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• Targeting $1,400-plus gold in 2014 - Curran
• Physical silver demand hit record high in 2013 - GFMS
• Morocco's Managem ends gold extraction at Akka
• The Beginning Of The End Of Precious Metals Manipulation: The London Silver Fix Is Officially Dead
• New report warns: Russia is getting ready to launch a "massive" blow to the U.S. dollar
• Oracle Aims To Expand Cloud Footprint Through 'Customer 2 Cloud' Program
• London Silver Fixing to bite the dust in August
• Top stock-picker: Three ways to find the best junior gold stocks
• Deep State Silver and the Ultimate Loss of Control
• Another massive 'bear raid' on gold hard to force - Phillips
• Gold Beginning of End of Bottoming Process?
• Demand for platinum jewellery booming in India
• Mercenary Links May 14th: Euro-Stimulus
• KEFI study sees improved economics for Tulu Kapi gold project
• Rebellion in the USA – Protesters Take Over Albuquerque City Council and Attempt to Arrest Police Chief
• 7 Companies Apple Could Have Bought That Are More Innovative Than Beats
• Gold and silver on verge of trend decision for next two weeks but uncertainly reigns
• China Reaching Its Tentacles All Over The Globe
• Silver fix is broken
• West Virginia coal mine collapse kills two workers
• The Fix is Out! London Silver Fix to End Aug 14th
• Russia On The Verge Of Dealing A Death Blow To The Petrodollar- Holds “De-Dollarization” Meeting
• Interview: Bail-ins May Cause Bank Runs and Capital Controls In Western World - Russia, China Opt Ou
• SEC Official Claims Over 50% of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior
• Fixing The Fix
• On Tap for Tomorrow
• Century old London silver fixing firm closes shop
• THE FIX IS OUT! LONDON SILVER FIX TO END AUG 14TH
• PPI numbers send Precious Metals Higher
• Who’s Telling the Truth on Silver Manipulation- Ted Butler or Bart Chilton?
• Different cycles for different markets
• Chinese & Indian Gold Demand Trumps GLD Supply
• Gold Analysis : May 14, 2014
• Gold analysis for May 13, 2014
• Price & Time: Reversal or Consolidation in Gold?
• US Gold mines production rise 9% y y in February
• The Chronic Exporters’ Curse?
• The London Silver Fix To Be Scrapped
• Scotiabank: The Murder and the Money Trail
• Ten King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews
• Lawrence Williams: Gold's pent-up demand
• The story of Indians and gold in Dubai
• Interpol hunts for Chennai gold smuggler
• Gold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months
• Chinese fund offers 46% premium for Laotian gold/copper miner
• Bill Rice: Who should GAO believe - Ted Butler or Bart Chilton?
• Perth Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales Slide
• U.S. mined gold rises sharply in February
• The London Silver Market Daily Fixing to Close
• Gold Retreated Back To $1290

Targeting $1,400-plus gold in 2014 - Curran Posted: 14 May 2014 07:44 PM PDT In this Gold Report interview Michael Curran of Beacon Securities offers his insight into the gold market and buying juniors.

Physical silver demand hit record high in 2013 - GFMS Posted: 14 May 2014 02:57 PM PDT Thomson Reuters GFMS reports that total silver physical demand rose 13% in 2013 to an all-time high of 1,081.1 million ounces.

Morocco's Managem ends gold extraction at Akka Posted: 14 May 2014 02:31 PM PDT The company plans to focus on copper, following the discovery two years ago of a copper deposit of around 1.15 million tonnes in the same area.

The Beginning Of The End Of Precious Metals Manipulation: The London Silver Fix Is Officially Dead Posted: 14 May 2014 01:10 PM PDT So does this mean we have about three months to stockpile silver before the low prices go away? It is hard to know what the exact ramifications will be, but any increase in free market price discovery and decrease in manipulation (fixing) by the banks should be bullish for precious metals investors. Prices are already [...]

