:)

what does this have to do with video games

esreality.com
where gaming meets reality

When you will face the final boss in the local supermarket, you will understand:)

the fat, crabby, semi-mentally disabled cashier lady?

Well, that's no ordinary cashier lady. That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!

cause i will have no interwebz for quake playing

guess we'll just have to go back to lan tournaments!

Dude, will all gonna die this year, why to care about it?

I await the cancerous death of humanity with sexual arousal.

longer than the euro?

k real reply.... if you 'really think the dollar will crash' you should buy stuff from countries in africa and south america (either companies or country related stuff).
This because their debt is made in dollars. So when the dollar drops to the 'value it is actually worth' the debt in Africa will suddenly be paid back in no time, allowing for a flourishing economy in those countries.

Other stuff to consider though... is that former leaders of the usa have actually tried to put as many foreign links to the dollar. So half of the world wants it to crash while the other half of the world needs it to stay high.
Like china has 'bought tons of dollars' which will then suddenly be valueless....
Also europe has quite a few of dollars stashed away at different places.
Also Gold/Silver are actually (like all comoddities) paid for in dollars. This sounds retarded (which it is) while it has fairly little intrisic value although you could say that just because it's (still) rare it'll still be worth a lot.... but with space exploration comming I'd say metals will drop to cheap as **** as soon as we start sending robots into space (aka around 2069).

But anyway (imo) when the dollar will crash and you have a ton of gold/silver the people that have other currencies will just 'pay the equivilant of the stock price of gold (which is in dollars'. Aka the 1600$ will remain 1600$ (for quite a while) even though the dollar might drop from (around 73euro cents -> 5euro cents). So for the first few months / years / whatever you'll actually lose 90pc of value....
But that's my personal guess though.... it could be very different ofcourse in which case I'd like to have you as a friend :PPP

have u tried militia tho?

A dollar crash is extremely unlikely. If you're interested in investing in metals then look into copper and rare earths.

I don't see a complete crash being very likely either, but any sort of devaluing is going to be horrific for our already shitstorm of an economy atm. Was looking into copper as well, probably a good investment. Will look into rare earths

They should consult Birdman beforehand, "100 millon dallarz" is basicly his whole artistic act.

Michael Jackson, a million dollars, ya feel me?

You would be better of buying a van and collecting scrap metal.
My dodgy neighbour does it and he makes 300 quid a day and doesn't pay a dime in tax.

Is that the other business?

3/3

Surprisingly when there are world economic problems people buy dollars, so the dollar has surged this last year. It's retarded that my currency (The rand in south africa) has weakened, even though our economy is doing ok, and is mostly shielded from the debt crisis.

The dollar will remain the main international trade currency for at least the next 10 years, and most likely much longer. I would say it will remain the main currency while the US remains the largest economy in the world. (Which it will do so for the next 10 years at least).

The only real threat is the euro, and even with a recovery it will take a while for people to have any trust in it again.

If you look at other potential world currencies:
yuan, ruble, real, rand

I doubt any of those would gain strength.

With regards to a currency just for oil. While the main consumers for oil remain NA and EU, it's not going to happen.

ps. I am intrigued how Brazil will do in the next 10 years... I predict better than Russia or China.

Found it cute you put the rand in potential world currencies but left out the Euro. Really the USD and EUR are the only two real choices for a world currency. Everything else is too small or has big political issues.

read again, he mentioned euro as the only alternative, and found it unlikely to be rand and the others.

Exactly what I said.

There is no "world currency". There is only a currency that is being used as a global invoicing and reserve currency since WWII, which is of course the US dollar.

The reasons for this are:

- Stability - The USD has historically been a good store of value, and is the most powerful country's domestic currency.
- Liquidity, depth of financial markets and diversity of financial instruments, meaning the USD can be easily invested.
- It is a self-perpetuating circle: countries and companies favor the USD because everyone uses it.


