Gold Push Unlikely to Be Scrapped

Wall Sreet Journal ^ | * JULY 20, 2011 | RHIANNON HOYLE

[RC one]

Fiscal troubles in both Europe and the U.S. may have spurred gold to record highs this week, but the warm embrace of the precious metal appears to be the result of more than one set of incentives.

Swiss bank UBS said that gold, which cracked the $1,600 a troy ounce mark on Monday, will be the only precious metal with a supply deficit this year, as demand outstrips inventory for the first time since 2008.

The bank's analysts say that a decline in scrap gold—gold that is returned to the market in the form of jewelry, electronics, gold teeth and the like—is heavily contributing the deficit.

Michael Jansen, head of metals research at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., calls the recent rally "a seminal moment" for the market. "I think it was the foundation for people to start thinking that maybe gold's not headed to $1,650 an ounce or $1,700 an ounce—maybe it is headed toward $1,800 an ounce or even $2,000 an ounce."

[NormsRevenge]

woo hoo!!

[oldtimer]

If and when the US loses it’s status as the worlds reserve currency, and all of a sudden a loaf of bread costs $25 or $50 dollars, and so on, guess what the price of gold will be.

[RC one]

I think this Dodd-Frank Bill will actually drive gold prices up too by restricting the ability of non-physical metal traders to sell non-physical gold that doesn't actually represent an amount of gold held in reserve. That means decreased supply which means increased demand and increased price per ounce of physical metal. I'm still waiting to see if that is indeed how it pans out but that is my understanding of at least one aspect of this bill.here's a link

[Oatka]

When gold breaches $3,000 or so, watch how much gold comes out of the ground.

I was around when we went completely off the gold standard and “experts” were saying there was a “scarcity of gold”. It was amazing to see how much surfaced when it passed the $200 mark.

I thought it was cool on the gold miners’ part that they started working the lower grade veins, keeping the richer ones in reserve for when gold fell.

[RC one]

the easy gold has been mined. There are serious problems associated with pulling more out to keep up with demand. For one, the gold mines are located in unstable regions around unstable governments with unstable power supplies. Then there’s the environmental impact associated with gold mining. Large areas of native land are destroyed and polluted badly. It’s not as easy as just hiring a few more miners.

[Terry Mross]

We could just send in our army and take over the countries that have gold. Sorta’ like we did when we needed oil. Oh, wait! We didn’t do that, did we?

[seowulf]

You just don’t seem to see gold extracted with cyanide like you used to.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks RC one.

...gold, which cracked the $1,600 a troy ounce mark on Monday, will be the only precious metal with a supply deficit this year, as demand outstrips inventory for the first time since 2008.

Ads for places buying scrap gold are all over around here. In a sort of voluntary redistribution scheme, people spending their money on gold are funding those not so well off who are parting with their bling. And the brokers make money irrespective of the direction of the flow or the type of transaction. The other growing market is probably metal detectors.