Posted on 11/08/2009 2:09:58 PM PST by blam
Gold Bars Selling Like Hotcakes At Harrods
Henry Blodget
Nov. 8, 2009, 9:49 AM
Gold smashed through an all-time high of $1,100 an ounce on Friday, bringing some solace to gold bugs who have been losing money on the metal since the 1980s.
Gold still hasn't come anywhere near its late-1980's peak on an inflation-adjusted basis ($1,800 or so), belying the general theory that it's a great inflation hedge. As the world gold frenzy really takes hold, however, $2,000-an-ounce predictions are coming fast and furious, so there's always hope.
The NYT surveys the gold landscape, checking in on the ultimate symbol of the rush--the bars on sale at the counters of Harrods:
[L]ast month, Harrods, the 160-year-old London department store, began selling coins as well as gold bullion ranging from tiny 1-gram ingots to the hefty, 12.5-kilogram, 400-Troy-ounce bricks that are so often featured in movies and stocked inside the vaults of Fort Knox. Harrods’s lower ground floor, where the gold is peddled, has been packed with interested shoppers.
“The response has been astounding,” said Chris Hall, head of Harrods Gold Bullion. “Bars are definitely more popular than coins. The 100-gram is the most popular.”...
THE Harrods gold line is made by PAMP, a rival Swiss refiner down the road here from Argor-Heraeus, in the nearby town of Castel San Pietro. And demand for bars weighing 100 ounces or less for individual investors is up 80 percent, said Marwan Shakarchi, the chairman of MKS Finance, a Geneva company that owns PAMP.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
bump
Maybe the Goldline dude was right after all.
This news led to the opinion that there must be a gold bubble. The rebuttal is here:
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/casey/casey110509.html
“....If the top were in, we’d be in the midst of an all-out Mania. Are we? Do you get the impression there’s a rush into gold by the greater public right now? Are headlines blazing the covers of major magazines pronouncing gold as the new investment king? Has Wall Street gone gaga over gold and silver? I ask because these are the true signs that a trend has entered its final blow-off top and would signal it’s time to get out.
“I decided to put Bert’s prognostication to the test, and I invite you to play along.
“First, I struck up casual conversations with my friends, neighbors, relatives, acquaintances, my wife’s co-workers - heck, even my seatmates on airplanes - angling to learn how much gold they were hoarding, about the killing they were making in gold stocks, and how they were getting rich from all their precious metal investments. (In fairness, I had to exclude my dad, who is an award-winning gold panner, but he’s the only one.)
“I found no one - not one person - who is actively investing in anything gold or silver, let alone rushing to buy or hoard the stuff. I had two people who confided that they did own gold, but in both cases it was inherited. A few were curious how they would go about doing such a thing, and fewer asked if I thought they should. Most everyone looked at me blankly when I asked; they didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. When I got a reaction like that, it was pointless to ask about gold stocks. Of the handful I did ask, most had never heard of Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer....”
Isn’t ‘HOPE’ what got us into this mess!
If the dollar is going to be virtually worthless why are they trading their gold for dollars?
In related news, WalMart STILL has trouble keeping their ammunition shelves stocked. Most notably missing are 9mm Parabellum, 45 ACP, 380 ACP, 32 ACP, 38 Special,30’6 (ballistic tips), 223 (ball or ballistic tip), etc. For those lucky (or unfortunate enough) to own 40 S&W or 44 Magnum, limited supplies can be found around 4 am most Tuesdays. Of course, shot shells in Turkey, 6 1/2, etc are plentiful......
Damn, I need to take a little bit of that extra $100,000 that I keep in my sock drawer and start buying some gold.
That is a good question. Most people could only buy an ounce or two. What good will it do, unless you have a lot more? Also, in a total societal meltdown, lead will be more valuble than gold, because it will have a powder charge behind it.
Gold is a good idea.
However, it is only a partial protection against inflation, because whatever nominal gains you get from higher gold prices, if you sell you must pay capital gains tax. That is true whether the gain is real, or just due to inflation.
This is a big trouble with capital gains taxes: they eat up capital, and they eat up inflation hedges like gold. Government devours wealth: they don’t care whether they are reducing the savings of a nation. Power depends on bribing your constituents, and that is what BIG MAFIA (otherwise known as the federal government) is up to.
Soon it will be racist to buy gold./s
My Walmart has a ton of 223, but I’m done full up.
The difference between the 1980s dip back down and now is simple.
Now, instead of a president trying to get inflation under control, and put policies in place that create an economic climate favorable to job creation and exapnsion (ie government getting out of the way), and actually DESIRING a prosperous and robust America,
we have mother-F@@KING SOCIALISTS running Congress and the WHITE HOUSE that have as their goal the destruction of America as a superpower and pissing away money by confiscation of it form folks under wealth redistribution schemes Uncle Stalin would be proud of.
THAT’S THE DIFFERENCE!!!!
Bet it ain’t ballistic tip....probably soft point or round nose, etc.... or 55 grain.
Because they need to pay bills and/or buy stuff in the present.
There's some pretty precise wordsmithing there. Yes, if you are "a gold bug who has been losing money on the metal since the 1980s", then $1000 gets you in the black, not counting inflation of course.
But it's been a 400% bull market since 1999 or so, arguably half of the time period Honest Henry is implying that every gold bug has been brooding in his bunker.
Is that show “Gold Fever” still on? I always got a kick out of it. Changed back to Cable, and haven’t found it.
The trouble with gold is the capital gains tax on “collectibles” and all gold is classified as collectible. That means the tax is something like 38% on the gain.
* Guns
* Ammo
* Gold
* Silver
All five of my closest friends carry guns all the time. We are aged 62-68.
One friend bought his wife an AR-15 for Valentines Day. Last year, we built us our own shooting range.
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