However, at the moment, everybody is questioning this status. This is because the USD has constantly been losing value for a decade, and because the FED's "strong dollar policy" is nothing but words. The downgrade by S&P also hit confidence. So right now, countries are all saying "hey since the dollar is doing shit right now, let's promote trading in other currencies!"

What substitutes are there? There is no authority strong enough to introduce a real "world currency". The Chinese Yuan is not even freely traded, not to mention the complete absence of financial markets. Stable currencies such as the Swiss Franc or Australian dollar represent a microscopic portion of global trade. Only the euro remains.

Right now, about 85% of FX transactions in the world involve the USD, (~40% for the euro), and government currency reserves split is about 2/3 in USD, and 1/4 in EUR. More and more countries are joining the eurozone, and these numbers are slowly changing in favor of the euro.

The EUR has been appreciating since its introduction, and it could turn out to be a good currency to store value. Euro financial markets are constantly growing, gaining liquidity, breadth, and attracting investors. The possibility of European Treasury bonds is being investigated it would be a huge step forward in promoting the euro (the US T-Bill is the asset that is most traded by international investors).

But you see what is happening in Europe right now. Nobody knows how it will end up, and it could be a mess. The euro's credibility has taken a huge blow, and the dollar is appreciating again.

Now put it in a historical perspective since 1945 and the Bretton Woods system and the answer is clear. Normally I would say that nobody knows dick about how things will turn out to be, but it is likely that, in the absence of a huge external shock (World War III, natural disaster...) the dollar's "world currency" status will outlive you and you shouldn't listen to the talking heads you see on TV. It will be very interesting to monitor the euro's progression, though.

.

ehmm no it's not. (imo)

The reason why the USD is called a 'world currency' is because you have to buy oil / metals / other natural resources in USD. Aka it's because of the Bretton Woods pact.

This means that other countries first have to buy USD in order to buy oil. This creates an 'artificial demand' for the USD and that demand is pretty much the only reason why the exchange rate of the USD has been somewhat stable.

This has only been like that since the end of WW2. In the pact they said ye well the world currencies are in turmoil. And to solve that what you can do is tie your own currency to the USD. Which meant that all natural resources would be paid for in USD.

Little did we know that the USA would just print more and more and more of it after the turmoil has passed.....

Yes that's what I meant by "invoicing currency". It's really natural that international trade tends to be in US dollars, because in order to buy something the other party has to be interested in your currency, and vice versa when you sell something. Countries as far from each other as Chile and South Korea use the USD for their bilateral trades, because it is practical. If they used their own currency and then converted it, they would be exposed to a foreign exchange rate variation risk, but they know they will always be able to use their US dollars, so they trade in US dollars in order not to have to hedge that risk. This gradually and naturally happened because the US dollar is the center currency since the Bretton Woods pact. But it is not directly because of the Bretton Woods pact, it is because the US dollar was then considered "as good as gold", and countries had complete faith in it.

I say that not just to correct you but also because I think it is very important in understanding why the US dollar is predominant in international trade. A fiat currency is only as good as people trust it is, and now people are getting worried because of poor management from the FED and economic trouble in the states. They are afraid their holdings in dollars might lose like 1/3 of their value should the US dollar lose that "world currency" status. So they all try to either reassure each other about the US dollar, or in international meetings they declare "hey let's all agree to trade in xxx currency, it rocks".

Now, my own opinion is that they have no other choice but to keep their faith in the US dollar. There is no substitute, even if the euro is marginally gaining ground in international trade. The shocks that led to the institution of the dollar as center currency are: failure of the Gold Standard (because of no control over beggar-thy-neighbour policies such as printing money), 1930's depression, and World War II. Now that the dollar is indeed a reserve currency, I think it is going to take another huge shock to destroy the current equilibrium, but that's just my opinion. It is likely that the euro is going to challenge the US dollar as an international currency, to a limited extent, but I don't see it replacing the dollar because the USD is too deeply rooted in international trade, and because the the last few months the euro's credibility has fallen drastically.

the USD was considered to be as good as gold because you could always exchange 1 dollar for a fixed amount of gold at the bank. (or better since 1944 you could trade 35 dollars for 1 troy ounce of gold).

