Getbig Bodybuilding, Figure and Fitness Forums
Getbig Bodybuilding Boards => Gym/Stores/Industry Business Board => Topic started by: loco on April 16, 2013, 09:45:32 AM
-
April 16, 2013
FORTUNE – As gold plunges to new two-year lows, a paradox has emerged: The decline reflects better news in the U.S. economy, but it also suggests bad news in other parts of the world as bullion loses its luster as a safe-haven investment.
After rising for 11 consecutive years, the price of gold started falling steadily in October. Its downward spiral has intensified, with prices falling by 5% on Friday, officially entering bear market territory. The sell-off continued Monday, as prices dropped by more than 9% to $1,361.70 an ounce.
Historically, many investors think of gold as an alternative investment when economic times get tough. The precious metal soared in the years following the financial crisis and continued rising as Europe dealt with its monstrous debt problems.
Gold peaked in September 2011, trading at more than $1,900 an ounce, but prices have since fallen 24% on signs that the U.S. economy is recovering. Home prices have steadily risen. And since the start of the year, the U.S. stock market has soared to record highs as investors turned to riskier investments. But while the U.S. appears to be doing better, signs in China and Europe look so troubling that investors don't seem very convinced gold will guard them from losses.
Last week, gold plunged on worries that debt-troubled Cyprus would sell a big chunk of its gold reserves to foot the bill for portions of a bailout. This has spurred fears that other European countries struggling with high debts, particularly Italy, Spain, and Portugal, might also sell some gold reserves.
And on Monday, the sell-off continued after China -- the world's biggest buyer of gold besides India -- reported slower-than-expected growth. During the start of the year, the Chinese economy grew 7.7%, lower than the government's targeted 8% growth rate and by far a big drop from the double-digit annual growth it had seen over three decades. Investors worried that Chinese consumers, faced with less cash, may buy less gold. What's more, if China's economy continues to significantly slow, it will affect economies across the world and hurt exporters of raw materials that have come to demand on surging Chinese demand over the past decade.
In a report last week, Goldman Sachs (GS) cut its three-month price target for an ounce of gold to $1,530 from $1,615 and lowered its 12-month forecast to $1,390 from $1,550. This followed Societe Generale's April 2 note calling gold a "bubble." The bank, along with Barclays (BCS) and Credit Suisse (CS), are among those forecasting lower average prices in 2014 than this year.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/16/gold-price-outlook/?source=cnn_bin
-
As I type this, 24KT is furiously typing a missive about how now is the time to buy gold, a gram at a time, fears about a bubble aside.
-
As I type this, 24KT is furiously typing a missive about how now is the time to buy gold, a gram at a time, fears about a bubble aside.
LOL, ...a proper response requires switching from iPad to desktop.
-
I still don't see the reason to get rid of any of my gold what little I have. I'll stick to gold rather than the fictitious paper money produced by Amreeka. The multi trillion dollar indebted country that thinks it owns real stuff. The country that think its wealthy and that thinks its free. lol. Hollywood is the best America has produced, selling dreams and fantasies. I'll give em that.
-
OK, am on the desktop, ...am cracking my knuckles, ...and sufficiently warming up my fingers before hitting the keyboard. See ya in 2 mins. :D
-
Personally, I am quite happy about what has been taking place. I have already gone on record as saying I hope the price continues to fall. As far as I am concerned, this is one of the best weeding tools myself and my colleagues can have to separate those who think they way we do. They'll recognize this as the buying opportunity we view it to be.
The sell-off taking place right now is in ETF's NOT the physical bullion we deal in.
It has been rumoured & speculated that it was a default at he LBMA that resulted in the need for the smash down. If that turns out to be the case, ...we could very well see the decoupling of paper from physical sooner than we think. Personally, I'd like it to be later rather than sooner, ...and I'd like to see the price fall much, much, lower.
I feel bad for those who may be tempted to sell their physical gold as a result of this paper sell off. However a default only exposes the inherent scam of the ETF's to begin with.
IMO, the true value of an ounce of gold is NOT the spot price, ...but rather the spot price x 100 (the amount of times that ounce of gold is sold in the ETF market.
I also believe the sell off highlights and will shake out all the people who bought gold for all the wrong reasons. Those who are following the same strategy as myself ... using gold as a LONG TERM store of value, or as a form of INSURANCE, NOT as an investment, are not at all phased by recent occurances. They will even actively embrace and be grateful for it.
I'm not at all worried. I do have to admit though... I was surprised to the extent that it has gone down. I thought it was consolidating very nicely and poised for a break out... oh well. but again, ...not at all phased.
I'm glad the ETF's could soon be exposed for the scam I believe them to be. To quote a girlfriend of mine... "I have 4 gold crayons at home worth more than a gold ETF". lol. ;D
-
I still don't see the reason to get rid of any of my gold what little I have. I'll stick to gold rather than the fictitious paper money produced by Amreeka. The multi trillion dollar indebted country that thinks it owns real stuff. The country that think its wealthy and that thinks its free. lol. Hollywood is the best America has produced, selling dreams and fantasies. I'll give em that.
That's because you were smart enough to have acquired PHYSICAL gold, rather than the bogus ETF vapourware put out there.
You have major press coverage of big boys like George Soros selling off their gold, ...but what they neglect to mention is that what he's selling are gold ETF's, ...and they neglect to mention that while he's selling off his gold ETF's high, ...he's quietly acquiring the physical bullion at the resulting low prices brought about by the paper sell off. LOL!
-
Personally, I am quite happy about what has been taking place.
Of course you are. You're happy when gold goes up, you're happy when gold goes down. It's unclear why that is, but hey, as long as you're happy!
I have already gone on record as saying I hope the price continues to fall. As far as I am concerned, this is one of the best weeding tools myself and my colleagues can have to separate those who think they way we do. They'll recognize this as the buying opportunity we view it to be.
Your "colleagues"? That's a funny way to refer to others who bought into this nonsense that gold will, any day now, become the preferred medium of exchange and ought to be stockpiled a gram at a time.
The sell-off taking place right now is in ETF's NOT the physical bullion we deal in.
Perhaps it is. I don't see the difference one way or the other: the spot price for an ounce of gold is dropping faster than a free-falling ounce of lead ;D
I feel bad for those who may be tempted to sell their physical gold as a result of this paper sell off. However a default only exposes the inherent scam of the ETF's to begin with.
Why are ETFs a scam? Not everyone cares to hoard gold under their mattress, and ETFs allow people who are inclined to own gold to do so in a form much more convenient: purely electronic. I know, you don't like this electronic mumbo jumbo and only feel safe when you have the real thing there, so that you can trade it with the many businesses that will accept bullion any day now! ;)
IMO, the true value of an ounce of gold is NOT the spot price, ...but rather the spot price x 100 (the amount of times that ounce of gold is sold in the ETF market.
The true value of an ounce of gold is whatever the market thinks it is. How about a bet? I'll bet you that the price of gold will have crossed the $1,300 threshold by July. If it does, then you pay me $1,300 (U.S. dollars, in cash please). If it doesn't, I'll deliver a shiny one ounce gold maple coin to you. I'm even willing to send the coin today to a respected getbigger to hold in escrow.
I'm glad the ETF's could soon be exposed for the scam I believe them to be. To quote a girlfriend of mine... "I have 4 gold crayons at home worth more than a gold ETF". lol. ;D
Does your girlfriend have a background in economics or did she graduate with a degree in advanced crayoning?
-
Real buying opportunities are lurking on the horizon.
Again, gold is NOT an investment. It IS insurance. With gold in the portfolio, I'm insulated from governmental stupidity.
Gold crushed by 400 tonnes or $20 billion of selling on COMEX
Ross Norman
April 15, 2013
The gold futures markets opened in New York on Friday 12th April to a monumental 3.4 million ounces (100 tonnes) of gold selling of the June futures contract (see below) in what proved to be only an opening shot. The selling took gold to the technically very important level of $1540 which was not only the low of 2012, it was also seen by many as the level which confirmed the ongoing bull run which dates back to 2000. In many traders minds it stood as a formidable support level... the line in the sand.
Two hours later the initial selling, rumored to have been routed through Merrill Lynch's floor team, by a rather more significant blast when the floor was hit by a further 10 million ounces of selling (300 tonnes) over the following 30 minutes of trading. This was clearly not a case of disappointed longs leaving the market - it had the hallmarks of a concerted 'short sale', which by driving prices sharply lower in a display of 'shock & awe' - would seek to gain further momentum by prompting others to also sell as their positions as they hit their maximum acceptable losses or so-called 'stopped-out' in market parlance - probably hidden the unimpeachable (?) $1540 level.
The selling was timed for optimal impact with New York at its most liquid, while key overseas gold markets including London were open and able feel the impact. The estimated 400 tonne of gold futures selling in total equates to 15% of annual gold mine production - too much for the market to readily absorb, especially with sentiment weak following gold's non performance in the wake of Japanese QE, a nuclear threat from North Korea and weakening US economic data. The assault to the short side was essentially saying "you are long... and wrong".
Futures trading is performed on a margined basis - that is to say you have to stump up about 5% of the actual cost of the gold itself making futures trades a highly geared 'opportunity' of about 20:1 - easy profit and also loss ! Futures trading is not a product for widows and orphans. The CME's 10% reduction in the required gold margins in November 2012 from $9133/contract to just $7425/contract made the market more accessible to those wishing both to go long or as it transpired, to go short. Soon after we saw the first serious assault to the downside in Dec 2012, followed by further bouts in January 2013 - modest in size compared to the recent shorting but effective - it laid the ground for what was to follow. One fund in particular, based in Stamford Connecticut, was identified as the previous shorter of gold and has a history of being caught on the wrong side of the law on a few occasions. As badies go - they fit the bill nicely.
The value of the 400 tonnes of gold sold is approximately $20 billion but because it is margined, this short bet would require them to stump up just $1b. The rationale for the trade was clear - excessively bullish forecasts by many banks in Q4 seemed unsupported by follow through buying. The modest short selling in Jan 2013 had prompted little response from the longs - raising questions about their real commitment. By forcing the market lower the Fund sought to prompt a cascade or avalanche of additional selling, proving the lie ; predictably some newswires were premature in announcing the death of the gold bull run doing, in effect, the dirty work of the shorters in driving the market lower still.
This now leaves the gold market in an interesting conundrum - the shorter is now nursing a large gold position and, like the longs also exposed - that is to say the market is polarized between longs and shorts and they cannot both be right. Either the gold bulls - like in a game of tug-of-war - pull back and prompt the shorters to panic and buy back - or they do nothing, in which case the endless stories about the "end of gold" will see a steady further erosion in prices. At the end of the day it is a question of who has got the biggest guns - the shorts have made their play - let's see if there is any response from the longs to defend their position.
Going over the figures in my back office, ...looks like a lot of people actually "get it" :)
Personally, I think the "longs" are waiting to see how far down it will go before making their move.
No doubt the algorithmic traders are siphoning off the money, and the people who got into gold for all the wrong reasons (speculators) are having panic attacks, heart attacks, and getting fleeced.
-
April 16, 2013
FORTUNE – As gold plunges to new two-year lows, a paradox has emerged: The decline reflects better news in the U.S. economy, but it also suggests bad news in other parts of the world as bullion loses its luster as a safe-haven investment.
After rising for 11 consecutive years, the price of gold started falling steadily in October. Its downward spiral has intensified, with prices falling by 5% on Friday, officially entering bear market territory. The sell-off continued Monday, as prices dropped by more than 9% to $1,361.70 an ounce.
Historically, many investors think of gold as an alternative investment when economic times get tough. The precious metal soared in the years following the financial crisis and continued rising as Europe dealt with its monstrous debt problems.
Gold peaked in September 2011, trading at more than $1,900 an ounce, but prices have since fallen 24% on signs that the U.S. economy is recovering. Home prices have steadily risen. And since the start of the year, the U.S. stock market has soared to record highs as investors turned to riskier investments. But while the U.S. appears to be doing better, signs in China and Europe look so troubling that investors don't seem very convinced gold will guard them from losses.
Last week, gold plunged on worries that debt-troubled Cyprus would sell a big chunk of its gold reserves to foot the bill for portions of a bailout. This has spurred fears that other European countries struggling with high debts, particularly Italy, Spain, and Portugal, might also sell some gold reserves.
And on Monday, the sell-off continued after China -- the world's biggest buyer of gold besides India -- reported slower-than-expected growth. During the start of the year, the Chinese economy grew 7.7%, lower than the government's targeted 8% growth rate and by far a big drop from the double-digit annual growth it had seen over three decades. Investors worried that Chinese consumers, faced with less cash, may buy less gold. What's more, if China's economy continues to significantly slow, it will affect economies across the world and hurt exporters of raw materials that have come to demand on surging Chinese demand over the past decade.
In a report last week, Goldman Sachs (GS) cut its three-month price target for an ounce of gold to $1,530 from $1,615 and lowered its 12-month forecast to $1,390 from $1,550. This followed Societe Generale's April 2 note calling gold a "bubble." The bank, along with Barclays (BCS) and Credit Suisse (CS), are among those forecasting lower average prices in 2014 than this year.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/04/16/gold-price-outlook/?source=cnn_bin
China sold 800 tons of Gold paper....BUT bough and took delivery on 500 tons physical. All you need to know.
-
Of course you are. You're happy when gold goes up, you're happy when gold goes down. It's unclear why that is, but hey, as long as you're happy!
Absolutely :D
Things have a way of working out best for people who make the best of the way things work out. ;D
Your "colleagues"? That's a funny way to refer to others who bought into this nonsense that gold will, any day now, become the preferred medium of exchange and ought to be stockpiled a gram at a time.
The people I refer to as "Colleagues" are those who also use gold as INSURANCE, and accumulate it in smaller, more transaction friendly weights in order to maintain maximum flexibility.
Perhaps it is. I don't see the difference one way or the other: the spot price for an ounce of gold is dropping faster than a free-falling ounce of lead ;D
Yes it is... and the spot price measured in ounces denotes the price for ETF gold which currently dominates & dictates the price for currency grade physical gold. This to me indicates a problem with the paper gold market, that could result in it's decoupling from physical. IMO the result will be the inevitable true price discovery for the physical market. In the meantime, I'm content to allow the paper market to dominate the price for physical. it affords me a greater opportunity to acquire more of it.
Why are ETFs a scam? Not everyone cares to hoard gold under their mattress, and ETFs allow people who are inclined to own gold to do so in a form much more convenient: purely electronic.
It is a scam in my estimation because as much as 99% of the gold traded via ETFs does not even exist. That in itself is fraudulent. Taking something real from someone, in exchange for something you do not have and never will have, in the hopes of all the people you took something real from, do not require you to produce the goods. It is just one big casino where every one nudges each other and winks, and manipulates the game of musical chairs. in the end, the music always stops, and the real money is siphoned off and divvied up.
I know, you don't like this electronic mumbo jumbo and only feel safe when you have the real thing there, so that you can trade it with the many businesses that will accept bullion any day now! ;)
Who in their right mind would feel safe paying money for vapourware in a rigged game?
The true value of an ounce of gold is whatever the market thinks it is.
Right you are. I stand corrected. What I should have said it that the true current value of gold to the ETF gold cartel is the spot price X 100
How about a bet? I'll bet you that the price of gold will have crossed the $1,300 threshold by July. If it does, then you pay me $1,300 (U.S. dollars, in cash please). If it doesn't, I'll deliver a shiny one ounce gold maple coin to you. I'm even willing to send the coin today to a respected getbigger to hold in escrow.
LOL. There you go away with the offer to bet. No thanks. but I will keep my fingers crossed that it does... for both our sakes. I'll get my gold more economically, ...and you can have your bragging rights which I just know you will want to rub my nose in constantly. .. won't you? :D
Does your girlfriend have a background in economics or did she graduate with a degree in advanced crayoning?
Well she has a few kids, and the most adorable and special little grandson, so I will assume she has an advanced degree in crayoning. :D
-
China sold 800 tons of Gold paper....BUT bough and took delivery on 500 tons physical. All you need to know.
It's not just China that's doing it. Central banks are as well... all the while talking gold down to the general public, ...even encouraging them to sell gold. :'(
I see it as the lambs being led to the slaughter, ...and if not slaughter, ...certainly the fleecing.
-
Kitco.com forums great place
-
Kitco.com forums great place
Yep, I know.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Gold Rebounds on Bargain Hunting; Bears May Be Exhausted
by Jim Wykoff
Tuesday April 16, 2013 2:15 PM
Gold prices posted solid gains in calmer trading conditions Tuesday, following Monday’s chaos. Bargain hunters stepped in after prices fell to a 26-month low of $1,321.50 an ounce overnight, basis June Comex futures. Heavy physical buying in Asia overnight helped to boost gold prices Tuesday. June Comex gold last traded up $21.50 at $1,382.60 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $29.90 at $1,383.00. May Comex silver last traded up $0.194 at $23.56 an ounce.
Emotions were less frayed Tuesday as gold rebounded well off its overnight two-plus-year low. However, there remains a bit keener anxiety in the market place, with much for traders and investor to ponder as the week plays out. This week’s price action in many markets, including gold and silver, will likely be extra important for price direction in the coming weeks. How markets close on Friday (near their weekly highs or weekly lows) could be a harbinger of price action in the particular market for the coming weeks, or a bit longer.
Reports overnight said physical demand for gold all across Asia increased sharply following the recent plunge in gold prices. Major gold consumers China and India saw their citizens snapping up gold jewelry and bars as prices reached two-year lows. Some retail stores in Asia ran out of gold products for sale. The big jump in demand for physical gold helped stop the bleeding in the gold market.
The U.S. dollar index was solidly lower Tuesday, and that was also a positive for the precious metals markets. The greenback bulls have faded recently. Meantime, Nymex crude oil futures prices are near steady Tuesday, but well off the overnight low that was a fresh 9.5-month low. These two key “outside markets” will continue to have an impact on the daily price movement of the precious metals markets.
The London P.M. gold fix is $1,380.00 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,395.00.
Technically, June gold futures prices closed nearer the session high Tuesday. Bulls are still in serious technical trouble, but they were able to stabilize the market Tuesday. Tuesday’s high-range close does suggest the bears have become exhausted with the recent extreme downside price action. Still, major near-term and longer-term chart damage has been inflicted recently. Gold prices are in a six-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. The gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,500.00. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at $1,300.00. First resistance is seen at Tuesday’s high of $1,404.20 and then at $1,425.00. First support is seen at $1,350.00 and then at Monday’s low of $1,335.10. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 2.0
No wonder my back office is blowing up today. People know that my supplier is offering gold at yesterday's prices, and if they wait to buy tomorrow, they will have to pay today's higher price. gotta love dollar cost averaging. :)
-
basically everything posted solid gains today brainchild...
-
It is a scam in my estimation because as much as 99% of the gold traded via ETFs does not even exist. That in itself is fraudulent. Taking something real from someone, in exchange for something you do not have and never will have, in the hopes of all the people you took something real from, do not require you to produce the goods. It is just one big casino where every one nudges each other and winks, and manipulates the game of musical chairs. in the end, the music always stops, and the real money is siphoned off and divvied up.
It's unclear why you say it does not exist. Can you elaborate, providing some specifics and facts? And please, keep in mind that not every gold ETF is about physical gold.
LOL. There you go away with the offer to bet. No thanks. but I will keep my fingers crossed that it does... for both our sakes. I'll get my gold more economically, ...and you can have your bragging rights which I just know you will want to rub my nose in constantly. .. won't you? :D
Oh come on... let's bet for fun and profit! And yes, yes I will ;)
-
This is a buying opportunity. Anyone that believes the economy is in recovery will be proven to be a sucker.
-
A simple rule in life... If you can't hold it....you don't own it. This applies to paper gold and oil as well as all paper traded financial instruments.
-
A simple rule in life... If you can't hold it....you don't own it. This applies to paper gold and oil as well as all paper traded financial instruments.
if you really believed that you would stock up on guns and ammo and not gold.
-
if you really believed that you would stock up on guns and ammo and not gold.
I have a HUGE amount of those...I'm a partner in pawn shop and we are an FFL....lol
-
basically everything posted solid gains today brainchild...
Yes it did, ...and that is precisely WHY my back office is blowing up TODAY with people backing up their pickup trucks and loading up as much as they can. TODAY Karatbars are selling based on YESTERDAY's lower price. If people waited until tomorrow to buy, the price paid for Karatbars would be even higher, because the price tomorrow will reflect the solid gains made today.
There's no need to attempt to insult.
-
Yes it did, ...and that is precisely WHY my back office is blowing up TODAY with people backing up their pickup trucks and loading up as much as they can. TODAY Karatbars are selling based on YESTERDAY's lower price. If people waited until tomorrow to buy, the price paid for Karatbars would be even higher, because the price tomorrow will reflect the solid gains made today.
There's no need to attempt to insult.
People are loading up their pickup trucks with gold a gram or two at a time encased in credit-card sized chunks of plastic? What would a a one gram Karatbar cost me right now?
-
It's unclear why you say it does not exist. Can you elaborate, providing some specifics and facts? And please, keep in mind that not every gold ETF is about physical gold.
That is soooo my point exactly!
It's not based on physical gold, it is speculative vapourware.
Oh come on... let's bet for fun and profit! And yes, yes I will ;)
Let's not, ...I'm not much of a gambler ;)
And I know you would. I could just see you now with a great big shit-eating grin on your face...
You'd be more orgasmic than Benny & Strawman confronting 333386 the day after the election. LOL ;D
-
People are loading up their pickup trucks with gold a gram or two at a time encased in credit-card sized chunks of plastic? What would a a one gram Karatbar cost me right now?
Go to tulving.com and look it up...although 1 gram might be a stretch to find...but a 1oz Pamp should be easy.
-
People are loading up their pickup trucks with gold a gram or two at a time encased in credit-card sized chunks of plastic? What would a a one gram Karatbar cost me right now?
Anywhere from 0 out-of-pocket cost to 50, but imo, Karatbars are NOT for people like you.
You've made it pretty clear you view gold as a growth investment vehicle, rather the dollar cost averaged long term store of value or insurance karatbars was designed to be.
