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Written by Muhaimin Iqbal |
Tuesday, 13 January 2009 19:23 |
Sejak saya memperkenalkan Dinar pada hari pertama, orang sudah menanyakan ada tidaknya Dinar dalam pecahan kecil ini. Soalnya membeli Dinar 1 keping saja harganya sekarang sudah sekitar 1.3 juta, tentu tidak semua orang bisa memilikinya. Sebenarnya Dinar dalam satuan kecil seperti ¼ Dinar; ½ Dinar dlsb. bukan tidak mungkin diproduksi, hanya saja biaya produksinya menjadi terlalu mahal sehingga tidak praktis memproduksi koin Dinar kecil ini. Dengan M-Dinar masalah klasik ini dengan mudah teratasi. Peminat-peminat Dinar dapat mulai memiliki account di M-Dinar walaupun dananya baru cukup untuk membeli ¼ Dinar sekalipun. Selengkapnya...... |
Simon Saragih
KOMPAS.com - Ketika para pemimpin dunia bertemu, di mana saja, terutama di negara demokrasi sejati, hampir selalu muncul aksi-aksi demonstrasi. Tidak heran jika pertemuan selalu dilakukan di lokasi yang tidak dijangkau umum. Indonesia pun pernah menjadi sasaran demonstrasi, terutama di bawah kepemimpinan almarhum Soeharto pada era Orde Baru, yang sudah tidak lagi baru.
Dekade 1990-an, sasaran lain adalah China, yang sarat dengan pelanggaran hak asasi manusia dan kekejaman Tentara Rakyat China, yang dianggap tidak cinta rakyatnya. Sekeras apa pun China meredam rakyatnya, jeritan pilu warga tetap terdengar. Read More.........
Gold hit two historic milestones in 2008.
First, in early March, the “yellow metal” hit its all-time high of $1,030 an ounce.
Just months later, the price of gold for December delivery had plummeted to $681 an ounce, a 21-month low and 33.9% drop from its record high.
Most gold bugs were equal parts puzzled and broken-hearted. The world’s stock markets tanked, as did some of its biggest economies. In such an environment, they thought, gold should have risen. After all, gold is widely considered to be a safe-haven investment when everything else is spiraling south.
However, Money Morning Contributing Editor Martin Hutchinson – an investment banker with more than 25 years’ experience on Wall Street and a leading expert on the international financial markets – understood perfectly what other investors did not.
“Gold is not a safe haven against recession,” said Hutchinson. “It’s a safe haven against inflation.”
In the past year, commodities prices skyrocketed – across the board. That was especially true of oil, which hit a record high $147 a barrel. Corn, wheat, and soybeans all hit record highs, as well.
That price escalation tightened household and corporate budgets, and was a primary reason why the U.S. economy posted a gross-domestic product (GDP) decline of 0.3%. With that negative growth, the third quarter was the beginning of what many experts believe will be the nation’s first recession since 2001.
However, the inflation epidemic has waned significantly, as global demand for raw materials has plummeted.
Price for such staple foods as corn, soybeans and wheat have all come down from their record highs – in near-lockstep fashion.
Corn futures are down nearly 50% from their summer high of $8 per bushel. The same is true of soybeans and wheat, with each having lost roughly half their value. In fact, wheat hit a 16-month low in mid-October.
As most of us noticed, gas prices have fallen 48% from their July 17 high of $4.114 a gallon.
And not coincidentally, gold has fallen 22% in that same time frame.
However, this report examines the pending commodities rebound – a projected slow-and-steady increase in commodity prices that will reverse the breakneck plunge below fair value that commodities have experienced for much of this year.
Our objective now: To chart the expected path of gold prices in the New Year.
This report also reveals another wild card inflationary indicator that Hutchinson believes will carry gold prices to $1,500 an ounce by the end of 2009.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Oct. 10 Crop Production Report said acreage for a handful of staple food commodities has shrunk:
That naturally translates to higher prices because it squeezes the supply of the particular commodity. And it does so at a time when demand continues to escalate from populations in China, India and Latin America. And higher prices equal inflation.
But Hutchinson – who correctly predicted this last run-up in gold prices – says there’s another catalyst that’s right now inherent in the U.S. economy that could help vault gold prices to $1,500 an ounce by the end of 2009. And it has to do with the much-ballyhooed $700 billion rescue plan.
The philosophy behind the rescue plan is elegantly simple: By providing a portion of the $700 billion to foundering U.S banks, the Treasury Department believed it could provide banks with badly needed capital, and get them to start lending money once again – jump-starting the economy in the process.
Since September 2007, U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers have cut the benchmark Federal Funds target rate nine times – from 5.25% down to the current 1.0% rate – to increase bank-to-bank lending and bank-to-consumer lending.
“The government is pumping money in so many banks, and that money has to come out somewhere,” Hutchinson said.
Right now, banks aren’t boosting lending. Instead, they are using the cash to finance buyouts of other banks. Even so, that money will “come out” into the economy in the form of higher stock prices for banks. That will make consumer/investors wealthier, and could make them more confidence in the economy. If they’re more confident, they will spend. As that happens, food prices should begin ticking upward, adding another set of thrusters to gold prices.
