Gold’s relentless ascent may continue – a wonderful investment opportunity stemming from the spreading loss of faith in fiat money. Or the fourfold price rise in seven years may be the result of fearful and naive buyers putting their faith in a barbarous relic. That faith could eventually be crushed, bringing hefty losses (as happened 31 years ago). These clashing world views were displayed last month in the US Congress. Representative Ron Paul, hard-money advocate and the Tea Party’s “intellectual godfather”, asked Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke whether gold was money. Told “no”, Mr Paul asked why central banks held so much of it then. The answer: “It’s tradition.” That tradition is not dead; the Bank of Korea just made a small purchase of the yellow metal, for example.
一種看法是，金價的持續上漲勢頭會繼續——鑑於投資者正普遍喪失對法幣的信心，這可謂一個絕佳的投資機會。另一種看法是，金價在過去7年裏翻了兩番，正是因爲那些惴惴不安、天真的買家將全部信心都寄託在這種「野蠻的遺蹟」上，這種信心終會被摧毀，帶來慘重損失（就像31年前發生的那樣）。這兩種相互衝突的世界觀，上月也出現在了美國國會上。衆議員羅恩•保羅(Ron Paul)是黃金這種強勢貨幣的擁護者，被譽爲茶黨的「精神教父」。他質問美聯準(Fed)主席班•柏南奇(Ben Bernanke)黃金是否屬於貨幣。在得到否定的回答後，保羅追問道，那爲何世界各國的央行持有如此之多的黃金。伯南克的回答是：「這是傳統。」這個傳統沒有消亡；例如，南韓央行(Bank of Korea)就剛剛購入了少量黃金。