Bloomberg News: Sam Zell Buys Gold with Inflation 'Reminiscent of the '70s'

Article by David Westin and Simon Casey in Bloomberg News

Billionaire investor Sam Zell is seeing inflation everywhere, and has bought gold as a hedge -- something he says he used to knock others for doing.

“Obviously one of the natural reactions is to buy gold,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It feels very funny because I’ve spent my career talking about why would you want to own gold? It has no income, it costs to store. And yet, when you see the debasement of the currency, you say, what am I going to hold on to?”

Zell, 79, said he’s concerned not only about the U.S. dollar but other countries printing money as well, and questioned whether inflation will be transitory, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated last week.

“Oh boy, we’re seeing it all over the place,” Zell said of inflation. “You read about lumber prices, but we’re seeing it in all of our businesses. The obvious bottlenecks in the supply chain arena are pushing up prices. It’s very reminiscent of the ‘70s.”

While gold is an attractive investment, opportunities in .....

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