-
Go to tulving.com and look it up...although 1 gram might be a stretch to find...but a 1oz Pamp should be easy.
Try comparing any other 999.9 pure 1 gr unit with security features to a karatbar, and see what you get.
-
Try comparing any other 999.9 pure 1 gr unit with security features to a karatbar, and see what you get.
I understand the benefits of the karatbar.....I just prefer AGE or Krug...or NTR as I actively work with them.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
GOLD'S BIGGER PICTURE
The Wisdom of Buying Gold Right Now!
4.15.13 - Gold prices, which have been at the mercy of technical selling since 2012, are today witnessing a flood of "paper" market sell orders as short-term speculators take profits.
Swiss America CEO Dean Heskin reminds gold owners that the physical gold market is still alive and well, despite ETF liquidations from major banks, brokerages and traders.
"This flushing out of weak-handed, short-term gold speculators will prove a valuable entry point for those who have felt they missed the gold rush over the last few years," says Heskin.
"Gold's healthy price correction below $1,400/oz. should be viewed as the best buying opportunity in the last year. Market fundamentals remain solid," said author and Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith.
Mr. Smith remains confident the 21st century rush toward a new gold standard and away from a debt-driven culture is far from over, "The strong fundamentals driving this flight to safety could continue to propel gold prices above $2,000/oz."
The recent price dip offered the 9th major gold buying opportunity since 2003. The average price rebound following price dips is 36%! Better yet, this was only the third time in a decade that gold prices have dipped near 20%.
(https://www.buygold.com/images/placed/20130415085022.jpg)
Gold prices have risen dramatically in recent years based on safe haven buying by individuals, institutions, Central banks worldwide as well as ETFs and other short-term speculators. Investors around the globe are diversifying their assets into the world's safest asset, gold, the new standard for measuring currencies worldwide.
During every single gold price consolidation over the last decade most "experts" predicted gold prices had topped. They were wrong. Gold bears claiming the charts are saying "sell" will be wrong again.
To long-term thinkers and investors 2013 offers a smart buying opportunity.
Do not be distracted by media hype over gold price corrections or talk about a new gold "bubble". Instead, keep your eyes on the facts and your focus on the fundamentals. The above 10-year gold chart illustrates nine major gold price corrections in this bull market since 2003:
1. 2003 - Gold at $382 dropped to $319 (-16%)
2. 2004 - Gold at $425 dropped to $375 (-13%)
3. 2005 - Gold at $536 dropped to $489 (-9%)
4. 2006 - Gold at $725 dropped to $560 (-22%)
5. 2007 - Gold at $841 dropped to $778 (-8%)
6. 2008 – Gold hit $1002 on Mar 17 then dropped to $746 on 9-11-08 15 (-25%)
7. 2009-10 - Gold hit $1215 on Dec 7th then dropped to $1,060 on 2-4-10 (-14.6%)
8. 2010-11 - Gold hit $1,425 in Dec. 2010, then dropped to $1,315 on 1-27-11. (-8%)
9. 2011- Gold hit $1,891 in Aug. 2011, then dropped to $1,377 on 4.15.13. (-27%)
Following each of the previous EIGHT major corrections, gold prices have risen an average of 36%. The next leg of this bull market could lift gold prices above $2,100* an ounce.
"Now is an excellent time to buy! If the gold market continues in the same pattern witnessed over the last decade, 2013 may be one of the last opportunities to buy gold below $2,000/oz. Reports of gold's 'death' over the last decade have not only been greatly exaggerated, but will again be proven wrong. Central banks from Bangkok to Boston are creating fiat money, therefore the worst is ahead for the dollar and the best is ahead for gold owners," said author and Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith.
-
Just thought I'd save loco the trouble. ;D
-
I understand the benefits of the karatbar.....I just prefer AGE or Krug...or NTR as I actively work with them.
You do realize that you don't own any gov't issued gold right?
The way they've got the game rigged is that all gov't issued gold is still owned by the gov't.
You are merely the bearer of the gold, and the gov't can recall it's gold whenever they want, and subject you to penalties of imprisonment if you don't turn it in at whatever price they designate for it.
When I discovered that, I stopped acquiring Maple leafs. I'll still accept one if it is gifted to me, but I won't actively pursue acquiring them. It's only privately issue and privately vaulted LBMA GDL for me.
-
Anywhere from 0 out-of-pocket cost to 50, but imo, Karatbars are NOT for people like you.
You've made it pretty clear you view gold as a growth investment vehicle, rather the dollar cost averaged long term store of value or insurance karatbars was designed to be.
That's true. I don't think that a "long term store of value" (if that's what you want to call gold) makes sense unless you already have a couple of hundred million in other assets.
You do realize that you don't own any gov't issued gold right?
Actually, you do own it. You have no legal basis to claim otherwise.
The way they've got the game rigged is that all gov't issued gold is still owned by the gov't.
Please provide a reference for this extraordinary assertion.
You are merely the bearer of the gold, and the gov't can recall it's gold whenever they want, and subject you to penalties of imprisonment if you don't turn it in at whatever price they designate for it.
Perhaps they can't - but, contrary to your assertion, this doesn't only apply to "gov't issued gold." But don't take my word for it; look at Executive Order 6102 which contained the following text in Section 2: "All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933 [...]"
When I discovered that, I stopped acquiring Maple leafs. I'll still accept one if it is gifted to me, but I won't actively pursue acquiring them. It's only privately issue and privately vaulted LBMA GDL for me.
It's unclear why you think that privately issued gold is special, or that private vaulting makes a difference. If you are afraid that your gold is subject to confiscation by the government, then it doesn't matter who issued it and in whose vault it is stored. Again, don't take my word for it. Look at Executive Order 6102. Under it you'd be turning your privately issued, privately vaulted LBMA GDL gold.
-
That's true. I don't think that a "long term store of value" (if that's what you want to call gold) makes sense unless you already have a couple of hundred million in other assets.
I disagree. If one is waiting to amass a couple hundred million in other assets before acquiring gold, ...they may be waiting an awfully long time. :-\
Actually, you do own it. You have no legal basis to claim otherwise.
No, you are just the bearer of the gold. If the gov't issues it, it belongs to the gov't. You are merely the bearer who has been granted authority to use it. It however is NOT yours. It's like a bank debit or credit card. It belongs to the issuer. You are simply allowed to use it, ...until they decide you no longer can.
Please provide a reference for this extraordinary assertion.
Sorry, I'm no lawyer with a bookcase full of legal references and case history at my fingertips, ...and won't be searching for the reference. But others are perfectly able to look for it if they wish.
Perhaps they can't - but, contrary to your assertion, this doesn't only apply to "gov't issued gold." But don't take my word for it; look at Executive Order 6102 which contained the following text in Section 2: "All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates now owned by them or coming into their ownership on or before April 28, 1933 [...]"
It's unclear why you think that privately issued gold is special, or that private vaulting makes a difference. If you are afraid that your gold is subject to confiscation by the government, then it doesn't matter who issued it and in whose vault it is stored. Again, don't take my word for it. Look at Executive Order 6102. Under it you'd be turning your privately issued, privately vaulted LBMA GDL gold.
I believe it is special because precedent has already been set, not only in the USA, but in many countries around the world. There have been many countries who have over the years made gold ownership illegal, or who have imposed restrictions on importing gold, or trading in gold bearing certain hallmarks.
When it was done in Romania, the only gold coins & bars NOT subject to recall, was religious, numismatic or privately issued and acquired outside of Romania.
I have no desire to start collecting religious gold. I have no desire to pay a premium for a numismatic's perceived value, or a craftsman's skill.
Privately issued gold can easily be melted down, refashioned, and willed to progeny.
Privately issued Gold within a private vault is not as easily turned over against your will as a result of government decrees... especially when the entities involved operate ABOVE the line.
That line being ... subject to legislation decreed by a foreign country.
That's why you can kick back with a beer or get shitfaced on Jack Daniels despite what Saudi Arabia decrees vis-a-vis alcohol and it's consumption.
-
No, you are just the bearer of the gold. If the gov't issues it, it belongs to the gov't. You are merely the bearer who has been granted authority to use it. It however is NOT yours. It's like a bank debit or credit card. It belongs to the issuer. You are simply allowed to use it, ...until they decide you no longer can.
That's a ridiculous argument. Do you also believe that your car belongs to the company that made it?
Sorry, I'm no lawyer with a bookcase full of legal references and case history at my fingertips, ...and won't be searching for the reference. But others are perfectly able to look for it if they wish.
The simple fact is that you cannot justify that position or the position above. You can claim it's true, of course, but you cannot justify it. And I don't think anyone should give any weight to your unsubstantiated claims. They are blatantly wrong.
I believe it is special because precedent has already been set, not only in the USA, but in many countries around the world. There have been many countries who have over the years made gold ownership illegal, or who have imposed restrictions on importing gold, or trading in gold bearing certain hallmarks.
Countries which made gold ownership illegal banned gold outright, with little regard for the shape or the issuer. Short of restrictions imposed on Nazi gold, I know of no other cases in modern times where gold was restricted based on hallmarks. That's not to say that it didn't happen. You could provide some references perhaps?
When it was done in Romania, the only gold coins & bars NOT subject to recall, was religious, numismatic or privately issued and acquired outside of Romania.
I have no desire to start collecting religious gold. I have no desire to pay a premium for a numismatic's perceived value, or a craftsman's skill.
Oh well, if we're going to talk about Romania, that changes everything! I mean, shit, let's plan our lives around what the Communists running Romania after WWII did...
Privately issued gold can easily be melted down, refashioned, and willed to progeny.
You can melt down, refashion and will to progeny a gold eagle issued by the U.S. Mint just as easily as you can melt down, refashion and will to progeny a bar from Engelhard. Ironically enough, Karatbars are the least flexible here.
Privately issued Gold within a private vault is not as easily turned over against your will as a result of government decrees... especially when the entities involved operate ABOVE the line.
Privately vaulted gold is trivially turned over. The 6102 Executive Order required that all gold be turned over (listing only a handful of exceptions) whether it was held by people or corporations and regardless of form or issuer, and provided for penalties for non-compliance. Private companies complied readily.
And sure, you can keep your gold vaulted in another country, but that comes with a host of other issues. First and foremost is that you've doubled your risk. You now have to worry about the legal environment in your country and in the country in which your gold is vaulted. If the company vaulting your gold is incorporated in a third country, you've tripled your original risk and have to worry about yet another legal environment.
Beyond the fact that the company that owns the vault still operates within the legal framework of the country in which the vault is located you also have to consider that the company could be compelled to appear before a Court in any country in which it does business (since by doing so it has, likely, subjected itself to the laws of said country).
Of course, there's also the issue of ease of access - something you frequently bring up. How easily can you access that gold if it's, say, Germany and you're located in the United States? The time difference alone could be an issue.
That line being ... subject to legislation decreed by a foreign country.
In other words, your risk of confiscation by legislative action has increased by 100%. Got it.
That's why you can kick back with a beer or get shitfaced on Jack Daniels despite what Saudi Arabia decrees vis-a-vis alcohol and it's consumption.
It's true that *I* am not operating under Saudi laws. But you're mixing apples and oranges. My booze isn't kept in a vault in Saudi Arabia. If it was Saudi laws vis-à-vis alcohol would certainly apply. Not to mention that pouring a glass would be a huge pain in the ass.
-
It's unclear why you say it does not exist. Can you elaborate, providing some specifics and facts? And please, keep in mind that not every gold ETF is about physical gold.
-
I'm sorry, but youtube videos referencing someone whose business involves peddling gold and silver ($11,000/ounce any time now!!!) while writing alarmist books about the coming collapse for the dollar (it's been coming now for almost a decade... is it here yet? the hot appetizers are gonna get cold soon!) and who sees conspiracies don't count for very much in my book.
Do you have some objective evidence, perhaps?
-
The only way significant money can be made with precious metal is with leveraged commodities future trading...and most traders don't succeed.
-
That's a ridiculous argument. Do you also believe that your car belongs to the company that made it?
No I do not, ...and neither would anybody else believe such a ridiculous premise vis-a-vis a car, or anything else they have legally purchased. Therein is the rub. It is so ridiculous a concept that who would ever suspect such a ridiculous premise? ...however... thus is the case with gold. Just another nasty surprise waiting to happen. Hopefully it never does, ...but it could. The framework is in place.
The premise is almost as ridiculous a premise as the great bastion of freedom... the USA ever getting rid of the 1st, 2nd, or 4th amendment. As ridiculous and as impossible a premise as the USA going from a free country to a socialist dictatorship.
There are too many ridiculous premises floating about so it is up to you to discern what is in fact within the realm of possibility.
The simple fact is that you cannot justify that position or the position above. You can claim it's true, of course, but you cannot justify it. And I don't think anyone should give any weight to your unsubstantiated claims. They are blatantly wrong.
There is no reason why anyone should give any weight to why I do what I do or why.
I don't dispense financial or tax planning advise. I'm simply stating what I do and why.
I do think that rather than demand someone justify their own reasoning for conducting their own affairs, that people should do some Due Diligence on their own. I'm not saying everyone should do as I do. I'm simply stating what I do and why. If it makes sense for someone else to do the same, ...that is for them to decide for themselves. Who am I to tell a marine he shouldn't have a haircut. You wouldn't catch me dead with one of those haircuts, but military personnel wear their hair like that for a reason. And after a thorough examination of the situation, I understand why they do. makes sense to me, and I would never ridicule one of them for it.
Countries which made gold ownership illegal banned gold outright, with little regard for the shape or the issuer. Short of restrictions imposed on Nazi gold, I know of no other cases in modern times where gold was restricted based on hallmarks. That's not to say that it didn't happen. You could provide some references perhaps?
You just named a great example... Nazi gold.
Now let's look at what the nazi's did... they rose to power in the middle of a severe economic downturn, guided along by a charismatic and eloquent dictator, and well timed false flag acts of terrorism that were skillfully exploited to garner support for ushering in agenda based legislation and denying people their freedoms. They launched a war of aggression against their neighbours, encouraged, and committed wholescale genocide across many borders, ...but the shit eventually caught up with them, and they lost the war. Fast Forward ... due to their many illegal acts, and outright evil attrocities you were essentially screwed, tattooed, and up the creek without a paddle if you had any gold with the Nazi hallmarks... (unless you had your own refinery and could melt down your gold yourself...) you were fvcked.
Who is to say that some other country may not one day run afoul of international standards in much the same way the Nazi's did? International indignation against the Nazi's was pretty widespread... even among countries who were not at all affected by their actions. Who is to say that some other country may not one day find themselves a pariah among nations, and may find their hallmarks and symbols shunned by all others? Especially if the acts of that nation fvcked over other nations big time? Can you imagine the anger and wrath against a nation that could single-handedly fuck up the whole world... whether by incompetence, stupidity, whoremongering, war mongering or just plain hubris? Can you imagine the anger and wrath that could be exibited by other nations against a nation like that? Do you remember what happened to the Kruggerand during the worldwide battle against SA apartheid?
I don't know about you, but I personally would not want to be holding gold minted by any country with the potential to become a pariah among nations.
Oh well, if we're going to talk about Romania, that changes everything! I mean, shit, let's plan our lives around what the Communists running Romania after WWII did...
I'd rather not, ...however I believe that long term planning should allow for maximum flexibility both long term and short term. We are living in interesting times my friend... very interesting times.
You can melt down, refashion and will to progeny a gold eagle issued by the U.S. Mint just as easily as you can melt down, refashion and will to progeny a bar from Engelhard. Ironically enough, Karatbars are the least flexible here.
Then I suppose I must be mistaken in my belief that it is illegal to melt currency.
Actually I believe Karatbars are the most flexible, but that is a matter of opinion.
An opinion based on insider knowledge, and an opinion based on assumption.
And by insider knowledge I mean... on the inside looking out, verses on the outside looking.
Privately vaulted gold is trivially turned over. The 6102 Executive Order required that all gold be turned over (listing only a handful of exceptions) whether it was held by people or corporations and regardless of form or issuer, and provided for penalties for non-compliance. Private companies complied readily.
How many private vaults abroad turned over the vaulted gold of American citizens?
Even if... and I do mean IF a private facility were inclined to do such a thing... they would have to know which country the individual is a citizen of in order to do so. They would also need to know what you have in the vault is in fact gold.
And sure, you can keep your gold vaulted in another country, but that comes with a host of other issues. First and foremost is that you've doubled your risk. You now have to worry about the legal environment in your country and in the country in which your gold is vaulted. If the company vaulting your gold is incorporated in a third country, you've tripled your original risk and have to worry about yet another legal environment.
Perhaps... however that is where the DD comes in. How do you feel about the political environment at home? All jingoism aside... how do you feel it compares with other jurisdictions vis-a-vis private property rights, taxes, or any other issue you hold dear to your heart etc., etc.,? I mean... I'm not necessarily fond of their weather, but if I were a gun nut, ...Switzerland would be my wet dream.
Beyond the fact that the company that owns the vault still operates within the legal framework of the country in which the vault is located you also have to consider that the company could be compelled to appear before a Court in any country in which it does business (since by doing so it has, likely, subjected itself to the laws of said country).
Yes, ...again proper DD is in order. Are there any jurisdictions whose laws are more in tune with your personal sentiments? Are there any jurisdictions whose laws support your desires better than those at home? I know there are many Americans who prefer the laws & legislation of foreign jurisdictions regarding these types of things. There is a reason for this. Perhaps many should find out why.
Of course, there's also the issue of ease of access - something you frequently bring up. How easily can you access that gold if it's, say, Germany and you're located in the United States? The time difference alone could be an issue.
You gave Germany as an example, so I will go with that. I suppose it would be determined by what type of gold one held in Germany and in what form. If it were Krugerrands held in a vault, I'm not sure how one would handle it. I know that if one were holding Karatbars, one could simply execute sell instructions, in any amount desired, and your gold would be purchased back at the highest guaranteed buyback price and the cash deposited on a debit card. Your money can be accessed through any ATM or transferred into any bank account of your choosing.
In other words, your risk of confiscation by legislative action has increased by 100%. Got it.
Not at all accurate. In fact... far from it.
But for those who do not trust any facility to vault their metals... they are always free to take delivery on them. They can stuff them under their mattresses, or dig a hole in their back yard and bury it if they want.
It's true that *I* am not operating under Saudi laws. But you're mixing apples and oranges. My booze isn't kept in a vault in Saudi Arabia. If it was Saudi laws vis-à-vis alcohol would certainly apply. Not to mention that pouring a glass would be a huge pain in the ass.
Perhaps that's why so many Saudis so enjoy visiting your fair city ;)
On that note, I will bid you a good night. I have a full day tomorrow and need my beauty sleep.
Cheers :D
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/551508_595019363842551_1815260469_n.jpg)
-
The only way significant money can be made with precious metal is with leveraged commodities future trading...and most traders don't succeed.
My primary concern is not making money with gold, ...but rather saving money in gold, and using gold as insurance. If I buy 2 ounces gold at $2,000 an ounce, ...and the price drops to $1,000 an ounce... I haven't lost a thing. I still have my 2 ounces of gold. My game plan is long term, I'm not planning to sell it. I know eventually it will go back up again, and will most likely surpass the original price I purchased it at. in the meantime... I will view any pull backs as a buying opportunity to dollar cost average. In the end... I will have a nice little pot convertible into whatever currency I choose at some later date, if I choose to convert, ...or a nice little pot I can will to create and maintain generational wealth.
For me Gold is INSURANCE against what I believe to be an inevitable shit storm of unfathomable proportions.
For every 4 dollars I put aside, I make sure I take 1, and put it into gold. And thankfully my supplier makes it possible to for me to accelerate & magnify my acquisition of gold & cash through a leveraged system that acquires the gold for me virtually free.
-
I'm sorry, but youtube videos referencing someone whose business involves peddling gold and silver ($11,000/ounce any time now!!!) while writing alarmist books about the coming collapse for the dollar (it's been coming now for almost a decade... is it here yet? the hot appetizers are gonna get cold soon!) and who sees conspiracies don't count for very much in my book.
Do you have some objective evidence, perhaps?
That isn't my video. I specifically used that one because it answered your question and was not in any way connected to me at all. It happened to be linked in someone else's sig line in another forum of which I am a member. Sorry. :-\
As for alarmist books by objective sources... there's Jim Rickards Currency Wars... Chris Martensen's Crash Course... and while I realize you are reflexively biased against Mike Maloney... he is definitely worth a read.
I really don't know what to tell you. It seems any information I provide you with will be viewed as unobjective simply because I am pro gold. by that very same line of reasoning, are we to assume anything you have to say is similarly lacking in objectivity because you are pro FRN?
Dude, your FRN has only 2% of the purchasing power it had 100 yrs ago,
...whereas my gold has kept up with and even gotten ahead of inflation.
If a FRN was dynamite, ...it wouldn't have the explosive power to blow your nose. :-\
Anyway... have a good night, ...and have a martini on me. ;D
-
I still don't see the reason to get rid of any of my gold what little I have.
Well, that speaks for itself, aye? ;D
Also, I'm not sure what you're on about as far as Amreeka is concerned, but there are a variety of investment products besides gold that don't have overmuch to do with the world hegemon's finances and which returned a bit more than gold's -24% the last year and a half.
-
For me Gold is INSURANCE against what I believe to be an inevitable shit storm of unfathomable proportions.
Ah, so it's no longer an investment vehicle or a potentially significant future medium of exchange; now it's simply insurance? Very well. But this still leads to a host of questions about your (or anyone else's) gold-hoarding strategy;
1. What is gold insurance against, precisely? Insurance products tend to have a definite set of events which they protect against, whether they be life insurance, CDS's, car insurance, or what have you. How can you ever justify the cost of an insurance product if it's just "Anti-Bad Stuff Insurance!", ipso facto lacking a definite, calculable value?
2. Speaking of calculable value, even if you had a definite set of events you were insuring against, before it'd be rational to horde gold you'd at least need a good idea of the probability that one or more of these events would occur in order to calculate the value of your insurance. Have you done any such thing? How can it be rational to buy insurance for unknown events with utterly indeterminate probabilities of occurring? This is to say nothing of the value of alternative ways of utilizing your money.
