>>Here's an interesting hedge for interesting times.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-perfect-hedge-for-this-crisis-2011-07-18?link=MW_latest_newsSorry, meant to reply earlier: check out gold against Aussie dollars in the last 6 months rather than US$.
FWIW, gold was worth more in Aussie dollars in 2009. Could much of the current value seen by US commentators come from US$ inflation that already is underway? Against some currencies the US$ is worth 50% of what it was 10 years ago.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1