The Chinese government is telling people gold and silver are good investments that will safeguard their wealth. After last year’s meltdown in the stock market, people believe it. After all, Chinese citizens don’t receive government retirement money… and they don’t have company pension plans like people in many other countries do.

Money Morning’s Keith Fitz-Gerald brings us a sobering look at investing in gold. If there is a moral to the story, it’s that nothing is what it seems anymore – not even gold.

Are you sold on gold? The precious metal outperformed every major equity index in the world in 2008. The question is, can gold—and other precious metals—keep on flying? Or would buying today be buying high and selling low?

Precious metals have always been intriguing to investors because they tend to hold their value. In times of geopolitical crisis or currency devaluation, for example, the value of paper money might fluctuate, but a hard asset will always be worth something. As a result, historically, precious metals have been considered a “safe haven” in times of economic and financial instability.

That brings us to why gold is on a tear today. It declined in 2008 and early 2009 as panicked investors rushed into cash…

Let’s take a quick look at what’s happening in Brazil, over and above the 2016 Olympics being awarded to Rio de Janeiro.

Rare earth elements (REEs) have been the mystery metals of the mining world for years. Now, suddenly, everyone’s heard about them.

David Rosenberg, chief economist for Gluskin-Sheff, is a contrarian with a superior intellect than our own. That’s why we hang on most every word he says.

That’s a question that Westerners have been asking for, oh, several millennia now. Or at least since Marco Polo aimed his ponies down the old Silk Road in 1271.

In the spirit of not suffering from confirmation bias, in today’s Notes we will try to make the bearish case against gold. So before you storm Notes HQ in Buenos Aires craving blood, hear us out. Many of our staff here love gold and have long term holdings.

Gold prices extended gains above $1,010 an ounce in Europe on Friday as the dollar index’s <.DXY> tumble to one-year lows fuelled interest in the precious metal as an alternative asset.

As the equities market gyrates, gold bugs are getting their vindication. Better late then never, I suppose.