patrick.net

Dollars are not convertible to gold now so there's no need to confiscate anything. Gold is free to fly to the moon, nobody cares.

What troy said.

Troy says

Dollars are not convertible to gold now so there’s no need to confiscate anything. Gold is free to fly to the moon, nobody cares.

Troy/Mark,

That is precisely the reason why the Government will want to confiscate. Now - we are all well aware that the US Government has an insurmountable level of debt (including unfunded liabilities makes things worse). There are only two courses the Government can take to reduce the debt: a) take austerity measures by meaningful spending cuts - meaningful does not equal to 400 billion over 5 years. An example of meaningful would be big spending cuts in defense. This approach is painful in the short term but for the overall society, beneficial in the long term. b) inflate away the debt. Choice (b) is what the Government (hand in hand with the Fed) is intending to do, as evident from QE1, QE2, TARP etc. etc. Choice (b) is dangerous because inflation is very hard to contain once it has taken roots. Runaway inflation means that people's purchasing power is getting eroded everyday when they hold dollars. If there is hyper-inflation, what would be a meaningful course of action after that? I can see the reason to confiscate gold then.

not happening. Half the gold they confiscated is still in the hands of the central banks. No one really owns gold anyway so there is no need.

You need to check the definition of confiscate. Roosevelt made illegal to own gold. Gold was turned in for bank notes. These could be used for purchases. Confiscate means to take away or seize without compensation.

I fail to see your reasons. If gold isn't convertible then what relevance does it have to inflation?

And let me guess -- we should all be buying gold coins, particularly those sold by goldline?

bob2356 says

You need to check the definition of confiscate. Roosevelt made illegal to own gold. Gold was turned in for bank notes. These could be used for purchases. Confiscate means to take away or seize without compensation.
I fail to see your reasons. If gold isn’t convertible then what relevance does it have to inflation?

all I'm saying is Government is known to take desperate measures during desperate times. The bill that is being proposed is evidence for that. I don't know the pros/cons for the government if they do engage in some kind of seize-by-authority strategy, all i'm saying is there is a decent chance. If this bill gets passed, that will set a precedent.

Kevin says

And let me guess — we should all be buying gold coins, particularly those sold by goldline?

Haha.. you really think I have some personal agenda here? All I'm doing is passing on the information that the main stream media in the US chooses to ignore.

austrian_man says

Haha.. you really think I have some personal agenda here? All I’m doing is passing on the information that the main stream media in the US chooses to ignore.

Other than the single most widely watched news channel, right? You have a very interesting definition of "main stream".

Gold is Yellow and that's all.

1: the debt is not insurmountable. Interest payments are 3% of GDP. Pay 4% of GDP and you're paying down the debt.

2: The unfunded liabilities, which are much larger, cannot be inflated away. The are mostly medical liabities whose cost rise with inflation, or to a lesser extent inflation adjusted liabilities like social security and pensions.

3: even if there was hyperinflation, why would anybody confiscated gold? There have have been several countries with hyperinflation, and there was no gold confiscation. It doesn't even make any sense.

I'm really curious where you're getting this information. In any case, I highly recommend you stop listening to them.

Do not invest in gold. Invest in silver. Silver will be (and has been) more profitable to own than gold.

In addition, here is what the Treasury Dept. reports they have the power to confiscate (it's not just gold) --

http://www.gata.org/node/5606

"The Treasury Department was surprisingly candid in that correspondence, asserting the U.S. Government's authority, in declared emergencies, to confiscate precious metals and to restrict ownership of mining shares -- and to confiscate and restrict every other financial asset as well. So perhaps precious metals investors shouldn't feel too paranoid."