What Is Gold Really Worth?

Gold is worth the same as it’s always been. A high quality custom tailored men’s suit.

If I had gold, I would take what I can get now and run. It’s going to drop like a rock this summer.

Gold won’t be worth more than copper when my team completes it’s atomic compositor and generates pure gold from simple raw materials. You have been warned.

give me a pound of gold and I will give you a pound of suits.

At this moment, about $1490.00.

Gold won’t be worth more than copper when my team completes it’s atomic compositor and generates pure gold from simple raw materials. You have been warned.

Bernanke(BurnYankee) can do on a scale what no alchemist dared dreamed.

"Gold is worth the same as it’s always been. A high quality custom tailored men’s suit."

That's a ridiculous myth pushed by gold salesmen.

The price of men's suits have not gone up 620% in the past 10 years. And in the 1980's the price of men's suits didn't suddenly jump to $860 only to fall back to half of that 3 months later.

Good quality men’s suit $1460.00

http://www.bluefly.com/Armani-Mens-Suits/_/N-1z140jiZ7qkZapt8/designerslist.fly?referer=Rmsn&cm_mmc=EF-_-MSN-_-Sui_D_A_Arman_M-_-Dynamic&ef_id=TLGrqgqoEGMAACPE8aQAABco:20110512141415:s

Whatever one can get for it.

We are not talking about a J C Penny suit.

"We are not talking about a J C Penny suit."

We are not talking about any man's suit ever made.

The only suit that the price of gold actually tracks would be a man's suit made out of gold itself.

See Post 10

Rather than a man’s suit, I would use a loaf of bread.
With bread you could go back a 1000 years if you wanted.

What was the cost of a loaf of bread when we were on the gold standard and you could pay for it with gold?

What is the cost of a loaf of bread today?
This would be the same amount gold as above.
Cost of Bread / Amount of Gold.

I may do this today if I have a chance.

Like duh.
Everything is on the internet.

Go here.

http://www.coins-auctioned.com/docs/coin-articles/history-of-gold-ounce-price-comparison-to-a-loaf-of-bread

In the late 50’s you could buy a gallon of gas for a couple of silver dimes. Today you can buy a gallon of gas for a couple of silver dimes and get change. Yes, I know you would have to stop at a coin store on the way to convert it. I have no interst in selling gold or silver, but denial is not good for your pocket book. I don’t understand the emotional reaction some have to the mention of gold or silver.

Your comment will go down in history as THE textbook example of a MISSED POINT!

Here’s another that I’m certain will totally elude you: With the “dollar” (actually a Rederal Reserve Accounting Unit Denominator or F.R.A.U.D.) currently at 1/33rd of an oz. of SILVER, gas is now selling for around $.20 a gallon — IN PRE ‘65 90% SILVER DIMES!

Contrary to popular belief, gold has very little intrinsic value.

Gold won’t be worth more than copper . . .

This is the key issue. What makes gold valuable? If it's just because we decide that it's valuable - that is, if it's just because we use it as a medium of exchange - then it's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. There is no inherent value in the medium of exchange, only what it can get for you. That's why 'paper' dollars were 'worth as much' as silver dollars when they first came out.

It would be as logical to tie the value of the dollar to some fraction of the cost of 1 carat diamonds, or of anything else that is durable and sufficiently rare that the supply can be controlled, yet not so rare that there aren't enough of them to go around as the exchange medium.

Gold is intrinsically valuable because it does not corrode, is essentially impervious to solvents, is malleable enough to be worked easily, and shines up nicely. These features would make it useful for jewelry and some electronic applications even if it weren't used as an financial reference. In that light, it is exactly the right question to ask whether gold is "worth" more or less than copper, which is a better conductor (an inherent value) but not as resistant to corrosion or solvents.

Any 'value' statement other than intrinsic utility is artificial. Changing from one artificial way to measure value (things like commodity price of gold that is based solely on what people will pay for it), to another artificial measure (linking the dollar to the price of gold where the value is still essentially what people will pay for it), doesn't really change anything.

Linking the value of the dollar to an array of items of intrinsic value, like a specific quality car, or a specific quality men's suit, or a loaf of bread, or a gallon of gasoline would make more sense, except . . . that's what we do now.

However, there is one other key issue where dollars are different. You can print as many of them as you choose. Since the potential supply is infinite, there is nothing that can make the demand (the actual value) stable. The reason gold is trading for so much today is because there are so many dollars available to spend on gold. The reason it's an inflation hedge is because people think the government is going to make a lot more dollars without a corresponding increase in the number of gallons of gasoline, or men's suits, or loaves of bread. The reason it might make sense to link it to gold is that then you couldn't just print as many as you want (or else people would just use them to buy the more-or-less fixed quantity of gold), but if gold is overvalued right now (and I think it is) then we'd be better off linking it to something that has a more rational price in comparison to things of intrinsic value.