This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Germany Sells 150,000 Troy Ounces Of Gold In October... But Not Why You Think
Earlier this morning the anti-gold brigade was foaming in the mouth on the news that the German central bank had for the first time in a year sold gold. As it turns out they were half right: the bank indeed sold gold: a 'whopping' 150,000 toz or about $250 million worth... But not in the open market, and not even to natural buyers of physical like Sprott and everyone else not infatuated with voodoo theories of infinite repoability of debt. They sold it to the German ministry of Finance... to mint commemorative coins. Coins which we are now confident will be promptly mopped up by the general public. Following the sale Germany will be left with a modest 109,194,000 troy ounces, enough to allow the country to gladly tell Europe to do some anatomically impossible things and to fall back to a hard asset baked currency if and when it should so desire.
Germany has lowered its gold reserves for the first time in almost a year, selling 150,000 troy ounces in October while central banks of developing economies continued to beef up their bullion holdings in a bid to diversify their foreign reserves.
Bundesbank, the central bank of Germany, reduced its reserves to 109.194 million ounces in October, from 109.344 million ounces in September, according to International Monetary Fund data seen by Dow Jones Newswires.
A spokesman for Bundesbank confirmed 150,000 ounces of gold had been sold to the Ministry of Finance to mint commemorative coins. The last time Germany's reserves were lowered was in December 2010, when the Bundesbank reduced total holdings by 27,000 ounces, from 109.371 million ounces.
This simply means that any fears of the demise of the Bundesbank's gold are greatly exaggerated:
"There is no reason to start speculating about the future of German gold reserves," he said. "The German gold reserves are there for the impartial Bundesbank…There is no reason to change that."
The Bundesbank spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires that all gold sold by the Bundesbank since 2004 had been only for the minting of commemorative coins.
Germany is the world's second-largest official gold holder, with about 71% of its foreign reserves held in bullion, according to the World Gold Council. The only country with higher reserves is the U.S., at 261.499 million ounces.
As for the others...
Other central banks added to their reserves. Russia, a regular buyer from its own domestic market, continued its program of gold accumulation, lifting its reserves by 627,000 ounces to 28.005 million ounces.
Kazakhstan also reported significant additions in a second consecutive month of gold buying. Its reserves totaled 2.366 million ounces at the end of October, up from around 2.265 million ounces in September.
Recent purchases by the official sector have helped drive gold prices higher, because those purchases absorb supply and boost market sentiment.
"Day to day, gold is still trading against the dollar, but in the long run, this is very gold-positive," said VTB Capital Andrey Kryuchenkov. "Central banks are diversifying, and it has intensified to a rate that nobody had expected."
So while everyone is obviously seeing the writing on the wall, various theoretical economists who would be broke 10 times over in the real world if they put their money where their mouth is continue to preach what nobody cares about:
»
- 17400 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Doh!
If you're loooong enough, and flaccid.. You can indeed accomplish the "impossible".
edit: and the Greeks offer up Hermaphroditus ..
......sigh.... if that were my problem I'd never make it off the couch........
I am shocked at the callus disregard for financial responsibility among the “precious metals” community. It is wholly irresponsible to recommend an investment, especially one paying no income at all, without the necessary qualifications. If you’re going to recommend a volatile and esoteric investment like gold, then at least attach a disclaimer. If people are going to get investment advice, they need to get it from professional portfolio managers who know what they’re doing. Honestly, I find it hard to comprehend the hubris of these redneck gold-bugs who equate themselves with experienced financial professionals with years of experience evaluating the markets and making stock recommendations.
Thank you, MillionDollarBogus.
As seen by the green arrows to your comment, it becomes apparent that an average IQ is, indeed, 100. Some of the double-digit types must be trolling ZH.
Honestly, I find it hard to comprehend the hubris of these redneck gold-bugs who equate themselves with experienced financial professionals with years of experience evaluating the markets and making stock recommendations.
************
Well-even if they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground and were and are just lucky-they've beat the snot out of the so called professionals for 10 years running-
No?
agreed. my bullions are only up 60% since i started stacking. terrible investment! TERRIBLE!!!
it was entertaining at first but now it's just predictable, boring and annoying. time for a new shtick, mdb
It's ok Smithy, Let him go. I sometimes wonder if the people that actually think the way MDB writes, that after reading it in print might think how stupid this dribble is, and change their minds. Maybe that's MDB's angle.
