Gold is an investment when nothing else is getting decent returns, it has some small use in industry, and some people like to wear it. There is no real value in hoarding it during good time or stable times. My take on it is that it will not drop to $350 ever again, but things have stableized into the mess we have now and the rich might have found other things to invest in. There will be price fluctuations as people dump some of their gold, but I just can't see the prices rising forever as anyone who wanted to be in gold IS already. People got into gold when the banks were having trouble and were folding, the way the system is now all the medium sized banks have been purchased by the big ones (which are too big to fail). No charges have been braught to the banks who did major illegal activity so the rich know they have no worries on major instability there.