Gold standard libertarians, I fucking told you so.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

http://rt.com/business/gold-drop-who-lost-opinions-948/

Its a virtually useless metal that only has perceived value (like paper money) but is unregulated. I've brought up the 1869 Black Friday/Jay Gould scandal, but you thought things were different now. The thing is, economics are economics. Unregulated currency goes through bubbles and busts. Just like paper money, gold really doesn't have much intrinsic value. That evil central bank has a purpose. If we were on an unregulated gold standard right now we'd be fucked. Want more proof of the instability and bubble tendencies of unregulated currency?
Bitcoin:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/biggest-bitcoin-exchange-halts-trading-after-price-plummets


I hope all you arrogant dipshits who talked down to people without knowing the first thing about economics put all your money into gold.

[foureyedjim]

Poor Ron Swanson 

[Mouth]

I did while it was going up.

And I sold it a few months back, long before it crashed. I'll probably buy it again some time in the not too distant future.

Everything is cyclical. You gotta try and beat inflation somehow.

[ChronicBluntSlider]

I wondered about all these cash for gold places that have seemingly been popping up the last few years as gold prices have risen. Are they fucked now, or did they pay people such a small fraction of the price that they're OK?

[#2Chinz]

Useless yellow rocks.

[steve]

A buddy of mine who has spent close to 40g in gold was getting very drunk last night.

[DeputyDoses]

DAMN! Bitcoins got fucked. The BTC inflation rate has been rising for so long anyway. This is probably be the fate of all currency at one time or another. Sad, but inevitable.

[dillanharp]

Useless yellow rocks metal.

Fixed.

[GAY]

Useless yellow rocks.

Sticky green trees.

[layzieyez]

Expand Quote

Useless yellow rocks.

[close]

Sticky green trees.

The two wang clan said diversify your portfolio.

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

I did while it was going up.

And I sold it a few months back, long before it crashed. I'll probably buy it again some time in the not too distant future.

Everything is cyclical. You gotta try and beat inflation somehow.

Bubbles are great if you can get out in time.

[chockfullofthat]

Gold is hardly useless you fucking idiots.  It can be used for teeth, toilets, guns, t-shirts.  Plus you have a nation of 1.2 billion that are absolutely obsessed with the stuff.

[via]

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

actually, its too soft and has too low of a melting point to be used as a gun or just about any kind of tool, though I think I just missed a reference.

[chockfullofthat]

Proof:

[Will Easley]

Gold itself as a metal is far from useless. It is highly conductive to electricity & is often used as electrical wiring in high-energy applications. Copper & silver are more conductive but gold is much more resistant to corrosion. It's also highly reflective of electromagnetic radiation & is used as protective coating in various technology used by astronauts, satellites, & many other things that require high temperature heat shielding.

[#2Chinz]

Gold itself as a metal is far from useless. It is highly conductive to electricity & is often used as electrical wiring in high-energy applications. Copper & silver are more conductive but gold is much more resistant to corrosion. It's also highly reflective of electromagnetic radiation & is used as protective coating in various technology used by astronauts, satellites, & many other things that require high temperature heat shielding.

You're right that gold has those purposes, but it's far too expensive for industrial applications:



The downturn caused so much fear that everyone and their mother went and thought that some minerals could hide them from volatility, inflation and the wrath of central banks. Fast forward a few years and they're in bubble territory and financial markets are at all time highs.

I would say that this drop in gold is simply a correction. Gold is only worth what people are collectively willing to pay for it.

[bottom feeder]

It's used industrially to plate audio cable connectors, because of its superior conductivity.

[burm]

[Seamus_McShamebag]

actually, its too soft and has too low of a melting point to be used as a gun or just about any kind of tool, though I think I just missed a reference.

Bullthit.  I sthhuggesth you ask Holyfield'sth ear how thsoft it isth.

[Wall of Nausea]

Trinidad James is gonna be pissed

[Alaska]

The price of gold has fallen because of lowering inflation; I'm assuming most gold standard libertarians predicted this would happen. This almost always happens.

[The Nose Face]

Article from the economist I read years ago basically said something like this...The price of Gold is based on the biggest consumer, which is India. They typically would give multiple sets of gold jewelry as a dowry...but now, they don't give as much because people aren't as well off financially, so they typically give a single set. This impacted the price.

Heard some cool shit on a 2 hour history channel special on Fort Knox though - that place is either brimming with gold (more than all the developed nations combined), or there isn't shit in there and we're all being lied to. Cool thing it said, if you ever got into the vaults, the place locks down and fills with water, drowning anyone inside (the french vaults were built with this).

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

The price of gold has fallen because of lowering inflation; I'm assuming most gold standard libertarians predicted this would happen. This almost always happens.

so gold standard libertarians think having a boom and bust currency that lacks stability or has any logical basis for its value aside from the whims of the market is a good thing?
They are even stupider than I thought.

And no, inflation hasn't slowed that much in the past several weeks. Its a speculation bubble popping, nothing more. It has no relationship with inflation, it has a relationship with people's willingness to invest in it. If there was a sudden halt to inflation or there was deflation on a related level to what happened to gold prices, you would see every commodity dropping off, but that isn't happening.
Cnn has a cool little thing where you can compare different commodity prices, gold has dropped off, and other commodities have done all sorts of things, meaning gold's drop isn't a result of overall inflation.
http://money.cnn.com/data/commodities/

[Mouth]

I'm married to a finance type. She was saying that the run from gold was triggered by a major corporation or central bank dropping 15% of total annual gold production in a single day, triggering a panic in the market. Don't know much more about it than that.