RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE Lestat;
"Fiat money is no longer on the Gold Standard."
Exactly, and for right now, I agree with much of what you are saying. However, the achillies heel of gold is that it is universally priced in U.S. $
That is great when you are holding it, and then are interested in selling into a strong American dollar, because you artificially gain on the exhchange rate of the day. But it all depends on when you bought the gold to begin with. If you bought it, when the U.S. buck was at a premium to your selected currency, you also had to pay a premium to buy the gold in the first place.
If you bought the gold when the currencies where at par and sold into a strong American dollar, great! BUT... you can do the same thing with currency alone. Buy the American dollar when it's at par, and wait till the U.S. buck is trading at a premium to your selected currency... you don't have to buy gold to do the same thing... with zero risk!
If you bought the gold at par or lower, and were forced to sell when the U.S buck was low, you shot yourself in the foot twice with the same investment. (Not to mention the costs of storing physical gold and broker fees to buy it)
Having said that, in the past I owned gold and stored it, as a "just in case fund" if my health took a really nasty short-trem turn for the worse. In other words, to pay my debts until insurance, etc. got rolling... but I have since decided that it is a foolish endeavor.
If you had gold in the Dirty Thirties would it have done you any good? Sure... but would it have solved all of your problems? No, because a buck was still a buck and if you didn't have gold or a buck you were still S-O-L.
I think most of the premise is that "in hard times having gold will save our bacon", and that simply isn't true. "In hard times, if our country has gold it might save our collective bacons... the difference being from the good it does the singluar investor, to the good it does the country as a whole. And this is where my main argument comes from. When (eventually), the economies of the world get back on track and the GDP begins to rise, many nations will forget the lessons of the day and #1 stop buying gold, and #2 dump a portion of the gold they have... what happens when demand drops, and supply increases?
Lastly, gold is good when you are an American, because you don't have to worry about exchange rates; but they can't "double dip" on a rise in gold (compared to the purchase price) and a health gain in exchange rates at the same time like forgein currencies can.
I think many Canadians get over anamoured by the lure of gold because of the propiganda that comes out of the States. Many of the "buy gold" programs are stating their case from the perspective of an American... throw in the exchange rate(s) of the day, and the viability of what they are saying changes dramatically.