Aren't bitcoins interesting? If governments can create fiat currencies, then why can't anyone if the widgets are accepted for trade?

The bitcoin thing isn't so much of a joke once you have the sovereign wealth funds of restricted nations like Iran playing in them and firms like Goldman Sachs providing market liquidity.

IMHO, one of the largest threats to fiat currencies are competing fiat currencies.

My guess is that we have yet to see the bigger downturn in Gold. Like most markets the real selling comes with the second leg down when those folks praying for a recovery (often with leveraged positions) panic when the recovery does not happen as planned. There are a lot of reasons Gold should be $1,250 to $1,300 an ounce; mostly because that's about what it costs to produce in today's market and it is, after all, a commodity.