Gold World News Flash

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• Putin And The Flash Mob Empire
• I Am Prepared To Be Right But Are You Prepared?
• Matrix Of Dead Bankers & Terror At Highest Government Levels
• Gold’s Continued Advance as Stocks Recover to Previous Highs Shows Something Else Behind This Rally
• $2 Billion in Cash Would Make Silver Short Positions UNCOVERABLE — Rick Rule
• The U.S. Greater Depression Exposed, Part I
• Kappa Beta Phi Exposed (Redux)
• 1ST HURDLE CLEARED
• Silver and Gold Prices Have Been Rising for Twelve Days Straight
• Silver and Gold Prices Have Been Rising for Twelve Days Straight
• GMO: "US Markets Are Not A Little Bit Overvalued — They Are Overvalued By A Hefty Margin"
• London Housing: Same Old Story
• Guest Post: Has QE Ever Worked In History?
• Patrick Heller: World Gold Council's estimates of China's gold demand are no good
• Silver Stackers: Measure your Stash like a Miner
• Silver Price In The Last 100 Years
• Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
• Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
• Standard Bank in prime position for Deutsche's gold fix seat, sources tell Reuters
• The SH*T Is Starting To Hit The Fan
• The SH*T Is Starting To Hit The Fan
• What Blows Up First? Part 4: China
• Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange To Launch 1,500 Tonne Depository in China
• Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange To Launch 1,500 Tonne Depository in China
• Gold And The Phillips Curve
• It may be raining bankers for a reason, Leeb tells KWN
• In The News Today
• The Essentialist’s Glossary: Updated for the ‘Teens (G-M)
• Don’t Buy the Bitcoin Dip
• WGC Gold Demand Trends for 2013
• Silver Price 50 Days and 100 Years
• Why the Market Uptrend Doesn’t Have to Stop
• Paul McGuire explains how America is being sold to China
• Gold Standard – The way to Liberty
• Tuesday Morning Links
• Gold Prices End 9-Day Surge, "Year of Consumer" Saw US Jewelry Demand Rise 1st Time Since 2001
• GOLD Elliott Wave Trend Forecast - Could Face Resistance Around 1330
• India Gold Smuggling "Near 200 Tonnes": WGC
• India Gold Smuggling "Near 200 Tonnes": WGC
• Gold Prices soar despite Bearish Reports from most Major Banks
• Gold’s Comeback and Bitcoin’s Silent Crash
• U.S. Dollar, Major Forex Market Forecasts for 2014 and 2015
• Silver: 50 Days and 100 Years
• Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013
• Global consumer demand for gold at unprecedented levels in 2013. China the world’s largest gold market in 2013
• Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013 Infographics
• Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013
• Richard Russell - World In Depression As US Lies To Its People
• U.S. Debt Out of Control, "Gold is Catastophe Insurance" | Rick Rule
• Gold Arbitrage and Backwardation Part II (the Lease Rate)

Putin And The Flash Mob Empire Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:44 PM PST Going For Gold Writing in 'Wall Street Journal' 14 February, Walter Russel Mead, a former senior adviser on US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, claimed that Vladimir Putin is engaged in a “death-defying geopolitical gamble (that) is the hottest game in town”. Mead said Putin's gamble  “has more twists and turns than a bobsled race, more fancy footwork than a figure-skating final, and more dips and flips than a mogul run”.

I Am Prepared To Be Right But Are You Prepared? Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:30 PM PST by David Schectman, MilesFranklin.com: What if we're right? What if gold runs up to Sinclair's prediction of $3500-$5000 or his much higher predictions? What if the bottom falls out of the derivative market and gold soars? What if the dollar loses 20%, 30% or even 50% of its current international buying power? What if the dollar loses its Petro-Dollar status? A lot of "What If's." A lot of real possibilities too. Have you seriously considered what the world we live in would be like in any of these scenarios? I think about it a lot. But it is really hard to get past the intellectual aspects. It is hard to visualize what like would be like. I don't think any of us will like the results of $5000 or $10,000 gold and $100+ silver. There is more to a good life than a balance sheet, even one that is going up fast. Read More @ MilesFranklin.com

Matrix Of Dead Bankers & Terror At Highest Government Levels Posted: 18 Feb 2014 09:40 PM PST from KingWorldNews: For the United States government, there is nothing more important in this world right now than to maintain having the world's reserve currency. Having the reserve currency allows the US to deal with all sorts of problems. It also allows the US to deal with its problems without having virtually any discipline as to what we do. We can just print our way out of things. But it's become clear in recent years that this is something we can no longer take for granted. It's one thing to manipulate gold or a general stock market, but these are not the trillions-of-dollars-a-day markets that foreign currencies are. So I want to be clear about this: There is nothing the US will stop at to ensure that the dollar is the world's safe haven and reserve currency. Stephen Leeb continues @ KingWorldNews.com

Gold’s Continued Advance as Stocks Recover to Previous Highs Shows Something Else Behind This Rally Posted: 18 Feb 2014 09:20 PM PST by Peter Cooper, ArabianMoney: The New Year naysayers who predicted a fall in the gold price to nearer $1,000 an ounce than its present $1,323 quite convincingly argued that an economic recovery and higher equity prices this year will be bad for the gold price. But if that is true why has the gold price advanced again over the past two weeks while stocks have been rallying? Only today the main MSCI global stock index showed that all the losses on equities since the New Year have been recouped. Read More @ ArabianMoney.net

$2 Billion in Cash Would Make Silver Short Positions UNCOVERABLE — Rick Rule Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:45 PM PST Rick Rule from Sprott Global Resource Investments joins us to talk about everything precious metals. This is a must-listen interview packed with lots of bullish info, but towards the end of the interview Rick really cuts to the chase: “The idea that silver can be manipulated down ignores the fact that it could easily be manipulated UP.” Rick continues, “And the consequence of two years of extraordinary physical demand in the face of the unwinding of the leveraged long carry trade in silver expressed in SLV and expressed in the futures markets, tell me that it will be easier to make money manipulating the price of silver UP than manipulating the price of silver down. And my suspicion is that the commercial interests in manipulation will ultimately do the easiest thing to do. If there was $2 Billion employed, not on margin by the way, cash – so the rules could not be changed like they were on the Hunts – $2 Billion in cash employed in the futures markets, which was held for delivery cleaning OUT the good deliver silver that’s available, the short interest would LITERALLY be uncoverable.”

The U.S. Greater Depression Exposed, Part I Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:39 PM PST Since the beginning of 2014; we have been subjected to two constant themes in the propaganda of the mainstream media. One of these themes is that after "recovering" year after year after year; the U.S. economy is finally strong enough to begin the Exit Strategy which former Fed Chairman B. S. Bernanke (originally) promised us would begin early in 2009. The other, closely related theme is the (supposed) collapse of "Emerging Market currencies". In fact; what we have seen is the collapse of most of the world's currencies versus the U.S. dollar. In no way can these two events be considered mere coincidence. As explained in my last commentary; the contrived collapse of these currencies -- by financial criminals currently being investigated globally for serially rigging these same markets – is nothing more than a Reverse Beauty Contest. It is an effort to make the world's least-attractive/most-worthless currency appear to be the world's "strongest" currency. With the perversion of statistics and the manipulation of our markets reaching new, absurd extremes; it becomes necessary to remind readers (and alert newer readers) of what is actually transpiring in the real world. This two-part series will establish three obvious points: 1)      The U.S. economy is currently in the midst of a Greater Depression; the worst, sustained economic collapse in the history of this nation. 2)      Given this collapse; the U.S. does not have one of the world's stronger economies, but rather it has the weakest economy of any/all major nations. 3) The downward spiral in this Greater Depression is, in fact a terminal collapse. The final result of this economic devolution can only mean the transformation of the United States into essentially a "Third World nation". We start with the fundamental lie regarding the U.S. economy, the mythical "recovery" itself. By now; regular readers should understand that GDP (growth) is arguably the easiest of all statistics to falsify. All that is required is to first understate "inflation", and then GDP can be exaggerated commensurately. A simple example will explain this, for the benefit of newer readers. If (price) inflation is (hypothetically) 10% per year; then when our governments collect the raw data on economic growth, they must, roughly speaking, subtract 10% from their data. This is called the "GDP deflator". If our governments did not subtract inflation out of the equation when they attempted to measure GDP, then they would not get a statistic which measured "economic growth", but rather a statistic which measured economic growth plus the increase in prices. Continuing with the hypothetical example; let's suppose our governments now pretend that inflation is only 2%, rather than 10%. Thus when they measure GDP; they only "deflate" the data by 2% instead of 10%. And so the statistic they release which they call "GDP growth" is actually GDP growth + 8%. In fact; this hypothetical example very closely mirrors what we currently see in the U.S. economy.

