In case you were wondering, China actually kicked our American butt a long time ago, as China ’surpassed the United States as the world’s second largest gold producer in 2007 with 270.491 tons of output.’

It’s true for almost any commodity: there are a lot of influences pushing on the price, and it’s hard to untangle them all. But gold is exceptional. A single factor dominates the market price – and you can measure it.

As I stretched out on a pile of rotting cabbage in preparation for this exciting bit of news, I was actually all tingly at the thought of seeing how the inequality between the rich and the poor can be shown to be offset by sheer variety of goods in the marketplace!

On August 11, the price of gold collapsed: down over $30. So did the price of silver, platinum, and palladium. A lot of people are asking why.

The selling of commodity related stocks continued on the Canadian markets during Thursday trading.

In a piece entitled, “Wall Street: Three cheers for the bear”, CNNMoney.com looks on the bright-side of the bear…

Gold declined throughout the Far East and Europe in early Thursday morning trading. The decline rate accelerated about two hours before the Comex open in New York. Once the NY boys showed up, the price dropped another $8 to a low of $856.50 in just a few minutes.

Gold didn’t do much of anything on Wednesday until well into the trading day in London.

Gold, which was up a bit in the far East, plummeted from $910 to $889 once London opened, but from there it forged higher through the New York trading day, to finish at $899.90/oz., down $4.40. Overnight, gold has continued to decline.

All last week I expected the bullion banks to pull the pin on both gold and silver because of options expiry yesterday.