DoctorSolar

Dear god! he is associated with that buffoon Trump! It's even worse than I thought. The tone, manner, attitude and shear blatant arrogance of the man beggars belief. Sorry off topic I know but the way that man has conducted himself over his planned golf course here in Scotland makes my blood boil!

Robert Kiyosaki may well be right in the long term but there is something about the guy that rubs me the wrong way. John T. Reed's analysis of Robert T. Kiyosaki's book Not in anyway chastising you for posting the link igglepiggle I find this development interesting and glad you posted it. Just wanted to let others see an alternative analysis of the "guru" which I think bears listening to.

Wonder how many ounces of gold it will take to buy the average UK house in 18-24 months time. Currently 156000/575 = 271 Yep sounds reasonable. I'm already steadily nibbling on the gold front buying a set GBP amount every week at Goldmoney. If I keep the current burn rate I'll be fully positioned by end of September. Talk on here of Gold going to £500 or £450 still gnaws away at the back of my mind. Hopefully my buying little and often strategy will enable me to weather and even take advantage of such movements should they occur. Also moved a little in to USD but messed up my timing getting in at 1.60 USD a few weeks back. 1.65 seems to be the BIG resistance mark so no real biggie. Might extend my gold buying through October using any USD I have should we get a sell off.

Thanks for that Dr B. I'm similarly positioned but probably hold WAY too much GBP. However, that GBP holding is earmarked to eventually buy property when prices finally meet reality. With house prices destined to fall further that GBP will reduce a future mortgage amount regardless of any run on the currency. A shade wary of buying more CAD at the moment. We've already seen a 7% move in CADGBP and GBP is now very close to the low set in Jan. Also getting a little twitchy regarding my USD holding that is ear marked for Gold. Trying to hold steady on this one as I think USD POG may well go down with a stock sell off. A situation that seems utterly perverse to me but I have to deal with the realities

Hi GOM, In case you are interested... In terms of physical ounces I went with 60oz silver for every 1oz gold. In cash terms this roughly meant an equal 50/50 split. I hold Gold through Goldmoney.com, whereas Silver I only ever buy physical coins and take delivery. And here is why... The spot price of silver is clearly way more volatile, however, the actually price you pay to get physical silver in your hands is much more stable. If the spot price goes down the premium just seems to go up. Keep an eye out for specials on http://www.coininvestdirect.com though. I recently bagged a stack of silver philharmonics for £11.50 each incl VAT & delivery. Excellent service too. I could be tempted to get some silver through Goldmoney too if we get a big sell off. Anywhere below 8GBP looks a safe bet to me.

Hi Dr B, Where to move it to? USD? CAD? EUR? Gold? Silver? An equal mix of all? Thanks

Hi John Doe, Cheers for the reply. Yep buying in the depths of winter is definitely the way to go. There is typically less to choose from but prices do seem much less from past experience.

Ted Butler's latest thinking the Gold/Silver ratio is set to get MUCH smaller. Meanwhile Bob Hoye thinks it is set to widen to 1 to 88! Ted Butler Commentary July 27, 2009 D-I-V-O-R-C-E All of which leaves me feeling like one big ball of confusion! From: EDIT: No way! I just noticed they are all wearing silver suits! Spooky!

Hi John Doe, Do you mind if I ask where abouts in Scotland you have been looking? Are you looking to buy a place for yourself to stay? or to rent out? I've noticed the same thing here in Edinburgh. Anything decent is going pretty quick and at really only 15% off peak from what I can gather doing research using nethouseprices.com. Seems to me that all countries are in this mess now and therefore I am struggling to see why the UK will be forced to increase interest rates any time soon. I know that what G0ldfinger and Bubb have to say regarding UK housing makes absolute sense but it does get a little uneasy sitting here on the sidelines renting while prices stubbornly stay where they are and my cash deposit sits earning very little interest in the bank. On the plus side renting is still cheaper than owning (but not by much) and if house prices do miraculously start going up so should the value of my silver and gold holdings which will hopefully compensate. I have been buying a set GBP amount of gold every week for the past month or so but again im beginning to get concerned as to what will spark the next up leg from these levels. Then again all this might just be the calm of the eye of the storm as Jim Sinclair points out?

Dear god no! The taxpayer to be put on the hook for more risky lending to people without deposits for over priced houses. Give me strength Ministers consider scheme to guarantee mortgages

EDIT: oops just saw it posted as a thread in it own right... Found this on jsmineset.com. From: Some will say oh "hindsight is 2020" but come on! These guys f&cked it up royally for the average citizen while the bankers escape with the loot.

This is a complete guess on my part but assuming that coin is made of 999.9 gold then it looks to be about 1oz weight. Intrinsic value is therefore $940. However, the price tag on the coin is $3900 according to the moscow times

We can't be sure but Sofia Loren looks pretty happy with the coins she was given

Chancellor Alistair Darling is to meet with the banks next week to remind them of their legally-binding obligation to lend more money to homebuyers. Is this merely a stunt such that he is seen to be doing something knowing full well that the banks won't/can't increase lending? Or is this maniac actually going to force this regardless of any other consequences it may have? I can't bring myself to buy a place for me and my family just now at these ridiculously over priced levels. And yet I get a nasty feeling this government will do anything to keep nominal prices at their current levels while sterling gets trashed in the process. Gold is looking better by the day...

