Avoiding the golden mistake

[jducoeur]

Those who are nervous about the markets and contemplating pushing their money into gold might do well to take a look at yesterday's article in the Motley Fool. Suffice it to say, they make the point that, while gold tends to look good in the short run, it's generally a poor investment in the longer term. And most people are pretty bad at figuring out when the short term starts turning into the long.

Looking at it, it's pretty clear to me that gold is currently in the middle of a bubble, and getting steadily more over-valued. Piling out of one bubble into another is probably not the best strategy...

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

My point, though, is that that sort of strong, effective religious injunction doesn't seem to get created any more. Ideologies are too much in flux. The folks in power over the last few decades didn't forget the Great Depression; but they decided that the laws designed to prevent its recurrence no longer fit their ideology.

[meiczyslaw.livejournal.com]

I'm not arguing the point -- the question you asked did not seem rhetorical.

I could also have brought up how family-oriented the professions were, and how family traditions could be used in place of religious ones.

(There was good reason for the nobility to be hereditary -- without a serious education system, the only way you learned the complex job of governing would be from your predecessor, one of your parents.)

We've broken these constraints to create flexibility and innovate, but we haven't replaced them with anything, thereby losing institutional memory.