Also, I don't believe people are in a panic. They're simply sobering up and obtaining REAL money - gold and silver. IMNSHO
The only possible problem would be that Obama and friends HAVE the "authority" to ban the private ownership of gold (again, as FDR did in 1933). I can see him doing the same thing as JFK, where he declared that even gold owned by Americans in foreign lands was to be confiscated.
If you have gold, be sure that there's no paper trail. If buying gold coins, make sure they're "collectible," in order to protect yourself from confiscation - it worked in 1933, but back then the government sort of followed the parts of the Constitution it felt like following, not like today. I can't help but wonder if jewelery might be safer.
Actually, I'm thinking that the best investment right now may be canned goods and shotgun shells!
Mark
Try to put it in your gas tank. In the end, oil trumps gold. Try to sell bullion to the avergae joe too. Good luck with that. Try to buy groceries with it. Good luck with that too. Furthermore, despite all the rumblings about inflation, we’re actually in a deflationary spiral right now which, if unchecked, will make cash King within a couple of years. That being the case, I honestly feel safer sitting on dollars right now. I feel so strongly about this that I pulled $10,000 out of my IRA this week and I’m putting it in the safe as is. I will probably pull another $15,000 out in the coming months too. Look at the CPI. Look at GDP. Look at the unemployment rate. Look at retail sales. look at housing prices. This is deflation man. Serious deflation. And what happens to commodities during deflation? Go ahead and sink your nest egg into useless hunks of metal.