The Gold Standard?

[redrum]

great thread. if i can just toot my own horn a little bit, i first started posting on this forum over 3 years ago for people to buy gold and silver. back then the price was around $950 and today it's about $1625 and poised to go higher.

i agree with arlean's earlier post that gold was meant to take the power out of the hands of the money trust, the banking cartel. fractional reserve banking is basically legalized fraud. the fact that a bank can create digital credits out of nothing and charge somebody interest on it ought to be a crime. this immense power ought to be removed from the banksters hands. the power over the creation of currency and credit is the power to control society itself.

that being said, there is no perfect solution. physical gold can also be manipulated. however, using something that is tangible and scarce would definitely break the banking cartel and ultimately lead to fewer crashes and financial crises. gold and silver are competition for the dollar and other fiat currencies. this is why the big banks are constantly trying to manipulate the price of metals downward by using naked short selling.

the dollar's days are numbered but it's not going down without a fight. it should actually be called the petro dollar if we want to get right down to it. to expand on matt's post, the dollar is backed up by our military might and the fact that the US has created artificial demand for it. imagine having the power to print, out of thin air, what every other country in the world needs to accumulate in order to buy oil - and just about every other commodity out there. it's all priced in dollars. it's a way for the US to create inflation and then export it to other nations.

then, when somebody threatens to starting selling their oil in another currency like say euros, that country is invaded and its leader taken out - i.e. iraq. or let's say gaddafi wants to implement a gold dinar for africa, well we know what happend to him now don't we. and please don't say that NATO invaded to save the children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqZfaj34nc

hence the reason why the so called "rebels" were in such a hurry to form a new central bank:

Libyan Rebels Form Their Own Central Bank
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42308613/Libyan_Rebels_Form_Their_Own_Central_Bank


bottom line, mess with the hegemony of the dollar and you'll get the bombs.

 

[LostinBA]

great thread. if i can just toot my own horn a little bit, i first started posting on this forum over 3 years ago for people to buy gold and silver. back then the price was around $950 and today it's about $1625 and poised to go higher.

i agree with arlean's earlier post that gold was meant to take the power out of the hands of the money trust, the banking cartel. fractional reserve banking is basically legalized fraud. the fact that a bank can create digital credits out of nothing and charge somebody interest on it ought to be a crime. this immense power ought to be removed from the banksters hands. the power over the creation of currency and credit is the power to control society itself.

that being said, there is no perfect solution. physical gold can also be manipulated. however, using something that is tangible and scarce would definitely break the banking cartel and ultimately lead to fewer crashes and financial crises. gold and silver are competition for the dollar and other fiat currencies. this is why the big banks are constantly trying to manipulate the price of metals downward by using naked short selling.

the dollar's days are numbered but it's not going down without a fight. it should actually be called the petro dollar if we want to get right down to it. to expand on matt's post, the dollar is backed up by our military might and the fact that the US has created artificial demand for it. imagine having the power to print, out of thin air, what every other country in the world needs to accumulate in order to buy oil - and just about every other commodity out there. it's all priced in dollars. it's a way for the US to create inflation and then export it to other nations.

then, when somebody threatens to starting selling their oil in another currency like say euros, that country is invaded and its leader taken out - i.e. iraq. or let's say gaddafi wants to implement a gold dinar for africa, well we know what happend to him now don't we. and please don't say that NATO invaded to save the children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuqZfaj34nc

hence the reason why the so called "rebels" were in such a hurry to form a new central bank:

Libyan Rebels Form Their Own Central Bank
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42308613/Libyan_Rebels_Form_Their_Own_Central_Bank


bottom line, mess with the hegemony of the dollar and you'll get the bombs.

Nato invaded Libya to save the little brownish babies.

 

[willwright]

Sad to see several people still chasing fools gold as the solution to all the worlds problems. Perhaps crackerjacks will be the next world currency, why not, makes as much sense as what being discussed.

 

[duanestorey]

Sad to see several people still chasing fools gold as the solution to all the worlds problems. Perhaps crackerjacks will be the next world currency, why not, makes as much sense as what being discussed.

Thanks for lending your amazing insight to the discussion. Why not provide a better solution then, since you seem so knowledgable on the subject?

 

[Canick]

Sad to see several people still chasing fools gold as the solution to all the worlds problems. Perhaps crackerjacks will be the next world currency, why not, makes as much sense as what being discussed.

also sad to see people still in denial.


wanna know how many boxes of crackerjacks you could have bought with the 500% increase in gold over the past years (in terms of USD's)?

but then again, we just simple fools....

 

[TrevorCito]

So my question. What is the attraction or advantage of a Gold backed currency? From my point of view Gold is not phenomenally useful as a metal (I would prefer to build a tower block using steel), has a high cost of carry (secure storage), yields no income, doesn't taste that good, doesn't grow or reproduce, is bloody difficult to get out of the ground, and is an industry that attracts some of the most creative (read liars) promoters in the world. Yet it has been deemed to have an intrinsic value since pretty much the beginning of time. Why?

These are excellent questions and ones that I have spent much time thinking about. To me you are asking about the value of gold. Of what value is it?

I think there are many parts to this but the three main ones are the intrinsic value of gold, the perception of value and the protection (as value) it offers currencies that are backed by it. Protection from whom? The government and central bank that is in power at the time. Why? As with Argentina and the USA (and others), the government can print money at will which devalues their fiat currency.

As you know, price does not equal value. In any transaction, we agree on price but NEVER on value and this is just as true for gold as with any other commodity.

