Quote from syswizard:
Once this temporary commodity bubble bursts, we're in for wicked bout of DEFLATION.....not good for gold prices.
And yes, your house will continue to be worth less and less over time. No one in our neighborhood can sells theirs, so they're trying to rent them. Problem is: everyone is doing it.
Deflation doesn't affect gold. Look at the 1930's. There was a terrible deflation, and the solution was to devalue the dollar and increase the value of gold as measured in dollars.
Gold is real wealth, paper dollars are just promises, and if my guess is correct, they will be promises not kept.
If you want to talk about what affects gold, its panic. Panic over Russia invading Afganistan caused gold to spike to $850 back in 1980. But that panic caused gold to be "overdone" as I see it. When the panic subsided, gold fell back to $500's. The run from $500's down to $250 was caused by central Bank manipulation, and going back to $1200 or so will get the price back to normal as compared to the cost to mine it.
Longer term, like 3 to 5 years out, I expect gold to be $3000 to $5000 anyway, as the value of the dollar collapses under the weight of the rising debt and structural deficits. Its not a function of gold as per se, but rather a distrust of paper promises that will move it there.