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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: coach137 who wrote (4227)	12/13/1997 6:43:00 PM
From: Jim S	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116759

...the price of copper must turn around at some time if only to meet industrial demand. That's not necessarily true for gold. Jerome: Thanks for providing me the opportunity to bootstrap on your idea. I've been following this thread for a bit, but was reluctant to post in the view of some of the folks here who know a lot more about this than I do. At the risk of sounding stupid in this knowledgable forum, I'll address this to the "Dumb Questions" Department. As I understand it, the industrial and jewelery uses of gold account for a relatively small portion of demand, say, 30%. It must follow, then, that most of the demand for gold is for use as a store of wealth (hedging, exchange, or just plain hoarding). It appears, then, that if gold loses its psychological value as a symbol of wealth, there will be a huge oversupply of the metal, and the price will be measured in $/lb instead of $/oz, based on its industrial value. What concerns me is the ever increasing abstraction of the meaning of "intrinsic value." World currencies are beginning to be measured in terms of how they relate to "currency baskets" (whatever the hell that means) instead of a generally accepted standard like an ounce of the soft yellow. The whole concept of currency is an abstraction, of course, but world economics are taking the concept to mind-boggling extremes. (At least, it boggles my poor grey matter.) So, my questions to those who understand this stuff is, "If gold ceases to be the internationally recognized medium of value and exchange, what is its real value? Is there a bottom to the price?" If anyone tries to answer this, please do so in terms an intelligent third grader can understand. Thanks for any light you can shed on this for me. Good trading, jim