The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Sept. 22, edition that a lot would have to change for the gold price to reach $4,000 an ounce. The Globe's Scott Barlow writes that nonetheless, Old Mutual Global Investors manager Diego Parrilla believes there is "a few thousand dollars of upside" in the gold price. He says: "As some of the excesses in other asset classes get unwound, gold will perform very strongly. The perfect storm scenario will mean that gold will perform best when other classes are doing worst." Historically, the gold price has moved proportionally in the opposite direction of U.S. real (inflation-adjusted) bond yields and the U.S. trade-weighted dollar. Assuming the bullion price continues to react to bond yields and the greenback to a similar degree as it has in the past five years, such a scenario would mean massive, unprecedented moves lower for both real yields and the dollar. Real yields would have to fall below minus 5 per cent and the trade-weighted dollar index would fall by more than half. For this to happen, there would have to be a market calamity that makes the financial crisis look like a lakeside picnic. There is no evidence that Mr. Parrilla expects such an apocalypse.