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Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by dageshi on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @04:09PM (#21456729)
I was one once, they may sort of be right. Gold will never become a "standard" again, but it could be extremely useful for preserving wealth from one standard to another.

Gold has always been touted as a hedge against inflation, it's not, it's a hedge against financial system instability, inflation being a major symptom of such instability.

Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by tryptophan on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @04:24PM (#21456865)
I've read that gold is a hedge against unexpected inflation, but this dumbed down to 'gold is a hedge for inflation'.
Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by roenxi on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @04:35PM (#21456961)
Since around 1970 (US leaves the gold standard) gold has slightly outpaced inflation according to the US BLS inflation calculator [0].

Calculator thinks $6,000/kg => $41,000/kg, actual price $6,000/kg to $48,000/kg. That makes sense because 'true' inflation (consumer goods + assets) probably outpaces official inflation (consumer goods only).

Gold can't exactly get more or less valuable over time. It is a rock. We have no practical uses for it.

[0] https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by ehvatum on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @05:36PM (#21457513)
Gold can't exactly get more or less valuable over time. It is a rock. We have no practical uses for it.

My impulse to point out that it's a very useful metal is tempered by my surprise that only 10% of gold production goes to applications where gold does something other than look golden or just exist as a physical store of value. It seems a little silly. Gold mining is quite destructive; environmentalists should fly around the world, giving speeches on the worthlessness of gold, but where's the glamor in that?

Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by roenxi on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @05:48PM (#21457622)
Yeah, it would have lots of uses if we had industrial quantities of it.

> Gold mining is quite destructive; environmentalists should ...

If it makes you feel better, it is common for gold to be found as an enriched layer sitting on top of a copper deposit. So a big chunk of gold mining isn't gold-for-gold's sake, it is something mined on the way to a much more practical substance - copper.

Actual gold mines doing environmental damage are a thing (cyanide ahoy!) but the footprint is small and hopefully not important.

Re:Risky Mortgage Bonds Are Back and Delinquencies Are Pilin... by linuxftw on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @07:16PM (#21458433)
Wait until you hear how destructive lithium mines are. There are lots of towns in the western US polluted by the mining industry.