Ireland’s finance minister sells stocks and buys gold

According to Ireland’s “Sunday Independent” newspaper, Michael Noonan, Ireland’s finance minister, has sold his shares in funds that track European and US stocks and diversified his portfolio to include gold ETFs.

The fact that a finance minister puts more faith in gold than he does in stocks speaks volumes. Noonan is dumping stocks to buy gold and using his own personal wealth to do it – not tax-payers’ money. The difference has not gone unnoticed.

Michael Noonan, Ireland’s Finance Minister buys gold.

Noonan’s investment in gold was published last week in the Register of Members Interests where members of the Irish Parliament must declare any financial interests over £13,000. Noonan’s move was described by the The Sunday Independent as “as a hedge against Euro deflation”.

Clearly the move is something I personally support – although choosing ETFs with the associated counter-party risk is not as safe in my opinion a move towards physical gold.

With physical gold there there is no reliance on a third party as the physical gold is in your possession. This is not a big factor for most people at the moment but remember, with 100 ‘paper’ claims for every ounce of physical gold in existence, you can see why I prefer to hold the real deal over an IOU.

Not surprising, the Irish Finance Minister has a reputation for sound financial management. The Independent writes:

“Noonan’s personal investments give an insight into his thinking and his views on the risk and opportunities facing the global and European economies and markets. He has a track record stretching back decades of canny private investments.”

You may be wondering why a Finance Minister would be putting his own money into gold.

You may also be wondering why central banks around the world own so much gold themselves considering their claim that it has no relevance in todays digital world. If gold is no longer money, why are central banks so keen to hold onto it and indeed why are they so keen to acquire more?

Why is China desperately trying to increase the amount of gold it currently holds? It wouldn’t be anything to do with the fact that they want the Yuan to have greater respectability as a global currency would it?

Mmmmm – I think it might.

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6 Comments

  • At £100 to double-you’re not really competing with large scale seasoned professionals.

    Once you go down the doubling numbers you begin to compete in effect with institutions and or Goverment policy etc(as that kind of continual doubling becomes an Intrest to the other 7 billion people and stated Goverment)

    As a result-after a handful of these ‘doubling’ moves…the ability and time and competing positions from other investors and said governments etc just make the ability a compounded hardness.

    Hopefully as we become more sophisticated we can enjoy these posts but realise they are like any other headline….attention seeking!

    • I’m afraid that none of that is even remotely true, Gerry. Remember, DYWTAM was written by not one, but two, multi-millionaires using these very techniques. I suspect that you’ve been ripped off in the past by the many “get rich quick schemes” that are out there. That’s a real shame. Having done all of the fourteen levels myself, (and I watch others do the same every week), I feel highly qualified to disagree with every single one of your comments. If you’re not rich now then you have to change your thinking if you want to make serious money. Here’s the thing; “If you keep doing what you’ve always done – you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got”. Stop and think about that for a minute. I don’t know if you live in a two million pound house but if you don’t, here you are telling someone who does that this won’t work. Really? The DYWTAM Programme is a genuine no-nonsense guide on how to become a millionaire – and absolutely anyone can do it.

  • Barry, is it only 10 issues of Double your way to a Million? A friend of mine who is interested wants to know, thanks.

  • hi barry i am interested in your horse racing course and your recommendation of using isiris,i understand kevin booth has resigned from isiris do you still recommend we use this company still thank you,and also i notice on your websitethat it is still dated 2017 .

    • Good question. I have not used the Isiris service recently. I had a brilliant 11 year run but eventually I got closed down by all the bookmakers. I guess that’s a real sign of success but it was fun to do and I actually miss it. I did not know that Kevin had actually retired but I understand that the results this year have been extremely good. Maybe regular readers who still use Isiris can update me on that one and let me know how they are doing.

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