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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Thoughts on Gold and Treasuries

... from someone who doesn't know what he's doing*.

Yesterday, I posted a link to a chart of TBT. TBT is a fund that moves inversely with Treasuries. When Treasury auctions start becoming sticky because Obama will be flooding the world with US debt, TBT will go up.

Unless it doesn't.

I don't like TBT. I don't like gold, either. I don't like anything governments can manipulate with ease. Governments in extremis will reach out and grab anything they can to keep them afloat. Russia has sold some of its gold reserves in the past. Other countries have printed money to buy their own bonds. Both of these investments are subject to governmental manipulation to a high degree. Other investments, such as oil, are too vast and used too quickly to be easily manipulated.

Of course, the government has attacked oil companies in a variety of ways with windfall profits taxes and putting certain areas off limits to exploration and development, but these are much less direct than what they can do with Treasuries and gold.

I also didn't agree with the Money Week article suggesting it was time to sell Treasuries. "Sell them and go into what?" is what I wondered as I read it. Personally, I don't own them, but I don't run a big fund, either. If I did, I'm not sure I'd be able to find a good alternative. If I had a billion dollars to invest for a pack of finicky and demanding clients, Treasuries might look awful good given the performance of other investments.

These are just my thoughts right now. After reading and learning more, I might change my mind.

* - If you want to hear from someone who knows what he's doing, read Jim Jubak.

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