Gold World News Flash

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• Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for September 13
• Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for September 13
• Billionaire Sprott Issues Warning To Western Central Planners
• Dollar Heading Down For Years, Gold and Silver To Surpass Recent Highs
• Three Strikes and Bernanke’s Still Around
• Investment bank manager: “Nobody knows what the f**k is going on…”
• "Nobody Knows What The F**k Is Going On..."
• Gold and Silver Price Manipulation Ends With the Death of Fiat
• The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear
• The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear
• The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear
• Andrew Maguire: CFTC has had metals market rigging documents for a year
• Jim’s Mailbox
• Why I Won't Be Buying Gold Anytime Soon
• Why I Won't Be Buying Gold Anytime Soon
• The Daily Market Report
• Does the moon control gold and silver prices?
• CEOs Confess: Consumption, That 70% Component Of US GDP, Just Isn't There
• Billionaire Sprott – Metals Smashed As West Hemorrhages Gold
• What A Difference A Decade Makes
• Morgan Whistleblowers Confess Bank Manipulates Gold & Silver
• Gold In India: Did Gold Stop to Respond to the Rupee Price Moves?
• The Decline And Fall Of The Dollar & The USA
• GoldSeek Live Webinar – Sept 9, 2013 [Dr Jim Willie & Rudi Fronk]
• Guest Post: Everything's Fixed, Everything's Great
• Gold equities lure investors after April bullion rout
• Goldman warns gold could fall to $1,000 or lower. HSBC disagrees
• Gold: a volatile and changeable market ahead
• Seabridge buys more of junior with Oregon gold project
• SA gold output rises first time in 27 months in July
• India gold imports seen at $38bn-$40bn in 2013/14
• ASX smallcaps in boisterous form after Abbott’s election victory
• Max Keiser interviews TF Metal Report's Turd Ferguson
• The United States Crossed The Rubicon On Its Path To Collapse
• GATA Chairman Murphy interviewed by Finance and Liberty's Johnson
• BofA: If The American Economy Doesn’t Accelerate Soon, It NEVER Will
• Gold and Oil, Where to Go if the Middle East Explodes! (Part 2)
• Sprott: Gold knocked down now to prepare for scuttling of Fed's bond 'taper'?
• Fed QE3-Tapering Impact on Stocks and Gold
• Five Years After Lehman - Gold Still Safe Haven As Financial System 'Insane'
• Quest Update
• GOLD Elliott Wave Technical Analysis
• 2 Good Reasons to Buy Gold This September
• The Best And Worst Performing Assets Since Lehman Are…
• Gold falls, heads for worst week since June on Fed, Syria
• MineWeb's Lawrence Williams remarks on how obvious gold market manipulation is
• Gold lower at 1320.20 (-6.60). Silver 21.83 (-0.145). Dollar slips. Euro better. Stocks called higher. US 10yr 2.92% (+1 bp).
• Gold Investment Beats Stocks 5 Years After Lehmans, But Price Sinks as "Even Worse Risks" Fail to Spur "Safe-Haven Buying"
• How Gold, Oil, and Syria Really Mix… Plus "3 Strikes Against Apple"
• Silver Demand: When Investment Trumps Industrial

Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for September 13 Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:42 PM PDT HOUSTON -- This week's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disaggregated commitments of traders (DCOT) report was released at 15:30 ET Friday. Our recap of the changes in weekly positioning by the disaggregated trader classes, as compiled by the CFTC, is just below.  As we have done for some time now, this week we are also adding in the net positioning of traders the CFTC classes as "Commercial" in the Legacy COT report.  (DCOT Table for September 13 and Legacy COT commercial positioning for data as of the close on Tuesday, September 10.   Source CFTC for COT data, Cash Market for gold and silver.)  Please note: Data auto retrieved and unverified until this note removed.  In the DCOT table above a net short position shows as a negative figure in red. A net long position shows in black. In the Change column, a negative number indicates either an increase to an existing net short position or a reduction of a net long position. A black figure in the Change column indicates an increase to an existing long position or a reduction of an existing net short position. The way to think of it is that black figures in the Change column are traders getting "longer" and red figures are traders getting less long or shorter. All of the trader's positions are calculated net of spreading contracts as of the Tuesday disaggregated COT report. We also focus on the Legacy COT positioning of traders deemed "Commercial" by the CFTC, which includes Producers, Merchants, Processors and Users, plus Swap Dealers in a single category.  The Legacy COT report preceded the Disaggregated COT report and we have tracked and charted it for many years, focusing on the movement and positioning of commercial traders – The "Big Hedgers."

Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for September 13 Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:42 PM PDT HOUSTON -- This week's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disaggregated commitments of traders (DCOT) report was released at 15:30 ET Friday. Our recap of the changes in weekly positioning by the disaggregated trader classes, as compiled by the CFTC, is just below.  As we have done for some time now, this week we are also adding in the net positioning of traders the CFTC classes as "Commercial" in the Legacy COT report.  (DCOT Table for September 13 and Legacy COT commercial positioning for data as of the close on Tuesday, September 10.   Source CFTC for COT data, Cash Market for gold and silver.)  Please note: Data auto retrieved and unverified until this note removed.  In the DCOT table above a net short position shows as a negative figure in red. A net long position shows in black. In the Change column, a negative number indicates either an increase to an existing net short position or a reduction of a net long position. A black figure in the Change column indicates an increase to an existing long position or a reduction of an existing net short position. The way to think of it is that black figures in the Change column are traders getting "longer" and red figures are traders getting less long or shorter. All of the trader's positions are calculated net of spreading contracts as of the Tuesday disaggregated COT report. We also focus on the Legacy COT positioning of traders deemed "Commercial" by the CFTC, which includes Producers, Merchants, Processors and Users, plus Swap Dealers in a single category.  The Legacy COT report preceded the Disaggregated COT report and we have tracked and charted it for many years, focusing on the movement and positioning of commercial traders – The "Big Hedgers."

Billionaire Sprott Issues Warning To Western Central Planners Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:40 PM PDT from KingWorldNews: Eric King: "Eric, we have the Fed decision coming up next week, and you and I are starting to believe they are not going to taper. In that environment you (as the Fed) wouldn't want to have gold launch from higher levels. You would have to smash it (gold). That's exactly what we've seen." Sprott: "I've always believed that the Fed is in a very difficult situation and the 'taper' was just talk. And we'll see whether they 'walk the walk' or just 'talk the talk.' As you know, Eric, yields have doubled over the last 12 months, and in particular with the reintroduction of the taper talk. We know that there is massive selling of bonds, whether it's the Chinese, or the Japanese, and I would imagine a lot of the emerging countries are now selling US bonds…. Eric Sprott continues @ KingWorldNews.com

Dollar Heading Down For Years, Gold and Silver To Surpass Recent Highs Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:35 PM PDT Dear CIGAs, Dr. Nenner has been very accurate in gold so listening to his views is worthwhile. My job, among many others, is to get you resources beyond me and the good ole gang. Please gives this serious consideration where gold, silver, stock markets, the US Treasury bond market and the US dollar are concerned.... Read more » The post Dollar Heading Down For Years, Gold and Silver To Surpass Recent Highs appeared first on Jim Sinclair's Mineset.

