GoldIt is a remarkable metal. Ductile, malleable, thermally conductive, electrically conductive, reflective, lustrous, inert, thus durable. Has many industrial uses. However, demand for investment - or, more accurately, hoarding - and jewellery - which is really hoarding plus ostentation - price it out of many industrial uses for which it is ideally suited, as substitutions like copper and silver are more economical. Its utility at the prevailing price is found only in specialized applications, like in electronics in small quantities, medicine, and dentistry. Thus the only uses which support the price are hoarding, for investment (laying up in vaults) and jewellery (laying up in chests and displaying on the human figure). So the accurate way to think about demand is for hoarding. People like it because of its lustre. It has a brilliant warm glow like the sun, giver of all life. People love it, indeed, lust for it. The supply side is driven by scarcity, and the difficulty of mining it, as every prospector, geologist, and penny stock investor knows. But demand matters equally to price, and that is and always has been due to hoarding. John Maynard Keynes called it a barbarous relic, and Charles Munger said civilized people don't buy gold, but invest in productive enterprises. Gold bugs will malign the notion. But truly, what good does it do anyone to burn up diesel, put men underground in 50 degree heat at risk of being crushed by rock fall, and refining it with toxic chemicals, only to put it in a vault again. To say creates jobs is to invoke the broken window fallacy. It really is a futile endeavour. Other than for purposes of staring at the stuff. It is beautiful, no doubt. There is something about it. O the madness of human greed.