Marc Faber: Don’t Store Your Gold In The United States

Zero Hedge ^ | 08/25/2011 | Simon Black of Sovereign Man

[SeekAndFind]

From Simon Black of Sovereign Man

Marc Faber: Don’t Store Your Gold In The United States

As usual, the CNBC hosts were completely dumbfounded.

Phoning in from Sao Paulo, Brazil, investment guru Marc Faber was a guest on CNBC last week, once again telling the unvarnished truth about the state of the world economy and bankrupt western nations.

This time, Faber had a very clear message: that everyone should own *physical* gold… and what’s more, they should store it outside of the United States:

“I prefer if investors hold physical gold in a safe deposit box, ideally outside the US, in various locations… Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada… I think it’s important in today’s very uncertain world to diversify, not only the various asset classes… but also the custody of your assets should be in different jurisdictions.”

His hosts couldn’t believe it. -NOT- store in the United States, the bastion of freedom and security??!?! What lunacy!

CNBC: “Uh, so do you thus not trust US banks or US custodians? Do you think they might fail or abscond with the gold?”

Guffaws and incredulous snickers emerge from the hosts.

Faber: “I don’t trust anyone.”

Uncomfortable silence.

CNBC: “Hmmm. Interesting.”

Completely devoid of anything intelligent to say on the topic of sovereign diversification, they quickly changed the subject to talk about equities… but Faber soon came back to his original point.

Among other things, he mentioned that banks in Asia are FAR more stable and sound than they are in the west for not having invested so heavily in dead weight assets like Greek bonds or US mortgage-backed securities.

I couldn’t agree more.

This is a point I’ve been pounding on from day 1: internationalization, what I frequently call planting multiple flags, is absolutely critical to reducing your risk.

You won’t ever hear about it from the talking heads on state-sponsored media like CNBC. They refuse to look at the real world where America is no longer the center of the financial universe or the safest place to put money.
Truthfully, though, bankrupt nations like the United States pose the greatest risk of all to our prosperity and livelihood, regardless of whether we’re just starting out or have already achieved it.

This is because politicians will stop at nothing to maintain the status quo; the more they try to ‘fix’ things, the worse the situation becomes. They think they can borrow their way out of debt and spend their way out of recession. When these tactics don’t work, they just borrow and spend more.

In recent remarks during an official visit to Japan, Vice President Joe Biden said that China became the world’s second largest economy only because of US troop presence in Asia.

This line of reasoning only makes sense to a politician: China’s growth has nothing to do with its huge population, massive accumulation of savings, burgeoning technology, or culture of productivity… and everything to do with US military installations in South Korea, Japan, and Okinawa.

Such logic truly tests the patience of rational, thinking people, yet it exemplifies the kind of out-of-touch, mindless bureaucrat who is running the country.

Marc Faber has it absolutely right: entrusting the preponderance of your assets to these moronic sociopaths is a foolhardy endeavor. Own physical gold as a hedge against their idiotic fiscal policies, and store it overseas to make sure they can’t get their thieving hands on it.

Here in Austria, there’s a great secure storage facility in Vienna called Das Safe. You can rent a safety deposit box from them completely anonymously, and the box contents are insured for up to $50,000.

This is financial privacy at its finest… and if you want to take Marc Faber’s advice, you should definitely consider Das Safe. As an aside, Austria is also a great place to buy gold; you can purchase the gold ‘Philharmonic’ coin at almost every bank in the country at premiums as low as 3%.

If you’re serious about doing this, you should check out last month’s edition of Sovereign Man: Confidential. I covered a lot of detailed information about moving and storing gold overseas, including specialized contacts and obscure regulations that you need to know about.

[G Larry]

If you lock it up w your gun collection, you can ensure the price of it goes way up, before its confiscated.
(you and 5 infernal revenuers....)

[Rich21IE]

Hoarder laws?

[Mr. Jeeves]

Well, that’s it. The key to survival isn’t just getting your assets offshore, it’s getting yourself offshore BEFORE the meltdown. Because nobody’s going to be flying anywhere the day after without ten levels of government approval.

[muir_redwoods]

1/2pints of whiskey, brandy and vodka make great trade goods

Just saying... If you're planning ahead

[GOPJ]

… and what’s more, they should store it outside of the United States...

He also implied assets should be distributed to many countries. Reading between the line, what in hell does that mean? War? Confiscation? Any guesses?

[FlyingFish]

The Executive order FDR signed in 1933 was designed to prevent the hoarding of gold. Actually, it criminalized hoarding, although there were very few, if any, prosecutions. The gov’t did pay about $20 an ounce for your gold. How much are those dollars worth today versus keeping the gold???

[FlyingFish]

The Executive order FDR signed in 1933 was designed to prevent the hoarding of gold. Actually, it criminalized hoarding, although there were very few, if any, prosecutions. The gov’t did pay about $20 an ounce for your gold. How much are those dollars worth today versus keeping the gold???

[GOPJ]

Your position is what? If you have gold keep it at home and shoot everyone who comes to the door? I suspect that won’t work - unless you’ve got a small army to patrol the place round the clock... all armed - none needing to sleep or go out for food ( kidnappings will take place if the SHTF)..

