Quick—What’s the oldest profession? Nope—not Prostitution. It’s Mining! Sure, after the mine is established, the workers may need the second oldest profession, but we as a Realm, a World, a social-memory complex–have always trusted Gold. Does Russia trust China? Does Iran trust Saudi Arabia? Does Turkey trust Turkmenistan? Who knows–but I wouldn’t put up any gold to bet on it!
In the oldest cave in Europe, gold pieces of necklace and bracelets were found. Long before Cameco and Barricks and Goldfields–humans collected raw gold nuggets out of streams and wore them for the beauty. It never tarnishes, can’t be destroyed, and its “print” hasn’t changed in the last 4.5 billion years. It comes from the dust of stars. It’s created during supernovae.
Where do you think things are headed? Is gold a useless pet rock that has gone the way of the cabbage patch doll? Methinks not. And ‘not’ do those running the world’s central banks.
Unlike the 1970’s when the US debt to GDP was less than 40 percent, our national debt is now greater than the Defense Department budget! It costs us more to service the debt than to spend on war! And when fiat currency collapses, war is just the around the corner. Sound familiar? But as these things unfold–we just can’t afford it anymore. If we continue to print more money, we only get a wealth effect of less than fifty cents for every dollar created. Last time inflation was this bad, we would get over a dollar fifty for every dollar spent by the government.
As soon as everyone realizes the Emperor is naked when the tide goes out, we see it isn’t that we can’t buy a house or pay the rent with the money we got because the cost of a house has shot to the moon–it’s because our currency is buying less. But what could we buy from a silver dollar? A gold coin? I could pay my rent with one gold coin–but that doesn’t sound very fair, does it? That’s because an ounce of gold would be worth $86,000 dollars if we valued it as it was before the Fed, and before we were taxed. I could use one 1 oz. gold coin to pay for my rent for about 36 to 48 months! Now that seems like living in a prosperous economy!
Does buying a split-level ranch rambler with four bedrooms sound reasonable at 5 point 4 million? Well, you could buy it with about 63 gold one ounce coins if the gold price was brought to it’s historically correct level. Doesn’t this seem innately correct for the value of a four bedroom?
God I hope I’m wrong. Gold, I hope I’m right. Anyways (I hate saying anyways, just like I hate saying orientate.) Anyway–when the shoe shine boy and the cabbie talk about buying xyz stock, it may be time to sell.
Which leaves us to this current missive. What does it mean when a bus driver talks about buying gold?
The Dao of Doug: A Bus Driver's Perspective 