What Bernanke, Marc Faber’s Bathroom And Gold All Have In Common

Marc “Dr. Doom” Faber has never been shy about his opinions concerning the global markets, especially with his Twitter account. As usual, the slight feeling of anonymity with the internet and social media leads to brutal honesty that people may not necessarily say in a normal conversation. And so is the case with Mr. Faber’s Twitter account, as a recent tweet read “I keep in my toilet a picture of Mr. Bernanke. And every time I think about selling my gold, I look at it and I know better!” [for more gold news and analysis subscribe to our free newsletter].

Though it seems like a comical message at first, the 140 characters or less message actually brings up a good point in the gold market today. Many seem to have their eyes fixated on the fiscal cliff and how it will impact the precious metal, and rightfully so seeing as there are just a few short weeks left before that situation comes to a head. But many have been quick to forget about other underlying factors that gold has going for it in today’s market.

There is no doubt that gold will have a swift reaction to however the fiscal cliff situation pans out, but once the dust settles a few weeks or months down the line, investors will simply look for the next big “event” to make gold trades. While that is a fair strategy, many brush past events to the side, something that may not be helpful today. When Ben Bernanke put QE3 in place, he created a system that will likely weaken the U.S. dollar and strengthen gold as time goes on. With Helicopter Ben in office until 2014, the open-ended easing program could last for the foreseeable future [see also 3 Metals Outshining Gold].

Focusing on the short-term events is certainly a necessity in today’s market, but it may only be extremely relevant to traders in short-term positions. Those who are of the mindset that gold is a good buy for the long term should never lose sight of all of the factors weighing for and against the metal, despite what major headline is “threatening” the world at the time.

This article was originally written by Jared Cummans, and posted on CommodityHQ.