Gold over 20 years is a better store-of-value bet than cash, says John Mauldin - Wealth Managers

"I hope I never use my gold insurance. But I do have some. I buy some every month."

In promoting his new book "Code Red," Mauldin Economicschief John Mauldin conducted an interview ("How Central Bankers Will Ruin The Global Economy") with Forbespublisher Steve Forbes, in which he discussed the Federal Reserve's fallibility and the necessity of owning gold as insurance.
On the Fed: "The Fed economists are particularly bad at predicting the future. It's worse than if you and I just flipped a coin. OK? It's almost statistically impossible to be as bad as central bankers are about predicting the future. And yet we're supposed to trust them that their data tells them, 'Well, we need to apply this amount of quantitative easing and this amount of money and this interest rate level. And somehow or another it's magically gonna transform into these numbers out here that for decades we've been predicting and we haven't been right.' So it doesn't end well. We have 12 men and women sitting in a room thinking they can manipulate an economy with data they truly don't understand, with an economy they can't measure and with tools they're making up as they go along. Is that impassionate enough, Steve? I get wound up, but it has consequences."
On gold: "I believe gold is insurance. It's central bank insurance. ... I buy fire insurance. I have health insurance. I hope I never use them. I'm particularly aggressively working at never having to use my life insurance, although I have it. And I hope I never use my gold insurance. But I do have some. I buy some every month. ...

"I'm getting ready to establish an account. I now have five grandchildren. You're working on catching up, I understand. But I have found a place where I can buy a small amount of gold for them every month. It'll be stored outside the United States. And my grandchildren are from six months to four years. So I can buy that same amount of gold, put it into an account for them and when they get to a place where they can use it. Or I'm not certain what education will be in 20 years. I think it will be significantly different than it is today. But when they get to that launching pad, I believe that gold will have more of a store value of money in 20 years than putting a hundred dollars a month into a savings account that is not gonna be able to access anything but low interest rate regimes for a long time.

"Now, I honestly might change my mind in ten years and say, 'Ah, the world's changed. I'd rather put it in something else.' But today, I think when I think about 20 years and I want to make sure that my children have something outside of the United States in a neutral facility, that I can move in a heartbeat to another neutral facility if I were beginning to notice things change. Yeah, I think gold has its usefulness."

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