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- Gold retreats below $1,670 as US dollar, stocks rise
- Stock market strength takes shine off gold
- China to ban TV ads for watches and Gold
- Top Ranked Gold-Focused Fund Tocqueville's Q4/2012 High Conviction Buys And Sells
- Copper Producers May Be As Good As Gold
- Politicization, currencies & gold: The lost battle of central banks
- New Gold sees 12% increase in gold output for 2013, decline in silver
- What Should Dell Shareholders Do?
- Ron Paul: Why every American should now be concerned with immigration "reform"
- How to be sure you get a fair price when you sell your gold
- World Gold Council names new managing director in India
- He Would Love To Trade – With Other People’s Money
- Silver price manipulation case against JPMorgan
- Stock market strength "taking the shine off gold"
- India to introduce PAN must scheme for Gold purchase
- Silver price holding above it 55 daily moving average as a directional break comes into play
- US Mint resumes sales while Silver bars disappear
- Gold price to make directional break soon as the 55 daily moving average keeps gold in check once again
- “James Bond's Golden Gun” – Stewart Thomson
- 2013 Silver American Eagles As Low As $2.69 Over Spot!
- Mark Dice Attempts to Give Away 1oz Gold Maple, Hilarity Ensues
- Russia to keep searching for more Scythian Gold
- Platinum Surges 12% YTD – Mine Closures Sees Supply Fall to 13 Year Low
- DGCX Jan 2013 Gold Futures gains 89%
- Why Buy Gold & Silver
- Uzbekistan tightens Gold, forex reserves policy
- HSBC says India CAD hike to blame on oil imports, not on Gold
- Three King World News Blogs
- Hong Kong 2012 Net Gold Flow to China Hit Record High
- Doug Casey Interviews Peter Schiff on Gold, Inflation, and Interest Rates
- Gold eases on equity gains
- US Mint Sells 8.2 Million Silver Eagles Over First 17 Days of 2013 Production!
- Silver Membranes of the Future: Silver, Electronics & Solar
- Judge Rakoff Delivers Big Blow to Bank of America and JP Morgan in Flagstar Mortgage Putback Ruling
- Ian Gordon: Economic Winter Could Thaw Gold Equities
- Gold — Who Needs It?
- Goldsmiths put the nation's coins through their paces at the ancient Trial of the Pyx
- Trial of the Pyx: Goldsmiths put the nation's coins through their paces
- Gold, the Golden Rule, and Government
- Chinese gold imports double-up on a year ago as China becomes world's largest consumer of gold
| Gold retreats below $1,670 as US dollar, stocks rise Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:32 PM PST Prices retreated below $1,670 on Wednesday as caution ahead of an ECB meeting pressured the euro against the US dollar. |
| Stock market strength takes shine off gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:56 PM PST Gold has failed to break through the $1,700 barrier since falling through the level in December and most stock markets have rallied over the same period. |
| China to ban TV ads for watches and Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST The ban comes after repeated calls from Xi Jinping, China's president-in-waiting, for a renewed fight against graft. But it could take a toll on luxury product manufacturers who advertise on Chinese television and radio. |
| Top Ranked Gold-Focused Fund Tocqueville's Q4/2012 High Conviction Buys And Sells Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:12 PM PST By Ganaxi Small Cap Movers: New York-based Tocqueville Asset Management LP, with over $9.0 billion in 13-F assets per its latest Q4/2012 filing last Thursday, runs its flagship Tocquville Gold Fund that has $2.0 billion in assets. The Tocqueville Gold Fund has been profiled in Barron's, Kiplinger, Money Magazine and other financial publications many times, and it has a trailing 10-year return of 14.3% v/s a 7.1% for the S&P 500. While its weighting in gold in its latest 4Q/12 is about the same as the prior quarter, at about 30%, the latest quarter filing shows a move away from the larger-cap gold stocks and into smaller-cap gold stocks. Thus, during the quarter, it sold stock in large-cap gold stocks such as Randgold Resources Ltd. (GOLD), Goldcorp Inc. (GG) and Eldorado Gold Corp. (EGO), and it increased its weighting in many small-cap gold stocks, including Primero Mining Corp. (PPP), Mag Silver Corp. Complete Story » |
| Copper Producers May Be As Good As Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:11 PM PST By Copper is by no means on the top of the liquidity charts for precious metals. Heck, rhodium is almost more liquid. However the global demand for copper is astounding and there are ways to get in on copper. China is by far the leading consumer of the metal. The country now consumes 40% of the metal mined every year. In 2010 19.4 million tons of the metal were used globally. The current situation is slightly bearish for copper. However future demand is expected and China has a lot of room to run.
