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Guest Post: Don’t Dismiss The Possibility Of Gold Confiscation
Submitted by Jeff Thomas via Casey Research,
If you hold precious metals in your portfolio, there is a good chance you fear hyperinflation and the crash of fiat currencies.
You probably distrust governments in general and believe they are self-serving and have no interest in your economic well-being. It is likely that your holdings in gold are your lifeline – your hope to get you through these times while holding on to your wealth.
But have you ever given any thought to the possibility of having this lifeline confiscated by the authorities?
In my conversations with friends and associates, I have often raised this question. The typical responses:
"They'd never do that."
"I'll deal with that if and when it happens."
"I just wouldn't give it to them."
I consider these "wishful thinking" responses.
It's an interesting thought that the greatest threat to gold and silver investment might not be the possibility of losing on the speculation, but the government taking it away from you. It's a thought that I've found few want to even think about, let alone discuss.
If you fall into this camp, you're in good company. Some of the forecasters whom I respect most highly also treat it either as unlikely or at best, "something we may need to look at in the future." To date, in conversing with top advisors worldwide, the two primary reasons they believe gold will not be confiscated are:
- "Confiscation would mean the government acknowledges the reality of the value of gold."
Yes, this is quite so. They would be changing their official view… which, of course, they do all the time. But I submit that all that they need to do is put the proper spin on it.
- "They would meet greater resistance than they did back in '33."
I expect that this is also true, but that a plan will be put in place to deal with that resistance.
We'll address both of these assertions in more detail shortly, but first, a bit of history.
In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt came into office and immediately created the Emergency Banking Act, which demanded that all those who held gold (other than personal jewelry) turn it in to approved banks. Holders were given less than a month to do this. The government then paid them $20.67 per ounce – the going rate at the time. Following confiscation, the government declared that the new value of gold was $35.00. In essence, they arbitrarily increased the value of their newly purchased asset by 69%. (This alone is reason enough to confiscate.)
Today, the US government is in much worse shape than it was in 1933, and it has much more to lose. The US dollar is the default currency of the world, but it's on the ropes, which means the US economic power over the rest of the world is on the ropes.
I think that readers will agree that they will do anything to keep from losing this all-important power.
The US government has essentially run out of options. At some point, the fiat currencies of the First World will collapse, and some other form of payment will be necessary. Yes, the IMF is hoping to create a new default currency, but that, too, is to be a fiat currency. If any country were to produce a gold-backed currency in sufficient supply, that currency would likely become the desired currency worldwide. Fractional backing would be expected.
As most readers will know, the Chinese, Indians, Russians, and others see the opportunity and are building up their gold reserves quickly and substantially. If these countries were to agree to introduce a new gold-backed currency, there can be little doubt that they would succeed in changing the balance of world trade.
That said, the US government is watching these countries just as we are, and they are aware of the threat of gold to them.
The US government ostensibly has approximately 8,200 tonnes of gold in Fort Knox, although this may well be partially or completely missing. Additionally, it ostensibly holds a further 5,000 tonnes of gold in the cellar of the New York Federal Reserve building. Again, there is no certainty that it is there. In general, the authorities don't seem to like independent audits.
In fact, there are rumors that the above vaults are nearly or completely empty and that the above quoted figures exist only on paper rather than in physical form. While there is no way to know this for sure, it's not out of the question.
Either way, if the US and the EU could come up with a large volume of gold quickly, they could issue a gold-backed currency themselves. It's a simple equation: The more gold they have = the more backed notes they can produce = the more power they continue to hold. By seizing upon the private supply of their citizens, they would increase their holdings substantially in short order.
Either that or they could just give up their dominance of world trade and power… What would you guess their choice would be?
It is entirely possible that the US government (and very likely the EU) has already made a decision to confiscate. They may have carefully laid out the plan and have set implementation to coincide with a specific gold price.
So how would this unfold? Let's imagine a fairly extreme scenario and ask ourselves if it could be pulled off effectively:
- The evening news programs announce that the economic recovery is being hampered by wealthy private investors who, by hoarding gold, are skewing the value of the dollar and threatening the middle and poorer classes. The little man is being made to suffer while the rich get richer. A press campaign to equate gold ownership with greed ensues.
- The government announces the Second Emergency Banking Act, advising the public that "the first EBA was instituted by FDR to solve this same problem during the Great Depression. This act was instrumental in helping the little man 'recover.'" (As the average man on the street doesn't know his history nor how wrong this statement is, he'll believe it. Besides, the announcement has a "feel-good" message, and that's all that matters.)
- Possessors of gold, who make up a small minority of the population, would become pariahs. It won't matter that the guy who owns two gold Maple Leafs is not exactly a greedy, rich man. No one will wish to be seen as resisting confiscation. Neither will they wish to go to prison for resisting, no matter how remote the possibility.
- The US pays for the gold in US dollars, which are rapidly headed south. Yes, the Fed will need to print more fiat dollars in order to pay them off, but this suits their purpose, as it inflates the dollar even more. Those who have turned in their gold will do whatever they can to unload the US dollars as quickly as possible and will need to find another investment at a time when there are very few trustworthy investments other than gold. The stock market would likely rise, showing the public how the gold confiscation program is "working."
- One last scary possibility: The government demands that gold is turned in immediately and that settlement will occur following confiscation. After confiscation, it announces that, as there has been such a large number of cases of rich people ripping off the little man, processing them all could take months, possibly even a year or more. A further announcement states that some investors have made an unreasonable profit on the backs of the poor and that they should not be granted this profit. This profit must be returned to the people. (You can almost hear the cheers of the people.) Then it sets about making assessments. The bureaucrats find that most investors do not have formal, acceptable receipts for every coin in their possession. So if you paid $1,200 for a Krugerrand a couple of years ago, you get paid $1,200. If you bought it at $250 in 1999, you get paid $250. But if you have no receipt in an acceptable form, you get a "fair," median payment, say, $500, regardless of when you bought it.
- Appeals: Each investor will be allowed up to one year to appeal the decision of the Treasury as to what is owed him. Of course, the investor knows that the dollar is sinking rapidly and that he would be wise to shut up and take what he is being offered.
Again, this hypothetical scenario is an extreme one. The reader is left to consider just how likely or unlikely this scenario is and what that would mean to his wealth.
