Welcome To The Golden Minerals HUB On AGORACOM

Golden Minerals is a junior silver producer with a strong growth profile, listed on both the NYSE Amex and TSX.

Free
Message: some strong views on Munger comments from GATA

Dave from Denver…

Saturday, May 5, 2012

I Can't Believe Charlie Munger (Buffet) Said This On TV

"gold is a great thing to sew onto your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939 but civilized people don't buy gold" - Charlie Munger on CNBC LINK

Is that the first salvo by the elitists to start pointing the finger at the Jews and placing blame for the economic apocalypse brewing on anyone beside themselves. This hauntingly reverberates of Germany circa 1934.

He made that remark in response to comments that hedge fund manager David Einhorn - who is obviously Jewish - made with regard to why he keeps a high percentage of gold in his fund

If we didn’t have a Jelly Donut monetary policy, I would sell gold, sell bonds and buy stocks. But, the Fed is filled with academics who thoughtlessly rely on econometric models that reflexively indicate that repeated Jelly Donut orgies are the best way to get a sugar rush into the economy. And, the Fed Chairman seems to have no trouble rationalizing any policy failure on the basis that ‘monetary policy cannot be a panacea,’ or ‘it’s bad luck,’ or as proof that he just hasn’t force fed us enough Jelly Donuts, yet. As long as this is the case, it seems unlikely the Fed will change course."



"As a result, I will keep a substantial long exposure to gold — which serves as a Jelly Donut antidote for my portfolio. While I’d love for our leaders to adopt sensible policies that would reduce the tail risks so that I could sell our gold, one nice thing about gold is that it doesn’t even have quarterly conference calls."

Here's the link from the HuffPo:

LINK

I have just two quick comments:

1) Gold is NOT an investment, per se. Gold is the world's oldest currency and you exchange your fiat currency (dollars, euros, yen, yuan) into gold as an insurance policy against catastrophic Central Bank and Government policies which serve to destroy the value of fiat currencies and destroy democracy.
Gold can ONLY be considered an investment to the extent that it remains significantly and historically undervalued in relation to the fiat currencies against which its value is measured.

2) I seriously can't believe that Charlie Munger made that comment for public consumption. The Buffet Klan is slowly throwing gasoline on themselves and lighting themselves on fire in the eye of the public. Anyone has the right to be a racist or harbor hate. But for a highly public official or corporate officer - someone considered a business or political leader - to make those remarks on t.v. for public consumption, reveals just how infected our entire system has become with corruption, defamation, deception and overall societal decay. It shows the extent to which our system is sliding in fascism and totalitarianism....

As it has been said..."good luck and good night."

***

Bill H:

The comedy team of Buffett and Munger!

To all; I had planned on penning a piece regarding the Treasury and Fed "floating" trial balloons for issuing Treasury Bills with negative interest rates (dumb) and issuing floating rate Treasury securities (dumber), but no, the comedy team of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have put this on hold. Friday, Munger was on CNBC being interviewed by Becky Quick and really stuck his foot in his mouth. When I first read it I thought it was a joke but lo and behold, Charlie Munger said and I quote..."Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you are a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939. But civilized people don't buy Gold, they invest in productive businesses". REALLY? Civilized people? This is dumber than dumb's (Mr. Buffett) saying that Gold is stupid, men dig it up in one place just to put it in a hole in the ground somewhere else.

OK, I want to start with a disclaimer that the following is my opinion only and in the United States of America (where "civlilized people" live), we are entitled to our opinions AND to voice them (so far that is). I must apologize ahead of time because my blood is on full boil and I feel "full rant mode"coming on. "Civilized people don't buy Gold"? You pompous, arrogant and lying horses ass! Gold, is THE money of Kings, it is the only real reserve of central banks which hold it and are buying more. Gold is BIBLICAL money and has a monetary history of 5,000 years. Your comedy partner's father, Congressman Howard Buffett warned about going off of the Gold standard as far back as 1948 so Warren has no excuse and can't claim "dumb", maybe you really believe your own babble but to bring into the conversation "pre Holocaust Jewish families"? Does "dumber" ring a bell?

Is America immune to the reasons that a "civilized" person might want to own Gold as a store of wealth? Is it "uncivilized" to accumulate Gold (real money) to provide for future generations? What would you tell the Russians from 1990? Or the Argentines of 2002, the Iraqi people or many South Americans from the 1970's, 80'and 90's? Are all these people uncivilized slobs in your book? Is it impossible that the Dollar, a totally fiat, unbacked and grossly over issued (not to mention future issuance) currency could collapse and become worthless just like EVERY SINGLE FIAT CURRENCY IN HISTORY before it has? Have you read the newspapers (since you and Warren don't like the internet) that on a daily basis inform us of the latest civil liberties to be infringed upon or taken away for our "safety" and reminiscent of what era in past history? Hint, it rhymes with "yahtzee". Hell, answer just this one question, were the framers of the Constitution who defined the Dollar in grams of Silver, ÜNCIVILIZED? You probably already knew this shrouded tidbit of information when you first entered into a huge Silver position in the late '90's. That is ...until TPTB informed you that "certain regulatory agencies" might become especially stringent with some of your businesses unless 130 million ounces of Silver (Constituitional money) were divested.