(source:Frontline) In this article i will be outlining three mining companies that may have potential to grow Complete Story » |
| Politicization, currencies & gold: The lost battle of central banks Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:11 PM PST The world finds itself immersed in the depths of an economic crisis. This crisis however, is unlike any other experienced in recent history. What is at stake is the very foundation of our monetary system, the currency. |
| New Gold sees 12% increase in gold output for 2013, decline in silver Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:49 AM PST During an Investor Day conference call, New Gold officials highlighted the company's 6% gold production growth in 2012 as well as a 236% increase in copper production. |
| What Should Dell Shareholders Do? Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:44 AM PST By Martim Macedo: If you're a long-term shareholder of Dell (DELL), you probably aren't too happy with the current offer made by Michael Dell and Silver Lake. The offer is $13,65 per share, valuing the company at $24.4 billion. Unless you bought your position in the 2009 lows, or in the last 6 months, you will very likely be loosing money. Aside from the obvious fact that Michael Dell and his partners see more value in the company than what they offer, or they wouldn't be offering anything, let's put the price into perspective. In the first 9 months of 2012, the company delivered $2.3 billion in operating income, for a net income of $1.8 billion. With a quarter left, the full year net income will certainly be higher than $2 billion (in the last quarter of last year, net income reached $764 million), a value that would Complete Story » |
| Ron Paul: Why every American should now be concerned with immigration "reform" Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:29 AM PST From Ron Paul: Whenever the federal government decides to reform something, we can be fairly sure the problem is about to get worse, especially if they call the plan bi-partisan. The bi-partisan immigration reform proposal launched last week in the U.S. Senate will be no different. The new plan, introduced by Sens. McCain and Schumer, would provide a path to citizenship for many of those in the United States illegally. This would only begin after the borders are deemed secure and applicants have paid fees for their illegal entry. They must also pay back taxes on their earnings while working here without government permission. Those on a path to citizenship would be subject to background checks and would be monitored while in the U.S. The devil is in the details, and the details of the McCain plan are deeply disturbing. To secure the borders, he is calling for a massive increase in drones flying over U.S. territory, spying on U.S. citizens along the border – and presumably within the 100 mile "border zone" over which the Department of Homeland Security claims jurisdiction. What if these drones detect suspicious activity unrelated to illegal immigration? Imagine the implications for the federal government's disastrous war on drugs. Imagine what's left of the Fourth Amendment completely tossed into the trashcan. The "privatized" prison system in the U.S. that now benefits from the war on drugs and illegal immigration will no doubt look forward to booming business thanks to the army of drones overhead. Additionally, the McCain/Schumer plan calls for a nationwide... More from Ron Paul: |
| How to be sure you get a fair price when you sell your gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:29 AM PST From Dennis Miller of Casey Research: Florida Avenue is the main drag in our little town in central Florida. In less than a mile, you're likely to see three or four folks standing on the sidewalk wearing headphones, bopping to music, and waving big glittery signs or arrows with "We Buy Gold" written across them. It's a common sight across many cities today. During my annual trip to Arizona, my friend Phil asked me about gold. He owns some gold with no emotional value tied to it, and I convinced him of two things. First, he should not sell his gold; and second, he should hold it in a portable form with an easily recognizable value, like Gold Eagles. If things really get tough, he wouldn't want to have to barter jewelry with no easily agreed-upon value. There are many places where he could probably sell his jewelry, but how would he know if he was getting a fair price? I didn't know either, but I knew I had a friend who would. I called up my good friend Rob. His family has owned a pawnshop for decades; it even has a "We Buy Gold" sign in the window. Who better to ask? Rob explained his position as a dealer. For him, gold is a highly volatile asset; its price swings can have a major impact on his margins. When he buys gold, he must hold it – sometimes for several months – until he has enough to sell to a refinery. His highest percentage payout at the refinery is tied to the volume he sells. Under Florida law, even if he buys the gold outright, as opposed to taking a pawn, he's required to hold the item for at least 30 days. The normal "We Buy Gold" facilities have a 15-day minimum hold. When the price of gold is rising, a lot of folks come into his store to sell. When it drops, Rob can get caught with inventory he can't sell at a profit. The dealer does take a sizeable risk. Rob walked me through the process his clerks use to evaluate gold, using a necklace as an example... More on gold: |