3. Speaking of alternative ways of utilizing your money, your strategy only makes sense if it is more valuable than its opportunity cost, or what you could be doing with that money instead. Have you considered what else that money could have done for you? Maybe you don't mind that money having lost 24% of its value this last year, since you indicate you've got a long time horizon.
4. Speaking of time horizons, how long is yours, exactly? We're all dead in the long run and without a clear horizon for your "insurance policy," just holding onto it indefinitely makes little to no sense -- in fact, it's horrendous investment practice. With substantial research indicating gold's value has little relation to inflation, the 'inflationary hedge' reasoning is out the window (but even that would rationally be adopted with a definite timeline). If you'll simply hold onto it until 59.5 years, say, then you're just gambling -- with 1/4th of the money you've earned. That's an awful lot of risk capital, given what you've done with it isn't rational to begin with (see 1.-4.).
5. These are very basic questions that anybody in your position would do well to consider -- in fact, they'd have already thought of all this and developed approximate answers before going for such a wild strategy. I'm not asking you to bust out spreadsheets at this point in time; I'm simply worrying in textual form over your consistent lack of competence explicating your strategy and answering basic questions about it.
It would be unfortunate if someone sincerely and without malicious intent got caught up with a company whose structure has a very high correspondence with scamming and thievery (MLM) and got screwed or otherwise wasted capital (thereby screwing or wasting the capital of their kid(s)) due to a lack of knowledge, succumbing to the age-old promise of acquiring the financial equivalent of the "Philosopher's Stone": easy, above average returns without too much understanding or effort required. It would be worse still if this person served as a vector for spreading the misinformed strategy about, with similarly negative effects upon those influenced.
Countering something like that makes putting a bit of effort into calling out bullshit worth it. ;D
-
As hard as I try, I can't seem to physically grab a hold of these student loans; does that mean they aren't mine and I'm free at last? Hurray!
Sure you can...grab your diploma that was purchased with student loan. But buy gold from comex and ask for delivery, they'll send you a settlement check.
-
Gold is a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation, also as a currency exchange in underground economies. Gold and silver (and plat. Family) are the only form of exchange that is accepted worldwide and is available to individuals. Try lugging a barrel of oil or a bushel of wheat to trade.
-
They'll recognize this as the buying opportunity we view it to be.
A buying opportunity? This is a good time to buy gold? ::)
-
For me Gold is INSURANCE against what I believe to be an inevitable shit storm of unfathomable proportions.
(http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ashleymbhs6.edublogs.org-Disney-Chicken-Little-Sky-Falling1.jpg)
-
"Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.
A naked short is when the short seller does not have or borrow the item that he shorts, but sells shorts regardless. In the paper gold market, the participants are betting on gold prices and are content with the monetary payment. Therefore, generally, as participants are not interested in taking delivery of the gold, naked shorts do not need to be covered with the physical metal.
In other words, with naked shorts, no physical metal is actually sold."
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/04/13/assault-on-gold-update-paul-craig-roberts/
just FYI
-
A buying opportunity? This is a good time to buy gold? ::)
I stand corrected. I should have said it was an EXCELLENT time to buy physical gold.
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Assault On Gold
By Paul Craig Roberts
April 4, 2013
(http://humboldtsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dr.-Paul-Craig-Roberts.jpg)
For Americans, financial and economic Armageddon might be close at hand. The evidence for this conclusion is the concerted effort by the Federal Reserve and its dependent financial institutions to scare people away from gold and silver by driving down their prices.
When gold prices hit $1,917.50 an ounce on August 23, 2011, a gain of more than $500 an ounce in less than 8 months, capping a rise over a decade from $272 at the end of December 2000, the Federal Reserve panicked. With the US dollar losing value so rapidly compared to the world standard for money, the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing $1 trillion annually in order to support the impaired balance sheets of banks and to finance the federal deficit was placed in danger. Who could believe the dollar’s exchange rate in relation to other currencies when the dollar was collapsing in value in relation to gold and silver.
The Federal Reserve realized that its massive purchase of bonds in order to keep their
prices high (and thus interest rates low) was threatened by the dollar’s rapid loss of value in terms of gold and silver. The Federal Reserve was concerned that large holders of US dollars, such as the central banks of China and Japan and the OPEC sovereign investment funds, might join the flight of individual investors away from the US dollar, thus ending in the fall of the dollar’s foreign exchange value and thus decline in US bond and stock prices.
Intelligent people could see that the US government could not afford the long and numerous wars that the neoconservatives were engineering or the loss of tax base and consumer income from offshoring millions of US middle class jobs for the sake of executive bonuses and shareholder capital gains. They could see what was in the cards, and began exiting the dollar for gold and silver.
Central banks are slower to act. Saudi Arabia and the oil emirates are dependent on US protection and do not want to anger their protector. Japan is a puppet state that is careful in its relationship with its master. China wanted to hold on to the American consumer market for as long as that market existed. It was individuals who began the exit from the US dollar.
When gold topped $1,900, Washington put out the story that gold was a bubble. The presstitute media fell in line with Washington’s propaganda. “Gold looking a bit bubbly” declared CNN Money on August 23, 2011.
The Federal Reserve used its dependent “banks too big to fail” to short the precious metals markets. By selling naked shorts in the paper bullion market against the rising demand for physical possession, the Federal Reserve was able to drive the price of gold down to $1,750 and keep it more or less capped there until recently, when a concerted effort on April 2-3, 2013, drove gold down to $1,557 and silver, which had approached $50 per ounce in 2011, down to $27.
The Federal Reserve began its April Fool’s assault on gold by sending the word to brokerage houses, which quickly went out to clients, that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that clients should get out of the precious metal market prior to these sales. As this inside information was the government’s own strategy, individuals cannot be prosecuted for acting on it. By this operation, the Federal Reserve, a totally corrupt entity, was able to combine individual flight with institutional flight. Bullion prices took a big hit, and bullishness departed from the gold and silver markets. The flow of dollars into bullion, which threatened to become a torrent, was stopped.
For now it seems that the Fed has succeeded in creating wariness among Americans about the virtues of gold and silver, and thus the Federal Reserve has extended the time that it can print money to keep the house of cards standing. This time could be short or it could last a couple of years.
However, for the Russians and Chinese, whose central banks have more dollars than they any longer want, and for the 1.3 billion Indians in India, the low dollar price for gold that the Federal Reserve has engineered is an opportunity. They see the opportunity that the Federal Reserve has given them to purchase gold at $350-$400 an ounce less than two years ago as a gift.
The Federal Reserve’s attack on bullion is an act of desperation that, when widely recognized, will doom its policy.
As I have explained previously, the orchestrated move against gold and silver is to protect the exchange value of the US dollar. If bullion were not a threat, the government would not be attacking it.
The Federal Reserve is creating $1 trillion new dollars per year, but the world is moving away from the use of the dollar for international payments and, thus, as reserve currency. The result is an increase in supply and a decrease in demand. This means a falling exchange value of the dollar, domestic inflation from rising import prices, and a rising interest rate and collapsing bond, stock and real estate markets.
The Federal Reserve’s orchestration against bullion cannot ultimately succeed. It is designed to gain time for the Federal Reserve to be able to continue financing the federal budget deficit by printing money and also to keep interest rates low and debt prices high in order to support the banks’ balance sheets.
When the Federal Reserve can no longer print due to dollar decline which printing would make worse, US bank deposits and pensions could be grabbed in order to finance the federal budget deficit for couple of more years. Anything to stave off the final catastrophe.
The manipulation of the bullion market is illegal, but as government is doing it the law will not be enforced.
By its obvious and concerted attack on gold and silver, the US government could not give any clearer warning that trouble is approaching. The values of the dollar and of financial assets denominated in dollars are in doubt.
Those who believe in government and those who believe in deregulation will be proved equally wrong. The United States of America is past its zenith. As I predicted early in the 21st century, in 20 years the US will be a third world country. We are halfway there.
Bio of Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - Economist, Co-Founder of Reaganomics & Acclaimed Author
Dr. Roberts (born April 3, 1939) is an American economist, a columnist for Creators Syndicate and recent author of “The Failure Of Laissaz Faire Capitalism”. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as a co-founder of Reaganomics. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service who has testified before congressional committees on 30 occasions on issues of economic policy. Roberts has written extensively that during the 21st century the Bush and Obama administrations have destroyed the US Constitution's protections of Americans' civil liberties, such as habeas corpus and due process in the name of "the war on terror." Roberts has been a critic of both Democratic and Republican administrations
Roberts is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was a post-graduate at the University of California, Berkeley and at Merton College, Oxford University. His first scholarly article (Classica et Mediaevalia) was a reformulation of "The Pirenne Thesis."
In Alienation and the Soviet Economy (1971), Roberts explained the Soviet economy as the outcome of a struggle between inordinate aspirations and a refractory reality. He argued that the Soviet economy was not centrally planned, but that its institutions, such as material supply, reflected the original Marxist aspirations to establish a non-market mode of production. In Marx's Theory of Exchange (1973), Roberts argued that Marx was an organizational theorist whose materialist conception of history ruled out good will as an effective force for change.
From 1975 to 1978, Roberts served on the congressional staff. As economic counsel to Congressman Jack Kemp he drafted the Kemp-Roth bill (which became the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981) and played a leading role in developing bipartisan support for a supply-side economic policy. His influential 1978 article for Harper's, while economic counsel to Senator Orrin Hatch, had Wall Street Journal editor Robert L. Bartley give him an editorial slot, which he had until 1980. He was a senior fellow in political economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, then part of Georgetown University.
From early 1981 to January 1982 he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy. President Ronald Reagan and Treasury Secretary Donald Regan credited him with a major role in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, and he was awarded the Treasury Department's Meritorious Service Award for "outstanding contributions to the formulation of United States economic policy." Roberts resigned in January 1982 to become the first occupant of the William E. Simon Chair for Economic Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, then part of Georgetown University. He held this position until 1993. He went on to write The Supply-Side Revolution (1984), in which he explained the reformulation of macroeconomic theory and policy that he had helped to create.
He was a Distinguished Fellow at the Cato Institute from 1993 to 1996. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
In The New Color Line (1995), Roberts argued that the Civil Rights Act was subverted by the bureaucrats who applied it and, by being used to create status-based privileges, became a threat to the Fourteenth Amendment in whose name it was passed. In The Tyranny of Good Intentions (2000), Roberts documented what he saw as the erosion of the Blackstonian legal principles that ensure that law is a shield of the innocent and not a weapon in the hands of government.
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Assault On Gold Update
By Paul Craig Roberts
April 13, 2013
(http://humboldtsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dr.-Paul-Craig-Roberts.jpg)
NOTE: Gold weights are based on metric tons and Troy ounces. 500 metric tons of gold would be 16,075,000 troy ounces. This changes the arithmetic slightly but not the point
I was the first to point out that the Federal Reserve was rigging all markets, not merely bond prices and interest rates, and that the Fed is rigging the bullion market in order to protect the US dollar’s exchange value, which is threatened by the Fed’s quantitative easing. With the Fed adding to the supply of dollars faster than the demand for dollars is increasing, the price or exchange value of the dollar is set up to fall.
A fall in the dollar’s exchange rate would push up import prices and, thereby, domestic inflation, and the Fed would lose control over interest rates. The bond market would collapse and with it the values of debt-related derivatives on the “banks too big too fail” balance sheets. The financial system would be in turmoil, and panic would reign.
Rapidly rising bullion prices were an indication of loss of confidence in the dollar and were signaling a drop in the dollar’s exchange rate. The Fed used naked shorts in the paper gold market to offset the price effect of a rising demand for bullion possession. Short sales that drive down the price trigger stop-loss orders that automatically lead to individual sales of bullion holdings once their loss limits are reached.
According to Andrew Maguire, on Friday, April 12, the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.
A naked short is when the short seller does not have or borrow the item that he shorts, but sells shorts regardless. In the paper gold market, the participants are betting on gold prices and are content with the monetary payment. Therefore, generally, as participants are not interested in taking delivery of the gold, naked shorts do not need to be covered with the physical metal.
In other words, with naked shorts, no physical metal is actually sold.
People ask me how I know that the Fed is rigging the bullion price and seem surprised that anyone would think the Fed and its bullion bank agents would do such a thing, despite the public knowledge that the Fed is rigging the bond market and the banks with the Fed’s knowledge rigged the Libor rate. The answer is that the circumstantial evidence is powerful.
Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.
Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?
What happens when 500 tons of gold sales are dumped on the market at one time or on one day? Correct, it drives the price down. Investors who want to get out of large positions would spread sales out over time so as not to lower their sales proceeds. The sale took gold down by about $73 per ounce. That means the seller or sellers lost up to $73 dollars 16 million times, or $1,168,000,000.
Who can afford to lose that kind of money? Only a central bank that can print it.
I believe that the authorities would like to drive the gold price down further and will, if they can, hit the gold market twice more next week and put gold at $1,400 per ounce or lower. The successive declines could perhaps spook individual holders of physical gold and result in actual net sales of physical gold as people reduced their holdings of the metal.
However, bullion dealer Bill Haynes told kingworldnews.com that last Friday bullion purchasers among the public outpaced sellers by 50 to 1, and that the premiums over the spot price on gold and silver coins are the highest in decades. I myself checked with Gainesville Coins and was told that far more buyers than sellers had responded to the price drop.
Unless the authorities have the actual metal with which to back up the short selling, they could be met with demands for deliveries. Unable to cover the shorts with real metal, the scheme would be exposed.
Do the authorities have the metal with which to cover shorts? I do not know. However, knowledgeable dealers are suspicious. Some think that US physical stocks of gold were used up in sales in efforts to disrupt the rise in the gold price from $272 in December 2000 to $1,900 in 2011. They point to Germany’s recent request that the US return the German gold stored in the US, and to the US government’s reply that it would return the gold piecemeal over seven years. If the US has the gold, why not return it to Germany?
The clear implication is that the US cannot deliver the gold.
Andrew Maguire also reports that foreign central banks, especially China, are loading up on physical gold at the low prices made possible by the short selling. If central banks are using their dollar holdings to purchase bullion at bargain prices, the likely results will be pressure on the dollar’s exchange value and a declining market supply of physical bullion. In other words, by trying to protect the dollar from its quantitative easing policy, the Fed might be hastening the dollar’s demise.
Possibly the Fed fears a dollar crisis or derivative blowup is nearing and is trying to reset the gold/dollar price prior to the outbreak of trouble. If ill winds are forecast, the Fed might feel it is better positioned to deal with crisis if the price of bullion is lower and confidence in bullion as a refuge has been shaken.
In addition to short selling that is clearly intended to drive down the gold price, orchestration is also indicated by the advance announcements this month first from brokerage houses and then from Goldman Sachs that hedge funds and institutional investors would be selling their gold positions. The purpose of these announcements was to encourage individual investors to get out of gold before the big boys did. Does anyone believe that hedge funds and Wall Street would announce their sales in advance so the small fry can get out of gold at a higher price than they do?
If these advanced announcements are not orchestration, what are they?
I see the orchestrated effort to suppress the price of gold and silver as a sign that the authorities are frightened that trouble is brewing that they cannot control unless there is strong confidence in the dollar. Otherwise, what is the point of the heavy short selling and orchestrated announcements of gold sales in advance of the sales?
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Update to the Update: The Attack on Gold
By Paul Craig Roberts
April 16, 2013
(http://humboldtsentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dr.-Paul-Craig-Roberts.jpg)
Tuesday, April 16. The orchestrated attack on bullion in the paper gold market took the spot prices of gold and silver down on Friday and Monday, but actual physical purchases rose during this period. The sales were of paper claims, not of real metal.
The demand for physical possession of bullion rose so strongly that large wholesalers such as www.tulving.com and large retailers such as Gainesville Coins reported sold out items. Also, dealers raised the premiums above the spot price that is charged for coins. From Friday to Monday the premium on Silver Eagles at the large online retailer, Gainesville Coins, rose from $3.75 to $5.99 above the spot price of silver. The percentage increase in premium was larger than the percentage decline in the silver price. Thus, the price of a silver one Troy ounce coin did not drop despite the drop in the spot price. Today (April 16) the price of a silver eagle purchased with a credit card from retailer Gainesville Coins is $30.36. You would never know that the market had fallen out.
Today (Tuesday, April 16) Tulving reported 29% of its bar and coin bullion categories sold out and had almost no silver coin stock. The premium over spot on new gold eagles was $63.95. At large online retailers the premium was $71. Gainesville Coins has no silver Buffalos and lists shipment of orders to commence when coins are available, estimated to be May 10.
What I am reporting are facts, not a theory. We have just had two days of massive sales of paper claims on bullion, but during these days when the price of gold and silver collapsed under short sales, it was difficult to get your hands on the metal itself. On telephone orders you wait in long queues to place an order and are told that delivery awaits availability.
Listening to the media and to academic economists such as Paul Krugman, you would think no one any longer wants gold and silver. But try getting your hands on some.
The physical bullion market, gold especially, is dominated by Asians. Americans are a minor player. Most Americans still believe in the almighty dollar, but few Asians do. The Chinese tomorrow would dump their two trillion of US dollar-denominated assets and purchase gold, except that the action would drive down the dollar and drive up the gold price. So, unlike the orchestrated attack on gold, China plays a slow hand, using the orchestrated attack on gold to acquire the metal at lower prices.
As I understand it, the open interest or future contracts on COMEX greatly exceed the bullion available for delivery. This is a paper market mainly settled in cash, not by taking delivery. If the contracts had to be settled in bullion instead of cash, the COMEX would fail.
One advantage of growing old is that one gains perspective. I remember when gold was $35 an ounce and silver $1 an ounce. If memory serves, until sometimes in the 1960s, a person could still take a paper dollar to a bank and be given a silver dollar. There were $1 dollar and $5 dollar silver certificates (paper money) that circulated along with Federal Reserve currency. At that time banks did not differentiate. A dollar was a dollar. Silver certificates today have collectors’s value, but the Federal Reserve currency does not.
If memory serves, sometimes after 1966 if a person presented a silver certificate to a Federal Reserve Bank, he received one or five ounces or raw silver in return depending on the denomination of the certificate, which looked like a Federal Reserve note except it said Silver Certificate. I have some of these envelopes of little pieces of silver.
When silver was taken out of US coins in the 1960s and copper was taken out of the US penny in the early 1980s, despite my opposition as Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, all real constraints on fiat money were removed.
Today we see the Fed protecting its protection of “banks too big to fail” with low interest rates by creating enormous sums of money in order to purchase both Treasury bonds and mortgage backed derivatives.
These Fed purchasers are at the expense of savers and CD and bond purchasers who receive a negative real rate of interest.
Now, to protect its bank rescue policy, the Fed is attempting to drive down the price of bullion, thus depriving Americans of any way of protecting their life savings from the inflation that the Fed’s money printing will ultimately cause.
Save a handful of corrupt banks, screw the American public--that is the Fed’s policy.
Like almost every other American institution, the Fed represents the mega-rich.
Anyone with open eyes can see that it is impossible for the US dollar to maintain its current exchange value and role as world money when its supply is being increased by $1,000 billion per year while the world is ceasing to use the dollar for international payments.
The attack on gold is a desperate attempt to protect the US dollar from the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing. But the attack on bullion has apparently failed. The price was driven down, but the demand for physical possession has hit new highs.
What is it that we really know? What have we learned since the Clinton regime?
We have learned that integrity is rare in the US government, in the justice system, and in the financial sector. Whatever integrity one can find in these arenas wouldn’t amount to one ounce of gold.
Americans live in a rigged system in which propaganda determines the public’s awareness and consciousness. Americans, or most of them, live in the Matrix.
Since the end of WWII, most foreign governments have been in the habit of going along with Washington. Only in the aftermath of Washington’s phony wars based on lies and phony economy based on rigged statistics is the rest of the world beginning to realize that Washington is a destabilizing force.
Chavez, the recently deceased leader of Venezuela made the point most powerfully when he spoke at the UN. Standing at the podium in the General Assembly, he said that “Satan himself stood here yesterday speaking as if he owned the world. You can still smell the sulfur.” He was speaking of George W. Bush, and the entire assembly knew it.
The Russian leader, Putin, speaking of Washington, has declared that we know what comrade wolf is up to.
The Chinese can see the new military bases that stupid Washington is building in the Chinese area of influence.
A country whose currency is being abandoned as the means of international settlement, not only by the BRICS but also by puppet states such as Australia and Japan, has reached the point of absurdity when it tries to eliminate bullion as a refuge against the depreciating dollar.
The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury using their dependent bullion banks, every one of which would be busted if interest rates were not rigged by the Federal Reserve, have used leverage in the paper market to drive down the prices of gold and silver; yet, purchases of physical bullion are outrunning supplies.
What we are witnessing is the failure of a policy of financial corruption.
Integrity is a scarce commodity in the US government. Try to find much of it. Demonstrating a rare example of integrity, Brooksley Born resigned as head of the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, because the Federal Reserve chairman, the US Treasury secretary, and the SEC chairman prevented her from during her statutory duty and regulating over the counter derivatives. The three morons who prevented her from doing her duty caused the financial collapse.
Integrity is almost non-existent in the US justice system.
Integrity is totally non-existent in the US financial system. As Michael Hudson has proven, the financialization of the economy has destroyed the economy.
With dollars, and now with Washington’s demand Japanese yen and European euros being printed in profusion, where can people put their money, at least those who still have some?
Can they put it in bonds when the Federal Reserve is monetizing debt at $1,000 billion annually and real interest rates are negative?
Can they put it in stocks that are pumped up by banks speculating with the Fed’s money while retail sales, labor force participation, and consumer incomes fall?
Safety can only be found in gold and silver, traditional, historical money that cannot be inflated.This is why bullion is under attack by Washington.
Readers ask me what they can do to protect themselves and where can they go to make gold and silver purchases.
I am not a registered financial advisor. I do not provide financial advice.
Every person must make their own decision. All I can do is to provide information, which is not guaranteed to be correct.
