Korr: For the better part of 2 decades gold was one of and possibly the crappiest of all commodities. For some 10 year period of the 2 decades running up to 2000 or 2001, gold stocks which have a fairly close relationship with gold prices were the worst performing category of all stock industry categories. While a lot of the gold standard people are leaping around extolling the rise in gold prices, one should realize that with all commodities prices go up and down over time. It is about time for gold values to increase in view of 20 years wherein gold investment was worse than miserable. Now a friend of mine is in the gold producing industry...is a principal in a company and has been in the industry for about 2 decades. Nobody is buying oil with gold. The fact that the two commodities are rising at similar rates is not a direct relationship between buyers and sellers. There are some similarities in causes why gold and oil are rising in values....but there is no causal effect. In fact lots of commodities are rising in periods of perceived shortages. Gold, unlike oil and certain food commodities, is not critical to the life and economic lifeblood of people and economies. Its nice that it is going up similarly.....but after about 20 years of underperforming everything else out there....I have troubles believing the premises of the importance of the gold standard. Meanwhile....all or most significant currencies are seeing huge increases in money supply increasing at rates similar to what is happening with the dollar. I strongly suspect US debt is a major contributor to the drop in dollar values vis a vis other currencies. We have dramatically been in an eight year period of fiscal irresponsability.
Again with the lies. I have reported nobody. Your buddies are getting banned for their own behavior. Of course, it is easier to blame me or Jews or Israelis for guys like sway being banned. Based on nothing you accuse me and refuse to look honestly at their posts. Yeah, if you couldn't tell, I not playing your bullshit games anymore. You don't set the terms for discussion. I will call you on your lies, your hatred of America, and your odd habit of supporting anyone and everything that is against Israel - including supporting posters here on DP who are rabid antisemites.
You don't get banned without being reported. You've sworn and been extra aggressive lately, and you are not banned. In fact, your rhetoric was nearly as bad as Sway's if not equal. So obviously someone is reporting, and it consistently seems to be the people who argue with you or criticize Israel who are being knocked off. I considered reporting you a few times last night, and thought better of it. I'm happy to debate, I don't need to have you terminated on the forum to win the argument. To be honest, I've thought you are playing your own BS games for some time now. The antisemite smears are old and tired. The problem with your position, is that it is morally and logically bankrupt, and hence why you have to result to slander and aggressive tactics to carry your side of the argument. I don't hate America. I hate American imperialism. I love capitalism, fake boobs, MTV, rock'n roll, Ronald Reagan, George Washington, Apple Pie and the NFL. But if you think I am going to support bombing civilians, supporting Israel's terror regime, sodomizing children, kidnapping and torture, or government corruption, then you have another thing coming. Wait, you've called me an antisemite. Which is it? Am I an antisemite, or do I support antisemites? I don't know where I have supported Sway, but I'm much closer (if to anyone at all) guru-seo, pingpong, Bogart etc. As far as being against Israel, I am. I can probably wrap my head around an Israeli state, but not one that commits crimes against humanity, and then claims to be the victim in every situation.
First, I am not a rabbi. Second, I have never called for the killing of Iranians or Muslims. If I have then certainly you can post it here for everyone to see. Otherwise, it is just another lie to support your personal bias.
You love Reagan, so how did you feel about his efforts with the Contras? Did you support his administrations blatant violations of the constitution or are you going to be a hypocrite as usual? Did you support the pardon of North for lying to Congress?
See, I told you you were playing your own BS game. Now you want me to answer questions... I don't like it. No, and no. No. I liked Ronny when he gave his Time for Choosing speech to support Barry G. I liked him when talked tough about investigating the Trilateral Commission prior to his electoral victory. Once in office, he became a pawn of the neocons and Bush 41.
Currencies were perceived as stable investment vehicles, but governments have turned them into debt carriers for the purpose of enacting a sort of populist mercantilism. I'm not going to say we need a gold standard, but we do need serious monetary and fiscal reform before I think our fiat will outperform any commodities. I think in a funny way the gold standard exists independent of being officially recognized. On another site people were calculating the cost of a Corvette in terms of ounces of gold and it held steady other than the mid 80s (and we know how a mid-80s 'vette is no stingray) Its nothing to do with a shortage of the gold supply or increases in gold demand, no the one to look at is the glut of fiat currency and the declining demand for holding inflationary debt. And you can see from the chart that even though the Euro is outperforming the dollar it is also sinking relative to the "gold standard" or "oil standard" or whatever you want to call the actual value represented by the ever-increasing money supply. The fact that the whole world does it is supposed to "help" the dollar but it won't if the investors can outsmart the politicians (every time). Eight years? Maybe 80. When all of the U.S. obligations are considered, Bush's contributions to the debt might be remembered as a small footnote. Inflation is just the most politically acceptable way to pay this debt off, but there is no seperating the two - rising prices vs. income and the need to pay down debt to more manageable levels. The foreign capital flows we rely so heavily on will be less generous until we show some signs that the dollar is a safe place to put your investments. (glad we can actually talk about the price of oil, hope we aren't hijacking this thread "Oil hits record above $130!!!")
