|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
At 01:48 PM 1/11/98 -0500, Gitanshu Buch wrote:
> RTs, This is a fundamental analysis note so if it doesn't interest
>you pl delete it coz I don't predict gold wiggles for the next few trading
>sessions! Here's what my data suggests: Conclusions: 1. Individual
>and institutions in Asia are net gold sellers thru the crisis period of 4Q
>1997. To answer BobR's question, ground reality is that falling local
>currency makes it more expensive to buy gold because the world's retail
>markets price gold in USD. .
OK, here is what I was getting at. Back in my 8 to 5 days there was a
custodian who came through my shop to sweep floors. His namce was Willie,
Custodian of The Gold. He was born and raised in the Phillipines,
emigrated to the US. He came to the US with a perspective on gold as money
and not an investment or tradeable as rters would look upon it. To him,
the gold flakes and tiny nuggets that he sluced out out the Sierra Nevada
mountain stream were every bit as useful for buying groceries or a new
truck as were the electronic deposits to his checking account. He had a
skepticism of all paper currency, even the US dollar that he was paid with
monthly. When he was short of US currency he would take a vial of flakes
or a small nugget to the Albertson's supermartket manager. They would go
into the backroom, get out a small scale, call for a quote and Willie would
leave the store with groceries. If he needed a large item like a truck, he
would visit the Bank of America Branch and repeat the process with a
certain manager. Now Willie and my storekeeper back in the warehouse had
something in common in their view of gold. Herman had been stationed in
asia years back and in his locale it was customary for the locals to buy
small links of gold that were fashioned into a chain. This chain became
their family store of wealth in times of currency crisis, umemployment,
governments fail, whatever. The links were exchanged at a street level
gold bazaar when paper money was needed. Literally, banking in the street.
Keep in mind this is occurring now in 1998, not centuries ago in some
barbaric period. So, it occurred to me the other day to reflect on the
asian crisis from their viewpoint of gold, that of the common man who had
salted a porition of his earnings away in the form of gold links, flakes,
nuggets, legal tender gold coins. Now as Buch says, Au is priced in the
US$, and when the asian currency falls with respect to the US$, it would
seem that in some small way their personal crisis has been reduced by some
foresite.
BobR
|