(no subject)

[theweaselking]

[Warren Buffett] asked readers to picture the world’s entire gold stock melded together into a cube 68 feet (21 meters) on each side valued at $9.6 trillion at then- prevailing prices. For the same amount, an investor could have purchased all the farmland in the U.S., 16 replicas of Exxon Mobil Corp., and still have about $1 trillion of “walking- around money.”

A century later, the farmland will be producing valuable crops no matter the currency, and dividends from the companies would probably added up to trillions of dollars, Buffett wrote.

The 170,000 metric tons of gold “will be unchanged in size and still incapable of producing anything,” he wrote. “You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.”

jwz: "The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak. In the event that the Weighted Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice."

Comments

[tabort.livejournal.com]

I know a guy who's a prepper and has been buying gold like crazy over the last few years. I wish him luck but I'm going to have a hard time not laughing a little when the market (as all markets do) finally normalizes.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

As I pointed out to my Dad "If gold is such a great investment, why are all these people urging YOU to buy gold, instead of hording it for themselves?"

I think it sunk in, after a couple of goes. Of course, now he's fallen for the "buy wine, not gold" emails.....

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

Of course, there are a bunch of those sleezy "we buy gold!" ads on late night TV. But those places make money buy paying well under market rates - it's not an investment.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Why the hell do preppers buy gold anyway? If the world goes to shit, I hardly think owning gold is going to be a priority.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Glenn Beck tells them to, and they're stupid.

It's axiomatic: They're listening to Glenn Beck.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

He even tells them to buy gold coins, which are very poor value for money compared to straight-up gold bullion (even considering the current overinflated price of gold). It's a living example of PT Barnum's estimation of the rate of sucker reproduction.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Of course he tells them to buy gold coins. *He has stock in gold-coin-sale businesses*.

[calankh.livejournal.com]

I clicked the previously link on that post, then followed it for a bit, and ended up here http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2011/12/22/astrophysics/ (http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2011/12/22/astrophysics/)

So, thanks for that, too. The correction at the bottom is quite possibly the best I've seen.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Bonus hilarity: The internet is a very small place. The author of that piece and I spent a good chunk of our collective university lives in the same building, know each other from many online interactions during that time, and have never met.

THE ARISTOCRATS.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

You and Hoye have never met? That's just a damn shame.

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

This seems kinda disingenuous since gold is actually a useful metal, just not (obviously) sitting in one giant cube. Of course, if people hoard it as an investment then it's useless.

[pappy-legba.livejournal.com]

The value of gold is wildly out of proportion to its very limited utility. It's a good conductor, and it doesn't tarnish. Any practical use needs a tiny amount. Electronics? You're making a pathway a few atoms thick, or coating a fitting with scant microns. Want to line the interior of the Hagia Sophia's dome? A few did the trick.

The value of gold has nothing to do with its practical applications-- which are very scant compared to things like copper, aluminum, or that ultimate wonder metal, steel. It wouldn't even rank with the rare earths.

[nsanity-au.livejournal.com]

Gold in our current society is worth something - this is due to the history of gold and its place measuring the value of a nation.

Moving away from the Gold Standard was both a blessing and a curse. Its clearly a large cause for inflation getting out of control - but at the same time, why the fuck was it so valuable to begin with? :D

In terms of owning farmland or any other performing "asset" there is a cost to actually making that asset perform. Gold for all intents and purposes doesn't degrade and won't lose value if you don't maintain it (although if the market decides it doesn't like gold, thats another problem)

There is no question that farmland will eventually outpace every other asset unless we have some crazy ass contagion-esque plague (there's a movie that was something of a downer) reducing our ever increasing need to feed ourselves.

Buying gold over anything else for every possible reason is probably a bad idea.

Buying gold over various other high-risk investment vehicles (property, stocks, term deposit's, etc) if you're looking mid to long term is probably not such a bad idea given the prediction of the "fiscal cliff" or whatever the impending financial shitstorm that is about to hit the US again.

Buying gold because you want it to be worth something on a global scale is still a safe bet for the foreseeable future.

Gold will probably devalue at some time, but not before other traditional investment vehicles tank first.

[dscotton.livejournal.com]

This seems kinda disingenuous since gold is actually a useful metal, just not (obviously) sitting in one giant cube. Of course, if people hoard it as an investment then it's useless.