We Are in the Early Stages of an Inflationary Depression
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Egon von Greyerz
America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, said that “Paper is poverty, it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself.”
He also said that gold would preserve its own level. Gold is constant purchasing power; it doesn’t go up in real terms. An ounce of gold today buys a good suit for a man just as it did in Roman times.
All currencies continue to lose value against real money, although it never takes place in a straight line. With higher interest rates and inflation, higher deficits and debts, poverty, wars and pressure within the financial system, currency debasement will now accelerate.
Gold is not an investment; it is eternal money. As such, gold maintains its real value, whereas paper money loses all its value over time. For 5,000 years gold has outlived all other forms of money, including paper money.
Every paper currency in history has gone to zero, with no exceptions. The current monetary system is taking its last breaths. With the US dollar and most currencies having lost 99% since the Fed was founded in 1913 and 98% since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971, it is guaranteed that the remaining 1-2% will be lost in the next few years.
But that tiny 1-2% going to zero means a 100% fall from today.
Anyone who doesn’t understand that is guaranteed to lose all their paper wealth within the next 5-10 years, and possibly sooner.
Up for discussion: “Intrinsic and universal value, it can never die in our hands”; “surest source of reliance in time of war”; inflation; commodity shortages; growth of global debt and money supply; nobody owns gold; gold on the cusp of a major move; so when will gold go up; and gold as cheap as in 1971 and 2000.