More bearish considerations for gold - look at the sources of demand

Turns out one primary source of demand for gold is now very slack, according to Jewelers Say 'No, Thanks' To Gold (Hard Assets Investor, 5/21/09). Demand for gold jewelry is way, way off. Anyone think that this will change anytime soon, or will changing ideas about conservation in all areas of life cause people to reconsider buying new gold jewelry? According to this article, "An upsurge in exchange-traded fund commitments for gold more than offset the slack created by shy jewelers." I find this a little funny, actually - people who are buying not gold, but ETF's as speculative investments based upon the gold price. Meaning, when you get right down to it, paper. Maybe it can be considered gold-backed paper - I'm okay with that. But is it really useful as money?

Just raising some questions on the fundamentals of the gold bugs' case. Normally I stick to what the charts are saying, and I think I've presented that already in some detail about gold. But if it turns out that gold really does turn bullish soon, the charts will confirm it and I'll be right along with such a rally up. Conversely, if it turns out that gold wants to head down, then I'll follow it down (i.e., selling). I did see that Chris Carolan updated his Solunar forecast for gold, which looks rather meandering - if that turns out to be gold's path, it will be difficult to have an edge trading it, so we'll see.