OK, so don't answer, just look at your own track record vs Gold. Berkshire stock has underperformed Gold while receiving all sorts of help. TARP saved your sorry wrinkled asses in 2008, you were GIVEN sweetheart deals with Goldman, GE and others while the Treasury has slowly emptied out their vaults to suppress the price of Gold. Even with shackles on, Gold has outperformed your "portfolio of productive businesses" better than 4 or 5 fold for at least 10+ years now! You have no legs to stand on. Bad mouthing Gold and spreading false information to the masses? Are you trying to imitate the "Black Knight" on Monty Python?

The definition of "civilized" per Merriam Webster's dictionary is as follows: 1. marked by well organized rules and laws about how people behave with each other. 2. polite, reasonable, respectful. 3. a, pleasant and comfortable. b. showing concern for what is correct according to social rules.

If the above is the definition of "civilized" then I have a few more questions. Would the leaders of a truly "civilized society" set up a "never pay system" where their intent is to welch on their debts? Would they import oil, cars, widgets or whatever and send in return pieces of paper that have absolutely no real value, are not backed by anything and can be created with virtually no effort or cost at all? Would this "civilized society" extract labor from it's "subjects" and in effect, not pay them? Is this "civilized"? Would a civilized society allow the banking and financial system to reap profits yet saddle their citizens with the losses of irresponsible and wreckless traders? Would a "civilized society" have allowed MF Global to steal from their clients or Greek CDS not be paid after a clear default is ruled otherwise? Is this YOUR "civiliation" where the little guy be damned for what you are portraying as the "greater good". As for the "Jewish family in Vienna" part, I don't even want to go there. Was it supposed to be a joke? Did you think the viewers were going to laugh? Were you trying to tie the "barbarous relic" to a barbaric chapter in history? Bad Charlie, really BAD!

As for Gold being "barbaric", John Maynard Keynes (who coined the phrase) has been thouroughly discredited. He clearly advocated a system that can only lead to eventual bankruptcy if fiat money is used. In a system which uses Gold for money, no government can use fiscal stimulus to excess for very long because they will run out of Gold. Yes, a nation can bankrupt but it cannot create the mammoth black holes of debt that now exist, this is the beauty of it. Gold acts as a restraint on government which is exactly why government trots out the Buffetts and Mungers of the world to attempt to discredit it. The use of Gold , as Warren Buffett's father wrote, helps preserve the civil liberties described in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Charlie Munger either knows this or he is so old he has forgotten it. In either case he is in the process of ruining his "inflation aided" legacy.

THE United States of America has been degraded into a (bankrupt) socialist, fascist system where "in the loop" businessmen like Charlie Munger get inside help and information while true entrepeneurs are pissed on at every turn. The inside track apparently is not good enough, the comedic team of Buffett and Munger seem to believe that they need to misdirect the populace of peons away from the only asset which will provide safety and liberty. For their sake, I hope that they keep their act under tighter wraps because 'ole Charlie needs a prybar to get his foot out of his mouth on this one! Regards, Bill H.

Gold is limited government, which is more 'civilized' than the alternative

Submitted by cpowell on 08:08AM ET Sunday, May 6, 2012. Section:

Daily Dispatches

11:19a ET Sunday, May 6, 2012
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

"Civilized people don't buy gold," Berkshire Hathaway's Charles Munger told CNBC the other day. Echoing his partner, Warren Buffett, Munger said civilized people instead "invest in productive businesses," adding, "Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939." (See

http://www.gata.org/node/11324.)

As indignant as such a comment may make certain gold investors, most are probably accustomed to such disparagement by the financial establishment, and greater indignation should be directed toward the mainstream financial news media for not seeking out any rebuttal, even if the rebuttal is obvious enough.

Perhaps first is that gold as money is the primary mechanism of enforcing limited government, and limited government is the first characteristic of civilized government. The distance between gold as money and unlimited fiat money is the distance between limited government and unlimited government, between democracy and totalitarianism.

The trend toward unlimited government lately has become overwhelming, from the stupid imperial wars being waged by the United States every few years to the comprehensive surveillance undertaken under the "Patriot Act" to the "financial repression" that even a recent member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors complained about a few months ago (

http://www.gata.org/node/10839). This prompts our friend Bill A. to chide Munger that the United States in 2012 is in danger of becoming like Vienna in 1939, insofar as anyone now is subject to the abuse heaped on Jews by the Nazis.

Maybe it's not quite that bad yet, but then the capacity for such abuse is the sort of thing gold as money aims to prevent. And of course gold was the first thing the Nazi occupation seized from both conquered governments and individuals, as gold was, as it remains, a protector of individual liberty as well as a power that competes with government's power.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

Share
New Message
Please login to post a reply