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To: marcos who wrote (68785)	1/3/2007 3:42:30 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 74559

Well, hello there Marcos the Aztec, proselytizing for gold. Do not confuse the past with the future: <Everything else is artificial, ephemeral, shakey, a raft of nebulous constructs reproducible in any quantity at miniscule cost with their nominal values depending on 'full faith and credit etc' ... faith-based money, what a ridiculous concept, might be useful enough for buying beer and tacos but you wouldn't want to sit on a pile of it too long, all fiat currencies advance inexorably to their intrinsic value of zero, and their larger denominations don't make good paperweights either, simply don't have the specific gravity, you see > Quite right and for decades, my number one rule, which I have broken these past few years for various reasons [tax audit in part] was to NOT hold any fiat currency, because they are always diluted by greedy politicians and their bludging electorates. But I am planning a "faith-based" fiat currency which won't have any of the old problems. My planning and prototype are coming along nicely. Even gold is just another "faith-based" currency. All is ephemeral in the human realm and all has a product life cycle. Gold has had an excellent one. Horse shoes had a good innings. Hula hoops not so long. My amazing nebulous currency construct constructed at minuscule cost is going to be like English = anyone can use it and it costs nothing to "produce" but is vastly valuable. What would you say the English language is worth? My guess is something like $30 trillion. Maybe more. Yet the cost of it is zero. One just helps oneself to it, spends some time learning it and bingo, one is in business. People around the world trade it, as we are doing now. We don't hack pieces of rock, or cast our words in gold, to write it. The value isn't in the wordy rock, or alphabet-shaped gold, it's in the concepts contained in the words as determined by the exchanging parties. Mqurice

To: marcos who wrote (68785)	1/3/2007 6:32:44 AM
From: Snowshoe	Respond to of 74559

>>all fiat currencies advance inexorably to their intrinsic value of zero<< They will simply press the financial reset button by lopping off a few zeroes. Or else just melt down the existing coins, and issue new bills and coins in larger denominations.

To: marcos who wrote (68785)	1/3/2007 12:19:58 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

faith-based money Any store of value or means of exchange is faith-based, amigo, because very few things have instrinsic value apart from our belief that they do in fact have it. There is nothing intrinsically worthy about gold. Sure, it shines, it is pretty, it is the subject of greed, it is useful in many applications, etc. But it has its down side, too, as it is heavy, difficult to transport, subject to the greed of others, etc. Why not diamonds? They are easier to move, just as pretty, etc. Tulips, paper money, shells, bits of mirrors, you name it, have all had their day. To suggest that gold is somehow exempt from faith is to delude oneself. Otherwise, its price would not gyrate as it does. Having given you all this wisdom, I admit that I don't expect gold to lose its luster anytime soon. Myths die hard. I'll buy gold when bullion pays dividends or interest or when its value seems unrealistically too low to .