It's not backward, but you are also correct in saying the Fed continues printing more or more money as the USD devalues.
The construction boom in Red China and India are clear supply and demand factors driving up the spot price of related metals (copper,nickel, brass, zinc, aluminum, steel, etc) While there is a real concerning about a petrol-fueled-inflationary spiral, pushes gold, silver and platinum ( also soaring based on increased orders for catalytic converters) and palladium toward record highs. (Although palladium was over $1.100 in 1999 due to the Russian miners strike).
If the Iranian's are not prevented from triggering a major regional war in the heart of the oil shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf oil will double and gold will triple in prices, and that is another method the raving jihadists have in bring the Western based economic system to its knees.
In relation to another key commodity, sugar, prices are soaring since Brazil decided to get off the OPEC habit and utilized her own vast cane sugar crop to make cane sugar based ethanol. When will we got on the ball and stop feeding the jihad beast?
The bottom line is were are in a global economy, sure domestically the FED greatly contributes to the economic problems but that you must consider supply and demand - the market.
A very informative ongoing thread on gold and silver this morning:
"Gold ready to crash?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1641771/posts?q=1&&page=256#256