Posted on 11/06/2007 4:44:12 AM PST by ml/nj
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Gold hit its highest price since January 1980, following record high oil prices which stoked inflation jitters.
The precious metal rose to as high as 819.93 usd per ounce, its highest price since the 1980 peak of 850 usd, just as London's Brent oil hit a record high of 92.36 usd per barrel.
(Excerpt) Read more at fxstreet.com ...
You are right, I have no idea what the actual tax situation would be in another state. I think it is ridiculous that any tax by the feds or the state would be imposed on changes in value to what was declared to be the only currency in the country. I’d like to see a constitutional amendment preventing any tax on change in value of silver and gold.
And if you’d bought tech stocks in 2000, you’d only be down 60% or so. Timing is everything.
Ok, you’ve admitted you’ve lost sight of any potential for a top. Is that not maybe the definition of the top? GS accurately predicted oil would hit 100. Now we are right there, and some other folks, are trying to up that number to 160. The first number was right, it was a big stretch, which myself laughed at along with many others.
Today, I unloaded a bunch of stocks, I had gains from 100-600% going. I chose to do so, because I was afraid I’d turned into a pig, on my clients behalf. Sometimes, you just say, enough is enough.
Besides, the stuff I’m buying now, I’m more excited about than the stuff I sold. I turned in stocks that had become high risk/low return, for the opposite.
I’ve noticed with stocks, that everyone piles into, that stops are completely ineffective. Turns out, everyone has the same stop points, the gap downs make them worthless.
Not sure where to look, but somewhere in the reading of history of 1993 might be some reminders what pricked the bubble, especially in England and Mexico. Suttle things, easy to overlook I’d bet.
Gold, silver, platinum, real estate, oil, corn, etc. & other assets are not currency.
Like I said, it differs state by state. For instance in California, there is no tax on bullion unless the purchase is $1,000 or greater.
Oregon has no sales tax at all! Always freaks me out when I buy something there and they actually charge what the listed price is. Kinda weird feeling.
And if you bought Swiss Francs for $0.70, and sold for $1.50, you will owe a federal tax on the “gain”.
I love your quote!
A $50.00 BU gold coin is currency.
If I bought a 50.00 US coin for 55.00 what would my tax be?
Like I said, I have no idea what the state to state differences are. Just that the northeastern states seem to have this common “sales and use” tax that covers many things that are bought, or brought into the state for personal use. I would think that many states had a similar “capital gains” tax that followed the federal example, make some money - you gotta pay us a percentage.
Yes, timing is everything. So I subscribe to the Sir John Templeton way of thinking. Buy things that are so beat up, out of favor, people scream and yell at you for being so stupid...
Then, sit back, and just wait, wait, wait...
The problem I do see sometimes, with people that try that, rush in too quickly. Like now, with R/E or financial stocks. People are too quick to find the bottom.
You have to wait until they don’t talk about it anymore, and even the bad news doesn’t make it go down any further. 2 yrs typically from the top, does the trick, though I was early on tech that way, starting my buying in 4/02. Dang, just needed to wait about 6 more months, and should have due to the psycho up move that you accurately describe as exuberance lasting longer than your solvency.
In PA, it would be 6% of the retail price, or 7% if you lived in Philadelphia, or Pittsburgh ($3.30, or $3.85 per coin).
IMO, the falling dollar is being driven more by the incredible level of USD denominated foreign reserves and the current account deficit, rather than interest rate differentials. Foreign appetite for USDs is just about satiated, so who will fund our current account deficit going forward? Just tonight, a comment by China on their desire to diversify out of the USD sent the USD plunging. It’s true a falling dollar should narrow the gap, but with the way manufacturing has moved overseas and with current labor cost differentials, it’s not clear to me that the trade deficit is as sensitive to changes in the USD as it once was, which means we would probably need to see a large drop in the USD to have a material impact. But a falling dollar is a delicate issue. There are so many USDs out there (held mainly in the form of US Treasuries) that triggering a mass exodus by foreigners seems like it would be disasterous.
On oil, supply projections are fairly flat from what I’ve seen, while demand is projected to grow significantly due mainly to India and China. It seems like the fundamentals are there to maintain a high price. It wasn’t that long ago that analysts predicting $80 oil were ridiculed on CNBC.
Exactly, couldn’t agree more. And that’s exactly where gold was around 2000.
If you paid your employees with 50.00 (US Backed) gold eagles instead of 1 dollar bills what is the difference?
In Europe, if you buy gold, you pay a 23% retail tax to buy it. Crazy huh? Yup, that lovely “flat tax” they got.
Well, the $50 (nominal value) coins were worth lots more than face value in recent times. It would be very interesting to see what the US government would do if people were paid in US eagles, and declared income in the face value of the US coinage given to them, paying the appropriate tax on the stated face value. Very interesting, indeed.
On second thought, the US government would probably say that the $50 nominal face value of the coin wasn’t the real value of the coin, and the receiver of same would owe income tax on $800 of ordinary income for every coin received (at least today) no rational needed - just pay us or else.
I agree with what you say. Thing is, our CAD is shrinking which should be bullish for the dollar but somehow the market doesn't care. Our interest rates are higher than Europe but the market doesn't care. Some countries in Europe have worse budget deficits. The current trend keeps on going on it's own momentum (piling on as Professional put it), but at some point there has to be a 'This is Stupid' moment where reality kicks in, and I'm guessing it probably has to happen before it no longer is profitable to make anything in Europe anymore.
On oil, supply projections are fairly flat from what I’ve seen, while demand is projected to grow significantly due mainly to India and China. It seems like the fundamentals are there to maintain a high price. It wasn’t that long ago that analysts predicting $80 oil were ridiculed on CNBC.
Indeed. However, as another freeper put it recently, China and India aren't that big in the global oil market and their demand hasn't gone up that much to warrant oil going from $20 to about $100 (400%) in just a few years. If that had happened in real estate or the stock market, we'd never hear the end of people screaming 'Bubble!' from the rooftops, yet in the case of oil (as in the currency markets), there hasn't been any 'This is Stupid' moments to drive home reality. In fact, supply has kept up with demand and has done so no matter how many hurricanes occur in the Gulf, how many speeches Chavez makes, how many threats come out of Tehran, or how many 'oil workers' get kidnapped in Nigeria.
The trend is bullish as speculators pile on but it has to end sometime. I don't know when that is but it certainly isn't now, which is why I'm still long.
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