A source was cited by Bloomberg who said billionaire John Paulson would not be adding more money to invest in gold. Paulson is known in the industry as an aggressive gold bettor who started placing investments on buillion.
The source, who refused to be named as the information was still private, said the hedge fund manager told clients at his company's annual meeting on November 20 that he would no longer place additional investments in his gold fund as acceleration of inflation was not clear. His PFR Gold Fund had since lost 63% to date after Paulson placed his bets on gold and had been telling clients that investing in gold was his best long-term investment. Paulson said gold would be able to act as an hedge against inflation.
Following the 2008 financial crisis, Paulson started betting on gold believing that the asset would rise as governments would print money to resuscitate the economy. Bloomberg said in its report that securities related to gold had contributed to Paulson's company losses last year due to the fall of mining company stocks.
Gold price activity had been a mystery to majority of the industry and had been disputed among economists. Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada had asked US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, of which Bernanke said he has no idea.
"Nobody really understands gold prices. And I don't pretend to really understand them either," Bernanke said. Bernanke was chairman of the economics department of Princeton University.
In a US Senate committee regarding her nomination as the next Fed chairman, Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said, "I don't think anybody has a very good model of what makes gold prices go up or down. It is an asset that people want to hold when they're very fearful about potential financial market catastrophe or economic troubles," Yellen said.
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