buy gold to side-step the collapsing US dollar!

My preferred asset currency is still gold and other precious metals. Near term, however, sentiment is overly positive and additional positions should only be taken on a setback.

Thursday, November 08 - 2007 at 08:44

 

 

But how can a responsible central bank cut interest rates and pursue an expansionary monetary policy when the stock market is close to an all time high and when it is faced with a weak currency and soaring food and commodity prices?

 

'Only in America' one should say because the US-infected IMF and World Bank would advise any country under these conditions to 'tighten' monetary policies and to raise interest rates. But since the Fed's only objective today is to 'inflate' asset markets further at the expense of totally debasing the currency we need to look at a new currency as a 'unit of account' and as a 'store of value'.

 

Gold rules

In my opinion, the world's new currency with the qualities of being a 'unit of account' and 'store of value' will be gold and to a lesser extent other precious metals.

 

Let me explain! In an environment of monetary debasement - that is when cash loses rapidly its purchasing power - all goods, services (R&D, patents, etc.), and assets become currencies as investors and savers realize that the only way to protect the purchasing power of their money is to move from liquid into 'illiquid' assets.

 

Consequently, money is no longer just dollars, Euros, Yen and Chinese RMB, and short dated bonds but also real estate, stocks, commodities, paintings, and even collectibles.

 

Now, the same way as in a free market economy currencies fluctuate in value against each other (so far the US dollar mostly down), the various asset classes, which have increasingly become 'money', will also fluctuate against each other.

 

And the way sound currencies tend to strengthen and currencies with poor fundamentals tend to weaken, the various asset class monies will, depending on their fundamentals, either appreciate or decline against each other.

 

Cash unsafe

Simply put, whereas in the past cash could be perceived as 'reasonably' safe, today cash may, courtesy of modern central banking under the auspices of the US Fed, actually have become quite a dangerous asset class due to its depreciation not only against asset prices but also against consumer prices, if these were measured properly by government agencies.

 

In short, the problem an investor is facing is the following: In the past, savers who wanted to avoid the problem of taking investment decisions and allocating their funds to different asset classes could keep their money in short term deposits.

 

But in today's new monetary regime - characterized by massive monetary and debt growth and central banks that seem to be perfectly happy at 'printing money', which leads to a loss of money's purchasing power - savers are almost forced to invest into 'something' in order not to end up as 'penniless billionaires.'

Welcome to the World's Largest Gold Vault

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5835433&page=1

Just a few blocks away from all the turmoil and panic of the stock market sits the world's largest stockpile of gold. Deep under the streets of Manhattan sits more gold than "James Bond" villain Goldfinger could ever imagine.

 

And I recently got a private tour inside the little-known vault.

 

Nearly $200 billion worth of gold rests on bedrock five stories underground, 30 feet below the city's subway system, inside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's vault.

The Fed stores the gold for free but depositors pay $1.75 for each bar that is moved.

(because gold is a commodity of course!Wonder where they keep the soyabeans?)

Interesting with all this talk about backing toxic crap with gold reserves that this appears?

Platinum and palladium look almost like good buys at this stage. Will we see the crossover gold-platinum soon?

Maybe a crystal ball but they are both industrial metals mostly and demand will be down in a global recession ?

Silver and gold monetary metals here is was happened in the last reccession 2001/03 look what happened to silver! gold but especially the gold miners.

Unfortunatley I cannot find a chart for plat/pall in that timeframe to compare with the above would be interesting to see?

What Happened in the Last Recession and Bear Market?

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2...ession-and.html

[damn have no music key on the board] laugh.gif

The handshake

Seals the contract

From the contract

There's no turning back

The turning point

Of a career

In Korea, being insincere

The holiday

Was fun packed

The contract:

Still intact

The grabbing hands

Grab all they can

All for themselves

After all

It's a competitive world

Everything counts in large amounts

The graph

On the wall

Tells the story

Of it all

Picture it now

See just how

The lies and deceit

Gained a little more power

Confidence

Taken in

By a sun tan

And a grin

The grabbing hands

Grab all they can

All for themselves

After all

It's a competitive world

Everything counts in large amounts

The grabbing hands

Grab all they can

Everything counts in large amounts

© 1983 Martin Lee Gore - Depeche Mode

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J0mrq1PNS3w

"Yen better than gold?"

