Gold
Marks is looking at it backwards. The question should be how to value the alternatives … currency, bonds, stocks …without an answer to that question, why would you hold them instead of gold?
And despite his rhetoric, Buffett has actually left billions on the table by choosing to own … not land, not apartments, nor candy … but TBills, instead of gold.
Gold was there for over ten billion years before any currency, bond or stock was even imagined. Why would you ask it to justify itself before johnny-come-lately alternatives?
And all theory aside, the fact is that gold has trounced stocks … not only the last year or so, but so far this century.
The numbers are right here:
The First Twentyfive Years
And those are just up to the beginning of 2025 … they don’t include 2025’s spectacular 69% increase.
A better question is why should you own stocks!
The answer to that is when they present good value. If they don’t, you own gold instead. Looking for a reason to own gold is asking the wrong question … it’s the default asset … it’s what you own until you find a reason to own something else. Marks and Buffett, smart as they are, err by overlooking the most basic thing.
The single most important factor in getting the right answer is asking the right question.
You would think being wrong about something for 26 years would prompt some deeper reflection.
Of course, reality is a bit more forgiving than forcing us to choose only one asset to hold. We can own gold and stocks and bonds and other things, to our benefit. But to exclude gold from consideration? It’s both not smart and wrong.
Live from Kitco
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US financial markets were closed Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday, but in futures trading, the S&P is off sharply while the metals are on even more sharply. Treasuries are down modestly. The USDX is down.
As with previous episodes, the stock selloff is likely transitory. But it’s apt to deepen before it eases. Recall SS has tipped a first quarter stock selloff, and the pieces are falling into place.
Gold continues to make new highs. Silver seems determined to break $100. Platinum and copper are in the zone. The dollar is in the pits.
Stocks are still near their highs in terms of dollars, but are extending one of the deepest bear markets on record in terms of gold:
Je Sus!
This is happening in REAL time, I not seen anything this scale since 911 or the Fall of the Berlin wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just been feeding Mum & the dog, watching BBC 6 pm News………..& BABY they pissed!!!!
The BBC now has said the unthinkable………NATO is going away!!!!!
NATO will end America is NOT under our thumb any more & The Europeans are in full disarray!
“What are China & Russia doing?” asked the BBC anchor
“I think they just laughing & eating popcorn” came the Davos reporter
DEmark is sell ALL US debt/assets…………Europe will have to look for another partner. The German leader has been trying to contact Putin!!!
My Friends this is history before you very eyes!
Mike
You can say that again!
Great line about the popcorn. Global drama like you’d never expect outside the movies. Who’da thunk Greenland would ever be the global geopolitical flashpoint.
FWIW I will shed no tears for NATO. It had mission-creeped itself into an imperial monster, unable to resist devouring new territory, including territory of the former Soviet bloc. This has caused unnecessary war. Its original mission meanwhile is obsolete and superfluous … who would doubt that if one of its core members were truly threatened by an aggressor, that others, including the US, wouldn’t come to its aid. You don’t need a supranational org for that. There was no NATO before WWII, and that didn’t prevent an allied response.
No shortage of market drama either. Including a debt-inspired rout in the Japanese bond market spilling over into US treasuries. Yet despite that and the plunge in the S&P, thanks to largely to the multiple metals and commodities, our fully diversified Model Portfolios are in the green.
On NATO:
A Year of Trump 2.0: Strategy Report Card
“… as far back as 1951 no less than General Dwight Eisenhower (not yet elected U.S. President) stated, “If in ten years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project (NATO) will have failed.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/01/20/canada-military-us-invasion-trump-carney/
It’s understandable if they’re getting a little paranoid, but I doubt any American invasion of Canada is in the works. It would be very unpopular here in the US, let alone Canada. Did you ever see the movie Canadian Bacon? The idea was so ridiculous it was a source of comedy.
There’re quite a few people that would be happy to be able to travel between America and Canada without the paperwork, but anything more would be totally unnecessary at best.
Wow!
Its just gone 8 am here in Blighty, am feeding Jess (dog) & myself… Mum be up soon……..am going to get some rest then this afternoon onwards i will once again be ready for the next dose of instant history!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/21/trump-crossed-lines-cut-off-global-credit-card/
Who has the Gold Limey?
Silver getting slaughtered!
At first gold held up, then followed silver lower. Apparently Trump withdrew the military threat and then the tariff threat over Greenland, claiming a “framework” to have been reached. Oh! … another international agreement [yawn]. But it’s noteworthy that Trump has actually done nothing but talk.
This noise imposed and removed a transient premium from metals prices … the underlying drivers of debt and inflation remain. Trend channels remain intact.
Trump apparently claims he has negotiated “mineral rights” in Greenland. This should be worth just as much as his “oil rights” in Venezuela. Less than the cost to American global credibility from all the disruption and drama. Or his own … voters will not reward him for this.
I suspect “Greenland” was a decoy, he trying to deliver a deal to Russia. The “Green Goblin” did not show up & Trump basically drove a “Horse & cart” through Davos!
The British PM is hiding in “De Bunker”.
Mike
He wanted it. He’s a real estate guy. It would have been his biggest deal ever. We’re still waiting for peace to break out in Ukraine. Even if it does, there had to be a better way. Far as I know, the Trump admin has continued to deliver military aid to the “Green Goblin” and people continue to die. NATO continues to exist. Eisenhower was right when he uttered the words I quoted earlier:
“… as far back as 1951 no less than General Dwight Eisenhower (not yet elected U.S. President) stated, “If in ten years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project (NATO) will have failed.”
If it’s not within his power to end the war outright, it is at least to get the US out of it.
Looks to me like Trump is just undisciplined. His urge to be the center of attention causes him to talk when he shouldn’t. If he was right when he said America should have Greenland then giving up on it was a failure by his own standard. I think he really does want it and just screwed up by talking too much. It invited the opposition to harden its position, making it just that much more difficult. He certainly didn’t achieve much else besides ticking off a lot of people who used to be friends.