What Does "Freegold" Mean?

"Dad, what is Freegold?" 

Guys, I want to give you a fairly straightforward answer that won't make your eyes glaze over. Unfortunately, I lack the language to describe it simply and briefly. Let's let FOFOA say it for us:

...you can think of [freegold] simply as the dramatic devaluation of paper gold...

So there it is. Freegold is a dramatic devaluation of paper gold. Wasn't that easy, kids? No? Well, shoot. I guess I'll have to try it myself.

Freegold doesn't mean FREE GOLD! ...as in, "Thanks for stopping by, have an ounce of gold." It means gold is free to act. I know it sounds silly, suggesting a lump of cold metal can take an action. It makes no difference if the lump of metal is chained to a floor or laying in a meadow

...the same amount of work is being accomplished. What is the "work" that gold accomplishes? Gold holds past labor for the future. We work, we add value efficiently and save the surplus. Gold is the best way to store the surplus. We talked about this in the "Why Do You Buy Gold?" discussion. Freegold, then, is when gold is fully able to satisfy its highest and best purpose: Wealth.

See the buffalo above? It says $50 on it. I would not sell it for $50. I can buy them at the coin shop for around $1,400. I would not sell ours for $1,400 and if I had $1,400 I would consider buying more! I'm not alone in holding tightly to my gold. Our own government has its share of financial problems. They have more gold than anybody in the world and they aren't selling. Greece, Japan, Spain...all having money problems. Not selling (leasing maybe...). So...if it is worth more than $1,400...why can we buy it for that price? How do we know what gold is really worth? 

Price is an agreement between buyers and sellers but we need to be careful about what is being bought and sold. That $1,400 price came from a building in New York City where gold and other metals are traded. 

You need to realize, however, that huge amounts of those metals are traded every day...more than can be trucked into New York so they trade paper receipts instead. In reality though, only a small portion of all gold trades happen in New York. This works because some see gold as just a thing to trade, others want it to be money and still others see it properly as wealth...and they are gathering it slowly, over generations. ANOTHER had this to say:

Gold is now caught in a crossfire of world thought. The traders are viewing it as a commodity and trying to make money on it's moves using various paper trading vehicles. Their opinion of the market is flawed because the "real value buyers" would never deal with these people or let anyone in that circle know they are buying gold as "money"! The major buying and selling is between [central banks], nations, merchant banks, "the super rich" and the hordes of small buyers in forgotten places. That is one of the small many reasons wall street hates gold, they are not part of the real action. Comex is a side show!

Trading paper is very convenient but does the trading price in New York reflect the real price of gold metal or simply the price for paper? If commodity trading came to a halt, where would we get our pricing information? Hint: would you pay more for gold or for paper...even paper with a promise? This was pointed out in a conversation between Cmax and ANOTHER as highlighted by FOFOA here. (Remember our talk about Giants?) ANOTHER just comes out and says it:

For us to understand what is about to happen we must pull our minds out of the paper trading world. Instead enter the world of real things! Here we will see concepts more clearly. 

One day the world will wake up - suddenly realizing that gold is not a commodity (like sugar). Gold is the physical embodiment of wealth and if you don't possess it, you don't possess wealth. For a brief time the "price" of gold will be unknown but FOFOA suggests it will ultimately be something like $55,000/ounce. We won't know the dollar price of gold until paper trading ends and gold is free to be priced on its own merits but "price" won't matter. Gold will not be traded, gold will be used to store value across time and to settle and prevent trade imbalances. We will stop confusing our medium of exchange with our store of value. All paper gold will lose value and real metal will be free to satisfy its true purpose: wealth! That will be Freegold!

There is much more to it and all of it is fascinating. I'm anxious to share it with you but, for now, I think that's enough. Remember, paper promises are not as good as gold. A bird in the hand....right?

Building Blocks of Understanding Part 1

Kids,
I found a comment from Aquilus on a recent FOFOA posting and I think it sets up some good discussion for us.

Speaking for myself only, what I found the most interesting in the thoughts of FOA and Another through your posts here has been the understanding of the true concept of money and wealth, along with the societal pressures on money both during good and crisis times.

To me those became the building blocks for understanding everything else, including the item that's talked about the most here: gold and its role and function: past, present and future. But also the dollar, the euro, the debt markets, etc, etc...

I would love to discuss that with Aquilus but, since I have no idea how to contact him and since he has no idea I exist, I'm just going to have to do my best on my own. What's more, I need to break this down for you, my children. Let me give it a shot.

Understanding Money and Wealth

The concepts of money and wealth require quite a bit of thought. The simplification I'm about to present is expanded greatly by FOFOA at this link. Think about things you have purchased. What did you purchase them with? Dollars. How many dollars did those things cost? A can of soda costs about the same amount as a candy bar. Would that pricing relationship change if we used spacebucks instead of dollars? We know how things relate to each other in price...or, at least, how they have related in the recent past. Prices are known by you and are easy to determine because you understand relationships between different goods. I could tell you a car costs 1 and a house costs 4. You might reply, “Four what?” It doesn’t matter. Does it even matter what we use for exchange? FOA said:

"Money in its purest form is a mental association of values in trade; a concept in memory not a real item… the value is in your association abilities."

