Posted on 04/16/2011 5:15:45 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
Tipping points are funny: for years, decades, even centuries, the conditions for an event to occur may be ripe yet nothing happens. Then, in an instant, a shift occurs, whether its is due a change in conventional wisdom, due to an exogenous event or due to something completely inexplicable. That event, colloquially called a black swan in recent years, changes the prevalent perception of reality in a moment. This past week, we were seeing the effect of a tipping point in process, with gold prices rising to new all time highs day after day, and the price silver literally moving in a parabolic fashion. What was missing was the cause. We now know what it is: per Bloomberg: "The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board." And so, the game theory of a nearly 100 year old system of monetary exchange has seen its first defector, but most certainly not last. With an entity as large as the University of Texas calling the bluff of the Comex, the Chairman, and fiat in general in roughly that order, virtually every other asset manager is now sure to follow, considering there is not nearly enough physical gold to satisfy all paper gold in existence by a factor of about 100x. The proverbial Nash equilibrium has just been broken.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
...and be the bag holder like a good little sheeple.
The government is not working in your best interests. The Fed isn't working in your best interests. The banks are not working in your best interests. You are economic cannon fodder.
The only person who is looking out for your best interests is yourself. Prepare accordingly.
I have a few thousand in the bank. I can just walk in and demand cash no problem.
For me.
If a whole bunch of my neighbors try to do the same, well, that's when the intellectual exercise of knowing the bank only has 10% of the cash deposited on hand develops a frightening reality...
You are added.
“I don’t expect a run on the banks, but this is why buying gold is a bad idea. Only the real big players actually have possession of it. “
No. this is exactly why buying gold is a good idea AND only in physical form. You’ve got it backwards, wmfights
“Therefore, in a crisis it (gold) has no real value.”
what does have values in a crisis? Once you have food, shelter, bullets, etc. I assume you want to preserve your wealth. Are you happier with a bunch of paper with dead presidents on it? or a metal that has preserved wealth for thousands of years?
“However, neither metal, in and of itself, has any distinguishing property to make it more valuable than any other item of similar characteristics. Its value is based solely on people’s desire to posses it.”
Funny. It has been a preservation of value for thousands of years. Maybe there is a reason. What metal, paper, item would you think would be better?
In some states, I think you have to pay sales tax when you buy it too
There is a difference between calm, thoughtful, deliberate and panicky, half-cocked, and tin-foiled.
I agree completely that the Obama administration is not working in my interest. I am not 100% sure the Fed is working out of malice, instead it may just be a belief in the wrong approach. I also agree that nobody cares about my interest like I do.
UT wants to hold gold bullion, fine. They believe that allocation of assets will be worth more in the future. Likely it will, but so may platinum, orange juice, bauxite, or GE stock. Their portfolio adviser may have suggested this move for diversification, who knows.
Ultimately, one university purchasing a large amount of gold doesn’t spell the end or utter collapse of the global economy. Since the previous Congress and now Obama haven’t done it (though they have done a lot of damage), I am cautiously optimistic.
Wealth in a crisis is usable commodity-based, but, as I said, gold has some intrinsic value but it is limited.
Wealth in a crisis is guns, land, food, fuel/energy, means of transportation, means of heavy labor.
Now, what do we define as a crisis is the real question. There are some crises in which gold would have trading value, but there are others in which a person must preserve his/her own life and that of loved ones.
In that latter crisis, gold has little value.
Also, as wmfights pointed out, physical gold in quantity is owned by big players. To buy a Maple Leaf, for example, requires one hundred bucks over market price of gold. That's just about 1600 bucks.
The price alone guarantees that large buyers will be the bulk of that market.
And then we're talking another fee to convert back to usable currency.
I said “once you have food, shelter, bullets, etc., then I assume you want to preserve your wealth” and you said that in a crisis you have to first provide guns, land, food, etc.
Jeesh! did you think I was saying something else?
Further, you don’t have to pay $100 over spot for Maples
http://www.apmex.com/Category/21/Canadian_Gold_Maple_Leafs_2011__Prior.aspx
and Apmex is not the cheapest by far. If gold is too expensive, buy silver. Many people are and they are not “large buyers”
The lower price comes with purchase of quantities of coins.
I didn’t see one that didn’t charge in the neighborhood of a hundred bucks. The apmex link you sent says “as low as.” I interpret the link to be saying that if you want to go safe with a credit card purchase, that they will charge you 100 bucks over market. If you are comfortable sending them check or wiring them money, then you can go about 60 bucks over market.
I’m not trying to be obtuse or argumentative.
Your silver idea has merit, but again the over-market price is high in my mind, slightly higher %-wise as gold.
But, it is easier to get your hands on it seems. The American Silver Eagle on your website is about 48 and the market is about 43.
Just consider me a firm believer in land and its intrinsic value.
the authorities will exchange them at the decreed rate for SDR credits.
Yes, of course.
There is an unwarranted assumption that the gold will remain in New York. Once collected and in one place, the gold can be moved in a secure manner to a vault in Texas.
I’m late to the game. Please add me as well. Thanks
Have you seen the internet chatter that MF Global went under in collusion with the CME because the CME did not have gold and silver bars to deliver to those who were taking delivery on futures contracts?
Added.
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