What’s The Real Price of Gold?
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Jim Rickards
What’s the price of gold? Or the price of silver? A simple question, right? If only it were so, but it’s not.
In fact, establishing prices for gold and silver is far more difficult than it sounds.
Further, the different prices on offer and the reasons for those differences can tell us a lot about what’s going on with precious metals markets.
Up for discussion: Paper, not metal; leverage, leverage, leverage; yes and no (the London gold fix); fraud and manipulation; find the right dealer; and two key takeaways (the cost of owning bullion coins/bars you can hold in your hand is materially higher than the official prices you see listed on the exchanges; that tells you that actual bullion is considerably scarcer than paper bullion; and the scarcity of physical bullion relative to paper gold/silver contracts will emerge with a vengeance in a buying panic resulting from any number of catalysts, including war, a new pandemic, a stock market crash, bank failures, or social disorder; the paper holders will try to convert to physical and find that it’s too late, the vaults will be empty).
In conclusion, Jim says the lesson for investors is clear: Get your physical gold or silver now while you still can. Don’t sweat the commissions because that’s the real price. Then rest easy.
He predicts that gold will ultimately go to $15,000 an ounce. Commissions are nothing when you look at the big picture.
The buying panic is just a matter of time.