@ MDB ....Fuck You,you little fucking weasel.
I'm shocked your still allowed to take on air...
"Disappear"
We redneck gold-bugs just luvz us some PMs.
Sho nuff.
Why would an "experienced financial professional" not just heed his/her own advice and get wealthy through investing his own money? Why do they always want your money?
@MillionDollarBonus_
The beauty of the Constitution is that it is not written in legalese. It requires no legal interpretation or interpolation. It was codified in such a way that any reasonably educated adult American could discern its meaning and intent. Just in case you don't have your copy of the U.S. Constitution handy, below is an except from Title I, Section 10, Paragraph 1. It tells Americans exactly, specifically, and in UNAMBIGUOUS LANGUAGE, what the constitutional definition of MONEY is.
"Section. 10.
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility"
Gold and silver coins are the ONLY constitutionally recognized forms of money that can be used to settle debts for good reason. You cannot inflate gold and silver coinage as has occurred with EVERY fiat paper currency that has ever existed. I point out this very obvious simple fact to you because you're one of the few who fails to understand this very simple constitutional concept.
This isn't some "Redneck gold-bug" fantasy of mine. It's a basic constitutional requirement that few Americans seem aware of.
Currently most experts say no one undertant markets today and that experience is useless. I prefer myelf to put confidence in my own judgement after reading multiple posts and blogs. Advice for the same kind of people that droeve our country to where we are now?
Currently most experts say no one undertant markets today and that experience is useless. I prefer myelf to put confidence in my own judgement after reading multiple posts and blogs. Advice for the same kind of people that droeve our country to where we are now?
I'm shocked at your callous disregard for spelling (or were you just being corny) and your complete disregard of the history of paper "money", its 100% failure as a store of wealth, its unmitigated destruction of honesty in settlement of account and the success rates of its plethora of adherents, who have been exposed as either shills or corrupted recipients of favors from the printing presses of the banks.
I'm shocked that even with the amount of evidence in front of you of the demise of the banking system, the overt corruption in the paper system, the blatant theft of money in trading accounts (as exposed by MF Global's co-mingling of clients accounts), all of this as predicted by those "gold bugs and hacks" and your advice is to place your trust in the high priests of the system; the experts and professionals who didn't see it coming. Riiiighttt!
Bong on Dude.
You are welcome to your adoration of these dolts, thieves and tenured shills, such as Roubini. His blatherings above are an additional record of him protecting his tenured position; for instance, his spruiking that a stable inflation (oxymoronic mumbo-jumbo) is a good thing, is typical evidence of his duplicity and confirmation of the idiocy of economic theory as a standard of excellence. Pot/kettle cog dis. at its peak. Roubini, plant a flag. You have made it without the aid of oxygen.
MDB, your numeraire is showing. Make sure that you record your musings for posterity. Your decendents will want to remember you.
The reason why gold isn't shooting up is because it's being manipulated down in order to control the appearance or reality of debasement of fiat currency pure and simple.
So Roubini's theory is we cannot use gold as a global currency because we wont be able to bail out the criminals?
Did Roubini get any offers on his firm - because this interview wont help!
People like that just don't understand what unit of measurement means and what gold really is. You can't print it. It's finite. It's only being mined so quickly and not really "picking up" a whole lot faster any time soon. Thus natural inflation. If mining doubles capacity and production then things might slowly cost more in terms of gold but that's simply because there's more gold chasing the same number of goods and services.
This whole "we can never be on a gold standard" argument is bullshit. It's not that gold is the only thing there is to base money on, it's just the most useful when applied to finance. It has a natural inflation rate, it can come in many forms such as coins, bars etc. It's small and mobile. It looks fucking cool and it's basically the remnants of dead stars. How fucking awesome is that?
This Roubini fuck face is the same kind of guy who probably would argue that doubling the money supply would allow everyone to afford more goods and services because there's more "money" in the supply for people to use. Jackasses. All of them.
@tekhneek
Very well said!
Gold mattered prior to the digital age. Now anyone can trade FOREX from their mobile phone or roll into Swiss Francs, Brazilian Real or oil futures. Gold has value only as jewllery. That value is probably under $1000 according to real demand. Everything else is speculation.
