While I always remain skeptical about the opinions of gold experts, I do take notice when a few of the more notable gold buyers start stocking up on my favorite metal.
Over the last few days I have read a number of stories about well-known investors buying more gold.
John Paulson and George Soros have both increased their gold investments recently. This after a period when Soros in particular was leery of gold, and was actually selling some of it.
A little further down the pecking order, Dan Tapiero, a former portfolio manager at several hedge funds, has reconsidered the balance of his personal portfolio and now has over 25% of his net worth in gold.
Why are the big guns making their move? There are probably countless charts they look at and analysts they listen to. But it all boils down to some very basic realities that you and I can understand just by opening a newspaper.
Things are terrible over in Europe and getting worse by the day. Things in China are not as rosy as they once were. And here in North America we are all waiting to see what happens on January 1st with the so-called fiscal cliff.
In other words, nobody is feeling comfortable with the world economy and the direction in which it is going. Even buying the U.S. dollar no longer feels as safe and certain as it once did. As for the stock market, why invest there when it delivers so little growth, and risks a big downturn?
And that, my friend, leaves us with gold.
For myself, I have another reason to buy gold. When I see my money tied up at the bank and in mutual funds, all I see is digits on a computer screen. Yes, I can access my bank and investment accounts. I can see my balances. But what I’m actually looking at is numbers on a screen. I’m not looking at money. My wealth is represented by bits and bytes on a screen.
I don’t trust that.
I don’t trust the software and systems that “hold” my money. Nor do I trust the people who oversee the software systems.
No, I’m not going to abandon the banks altogether. But I am going to hedge my bets by buying more gold.
About the author: DH Kenrick is a student of world economics and a committed gold enthusiast. Follow me on Google+
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I was in China recently and it was interesting to see retail banks prominently advertising physical gold to the public.