An Ending Made for Gold

By Frank Holmes

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Over the past several months, the markets have tested investors' conviction to gold.

Since February, the price of the yellow metal has steadily stepped lower, rallying somewhat in May before falling again when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke disappointed by not providing the U.S. with more stimulus. Meanwhile, the dollar gained ground as global investors fled the euro.

In the ongoing eurocrisis, we won't know the details of how Europe will clean up its debt mess for a while, but we're pretty confident the story ends well for gold.

In one possible outcome presented by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, austerity is "not the answer on its own" when it comes to restoring confidence in fiscal policies. Take a look at the levels of household and bank debt in the U.S. compared to Europe. Over the past few years, debt in the U.S. has decreased as the private sector has delevered.

In the eurozone, though, you'll see that banks and households have maintained status quo when it comes to their levels of debt. On all three measures, loan/deposit, household debt/disposable income and debt/income, ratios have remained around the same level, according to BofA.

BofA's economics team says that even though the long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) has helped in Europe, about 1.7 trillion euros are required to deleverage all the banks in the region. That means there's more work to be done for Europe via a major deleveraging process, which will undoubtedly weigh on economic growth.

To keep the eurozone's head above water, more money will likely be needed, requiring the European Central Bank to start up its printing presses similar to what we saw in the U.S. over the past few years.

As gold bugs know, when central banks increase the supply of money, currencies become devalued and investors seek a better store of value. The excess liquidity in the market has historically found its way to riskier assets, benefiting gold.

This currency devaluation is what we believe will eventually bring Indians back to gold. Take a look at what gold costs in rupees.

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