Old inhabitants of India always say buy gold and land. They have seen many crisis and they know they cannot trust the rupee. When some speculators believe it's terrible that gold went from 1900 to 1200 USD/ounce, in India this is seen as a minor movement because they are used to currencies that can be totally worthless in a matter of a few years.
Russia has decided to increase its gold position. The new target is 500B from 360B they own nowadays (link). Because of the ruble decline, Russia is one of the countries with a stronger relationship between money supply and gold: about 20%. It makes sense to diversify outside the dollar or the rest of fiat currencies (based on faith...). Besides the Russian Central Bank president,
On the other hand, everyone is expecting a huge surprise in China with its gold reserves, mainly to support the RMB as an alternative to USD.
At a corporate level, JP Morgan is heavily increasing the amount of silver they hold as the prices are sinking. Other big companies are buying their shares back to increase the stock price. This is no good news, but somehow it makes sense if you don't find other good options. The main problem comes when the companies ask for cheap loans to buy back. When interest rates rise, it won't be sustainable. A minority, basically related to the financial sector, is widening its art collection instead of holding cash. Some Gulf countries are doing it as well (Qatar and Abu Dhabi).
From other perspective, we see wealthy individuals buying diamonds, precious stones, art... in a higher percentage than in the past. Probably they just want to diversify from fiat money keeping real assets. Of course farm land and healthy non-traded businesses are included in the pack. Fund managers are starting to own businesses outside the stock market (check out latest Buffett's acquisitions and deals).
In general, even though some keep on saying the crisis is over and everything is improving, the way the smart money is investing doesn't signal that.
