Tim wrote:

I was thinking on that same line. I've heard various conspiricy
theorists alway say that gold is a great "hedge against inflation"
huh? Lets face it, it's only worth what you can get out of it.

Exactly, but gold is for one thing a valuable commodity
itself. For another, it's value tends to peak at times when
other economic functions are very chaotic.


... I've
seen gold trade a year ago for $256.00 per troy ounce, then it shoots
up to $358. per ounce, and people think their gold is worth a lot but
they don't sell it.


Of course. Their behavior may be considered irrational if
they forego a profit but OTOH they may be awaiting further
chaos & even higher gold prices.

Of course, as you and Doug (Joe) pointed out, at a certain
level of chaos, gold becomes valueless. So you want to sell
before then and gain some commodity(s) of greater practical
everyday use.


25 yrs ago I saw the stuff break $800.00 per ounce, then crash down to
$335. (+/-) almost over night. So I've always thought that it was a
volitile market. Especially seeing our economy isn't set on a gold
standard and hasn't been for many, many years.


Yes, and very few are... but gold is still perceived by many
as valuable... which of course, makes it so...


A friend of mine told me once when I was skeptical about investing in
some no-load mutual funds. he said. "Listen Tim, if you think that if
the economy is going to tank and you'll lose money, remember. If the
economy tanks. Nobody has any money anyhow."


True enough... and you'll have a bigger piece of the nothing.

For most people, no load mutual funds are a great way of
protecting their investments from themselves. Very few
investors beat the long-term average returns, which shows
that you'd be better off with those than any other
investment... *if* you want the money. Many people are
actually gambling, not investing, ie doing it for
entertainment value (or for prestige) rather than for value
gained. In fact I would say 99.9% of individuals who indulge
in commodities trading are exactly that.

Oh well, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

DSK