While completely legal to hold, and freely available as a commodity, gold ownership is rare. The reason for this is a 25% sales tax on gold bullion. Only coins can be owned without having to pay a heavy tax.
This means that it is prohibitively cumbersome to convert a large asset like a house into gold.
The result of this is that people do not pay much attention to the gold-house price ratio. Few people realize that prices are in bubble territory, and the bubble becomes larger than it otherwise would have.
Additionally, a policy of financial repression, in which real interest rates are kept below zero, makes for a financially stressed population. Everybody knows that cash is only for losers. It has to be invested in something. But the one thing that would calm people's nerves is kept out of their way.
Without gold as a viable alternative to cash, there is only real estate and shares to choose from. Both are in bubble territory.
Then there is crypto, a self regulating currency that has not yet become suppressed. It can be bought and sold freely without the 25% tax.
Norwegians are rushing to buy this as an alternative to gold. They call it digital gold. They claim that it is the new gold. It is better than gold. But the only thing good about crypto is the fact that it is free of government suppression. Apart from that, it is a terrible alternative to gold.
The success of crypto is entirely due to the suppression of gold. Without this suppression, no one would want to own it. People would go for a gold backed alternative, such as Goldmoney.
By Phee - Pixabay, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
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