Posted on 01/18/2004 9:04:33 AM PST by shanec
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan 18
(Reuters) - Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia should sell oil for gold, not dollars, to avoid being "short-changed" by a decline in the U.S. currency.
"The price of oil is $33, but the U.S. dollar has declined by 40 percent against the euro so you're effectively getting $20," Mahathir told an economic conference in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah. "So you're being short-changed."
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, has justified higher world oil prices by saying they are necessary to compensate for the slide in the U.S. currency.
Mahathir, who retired last October, spent much of his time in office upsetting Western governments and defying their economic orthodoxies. But he became a respected spokesman in Islamic and developing states and received an ovation in Jeddah.
He suggested countries tally their total annual imports and exports and settle the difference at the end of the year in "gold dinars". Sounding a discordant note, Mahathir also warned Saudi Arabia against rushing to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), saying it was not necessarily a positive move.
Saudi Trade Minister Hashem Yamani said on Saturday his country had narrowed differences with the United States that were holding up accession to the organisation and said he wanted to join "tomorrow".
"Everybody should be careful before joining the WTO because it is not all positive. It can be very negative if you don't handle it properly," Mahathir said. "They try to impose their agenda without regard for some other countries."
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
Of course, if the US is in a crisis situation, you may be ordered to turn in those bullion gold coins at face value... Since the government now demands gold dealers provide customer information to big brother, you will be forced to account for your purchases.
Coins with numismatic value were exempted from the gold seizure of 1933. I guess FDR had a collection.
Personally, I dont know anyone who turned in their gold coins to the government in the 1930's, i know some people must have, but I didnt know any of them. In fact, our largest supply of old US gold coins now comes from Europe where americans sold them over the years when it was illegal for gold to be bought or sold from 1933 to the 1970's. Most americans did not turn in their gold, and when they wanted to sell them in that time period, found plenty of people and other governments who were more than eager to buy them.
In my area, some dealers have the lowest margin over bullion price for the Kruggerands, yes. you pretty much buy and sell at very near the bullion price.
Some of the chinese gold bullion are now premium prices, since they change the design/panda pictures each year. Gold has held its value over the years while lots of paper money went worthless. It was better to hold gold instead of german marks, russian czar rubbles, or confederate money. Gold dollars are sounder than bush dollars.
Can you check on that? I havent bought gold since then, or lately. Is that another reason why gold went up in the last 6 months? What has gold coins to do with Domestic Security Enhancement?
Right, he's my financial adviser too. NOT
PA II requires banks, gold & jewlery dealers, and any other dealers of portable value to report transactions. Seems like the coins would be covered to me.
Personnally, I don't know any bank robbers, but I know they exist. Many people get away with breaking the law, others try and get caught.
The capability of the government to track and document your "private" transactions today is greatly enhanced from what it was in 1933 through the 1970s. I wouldn't be too quick to trust privacy as a cover for violating the law.
You should not have to give any personal information on purchases under 10K, I believe, at this time, though new law was supposedly signed recently that would require all future purchases to be recorded and it'll be effective soon, is what I've been told. Selling, though, to dealers often have lower limits requiring I.D., and sometimes even municipal requirements, same as pawn shops, to discourage stolen property being easily sold off through them.
Why would anyone wish to buy or sell larger quantities of gold if they weren't involved in the financing of terrorism or drug money laundering? There is, obviously, no reason to secretly deal in gold unless you are invovled in illicit transactions. Illicit transactions are a threat to our national security.
If you don't believe this, go ask the Repubilcans: They're the ones that passed the act. Oh yeah, be sure to vote for them again, after all, think how much worse it would be if Gore was president.
But we've seen this before. From The Gold Polaris
In the four Carter years, the gold price quadrupled again, spending much of 1980 above $600 as interest rates climbed to their highest levels in U.S. history. It made not the slightest difference that Carter presented a "balanced budget" in January 1980. By the time Paul Volcker had arrived as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in July 1979, the price of gold was being totally disregarded as a monetary signal and was already up to $237. Without the Polaris, Volcker and the Carter Treasury began pushing buttons and pulling levers, hoping something would work. They tried credit controls, a switch of monetary targets, "jawboning" or "moral suasion," and raising the federal funds rate which the Fed controls. It did everything but drain surplus liquidity from the market -- the one thing that would have worked. Indeed, in the fall of 1979, Volcker advised Congress that because the economy would grow faster in 1980 than had earlier been anticipated, it would need more liquidity! The price of gold jumped to $850 at its peak on February 1, 1980.
The rampant inflation underway was blamed on everything else but the central bank's dismissal of gold as a signal of surplus liquidity. The Arab nations were blamed the most for raising the price of oil. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), though, specifically blamed the quadrupling of the gold price as their reason for wanting four times as many paper dollars for a barrel of oil. American economists also blamed American companies for raising prices, blamed management of American companies for raising executive compensation, and blamed American workers for excessive rising expectations. In the absence of a federal budget deficit to blame in early 1980, they blamed the U.S. trade deficit with Japan. When soaring interest rates then drove up the cost of debt service, and with it the federal budget deficit, the economists who had pushed Nixon into the devaluation blamed the "twin deficits," budget and trade.
Berkshire Hathaway's Feb 3, 1998 press release was where Warren Buffett first disclosed his initial large silver purchases of 1997/1998. These were actual physical have & hold purchases of the metal. It would appear that Buffett indeed expects there to be large supply shortages in the future & that he is in his silver investment for the long-term. I may not shadow everything he says and does, but he's a guy I would not readily bet against either.
YOu didnt mention coin stores, which is where most gold coins are bought and sold.
The gov cant track gold any better today. The gov also has no idea who owns gold today after 20 years of every american buying as much gold as they can over all these years. There are probably just as many american households with gold as with guns - who knows where the gold is now? Anyways, any individual will gladly give $400 cash for a gold coin.
There is lots of silver in the world, there is very little gold. All the gold ever mined in the history of the world can be placed in a very small cube.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.