You have all heard numerous times about how this is the toughest, harshest economic climate since the early 1930s, at the onset of the Great Depression. And while this is true, many pundits mistakenly insist on continuing to characterize the current economic malaise as merely a “recession” even though the markets have hemorrhaged value for years, not merely fiscal quarters.

As panicked investors head for the hills after the recent roller coaster ride in the Dow Industrial Average, and in the exchanges of the world markets, the value of gold is once again reasserting itself to the marketplace and to the investment pundits that insist gold is dead.

There are a few ways in which this precious metal can help you secure your wealth and manage growth in these troubled economic times.

A Sweeping World Wide Marketplace

Every industrialized country in the world, and many that are not, use and exchange gold as a valuable commodity. Though the days of gold-backed currencies are probably gone for good, most major market exchanges trade physical gold, gold certificates, stocks, mining shares and market futures to investors looking for both long-term security and for short-term growth in their portfolios.

This means that whatever the vagaries of the market are for your local slice of the world, there are millions of investors and banks that will always be willing to buy your gold. This is a crucial component to how the precious metal can help maintain the value of your holdings in nearly any economic climate.

Gold Possesses Incredible Inherent Value

One of the reasons that this precious metal has existed as a placeholder for value for the breadth of human existence is because it possesses an inherent value that goes beyond its arbitrary worth as money. It is one of the most versatile, durable and useful metals on Earth, and can be used in myriad industries for a variety of different things.

Gold can be used in dentistry and medicine, jewelry, high-end electronics and more. In addition, it is easily pressed and fitted into any shape or fitting, it does not need to be alloyed with any other metal to be useful and it never corrodes or tarnishes. 

It Is Tangible, And Immune From Fluctuations of Interest Rates

Gold also has paper currencies beat in that it does not answer to the dictates of central banks. The price of gold is still a free market entity the value of which is determined by the total sum of buyers and sellers on any given day.

Paper money cannot match this, because the only way it can offer value is through the management of a panel of “experts” that attempt to sell debt to other nations. By jiggering with interest rates and yields, central banks are able to alter the value of these currencies, but their ability to do so becomes unhinged when no one wants to buy the debt. Gold is what it is, and in good markets or bad, there is no problem finding buyers and sellers.