Krugman: Spend Now, Save Later

[Sqrl]

Final-Fan said:

richardhutnik said:

You use gold and silver in economies AS money.  The thing is that, when markets break down, and people can't trust anything, and get basic goods and services, they want food and clothing.  They don't want gold or silver.  You can historically see what happens, from Katrina onward, and even the Soviet Empire.  People bartered goods and services.

Watch this:

That guy was all over the map.  He gave average inflation of gold over the last 180 years, and last 7 years, but not the inflation rate for those periods.  And he gave us the average inflation over the last 70 years, but not for gold.  WTF, that is almost worthless information and he tries to use it to say gold doesn't do as well?  Or is he just saying that even if gold does do as well over the long term it will fluctuate vs. the monetary inflation rate?  I don't even know. 

And yeah, do you know why people in post-Katrina New Orleans weren't buying water bottles with gold?  Cause gold is fucking expensive.  If all you had was $1000 bills, I wouldn't go buying candy bars with them.  And who runs around carrying gold nuggets anyway. 

Yeah, as someone who likes Dave, and thinks he usually gives some pretty solid advice to some pretty stupid people who need it...that was not one of his shining moments.

I'll admit I haven't looked close at this gold thing at all, but I know a apples to oranges argument when I see it and comparing three periods of massively different length and drawing any sort of conclusion from it is iffy at the very best.