But bear this in mind: If the above scenario were to take place soon, the average citizen would have mixed feelings. They would be glad that the "evil rich" had been taken down a peg, but they would worry about the idea of the government taking things by force, because they might be next. It would therefore be in the government's interests to implement confiscation only after the coming panic sets in – after the next crash in the market, after it becomes plain to the average citizen that this really is a depression and he really is in big trouble. Then he will be only too glad to see the "greedy rich" go down, and he won't care about the details.
As terrible as the thought is, it seems unlikely to me that the government will not confiscate gold, as they have little to lose and so much to gain.
Those who own gold would prefer to think that this cannot happen, but they have quite a lot riding on that hope and precious little evidence to support it.
It is entirely possible that this scenario will not take place, just as it is possible that confiscation will not take place. The purpose of this article is to spark some serious discussion – both for and against the possibility.
Investors are, by their very nature, planners. It may take a community of investors to develop a legal plan to deal with the above eventuality. Time to get started.
The government can't easily confiscate what's outside its own borders, which is why it's working night and day to make it as difficult as possible for you to protect your assets abroad. This sad reality means that you need to take action before it's too late. Your first step? Learn how to start internationally diversifying your wealth – and your life. From investing in international markets and opening offshore bank accounts to setting up an offshore LLC or annuity, Going Global 2013 will tell you how and where to expatriate your wealth. It also presents solid, up-to-date information on internationalizing your life, from getting a second passport to choosing a good place to live.
Don't allow yourself to be milked by your home government any more. Get started on internationalizing your life today... while it's still possible.
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I think this is more than a mere possibility. I think it's a near-certainty.
It's factually incorrect and basically bullshit. They didn't confiscate gold, they limited the amount any one person could hold to five ounces, which was more than the average person held anyway, and it was done to force people to start using FRN's instead of gold, which people were using.
Why confiscate it when all they need do now is tax it to oblivion?
The article is scaremongering horseshit pandering to fears frequently aired on ZH. Casey should know better...
I'm pretty sure aliens are going to turn all the Earth's gold into fuel for their fusion impulse engines so they can get home before dinner.
In 30 minutes, all conspiracy theories since the dawn of time are brought out and tied together...including aliens.
Annunaki - Dont Watch this Filmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rJJjOKmwl6s
I swapped all my Au for Ag, then lost it in a boating accident.
Coordinates somewhere over the Mariannas Trench, I think.
In 1932 you could walk down the street with a couple of gold coins jingling in your pocket, but no booze in your back pocket. In 1933 you could walk down the street with booze in your back pocket, but no gold to jingle. You could go to prison in both years for the opposing "illegal" circumstances.
I say BUNK on the whole thing. Nobody else has to obey any laws (especially those with fiduciary responsibility) so why do we?
+ a trillion
Confiscation or not, time's running out fast: http://twoshortplanksunplugged.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/chinas-goldreserves-how-big-is-elephant.html
As for "International Man" Advertorial...LOL...has Cyprus been forgotten already? You can't run from this thing, you'll get Cyprus'd no matter where you are...and this isn't the 30's.
From now and into the future, secrecy and a hole in the ground is your only friend....ONLY!!!
Greetings, fellow recidivist and born-agin ZH commentator... & congrats pon yor new alternative to the "alternative" space!
In the ol-skool spirit of friendly debate I must take issue with your exclusive solution to wealth dilution...
as I do not believe that the thinking caps necessary to adapt to our current new world ordure...
have yet been placed pon heads where they could do the job required... indeed, much of what get's passed off here as solutions to the encroaching police states' mania for confiscating things... like rights.... wealth... and other countries.... reads more like a museum of legacy ideas rather than the freshly picked fruits of minds fortuitously focussed on successfully adapating to and surviving conditions on the ground....and air... and water.
But this is "ZH"...wherein which all discussion merely evades the implications of the total warfare doctrine employed against the western peeples... a full spectrum dominance doctrine of poisoning minds(thru thought-control technologies)...bodies(thru gmo 'foods'... fluridated water...radiated skies...chemtrailed lung linings...etc.)and spirits(thru culture-war desecretions of our in-born spiritual nobility)...
and fails to fully realize the fate of each of the formerly free western countries... wastelands of body\spirit\mind in which all EffECTive resistance has already been crushed! But I guess we're not supposed to talk about that... even when then less mind-manipulated Turks demonstrate what a POPULAR uprising against the powerz looks like! Turn your eyes away... says the control mechanism within!
Those who truly understand which way the (deadly, talmudist-driven)winds blow have begun to understand the wisdom of he whom the fatuous French called "the Sepoy General:" he was always falling back in the face of overwhelming odds...
and preserving his strength intact... for the fight upon ground of his own choosing. When the time be right. And so the best and bravest amongst us will be 'falling back' ...in strength... with assets intact... to fight upon grounds of our our choosing. When the time is right. No holes in the ground(a la Saddam and the G-daff man)///
Intially, we may have no other choice than to fight as janissaries in the armies of other Liu Yongfu(s).... http://les-tribulations-de-richard-m.blogspot.com/ on the fringes of empires... and for causes not directly our own*... but while some will call us 'river pirates' brigands, and so on... we of the warrior caste will call ourselves reivers... haydutzi... rapparees and guerrilleros... in honor of our famous forbears.... and if captured... will like the un-named Calabrian put on trial by the French, declaim.... "It is you who are the thieves"**...
We carry our gold in our saddlebags... and our women astride our saddles. Always aware of which way lies the road home... and the many hills to be crossed along it.
*as always... there are 'fringe benefits' to bein on the fringe... Hakka ladies bein well known as the most beautiful of the far east/// light in the saddle... skilled with the wok... I could go on... but this ain't no book!
Big shout out to all you formerly first world peasants what believe somehow your current state of rapid impoverishment and incarceration be due to your own crimes.... you are the new peasant class... and you need to wake up to the really real dirty lowdown... of your rich landlord classes! Only the John McCains amongst you won that war!
Come and take it bitchez.
http://dprogram.net/2013/06/08/hundreds-of-gunowners-show-up-in-temple-tx-with-loaded-guns-at-the-come-and-take-it-march/
They're coming to take your underwear. Watch out!!!
Gnomes?
Sweet!
Hay que luchar para vivir!
Why on earth would they seize gold, when it is MUCH easier to seize gold mines?
-- they are easy to find
-- there aren't that many of them
-- they produce huge amounts of gold on an ongoing basis
-- politically connected people don't own mines, so no political problems
-- it's a well-proven model, they've been doing it in South America and Africa for centuries!