Kappa Beta Phi Exposed (Redux) Posted: 18 Feb 2014 06:58 PM PST As we initially exposed over five years ago, with luminary frat brothers and sister such as Jimmy Cayne, Richard Fuld, Stan O'Neil, Martin Gruss, Michael Bloomberg, Jon Corzine, Mary Shapiro, Alan Schwartz, Larry Fink, Larry Fink, Wilbur Ross, James McDonald, this "secret" organization puts the Masons, Bilderbergs, Skull and Bones, Templars, Fight Club and all other secret societies to shame. Now, as New York Magazine infiltrates the inner workings of the "Kappa Beta Phi" society, Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes the following will confirm what everyone already thought - that a great many of these oligarch financiers are complete and total sociopaths and a menace to society.    Via ZeroHedge, I can still remember How the Dow Jones used to make me smile. And I learned my trade and had my chance The music played I did my dance And I made seven figures for a while. I can't remember if I cried when they pulled the plug on Countrywide... It sucks that Iceland is out of ice.... Bye, Bye to my piece of the pie... Now I travel coach whenever I fly... Maybe this will be the day that I die.   Via Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, Here’s What Happened When a Journalist Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society Before we get into this post, let’s review the definition of Antisocial Personality Disorder according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine: Antisocial Personality Disorder:  A mental health condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others. This behavior is often criminal. Now for the symptoms: Symptoms: A person with antisocial personality disorder may: Be able to act witty and charming Be good at flattery and manipulating other people’s emotions Break the law repeatedly Disregard the safety of self and others Have problems with substance abuse Lie, steal, and fight often Not show guilt or remorse Often be angry or arrogant How about treatment? Treatment: Antisocial personality disorder is one of the most difficult personality disorders to treat. People with this condition rarely seek treatment on their own. They may only start therapy when required to by a court. Behavioral treatments, such as those that reward appropriate behavior and have negative consequences for illegal behavior, may hold the most promise. Certain forms of talk therapy are also being explored. Exactly as many of us have said. Jail time and accountability are necessary to stop these people. Bailouts will only encourage continued sociopathic behavior, which is exactly what we have seen. Think about the above as you read the post below. Enjoy… ++++++++++++++ The following article by Kevin Roose was published late last night by New York Magazine, and it recounts what the journalist saw when he crashed Wall Street fraternity Kappa Beta Phi’s private party back in 2012. Some elements of his experience were already published a couple years back in a New York Times piece, but his latest article adds an additional perspective and recounts many outrageous aspects of the event I had never read before. This article is particularly important considering the recent trend of billionaires running around on financial television claiming they are being prosecuted for no reason. Basically, it will confirm what everyone already thought. That a great many of these oligarch financiers are complete and total sociopaths and a menace to society. From New York Magazine: Recently, our nation’s financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight ofJews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they’re sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that “the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons.”   Ross’s statement seemed particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons – the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi.   It was January 2012, and Ross, wearing a tuxedo and purple velvet moccasins embroidered with the fraternity’s Greek letters, was standing at the dais of the St. Regis Hotel ballroom, welcoming a crowd of two hundred wealthy and famous Wall Street figures to the Kappa Beta Phi dinner. Ross, the leader (or “Grand Swipe”) of the fraternity, was preparing to invite 21 new members — “neophytes,” as the group called them — to join its exclusive ranks. Yeah Ross, what’s not to love about a guy like you. Looking up at him from an elegant dinner of rack of lamb and foie gras were many of the most famous investors in the world, including executives from nearly every too-big-to-fail bank, private equity megafirm, and major hedge fund. AIG CEO Bob Benmosche was there, as were Wall Street superlawyer Marty Lipton and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, the former chairman of Bear Stearns. And those were just the returning members. Among the neophytes were hedge fund billionaire and major Obama donor Marc Lasry and Joe Reece, a high-ranking dealmaker at Credit Suisse. All told, enough wealth and power was concentrated in the St. Regis that night that if you had dropped a bomb on the roof, global finance as we know it might have ceased to exist. If you recall, last year Mr. Benmosche compared anger at Wall Street bonuses to the lynching of black people in the south. I’d heard whisperings about the existence of Kappa Beta Phi, whose members included both incredibly successful financiers (New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead, hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones) and incredibly unsuccessful ones (Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne, former New Jersey governor and MF Global flameout Jon Corzine). It was a secret fraternity, founded at the beginning of the Great Depression, that functioned as a sort of one-percenter’s Friars Club. Each year, the group’s dinner features comedy skits, musical acts in drag, and off-color jokes, and its group’s privacy mantra is “What happens at the St. Regis stays at the St. Regis.” For eight decades, it worked. No outsider in living memory had witnessed the entire proceedings firsthand.   After cocktail hour, the new inductees – all of whom were required to dress in leotards and gold-sequined skirts, with costume wigs – began their variety-show acts. Among the night’s lowlights:   • Warren Stephens, an investment banking CEO, took the stage in a Confederate flag hat and sang a song about the financial crisis, set to the tune of “Dixie.” (“In Wall Street land we’ll take our stand, said Morgan and Goldman. But first we better get some loans, so quick, get to the Fed, man.”)   The neophytes – who had changed from their drag outfits into Mormon missionary costumes — broke into their musical finale: a parody version of “I Believe,” the hit ballad from The Book of Mormon, with customized lyrics like “I believe that God has a plan for all of us. I believe my plan involves a seven-figure bonus.” Amused, I pulled out my phone, and began recording the proceedings on video. Wrong move.   “Give me that or I’ll fucking break it!” Novogratz yelled, grabbing for my phone, which was filled with damning evidence. His eyes were bloodshot, and his neck veins were bulging. The song onstage was now over, and a number of prominent Kappas had rushed over to our table. Before the situation could escalate dangerously, a bond investor and former Grand Swipe named Alexandra Lebenthal stepped in between us. Wilbur Ross quickly followed, and the two of them led me out into the lobby, past a throng of Wall Street tycoons, some of whom seemed to be hyperventilating.   Once we made it to the lobby, Ross and Lebenthal reassured me that what I’d just seen wasn’t really a group of wealthy and powerful financiers making homophobic jokes, making light of the financial crisis, and bragging about their business conquests at Main Street’s expense. No, it was just a group of friends who came together to roast each other in a benign and self-deprecating manner. Nothing to see here.   But the extent of their worry wasn’t made clear until Ross offered himself up as a source for future stories in exchange for my cooperation.   “I’ll pick up the phone anytime, get you any help you need,” he said.   “Yeah, the people in this group could be very helpful,” Lebenthal chimed in. “If you could just keep their privacy in mind.” This is how these guys talk to everyone, particularly Congress. They are used to getting anything they want because of their money. The first and most obvious conclusion was that the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced themselves from reality. No self-aware and socially conscious Wall Street executive would have agreed to be part of a group whose tacit mission is to make light of the financial sector’s foibles. Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment crisis.   The second thing I realized was that Kappa Beta Phi was, in large part, a fear-based organization. Here were executives who had strong ideas about politics, society, and the work of their colleagues, but who would never have the courage to voice those opinions in a public setting. Their cowardice had reduced them to sniping at their perceived enemies in the form of satirical songs and sketches, among only those people who had been handpicked to share their view of the world. And the idea of a reporter making those views public had caused them to throw a mass temper tantrum. Cowards, yes. Dangerous cowards, absolutely. Full article here, and I highly suggest reading it as it includes some creepy audio from this oligarch frat party.

1ST HURDLE CLEARED Posted: 18 Feb 2014 06:32 PM PST The Nasdaq has now broken out above the first of two major resistance zones at 4250. Once it breaks above 4290 there is nothing but air between there and the all time highs above 5000. The SMT commodity portfolio is leaping higher as coffee surged 9% today and the grains and softs are just starting to join the party. Actually all of the SMT portfolios are racking up nice gains so far this year (currency portfolio, stock portfolio, commodity portfolio, metals portfolio and bond portfolio). I realize most people see this as a gold bug site but I actually think the biggest gains this year will be made in the AG sector. I think we are in store for another 2010/2011 type year and the frustration of having to endure 2013 will turn out to be well worth the wait.

Silver and Gold Prices Have Been Rising for Twelve Days Straight Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:09 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1324.70 Change : 5.70 or 0.43% Silver Price Close Today : 21.888 Change : 0.477 or 2.23% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 60.522 Change : -1.082 or -1.76% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01652 Change : 0.000290 or 1.79% Platinum Price Close Today : 1422.90 Change : -5.60 or -0.39% Palladium Price Close Today : 736.95 Change : -0.45 or -0.06% S&P 500 : 1,840.76 Change : 2.13 or 0.12% Dow In GOLD$ : $251.71 Change : $ (1.46) or -0.58% Dow in GOLD oz : 12.177 Change : -0.071 or -0.58% Dow in SILVER oz : 736.95 Change : -17.54 or -2.32% Dow Industrial : 16,130.40 Change : -23.99 or -0.15% US Dollar Index : 80.060 Change : -0.120 or -0.15% Whooo! I hope y'all had a good time yesterday on Generic Presidents Day. Markets were closed so the prices you see below are compared to Friday's closes. Both silver and GOLD PRICES have reversed against stocks, and should continue to outperform them Gold Price Monthly - stockcharts.com The GOLD PRICE was actually $5 higher yesterday, but today still closed Comex $5.70 (0.43%) higher than Friday at $1,324.70. This also is a two-day close over the 200 DMA ($1,309). Here's gold's monthly: Silver Monthly - stockcharts.com The SILVER PRICE confirmed Friday's breakout and close above the 200 DMA (2112c)today by closing 47.7 cents (2.23%) higher at 2188.8c. If 2100c and 2200c are passed, can 2300c be far behind? Here's silver's monthly chart: Both the silver and gold price have been rising twelve days running leaving both overbought and begging for a correction. However, "overbought" can get a LOT MORE overbought before the rally's over. I fall back on rational rules. We buy breakouts, and both the silver and gold price have proven breakouts above their since-April downtrends. Gold has completed and pulled away from an upside down head and shoulders. Buy any correction. And if you were waiting to buy a breakout, buy now. Today I spent a long time gazing on charts of what the Federal Reserve hath done to the money supply since 2008, and I interviewed a friend who worked 20 years for several Federal Reserve banks as a lawyer and economist. "Renewed optimism" was not the outcome of my meditation. With its unlimited money creation the Fed has climbed up for a ride on a tiger. They have no safe way to dismount, and like an alcoholic, no more imagination than to keep drinking the same rotgut whiskey every day while expecting a different result. 'Twill end in unspeakable pain. Meanwhile the yankee government continues seizing control of the rest of the economy, what ears and tail the Fed doesn't already control. O'Bama's generous philanthropy raising the federal minimum wage (CBO says) will raise 900,000 people out of poverty but -- whoops-- put 500,000 people out of work. What's a communist to do? You have to hurt the poor to help the poor, I reckon. They're all the same, communists and socialists: they love all mankind but no man. That's why they can kill 60 million people to save mankind. But look on the bright side: once their stupidity, regulations, and greed (don't forget Wall Street, feeding off the corpse of the nation) has brought the economy to collapse, we'll get a chance to rebuild a just, stable, and prosperous one -- without them in charge! On to markets! Ya'll remember how the Dow in January signaled the big drop coming by falling when the other indices were rising? Well, it's repeating that act. Dow today lost 23.99 (0.15%) to 16,130.40 while other indices rose slightly. S&P500 added 2.13 (0.12%) to 1,840.76. Since 1997 stocks have been building a deadly Megaphone or broadening top pattern. The last highs took the Dow to the very top boundary. 'Tis possible it could make a marginally higher high, but look at the previous two touches (2000 and 2007) and see what you think. Looks about to reverse toward the earth's core. Meanwhile the Dow in Gold and Dow in Silver continue to roll downhill. Dow in gold today lost 0.56% to close at 12.18 oz. It has now traversed about half the distance between its 20 DMA above and 200 DMA below. But the excitement today comes from the Dow in Silver. Whoa! Sank 15.28 oz (2.03%) to end at 736.62 oz, BELOW the 200 DMA (739.51). Those Nice Government Men better get busy earning those fat paychecks and manipulate the US Dollar Index back up into the sky. It fell again today 12 basis points (0.16%) to 80.06. One more day lower puts it in danger of crashing through 79.50 for a freefall. Ultimately, the dollar index will lose another 50% of its value. It makes no sense at all -- but in the age of government run markets, nothing makes sense anyway -- to see the euro rise today 0.49% to $1.3759. Yet who am I to argue? Who am I to protest that their sovereign debt is bigger than the US's, their banks sicker, their social cohesion weaker? It's nuts. Yen lost 0.48% to 97.70 cents/Y100. May be the Nipponese NGM are trying to send it lower. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2014, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 18 ounces of silver. or 18 ounces of silver. US $ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose.

