Thanks for the question.
Since it is a currency of excellence, every wise investor should have some exposure to gold. As Alan Greenspan former Chairman of the Federal Reserve wrote on September 29th in the Council on Foreign Relations publication, if China were to convert only a fraction of its foreign reserves into it, gold prices would certainly rise.
You yourself oppose a question as to why would anyone want to buy this barbarous relic -- I don't know whether John Paulson is in the audience -- but it's an interesting question. But do you think that gold is currently a good investment given what you're saying about the potential for turmoil? GREENSPAN: Yes. (LAUGHTER) TETT: Do you put... GREENSPAN: Economists are usually perfect in equivocating. In this case I didn't equivocate. Look, remember what we're looking at. Gold is a currency. It is still by all evidences the premier currency where no fiat currency, including the dollar, can match it. And so that the issue is, if you're looking at a question of turmoil, you will find, as we always have in the past, it moves into the gold price.
The correct question you should be asking on a forum such as this should be; why would an investor NOT be dabbling in the gold market?
PS: Please harbor no suspicions there was mischief intended when this specific part of the exchange between Tett and Greenspan was omitted from the transcript earlier published on the Council's website.
