I had always made a distinction between savings vs investment, and the two with a sharp delineation, with speculation
(1) At simplest, I reckon, in a simple world:
- Savings = cash, sovereign bonds, near-cash (Au, etc, Ag? bitgold?)
- Investment = stocks, private bonds, private / public projects (Pt, Pd, Ag? bitgold?)
- Speculation = bitgold at least in its earliest days (Au, Ag, Pt and Pd at times, along w/ Cu, wheat, rice, ...)
(2) Climbing up the ladder of complexity, the simple picture gets progressively more complicated
(3) Re <<[Ag] ... go $40 it can go back to $10>>
- perhaps Ag @ 10 is savings, @ 20 is investment, and @ 30 a speculation
- but if @ 40, is a must have / imperative
IOW, what anything is depends on the price, in part, and in nature.
I cannot bring self to view wheat as savings, for savings to me means something monetary, with which I can easily swap into investments or speculation.
(4) Re gold, Message 21941081
it is now conversation between times of dinner and drinking fountain, and I happen to love conversations :0)
More seriously, if what we know of long-line history is true, than gold is savings over the long term, speculation in the short, and silver, as gold's cousin, is a more volatile version of gold, with more up and down side. As portfolio ballast, useful, even if Ag plentiful, and Au useless, especially when interest rate at ZIRP / NIRP.
Just mathematics, by my read.
on that day of the post, gold was between cheap jewellery and curiosity
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