There are no more FUNDAMENTALS!!
topstuf
Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
When I first got "into" gold was about when I got ...into....coins. Twenties were 40-60 bucks and Krugerrands had only been born 4 years earlier (1967).
I agreed with the fundamental that gold was a "proxy for labor." Someone had to dig it out and refine it and that took time and labor and so....theoretically .... someone who grew a crop from their own ...labor... or built a boat ....from their ..labor.... would (or should) consider it a fair trade and of equal value.
That made fundamental sense to me.
It still does. With reservations for present conditions. (In no particular order)
Right NOW... I see LABOR as the cheapest and declining economic factor running.
I see technology supplanting labor at a vicious rate.
I believe that Millennials have NO concept of economics ...or..investing. (with a FEW exceptions)
I think their parents are to blame for WANTING cheaper (affordable..HAH) goods to "make ends meet." 
And with NO consideration of how much it would cost them socially. (Lost jobs)
I see the ..ONLY... inflation as destructive inflation in necessities, and ..costs... NOT VALUES!
I see the major world product as humanity. Eating, needing, demanding, suffering, but still breeding.
The PAST inflations were easy to deal with using gold. You just bought it yesterday and sold it today after inflation caused its "value" to increase.
Deceptive? Yes, but functionally OK. The "labor proxy" still worked.
Soooooo... for the present time (????????) I can't see the "fundamental" ...reason... for gold.
Early on, my wife and I began a "plan."
Stack gold, use in retirement as a SUPPLEMENT to "money."
IF NEEDED
If not, let it be as the only thing I can forsee in my extremely biased crystal ball is that the ...present.. conditions can only lead to destruction of a tax base for financing governments and preserving their ability to protect or nourish their peoples.
Which... means .... war. 
BIG war. (or worse)
It ...SEEMS... that there will need to be a "reset" sometime in the future. Jillions of unproductive PEOPLE can NOT continue.
A ...future.. "store of value" (other than debt liability) will almost HAVE to come.
Gold fits that part.
These are MY opinions. I'm not optimistic on gold ...presently. But continue to believe it will rise to its former usage.
Silver? Nope.
Comments
basic economic fundamentals will always hold true. That is why PMs need no other fundamentals.
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. It's amazing to me that there isn't news coverage about Venezuela every single day. Nothing says "conspiracy" louder than what the news media has been doing now for years. Or decades.
Let's see...….fundamentals...….read The Dao of Capitalism by Mark Spitznagel if you want to know how the fundamentals still make sense.
I knew it would happen.
I was reading a article that stated there would only be 30 million jobs, 25 years from now due to high tech robots. the article also said you would need to be independently wealthy in order to survive.
I fully agree with that. I believe that if you haven't made it by now, you never will. Exceptions will be around.
)
I sorta ...continuously.... monitor my opinion of what it takes to be fully independent.
Right now I consider a bare minimum of assets to be $200,000 per 10 years of age.
Anyone not on track for AT LEAST that should either go on welfare NOW or get a gov't job (same thing
And that is only IF there is no mortgage to pay.
And WAY more if you're in the age group that will get the Social Security ....surprise
Farewell, Horatio Alger.
Which is impossible with no restrictions on what ...passes.. for money
and
the willingness of the masses to accept ANYTHING that will get them a breadcrust.
@topstuff said: Which is impossible with no restrictions on what ...passes.. for money
and
the willingness of the masses to accept ANYTHING that will get them a breadcrust.
Which brings us full circle to what happened with Poland when Solidarity, and the coal miners in particular decided that people who actually worked and produced should have a say. Some memorable quotes from that time:
"They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work"
"2 + 2 = 4"
The irony is that trade unions had tended to sway towards socialism and communism, until socialism and communism became predominant. Then, it's a different story once the realization sets in that government doesn't produce a thing and ultimately becomes the entity that decides winners & losers on an arbitrary basis depending on the politics of the day.
When it comes to "jobs", someone has to unplug the stopped-up toilet, have the tools & know-how, and the inclination to do the job. Someone has to farm, have the tools & know-how, and the inclination to do the job. Someone has to produce gasoline and vehicles, have the tools & know-how, and the inclination to do the job.
Sitting on one's ass in a tenured position in the ivory tower and spouting doctrinaire bullcrap has been over-valued long enough that there is a large segment of young'uns who are going to have a rude awakening. Damn, I sound like my old man did.
I knew it would happen.
The elephant in the room that everyone dances around saying is the simple word LAZY.
I heard this argument 100 years ago.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
I'm sure.
It's been a pretty violent 100 years.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
Not remarkably so.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
The banks would be having a very tough time if they couldn't create money and had to depend on service fees. Front-running their own clients must be getting tougher too. Muppets. Never forget.
I knew it would happen.
Maybe you should read an earnings report to see how banks make money.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
There are two things that remain the same.... Change and doomsayers.... Life goes on... Cheers, RickO