Forbes and WSJ Attack Gold; My Reply Ignored by Forbes Journalist

Now that gold is breaking out to an all-time high, the big boys are coming out with negative articles about investing in gold.

Recently the Wall Street Journal wrote a hit piece on gold called, “Gold Is Still a Lousy Investment” by Dave Kansas.  I ran across this article bashing gold as an investment through a “Forbes Clips” post by the Washington Correspondent, Joshua Zumbrun.

While Dave Kansas article is full of some historic truths about gold, both he and Forbes’ Joshua Zumbrun don’t understand what has happened with gold since the year 2000.  Since 2000, everything changed.

Joshua Zumbrun’s comment about the article that I responded to was:

“I tend to think gold is a terrible investment class. You have to pay a religious premium for it because for some people investing in gold is more a matter of faith than anything else. Gold is wealth, they’ll tell you. We’ll see.”

What Zumbrun does now and then is comment on articles he is reading about various subjects and then via the outlet of Forbes, post his thoughts for the world to see.  From the Forbes site;  “Forbes editors let you see what they are reading elsewhere on the web, and give their perspective on it.” 24x7x365.

What’s interesting is the fact that Forbes allows people to comment on these perspectives, but unlike the Wall Street Journal, doesn’t post those comments automatically.  The comments have to be “approved” before posting.  This allows the article writer, or in this case commenter (Joshua Zumbrun’s perspective) on the article written by David Kramer, to post or not post the comments agreeing with or disagreeing with him.

At least so far, Joshua Zumbrun from Forbes has chosen not to post my reply that disagrees with his perspective.  Since I know that many of these bashers of gold won’t post my replies, explaining to them where they are mistaken about gold, I make sure and do a screen print to show that I have in fact replied but they have chosen not to post that reply.  Then I expose them here on my blog.

Here is my proof that Joshua Zumbrun, so far has not posted my reply.  You will notice towards the bottom that it says “your comment is awaiting moderation:”

As of today, there is nothing that tells me my comment is awaiting moderation and it has not appeared.  If this changes, I will update it here, but I don’t expect it to.

If you click on the “gold” tab on my site you’ll see that I expose these folks who don’t want to have a civil discourse about gold either because they don’t understand it (my opinion) or just want to join the other bashers of gold and get in their 2 cents, which is now 4 cents after inflation (Zumbrun piggybacking on Kramer’s gold bashing article).

My thoughts?  What are you afraid of people?  That the truth about gold might get into the wrong hands?  That this “faith” that Zumbrun talks about might justifiably lean towards gold versus the U.S. dollar?

Read for yourself….

Here is my reply in full.  It is the same reply I posted to the Wall Street Journal hit piece on gold.  And yes, I have to make a copy of what I post before submitting for the very reason that most of these journalists won’t post my reply.  The simple fact is they don’t understand gold.  But at least the WSJ posted my reply!  You can find that comment by clicking on the “comments” tab on the main article here.

My reply to Joshua’s attempt at bashing gold:

Joshua, It’s interesting you think gold is a “terrible investment class” as it’s been the best investment hands down since the year 2000.  Before that time-frame is for the most part irrelevant because from 1971 to 2000 there wasn’t any real competition to the U.S. dollar.  Now there is with the intro of the EURO and various gold ETF’s that offer investors viable alternatives.

If there’s anything that one has “faith” in, it’s the dollar with its 38 short years of existence WITHOUT gold backing!  I’ve written much about this under the “gold” tab of my blog if you’d care to learn more.  I also wrote a book on investing in gold: http://safelybuygold.com Yes, that’s a sales page and yes, the book is expensive.

Disclosure:  I don’t sell gold.  I just write about it.  I was a financial advisor for over 20 years and now I write about investments and other economic and political issues of the day.

Feel free to post your own comments!  I’ll be happy to discuss….and won’t shy away from any questions related to gold.

The fact is, I did write a book on gold helping people understand what most don’t know when it comes to diversifying into the only asset that keeps pace with a falling U.S. dollar, now that the dollar has competition.  As shown in the reply to Zumbrun, the book is called “Buy Gold Safely” and can be found at http://safelybuygold.com

I gave up a 20+ year career as a financial advisor to write about the industry and turn ignorance into enlightenment as well as write about economic and political issues of the day.  This is in preparation for my forthcoming book, “Fed Up!”

As far as gold goes, I’m “Fed Up!” with those who bash gold, the best investment this decade, but won’t post my replies!

About Doug Eberhardt

Doug Eberhardt is a 28 year financial services veteran and precious metals broker selling gold and silver at 1% over wholesale cost. Doug has written a book to help investors understand how gold and silver fit into a diversified portfolio, how to buy gold and silver, and what metals to buy. The book; “Buy Gold and Silver Safely” is available by clicking here Contact phone number for Buy Gold and Silver Safely is 888-604-6534