“What do you tell your mother when she asks you where to put her money?” I asked. “Guns and gold,” he said simply. “Guns and gold,” I said. So he was nuts. “But not gold futures,” he said, paying no attention to my thoughts. “You need physical gold.” He explained that when the next crisis struck, the gold futures market was likely to seize up, as there were more outstanding futures contracts than available gold. People who thought they owned gold would find they owned pieces of paper instead. He opened his desk drawer, hauled out a giant gold brick, and dropped it on the desk. “We’ve bought a
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