REFLECTIONS ON GOLD AS AN ASSET CLASS
4 MARCH 2010 BY TPC 44 COMMENTS
Gold is hotter than ever. You can’t turn on the TV these days without seeing a gold commercial. Several well known hedge fund managers have leveraged up positions in gold while John Paulson even went so far as to start his own gold hedge fund. As an asset
class gold has outperformed just about everything over the last 10 year period. It’s been an impressive run. But is it all justified? Bear with me for a bit while I take a long-term macro look at gold as an asset class….
After having experienced deflation through much of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 the economy began to reflate as the Fed’s printing press (or button pressing if you prefer) went to work. Asset prices began to stabilize and bankbalance sheets were suddenly flush with cash as the Fed provided liquidity like it was going out of style. The inflationistas immediately began crying wolf. All of this extra cash was certain to cause inflation. And that meant one thing: buy gold and short dollars. Right?
All was not what it seemed, however. Underneath the surface, there was no real reflation – only continuing signs of deflation or at best, very benign inflation. Asset prices surged as money flowed out of low risk assets (for which investors were no longer rewarded) and into high risk assets. This herding of the Federal Reserve has given many the impression that the economy is “recovering”. But underneath the surface lies the continuing problem of double D’s (and not the good kind) – debt and de-leveraging. While asset prices have improved the liability side of the ledger remains in tatters in the U.S. economy and around the world. De-leveraging continues and demand for more credit remains subdued. Yet, the price of gold rallied. I believe a large portion of the move is based on the misconception of gold as an asset class.
When analyzing the price of gold it’s important to understand that gold prices do not move like most other commodities. It has certain built-in unquantifiable characteristics that drive price. The price of gold is actually a function of four things: 1) its replacement potential for the U.S. dollar; 2) the future rate of inflation, 3) Sentiment – generally fear based and 4) true supply and demand. Let’s take a look at each.
Nouriel Roubini recently quoted Keynes in describing gold as a “barbarous relic”. While I can’t entirely agree with that opinion I think there is a certain level of truth there. Let me elaborate. There is a certain premium built into the price of gold because it is viewed as a currency – currently an alternative to the dollar. It has served as a reliable currency for thousands of years and continues to be seen as an alternative to fiat currencies. Going forward, I think this is a dying belief which has led to considerable confusion in the current economic environment.
The fact of the matter is, the fiat currency system is here to stay (or at least some form of it). The odds of reverting back to a purely gold based system is next to zero in my opinion. The truth is, the gold standard as a currency system is a barbarous relic. It is a currency system that worked well in the old world economy, but simply does not have the flexibility to meet the demands of the growing global economy. The global economy has become too complex and too intertwined to be constrained by the gold standard. The fiat currency system is a product of economic evolution and the growing demands and strains of international trade. Famous examples of the break-down of the gold standard and its inflexibility to meet trade demands include the UK in 1931 and the U.S. government’s destruction of the gold linked currency system under the Bretton Woods agreement.
Gold investors generally make the false argument that the gold standard somehow stabilizes prices (as if the price of gold is stable) or will restrain governments from excess spending, but the truth is, under sound stewardship, the fiat currency system provides all the benefits of the gold standard and all the flexibility that the gold standard didn’t contribute. In addition, the gold standard had a tendency to cause severe strains on countries due to trade imbalances and the inability to provide flexibility to countries with trade deficits. The argument that inflation, instability, corruption and mal-investment cannot occur under the gold standard is historically false.
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