I agree too. I think it's time for me to send Jim a special gift, and let him know how I feel. I DO owe him a LOT, because he taught me how to fish. Was I a decent value investor before? Yes. But without his show, I would never have discovered the gold sector, understood the financial problem correctly, or had the courage of my convictions to hold through a terrible downturn like this.

I think I'll send him a copy of Investment and the Return to Equity Capital in the South African Gold Mining Industry 1887-1965.

It has lots of wonderful fold-out charts and data about the performance of South African Mining stocks during this time. The best period of performance was during the 1930s, since the 1970s had not yet happened when it was written. Back then, the South African gold stocks were the lowest cost producers, and would parallel Mexico and Canada today in my view. This would help Jim to make a better case than he already does that even if we did get deflation, gold stocks would still do well. There is no way that we are heading in that direction. The monetary spigots are wide open.