Driving down the paper while buying the physical?

[honestinjun]

According to data compiled by the World Gold Council, central banks globally added another 31 tons of gold to official reserves in October.

Taking the premiums into account there still seems to me a big disconnect between the quoted global spot price and the actual retail price/demand of physical gold.

So is paper gold (etf's) anywhere near the real thing or just a massive con to manipulate the price and is it actually worth the paper it's written on?

Edited December 9, 2022 by honestinjun

[QuantumStacker]

massive manipulation in the Gold and the silver markets to keep the price artificially low. JP Morgan has been Convicted 3 times (Jamie Dimon should be in prison) for the manipulation the silver markets so why wouldn't they be doing it in the gold market as well. 

[Faiz]

The fiat currency system is based entirely on confidence. As long as the currency equivalent of an ounce of gold (and silver) is kept low, the currency remains king. The paper manipulation is real, you can see it every time the PMs rally, the spot price is smacked down with paper contracts. Silver and gold are the most manipulated markets, where the paper price (derivative) dictates the price of the physical commodity. As with all commodities there is obviously a supply/demand dynamic which means that the premiums are high on the physical as a result.