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Where Is Germany's Gold?

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Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#11

Post by tdees40 »

carsongross wrote: post #6
tdees40 wrote: post #3

So here's how this works. Gold bugs are big fans of buying gold. They have lots of gold. Their narrative of the financial system is that gold is the uber-asset that all other assets must be denominated in, and that fiat currency is doomed to collapse. The massive run-up of gold prices during the financial crisis played into this narrative, and despite the fact that mainstream economists, politicians, bankers, etc. st…

It's always good to think about what evidence would convince you that the other side has a point. I lean towards the side that thinks that the central and money center banks (not faceless multinationals) are suppressing the price of gold via fractionally-reserved lending of physical gold. What would convince me that this is not the case would be a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve's books and gold holdings.…

I think a dinosaur lives in the subways under Manhattan. I would be convinced otherwise only by a full audit of all subway tunnels conducted using a dinosaur scanner (which someone will need to invent).

But seriously, there are lots of things that are hard to prove wrong, but that's hardly a good reason to believe them. In your case, what motive would the Fed have? Has an employee of the Fed (or any other central bank) ever blown the whistle on this massive international conspiracy? If there's no good reason to think something, there really isn't much good reason to spend time proving it wrong.

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#12

Post by nosuchthing »

tdees40 wrote: post #3

So here's how this works. Gold bugs are big fans of buying gold. They have lots of gold. Their narrative of the financial system is that gold is the uber-asset that all other assets must be denominated in, and that fiat currency is doomed to collapse. The massive run-up of gold prices during the financial crisis played into this narrative, and despite the fact that mainstream economists, politicians, bankers, etc. st…

People should really try and understand what makes things valuable beyond the beanie baby pokemon hype bandwaggon.

Gold as a raw material is useful to a degree, just as diamonds are, but artificial scarcity [1] [2] and wild speculation create a mess of distortions.

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you...

[2] http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond_pr.html

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#13

Post by sjwright »

The purpose of money is to facilitate trade and represent a relatively stable yardstick for valuation, not to be an investment. You don't need a gold-backed currency in order to invest in gold -- just invest in gold.

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#16

Post by nosuchthing »

tdees40 wrote: post #11
carsongross wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's always good to think about what evidence would convince you that the other side has a point. I lean towards the side that thinks that the central and money center banks (not faceless multinationals) are suppressing the price of gold via fractionally-reserved lending of physical gold. What would convince me that this is not the case would be a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve's books and gold holdings.…

I think a dinosaur lives in the subways under Manhattan. I would be convinced otherwise only by a full audit of all subway tunnels conducted using a dinosaur scanner (which someone will need to invent). But seriously, there are lots of things that are hard to prove wrong, but that's hardly a good reason to believe them. In your case, what motive would the Fed have? Has an employee of the Fed (or any other central ban…

I have an anti-dinosaur stone I'm willing to sell for the right price, it's very effective. Notice there are no dinosaurs around the vicinity of my stone.

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#17

Post by ArkyBeagle »

tdees40 wrote: post #3

So here's how this works. Gold bugs are big fans of buying gold. They have lots of gold. Their narrative of the financial system is that gold is the uber-asset that all other assets must be denominated in, and that fiat currency is doomed to collapse. The massive run-up of gold prices during the financial crisis played into this narrative, and despite the fact that mainstream economists, politicians, bankers, etc. st…

Or gold was in a bubble that collapsed.

The Depression proves that the gold standard doesn't work. There was no stability; there was deflation.

Since the concept behind the gold standard means "gold always..." - a universal quantifier, one needs only show a counterexample to blow it out of the water.

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#18

Post by raintrees »

So if they are melting down bars and reforming them, that should put to rest the theory that The Federal Reserve's bars have been tampered with and are just gold-plated tungsten... right?

The tungsten substitutes are just part of "normal" dodgy street counterfeiting? http://www.businessinsider.com/tungsten-filled-gold-bars-fou...

Re: Where Is Germany's Gold?

#19

Post by dataminer »

tdees40 wrote: post #3

So here's how this works. Gold bugs are big fans of buying gold. They have lots of gold. Their narrative of the financial system is that gold is the uber-asset that all other assets must be denominated in, and that fiat currency is doomed to collapse. The massive run-up of gold prices during the financial crisis played into this narrative, and despite the fact that mainstream economists, politicians, bankers, etc. st…

Not a gold bug myself (its a purely speculative and non productive investment instrument), however gold's price was under pressure due to Indian government restrictions on its imports. Loosening of these restrictions is one of the factors the price of gold has appreciated even in the face of US dollar appreciation this year.
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