Is anybody still buying silver and gold?

Effectively this devalued the USD by 70%. Because it now took $35 to buy the same items that it once took $20 to buy it was a big reduction in the standard of living and many who understand this would say this was the primary reason of the hardships of the 30s. The devaluation gave FDR all the money he needed to start his massive government spending programs. They still had the problem with silver convertibility, but this would not manifest itself until decades later. So from 1933 on, American's standard of living was decreased by 70% due to this currency manipulation/debasement.

Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/t188288-16/#ixzz1Xq2yNcky

A standard of living is defined as the amount of goods and services that can be purchased by a amount of income. Please show us any proof of this claim, since I do not recall any spike in inflation or major decrease in wages associated with 1933. A reduction of 70% is a large claim, and as such should be easily provable.

I would also like to read anyone claiming this had anything to do with the depression. I have read the subject fairly extensively, and the most common reason I have heard was Congress' tariffs dragging down international trade as being the major culprit. The stock bubble would have worked its ways out of the economy but Congress overreacted and put us into a depression.

 

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Fatima, I really appreciate the knowledge dump, and correct me if I am mistaken but that seems to be all in the context of the confiscated gold. You had previously said:

Is this to mean that aside from the entire confiscation scenario that they are also holding gold for other nations? Or is what they're holding for other nations included in the confiscation and thus part of the certificates? It sounds to me like they are separate, and that they are also holding physical foreign gold.

 

Correct. The gold the Federal Reserve is holding has nothing to do with the gold confiscation. It has nothing to do with the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. Other countries are storing their gold in the Fed vault because it is supposed to be safe there. This is from the official Federal Reserve visitors brochure:

(Gold Vault)

"The gold you see in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York attracts more than 25,000 visitors a year. It is the world's largest accumulation of gold and belongs to 36 foreign governments, central banks, and official international organizations. Only a very small portion of this gold belongs to the US government. The Federal reserve Bank does not own the precious metal but servs as guardian for the nations and international organizations that choose to leave their monetary gold reserves in the Bank's custody."​

The brochure also states that ".....(gold) has always been assigned a role far beyond its value as a commodity." This should put to rest the people who wish to refer to it as a simple commodity. There is BTW a debate going on in Germany as to why its gold is being held at the Federal Reserve and isn't actually located in Germany.

It's as I stated above. The Federal Reserve's gold assets are in the form of gold certificates drawn on the US Treasury's depository at Ft. Knox. (these days there are also a few other locations)

 

These things take several years to fully hit the economy. However, look at the inflation rate from 1930 to 1939. The inflection point is right at 1933. prior to that date, prices had been falling ~10%/year. After 1933, inflation was between 3% - 4%. In 1933, using the governments own numbers, the net rate increased by 13%. By 1939 this accumulated amount easily hits the number. I don't count the years after 1939 because of war spending. First with arm sales to the UK on credit then when we entered the war in 1941.

 

Still buying silver if I can get it under spot.
I've been buying a lot of 90% but occasionally some 40% as well.

 

I bought the new Kookaburra... otherwise nothing... the shiny stuff has become way too expensive.

 

Wondering when it'll start to go back up...

 

I added to the silver stack two weeks ago. Price has done well since then, yet I'm not sure really I made the right timing call. Will see how November goes.

 

I added a few silver art bars that I liked to my collection today when I went to a coin show.

 

Picked up a morgan and a trade $, more numismatic value then the bullion but I like to mix it up at times

 

Well, considering our nation has been in debt or has had a national deficit for well over 200 years, we can assume you will never be selling then.

 

This really isn't true especially prior to 1914. However that part is really irrelevant. 98% of the national debt has been run up in just the last 40 years and the growth of of that debt is accelerating.

 

Well, November was flat beginning to end.
So I bought a little more.


Gold is expensive compared to silver right now, I guess that's why.

 

I bought some this week. The dealer had a bunch of good looking halves, Kennedys, Franklins, a few Walking Liberty's. If I had more money I would buy more of them.

 

what's a great price on libertys? spot?

 

Depends on your definition of the word "great". I'd say a "great" price would be 50% of spot but that's not very realistic. That said, I would think spot is a fine price to buy silver at. You certainly can find people willing to sell at a premium over spot but not too many willing to sell at spot, so yes, I'd say spot is a fair price.

 

I just wondered what people are actually buying it for and for how much. actual transactions

 

Well, the mint keeps popping out the ASE's so somebody's gotta be buying them. The people I work with who buy bullion haven't lost faith nor has the reason changed that caused them to buy bullion in the first place. Most of them are quietly and methodically adding to their position monthly. So yes, I think there's still a large number of die-hards who are taking advantage of the pull back in silver prices to add to their portfolio. And the lull in prices has given me a chance to catch up on all the paperwork from all the craziness that went on when silver was above $40.

 

that's cool. So are people who pay more per weight on walking liberty junk vs silver eagles daft?

 

I'm not sure what you're asking but if your question is are people paying more for circulated walkers than ASE's the answer is no. Walkers tend to sell at or slightly below melt value whereas eagles always sells at a premium to spot. And they should, the mint sells them at $1.25 or maybe even $1.50 over spot to their special list of dealers so they in turn have to bump that number up on their end. Circulated coinage is both easy to find and tend to be worn down from their original silver weight so never buy large bags of silver coins by their dollar face value, buy them by weight only.