Sometimes the Lunatic Fringe Do Get It Right http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Sometimes-the-Lunatic-Fringe-Do-Get-It-Right-5-1-10.pdf Marting Armstrong.
Gold and silver make great barter when they were used as money (without a fiat system). They are not great barter when one has no secure food source and the world has gone mad.
The government claims because he ran some kind of ponzi sheme scamming investors... Himself claims he is in jail because he cracked the code and can predict future market movements perfectly up untill the day but refused to share it with the US government.
Wait, I'm silly because you say my gold won't be accepted, but you are going to walk a cow into the grocery store and barter it for potatoes and aspirin? There's a sliding scale of currency collapse. I'm not going to take my gold today and go buy bread and cheese. It's not even a "worst case scenario", it's a "pretty bad case scenario". I hold metal, not exclusively, but as a part of diversification. I also hold some cash under my mattress, I just put some of my wealth into a solid vehicle (as in more truck than I need for my suburban lifestyle), I keep some in the bank, some in bonds, and my wife makes sure we have at least a month's worth of food in the pantry at all times. I'm ready for some catastrophe, but not all because I don't let it control my life: I am ready for a stock market crash (last week affected me not at all). I am ready for a month-long food scarcity. I'm ready for my dollars to become worthless. I am ready for a shutdown of basic utilities (water and electricity). My wife's parents live on a good sized plot of property within 20 minutes drive, on the grid but with a well and generator backup. What if rogue Chinese hackers cause an acute electronic banking crisis here in the US, and Obama declares a weeklong bank shutdown as everybody restores from offline backups? As in no ATM's, no debit or credit card transactions. I'm ready for that. Think it could never happen? On Sep 10, 2001 what did the world think could never happen? All of the catastrophe I prepare for has an upside even if the catastrophe never comes. I like driving a big rig; I feel safer and can make costco trips with ease, heh. I like having plenty of food in the house, always something to eat without having to call for delivery. I like looking at my shiny metal coins, especially as their value increases.
1. I never called you silly. 2. I never stated I'd take a cow. SOME fiat money system will continue to "work". It might be next to worthless, but it will continue to be the medium of exchange as everything else will be illegal. As to all your other examples, I agree, and never said otherwise. Farmland, ammo (in your previous post), seeds, etc. I just don't see gold as anything but shiny if everything collapses.
Not talking about the World going mad. I am talking about the fiat currency losing the faith of the people. You mentioned barter system, and I mentioned gold & silver as a common means for barter. You do not need to look further than Zimbabwe or Argentina for proof of this. Im in NYC and I scan craigslist often to find deals on either coins or collectibles I can flip. It's a fun exercise. Barter is already becoming relevant, as people are asking to trade goods for goods or goods for services, rather than money. Not really sure why or what it means, but just something to think about.
I think I see what you're getting at, even if you aren't saying it outright. You're worried about a repeat of Roosevelt's confiscation of gold, and my tiny little stash will be de facto worthless. I still think it's a good investment even if things go sideways. If grocery stores won't / can't take gold, there will be a black market for it. I will be able to trade it for nearly worthless fiat currency to trade for food. Now if everything collapses so horribly that even gold is worthless, I'm fawked anyways. I'm a terrible farmer, I tried to grow 12 different types of vegetables last season and the only thing that came up was squash. I haven't a clue how to raise farm animals. I never learned how to work wood. I am pretty good mechanic. But if the world is so upside down that gold is worthless, there won't be oil around to run engines for very long. So that barterable skill is devalued. I have prepared for the calamities that I can survive, and ignore the ones I can not.