Paul Krugman accepting the Nobel Prize in Economics, 2008.
Paul Krugman is showing himself to be disingenuous again:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/the-glenn-beck-debeers-connection/
How does this account for investors outside of the U.S. buying up bullion (not to mention private and central banks) in significant volume? Is one to assume that the debt crises taking hold of the Portuguese, Irish, Italian, Greek and Spanish economies have less of an effect on the price of gold than Glenn Beck? Not to mention the inflationary consequences of tripling the money supply since 2000. If people are forced by law to deal in fiat currency, it should not seem unnatural that they hedge against their paper with commodities, especially in times of irresponsible monetary management.
And, on a less relevant note De Beers did not create the demand for diamonds with a clever ad campaign. Louis XIV effectively replaced the pearl with the diamond as the world's most sought-after precious stone when he commissioned the French Blue in the 1670's. What De Beers DID do was make an already desirable commodity more accessible by dramatically increasing the supply, for better or for worse.
Less relevant still is that Krugman looks embarrassing in tails. It's as if Dopey decided to go white tie.
