Abstract

With the legalization of gold trading for American citizens on January 1975, many analysts expected substantial investment buying of gold and expected the price to continue to rise beyond the then $190 figure. In fact, there was little additional investment interest. The price of gold, which had skyrocketed from $115 at the end of 1974 and peaked at nearly $200 a year later, went into a decline for a year and a half, bottoming-out barely over $100 in August 1976. Since then there has been a fairly steady increase but even the June 1979 price of $275 is only slightly above the $265-270 that would equal the real price of four and a half years ago. But for at least a year there has been increasing evidence of a growing interest in gold as an investment in the United States. This article considers three main questions: Why was investor interest in gold so slow to develop after gold trading became legal? What are the criteria that must be met if an investment is to be regarded as good-how well does gold meet these criteria? What are the more important long-range influences upon the price of gold and the attractiveness of gold as an investment for Americans?