China is the world's largest producer of the precious metal, but of late its central bank has been buying up large quantities. So what is it doing with it?
Does gold still have the same value it used to? When it was first used people put value on “oooh, shiny rock, it must be precious”, but now is it really that valuable? It sounds like they’re hoarding it because they think it’s useful as a currency, but if things got bad would other countries care about it?
Gold is agreed upon as a store of value. There’s always someone willing to buy it. You’re right that its intrinsic value as a material is lower than the actual price but people’s belief in gold is the same as their belief in a fiat currency.
The difference is that gold is a physical asset, so that no matter what the rate of inflation or the fluctuation of the market price if you have a tonne of gold you will always have that tonne.
Also it is not administered by a central bank with a political agenda.
Lastly gold is rare and finite. Eventually there will be no more gold to be mined.
I think the fact that it’s very chemically stable is likely a factor as well so it can be stored for effectively an infinite amount of time & it won’t degrade/react, it’ll still be gold.
@lanigerous@Spendrill It’s also very conductive. It’s not an accident that gold is used in high-quality electronic contacts like cable ends or card edges.
The price of gold fluctuates though. And it could potentially devalue significantly if a new source is discovered or a new method of mining or extracting it (such as filtering it from seawater) is developed.
So yes, if you have a tonne of gold, you will always have that tonne, but it could lose, say, 20% of its value quickly.
It could indeed and has done so in the past. But the thing about it is that the price always recovers because people believe it will always be valuable. It’s the belief that endures and because people will always pay for what they believe to be valuable the value of gold as a currency endures. Also the retail value of gold remains high as the single largest application is jewellerySource page So there’s a conflation of the value of the labour that goes into making jewellery, adding value and in some cases the value of the piece will take that gold permanently out of circulation for use as currency e.g. the Mask of Agamemnon
Until we can successfully mine asteroids, and then all precious metals will have nigh infinite supplies. I suspect we’re not too many decades away from that.
About 10% of gold usage is in technology. This has been steady for many years. Jewelry and Investments can trade off. But yeah, basically its just mostly values because its a rare shiny rock.
It tends to go up in value during chaotic times as people use it to insulate their savings from the economy when they are expecting regular currencies or economies to crash.
And it will likely keep doing so, as while in the past gold reserves only dropped when gold was lost (like ye old Spanish ship going down in the Ocean) against its natural increase of continued mining, these days, gold is also used in quite a lot of applications where it becomes impractical to recover after being discarded.
And this removal of gold reserves will only keep increasing with the increase of its uses in technology.
So, yeah, its value is almost assured to stay very solid and monopolizing the worlds gold also gives you a degree of control over technology markets.
Markets where the west has typically kept China behind the curve.
It gives them leverage, economical and technological.
Does gold still have the same value it used to? When it was first used people put value on “oooh, shiny rock, it must be precious”, but now is it really that valuable? It sounds like they’re hoarding it because they think it’s useful as a currency, but if things got bad would other countries care about it?
Gold is agreed upon as a store of value. There’s always someone willing to buy it. You’re right that its intrinsic value as a material is lower than the actual price but people’s belief in gold is the same as their belief in a fiat currency.
The difference is that gold is a physical asset, so that no matter what the rate of inflation or the fluctuation of the market price if you have a tonne of gold you will always have that tonne.
Also it is not administered by a central bank with a political agenda.
Lastly gold is rare and finite. Eventually there will be no more gold to be mined.
I think the fact that it’s very chemically stable is likely a factor as well so it can be stored for effectively an infinite amount of time & it won’t degrade/react, it’ll still be gold.
Very good point.
@lanigerous @Spendrill It’s also very conductive. It’s not an accident that gold is used in high-quality electronic contacts like cable ends or card edges.
Not if i shove it in the good old fusion reactor
Yeah, it’s more than just “shiny good”
Historically, the value of gold was tied to its “incorruptibility”. It is associated with purity and permanence.
The price of gold fluctuates though. And it could potentially devalue significantly if a new source is discovered or a new method of mining or extracting it (such as filtering it from seawater) is developed.
So yes, if you have a tonne of gold, you will always have that tonne, but it could lose, say, 20% of its value quickly.
It could indeed and has done so in the past. But the thing about it is that the price always recovers because people believe it will always be valuable. It’s the belief that endures and because people will always pay for what they believe to be valuable the value of gold as a currency endures. Also the retail value of gold remains high as the single largest application is jewellery Source page So there’s a conflation of the value of the labour that goes into making jewellery, adding value and in some cases the value of the piece will take that gold permanently out of circulation for use as currency e.g. the Mask of Agamemnon
Oh, look! An asteroid made almost entirely out of gold! T’would be a shame if someone were to mine it…
Just back a transit van up to it, hack a lump off with a pneumatic drill, sling it in the back, we’ll be back by teatime.
Until we can successfully mine asteroids, and then all precious metals will have nigh infinite supplies. I suspect we’re not too many decades away from that.
About 10% of gold usage is in technology. This has been steady for many years. Jewelry and Investments can trade off. But yeah, basically its just mostly values because its a rare shiny rock.
It tends to go up in value during chaotic times as people use it to insulate their savings from the economy when they are expecting regular currencies or economies to crash.
If things got bad they’d have the advantage as gold is a much more trustworthy investment than unbacked currencies
Yup there’s a reason why the US holding them in Fort Knox
Its value has kept increasing over time.
And it will likely keep doing so, as while in the past gold reserves only dropped when gold was lost (like ye old Spanish ship going down in the Ocean) against its natural increase of continued mining, these days, gold is also used in quite a lot of applications where it becomes impractical to recover after being discarded.
And this removal of gold reserves will only keep increasing with the increase of its uses in technology.
So, yeah, its value is almost assured to stay very solid and monopolizing the worlds gold also gives you a degree of control over technology markets.
Markets where the west has typically kept China behind the curve.
It gives them leverage, economical and technological.