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"The end is near" has been the bears' dire prediction since the start of the bull market on March 9, 2009. This year's rally to new record highs suggests that the bears have lost their credibility and that investors are becoming increasingly convinced that the end is actually still far off.

What would happen to the market/spot price of gold if central banks around the world diverted their foreign currency reserves – almost $11 trillion's worth – into gold. Using James Turk's Gold Money Index the "fair" gold price would be $10,783/ozt.

Each day hundreds of financial, economic, investment and gold/silver articles are personally reviewed. The 5 most informative and thought-provoking are selected and then edited, abridged and reformatted, where necessary, to provide you with a fast and easy read. Enjoy!

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Bernanke addressed the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress on The Economic Outlook [saying in a nutshell] "We clearly understand the game we are playing, but we are boxed in and have to stay with our current strategy. We hope for the best because we are out of options

US equities remain the only major asset class not [to] experience a bear market or an annualised negative performance during the current investment cycle. This is very rare. The last time US equities posted even a -1% annualised total return was back in middle of 2009, almost five years ago. [As such,] this asset class now presents the most risk to long term investors. [Read on, there's more!] Words: 676; Charts: 3

The price of gold is going down. That is what the charts, newspapers and pundits are all saying...[but what] they are deliberately not saying is that the value and desirability, as opposed to the price, of gold is going up and will go up further. Make no sense? Well I think it does..[Let me explain.]

Gold and Historical Average measured against John Williams’ shadow CPI statistics (shows that the 1980 peak of $850 equals $9,000+ today, and clearly demonstrates gold is far away from making new ‘real’ highs).

The tactic by the Fed and Central Banks is to inflate the stock markets while manipulating the price of gold and silver lower and it's working. They are deluding the public into believing their 401ks, pension plans, stocks etc. are safe investments in a deteriorating economy, while at the same time destroying the faith in owning gold and silver. [An analysis of the Dow/silver, Dow/gold and Dow/HUI ratios make that very evident. Let's take a look.] Words: 555; Charts: 3

When Congress and the Obama administration let a 2% payroll tax cut expire on January 1 as part of the fiscal cliff deal, economists predicted a consumer retreat, [but such has not been the case - at all. It seems that] soaring housing and stock market prices are likely putting Americans in the mood for spending - but where’s the money coming from?

It's hard to believe there is more upside left in the stock market considering this year's rally...[yet, while] the indices may be wildly overbought in the near term, ...stocks could have a few more years of big gains ahead.