Gold World News Flash

---

• The "As If" Government Non-Farm Employment Report
• The "As If" Government Non-Farm Employment Report
• The Death of the World’s Freest Market
• Quote Of The Day: The 7% Target, Er, Threshold
• Bron Suchecki: Producer/merchant net long in gold is not necessarily bullish
• Is Atlas Starting To Shrug?
• The Most Important Gold Chart in the World
• Gold rises but tension builds ahead of US jobs data
• Can’t-miss headlines: Gold muddles along, Labrador Trough M&A & more
• China’s biggest jeweller sees gold in the masses
• Kyrgyzstan files ecology damage lawsuit against Centerra
• Back to the future? Hedging on agenda as gold prices fall – GFMS
• The Real US Unemployment Rate: 11.5%
• Two Factors Suggest Gold Market Problems Will Get Bigger
• Massive Silver Trading Opportunity
• Our Drifting Society
• An Interview with David Morgan
• Jim Willie – USFed QE Volume to Triple, not Taper
• Weekly News Wrap-Up Senkaku Islands Tension Leading to War? Syrian Civil War Rages On, Obama Care
• Gold Gets Jobs Leak Early Again?
• Circling Back to Silver Fundamentals
• "Good" News Sends Markets Into Schizophrenic Dysphoria
• The Next Generation In Gold…
• Gold Prices Reverse Sharp Drop on US Jobs Data, 2014 Recovery from "Historic Slump" Forecast
• China is taking equivalent of all world gold production, John Ing tells KWN
• A Massive Trade Opportunity In Silver!?
• Economists Warn Depositors May Be Burnt In Bail-Ins (Part III)
• The Age of Entitlement
• The Kress Cycle and the Fate of the Middle Class, And China's Gold Appetite
• Forget About Trying To Get Rich With Gold… You’re Going To Need It To Survive!
• Government Price Manipulation Happening Now!

The "As If" Government Non-Farm Employment Report Posted: 06 Dec 2013 08:36 AM PST What's amusing about the jobs report is that everyone discusses them as if they are valid.  Even to the extent that they know the numbers are absurdly manipulated, they still dissect, analyze and discuss them "as if."  It makes for terrific Broadway comedy and yet it's tragically pathetic.  I laugh my ass off watching supposedly Ivy-league educated Wall Street experts get on Financial Comedy TV and opine on the latest numbers as if they are real or actually represent any semblance of truth or fact. Today's number for instance, forget where and how the alleged job growth game from, we know that's wrong, but a much better than expected number should have sent the stock market and metals into a tailspin over the fear of a December taper.  But the SPX is up 1% and the metals, after their customary "no matter what the news is bashing," are now up big from their post-report lows:  up 2% for gold and 2.3% for silver. Explain that one if the market really believes that the jobs report is valid, bona fide and truthful and if the market really believes that the Fed will taper. The other interesting note is that the dollar soared right after the report, but it has since pulled back a stunning 36 basis points from it's high-tick today.  The dollar index futures continuous contract can't hold the 50-day moving average any better than Warren Buffet can hold his bladder. Beneath the Orwellian veneer of morose Government lies and misrepresentation, I think the market knows the truth.  If not the bubblehead entitled idiots in this country, then certainly the biggest non-Japanese holders of dollars - namely the Chinese and Arabs. I guess what would be the funniest part about the Government trying to force-feed the fraudulent data reports down our gullets like geese headed for the fois gras slaughter pen is that the average formerly middle class American is in financial pain.  We see that from the plunging savings rate and soaring use of credit to try and finance the elusive and dubiously "good life" of the proverbial Joneses.  By "middle class" I mean anyone not wealthy enough with cash to buy their own DC politician.  That's clear not these people who are part the 61% jump in those defaulting on luxury mortgages:  Luxury Mortgage Default Rate Jumps 61%. But the market eventually flushes out the truth, and that's becoming apparent with the decline in yesterday's consumption metric of the GDP report, with the decline in holiday retail sales and with the desperation being reflected by the preponderance of "for sale" and "coming soon" signs popping up outside of homes all over the country at the worst time of the year to sell a house. Other than that Mary Todd, how was last night's showing of "Our American Cousin?"

The "As If" Government Non-Farm Employment Report Posted: 06 Dec 2013 08:36 AM PST What's amusing about the jobs report is that everyone discusses them as if they are valid.  Even to the extent that they know the numbers are absurdly manipulated, they still dissect, analyze and discuss them "as if."  It makes for terrific Broadway comedy and yet it's tragically pathetic.  I laugh my ass off watching supposedly Ivy-league educated Wall Street experts get on Financial Comedy TV and opine on the latest numbers as if they are real or actually represent any semblance of truth or fact. Today's number for instance, forget where and how the alleged job growth game from, we know that's wrong, but a much better than expected number should have sent the stock market and metals into a tailspin over the fear of a December taper.  But the SPX is up 1% and the metals, after their customary "no matter what the news is bashing," are now up big from their post-report lows:  up 2% for gold and 2.3% for silver. Explain that one if the market really believes that the jobs report is valid, bona fide and truthful and if the market really believes that the Fed will taper. The other interesting note is that the dollar soared right after the report, but it has since pulled back a stunning 36 basis points from it's high-tick today.  The dollar index futures continuous contract can't hold the 50-day moving average any better than Warren Buffet can hold his bladder. Beneath the Orwellian veneer of morose Government lies and misrepresentation, I think the market knows the truth.  If not the bubblehead entitled idiots in this country, then certainly the biggest non-Japanese holders of dollars - namely the Chinese and Arabs. I guess what would be the funniest part about the Government trying to force-feed the fraudulent data reports down our gullets like geese headed for the fois gras slaughter pen is that the average formerly middle class American is in financial pain.  We see that from the plunging savings rate and soaring use of credit to try and finance the elusive and dubiously "good life" of the proverbial Joneses.  By "middle class" I mean anyone not wealthy enough with cash to buy their own DC politician.  That's clear not these people who are part the 61% jump in those defaulting on luxury mortgages:  Luxury Mortgage Default Rate Jumps 61%. But the market eventually flushes out the truth, and that's becoming apparent with the decline in yesterday's consumption metric of the GDP report, with the decline in holiday retail sales and with the desperation being reflected by the preponderance of "for sale" and "coming soon" signs popping up outside of homes all over the country at the worst time of the year to sell a house. Other than that Mary Todd, how was last night's showing of "Our American Cousin?"