[giotto]

The best place to store gold is in a hidden bunker in your backyard, and tell no one except your immediate family where it is.

Even assuming that one of your family members doesn't spill the beans about your stash, sooner or later, it will become known that you have it. You'll need to exchange some of it for cash, food, supplies, etc, and when you do, there goes your secret. How do you handle this little problem?

[Silver Sabre]

I have found this website to be a very useful source of information on the economy, gold, and silver.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/

[10thAmendmentGuy]

True, but what’s your solution? I don’t have an answer. There is no perfect one. If you put it in domestic banks, the government could always take it. If you put it in foreign banks, they might not let you out of the country to access it. I don’t think that any of these scenarios are particularly likely, but obviously they are all flawed.

[Graneros]

You are correct. Alcohol makes for great trading goods. People always want it and it stores easily for very long periods. There are many things that will be in demand if TSHTF. Speaking of TSHTF, toilet paper is another good trade item. How many people actually store TP? How many people will want TP when they run out and can’t buy it any longer? There are many items that will make for money if the worst happens.

[muawiyah]

This guy is a nut. If the USA needs that gold we can send in a couple of divisions and get it, and if they are real lucky, the locals won't get pounded back to the stone age.

As a practical matter we need only know where the gold is and it might as well be ours, or anybody else's if they can get there with sufficient force.

I'd put my bucks on tulip bulbs if we need to face world ending disruptions. You not only can eat them raw they have a very long shelf life. Their price zooms up into that of multi-carat diamonds under such conditions (1943 Zuider Zee and nearby flooded lands ~ they had a famine also).

[poobear]

Indeed, and welcome back to America.

Numbers 6:24-26: YAHWEH bless you and keep you. YAHWEH make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. YAHWEHlift up His face upon you and give you SHALOM. In the name of SAR SHALOM - the Prince of Peace.

[dangerdoc]

“Anyone storing gold or silver in a bank safety deposit box is someone who is completely ignorant of the history of the United States.
I would pose the question to Mr. Faber, though; how is someone supposed to retrieve their gold from a safe deposit box at a bank in Singapore during an economic emergency? Does he suppose one would just hop on a plane half way around the world, retreive their asset, and then jet back to the US and carry their gold back through Customs?

And what good would it do if it were sitting in a Swiss safe deposit box? How would one exchange it for anything?”

I think his advice is for people playing in the big leagues. If TSHTF, some people will want to go overseas to stay until things settle out.

A few hundred ounces of gold in Austria or Singapore would allow you to have enough cash to stay for a while without trying figure out how to carry twenty pounds of gold onto the plane with you.

Think of it as bugging out in a 5 star hotel.

[muawiyah]

Learn how to do old fashioned distillation ~ e.g. "pot distillation" using, literally, clay pots.

[dangerdoc]

Assuming you can afford to ferment grain as opposed to feeding it to your family to keep them from starving.

If the trucks don’t run, everybody will get very hungry, very quickly.

[Jim Noble]

Can US passport holders who do not have permission to work in Canada have bank acounts/safe deposit boxes?

I don’t think so.

[Graneros]

I believe storing gold in offshore facilities is meant for those who have lots and lots of it. I don’t think the average blue collar worker needs to worry about it. If you’ve got a handful of gold coins just hide them out in the woods. It’s good to own some gold but for barter purposes if TSHTF then silver and junk silver in particular is best.

Silver has not been confiscated the way gold was. Not to say that won’t happen but the big boys are buying large amounts of gold to preserve their wealth not silver. Saving your wealth in silver, for those with large amounts of money, would be a pain in the butt. Right now an oz of silver is worth close to $40 while an oz of gold is $1800. You get the picture.

For those with lots of money getting around the world will not be a problem. It will cost them more, to be sure, but they’ll still be able to come and go. Once overseas they would cash in some gold for a stable currency then wire funds into a bank back home. For those of us who aren’t wealthy we’ll be trading junk silver, alcohol, ammo, and toilet paper for food most likely.

[Travis McGee]

I would pose the question to Mr. Faber, though; how is someone supposed to retrieve their gold from a safe deposit box at a bank in Singapore during an economic emergency? Does he suppose one would just hop on a plane half way around the world, retreive their asset, and then jet back to the US and carry their gold back through Customs?

No, hell no. What Faber is saying about "planting multiple foreign flags" is that you might have to go on the E&E, an expat semi-fugitive from the IRS/USA. In that case, you need "buried treasure" you can pick up at foreign safe deposit boxes. This gold etc will help you to restart in the haven country of your choice or ability to reach.

He is acknowledging that the USA might go nutso on a French or Russian Revolution or Weimar/Nazi Germany level, and you will NOT want to be trapped here, depending on frozen electronic assets the fedgov will not let you have. Or that might have been wiped out in value.

The talking heads who think he's off the wall are the same brainiacs who live in condo towers "convenient to downtown," who have never in their lives considered that their town might some day be razed and burnt by rioters, or turn into Sarajevo etc. They are totally trapped by their "normalcy bias," that they cannot even comprehend what Faber is saying.

Like Jews in Germany in 1933 who said to their uncomprehending friends and family, "Run! Get out! Now!" The uncomprehending just couldn't think three or four steps ahead, and take action on that basis.

That's the level of Faber's warnings.