when a government interupts a market(such as the buying/selling...

when a government interupts a market(such as the buying/selling of Gold) by suspending it, temporarily or othwewise, common wisdom holds that the particular government is making attempts to prevent something negative happening. in this case, negative for banks and the general economy. buying physical gold is raising your finger to banks. people will rush to gold if and when things get worse for paper money. the US$ is being devalued as we write. the country is going into a 'deep' recession. Hank and co know its deep cos they can't see a bottom to it.
notice how the US real estate market 'bottom' hasn't been called for a few weeks. no one would even dare speculate. they're going down the tubes.