I made a post on the Noront forum related to this. The US and proxy banks and media have been promoting the USD, which creates a spectre of Stagflation. I say spectre because the huge unemployments in N.Am and W.Europe are not going away in a stagflationary environment. For example, new mines involving capital risk become rare, while old mines are worked off in a slightly (overall) inflationary environment. Somewhere between healthcare , deficits, and the gas pumps, it looks like Obama's own people may tie him up and put the US economy into a prolonged funk. The domestic economy trades down quickly to produce only minimum wage jobs.This is scaring everyone, although eventually the BRIC growth will pressure the USD anyway. It is an issue of "timing" which for us investors is everything. VMS in fact has tremendous prospects, so it is worth being patient for. But as US housing demand , suppressed by ballooning state, city, road, school and other levies, continues to fail, which is becoming a defining characteristic of that economy, we cannot expect a quick US recovery to drive the juniors. So while most equities have bounced off the meltdown oversold conditions, the way forward remains seriously mired.