The Death of the World’s Freest Market Posted: 06 Dec 2013 08:31 AM PST The Silk Road was an undercover website where you could buy or sell illegal goods — drugs mainly. I believe passports were changing hands for about $6,000, and I understand weapons were also sold, but that was ceased in response to the spate of shootings in the U.S. over the summer. The essence of the site was narcotics. My view is that drug laws stink. They are both damaging and dumb. People have always wanted to "get out of it," as we say in the U.K., and they always will. The desire to do so is normal and natural. Making drugs illegal has not stopped them — if anything, it has had the opposite effect and made drugs more glamorous. But by illegalizing drugs, the government drives this practice underground and into the hands of criminals, where it becomes dangerous. Far better to have it out in the open, where it can be done safely. Sure, drugs are dangerous, but the same could be said for water if it were sold by criminals. The danger with drugs is less the drugs themselves and more the impurities they are mixed with, the lack of transparency around dosages, and the world that surrounds them. In our governments’ great war on drugs, our children have been caught in the crossfire. It isn’t sites like Silk Road the state should be scared of. It’s the likes of Bitcoin — independent money. Right, rant over. I should say, like Prime Minister David Cameron, I may have erred while at university. But now, at age 44, my need for any of the goods offered on Silk Road was pretty much zero. But that didn’t stop my curiosity, and when I first found out about the site a few months back, I went online to take a look. Here was a site not unlike Amazon, Craigslist or eBay, but without the frills, bells and whistles. You typed in what you were looking for — 95% of the products I’d never even heard of, that's how out of touch I am — and up came the various merchants selling said items and in various quantities. Like eBay, both buyers and sellers had feedback ratings based on their past trades next to their account names. This meant you could tell if someone was a good or bad trader and you could vet them. Whatever you may think about drug laws, the site worked. People were able to trade peacefully in a way that, for the most part, satisfied both buyer and seller. To test things out, I even bought a gram of cannabis (don’t tell the authorities) from a vendor. Lo and behold, two days later, a tiny amount arrived in a nondescript brown envelope. I would far rather do this than have to go to some dark alleyway in some shady part of town late at night. As an anarcho-capitalist, I liked the fact that a site like Silk Road was able to exist outside the law and self-regulate peacefully without the intervention of the benevolent hand of the state. The speed in growth of the site is testament to people’s need of the service it provided. Since its creation in 2011, some $1.2 billion worth of transactions took place. There were some 957,000 registered user accounts. I bet even the likes of Google, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, or Facebook would have struggled to compete with those kinds of numbers in their first two years of trading. All in all, I see it as a blow that the FBI managed to shut the site down. They consider it a victory. Many libertarians consider it a loss, arguing the site was not harming anyone. In fact, it was providing a much needed service, and its demise derailed another powerful force for freedom. But they needn’t feel despondent. Arresting a drug dealer or a drug user never changed anything (except for ruining the life of the arrested). Another dealer just comes along and starts operating on his street corner. The same will happen with the Silk Road — if it hasn’t already. Someone will copy the site, make improvements, and make sure they don’t make the mistakes the Silk Road made, and the inevitable tide that is the Internet will keep on sweeping toward greater and greater freedom. The key reason the site was able to operate so successfully was Bitcoin. If Silk Road had used government money — dollars or pounds, for example — to effect transactions, you would have needed only a two-minute chart to measure the site’s longevity. But not only is Bitcoin an independent form of digital money, it is anonymous. Bitcoin made the Silk Road possible. No doubt the authorities are looking at ways to undermine Bitcoin, perhaps under the guise of fighting money laundering or making sure each and every one of us pays his fair share of taxes. But that's to be expected. It isn’t sites like Silk Road the state should be scared of. It’s the likes of Bitcoin — independent money. Only by its monopoly of money is the state able to do what it does, to wage wars and grow so big and invasive. But some form of digital currency, gold backed or otherwise, is going to supersede government money within a generation, probably sooner, just as email replaced the letter. And once the state loses its monopoly on money, it’s toast. Then the real fun begins. Sincerely, Dominic Frisby for The Daily Reckoning Ed. Note: When the “real fun begins”, as Dominic says, you’ll want to make sure you’re well positioned to protect yourself from the inevitable backlash from the state. Because if we’ve learned anything from the rise and fall of governments, it’s that they never go quietly. Sign up for the Laissez Faire Today email edition, to guard yourself from the fallout. Original article posted on Laissez Faire Today

