Nearly all markets except the dollar reacted rather badly to Ben Bernanke's news conference – even though it actually contained no news - Treasury yields soared, stocks were whacked, and so was gold. While the charts certainly don't look good in the short term, though, it should be pointed out though that investors with a longer time horizon probably won't make a big mistake by buying on weakness. That being said, however, in the short term all the tentative evidence that a bottoming process may be under way has by now been eradicated. Below are a number of charts illustrating the situation.

People ask me all the time where the price of gold is headed. I do not pretend to know, especially in the short-term. However, I understand the fundamentals and Roubini clearly doesn't, nor does he have a clue about money or what causes economic growth...In fact, having just read Nouriel Roubini's seven point analysis on the Bursting of the Gold Bubble, I am of the opinion that he doesn't get even one of the seven points correct. In this article I offer a point-by-point rebuttal.

It wasn't so long ago that irrational exuberance over the housing market had seized investors' logic, and the same thing is happening to US stocks right now. Fair-weather investors are abandoning gold equities and jumping into the US market in the hopes of making an easy buck, just as people bought property near the housing peak hoping to flip it before those adjustable-rate mortgages reset... My advice: don't gamble your savings on the hope that there will be a greater fool who will come along and buy your inflated assets at even higher prices.

The Pebble Mine Project is a world-class copper, molybdenum and gold deposit in Alaska with the potential to employ over 16,000 in high-paying jobs across a wide range of industries for 30+ years boosting the state ecomomy and generating significant tax revenues in the process.

I wrote several years ago that Japan is a bug in search of a windshield and in January I wrote that 2013 is the Year of the Windshield. Japan is a country that is on the brink of fiscal and economic disaster

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.

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.]

Ever since the Federal Reserve embarked on its easy money campaign, everyone and their mother has been on a crusade for an alternative reserve currency. [The euro and China's yuan have been talked about - and dismissed - as realistic contenders and]...during the world's desperate search, the Federal Reserve has just continued printing more money. That has only intensified the desire for an alternative. Enter Bitcoin. Ultimately, however, it is all about greed - not a genuine interest in a fundamentally stronger alternative to the status quo - that's driving Bitcoin prices so forget Bitcoin being a contender as an alternative currency. At best, it's a speculative investment, and a very speculative one at that.

You cannot control what others do, especially those in power. You can control what you do. Just keep buying, regardless of price, because if/when the price of gold and silver were to go lower, you may not be able to buy. If/when the price of gold and silver were to go higher, it may be at such an accelerated rate that any price in the past few years seem cheap. Words: 550

The next chapter [in gold and silver] has yet to be written. One thing is likely to be certain, it will get uglier. The public will not be prepared for what could take a few more years to develop, and the potential for yet much lower prices for both gold and silver.