Silver and Gold Prices Have Been Rising for Twelve Days Straight Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:09 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1324.70 Change : 5.70 or 0.43% Silver Price Close Today : 21.888 Change : 0.477 or 2.23% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 60.522 Change : -1.082 or -1.76% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01652 Change : 0.000290 or 1.79% Platinum Price Close Today : 1422.90 Change : -5.60 or -0.39% Palladium Price Close Today : 736.95 Change : -0.45 or -0.06% S&P 500 : 1,840.76 Change : 2.13 or 0.12% Dow In GOLD$ : $251.71 Change : $ (1.46) or -0.58% Dow in GOLD oz : 12.177 Change : -0.071 or -0.58% Dow in SILVER oz : 736.95 Change : -17.54 or -2.32% Dow Industrial : 16,130.40 Change : -23.99 or -0.15% US Dollar Index : 80.060 Change : -0.120 or -0.15% Whooo! I hope y'all had a good time yesterday on Generic Presidents Day. Markets were closed so the prices you see below are compared to Friday's closes. Both silver and GOLD PRICES have reversed against stocks, and should continue to outperform them Gold Price Monthly - stockcharts.com The GOLD PRICE was actually $5 higher yesterday, but today still closed Comex $5.70 (0.43%) higher than Friday at $1,324.70. This also is a two-day close over the 200 DMA ($1,309). Here's gold's monthly: Silver Monthly - stockcharts.com The SILVER PRICE confirmed Friday's breakout and close above the 200 DMA (2112c)today by closing 47.7 cents (2.23%) higher at 2188.8c. If 2100c and 2200c are passed, can 2300c be far behind? Here's silver's monthly chart: Both the silver and gold price have been rising twelve days running leaving both overbought and begging for a correction. However, "overbought" can get a LOT MORE overbought before the rally's over. I fall back on rational rules. We buy breakouts, and both the silver and gold price have proven breakouts above their since-April downtrends. Gold has completed and pulled away from an upside down head and shoulders. Buy any correction. And if you were waiting to buy a breakout, buy now. Today I spent a long time gazing on charts of what the Federal Reserve hath done to the money supply since 2008, and I interviewed a friend who worked 20 years for several Federal Reserve banks as a lawyer and economist. "Renewed optimism" was not the outcome of my meditation. With its unlimited money creation the Fed has climbed up for a ride on a tiger. They have no safe way to dismount, and like an alcoholic, no more imagination than to keep drinking the same rotgut whiskey every day while expecting a different result. 'Twill end in unspeakable pain. Meanwhile the yankee government continues seizing control of the rest of the economy, what ears and tail the Fed doesn't already control. O'Bama's generous philanthropy raising the federal minimum wage (CBO says) will raise 900,000 people out of poverty but -- whoops-- put 500,000 people out of work. What's a communist to do? You have to hurt the poor to help the poor, I reckon. They're all the same, communists and socialists: they love all mankind but no man. That's why they can kill 60 million people to save mankind. But look on the bright side: once their stupidity, regulations, and greed (don't forget Wall Street, feeding off the corpse of the nation) has brought the economy to collapse, we'll get a chance to rebuild a just, stable, and prosperous one -- without them in charge! On to markets! Ya'll remember how the Dow in January signaled the big drop coming by falling when the other indices were rising? Well, it's repeating that act. Dow today lost 23.99 (0.15%) to 16,130.40 while other indices rose slightly. S&P500 added 2.13 (0.12%) to 1,840.76. Since 1997 stocks have been building a deadly Megaphone or broadening top pattern. The last highs took the Dow to the very top boundary. 'Tis possible it could make a marginally higher high, but look at the previous two touches (2000 and 2007) and see what you think. Looks about to reverse toward the earth's core. Meanwhile the Dow in Gold and Dow in Silver continue to roll downhill. Dow in gold today lost 0.56% to close at 12.18 oz. It has now traversed about half the distance between its 20 DMA above and 200 DMA below. But the excitement today comes from the Dow in Silver. Whoa! Sank 15.28 oz (2.03%) to end at 736.62 oz, BELOW the 200 DMA (739.51). Those Nice Government Men better get busy earning those fat paychecks and manipulate the US Dollar Index back up into the sky. It fell again today 12 basis points (0.16%) to 80.06. One more day lower puts it in danger of crashing through 79.50 for a freefall. Ultimately, the dollar index will lose another 50% of its value. It makes no sense at all -- but in the age of government run markets, nothing makes sense anyway -- to see the euro rise today 0.49% to $1.3759. Yet who am I to argue? Who am I to protest that their sovereign debt is bigger than the US's, their banks sicker, their social cohesion weaker? It's nuts. Yen lost 0.48% to 97.70 cents/Y100. May be the Nipponese NGM are trying to send it lower. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2014, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 18 ounces of silver. or 18 ounces of silver. US $ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose.

GMO: "US Markets Are Not A Little Bit Overvalued — They Are Overvalued By A Hefty Margin" Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:04 PM PST Monthly Market Commentary From Jeremy Grantham's GMO, via Wells Fargo Absolute Return Fund "You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be gray, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life."      —From the movie Groundhog Day (1993) The Street is always looking for short-term indicators. The January indicator is a common one: It basically says January sets the tone for the rest of the year. Or even the Groundhog Day effect, which also sent a nasty signal just recently. Clearly, these two are pointing to a sober 2014. Look, maybe these indicators work. Maybe they don't. Trying to find a reliable one-year crystal ball is a fool's errand. Our sober forecasts for equities, especially the broad basket of U.S. equities, have nothing to do with January pull-backs or silly little rodents seeing their shadows. Our methodology is a bit more ho-hum. Valuations are stretched. Profit margins are stretched. And given that these two have been reliable mean-reverting indicators, they are what drive our sobriety. We're not saying the party's over. For all we know, 2014 could post another positive year for the risk markets. There's enough good news out there in terms of cash on the sidelines, declining unemployment numbers, U.S. as a safe haven in the event of an emerging meltdown ... yada, yada, yada. All we're saying is that, as value investors, we're nervous about the longer-term prospects for equities, especially in the U.S.  Markets in the U.S. are not a little bit overvalued—they are overvalued by a hefty margin, especially small-cap stocks. And it is this concern, above all else, that will be driving our asset allocation decisions.  Market update Momentum from a spectacular 2013 and some early positive economic news sent U.S. equities up to record highs in mid-January. Markets did an about-face, however, toward the end of the month as the Federal Reserve reminded us that the taper would not just continue but accelerate, as a weak Purchasing Managers' Index reading came from China and fears of a slowdown continued, and as emerging markets currency troubles spooked the global markets. Emerging equities (and currencies) were the worst victims, but the developed markets also felt the pinch. U.S. equity markets did indeed experience a January pull-back, with the S&P 500 Index down 3.5% and the Russell 2000® Index down 2.8%. EAFE lost 4.0%, spread pretty evenly across Europe and Japan. The real story in January, however, was emerging equities, which gave back 6.5%, as measured by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.   For fixed income, January's hiccup ended up being good news, as yields came in modestly higher. The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index posted a solid 1.5% return, and global bonds did slightly better. Wells Fargo Advantage Absolute Return Fund Against this backdrop, the Absolute Return Fund lost 1.8% on the month. Our quality position, which has often held up relatively well in market downturns, was essentially down in line with the broad indexes. Concern about global, particularly emerging markets economic exposure, was most likely the culprit. Consumer staples—a traditional defensive sector—was one of the worst-performing areas this month, as the market perceived that slowdown outside of the U.S. would hurt earnings for these high-quality global brands. Our international value exposure did slightly better than international growth sectors, but only marginally. And both, importantly, were still down. Our emerging equities exposure was the largest negative contributor.   On the fixed-income side, emerging country debt exposure hurt, but the TIPS position that we established back in July and August 2013 posted some positive returns. In addition, our absolute return strategies, the GMO Alpha Only Fund and the GMO Alternative Asset Opportunity Fund, each posted positive returns, albeit modest. By the end of January, equities represented a bit over 50% of the portfolio. We hold a diversified equity basket across quality, currency-hedged international value, and emerging, with a modest allocation to the risk premium strategy. We are maintaining roughly a 9% allocation to credit via asset-backed securities and the GMO Emerging Country Debt Fund. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities holdings represent roughly 13%, while our absolute return sub-strategies, in aggregate, represent a bit over 27%.

