Current Gold Price

[vtsnowedin]

I bought some more green painted precious metal today. $1637 worth for 1000 pounds of steel root rake grapple. I'll post a pic when it arrives in about six weeks.
Meanwhile gold is back up to $1258 USD/ troy ounce amid all the fears the Trump administration has generated. Might be quite a ride up OR DOWN over the next four years.

[vtsnowedin]

It is here . Works great!!

[clv101]

Tale of two charts, quarterly gold price in US dollars and UK pounds.

[vtsnowedin]

That shows you the US dollar is gaining against the pound and a lot of other currencies.

[UndercoverElephant]

https://www.rt.com/business/432838-glob ... age-alarm/

World running out of gold & there’s no substitute, experts warn

Mining companies are no longer finding new deposits of gold to replace their aging mines. South Africa’s 140-year-old gold industry – which was once the world’s largest – is currently facing a major crisis. The country’s mineral council says 75 percent of gold mines are unprofitable or barely making money.

So, let's unpack this. The price of gold has been systematically suppressed, by both legal and illegal means, for at least the last decade. This has been done to prop up the failing growth-dependent fiat monetary system, because a gold price that keeps rising would be the ultimate canary in the mine for that system.

BUT, because the price is artificially suppressed, it is putting gold mines out of business. This combined with geological "peak gold" (see article) means that supply is destined to keep falling for the forseeable future. These mines will only become profitable again if the people responsible for suppressing the price of physical gold either choose to stop, or are stopped, or their activities are overwhelmed by sheer demand for physical gold.

[vtsnowedin]

Back in the sixties gold plated contacts were the best way to keep a TV tuner on track. Is there any use of gold today (besides keeping it in a vault) that has not been replaced by digital or other new technology?
I suspect that if all the gold in the world was shipped to the moon or beyond few if any people would notice the loss.

[clv101]

Something like three quarters of gold mined each year ends up in jewelry. There's still a lot (several oz to the tonne) of gold in computer motherboards and smartphones.

[BritDownUnder]

I think that gold is also used a a coating on glass windows to prevent heat getting in (and maybe out too) I think the layer is 'several atoms thick' and so would not amount to a great deal of gold but is a use for it nonetheless other than for money/wealth storage or jewellery.

[kenneal - lagger]

I think that gold is also used a a coating on glass windows to prevent heat getting in (and maybe out too) I think the layer is 'several atoms thick' and so would not amount to a great deal of gold but is a use for it nonetheless other than for money/wealth storage or jewellery.

It's one way of storing your wealth in plain sight I suppose!

[adam2]

https://www.rt.com/business/432838-glob ... age-alarm/

World running out of gold & there’s no substitute, experts warn

Mining companies are no longer finding new deposits of gold to replace their aging mines. South Africa’s 140-year-old gold industry – which was once the world’s largest – is currently facing a major crisis. The country’s mineral council says 75 percent of gold mines are unprofitable or barely making money.

So, let's unpack this. The price of gold has been systematically suppressed, by both legal and illegal means, for at least the last decade. This has been done to prop up the failing growth-dependent fiat monetary system, because a gold price that keeps rising would be the ultimate canary in the mine for that system.

BUT, because the price is artificially suppressed, it is putting gold mines out of business. This combined with geological "peak gold" (see article) means that supply is destined to keep falling for the forseeable future. These mines will only become profitable again if the people responsible for suppressing the price of physical gold either choose to stop, or are stopped, or their activities are overwhelmed by sheer demand for physical gold.

How is the price of gold suppressed ?
In the UK and in many other places, there is a free market in gold. Anyone may buy and sell gold in most countries.
The price of gold is therefore exactly what people are willing to pay for it.

I would expect most gold mines to be marginally profitable in a free market.
If the extraction of gold was hugely profitable, then I would expect production to increase and prices to fall.
If mining was not profitable, then mines would close or at least curtail production and prices would increase.

In the very long term gold has roughly held it value.
In ancient Roman times an ounce of gold was worth about 350 loaves of bread. It is still worth about that. No great accuracy can be claimed because loaves vary a lot in price according to size and quality and where purchased.
Likewise, an ounce of gold tends to be worth roughly the same as a tailor made suit of clothes. This has been approximately true for centuries and is still true.
Again no great accuracy can be claimed as suits vary a lot in qaulity of material and workmanship.
These days you could buy a dozen mass produced machine made suits for an ounce of gold, but that is not a valid comparison. No such item existed centuries ago.

[fuzzy]

My understanding is that the price is suppressed by the volume of trading. One way that a material loses exchange value [to other items] is if the rate of trading increases. This applies to money or anything where you exchange x for y. Once you no longer physically trade things - because of book-keeping and now electronic trading, the velocity increases. This causes a loss of value because these are items which are repeatedly traded rather than consumed [much]. If their function is a medium of exchange, the faster they are traded, is equivalent to increasing the supply ie diluting the value.

[vtsnowedin]

Well suppressed or not the price of gold dropped past $1200/oz. today. If a US investor bought and held gold five years ago he would have taken a loss of nine percent. A UK investor might have a slightly better outcome based on exchange rate differences. At any rate I'm not surprised by the current price as I thought it was being hyped years ago.

[fuzzy]

The fraud is like many economic facts that don't stand up to daylight scrutiny. 'Gold' can be used as a currency we all agree on [using it's purity testing feature], so it's used as a 'letter of transit' type protection if something is being traded. Since the currency function is constantly flowing in circular patterns, increasing the speed of flow is like injecting more into the system ie diluting the value. But gold is also used as a permanent wealth store and a consumable material. If it's a wealth store or consumed, then physical gold is more highly prized and should be valued higher. So electronic gold and real gold should have different exchange rates according to how much they are useful. If you tie them together at one price, then increase the flow rate for paper or e-gold by trading other things with it, then physical gold is undervalued - it should be a higher price because of it's physical reality value.

[kenneal - lagger]

I suspect that if there was a requirement to actually possess physical gold to trade it the value of gold would shoot up as all the people owning "paper"gold suddenly had to find some metal to prove ownership.

[fuzzy]

Correct