There are various simple options in contrast with the more demanding options of the professional trader. A person can accumulate gold and silver coins and keep them in a home safe or bury them on the property. A person can purchase shares of the Central Fund of Canada which convey ownership in a company that owns gold and silver bullion in a vault in Canada. A person can put money under management with companies that have a strong component of gold, such as Golden Returns Capital LLC whose gold depository is in the US.
Or you can decide to go with William S. Kaye (wskaye@pacgrp.com) whose depository is in Hong Kong.
There is GoldMoney, a Channel Islands based depository firm with storage vaults in London, Switzerland and Asia, and there is GoldSwitzerland, a Swiss company with its storage vault in Switzerland.
If you want a reading on whether physical gold is being sold or merely paper shorts, subscribe to John Brimelow brimelowgoldjottings@gmail.com
This list is not exhaustive. Protecting wealth can be harder than acquiring wealth. This is especially true for the middle class. The super rich can lose hundreds of millions of dollars and still be rich.
Gold and silver investments are not my speciality. I am an economist. I am aware that the US media is a propaganda organization, not a purveyor of truth. Currently the US is creating 1,000 billion dollars annually, but the demand for dollars is not growing with the supply.
Therefore, the exchange value of the dollar is at risk. A high and rising dollar price of bullion is an indication that the exchange value of the dollar with regard to other currencies is too high.
To protect the dollar from its money printing practice, the Fed has used naked shorts, its bullion bank dependents, and the presstitute media to drive down the gold price in the paper market, essentially an unreal market not inhabited by purchasers of physical metal. If the dollar’s exchange value takes a visible hit, import prices will rise, and the Fed will lose control over interest rates.
Meanwhile the demand for bullion possession rises.
The latest disinformation being put out is that bullion dealers, faced with the collapse of bullion prices, are afraid of the risk of purchasing bullion to sell to the public. They are going out of business and not replenishing their stocks. Gold and silver bullion is not available, because bullion dealers are afraid to stock the metals.
Little doubt that Americans who believe every fairy tale “their” government tells them will believe this one too. But those who don’t will observe the long lines waiting to purchase physical metal, not paper claims, and continue to load up on bullion.
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Felons in Charge of Our Largest Financial Institutions
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
17 April 2013
(http://usawatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/black1-300x128.jpg)
Former bank regulator and Professor William Black says, “Apparently, regulators are much more sophisticated than we were because we had never thought of leaving felons in charge of our largest financial institutions.” Dr. Black contends, “This started with the first lie of the virgin crisis–that the banks are pure and had stopped violating the law. The second lie is that we can’t prosecute . . . because if we did, we would cause the financial system to collapse. This is ludicrous.” Dr. Black predicts, “The U.S. banking system is absolutely primed for the next meltdown. Dr. Black and others think, “There is pervasive fraud at the most reputable banks. . . . The U.S. financial system is sick, and we still have the fundamental dynamic of a regulatory race to the bottom.” Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with UMKC Professor William K. Black
Dr. William Black,
The US Banking System is Absolutely Primed for the Next Meltdown
Bio
Bill Black is an associate professor of economics and law. He was the executive director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention from 2005-2007. He previously taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and at Santa Clara University, where he was also the distinguished scholar in residence for insurance law and a visiting scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
Professor Black was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, deputy director of the FSLIC, SVP and general counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and senior deputy chief counsel, Office of Thrift Supervision. He was deputy director of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement.
His book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One (University of Texas Press 2005), has been called “a classic.” Professor Black recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae’s former senior management.
He teaches white-collar crime, public finance, antitrust, law and economics, and Latin American development.
Areas of expertise
White collar crime, public finance, antitrust, economics
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
This Gold Slam is a Massive Wealth Transfer from Our Pockets to the Banks
It likely signals a big downdraft in the stock market, too
by Chris Martenson
(http://www.peakprosperity.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_photo/content/article/article-photo/vacuum-money-23841490.jpg)
I am very disappointed by, but not surprised at, the latest transfer of wealth to the bankers from everyone else. The most recent gold bear raid has vastly enriched the bullion bankers, once again, at the expense of everyone trying to protect their wealth from global central bank money printing.
The central plank of Bernanke's magic recovery plan has been to get everybody back borrowing, spending, and "investing" in stocks, bonds, and other financial assets. But not equally so, as he has been instrumental in distorting the landscape towards risk assets and away from safe harbors.
That's why a 2-year loan to the U.S. government will only net you 0.22%, a rate that is far below even the official rate of inflation. In other words, loan the U.S. government $10,000,000 and you will receive just $22,000 per year for your efforts and lose wealth in the process because inflation reduced the value of your $10,000,000 by $130,000 per year. After the two years is up, you are up $44,000 but out $260,000, for net loss of $216,000.
That wealth, or purchasing power, did not just vanish: It was taken by the process of inflation and transferred to someone else. But to whom did it go? There's no easy answer for that, but the basic answer is that it went to those closest to the printing press. It went to the government itself, which spent your $10,000,000 loan the instant you made it, and it went to the financiers who play the leveraged game of money who happen to be closest to the Fed's printing press.
This almost completely explains why the gap between the rich and everyone else is widening so rapidly, and why financiers now populate the top of every Forbes 400 list. There is no mystery, just a process of wealth transfer of magnificent and historic proportions; one that has been repeated dozens of times throughout history.
This Gold Slam Was By and For the Bullion Banks
A while back, I noted to Adam that the gold slams that were first detected back in January were among the weakest I'd ever seen. Back then I was seeing the usual pattern of late-night, thin-market futures dumping, which I had seen before in 2008 and 2011, two other periods when precious metals were slammed hard.
The process is simple enough to understand; if you want to move the price down for any asset, your best results will happen in a thin market when there's not a lot of participation so that whatever volume you supply has a chance of wiping out whatever bids are sitting on the books. It is in those dark hours that the market-makers just dump, preferably as fast as possible.
This is exactly what I saw repeatedly leading up to Friday's epic dump-fest. The mainstream media (MSM), for its part, fully supports these practices by failing to even note them. The CFTC has never once commented on the practice, and we all know that central banks support a well-contained precious metals (PM) price because they are actively trying to build confidence in their fiat money and rising PM prices serve to reduce confidence.
Here's a perfect example of the MSM in action, courtesy of the Financial Times:
Gold tumbles to two-year low
“There is no other way to put gold’s recent sell-off: nasty,” said Joni Teves, precious metals strategist at UBS in London, adding that gold would have to work to “rebuild trust” among investors.
Tom Kendall, precious metals analyst at Credit Suisse said “Once again gold investors are being reminded that the metal is not a very effective hedge against broad-based risk-off moves in the commodity markets.”
There are two things to note in these snippets. The first is that the main ideas being promoted about gold are that it is no longer to be trusted and that somehow the recent move is a result of "risk off" decisions – meaning, conversely, that there is increased trust in the larger financial markets that 'investors' are rotating towards. Note that these ideas are exactly the sort of messages that central bankers quite desperately want to have conveyed.
The second observation is even more interesting, namely that the only people quoted work directly for the largest bullion banks in the world. These are the very same outfits that stood to gain enormously if precious metals dropped in price. Of course they are thrilled with the recent sell off. They made billions.
In February, Credit Suisse 'predicted' that the gold market had peaked, SocGen said the end of the gold era was upon us, and recently Goldman Sachs told everyone to short the metal.
While that's somewhat interesting, you should first know that the largest bullion banks had amassed huge short positions in precious metals by January.
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/PM_Shorts_Largest_Traders.jpg)
The CFTC rather coyly refers to the bullion banks simply as 'large traders,' but everyone knows that these are the bullion banks. What we are seeing in that chart is that out of a range of commodities, the precious metals were the most heavily shorted, by far.
So the timeline here is easy to follow. The bullion banks:
1.Amass a huge short position early in the game
2.Begin telling everyone to go short (wink, wink) to get things moving along in the right direction by sowing doubt in the minds of the longs
3.Begin testing the late night markets for depth by initiating mini raids (that also serve to let experienced traders know that there's an elephant or two in the room)
4.Wait for the right moment and then open the floodgates to dump such an overwhelming amount of paper gold and silver into the market that lower prices are the only possible result
5.Close their positions for massive gains and then act as if they had made a really prescient market call
6.Await their big bonus checks and wash, rinse, repeat at a later date
While I am almost 100% certain that any decent investigation by the CFTC would reveal that market manipulating 'dumping' was happening, I am equally certain that no such investigation will occur. That's because the point of such a maneuver by the bullion banks is designed to transfer as much wealth from 'out there' and towards the center, and the CFTC is there to protect the center's 'right' to do exactly that.
This all began on Friday April 12th, and one of the better summaries is provided by Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London Bullion brokerage:
***{snipped because I've already posted Ross Norman's' article elsewhere}***
To read it, please see: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=470242.msg6731798#msg6731798 (http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=470242.msg6731798#msg6731798)
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/Gold_slam_Friday_April_12th.jpg)
The areas circled represent the largest 'dumps' of paper gold contracts that I have ever seen. To reiterate Ross's comments, there is no possible way to explain those except as a concerted effort to drive down the price.
To put this in context, if instead of gold, this were corn we were talking about, 128,000,000 tonnes of corn would have been sold during a similar 3-hour window, as that amount represents 15% of the world's yearly harvest. And what would have happened to the price? It would have been driven sharply lower, of course. That's the point; such dumping is designed to accomplish lower prices, period, and that's the very definition of market manipulation.
For a closer-up look at this process, let's turn to Sunday night and with a resolution of about 1 second (the chart above is with 5 minute 'windows,' or candles, as they are called). Here I want you to see that whoever is trading in the thin overnight market and is responsible for setting the prices cannot possibly be human. Humans trade small numbers of contracts and in consistently random amounts.
Here's an example:
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/Gold_traded_by_humans.jpg)
Note that the contracts' numbers, in the single digits to tens, are randomly distributed, and that the scale on the right tops out at 80, although no single second of trades breaks 20.
Now here are a few patterns that routinely erupted throughout the drops during Sunday night (yes, I was up very late watching it all):
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/Gold_Trading_Anomalies_No1.jpg)
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/Gold_Trading_Anomalies_No2.jpg)
(http://media.peakprosperity.com/images/Gold_Trading_Anomalies_No3.jpg)
These are just a few of the dozens of examples I captured over a single hour of trading before I lost interest in capturing any more.
As I was watching this and discussing it with Adam in real time, I knew that I was watching the sort of HFT/computer-trading robots that we've discussed here so much in the past. They are perfectly designed to chew through bid structures, and that's what you see above. They are 'digesting' all the orders that were still on the books for gold, to remove them so that lower and lower stops could be run.
Anybody who had orders up against these machines, perhaps with stops in place, or perhaps even while sleeping because this all happened in the hours around midnight EST, lost and lost big.
There is really no chance to stand against players this large with a determination to drive prices lower. At the very least, I take the above evidence of computer-assisted declines of this magnitude to be a sign that our "markets" are completely broken and quite vulnerable to a crash. That the authorities did not step in to halt these markets during such a volatile decline, when they have repeatedly stepped into other markets and individual equity shares on lesser declines, tells me much about the level of official support for such a decline.
It also tells me that things are speeding up, and the next decline in the equity or bond markets may happen a lot faster than anybody is expecting.
Unintended Consequences
If the intended consequences of this move were to enrich the bullion banks and to chase investors away from gold and other commodities and into stocks, what are the unintended consequences going to be?
While I cannot dispute that the bullion banks made out like bandits, I also wonder if perhaps, instead of signaling that the dollar is safer than gold, the banks did not unintentionally send the larger signal that deflation is gaining the upper hand.
With deflation, everything falls apart. It is the most feared thing to the powers that be, and for good reason. Without inflation and at least nominal GDP growth, if not real growth, then all of the various rescues and steadily growing piles of public debt will slump towards outright failure and possibly collapse. The unintended consequence of dropping gold so powerfully is to signal that deflation is winning the day.
If this view is correct, then the current sell-off in gold, as well as in other commodities (detailed in Part II of this report), will simply be the trigger for a loss of both confidence and liquidity in the system, and that will not bode well for the larger economy or equities.
In Part II: Protecting Your Wealth from Deflation, we explore the growing signs that the money-printing efforts of the central planners are seeing diminishing returns and are failing in their intended effect to kick global economic growth higher. Deflationary forces appear poised to take the upper hand here, sending asset prices lower – potentially much lower – across the board.
If deflation indeed manages to break out from under the central banks' efforts to contain it, even if only for a short period, how bad will the ensuing wave of price instability be? How can one position for it? How extreme will the measures the central banks take in response be? And what impact will that have on asset prices, the dollar, and precious metals?
We are entering a new chapter in the unfolding of our economic emergency, one in which the risks to capital are greater than ever. And the rules are increasingly being re-written to the disadvantage of us individuals.
The one unfair advantage we have is that history is very clear on how these periods of economic malfeasance end. Let's exploit that as best we're able.
-
In Other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Gold Buying Frenzy Continues:
China, Japan, And Australia Scramble For Physical
We noted here that the plunge in the paper price of gold (and silver) had prompted considerable renewed demand for physical and now it seems the scramble among the "more stable investor base" is increasing. The shake out of ETFs and futures has left the Australian mint short of deliverables and Japanese and Chinese gold retailers seeing a "frenzied" surge in demand. The customers are not just the 'rich' or 'elderly'; in China "they tend to wear water shoes and come directly from the market...;" in Australia, "the volume of business... is way in excess of double what we did last week,... there’s been people running through the gate," and Japanese individual investors doubled gold purchases yesterday at Tokuriki Honten, the country’s second-largest retailer of the precious metal. The panic selling by a weaker 'imminent inflation-based' investor base has sparked physical shortages - "there’s been significant sales made as people see this as great value." It seems our previous discussions of a rotation from paper to physical were correct and this physical demand will eventually leak back into the paper markets.
Australia (via The Age): (http://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/golden-times-for-perth-mint-20130417-2hzv7.html)
Gold sales from Perth Mint, which refines nearly all of the nation’s bullion, have surged after prices plunged, adding to signs that the metal’s slump to a two-year low is spurring increased demand.
“The volume of business that we’re putting through is way in excess of double what we did last week,” Treasurer Nigel Moffatt said, without giving precise figures. “There’s been people running through the gate.”
...
“There’s been significant sales made as people see this as great value,” Mr Moffatt said. “Gold owners are very reactive to significant market movements.”
...
The Perth Mint’s sales of gold coins climbed 49 per cent to 97,541 ounces in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier
China (via China News): (http://www.chinanews.com/shipin/2013/04-17/news202021.shtml) <-- best to use Chrome in order to access translation.
Beijing gold store two hours to sell 20,000 grams of gold bullion trading volume of nearly 200 million
and (via YCWB): (http://www.ycwb.com/ePaper/ycwb/html/2013-04/16/content_1568336.htm) <-- best to use Chrome in order to access translation.
People have to rush to buy gold, ... gold bullion out of stock yesterday, investors yesterday to spend as much as 600 million yuan to buy 20 kilograms of gold bars
The mad pursuit gold insufficiency is not just a game for the rich. Yesterday, the Yangcheng Evening News reporter learned from the East flowers to Bay store, many growers, pork traffickers, fishmonger recently put down his job went straight to the mall to buy gold.
Japan (via Reuters): (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/16/us-japan-gold-idUSBRE93F18I20130416)
Some Japanese also harbor fears that the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies dubbed "Abenomics", coupled with a national debt more than twice as large as annual economic output, could trigger a crisis down the line.
Skeptics about the radical attempt to reflate the economy -- or those simply worried that a slide in the yen that began in anticipation of Abe's election victory last December will continue unabated -- are still buying gold, dealers say.
"Investors in gold are convinced that Japan's fiscal position will get worse," said Wakako Harada, general manager of Japan's top bullion house, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo.
"What I see at our counter is that more people are getting worried about Japan. That's why we are seeing a lot of buying."
...
"In contrast this time, we are seeing interest to buy on dips to take exposures to gold,"
...
"Investors are using this opportunity to buy gold to diversify beyond bonds, stocks and the yen currency as Japan's fiscal situation could deteriorate."
(via The Age): (http://www.theage.com.au/business/markets/golden-times-for-perth-mint-20130417-2hzv7.html)
Japanese individual investors doubled gold purchases yesterday at Tokuriki Honten, the country’s second-largest retailer of the precious metal.
-
China sold 800 tons of Gold paper....BUT bough and took delivery on 500 tons physical. All you need to know.
Back in the beginning of March I pointed out:
China Preparing to Impose Bretton Woods II Gold Standard
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/3/7_China_Preparing_To_Impose_Bretton_Woods_II_Gold_Standard_files/shapeimage_22.png)
With continued volatility in the gold and silver markets, today acclaimed money manager Stephen Leeb told King World News the Chinese accumulated a remarkable 1,500 tons of gold last year, and they are preparing to demand a second Bretton Woods type meeting.This is a stunning interview because it lays out how the bulls will win the gold war, and how China will force that victory. Here is what Leeb had to say in this exclusive interview, which is his most powerful ever: “The flow of power and gold is going from West to East. China may have accumulated a staggering 1,500 tons of gold last year alone. China’s growth is now picking up steam as well. What is really stunning is how much the yuan has increased in terms of international transactions.”
Stephen Leeb continues:
“The usage of the yuan in international transactions has been increasing at an unbelievable 170% per year. That’s how fast the yuan has been increasing in terms of international transactions. So goes the gold, so goes the power, and you can see it in the prominence the yuan is gaining.
The Chinese definitely have a plan here and that is to get control of gold....
Continue reading the Stephen Leeb interview below...
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/3/7_China_Preparing_To_Impose_Bretton_Woods_II_Gold_Standard.html
-
Weren't you saying to buy gold because the value would continue to go up?
As many of us stated, it's on it's way down and should not be bought as you will be losing your money.
So far, we were correct.
-
A buying opportunity? This is a good time to buy gold? ::)
I stand corrected. I should have said it was an EXCELLENT time to buy physical gold.
LOL...what a scam:
"Buy gold when it's high, buy gold when it's low, buy gold when it's valuable, buy gold when it's worthless. Please, please buy my Karatbars any time, any day."
They don't call you 24KT/JaguarScams for nothing. ;D
-
Weren't you saying to buy gold because the value would continue to go up?
As many of us stated, it's on it's way down and should not be bought as you will be losing your money.
So far, we were correct.
Eggxactly!
-
I stand corrected. I should have said it was an EXCELLENT time to buy physical gold.
"buy gold when it's worthless."
now thats just a silly, got carried away a bit there didn't ya.
-
now thats just a silly, got carried away a bit there didn't ya.
That was the intent, just as silly as 24KT/JaguarScams saying that right now is an "EXCELLENT" time to buy gold. ::)
-
its ALWAYS a good time to buy gold....or any insurance assets.
-
its ALWAYS a good time to buy gold....or any insurance assets.
How is it a good investment to buy gold now at inflated prices when we know the price is dropping?
Maybe you are talking about gold not as an investment, but as a currency in case all other currency is no longer of any value. In other words, you are talking about buying gold and hiding in in your mattress for the day when this happens.
-
How is it a good investment to buy gold now at inflated prices when we know the price is dropping?
Maybe you are talking about gold not as an investment, but as a currency in case all other currency is no longer of any value. In other words, you are talking about buying gold and hiding in in your mattress for the day when this happens.
Gold is NOT an investment. On that premise, gold should be acquired anytime as a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation, and a store of wealth. Investments should have liquidity as a primary pre-requisite, physical gold does not. But I've said this in my previous posts, don't want to belabor my point.
And YOU know the price is dropping? That would make you invaluable to any financial services house in the world. Right now it looks to be climbing....round and round it goes where it stops....nobody knows.
-
Gold is NOT an investment. On that premise, gold should be acquired anytime as a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation, and a store of wealth. Investments should have liquidity as a primary pre-requisite, physical gold does not. But I've said this in my previous posts, don't want to belabor my point.
And YOU know the price is dropping? That would make you invaluable to any financial services house in the world. Right now it looks to be climbing....round and round it goes where it stops....nobody knows.
That's certainly not the trend.
-
That's certainly not the trend.
I don't like statistics...they're mostly used like a drunk uses a light pole, not for illumination but support.
Like your data....take out the 30 day drop and you're left with 3% down for 12 months...move back another 30 days and you might be up...shift to 6 months less the 30 day drop and you have 9% loss.
No fund managers use trends (maybe the stoopid ones) to base investment decisions on. Most use current market data, and FORWARD looking data like Buffet, Lynch, ect ect. I'm a buyer at 1350 and below. As GOLD is NOT an investment vehicle this point is moot.
-
https://www.kitcomm.com/showthread.php?t=117649
US Mint Sells Record 63,500 Ounces Of Gold In One Day that's $85,725,000.00 if at 1350/oz
-
I don't like statistics...they're mostly used like a drunk uses a light pole, not for illumination but support.
Like your data....take out the 30 day drop and you're left with 3% down for 12 months...move back another 30 days and you might be up...shift to 6 months less the 30 day drop and you have 9% loss.
No fund managers use trends (maybe the stoopid ones) to base investment decisions on. Most use current market data, and FORWARD looking data like Buffet, Lynch, ect ect. I'm a buyer at 1350 and below. As GOLD is NOT an investment vehicle this point is moot.
I have a friend who is HEAVY into gold... They are moving out of it into Diamonds.
You take that for what you will.
-
Gold is NOT an investment. On that premise, gold should be acquired anytime as a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation, and a store of wealth. Investments should have liquidity as a primary pre-requisite, physical gold does not. But I've said this in my previous posts, don't want to belabor my point.
Okay, I'm listening. How can a middle class, college student who has say $5,000 saved up acquire physical gold as a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation? Where should he/she buy, what form of gold(coins, bars, etc.) should he/she acquire, where should he/she store it?
-
Okay, I'm listening. How can a middle class, college student who has say $5,000 saved up acquire physical gold as a hedge against currency destabilization or high inflation? Where should he/she buy, what form of gold(coins, bars, etc.) should he/she acquire, where should he/she store it?
That is a tough question....mostly gold is not for the college student. Its more of a store of wealth for the upper middle class and higher value portfolio's, along with stocks, real property etc. BUT I'll take a whack at it.
