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The most irresponsible statement on gold by a CEO?

Jan 28, 2012

In this issue:
» Facebook may file for an IPO soon
» China's suspicious looking economic data
» Caterpillar's rosy forecast for 2012
» The thing that could take India's GDP to higher levels
» ...and more

---------------------------------------------------- Global Crisis Update ----------------------------------------------------

The global crisis is far from over. And in fact it may be getting worse.

But what should really be of concern to you is that this global crisis may actually turn into a local crisis.

So, is your portfolio insulated from this crisis? How can you do that? Click here for details...

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00:00

No asset class is perhaps as misunderstood as gold these days. And this ignorance is not just a hallmark of the common man on the street but even the most elite we believe. Take this CEO of a new-age Indian bank for example. He could easily pass off as the most erudite amongst the modern day CEOs in the country. However, his very recent comment on gold has not gone down well with us. In fact, we are of the view that he has made what could be called as a hugely irresponsible statement.

Apparently, the CEO in question has expressed concern over huge amounts of productive savings moving into unproductive avenues such as gold. "Can India afford the luxury of such a huge part of our discretionary savings going out of productive use?", he is believed to have said.

Indeed, gold's so called unproductive property has become the favourite stick of gold critics to beat the gold supporters with. But this logic does sound a bit hollow to us. Gold is an asset and just like any other asset class, is a medium used by people to park their savings. It is certainly not the case that a person who earlier used to save 30% of his income would now start saving 50% of it if he invests in gold. The proportion of income that will be saved will remain the same before gold investing as after it. So, how does it matter if he invests the same in gold or any other asset class such as stocks or real estate? And tomorrow, if the person needs to dip into his savings to meet some unexpected expenditure, he will certainly come to the market and sell his gold holdings. And this saving and spending pattern of his will remain the same regardless of the asset class that he invests in. Does this make gold unproductive and dissimilar to other assets? We certainly don't think so.

May be the CEO knows something that we don't? But as far as we are concerned there is nothing wrong in gold being part of one's savings. Infact, the fact that gold is still so misunderstood by even the most well read people is the reason one should buy more of it as it shows that the gold bull run still has a long way to go. Having said that, gold should be reasonable part of one's long term portfolio and one should not go overboard. No matter how good the outlook.

Do you think the bank's CEO is wrong about gold? Share your views with us or you can also comment on our Facebook page / Google+ page.

01:23		Chart of the day

There's bad news for investors in India. As per The Economist, if a fresh crisis were to strike the global economy in the near future, India has the least monetary and fiscal flexibility amongst all the BRIC nations to weather the storm. In contrast, as today's chart of the day shows, China still has a lot of room left to make up for the slackening of its economy in the event of a crisis. In other words, China's GDP could suffer a lot less than India's GDP in the near term.

Source: The Economist

01:51

While The Economist seems all gung ho about China, other publications do not seem as optimistic. Infact, they have started to question the authenticity of the growth that is taking place in China currently. Because although the Chinese GDP growth rate is healthy, other economic indicators point out to a much poorer picture meaning that there is a big disconnect between the two.

Let's look at some of these indicators. China's imports from Japan have declined by 16.2% in December. The Shanghai Container Freight Index and the Baltic Dry Index has seen a substantial fall in freight rates, the latter especially on account of a weak Chinese demand for iron ore. Chinese electricity use has dipped from a YoY growth rate of 8.9% in September to 7.7% in December. Also, residential investment has been contracting. So the only factor that explains the high GDP growth is too much credit. This has gone beyond the limits of safety; an increase of 100% of GDP in five years, or twice US credit growth from 2002-2007 and will not be sustainable beyond a point.

Also, the notion that China's high savings rate and low consumption will come to its rescue is a false one. China's consumption rate is low because wages are low as the economy has focused so much on investment that a distortion has been created. Indeed, this then proves that GDP numbers emanating from the country have to be looked hard at and taken with a pinch of salt.

02:38

The much awaited event in the world of IPOs (Initial Public Offers) is finally just round the corner. We are referring to the IPO of the popular social networking site Facebook. The company plans to file for its offer sometime next week. The IPO is estimated to be anywhere between US$ 75 bn to US$ 100 bn. It had revenues to the tune of US$ 4 bn in 2011. This means that the company would try and look at a valuation of nearly 25 times its revenues. If it actually manages to get the valuations it seeks, it would be one of the highest premium IPOs. However, the question would still haunt the minds of all value investors. Does any company that does not have a long track record of delivering superior results deserve such high valuations? Is it just another phase like the dotcom bubble wherein all popular sites get ridiculously high valuations just because they are in the field of social networking? Isn't it also equally important to be profitable and value accretive?

