Gold is worthless if it isn't spent.
It irritates me when I hear people say to buy gold and save it. What good is that? Is it for fear that it will drop in value? If that is the case than it has no real value. It must circulate to generate the economy, otherwise all it collects is dust.
Personally I believe people need to be trading their gold for goods and services, and not trading it for paper, whether it be FRNs or paper stock. Investing locally in products that people need is a great idea, investing in raw materials that local businesses need will keep the ball rolling. Instead of giving the stock market your money, replace the middleman, take it's place and take action.
And what about those who are saving for the future? Sure it is good to put a little aside, but anything in excess isn't good. There are some out there with lots of gold. They could be hiring people to produce goods or services, and pay them with gold, but prefer to bury their talents, this is foolish. I ask you, what kind of R3volutionaries are you!!!
In other words the purpose of buying gold should be to use it as a currency, not to save it. Ask yourself, what are the people that sell gold doing with your money? Are they recieving the FRNs and putting them under their pillows? I doubt it. They are probably buying up cheap houses, land and raw materials. By convincing you to save your wealth in the form of gold, they remove you from buying products on the market. It is no different than having you put your money into the stock market and then tell you to watch the price of your investment go up. You need to get out there and make your money work. China for example, the world's number one producer of gold is buying record amounts of steel from Brazil. They sell their gold, collect FRNs and are purchasing raw materials. This is just one example. Use your gold, spend it on local goods and services. Challenge the government, since gold and silver are protected by the Constitution as money, so use it as money. Trade your FRNs for gold and then spend it! Use it to generate your local economy, don't just buy it and allow those who produce it to buy up cheap goods during this depression. Reverse Gresham's law by trading your FRNs for gold and then spend the gold, don't hoard it.
grant
One thing to remember is
One thing to remember is that China is still recieving and holding treasury bonds, so they control the FRNs, they can hold these indefinately since they don't need to use their FRNs. They are able to make money in other ways, considering that they are the number 1 producer of gold, they are able to rake in dollars, and other currencies as well. Gold production in China this year is being increased, as it will likely increase in other areas of the world. Meanwhile we see commodity prices fall in the States, we see China buying up more and more companies, and buying up more and more property, Clinton's trip to China this past week should make us alert to this issue.
grant
i believe chavez tried to do
i believe chavez tried to do exactly that, trading commodities directly for commodities. the world bank and imf didn't like that he was doing an end run around the US.
chavez is a commie bastard, to be sure, but at least he saw congress and their bastard creation, the fed, for what they really are.
Chavez has my attention.
As amoung other world leaders, that see thru the Fed. Remember USSR and Chechoslavkia presidents seeing a "Global World Order" something different than the "Fed" type currently in use by Obahma.
However, the people around the world are demanding even something different than what all the above "mind set" speak.
And the people will create local solutions, and solve world problems.
Firstly, take our farms back.
And never forget, “Humans, despite our artistic pretensions, our sophistication and many accomplishments, owe the fact of our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
one world currency needed
the best way to stabilize the global economy, first and foremost, is for nations to adopt a standard world currency: gold
it also has the benefit of not being easily manipulated by any one nation.
Paul-ladium has possibilities.
Ok, you have all convinced me that we should buy gold and save it. In fact, I suggest we go out and buy all the gold that was produced last year in the world. Let's convince 1,000,000 Revolutionaries in the Ron Paul movement to go out and buy the 2356 tons of gold produced last year alone, each of us will only have to spend around 82,848 dollars at the current price of $999.
Although to buy all palladium produced last year, which was little over 200 tons at $217 dollars an ounce, it would cost us only $1527 dollars each, not to mention the same 1 million Revolutionaries could buy all palladium ever brought above ground, which is estimated to total less than 4000 tons, for less than it would cost to buy one years production of gold at only $30553 dollars each.
But no, that would be foolish, we should stick to the original plan and buy all the gold.
Perhaps we should even consider buying all gold ever brought above ground which is an estimated 150,000 tons depending on which mining data you believe. 1 million of us could corner the market of gold, it would only cost us an estimated 5.2 trillion dollars at only 5.2 million dollars each.
Let's go men, let's corner the market on gold.
grant
Corner The Market On GOLD!
