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 approximately $1250.
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 45 years, now in its terminal state.