Last week the US Fed actually took a huge chunk of money of the market and went on to set up conditions for the market of do much more of the same all on its own. This will be more than a bur in the side of Gold Bugs, in my opinion, and that is why the Gold Standard will never ever be re-instituted. It causes too much distortion in a Social/Cultural world of interrelationships. However, Gold in the ground will be a source of revenue to those extracting it and will be a good sound investment if the extraction if profitable. Gold will maintain an Intrinsic Value to many individual consumers and it is there that it will eventually find a price support level. All my opinion but I look to history and hope we, collectively have learned enough to not willingly go back to what never really worked all that well. Old Joe