On 5/20/2026 at 5:53 PM, ericbj said:

I do not believe Roosevelt confiscated all private gold although he certainly confiscated a lot but not all that he wanted. He got what was held in safe deposit boxes in banks. Draw your own conclusions as to the advisability of holding it there. Plus the risk of a much prolonged Bank Holiday.

And why did he need the gold? Because the dollar was gold-backed and he wanted to print a lot more dollars.

If Trump makes the dollar gold-backed and Fort Knox and the New York Fed do not have the 8,000 tons claimed, beware !

And anyone who does not hold gold these days is either a pauper or living in a surreal world.

And 'spending' gold unnecessarily is not advisable. If the system collapses (heaven forbid) and one is in a country or area (e.g. big city) that has to import its food from elsewhere, food may be in very short supply and therefore very valuable, even in terms of gold, which is unpalatable. So maybe best to possess food you can eat and some you can exchange for other food. Specialisation of production.

Overall I guess Thailand fairly well adapted by land area and climate to survive hard times.

I remember reading decades ago of how there had been an economic crisis in Indonesia. Millions out of work. No "social security" of the official kind. Workers just went back to the villages from which they had come. Not so easy these days. In France, an agricultural country, just after the War 47% of the population lived on the land. Now I think somewhere less than 3%. Modern landholdings are suited to agribusiness not subsistence.

I am not in opposition of your views concerning Gold. But if (once more) the Gold in Bank Safe Deposit Boxes would have to be turned over to the "Government", where to hide it? Right, bury it in your garden. At least 1 1/2 meters deep, as todays high performance "metal detectors" can reach down this deep.

Another point you mentioned: Few Europeans have roots in the countryside left, returning to grandpa's farm, looking for potatoes. Thailand is much better off when it comes to that.

However, in an absolute "worst case scenario", only 4 things will be of importance: Food, clean water, firewood and a weapon, as there will be people that are interested in your sack of potatoes.

Heaven forbid. But it would be a time, by sitting around a fire, nobody would ask "how is the stock market doing today".

12 hours ago, swissie said:

I belive it was "Chief Joseph". Chief of one of the Northwestern tribes. What he said was true back then and even more so today.

Was that Chief Joseph Biden?

14 hours ago, swissie said:

I am not in opposition of your views concerning Gold. But if (once more) the Gold in Bank Safe Deposit Boxes would have to be turned over to the "Government", where to hide it? Right, bury it in your garden. At least 1 1/2 meters deep, as todays high performance "metal detectors" can reach down this deep.

Another point you mentioned: Few Europeans have roots in the countryside left, returning to grandpa's farm, looking for potatoes. Thailand is much better off when it comes to that.

However, in an absolute "worst case scenario", only 4 things will be of importance: Food, clean water, firewood and a weapon, as there will be people that are interested in your sack of potatoes.

Heaven forbid. But it would be a time, by sitting around a fire, nobody would ask "how is the stock market doing today".

I cannot tell others what to do because everyone's circumstances are different. And often changing. But I can hint at what I do.

I have bank accounts containing relatively little cash in three countries. Those in one of these countries have been blocked for several years owing to a new E.U. regulation + refusal of the bank concerned to change my mobile number, needed to receive 'security codes' by SMS. That leaves me with banks in two countries. Giving relatively instant access to cash.

And, incidentally, the proceeds of a life assurance I took out 29 years ago in the country of the blocked bank accounts can, by law, only be paid into the blocked bank accounts. So completely inaccessible. A warning to others !

I have a very small value of p.m. coins in a property on the far side of the world, so useless in an emergency.

Most of my p.m.s are split between two countries where I have never lived (with a much smaller amount stored in the capital city of one of my two countries of nationality).

Storage and insurance are expensive but with rising nominal values the costs are swallowed up.

When cash is needed, sale of metal is rapid (particularly so in one of the two cases) and cash is soon in a linked bank account from where it is transferred free to the far side of the world within 2 to 3 working days, or within 24 hours for a nominal fee.

Regulations on movement of funds are constantly tightening up, globally. One needs to remain aware of that.

I have the impression that silver is not much used as a store of value in Thailand, where very small weights of gold serve as a substitute.

Silver is volatile in price and therefore speculative. But can outperform gold at the right moment. It is also much more expensive to store than gold, on a per-value basis.

15 hours ago, swissie said:

I belive it was "Chief Joseph". Chief of one of the Northwestern tribes. What he said was true back then and even more so today.

This may be of interest:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/comment-page-1/

19 hours ago, swissie said:

I belive it was "Chief Joseph". Chief of one of the Northwestern tribes. What he said was true back then and even more so today.

This gives a bit more info :

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/comment-page-1/

Edited May 23May 23 by ericbj
pinctuation

4 hours ago, ericbj said:

This may be of interest:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/20/last-tree-cut/comment-page-1/

The following is somewhat similar in theme.

I read a much punchier version attributed to Chief Seattle in an alternative newsletter sold in a wholefood shop on the Portobello Road, London, in 1980-82. It was impressive. Thought provoking. But I think this to be much closer to the original speech.

http://www.nativecircle.com/mother-earth.html

Chief Seattle

Excerpt from the authentic text of Chief Seattle's Treaty Oration - 1854

[Originally published in the Seattle Sunday Star, Oct. 29 1887]

The text was produced by one "Dr." Smith, an early settler in Washington State, who took notes as Seattle spoke in the Suquamish dialect of central Puget sound Salish (Lushootseed), and created this text in English from those notes.

----------------------------------------

Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event of days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed men, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my people, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land.

This may be relevant to where we could be headed :

https://vongreyerz.substack.com/p/global-population-to-go-from-8-billion-to-4-billion

On 5/24/2026 at 10:34 AM, ericbj said:

This may be relevant to where we could be headed

Did anyone find out who and why the The Georgia Guidestones were bombed and then totally demolished ?