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A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

economist.com

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Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#31

Post by jmclnx »

I have mentioned this in the past, we are on an "energy" standard as opposed to a "gold" standard and to me, in reality, we have been since the industrial revolution. Just Gold and Currency is a means for people to access energy.

Until recently it was an "Oil Standard". But now we are in transition from Oil to Renewals. I think that transition is causing some if not most of the political issues we are having now.

With renewals, the source is always available and everyone just needs to purchase the means of accessing it once. With Oil, you need to constantly "pay" someone to get that energy, so many people/companies know their gravy train is ending and they are doing all the can to keep us using fossil fuels.

Also there is an on-going struggle on who produces the items needed to access sun and wind power. Right now China is easily winning that struggle.

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#33

Post by karlgkk »

rationalist wrote: post #13
clearstack wrote: post #9

[flagged]

Paper/plastic currency (cash) has 0 FCF, 0 earnings, 0 dividends. The whole thesis is you trade it at a deprecated rate later. You can trade gold and cash with people a lot more easily than an equity in your brokerage account.

Yeah man you missed the point. Gold is not good as an investment vehicle.

As a daily currency, it also has sharp downsides, but at least it’s not all bad.

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#35

Post by XorNot »

rationalist wrote: post #13
clearstack wrote: post #9

[flagged]

Paper/plastic currency (cash) has 0 FCF, 0 earnings, 0 dividends. The whole thesis is you trade it at a deprecated rate later. You can trade gold and cash with people a lot more easily than an equity in your brokerage account.

No the thesis of cash is that it's a legally enforced means to extinguish debts within a certain legal jurisdiction.

A court cannot generally find that I must furnish someone with some weight of gold for example but they can find a monetary value in sovereign currency which I must supply.

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#36

Post by FergusArgyll »

nvader wrote: post #18
carlosjobim wrote: post #5

Name one thing in the universe which is better than gold? Tip: You can't.

How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver! -- Proverbs 16:16

The fear of GOD is pure, abiding forever; the judgments of GOD are true, righteous altogether, more desirable than gold, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey, than drippings of the comb.

-- Psalms 19

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#37

Post by hmg-ocean »

“Mr Bond, all my life I have been in love. I have been in love with gold. I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness. I love the texture of gold, that soft sliminess that I have learnt to gauge so accurately by touch that I can estimate the fineness of a bar to within one carat. And I love the warm tang it exudes when I melt it down into a true golden syrup. But, above all, Mr Bond, I love the power that gold alone gives to its owner — the magic of controlling energy, exacting labour, fulfilling one’s every wish and whim and, when need be, purchasing bodies, minds, even souls. Yes, Mr Bond, I have worked all my life for gold and, in return, gold has worked for me and for those enterprises that I have espoused. I ask you,’ Goldfinger gazed earnestly at Bond, ‘is there any other substance on earth that so rewards its owner?’”

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#38

Post by KetoManx64 »

carlosjobim wrote: post #5

Name one thing in the universe which is better than gold? Tip: You can't.

Better than gold in what aspect? Good luck trying to move to a different country and bringing all your gold with you without filling out a hell of a lot of forms and risking confidcation for "money laundering". Bitcoin doesn't have this problem

The supply of gold is always inflating. One day we will have asteroid mining of gold and it will be inflated even more. Bitcoin doesn't have this problem.

Nobody will accept your gold for a cup of coffee in day to day life, but restraints and coffee shops will increasingly take your bitcoin over lightning.

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#39

Post by mgcross »

detourdog wrote: post #27
incognito124 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just Gen-Z speak, nothing to do with Claude (other than being a vessel for said speak)

I’m gen-x and used wild in of my my HN comments and it seemed to trigger some responders. I was using as a synonym for unexpected. Next time maybe I’ll use whacky instead.

I'm gen-x too (56) and remember wild used heavily in the mid to late 80s. Wild to hear it used so liberally once again!

Re: A new book about humanity's obsession with gold

#40

Post by spwa4 »

rationalist wrote: post #13
clearstack wrote: post #9

[flagged]

Paper/plastic currency (cash) has 0 FCF, 0 earnings, 0 dividends. The whole thesis is you trade it at a deprecated rate later. You can trade gold and cash with people a lot more easily than an equity in your brokerage account.

"You can trade gold ... easily"

Only for very large amounts of money. It can't easily be subdivided. Oh and this is illegal in most countries.

But yeah, what people forget is that gold is incredibly dense. Nearly double lead's density. This means 1kg of gold is about the size of a nokia 3360, and worth close to 150,000$. A very large amount of gold doesn't take up much volume at all.

... which also means that people "stealing gold" like in the bond movies is totally unrealistic. If you loaded a pallet of gold bars (12.5 kg a piece, 200 gold bars, about 2.5 tons, 375 million USD) into a standard van, that van would probably just break down. And carrying 10 gold bars, 20 million USD in a backpack? Not happening.

(which frankly Trump is abusing because of course the density of gold means that any facility storing gold, including Fort Knox, is going to "look empty")

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