I’ve been spending the past few days writing and re-writing B-school essays for the Jan 3rd deadline. Wasn’t going to post until the 4th, but with gold breaking previous records, I just had too!

Gold is currently trading for $857/oz, beating the previous high of $850/Oz that was set 28 years ago! (although the intra-day price was nearly $875, it didn’t close at that price). Gold was up a stellar 37% in 2007. How does that compare to other investments?

Dow Jones: 6.4%

S&P 500: 3.5%

NASDAQ: 9.8%

Oil : 57%

Shanghai : 96%

Brazil: 76%

India: 74%

Ireland: -25%

Venezuela: -29%

According to CNNMoney, the best and worst US real estate markets in 2007 were:

Bismark, ND: 15.3%

Salt Lake City: 14.5%

Yakima, WA: 13.6%

Binghamton, NY: 11.4%

Charlotte, NC: 11.0%

Palm Bay, FL: -12.4%

Sacramento, CA: -10.5%

Sarasota, FL : -10%

New Orleans, LA : -8.2%

Hagerstown, MD : – 8.0%

So what lies in store for 2008? Will gold hit $1,000/Oz and oil $125/barrel? Will the average national house price which dropped 3.3% last year drop another 3-4%? I bloody well hope so!