Drahé kovy – skutočné bohatstvo 21. storočia

The study of money is a different matter that must be treated very carefully as a specialized topic. On that matter, I cannot agree with him that metals other than gold and silver could become more useful as money. In his first paragraph, he writes ‘the prices of these “precious” metals have seemed to be following the market, or “fiat,” value of the U.S. dollar as simple stores of value rather than reflecting growth potential. Gold is starting to act as a “flight to quality” type of relatively low but sure return investment.’

Yes, to this point, it seems to be the case that gold has just followed the dollar but in the opposite direction; however, lately, all currencies have been going down in terms of gold and the action is not over yet. We will see. With regard to the ‘simple store of value’ part of the statement, that is exactly and precisely what one would want in uncertain times: insurance, or protection against loss of purchasing power. That is the quality of real money: stability of value.

Instability of price due to new or disappearing industrial uses is exactly what can kill the value of any money which is not based on silver or gold especially! Volatility is deadly. The declining marginal utility of gold has been less than any other material for 5000 years. That is precisely why nothing can match it as money. And that continues. Gold is always stable in value except it can seem to go up when paper money is losing the confidence of people everywhere.

The value of the metal money must not depend on the metal’s usefulness in industrial applications. Silver is weaker as money than gold for precisely that reason. For, what would happen to the value of your money if another metal like Indium backing your money were suddenly to become useless as an industrial commodity because of substitution by a cheaper metal? Your money would collapse?

The foregoing statement can be misleading! The need for money can never overwhelm the supplies of gold and silver! That is false. The problem was the stubborn insistence of monarchs to have their currencies dominate the price of gold. Circulating currency must be denominated in honest weights and measures like 1 oz or fractions thereof, not in pound sterling, or dollars, francs or pesos! Those are meaningless names that should describe nothing more than the design on the coins. But, that was a believable excuse to go to fiat money. Enough people would believe it. A further point on this: when all exchanges are done according to weight and fineness of coins, and not on the basis of the name of the currency, the problem referred to by Mr. Lifton does not arise at all.

We should mind the saying that ‘when the money doesn’t work, neither does the economy’. We should also remember that all economies and currencies today are dependent on the shaky dollar. Foreign bank reserves are 65% in U.S.dollars. Give me safety first! Silver Dollars and Gold Pieces, as per the Constitution of the United States of America!

Zdroj:www.resourceinvestor.com

02.02.2008

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value."   Alan Greenspan