Other Things to 'Invest' In

   I think it's unwise to simply buy gold and nothing else to weather any coming economic storm (let alone the one we're currently in). In addition to insane money printing, a problem in our world that won't go away is how we are going to feed so many people. This is a huge challenge not only because there are going to be more people, but because we are so heavily dependent on oil to produce and distribute food. If oil slowly increases in price due to the creeping scarcity of Peak Oil than food prices must increase correspondingly. Another very long-term issue is that humans have historically destroyed their farmland, as all traditional agriculture does, so the environment will be increasingly strained by the industrial farming methods we depend on to feed so many.

   In addition, as mentioned above, our food not only requires oil for the production side, but also the distribution side. Food is transported over long distances due to the industrial, centralized nature of modern agriculture. An inevitable shift our children will perhaps take for granted is that food production should be more local.

   It is because of these considerations that I would make the somewhat unusual 'investing' recommendation that you should learn how to grow a garden.

Interview with Byron King

This fellow worked as a geologist in the exploration and production division of a major oil company, so he has some views on gold from a 'geological' point of view. I never looked into the concept of 'peak gold' that much but it is something I've heard before. Byron King brings it up in this interview. In response to a question about why gold would go to 2000$ he said :

"Because we're in a world that appears to have encountered peak gold as well as peak oil. If you look at historical production, worldwide gold output reached a top right around the year 2000–2001. Overall output has declined and we're not replacing output from the big mines of the past. Despite discoveries here and there, miners have to dig deeper and deeper into the reserves."

He also mentioned inflation and interest in gold from China as reasons for being long gold.

His opinion on silver is that it should outperform gold percentage wise, an opinion I agree with. In fact I think many of us overlook silver, perhaps because decades of watching the Olympics have conditioned us into thinking gold is somehow better. I think everyone should have at least a sock full of coins stashed somewhere in their house.

Endless Stimulus and 2000$ Gold