For me gold is still cheap right now.
It may be, but what concerns me is the “water-cooler” status of gold. As far back as ~2000, scores of friends have been extolling the virtues of gold, and it has had a good run over those years. Yet currently, not one single professional wall street type I know personally or read is bullish on gold. Put together, it strikes me as more hype than investment.
Bubble: I believe one of the best ways to invest in gold is thru an ETF such as Streetracks GLD or iShares IAU
If you’re going to buy gold, I agree.
many feel that demand for gold will decrease as we may go into recession. Industrial use of gold is still a big gold user, e.g. gold plated electronics connectors.
As a pure commodity, I would have to agree. It is gold’s status as the benchmark currency, and hedge against inflation that makes this hard to call.
As far as electronics, this is also true, but currently it is the labor cost that dominates my costs. We do specialized, low volume stuff, so the actual gold costs might be more significant for high volume production, like cell phones–I don’t know. IMHO, if gold were merely an industrial metal, it would trade for far less and be more at the mercy of recessions than it is currently.
