Raising the gold standard

When this article was commissioned, one of the first things the editor said was to consider the precious metals to by all means, but above all to consider why some are worth more than others. "Think about something like gold," he said, "whose value is intrinsic, as opposed to steel, whose value is in the application. "It\´s not fair to pick on a casually tossed word when someone\´s actually taking the time to throw paid work at you. But the really interesting thing about gold is that it has no intrinsic value at all its value is the exact opposite of intrinsic. Yes, of course it\´s rare and we all know that (that\´s "rare" as in "the High Street is full of jewellers selling it") but its density militates against using it in tools or any other industrial application. You could argue, pretty successfully, that gold investments represent the perfect market; if people went off it, or it fell from fashion, the market would simply fall apart. And yet it\´s one of the better investments to be in when the economy is troubled, explains Martin Arnold, senior researcher at ETF Securities. Put simply, when times are tough people would prefer to invest in things rather than in concepts.