If there is no intrinsic value to gold, then it follows that there is no intrinsic value to a one hundred "US dollar" note. Ultimately both a gold bar and a one hundred "US dollar" note are only worth the stuff they can buy. Instead of thinking that gold went from 730 "US Dollars" a couple of weeks ago to 925 "US Dollars" last week, one could say that the value of a "US Dollar" fell from 1/730 of an ounce of gold to 1/925 of an ounce of gold.
Surf, can you please desist from telling everyone who agrees with you how intelligent they are. Bloody annoying trait !
haven't finished reading the thread, but wanted to share a little perspective found here: http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/Favorites.CServlet?obj=ID2067119 (lots of details. need to scroll right to read the comments alongside the charts).
Great points all of you. There's a great story behind this quote: "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men." -Issac Newton
hahaha! funny, i bought a bottle of that stuff once because I thought it looked cool in my "austin powers bachleor pad bar" ( i don't drink) tasted it once--- overly cinamon and syupy tasting if I recall, but great concept--sure better than the worm in tequilla. surf
I think gold and silver have been used as a measure of wealth since historical times because it represents work done and is easily transferred between people. This is not currency, it represents and is used as actual money for this reason. Fundamental economics dictates that growth results from work being done and the creation of new value for use in improving something. So when trees are cut and turned into lumber, work has been done, and new material is available for use. Since we don't want to carry around two by fours to swap, we use gold, which also required mining and refining to create. That is "money". The intrinsic value is not the question, it's the fact that it's a practical way to trade "work done" between people. Credit is more like a loan collateralized by the promise to do enough work to create that money. Well at least that's how it used to work and it's no mistake that the founding fathers understood that real money is actually something physical that represents value added to society. We have violated the Constitution and deviated from that. We have fiat currency and central banking, which coupled with economic policy have combined as the fundamental root cause of our economic turmoil.
welcome back surf do you mind me asking where you think oil and the dow will be if this gold price target is reached in the next few weeks ?