Should We Be Worried

"The doctor replied "no", he stated that he was preparing for our currency to be worth nothing and wanted to have adequate gold and silver on hand."

You will find out Doctors are not that smart about anything other then being a Doctor. They really don't have time to learn anything else and have been hit the hardest. Most investment Bankers pray on Doctors because they are such and easy target.

I totally agree. Precious metals have been performing really well as of late. Of course, if we had a total economic meltdown, food/water and shelter would be the most valuable resources; but gold and silver are recognized across the world as currency. The declining US dollar might not have that type of recognition if we keep printing them by the trillions to cover our own debt. About 15% of my portfolio is in PMs. The other 85% is in my 401K.

If that doctor is merely using that money for PMs as opposed to stocks, and still has the vast majority in other markets; I would say he made a smart decision.

Johnny is there a way that I can send you a private message. Don't seem to find a "button" for it

I don't think the doctor's reasons for buying it will come to pass, but I think he'll be happy he got the silver anyway!

Gold bugs may dream of buying a Malibu Beach condo with a one-kilo gold bar, but even here in the 'awake' world, gold has tripled since 2001 and the Dow has, uh, uh... (you get the idea!).

The reasonable way to think of precious metals is as a preserver of wealth (historically proven to work in bad economic times). Gold could drop to $280/oz., but it won't pull a 'Madoff' on you! (and it would eventually go up again sometime!)

The fact is, if you bought gold in 2001, and it dropped to $280/oz. next year, you'd still be far ahead of where you'd be if you bought the Dow in 2001. And if gold dropped to $280 during times like this, that would mean that every other investment would be in far worse shape...

When I said "dropped to $280 in times like this", "times like this" means bad economic times, and that's when gold is normally strong.

The way you phrased it, if gold was $280 again, all the other investments would be strong and then we wouldn't be in bad economic times.
And that is the way it would 'normally' work.

To clarify, what I meant is: what if gold dropped 66% in value (to $280) during bad economic times when everything else was also weak? That's when 'everything else' would undoubtedly be in even worse shape. And if that ever happened, that's when I'd be worried! Because that would not be the usual cycle of gold being high-priced in bad times, and then all bets would be off...

Hey, for any of you guys that actually buy gold....please <<<start an appropriate sale thread in the B/S/T section>>> Thanks...

The demand for gold is determined by a number of factors and economic conditions. Right now the increase in demand for gold bullion, in the absence of low demand for industrial use since the world's GNP is dropping, is fear. Fear of inflation primarily, but also fear of chaos ahead. The stock market goes down for a number of reasons also, but right now investors are fearful of unemployment and prolonged hard times. Those who have excess funds are buying gold and silver bullion rather than investing in stocks. Margin calls are a tiny fraction of what is driving the demand. Generally speaking, averaged out over the long term, gold prices move inversely to the stock market. If fear goes down people will again make financial investments in equities and move out of gold and silver. I have many examples to make my point, but I offer just one. Why was gold $350 to $450 an ounce during the most recent highs in the market several years ago? Because there was absence of fear and high consumer confidence.