Author Topic: Market is up 10% in one month! (Read 572 times)

miko2d · « **on:** May 21, 2003, 12:42:49 PM »

Gold market, that is.

Anyone knows the amount of US gold reserves or has a reference?

I had a number of arguable accuracy 8,500 tonns = 275 mil ounces = abour $95 billion.

As Maverick has once said: "Gold has virtually no value other than in a very limited industrial sense. In other words it has no value other than what people place on it. The same for ANY money. Both are synthetic values of a synthetic economy so the claim the money is worthless is smoke and mirrors."

That is of course nonsense but apparently most people share this opinion and US government seems to be sharing it to. So, what's the rationale of warehousing those tonns of metal at great expence rather than sell at any price for technological uses?

miko

devious · « **Reply #1 on:** May 21, 2003, 12:59:12 PM »

To keep the opportunity of selling it when you need the money right then. At least as long people think gold is precious.

Mini D · « **Reply #2 on:** May 21, 2003, 01:34:07 PM »

Actually miko, they teach you that in economics 101. If you don't believe it, try to buy your groceries using $100 in gold some day... and ask for change.

MiniD

Pfunk · « **Reply #3 on:** May 21, 2003, 02:33:35 PM »

Its called Fiat Money, it has no intrinsic value, only value placed on it by society.

Its only technological role in an economy is to act as societal memory, meaning that it allows people to record some aspect of their transactions or as a display of wealth.

miko2d · « **Reply #4 on:** May 21, 2003, 02:59:52 PM »

devious: To keep the opportunity of selling it when you need the money right then. At least as long people think gold is precious.

Federal reserve creates money. Or do you mean buy other countries currency? If ever dollar goes bust, that would be like the end of the world. US government would be better storing some commodities that can be not just sold but actually used in hard times - and not that easy to steal - like oil, steel, chemicals, metals required to make quality steel, etc.
True - other countries were able to buy stuff for gold from US during WWII and WWI - but only becasue US was fine and had demand for gold. If US goes bust, there will not likely be a country in the world not experiencing problems and in need of resources, rather willing to make money on selling them.

Mini D: Actually miko, they teach you that in economics 101. If you don't believe it...

Teach me what? Don't believe what? What exactly are you referring to that an attempt to buy groceries with gold would lllustrate? You might be right but I have no idea what you are talking about.
Do they teach in economics 101 exactly how much gold US stores? Or why do we need to store it if our money do not have to be backed up by gold - and 35 trillion outstanding dollars could not be backed up by $100 billion in any significant way.

Pfunk: Its called Fiat Money, it has no intrinsic value, only value placed on it by society.

What is called "Fiat Money"? US currency? That is true, but I was asking about gold, which is - or rather used to be - a commodity money.
BTW, fiat currency does not have value "placed on it by society". It has value that is specifically mainteined by a government institution charged with creating and managing the country's money - Federal Reserve.

Carrency does not play "technological" role but economic ones and recording anything is not one of them.
Money is a medium of exchange - which is a very complex function.
Under very limited conditions it can be used as a store of wealth, but only if a small fraction of the stock of money is used in such way - having limited intrinsic value, it can only represent claim on real wealth that exists in the world. Creatinng more money and storing it just dilutes those claims.

miko

SOB · « **Reply #5 on:** May 21, 2003, 03:09:27 PM »

"Gold has virtually no value other than in a very limited industrial sense. In other words it has no value other than what people place on it. The same for ANY money. Both are synthetic values of a synthetic economy so the claim the money is worthless is smoke and mirrors"

You said this was nonsense. Now apply what Mini-d said. If you can't figure it out, then you're stupid...and gay...and ugly...and smell funny.

SOB

ygsmilo · « **Reply #6 on:** May 21, 2003, 03:11:44 PM »

miko,,

Looks like you will need to find a new bbs to post to.

You keep telling us how bad our economy is and how smart you are, soon we will all be without a viable currency to spend on our subscription and the intardnet will break due to all the smart people moving to a euro based economy.

And then we will die.

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #7 on:** May 21, 2003, 04:01:26 PM »

err the economy is in the ****ter. parents just sold a house in france and are keeping the cash out of the country in euros as the dollar is ****. alot of others are avoiding dollars also i imagine.

and since chimp has blown 50 years of international diplomacy and 99% of the goodwill the world had to us. its just gonna get worse.

terror level mauve. and still nobodys dead.

ygsmilo · « **Reply #8 on:** May 21, 2003, 04:13:28 PM »

er Dorf Lader-

The economy is what you make it and its ok where I am. Keep putting those dollars in Euro's. Just make sure you don't watch what the bond market does, (the short term vrs. long term government bonds, espcially the German ones) and things will be jussssttttt finnnnnneee.

Regurge · « **Reply #9 on:** May 21, 2003, 08:20:20 PM »

Well it seems to me in a worldwide depression food is going to become the most valuable commodity. US is in a pretty good spot here since we can produce far more than we need, so long as we have the oil and machinery to maintain production/transportation. The are lots of countries than cant feed themselves. It shouldnt be too hard to get them to accept gold for oil and manufactured goods if we in turn accept gold for food.

Gold is also a pretty compact and resilient form of wealth. Oil, steel, and chemicals would require massive storage facilities and safegaurds against leakage and contamination.I don't see how storing these would be any cheaper than gold.

Maverick · « **Reply #10 on:** May 21, 2003, 10:58:23 PM »

ldv, if you think it's so bad here, why don't you pack up and head to the east. I'm sure the euro's would welcome you with open arms and you could live in the utopia you dream about. Oh and btw, pick up blur on your way out.

Toad · « **Reply #11 on:** May 21, 2003, 11:53:29 PM »

Milo, you should post more often.

I always enjoy those.

Fatty · « **Reply #12 on:** May 22, 2003, 06:29:03 AM »

You must forward congratulations on their investment in the euro at its peak value. If they really did do this, that does explain a lot. They'll be much happier exchanging it back around 1:1 instead of 1:1.2 because that will give them much more to gripe about.