In today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd explored the new real-life gold rush in California. With the economy approaching rock bottom, some are hoping to strike it rich panning for gold, just like in days of yore. Here’s an excerpt from her column:
With the dollar diminished and financial institutions in the doghouse, a hard nugget suddenly seems a safer bet than an ephemeral derivative. (Gold is trading at about $880 an ounce.) News reports are heralding a neo-Gold Rush from Modesto to the Mojave Desert, a revival in prospectors at California’s streambeds, spurred by the sputtering national economy, the state’s 10.5 percent unemployment rate leaving many with free time and the weighty price of gold.
The cover story for the May issue of Futures is our annual metals outlook. CFP and author Paul Mladjenovic discusses how the current economic crisis has affected the metals sector and explains why both precious and base metals stand to gain as conditions improve. The May issue will be on newsstands and online on April 24, so check it out for some advice about how to strike some (trading) gold of your own!
Tags: gold, New York Times
Will someone please explain to me why gold is a “safe haven” during financial crises? You can’t eat it, wear it (except ornamentally), drink it, build shelter with it, anything. It isn’t even interesting enough to be sinful. We educate all of these economists and their best explanation is “that’s just the way it is.” Maybe they should be equally candid in trying to explain economic events generally instead of saying that “the market fell today on news that more than 20% of Manhattan’s fire hydrants do not work” or “the President’s tie clashed with his shirt” or “tensions in the Bahamas.” Scary how much we don’t know!