Sam Zell buys Gold

by Robert Wood – Sociologist -
It’s really weird to see this wizened old man telling his audience on Bloomberg-TV that he is investing some of his many thousands of million dollars in gold.

It is also typical for Bloomberg’s tv-reporters to see nothing but money. They are not able to formulate and expand on important topics related too, for example, the extraction of the dirty shale oil Zell is praising as an avenue to make even more money.
   Bloomberg’s reporters do not reflect on, or possibly are not permitted, to formulate questions related the world outside the World of finance. They are not able to ask questions about the welfare of the nation or the future of mankind’s very existence on the planet: A typical Bloomberg question: - What other industry assets are you pursuing in The United States? And then Sam Zell boasts about his oil, his cheap, polluting shale oil and of his love of money. - We are pretty confidential that the price of oil is not going down, Zell says. He talks about dealing and wheeling and the worship of the god, More. How important it is for him to get hold of yet another billion dollars before he dies. To get enough money to get buried in a gold coffin.

What, Me Worry?
Gold’s dimming supply prospects have also caught the eye of the billionaire. - For the first time in life, I bought gold because it is a good hedge, continues the superrich Zell. That gold is seen as a hedge against “something bad might happen”, is nothing new. However, a gold-hedge against losing an insignificant two-three hundred million dollars is without meaning when you still got billions to spare. A precious metal hedge against the End of the World? A gold hedge against Death? Even a billion dollars can’t stop The Grim Reaper when Zell’s time is up. There is something sadly pathetic about this near octogenarian investor who cannot see that the future is oil black, and that the CO2 pollution from his newly acquired gold is warming up the atmosphere. Zell Buys Gold

Investing in Earth’s Demise
Instead of investing millions in people-friendly less polluting energy industries, Zell is investing in the death of the planet. But why shouldn’t Zell and his likes make more money from filth? Zell won’t live many more years and won’t be here when the climate goes highwire. Seen from outside the tv-studio one wonders. Why does Zell not leave a lasting legacy? Why doesn’t he, for example, build a continental spanning, environmental friendly high speed train network? If so, he will be remembered as one of the planet savers who “saw the light” in his old age. But no, such thing is impossible to do in a country where another ton of gold is more important than survival.

High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonore’d , and unsung.

from “Breathes There The Man,” -Sir Walter Scott