Gidday Jay, <remain exactly where it is and was, able to buy today what it was able to buy many moons ago. How important is this magical quality? >
At US$300 an ounce, I could hire prospectors to go work in the gold mines for me. I suppose I'd need about $15 an hour to hire said the company's average employee. That ounce of gold would buy 20 hours of their time.
Did prospectors hunting gold in the Klondike, Coromandel, Waihi, Otago and elsewhere get an ounce of gold every two days with their pans and shovels? I suppose some would at times and maybe more when they happen upon a hot-spot. But over say a year?
<The total physical gold outstanding, shares in mining companies, plus even derivatives are not very much compared to the amount of fiat paper overhang, >
But compared with total assets. Gold is just an item in the vast list of assets which exist. If people get scared of fiat money, gold is just one asset of the total. It gets a turbo boost because it's more liquid and easily moved etc than a plot of land or an oil well, but it's still just an asset.
Do you know what the ratio is for current total gold value/total asset value [excluding fiat paper, which is just a promise which can turn to hot air]?
I guess gold is a drop in the ocean and of little consequence. If things get so bad that you have to run with a bag of gold coins, things are so bad that the bag of gold coins will have dramatically reduced value anyway. Perhaps less value than a gun and knife. My gun and knife would beat your bag of gold, when things really, really get bad. As the Aztecs found, their gold was poor defence against the Spaniards. The USA happens to have a lot of guns. I think I might bet on the USA guns and stuff.
Mqurice |
