Gold- what's it good for?

[aberdeen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rANSHB4q1Y

[LongDonSilver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rANSHB4q1Y

Totally misses the point of holding gold. Nobody truly believes that the US or other countries will go to a gold backed currency. But if they did then there's plenty of gold to back the paper currency, but not at the present price. That's the thing about the value of an asset, it's not fixed which what is implied in the above video. Fiat currency is not a fixed currency and in fact the government does everything it can to make sure that it goes down in value over time. It get worth less and as some point it may become worthless. If today gold is $2,000/ oz and for some crazy reason the US decided to back the dollar with gold then the price of gold would have to go up by a huge factor. Plus if that did happen, which it won't, then the old adage of bad money chases good money out of existence would happen and all the other countries would demand payment in gold for transactions and soon the US would have no gold. This is exactly what happened in the 1970's and forced Nixon to take the US off the gold standard. The statement that trade would fail due to the lack of enough gold to allow trade would be true only if the price of gold was fixed and is not.

Where gold might come into play is when the fiat dollar system collapses from the huge debt that the US is building up forced a collapse of the US dollar that some new form of currency would have to be formed. Stored gold held by people could be exchanged for this new currency where otherwise their wealth would be destroyed when the dollar fails. Expecting to have gold used as barter is also not going to happen except on a small time localize basis where an agreed amount of work or goods will be exchanged for an agreed amount of gold. Perhaps trying to not have to have taxes paid (which is illegal) or because both people in the transaction have no faith in the currency. In any case thinking that the local super market check out person will have a set of scales, or a look up table of coin values, and also have a means of making change for gold (or silver) in their cash registers is a pipe dream. Gold is being held since is outside the fiat system. One could hold barrels of oil, tons of wheat or other hard assets if one has the ability to properly store those items, but few do. Crypto may be a new way also, but it yet to be tested and there's a lot of grifters looking to clean up via illegal actions and oversight is not there yet.

Speaking of oversight, paper gold it traded in huge amounts on a daily basis and it is backed by a tiny amount of real gold. That's the problem with paper gold on the Comex and other exchanges, It doesn't exist. If every transaction was required to be in real gold then the exchanges would fail in minutes. There's no gold to cover all the transactions. Which one reason that there's a premium for physical gold vs. this paper product. The real problem with paper gold is that it is used to control the price of real gold by large banks (and governments) by many unfair trades and trading techniques (hence the fines paid by JP Morgan and others) to make a profit and not for a properly traded market.

[aberdeen]

You made some excellent points. I view gold and silver as real money which will be the last man standing so to speak if, or when, it all collapses.

Totally misses the point of holding gold. Nobody truly believes that the US or other countries will go to a gold backed currency. But if they did then there's plenty of gold to back the paper currency, but not at the present price. That's the thing about the value of an asset, it's not fixed which what is implied in the above video. Fiat currency is not a fixed currency and in fact the government does everything it can to make sure that it goes down in value over time. It get worth less and as some point it may become worthless. If today gold is $2,000/ oz and for some crazy reason the US decided to back the dollar with gold then the price of gold would have to go up by a huge factor. Plus if that did happen, which it won't, then the old adage of bad money chases good money out of existence would happen and all the other countries would demand payment in gold for transactions and soon the US would have no gold. This is exactly what happened in the 1970's and forced Nixon to take the US off the gold standard. The statement that trade would fail due to the lack of enough gold to allow trade would be true only if the price of gold was fixed and is not.

Where gold might come into play is when the fiat dollar system collapses from the huge debt that the US is building up forced a collapse of the US dollar that some new form of currency would have to be formed. Stored gold held by people could be exchanged for this new currency where otherwise their wealth would be destroyed when the dollar fails. Expecting to have gold used as barter is also not going to happen except on a small time localize basis where an agreed amount of work or goods will be exchanged for an agreed amount of gold. Perhaps trying to not have to have taxes paid (which is illegal) or because both people in the transaction have no faith in the currency. In any case thinking that the local super market check out person will have a set of scales, or a look up table of coin values, and also have a means of making change for gold (or silver) in their cash registers is a pipe dream. Gold is being held since is outside the fiat system. One could hold barrels of oil, tons of wheat or other hard assets if one has the ability to properly store those items, but few do. Crypto may be a new way also, but it yet to be tested and there's a lot of grifters looking to clean up via illegal actions and oversight is not there yet.

Speaking of oversight, paper gold it traded in huge amounts on a daily basis and it is backed by a tiny amount of real gold. That's the problem with paper gold on the Comex and other exchanges, It doesn't exist. If every transaction was required to be in real gold then the exchanges would fail in minutes. There's no gold to cover all the transactions. Which one reason that there's a premium for physical gold vs. this paper product. The real problem with paper gold is that it is used to control the price of real gold by large banks (and governments) by many unfair trades and trading techniques (hence the fines paid by JP Morgan and others) to make a profit and not for a properly traded market.

[Ag guy]

You made some excellent points. I view gold and silver as real money which will be the last man standing so to speak if, or when, it all collapses.

You're right. Gold and silver will be the last man standing financially speaking, however the last man will not be standing at all, without food and water and a means to protect it.

Ag guy

[LongDonSilver]

You're right. Gold and silver will be the last man standing financially speaking, however the last man will not be standing at all, without food and water and a means to protect it.

Ag guy

Perhaps, lead should be added as a necessary precious metal?

Sometimes lead is combined with copper (AKA a jacket) and is viewed as even more valuable. Small volumes of lead comes in many diameters, such as 9mm, .30", .45" and .357" making it easy to store in quantities of 6 or more.

For those that like it plain and simple and not covered with other metals and wish to join with other collectors: https://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/

There's even one company that has a combination of lead and Ag that also comes in convenient small sizes: https://oregontrailbullets.com/xcart...st-bullet.html

I must post that one should be cautious since in the past many people have died from sudden lead poisoning which seems to happen after confronting others that do not like their other precious metal being taken. As a podcast host suggests, it is best to "Don't get dead".

[goldtortoise]

It is used in jewelry to make you shine, electronics to make your gadgets pop, and even as a backup currency when things get wild.

[vertical1]

Your Galleon ship needs it for ballast.....chunk skeblunk

[DBCooper]

Perhaps, lead should be added as a necessary precious metal?

Sometimes lead is combined with copper (AKA a jacket) and is viewed as even more valuable. Small volumes of lead comes in many diameters, such as 9mm, .30", .45" and .357" making it easy to store in quantities of 6 or more.

For those that like it plain and simple and not covered with other metals and wish to join with other collectors: https://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/

There's even one company that has a combination of lead and Ag that also comes in convenient small sizes: https://oregontrailbullets.com/xcart...st-bullet.html

I must post that one should be cautious since in the past many people have died from sudden lead poisoning which seems to happen after confronting others that do not like their other precious metal being taken. As a podcast host suggests, it is best to "Don't get dead".

I haven't inventoried it lately but I should have 4k+ pounds laying around... I get wheel weights at the recycler for 60 cents a pound, sell fishing weights for about $3 a pound. I never took this too seriously because sometimes I go through spells when lead is hard to come by (the recycler doesn't have any for months). So I leisurely stop by, pick up a hundred pounds here and there, and leisurely cast some of it as inventory into fishing weights.

I also reload. I do have about 400 pounds of linotype on my personal stash. That blended with soft lead should keep me shooting for the rest of my physical life.