Bogleheads

Sorry about that MT...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wmz32xeNKtU/Sf3DSKNlUSI/AAAAAAAAAvg/4bSGmiBUkQE/s1600/Exter%2Bliquidity%2Bpyramid.gif

Btw, just making a joke out of the Shamwow guy. I think yo ...

This is a very interesting visual of unemployment progression over the last 22 months by location in the U.S.

Hat tip to Mike "Mish" Shedlock:

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/lato ...

Maestro G,

This is, IMO, what happens in the scenario you describe above. Exter's Liquidity Pyramid:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Inverse_pyramid_of_John_Exter.png

No ...

Fine wine is also worth investing in. Not exactly portable though and it sure is hard to keep the value in the bottle. I guess that's why they say "you can't eat gold."

Booger99 wrote:
This brings up a real problem then with no real clear solution. Owning gold bullion entails far too many risks. If a quarter of my portfolio is in a safe in my home, and someone absco ...

The article also suggests Gold ETNs as an alternative to ETFs. ETNs seem risky to me over the long run, as banks have a nasty habit of collapsing as has been shown recently. Perhaps a Gold ETN issued ...

MT,

If you are a retirement plan attorney, I'd hate to see what the invoice would be to the bogleheads board if you were billing all of your hours on these posts! You, Craig and many others contri ...

In light of today's special date, let's look at some scary stuff:

http://simplycharts.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/dowgoldratio2006.jpg

Looks like that chart was from 2007. Pretty scary. But th ...

Regarding the asteroid: The extraction costs would of course be extreme, and transportation of something so large would be nigh-impossible, so what I wrote earlier about NASA was tongue in cheek... bu ...

Seemingly everyone has an opinion on the Fed's actions and its effects on inflation. But not many people define "inflation" the same way.

I tend to think Mish is one of the better anal ...

The US has more gold reserves than any other country or the IMF. Altogether, the total gold reserves of the United States almost 9000 tons and are valued at over $300 billion. The government records t ...

I am thinking of mid-term.
based on this theory, 2008 should be a big buy on gdx-related funds (gld price was the same, but funds price dropped a lot. but why did no one see this arbitrage?
where ...

Since you are taking on management risk and also leveraging the "in the ground" assets, gdx will be a leveraged play on the price of gold by about 2.5.

That said, a market disruption coul ...

If you buy gold to make money, you are late. Gold bugs argue that the dollar is falling and that is a reason to buy gold. But that does not explain why the price of gold has tripled in almost every cu ...

You don't usually see an analysis of anything related to gold without inclusion of one of the next two statements:

a. Gold is going to $10,000!

or

b. Gold is going to $1!

While the author ...

I wonder if the investing public would be better served by a PP community that more openly advocates for a higher octane version of the PP. Such a portfolio could offer many of the advantages of the t ...

I'm feeling a bit lazy today so I'm not going to check back on all the pages, but I think there were a few people who were interested in strategies of rebalancing out of cash and when to do it--specif ...

For those interested, Mish posted a well-reasoned write-up that focuses on currencies most people probably aren't thinking about. It's a nice counter-point to those focusing on a dollar catastrophe: ...

Space.

I can't wait to take my first commercial space flight and look back on the amazing view of the world from above it all.

Flights on Virgin Galactic are only $200k now and should come dow ...

good luck with that. they'll keep buying. no one else is at the time.

"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

--Henry Fo ...

MT, concerned, Macclary--thanks for the posts on charting help.

MT--right on with gold not being an inflation hedge. However, I think it would be quite painful for a gov't to fully back currency w ...

Does anyone know of an online resource where you can plug in ticker symbols for a model portfolio (in this case VTI, GLD, SHY, TLT) and track the historical up to current performance on a chart for th ...

So what percentage of assets of GLD are held in physical gold?
(exclude futures, promises, contracts etc)

If the percentage is close to 100, are we looking at a good tool?

Ask for and read the ...

I invest in GDX in my speculative portfolio and mostly physical gold in my permanent portfolio. I don't invest in GLD. Gold miners funds are a leveraged play on gold. Essentially, you are purchasin ...

mathu, your supposition that I work for the government is as unfounded as your other conspiracy theories and as unsound as your reliance on gold and skepticism about the dollar.
According to the Wor ...

