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Store of value, gold coin buyers more than tripled their purchases from the U.S. Mint in October from the prior month, U.S. Mint data confirmed.

China bought more than 100 tonnes of gold from Hong Kong for a fifth straight month in September as demand for bullion bars and jewellery stayed strong. Chinese demand appears to have fallen marginally in recent days but remains on track to overtake India as the world's biggest store of wealth gold buyer this year.

Demand for gold in the Middle East remains robust and there has been an eightfold increase or 700% increase in demand in recent years. Geopolitical uncertainty in the region, from Libya to Egypt to Syria and Iraq and Iran is leading to demand for bullion.

Thus, the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange plans to list a spot gold contract in the second quarter of next year. The bourse, which offers gold and silver futures, is talking to local merchants and industry organizations and aims to get regulatory approval for the product by early 2014, Chief Executive Officer Gary Anderson told Bloomberg. Demand for bullion in Dubai expanded eightfold in the last six to 10 years, he said.

Dubai accounts for about 25% of global physical gold trade and the United Arab Emirates will grow as a precious metals trading hub partly because of its location near the largest consuming nations, according to the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, which owns a majority stake in the DGCX.

We have long pointed out that silver is not an ‘investment’ per se rather it is a store of value and a form of financial insurance. Silver is to be bought for the long term - until it has to be sold due to a need to raise cash – indeed a permanent holding.

“This could turn into a very violent wake-up call for [screen-traded gold]. People talk about ‘fiat currencies’, but we also have ‘fiat gold.’ Volatility is too cheap right now.”

Already, the Chinese have stopped accumulating dollars - preferring safer currencies, infrastructure, hard assets and commodities and of course gold. Even a small amount of Chinese selling  could lead to substantial dollar weakness and much higher bond yields plummeting the U.S. into another recession.

Jansen notes that this is a new record for exports for the small country with a yearly estimate of 2,912 tons for exports.  It is surmised that 1,100 tons of the gold bullion is set to flow East to China or Hong Kong.

Faber, whose advice has protected millions of investors in recent years, warned of a global systemic crisis possibly due to the massive size of the global derivatives market which is now worth over an incredible $700 trillion.

He warned “when the system goes down,” and only plastic credit cards are left, “maybe then people will realize and go back to some gold-based system.” He wisely said that, “I advise everyone to have some gold.”

If Obama’s budget projections prove accurate, the National Debt will top $20 trillion in 2016, the final year of his second term. That would mean the National Debt increased by 87%, or $9.34 trillion, during his two terms.

But I never thought it wise to sell it, because for central banks this is a reserve of safety, it’s viewed by the country as such. In the case of non-dollar countries it gives you a value-protection against fluctuations against the dollar, so there are several reasons, risk diversification and so on.

The U.S. is engaged in fiscal and monetary policies that are akin to a Banana Republic.

In addition to electronically creating out of nothing $85 billion every month to buy its own debt in the form of bonds, the U.S. is also borrowing more money than it is authorized to borrow, from itself again.

How Fitch has not downgraded the U.S. already is a mystery to analysts looking at the U.S. fiscal position and the lack of political will to tackle it. It seems likely that significant political pressure is being put on credit ratings agencies regarding their credit rating of the U.S.

Gold’s price falls are very counter intuitive and suggests that Wall Street banks, either independently or in unison with the U.S. authorities possibly through the Working Group On Financial Markets or the Plunge Protection Team, are suppressing gold lower.

Gold imports have virtually dried up in India. Battling a high trade deficit, the country has set the import duty on the precious metal at a record 10%.

The dangerous habit of politicians and governments continually ‘kicking the can down the road’ cannot go on indefinitely. Eventually, the ramifications of this profligacy will be clear to all.

Yet another increase in the debt ceiling and the increasingly parabolic nature of the rise in U.S. government debt will be very supportive of gold in the medium and long term.