Since the beginning of July, gold is up almost 10 over the same time frame. What is noteworthy here is that in recent months, fears of a worldwide recession have increased markedly. It used to be considered axiomatic that recession created adverse conditions for commodities (a reality that has helped push down the price of crude oil thus far in 2012). How then can we understand the movement in gold?

Reports have recently been released that throw particular light on the degree to which central banks around the world are accumulating gold. These activities must be playing a significant role in keeping the heat turned up when it may be otherwise cooling down. Given the extraordinary degree of insight that central bankers are expected to have, what do they see that drives them to buy gold when classically the metal should be falling in times of recession?