I certainly respect Jim Rickards. He's a very learned person. I highly recommend his recent book, "Currency Wars...'. However, a couple things.

1. Storing gold and owning it, obviously, are two very different issues.

2. FED Chairman Benanke, recently in a response at a congressional hearing, stated that gold was not money. He's also said words to the effect that gold is kept primarily for "historical" reasons.

In my opinion, it's all obfuscation. There may or may not be the gold at Fort Knox, West Point and the New York FED, that is inferred to be housed at those locations. If there is honest to goodness gold bullion there, its amount and ownership are far from clear.

I can understand the U.S. Government's interest in classfying specific information relative to nation-owned gold stores. But the total lack of any transparency is leading many sane individuals to imagine all kind of possible realities rather than the several "official" ones that are being peddled.

Finally, it appears clear, that it is ongoing government policy to "regulate" the price of gold through thinly veiled (blatant, in my view) naked, paper gold manipulation. The resulting suppressed prices is resulting in a massive shift of gold bullion ownership and control from West to East. What this portends to the future of the Western World is deeply concerning.

I would be happy to have my thoughts proved wrong.

Cinderella Man