This is really just a random thought i had about gold and the 11.3 trillion we have in deficit. If the government wanted to hyperinflate out of our debt with the least amount of pain possible, instead of having years and years of hyperinflation trying to pay off the debt with more and more dollars and just really making our debt higher and higher, i think the US would use about 1/8th of its gold reserves (about 1,000 tons of gold or 32 million oz) to pay off the debt quickly that way it doesnt have to rely on tax dollars to pay it off. We hyperinflate quickly to where gold is 400k per oz, governement pays all 11.3 trillion dollars with that gold, then quickly goes back to the gold standard to stablize the economy and we get to start from scratch. I think we could go in and out of that in 1 months time frame before we get issued our new dollars that are backed by silver or gold. Seems like one way anyway to pay off an unpayable debt.
Market manipulation in gold is hard work. You just can't dream about it in the comfort of your home keyboard. You will need to: - limit gold production by buying and shutting down gold producers, a la Enron with their power plants. - spread rumors that the end is near and there will be great shortage of gold. - market gold to everyone you can find, tell them you can eat it, spread it, cover it, wear it, implant it, shove it, crap on it and above all hoard it. - tell them you can't just buy the ETF, you'll need to buy the physical stuff and put it away, much as a pirate would do with their loot, bury it and forget it. - lobby the politicians to make gold the standard, creating another huge demand for it. - lobby the politicians to make owning gold a national duty and not just a fever. - lobby the politicians to change the law so that owning gold will be a tax write off and trading in gold would be exempt from taxes. - lobby the politicians to make trading derivatives in gold a preferred instrument and that one could leverage 60:1 and above, preferably 600:1. The cycle is now complete. A useless metal is transformed. One digs it out of the ground and then bury it back into vaults and secret places that one forgets. The only thing is that a perception of value is now entrenched. The fever is caught and the price will go parabolic.
I don't know one person (in the real world) who has any meaningful amount of gold. Yes, the gold bugs are long, but they are always in by definition. Owning physical gold is still a fringe concept... I don't live in middle America .. maybe the story is different there.
Gold has no intrinsic value, pays no dividends, you cannot write calls on gold, has carrying/storage costs, bulky, wide bid ask spreads. Gold is dug up and moved around and stored in safes. Gold is worth what the last fool is willing to pay, it is the ultimate greater fool instrument.
Correction: you can definitely write calls on gold. Bulky? One of the highest density stores of wealth there is. The opposite of bulk. Wide bid/ask? August gold is 935.80/935.90 as we speak on a sunday evening, narrower than S&P futs ... And yes, you can even lease it out and earn a return on it. http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au0030lr.html Of course, some of these activities are limited to larger position holders just due to market logistics. But regardless, they are qualities of the market.
Keep your eye on tulip bulbs. If they scream up to about $10,000 a bulb then we may see $400,000 gold next. So keep a close watch on that tulip bulb market.
Stocks go to zero..........Enron Worldcom GM FNM FHM LEH BS etc. Plenty of greater fools in the stock market.