Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Edison on Gold: Fictitious Value & Superstition

From this New York Times article:

"All of the wealth in the world, according to our present standards, may be rendered worthless, by the discovery that gold can be made synthetically."
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"That is one way to do it - make it so plentiful that it drowns its fictitious value and drowns the superstition of the people along with it." - Thomas Edison

New York Times article - 1921
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Here are some related posts that may be of some interest:
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-Munger on Buying Gold
-Thomas Edison on Gold
-Grantham on Gold: The "Faith-based Metal"
-Buffett: Forget Gold, Buy Stocks
-Gold vs Productive Assets
-Grantham: Gold is "Last Refuge of the Desperate"
-Why Buffett's Not a Big Fan of Gold

Gold is not a productive asset.

A good business certainly is.

To me, it makes sense to own productive assets with the long haul in mind. This, of course, includes partial ownership of a good business via common stocks.

Adam

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