The gold bubble is yet to come

Some people think we're in a gold bubble. But we're not, says Merryn Somerset Webb. That's yet to come.

Is there a bubble in the gold market? Must be, says one reader. Just turn on the TV during the day and you'll see hours and hours of ads from agencies offering to buy gold from you pop it in an envelope, send it off, and next thing you know you'll get back an envelope full of cash.

But this mild level of public interest is not evidence of a bubble, not least because it invites people to sell, not buy, gold. It's more a sign of a growing awareness of gold, which adds weight to the idea, suggested this week by Socit Gnrale's Dylan Grice, that we're in the boom stage of a possible Kindleberger cycle for gold.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.