This is a question that I am asking myself. We stack for a number of reasons, mine is that it stops me pissing my money up against the wall. Other reasons include a hedge against inflation, and for many a safeguard for when the SHTF. What if, instead of the SHTF causing PMs to rise, PMs rising, for any number of reasons, causes the SHTF? I think, if PMs keep rising up to Christmas, it may not take us to da moon, but more likely to hell. All this talk of the Western banks and the Fed not holding the gold or having leased it out on a fractional basis may come to a head sooner than they are prepared. Maybe QE or Cairo or the mere fact that some economies improve, people's surplus is being pumped into PMs? Who knows, but maybe this is the trigger? Be very afraid!
No. The cause and effect can't be muddled. Any fan hitting associated with people buying PM's will be what the power holders choose to do with their privileges. They can cause the fan hitting in many different ways for many non-PM reasons and is different to PM buyers creating circumstances that encourage the power holders to abuse their privileges for their self-interest. It's like saying the 6yr old kid calling the 16 year old bully a bully to his face caused him to break your nose and therefore your responsible.
As for the SHTF scenario......keep in mind that potatoes will be more useful than gold if you understand my point. Gold will not save the world nor will it ever replace money as a medium of exchange. Very few people can remember precious metals being the medium of exchange in the past and it would take a monumental shift to achieve it once more. Gold is a market and it will behave according to accumulated forces, either positive or negative. As for gold leasing, it it is no worse than the manipulation of the Libor or the outright mortgage fraud committed by the banks. Who went to jail? Who actually cares apart from those affected? This is the world. It is wrong to think that markets are continually manipulated by a select group of anonymous faces, short term moves, yes.......but what is true is the protection which is offered to those who do take advantage and break the law.
Don't forget that the gold market is tiny and will have little affect on the world economy regardless of the turmoil which may occur as a result failure to deliver gold etc. By far the biggest risks will be posed by rising interest rates which are going to rise regardless of what any central bank thinks. This will be the beginning of bank failures in Europe and the rest of the world and the threat of bail-ins is what will ensure that the u.s dollar will skyrocket as capital flees the riskiest assets to the perceived safest assets capable of absorbing the trillions of dollars which will be moving.
People who worry about SHTF scenarios are DREAMING with buying gold and silver. Think about it. In a REAL SHTF situation you would give away a kilo of gold without blinking to feed your kids/your wife/loved ones or for a ride to a safer place etc. So for all the money invested today it would be gone in an INSTANT in a real SHTF scenario. The true value of gold and silver is a long time AFTER a SHTF event when law and order is restored and you can safely pull out your gold and go 'ta-da' and redeem it for x amount of the new currency of the day. It's no different to any other hard asset such as real estate but real estate might be more difficult to keep/prove ownership of after such scenarios.
the frogs been in the pot for the past 20 odd years. Sure the water's warmer... even bloody hot... but the population is just drawn up in the malaise of declining educational, social & moral standards. The recent withdrawral by the MDC of a challenge over the corrupt Zimbabwean election is proof that everyone is giving up. Votes from over a thousand Zim voters over 100 yrs old were recorded. Not to mention the votes of many ex-pats now living in Aust. that haven't set foot in the country for over 30 years. In Argentina you have Kirchener destroying the country while the populace just grinds on with their daily efforts to get by. Brazilians & North Africans (Arab Spring) still have some fight left... but the rest of us are just frogs in the pot. I doubt the excrement will hit the fan with a splat. Just the slow realisation one day that everything around us smells, feels & looks like $#!T.
If the S does hit the F, I've got it all worked out anyway. I'm running black market gold from PNG to Cape York using a high powered speed boat whilst dodging Horatio and sea manatees. I've already got my white polyester suit, fedora hat and loud Hawaiian shirt picked out. As a side gig I'll be conducting a monkey knife fighting racket in international waters..........also cash, booze, food, cigarettes and any other barter items to last at least 6 months before touching my stack out of necessity.
You presume that someone stacking precious metals in case the SHTF is dumb enough to do that, and not prepare for feeding and defending oneself in the precise situation they're planning for by purchasing precious metals in the first place? That would strike me as an incredible oversight of gargantuan proportions!
Quite true. My concern with this post is identifying the scenario before it happens to avoid being a victim of the SHTF. What happens afterwards and the subsequent reaction is of little consequence if you don't hit the ground running. I have tinned food but the opportunity to buy a month's fresh food before the mob would be helpful. The advantage of retrieving my PMs from storage before the eyes of the world are upon you, full tank of petrol plus a couple of jerrycans, every last cent out of the bank and credit cards, all these advantages if you are on the ball. That is what this post is about.
