Is gold a good investment

I have read a lot of O'Byrne articles on Gold.ie.
Is gold.ie the only place you can get physical gold in Ireland?
 
I've just sold 500 euro in prize bonds and put into silver coins off of e-bay. I thought what the hell, if I lose half or all of my money, so what. But if the economy goes down the toilet and we have hyperinflation like they had in Germany in 1923, I might just be able to pay off my house and or my credit card debt. Here is a great article on how Deflation creates hyperinflation.
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And here is an article on how the silver market is artificially kept low but, that its a house of cards that in the end will be a boon for people sitting on physical silver.
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I would advise against buying Gold. It has no 'real value' anymore and was just an old way of transporting a sum of money from a to b.

Certain u.s. equities are the way to go forward.
 
FlyFishing,

I think your on the wrong end of this money cycle. Equities, real estate and even the dollor, pound and euro are on a sprial down. Gold is only asset holding it's own...
 
FlyFishing said:
I would advise against buying Gold. It has no 'real value' anymore and was just an old way of transporting a sum of money from a to b.

Certain u.s. equities are the way to go forward.
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I'm baffled! How do you reason that gold has no real value, and in the same post recommend equities?
Of course gold has real value, being a precious metal commodity with high demand and very limited supply.
 
fiatmoney said:
Uncle sam ie

Did you have to pay vat on silver coins?
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No, I had a family member get them off ebay(Silver eagles) for me in the US. They were here last week and gave them to me. I did buy 5 Silver Maples off ebay from some guy in Dublin and didn't pay vat. If you get them in the US it's a lot cheaper.
 
fiatmoney said:
FlyFishing,

I think your on the wrong end of this money cycle. Equities, real estate and even the dollor, pound and euro are on a sprial down. Gold is only asset holding it's own...
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Thats the brilliant thing about investing. One succeeds or fails based on their own analysis.

I believe certain equities ( u.s. non-financials small caps ) hit their bottom last november and are in for a rally. One of my stocks rose over 200% in december.

Real estate is on the spiral down. Agree.

The dollar has increased in value which will hold for about 6 months.

Agree with the euro and sterling.

Gold is the worst asset to hold. If you wanted to hold gold, a year ago would have been the time to buy, not now. Remember equities recover before the recession ends. That will hammer the price of Gold.

Someone mentioned the demand for gold. The demand comes from other speculators. It does not perform any major functions unlike say copper or nickel.

Just my opinion.


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An investment strategy that focuses solely on US small cap equities is extremely high risk and is speculating.

Physical gold bullion is not about speculation at all rather about being properly diversified and owning a monetary safe haven currency.
Check out what the IMF has to say: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/gold.htm

Probably best to have both asset classes in the portfolio especially if David McWilliams warnings prove prescient once again:
Could Obama be remembered as the man who presided over the greatest hyperinflation ever?
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/c...eds-to-run-up-a-frightening-debt-1608220.html
All this implies that Obama could quite conceivably preside over a period of hyperinflation. Today this seems impossible but he has inherited such a mess from George Bush and his political need to get the economy going, if he is to deliver on some of his immense promise, might just prove too much. Don't take my word for it, just look at what is happening to the price of gold -- the only real hedge against hyperinflation."

Don't put all your eggs in any basket ! - be that US equities (small cap or any other ) or all in gold.

Diversify !
 
A lot of fuzzy thinking here. Presumably, for Irish investor, the 'hedge' is against hyperinflation in Irish economy.

Assuming that US is so stupid and inept in managing its economy that it will continue to print money when current deflationary process reverses, how does threat of hyperinflation in US translate into hyperinflation in Irish economy? What measures are the ECB undertaking that will inevitably result in hyperinflation for our economy? What reason have you to believe that the average european consumer (who is more of a saver) will suddenly start behaving like the average US consumer (a profligate spender)?

Following logic of previous posters US hyperinflation would mean that those US gold owners would sell gold to buy Euro, which in turn would mean that they could buy cheap US assets. Is this not the same thing as having equities or cash in different currencies?
 
Nice little summary of the Bull and Bear arguments on the Motley Fool: [broken link removed]
 
Askar is right - just because the US has hyperinflation does not mean that we will have hyperinflation in Ireland. Would mean that US economy would collapse and therefore a diversification in gold would be sensible.

If there is hyperinflation in the US and that does seem quite possible, it is likely that there would be hyperinflation in the UK and in all debtor nations with exposures to Wall Street and the City of London. Hopefully the euro would not be as effected due to the German Bundesbank hawks who are aware of the risk of hyperinflation due to their experience at the end of the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s.

Thus, stagflation or virulent inflation may be more likely with the Euro and other currencies. Regardless, cheap money, irresponsible lending practices, trillions of dollars of derivatives, massive leverage, government profligacy of recent times and quantitative easing and massive money printing is likely to see all paper currencies fall vis-à-vis gold.
 
Chris said:
Are you sure that's right. I have an account with www.goldmoney.com and the fees are minimum 0.1 goldgrams per month or 0.15% per annum, whichever is higher. So far I have found them very good to deal with, and opening an account was straightforward.

I'm not in any way affiliated to goldmoney, except for being a satisfied customer.
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i'm being charged 0.3, i was on the 0.1 for about 16 months then got a mail last summer i think saying the fees were changing. I'll doublecheck with them. Still pleased overall though.
 
This is probably going off the point but why are the Americans and British to name a few, trying to stimulate their respectective economies? This recession was years in the making. Since the 1990's and early 2000's successive American Presidents have put off this recession by spend, spend, spend economics.

What need's to do be done:

1. Stop spending and cut back on public spending
2. Enourage people to save and consume less. Stop borrowing and spending.
3. Become more productive and produce more phyiscal goods.

Printing money excessively is an economic model called Muganomics.
 
Some very smart, astute people are now warning of hyperinflation.
David McWilliams warned of hyperinflation in Irish Independent last week and said how gold was the best investment in hyperinflation and now Morgan Stanley research team are warning:

Hyperinflation is a possibility, say Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley’s Joachim Fels and Spyros Andreopoulos look at the possibility of hyperinflation hitting the western shores of the UK, Europe and the US in their latest note. Their conclusion is a little scary (our emphasis)…
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/01/30/51876/hyperinflation-is-a-possibility-say-morgan-stanley/
 
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