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I do. So? It is a gradual, dependable parameter. With gold you never know in which direction its value will develop and how fast.
Plus, sooner or later you depend on others buying it from you if you need to buy something.
The real answer is .... you haven't a clue what inflation is.
Paper money can be printed at will ... or even skipping the process and cost of paper and ink and labor ... simply adding digits in an accounting program, fiat money is created .... the more that is created, the lower the value of all existing fiat paper in existence. FAR FROM a "gradual and dependable parameter" ... the ability for the counterfeiters to create money out of thin air is only limited by their own choice ... not you or anyone else. This allows someone else to devalue everything you have ever worked for and now own .. in short, it allows criminals to steal from you, and you have no way of defending against that theft ... except to hold tangible assets that can not be created out of paper and ink, or digits entered into a computer.
As for gold ... it has been a highly valued metal by societies countries and kingdoms around the world for THOUSANDS OF YEARS. It is a universal medium of exchange, and back before the counterfeiters took over the United States, and the US Dollar was backed by gold and silver, there was no such thing as inflation ... and a $10 Gold piece or a $1 Silver Dollar will buy just as much today as it did in 1795. Contrast that to a $10 bill that won't buy as much today as it did a year ago. That's a slight difference, don't you think?
That doesn't make gold foolproof ... as gold and silver markets have been under pressure of constant manipulation for quite a long time by the criminals too. But they can only manipulate so much, and only for so long before the market adjusts and corrects the manipulation ... and their manipulation of the price of gold and silver can only be accomplished through corrupt criminal activity. JP Morgan is currently in hot water over silver manipulation, and the dam is about to break wide open, allowing silver to correct to a price more in line with gold and their historic ratios.
The bottom line is, in an emergency, you need food and water and a means to protect those stores and yourself (guns and ammo) first ... then, you need gold and or silver to protect your savings from being rendered worthless or near worthless, such that IS going to happen with the paper Dollar. Gold and Silver will always have value, and that value cannot be destroyed.
Sure. Let's make a trade then... 1000 pounds of my conch shells for 100 pounds of your gold sounds good?
Re-read the OP, then my reference to conch shells.
04-06-2011, 07:21 PM
2K5Gx2km
n/a posts
Amazing how inflation is so mysterious to so many - simply it is the increase in the money supply - that is what is inflated. Now ask yourself what are the consequences of this to the purchasing power of your FRN's.
Amazing how inflation is so mysterious to so many - simply it is the increase in the money supply - that is what is inflated. Now ask yourself what are the consequences of this to the purchasing power of your FRN's.
A mystery indeed since inflation is NOT simply defined as being an increase in the money supply. Inflation is the increase in the supply of money with out a concurring supply of goods and services, you know, "too many dollars chasing too few goods?"
A mystery indeed since inflation is NOT simply defined as being an increase in the money supply. Inflation is the increase in the supply of money with out a concurring supply of goods and services, you know, "too many dollars chasing too few goods?"
It seems to me that gold has no more intrinsic value than Conch shells, eagle feathers or dare I say it, paper money. As a commodity of exchange, you can't eat it, you can't heat your house with it, although it makes for a better rock to throw as a weapon but other than that... In the dooms day scenarios so pervasive amongst dystopian theorist I would no more exchange a pound of gold for a kernel of corn than I would for a ton of scrap iron... actually the scrap iron might have more value since I could at least make utensils out of the scrap metal.
I never understood this either. If a person owns gold in a period of inflation and it's just sitting there they aren't actually making any increased value off it. They are just not losing value to inflation. The reverse is true for deflation.
The main way people make money on gold is by speculating on global instability. Where the higher the instability the greater the value and the lower the global instability the less value it has.
Just sitting on gold to avoid inflation when there are ways to make greater a greater return on investment, seems silly to me. If all you are looking to do is avoid inflation why not invest in something like agricultural land where you can avoid inflation and get utility out of it?
It seems to me that gold has no more intrinsic value than Conch shells, eagle feathers or dare I say it, paper money. As a commodity of exchange, you can't eat it, you can't heat your house with it, although it makes for a better rock to throw as a weapon but other than that... In the dooms day scenarios so pervasive amongst dystopian theorist I would no more exchange a pound of gold for a kernel of corn than I would for a ton of scrap iron... actually the scrap iron might have more value since I could at least make utensils out of the scrap metal.
From an investment standpoint when everybody is talking about buying something or doing something it's a sign that the market for a particular investment vehicle is near the top.
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