A bit off topic but.... It's a good idea to have a stack of metal if the shit hits the fan just like it's a good idea to have some descent soil, water and fresh food. It's also a good idea to read what happened in the great depression...people say it can't happen again...I say it can. Maybe it's a good idea to have a back-up plan of fresh food...just incase. If you have a home you own, plant a few fruit trees instead of filling your block with useless fancy plants, grow food that doesn't need a tonne of fertiliser or water. A really good plant that is easy to grow in locations North of Sydney on the east coast is the humble Sweet Potato...grab a few white ones from the veg shop, plant them now...water well and forget. They will grow like bluddy weeds but produce plenty of food that you can feed the family. They are perrenial and...if you plant them in a frost free area, they'll continue to grow and spread forever. I hate sweet potato but it's a staple food that is a great plant that will provide plenty of nutrition. Here's a short list of no BS plants that are easy to grow. (These could be part of your plan incase of a depression) Lemon or orange tree. Grapevine - red variety that you can eat or make into wine and / or vinegar. (Isabella or Chambourcin are super disease resisitant) Sweet potato - The white variety. Kipfler potatoes - They grow like weeds. Silverbeet - Will grow for ages and if you let it seed, you'll have a never ending supply of baby silverbeet plants. Cos lettuce - As for Silverbeet. Flat leaf parsley - High in Vitamin C (scatter a handful of seeds and you'll have parsley forever. Comfrey - Not for eating but this plant can be used to make fabulous fertilizer. H
Stick an orange or apple tree in the ground today, and you will not see fruit for a few years. Agree about the sweet potatoes etc, it was common in the Great Depression to grow your own, and also chooks and rabbits. Good to swap and barter too! OC
Understand, Sammy I think in general all you can do is keep your eyes open, observe the world around you, and be aware of the "frog in boiling water" type of normalcy bias that is easy to slip into. A few thoughts if I may on items you touch on: As far as food is concerned, obtaining a month's worth of fresh food just as the SHTF would be ideal, but is also unlikely unless you happen to be in a position of - for example - seeing a major event occur, deciding that it will be the catalyst for "the meltdown", and immediately hitting whatever places you need in order to obtain those supplies, in advance of Joe Average realising what the heck is actually happening. If we get to the point of the SHTF properly, and it becomes evident to those who are unaware of potential outcomes, those same Joe Averages will strip supermarket and other shelves bare in no time. You either have to beat them to the punch, or forget about it entirely. Personally, I'm approaching it from the point of view that I won't have time or opportunity to load up on anything "last minute" like that. I have found with some reasonable amount of forethought an planning that one can easily have a month or more of nutritious food on hand to supply oneself without needing fresh produce from the store to do so. In this planning, consider dried goods such as beans, have a reasonable amount of freezer space available with which to store meats and frozen vegetables, consider growing fruit and/or vegetables, consider an emergency water supply, and methods to cook food "off the grid" in case of electricity and/or power supply issues. Precious metal storage is best left to the individual and their particular circumstances, which need to take into account where you live, how large your stack is etc - most certainly, one would want to have that in place(s) where one does not need to be concerned with banks locking their doors etc! As far as bank accounts are concerned, I figure that in today's day and age, having every last cent out of them will be nigh impossible - one only has to look at the events as they transpired in Cyprus to realise how impossible this will be. Bank accounts are to be considered something that may (or better to say, are likely to take) collateral damage, therefore, one must actively limit exposure. The likelihood is that some or all of your bank account balance(s) may be subject to bail-in provisions, and/or your access to them may be limited or revoked for a period of time. As a result, you set up a limit of how much you are prepared to leave in there (and this limit will vary depending on your lifestyle etc), but one must retain cash in places where it is guaranteed accessible outside the banking system.
I consider the last-minute shopping trip as a bonus, a possible supplement to the supplies I already have on hand. Nice if I can make it happen, but if it doesn't, I will be ok. Another factor to consider is that it might be physically dangerous to be fighting throught the crowds to get that last can of baked beans. And its not only shop shelves that could empty, its ATMs. Imagine a scenario in the last hours of the existing paradigm. There are still a few sacks of rice left at the local supermarket, and you have managed to grab them before anyone else, BUT...you only have a little cash, the ATM is out of cash and the EFT lines have gone down. = No Sale. Cheers, Agnostic
Ok someone please spell out a scenario that does not involve war or natural disaster that would result in food and other supplies suddenly becoming unavailable and bartering becoming necessary. Keep in mind that Cyprus shut their banks for 2 weeks and society didn't break down I can't think of one but perhaps my paranoia is not creative enough
I don't know if any of this bad stuff is going to happen....Just had a mate email me saying all the talk about the debt in the U.S is all political posturing and they will just raise the debt ceiling and keep printing for many many years which I have already said will happen on this site a few times before.
KRUDD OR MAD MONK being elected for PM. :lol: Worst still, JULYA somehow worms her way back into leadership. On a brighter note, if a SHTF situation, the only thing that could cause immediate interruption would be a major collapse of the Internet. Lets face it, nearly all banking and business transactions evolve through the internet. OK, its not the be it to end all. However, it would cause a lot of panic and disorder. Remember a couple of years ago when NAB's system decided to have a "tizzy fit". For memory it was down about 4 or 5 days. Just that alone affected all payments including wages, mortgage payments, not able to withdraw funds within the clearing house system of NAB. Now think about it. Multiply that by all financial institutions across the board if the entire Internet went down. It would have an immediate impact including logistics distribution of the food chains, petrol, manufacturing. Unless you have cash or supplies, there is very little you could do. Even then, you would be at the mercy of the seller or supplier with over inflated pricing. If there was outage for any length of time, say 1 or 2 months our society would have become fragmented between the haves and have nots. Now that could be a real possibility given the scum controlling the strings at the top.
