Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis

The Telegraph ^ | 31 Mar 2009 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[Longhair_and_Leather]

No, the gold is there. I saw a special, I think on Discovery, that dealt with that issue. It was the only time cameras have been allowed in Fort Knox. Actually, the footage makes for a good blueprint to rob the place...if you’re heavily armed enough.

[Califreak]

That might be the whole idea.

[A Texan]

“Actually, the footage makes for a good blueprint to rob the place...if you’re heavily armed enough.”

And if you have an army. I think I saw the same two hour special a couple of weeks ago. Don't forget that Fort Knox is the location for Amour Calvary i.e. Tanks. The only way to rob Fort Knox is to nuke it and then come in with bio-hazard suits and a crap load of dump trucks.

[so_real]

Under a gold standard, prices would drop to account for a static money supply.

That's the key and bears repeating. I don't care what the limiting factor is, but having a "static" money supply prevents the devaluation of the dollar. Our government either believes money grows on trees, or that they have free reign to see as much printed as they desire. Either way, they spend all they want whether it's there or not. The reality is resources are scarce and the dollar is simply a proxy for those resources. We cannot spend our way to riches any more than we can consume our way to abundance. The fiscal liberals will never understand; the corrupt liberals will never care.

[Reflex]

I dont see how Gold and silver could cause a Depression, the founders didnt think it would.

“No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;

[sanchmo]

2012 may not be the end of the world.

But it’s beginning to look like it will be the end of the world we know today.

[wastoute]

That documentary with the footage in Ft Knox was madein the 70s. No one has seen the gold since (at least no outside verification). One might think it would be difficult to conceal fraud there but who knows?

Molon Labe!

[Oldpuppymax]

The left already did away with the gold standard so it could print more worthless money. Now I wonder what the odds are that they’ll bring it back??

[Richard Kimball]

There are ways.

[Oldpuppymax]

Say, this could provide quite an opening for Hussein! Decide to go back on the gold standard, rule (yes, rule) that all private ownership of gold bullion is illegal, demand that all American citizens turn their gold over to Big Brother for, say, 10 cents on the dollar value and after a couple years of confiscation, breaking down doors, putting non-compliant citizens in jail, decide the whole thing just won’t work. Hussein will have tons of gold and the value will have risen to 2500/ounce! ACORNs offices would all be 24ct!

[SandWMan]

I can forsee a very probable future confiscation of gold. Not because the government wants it, but because they just don’t want you to have it!!!

[Oatka]

Russia has become the first major country to call for a partial restoration of the Gold Standard

That's like being partially pregnant. The Gold Standard is a merciless master because you can't print it. That's why the governments dropped it.

Roosevelt went off the gold standard as far as citizens having the ability to trade the government IOUs for the real thing. He did allow foreigners to redeem them though as there wasn't much chance of that during the 1929 Depression. (Prior to that paper money was, in reality, nothing more than a warehose receipt stating that a certain amount of gold "has been deposited in the Treasury of the U.S., payable to the bearer on demand.") Afterward, I remember the saying was "The dollar is as good as gold" - and it was - as long as it was backed by the stuff.

There used to be something like a 4-1 ratio of fiat currency to gold. Johnson upped the ante and upped it again until he made the foreign holders of dollars nervous - they started cashing them in for gold.

The government then talked them into turning in their dollars for silver, sucking out the silver certificates ahead of the citizens who were doing the same thing because of the rise in silver. ("Wooden Nickels" by Wm. Rickenbacker is a good read). When silver ran out, Nixon shut the window and, with no controls, we have REALLY been inflating ever since.

Chinese and Russian leaders both plan to open debate on an SDR-based reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar at the G20 summit in London this week, although the world may not yet be ready for such a radical proposal.

No they aren't. We'll first have the catastrophe of a Depression, then hyper-inflation, than a reality check - and all good citizens will be forced to turn their gold over to the governments.

[Cheetahcat]

We have Gold here but it would be impossible to mine it with the current House in place.

[palmer]

A gold standard will prevent the next crisis, but would do nothing to solve this current one. The pile of credit must shrink because it cannot be paid from current income streams. Another problem is that that big banks have large amounts of credit instruments as assets and they are insolvent. A third problem is many of those same banks plus companies like AIG have credit derivatives that have become toxic as credit based securities have crashed.

Right now a gold standard would prevent the Fed from printing money to monetize debt which would greatly increase interest rates. This would be good in the long run because it would properly value capital and properly price risk, right now rates are ridiculously low. But at the same time the rises in rates would dissolve the revenue model for the banks, particularly the immense profits from borrowing short and lending long. Would sink GMAC and all of the other companies that engage in that ridiculous practice.

But once that problem is solved by a very large default, the new gold-backed currency could be instituted on the remaining financial entities. Productive capacity would very quickly grow from the ability to make long term investments without any inflation and bubble penalties. Consumption would wind up matched to that productivity rather than be driven by the whim of credit creation.

[palmer]

Any increase in the money supply beyond what is justified by production creates a bubble which crashes later. The extra money (low rates) also causes misallocation of resources like the commodities bubble a year ago. That further distorts the economy, last years bubble was the final nail in the coffin for many businesses that needed those commodities.

We have been postponing that inevitable crash for the last couple of decades. Volker kept money supply under control briefly in the early 80's but it quickly got out of hand after the crash of 87.

[palmer]

We'll first have the catastrophe of a Depression, then hyper-inflation, than a reality check - and all good citizens will be forced to turn their gold over to the governments.

It's hard to predict the sequence of events, but there is a depression looming. The hyperinflation won't be very visible because it will be worldwide (the dollar holders have a lot of clout). The prices of useful things will rise tremendously although gold and silver may be suppressed. The government won't need to confiscate it from us, but some other countries or people may lose their gold. It will also be illegal to buy or sell gold, so even if you own it, it will just sit and look pretty.

[Oatka]

It's hard to predict the sequence of events,

Agreed. I didn't mean to sound as if I knew the schedule. I'm just figuring that with so much debt out there, the feds witll inflate like mad. The debt might be SO huge that their efforts fail. If they succeed, inflation, at some point, will kick in with a vengeance. Should things go either way, I think that gold and silver will still be used, no matter what the governments say.

I saw this with silver coins back in the '60s where they said it was illegal to ship silver coins out of the country and yet cars with dragging bumpers were going regularly up to Canada. There were just too many to jail. They also said that you couldn't take over $5,000 out of country without declaring it but I knew people who went up to Canada with more than that, sub rosa, and bought gold before it was allowed here.