The goldwatcher

Gold prices surged to new peaks in 2008, a year marked by bank rescues, collapsing mortgage and credit markets, inflation worries, weakening growth, and unease across the globe. Investors everywhere moved toward gold as a shelter from unstable markets and currencies that were losing value.

For thousands of years gold has served as money and a way to hold wealth, yet its worth is hard to pin down. John Katz asks what gives gold its value, why that value sometimes climbs far above its usual level and sometimes sinks, and what gold's long and turbulent history might reveal about its future path.

Gold does not drive the global financial system, which the dollar dominates. Its price responds to shifts in the dollar's outlook, not the other way around. Against a backdrop of uncertainty for the American and world economies, the book explains why gold's role as a currency without a home country deserves attention.

Written for twenty-first century investors, the book weighs the risks and rewards of owning gold through views from a wide range of commentators and several possible economic scenarios. Frank Holmes contributes a section on those risks and rewards. The book is aimed at institutional money managers and individual savers alike, and a companion blog covers news, updated statistics, and sources for data and commentary on gold and the dollar.