Putradinar | Malaysia

source : http://rt.com/news/economy-oil-gold-libya/

Throughout the world, in primitive societies and advanced cultures alike, gold has been prized above all other metals, even at times ascending to the realms of mystical. Gold seemed to them deathless - pure gold cannot be attacked by oxygen and therefore cannot rust like iron, corrode like cooper and is impervious to most acids. As a result it was seen as the symbol of eternal life.Christopher Columbos wrote: "Gold constitutes treasure and he who possesses it has all he needs in this world".

Gold has extraordinary properties. It is extremely malleable for example, 10 grams of gold can be rolled and beaten into a translucent foil of three and a half square meters.  It is also a very heavy metal, having a specific gravity of 19.32, which is heavier than lead. Not surprisingly, gold and silver emerged early in history both as metals for jewellery and somewhat later, in coin form as economies based on money evolved from economies based on barter. While gold and silver, coins date back to antiquity the the problem of valuing them in terms of paper currency emerged only over the last two centuries. The emergence of paper money brought with it the problem of relating a "promise to pay" note to gold in order to give value to a worthless piece of paper.

Throughout history, gold and gold coins, have been the more valued "money" that has been withheld from circulation in times of political unrest and "debasement of the coinage". In modern times Central Banks and Governments are the holders of substantial reserves of gold and rarely (if ever) make payments with it. At most they use the gold as collateral. This is an illustration of Gresham's Law -" BAD MONEY DRIVES GOOD MONEY OUT OF CIRCULATION". If there are two, ore more qualities money available, people will hold on the more valuable money and spend the less valuable....... hmmm.......

If you ask yourself or people beside you on “what makes the price of goods and services goes up?” one might say “it is because of inflation, inflation means the rising price of goods and services” and you ask again “inflation? Inflation is only a term, how can it make the price to increase? Some of the people would definitely blurt out the word inflation when they saw there is an increase in the price of goods and services, but do they really know what the meaning of inflation. Inflation can be cause by many factors such as, increase in money supply (act of printing money), cost push inflation (decrease in aggregate supply cause by higher production cost), demand pull inflation (excess demand cause by private and government spending to stimulate investment and expansion), international lending and national debt, a deep drop in exchange rate and taxes. Most of these factors helped in the existence of inflation, where we are the sufferer. Simply to say that inflation occurred as one way to narrow the gap of government’s debt and inviting the people to share their burden in which the additional cost that they have to carry has been transferred to the people.

What causes the price of gold to be fluctuating?

Selling gold has constantly been well-known among the people during the ancient times and also a major player in the trade market. It was definitely precious metals that keep on attracting the eyes of all who came in contact, regardless of the buyers, sellers and consumers. The fluctuation of the price of gold depends on a variety of situations that revolves around the acquiring and selling of the product in which we could say that the desire for gold has remained the same up until today.

Gold can be as saving and/or investment vehicles which move up and down and it’s usually difficult to determine what causes the fluctuations. If we based on reality, the gold price directly connected to a few main factors. These factors appear simple on the surface, but are part of a complex system that can be confusing to beginners. These factors may be recognizable to each one of you; however, it can be as a reminder and a basic framework for understanding how gold prices move or it can be use in helping you to identify the best time to sell or buy your gold.

Firstly, we will take a look at currency inflation:

Inflation is often thought of as an increase in the prices of good. For example, when consumers visit the grocery store and notice the price of fruit has increased, they attribute the increase to inflation. This perspective is inaccurate. Inflation is technically an increase in the money supply. This has a direct effect on how gold prices move in relation to a country’s currency.

To explain, suppose you used every U.S. dollar to purchase every product in the world. Further suppose the money supply is then doubled. The extra dollars now floating through the system represent inflation. The value of every existing dollar declines by half. Essentially, it would now require two dollars to purchase something that was once sold for a single dollar.

Gold is used as an exchange unit of value because it cannot be arbitrarily produced. It is a near-perfect store of value against supply and demand. When the supply of dollars (or any currency) is inflated, the price of gold increases as the per-unit value of the currency declines. Conversely, during times of monetary contraction (i.e. when dollars are “soaked up”), the price of gold goes down.

Centtral Banks
The above discussion leads directly into the role of central banks in the context of how they influence gold prices. They can do so in two distinct ways. First, central banks can decide to sell a portion of their reserves or buy more on the market. The amount sold each year is limited to 400 tonnes to help avoid a glut in the market that drives prices downward. The second way central banks influence the price of gold is through loan agreements with the central banks of other nations. This area is incredibly complex and involves the International Monetary Fund.

Both levers (i.e. purchase or sale on the market and loan agreements) have a powerful influence on interest rates and thus, the sale of government bonds. For this reason, central banks usually try to keep the price of gold from climbing.

