Gold Is Not An Investment.

I'm not arguing with you sharkman. I'm disputing the seekingalpha author's premise.

My dad bought US Mint sets for years. When I liquidated his estate the only thing that had any substantial value in those sets was the gold. It was 0.3% of his estate, so gold was an asset and not an investment. But the gold was worth far more than all his rocks, stamps, old cars, furniture, etc.

Well, since most if not all central banks just use gold as a hedge against inflation, what good really is a hedge if it won't be used, money is being created so quickly now that it's a losing game trying to power a hedge against the inevitable.

Which is wealth destruction.

Got beat up a bit over this on another forum but I stand by it. Gold never did circulate all that well. I buy it, I have some, I'm not against gold. It's a good tangible, definitely spans the globe as a store, and means to get rid of fiat.

I tend to think that many in the U.S. don't appreciate our world reserve currency, many countries have seen pretty bad inflation at times in history, imagine if banks and government are not so trustworthy, or tax to much, people may use the old way for transactions. Certainly enough, I'm a fan of barter, and buying things used, especially my PM's.

Which ones?
This was discussed at length on Reddit, recently, where people noted that Venezuela had circulating silver coinage even more recently as the US, however the argument for the infrastructure advantages of circulating silver coinage in an inflation crisis are not being seen in real life. It's not happening.

Anecdotes about 'silver being used' but no evidence. Not even wisps of evidence. Just tall tales. If that thesis were true, we'd see it play out in VZ, right now, given that the exact scenario silver bugs claim is silver's time to shine is going on there... but its not happening. They're using other currencies.

I am not agreeing with any one point or disagreeing with any one point.

I am just adding that history makes a wonderful teacher. Humans nature does not change overall. Gold has always been assigned value by humans.

I tend to try to want to look at things in a simple light.

Its like the silver and gold market. I am no economic wizard, and I don't see myself as intellectually gifted. But its not been hard, in my life, making overall predictions about metal markets depending on how the political atmosphere in DC goes. History makes a great read.

I have never seen gold as investment.
I have always seen gold as an asset, around which all other assets are valued. The values are relative to each other and are always floating.

That is why the perceived value of gold is very counter cyclical in character, relative to all other assets, and why the value of gold due to this relativity, is also seen to be variable.

I do admit to having a small gold holding.

Ahhh yes, I remember that silver spike, a blip in time. Wasn't that about ten years ago?

You can't use a gold bullet to kill a zombie apocalypse werewolf.

Silver is where it's at!

One question, why do the World's Central Banks stock pile gold? Why not wheat or some other commodity?