Three Strikes and Bernanke’s Still Around Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:03 PM PDT September 13, 2013 What Bernanke promised one year ago today… and what we got Five years after Lehman: The bankers’ sophisticated investment vehicle guaranteed to pay off From California weed country, a cue about the next hot sector Fined for parking in your driveway… the culture of “extraction,” continued… an important public service announcement… and more!   It’s Friday the 13th… but our luck ran out well before the stroke of midnight last night. One year ago today, Fed chief Ben Bernanke strode before the microphones to justify the Fed’s launch of “QE3.” He was explicit about the aim. “We do think that these policies can bring interest rates down — not just Treasury rates, but a whole range of rates, including mortgage rates and rates for corporate bonds and other types of important interest rates.”   One year later, here’s a chart of the 10-year Treasury note… OK, and what about mortgage rates? Corporate bonds? Here’s a chart of LQD, the big corporate bond ETF. Recalling that bond prices move inversely to their rates, Bernanke’s logic dictates LQD should be racing up… We can hardly wait to hear what spills from Mr. Bernanke’s lips next Thursday after the Fed makes its oh-so-anticipated announcement about whether it will begin “tapering” from QE3.  Then again, fawning reporters will likely be too busy asking him how awesome he was five years ago in the teeth of the financial crisis. Who needs a committee to save the world when you’ve got someone who can do it single-handedly? This coming Sunday is the fifth anniversary of the day Lehman went under, Merrill Lynch was improbably rescued by Bank of America and AIG began circling the bowl. “The jerks got away with it!” sums up a retrospective by David Dayen at Salon. “The financial crisis featured a group of self-styled innovators who thought they devised perfect financial instruments that would only yield big returns and never any losses (in reality they did devise that, only it’s called ‘the United States government’).” “You know the routine,” our own Chris Mayer elaborates. “Mobsters shake down, say, a restaurant owner. They drink all the booze and eat all they want and pay nothing. They rob the cash register. They even go out and borrow money against the place and spend it. When they’ve finally bled the thing dry and the business is about to collapse, they burn the place down and collect the insurance money. “That’s pretty much what Goldman Sachs did to AIG. The taxpayer footed the bill.” The Fed became the proverbial “lender of last resort” — an idea promulgated by the British writer and businessman Walter Bagehot in the 1870s. The “Bagehot rule,” as it’s come to be known, says that in times of crisis, central banks should lend freely… to solvent institutions against good collateral at penalty rates of interest. The Fed and Treasury didn’t just break the Bagehot rule; they ran it through a buzz saw, doused the remnants with kerosene and set them alight. The Fed’s alphabet-soup rescue programs funneled billions to dead-ass broke banks, which put up garbage for collateral (if anything at all), and paid a pittance for interest. Institutions deemed “too big to fail” emerged on the other side even bigger. For ordinary Americans, median household income adjusted for inflation is still 10% lower than it was in 2008. “Five years after Lehman weekend,” observes 5 Min. PRO guardian Dan Amoss — who recommended put options on Lehman good for 462% gains — “economic planners still labor in vain to spark a sustainable recovery. “They’re failing because they use faulty Keynesian borrowing and printing programs. Those arguing that the recovery is OK are ignoring the risky and reckless spending and printing that has funded recent rebounds in sectors like housing and autos. Take away the deficit spending and printing and that activity would dry up.” [Ed. Note: In today's 5 PRO, Dan updates a recent housing-related IPO he warned about in February. It's lagged the market by 18 percentage points and is likely to continue lagging. If you haven't gone PRO yet, you can do so here...]   Major U.S. stock indexes are lazily drifting up this morning. At last check, the S&P is at 1,688. A few economic numbers are in traders’ sights… Producer prices: Up 0.3% in August, per the Labor Department, driven entirely by food and energy. The year-over-year change is 1.4%. If you run a business, any resemblance to your own costs is purely coincidental Retail sales: Up 0.2% in August, says the Census Bureau Consumer sentiment: Way down, in the estimate of Reuters and the University of Michigan. At 76.8, the September number is the weakest since April. The “expert consensus” was confounded: Among dozens of economists polled by Bloomberg, the lowest guess was 80.5. The first two numbers are skewed heavily by seasonal adjustments. And the third might be the object of heavy-duty shenanigans. In June, word emerged that Reuters was releasing these data to some of its customers two seconds before anyone else — enough to make a tidy sum in a world of high-frequency trading. Now according to Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, “a whistle-blower complaint has been filed to the SEC identifying 16 of the world’s biggest banks and hedge funds as the allegedly even-earlier recipients of this key economic data. The complaint alleges that this select group of customers received the data anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour ahead of the rest of the markets.” Thomson Reuters, for its part, denies the allegations.   Gold tested $1,300 overnight, but has since recovered to $1,315. Silver is stabilizing at $21.82.   To our long list of commodity thefts in recent years — of everything from copper to hay to restaurant grease — we now add water. Someone took 20,000 gallons of water from the Bridgeville Elementary School in Humboldt County, Calif., during Labor Day weekend. “There were tire tracks in the field on the south side of the school,” Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Knight tells the Eureka Times-Standard. “The school staff believes someone climbed the fence, and used a school garden hose to drain the tank.” An earlier theft in July — also from a tank, also 20,000 gallons — briefly left 330 people with no water at all. Ranchers, to say nothing of the county’s legendary marijuana growers, need lots of water — and in the midst of a drought the feds label “severe.” Other parts of the West are even worse off…   And yes, there’s an investment angle. Chris Mayer’s “Blue Gold” portfolio, inaugurated in 2006, delivered triple-digit gains as early as 2008. It’s also a sector eyed by our Neil George. “In the most recent study and analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” Neil writes, “73,400 water systems are at risk of putting contaminated water into homes, businesses and agricultural operations across the nation. Those systems service 120 million customers… including me! “Obviously, this cannot stand. In fact, it’s illegal! The Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 and its many amendments say we have a legal right to clean water. So if the companies involved don’t want to see feds knocking on their doors with fines and summonses, they’ll need to act. Fixing the problems is expected to cost at least $384 billion.” Neil has identified two players destined to collect a portion of those billions. And he’s recommended them to his readers of Lifetime Income Report.   Parking tickets for parking in your own driveway — the newest entry in our ongoing “new taxes and weird fees” file. “This could happen tomorrow to any resident of the city of Pittsburgh,” says City Councilman Corey O’Connor. Seems there’s an ordinance dating back decades requiring people to park at least 30 feet away from the street — a bit of a challenge if your driveway is, um, shorter than 30 feet. Either the city is starting to enforce the ordinance or people are just now starting to squawk about it — we can’t quite tell from the story at KDKA-TV’s website. One family, says Councilman O’Connor, paid a $2,400 fine. You can get around the ordinance and park on your short driveway by getting something called an occupancy permit. “The funny thing about that is,” says O’Connor, “we don’t tell you you need an occupancy permit.” Of course not. Ignorance of the law and all that…   “Sadly, income inequality does exist,” writes a reader carrying on a discussion we started Wednesday. “I’ve seen it, lived it and watched it get worse rather than better in this great country of ours. “Meanwhile, your commentary on the subject has finally given me the words to perhaps explain an observed mystery regarding our current economic condition: Not only have ‘incomes been redirected to the pockets of the 1%,’ but likewise with the funny money the Fed’s been printing. Which is why the Fed’s operation hasn’t produced the expected effect of inflation. Yet.”   “I think people are missing the larger picture when trying to explain the differences,” another chimes in. “Today, the economy in the USA consists mainly of services being rendered. “We do not manufacture much these days, and that is the only way to create new wealth. You cannot create it by just trading it among ourselves, or, as the government believes, printing it. The 1% will always be the ones going home with more than they spent. That’s how they got to be in that category in the first place. “If the current climate for manufacturing remains as it is in our country, I don’t see how we avoid a prolonged recession and ultimately a severe depression, which leaves the 1% continuing to gather more ‘nuts’ than the rest of the population. So until the administration and Congress show the initiative and the courage to remove the obstacles to resurrecting our manufacturing base, our future is not pretty.”   “A couple of things I haven’t noticed your comments on (or maybe I missed them) is the effects of our high energy costs ($20 oil, versus $107) and the outrageous cost of ‘security’ since Sept. 11. “It would seem to me that this has got to be making a tremendous difference in disposable income for everyone, especially the lower and middle class of earners and especially the ability of our younger generation to get ahead.” The 5: Those too are part of the “extraction” process described by Paul Craig Roberts. Unlike Rome and Britain, “in the New Empire success at war no longer matters. The extraction takes place by being at war. Huge sums of American taxpayers’ money have flowed into the American armaments industries and huge amounts of power into Homeland Security. The American empire works by stripping Americans of wealth and liberty.” And then there’s oil rising from $11 a barrel only 15 years ago to $107.88 this morning. Even using the real-world inflation figures supplied by ShadowStats.com, $11 in 1998 is $42 today. Supply and demand doesn’t tell the whole story, according to a gentleman we’ve interviewed for the next issue of Apogee Advisory. It’s mind-blowing stuff. Stay tuned… Have a good weekend, Dave Gonigam The 5 Min. Forecast P.S. Reminder: The AgoraFinancial.com website goes dark tonight at midnight to allow our production team to begin a thorough overhaul and upgrade. By the time the site’s back online Tuesday morning, you’ll be able to follow all portfolio recommendations from all your publications on a single page. You’ll be able to read your issues and alerts seamlessly on any device you choose — computer, tablet or phone. You’ll be able to contact customer service directly from the site. We’ve had a chance to watch the new site in development… and we know you’re going to like what you see.

Investment bank manager: “Nobody knows what the f**k is going on…” Posted: 13 Sep 2013 12:03 PM PDT from Sovereign Man: Financial circles in Hong Kong are buzzing today on the new Goldman Sachs projection that gold may drop below $1,000 an ounce. And in merely suggesting such a death sentence for the metal, Goldman's pronouncement pushed the paper price of gold contracts down $20+. Many technical indicators underscore Goldman's views. There's very little floor for gold prices below $1,200, signaling that gold could gap down quickly. Conventional wisdom is also moving against precious metals. Newspaper headlines are telling us that emerging markets are toast (India, Indonesia, Brazil) while the developed economies (US, Europe, Japan) are on the mend. Read More @ sovereignman.com

"Nobody Knows What The F**k Is Going On..." Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:52 AM PDT Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog, Financial circles in Hong Kong are buzzing today on the new Goldman Sachs projection that gold may drop below $1,000 an ounce. And in merely suggesting such a death sentence for the metal, Goldman’s pronouncement pushed the paper price of gold contracts down $20+. Many technical indicators underscore Goldman’s views. There’s very little floor for gold prices below $1,200, signaling that gold could gap down quickly. Conventional wisdom is also moving against precious metals. Newspaper headlines are telling us that emerging markets are toast (India, Indonesia, Brazil) while the developed economies (US, Europe, Japan) are on the mend. Of course, the facts don’t really support this. Unemployment in much of southern Europe continues to soar, and Greece is imminently in need of yet another bailout. The Japanese government’s most recent budget numbers indicate payments on the national debt totaling 22.2 trillion yen, which constitutes 51.5% of the government’s 43 trillion yen tax revenue. In the Land of the Free, the US government is just a few weeks away from defaulting. Again. Since May, in fact, the US Treasury Department has resorted to ‘extraordinary measures’ to keep the debt level firm at $16.7 trillion (the current debt ceiling) by using clever accounting tricks and confiscating funds from other sources. As soon as the debt ceiling is raised, however, the national debt in the US will soar once again as these accounting tricks are unwound and reflected on the balance sheet. For whatever reason, though, few people are paying attention to facts. It’s all about sentiment. And the sentiment right now is that the rich Western economies are back on top. This is the central thesis underpinning Goldman’s assessment on gold: since the US economy is out of the woods, there’s no longer a need for gold as a risk hedge. But as my friend told me last night over drinks, “Nobody knows what the f**k is going on…” He’s a senior-level manager at a major international investment bank, and fully expects the banking system to go under again. I thought about his candid remarks this morning when I read Goldman’s projection on gold. But it does beg the question– is it time to get out of precious metals? After all, the momentum is moving in that direction. Well, if you buy gold hoping to sell it at some point in the future and receive more fiat currency than you paid, then you might as well get out. Gold is not a great speculation right now. Think about it like this– and take ‘gold’ out of the equation. If the market for widgets had risen 10, 11, 12 years in a row, and had shattered all records for long-term performance, would you still be betting on a rise? Probably not. Just like housing (which everyone thought would go up forever), gold’s nominal paper price can fall. And it makes far more sense to speculate on something that’s in the dumps right now. However, this mentality entirely misses the point of precious metals. Why buy gold hoping to gain more paper currency down the road? Owning gold is all about trading away your paper currency into something that cannot be conjured out of thin air by central banks. When stored properly (holding physical gold overseas and/or anonymously), there is very little counterparty risk. The “price” in paper currency may rise. Or it may fall. But this is largely irrelevant. When the hopes and dreams of the entire global financial system rest on the lies of politicians, the whims of central bankers, and the mountains of debt they have all accumulated, things could turn on a dime… tomorrow. Gold is an insurance policy. It’s a form of money that you might never need to use. But should that need ever arise, you’ll be so much better off for owning it.

