Warren Buffet's latest thoughts on gold

[Bossobass]

Wow.

Acreage does not produce anything but weeds. You have to clear, till, fertilize, sow, water, spray pesticide, weed, reap, haul, refine the crop and after all of that, be at the mercy of a manipulated market price.

Or...

You have to explore, confirm, illegally invade, instal puppets, pay the puppets, influence government debt for infrastructure, start wars, assassinate, drill, build pipelines, barrel, ship, seek tax havens and corporate welfare, hire lobbyists, get in bed with central bankers and manipulate your market.

Or...

Buy and hold gold whilst laying on a hammock, sipping lemonade some place where it's warm.

I'm wondering where they're hiding the millions of acres of dirt and billions of barrels of oil in this vault?



Bosso

[QE Is Theft]

Gold is money not an investment.

What his newsletter shows to me is that Buffet is completely clueless as to what money is, how it comes about and what is a good money. All he does it look for an investment in which he almost correctly recognizes gold is not a good one but should have recognized it's not one at all.

He understands what gold is, but is an elitist, intentionally misleading the hoards who take his words as gospel.

I'm sure if you were to look in the oracles (or better to say, "the insiders") personal safe, one would find 400 ounce LBMA bars stacked from floor to ceiling.

EDIT: Bosso, you beat me too it.

Buffet knows the fiat paper money system is epically fucked up.

Subsequently, you can bet he's taking no chances, and has plan G well in place.

[Jordan]

Anyone who says Buffett doesn't understand inflation obviously hasn't taken the time to understand his investment approach. Graham, Buffett's biggest influence, wrote one of the most important books for modern finance that starts out IN THE VERY FIRST PAGES about the movement from gold to fiat currency. Later, Graham notes that the long-term investor should buy only companies that can withstand inflation by passing on the costs - businesses that can grow the cost of their product at a rate faster than that of the costs to produce said product.

Gold investors win big in only one circumstance: gold becomes money. In the event that gold does not become money, any amount "stored" in bullion merely allows for inflation-protection occasionally. Gold does not move in a straight line with inflation even over the most intermediate of terms. From the days of the Roman empire to the modern day, gold may have kept pace with inflation and withheld its purchasing power, but none of us will have the privilege to live thousands of years.

Gold has value in the sense that you can exchange it for other things that have value. If gold becomes currency, I hope you know that you will need exchange it for goods produced by the Buffett conglomerate - insurance from Geico, gasoline and oil from ConocoPhilips, candies from See's Candy, and basic goods from Johnson and Johnson.

I don't know why his thesis is so difficult to comprehend. If anything, he's thinking only one step further than most posters here.

[Revolution9]

Wow.

Acreage does not produce anything but weeds. You have to clear, till, fertilize, sow, water, spray pesticide, weed, reap, haul, refine the crop and after all of that, be at the mercy of a manipulated market price.

Or...

You have to explore, confirm, illegally invade, instal puppets, pay the puppets, influence government debt for infrastructure, start wars, assassinate, drill, build pipelines, barrel, ship, seek tax havens and corporate welfare, hire lobbyists, get in bed with central bankers and manipulate your market.

Or...

Buy and hold gold whilst laying on a hammock, sipping lemonade some place where it's warm.

I'm wondering where they're hiding the millions of acres of dirt and billions of barrels of oil in this vault?



Bosso

And land can go fallow through improper crop usage or rotation. New forms of propulsion can make petroleum based fuels obsolete, whilst the latest graphene and carbon nanostructures may make many forms of plastic obsolete making crude oil a big mess and not worth much. Less folks drink Coke daily and the history of commerce is rife with products that failed due to societies changes. Gold will be used more and more in microelectronics as even though it is third in conductivity behind silver then copper, it can be extruded into 20 molecule diameter wires for microchips. Even if we went to laser optical computing based on graphene transistors and germanium doped laser we would still have to wire the internal outputs to inputs with as tiny a wire as could be manufactured.