Well said Teknheek, but to quibble a bit the 'remnants of dead stars' remark is not really awesome but a prejudice from the 20th Century dark age of astrophysics which includes many hallucinatory denke experiment type concepts (i.e. no heavy backwork in the lab required) such as black holes, dark matter, space/time continuum etc. Electric Universe is where it's at bitchezz. www.thunderbolts.info. Much laboratory confirmation in plasma physics at Los Alamos and elsewhere that confirm that Plasma Cosmology is the leading edge of the queen of the sciences.
I would pay to see a debate between Rickards and Roubini!
Just me...but I'd rather see Roubini against Kyle Bass. Bass has this calm demeanor that would just eat Roubini alive.
i want schiff vs roubini
I haven't seen one thing roubinis firm has been correct about since 08. They were insistent to go all cash at the march 09 bottom and he's been anti gold since beginning
Marc Faber vs. Nouriel Roubini!
Faber told all that would listen to 'get all in' agressively at bottom of equities in 2009. Any who listened had an opportunity to double their original investment. Till this day he recommends gold as the best investment one can make. He knows the current system is unsustainable and set to implode predicting the inevitable outcome is hyper-inflation due to the staggering debt levels, base currency outstanding, trillions in derivitaves floating in the system, massive amount of unfunded liabilities in the Western World and the United States leadership's desire for endless war and intervention through out the world.
Jim Willie thinks that the brilliant Rickards may be a shill for the the precious metal manipulators...
Let me start by saying that I don't own physical gold or silver (though I do trade them), and am neither a gold bug nor anti-gold bug. I just trade them for profit with no real view or care as to where they're going down the road or why.
That said, after reading some of the comments I thought I'd post some thoughts/observations/questions or in gold speak, my own two-grams.
It's always talked about that gold can't be 'inflated' and it's not 'fiat' but isn't that only a half truth since when coinage was used as 'money' it quickly became common practice to debase it to create profit? Thank you Romans!
So realistically, what's to stop the gov'ts from debasing the metals if a gold standard were reintroduced? Wasn't there a gold standard before but it failed because governments printed more currency than there was gold at the stated official fixed rate? Did the people stop them then? It didn't work in the past so why would it work now? history repeating itself doesn't always seem the best way to go about things...
So could we construe that gold is something in which one can store one's wealth, but it is not in fact money since money as we know it, and have know it for hundreds (thousands?) of years is really more an intangible (i.e. accounting entry) than tangible good...?
And saying gold is a hedge against the government devaluing one's currency or wealth denominated in a given currency is certainly true, but it's also true that any tangible good is a hedge against this. Nonetheless, gold does have a uniqueness to it in that it is the same regardless where you go.
So the real problem at hand is not confusing money and gold as one and the same but the bloody government and its continued, and neverending fiscal mismanagements. Doesn't matter where you live as every gov't is deplorable, corrupt, and self serving to those in power.
So until heads in gov't roll and the 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' method du jour is done and gone, we're all fucked!
What say you?
Many good points there. Maybe there will never be a sound way to protect what would be used as money. But certainly gold coin is at least a more honest attempt at discouraging debasement. You see the coin, you see what you expect. Holding paper doesn't tell you anything. How much is backing it? Will it be the same value tomorrow? Was it made for use with the express purpose of being debased for some bankers gain, or for convienence sake? Knowing the human and all his iniquities tells me that there will always be theives, i.e., have you ever stolen anything, no matter how small? You get my point. So the short answer is, 'There is no solution, only some better than others'. The US Constitution requires that only gold and silver coins be used as currency. Myself, very inclined to agree.
I'm certainly not in wholesale disagreement with most arguments against the devaluation of our fiat paper. And you, along with others in this comments section, certainly have some valid points, but the crux of the issue is not what medium is used as money, we could use sea shells if we wanted to, it is the blatant usurpment of our wealth through gov't bungling and over spending financed by debt.
All I'm saying is that many people seem to think the only answer, which will fix everything, is a return to a gold standard where gold backs the paper, but this is not a panacea to all these 'fiscal' problems created by the ones we elected.
