Back when there had been a gold boom, there was talk about how gold is the only "real" currency, along with maybe silver or others. The idea is that gold retains its own valye on its own, and paper currency is merely bubble driven? The impression I have is that gold was somehow immune to bubbles, because of its limited quantities, and that alone was sufficient to make it retain value.
Well, I see this...
http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/15/investing/gold-prices-china/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
There is currently a selling off of gold and the price is plumeting. It seems, based on this, that gold itself can be subject to bubbles. I don't see really a strong need for gold, unless it is in the tech industry, so it seems to me, its price is as affected by bubbles as anything else.
In this, I am not saying that just mindlessly printing currency and flooding the market with it, is good, nor can you keep borrowing indefinitely. Just that it seems like just telling people to "buy gold" isn't really a lock for anything, since there isn't much practical use for gold. I can see productive land being of value though, as in transferable skills and tools of production, and even raw materials (say water), but gold?
So, what exactly, outside of prettiness and scarcity (and uses in some high tech arries) is supposed to make gold this slam dunk of security to retain value? Heck, there is only one of me. That doesn't mean that I owning me means that you are insured of retaining your value against inflation.
