GOLD: God's Own Currency - Softcover

Shailendra Kumar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 819062556X ISBN 13: 9788190625562

Publisher: Spirit of India Books, 2008

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GOLD: God's Own Currency

GOLD: God's Own Currency is India's first book on gold and gold investments. This 242 page book is not just focussed on gold and gold investments, it is a provocative and insightful comment on current economic scenario. More, not limited to mere listing of the symptoms, the book also suggests what investors can do to protect their wealth in an era of financial turmoil. Shailendra Kumar, a self-taught bullion investor, casts a sharp, clear-sighted eye on gold's historical, social, and religious interaction with the mankind in general and with India in particular. He also systematically builds the case for gold investment in today's turbulent times, and explains what the possible effects of oncoming economic crisis may be and how investors can save themselves from the coming calamity.

The book discusses various minor and major drivers for gold's price rise in years to come. Among the major drivers, the book deals with the malaise in the US economy, the fragile nature of the global economy, and the delicate condition of the Indian economy. The book looks at alarming rate of money supply growth not just in the United States but around the world, and analyses the proliferation of hedge funds, the ripple effect of yen carry trade unwinding, and the fallout of the coming credit crunch.

The book has an elaborate discussion on Indian economy. The economic tipping point for the India is no longer something to be debated. The sustained subsidies on petrol and diesel in spite of rising crude oil price have inflicted a wound in India's economy that is going to take a very long time to heal. This books has been the first one to raise the issue about how illogical these oil subsidies are and how unsustainable they are in the long-term. Simultaneously the book makes a comprehensive analysis of India's most important industry: agriculture. The book talks in frank and simple manner about how Indian economy is dependent on agriculture and how an economy where thousands of farmers commit suicide every year cannot be in the pink of health.

GOLD: God's Own Currency is an informative warning of oncoming economic crisis marked by double-digit inflation, looming food and energy insecurity in many countries across the globe, and its effects on ordinary people. However, the book emphasises its readers not to be gloomy, and in fact act in a timely manner to benefit from it by investing in gold.

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About the Author:

Shailendra Kumar has been a long-time student of gold. An Indian national living in Mumbai, India, he began his studies about gold in a routine manner, but slowly the subject grew on him, and today he manages Commodity Research Group, a commodity research and advisory outfit from Mumbai, India's financial capital.

Since gold happens to be intimately related with the global as well as Indian economy, Mr. Kumar observes the two very closely. Mr. Kumar particularly looks at fundamental aspects of any economy, and believes that economy of any region or country is best observed not on the spreadsheets or power-point presentations but on the ground level.

To do so, he has travelled extensively around India, the country he is mad about. During 1994-5 he drove 40,000 kms during a 8-month stretch. He followed this journey with yet another, a 16 month tour during 1998-99. These travels allowed him to look at the real India at close quarters, the India that is made up of 700,000 villages, the India that is often rooted in glorious traditions, and the India that is trying hard to catch up with the Western world.

These journies also allowed him to study agriculture, the most important industry in India. During those long months on the road, he travelled to hundreds of villages, thousands of farms, and even lived with farmers for days on end. His extended travels in rural India have helped him to understand the rural economy first hand, and thus have given him an edge over many arm-chair economists. Simultaneously, these travels have given Mr. Kumar a very special perspective: that of connecting the cold numbers with the ground reality. He has made the most of this advantage while penning GOLD: God's Own Country, a book that makes very strong pitch for Indians to buy gold. The central theme is that the Indian economy is in extremely fragile shape and thus doesn't bode well for the country's stock markets or the currency, and thus investors will benefit enormously by investing in gold.

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