New report warns: Russia is getting ready to launch a "massive" blow to the U.S. dollar Posted: 14 May 2014 01:06 PM PDT From Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse:  Is the petrodollar monopoly about to be shattered? When U.S. politicians started slapping economic sanctions on Russia, they probably never even imagined that there might be serious consequences for the United States. But now the Russian media is reporting that the Russian Ministry of Finance is getting ready to pull the trigger on a “de-dollarization” plan. For decades, virtually all oil and natural gas around the world has been bought and sold for U.S. dollars. As I will explain below, this has been a massive advantage for the U.S. economy. In recent years, there have been rumblings by nations such as Russia and China about the need to change to a new system, but nobody has really had a big reason to upset the status quo. However, that has now changed. The struggle over Ukraine has caused Russia to completely reevaluate the financial relationship that it has with the United States. If it starts trading a lot of oil and natural gas for currencies other than the U.S. dollar, that will be a massive blow for the petrodollar, and it could end up dramatically changing the global economic landscape. The fact that the Russian government has held a meeting to discuss “getting rid of the US dollar in Russian export operations” should be front page news on every mainstream news website in the United States. That is how big this is. But instead, we have heard nothing from the big mainstream news networks about this so far. Instead, we have only heard about this from Russian news sources such as the Voice of Russia… Russian press reports that the country’s Ministry of Finance is ready to greenlight a plan to radically increase the role of the Russian ruble in export operations while reducing the share of dollar-denominated transactions. Governmental sources believe that the Russian banking sector is “ready to handle the increased number of ruble-denominated transactions.” According to the Prime news agency, on April 24th the government organized a special meeting dedicated to finding a solution for getting rid of the US dollar in Russian export operations. Top level experts from the energy sector, banks and governmental agencies were summoned and a number of measures were proposed as a response for American sanctions against Russia. The “de-dollarization meeting” was chaired by First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov, proving that Moscow is very serious in its intention to stop using the dollar. So will Russia go through with this? After all, this wouldn’t just be a slap in the face. This would essentially be like slamming an economic fist into our nose. You see, Russia is not just a small player when it comes to trading oil and natural gas. The truth is that Russia is the largest exporter of natural gas and the second largest exporter of oil in the world. If Russia starts asking for payment in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, that will essentially end the monopoly of the petrodollar. In order to do this, Russia will need trading partners willing to go along. In the article quoted above, the Voice of Russia listed Iran and China as two nations that would potentially be willing to make the switch… Of course, the success of Moscow’s campaign to switch its trading to rubles or other regional currencies will depend on the willingness of its trading partners to get rid of the dollar. Sources cited by Politonline.ru mentioned two countries who would be willing to support Russia: Iran and China. Given that Vladimir Putin will visit Beijing on May 20, it can be speculated that the gas and oil contracts that are going to be signed between Russia and China will be denominated in rubles and yuan, not dollars. And the reality of the matter is that China has seemed ready to move away from the U.S. dollar for quite some time. In a previous article, I included a quote from a French news source that discussed how China’s official news agency has even called for a “new international reserve currency… to replace the dominant U.S. dollar”… For decades the U.S. has benefited to the tune of trillions of dollars-worth of free credit from the greenback’s role as the default global reserve unit.  But as the global economy trembled before the prospect of a U.S. default last month, only averted when Washington reached a deal to raise its debt ceiling, China’s official Xinhua news agency called for a “de-Americanised” world. It also urged the creation of a “new international reserve currency… to replace the dominant U.S. dollar.” For much more on what China is thinking, please see my previous article entitled “9 Signs That China Is Making A Move Against The U.S. Dollar.” So why is the petrodollar so important? Well, it creates a tremendous amount of demand for the U.S. dollar all over the globe. Since everyone has needed it to trade with one another, that has created an endless global appetite for the currency. That has kept the value of the dollar artificially high, and it has enabled us to import trillions of dollars of super cheap products from other countries. If other nations stopped using the dollar to trade with one another, the value of the dollar would plummet dramatically and we would have to pay much, much more for the trinkets that we buy at the dollar store and Wal-Mart. In addition, since the U.S. dollar is essentially the de facto global currency, this has also increased demand for our debt. Major exporting nations such as China and Saudi Arabia end up with giant piles of our dollars. Instead of just letting them sit there and do nothing, those nations often reinvest their dollars into securities that can rapidly be changed back into dollars if needed. One of the most popular ways to do this has been to invest those dollars in U.S. Treasuries. This has driven down interest rates on U.S. debt over the years and has enabled the U.S. government to borrow trillions upon trillions of dollars for next to nothing. But if the rest of the world starts moving away from the U.S. dollar, all of this could change. In order for our current standard of living to continue, it is absolutely imperative that everyone else around the globe continues to use our currency. So if Russia really does pull the trigger on a “de-dollarization” strategy, that would be huge – especially if the rest of the planet started following their lead. The U.S. economy is already teetering on the brink of another major downturn, and there are a whole host of indications that big trouble is on the horizon. For much more on this, please see the article that I posted on Monday entitled “If Economic Cycle Theorists Are Correct, 2015 To 2020 Will Be Pure Hell For The United States.” Just about the last thing that we need right now is for our petrodollar monopoly to be threatened. It would be nice if things would calm down in Ukraine and the relationship between the United States and Russia could go back to normal. Sadly, that does not appear likely any time soon. In fact, the Ukrainian government has already admitted that “we are essentially at war,” and on Tuesday six Ukrainian soldiers were killed and eight were wounded in a convoy attack in eastern Ukraine. The regions in eastern Ukraine that have just declared independence have given the government in Kiev until Wednesday to pull their forces out of eastern Ukraine or else face war. If a full-blown civil war does erupt in Ukraine, it is going to take this crisis to a completely new level. Unfortunately, most Americans are incredibly apathetic at this point and know very little about what is going on. But in the end, this could have dramatic implications for all of us.   More on the U.S. dollar: This is how Russia will replace the U.S. "petrodollar" We know China wants to displace the U.S. dollar. But now we know how. Update: These two countries found a chink in the armor of the U.S. dollar… and they are going to strike

