My gold is doing well!

All it is becomes hype, Gold always gains when people are afraid. So, those in the know are banking on the little people buying gold to bury.

kv

 

... Scots ... had their own referendum to leave the UK but keep the pound and the subsidies from the UK.

They held a referendum in Scotland to break away from the UK, but desperately wanted to keep the pound and all the grants from the UK.

I have an honest question. If you offset these grants with oil and gas revenues from Scottish territories, what is the net cash flow from the UK into Scotland per year?

 

I don’t have the economic figures, but the Scottish referendum was made based on the oil revenue which they laid claim to, despite the oil industry exploration in the North Sea not being a Scottish endeavor, production was at it’s height of 4.4 million barrels per day in 1999 and has since been consistently falling to present level of 1.4 million barrels per day.

 

...little people buying gold to bury.

I may be one of the "little people", but I keep (physical) gold as part of a well diversified investment portfolio.

I typically ignore short term movements in the value of my individual assets. But it is fun to watch a 6% increase in value overnight.

 

Where do you keep it joey? In your tooth?

 

Where do you keep it joey? In your tooth?

Only a small portion.

 

The decision is out.
https://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell?ob=1
Max.

 

The decision is out.
https://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell?ob=1
Max.

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT MAX

 

I may be one of the "little people", but I keep (physical) gold as part of a well diversified investment portfolio.

I typically ignore short term movements in the value of my individual assets. But it is fun to watch a 6% increase in value overnight.

Agreed, Gold will always be a good investment if you have the money to do so, on the other hand the minute someone knows you have it your life becomes undervalued.

Now I know why you own a gun. I would too.

kv

 

The decision is out.
https://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell?ob=1
Max.

Very interesting, Max. In all honesty, I don't really know what to think. I simply don't know enough about the subject to give an informed opinion.

However, I'm happy to see that there was a huge turnover, and therefore, the final decision was (apparently) not made by a loud, aggressive minority.

As a side note, this article gave me something to think about:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-36616698

I still remember the frustration, when I was a teen, of having to watch events on the sidelines. Unable to participate in the big decisions that would directly affect me and my generation.

 

One point may be worth adding to gold as an investment. In the not too distant past (FDR's time), the US government confiscated all personally owned gold that was not jewelry. Although in about 1971, private ownership was again allowed (http://www.federalreservehistory.org/Events/DetailView/33 ) and the dollar was allowed to float against gold (see the change in the chart I posted earlier) , the law FDR had enacted still remains on the books. That means the government could confiscate privately held gold again. Consider that if you buy gold and decide not to take delivery.

Gold as an investment per se has not performed well in the recent past. Moreover, any gain is taxed as regular income (its a commodity) not capital gains. However, I agree with those who hold gold as a doomsday investment. I have had several close friends whose families escaped the communist takeover of China by Mao with only the gold they could hide on or in their bodies to get a new start.

John

 

Very interesting, Max. In all honesty, I don't really know what to think. I simply don't know enough about the subject to give an informed opinion.

Although I have dual passports, I don't really have dog in the race much anymore really.
Being born at the tail end of the British Empire when Britain ruled over 1/4 of the worlds land mass and a 1/5 of it peoples.
I witnessed the large influx of many of these people when they lived in countries that were eventually granted independence and then thrown out because of their race by the likes of Idi Amin et al.
Having British passports entitled them to seek haven in Britain, so suddenly the small highly populated island was becoming even more populated.
So with the EU and the open borders it promises, if things look rosy in Britain, to have a even higher influx of workers looking for jobs if the agreement was to stay in the EU..
Also there is a large number of middle east refuges amassed on the French coast, within sight of the cliffs of Dover, looking to get in by hook or by crook!'
I can see Britain toppling over into the N. Sea. under the weight
Max.

 

Gold as an investment per se has not performed well in the recent past. Moreover, any gain is taxed as regular income (its a commodity) not capital gains. However, I agree with those who hold gold as a doomsday investment. I have had several close friends whose families escaped the communist takeover of China by Mao with only the gold they could hide on or in their bodies to get a new start.

John

I had the same experience with the boat people. Gold was the only monetary currency taken by the owners of those rickety boats. I won't describe what people had to do with no gold to get a spot on what was for many a one way ticket to Davy Jones Locker.

 

Yup. If y'all have been buying gold over the past 5 years, I'm sure you're ready for a house in the Hamptons and a Rolls Royce.

 

Yup. If y'all have been buying gold over the past 5 years, I'm sure you're ready for a house in the Hamptons and a Rolls Royce.

Considering I'm closing in on 100, I consider 5 years very short term. Besides, the gold I possess is not intended as a "growth" investment. I have other instruments for that.

 

@GopherT
As I said, gold has not performed well in recent years. If you go back to 1998 when the BOE unloaded a lot, is was trading at between $220 and $300 per ozT. Can't help those who wait for peaks to buy. And that applies to all investments, not just gold.

As I also said, even at $300/ozT, gold investment gains are regular income. People with expendable income are usually looking for tax advantaged investments.

I don't understand the sarcastic point of your post, and apparently, you don't understand longer term investments.

John

 

Brexit I thought when the vote came in and the £ dropped it would mean an increase in my British pension but....http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/brexit-vote-business-impact-1.3650553
Max.

 

To shed another light on "gold as a hedge against inflation," gold hit $850/ozT just before I turned 15 in 1980. It is now $16 when I was young gold got up to just under $1000/ozT. Today is it $1260/ozT. In order to just match inflation over that 35 year period gold would need to be worth $2478/ozT, so people that bought it then to save themselves against inflation have lost right at half of their money.

Someone that invested $850 in the S&P 500 back then would have stock worth $15,740. So the S&P has outperformed gold by more than a factor of twelve over that 35 year period.

A lot of people also buy gold so that they have something to live on after the economy completely collapses and we are back to bartering. But think about this -- if someone walked up to you today to buy a car that you were trying to sell and offered you a hunk of yellowish metal for it, would you take it? If not, then why do you think someone else will take a hunk of yellowish metal from you in exchange for food, clothing, ammunition, or whatever after everything has collapsed and we are down to bartering.

In order for gold (or diamonds or other "precious" commodities) to retain any value in a time of societal unrest requires that the economy not have collapsed. Gold by itself has no value, so the only way you can use it to buy your way out of the country, for instance, is if the person taking it knows that the economy is still sufficiently intact that they can market the gold within that economy.

 

For the Brits that voted to leave the EU.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

You made the decision. You OWN the decision. I wish you the best in the future endeavors.

 

@WBahn
The thing is that gold has stood the test of time through wars and hyperinflation. You may not make a profit in terms of some fiat currency, but it has proved itself to allow families to survive the worst of times. Diamonds, while quite valuable, are much less tested as a doomsday precaution. It is harder to prove the value of a diamond, diamonds loose value when divided into smaller denominations, the diamond market is controlled by a very few, and their source is geographically quite restricted. I am not one to fight millennia of history.

John