Formaldehyde
Both Fair And Balanced
Only virtually all USB connectors aren't gold plated. Now find a single case of one which failed due to lack of connectivity or corrosion under normal operating conditions.
Where's Germany's gold?
- Thread starter Loppan Torkel
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Chimera Kitty
Warlord
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It's much cheaper to buy regular USB connectors and dip them into liquid gold yourself.
Which English actor has the worse German accent? Jeremy Irons or Alan Rickman?
Is there any English (or American for that matter) Actor who doesn't have an atrocious german accent?
but as far as I'm concerned, Rickman was the cooler of the Kruger brothers, never mind the accent
AlpsStranger
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I had a mouse that went strange one time and blew out the USB "parts" on two motherboards.
I wish I were electrically sophisticated enough to know what happened. The entire mouse, including the cord, would get red hot. I assumed it was the motherboard, replaced it, plugged the mouse back in and it did the same thing. So, after smashing the mouse with a clawhammer and tossing it, I bought a third motherboard and a new mouse.
I wish I were electrically sophisticated enough to know what happened. The entire mouse, including the cord, would get red hot. I assumed it was the motherboard, replaced it, plugged the mouse back in and it did the same thing. So, after smashing the mouse with a clawhammer and tossing it, I bought a third motherboard and a new mouse.
hobbsyoyo
Deity
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Gold plated USB, musical amp chords and HDMI cables are a cash extraction device. They do not offer a significant enough performance boosts in these devices to be of real value. Plus, you don't know how much or what concentration of gold is being used to dope these cables (as they clearly aren't made of gold) so you have no way of knowing what it's really worth just based on gold's commodity price.
However, gold does have many great applications in electronics. Just not USB chords.
BTW this is one of my favorite arguments in favor of asteroid mining: bring back enough gold to crash the markets for it so it can be used everywhere it has a benefit instead of cheaper substitutes.
innonimatu
the resident Cassandra
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I don't think I ever held an gold-plated USB connector, so I kind of doubt your "virtually all". For some uses, industrial uses or other stuff that's meant to last decades, gold plating is a very good idea. Consumer goods... not so.
Germany's gold being on the other side of the Atlantic has something to do with a band of rampaging barbarians trying to pillage Europe starting back in 1939. Wealthy people, and even governments, didn't like to leave their gold where such thieves could get it. Thus started the greatest cross-Atlantic gold flow of all times.
You missed a part. You got that Germans started moving their gold to get it away from the Soviets in 1939, but you forgot about the British and French using up their gold to buy up American arms and war materiel even earlier in the decade.
GoodGame
Red, White, & Blue, baby!
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The other half are of coarse stored in Switzerland, but noone talks about that kind of German gold
When I read the thread title, I thought of this^^^ gold immediately.
Peck of Arabia
Sociable Recluse
As far as I know (which isn't very far, to be honest) German gold is still held in the federal reserve bank, and hasn't been spent-it's kind of hanging around there in case of a collapse of the dollar and the Americans do need to spend it. That is it still there, and it still theoretically German, and the Germans are able to theoretically access it at any point, but when the time comes US have the means and the motive to say "no it's mine!".
oh, this is the gold that Germany was able to purchase through having balance of payments surplus for the last 10 years, thanks to how weak the euro is in comparison to the size of their economy (amongst other things)
As for where the Nazi gold is, I have no idea-shall we go and look for it?
oh, this is the gold that Germany was able to purchase through having balance of payments surplus for the last 10 years, thanks to how weak the euro is in comparison to the size of their economy (amongst other things)
As for where the Nazi gold is, I have no idea-shall we go and look for it?
fromeast2west
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The problem w/ most gold plated USB connectors is that they highlight the gold plating on the shroud portion, not the actual connectors (the portion inside the 'duck bill'). Those connectors are very often gold plated, but it's hard to see so I can't confirm the few I have sitting around here.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
This German gold being not-where-it-was-supposed-to-be reminds me of the Gold of Moscow. In the late 30s, Spanish was immerse in a civil war, you may have heard of it. When Madrid was surrounded by the "Nationals", the Republic moved its gold away from the lines, and eventually in 1938, IIRC, they were moved to the USSR to keep it safe. Of course some of it had previously gone to pay purchase of arms and payment of help from the USSR to the Republic, but what was left it, it just disappeared. Most possibly the USSR kept it all, but who knows?
holy king
Deity
the other pocket? 
Most nations in the world have gold at the Fed. Why should Germany be any different?
http://www.newyorkfed.org/education/addpub/goldvault.pdf
Erm, why are we talking about this?
Germany as an economy has overseas investments in the trillions, which could become subject to all forms of seizure any time.
And the future of our nation very much depends on those investments. You remember the plan: We don't have to procreate - as long as we run up 40 years of giant account balance surplusses everything will be fine.
So how do 50 billions worth of gold matter again? That's not even enough to bail out a small marginally "European" nation...
Germany as an economy has overseas investments in the trillions, which could become subject to all forms of seizure any time.
And the future of our nation very much depends on those investments. You remember the plan: We don't have to procreate - as long as we run up 40 years of giant account balance surplusses everything will be fine.
So how do 50 billions worth of gold matter again? That's not even enough to bail out a small marginally "European" nation...
Goodfella
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Haha. Exactly what I was thinking.
I agree with metatron. This isn't a fun fact I knew prior to reading this thread nor is it surprising. Most nations have tons of money in other nations.
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