David Brooks wrote: >>At 02:56 PM 9/18/2002 -0400, Kenneth C. Griffith wrote: >> >> >>>Why do you say the gold economy seems to be falling apart? >>> >>> >>Which, IMHO, is the reason the gold economy is stagnant. >> >>George >> >> >> The demise of osgold and SR have a lot to do with the current stunned effect the gold economy is having. It can be somewhat of a shock to any economy when a fair sized percentage of an economy goes down the tubes. In this case there is an apparent loss somewhere of several millions of dollars, Some people will have to pull back and regroup. Funds have to be replaced. There is an emotional shock to contend with. I, for example, have clients who have losed many thousands, I am not talking about businesses here either, just individuals. As well as recouping the loss from somewhere there is also the emotional shock accompanying such losses and when it is in the millions and including thousands of people the effect will make itself felt. I am sure, despite comments to the contrary, that everyones business has suffered (with the exception of Graham perhaps as he deals almost exclusively in credit card. There is a delay factor with credit and I dare say he will experience a delayed slow down at some time) and that is evidenced by the surplus of gold available and the drop in the price above spot. Having said all that I estimated in June that the gold economy would start to pick up around the end of September begining of October. Having seen Gold Today drop into the doldrums and now start to pick up again I can see I was right. The emotional and financial shock is just temporary. You cannot keep a good man down and the gold economy, as distinct from a paper one, is far more solidly based and so easier to recover. Traditionally out of every depression, recession, or whatever you want to call it and for whatever reason there is always a recovery and the economy is usually better off and more stable than before. I can see that our economy will come out of this stronger and more resilient. The weakness are being flushed out and the stronger sections of the economy and the community will prevail. I said last year that our economy is like a frontier town, going through various phases. This is just one of them. But what of expansion? George has consistently pointed out that one of the major stumbling block is the entry point for most people. The concept of buying an exchange medium is unacceptable to most people. Yet, by the same token, why would thousands of people pay 15% over spot for gold with a credit card on which they are ALREADY being charged interest? Goldnow has thousands of customer still busy ploughing thousands of dollars into gold. I do not feel our economy is being hindered by the entry point. Perhaps by people's perception of it. If there is sufficient determination any stumbling blocks can and will be overcome one way or another or people will bear the cost if the reward is perceived to be great enough. It is also possible that Pecunix will have a partial answer to the entry point problem in that the cost for entry will be greatly reduced and may bring a new level of playing field to the economy when it opens. This is likely to result in the larger players, who can withstand a lower per sale profit margin surviving better than the smaller ones who may either change their operating basis or their business or join forces with a larger exchange provider. I can visualise, in about 2-3 years, there only being about 4-6 large exchange providers with rates in the .25 to 1% range to the public on under 500USD amounts and competing with each other on fractions of a cent. By then of course there will most likely only be 2-3 DGCs and the possibility of mergers there is not inconceivable. Just my 2 grams worth...... Kind regards, [EMAIL PROTECTED] A Member of the Gaithman Group of Companies An Accredited Founding Member of the eCurrency Trade Association Inc http://www.gold-today.com 'Always check that gold account before you spend. Go to www.currencyregistry.com it's free!' --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: archive@jab.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.