Quote from Lefty62151:
You're buying a commodity that you have to pay to store (unless you keep it under your mattress). Also you are buying near a recent historical high. The investment pays no interest. I would rather trade them than buy em. Good luck
Lefty.
Lefty is expressing the "establishment's" views on this subject (no offense intended afterall, for most people, being aligned with the establishment is the path of least resistance).
Gold has been in a downtrend for the last 25yr since its historical high of $800 in 1980. And consider how much new paper money has been pumped into the system during those last 25yr.
Just consider that G3 Central Bank's balance sheet has increased by over 14% per year, total of 80% during the last 5 yr (2000-2004). This is the most powerful kind of money, also called super-money, further multiplied by the fractional banking system.
Personally I think the US government is actively inflating away part of its massive debt for some time now.
People need a store of value which governments can't counterfeit.
I think what we have seen last few years is that many others chose things which are basic needs, like oil or basic metals or even real-estate (which can't be manipulated as easily as gold) as store-of-wealth, driving their prices to very high levels.
I tend to like gold, because it's the "do no evil" choice. If one stores wealth in gold rather than oil, means that energy will still be affordable by those with meager means. On the other hand, gold is almost at the mercy of the establishment (but doesn't mean that it'll always be that way: see what happened in 3Q1999).