GRG55
10-08-07, 11:46 PM
Every now and then the FT breaks from it's traditional sober British tone and feels compelled to publish a snarkily negative commentary on commodities and gold. In the last one, a couple of years ago, the writer suggested holders of gold suffered from some sort of mental deficiency that impaired logical thinking. Here's the latest effort which takes much the same line...
Commodities bull story relies heavily on guesswork
Published: October 7 2007 14:50 | Last updated: October 7 2007 14:50
Do you remember the Aden sisters? Cast your mind back – if you can – to the fevered days of the early 1980s. Then, for a while, they were everyone’s favourite oracle on the gold price.
Their prescience seemed uncanny. They said gold would go to $850 and it did. They said it would fall to $300 and it did. Then they made the tactical error of saying it would go to $4,000 and it did not. So they relapsed into obscurity.
How different things are today. Most commodities, gold among them, have been racing away again. But in judging such things we no longer rely on a couple of weird sisters in Costa Rica. We go by logic and fundamentals.
Well, sort of. There are several possible reasons for a rising gold price, such as a reluctance by rich individuals to entrust cash to today’s banking system. But the most popular reason – fear of inflation – seems less than logical.
Link to full article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73d80f62-74db-11dc-892d-0000779fd2ac.html
Commodities bull story relies heavily on guesswork
Published: October 7 2007 14:50 | Last updated: October 7 2007 14:50
Do you remember the Aden sisters? Cast your mind back – if you can – to the fevered days of the early 1980s. Then, for a while, they were everyone’s favourite oracle on the gold price.
Their prescience seemed uncanny. They said gold would go to $850 and it did. They said it would fall to $300 and it did. Then they made the tactical error of saying it would go to $4,000 and it did not. So they relapsed into obscurity.
How different things are today. Most commodities, gold among them, have been racing away again. But in judging such things we no longer rely on a couple of weird sisters in Costa Rica. We go by logic and fundamentals.
Well, sort of. There are several possible reasons for a rising gold price, such as a reluctance by rich individuals to entrust cash to today’s banking system. But the most popular reason – fear of inflation – seems less than logical.
Link to full article:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/73d80f62-74db-11dc-892d-0000779fd2ac.html