Quote Of The Day: The 7% Target, Er, Threshold Posted: 06 Dec 2013 08:20 AM PST As equities celebrate today's better than expected jobs report (for now), apparently comfortable in the knowledge that it's good-enough-but-not-too-good, we are reminded that just six short months ago, none other than the Fed chairman himself uttered these crucial words during his June 19th press conference: "...when asset purchases ultimately come to an end the unemployment rate would likely be in the vicinity of 7%" So here we are at 7.0%... and no taper in sight as excuse after excuse is rolled out for keeping the floodgates open. Whocouldanode? This appears to right up there with "subprime is contained", "nobody really understands gold", and "tapering is not tightening." But still we are supposed to give great credibility to their forward guidance?     Via WSJ, The jobless rate for May, the latest data Mr. Bernanke had when he laid out that guidepost, stood at 7.6%. Then it fell much more quickly than Fed officials expected, dropping to 7.4% in July and 7.3% in August.   In September, the Fed surprised many market participants and held the quantitative-easing program steady. At his press conference after that meeting, Mr. Bernanke made no mention of the 7% guidepost he’d set out a mere three months earlier. When asked about it, he downplayed the importance.   “There is not any magic number that we are shooting for,” he said. “We’re looking for overall improvement in the labor market.”   No Fed official has publicly uttered the words “mistake” when it comes to the 7% figure, which according to Mr. Bernanke had broad support among members of the Fed’s policy committee. But the about-face seemed to acknowledge the misstep all the same.   As we have noted numerous times before; the "taper" is all about economic cover for a forced move the Fed has to make because: 1. Deficits are shrinking and the Fed has less and less room for its buying   2. Under the surface, various non-mainstream technicalities are breaking in the markets due to the size of the Fed's position (repo markets, bond specialness, and fail-to-delivers among them).   3. Sentiment is critical; if the public starts to believe (as Kyle Bass warned) that the central bank is monetizing the government's debt (which it clearly is), then the game accelerates away from them very quickly - and we suspect they fear we are close to that tipping point   4. The rest of the world is not happy. As Canada just noted, the US monetary policy will be discussed at the G-20 Simply put, they are cornered and need to Taper; but know the 'bad' effect it will have... and given Bernanke's history os forecasting, how van anyone "trust" forward guidance? What is needed is another central bank to step up and keep the party going...

Bron Suchecki: Producer/merchant net long in gold is not necessarily bullish Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:45 AM PST 10:40a ET Friday, December 6, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: The Perth Mint's Bron Suchecki speculates today that the producer/merchant category has reversed to the long side in the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's latest report on trader positions simply because of a rise in inventories as the West loses interest in gold. Suchecki's commentary is headlined "Producer/Merchant Net Long Is Not Necessarily Bullish" and it's posted at his Internet site, Gold Chat, here: http://goldchat.blogspot.com/2013/12/producermerchant-net-long-is-not.ht... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT Jim Sinclair Plans Seminar in Boston on Dec. 7 Gold advocate and mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair will hold his next seminar from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, in the Boston suburb of Cambridge, Mass., at the Boston Marriott Cambridge at 50 Broadway in Cambridge. The admission fee will be $50. Details are posted at Sinclair's Internet site, JSMineSet, here: http://www.jsmineset.com/2013/11/14/boston-qa-session-announced/ Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference Vancouver Convention Centre West Sunday-Monday, January 19-20, 2014 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/vancouver-resource-investment-confer... * * * 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

Is Atlas Starting To Shrug? Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:45 AM PST Things always become obvious after the fact - Nassim Taleb from Truth in Gold: Today the Government released its second revision of Q3 GDP, which showed a big upward “revision” from 2.8% to 3.6%.  These numbers are seasonally-adjusted, annualized figures which in and of themselves are highly problematic with how they are derived.  Notwithstanding that, when you drill down beneath the headline reports, the components that make up GDP are downright ugly. The revised number was almost entirely from a massive upward revision in the size of the Q3 inventory build-up by businesses. As has been written about ad nauseum, we know that retailers and auto dealers have amassed a huge amount of inventory, waiting for a recovery in consumption that will never materialize. Read More @ TruthinGold.Blogspot.com

The Most Important Gold Chart in the World Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:42 AM PST Ever since gold broke below critical support back in April, you’ve been inundated with statistics, price targets and countless charts. There’s certainly no shortage of gold analysis these days. But today, I want you to forget everything you’ve read about gold over the past eight months. Forget about production statistics, inflation guesses, or jewelry demand in Asia. Heck you can even discard the annotations on every other gold chart you’ve seen this year… The most important gold chart in the world right now is the long-term look at the Dow/gold ratio– the Dow Jones Industrial Average priced in gold. Today, it will cost you about 13 ounces of gold to buy the Dow. That’s a long way off the almost 45-ounce price tag on the Dow back in 1999… This chart goes back far enough to see the very end of the massive gold spike in 1980, followed by the Dow regaining its footing before beginning a 20-year run. It’s pretty obvious what happens when the Dow finally breaks higher after years of decline versus the yellow metal. "Priced in gold, the Dow had been in a massive 13-year bear market," explain the analysts over at Chart of the Day. "However, back in the summer of 2011, gold peaked while the Dow continued to rally. While the Dow (priced in gold) is currently well-off its dot-com record highs, it has been surging as of late. The current rally has resulted in a break above resistance of its latest downtrend channel as well as new post-financial crisis highs." What we’re seeing right now is a massive performance shift. After more than a decade in the driver’s seat, gold is giving up ground to stocks. A change in trend is brewing. Don’t get caught on the wrong side of the market… Regards, Greg Guenthner for The Daily Reckoning Ed. Note: To make sure you never end up on the wrong side of the market, as Greg suggests, sign up for the FREE Rude Awakening email edition, right here. It’s jam-packed with some of the most in-depth analysis you’re likely to find, including 5 “Rude Numbers” to watch as this end-of-year rally progresses. Don’t wait. Sign up for FREE, right here.

