The facts are the facts

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”   Aldous Huxley


The last two and half years for gold have been terrible - and in the miners disastrous, but their performance does not diminish the facts that exist today. The Fed and all Central bankers have been manipulating the price of money to provide an illusion of prosperity, which appears as facts to many. Yet the key questions are rarely asked; maybe we like the illusion.
- Why, 6 years after the crisis, is the US Fed still buying bonds?
- Why is it we have the lowest interest rates in hundreds of years?
- Why under these conditions are economies growing at "sub-par" rates?

When asking Allianz SE’s chief investment officer about the euro area’s sovereign debt woes, be prepared for an emphatic response.
“The fundamental problems are not solved and everybody knows it,” Maximilian Zimmerer said at Bloomberg LP’s London office. The “euro crisis is not over,” he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-10/portugal-smolders-as-allianz-says-debt-crisis-isn-t-over.html

Container Store coins the investor catchphrase of the summer: "Consistent with so many of our fellow retailers, we are experiencing a retail funk," said Container Store (TCS_) Chairman and CEO Kip Tindell in the company's first-quarter earnings report. Tindell also said the company continues" to experience slight traffic declines in this surprisingly tepid retail environment."

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12771365/1/5-new-signs-the-us-consumer-is-still-struggling.html

Meanwhile equity investors are exuberant: (mea culpa: the stock market has performed way better than anticipated - especially the last 18 months):
CYNK Technology (a US social media company) shares are traded 'over-the-counter' in the US on an unregulated exchange.  Three days ago its market value was $US1 billion.  Two days ago: US$3 billion.  Yesterday: US$4 billion.
For now, some further questions to ponder:
- if the US is in such a strong position why is it's dollar so weak?
- if the economy is so strong, why are real incomes declining

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/federal_debt
US government Debt has risen approximately $7T since FY2009 while US GDP has risen just over $2T...hmmmm.

Gold will have it's day - it must, because the central bankers and the governments only have one major practical policy tool - "print", to make most debts "money good". Those who save (i.e. the east) accumulate, those in the west watch "reality" tv.