And thereby hangs a tale. One of the central facts about modern America is that everything is political; on the right, in particular, people choose their views about everything, from environmental science to gun safety, to suit their political prejudices. And the remarkable recent rise of “goldbuggism,” in the teeth of all the evidence, shows that this politicization can influence investments as well as voting.

My comments:

When we see a dog chewing meat, that meat is in the teeth of the dog.

See? To be in the teeth is a dangerous position to be in.

In our example, the rise of “goldbuggism” (excessive trust in gold as a secure investment) is described as “in the teeth of all evidence”. What does that mean? It means people keep trusting in gold even though historical evidence proves that gold prices can fall like share prices in the stock market.

In short, goldbuggism may be a flawed argument.

In the marketplace, even gold may get rough and lose its luster (value) when, as they say, the going gets tough.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.