Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Britain they're called "gold sovereigns", though I've never heard of anyone owning one — only from references in James Bond films and so on. I wasn't aware the nominal value was £1.
The Q suitcase with the 50 gold sovereigns from From Russia With Love , was it? Ironically the plot of Goldfinger relies on something which no longer exists: capital controls. The evil Auric Goldfinger was trying to circumvent British control of the export of money by hiding gold in car panels.
Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
221–230 of 515 posts
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, that's still terrible, but how do they feel about the freezing the personal accounts of people[0]? [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60383385
Actually freezing or potentially freezing? As I mentioned in a comment above I'm not aware of any individual that had their personal savings frozen. I recall a lot of reporting that it might happen and I recall a question time in which the accusation was made that it had happened but when pressed no actual details of to whom could be provided. That dates back to about the time of your linked reporting which also talk…
Either. I don't really understand that anyone would think that a government being able to freeze someone's assets for protesting that government is a good thing.
This isn't the potential for abuse, in a sort of "price of freedom" way. This is an abusive power that, at best, was not used.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#223As an aside, unfortunately for Bob they have him dead to rights this time, there's not gonna be a hung jury.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why people keep thinking that a financial meltdown means societal meltdown. There's plenty of places where the economy is or has already melted down even right now -- Sri Lanka, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. We can observe what happens when political institutions completely and utterly collapse, because it's happened multiple times already . What happens is not immediate apocalypse where people riot a…
I think that prepper scenario is way more likely in a «I got mine, screw you» society like the US. All the countries you list have their issues, but their base level of societal egalitarism is orders of magnitude higher. I would not be surprised if the US is one of the few countries to end up like Mad Max if the world order should fully collapse due to climate change or other large scale events.
There’s always a few bad apples but there’s always some counter pressure, too. The story of the deuce and half owner who drove into a hurricane comes to mind.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you think that people in Argentina are flocking to Dollar and not to Bitcoin or Gold? When I look at the search trends in Argentina, I see Bitcoin in a very volatile longterm uptrend, Gold in a longterm downtrend and the Dollar being constantly a distant third: https://trends.google.de/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=go... Over the 20 years which the Peso has been devaluing, Bitcoin has outpaced the others by…
Try now: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=AR&q=g... Not even "Messi" can beat the "dolar blue"
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you think the US is at risk of collapsing however I would suggest you buy a gun before gold You need friends and allies before you need guns.
> You need friends and allies before you need guns. In one short sentence you may have summarised the difference between other societies and the USA.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Physical gold might have value in situation where financial institutions and markets start to lose any trust in themselves. Either by manipulation, government confiscation or fraud. But, things will be pretty bad at that point from every viewpoint. As essentially global markets are crashing. On other hand, in even bigger crisis gold won't be that valuable at least for a while. If food and fuel are first priority peop…
You don't need to lose trust in the system as a hole. Only in the fact that the system serves you. Bank accounts gets frozen all the time and for a variety of reasons.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shiny metal is better for trade than bartering because it is rare and easy to break down into smaller chunks. Its value is that people other than the persons trading with it are also willing to trade with it. Guns and ammo sound like a better alternative but their rarity is unknown and unpredictable and even less people might be willing to trade with them on a regular basis unless it's a literal warzone. Food perishe…
paying with a gun seems like a perfect recipe to get hold up for the things you just bought.
There’s a class of crime that can only really exist in a rule-of-law situation, without that people just get summarily executed.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#229Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can see it happening right now in Argentina: the local currency is worthless, and people are flocking to ... US Dollars. Not gold, not bitcoins, but good old benjamins. So gold isn't even a good inflation hedge: if you walked the streets of a failing economy (pick one: Argentina, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, there's plenty more) and tried to exchange gold for goods, you're not gonna get far (and will probably get mugged…
Not exactly. I just sent this link to my (Argentine) friends with a different observation. My observation was: The United States is starting to look like Argentina. You must understand: Most Americans are not accustomed to shoving a third party currency under their mattress, or buying physical gold. The phenomenon of hyperinflation is foreign to them, and there's a steep learning curve. The actual significance of thi…
As someone who is studying economics in Argentina... You're pretty much the polar opposite of Argentina when it comes to the economy.