Gold bugs want very badly to see collusion and manipulation and intervention and all sorts of mischief taking place in the gold market, Dennis Gartman says in his latest investment letter.

They are deluding themselves, he warns.

Granted, Gartman says, backwardation -- in which the future price of gold is lower than the present price -- recently happened for the first time in the gold market.

But gold bugs are misinterpreting this as signaling that the end of the fiat dollar system is at hand when all that’s happening is a “rather boring, inordinately prosaic interest-rate arbitrage,” Gartman says.

“Yes, there are shortages of gold coins in the market, and yes the spot/1st and even to the 2nd future gold future is backwardated,” Gartman says.

“But this is hardly the stuff of manipulation and central bank intervention (and)we would counsel everyone to take a deep breath; to sit down and count to 10.”

A weakening U.S. dollar is driving gold to new highs after a lengthy recent slump.

Gold for February delivery recently hit $808.80 an ounce on the Nymex.

"In terms of gold, I think that with (interest) rates as low as they are and another cut coming ... inflationary fears are starting to come back into investors’ minds," Matt Zeman, head trader at LaSalle Futures in Chicago, told the Associated Press.

"Rates are going to have to be kept low. ... I think a lot of people think the dollar is going to begin to weaken."