Global markets continued to punish gold yesterday for the speculative excesses of crude oil, a mere commodity. With the dollar robustly on the rise in recent weeks, spurred in part by the prospect of a plunging energy-trade deficit, it's easy to understand why investors would treat the dollar as money and gold as a commodity. Of course, they have it exactly wrong, as most of you will already know. How can we be certain of this? Well, for one, neither Paulson nor anyone else at Treasury can refute the following statement: The $20 bills in our wallets are fundamentally worth no more than the $1 bills. Indeed, and indisputably, if either bill has any value at all, it resides in the durability and ultra high-quality of the paper on which the various denominations have arbitrarily been printed. Too bad there is only one person in a position of leadership -- Ron Paul -- who understands this. (Click on photo to enlarge) If we sound churlish over the thrashing that precious metals have received in recent weeks, it is not because it took us by surprise. In fact, Rick's Picks has provided a series of downbeat forecasts for gold and silver all the way down, and there is yet one more querulous target to be achieved that lies beneath even the 824.50 nadir of yesterday's insensate plunge. There is also to consider a worst-case fantasy target of sorts that we disseminated yesterday in the chat room: $654. It is based on the price of gold following crude oil all the way to the bottom of its presumptive bear market. We've repeatedly said that oil prices are not correcting but crashing, and this would imply they will be at least cut in half from the $148 peak recorded in mid-July. So what
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