I only found fools gold in my Boston Globe:
"India’s gold import tax faces off with tradition; Age-old customs called a drain on nation’s economy" by Kay Johnson | Associated Press, February 24, 2013
MUMBAI, India — Gold has been deeply entwined in Indian culture for thousands of years. Today, India is by far the world’s biggest buyer of gold, and those imports are an increasing drain on an economy that is growing too slowly to reduce widespread poverty. Last year Indians imported 864 tons of gold, about one fifth of world sales. The cost of $45 billion was second only to India’s bill for imported oil. The unquenchable appetite for gold coins, bars, and jewelry has swelled India’s trade deficit and weakened its currency.
The government can not do much about oil imports — without fuel, the economy would grind to a halt — so in the past year it has tried to rein in gold demand [with] India’s steep new tax on gold imports....
Through centuries of warfare and the shifting borders of regional kingdoms, gold was the safest currency. In some Hindu legends, Brahma, the god who created the universe, was born from a gold egg. In India, gold is spiritual and it is also practical. Parents of the bride give gold as a symbol of prosperity. But it is also an insurance against a bad marriage, since the jewelry is the wife’s.
In early 2011, an ounce of gold cost $1,375 on the world market. It now costs more than $1,600 an ounce .
‘‘India is not only the world’s biggest importer of gold, it’s the biggest hoarder of gold,’’ said Albert Cheng, a managing director of the World Gold Council, which estimates there are 18,000 tons of gold locked in bank vaults and family homes across the country.
Standard Chartered’s Chakraborty said such ‘‘nonproductive’’ gold in India is worth about $1 trillion, about half of India’s GDP.
The government recently stopped requiring gold-backed exchange-traded funds to hold physical gold in the amount of their sales. Instead, the funds will be allowed to deposit some gold with banks who in turn can lend it to jewelers, which should curb imports for a time.
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India buying gold because they know that western vaults have been raided by bankers and their dollars are no longer safe.
