I suspect that this will be the first of many:
It has been confirmed that the Korea Mint has stopped supplying gold bars to major commercial banks.
No shortages for me 
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The big question will the dollar depreciate.
Deflation? Possibly not depreciation.
Austerity and higher interest rates? Possibly good for the dollar after the shock of it all.
If you want to sell your gold in RMB maybe youâll do better but why move to China?
Remembering GBP
https://stockcharts.com/sc3/ui/?s=%24GBPUSD
Looking at Liz Truss in Sept 2022, set up the 5Y chart setting
I brought a pair of 1" diameter 14K gold earrings to a jeweler yesterday for repair. I bought them in the 1990s and paid about $300 for the pair.
The jeweler asked me if they are solid since they are heavy. Yes, they are.
He valued them at $1750 in todayâs market.
Since my hearing aids cost $1500 âŚ
I would be wearing over $3,000 in my ears.
Wendy (amazed)
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I understand your amazement since Iâm not a jewelry person at all, but donât worry, you have a ways to go before we start nicknaming you Liz:
Pete
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@MataroPete jewelry is meant to enhance the beauty of a woman, not outshine her. Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most beautiful women in history so her magnificent jewelry matched her. (Thanks for the link. I enjoyed looking at the jewels.)
As a rather ordinary middle-class woman with ordinary middle-class looks I wouldnât dare wear such bling. I like a little sparkle but nothing that would outshine my smile.
Not to mention that thereâs precious little occasion to wear fine jewelry (even my jewelry, let alone Lizâs) in my locality where people wear jeans even to concerts and museum openings.
Wendy
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Ohh ooh, I am going to beat intercst to this one!
If you had put that $300 into the S&P in 1990, it would be worth $10,600 today!
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@Hawkwin thanks for the laugh!
@intercst wouldnât even treat himself to custom hearing aids that would cost about 1/1,000 of his net worth.
I hope he enjoys his growing wealth (which he doesnât use) as much as I enjoy wearing my jewelry. (Of which these earrings are only a small part.)
Wendy
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There is a lot of âchatterâ that the USA may be about to revalue its gold:
$10,000 an ounce would be interesting
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Inflation does interesting things, over longer periods.
Remember âPlan Steveâ to eliminate the penny, nickel, and quarter. Only have dimes, and half dollars. And adjust cash registers to round to one decimal place, rather than two?
For the halibut, I plugged $10, in January 1965, into the BLS inflation calculator. The value of that sawbuck, 60 years ago, was the same as $102 today. So, rounding totals to one decimal place today, would not be any different than rounding to two decimal places, 60 years ago, because the money being rounded is only worth a tenth what it was.
The biggest laffer? Stores today donât want to take a Benjamin, because it might be counterfeit. No-one hesitated to take a sawbuck 60 years ago, and that is all a Benjamin is worth now.
Steve
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Thatâs called âvalue engineeringâ. You only buy âcustomâ if itâs required to fill the specs, or solve the problem. Iâd feel very stupid if Iâd bought the $1,500 Costco hearing aids when the $180 model from BestBuy solved the problem.
I also donât âtreat myselfâ to the $10,000/yr name brand immunosuppressant drug I take when the $300/year generic drug is chemically the same.
Just because I have the money, doesnât mean that Iâm lighting cigars with $100 bills.
intercst
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In some neighborhoods, theyâre even looking at $20âs very suspiciously.
intercst
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George Floyd used a not-very-good counterfeit $20.
Bob discusses the potential for the U.S. Treasury to revalue its gold reserves from the current book value of about $42 per ounce to market prices and how this could be used to strengthen the Treasuryâs balance sheet.
âŚ
US official gold reserves are 261 1/2 million ounces. At $42 an ounce on the balance sheet thatâs about $10.9 billion. If we look at where gold is today at 2850, that 10.9 billion would rise to 3/4 of a trillion.
I fully support this - and it is crazy that this has apparently persisted for over half a century.
Our gold should be marked to market. I donât see any reason why we would treat the value of such any differently than we do with the Bitcoin that the govt owns.
Bob is a smart guy, this article is worth a read - even if you are not a gold bug.
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It was very hard to counterfeit money 60 years ago. You needed an intaglio printing press if you wanted to do a credible job and those cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Even with the watermarks, special strips, microprinting and all the other anti counterfeit technologies employed itâs easier today than ever to make counterfeit money. Harder to get away with it, maybe, but maybe not.
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Ever see âMister 880â? True story. âMr 880â was caught. This is the opening part.
Ever see â5 Fingersâ? Also a true story, a vector of the resources of the Third Reich being turned to trying to counterfeit British banknotes. The fake banknotes were caught.
Steve
Not in countries that use those polymer notes.
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Thatâs much more expensive in relative terms if youâre not earning income.
Time
Inflation
Individuals
Ideologies
We are witnessing on the national stage the greatest debate since FDR.
Whipsaw events constantly buckle up.
April tariffs the next roller-coaster car? Or the budget talks in March whiplash.
The tariffs on Mexico and Canada were supposedly put off until the beginning of March, or has he blinked, again?
Steve