The Importance of Investing in Common Stocks

The standard policy of people all over the world who mistrust their currency has been to buy and hold gold. This has been against the law for American citizens since 1935 luckily for them. In the past 35 years the price of gold in the open market has advanced from $35 per ounce to $48 in early $1972 a rise of only 35%. But during all this time the holder of gold has received no income return on his capital, and instead has incurred some annual expense for storage. Obviously, he would have done much better with his money at interest in a savings bank, in spite of the rise in the general price level. The outright ownership of real estate has long been considered as a sound