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.
"Where such a shift in power is in favor of the governing elite, Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse. Most state sponsored murder occurs under the cover of war, revolution, or guerrilla war, or in their aftermath."
R. J. Rummel