people dont believe the price surge will last, page-5

It used to be that trade deficits were settled with gold. If I were sitting on a dwindling supply of something the rest of the world depended on (oil), I might rather have something other than another government's IOU (paper dollars that can be devalued at will by printing more of them) in exchange for it. Any commodity might do, but gold has the advantage of being recognised as money - at least it did in the past.