03:11

The biggest hurdle facing the India growth story can be summed up in one word 'land'. Given that agricultural productivity is low in India, one can presume that the returns to agriculture are quite low. Therefore, land should be used where there are higher returns. This view was also echoed by the ITC Ltd chairman at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. The company has lined up investments worth Rs 250 bn for India but is unable to execute it. The reason is land and unless India raises agricultural productivity and releases surplus land for industrial use, there is going to be a major problem. So if India wants to achieve a consistent growth rate of 8% to 9%, it must address the problem of land acquisition and find new and innovative ways to increase agricultural productivity very quickly.

03:37

Many of the world's largest manufacturers source equipments from Caterpillar, the global capital goods giant. As such, it would be worth perusing through its 2012 guidance and the outlook for the global economy. For instance, it expects rising global demand to push commodity prices higher. Surprisingly, the company has painted quite a rosy picture for the developed markets. It says that businesses in the developed economies will continue to invest heavily in capital equipment. It expects the US housing market to recover and it expects improvement in the Eurozone in the latter half of 2012. And while many economists and analysts the world over are fearing a real estate bubble bust in China, Caterpillar expects the construction growth to be strong in the dragon economy.

Though we appreciate Caterpillar's optimistic spirit, their global outlook for 2012 seems more like a wishlist. On second thoughts it isn't so surprising. We often tend to view the world in a way that would serve our own purpose. Many a big financial and economic disasters could have been averted if only people learnt to see things as they were instead of seeing just what they want to see.

04:13

Meanwhile, the world stock markets were a mixed bag of positive and unfavorable news during the week. There was optimism in Europe on the possibility of Greece's debt swap deal with its private creditors. However, the US GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.8% last year but still fell short of the economists' expectations. This could mean that the US needs more help from the Federal Reserve.

The Indian stock markets were up by 3% during the week. This was largely due to the CRR cut by the central bank during the week. The investors are hopeful that this rate cut would help revive the Indian economy. Also, encouraging results by a few corporates despite the gloomy economic scenario helped the markets register gains for the fourth straight week. Amongst the other world markets, all ended the week in the green except for France (down by 0.1%) and US (down by 0.5%).

Data Source: yahoo finance, kitco, CNNfn

04:50

Weekend Investing Mantra

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Equitymaster requests your view! Post a comment on "The most irresponsible statement on gold by a CEO?". Click here!

43 Responses to "The most irresponsible statement on gold by a CEO?"

SUBBAIAH

Feb 10, 2012

comments of CEO IS GOOD FOR HIS BANK WHERE HE IS A CEO BUT NOT FOR COMMON MAN SUBBAIAH

Ranjith Ashok

Feb 8, 2012

CEO is right, if we have any other investment other than Gold then such can be easily convertible into money with out any loss, whereas if gold is the investment we can exchange only for gold, that to we need to loss money during exchange.
I dont think the gold is right and safest way of investment, normally real asset for any humans being is income should be generated from the asset they have, but if we take gold what income are generated if the price goes high then that can be taken as income, no because if we go for selling they will not pay as cash they we force to take in exchange.
If we are in urgency of money we pledge the investment money in with some financers and pay the interest for that, then what is use of the investment?

Like (1)

Kol

Feb 8, 2012

No, the CEO is not wrong. if one invests in bank deposits, mutual funds or equities, those savings rotate in the economy and used for economic growth such as through loans, financing etc. Wheeas Gold sits in the Vault unused. This is valid view and Equitymaster is just doing dis-service to investors by analysing one side of the coin.

Like (1)

Kannan

Feb 7, 2012

The CEO is right. In other assets, the money will be inside India. In gold, the money goes out of India. So, it will affect the money circulation. BOP will widen.

Like (1)

Chinmay Jhaveri

Feb 3, 2012

@ Albert ; I think CEO might be Uday Kotak MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

My views: Money finds it own course for Growth,In these uncertain times even countries are running for GOLD and dumping the paper money , seeing the jump common man is also rushing for same.Who Knows how much return gold will give vs any other instrument.I totally disagree with his statment.

