Russia May Swap Some U.S. Treasuries for IMF Debt

Google Query (3rd result) ^ | 6/10/2009 | Alex Nicholson and Dakin Campbell

[brydic1]

Do you seriously believe that U S politicians will honor the stated purpose of those inflation indexed bonds. To believe so is to believe in the tooth fairy. Those bonds will not keep up with inflation if inflation runs more than 6% p/a. The lying politicians will not hesitate to repudiate the terms of those contracts anymore than government thru Chrysler and GM repudiated the terms of the senior secured bonds.

[CharlesWayneCT]

That may be true, but if so, it also means the government won’t be trusted to keep any of their other obligations either, which means people who work for the government can’t count on their paychecks, people who expect to be paid for work for the government won’t count on it, and in the end, the government will collapse.

In which case, I won’t be any worse off than the rest of the world. And at least I won’t be stuck with a room full of worthless gold bars that I can’t eat and that nobody has any money to pay me for.

[brydic1]

I can not guarantee the value of gold or silver coins in your scenario but I can assure you that they will hold more value than that bushel basket of paper currency. I am not sure that the government would collapse if their was a realization that our debts were just too extensive and there was a need for partial default. It has been done before and with a resolve to restrain the future issuance of huge debts (should it be believed) the nation could get a fresh start and recover.

[maxsand]

I will be paying my taxes with treasuries

[CharlesWayneCT]

Gold is only valuable if other people decide they want to hold it because it is valuable. In a collapsing economy, it has almost no utilitarian value, and you can’t eat it.

“A piece of bread will buy a bag of gold”.

[brydic1]

I really have no evidence of what the value of gold will be during an economic collapse. However, perhaps some small consideration should be given to its continued and persistent role as the ultimate money for the last 5,000 years should be given some small consideration along with the fact that no currency ever issued has managed to hold its worth for any prolong period of time. I might also add that some friends of mine would not be alive today if they had not paid in gold to escape from communist Viet Nam.