Is putting money into a dollar account wise?

Hi all,

can anyone advise me if putting some savings (€50k+) into a dollar account in Permanent TSB is a good move? I'm also worried about the collapse of the euro and want to avoid having all my savings in a euro account. My logic is that by having a dollar account, if we go back to the punt, then my dollars will avoid the devaluation that euros in an Irish bank would suffer from.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks,
PaulieIrish

What happens if the Dollar defaults?

There is a lot of volatility in the currency markets right now, with the Dollar looking dodgy back in July and the Euro currently looking shaky.

Even Gold was on the decrease this week and one analyst on an American programme predicted it will fall further.

Its simply impossible to call in the medium term, but I'd keep an eye on the Yuan.


ONQ.

I think you would be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. If you want to diversify away from the Euro, then look into strong currencies with a track record of less money printing.

Is Gold overvalued at todays prices? The reason I ask is that it cannot be printed at all, and so is immune from bad money management.

But it can be produced, through mining... and this sets a lower bound on golds value... as it's hard to imagine how gold would fall further than the price it costs to mine it. I think it cost between $600 and $1,000 per ounce to mine... and is currently selling for $1,800.

Is gold guaranteed to crash in price at some stage, and what would a reasonable bottom be?


To the OP, .. personally I would avoid banks, and invest in gold,.. but that is risky. I think there are risks with all of your other options too. There doesn't seem to be any safe havens. Gold is a currency in its own right.. it's just a question of whether its current price (its current exchange rate), is too high or not.


Is there any way to calculate a 'fair' price for gold?


Where can figures be obtained for the amount invested in other types of investment,.. i.e such and such an amount invested by European pension funds?, .. or,.. the entire value of UK or Irish property?, and how do these values compare to the total price of all the available gold? Is it certain that gold would always be chosen over all other materials as a basis for a physically backed currency? Will we have physically backed currencies in 10, 15 or 30 years, or will we have paper promises?


I think the US will not be able to pay it's debts back,, or fund its future liabilities . perhaps it can roll them over for ever, or deflate them away, but I wouldn't expect so. So I think, as a layman, that most major currencies are weak and highly indebted, and may fail or default. Perhaps there are strong currencies, but if the large weak ones go I don't know what happens to strong currencies. There might be a massive rush to gold, which is obviously already happening., .. but there might be hundreds of billions rushing, which would really drive prices up.

My point is that I expect some major currencies to fail or default, and the US $ not to be the worlds major reserve currency, within 30 years, but probably within 10. The level of indebtedness seems to be huge, and increasing, and there are also issues like peak oil and climate change that will have an effect over a 30 year time period.

JoeBallantin, here are some links that look at different measures of gold's value:
[broken link removed]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...nals-10-000-metal-price-chart-of-the-day.html

The biggest gold producers in the world are probably producing at $450 to $600 per ounce, but that is heavily influenced by energy costs, which incidentally have been going down in the past couple of months. Unless central banks do a u-turn on their current monetary policies I don't see gold "crashing" in terms of fiat currencies, but that doesn't mean that it will not crash in terms of other commodities.

Would it not make sense to open an account in one of the stronger euro zone countries such as Germany? If there is a return to deutschmarks at least your money would not devalue as much as the punt nua would.

Or failing that maybe an account in Swiss Francs?

Any thoughts?

Some German and French Banks are hugely exposed to Euro Debt.

A Swiss Bank account denominated in Swiss Francs might be worth considering.