Total bullshit. In 1970, an ounce of gold was trading for an inflation-adjusted equivalent of about $200; less than even minimum wage pay for a week's work. By 1980, it had spiked to an inflation-adjusted price of about $2400, which most people would consider a pretty good week's pay. Just three years later, in 1983, it was back down to less than $700 (which I guess is an okay week's pay for a non-professional job). As recently as 2001, gold was trading for around $280, just barely meeting the minimum wage.An ounce of gold has alway been a good weeks pay.
No. If the only two things we had available for comparison were gold and fiat currency, then it would be meaningless to distinguish between an increase in the price of gold vs. a decrease in the price of fiat currency. But we have a whole wide world of goods and services to consider, and the price of gold has increased in relation to pretty much all of them, while their price in relation to fiat currency has remained about the same. Arguing that fiat currency has been devalued because gold prices increased is like arguing that my car is holding still and the city around me is moving when I drive to work.Again another misunderstanding. Golds "worth" is not changing, the FIAT currency with which it is measured is decreasing in value.
Gold actually has quite a few uses and more new ones nearly every day.
China is buying up gold like no tomorrow(maybe there is no tomorrow?). It will be the defacto currency.
Money (paper dollhairs and esp 10101011 in a bank computer) is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS.
Gold is at least somewhat rare and pretty.
No. If the only two things we had available for comparison were gold and fiat currency, then it would be meaningless to distinguish between an increase in the price of gold vs. a decrease in the price of fiat currency. But we have a whole wide world of goods and services to consider, and the price of gold has increased in relation to pretty much all of them, while their price in relation to fiat currency has remained about the same. Arguing that fiat currency has been devalued because gold prices increased is like arguing that my car is holding still and the city around me is moving when I drive to work.
Exactly! In the long term expect much higher gold prices and all other prices as well (meaning: less value in the dollar) but people should not confuse it with the near term. We could have a speculative spike in gold prices during the comming months in which it goes up another $1000 an ounce without it reflecting inflation and, hence, the real value of the dollar.
If that happens, the price of gold will then crash. Even so, it will resume its over-all climb afterwards. The debt crisis is serious and the Euro Union could very well disolve and force Europe, the US and much of the rest of the world to fight a collapse with massive deficit and hence inflationary spending. This is the longer trend and justifies the accelerating uptrend in the price of the precious metals. In "The Last Civilization," you can get an even better look where the trends are taking us.
Was that sarcasm? You do realize that the value of gold fluctuates wildly, right?How can you say the price of gold will crash, when it has never done it in the past?
How can you say the price of gold will crash, when it has never done it in the past?
For about the last three years, wherever you drove, shops, stores, businesses of all kinds blatently advertised "We Buy Gold!." All over the country people who became unemployed and those behind in their morgage sold what gold they had to help them survive.
Where did it all go? It was refined and turned into investment form for the rich!
Those poor people who sold now see how much more it is worth (in dollars) than it was when they gave up their gold rings, bracelets and even teeth fillings. The rich now look back and see how they, the ones who bought that gold from the refiners who got it from the poor, how much profit they have from the misfortune of the poor, the poor, that is who were once the middle class.
Will the people ever get back their gold? Or will it continue to be used in yacht bathroom plumbing and stored in wealth-owners safes?
"Crash" was not the best choice of words I admit. All commodities experience a sharp and scary fall after going through a speculative rise. Gold is no exception.
It is going through one now, but the actual speculation phase where it shot up unreasonably was not spectacular, so neither is the fall so far.
brough
civilization-overview dot com
I hate nit-pickers
Did you miss Post #22? If the price of real estate, petroleum or labor dropped that precipitously, "crash" is the mildest word you would see in the headlines!How can you say the price of gold will crash, when it has never done it in the past?
No. I didn't say fiat was being devalued because of gold rising. It is a result, not a cause and effect.Arguing that fiat currency has been devalued because gold prices increased is like arguing that my car is holding still and the city around me is moving when I drive to work.
Stryder said that gold was going up in value, and you saidNo. I didn't say fiat was being devalued because of gold rising. It is a result, not a cause and effect.
But you are wrong, because the value of gold has shot up waaaaay faster than inflation. So the increasing price of gold is clearly not the result of a loss of value on the part of fiat currency, but rather an increase in the value of gold."Golds "worth" is not changing, the FIAT currency with which it is measured is decreasing in value."
The price of gold has gone up by more than 300% in the last ten years. Do you believe that we've had 300% inflation since 2001?Only if you think the 'offical' measure of inflation is the only way of measuring value. No doubt some of Golds' rise has been due to its increasing desirability, but I don't belive the vast majority of the increases have been down to simply that.
I started converting fiat into gold and silver since 2007 and increasingly so in recent years. So far....so good. Better than a piddly 3%pa savings account, I've put my money where my mouth is.