While things look bad right now for those of us long the precious metals, the sheer size and relentlessness of the "intervention" is perhaps a signal of how desperate they now are in ther efforts to preserve confidence in paper assets.

The financial system remains on the verge of collapse as the real estate assets underlying it continue to fall in price. I don't think the baile out of the GSEs is going to put a bottom in yet. The dominos are starting the fall and as every institution gets bailed the penny is going to drop at some point that this can't happen without the Fed resorting to the printing press and the flight will be to gold and silver, that's when things turn in our favour decisively. I just don't see how they can continue this confidence trick for much longer, although it seems to be working for now.

I also think it is telling that Paulson is getting out early. He doesn't want the collapse on his watch and yet he is perhaps one of the better qualified people to continue the charade (being an insider on Wall Street with Goldman). The fact that he is going early gives just a hint of the timescale we might be looking at before the brown stuff really hits the fan.