Posted on 03/07/2009 12:07:33 PM PST by dennisw
With prices setting new records, the worried wealthy are piling up ingots in home safes. NEWSWEEK goes shopping for precious metal.
On the day I held the gold bar in my hand, it was worth $100,000. My companion—an established, accomplished, affluent businessman of retirement age—had bought it as a hedge against the sinking Dow and his fear that Obama's stimulus package will inevitably trigger wild inflation. We had picked it up in the basement of an HSBC bank branch in midtown Manhattan. When I handed it back to him, he put it in his briefcase. We went upstairs, past guards, through metal doors. Out on the street, we said goodbye and I watched him go, a tall, thin man carrying a $100,000 briefcase. He doesn't want me to tell you his name—or anything about him—because he's keeping the gold in a safe in his basement. His friends, are doing the same thing. "There is an increase in the number of wise, reasonable, well-read, well-intentioned people who are buying some gold and putting it aside," says Dennis Gartman, editor of The Gartman Letter, a daily analysis of financial news.
John Wynocker, a hydraulics inspector, lives in Cincinnati and has been buying gold and silver coins and bars for 15 years, but since the passage of Obama's stimulus bill, he has been motivated to buy more. He is hiding the precious metal in places where not even he can find it, he jokes. Are you burying it? I ask. "Perhaps," he says. "Our country is so far in debt, it's staggering. I'd like to retire someday. What else am I going to do to protect myself?"
the number of Americans who are taking delivery of gold coins and bars is rising.
The last time gold sales spiked so dramatically was Y2K,
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Cash in mattress is also good as long as we have deflation
Doom and gloom ping list
Guns under the mattress and elsewhere are better.
What happens if the price of gold drops back to “normal” levels?
Yep. The only precious metals I’m buying are steel, brass and lead.
Trading will be for small stuff- a loaf of bread, ten rounds of ammunition, and so forth.
Imagine trying to buy stuff with a thousand dollar bill.
ROTFL.
Remind me to holler before I approach the bridge *you* live under...
these are normal levels
LOL...me too. And beans.
Ahhhhhh....did you ever bury your nose in a mountian of curls? Did you ever pick up a shiny brick of gold......
that way we can take his gold? or perhaps keep him from trying to take our food?
Newsweek is perhaps hoping to inspire some summary reposession actions by the brothas. They know where the nicer neighborhoods are.
here is a tube of 20 Gold 1oz Eagles next to my little ham rig for size comparison....these were over 1000.00ea a few days ago.
“Imagine trying to buy stuff with a thousand dollar bill”
heck soon you’ll need a couple of those for a loaf of bread.
I have a few $20 gold pieces and a bunch of Morgan silver dollars that I bought years ago as a coin collector, but a closet full of gold bars is way out of my league.
The problem with large-sized gold is “what are you gonna trade it for WTSHTF?” .......
That can be a problem with one ounce gold coins too. The game plan is not use gold at all until the crisis passes. You can buy junk silver coins today... and use them for purchases during “the great chaos” Silver will not attract so much attention. Also pile up some green cash and spend that
You can’t show up at Walmart and buy groceries with gold. At least not yet. You’ll need to be able to exchange your gold for cash. Thus, assuming for sake of argument that gold really is the best hedge against Obama-flation, does it make much sense to buy a $100,000 bar of gold like the guy in the article? Wouldn’t gold coins be a much smarter choice, as they could be converted to cash gradually and on an as-needed basis?
“president of First Federal Coin, says he always recommends “a safe-deposit box in a good bank”
And which bank is that??
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