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• Regulators scrutinize London gold fix
• Gold bears punish the miners - charting the damage
• Here’s Why Amazon.com Stock Is Getting Ripped Today
• Week In FX Americas - Forex A Yawn, Gold In Demand
• In destabilising economic war over Ukraine, gold the winner
• Remembering the silver parabola
• Beadell Resources: The Time Is Right
• Safe Havens Boost Gold
• Precious Metal Forecast: Gold, Silver At New Lows, U.S. Dollar Holds
• How oversold can gold get?
• FMQ Update and valuing gold
• Lloyd Blankfein Has a Tip for You!
• The High Risk Of “Safekeeping” Gold In A Central Bank Custodial Vault
• Will regulators and journalists ever dare to look behind the London gold fix banks?
• U.S. suits hobble Deutsche Banks bid to sell gold fix seat
• Alasdair Macleod: Fiat money quantity update and valuing gold
• Is it 2007 all over again? You may not believe the similarities...
• Turkey, Russia cut gold holdings in March - IMF
• Peter Munk says Newmont "not shareholder-friendly" - report
• Canadian bank CIBC starts selling real gold, not just paper
• Richard Maybury: The sure way to profit when Putin turns the gas off
• Gold Steaming Towards $1,500
• Gold & silver prices: Filtering out the noise
• China's gold import spikes; Yuan declines 3%
• CME plans to launch physically settled Asia gold futures-sources
• Pensions Without Diversification To Gold & Silver Exposed As Pension ‘Time Bomb’ Looms
• UK Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms
• Canadian investors preferring 'black gold,' in ETFs
• Gold testing the downtrend
• JIM WILLIE: THE CLIMAX FINALE OF THE PETRO-DOLLAR TO ARRIVE IN 2014!
• Jim Willie: The Climax Finale of the Petro-Dollar to Arrive in 2014!
• New factor for gold: European QE
• What is the future of gold?
• US Gold output up 10% Y Y in Jan: USGS
• UK Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms
• One number that will make you invest in Russia today...
• Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms
• Must-read: The totally free way to track your investments like a professional
• Links 4/25/14
• SHFE Gold moves back up to $1 Oz premium to London prices
• Suspicion grows that China is exporting deflation worldwide by driving down yuan
• Swiss Platinum Imports From South Africa Slump in March
• Three King World News Blogs
• Barrick’s Munk Says Einstein Couldn’t Predict Gold Prices
• Comex plans to get in on Asian gold trade, Reuters says
• Gold falls to support at $1268
• Gold Prices April 25, 2014, Technical Analysis
• Gold: 1275/78 support key
• Gregson: 'It will be hard for gold to perform in 2014'
• “Independent” Foreclosure Review Error Rate Vastly Higher Than Previously Admitted

Regulators scrutinize London gold fix Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:49 PM PDT People with knowledge of the matter say Britain's Financial Conduct Authority officials are visiting Societe Generale to observe the so-called London fixing process.

Gold bears punish the miners - charting the damage Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:47 PM PDT We take a look at how badly (for most part) gold stock have fared since the gold price went south mid-March.

Here’s Why Amazon.com Stock Is Getting Ripped Today Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:45 PM PDT AMZN is down 10% today on already  3 times higher volume than the 90-day daily average. The reason Amazon can't make real money and has been suffering declining operating margins for several quarters in a row now is that, ultimately, AMZN achieves sales growth by getting a product from the factory floor to the consumer's [...] The post Here's Why Amazon.com Stock Is Getting Ripped Today appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Jim Rickards’ Currency Wars Hits #32 on Amazon’s Top 100 Books 14 Facts About The Absolutely Crazy Internet Stock Bubble That Could Crash And Burn In 2014 U.S. SILVER CORP Q2 2012 NET INCOME IS A NEGATIVE $2.3 MILLION

Week In FX Americas - Forex A Yawn, Gold In Demand Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:37 PM PDT The forex market is ending Friday confined to a tight range (EUR has traded 14bps in North America) which is not surprising for a week that happened to print the lowest major currency volatility in seven-years. The market is already looking forward to Monday's European economic outlook. Setting Russia/Ukraine aside, there is only second tier data from Germany (import prices) and Italy (consumer confidence) to keep anyone interested. There is however a plethora of ECB speakers - Draghi in Bonn, while Constancio, Coeure and Praet speak in Frankfurt. The market should expect them all to tow the party line - expect talk on the outlook for policy as well as their preparedness to act now. If one includes Russia and Ukraine into the equation, then it's gold that should catch your attention. Currently, the yellow metal is enjoying a safe-haven bid on concerns about Russian troop movements near Ukraine. Gold

In destabilising economic war over Ukraine, gold the winner Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:11 PM PDT U.S. data and the escalating Ukraine crisis have seen gold Yo-Yo down and back up again.

Remembering the silver parabola Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:05 PM PDT Ryan Jordan recalls silver's bullish move three years ago and considers how cheap the price seems to have become since.

Beadell Resources: The Time Is Right Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:00 PM PDT Introduction A while ago, I presented a bullish thesis on Beadell Resources (OTC:BDREF) which operates the Tucano mine in Brazil. As the share price has decreased by 25% since then, I think an update on my thesis is warranted as Beadell has also updated its guidance and hedged a larger share of its gold production. (click to enlarge) Source: company presentation Beadell currently has a market capitalization of roughly $490M and has an average daily volume of 7.5M shares on the Australian Stock Exchange where the company is listed with BDR as its ticker symbol. The Tucano Project - Duckhead converted an 'ok' asset into an excellent asset Beadell's main project is the Tucano project in Brazil which is currently already in production and has reached a steady-state output. The project was advanced quite fast and the first gold pour occurred on December 12th 2012 which means the

Safe Havens Boost Gold Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:53 AM PDT Once again, it is back to tracking events in Ukraine when it comes to gold. Traders are running away from risk and into the usual safe havens ( gold, bonds and the Yen). This is going to be the scenario until something changes over there so get used to it. As I mentioned yesterday, it is basically a crap shoot. Those who expect the events to get worse are buying gold; those who expect them to be more contained are selling the rally. Both sides are utterly dependent on what happens next but more importantly, what is PERCEIVED to be the course of events. Personally I do not see a lot of  upside for gold here because the situation, as tense as it is, has not thus far spread to anywhere outside of Ukraine. In that sense, while it is not insignificant, it is not likely to have much impact ( other than the short term market gyrations associated with geopolitical events ) on regions outside of that immediate area. It certainly is not going to move the Fed one way or the other when it comes to Tapering plans or interest rate policy. As mentioned many times here, that will be completely dependent on subsequent US economic data releases. This is the reason that gold is struggling to maintain the "13" handle in spite of the escalation in tensions. If the bombs start going off in earnest or we get larger scale shooting or conflict, gold will be bid higher but many traders do not see this thing moving beyond Ukraine at this point. What we have seen is a bout of sharp, short-covering from speculative interests who had been pressing the metal from the short side. They are standing aside and allowing events to unfold further before coming back in to sell in size. That is allowing an air pocket above the market and price is moving in the path of least resistance which for now is higher. I would caution those who are looking to buy the metal here. Just be careful - geopolitical events are very tricky - you might hit it big and then again, you might not. Whatever you decide to go, no matter which way, long or short, do not be slow on the draw if need be. You can never anticipate when events on the ground will change and flip the market in the other direction. As a trader you do not always need to be in the market. Sometimes the sidelines is the proper place. Let others chop each other up while you wait for the trend to re-establish itself after the excitement lifts. I have made it a habit never to chase gold over geopolitical events because one never knows how those will turn out. If you own some physical gold, you can be content with that but do not chase it higher if you are a trader. Even if you miss out on a move, the structure of the market becomes too unstable and that sort of thing is asking for disaster in these highly leveraged futures now that computers are doing the brunt of the trading. I am noticing that crude is getting hit hard today. We have large supplies of the stuff but some are unsure how to trade it due to the geopolitical concerns. For now the bears are flexing their muscles. Gasoline is a bit weaker today but the stuff has moved up some $0.50/gallon since mid-January this year much to the chagrin and frustration of consumers who were relishing the lower prices back then. Moo-Moos and Piggies parted ways today with hogs going down and cattle going up. Packers have been able to move the higher priced beef for now while pork demand has hit a temporary lull it would seem. Consumers are going to learn quickly, if they have not done so already, that beef prices are at record highs. Again, I look for relief later this year but the summer grilling season is going to suck. Corn continues to draw buying from those playing up the cold, wet planting season weather. There is no doubt that planting is running behind normal. Most expected it to do so given the intensity of the cold winter and the fact that some of the Great Lakes were frozen over. The big question is whether or not we will have a good growing season regardless. Some chatter that El Nino will help out the crop is around but it is a bit early to bank on that. For now, the bulls are in charge of the corn market. They were certainly back to playing " the US is going to run entirely out of old crop soybeans" theme  in the bean market once again today as May hit the magical $15.00 level. We'll see if China begins any cancellations in earnest and whether or not imports from S. American begin to really take off. I will get a chart up later for both gold, the COT stuff and the mining shares. I do not know whether or not the COT data will show the hedge fund short covering that has been occurring this week. My guess is that it will not, at least not in size because the big move from down below $1280 did not come until events flared up over in Ukraine on Thursday, two days after the cutoff point from the CFTC. Same goes for silver - hedge funds have been playing it increasingly from the short side and the combination of a stronger durable goods number, plus the psychological support from a higher gold price no doubt sent a fair number of shorts scurrying to cover but that occurred after Tuesday of this week. In other words, do not read too much into today's COT data. With what happened on Thursday, it is interesting but far too dated to give a clear read on how things stand here at the end of the week.  Considering the move higher in gold and its ability to recapture a "13" handle, the miners look rather lackluster at the moment. Maybe that will change by the closing bell. The HUI continues to trade down below both its 50 day moving average and its 200 day moving average, not exactly a glaring example of a big market endorsement of the sector. There is value-based buying at work in the sector but the momentum crowd is MIA. The US stock markets are getting hit with some selling ahead of the weekend as traders are nervous holding long positions over the weekend in which anything can or might happen. Caution/prudence dictates standing aside, especially if you have some decent profits. I suspect that a fair number of money managers/institutions are welcoming this move lower in the broader equities. Valuations have not been cheap keeping many from buying. Their problem has been that they do not want to miss the move up but are hesitant to buy when many issues are trading up so close to chart highs. The setback will allow some strategic positioning to begin taking place. So far, 1880 - 1890 on the S&P has proven to be a bridge too far for the bulls. Its session low at 1853 is right about even with the 50 day moving average. The 100 day comes in near 1830 which also corresponds  closely to the mid-March swing low at 1823. If the 50 day does not hold it, I would look for prices to drift down towards that level to see if the market can uncover some buying there. More later...

