The Big Bull vs. Bear Debate on Gold

(Kitco News) - While gold sentiment remains predominantly bullish in the marketplace, the message coming from the opening remarks at this year’s Freedom Fest was vastly different. 

During the Big Bull vs. Bear Debate, panelists were asked whether they still think gold is a good investment; the sentiment was mixed. 

“I think gold is going up and markets are going down, maybe sideways,” said Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital to the crowd in Las Vegas. “We were in a cyclical bear market within secular bull.”

The known gold bug argued that the yellow metal struggled after nearly rallying to $2,000 because investors believed that the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and monetary policies were working.

“Now people are starting to gradually wake up as this foggy picture clears. The Fed isn’t done printing money, it’s just getting started,” he said.

Keith Fitz-Gerald, chief market strategist for Total Wealth Research, agreed in that the U.S. central bank is destabilizing financial markets. “The Fed is meddling with things it doesn’t understand…Yellen hasn’t met a printing press she hasn’t liked,” he said as the crowd laughed.

However, not all panelists were on the gold bandwagon with Alexander Greene, Chief Investment Strategist of The Oxford Club, noting that he doesn’t see the real value in gold.

“What kind of inflation hedge doesn’t hedge inflation for 36 years,” he argued. He added that he prefers other assets, noting that if an investors owns one ounce of gold for 20 years, they will only own that one ounce by the end of that time frame, versus other investments which pay dividends or provide higher yields.

The other bear on the panel, Bert Dohmen of Dohman Capital Research was a little more bullish than his counterpart, noting that he agrees with Schiff in that gold is embarking on its second phase of a secular bull market. Dohmen said the factor that will push gold prices higher is the “unlimited credit creation of the central banks.” 

“Gold is a currency and we can’t trust any of the currencies we have,” he said.

Courtesy: Kitco News