In Paper-Gold Fraud Now Out In The Open, Jeff Nielson makes the point, that I made in an earlier post, that the market price of gold is manipulated, offering the supply crunch of physical gold as the proof.  Here are some interesting tidbits:

The virtues of (actual) “free markets” are well-known to anyone familiar with basic market dynamics: they self-correct. If supply exceeds demand, the price falls to a sufficient level to discourage more supply and encourage more demand – until those simultaneous dynamics achieve equilibrium: supply and demand matching, with prices stable.

Conversely, where demand exceeds supply; prices must rise sufficiently so that more supply is encouraged and more demand is discouraged, until once again equilibrium is achieved. Thus a permanent supply-deficit is ipso facto proof of price-suppression.

The problem with the price-suppression of any kind of physical “good” is always the same, one inevitably runs out of inventory as the repressed supply and excessive demand caused by artificially low prices means that buyers will always outnumber sellers.

Now this should help explain why investor grade bars and coins are not available at bullion stores–the price is manipulated too low.  Buyers are readily available but sellers are scarce, and so physical metal is not available.

Disclosure:  I own Sprott Physical Gold Trust and Sprott Physical Silver Trust