Why You Don't Need Gold (Not My Article)

Trust your own instinct! Diversify! Read and take advises to heart and analyze it yourself a few times a year.

Look at most of these analysts position, they are still analyzing today.

Sure. If you completely ignore the passing of a full generation when gold absolutely sieved value for TWENTY years, as the article plainly stated. Many investors from that era probably will never live long enough to recoup their losses. If one bought near the top of the previous bull run, gold still hasn't paid off for them, nor has it come even close to breaking even. So I totally agree with the article. Gold, and PMs in general, are a huge gamble, if one expects to reap some future reward from buying into this asset class. I know this isn't the popular view around here, but a dose of reality is good for investors to digest on occasion.

Thanks for sharing lukkyseven. That was a very interesting read. Nice chart traevin, you always want to be buying when everyone else is selling and selling when everyone else is buying. I seem to be doing a lot of buying right now though.

The problem for both sides of this argument is that hindsight is 20/20. During those years where gold languished in investment purgatory, there were indisputably better investment opportunities elsewhere. And, the scale of fiscal excesses and gross negligence that threatens today's fragile fiat economy were not yet in play, let alone imagined, in the most fevered central banker's head. Yes, the real money faithful who correctly foresaw the inevitable problems that would emerge in the wake of the Nixon Shock would be the ones to faithfully build their gold stacks during these years. However, given the opportunity to do it all over again, with the information available to me at the time, I'd be dishonest to suggest that I'd be stacking gold instead of playing the successful equities of the past twenty years.

If I fault myself on anything, it would be not second-guessing my incorrect evaluation of the importance of gold and silver in the wake of the dot com bust and our emerging post-9/11 world. The rules were changing; the last semblances of rational fiscal and monetary policy were vanishing in plain sight. Unfortunately, the normalcy bias is very real and very powerful. I'm just glad I got on board when I did.

Hmmmm.... for someone who states
they sure seem to manage just that themselves with this article that imo shows no balance whatsoever.

Norm

I'm not sure that would work either, since prior to the 1970s we were on the gold standard and the price of gold was fixed.

I'm glad a few people enjoyed the read! I personally wont be investing in gold, but I do own some. I think there's a big difference and honestly, I see better things to invest in. That being said, I'm 27 so what do I know! Now if I were offered gold at well below spot, I'd invest in that ;).

The value I see of owning gold as an "investment" is simply that gold has been seen as a source of wealth since ancient times. So even though prices may go up or down, it will still be worth something. I think the same can be said for ammunition and food though! And they are much cheaper.

I know it may seem like a simple mater of semantics, but it's a very important distinction to understand. Gold wasn't fixed against the US dollar. The dollar was fixed against a specific weight of gold. Gold is the constant. It's the dollar's value that changes and thus it's buying power for the purchase of other goods, services, and commodities.

Once this fact sinks in and is understood, it changes one's whole perspective on what gold represents, both before and after the Nixon Shock of 1971.