I thought Coach wrote a good article that was worth posting here for those ECUers without LeMetropole subscriptions.

"Hi Bill!

What a fine way to close out the year, and put an exclamation mark on the performance of the PM sector. Even though this year was one of the best yet for the metals the money flow into the sector is still only a trickle. I imagine that could increase to a flood of cash seeking leverage to gold, silver, and mining stocks in 2011 as more people figure out that the bull market is real and the overall economic recovery is fake. We often speak of 'tipping points' in our analysis but that is exactly what is occurring in real time. Despite the bearish bias for the commentary and the frequent suggestions of a crowded trade the metals are still largely ignored by the majority of the market participants. This is changing and as more individual investors decide they need to get on board the Cartel will only become less of a factor.

Think back a few years ago, when bear raids often triggered prolonged corrections. The defining characteristic of 2010 was the shift towards a market that stepped up to buy all dips, stuffing the Cartel each time. What has changed is the growing awareness among investors that indeed coordinated manipulation has been a big factor in the performance of the PM sector. The CFTC hearings in March, the contributions of numerous respected market commentators, and the work of GATA to document decades of corrupt and criminal trading, have combined to shine a light on all that is wrong with the market.

People are getting the message.

And while the individual retail investors are waking up the story it is the institutional money and central banks that are driving market today. 2010 will be remembered as the year that CBs became net buyers of gold. Recall just 2 years ago that the deep thinkers at GFMS implied that the limited CB buying back then was not even to be counted as 'demand' because they assumed it would be sold back into the market. How stupid does this kind of commentary look today? How do people think the CBs built up their inventory of gold holdings that accounts for the majority of all gold ever mined? This gold has been accumulated as the endowment of wealth for centuries, collectively managed on behalf of the people of the richest nations on earth. The stewards of this trusted stockpile of wealth have managed to destroy much of it in one generation through hidden transactions and bonehead policy. The accepted spin for 20 years implied that gold was a relic and modern financial alchemy would suffice to build a brave new prosperous world. As the west stumbles from one crisis to the next, gold has retained its lustre and proven that its status as the ultimate currency remains true.

Does anyone doubt that the UK would have been better off to have refrained from selling nearly half of their bullion at the lows of this market? And for what? To protect a bunch of criminals caught on the wrong end of the derivative pyramid? What of all the tons of gold dishoarded by the European CBs over the last few years? And how has the IMF strengthened its role by selling finite gold holdings in exchange for infinite paper that loses value by the day?

The tide has turned. Big and small, investors and institutions are coming to realize that gold is an asset to be accumulated, not sold. That wealth is preserved in the ultimate currency and not through endless speculation in paper promises. There are still many who claim that manipulation cannot be maintained on such a large scale for such a long duration. I would counter that a million dollars was once a lot of money. Then it was a billion dollars that became the number too big to imagine. Now we are into hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bullion liability represented by paper promises. The magnitude of this scam has risen to proportions that could hardly be believed 20 years ago. It is true that all manipulation is unsustainable, but when such big players were able to carry on behind the scenes with such leverage, it just took longer to collapse.

We are finally at that tipping point when the collective awareness is such that indeed the ability of a Cartel to rig the markets is coming to an end. It is this awareness that will end the corruption, even as the regulators dither and the inventory at the COMEX and LBMA runs dry.

Congratulations Bill to you and the team at GATA for your part in exposing the scam. I wish you a prosperous year in 2011.

Cheers!

MexicoMike"