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To: Ilaine who wrote (12847)	1/6/2002 3:44:07 PM
From: Stock Farmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

>>Is that savings or speculation<< The short answer is "both" and "neither" at the same time. But I guess such a half answer would be wholely unsatisfying. Firstly, "both" in that savings is merely deferring today's consumption to some day in the future. Insofar as any "store of value" represents savings then yes it is savings. Simultaneously under the heading of "both", in an environment which includes choices between alternative competitive stores of value, any preference of one versus another based on glimpses into the future embodies "speculation". In days gone by when 99.9% of the population had really one store of value (gold), represented by notes of the nation's currency exchangeable for gold, well one could say that purchasing gold versus holding currency were equivalent. These days, with nothing pegged to anything else, it's all speculatively relative. For example, convert everything into liters (gallons) of high-test gasoline and you'll see that the USD is a very very volatile currency after all ;) And then there's neither: if one takes an aztechian stance that gold IS negotiable currency, then one is merely exchanging one monetary unit for another. Which is neither consumption nor savings nor speculation. Just exchange. Like getting a quarter for five nickles isn't speculation. Some vending machines just don't take nickles. I sense a non-Einstienian relativity at work here and the the mere fact that the whole global currency exchange thing hangs together just boggles my brain. John