As of late some good articles about money, banking, and gold. I'm just wondering how many people have the resources to invest in gold? We don't. I really don't know of too many others who can. If the everyday person can't afford to invest as such, will this be an indication of the numbers of those who will most likely starve?

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 20, 1999

Answers

Peg/Super Polly, is that you up there again? Go back to Der Boonkah and stop trying to get people to predict things you can "throw in their faces later" --

www.InsideTheWeb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb237006&MyNum=92934527 2&P=No&TL=929345272

Debunking Y2k webboard

I think Mutha was right about the swamp

Monday, 14-Jun-1999 03:27:52

206.55.157.107 writes:

"...Is anyone else going to save old 'prediction' threads to throw in there [sic] faces later?"

Super Polly

-- OutingsR (us@here.yar), June 20, 1999.

Barb,

The short answer is: no.

The long answer is: there are as many long answers as there are possible scenarios.

Keep in mind that a person who has food and water and no gold is less likely to starve than a person who has gold and no food and/or water. IF things in some area get so bad that inflows of food cease, people who have stores of food may not be willing to trade them for gold or any other non essential.

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), June 20, 1999.

Jerry, thanks for the input. These are things we are thinking about as I think others who visit the forum are most likely doing. No outingsR, am not a polly or Peg, can't hide behind the shield of anonymity like some. I pays my money and takes my chances. Just like to hear feedback from others who are prepping as well. That's why I'm here. Why are you?

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 20, 1999.

Barb:

Gold and silver have I none.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), June 20, 1999.

Barb,

I don't think gold and food are directly related, as has been said above. But I do think that gold will be the bedrock storehouse of value for your wealth, if you have any. So, the better question would be what correlation is there between owning gold and eventually coming out the other side of economic meltdown with a bunch of wealth? And, you don't even have to factor Y2k into this meltdown, since it looks probable anyway, and you can the details from a Gold thread posted by Andy just a little ways down on the home page.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 20, 1999.

Gordon, Thanks for input. Guess I may not have phrased what I was wondering clearly enough? How many people who visit the forum are buying gold as part of their prep? We don't have the wealth to invest anything in gold and we really didn't have the money to invest in a year's worth of food supplies but we raised it to make what we deemed necessary purchases. I wasn't curious about the correlation of owning gold preY2k and becoming wealthy post Y2k. I'll take another look at the gold threads. Meanwhile, I hope some forum posters will respond to clarification of who buys gold.

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), June 20, 1999.

Can buy junk silver coins through merchant with e-gold account.
Scroll down a bit at http://www.e-gold.com/news.html

-- A (A@AisA.com), June 20, 1999.

I get all my change in nickels cause it is all that I can afford to save. But if a deflation hits bigtime the purchasing power of those nickels will be exponentially higher.

-- Greg (brothergregory@hotmail.com), June 20, 1999.

You cannot eat or drink precious metals or stay warm burning them. In a pure survival sense, they aren't very high priority. Gold and silver aren't direct survival tools they are tools for acquisition. Provided someone is willing to part with some actual survival tool or stock in trade for gold or silver.

Pluis, in the height of a Y2K panic or any event following the day, very few people will be willing to part with what they have for any price. Someone who has enough real goods on-hand may end up with lots of gold and silver from trading excess stocks of supplies for someone else's gold and silver.

Y2K-preppers who are buying gold and silver should the ones who have all the other bases covered. Up to and including "extravagances" like windmill driven wells and generators and whole-house solar power systems.

As far as survival preparation, gold and silver should be the very last item on a Y2K preparation checklist. And it should have a note by it that reads "After you have acquired all of the above items TWICE, then you can consider putting your funds into gold and silver."

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), June 20, 1999.

Agree totally with WW.

Get the basics down first.

I am not a wealthy person (divorced, lost house etc. etc.) - BUT - what I did have i.e. a car that I owned, I sold and bought gold and silver. Sold a nice steel Rolex for 5K - put it into silver. Cashing out my 401k, biting the tax bullet, will buy more gold and silver. I'm not a gambler but all my instincts tell me I'm doing the right thing. i don't own a house - if I did i would cash out now before the value of my home dropped to pennies on the dollar, as is most likely WTSHTF - and even if y2k is a damp squib, TS will HTF anyway, it's inevitable.

as Gordon said, read that gold thread for all the scenarios Daan joubert has painted for you all.

It's a real eye opener.

If a depression comes it will be far worse than the 30's - remember that one thing and act accordingly.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 20, 1999.

I've noticed that a lot of people have the stance that WildWeasel takes. There is no doubt that water, food, shelter are the most important aspects. But a lot of people would say something on the order of "If you have 5 years worth of stored food, and have extra bucks to spend, don't spend it on precious metals, spend it on more food." I disagree.

Preparing for TEOTWAWKI means, I think, also preparing for the post-TEOTWAWKI environment, as well as the very real possibility of near-but-something-less TEOTWAWKI conditions, either of which would contain bartering scenarios. I think precious metals -- specifically, gold and silver coins in small denominations -- should be an important part of any Y2K prep plan. (Maybe even on the same footing with ammo.) As well as, for that matter, cash.

For what it is worth, I have purchased gold American Eagle coins (predominately 1/10 oz, but a few 1 oz) and a bag of 90% junk silver in the form of pre-1965 quarters. For all I know, John Q. Public -- who probably has never held a gold coin in his life -- may look at an American Eagle with as much respect as a Canadian penny. (Or worse: a Susan B. Anthony dollar.) Historically, however, gold and silver have a good track record, and being able to hedge your bets makes a lot of sense to me.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), June 20, 1999.

For precious metals to function as a medium of exchange some more or less effective governmental structure is required. That government may be local (Florence in Renaissance Italy), or supra-national (the dollar, the Euro) or of any scope between these extremes.

Lacking some approximation to stability, merchants and affluent individuals must maintain their own security forces. Those who can't afford that are at the mercy of thieves. Organized piracy is endemic.

In this situation the rate of exchange between gold (or silver) and any particular commodity has to be negotiated anew for every transaction. In an environment of acute shortages, abuses are inevitable.

How can equity be assured in this situation? How can your holdings be protected? Once you pay for anything in gold, the fact that you have gold becomes public knowledge. If you have little gold, it will soon be gone. If you have much, it is cumbersome; you can't carry it all on your person, and it may not be safe to leave it unattended, eve if hidden.

If any government exists, there will be a currency. If there is no government, gold may be more a burden than an asset.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 21, 1999.

"Let me be your beast of burden..."

The Rolling Stones

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), June 21, 1999.

Barb,

I like many people have retirement accounts, where I can move the money among types of assets. I have almost all of that money out of stocks ( which are currently over valued without Y2K in my opinion). The question is where to put the retirement money, which I can't get at without severe tax consequences for 8 more years.

Currently I have ~40% in Money Market, 20% commodities, 20% gold mining, 10% shorting the market and 10% in company stock I can't sell without quitting.

Everybody and every government is going to react to Y2K over the next 8 months, and it is hard to tell what will happen, but I am betting that Stocks will go down a lot, inflation (and interest rates) will go up a lot, and governments are going to try to protect their currencies with gold reserves.

I am currently prepared to survive for 3 months without power, water, sewer and grocery store.

I have been working on the problem for seven years and preparing for two.

Noel

noel

-- noel (ngoyette@csc.com), June 21, 1999.

I understand that both Britain and Switzerland are in the process of selling a large part of their gold reserves. In aid of what, I wonder?

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 21, 1999.