Gold is now a bad investment.

[Odysseus]

Originally Posted by mhgaffney

Right.

There are striking parallels between the BRitish empire at the start of the 20th century -- and the US empire today. We are following in the footsteps of the Brits. At that time the Brits faced the rising economic power of Germany -- and this led to WW I and WW II.

Expect global war at the end of the US empire -- unless we can wake up enough people, in time, and prevent it.

I would argue we are already in a global war and that the real battle lines are being drawn and redrawn without the fanfare typical of past wars.

Consider our media. What do they actually report to us? News or popularized fiction? If the media is not reporting anything and the people who do take issue are usurped who then is left to speak the truth?

How do create a coup without killing anyone? There are no martyrs in the press. President Carter was played but that was not widely reported. We won't see what really happens until long after it has unfolded. What plays out in plain view is not as straight forward.

Politically we are all on the same side. The neutered and voiceless public.

[Meck77]

I'm not nearly as bullish on silver as gold but there is a buying opportunity forming if you are considering cashing out some stocks or been on the sidelines.

I think the hysteria is settling and it's heading closer to it's 120 day moving average as it should.

http://www.monex.com/prods/silver_chart.html

Oh and we'll be hitting the debt ceiling again May 16th.

We're like the fat kid in school who always spent his lunch money on candy before lunch time. He was always hungry and out of money by noon borrowing more to eat.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-...tes-2011-05-02

[Arkie]

Originally Posted by Odysseus

What WOULD be the trigger for gold to crash?

Think in terms of PURCHASING POWER. Are you gaining or losing purchasing power by holding dollars vs gold? I can see gold correcting $200-300 short-term, but it wouldn't stay down there for long. Pegging the dollar to gold would only trigger it to flat-line.

[Arkie]

Originally Posted by Meck77

I'm not nearly as bullish on silver as gold but there is a buying opportunity forming if you are considering cashing out some stocks or been on the sidelines.

I think the hysteria is settling and it's heading closer to it's 120 day moving average as it should.

http://www.monex.com/prods/silver_chart.html

Oh and we'll be hitting the debt ceiling again May 16th.

We're like the fat kid in school who always spent his lunch money on candy before lunch time. He was always hungry and out of money by noon borrowing more to eat.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-...tes-2011-05-02

The debt ceiling is just an imaginary barrier. It doesn't stop the debt, so what's the purpose?

[Odysseus]

Originally Posted by Arkie

Think in terms of PURCHASING POWER. Are you gaining or losing purchasing power by holding dollars vs gold? I can see gold correcting $200-300 short-term, but it wouldn't stay down there for long. Pegging the dollar to gold would only trigger it to flat-line.

Makes sense. You are right about the debt ceiling. The Fed has been using imaginary numbers for years.

Silver took a serious dump. I am still a hold on Gold.

[baja]

You got 3 or 4 months to make hay while confidence is strong so solidify your position in whatever you have planned to ride through the rough waters ahead.

[Meck77]

Soros and the big boys should be buying silver again soon. Wait and be patient. As I always say the trend is your friend.

Silver just broke 35 a critical barrier.

[mhgaffney]

Silver was a great investment last July at $19/ ounce.

Industry has more than a thousand uses for silver -- whereas gold is useless.

This drain on supply will keep silver prices up. The recent slump will be short lived.

The sky is the limit for silver.

[Meck77]

Pretty cool site if you want to get in on the silver racket. Err I mean silver investment!

Great site to avoid large premiums to the brokers!

http://www.bulliondirect.com/nucleo/....00_oz%29.html

[cutthemdown]

Silver does have tons more uses in industry. The people in India however are driving gold prices through the roof. The are the biggest consumers of gold products. Making gold Jewelery is so big there. They give gold as presents like we give gift cards.

[cutthemdown]

Originally Posted by broncocalijohn

He is a musician, what do you expect?

I got so stoned I forget what we were talking about.......Oh yeah I'm just saying I doubt you just toss seeds out and grow great pot lol. I mean cmon do i really need to go more in depth then that? !