This basicly meant that they couldn't print any money... at least not without having more gold somewhere or the ability to get gold etc.
During some crisis though a few large banks of the USA (mainly goldman sachs) convinced the then president to give them the power to print money (creation of the FED). The president later said that this was his biggest mistake ever but ow well :)

Then in 1971 Nixon signed a deal that removed the link from dollar -> gold. Which in the end made the FED more powerfull and it is now being used as a toy by the government who are kinda clueless about the economy :)

here is another serious reply:

The international economy magazine had a special issue in Spring 2008: The Next Great Global Currency.

It very readable and probalbly the best information i found. Some experts see US-Dollar remaining worlds leading currency, some favor Euro and some even Yuan.

But read yourself:
“Ten years from now, what will be the next great global currency?”

http://www.international-economy.com/TIE_Sp08_CurrencySymp.pdf

These estimates are all based on the assumption that our political system churns along perfectly. We've already had several government shutdown panics, and congress isn't getting any more cooperative.

Interesting, but written in 2008 when everything was hunky dory.

Hehe there are some interesting things but really these are the "talking heads" I was mentioning. The best thing is to figure how things work and make your own opinion. Articles like this one, featuring people thinking a currency like the Yuan, backed by a government such as China, is going to deserve the whole world's trust, are really not serious. Arguments are not going to kill common sense.

BUY HIGH

SELL LOW

buy high sell drunk

gold price was growing ~11 years now. As I read a lot of shit, this year gold price will drop.
Silver is very good invesment, but need a lot of space for N $ :)))

yeah which is why i mostly bought silver, it has a lot of catching up to do to gold...from different opinions i've gotten from a few people gold could drop, but some see it possible to increase as well, depending on numerous factors

y not buy drugs instead of metal?

y not buy pop instead of metal

poop

why poop when you can ride

/morrowind

you could, but then you took an arrow to the knee

I dunno what you guys are talking about but does this mean I will have a great exchange rate when I goto NYC next Christmas?

Your currency isn't doing much better. =P

It's not going to collapse. Quit being paranoid.

only being semi-serious, I don't think a complete collapse is realistic at all, at least in the next 20 years. We will have to see how bad it actually gets(or better) before the majority of the world pushes for it. I don't think it's going to be getting better in the near future though

In the same way that house prices would never fall in US nationwide before 2007? Quit being a cheerleader.

Fiat money is fiat.

I anticipate the global economical collapse, ensuing chaos, rioting and panic and China sitting on the throne made from redundant bills, human bones and broken cinderblocks of our civilization, with great pleasure.

revolution won't happen ... panem et circensis ... there will always be a minimum food supply and people are too busy watching t.v., discussing shit on the internet and playing video games ...

this thread is $

putting money into gold or silver is a bad idea. index funds or a roth ira (if you have one) are both better. or invest in like... starbucks.

i didn't put a ton into either, just extra money, a friend i have(rich motherfucker who i trust) told me it will be a good return eventually, especially silver (not in the near future)

I saw some article @google news saying something like "gold prices expected to rise, silver not2gud". it was some poll of analysts or some crap, peeps expected gold to go up but silver to remain about the same. As soon as I read it, I was like, Oh no, esr guy erok gonna get ownt :(.

Though I knew their opinion wouldnt be the "final say", and sure enough when i try to find it again there are several articles saying that both will go up etc, such is the nature of fin articles. all bs <_<

im my opinion YAs are made of gold so with the declining demand for QL we will see gold prices go down.

not expecting either of my investments to pay off in the near future at all, was extra money anyway :) just expecting the silver investment to be worth it in the long haul

=)