Time and time again we can draw parallels from what is happening today, to historical examples of the past.

And although it's impossible for history to repeat itself exactly, there are indeed recurring themes, or more specifically conflicts, in the historical timeline of mankind.

We are currently on the edge of a significant era of history  That is, the rise and fall of the American Empire.  And as such, we can draw several parallels from early Rome.

Although I will outline a few specific examples, the common recurring theme in both eras is the conflict over the control of money.   And in fact it is this question, of who gets to issue the money, which is the pivotal issue that transcends & prevails virtually every other era of civilization. 

The United States owns a tremendous amount of money to the rest of the world.

The world is holding close to $3 trillion dollars worth of treasury & bonds from Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac.

If the world starts to dump dollars and not buy those bonds and other investments the United States will go bankrupt.

Right this minute, the USA needs about $1.8 billion dollars per day to meet the requirements for foreign trade (known as the balance of payments surplus of deficit).The United States is servicing a major deficit.

So it's very important what the world thinks of the US Dollar, because if the dollar goes down in value all the goods that Americans buy, and most of them come from foreign countries now, are going to be much more expensive.

Today the gold mining business is presenting an attractive scenario. The price of your product is going straight up, meanwhile the costs of production are going straight down.

"The economics of the gold mining business are getting better and better every day," says Peter Schiff - a man well respected for his accurate predictions on the US economic crisis - who earlier this week pointed out this advantageous gold mining scenario.

In 1805 the price of a gold coin was $19.

The dynamics of the gold market are like nothing else. One thing you will learn very quickly when researching gold bullion is that there is a constant suppression of gold prices by the central banks, Western nations, and big market players to keep the price low. Why? Because gold is in effect a competition to paper currency. Paper money has no intrinsic value. The confidence can go away, people stop using it, the buying power goes away, and you get hyperinflation. And hyperinflation is not uncommon in history. It is something that generally happens to paper currencies.

Bob Champan, a former military analyst who went on to establish one of the largest gold & silver brokerage firms in the world, is an inside source on hard hitting gold information.

A summary of Chapman's latest gold bullion analysis is featured in the discussion above. It was during his appearance on the Friday, November 21 edition of the Alex Jones Radio Show. This video, which I prepared for Gold Bullion Insider readers, cuts right to the chase on the topic of gold, and gold only. In addition, I've summarized for you the key points below.

Alex Jones kicks off the discussion by summarizing the week's market activity in gold: that the spot price of gold has shot up over $100 in the last week as much as $56 in one day.

Yesterday, at a Financial Services Hearing, Ron Paul had his opportunity to pose some serious questions to Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. Among the questions, Paul asked 'Helicopter Ben' if in his secret meetings with central bankers, if the topic of a gold standard has arose.

In Paul's YouTube channel he summarizes this, the significance of gold, and where the global economy may go from here. Click the play button below to be automatically fast forward to Paul's remarks on gold.

Iran has purchased $75 billion dollars worth of gold bullion. They took their reserves out of Europe, bought gold, and put into an Asian bank.

A Iranian presidential advisor was quoted, "With the plans of the presidency...the country's money reserves were changed into gold so that we wouldn't be faced with many pSchwabelems in the future."

With some neo-cons chomping at the bit to goto war with Iran, and numerous economic & financial sanctions against Iran imposed by the Bush administration, it has been difficult for Iran to carry out international commerce beyond Asia. Yet China is certainly a partner Iran can do business with.

Iran's move to become a big holder of gold bullion in an uncertain economic world climate - echoes the actions of even the smallest investors everywhere else around the globe. It is common knowledge that during times of economic hardship, everything goes back to the fundamentals. Paper can become worthless, but gold has held it's value for over 5000 years.

A 'huge event' may occur on the COMEX this December. As the United States economic recession intensifies, the COMEX is under tremendous pressure to meet an unprecedented demand in gold and precious metal assets. Now, rumors are circulating that the COMEX is soon going to run out of gold supplies entirely.

The COMEX is one of two divisions of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Physical gold bullion can be traded through the COMEX, which was what it was originally designed for, but in particular it is also used to trade gold & silver futures.

Gold & silver futures are a common way to invest into the precious metals without having to take physical delivery, which would otherwise increase the cost of your order and reduce profits (although certainly it is possible to take delivery on a futures contract). Trading gold futures involves entering a contract to buy gold for a pre-determined price at a future date. Essentially you to make a bet on the price of gold at a future date. When the settlement date arrives you make the difference, whether it's a gain or a loss.

Economic expert Peter Schiff, a man well respected for his message of truth and fundamental investment advice, was recently asked about the price of gold.

On his weekly radio show, Wall Street Unspun, a caller raised the question, "When everybody figures out they need gold, will the purchasing power of gold dramatically increase?"

Peter replied, " Well of course, right now gold prices are very low because it's not really functioning as money. And people are still placing their confidence in fiat currencies. "