Gold and Silver Price Manipulation Ends With the Death of Fiat Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:45 AM PDT by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Silver-coin-investor: The silver and gold market has been rife with speculation about ongoing price manipulation. Most investors are now familiar with this concept, and even the mainstream has admitted that undue market influence has occurred. Nevertheless, ending this unfortunate fact of life for precious metal investors and allowing prices to rise to their fair value would probably create a U.S. Dollar panic. Furthermore, terminating precious metal market manipulation by officials — such as the CFTC for example — is virtually impossible because they would be incriminating themselves. Read More @ Silver-Coin-Investor.com

The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:42 AM PDT Think only emerging markets need gold and silver? This ex-bear did before Lehmans...   THIS SUNDAY, September 15, marks the five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, writes Miguel Perez-Santalla at BullionVault.   Lehman Brothers was large international bank based out of New York. They were well-respected. In fact, they were considered a rock in the marketplace.   The week before it happened I recall receiving a telephone call from a customer, way down in Colombia. He asked me if I had heard that Lehman Brothers was in financial difficulty and on the verge of bankruptcy. I was incredulous at the time. Sure, all the banks were in trouble. But I hadn't heard any concrete news from sources about LEH in my market – physical precious metals. Knowing Lehmans reputation (if not its balancesheet; they weren't a counterparty to my activity), I just couldn't imagine it.   Yet my customer was right. A few short days later Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. The weekend prior they had been trying to get funding or support from the Federal Reserve and any other banking organizations. Having failed to get funding they defaulted on transactions. This collapse would have a domino effect.   Of course, all this was preceded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve. Other groups such as AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and the like found homes or benefactors and in essence were rescued. Lehman was allowed to collapse. Why?   Some say it's because Lehman held a great proportion of foreign assets. So it was not as necessary to the US economy. Others say it was banking politics. But whatever the true reason, it is water under the bridge now, just like the Lehmans brand.   At that time gold was trading near the $900 per ounce level. I believed that to be on the high side, actually expecting gold to trade down to around $700. In fact I was a bear in the marketplace and was often quoted as such in periodicals while I was working for Heraeus Precious Metals in New York. Even though the injection of capital through Tarp coming down the pike should have given me a tip to what was possible from our central banking construct. I couldn't imagine what was about to begin.   When Lehman collapsed they had to liquidate positions. Gold was one of many commodities to be affected. The price of gold traded as low as $680 in the coming days. But it started to rise when central bank activity became clear. First we had huge injections of instant liquidity with central bank loans. Then interest rates were cut almost to zero to help ease pressure in the financial marketplace. But this was not enough, as the mortgage crisis was not an insulated event. It was an event of international magnitude.   Soon following it became evident that the proportions of the credit expansion – and its collapse – exceeded US borders. It reached into faraway economies such as Iceland, one of many nations to be devastated by the credit crunch. The United Kingdom followed suit, having emulated our business model in the housing and credit markets. The financial world was a shambles, and the banking sector seemed doomed to collapse.   This alone should have been enough for me to become a bull for gold and silver. Yet, I thought the lack of cash in people's pockets would actually be a negative factor depressing the precious metals prices. Which it would, perhaps, if the politicians and central banks hadn't decided the only way to save the whole system was to pump cash into bank balance sheets, maintain their liquidity, and avoid further Lehmans-style defaults at all costs.   I remember it like yesterday; my older brother swearing that the Fed would pump cash to plug the holes – like giant potholes – in our economy. In this world of fiat currencies, this would enable our country to continue to keep on trucking. But the central banks would need to do more than just fill the potholes. To try and generate growth they wanted to increase liquidity. Greasing the gears meant printing more money again.   The Federal Reserve Bank had to create new ways to inject capital into the system, such as buying asset-backed commercial paper, increasing credit lines, adding new swap lines, buying back troubled assets and having the FDIC increase the deposit insurance on bank accounts. These were all precursors to Quantitative Easing, which is a similar construct, but creates money directly to buy government bonds.   Many people, much smarter than I and fearing runaway inflation, began to buy gold. Gold had already broken the $1000 an ounce mark in March 2008 and was to do it again in February 2009. At first I still did not get caught up chasing the price. I'd seen gold nearly as low as $250 an ounce less than 10 years ago; it seemed preposterous to me for the public to buy widely at these high prices.   Yes, I always understood the safe-haven mechanism of gold and silver. I had been in the business long enough to see the need that exists for solid insurance, especially in what we used to call Third World and now emerging markets. But I confess – I never imagined that it could happen in the United States of America.   Once Quantitative Easing began, it became apparent that saving the banks and the economic system was more urgent than either saving the jobs of the average citizen or protecting their welfare by avoiding inflation. It finally started to click with me, too. The new issuance of money was in reality a form of taxation to pay for the iniquities of the financial system.  It was also, in so small a way, due to the incredible push of the US government – through legislation – to lend money to the poorest of the poor to buy homes which they couldn't afford. Rescuing the banks which had made those bad loans meant settling the banks' own debts with their creditors. So the 2008 bailouts were also tantamount to giving away our tax money directly to Wall Street.   Understanding this, I realized the urgency of gold and silver investment as insurance right here in the US. Previously, as I said, such thinking seemed alien in the world's most developed economy. I used to think of precious metals – such as my wife's jewelry – only as a last line of defense, the final asset to sell as a last resort in really bad times. But since the Lehman collapse 5 years ago, I am convinced that everyone who has any savings or assets should also hold gold and silver, simply in case our financial system hits another wall. Because it can, and it did.   We are still not out of the woods; the US GDP is anemic at best. The US is underemployed, although the statistics keep getting massaged to show otherwise. College kids are not able to find employment , even after having spent untold amounts of money for education they may never be able to pay for. So not only has the government vastly increased personal debt with the idea of home ownership for everyone. They've put the same weight tied around the necks of our young generation, through the idea of college for everyone.   Five years out from September 2008 we have not seen the people responsible held accountable either. The problem? Many of the culprits are in government themselves. Barney Frank, for instance, was an integral proponent of the loose money-lending prior to the mortgage collapse. Then we have those that weakened the laws and methods surrounding mortgage applications and bank leverage ratios. Where are they now? Heading for the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, apparently.   Will we ever see real justice? Will the middle class regain their position and jobs? In my view the current structure of our government, the antibusiness environment, and the over-regulation of what some laughably call "free market capitalism" is all driving away many of the better jobs that used to exist in this country.   I love my country, but we sure make a lot of blunders. The collapse of Lehman Brothers may have been a critical moment in US history. But instead of learning and improving how we arrange our society, our governing bodies have decided to choke off business instead. I see firsthand how many productive industries are now leaving our shores.   Maybe through some miracle the trend may be reversed, and we can once again regain our position as the center of financial power and productivity. But meantime, and accepting that the US today looks too much like those Third World countries I used to believe were so different, the only sure protection afforded us remains those assets that never lose their intrinsic value, whatever the price today: gold and silver.

The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:42 AM PDT Think only emerging markets need gold and silver? This ex-bear did before Lehmans...   THIS SUNDAY, September 15, marks the five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, writes Miguel Perez-Santalla at BullionVault.   Lehman Brothers was large international bank based out of New York. They were well-respected. In fact, they were considered a rock in the marketplace.   The week before it happened I recall receiving a telephone call from a customer, way down in Colombia. He asked me if I had heard that Lehman Brothers was in financial difficulty and on the verge of bankruptcy. I was incredulous at the time. Sure, all the banks were in trouble. But I hadn't heard any concrete news from sources about LEH in my market – physical precious metals. Knowing Lehmans reputation (if not its balancesheet; they weren't a counterparty to my activity), I just couldn't imagine it.   Yet my customer was right. A few short days later Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. The weekend prior they had been trying to get funding or support from the Federal Reserve and any other banking organizations. Having failed to get funding they defaulted on transactions. This collapse would have a domino effect.   Of course, all this was preceded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve. Other groups such as AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and the like found homes or benefactors and in essence were rescued. Lehman was allowed to collapse. Why?   Some say it's because Lehman held a great proportion of foreign assets. So it was not as necessary to the US economy. Others say it was banking politics. But whatever the true reason, it is water under the bridge now, just like the Lehmans brand.   At that time gold was trading near the $900 per ounce level. I believed that to be on the high side, actually expecting gold to trade down to around $700. In fact I was a bear in the marketplace and was often quoted as such in periodicals while I was working for Heraeus Precious Metals in New York. Even though the injection of capital through Tarp coming down the pike should have given me a tip to what was possible from our central banking construct. I couldn't imagine what was about to begin.   When Lehman collapsed they had to liquidate positions. Gold was one of many commodities to be affected. The price of gold traded as low as $680 in the coming days. But it started to rise when central bank activity became clear. First we had huge injections of instant liquidity with central bank loans. Then interest rates were cut almost to zero to help ease pressure in the financial marketplace. But this was not enough, as the mortgage crisis was not an insulated event. It was an event of international magnitude.   Soon following it became evident that the proportions of the credit expansion – and its collapse – exceeded US borders. It reached into faraway economies such as Iceland, one of many nations to be devastated by the credit crunch. The United Kingdom followed suit, having emulated our business model in the housing and credit markets. The financial world was a shambles, and the banking sector seemed doomed to collapse.   This alone should have been enough for me to become a bull for gold and silver. Yet, I thought the lack of cash in people's pockets would actually be a negative factor depressing the precious metals prices. Which it would, perhaps, if the politicians and central banks hadn't decided the only way to save the whole system was to pump cash into bank balance sheets, maintain their liquidity, and avoid further Lehmans-style defaults at all costs.   I remember it like yesterday; my older brother swearing that the Fed would pump cash to plug the holes – like giant potholes – in our economy. In this world of fiat currencies, this would enable our country to continue to keep on trucking. But the central banks would need to do more than just fill the potholes. To try and generate growth they wanted to increase liquidity. Greasing the gears meant printing more money again.   The Federal Reserve Bank had to create new ways to inject capital into the system, such as buying asset-backed commercial paper, increasing credit lines, adding new swap lines, buying back troubled assets and having the FDIC increase the deposit insurance on bank accounts. These were all precursors to Quantitative Easing, which is a similar construct, but creates money directly to buy government bonds.   Many people, much smarter than I and fearing runaway inflation, began to buy gold. Gold had already broken the $1000 an ounce mark in March 2008 and was to do it again in February 2009. At first I still did not get caught up chasing the price. I'd seen gold nearly as low as $250 an ounce less than 10 years ago; it seemed preposterous to me for the public to buy widely at these high prices.   Yes, I always understood the safe-haven mechanism of gold and silver. I had been in the business long enough to see the need that exists for solid insurance, especially in what we used to call Third World and now emerging markets. But I confess – I never imagined that it could happen in the United States of America.   Once Quantitative Easing began, it became apparent that saving the banks and the economic system was more urgent than either saving the jobs of the average citizen or protecting their welfare by avoiding inflation. It finally started to click with me, too. The new issuance of money was in reality a form of taxation to pay for the iniquities of the financial system.  It was also, in so small a way, due to the incredible push of the US government – through legislation – to lend money to the poorest of the poor to buy homes which they couldn't afford. Rescuing the banks which had made those bad loans meant settling the banks' own debts with their creditors. So the 2008 bailouts were also tantamount to giving away our tax money directly to Wall Street.   Understanding this, I realized the urgency of gold and silver investment as insurance right here in the US. Previously, as I said, such thinking seemed alien in the world's most developed economy. I used to think of precious metals – such as my wife's jewelry – only as a last line of defense, the final asset to sell as a last resort in really bad times. But since the Lehman collapse 5 years ago, I am convinced that everyone who has any savings or assets should also hold gold and silver, simply in case our financial system hits another wall. Because it can, and it did.   We are still not out of the woods; the US GDP is anemic at best. The US is underemployed, although the statistics keep getting massaged to show otherwise. College kids are not able to find employment , even after having spent untold amounts of money for education they may never be able to pay for. So not only has the government vastly increased personal debt with the idea of home ownership for everyone. They've put the same weight tied around the necks of our young generation, through the idea of college for everyone.   Five years out from September 2008 we have not seen the people responsible held accountable either. The problem? Many of the culprits are in government themselves. Barney Frank, for instance, was an integral proponent of the loose money-lending prior to the mortgage collapse. Then we have those that weakened the laws and methods surrounding mortgage applications and bank leverage ratios. Where are they now? Heading for the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, apparently.   Will we ever see real justice? Will the middle class regain their position and jobs? In my view the current structure of our government, the antibusiness environment, and the over-regulation of what some laughably call "free market capitalism" is all driving away many of the better jobs that used to exist in this country.   I love my country, but we sure make a lot of blunders. The collapse of Lehman Brothers may have been a critical moment in US history. But instead of learning and improving how we arrange our society, our governing bodies have decided to choke off business instead. I see firsthand how many productive industries are now leaving our shores.   Maybe through some miracle the trend may be reversed, and we can once again regain our position as the center of financial power and productivity. But meantime, and accepting that the US today looks too much like those Third World countries I used to believe were so different, the only sure protection afforded us remains those assets that never lose their intrinsic value, whatever the price today: gold and silver.