Increase in Demand
Several other factors can trigger a surge of demand for gold, which pushes its price upward. For example, during times of political unrest and war, countries often travel a path of monetary expansion. This causes the nation's citizens to lose faith in the value of their currency. As a result, they move their assets into gold.

Mining production can also play a role. While gold cannot be arbitrarily produced, it is mined each year throughout the world. Typically, only a small amount is mined, which means the world's "above surface" supply remains relatively static. Large deficits also support high gold prices. When deficits become extremely high, there is a risk of default. This drives people from the nation's currency into gold, triggering another surge in demand (and price).


Hamizah Azmi

Gold has always attracked investor and always seen as a safe heaven from the volatile markets to wreak havoc on almost every other investment instrument known to man. While other instrument have yet to recover from the loss of their values last year, gold has been climbing back up, from low of US$712 last November to US$912 on March 5.
(article from Personal Money magazine issue#92)

Why is this happening?
First you must know the gold character in the market, so we look at the past data.
The gold price can be get easily from www.kitco.com as you can see below:

Gold price from April 99 until April 09


The US$ from July 2000 until November 2006

1. The US$ graph show that the country have deficit and debts in many sector and there are negative rate of saving means that people there are borrowing to survive. For the last 35 years, the US has been able to print money at will. The act of printing money is the main cause of inflation. Increase in money supply makes people tend to spend more on good and services. Without awareness, people consumption forces US government to print more money. If history is any guide, this leads to overprint causing the currency to crash.

2. In the opinion of many of the worlds leading financial and economic experts, all of this activity leads to rise in gold price.


Spot Price of Gold July 2000 to November 2006

3. As you can see, looking at the past 6 years, gold price increase more often then they fall. The drop in gold price is parallel with the rest of commodities’ drop. Because of speculators in other commodities like oil and wheat that causes the gold price came down as people thought speculator will also inflating the gold price. However, gold price will recover quickly as people started running away from other commodities and ran back to gold.

The sound of precious metal breaking new record can be heard any where now. All kind of mass media talking about the important of Gold as inflation free medium to put your wealth in. Not to forget about the rise of silver in 2010. On May 15 we already mention about the potential of gold to reach USD1300 per ounce in 2010 and today nearly at the end of the year 2010 the price of gold has reach USD1389 (Wednesday, Dec 22). To read the article (click here).

Will gold reach USD5000 per ounce within this two years? Now this all depends on how much the supply of FIAT around the world ; ) and a few days back there's an article talking about the potential of gold reaching USD 5000 per ounce. And the article below is the summary of the article from wealthdaily.com , Friday, December 17th, 2010 

Investors have been shuffling currencies around faster than a game of three-card Monte as the true value of world's paper money is being exposed. But in the end, the only real winners would have walked away from the table long ago, their pockets stuffed with the only currency that really matters: gold

GOLD AS MEDIUM OF SAVING

The consequences of decades of abuse to the system of credit in the United States are coming to a head. And the gray clouds that loom over the skies of the dollar are growing bolder by the day and darker by the minute.
The cold hard fact is I expect the U.S. dollar to ultimately collapse within 24 short months. This failure will likely push gold prices to over $5,000 an ounce. Meaning that, even at $1,400 an ounce, gold is still dirt cheap. Every investor should own gold right now as the ultimate store of wealth that will protect hard work and savings. As the world begins to learn the true nature of the world's funny money, masses of new buyers will come flooding into the gold market. And this surging demand will be the catalyst that launches the price of gold into the stratosphere. It's pretty simple... Most investors are unaware, but the gold market is incredibly small. There have only been about 175,000 tonnes of gold ever mined. That means there is only 0.9 of an ounce of gold for every person on the planet. That's why they call it precious! Simply owning a single ounce of gold puts you in a much higher global economic class. When the oceans of fiat money suddenly try to take a part in the gold market, the law of supply and demand will fundamentally force prices much higher.

But don't put all your eggs in the gold basket

While the price of gold will soar and get most of the attention, it's silver that typically outperforms gold, dollar for dollar invested. In certain instances when gold prices have doubled, the price of silver has outperformed gold by a factor of more than six-to-one!

The only problem with silver is that it's not as portable as gold. You can hold $50,000 worth of gold with your two hands cupped in front of you. You could put that gold into your coat pockets and walk down the street without anybody knowing what you are carrying... On the other hand, $50,000 worth of silver would take a hand truck to move. Investors should also consider owning silver for the potential use to buy day-to-day items such as bread and prescriptions drugs, preparing for the time the government declares a “bank holiday” as the crisis in the banking sector exacerbates. During a bank holiday, checks and credit cards will no longer be accepted as payment for goods and services. For this reason, I also recommend keeping some cash on hand at all times. I'm not recommending stuffing the mattresses; but it's probably smart to keep a few thousand dollars in 1s, 5s, 10s and 20s around the house. U.S. Silver Eagles would also be very useful in such an event, as they are considered legal tender in the United States and could be used to purchase groceries.

