Get into gold as US debases dollar
The metal is a necessary cornerstone of any portfolio in these uncertain times. Buy more if you own some, and start a position today if you don't.
Four hands went up. Four out of about 200. Last night at a terrific dinner to benefit the Madison Square Park Conservancy, a great charity for all of us old enough to remember how scary that place was in Manhattan, I asked for a show of hands to see who owns gold.
Sophisticated audience. High net worth. Four hands went up.
Not only that, but as I proceeded to describe why gold is a necessary cornerstone of a portfolio in these uncertain times -- the currency, not the commodity, part of your portfolio -- I could tell that I was being viewed as a bit of a nut. Not because I was speaking when gold had already run to $1,400 -- $1,300 and change now -- but because it was as if I was speaking about Armageddon and revealing my own inner paranoia.
To me that says only one thing: Go buy more gold if you have some, and start a position today if you don't. Buy right into the weakness.
As hard as I try, I can't convince dollar-denominated people that their government's choice to get this economy moving again is to debase its currency, so you need another currency. As hard as I try, I can't convince people that when folks have a few rupees or yuan in India or China, they buy gold. As hard as I try, I can't convince people that the miners are having such a hard time finding gold.
Just makes me feel even more right.
Today is another day when the market looks soggy. No mergers, no real reason for a rally, as stocks remain extended and are working off the overbought condition.
What I care about is simple: We need to use the weakness in what is EVERYTHING to buy the currency that will not trade in lockstep as oil and copper and bonds go down in value. It will assert itself.
Because people worldwide have caught on to our plans, and people here at home simply don't own any.
That's the perfect recipe for higher prices.
Random musings: Morgan Stanley downgrades Joy Global (JOYG) from equal weight to underweight? They advised on the Bucyrus (BUCY)-Terex (TEX) deal; you'd think they'd get the scarcity value of Joy Global. I knew someone would give you an opportunity.
At the time of publication, Cramer was long Novagold.
Jim Cramer is co-founder and chairman of TheStreet. He contributes daily market commentary for TheStreet's sites and serves as an adviser to the company's CEO.
Follow Cramer's trades for his Charitable Trust.
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Cramer is a moron. Sure, there WAS a time to buy gold, which was 5 years ago. He should have made this recommendation then, not now after it has had a huge price run-up already.
No market goes up forever, not the stock market, not the housing market, and yes, Cramer, not the gold market either.
>>>GOLD IS TOO EXPENSIVE,...<<<
Agree!! Exactly what I said when I reluctantly started buying it a few years back... I think it was about $620 per troy ounce back then.
P.S.: It always has been and always will be too expensive... and for some strange reason it just keeps going up. Go figure.
Maybe because it provides a universally accepted store of value that can't be debased by fiat currencies. Go figure.
This time Cramer is right.
Yes Cramer, you are a nut. The first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem. Wink.
Gold, silver, platinum, palladium and other exotic metals are commodities and they act like commodities (because they are commodities, of course). It is the old supply and demand thing. If you have a lot of something nobody wants, then you can't exchange it for very much of something you do want. Just ask somebody that was trying to sell platinum in January 2009.
Over the last several hundred years gold has performed about as well as the stock market for return on investment, so you could probably do worse than buying gold. One thing that buying gold does not do is to grow the economy, except for the miners and brokers of gold. If you want to do the more socially conscious thing, stay in the market. Over time, and that's the key, you'll probably do as well financially, and your neighbors might get to keep their jobs too.
Of course they look at you like you're a nut, Cramer. But when you talk about buying gold, you're a kind of nut they don't understand - you sound like Glenn Beck, and everyone knows he's crazy, right?
Gold isn't an investment, its insurance, its wealth preservation. Gold hasn't made a run up in value, the dollar has made a run down. Your stock portfolio didn't recover, it just will get you more of a less-valuable dollar than it did a year ago.
And get that gold in your hand, not a paper promise for it.
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