“Gold is no one’s liability”

“Gold is no one’s liability” is a saying that has been cited in print since at least 1960 and has been popular since the 2000s, when the dollar value of gold greatly increased. Gold is an asset that is no one’s liability, unlike many paper financial instruments such as Federal Reserve notes. It’s not known if any one person can be credited for coining the saying.
 
   
World Gold Council
Risk management
Financial asset classes and instruments usually carry three main types of risk.
 
• Credit risk: the risk that a debtor will not pay
• Liquidity risk: the risk that the asset cannot be sold as a buyer cannot be found
• Market risk: the risk that the price will fall due to a change in market conditions
 
Gold is unique in that it does not carry a credit risk. Gold is no one’s liability. When you invest in gold, there’s no risk that a coupon or a redemption payment will not be made, as for a bond. There’s no chance that a company will go out of business, as with an equity.
 
Google Books
National Income and Flow-of-Funds Analysis
By John P. Powelson
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
1960
Pg. 235:
Besides, they said, gold is someone’s asset but no one’s liability, and the essence of financial assets is that they must also be another person’s liability.
   
Google Books 
Personal Finance:
Principles and case problems
By Jerome Bernard Cohen
Homewood, IL: R.D. Irwin
1975
Pg. 688:
It (gold—ed.) is no one’s liability, no one’s promise to pay.
   
Google Books
SDRs, Gold, and Currencies:
Third survey of new legal developments
By Joseph Gold
Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund
1979
Pg. 42:
SDRs, like gold, are no one’s liability, and the allocations cannot be regarded as unrequited transfers since no donor can be identified.
 
Google Books
Searching for El Dorado:
A journey into the South American rain forest on the tail of the world’s largest gold rush
By Marc Herman
New York, NY: Talese
2002
Pg. 189:
Gold, as miners are heard to say, is no one’s liability. The dollar is: it’s the US government’s currency and subject to the government’s whims and actions.
 
Google Books
The ABCs of Gold Investing:
How to Protect and Build Your Wealth with Gold
By Michael J. Kosares
Omaha, NE: Addicus Books
2005
Pg. 16:
Gold: No One’s Liability
Gold, it is often said, is the only asset that is not simultaneously someone else’s liability.

Google Books
The demise of the dollar… and why it’s great for your investments
By Addison Wiggin
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
2005
Pg. 192:
Gold is the ultimate dollar hedge. It is the only global currency that is no one’s liability. It is “pure money.”
 
BBC News 
Page last updated at 14:00 GMT, Thursday, 12 June 2008 15:00 UK
Gold fever
By Debbie Fabb
BBC Money Programme
(...)
Since the financial crisis erupted last August, there’s been a flood of investment into gold, really because of its safe haven properties,” says Jill Leyland, economic advisor to the World Gold Council.
 
“Gold is no one’s liability and that means it is the ultimate defence against unforeseen contingencies.”
 
Zero Hedge
It’s A Tradition… It’s A Religion…It’s A Barbarous Relic… It’s $1,650
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/02/2011 15:19 -0400
(...)
COMMENTS
by A Man without Q…
on Tue, 08/02/2011 - 15:25
It’s no man’s liability…