First they came for the ... and I didn't act.
Guest Post: Don’t Dismiss The Possibility Of Gold Confiscation, IRA Confiscation, Firearms Confiscation, 401(k) Confiscation, Ammo Confiscation, Real Estate Confiscation, Telephonic Information Confiscation, Data Confiscation, Email Confiscation, Photo and Video Confiscation, Keystroke Confiscation and Bank Account Confiscation.
They can attempt to seize whatever they want. Will they succeed? And will they be able to hold onto their gains, of say, a confiscated gold mine, or confiscated stashes of hundreds of thousands?
As Solzhenitsyen said... He wishes they added just one secret police officer every time to the casualty list when they came to take a person to the gulag.
Without straight up publicly declaring war on the 99% (they have in private) I don't see it happening.
You forgot liberty confiscation...
If it came down to it, they would just seize the holdings of GLD. Even if all the material claimed to be on the books does not exist, you still have a substantial pile in one centralized spot.
Cash settle all the holders is much cleaner than going door to door looking for a couple maples.
In 1933 gold WAS physical money. In 2013, it is a superior form of money, but much fewer people actually own any.
What holdings? Imma guessin' you haven't requested phyz delivery yet...
More. It's never enough. Controlling valuable resources in any form, in any way.
Edit: Why would they?
Why wouldn't they.
Seizing gold mines is disempowering to the American population. I think leaving us destitute is just as valuable to the powers that be, as shoring up the possibly non-existent gold reserves.
Foreigners were not included. Now if you own metal abroad and its in some vault because you do not have anywhere to put it, they'll get it no problem.
If it comes to them taking something like this that you own, then just go to prison. Chances are, they will not be in power long enough to see you through your sentance and you'll get out when the people take control OR in the end, if in prison the most important thing is; to know you were righteous. If Putting you there makes you into a criminal sobeit as it only works when you care enough not be one, become what they made you and accept the outcome.
Thats right, stash and do your time. I guess we should be discussing ways to avoid metal detectors. The anecdote I have heard is to sprinkle coins in the back yard? Should they be embedded in the soil, as I think having them visible might reduce effectiveness!
Don't bother with coins. Just go to Home Depot and buy a box of nails and punch them down into the soil all over your yard. That will take care of the metal detectors.
Cash being banned, money defeated. No need to back up currency 1:7000 with gold.
Problem is, with monetary communism in place, who is to steal from whom ?
Nasty as things may turn out, gold wins.
+1 just for the avatar.
Yep in the worst movie ever made, Batefield Earth, the aliens were Psychlos and goldbugs.
All their gold could not prevent D class acting, odd camera angles, and their capital world being incinerated.
So I don't think aliens are after gold, since they are they always looking in your butt? No one has gold in their ass.
how do you know?
have you checked?
Yours or mine?
Maybe alien is misread instruction to inspect cavity look for gold filling?
Thank you - I was mildly angry about this deceitful infomercial, and you cheered me right up! +31.1034
Boris is happy give to cheer:) Some day is share with ZH, experience of abduction of alien origin.
So that's where TSA agents got their training.
Yup, just like the movie Cowboys and Aliens.
Regardless whether the article's summation of FDR's treatment of gold is accurate, the notion that the government, media and EBT card people are all just going to sit back and kick themselves for not buying gold while all the goldbugs waltz around the country buying up all the assets with their gold is completely naive and, frankly, bullshit.
When the FRN crashes, the media jackals are going to screech about how the gold hoarders (who lost no wealth in the crash) are sabotaging the recovery, the EBT people are going to riot, and the government is going to send in the storm troopers to get the gold 'for the good of the country.' In other words, every gold owner in the country is going to have a bullseye on his back once the FRN crashes. Either get some of your gold out of the country now or be prepared to go down shooting to keep it.
I was going to comment on this article but my 3 year old just came up to me and said "here daddy, here is some food to give you some energy so you can keep looking at your phone while you don't play with me".
Give him a paper towel tube and then yell every time you get hit. That'll create at least one hour of distraction.
The media and government HAVE to lose all credibility in a crash.
If they don't, we have failed already.
~"The media and government HAVE to lose all credibility in a crash."~
Uhm..., have you not been following the news this week?
How much more "credibility" do they need to lose?
Remind him of his two options:
1) play now, beg for alms later
2) have a somewhat financially stable future...while his old man tries to "legally" hedge an in-debt global banking system.
Unfortunately, small kids, much like politicians and bankers, will choose option 1.
See what I did there??
(bankers/politicians = intectual capacity of children)
Out of the mouths of babes.. a balancing act, not easy..
Whilst I disagree with your comments below on confiscation I do agree entirely with your conclusion here, one I have myself espoused on many occasions on these pages.
The only asset you can ever truly own is that which cannot be confiscated by your government i.e. assets held in a different country i.e. offshore.
Check out my previous post about loosing mine somewhere in the vicinity of the Mariannas Trench, lol.
5 govt agencies already have.
"The only asset you can ever truly own is that which cannot be confiscated by your government i.e. assets held in a different country i.e. offshore."
Why? So a foreign gov't can confiscate it instead? Once the dollar dies or gets close to it, there will be a lot of pissed foriegn gov'ts and the are going to sieze all assets of Americans for compensation because the US defaulted on its debts. I don't think there is a stable nation that the US doesn't owe billions to. Second, it will do you no good if you can't get it because the US enables full captial controls and puts a lien on foriegn held assets by US citizens or some other crap. The EU CB has a order ready to force foreigners to spend their capital held in the EU. So you must travel and spend it there. I have no doubt that other nations would impose simular measures when the dollar dies.
Best to own a physical stash thats hidden and presumed lost during a tragic boating accident. "Keep you friends close, your hard currency even closer and your number one buddies: Smith and Wessen, in your hand!"
No I can just instruct my offshore trustees to transfer an amount of gold held for my trust to yours thereby bypassing the banking system entirely.
and I'll take delivery of the goods wherever situated...
"No I can just instruct my offshore trustees to transfer an amount of gold held for my trust to yours thereby bypassing the banking system entirely."
LOL! Sure! And their will be no export/import taxation when you try to accept delivery of goods, and that your trustee won't be in the same boat and decide to keep your gold for his own needs, or just change his commission rate to 99%. BTW, I do know of some excellent extremely trust worthy trustees in Nigeria. I'll forward you their contact information!
Please tell me your joking, and not that naive.
Who said anything about import/export?
