Gold

[Daytr]

I don't buy that China is suppressing gold to buy it cheaper. They are producing more & more of it now around 430 tons a year & they absorb all of that plus buy in hundreds of tons per year. I have never bought into the conspiracy theories re gold, yet I am still bullish. If gold was being suppressed it would never have been allowed to rally to $1920 in 2011. It was an over crowded trade that became a bubble. That bubble has now popped imo & gold is now trading on divergent sentiments from the West vs the East. The East is on the outside looking in & not caught up in the equity bubble being inflated by QE. The West is still guzzling on the QE teat.

[skid]

And meanwhile China sits there looking at that big hudge pile of US bonds (maybe trying to figure out how to get rid of them without totally devaluing them) An educated guess would be little by little.
Im relatively confident that China is getting its fair share of political advantages as the bankers for the USA(in terms of assets held) but if things did turn nasty politically,it would be really bad for the ole USofA.
First sign of trouble would be China or other countries starting to buy things with some other currency other than the $US
(and not get invaded by the US military because they suddenly have a bad ,bad ,man running their country)
I suppose it all sounds pretty far fetched ATM but always good to keep an eye open.
If the signs did appear-it then would be a good time to think pretty seriously about gold.

[Skol]

It's a goldbug fantasy that the Chinese will pull the plug on their investments in the USA.

China recently bought record amounts.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/...ities-in-july/

In the meantime everyone but those who own gold are getting rich, esp. if you own stocks. Must be frustrating.

[skid]

Always good to keep an eye open..

[Daytr]

Skid, that is already occurring incrementally with China opening up the Yuan for trade for oil, iron ore & other commodities. I'm not sure it has much to do with the USD rather another step in the direction of floating their currency & the Yuan eventually becoming a reserve currency. IMO this will happen a lot quicker than most think. The Yuan imo will be floated in the next 5-10 years. Russia too has been doing direct trade in roubles particularly for oil, starting about three years ago from memory.

[Daytr]

Snippet from HSBC

http://www.scrapmonster.com/news/ris...a-hsbc/1/10263

[skid]

Skid, that is already occurring incrementally with China opening up the Yuan for trade for oil, iron ore & other commodities. I'm not sure it has much to do with the USD rather another step in the direction of floating their currency & the Yuan eventually becoming a reserve currency. IMO this will happen a lot quicker than most think. The Yuan imo will be floated in the next 5-10 years. Russia too has been doing direct trade in roubles particularly for oil, starting about three years ago from memory.

I would respectfully disagree with that Daytr.
I think the $US as the reserve currency is a very very big deal and anything that undermines that is a serious issue for the US economy--I dont think they could have gotten away with all this money printing if it weren't the case.
Smaller countries that have tried to by pass this have felt the brunt of the US military,but of course China and Russia are a different kettle of fish and this would be a concern for the States if it gains traction.

[Daytr]

Sure, but you missed my point Skid. What I meant was that I think China is doing this for their own reason not to undermine or target the dollar necessarily. But agree, if they succeed in establishing the Yuan as a reserve currency then it will hurt the dollar as other countries will need to diversify their current holdings to accommodate the yuan & that will mean selling a lot of dollars. That's a long way off though in terms of the market.

[skid]

It's a goldbug fantasy that the Chinese will pull the plug on their investments in the USA.

China recently bought record amounts.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/...ities-in-july/

In the meantime everyone but those who own gold are getting rich, esp. if you own stocks. Must be frustrating.

What makes you think those who have a small amount for insurance ,dont have plenty of other pots on the boil.
If thats the case its not frustrating at all--its just a safe guard against bad times---Do you think the share market will go on forever?
''Everyone but those who own gold are getting rich''--Ill remember that line

[peat]

aaaaaaaargh
everytime someone quotes Skol I get to read his ravings
Skol strangely assumes everyone who posts on this thread owns gold and only gold. myopia, bigotry, call it what you will. I consider his comments as generally mean spirited and unnecessary.
And if no one quotes him I don't get to see it which is what I would prefer thanks all.