Interesting read on how the PTBs manipuate paper gold to suppress the real thing...the best counter for which is to buy the real thing, something intelligent people know and a strategy that feeds into the hands of our enemies like China, and now Russia is joining in on the fun.
Problem is it's getting harder to find the stuff. The reason probably rests with the fact that the suppression is keeping the real stuff from hitting the market. Who wants to mine something when it costs more to mine than to sell, it's basic economics. There was no ounce singles at the market this weekend and that says plenty.
The US mint has run out of domestic silver to produce Eagles and they must buy it within the confines of the USA. Besides, Eagles were still produced with the silver at $32/oz thus their high price compared to the spot price. Remember when prices of WTI crude went as low as $10/brl un the 90's? Those oil fields stop producing until price went back up to profitable levels. I'm sure the same thing is happening now with PM.
Even though fuel prices have lowered some, the cost of mining hasn't really changed all that much in terms of labor and machinery maintenance which is still higher because of the govt constantly f**king with the value of fiat currency. When will it all end?
There is a rough equality of oil and mineral extraction costs and behavior, like wells, mines will be "capped" if market prices have dropped too low to support new production, and people in these industries are patient and not usually cavalier in their cash management, but the cost of malicious regulation and manipulation cannot be underestimated and the real cost most will see is the laying off of workers. And since smart people (and governments) have been snapping up physical stocks, perhaps the situation I have been waiting for is starting to manifest itself - the drying up of physical stores availble for purchase. Retail is the lower rung of the ladder, once institutional availability and then international/governmental availability is threatened, then we'll see something! But it is hard to tell if this is a momentary blip. I have seen this many times the past several years, and the PTBs will step aside a bit and let prices float back up to where production resumes and some physical flow commences. Until the mines stay closed and physical inventories dry up, this will not end.
ETA - It is an interesting day in Gold news...
First, apparently
The Fed put the 'ol brakes on Germany repatriating all their gold held in the US...the big unanswered question being...how much really is there left to them or anybody else?
Second, the Euro's are BSing about
buying gold, what they are buying is more Neo-Keynesian BS!
Third, Gold Guru Eric Sprott seems to be thinking along my lines..."I think a true price recovery has got to come from the physical market first. When the mint says they don’t have any more silver coins, that's a good sign there’s more demand than supply. Maybe folks start figuring it out then. To me, the biggest win will be if there is a delivery failure. If somebody says we were promised some gold we didn’t get it. And that could happen -- I mean we just can’t have China continue to buy 60 tons a week. That's impossible."
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-16/eric-sprott-global-gold-demand-overwhelming-supplyYup.