These are dark days for gold bugs. This week, gold futures dropped below $800 per ounce. Shares for gold producers such as Newcrest (ASK:NCM) are trading at 2006 prices. But Al Robinson at The Daily Reckoning Australia says the gold sell-off is irrational, and won’t last much longer. He says the fact that gold is scarce and Fiat money is abundant sould make it obvious which is the better investment in the long run. Al says buy now to benefit from the annual Christmas gold rush…

The Mogambo Guru finds himself getting up and finding out that the US national debt is now a terrifying $9.608 trillion - up a whopping $637 billion from this time last year. He says you should buy gold, silver and oil now, because they will zoom in price thanks to the ruination of the US dollar…

You don’t have to look to obscure charts to know that gold price manipulation is happening, says Jon Herring in Investor’s Daily Edge.

Alan Greenspan gave the game away before Congress when he said, “central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.” He was telling Congress that the leasing of central bank gold was to suppress the price of gold, not to earn money on a dead asset, as officially stated.

This manipulation, plus reported shortages in physical gold, means the yellow metal represents extreme value right now.

Martin Hutchinson in Money Morning says that over the long-term oil and agricultural commodities are likely to deflate.

This is because, once the threat posed by the U.S. housing crisis has passed, the Federal Reserve will be forced to increase interest rates to fight inflation. Other countries will follow, which will deflate the commodities boom.

However, over the short-term, gold, whose movements are directly linked to inflation, is likely to bounce. Martin reckons a price tag of $1,500 an ounce for the yellow metal is entirely possible. He recommends two ETFs and four gold miners to profit from this situation…

It’s a difficult time for commodities bulls. Crude oil is off more than 20% from its July peak. Gold is going for about $830 an ounce, way off its Spring highs. And the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index is down 19% from its June high.

Energy expert Byron King says investors shouldn’t panic over the drop in prices. For a start, August is a notoriously poor month for commodities. It tends to be a month of net selling.

Despite some demand issues caused by the global slowdown, Byron says commodities are in a short-term correction. And that means plenty of great bargains on offer…