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(FORBES) - Gold has divided the analyst community through this volatile 2012, with some, like Goldman Sachs, calling for the end of its decade-long rally, while others expect it to average $2,000 an ounce by the end of next year.  There’s one thesis that has built consensus, though: gold is set to rally in the first half of the year as a result of the Fed’s latest round of quantitative easing, possibly to fresh all-time highs . . . .

China’s role in the global silver market has dramatically changed over the past decade. Once a small player in the global market, China today is the world’s leading market for both physical investment and paper trading of silver futures and other similar products, and is the second largest silver fabricator today. Chinese demand for the white metal is expected to achieve further strong growth in the years ahead, according to a report by Thomson Reuters GFMS released today by the Silver Institute . . . .

* Lawmakers want taxpayer stake in mining boom

* No royalties paid or records kept under current rules

* Reform could mean billions in new revenue

Revising a 19th-century U.S. law that governs the mining of gold and other precious metals could add billions of dollars to federal coffers at a time of tight budgets, according to some Democratic lawmakers . . . .

Gold, copper, silver, platinum and palladium will outperform other commodities next year on easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and supply constraints, according to Bank of America Corp. . . . .

Fool’s gold? CFTC says 12 firms sell phantom metals.

The CFTC is cracking down on firms playing up demand for metals during these uncertain economic times.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday, it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against 12 firms and their executives for fraudulently marketing illegal, off exchange retail commodity contracts . . . .

China has the deepest historical appreciation of the dangers of paper money and yet they embrace it like there is no tomorrow. Have they, like their Western contemporaries, learnt nothing from history? Or are they in fact not only learning from history but from the current mess they see on the other side of the world?

Perhaps, this was all part of the reform process. When it comes to their economic future, China’s holdings of US debt and their covert gold investment program are . . . .

The Silver Institute today released a  report, The Outlook for Silver Industrial Demand,  that examines the current and future outlook for global industrial silver demand.  The 14-page report features an economic outlook, as well as current and future silver industrial demand projections in all the main categories of silver industrial demand through 2014 . . . .

This year the Federal Reserve and FDIC circulated a letter to banks that proposes to harmonize US regulatory capital rules with Basel III. BASEL III is an accord that tells a bank how much capital it must hold to safeguard its solvency and overall economic stability. It’s a global standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk. At the top of the proposed changes is the new list of “zero-percent risk weighted items,” which now includes “gold bullion,” right after “cash.” That’s the part to take notice of . . . .

Global gold supplies contracted 2% year-on-year in the third quarter to 1,188.3 metric tons due to lower mine production and less recycling of scrap gold, the World Gold Council said Thursday . . . .

Whether you were a supporter or critic of President Obama during his re-election campaign, his victory will guarantee a significant increase in the value of Gold and Silver coins and bullion for another four years . . . .