So yes, it increasingly feels like we are approaching the endgame. Political credibility, like fiscal credibility, is close to an all-time low. The answer in large part - in the UK, in Europe, and in North America - is to shrink the state. Since that is anathema to most of the political classes, particularly those of a socialist bent who are largely responsible for the current global fiscal crisis, we can be assured that we will not get there without a fight. But as we wait for that battle to be joined, gold represents the finest ammunition.

David Fuller's view Over the last decade Fullermoney has maintained that gold (monthly, weekly & daily) is in a secular bull market. We have assessed every step of this move to date, including the periodic reactions. Gold has also been illustrated in the world's various fiat currencies and it will not surprise readers to hear that it continues to hit new all-time highs against most of them, as you can see with this chart of gold in Swiss Francs.

One of the most interesting comparisons has been the Dow/Gold Ratio (monthly, weekly & daily). The Dow peaked against gold in 1999 and has continued its journey towards the historic mean which I estimate is around 5, if one looks back further than the 50 years depicted on this chart. Despite gold's strength relative to the Dow over the last decade, it has also coupled with the stock market's directional move over much of this period. In other words, when Wall Street fell sharply, not least in 2008, the gold price also weakened although less so.

Interestingly, there has been some uncoupling in terms of this directional move during the recent stock market correction. For instance, the Dow fell sharply last Friday but the price of gold rose over $13. The Dow has weakened today and gold is up over $20, approaching last month's high near $1250.

Would this relative and also absolute strength continue if the Dow fell more sharply?

I do not know but I will give in-form price action the benefit of the doubt, while it lasts. Gold would now have to close beneath last Friday's low just beneath $1200 to indicate more than brief resistance near $1250. However this level is mainly of interest to futures traders. Inevitably, gold has eroded initial support on a number of occasions within its ranging overall advance but the primary uptrend has seen only one significant challenge and that required the depression-discounting fright of 2008. Subsequently, we have seen unprecedented quantitative easing - effectively, money printing. I believe this is the story behind gold's strength today. Additionally, with most other commodities and also stock markets in a corrective phase, gold currently has less competition from so-called risk assets.