Amidst the events of the past week or so, we have been unable to find the time to update this commentary as we usually do. Different topics that we could explore come to mind, but it seems small-minded to focus on gold in light of the enormity of events unfolding from the first impact on the World Trade Center last Tuesday.

It has seemed to us inappropriate to go into lengthy commentary about gold in the light of these events. It goes without saying that gold is a disaster hedge, and an element that people turn to when enormous economic uncertainties appear. And the past few days have seen a scramble of new buyers into the gold market. If we had better writing talent on our staff, we could probably do a good job of writing meaningfully and delicately about gold and current events.

But we hesitate to do anything that could be seen as trivializing the enormity of what has happened, so at this time we're not going to attempt any midguided commentary about gold and disaster. Our business goes on, and suffice it to say our thoughts are with the people of New York and all those directly affected by this crime against humanity.

And indirectly, we are all going to be affected by the events of September 11th for a long, long time.