[techweenie]

You can see by the price of gold that some people think there's trouble a brewin.'

We are in a precarious economic situation, spending hundreds of billions a year of borrowed money. Too many people have enjoyed an artificially high standard of living for the past 4-5 years based on pulling equity out of their property. Savings are low and debt is high. We have new competition for resources -- not just oil.

There are many ways it can go bad. That's not to say it will; just that 'tightening one's belt' is a good idea under these circumstances.