Freaked Out Investors

[migtig]

I've never been able to get comfortable with the idea that gold has a useful and deeply intrinsic premanent real value when SHTF or TEOTWAWKI comes around. What use would it serve? Compared to medicines, food, clothing, fuels,...things like that. In what would become essentially a barter economy, where does gold fit in?

Serious question; not denigrating anyone for buying precious metals and I know many do. My own grandfather (owned an electroplating business started by his father) made a killing on gold speculation many years ago. But that's just it...he sold it and converted to dollars.

I've got a scenario for you - the banks collapse, China owns your mortgage, you need to pay your bills...what do you do?

 

[GURPS]

I suppose. I guess there has always been some sort of "currency" around forever..even beads and "wampum". I guess its a mindset; I can't see myself relinquishing scarce/valuable resources that I currently possessed in exchange for something not equally valuable to me; something only potentially functionally valuable in some chance future transaction.

value is up for debate .... maybe some guy has something you want, but he only deals in 'coin of the Realm' so you trade labor to earn coin, or sell something you have for coin, then make the deal ....

either way barter is fun, and about making a deal

 

[b23hqb]

I love gold!!!

The USA can become the next Cypress but they won't find my gold. No death tax on gold. No liberal can tell you that you have too much gold like they can say about your IRA! 50 years ago 50oz of gold could get you a new Cadillac, same holds true today. I can think of a few hundred other reasons to buy gold, real gold in your hand gold, physical gold.

Please do not take my advice as I would love to see it keep dropping so I can add a more mason jars to the nest egg!

Coming soon to illinois, then soon to follow in all liberal states like MD?

Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for SB3341

 

[abcxyz]

Coming soon to illinois, then soon to follow in all liberal states like MD?

Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for SB3341

I wouldn't doubt it one bit!

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Executive Order 6102 - Requiring Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates to Be Delivered to the Government

 

[Gilligan]

I've got a scenario for you - the banks collapse, China owns your mortgage, you need to pay your bills...what do you do?

What bills would I really need to pay at that point? And why would I need to pay them? Who would determine the current value of any gold I held?

 

[Merlin99]

Gold is a fear trade and an inflation trade. It serves almost no other purpose.

If the US economy continues to strengthen and the dollar continues to strengthen (even just as a result of the winding down of QE), gold prices will likely continue to fall over time.

Gold is a horrible long term investment.

I'm guessing it'll go up 500% just because of how wrong you are on every other subject or issue.

 

[FoundingFather]

There's not much underlying gold's value (there are some industrial uses and there's the public's love of gold for things like jewelry, but those intrinsic values aren't what have been driving gold prices for the most part). It's all about perception and what people want to believe, and such things can be fickle. That makes gold quite momentum-dependent and highly unpredictable.

Gold is the preferred medium of exchange (money) in a free market. Over generations of market trial and error, it was determined to be so because of its scarcity, durability, divisibility, and stable natural supply.

Today, governments have decreed pieces of paper with ink on them to be "money." As such, we no longer have a free market. We have a few central planners who think they can control the market: millions of human interactions.

When analyzing gold as an "investment", it should be compared to the fiat currencies of the world, not stocks and bonds as many try to do to. With that I ask you, what is the intrinsic value of a Fedeal Reserve Note? It is nothing more than an instrument of debt, as it is loaned into existence at the will of central bankers. Any number can be put on a Federal Reserve Note, whether it be one or one-trillion, and it requires the same amount of labor. That is not intrinsic value. Mining one trillion ounces of gold takes a far greater amout of labor than one ounce; now that is intrinsic value.

Contrary to what you say, it is actually fiat currencies that are all about perception and what people want to believe. We are living inside a debt-based fiat bubble right now, and it is hard for people to see outside of it. Eventually, it will end and you would be wise to own some sound money.