Times are tough everywhere and people are hard up for money. Nowhere more obviously than in Bangkok's Chinatown where crowds surged into the gold shops after the Chinese New Year to exchange their bahts of gold for paper baht. Gold might be beautiful, but you can't eat it. Gold merchants soon ran out of hard currency to finance almost $250,000,000 US in transactions.
Previously the normal selling day averaged $4-5 million.
The Global Meltdown thanks to the Masters of the universe and everyone's greed has hit the world hard. The Plaza Hotel is a far cry from Chinatown in Bangkok, but the desperation on people's faces is very noticeable.
"How much can you give me for this?" An older man offered me a ruby broach.
"I really don't want it." It was the truth.
"How much?" He needed money for rent on his Park Avenue apartment. $4000.
"$3500." The broach was worth $6000. Not to me. Not to anyone. He took the money with gratitude, saying he'll be back. I flipped the broach to a dealer. The store made $1000. These might be the worst of times, however there's always a way to make money.
And at least it's not a Ponzi scheme.
ps the global spot price for gold is $927 as of Friday.
So sell sell sell.
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