Glen L.

Plunge Protection Team Attacks BofA: This Ends Now

In the previous comment I meant to say that Zimbabwe poor are paying just about the same for a loaf of bread as we do in America. Gold has universal value.

Further comment on Mr. Goodman's article, which has mostly been ignored in the gold bug vs. fiat bug debate:

I broadly concur with his historical and macro economic analysis. However, I don't think it's correct to say that the people losing faith with the institutions was or is the exact cause of the Depression or any other severe economic downturn you care to mention. The cause of each and every expansionary phase of the business cycle was government intervention in the marketplace (this is even true of the tulip mania in Holland almost 400 years ago), and the collapse of the expansionary bubble is just the natural, inevitable market reaction. Therefore, it matters not whether the people have or haven't faith in the governments or banks or tulipmongers, what goes up must come down, i.e. back to equilibrium. The crucial point for everyone to understand now is that worldwide catastrophes like the Depression and the current fiasco happen when government (and its central bank cohort) try to intercede to mitigate the effects, i.e. prevent the deflation of the bubble or attempt to reflate it.

The Great Depression would have been an ordinary depression (the old word for recession, which replaced the older term "panic") without the massive interventions of both Hoover and Roosevelt, and would likely have ended within a year or two, like all preceding downturns in American history. (Those who bring up American history prior to 1929 to claim that the business cycle is a fault of capitalism always fail to mention the fact that previous downturns were always brief). But the nanny-state politicians tried one bogus market intervention after another, and the US suffered its worst economy ever, lasting until 1946. Now we see Obama and the Congress repeating the mistakes of Bush, as FDR repeated Hoover's mistakes, compounding them by another order of magnitude, and gambling America's future away with my money and yours.

Americans' loss of faith in their government was caused by the Depression, rather than the other way around.

Plunge Protection Team Attacks BofA: This Ends Now

Gold standard... golden opportunity... good as gold... golden anniversary... golden parachute... black gold.

The last one tells you something. People don't refer to gold as "yellow oil". Nor do they say "oily anniversary", "wheat standard", or "mahogany parachute". Gold is the near-perfect money because of its beauty, durability, maleability, purity, portability, yes... but first and foremost because people LOVE it as MONEY. Likewise, to a somewhat lesser extent, the other precious metals, which also can be used to make coins that make that pleasant jingle in your pocket, or toss them in your hand. Something extra satisying about that heft, too.

Oh, here's one other expression: paper anniversary. The first anniversary, the least of them all. Paper money printed with the phrase "full faith and credit of the [insert name of lying government here]" is worth the LEAST of all forms of money, as proven over and over throughout history.

In Zimbabwe, thanks to the rich gold streams in that country, poor people are able to buy bread by panning for tiny grains of gold. And what is a loaf bread selling for? About a gram of gold -- and 1/28 of the spot price is somewhere between $2.50 and $3.50 these days, precisely what it's worth to us.

Gold is money. All of you doubters need to accept that fact and get over it. Or see how many of your paper dollars I'll charge you to buy a gram of my gold when Zimbabwe comes to America.