Investment vehicle hyped & manipulated to price so "inflated" that it bears little resemblance to true, free market value ;

The Mutha of All Bubbles
http://adask.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/the-mutha-of-all-bubbles/

Gold drops on Greek woes ;

Feb 13, 2010 at 10:42
NEW YORK/LONDON -
Gold dropped Friday on a dollar rally as worries
for debt-stricken Greece and a surprise move
by China to tighten money supply took a toll
on sentiment
http://business.maktoob.com/20090000435038/Gold_drops_on_Greek_woes/Article.htm

The euro has been sliding against the US dollar for weeks ;

The Bailout of Greece
and the End of the Euro
http://mises.org/daily/4091

The Sovereign Debt Crisis:
A Greek Economic Crisis is Coming to America ;

What we in the western world are about to learn
is that there is no such thing as a Keynesian free lunch.

Deficits did not "save" us half so much as monetary policy -
zero interest rates plus quantitative easing - did.

First, the impact of government spending
(the hallowed "multiplier") has been much less
than the proponents of stimulus hoped.

Second, there is a good deal of "leakage" from open
economies in a globalised world.

Last, crucially, explosions of public debt incur bills
that fall due much sooner than we expect

For the world's biggest economy, the US, the day of reckoning
still seems reassuringly remote.

The worse things get in the eurozone, the more the US dollar
rallies as nervous investors park their cash in the "safe haven"
of American government debt.

This effect may persist for some months, just as the dollar
and Treasuries rallied in the depths of the banking panic
in late 2008.

Yet even a casual look at the fiscal position
of the federal government (not to mention the states)
makes a nonsense of the phrase "safe haven".

US government debt is a safe haven the way
Pearl Harbor was a safe haven in 1941
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17578