An excerpt from Thomas Frank's "Gold Faithful," from the July issue of Harper's Magazine, on gold as a "moral investment, not a technical one": "This is not an investment position," wrote Ruff of his prescribed hoarding of precious coins.  It was, he ominously declared, a "survival position," as well as a "chaos-hedge." The political beliefs that undergird this kind of investing are not strictly conservative (although nearly every metalhead I have heard of is to the right of center).  Conservatives say they distrust big government--unless they happen to be the ones in power.  Metal mania goes one step further.  It is not so much an ideological preference as it is a repudiation of modernity--specifically, the form of modernity that began with Franklin Roosevelt. It is a bet on disaster, on the imminent crashing of an economy guided and structured by human intellect instead of the government-limiting powers of those effulgent, dragon-guarded piles of precious metals.  How can a post-Keynesian economy, based on the "full faith and credit" of a bunch of shiftless public officials, deserve to survive?