| World Gold Council names new managing director in India Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:21 AM PST The World Gold Council, the market development organisation for the gold industry, has appointed Somasundaram PR as managing director, India. |
| He Would Love To Trade – With Other People’s Money Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:15 AM PST Yesterday, a friend who lives in the same building that I do called me and said, "There's a guest on CNBC who thinks the bull market in gold is over. You should watch it." "What for," I replied. I am not interested in listening to so-called "experts," who know so little about the gold market and the causes for the bull market that they can foolishly take such a position. Only a fool or someone with an "agenda" would take this position while the Fed is creating $85 billion a month in QE to hold down interest rates and support the banks. Generally speaking, a market in motion stays in motion. The "motion" is UP, for the last 12 years. The fat lady hasn't sung yet – in fact we're not even into the third act of the epic Golden Opera yet. Man, it's tough to write every day. And that's why I love Richard Russell and Jim Sinclair. Ranting Andy and Bill Holter have my respect too. You should try coming up with something interesting and worthwhile to write about, every day, and see how difficult it is. People who write this often are inspired! Every time gold is UP, the headline reads "gold up on short-covering, and bargain hunting." That's true I suppose, if you are a "trader." Most, if not all of you are holders of physical gold; long-term oriented holders of gold. These daily short-term up and down movements are just a part of the game that the bullion banks and hedge funds play, a zero-sum game, as for every winner there is a loser who took the opposite side of the trade. We don't care! Most of you are NOT traders. And if you are, the last place on earth I would try and trade is the gold and silver market. That said, Ranting Andy says, "A cave man could trade this market and I would be VERY rich if I was given OPM to trade on the COMEX."
He would love to trade it – with other people's money. The manipulation patterns are easy to spot and repeat almost every day. But most of us own physicals and don't worry about the day-to-day noise. Honestly, I can't remember a time when the fundamentals pointed so clearly toward strongly-rising prices; and the wait won't be too long. Similar Posts: |
| Silver price manipulation case against JPMorgan Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:51 AM PST Every now and then we receive questions about JPMorgan and the allegations that the company suppresses the price of silver. In our Q&A section we answered some of those concerns. |
| Stock market strength "taking the shine off gold" Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:43 AM PST "The stronger performance of more conventional assets, certainly equity markets, has taken the shine off gold," reckons Daniel Brebner, head of metals research at Deutsche Bank. |
| India to introduce PAN must scheme for Gold purchase Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:07 AM PST Currently, banks account for about 60 per cent of the total gold import. |
| Silver price holding above it 55 daily moving average as a directional break comes into play Posted: 06 Feb 2013 08:45 AM PST Just like in the case of gold the 55 daily moving average is proven to be quite important of late. Silver $ (daily): (click for sharper image) We can see back at the end of November the silver price... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] |
| US Mint resumes sales while Silver bars disappear Posted: 06 Feb 2013 08:06 AM PST The industrial users of silver have benefited from unnaturally low prices for decades. Nevertheless, the artificially low prices have led to destruction of inventory. |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:25 AM PST At the end of January we cited the 55 daily moving average line as an area of stiff resistance for gold to try and break above. We noted: In terms of the moving averages the 55DMA seems to be the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] |
| “James Bond's Golden Gun” – Stewart Thomson Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:15 AM PST Submitted by Stewart Thomson I refer to gold bullion as "Queen Gold", and the US T-bond as her secret agent James T. Bond. At some point, Sir James is going to outlive his usefulness to your queen, and a great bear market in bonds will unfold. Specifically, I believe that the pressure put on all [...] |
| 2013 Silver American Eagles As Low As $2.69 Over Spot! Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:10 AM PST Doc's Deal Of The Day 2013 Silver American Eagles As Low As $2.69 Over Spot!! Click Here or Call 614-300-1094 To Order!! 1000+ Ounces Only $2.69 Over Spot! 500-999 Ounces Only $2.79 Over Spot! 100-499 Ounces Only $3.09 Over Spot! 50-99 Ounces Only $3.29 Over Spot! 1-49 Ounces Only $3.49 Over Spot! ANY SILVER PURCHASE [...] |
| Mark Dice Attempts to Give Away 1oz Gold Maple, Hilarity Ensues Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:30 AM PST Mark Dice, the man who previously failed to give away a 1 oz gold Maple on the streets of Southern California, as well as unsuccessfully attempted to sell a 1 oz gold coin for $25 is back on the streets in Oceanside, California with another Gold Maple in hand. This time Dice is attempting to [...] |
