Northwestern Mutual Makes First Gold Buy in 152 Years

Weiss

By Andrew Frye

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., the third-largest U.S. life insurer by 2008 sales, has bought gold for the first time the company’s 152-year history to hedge against further asset declines.

“Gold just seems to make sense; it’s a store of value,” Chief Executive Officer Edward Zore said in an interview following his comments at a conference hosted by Standard & Poor’s in Brooklyn. “In the Depression, gold did very, very well.”

Northwestern Mutual has accumulated about $400 million in gold, and Zore said the price could double or even rise fivefold if the economy continues to weaken.

link to Bloomberg article

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i think a few other companies have always had stores of physical gold, but i could be wrong

Higashiyama

That is very interesting -- especially since Northwestern Mutual is one of the more conservative insurers, and certainly among the best managed. It has a remarkable track record.

roadrunner

More often that not, such news is usually presented as markets reach interim peaks. One would think that non-experts such as this company would be buying just as prices are getting frothy. But that's not say they can't go even higher. They should have bought 6 weeks ago.

roadrunner

Higashiyama

"More often that not, such news is usually presented as markets reach interim peaks"

I dare you to short it!