Trillion dollar bazooka and $2,200 gold

Even Standard Chartered bank's analysts expect gold to climb to $5,000 It's the beginning of a new year, and there's no shortage of big headlines... Europe is on the financial brink, Iran is a powder keg, and precious metals like gold have retreated. It's also a time when there is no shortage of financial forecasts. Even though these kinds of predictions about the future can be tough to make, I'll admit it's kind of fun to look forward and see what the future may hold. Like in December 2010, when I said I expected gold to reach $1,900/oz in 2011. Some people thought that I was crazy. At the time, gold was trading for just $1,390/oz. But just nine months later, that turned out to be a pretty good call as gold hit a new high of $1,923/oz. before eventually pulling back.