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 ...
10 seconds. I hate you!
I’d like to see him tell that to everyone for the last 6,000 years.
No guarantees, but usually when someone like Buffett comes out with a statement like this, he does so in order to drive the price down so he can buy some more.
It’s one thing when a market analyst says what he thinks. It’s something else entirely when a major bank or a billionaire investor says it.
I’d guess that gold should be heading back up in a couple of weeks.
Actually, Warren, you are of no real value to this country. Shut up and disappear.
Anything can be currency as long as the majority agrees to it. But what real value does a dollar bill have except for an ephemeral acquiescence by all involved? If that acquiescence evaporates it is just paper. Gold is really no different. I believe a real-world example will be forthcoming.
He who steals my purse, steals cash.
Odd, Warren ... you don’t seem to think Berkshire Hathaway’s taxes have any value either. Is that why you don’t pay them?
Lead is quite valuable, too.
The inherent value of everything is 0.
Buffet makes his money from deals with Obama.
Nobody has used food as a medium of exchange since maybe medieval Africans, despite food's intrinsic value. There is a reason for this.
Today’s global bubble is debt; private, municipal and especially sovereign.
The “easy” “solution” is more debt, piled on top of more debt. The game is to keep papering over that mega bubble with still more debt paper.
Buffett must help keep the game going; his company is on the hook for billions of credit derivatives and he can’t afford for the game to end prematurely. He is part of the problem, but he also understands how to play the fascist rules in partnership with statist government leaders. He also understands that he needs to own real, hard assets that can’t be inflated away through money printing.
The price of gold is like a canary in the coal mine as an indicator of fiat currency’s falling real value. The price reveals what bankers, government leaders and fascist-statists want to hide, including the exploitation and financial repression of savers, pensioners, and the larger middle class. Warren, you are pathetic.
What a lying animal Warren Buffett is. He wants everyone else to be poor. Gold is the one thing everyone should be buying. I hope his lies don’t cause people to lose their shirts.
The sooner this Obama-loving piece of excrement croaks the sooner Satan gets a new buttboy.
If you look at it as a metal, it IS highly inflated.
I remember gold was $35 an ounce when I was a child.
in the 1950’s gold $/oz was about 20x oil $/bbl. Brought up to the present, that would be similar to $2000 oz for gold. Saudi’s do value gold.
So astoundingly wrong.
Ask the Weimar people. The Powers That Be can, and do, print little pieces of paper with neat ink designs on them. And they will print until the world is awash in pretty toilet paper if they feel like it. Gold is rare and the supply cannot be exponentially increased by the whim of some central banker(s).
FWIW, a FRN, whether a 1 or a 100, has 12.4 BTU heat value. A stack might prevent frostbite after TSHTF.
You are correct in the "food, water and ammo" department. Don't forget smokes.
I don’t disagree with any of your points. I’m just saying that “when you get right down to it”... If civilization breaks down you’d give a lot of gold for a little food if conditions were right.
I read about Warren Buffet buying a huge amount of silver a few years ago before the big move up in price. I’m willing to bet he owns some gold too.
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