Well, I'm glad you see the light, but here are a few things you might think about.
The FREE market can never corner the market on Gold because new Gold is being mined, panned, and discovered all the time.
When Roosevelt confiscated the Americans Gold, he also made it illegal for Americans to 'Own' Gold.
WHY?
Because in the western part of the country, including Alaska, industrious people were still mining, panning, digging, blasting rock, etc. in search of Gold. The depression had started and many out of work westerners realized they could make a decent tax FREE living by using Gold that they themselves produced as money.
Roosevelt, the bankers stooge, illegally { un-Constitutionally } forced federal reserve notes on Americans and prolonged the depression by not allowing westerners to trade for goods and labor in money { Gold } that they had produced themselves.
There is still plenty of Gold in them thar hills, and I expect if this current depression forces more widespread unemployment, more and more people will be combing the hills looking for Gold, { FREE money } especially if the price of Gold in every currency in the world keeps shooting up.
beesting
iehuvihs: You are completely wrong about competing currencies!!
Congressman Ron Paul
Statement on Competing Currencies
February 13, 2008
Madam Speaker,
I rise to speak on the concept of competing currencies. Currency, or money, is what allows civilization to flourish. In the absence of money, barter is the name of the game; if the farmer needs shoes, he must trade his eggs and milk to the cobbler and hope that the cobbler needs eggs and milk. Money makes the transaction process far easier. Rather than having to search for someone with reciprocal wants, the farmer can exchange his milk and eggs for an agreed-upon medium of exchange with which he can then purchase shoes.
This medium of exchange should satisfy certain properties: it should be durable, that is to say, it does not wear out easily; it should be portable, that is, easily carried; it should be divisible into units usable for every-day transactions; it should be recognizable and uniform, so that one unit of money has the same properties as every other unit; it should be scarce, in the economic sense, so that the extant supply does not satisfy the wants of everyone demanding it; it should be stable, so that the value of its purchasing power does not fluctuate wildly; and it should be reproducible, so that enough units of money can be created to satisfy the needs of exchange.
Over millennia of human history, gold and silver have been the two metals that have most often satisfied these conditions, survived the market process, and gained the trust of billions of people. Gold and silver are difficult to counterfeit, a property which ensures they will always be accepted in commerce. It is precisely for this reason that gold and silver are anathema to governments. A supply of gold and silver that is limited in supply by nature cannot be inflated, and thus serves as a check on the growth of government. Without the ability to inflate the currency, governments find themselves constrained in their actions, unable to carry on wars of aggression or to appease their overtaxed citizens with bread and circuses.
Read the rest and learn from the master of competing currencies, Ron Paul:
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2008/cr021308h.htm
GOLD!
Thank You For Posting That.
beesting
Saving Wealth in the form of Gold!
Sorry, but I consider your advice to be similar to the advice that is destroying the entire worlds economy.
Why do the Central banks of the world hold Gold in their reserves?
Answer:
To give a solid backing to their wealth, which in my opinion is what every family in the world should do to protect themselves against higher prices and too much debt.
The bankers ended up with a lot of the world's Gold, then issued currency they said was backed by Gold, and then took the backing away.
The end result is people work & slave for depreciating I.O.U.'s called federal reserve notes.
Why is/was why the Social Security scheme started about 1938 successful?
Because when Roosevelt took the Gold away form the American people be decree in 1933, he also took away their means of providing for themselves in their retirement years, without any help from government.
So your spend, spend advice, advice would simply guarantee that everyone is broke by retirement age, with piles of depreciating junk around their home, and has to depend on government handouts in some way, shape, or form to live.
Whereas, in my opinion, if a family saves in Gold for the life of their working days, by the time they retire the saved Gold would have appreciated at the same or higher rate of the unbacked currency depreciation, at which time they could sell the Gold in small amounts to buy necessities for the rest of their lives.
Saving in Gold has given some of my family members contentment, and peace of mind in these current stressful economic times.
And another thing, since much of what America consumes is produced in other countries, your plan causes the producers in other countries to prosper while the out of work Americans slip further towards the poverty level.
But, thanks for your advice, I won't be taking it.
beesting
Good points
and fundamentally I think you are correct... but im not sure our economy "needs" us spending our gold yet. The dollar may still be too expensive and it may need to be "spent" first.
