I was just reading an article describing the massive purchases of gold by central banks around the world. It seems every one is buying what they can, when they can. http://www.24hgold.com/english/news...20&redirect=false&contributor=Jeffrey+Nichols So every since Costello sold off our gold in the 90s(was it?), I'm assuming that most of Australia's production has headed to the highest bidder. Does anyone know any differently? So in the big picture, what is this telling us about Australia in the scheme of things. Should SHTF and everyone jump into a gold 'standard' or element in a bancor or similar, where does Australia stand when the deposits are being collected. Will we be writing IOUs on everything nailed down and buried? Thoughts ? p.s. I'm trying to put aside conspiracy theories and retarded Oz politicians as a reason. Could this be a plan, or just more of the 'muddle along in the lucky country' approach that Oz enjoys.
Marcus Licinius Crassus syndrome. The 'government' were pointed in one direction, soldiers marched, and the aristocrats pick-pocketed. .
What I have wondered of late, is where does the RBA get the money from to fund currency and gold purchases? Do they have their own slush fund? Or if it is from the government, then Australia could effectively be struggling financially, and not available to fund the RBA to the extent that is required.
What is even more crazy is Mr Swan contributed $11 Billion to the IMF last November so that thy can bail out Greece. We don't have a spare $11 Billion or maybe Mr Swan left it in his underpants. We borrowed the money to send to the IMF and we are now paying the interest. Who has money for gold lol. I love this the new "fair go" where our leaders are taking money from people who work for it and give it to those who don't work or to Greece. Wake up Australia your are broke and this mad dash by Labor to have a balanced budget is a joke. They need to do it 100 years in a row before we can wipe out the real debt incurred by Mr Swan and his socialistic mates. Australia you got what you deserved voting in the Greens and Labor. Gold is so far removed from Mr Swan that even brief contact will resemble a matter-antimatter reaction. The budget is soon upon us like a ton of garbage on our backs. Let us see him pull a rabbit out the bag. Haha. The joke is on us Australia.
JulieW..Maybe Australia will ban the export of gold and start accumulating WTSHTF. Ronie ^^^ All Australian Politicians are the same, not only ALP ones..Yes Jullia has made some bad decisions but you surely have to admit that Peter Costello was an idiot too when he sold all our gold(76tons of it ). Maybe Tony will buy it back? Great Britain under Blair sold a lot of gold too but not the whole lot. Regards Errol 43
Hi Errol I don't support any politician but the Labor/ Green ideology of rewarding the lazy and non- productive at the expense of those who work hard is indefensible. Costello was a fool for selling our gold - I never supported him but Swan is a different order of incompetence. Dishing out billions on hair brained ill conceived schemes is infuriating for those of us actually doing something productive. I am personally aware of two schemes instituted by Swan on his instigation based on cronyism which have cost tax payers millions. I am in a position as an Australian employer who is employing 18 staff members in a small business. The government is encouraging me no forcing me to retrench staff and shrink the business. Perhaps Liberal is the lesser of 2 evils but Australia is going to learn the hard way as I believe it is too late to turn this around. 300 Billion in the red and mining slowing down. Bring out the sheep I say we are going back to the 1950's. Abject poverty will rear its head again and these bastards will be retired living on fat government pensions. " Bad decisions " are when I go and see a movie like Titanic. Gross incompitance is when after seeing the movie you go out and captain it !
I suspect that Costello sold Australia's gold for the same reason Gordon Brown sold Britain's gold. I believe that they were told to. Swan gave / loaned those billions to Europe because he was told to. I don't think it *really* matters who the front (wo)man is. Someone is calling the shots and it's not our elected officials. I heard someone talking about Ron Paul and they said that even if he became the US President nothing would change. On the day he was elected he'd be called into a meeting where he'd be shown a video of the Kennedy assassination from an angle never seen before. Right where's my tinfoil hat
Hi Nugget Who knows why these people do such terrible things under the name of politics. Some leaders do the right thing without regard to themselves. I doubt Ron Paul would care if they threatended him. How old is he ? 74 or something. If he became president I would gladly eat my PC. The choice is Obama 1 or Obama 1/2. Likewise in Australia it's Gillard 1 or Gillard 1/2 (Abbott) - I go Abbott
Charlie Munger: 'Gold Is A Great Thing To Sew In To Your Garments If You're A Jewish Family In Vienna In 1939' Mr Munger states "that civilized people dont buy gold". Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/char...family-in-vienna-in-1939-2012-5#ixzz1tz0W3GlM The ratio of silver to gold 15/16 to 1 - in nature it is 12 to 1. The ratio now is 50 to 1. Sigh. I like Marc Faber in saying save some money enough to buy an oz of gold and just buy and then repeat the cycle and keep buying. Talking about conspiracy theories - read the dailybell.com. One US dollar in 1913 is now worth 3 cents. They do not want to buy gold because it is honest money and they cannot inflate it and steal it from you and dispense at their political and economic whims. http://thedailybell.com/3762/Advisors-Still-Cant-and-Wont-Recommend-Gold-and-Silver
Charlie talks about Jewish people in WWII... Munger - a Hungarian name (http://www.houseofnames.com/munger-family-crest). Hungary was on Germany's side in WWII (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary_during_World_War_II). Charlie wants everyone to get into the stock market so that he can help fleece you using HFT, insider trading and stock dilution. And because apparently it is some kind of patriotic duty.
Aust had 240t and gold 160t in 1997, leaving us with 80t now. We mine over 200t a year, so it wouldn't take long to top it back up if they wanted. BTW 200t = $11 billion, would have been better off buying gold rather than giving it to Greece.
I don't think there was ever any option to not give $11 billion to the IMF. The IMF has a lot of sway. They are the default slush-fund for other central banks to dip into in order to prevent a run on our currency or a financial crisis, etc. The point being that most countries are a member of this 'club' (188 members: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/memdate.htm), and it is a significant risk if a country was to choose not to be a member. You could even say that it would possibly impact trade relations? The idea is that a country can obtain temporary funding from the IMF slush fund rather than printing money, pays off the temporary funding and goes on it's merry way. So if the IMF says jump, they jump, particularly because they could be the next in need of assistance. We know here that more lending/debt/bailouts will not fix the current problems, but that's beside the point. All-in-all, when Gordon Brown and the RBA sold their gold... they did it because they were told to. It's more complicated than them thinking "golly gee, this stuff is just lying around here in the vault taking up space, let's do some spring cleaning" (not directed at you Bron).
As Costello pointed out at the time, Australia has plenty of gold in the ground. As Bron points out, if the country does suddenly need gold they can replenish the stocks in a year or two. In a world shtf event they can nationalize all the gold mines and keep all the production. Probably not a good thing to be the owner of a gold mine in such an event I suppose. Hopefully they wouldn't try to grab all the privately held gold as well - too much effort involved - much easier to just take all the output from a few big mines
Even if we had more gold in Australia, it's not as if any of us will benefit from it. It's for the powers-that-be to use and abuse, just like cash. As for private people buying gold, the 1.5:1 debt-to-income ratio might have something to do with it.
I thought IMF was the operating arm of the Bank of International Settlements - BIS. I think the G20 do what they're told as well - except maybe the BRICS
In terms of the IMF dictating behind the scenes, do you think it will make one iota of difference which political party is in power in Australia?
