Is capitalism dead?

Warrigal

Warrigal

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Location
Sydney, Australia
Don't ask me because I regard economics to be a kind of fiscal alchemy so I'm putting this out for comment by people who understand these things more than I.

The premise of this argument is that without markets, there is no capitalism because capitalism depends on markets. This much I can understand.

The bit that I don't understand is a slightly more complicated argument. The writer says

In perhaps the most important interview of the year, Legendary gold expert Jim Sinclair warns, “Markets do not exist anymore – and you can’t time what does not exist.”

Sinclair contends a huge transition is underway, and the old system cannot be fixed. A new one is on the way, and the old one is going to end with a bang.

The over-the-counter derivatives have grown massively beyond world money availability. This has no precedent. We have killed capitalism. IT’S OVER…When it’s all said and done, there will be a catastrophic big bang, and then the only thing that will be left is your savings account. Your savings account is not silver, although it will outperform gold, your savings account is going to be gold.

It’s going to happen because all currencies, even the roaring dollar, are falling in terms of being a storehouse of value. Capitalism is finished. I can’t tell you what the next system will be, but capitalism is over because the heart of capitalism is markets. Without markets, you cannot have a capitalistic system—it’s over.”

http://www.silverdoctors.com/gold/gold-news/its-over-we-killed-capitalism-jim-sinclair/#more-74668
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Is he saying that in the future gold and silver will become less valuable than money in the bank, presumably in savings accounts rather than investments?

Is there any merit in this argument? If there is, I will be hanging onto our smallish suburban house with room for a little veggie garden and a couple of free range hens.
 

I understand the point about Wall Street but capitalism is so much more than that. It is for example, people deciding for themselves what they will purchase and from whom - as opposed to a government entity doing that. It is someone getting an idea and creating a company to manufacture the product as opposed to the government deciding what is made and by whom. It is a person seeing the potential for someone else's ideas and investing in it.

Each of those is an element in capitalism and each is based on "what is best for me?" rather than some bureaucrat making those decisions.
 

I think what the writer is trying to do is to promote hard assets like silver & gold. When it comes to capitalism do a little research on the impact of countries printing money to pay debt. Countries like Venezuela that embraced socialism & what you see daily as businesses around you either prospering or failing. In other words look at the big picture and what the global economy is doing.

Short term things can look rosy, long term no so much. The writer may be considering the type of jobs that are beginning to replace the typical higher paying jobs. If the money isn't there to consume then what? A conversion from capitalism to government run everything?

The why of good paying job loss can be seen by looking up Ford's assembly plant in Brazil video & Amazon robotic facility video. A couple of examples of mankind inventing his way out of manual labor & the result being job reduction.
 
It has been my experience that when the TV and Internet, etc., ads start touting the advantages of owning Gold and Silver....that is the time to NOT buy these commodities. The people presenting these ads are holding substantial quantities of these metals, and see their market falling....SO they try to convince other people to buy, so as to minimize their losses.

The Biggest danger to Capitalism, IMO, is governments continuing to print more worthless money, with nothing to back it up....and building their National Debts to unsustainable levels.
 
Don M. said:
It has been my experience that when the TV and Internet, etc., ads start touting the advantages of owning Gold and Silver....that is the time to NOT buy these commodities. The people presenting these ads are holding substantial quantities of these metals, and see their market falling....SO they try to convince other people to buy, so as to minimize their losses.
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I agree, when they start letting the widows and orphans in on all of the fantastic deals and secret ways to wealth, the party is over!!!
 
Don M. said:
It has been my experience that when the TV and Internet, etc., ads start touting the advantages of owning Gold and Silver....that is the time to NOT buy these commodities. The people presenting these ads are holding substantial quantities of these metals, and see their market falling....SO they try to convince other people to buy, so as to minimize their losses.

The Biggest danger to Capitalism, IMO, is governments continuing to print more worthless money, with nothing to back it up....and building their National Debts to unsustainable levels.
Click to expand...

I think we are on the same page relative to the reason for promoting gold & silver. Toss in the understanding of what printing money, racking up debt and government interference in commercial enterprise and the future can be questionable.
 
Thank you all for your thoughts.

Hubby and I did try dabbling in shares once but were complete novices and found ourselves cheated by people who just looking for an opportunity to exploit. In one instance it was a company director who offered to buy our shares just before an important company announcement. We, poor lambs, were happy to offload our nonperforming investment just when things were about to happen. Later, we were taken for a ride by a financial advisor attached to a large and respected investment group and the only person who made money was the advisor, through secret commissions.

We did invest in a rental home unit which we paid off over the years and later sold to provide money to add to my meagre superannuation savings. Hubby and I are both dependent on our superannuation investments to provide us with income streams now. Obviously this money is not sitting in a vault somewhere. It is invested in a portfolio that includes domestic and overseas shares and more conservative options. Gold and silver are not on the list.

If, or rather when, the next global recession hits, our nest eggs will take another hit. They were nearly halved during the GFC. There is nothing that we can do about that. We are not capitalists. Rather we are at the mercy of the capitalist system which smiles on a few and when convenient disregards the rest of us.

Needless to say, I am not a fan of markets as a form of investment. There are too many sharks prowling those waters.
 
I agree with Knight. These kinds of claims which are basically advertisements, have been out here for years in one form or another. Either someone is trying to sell a book with the "secrets" of how to avoid losing money in the crashes or in this case, likely trying to get people to buy gold (since he's a gold expert) and/or silver. Here's the dictionary's definition of Capitalism: " capitalism |ˈkapətlˌizəm| nounan economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
So as long as products are being made and people are buying them, capitalism will not die. And we are a nation of consumers.
 
Capitalism isn't dead, it's hard wired into the way that people operate. What is now doomed is the global bankinCapitalist
At the closing stages of WW2 a meeting took place to come up with a "going forward" plan because so many countries were bust.

The meeting, it was called the Bretton Woods conference, set a value for fine gold and the US linked the US $ to it along with the promise that the US would maintain that link for all time and by so doing established the US $ as THE hard currency against which all other curencies would be set and so each had an exchange rate that would float depending on the performance their economy.

It didnt take long before the US was printing dollars that could not backed up by gold and soon after the US reneged on the promise to maintain the dollar / gold link.

Since then international trade has seen huge imbalances develop and in spite of the IMF trying to establish a fixed baseline the insanity has continued.

This can not continue for ever and there can not and will not be a "soft landing".

So capitalism isn't finished, its basis is human nature, but there will be a global banking collapse because money has no intrinsic value of its own and you can't eat it.

Now our old cat is scratching at the window of my study and howling to get in so I'd better get my priorities right!
 

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