<story><title>Gold worth billions smuggled out of Africa</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-africa-smuggling-exclusive/exclusive-gold-worth-billions-smuggled-out-of-africa-idUSKCN1S00IT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>closeparen</author><text>In the US, buying jewelry and selling it back is a substantial guaranteed loss. Are the economics of the retail jewelry trade different there, or are the alternatives just so bad that it’s still compelling?</text></item><item><author>walrus01</author><text>My interpretation: Gold jewelry is used as a store of value by many traditional communities in the middle east and also in Pakistan and in India. Go visit Rawalpindi and go to the &amp;quot;old downtown&amp;quot; area and look at how many jewelry stores there are. Literally hundreds. People don&amp;#x27;t trust banks, don&amp;#x27;t trust investment products which exist as intangible things in a computer record somewhere. People trust big ridiculous jewelry you can wear during your wedding.&lt;p&gt;The jewelry dealers in Pakistan who buy gold from the UAE most likely don&amp;#x27;t care about its origin, whether it&amp;#x27;s ethically sourced gold, etc. They care about its purity and cost.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to these places and seen the hand fabrication of the jewelry in person. It&amp;#x27;s a pretty big part of the economy in Pakistan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pm90</author><text>The latter.&lt;p&gt;The biggest advantage of the West has been in the creation of Institutions that create and moderate financial instruments that are not deadweight like commodities. The Stock Market, index funds etc. are all considered “valid” places to put your financial resources in. These instruments invest in real companies and organizations instead of lying around in a bank.&lt;p&gt;Unless other countries figure out how to do finance better they won’t be able to create the same dynamism that Western capital markets have.</text></comment>
<story><title>Gold worth billions smuggled out of Africa</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-africa-smuggling-exclusive/exclusive-gold-worth-billions-smuggled-out-of-africa-idUSKCN1S00IT</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>closeparen</author><text>In the US, buying jewelry and selling it back is a substantial guaranteed loss. Are the economics of the retail jewelry trade different there, or are the alternatives just so bad that it’s still compelling?</text></item><item><author>walrus01</author><text>My interpretation: Gold jewelry is used as a store of value by many traditional communities in the middle east and also in Pakistan and in India. Go visit Rawalpindi and go to the &amp;quot;old downtown&amp;quot; area and look at how many jewelry stores there are. Literally hundreds. People don&amp;#x27;t trust banks, don&amp;#x27;t trust investment products which exist as intangible things in a computer record somewhere. People trust big ridiculous jewelry you can wear during your wedding.&lt;p&gt;The jewelry dealers in Pakistan who buy gold from the UAE most likely don&amp;#x27;t care about its origin, whether it&amp;#x27;s ethically sourced gold, etc. They care about its purity and cost.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been to these places and seen the hand fabrication of the jewelry in person. It&amp;#x27;s a pretty big part of the economy in Pakistan.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sumedh</author><text>&amp;gt; or are the alternatives just so bad that it’s still compelling?&lt;p&gt;In India there better alternatives but lot people specially older folks stay away from stock markets since there have been  big stock market scandals in the past so most just use savings bank account or few govt investment schemes and use gold as an alternative investment which you can sell easily if you have any financial problems later or you can just give it as gift to your daughter&amp;#x2F;daughter in la w during marriage.</text></comment>