2,000 looks like an increasingly conservative estimate and many are now calling for far higher prices between $5000 and $10,000 in the long term. Dennis Van Ek, a principal at Mercer Netherlands believes all pension funds should have an allocation to gold (see http://globalpensions.com/showPage.html?page=gp_display_feature&tempPageId=828357 ). “Van Ek stated he expects the price of gold to go on rising, to $9,000 an ounce, or even higher, by 2015."