The Hard Lesson of Lehmans for a Gold Bear Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:42 AM PDT Think only emerging markets need gold and silver? This ex-bear did before Lehmans...   THIS SUNDAY, September 15, marks the five-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, writes Miguel Perez-Santalla at BullionVault.   Lehman Brothers was large international bank based out of New York. They were well-respected. In fact, they were considered a rock in the marketplace.   The week before it happened I recall receiving a telephone call from a customer, way down in Colombia. He asked me if I had heard that Lehman Brothers was in financial difficulty and on the verge of bankruptcy. I was incredulous at the time. Sure, all the banks were in trouble. But I hadn't heard any concrete news from sources about LEH in my market – physical precious metals. Knowing Lehmans reputation (if not its balancesheet; they weren't a counterparty to my activity), I just couldn't imagine it.   Yet my customer was right. A few short days later Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. The weekend prior they had been trying to get funding or support from the Federal Reserve and any other banking organizations. Having failed to get funding they defaulted on transactions. This collapse would have a domino effect.   Of course, all this was preceded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having to be bailed out by the Federal Reserve. Other groups such as AIG, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and the like found homes or benefactors and in essence were rescued. Lehman was allowed to collapse. Why?   Some say it's because Lehman held a great proportion of foreign assets. So it was not as necessary to the US economy. Others say it was banking politics. But whatever the true reason, it is water under the bridge now, just like the Lehmans brand.   At that time gold was trading near the $900 per ounce level. I believed that to be on the high side, actually expecting gold to trade down to around $700. In fact I was a bear in the marketplace and was often quoted as such in periodicals while I was working for Heraeus Precious Metals in New York. Even though the injection of capital through Tarp coming down the pike should have given me a tip to what was possible from our central banking construct. I couldn't imagine what was about to begin.   When Lehman collapsed they had to liquidate positions. Gold was one of many commodities to be affected. The price of gold traded as low as $680 in the coming days. But it started to rise when central bank activity became clear. First we had huge injections of instant liquidity with central bank loans. Then interest rates were cut almost to zero to help ease pressure in the financial marketplace. But this was not enough, as the mortgage crisis was not an insulated event. It was an event of international magnitude.   Soon following it became evident that the proportions of the credit expansion – and its collapse – exceeded US borders. It reached into faraway economies such as Iceland, one of many nations to be devastated by the credit crunch. The United Kingdom followed suit, having emulated our business model in the housing and credit markets. The financial world was a shambles, and the banking sector seemed doomed to collapse.   This alone should have been enough for me to become a bull for gold and silver. Yet, I thought the lack of cash in people's pockets would actually be a negative factor depressing the precious metals prices. Which it would, perhaps, if the politicians and central banks hadn't decided the only way to save the whole system was to pump cash into bank balance sheets, maintain their liquidity, and avoid further Lehmans-style defaults at all costs.   I remember it like yesterday; my older brother swearing that the Fed would pump cash to plug the holes – like giant potholes – in our economy. In this world of fiat currencies, this would enable our country to continue to keep on trucking. But the central banks would need to do more than just fill the potholes. To try and generate growth they wanted to increase liquidity. Greasing the gears meant printing more money again.   The Federal Reserve Bank had to create new ways to inject capital into the system, such as buying asset-backed commercial paper, increasing credit lines, adding new swap lines, buying back troubled assets and having the FDIC increase the deposit insurance on bank accounts. These were all precursors to Quantitative Easing, which is a similar construct, but creates money directly to buy government bonds.   Many people, much smarter than I and fearing runaway inflation, began to buy gold. Gold had already broken the $1000 an ounce mark in March 2008 and was to do it again in February 2009. At first I still did not get caught up chasing the price. I'd seen gold nearly as low as $250 an ounce less than 10 years ago; it seemed preposterous to me for the public to buy widely at these high prices.   Yes, I always understood the safe-haven mechanism of gold and silver. I had been in the business long enough to see the need that exists for solid insurance, especially in what we used to call Third World and now emerging markets. But I confess – I never imagined that it could happen in the United States of America.   Once Quantitative Easing began, it became apparent that saving the banks and the economic system was more urgent than either saving the jobs of the average citizen or protecting their welfare by avoiding inflation. It finally started to click with me, too. The new issuance of money was in reality a form of taxation to pay for the iniquities of the financial system.  It was also, in so small a way, due to the incredible push of the US government – through legislation – to lend money to the poorest of the poor to buy homes which they couldn't afford. Rescuing the banks which had made those bad loans meant settling the banks' own debts with their creditors. So the 2008 bailouts were also tantamount to giving away our tax money directly to Wall Street.   Understanding this, I realized the urgency of gold and silver investment as insurance right here in the US. Previously, as I said, such thinking seemed alien in the world's most developed economy. I used to think of precious metals – such as my wife's jewelry – only as a last line of defense, the final asset to sell as a last resort in really bad times. But since the Lehman collapse 5 years ago, I am convinced that everyone who has any savings or assets should also hold gold and silver, simply in case our financial system hits another wall. Because it can, and it did.   We are still not out of the woods; the US GDP is anemic at best. The US is underemployed, although the statistics keep getting massaged to show otherwise. College kids are not able to find employment , even after having spent untold amounts of money for education they may never be able to pay for. So not only has the government vastly increased personal debt with the idea of home ownership for everyone. They've put the same weight tied around the necks of our young generation, through the idea of college for everyone.   Five years out from September 2008 we have not seen the people responsible held accountable either. The problem? Many of the culprits are in government themselves. Barney Frank, for instance, was an integral proponent of the loose money-lending prior to the mortgage collapse. Then we have those that weakened the laws and methods surrounding mortgage applications and bank leverage ratios. Where are they now? Heading for the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve, apparently.   Will we ever see real justice? Will the middle class regain their position and jobs? In my view the current structure of our government, the antibusiness environment, and the over-regulation of what some laughably call "free market capitalism" is all driving away many of the better jobs that used to exist in this country.   I love my country, but we sure make a lot of blunders. The collapse of Lehman Brothers may have been a critical moment in US history. But instead of learning and improving how we arrange our society, our governing bodies have decided to choke off business instead. I see firsthand how many productive industries are now leaving our shores.   Maybe through some miracle the trend may be reversed, and we can once again regain our position as the center of financial power and productivity. But meantime, and accepting that the US today looks too much like those Third World countries I used to believe were so different, the only sure protection afforded us remains those assets that never lose their intrinsic value, whatever the price today: gold and silver.