| Russia to keep searching for more Scythian Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:26 AM PST Scythians believed, like the Egyptians, that they could take their wealth with them into the afterlife. |
| Platinum Surges 12% YTD – Mine Closures Sees Supply Fall to 13 Year Low Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:57 AM PST Platinum prices have already risen by more than 12% so far in 2013, following the same advance for all of 2012. Platinum supplies have fallen to a 13-year low as mines in South Africa, the world's biggest producer, close and the platinum industry is in crisis due to industrial unrest, geological constraints and sharply rising [...] |
| DGCX Jan 2013 Gold Futures gains 89% Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:52 AM PST The Exchange also recorded its highest ever average daily volume and value of contracts at 52,791 contracts and $2.07 billion per day respectively in January. |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:23 AM PST The debt crisis is raging. Newspapers, television and radio talk about it, although mostly with waves. However, none of all those media channels take the time and effort to explain WHY the debt crisis fundamentally is a problem, and how it relates to everyday's life. The monetary fundamentals, which are inextricable connected with the concept of today's debt crisis, are misunderstoodl. Hence, the real risks of the debt crisis remain underexposed to the general public. Additionally, the educational system has done a poor job in teaching the monetary basics. Even worse, there are no courses about monetary matters in most schools or universities. Apart from a selected number of Austrian Economics courses, this matter remains absent in education. As always, the courses will come only after a lot of damage has been caused. Last but not least, the political and financial establishment is almost 100% based on the keynesian way of thinking, failing to see any point of view that does not support the thesis that additional debt(s) can have damaging consequences. These facts lead to a key misunderstanding of the real benefits of gold and silver. This article (by Gary Christenson) does an outstanding job in pointing to the fundamental reasons of owning and buying PHYSICAL gold and silver, from a monetary point of view. In fact, it explains what is behind the following chart; a chart that has been used to an increasing extent as the amounts in there become too significant to ignore.
Why buy gold
Why buy silver
It is likely that populace will eventually realize the following
What do you believe?
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| Uzbekistan tightens Gold, forex reserves policy Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:21 AM PST The central Asian republic has made trading with foreign currency a criminal offence and put gold exports under strict conditions from February 1. |
| HSBC says India CAD hike to blame on oil imports, not on Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:53 AM PST India, the world's largest gold consumer is also one of the largest oil consumer and imports over 70 per cent of its oil demand. |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:18 AM PST  The first is with Nigel Farage...and it's headlined "The West is Headed into Orwellian Nightmare and Bankruptcy". The second blog is with Ron Rosen. It's entitled "Danger For Stocks, Gold & Silver Ready For a Big Move". Lastly is this Rick Rule Interview...and it bears the title "read more |
| Hong Kong 2012 Net Gold Flow to China Hit Record High Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:18 AM PST ¤ Yesterday in Gold and SilverThe gold price was comatose through all of Far East trading...and then for an hour or so after the London open. The smallish rally going into the London silver fix at noon local time, got sold off going into the Comex open in New York. Twenty minutes after the open, gold rallied strongly, but got stopped in its tracks by the time it had rallied a bit over ten bucks. The high of the day at that point was $1,687.40 spot. Then it got sold down in the usual manner...with the New York low [$1,665.80 spot] coming around 11:15 a.m. Eastern time...and well below the Comex opening price. From that low, gold recovered a bit until 1:00 p.m...and then traded sideways into the 5:15 p.m. electronic close. Gold finished the Tuesday session at $1,673.20 spot...down $1.20 on the day. Volume was very impressive...around 153,000 contracts...so it was obvious that "da boyz" used a fair amount of shorting to get the price to behave again yesterday.
Silver's price action in Far East trading was pretty quiet...and the low price tick [just under $31.60 spot] appeared to occur at the 8:00 a.m. GMT London open. Then it rallied until the London silver fix was in...and that was its high of the day...somewhere over $32.10 spot. Then, like gold, the price got sold down into the Comex open...and the subsequent rally ran into the same not-for-profit sellers that gold did. However, silver's New York low...$31.54 spot...came at 10:45 a.m. Eastern time...and the subsequent rally followed the same price path as gold for the rest of the New York session. Silver finished the day at $31.82 spot...up 6 cents. Net volume was nothing special...around 34,500 contracts.
