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Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is well known for his disdain for owning gold and other precious metals as an investment, and now, his right hand man of nearly four decades took that belief to another level.

Courtesy of ownthedollar.com

In an interview with CNBC on May 4th, Berkshire Hathaway investor Charlie Munger said that gold was a relic for the Jews during the time of the holocaust. and not something to be owned by civilized people in today’s economy.

. gold is a great thing to sew onto your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939 but civilized people don’t buy gold — they invest in productive businesses. — Charlie Munger on CNBC, May 4th

Whether Munger’s choice of words were in bad form by referring to holocaust era Jews as uncivilized investors, the fact of the matter is that gold has saved thousands of people over time when planned economies and fiat currencies have devaulued into nothing.

However, as an investment, all one has to do is look at gold performance since 2001 when central banks began to print money in earnest. Year over year, gold has achieved a much higher return than the S&P 500, where $10,000 invested in both assets over the last decade would have returned 333% for gold versus 2.3% for the S&P.

(See chart in slideshow to the left of this article)

Yet, we also must also look at which ‘civilized people’ are accumulating and investing in gold. China for example, which holds over $1 trillion in US debt instruments, has been using those reserves to buy gold in large quantities, and oil countries like Russia and Iran are doing the same. These are not doomsday investors, but the second and ninth largest economies in the world

Charlie Munger made his fortune, along with Warren Buffett, through the accumulation of solid companies, and the returns made on their sound management. However, like Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger is part of the 1% economic elite, and has access to resources most Americans and investors do not, which makes owning gold a very viable and profitable investment, especially in regards to wealth preservation.

Gold is something for everyone, not just the Jews of Hitler’s Germany, nor those Buffett associate Charlie Munger considers ‘uncivilized’. As the Dollar, Euro, and global fiat currencies continue to devalue and threaten dissolution, history shows that time and time again, those that have the gold are best prepared for economic change and crisis, and for beginning again after monetary systems fail.

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