First, a story that highlights the usefulness of gold: In my last job, from which I just retired, we had a young new graduate, who was of Cambodian background. One day my officemate asked her how she came to the US. She told the story: Her father was a businessman, and at the end of the the Vietnam war, when the whole area pretty much collapsed (the end of the world as they knew it), her family decided to flee. Her father got them through Vietnam because he had converted a sizeable amount of money into GOLD, which he used to get them through Vietnam to the coast, and bought their passage on a boat to escape. Unfortunately the story turns sadder, in that the boat capsized, and only this woman and one of her brothers survived (and were relocated to California).

And some people here think they have it bad.

Anyway, two observations about gold: 1. It is currently cheap because it is not in that great of demand, and the gold guru's I've read believe the price will drop on Friday, so if you're going to follow GN go ahead and buy on Friday. 2. But I don't recommend gold in general because it is too valuable to be of much use in day to day commerce. HOWEVER, if you are going to vist, say, Aunt Mabel 200 miles away, and TEOTWAWKI has occured, do you think you're going to load up your 2000 rolls of barterable TP on your horse and buggy? No, of course not. It is in this very case, where you need to transport significant amount of wealth, as illustrated in my opening story, that gold is useful.

I find www.kitco.com to be a good site to check if you're interested in precious metals.

BTW, I don't have any gold since I'm only a 2.5, and don't intend on traveling with my wealth.

-- straw berry (strawberry9@worldnet.att.net), February 19, 1999

Answers

Besides the Kitco Gold discussion group, which IMHO is the best on the net for the subject, there is also another great 'goldbug' site that has good information and also a section containing Y2K related articles. The url is http://www.gold-eagle.com

Gold Eagle

Remember to first get all of your Y2K critical prep done (Shelter, food water, etc) before anything else. Next, consider gold and silver as a core position to 'insure' your financial assets and for emergency purposes (buy it and keep it and forget about it unless/until needed). Last, if you are lucky enough to still have some money left, and are so inclined, consider taking an additional position in metals for speculation - but only put in what you can afford to loose.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), February 19, 1999.

Another source for accumulating gold (& silver, platinum, palladium) in accounts or physicals, and for use as an actual payment medium, check out
http://www.e-gold.com

-- a (A@AisA.com), February 19, 1999.