The gold-to-oil ratio is at ten-year highs – a single ounce of gold can now purchase 22+ barrels of WTIC crude. But what does it mean?

With food prices on the rise, the price of gold will drive. Martin Hutchinson of Money Morning says, “As gold goes up, it gets more popular and investors start piling into it…” Here are five ways to play bottom-basement gold.

A year without question marks…stocks have been up for the last three trading sessions – even dead cats bounce… The U.S. is facing a political problem, not an economic one… Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan…but what is there to reinvest? The price of gold is going up – and people are finally catching on…will Mr. Market pull another fast one?…economics is not improv theater…and more

The currency markets reaction to the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cuts has ignited a rally in gold, as investors weigh the benefits of owning the yellow metal versus U.S. Treasuries and the dollar.

Japan’s gold exports have doubled this year as individual investors locked in profits after gold prices soared earlier in the year, but retail demand for bullion has been picking up steadily over the past few months.

Gold hit two historic milestones in 2008. First, in early March, the “yellow metal” hit its all-time high of $1,030 an ounce. Just three months later, the price of gold for December delivery had plummeted to $681 an ounce, a 21-month low and 33.9% drop from its record high. Most gold bugs were equal parts puzzled and broken-hearted.

No surprise from the Federal Reserve.  Well, not really. Bernanke & Co. did as everyone expected them to do and slashed U.S. interest rates. But it was the size of the cut – from 1% to a record low of 0.25% that caught some folks off guard.

But yet this huge reduction of $85 billion in a week is, somehow, a non-event, even when considering that the Fed has doubled the stock of fabled High Powered Money to over $2 trillion in just the last couple of months! Beyond astonishing!

The spot price of gold has fallen more than 20% from its all-time high, reached in March of 2008. But if you think that means demand has declined, think again.

The world’s banks and lenders have suffered losses of $2.8 trillion as a result of the credit crisis, according to the Bank of England. The British central bank is calling for “tougher regulation and constraints on lending,” according to The Guardian.