Lbill,

If the Dow/Gold ratio hits 2 or lower again, the most plausible scenario seems to be a combination of gold rising and Dow falling. Say 5000/2500 rather than the gold-bug wet dream of 20,000 ...

LBill,

You're a rebel rouser, no doubt. I don't think you'll find many sympathizers on the board here.

That being said, I find Adam Brochert's blog entertaining too. He posts some nice charts ...

Brickhouse,

Thanks for posting. I find Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio a fascinating topic for a variety of reasons.

One of the observations I've made is that it causes an incredibly viscera ...

Be careful.

Gold may just be thinking instability.

Deflation and instability can co-exist for long periods (like decades--see Japan).

Remember the "weak dollar" story last year? ...

What would the ultimate effect of us not being the world's reserve currency be? That seems to be the direction we're heading.

I've been trying to read as much as possible to figure out ways to pro ...

@ MT, it's all good. Love the discussion too.

@ billb: when I try to get my head around something, I like when people use analogies. So here goes...

Take cocoa. If you've ever been curious an ...

We tried this approach in 1929-1933 and it didn't end well.

MT, I'm not trying to be antagonistic, but that's not an agreeable statement. In the short term, yes, I agree 1933-1945 was not an enjo ...

...and for the perma-bulls out there--Dow to "double for sure." So says Neil Hennessey....

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/346886/10-Year-Bull-Market-Has-Begun-Dow-Will-%22D ...

A -4% CPI annually for 37 years would mean we wouldn't have an economy.

Haha...that's what happens when I get caught up making a point and not doing a quick math check. Touche, MT, you got me. Ho ...

Here's my apples to apples:

Pre-Tax Earnings
TIRA $5,000
RIRA $5,000

At Contribution
TIRA $5,000
RIRA $3,7 ...

For those who have been keeping their powder dry on long treasuries, it might be time to kick yourself for trying to outguess the market. Bill Gross, who runs the biggest bond funds in the universe, i ...

One more thing...

I would change my opinion if I had obscenely low income for the year and didn't pay income taxes or was in the 10% bracket. Of course I would contribute to Roth. Such a scenario ...

I've also thought about the Roth situation. I'm in my early 30s so there's no way to tell what will happen in 20-60 years. Any speculation is...well, speculation--and all scenarios are in play.

H ...

I'd be interested in hearing if any PP devotees value tilt the stock portion of their PP. I know there was a lively discussion earlier in the thread between Trev H. and craigr, but I'm curious if any ...

I put in a large position last year in physical coins @ 928. Got lucky this year buying junk silver @ 9.50. Had to pay $2 over spot for premium so I guess I wasn't that lucky.

I haven't made re ...

In a bubble shouldn't the super bowl commercial be put on by an outfit called gold 4 cash, instead?

Hmm, there is a gold4cash.com and .org as well, but they don't seem to be selling gold
...

I don't watch much TV, but you must live in the amazon.

How did you know? Nothing like an afternoon swing on the vines to invigorate the mind!

Emergdoc, I would be sympathetic to your position ...

Just to be on record and have some fun, I'll say right now that the majority of my speculation capital is being deployed on the dips in precious metals and related miners.

Gold might be priced righ ...

I hope Joe Sixpack reads his blog and listens to him. It will give me more time to accumulate gold at a better price.

Boris,

Here's another one for you, from yesterday:

“What is fascinating is the extent to which gold still holds reign over the financial system as the ultimate source of payment,” Greenspan ...

We may have to agree to disagree, but gold has no inherent value besides people believing it has value, similar to any fiat currency. This is probably why central banks around the world are selling of ...

When I was younger I was given a gold coin as a gift. I think the idea was that it was an "investment". It's still sitting in a shoebox and I'm unfortunately not getting any dividends from i ...

I'm not trying to to cherry pick the individual parts of the portfolio and accept the reality that in a diversified portfolio of this nature you're looking for one part each year to make up for the si ...

For those looking to purchase physical gold/silver in the U.S., here are some companies to check out:

http://www.tulving.com/

**I have NOT purchased from them yet, but they appear to have some o ...