Well, give the fellow a little bit of a break. - - Its hard to actually learn something new when youre trying to fit it within your box of preconceived notions. This guys mind is fighting like hell against learning anything new. If this fellow really Gets This - - - it will completely transform his understanding of the economy. And some people don't want transformation. - - Regards, - P.S. - - odds are - he'll never get it. He's intelligent enough, but too attached to his preconceptions.
Perhaps you missed this thread in which the village idiot and I had a lengthy exchange Perusing it might change your opinion. He starts blathering page 3 and our exchange starts in earnest pg8. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=182429&perpage=6&pagenumber=3
Julian Robertson, the billionaire founder of Tiger Management who has since invested a large portion of his fortune with the "Tiger Cub" fund managers he once mentored, came down on the same side of the debate as Ackman, calling himself an "anti-gold bug" in remarks Monday. Robertson was to admit that he has made money off gold, through investing with Tiger Cub Peter Palmedo's Sun Valley Gold, but still said he thinks many gold bugs are "certifiably crazy." http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/22/gold-einhorn-ackman-markets-commodities-hedge-funds.html
Hmmmm - - o.k. lets see. The "certifiably crazy " Chinese, Indians, and Russians have been adding to their gold reserves like crazy over the last year. (And you should know what the Indians did in terms of a recent huge sale of gold - - - they bought the whole damned lot.) Personally, I think we're looking at a shorter term pull back from current price levels. Long term, given global monetary policies of the paper money presses running full blast, I expect gold to rise. And OPTIONAL buddy, I don't care what you do. Don't buy a grain of gold at all. Pile up a bunch of paper dollars. More power to ya. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. - -
Monday, October 19, 2009 Julian Robertson's Interview With The Financial Times On his recent media escapade, Tiger Management founder and hedge fund legend Julian Robertson stopped off to chat with the Financial Times about many topics. He has been out talking a lot about his curve caps play lately where he essentially is buying puts on long-term treasuries as he expects prices to fall and yields to rise. Julian again touched on this position in this interview but we want to turn the focus to other topics that he hasn't previously discussed in his other recent media appearances. Here are some notable excerpts from the Tiger Management founder and hedge fund legend's interview with the FT: "FT: Does this conservative bent mean youâre very interested in gold right now? JR: Iâm interested in gold but not for the reason that a lot of other people are interested. First let me say, I donât believe in gold â no one has ever, since it was ever discovered, really ever used up any gold. So all of it is here, thereâs no supply and demand situation; you canât eat it. So I think itâs a psychological store of value and I think that probably a psychiatrist is better able to analyse gold than I am. But we do have here the worldâs, I think, leading authority on gold â as a matter of fact, heâs giving a talk downstairs now â and I think thatâs why we seated him was because I knew he was the worldâs best in this. FT: So who is your Babe Ruth of gold? JR: You can check him out but heâs a terrific man, and probably has as good a record as anybody in the world over the last five years. And one of the other things about gold â not just the gold bugs who, generally speaking, are some of the craziest people on the face of the globe, but people like me who suddenly get worried and people like you who are concerned about inflation and you say, show me how do I get into gold? And our man will say, Julian, you donât get into gold now; the price of mining gold, the cost of mining gold is going down very fast and itâs very possible that the companies can make a fortune on the planning price of gold, simply because the costs are going down. So the point is, to buy gold stocks instead of gold." Read more: http://www.marketfolly.com/2009/10/julian-robertsons-interview-with.html#ixzz0XBIfdeEC http://www.marketfolly.com/2009/10/julian-robertsons-interview-with.html
More money will be made shorting bonds from real inflation than ever will be made buying gold... Gold is just dumb... It is okay to trade just like anything else, but to invest in? Ridiculous...
Yeah, you know that old quote (paraphrasing) : "Its not that he doesnt know very much, its that everything he 'knows' is wrong." As for that article he posted, look at this - - JR: Iâm interested in gold but not for the reason that a lot of other people are interested. First let me say, I donât believe in gold â no one has ever, since it was ever discovered, really ever used up any gold. So all of it is here, thereâs no supply and demand situation; you canât eat it. That is one of the dumbest things I have ever read. One of the benefits of gold as medium of exchange is that it doesnt degrade over time. The gold in the Pharohs tombs is a perfect as the day it was put there. The whole statement is absolutely moronic. Does the guy know what a 'medium of exchange' , 'store of value', or 'insurance policy' is ? The guy interviewed is no dummy. Bet he's actually waiting for a pull back so he can buy all the gold he can get his hands on (but who knows). The human capacity for always only trying to confirm their preconceived notions is amazing however. Notice how I mention the move of China, India, and Russia to buy physical gold - - and then he comes up with this guy as his 'counterpoint' ? Hmmm - - on a set of scales, what carry's more weight - three major govts/and economies - - or what that guy wrote for public consumption in FT ? I wonder. Maybe the fellow from Europe (I think) who did the MA studies on the history of the German cental bank can comment on that idiotic article. - - -
fyi: Gold can be eaten, as a matter of fact gold flakes are used in high end desserts. also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_salts
I dont quite see the appeal of eating it, so you can just crap it out again - - - but if some do, what the heck. Regards, - -