Interesting points, mostly applicable to USA, and know Bron has dealt with this issue, but trust that government will not steal from us is small. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article30858.html Is this what stirs you interest in pre 1933 GP?
The spectre of Gold (PM) confiscation is often raised, particularly with the ongong global woes with fiat. I don't think physical gold or silver is circulated enough in todays world to justify governments trying to implement outright confiscation of the metals. They may however try to choke off the attraction of PM possession ie make it difficult to sell, buy or move the metal thus in effect discouraging the metal's use/value to the average person. In the "good old days" of the 1930's (using the term faceaciously), nations appeared to have more direct control of their respective currencies within a global political system that re-enforced national sovereignty (no such thing as the UN, World Bank, IMF etc). So the US implemented the gold confiscation act to discourage its citizens from taking money out of circulation (ie gold hoarding). The citizens therefore had little alternative with their spare cash than to keep it in circulation. The Third Reich implemented new currencies ie 50 rpf in nickel, as a way of using its currency system to stockpile nickel in its citizens hands for future national use (after 1939, the start of war and the need for nickel in manufacturing, the Third Reich recalled all private ownership of Nickel coins and began making all coins in low grade nickel). Other countries implemented their own systems of currency that re-enforced national objectives. Interestingly, coinage rather than notes, was the primary tool for this. Again, the Third Reich serves a useful example in that the country utilised silver in its coinage (the 2 RM and 5 RM coins) up until the start of WW2, but did not produce a single gold coin while in power from 1933-1945. The ability for governments to push/protect/enhance sovereign national objectives through the manufacturing of its currency in various metals, seems a moot point in todays globaly connected system. Gold and silver coins are indeed still produced, but not as general circulation coins hence the nominal value they are given which is far below their actual bullion value. How many gold or silver coins are actually in circulation as currency in the world? The creation of the IMF & World bank and the concept of a world reserve currency (US$ backed by gold in the absence of any other significant manufacturing nation/economy at the end of WW2) all went a long way to ending nations sovereign control of currency. How many people realise that a nation cannot be a member of the IMF if their nation has a gold backed currency? This itself raises numerous questions in terms of whether a nation could survive in todays world without being a member of the IMF "club", of the relationship between the establishment of the IMF and the Bretton Woods agreement, of the implications of the IMF maintaining its "non-gold backed currency membership" when the Bretton Woods agreement is dead etc etc And what if a nation or select group of nations did try to buck the IMF "non-gold membership club" and tried to create a gold backed currency? For example the mooted Gold Dinar of Africa that Libya appeared to be pushing for? A dead issue now for sure!!? What would be the implications for an influential nation that actually produced coins made from PM for general circulation? How would this impact upon the dominant FIXED global system which has "worthless" coins/notes in circulation and no concept of national soverienty in terms of currency (ie coin) manufacture for genuine circulation? In todays nations, their is a huge difference between the quantity of gold (or silver) kept by private citizens in the form of bullion, jewellry etc and the quantity of gold that would be in private citizens hands were gold or silver used in national currencies. Simply maintaining a global financial system that ensures individual nations do not "selfishly" (term used faceatiously) produce coins with a real inherant value (ie out of gold or silver), goes a long way to negating the need for confiscation. The interconnected world financial system appears predacated on preventing nations from exerting too much sovereign control and independance by preventing the manufacture of their respective currencies in the form of precious metals. The world of the 1930's and "confiscation" is a very different world to the 2000s. That doesn't mean gold and precious metals hoarding isn't a problem for governments intent on keeping/maintaining the circulation of their respective currencies. Its just not as big a problem when the gold and precious metals aren't in the form of circulating currency, and that this is a world wide enforced system without exception (are there any exceptions???). I hope I'm not off topic with this post. The article you note is excellent and raises some frightening financial considerations. My point though, is to to note, that any concept of "confiscation" would need to take note of todays modern world of global interconnectivity, and the global system of control that largely negates PMs being used in circulating coins. Maybe the world bank, UN and IMF will all get together and confiscate private hoardings of gold world wide without any concept of national sovereignty! (that was a grenade thrown blindly and with little thought).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1STWdcQJo&list=FLz-e_gUBI1CbzhOciavHIKA&index=6 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae1STWdcQJo&list=FLz-e_gUBI1CbzhOciavHIKA&index=6[/youtube]
Well said................ May I ask, did you pen these words yourself? If so, may I place THIS AS "POST OF THE WEEK"
Typo in my previous post. After 1939, Third Reich coins were made in low grade Zinc, not Nickel as I mistakenly wrote earlier.
Hi Boneyard. Thanks for the comment. Yes, they were my own ramblings (complete with typo's). I try to balance my occassional "troll-like" comments with the odd ramble.
The Alpha Strategy suggests stacking other metals as well Gold and Silver to protect against the chance of government confiscation. Additional point - if gold is confiscated or there is a gold "buy back" then chances are like the last "buy back" whatever you get paid will not be fair as the transaction won't be voluntary.
Insightful post, nice one. Gadaffi resisted the attempts to make Libya a part of an African union with a common currency.
Sorry geewiz but quite the opposite. From the article "Gaddafi's Libya 'threatened Africa's subordinate role'" Link: http://rt.com/news/libya-subordinate-role-africa-597/ Article Quote: Gaddafi's Libya was the engine uniting Africa, argued Dan Glazebrook, a political analyst on the Middle East. And a united Africa, he noted, would have meant a final break from the centuries of Western colonial rule over the continent. "Gaddafi was the main driving force behind founding the African Union in 2002," he told RT. "His country was the main financial contributor to the three major financial institutions of the African Union: the African Central Bank, the Investment Bank and the African Monetary Fund. Between them, they would have posed a huge challenge to the IMF hegemony in Africa." Moreover, Libya's dinar, which was proposed as the single currency of the union, would have posed a threat to the US dollar, British pound and French franc as the main currencies in Africa. "All of this is a threat to Africa's subordinate role in the global economy," claimed the political analyst. Article end quote.
USA gold confiscation is not going to happen. AGEs and several other gold coins have been exempt from reporting. The U S Government has no clue where most of the gold coins are. The people who own whatever gold is at the Comex are probably banksters or buddies of banksters. If Jim Rickards is correct, then the gold leased out by the U S Government has never left the vaults. The new "owners" of that gold will have their gold confiscated for cash, but that was always the plan by the banksters. Too many ways for gold to disappear for confiscation to work now. Plus most of it keeps getting lost in boat accidents.
The way things are going, there won`t be much Silver or Gold to confiscate/nationalize. Easily +90% is already going to China, India, the rest of SE Asia and the Middle East. There just won`t be much left.
Good point. Also, Russia, Mexico and Iran. I don't know what the South Americans are doing in terms of buying PMs. Transfer of wealth from West to East. Still, it would be good to get a reply from an "academic" point of view. Or maybe it has been covered before.
Use to get a lot of Silver jewellery from Russia(mounts with Baltic Amber) and Silver jewellery from Mexico, and other South American countries, mainly mounts with gemstones from Brazil and Costa Rica. These have now all dried up. Use to get most of my Jewellery from Thailand. This has also dried up, just not made anymore.