All I really need to know about pot is where my medical collective is. But if you can just toss some seeds I'm going to toss some by the drainage ditch by my house. Anyone got some Orange Kush!

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

There would be a lot of ditch weed with seeds that is no fun to smoke. Good pot takes time to grow right. It wouldn't be much different then expecting some crop like corn to just grow itself by dropping seeds.

This isn't a point about "quality", this is a point about changing the culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball

Clay Seed Balls or "earth balls" (粘土 団子、土 団子 nendo dango, tsuchi dango?, lit. (粘 -Sticky, 土 -Earth) -Clay, 団子 -Dumplings) consist of a variety of different seeds rolled within a ball of clay, preferably volcanic plastic red clay into which various additives maybe included, such as a humus or compost. These are placed around the seeds at the centre of the ball to provide microbial inoculants. Cotton-fibres or liquified paper are mixed into the clay in order to strengthen it, or liquified paper mash coated on the outside to further protect the clay ball during sowing by throwing, or in particularly harsh habitats.

Generally about 5 measures of red clay by volume are combined with one measure of seeds. The balls are formed between 10mm and 80mm in diameter.[1]

Seedballs have use in nearly any regions where plants can grow for reseeding ecosystems into areas of man-made deserts, avoiding seed eating insects and animals, protecting seeds until rains fall to soak the clay ball and stimulating the seeds. Seeds contained in such balls then germinate in ideal conditions for each climate-region.

[alkemical]

What's the ROI on flying a helicopter over 5 counties of a state, looking for growers?

the cost of something that is failing, doesn't seem to be a good way to spend the $.

[Meck77]

Uncle Sam is getting $1785 an eagle right now.
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs...category=10191


They've sold a few.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-month-1-.html

ASEs American Silver Eagles have bounced back. Typical price is 4 to 5 bucks over the spot price which has come up to $38.77 from a low of $33.50 after the recent crash.

[cutthemdown]

Originally Posted by alkemical

This isn't a point about "quality", this is a point about changing the culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball

Sorry I just don't weed as an issue that matters. Do I think we should put the seeds into clay balls and drop them everywhere to change the culture? No its the stupidest thing I have ever heard and I'm stoned out of my mind right now. Still it sounds stupid. Let me take another toke and then see. Nope still seems silly.

Better to use any resources to seed hillside with fast growing ground covers to stop landslides, or reforresting fire areas etc etc. I just don't see the weed across America as being important!

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by cutthemdown

Sorry I just don't weed as an issue that matters. Do I think we should put the seeds into clay balls and drop them everywhere to change the culture? No its the stupidest thing I have ever heard and I'm stoned out of my mind right now. Still it sounds stupid. Let me take another toke and then see. Nope still seems silly.

Better to use any resources to seed hillside with fast growing ground covers to stop landslides, or reforresting fire areas etc etc. I just don't see the weed across America as being important!

You can do that too. I don't know where you live, but in my state they spend millions of dollars a day to fly a helicopter (over 5 counties) to spot growers.

IF it's EVERYWHERE - what are they going to do? Ramp up resources that are dwindling? OR change the way they approach the problem?

[Arkie]

A return to the gold standard by the United States within the next five years now seems likely, because that move would help the nation solve a variety of economic, fiscal, and monetary ills, Steve Forbes predicted during an exclusive interview this week with HUMAN EVENTS.

“What seems astonishing today could become conventional wisdom in a short period of time,” Forbes said.

Such a move would help to stabilize the value of the dollar, restore confidence among foreign investors in U.S. government bonds, and discourage reckless federal spending, the media mogul and former presidential candidate said. The United States used gold as the basis for valuing the U.S. dollar successfully for roughly 180 years before President Richard Nixon embarked upon an experiment to end the practice in the 1970s that has contributed to a number of woes that the country is suffering from now, Forbes added.

If the gold standard had been in place in recent years, the value of the U.S. dollar would not have weakened as it has and excessive federal spending would have been curbed, Forbes told HUMAN EVENTS. The constantly changing value of the U.S. dollar leads to marketplace uncertainty and consequently spurs speculation in commodity investing as a hedge against inflation.

