Today’s news: gold surges past a record $900 an ounce. In today’s market, everything else with a tangible, marketable value has plunged: real estate, shares, currency, automobiles, computer products etc. The exception is oil which is rightly (?) termed as ‘black gold’. It is understandable that, so much of our life is dependent on oil that it appreciates, while all other assets with which we pay for it depreciate. They say a day may come when we may have to pay for black gold (oil) with gold. But why gold?

Is it because real gold can be minted into coins, and is convenient (?) to carry and exchange as a medium of currency? One can argue, because only so much of it is there, it will always retain its value or appreciate with increasing demand.

But it is hard to imagine that I will be handing over a bag of gold coins to fill up my gas tank. We are so used to the convenience of swiping a card at the cash counter, or typing in our credit card number while buying something off the Internet, that it is almost impossible to reverse the process.

When I was young I used to think what madness is this that we are so obsessed with possessing this ‘precious’ metal. It is after all a metal that we assign value to.

Sure enough it possesses superior chemical and electrical properties, which we could demonstrate time and time again in laboratories and real life applications, so can be assigned some utility value. But I could not see any reason for assigning a lofty economic(investment) value to it.

One may say because of its rarity. Because of its rarity if it appreciates too much in value, science and technology can always find some alternatives to its use or limits its use to a bare minimum.

I could hear someone saying reasons are historical and we follow the tradition. Even the early church could not shy away from stashing gold. Just look at what the Pope the Innocent IV said to Thomas Aquinas, “We cannot say as St. Peter of old, ‘Silver and gold have I none’ pointing to an abundant mass of treasure poured out in his presence.

They may argue with great vigor, “Why would God in his wisdom lavish all his disciples with gold and silver who profess greater faith in them than in Himself?” Can’t you see an apparent contradiction here?

My simple reason for not backing Gold is this: Gold is limited in supply while Life in all its form is abundant and is always for growth.

And I am for life.

Aquinas was wise in his reply to the pope, “Neither can you command, as did he (St. Peter), the lame man to arise and walk.”