Here is an interesting interview and slide presentation with Mr. Ben Davies, CEO of Hinde Capital. It should be noted that when he speaks about ETFs he is referring to the gold and silver ETFs only, and with a particular type of customer in mind.
His point is that for those buying gold and silver in large quantity as insurance against systemic risk, the precious metal ETFs like GLD and SLV are not very effective because they have vulnerabilities and correlations with the same risks against which one seeks to insure.
If one wants to own bullion, then own it. It appears that GLD and SLV fall a bit short there, compared even to the bullion funds like PHYS, CEF, GTU, and the streaming metals company SLW, which can also be used for trading purposes.
And some may prefer not to do business with GLD and SLV as a matter of principle, as well as principal.
Ben Davies of Hinde Capital on King World News discusses Exchange Traded Funds (audio interview).
Hinde Capital PDF Slide Presentation on ETFs
There are 50 slides in Hinde's presentation. Here are a few.
Related: Options for Storing Precious Metals - Solari
Here is another critique of GLD that is more detailed: Owning GLD Can Be Hazardous to Your Wealth.
Note: Hinde Capital is offering a product that is competitive to the gold and silver ETFs.
“Thus, it should be understood that when pro-US figures use the term, 'rules-based international order,' they are not referring to anything analogous to the rule of law. Quite the opposite, they are using Orwellian language to describe a system in which essentially no rules can be established and/or observed, given that the dominant state has the prerogative to violate and/or rewrite “rules” at its whim.” Aaron Good, American Exception