The arguments for and against investing in commodities are usually centered around population growth, the rise of the middle class, technological innovation (fracking, biogenetics, etc.), production spikes, political turmoil, slowing Chinese growth, infrastructure spending, hedging, and speculation. You don't have to flip through too many pages in the Wall Street Journal to find news stories on any one of these global dynamics.
In my previous article I talked about gold and the reasons why investors should consider having gold in their portfolios. Let's set aside whether investing in gold through the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) is the best option for investors and whether the ETF is really backed by gold. One of the reasons I mentioned gold was its use a hedge against inflation, under the assumption that the price of gold rises during inflationary periods. In that article, I also mentioned that the correlation of changes in Personal…