Long after the fantasy of civilization has passed the barbarians will still be around, trading in gold.
At least they were 'natural' -living in accordance with natural logic. Supply and demand is also natural; the limited supply of gold vs the unbounded supply of paper money makes gold the natural currency, paper money merely a hypothetical. ..or words to that effect.
Did they know how to get the best bid and ask price of gold around the world on the internet, an invention created by a government they never had? What was the worth of such a government and infrastructure? Won't such a paper money created by said government be worth something or is it too "hypothetical"?
Come on, everything is going good. Earnings are strong, economic fundamentals are improving, fed not giving and hint of further QE. Why would gold be ripping now? I still think the trend is up, but come on even climbers need to take a break once in a while. Friday it took off with this egypt thing going on despite dollar strength! There is still a gold bull market around the corner, lets not forget the $2200 inflation adjusted price acceleration equivalent (1979/80 ish) everyone is talking about.