The Christian-Murphy debate went about as I expected-- Murphy is too loose with the facts and too vague on specifics to win a debate, even if his basic premise is righteous. However, I believe if you listen with a discerning ear, Christian invalidates many of his points by attempting to cloud the issues rather than address them definitively. His constant references to legalese and very narrow court-room definitions speak volumes about a man seeking to generate heat, not light. He's always leaving himself an out; a clarification to be made later of what he meant. "Yes, but," he says. Christian probably could have gotten O.J. acquitted on technicalities, but does that really address the underlying issue?

When forced to concede governmental intervention in gold markets, Christian argues that past admissions of as much by people involved in those manipulations are irrelevant because we no longer are on a gold standard. The gold market is tiny, he notes, but that is exactly the point. It's designed to be unadulterated by paper and thus is a true measure, which is why governmental agents and central banks fear the gold price rise and what it indicates.

And, despite Puplava's lead-in that personal attacks would not be tolerated, Christian begins with a sarcastic comment that he will be more "succinct" than Murphy, then engages in denigrating comments regarding Murphy and GATA.

A most-telling moment for me came late, when Christian was arguing forward selling by producers invites short-selling and leasing by contracting the contango. He mentioned that he had written a "seminal" paper on the subject. What a pompous comment. As my late grandmother used to advise, nothing stinks as badly as self-praise. Let others decide if your work is "seminal." That's not for the author of a paper to conclude. Holders of paper claims on precious metals can cause price "spikes" if they stand for delivery, Christian admits. But, please note, he doesn't give any dimension to that. A spike that doubles the price, triples it, or more? A spike that lasts minutes, a day, a month, a year? Again, no specifics.