Goldcorp Founder McEwen Bets Gold to $5,000

Goldcorp Inc. founder Rob McEwen said he expects the metal to top $5,000 an ounce as governments increase the money supply to combat recession.

Bullion will more than double to $2,000 an ounce by the end of next year before rising to McEwen’s target by the end of the cycle, which could take an additional four years, the investor said.

McEwen said he has a “big, big” holding in bullion since August 2007, at the beginning of the subprime mortgage crisis. “I realized we had reached an inflection point regarding money,” McEwen said. “It was all about protecting money, and gold served that purpose.”