Or avoiding taxes.
And there are many countries in which you can find reputable trustees that give sound and useful advice,
You clearly have no idea about trust or contract law, which I assume is the reason why you write this...
Perhaps you think trustees only reside in Nigeria?
Talk about Contract Law with the General Motors bondholders.
That's why I don't rely or invest in dodgy legal systems, like the USA...
History dictates that you're infinately safer dealing with a fully fledged banana republic...
It's why I hold physical gold in a vault offshore...
So you are talking your book as well. Whatever pal, I disagree with your choice, and we shall see. Maybe, there is no escape... anywhere <cue scary music>. I tend to believe that simplification and localization (the exact opposite of your thesis) is the better prescription.
What book?
Good luck with that. But it isn't working out too well for you though is it?
But it was Obama that did in the GM bondholders. That makes it okay, right? My union buddies think so!
Paul Hogan's nominee / trustee, wherever he may currently be, is very happily enjoying the use of Mr. Hogan's 33 million. But, after a few years of lying low, I'm confident that the funds will all be returned to the original offshore jurisdiction.
I'm sorry mate, but your normalcy bias is layered so thick it can't be cut even with Occam's razor.
Your premise is that "the rules" would make it too hard for "them" to action against you? "Psst!" Here's a hint.... They just change the rules.
The final touches are being put on the paint job of the vehicle that can achieve this.
Much more likely scenario:
Terrorists are bypassing AML
Gold is the bypass
QED: people holding gold are terrorist.
Presidential order for seizure, resist and you will be Questioned (indefinite confinement, torture IS on the table)
If they can unravel a "Swiss-Cayman-Swiss between a double Irish sandwich" then they can find your sh1t.
What with FATCA, Cyprus depositor forfeit and this new level of "cooperation" exhibitited by banks that _used_ to be bastions of secrecy...
They wealth tax you, new IMF-IRS world police hunts you, planes reroute when you are on them to "friendly" jurisdictions ...
Less than five years out kiddies. Learn skills fast. Farming, medicine, building. Much harder to steal skills... But they have meds they can force proscribe so that you drop 50 IQ keeping you on food stamps
Meh, if you want to continue deluding yourself that your "unassailable" plan is bulletproof and you think that nothing could change that... Whatever man, just whatever
PS I don't have a "better" plan, I'm trying everything I can. But if you are NOT scared... scared as sh1t of what you already can see in place (tip of iceberg you can't see...) then you are in the kill zone called complacency, and history shows us how that'll play out.
Good luck all, we'll need it, cause it's been a while since human nature has bubbled to the surface and there is no way anyone of us is truly ready for THAT reality
You just keep making it up as you go along eh, I'm sure there's some reality in there somewhere but I don't see it...
But it's already happening... the French version of socialism/jingoism to "make the wealthy pay" is already fully approved and in play, and that'll spread through Europe as everyone goes looking for any kind of actual asset that isn't a printed/electronic token.
The US is the US, we can all see where that's all headed (mathematically, let alone socially).
South America is slowly socializing, some more rapidly than others: Bolivia, Venezuala, Equador, et al., or going bat-sh1t crazy ala Argentina.
Africa will likely degenerate into naked resource wars by-proxy agressors between China, Russia, and the US.
I do agree that it is prudent to squirl away something somewhere in a full-on Militarized Oligarch/Dictatorship in the hopes that it might remain independant and/or seem obscure enough to not warrent attention (security through obscurity), but BVI, Cayman, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the like will be brought to heel cause there's so much squirled away there already, you can't suggest that they'll just NOT go after all those assets...
When you say "You just keep making it up," is that with regard to my strategy for weathering a storm, or with the whole "conspiricy theorizing" aspect?
The "reality" is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to suggest that anyone will accurately call either the timing OR the avalanche start. History teaches us that it is ALWAYS out of nowhere, and that it happens too fast for anyone to make course corrections in-flight. The only strategy that has a hope of accounting for the myriad of possibilities (all unforseeable) is to have a few strategies.
To think that there is one single strategy that one should put all one's eggs into and then lay back as if all the bases were perfectly covered and nothing could possibly go wrong... I'm sorry, it's just naive.
But ya, so some squirled away in Europe, some in Sing, bunch back home, learning skills, reconnecting with family, finding others with skills I don't have, building contacts, working to a purpose, being mindful, trying to remain observant, and certainly not allowing oneself to become complacent... to me, this is an approach that seems robust... and of course... if/when something happens, 90% of all the planning/prep will be useless to the actual situation at hand. Ha! You have to laugh to keep from crying.
Like I said... "meh," good luck to you sir.
Nage42
Thanks, and to you too.
There is no right and wrong in this, only a certainty that higher taxes and great upheaval are coming, and that you need to deal with it. Me, I can walk away from here and set up anywhere I feel comfortable because I am liquid. I live in a country I wasn't born in because I like it here, I pay to educate my children, for my own medical bills and we rely on handouts from no one; my assets are liquid (gold & silver) and in a different place. I don't buy assets I can't move or need bank loans to sell, like property, because they can be seized or taxed to oblivion. But I have nothing to hide from any tax man either.
One day I will decide where I want to go and I will go there, but you can be sure that as I move from place to place and I take my personal tax residence with me (worldwide tax or not), I do not expose my assets to taxes in whatever place I go, one place after another. Obviously I have some assets with me but not much in the great scheme of things, so in this we can agree. Naive, nah, realist, with absolute certainty...
The rule of law always survives, otherwise how would the thieves keep their loot?
Good luck to you too...
I have GOVERNMENT LAND which I TAKE GOLD FROM. Twist the rules of government and make them finally work for YOU! I have 150 ACRES in the Rockies that I TAKE gold from. We paid the gov a mere pitance and they were happy somebody is out there in a remote area working the claim! Confiscation?... Yeah, they'll have to dig it up themselves or start learning how to pan for gold in the rivers if they want to "confiscate" the mere pittance we paid for the claim. If they ever confiscate the claim it is in such a remote location that we can go back there and work it without any worries of some Fed showing up unexpectedly.
I like to call that "INSHORING". And nobody will EVER find my stash out there!
They would just drone your ass dude.
There are many laws in The Land of the Free. Forexample, homicide is illegal in most cases. So is financial fraud. Yet 20-25 people are murdered each weekend in Chicago alone, not including the thousands of other cities and murders. As for fraud, how many Wall Street Fraudsters have been arested since 2005? Even the dept head of economics at Princeton (who was on TV the other night) was amazed that no Wall Streeter has been prosecuted (compared to the 1980s' when he said over 700 bankers, etc were convicted by the DOJ).
