# Gold bug > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gold_bug > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gold_bug.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_bug > Source revision: 1347941287 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Term for gold-focused investors}} {{other uses}} {{italic title}} "'''Gold bug'''" (sometimes spelled "goldbug") is a term frequently employed in the [financial sector](/source/financial_sector) and among [economists](/source/economists) in reference to persons who are extremely bullish on the commodity [gold](/source/gold) as an investment or a standard for measuring wealth.{{cite web | url=http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Gold+Bug | title=Financial Dictionary | access-date=26 July 2015}} Depending on the circumstances the term can have one or a combination of closely related and often overlapping themes that extend beyond the support for [gold as an investment](/source/gold_as_an_investment), including in some cases the use of the term as a [pejorative](/source/pejorative). ==Various themes on the term== * An [investor](/source/investor) or speculator who is very [bullish](/source/Bull_market) in buying the [commodity](/source/commodity) [gold](/source/gold), or similarly themed financial products such as junior mining companies, gold certificates, bullion ETFs, and other derivative instruments related to precious metals. * A person who opposes or criticizes the use of "[fiat currency](/source/fiat_currency)" and supports a return to the use of the [gold standard](/source/gold_standard)Gevinson, Alan. [http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25222 Silverites, Populists, and the Movement for Free Silver]. [http://www.teachinghistory.org Teachinghistory.org], accessed 18 December 2011. or some other currency system based on the value of gold and other "hard" assets. * Someone who considers one commodity, usually gold, "the appropriate measure of wealth, regardless of the quantity of other goods and services that it can buy".{{cite web |url=http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/kristol-kalecki-and-a-19th-century-economist-defending-patriarchy-all-on-political-macroeconomics/ |title=Kristol, Kalecki, and a 19th Century Economist Defending Patriarchy all on Political Macroeconomics. |last=Konczal |first=Mike|date=21 January 2011 |work=Rortybomb}}{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/1996/11/the_gold_bug_variations.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981202233021/http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/goldbug.html |archive-date=2 December 1998 |title=The Gold Bug Variations |last=Krugman |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Krugman |date=22 November 1996 |work=[Slate](/source/Slate_(magazine))}} *A person, often with views summarized above, that subscribes to "[conspiracy theories](/source/Conspiracy_theory)" relating to gold & silver, frequently including but not limited to, alleged manipulation of the price of precious metals and the supposed disappearance of gold held by the United States Government at [Fort Knox](/source/United_States_Bullion_Depository).{{cite news | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/as-price-of-gold-falls-conspiracy-theories-rise/article11245980/ | title=As price of gold falls, conspiracy theories rise | newspaper=The Globe and Mail | date=15 April 2013 | access-date=26 July 2014| last1=Milner | first1=Brian }}{{cite web | url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/radical-gold-bugs-vs-wall-street-2010-04-05 | title=Paranoids have enemies, radical gold bugs have Wall Street | date=5 April 2010 | publisher=Market Watch | access-date=26 July 2014}} The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) is a small but prominent promoter of such conspiracy theories within the gold bug community.{{cite web | url=http://www.gata.org/about | title=About GATA | publisher=GATA | access-date=26 July 2014}} However, such persons are widely dismissed as cranks and their beliefs as fringe by reputable economists, business leaders and government officials.{{cite web | url=http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/gata-and-gold-the-truth-is/457331 | title=GATA and Gold: The Truth is Revealed | publisher=The Motley Fool | access-date=26 July 2014}}{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/25/gold-is-doomed/ | title=Gold is Doomed | newspaper=Washington Post | date=July 25, 2015 | access-date=26 July 2015 | author=O'Brien Matt}} ===History=== The concept, in the second sense, was popularized in the [1896 U.S. presidential election](/source/1896_U.S._presidential_election), when [William McKinley](/source/William_McKinley) supporters took to wearing gold lapel pins, gold neckties, and gold headbands in a demonstration of support for gold against the "[silver menace](/source/Bimetallism)".Mieczkowski, Yanek and Carnes, ''The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections'' (2001), p.176. {{ISBN|0-415-92133-3}} ===Notable gold bugs=== * [Hugh McCulloch](/source/Hugh_McCulloch) -27th and 36th [U.S. Secretary of the Treasury](/source/United_States_Secretary_of_the_Treasury){{cite web|url=https://www.moaf.org/exhibits/checks_balances/abraham-lincoln/mcculloch|title=Hugh McCulloch|work=Museum of American Finance|access-date=16 September 2025}} * [Judy Shelton](/source/Judy_Shelton) - Economist{{cite news | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/judy-shelton-a-goldbug-who-bends-to-fit-trump-11562242148 | title=Judy Shelton, a Goldbug Who Bends to Fit Trump | newspaper= The Wall Street Journal| date=4 July 2019 | access-date=9 July 2019 | last1=Ip | first1=Greg }} ==See also== * [Digital gold currency](/source/Digital_gold_currency) ==References== {{Reflist}} Category:Gold Category:Pejorative terms for people {{economics-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gold bug](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_bug) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_bug?action=history)). 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