Has oil replaced gold as the best anti-dollar hedge against currency weakness?
By: Martin Li For decades, investors have flocked to gold in times of market turbulence and devaluing currencies. Gold remains a safe haven, but has oil now replaced it as the hedge of first choice? Investors watching the ongoing deterioration of government balance sheets thanks to recession and the extraordinary demands of the banking crisis have been increasingly pursuing real assets as currency hedges. Institutions have lately been scouring the world for alternative real assets, including infrastructure and multiple commodities. It was recently accepted wisdom that gold was the ‘go to’ asset, hedging against financial armageddon and fiat currency debauchment. But having failed twice to break past the $1,000 (£608) per troy ounce level despite all the impetus that a collapsing global financial system could throw its way, gold’s credentials as currency hedge par excellence are looking a little frayed. The threat of central bank sales continues to overhang the metal, and historically h