London Housing: Same Old Story Posted: 18 Feb 2014 04:54 PM PST    Click here to follow ZeroHedge in Real-time on FinancialJuice It's the same old story being told in the London housing market and it's like a re-run of a boring series or some B movie starring George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister David Cameron. That's when they both have taken off their wellies and put their brollies away after running round the Home Counties and Surrey to visit the poor people that live there and that have been immersed in water up to their necks due to the weather conditions. It's all low-budget and headless-chicken media hype for the voters, where 'money has no object' (apparently according to David Cameron). Although, he will be asking for the EU to pay for it all. Is that the same EU that David Cameron wants to opt out of in 2017? Interesting! Yes, they have far more to contend with and why would they even be bothered about the London housing market at all? The asking price of UK properties rose nearly 7% on last year's price, hitting £250, 000 (or $419, 000) this month. That's once again the highest increase in price for the past six years. There are some property specialists that are once again talking of a housing bubble. Had they not seen it coming before? It couldn't be plainer that there is a bubble ready to burst with a shortage of properties, increased numbers of people gaining access to the property market via schemes that have been set up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (and yet still not having either the creditworthiness nor the job security to go with the loans that are being taken out). Shortages in properties are just fuelling prices in London. Prices in London have risen by 11.2% in the past year and by 7.8% in the South-East of the UK in general. But, it looks as if there is only a housing bubble waiting for Mr. Cameron to stick a pin into it in London and the SE of the country. The average house in London is today £541, 313, which is double the price of the national average. That price is nothing in comparison to certain affluent boroughs in London where the average house price is in excess of £2 million (such as in Kensington or Chelsea, for example). Interest rates have never been lower. But, the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney left the 0.5% interest rate as it stood at the start of this month, fuelling ideas that he was having his puppet strings pulled from up above in the government and that he was simply the frontman. Interest rates have been at this level since March 2009. In January, Mr. Carney stated that 2014 was going to be a fantastic year for the UK housing market. Perhaps, not fantastic, but memorable (in the bad sense of the word) might be on the cards. But, even back then, he was being warned that he would eat his words. Mr. Carney stated yesterday in a BBC interview that: "What we've seen in the housing market is an adjustment from very low levels. So if you look at the level of transactions, how many houses are purchased how many mortgages are struck, they dropped more than 50 percent…they have not bounced back but they are still more than 25 percent below historic averages, let alone stronger than historic averages".  But, the Bank of England has no power to stop what was imagined up to be the recipe for a better economy. It's just back to 2007 like a shot. The only things that are keeping the housing market buoyant, wherever that may be in the world are the over-generous (stupid?) central-banking policy of easy money and investors. It has nothing to do with the economy actually getting better at any stage. Foreign buyers are also fuelling the increase in prices, by buying in cash. In the USA, house prices are set to increase by roughly 5 or 6% this year. We'll see what happens there in the land of the birth of the housing bubble. Anyhow, in the UK it's all the same, Carney, Osborne and Cameron have been the three witches around the cauldron and they have been throwing in a few old toes of frogs and tongues of dogs, hubble, bubble, toil and trouble. The spell has been cast, the cauldron is a bubbling: it's time! It's time! Originally posted: London Housing: Same Old Story   You might also enjoy:What's With the Chocolate? |  Banks: You Can Bank on It! | China: What Happened to the Gold Data? Stiglitz: "Sick"! | Hyperinflation – 10 Worst Cases | Death of the Dollar | You're Miserable USA! | Emerging Markets: Lock, Stock and Barrel | End of the Financial World 2014 |  Kristallnacht on Wall Street? Bull! | China's Credit Crunch | Working for the Few | USA:The Land of the Not-So-Free

Guest Post: Has QE Ever Worked In History? Posted: 18 Feb 2014 04:43 PM PST Submitted by Bob Murphy via The Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, Now that Ben Bernanke has handed over the keys of the Federal Reserve, there are all sorts of theoretical arguments, pro and con, concerning his bold quantitative easing (QE) programs, in which the Fed massively expanded its balance sheet: Many critics, including me, have worried that this will disrupt the proper functioning of credit markets, and threatens to severely debase the US dollar. (Obviously our warnings on the latter point are either totally wrong, or have yet to be fulfilled.) The defenders of Bernanke have argued that he spared the US (and indeed the world) from a second Great Depression. Moreover, they claim that the Fed will simply let its balance sheet unwind as the economy returns to normal. Bernanke himself discussed several “exit options” when he was still at the helm (which I criticized at the time). One of the odd points that people raise in Bernanke’s defense is the case of Japan. They explain that Japan implemented a comparable policy, and hey, they didn’t wreck the yen in the process. So why don’t the critics learn their history and cut Bernanke some slack? Well, hang on a second. Here is a chart (source) showing the relationship between the Japanese central bank’s “monetary base” and price inflation, both expressed as indices of the level: So yes, it’s true that the Bank of Japan had a rapid expansion of its balance sheet (with the monetary base serving as a proxy), especially in the early 2000s, and yet the official consumer price index is actually lower now than it was in the mid-1990s. (This  site shows the annual CPI rates in Japan, many of which were lower than negative 1% during this interval.) I have two responses: (1) Look at what the Japanese central bankers had to do, to contain the public’s expectations about price inflation. When their CPI stopped (gently) falling and began rising, in the mid-2000s, the central bank drastically reduced its monetary base–that’s the red line falling off a cliff. So really it seems the lesson from Japan is, “Sure you can get away with a rapid expansion of the monetary base without wrecking your currency, so long as you crash the financial sector whenever price inflation begins rising.” I don’t think any of the gold-bugs and other critics of QE denied this; that was part of their warning.   (2) Japan has not at all been successful with its strategy: It is a poster child of an economy stuck in a rut for decades, and counting. The Nikkei 225 (the major Japanese stock exchange) in 2009 was down more than 80% from its peak twenty years earlier. (Yes I wrote that correctly.) So at best, the defenders of Bernanke can say, “Hey, for all you know, we can keep our economy in the gutter for another 20 years without price inflation getting out of hand. You guys are such hypochondriacs!” In closing, let me point out that we do have historical examples of central banks ruining their economies/currencies through massive expansions of their balance sheets (Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, etc.). To my knowledge, this has never actually worked anywhere in history. Can anyone point to a successful example?

Patrick Heller: World Gold Council's estimates of China's gold demand are no good Posted: 18 Feb 2014 03:50 PM PST 6:49p ET Tuesday, February 18, 2014 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Patrick Heller of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, writing in Coin Week tonight, argues that the World Gold Council's estimates of gold demand in China lack credibility in light of estimates from more informed analysts that Chinese gold demand is much higher. Heller's commentary is headlined "Massive Discrepancy in 2013 China Gold Demand" and it's posted at Coin Week here: http://www.coinweek.com/bullion-report/massive-discrepancy-2013-china-go... 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: Mines and Money Hong Kong Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Monday-Friday, March 24-28, 2014 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China http://www.minesandmoney.com/hongkong/ * * * 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 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...

Silver Stackers: Measure your Stash like a Miner Posted: 18 Feb 2014 03:08 PM PST David Morgan has very kindly sent us this article this morning which we hope you find informative and enjoyable: When attempting to quantify the amount and quality of a possible mineralized deposit on their property, exploration companies and producers generally follow a process which seeks to state, in reasonably accurate and concise terms, just what they have…or might have. Following the Bre-X fiasco, wherein ‘highly inaccurate’ reserves of a supposed deposit in Borneo were publicized and acted upon by a tidal wave of investors, sophisticated and neophyte alike, a new set of reporting rules was enacted. Canadian National Instrument 43-101, is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators governing the process of disclosing to the public, scientific and technical information about mining projects. The NI 43-101 report is presented (usually within the context of a company News Release) by a “Qualified Person” – by a (presumably) competent licensed geoscientist, who often works for the company in question and is assumed to be skilled in analyzing the mineralization under review. Reduced to its essence, the continuum of terms, expressed from highest to lowest confidence levels is as follows:

Silver Price In The Last 100 Years Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:18 PM PST Short term price movements of silver should not be the leading driver for investors. Silver is volatile, that’s a commonly accepted fact. For instance, silver closed on February 13, 2014 at $21.42, while 50 days earlier, on December 26, 1913, it closed at $19.88, a 7.7% price increase in 50 calendar days. For some historical perspective, silver moved in 50 days from $27.88 (April 9, 2013) to $22.45 (May 29, 2013), a loss of nearly 20%. The key is to stay focused on the bigger picture, at least for investors. Looking to the silver price trend in the last 100 years provides some guidance.  According to kitco.com, the average annual prices for gold and silver were: Prices have dramatically increased for 100 years since 1913, the birth of the Federal Reserve – our inflation machine.  Worse, since Nixon abandoned the partial gold backing for the dollar in 1971, the inflation machine has accelerated.  Using Kitco's average annual price data: Since 1913 gold has increased 4.32% per year, compounded annually.  Silver has increased 3.78% compounded annually. Since 1971 gold has increased 8.80% per year, compounded annually.  Silver has increased 7.00% compounded annually. Since 2001 gold has increased 14.74% per year, compounded annually.  Silver has increased 15.17% compounded annually. In the big picture, gold and silver are increasing in price, along with the prices for crude oil, an average house, gasoline, food, and almost everything we need.  Both gold and silver have accelerated their average price increases since 2001, the end of their 20 year bear market. Official national debt was $2.92 Billion in 1913 and nearly $17,000 Billion in 2013.  The compounded annual increase since 1913 has been 9.04% while the increase since 1971 has been 9.31%.  National debt increases, on average, quite consistently.  Given that consistent exponential increase in national debt, are you surprised that the prices for gold, silver, crude, gasoline, food and housing have also substantially increased, on average, every year? The Big Picture Silver gained 7.7% in 50 days.  I think December marked a double bottom in the silver market, but we'll know in a few months.  Crashes and large rallies are likely to happen more often in this era of High Frequency Trading and "managed" markets. The national debt has been increasing, remarkably consistently, for 100 years, for 42 years, and for 6 years.  Until monetary systems, administrative policy, and congressional spending practices change (return to fiscal sanity) the national debt, along with most other prices, will continue to increase. We don't know if silver will continue its rally through next week or next month, but we can legitimately expect that silver prices, along with the national debt, will be substantially higher in 2015, 2016, and 2017! Examine this graph of silver prices since 2000.  Note the following: Log scaling Exponentially increasing prices The support line was touched in December 2013. There is a double bottom in June and December 2013. There is an expanding "megaphone" pattern of prices. Crazy and unlikely as it sounds, silver could spike to $100 in 2016 and not violate a 15 year "megaphone" pattern. MACD (monthly) buy signal in 2008, sell signal in 2011, and probable current buy signal. So the next time you hear from an analyst that silver is likely to remain under $25 for the next decade, or drop to $10, or whatever, remember 100 years of history, 100 years of price increases, and 100 years of official national debt exponentially increasing at 9% per year – compounded each and every year. My belief is that 100 years of facts are much more relevant than opinions from various people who have a vested interest convincing people that silver and gold are dangerous investments.  Examine silver cycles here:  Silver:  4 Cycles in 12 Years.   GE Christenson | The Deviant Investor

