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Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

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Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#501

Post by addicted »

olalonde wrote: post #279
altacc wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I notice this when travelling the world and it's one of the main reasons I think the many of the arguments for cryptocurrency are flawed. I've used decades old dollar bills in SE Asia that have been pretty much detached from the US economy for decades and have held value better than bitcoin ever has. The value of the dollar is linked not just to the US economy but also a global black economy and that has some unoffic…

> I've used decades old dollar bills in SE Asia that have been pretty much detached from the US economy for decades and have held value better than bitcoin ever has. I'm not sure what makes you feel that way. Gold and Bitcoin are up against the dollar in the past decade, and by a significant margin. Bitcoin is up ~225x against the dollar. Gold is up ~50x against the dollar going back five decades. The US dollar is pr…

Your talk about gold being “up against the dollar” shows that you simply don’t understand what a currency is.

But don’t worry, there’s an entire scam industry (the other thing you mention) built almost entirely on people not understanding the difference between an asset and a currency and the almost diametrically opposite roles and purposes of the two.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#502

Post by addicted »

landemva wrote: post #441
dredmorbius wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are numerous countries with controls over money entering or, more often, leaving the territory. This can apply to cash, gold, or other valuables. The issue generally falls under the general realm of customs regulations though also capital controls. Domestic travel generally as fewer, and often (but not always) no limits. Risks of seizure, forfeiture, and outright theft should also be considered. It's generally…

> Risks of seizure That happens with account balances in USA. Try to fight an account seizure after the fact in courts in USA, and be prepared to lose. Tangible items including metal are diversification, and bitcoin and ethereum are incredible across borders.

Currency is currency.

Assets are assets.

Claiming that an asset is better than a currency because it’s better at what assets are supposed to do and currencies are explicitly not supposed to do is strange to say the least.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#503

Post by TheHumanist »

manonthewall wrote: post #469
infecto wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the same with those $1 US coins when the mint was allowing you to purchase them for $1 free shipping. We would get as much as possible and then turn around and deposit into the bank.

why would you pay $1 each for $1 coins and turn around and put that in the bank? I mean what's the purpose? I could see if you were keeping them as collectors items that might be worth more in the future, but once dropped in the bank you're back to where you started??

Did you just jump into a sub comment and it read prior comment? Lol credit card points. Then deposit and pay off what you spent.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#504

Post by TheHumanist »

icepat wrote: post #298
op00to wrote: post #229

My dad, near the end of his life, was "convinced" by his UBS money managers to move most of his assets into gold. He had a signficant amount of money, and this yielded a major payday for the fucktard at UBS that told him to do it. I can't see any reason for it!

That's really strange. I've spoken to UBS investment managers, and they're incredibly cautious about everything they suggest. There's a lot of red tape, almost wonder if something dodgy was going on.

Are USB money managers fiduciaries?

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#505

Post by manonthewall »

infecto wrote: post #489
manonthewall wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why would you pay $1 each for $1 coins and turn around and put that in the bank? I mean what's the purpose? I could see if you were keeping them as collectors items that might be worth more in the future, but once dropped in the bank you're back to where you started??

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Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#506

Post by dredmorbius »

addicted wrote: post #502
landemva wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Risks of seizure That happens with account balances in USA. Try to fight an account seizure after the fact in courts in USA, and be prepared to lose. Tangible items including metal are diversification, and bitcoin and ethereum are incredible across borders.

Currency is currency. Assets are assets. Claiming that an asset is better than a currency because it’s better at what assets are supposed to do and currencies are explicitly not supposed to do is strange to say the least.

Whilst true, there are distinct classes and types of assets, with differing characteristics.

Currency is exceptionally liquid (interchangeable) and nearly-universally accepted within a particular region.

Stocks, bonds, and other financialised instruments tend to be better inflation hedges, as currency will, does, and should inflate and deflate to meet actual transaction needs, and to dilute excessively burdensome debts.

Real estate is exceptionally durable, tends to hold value well (excepting speculative bubbles), and serves excellently as collateral for debt. Other long-term tangible property (e.g., industrial plant and equipment) can play a similar role.

Commodities tend to be intermediate between cash and other forms of financialised instruments, generally having inherent liquidity (that is, the commodity can be sold for use-value), as well as its investment role.

Collectables ranging from fine arts to wines to luxury automobiles tend to have hold value well (again, modulo speculative bubbles), and are both more readily stored and transported than real estate.

Cryptocurrencies tend to most strongly resemble the latter, in both their intrinsic durability (which is NOT the same as price stability), and their portability, which is to say that they serve as a highly effective way of moving financial wealth between jurisdictions, often without any external visibility, though of course blockchain transactions, like diamonds, are forever.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#508

Post by Symmetry »

mistrial9 wrote: post #424
Symmetry wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not uniform. The inflation of housing prices in SF over the last decade has averaged somewhere around 6% leading to a ~100% increase, way higher than the roughly 2% average inflation. But comparing a ~100% increase over a decade to a ~100% increase over a year is very misleading

except that there are houses in other places besides San Francisco.. and that those prices have volatility not seen in San Francisco.. is there is a motivated-reason behind defending the house prices here? projecting stability ?

I was using SF because it's known to have had a much higher house price inflation than other places, in order to try to be charitable to your case. If you look at the overall US housing market then you need to go back a lot further than a decade to see 100% inflation.

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#509

Post by idiotsecant »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #323
VHRanger wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryptocurrencies are inherently bad currencies because of price volatility (except stable coins). That also makes them good speculative assets fwiw

and stablecoins are always fraudulent

Interesting. You sound like you know a lot about the subject, to be so confident. Could you please explain how, for example, DAI is fraudulent?

Re: Costco gold bars are selling out within hours

#510

Post by webninja »

more_corn wrote: post #495
bluGill wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually, but that eventually shows no sign of stopping soon. There are two cases where it stops: the US decides to replace the dollar with something else, and there is a clear trade in program (the EU went to the Euro, and India did something similar); or things change slowly over time so you will have plenty of time where your dollar maybe isn't worth what it was yesterday but still is worth almost a dollar - odd…

This may change tomorrow when the republicans again hold the economy hostage demanding increasingly unhinged political concessions. They can do this till the dollar isn’t a useful currency anymore. It probably won’t come to that but we don’t know. And uncertainty is bad for business.

What political concessions are they demanding? The primary one is reducing government spending. The US Govt cannot keep its current rate of spending and the democrats in the House of Representatives don’t yet see that. Interest on the government debt has grown to $640 billion dollars in 2023. That is 16% of all government revenues now (in 2023). The outstanding debt only grows due to the ~$1.5 Trillion dollar deficit between revenue and the reckless spending. To say congress has been spending like a drunken sailor would be an insult to drunken sailors. I hope congress changes that in the new budget bill by cutting spending.
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