Sprott on "Taper Talk"; Precious Metals

``I figured it was smoke and mirrors since day one. In fact, in the back of my mind, I suspect they might even have used the taper talk as a reason to hammer gold. Of course, they didn't realize that interest rates would go up. When Dr. Bernanke was asked that at one of the latest hearings, he said he was very puzzled by interest rates going up. This is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, puzzled by rates going up. That seems like an incongruous kind of situation that he'd be puzzled.''