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:08 PM PST

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:08 PM PST

Standard Bank in prime position for Deutsche's gold fix seat, sources tell Reuters Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:57 AM PST By Clara Denina and Jan Harvey Reuters Tuesday, February 18, 2014 LONDON -- South Africa's Standard Bank, now selling a controlling stake in its markets unit to China's ICBC, is emerging as a frontrunner to buy Deutsche Bank's place in the global gold price-setting process, sources familiar with the matter said. A seat in the process -- also known as the "fix" -- to determine the benchmark gold price had long been considered a mark of distinction in the bullion market. But the fix, along with other commodity benchmarks, has come under growing regulatory scrutiny since the Libor scandal last year. ... ... For the full story: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/18/us-gold-fix-frontrunner-idUKBRE... ADVERTISEMENT A Personal Touch in Buying Precious Metals If you've not secured your allocation of precious metals and numismatic coins, 2014 may be the last year to get them at affordable and undervalued prices. With huge amounts of gold leaving the West for Asia, the future availability of precious metals is very much in doubt. All Pro Gold has competitive pricing on all bullion and numismatic products -- and offers prompt delivery too. Long-time GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy are glad to answer any questions or concerns about acquiring the monetary metals. All Pro Gold has an extensive electronic library of articles from the world's top market analysts. Learn more at www.allprogold.com or write to Fred and Tim at info@allprogold.com or telephone them at 1-855-377-4653. Join GATA here: Mines and Money Hong Kong Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Monday-Friday, March 24-28, 2014 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China http://www.minesandmoney.com/hongkong/ * * * 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 Jim Sinclair holds seminars in Los Angeles and San Diego Gold advocate Jim Sinclair's next market analysis seminars will be held in Los Angeles from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, and in San Diego from 2 to 6 p.m. the following day, Sunday, March 9. Details, including registration information, are posted at Sinclair's Internet site, JSMinset.com, here: http://www.jsmineset.com/qa-session-tickets/

The SH*T Is Starting To Hit The Fan Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:49 AM PST First, a little humor for the day.  The Hong Kong Gold Exchange is going to build a 1500 tonne vault in China:  LINK   The rumor in my office is that Janet Yellen has decided that because of all of the bad weather in New York this year, she is going to use that vault to move Germnay's 1500 tonnes into a more weather-friendly environment... Homebuilder sentiment collapses the most on record in one month, mortgage applications drop to a 19yr low (reported last Wed). Then there's this string of reports: - the TIC report shows China reduced its U.S. Treasury holdings in December by the 2nd largest   amount ever - Student loans hit a record $1.08 trillion in December, delinquencies on this debt hit all time high - social unrest in Venezuela, violence and deployment of military in Ukraine, bank runs in Thailand - well-paid bankers, especially JPM bankers, dropping dead with no explanation Reminds me of the "coup de gras" systemic collapse chapter in "Atlas Shrugged."  It's going to get ugly this year...

The SH*T Is Starting To Hit The Fan Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:49 AM PST First, a little humor for the day.  The Hong Kong Gold Exchange is going to build a 1500 tonne vault in China:  LINK   The rumor in my office is that Janet Yellen has decided that because of all of the bad weather in New York this year, she is going to use that vault to move Germnay's 1500 tonnes into a more weather-friendly environment... Homebuilder sentiment collapses the most on record in one month, mortgage applications drop to a 19yr low (reported last Wed). Then there's this string of reports: - the TIC report shows China reduced its U.S. Treasury holdings in December by the 2nd largest   amount ever - Student loans hit a record $1.08 trillion in December, delinquencies on this debt hit all time high - social unrest in Venezuela, violence and deployment of military in Ukraine, bank runs in Thailand - well-paid bankers, especially JPM bankers, dropping dead with no explanation Reminds me of the "coup de gras" systemic collapse chapter in "Atlas Shrugged."  It's going to get ugly this year...

What Blows Up First? Part 4: China Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:40 AM PST To Westerners, China has always been a mystery. The huge population of very smart, hard-working people. The succession of unfamiliar, authoritarian governments. The sense that they're playing the long game while we're obsessed with quarterly reports – and that they're laughing at our naiveté and lack of historical sense. We don't get the Chinese, but we've always been impressed with them. Never was this more true than in the past decade. While the developed world flailed around, trying to figure out how to pay its bills now that new debt no longer automatically translates into new paper wealth, China seemed to be the country that got it right. A dictatorship, sure, but a capitalist dictatorship, ordering its citizens around in the cause of economic development. Their numbers might be unverifiable, but one couldn't deny the reality of all those skyscrapers and roads and power plants. But now it turns out that China was behaving just like us, albeit more secretively, borrowing like crazy and investing more-or-less randomly. And, like us, they're discovering that randomly investing other people's money carries some risks. Two long articles that cover China's plight in some detail were recently posted by Mike Shedlock and Automatic Earth. In the meantime, here's the short version: In 2008, when the West – the biggest market for Chinese goods – appeared to be imploding, China began using its vast foreign exchange reserves and borrowing power to build truly amazing numbers of skyscrapers, roads and airports, among many other things. At the same time, it encouraged the creation of a "shadow banking system" of local/regional development agencies and investment funds that could borrow and lend more-or-less off the books. The result of this stealth QE was even more new debt than the U.S., Europe and Japan were taking on, something like $15 trillion in five years. Now a growing part of that debt is going bad and China is not sure how to fix it. They're bailing out some of the more serious insolvencies while trying to rein in the shadow banking sector. But it's not working. Bank lending soared in January, even while the list of potential problem borrowers lengthened. Apparently the coal companies are in especially bad shape. So, what does this mean for the rest of us? Since China was thought (rightly, as it turned out) to be one of the engines pulling the global financial system back from the abyss, what would a financial crisis there mean for, say, the S&P 500 and Treasury bonds? The logical answer is that "risk on" would switch to "risk off" overnight, sending stocks down and Treasuries, as the last financial safe haven, way up. Precious metals are a trickier call. China has been a huge buyer of gold, so presumably a crisis would lead it to buy less. On the other hand, if safe havens are back in style, then a suddenly-terrified world might more than make up for China's lower demand. Gold certainly looks better than growth stocks for the early part of such a crisis. And then, of course, there's the question of how the Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan will react to China's problems spreading to the developing world. Almost certainly they'll double down on their current policies of debt monetization (or in the case of the ECB, join that party). In the past this has sent the leveraged speculating community back into "risk on," which is why the world is in the current mess. Someday, the markets will see such policies as the acts of desperation that they clearly are. This might be that time, or it might not. We'll only know in retrospect. The previous articles in the “What Blows Up First?” series: Europe Japan Subprime Countries

Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange To Launch 1,500 Tonne Depository in China Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:35 AM PST

Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange To Launch 1,500 Tonne Depository in China Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:35 AM PST

Gold And The Phillips Curve Posted: 18 Feb 2014 11:00 AM PST Graceland Update

It may be raining bankers for a reason, Leeb tells KWN Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:58 AM PST 1:57p ET Tuesday, February 18, 2014 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Fund manager Stephen Leeb today tells King World News that the United States will do anything to preserve the dollar's role as the world reserve currency, a status that confers almost absolute power over the world financial system, and he thinks that the rain of bankers falling from great heights around the world may be connected to it: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/2/18_Ma... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. ADVERTISEMENT A Personal Touch in Buying Precious Metals If you've not secured your allocation of precious metals and numismatic coins, 2014 may be the last year to get them at affordable and undervalued prices. With huge amounts of gold leaving the West for Asia, the future availability of precious metals is very much in doubt. All Pro Gold has competitive pricing on all bullion and numismatic products -- and offers prompt delivery too. Long-time GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy are glad to answer any questions or concerns about acquiring the monetary metals. All Pro Gold has an extensive electronic library of articles from the world's top market analysts. Learn more at www.allprogold.com or write to Fred and Tim at info@allprogold.com or telephone them at 1-855-377-4653. Join GATA here: Mines and Money Hong Kong Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Monday-Friday, March 24-28, 2014 Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China http://www.minesandmoney.com/hongkong/ * * * 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 Jim Sinclair plans seminars in Los Angeles and San Diego Gold advocate Jim Sinclair's next market analysis seminars will be held in Los Angeles from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, and in San Diego from 2 to 6 p.m. the following day, Sunday, March 9. Details, including registration information, are posted at Sinclair's Internet site, JSMinset.com, here: http://www.jsmineset.com/qa-session-tickets/

In The News Today Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:39 AM PST Jim Sinclair’s Commentary Today’s dollar battle at .80. Investment banker jumps to death from JP Morgan's headquarters in Central UPDATED : Tuesday, 18 February, 2014, 10:37pm George Chen, Clifford Lo and Jeanny Yu An investment banker on Tuesday jumped to his death from the roof of Chater House in Central, where Wall Street bank JP... Read more » The post In The News Today appeared first on Jim Sinclair's Mineset.

