🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <SHAFER.91Jun14222620@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov>, shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) writes:
>In article <1991Jun14.183424.654@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> G E Derylo
>writes:
>
>   I'm no economist, but wouldn't the introduction of that much gold
>   and platinum into the market *drastically* decrease its value,
>   making this a questionable financial venture? Sure, I know these
>   materials also have crutial industrial applications, so we're not
>   just dealing with jewelry here.
>
>   But we're talking about a cubes of pure gold and platinum 25.53 and
>   53.09 feet on a side respectively. I would think this kind of find,
>   if it were dug up tomarrow in the middle of Nebraska, would do
>   really nastiy things to our gold-based (?) economy.
>
>   Can anyone with some econ background comment on this?
>
>The gold and silver that the Spanish brought back from the New World
>messed up the European economy quite greviously.  Galloping inflation,
>with too much money (precious metals, of course) chasing too few goods.
>This caused a lot of instability, first economic and then political.
>
>The diamond cartel (de Beers) very stringently limits the supply of
>diamonds, to keep the price high.

One thing you've got to remember about gold:  it's not a purely market issue;
it's sort of quasi-religious.  There are so many people out there who think
there's something special about it that even a rumor of a drop in its price
could cause a panic.
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Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL