Backstopping With Gold and Cash

The European debt discussion has been going on since the beginning of last year,says Abhay Deshpande,a portfolio manager at First Eagle Investment Management.European authorities keep finding ways to prevent its stopping.In the end,practical people will come to the conclusion-probably after the summer-that the European Central Bank needs to get directly involved.
We have 20% cash in case there's another Lehman-type meltdown.That means 17% commercial paper;some Treasury bills;and the bonds of well-financed governments.It's unpleasant,but if we can't find anything,we tend to default to cash.
Gold bullion is our number one holding.It acts somewhat as a hedge against the declining purchasing power around the world.One of the lessons we learned from the financial crisis is that sometimes we get it wrong,Mr.Deshpande admitted.
First Eagle Investment Management,LLC serves corporations,foundations,endowments,major retirement funds and individuals.Its staff of 156 has 60 billion dollars under management worldwide.With a lineage dating back to nineteenth century Germany,it emphasizes risk management and long term,value-oriented investing.
Commercial paper is an unsecured money market instrument sold by large banks and other firms.It is often contained in bond and money market funds.

The Ascent of Gold and Oil

Dominic Schnider,head of commodities research at UBS Wealth Management,explains that gold strength is driven by dollar weakness.I haven't seen any real signal of an attractive real interest rate.Precious metals will look really quite compelling.
UBS has a 12-month forecast for gold of 1650.00 an ounce.Gold is the right choice for investors.Silver will end in a bloodbath.
We're looking at probably 120.00 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate crude.To lower the price,we need to see less growth in demand given the structural supply problems that we have now.Oil at 120.00 is easily in the cards.We need to see deceleration of demand growth,Mr.Schnider emphasized.
Both oil and gold rose in Monday morning trading despite the death of Osama bin Laden.
Australian mining titan BHP Billiton Limited gives broad exposure to natural resource extraction.Kinross Gold,a Canadian miner,is currently considered one of the best values in the industry.
Union Bank of Switzerland(UBS),BHP Billiton Limited(BHP),Kinross Gold(KGC)

Prominent Investor Likes Gold

Jim Rogers,the Chairman of Rogers Holdings and author of several books,says the fundamentals are terrible for all the paper money except Canada's and Singapore's.This money has to come from somewhere.He's concerned about all countries.Nothing about the new rescue package is gonna get countries to cut their deficits enough to solve the problem.The European Union is ignoring their own rules.Even the present generation is gonna pay for this.
Mr.Rogers doubts if the Euro will be around in 10-15 years.It's continuing to weaken;be careful.The politicians all over Europe are using it as a scapegoat whenever there's a problem.It's a political currency,Jim Rogers believes.
The way things are going,people are gonna grab for something.The only thing they can grab for now is gold.It will certainly go up to 2,000 dollars an ounce by 2020.His children will own his gold,Mr.Rogers suspects.
Jim Rogers,a resident of Singapore,is a frequent guest on business television.Another Jim Rogers is the CEO of Duke Energy.
Duke Energy(DUK)