The situation is nicely captured in these two simple charts.
The strains on supply are obvious, although it does take quite a bit of work to estimate the shrinkage of the 'gold float' of available supply.
Nothing here that could not be remedied by higher prices, if they were simply allowed to rise in reponse to physical tightness.
Gold is trading with an unusual duality: as a synthetic derivative like those associated with the highly leverage financial paper markets , and as a commodity susceptiable to physical supply and demand.
