- cross-posted to:
- theguardian_us@rss.ponder.cat
- cross-posted to:
- theguardian_us@rss.ponder.cat
With many stock markets in the red and Dow Jones headed for worst April since 1932, gold could even reach $4,000
Gold has risen above $3,500 an ounce for the first time while many stock markets are in the red and the US dollar hit a three-year low, after Donald Trump’s blistering attack on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, caused alarm among investors.
Spot gold reached the record price on Tuesday morning, extending a rally that has pushed bullion up from $2,623 an ounce at the start of this year. Analysts now predict the metal could even reach $4,000 only a matter of weeks after the price moved through $3,000 for the first time.
The US currency and its government debt are usually seen as a safe haven during times of market turmoil, but as America itself has caused much of the recent volatility investors have been turning to another “port in the storm”, gold, in large numbers.
Gold has been used as a store of value for millennia and it still will be long after the dollar, yen and euro are distant memories. If society were to collapse, gold would literally be the only universal currency, as it has been until fairly recently. The only thing that could change that would be ubiquitous space mining that would produce gold in such quantities as to render it worthless. That’s hardly going to happen after a societal collapse, though.
Think of it this way.
Suppose you were smart and got 100 ounces of gold back when it was cheap. Say it cost you $50,000. That’s your supply.
I spent that money on a ton of quality copper tubing to make stills; a ton of hand tools; quality binoculars; lab equipment.
Which of us is going to have the longer line outside our trading post?
That’s what investing is about. You have money, and want to make more money from it. What will you do?
Some people, like you, decide to invest it on producing a product, or invest on a company that produces products so they can produce more and give you a cut.
Other people, prefer to store that value in another form. Say buying gold with your dollars.
The thing is, that there’s no objective better option.
Both options have risks and rewards. And the reward is very closely related to the risk. There’s no such thing as low risk high reward. In your example, a risk would be new lab technologies developing that would make your lab equipment obsolete, which means that you just lost a lot of money. But if you manage to sell that lab equipment, you’ll probably make good money.
The thing about these news is: the risk of buying gold is increasing. That is because its price will eventually stop rising, and you don’t know when.
The fact that people keep buying gold even though the risk increase and rewards decrease, means that other options have an even worse risk-reward ratio. This means that people are pessimistic about the economy.
It’s not about one way of investing being better than the other. It’s about seeing people’s perception of the economy through their choice of investment.
I’ll pay some thugs an ounce of gold to steal your stuff.
lol!
First the thugs will kill you and then give me the gold because I’ll have lots of friends because I can provide people with things they need.
I’ll tell them you’re woke.
You died the second you told them you had gold.
As soon as they pick up the gold it will crumble to dirt.
It amazing how people who can’t succeed in a world with lights, abundant food, and doctors think they’d be badass warlords if civilization fell.
🌶️
Caps > gold, the best universal currency post societal collapse
Negative. If society collapse, I personally, and my family can’t eat gold. Period.
I’m not giving away precious ammo or food for gold. Either you’ve got something of value, or I’m not taking your gold. Period.
I’m talking about an extremely desperate situation, inherent to the whole “society collapse” phrase. I stand by this. Gold doesn’t mean shit. It only means something if people like you apply value to it, where there’s still some semblance of societal order and structure.
Sure except gold has been a source of value for Milena and well continue to be.
Gold, silver, etc was not valuable until we had a society that had currency. In societal collapse we’re back to bartering and Gold is worthless except as a fancy trinket. The value of gold is a status symbol of having so much you can give away actual value for frivolous bullshit. The average peasant farmer can’t make use of it.
You do you, mate.