Date: Sun Nov 02 1997 21:52
ANOTHER (THOUGHTS!) ID#60253:
Western thought is still linked to gold as a commodity. That thinking is going to change! The world will witness an almost instantaneous run into this commodity the likes of we have never seen before! It will not be "a trading rally" or "a two way street". Bullion will have become a holding for "the lifetime" never to be sold. "Sell and spend everything but not gold"!
Do you think in these terms: "if gold goes up $100+ next week I'll sell my futures, gold stocks and 10 K-rands for a fat profit and laugh all the way to the bank" If the gold market was the same as in the 70s and 80s, that might be a good move. But this market is not the same. The world has changed and left most goldbugs fighting the last war! Only this time they are much smarter and have many more tools to work with. But, what if you do battle with your modern missiles pointing the wrong direction?
For us to understand what is about to happen we must pull our minds out of the paper trading world. Instead enter the world of real things! Here we will see concepts more clearly.
All currencies and most treasury debt are little more than digital units of perceived value. You don't own them, your account is "credited" with this value. Foreign governments, such as Japan are no better off than American citizens, they don't own anything either! What is really owned is "the right to offer what is credited to you, to a bidder in exchange for real things or other credits". It is a strange way to hold wealth. One might say "my net worth is the intention of others to pay me a credit from someone else". This thinking has worked well until the late 80s. It was at this time that a few wealthy and very smart people started to see the end of this. They understood that the US$ was not going to crash, it already had. It, along with all major currencies would lose all sense of value and become only trading digits of account. The treasury debts were little more than the same thing.
You see, all currencies now compete with each other, not for value of wealth but for "USAGE". The game has now become "whose currency gets used the most for trading" not for value against goods! It was easy to know the currency that got used for oil would win this game. Today, all currencies are traded against the dollar for it's usage as a medium of oil exchange! Take away that link and the entire currency/ debt exchange system, as we know it will collapse! The US$ must be maintained as the "most used" if the other currencies are to have a chance to survive.
Will Japan sell US treasury debt and risk taking dollars out of "usage"? Not in your life! Nor will any other CB! They will talk about it. They will sell a little. But sell a lot? It will not happen. You see oil is the key and that connection to the dollar is changing. Foreign CBs will even sell some gold to try and keep the US$ in play ( see my other posts ) . Ever wonder why the US treasury has not sold gold, it would have the opposite effect! The oil that sense the early 70s, held together the world monetary system is now causing it to slide apart! We are not going to see inflation or deflation again. What we are now seeing is the "destruction" of our paper monetary system.
Someone once asked "if the currency/ banking system breaks down, how will we know what gold is worth?". My answer, gold above ground will be worth a lot more than gold below ground, a lot MORE!
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