most of the sources that i read tend to agree that tapering at this point would be almost impossible without a market calamity. However, who knows what the fed wants to acheive. Perhaps another market calamity that would allow the insiders to short the market and buy back all the good companies for pennies. The thing that always worries me is that any major news is always accompanied by a smack down on gold. Doesn't matter if the news is positive for PM's or negative these smackdowns are done to make sure no one gets the idea that gold is an alternative to fiat. One of the pundits that I read has some stats that suggest the banksters have been building a stockpile of ammo recently for the purpose of another big hit. We will see.