Gold's position has been as a mutually-agreed-upon currency. It's been great because we agree it's great. But underneath the mutual *opinion* that it's worth something, there's no substance because it doesn't produce anything (much). If you own shares in a corner shop and nobody wants to buy it, you can still sell stuff. If your neighbour wants to disagree with the value of your shop, you can still sell stuff. If you own gold, you're relying on a greater-fool to want it more than you do at some point in the future. There's nothing wrong with that trade, because you're probably right. But it's a trade, not an investment. Btw, why was platinum (or rhodium or similar) not the world standard of kings for thousands of years? It's shiny and more rare. I reckon because it was *too* rare. Most of it was buried in SA, far away from the major civilisations. Just like they didn't value LCD TV's much, they didn't value platinum because they hardly knew about it. They found some stuff that was pretty rare, made the best coins of that, and did commerce. 2000 years later, we're making our investment decisions based on the opinions of a bunch of sheep-herds and local rulers who wanted something that would last longer than a sandwich, travel better than artwork, but was rare enough you couldn't just find it on the side of the road. It's probably not a mistake, but I prefer something a little more relevant.
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