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The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

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Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#231
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where would you suggest? I recently purchased a subscription to The Economist and have been listening to the top stories on a daily basis. That said, it seems to be more politics than economics.

That paper's misnomer aside, you probably don't want to listen to economists to learn how economies work. The soft sciences tend to get a bad rep but economists tend to be the ones most resembling ideological fan fiction.

This is playing out currently, quite openly, as the FTC investigates whether companies have raised prices more than costs have risen from inflation. It's becoming increasingly clear that the academic economic consensus is, simply, disconnected from how markets actually operate. For instance, while each day has brought a new study of consolidated companies engaging in pandemic price gouging, academic establishment luminaries like Larry Summers continue to argue that antitrust is unrelated to inflation.

We're in a true "Emperor's new clothes" moment.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#232
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where would you suggest? I recently purchased a subscription to The Economist and have been listening to the top stories on a daily basis. That said, it seems to be more politics than economics.

That paper's misnomer aside, you probably don't want to listen to economists to learn how economies work. The soft sciences tend to get a bad rep but economists tend to be the ones most resembling ideological fan fiction.

It’s quite the opposite. Economics is generally the most rigorous of the social sciences.

Even the “worst” discipline, macroeconomics, tends to yield high quality predictions. Larry Summers was screaming from the rooftop about how the Covid stimulus would result in inflation

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#233
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That paper's misnomer aside, you probably don't want to listen to economists to learn how economies work. The soft sciences tend to get a bad rep but economists tend to be the ones most resembling ideological fan fiction.

This is playing out currently, quite openly, as the FTC investigates whether companies have raised prices more than costs have risen from inflation. It's becoming increasingly clear that the academic economic consensus is, simply, disconnected from how markets actually operate. For instance, while each day has brought a new study of consolidated companies engaging in pandemic price gouging, academic establishment lum…

Larry Summers was 100% right about impending inflation. He’s been totally vindicated. I’m suspicious of where you are getting your information and suspect it’s politically motivated.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#234
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hold cash for short or mid term optionality. If you want long term stable store of value buy gold or treasury bills

Most people who want to secure family wealth and have the option of trickle incompe buy real estate

2008 is calling and wants to talk to you.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#235
post #201
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why so many people “save money” but then just keep cash under a mattress or in a savings or checking account. If you want to win at life, you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks.

Money is a representation of energy. If you used it like you would electricity you would be better off. Sure, store some in batteries but know that they dissipate over time. Stocks should only be purchased when you want to literally invest in a company or industry because you think it has major growth potential, not for speculation. Non-cash assets could also mean precious metals as they have conversion power over an…

> As we're watching the neo-liberal global world order collapse with the war in Russia

How do you imagine that happening? Does it look like to you that the west is going to loose so bad that all the investments loose their value? Or you are banking on a nuclear winter?

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#236
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you don't buy individual stocks; you buy slices of slices of everything to dissipate your risk towards variance. And you definitely don't hold cash. Holding cash has a lot of risk as well

> And you definitely don't hold cash. Holding cash has a lot of risk as well (Sorry, genuine questions) risk of what and compared to what?

One of the many, we indians experienced few years ago, where the prime minister simply announced on national tv that from tonight 8pm onwards two denominations (the highest ones at the time) are not valid anymore. I think he gave few/20 weeks to deposit old notes to banks.

One of many, the housewives who saved money from day to day house expenses, had to come out clean to family that they are holding 1000s of currency in old now defunct notes.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#237
post #62
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand why so many people “save money” but then just keep cash under a mattress or in a savings or checking account. If you want to win at life, you “save money” by purchasing non-cash assets like stocks.

Sure, saving money isn't the best strategy, but it sure beats "spend every dime the minute you get it" which is what children are naturally inclined to do. Teaching kids to save money is the first step towards financial literacy.

That's not the only alternative though, and that's the point.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#238
post #228
post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a bad step as it is usually taught, though (that is, as and end goal itself rather than, for example, as a means to better investments). Any astute kid is going to look at the “compound interest” argument as laughable. It only works if there is sustained, substantial additional contributions over a lifetime. This is especially true for people in lower income brackets. Try convincing a kid with even modest arith…

But $2 of BTC... ;)

And what, it's down, adjusted for inflation, 40% on a 1-year basis while the dollar is down 8.5%. Literally the worst inflation hedge. If you'd bought US Series I savings bonds you'd be dead flat in real dollar terms. That's an inflation hedge.

Lord help you if you bought NFTs of Tweets.

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#239
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That paper's misnomer aside, you probably don't want to listen to economists to learn how economies work. The soft sciences tend to get a bad rep but economists tend to be the ones most resembling ideological fan fiction.

It’s quite the opposite. Economics is generally the most rigorous of the social sciences. Even the “worst” discipline, macroeconomics, tends to yield high quality predictions. Larry Summers was screaming from the rooftop about how the Covid stimulus would result in inflation

Microeconomics maybe. Macro is highly speculative since there is borderline no basis for experimentation and inference, and every incidence has no precedence. This is very broadly understood and accepted by economists themselves

Re: The money I saved as a child would buy one picogram of gold today

#240

1228 pesos in 1976 was worth about $4.50 in 1976 USD [1]. ... and if he'd bought into the S&P 500 (Vanguard launched the First Index Investment Trust now the Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 1976 [2]), it would be worth about about $190 in today's USD. Which you could sell to buy about 2.99g of gold today (3 trillion times as much as reported). While obvious you'd have to be extremely prescient to put your money in a compl…

And how could he have done it, being in Argentina in 1976? Not even asking about Vanguard. Just accessing s&p500 or NASDAQ is not easy even today, don't think it was much easier then.
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