TJ, I'm pretty sure than in your gold recovery efforts, you noticed that there was a big oil input to engines, lubrication, steel mining, shipping, smelting ....
Gold has not yet been made by magic in nuclear physics from mercury, lead, iron or what have you alchemy/transmutation. It's still made only from old stars, disbursed in earth's crust. It might be that gathering gold could be done without oil, but there's no sign of it.
However, I should not change my position from the 1980s when I opposed the dopey idea of energy balances that were all the rage to measure economic activity for a while. I argued that the inputs of energy were irrelevant and input of $$$s was all that should be measured. What matters to the price of gold is the long run marginal cost of production. Yes, the economic inertia is huge and if gold goes to $10,000 per ounce due to fear, production can't be turned on in less than a decade, and longer for large amounts, so mining could become vastly profitable, turning $60 oil into $10,000 gold.
Yes, you are right, I have not bought that atavistic Aztec anachronism that just sits there doing nothing, while it could be stolen at any time. But neither do I now have those hyperinflationary US$ having bailed out at almost the bottom into NZ$ - which is by not much better. I guess I should start a gold mine in NZ and buy a megaton of oil stockpile for future delivery. A joint venture with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund might be the way to do it. They already have gigatons stockpiled.
Mqurice |