Precious Metal Forecast: Gold, Silver At New Lows, U.S. Dollar Holds Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:46 AM PDT By Raul de Frutos This week, while Barrick Gold Corp (ABX) and Newmont Mining Corp (NEM) are talking about a merger, gold and silver are hitting 3-month lows. Silver is down 13 percent since its February peak, while gold is down 8 percent since its March peak. Gold and Silver ETFs – 6 months The precious metals fell in high trading volume (the yellow circles) which indicates that many hands are selling gold and silver. The current picture suggests that we might see further moves to the downside. Meanwhile, despite recent fears, the stock market surged during the past few days. The stock market still looks healthy and

How oversold can gold get? Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:40 AM PDT How oversold can gold get?   Gold is now extremely oversold, with emotional opinion in paper markets unanimously bearish. Traders tell us the 200-day moving average is well and truly broken and the next support level is $1260. However, when gold broke down through the $1280 level yesterday it rallied sharply to test the $1300 level in a one-day spike reversal. Market chat and technical analysis are one thing; more important are the motives behind the commentary, revealed by a dispassionate look at Comex figures. And here we see that Producers and Merchants short positions have fallen to an eight-year low at 73,033 contracts, against a long term average of 186,400. This is the primary source of liquidity for all futures markets, and it has simply dried up. Swap dealers have also cut their shorts dramatically, reducing their net position by 26,582 contracts, and the eight largest traders between them have a level book. In short, the bears have to persuade us to sell, or they will be in trouble. The figures quoted above are as of 15th April. Since then the gold price confirms this analysis by refusing to go lower and stay there (hence yesterday's spike reversal), while open interest has risen from the post-Lehman crisis low on 4 April. This is shown in the chart below. The rise in open interest tells us that the shorts, mostly hedge funds, are opening new positions and failing to drive prices lower, so the market is being set up for another bear squeeze. By way of confirmation the gold forward rate in London remains negative up to three months out, indicating an extreme shortage of physical metal at these prices. In these markets sentiment can change very rapidly. We read this week that the US is on the brink of another housing crisis because sales (demand) have stalled. Last weekend the Ukrainian protagonists met in Geneva and agreed to "de-escalate" the situation. By Monday the situation was escalating again. Oh, and the best contrary indicator of the lot was also on Monday, when according to the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch blog, for the first time ever all 72 economists polled by the National Association for Business Economics expect the US economy to grow this year. It is usually right to bet against such unanimity in economists. Next week Monday. US: Pending Home Sales. Tuesday. Eurozone: M3 Money Supply, Business Climate Index, Consumer Sentiment, Economic Sentiment. UK: GDP (first est.), Index of Services. US: S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index, Consumer Confidence, FOMC Meeting (to Wednesday). Japan: Industrial Production. Wednesday. Japan: Construction Orders, Housing Starts, BoJ Monetary Policy Meeting, BoJ MPC Overnight Rate. Eurozone: Flash HICP. US: ADP Employment Survey, Core PCE Price Index, Employment Index, GDP Annualised, GDP Price Index, Chicago PMI, FOMC Fed Funds Rate. Thursday. Japan: Vehicle Sales, Real Household Spending, Unemployment. UK: Nationwide House Prices, BoE Mortgage Approvals, Net Consumer Credit, Secured Lending, M4 Money Supply. US: Initial Claims, Core PCE Proce Index, Personal income, Personal Spending, Manufacturing PMI, Construction Spending, ISM Manufacturing. Friday. Eurozone: Manufacturing PMI, Unemployment. US: Non-Farm Payrolls, Private Payrolls, Unemployment, Factory Orders. ends NOTES TO EDITOR For more information, and to arrange interviews, please call Gwyn Garfield-Bennett on 01534 715411, or email gwyn@directinput.je GoldMoney is one of the world's leading providers of physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium for retail and corporate customers. Customers can trade and store precious metal online easily and securely, 24 hours a day. GoldMoney stores around $1.4billion of precious metals worldwide for over 22,000 customers. GoldMoney has offices in London, Jersey and Hong Kong.  It offers its customers storage facilities in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK provided by the leading non-bank vault operators Brink’s, Via Mat, Malca-Amit, G4S and Rhenus Logistics. Historically gold has been an excellent way to preserve purchasing power over long periods of time. For example, today it takes almost the same amount of gold to buy a barrel of crude oil as it did 60 years ago which is in stark contrast to the price of oil in terms of national currencies such as the US dollar. GoldMoney is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission and complies with Jersey’s anti-money laundering laws and regulations. GoldMoney has established industry-leading governance policies and procedures to protect customers’ assets with independent audit reporting every 3 months by two leading audit firms. Visit www.goldmoney.com. Follow the GoldMoney Dealing desk team on Twitter: @goldmoneyupdate The post How oversold can gold get? appeared first on The Daily Gold.

FMQ Update and valuing gold Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:37 AM PDT FMQ Update and valuing gold ___________________________________________________________________ An article by Alasdair Macleod, Head of Research, GoldMoney In the two months since my last update on USD Fiat Money Quantity, it has increased by $292bn to $12.861 trillion and is still growing rapidly as shown in the chart below. It is now 70.6% above where it would have been if it had grown at the long-term pre-banking crisis average monthly compound rate, represented by the red line in the chart. The reduction in the monthly rate of QE does not appear to have slowed the growth rate of FMQ. Indeed, the objective is for QE to be supplemented and then replaced by growth in bank lending. The policy of gradually reducing the rate of QE can therefore be taken as an expression of confidence within the Fed that bank lending activity is beginning to pick up, reflecting not just asset financing but hoped-for economic activity. Recent information throws some doubt on the latter expectation. Disappointing figures for January into early March were often blamed on adverse weather, but subsequently indications of economic activity have also often been disappointing. Furthermore, Europe and Japan appear to be moving towards overall deflation and deepening recession respectively, while the growth rate of China's economy is threatened by tightening credit conditions. These adverse developments may require a further acceleration in FMQ if a debt-deflation crisis is to be averted. Gold The second chart shows the gold price from the time of the Lehman crisis and also adjusted for both the expansion of FMQ and estimated above-ground stocks. Since July 2008 the price of gold has risen in nominal terms from $918, to a high of over $1900 before falling to about $1280 currently. Adjusted for FMQ and above-ground bullion stocks the price in July-2008 dollars stands at $590, a net fall of over one-third. The price of gold has therefore fallen significantly in real terms, and is trading well below the mid-2013 price low. The long-term adjustment from 1934 on the same terms is also interesting. The price of gold had just been raised from $20.67 to $35, and while convertibility between the USD and gold was prohibited for US citizens, it is reasonable to suppose that free convertibility would have worked at that price and time. In dollar terms the gold price could be said to have been fairly valued at that time. The subsequent adjusted price in 1934-dollars is shown below. In 1934-dollars gold today is $14.78, a fall of 58% in real terms. These comparisons are useful to give investors a sense of perspective. Too often analysts are oblivious to currency debasement when they forecast future prices. Instead, they assume that yesterday's market price is a sound valuation basis for analytical purposes. This assumption ignores currency debasement, government intervention, market emotion, and wrongly assumes markets are efficient. To say that gold was correctly priced before the Lehman crisis cannot be proved, and is probably incorrect. However, adjusting the price subsequently by both FMQ and above-ground stocks gives a useful basis for price comparison. That the dollar price in 1934 represented fair value is however, a valid assumption. The logical conclusion is that gold should be priced at $3,050 today (1280/42%) to match its valuation in 1934, before discounting the exceptional rate of future compound growth in FMQ and the real possibility of a collapse in USD purchasing power. Ends NOTES TO EDITOR For more information, and to arrange interviews, please call Gwyn Garfield-Bennett on 01534 715411, or email gwyn@directinput.je GoldMoney is one of the world's leading providers of physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium for retail and corporate customers. Customers can trade and store precious metal online easily and securely, 24 hours a day. GoldMoney has offices in London, Jersey and Hong Kong.  It offers its customers storage facilities in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK provided by the leading non-bank vault operators Brink’s, Via Mat, Malca-Amit, G4S and Rhenus Logistics. Historically gold has been an excellent way to preserve purchasing power over long periods of time. For example, today it takes almost the same amount of gold to buy a barrel of crude oil as it did 60 years ago which is in stark contrast to the price of oil in terms of national currencies such as the US dollar. GoldMoney is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission and complies with Jersey’s anti-money laundering laws and regulations. GoldMoney has established industry-leading governance policies and procedures to protect customers’ assets with independent audit reporting every 3 months by two leading audit firms. Visit www.goldmoney.com. The post FMQ Update and valuing gold appeared first on The Daily Gold.

