Glenn Beck And The Mainstreaming Of Gold

Outspoken commentator Glenn Beck is taking flak for recommending buying gold while having the same gold vendor that cut a sponsorship deal with him advertising on his Fox News show. Some have decried it, citing conflict of interest and lack of disclosure; others have said that it's not that big a deal given that Beck's put his own money into gold too. Unstated is the fact that Beck isn't an investment advisor, he's "merely" a TV and radio commentator. No-one should expect him to be a professional in the area of investments because he isn't. Nor has he held himself up as one.

I point to this controversy as evidence of the mainstreaming of gold. The only mainstreaming of gold I've seen on the TV [I don't get Fox News, and I don't watch much TV] was the "Dollars4Gold" and allied ads asking people to sell their gold to the advertising company. I've seen occasional commercials pushing U.S. gold eagles, but the preponderance of them have been gold-buying companies. "Buy from us" has been outweighed by "Sell to us."

Thanks in large part to Glenn Beck, this preponderance may well change. Then, we'll see the mainstreaming of gold as an investment - one of the attributes of a potential bubble.


The Beck controversy is mentioned briefly by Lawrence Weinman over at Seeking Alpha, in a blurb entitled "Gold: Glitter in Decline?"