Andrew Maguire: CFTC has had metals market rigging documents for a year Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:39 AM PDT 2:43p ET Friday, September 13, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: London metals trader Andrew Maguire today tells King World News that two JPMorganChase employees a year ago provided the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission with documentation of the bank's manipulation of the gold and silver markets but the CFTC appears to have buried it. The documentation, Maguire says, is also in the possession of a law firm specializing in the representation of whistleblowers. Of course if the CFTC is indeed sitting on such documentation of market rigging, it would support suspicions that JPMorganChase has been telling the truth when it has said that it has traded the monetary metals only for "clients" and that these clients are U.S. government agencies specifically authorized to rig markets secretly, like the Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund -- http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-inde... -- which, according to statute, "may deal in gold, foreign exchange, and other instruments of credit and securities" -- that is, agencies authorized to deal secretly in everything. An excerpt from Maguire's interview is posted at the King World News blog here: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/9/13_Mo... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Antii-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT You Don't Have to Wait for Your Monetary Metal: All Pro Gold Has Product for Immediate Delivery Many investors lately report having to wait weeks and even months for delivery of their precious metal orders. All Pro Gold works with the largest wholesalers that have inventory "live" -- ready to go. All Pro Gold can ship these "live" gold and silver products as soon as payment funds clear. All Pro Gold can provide immediate delivery of 100-ounce Johnson Matthey silver bars, bags of 90 percent junk silver coins, and 1-ounce silver Austrian Philharmonics. All Pro Gold can deliver silver Canadian maple leafs with a two-day delay and 1-ounce U.S. silver eagles with a 15-day delay. Traditional 1-ounce gold bullion coins and mint-state generic gold double eagles are also available for immediate delivery. All Pro Gold has competitive pricing, and its proprietors, longtime GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy, are glad to answer any questions or concerns of buyers about the acquisition of precious metals and numismatic coins. Learn more at www.allprogold.com or email info@allprogold.com or telephone All Pro Gold toll-free at 1-855-377-4653. Join GATA here: Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Luna Park Conference Center, Sydney, Australia Wednesday-Thursday, October 16-17, 2013 http://gold.symposium.net.au/ Mines and Money Australia Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre Tuesday, October 29-Friday, November 1, 2013 http://www.minesandmoney.com/ New Orleans Investment Conference Sunday-Wednesday, November 10-13, 2013 Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/speakers?IDPromotion=613011610080... * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: http://gata.org/tshirts Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: http://www.gata.org To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16

Jim’s Mailbox Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:37 AM PDT Dear Jim, In a publication entitled "Margin Requirements for Non-Centrally Cleared Derivatives" just released by the BIS (Bank for International Settlement), and the IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), have clearly stated (pg.17) that GOLD is qualified collateral along with cash and government securities for margin on derivative contracts. It clearly states, "in the event... Read more » The post Jim’s Mailbox appeared first on Jim Sinclair's Mineset.

Why I Won't Be Buying Gold Anytime Soon Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:33 AM PDT Buying gold above $1300 doesn't make sense, says one active investor...   WHEN GOLD prices surged to over $1400 an ounce this month, I was still not a believer in its potential as a buying opportunity, wrote George Leong at Investment Contrarians last week.   Rather, I thought it was more a trade against the possibility of an expanded conflict arising in Syria.   The gold bugs were suggesting the time for buying gold was here again, and I even heard a target price of $1700 an ounce. Now, with the situation in Syria looking to be resolved, the safe haven's gains over the past few weeks are beginning to fade away as the price falls below $1400.   My feeling is that gold could move even lower and back towards $1300-1325 if the Federal Reserve decides to rein in its bond buying at this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The numerous rounds of quantitative easing and lower interest rates drove down the value of the greenback and created an environment of easy money that helped to drive up the price of gold.   Now, with the Fed's bond tapering around the corner and bond yields set to edge higher, the US Dollar will likely get stronger. And since gold is priced in US Dollars, the cost to buy US-denominated gold will increase. The higher expected financing rates will also impact the carrying cost of buying the yellow metal, so I also expect demand to fall, which will help to drive down prices.   In the absence of a strike in Syria, I'm calling for gold prices to decline as we move forward.   The futures market is predicting gold will stay in the $1300 range until mid-2015 and prices to break above $1400 by the end of 2015, eventually moving to the $1500 level by June 2019. That's nearly six years from now, and with a cumulative 15% upside based on the futures market, I really don't think I'd be buying and hoping for a big surge.     My thought is that prices will likely hold at the $1200-$1300 level and may spike on any negative news that causes investors to flee to safety; otherwise, I feel the upside is limited for the time being.   With this in mind, the mining sector could continue to face cost issues and the reluctance to explore and develop properties unless there is evidence that gold prices are heading higher and staying there. Based on the futures market, I wouldn't be that anxious to run and start buying gold.

Why I Won't Be Buying Gold Anytime Soon Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:33 AM PDT Buying gold above $1300 doesn't make sense, says one active investor...   WHEN GOLD prices surged to over $1400 an ounce this month, I was still not a believer in its potential as a buying opportunity, wrote George Leong at Investment Contrarians last week.   Rather, I thought it was more a trade against the possibility of an expanded conflict arising in Syria.   The gold bugs were suggesting the time for buying gold was here again, and I even heard a target price of $1700 an ounce. Now, with the situation in Syria looking to be resolved, the safe haven's gains over the past few weeks are beginning to fade away as the price falls below $1400.   My feeling is that gold could move even lower and back towards $1300-1325 if the Federal Reserve decides to rein in its bond buying at this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The numerous rounds of quantitative easing and lower interest rates drove down the value of the greenback and created an environment of easy money that helped to drive up the price of gold.   Now, with the Fed's bond tapering around the corner and bond yields set to edge higher, the US Dollar will likely get stronger. And since gold is priced in US Dollars, the cost to buy US-denominated gold will increase. The higher expected financing rates will also impact the carrying cost of buying the yellow metal, so I also expect demand to fall, which will help to drive down prices.   In the absence of a strike in Syria, I'm calling for gold prices to decline as we move forward.   The futures market is predicting gold will stay in the $1300 range until mid-2015 and prices to break above $1400 by the end of 2015, eventually moving to the $1500 level by June 2019. That's nearly six years from now, and with a cumulative 15% upside based on the futures market, I really don't think I'd be buying and hoping for a big surge.     My thought is that prices will likely hold at the $1200-$1300 level and may spike on any negative news that causes investors to flee to safety; otherwise, I feel the upside is limited for the time being.   With this in mind, the mining sector could continue to face cost issues and the reluctance to explore and develop properties unless there is evidence that gold prices are heading higher and staying there. Based on the futures market, I wouldn't be that anxious to run and start buying gold.

The Daily Market Report Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:14 AM PDT Gold Extends Losses Ahead of Weekend 13-Sep (USAGOLD) — Gold saw follow-through losses on Friday, establishing new five week lows just shy of the $1300 level. Going into the weekend, market focus remains squarely on Fed taper expectations, and to a lesser degree on the diplomatic efforts to prevent a U.S. attack on Syria. The economic data that came out this morning was generally disappointing. Retail sales grew by a mere 0.2% in August, below expectations of +0.4%. The ex-auto figure was just +0.1%. The preliminary read on consumer confidence for September showed a significant drop to 76.8, from 82.1 in August. These data are not particularly supportive to the notion of tapering, but as a ZeroHedge article pointed out yesterday, the Fed may have no choice but to scale back on asset purchase. The August deficit was down 22% year on year, suggesting there may be less need for debt issuance. This may in part be the result of the sequester, but the bottom line is that less Treasury supply means less need for the central bank to buy at the same volumes. Less debt and smaller deficits are generally a good thing, unless of course it leads to heightened growth risks. All of this will be debate in coming months as Congress tries to hash out deals on spending and and the debt ceiling. Things could get interesting if the Fed taper, only to have to reverse course down the road. BofA/Merrill Lynch chief investment analyst Michael Hartnett says in his latest note to client, “if the U.S. economy does not significantly accelerate in coming quarters, it never will.” It seems the Fed is taking a big risk in tapering at this stage of the game.

Does the moon control gold and silver prices? Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:06 AM PDT The Real Asset Co

CEOs Confess: Consumption, That 70% Component Of US GDP, Just Isn't There Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:01 AM PDT Following this morning's miss on retail sales and plunge in consumer confidence, Bloomberg's Rich Yamarone points out that retailers remain anxious about the outlook as they see consumers cautious and expect a spending slowdown. The following quotes from some of the largest and most belwether names may help shed some light on the reality of the hope that is priced into markets about consumption relative to actual business expectations... perhaps best summed by Sealed Air's CEO, "we are in the fourth year of the recovery and it doesn't feel like a recovery. Because it's the first time ever that things, four years within a recovery, are feeling so iffy."   CVS [CVS] Earnings Call 8/6/13: "We are continuing to see a cautious consumer. I think as you look across some of the external data available in the second quarter, whether it's IMS or some of the other data, it did show some consumer spending slowdown in the quarter." Church & Dwight [CHD] Earnings Call 8/2/13: "I've been a long-term pessimist about the business environment. The latest forecast of weak GDP growth, continuing high unemployment and weak same-store sales by major retailers provide little hope for significant near-term improvement in the U.S. economy. In fact, of the 14 categories that Church & Dwight operates in, five incurred lower category dollar sales in the second quarter versus the prior year, and five more had category growth of less than 2 percent versus the prior year. Now all consumer packages companies are fighting these headwinds." Brinker International [EAT] Earnings Call 8/2/13: "This quarter we continued to see a fairly lethargic category and some of the macroeconomic elements aren't quite as good as we hoped they'd be at this point in time. While we remain optimistic that the back half of the calendar year will contain improvements in key metrics like consumer confidence and employment, the restaurant industry isn't recovering as fast as we had hoped." Sealed Air Corp. [SEE] Earnings Call 8/2/13: "This economy is not strong. I was listening to NPR this morning in the car coming to the office and somebody was making the comment, saying that we are in the fourth year of the recovery and it doesn't feel like a recovery. Because it's the first time ever that things, four years within a recovery, are feeling so iffy."

Billionaire Sprott – Metals Smashed As West Hemorrhages Gold Posted: 13 Sep 2013 10:38 AM PDT Dear CIGAs, On the heels of another plunge in gold and silver, today billionaire Eric Sprott warned King World News that the smash in gold and silver is being accomplished through unprecedented levels of dwindling Western central bank gold being supplied into the market.  He also spoke about the massive gold and silver demand.  Below... Read more » The post Billionaire Sprott – Metals Smashed As West Hemorrhages Gold appeared first on Jim Sinclair's Mineset.

