[dougk16]

I didn't mean to imply that I would expect to make money from buying gold (if that's what you mean). Even if gold prices were expected to drop, I'd still be interested in buying it as an insurance policy. No matter how severe a crisis, once the dust settles, gold will always be worth something, for reasons I don't understand.

[bitcartel]

A few things to consider:

Central banks are buying gold. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-10/putin-turns-black-g...

Central banks are repatriating gold reserves held overseas. http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/01/16/germany...

The LIBOR rigging scandal has turned the spotlight to the gold market, where it has long been claimed that the price of gold has been manipulated. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/mar/13/london-financ...

It has also been claimed there is a ponzi scheme in paper gold, i.e. instruments may not actually be physically backed, so when things go pear-shaped and you ask for physical delivery, you will have to fight other investors over legal ownership. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-12/hsbc-sues-mf-glo...

Given recent banking scandals, anything is possible. Caveat emptor!

[tatsuke95]

Central banks are known buyers at the highs and sellers at the lows. Part of their mandate is "financial stability", and up to and including backstopping out-of-favour assets (like, say, mortgages). I see central banks buying gold as a way to stop a precipitous decline in gold as money rotates sectors.

Then again, this theory happened before this Cyrprus thing, so who knows for sure. Guess we'll see what kind of carnage happens next week.

[fexl]

No matter how severe a crisis, once the dust settles, gold will always be worth something, for reasons I don't understand.

The reasons is simple: gold has specific physical characteristics which many people for a very long time have regarded as suitable for use as physical money: principally, it's durable, rare but not too rare, recognizable, and easily divisible. That widespread subjective assessment is unlikely to change.

[lttlrck]

Unless it becomes illegal to own gold bullion again, as happened in the Great Depression.

http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html