Useless, Pointless Gold?

Is gold useless? It isn't a company so it doesn't actually do anything. That makes it a decidedly un-sexy investment. As well, it is true that some have taken an excessive interest in gold, marveling at it and lusting after it like Golem and the Ring of Power ("My precious!").

However, Golem's obsession was a metaphor for man's greed and lust for power. And these days, people's greed and lust for power has been expressed in a host of other securities and activities (too numerous and complex to delve into here). Owning some gold on the other hand, is a smart way to diversify your assets and avoid piling all your savings into paper money (or Lehman Bros).

What's more, gold is a very defensive asset, whereas many other securities are purchased by people with dollar signs in their eyes, thinking they're going to get rich and retire at 45.

Adrian Ash defends the metal here.

Silver Panic Coming?

The appropriately named David Morgan (Morgan silver dollars) writes about the potential for silver as a safe haven from paper money.

"I have been on record as saying I see silver going over $100.00 an ounce in US Dollar terms. Now I want to be very clear here: I'm very practical. For something to get to $100.00 it means it must get past $20.00 again and then it needs to get to $30.00 and $40.00 and $50.00 and on and on, so certainly I'm not trying to give any false hope or false indicators. But when the US Dollar goes this time, I believe, the panic of 1980 will look like a warm-up event."

The rest of the article.

Computer Problems

I'll be back to posting soon after dealing with some persistent computer problems.