CASH FOR GOLD: ARE YOU KIDDING?

CASH FOR GOLD: ARE YOU KIDDING?

By Fred Goldstein, Sr. Broker SATC
October 20, 2009

For the better part of a year Americans have been besieged with television, radio and print ads imploring us to sell our gold coins and jewelry for cash. Aside from helping a poor soul in need of immediate cash, the concept is flawed and needs to be analyzed and exposed.

The ads usually say the gold price is near or at all time highs. 2009 marked the ninth year in a row the price of gold rose, up nearly $200/oz. since January 2009. Anyone who sold their gold earlier has left a good amount of money on the table.

These ads also never disclose that while the nominal price of gold is at an all time high, if adjusted for inflation gold is less than half of an inflation-adjusted price of $2,350/oz. I am not critical of companies making profits, but I am critical when ads mislead consumers and prey on the uninformed.

Since the US officially cut the tie between gold and the US dollar in 1971, Keynesian economists have harped on the concept that dollars are “moneyâ€