Bad Advice?

Through the years we've been told to have faith in the stock market. "Buy good stocks and hold them for the long term," said the experts. "There may be dips from time to time, but you'll come out ahead in the long haul."

The experts also advised us to stay away from gold. "Terrible investment. Doesn't pay interest or dividends. There's the expense of storing it....yada, yada, yada."

Adjusting for inflation over a 9 year period, we discover this: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 50.9 percent from its high of January 11, 2000. The price of gold is UP 161 percent from the same day. Perhaps there's something to be said for holding gold for the long term?

(NOTE: We think it's a mistake to think of gold and silver as investments. . But for more than 5,000 years these precious metals have done a good job of preserving purchasing power over long periods of time. An ounce of gold today buys approximately the same number of loaves of bread as it did 80 years ago.)

We often look to JW for insight when the economy is in turmoil. He has been uncannily accurate over the years. He describes himself as a curmudgeonly, albeit friendly, libertarian with a small "l". You can tune in at wrisley.com.