Gold bug

Various themes on the term

• An investor or speculator who is very bullish in buying the commodity gold, or similarly themed financial products such as junior mining companies, gold certificates, bullion ETFs, and other derivative instruments related to precious metals.
• A person who opposes or criticizes the use of fiat currency and supports a return to the use of the gold standard or some other currency system based on the value of gold and other hard assets.
• Someone who considers one commodity, usually gold, "the appropriate measure of wealth, regardless of the quantity of other goods and services that it can buy".
• A person, often with views summarized above, that subscribes to conspiracy theories relating to gold and silver, frequently including but not limited to, alleged manipulation of the price of precious metals and the supposed disappearance of gold held by the United States Government at Fort Knox. The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee is a small but prominent promoter of such conspiracy theories within the gold bug community. However, such persons are widely dismissed as cranks and their beliefs as fringe by reputable economists, business leaders and government officials.

  History

Notable Gold Bugs

• Alan Greenspan
• Thomas Kaplan
• Bill Murphy
• Peter Schiff
• Judy Shelton