The Essentialist’s Glossary: Updated for the ‘Teens (G-M) Posted: 18 Feb 2014 10:20 AM PST Last week, we brought you the first third of our Essentialist Glossary (which you can peruse at your leisure, right here: The Essentialist's Glossary: Updated for the 'Teens (A-F)) Herewith, we bring you the second third. Enjoy! Gate's Law noun \ˈgāts lo\ Predicts that the speed of software will halve every 18 months… especially Microsoft Windows (See also Moore's law.) Gambling verb \ˈgam-bəl\ What you do with your excess money when you are too lazy to invest the way Buffett does. Gene Sequencing noun \ˈjēn ˈsē-kwən(t)s iŋ\ Organizing your bottom drawer by "Boot Cut", "Straight Fit" and "Skinny". Gold noun \ˈgōld\ A barbarous relic that went up drastically in dollar terms between 2000 and 2011. It is about the only thing you can leave on the seat of your car in Baltimore without worrying about the windows being smashed. Graham and Dodd proper nouns \ˈgrā-əm ən(d)ˈdäd\ These are the guys who wrote the book on investing; Warren Buffett — their most brilliant student. Head and Shoulders Pattern noun \ˈhed ən(d)ˈshōl-dər ˈpa-tərn\ Not to be confused with the dandruff shampoo, it's a chart pattern that vaguely resembles the head and shoulders of a very strangely shaped man. It is thought to be a precursor of a market decline. But if the market doesn't go down, the technicians take another look and tell you that it didn't look like a head shoulders after all. It was really a horse's rear end. Heart of Darkness noun \ˈhärt ˈäv ˈdärk -ness\ Where tech investors go — the horrors. Homo Analogiens noun \ˈhō-(ˌ)mō ˈa-nə -ˌläg- ē-ənz\ People who have trouble setting their alarm clocks and still believe the digital economy is mostly hype. Homo Digitaliens noun \ˈhō-(ˌ)mō ˈdi-jə-təl- ē-ənz\ Bitcoin users, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and a few others. They walk among us. The Information Age noun \thē ˌin-fər-ˈmā-shən ˈāj\ The handle given to today's economy. The successor to the Age of Ignorance is characterized by such an abundance of useless faces and senseless data that, now, everyone knows everything, and almost no one knows anything. (See Also the Age of Ignorance.) Institutional Investor noun \ˌin(t)-stə-ˈt(y)ü-shnəl in-ˈvest- er\ Investor who is now locked up in a nuthouse. Investing verb \in-ˈvest- ng\ The activity many people say they do but few understand. Most investors wouldn't know a balance sheet if it bit them on the derriere — which, we predict, it will. IRS noun \ˈī ˈär ˈes\ Kind of like a swarm of mosquitos. Except one's a group of bloodsucking parasites… and the others' a bunch of insects. Janet Yellen biographical name \ˈja-nət ˈyel-in\ First female chairman of the Fed. Strangely, if you close your eyes and listen to her speak… you hear Jodie Foster. We're predicting she gets nicknamed "Black Widow" and is Time magazine's Person of the Year within her first 365 days. Kondratiev Waves noun \ˈkän-ˈdra-ˈtē-ev wāvz\ 1. The biggest waves crashing ashore at Playa Rosada just over the hill from the clubhouse at Rancho Santana. 2. Nikolai Kondratiev is also a dead economist whose Long Waves are considered a reliable forecasting tool by some (mostly broke) commodities investors. Nikolai had the distinct honor of being executed by Josef Stalin in 1938. (See also K-Waves: A Blueprint for Investors.) Leicht Denken noun \ˈlikd ˈdəŋ-kən\ The kind of superficial reasoning a person does when he only has gross generalities or works with other people's money. The source of much misguided action in government, politics, finance, and romance. (See also Schwer Uberlegen.) Market Correction noun \ˈmär-kət\ \kə-ˈrek-shən\ The day after you buy stocks. Metcalfe's Law noun \ˈMet- ˈkafs ˈlo\ The first telephone was virtually useless. The millionth, by contrast, was exceptionally useful. Likewise, dollars have become a worldwide medium of exchange simply because they are so ubiquitous. Microcap noun \ˈmī-krō-ˈkap\ A very small hat for babies. Moore's Law noun \ˈmȯrsˈlo\ The exact opposite of Gate's law. (See also Gate's Law.) Moore and Metcalfe vs. Graham and Dodd New technology is exploding so fast, youngsters say, that the old standards no longer apply. The old guys just don't get it. Who will "get it" in the end remains to be seen. (See also Graham and Dodd, Moore's Law, and Metcalfe's Law.) Ed. Note: Perhaps you have your own definitions? Send 'em to us here: dr@dailyreckoning.com. After we receive them, we’ll screen them to make sure they pass the Presbyterian standard… then include them in the glossary. Soon we'll have a permanent section for them. In the meantime, sign up for the FREE Daily Reckoning email edition, to read them before anyone else.

Don’t Buy the Bitcoin Dip Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:47 AM PST The latest Bitcoin tumble ain't quite like before… Bitcoin prices have stabilized from their dramatic drop last week. But beyond the unsettling headlines, this was no ordinary e-currency crash. There are some big moves happening behind the scenes that could impact the future of the currency… Our story begins at Tokyo-based Mt Gox – the oldest and largest venue for trading and storing Bitcoin. The exchange recently garnered significant negative attention from reports of delays in Bitcoin withdrawals, among other online currency issues. Then last week's crash hit the Bitcoin market, alongside news that the Mt Gox exchange has suspended all Bitcoin withdrawals – pointing to underlying protocol issues as the reason for the decision. "As a result, Mt Gox's price correlation with other Bitcoin exchanges has absolutely fallen off a cliff," explains Rude researcher Noah Sugarman. "Historically, Mt Gox Bitcoin prices have maintained a 0.99 correlation with prices at Bitstamp – another high volume Bitcoin exchange. But since the suspension announcement last week, that correlation has fallen below 0.50, with similar cases witnessed across many other exchanges." Meanwhile on other exchanges, the e-currency has somehow remained stable. The main reason that this price discrepancy has become so large is because Mt Gox continues to suspend all withdrawals. Moreover, a dark cloud hangs over the future of all Bitcoin holdings on the Mt Gox exchange. Sure, volatility is nothing new to Bitcoin. But what we're witnessing right now is a massive price disassociation across various Bitcoin exchanges. And the "most trusted" Bitcoin site — Mt Gox — stands at the heart of it. It's possible that the company fades back into irrelevancy soon… "As it stands, Bitcoin prices could stabilize and even increase as the turmoil from the exchange discrepancy fades," Noah continues. "But I'm predicting a mass exodus from the Mt Gox exchange. However, Bitcoin itself is already emerging from the weeds." Still, it's not time to buy the Bitcoin dip. In fact, that might be the most dangerous trade you could make at the moment… Regards, Greg Guenthner for The Daily Reckoning P.S. On the other hand, you've probably noticed the big moves in precious metals over the past couple of weeks. Gold is back above $1,300 and the miners are screaming higher. I've been all over this story recently, and in today’s Rude Awakening, I gave readers a chance to discover a great opportunity to book some profits. If you’re not currently getting The Rude Awakening, not to worry. You can sign up right here. It’s completely free and there is no obligation once you sign up. You can cancel any time. It’s a great free resource that gives you a quick rundown of the markets, right around the opening bell, every single morning. So don’t wait. Sign up for FREE, right here, to get started.

WGC Gold Demand Trends for 2013 Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST The chart below, appearing on the first page of today’s release by the World Gold Council of their Gold Demand Trends – Full year 2013 tells you just about everything you need to know about what happened in the gold market last year, save for the important point that nearly all the ETF sales were [...]

Silver Price 50 Days and 100 Years Posted: 18 Feb 2014 08:08 AM PST Maintain perspective! Skip the hope and hype, the "analysis" from vested interests, and look at facts: Silver closed on February 13, 2014 at $21.42. 50 days earlier, on December 26, 1913, it closed at $19.88 That is about 7.7% price increase in 50 calendar days and about 11% above the December low. The silver bulls are celebrating. The silver bears are probably trying to convince themselves that a huge correction is imminent and perhaps silver will plunge to new lows.

Why the Market Uptrend Doesn’t Have to Stop Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:47 AM PST I don't always get fired up on the phone with my dad, but when I do it's normally about investing. This week's topic was the debt ceiling, Janet Yellen and the market that just won't quit. For a long-term look at where I think you should put your money and why the largest bubble we've ever seen is far from popping, read on… Golf… football… college basketball… where I ate lunch, these are a few of the topics I cover with my dad on a daily basis. But early last week the conversation took a turn for the worse — my dad made the mistake of questioning the market. "And now look at it!" my dad said "The market actually had a good day. I thought it was really headed lower. It's been down a lot lately, but now it goes up. It's up big this week, isn't it? Despite what the naysayers and doom and gloomers say, this uptrend doesn't "have" to stop… "Yep, up big…over 200 points" I replied. Then my dad made the mistake of saying, "I just don't get it!" By then the fuse was lit. You see, my dad isn't big into following the markets. He gets most of his insight from the local news, Fox News and a sprinkling of CNBC. Add it all up and he's got an altogether different take — which I like to hear. But once he said he didn't "get it", I had to make sure he was seeing the big picture. Because, to me, the market has been easy to explain over the past few years. And last week's 200-point jump is just another example… If you've been betting on the upside of the market since 2009 you've been a big winner. Frankly, you're more than a big winner. At many points in time – during the "double dip recession" days – you were actually a contrarian. Pat yourself on the back. If you were banking on the "bubble" to pop, however, you've had a rough five years. The market has established an uptrend that just won't quit – more debt, Fed money printing, inflation, ObamaCare, it doesn't matter, the market screamed higher every chance it could. The market is screaming again in 2014, too. After providing investors with a modest correction, since early February the market has ran higher. And you know what? Despite what the naysayers and doom and gloomers say, this uptrend doesn't "have" to stop, either. That's exactly what I told my dad. And here's my simple, yet solid, reasoning… In 2008 the U.S. faced a severe setback – inflation was roaring, energy prices were screaming, our trade balance was worsening and bankers were giving loans to folks that didn't have a chance in hell to pay em off. In the rearview, though, 2008 was a hiccup of sorts. Not to mention the year was also a fundamental shift for the U.S. energy sector (during the infant stages of the shale boom.) So where am I going with this? Well, my point is pretty simple: just because Janet Yellen keeps printing and congress keeps raising the debt ceiling does NOT mean the market is setting up for a giant cliff. That simple fact is probably news to the naysayers and devastating to the doomers, but it's true. Here's why… The U.S. is still the owner of the world's reserve currency. We earned that right just after WWII. And there are certain benefits that come along with that distinction. One of which is the fact that our economy won't collapse (any time soon) as long as U.S. dollars are being used for trade all around the world and we have the ability to export (and print) them. We can keep printing, keep raising the debt ceiling and keep interest rates at historic lows. And at no point does any of that mean our economy will collapse. It does however mean we've got to adjust our wealth strategy. Because although massive debt and printing WON'T cause a collapse of the state (for decades to come) it WILL cause a collapse in your wealth (I'll tell you why in a sec.) But it's important to note that as long as America is the printer of the world's reserve currency it's safe to say our economy isn't doomed. For a doom scenario like that to play out there would need to be another world power that stepped in. And, heck, look at the contenders to take on the top spot… China? Yeah right. Russia? No Way. England, Australia, Germany, India, Brazil, France, Japan, Canada? C'mon, man. No country has the assets that the U.S. holds – we're still the world's foremost super power and the greenback will hold the title of world reserve currency for years to come. In fact, America's unexpected energy boom just added another few decades of dominance. We'll increase the debt ceiling time after time… print more money…. keep interest rates low… take out loans with China and it all doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day the world is pretty much dependent on a steady flow of U.S. dollars. And we can keep printing and spending them as we please. There's one distinct drawback to this scenario, as I hinted above. While you shouldn't count on a collapse of the U.S. economy, you should count on a collapse of dollar-based personal savings accounts. That's because along with the near certainty of "business as usual" for Janet Yellen and the rest of Washington's fools, there's a near certainty that savers will pay over the long run. Holding your wealth in U.S. dollars, as we've seen over the past few decades, will continue to be a losing battle. That's bad for savers, but it's great for anyone that's diversifying their savings into stocks or resource plays. Simply put, you and I can let the doom and gloomers continue to predict the market's next catastrophic drop, at their own risk. In the meantime – as I told my dad – the market's trend is up. Ever since 2009 the market has seen an unstoppable uptrend. Picking your favorite, well-run companies will still be the best plan to increase your savings or retirement funds. Keep your boots muddy, Matt Insley for The Daily Reckoning P.S. For more insight on my favorite ways to profit, sign up for my FREE Daily Resource Hunter email, right here. Original article posted on Daily Resource Hunter

