Bloomberg TV Advice on Cash (the message is CHANGING, folks!)

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I was watching the Bloomberg financial channel for a few minutes yesterday just before leaving to go to Thanksgiving dinner, and I saw a remarkable exchange between three financial "experts" and the host of the show, which was about financial preparations for Y2K.

The moderator lady asked the "experts" about how much CASH people needed to have on hand for Y2K. The first "expert," an author and obvious polly, said 3 days to 1 weeks worth was plenty. The second, a financial analyst, said 2 weeks to 1 month worth. The third "expert," a gentleman named Ed Lee, said three months worth of cash, as well as gold coins.

Of course the polly scoffed, and the moderate said that if things get that bad, we're all in serious trouble. But if people listening to the show take the middle course (1 month's worth of cash), there will be severe problems in the financial industry. Sorry, but there's not enough cash for everyone to have a month's worth.

Apparently the bankers have been right to be spooked for the past year...

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), November 26, 1999

Answers

Forget the paper money, it can't last for very long after the digital money goes. Kruggerrands are your best bet for gold, U.S. junk silver dimes for small change.

-- Slobby Don (slobbydon@hotmail.com), November 26, 1999.

Hedging your bets, gets both cash and gold.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), November 26, 1999.

"and the moderate said that if things get that bad, we're all in serious trouble." Thats one of those incredibly stoooopid statements one keeps hearing. OF COURSE we would all be in trouble! But they act like that is a total impossibility that we might "all be in trouble". SometimeS, you wonder how we have gotten as far as we have in technology. Some of the smartest are so far removed from the real world as to be REALLY scarey! Its like, "they (whoever the hell "they" are) won't let it happen", or "Bill Gates will save it all". Yeah...right! While "they" play CYA we best be playing SYA (save your a$$)

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), November 26, 1999.


Taz - We've gotten here in spite of ourselves

-- karla (karlacalif@aol.com), November 26, 1999.

In the beginning paper money will be most in demand, because it's the money we're all used to and never had enough of. After a month or so when shortages start kicking in it will lose its popularity to whatever there are shortages of. Whoever siezes control will determine what will be used as money. It will be whatever they already have the most of, whether it be beans, salt, canned hams, or bottled water. If things go really bad I don't see gold having any real value. Packs of seeds, hand tools, canned food will be much more valuable.

-- Rainman (rainman@uh-oh.com), November 26, 1999.


taz,what does "cya" mean?To me it means "conceal your auto",a small of the back handgun concealment holster....

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), November 26, 1999.

Slobby, if the fall of digital cash will mean the eventual loss of value for paper currency then the fall of paper currency will also mena the fall of "valuable" metals. There is nothing intrinsically valuable about gold anymore than there is in a $20 bill.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), November 26, 1999.

Gus,

Societies have been using gold and silver as stores of value for more than four thousand years. How long has paper money been around???

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), November 26, 1999.


Slobby, if the fall of digital cash will mean the eventual loss of value for paper currency then the fall of paper currency will also mena the fall of "valuable" metals. There is nothing intrinsically valuable about gold anymore than there is in a $20 bill.

-- Gus (y2kk@usa.net), November 26, 1999.

It is technically correct, but totally misleading in this context, to state that there is nothing intrinsically valuable about gold. This is true of everything, including food and water. Nothing is intrinsically valuable, as value is always relative to the one doing the valuing.

However, in the context of Y2K or any other major (potential or actual) disaster, the historical record is clear: precious metals are of value even when paper money isn't.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), November 26, 1999.


I can't eat gold. I can't eat silver. But for less then $15.oo US, I can still buy a 50 pound bag of rice and that, I can always eat. (Stole from Scary Gary)

-- SilentRunnig (CanYouHearMe@Calling.You), November 26, 1999.


Pure water and nutritious food will NEVER lose their value!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), November 26, 1999.

NABI: To answer your question, I regret to inform you that paper money has been around for THOUSANDS of years also! Not as long as gold, but nearly so. It was the Chinese who first dreamed it up, and it was at least 2000 B.C. I don't have the exact date in my head.

But the simple fact is that gold IS eternal, and not just because it is one of the chemical elements.

I used a simple rhetorical question a few months ago to say that gold will ALWAYS have value, so long as their are civilizations on this planet(root word of civil is derived from "city", meaning a not-totally-agrarian society).

The question is: How many Roman coins do you find in circulation today, coins from a civilization that lasted just short of TWO Millennia? Even Rome, the "Eternal City", will some day cease to be.

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), November 26, 1999.


zoobie,

CYA=Cover Your Ass

-- Big D (ddac@yahoo.com), November 26, 1999.


Our local newspaper, a Scripps-Howard owned publication, had an article in this morning's paper titled "Y2K FearsSpawn Run On Cash". The article states that the Federal Reserve expect 70 million households to withdraw $450.00 each. The article goes on to state, "There's evidence Y2K-related cash demand already is affecting markets and investments, as well as raising issues for banks ranging from distributing cash to protecting it." Also, "There's a fierce demand for money, and brokers report that the overnight deposit rate during the New Year's Eve weekend is being bid between 11 percent to 14 percent in the money markets, up from 8 percent two weeks ago."

-- Linda Hitchings (lindasue1@earthlink.net), November 27, 1999.

Paper was invented by the Chinese in 106 AD. Paper money had long been in use in China, when Marco Polo visited there in the late 13th century. Paper money is not thousands of years old.

-- Amy Heins (AmyHeins@historybuffs.com), November 28, 1999.


Unbacked Federal Reserve Notes have "been around" for 31 years. If you had "friends in Europe," you could probably still convert them to gold until 1971. Each paper currency is a new one, and does not add any longevity to the ones that have gone before -- they not being convertible one into another -- in fact, the greater the number of paper currencies that you cite as having existed over "thousands of years," the greater the evidence for the fragility of each. IOW, "Where are they today?"

Try this: http://www.usagold.com/WhitherGold.html

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), November 28, 1999.


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