Gold prices vs stocks

Gold just keeps going up, up, up. Why?

1) All other things equal, it retains its value as currencies suffer from inflation -> its value should increase at least by inflation every year.
2) It is perceived as the most safe investment imaginable when the global economy is troubled.
3) It has been going up for a long time now and lots of investors use momentum.

Of these, 1) is a mathematical fact. 3) is a psychological fact. The thing I'm not so sure about is 2). Why is gold seen as a safe investment? Looking at the price rise, to me it is obvious that gold is already WAY above its "intrinsic value", having been blown out of proportion by speculative investments (or panicked "safe haven" investments). But what would happen if the entire world decides that copper is the new gold tomorrow? Or silver? Or platinum? Or that we should all just use glass and plastic jewelry?

I believe gold prices are seriously inflated and will bubble down sharply "eventually". However, for that to happen there must exist some other attractive option for investment/speculative money. Right now that's difficult to see: I hear that investors are recently PAYING to "invest" in Swiss bonds (at a negative interest rate). Swedish and German bond interests are at record lows. So what could trigger it?
1) Solid stock market recovery.
2) Solid bond market recovery.
I don't really see anything else. Not commodities, because rising commodity prices cause problems for the economy and will just cause even more people to buy gold.

The European debt situation must be resolved before these things can happen. The US economy as well, but Europe is the true bad guy as I see it. Europe must:
1) Accept lower living standards, in particular in pensions and health care.
2) Accept tougher working conditions to compete with Asia. This can mean lower wages, more hours worked, less benefits, whatever. But this is something which is already facing Europe and it will just get worse and worse the coming years.
3) Accept either a split of the EU or a much closer union where there are money transfers between countries (euro-bonds for example, or a fiscal union), just as there are money transfers between regions inside a country today. The latter is already happening de facto with the "rescue funds" for the PIGS countries, but it's a hard sell in the net contributor countries. Remains to see where the limit is.
4) Punish corruption, in particular in government finances, much harsher.

The above are not simple things. They will take a long time to accomplish. Surely 5-10 years. Does that mean that gold prices will rise for 5-10 years more? Logically yes, but somehow it just doesn't feel like the rise can keep on going for that long.

Prediction: Gold prices will peak around the end of 2013, and will then drop off by over 30%. Based on a gut feeling, not on any hard data.

Update 2016: The peak was during 2012 at 1669 USD/troy ounce, during 2015 it was down to 1160 USD/troy ounce. It's likely we will see it rising again, let's guess it will reach its 2012 peak again by 2020.