I don't know about how much confidence the rest of the world does or does not have in the health of the US economy. I know that I, from my perspective in the US, have very nearly none. Because of that, I've become very interested in find a place to keep my money that has the least exposure to the US economy as possible.

Gold is one such place, and is a bit of an "easy button". It isn't appealing to me for other reasons, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only person (or company, or country) looking to reduce my exposure.