I would like to make three points in this post.\u00a0 They are all related, they touch upon topics that I care about, and they all have an element of madness to them.\u00a0 And it is March.<\/p>\n
Point Number 1<\/em>:\u00a0 I was listening to the Thom Hartmann radio show today and was very disappointed to hear him hawking the virtues of owning gold<\/a> in one of the ad segments.\u00a0 Ignoring for a moment the wisdom of such advice, I was particularly put off that Mr. Hartmann, as liberal as they come, used the language of apocalyptic fear to promote the ownership of gold (via his sponsor, ITM Trading).\u00a0 Yes, both sides of the political aisle routinely use fear-mongering to draw support for their respective causes.\u00a0 But playing the fear card for commercial purposes is a tactic usually associated with Fox News, CNN and other mainstream media outlets.\u00a0 The fact that Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz<\/a> joined Herman Cain in telling you to buy gold because the world is going to fall apart — well, it shows you how much they all care about gold<\/a>, namely their own.\u00a0 Hartmann and Schultz are cashing out and devaluing their credibility, one ITM Trading ad spot at a time.<\/p>\n Point Number 2<\/em>:\u00a0 Gold is bad investment.\u00a0 It should not be called an investment at all but a speculation<\/em>.\u00a0 Unlike a company that exists to make profits (and share the profits with its shareholders), gold has no profit motive.\u00a0 It does not produce goods or add value.\u00a0 It does not care if its value rises or falls.\u00a0 Its price, like those of tulips, depends only on what the next greater fool<\/a><\/em> is willing to pay.\u00a0 Many others have pointed out<\/a> that, since 1980, the price of gold has barely kept pace with inflation, while the returns of the stock market as a whole have far outpaced those from holding gold.\u00a0 As financial planner and self-styled wealth manager David John Marotta<\/a> wrote, “The optimum asset allocation to gold is always zero.”\u00a0 If the apocalypse that Hartmann and Schultz keep warning us about in their ads were ever to materialize, the amount of gold we managed to accumulate wouldn’t last us more than a few days.\u00a0 The more likely scenario is that your grocer or gas station would say, “What the hell am I going to do with your damn gold?\u00a0 Get the hell out of here!”<\/p>\n Point Number 3<\/em>:\u00a0 With respect to the aforementioned David John Marotta — I am afraid he is too cool by half and too expensive by a-hell-of-a-lot.\u00a0 On his website, he has a section <\/a>devoted to kittenomics,<\/em> “a practical, humorous series featuring financially savvy kittens and the wealth management secrets that gave them their success.”\u00a0 It bothers me to no end how financial advisors (and I use the term loosely) package their advice in an attractive little box with a ribbon on top and hints of riches within, to get people interested — and then, once you walk inside, how the advisers spend most of their time trying to convince you they are worth the hefty sum they want you to pay them.\u00a0 Mr. Marotta’s client profile<\/a> page is pretty clear — yes, he wants you, but only if you have “$1,500,000 of manageable assets” or are “willing to meet our annual fee for services of $14,000.”\u00a0 When I read crap like this, I wish I were younger and had the energy to start a new career, providing helpful and realistic financial planning for the not-so-well-to-do.<\/p>\n There is my three-pointer.\u00a0 Slap my hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I would like to make three points in this post.\u00a0 They are all related, they touch upon topics that I care about, and they all have an element of madness to them.\u00a0 And it is March. Point Number 1:\u00a0 I … Continue reading
![pointed out<\/a> that, since 1980, the price of gold has barely kept pace with inflation, while the returns of the stock market as a whole have far outpaced those from holding gold.\u00a0 As financial planner and self-styled wealth manager](\"http:\/\/www.marottaonmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/gold-vs-sp500-2013-05.png\"){kind=link}