There are many laws in The Land of the Free.
In Argentina 2002, which admittedly isn't the USA 201X, having physical dollars would have allowed you to do just that. Its just an analogy that is t perfect, but its all speculation anyways.
It's far more likely they will confiscate your FINANCIAL INSTITUTION DEPOSITS - since the BIS & IMF have already developed the blueprints to do so, and the FRB can do so overnight, without kicking a single door with a higher ROI...
And regardless of what FDR did- JFK actually explicitly outlawed ownership of gold by US citizens held outside the Untied States (CTRL-F "JFK" and "Kennedy" are coming up blank) so any discussion of the possibility of confiscation in the article above is woefully incomplete.
That's the good thing about governments trying to impose controls on citizens overseas; entirely unenforceable.
All you need is an offshore trust or company.
Then the treatment of the Trust in the eyes of Treasury department will be critical- i.e. the serf will get fucked, unless he expatriates both his ass and his assets ahead of time.
Corporations are more iffy since JPM & Co need to remain open for business, but there are no guarantees as long as the State has leverage.
I think the serf already has.
You need to be a little more savvy these days if you want something like this to work for you...
Bingo, UR. If there was significant real gold ownership in the US, I couldn't buy 100 maple leafs right now for $1416 per (Tulving, Friday night). Most of those who imagine themselves enlightened and "allocated a percentage of their portfolio" own GLD. Of maybe 5000 people I have worked with in the last 10 years, I know one guy who buys a little junk silver, and one who I talked into swapping his GLD for the real thing. Thanks to the shitty seamanship of commenters on this forum, Mel Fisher has a better chance of getting the ZH stash than the treasury. I would be surprised if confiscation produced a tonne of physical vs trillions by forcing 401Ks and IRAs into T-Bonds. By the time they are desperate enough to 'go for the gold', I doubt anyone is still paying taxes.
+31.1034
IRAs and 401ks will be long gone before gold is even looked at. The banksters will be dealing with too much popular discontent to get a rally around "now physically bring us your ____ "
WTF. 'I tend to believe that simplification and localization (the exact opposite of your thesis) is the better prescription.' Huh?
Yer full of shite pal.
They'll start with those, for sure.
"It's far more likely they will confiscate your FINANCIAL INSTITUTION DEPOSITS".
No, If Hyper-inflation happens what would be the point? All of the deposits would be worthless. The only liquid assets that would have value are hard currencies. Everything else is just confetti.
Perhaps they might try to confiscate deposits in order to pay bills but that won't last very long it would mean hyper-inflation is just around the corner. The EU is going for consfication of the FIAT, only because it has not opted to go full QE. In the US, it seems likely that we will continue to QE to until the dollar dies.
Printing money is the last line of defense. Confiscating savings to compensate senior creditors of the financial institutions is the first line of defense. TBTF needs a defaltionary shock (where they have access to mountains of hoarded liquidity) so they can go on a shopping spree while blood is flowing in the streets. Paying out worthless hyper-printed dollars to TPTB doesn't help them achieve their goals.
It not like they are hiding their plans or anything...
https://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qt1306e.pdf
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2012/sdn1212.pdf
http://www.fdic.gov/about/srac/2012/gsifi.pdf
"Printing money is the last line of defense. Confiscating savings to compensate senior creditors of the financial institutions is the first line of defense. "
Printing money has already happened, QE 1, 2, 3, and infinity. Second most of the liquid assets they could confisicate is already investing in US gov't debt. Confiscating does not help. You remind me of Dr Evil when he announces his plan to destroy the ozone layer for randsom, only to be informed by his staff, that the ozone layer has already been destroyed. Printing Money has already occured and will continue until the dollar is dead.
"TBTF needs a defaltionary shock (where they have access to mountains of hoarded liquidity) so they can go on a shopping spree while blood is flowing in the streets. "
No, the problem with the TBTF is that they already own too much REOs, The TBTF wants inflation so they can dump their underwater assets. The last thing they want is deflation since they would end up with an even bigger pile of REOs (libabilities since they need to pay the property taxes on REOs). Hording Student loans? What the point, there are no assets. I think you're missing the big problem: the US is broke! There is no wealth, its just a big illusion. Consumers, Companies and all gov'ts (Federal, State, Local) are drowning in debt! The senior creditors are the only ones with money left in the bank! Everyone else is broke! There is no money left to be stolen.
"Paying out worthless hyper-printed dollars to TPTB doesn't help them achieve their goals."
Yes is does help them. If you point made any sense the Fed would not be printing more than a Trillion a year and the TBTF would not have asked the Fed to bail them out by printing money and to buy their worthless assets. If TBTF wanted assets on the cheap, they would have simply raised interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages to double digits and wait for the flood of foreclosures and they would have pressured the Fed to raise rates too.
You do realize that the Federal Reserve's increase of the money supply is being held as excess reserves on TBTF's balance sheet (i.e. being horded), the largely short-term portion of the offsetting debt-issuance that is not being is being horded on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet is being collateralized in the shadow banking system and that is the money that is leaking into stock market and financing banker bonuses (other than the relatively small dollar supply created by student loan debt issuance)...
It only takes milliseconds to create volatility in the interest rate markets - and that volatility can lead to another lockup where collateral failure leads to debt failure and money supply reduction, which will crash all prices in a deflationary shock. As long as the major powers are all debasing purely fiat currencies and largely maintaining the monetization within the banking system- there can be no hyperinflation -- until the velocity of money increases by TBTF entering the market place to poach the remaining assets of the bankrupted.
The only other way hyperinflation happens is if Bernanke literally dumps dollars from a helicopter to the masses (or the EBT equivalent) but he doesn't have the legal authority to do that even if he did give a shit about the poor debt serfs.
There is also another way in which hyperinflation can occur, very specific to the US, which is the US Dollar loosing its status as a reserve currency and all those dollars held abroad being returned to the US in a short amount of time.
A lot of the inflation created in the US in the last couple of decades has been exported abroad, which is maybe the main reason which the US has a lot less inflation from its printing of money than, for example, the UK.
