One of the hazards of writing stories critical of Israel is that such posts may attract links from conservative "conspiracy" sites. While following one such link, I saw another article on the all-too-familiar theme of Why You Must Invest in Gold.
What is it with right-wing paranoids and their obsession with precious metals?
NOW HEAR THIS: I am not not not not NOT talking about the present financial situation, and I will not print any comments which discuss why the current economic crisis has made gold a good investment. I agree: At present, gold and silver may well be a wise place to park your loot.
That's not the subject of this post.
My subject is this: Why have right-wing conspiracy guys been screaming "Buy gold! Buy gold! Buy gold!" -- and nothing else -- ever since I was a kid?
For forty years, I've heard the refrain. The same people who believe in the slogan "Sell your stocks and buy gold!" have also tended to believe in the Illuminati and the Roswell saucer crash. The towering intellectuals selling copies of Silent Weapons and The Protocols, the folks warning that a massive earthquake will soon send California underwater, the Bible thumpers scrying newspaper headlines into the book of Revelation, the wackos claiming that apple cider vinegar will cure leg amputations: They've all spent the past half-century chanting "Gold! Gold! Gold!"
At times, this obsession with precious metals has resulted in schnooks losing lots of money. As I recall, much of the Hunt fortune disappeared in an ill-advised attempt to corner the silver market.
How did this fixation originate, and why does it persist?
9 comments:
The Right has always had a (possibly correct) dim view of human nature when great power is gained by small factions, and they have always assumed the temptations for monetary manipulations will be succumbed to, with dire economic consequences that would impoverish any who relied on fiat monies. Their theory was that gold (or sometimes, silver), being 'true' money, would be the asset that could assure fiscal safety for citizens, when the bovine excrement hit the rotating blades.
The problem with fiat money (paper money, not backed by anything but the fiat (Latin for 'let it be') of the banks or the state), has been well known for centuries. Even species money, in silver or gold, suffered debasement by the authorities, historically, by milling off the edges to pass less precious material off as the original value, or by mixing a more base metal with the valuable money metal.
As early as the Founding Fathers, you can find clear statements about their concerns for manipulation of money by the banks.
In 1797, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, "All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects of the Constitution or Confederation; not from any want of honor or virtue, as much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
Thomas Jefferson wrote: "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
As usual with these issues, a lot depends on timing. It is true that as their (premature) paranoid predictions continued to not come true, a lot of money was lost to those holding gold or other precious metals. No interest is earned, there are storage costs, and the price fluctuates as with most commodities. Rather than a secure store of value, it was almost a sure loss of value, unless and until the feared events took place.
However, my understanding is that the Hunt brothers were substantially out of their own silver positions as $20 an ounce, and their co-market cornerers (the Saudies, Bache Securities) were left holding the bag and the losses.
XIslander
The fixation on gold is one of a definable list of things that conspiracy people get into, e.g.:
the fixation on fluoride;
the fixation on the wickedness of the Federal Reserve;
the belief that the government is infested with agents--formerly commies, now the New World Order
the belief that international bankers are behind it all;
the belief that the Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin (despite their starkly contrasting records on just about everything);
the belief that large-scale catastrophes are always part of a plot that only conspiracy folks are smart enough to see;
the belief that the bad guys leave clues out in the open that only the conspiracy guys can find;
the belief that the deaths of famous people are always planned;
the belief that their knowledge of the secret workings of the world enables the conspiracy theorists to predict the future;
the belief that anyone who disagrees with the conspiracy buff's brilliant theory is an agent--including the other conspiracy guys.
I'm sure readers could add to the list. It's as if the conspiracy tribe were accessing a separate reality.
Thanks for the chuckle, Joseph!
Include the Paulbot rEVOLutionistas with the Gold conspiracists. Yes, a shiny rock is better than wood pulp. Whatever.
Oh, and don't forget the other gurus of the impending demise of the dollar...the "amero" conspiracists!
What is it with right-wing paranoids and their obsession with precious metals? ...How did this fixation originate, and why does it persist?
Interesting question. Never thought about it. Here's my WAG.