ANOTHER had some things to say about this concept. I'll rewrite these ideas into simple sentences.

Money is not whatever people say it is. Currency is whatever a government says it is.

The dollar is just something arbitrary we exchange...something arbitrary that has the backing of the government. However, we could exchange anything. While other things could do the job, dollars are what we use today. How long will this last? That's an issue of faith. But right now the dollar is useful for buying things and is accepted anywhere.

Ready to go further? Is it the dollars you hold or the things you buy that make you wealthy? I'm going to suggest it's the stuff, not the dollars, as long as you buy the right stuff. From FOFOA:

Have you ever noticed how the super-rich seem to stay super-rich no matter how much money they spend? Not only that, but they seem to get wealthier the more they spend! They buy amazing super-homes, expensive antique furniture to fill the homes, and priceless artwork to hang on every inch of their fancy walls, yet somehow they retain their wealth. 

If you are using dollars to buy soda and candy bars you are not becoming wealthy...quite the opposite. These things are not wealth because they are consumed, not possessed. Wealth is possessed. Paintings, antique furniture, gold...these things are possessed These things are wealth. Dollars are not wealth.

While I could easily reference a Remington painting's worth in terms of gold but I could not reference gold's worth in terms of Remington paintings.

Though both are wealth, each have specific highest uses. The highest use of a painting is to be owned and viewed. The highest use of gold - and this is really important, guys - is as a wealth asset, though it looks pretty OK on the wall. Without going crazy on theory, everyone is better off pricing paintings and metal in terms of another common unit. For now, that common unit is a dollar. The highest and best use of a dollar (according to FOA) is to gather real wealth.

FOFOA wasn't writing to the 12-and-under crowd here but this is worth quoting:

The human concept of money is changing whether we like it or not. It is being torn apart. Gold, as a wealth reserve and wealth asset, will exist and trade parallel to the world of fiat, the world of credit and debt. Producers and savers will finally have the option to switch tracks so to speak. To get on a parallel track that avoids the inevitable collision with the debt-hungry collective their savings have always faced.

In short, FOFOA is saying that you will soon be able to choose weather or not to put a portion of your production into wealth (gold) or keep it in the mechanism used for exchange. You can certainly buy gold today but he's talking about a time when the whole world will recognize that gold is no longer money and it no longer simply a good...but is true wealth and the value of that wealth increases dramatically leaving everything else behind. Freegold. We'll discuss more on Freegold soon.

Money is what we use to accumulate wealth. We need currency (dollars or equivalent) on a daily basis. We also need a way to store wealth for generations (gold). Based on what you read above let me ask you a question. Do the dollars we trade give value to our wealth or does our wealth we hold (gold specifically) define the value of the dollar?

Next time we'll talk about Aquilus' second building block, Social Pressures.

Seeing What Giants See

Before I begin, I would like the reader to know that I really do write this for my children and read these to them at the dinner table. Recently night my 11 year-old daughter asked if we were going to talk more about the Giants. How cool is that?

Kids,
Last time I said you needed to learn to see the world as Giants see it. Who are "Giants"? We are going to focus on the super producers of the world but it also includes the central banks. What do Giants see when they look out across the landscape? More important to me, what did their fathers see? Do they see ants? Do they see the fruits of their labor? Do they see time itself?

Perspective is different when one is so large. Your mother and I are careful about spending; working, for example, to keep our power bill to a minimum buy turning off lights. A Giant, who makes more money in a day than I make in a year, doesn't flinch when the power bill comes in. Those little bumps in the road are not even noticeable.

Similarly, a revaluation of gold will mean more to me than to a Giant. My few ounces represent, to us, future wealth purchased at current prices. Our gold is currently only a percentage of our current wealth. After the revaluation it may be all we have. In contrast, the Giant already has significant wealth. He is desperate to lock away some of his surplus production (currently represented by dollars) in a lasting form. Like us, it is in his best interest to buy as much gold as he can at the best price he can...but he's buying so much gold he can't afford to shop around. In fact, there is no "shop around" available to him.

We buy an ounce or two at a time from the local coin shop with a portion of our income. If the Giant went to the coin shop with a similar portion of his income he would quickly buy everything available and drive up the price for all buyers...including himself. His strategy has to be different. He can't buy at the coin shop. He has to buy gold in quantity, not at today's price, but at tomorrow's price...possibly the Freegold price. The Giant knows that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. He is willing to pay more per ounce because it's the only way he can lock away his wealth. We are at an advantage because we can just go buy what we want at today's price...knowing we will be wealthy later. Giants are wealthy now.

ANOTHER spelled this out quite clearly:

A wise oil nation can strike a deal with the paper printers and in doing so come out on top. Go back a few years to the early 90s. Oil is very high, you offer to lower the US$ price in return for X amount of gold purchasing power. You don't care what the current commodity price of gold is, your future generations will keep it as real wealth to replace the oil that is lost.

