The man that predicted the economic and financial collapse two years ago advised people that are concerned about inflation to buy Spam rather than gold.
As you can't turn on a TV these days without seeing an ad for gold or some economist recommending you buy the precious metal, Nouriel Roubini's comment on Friday's "Real Time" deliciously went against the tide of financial advisors across the fruited plain.
"Gold has no intrinsic value," he amazingly told host Bill Maher. "If you're really worried about say inflation rising, I would buy Spam."
Roubini continued, "You know, you can eat Spam, you cannot eat gold" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BILL MAHER, HOST: What about gold? Every time I turn on the TV, somebody's like talking to me about gold. You've got to get your hand on some gold. Sell your gold. Pull your teeth out. You know -- it seems like an antiquated thing. Gold. I mean, it's something from the Middle Ages.
NOURIEL ROUBINI, ECONOMIST: Yeah, I think it's (?), gold has no intrinsic value, and if you're really worried about say inflation rising, I would buy Spam. You know, you can eat Spam, you cannot eat gold.
[Applause and laughter]
You know, they started producing, no seriously, they, they started producing Spam during the Great Depression. And you can, last for 1,000 years given the chemicals in it. So it's a good store of value. Better than gold. You eat it.
From here, the discussion got even more delicious:
MAHER: So, let me ask you one last question now that I found that you're really an Italian, because they know how to enjoy life. There was a study this week that said, you know, people who have great GDP -- which is, GDP?
ROUBINI: Yeah.
MAHER: What is that?
ROUBINI: Gross domestic product.
MAHER: I was testing you. Does not at all correlate to being happy.
ROUBINI: I think there's some truth to it. For example, the United States will work and work and work. We only have two weeks of vacation, and we're not that happy. You know, Europeans have lower income, but they get around four to six weeks of vacation. Now, of course, they're in trouble. You know, the Greeks had their long, big, fat Greek wedding it lasted ten years, and now they're in big trouble. So, there's a nice trade-off between work and leisure.
Indeed!
