EC,
When you said,
" It won't take many investors to run to the safety of the monetary metals to take prices to a multiple of their current levels",
it suggested to me that it could be very wrong to conclude that, "when the average guy on the street finally catch on the inflation it will bring a huge wave of gold buyers which will bring the gold price well beyond 3000$."
Since, most gold purchases for investment will not be from the "guy in the street", unless the guy is from Wall Street!
Baires