No doubt, as gold prices run up in the latter half of 2009, a lot of commentators are saying that gold is in a bubble territory. Their justification for such a claim is that when an industrially useless metal to go up in price so quickly, irrationality is the only explanation. Hence, according to them, it can only be described as a “bubble.” Even the Sydney Morning Herald, came up with an article titled, Gold a ‘useless asset to own’.

But as contrarian investors, we welcome such ignorance. That is how wealth is transferred from the weak hands to the strong hands. If you have not already, we recommend that you read If gold has no intrinsic value, is it a bubble?. Those who believe that gold is in a bubble do not understand the fundamental of what money is- they fail to see the mirror image irrationality. With that, we shall take a quote from Marco Polo in our book, How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver bullion,

With regard to the money of Kambalu the great be called a perfect alchymist for he makes it himself. He orders people to collect the bark of a whose leaves are eaten by the worms that spin silk thin rind between the bark and the interior wood is taken and from it cards are formed like those of paper all black He then causes them to be cut into pieces and each is declared worth respectively half a livre a whole one a silver grosso of Venice and so on to the value of ten bezants All these cards are stamped with his seal and so many are fabricated that they would buy all the treasuries in the world He makes all his payments in them and circulates them through the kingdoms and provinces over which he holds dominion and none dares to refuse them under pain of death All the nations under his sway receive and pay this money for their merchandise gold silver precious stones and whatever they transport buy or sell The merchants often bring to him goods worth 400,000 bezants and he pays them all in these cards which they willingly accept because they can make purchases with them throughout the whole empire He frequently commands those who have gold silver cloths of silk and gold or other precious commodities to bring them to him Then he calls twelve men skilful in these matters and commands them to look at the articles and fix their price Whatever they name is paid in these cards which the merchant cordially receives In this manner the great sire possesses all the gold silver pearls and precious stones in his dominions When any of the cards are torn or spoiled the owner carries them to the place whence they were issued and receives fresh ones with a deduction of 3 per cent If a man wishes gold or silver to make plate girdles or other ornaments he goes to the office carrying a sufficient number of cards and gives them in payment for the quantity which he requires. This is the reason why the khan has more treasure than other lord in the world nay all the princes in the together have not an equal amount.

Chapter XXVI, Paper Money Immense Wealth of the Great Khan, The Travels of Marco Polo

To understand gold, one needs to understand the history of money (which our book, How to buy and invest in physical gold and silver bullion has more information on). If we can laugh at the irrationality of the ancients as described in Marco Polo’s memoirs, then we certainly have to laugh at humanity’s irrationality today with regards to money.

But at the same time, we are not saying that gold is the cure-all for the the ills of today’s monetary system. In other words, we are not worshipping gold (see When to sell your gold?).

But if you are still worried that gold prices are running up too fast, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This speed in price increase is nothing compared to what happened in 1980. Let’s take a look at the gold price chart back then:

Gold price from 1975

By 1979, inflation in most countries was running in double digits in most countries. Oil prices was spiking and the Iranian revolution toppled the Shahs. The Soviets was entering Afghanistan. Back then, there was a real fear that the world will end and that seemed like the end of fiat currencies (8 years after President Nixon cut the final link between gold and the US dollar). The price of gold doubled in a few weeks between December 1979 and January 1980. That’s really a parabolic movement. Today’s run up in gold prices is nothing compared what happened in 1979/1980. We have friends who bought gold in 1980 at around US$800. Back then, there was talk that gold price would be hitting US$1000. Unfortunately, gold price fell and our friends lost half their capital in a flash.

But fortunately, fiat currencies survived and the world did not end. But those who ridiculed gold used that as a basis to believe fiat currencies will still survive i.e. fiat currencies will survive because they did survive after 1979. This is an example of a mental pitfall that we call “lazy induction” (see Mental pitfall: Lazy Induction). That’s because if you take an even bigger picture view, there were many countless examples whereby all the other fiat currencies in the entire history of human civilisation failed to survive. The Mongol currency during Marco Polo’s time was such an example.

As Nassimb Nicholas Taleb wrote in The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the wrong way to learn from history and looked at happened and then extrapolate it into today. It is equally important to look at what could have happened and evaluate whether it is still applicable today. In his words, we have to study the “alternative paths” of history. For all we know, fiat currencies could have died after 1979. Maybe, someone powerful back then could have made a slightly different decision and that could have set a chain reaction that would culminate in the death of fiat currencies.

We never know whether the “alternative path” of history will happen today. But it pays to be prepared.