Why the price of gold really doesn't matter to me

I've recently come across a couple of articles on the internet in which gold bulls are warned: if real interest rates rise, gold prices will plummet.
It is quite true in theory, but I do not see how central banks or the Fed can choose for QE2 (quantative easing - i.e. increasing the money flow to keep the economy afloat) combined with historically low interest rates to then suddenly raise interest rates at a later stage to fight inflation.
Inflation will be high in the coming years, no doubt about that. But raising interest rates is something you can only do if the economy is no longer in dire straits. In this respect, central banks worldwide are in a stale mate situation. Japan is the best example of this. Low economic growth, a fast decreasing working population, rising unemployment rates, troubled pension funds and structurally low interest rates that simply cannot be raised.
To therefore talk about the potential price of gold in the coming years is absolute nonsense, because if gold is worth $10,000 in 2012, what does that even mean if purchasing power of the dollar has decreased substantially because of QE2?? Indeed: it means nothing at all. The only constant factor is gold and it would be more correct to actually measure the value of a currency in ounces of gold.
I fail to see governments with long-term visions about all this. At present most governments seem to be more occupied with preservation of the current system rather than implementing true reforms. The world is at a major turning point in history as anticonception and improved economies worldwide have led to historically low birth rates which means that in the 21st century the growth of the world population will come to an end. This is serious, because all our models have always been counting on growth. Growth of the economy, growth of populations and working populations especially. Pension funds will not be able to 'price in' inflation corrections anymore and more and more of the elderly will be in trouble in the coming decades if reform does not happen quickly. Europe and Japan are the worst cases in this respect with their low birth rates and ageing populations.
So what do governments do? They focus on getting women to work full-time, which again leads them to postpone or even cancel their decisions to have babies! What's left then? Immigration. European governments are trying to attract more and more immigrants, especially from exotic countries which then leads to social tensions because of their assimilation issues in European societies. And all these problems are created to ensure that we can hold on to what we have: a system of a declining working population paying for ever-increasing groups of unemployed and retired people.
What does this all mean for gold? All currencies that the world has ever seen have collapsed because of man's greed and gold has always been the most reliable preservation of capital. Gold plays a role in the Bible, in the Koran, in Hinduism, is considered sacred in Buddhism and goes back all the way to Greek mythology. So will I be worried if interest rates suddenly rise? No. Gold is in my vault and it will stay in my vault.

Don't - don't - don't believe the hype!

Earlier this month I drove down to Brussels, Belgium, to buy some Krugerrands. I could have bought them in my home country, The Netherlands, but I found the premiums at local dealers outrageous. In Brussels, I found a dealer that only asked a couple of euros above the spot price, which came down to a 1.5% premium. At that time, it was already surprising that at every local dealer, premiums were over 5% for 1oz Krugerrands. And taking a day off from work, spending a full day travelling to Brussels, a distance of 220kms (about 135 miles), and EUR 60 on fuel was certainly worth the difference.

Now, with the spot price in euros pretty much similar to the price at the time I bought the coins, the Krugerrands can only be bought at crazy premiums on top of the spot price. Now, at my favourite dealer in Brussels, the bid price is even higher than the spot price.

According to Bloomberg, the reason for that is that Rand Refinery, the producer of Krugerrands, just received a Swiss order for Krugerrands of an abnormal size. It now appears that no Krugerrands will be available at Rand Refinery until the 3rd of September.

I went to Rand Refinery's website and saw that the premiums charged for large amounts (50+) 1oz Krugerrands went upto 5%! And that will get a retail margin on top of it.

The trend we are now seeing is that there is a clear decoupling of physical gold prices and paper gold prices. Whilst it is suspected that large financials are selling their gold, demand for physical gold remains high and is even increasing at current prices. This results in rising premiums and many times in dealers having to refuse coin sales. A simple google search will lead you to websites of many bullion dealers around the world, where you can check what the difference is between bid & ask. Spreads have become enormous and at many websites, you will see that stocks are depleted. The situation with silver is quite similar or possibly even worse.

So, in other words, if you read about the metals boom/bust-scenarios and about the gold price targets that most analysts have suddenly reduced to well-below $700, stop worrying. Don't take any risks and buy physical gold or silver, rather than paper. We're approaching times when almost anyone will want to buy your coins or bars. And let's not forget that mining companies do not produce paper gold. This means that that at some stage we will have to include the current premiums that are charged for physical gold into the valuations of the already undervalued mining sector.