Saturday, July 18, 2009

Crash, cash, gold stash

Max Keiser is emphatic that there will be another huge banking crisis within the next 6 - 9 months, and says that the Chinese are "aggressively" buying gold in anticipation of a currency collapse. His talk (esp. with regards to Goldman Sachs) is intemperate, as his French co-guest diplomatically points out, but he may be correct.

I don't know how it is for you in the US, but here the jewellers have recently been fielding TV ads offering to buy your gold. What a favour they are doing for you.

PS

Barry Ritholtz shares in a strange, ecstatic group experience.

This, I suggest, is a sign. Norman Cohn's mediaeval history "The Pursuit of the Millennium" notes that at times of great societal stress, there were mass outbreaks of spontaneous frenzied dancing, singing, visions.
Unconsciously perhaps, Ritholtz connects the two, for just before he describes the happening he says, "The multitudes were slowly moving thru the mass transit walkways like cows being led to slaughter." The people are feeling the fear and reaching for joy.

2 comments:

Nick Drew said...

the crowd thing is very interesting and with much potential; and i think you are right in suggesting it will play its part in the coming months and years

(the other great mass phenomenon is when, in a very noisy place, the hubbub inexplicably subsides to near-silence for a short while)

but, let's face it, not at all rare - go to any well-attended sports fixture with a 'knowledgeable' crowd, and watch (thrill to) how the sudden, universal intake of breath occcurs when the mob spots a tiny, off-the-ball incident, or a split-second of great skill

sometimes spontaneous, but sometimes orchestrated (by a Wagner, or worse ...)

the crowd can do great things; but it also lynches people

it will play its part in the coming months and years

OldSouth said...

In the US, the 'let us buy your gold' ads have been running heavily for over a year now.