Today's gold price reaches $1,180.50 an ounce.

I suppose this does not worry the UK's prime minister Gordon Brown, who as chancellor
ordered the Bank of England to dispose of half of its gold reserves at around the
new millennium. The proceeds were invested in currencies such as the euro, which has gone up but not as much as the gold price, which was trading at around $252 an ounce
then.
The gold price is telling us that quite a few people are 1) worried about the paper money issued by the countries such as the US and the US or 2) worried about the geopolitical situation (Iran/Pakistan) or a combination of both. Although physical gold does not pay interest and there are storage costs, it benefits from factors such as the huge jewellery demand in India (portability). However, U.S retail customers must be a bit miffed that HSBC wants them to move their physical gold holdings from its vaults in New York so that the global bank can serve its institutional clients.
I remember in the old days that gold mining companies had quaint names such as Val Reefs but might suffer from their South African connections. I have also read about the hedging tactics of Barrick, which affected the gold price. Maybe it is the time for Gordon Brown to shore up the country's international reserves with a bit of gold buying copying the example of India. This country has been buying from the IMF at
top prices.