Earlier quoted context omitted.
This will be true right up until the point it is not. The US dollar dominance is not a feature of the universe, it's a social agreement that, like any such agreement, will eventually come undone.
Not to sound hyperbolic but I feel once the US Dollar crashes entirely to the degree that it no longer serves as a "default currency" of sorts, that society will have broken down far enough that even the gold will be relatively worthless and the predominant goods of choice will be cans of dog food and beans.
Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
341–350 of 515 posts
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#342I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…
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…
It only has value because we collectively agree it's valuable. But in itself it's not super useful, yes there are some industrial applications where it's better than other metals but if it was only valued on this basis it would be worth much, much less.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#343Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comparing the US with Argentina is wild. Americans are buying gold because there's a lot of propaganda about how the country is going to hell, the economy is fucked and there's plenty of marks out there that fall for this, while unemployment is historically low and the mcdonalds close to me is offering 17 an hour for line workers. There's been a huge increase in ads about "buying hold to protect yourself" instead of…
This isn't some fear grift, just so you know. I lived in Argentina for many years, my family is from there, and I've been saying for awhile that America is on the brink of making the same mistakes that Argentina makes that lead to cycles of hyperinflation, default, and instability. It's clear that it's "wild" in the sense that everyone in the world pegs their economy to USD, and as long as you expect that to continue…
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as with the people who wake up every morning expecting the Second Coming, or indeed a Nuclear War, these folks fixate on a hyperinflationary US economy so much they begin to hallucinate. Everything must be a sign. Strong job figures? Those are a precursor to hyperinflation. More mortgages fail than average? Hyperinflation on the horizon. Trump gets elected? He'll certainly cause hyperinflation. Trump loses? Demo…
HN seems to have a lot of kooks these days, or maybe the kind of people who would push back have just stopped. I've seen a surprising amount of vaccine denialism, xenophobia, unsubstantiated pop Econ takes, Peter Zeihan bullshit, etc. YC should just cut the cord on this forum tbh. It's not about "Hackers" or "News" anymore.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#345I'd love to see an economists take on the value to a consumer of holding gold in this form, at the price. Investment gold is usually kept in vault, and you trade ownership arms length. Direct gold ownership is rife with risks: fineness, substitutions and overpriced purchase. Yes, you can always sell at a mall gold trader but that's way way off market price. So it's an inflation hedge with a lot of cost and risk and d…
Laypeople hear professionals talk about how gold is a good investment, but they don't realize that professionals are trading gold ETFs and futures. Ill informed lay people then go buy a gold bar from Costco.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#346Earlier quoted context omitted.
Costco's not a monopoly by the current definition, but they do occupy a very cozy spot between wholesale and retail, and they do vertically control everything Kirkland from mayonnaise to roast chicken. We have a strange situation right now, in the US, in which any company with at least one major competitor is considered good for the free market; and it takes a hell of a lot of work to show that those two competitors…
> But they don't actually need to be price-fixing with each other in a classical way. Spot on. There doesn't have to be a conspiracy. Like entities with like goals and finite ways to maximize will follow similar or like paths. The example I like to use are starlings (birds) and murmurations. Obviously, the birds aren't conspiring in any way. And yet they magically move in sync. Business competitors can do the same. S…
Yes; flocking behavior is sufficient to explain how two or three supposed competitors can simulate a free market while profiting from monopolistic behavior. And it's also a fantastically nifty adaptation to allow any one entity to skirt the legislative hammer.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#347Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d guess threat model is less “there is a zombie apocalypse” and more “you need to flee to another country”.
But then you need cold coins, not a gold bar. Or, multiple foreign currencies.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#348Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a 'feature' 49 coins @ $200 each is less than $10,000 in legal tender and doesn't have to be declared as a cash transaction or carry on cash. Also handy for reducing transfer taxes on house purchases - you can have a higly qualified QC (fancy lawyer) swear affidavits that they witnessed the purchase of a house for an absurdly low amount and therefore the required tax is correct despite being so low.
I don't think I'll be retaining you as my tax advisor.
If a seller offers a house for $6,000,000 and an offer is made to pay $200,000 in legal tender of that country .. and the seller accepts ... what is the sales tax?
Is it calculated from the $200,000 in legal tender which was witnesed by officers of the highest standing, or is it calculated from the metal value of the coins ($6 million)?
You really don't want a tax advisor on this, you want an authoritive legal opinion.
It is a loophole that has been exploited in various countries at various times - but you'd want to be sure of current laws if you're tempted to go that route.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#349Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN seems to have a lot of kooks these days, or maybe the kind of people who would push back have just stopped. I've seen a surprising amount of vaccine denialism, xenophobia, unsubstantiated pop Econ takes, Peter Zeihan bullshit, etc. YC should just cut the cord on this forum tbh. It's not about "Hackers" or "News" anymore.
> YC should just cut the cord on this forum tbh. It's not about "Hackers" or "News" anymore. It's a marketing tool for them, always was. Probably fairly cheap to run, too.
Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours
#350Earlier quoted context omitted.
Costco's not a monopoly by the current definition, but they do occupy a very cozy spot between wholesale and retail, and they do vertically control everything Kirkland from mayonnaise to roast chicken. We have a strange situation right now, in the US, in which any company with at least one major competitor is considered good for the free market; and it takes a hell of a lot of work to show that those two competitors…
> We have a strange situation right now, in the US, in which any company with at least one major competitor is considered good for the free market; (...) Wasn't Amazon just sued by the FTC due to anticompetitive practices?