Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Gold

I was reading the other day that the price of gold is up to $1600/oz. and that in these times of economic uncertainty gold is an excellent investment. I'm no investment guru and it is entirely possible that this is true. However, it makes no sense to me. Here's why. First, I am inherently suspicious of anything endorsed by Glenn Beck. Second, if there is an economic catastrophe and everyone loses their money, what exactly do you do with your gold? As far as I can tell the idea of investing in gold is to hold onto it and sell it when the price goes up, just as you would with a stock. However, if everyone loses their money in a market crash, to whom are you going to sell your gold? It seems to me that in that case the gold would be essentially worthless unless you (A) know how to make jewelry (B) are familiar with gold's unique chemical properties and plan on doing some interesting chemistry or (C) plan on turning your gold into a pagan deity that can somehow solve the economic crisis and heal the markets thereby restoring the value of your gold. Now as I explained earlier, I am not familiar with many investment strategies and it could very well be that my skepticism is completely misguided. But I refuse to do any research for a blog post that nobody is going to read.

In closing, I have always wondered where all this gold is that people are buying. Fort Knox? Tenochtitlan? Also, if you buy one million dollars worth of gold can you have it sent to your house? Does it come in bricks, coins or nuggets? Glenn, I'm confused. Help me!