And some are worried their CRHing finds may be confiscated?

[jim4silver]

The relatively small amount of silver and gold in private hands probably wouldn't even make a dent these days. Looks like the gov has better ways to access money when they need it. Federal employee pension funds are to be used to pay the gov's bills until they agree to increase the debt limit (which we all know they will do). I have read where some believe the gov will go after private 401Ks and IRAs if they get desperate enough (require you to buy a certain amount of gov bonds with the $$$$, etc).

I suppose after the debt limit is raised they can just print more money to pay back the pension fund. I have seen other countries do this, but I didn't think it would happen here so soon.

All of this has to be good for silver and gold, although not good for the dollar in my opinion.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/05/16/treasury_to_tap_pensions_to_fund_govt_255535.html

Jim

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[mts]

That's politics for you... both sides argue instead of solving the problem.

I don't think the government will ever confiscate gold or silver again. Why would they care about gold and silver when they can just force us to pay cash? We aren't on the gold standard anymore (thank goodness). It costs way more money to confiscate gold instead of just going directly after the cash in our wallets.

 

[captainfwiffo]

Under-contributing to pensions has been standard operating procedure for hiding cash flow problems for state governments and private corporations for the past few decades. It's convenient, because the poo doesn't hit the fan until years later, and then they can just blame it on the unions.

 

[blkcwbyhat]

if the gov't wanted to withdraw or confiscate silver,they should have pulled all the coins in 64! To do it today,they would need to ship EVERY coin back to the mint and sort them,or go door to door searching for your hidden stash.Either way,way too expensive.They will allow everyone a little here and there,as long as it isn't hoarded into a few tons worth.If you have that much,bury it in a hole in the backyard!!

 

[quiksilver]

Some of you think they will never go after gold and silver , i hope you are right but im not confident that our goverment is going to solve the financial crisis since they were the ones directly responsible for changing the laws so that enabled the crisis to happen.

 

[jim4silver]

Some of you think they will never go after gold and silver , i hope you are right but im not confident that our goverment is going to solve the financial crisis since they were the ones directly responsible for changing the laws so that enabled the crisis to happen.

I don't think the problem can be solved necessarily. The only reason I don't think there will be a gold or silver confiscation is because there is not enough in private hands in the US, or world for that matter, to do anything. Although it is impossible to prove exactly, it is estimated that roughly 170,000 tons of gold have been mined since the dawn of time. If we assume that is true and that all of that gold exists somewhere spread out all over the world, it is worth less than 8 trillion at 1500 per ounce.

I doubt that if measured all that gold is still lying around someplace (I would bet some is buried, lost, on the ocean floor, etc). If you figure just our national debt alone is over 14 trillion, and then add all the social security, medicare, etc, gov liabilities, all the gold IN THE WORLD since the dawn of man would not fix our problem right now. It would only drop our national debt down to the level it was back in 2003 or so (roughly 6 Trillion). And that would be if every ounce ever mined since the creation of man still could be had and that all of it everywhere on the planet was donated the US gov right now.

According to the US mint site, Fort Knox has 147.3 Million ounces of gold in stock. Valued at today's price of around 1500 per ounce, that means their official stash if worth around 221 Billion. Some pundits believe that there really is not any gold in Fort Knox. But if the gov numbers are correct, even our own Gov's stash is only a bit over 1/5 of a Trillion at today's prices.

Sometimes you have to put things into perspective for it to make sense.


Jim

 

[mts]

Some of you think they will never go after gold and silver , i hope you are right but im not confident that our goverment is going to solve the financial crisis since they were the ones directly responsible for changing the laws so that enabled the crisis to happen.

I don't think the problem can be solved necessarily. The only reason I don't think there will be a gold or silver confiscation is because there is not enough in private hands in the US, or world for that matter, to do anything. Although it is impossible to prove exactly, it is estimated that roughly 170,000 tons of gold have been mined since the dawn of time. If we assume that is true and that all of that gold exists somewhere spread out all over the world, it is worth less than 8 trillion at 1500 per ounce.