And I agree with you that perhaps coinage is better way to potentially discourage gov't debasement of money, but ever heard of the term seigniorage (During the era of metal-based money, the monetary base consisted of precious metal coins. The difference between the face value of the coins and the cost of acquiring the metal and minting them generated a financial benefit for the State treasury, known as seigniorage).
may they be happy free and prosperious forever
http://expose2.wordpress.com
GOLD, Bitchezzzzz
Euro not looking good.. biggest spread between german 10 year and us 10 year. -
http://hedge.ly/v8AUXU
Out of the fryin' pan...
truly interesting timing with the not so hot bond auction coupled with everything else
truly interesting timing with the not so hot bond auction coupled with everything else
Do they have to have this 150,000 troy ounces shipped from NY?
Does anyone have a reference for who (what countries) own what gold?
http://www.quotegold.com/how-much-gold.html
That site is wrong when it says the U.S. only has 100 billion in gold. If we have 8000 tonnes, that's 17,632,000 pounds. If we just say an ounce of gold is worth in the area of $1,800 at the moment, and as we all should know, ex mary jane dealers or not, 16 ounces are in a pound, so that's roughly $507 billion dollars. 8000 x 2204 x 16 x 1800. What the hell? Are we pricing it at wholesale?
The USAGovt are dolts.
They still have their gold on the books at $42.50 a troy ounce.
They would not wan't anyone to think it was worth anything,like real money.
Ps.....
Only 12 troy ounces per Troy pound.
And there is 31.1? grams pr troy oz.
"gold on the books at $42.50 a troy ounce"
Isn't it amazing that it is so close to the going price for Titanium?
maybe because the gold on the books is actually the right shade of yellow Titanium.
et tu, Nouriel?
Clearly, you have never been to the more interesting parts of Paris.
Or Bangkok.
Very Strange time to start minting your gold supply into "commemorative" golden coins.
Wonder if it will be a monthly occurrence? I am sure they'll sell so well that Germany is justified in minting more "commemorative" coins solely because the German peoples love things of “commemoration” and not the barbarous relic.
I am curious how these coins will be marked.
you mean deutsch-marked?
the one from 2010 looks like this:
(Text in German, pictures self-explaining, face value 100 Euro)
http://westgold.de/html/info.php?id=521
although you might prefer the issue of 2006. That one commemorates Weimar (the city, not the republic, but who cares), which seems strangely fitting in these times ;-) http://www.coininvestdirect.com/de/gold_coins/100_euro_2006_weimar.html
These coins will commemorate the end of the €.
On one side it'll be a hand flipping the bird and the other side will be of Sarkozy bent over with his pants around his ankles.
Just Yesterday German bonds were a flight to safety....today they are not...today the US bonds are a flight to safety.....________they are not...fill in the day
Holy shit... Ph.D or not, Roubini must have an IQ of about 35
and he calls Gold supporters (who are really only preaching fiscal prudence and responsibility) to be lunatics and hacks.
FYI "Doctor Doom", but you are trying to blast holes in other people's arguments without offering any valid alternatives.
This makes you the inferior mind in the debate- In fact, the interviewer exercised more logic than the name calling Professor.
Roubini:
"Gold can not be a reserve currency, because a reserve currency has to be a unit of account, a means of payment, and a store of value"
Then he goes on to declare that Gold is not a unit of account; even though troy ounces are, indeed, a several thousand year old unit of account. - Argument number one: Soundly and easily rebuffed.
He declares that Gold is not a means of payment. Ummmmmm: a transaction denominated in troy ounces (or drams, or grams, or metric tons) is a perfectly legitimate transaction, yes? - Argument number 2: Soundly and easily rebuffed
He declares that Gold is a "volitile" and "unstable" store of value. Just Shoot me in the head. The present reserve currency has surrendered 95% of its purchasing power over the past 80 years, against that damned barberous relic that once only purchased 20 dollars, and today purchases 85 times (8500%) more dollars than it did back then.
Long live fiat stability, bitchez...
Dr. Roubini- Judging by the sales of Rickard's book, I'd say your objectivity has been overrun by your insolence toward the rest of humanity.
There's a very interesting debate over at FOFOA about Rickards book and his motives regarding gold:
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2011/11/discussion-forum.html
Make sure you read the comments section as well.
Rickards is clearly preaching his book. No doubt about that.
More interestingly, Rickards pontificates on the end the Fed under his new Gold exchange system, but if you look at his Bio- the Fed has been on Rickard's CLIENT list for decades...
