That is actually not only true for goldbugs, but for all financial bubbles. If you had asked someone about AAPL in summer of 2012, they would have told you that any specific news item was bullish. If you had asked someone about crude oil in 2008, they would have told you that any specific news would drive the price higher. It is the same pattern over and over gain. Once the goldbugs throw in the towel and admit that they were wrong, it will be a good time to actually buy gold.
Yes, you're right, this applies equally well to the dotcom bubble, housing markets or any other bubble. Disconnects between value and price can happen in any market, and they're very hard to recognise, though if you find yourself rationalising incredibly bad news like this as having an upside or being a buying opportunity, and dismissing falls/rises of 20% in hours as normal, or claiming that an asset is inevitably going to rise in value, you're probably in a bubble.
I can't even see a clear lower-bound on the value of bitcoin as there is with say housing (rental value) or oil (use value), though it does compare well to shares - it could easily go to zero in the long term and is likely to fluctuate wildly based on sentiment in the meantime.
Interesting look at the lower bound that got a lot of bitcoiners angry. The comments are actually pretty good as the initial author did miss some of the finer points on bitcoin to which he responds in the comments.
They are linked at the hip in many ways. Bitcoin is a speculative asset, but it is also a really well thought out accounting ledger and transaction protocol for that asset. Plus m-of-n transactions, watermarking, etc... lot's of cools stuff.
When people talk about the speculative nature, they tend to sound like Glenn Beck. When they talk about the technology, they sound more like techno-futurists. I like now that economists other than Austrians are getting into analyzing the possibilities. It isn't what the worst bitbugs want to hear (bitcoin taking over all currency and forcing global financial institutions to crumble), it is more contemplating how bitcoin fits into the complex monetary, financial, fiscal, etc world that already exists.
Any publicity is good publicity. Applies to emerging markets as well, maybe especially since they require awareness which can be hard to gain without public discourse.
