Can we stick a fork in the idea that Gold and Crypto are a hedge against inflation?

[Bootb]

@Little_Nemo

There’s also the issue of how good an economic standard a suit of clothes is. In the nineteenth century, producing cloth and then making a suit out of it required a significant amount of hand labor. In the twentieth-first century, much of that labor is mechanized. So it’s far easier and “cheaper” to produce a suit of cloth today than it was two hundred years ago.

If gold was holding a steady value and a gold coin bought a suit of cloth in the nineteenth century, then you would expect the same gold coin to buy several suits in the twenty-first century. If gold coins and suits of cloth have maintained a one-to-one equivalence, it’s a sign that the value of gold has been declining alongside the value of suits.

And yet, despite the advances in textile manufacturing, it costs $500 to buy a single sport coat.

BOSS Slim Fit Virgin Wool Sport Coat | Nordstrom

(Spoiler alert) The cost of manufacturing is far from the only variable in the final price.

[Chronos]

It can cost that much to buy a sport coat. Or it can cost much more or less, as @Little_Nemo pointed out.

[Kedikat]

Gold along with many other hard commodities has been shifted in ever higher percentage to the softer fuzzy realms of the market. You can buy and sell gold that does not exist yet, if it ever will. Gold is “loaned” sometimes in multiples. You can buy gold “certificates” that may not actually be redeemable on demand. Hard commodities are not so hard anymore, if you read the fine print or bother to find out what you are buying actually represents.

Crypto is an even fuzzier wilder realm. It is also very open to outright scamming and theft. Completely unattached to any hard valuation. If you delve into Crypto, keep it in your own wallet!

At the moment, with the Ukraine Russian war and it’s associated sanctions, there is a change going on. Real, in stock on hand or at least, in the ground commodities are being revealed to be wait for it… Real! Of real value now and going forward.

You cannot heat your home, fire your forges, run your factories, without real commodities and energy. Burning your paper representations of them does not work. Crypto is also prone to inflation. And you can’t even burn it for warmth or wipe your ass with it until converted to Fiat.

It seems that countries with the most commodities that we need are doing the best right now. Those commodities do not evaporate at the whim of the markets. Their current value might change in relation to fiat, but they continue to exist. We continue to need them.

I feel that we are going to a system where national currencies will be valued by that nations real commodities. So maybe start playing the FX market with an eye to that. Put any gains into hard commodities.

[RickJay]

@Dewey_Finn

I remember someone here who regularly trotted out the argument that gold never changes in value. As an example, she said something about how in the nineteenth century, you could buy a suit of clothes for a gold coin and you still can today.

This is a very old claim - that an ounce of gold has always been worth a good suit of clothes.

Obviously, this claim is meaningless, since “A good suit of clothes” is itself a wholly subjective claim. Right now an ounce of gold is worth $1670. That is a REALLY nice suit; most men will never own a suit that expensive. If an ounce of gold drops to $1000, is the claim still false? $1000 will still buy you a very nice suit.

That said, it is generally true that over a very long period of time, gold is fairly stable, which makes sense, because

1. Very little gold, relatively speaking, is added to the world supply on an ongoing basis, and
2. It’s more or less perfect as a precious metal.

[leahcim]

@Bootb

And yet, despite the advances in textile manufacturing, it costs $500 to buy a single sport coat.

Or it can cost quite a bit less: https://youtu.be/HjgSBJdtrcc?t=453

[RickJay]

@Bootb

And yet, despite the advances in textile manufacturing, it costs $500 to buy a single sport coat.

No, it costs $500 to buy THAT sport coat.

[Ann_Hedonia]

[quote=“Bootb, post:41, topic:973720, full:true”]

@Little_Nemo

And yet, despite the advances in textile manufacturing, it costs $500 to buy a single sport coat.

BOSS Slim Fit Virgin Wool Sport Coat | Nordstrom

(Spoiler alert) The cost of manufacturing is far from the only variable in the final price.

You aren’t just paying for a sport coat, you’re paying for the prestige of wearing a coat made by a Nazi.

[Pardel-Lux]

Many interesting answers, thanks: I agree with the fork hypothesis too, and express that in a nutshell as: believe in gold is fetishism, bitcoin is a scam.
It’s nice to have more historical details and background for a serious discusssion, if that is the aim. But for the just mentioned “honest yeoman” the short version should suffice. He will not believe you anyway.

@kayaker

Plot twist: she was not!

You should have known that! (Yes, I had to be taught that too…)