Generally, there was more benefit to be had DEALING gold than holding it. So where better to advertise and promote buying of gold than among the well-organized body of the least mindful?
For the less cohesive body of progressives, a wide range of alternative investments are made available.
(I know of one person incessantly charged with being a 'conspiracy theorist' who has never displayed an obsession with gold and who has consistently claimed that the ultimate investment and most valuable resource is the creative potential of the sovereign human mind.)
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It must be said that the issue of money and monetary policy was at one time a leading national issue, known to anyone following national politics.
It was the principle platform of the prairie populist movement, with William Jennings Bryan carrying this message during three presidential elections as the Democratic Party candidate.
To be sure, that was advocacy of 'free silver,' as against 'crucifying mankind on a cross of gold'-- silver being in such larger supply that emphasizing money based on silver was a more expansionistic monetary policy that the reliance on gold as backing for the currency. And an expansionistic monetary supply was in the interest of the people (the debtor class), as opposed to the stingier interests of the creditor (banker) class, who preferred tighter money (at the time).
Nowadays, the American people don't have a handle on the importance of monetary policy, which makes any discussion of it, especially about gold backing of the currency, seemingly an idiotic pursuit of conspiracy mongers.
XIslander
This is an interesting read- some of it a bit far out, but if read with perspective, quite telling of the history of gold pushers in America:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qp55OCtxugEC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=gold+john+birch+society&source=bl&ots=ARwDeqqpDX&sig=6aFp3S2dp9d8KZ5KZLS1KT5YOh0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result
BTW- Gold is one of the most destructive commodities out there. Look at the history of mining and Indonesia.
Anyone pushing gold compels suspicion in me.
All curency is necessarily "symbolic" - a notched stick, shells, bank notes, electronic transfer. Gold is the least ephemeral of these. It has the longest tradition of being a store of value going back to the very beginning of our culture. It has always been a store of monetary value. Always. And that is not going to change. It's value may fluctuate, but it does so less than any other currency or set of currencies throughout history. If you want insurance that you will never be wiped out by a monetary collapse in the U.S. or elsewhere - or if you fear immanent or even slow but steady erosion of a currency's value via inflation, you put some percentage of your "money" in gold. It is objectively the most rational way to proceed in a world of nothing but easily manipulated fiat paper money... not to mention a world that's now in a generally recognized credit bubble economy that is in the process of bursting before your eyes.
I'm thinking all of the printing money the Fed has been doing lately will eventually catch up with the value of the dollar.
The dollar has appeared to be gaining lately because of the way the value is computed (based on the value of 6 Foreign currencies) and those other currencies are tanking worse.
Obama's speech today sounded like Bill Pullman in Independence Day and everybody seemed all fired up over his words.
The reality of the stock market tanking below 8000 and Obama setting a record excess of 160 million for his inaugural festivities doesn't make me think we are off to a good start :(
I have some Gold that I am sitting on...and Silver too...I think it better than having it in Citibank.
It's not just the right wingers, the fauxgressive Air America started hyping the buy gold thing around 2006. Randi Rhodes- she of the infamous misogynist attacks on Ferraro and Hillary heavily hyped the buy Gold thing. Maddow, who became another Obot during 2008, started doing so hyping the buy Gold during 2007. I stopped listening to Air America in the spring of last year when it became another arm of the Obot fauxgressive misogynist attack machine aganist Hillary, but I'm sure the hype Gold garbage continues, as well as other scam commercials- flipping houses, etc... Now that I think about it, in 2006 there was also another disturbing element that started showing up, they started broadcasting this short segment in between shows that was pro corporate power/anti worker. It struck me as jarringly off for a progressive radio network to be airing business segments that trashed workers as slackers cheating the boss and how business owners could catch the slackers in the act... It was around this time that the level of misogyny on shows started amping up as well- including on Randi Rhodes show, but on almost every show with male hosts. I started listening to Air America less and less and getting more and more disillusioned with this so called progressive radio network that didn't even have one show devoted to feminist issues- after two years on the air, and was in fact going backwards on attitudes toward women, becoming no different than the right wingers.
Ciardha
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