Many people wonder what makes gold special as a store of value. When inflation fears set in, people flock to gold. One answer is that the dollar used to be backed by gold. An even better answer I will leave to Judy Shelton, an economist and director of the National Endowment for Democracy:

The Group of 20 (G20) met in Scotland over the weekend, bringing together central bankers and financiers of nineteen countries, and the European Union (EU). The collection of nations constitute 80% of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. (1) Discussions of “re-balancing” the world economy have taken place over the last few months by members of the G20; those sentiments continued this weekend in St. Andrews, but apparently only in general terms. (2)