I, for one, say let the markets be markets. There is simply NO VALID need for fixed exchange rates, in any substance (physical commodity, stock, or currency) at all.
If the world decided tomorrow (en mass) to let the market decide what money truly is, can anyone make a rational case for why printed coupons, representing the yielded productivity of entire generations that have not even been born yet, would be selected as humanity's best form of money?
Anyone?
Pegging just allows TPTB to keep the game going beyond what rational market forces would allow. Once the system breaks, introduce a new version of the peg, wash, lather, rinse & repeat.
Exactly
Gold is more volatile (daily) than fiats, but that is because the market is so small. If it were the standard, the market would be global and volatility would be nill.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Wonder what they're going to commemorate. If the coin is 24k, I'll consider it. Has to be something cool though, like a Panzer tank.
A wheelbarrow full of money.
That would be the greatest gold coin ever. I'd sell every one I have and replace them with those anyday!
1 Deutschmark
A commemorative 24k Goldmark,
celebrating the reintroduction of the Deutsche Mark ?
if the germans could only come up with a cool symbol for their coin everyone would associate with them for all times...hmmmm?
Yeah, a huge bratwurst sausage with some potatoes and a heap of sauercraut on a plate with a stein of beer on the side. Or something like Goethe's profile, or.......wait a minute...oh.......OH...
Hmm, maybe something cool like a symbol ... the wheel of the sun, maybe ...huh ?!
*sound of black helicopter*
Why even consider such a coin? There are more internationally known coins which are accepted everywhere without explantion to the coin dealer when you sell it again.
On the reverse of the Panzer tank, can we have a big trash can? You know the strong national obsession the Germans have about doing away with garbage.
Awesome. I love coins that teach you a little history of the home country.
This comment intentionally left blank
Roubini is just a bankster pawn/bilderberger...
Well, they cannot have mine. Not for Sale!
Set to trade all mine for 10 hectacres near Ras al Basit
+1 You Jest!
Yes the goal of the Federal Reserve is to smooth the business cycle. We'll be in a recession for 30 years, nice smoothing
109,194,000 Ounces of Gold ..equates to 1636791000000 aka 1.626 TRILLION USD with a Gold Price at 1500 USD per ounce ... FRANCE has even MORE GOLD than Germany ... as far as I know . So much about that ... and the screaming anglosaxon hysteria .. on financial issues when the talk is about Germany and France ... ..right now .
"...Germany is the world's second-largest official gold holder, with about 71% of its foreign reserves held in bullion, according to the World Gold Council. The only country with higher reserves is the U.S., at 261.499 million ounces"
nuff said
sorry .. only 163 Billion.. my mistake .. i retract !
Is this to commemorate the end of the Euro or the New DM.
I'd say perfect timing.
Why does anyone put Roubini on a pedestal. Of course the dollar is a store of value. Lol
The Bundesbank know the euro is toast. Instead of using gold to throw at Van Rompuy's wet dream, they're "giving" it to their people, with the purpose to secure themselves some savings, which undoubtedly, they will. AND generate some fiat liquidity in the short run so they can recapitalise their banking system (or throw some party since it's all going to hell anyway). It's EXACTLY as the Swiss should've done but didn't.
I'd be happy to buy some rolls.
Yes, what's being commemorated anyway?
It's definately not Germany's gold held by the Federal Reserve of New York, that shit is long gone. Suckerz!
instead of calling the Germans suckers, the Wall Streeters prefer the Yiddish term schmucks
From weak hands (government that doesn't even store its gold in-country) to stronger (citizens). This is bullish.
One need only look at the American gold and silver coins. The ounces are nearly permanently off the market and almost always sell at a premium to weight. Smart move to repatriate gold from the Federal Reserve....
what more can one expect from the zionist insider Roubini...i am sure he is buying Gold.
Germany's central bank sells gold to the German people? That sounds like a good idea to me. Best way for a central bank to make money and for the people to preserve wealth.
"...enough to allow the country to gladly tell Europe to do some anatomically impossible things"
That got a LOL out of me. Great writing, you should apply to work at GRPN and ask to be paid in stock options only.
Out of the Bundesbank and into the hands of the general public, that works. More PM,s into the publics hands the better. Then it becomes private. Hands off.
