Odey Says Governments May Make Private Gold Ownership Illegal

Gold last traded at $1,724 an ounce. Silver at $17.44 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices eased back Thursday on short-term profit-taking and a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks fell, led by the tech sector, as investors digested rising weekly unemployment data.

BLOOMBERG/YAHOO FINANCE--" 'It is no surprise that people are buying gold. But the authorities may attempt at some point to de-monetise gold, making it illegal to own as a private individual,' Odey wrote in a letter to investors seen by Bloomberg. 'They will only do this if they feel the need to create a stable unit of account for world trade.'....Fear of government confiscation is a common theme among some of gold's most ardent supporters, who point for precedent to the U.S. government's forced purchases of private bullion holdings in 1933 as part of a devaluation of the dollar. The price of gold was raised from $20.67 an ounce to $35, where it remained until the U.S. ended the gold standard in 1971....Odey, who has previously compared the current pandemic to the Great Depression of the 1930s, argued that central banks would fail to contain inflation as the economy eventually recovers from the impact of global lockdowns. 'History is filled with examples where rulers have, in moments of crisis, resorted to debasing the coinage,' he wrote. Odey is not alone in betting that gold will benefit as high inflation follows the coronavirus crisis."