The Giant can see further into the horizon. He sees what is coming from a long way off. If Giants are willing to get rid of dollars at any price and if we can see their footsteps...shouldn't we follow? Does the dollar price of gold really matter? Ants, like us, are very price sensitive but it is very important to just put some gold away for someday!

Kids, someday may arrive...and quite suddenly...like it did in 1934. Changes happen without warning like in 1971. When will Freegold arrive? Someday. Did we pay too much for what we have? You know, after a sudden revaluation of gold it won't matter what we paid. Do we have enough gold? We will never have enough gold...but we'll always have some and we will always work for more.

Giants buy at a premium to preserve wealth for generations. We can learn from this. There is more we can learn from Giants but that's enough for now.

Ants, Grasshoppers and Giants

Kids,
I have so much to tell you but I need to move slowly.  I need you to really understand what I'm saying as we talk.  These are difficult topics...and highly debatable...and they SHOULD be debated!  Even if nobody else will talk about it, we will.  Heck, even the Bible talks about this stuff in Proverbs 6:

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest.

One concept we need to understand early on is the difference between Grasshoppers and Ants...remember that fable?  I'm going to stretch the fable to include Giants. Ready?  Let's go.

There are Ants, like your mother and I.  We put away a small amount of savings over time, knowing that seasons change.  Saving is difficult for us as we could easily spend my entire paycheck several times over.  If we are careful not to eat out frequently and minimize the purchase of trinkets and toys, we can save a modest amount of each check.  I want to point out that our ability to save has nothing to do with my ability to earn.  It has everything to do with our ability to resist spending.  As we said last time, the best thing we can do to preserve that savings over time is to buy gold.  (As a note, FOFOA more commonly refers to us as Shrimps...in reference to our comparison to Giants.)

A large number of people, and you can't tell who they are, don't have any savings at all, let alone savings preserved in gold.  These are the grasshoppers in the ant and the grasshopper fable.  They live from day to day, never preparing for winter, never considering that tomorrow may not be as easy as today.  Again, it's impossible to tell who is a saver and who is not...they may even look very, very wealthy.  We will talk about this some more another time (or you can read it here if you are ready).

There is a third group worthy of our attention: the Giants.  These are primarily central banks and are also individuals who make money very efficiently.  In fact, they are so good at making money, their biggest concern is keeping what they've already got, not making more. They have to either find a place to park money or stop making so much money!  FOFOA highlights the definition of a Giant in an article by pointing us to some commentary between Another and Mr. Gresham:

Mr. Gresham: "We who read here generally buy the coins, one ounce and less. The "Giants" you speak of are usually buying the large bars (100 ounce?), yes?"

ANOTHER: "I ask you, how many of your bars in tonne? This is the small purchase size."

FOFOA goes on to spell that out.

Good question. How many 100 ounce bars are in a tonne? The answer is 321 and a half. Or 32,150 ounces. And this is a "small" giant!

Kids, mother and I are far, far from being Giants...we certainly don't have $45,000,000 to buy gold!  To be completely honest, we barely qualify as ants. My job is both to store up something for your children and to lead you toward becoming Giants yourselves.  Even if you never own 32,000 ounces of gold I need to teach you to make decisions and live your life as a Giant would...to see the world differently.  If you will ever understand Freegold, you will first have to learn to see the world as Giants see it.

Please understand the three groups.  One group that lives in the moment.  One group that saves little by little as it can.  Another group that produces so efficiently it and stores true wealth for generations.  Two of these have a bright future.  Got it?

When you are ready, I would like you to do some more reading on this topic.  FOFOA expands on these ideas here, here and, as mentioned, here.

Why Do You Buy Gold?

"Dad, why do you buy gold?"

Kids, sometimes I have a few extra dollars.  Your mother and I manage our household and our businesses so there is something left over at the end of the month.  We don't want to spend it all right now.  We'll spend it later.  Or you'll spend it later.  Or not at all.

Dollars are kind of like fruit.  It's usually better to eat that apple sooner than later.  Dollars, too, are better sooner than later.  They "go bad" over time.  

And it's not just dollars that do this, all paper currencies do.  That's fine.  It doesn't mean paper currencies aren't useful...they are...so is fruit.  In fact, paper money is desirable, it just isn't a good thing to use for savings (more on this another time).  Which is better: a box of 100 year old gold coins or a box of 100 year old apples?

That 100 year mark is important.  100 years is older than most paper currencies survive.  The dollar is bringing up the average but you can see it is rotting...and quickly.  By government estimates one dollar in 1913 bought the same amount of stuff that $23.80 buys today.  How do you like that?  We could buy a new XBox for $10 that your great, great grandpa saved.

I could speculate on other investments but, ultimately, gold is the place for savings.  The most efficient, compact, portable and recognizable and lasting way mom and I can save for later is to buy an ounce of gold.  Gold's job is to protect the work we have done in the past.  At some point we'll hand that to you.  

So, let me ask you.  Do you want gold or rotten apples?