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Chavez - Genius or Madman?

it seems he's reinvesting in BRIC plus SA...isn't it a risky time to be doing that?
 
gotcha ;) ; wonderful, thanks for sharing. Especially since he's going through chemo treatment right now - he probably sees himself very vulnerable and is probably even more paranoid (if that's possible).
 
Gold will keep going up as long as people are worried abut the economy and take their money out of other assests and buy gold to protect themselves. As the economy improves and people feel more comfortable in other assests gold will go down. It's not really a bubble just a safe place to keep your money in down times.
 
Yes, but real estate is a safe asset that can turn into a bubble because of oversupply, gold can't.
 
JacobK :: If gold isn't a bubble what is it? I've noticed a 3 yr upward trend in gold, could it be a super bubble? Or will it just continue to rise in value? At some point it has to decline because there will be a point where the price and value deviate.

I wouldn't call real estate a safe asset either, land is a safe asset.
 
Also, silver has been trending similar to gold. Will the correlation continue?
 
Gold will pop as soon as the people that hold it realize they hold a shiny rock with little practical value. And they'll all realize this virtually simultaneously, just as with real estate; just as with oil; just as with mortgage backed securities; just as with dot coms.

The crucial difference is that with these bubbles, the viability of the underlying financial architecture was not in question. Apprehensions regarding this structure mean the price of gold is going to stay high for the foreseeable future. And maybe go higher.
 
When the world breaks down and people are fighting over food, water and resources, the strong will rule the day. It is basic human nature and historically consistent. Having a powerful military will ensure that resources make their way to the US and that US assets are protected.

Think of it as a national body guard. Some nations will ask nicely, try and persuade people to help them based on ethics or humanitarian issues and some nations will have a naval fleet protecting oil shipments and foreign minerals.

Not saying I encourage this or want this, but it is what happens. If the world went to crap and we had to fend for ourselves, the most valuable asset would be guns and ammo, not heavy gold bars.
 
As for Chavez, I find it curious how he thinks state control will somehow succeed in his case, yet has failed in every other. Shipping all of this gold back home sounds more risky than any actual benefit he might get.
 
Chavez is crazy.

No no, he knows what he's doing. He can't have so much in gold reserves in the West in case Venezuelans go bezerk and turn on him Libya-style...then it'll all get frozen Gaddafi assets-style...then what? If Venezuela does go Libya, I hope the King of Spain gives an impassioned UN speech urging for intervention...haha...it'll be funny to watch.

Politics have changed. Before, they (eg. Marcos, Bhutto, Mugabe, etc) hoarded "their" gold in vaults in the West, where they could still access it if/once they were dethroned....after the Arab Spring, things appear to have changed.
 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/gold-...ally-requests-gold-holdings-held-boe-ship-sea

The dumb money continues to warn that gold and silver are bubbles.

Their simplistic bubble thesis is based almost exclusively on the nominal US dollar price and recent price movements and on the assumption that (to paraphrase) ‘gold has gone up in price a lot - therefore it is a bubble’.

There is a continuing failure to look at the important supply and demand fundamentals of the gold and silver markets which leads to unsound reasoning and irrational conclusions. There is also a failure to adjust for inflation.

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No no, he knows what he's doing. He can't have so much in gold reserves in the West in case Venezuelans go bezerk and turn on him Libya-style...then it'll all get frozen Gaddafi assets-style...then what? If Venezuela does go Libya, I hope the King of Spain gives an impassioned UN speech urging for intervention...haha...it'll be funny to watch.

Politics have changed. Before, they (eg. Marcos, Bhutto, Mugabe, etc) hoarded "their" gold in vaults in the West, where they could still access it if/once they were dethroned....after the Arab Spring, things appear to have changed.

Chavez is trying to follow the Cuban model and I happen to know that very very well. Again, he is crazy. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy.
 
Chavez is trying to follow the Cuban model and I happen to know that very very well. Again, he is crazy. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy.

He claims to follow the Cuban model, but it is all pretense. Cuba built a lot of social infrastructure, schools, medical facilities, etc in the 60s, albeit with Soviet help. Chavez has done nothing to build any institution. His brand of Castroism is all rhetoric and he knows it. Only things he has built are shrines to Castro, statues of Bolivar, etc etc. His admin is full of cronies lining their own pockets with seized assets. Nationalization is just a kleptocracy in Venezuela. It's like some of the African states.
He knows what he is doing in terms of achieving his goals and the goals of his cronies. He is not a deluded lunatic in that regard. He is a criminal with full intent, if you will. The Venezuelan economy, he couldn't care less about it. It has gone to shit. Nobody is denying that. The average Caraqueño is a lot worse under Chavez than before. Fortunately for him, he has, of all things, oil and so far, because of that, he has a clientilistic relationship with the US.
 
Cuba built a lot of social infrastructure, schools, medical facilities, etc in the 60s, albeit with Soviet help.

don't want to hijack the thread but, unless you explain exactly what you mean but "social infrastructure", I don't think you know what you are talking about.
 
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