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ATMs That Dispense Gold Bars Coming To America
tetrahedrassface writes "As the US economic woes continue unabated, a German company is bringing gold-bearing ATMs to Mainstreet America. The machines accept credit cards, and will dispense 1 gram, 5 gram, 10 gram and 1 ounce units, as well as various gold coins. The company hopes to install 35 bullion machines in the United States this year, and will hopefully have several hundred up and running by next year. The machines will be decorated like giant gold ingots and be over two meters tall. Physical gold has both pros and cons, but from a safety standpoint would it be fine to have a couple of ounces in your pocket while walking around the mall? The giant, gold-dispensing ATMs will monitor the market conditions for gold every 10 minutes in order to reflect spot price changes as they occur." We already covered similar machines installed in travel hubs across Germany.
"... will monitor the market conditions for gold every 10 minutes in order to reflect spot price changes as they occur... " So... all I have to do is hack the market price calculations, buy my gold for $10.00 an ounce, then sell it for $300 an ounce. I give these guys less than a year before they're hacked into bankruptcy. Incidentally, I thought when we went off the gold standard (and silver standard) that this sort of thing actually became illegal. Granted, I could be wrong... I haven't had my morning coffee yet...
I live in a state with a large number of concealed carry permits. Forceful robberies are becoming less common.
What you're missing is that Glenn Beck's radio show is sponsored by a competitor "Goldline International" and he gets significant money for doing regular TV and radio ads for them. He used to be listed as a "paid spokesman" for their product until someone notified Fox with regard to his regular rants on his Fox News Channel program about how everyone should buy gold. Since that is against Fox's policies, the gold peddler changed all the adverts to say he is a "radio sponsor" and Fox ignored the issue, which shows how much they actually care about the integrity of their programming.
...I'm not interested.
All the goldbugs keep telling me that gold is money, regardless of what economists say or what governments decree. So if gold is money, why won't these machines work either way?
Your choice, put in fiat money and get a gold bar, or put in a gold bar and get some crisp green U. S. of A. "Cyberbit Certificates" (or whatever it is that backs the currency nowadays).
I'm sure the technical problems could be solved--it only accepts gold bars slabbed in polycarbonate with a barcode on them, or something. Methinks the real reason is that it would exposed the bid/asked spread.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Gold is only useful if you can hang on to it and survive the years between total collapse and the rebuilding of a new world.
Generally, gold is seized by whatever autocrats and strong-men are vying for power in the interim. In any case, during the hungry years, nobody has any use for gold.
But what's interesting this time around is that we're entering an age where canned goods are stable and good for years. We've never been through a societal collapse which has had access to high-quality, preserved goods.
Whatever. Skill sets are more important in the long run. Can you farm or make useful things? What value do you personally hold? Do people like you?
-FL
Humanity won't end, but this gold bubble will, and these ATMs are the surest possible sign.
Remember those round-the-clock commercials for mortgages, and the reality shows about flipping houses, the last year or two before the mortgage bust that wrecked the economy? This is that, but for gold. When half the teenagers in shopping malls adopt your investment strategy, it is time to sell.
Now, I have to give the gold standard guys some credit, they said it would go up, and it did, bigtime. But you only profit from getting in on time if you also get out on time, and IMHO that could be any day now.
Gold is useful if the currency of your country collapses in value prior to your purchase and the world economy is still strong enough to buy your gold.
Economic collapse is not an all-or-nothing event, sometimes the economy in a limited number of countries collapses. An example of this would be Argentina in 1999.