Or the Swiss Franc ?

Paul VanEeden latest view here

Gold is fairly priced at $760

 

 

 

 

But here's an alternative for people who like alternative investment ideas: Gold is actually trading close to its proper market value; and its previous runup, like that of potash and several other commodities, stemmed from speculative fever that was bound to break.

 

That's the considered view of Paul van Eeden, a long-time gold player, who spent years developing a formula to calculate gold's true worth in the market so that he could become less of a speculator and more of an investor.

 

Gold's current fair-market value stands at about $760 an ounce, says Mr. van Eeden, who is president of Cranberry Capital, a private Canadian holding company. It's a figure derived from looking at U.S. monetary inflation and world gold supply. No other economic or financial issues come into play. It doesn't matter whether the financial system is going to hell in a hand basket or Indians are stocking up on jewellery or central banks are dumping gold in the market.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/st...ialEvents2/home

I have posted his formula before hoping someone could use it?

Consequently, the change in the gold price, in dollars, over time will be in proportion to the inflation of the dollar and inversely proportional to the inflation of gold. We can calculate the theoretical gold price (Aun) as follows: Aun = Aun-1(M3n/M3n-1)(GPn-1/GPn) [Au = gold price; M3 = money supply; GP = gold production]

Also Stefamo's model over at GIM seems to agree yet no one ever comments on it even though seems to be reliable.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread....562#post1284562

Marc Faber latest view.

"We shouldn’t dismiss entirely the possibility that all the bailouts fail to revive credit growth and that a deflationary secondary depression is now under way," writes Dr.Marc Faber in the latest edition of his highly respected Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.

 

"The sharp deceleration in credit growth, with rising default rates across the board, could suggest that debt liquidation is now occurring...[but] Ben [bernanke of the US Fed] and Hank [Paulson of the Treasury] may replace private debt with government debt in order to bail out the system.

 

"That such a bailout will diminish the purchasing power of the Dollar even more (it should be highly inflationary) is clear...

 

"Under this scenario, renewed US Dollar weakness and strength in commodities – in particular, in Gold – should reappear."

If I'd had tech stocks in 1999 or banking shares in the past year, I might have been terrified when the price had dropped 40%. Still wasn't anywhere near the bottom, though. Or am I missing something?

I think you are you said you own Etf's in Pm's are they denominated in dollars or £ when you value/sell them through a broker ?

Yes, thanks for that, GF, and for Puru Saxena show.

 

Interesting to hear Saxena saying you'll make a ton of money if you buy into China and Vietnam at today's prices. I might have a look at those...

Problem is most peoples investment timeframe (around here!) seems to be weeks not years !

Jim Rogers and Marc Faber positive both markets and gold also long term!

Here is what happened to silver/gold in the last reccession 2001/2003

Why the poor performance from silver?

etals.png]

To go with the gold price table:

 

From:

 

10. Inflation

http://www.chrismartenson.com/inflation

 

With a timeline up to 1981 200 years of gold prices.

It is so transparent you cannot have $1000 gold $22silver and $150 oil then tell the World there is no inflation you have inflation "under control" when you are going to have to cut rates further.

At least Asian CB's are more honest in their reporting of true inflation as Puru says I guess the USA buys its oil and food from different suppliers to the rest of the world!

I am starting to wonder if these imploding Hedge funds have been strategically designed to "implode" at un/convienient times?

(this last one apparently had lots of guess what Ngas and silver)

name='G0ldfinger' date='Sep 6 2008, 09:48 PM' post='57348']

Everyone feeling a little insecure because of deflationista talk and/or commodities selling off should listen to this here

And maybe this new interview with Puru Saxena he is shocked by the fall of price in silver (he is buying gold and silver at these prices),also his views on the inflation/deflation "propoganda" setting everything up for "election" rate cuts. China and a whole lot more.

http://radio.goldseek.com/

Is the gold monthly thread really the place for this discussion on deflation/inflation etc. ? I find it rather distracting myself and largely irrelevant to the thread title.

I was trying to be more subtle but agree.

Well I thought we were using inflation/deflation in the traditional and not modern sense, i.e. to refer to the money supply, not prices...

I thought there was an inflation/deflation thread ?

http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....=4133&st=40