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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum
GLD 408.76+2.6%Jan 5 4:00 PM EST

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To: energyplay who wrote (5359)4/6/2006 5:02:27 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (2) of 219029
 
For gold to replace all the world's fiat currencies, the price per ounce would need to be about as you say: <US Federal national debt is 9 Trillion, a gold price of $36,000 an ounce would cover that.>

At $30,000 an ounce, the world would move to a gold economy, with hordes of people spending all day finding ways to get gold. They'd be filtering the ocean and digging everywhere. Gold jewelry would be extremely attractive for theft. Wearing wedding rings would tempt people to rob.

It would be like Easter Islanders spending their days building big Moais, with no useful purpose other than perhaps to keep restless young males active and not causing trouble. Which is quite a good purpose. Gold digging would be not as useful as Moai as it would be a capital intensive business rather than labour intensive.

Digging gold would occupy vast resources in an enormous exercize in futility.

The idea that the amount of gold is more or less stable is false. Dilution of existing holders would be gradual at first, then rapid as production ramps up. If my proton removal system gets working a bit better, then gold will priced at about three times the price of lead. Even before I start production, the price of gold will crash as people realize they own nothing more than an Aztec relic. My production cost will define the price of gold as all other production methods will be more expensive and lead is pretty well unlimited. I might use mercury or thallium [or even, initially, make gold into platinum as prices of that are so high and it's only a single proton to produce that from gold]. But if it's easy to rattle the protons out, then I'll just flood the market with lead-based platinum and gold.

Fuel cells will suddenly be the way to run a car. Oil prices will crash in a big way to hold market share against methanol-powered fuel cells. Platinum makes fuel cells expensive.

Mqurice
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