We have also heard the Fed has gone to the banks and asked them in a nice way, not to put pressure on the hedge funds. In toto, this pressure has been enough to hold the price of gold in check. But gold has been put in a pressure cooker and, in our opinion, it is only a matter of time before the price really takes off. This buying has been supporting the market and keeping gold from tanking. We also hear that the Asian bullion banks are buying gold to sell to the public.
Demand is so robust that they are months behind in filling their orders.
Gold demand is robust all over. It has been a decade since US coin dealers saw such surges of buying. The People's Bank of China had to raise its official gold purchase price because gold was fleeing the mainland. Russia is planning to mint 10-30 tonnes of gold and silver coins. If this plan goes through, they will eventually need to mint something like 100 tonnes of gold.