What A Difference A Decade Makes Posted: 13 Sep 2013 10:34 AM PDT Even as the popular press if focused on the 5 year anniversary of Lehman, we decided to go back double that period, and take a look at what happened to the developed world economy in the past decade, starting with 2003. What we found was interesting. Total G7 consolidated debt was $80 trillion in 2003. In the next decade it has risen by $62.3 trillion to $142 trillion at the end of 2012. This is a stunning 80% increase in the total stock of world debt in just one decade. Total G7 consolidated GDP was $22 trillion in 2003. Over the past ten years, GDP has risen by $9.4 trillion, or by 42%, even as total debt increased at double that rate. Until 2003, every $3.6 dollars in debt generated $1 dollar in GDP growth. In the past ten years, it took $6.7 dollars of debt to create $1 dollar of economic "growth." Furthermore, as we showed yesterday, in just the past five years, or since the Lehman failure, this ratio has exploded, and some $18 dollars of debt were required for every $1 dollar of GDP, with only $1 trillion in nominal GDP having been created among the G7 countries in the past five years matched by $18 trillion in debt. Total G7 debt/GDP at the end of 2012 was 450%. To summarize: economists may debate whether Reinhart and Rogoff were wrong about 90% sovereign debt/GDP representing a cutoff threshold to a country's growth. What however is clear, is that when consolidated debt/GDP is five times that, growth, well, is a pleasant fiction.

Morgan Whistleblowers Confess Bank Manipulates Gold & Silver Posted: 13 Sep 2013 10:15 AM PDT In a stunning development, two JP Morgan whistleblowers have confessed that the bank manipulates the gold and silver markets. This is truly a shocking admission by the courageous JP Morgan whistleblowers. In a blockbuster King World News interview, London metals trader Andrew Maguire told KWN that the two JP Morgan employees came directly to him with hard evidence that the bank was actively manipulating the gold and silver markets. This is a truly catastrophic event for JP Morgan, which up to now has denied manipulating these markets. Below Maguire takes KWN readers around the world on a trip down the rabbit hole as he discusses how he led the two JP Morgan employees to turn over the evidence to a law firm which specializes in high profile whistleblowers, and also to the CFTC. According to Maguire, the CFTC has virtually buried this information. Is this a cover up, or the next LIBOR scandal about to be exposed? Below is what Maguire had to say in this blockbuster interview. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Gold In India: Did Gold Stop to Respond to the Rupee Price Moves? Posted: 13 Sep 2013 10:09 AM PDT Today, gold in the global market reversed early gains and fell to its lowest in more than a month as U.S. futures extended losses on fears the United States would curb its stimulus soon and as a U.S. strike on Syria looked less likely. Read More...

The Decline And Fall Of The Dollar & The USA Posted: 13 Sep 2013 09:33 AM PDT There is currently a crime in progress. Your time and labor is being stolen from you as you read this. But this crime is not localized. It is happening around the globe. It is only when you truly... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://FinanceArmageddon.blogspot.com or http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]

GoldSeek Live Webinar – Sept 9, 2013 [Dr Jim Willie & Rudi Fronk] Posted: 13 Sep 2013 09:30 AM PDT from Gold Seek: GoldSeek’s first live webinar, featuring Rudi Fronk Ceo & Chairman of Seabridge Gold Inc and Dr Jim Willie, publisher of the “Hat Trick Letter”.

Guest Post: Everything's Fixed, Everything's Great Posted: 13 Sep 2013 09:10 AM PDT Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog, A brief summary of everything that's been fixed. Much to the amazement of doom-and-gloomers, everything's been fixed and as a result, everything's great. The list is impressive: China: fixed. Japan: fixed. Europe: fixed. U.S. healthcare: fixed. Africa: fixed. Mideast: well, not fixed, but no worse than a month ago, and that qualifies as fixed. Let's scroll through a brief summary of everything that's been fixed. 1. China's economy. It was slowing down, which would have been bad for the global economy. But the recent PMI (preliminary made-up indicator) readings have been the strongest since the Great Leap Forward. The basic story here is China needs a million more of everything: a million more concrete highrises, a million more airports, a million more miles of highway, and so on. And because there are 200 million rural peasants anxious to open nail shops in all those empty ghost cities, there is no end to growth in China. And thanks to central banking and a wide-open spigot of credit, there's also a million times more leverage and debt in China. It's a perpetual growth machine. There are growth stories on top of growth stories in China. There are 300 million diabetics and pre-diabetics in China right now--the equivalent of the U.S. population. Think of all the growth possibilities for diabetes clinics in those ghost cities. All the owners of those nail shops and diabetes clinics will be getting so rich, Goldman Sachs will be needed to sell them safe investments like Detroit Muni Bonds. 2. Japan'a Abenomics has worked, and Japan is back. Need proof? Just look at the Japanese stock market: it's up. What more do you need? Hello Kitty is expanding its market share of the global Cute market--yee-hah!--and the 2020 Olympics will be a growth story for seven years--a Biblical cornucopia of growth, growth, growth. 3. Europe is on the mend. European stocks are at 5-year highs--proof everything's fixed. Greece's budget is near surplus (if you exclude interest payments on their debt), and there's light at the end of the tunnel on Europe's debt crisis. The fix is LTRO (long-term ripoff operation)--basically another perpetual growth machine funded by free money issued by the European Central Bank. Can't pay your debts? No problem, just borrow more! It won't take more than a couple trillion euros to set things right and get things moving. Sure, unemployment in some countries is 25% (or is it 40%? hard to be sure), but that's stabilized, and there are sure to be more jobs for waiters/waitresses as tourism works its growth magic. 4. The U.S. healthcare system is fixed, thanks to ObamaCare. I can't understand the details, of course, but then neither can anybody else, and that's the beauty of it: there's a practically unlimited demand for people who know how all this works. Job growth will be through the roof. Here's a summary of how ObamaCare works. There's three levels, kind of like a credit card: silver, gold and platinum. Silver is like your current lousy plan, only the government will give you $167 if your plan costs more than $10,000 (or maybe it's $1,670--nobody knows). The Gold level is much better, similar to gold-plated healthcare plans enjoyed by government workers, but it costs a lot more. Platinum is equivalent to what everyone in other advanced democracies gets from national healthcare, only it costs twice as much here in the U.S. But hey, you get what you pay for, and that's why the U.S. healthcare system is the best in the world--we spend twice as much per person as anyone else. If you refuse to get insurance, the government penalizes you $167--or maybe it's $1,670. Nobody really knows yet because there are thousands of pages of fine print to sort out. 5. America has its own perpetual money machine to fuel growth. The Federal Reserve creates money and then buys Treasury bonds. The Federal government sells the bonds and uses the cash (just created by the Fed) to pay for everything: $300 million a piece F-35 fighters, 47 million Food Stamp SNAP vouchers, bridges to nowhere, tax breaks for billionaires, you name it. And here's the beauty of it: there's no limit to this money machine. The Fed can print a gazillion dollars and buy a gazillion dollars of Treasury bonds so the government can spend a gazillion dollars. There is no consequence of this, it can go on forever. That means we can borrow as much money as we want to buy everything we want, forever. So you see, everything's fixed, because everybody that can create their own money can do so without limit or consequence. It's a perpetual money machine, and that fuels a perpetual growth machine. No limits on credit and debt means no limit on spending. Free money for everyone and everything--it's unbelievably easy. Doom and gloomers have been wrong, just like Paul Krugman said. The solution to every problem is at hand: create more money and credit, in ever larger sums, until a tsunami of cash washes away all difficulties. Please note this is a satire.

Gold equities lure investors after April bullion rout Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT Drive to gold equities surges as moves by management to cut costs and rising gold price provide comfort, analysts say. Read more….

Goldman warns gold could fall to $1,000 or lower. HSBC disagrees Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT Mega investment bank Goldman Sachs' senior commodity analyst, Jeff Currie, warns that gold could even drop below $1,000 an ounce, but HSBC has raised its 2013 forecast to $1,446. Read more….

Gold: a volatile and changeable market ahead Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT The current low gold prices will encourage further buying of physical metal, but expect the overall picture to remain volatile. Read more….

Seabridge buys more of junior with Oregon gold project Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT As Calico Resources moves the Grassy Mountain project through permitting, Seabridge buys up more shares. Read more….

SA gold output rises first time in 27 months in July Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:39 AM PDT Data by Statistics South Africa shows that the country's gold production increased for the first time in 27 months in July. Read more….

India gold imports seen at $38bn-$40bn in 2013/14 Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:38 AM PDT Gold imports are likely to be around $38 to $40 billion in the current fiscal year to March 31, 2014, says the economic adviser to the prime minister. Read more….

ASX smallcaps in boisterous form after Abbott’s election victory Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:38 AM PDT Ramelius taps shareholders for its Vivien gold development, Toro Energy hits high uranium grades at Wiluna and Investigator Resources intersects shallow silver at Alexander. Read more….

Max Keiser interviews TF Metal Report's Turd Ferguson Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:23 AM PDT 11:16a ET Friday, September 13, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Somehow the provocateur of international financial journalism, Max Keiser, and his sidekick, Stacy Hebert, were allowed into the United States this month for an edition of "The Keiser Report" on the Russia Today television network and were allowed to interview the TF Metals Report's Turd Ferguson about JPMorganChase's switch from short to long gold futures. Not only that -- the interview took place outside the JPMorganChase building in New York. The program is posted at YouTube here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQbAvK9Wws -- and the segment with Ferguson begins at the 12:47 mark. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT Don't Let Cyprus Happen to You Depositors at the Bank of Cyprus lost 47.5 percent of their savings. So to preserve your wealth, get some of it outside the banking system into physical gold and silver. Worldwide Precious Metals (Canada) Ltd., established in 2001, specializes in physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. We offer delivery or secure and fully insured storage outside the banking system in Brinks vaults. We have access to gold and silver from trusted worldwide refineries and suppliers. And when you have an account with us you have immediate access to it for buying and selling your stored bullion. For information on owning physical precious metals in your portfolio, visit us at: www.wwpmc.com. Join GATA here: Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Luna Park Conference Center, Sydney, Australia Wednesday-Thursday, October 16-17, 2013 http://gold.symposium.net.au/ Mines and Money Australia Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre Tuesday, October 29-Friday, November 1, 2013 http://www.minesandmoney.com/ New Orleans Investment Conference Sunday-Wednesday, November 10-13, 2013 Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/speakers?IDPromotion=613011610080... * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: http://gata.org/tshirts Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: http://www.gata.org To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16

