Over the long term, gold is often seen as a safe-haven asset that can help offset the impact of volatility experienced by portfolios heavily allocated to paper-based assets like stocks. This is why many consumers use gold to diversify their portfolios amidst ever-changing market conditions. It’s also why, if you’re new to gold...
You may have heard the term “peak gold” and wondered what it meant. Simply put, peak gold is the maximum rate of global gold extraction, after which mining will slowly decline until gold can no longer be extracted at a profit. For a more complete understanding of peak gold, we examine the concept’s importance to the precious metals...
When it comes to selecting assets for your portfolio, having a long-term outlook is key. Gold is no exception: It has risen significantly over the long run. But as with any commodity, the price of gold can increase or decrease for any number of reasons in the short term. You might hear a market commentator refer to a temporary slip in...
Current U.S. Money Reserve president and former U.S. Mint Director, Philip N. Diehl, was appointed chairman of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) at the association's Board of Director's meeting at the end of August. ICTA is a nonprofit association that supports the rare coin, paper money, and precious metals industry, with...
Gold prices seem to move in mysterious ways, but over the long term, a few forces account for most of these price changes. For those of us who buy gold and and hold onto it for a year or longer, these are the most important factors to bear in mind as we make our financial plans. Factors Impacting Price of Gold The value of the dollar...
I occasionally go back through my blog posts to see how my predictions bore up after a year or so. This can be humbling, but sometimes you get it right. I'll leave it to others to dig up the ones where I missed the mark. In August 2013, The Wall Street Journal Online and Asia Editions published an opinion piece I wrote about the effect...
I follow politics pretty closely. Back in November, I saw an article in FiveThirtyEight in which the author argued that the GOP’s primary and caucus rules doom the outsider candidates—Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson—by tilting the playing field in favor of the insider candidates—Marco Rubio, John Kasich, and Jeb Bush. I thought...
Gold prices have soared $150 per ounce since the first of January and, if prices rise another $60, the yellow metal will officially cross the threshold into bull market territory. Gold is soaring because investors around the world are panicking about the state of the global economy. And when large investors panic, they run to the safety...
In my last post, I wrote about prospects for civil war in Ukraine turning into a direct confrontation between Russia and the West, and what that would mean for gold prices. I said that markets had not yet woken up to this reality and when they did, gold prices would rise. Markets are now taking notice, with gold gaining $30 an ounce...
What is the connection between the price of gold and civil war in Ukraine? Simple—gold has long been a refuge in times of political turmoil. When investors and savers realize the severity of a threat to their wellbeing, they rush to gold to protect their wealth, driving prices up quickly. In recent weeks, the conflict in Ukraine has...
Gold jumped $22 an ounce on news that a Malaysian Airlines flight (MH17) was shot down over eastern Ukraine. Later in the day, all signs were pointing to a missile strike on the aircraft, and persuasive evidence was developing that Russian-backed rebels launching a Russian-built missile were responsible. The world awaited the smoking...
Read Part 1. In my last post, I discussed three myths about gold that Gary Alexander describes in a piece on Seeking Alpha. Understanding these myths is important because they deter many investors from making gold part of their financial portfolios. I’ll address four additional myths here. Myth #4: Gold is primarily a hedge against...
I recently ran across an article entitled “The 12 Biggest Mistakes the Media Make When Covering Gold Markets," by Gary Alexander. It’s a good article for potential gold buyers because it debunks many of the myths that lead investors, and their financial advisors, to exclude gold from their portfolios. For the most part, Alexander’s...
For weeks, I’ve intended to write a post on the current stock market bubble, and now, the New York Times' David Leonhardt has beaten me to it, but I'll make some additional points. Robert Shiller, a Noble prize-winning economist, is among the market analysts and economists whose work I follow and admire. I discovered Shiller several...
Read Part 1 The story of the Sacagawea dollar is relevant, today, not just because it’s an interesting piece of our history, but also because it’s a window into how Washington, D.C. works — and doesn't work. I’ve been around politics and government much of my career, in senior positions in the U.S. Senate, the Treasury Department,...
My recent post on Fort Knox and Coin Week article continue to generate quite a few questions. Here’s one that inspired me to do a little research: Q: Is it true that the gold that was confiscated from American citizens by FDR’s government is stored at Fort Knox? Before I answer this question, let’s first look at President Franklin D....
My recent post on Fort Knox and Coin Week article about Fort Knox generated quite a few questions. I'll answer a couple of the most interesting questions here on the blog. Q: Since we are no longer on the gold standard and like you said, Fort Knox houses such a small percentage of the world's gold why do we keep any gold at all?...
The public image of the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, was cemented in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. The four-story vaults of shining chrome bar-encased gold, suspended staircases and vast interior are now classic Hollywood images of what our imaginations want Fort Knox to look like. The reality is very different....
This post begins a series in which I give readers an insider’s view of how Washington, DC, works (and doesn’t work) from my perspective as director of the U.S. Mint. The complete story of how the Sacagawea dollar (aka, the Golden dollar) came to be has never been told, and the accounts that have been published get many of the details...
This is the second in a series of posts making the "Main Street" case for gold. Read Part I I described in my last post how gold’s core value proposition is as wealth insurance. Here I’ll address why understanding gold as wealth insurance, rather than as just another investment vehicle, is crucial to understanding why gold should be a...
