Is the title of an unintentionally humorous editorial from the Financial Times. The editorial is unsigned, a fact that may provide its author with great relief in the years to come.
“The one advantage of gold as a reserve asset is that, unlike assets based on fiat money, governments cannot make it worthless by inflating it away. But in an era of low inflation, and given that independent inflation-targeting central banks are the norm across the industrialised world, that risk has very sharply diminished.” Got that? “Inflation-targeting central banks” have given us “an era of low inflation”, as demonstrated in the United States by the 90+% loss of the dollar’s purchasing power since 1913, I suppose.
It’s one thing to be bearish on gold. Reasonable people can certainly disagree on the prospects of any investment. But the author’s hostility reveals an agenda that goes beyond financial avice to his readers.
“For private investors to hold gold on this basis is their own foolish affair....”
“Given the pointlessness of holding gold, the speed of its official sell-off scarcely matters...”
“Gold is on its way out as an investment and a reserve asset. Three cheers for that.”
Minesite.com offers a rebuttal here.