Gold rises but tension builds ahead of US jobs data Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:38 AM PST Gold rose on Friday but was still on course for a weekly loss as investors focused on US jobs data that might lead to the curbing of monetary stimulus. Read more….

Can’t-miss headlines: Gold muddles along, Labrador Trough M&A & more Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:38 AM PST The latest morning headlines, top junior developments and metal price movements. Today, gold picks up just a little and merger action in the Labrador Trough. Read more….

China’s biggest jeweller sees gold in the masses Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:38 AM PST Chow Tai Fook faces the tough challenge of retaining its reputation for exclusive, luxury items while also appealing to the masses. Read more….

Kyrgyzstan files ecology damage lawsuit against Centerra Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:38 AM PST Kyrgyzstan is suing Canada’s Centerra Gold for $304 million over what the government says is ecological damage. Read more….

Back to the future? Hedging on agenda as gold prices fall – GFMS Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:38 AM PST Thomson Reuters GFMS analyst William Tankard says this year’s 26% drop in gold prices makes such a move a much more pressing consideration for miners. Read more….

The Real US Unemployment Rate: 11.5% Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:34 AM PST While it may appear at first glance that the first chart below shows just one data series, what we have shown are two data sets: one presents, on an inverted axis, the Civilian Employment-to-Population rate, which unlike the unemployment rate as a fraction of the labor force (most recently printing at just 7%), has barely budged since the Lehman collapse. The other data set shows what an implied unemployment rate as calculated by Zero Hedge would be assuming a long-term average of 65.8% worker labor participation rate. As we reported earlier, according to the BLS this number most recently was 63.0%: a 20 bps rebound from the 35 year low posted in October, but still woefully wrong. The chart shows much more accurately what the real unemployment rate would be when looking at the overall noninstitutional population instead of the ever rising amount of Americans who for one reason or another are not in the labor force.   On the next chart, we then proceed to juxtapose the implied unemployment rate with the officially reported BLS data. In short: applying a realistic labor force participation rate to the unemployment rate series, shows that the real US unemployment rate is now 11.5%, a 4.5% difference from the reported number, and the second highest ever, only better compared to October's 4.7%. Of course, don't inform the Fed of this discrepancy: if aware, the Fed's monetary mandarins would likely never taper. Then again, if indeed the Fed never does taper as many suggest (since it is the flow, not the stock), we will know just which series of unemployment data the Fed is looking at.

Two Factors Suggest Gold Market Problems Will Get Bigger Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:20 AM PST Mohammad Zulfiqar writes: Gold bullion prices are taking a big hit. The precious metal continues to slide lower, and sits at the lowest level since July; negativity towards it is exuberant. There’s a significant amount of noise that says gold bullion prices will go much lower, and those who are against it can be found saying that it’s not worth the investment—those who are bullish on the precious metal are ridiculed.

Massive Silver Trading Opportunity Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:10 AM PST Some of the biggest, most profitable trading opportunities only come around once every thirty years or so and we think this may be one of them. Why do we think we have spotted a massive trading opportunity? We believe a thirty three year overhead resistance level may be broken in the near future and the big money is made in the big trends. We believe a precedent for this breakout has already been set. We believe there may be an early "buy signal" in the current setup.

Our Drifting Society Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:09 AM PST from Truth In Gold:

An Interview with David Morgan Posted: 06 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST from silver investor.com: David Morgan of Silver-investor.com talks about QE, BitCoin and the Precious Metals Debt Card.

Jim Willie – USFed QE Volume to Triple, not Taper Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:40 AM PST by Jim Willie, Gold Seek: The US Federal Reserve bond monetization support for government finance support, financial markets, banker welfare, economic props, redemption coverage, and liquidity fire hose functions will continue to expand and definitely not diminish. Only the brain-dead, the system wonks, and the deeply deluded believe the QE volume will taper down. They are paid to think that way in the public forum, their minds compromised, their hearts darkened, their paychecks dependent. As preface in order to properly comprehend the national situation, keep in mind that the USEconomy is stuck in a nightmarish quagmire, with growth steadily in decline at between minus 3% and minus 5% annually, when reality is required. The propaganda must be pushed off the road, the price inflation not labeled as growth, and the system perceived for what it is. The USEconomy is in grotesque deterioration with absent critical mass of industry, widespread debt defaults, retail liquidations, idle plant and equipment (including malls), and systemic capital destruction from the monetary hyper inflation and the imminent specter of ObamaCare tax. In queer fashion, the modern day US factories have become shopping malls. They suffer from at least a 25% vacancy rate nationally. Read More @ GoldSeek.com

Weekly News Wrap-Up Senkaku Islands Tension Leading to War? Syrian Civil War Rages On, Obama Care Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:20 AM PST by Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog: The big story is, once again, the tensions in the East China Sea and the newly made Air Defense Zone created by China over the Senkaku Islands. This is primarily a dispute between China and Japan. Both countries say the islands belong to them. They are believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits. Vice President Biden was sent to both countries to calm tensions. The U.S. says it has sided with Japan, but it seems to have backed off demanding the Chinese drop this air defense zone that stretches for 600 miles. The dispute is far from over. People like multi-billion dollar fund manager Kyle Bass think this could lead to war. China and Japan both have severe financial problems. China and Japan are the number one and number two holders of U.S. Treasury debt. If either country gets mad and decides to sell their debt, it could cause a financial calamity here in the U.S. Sounds like a lose-lose to me if things turn violent. Read More @ USAWatchdog.com

Gold Gets Jobs Leak Early Again? Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:12 AM PST It wouldn't be a non-farm-payrolls (or for that matter any government report) without the ubiquitous "early" move in precious metals before the report is given to the general public. As Nanex shows, Gold's price moved in a 'correct' downward (taper-on) way on the "good" news that jobs are 'improving' 7 seconds before the report hit... Via Nanex,   1. Trades in All Futures. Lots of movement seconds before 8:30 Jobs news. 2. Quotes in All Futures. 3. February 2014 Gold (GC) Futures. 4. February 2014 Gold (GC) Futures - Zooming in to 8:29:47 to 8:30:14 Gold moved sharply a full 7 seconds before the official Employment news release.

