Uhhh... Japan... comin' through

The inventory at the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (NYSE:Arca:GLD) hit a new all-time high the other day at 755 tonnes and, in the process, came even closer to Japan, a country that currently holds the #7 spot in the World Gold Council's World Gold Holdings.
It's funny to see the gold price about 15 percent lower than the peak earlier this year while the inventory is about 15 percent higher.

It's even funnier to see that you can't buy the stuff in many coin shops - I see California Numismatic Investments has replaced all of the "N/A" entries with the much more meaningful "Out of Stock" in the "Sell" column on their bullion page.

Here's what the wold gold order now looks like - Japan's days at number 7 are numbered.
Mark Haynes was heard to say on CNBC the other day something like, "I'd go out and buy some gold coins right now and bury them in my backyard, but the coin shops are all out". Then he went on to chuckle in a manner that, at first sounded condescending, but, as it continued, had a distinct sense of helplessness.