why does gold have so much value now that it’s not propping any currencies?
In: Economics
Mostly because central banks the world over are financially ultra-conservative and motivated by keeping things stable more than anything else.
If I had any gold, I would sell it because it’s useless to own and a bad investment. Central banks don’t sell, they sit on their gold because that’s what they have always done, and they are not sure if letting gold prices collapse might cause some other issues.
Because people want to own it. Gold does have some intrinsic value – people use it for jewelry and electronics and stuff. But most of the movement in the overall price of gold is due to demand from investors. People want to buy gold because it is an extremely safe long-term wealth storage prospect. Gold that you buy now will not necessarily be worth more in 10 years, like some other investments, but it is guaranteed that it will be worth *something* because of the nature of gold. So people often buy gold when other investments look very risky and they’re worried about the future.
Partly because people love shiny things, partly for historical reasons. But mostly because people love shiny things.
Gold has intrinsic value because it’s shiny and hard to get.
Why is its value going up? Because of the ratio of gold to other stuff to trade for gold. Back in gold rush Alaska there was lots of gold, but not so much building supplies, so you’d trade a nugget for nails. Now there’s not much gold and tons of building supplies so your nugget would get you truckloads of nails.
Kind of the same with currency. Now that they make currency out of thin air, the ratio of gold to $ is always shrinking.
So, why does it have any value? Shiny, rare
Why so much compared to other stuff? Ratios
The reason that money used to be linked to gold is because gold already had value. Additionally there was a limited supply so the total amount was pretty stable which is important for currencies.
Gold didn’t really gain any extra value because currencies were backed by it. It is shiny, malleable and doesn’t corrode. It is also a good electrical conductor.
Same reason Beanie Babies and Pez dispensers have value: because enough people believe someone else will value it more in the future. Plus added bonus of being transformed in shape without changing chemisty.
But mostly speculation based on historical value and marketing toward boomers and MAGAs.
Gold has value because it’s an excellent store of value, and being a good store of value is one of the important characteristics of money, hence why gold was used as money a lot historically.
Gold is a good store or value not because it’s shiny, or because it’s used in electronics or jewellery, but because it’s scarce.
If a society adopts a new form of money e.g copper then demand for copper increases. This incentivises new copper miners to begin working which increases the supply of copper and depresses the price. Thereby eroding the wealth of those who store their wealth in copper.
Because gold is the scarcest inert metal it was chosen by savers because they could be confident that there wouldn’t be a substancial increase in the gold supply which would reduce gold prices
Its worth noting so silver was the more common ‘currency metal’ for much of history. For instance the UK was on the gold standard for about 70 years but the name of their currency reflects the fact that for centuries you at least theoretically trade your 1 pound note for 1 pound if silver.
The discovery of the Americas by Europe and the influx of silver that resulted caused hyper-inflation in Spain. Hyper for it’s time anyway; > 1.5% per annum.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution
Basically it’s a psychological holdover from when gold was currency. People who don’t like the idea of fiat currency need something to peg their money too and gold did the job for so long that its natural to think about going back to it.
If enough people feel this way it then is valuable.
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