Despite claims to the contrary from Wall Street financial service hucksters and statist economists the world over, there is no better money than gold. In fact, as JP Morgan famously noted, gold is money; everything else is credit. Of course, Morgan’s claim is true because only gold — and silver — effectively exhibit all of the characteristics that make them the ultimate form of money. That is, they are:
- a medium of exchange
- a unit of account
- durable
- portable
- divisibile
- fungible
- a store of value
And while fiat currencies like the US dollar also have those properties to varying degrees, their Achilles’ heel is their ability to act as an effective store of value. For proof, one only has to compare a $20 bill and a $20 double eagle gold coin that were both issued by the United States in 1913. While the purchasing power of that $20 bill printed in 1913 will still buy $20 worth of goods or services today, the $20 double eagle will fetch more than $2000.
That difference, doesn’t represent an increase in the purchasing power of gold — rather it represents the loss of purchasing power of the US dollar.
Quite simply, paper currency is no match for gold — and it never will be.
Frankly, how could it? Unlike fiat currency — which is routinely abused by governments because it can be freely printed without any restraints whatsoever — gold will always be precious because its supply is finite; all of the gold that’s meagerly distributed here on planet Earth was created by a higher power, forged within the awesome stellar blast furnaces of deep-space supernovas.
And if you think that is amazing, well … here are 31 more fascinating facts about the yellow metal, compiled for you by my friends at Bullion Vault:
Photo Credit: stock photo; Infographic: BullionVault
FUNGIBLE. New words…. nice
Then my work is done here, JB.
LOL
Goats and camels are good too!
Um … what’s so funny, Bubba? Aside from being good for milk, cheese, keeping the weeds down (goats) and desert travel (camels), what else are they good for?
Oh wait, I bet you meant “good” as in “good eatin'”! Carry on.
Len,
There are so many sheep out there like the two above that have no clue what is coming to the worlds financial system. They are like the fools who laughed at Noah as the last coat of pitch was put upon the Ark and the rain began to fall. They will in due time wish they had pet rocks of gold/silver.
Jared
Jared, I can’t draw any definitive conclusion from JB’s comment, but folks like Bubba are definitely “whistling past the graveyard.” Either that or I am giving him far too much credit by wrongly assuming that he actually understands macroeconomics and the math that proves without a doubt that the current international monetary system is not only unsustainable but, after more than 50 years, is also now in its terminal state.
Yes, the current economic system is absolutely crazy unsustainable. My worry is that the velocity of economic activity is based so much on credit and the ease of using fiat which is now just normalised consumption. And even that isn’t enough for so called investors as people migrate to the zeros and ones of encrypted wealth stored in some server, somewhere, and don’t lose the key! Take away easy credit and time payments and this bus stops with nowhere to get off.
Individuals should make prudent preps based on their situation, location, age, and skill set. Just my opinion, but hoping the balls being juggled by people lining their own pockets….that they will stay in the air…..is not a plan or sound strategy.
Does anyone here remember when a good investment meant finding a solid company that developed a necessary product, was run by a good team, that employed people who were a part of that team?
I remember reading comments on different sites a few years ago that basically urged people to take on as much debt as possible, and that the govt. should then offer a ‘debt jubilee’, everyone will just walk away into some kind of a reset do-over. I think it used to be called collapse and revolution if history is any indication.
Thanks for the comments, Paul. In the world of investing, it was lower interest rates that led to the paradigm shift from investing to wild speculation; speculating was a lot easier when credit was being given away for almost nothing (actually, after accounting for inflation, speculators were being paid to take credit from lenders). Under those terms, there was no reason to worry about fundamentals any more; Wall Street became a casino made up of gamblers looking to make a quick buck.
Len, thanks much for making the above “clickable” to the larger version at Bullion Vault; made it so much easier to read!
As for the gold, even Star Trek’s Ferengis know that GOLD PRESSED latinum has more value than just regular latinum! 😉
Thank you, Lauren! Of course, it’s no coincidence that the ferengi are tough negotiators who know how to drive a hard bargain.