I think what you post is and should be the goal; bring back real currency. I assume some people are ahead of the curve and have the ability to invest and spend in silver and gold beyond just long term savings. People in this position should be role models as they begin laying the foundation of the future by growing the economy and building wealth using a real currency like silver and gold. Im guessing there are people already starting to do this, and lets hope that number grows.
Good post.
Having physical gold to leave to my children has value to me
If I must spend it I will, but I would rather have a big pile of it when I die that I did not need, and I can give it to my kids.
Truth exists, and it deserves to be cherished.
and i suppose
the four pieces of property i have, unused, are worthless and won't become valuable until i use them?
save as much gold and silver as you can so that you can then begin to use it as currency....and only then.
How can you compare land to
How can you compare land to money? Land is never useless, even if you don't profit from it, it still produces. I own land, plant fruit trees yearly. It provides food for people and animals. Regardless of whether or not I make a profit.
Gold does not reproduce, it must circulate to generate wealth.
Read Cato!
grant
Gold is portable. Land is not portable.
Land is not money. Gold is money.
Well-rounded portfolio:
land with gold stashed on it.
Sweet combination.
Like that!
its easy
like health, land, and food, it has intrinsic value. that value never goes away. think of gold as a hedge against inflation to preserve purchasing power and then amassing enough of it to spend it at another one of those times. its akin to a cosign relationship of dollar-cost averaging investing.
if you want to get philosophical, rather than comment on economic law, thats cool.
frankly, we're just ants on an orange riding a beachball across a see of marbles.
but for now, i'll keep stockpiling gold and silver until i can replace my personal currency system with said metals.
further
you perhaps do not understand how useful gold and silver is in the industrial sector. same goes for paladium, platinum, etc.
thanks for the elementary education on how to spend money
can you tell me how water is wet next? and it should be used to bath? and to drink?
perhaps you should find out what the average person is doing with gold, how much they have, and how they have made their purchases and sell offs....
here's a clue....most people don't have any. and the few who do have it, have a tiny portion of their savings in it.
were you born thick?
Agree with you.
If the rest of the world began buying gold, the price would first go through the roof and would then be unobtainable at any price! End of story. You are right.
2356 metric tons of gold were produced in 2008.
China was the number one producer and growing.
1. China: 288mt (1)
2. United States: 234mt (1)
3. South Africa: 232mt (1)
4. Australia: 225mt
5. Peru: 175mt
6. Russia: 163.9 mt
7. Canada: 100mt
8. Indonesia: 90mt
9. Uzbekistan 85mt
10. Ghana 81mt
Other: 660mt
TOTAL: 2356mt
http://www.goldsheetlinks.com/production.htm
Why would anyone waste their time
Responding to a post as ignorant as this?...
Oh,I just did ...heh
So true: It IS hard talking to a rock, isn't it?
A waste, but maybe it will help.
Nothing wrong with long term savings (in gold) is there?
Long term savings are the real solution to the economic problems of the west - not more personal debt or government borrowing.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with trading gold for goods and services either. Nothing wrong with mutually beneficial exchange in general is there?
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.blogspot.com/
http://northwestlibertarians.blogspot.com/
Not really
Something to be said for the ability to purchase when noone else can
If voting could really change things,
it would be illegal. Here is hoping for change!
Interesting Post.
I might point out a certain 'hiccup' in the narrative, however. If I am not mistaken, you have been the one touting the buying of Palladium and using it as currency over the recent months. Strange, I have not seen any palladium coins in circulation lately. Care to revise the statement on hoarding?
The answer about saving the gold for now is quite simple- Now is not the time to be spending it. Alternative precious metal currencies will have their time soon enough, but not yet. Not so long as the vast majority of the people still have a shred of faith that their paper cash will still be accepted as tender. That will change when the majority realizes that the guy next door will no longer accept a piece of paper in return for fixing your lawn mower. Go grocery shopping or buy several hundred dollars worth of supplies at Walmart, drop a couple of strips of gold on the counter, and see how far that will get you in the current atmosphere.
