I can't find the article that I read the other day right now, but the gist of it was the the driving force behind the increase is a (minor) decrease in supply against and significant current and forecast increase in demand from the increasing prosperity in both China and India. In both cases, you have people with rapidly increasing income with a lack of long-term trust and stability in banks. In addition, in China there has been a tremendous increase in the values of real estate and in the stock market, to the point where they may be considered a bubble relative to their real value, but there is still immense demand for investment opportunities for the newfound wealth. The increase in demand for gold is a reflection of this - much like our great depression generation, there is a very conservative mentality, and gold is seen as safe, transportable, tradable, and not seizable by a bank or government by fiat online. Because there are so many people, the net increase in demand is very large and projected to grow. because of the projected demand growth, other investors are bidding up the price some now in anticipation of the long-term demand growth as well. Build in to that as well is that, unlike the 1980s bubble, more exploration has happened in the past 30 years, so the potential for uncovering easy new sources to supply the demand is much less likely.
Seemed a reasonable argument to me, but I only own a 1/10 oz coin that was a gift years ago, and figure that I'll hang on to it for a bit yet. Call it a good emergency piece.