Gold is the only option in the choiceless situation

The gold price phenomenon is in the centre of the current financial and economic turbulence. The role of gold is a miracle for economic and financial gurus who speculate around without any success to explain is in any useful terms. Gold stays above any economic activity and free market rules since it is not really connected to production and consumption. It also cannot play the role of value saving.  Nobody can say why it is growing and when it will start to (free) fall. There is no doubt that the latter event will happen sooner or later.   

Gold is not a normal product or asset. It plays a psychological role inherited from its “golden” past.   I would call the gold rally as the only option in the choiceless situation when everything else is worse. 

Some experts say that gold is a new bubble. In my opinion, it’s right in some sense. However, this bubble, as might be with the previous one, is a game for smart investors who can quickly withdraw money from this Panama affair (remember what happened in 1979-1980). Thus, I would recommend not joining if one cannot withdraw money momentarily when the price will start to fall.

Is gold a new bubble?

Gold price rockets up as a natural haven during the turbulent financial markets.  It is reflective type behaviour from the past when gold played a very specific role in finances. Currently, gold is a normal commodity with its price fully driven by the market. Therefore, the rocketing gold price likely repeats the trajectory of house prices before 2006. Some experts say that it was a bubble in sense that the house prices were speculative. Gold can not be an exclusion from  "normal" market behaviour . When the market players understand this simple rule the price will plummet down. I expect this fall in 2011 because the negative tendency in economic performace has no alternative and there is  no really safe haven for assets.