Our Gold-Plated Economy?

November 19, 2010
Black Friday's dirty little secrets

Because of surging gold commodity prices, jewelry manufacturers are paying much more for the precious metal than last year. So one way that jewelers are keeping their own costs, and retail prices down reasonable for consumers, is by selling more gold-plated or gold-filled jewelry.

Many advertised deals on gold jewelry will use phrased such as "gold-filled" or "gold-overlay." This is not the same as solid gold, said Kevin Adkins, a graduate gemologist.

"When you see those terms, know that you're buying silver with a plate of gold coating over it," said Adkins.

Is it any wonder silver has been doing much better than gold over the last three months? Score one for the silver bugs. In my opinion, silver isn't cheap at these prices. However, at least it doesn't cost $20,000 per pound.

November 19, 2010
Rep. Brad Miller: “Protecting bank solvency has been a goal of Treasury that I do not share”

The belief here is that the servicer is intentionally avoiding any modifications on those loans so their parent company doesn’t have to write down the second lien.

Gold-plated.

We have to make sure the systemic risks are not concealed from us.

Gold-plated.

I can’t imagine how they could do a stress test without looking at all the potential liabilities.

Gold-plated.

There is no possibility of another bailout. Not any possibility Congress will come riding to the rescue. Even if the alternative is an economic cataclysm. This may ultimately give us the opportunity to see how resolution authority works.



Update:

measuring layer thickness on gold plated surfaces

"gold plate" = 20 microinches

A microinch is one millionth of an inch. Gold plate is therefore 1/50,000th of an inch. I bet we could gold-plate our entire economy with that, lol. Sigh.