Gold Wars: Battle for the Global Economy addresses the grotesque, growing and unsustainable imbalances in the financial system. As gold is the barometer of systemic ills, a war on goldâ€"to drive down its priceâ€"is taking place to hide the negative impacts of fiat currency, shadow banking and central banking on the global financial system. Starting with an introductory discussion on the nature of money and the bizarre fractional reserve structure currently in place, Mitchell moves on to address the massive, but little known systemic pivot point: the Petrodollar standard. Tying dollars to oil, this mechanism undergirds the dollar’s reserve status. But soon it will fail with paradigm shifting consequences. Next, Mitchell addresses the twins of shadow banking and central banking (with a quick interlude to look at the traits of physical gold). Then, with the stage set and the distortions, corruptions and levers of power in better view, he examines a few historical precedents and likely outcomes through deflationary/inflationary effects and their combinations. Gold Wars features a detailed breakdown of the gross manipulations in the gold market - from nonexistent paper gold, smackdowns, high-frequency trading, and ETF’s to Central Bank games like swapping/leasing, shell accounting, midnight raids, clandestine gold movements and regulatory attacks on investors. Mitchell offers a prediction of the results for the gold market: when the manipulation fails, paper and physical prices will separate, with the physical selling for multiples of paper. Similarly silver, with its own unique characteristics for industry and investment, is also targeted as a potential refuge for flight from paper, though strangely, above-ground gold is now more plentiful than silver. Add to this a silver short position rolling from one institution to another as each fails, a 4-year foot dragging investigation into market fraud, and a class action suit for manipulation and the market has a recipe for a pressure cooker at maximum. Western banks, lacking the gold to cover their obligations, will eventually declare a force majeureâ€"an event supposedly the result of the elements of nature, as opposed to one caused by human behaviorâ€"as a pretext for settling their obligations in increasingly valueless paper. Where is the resistance to this distortion and corruption of value? Power is flowing East as China and Russia have drawn in massive amounts of gold while denyin