John, we need to agree on a definition of a word before we can disagree. That word is money. In the sense you mean, of course I want money. I just meant money as in Alan Green$pan's stuff [or other countries'].
But companies are much more than a a store of value. They are a productive asset which goes on producing, day in, day out. Money in the sense of gold does not. It just sits there, doing nothing except maybe getting stolen, day in, day out. Money in the sense of Alan's money is a store of value, but one its function is increasingly, in my view, a means of exchange. Money used to be much more a store of value, especially when gold-backed.
A really great company, such as Microsoft, can be lined up against any currency which has ever been and the returns are obvious. That's because it's far more than a store of value. Currencies can never give better than interest rate returns [lucky speculation on assets excluded]. People have to speculate to make good money on money. They have to speculate that stocks will go down when they are holding cash. Which of course happens every year [and a lot more often than that].
Money is not merely a store of value. It is primarily a means of exchange. Of course, during the period of exchange, which is getting faster but is still not instantaneous, money is a store of value, but the main purpose it has for me now is simply as a means of exchange. Actually, I've borrowed some because I think it's store of value has got a leak compared with the productive assets I own. When I repay the loan, I expect it to have been inflated and diluted.
Mq |
