Just finished reading the recent book by Alan Greenspan 'The Age of Turbulence'.  Not a dull as you might think and someone with his experiance and insite is worth consideration.

His is obviously a longer term outlook but he sees some alinement of foreign currency values coming and that probably means a somewhat lower US$ value but not as much as you or I might expect. What he does see is returning inflation and rise in interest rates to combate it. Bit scary if your looking at retirement in next few years. He sees interest rates perhaps approaching low double digits to combate inflation of 5 or 6% (We're talking US but he sees it as a world problem).

This will be quite a change from the 2% inflation and low interest rates experiance the past many years.

Effect on metals both precious and other? I don't see Gold benefiting from higher interest rates as you then lose that interest if you put money into owning metals. Could tend to put a cap on how high it might otherwise rise.

US is going to have to become more fiscally responsible to prepare for covering the cost of Medicare and Social Insurance. He feels certain that promises made and counted on by those retiring over next few years will be broken as the money just won't be there to pay out.