First he should trade....go to pawn shops and stamp coin shops and try to find fractional AGE's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gold_Eagle) if you can buy at spot. A 1/10 would cost 140.00 you can sell on ebay 200+. Rinse repeat until and profit convert to your gold reserve. Hide it where I cant find it and you wont lay awake all night worrying about it. Some would say start with silver...I don't like silver, personal preference.
American Gold eagles, Krugerrands, Pamp bars...also look into a fishe tool testing kit, so you dont buy fakes.
If you like coins, numismatics is a fun hobby and VERY profitable once you're competent.
-
That is a tough question....mostly gold is not for the college student. Its more of a store of wealth for the upper middle class and higher value portfolio's, along with stocks, real property etc. BUT I'll take a whack at it.
First he should trade....go to pawn shops and stamp coin shops and try to find fractional AGE's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gold_Eagle) if you can buy at spot. A 1/10 would cost 140.00 you can sell on ebay 200+. Rinse repeat until and profit convert to your gold reserve. Hide it where I cant find it and you wont lay awake all night worrying about it. Some would say start with silver...I don't like silver, personal preference.
American Gold eagles, Krugerrands, Pamp bars...also look into a fishe tool testing kit, so you dont buy fakes.
If you like coins, numismatics is a fun hobby and VERY profitable once you're competent.
Thank you! So in the event of currency destabilization or high inflation, the great majority of the population is screwed, not because they didn't know better, but because they just could not afford to prepare for it?
Your suggestion about acquiring gold as insurance sounds almost like a part time, maybe a full time job, to the average person anyway.
Can you be more specific or offer suggestions about where to store physical gold? Hiding it where you can't find it is very vague. Should he/she pay to store it at the bank vault, store it in a home safe, bury it in the back yard, hide it in the mattress?
-
Thank you! So in the event of currency destabilization or high inflation, the great majority of the population is crewed, not because they didn't know better, but because they just could not afford to prepare for it?
Your suggestion about acquiring gold as insurance sounds almost like a part time, maybe a full time job, to the average person anyway.
Can you be more specific or offer suggestions about where to store physical gold? Hiding it where you can't find it is very vague. Should he/she pay to store it at the bank volt, store it in a home safe, bury it in the back yard, hide it in the mattress?
Yes the majority is "screwed" and historically always have been. Lenin said to destroy the middle class you grind them between two millstones, inflation and taxation...somewhat paraphrasing. Taxation destroys earnings and ability to save/invest...inflation destroys monetary wealth already owned.
Gold cannot be inflated away, nor can collectibles, precious stones, art, antiques and property ect ect...EVERYTHING can be seized, but thats a different topic.
On hiding, I was vague because I don't know. Never keep it at your residence but otherwise...Google it.
-
Yes the majority is "screwed" and historically always have been. Lenin said to destroy the middle class you grind them between two millstones, inflation and taxation...somewhat paraphrasing. Taxation destroys earnings and ability to save/invest...inflation destroys monetary wealth already owned.
Gold cannot be inflated away, nor can collectibles, precious stones, art, antiques and property ect ect...EVERYTHING can be seized, but thats a different topic.
On hiding, I was vague because I don't know. Never keep it at your residence but otherwise...Google it.
Then your statement that "its ALWAYS a good time to buy gold" only applies to a very small fraction of the general population. The only time that they could buy gold is when its value is extremely low and the currency reasonably high.
About hiding/storing gold, my point is that it's very impractical and unaffordable. Buying physical gold right now is not only very expensive, but storing and insuring it is very expensive as well. The average citizen just can't afford that.
Since nobody can predict the value of gold, stocks, and currency, historically the average person is better off saving and investing the money he/she would spend on buying, storing and insuring physical gold on other things, like stocks, bond, CDs, high yield savings, etc.
Sure, the value of their currency could free fall or inflation could skyrocket, or both. But since nobody can predict that with total accuracy, it's a more acceptable and affordable risk than depleting their income and savings right now on buying, storing and insuring physical gold.
-
That's certainly not the trend.
That's short term... and would be pertinent if you're looking at gold as a speculative vehicle.
The chart over 10 yrs or even 100 years, ...or even 6000 yrs tell a different story.
Gold has intrinsic value. and has a 6000 yr track record.
Fiat Paper currency has no real value and has a 2000 yr track record with a 100% failure rate.
-
That's short term... and would be pertinent if you're looking at gold as a speculative vehicle.
The chart over 10 yrs or even 100 years, ...or even 6000 yrs tell a different story.
Gold has intrinsic value. and has a 6000 yr track record.
Fiat Paper currency has no real value and has a 2000 yr track record with a 100% failure rate.
You gonna be alive in 100 years?
-
Then your statement that "its ALWAYS a good time to buy gold" only applies to a very small fraction of the general population. The only time that they could buy gold is when its value is extremely low and the currency reasonably high.
About hiding/storing gold, my point is that it's very impractical and unaffordable. Buying physical gold right now is not only very expensive, but storing and insuring it is very expensive as well. The average citizen just can't afford that.
Not if one uses a dollar cost averaging approach
Since nobody can predict the value of gold, stocks, and currency, historically the average person is better off saving and investing the money he/she would spend on buying, storing and insuring physical gold on other things, like stocks, bond, CDs, high yield savings, etc.
We are not a powerless as many believe. We cannot predict what unwise decisions central planners are going to make or when, but based on fundamentals we can be assured that GOLD's long term direction is up, and stocks, bonds and paper derivatives will go to zero. I believe the market is primed for a blow up, and I have no intention of being in the middle of it when it occurs.
Sure, the value of their currency could free fall or inflation could skyrocket, or both. But since nobody can predict that with total accuracy, it's a more acceptable and affordable risk than depleting their income and savings right now on buying, storing and insuring physical gold.
One doesn't have to deplete their income or savings to buy store or insure physical gold... not with the right supplier. I simply take $1 out of every $4 I set aside for savings, and use that to acquire my "financial insurance"
When prices dip, ...I acquire a bit more.
From my perspective... we insure our home, we insure our cars, we insure our lives, we insure our "things"... but what is required of us to acquire those "things" in the first place? It's money. So as far as I'm concerned, it makes darned good sense to insure the money first & foremost. That's just how I see it.
there are plenty of good reasons to acquire gold. The average Joe not being able to also afford to buy gold, doesn't change the need for gold in a person's portfolio. Rather than look for an alternative to gold, I think it's far better to look for an alternative way to acquire it.
-
I was asking Tedim, not you 24KT/JaguarScams.
-
I was asking Tedim, not you 24KT/Jaguar.
Well aware that I am that my responses to your questions would be fully appreciated, my response though quoting you was infact intended as a response to the board. However, you're welcome. ::)
Stop with the name calling already. It's pretty stale.
-
Well aware that I am that my responses to your questions would be fully appreciated, my response though quoting you was infact intended as a response to the board. However, you're welcome. ::)
Stop with the name calling already. It's pretty stale.
No name calling. Your "business" is a scam.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Ambush at the Comex Corral
Darryl Robert Schoon
(http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/02.12/images/message-in-a-bottle.jpg)
Central Banks collude with investment banks to force down the price of gold
Prediction is an art. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle is as operative in the realms of the unknown as well as in the known. But, sometimes, predictions are a slam-dunk such as the large number of put options placed on United and American Airlines in the days prior to 9/11 through Alex Brown Deutsche Bank, an investment unit with close ties to the CIA’s Buzz Krongard.
Note: Alex.Brown’s former Chairman, Buzz Krongard, was appointed Director of the CIA in 2011. Buzz Krongard’s successor, Mayo Shattuck III, who oversaw the purchases of the 9/11 puts resigned from Alex Brown Deutsche Bank on 9/12. For the story of the 9/11 puts, see Mark H. Gaffney’s series in the Foreign Policy Journal, Black 9/11: A Walk on the Dark Side.
In January 2013, analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted gold would fall to $1200. That Goldman Sachs would make such an apparently lucky out-of-the money prediction given the recent ambush of gold at COMEX wasn’t luck at all. Like 9/11, the COMEX ambush was planned and executed with military precision.
In his article at Sharps Pixley, Gold Crushed by 400 Tonnes of $20 billion of Selling on COMEX, former gold trader at NM Rothschilds & Sons and Credit Suisse, Ross Norman, describes how the ambush was carried out:
The gold futures markets opened in New York on Friday 12th April to a monumental 3.4 million ounces (100 tonnes) of gold selling of the June futures contract (see below) in what proved to be only an opening shot. The selling took gold to the technically very important level of $1540 which was not only the low of 2012, it was also seen by many as the level which confirmed the ongoing bull run which dates back to 2000. In many traders minds it stood as a formidable support level... the line in the sand.
Two hours later the initial selling, rumoured to have been routed through Merrill Lynch's floor team, by a rather more significant blast when the floor was hit by a further 10 million ounces of selling (300 tonnes) over the following 30 minutes of trading.
This was clearly not a case of disappointed longs leaving the market - it had the hallmarks of a concerted 'short sale', which by driving prices sharply lower in a display of 'shock & awe' - would seek to gain further momentum by prompting others to also sell as their positions as they hit their maximum acceptable losses or so-called 'stopped-out' in market parlance - probably hidden the unimpeachable (?) $1540 level.
The selling was timed for optimal impact with New York at its most liquid, while key overseas gold markets including London were open and able feel the impact. The estimated 400 tonne of gold futures selling in total equates to 15% of annual gold mine production - too much for the market to readily absorb, especially with sentiment weak following gold's non performance in the wake of Japanese QE, a nuclear threat from North Korea and weakening US economic data. The assault to the short side was essentially saying "you are long... and wrong".
Futures trading is performed on a margined basis - that is to say you have to stump up about 5% of the actual cost of the gold itself making futures trades a highly geared 'opportunity' of about 20:1 - easy profit and also loss! Futures trading is not a product for widows and orphans. The CME's 10% reduction in the required gold margins in November 2012 from $9133/contract to just $7425/contract made the market more accessible to those wishing both to go long or as it transpired, to go short.
Soon after we saw the first serious assault to the downside in Dec 2012, followed by further bouts in January 2013 - modest in size compared to the recent shorting but effective - it laid the ground for what was to follow. One fund in particular, based in Stamford Connecticut, was identified as the previous shorter of gold and has a history of being caught on the wrong side of the law on a few occasions. As badies go - they fit the bill nicely.
GOLD STOCKS AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY WERE FALLING
In an interview with King’s News on April 15th, precious metals trader Andrew Maguire said plunging gold stockpiles necessitated the attack on gold:
Gold and silver only have this type of selling when there are extreme shortages of the physical metal. I am totally aware that before this takedown occurred there was an imminent LBMA [London Bullion Market Association] default.
We had already seen COMEX inventories plunging. In 90 days COMEX inventories saw an incredible decline. So immediately available physical gold was disappearing. People around the world don’t understand what has been happening since Cyprus....
Entities went to the LBMA and said, ‘We don’t trust anybody anymore. We want our physical metal.’ They were told they would be cash settled instead by a bullion bank. The Western governments have been trying to plug holes, and the reason for it has to do with the default that was taking place at the LBMA.
This is why this smash has been orchestrated because of the run that has been taking place on physical metal. So Western governments had to do this because of an imminent run on the unallocated LBMA system. The LBMA bullion banks had become so mismatched at one point on their trading positions vs real world demand that they had to orchestrate this smash.
This orchestrated smash in gold and silver was nothing short of a bailout for the bullion banks. So there is a run on physical gold that is taking place and the Ponzi scheme the West is running is being threatened because of it.
(http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.13/images/schoon041613-1.jpg)
Maguire also added: We are nearing the end of this decline. Physical demand is already beginning to catch up with leveraged paper. If gold were to trade into the low $1,300s it would be unsustainable for very long.
THE USUAL SUSPECT: GOLDMAN SACHS
While the fund in Stamford Connecticut may have placed the $20 billion worth of gold shorts but, if they did, it is far more likely they acted as the agent of far-larger entity such as Goldman Sachs which had months before predicted gold would fall to $1200.
Goldman Sach’s January prediction of the fall of gold reminded me of an after-dinner conversation I had a few years ago in Europe. The conversation was with a gold trader at a major European bank and the topic of conversation was gold.
Gold had been falling for several days and I remember his excusing himself the previous evening and saying quietly, “I think it’s time to buy gold”. The next morning the price of gold began moving higher.
What he told me during that evening’s conversation bears repeating, especially after what has happened. He said that he had been watching gold’s movements in real time when a highly anomalous event caught his attention, the bid price of gold had been followed not by an equal or higher ask price but by a lower ask price and, as he watched, the price of gold began to fall.
He said he began watching for this anomalous trade and discovered when it occurred, it was always followed by lower ask prices which meant gold was being driven lower. The source of the anomalous lower gold ask price was always J. Aron & Co., the commodities trading arm of Goldman Sachs.
Note: Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sach’s CEO, worked as a precious metals salesman at J. Aron’s London offices before going to Goldman Sachs in New York.
TIME OF THE VULTURE GOLD STAGE III
In 2007, in my book, Time of the Vulture: How to Survive the Crisis and Prosper in the Process, I wrote:
GOLD
AN ECONOMIC INSURANCE POLICY
FOR A COLLAPSING ECONOMY
THE TIME OF THE VULTURE
AND THE FIVE STAGES OF GOLD
STAGE 1: THE SUPPRESSION OF THE PRICE OF GOLD Central Banks collude with investment banks and gold mining companies to force down the price of gold.
STAGE 2: THE PRICE OF GOLD MOVES UPWARD Gold begins to rise, doubling in price even as Central Banks fight its rise.
STAGE 3: THE PRICE OF GOLD BECOMES INCREASINGLY VOLATILE The price of gold is subject to increasing highs and lows as large investment funds move in and out of gold as global economic uncertainties wax and wane, a sign that gold is increasingly a haven in uncertain times.
STAGE 4: EXPLOSIVE ASCENT IN THE PRICE OF GOLD A crisis results in a monetary breakdown which drives the price of gold to never-before-seen highs. Investment capital floods towards the safety of gold. Central Banks capitulate.
STAGE 5: THE PRICE OF GOLD STABILIZES The crisis recedes and order begins to return to the markets. Though losses are substantial, a new order based on new realities slowly begins to emerge.
The recent 20% fall in the price of gold indicates we are currently still in STAGE 3. STAGE 4 with its EXPLOSIVE ASCENT IN THE PRICE OF GOLD is next. When STAGE 4 happens is anyone’s guess as prediction is always an uncertain art—unless, of course, you’re Goldman Sachs.
Buy gold, buy silver, have faith.
Darryl Robert Schoon
www.survivethecrisis.com
www.drschoon.com
-
Then your statement that "its ALWAYS a good time to buy gold" only applies to a very small fraction of the general population. The only time that they could buy gold is when its value is extremely low and the currency reasonably high.
About hiding/storing gold, my point is that it's very impractical and unaffordable. Buying physical gold right now is not only very expensive, but storing and insuring it is very expensive as well. The average citizen just can't afford that.
Since nobody can predict the value of gold, stocks, and currency, historically the average person is better off saving and investing the money he/she would spend on buying, storing and insuring physical gold on other things, like stocks, bond, CDs, high yield savings, etc.
Sure, the value of their currency could free fall or inflation could skyrocket, or both. But since nobody can predict that with total accuracy, it's a more acceptable and affordable risk than depleting their income and savings right now on buying, storing and insuring physical gold.
That is correct, not everyone can afford to buy gold....not everyone is tall or has high calves and a strong chin. So the average joe would have to "stack" smaller amounts, or other "hard assets".
"like stocks, bond, CDs, high yield savings"...there is NO diversification in these instruments, gold is a hedge against systemic failure....all these (except some stocks) would be rendered worthless leaving the investor in possible ruin. If a financial adviser does not diversify and shield his client but has him leveraged, his license should be burned.
Storing valuables has never been an issue, it might be to you. But not as a general concern for others.
You buy insurance on cars, houses, rental property ect. but protecting your financial position buying gold in case of systemic financial failure is risky? Why?
-
No name calling. Your "business" is a scam.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/563203_514560861941563_1473036183_n.jpg)
-
That is correct, not everyone can afford to buy gold....not everyone is tall or has high calves and a strong chin. So the average joe would have to "stack" smaller amounts, or other "hard assets".
"like stocks, bond, CDs, high yield savings"...there is NO diversification in these instruments, gold is a hedge against systemic failure....all these (except some stocks) would be rendered worthless leaving the investor in possible ruin. If a financial adviser does not diversify and shield his client but has him leveraged, his license should be burned.
Storing valuables has never been an issue, it might be to you. But not as a general concern for others.
You buy insurance on cars, houses, rental property ect. but protecting your financial position buying gold in case of systemic financial failure is risky? Why?
This is what happens when people are blinded by bias and hate. The common sense goes out the window.
-
This is what happens when people are blinded by bias and hate. The common sense goes out the window.
I think its conditioning, very little margin exists on physical gold sales, so brokers don't make money....stocks stocks stocks bonds bonds bonds.
The brokerage houses make money, the clearing houses make money, the brokers make money, and the corporations make money....investors....so metimes.
-
I think its conditioning, very little margin exists on physical gold sales, so brokers don't make money....stocks stocks stocks bonds bonds bonds.
The brokerage houses make money, the clearing houses make money, the brokers make money, and the corporations make money....investors....so metimes.
Then too there are the financial planners & advisers who are not licensed to sell gold, so they will actively steer clients who enquire about gold AWAY from it, and into something they do make money selling.
Many commodity brokers don't like a buy & hold and take physical possession strategy because they don't get a piece of profits. They only make money per transaction, so they'll have you buy & selling & buying & sellling 'til the cows come home... all the while collecting transactions fees hand over fist... til you have no money left.
-
This is a good civil discussion, lets keep it that way. Lets stay on point....nm
-
CBC's 'The Secret World of Gold' may approach relevance
An interview broadcast Tuesday by CBC Radio in Canada with filmmaker Brian McKenna makes it seem that his new documentary, "The Secret World of Gold," which is to be broadcast on CBC Television at 9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, will approach relevance -- evidence of the manipulation and deception of the gold market by central banks.
Audio of the interview begins at the 9:40 mark at the CBC podcast Internet site here:
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20130416_22647.mp3
-
Brian McKenna explores The Secret World of Gold
Documentarian reveals the drama and danger behind one of the world’s oldest currencies
By T'Cha Dunlevy, GAZETTE FILM CRITIC April 18, 2013
(http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/cms/binary/8255150.jpg)
The Secret World of Gold is “the toughest documentary I’ve ever made,” says
Montreal director Brian McKenna. “It took over a year, and led me down so many corridors.”
Photograph by: Graham Hughes , The Gazette
MONTREAL - Brian McKenna didn’t predict the recent nosedive in gold prices, but he knows someone who did.
“Andy sent me an email early Friday morning,” recounted the Montreal director. “He said, ‘There’s a big event happening. Someone’s dumping 500 tons of gold into the market.’ That ended up driving the price down by $78 an ounce. And 500 tons is 16 million ounces — we’re talking about a serious intervention here. Who’s got that kind of money?”
“Andy” is Andrew Maguire, a key source in McKenna’s fascinating new film The Secret World of Gold, which premières Thursday at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV. The hour-long documentary plunges into the dramatically rich narrative of gold, unveiling some shocking facts along the way.
“I was just going to do a history piece, until I stumbled over a whistleblower,” McKenna said.
A veteran gold and silver trader, Maguire denounces the shady tactics of the industry, breaking down the ways in which precious metal prices are manipulated using insider trading.
“He was tremendous,” McKenna said. “It took me eight months to persuade him to come on camera, but I was willing to wait. I knew he was critical to the film. It turns out he was burned by the BBC. He spent seven months showing them everything, going online and showing them the way things worked. Then after all that, they said, ‘The show’s been killed.’
“Word on the street is that Tony Blair, who is on a retainer to JPMorgan for $2 million a year, made a call (and the story was dropped). Did that happen? I don’t know. It’s an opinion that people hold; it doesn’t make it so. But something made the BBC stop an important investigation into which they had probably invested three-quarters of a million dollars.”
McKenna’s film also explores the secretive smuggling of European gold reserves during the Second World War, and how gold has gone from a reliable physical currency to an abstract concept, bought and sold in the blink of an eye on the stock market, taking on all the baggage of modern global finance in the process.
An investigative journalist and historian, McKenna estimates he has made 100 films over his career, including many provocative documentaries on war and politics. The topic of gold presented itself to him in the form of a rumour.
“A long time ago, I heard a story which I wasn’t sure was true,” he said, “about all this gold coming to the Sun Life Building’s vaults, far below the surface at the height of the Second World War. I thought, ‘That’s curious,’ but it turned out to be a critical moment in the war: if that gold had ended up at the bottom of the ocean, England wouldn’t have had the money to buy arms from the U.S., which was operating on a cash-and-carry basis, and fight off Hitler.”
Vast amounts of French and English gold were shipped to North America to avoid being claimed by the Nazis, McKenna reveals, with Montreal and Ottawa becoming important for storage. It’s but one example among millions of gold being moved, hidden, stolen, reclaimed and sunk to the bottom of the sea through the ages, making and breaking many a nation along the way.
Those expecting an escapist narrative about the enduring allure of one of the world’s oldest currencies don’t know McKenna. A founding producer of The Fifth Estate, he’s like the anti-Midas: he can’t help but dig up the dirt on anything he touches.
His 1992 CBC documentary The Valour and the Horror received five Gemini Awards, while sparking a CRTC investigation, a senate inquiry and a $500 million lawsuit by Air Force veterans, which was dismissed. All to say, the man is used to ruffling feathers. In keeping with tradition, The Secret World of Gold is far from a puff piece.
“It’s the toughest documentary I’ve ever made,” McKenna said. “It took over a year, and led me down so many corridors. Once you go down one corridor, two doors open, and you don’t know which one to take. This happened over and over. It’s virgin territory. No one has been down this path before, to report it.”
Though his film reveals amazing things about humanity’s conflicted relationship with gold, McKenna was most excited by the human story at its centre. Maguire may well have put his life on the line by speaking out, the director explained.