Good luck convincing people it is not all Bush's fault. Everyone is so partisan, they won't be able to acknowledge your argument for what it is. Sound economic history. Btw, I think you can go back to 1907. So 100 years. To restore real soundness, it's going to take more than confidence. Our balance of payments is still out of whack. We need to actually go back to work, not engage in more mindless euphoria. You're right.
I've been in the real estate industry for decades and am very familiar with the ticking time bomb of debt. If things are going well and properties are rented/leased up and cash flow exceeds debt.....all is hunky dory. (most real estate of size is owned via some sort of debt) When the properties sit vacant....debt s*cks big time. It never sleeps. It takes the cash out like that big vaccuum cleaner in the sky. Having said that....I was astounded to see that over a period from 1960 going forward there were only 3 or 4 years, (I believe) when the fed government ran with a positive balance (revs> expenditures). (and that is using federal non accrual basis accounting). One year was 1968 (I believe- or 1969). It was a result of a 1 year tax increase of 10% on existing taxes). not sure if that was on individuals, individs and corps or what)....and then the others were the ....what was it...2 or 3 years during the Clinton administration when federal revenues were larger than expenditures (federal- non accrual accounting). In other words the US government has been operating with costs being greater than revenues on an overwhelming basis for now close to the last 50 years. I was surprised to see the overwhelming difference. Now all that accounting is done without accrual accounting. So the future outlays, representing committments for primarily social security and medicare/medicade are not factored in to the accounting. On that basis, the situation looks dramatically more dire. Most publicly owned businesses carry debt. I imagine All states and municipalities, and smaller govt entities within the US carry debt. That debt is normally associated with investment....and not operating costs. Build a road...and finance it with debt. Establish some mechanism to pay back the investment....ie gas taxes which essentially are a user fee....and that theoretically should pay for both paying down the initial cost and future maintenance and repair. Business investment is mostly financed with debt. Anticipated future revenues from the investment will hopefully cover the debt costs. (of course all of those things are subject to future performance. That is what makes things interesting ) Having said all that, it appears that especially in these last 8 years the operating expenses of the fed govt are way out of line with fed revenues. This govt is running on an "operating basis" in debt. Its not investing in anything. Possibly in the past...the govt. may or may not have invested well....but the costs to revenues is way out of line with historical figures. And on top of all that are the committments to Social security, medicare, medicade that are unaccounted for within a govt reporting system...but are huge. All of which suggests to me that we are currently fiscally way out of line. Buttttt.....this is neither unprecidented in history or life. At some point the time comes to pay the reaper and deal with stuff like this in a serious mode. I hope it comes sooner than later. I don't believe it lays in dismantling government. It hasn't anywhere I can think of from the perspective of big producing nations. I suppose we will see. Meanwhile....getting back to that $130/barrel cost....and higher......(gotta stay on thread-----I wonder if the commodities market factors aren't getting out of hand and need to be constrained. In and of their own right....what happens within the commodities markets don't relate directly to today's demand and supply. The commodities markets may well be adding costs ...that are contributing to the rapid increase....and today that increase in costs is definitely hampering the economy and sucking cash out every way possible....creating big problems and job losses.
OPEC chief Abdala El Badri on Thursday said members were unhappy with surging prices which he blamed on speculators and a weak US dollar. We are not very happy with this increase in oil prices,' he said. 'Volatility has nothing to do with the fundamentals. It has nothing to do with world demand,' he said, stressing that a dropping dollar was driving prices higher. http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=64497523957921 What will happen if OPEC will use Euro instead of dollar ?
Yeah, he simplified it from his original posting. It's still a little too complicated to give to an uncle or neighbor to read without sitting with them to help them get the concepts. Amazing ain't it? All money is owed to the top of the food chain. Your work tomorrow already doesn't belong to you, even though you haven't done it yet.
Oil hits 139 $ ! One of the reasons was Israel Shaul Mofaz "Israel will attack Iran" words , But it says that in Jule oil will hit 150 $ soon
Price inflation doesn't stick if there is no wage inflation. Prices will go up, people won't be able to afford them, business will have to cut prices because demand will go down for the goods.
Demand for commodities is global and supplies are decreasing, In addition to oil, metals and grain are going through the roof.
One could make the argument that the price of Oil has been undervalued over the years and is now returning to its average.