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 ...
“He is right, of course. When you get right down to it, food is the only currency.”
What about lead?
Valueless no but it is worth far less than its current price.
I know he is speaking literally, but really...silver and gold have been the traditional store of wealth and value since the beginning of civilization.
No, aside from some pure metal uses in electronics there is little you can “make” from gold.
And yes, when I see the dopes on TV hawking gold, I appreciate what Buffet means about it spiking.
But, don’t ya just hate people that are that literal, in the face of reality?
“Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville......”
Oh, wait, that’s the brother.....never mind.
I agree. If you want to invest in metals as a hedge against hard times, you should look long and hard at lead.
He must be buying!
If civilization breaks down, those with firearms and ammunition will be in possession of the gold, food and everything else. If they can out shoot all the other people with firearms and ammunition.
Pray that it doesn't happen.
No, I don't.
Only if you lack discipline.
Me, I'm planning to give a little bit of food for a log of gold.
Oskar Schindler about his gold swastika pin - “With this I could have one, maybe two more Jew’s freedom.” (from memory)
Food is very perishable; ammo is good for generations.
If you owned a million dollars worth of gold at $800 an ounce and then one year later it was selling for $250 an ounce, would you admit that maybe your investment crashed?
Look at your chart. Do you not recognize that what happened around 1979 and 1980 looks very similar to what is happening today?
No. weapons and amunition are another.
Unlike Buffet, though, Hughes actually created value through the companies he built.
6000 years of history would appear to disagree.
It is that simple.
It's more complicated than that. The value of gold is totally based on psychology and psychiatry, and not on economics or physics. There is no use for it for which other much cheaper metals would not suffice. The danger is that the world will sooner or later figure that out.
Howard Buffet was a U.S. congressman from Nebraska who, in the 1950s wrote a paper entitled “Human Freedom Rests On Gold Redeemable Money”.
Warren is Howard’s son, and probably some kind of new world order globalist. I would be interested to know if Warren mentions his father’s article in his piece. I doubt it.
Here is the link to Howard’s article - everyone should read it before they comment, imo. “So far as I can discover, paper money systems always wound up in collapse and economic chaos.”
Sound familiar?
http://www.fame.org/pdf/buffet3.pdf
His words are heavily laden with politics; he’s short gold for the short-term, and this will have the effect of bidding gold down a bit —something that will make him money.
At the same time, it shores up political favor with the Regime because just b4 the buddies of the Muslim Bisexual monetize the debt, it’s good to have as many suckers positioned to get creamed as possible.
If you’re a Mandarin inflating a currency that everybody has already fled, then that just wont do. Best to get everyone “Whew..!”-ing loudly —AND THEN pull the carpet out from beneath them.
Does Hussein have barnyard photos of Buffet, or has the Oracle of Omaha gotten a hankering for pastels and antique collecting...?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.