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You want to know what's a terrible investment? Cash. It has lost more than 90% of it's value in the last 100 years.

100 years isn't so bad.

Try living in a developing country. It loses 50% of its value in 15 years. By the time you save up for college, you need twice as much.

I'm guessing his greater point was that fiat cash in general loses its value.

And has since the beginning of time. Adam Smith discussed such devaluations and the incentives in his seminal work back in the 1700’s.

As does specie.

"On the Continuous Devaluation of the Roman Currency"

http://www.rmki.kfki.hu/~lukacs/ROMLAS.htm

http://www.rmki.kfki.hu/~lukacs/ROMLAS_files/image008.gif

"For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins."

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations/Book_I/...

I guess Bitcoin would be the first real "gold" standard, then.

Bitcoin lost more value in six months than most currencies managed in half a century, and yet 'miners' were still incentivised to make more of it...

This is such a great point because it underscores the importance of viewing investments with a longer time scale than I am used to.

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