“The main reason traders cite for the sell-off is the weaker euro and stronger dollar, making dollar denominated metals more expensive to own. But, there are other factors at play here as well.
“After a less than stellar year traders say hedge funds are seeing redemptions. “Everybody wants cash, liquidity is thin” says Bruce Dunn, Auramet Trading Senior Vice President.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44643824
“After a less than stellar year traders say hedge funds are seeing redemptions. “Everybody wants cash, liquidity is thin”
The same thing happened in 2008. Gold fell from $1000 to $750 then.
The European Central Bank so far has resisted creating new cash to bail out the sovereign debt and European Banks but they will do so if they want to avoid an absolute economic crash and depression.
Politicians will almost always opt for free spending with the threat of high inflation as a fix to avoid a deflationary depression.
The wild card is China’s runaway development crashing like our housing bubble did. That would make a perfect storm of economic collapse for the world economy.
They just put a 20 percent tariff on American cars so a trade war could be starting to add to the mix.