patrick.net

GLD, IAU and SLV are great tools for building a position, and you can always swap out later.

True.

May I ask how much Perth is charging you for storing silver? I guess it must be a non-trivial amount.

I afraid gold is not completely out of the woods yet. The uptrend seems to slowing down at the 38% retracement level of that big drop. It is entirely possible that it may still go down for the short term.

Not investment advice.

Even the top-of-the-top-end suffers from price declines:

Ellison's home decline in value is shocking in an area that boasts very expensive real estate thanks to the Googleaires, people who made their fortune at Google and invested in big homes locally. The reason for the dip in value is essentially that Ellison created a home that no one else would want to buy

http://www.luxist.com/2008/03/27/larry-ellisons-3-million-tax-rebate/

I went for the unallocated pool, which is nothing if your account is above $250K. If your account value is lower than that, then they charge you 2% entry and 1% exit.

If you go for allocated, they charge you storage which is about 1.5% a year for gold and 2.5% for silver, that also includes insurance. They also slap a small fabrication charge on bars, which is about $50-200 per bar depending on how big it is.

The difference between unallocated and allocated is, the former allows Perth Mint to act as if it were the owner of my PM to fund its work-in-progress. It specifies very clearly that it does not support leasing/lending of its physical inventory for derivatives or short selling. The catch is of course, when we are in a huge crisis mode, it will take some time for me to take delivery and that is a big uncertainty. But for the cost savings, I am willing to deal with that uncertainty for now. Plus, it will be really hard for a silver investor to take delivery :-)

Plus, it will be really hard for a silver investor to take delivery

Silver is still easier than copper to handle. :)

I have a question for Fed's gold certificate account value.

How come its value stays stagnant at 11,037 throughout the years, even though gold price has quadrupled in the last 7 years. This number never changed.

How did they do that?

May be the certificate indicates ownership of 11037 Krugerrands. :lol:

This number never changed.
Pretty funny. I remember looking at that number when I first posted the H.4.1 historic data and going, oh, so the Fed hasn't sold any gold over this time period. WTF was I thinking. Hey Headset, maybe they hold $40 billion of gold, we're saved! Yes :-) , I do think that "sterilization" of credit will cease much before the Fed is down to its last Krugerrand. And as our resident deflationista, I would think that may worry you! Well, the point of looking at the Fed's Treasury redemption/sell off "run rate" was to see how long we could last. If it continues, they'll obviously have to fire up the printing presses soon. Will be interesting to see how popular the TSLF is and if it takes the pressure off other lines of credit.

Peter P,

I have to say it, your view of global warming appears to be nothing other than a weak excuse for *wanting* to do nothing. Dismissing solid science out of hand just is not a rational argument.

DinOR,

Curbing totally unnecessary waste of any resource is so exactly my cup of tea.

I'm so NOT willing to wait for the free market to decide that it can suddenly "preserve" a "suddenly" scarce resource by squeezing me for obscene profits, after first wasting same resource to high heaven, also in the name of profit.

Peter P,

I find it very ironic that some of the same types that are all for wasting oil seem to think that fresh water is suddenly a scarce resource that needs to be monetized to the tune of stock plays such as PHO and the like.

There really is plenty of fresh water to go around, we just need to stop wasting it. For oil, on the contrary, when the waste stops there will be very little remaining to go around.

Fresh water is distilled by solar energy every day. Even the proverbial television game-show 5th grader knows this. Once we stop wasting and restricting, water will be plentiful. Fresh water is a renewable resource, and oil is not. So lets stop being foolish. Preserve oil, fight CO2 emissions and be effective about water use. That will be a good start.

This is something I had not noticed in a long long time.

A Reduced price listing in Cupertino
Search MLS 784116 on Zip Realty.

Price Reduced: 03/27/08 -- $939,000 to $899,999 On Market: 15 days

Only 600 per sqft for a townhome. Sounds like a deal ;-)

Bap33,

I don't believe it, and I think it is a defeatist attitude.

I somehow feel that the h3 number will cease to be published very soon...

justme, you can certainly try.

Perhaps you will be buying carbon credits from me someday. ;)

northernvirginiarenter Says:
Statewide, median sales prices fell by a stunning 26% from year-ago levels in February, with home prices dropping at a rate of nearly $3,000 a week

$3000 a week - nice way of looking at it. I suddenly have an urge to call my friend, the JBO (tm) (Jealous Broke Owner)

StuckInBA Says:
To mitigate the risk of lending, 25% dp is now required for buying in the “fortress”.

Excuse my French, but this means that the “Fortress is f*cked”.

F*cked doesn't quite describe it. You could say the Fortress is DP'd.

DennisN Says:
It’s really sad about agriculture in Santa Clara county. What was once the nation’s premier orchard fruit producer has been paved over

Testify, brotha! I am a curious sort of chap, and soon after I bought my house I was driven by an urge to learn the history of the area. I found that this tract and a few others surrounding it used to be one of the world's largest apricot farms. Now the place is full of arseholes and SUVs and shitboxes...

Peter P,

>>justme, you can certainly try.

Try what? Make you believe in the obvious? I have long since given up on that. I'm just responding to preserve some sense of balance and rationality, in case there are impressionable youngsters listening in.

>>Perhaps you will be buying carbon credits from me someday. ;)

About carbon credits: What a scam. This is yet another example of private corporations worldwide being rewarded for their wastefulness. Carbon credits means they are now given the right to privately TAX (yes TAX) everyone who was not previously wasteful enough or powerful enough to be given a quota on their own. Carbon quotas will pretty much ensure that carbon emissions stay high. I can see it now, some dickhead from the WSJ
will advocate burning off excess quotas rather than selling at less than the wishing price (I hope you see the analogy here).

Net result: just as much CO2, only now you have to pay for it.

What is needed is an across-the-board public carbon tax on all carbon-emitting activities. Kind of like a flat carbon tax -- that ought to play well ;->.

SP,
There hasn't been many historical works published on SC country, but try the library for Stephen Payne's 1987 book "Santa Clara County - Harvest of Change." The older history is well presented although there is needless chamber-of-commerce boosterism once you get past the 1950's. In particular the evil caused by political boss AP "Dutch" Hamann is glossed over.

Isn’t he the guy that bought a house recently at the peak of the market?

Nope, shaved 30% right the fuck off the top, even with current down, we're still good. We didn't buy for investment, rather a place to live. Takes 1/3 of take home pay. Not too bad, wife doesn't work. And have cash left over for sushi.

Hey man 0% down, CalHfa.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8726073

Scant loan relief in valley
NEW MORTGAGE LIMITS, NOT-MUCH-LOWER RATES

"How many different trailer parks have you lived in?"

Jimbo, ....I think you could be missing the point. My dad owned his own business. They made laminate counter tops in Chicago. Some years were good, others were lean. Even though my dad was 2nd generation (he might as well have been fresh-off-the-boat)

When other kids were splurging at record shops or wherever, I would walk in, feign interest, and quickly wait outside. Even when I was old enough to date my father urged (pffftt, insisted) that "throwing money around" attracts the wrong kind of women.

It's a million little things that I'm still trying to understand but no, you needn't have been evicted to have been "brought up poor". IMHO

What is needed is an across-the-board public carbon tax on all carbon-emitting activities.

More tax?

I may consider it if you agree to also levying a carbon tax on all new born children anywhere in the world.

Peter P,

I think it would be enough to tax the children's carbon usage, just like anyone else's. I would prefer to keep it simple. No need to make up complex rules that ties into other activities. That is how we end up with the US tax system.

No, I think Birth Tax has more simplicity. It is the carbon tax equivalent of flat tax. :)