Liberty Dullards

[Joey Smith]

Stevie, lacking a basic ability to comprehend what he reads, writes:

Bill Gates, World's Richest Man, Bets Against Dollar
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... news_index

.... in response to my post:

Every wonder why the richest people in the world (Gates, Buffet, et al.) don't hoard gold

OK, so show me anywhere in the article where Gates is hoarding gold? The article says that Gates is shorting the dollar, not that he is buying a huge stash of gold.

The real problem is that the dufusses who think that our currency must be a shiny metal are too dumb to figure out the "medium of exhange" part, or that the "medium of exchange" also relates to other currencies. The whole "foreign exchange" thing throws them for a loop, since they can't figure out why anybody would buy dollars at any price -- but they do, constantly.

They also can't figure out that some level of inflation is natural, since society itself is growing.

Then there are the Stevie types who long for the simply Agrarian economy, and can't figure out why we can't apply the same rules for the manufacture and sale of 747's to somebody using oxen to plow a field ..........

[SteveSy]

Go back and read SteveSy, I said gold is not commodities, plural - meaning that commodities is more than gold. I may not have been clear on that.

So exactly why did you say it then? I never claimed that "commodities" are gold.

I simply stated Joe six pack buys gold because that's the easiest of all commodities to buy. Commodities are a hedge on the dollar. People buy commodities because they believe the economy will likely take a downturn. They buy stocks when they feel its in an upswing.

Joe six pack buys gold because its easy to acquire, easy to store, and he feels the government will in someway cause economic hardship via inflation. This is the fundamental reason anyone buys commodities. Joe would have a hard time storing natural gas or grain in any significant amount to be a viable investment. If Joe could store other commodities as easily as gold its likely gold would may not be his first choice.

Investopedia explains Commodity

1. The basic idea is that there is little differentiation between a commodity coming from one producer and the same commodity from another producer - a barrel of oil is basically the same product, regardless of the producer. Compare this to, say, electronics, where the quality and features of a given product will be completely different depending on the producer. Some traditional examples of commodities include grains, gold, beef, oil and natural gas.

And if I had a client seeking to invest physically in gold, I would have them avoid Libbies at all cost

Well duh! Libbies aren't intended to be used as an investment, they're a currency. Its a currency with a built in hedge against rampant inflation.

[LDE]

Here's what I'm wondering. The Libby keeps adjusting its face value WRT the US$—not daily, like a floating currency, but at irregular intervals based on the USD price of silver. So let's say I bought a $10 Libby and it got discontinued, but I didn't feel like having it "reminted" into a $20 Libby. Now the price goes back down and the $20 Libbies are reminted into $10s. Is my original $10 Libby still worth $L10 or is it only worth the silver content (about 1/4 less)?

I suspect this question is meaningless. In practical terms, almost nobody accepts them, so they're really worth the silver content, nothing more.

[Thule]

I suspect this question is meaningless. In practical terms, almost nobody accepts them, so they're really worth the silver content, nothing more.

Buying precious metals as an investment might be a good idea. The whole problem with LD (besides the legal stuff) is that you have an X-factor that keeps changing the rules whenever he feels like it.

Might as well buy gold directly, then you won't have to deal with the many moods of Von Nuthouse.

[notorial dissent]

It still comes down the fact, that they are falsely marked for value, there is no proof that they even contain an actual ounce of silver, and there is no market for them except within the dullards are us camp, which like their IQ’s is pretty small.

If they were anything but the fraud they are, they would not be marked with a dollar value, since silver fluctuates, sometimes wildly, and there is no proof or standard mark on them to give any sort of guarantee as to value. In short, as I have said, they are worthless in any real sense and useless in all others, except as items of fraud.

If, as the Captain posits, Joe Doublewide wants to invest in silver, he can go to any reputable coin or bullion dealer and purchase real, guaranteed, proofed and marked, silver that is marked and stamped for what it is, pay the honest “floating” rate for the silver in the item, and the reasonable markup of the dealer. He would then have something he paid an honest price for and that is a known quantity. Buying or selling Libbies, with the exception of selling them to the true fools of this planet is always going to be a losing proposition since the seller will always have to recover what was invested since they start at what is effectively a 100% markup on the first sale. This of course is always assuming that the price of silver goes up instead of down which is historically where it goes.

[Weston White]

Is there really any validity to your claims that they do not contain pure silver? Why speculate on something like this when you have no clue one way or the other? After your posts about this, do you think I would lend you an ounce of gratitude or humor in any other area, such as income taxes for example? When it appears to be clear to me you just pull monkey projectiles from your butt.

[fortinbras]

Well, there's no proof that LDs (or the Lakota Free Bank wampum or any of those others) are shorting people on purity or weight ... but the fact is that govt-issued coins - such as Silver Eagles and Silver Mapleleafs - are guaranteed BY LAW to have the promised ingredients and to be genuine. We have no such assurance with LDs, etc. Years from now (and maybe only a very few years), if you discover you were shorted ... or that somebody else was churning out counterfeit LDs ... who you gonna call?

Any sensible person who is offered LDs (etc.) in payment can figure this out, and certainly won't take even genuine LDs at their face denomination in US currency since the face denomination is considerably higher than the market price of the promised silver content, and will probably insist on severely discounting their purchasing power out of doubt for the authenticity/weight/purity of the non-govt "coin" you offer him.

[notorial dissent]

Is there really any validity to your claims that they do not contain pure silver? Why speculate on something like this when you have no clue one way or the other? After your posts about this, do you think I would lend you an ounce of gratitude or humor in any other area, such as income taxes for example? When it appears to be clear to me you just pull monkey projectiles from your butt.

Proving once again Westy that you can’t read a simple sentence. I said, “there is no proof that they even contain an actual ounce of silver”. Considerably different to what you claim. I made no speculations, I made a plain and simple statement of fact, “there is no proof of proof or value”.

There are only two reasons, well three actually, that I can think of to buy silver trinkets, (1)they are pretty and you don’t much care what the value of the silver is in them, or (2)you are buying them for the value of the silver in them or the art or article they are made into, and then you want to be very sure of what you are getting, at which point quality of silver becomes very important. The third being that you don't have any more creative method of throwing your money away.

The Libby’s come with no proof of content or quality, and therefore will be regarded by anyone, other than the seriously stupid, as suspect, and of questionable value.

FYI, your opinion, like your presence is of no consequence to me.