Go for gold, or seventies redux.

I remember, I do, back in the seventies, seeing lines of people (on TV) lined up outside a store. Curious, I asked my parents what the people were doing, after all, this was deemed important enough to put on TV. I think my mother replied that they were selling thier gold. Why I remember this I do not know.

Anyway, I'm walking through a shopping centre the other day and advertised on the front of a store was a promise to pay excellent money for your gold. Actually the promise was delivered in the form of a picture of two attractive young girls in business suits studiously inspecting a ring whilst managing to smile sweetly at the camera. This must have been the shop where the horny punter sold his gold. I wondered if thier was a store devoted to non horny gold valuation? This was answered when I heard an advertisement on radio for Cash Converters to buy your gold, it assured me that "Cashies" pay good prices for gold, good blokes they were. On the Gold Coast your are never far from the beating heart of a bogan.

All this talk of gold got me thinkin about gold valuation. Gold stats are here. I could fill this post up with arcane calcs and opinions, but it takes to long to write these posts. So for anyone interested read this. I agree with the authors conclusions, the long term demand has flattened.

"Gold is a typical accident waiting to happen. Jewellery now accounts for only 60% of jewellery plus investment demand (43% in Q2). That compares with 80% between 2002 and 2008.
Another way to look at it is that during the last 12 months, investment demand of 1228 tonnes absorbed 32% of the supply, but a huge 47% in Q2!
Jewellery buyers, the longer term investors, are running away while suppliers like miners and recyclers are feeding the pipeline with ever greater quantities as the price is rising."

Be aware that the gold price could move a long way before it reverses. The worst types of bubbles are in assets that are non productive such as gold. If say, some type of infrastructure bubble is burst then bankruptcy and re-organisation will occur, the assets will be put to use again under another capital structure. If your a gold investor your just stuck with the gold, it can't be recapatilised and re-used.

Regards
TheBagwan

PS: Thought this was curious but not necessarily useful.