Gold Investment: The Vietnamese love gold

Gold Investment - 20 February 2012

The Vietnamese have what can be best described as a love affair with gold. A clear sign of this is the fact that gold bullion is fetching prices of up to a $100 more than anywhere else in the world in places such as Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Given the history of Vietnam, the Vietnamese people certainly had their fair share of war and turmoil. It therefore doesn’t come as a surprise that they love to own gold, because they have certainly seen gold’s purchase power during times of distress. In fact, Vietnamese tradition carries a rightly placed distrust of central banks and a love for gold. It is therefore no wonder that gold hoarding in Vietnam has increased substantially given the current global turmoil where economies are getting highly unstable and fiat currencies, including the Vietnamese Dong, are continuing to lose purchasing power. The Vietnamese has seen inflation soaring to 18% recently and they are doing their bit to protect themselves by acquiring more and more gold. This of course don’t sit right with the Vietnamese government and central bank, who are trying hard to get their hands on the gold of Vietnamese citizens, of course under false pretentions like in the rest of the world. In fact, every time the global fiat Ponzi scheme (the “paper gimmick”) loses steam, most central banks across the globe do their bit to restrict private gold ownership, while running the fiat money presses as if there is no tomorrow. They steal the purchase value of people’s money, directly (confiscation and price manipulation) or indirectly (taxes and “quantitative easing”) or through a combination of both, all under the false pretense of wanting to “stabilize the economy” and what have you.  Needless to say, the Vietnamese are not falling for their shenanigans despite the fact that “…officials are considering strict measures that could force at least 10,000 jewelry stores to completely leave the business of bullion sales and simply sell basic jewelry only” ("Empires May Fall, Currencies May Change...Gold Will Always Survive", Wealth Wire, Brittany Stepniak, 13 February 2012). As one gold trader, Tran Hoang Long, sums it up: “there will always be ways to trade the bars” ("Empires May Fall, Currencies May Change...Gold Will Always Survive", Wealth Wire, Brittany Stepniak, 13 February 2012). This is the correct attitude to have, because if you jump every time the evil bastards tell you to jump, you certainly won’t survive in a world that is increasingly embracing the bad, while shunning the good. Furthermore, it might come as a surprise to many, especially those in the Western world, but Vietnamese pensioners don’t believe in the fallacy of having a nest egg consisting of fiat currencies to fall back on during retirement. As Truong Van Hue, a 60 year old retiree states: “I still like to keep my savings in gold. It’s safe for retired people like me. I can sell the gold any time, anywhere, when I need cash” ("Empires May Fall, Currencies May Change...Gold Will Always Survive", Wealth Wire, Brittany Stepniak, 13 February 2012). He is spot on and it’s probably the best investment advice one can give to anyone, especially during these trying times. Many of course don’t believe this or have some sort of excuse for shunning the idea right away, but needless to say, they will only have themselves to blame when disaster strikes and they sink with the rest. In the final equitation, as Sociologist Vu Duc Vuong so succinctly states: “Empires may fall, currencies may change... gold will always survive".

Now given the above, are you going to fall in love with gold OR continue to embrace fiat currencies as if it is God’s gift to earth? Well done, if you’ve already made the leap, but if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to at least test the waters by getting at least a portion of your nest egg into gold. Don’t despair if gold is not within your reach, you can always fall back on silver, especially while it’s trading at these low price levels compared to its true worth and compared to gold.