Collectibles are worthless...

[kav]

One guy with guns cant defeat 10 guys with guns

You never see Rambo or the die hard flicks?

Good point

[COI]

Oh, and outsourcing your labor to China to make cheap goods for you to inhale and in-turn, incentivize China to buy up US currency to maintain consumer spending power to absorb said cheap goods, is also good for backing currency. So buy goods made in China, and Chinese labor, not gold.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Oh, and outsourcing your labor to China to make cheap goods for you to inhale and in-turn, incentivize China to buy up US currency to maintain consumer spending power to absorb said cheap goods, is also good for backing currency. So buy goods made in China, and Chinese labor, not gold.

[RockMyAmadeus]

WOLVERINES!!!!

[Pete Marino]

I tried to sell my Action #1 to my cat-he thought I was crazy.

I guess it's worthless.

 

Fair point. Maybe Tuna and Catnip are better long term investments vs comics.

[slym2none]

If you have enough guns when the apocalypse comes you can get the gold after.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[Hamlet]

They aren't just moments, though. I picked an extreme example, but it holds for the price today, two years later.

 

Let's take $300 for gold in 2000 and $1200 today. Those aren't extremes. Gold was around $300/oz or less for a couple of years. Gold has been $1100-$1300 for a year or so.

 

General prices are not four times higher today than they were in 2000. Apartments that rented for $1200 in 2000 don't rent for $4800 today. A new car that was $20,000 in 2000 isn't $80,000 today. A McDonald's value meal that was $4 in 2000 isn't $16 today. Houses that were $200,000 in 2000 aren't $800,000 today outside of hot spots like San Fran or New York.

 

An inflation calculator based on CPI shows an increase of 38% in prices over that time period. I get that people think CPI understates inflation, but come on. There is no way to measure inflation that gets you to a quadrupling of prices over that time period unless you are using the all New Mutants 98 index.

 

I'm just at a loss at the mental gymnastics that people go through to claim that gold's purchasing power is stable in the face of its wild price movements.

 

The point is, these are miniscule moments in time, and certainly not anything you can point to to say that gold has been unstable. When you average out the prices, instead of looking at incredibly temporary record prices, you see a very stable picture.

[Westy Steve]

They aren't just moments, though. I picked an extreme example, but it holds for the price today, two years later.

 

Let's take $300 for gold in 2000 and $1200 today. Those aren't extremes. Gold was around $300/oz or less for a couple of years. Gold has been $1100-$1300 for a year or so.

 

General prices are not four times higher today than they were in 2000. Apartments that rented for $1200 in 2000 don't rent for $4800 today. A new car that was $20,000 in 2000 isn't $80,000 today. A McDonald's value meal that was $4 in 2000 isn't $16 today. Houses that were $200,000 in 2000 aren't $800,000 today outside of hot spots like San Fran or New York.

 

An inflation calculator based on CPI shows an increase of 38% in prices over that time period. I get that people think CPI understates inflation, but come on. There is no way to measure inflation that gets you to a quadrupling of prices over that time period unless you are using the all New Mutants 98 index.

 

I'm just at a loss at the mental gymnastics that people go through to claim that gold's purchasing power is stable in the face of its wild price movements.

 

The point is, these are miniscule moments in time, and certainly not anything you can point to to say that gold has been unstable. When you average out the prices, instead of looking at incredibly temporary record prices, you see a very stable picture.

 

You're trying to compare one bubble to another. If this link works correctly, it will show Gold over a long period of time. Try this one: http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/gold-and-silver-prices-100-year-historical-chart

To me, we've seen two textbook bubbles. And there is a solid argument that gold will keep falling for a while based on the last bubble. Real estate did the same thing. Sometimes people buy things because other people are buying it. Like when a movie is announce, and then everyone tries to buy a first appearance of a (cough, cough).

 

Anyway, the linked graph over the last 30 years might look fairly much like a straight line if it was plotted on semilog paper...except for the nice bubble we just experienced. And the reason gold keeps going up and up and up exponentially is because our dollar is going down and down and down exponentially as all fiat currencies do. We're in a race to the bottom, and so our currency can be evaluated by how fast other currencies are dropping too. Heck, they count on inflation to pay off debt. Is your country in debt by 15 trillion? No problem? Just make enough inflation to where 15 trillion has the spending power of 5 trillion and it's three times easier to pay back...three times less sweat and effort. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay off all this debt, but the good news is that they can inflate their way out of it too. It'll work great...until it doesn't, because China won't buy our bonds anymore and we can't make our books balance by purchasing our own bonds...something we actually do here and there.

 

I like gold...except right now because its coming off a bubble. I like owning "things". Anything that can store value, produce revenue or have utility is a good thing to own. Gold, guns, even hammers and wrenches. As the dollar slowly fails. wealth will be decided by how many things you own, not how much money you have.

[Dr. Balls]

If you have enough guns when the apocalypse comes you can get the gold after.

 

That statement is hung up on, like, every third house here in Montana.