Circling Back to Silver Fundamentals Posted: 06 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Silver-coin-investor: Beyond the typical underlying changes in money supply there are very important elements of demand that continue to push the price of physical silver higher and higher. This is despite the fact that silver has been money for much longer then gold. One element is the elasticity of demand for silver, particularly in the manufacturing of electronics. Silver is the best conductor of electricity known to man and even at a current prices, it is very inexpensive for use in consumer electronics. Silver Inelasticity Silver cannot and will not be replaced by the industrial sector as a conductor of electricity for two reasons: Read More @ Silver-Coin-Investor.com

"Good" News Sends Markets Into Schizophrenic Dysphoria Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:57 AM PST UPDATE: Bond And Gold Weakness has been unwound and both are now higher as the USD retraces most of its gains   Stocks initial knee-jerk "good news is bad news" reaction was a 0.5% plunge in prices and the rest of QE-sensitive assets also reacted in a "taper" way with gold dropping, USD soaring, and bond yields spiking.  But the USD strength implied JPY weakness and that just provided the momo ignition for carry traders to lift stocks 1% straight up as the heads-I-win, tails-you-lose trade continues. Gold has retraced some of its losses but the USD and bonds are stil under pressure as the US open approaches.     and this is why stocks are jumping so happily (for now)... AUDJPY leads the way...

The Next Generation In Gold… Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:55 AM PST I had a very nice opportunity to connect with a few of the top global voices of the gold market, as represented by the “30-somethings” generation. Moderated by Jordan Eliseo, Chief Economist of Australia’s ABC Bullion, the talk provided a glimpse of the motivations behind our collective career participation in the gold market, which is primarily [...]

Gold Prices Reverse Sharp Drop on US Jobs Data, 2014 Recovery from "Historic Slump" Forecast Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:55 AM PST GOLD PRICES reversed a sharp drop Friday lunchtime in London, recovering a $20 plunge to trade above $1230 per ounce after US jobs data showed the unemployment rate falling to 7.0% in November.   Versus analyst forecasts of 180,000 net hiring last month, the US economy added 203,000 jobs according to the official Non-Farm Payrolls report.   Commodities had earlier ticked higher with European stock markets, which were heading for near-3% weekly losses.   Priced in Dollars, gold started afternoon dealing in London 1.7% below last Friday's finish.   The Euro currency meantime fell hard from 5-week highs to the Dollar, helping gold prices for Eurozone investors move back above €900 per ounce, a 3-year low when hit earlier this week.   Silver also whipped with gold, rallying back above $19.40 to head for a 2.5% weekly fall.   "Short covering is now in the air," one Asian trading desk said earlier, after Wednesday had seen bearish speculators being forced to close their bets by a $25 spike in gold prices on the private-sector ADP jobs report.   Economists' language "has now turned to suggest Fed tapering will hit US bonds most directly," the note added.   The US central bank, said Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher on Thursday, should now "define a very clear path...once we start tapering...as to when we reach zero" from the current monthly QE of $85 billion.   But noting the volatility in UK gilt prices and yields after new Bank of England governor Mark Carney discussed a timeline for raising interest rates here, "It is questionable," says French investment and bullion bank Natixis, "how successful the Fed could be in calming fixed-income markets through its own forward guidance.   "Indications of stronger US growth therefore have scope to undermine gold prices further if the US bond market continues to push yields higher."   "Rising opportunity costs depress gold," agrees Germany's Commerzbank in a new 2014 outlook, also pointing to higher real US interest rates (after inflation) in 2013 as well as the surging US stock market.   Even so, "The gold price is likely to recover from its historic slump this year," Commerzbank's commodity team concludes. Gold investment demand "should gradually revive...in conjunction with robust demand from Asia."   "China is absorbing the gold which is becoming available as a result of ETF outflows," the report adds.   "Essentially," agreed James Steel at London bullion market-making bank HSBC to the FT this week, "physical gold stocks are migrating from Western investment hands to eastern consumers."   "If China," adds mining fund manager Evy Hambro, at Blackrock "starts to move towards similar per-capita gold consumption levels as India, that will be very supportive for the market."   Slipping 0.7% this week for Chinese traders, gold prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange ended Friday equal to $1242 per ounce, almost $10 above London quotes at the time.   That premium to London gold prices compares with $7 at the start of the week.   Indian premiums meantime hit new all-time records Friday, as the world's former No.1 importer faced ever-tighter domestic supplies following the government's anti-gold rules.   "Only Scotia Bank, State Bank of India and some trading agencies like MMTC are importing," Reuters quotes one wholesale gold dealer in Kolkata.   "There is no other option for domestic jewellers but to pay high premiums," the dealer, Harshad Ajmera of J.J.Gold House goes on, citing the new record high above London gold prices of $150 per ounce on Friday.

