Note the timing of this article- just before another takedown. You can set your watch by this stuff. Article also makes a number of errors and apples & oranges type comparisons. I'm too lazy to critique the whole thing - don't think it deserves one anyway - but just one point:

"Rarely does anyone discuss the biggest problem with gold -- no one actually knows what this metal is really worth. After all, it generates no income. All the gains come from capital appreciation. And that, of course, is a gamble."

No one knows what gold is worth? Give me a break. Like everything else that trades, it's worth the last print. Even when the market is closed you can sell it for near that price to any bullion dealer. Gold is the most liquid asset on the planet.

As for generating no income, tell me the banks that lease gold make no income. Tell me traders that arb the basis make no income. Maybe joe sixpack makes no income, but that isn't why he's buying. Seriously, how much public buying is speculation and how much is simply insurance against the very obvious danger of holding all your wealth in paper assets?

I'm preaching to the choir here, but it bears repeating. No broker will ever recommend bullion for one simple reason. They make no money off it. People don't trade in and out the way they do with stocks or mutual funds. They buy it, they hold it, end of story. As far as your broker is concerned, that money is gone and will earn HIM no income...heh. When gold does change hands it's usually part of an estate, and only then, if the heirs are stupid (which they often are) does it get sold.

Why even talk about the price of gold? It's nothing more than a bad habit that follows from the forced acceptance of fiat currency. If you went into a bank prior to 1933 and asked the "price" of gold they'd think you were mad.

ebear