CHARTS: The coming critical minerals trade war is BRICS short of a load
"While a large number of countries around the world continue to talk about securing raw material supply, China is actually doing something about it."
According to a new survey by esure home insurance British distrust of banks and savings accounts has increased to such an extent that more than one in ten in the United Kingdom now own a stash of gold valued above any cash savings.
According to the survey, more than 38% of Britons also say investing in gold is better than keeping cash savings. As gold vending machines pop up in shopping malls and physical gold retailers like London-based Bullionvault surpass some central banks in gold holdings, 14% of Britons bought an item of gold as an investment in the past year.
Immediately bank-friendly Savings.co.uk tried to poke holes in the gold as savings argument saying gold doesn’t produce an income like interest or dividends, it’s illiquid and if you buy physical gold you’re unlikely to be covered by any financial compensation scheme if things go wrong.
MINING.com reported in July gold vending machines are to be placed in every major city in Britain after the country’s first Gold to Go ATM (pictured) was switched on in a West London shopping centre on Friday. The company behind the machines that vend a 1g bar the size of a cellphone sim card aimed at ordinary shoppers plans to install 50 across Britain over the next few years.
Commodity Online reported on the trend as far back as November 2008 quoting the UK’s BullionVault founder Paul Tustain: “We get people investing from all walks of life, people who wouldn’t normally take the time to trade in any product. They buy gold to hold their wealth because they feel it’s less risky.
Started in 2005 by its last financial year’s end (31 October 2010) privately owned BullionVault had over 20,000 active customers, from 97 countries, holding approximately $1.2 billion in stored bullion. In fact, with more than 20 tonnes of gold, BullionVault’s customers were already holding significantly larger reserves than most of the world’s central banks.
4 Comments
Musivick
I imagine those vended packages of gold have RFID tracking chips, so either the govt or tech-savvy criminals can locate a stash of gold…
let-the-buyer-beware
Smokedcheese67
Wrap it in foil. Problem solved, no?
Paul Prichard
Screw gold ATMs across Britain, what about silver ATMs ?
Paul Prichard
RFID tracking chips ?
Run a powerful electric current through your gold, would that solve it ?