Lloyd Blankfein Has a Tip for You! Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:31 AM PDT Lloyd Blankfein, still Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, told the lunchtime crowd at Chicago's Commercial Club on Wednesday, Apri 23, 2014,  he believes interest rates will remain low through 2016. In other words, the bailout benefits of QE for Goldman and other large banks will continue. Here’s a reminder of Goldman’s role in the crisis: “Goldman Sachs Spinning Gold.” Comedy Gold: Rick Ungar Schools Barry Ritholtz on the SEC vs. Goldman Sachs.

The High Risk Of “Safekeeping” Gold In A Central Bank Custodial Vault Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:30 AM PDT Although the western media at large, and especially the mainstream in the United States, remarkably never reported the event, the United States Government defaulted on Germany's request to have some portion of its gold shipped from the Fed custodial vaults back to Germany. That's right – the U.S. outright defaulted.   By PM Fund Manager [...] The post The High Risk Of "Safekeeping" Gold In A Central Bank Custodial Vault appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: If Your Central Bank Keeps Gold At The NY Fed, It's Gone South Korea central bank bought 14 tonnes of gold in Nov GATA Discovers 1999 IMF Report Stating 80 Central Banks Lent Over 15% of Official Gold Reserves

Will regulators and journalists ever dare to look behind the London gold fix banks? Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:03 AM PDT GATA

U.S. suits hobble Deutsche Banks bid to sell gold fix seat Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:03 AM PDT GATA

Alasdair Macleod: Fiat money quantity update and valuing gold Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:03 AM PDT GATA

Is it 2007 all over again? You may not believe the similarities... Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:36 AM PDT From Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse:  The similarities between 2007 and 2014 continue to pile up. As you are about to see, U.S. home sales fell dramatically throughout 2007 even as the mainstream media, our politicians and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke promised us that everything was going to be just fine and that we definitely were not going to experience a recession. Of course we remember precisely what followed... It was the worst economic crisis since the days of the Great Depression. And you know what they say – if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. Just like seven years ago, the stock market has soared to all-time highs... Just like seven years ago, the authorities are telling us that there is nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, just like seven years ago, a housing bubble is imploding and another great economic crisis is rapidly approaching. Posted below is a chart of existing home sales in the United States during 2007. As you can see, existing home sales declined precipitously throughout the year... Now look at this chart which shows what has happened to existing home sales in the United States in recent months. If you compare the two charts, you will see that the numbers are eerily similar... New home sales are also following a similar pattern. In fact, we just learned that new home sales have collapsed to an 8 month low... Sales of new single-family homes dropped sharply last month as severe winter weather and higher mortgage rates continued to slow the housing recovery.  New home sales fell 14.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 385,000, down from February's revised pace of 449,000, the Census Bureau said. Once again, this is similar to what we witnessed back in 2007. The following is a chart that shows how new home sales declined dramatically throughout that year...   And this chart shows what has happened to new homes sales during the past several months. Sadly, we have never even gotten close to returning to the level that we were at back in 2007. But even the modest "recovery" that we have experienced is now quickly unraveling... If history does repeat, then what we are witnessing right now is a very troubling sign for the months to come. As you can see from this chart, new home sales usually start going down before a recession begins. And don't expect these housing numbers to rebound any time soon. The demand for mortgages has dropped through the floor. Just check out the following excerpt from a recent article by Michael Lombardi... One of the key indicators I follow in respect to the state of the housing market is mortgage originations. This data gives me an idea about demand for homes, as rising demand for mortgages means more people are buying homes. And as demand increases, prices should be increasing.  But the opposite is happening… In the first quarter of 2014, mortgage originations at Citigroup Inc. (NYSE/C) declined 71% from the same period a year ago. The bank issued $5.2 billion in mortgages in the first quarter of 2014, compared to $8.3 billion in the previous quarter and $18.0 billion in the first quarter of 2013. (Source: Citigroup Inc. web site, last accessed April 14, 2014.) Total mortgage origination volume at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE/JPM) declined by 68% in the first quarter of 2014 from the same period a year ago. At JPMorgan, in the first quarter of 2014, $17.0 billion worth of mortgages were issued, compared to $52.7 billion in the same period a year ago. (Source: JPMorgan Chase & Co. web site, last accessed April 14, 2014.) It is almost as if we are watching a replay of 2007 all over again, and yet nobody is talking about this. Everyone wants to believe that this time will be different. The human capacity for self-delusion is absolutely amazing. There are a lot of other similarities between 2007 and today as well. Just the other day, I noted that retail stores are closing in the United States at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Back in 2007, we saw margin debt on Wall Street spike dramatically and help fuel a remarkable run in the stock market. Just check out the chart in this article. But that spike in margin debt also made the eventual stock market collapse much worse than it had to be. And just like 2007, consumer credit is totally out of control. As I noted in one recent article, during the fourth quarter of 2013 we witnessed the biggest increase in consumer debt in the U.S. that we have seen since 2007. Total consumer credit in the U.S. has risen by 22 percent over the past three years, and 56 percent of all Americans have "subprime credit" at this point. Are you starting to get the picture? It is only 7 years later, and the same things that happened just prior to the last great financial crisis are happening again. Only this time we are in much worse shape to handle an economic meltdown. The following is a brief excerpt from my recent article entitled "We Are In FAR Worse Shape Than We Were Just Prior To The Last Great Financial Crisis"... None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed. In fact, they have all gotten worse. The total amount of debt in the world has grown by more than 40 percent since 2007, the too big to fail banks have gotten 37 percent larger, and the colossal derivatives bubble has spiraled so far out of control that the only thing left to do is to watch the spectacular crash landing that is inevitably coming.  You can read the rest of that article right here. For a long time, I have been convinced that this two-year time period is going to represent a major "turning point" for America. Right now, 2014 is turning out to be eerily similar to 2007. Will 2015 turn out to be a repeat of 2008? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below...   More Cruxellaneous: Top trader Clark: Watch for this sign the rally in stocks is over If you're looking for safe yield, get your money OUT of the U.S. dollar, and put it here Doc Eifrig: This everyday item is putting your prostate at serious risk

Turkey, Russia cut gold holdings in March - IMF Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:19 AM PDT The IMF reports that Turkey cut its holdings by 14.3 tonnes to 483 tonnes while Russia reduced its bullion reserves by 1.2 tonnes to 1,041 tonnes.

Peter Munk says Newmont "not shareholder-friendly" - report Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:09 AM PDT Outgoing Barrick Gold chairman, Peter Munk, criticized Newmont in an interview with the National Post newspaper on Thursday, saying it is "not shareholder-friendly."

