Gold gives a precious insight into economy

Oct 28 2009 The Telegraph

The Telegraph

Gold attracts conspiracy theories like no other asset. Google "Yamashita's Gold" and enter into a half-plausible thriller of Japanese wartime loot and abandoned bullion in the Philippines. It is the stuff of an airport page-turner but what can it tell us about the real world?

Some serious people think that the recent rally in the gold price really is different this time. It's not like the safe-haven spikes that have pushed the yellow metal through $1,000 an ounce on a handful of recent occasions but each time failed to hold the gain. Traders are pointing to the shallowness of recent pull-backs and the volume of bets buying speculators the right to purchase gold at between $1,100 and $1,200 an ounce.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/tom-stevenson/6424245/Gold-gives-a-precious-insight-into-economy.html