Methinkshe

I wonder if the internet is a double-edged sword. On the one hand we have this wealth of information available at our fingertips. There is the potential for sharing knowledge and gaining insights from mulitple sources and perspectives for those that are interested.

 

But then on the other hand we have all the potential for a narrowing of consciousness to one bandwidth, where one certain perspective can be reinforced in an ongoing feedback loop between purely like-minded individuals. Instead of facilitating a liberal broad-mindedness, the internet would just facilitate a dogmatic narrow-mindedness which would become incapable of understanding the thoughts of others. Any disagreement is shouted down and a consciousness "which is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short [tempered]" is developed. Is this progress?

 

I hope this site continues to be a tolerant and liberal space for tolerant and liberal minds.

 

 

You articulate my own thoughts on reading about Pixel8r's new site.

It seems like an attempt to gather like-minded sycophants who will do little more than reinforce one another's opinion while avoiding "nasty" posts, i.e. ones that do not concur with the "gold is on an exponential trip to the moon" shade of opinion.

The value of GEI, imo, lies very much in the opposing views that are presented.

If ever it were to become a site where more or less everyone agreed, that would be the signal for me to move on.

Interesting article here from SafeHaven.

Gold Thoughts

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the other side of the demographics problem - it ruins property-in-the-pension-plan...

 

Drop in housing demand predicted

 

Citywire: Equity release faces demographic challenge

 

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research, at Bristol-based adviser Hargreaves Lansdown is saying that an expected drop in the population over the next couple of decades would reduce housing demand. Meanwhile, he says, older people will be trying to trade down or release equity in lieu of a pension.

. .

"Tom McPhail, head of pensions research, said an expected drop in the population would mean there would be fewer family age adults around to buy houses. At the same time, there will be more older people trying to release value from their houses."

 

@: http://www.citywire.co.uk/News/NewsArticle...&NewsPage=1

I think that the current retirement preference to downsize and release equity will not be a problem in future.

High living costs will force us to change our habits and do as Asian families do. Sons will marry and bring their wives into the family home; Grandma will look after the childre, overheads will be kept low, and there will be a massive shortage of 4+ bedroom houses, and a huge oversupply of 1 and 2 bed flats and rabbit-hutch houses.

There are huge savings to be made through extended family living and although it has become unpopular in so-called advanced economies over the past fifty years, necessity will force us to return to former times when such practice was the norm.

Also, it makes much more economic sense for adult children to throw in their lot with ageing parents and preserve their inheritance than to watch it being swallowed up in nursing home fees.

I predict a real shortage of large family houses suitable for extended family living. Not the least because so many have been converted into flats.

OK here is the question. Does gold retreat to the 800s like oil did when it breached 100 (oil went back to 88)?

 

Or does it hit every newspaper and news show around the world and quickly run-off to 1,200?

 

That's a tough one..

Okay, the following is my very naive and simple deduction.

How many gold investors believe gold is just another commodity and how many believe it is a safe haven?

From what I can gather just by listening,looking and learning, those that believe that gold is just another commodity are still in the majority.

Therefore I would expect gold to track oil for a little longer, altough I would expect a divergence from parallel as those who buy into gold as a safe haven gradually tip the scales and begin to outnumber those who view it as just another commodity.

Meanwhile, one has also to contend with the speculators who have piled into gold as a commodity and double guess their actions. Personally I think there COULD (and that's a very big could) be a retracement back to $850 but that could be more wishful thinking than anything else. That apart, the sky's the limit.

You will note that I have excluded all market manipulators and expert gold traders from my naive prognosis. That is because I am old enough to realise that so-called experts are not the gods I once supposed them to be, they are just other human beings more or less like me and those whom I socialise with and their individual and therefore collective expertise is probably not any greater than mine and my cohort of friends and acquaintances. I've long since stopped believing in the expert in any field of endeavour, save, perhaps, brain surgery which does require a certain amount more delicacy than the average butcher.

Hi, everyone,

Thanks for the heads-up re where to come that you posted on the HPC "not gold" thread, azazel.