Why lose sleep?


Ownership of gold and silver will become one of the hottest investments on the planet.
The early adopters — those who wisely purchased their positions before the masses come — will sleep well at night while others fret as they watch the purchasing power of their savings evaporate like water in the Sahara.

This article was wrote by :

Greg McCoach
Editor, Wealth Daily
Investment Director, Mining Speculator and Insider Alert

extra info:

World Silver
Investment Demand

• Investment demand for silver has skyrocketed 522% since 2007.
• World governments are hoarding silver; official sales have plummeted 83% in the past three years.
• Above-ground silver supplies dropped 86% last year.
• Industrial demand for silver has increased over the past decade, despite a 236% increase in prices.

PS : so what are you guys waiting for???

Satu lagi produk Lembaga Ekonomi Syariah muncul di tanah air, yaitu Pasar Ukaz berbasis Dinar (emas) dan Dirham (perak) secara online, bernama Pasarukaz.portalcepat.com, diluncurkan pada forum Seminar Internasional Ekonomi Syariah di Wisma Antara, Jakarta, Sabtu 03 April 2010.
Seminar bertema “Kebangkitan Ekonomi Syariah di Tengah Krisis Ekonomi Global”, Sony Sugema MBA selaku pemilik Pasar Ukaz Online mengatakan, tujuan portal tersebut adalah sebagai sarana jual beli umat melalui dunia maya. “Semua dapat menjadi penjual maupun pembeli di pasar ukaz online ini, dengan catatan menerapkan prinsip ekonomi syariah," ujar Sony yang juga Ketua Koperasi Dinarku Bandung.
Salah satu prinsip syariah yang ditetapkan adalah dalam transaksi penjualan dan pembelian, menggunakan dinar dan dirham dengan cara debit nasabah Koperasi Dinarku secara online atau via transfer antarbank syariah.
Pada kesempatan sama, Ketua Dewan Koperasi Indonnesia (Dekopin) Adi Sasono menyatakan, pasar merupakan lokomotif perjalanan produksi dan distribusi, yang selama ini kurang dikuasai umat Islam secara baik. Karenanya, umat Islam perlu memanfaatkan peluang pasar tersebut yang notabene mayoritas umat Islam.
“Kita memiliki ratusan ribu masjid yang dibangun atas dana swadaya masyarakat, menunjukkan adanya potensi ketahanan ekonomi umat, kalau dimediasi melalui pasar elektronik akan menjadi kekuatan,” ujar Adi Sasono.
Adapun dalam mengiringi perjalanan ekonomi syariah, salah satu anggota Dewan Syariah Nasional (DSN), Adiwarman Karim dalam seminar yang dihadiri 200-an peserta itu mengemukakan, perlu adanya ulama yang memahami fikih muamalat dalam mengawal perjalanan lembaga keuangan syariah agar tetap berada di jalan yang benar sesuai syariah.
Sementara, pakar ekonomi syariah negeri jiran Malaysia, DR H Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid pada seminar yang digelar bekerjasama dengan Pesantren Al-Fatah Bogor dan Aqsa Working Group (AWG) Sekretariat Internasional Jakarta menyatakan, pentingnya kekuatan aqidah berlandaskan Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah dalam menjalankan ekonomi syariah melalui aplikasi dinar dirham.
"Mengamalkan dinar dan dirham sebagai mata uang hakiki, berarti kita keluar dari lingkaran riba yang selama ini menjerat ekonomi global berbasis uang kertas," tandas dosen Fakultas Bisnis dan Hukum Universitas Multimedia Melaka, Malaysia.
Turut hadir sebagai pembicara Deputi Rektor Insaniah University Malaysia, Prof Zakaria Man, Presiden Gerai Dinar, Muhaimin Iqbal dan Pengasuh Pondok Pesantren Al-Fatah Bogor, KH Yakhsyallah Mansur MA. Bertindak sebagai moderator Rektor Universitas Mulawarman, Prof.Arifin Bratawinata dan Ketua Aqsa working Group Internasional, Agus Sudarmadji MSc.
Panitia juga menyelenggarakan Pasar Ukaz produk-produk unggulan dari berbagai daerah di Indonesia, yang dalam transaksinya menggunakan dinar dan dirham. Pasar Ukaz dilaksanakan di kompleks Pondok Pesantren Al-Fatah Pasirangin, Cileungsi Bogor sejak tanggal 2-4 April 2010. Pasar tersebut dibuka secara resmi oleh Kepala Bidang Pemerintahan Pemrov Jawa Barat, Ir HTubagus Isni yang sekaligus membacakan sambutan tertulis Gubernur Jawa Barat Ahmad Heryawan.

(Author: Agus Saefullah)