With no real end in sight to the coronavirus crisis, and millions of Americans out of work for an indefinite period of time, the US economy is set to enter perhaps its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The effects of the current economic shutdown will be felt for years, if not decades, to come. Against that backdrop there is very little good news for investors, with one small exception.
Gold and silver, as they have in previous crises, are showing signs that they are once again acting as safe havens for investor assets. Spot prices have soared recently and, as anyone who has tried to get their hands on actual physical coins has discovered, the actual metals are hard to come by and commanding tremendous premiums when they are found. In fact, the disconnect between spot prices and actual sale prices indicates that gold is set for significant gains in the coming months.
That wouldn’t be at all surprising, as gold and silver both outperformed other assets during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. From the worst part of the 2008 crisis until their highs in 2011, gold nearly tripled and silver nearly quadrupled, bringing investors a rare sign of hope in an era in which traditional financial investments seemed like guaranteed money losers. Investors who put as little as 30% of their investment portfolios in gold and silver before the financial crisis not only saw significantly less capital loss during the crisis, but they also experienced significant asset growth after the crisis, and their portfolios are still worth more today than had they stayed 100% invested in stocks.
By now it should be clear to most investors that it’s going to be quite a while before we return to anything approaching normal. That means that investors expecting stock markets to return to anywhere close to their recent highs will be disappointed. With a severe recession just getting underway, numerous investors are making the move to invest in gold and silver while they still can, protecting their retirement savings and hoping to benefit from gold and silver’s growth potential in the coming months and years.
If you haven’t protected your retirement savings with gold and silver yet, what are you waiting for? With the worst effects of the coronavirus lockdown still weeks or months ahead of us, along with the collapse of the massive corporate debt bubble, financial markets are going to have a very rough 2020. Do you want to make sure that your assets are protected now by investing in gold and silver, or do you want to continuing hoping for a miraculous turnaround to a very weak stock market?
This article was originally posted on Goldco.
