This week’s episode of the Gold Exchange Podcast explores the idea of profits, and why it matters how you get them. Much of the financial world has confused the idea of profit with price appreciation. Or as we like to say, they confuse investment with speculation. Investment is deploying capital productively in a business for a yield. Speculation is betting one's capital on an asset price rising. There's a reason why this confusion exists. Central Banks have manipulated and distorted the most important market on planet earth - the market for money and credit. Interest rates are unhinged, and have been falling for over four decades. This has created an investment environment where more and more activity is speculative, and less and less is real investment. While both actions may produce a "profit" there is a significant difference. The results of one build civilization. The results of the other, tear it down.