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Vanity: Why not sell the US oil reserve and use the proceeds to buy gold for Ft Knox.
11/29/2014 | Charles Kilmer

Posted on 11/29/2014 2:43:52 PM PST by ckilmer

An interesting way to harden the US dollar and make it less of a fiat currency would be to sell the US oil reserve and use the proceeds to buy gold to store in Ft Knox or elsewhere.

For those who know their dollar and oil reserve history--this is 180 reversal of policies set in the 1970's because of a 180 reversal of circumstances. In the 1970's US oil production peaked and went into decline while the US dollar went off the gold standard and went into decline.

What's different now?

1.)Fracking has shown that the USA now has 100 year supply of oil. The USA is not going to run out oil any time soon. The fear of limited supply was the original reason for creating the US oil reserve. Now we know that we will not run out in anyone's lifetime.

2.) There are dozens of countries around the world working at undermining the dollar as the era of petro dollars winds down. Increasing gold reserves will help to harden the dollar.

3.)Countries like Germany and Holland are starting to move their gold out of the USA. This doesn't look good. It shows a loss of confidence in the long term viability of the USA. Selling oil and using it to buy gold would be a confidence builder.

3.) Its likely that oil will return to the $90@barrel in a year or two as lower oil prices reinvigorate the world economy and thereby push up the demand for oil and consequently the price of oil. However, the long term direction of oil is now down. Why. Because car makers in Japan Europe and America are shifting transportation to alternate fuels like natural gas, electric and even fuel cells. This is not a fad. Europe and Japan have an even more profound need than the USA to become energy independent. They can't do that as long as oil is their main transportation fuel.

Therefor its best to sell oil over the next decade while prices for oil are relatively high. 10 years from now and beyond oil is going to $35@ barrel and below as demand for oil collapses.


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: gold; goldbugs; nuttery; opec; tinfoilheadgear
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To: ckilmer

That idea is TOTALLY GAY.


61 posted on 11/29/2014 4:07:05 PM PST by BobL (I'm so old, I can remember when most hate crimes were committed by whites - Thomas Sowell, 2014)
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To: Steely Tom

Supposedly, China is putting a lot of effort into Thorium nuclear.
............
Yeah that story is a real pisser too. The number of companies/univesities however working on thorium continues to rise every year.

The amount of smoke there rises every year.

imho it won’t be but a couple years before lftr msr thorium reactors become a very big deal.


62 posted on 11/29/2014 4:09:32 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer

Drive down the price of oil so fracking is no longer viable and drive up the price of gold. Sounds like a lose-lose.


63 posted on 11/29/2014 4:09:35 PM PST by Ingtar (Is this the Ebola and rumors of Ebola mentioned in the Bible?)
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To: ckilmer
so it can be siphoned off and sold again?
64 posted on 11/29/2014 4:11:01 PM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Iron Munro

Obama is being saved by the Ogre of capitalism that he works so hard to slay.

.................
yup and the dems will have not learned a thing. except what shumer is talking about. that the dems should have helped the middle and working classes before soaking them with obamacare.


65 posted on 11/29/2014 4:11:34 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer

“The saudis produce cheap oil.”
Doesn’t matter.
What matters is that Saudis only need to make about $70/brl to fund their budget.

What REALLY matters is that they have SAVED MONEY and can carry a loss for years without borrowing.
It’s better to be rich than to be in debt.


66 posted on 11/29/2014 4:12:26 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat Party!)
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To: ckilmer

We need oil independence for the upcoming war(s) with Russia and OPEC nations. I don’t think we are betting on the Saudi royalty lasting for long.


67 posted on 11/29/2014 4:21:51 PM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: BobL

That idea is TOTALLY GAY.
.............
I don’t get this except if TOTALLY GAY=GILDING THE LILLY


68 posted on 11/29/2014 4:23:26 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: SaraJohnson

We need oil independence for the upcoming war(s) with Russia and OPEC nations. I don’t think we are betting on the Saudi royalty lasting for long.
.................
The odds are long that there will be wars with OPEC or Russia. The odds are long too that the Saudi royalty will be unseated anytime soon.
............
However, for the next decade of so — there are likely to be some pretty wild swings in the price of oil.


69 posted on 11/29/2014 4:25:47 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer
imho it won’t be but a couple years before lftr msr thorium reactors become a very big deal.

Have you seen the thorium advocacy work (videos) of Kirk Sorensen? He's a fantastically effective evangelist for that technology.

70 posted on 11/29/2014 4:31:23 PM PST by Steely Tom (Thank you for self-censoring.)
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To: OpusatFR

Then pull back our military agreements. Of yes the Russians and Chinese are getting good at that too.

What do you suggest?
..................
The way to quiet things down considerably in the middle east and russia is to push oil prices to $35@ barrel. But higher oil production won’t get the USA there. Only a collapse in demand caused by a shift away from oil as a transportation fuel — will make that happen.

That shift away from oil as a transportation fuel will happen. But its effects won’t be felt for at least five years.

I would have preferred that the crash in oil prices happened late in 2015 or 2016 because in another 18 months the USA —with high oil prices— would be producing over 10 million barrels a day or enough for north american oil independence. (we’d still need some oil from canada.)

that’s likely not going to happen. prices look like they’ll fall until they shut down oil production. But the result of low oil prices is higher economic growth and a higher demand for oil. So higher oil prices will return in two years. and production will go back up again.

You and I don’t have to do anything but tell our congressmen to fund research into nuclear energy especially lftr and msr designs.