The only probable 2012 U.S. presidential candidate who has championed a return to the gold standard so far is Rep. Ron Paul (R.-Tex.). But the idea “makes too much sense” not to gain popularity as the U.S. economy struggles to create jobs, recover from a housing bubble induced by the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies, stop rising gasoline prices, and restore fiscal responsibility to U.S. government’s budget, Forbes insisted.

With a stable currency, it is “much harder” for governments to borrow excessively, Forbes said. Without lax Federal Reserve System monetary policies that led to the printing of too much money, the housing bubble would not have been nearly as severe, he added.

“When it comes to exchange rates and monetary policy, people often don’t grasp” what is at stake for the economy, Forbes said. By restoring the gold standard, the United States would shift away from “less responsible policies” and toward a stronger dollar and a stronger America, he said. “If the dollar was as good as gold, other countries would want to buy it.”

An encouraging sign for Forbes is that key lawmakers besides Rep. Paul are recognizing that the Fed is straying well beyond its intended role of promoting stable prices and full employment with its monetary policies.

Forbes cited Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.), who, he believes, understands monetary policy better than most lawmakers and has shown a willingness to ask tough but necessary questions. For example, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the House Budget Committee in February, Ryan, who chairs the panel, asked Bernanke bluntly how many jobs the Fed’s quantitative-easing program had helped to create.

Politicians need to “get over” the notion that the Fed can guide the economy with monetary policy. The Fed is like a “bull in a China shop," Forbes said. “It can’t help but knock things down.”

“People know that something is wrong with the dollar," Forbes concluded. "You cannot trash your money without repercussions.”

[alkemical]

May I ask a question?

What sort of "correction" would happen by switching to a gold standard in economic terms?

[Meck77]

Another reason to buy gold. Geithner. Read this.

How many more trillions does this Jackass and obama think they can print off?

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-ne...it-not-raised/

Geithner: ‘Catastrophic Consequences’ If Debt Limit Not Raised
Saturday, May 14th, 2011 at 11:05 pm UTC
Posted 17 hours ago

The U.S. treasury secretary is warning of “catastrophic consequences” if lawmakers fail to raise the limit on the amount of money the United States can borrow.

Timothy Geithner said in a letter dated Friday that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling beyond its current level of $14.3 trillion, it will “force the United States to default” on payments to military personnel, businesses, and investors.

He said defaulting would increase the cost of borrowing money — meaning a larger proportion of future payments would go towards interest rather than paying down the debt itself. And he said the higher interest rates would also be passed on to individuals, businesses, and local governments.

Geithner wrote that this would cause “far-reaching damage” to the economy, reduce growth, increase unemployment, and could plunge the economy into another recession.

continued...........

[Arkie]

Originally Posted by alkemical

May I ask a question?

What sort of "correction" would happen by switching to a gold standard in economic terms?

If the Fed backed the entire M2 money supply with all the gold reserves in the treasury, it would make gold about $35,000/oz.

[baja]

Originally Posted by Arkie

If the Fed backed the entire M2 money supply with all the gold reserves in the treasury, it would make gold about $35,000/oz.

And that is a total estimate because the Fed stopped publishing the M2 amounts a couple of years ago so almost nobody knows the true amount which is akin to a licence to create free money.

[Arkie]

Originally Posted by baja

And that is a total estimate because the Fed stopped publishing the M2 amounts a couple of years ago so almost nobody knows the true amount which is akin to a licence to create free money.

They publish M2. It's 9 trillion. They quit publishing M3. Who knows that absurd amount?

[alkemical]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/yo...l?ref=business

Suddenly, Gold Isn’t Looking So Solid

[Rohirrim]

Billionaire financier George Soros, who called gold "the ultimate bubble," dumped almost his entire $800 million stake in bullion in the first quarter, well before a commodities slump blamed partly on reports he was liquidating his holdings.

Famed gold bull John Paulson held his ground, but Soros was joined in the retreat by several other big names, including Eric Mindich and Paul Touradji, according to 13-F filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that provide the best insight into where hedge funds are placing their bets.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_863083.html

[bowtown]

But it's so shiney!