Thanks for reading this post. Let me just point out a couple of things before I start: I am not a “troublemaker,” or a shill for paper money, or a flamer, or any other looking-for-a-fight type of person. I have some questions that have been bothering me about gold – at least the way it’s presented, as a hedge against the coming “bad times” – and it would really be helpful if someone knowledgeable about the issues would help me out.

I am also neither a kid, nor a fool. I’m old enough to have put away some money. I’m a very conservative investor – for me, locking up my money in a two year closed CD type account is a big deal, much less investing in stocks. I was very conservative during the big stock runup of the last few years, so I didn’t make as much as other people – but I lost a lot less last year, too.

I’m also quite familiar with the gold advocates (I think it’s supposed to be politically incorrect to use the term ‘gold bugs’ today!). I have, for example, been reading The Daily Reckoning for years. So you’d think I would have “seen the light” by now about gold. But actually, reading for nearly a decade about how “this time it’s really going to happen,” only to see gold retreat yet again and the dollar continue to thrive, got me thinking about the whole issue, especially from the perspective that the DR and other gold advocates promote. If anyone can help me out with the following questions, I’d really appreciate it:

1) There’s no question that the government is printing lots of money. I’m really not in a position to judge if it’s “too much.” Everyone knows what happens when you have too much money chasing too few goods.
Question: The people selling the gold are getting fiat currency for their commodities. If they really believed that “the end was near,” you’d think they’d want to hold on to their gold – at least until the price begins to shoot up (again, I emphasize, these are NOT flame questions!)

2) For decades, it has been illegal to own gold in forms other than jewelry or coins, from what I understand (ie no bullion). If I were to buy gold today, it would be in the form of an ETF.
Question: How does that help me if dollars end up becoming worthless? It’s not like I can ever get at the gold I “own.” And even if I could get it, and I knew where to find it, who would give it to me? One could assume that the security guard with the guns standing at the door of the storage facility would use his weapon to take “my” gold for himself! The only thing I can do with an ETF is sell it – for fiat currency! (or am I wrong?)

3) In the scenarios painted by the gold advocates, gold becomes the currency of choice. I have a hard time picturing being able to go down to the corner store and trading a chip off a gold coin for some bread! If paper money does fail, I suppose the only viable system of exchange would be barter – or a new paper currency, backed by gold and freely convertible this time.
Question: Wouldn’t the government (or whoever is in charge) seize whatever gold it could in order to back their new currency? Or will things break down so badly that there won’t be a government or a form of currency? In that case, wouldn’t I be better off putting my money into things that I’ll really need – tuna fish, toilet paper, etc. – instead of gold?

These seem to me like very logical questions, if you are looking at gold as “the final option,” which seems to be the major thrust of DR and the other gold advocates. If you look at gold as a regular investment, though, how do you explain the continued inability of gold to take off, despite all the nervousness in the market?

Like I said, I am not looking for a fight… just answers. All the newsletters and sites I look at seem to make assumptions about these questions, as if they were asked and answered. Well, I haven’t seen these questions dealt with anywhere – and it’s pretty shocking to me that people would be willing to hand over their dollars to buy ANYTHING, without carefully checking out what they’re buying!

Please help me out, if you can. Feel free to leave comments (I assume at least some of you will be trying to sell me something, that’s OK). And, if you can retweet my question so I can get more information from others, I would really appreciate it to. Peace!

So people check out your tweets, or surf to your Facebook page. What does it get you – directly, I mean? Sure, there’s the “value-added” of your enhanced online reputation that can get access to useful information – or even help you land opportunities- but you don’t get any specific benefit when people actually visit your pages. In the case of Facebook, clicking on your page lets them charge more money for ads, and find more customers for their “gifts” – and Twitter will figure out how to cash in one day very soon, as well. But what about YOU? Where’s YOUR payday?

Right here – at Inter8ing, an Israeli company, which holds social media popularity contests, where you get your buddies to vote fpr your profile. The most popular profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, My yearbook, Netlog or Hi5 – meaning the profiles from these sites that garner the most votes at Inter8ing- win cash prizes! The top prize on the page right now is $200 (they pay through Paypal).

It looks like anyone from anywhere with a profile on these sites can join, and anyone can vote on the web (Israeli voters can vote via SMS).

According to the site’s rules, you can solicit friends, or even vote for yourself. All they care about is the votes. Why not use Twitter to get your buddies to vote for you? It could work like Twitter followers – “you vote for me and I’ll vote for you.” The $200 winner has 436 points, which I take to mean 436 votes. That’s small change for Twitter members with 4,000 or 5,000 followers! Talk about “monetizing” your Twitter popularity!