In this week's print edition, Barron's Randall Forsythe updates his readers on the story of Bitcoin, the virtual currency that saw its value balloon and burst in a matter of days.
He sees the story as a reflection of skepticism towards fiat money as the world's central banks print away.
Forsythe thinks all of the makes for a bullish case for gold.
"[I]t is incongruous that gold—money that can't be printed, just minted—would enter a bear market Friday," he writes.
Indeed, gold had a very ugly Friday.
Here's more from Forsythe's piece "Bitcoin for Your Thoughts? Buy Gold":
The rush to the Bitcoin may have been a speculative bubble, but it may also represent an inchoate search for an alternative to government-controlled paper currencies.
Gold would fit that bill, but it appears caught up in a liquidation of commodities, such as base metals and petroleum products, and as a component in commodity indexes. Commodities are produced to be consumed. Gold isn't consumed; virtually all the gold ever extracted still exists as a store of value or a thing of beauty. That makes it fundamentally different from commodities.
Some day, an alternative to gold that doesn't require the tedious and expensive mining, storage, and transfer of the metal may be conjured. Those difficulties gave rise to paper money, which is being abused. For now, gold no longer is loved, which, to an independent-minded contrarian investor, only adds to its allure.
Read Forsythe's whole piece at Barrons.com.
SEE ALSO: The Gold Collapse Is Great News >
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