I doubt that if measured all that gold is still lying around someplace (I would bet some is buried, lost, on the ocean floor, etc). If you figure just our national debt alone is over 14 trillion, and then add all the social security, medicare, etc, gov liabilities, all the gold IN THE WORLD since the dawn of man would not fix our problem right now. It would only drop our national debt down to the level it was back in 2003 or so (roughly 6 Trillion). And that would be if every ounce ever mined since the creation of man still could be had and that all of it everywhere on the planet was donated the US gov right now.

Sometimes you have to put things into perspective for it to make sense.

Jim

Putting things in perspective like that really does help. You also have to consider how costly it would be to try and take our gold. It would take thousands of new agents as well as billions of dollars to collect, transport, protect, and then convert our private gold and silver into..... cash? Why not just take the cash to begin with? We already have everything in place to take cash from the people. It's called the IRS.

The last time gold was "confiscated" we were still on the gold standard. Now that we are no longer on the gold standard, the government shouldn't give gold any more consideration than oil, lumber, food, technology, or any other commodity. I don't see anyone worried that the government is going to confiscate their gasoline. But at some point it might make as much sense for the government to confiscate gasoline as it does for it to confiscate gold or silver.

 

[captainfwiffo]

The point about other commodities is a good one. If you're going to go through all the trouble to confiscate some sort of commodity, why precious metals? Why not oil (which happens to be conveniently stockpiled in large quantities)? Why not something with emerging industrial applications and potential for growth, like rare earth elements? Why not confiscate commodity producing operations (e.g. mines).

Easier still, do nothing at all (congress is very good at that). There are a number of significant tax cuts that will sunset, as will certain spending programs.

It also doesn't make any practical sense, even if somehow magically confiscating private stashes of metal could somehow do something useful. Taking extreme measures to reduce the budget deficit during a slow economy is a bad idea anyway. The federal government is one of relatively few entities that can spend countercyclically, and it should, lest it make the problem worse (economics 101).

Reducing the budget deficit doesn't require extreme measures anyway.

 

[jim4silver]

Taking extreme measures to reduce the budget deficit during a slow economy is a bad idea anyway. The federal government is one of relatively few entities that can spend countercyclically, and it should, lest it make the problem worse (economics 101).

Reducing the budget deficit doesn't require extreme measures anyway.

Keynesian economics 101 maybe. Let's see how that works out down the road.

Also, the national debt situation is often ignored as the focus is on the yearly budget deficit. Two related but separate problems. I would argue that any measure taken to reduce the budget deficit would be seen as an "extreme measure" by some group. People are OK with the gov cutting spending until it hits something they are receiving benefits from. You see how well so called "austerity measures" are going in Europe, etc. I don't think they will cut much more here because the politicians want to get re-elected, and if you cut too much it will anger a large voting block and nobody wants to do that. Even the cuts wanted by the republicans (and opposed by the dems as being too much) don't really make much of a difference to the budget deficit.

I opine that you will not ever see a balanced budget ever again in the US. It has been said that the current budget deficit will exceed 1 Trillion, for the 3rd year in a row. That is after all the talk about spending cuts, yet still 1 Trillion over budget.

Nobody wants to give up any gov goodies, and perhaps they have a good reason to not want to give them up. But anyone who thinks things in our financial system will "work themselves out" in the future are going to be disappointed I believe.

Jim

 

[Fredness]

Not worried at all, I don't have any.

 

[Generic_Lad]

When we see the collapse of the dollar, the government will blame a few people. When the great depression happened people blamed the "hoarders" of gold, thus, gold was confiscated from private hands and the government resold it at profit. When the German economy collapsed in the aftermath of WWI, they blamed those of Jewish decent for causing the collapse. It doesn't matter if it makes no sense, the government needs a scapegoat.

No one in congress (except a select few) really care about eliminating the deficit. All these "large cuts" are about as significant as someone who has tons of credit card debt and a hugely overdrawn bank account deciding to only go to Starbucks three times a day rather than four times daily.

It doesn't matter to those in congress, all they want is a steady paycheck at taxpayer expense. After all, the worst that every happens to them is their political career is ruined and they live on nice taxpayer funded retirement and writing their memoirs.