The Gold Standard 

Ever wonder it’s like inside the deepest gold mine on the planet? Or, who buys the gold bars produced by said mine? Speaking of which, where are gold bars actually stored? And, for that matter, have you ever wondered how gold is turned into bars? Or jewelry?

CNBC’s Bob Pisani did. He answered these questions and others in an half-hour television show simply titled, “Gold.” In a sweeping narrative, Pisani took viewers two miles below the earth’s surface in a South African gold mine, the Mponeng. Its name means “look a Read more

The "world has changed," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told George Washington University undergraduates. He was putting down the gold standard, as is the former Princeton professor’s habit.

The gold standard, he apparently feels, is not worth the effort. Professor Bernanke may have been a bit young to have seen the original 1953 version of "A Wonderful Town," but he certainly might have seen the 2003 Broadway revival. In it, one of the transplanted girls from Ohio sings of the New York dreams and experience Read more

The BBC reports: 

Venezuela has received its first shipment of gold bars, after President Hugo Chavez ordered the repatriation of 85% of the country's bullion reserves.

The gold was unloaded from a plane and taken under heavy guard to the Central Bank in the capital, Caracas.

President Chavez has explained the move as an act of sovereignty that will protect Venezuela's reserves from global economic turbulence.

However critics say it is expensive and unnecessary.

Much speculation has swirled around what Read more

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that European bankers are thinking of using their gold assets to back their new eurobonds.   "In order to 'enhance' the guarantees on the eurobonds, the draft says, governments could provide collateral, including 'gold reserves which are largely in excess of needs in most EU countries.'"

This is, of course, just another step away from the true solution of the monetary crisis gripping Europe.  In a desperate search to tinker with an essentially broken system, Europe’s Read more