Gold Is Money Because It Is Plentiful, Not Because It Is Scarce

[JohnnyFactor]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis ... is-scarce/

snippets:
"It is easy to see that “supply and demand” issues that affect copper and wheat have no effect on gold. You could double the annual mine supply, or cut it in half, with little overall effect."

"When you see that gold is simply a measure of value, you don’t have to pile it up in vaults. There is always enough. Indeed, it is gold’s abundance–the accumulation over decades and centuries–that helps it serve its role."

[boglerdude]

Tempted to buy miners, but it's terrible for the environment.

Are there any that focus on essentials like copper, with gold as a side effect. Id feel better about that

[JohnnyFactor]

There are mining companies who go the extra mile in environmentally conscious practices. Newmont Mining Corp. is one of them. http://www.newmont.com/home/default.aspx

There is also the Dow Jones Sustainability Index if you just want to buy them all. http://www.sustainability-indices.com/

[Kbg]

Planet Money did a podcast on why gold as money a couple of years back. It is one of my favorite podcasts ever. It was semi-humorous/serious and basically they had, I think, a chemist go through all the elements on the periodic table and narrow down the elements that could potentially be money. Listen to the full podcast...very entertaining.


http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/ ... insteinium

(turns out the guy was a chemical engineer)

[dualstow]

Tempted to buy miners, but it's terrible for the environment.

Are there any that focus on essentials like copper, with gold as a side effect. Id feel better about that

Besides the environment, there's the human strife. Copper is not on the "conflict minerals" list, but was mentioned often in this article about cobalt that I read this morning.

The cobalt pipeline: From dangerous tunnels in Congo to consumers’ mobile tech
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic- ... story.html
or
http://wapo.st/2dspMIo

[MachineGhost]

Fortunately, there's a colbalt mine underway in Idaho. It'll produce about 1,500 tons a year once it gets operational in a few years.