by Peter Diekmeyer
Sprott Money
Russell Napier looks like a typical economist. The co-founder of Electronic Research Interchange is cerebral, erudite, and works in an office with books piled to the ceiling.
A closer look reveals that those books tend to encompass a broad range of subjects and were written long ago.
“Economists today focus almost exclusively on numbers,” says Napier, a long-time student of gold’s role in previous financial crises. “Many complete university without reading a single history book.”
This has a direct effect on investors. According to CPM Group, a research firm, gold holdings as a percentage of total private financial assets remain less than 1%.
Napier isn’t the only financial advisor whose vast private reading coincides with an interest in sound money.