Saturday, December 11, 2010

How to Look Smart if a Depression Hits

How to look smart if a depression hits

Gold in a depression. Gold has a particular status. To some people it is a thing, a commodity which rises and falls in price according to the play of supply and demand, just as soybeans and copper do. But other people see gold as money. And not just as any money but as the best of money. This latter way of thinking about gold makes the value rise during depressions.

I should probably point out that this article was written on September 22, 1979. In hindsight, there were clearly better times to be buying gold.

January 16, 1980
Gold's lure irresistible for desperate investors

For those who are greedy and have a taste for complexity, there are the futures markets in gold and silver.

May 20, 1980
KISBER

WE PAY CASH FOR GOLD AND SILVER...

Good thing investors aren't greedy and/or don't have a taste for complexity these days.

ProShares Ultra Gold

The investment will seek to replicate, net of expenses, twice the performance of gold bullion as measured by the U.S. Dollar p.m. fixing price for delivery in London.

ProShares Ultra Silver

The investment will seek to replicate, net of expenses, twice the performance of silver bullion as measured by the U.S. Dollar fixing price for delivery in London.

18 comments:

  1. A wsj article on "china rate worries" (sorry i can't link from my handheld) said there were 24 gold etfs. Holy cow, 24 gold ETFs?! 'Course there's also silver etfs. copper etfs. rare earth etfs. noble metal etfs. Good thing this stuff is scarce.

    Wouldn't want it's value diluted, you know. The fed can print more money, but it's good to know no one will ever expand hard asset investments. They're in limited supply i hear.

    - jus me

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  2. Brite Wite ETF

    "The idea here is that gold has far more psychological value with just about no industrial considerations. The other precious metals obviously have industrial uses which makes them less predictable in the face of some sort of external shock. As a reminder my primary motive in owning gold across the board is the expectation that in the face of some sort of external shock it will go up. Obviously it has gone up for other reasons over the last few years as well."

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  3. jus me,

    The fed can print more money, but it's good to know no one will ever expand hard asset investments.

    They aren't making *any* more land either yet it managed to deflate when it became expensive compared to toilet paper. Go figure!

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  4. G.H.,

    Apparently, the more useless something is the more value it has! Take Greenspan, Bernanke, and banking CEOs for example. They were/are paid well to help create bubbles that they could only identify in hindsight, lol. Sigh.

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  5. Goats, goats, goats, goats,
    Marching up and down again.

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  6. Just noticed this in your "Blog List":

    Jim Chanos: "Adam Smith will get his Revenge on China's Real Estate Bubble"

    "Chanos said that steel, iron ore, cement and other materials needed for construction will be "under pressure."

    ...

    "Every company we have looked at has accounting issues. The lower you get in the story the more interesting it becomes.""


    It's Enron, China style!

    "When asked about the sustainability of what China is doing, Chanos commented that a lot of what the state is doing is "misdirected investment" in order to keep nominal growth."

    There's little reason for a man like Chanos to state the obvious, but he just did (although maybe it's not so obvious to people that are "...paid well to help create bubbles that they could only identify in hindsight...".

    Hear, hear!


    My word verification: "conpr". There's that reference to Enron again, haha.

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  7. I Fiing hate 2X, 3X, 10X ETF's! What a crock!

    I would remind all, Enron was just ahead of it's time, not criminal as the rules are written now. Remember that.

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  8. G.H.,

    I watched an hour long speech by Chanos quite a few months ago. I'm a believer. I'm a bit biased though since I was already a disbeliever in the long-term China story.

    The world seems to have already forgotten 2007.

    China's Inflation Is a Mooncake Walk

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  9. GYSC,

    I would remind all, Enron was just ahead of it's time, not criminal as the rules are written now. Remember that.

    I would also remind everyone that I worked at Cendant. Poor Walter Forbes. Where's he going to find $3.3 billion behind bars?

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  10. dearieme,

    Perhaps we can make (scape)goats our economy's mascot?

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  11. Well Cendant just missed the Open Fed Window Loan program!

    Holy Moly, is it really years end??

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  12. "Poor Walter Forbes. Where's he going to find $3.3 billion behind bars?"

    From your Cendant link:

    "...he was ordered to pay $15 million initially and $2,000 a month once released from prison. At that rate it would take Shelton more than 130,000 years to pay restitution."

    He needs to refi through WaMu!

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  13. Apologies for not posting recently. The holiday season managed to sneak up on me. Again!

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  14. I'm guessing you've been busy turning in your unwanted gold for cash! lol

    There's never been a better time!

    And now for today's blinding glimpse of the obvious, CashForGoldScam.net:

    "There are many new gold buyers popping up everyday. As you may have guessed, many of these are actually cash for gold scams cashing in on the current popularity of gold."

    Word ver.: "perpi" - plural for perpetrator

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  15. G.H.,

    There's never been a better time!

    I'm trying to figure out a way to hoard time, lol.

    "Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." - Theophrastus ;)

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  16. Tiiiiimmmme, is on my side!

    When we see "buy gold from (insert website)" commercials we are at the top.

    What is more mythic at this point, gold, or sovereign debt guarantees out to 2035?

    Ok, it is holiday season, and I left my last real post for the year tonight. All my best to all.

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  17. GYSC,

    When we see "buy gold from (insert website)" commercials we are at the top.

    I've seen commercials telling us to buy gold. Take Monex for example. They've even been pushing leveraged gold (25% down in an "Atlas" account).

    What is more mythic at this point, gold, or sovereign debt guarantees out to 2035?

    In my opinion, I'd say gold at these prices. I no longer own gold but I do own I-Bonds and TIPS out to 2040. I'll be buying TIPS out to 2041 in next year's TIPS auctions.

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