Ofcourse I don't know what will happen in a paper gold default....worth contemplating for sure......E viewed everything as heading to a big deflation.

For me though, the massive power behind gold is the world price, not just the north american price. The world price just broke through to all time highs yesterday....after a gentle consolidation and upward pressure, rather than a large sudden price spike, and that's through global pressure from fear of paper.....good as gold......despite a decade of big bank price supression. I think people and governments away from the 'west' invest in real physical rather than paper.........it might be just another 'western' pack of cards. Many experts repeatedly warn to hold physical precious metals, not paper.

What appears unusual so far this year is that the commercial banks have slowly and slightly decreased their gold and silver shorts as prices have risen slightly (although still high), and in gold, their longs have moved to record highs (just)...that appears a new scenario, with their short/long ratio falling from last December's 4.5:1 to 2.5:1 or thereabouts, this week.