THE PRICE OF GOLD in wholesale dealing held flat Monday morning in London, easing down to $1226 an ounce as European stock markets rose but government bonds and traded commodities were also unchanged.

"The Federal Reserve has begun to play with fire, the effects of which I doubt Bernanke fully appreciates," writes John Hussman of the eponymous $6.3bn asset management group in the US, extending his Strategic Total Return Fund’s exposure to precious metals to 10%.

Originally from The Market Oracle