| Citi's chief economist Willem Buiter has trained his mental shotgun at goldbugs everywhere, and unloaded both barrels. In a research piece published late yesterday, the Anglo-Dutch economist argued that the metal was not so precious and merely a "six thousand year-old bubble" with hardly any real value. Mr Buiter therefore compares gold to the "intrinsically useless" stone money of the Isle of Yap.
Gold is unlike any other commodity. The only things that come close to it are Bitcoin and similar digital peer-to-peer currencies. Gold is costly to extract from the earth and to refine to a reasonable degree of purity..........................................Full Article: Source
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