Billionaires loaded up on gold this quarter. Jealous pundits laugh at them

Billionaires who have loaded up on gold as their principal asset of choice:

George Soros: Recently bought 8884,000 shares of GLD, while dumping all of his bank stocks.

John Paulsen:  Paulson & Co., which owns the biggest stake in the SPDR Gold Trust, increased its holdings to 21.8 million shares in the three months through June. The New York-based $21 billion hedge fund firm had more than 44 percent of its U.S. traded equities tied to bullion

Frank Giustra: Mr. Giustra says in the future the world  is almost certainly heading for more money printing and more inflation. Avoiding cash, bonds and fixed income securities and focusing on gold and stocks is how one positions to benefit from that scenario.

Kyle Bass:  When Texas University invested $1 billion in gold, he advised its board to take physical delivery of the precious metal. According to Bass, the reasons for taking physical delivery were more practical than they may seem.

Erich Mindich: Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital also bought  739,117 shares in the SPDR Gold Trust during the first quarter. The New York-based fund held no shares of the exchange-traded product as of December 31.

David Einhorn:  Einhorn's Greenlight Capital  was very bullish on gold but this quarter, though he sold positions in ABX and GDXJ. As a percentage of the total exposure to gold, the sales are on the low side for the very large stake in GDX was left untouched. Einhorn also has a large stake in physical gold.

Daniel Loeb:  Loeb sold 24 equity positions this quarter, leaving physical gold as his single largest position. 

Bill Gross:  Dow Jones is reporting this morning that PIMCO's Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund, with about $20 billion in assets, has raised its gold holdings to 11.5% of it total assets from 10.5% two months ago. The position was apparently taken when gold dipped towards $1500 according to comments from Nic Johnson, its co-portfolio manager.  Their concern is a triple one - loose monetary policy, high levels of sovereign debt and rising commodity prices are going to fuel an inflation outbreak as we move ahead.

CENTRAL BANKS aggressively buy gold: Russia – Bangladesh – Philippines – Saudi Arabia – Thailand – Belarus – Venezuela – India – Sri Lanka – Mauritius – Mexico – Bolivia – Colombia – South Korea – Turkey – Kazakhstan – Tajikistan – Serbia – Ukraine – Mongolia – Malta – Greece  - Argentina.

Pundits who don't get gold at all:

Some jackass named Mike Norman regularly ridicules Kyle Bass for his bullion purchases.  His reason: " central banks cannot print money. They simply can't."

James Paulsen of Wells Capital regularly touts the idiocy of buying gold: He claims the odds of QE3 are remote.  And he thinks the US economy is about to coming roaring back.

Charles Sizemore Investor place newsletter advises readers that gold is a bubble like tech stocks in 1999.

Dave Ramsey: claims that buying gold at this high price is stupid.  He laughs at financial morons like Soros and Paulsen who are throwing their money away at the top of the market.  Instead he advises a portfolio of mutual funds.

Ric Edelman: "Gold is for suckers." 

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