It's an interesting article, some of which I've read about before. But are you advocating buying gold against the possible day that the "house of cards" comes crashing down? And how does the "peace dividend" (the cold war coming to a close in the early 90's) contribute to the price of gold dropping in the late 90's. Sure, everyone was at the tech party on Wall Street, and gold was relegated to a back seat. Only when things went south did gold return as a "store of value" in uncertain times.