From what I see there are two types of gold. One is the real stuff called bullion that has been prized for thousands of years and lies in vaults all over the world and should be the purest form of measurement of financial wealth. The second is paper gold which is significantly larger in volume. I am told that for every ounce of real gold there could be 100 ounces of paper gold being traded largely by the same type of people that were involved in the Libor and money laundering scandles. Unfortunately the press doesnt differentiate between the two where the paper variety dominates. Sophisticated and manipulative high speed trading favouring shorting, derivative trading, futures and slicing and dicing is a world away from buying a little bullion as a future insurance policy in case the grand world financial experiment fails. I don't pretend to know anything about the paper side however from what I see it has a hugely negative impact on gold bullion by keeping its price suppressed. What will it take to shake its vice like grip from bullion?
