If some are planning to cash in their home equity and buy gold they could well wear the proceeds on a neck chain.

Forget the shovel.

Don't buy coins, buy bullion. Silver is really hot right now.

Just listen to AM radio. Every other ad is for a gold bug offering you a "free" video on gold "investing."

And on TV there are good folks who will give you a check -- promptly! -- for your gold teeth.

And two years ago all the ads were about buying real estate with no money down.

Can't lose.

Yeah good time to buy gold. AFTER the price has run up?

I wonder about desperate home sellers out there. Probably many more come end of summer. My guess is there's going to be a continued drop in pricing. Major in some markets. Even here.

I wonder about desperate home sellers out there.

Surely a back yard with buried bullion (or even the appearance of same) would help.

It's too late to buy gold. The current prices are going to fuel big increases in production, which will, sooner or later, drive the price back down.

Really? I think it's going to hit $1500 before it comes down. Ride the wave, baby!

A MUCH smarter strategy is to buy gold mining stocks. At least that way when gold tanks (as it usually does - think back to the early 1980s for a lesson) you can dump it before you lose it all.

$1500?? You might be right. As long as you're burying stuff in the back yard, here's a speculative move you might also be interested in - small arms ammunition. The prices for most ammunition, particularly NATO rounds .223 & .308 (the ones they have fired billions of in Iraq) have gone up to record levels - fueled by the demand to feed the war machine in Iraq. With the Supreme Court poised to make a definitive ruling in favor of gun rights, ammo prices will most certainly continue their upward spiral for quite awhile longer. Suprisingly, well packaged ammo stores underground almost as well as your gold bullion. Happy investing!

The 7.62x54r used in my antique Russian and Finnish rifles has tripled in price over the past two years. This was nice and all for those of us who like to shoot such relics on the cheap, and bought way back when, but those tins are really heavy...not exactly something I would sink a lot of money into as an investment. Ever walk across the parking lot of the Expo Center with two sealed ammo "spam cans" in your arms ?

I'm going with the silver bullion in the "sock drawer." Or sneakily hidden away somewhere or other...anything is better than looking at a roll of paper money or a bank account statement of same, and then reading, oh, any one of one thousand articles on the net right now predicting the onset of rapid hyperinflation.

What really, really, scares me is a nice re-reading of the history of Weimar Germany, and the horrific economic conditions that enabled the rise to power of National Socialism.

You think Dubya and crew are emblematic of Fascism, or Corporatism ? You ain't seen nothing yet. Just imagine a leader as evil as someone in the Bush gang, who possesses the rhetorical genius of an Adolf Hitler, coming on the scene after the crash of our economy and the destruction of the Dollar.

This time of year leave the gold with a leprechaun.

Perhaps I'm deluded, but I really don't think fascism would become popular here, no matter how bad the economy gets. Sure, it has its appeal to some fringe groups, but it will never become mainstream. By the way - I have hiked across the Expo Center parking lot carrying a flat of 7.62x54R in one hand, and a moisin nagant in the other - but I was younger & in better shape then. I doubt I could do it now.

There is a gold bullion exchange traded fund (ETF) which tracks very, very closely to the price of gold bullion. Its financial trading symbol is GLD. One nice thing about holding actual bullion other than like this ETF is it becomes difficult for the government to assess one's wealth. Occasionally, the topic of a wealth tax based on net worth does come up in some political circles. The downside to holding bullion or coins is its safe keeping, and commissions are fairly high as well. I guess if you really want to play the momentum of gold bullion, the GLD etf is the best way to go. Transaction and storage costs are a lot lower with the etf, and the odds of a wealth tax seem to be pretty, pretty low. Especially if McCain gets elected.

Buy Canadian Mapleleafs and hold them. Or South African Kruggerands. Each a troy ounce.

This close to the Canadian border, simply a trip up and back when you are buying or selling. Or have a friend there do the transactions.

(PS, Jack, I agree with you about the $1500 figure.)

I'd also like to be able to buy Euros at any local bank, and make purchases where the proprietors are aware of exchange rates changes, such as at fresh-vegetable farmers markets, or maybe at fishmongers on harbor docks. Where they know exchange rates.

And, in general, have alternative currencies to circulate. Something besides coupons good for 10% off your next purchase.

Why not American Eagle coins, which they sell on Hawthorne Boulevard?

Cabbie,

You're starting to sound just like James Howard Kunstler. That's not something I thought I'd see. Next you'll be pushing for a huge increase in rail spending.

Don't put anything of value in your sock drawer. When I got robbed a couple years ago, that's the first place they went.

Hide it at the bottom of the cat's litter box.