The reserve currency status and millisecond speed are new variables, but in order to for the repatriation to increase the velocity of money then the repatriated funds have to exit the closed loop of banking system and enter the real economy to demand goods and services. A banks primary concern is going in the event of a collapse of CONfidence to be liquidity- Corzine's gamble was fundamentally correct, but he was not liquid enough to ride it out for a couple months longer- the banks' short term behavior is likely to be different from a debt serf who might hope to ride 90 days delinquency and start to inflate his debt away, whereas the banks certainly are not going to lend new money to borrowers or extend credit to counterparties in a crisis with the prospect of rising interest rates and margin requirements from their own counterparties. At the micro level there could wild divergences in the direction of price movements based on perceived utility or safety- with good delivery bars going offerless, and iCrap going bidless, with bank stocks going to 0 and commodity stocks going through the roof-
Some of the gold-bug (armchair) analysts could be proven fundamentally right for having a precisely backwards understanding of economics- if a good delivery bar is going for $20,000 an ounce but several trillion dollars in debt is vaporized and everyone is afraid of counterparties and hoards money, then big bars of physical gold would actually do better under severe deflation then severe inflation, unless Bernanke really tries (and lives long enough) to print $700 trillion dollars and make all the banksters whole-
Of course if they go with the BIS/FED/BoE model and they try and save the world over a 48-60 hr weekend, then it could be the shortest deflation in recorded history, since when the banks reopen Monday NO ONE in their right mind will trust the banks or the USD again and we all get to watch the simultaneous Saturn V liftoff in nominal prices and Apollo 1 like meltdown of purchasing power, if we succeed in doing our damnest to impersonate Russian oligarchs in a bank run.
Regardless, it's a whiplash inducing vomit comet ride I'm not looking forward to.
EDIT: I should have disclosed my mental dysfunction before going off on a hike on a beautiful day. If you're not giving me money and I say something will be complete in two days, I really mean two weeks. If this discussion is about something that I have no control or authority to affect the outcome of - I might as well say two months or two years (because even if they open the flood gates and get the circulation going within two months - it will seem like an interminable two years).
Hyperdeflation through massive bank failures must occur before the US goes into hyperinflation. So first your deposits get corzined, and then the FRN hyperinflates as the politicians print wildly to keep the system going, gasoline flowing, and the EBT cards functioning.
So if I don't want this country to take my gold, why do I want some other country to take it? There is no govt. anywhere that is not greedy for power and more gold. When the dollar totally crashes the other fiats will as well. There will be no golden paradise of freedom anywhere on earth.
Not to mention, how are they going to "tax gold to oblivion" when FRNs are worthless? What are they going to collect as tax on the gold, FRNs?? What you're saying makes no sense.
In order to "tax gold to oblivion" after a fiat crash, they would have to take the gold itself as tax--i.e., CONFISCATE IT.
No, people would just use something else as money, so there's no point.
FRN's will be replaced with something else that is fixed to gold for a while as has always happened in the past (with the ongoing exception of Zim, which hasn't done it yet because it is using USD for now).
"FRN's will be replaced with something else that is fixed to gold for a while as has always happened in the past."
Ok. And where is the US gov going to get the gold to back the FRN replacement?
It's still there. It never left.
If you think it did then explain why in the fiat world in which we live the entire quantum of the worlds gold isn't constantly being shipped from one country to another by central banks each capable of creating enough fiat money before midnight tonight to buy it many times over?
You should explain why China and Russia have to resort to adding to their gold reserves from new mining supply when they can craete enough new money to buy it faster and easier, and why Germany will take seven years to repatriate 10% of its gold to the Bundesbank.
Fact is that the gold is still right where it was at the end of WWII, within the clutches of the Fed and BoE through the US and UK banking systems.
A tax on gold is what's coming, not confiscation. That much should be clear...
With all due respect, Harlequinn001, I'll paraphrase a great man and say
It's not that you're ignorant, it's just that you know so much that isn't so
So explain it then, I'm all ears...
Without using any useless pejoratives to describe your position, I am willing to take up the debate as to whether has substance...
as an awful lot of what you have written on this thread seems to be speculative... unless you are willing to pose it as anecdotal evidence of moves that you yourself(or at least someone whose veracity you can attest to!)have made... and over a sufficiently long time line as to have been proven in real life conditions to be a suitable strategy for the punter here to follow.
Since many of us are here to acquire information about how to proceed through shoal waters, whatever it is that motivates commentators to shoot off at the lip, without this personal seal of proveable success is at best a kind of careless disregard of our common purpose here... at worst, another example of the kind of sockpuppetry which infects everywhere on the net. If you value your personal credibility here, you must pay attention to this bottom line ...
have you moved your assets offshore? In what manner... when... using whom... you don't even need be country specific necessarily. But you do need to have something to back your position. Idle speculation on items of critical importance to peoples' financial future should be given short shrift here. I think if you were to put the shoe on the other foot, you could not but agree with this.
The author of this piece says he wants to open up the subject to debate... I strongly second that notion. But let's do it right.
You use an awful lot of words to say very little.
'If you think it did then explain why in the fiat world in which we live the entire quantum of the worlds gold isn't constantly being shipped from one country to another by central banks each capable of creating enough fiat money before midnight tonight to buy it many times over? You should explain why China and Russia have to resort to adding to their gold reserves from new mining supply when they can craete enough new money to buy it faster and easier, and why Germany will take seven years to repatriate 10% of its gold to the Bundesbank. Fact is that the gold is still right where it was at the end of WWII, within the clutches of the Fed and BoE through the US and UK banking systems.'
Do explain to me which bit of the above is wrong, and why. I'm all ears...
If what I said to you above seems to you .... "an awful lot of words to say very little"
...then I herewith submit that you have not just lost any respect that your presence here might have by default entitled you to...but the entire thread of what this space was supposed to be about.
Who knows... mabee on the "all new" ZH(lite)you are the 'cutting edge'....
don't bother replying. I'm no longer interested in what you bring to the table here dude. You are a poseur.
Oh fuck, no, Joyful is going to ignore me.
Oh dear, what a pity, never mind...
Oh fuck, no, Joyful is going to ignore me.
Oh dear, what a pity, never mind...
like I said, '"an awful lot of words to say very little"'...
"Ok. And where is the US gov going to get the gold to back the FRN replacement?"
if the dollar dies so does the US gov't, The US will break up into smaller states. Its very likely when the dollar starts to dive states will start the process, either by printing there own currencies backed by physical assets (energy, land, infrastructure, food, hard currencies, etc). Already several states had started inital plans to print their own currencies if the dollar crashes. Once the Dollar dies the Federal gov't is powerless since it can't pay its workers and pay its bills, No money to pay for fuel its miltary uses, and no money to pay its soldiers. The US may break up into regional nations as states group together.