Like (1)

Ramanand

Feb 3, 2012

Should we save money? One option is to not save money...we can make very little effort, and earn only so much as is needed for our life for one day (or one month since salary is given every month). Alternatively, to not save any money, we can spend our entire salary down to the last rupee by the 30th/31st of every month so that we begin 'fresh' with the next month's salary.
Does anybody want to live like that? If not, then why not?
Fact is, everybody wants to save some money from their earnings for a rainy day...some emergency may happen in the future...if we spend all our money, we will be vulnerable to these emergencies when they hit us.
Savings comes first, then comes investment. Western economists (including our dear Indian CEO in the article) seem to have forgotten this fact. All over the developed countries, nobody saves...they live from paycheck to paycheck and spend using credit cards, increasing their borrowings.
So, if cool-headed Indians want to save, then what's the problem?
Next...if you have savings, don't you want them protected? Why will you save your hard earned money only to lose it? Either by theft, fire, water or any kind of loss? Right? Nobody wants to lose their savings either.
Enter Gold! Gold is the best insurance of your savings against a plethora of hidden problems with raw currency savings. When you convert your savings to gold, you are protected against:
1. Arbitrary govt policies that may erode the value of the rupee (think grain hoarding by ministers/export/import quotas etc)
2. External problems such as exchange rate fluctuations, or oil shocks etc
3. Internal problems such as crop failures, water shortage, natural disasters
4. Bank failures/institution failures (think GTB, UTI)
Considering all these, I'd rather put my savings into Gold even though its non-productive. I DON'T need it to be productive...I just want it to protect my savings that I've earned with goods/services I'VE ALREADY PRODUCED!

Like (1)

Rajesh P. Doshi

Feb 3, 2012

The CEO has raised a very interesting debate and my vote is in his favor.If you disagree with him, you are the Fool along with S K Damani.
Take an example you buy 1000 acres fertile land from a farmer as an Investment land,if un utilized, is like Gold, as it gradually appreciates in value, but you plant or grow nothing on it. Is this good for India, or for any society?
You will obviously say this is criminal waste, when so many people are going hungry.
India is starving of Capital?
Please grow up to the level of this CEO.

Like (1)

Vakharia

Jan 31, 2012

Who owns/mfg the first form of gold? Some else other than India!
Who benefits when 'misunderstoodly' Gold shoots and Indians buy them? Some else other than Indian!

And what performance does Gold actually do all by itself except sit idle while we keep spendign on protecting it for safety as against other assets that actually get used in some mfg or consumption and thereby contribute to secondary economy activity?

Summary Answer...I mean 'misunderstanding' or 'irresponsible' one: "Gold just profits ETFs and producers /original owners who, with the more or less same qty (as the actual production/extraction is negligible as compared to prices raise) keep profiteering by extracting hard earned Indian's saving into its vortex....buy it at high value and see its qty reduce soon while buying again with the same proceeds!!!

Dear Expert, Intelligentsia...please educate me on the 'misunderstood' and 'irresponsible' aspects. Thanks a ton!

Like (1)

S.K.Damani

Jan 30, 2012

Dear Sir,

Yes this CEO is a fool!!!!. Which ever Bank he may be a CEO get out of it, if you are holding its stock. GOLD is the BEST BET against all uncertainities. When a person is in trouble it is only his savings in Gold that helps him out. And by the way person like me who bought Gold when it was 8000/-, (based ON YOUR REPORTS ITSELF AND YOUR ANOTHER I'NAL REPORTING which suggested Gold could touch 40000/- by 2015) have now used that same gold to buy another assests, resulting in double benefits. Remember Loans against Gold is at the cheapest rates possible.
The CEO does not know what he is talking. He should be sent home by which ever Co. /Bank he is working for.
Thanks.

Like (1)

nrhk

Jan 30, 2012

The CEO is trying to be modern western banker. Indian banking is still gold banking. because banks are yet to win a credible place to keep resources. Bank fails in
1. providing 24 hr availability of funds,
2. storevalue with such a high inflationary tradition,
3. inability to transfer when wanted to one another. first is the organisational issue, second is ledership issue- none of the oldies think on these, and the third is failure of rbi ( one of Dy governor is from Banks) to establish a good payment systems in the country. He is correct in yelling what he remembers from some article published in FT recently on INdian banking. We have lot of judges but lack productive workers. when will our banks grow.

Like (1)

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