The mint's premiums over other bullion products, along with the high spot price, is more to blame than anything. As long as our government continues to devalue the dollar by printing more, bullion will continue to do well against the dollar. IMO, of course.
Last I saw gold was down more than 10% this year, coupled with lost interest you otherwise would have earned investing in a T-bill, and I don't think such a loss is really considered "doing well". Gold may have good returns in the future, but coupled with the spread investors have to pay, I seriously would never say it will always "do well". It has its place, but its interesting how retail sales are slowing down so dramatically. Nothing will spur sales of 2009-2011 bullion back to dealers and further lowering prices than lower PM prices now.
Did I say always? For every 6 months where it went down 10%, what happens if you look back 5 or 10 years and plot that against the t-bill? Of course gold will have its ups and downs. That doesn't change the underlying observation about the dollar against gold, or the ridiculous (IMO) premium that the US mint adds to their gold coins, or the fact that collector demand for US mint gold wanes when gold is $1500. Bottom line: I can buy and sell bullion with between a 5% and 10% spread all day long. That's negligible compared to coin spreads by any estimation...MIke p.s. gold is down about $30 today....
Nah. How many crazies can keep supporting a $15000 an ounce price regardless of the perception that we print too much money (which I doubt).