“Everybody thinks that because we’re having a horrible recession, we’re not to going have inflation. I think that’s probably wrong,” Hutchinson said. “I think gold has quite good hidden-store value.”
As gold prices increase, count on more investors leaving the sidelines to invest, too, causing the surge in gold prices to accelerate and steepen.
“As gold goes up, it gets more popular and investors start piling into it,” Hutchinson said.
JAKARTA. Ini adalah bom waktu untuk perbankan Indonesia. Menurut perhitungan Bank Indonesia (BI), eksposur dana nasabah dalam produk terstruktur perbankan mencapai US$ 3 miliar. Dana itu masuk ke belasan bank yang menjadi agen.
BI sudah menerima laporan dari bank yang menjual produk itu. "Lebih dari 10 bank yang sudah melapor," kata Deputi Gubernur BI Siti Chalimah Fadjrijah, kemarin (22/12).
Dana nasabah tersebut kondisinya bermacam-macam. Ada yang belum jatuh tempo, ada pula yang macet dan sedang direstrukturisasi. "Tapi, saya belum tahun kondisi terakhirnya," tuturnya.
Produk terstruktur merupakan kombinasi berbagai instrumen derivatif valas untuk tujuan mendapatkan tambahan laba. BI menilai produk ini bisa mendorong transaksi valas untuk tujuan spekulatif.
Tapi, kata Siti, BI tak melarang semua produk terstruktur. Ada produk terstruktur yang memang bertujuan untuk lindung nilai atau hedging nilai kurs bagi para eksportir dan importir. BI hanya melarang produk derivatif valas yang tidak memiliki underlying transaction dan bersifat spekulatif.
Untuk mencegah persoalan ini di masa depan, Deputi Gubernur BI Muliaman D Hadad menambahi, BI akan segera mengeluarkan acuan tentang fungsi keagenan perbankan. Terutama dalam menjual produk-produk derivatif dan produk offshore. "Tak sembarang bank bisa mengageni produk yang tidak jelas," katanya.
Tapi, ibaratnya nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Banyak dana nasabah yang amblas di produk ini karena gejolak pasar keuangan global belakangan ini. Masalahnya, mampukah para nasabah membayar kewajibannya? Sebab rata-rata transaksi ini memakai fasilitas margin atau ada utang dari bank.
Jika nasabah tak mampu membayar, maka perbankan Indonesia bisa terekspos pada kerugian hingga US$ 3 miliar.
Looking at this title maybe you are confused, how can we use Dinar or even reserve it but not hoarding? How? What is the limitation? Etc.
Regarding our responsibility to our property, I’ve written it in other article with the topic: “Our Property, Asset or Liability (in the hereafter)”. The point is it is our duty to fulfill the need for ourselves, family, anticipate emergency needs and leave strong children”.
Even Al Quran teaches us how to anticipate an emergency needs in Yusuf 47-48: “He (Yusuf) replied: ‘You will cultivate for seven consecutive years. During these years, you should leave the wheat you reap in the ear, except what may be sufficient for your food. Then, after that period, there will come upon you seven hard years which will eat away all that you had stored except a little which you may have specifically set aside”.
This verse is the basic and also method (minhaj) for Moslems to prepare themselves to face the difficult periods. What is the difficult period for the people in this era? Generally, difficult periods in this era such as monetary crisis that peaked in 1997-1998, a period of many dry seasons, earthquakes, floods - all are triggers of difficult periods for the people.
Individually, difficult periods can mean loosing job/income, pension, sickness, loosing the head of the family, etc.
Then how to anticipate those periods? Store some of your income in the “stem”. The meaning of leave the wheat you reap in the ear, is in order not to be rotten quickly or reduced in quality and value, so it can be a seed to plant again anytime.
The major property and income for people nowadays is not corn, it is money. Then how to preserve the money in order for the value not to be rotten from time to time? The answer is very simple – that is why money in Islam should have a real value (intrinsic value) such as gold, silver, wheat, dates etc.
From those commodities, of course gold in the form of Dinar is the most practical to store. Gold bar is also practical but not too liquid and do not have the flexibility to sum up and divide. For instant you have 100grams gold bar, and you need 10 grams, so it’s difficult to break it into that amount. If Dinar, you have 100 Dinar and you need only 10 Dinar, so just release the 10 Dinar and leave the 90 Dinar with you.
Storing Dinar just as needed - every one of us has the feeling to know how much is our actual requirement (ask your deep heart - and you will know it), we are given inspiration from Allah to know it “and inspired it with knowledge of what is wrong for it and what is right for it” (QS 91:8).
What are the consequences if we store property in whatever form such as banknotes, houses, cars, shares even gold in huge amounts and not spend it in Allah way? The threat is a painful torture for those who is hoarding. (QS 9:34-35)
So store property as needed to fulfill our responsibility for ourselves, family and next generation is something that is allowed and guided, because it is part of the people economic strength – in the Quran surah Yusuf that has been mentioned it is called Yukhsinun (Tukhsinun to refer to a second person).
In the contrary, storing more than needed and not spending it in Allah way is an act of hoarding and prohibited – in the Al Quran mentioned as Yaknizun !.
We should know the different between Yukshinun and Yaknizun, because we are inspired by Allah to be able to distinguish it. Wallahu Alam.
Last Updated on Sunday, 11 January 2009 08:00