The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that the recent rise of gold to a record $2,135 per ounce has led to much discussion of the reasons behind the metal's positive run during the past few years. The Post's Naimul Karim writes that Mark Bristow, chief executive officer of Barrick Gold, expects the demand for gold to continue increasing, so he has been expanding the company's reserves. However, a "decade of free money" is a key reason why the price of gold has continued to rise over the past five years. "We saw a poor monetary policy way back when inflation first reared its head, but soon after that, the feds sort of got a grip on things," Mr. Bristow told the Post. "But they chased the interest rate really high quickly, and that was on the back of more than a decade of quantitative easing and fiscally liberal policies to be polite -- fiscally reckless policy in my mind; a decade of free money. What we are measuring now is the impact of that devaluation." He adds: "So, the statistics are against people. There's no fiscal discipline in the U.S. People have gotten used to free money. It's going to be hard to tighten things up. Over all, I feel gold has much more upside than downside risk looking forward."