My friend from Barrick comments on Bill Koenig's extract, "In terms of his article, he is really pointing toward the long term scarcity of gold. This may well be true. While the fix is in scarcity will not have a significant impact on pricing. (current pricing as evidence) I also think that the big purchasers (China and Russia) had some plans on toppling the US dollar from the world currency spot. With their recent issues I would say this might not continue at its previous pace. This probably would mean a reduction in scarcity pressures. Truthfully, if I were holding a couple hundred billion in liquid I would just buy all the physical gold and force the scarcity issue. Really, I believe this is what Russia and China were trying to do to uncouple the US dollar. If a major asset holder were willing to do this they could write their own ticket on profit for gold. Sadly, anyone with balls enough to do that would probably suffer massive repercussions from the central banks. My two cents"