China is taking equivalent of all world gold production, John Ing tells KWN Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:42 AM PST 8:40a ET Friday, December 6, 2013 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Market analyst John Ing of Maison Placements in Toronto today tells King World News that the Shanghai Gold Exchange now has delivered more metal than supposedly is kept at Fort Knox and that China appears to be acquiring this year the equivalent of all the world's annual gold production. An excerpt from the interview is posted at the King World News blog here: http://tinyurl.com/n43pcd4 CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. 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... Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference Vancouver Convention Centre West Sunday-Monday, January 19-20, 2014 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/vancouver-resource-investment-confer... * * * 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 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

A Massive Trade Opportunity In Silver!? Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:39 AM PST Some of the biggest, most profitable trading opportunities only come around once every thirty years or so and we think this may be one of them. Why do we think we have spotted a massive trading opportunity? Read More...

Economists Warn Depositors May Be Burnt In Bail-Ins (Part III) Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:20 AM PST by Mark O'Byrne, Gold Core: Below some leading economists and financial commentators in Ireland give their perspective regarding the risks of bail-ins. If you manage money in any way, your own or others, it will be prudent to heed their warnings. “The recent abatement of the euro area crisis and the reduction in overall global financial uncertainty have led to a decline in the demand for gold as a safe haven instrument and speculative asset. This is the good news. In line with more normalised demand for gold and the precious metals, the risk hedging properties of these assets remain intact and require continued and structured approach to their inclusion when building a diversified, long-term focused investment portfolios. Read More @ GoldCore.com