All previous superpowers broke up when their gov't became broke: Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, Holy Roman Empire, Roman, etc. The US won't be any different.
That said the Odds favor a WW3 first as Washington applies a scorched Earth policy by trying to use miltary force to keep on top. The US gov't is hard at work in destabilizing the Middle east, and Africa. ITs trying to occupy African resources to support its power, by securing military strategic resources. Africa is the last remaining contient that does not have its natural resources fully developed for extraction. Eventually this is going to spill over into a hot war with Asia, ans China tries to lock up the same african resources for its economy.
That's what I think.
"FRN's will be replaced with something else that is fixed to gold...
Nope, FRNs will steadily lose value till they're worthless and nothing will change (no new currency backed by anything), it'll be Weimar America till the whole nation collapses (which won't take long).
Like I said earlier, govt plans (for soviet style police state) and banker plans (loot the nation dry) are quite different.
Bankers win of course.
Agree, they won't take it, they'll just tax all PM related transactions. This will create a black market system for PM. Got pre-65 coins?
What they'll take though is IRA's, 401's etc. and force all or a % of them into government bonds to keep the govt. running for a while longer. Eventually they'll default on the bonds.
no kidding. gold is under owned here, and not needed to expand the money supply. you will see 401ks seized first.
no kidding. gold is under owned here, and not needed to expand the money supply. you will see 401ks seized first.
That is why they need to be cashed out asap.(do not forget it will include Ira's,and CD's,and Mmkt Funds also).
American retirement plans need to be cashed out YESTERDAY.
But mine is with the Dept of Education and my friend's is with the SS Administration and my girlfriend will be paid by the State of California and her brother by the state of Illinois. You mean these are not 100% safe?
If you want to know how government will treat people who have prudently saved some gold for tough times then look no further than how government treats people who have preseerved resources after a devastating hurricane. The government immediately brands these people as hoarders, price gougers, and evil monsters who are trying to profit from other people's misfortunes.
I am struck by how folks react to natural disasters. Those in New Orleans are still wailng and waiting whereas as those in Mississippi and Alabama (where entire towns vanished) were rebuilding within days. Same as the OK tornado. Folks began clearing the rubble, taking in the homeless, helping themselves before FEMA was there. Then there's NJ where it seemed the biggest fight was over use of unions, upgrades of destroyed property and grabbing as much money as possible.
"Confiscation is BS, all they have to do is tax it to oblivion. The article is scaremongering horseshit pandering to fears frequently aired on ZH"
Right, because there is a big difference between confiscation and taxation into oblivion.
Ron Paul has stated that although gold has several factors that make it appealing. it's use is preferred but not mandatory. The masses were not swayed to use gold even when it was legal tender (again, because paper and metal were interchangeable). Theoretically, we could have a gold backed currency but it would require such destruction of paper as to effectively turn the dollar into the most expensive currency in the world- good for us, bad for exports.
This advertisement mimicking an article is bullshit.
Could gold be confiscated? Sure it could. And while we're being all paranoid lets also remember that pensions can be snatched, bank accounts can be seized, real estate could be pillaged, organs might be forcibly harvested, and granny could be ground up for fertilizer. The question is: how likely is a forcible gold confiscation to occur given that it is within the universe of possibilities? The answer: very unlikely.
There just isn't enough gold in private hands in the US to bother with. A very small portion of the population owns any gold at all . The "we buy gold" shops have done their work well. If you're looking for significant amounts of privately owned gold, you're looking on the wrong continent. Not to mention the fact that small holders of gold in the US tend to be, uhhh, just a tad bit on the wary end. Not exactly the type of folks who are going to line up early to turn it in should a confiscation materialize.
This is just scaremongering hype.
I totally agree, they have to default on someone and the only people they can and can't get in trouble for it is the American populace. Yea they will go after the rich and then they will go after the middle and everybody else. You see I think there will be a two tier system for money in the US. The gold back money will be used for international settlements and internally the dollar will be used. And it will be illegal for anybody to have the gold back in the US. If you live in the US you will be using the inflated green back until they can get things sorted out a decade or more later.
They will tax the crap out of it, but not confiscate. But they may shut down the comex and settle out.
Horseshit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuMmQX2TWoQ
Quit with the depressing shit already.
Feeling suicidal? Then sign up now for the Department of Homeland Security's gold confiscation program....
I can give them the approximate coordinates but Lake Tahoe is really, really deep.
The problem isn't Lake Tahoe or retrieving said gold from the watery depths, the problem is people basically grassing you up when you try to use it to buy goods, because that's the bit when the IRS come banging on your door wondering how you paid for the submarine you needed to go and get it.
That was my fear as well. I have decided there will be a vibrant black market for a lot of things by that point, however.
There's always been a black market and there always will for some things. The question is whether the reward for turning you in is greater than the profit in selling you goods, and how long the competition with no gold will sit back and let you get away with it. Best to hold it offshore where you can turn it to cash at whatever the rate is I think.
Boating accidents, bitchez!
"Confiscation by Taxation" is most likely and easiest. Taxed at POS. Bear in mind that we've only seen this in the US and not in other Western countries.
Quite unlikely, hell, they couldn't even take our guns. Now if we could only start some sort of gold/sound-money lobbey.
What if I printed myself a golden gun? Would I be safe then or just a suicidal llibertarian caricature of captain America?
Quite unlikely, hell, they couldn't even take our guns. Now if we could only start some sort of gold/sound-money lobbey.
Oh, they cant huh?, just wait there are HUGE cogs turning and it will blow all Amercians minds.We have JUST begun to see the tip of this spear, soon to feel it.Trust me, if he stays IN, they are coming full frontal to take them all.Bank it.
And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Thank you for re posting that. I have looked for it.
" they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?..."
AR-15 might have been handy. Just sayin.
And this is what the discussion here always seems to purposely avoid...
the Russian victims of the talmudist bolshevik putsch had squirrel away gold and other valuables for that 'rainy day' as would have any sane person in those days... anywhere.
But what they hadn't done... xactly as with the the Merkicans now who never stopped to ask themselves why the great Solzhenitsyn had decided to leave his new home in Merika even before the prison fence had become visible....
was look dispassionately at the way the wind was blowing... and understand that it blew no good for people outside the chosen few.... and so they lost everything.... including the gold which they couldn't take with them when the trains\buses\dozers etc. came for them.
