Schaublin

Anyone think that these rapid moves indicate that we are just starting to whiff the 'end game' with the paper/ETF rackets? I think silver will break first.

It is amazing what snake-oil salesmen can sucker the gullible with. Each square yard of the earth receives a certain amount of sunlight per year and no amount of chutzpah will change that basic fact. The multi-storey farming idea is so risible that I am amazed that it is still being peddled. It is not so much that land is in short supply, as human beings that are over-supplied.

fitkid, I like your idea of knighting posters. Should we address them as Sir.... when we refer to them in posts?

Well spotted No6 I think you may be right - I thought the name looked a bit strange. I feel like a fool talking to a bot!

Strange, for the last few weeks I have started to become less interested in spot prices - I cannot put my finger on it precisely - Perhaps the inevitability of what will occur has taken away the thrill of watching the 'price' go up. Anyone else got that feeling?

The lack of daylight in Winter in the North is known to cause madness irrational thinking in some people living there.

If your avatar is you - then you are very welcome!

I think we are but you are somewhat more flamboyant

Why are you propagating such nonsense? If you have no experience of gold, you just need to weigh the coin and measure it. Anyone used to handling coins can immediately feel the difference in weight or size of something that is not gold. The idea that 'paperwork' is needed when trading gold coins is laughable. Do you have 'paperwork' for your fiat money? It is rather easy to forge bank notes.

I am starting to notice a spooky correlation between 'tension' on GEI and subsequent POG increase - I may have to start using it as a guide.

fitkid, I can't help noticing that your head seems to be made of coiled wire. Do you find this to be a problem in everyday life?

-1 When someone has written something dismissive about another's position, Is not a riposte called for?

1100 just taken

Indeed. Read it and weep: Being the first government to have any sort of paper currency, foreigners understood nothing about it, and some even considered it a form of magic. Regardless of persistent inflation after 1272 paper currency backed by limited releases of coins remained as the standard means of currency until 1345. Around 1345 rebellions, economic crisis and financial mismanagement of the paper currency destroyed the public’s confidence in the bills.[6] Paper money wasn’t extremely easy to adopt because it was a foreign concept in the beginning and it wasn’t a precious metal, it was just a piece of paper. To initiate the transition from other forms of compensation to paper currency the government made refusing to accept the bill punishable by death. Sounds familiar.

With very little evidence and no proof whatsoever, I have feeling in 'me water' that £10 oz silver will be talked about in a few years much as the Mongols were after their European tour of the 13th C. Ok, perhaps not quite as much but I like to mention the Mongols wherever possible. Don't knock the Puritans - after all without em, who would have founded the USA? Hmm... OK, let's knock em

I remember years ago I was driving in Spain when a car overtook an oncoming vehicle and almost forced me off the road. I was flashing my lights -horn etc - and the driver just smiled and gave me a wave! That nonchalant wave made me so angry it was a wonder I did not burst a blood-vessel - but in a zen-like moment, I realised that the driver understood how to react - and I, like a fool, did not. So, I resolved that next time in such a situation, I would wave too

CONGRATULATIONS! You have won MY first prize in how to demonstrate smugness/condescension/stupidity in the fewest number of words possible.

1) All the facts are screaming 'geo-political shift to the East' Can this be measured and quantified? No, and if you try, you will end up mired in data and unable to think clearly - but you do not have to be a Rocket-Scientist to that it is occurring. 2) I am not a gold 'bug' - I am not even that enamoured with it and never owned any until a few years ago but I want to preserve my wealth and gold is the only game in town. My observation of anti-gold types is that they tend to be academics - from different disciplines who cannot separate real life from theory. I have some experience of this as my late Father was an academic and I remember having fascinating conversations with him in what could be loosely called 'meta-physics'. He had a first class brain but made series of poor financial decisions which impacted on the entire family. I also believe that arrogance is a factor - that somehow this generation and its theories are better than the past and that 'we won't make the same mistakes as last time'. Greed, corruption and folly are still here in abundance. Place your bets.

I just had a glimpse of the future - born again Western 'fiatists' trudging around China and India trying to convert the Heathens away from their gold. Usually given a courteous hearing and, occasionally, a few grams of silver so that they can buy some food

I think you are starting to lose the plot now. Ordinary people blessed with more than average common sense and an open mind will come through what will soon occur, with their wealth intact - and even increase their purchasing power. Foolish academics who apply 'critical thinking' to economics will lose their shirts. It was ever thus.

I stand in awe of you. Here we are at a time when anyone of average intelligence can see that the un-payable burden of Western debt is teetering like a plate on a stick and you willfully choose to ignore it - or more accurately, demand proof! I can imagine Halconovitch' in Russia in the late eighties - telling anyone that would listen, that the Rouble was sound because it had already lasted 50 years. I have met many elderly Russians living in poverty because they did not understand that their Rouble savings would be rendered almost worthless in a matter of months. I would not wish it on anyone and that is why I feel I have to warn people here what could happen to them if they don't wake up.

Heavy artillery of sophistry in action here trying to prove that night is day. Gold is money. Why? Thousands of years and countless millions of people have used it as money. Some of your reasoning reminds me of those who disagree with evolution through natural selection or Marxist ideas that the nature of man can be changed with enough indoctrination/training. Any idea that goes against the nature of man will only ever be a short-lived experiment. Indeed, gold itself has survived the natural selection process in the choice of money. Fifty years of fiat paper (which is now unraveling) is a mere blip but you seem to think that by saying 'it aint so' will stop it happening.

The last time I looked, I was not a 'fanboy' HPC was formulated on the idea that house-prices were a bubble in an otherwise sustainable economy. When some posters tried to explain that although the house prices were indeed in a bubble, the economy in general was a bubble and unsustainable, smug STRs who had banked their GBP did not want to know about 'cranks' telling them the big picture of a dying economy. Many posters here 'get it' some 'get it' more than others. You have to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff. If you are too lazy to go through the chaff, you will not get any wheat. By dismissing out of hand, ideas that are unusual, you achieve the following things: You are able to claim a sense of superiority over 'tin-foil-hatters'. You are able to free yourself up from the arduous duty of thinking. You go through life learning nothing.

I have been reading up on identifying writing style using software that can measure a whole range of parameters in the style, punctuation, word-use etc of a writer. Crude at the moment and can be fooled with some conscious effort on the part of the writer but sure to get better with time. The arms-race will start with software that can render anonymous the writers style. If cdswamp did sneak back in using an alias, I wonder if we would be able to spot him? Perhaps he has access to style altering software!

First, fitkid added the font size change and addendum. here it is as I posted it. I am sure he meant no harm, I just want to be accurate. Regarding actual *proof* of military action against Iran, I doubt those who make the decisions will be posting here on GEI. cdswamp seemed to be able to ferret out more information than most on these kind of issues but unfortunately, he has been banned (although I agree he had been abusing the forum). I have spent idle hours looking at all kinds of bizarre nonsense on the Internet - mainly for amusement but it is surprising how tidbits of information crop up up in the most unlikely places. cdswamp's posts mixed in enough good stuff with the nonsense for me to take notice of him. I also got the feeling that he deliberately posted outrageous things in order to annoy people - which he himself, I suspect, did not believe. cdswamp is clearly a witty and intelligent man but I did not care for his contempt for those not as sharp witted as himself. I think it is an age thing - I was an arrogant bastard years ago. He also made me laugh!