Gold and the dollar.

[gateley]

Just heard Catherine Austin Fitts on Coast to Coast AM.

If you had taken a dollar in 2003 and a dollar's worth of gold in 2003, after 5 years your dollar would buy half the gasoline it did in 2003, the gold, even after paying capital gains, would buy the same amount of gas as in 2003.

I didn't catch how many dollars "you" added to the pot over those five years, nor how much gold, but I thought that was interesting and thought I'd pass it along

I think she's generally pretty good, although I don't hear her all that often or listen very closely when I do. She had some position in the HW Bush admin, but was pretty much railroaded out of town when she started calling bullshit on the crap that was going down in DC (which immediately made me like her when I heard that).

But this was the first time I'd heard a comparison so simple even I got it, but I don't pay much attention to gold talk anyway since I can't afford to buy any.

[Jack Sprat]

1. Not surprising, gately

Given that the dollar has been devalued and gold has been on a tear. But, gold can devalue too, can't it? Right now, it's way up there near 1600/oz. I remember it falling to 200/oz in the late 90s.

What it mean to me is that real inflation can certainly devalue your dollar savings in a bank. That is something happening to savings accounts all across the country. The banks are making money, but they are not sharing it with their depositors. Meanwhile, those deposits are losing ground to real inflation in gasoline prices and food prices.

[gateley]

2. I also heard another financial advisor once who said the best

thing to invest in was "community". I liked that. Because, it may get to the point where the people just can't afford to buy all we're used to getting, if we have community gardens and some members are canning wizards, others have green thumbs, others are carpenters, etc. I think THAT makes sense! You can't eat gold! :7 :hi:

[Atman]

3. What is gold doing now? My 401k lost money last qtr, due to gold.

Has the bubble burst? I was going to call my advisor today and decrease my investment, but I don't want to be making a short term knee jerk reaction.

[IndyPragmatist]

5. It hasn't yet, it's at record highs

Over $1,600/oz.

I had a few ounces of gold, but I sold it about 2 months ago. It has to level off sometime.

Although, it would be a safe bet to hold gold until something is done with the budget. For the next few weeks, at least, gold will continue to rise, but a budget deal may level it off, if not cause it to drop slightly.

A default will cause it to rise. Not to the levels that Glen Beck claims, but you might see a 5-10% jump over a very short time period. But I can't imagine it would go any more than that.

My expertise is in currencies, not commodities, so take it for what its worth.

[Atman]

6. Thnx.

.

[gateley]

7. I don't know - as I said I've not been watching it because I

don't own any. I don't have a 401K either any more.

All I've heard is that gold has kept rising - how did it lose you money? I don't understand how a lot of that stuff works. Was it solely gold that caused your loss? Regardless, sorry to hear that.

If I HAD money, not sure what I'd do with it these days. They've always said the stock market is the ultimate money-maker, but I think these are unprecedented times, we've not been teetering on the verge of default before. Or maybe we have, but they've always worked together to do whatever the hell it is they do! Not this time. :(

[madokie]

4. I still kick myself in the ass for not buying gold when I was in 'nam

many of my friends did but I wanted my money for right now mostly so I didn't. I'm not a jewelry wearer and most of the gold they were buying were gold chain and things of that nature and to me that was something I had no use for. Never once did I think that trickydick would float the dollar and the price of gold would go up like it has.