Why Gold? (Classic)

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the past few months, the price of gold has gone way up – even hitting a new high last month at just over $2,400 per troy ounce.

Gold has long had a shiny quality to it, literally and in the marketplace. And we wondered, why is that?

Today on the show, we revisit a Planet Money classic episode: Why Gold? Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum will peruse the periodic table of the elements with one goal in mind: to learn which element would really make the best money.

This classic Planet Money episode was part of the Planet Money Buys Gold series, and was hosted by Jacob Goldstein and David Kestenbaum.

This rerun was hosted by Sally Helm, produced by Willa Rubin, edited by Keith Romer, and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:24.0	In the last couple of months, the price of gold has gone way up.
0:31.0	It hit a new high last month, just over $2,400 per Troy ounce. Now,
0:37.9	gold has had a kind of shiny quality to it for thousands of years, both literally and in the marketplace. It was once
0:47.1	used as currency, think gold coins, and even once we went to paper, a lot of currencies around the world were still backed by gold.
0:56.0	This was the gold standard.
0:58.0	And even though we are no longer on the gold standard in the United States. Gold is still special.
1:05.4	Hello and welcome to Planet Money, I'm Sally Helm. Today we're going back in the Planet Money Time Machine to an episode where we try to understand.
1:17.0	Out of all the elements, why gold? What is it about gold that makes people value it so highly?
1:25.0	After the break, our colleagues Jacob Goldstein and David Kestonbaum will go through the entire periodic table of elements to figure out which element would make the best money.
1:36.5	Does it have to be gold? Because to me, Osmium seems like the logical choice.
1:42.4	I'm rooting for Osmium, the densest element.
1:44.4	You know, David, I'm no scientist, but for some reason, I really got my heart set on lithium.
1:48.7	Dude, that is not going to help. help. This message comes from NPR sponsor Grammerly.
2:00.0	What if everyone at work were an expert communicator?
2:05.2	Inbox numbers would drop, customer satisfaction scores would rise,
2:09.0	and everyone would be more productive.
2:10.8	That's what happens when you give Grammerly to your entire team. Grammarly is a secure
	...

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