gold bugs

No cameras are permitted. No transcripts are available. Only shareholders may attend. But we have a ringside seat at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Here's what Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha said in this year's Q&A.

Earlier this year, the Utah state legislature passed a law making gold and silver coins legal tender. Now, a Salt Lake City-area numismatist hopes to set up a depository system that will allow Utahans to use gold and silver to pay for anything they want.

With gold prices recently hitting the $1,500 mark, consumers and businesses are looking for an opportunity to score. "We see everything from rings, teeth, jewelry, pins and lighters," one gold buyer said. "Everyone has a little gold somewhere." Should you join in? Check out these five tips.

Despite all the worry over the impact of rising oil prices, recall that the U.S. is now a largely services-based economy. And observe that the rising wages that have led to real overall cost rises in decades past are nowhere to be found today. Exhibit A is in Wisconsin.

Unrest across the Middle East is pushing high oil prices higher, and that's having a cascade effect that feels a lot like inflation as these higher prices bubble through the economy. Still, that's not enough reason for the Fed to battle inflation by starting to raise rates.

For the past two years, the relationship between the dollar, stocks and gold was strong. When the dollar dropped, stocks and gold rose, and vice versa, nearly all the time. But since New Year's Day, that link has completely vanished, which is terrible news for the gold bugs.

Some are convinced the precious metal will keep rising, others that it's tracing out a classic speculative bubble that's ready to burst. Nobody has a crystal ball, but an "agnostic" technical analysis of the charts provides some good clues about gold's future.

Gold is on a record bull run, up from $328 in 2002 to $1,375 an ounce today. What caused that steep rise wasn't any inherent increase in gold's value to society, but a clever marketing scheme that allowed it to be traded easily without the hassle of physical delivery: The SPDR Gold ETF.

Recent reports show that several banks have begun advising their wealthiest individual clients to put as much as 10% of their assets into the precious metal. And some are stocking up by the ton.

Gold prices reached a record $1,308.90 an ounce Tuesday after earlier price declines and continued low interest rates spurred investors to buy bullion. Gold, which earlier had its biggest intraday decrease in more than two months, reached a record high for the eighth time in two weeks.