The United States Crossed The Rubicon On Its Path To Collapse Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:17 AM PDT Alea Iacta Est - "The die has been cast" - Julius Ceasar, after crossing the Rubicon River on his way to conquering Rome I really wanted to go into a rant about how our economy and political system is in a serious state of collapse. The economic numbers release yesterday and this morning are proof that I'm right in my assessment of the economy.  The Syrian situation is all the proof we need that our Government knows I'm right. Quietly yesterday afternoon the Government released the August spending defiict.  It surprisingly came in on the high side at $148 billion, well in excess of July's unexpectedly large deficit of $97.6 billion.  YTD the total deficit with one month left in the fiscal year is $755 billion.  To be sure it will a bit less than last year and it will fall short of the trillion dollar mark, but keep in mind embedded in this number is close $100 billion of non-recurring payments from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and taxpayers (the December tax revenue jump from investment gains taken before the Jan 1 capital gains increase).  In addition, revenues are higher this year, not because of a better economy, but because of a higher payroll tax rate.  Finally, we know that Jack "I'm Robert Rubin's New Butt Boy" Lew, the new Treasury Secretary, has explicitly stated that he has played games with the budget in order to avoid running out of money now that the Government debt issuance has exceeded the so-called debt ceiling limit. Today retail sales for August were reported.  They came in below expectations, and well below expectations if you strip out auto sales (which are inflated by easy credit) and inflation.  You can read the details here:  LINK and here:  LINK.  Essentially clothing sales and building materials (I told you the housing bounce is over) are dropping and restaurant sale - the beacon of disposable income - are plunging.  In addition, consumer confidence was reported and it had its biggest miss vs. expectations on record and it has plunged back to its January level:  LINK.  In short, consumer spending is contracting (expect for student loan and auto debt recipients) - the economy is in trouble and the people on "main street" know it. So much for my not ranting (but I kept it brief).  The good news for gold investors is that since the Lehman crisis in 2008 it turns that gold and silver have been the number 1 and number 2 best performing investments:  Gold and Silver #1 Since Lehman Collapse.  I bet that surprises everyone who is reading this.  Despite this nasty two-year correction, if you invested every penny in gold and silver, you have outperformed every other possible asset class.  And get ready for the next move higher in gold and silver, because our system is in worse shape and further along its collapse than it was in 2008.  Goldman Sachs knows this and that's why - despite their analyst report that says gold could still go lower here - Goldman Sachs the firm became on of the largest holders of GLD during the 3rd quarter of 2013.  That just goes to show that anyone who follows the advice of the Taxpayer-supported big Wall Street banks is a complete idiot. This brings me to the intended topic of my post today. I happened to catch the 1957 Frank Sinatra classic "Pal Joey" with Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak last night.  I have to say, there's nothing a cheeseball 50's musical to make you think back to what this country was like when it truly was an "exceptional" place to live and in which to be a proud citizen.  I'm not going elaborate beyond that because I want everyone to enjoy this number from the movie - but I will say that it really angered me that our country has devolved into a cesspool of unfettered corruption that's led by a gang of Democrats who are war-mongering, lying, cheating, stealing neocons and their figurehead is a useless Chicago-system politician who is better equipped to pimp hookers on Chicago's South Side - ENJOY:

GATA Chairman Murphy interviewed by Finance and Liberty's Johnson Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:15 AM PDT 11:12a ET Friday, September 13, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: GATA Chairman Bill Murphy was interviewed this week by Elijah Johnson of Finance and Liberty. The interview is 17 minutes long and can be heard at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lDaWT9fsSI CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT Don't Let Cyprus Happen to You Depositors at the Bank of Cyprus lost 47.5 percent of their savings. So to preserve your wealth, get some of it outside the banking system into physical gold and silver. Worldwide Precious Metals (Canada) Ltd., established in 2001, specializes in physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. We offer delivery or secure and fully insured storage outside the banking system in Brinks vaults. We have access to gold and silver from trusted worldwide refineries and suppliers. And when you have an account with us you have immediate access to it for buying and selling your stored bullion. For information on owning physical precious metals in your portfolio, visit us at: www.wwpmc.com. Join GATA here: Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Luna Park Conference Center, Sydney, Australia Wednesday-Thursday, October 16-17, 2013 http://gold.symposium.net.au/ Mines and Money Australia Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre Tuesday, October 29-Friday, November 1, 2013 http://www.minesandmoney.com/ New Orleans Investment Conference Sunday-Wednesday, November 10-13, 2013 Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/speakers?IDPromotion=613011610080... * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: http://gata.org/tshirts Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: http://www.gata.org To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16

BofA: If The American Economy Doesn’t Accelerate Soon, It NEVER Will Posted: 13 Sep 2013 08:03 AM PDT 13-Sep (BusinessInsider) — BofA Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett – the one who coined the term “Great Rotation” – takes a gloomy view of the future in his latest note to clients: The Next 5 Years: Curb Your Enthusiasm Significant monetary stimulus, the end of fiscal austerity, a booming housing market, a cheap dollar, record corporate cash balances…if the US economy does not significantly accelerate in coming quarters, it never will. [source] PG View: We’ve suggested in the past that the U.S. is following the path blazed by Japan, which led to the lost decade. Actually, Japan has entered its third lost decade even as the Abe administration and the BoJ have redoubled their efforts to break the cycle. Here in the States, we’re now over halfway through our first lost decade.

Gold and Oil, Where to Go if the Middle East Explodes! (Part 2) Posted: 13 Sep 2013 07:59 AM PDT In the unlikely event that a limited strike on the Syrian government's ability to launch nerve gas on its population through air strikes, rocket attacks or artillery shells has no other effect on the religious war, then we doubt that the impact ... Read More...

Sprott: Gold knocked down now to prepare for scuttling of Fed's bond 'taper'? Posted: 13 Sep 2013 07:18 AM PDT 10:14a ET Friday, September 13, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: In the second installment of his interview this week with King World News, fund manager Eric Sprott raises the possibility that gold has been knocked down in preparation for the Federal Reserve's cancellation of its plans to "taper" its bond buying, so that the resulting increase in gold will come from a lower base: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/9/13_Bi... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT Precious Metals Round Table: Where Do We Go From Here? On Tuesday, September 24, Sprott Asset Management will assemble four experts for a live Internet broadcast about the prospects for the precious metals. Participating will be Sprott's CEO, Eric Sprott; financial letter writer and internationally renowned conference speaker Marc Faber; Sprott's chief investment strategist, John Embry; and Sprott Asset Management President Rick Rule. To participate, please visit: https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=regist... Join GATA here: Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Luna Park Conference Center, Sydney, Australia Wednesday-Thursday, October 16-17, 2013 http://gold.symposium.net.au/ Mines and Money Australia Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre Tuesday, October 29-Friday, November 1, 2013 http://www.minesandmoney.com/ New Orleans Investment Conference Sunday-Wednesday, November 10-13, 2013 Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/speakers?IDPromotion=613011610080... * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: http://gata.org/tshirts Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: http://www.gata.org To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16

Fed QE3-Tapering Impact on Stocks and Gold Posted: 13 Sep 2013 07:03 AM PDT The Federal Reserve’s upcoming decision on whether to slow its third quantitative-easing campaign’s debt monetizations has to be this year’s most-highly-anticipated market event.  Traders have been trying to game the odds of QE3 tapering literally all year long, driving some sharp market moves.  So the Federal Open Market Committee’s decision due out next Wednesday is likely to be a major market-moving event. The focus on this imminent FOMC meeting is so hyper-intense that its impact should be considerable no matter what the Fed decides.  The QE3 taper (or lack thereof), its size, and what the FOMC implies for future tapering will almost certainly spark sharp price reactions in the bond markets, currency markets, stock markets, and precious metals.  All have moved violently this year on mere QE3-taper anticipation.

Five Years After Lehman - Gold Still Safe Haven As Financial System 'Insane' Posted: 13 Sep 2013 06:50 AM PDT Today’s AM fix was USD 1,308.25, EUR 984.46 and GBP 827.12 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,340.25, EUR 1,008.54 and GBP 847.46 per ounce. Gold fell $41.60 or 3.05% yesterday, closing at $1,323/oz. Silver slid $1.31 or 5.66%, closing at $21.83. At 3:01 EDT, Platinum fell $28.60 or 2% to $1,437/oz, while palladium fell $2.03 or .3% to $688.47/oz.

Quest Update Posted: 13 Sep 2013 06:39 AM PDT So far so good. We're still hanging in and haven't taken the account back to 0. After closing the most recent trade the quest portfolio is up a little over 400% and now worth $1606. I'm afraid gold may have formed an intermediate top and if so this is going to make it much harder for the Quest portfolio to perform and much easier to miss a trade and risk taking the account down to 0. I'm going to have to wait patiently and pick my trades carefully from now on. The odds of even reaching $10,000 in the next 6 months will be greatly diminished if the intermediate gold cycle has topped.

GOLD Elliott Wave Technical Analysis Posted: 13 Sep 2013 06:17 AM PDT Yesterday's analysis stated the situation was unclear, and introduced a new alternate wave count. Today movement below 1,344.26 invalidated the main wave count and confirmed the alternate. Read More...