So basically its too late to sell to rent in the hope of further falls? Unless you can rent somewhere for less than your current mortgage?

Now this kind of statement from the boe i find truly scary. I extrapolate from this that they will now try and put in place some scheme that achieves this stabilisation. Regardless of any consequences for sterling and savers. Can this be achieved? And if so what would be the mechanism? I don't see how just keeping interest rates low will be enough. Unemployment is rising and wages are falling. BT and BA are asking staff to work for free for goodness sakes!

I've found that nearly all the economic pundits that have newsletters or internet radio shows have been severely humbled by the markets. Paul Hill of moneyweek and "gold is in a bubble fame" has drastically cut back his newsletter promo statement. Gone are the ridiculous claims that stocks he can tell you about will go up 400%. Certainly didn't happen with Motive Inc! Nor Regenersis! More telling though is the fact that his promo page now makes NO mention of his track record. I suspect it has been so poor he doesn't want you to see it. Gold in a bubble! My god man get a grip! Jim Puplava made a BIG deal on financial sense about having guests with opposing views. Morgan told subscribers to trade out of silver earlier this year! How times have changed. Much more sobriety.

I sold to rent in Edinburgh at the beginning of 2008 and have to say im still surprised at how long it is taking for prices to come down. They are still no where close to being affordable on the cities average income. In fact most prices are no where close to being at 2005 levels. I am going to follow how the sale of this particular property goes: Atholl Terrace, Edinburgh I almost bought this flat for £125,000 in January 2005. The eventual buyer paid around £122,000: Nethouse prices: search result for Atholl Terrace And now they want over £172,000 for it! I know they did some refurbishment to convert it from a 1 bed to a 2 bed but let me tell you having lived in an identical property there is NO WAY this is a REAL 2 bed flat. They have merely moved the kitchen into the living room to get that 2nd bed in there. Meaning there is now ZERO storage. Where in the hell do these folk keep their hoover etc.... Anyway im going to start keeping an eye on a few properties and see how they fair. Im with you GF in thinking that surely prices must implode in edinburgh with all these banking job losses at RBS and HBOS. We just still somehow seem to be in the deep denial phase.

I think you're right about a correlation between declining mental health and rising debt levels. Selling to rent and thus becoming totally debt free and with a sizable cash pile has improved general happiness levels enormously. I hate having debt hanging over me it just chews away at the brain cycles.

Can you provide a link to the evidence of people doing very well out of the hyperinflation? I would be particularly interested in evidence of landlords who did well.

Do you now own/run Goldstock.co.uk? Last I heard it was owned by someone else who was looking for yourself and GEI to help develop it.

What a great piece. Thanks. Reminded me of what got me in to gold in the first place. A fair free and honest monetary system.

According to Paul Hill in the latest edition of moneyweek: "Gold is in a bubble". His justification for this stance is: 1) Demand for jewellery has fallen 25% due to sky high prices 2) The german company selling gold from vending machines "smacks of taxi drivers tipping internet stocks in 1999" 3) Drought of merger and acquisition activity 4) Gold has failed to consolidate above $1000 "a surefire sign that prices are out of kilter with fundamentals" A bubble!? No one and I mean no one I personally know has ANY money allocated to a gold investment. Most would not have the first clue how to do so. Companies on TV are wanting to buy your gold not sell you it. This is not the stuff of which bubbles are made. Only time will tell but to me from here: Gold vending machine != shoe shine boy IMHO No doubt this view will be a sign there is too much bullishness around

FWIW... I finally placed my order today for a healthy stack of silver philharmonic coins. The spot price may well come down from here but: 1) As spot has come down the price of these things has actually crept up! 2) I think these coins will hold here or here abouts even if spot does go lower. This is certainly what happened during the 2008 October panic. Silver simply was not available in any quantity sub $10. This looks a good floor to me. 3) I think I'll rather enjoy having these things in my house. Tuck them in at night and sleep soundly knowing I own a monetary asset that is outside the financial system 4) I can wait for the mania phase before selling. The top is a long way off from here. Nicely summed up by another poster on here as when have you ever had a top where there was less interest at the peak than on the way up. 5) By taking delivery I will be less likely to make an impatient and rash decision to sell.

I recall a cwr podcast from earlier this year where you were considering advising a friend to buy gold with his 15k GBP savings. You mentioned that usually this wasnt a good idea when gold was breaking to new highs in GBP but that the future of the UK/Sterling were so bleak that it made sense in this case. Does this advice still hold in your opinion? Or has new information shaped your view to something different. Also with regard to your recent moneyweek article would you really seek the exit in gold if we got below £500? I was pretty surprised at that. I had imagined £450-500 gold would be a buy with both hands situation. Thanks for the great work. Cheers