00:00 Speaker A
All right, Michael, let’s I want to drill down on some of the different asset classes and I want to start with gold actually because it’s doing something today that I wouldn’t have expected. It’s falling, right? Which you is not something you would expect from gold prices on a day when you’re getting headlines out of the Middle East that are hitting risk assets. So, not only do you have that happening, you have City Group saying that the run in gold is over and it’s going to go back below $3,000 an ounce in the coming months. So, I’m curious, first of all your reaction to the move today and then to that city call as well.
01:28 Michael
Well, every everybody’s got a you can get informed people on any side of any issue. Um there are other people saying that gold has a lot more room to run. So, we’ll find out in a few years right. But uh but I think the gold is, yeah, obviously down today, but it’s been up the last week. It’s been up and down the last couple months. I we don’t watch it over a day-to-day basis. We believe it’s a substantial part of a longer term portfolio, um as an alternative to cash, as an alternative to the economic system, as a hard asset, as a uh a hedge against the dollar, uh economic and inflation risk, whether it’s real or perceived, um etc etc. If you look at the case for it, um you know, central banks are buying very strongly around the world. The Fed is likely going to be cutting versus raising, that’s bullish for gold long term. Um you’ve got, you know, potential challenges to the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Um probably not a full-blown takeover, but countries have started to get together and and accepting payment in other ways besides the dollar. That’s not bullish for the dollar and you’ve had the dollar running at like decade highs until recently. Um and that’s sort of been bearish for gold yet gold is still performed and that dollar value is likely going to decline over time. So that’s another, you know, bullish factor and you look at geopolitical risk, which as you guys have mentioned is all over the place. So, I think when you add all that up, the story is compelling for gold going forward over the long term. Now, can it correct in the short term? Easily, gold’s volatile. I mean a hundred dollar move one way the other, uh $200 move would not be out of the question, up or down. But I think over the long term investors should figure out how much they want and uh years from now it’s going to be higher. I would guarantee it.