2 Good Reasons to Buy Gold This September Posted: 13 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT I often talk about how the gold trade is really two separate trades. There’s the Fear Trade that buys gold out of fear of war or poor government policies. This crowd sees the precious metal as a safe haven during times of crisis, such as when gold rose over the fear of a war in Syria, but eased when a much more limited military action became likely. However, there were other factors beyond Syria driving gold. That’s the Love Trade. This group gives gold as gifts for loved ones during important holidays and festivals. This is the time of the year that we are in the midst of right now. Historically, September has been gold’s best month of the year. Looking at more than four decades of monthly returns, the precious metal has seen its biggest increase this month, averaging 2.3 percent. Indians will be getting ready for their wedding season that begins in October followed by the five-day Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, which is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. In December, millions of people will be gathering with loved ones to exchange gifts as they observe Christmas. And finally, millions will celebrate Chinese New Year at the end of January 2014. In India, there’s also the harvest season to consider, as its crop production relies on rainfall for water. One positive driver for gold this year is the fact that the country has had a heavy monsoon. The rains that started in June covered most of India at the fastest pace in more than 50 years. About 70 percent of the annual rainfall in India happens from June to September, and a strong monsoon season usually means a bumper crop, which boosts farmers’ incomes. That could increase gold buying as well, negating the government’s efforts to quell India’s gold-buying habit. Historically, good monsoon seasons have been associated with strong gold demand. “In 2010, the last year that rains were heavily above average, demand soared 37 percent in the fourth quarter after harvests,” says Reuters. In the rural areas of India, there is little access to banking networks, so gold is used as a store of wealth, says Reuters. And with half the population in India employed in agriculture, it’s no surprise that 60 percent of all the gold demand in the country comes from these rural areas. India’s rural community has seen a “hefty rise” in income this year, reports Mineweb. But instead of buying gold, Mineweb says Indian farmers may purchase land due to gold in local currency reaching “dizzying heights.” Particularly over the past few weeks, as the currency faced increasing weakness, gold in rupee spiked. Over the past three years, gold is now up 58 percent compared to gold in the U.S. dollar, which rose nearly 12 percent. Despite this possible short-term threat to gold demand, keep in mind the East’s long-term sentiment toward the metal. You can see this encouraging sentiment in the chart below, as people in China and India have a “particular positivity around longer-term expectations for the gold price,” according to the World Gold Council (WGC). In May and July, the WGC asked 1,000 Indian and 1,000 Chinese consumers where they think the price of gold will be in five years. The two charts show the respondents’ answers in May, when the average price of gold was about $1,400, and again in July, when the average price of gold was $1,200 an ounce. Overwhelmingly, consumers in India and China believe the price of gold will increase over the long-term. What’s interesting is when you compare the responses between May to July, there’s an “extremely resilient sentiment around the future trajectory of gold,” says the WGC. In May, 62 percent assumed gold would increase; in July, the number increased to 66 percent. The survey also shows that there are not too many gold bears in the East. Only 11 percent of those who responded in July think the price will decrease. Remember, this area of the world has a different relationship related to both the Love Trade and the Fear Trade. And it’s not easily broken. Frank Holmes for The Daily Reckoning Ed. Note: The East’s view of gold has been around for centuries, and as Frank points out, that view is not easily broken. So when these “love trade” months roll around, it’s important to listen to all the facts and keep a watchful eye on the gold market. The Daily Resource Hunter gives regular and detailed analysis of all the goings on in the gold and resource markets. And it is completely free to sign up. Along with your free subscription, you’ll be given unique chances at profit opportunities every single day. This is something you don’t want to miss. Sign up for your FREE subscription to The Daily Resource Hunter, right here. Original article posted on Daily Resource Hunter

The Best And Worst Performing Assets Since Lehman Are… Posted: 13 Sep 2013 05:59 AM PDT 13-Sep (ZeroHedge) — No surprises here: Silver and Gold are the best, Banks and Greece – worst. [source]

Gold falls, heads for worst week since June on Fed, Syria Posted: 13 Sep 2013 05:49 AM PDT 13-Sep (Reuters) – Gold fell to a five-week low on Friday, heading for its worst week in two months on prospects the United States would curb its stimulus soon and as fears of a U.S.-led military attack on Syria recede. The United States and Russia started talks on Thursday, trying to flesh out a Moscow plan to dispose of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons. …”This is almost certainly the pricing in of the expectations of QE tapering,” Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler said. [source]

MineWeb's Lawrence Williams remarks on how obvious gold market manipulation is Posted: 13 Sep 2013 05:40 AM PDT 8:35a ET Friday, September 13, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: MineWeb's Lawrence Williams remarks today about how obvious gold price suppression has become. It involves, he writes, "the unloading of a lot of gold contracts in a very short time at a time of day when there is normally little or no activity in the markets, and no news story being released that might have precipitated such a dramatic shift. This has happened for both of the past two days, and we can probably expect more of the same. This is manipulation pure and simple. It's not a logical pattern for any dealer to follow to generate maximum value for their sales, although arguably those holding big short positions would find the moves more than satisfactory." But can this manipulation ever be obvious enough for the mainstream financial news media, gold and silver mining companies themselves, and the World Gold Council to notice it and say something about it? Those are the parties that could stop it, so that seems to be the big question. Williams' commentary is headlined "Gold Knocked Down Again ... and Again" and it's posted at MineWeb here: http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-gold-analysis?oid=2048... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT Buy metals at GoldMoney and enjoy international storage GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, ­taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata Join GATA here: Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Luna Park Conference Center, Sydney, Australia Wednesday-Thursday, October 16-17, 2013 http://gold.symposium.net.au/ Mines and Money Australia Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre Tuesday, October 29-Friday, November 1, 2013 http://www.minesandmoney.com/ New Orleans Investment Conference Sunday-Wednesday, November 10-13, 2013 Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/speakers?IDPromotion=613011610080... * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: http://gata.org/tshirts Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: http://www.gata.org To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16 ADVERTISEMENT How to profit with silver -- and which stocks to buy now Future Money Trends is offering a special 16-page silver report with our forecast for 2013 that includes profiles of nine companies and technical analysis of their stock performance. Six of the companies have market capitalizations of less than $800 million and one company has a market cap of only $30 million. The most exciting of these companies will begin production in a few weeks and has a market cap of just $150 million. Half of all proceeds from the sale of this report will be donated to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts exposing manipulation and fraud in the gold and silver markets. To learn about this report, please visit: http://www.futuremoneytrends.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=376&tmp...

Gold lower at 1320.20 (-6.60). Silver 21.83 (-0.145). Dollar slips. Euro better. Stocks called higher. US 10yr 2.92% (+1 bp). Posted: 13 Sep 2013 05:35 AM PDT

Gold Investment Beats Stocks 5 Years After Lehmans, But Price Sinks as "Even Worse Risks" Fail to Spur "Safe-Haven Buying" Posted: 13 Sep 2013 05:29 AM PDT GOLD INVESTMENT prices marked the 5th anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse by sliding $25 per ounce Friday morning, finally bouncing from a new 5-week low at $1305.   World stock markets held flat, while the price of crude oil rallied from a 3-week low.   Silver regained 40c per ounce from a fresh 4-week low at $21.42 – some 10% below where it ended last week.   Investment gold has now lost 6.2% so far in September.   "Five years on [from Lehmans' collapse] global finance is a long way from safe," says a lead editorial in this week's Economist magazine.   "The system is just as insane – perhaps more so," says the Financial Times' US editor, Gillian Tett. Because "the big banks are bigger, shadow banking is taking over more activity, not less [and stability] depends more than ever on investor faith in central banks."   Since Lehmans collapsed, notes Tett's FT colleague James Mackintosh, US stocks have averaged 7.8% real returns per year allowing for dividends and inflation.   More than one percentage point above the US stock market's very long-term average, that return is "identical to the return in the five years up to June 2007, the month before the credit crunch hit," says the FT.   Physical gold investment – net of all transaction and storage costs, as well as inflation – has returned 9.8% per year since the Lehmans collapse for US citizens buying, owning and selling today on BullionVault.   "For next year, a move to $1000 is on the cards," reckons investment bank UBS commodities research chief in Singapore Dominic Schnider.   "Once a timetable of tapering is known, then you probably will see a fresh selling wave of the exchange-traded fund side."   Gold investment bars held to back ETF shares in the giant SPDR Gold Trust were unchanged Thursday at 917 tonnes – nearly 50% greater by weight from September 2008, but one-third down from the peak holdings of December last year.   "We expect reduced tail risks and QE tapering expectations to continue to weigh on the gold market," said investment and bullion bank HSBC in a note Thursday.   "Gold's failure at the 1415/24 barrier," says a technical analysis from fellow London market-makers Credit Suisse, "leaves us still bearish.   "Key downside levels are at 1277...beneath which triggers a move to [end-June's] 1180 low."   Japan's Nikkei Shimbun meantime reported that Larry Summers will become the next chairman of the US Federal Reserve, quoting unnamed "sources".   Appointing the former Treasury secretary and Harvard professor would be opposed however, a leading Republican warned Thursday, because of his "history of promoting stimulus funding and higher taxes."   "Conservatives [will also] exploit looming fiscal deadlines," says a Reuters report, "to derail President Barack Obama's signature healthcare reform law."   Agreement to raise the so-called "debt ceiling" - now set at $16.7 trillion - must be reached by September 30 if Washington is to avoid what the newswire calls "an historic default on its debt that would create havoc in global financial markets."   "Uncertainties surrounding US fiscal issues...have in the past been typically positive for gold," says UBS's precious metals team in London.   "Geopolitical issues, Eurozone and US debt/budget debates," agree analysts at Asian investment bank Nomura, "could...help gold through the traditionally seasonally strong Q3."   India's legal gold imports – now curbed by 10% duties and strict central-bank rules – will likely fall 30% this year to $38 billion by value, economic adviser to the prime minister C.Rangarajan said today.   With investment gold trading 13% below August's record highs today in Rupee terms, "Some buyers are still on the sidelines expecting a further drop in prices," Reuters quotes a Mumbai dealer.   "Indian gold demand will recover in the months ahead," says commodities analysis from Standard Chartered Bank, "especially given expectations of rising farmers' incomes, after a bumper monsoon season."   But while StanChart expects Asian demand "to remain robust...we do not see much upside" for gold prices.    "The global economic recovery is strengthening, which will deter safe-haven buying."

How Gold, Oil, and Syria Really Mix… Plus "3 Strikes Against Apple" Posted: 13 Sep 2013 02:44 AM PDT Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: The markets are very complicated at the moment, which is why now's an ideal time to reach into the Money Morning Mailbag and address your concerns. The goal here is simple: To provide understandable, actionable, and, of course, profitable answers to your thoughtful and extremely insightful questions.

Silver Demand: When Investment Trumps Industrial Posted: 13 Sep 2013 02:08 AM PDT A slackening U.S. economy typically means that a slowdown in industrial demand for silver will soon be forthcoming. Nevertheless, the re-monetization of silver would more than take care of any such slump in demand. Even if new supplies of silver are tapped, there is still a considerable premium associated with finding, buying back, smelting and refining the precious metal. Essentially, the physical market for silver would go completely off exchange.

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