OK, but is a similar devaluation conceivable, today?

And if it's such a bad investment, why are central banks buying up gold?

Sure, it's down to demand.

Central Banks don't have a clue, they were mostly heavy sellers around $300.
Unless there is going to be high inflation then Gold is not going to be a good investment, long term interest rates tell you that inflation is unlikely.

Gold is still well below it's peak price in late 2011 in USD & CHF

The question is also if there is still a correlation between inflation and interest rates.


Would central banks actually raise interest rates if there was significant inflation? Could they, without risking to bankrupt their country?
Or the EU in case of the ECB?

I don't know, but I'd rather invest in money printers than in gold

I don't think we'll ever see the kind of money-printing we know from the history-books (Weimar-style) or from recent history (Zimbabwe) with any Western country.

Oh man! Exactly then when statements like this are made is when the chances of it happening are greatest.

why not? we already have QE maybe the next thing they will try is helicopter money?

maybe print money and UBI it, or forgive student loans, give tax breaks or free medical insurance.

inequality is increasing. populism is increasing. surely only a matter of time before a politician responds to this?

1646 per OZ

It was higher in both 2011 & 2013 in CHF & 2013 in USD thats hardly what I call a good investment v something like Fundsmith.

Doing fine so far smart ass

It's interesting that in this market, everything is going down, even gold.

Does that make sense?

It's perhaps again a question of "Is it still a market"?

Sure, you can't eat gold, if 100 million Old people die then there will be a lot less buyers of gold, probably lots of sellers.

Cash at times is King, gold is just a speculative investment with it's price based on sentiment & nothing else.

Looking back in history gold lost 13% in 1 day Jan 21 1980, 10% on 24 August 2011 & 14% over 2 days in Feb 1983.

gold also went down right after the 2008 crisis as holders had to sell it to cover losses and create lquidity

the explanation I hear is that many holders of gold had other investments in stocks and bonds for example that hit margin calls and therefore they had to sell some gold to cover the margin calls.

looks like my crystal ball was working

I wonder what this means for gold and silver prices in the near future?

Watch this video presentation with Andrew Maguire starting at the 22:00 mark and pay close attention.

Gold Chart: In Pounds since 2000 a 9 Bagger

Chards (the coins people) sent me an email recently saying that in pounds gold had surpassed its previous all-time-high.
You may have to adjust the time and currency in the chart above but since 2000 in GBP gold is a nine-bagger. Holy Moly!

In reality does this only indicate how paper currencies have been inflated by excessive monetary expansion (money printing)?

Well below 1980 price in £ or USD after inflation, a double in 40 years let me think thats less than 2% compound, I suspect a Bank deposit would have performed better as interest rates were very high then.

Nowadays many central banks have fixed interest rates at or below zero. Since the interest rate can be seen as the cost of fiat currency. That means that paper currency is worth ummmm nothing. I wonder what that might mean for gold, the only real money, when currencies are worth nothing.
Something divided by nothing = infinity

Gold has holding costs, safe keeping & Insurance so has always had a negative interest rate