This clown Buffet ain't too smart of a pontificator. His musings extend as far as the cheque in the mailbox that week.

Rev9

[The Gold Standard]

Gold isn't an investment. It is money that holds its value. Dollars are money that lose their value. If you would rather invest your dollars in something you think will make more money than you are losing by using dollars, then go for it.

[cubical]

Anyone who says Buffett doesn't understand inflation obviously hasn't taken the time to understand his investment approach. Graham, Buffett's biggest influence, wrote one of the most important books for modern finance that starts out IN THE VERY FIRST PAGES about the movement from gold to fiat currency. Later, Graham notes that the long-term investor should buy only companies that can withstand inflation by passing on the costs - businesses that can grow the cost of their product at a rate faster than that of the costs to produce said product.

Gold investors win big in only one circumstance: gold becomes money. In the event that gold does not become money, any amount "stored" in bullion merely allows for inflation-protection occasionally. Gold does not move in a straight line with inflation even over the most intermediate of terms. From the days of the Roman empire to the modern day, gold may have kept pace with inflation and withheld its purchasing power, but none of us will have the privilege to live thousands of years.

Gold has value in the sense that you can exchange it for other things that have value. If gold becomes currency, I hope you know that you will need exchange it for goods produced by the Buffett conglomerate - insurance from Geico, gasoline and oil from ConocoPhilips, candies from See's Candy, and basic goods from Johnson and Johnson.

I don't know why his thesis is so difficult to comprehend. If anything, he's thinking only one step further than most posters here.

He gets slammed because he always compares gold to one thing and that is production. He like to say things like "some one digs it up and you buy it from them then it sits in a vault and 10 years later you open your vault and you still have that same gold sitting there". Of course gold will not produce you anything, but neither will paper and that is how he should properly compare different forms of money. And I don't think he understands inflation, though that is because I have never heard him give a good reason for it or the problems that it causes. Those who I do believe get it will always speak of it because of its importance.

Gold already is money.

[cubical]

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com...gold-from.html

Robert Wenzal deconstructs Buffet's statements.

[matt0611]

Anyone who says Buffett doesn't understand inflation obviously hasn't taken the time to understand his investment approach. Graham, Buffett's biggest influence, wrote one of the most important books for modern finance that starts out IN THE VERY FIRST PAGES about the movement from gold to fiat currency. Later, Graham notes that the long-term investor should buy only companies that can withstand inflation by passing on the costs - businesses that can grow the cost of their product at a rate faster than that of the costs to produce said product.

Gold investors win big in only one circumstance: gold becomes money. In the event that gold does not become money, any amount "stored" in bullion merely allows for inflation-protection occasionally. Gold does not move in a straight line with inflation even over the most intermediate of terms. From the days of the Roman empire to the modern day, gold may have kept pace with inflation and withheld its purchasing power, but none of us will have the privilege to live thousands of years.

Gold has value in the sense that you can exchange it for other things that have value. If gold becomes currency, I hope you know that you will need exchange it for goods produced by the Buffett conglomerate - insurance from Geico, gasoline and oil from ConocoPhilips, candies from See's Candy, and basic goods from Johnson and Johnson.

I don't know why his thesis is so difficult to comprehend. If anything, he's thinking only one step further than most posters here.

Um, no, just no. Buffet compares buying gold to buying tulips in a tulip bubble and claims that the people buying gold require "the ranks of the fearful to grow".

He's completely ignorant on issues of money and why people value gold to begin with. He's not a step further than anyone who understand the value of gold and why its rising.

I feel much safer owning gold than I do shares of berkshire hathaway, thats for sure.

[hazek]

I don't know why his thesis is so difficult to comprehend. If anything, he's thinking only one step further than most posters here.

How is investing and gambling to potentially lose your investment one step further from what the rest of us here are talking about - saving?

You either spend, save or invest. I think it's you and Buffet who have difficulties comprehending our view points.

[Arklatex]

Funny story, I'd read the book "A Dweller on Two Planets" or perhaps "Atlas Shrugged"