Is someone trying to kill bitcoin? I've been observing the huge increase in the price of Bitcoin over the last month (November 2013) and I can't help but think, is someone with an ulterior motive pulling the strings here?

It seems to me that Bitcoin represents a huge threat to some very powerful people who would like to see the financial status quo maintained. If Bitcoin posed a significant threat to them, how would they combat it?

I don't think trying to govern or control Bitcoin in any way would work. If I was in that position, I would probably pour a lot of resources into artificially raising the value of Bitcoin, create a mania of publicity around it and get as many people invested into the bubble as possible. Then when it reached a tipping point, I would burst that bubble hard, make sure all those people who invested got their fingers badly burned. Killing Bitcoin by destroying everyone's faith in it...

That's why the sudden increase in value concerns me.

Is it feasibly possible for someone to artificially raise the value of Bitcoin in this way? Given that those who might want to do so would have almost unlimited financial resources, and a whole lot of influence over the media/public opinion. Could they be setting up Bitcoin for a very overt fall?
There are really only two things driving the increase in price you are talking about.


Supply and Demand
Greed and Fear


Supply and demand is simple, there is a virtuous cycle at work here:


Increasing demand drives price increase due to limited supply
Increasing price drives increasing demand as knowledge spreads in the media
Repeat


Greed and Fear are basic human emotions, but the interesting thing is that the Greed and Fear is a community measure not an individuals, this can be considered as the "wisdom" of the crowd.


Large price increases increases greed
Increasing greed increases prices
Decreasing prices increases fear
Increasing fear decreases prices


When you boil it down to just these things and nothing else (such as cost of mining) you have something like a measure of the psychology involved in these simple concepts applied to the crowd rather than the individual.