Gold does nothing but sit there. It does not produce anything (other than a small amount which is used in electronics). It does not pay dividends. It does not increase in quantity as it sits in a vault. Instead it either costs money to store or is at risk of being stolen from your house. It is a horrible investment.
But the Germans are arguing that even as bad as it is, it is still better than cash, real estate, bank deposits, corporate bonds, government bonds or stocks and that shows just how bad they think the current situation is. And I think that they are right.
>> the Germans are arguing that even as bad as it is, [gold] is still better than cash ...
Yup - it’s pretty hard to print more gold.
German banks, for the average ‘Otto’, are less than attractive. Banks decide how much a person can withdraw from their savings account per month, not the owner of the account. If one wants to withdraw more than the bank deems ‘sufficient living expenses’, proof of need is required. Many of these banks are partly owned by the government and, over the last decades, have pushed sales of bonds and other investments that have performed so poorly several are now demanding repayment of all dividends sent to owners since inception. Many of the elderly pensioners have a majority of their assets tied up in these funds and it appears they either will or already have lost everything.