Central Banks Becoming Net Buyers of Gold

Marc Faber : We have international reserves growing from $1 trillion in 1996 to $10 trillion now, which is a symptom of monetary inflation. And these international reserves accumulate principally at the hands of Asian central banks and central banks in emerging economies. For instance, Thailand sits on foreign exchange reserves of $150 billion, which, on a per-capita basis, is larger than the Chinese central bank reserves. The Russians also have large reserves, as well as the Brazilians and others. These central bank reserves, until now, were principally U.S. dollars. Then they diversified somewhat into euros. Even a central banker, with his just-below-average intelligence, will one day notice that maybe it’s not that desirable to be in the U.S. dollar or Treasury bills that have essentially no yield. In other words, you have a negative-real-interest rate on these dollars. So they move money into gold. They should have done it a long time ago. But don’t expect too much from a central banker. - in Seeking Alpha