"There is no doubt about why the mythical treasure at the end of the rainbow is always a pot of gold and never a few truckloads of copper, zinc, coffee or anything else. Gold is the great consolidator of value"

So begins the well-written, highly informative and useful new book "The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing" by John Katz and Frank Holmes (foreword by Dr. Marc Faber). Part One is the work of John Katz, who is neither a gold bull nor a bear but an independent analyst. He provides a thoughtful examination of gold's history and of the metal's role in the turbulent 21st century. In Part Two, Frank Holmes offers a tour of the inner workings of U.S. Global Investors, including how they go about picking stocks and what companies he believes have the greatest potential in the current bull market.

By the time you finish, you'll be among the best-informed gold investors on the planet. It's that good.
The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing

This book offers invaluable insight into Gold as an asset class. Its useful both for investors and investment advisors. It details the history of gold, its role in the Great depression in 1929 and various other eye opening facts. Also the book covers gold mining companies. The best part is that the authors give an independent view of this asset class and leave the judgement to the reader whether to be bullish or bearish about this precious metal.

Having spent significant time in the past three years studying and thinking about gold as an investment, I can say unequivocally that the first 10 Chapters of this book are the best 'balanced and unbiased' summary that I have come across of the things I consider topically relevant. I consider it 'must reading' and recommend it to anyone interested in gold and the gold market.

"Katz and Holmes take over where Peter L. Bernstein's modern classic "The Power of Gold--the History of an Obsession" left off. Bernstein had the misfortune of having his biography of the so-called `barbarous relic' (a Keynes coinage now used more often ironically than not) first published in 2000 when the gold price was becalmed below $300. The price has more than tripled since then, just as the macro-economic and financial environment has gravely deteriorated. ... Permeating The Goldwatcher, in fact, is a sense of the fundamental scarcity of commodities (the impact of the demand shock from `Chindia' and the necessity of global economic rebalancing are well covered) compared to essentially unlimited financial products, most notably money itself, which can be conjured into being at the stroke of a computer keyboard. Which is surely the point behind the current mortgage and banking crisis: we have collectively lost all sense of the `sound money' that gold still represents. The credit party was undoubtedly a blast. The hangover is likely to be equally terrific. This book is particularly timely."

Tim Price