OT... Gold

[harry]

Now both of our economies are going to hell on a handcart is now the time to buy gold or is it too late? If you have any, do you sell? If you do, what do you do with the readies? ($).

Buy houses?

[bob haller]

all bubbles burst.

as to gold if the world economy continues its downward implosion, with congress helping here the bottom may drop out of everything.

people will still need to eat

its sad watching our congress play games while they can crash the worlds economy.

every congressman should turn in their resignation for playing these games

[G. Morgan]

Buy gold options to sell them short in 2 years. Catch it on the up and down.

[G. Morgan]

+1

[George]

Why would that be? Aside from the drama everything I read says the government can spend what it could before it just can't spend more.

Simple analogy. You and your family decide to have a budget and you agree to never borrow more than say $20,000/year (the "debt ceiling"). So now this year one of your family members wants to go on an extravagant vacation which would require that you borrow an additional $5,000. If you adhere to your originally agreed borrowing limit you can still feed and clothe yourselves and go on as usual only no extravagant vacation.

And if you were sensible and you really wanted to go on the extravagant vacation you might decide for example that you really don't need that new car

Why? Some of us explicitly fired out old Congressmen because we were tired of out of control spending.

[Pavel314]

I suggest buying silver coins. You can buy old U.S. real silver coins at a local coin dealer in bulk. Very useful for buying food and supplies when paper money is worthless, as happened in Germany after WWI and Zimbabwe more recently. Or you can buy bullion coins, e.g., American Eagles or Canadian Maple Leaves, or silver ingots.

If you like, you can buy gold coins as an investment or buy shares of GLD.

[Han]

George wrote in news:j06khp$1db$ [e-mail]:

Things are starting to cost more and more. It's called inflation, and you will be experiencing more, soon.

As far as out of control spending, every congresscritter will want to bring home more funds for his/her constituents. As long as there is no limit on that, why should Medicaid (example) recipients suffer? Let the congresscritters first spend less on themselves and their staffs.

[Frank]

I have some. I'm keeping but not buying. Many years ago, when I gave my wife a gold coin as an anniversary gift, I watched the price languish and even go down for many years. It may go higher but with the current rapid rise, you'd be taking a chance that you are on a roller coaster.

As for real estate, they are saying it might take a decade to recover. I don't think I'd invest in it.

I would say, if you need/want something, you might as well buy it now as the potential for hyper inflation is there. It has been absolutely outrageous viewing the inflation rate that the US government gives out. In the index they include housing but not commodities.

[Country]

I've heard some folks are going to the bank and buying rolls and rolls of nickels. I'm not sure why that would be a good thing to do but it is going on.

-C-

[Pavel314]

From Wikipedia: As of 10 April 2011, the value of metal in a nickel is approximately 7.1 cents at current spot prices for constituent metals, a 40%+ premium over face value.

It is illegal to melt or export nickles but in case of a paper money crash, the metal will have some value.

[dadiOH]

Once it's melted, who's to know :)

[dadiOH]

Personally, I wouldn't touch gold (or silver) with a three meter stick. Yes, they may go up more but they appear poised for a very large correction (both short and long term) and unless you are an experienced AND successful day trader you would likely get beaten to pieces. I'm talking about commodity markets here, not physical ownership. I wouldn't even buy the metal now to hold.

IMO, real estate is the bargain of the century. HUGE buyer's market and low interest rates. Yes, prices may go lower and yes, it may take a few years to really recover but it WILL recover and during the waiting period one can at least get the benefit of rental income, tax benefits, etc. You can't get any income or benefits from metal.

Ask yourself what sort of ROI you could get on real estate then ask yourself what would give you a better one.

[Kurt Ullman]

Never have understood why people buy would buy a mutual fund (or heck even bars of gold) if the underlying premise is financial armageddon. If things collapse, what makes you think you are going to be able to convert a paper (allegedly) backed by gold into actual gold? Actually the same with bars since you will have to do something to break them down into usable amounts (Hey, Bob, you got change for a ingot?). The only thing to actually own for the financial end times would be to own coins or small (maybe ounce) ingots.

I am not as sanguine on the return of the market. The demographics were arguing against a long-term bull market in real estate and all the collapse did was hasten the demise. There would have been a big overhang of housing develop over the next few years anyway as the Boomers began to downsize and/or die out. The follow-on generations just aren't big enough to soak up all of the housing the Boomers demanded. This is obviously exacerbated by the excess supply brought about by people getting into homes that wouldn't have in teh past.

[Larry Fishel]

Unfortunately, it's a little more complicated. Our "family" (the U.S. Govt.) has already borrowed that $20,000 and spent it. Now the credit card bills are coming due and the only way to pay them (as we've done for a long time) is to borrow MORE money.

In the end, the debt ceiling will be raised a little (at least temporarily), taxes will probably be raised a bit and spending will be cut a bit, and everyone will get to claim that they helped avert the meltdown that the other party almost caused.

And the person who suggested that politicians shouldn't play games with the future of the country must be new to the planet... :)

[willshak]

Gold is currently $1602.40 (US) per ounce. An all time high.

[David1950]

Bet you have a closet full of duct tape & visqueen too!

[Don Phillipson]

In most places it is illegal to carry a knuckleduster or similar weapon, but perfectly OK to carry a roll of nickels (or two, one for each fist.)

[Me]

It's obvious you people are stupid and don't know how to invest or don't have any money to invest.

[krw]

No, it can only spend 60% of what it spent before. Currently, they're spending $1.75 for every $1.00 brought in. After their credit card gets cut up they can only spend $1.00. There is still enough to pay the interest on the card and SS, and some, but somethings can't be paid. A lot of those things shouldn't be anyway, but that's a different discussion.

No, the "debt ceiling" would be like you only have a $20,000 credit card maximum. *NOT* $20,000 per year. You've just spent $19,995 and have only have $5 more to borrow, and you have an order in the mail that'll be here in August.

No.

Yes.

[krw]

Not true. There is money to pay the minimum. It requires that we don't hire another baby sitter, though.

...and the economy will degrade further.