Paul McGuire explains how America is being sold to China Posted: 18 Feb 2014 07:30 AM PST WW3 2014 -- THE CHINA PLAN | PAUL MCGUIRE Paul McGuire explains how America is being sold to China Hagmann & Hagmann - February 2014 The petro-dollar illusion is what kept america weak and eventually will fail. Everyone thinks since we are the reserve currency we can borrow and borrow, import... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.GoldSilverNewsBlog.com or http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Gold Standard – The way to Liberty Posted: 18 Feb 2014 06:50 AM PST History has countless manifestations of monetary policies. Even the royal houses of the Middle Ages used their power to change the nature of money to their advantage – and mostly to dilute. They could not resist the temptation to finance too costly ventures and projects through indirect ways. Gold and silver coins were added to less valuable metals, the citizens were therefore consequently – not directly violent, but still subjected to violence –put underneath a creeping expropriation. What the royal houses arranged caused back then, is now sealed in another form behind the walls of central banks. The phantom of inflation strolls around more quietly than ever before. It is no longer necessary to start the proverbial printing presses. The German Reichsbank faced a shortage of paper, partially due to its inflationary monetary policy, which would erode not only the money of the Weimar Republic, but also the young democracy. Today’s central bankers do not have to worry anymore about this issue. Money has long been digitized, it has become a mere booking line. Thus, the hardest, but in any case quietest of all taxes, was made even more abstract. At its core, however, there is little difference between the behavior of the medieval potentates in financial distress and those of our central banks today. Power and non-transparent decision-making processes provide the opportunity to undermine the value of money and thus the stability of society at any era. The economies of the former Deutsche Mark block are faced with the effects of expansionary monetary policy to a great extent. The maxim of price stability was abandoned in favor of political visions. The European Central Bank shook off the legacy of the Deutsche Bundesbank, should the ECB actually ever have carried on this legacy to begin with. State budgets can be understood as figures that are reflecting policies. Ever since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the monetary value of the monetary union itself became a political issue. The gravitation of market forces has been eliminated in favor of a new interventionism on the part of the European System of Central Banks, and annulled presumably at least with the quiet acceptance of European governments. Liberalism is on the decline and is gradually being replaced by an institutionalism that is in its nature socialistically stained. Collectivistic centralism won one victory after another against liberal federalism. Both parallel developments lead to a substantial shift that provides food for thought. During the financial crisis, the ECB accumulated a multiple of its intended power. Democratically legitimized parliaments receded to the same extent into the background. The sovereignty over the budget, the key right of a state, was passed on to the European Stability Mechanism. An organization that is equally influential as it is anonymous. The liberal thinker Friedrich August von Hayek warned in his book “The Road to Serfdom” strongly against overpowering bureaucracy and the accumulation of power. The sum of conglomerated power is greater than the power of its individual parts. The criminal acts of the collective dictatorships of fascism, nazism and communism were apparent in their overall fatality, in the context of the development of his work. Consequently, history would have to be understood as a plea for a maximized liberal and decentralized political system, to permanently bury a terrifying vision of a totalitarian state and a totalitarian society. Of course, the executive board of the ECB shall not be compared with any supporting figures of dictatorial systems. But the hubris that must be hidden behind a conviction that wants to confront the failure of the state and its organs by expanding its powers and possibilities for economic control, can barely be imagined. In his late work "The Fatal Conceit – The Errors of Socialism" Hayek quoted a famous statement by Carl Mengers , who describes the essence of our democracy today crisis accurately: “Why do Institutions that serve common welfare and are most significant for the development of the same, arise without a justification within the collective will?" A de-politicization of money and thus the return to all its facets as a store of value and means of exchange, would be beneficial for a broad minded- liberal society rather than a centrally – doctrinaire social order. The gold standard of a currency captures the otherwise nearly limitless power of politics and thereby gives people freedom. Wolfgang Schwetz Wolfgang is the author of "Freiheit und Gold – Reale Werte für Österreich" (Freedom and Gold – Real Value of Austria). It is being released this month. Wolfgang is studying national economics at the University of Vienna. Despite his clear mind being washed by pure Keynsian academic BS, he is a follower of Austrian School economics and has become a real admirer of gold and the gold standard. Since 2008 Wolfgang has been a Parliamentarian secretary at the Austrian Freedom Party. This article comes from The Gold Standard Institute. Readers are recommended to subscribe to the monthly edition of the The Gold Standard Journal.

Tuesday Morning Links Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:35 AM PST MUST READS China drains $8B from money markets – BBC It's official: China is the top consumer of gold – CNBC Gold falls as report highlights drop in demand – MarketWatch The US Economy is Slowing and Technology Can't Save It – IBT Robert Gordon's sequel paper on the great stagnation – Marginal Revolution The Demise of Economic Growth: Restatement, Rebuttal, [...]

Gold Prices End 9-Day Surge, "Year of Consumer" Saw US Jewelry Demand Rise 1st Time Since 2001 Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:14 AM PST GOLD PRICES slipped Tuesday in Asia and London, dropping $20 from yesterday's new 3-month high to trade at $1313 per ounce.   Ending a 9-day run of higher prices, an event only seen 10 times in the last 40 years, gold prices then rallied just below last week's closing level of $1318.   Silver also fell, doubling gold's 1.5% drop before also rebounding to trade just shy of last week's finish at $21.50 per ounce.   China's central bank today drained $8bn from money markets, the first such move since June, as interest rates fell to what analysts called "unusual" low levels.   Shanghai premiums to the world gold price today edged down to $4 per ounce from $7 Monday.   The Bank of Japan meantime held its key interest rate at zero, and continued with its QE money printing program, whilst also extending two bank lending schemes.   Japanese shares jumped more than 3%, but European markets held flat.   The Pound retreated from Monday's 3.5-year highs to the Dollar after new data showed UK inflation falling below the Bank of England's 2.0% annual target for the first time in four years in January.   "Demand for gold in China [in 2013] set a remarkable new record of 1,065.8 tonnes," says today's new Gold Demand Trends report from market-development organization the World Gold Council, "exceeding our expectations for the year."   Indian gold demand was also "resilient", it says, estimating a possible 200 tonnes of "unofficial imports".   With politicians now debating an easing of India's gold import restrictions, that level of smuggling would add $9 billion to the government's current-account deficit forecast of $45bn for this fiscal year.   "The unprecedented flow of gold from western vaults to eastern [consumer] markets," says the report, "was a function of large-scale selling of more tactical ETF positions among western investors as macro sentiment in the US improved."   Calling 2013 the "year of the gold consumer", the report notes that US and UK jewelry demand rose for the first time in 12 years.   2013 was also the first year the gold price fell since 2001.   Net-net, total world demand for gold fell 15% by weight from 2012, however.    "Jewellery, bar and coin demand reached an all-time high," the World Gold Council says.

GOLD Elliott Wave Trend Forecast - Could Face Resistance Around 1330 Posted: 18 Feb 2014 05:05 AM PST On gold we have adjusted the wave count after recent acceleration and daily close above 1300 level. We are now tracking an incomplete triangle in wave 4) but bias remains the same; we see move up from 1181 as temporary and corrective retracement that may stop and send prices down in second part of this month. We see resistance for a potential turning pint at 1330, 1362, followed by 1376.

India Gold Smuggling "Near 200 Tonnes": WGC Posted: 18 Feb 2014 02:43 AM PST Gold smuggling may worsen CAD by 20% on new estimate...   GOLD SMUGGLING into India, the world's former No.1 consumer nation, is far ahead of official estimates, according to market-development organization the World Gold Council.   India's official statistics show gold imports falling by almost two-thirds between July and October. But while finance minister P.Chidambaram says smuggling may total 1-3 tonnes per month since midsummer, and leading consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS say total 2013 smuggling may have exceeded 150 tonnes, the World Gold Council's information suggests "unofficial flows may be considerably higher."   India has no domestic mine output. On the World Gold Council's data, released today in its new Gold Demand Trends report for full-year 2013, total Indian demand in 2013 reached 975 tonnes, the third largest volume on record.   "We have previously been on record with our estimate [for Indian gold smsuggling] of between 150-200 for 2013," says the mining-company owned Council, "and we feel that the total for 2013 was closer to the top end of this range."   An extra 200 tonnes of gold at 2013's average price would add another $9 billion to India's Current Account Deficit, estimated this week by Mr.Chidambaram at $45bn for the fiscal year ending this March.   The government's lower CAD estimate has sparked fresh speculation that gold import rules may be eased before India's elections in May. But analysts agree that some form of restriction is likely to remain in place for some time to come.    "Unofficial gold will undoubtedly continue to supplement official inflows," says the World Gold Council, "as latent demand among Indian consumers remains healthy."   Backing up this, the WGC's new report includes a chart of gold consumer research conducted on its behalf in both India and China during January 2014. Some 36% of India respondents said they plan to buy more gold this year than last, with a further 39% planning to repeat their 2013 spending.

India Gold Smuggling "Near 200 Tonnes": WGC Posted: 18 Feb 2014 02:43 AM PST Gold smuggling may worsen CAD by 20% on new estimate...   GOLD SMUGGLING into India, the world's former No.1 consumer nation, is far ahead of official estimates, according to market-development organization the World Gold Council.   India's official statistics show gold imports falling by almost two-thirds between July and October. But while finance minister P.Chidambaram says smuggling may total 1-3 tonnes per month since midsummer, and leading consultancy Thomson Reuters GFMS say total 2013 smuggling may have exceeded 150 tonnes, the World Gold Council's information suggests "unofficial flows may be considerably higher."   India has no domestic mine output. On the World Gold Council's data, released today in its new Gold Demand Trends report for full-year 2013, total Indian demand in 2013 reached 975 tonnes, the third largest volume on record.   "We have previously been on record with our estimate [for Indian gold smsuggling] of between 150-200 for 2013," says the mining-company owned Council, "and we feel that the total for 2013 was closer to the top end of this range."   An extra 200 tonnes of gold at 2013's average price would add another $9 billion to India's Current Account Deficit, estimated this week by Mr.Chidambaram at $45bn for the fiscal year ending this March.   The government's lower CAD estimate has sparked fresh speculation that gold import rules may be eased before India's elections in May. But analysts agree that some form of restriction is likely to remain in place for some time to come.    "Unofficial gold will undoubtedly continue to supplement official inflows," says the World Gold Council, "as latent demand among Indian consumers remains healthy."   Backing up this, the WGC's new report includes a chart of gold consumer research conducted on its behalf in both India and China during January 2014. Some 36% of India respondents said they plan to buy more gold this year than last, with a further 39% planning to repeat their 2013 spending.

