Barron's Roundtable

Bill,
Barron’s just completed a 3 part series where they interview various investment experts and get their investment picks for the year. For the current Barron’s Roundtable, 9 investment experts were interviewed. Three of the 9 people interviewed recommended gold.

For week one, Felix Zulauf with Zulauf Asset management was interviewed. One of his top picks for 2013 was gold. An interesting factoid that he pointed out was that 38 countries are pursuing zero or negative interest rate policies, unprecedented in modern history.

For week three, Bill Gross with PIMCO was interviewed. PIMCO manages about $2 trillion in assets. Barron’s described Bill Gross as the world’s top bond fund manager. So, what is the top pick for 2013 for the world’s top bond fund manager? Is it investment quality bonds? Is it junk bonds? Is it emerging market debt? None of the above. His top pick for 2013 is GOLD.

Also for week three, Fred Hickey with The High Tech Strategist was interviewed. One would think that The High Tech Strategist would have all kinds of high tech investment picks. Fred Hickey pointed out that this is the worst environment for PC companies in a decade or more. The mobile phone market fell 2%. Holiday sales of electronics were down 7%. Semiconductor stock prices are rising as semiconductor sales are declining. To make a long story short, he is only recommending one high tech stock. His remaining recommendations are gold, 2 gold junior mining companies, and Market Vectors Vietnam. Fred had an interesting interview with Barron’s which should be below.

http://live.wsj.com/video/fred-hickey-on-gold-and-apple/C633CDC5-2BFA-4940-B01F-BC46DFA2AE5F.html?mod=BOL_article_snippet_video#!C633CDC5-2BFA-4940-B01F-BC46DFA2AE5F

With only 1% of world assets invested in gold, we have good company. It will be interesting when we get to 2% of world assets invested in gold.
Paul