I guess it makes sense: When the economy is good, we're all too busy splashing around in our piles of gold to barter it for other stuff, like Humvees made of ivory, which lowers the price. In other words, the price of gold goes down as the economy gets better. Which doesn't bode well for Elko, according to The Street:
We recently mentioned little Elko and its population of less than 20,000 as an example of a town whose one biggest asset -- the gold it's sitting on -- got it through the recession. While that precious commodity has kept Elko's unemployment rate at roughly half that of Nevada as a whole, it's also a volatile and finite resource than takes as much as it gives. Gold's trading at roughly $1,490 an ounce, which is a whole lot better than the $561.50 it was fetching five years ago, but well down from a high of nearly $1,565 per ounce in April. Unfortunately for gold and, eventually, for Elko, a good economy is bad for gold prices.