Whenever the point arises that paper money will no longer be acceptable (ie the collapse of fiat money), the method of exchange will shift and spending the bullion coins will be more commonplace. Until then, stocking up on the metals beforehand serves as a preservation of wealth until the current tender is no longer viable. You can cite various economic laws and theories all day, but for now the reality of human nature trumps those laws.
You are partially right, and partially impatient, Grant. Let the game play out for now. That time will come.
Free market competing currencies, not gold hegemony.
The difference between buying gold and palladium is simple. There are an estimated 140,000 tons of gold above ground worldwide. There is an estimated 3000 tons of palladium above ground worldwide. Not to mention that palladium as an element is 1.8 times rarer than gold. Ron Paul suggests that we should have competing currencies, this includes pallladium which should and does compete with gold on the market. So as competing currencies, without being crafty, without casting spells on people telling them that gold is a glorious magical metal, without making a law, backed by police and government military action, which currency has more value to temporarily store wealth, with potential for increased demand? Of course palladium, since supply is much lower than gold. Now I am not saying that people should go out and hoard palladium, that is not my view. What I am saying is that people should shift (spend FRNs or gold) to palladium. When money (gold) is spent, then gold serves it's purpose as money, which is to be spent, if it is spent on palladium than it increases the buying power of palladium to cause it to be spent. This in my opinion is not hoarding, this is stimulating the production of something else, in this case palladium, which is the purpose of money. With a move towards palladium as palladium rises in price against gold, then I would suggest selling palladium to buy some other product to stimulate it's production, perhaps a few beans to give farmers a little incentive, solar panels to give that industry a little incentive, or land and farm equipment, not to retire, but for which to produce. "Keep the world rolling."
Currently people are shifting FRNs to gold, so what is being stimulated is the production of gold, which in my opinion not necessary, not that it is wrong but we shouldn't have blinders on to think that only gold should compete with FRNs as money. To repeat what I said before, gold needs to be spent if it is money, and money needs to circulate to produce wealth. Whether or not you agree with me that palladium is a viable investment is not important, what is important is that money is spent, and when you spend it, then it goes onto the market and returns to you having produced something instead of just collecting dust.
grant
A Sales Pitch.
Please present your sales pitch to the Central banks of the world, click on country:
http://dsbb.imf.org/Applications/web/reservestemplate/
These people have been hoarding Gold for many, many years.
beesting
I understand that, but you miss the point.
My comment on palladium was meant to point out that you have told people to spend their gold coins rather than save them, yet your favored metal is likewise not being circulated either, so there is a bit of hypocrisy in the narrative (by no means meant to be offensive).
I am perfectly willing to entertain the notion that palladium is a viable investment, but bullion coins vs. the current medium of exchange remains unchanged regardless. In the current context, the majority of the people will not accept bullion in exchange except under barter.
Until the cashiers at the store begin accepting bullion (be it silver, gold, palladium, tin or whatever) for goods or services, people are stuck with bank notes, and will act accordingly. When, and only when, the FRN becomes a non-viable exchange will you see coinage returning to circulation. As I said before, be patient, that time will come soon enough, but for now, the majority will play the current system until the tide changes.
That tide has not yet arrived, but when the time comes, those who have reserved wealth through precious metals will begin to use them, not before then.
Hope this post is making people think, right or wrong.
My intention is not for people to buy and hold palladium, it is rather that people keep money moving. Palladium in addition to being a currency, held by several central banks including Switzerland but primarily Russia, is also a useful industrial material. It is used in the production of hydrogen via electrolysis.
February 19th, 2009
Long Island starts construction of first hydrogen station
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/online/news/articles/2009-02/lo...
Ground was broken on the first hydrogen fuel station on Long Island in New York. The fueling station’s $2 million construction is expected to be complete by late spring or early summer. The New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) provided a $1 million grant for the project and will assume ownership of the fuel station for three years, officials say. After the three-year trial-period expires, the fuel station will be turned over to the local Long Island town where it is located. The station reportedly will use electrolysis to produce the hydrogen and will have three fuel choices: hydrogen, compressed natural gas, and hythane gas—a blend of CNG and hydrogen. The station will initially provide fuel to government and military vehicles. It will be able to fuel seven vehicles consecutively, according to officials. The town has already begun using hydrogen-fueled bus to shuttle senior citizens to and from day programming run by the town.