I was in that session. That's some of the information that was not relevant to the retail investment community, and the necessity/costs were overstated. Some of the statements appear to have been in relation to specific tax advice for a commercial fund holding physical bullion - but were not clearly communicated as such, and when presented to a room of private retail investors, was just downright confusing. Basically a bit of marketing FUD to make physical sound difficult compared to an ETF.
Interesting as I just saw the economist on ABC News 24 saying about now is a good time to buy Gold. He compared the last two years of gold, in comparison to the two years before I think and the graphs looked identical. Saying it was probably time for another run up...
I'd be more inclined to worry about Michael Pascoe. Or perhaps the likes of Craig James from Commsec... if he advocates PMs, of the solid bullion variety, I wouldn't know what the game is. Liquidate and run perhaps. As with any financial 'advisors' or whatever we call these spruikers, you just need to find out what motivates their commentary, and then you start to unravel their 'real' message.
Actually I ran into someone at the symposium who was the father of one of the economists who gets interviewed on the evening news. They have to spruik the company line :/
If you're referring to bank economists then absolutely. Working for a bank is as close as you can get to living Orwell or Kafka while still having an out.
