Rodney

I did put some money in gold a few months ago... and so far that seems to have been a good move, as the price keeps going up. Nothing's sure, of course.

Anybody else out there into gold now, or in the past? Would like to know how you feel about what's happening with the price of gold.

I'm about as far from a stereotypical gold bug as you can imagine; no guns, no survival gear, no plans to flee to Belize when the "inevitable" breakdown of civil order occurs.

But it has occurred to me that we as a nation -- both as individuals and through our government -- have been spending more than we sell for a very, very, long time. And it has occurred to me that the dollar can only be inevitably weakened by this, so that eventually 1) the value of the dollar sinks relative to other currences, or 2) interest rates have to rise substantially to persuade foreign concerns to keep buying our debt.

In short, it is my call that the dollar will be in trouble sometime within the next five years. I don't know what kind, or how much, but there will be trouble, and very probably a significant drop in its value.

I'm not buying gold to get rich; as an investment, long term, it isn't all that great. But I'm buying it as insurance against a fall in the dollar, to be held for no more than five years. If the economy straightens out and all is well and I lose a little on the gold -- well, I expect insurance to cost money. But if the dollar doesn't straighten out, I've got a hedge. And as somebody who's a lot closer to retirement age than to legal drinking age, capital preservation is something you gotta think about. I just never thought the economy would get to the point where I'd have so little faith in the dollar.

What are your thoughts on gold, or the dollar?