McArdle teases gold bugs:
The only scenario I can think of in which it makes sense to stockpile a lot of gold is one where you and your household goods are unexpectedly teleported into the sixteenth century. If you worry a lot about this, then by all means, stockpile gold. But you should also probably take the precaution of stockpiling antibiotics and how-to books on dentistry.
Drum is equally puzzled. He chuckles at this tweet by Nouriel Roubini:
Spam is a better hedge against inflation than gold: you can eat it and it lasts 1000 years. Gold is, as Keynes aptly said, a barbarous relic
Leonhardt notes that gold isn't anywhere near its record high once you adjust for inflation. His explanation for what is going on in the gold market:
The recent rise, as Nariman Behravesh of the research firm IHS Global Insight notes, has relatively little to do with inflation fears. “It’s not about inflation,” he said. “It’s a hedge against a weak dollar, not a hedge against inflation.”
Investors who hold a large amount of dollars — including central banks like China’s — understand that the dollar probably needs to fall in coming years, as today’s trade imbalances slowly shrink. So many of those investors are turning to gold.
The Dish 