71 posted on 11/29/2014 4:36:20 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer
Well there’s plenty of work going on right now in 4th generation nuclear reactors with msr lftr designs.
Prototypes on these are expected out in 5 years of so. A number of countries are working on them.

The brain-dead Greenies will revolt.

Yes, I know.

They're already revolting.


72 posted on 11/29/2014 4:40:39 PM PST by Iron Munro (D.H.S. has the same headcount as the US Marine Corps with twice the budget)
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To: Steely Tom

imho it won’t be but a couple years before lftr msr thorium reactors become a very big deal.

Have you seen the thorium advocacy work (videos) of Kirk Sorensen? He’s a fantastically effective evangelist for that technology.
.........
Yeah I love his advocacy. I’m not sure his company is doing much. We’ll see. There’s a number of small companies doing msr designs of which the most notable are Sorensen Flibe and the MIT based Transatomic company. Bill Gates has his own small nuclear company called Terrapower with a different design that looks like Microsoft vs linux for everyone else. After them there’s a lot more companies and universities working in the field. The canadians have a small company with government funding that’s trying to do a molten salt design. The US government so far has been clueless.


73 posted on 11/29/2014 4:41:37 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: Ingtar

Drive down the price of oil so fracking is no longer viable and drive up the price of gold. Sounds like a lose-lose.
...........
Yeah on the face of it.

But the efforts by european, japanese and american companies to create and sell cars which don’t use oil...is not a passing fad. Its not going away. with time it will only get stronger. why? the europeans and Japanese can’t produce their own oil. therefor the only way they can become energy independent is to get away from oil as a transportation fuel.

Oil prices will be pressured from another front as well. Natural gas. over the next ten years all the number 4&3 heating oils used to heat buildings in the northeast will be replaced with natural gas. same goes for trains trucks and buses. That’s TBoone Picken’s idea. Its will happen over a period of ten years.

Between natural gas, electricity and what not —starting 5 years from now the demand for oil will start to slump. In time the slum in demand will accelerate.

This will collapse the price of oil.

It would be better to sell oil reserves in the next 5 year than in the following 10 years.

The coming technological revolutions will favor a stronger dollar than a weaker dollar.


74 posted on 11/29/2014 4:50:18 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer

Gay in the sense of living for today, but not giving a damn about tomorrow. I prefer to have OIL for the day we need it, rather than gold, which at best might be able to buy some oil. I have kids.


75 posted on 11/29/2014 4:52:06 PM PST by BobL (I'm so old, I can remember when most hate crimes were committed by whites - Thomas Sowell, 2014)
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To: Iron Munro

The brain-dead Greenies will revolt.
................
The greenies have a very definite energy plan. Renewable energy is good. Its just not good enough.

What the world needs is much cheaper energy. That’s the way true revolutions happen.


76 posted on 11/29/2014 4:52:18 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: BobL

Gay in the sense of living for today, but not giving a damn about tomorrow. I prefer to have OIL for the day we need it, rather than gold, which at best might be able to buy some oil. I have kids.
.................
Oh I see. I disagree with your premise. I think the demand for oil will collapse. It will be slow at first and won’t really start until after 2020 but by 2025 everyone will see oil as a 20th century fuel. Its glory days over. The price of oil will likely go down to $35@ barrel which is where in btu terms coal and natural gas are today.

Oil is used mostly as a transportation fuel. The shift away from oil as a transportation fuel is in its very early stages. But its not a fad. Its not going away. Its only going to get stronger. There will be more electric cars in the world every year and not less and their price structure is falling. Both the europeans and the japanese have a vested interest in getting away from petrol fueled autos. They can never become energy independent if they don’t shift away from the internal combustion engine. Musk has already started work on his now famous battery factory in nevada which promises to deliver cars with a stronger battery at a 35k price point—to be shipped in 2018. This is a big deal. The effect on oil prices at first will be marginal. But the cumulative effect over years will be devastating for the price of oil as demand for oil dries up.


77 posted on 11/29/2014 5:06:52 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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To: ckilmer
2.) There are dozens of countries around the world working at undermining the dollar as the era of petro dollars winds down. Increasing gold reserves will help to harden the dollar.

We are not on a gold standard.
How would this having more gold help out?-Tom

78 posted on 11/29/2014 5:11:39 PM PST by Capt. Tom (Don't confuse U.S. citizens and Americans. They are not necessarily the same. -tom)
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To: tired&retired

Government is trying like hell to kill farming. I drove through the inner valley of California, the state government caused water shortage has the farmers grinding up almond trees for mulch. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of acres of them... Add that to burning corn as fuel as mandated by fed.gov and you have a disaster brewing...


79 posted on 11/29/2014 5:15:44 PM PST by El Laton Caliente (NRA Life Member & www.Gunsnet.net Moderator)
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To: Capt. Tom

2.) There are dozens of countries around the world working at undermining the dollar as the era of petro dollars winds down. Increasing gold reserves will help to harden the dollar.

We are not on a gold standard.
How would this having more gold help out?-Tom
.............
The germans and the Dutch are removing their gold from deposit in the USA; their removals will continue for the next five years or so. This means they have lost confidence in the USA as a place to store their treasure.

This looks bad. In this world appearances are meaningful.

Buying more gold for reserve purposes just makes the USA look good. That’s all. It would also tend to push the value of the dollar up.


80 posted on 11/29/2014 5:19:53 PM PST by ckilmer (q)
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