• surging oil prices choke off demand for the kinds of goods

and services on which most OECD economies depend;

• surging food prices are catastrophic for the very poor in

the world, and particularly for those in the very poorest

countries with unstable governments;

• surging base metal and coal prices were spawned by rising

demand among the successful economies that have defined

the new global economic order; widespread political and

economic disorder across much of the world threatens the

economic models of even the most superlative of the new

economic engines of the world.

And, last, and, in recent months, least of the leading commodities,

what to these perturbations mean for gold?

• Goldilocks hates gold: the triumph of the Goldilocks

consensus of good growth with low or zero inflation

and low or zero interest rates has driven gold into

underperformance at a time nearly all commodities

are basking in booms. If Goldilocks turns out to be

yesterday’s fairy tale, a new boom in gold is inevitable.

In the stagflation era, gold and silver outperformed everything,

and balanced commodity stock portfolios overwhelmed

S&P-linked funds.

It could happen again."