Canadian bank CIBC starts selling real gold, not just paper Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:03 AM PDT GATA

Richard Maybury: The sure way to profit when Putin turns the gas off Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:01 AM PDT Editor's note: Regular Crux readers know our "go-to" man for insight on geopolitics is Richard Maybury.  That's because he seems to have an uncanny ability to predict the next major world crises, long before actual hostilities begin.  It's probably because he's read more books on history, economics, law, and finance than anyone we know.  With Russia and the U.S. playing a dangerous game of brinkmanship over Ukraine right now... we thought you'd like to read what Richard said to expect of world leaders and the volatile region in April, 2008.   From Richard Maybury, editor, The U.S. and World Early Warning Report:   Governments are a never-ending source of amusement. If you haven't done it, now is a good time to read the short book The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli.   Machiavelli was perhaps the most consciously statist writer in history, so the word Machiavellian has become a synonym for evil.   The Prince is his handbook on how to run a government. It is often called satanic and depraved, probably because it tells truths about the inherent nature and behavior of government that few are willing to face.   The reason this is such a good time to read The Prince is that we have on the world stage such a fine collection of Machiavellian statists: Clinton, McCain and Russia's fuhrer Vladimir Putin.   One of my favorite chapters in The Prince is number 15, in which Machiavelli lists the characteristics generally thought to be desirable in a political leader: generosity, compassion, faithfulness, courage, purity, flexibility, religiousness, and others. He explains that the leader must fake these virtues but cannot actually have them, because they would "ruin him."   Says Machiavelli, "I have thought it proper to represent things as they are in real truth, rather than as they are imagined."   This being an election year, here are two more of Machiavelli's observations about political power: "A prince is always compelled to injure those who have made him the new ruler," and "men must be either pampered or crushed."   In short, Machiavelli's message is, if we insist on having a government, then we'd better be realistic about what government is.   A remark generally attributed to George Washington says it all: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."   I don't know McCain or Clinton personally, but I've been watching their decisions and public antics long enough to believe both have gone over to the dark side. They want to be the fearful master.   If you want to shine a bright light on what's happening in the world today, read the short classic written five centuries ago, The Prince.   A few hours after Putin and his protégé Medvedev won the rigged March 2nd Russian election, they slashed natural gas supplies to Ukraine.   Western Europe is heavily dependent on the oil and gas pipelines that run through Ukraine.   The next day, the government of Serbia reclaimed control of a 30-mile stretch of rail line in Kosovo, and the head of the Serbian Or- thodox Church ordered his clergy to cease all contact with Kosovo authorities and with the EU mission to Kosovo. Serbs are allies of the Kremlin.   Generals at NORAD say Russian bombers have been flying near US airspace, causing US fighter jets to be scrambled more frequently than at any time since the Cold War.   Bush has responded by promising Poland's government that the US will help modernize Poland's armed forces, and install missile systems there.   I think we can safely assume now that the Cold War, and Cold War military spending, is returning, and US officials will print more dollars to pay for it. The profits we've seen so far in defense stocks and non-dollar assets will pale beside what's coming...   Crux note: Richard has led his subscribers to multiple triple-digit winners by understanding the two biggest trends of our time: currency debasement and war.  It's sad these appear inevitable... but the good news is these don't have to destroy your wealth and your family.  Those who understand these forces will survive and profit from them, handsomely.  If you'd like to learn more about The U.S. and World Early Warning Report, click here.   More from Richard Maybury: War! In Russia, it has already been declared... This "clairvoyant" 2006 essay explains how the U.S. and NATO are creating "Czar Putin I" What the media's not saying as the top two nuclear powers square off in Ukraine

Gold Steaming Towards $1,500 Posted: 25 Apr 2014 10:00 AM PDT Despite the ongoing attack of the short-sellers, the fundamentals of gold and silver production are increasingly robust. ROTH Capital’s Joe Reagor tells The Gold Report why he believes the price of gold is steaming toward $1,500/oz, with silver prices following in the wake. Reagor highlights several junior precious metals miners in a market that is [...] The post Gold Steaming Towards $1,500 appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: How to Buy Prime Rib Gold Companies at Hamburger Prices David Morgan: ‘The Silver Bottom Is In: Time to Hold, Add and Ride It Out’ Mexico’s Guerrero Gold Belt, Home of Low-Cost Gold Production and Analyst Merrill McHenry’s Favorite Miners

Gold & silver prices: Filtering out the noise Posted: 25 Apr 2014 09:50 AM PDT Silver and gold price sentiment is an unmentionable reflection of the desires of central banking, backed by a currency enforced by decree.

China's gold import spikes; Yuan declines 3% Posted: 25 Apr 2014 09:35 AM PDT As china surges to pile up more gold, Chinese Yuan has dropped 3% this year.

CME plans to launch physically settled Asia gold futures-sources Posted: 25 Apr 2014 09:19 AM PDT CME Group Inc plans to launch a physically deliverable gold futures contract in Asia, three sources familiar with the matter said, as the world's No.1 futures exchange targets rising hedging and investor demand in the top gold-consuming region... Read

Pensions Without Diversification To Gold & Silver Exposed As Pension ‘Time Bomb’ Looms Posted: 25 Apr 2014 08:45 AM PDT The 'pensions time bomb' looms: pension funds lack of diversification, and over exposure to traditional assets may cost pension holders dearly according to research we have just released. Pensions allocations to gold are very low internationally and yet gold has an important role to play over the long term in preserving and growing pension wealth. [...] The post Pensions Without Diversification To Gold & Silver Exposed As Pension 'Time Bomb' Looms appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Silver Update: Pension Bomb Academic Proof that Gold is an Important Diversification Against Both Inflation and Deflation 2012 Outlook for Gold – Positive Fundamentals Remain and Crucial Diversification

UK Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms Posted: 25 Apr 2014 08:02 AM PDT gold.ie

Canadian investors preferring 'black gold,' in ETFs Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:45 AM PDT So far in 2014, investors have withdrawn $552 million from exchange-traded funds tracking Canadian shares, following an outflow of $1 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Gold testing the downtrend Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:40 AM PDT forexlive

JIM WILLIE: THE CLIMAX FINALE OF THE PETRO-DOLLAR TO ARRIVE IN 2014! Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:35 AM PDT Some significant events are extremely likely to occur soon, which will change the American and Western landscape permanently. The confidence in the system will vanish quickly. The gold investors will be given a bolstered hope and much encouragement. The changes will hit like a storm, slow at first, the process already having begun. The storm will accelerate, the time between highly disruptive events to quicken. The protection is with Gold & Silver bars & coins. The solution is not to be found at the doorstep of central banks, since they are the perpetrators of the systemic ruin. They escape prosecution since they appoint the prosecutors. The solution is a return to the Gold Standard, the introduction of new gold-backed currencies, the installation of new banking systems instead of SWIFT, and the construction of free trade zones. They will all be put in place, led by the Eastern superpowers.  The Gold Trade Standard will return. The following are some likely actual change agent factors, agents, and events, which could happen before year 2014 ends.  2014 will not end as it began. Click here for the latest Hat Trick Letter on the Climax Finale of the Petro-Dollar:

Jim Willie: The Climax Finale of the Petro-Dollar to Arrive in 2014! Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:30 AM PDT Some significant events are extremely likely to occur soon, which will change the American and Western landscape permanently. The confidence in the system will vanish quickly. The gold investors will be given a bolstered hope and much encouragement. The changes will hit like a storm, slow at first, the process already having begun. The storm [...] The post Jim Willie: The Climax Finale of the Petro-Dollar to Arrive in 2014! appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Jim Willie: The Petro-Dollar Sunset Petro Dollar Going the Way of the Dodo Bird as China Begins Selling Oil Using Yuan Russian MPs Call for End of Petro-Dollar: “The Dollar is Evil – Dirty Green Paper Stained with Blood”

New factor for gold: European QE Posted: 25 Apr 2014 07:26 AM PDT European Central Bank debating on QE and global growth outlook.

What is the future of gold? Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:53 AM PDT Solutions Funds Group's CIO Larry Shover discusses his GLD options strategy and the future of gold

US Gold output up 10% Y Y in Jan: USGS Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:50 AM PDT The state of Nevada, which led U.S. gold output, has produced 15500 kg of gold in January compared to 15,400 kg a month earlier.

UK Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:02 AM PDT gold.ie

One number that will make you invest in Russia today... Posted: 25 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT From Chris Hunter, Editor-in-Chief, Bonner & Partners: If the markets are a voting machine over the short term, investors in Russian stocks are voting with their feet. For good reason, you might say. Speaking with Russian economist in exile Sergei Guriev, the New Yorker recently painted a chilling picture of the Russian economy: Inflation is high. Foreign investment, the stock market, and the ruble have declined – and this is all before the pain of Western sanctions and the costs of the Ukrainian adventure have fully registered. Capital flight has reached as much as $70 billion dollars this year. Growth is now at about one per cent and, according to Guriev, "heading toward zero." We are surprised by how many self-proclaimed "contrarians" hate Russia now. As soon as risk raises its ugly head – and there's plenty of risk in Russia right now – they head for the exits. What they don't understand is that, if you invest in a conventional way, you get conventional returns. As I wrote recently, it's impossible to have bargains without fear. And it's impossible to have fear without bargains. In other words, stocks are cheap in Russia because there is a lot of risk in the market. The question is: How much of that risk is already reflected in stock prices? Quite a lot, if you look at the "Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings" ratio, or CAPE. It divides price by the average of 10-years of trailing earnings, adjusted for inflation. And according to respected British researcher Andrew Smithers, the CAPE is a much better predictor of future returns than the 12-month trailing or forward price-earnings ratios (both of which Smithers believes are "useless" for investors.) Russia trades on a CAPE of 6.5. By contrast, the U.S. market trades on a CAPE of 25.4. In other words, proven corporate earnings in America are selling for nearly four times proven Russian corporate earnings. This means there are exceptionally high expectations of earnings growth baked into U.S. stock prices... and exceptionally low expectations of earnings growth baked into Russian stock prices. For investments in the U.S. stock market to work out, U.S. corporations have to match those high expectations. If they don't, stock prices will fall. Guriev is right. Russia is a mess. But that's what makes it such a great bargain right now for investors with a long enough time horizon. Editor's note: Chris says another overlooked investment right now is gold. The yellow metal fell 34% last year. And according to this special report, it's set to soar again. Here are five ultra-cheap gold investments to make right now.   More on Russia: This is how Russia will replace the U.S. "petrodollar" Emerging markets insider: In a way, the U.S. just declared sanctions on all Russian stocks War! In Russia, it has already been declared...

Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions ‘Time Bomb’ Looms Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:46 AM PDT The 'pensions time bomb' looms: pension funds lack of diversification and over exposure to paper assets will cost pension holders dearly in the coming months and years … Today's AM fix was USD 1,294.25, EUR 934.88 and GBP 769.38 per ounce. Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,283.50, EUR 928.53 and GBP 764.26 per ounce. Gold climbed $8.50 or 0.66% yesterday to $1,292.90/oz. Silver rose $0.24 or 1.24% yesterday to $19.67/oz. Gold in U.S. Dollars – 5 Days – (Thomson Reuters) Gold consolidated on yesterdays sharp recovery after a sudden sell off but remained near its weakest level in more than two months. Thursday saw the expiry of US Comex May options and weakness and concentrated selling is often seen on options expiration – indeed, short term bottoms often occur after such bouts of selling. Increasing tensions between NATO and Russia are underpinning the metal’s safe-haven appeal and leading to safe haven demand. Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow rebels late yesterday and attacked the separatists military stronghold in the east. Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears of a military conflict with NATO. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Thursday that the United States was drawing closer to imposing more sanctions on Russia. He warned that time was running out for Moscow to change its course in Ukraine. Economic sanctions are likely to see retaliation by Russia and an intensification of currency wars. European and Asian stocks struggled on Friday, as fears of an escalating Ukraine crisis eclipsed mixed  U.S. economic data and buoyant tech earnings. Traders are now looking at next week’s U.S. Federal Reserve Open Market Committee’s meeting on interest rates for trading cues. Premiums for gold bars in Hong Kong were quoted at 80 cents to $1 an ounce to spot London prices, while the premiums for gold bars in Singapore, the increasingly important centre for bullion trading in Southeast Asia, were at $1 to $1.20 to the spot London prices – both mostly unchanged from a week ago. Gold in U.S. Dollars – 5 Years – (Thomson Reuters) CME Group Inc plans to launch a physically deliverable gold futures contract in Asia, three sources familiar with the matter said according to Reuters. In the first three months of 2014, U.S. COMEX gold futures volume fell 10% from a year ago. This is partly due to an increased preference by some speculators and investors to own physical gold coins and bars rather than paper gold in the form of futures contracts. The new Asian contract could help boost volumes for CME. The world’s largest futures exchange is targeting rising hedging, investor and store of wealth demand in Hong Kong and Singapore – Asia's increasingly important precious metals hubs. Pensions Exposed Without Diversification To Gold As Pensions 'Time Bomb' Looms The 'pensions time bomb' looms: pension funds lack of diversification, and over exposure to traditional assets may cost pension holders dearly according to research we have just released. Pensions allocations to gold are very low internationally and yet gold has an important role to play over the long term in preserving and growing pension wealth. The Guide To Gold In UK Pensions shows the importance of owning gold as a diversification in a pension in the UK. Allocations to gold in pensions are very low internationally and therefore the research is relevant for pension owners internationally. Professor of Finance in Trinity College Dublin, Dr Brian Lucey wrote the Foreword  and warned about the lack of diversification in pension funds. "Pensions need balance. UK pension funds have been slow to embrace gold and this imbalance may cost pension holders dearly" said Dr Lucey. Dr. Brian Lucy "Small allocations to gold balance and stabilise pensions in the long term and gold should be an essential part of UK pension funds. The Guide To Gold In UK Pensions should be read by pension owners and pension managers," said Dr Lucey who is a respected independent authority on gold. British citizens are slowly waking up to the growing pensions crisis. The pension 'time bomb' looms closer and millions of people are at risk of having insufficient resources to fund their retirement years. It is estimated that some 11 million people in the UK face entering “pension poverty.” Average earners may need to save over six times more than they currently do if they’re to generate an adequate retirement income, according to some calculations. Head of Research in GoldCore, Mark O'Byrne, said that "pension funds should include gold as part of a diversified portfolio. It has a very long track record, and possesses valuable investment attributes. Gold should form part of a diversified pension investment – it will protect from the pensions time bomb." Mark O' Byrne "Conservative wealth management and asset diversification naturally grow in importance as people get older. Prudent asset diversification will enable pension funds to preserve and grow their pension savings," according to O'Byrne. The UK's financial and economic outlook remains uncertain. "While the UK is recovering, the overall debt to GDP position remains worrisome and there is a real risk of a property bubble in London," said O'Byrne. There is also a risk that the state may find it difficult to pay for the massive entitlements of an aging population. "Today's uncertain world makes the investment and pensions landscape a more challenging place for pension owners and again underlines the importance of being properly diversified and not having all your eggs in certain assets," according to O'Byrne. Conclusion Gold is once more being considered as an important asset to have in a properly diversified pension portfolios. Gold plays an important role in stabilising and reducing volatility in the overall portfolio and as financial insurance to protect against worst case scenarios. These include the risk of inflation and stock and property crashes. Bail-ins or deposit confiscation, as was seen in EU country Cyprus, is a new unappreciated risk to pension owners and another reason to have an allocation to gold. Currency devaluations as was seen on Black Wednesday in September 1992 when George Soros "broke the Bank of England" is another risk that gold hedges against. The UK's influential research institute Chatham House , has said that gold can be used to hedge against currency devaluation and other risks as part of a diversified portfolio. "Gold can serve as a hedge against declining values of key fiat currencies, and can also be useful for central banks looking to diversify their foreign reserves," Chatham House said. "As we draw close and closer to the pensions 'time bomb,' diversification will become even more important and an allocation to gold in a pension portfolio will again preserve and grow wealth in the coming years," concluded Dr Lucey. The Guide To Gold In UK Pensions can be downloaded here.

Must-read: The totally free way to track your investments like a professional Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:00 AM PDT From Dr. Steve Sjuggerud in DailyWealth: "How do you track your investments?" "You tell us to use "trailing stops"... but how do you track them?" "What do you personally use for investment charts and data?" I get asked these questions all of the time. Two truths... We pay six figures a year in data and software, but... You can do most of what we do for very little money. And today, I'll show you how... It is true that we pay over $100,000 each year simply for data. (We typically get data from Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters Datastream, GlobalFinancialData.com, SNL Financial, and more.) However, you don't have to do this... Most of the time, we don't use our expensive toys... because there are quicker ways to get what we need, with simpler tools. Even better, most of these simple tools are either free, or very inexpensive. Let me show you... For example, for a quick check of financial news, we go to www.Bloomberg.com. For very quick looks at stocks, we actually still use Yahoo Finance (just because we're used to it). To track our Trailing Stops every day, we use TradeStops.com. It sends out e-mail alerts when our trailing stops are hit. There's a free Trailing Stops Calculator on the site, and you can try the TradeStops service free for a month. We liked TradeStops.com so much, our publisher invested in it. We use it every day. We use Microsoft Excel for a lot of things. And we have a couple (free and inexpensive) add-ons that we really like... We use XLQ to track portfolios on Excel. XLQ brings all kinds of stock data into Excel. It's not just price data – it has fundamental data, trailing-stop data, and more. It is really quite extraordinary. If you are an Excel user, then you must check it out. You can try it for free for 45 days, and it's very reasonably priced beyond that. When we need data beyond stock data, a great source that we rely on is the St. Louis Federal Reserve. The St. Louis Fed's website is incredibly easy to use – and it's free! Even better, if you're an Excel user, the St. Louis Fed has a fantastic free Excel Add-In that brings its data and charting capabilities directly into your Excel sheet. All of these things are self-updating as well... When you open your Excel sheet, they update themselves with the latest data. We do pay BIG MONEY for a mountain of data. But we could do 90% of what we do with what I've shared with you above... and most of it is either free or very inexpensive. These are truly the actual tools we use every day. If you were curious about what we rely on – what we use to track the markets and our stocks, and to do our jobs well – then the secret is out. Now you know. Check 'em out...   More from Steve Sjuggerud: Steve Sjuggerud: Most investors are scared when this happens. Here's what to do... Steve Sjuggerud: This was the worst mistake of my career... and it's happening again right now Steve Sjuggerud: It's official... the gold crash is over

Links 4/25/14 Posted: 25 Apr 2014 03:55 AM PDT If you are in New York City, be sure to drop by our meetup TONIGHT (Friday), from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Sláinte at 304 Bowery (map with nearby train stops here). Be there or be square! Strip private banks of their power to create money Martin Wolf, FT U.S. Said to Ask BofA for More Than $13 Billion Over RMBS Bloomberg. No. Bankster CEOs in orange jumpsuits doing the perp walk is the only acceptable outcome. Anything else is a midterm-driven head fake left. Exclusive: Apple, Google agree to pay over $300 million to settle conspiracy lawsuit Reuters. Ditto. American state-backed mortgages are a $5tn millstone Gillian Tett, FT GM says facing multiple probes into recent recalls Reuters NY Attorney General tells Pando: Current hotel laws were made with Airbnb in mind Pando Daily [영어 전문] 오바마 미국 대통령 중앙일보 단독 인터뷰 Joongang Ilbo. English-language email interview with Obama. Strike halts work on Panama Canal expansion AFP RMT union to strike in London over tube ticket office closures Guardian Exclusive: JetBlue flight attendants seek to hold unionization vote Reuters State Employment Trends: Does a Low Tax/Right-to-Work/Low Minimum Wage Regime Correlate to Growth – An Econometric Addendum Econbrowser Cliven Bundy’s ‘better off as slaves’ remark about blacks draws fire LA Times. Nice to see the “state’s rights” / “slavery as a positive good” talking points of pre-Confederate political theorists morph right into libertarian/conservative talking points. As has been happening for a good twenty years, at least. 6 Reasons Why Obama’s Clemency Program For Drug Offenders Doesn’t Change Mass Incarceration One Bit Black Agenda Report ObamaCare Oregon Panel Recommends Switch to Federal Health Exchange Times. $300 million down the tubes and thousands not covered because markets. Why Canada may be heading down the ‘slippery slope’ toward American-style health care HuffPo. The Neoliberal Internationale at work. Recommended Reading: Houston Law Review Frankel Lecture and Commentaries Offer Valuable Analysis of the Affordable Care Act and Guideposts for Continued Reform Health Reform Watch Getting Ready for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Is Costly Deal Bloomberg Meet The Oppo Researchers Who Want To Derail The Clinton 2016 Train TPM Big Brother Is Watching You Watch Reforming the NSA: How to Spy After Snowden  Brookings Institute Lawmakers petition for open NSA debate CBS Information Isn’t Free: The High Price Whistleblowers Pay Motherboard NIST finally dumps NSA-tainted random number algorithm ZDNet How to bring net neutrality back from the dead Cannonfire Why net neutrality no longer works FT Goodbye, Net Neutrality; Hello, Net Discrimination The New Yorker. Obama, 2007: “I am a strong supporter of net neutrality.” Maintain true net neutrality to protect the freedom of information in the United States White House Petition Ukraine Ukraine: Anyone Interested In A Larger War? Moon of Alabama Edging ever closer Economist Poland presses for shift from Russian energy as Ukraine standoff escalates Globe and Mail. Poles called for 10,000 US troops, got 150 paratroopers. Ukraine crisis: Kerry accuses Russia of ‘destabilisation’ BBC Ukraine forces kill rebels; Russia starts military drills Reuters Russia’s Latest Land Grab Foreign Affairs Happy ANZAC Day A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital’s secret list CNN. No doubt the prelude to a privatization drive. No end in sight to Thailand's political unrest Japan Times Ecuador Expels U.S. Military Group AP Danger on the rails: outdated tankers carrying crude oil AxisPhilly (PT) Cheap Non-GMO Food Supply AP. Victory for food sovereignty in VT. Google social networking boss Gundotra leaving company Reuters (Google+ to go the way of Google Reader?) And see this from “3d” ago (stupid locution; which side of the international dateline?) Up Close on Baseball's Borders Times. Wait, wait. I thought Nate Silver was the baseball guy? Kowloon Walled City Online WSJ George R.R. Martin: The Rolling Stone Interview Rolling Stone (furzy mouse). Less interviewing, more writing. Valar morghulis. Disgorge the Cash The New Inquiry Antidote du jour: See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

SHFE Gold moves back up to $1 Oz premium to London prices Posted: 25 Apr 2014 03:12 AM PDT Bullion prices on the Shanghai Gold Exchange moved back up to a $1 an ounce premium to London prices after trading at a discount for the past several weeks, said analysts.

Suspicion grows that China is exporting deflation worldwide by driving down yuan Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT Suspicion grows that China is exporting deflation worldwide by driving down yuan The Chinese Yuan weakened yet again this morning, punching through the key line of 6.25 against the dollar. It is almost back to where it was two years ago. This is the biggest story in the global currency markets. Yuan devaluation has reached 3.1pc this year. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to accept Beijing’s story that it is one-off measure to teach speculators a lesson and curb hot money inflows. The US Treasury clearly suspects that the Chinese authorities have reverted to their mercantilist tricks, driving down the exchange rate to keep struggling exporters afloat. Officials briefed journalists in Washington two weeks ago in very belligerent language. The Treasury’s currency report this month accused China of trying to “impede” the market by boosting foreign reserves by $510bn last year to $3.8 trillion – “excessive by any measure”. It gave a strong hint that China is disguising its reserve accumulation. You don’t have to dig hard. Simon Derrick from BNY Mellon said a recent buying spree of US Treasuries and agency debt by Belgium of all places looks like a Chinese front. This worthwhile commentary by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard was posted on The Telegraph's website yesterday sometime---and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us.

Swiss Platinum Imports From South Africa Slump in March Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT "I feel very comfortable putting my marker down here" ¤ Yesterday In Gold & Silver [Note: After three years without a break, I'll be taking some time off.  There will be no Gold and Silver Daily next week.  Ed] Gold rallied a few bucks in Thursday morning trading in the Far East---and then gave that back, plus a bit more by shortly after 11 a.m. in London.  Then the HFT boyz showed up---and the short sellers piled in behind them---and had the price down another 15 bucks by the 8:20 a.m. EDT Comex open.  That turned out to be the low of the day.  The subsequent rally gained back about half that loss by 9:30 a.m. in New York, before a major short covering rally began---probably instigated by the same traders that had gone short just hours before. But as the gold price screamed higher in what had all the hallmarks of a "no ask" market, the sellers of last resort put in an appearance just as the gold price was about to take out the $1,300 spot price.  In no time at all, the price was back below $1,290---and from there it crawled slowly higher for the remainder of the day. The CME Group recorded the low and high ticks as $1,268.40 and $1,299.00 in the June contract. Gold finished the Thursday session in New York at $1,293.90 spot, up $10.20 on the day. Volume, net of April and May, was enormous at 188,000 contracts. Silver did nothing in Far East trading on their Thursday---and began a slow decline that started around 2 p.m. Hong Kong time---and a few minutes after 11 a.m. BST in London, the same scenario unfolded in silver as occurred in gold.  The low tick of the day came at the noon silver fix---which was a new low for this move down---and the subsequent short-covering rally got capped shortly before 10 a.m. EDT in New York---and before it could break above the $20 spot price.  From there it traded more or less flat into the close of electronic trading. The high and low price ticks were recorded as $18.93 and $19.91 in the May contract---a 5% intraday move. The silver price closed yesterday at $19.65 spot, up 20 cents from Wednesday's close.  Gross volume was over the moon at 135,636 contracts---and the net volume came in at 43,500 contracts, which was pretty chunky, but most of the total volume was of the HFT variety. Platinum and palladium both traded flat up until about 11:45 a.m. BST in London.  Then both got sold down to their 8:30 a.m. EDT lows of the day before blasting higher.  Their respective rallies got capped minutes after 10 a.m. EDT---platinum at $1,410---and palladium the moment it broke back through the $800 price mark.  Here are the charts. It should be obvious to anyone with two open eyes---along with an open mind---that precious metal prices would have melted up to fantastic closing prices if JPMorgan et al hadn't shown up when they did.  This was a Comex rig job to the downside---and the upside. The dollar index closed at 79.86 late on Wednesday afternoon in New York---and except for a 2-hour long up/down spike between 8 and 10 a.m. EDT, the index crawled lower for the day, finishing the Thursday session at 79.77---down 9 basis points.  It should come as no surprise that the precious metal price action yesterday had zero to do with what was happening in the currency markets. The gold stocks gapped down at the open, but rallied smartly the moment that the short covering rally commenced.  The rally in the gold stocks also ended the very second that the rally in the gold price ended as well.  There was no spill-over/follow-through at all---and the shares continued to sell off as the day went on, even though the gold price was working its way quietly higher for the remainder of the New York session.  The HUI finished down 1.69%. The silver stocks also followed exactly the same price path---and despite the fact that silver finished up a percent, Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed down 1.14%. You have to wonder if the counterintuitive buyers of gold and silver stocks on Tuesday and Wednesday, when prices were stinking up the place, were the sellers yesterday.  John Embry called me late last week---and we he's still very much of the opinion that precious metal equities are just as managed as the metal itself.  I have no trouble agreeing with him---especially after yesterday's share price action. The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 1 gold and 12 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Monday.  JPMorgan was the short/issuer on all 12 silver contracts---and Canada's Scotiabank stopped all 12.  The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. There were no reported changes in GLD---and as of 10:30 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV, either. While on the subject of SLV---Joshua Gibbons, the "Guru of the SLV Bar List", updated his website with the goings-on inside SLV as of their weekly reporting date---and this is what he had to say:  "Analysis of the 23 April 2014 bar list, and comparison to the previous week's list---1,729.971.4 oz were added (all to Brinks London). No bars were removed or had serial number changes. The bars added were from Kazzinc (0.4M oz), Solar Applied Materials (0.3M oz), Kazakhmys (0.3M oz), and 5 others. As of the time that the bar list was produced, it was overallocated 34.6 oz.  All daily changes are reflected on the bar list." The link to Joshua's website is here. The U.S. Mint had a tiny sales report yesterday.  They sold 1,500 troy ounces of gold eagles---and 500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes. Once again there were no reported in/out moments in gold over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday.   But there was decent movement in silver, as 600,334 troy ounces were reported received---all into CNT---and 1245,600 troy ounces were shipped out.  The link to that activity is here. Here are a couple of neat photos that reader M.A. sent my way from his recent trip---and I though they were worth sharing. If you want to read more about this giant gold nugget, the link is here. I have the usual number of stories for a weekday column---and I hope you find some in here that interest you. ¤ Critical Reads Princeton University Economist Blinder: Credit-Rating Agency System 'Scandalous, Barely Believable' The credit-rating agencies played a major role in the 2008-09 financial crisis, but no real reform has occurred, says Princeton University economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder. "It is scandalous and barely believable . . . that credit-rating agencies are still being hired and paid exactly as they were in the bad old days," the Princeton professor writes in The Wall Street Journal. The problem is that the entity issuing securities is the one that pays the rating agency, which gives the agency incentive to inflate its rating. "Barely believable???"  How about "unbelievable" instead.  Honesty doesn't pay in the ratings industry---and if you need proof of that, how about what happened to Egan-Jones when they downgraded the U.S.  This news item showed up on the moneynews.com Internet site yesterday morning EDT---and today's first story is courtesy of West Virginia reader Elliot Simon. America has conquered its debt crisis with incredible speed Americans are purging their excesses one by one. Spending by the US Federal government has seen the steepest drop as share of national income since demobilisation after the Second World War. Claims that President Barack Obama is bankrupting America with a lurch towards hard-Left statism are for tabloid consumption only. Outlays have fallen from 24.4pc to 20.6pc of GDP in five years. Spending is roughly in line with its 40-year average. This fiscal squeeze has been achieved without driving the economy into recession or a Lost Decade, a remarkable feat. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office expects the budget deficit to drop to 2.8pc of GDP this year, and 2.6pc next year. This is about the same as the eurozone but with a huge difference. The US economy is expanding fast enough to outgrow its debts. The U.S. energy revolution is of course half the story. It has stoked booms across the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Texas. Here's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard talking trash again---and if you decided to read this, do so for entertainment purposes only.  I can't believe that he's writing stuff like this of his own free will, as he knows better.  It was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site during the London lunch hour yesterday---and I thank U.K. reader Richard Treen for sending it our way. France to send fighter planes for NATO Baltics patrols France is sending four fighter jets to help NATO’s air patrols over the Baltics, General Pierre de Villiers, France’s chief of defense staff said on a visit to Washington. The four jets, either the Mirage 2000 or the Rafale, will be sent to Malbrok in eastern Poland on April 28 on a double mission to train the Polish air force and to be on standby for air patrols over the Baltic States under NATO command. “They will participate in the air policing mission over the Baltic states from Poland,” the general told reporters Wednesday. But he added that French political leaders had not ordered further steps to support alliance members. “For the moment, the guidance is very clear, we do not go beyond that,” he said. This news item appeared on the Russia Today website yesterday evening Moscow time---and it's the first offering of the day from Roy Stephens. Unverified and exposed: New York Times - U.S. State Dept 'Russians in Ukraine' image proof collapses Pictures presented by Washington and Kiev as evidence of Russia's involvement in Ukraine, and published on Monday by the New York Times, were unverified and in fact contradicted the claims they were to support. The US State department acknowledged the error and the New York Times back-tracked on its Monday story, which claimed “photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration … suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and intelligence forces”. The proof was this particular picture with an inscription “Group photograph taken in Russia”.  Freelance photographer Maxim Dondyuk took the photo. “It was taken in Slavyansk [Ukraine],” he told NYT over the phone. “Nobody asked my permission to use it.” This Russia Today story showed up on their Internet site late yesterday afternoon Moscow time---and is courtesy of South African reader B.V.  It's definitely worth reading. Eight Ukraine/Russia-related stories 1. Mayor in east Ukraine ready ‘to turn Slaviansk into battlefield’: France24  2. Ukraine forces kill up to five rebels, Russia starts drill near border: Reuters  3. Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin warns of 'consequences' after Slavyansk skirmish:  The Guardian  4. Putin: Kiev authorities are junta if they use force against civilians: Russia Today  5. Ukraine’s far-right leader moves HQ to the east, forms new squadron: Russia Today  6. U.S. should force Ukraine to stop military operation in southeast – Russia's Foreign Ministry: The Voice of Russia  7. Use of army against people criminal decision - Lavrov: The Voice of Russia  8. Sanctions may benefit Russian economy, MasterCard, Visa made mistake - Putin: The Voice of Russia Putin calls internet a 'CIA project' renewing fears of web breakup Vladimir Putin gave his clearest signal yet that he aims to break up the global nature of the internet when he branded the network a "CIA project" on Thursday. The Russian president told a media conference in St. Petersburg that America's overseas espionage agency had originally set up the internet and was continuing to develop it. Putin has long hinted that he wants a Russian-run alternative. The idea of breaking up the internet has gained ground in Germany, Brazil and elsewhere round the world in the light of the revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden about the extent to which the US National Security Agency has infiltrated Facebook, Skype and other social media. Snowden's critics say that an unintended consequences of his revelations has been to undermine the global nature of the web as well as playing into the hands of dictators. His supporters counter that it is the NSA rather than Snowden that has damaged trust in the service. This very interesting news item appeared on theguardian.com Internet site late yesterday evening BST---and it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. Transnistria: Soviet Leftover---or Russian Foothold in Europe? Transnistria is the only place in Europe that still uses the hammer and sickle on its flag. Now that Russia has annexed Crimea and is eyeing eastern Ukraine, many in the breakaway Moldovan republic hope that they are next on Moscow's agenda. In some places, Transnistria is just a few kilometers wide. On a map of Europe, it looks like a worm squashed between much larger animals, pressed as it is between Moldova and Ukraine. As a result, being Transnistrian is something of a challenge. Officially, it is known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, as a white-haired woman standing next to Ushinin notes. The woman is Victoria Piletskaya, the popular Transnistrian poet. Together, the pair -- the linguist and the poet -- represents the majority of intellectual life in Tiraspol, perhaps the least-known capital city in Europe. Transnistria, located on the eastern banks of the Dniester River, has an area hardly greater than the US state of Rhode Island (or the German state of Saarland) and is home to a half-million people who see themselves as Russians, Ukrainians or Moldovans. More than anything, though, they see themselves as Soviet citizens. The breakaway region has its own military, its own constitution, a national anthem (called "We Sing the Praises of Transnistria") and a symphony orchestra which is known abroad. I posted a spiegel.de story about Transnistria a month or so ago---and here's another one that showed up on their website late yesterday afternoon Europe time.  You'll hear more about this tiny "country" as time goes along, so it may be wise to brush up on your geography at this point in time---especially if you're a serious student of the New Great Game.  It's also had a headline change since it was posted.  It now reads "Soviet Yearnings: Hopes Rise in Transnistria of a Russian Annexation".  It's another contribution from Roy Stephens, for which I thank him.   Suspicion grows that China is exporting deflation worldwide by driving down yuan The Chinese Yuan weakened yet again this morning, punching through the key line of 6.25 against the dollar. It is almost back to where it was two years ago. This is the biggest story in the global currency markets. Yuan devaluation has reached 3.1pc this year. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to accept Beijing’s story that it is one-off measure to teach speculators a lesson and curb hot money inflows. The US Treasury clearly suspects that the Chinese authorities have reverted to their mercantilist tricks, driving down the exchange rate to keep struggling exporters afloat. Officials briefed journalists in Washington two weeks ago in very belligerent language. The Treasury’s currency report this month accused China of try

Three King World News Blogs Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT Three King World News Blogs 1. Michael Pento: "Fed Strategy to End in Disaster and Turmoil" 2. Keith Barron: "This Will Cause a Massive and Historic Spike in Gold and Silver"  3. Richard Russell: "Outrageous Lies Being Told to Americans" [Please direct any questions or comments about what is said in these interviews by either Eric King or his guests to them, and not to me. Thank you. - Ed]

Barrick’s Munk Says Einstein Couldn’t Predict Gold Prices Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT Barrick's Munk Says Einstein Couldn't Predict Gold Prices Barrick Gold Corp. Chairman Peter Munk says he finds it impossible to accurately predict the value of the precious metal being produced every day by the mining company he founded more than three decades ago. “I really have no ability to forecast gold prices,” Munk said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. “I have been in the business for 30 years, and it occupies my mind day and night.” The world’s largest gold producer wrote down $11.5 billion in value last year and saw its profit margins squeezed as prices for the precious metal plunged into a bear market. The 2013 slump ended a 12-year bull run that swelled profits for mining companies. Munk is in good company: Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen and her predecessor Ben S. Bernanke have both said it’s hard to quantify what makes gold tick. The metal’s rebound this year defied bearish predictions from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Société Générale SA. Of course neither Munk, Yellen nor Bernanke will ever admit the real reason, which they know all too well---and that's that precious metal prices are managed by JPMorgan et al.  And not one mining company will speak out against them, even though every one of them knows precisely what's going on.  How did it come to this?  This Bloomberg "news item" showed up on their website during the Denver lunch hour yesterday---and I thank Casey Research's own Jeff Clark for sending it our way

Comex plans to get in on Asian gold trade, Reuters says Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT Comex plans to get in on Asian gold trade, Reuters says CME Group Inc. plans to launch a physically deliverable gold futures contract in Asia, three sources familiar with the matter said, as the world's No.1 futures exchange targets rising hedging and investor demand in the top gold-consuming region. An Asian contract from CME could help set a pricing reference for gold futures in Asia, much like its U.S. Comex gold contract sets the benchmark for bullion futures globally. The move may also help CME boost flagging revenues from its precious metals futures and comes as its rivals are expanding their presence in Asia to tap demand from China, the world's biggest consumer of commodities, including gold. It will be interesting to see if this project gets off the ground.  But it won't make any difference, as "da boyz" control the precious metal markets 24/7 no matter where the base of operations is located, or the time of day.  I found this Reuters story in a GATA release yesterday.

Gold falls to support at $1268 Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:00 AM PDT invezz

Gold Prices April 25, 2014, Technical Analysis Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:50 AM PDT fxempire

Gold: 1275/78 support key Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:20 AM PDT fxstreet

Gregson: 'It will be hard for gold to perform in 2014' Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:02 AM PDT Neil Gregson of JP Morgan Natural Resources fund says the economic recovery is bad news for gold

“Independent” Foreclosure Review Error Rate Vastly Higher Than Previously Admitted Posted: 24 Apr 2014 11:56 PM PDT At this point, it seems hard to add insult to injury, given the terrible track record of the OCC Independent Foreclosure Reviews. But it’s nevertheless been done. By way of background, in April 2010 the Office of the Comptroller and the Fed issued consent orders to 11 servicers (three more were added later). The orders mandated that borrowers who had had foreclosures that were pending or had completed foreclosure sales in 2009 and 2010 could request an investigation by independent reviewers, selected and paid for by the servicers but subject to approval by the OCC. It was clear from the outset, however, that this consent order process was never intended to help homeowners in a serious way, but was intended to give air cover for predatory servicers. Even so, the foreclosure reviews turned out to be an embarrassing and costly fiasco. The investigation was halted abruptly, as more and more leaks showed that the foreclosure reviews were anything but “independent”. 11 servicers and the regulators hastily negotiated a settlement, with the authorities failing to identify any methodology for how the portion of the settlement allotted to cash awards, $3.3 billion, would be distributed to homeowners. It was predictable that the outcome would be that insultingly small checks would be distributed broadly to bolster claims of how many people has been recompensed, as if checks of a few hundred dollars on average was even remotely adequate restitution for the loss of one’s home. Nevertheless, there had to be some sort of process put in place to distribute the piddling cash compensation, so the OCC set up a framework with various types of damage leading to stipulated levels of awards, with $125,000 the maximum. But this was all Through the Looking Glass logic. Since the foreclosure reviews had never been completed, how could anyone have the foggiest idea who deserved what? The only exceptions for those who got through the process early and servicemembers, who were treated with kid gloves. The death-of-a-thousand-unkind-cuts treatment continued with the Byzantine process of getting correct addresses to Rust Consulting, the firm in charge of sending the money, bounced checks and late mailings. The abusive treatment of borrowers contrasted with how well the enablers made out. Across 11 servicers, the failed review-meisters pulled out $2 billion. Promontory, which mismanaged the reviews at Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC pulled out a cool $930 million. We published a large-scale whistleblower series at the time, with extensive reports from people who’d worked on the foreclosure reviews at Bank of America and PNC. They told us of near universal fee overcharges. They also pegged levels of serious harm ranging from 10% to 80% (the estimates ranged widely because no one reviewd a file in its entirety; the tasks were divided among teams, so, for instance, some looked only at modification abuses, while other looked solely at fee overcharges). The serious harm estimates clustered between 30% and 40%. Peculiarly, or perhaps predictably, the estimates of harm that were made public, even with Congressional pressure and a GAO investigation, were much lower…until today. From the Wall Street Journal (hat tip Tom Adams): A consulting firm that scoured major U.S. banks’ foreclosure files for mistakes was finding far higher rates of error than regulators reported when they abruptly ended the review last year, a congressional inquiry has found. The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), on Thursday disclosed excerpts of documents from consulting firm Promontory Financial Group… At Bank of America, Promontory found “systemic issues in the accuracy and timeliness of processing loan modifications,” with an error rate of 60% in one small sample of loans, according to an excerpt of a May 2013 document published by Mr. Cummings. At PNC Financial Services Group, a sample of 4,800 loans found 21% of borrowers were financially harmed, according to another excerpt cited by Mr. Cummings in a letter to the oversight panel’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.). The OCC said the consultant’s review had found an overall error rate of about 4.5% after assessing about 100,000 files. The disclosure by Mr. Cummings echoes a 2013 Wall Street Journal article that identified error-rate discrepancies. The Journal reported that more than 11% of files examined for Wells Fargo had errors that would have required compensation for homeowners, compared with 9% at Bank of America. Why is this coming to light only now? This suppression of information is yet another proof of how deeply pretty much all of Washington DC is in bed with the banks. Only now when foreclosure abuses are considered old news does the public begin to get an inkling of how much the official story was close to a complete fabrication. Of course, the people who went through the Independent Foreclosure Review process knew full well what a charade it was. But they were never taken seriously. Those with no money (and if you’ve lost your home, you are sure to be under financial duress) have little clout to begin with. Losing your home is stigmatized, which discourages victims from telling their stories and sets those brave enough to do so up for abuse (the banks have done a great job of playing up the “deadbeat borrower” meme, whether it fits or not). And don’t kid yourself that the banks paid anything near what they should have. This was our back-of-the-envelope calculation over a year ago: Just focus on the cash portion, which is $3.3 billion across the ten servicers in the settlement. The other forms of relief, paralleling the state attorney general/Federal settlement, either aren’t worth much (writing off deficiency judgments) or are for things the banks were inclined to do anyhow. 495,000 complaint letters were filed. The estimates of serious harm from the whistleblowers at the Bank of America site in Tampa Bay ranged from 10% to 80%. The average was 33%, and the estimates also clustered around 30% to 40%. So we’ll use 30%. To make the math simpler, we’ll use 500,000 x 30% x the maximum award, which was $125,000, which would seem to be warranted with “serious harm” (the people on the modification test all described cases where people who were in mods of various sorts and were paying as the bank stipulated but were foreclosed on, so they seemed to have an adequately stringent notion of what “serious harm” amounted to. Basically, to get the maximum award, the bank had to have eaten your home while you were in a mod or it had to be a Servicemembers Civil Relief Act violation). You get $18.75 billion. Let’s say maybe the temps were too generous and their estimate is 1/3 too high. You still get $12.5 billion, nearly four times the amount for the banks to divvy up. And you’d have some less large payouts for the people not seriously harmed. If you would have qualified for a mod but the bank never processed your application, or were denied a mod incorrectly, that’s a $15,000 award. The folks who were processing mod complaints say they saw another 30% to 40% instances of less serious harm. So if you assume a $15,000 payout for another 20% (that’s conservative, the real number is probably closer to 30%), you get another $1.5 billion. $14 billion, which is a conservative estimate of what the banks should have been required to cough up, is more than four times the only part that the OCC got that really matters, hard dollar payments to borrowers that suffered real losses. . No wonder the banks are perfectly happy to pay out $2 billion to consultants who made a mess of things. Those madcap consultants were as clever as foxes. The only positive element of this sorry tale is that Elijah Cummings has soldiered on with trying to get to the bottom of this misconduct. I hope readers will call or write his office and thank him for his persistence.

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