I originally was reading a well respected gentlemans column. I don't know if you know of Jim Sinclair but he is extremely knowledgeable and well known. He is up on such matters and from his site [just type in his name] you will see others that are either associated with him or his beliefs. Those beliefs very much include his thoughts on the Wall St. gang as well as the Fed and the Washington DC crowd. There is a very definite 'war' going on between the 'gold bugs' and the 'establishment' if I may say it that way. They must keep slamming gold for if they do not then more and more people will flee from the mighty Bear Sterns companies that are inundated with fake paper [derivitives and bad hedge funds]. If we in America keep on counterfeiting our own money [12 trillion in direct debt] and have nothing to off set the financial debacle we are in except to have the Fed lower interest retes, then we are going to go down for the count. The names of the men that you might want to listen to are all in agreement with Jim and can be located from his siite and writings.

Don't know if this helps but it is my reason why I believe that the metals market is deliberately being held back. I would certainly include the juniors in that. On a far lesser scale is the ordinary games that traders, shorters etc play on a daily basis. That stuff just goes with the turf.

Best wishes,

Jerry Francis