“We weren’t able to include it in the film, because it’s still a mystery, but it looks like somebody tried to kill him. Two days after he blew the whistle (to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, in 2010), out of nowhere a van rammed and almost demolished his car. And there was almost no investigation.
“Andrew Maguire standing up as a gold and silver trader and saying, ‘This is wrong’ — that’s the kind of courage I like to capture in my documentaries. Whether it’s people who (survived) Auschwitz, who escaped and lived to tell their story, or veterans who thought bombing women and children in the Second World War was not the best strategy, and stood by me when all hell broke loose.
“Celebrating heroes — I like to do that.”
The Secret World of Gold airs Thursday, April 18 at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Brian+McKenna+explores+Secret+World+Gold/8255149/story.html
-
To view the Brian McKenna CBC DocZone documentary, ...click here:
The Secret World Of Gold (http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episode/the-secret-world-of-gold.html)
-
That is correct, not everyone can afford to buy gold.
Exactly!
-
I would think it to be a good thing when gold sellers innovatively make gold affordable to everyone.
That is why I believe the ability to acquire it in smaller, more affordable, and transaction friendly weights provides the most benefit for the majority of people. It also offers the most flexibility imo
-
Exactly!
It's individual preference...I chose to have semi auto assault weapons (many) at my home, I conceal carry. Others would not....their choice. BUT don't cry when a mugger has a weapon and you don't. Agree?
Same with gold, just a different tool for self protection.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
The Rise of the PetroYuan
By Dan Collins
How the Chinese currency is replacing the U.S. Dollar in global oil markets
History is being written in the East. As the U.S. stays distracted with stone age warriors in Central Asia and the Middle East, the last platform of the American economic foundation, the U.S. Dollar's currency reserve status, is being underminded by their trade partners in Asia. Both Australia and Japan are set to start direct-trading in Chinese currency and they are not the only ones. There are almost 20 countries whom have currency swaps in place with China all in order to side-step the U.S. Dollar in global trade. At the China Money Report, we have written extensively on the "Rise of the Renminbi". What is new and largely unreported and what we will cover in this article is the "Rise of the Petroyuan," as China is now converting its oil imports into Chinese Yuan as opposed to U.S. Dollars. This will be a new challenge and possibly the fatal blow to the U.S. Dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.
With their industrial base all but gone, the housing market bubble popped, and the Federal Resereve funding the majority of the government debt with printed currency, the American economy can ill-afford a new challenge to its currency's reserve status. It is this very reserve status which has led to America being able to consume more than it produces for decades upon decades as foriegn countries were willing to trade consumer products for paper IOU's. The Dollar's reserve status came about naturally after WW2 as the U.S. was the world's larget trading nation, exporter, and creditor. Today, China occuppies all of these slots.
China will soon occupy a new slot: That of the world's largest oil importer. OPEC has confirmed on April 4th of this year that they expect China to surpass the United States as the world's largest oil importer in 2014. This shift in global oil flows is being driven by the twin pillars of a booming Chinese economy and America’s newfound booming domestic oil and gas supply. This shift in the oil trade carries with it massive geopolitical implications that will reshape the world as we know it.
China’s Increasing Oil Imports
The demand side of oil from China has already reshaped geopolitics and global supply chains. Between 2002 and 2010, China's annual imports of crude increased from 70m tonnes to more than 270 million tonnes. Saudi Arabia’s largest customer for oil is no longer the U.S. but the Peoples Republic of China. In the year 2012, China’s net oil imports were still 1 million barrels per day lower than in the United States, but in some months, China was very close and even surpassed the U.S. in net oil imports. In December 2012 for instance, China imported 6 million barrels a day compared to only 5.98 million barrels in the U.S. From 2010-2015 alone, oil imports in China are expected to grow over 40%. China's oil demand growth is expected to represent 64% of all new demand for oil in 2012-2013.
The upside potential of oil imports into China are still not understood by most analysts and the potential on how large they could become is incredible. Car sales in China are already almost twice the levels in the U.S. and sales are up 20% for the first two months of 2013. Keep in mind that 90% of car sales are paid cash-up-front and most large cities have prohibitive taxes and quotas against new car sales. Despite these regulations, sales are still up 20% so far in 2013. All of these new cars and trucks will of course require more oil that China will need to import. General Motors already sells more vehicles in China than they do the United States and their sales are growing double-digits.
China's increasing dependence on imported oil has threatened the country's energy security and it is of major concern to the government. China’s oil dependence is expected to reach 59.4 percent in 2013. Be assured, China is building a blue-water navy and developing the global relationships, which will be required to protect this supply of crude they require today and the ever increasing amount they will need in the future. Indeed, the country of China may be forced into becoming the reluctant miltary superpower to guarantee that they have access to global oil markets.
Americans Turning Off Oil Imports
In comparison to China, the US reliance on foreign energy imports has declined considerably, and many are predicting that the US could be energy self-sufficient by 2030 thanks to its surging domestic production of shale gas and oil. The US is now expected to be a gas exporter by 2020 instead of the previously projected 2022. Domestic oil supplies as well as Canadian supplies will make North America energy independent. This is good news for the U.S. and this new found wealth could be used for a new platform for a revitalized American economy if they can substianlly restructure the tax and legal system which has driven production out of the country.
Trading Oil for Yuan
Recent reports from Reuters, have confirmed that China is now trading their own domestic currency, the Yuan, for oil. Both Russia, and Iran are now using Yuan for oil sales to China. Venezuela is sure to follow. With Russia and Iran accepting Yuan for oil that means there are now almost 1 million barrels per day being exchanged for Yuan instead of USD. Angola can be expected to move oil sales into Chinese Yuan if they haven't already. Over half of their oil sales are now to China. For Venezuela, the political relationship with the U.S. is well known as fear of the U.S. military might be the only thing stopping them from shifting oil sales into Yuan now. Sudan is another country, highly dependent on China politically and will most likely convert their oil sales into Chinese Yuan.
If Russia, Iran, Angola, Sudan, and Venezuela all convert just their oil sales to China into the Chinese Yuan the world will see over 5 million barrels per day traded not in U.S. dollars but in Chinese Yuan. Good night Petro Dollar...Hello Petro Yuan.
Geopolitical Shift and Rise of the Petro Yuan
Does China, as the world’s largest importer of oil then take charge of global sea lanes to ensure the trade in oil? This has been a priority of the U.S. military for the last 50 years. The Pentagon is spending $1.58 trillion annually on hardware for trucks, planes, ships, and guns. In 2013, their cost increase alone was $74 billion. The cost increases this year alone, of $74 billion, is more than Russia’s entire military budget. Can America justify a defense budget of this size to protect sea lines for Saudi crude going to China?
What about the so called “King Dollar”? For decades you could trade oil for dollars. This relationship has gone a long way towards making the U.S. dollar the world’s reserve currency. What happens when the U.S. no longer needs to buy imported oil. As time goes on, the oils futures markets will no doubt shift more to Dubai and Dalian, than West Texas and Brent Crude. In decades past, America's thirst for energy imports resulted in all oil contracts being denominated in U.S. Dollars, the so-called Petro Dollar. The Petro Dollar is now headed for extinction to make way for the Petro Yuan.
We are all witnessing the birth pangs of a new global reserve currency and the "Rise of the Petro Yuan".
-
PS if the choice is gold or guns....BUY GUNS!!!
-
-
Speculation abounds that there's a very severe shortage of physical, that could soon be compounded with the insolvency of many gold mining companies. Spot price approaching or falling below extraction costs is bad enough, ...but Barrick has a whole lot of more serious problems that by themselves threaten to tank them.
Now I hear Switzerland is in need of 1,000 tons of gold, so an orchestrated smash down to shake out easily spooked speculators and free up gold at a lower price so that Switzerland will be able to get it's 1,000 tons at a lower price.
Swiss citizens are demanding repatriation of their gold, ...as well as for the Swiss government to buy back 1,000 tons of Swiss gold they previously sold into the markets. Who knows whats what anymore? ...lots of intrigue. One thing's for sure... it's gonna get even more interesting here on out. There's supposed to be another smash down coming soon. Che sara, sara. I hope to take advantage of it when it happens again.
-
Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter, wrote:
"Concerning gold, let's note firstly something sent to us by our old friend John Brimelow, who had a most interesting piece in his commentary this morning regarding the violence of the recent price changes. He noted a piece written by Russell Rhoads, CFA of the CBOE Option Institute, who wrote the following:
"'Friday was a 4.88 standard deviation move in the price of gold. For simplicity's sake let's call it a five standard deviation move. Statistically we get a five standard deviation move approximately once every 4,776 years. So we should not expect another move like this out of the price of gold until May 17, 6789. ... Currently the two-day price change in GLD is 16.65, which can be converted to just over eight standard deviations. I wanted to share what this comes to, but the table I use only goes up to seven standard deviations. Let's just say the sun is expected to burn out first.'"
Gartman continues: "We shall confidently say that we will never, ever see a day such as we saw yesterday in the gold market in our lifetime again. It will not happen. The sun will indeed burn out before we see anything such as that again. Nor shall we ever want to see anything such as that again. We can reasonably deal with deviations from the norm of 2 or 3 or perhaps even 4, but 8+ standard deviations is beyond our ken or that of anyone else anywhere. Yesterday's price action will go down in history as an aberration of truly historic proportions.
"We judge the violence of the market's movements by the numbers of requests for interviews made of us, for the correlation between high numbers of such requests is nearly 1:1 with peaks and valleys of various markets. A large number of requests made of us is four or five a day; a truly large number is eight. Yesterday we had 12, and we've agreed to give several more today that we could not fit into our schedule yesterday. This befits an 8+ standard deviation day."
Che sara, sara... I'll keep stacking.
-
It's individual preference...I chose to have semi auto assault weapons (many) at my home, I conceal carry. Others would not....their choice. BUT don't cry when a mugger has a weapon and you don't. Agree?
Same with gold, just a different tool for self protection.
We just agreed that the majority of the population can't afford to buy, store and insure gold. It has nothing to do with preference. I gave you the example of the college student with $5,000 in savings and you said it wasn't for him/her.
-
We just agreed that the majority of the population can't afford to buy, store and insure gold. It has nothing to do with preference. I gave you the example of the college student with $5,000 in savings and you said it wasn't for him/her.
A college student with $5,000 in savings can certainly afford to buy gold.
Granted maybe not a whole lot of gold, but they can still afford to buy some.
I think an argument that says I only have $5,000 in savings so I can't afford to take 20% of my savings to insure 100% of my savings does not make any sense. It's not like they'd be losing anything. They'd still have their savings, ...but 20% of it, would simply be in a different form.
That's like saying, a college student with $5,000 USD in savings can't afford to take 20% of those savings and convert them into CDN$. The college student STILL has his money, ...but 20% is denominated into a different form of money.
It's those who have very little, who need the insurance THE MOST! imo.
-
A college student with $5,000 in savings can certainly afford to buy gold.
Granted maybe not a whole lot of gold, but they can still afford to buy some.
I think an argument that says I only have $5,000 in savings so I can't afford to take 20% of my savings to insure 100% of my savings does not make any sense. It's not like they'd be losing anything. They'd still have their savings, ...but 20% of it, would simply be in a different form.
That's like saying, a college student with $5,000 USD in savings can't afford to take 20% of those savings and convert them into CDN$. The college student STILL has his money, ...but 20% is denominated into a different form of money.
It's those who have very little, who need the insurance THE MOST! imo.
Tedim disagrees with you and with your business, as he said earlier that buying gold as insurance and transporting, storing and insuring it is not for the majority of the population and that they would be screwed if currency free falls while inflation skyrockets.
Okay, Jaguar Enterprises, I'll play along. Since you insist on quoting me and trying to answer my questions to Tedim.
Will you please be more specific and break it down for this hypothetical college student?
20% of $5,000 is $1,000. So he/she keeps $4,000 in a savings account that has say 0.95% annual percent yield.
So he/she takes this $1,000 and does what exactly with it? Please break it down for me, how much gold can he/she buy as insurance and how much would it cost him/her to transport, store and insure this gold?
-
I'm surprised the price keeps dropping.
With all the spamming you do on this board, I would have thought that the price would have quadrupled by now. ::)
Where can I sign up?
-
I'm surprised the price keeps dropping.
With all the spamming you do on this board, I would have thought that the price would have quadrupled by now. ::)
Where can I sign up?
LOL...exactly! ;D
-
A college student with $5,000 in savings can certainly afford to buy gold.
Granted maybe not a whole lot of gold, but they can still afford to buy some.
I think an argument that says I only have $5,000 in savings so I can't afford to take 20% of my savings to insure 100% of my savings does not make any sense. It's not like they'd be losing anything. They'd still have their savings, ...but 20% of it, would simply be in a different form.
That's like saying, a college student with $5,000 USD in savings can't afford to take 20% of those savings and convert them into CDN$. The college student STILL has his money, ...but 20% is denominated into a different form of money.
It's those who have very little, who need the insurance THE MOST! imo.
Tedim disagrees with you and with your business, as he said earlier that buying physical gold as insurance and transporting, storing and insuring it is not for the majority of the population and that they would be screwed if currency value free falls while inflation skyrockets.
Okay, Jaguar Enterprises, I'll play along. Since you insist on quoting me and trying to answer my questions to Tedim.
Will you please be more specific and break it down for this hypothetical college student?
20% of $5,000 is $1,000. So he/she keeps $4,000 in a savings account that has say 0.95% annual percent yield.
So he/she takes this $1,000 and does what exactly with it? Please break it down for me, how much physical gold can he/she buy as insurance and how much would it cost him/her to transport, store and insure this physical gold?
-
For those unable to view the Canadian CBC documentary The Secret World of Gold, it will be re-broadcast again Sunday evening. Check your local CBC listings for the time.
For those of you outside Canada, the documentary has been posted here:
It was a great show. Catch the rebroadcast while you can here: http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1366397576.php (http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1366397576.php)
It may be pulled.
-
Wow, since you've posted it twice, I'm going to assume you must really want an answer, and are not looking for an excuse to fight or be bellicose.
Tedim disagrees with you and with your business, as he said earlier that buying gold as insurance and transporting, storing and insuring it is not for the majority of the population and that they would be screwed if currency free falls while inflation skyrockets.
With all due respect, I think Tedim should be allowed to speak for himself. Just because he may not choose to avail himself of my business model does not mean he disagrees with it. It could simply be that he has a strategy that works for him. He may or may not see merit in it, or see where it may indeed be beneficial to others, but that is irrelevant imo. Just as I have the ability to examine his model/strategy, and see where it has merit, but also determine that due to MY particular situation, his model may not be the most practical for ME. It's lack of practicality for ME however, in no way detracts from the wisdom, credibility or viability of his chosen path for HIM.
I don't give financial planning or investment advise. Simply stating my opinions.
Everyone should look at their own personal situation, and determine what is right for THEM
Okay, Jaguar Enterprises, I'll play along. Since you insist on quoting me and trying to answer my questions to Tedim.
Will you please be more specific and break it down for this hypothetical college student?
20% of $5,000 is $1,000. So he/she keeps $4,000 in a savings account that has say 0.95% annual percent yield.
So he/she takes this $1,000 and does what exactly with it? Please break it down for me, how much gold can he/she buy as insurance and how much would it cost him/her to transport, store and insure this gold?
I prefer you refer to me as 24KT.
Unfortunately a criminal with no relationshipship or association to me whatsoever has tainted the name Jaguar Enterprises, and I do not appreciate the negative association the name carries with it, or those who would exploit the name in order to maliciously associate me with the individual.
That said: A quick cursory response because I'm packing to go away for the weekend...
How much gold one can acquire as insurance for $1,000 will depend entirely on what the given price of gold is at that moment. Given current prices the volume of gold one could directly buy out-of-pocket, would be measured in grams.
Some suppliers like mine, provide innovative, alternate ways to acquire & accumulate gold for no out-of-pocket cost. As for the cost of transporting, storing or insuring the gold, that too would all depend on to where & how you transported, stored or insured your gold, and which supplier you used.
I can't speak to other suppliers, but with Karatbars (http://www.viewtheinfo.com), depending upon the amount being delivered, delivery costs may be free. Storage & insurance costs are also free depending on what storage facility one chose. One also has the option to accumulate, then take delivery periodically. The choice is entirely yours.
If taking delivery into the USA, I know there is I believe a $25 charge required by the US gov't for orders valued in excess of $2,000 Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) if memory serves me correctly.
Why someone would choose to use GOLD as a form of financial insurance:
If the Federal Reserve Note (FRN) continues to decline as all fundamental indicators predict it will, having any amount of FRN sitting in an account exposes the account holder to risk of loss via confiscation (whether by inflation or "bail-in haircut")
FDIC (provided it will even have the integrity to back it's promise), guarantees the NUMBERS of dollars in your account, ...but NOT the purchasing power of those dollars. In the event of bank insolvency, $5,000 worth of FDIC insured FRNs might buy you a stick of bubble gum (if you're lucky) No hyperbole. I have a genuine $100 Trillion dollar bill that if the seller was feeling extremely generous, might buy me a slice of bread.
Quick scenarios to ponder:
The year is 1971, college student has $175 in savings. he takes 20% and buys 31 grams of gold for $35 dollars as a form of financial insurance, and leaves $140 in the Federal Reserve Note FDIC insured piggy bank.
The real rate of inflation is upwards of 10 - 12%. If you are getting less than 1% yield, in the FDIC insured piggy bank, you are effectively losing 10%+ annually simply for the privilege of having your money in the FDIC insured piggy bank... not even calculating any additional nickel & dime fees those piggy banks may impose. Confiscation via inflation. In addition to the risk definite loss incurred from confiscation via inflation, there now exists the potential for loss via bank insolvency (confiscation via "bail-in haircut")
Fire Depts can respond efficiently if one or two houses were on fire, ...but if every structure within a city were ablaze, ...that fire will burn & burn until there was nothing combustible in the city left to burn. This is analogous to FDIC insurance. FDIC has roughly 250 billion in funds to cover trillions upon trillions of FRNs covered by FDIC insurance. in the event of a financial firestorm... the funds are not there to cover the losses. The Fed can print up the currency to cover the NUMBERS, (provided it maintains the integrity to fulfill it's promise) but with that rate of printing... trillions upon trillions ...what becomes of the purchasing power of those NUMBERS?
If the FED has to print up trillions upon trillions to cover the financial firestorm, the FRN takes on the purchasing power of a Zimbabwe Federal Reserve note. If the FDIC breaks it's promise, uses a Cyprus style "bail-in haircut", what happens to the FRNs in your FDIC insured piggy bank?
Seems like a mighty big risk to me to keep savings in a FDIC insured piggy bank for less than 1%
Interest rates would have to go way up for me to be properly incentived to leave money there, ...but if the interest rates go up, ...that spells disaster for the Gov't due to their level of indebtedness. Meanwhile QE to infinity is in place and will remain in place regardless of what they say imo. Quite the catch 22 no?
Quick example:
In 1971, $1 bought 4 loaves of bread, 1 gram of gold bought 5 loafs of bread.
In 2013, $1 buys less than a half loaf of bread, 1 gram of gold buys 20+ loaves of bread.
Governments across the planet are simultaneously debasing the value of their currencies relative to gold. In previous days one could hedge against this sort of currency debasement by exchanging into a different currency not subject to debasement. Now, with the debasement being GLOBAL, and with the pegging of the Swiss franc to the Euro, despite Switzerland not being part of the Eurozone, the only safe haven currencies left standing are physical precious metals.
If a drastic reduction in the exchange rate of the FRN occurs, they approach the value of Zimbabwe dollars. If however, a portion of one's savings are held in hard assets with intrinsic value like GOLD, ...the FRN portion of your savings may be eaten away, however, the GOLD portion of your savings remains in tact.
Because gold has a 6,000 yr track record of not only keeping up but staying well ahead of inflation, it is quite reasonable to consider the possibility that in the event of a FRN meltdown, that 20% that was allocated into GOLD could infact make the difference between losing only some of your savings, and losing it ALL.
By having it in smaller, more affordable, transaction friendly weights, you allow yourself the flexibility you may require should GOLD get so far ahead of inflation that it has many zeros behind it, ...or if it is required for day to day transactions as an interim mechanism.
Just because one may not be able to afford to buy ounces should not imo dissuade someone from accumulating some, ...especially in the event it does what many experts are predicting it could.
I apologize for this quick rambling and disjointed response. I'm not the most succinct or articulate in print, and I got a boatload of things to do before 5am. if you or anyone else requires further clarification, will be happy to do so when I get back on Monday.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
The US Will be Cyprused & We Will See $50,000 Gold.
April 19, 2013
Today Jim Sinclair spoke with King World News about the ongoing chaos and told KWN the world is witnessing something that has never been seen in history. Sinclair also warned that “the US is going to get Cyprused.” Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say in this remarkable and exclusive interview.
Eric King: “This was from Fed Governor Jeremy Stein’s speech, “If systemically important financial institutions or SIFI, does fail, the losses would fall on its shareholders and creditors, and taxpayers would have no exposure ... Perhaps more to the point for TBTF (too big to fail), if SIFI does fail, I have little doubt that private investors will, in fact, bear the losses -- even if this leads to an outcome that is messier and more costly to society than we would ideally like.”
Sinclair: “What he is saying is that the potential losses are so large, and he is referring to the more than one quadrillion dollars in legacy over-the-counter market for derivatives, that nobody could create that much money.
So what’s pending now is so large, and these statements from Stein are confirmation that Cyprus is in fact the blueprint in the United States for coming financial failures....
“Recent events have also revealed that the paper gold market is in failure right now.”
Eric King: “So their intention is to ‘Cyprus’ the United States?”
Sinclair: “Yes. No question about it. It’s the legacy over-the-counter derivatives that are coming in for some adjustment that can’t be made, and the fractional reserve gold system has failed.
There is no gold there to deliver. What first gave rise to this was the German situation, but then when ABN AMRO shut gold deliveries down it accelerated. The reason they blasted the gold market was to camouflage the fact that the fractional reserve gold system, which is very important to financing and to the government, failed.
The truth is that when we take out these futures markets on a failure, gold is going to $50,000. Not $3,500. $50,000. We are in the midst of a failure right here, right now. That’s what this is all about. This takedown has been the ultimate can-kick.
