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{{Short description|Investors who buy gold and speculate on a price increase}}
{{other uses}}

"'''Gold bug'''" (sometimes spelled "goldbug") is a term frequently employed in the [[financial sector]] and among [[economists]] in reference to persons who are extremely bullish on the commodity [[gold]] as an investment or a standard for measuring wealth.<ref name="Financial Dictionary">{{cite web | url=http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Gold+Bug | title=Financial Dictionary | access-date=26 July 2015}}</ref> Depending on the circumstances the term can have one or a combination of closely related and often overlapping themes that extend beyond the support for [[gold as an investment]], including in some cases the use of the term as a [[pejorative]].

==Various themes on the term==
* An [[investor]] or speculator who is very [[Bull market#Bull market|bullish]] in buying the [[commodity]] [[gold]], or similarly themed financial products such as junior mining companies, gold certificates, bullion ETFs, and other derivative instruments related to precious metals.<ref name="Financial Dictionary"/>
* A person who opposes or criticizes the use of "[[fiat currency]]" and supports a return to the use of the [[gold standard]]<ref>Gevinson, Alan. [http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25222 Silverites, Populists, and the Movement for Free Silver]. [http://www.teachinghistory.org Teachinghistory.org], accessed 18 December 2011.</ref> or some other currency system based on the value of gold and other "hard" assets.
* Someone who considers one commodity, usually gold, "the appropriate measure of wealth, regardless of the quantity of other goods and services that it can buy".<ref name="Rorty">{{cite web |url=http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/kristol-kalecki-and-a-19th-century-economist-defending-patriarchy-all-on-political-macroeconomics/ |title=Kristol, Kalecki, and a 19th Century Economist Defending Patriarchy all on Political Macroeconomics. |last=Konczal |first=Mike|date=21 January 2011 |work=Rortybomb}}<!-- Private blog, but higly regarded (see http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/about/ ), so keeping for now. --></ref><ref name="Krugman">{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_dismal_science/1996/11/the_gold_bug_variations.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981202233021/http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/goldbug.html |archive-date=2 December 1998 |title=The Gold Bug Variations |last=Krugman |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Krugman |date=22 November 1996 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]}}</ref>
*A person, often with views summarized above, that subscribes to "[[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]]" relating to gold & silver, frequently including but not limited to, alleged manipulation of the price of precious metals and the supposed disappearance of gold held by the United States Government at [[United States Bullion Depository|Fort Knox]].<ref name="As price of gold falls, conspiracy theories rise">{{cite news | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/as-price-of-gold-falls-conspiracy-theories-rise/article11245980/ | title=As price of gold falls, conspiracy theories rise | newspaper=The Globe and Mail | date=15 April 2013 | access-date=26 July 2014| last1=Milner | first1=Brian }}</ref><ref name="Paranoids have enemies, radical gold bugs have Wall Street">{{cite web | url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/radical-gold-bugs-vs-wall-street-2010-04-05 | title=Paranoids have enemies, radical gold bugs have Wall Street | date=5 April 2010 | publisher=Market Watch | access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref> The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) is a small but prominent promoter of such conspiracy theories within the gold bug community.<ref name="About GATA">{{cite web | url=http://www.gata.org/about | title=About GATA | publisher=GATA | access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref> However, such persons are widely dismissed as cranks and their beliefs as fringe by reputable economists, business leaders and government officials.<ref name="GATA and Gold: The Truth is Revealed">{{cite web | url=http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/gata-and-gold-the-truth-is/457331 | title=GATA and Gold: The Truth is Revealed | publisher=The Motley Fool | access-date=26 July 2014}}</ref><ref name="Gold is Doomed">{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/25/gold-is-doomed/ | title=Gold is Doomed | newspaper=Washington Post | date=July 25, 2015 | access-date=26 July 2015 | author=O'Brien Matt}}</ref>

===History===
The concept, in the second sense, was popularized in the [[1896 U.S. presidential election]], when [[William McKinley]] supporters took to wearing gold lapel pins, gold neckties, and gold headbands in a demonstration of support for gold against the "[[Bimetallism|silver menace]]".<ref>Mieczkowski, Yanek and  Carnes, ''The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections'' (2001), p.176. {{ISBN|0-415-92133-3}}</ref>

===Notable gold bugs===
* [[Judy Shelton]]<ref name="Judy Shelton Gold Bug">{{cite news | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/judy-shelton-a-goldbug-who-bends-to-fit-trump-11562242148 | title=Judy Shelton, a Goldbug Who Bends to Fit Trump | newspaper= The Wall Street Journal| date=4 July 2019 | access-date=9 July 2019 | last1=Ip | first1=Greg }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Digital gold currency]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Gold]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]


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