Loathing gold and silver

 Generally when a person sees an investment as  a bad one,  he just avoids it. He does not get agitated over the fact that others who disagree with him are putting money into it. Similarly if a writer or commentator on investing thinks an investment is a poor one, he just presents his reasons and tells people to put their money somewhere else. He does not  obsess on the  topic or attack anyone who disagrees with him as a fanatic or lunatic.

Yet that is just what one does see when various flacks of the political/financial establishment  get going on the subject of precious metals. They do not stop at calling metals a bad play and suggesting investing elsewhere. Rather they seem to take offense at the  notion that people would invest in gold or silver.  The hostility seems to go well beyond any pragmatic concern over the pros and cons of investing in metals.  It is worth considering why.

My guess is that it is because investing in metals often indicates skepticism about the political and financial establishments in general and the present administration in particular.  Such skepticism is both offensive and frightening to those in power and to those who defend them in the media. In fact it seems to scare and annoy the hell out of them. Rulers and their sycophants never like it when the proles get restless, and there is a lot of that going on.