Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Train Guy]

Yeah, but copper, nickel and silver have real world uses. There's some use for gold, but very limited. It's a little hard to say jewelry is much of a use. That's more of a fashion statement. That demand can go poof real quick. I hear in Africa gold is looked down on. Silver is all the rage. You'll notice the rumors are that Gates and Buffet have been buying silver and not gold. I can see the case for silver, since according to the statistics we have been using more silver then we've been producing. Seems at some point that will cause a problem. Either a switch to other metals or an increase in the price.

I just don't see how gold is a "store of value". If there is little use for it, I don't care how "scare" it is, it ain't going to have much value. The only value it could possibly have would be how much you can con somebody else into thinking it has. Kind of like the guy making the 60 second paintings and convincing people they were "art" and therefore "valuable". So is gold going to $1000 an ounce any time soon? Not when you can dig it out of the ground for about $200 or less an ounce and there is no use for it. Maybe for a little while you can con enough people that it has a value and get the demand up, but it won't stay there.

Remember the real estate mania in Japan. At one time it got so insane that the land under the imperial palace was considered to be worth more than the whole state of California. That certainly didn't last long. <g> A lot of people in Japan sure got conned. Probably why most real estate there goes for only 20 cents on the dollar from the top of the swindle.