The Age of Entitlement Posted: 06 Dec 2013 02:52 AM PST Dear Reader, In today's missive I want to touch on the topic of entitlements. Not just the material facts of the "Entitlement Economies"—but the roots and consequences of an economic model increasingly dominated by state-sponsored subsidies. As background, the idea for today's musings came to me after receiving an email from a fellow with whom I have a faint business connection. Based on the dripping tone of his email, he appears to have come to the conclusion that our several-times-removed relations means I should be vigilant for opportunities to bow and scrape at his feet. It's not that he is a bad fellow; rather, it seems he's the sort who conflates wealth with privilege. And something far more destructive… entitlement. As I suspect it will take a bit of musing to do justice to the topic, I'll get right down to business, listening as I do to one of my favorite (somewhat) oldies but goodies from the catalogue of dramatic music, Eminem's Lose Yourself, the theme song from his rather well-done biopic, 8 Mile. The Age of Entitlement My dear friend, business partner, and now neighbor here at La Estancia, Doug Casey, regularly stresses the importance of starting any discussion by defining the important terms. As we'll be discussing the matter of entitlement today, let's kick things off with the definition from Merriam-Webster: Entitlement The condition of having a right to have, do, or get something The feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges) A type of financial help provided by the government for members of a particular group In its morally correct form, a person is perfectly justified in feeling entitled when they have a clear contract providing them a specific right. For example, if you as an employee have a contract with your employer that specifies the terms of your employment and you don't break the terms of that contract, you are legally and morally entitled to receiving the benefits therein specified. Of course, things are not always quite so black and white. For instance, those of you dear readers living in the US who have spent a lifetime paying into the Social Security system may be justified in feeling entitled, upon attaining the requisite age, to the promised income stream. Yet, given that everyone has ready access to a large number of analyses exposing the viability of Social Security as poor fiction, should you really feel entitled? Or just hopelessly gullible? But I drift. Yanking the tiller back toward the general compass point I am tacking toward, I would like to start by briefly touching upon some of the classes of people that believe themselves entitled. And not just entitled to a single payday or a specific benefit, but rather, they appear to feel permanently entitled. I will then try to round up all the characters into a larger corral where we can explore the consequences of the growing entitlement classes. The Warped Wealthy. That sound is my fingers furiously tapping out a caveat that most of the financially successful individuals I know—in particular, those whose wealth resulted from hard work and taking big personal risks—are down to earth and appreciate everything their wealth allows to them. They know how much work it takes to amass significant net worth and further understand that, short of winning the lottery, the average person with average aspirations and an average tolerance for work is unlikely to achieve true financial freedom, and they are empathetic toward them. That said, I have come across any number of wealthy individuals who enjoy nothing more than lording their good fortune over the rest of humanity. More often than not, the wealthy who fall into this subset made their fortunes by being in the right place at the right time, for example dot-com millionaires or members of the lucky-sperm club. In an earlier derivation of my life, I spent a fair amount of time hanging out with captains of Wall Street, the sort with houses in the Hamptons and whose hairs are coiffed in scented salons by people named Oscar at $400 a go. In many cases, the source of their wealth could be traced back to university connections that landed them in the upper echelon of the equivalent of a pyramid scheme where, with hardly having to lift a finger, a fraction of a fraction of billions of dollars in transactions flowed daily into their Savile Row-stitched pockets. Regardless, the warped wealthy not only expect full value for money, they want everyone their shadow falls upon to be diffident and to cater to their every whim. Failure to show proper appreciation that you are in their company will, as sure as night follows day, get you a dismissive sniff or, if it's a bad hair day, a proper dressing down. While I begrudge no one their wealth, per above, when someone begins to conflate wealth with entitlement, I have a problem. Politicians. When living in Louisiana years ago, I was invited to a cocktail party where I was introduced to a somewhat overweight and sweaty individual wearing the only suit in the room. Making small talk, I inquired as to the nature of his work, and he proudly announced that he was an aspiring politician (at which point, I made my polite apologies to attend to urgent business on the other side of the room). Yet, if the sweaty schlep actually managed to attract a sufficient number of votes, he would have been promptly promoted to a class of individuals entitled to a long list of benefits. Including—should he rise high enough within the political machine—ready access to private jets and a lifelong pension. On a lower level, while lifelong pensions have all but disappeared in the private sector, by virtue of just showing up at the office each day for a few years, many bureaucrats become entitled to the equivalent of tenure and, upon concluding their "public service," a comfortable pension. Yuppies. A travel industry professional once shared with me what is apparently common knowledge among his peers: Yuppies are the worst travelers. I have personally witnessed the truth of that statement many times over, most noticeably when a flight is canceled or a hotel overbooked, inconveniencing a yuppie in the process. At which point, I find it entertaining to observe the yuppie's antics as they attempt to argue the plane back on schedule, or to browbeat the hotel manager into coming up with a suitable room. In my opinion, this sense of yuppie entitlement comes from the near certainty that never before in the history of the world has there been a generation that has had things as soft and sweet as the yuppies/baby boomers. Sure, there was something of a blip during the Vietnam era, but other than that we've had a lifetime of prosperity. And with the exception of Vietnam and out-of-sight-therefore-out-of-mind sport wars that other generations have been willing to fight, peace. We got to go to college if we were so inclined, and we were ensured gainful employment whether we went to college or not. Unfortunately, a large number of yuppies don't fully appreciate what an historical rarity such a long period of peace and prosperity is. They will be in for a rough awakening as Pax Yuppie is rapidly coming to an end. Their future expectations, understandably based on past experiences, are likely to be disappointed. Even so, for the time being, they continue to feel entitled to a life path free of serious bumps, though the unnerving sound of footsteps approaching down the empty hallway scratch at the edge of their collective consciousness. Old People. Over the last century, responsibility for the care and feeding of the elderly has been steadily transferred from families to society at large. This alteration of the social contract, though likely springing from good intentions, is manifested in the widespread attitude that the state should provide at least a baseline level of support for the elderly, even if the state can't actually afford it. This sense of entitlement is underscored each election day when the oldsters turn out in droves to reward politicians who confirm them in their benefits, and punish those that even hint at curtailing same. The Poor. Like the elderly, over the past century the social contract was redrafted to include a long list of benefits for individuals who steadily fail to achieve a certain income threshold. Collectively, the number of programs and their reach is staggering. To provide just one example, upwards of 50 million people in the United States are now entitled to purchase their daily bread using debit cards linked to the public treasury. The chart here presents a picture of entitlements gone wild. "Special" Groups. At the risk of offending a wide swath of dear readers, I would bring your attention to your fellow citizens who use their specialness to demand special rights and entitlements. To name just a few… Minorities. For example, though at its peak only 8% of American families owned slaves and the practice was terminated by constitutional amendment almost 150 years ago, many descendants of the slaves continue to believe they suffer transgenerational trauma and are entitled to government remediation programs without end. The forms these entitlements to minorities take vary from cold cash to preferential treatment in college admissions and a broad rainbow of other perks. Why, about a group of university graduate students consisting largely of people "of color" who apparently believe that their special status entitles them to be able to submit university-level work riddled with grammatical errors, protesting that being graded on grammar contributed to a "toxic racial climate." Sexual Orientation. A fairly large subset of the populace seem to want to define themselves based on their sexual preference. Live and let live, I say. But why it is that this entitles them to special treatment is something of a mystery to me. Soldiers. In the absence of the draft, no one has to sign up for military duty, yet upwards of 180,000 do each year. And once they're no longer needed or decide to follow other pursuits, they remain entitled to certain benefits for life. Not particularly large benefits, mind you, but special hospitals and a variety of programs to provide support. Then there's the top brass who are cosseted in a system of institutional sycophancy replete with nervous salutes from the rank and file, and wining and dining by members of the military-industrial complex. The generals feel entitled to their billion-dollar toys and, mostly, they get them. Pretty Much Everyone Else. Unlike earlier eras when stubborn self-reliance was a highly valued character trait, these days the vast majority of people in the US and other developed countries expect the government to provide benefits and services to cure all that ails. Off the top of my head, a few examples: The government's exertions to keep our borrowing affordable by suppressing interest rates. The provision of free education and subsidies for college. Large departments dedicated to ensuring the safety of everything from cars to drugs to food. And, increasingly, widespread medical coverage, including cheap medicine. I could go on and on, because the list of entitlements is nearly endless. Mind you, I'm not taking a position on the merits of specific programs, simply pointing out that they exist and have grown endemic. Taken collectively, they foster a culture of entitlement. Though the woman in this rather disturbing video is obviously drugged out of her mind, I hereby nominate her as poster model for the Age of Entitlement. That by virtue of the fact that she vehemently believes it is her God-given right to be served Chicken McNuggets at 10:30 in the morning and, when disappointed, almost literally turns into a crazed zombie. (Once again making me appreciate the simpler life here in the Argentine outback.) Truth & Consequences If you accept as truth that we now live in an Age of Entitlement—an era whose hallmarks are widespread yet ultimately unaffordable and, therefore, undeliverable promises, benefits, services, etc.—then it behooves us to fill another gourd of maté and imagine where it all leads. Before we engage in that exercise, however, it may be worthwhile to review a few supportive data sets, tidily organized into easily grasped charts. First up is a look in the rearview mirror, compliments of KPCB, using data from the White House Office of Management and Budget. Note that the data have been properly corrected for inflation. Next, we look into the future with the following from our own Bud Conrad, showing the projected growth in US federal spending, broken down to highlight the impact of key entitlement programs. The important thing to note about Bud's chart is not the mountain of projected spending on the far right side of the chart. At upwards of $30 trillion a year, that's just not going to happen—at least not in dollars with anything close to the same purchasing power they have today. What is important is: These projections are prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, an organization with a long history of wide misses to the upside on even its short-term forecasts, let alone those dealing with decades in the future. Even using the CBO's conservative laughable projections, by the end of this decade—just seven short years from now—entitlement-driven federal spending will top $5 trillion per year… roughly twice the amount the feds currently shake the public down for each year. As bad as today's $1 trillion-plus deficits are, they're only going to get worse in the years just ahead. In the simplest of terms, the wall that the US government is speeding toward isn't over some distant horizon. It's looming straight ahead. Finally, I present the following chart from a solid article by Charles Hugh Smith titled Have We Reached Peak Entitlements? The chart, using data from the Fed, shows the nearly exponential growth in federal transfer payments in recent decades, revealing as truth that we are entering the hyperbolic phase in this Age of Entitlement. I could present additional charts and data in support of my thesis, but I think the charts above—along with your own well-honed common sense—allow us to move on. And I would like to do so by quickly stating the obvious about an economy—any economy—experiencing the sort of dramatic increase in private demand for public money (and costly services) we are now witnessing. Namely, that as the percentage of the population demanding—and receiving—government largess and services grows, the burden on the government's mules (otherwise known as taxpayers) must rise as well. Unfortunately for the revenue-starved government, layering on new taxes and tariffs has relatively little elasticity. Cross over a certain invisible line and, as is the case here in Argentina, people begin taking active measures to look after themselves by finding creative ways around paying up. Or they simply pack up and move to (tax) friendlier jurisdictions. That's not to say that the feds won't tighten the tax screws—that's a given. Probably starting with a value-added tax (VAT), as that provides a stealthy way to shear the sheep without most of the sheep taking notice. There has been much talk about the Fed "tapering" its quantitative easing, but given the limited elasticity in raising revenues just mentioned, the only real option remaining is for the government and its flunkies at the central bank to continue paying the bills using quantitative easing at more or less the current level. Maybe slightly less for a time, but as it's all but impossible to dial back the bulk of the entitlements—or, given the demographics involved, do much to retard their speedy growth—we can reasonably expect the quantitative easing to accelerate over time. And that, dear reader, can lead to only one end: a collapse in the US dollar, with a cascading effect on all the fiat currencies. That this will happen can be seen in the charts just above, which taken together clearly show that the growth in entitlements and the attendant federal spending is completely locked in. So who, exactly, is going to step up to the Treasury window and take the place of the Fed in buying all the paper the US government needs to move to keep the entitlements flowing? The answer is no one—at least not at today's low interest rates. And as we have often discussed, even a return to historically normal rates in the US will produce an unmitigated disaster. To head that off, the Fed will ultimately have to go "all in" on quantitative easing. As it does, the dollar will begin to falter and then fail. Should that occur—or, better stated, when that occurs—the reset button on the entire federal entitlement system will be pressed, and the Age of Entitlement will have to wind down. It is impossible to say with any certainty how things will unfold at that point, and having a military government moved into place in the hope of keeping the peace is not out of the question, but when the dust settles, the world will be a substantively different place. Can the Entitlement Train Wreck Be Avoided? In an attempt to answer that question, I now return to the groups singled out at the beginning of these musings and try to anticipate how they might react to any proposed policy changes that might discomfit them or require a reduction in their entitlements. The Wealthy. Should the wealthy—those with feelings of entitlement or not—come to the conclusion that they're going to be called upon to carry ever more water for rest of the citizenry, they will react just as they always have. Namely, by hiring the best tax lawyers and accountants possible and exploiting every available loophole (and there are always loopholes). And/or they'll vote with their feet—moving themselves and, if push comes to shove, their businesses to friendlier shores. That they will come under attack is a certainty. Just recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other "world" organizations, has begun calling for a big increase in the top tax rate (back to 70% in the US) and even a "one-time" tax on assets held by the wealthy. Here's one commentary from the Wall Street Journal, on the tax-the-rich initiatives now gaining momentum here, there, and everywhere. The Politicians. In an attempt to remain in power and to protect their own entitlements, the politicians can be expected to strike an increasingly populist tone—it's always been that way. Earlier this week President Obama once again played the entitlement card… this from the Guardian: "Barack Obama warned that a 'relentless, decades-long trend' of growing inequality and social immobility posed a fundamental threat to the American dream on Wednesday, throwing his support behind a grassroots movement to address ch

