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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (68364)	9/29/1999 8:52:00 AM
From: Alias Shrugged	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Nice post, Henry. >>>...gold still fulfills a valuable role as an important store of value. I don't believe it holds that role any longer in the West. It may at some point in the future but not at the moment. I won't lecture you if you are not interested in my reason for feeling this but will if you are interested in discussing.>>> Ok, I'll bite. Expand on you views of gold and how it is or is not a store of value. I am long gold stocks and am interested in all viewpoints. And, while I have you on the line (g), any opinions on the Japan/BOJ/MOF battle re: sterlized/unsterlized forex activities. What is that all about? Thanks Mike

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (68364)	9/29/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: Merritt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Henry: Please feel free to lecture, it's been a long time since I was in study hall.<g> <<...Kevin Crisp, treasury analyst at bankers JP Morgan, said bullion derivatives -- which include over-the-counter gold loans, forward sales, futures and options -- developed during a decade of abundant liquidity and sliding spot prices. ``This market evolved in a falling price environment. We have not stress-tested how this works with a rising price,' he said. "There are very few people who have lived through such volatile trading conditions in the gold market. It's hard to get your mind round the changes. ``No one knows how big or complex this market is.'...>> biz.yahoo.com I received an e-mail from one of my brokers this AM saying, due to unusual volatility, only market orders would be accepted for gold futures contracts.

To: Henry Volquardsen who wrote (68364)	9/29/1999 10:54:00 AM
From: Freedom Fighter	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Henry, >>You are not the first to mention that people in Southeast Asia (and a few other locales) were better off holding gold than their own currencies. But they would have also been better off holding soybeans and no one treats soybeans as money. And they would have been even better off if they held US dollars.<< I think that a lot of people that look to gold as an alternative believe that virtually all currencies are being debased. So the fact that Aians would have been better off holding dollars, to them, is a temporary state of affairs. They hate the US dollar too. They are also a very cynical group when it comes to government statistics like the CPI. So they may not trust the apparent real returns on bonds. bills etc... Gold, as opposed to other commodities, became money for some very specific reasons. It's easy to divide, lasts a long time, has fairly consistent quality, small amounts are worth large sums, it's almost universally desired etc... Anything can serve as money, but gold does the best job. Just to be clear, I'm not a gold bug. I'm just trying to explain some of the thinking. Wayne