Gold Inflation Hedge and Pension Hedge?

Haven't you heard?The economy has recovered.Gold demand is diminishing, gold sellers are packing up their tents and Wall Street is heralding the return of Happy Days.Yea you're right - probably not!

One may think that having printed $10 trillion for bailouts and doubling the budget deficit in one year may be enough to bring back those happy days, but most analysts believe this is only the beginning of what will ultimately be many more trillions of stimulus and even larger deficits ahead.

I read a recent report discussing inflation and gold.Investment bank Societe' Generale' says the Gold Bull Market will continue to run and that we should see gold at $1500 an ounce by Mid 2010.In other words if you haven't yet - BUY GOLD!

Other anlaysts agree with the belief that more stimulus, needed or not, will come and billions more printed dollars will be injected into the economy.But many believe there is much more to it than printed dollars and bailouts.Some say there are other shoes to drop.What are they?UNDERFUNDED PENSIONS! That's one of them.

Pension tension is on the rise for dozens of America's largest companies.One article refers to pension underfunding as the latest Ponzi Scheme.http://dissention.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/modern-ponzi-schemes-underfunded-pensions/

This could have a dire effect on corporate earnings as dozens of companies may be required to take millions in earnings to eliminate unfunded liabilities within their own fund.But never mind corporate earnings for a minute, what about the companies who cannot fund their pensions out of earnings because they just don't have enough earnings?How will those people retire after their years of service when they find out there's nothing left.

Is your pension intact?If the last couple years have taught us anything, it's that nothing is for certain.Perhaps it would be wise to plan for the worst while you hope for the best and take whatever means you can to secure your own pension.Over the last 10 years, gold has stood out as a consistent winner, outperforming just about every investment there is.Yes gold demand is rising as more and more people are truning to gold as an inflation hedge.

But in light of a growing number of reports concerning trouble in pensionville, maybe gold should be your pension hedge as well.