I find it staggering that the calibre of a Warren Buffet can demonstrate so little capacity for sound thinking about value, wealth and wealth assets.
Is the Mona Lisa worthless because it's priceless? What about a Picasso, do you expect it to produce crops or refine oil? When you fondle a French castle, do you expect it to respond?
"I ask you, how can currency price gold? Indeed, no price will work!" ~ Another
"how can paper currency that represents "the thoughts of a nation blowing in the wind" be used to value real money of ancient world class proportions, gold? It cannot! Any price you can think of will do, as in no price will work!" ~ Another
Gold could absorb the worlds derivatives debt tomorrow in value and not a thing would change in the world, except many headaches gone. Gold could be managed at around production costs for many many decades since 71 and not a problem was found with this. Gold's currency price is meaningless, it's utility for "inter-generational" wealth preservation at a "giant scale" is priceless indeed. Because it is so unproductive, representing "great wealth" comes at no cost infringing on the "productive economy". Why hoard rice or industrial-strength silver to represent your wealth across currency regimes, social upheavals and technological fads and whims and political and market ups and down, when there is gold that can represent "much wealth" in very small physical chunks! Come on Warren, you gotta be kidding me. This piece must be intentional disinformation. He must have been walking around much old-world wealth in his life, and here he pretends "gold, I'm not getting it, gimme ExxonMobile shares any day" (or why not Enron if you're so into energy?).
Then again, he prefers giving all his excess wealth to charity instead of doing the old-school "intergenerational family wealth" thing, truly American I suppose, so yeah, makes sense he see's no value in gold. Someone like Warren Buffet must truly believe that the American Dream will never expire, its currency never weaken in the eyes of the world, it's stocks always be cutting edge. At his age and with his life experience, can we fault him for that? Guess not.