[Hamlet]

I think you're making my point. Gold has been in a bubble recently-- its purchasing power increase rapidly over that time on the way up, and is declining now on the way down. It's normal store of value function got preempted by speculation. It did the same thing in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

I would argue with you about the dollar going down exponentally though. It has been going down at a slower pace than at anytime in our lifetimes. It's not an exponental drop, but a very slow linear one.

 

Inflation has not been lower than this for many decades.

 

People who are worried about inflation currently must be living in a different economy than the one I see. Deflation is the more serious worry right now, IMO.

 

You're trying to compare one bubble to another. If this link works correctly, it will show Gold over a long period of time. Try this one: http://www.macrotrends.net/1333/gold-and-silver-prices-100-year-historical-chart

To me, we've seen two textbook bubbles. And there is a solid argument that gold will keep falling for a while based on the last bubble. Real estate did the same thing. Sometimes people buy things because other people are buying it. Like when a movie is announce, and then everyone tries to buy a first appearance of a (cough, cough).

 

Anyway, the linked graph over the last 30 years might look fairly much like a straight line if it was plotted on semilog paper...except for the nice bubble we just experienced. And the reason gold keeps going up and up and up exponentially is because our dollar is going down and down and down exponentially as all fiat currencies do. We're in a race to the bottom, and so our currency can be evaluated by how fast other currencies are dropping too. Heck, they count on inflation to pay off debt. Is your country in debt by 15 trillion? No problem? Just make enough inflation to where 15 trillion has the spending power of 5 trillion and it's three times easier to pay back...three times less sweat and effort. Our children and grandchildren will have to pay off all this debt, but the good news is that they can inflate their way out of it too. It'll work great...until it doesn't, because China won't buy our bonds anymore and we can't make our books balance by purchasing our own bonds...something we actually do here and there.

 

I like gold...except right now because its coming off a bubble. I like owning "things". Anything that can store value, produce revenue or have utility is a good thing to own. Gold, guns, even hammers and wrenches. As the dollar slowly fails. wealth will be decided by how many things you own, not how much money you have.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I'm just at a loss at the mental gymnastics that people go through to claim that gold's purchasing power is stable in the face of its wild price movements.

 

Because, as Westy Steve pointed out, you're comparing bubbles to bubbles. And, for a while, gold was UNDERvalued.

 

Let's look at gas.

 

In 2001, the average price of gas nationwide was about $1.25/gal, For most of 2014, it has been around $3.60. That's 3 TIMES the price. Ah, but the core CPI doesn't include fuel costs, even though it's something 95% of all Americans consume on a regular basis.

 

Milk? I could regularly buy a gallon of milk in 2001 for 99 cents. Now? I cannot buy it for less than $3, anywhere.

 

Real estate is a lot tougher, because it is regional, and very much dependent on factors that don't exist anywhere else.

 

But consumables? Pretty standard, across the board. The CPI grossly understates inflation, and, I know we've had this argument before on this board, but this is done for political reasons (right, all the statisticians are just pure number crunchers, and have nothing to do with politics. Ok, sure. I believe that. No really, I do. Honest.)

 

Without getting into politics...when comparing "real world" to "real world", you will see a much, much larger than "38% inflation rate" since 2000-2001.

 

I mean...have you been to grocery store lately...?

[Junkdrawer]

When minimum wage goes to $15/hr. Businesses are going to have to raise prices on goods and services to pay their employees. Hershey bars are never going to be 15 cents again. Everything is going to continue to go up. Gold is going to go up too.

[kav]

Calculators have gone down-when they first came out they were $200 in 1975 dollars-now they give em away.

[Park]

[Sqeggs]

Inflation has not been lower than this for many decades.

 

People who are worried about inflation currently must be living in a different economy than the one I see. Deflation is the more serious worry right now, IMO.

 

Clearly true. My guess is this line of discussion will quickly devolve into assertions that, in fact, the inflation rate is very high but the U.S. government is cooking the statistics. (Along, apparently, with the government of Canada, and the government of the U.K., and the government of Japan, and ....)

 

In my time on the boards, that particular assertion has been made many times by people who -- quite literally -- have no idea what they are talking about.

 

Carry on!

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

 

lol

 

lol lol

 

.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Inflation has not been lower than this for many decades.

 

People who are worried about inflation currently must be living in a different economy than the one I see. Deflation is the more serious worry right now, IMO.

 

Clearly true. My guess is this line of discussion will quickly devolve into assertions that, in fact, the inflation rate is very high but the U.S. government is cooking the statistics. (Along, apparently, with the government of Canada, and the government of the U.K., and the government of Japan, and ....)

 

In my time on the boards, that particular assertion has been made many times by people who -- quite literally -- have no idea what they are talking about.

 

Carry on!

 

Ah, now I remember who was the CPI defender.

 

Yes, many people post things here who - quite literally - have no idea what they are talking abut.

 

Carry on!

[MetalPSI]

 

Its too soft and malliable. Give me steel....

 

Touche and bravo my friend. Well played

[Park]

 

 

lol

 

lol lol

 

.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

 

lol

 

lol lol

 

.

 

Kanye Buffett...?