Unlike other commodities, gold has few industrial uses. Unlike businesses owned through the stock market, gold earns no profits and doesn’t pay out dividends. Unlike bonds, no one pays interest to holders of gold. And, unlike insured bank deposits, there is no guarantee of your principal investment.
— An excerpt from The gold frenzy: Why investors should resist, in which BusinessWeek’s Ben Steverman lays out the case against buying up the precious metal endorsed by Glenn Beck and other right wing media personalities.