Gold Prices soar despite Bearish Reports from most Major Banks Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:28 AM PST Gold prices surged last week smashing through several key resistance levels including the psychologically important $1300 an ounce level. Gold prices continued to advance last Friday for an eighth session in a row, gaining almost 5% for the week, fuelled by a combination of increased physical demand, technical buying and economic jitters. And, on Monday, the price of spot gold hit $1329.70 per ounce, a 3-1/2 month high. Market sentiment towards gold has been positive since the beginning of the year as weak U.S. economic data, and emerging market jitters have taken a toll on global equities, spurring demand for bullion – often seen at times of uncertainty as a safe haven. Gold is up 10% this year after a 28% drop in 2013, while silver has gained more than 12%. The price of the yellow metal has broken well above its 50 day moving average, has traded above the 100 day moving average and has also closed above the 200 day moving average as well as the key resistance of $1,300/oz. These positive signs suggest that the upside could continue. The price of gold began last week on a firmer note and then after vacillating for most of the day on Tuesday, prices rallied after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pledged to continue to maintain the monetary policies set by her predecessor Ben Bernanke. In her first testimony before Congress, Yellen said. "His leadership helped make our economy and financial system stronger and ensured that the Federal Reserve is transparent and accountable." When speaking about the economic recovery, monetary policy and the financial systems Yellen expressed optimism about developments in recent months, but also made it clear work must be done to meet the Federal Open Market Committee's objectives for the economy. With regard to the poor employment figures released last month as well as the month before that, she acknowledged that recovery in the labour market was "far from complete." Echoing Bernanke's insistence that the FOMC is looking to a 6.5% unemployment rate as a threshold rather than a trigger, Yellen added. "The unemployment rate is still well above levels that Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants estimate is consistent with maximum sustainable employment. Those out of a job for more than six months continue to make up an unusually large fraction of the unemployed, and the number of people who are working part time but would prefer a full-time job remains very high. These observations underscore the importance of considering more than the unemployment rate when evaluating the condition of the U.S. labour market." Looking to the upcoming FOMC meeting in March, Yellen, said she and other members will take time to assess these reports, as well as the February jobs numbers and other data when determining their next move on asset purchases. Only a "notable" change in outlook would cause the FOMC to pause the current course and only a "deterioration" in outlook would cause it to increase the amount purchased. On the subject of policy, Yellen reaffirmed her support of current strategy. "Accommodative financial conditions," she said, "support consumer spending, business investment, and housing construction, adding impetus to the recovery." Assuming labour markets and inflation continue improving at their present pace Yellen said the FOMC will likely continue cutting its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities and longer-term Treasury securities by a combined $10 billion per month. Noting that purchases are not on a pre-determined course she added, "the Committee's decisions about their pace will remain contingent on its outlook for the labour market and inflation as well as its assessment of the likely efficacy and costs of such purchases." Meantime, last week, Bank of England, Governor, Mark Carney, pledged to keep interest rates at a record low in a recasting of forward guidance to combat persisting slack in the British economy. "The first phase of guidance gave businesses confidence that bank rate would not be raised at least until jobs, incomes and spending were growing at sustainable rates," Carney said. "As guidance evolves, that remains the case: the Monetary Policy Committee will not take risks with the recovery." In its report, the BOE said it expects fourth-quarter GDP growth will be revised up to 0.9% from the 0.7% estimated by the statistics office. It forecast a similar pace of expansion this quarter. For the full-year 2014, it raised its projection to 3.4% from 2.8% in November. The pound rallied strongly against the US dollar after the bank released its forecasts. While the BOE offered an upbeat outlook, saying it expects the recovery to become "more entrenched and more broadly based," it added that any rate increases are likely to be gradual. "The legacy of the financial crisis and the persistence of economic headwinds mean that interest rates may need to remain at lower levels for some time to come," the BOE said. "Even when the economy has returned to normal levels of capacity and inflation is close to the target, the appropriate level of bank rate is likely to be materially below the 5% level set on average by the committee prior to the financial crisis." On inflation, the BOE lowered its projections throughout the forecast period, reflecting smaller-than-expected increases in utility prices and a stronger pound. Sterling has risen about 6.5% against the dollar in the past six months. "The inflation environment is more benign than we had anticipated," Carney told reporters, citing subdued global prices, falling commodity costs and a strengthening of the pound. "All of these developments will hold back imported inflation pressures that have to a great extent explained the above-target inflation over the past five years." The BOE sees inflation slowing to as low as 1.7% in the second quarter of 2015, based on market interest-rate expectations. It will gradually accelerate after that, reaching 1.9% in 2016 and staying around that level. Once again, when it comes to gold, news from China portrays a very positive outlook for the yellow metal, unlike reports published in most of the Western media. In an article published on Wednesday, February 05, in the Hong Kong Standard, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange stated that they expect the price of bullion to stable in the first half this year as the pace of tapering by the US Federal Reserve is still slow. “The price of gold would not move significantly as the pace of the Fed’s scaling down of bond buying is slow and there are uncertainties in emerging markets’ currency policies,” said Haywood Cheung Tak-hay, president of the society. Cheung expects gold to be traded between US$1,200 and US$1,400 per ounce, possibly going to $1600 an ounce. The Society launched Renminbi Kilobar Gold in 2011, making it the first offshore yuan gold product in the world. Cheung said he expected daily turnover to reach HK$30 billion to HK$40 billion, but it recorded only HK$8 billion to HK$9 billion, which was disappointing. The society has paid close attention to the development of the Shenzhen Qianhai area. It is in talks with mainland authorities to set up a warehouse for gold and silver and it is expected to be built in two years. “There are 3,000 to 4,000 gold and jewellery manufacturers in Shenzhen now, so it is necessary to build a warehouse,” said Cheung. "I also hope to bring the bullion trading platform to Qianhai.” He also recommended that the Shanghai Free Trade Zone should cooperate with Hong Kong and Shenzhen Qianhai, enabling daily gold trading volume to reach hundreds of billions of yuan. Despite calls for lower prices from practically every major bank, the price of the yellow metal is now up by around 10% from the beginning of the year. Gold has now broken above the $1300 for the first time since November last year. This is an important turning point for the yellow metal, and I urge you to consider adding to your portfolio. If you have been waiting to buy your first physical gold, now is a good time to start, as I believe the bull market is making a comeback. If you already own gold, but have been waiting for the right time to add to your position, now is the time. Do not wait any longer. Add physical gold to your investment portfolios.

Gold’s Comeback and Bitcoin’s Silent Crash Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:25 AM PST It's the tale of two assets: gold, which was largely shunned by investors for most of last year, has made an impressive comeback in recent weeks. Meanwhile Bitcoin, the white-hot "investment" of 2013, has lost value in recent weeks and threatens to violate an important long-term trend line. Gold made its return to the headlines after exceeding the psychological $1,300 level for the first time since November. Trading volumes have hit their highest level since May as U.S. investors gradually awaken to the attractiveness of gold in the near term.

U.S. Dollar, Major Forex Market Forecasts for 2014 and 2015 Posted: 18 Feb 2014 01:18 AM PST It has been awhile since I have posted on the web and thought this was an appropriate article to share. This article focuses on technical analysis of 3 currencies and the US Dollar Index. A lot of the technical indicators I follow are universal, but the way in which they are modified and put together will not be found anywhere else. Developing the Contracting Fibonacci Spiral and the inverse chiral inversion that happened last summer have played a role in the forecast of this article. As unbelievable as the forecast may seem by time the end of this article, there is a significant amount of logic that went into this and may even defy logic. There is a mathematical basis to this pattern and hopefully it will be understood somewhat by the end of this article...

Silver: 50 Days and 100 Years Posted: 17 Feb 2014 11:05 PM PST Read the Latest News About: Gold    Silver    Economy    Central Banking Maintain perspective! Skip the hope and hype, the "analysis" from... {This is a content summary only. Click on the blog title to continue reading this post, share your comments, browse the website, and more!}

Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013 Posted: 17 Feb 2014 10:00 PM PST

Global consumer demand for gold at unprecedented levels in 2013. China the world’s largest gold market in 2013 Posted: 17 Feb 2014 10:00 PM PST Gold demand of 3,756.1 tonnes in 2013 was worth US$170.4bn. Consumers generated exceptional levels of demand, with jewellery at its highest since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008 and investment in small bars and coins hitting a record high. This was in contrast to large-scale outflows from ETFs, due to a number tactical western investors liquidating their positions as US economic sentiment improved. Central banks made healthy purchases of 368.6 tonnes, the fourth consecutive year of positive demand. The net result was a 15% decline in overall gold demand from 2012.

Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013 Infographics Posted: 17 Feb 2014 10:00 PM PST

Gold Demand Trends Full Year 2013 Posted: 17 Feb 2014 10:00 PM PST

Richard Russell - World In Depression As US Lies To Its People Posted: 17 Feb 2014 09:01 PM PST With continued chaos and uncertainty in global markets, today KWN is publishing an incredibly powerful piece that was written by a 60-year market veteran. The Godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell, is warning that the Fed and the US government are bombarding its people with a never ending parade of lies as the world remains caught in the throes of a severe depression. He also discussed what is happening in the gold market. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

U.S. Debt Out of Control, "Gold is Catastophe Insurance" | Rick Rule Posted: 17 Feb 2014 08:00 PM PST IN THIS INTERVIEW: - Recovery in the precious metal sector is coming (1:28). - U.S. bonds are "return free risk." Gold, silver, platinum, & palladium fundamental are social catastrophe insurance (5:23). - Are platinum & palladium real money? (17:15). - Are precious metal markets... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.GoldSilverNewsBlog.com or http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Gold Arbitrage and Backwardation Part II (the Lease Rate) Posted: 17 Feb 2014 05:44 PM PST Monetary Metals

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