Obviously both gold and silver would have finished materially higher if JPMorgan et al hadn't shown up. Both platinum and palladium outperformed both gold and silver yesterday. The dollar index began trading on Tuesday morning at 79.56...and although it rallied as high as 79.78 around 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, it chopped lower for the rest of the day, closing at 79.54...virtually unchanged from the open. Once again, the precious metal price action was totally unrelated to what the currencies were doing.
The gold stocks opened in positive territory, but couldn't hang onto those gains after gold ran into the not-for-profit seller that took gold from it's high tick to its low tick [a $22 range] in just over two hours. The stocks hit their nadir at 12:45 p.m. Eastern...and then rallied a bit, before trading sideways into the close. The HUI finished down at tiny 0.16%.
Most of the silver stocks I track finished in slightly positive territory...and Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed up a smallish 0.09%.
(Click on image to enlarge) The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 11 gold and zero silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday. There were no reported change in GLD yesterday...but there was a small withdrawal...139,049 troy ounces...of silver from SLV. This was probably a fee payment of some kind. Over at Switzerland's Zürcher Kantonalbank, they reported that their gold ETF declined by 13,914 troy ounces...and their silver ETF rose by 47,905 troy ounces...as of the close of business on February 4th. The U.S. Mint had their first sales report for February. They didn't sell any gold eagles or 1-ounce 24K gold buffaloes...but they did sell 675,500 silver eagles. Monday was a very busy day over at the Comex-approved depositories. They reported receiving 1,850,118 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 703,895 troy ounces of the stuff out the door. This activity is worth checking out...and the link is here. As the headline to today's column stated, there were record inflows into China through Hong Kong in December...and for all of 2012. Normally Nick Laird would have the charts of this all done by now, but the website that contains all the data he needs has been down all of Wednesday on that side of Planet Earth, so he can't get at it. Hopefully I'll have those charts for you in this space tomorrow.
I have somewhat fewer stories today than I did in yesterday's column...and I'll leave the final edit up to you. As Bill Buckler said in his quote above...it's getting more blatant by the month...and so it is. Up to 25 percent of India's gold may be smuggled in: Klapwijk. Doug Casey Interviews Peter Schiff on Gold, Inflation, and Interest Rates. "We Buy Gold" - Dennis Miller: Casey Research. New York Sun: Virginia in the Vanguard. ¤ Critical ReadsSubscribeJustice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on AmericansA confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an associated force" -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S. The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration's most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects abroad, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes. The secrecy surrounding such strikes is fast emerging as a central issue in this week's hearing of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, a key architect of the drone campaign, to be CIA director. Brennan was the first administration official to publicly acknowledge drone strikes in a speech last year, calling them "consistent with the inherent right of self-defense." In a separate talk at the Northwestern University Law School in March, Attorney General Eric Holder specifically endorsed the constitutionality of targeted killings of Americans, saying they could be justified if government officials determine the target poses "an imminent threat of violent attack." Wow! If I were an American citizen I'd be screaming at my congressman right now...and as soon as I got off the phone I'd be checking my own personal arsenal of weapons and ammunition. The Amerika I used to know and love is now truly dead. The people of Amerika need to wake up...and rise up...and take their country back. This NBC News story was posted on their website yesterday...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for being the first reader through the door with this story. The link is here.  To Kill an American: a New York Times EditorialOn one level, there were not too many surprises in the newly disclosed "white paper" offering a legal reasoning behind the claim that President Obama has the power to order the killing of American citizens who are believed to be part of Al Qaeda. We knew Mr. Obama and his lawyers believed he has that power under the Constitution and federal law. We also knew that he utterly rejects the idea that Congress or the courts have any right to review such a decision in advance, or even after the fact. Still, it was disturbing to see the twisted logic of the administration's lawyers laid out in black and white. It had the air of a legal justification written after the fact for a policy decision that had already been made, and it brought back unwelcome memories of memos written for President George W. Bush to justify illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, kidnapping, abuse and torture. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to have the operational memo on those killings released, arguing that an American citizen has constitutional rights that a judge must make sure are being respected. We agree. Going forward, he should submit decisions like this one to review by Congress and the courts. If necessary, Congress could create a special court to handle this sort of sensitive discussion, like the one it created to review wiretapping. This dispute goes to the fundamental nature of our democracy, to the relationship among the branches of government and to their responsibility to the public. This editorial was posted on The New York Times website yesterday...and appears in print on page A24 of today's paper. It's a must read...and I thank Phil Barlett for sending it along in the wee hours of this morning. The link is here.  Congratulations Charlottesville, Virginia! The First City To Pass Anti-Drone LegislationCharlottesville, Va., has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution. The resolution passed by a 3-2 vote and was brought to the city council by activist David Swanson and the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group based in the city. The measure also endorses a proposed two-year moratorium on drones in Virginia. Council member Dede Smith, who voted in favor of the bill, says that drones are "pretty clearly a threat to our constitutional right to privacy." "If we don't get out ahead of it to establish some guidelines for how drones are used, they will be used in a very invasive way and we'll be left to try and pick up the pieces," she says. This Zero Hedge posting was from last night...and is courtesy of Swiss reader B.G. The link is here.  Wall Street Journal notices currency market manipulation"Devaluing a currency," one senior Federal Reserve official once told me, "is like peeing in bed. It feels good at first, but pretty soon it becomes a real mess." In recent times foreign-exchange incontinence appears to have been the policy of choice in capitals from Beijing to Washington, via Tokyo. The resulting mess has led to warnings of a global "currency war" that could spiral into protectionism. The roll call of forex Cassandras reads like a who's who of global finance and politics: German leader Angela Merkel, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann and Mervyn King, the outgoing governor of the Bank of England. And the list goes on. The luminaries are wrong on a couple of points. The world isn't "on the verge" of a currency war, as they seem to think, but right in the middle of one. But -- and here's the good news -- there is a chance this confrontation might not end as badly as, say, the destructive devaluations that followed the Great Depression or even the turmoil of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. Maybe in a few years the newspaper will notice gold market manipulation as well. This WSJ story from Monday was posted in the clear in this GATA release yesterday...and the link is here.  Obama's Tax Crackdown to Target Foreigners' Accounts in U.S. BanksThe Obama administration may soon ask Congress for the power to require more disclosure by U.S. banks of information about foreign clients' accounts to those clients' home governments, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, sources said. Well, dear reader, capital controls can't be too far away...so I hope you have some money outside your own country. This article showed up on the moneynews.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sharing it with us. The link is here.  No Inflation? Commodities highest ever for this time of yearWhile every central banker and policy-leech spews forth the government-supplied statistics on inflation - noting that all is well, carry on - we recently pointed out that Gas Prices are their highest ever for this time of year. Of course, the standard supply constraints (or technical) reasoning was applied to dismiss this as transitory (even though it has continued to rise since); but what is perhaps more worrisome is the broad-based nature of the real inflation that is leaking into our global supply chain. The 24-commodity heavy S&P GSCI index (widely recognized as a leading measure of general price movements and inflation in the world economy) has never been as high in early February as it is currently - ever. And with global growth stagnating at best, it seems a tough call to blame 'recovery' for this inflating (fastest pace in 8 years) raw material price leaking cost-push inflation (and margin-compression) into the real economy. This short Zero Hedge commentary comes complete with two excellent graphs...and I thank Matthew Nel for sharing it with us. The link is here.  Many welcome departure of Canada's pesky pennyThe penny is on the way out, and that's good news for people tired of dealing with the nuisance coin. The Royal Canadian Mint stopped distributing pennies Monday after more than 150 years of production. But it was Finance Minister Jim Flaherty who announced the penny's demise about a year ago, saying the cost of manufacturing a coin was actually 1.6 cents. Across the country now big and small merchants are beginning to round cash transactions to the nearest five-cent increment. For example, a $1.02 transaction would round down to $1, but a purchase of $1.03 would round up to $1.05. This story was posted in the Ottawa Citizen yesterday...and I found it hiding in a GATA release. The link is here.  RBS investment chief John Hourican to resign and waive £4m bonus over LIBOR scandalJohn Hourican, chief executive of markets and international banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland |
| Doug Casey Interviews Peter Schiff on Gold, Inflation, and Interest Rates Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:18 AM PST  Two highly successful libertarian iconoclasts – Peter Schiff and Doug Casey – in a wide-ranging, thought-provoking conversation covering precious metals, the status of Peter's father, Irwin Schiff, the near future of the US dollar, and much more. This interview was posted on the Casey Research website on Monday...and in case you didn't notice it, I thought I'd post it in today's column. The video interview runs for just under 27 minutes...and the link is here. |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:59 AM PST Analysts said the precious yellow metal is likely to remain highly volatile during the day as investors turned their attention to a rally in U.S. equities. |
| US Mint Sells 8.2 Million Silver Eagles Over First 17 Days of 2013 Production! Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:00 AM PST After selling an all-time monthly record of 7.498 million Silver Eagles in January, the US Mint has picked up right where it left off in February once it began reporting sales figures again, announcing nearly 3/4 of a million silver eagles were sold Monday. The Mint has now sold a whopping 8,173,500 silver eagles during [...] |
| Silver Membranes of the Future: Silver, Electronics & Solar Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:20 AM PST The silver market is metastasizing in myriad ways in this vibrant day-and-age. Today, many people purchase silver to protect themselves against the need to buy things with such a commodity. The demand has reached such astonishing levels that ma Today, many people … Continue reading |
| Judge Rakoff Delivers Big Blow to Bank of America and JP Morgan in Flagstar Mortgage Putback Ruling Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:21 AM PST Wow, one of my big assumptions about mortgage putback cases has been turned on its ear, much to the detriment of Bank of America and JP Morgan. If you thought there were pitched legal battles on this front, a key ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff means you ain't seen nothing yet. If you are late to this brawl, putback cases are also called representation and warranty cases, or rep and warranty. They occur when investors and bond guarantors who relied on the promises made by the originators and sponsors about the quality of the loans argue that the sellers broke those promises ("representations and warranties"). Their remedy is typically that they put dodgy loans back to the sponsor, and they either replace with a loan that was up to snuff or cash. It also matters who is pursuing the case. Without getting into gory details, bond insurers have much better putback rights than mere garden variety investors (Fannie and Freddie as insurers similarly have good protection, hence the fear raised by the FHFA's putback suits against 17 banks and servicers). The assumption among many who've looked at these suits is that they might not be worth all that much in the end. In past putback litigation threats (which until the crisis were settled after some initial rounds of jousting) was that it would be too costly for the plaintiff to make his case. They'd have to prove that the loan defaults were due not to normal underwriting losses (death, disability, job loss) but to the misrepresentation of the loan. And ultimately, you'd have to examine a lot of loans individually to make the case, which would balloon the cost of proving your case. The inclinations of the judiciary do reflect prevailing times, and both increasing comfort with statistical methods and the widespread evidence of underwriting lapses has led judges to approve the use of sampling, which is a really big break for bond insurer and investors. But Judge Rakoff's ruling yesterday is a game-changer. On an admittedly small case, in dollar amount, Rakoff awarded bond insurer Assured $90.1 million of the $116 million it sought in damages against Flagstar over two home equity line of credit securitizations. That's nearly 78%. Trust me, no big bank is reserving anything within hailing distance of those sort of numbers for bond insurer putback cases. Look at how underreserved Flagstar is proving to be, per Reuters:
And this ruling is even worse for the big banks. Flagstar is a vastly more sympathetic plaintiff than Countrywide or Bear Stearns. Flagstar did mainly Fannie and Freddie deals; the HELOC securitization look to have been a byproduct of their bread and butter business. They didn't have a pipeline to keep feeding or conflicts of interest due to providing warehouse line funding (this was a big deal with Bear: it was providing credit lines to mortgage originators to make loans. It would put back the really bad loans to the originator rather than try to stuff them into securitizations. But the point came when the proportion of bad loans coming through the pipeline was so high that putting them back to the originator would have bankrupted them, leaving Bear with big losses on its credit lines. So Bear passed on the toxic loans to investors instead). So if the loss level was 78% of the ask for a sponsor who was far from the worst actor in this space, what will the results look like when you factor in egregiously bad behavior? The ruling is below. It will be seen as an important precedent not simply because Rakoff is a respected