21 May 2013

Precious metal memes

I'm having a debate with The Daily Bell over their assertion that "physical gold and its delivery will cost you up toward US$2,000" in the comments to this article of theirs. Readers of this blog I think will find it interesting, as well as the diversion into questions about the Germany repatriation and central bank transparency. I also questioned their view that the London Fix was not a free market in the comments to this article.

The thing about The Daily Bell is that they track and look behind memes. Their reaction to my questioning made me ask this question in my latest comment:

You, DB, should know more about memes and their propagation than anyone else. Your willingness to look behind dominant social themes and ask who benefits is one reason why I was first attracted to, and continue to read, this site. I would suggest that you consider the possibility that memes also exist in the precious metals world. Many, like the Willie $2,000 story, don't have any malicious creator and come about from misunderstandings of how the market operates or exaggeration of a fact, mostly with the intent to just sell newsletters or product.

However, I would also suggest you consider that some may originate from the monetary or power elite you watch. The objective? To divert attention away from how the gold market really works and avoid probing questions by creating dumbed down comic book-style stories, that has the bonus of making gold investors look like nutters to the mainstream and which dissuade the mainstream from thinking about investing in gold.

I'm interested in your views on the above idea as well as from any The Daily Bell readers as to whether you think they have a blind spot in respect of precious metal memes.

7 comments:

  1. Bron, you seem to have a very clear understanding of how the precious metals markets work. Especially the gold market.

    Why do you think that certain entities don't want regular people to invest in gold?

    You're also saying that some of these memes might come from the big players themselves. Why would they go about creating these?

    Also, why do you think that they want to divert peoples attention away from the real workings of the gold market?

    Regards

    Gustav

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  2. Hello Bron,

    Do you agree with the Freegold thesis? If not with all of it, which aspects seem wrong to you and why? Thanks in advance.



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  3. ampmfix - see http://goldchat.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/my-thoughts-on-freegold.html

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  4. Bron,

    No offence, but I cannot conceive of a single reason why the great and the good would bother wasting a single minute trying to dissuade anyone from buying gold.

    There really is a lot more important stuff for them to be doing, and a lot more lucrative stuff to be corrupt about, if that's the prevailing view of the great and the good. And in my experience, even if the above is not convincing, incompetence always trumps malice in our governments.

    JdA

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  5. Thanks Bron, much appreciated.

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  6. I think the best argument why central banks might be obsessed with manipulating gold markets has been made by "Another" and "Friend of Another" over ten years ago. The evidence is not waterproof so it's a theory, but a good one.

    Basically the argument is/was that physical gold is necessary to keep oil flowing from the middle east. Officially the trade is settled in dollars, but the central powers also secretly ship some of the barbaric relic to keep the arab nations happy.

    This links the price of gold (in dollars) to the price of oil (in dollars) and that's the reason why the Powers That Be go apeshit if they lose control of either one.

    This is not an issue only for the USA because dollars are also the global reserve currency. Moreover, this implies that any large purchaser of oil must hold physical gold in addition to cash.

    This theory is quite convincing as it seems to fit the known facts, it explains the massive manipulations and visible hoarding strategies. The described deal can be seen as a win-win strategy for buyer and seller of oil and is a viable long-term plan for oil producers.

    Keeping this secret is also rational for the powers as this would not work at all if it was plainly visible.

    If this theory is true, I doubt that the morons in the western governments know about it. We have invisible powerful people like "central bankers" and "state secretaries" and such who are not elected by the people. The smartest of these unelected elite officials make these deals and you don't know their names.

    (The officials who appear on TV talking about QE are not the smartest and may not know about all the important stuff. They are only a bit smarter than the government officials so why tell them? These "special" officials also get constantly kicked out of the so called "revolving door" as they do not really provide anything valuable. The smart ones remain in the background for decades.)

    Now a serious question: Bron, what do you think about this theory of the invisible link of physical gold and physical oil?

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  7. I haven't spent the time to think on this part of the FOFOA theory. I would just note that the gold:oil ratio is far from stable, ranging from 10:1 to 30:1 since the 1970s.

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