The topic of Iraq touches on a lot of politics and I would rather discuss it outside the scope of my articles.  Obama intends on ending the war in 2010, a war that cost the Americans over US$800 billion.  Resources will be re-directed towards productive means and can only help the American economy grow its productive capacity.  This will be an additional factor that will help to push prices even lower if demand does not pick up.

I agree that China and Japan have political interest in keeping the US dollar (artificially?) up.  This is one of many price deflators that work against the price of gold.  Aside from not wanting their foreign reserves to depreciate too much, I believe that these economies cannot transform from an export driven economy to a consumer driven economy in the short run and will need the U.S. market to grow their economies.  A strong U.S. dollar serves that purpose well.

Other Questions:

A:  There are inflation linked notes where the coupon is computed as the inflation rate + a premium.  The return is low, but it guarantees that you will stay ahead of inflation.  

A:  If you look at the long run, I believe that oil has a chance to rebound.  Once you've used up a barrel of oil, it's gone.  If you used 10 ounces of gold to make a necklace, you can melt it and use the 10 ounces for something else.  I'll keep this in mind and perhaps write an article on oil in the future.