This has been to stop the revelation of what the central planners are so panicked about, and the fact that the US is going to get Cyprused. They have now manufactured a situation right here at this point in time where it is almost impossible to save yourself.”
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/19_Sinclair_-_The_US_Will_Be_Cyprused_%26_We_Will_See_%2450%2C000_Gold.html
Jim Sinclair was the individual that the Fed chair turned to solve a previous potential meltdown crisis when he was chair of the Fed in the early 80's.
-
Tedim disagrees with you and with your business, as he said earlier that buying physical gold as insurance and transporting, storing and insuring it is not for the majority of the population and that they would be screwed if currency value free falls while inflation skyrockets.
Okay, Jaguar Enterprises, I'll play along. Since you insist on quoting me and trying to answer my questions to Tedim.
Will you please be more specific and break it down for this hypothetical college student?
20% of $5,000 is $1,000. So he/she keeps $4,000 in a savings account that has say 0.95% annual percent yield.
So he/she takes this $1,000 and does what exactly with it? Please break it down for me, how much physical gold can he/she buy as insurance and how much would it cost him/her to transport, store and insure this physical gold?
You mis understood...majority won't buy it because they are ignorant, until its too late. You don't need to insure the insurance. Transportation is a non factor, UPS, FedEx, or USPS so......
Ship it by UPS, buy it at Gainesville Coin/Gold or tulving.com or ebay or any pawn shop in your area.
hide it in your freezer stuff it in your turkey, smelt it into bar bells and paint black....
If you don't believe in it...don't buy it! As I won't buy apple stock.....or any stock. Take my hard earned money, give it to someone I don't know, and they don't know me. Who's sole interest is making the most amount of money for themselves in the shortest amount of time because they don't own the company. Hoping to get a return on my money from this person. Google moral hazard.
-
You mis understood...majority won't buy it because they are ignorant, until its too late. You don't need to insure the insurance. Transportation is a non factor, UPS, FedEx, or USPS so......
Ship it by UPS, buy it at Gainesville Coin/Gold or tulving.com or ebay or any pawn shop in your area.
hide it in your freezer stuff it in your turkey, smelt it into bar bells and paint black....
If you don't believe in it...don't buy it! As I won't buy apple stock.....or any stock. Take my hard earned money, give it to someone I don't know, and they don't know me. Who's sole interest is making the most amount of money for themselves in the shortest amount of time because they don't own the company. Hoping to get a return on my money from this person. Google moral hazard.
Moral Hazard is the license banks and other institutions have been given to run with scissors.
They don't care 'cause the eyes they take out, will not be their own.
It's a giant BlackJack game where the banks don't have a problem hitting on 19 in hopes of getting 21,
...despite the fact that the dealer has 18. They don't care. They want the extra bonus for getting 21, ...but if they bust... well the taxpayers or now the bank account holders will have to cover the banks losses because they are systemically important financial institutions (SIFI) aka Too Big To Fail (TBTF). Fed policy incentivizes the banks to take even greater risks, and make unwise decisions because in the end, ...it's no skin off their noses. Banks keep the profits, ...everyone else eats the losses.
IMO, leaving money in bank accounts, stocks, bonds, CDs or any paper derivative is the fiscal equivalent of putting an apple on your head, and inviting the banksters or anyone they pull off the streets to start playing William Tell with a handgun. If they make the shot and hit the apple, the banksters win $1 Billion. If they miss the shot and don't get the apple, ...authorities will keep letting them try until they hit the apple.
Precious metals... that's your head-to-toe kevlar
-
Latest word on the street is that Hong Kong's bullion exchange is completely sold out.
They've had to get gold from Switzerland. Could be this may be another factor in Switzerland's need to acquire a further 1,000 tons of gold?
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Gold's Black Market?
By Staff Report
9
Meltdown? 15% of world's gold miners face collapse after plunge in price strips $169-billion off market value ... Gold's 9.3% plunge on April 15, the biggest one-day drop in New York since March 1980, couldn't have come at a worse time for gold companies. Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp., the world's two largest producers, are among companies in the FTSE Gold Mines Index that have collectively lost about US$169 billion in market value since bullion peaked in 2011. Gold equities are trading at the lowest level relative to gold. – National Post
Dominant Social Theme: It is getting grim out there.
Free-Market Analysis: So here is the conundrum: There are reports from all around the world that it is difficult to buy physical gold and silver.
Yet the price of gold has plunged by hundreds of dollars and now mining companies are getting ready to shut down.
What's that all about? Here's more from the article:
Gold producers, ignored as global stocks rebounded in the past two years and investors turned to exchange-traded funds that track bullion, face closing mines or shutting themselves down after the metal's worst slump in three decades this week made 15% of miners unprofitable ...
Barrick took another hit this week when the cost to insure its debt surged to the highest in four years after Moody's Investors Service said it may downgrade the company's bonds.
The review of Barrick's Baa1 debt rating was prompted by a legal challenge to its US$8.5 billion project in the Andes, Moody's said in a statement. Toronto-based Barrick is the biggest producer of the precious metal with US$7.5 billion of bonds.
This month's futures price drop to as low as US$1,361.10 an ounce brings gold closer to the global average production cost of about US$1,200 an ounce, according to Nomura Holdings Inc. That puts producers such as Canada's Semafo Inc. and Golden Star Resources Ltd. at risk of mine closures or "financial distress" if prices fall to that level, according to Macquarie Group Ltd. Tanzania, Africa's fourth-largest gold-producer, said a sustained slump may shut mines there.
"Any company that hasn't been focused on efficiencies and costs for the last three to four years is going to fail in this market," said Gavin Thomas, chief executive officer of Sydney- based gold miner Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd.
Gold's 9.3% plunge on April 15, the biggest one-day drop in New York since March 1980, couldn't have come at a worse time for gold companies.
Despite 12 consecutive years of rising gold prices, shareholders have lost faith in the gold-mining industry, which has seen soaring production costs and made money-losing acquisitions. Investors have instead flocked to exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, such as the SPDR Gold Trust, which are backed by bullion and track the price of the metal.
Have investors really lost faith? We read that gold demand in Asia and India remains very strong and informal reports from gold buyers (for physical gold) seem to indicate that it is difficult to buy gold at any price. Silver, not much better.
One explanation for this would be that the paper market and the physical market are diverging. The paper market, according to those who see this crash as manipulated, is easy to push down. Illegal (yet tolerated) naked shorting and other sorts of paper manipulations are responsible for the price crash of the physical.
The physical market might reject these manipulations were it a mark-to-market operation. But it is not. The physical price of gold is apparently fixed twice a day by a consortium of wise men.
If it were simply a market operation perhaps physical gold would be higher, even much higher. But the wise men setting the price must have (apparently so) an affirmative obligation to consider the price information (manipulated or not) being generated by the paper-gold industry.
Thus, the wise men take into account paper gold indications even though the REAL physical market would not reflect them and would tend to emphasize scarcity.
By divorcing market-based physical prices from the "on the ground" reality of what is occurring, those fixing the price of physical gold are apparently giving a good deal of credence to the paper gold market, despite any manipulation that might be occurring.
The situation is further complicated by the inability of gold miners to divorce themselves from whatever price the London physical exchange sets. Gold and silver jewelry are in great demand and apparently many who want to buy gold cannot find it at any price.
Yet according to this article, gold miners are set to go out of business because the price of gold has slumped. In fact, it may not have slumped but apparently to go outside the "fixed" price of the London bullion exchange is nearly impossible.
Perhaps the problem is regulatory in nature. But in any case, it is a bizarre series of events we are witnessing. There is plenty of reporting that seems to indicate high demand for physical gold. But the "price" of gold is down regardless and even though miners might be able to sell their gold for prices high above the stated price, that is not currently happening.
Instead, many miners are preparing to shut down! In the end, if this analysis is correct even partially there will be a divergence from the paper market and gold and silver will generate prices unrecognized by the official marts.
In other words, not recognizing the reality of gold and silver and the actual supply and demand equation will tend to create gray and even black markets in the metals.
Conclusion: Maybe this hasn't happened yet, but maybe it will if the demand actually exists and is not recognized by official prices.
Barrick is in such serious doodoo, it ain't funny! :o
-
There are 4 ways to acquire gold
1) You can marry it or inherit it
(http://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Anna-Nicole-Smith-RIP-and-J-Howard-Marshall-RIP-520x308.jpg)
Unfortunately, there are only limited amounts of J Howard Marshalls or Duchesses of Alba around
2) You can mine it or pan for it yourself
(http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/8095889.bin?size=620x400s)
3) You can buy it with any extra cash you have laying around
(http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2012/02/8ea6d3bec6b79d23130eb26d36a9d464.jpg)
(http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lplkp095C01qb26yko1_500.jpg)
(http://www.tnooz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/luggage-cash.jpg)
OR
The least known way, ...but most accessible way for the greatest number of people...
4) You can acquire it for FREE... zero out-of-pocket cost through a system that empowers you to be on the right side of the cash flow quadrant. (B or I quadrant)
(http://www.gakusen.ac.jp/faculty/alagna/11y10mRichDadDiamondsFolder/11y10mCFQuadrantDistinct.gif)
(http://www.dotjenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/the-cash-flow-quadrant.jpg)
95% of the population operates on the LEFT side of the Quadrant. They have 5% of the wealth.
5% of the population operates on the RIGHT side of the Quadrant. They have 95% of the wealth.
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Sinclair: Swiss Bank Just Refused to Give My Friend His Gold
Today legendary trader Jim Sinclair stunned King World News when he revealed that a dear friend of his who is very affluent just had a Swiss bank refuse to return his large hoard of gold when he asked for it out of an allocated account. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say in this remarkable and candid interview.
Eric King: “Maguire spoke on KWN yesterday about the fact that one of his clients went to the LBMA to get the metal from them and could not get it. They told him he would be cash settled. This is what you have been talking about is the failure of the physical markets.”
Sinclair: “A person that I know with significant deposits in one of the primary Swiss banks, in allocated gold, wanted to take out his gold and was just refused on the basis of directives from the central bank....
“They told him the amount was in excess of 200,000 Swiss francs and the central bank had instructed them not to do it because it has to do with anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering precautions.
I really wonder whether those are precautions or whether the gold simply isn’t there. Now you tell me that a London delivery has basically failed. It has to raise our suspicions that the lack of physical gold behind the paper gold is literally so severe that we are coming to understand that it is in fact not there.
The gold that people think is stored is not stored, and the inventory of the warehouses for exchanges may not be holding deliverable gold. There has always been speculation about whether or not the physical gold the US claims to store is in fact in those vaults.
The greatest train robbery in history might be all of the gold, and it would only be something like we have described above that would happen right before gold makes historic highs.
There simply is no gold behind the paper. One example is AMRO, a second is your example with Maguire, and a third is my dear friend who was refused his gold on the basis that its value was too high. Remember this friend of mine had his gold in an allocated account in storage at a major Swiss bank. I repeat, there is no gold.”
Eric King: “Jim, when I listen to what you are saying, to what Maguire is saying, it really does tell me we are at the end game in terms of the paper market. It’s collapsing right now as you have been warning.”
Sinclair: “The vicious and blatant manipulation of the gold price (lower) via paper, on Friday and on Monday, may very well be the biggest mistake that the manipulators ever conceived of. I firmly believe it revealed that the price of gold has nothing to do with gold itself.
But I would add that if in fact the physical demand remains at these levels or even increases as the price of gold rises, I believe that the warehouses for the exchanges will be so significantly drawn down that it will force cash settlement.
The bottom line here is the paper market for gold may have just lit itself on fire, and served to burn the manipulators’ houses to the ground. You’ve heard of the phrase, ‘The emperor has no clothes.’ Well, this is infinitely worse because it is finally being revealed that the paper market for gold, in fact, has no gold.”
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/23_Sinclair_-_Swiss_Bank_Just_Refused_To_Give_My_Friend_His_Gold.html
-
If you're outside of Canada, or missed Brian McKenna's CBC DocZone documentary "The Secret World of Gold",
you can view the full documentary below
Secret World of Gold - Full Documentary
Here is Max Keiser keeping it real, discussing why the price is falling.
He is also accompanied by JP Morgan whistle blower Andrew Maguire
All of you who are enamored with paper gold or ETF's like GLD are highly encouraged to pay close attention
Keiser Report: Stalinism of NYSE (E436)
-
Your logic implies every Tom Dick and Harry should be able to own tanks, rocket launchers, land mines, fighter jets and m 50 cal machine guns.
My logic tells me that a people living under a constant decline of freedoms had better have the ability to defend themselves against any entity that would seek to destroy their country. Gold plays an important part in economic self defense against the global currency trends of paper money debasement.
Thats about as logical as buying gold implanted on a credit card.
Karatbars doesn't sell gold implanted on a credit card.
The only credit cards we issue are the customized Karatbars Mastercards used to pay affiliate commissions and/or residuals on monthly gold sales, or provide quick liquidity to account holders who desire to take advantage of the highest guaranteed buyback price for any gold they hold in their accounts.
(http://www.karatbars.com/userinterface/bilder/prepaid.jpg)
The little gold piece you see on the Mastercard is a microchip to facilitate ATM and point-of-sale transactions.
The Karatbars Mastercard may at some point in the future contain a gram of gold embedded in it, but at the moment it does not. If you're going to mock or disparage something, ...then at least know the facts rather than make silly assumptions.
The gold that Karatbars does sell, when delivered, comes embedded in a plastic card that is the size of a credit card for convenience. The credit card sized plastic sheath also provides the protection necessary for the gold ingot piece because 999.9 pure 24KT gold is extremely soft. Unlike other coins & bars which add various alloys to make them durable, Karatbars gold is the purest form of gold available. The card also acts as a certificate of authenticity verifying the weight, purity, as well as it's production via an LBMA GDL refinery.
(http://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/538128_478836005512601_1910083052_n.jpg)
And if the idea of gold embedded in a plastic card, complete with attached security features is so ridiculous a concept, why has UBS chosen to follow our lead by producing 1 gram weights embedded in a plastic card?
(http://suissegold.ch/images/T/UBS-1g.jpg)
Evidently there is a demand for small weight gold. It is no longer for those who cannot afford to purchase larger weights. More and more people are waking up to the importance of owning small, transaction friendly weights of gold as a protection against currency debasement.
FOCUS: Small Gold Coin, Bar Will See Only A Temporary Shortage
By Debbie Carlson of Kitco News
Thursday April 25, 2013 2:30 PM
(Kitco News) - Gold dealers were caught off-guard by the public’s rush to buy small coins and bars in the wake of one of the sharpest-ever drops in the price of gold in mid-April, as many dealers had only limited supplies on hand when demand surged.
That’s led to sharp rises in premiums over spot gold prices in many parts of the world, particularly in Asia and the Middle East as bullion dealers try to avoid completely running out of stock. The demand is strongest for the smallest-sized denominations,...
http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20130425DeC_1.html
-
You mis understood...majority won't buy it because they are ignorant, until its too late.
...
If you don't believe in it...don't buy it!
Wow Teddybear, I didn't know you played basketball. I'd say that was a definite 3 pointer!
-
Tedim disagrees with you and with your business, as he said earlier that buying physical gold as insurance and transporting, storing and insuring it is not for the majority of the population and that they would be screwed if currency value free falls while inflation skyrockets.
You mis understood...majority won't buy it because they are ignorant, until its too late.
...
If you don't believe in it...don't buy it!
Hey Loco, I notice you don't have an avatar. Maybe I can help you resolve that? Will this one do? ;D
-
Everytime gold has had a severe manipulated takedown like the one we just experienced, we have seen it rebound back by at least 36%. It'll be interesting to see how much further it goes up as well as how quickly. I think there could be some incredible volatility from here on out, ...but it may not be the case. I don't think central planners want to see it shoot up too fast, because they'll lose control, and this latest stunt has clearly backfired on them. But if gold does do what I think it's going to, physical gold just might breach it's previous high of Sept, 2011 and go over the $2,000 mark a lot sooner than anyone expects. I'm beginning to wish I had taken avxo up on his bet. j/k. avxo. I'm secretly hoping the gold cartel orchestrates another successful takedown, ...but hopefully doesn't blow up the economy in the process. The lower they push the price of paper gold, ...the more of the physical I'll be able to accumulate, both out-of-pocket, and FREE.
-
Sprott - Incredible Global Gold Rush Triggers $3,000 Target
April 28, 2013
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/27_Sprott_-_Incredible_Global_Gold_Rush_Triggers_$3,000_Target_files/shapeimage_22.png)
Today billionaire Eric Sprott told King World News that the incredible global gold rush we are witnessing right now has triggered a $3,000 price target for gold. Sprott also spoke about the extraordinary events we have just witnessed in these key markets and what it means going forward. This is the second in a series of three written interviews with Sprott that will be released today. Below is what Sprott, who is Chairman of Sprott Asset Management, had to say in part II of this remarkable series of interviews.
Eric King: “We’ve been discussing quite a bit on King World News the desperation of the central planners, and especially when we saw the very unnatural action taking place in gold and silver. When you see that kind of desperation, Eric, what does it tell you? Because it’s become more pronounced than we’ve ever seen it.”
Sprott: “It’s just pure insanity. When gold and silver got hit, gold traded about 120% of its annual production in one day (in the paper market). We had offerings of 25% of the world’s mine production at one time, and who in the hell would have 25% of the world’s mine production available for sale in a minute? And who would want to sell it in one minute? It’s just ridiculous....
“So we see all of these paper (trading) volumes going through that bear absolutely no relationship to what’s going on in the physical markets. As you know I have always been a proponent of the fact that supply in the gold market was way less than demand, and by a very large factor. I think demand exceeds supply by at least 60%. The central banks are surreptitiously supplying that gold, and ultimately they will be running on fumes.
When we hear about the LBMA not willing to deliver gold, and JP Morgan’s inventories at the COMEX have gone from 2.4 million (ounces) down to 160,000 ounces, it just makes you realize that all of this paper trading means nothing. It’s the real physical market that you have to rely on.
Everything I believed in keeps pointing to more and more buying. God forbid that I might be able to say that investment demand might go up 100% this year because everyone is buying gold. Where would it come from? There is already a shortage. So it’s just pure insanity.
I think we will look back at the gold chart and you will see this panic selling at the bottom and (we will be at) new highs in the market. We will realize when we breakout through $1,920, and we got down to $1,320, it’s going to count for the gold price being another 50% higher.
We are going to have an excellent shot at $3,000 gold because this thing is totally sold out here based on the action of the Friday and Monday of the previous weeks. The whole exercise backfired. If it was central bank manipulation or somebody trying to break the market, it totally backfired.
I can’t believe that I can say to you that the US Mint has sold 1,000% more gold this month, than April of last year, and the month is not even over. I’m shocked that I can say the UK Mint has sold 200% more. You hear numbers out of China and India of hundreds of percent differences.
I mean these are staggering developments in a market where the supply has been essentially fixed for 13 years. The mining supply went down last year. Mining supply will go down this year, and yet we see a huge surge of physical buying all over the place. This has been a wonderful response from people who realize the ridiculousness of what the central planners are doing.”
Eric Sprott predicts $3,000 Gold (http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2013/4/28_Eric_Sprott_files/Eric%20Sprott%204%3A28%3A2013.mp3) <-- click me to hear the full interview :D
Eric Sprott: Chairman, CEO & Portfolio Manager of Sprott Asset Management - Eric has over 40 years of experience in the investment industry and manages over $10 billion. He has been stunningly accurate in his writings for over a decade, and is one of the most respected industry professionals who accurately foresaw the current crisis. Eric chronicled the dangers of excessive leverage as well as the bubbles the Fed was creating, while correctly forecasting the tragic collapse. Sprott Asset Management is one of the top firms in the world. The firm has become well known not only for its performance, but also for creating a gold and now silver trust.
Bio - Eric Sprott, CA
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Portfolio Manager
Sprott Canadian Equity Fund; Sprott Energy Fund; Sprott Hedge Fund LP & LP II;
Sprott Bull/Bear RSP Fund; Sprott Offshore Fund Ltd.; Sprott Capital Fund LP
Eric Sprott is Chairman of Sprott Inc., CEO, CIO and Senior Portfolio Manager of Sprott Asset Management LP and Chairman of Sprott Money Ltd. Eric has over 40 years of experience in the investment industry. He has been stunningly accurate in his predictions including foreseeing the current financial crisis. He chronicled the dangers of excessive leverage, as well as the bubbles the Fed was creating, while correctly forecasting the tragic collapse of the housing and financial markets in 2008. Eric's predictions on the state of the North American financial markets as well as macroeconomic analysis have been presented in a monthly investment strategy newsletter entitled "Markets At A Glance”.
Awards and Accolades:
November 2010, Absolute Return Awards: Sprott Capital LP awarded Fund of the Year
October 2008, HFM Week Best Long/Short Hedge Fund globally: Sprott Offshore Fund Ltd. selected
April 2008, Barron’s World’s 75 Best Hedge Funds: Sprott Offshore Fund Ltd. and Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund LP selected
November 2008, Absolute Return Awards: Nominated for Management Firm of the Year and Top U.S. Equity Fund for Sprott Hedge Fund LP
December 2007, Eric Sprott named Fund Manager of the Year by Investment Executive, a widely circulated publication for Canadian financial advisors.
October 2006, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards: Eric Sprott recipient of the Ernst& Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Financial Services) and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Ontario.
September 2006, MarHedge Annual Performance Award: Sprott Offshore Fund Ltd. winner under the Canada-Based Manager category.
December 2004, Canadian Investment Awards: Opportunistic Strategy Hedge Fund Awarded to the Sprott Hedge Fund L.P.
Our Companies
Sprott Asset Management LP (SAM) is the investment manager of the Sprott family of mutual funds, hedge funds and discretionary managed accounts. Sprott Asset Management offers a best-in-class investment team led by Eric Sprott, world renowned money manager. The firm manages diverse mandates united by the same goal: delivering outstanding returns to investors. For more information, please visit www.sprott.com.
