Gold is fundamentally a bet against America. It's a bet that, over the long run, America's experiment with a pure paper money system will not work.

The fate of every country that has tried to run a pure paper money system, with currency not backed by gold, has been disaster.

If everyone thinks the US T-note is such a safe item that they're willing to take a negative yield just to hold it, maybe it's not safe at all.

The US economy is sinking into a deeper Great Correction.

According to the papers, investors are on the edge of their seats. They're waiting to see what happens in Washington. Everybody knows that a default would be disastrous.

The politicians can't get together and make up their minds.

Borrowing more money to keep from admitting the truth is disastrous. Europe just proved it.

Two percent GDP growth is not enough to absorb population growth and bring idle workers back into the active labor force. And it isn't enough to keep the US economy from dipping into recession from time to time.

There's no magic to money. It works as a medium of exchange and a store of value when, and only when, its quantity is strictly controlled.

On both sides of the Atlantic, the situation is about the same. The geniuses and scam-artists who run the big banks want to keep the honey pots open as long as possible.