In a bizarre twist, central bankers actually want the price of gold to rise because it would be an indication that attempts to stave off deflation were working. Why do we have all of this upside down thinking?

In the past year, we've seen gold go up on fears of inflation, then it rose on fears of deflation. Analysts who follow gold say that it may be entering a structural bull market. Why is this? For one thing, gold has held firm mainly due to the problems in the banking industry.

This article is part of a 20 article special report on "Metals, miners and money".

The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining (AMEX: XME), "a play on hard assets, has delivered impressive gains of 52% over the past 12 months," notes Paul Tracy who has added the ETF to the Sector Trading Portfolio of The ETF Authority.

The advisor explains, "While investors shouldn't grow accustomed to red-hot annual gains of 50%, this ETF is an ideal way to gain exposure to this sector." Here is his review.

"XME has been in the right place at the right time. The ETF mirrors the S&P Metals & Mining and invests in hard assets like precious metals (gold), industrial metals (copper, aluminum), steel, and coal.

"According to studies conducted by research firm Ibbotson, this group has a very low correlation with other traditional asset classes, and a modest stake can boost long-term returns with negligible additional risk -- and that has certainly been the case lately.

What are the best speculations and investments among metals, miners, and other resource plays? To find out, I turned to 20 of the nation's leading newsletter editors, as well as speakers from the recent New Orleans Conference, a leading forum for resource advisors.

Their current top ideas cover a wide diversity of ideas, from gold and silver, from alumina and copper, to platinum and palladium. These picks cover markets from Chile to China and from Canada to Russia. These ideas also range from large cap, well-established, and diversified companies to small cap, development-stage junior speculations.

Readers should only consider these ideas as a starting place for their own research and should keep in mind the caveat that any stock you buy should only be considered within the framework of your own time horizon and risk parameters. Meanwhile, here are 20 different advisors assessing various aspects of the metals, mining, and resources sectors:

There are mountains of cash out there and it is putting huge pressure on the real estate market -- driving up the cost of industrial, commercial and retail properties. The housing market may be hurting badly, but that's homes and condominiums only - because apartment buildings are attracting plenty of investors too.

In the past six months I have looked at no less than a thousand properties in the western United States and could not find anything worth buying. It must be just me, cause plenty of investors are buying property at cap rates between 3 and 6 everywhere. I don't know if it's just the abundance of OPM (other people's money) out there that is burning a hole in investor pockets or I'm blind to the values and just missing out. Perhaps all this property is going to appreciate greatly in the next few years and I don't see it.

Perhaps it is me because I tend to pass over thousands of stocks too, before being satisfied any one of them is worth buying. Interestingly property has been changing hands at a faster and faster pace in the last few years so things are being bid up. Another factor may be investors' bearish sentiment about the falling dollar and the possibility of inflation hiding around the next corner so they seek tangible hard assets and are willing to accept smaller returns. One theory suggests that foreign money from places where cap rates are traditionally higher, combined with their currently strong currencies make our real estate market a bargain. This seems like a probable cause to some degree.

I also wonder if all the stock buybacks, company buyouts, and new capitalists in China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe plus the folks with cash from oil countries are just creating hyper demand the past few years.

All I can do is stick to my guidelines, continue to be patient and watch for an opportunity. Investing in properties without a return higher than a treasury note is not something I am going to do.

Those of you who are new to BloggingStocks.com can check out my other stories and read Chasing Value or Serious Money to find more potential opportunities and verify my track record as well.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.

An estimated 85% of financial success is being invested in the correct asset class, estimates Curtis Hesler, who is confident that the correct asset class for investors today is hard assets.

The editor of The Professional Timing Service uses several proprietary models to determine whether one should be in financial assets or real assets. One of these models is his Annual Asset Allocation Model.

He explains, "Its advice is simple as it will only point us in one of two directions -- financial (paper) assets or real (tangible) assets. The purpose of the model is to tell us which of these two assets offers the best potential reward for the lowest risk."

In recent months, the model has pointed toward real assets, suggesting that the risk of holding paper assets has been high. Hesler notes, "Although trading profits can be had in stocks, financial assets under these circumstances can turn very bad, very quickly -- as the recent market debacle illustrated."

There is only one Warren Buffett and there will never be another! He is the product of a set of circumstances that will not repeat itself. It is more likely that you will fly first.

I say this because we often are told that everyone is replaceable. Well, if you poke your head in the Senate or House looking for a Washington, or Adams, or Jefferson, or Franklin you will not find one. Buffett has become a national treasure and someday we may find his face on the currency because he is one of our greatest non-elected statesman and I figure it is not necessary for him to be a dead president to represent us.

He has the clear vision and insight that allows him to see all those things that are in plain view to everyone but we miss anyway, that is, until he points them out. A little bit of Will Rogers, combining wit and wisdom.