Posted on 02/10/2012 6:22:11 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Berkshire Hathaway chairman and famous investor Warren Buffett has dismissed gold as a "valueless asset".
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has dismissed gold as a valueless asset saying that it has no inherent value. In an article for Fortune magazine, Buffett said that gold investors were pinning their hopes on future demand.
He warned that gold was a self-inflating bubble, created by investors desperate for a viable alternative to property and shares.
The infamous investor warned that investors in gold would be left with egg on their face when the price eventually crashed.
"Bubbles blown large enough inevitably pop," he said. "And then the old proverb is confirmed once again: "What the wise man does in the beginning, the fool does in the end."
Buffett's attack comes as private bank Coutts predicts that the gold price will hit "new highs" by the end of 2012.
In a report from the bank, that counts the Queen among its clients, gold is confirmed as a "key asset in investment portfolios".
Coutts said: "The easing of global monetary conditions in response to the liquidity squeeze in the latter part of 2011 has boosted gold.
"Some further stimulus measures could now be postponed by an improving economic outlook, at least in the US. Nonetheless, negative real returns, adjusted for risk, are undermining confidence in major currencies as a store of value. We expect gold prices to hit new highs by year end."
Meanwhile, gold fell more than 1 pc on Friday, hurt by a slide in the euro after a Greek party leader said he couldn't back the 130-billion euro bailout deal the country needs to avoid going bankrupt, which comes at the cost of painful austerity measures.
Spot gold fell as low as $1,703.69 an ounce and was down 0.9 percent
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Excellent, well thought out and well written post.
We’ve come to similar conclusions.
Thats too bad. I find people like that inflexible and unable to see alternatives that are not traditional.
These are the same people who are unable to see humor in clever turns of a phrase.
Hate is probably too strong a word. Tedious and implacable are probably more accurate.
Gold may be worthless, but it’s worth more on a unit-per-unit basis than any of the fiat currencies people buy it with. What’s more, it ALWAYS will be.
Gold would probably make a very nice bullet body.
He’s just trying to wean people away from it because he and his friends can’t control a gold economy.
He probably sees no problem with the fed printing money like crazy either
He was being interviewed on CBS, by Charlie Rose and some Blond, and he went on and on about the made up crap about his Secretary and the proposed Buffet Tax.
The old man is a tool.
Compared to having the government peform a lewd act upon one’s person because of one’s wealth, it’s true, gold has less than satisfactory value. It’s also true that gold has paltry value compared to being to participate in insider dealings. Dealings which arose out of Mr. Buffett’s cash position at the time.
But we do not have your wealth Warren. And I canceled my GEICO policy because of your cronyism. Enjoy your ice cream.
By the way, Warren Buffett was deep, deep into silver when it was sub-$5 and sold it when it was $7 because “he didn’t understand it”. He sold massive calls against his silver holdings because he was irritated at the idea that the holding generated no income. And was called out of all of it.
I don’t understand brain surgery. Does that mean brain surgery has no value? Barack 0bama doesn’t understand freedom. Does that mean freedom has no value?
It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how smart you think you are. It is an undeniable possibility that a hunk of dumb metal is smarter than you are.
How many other scenarios in America, have a higher probability than the “starvation” scenario?
High Inflation?
Unstable economy?
Volatile dollar?
Energy shortage?
Stock Market collapse?
THAT is what gold is good for.
You just have to ask yourself why would Warren Buffet say don’t buy Gold if he really though it was worthless???
Other trade items:
TP, cigarettes, lighters, soap, medical items such as alcohol, gauze and ointments, face breathing masks, water filtration devices, and?
Let’s make dirt the currency of the future - not as valuable as gold currently goes for per ounce, but ther’s so much more of it. Plus, you can grow things in it and best of all the government can’t print it...
Warren’s money is in paper, promises and electron pulses stored in computers - what I’d call worth less than gold if a real crisis of epic proportions comes as seems like Obama is pushing this country.
His suits, lifestyles, private jets, luxury homes, and yes, even his little ice cream sundae can be wiped out a heck of a lot faster than an ingot of gold.
No, a “fiat” currency has value because a government says it does. Otherwise, nobody would accept it. Gold is unique because it is a generally recognized form of wealth that cuts across time and cultures and doesn’t need compulsion for acceptance. Nobody ever put together an expedition to recover some long lost Monarch’s check book, after all. Fiat currencies can be made worthless by diktat, overnight. This has happened many times.
I’m RICH, I’m RICH!
(In the spirit of magnanimity & fair play, I will share with you 10% of all the gold that Warren Buffet sends my way)
“I think the financial disaster that was expected around 1979 is finally happening today.”
Does anyone here remember Bob White and The Duck Book?
Nope. Gold is a luxury item for when civilization is on kilter. When civilization gets knocked off kilter, as happens every few centuries it seems, then gold is nothing but a lump of yellow metal that is a pain to haul around everywhere. It only becomes valuable again when people start thinking it's valuable again.
So much better to “haul around” a few bales of worthless fiat currency when civilization gets knocked off kilter, right?
Excellent. Making a shopping list on how to spend my millions...
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