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This is an early pre-market version of BMR’s Morning Market Musings as Jon is on a special research assignment today…Gold overnight (through 3:00 am Pacific) has dipped as low as $1,575…a Reuters poll yesterday showed some leading analysts are lifting their 2012 Gold price forecasts…Central banks have bought more Gold in the first half of this year than in all of 2010 as a long-anticipated reversal in so-called “official sector” sales gathers pace, according to a report just issued by the World Gold Council…the CDNX climbed a few points above 2000 yesterday before being pushed back to 1990, just slightly above its 50-day moving average (SMA) which appears poised to reverse to the upside within the next week or two…that of course would be another bullish technical development for this market…in case you missed it, Republican representative Ron Paul and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had a short but fascinating discussion regarding Gold and what qualifies as money during a congressional hearing in D.C. Wednesday…“Do you think Gold is money?” asked Paul, the libertarian-leaning presidential candidate, to which Bernanke, obviously a bit bewildered, replied, “No…it’s not money, it’s a precious metal”…Paul refused to let up and asked Bernanke why, if people for 6,000 years have considered gold a monetary commodity and banks still hold it as if it is money, the Chairman can say that Gold is not money…Bernanke had no choice but to cite “tradition”…

MR. PAUL: But very quickly, if you could answer another question, because I’m curious about this – you know, the price of Gold today is $1,580…the dollar during these last three years was devalued almost 50%…when you wake up in the morning, do you care about the price of Gold?…

MR. BERNANKE: Well, I pay attention to the price of Gold, but I think it reflects a lot of things…it reflects global uncertainties…I think people are – the reason people hold Gold is as a protection against what we call tail risk, really, really bad outcomes…and to the extent that the last few years have made people more worried about potential of a major crisis, then they have Gold as a protection…

MR. PAUL: Do you think Gold is money?

(Pause.)

MR. BERNANKE: No…it’s not money, it’s a precious metal…

MR. PAUL: Even if it has been money for 6,000 years, somebody reversed that and eliminated that economic law?…

MR. BERNANKE: Well, it’s – you know, it’s an asset…I mean, it’s the same – would you say Treasury bills are money?…I don’t think they’re money either, but they’re a financial asset…

MR. PAUL: Well, why do – why do – why do central banks hold it if it’s not…

MR. BERNANKE: Well, it’s a form of reserves…it’s a form…

MR. PAUL: Why don’t they hold diamonds?

MR. BERNANKE: Well, it’s tradition, long-term tradition…

MR. PAUL: (Chuckles)…Well, some people still think it’s money…I yield back…my time is up…

Ron Paul could have grilled Bernanke even more and asked him if he didn’t think Gold was money, then why are Gold and Silver once again considered legal tender in at least one part of the United States – Utah…the state last spring passed the “Utah Legal Tender Act” which “recognizes Gold and Silver coins that are issued by the federal government as legal tender in the state and exempts the exchange of the coins from certain types of state tax liability”…the law, signed by Governor Gary Herbert on March 25, does not obligate individuals to pay or accept payment in precious metals, but rather provides an alternative to the fiat-based Federal Reserve note that central bankers have been recklessly creating out of thin air in unprecedented proportions in recent years…the Utah Legal Tender Act also eliminates state taxes on the exchange of Gold and silver coins, and instructs the legislature to study an “alternative form of legal tender”…the most significant change from a practical perspective is that the Utah’s state tax code now considers Gold and silver coins issued by the U.S. Mint as currency rather than an asset, which means that capital gains or other state taxes cannot be levied when the coins are exchanged…however, federal taxes still apply on these transactions…

John has two interesting charts this morning – Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX, TSX-V), which is exploring in the Yukon, and Goldex Resources Corp. (GDX, TSX-V) which was the Venture’s volume leader yesterday…Pacific Ridge, which had $4.5 million in working capital at the end of March, is in the midst of a 4,000 metre drill program at its Mariposa Property in the White Gold District…the program is testing the Skookum Jim and Hackly zones, two of five gold-in-soils geochemical anomalies defined last year within the 262-square-kilometre property…PEX closed at 37.5 cents yesterday and is certainly worthy of our readers’ due diligence…

Goldex is exploring its promising El Pato Gold Property in Guatemala and a 5,000-metre drill program was launched in May in order to confirm significant historical inferences and determine whether there is a continuation of mineralization extending along strike as far as the El Sauce sector where high-grade Gold mineralization has been shown…we’ve actually been watching this stock closely since it broke out at the beginning of the year…the company raised over $2 million in January from a 5-cent private placement which became free trading in early June…the market has been digesting some of that stock since then and volume is obviously the key…GDX definitely has liquidity and record volumes have come into the stock this year which is a very positive sign…GDX closed at 7.5 cents yesterday, giving the company a market cap of approximately $7.2 million which certainly provides for some upside potential…we like the fact there has been considerable historical work conducted at El Pato with very encouraging results…the company also holds a 3,400 hectare property, El Arco, in Mexico’s Central Plateau Gold-Silver belt…

Note: Jon, John and Terry do not hold positions in Pacific Ridge Exploration…Jon and John each hold a position in Goldex Resources…