After being mentioned in many other posts here, I would like to talk about gold a bit.
I have a friend. He is a certified financial planner, and my advisor. He is a high school graduating classmate of my wife. He has the longest running unsyndicated talk show in the United States, being on the air longer than Rush Limbaugh. He is soon to syndicate if he has not done so by now. The man knows his stuff.
We were visiting him, and the discussion of gold came up. He said people would use it as a hedge, but he pointed out its impracticalities.
First, there's the ever present practice of fraud. Just like Josh, the deaf mute in San Francisco who would take a nickel and coat it with gold, and get five dollars worth of goods, there would be potential for fraud. And every transaction would have to test the gold.
How would one receive change from a purchase?
The places that dealt in gold, or took gold as a medium of exchange would have to set up heavy security, adding cost to an already bloated financial situation. People who went to these places for purchases would be marked as having gold and subject to hijacking.
If society ever got that bad, a person having gold would have to become a recluse, or just bunker in, and defend his pile with weaponry.
You can't eat gold.
Some of Al's thoughts. I thought he would say what a great way to go.
Steve