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"Should the U.S. Sell Its GOLD?"

PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,122 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Precious Metals
Title of an interesting article in Parade magazine that came with the Sunday newspaper. Worth reading for anyone that gets this mag.
Edited to add: The article can be viewed at Parade.com/gold.

Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

Comments

  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Should the US Sell It's Gold? in Parade Magazine.
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There's a poll, too, where you can vote. I voted "no", we should not sell our gold. It doesn't provide the number of respondents, but when I voted it was 79% against.
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,122 ✭✭✭✭✭
    One point that I thought was interesting was that if the U.S. sold all its gold, it would barely make a dent in the national debt. By law, the sale of any gold has to be used to pay down the national debt.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • HigashiyamaHigashiyama Posts: 2,192 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I think "no" is the quite obvious answer, for two reasons:

    (1) The value of our gold in the current market is tiny compared to the level of deficits we are incurring, and

    (2) If gold is partially remonetized as part of whatever system replaces the dollar standard, our gold holdings will be worth considerably more than they are today. We can probably trade gold for treasury bonds at about 20 cents on the current dollar.






    Higashiyama
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Plus if we hinted at selling our gold, the price would bottom out.

    And as the article hints at, one of the reason our dollar has any strength at all is because we actually have *some* gold left. The value of the dollar would probably drop proportionally to the amount of gold we give up, anyway.
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • 7over87over8 Posts: 4,733 ✭✭✭
    I just lost most of my respect for the Wharton school of business, when you have a guy like that prof there.....who doesnt understand the failed fiat system and sees no value in the ultimate currency......
  • JustacommemanJustacommeman Posts: 22,847 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Do you actually think for a second that we actually own the stated gold? I don't. MJ
    Walker Proof Digital Album
    Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
  • HalfStrikeHalfStrike Posts: 2,202 ✭✭✭
    Those gold reserves are a drop in the bucket compared to the way they are spending in Washington. Also on the pay down the debt portion of the law that is ridiculous, they would pay down the debt with gold sales and then issue new debt for pet projects. It would end up that the gold sales would be like throwing more money away.
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,122 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Those gold reserves are a drop in the bucket compared to the way they are spending in Washington. Also on the pay down the debt portion of the law that is ridiculous, they would pay down the debt with gold sales and then issue new debt for pet projects. It would end up that the gold sales would be like throwing more money away. >>



    I think that's why the law was passed---to prevent the politicians from selling gold to pay for some local pet projects. Paying down the debt doesn't help them get re-elected so they leave the gold alone.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • bestmrbestmr Posts: 1,777 ✭✭✭
    They should sell me the gold cheap! Then I'll buy off the people in China that controls how much we owe to make it "disappear". image
    Positive dealing with oilstates2003, rkfish, Scrapman1077, Weather11am, Guitarwes, Twosides2acoin, Hendrixkat, Sevensteps, CarlWohlforth, DLBack, zug, wildjag, tetradrachm, tydye, NotSure, AgBlox, Seemyauction, Stopmotion, Zubie, Fivecents, Musky1011, Bstat1020, Gsa1fan several times, and Mkman123 LOTS of times
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 31,082 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Those gold reserves are a drop in the bucket compared to the way they are spending in Washington. Also on the pay down the debt portion of the law that is ridiculous, they would pay down the debt with gold sales and then issue new debt for pet projects. It would end up that the gold sales would be like throwing more money away. >>



    Yep. In two weeks the U.S. would still have the debt and not the gold. DUMB DUMB idea.
    theknowitalltroll;
  • NitroCruiserNitroCruiser Posts: 654
    One piece of legislation (like in 1933) and the government can refill it's coffers. They might not catch the little guy, but they will catch enough.
  • renman95renman95 Posts: 7,037 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The US should sell their gold bars....if they are gold painted...
  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Assuming it's not already leased or sold it should remain put. It is important that the nation with the world's reserve currency still possess the largest percentage of gold. When London sold 414 tons of their gold reserves back in 1999 at $255/oz. rock bottom prices (per our request) it didn't matter much to them since they didn't own the world's reserve currency. That sale of gold helped to keep prices down another couple of years which did help the world's reserve currency. The US is more than happy to see other nations sell their gold in public view to keep paper currencies afloat a bit longer. But selling their gold is not in the cards.

    Even though the world is officially off a gold standard, what remains in Central Bank reserves is at a minimum very symbolic. The 8100 tons of gold the US claims to still own covers a significant percentage of our circulating Federal Reserve Notes. It does matter. And to eliminate it would be a mistake. It's worth at most $300 BILL and would cover about 3 month's worth of daily US expenditures. Other nations of the world respect those 8100 tons of gold and in their mind it represents an implicit backing of US Dollars. Central Banks claim to own 31,000 tons of gold for a very good reason.....it backs their operations. They keep it in the vaults (rather than oil, diamonds, or copper) because it is a liquid money substitute recognized throughout the world.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • StorkStork Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's 82% NO now. I'm pleasantly suprised.

  • VikingDudeVikingDude Posts: 1,342 ✭✭✭
    Okay, I'll play the "rookie" card and ask a dumb question. Don't they already sell gold in the form of AGE's, etc.?
  • WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Okay, I'll play the "rookie" card and ask a dumb question. Don't they already sell gold in the form of AGE's, etc.? >>



    Sure, but that's bought by the government specifically to mint into coins for resale.
    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • dino2008dino2008 Posts: 341 ✭✭
    Didn't read the article....Why are we wnating to sell?????
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,122 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Didn't read the article....Why are we wnating to sell????? >>



    Read the article. It explains why we should sell (non-performing asset, etc) and reasons we shouldn't sell.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • dino2008dino2008 Posts: 341 ✭✭
    image
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