jurist, but also due to his thoroughness in considering the evidence and parsing, as he called it, the war of the experts. Assured constructed a sample of 800 loans across the trusts. Its expert found material defects in 606 of them. Flagstar argued that of the 606, only 126 had defaulted in the first 12 months, so there wasn't any harm on the rest. And it (using multiple arguments) took issue Assured's analysis and said of the 126, only 3 were materially defective. Over the course of the trial, there was detailed discussion of 20 of the loan. Rakoff indicated he did his own analysis of a sample of the loans in order to help determine which of the wildly opposed expert reading was accurate. He first rejected the idea of excluding the ones that had not experienced an early default Assured had presented evidence of defects like fraud (!) and debt to income ratios way outside the underwriting standards. Rakoff said that made those loans riskier than they were supposed to be and Assured was harmed even if there had not been an early default. He also found the Flagstar reasoning for rejecting some of the Assured findings to be unsubstantiated and not persuasive, and similarly found most of their attacks on her approach to be overblown (he has a very detailed discussion of the conflicting arguments and the reasons for his conclusion). As reader MBS Guy summed up:
Here's the ruling: Assured Guaranty v. Flagstar Bank 2/5/13 Ruling by |
| Ian Gordon: Economic Winter Could Thaw Gold Equities Posted: 06 Feb 2013 12:00 AM PST Ian Gordon has said it before: We're on the edge of an economic maelstrom that will breathe new life into the gold exploration industry. While his cautionary tales may be beginning to sound like the... Visit the aureport.com for more information and for a free newsletter |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2013 10:51 PM PST Rumors that the US has leased out much of its gold have been rampant for several years. Whether that is true or not I have no definitive information although it does seem plausible. There is enough smoke around this issue to suggest that a fire exists somewhere. This behavior would be consistent with the dying-empire behavior that |
| Goldsmiths put the nation's coins through their paces at the ancient Trial of the Pyx Posted: 05 Feb 2013 10:30 PM PST A 1kg gold coin struck to commemorate the London Olympics was just one of the new coins put through its paces, as the Goldsmiths Company opened their doors to the Telegraph to witness their ancient 'Trial of the Pyx'.  |
| Trial of the Pyx: Goldsmiths put the nation's coins through their paces Posted: 05 Feb 2013 10:30 PM PST A 1kg gold coin struck to commemorate the London Olympics was just one of the new coins put through its paces, as the Goldsmiths Company opened their doors to the Telegraph to witness the ancient 'Trial of the Pyx'.  |
| Gold, the Golden Rule, and Government Posted: 05 Feb 2013 10:00 PM PST Lib Papers |
| Chinese gold imports double-up on a year ago as China becomes world's largest consumer of gold Posted: 05 Feb 2013 08:18 PM PST China replaced India sometime last year as the world's largest consumer of gold and gold imports to mainland China from Hong Kong are presently running at more than twice the amount recorded a year ago. According to data produced by Bloomberg gold imports from Hong Kong jumped by 94 per cent to 834.5 tonnes in 2012 with a monthly record of 114.4 tonnes in December. China is also the world's largest gold producer but that has not been enough to satisfy its ravenous appetite for the yellow metal. New gold champions It was only a year ago that gold traders in the Sharjah Old Gold Souk told ArabianMoney that their biggest buyers were the Chinese looking to get out of the US dollar (click here). Gold is also a diversification against the risk that the Chinese economic miracle will one day run out of steam and local asset bubbles deflate. We don't really accept the argument offered by Bloomberg that the surge in gold consumption is simply down to the fact that the Chinese are getting wealthy. GDP growth is a fraction of the advance seen in gold consumption last year. The Chinese read the same financial pages as everybody else and want to hedge against the rising risk of a bond market crash, just like many other investors. Their central bank has been pushing for gold to be included in a new IMF super-currency. But they do appear to have been opportunist in taking advantage of the bargain gold prices available last year, with gold off its all-time high of $1,923 set back in October the previous year. The smart money has been moving into real assets (they are also buyers of Dubai property, for example) to diversify risk and the central bank will almost certainly emerge as the biggest buyer of gold. Undercover buyers Chinese gold buying is inscutable and often kept hidden for as long as possible. Bloomberg's economists have done well to collate this data now to show this major change in global gold consumption. Where do we go from here? Will the Chinese consumption of gold double again this year? Will it impact on the gold price? Well the trend is definitely up and not down and China is likely to get its first gold ETFs this year (click here). As we have remarked before the advent of ETF investment for gold is likely to be big news for China's 1.3 billion population. But as it happens gold imports have already doubled in advance of the gold ETFs. |
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