Sprott Private Wealth LP provides customized wealth management to Canadian high-net worth investors, including entrepreneurs, professionals, family trusts, foundations and estates. For more information, please visit www.sprottwealth.com.
Sprott Consulting LP provides active management services to independent public and private companies and partnerships to capitalize on unique business opportunities. The firm offers deep bench strength with a highly-talented and knowledgeable team of professionals who have extensive experience and a proven ability to design creative solutions that lead to market-beating value improvement. For more information, please visit www.sprottconsulting.com .
Sprott U.S. Holdings Inc. offers specialized brokerage and asset management services in the natural resources sectors.
Sprott Global Resource Investments Ltd., our full-service U.S. brokerage firm, specializes in natural resource investments in the U.S., Canada and Australia. Founded in 1993, the firm is led by Rick Rule, a leading authority in investing in global natural resource companies. More than just brokers, the team is comprised of geologists, mining engineers and investment professionals. For more information, please visit www.sprottglobal.com.
Sprott Asset Management USA Inc., offers Managed Accounts that invest in precious metals and natural resources. For more information on our brokerage services, please visit www.sprottusa.com.
Sprott Money Ltd. is a leading precious metals dealer selling gold and silver coins and bars online. The company was founded in February 2008 and is privately owned by Eric Sprott. As one of Canada’s largest owners of gold and silver bullion, the company’s goal is to facilitate ownership of precious metals no matter how big or small the portfolio. For more information on Sprott Money Ltd., please visit www.sprottmoney.com.
I don't listen to guys who manage billions of dollars of other people's money.
I prefer to listen to guys who manage billions of dollars of their own money.
-
"I prefer you refer to me as 24KT"
::)
-
"I prefer you refer to me as 24KT"
::)
Actually, I'm kinda vibin' to Goldilocks lately. :)
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Sinclair - The Elites Frightening Plan to Control The Masses
April 28, 2013
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/28_Sinclair_-_The_Elites_Frightening_Plan_To_Control_The_Masses_files/shapeimage_22.png)
Today legendary trader Jim Sinclair told King World News that the elites plan to use the coming financial chaos and destruction to control the masses. Sinclair spoke about the “Great Unwind,” what this means for gold, and how investors can protect themselves from what is in front of us. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say in this remarkable interview.
Sinclair: “The enormous violence in the markets is obscuring a very clear message. The message from Cyprus, that has also been written in various white papers and signed by central banks, the FDIC, Bank of England, and the BIS, is to get out of the system.
What happens to readers around the world is of primary importance to King World News and to myself. The meetings that I have already had, and future meetings still to take place around the world, have been for the purpose of keeping investors from having large portions of their wealth destroyed or stolen from them.
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/28_Sinclair_-_The_Elites_Frightening_Plan_To_Control_The_Masses_files/KWN%20Sinclair%20I%204%3A28.jpg)
People have to understand that going forward large deposits by ‘non-insiders’ are no longer going to be permitted. The goal of this pre-arranged wealth destruction is to equalize the ‘new rich’ and the ‘upper middle-class.’ Those not on the inside, with the right families and the right companies, are not going to be tolerated in the ‘New Paradigm’ of currency and metal that we are now moving into.
So the only means of being able to protect yourself will be to understand the answer to the question, ‘What is the final end game for the most powerful families that are in fact running countries and markets?’....
“Take into consideration that the recent and violent drop in the gold price, especially if followed by an equally violent recovery, was primarily for the transfer of physical gold from financial and other entities to the families that are running the Western governments and financial world.
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/28_Sinclair_-_The_Elites_Frightening_Plan_To_Control_The_Masses_files/KWN%20Sinclair%20II%204%3A28.jpg)
In my opinion that’s exactly what has just happened. A very strong and immediate recovery, that is sustained, makes the message clear that gold is an ingredient for these wealthy families to maintain their wealth and power, not simply over a generation, but over multiple generations.
We are coming very close to a point where the manufacturing of unprecedented amounts of fiat currency has to have a global impact. You simply can’t increase the amount of currency as violently as what been done without having to face the consequences, one of which is the collapse of the purchasing power of those fiat currencies.
The massive and ongoing currency war the world has been witnessing may come to a head much sooner than any of us realize. So investors must have an understanding of how the system will be preserved, and eventually reset, in order to survive the coming wealth destruction.
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/28_Sinclair_-_The_Elites_Frightening_Plan_To_Control_The_Masses_files/KWN%20Sinclair%20III%204%3A28.jpg)
Maintaining significant deposits inside banks in the current financial system is setting up that portion of your wealth to be destroyed or stolen from you. Whereas maintaining physical gold inside a private storage, outside of the banking system, is one of the ways you can survive what is coming.
Physical gold will be the primary beneficiary of the ‘Great Unwind’ that is still in front of us. This is why the latest attempt to smash gold in the paper market was met with one of the most ferocious physical buying sprees the world has ever seen.
Owners of physical gold may end up being the quality non-North American gold companies, as well as individuals which move out of fiat money and into physical gold while the price is cheap. From now on every dip you see in paper gold will be met by a corresponding move by savvy investors around the world to trade in their fiat money for physical gold.
The time to get out of the system is immediately in order not to be destroyed by the ‘Great Equalization’ that is about to take place. This phase will serve to bring humanity to its knees. It is going to be about control of the masses, for the benefit of the few.
Derivatives will be a primary tool for the destroyers of wealth, and bank deposits all over the Western hemisphere will be invaded. So investors must get out of the system and have physical gold and gold related investments in order to survive what is still to come.”
Eric King: “Talk about what this will this mean for the price of gold going forward.”
Sinclair: “The price of gold is going to significant new highs, and that drive to new highs will be as a result of a continued move into physical gold. Because the manipulative tool of the paper market has been revealed as a fraudulent determiner of price, the physical gold price will now be free to move to levels that even you and I will be surprised at, and it will be maintained at that level for generations.”
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Sinclair: Day of Financial Infamy As Cyprus Depositors Are Flushed
April 28, 2013
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/28_Sinclair__Day_Of_Financial_Infamy_As_Cyprus_Depositors_Flushed_files/shapeimage_22.png)
Today legendary trader Jim Sinclair told King World News that today is a day of financial infamy as Cyprus depositors have now officially been flushed. Sinclair also stated that history will show this day as being as serious as the flushing of Lehman Brothers. Below is what Sinclair, who was once called on by former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker to assist during a Wall Street crisis, had to say in this remarkable interview.
Eric King: “Jim, we now know the answer to the ‘Cyprus Solution.’”
Sinclair: “Yes, Cyprus depositors have now been flushed. The Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest bank said it has converted 37.5% of deposits exceeding 100,000 euros into a Class A share, with an additional 22.5% held as a buffer for possible conversion in the future.
Another 30% will be temporarily frozen and held as a deposit. So the amount of money that has been taken from the Cyprus depositors is in all practicality almost their entire accounts. Major depositors funds have now been taken in grand style.
Depositors everywhere are now defined as lenders to the banks. Today is a day of financial infamy. History will see this event as serious as the flushing of Lehman Brothers....
“Lehman Brothers was flushed to create a flow of huge funds into the financial system.
The flushing of Cyprus was done to steal massive funds from depositors. The major percentage of their funds taken were replaced by worthless stock in a bankrupt bank. Up to now everything in Cyprus was speculation as no definitive action had taken place. Now it has.
Are you a depositor in your bank? Then know you are now lending your money to that bank with virtually no return. So the bank earns big money and you get none of it, but assume all of the risk. If the bank goes broke because of their criminal activities, you lose your money.
They’ve taken an accounting title of ‘unsecured creditor,’ and now converted that, in the elites’ best interest, to ‘lender,’ for which there is no supporting case law whatsoever. Get out of the system now or you will pay the penalty. Depositors everywhere will have their money stolen at some point.
Gold is for saving. Gold producers with low cost and low overhead are the only holders of the new supply of physical gold. The price of gold will not only reach our original target of $3,500, but it will greatly exceed that level as the fires that are burning in the financial world turn now into an inferno, but physical gold will allow you to survive the massive blaze and financial destruction.”
-
Why Did Silver & Gold Collapse?
Mike Maloney and Chris Martenson
-
Gold Standard 2013
Breaking Inequality - Why you will always be poor
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Suppliers & Bank Clients Denied Gold As Shortage Intensifies
May 24, 2013
(http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/5/24_Suppliers_%26_Bank_Clients_Denied_Gold_As_Shortage_Intensifies_files/shapeimage_22.png)
Today Egon von Greyerz shocked King World News with more stunning news regarding clients having problems getting their physical gold out of Swiss banks as well as other major banks as the gold shortage intensifies. Greyerz also discussed the fact that suppliers cannot keep up with demand and the reason will surprise KWN readers around the world. Below is what Greyerz, who is founder of Matterhorn Asset Management out of Switzerland, had to say in this remarkable interview....
Greyerz: “Eric, at our company we are hearing more and more stories about banks not delivering gold that belongs to the client. We are talking about Swiss banks here once again. One client went to a Swiss bank to inspect his gold and the client manager said, ‘You can’t see it, but it looks like this,’ and he took a gold bar out of his drawer.
And the client showed me that he had a statement showing ounces of gold. Well, you don’t own physical gold in ounces in Europe. You own gold bars either in grams or in kilos, but not in ounces....
"You know automatically that it was paper gold the client owned because it was in units of ounces from a European bank. So he didn’t have any physical gold, but the man in the bank told him that he did have physical, but he just couldn’t show it to him.
Another client went to a major Swiss bank and he wanted to inspect his gold, but the account manager said, ‘I can show you the documents, but we are not allowed to show you the physical.’ And this was a major Swiss bank.
And just today we heard from a client that was going to take his gold out of two major Swiss banks. This bank told him that he could only take out 200,000 Swiss francs worth of gold per annum. They started off by telling him 50,000 to 80,000 Swiss francs of gold could be taken out, but eventually they went up to 200,000. The other bank told him that he could not take out more than 80,000 Swiss francs worth of gold per year.
So clearly these banks don’t have the physical gold. If they do, it’s very strange they won’t show it to clients and the clients are not allowed to take it out of the bank. So it’s clear that many banks don’t have the gold.
The bottom line is the banks don’t have enough physical gold to cover the commitment to their clients, and governments also have a lot less physical gold in the West than they claim to have. As the paper market is 100 times larger than the physical market, it means that paper market has virtually no physical gold to back it.”
Greyerz also added: "the latest shocking news from suppliers is they are having a very difficult time getting hold of physical gold. Therefore, this week again they increased their spreads on physical gold. So again, Eric, my message is very clear: Investors must hold physical gold outside of the banking system because this paper market will explode one day.”
Wow! First Germany, then Jim Sinclair, then Arn-Ambro clients, now Egon Von Greyerz... soon everyone is going to know someone who can't get actual physical delivery of the gold they thought they had, ...the gold upon which they have been paying storage fees for years. When that happens, people will discover these ETF's are not even worth the paper they're not printed on, ...and we will have a decisive de-coupling of physical from paper. It's gonna be a wild ride!
-
4) You can acquire it for FREE... zero out-of-pocket cost through a system that empowers you to be on the right side of the cash flow quadrant. (B or I quadrant)
Anything you can "acquire" for free has a value - it's exactly zero.
(http://www.gakusen.ac.jp/faculty/alagna/11y10mRichDadDiamondsFolder/11y10mCFQuadrantDistinct.gif)
This crudely drawn image changes everything. I no longer need to think. Just look at this picture. It says everything, in convenient picture form! It's like a Dr. Seuss book for money.
(http://www.dotjenna.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/the-cash-flow-quadrant.jpg)
Garçon! I'll take 500 golds please! It all makes sense to me now, after seeing this crude Microsoft Paint infographic! And make it fast, before I end up having to get a J.O.B.!
5% of the population operates on the RIGHT side of the Quadrant. They have 95% of the wealth.
And for all their wealth they haven't produced a single infographic as concise and powerful and full of useful facts for success as what we see above! The proof, ladies and gentlemen, is in the proverbial pudding.
-
Anything you can "acquire" for free has a value - it's exactly zero.
This crudely drawn image changes everything. I no longer need to think. Just look at this picture. It says everything, in convenient picture form! It's like a Dr. Seuss book for money.
Garçon! I'll take 500 golds please! It all makes sense to me now, after seeing this crude Microsoft Paint infographic! And make it fast, before I end up having to get a J.O.B.!
And for all their wealth they haven't produced a single infographic as concise and powerful and full of useful facts for success as what we see above! The proof, ladies and gentlemen, is in the proverbial pudding.
Show Judi some respect! She was once Miss Black Ontario. hahahahahahahahahahahaha haha oh, brother ::)
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
(http://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/378146_517958098267058_2007079727_n.jpg)
Cooking The Gold Books
by Addison Wiggins
May 24, 2013
We got a small, if bitter, taste of gold’s “Zero Hour” in the second half of April.
Either that, or the world’s largest banks engineered a takedown of gold for the purpose of staving off Zero Hour… for now.
As you’ll recall from these pages in March, “Zero Hour” is the name we give to the moment when the price of real, physical gold in your hand starts to break away from the quoted price on the commodities exchanges.
That is, the “physical price” becomes much higher than the “paper price” on CNBC’s ticker. The catalyst, we suggested, would be when a major metals exchange defaults on a gold or silver contract — settling in cash, instead of metal.
To be clear, Zero Hour did not take place when gold’s paper price plunged $150 in only two trading days — Friday, April 12, and Monday, April 15.
But what happened after that plunge hints at what the aftermath of Zero Hour would look like. Real metal suddenly became very hard to come by. We chronicled the worldwide scramble, in real-time, in The 5 Min. Forecast…
- The Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange nearly ran out of bullion on Friday, April 19
- There were reports of a “massive wave of physical gold buying” in Dubai
- Monthly sales of U.S. Gold Eagles fell just short of a 26-year high during April.
Result: If you wanted real metal, you paid a substantial premium over the paper price. In silver, these premiums were off the charts. On Thursday, April 25, spot silver was $23.94… but a Silver Eagle from a major online dealer would set you back $29.54 — as high as the paper price before the mid-April crash!
Meanwhile, the premium on “junk silver” — U.S. dimes, quarters and halves dated before 1965 — sits at four-year highs, according to coin dealer Richard Nachbar. Usually, these coins trade at a small discount to the paper price of silver. Now? As the chart nearby shows, they fetch a 17% premium over spot… and that’s wholesale!
(http://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/968804_517945304935004_335611986_n.jpg)
“The April gold crash,” sums up Agora Financial’s own Byron King, “was the beginning of emancipating real gold from paper gold. We’re about to see a ‘real’ price for gold, coming from the bottom up, not the top down. I suspect that we’ll see a solid price rise for gold over time. The market bullies who deal in paper products have just punched themselves in the nose.”
Meanwhile, if you’re still skeptical that “Zero Hour” is a real possibility, there’s new and compelling evidence.
Sprott Asset Management chief Eric Sprott believes Zero Hour is made inevitable by Western central banks “leasing” their gold to commercial banks at less than 1% a year. The commercial banks then sell that gold and plow the proceeds into higher-earning investments.
“Now,” Sprott writes in a new white paper, “our long search for the ‘smoking gun’ to prove our hypothesis appears to have finally materialized.”
The evidence lies in the monthly trade data from the Census Bureau. The December 2012 report revealed net gold exports of $2.5 billion — almost 50 tonnes. This staggering number prompted Sprott and his team to dig through the figures as far back as they exist — all the way to 1991.
The data show that net exports from 1991-2012 totaled 5,504 tonnes.
Here’s the problem: During that same period, U.S. supply mine production and recycling totaled 7,532 tonnes, while demand was 6,517 tonnes. That left only 1,015 tonnes available for export.
Where did the other 4,489 tonnes come from? “The only U.S. seller that would be capable of supplying such an astonishing amount of gold,” says Mr. Sprott, “is the U.S. government, with a reported gold holding of 8,300 tonnes.”
Yikes.
“If the Sprott analysis is accurate,” says our friend and Crash Course author Chris Martenson, “there’s a lot of missing gold in the U.S. equation, and it had to come from official sources, either of U.S. origin or belonging to other countries. Either way, the leased gold represents a tremendous liability of the Fed and the bullion banks to which it was loaned.”
“In this context,” Mr. Martenson continues, “the gold slam begins to smell like an operation designed to shake as much gold as possible out of weak hands so that the bullion banks can begin to recover it to square up their accounts.
“GLD, the gold ETF that so many small investors participate in, is one large, obvious target,” he adds, “as it was sitting on 1,350 tonnes as of January 2013.”
Sure enough, by the end of April, more than 250 tonnes of that total were gone. On the chart nearby, you can see how the drain on GLD’s inventory neatly tracks the paper price of gold.
“Gold and silver,” Mr. Martenson suggests, “are getting closer to the day when you or I will not be able to purchase physical bullion at any price.”
“I don’t even look at gold as gold anymore… they securitized it,” CNBC’s voluble Rick Santelli said on March 27 — weeks before the big beat-down.
“If things [went] badly in the world that I used to observe as the gold bug, the gold would end up in the hands of the gold bugs. If things go badly now, they’re going to end up with checks from ETFs! Sorry, it’s not the same. The reign of [paper] gold is the Ayn Rand end product. To me, that’s over. Game, set, match.”
"The endgame is getting closer. “What I believe is going to happen, probably in the not too distant future,” says Eric Sprott’s right-hand man John Embry, “is that the pricing mechanism of the gold and silver markets will swing to the physical market, which cannot be manipulated, because, basically, either you’ve got it or you haven’t.
“Whereas the paper market has been set up specifically so that it can be manipulated. I would not be too concerned about that, even though they’ve got the upper hand to date. I think that their power is going to be sharply eroded in the very near future.”
But that’s when you won’t be able to get any metal at any price. Best act before then: “The current sell-off in gold,” says Eric Sprott, “should be viewed not with extreme trepidation, but as an unbelievable opportunity to buy the metal at an artificially low value.”
Regards,
Addison Wiggin
for The Daily Reckoning
P.S. We’ve been tracking the gold price pretty closely ever since our friend and mentor, Bill Bonner, announced his Trade of the Decade back in 2000 — sell stocks on rallies; buy gold on dips. And while that turned out to be a tremendous trade, it’s only a small part of the much larger story about our favorite yellow metal… Subscribers to The Daily Reckoning email know this better than anyone.
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, LLC, a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm. He's the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial's daily 5 Min. Forecast and editorial director of The Daily Reckoning. Wiggin is the founder of Agora Entertainment, executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. He is the author of the companion book of the film I.O.U.S.A.and his second edition of The Demise of the Dollar, and Why it's Even Better for Your Investments was just fully revised and updated. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. He also co-authored international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Bill Bonner.
-
a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm
oh, brother ::)
-
In other Global Currency Trends ... :D
Is Gold's fall, Fed's Doing?
By John Browne
Published: Saturday, May 25, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Saturday, May 25, 2013
Asked what makes the United States the most powerful country, many readers likely would reply the military. In fact, it is the dollar.
The bill with George Washington's mug on it finances the government, its military and, as the international reserve currency, most of the world's trade. Its value affects the wealth of the United States and other nations.
But this crucial element of U.S. power is threatened by gold, the ubiquitous currency of recorded history. The danger arises from the Federal Reserve's practice of quantitative easing (QE), holding interest rates artificially lower by printing currency. Should foreign nations or Americans decide to start transacting business in gold, however, the dollar would be doomed.
And with it would go the supreme power of the U.S. government.
In its efforts to defend the Achilles' heel dollar, the government must squelch gold's attraction by any means possible, including price manipulation.
On May 17, The Wall Street Journal ran a headline article, “Gold's Allure Is Starting to Fade.” It described gold as being “mauled” by aggressive selling. But was the price collapse inspired by investor disillusion — or by Fed manipulation?
In December 2000, gold stood at $272 an ounce. By August 23, 2011, it reached $1,917 an ounce. This 704 percent decline in the value of the dollar against gold was a clear, acute threat to the United States at home and abroad.
Gold's rise coincided almost exactly with the Fed's opening of the monetary spigots after 9/11 under Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and the wholesale QE engineered by his successor, Ben Bernanke.
In the 41⁄2 years since the birth of QE, the Fed has printed trillions of paper dollars to conceal the bad debts of the Greenspan boom. It threatened inflation and the abandonment of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Loss of the dollar standard would remove America's power over international interest rates and its ability to maintain the nation's standard of living.
Combined with increased fears of a currency crisis, it encouraged wide investment in gold. As the gold price exploded, speculators, especially hedge funds, joined in. Unlike long-term investors, the speculators purchased the more readily tradable Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), sometimes referred to as paper gold.
Today, there are two gold prices: one for ETFs, which is falling; one for the metal, which is sometimes firm or rises relative to paper gold.
On April 12, an estimated 124 to 400 tons of short sales hit the New York market. Even at 124 tons, that's some 40,000 futures contracts. By observing strict market “position limits,” this would have required 14 traders to hit the market almost simultaneously, giving rise to speculation of illegal conspiracy to manipulate the market.
The fact that no investigation was begun served only to heighten suspicions of a covert attack on gold by the most powerful financial institution in the world: the Fed.
By openly manipulating the bond markets, creating negative real interest rates and covertly casting doubt on the “safe haven” reputation of gold, the Fed appears to be encouraging — if not forcing — investors into the higher risk of equities.
Maybe it is time to “fight the Fed” and go for gold.
John Browne, a financial analyst and former member of the British Parliament, is a financial columnist for the Tribune-Review.
-
In other Global Currency Trends .. :D
Grant Williams of Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore, editor of the "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." financial letter, covered gold extensively in his presentation May 21 to the CFA Institute conference in Singapore, remarking that in April gold had come under "mathematically inexplicable pressure" and concluding that "the gold price is not the price of gold" -- that is, the gold futures market is not necessarily the market for real metal.Williams didn't quite say that the gold market has been subject to government intervention meant to propagandize and frighten, but the point probably will be understood by anyone except maybe developers of resort properties in Argentina's outback.
Williams' presentation is titled "Do the Math" and is posted at YouTube, and while at 49 minutes it's long, his review of the world economy is incisive and entertaining and those so inclined can skip to the gold section at 33:30:
DO THE MATH