If you've figured out how our economy works and how it's doing right around now, then gold bullion investing might not seem like such a bad idea. Of course, given all the scams and scandals our economy has right now, it's hard to believe that investing in anything makes sense right now.

But wait. There is a fundamental difference between investing in stock (or much of anything) and investing in gold. Gold and silver have actual value at the end of the day, since they're precious metals and supply is scarce. It's been this way throughout history.

While it's arguable whether or not company stock has any true worth (it actually does, for all intents and purposes), you have to realize that in this economy debt is treated as money; there is more money circulating in our economy from IOUs than actual cash. And these IOUs, like paying the mortgage or paying back a loan, are spread out all over the place. Crazily enough, they're used to buy stocks.

So what happens when everyone defaults on their mortgage? You can't very well turn the house into cash - it's a house! So these IOUs worth thousands become IOUs worth whatever paper they're printed on, and all the actors in the market know it, so stocks start to tumble.

Gold and other precious metals are not IOUs. When you buy gold, you're essentially trading one currency for another. You know that what you're getting is worth something. Bullion is generally what's invested in (bullion being coins or bars of nearly pure precious metal).

The economy doesn't look like it's going to get better - at best, it'll stay at its current rate for a while before speeding up. As a result, the price for gold bullion investing has gone up and has no where else to go but up.