Opinion - Why Gold Is Safer Than Your Savings Account

Now that Bank of America moved over $60 Trillion dollars in derivatives from Merril Lynch into their FDIC insured banking arm, the FDIC and the Treasury are on the hook for a complete wipeout from tha failure of just one bank. Alongside this wonderful patriotic development hundreds of other banks per year are failing.

I know of one guy who is quietly moving his savings into cash before the poo hits the fan.

He works at the branch where I hold all of my cash reserves.

Well, one thing about BofA is that when they decide to loot a treasury they do not use ANY half-way measures. It is crap like this that prevents me from doing ANY business with the likes of BofA, Chase, or JPM. A pox upon all their houses!



It's good that you know someone on the inside of this banking mess and that he is willing to say what he is doing with his own money. We will NOT be hearing any of this from the lame stream media. I too am getting edgy about the US banking system and its excesses, many of which were not cleaned up after the 2008 near-collapse. They put some lipstick on that pig and claimed that it was a beauty contest winner... wiener would be more like it. They are porking out at our expense... as usual. The huge derivative market is hanging over the entire monetary system of the world now. It is like a crane supporting a HUGE weight and the cable is fraying and making these little "TWANG!" sounds from time to time. This does not seem to me to be a great time to be taking up residence under that weight!



Thanks, Mac. I had a secret weapon in that endeavor... a fine lady who has been my life's partner, best friend, confidant, and much else. She wasn't all that sure that my plan was right but she had faith in me and didn't interfere in what I was attempting to do for us. In spite of her reservations, she came to the conclusion that it had all been worth it and that my plan was sound. It was gratifying to get that confirmation.



That's great, Mac. It's good that you got a new job and that you will be able to continue funding your 401k plan. I'm a big fan of the K plan! It has been one of the greatest wealth creating engines for the common man ever. This is not to say that most K plans can't be improved or that there aren't any other worthwhile investments out there. I really like the idea of the company match. That alone provides quite a return potential, even if the market isn't at the moment. The tax benefit is also significant. I do like the idea of "tax diversification" as well. If I were doing this all over again, I would try to use a Roth IRA early in my career when my income was lower and the tax deferral not as valuable and then use a 401k later on when my income was higher and the tax deferral more valuable. I would also put more into a taxable account so that I could reap the benefit of lower taxation when the investments were cashed in during retirement. A roughly 3-way split among these things should work well for most people and give them about as much flexibility as possible.



Mostly it is the big bullion banks in London, along with JPM and HSBC. These are the guys with the BIG short positions that lower PM prices will allow them to unwind with minimal impact to their bottom lines. In short, it is the usual list of suspects. The PM market is greatly affected by religious, social, and political turmoil, so PM market moves are not necessarily based strictly on market manipulation.

Recent gold sell offs look a lot like investors selling off their winners to either capture the profits or raise capital to shore up other positions. It could also come from some fund managers who have some nice gains in gold that they want to bank before 2011 ends.

Wow, Junior, I haven't heard that expression since the good old days of the 1960s. Funny thing there was that a lot of young fellows DID leave. They went to Canada and that made the "love it or leave it" crowd even madder. Oh, well. We just can't please some folks, I guess.

But yes, love IS blind... or, at the very least, really near-sighted.

The fact that the banksters want to privatize their profits but socialize their losses is pathetic. It's legal for some obscene reason, but still pathetic. This is one industry that desperately needs to "man up". A terrible precedent was set by not letting ALL of the banks that were run by greed and stupidity just die. Banks that were better run would have scooped up their assets while their debts were written down or off. That would have cleaned up the entire banking system and it is very likely that after a couple of years to straighten it all out, we would be in the middle of a very strong bull market now. But no, we can't do that. We are so lilly-livered that we cannot possibly accept ANY pull-backs that the market desperately needs to cleanse itself of its own excesses. Someday, we will have people running this country who actually understand capitalism and economics. Things will be great when that happens. If it does not happen, then we will be in some very deep doo.

, alexander01!

, Guillano!

Gold is a speculation, not an investment.

Overall, it's a hedge, but today's price is near its record highs, despite recent drops.

A more important function of gold is protection against a possible collapse of the dollar.

You decide the likelihood of that and buy accordingly.

Well gold will always have some type of value, always. You can make money, but you can alson lose a lot.

As for savings accounts, I have $5,000 in my saving account, I am getting 21¢ per 6 monthes. Thats right,21¢! I can't believe it, but it's true. Kinda sad really.

100% Junior. The government / Fed should be encouraging people to save money by making savings pay a decent interest rate. I don't buy the argument that we HAVE to have a zero percent interest rate to help the economy get better. We had MANY good years of a thriving economy with interest rates in the 4-5% range. A real economy is built upon savings, hard work, appropriate investment, and making the things that people want at a fair price. Without savings, there can be no investment and without investment there can be no building of the things that people want nor the jobs that such efforts require. They are like a guy who has shot himself in both feet and is now playing music to make his hopping around seem like dancing.



It is interesting to note that no companies use SS as a model of how their retirement plans should work. There are reasons for that! Chief among them are that business people know that SS is not viable over the long term and that it would be so unattractive to potential employees that they would not accept a job with that as a "benefit".

One of my favorite quotes is:

"Inflation is taxation without legislation" - Milton Friedman

This is what governments do when they do not have the guts to raise the electorate's taxes... at least directly. It is a back-door under-handed way of achieving the same result, though.