By David Lew
Will gold price cross the magical $1200 per ounce mark this week? That must be the big question that bullion analysts and gold traders are asking now. Will the Dubai debt crisis hit or help gold price?

Is it the right time to buy gold? Or should you wait for the yellow metal prices to depress for the right buying opportunity? Investors like Jim Rogers say that buying gold at $1200 may not be a bad idea, as he has been forecasting that gold is set for a historic $2000 mark in the next decade that begins in 2010.

But is gold the only commodity you should bank on for making a safe investment? What about agricultural commodities? What about silver, platinum, palladium, copper, nickel etc? What about turmeric? What about garlic?

Turmeric and garlic? Yes. Recently, interesting repots came from India and China on the big investment opportunities in turmeric and garlic! Commodity analysts who have studied these agricultural products said that turmeric has given better investment returns in India compared to gold. And garlic has been giving better returns than gold and silver in the recent years in China, and this is prompting a garlic-rush in China’s villages!

These big investment returns opportunities may have prompted investors like Jim Rogers to bet on agricultural commodities in China. Prices of most commodities are zooming and where will Rogers put his money, given the fact that he has predicted gold prices at a record $2000 per ounce after 2010.

“I would rather buy palladium and silver these days,” says Jim Rogers in a recent interview to Business Week. What about gold? He is not keen to invest in gold, because Rogers says “there are probably better commodities to buy than gold.”

Following is an extract of Jim Rogers comments on commodities, gold, silver and palladium:

”If you want to buy precious metal, I'd rather buy silver or palladium. Both are very depressed. I continue to be more optimistic about agriculture than some other commodities.”

”Well, I own gold and I have for a while. How high can it go? I fully expect it to be over a couple thousand dollars an ounce sometime in the next decade—I didn't say the next month, I didn't say the next year, I said the next decade—because paper money around the world is very suspect. But right now everybody's bullish on it, so I don't like to buy things when that's happening. But I'm not selling under any circumstances.”

”You have central banks, which five years ago were selling gold, now buying. So that's a huge shift in the marketplace. Central banks are like lots of other people—they just follow the crowd. There are probably better commodities to buy than gold, but you can't tell that to central banks because they've got gold on the brain. “

"A huge amount is about not just U.S. deficits, but all deficits. Deficits are going berserk nearly everywhere. Throughout history, printing money has led to weaker currencies and higher prices for real assets. And there are many, many pessimists about the dollar, including me. So many pessimists that I suspect there's a rally coming. I have no idea why there should be, but things do usually rally when you have this many bears at the same time. I've actually accumulated a few more dollars. I mean, it's not a significant position, but I do own more dollars than I did a month ago. And we'll probably also have a gold correction because there's so many bulls on gold."

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