Gold Reserves

[Zaphod]

Just came across this story. CP, you'll love it.

The World Gold Council (WGC) said that China has been the biggest buyer of
gold this year, with their purchases of 454 tons bringing their reserves to 1,054 tons. The WGC also
said that for the first time in 21 years, the world's central banks have been net buyers of gold, buying
about $28 billion (US) worth of bullion at an average price of $978 per ounce. Reports surfaced
earlier this month that China has set an ambitious task on gold reserves and gold mining: taking the
country’s gold holdings from current 1,054 tonnes to a massive 10,000 tonnes in next 10 years. The
US is the world leader in gold reserves. America owns 8,133 tonnes of gold reserves that accounts
for 76.5 percent of its foreign exchange reserves. China's plan is to ensure that bulk of its foreign
exchange reserves--currently held in the forms of US dollar and bonds--is turned into gold reserves.

[cottonpicken]

Yep,times are a changing.

Couple of notes.

-nobody knows how much gold the u.s
has.Attempts to audit the holdings have been
continusally crushed.

-an organization called gata has been howling for
years about the gold market and price supression

-india has a long history with gold,private holdings
are huge and growing.

-you think the oil market is big?6 billion dollars a
day in world trade.gold is something like 70 billion
a day.Hard to grasp.

-never in the history of man has a society ever had
the purchasing power in gold terms as we do.A
months work for an ounce is a ballpark standard.

-this is the firsst time in the history of mankind
that no currency on earth is backed by it.

-all the gold ever mined fits in a 50ft cubic block

-purchasing power of gold has stated statict for
thousands of years.

-up until very resently gold weight and dimension
measurment couldnt be faked,now a tungnstin
alloy has appeared which can.

-the arabs and western powers came to an
agreement a long time ago on an gold oil price
ratio.

-the only good idea anybody ever had about fixing
the global finanicial conundrum was a dutch banker
who proposed a global currency backed by 25
different commodities.I'm pretty sure this has been
throwen in the trash bin of history.

-ralph sold all of canadas gold holdings in the early
90's at rock bottom prices-thanks piggy,we should
have voted him off the island a long time ago

[parsley]

With the Chinese owning all the gold, and the Saudi's owning all your
<pclass="ec_style8ptbk"><strong><a href="http://farmlandgrab.org/9975">(land)</a></strong> what are you planning to invest in?

[Zaphod]

The big wow for me is China's plan to increase their holdings ten-fold. I may have to eat my words about the $2000 (or more) gold.

[parsley]

Me too. I retained gold.

[cottonpicken]

crisis and opportunity are the same thing

[Zaphod]

I was wondering too if the big gold reserves are simply China's hedge against the US dollar. Or could it allow them to hammer the US dollar without hurting themselves too much? Global domination, anyone? The things that make you go "hmmm".

[parsley]

Glad someone is able to take the broad view.

What is the easiest route to obtaining masses of land in Canada?

Farm auctions? Nope. Direct buying would prompt a nationalistic reaction to the arrival of potential 'foreign hordes'; followed by overight emergence of legislation limiting foreign ownership.

However, if a foreign company can simply invest in one large Canadian land company, for example, with additional backroom deals pre-signed, guaranteeing the first-option purchase of several other larger investor shares, the finesse is, all of a sudden, in the bag, probably four crops before the first foreign harvest hits home.

It's called strategic planning.

And why would any of the remaining retiring farmers sell to anyone BUT the highest bidder, probably foreigners?

Only loylaty to fellow Canadian farmers,and neighbors, I'd guess. Pars

[cottonpicken]

There simply increasing their reserves to back their
currency(should say currencies).

If the books were balanced in the us,you would
come up with a number around 6000$ us dollars
for an ounce.

Pars,your logic about foreigners owning canadian
farmland is a little hypocritical.You can go by shares
of companies who own resource property all over
the world.

[parsley]

Is global strategic positioning good or bad?

We know it "is".

The US constitution was THE global leader for my lifetime, thus far. But it's changing really fast. The effects are yet to be anticipated, let alone tallied.

Re-read, cott. I am simply an observer of what "is". Pars

[vagabonddreamer]

i read an article that showed by calculation that if you purchased gold during the last "high" of the early 80's...that in terms of nominal value you wouldnt be breaking even on your investment yet at todays prices...the article didnt do the same calcs for realestate (probably because there tend to be too many regional fluctuations)...but i would imagine that in most parts of canada you would be significantly farther ahead with land....vs

[cottonpicken]

No kidding,why own gold when interest rates hit the
high teens?