Dream on Disney Denizens...
Silver Bitchez!!!!!!
yep, the US gov stole my silver that was stolen in a raid (FBI) on the warehouse of the then issuer of the Liberty Dollar, NORFED, in 2007. Never gotten my stolen property back nor any indication they have it.
And that is why everyone keeps saying that what you don't hold in your possession is not yours.
Platinum offers some protection if they go for the gold. But, IMO, as Pt is very useful to industry (catalysts, etc.), I would think that Pt is more vulnerable to a confiscation as in "hoarding a badly needed industrial material".
I think your over thinking this. Its unlikely they will single out any PM, they will just want them all. Why choose one over another when its just easlier to declare all PMs illegal.
Perhaps with Pt you can claim an exemption by claiming your using it for an industrial process or energy system (ie fuel cell), I don't it there will be the same option for Gold and Silver since neither are using in Fuel cells or other catalytic processes.
It's only valuable in the form of a three trillion dollar coin.
Thanks to PRISM, the IRS now knows exactly how much PM you bought with your credit card. Don't worry, if it is lost, they will still tax you.
That.
There is nowhere left to hide. There is only the question of how desperate they become.
BitCoin starting to look pretty good right now, huh? <easy there, I was just kidding!>
-1 for saying that you were kidding!
Stand down amigos....he was just kidding.
Don't buy gold or bullets with a credit card.
......and they called the wind Mariah.
LOL Why anyone buy gold with valuable credit card electrons when the could get the same coins with worthless paper fiat? It doesn't make sense.
my finger is so fat right now good luck to them getting my wedding band off
Mr. T had the right idea. Lot's of gold "jewelry".
On that day the phony Jobs Report will get one thing right -- an incredible increase in 'Goldsmiths'.
Ignatius, agreed. If the gov't tries confiscation, there will be a sudden exponential increase in the fabrication of custom jewelry.
A couple of reasons why confiscation is unlikely: first, the amount of gold the gov't could shake loose is probably pretty small compared to the amount of fractional reserve "money" in circulation. Second, during the first confiscation gold coins were US currency, and theoretically the property of the US gov't. This made confiscation more justifiable. To try to confiscate gold now would be an act of clear desperation and would further reduce the public's confidence in the gov't.
Final note: Casey plugs a report on how to set up accounts and a residence in a foreign country. Wanna bet his desert outpost in Cafayette, Argentina is at the top of the list?
Correct about the Casey crew. Take their advice with a salt lick.
Most of the public gold in 1933 was held in individual accounts in the regional banks anyhow, so "confiscating" it was swift and effective. Whatever was subsequently handed in from stashes under mattresses was just a bonus. They weren't interested in going door to door to find a few coins.
Right.
Start with "charm bracelets" with 10-12 gold coins each. Pretty heavy but they could double as excercise weights!
Bullshit article.
The average investor/individual holds next to nothing in gold in the USA compared to an Indian peasant. So if they confiscate, it will have to be from the super rich and how likely is that?
Yep. Meanwhile there is $16 Trillion in pensions
$16 Trillion. Now where have I heard that number before?
Yes, that $16 trillion in pensions is a very convenient number.
Yep, gold is "small potatoes" compared to $16 trillion pensions within easy reach, they know where every dollar is, just reach out and take it, they can't resist much longer me thinks.
It is not convenient, just math. Every debt is someone else's savings. All savings in fiat are someone else's debt. That is what Treasury Securities are for.
"$16 Trillion. Now where have I heard that number before?"
I am not sure how confiscating $16 Trillion of Pensions, which is mostly invested in Federal, State and Local gov't debt is going to help! If they take the $16 Trillion and convert it to cash, they would have sell off the bonds. Techincally the $16 Trillion in Pensons is already fully spent by the gov't. The problem with $16 Trillion is that if seeks an exit out of US gov't debt, there is a big problem. Its a Zero sum game.
If the dollar dies $16 Trillion isn't worth nothing. In the old Math system, 16 Trillion times zero is still zero!
If the $16 trillion in question is in seizable federal treasury instruments, then seizing it cancels out the debt entirely.
Why on earth would you bother converting it to cash?
"Why on earth would you bother converting it to cash?"
Simple: To cover Cashflow and Spend more OPM!
US still has a budget deficit near $1 Trillion. Canceling the debt would not help cashflow since the interest rates are near zero. Polticians are in the business of spending other peoples money (OPM), not paying down debts. They want the money to spend to buy votes by spending it on Wealthfare, more entitlements and other crap. Paying down debt doesn't help them one bit. If they had ANY interest in using OPM to pay down debt, they would have started down that road years ago.
"If the $16 trillion in question is in seizable federal treasury instruments, then seizing it cancels out the debt entirely."
Yes. We should start by closing the "Federal Reserve" and cancelling all of the government debt that it holds.
The problem with confiscation is that gold is becoming a global currency and replacing fiat. This wasn't the case in the 1930s. If a country like the US wanted to confiscate gold while the rest of the world was moving to gold as a currency, then that wouldn't make sense. We would be perceived as a laughing stock with our heads in the sand.
Gold is becoming a de-facto currency. I don't see how this can be stopped or how governments can stop it. The real issue here is taxation, which we are seeing already in places like India. This week India increased their import tax on gold from 6% to 8%. They are trying to discourage gold imports, which is stupid in my opinion. Why not let your citizens become prosperous? Gold is going up so many Indians will become wealthy.
I think the US will play the taxation game. We already have high taxes on bullion capital gains at 28%. This will likely increase, along with higher taxes on mining capitial gains. Who knows what they will do to discourage gold ownership. But try as they might, the devaluing of fiat currency only increases the value of gold.
www.goldsilverdata.com
The real issue here is taxation, which we are seeing already in places like India. This week India increased their import tax on gold from 6% to 8%. They are trying to discourage gold imports, which is stupid in my opinion. Why not let your citizens become prosperous? Gold is going up so many Indians will become wealthy.
The reason there is the same as here,gold purchases in mass qualities by citizens kill the fiat(India), and the tax has done NADA, they are still getting it hand over fist.The Gov did stop the banks from selling gold coins to Indian citizens,but most buy jewelry22k, and bars anyway.If you look at the holdings of India's peoples they are by far the wealthiest people on earth.As a citizenry.