Has Sprott the same physical quantities as the products of the Zürcher Kantonalbank (State guaranteed, physical delivery loco Zürich), such as ZGLD:SW and ZSIL:SW and their by products in EUR and USD? Don't missunderstand me, I'm not making marketing, just for the good order's sake. Correct me if I'm wrong!
My guess is this is so the German government can collect the seignorage from selling the coins to the public. Our Treasury does the same thing all the time with the gold eagle coins. People pay 25 bucks for a gold coin with an eagle on it that they'll never spend or use. Treasury gets the cash and doesn't have to worry about the money entering circulation.
25 bucks for a gold coin?
"25 bucks for a gold coin?"
Order me a monster box.
Oh, wait, did he mean they pay about a $25 premium above spot per coin?
"... Treasury gets the cash and doesn't have to worry about the money entering circulation...."
YET. Treasury doesn't have to worry yet.
When this ship goes, it will enter "circulation." Possibly the Treasury won't be around (at least in its present form), to appreciate (or fear) that.
Fiat/Ponzi On.
There is ya bond!
Lead (coated with Panzer-piercing depleted uranium) backs teflon petro-dollars. Gold backs Hessian speculation. Do the math.
Happy "Evacuation Day"!
Evacuation Day
Forget about the Gold standard thingy - Gold is final payment between Kings.
I'm sure da IMF is keeping a good eye on da Germans Gold.
That idiot Roubini just said central banks were able to smooth the business cycles.
People take this ass clown seriously?
Roubini has made his career off of one rather obvious situation; that there was a bubble in real estate and it was about to burst. Now he thinks people who focus on gold and a return to the gold standards are idiots while he believes that price stability can be provided by fiat currencies!?! He says all that is need for stability is to have flexible exchange ranges!?! I guess actually looking at real inflation as shadow stats does and not the dubious variety provided by the government or more exactly asking any person on the street about their income or purchasing power will know that even the bundesbank haven't provided price stability. All the governments are printing money at various rates (i.e. the classic austrian definition of inflation) even Germany. Sure one can say that relative to other western countries, the d-mark has been less unstable than other currencies, but if you look at the US at the later part of the 19th century when THERE WAS NO CENTRAL BANK prices were falling not because of any bubble bursting but BECAUSE OF IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCTIVITY AND OUTPUT were causing prices to drop AND FOR PURCHASING POWER TO INCREASE! From the late 1890s until I believe 1905, there was 1% price increase during that time. Back then, it was called the 'Great Inflation'!!! I'm sure they would be rolling in their graves with what people call price stability nowadays. It's amazing how he's milked just one good call surrounded by dozens if not hundreds of completely dubious calls, like how gold would never reach $2000/ounce. What a clown!
Roubini is like the japanese government. Holding on to a fleeting memory, while the demons of chaos and destruction take over around him.
Happy Thursday! (we don't give out thanks over here, just invoices)
I'm thinking that the U.S. Mint should create a new gold commemorative coin called the "Jefferson Gold Piece." On the fron will be a profile of Jefferson and the back will be a slogan: "Death to Fiat."
"Jefferson Gold Piece."
The William Jefferson Clinton "piece" would not be gold, it would be blue (a la Monica Lewinski?).
More gold coins with Umlauts, Bitchez!
.
Correct, The Dork of Cork.
http://deltafunctiontoronto.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/waves-fractal-dynamics-and-the-future-of-the-gold-price/
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/101101-0003.htm
10:42 pm
Good luck.
Very astute observations. That is why I think getting rid of the legal tender laws should be removed. I can trade my labor as a possible currency, anything can be currency. The reason the legal tender laws were created were to control capital, which is pretty much anything of value, which is pretty much anything.
When a private entity can compete with the public currencies, then you would see all of the bad go. Until then, you have to do as you stated, treat everything as a possible commodity, even fiat currencies. The debt and taxation cycle, which is what the governments do to keep the wealth flowing into the public coffers, forces the peons to continuously work for the benifit of the governments. Never for their own benefit alone.
Legal tender laws and taxation of property should be outlawed. Taxation on doing business or purchase of goods is fine by me, but to take what one owns, is IMO indentured servitude in regards to property taxation, including income taxation.
edit to add-this comment was supposed to be a reply, oh well
USD selling pressure continues and the prospect of an equity xmas rally and EURUSD bullish spike returns.
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com