This blog has long had a tendency to attract seekers of the highly esoteric asset class known as
pure-strain gold. The nonexistence of same is probably a good reason to avoid including it in your portfolio, but lest it be said that I am uniformly negative on all matters related to precious metals, I offer (a) Greg Mankiw's thoughtful and moderately receptive
assessment of gold investing and (b) a
panel discussion on commodity (including gold) ETFs that I moderated as part of my
Research magazine job (which is unrelated to this blog); the Web event will be available until Oct. 23 and
registration is free.