Gold stops cheaters - Gold stocks are investments.
- Gold bullion is money.
What is money
Money is a token of exchange that commands the delivery of goods, services, or labor. Money's strength is driven by trust in its "value stability" i.e., its ability to command roughly the same goods, services or labor of the long term. Gold is an agreed upon vehicle to carry that long term value.
Why gold is better than paper money as carrier of value
- Governments often accumulate debt because they want to get re-elected. They are in a conflict of interest because they both control the printing presses while being a market participant in that they are the biggest debtor in the economy; an economy which is dependent on the value and stability of money.
- Gold is international, has no nationality. Gold can't be printed to satisfy the needs of any single market participant in a conflict of interest.
- Gold is not always better however, it can be an equal to some currencies. Some countries do protect the stability of their currency and ensure it is valued as a function of true national production. The US, Japan and Britain are most definitely not in that category.
Why gold and not something else e.g.., seashells, platinum, cotton, bitcoins, etc?
- Chemically, it is unaffected by air, moisture and most corrosive reagents.
- Gold requires little storage space.
- Gold is physical. It is yours to anonymously hoard if you so choose. You worked for that purchasing power, you deserve to protect that purchasing power.
- New gold is hard/expensive to extract from the ground thus the "gold money supply" is stabler than fiat (which remember can have powerful governments in a conflict of interest controlling a printing press).