Gold has dipped a bit from its peak, but it has still seen tremendous growth in price over the last decade. Many hedge funds have been riding the gold train into riches, notably John Paulson. In fact, you could argue it has been the only thing keeping his hedge fund afloat.

What started as a hedging instrument has evolved into an excellent stand alone investment, that happens to fair particularly well when the economy has gone to hell.

Other investors like Warren Buffett, however, have been skeptical. He criticizes gold as an investment because it doesn’t actually create anything. It’s just, there, and it is in limited supply. Seems like a silly reason to own it though. You might as well invest in baseball cards and Beanie Babies.

So Felix Salmon of Reuters decides to have a bit of fun and see which merchants will accept gold as an actual form of payment.  The clip is more an exercise of parody than legitimacy, but is an interesting watch if for nothing more than to see the reactions of merchants to the proposition of a payment in gold.

 

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