Gold still looks dirt cheap at 630. That means for the average American to own an ounce of gold they will be spending about 640+ for a Krugerrand or 660 for an American eagle if they know how to negotiate. A little more if they are first time buyers and don't know how to haggle like they are in a Teheran bazaar.
You asked "What coming financial meltdown?" and that is a fair question. Some of the nephew's colleagues at the University like to have that discussion and he tells me after several beers half of them agree it will be a hyper-inflationary tsunami while the other half swear it will be a deflationary collapse. The one thing they all agree upon is that its coming.
Those in charge have created too much money -- the asset bubble of all asset bubbles. Except of course "dollars" are not assets (unlike gold) but merely debt instruments. I guess in simple terms, there is so much debt out there that there will never be enough money created to service it at some point -- let alone pay it back. Massive systemic-default is the liquidity crisis magnitudes beyond the central banks' ability to "soak up excess liquidity."
Debt trap dynamics reach their tipping point and then accelerate. When it happens it will move around the world with lightning speed.
Gold has been man's only protection from the central bankers since John Law rode into France. The day the average Joe learns what has been going on he is going to be some kind of upset. If he has bought gold at 450, 630 or even a thousand he will survive. If not he just may go hungry because at some point those Krugerrands and American eagles will get scarce at any price in terms of paper "dollars"
Of course you will always be able to exchange Morgans or Peace dollars for gold. But that's another story for another time. Believe it or not there was a time in this country when a dollar was solid and meant something.
There's a reason those darn Asians are buying all the gold...
HG
"There's a reason those darn Asians are buying all the gold..."
And on the lighter side of the PTB, GS decreased their gold shorts on the TOCOM.
FWIW, DYODD, I'm buying..
Do you think the elites have hedged their "free trade" bets with substantial gold postilions? Physical gold? Trade deficits of 850 billion are what bring disrespect to the US dollar and will kill it's value. But if the elites own gold they don't care