Thursday, May 04, 2006

What the Bling Said, or The Gold Whisperer

Throughout recorded history and probably long before that, people have been attracted to and understood the inherent value of the soft yellow metal. Gold has always been man's store of wealth because its rare, its identifiable, portable, and its dividable. Gold is the one thing on earth that satisfies all the requirements necessary to be the ultimate medium of exchange.

And gold can speak to you. Not in some mystical or magical way, nor literally, but gold tells its story. Quietly, subtly, and only if you are listening closely.

The shiny metal doesn't boast or talk about itself much, no, its too modest, too humble, but it speaks in soft tones about many other things. Gold has confidence because it has always been the standard by which all other money or currencies have been measured. Gold is, er... the gold standard.

US dollars, Euros, and all the world's other currencies are poor excuses for storing value because they can just be printed up by the billions on fifty year old printing presses. Nothing special. Paper money and metal coins (not worth their face value) issued by the world's governments are a fantastic resource for these free spending, empire building governments because they can create all they want for practically no cost. That, is its strength, and also its weakness. Like Paris Hilton, they have no limits, no understanding of value and no morals. Gold just sits back and quietly watches from the back of the room, biding its time to be noticed again.

If the issuers of these fiat currencies could just keep their pants on and carefully increase the money supply in proportion to the growth in their economies, today gold would be just a pretty material which makes nice jewelry. But like people, governments get carried away, think they know everything and get in trouble. And that's where the world's fiat currencies are today. In trouble. I know this because the gold told me.

The price of gold is going up against all the world's currencies. But gold is really worth the same as it was a thousand years ago. I had a tough time in school with algebra, but it seems to me that if gold stays the same and it is now worth more dollars, or euros or francs, the value of those currencies have decreased. By a lot. Click this CHART if you want to see what Gold has been talking about recently. Remember its not that gold is worth more. Its that your money is spiraling down a rat hole.

Coins with gold or silver content are no longer in circulation in the US and most other countries simply because the value of the precious metal in the coin is worth more than the face value of the coin. Remember 90% silver coins before 1964? Once a coin's content is worth more than the face value they are hoarded out of circulation. Even the lowly penny, made of zinc and copper are now worth about 85% of their face value. Once they cross the 100% level all is lost. Every other denomination will be traded for pennies, melted down and sold for scrap.

I have a feeling that gold has more to say. Are you listening?

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