this is from thom calandra's article, "near-zero gold (and silver) forward rates indicate $1,000-plus prices."

I exchanged electronic mails Friday with a former bullion analyst whose name is known by everyone in the metals business. The former goldsmith, a kind of living legend when it comes to metals metrics and use of wonderful prose to describe those metrics, declines any longer to be quoted by name.

Any material from this person is for background purposes. As such, no quotations. I regard highly what this person, who still practices the trade of analyzing commodities markets, has to say.

Thus: the extremely low forward rates for gold and silver might be evidence that physical gold/silver markets are tight. This is occurring as gold coins are rationed. (Platinum coins and ‘junk’ silver are extremely difficult to find without large premiums attached.) Yet other commodities such as surplus cruse and base metals, shipping tankers, London Metals Exchange warehouses, are filled to the gunwales and the rafters with “stuff.”

In addition, several far-flung economists are saying that gold/silver is becoming the final good money: the only collateral acceptable in credit raising. Such a view is without doubt extreme.

http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists...