sign of the tumultuous times when a property website offers an article on the pros and cons of investment in gold bullion!

having said that i agree with your general argument, brett. however, you've kept to an unhelpful convention: only referring to the price in US dollars. viewing gold in pound and euro terms clarifies the market (given the greenback's slump and also the fact that most of us have face pound/euro costs and assets).

regards,
dan

In Euros isnt the price of gold pretty damn flat? It's only in USD it lloks like it's been rising per ounce?

Or so I read somewhere recently...

Gold is the only sensible investment when fiat currency is being printed at a rediculous rate debasing the value of our £. The £ has falled 12% against the Euro following in the wake of the $ collapse.

The reason why gold is going up and up is because both the $ and £ will be debased up until the point that our economies are once more competitive. Most spectators think £ will fall further .... down 15%, however I follow the view of the IMF view that it will fall at least 25% before the UK could possibly considered a competitive nation.

Gold is one of the few things that will retain value, - Yes there will a time when gold will become overbought - through speculation, but we are a long way from that point. Gold will have to go mainstream before that happens and of course the world banks will try to prevent it from happening.

My advice is to buy at the falls - the "smackdown" that forces spread betting positions to fail and gold to fall, this is caused by central banks dumping gold on the market to force a fall - a pointless folly that will only result in a price fall for a few days at the most, it will rise to new highs soon enough.

The only responsible way to own gold now is to own physical gold, since it is the only thing that can't be manipulated.

I bought lots and lots of gold last August when it became evident that the UK was going to go the way of the US and that the debt bubble was about to burst.

I dont know why I bother responding to these foolish posts - people with no understanding of inflation or what is really going on in the world. By all means ignore me ........ watch your savings being erroded as the £ becomes worth less every day. The sheeple plod on through life ignorant of the real situation - believing the official government CPI inflation figures (complete joke).

I'll post here again in 6 months when my gold has gone up another 30% just to make a point - be careful who you listen to.

Gold down to from £505 to £489 - wow they really did put the printing presses to max capacity creating money out of no-where another 300 billion dumped on the markets ...... no doubt the IMF dumbed a load more gold too. Interest rates will have to go through the roof at some point in the future to get rid of all this money, but not until the US housing crash bottoms out.

Perfect ....buy at the dips ... time to buy buy buy gold.

richard, i applaud your enthusiasm. and it is true that you tipped gold last year - congratulations, your gains are well deserved. but you have also been tipping hungarian property for a long time and it seems to have stagnated in the doldrums.

i don't feel i want to buy gold now, but i'd love to hire you to sell a property i am currently trying to sell. i believe your energetic confidence would soon browbeat a purchaser to reach for his chequebook. interested? 3% commission available.

regards,
dan

Dan, is it in Hungary? If so no chance of a buyer I'm afraid!

You need to look at the bigger picture folks ........ its all about the debt bubble that the US and the UK have accumulated and the ONLY way that we could get rid of it
- never mind the cost (peoples life savings being erroded away).

The chinese refused to alter the status quo when they would not revalue their currency when US went begging to them, they made small token movements only.

The result was a policy of currency devaluation and a period of seriously low interest rates in the US. Im not saying that it was all engineered, but rather it was the inevitable conclusion of a long saga fueled by debt.

The debt bubble resulted in the credit crunch - an opportunity for the US and UK to redress an imbalance in the world economy, a long and painful period of rebuilding our manufacturing base.

So whats next ........ you always have to think ahead fokes .... dont just believe the analysts ....... ask 10 different analysts the same thing and you will get many different responses. Use your own judgement to arrive at your own conclusions and invest with confidence or not at all.

Inflation is two fold. First it is the expansion of monetary aggregates which always result in price inflation.

Deflation is debt failure first. Debt failure clear of no monetary expansion will reduce prices.

We now have unprecedented monetary inflation on top of price inflation coming from the monetary and fiscal stimulus of 2000 to present.

We are headed to some degree of the Weimar experience, which can be summed up as debt failure, collapse in business activity and an explosive rise in prices for goods and services while a currency collapse took place.

Ok so Dollar down = £ down -> Euro down -> Manufacturing nations currency devaluation & deflation

= reset of world economy.

Manufacturing countries will have to diversify away from being reliant on exports to drive growth.

Only gold and other essential commodities will weather the deflation successfully.

As for Hungary - it was always a long term play ...... in all my posts I have made that 2008 would be a difficult year as the austerity measures hit home reducing the budget deficit at the cost of growth.

As it happens my properties have increased more quickly than I have expected .... property value up 30% since I purchased (consider I have only invested 20k Euro in it so far). So far this year 2008 ....... up 5%.

Whilst my property completion money has been rising nicely ...... invested in GOLD.

and do you still live with your parents?

As it happens ....... yes I do live with my parents, Sold my place several years ago ..... saw the property crash coming and acted accordingly (it sold for 15% above the maximum valuation in a sealed bid situation).

Why on earth would I continue to own when its cheaper to rent?

I plan to buy again in several years once the property crash has bottomed out in the UK and started to rise once more in 2-3 yrs time. Since the crash in the US will bottom out first, I might buy there first - then here.