The Kress Cycle and the Fate of the Middle Class, And China's Gold Appetite Posted: 05 Dec 2013 10:05 PM PST Just how much pain has the middle class suffered in the last four years? The data is quite conclusive: the pain has been harsh. According to government statistics, wages for the middle class have shrunk appreciably in the past decade. The Census Bureau points out that the typical middle class household made $51,017 this year, roughly the same as the typical household made a quarter of a century ago. Adjusted for inflation, that's a decline in living standards too big to ignore.

Forget About Trying To Get Rich With Gold… You’re Going To Need It To Survive! Posted: 05 Dec 2013 09:58 PM PST Mike McGill writes: With the precious metals market in the doldrums and at the bottom of a thirty month correction, there has definitely been some hand wringing and a whole bunch of moping from investors who purchased gold and silver at or near the 2011 highs. This is natural and to be expected. Nobody wants to lose money. People purchase investments ostensibly to make money – hopefully, a lot of it.

Government Price Manipulation Happening Now! Posted: 05 Dec 2013 09:53 PM PST In 2013 the Indian Government raised import duties to 15% on gold. It then prevented the import of gold unless 20% of that gold was exported. Now this is blocked too. What impact has this had on the gold price? Here we look at the relevance of these moves to both the London and New York gold prices, which dominate the gold world.

You are subscribed to email updates from Save Your ASSets First To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610