The argument for gold is very simple: it is hard money at a time when every other major currency is being watered down by central bank money printing.

On that basis, Europeans should have been panic-buying gold this summer as the European Central Bank prepared its plan to hoover up peripheral country bonds (although it will try to “sterilise” the plan, taking in deposits in some form to keep net money issuance stable, even as its balance sheet expands). Read more