Buffet’s view on gold

For anyone who knows Warren Buffet, the living investment master, it is well-known that his has a very consistent negative view on gold. You can see his famous comment on gold here and I copy one of the most humorous saying:  “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

But I’m surprisingly just learning that the senior Buffet, the father of W Buffet, has a totally different view on gold. I must say the senior Buffet was a great politician with a great vision, warning the disastrous path of any fiat money including the US $. He was actually calling for restoring the gold-backing monetary system almost 70 years ago.  I’m really impressed by his great vision foreseeing the chaotic financial world today we are facing, all rooted from the limitless expending and money printing of all the governments around the world.  I extracted a few points from him below:

In a free country the monetary unit rests upon a fixed foundation of gold or gold and silver independent of the ruling politicians. Our dollar was that kind of money before 1933. Under that system paper currency is redeemable for a certain weight of gold, at the free option and choice of the holder of paper money.

That redemption right gives money a large degree of stability. The owner of such gold redeemable currency has economic independence. He can move around either within or without his country because his money holdings have accepted value anywhere.

But first let me clear away a bit of underbrush. I will not take time to review the history of paper money experiments. So far as I can discover, paper money systems have always wound up with collapse and economic chaos.

There is only one way that these spending pressures can be halted, and that is to restore the final decision on public spending to the producers of the nation. The producers of wealth – taxpayers – must regain their right to obtain gold in exchange for the fruits of their labor. This restoration would give the people the final say-so on governmental spending, and would enable wealth producers to control the issuance of paper money and bonds.

With a restoration of the gold standard, Congress would have to again resist handouts. …..Congress would be forced to confront spending demands with firmness. The gold standard acted as a silent watchdog to prevent unlimited public spending.

But, unless you are willing to surrender your children and your country to galloping inflation, war and slavery, then this cause demands your support. For if human liberty is to survive in America, we must win the battle to restore honest money.

There is no more important challenge facing us than this issue – the restoration of your freedom to secure gold in exchange for the fruits of your labors.