If you want to argue that the economy is still shaky, look no further than the gold market. On one side, The Wall Street Journal boasts that gold prices have hit more than $1,300 per troy ounce for the first time ever in a "seemingly unstoppable surge that has confounded skeptics and turned bears into bulls." But it's not really a record when the numbers are punched to account for inflation.

In fact, you'd have to go back three decades to find gold's real high: $2,318 if adjusted for 2010 dollars, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, which just can't understand why the Journal and a slew of other trusted outlets aren't doing the proper math. Perhaps they don't know that the federal government provides a handy online Inflation Calculator, making the task a breeze.

Regardless, a real gold rush is on, and as Bloomberg News reports, the United States' largest producer of the shiny metal, Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation, is apparently looking for more action. During a conference in London this summer, Newmont officials pushed the idea of developing gold resources in war-torn Afghanistan. The company has since been in contact with the country's officials, says Afghanistan Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani. The nation could soon reap $1.2 billion to $3.5 billion a year by exploiting natural resources such as gold, iron ore, copper, oil, and gas deposits there.