by Rick Ackerman
RickAckerman.com
Bullion fans were revved up after Friday’s close when they learned that Warren Buffett had taken a plunge in bullion, acquiring shares of Barrick Gold worth about $563 million. This is welcome news, but it is also small potatoes for Berkshire Hathaway. Recall that when the investment firm bought $9.7 billion worth of Dominion Energy’s gas transmission lines six weeks ago, it was seen as just a token bet on the energy patch. Still, if anyone is going to jump on a long-term trend before most have noticed it, it is Buffett. He may be a johnnie-come-lately compared to gold bugs who have been sitting on physical and accumulating mining shares for years, but it seems unlikely that Buffett would even bother with bullion if he did not see a favorable trend developing for the long term.