I agree with you completely that government intervention is distorting the markets and is planting the seeds for more trouble down the road, but I disagree with you about inflation, at the moment... $147 oil was what pushed up inflation... as of this article it's at $75, the numbers should improve dramatically in the coming months and early part of next year... Furthermore, the huge demand for dollars in the early part of this decade was what kept interest rates low. Unfortunately that demand is set to decline since dollars account for such a massive portion of global reserves after the debt binge of this decade. We are about to issue as much new treasury debt in the next 6 months as we did in the past 6+ years and I'm extremely worried that the Fed becomes the buyer of those treasuries via monetization. I'm still reluctant to buy gold though, because CBs have so much of it and can flood the market at any time. What do you think about silver Mike? I've read a lot of material saying that silver has served as an excellent monetary instrument as well.