Gold backed currencies tend to force political reform rather than the easy road which is printing money. They do not need to be backed by gold to be controlled though. Any other mechanism that makes it easier to reform political agendas will work as in the case of the Euro where countries are not able to print money. Take Greece as an example. If they had the ability to print money to get out of the mess they're in they would have done so rather than take tough political and austerity measures to reform the economy. After all, the average 'Giorgios' doesn't understand why he suddenly cant' buy ouzo and why the the european union is so mean to him.

 

[TrevorCito]

Sad to see several people still chasing fools gold as the solution to all the worlds problems. Perhaps crackerjacks will be the next world currency, why not, makes as much sense as what being discussed.

What is the solution?

 

[HeyBA]

Stephen Zarlenga presents a progressive version of monetary reform that is not return to the gold standard, rather the giving the govt the ability to issue debt free money rather than borrowing it.

 

[Mano Negra]

These are excellent questions and ones that I have spent much time thinking about. To me you are asking about the value of gold. Of what value is it?

I think there are many parts to this but the three main ones are the intrinsic value of gold, the perception of value and the protection (as value) it offers currencies that are backed by it. Protection from whom? The government and central bank that is in power at the time. Why? As with Argentina and the USA (and others), the government can print money at will which devalues their fiat currency.

As you know, price does not equal value. In any transaction, we agree on price but NEVER on value and this is just as true for gold as with any other commodity.

Gold backed currencies tend to force political reform rather than the easy road which is printing money. They do not need to be backed by gold to be controlled though. Any other mechanism that makes it easier to reform political agendas will work as in the case of the Euro where countries are not able to print money. Take Greece as an example. If they had the ability to print money to get out of the mess they're in they would have done so rather than take tough political and austerity measures to reform the economy. After all, the average 'Giorgios' doesn't understand why he suddenly cant' buy ouzo and why the the european union is so mean to him.

Hmm, I think this might be the problem with Greece. i.e. it is pegged to the euro which prevents it devaluing and therefore it cannot return to any form of competitive advantage against Germany or France. Unless the destiny of Greece is 10 years of internal devaluation, which will fail as there will be civil unrest after a few years of massive unemployment and lack of prospects, then it should return to the drachma, devalue massively and go back to being a cheap holiday destination.

I don't see that it would have been any different in Greece if its currency had been backed by gold or tied to the Euro. In either case it would need to devalue to become competitive now!

Also, it is a myth that a gold backed currency would somehow prevent fractional banking. Whether you have cash or gold on your balance sheet it is the regulators that allow banks to lend multiples of their deposits.

 

[Towncryr]

To quote Richard Thaler"Why tie to gold? why not 1982 Bordeaux?"

Basing a currency on gold would make the issuing countries risk essentially having their economies held hostage buy gold producing nations. Imagine basing a currency on Oil and having groups like OPEC essentially controlling the value of your money.

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You already have a currency backed by oil, the U.S. dollar. When Nixon closed the gold window (1971) TPTB sent Kissenger to Saudi Arabia. The arrangement they worked out was that SA required ALL their oil sales to be purchased in dollars and that the Saudis would take their dollars and invest them BACK into Wall Street. Then ALL countries HAD to have dollars to purchase oil thereby, effectively, making all countries have not only dollars but U.S. bonds in their central banks. On top of that, ALL IMF loans MUST be paid back in dollars further solidifying the dollar's position.

Gold ALWAYS preserves it's, the key phrase here, 'purchasing power' not a numerical amount. In Rome, 2K years ago, you could take a one ounce gold coin and purchase a nice toga, a belt and a pair of sandals. Today, I can take a ounce of gold and purchase a very nice suit, belt and pair of shoes, 2,000 years later same results. Purchasing Power is the key concept to understand.

If you would like to understand the basics a bit better spend a few minutes and listen to this, extremely brilliant, Austrian economic professor give a very basic explanation.

http://www.la.org.au/video/030112/politics-money-and-banking

The Von Mises Institute is the flagship for the school of economics called Austrian Economics. It is diametrically opposed to the standard school of economics taught and practiced over the entire world today, Keynesian economics which was promoted at the turn of last century after WWI to set up the bankers plan that is coming to an end NOW.... Here is a little sample of Mr. Keynes philosophy.


“There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.” - John Maynard Keynes, 1919.

If you do not or can not believe this is all planned you do not understand the problem the entire world faces. What is happening now was planned over 100 years ago. The facts are there is you want to find them.

Here is another fabulous resource for those who are interested in understanding what is happening all around them, world wide.

http://www.libertyclassroom.com/learn-austrian-economics/

BTW, those 'in the know', such as my were purchasing gold when Gordon Brown was selling half of England's. No one asks the right question concerning that incident. The question is, 'WHO WAS BUYING?" Gold, in the first ten years of this century, is THE SINGLE HIGHEST PERFORMING ASSET of ANY asset in the last 90 years. It is STILL under priced in relation to the amount of fiat currency floating around the world today. At a 'minimum' it should be priced in the $3,000 per ounce range. However, if one is looking for returns silver is the play because of it's scarcity and it's ever increasing technological and industrial applications.

For straight inside info on what is 'really' happening you might want to start checking a guy named Jim Willie's site, www.goldenjackass.com Here is a link to one of his recent radio interviews. This guy has one hell of a pedigree. His father was a very successful Wall Street investor and his father's partner was the legendary Jesse Livermore.

Here's the link to the JW interview:
http://ec.libsyn.com/p/e/0/7/e07419...1ce3dae902ea1d01cb8e3ed9ca54e1fd&c_id=4621789

Remember, "if you continue to think what you always thought you'll continue to get what you always got!" The days of banker deception are rapidly coming to an end...... Those who have "eyes to see and ears to hear" will make the appropriate corrections and take the correct actions.

TC