6 ms·

Best opportunity is to invest in physical silver and gold, as the euro (and by extension the dollar) will not be able to hold their value as the printing presse

• modeless 14y ago
  (and by extension the dollar) How does an inflating euro cause inflation in the dollar?
  • johnnyg 14y ago
    The bonds Greece/Spain/Portugal hold and are defaulting on were largely purchased by German and French banks. These banks turned around and hedged the default risk with US banks. When the defaults occur (or if...they could choose to inflate to the moon or call the default by another name), the German banks will go to their US Bank counter parties asking to be made whole en mass. US banks will be unable to cover this pay out (unless the fed steps in with truly massive amounts of capital) and have no real reason to do so... What we saw in the US housing crisis is now playing out on a scale of nations.
  • maratd 14y ago
    It doesn't. But we're doing the same thing they are ... ergo, the same thing will happen here.
• confluence 14y ago
  Yeah, you're a fool for thinking such a thing. Seriously, all the commodities guys are. If you look at gold/silver demand guess what the major determinant is - OH YEAH - JEWELLERY! You know the stuff people buy when veblen goods are popular (i.e. a strong world economy). Your baubles are worth nothing if the 2 largest economies go down. Everyone dumped emerging markets, the euro and stocks to buy dollars and treasuries (flight to quality during high vol.). Not because anything drastically changed, but because of the beauty contest dynamic in markets. You predict what others may predict to happen in the short term and act accordingly. Go buy yourself a gun, food, and some survival training if that is your position. You can't eat gold. You can't live in silver. And you most certainly can't sell it when everything goes down. Here's a hedge fund analyst's take on it: http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-price-of-gold-rising http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-price-of-gold-rising. Notice the graph and its constituents. Gold/Silver guys mock us fiat currency types (i.e. everyone) when they themselves are trading the same trust based tulips as the rest of us. Everything you trade is based on trust, and trust is, and always will be, a bet on the future being better. Gold/Silver is a bet for the world getting better, not worse. You can't invest in the end of the world. You can merely prepare for it.
  • johnnyg 14y ago
    Glad there are still some counter parties left to take my trades. Enjoy your tbills! :-)
    • confluence 14y ago
      Well seeing as my tbills represent the future output of the world's largest economies, and one of the greatest consumers of veblen goods (which includes most of the demand for your commodities), you and I aren't so different. We bet the same. But you have no idea what you're doing. I merely wish to point out that you can't bet for the end of the world. You can merely prepare for it.
      • toomuchtodo 14y ago
        I can short the end of the world; as long as there is enough time between when I profit and when I cash that profit out into something that will provide me with long term value (house, etc). For this argument, I define value as providing ME something, not value that can be traded.
    • deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
  • sliverstorm 14y ago
    There are other, less whimsical commodities. E.g., computers probably aren't going away. Invest in copper.
    • confluence 14y ago
      My point was that if you bet on commodities, you bet for increased production, and increased consumption of scarce resources. Not the end of the world. It's no different from buying the stock of companies that sell the goods the commodities are composed of (since they demand those commodities and in turn set their prices in the market via demand).
  • mipapage 14y ago