Glenn Beck loves the Goooooolldddd

[Freeky]

it's not quite as simple as that sounds, though.
for instance, the gold price in 1980 was dragged up by the Hunt brothers when they cornered the silver market, no?  how high would it have got without that?
further, there is a significant body of evidence showing how central banks have been actively suppressing the price of gold for some decades now.  this recent runup could then be seen as their grip on this market slipping....

Linkage to evidence?

[Vene]

It doesn't matter anyway, exponential growth can't be maintained (which is why I gave the tech bubble and housing bubbles as examples with the same growth pattern). To compare economics to another field, one that I have more education in, this isn't really different than population growth. It's just another example of a situation where rapid growth leads to complete collapse. It doesn't matter what the exact reason is, as the growth gets steeper and steeper the trigger for the collapse gets more and more fragile, and when it does stop, it crashes hard. Every. Single. Time.

This is not the time to invest in gold, the time to invest in gold was the mid to late 90s, this is the time to sell it.

[Elder Iptuous]

Vene,
i ETA'd my post.  i agree with you to a limited extend.  the 90's was the hot time to jump in.  but i don't think now is time to sell.
people were saying that same thing last year.
and the year before that.
and the year before that.


professor Freeky,
start out with www.gata.org

[Vene]

As long as you can see it's not sustainable growth.

And I will admit that this might not be the time to sell for maximum profit margins, but the risk of holding onto it is getting greater and greater.

[Elder Iptuous]

there's no sustainable growth. that's for sure.

also i should mention that i don't 'invest' in gold per se, anyways.
i just buy it.  (and silver)
i first started because i just like having a wooden treasure chest with honest to god gold and silver coins in it. (however small it might be.... how many people have a real treasure chest?)
as i learned more about it, i came to realize that it's a pretty good insurance policy to have for event of loss of faith in our faith based currency....
and it seems that it can be a good speculative investment, too, but the only speculative actions i take are playing the ratio.  it seems safer to me.

[Vene]

How is the value of gold anything but faith based? Sure, ultimately our money is just paper, but at the same time, gold is ultimately a heavy, soft metal that has very few applications. I'd rather have steel, steel can be used to build things. And if all else fails, a steel rod isn't a bad weapon. Unlike gold, it's light enough to swing easily and, also unlike gold, it doesn't get bent all to hell when it connects with somebody's skull.

But, like gold, steel is a relatively scarce resource, if only because you will never find it in nature. I think it's more likely that if people lose faith in money we'll revert to a barter economy rather than a monetary economy.

[Kai]

How is the value of gold anything but faith based? Sure, ultimately our money is just paper, but at the same time, gold is ultimately a heavy, soft metal that has very few applications. I'd rather have steel, steel can be used to build things. And if all else fails, a steel rod isn't a bad weapon. Unlike gold, it's light enough to swing easily and, also unlike gold, it doesn't get bent all to hell when it connects with somebody's skull.

But, like gold, steel is a relatively scarce resource, if only because you will never find it in nature. I think it's more likely that if people lose faith in money we'll revert to a barter economy rather than a monetary economy.

Very few applications? Gold is the best conducting metal out there and is used massively in electronics. It's like copper on speed.

[Vene]

How is the value of gold anything but faith based? Sure, ultimately our money is just paper, but at the same time, gold is ultimately a heavy, soft metal that has very few applications. I'd rather have steel, steel can be used to build things. And if all else fails, a steel rod isn't a bad weapon. Unlike gold, it's light enough to swing easily and, also unlike gold, it doesn't get bent all to hell when it connects with somebody's skull.

But, like gold, steel is a relatively scarce resource, if only because you will never find it in nature. I think it's more likely that if people lose faith in money we'll revert to a barter economy rather than a monetary economy.

Very few applications? Gold is the best conducting metal out there and is used massively in electronics. It's like copper on speed.

Yes, I am aware that gold is a good conductor, but that doesn't justify the value that people put on it. That's a grand total of one application. I'll even give another, it's useful for the visors in the helmets of astronauts. Now we're at two.

My point isn't that gold is completely useless, it's that compared to other materials, it isn't used as often. I think that materials like steel, plastics, ceramics, and such have more practical value (and more value in a situation where people lose faith in money).

[Elder Iptuous]

actually silver is a better conductor, but gold is still really good and wont oxidize like silver will.

at any rate,
Vene,
you're right.  as a medium of exchange, it is faith based.
but i would say that it has quite a few things going for it, and that's why it has withstood the test of time.
It is divisible, fungible, durable, seen as a luxury, rare...  these are all things going in its favor.
but simply its longstanding reputation as a store of wealth is good enough for me to rely on as insurance against disaster.  hell, a two year old that's seen a looney tunes knows that a gold brick = fabulous wealth.  i dont think thats going to change.  maybe, but i doubt it.

regarding the barter/monetary thing, i think that a lot of the nuts that think they will be using gold to buy their bread when the zombie apocalypse comes are missing the point.....
barter would be rock bottom in an economic shitstorm, but people will quickly tire of that and some kind of monetary system will emerge.  the gold is properly used as a means of preserving wealth through this monetary discontinuity, without having to put it in some form of useful material good that might be difficult to store, or has a shelf life, or might lose its usefulness, or whatever...

[Vene]

I will grant that if our current system of money fails and if a new one takes its place, metals like gold will retain value.

[Elder Iptuous]

Plus, i have a treasure chest!

[Vene]

Plus, i have a treasure chest!

And I don't care what your politics are, it's a god damn treasure chest.

[Requia ☣]

actually silver is a better conductor, but gold is still really good and wont oxidize like silver will.

Silver is better at room temp, gold is what you want for parts that are going to heat up, since it has a very low change in resistance from temperature.

Plus, i have a treasure chest!

Ok I think you win there.

[Iason Ouabache]

It doesn't matter anyway, exponential growth can't be maintained (which is why I gave the tech bubble and housing bubbles as examples with the same growth pattern). To compare economics to another field, one that I have more education in, this isn't really different than population growth. It's just another example of a situation where rapid growth leads to complete collapse. It doesn't matter what the exact reason is, as the growth gets steeper and steeper the trigger for the collapse gets more and more fragile, and when it does stop, it crashes hard. Every. Single. Time.

This is not the time to invest in gold, the time to invest in gold was the mid to late 90s, this is the time to sell it.

But.. but... G. Gordon Liddy and Glenn Beck told me that gold is a solid investment. If you can't trust guys like that then who can you trust???

[Hoser McRhizzy]

If you can't trust guys like that then who can you trust???

The Cash Man?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSQVVHyvOZU