 On track to hit the Windward Islands, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines. America's listening to Fox News. If you had a million dollars in 2009, today it will be worth less than $700,000. That's the effect of out-of-control government spending shrinking your hard-earned dollars. And it's why central banks and savvy investors are buying gold. For thousands of years, gold has withstood war, famine, and economic downturns.