They hit pieces containing less precious metal

A priori, gold is an old-fashioned tip. It is used to make alliances, but they married less. Or redoing the dome of the Invalides, but a small ball is sufficient. In the family, it is passionate person, except a retiring banker uncle had the sensible idea to buy in the 1970s. And then, Keynes, the Economist feature of the years 2000, says it's a barbaric relic. And yet... While the world is sinking into uncertainty without precedent for several decades, notwithstanding a few swallows some overlap with the spring, the yellow metal resumed its luster. When deflation seems as threatening as inflation, when scholars are celebrating a CAC index above the 3,000 while it exceeded the 5,000 less than a year ago, when the estate appears on a seismic fault, when the American currency has air sentenced to roller coaster, it passes again for shelter. In the vicinity of $ 900 an ounce, yellow gold is in the same waters as a year ago, while black gold has lost more than half of its value.

Of course, demand for Jewellers decline due to high prices while supply will advance, surely the mines, possibly with the central banks which hold large stocks. Of course, the course of the ingot and the Napoleon can also unscrew brutally. But the temptation of gold is explained not only by a cold analysis of the market. It comes from beyond, anxiety caused by the financial crisis and the remedies used to treat it. The lure of gold comes from defiance to the money. It is by no means a first!

Time of metallic currency, gold and silver formed the basis of the monetary and financial system. Available in the nature in larger quantities, white metal was more than the yellow metal. The Kings, who already had an unfortunate tendency to empty public coffers, often surrendered to the temptation to cheat with the money. They hit pieces containing less precious metal. To preserve the value of its assets, the good people preferred to keep gold coins, more pure, more secure. It was therefore the money travelling. What did say English financier Thomas Gresham, in the 16th century, that "bad money hunting good."

The metal anchor of the financial system was a valuable utility: it prevented policies and bankers to do anything. But economic development could also be blocked for decades by a simple shortage of gold and silver. That is why, from the 18th century, money became paper. For a long time, he has however kept a link with the metal. The name of several major currencies comes a weight unit used to measure metal the pound, the mark, read. The word "dollar" is a distant derives from the "Joachimsthaler", a coin struck from silver extracted from Joachim, in Bohemia ("thal" in German) Valley. Bretton Woods agreements, in 1944, proclaiming that the dollar is worth a thirty-fifth ounce of gold. The link was broken in 1971, when US President Richard Nixon ordered that the dollar was more convertible into gold. Euro, created in 1979, is the first large currency without any metal reference.

To avoid the excesses of the policies, to paper money keeps its value, safeguards have been implemented. Central banks have become independent. The Treaty prohibits the European Central Bank "monetize" the public debt, to print tickets for purchase of State bonds. But bankers were not subject to the same rigors, especially in the United States. But they also have in principle regulated by the Central Bank power to create money. They have created lots of money, too, to the point to skip the Bank. To repair the system, the Federal Reserve, Central Bank of an America that has not experienced the monetary errors of the old Europe, bought the paper issued by the Treasury of the United States. Ticket machine runs at full. Without metal reference, monetary madness again reached the men. Gold has beautiful days before him.