Oracle Aims To Expand Cloud Footprint Through 'Customer 2 Cloud' Program Posted: 14 May 2014 12:56 PM PDT Oracle (ORCL) is the world's second largest software company in the multi-billion dollar software development market with revenues in excess of $37 billion and a market capitalization of $187 billion. The company competes with other large-cap software development companies such as SAP (SAP), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT). Competition within the rapidly expanding Software-as-a-Service market has been intense, and players across the board have increased their investments to grow fast and capture maximum share. In the recently concluded Q3FY14, Oracle reported a 24% increase to $292 million in quarterly revenues from its cloud business. (Oracle's fiscal years end with May.) However, the company has lagged behind rival SAP AG in terms of cloud revenue growth. In the latter's recently concluded Q1FY14, SAP reported a 38% increase in cloud revenues to $316 million. Recently, Oracle announced the "Customer 2 Cloud" program as an effort to boost growth rate in its cloud

London Silver Fixing to bite the dust in August Posted: 14 May 2014 12:35 PM PDT The company administering the daily benchmark-setting London Silver Fixing has announced that the process will cease as of August 14th this year.

Top stock-picker: Three ways to find the best junior gold stocks Posted: 14 May 2014 12:30 PM PDT From The Gold Report: With more than 2,000 junior mining companies currently trading, it’s often difficult to sort out the promising gold equities. That’s why The Gold Report talked with Beacon Securities Managing Director and Analyst Michael Curran about some of his favorite ideas to unearth equities that add value and gold exposure to your portfolio. The Gold Report: What has surprised you most in the gold market in 2014? Michael Curran: We’re a little surprised that the gold price hasn’t had at least short-term runs to higher levels. We’ve had continuing global financial challenges and we’ve had growing political risk in places like Ukraine. Historically, those things have sent the gold price higher. TGR: What’s gold’s role in an improving global economy? MC: We definitely believe that gold is a play against improving global economics. If we see strong moves toward improving global economics, then we expect gold’s role to be diminished. We still view gold as a store of value. When interest rates are low there is a case to own bullion and/or equities because they tend to be negatively correlated with strong economies. TGR: From where will the bid emerge? MC: Possibly aftershocks to the system that would suggest that the global economy is deteriorating. That’s when we tend to see the best performance in gold and gold equities. TGR: Traditionally summer is soft for the gold market. How do you see gold prices unfolding this summer season? MC: We definitely believe in the “summer doldrums” for gold, when the metal tends to lose some physical demand support. Jewelry manufacturers don’t need to buy physical gold until the latter part of the summer for all those events around the end of the year, like Indian wedding season, Christmas and Chinese New Year. Unless there is some other market catalyst, we tend to see gold pretty flat over the summer months. TGR: It’s difficult for investors to watch their portfolios slide lower on seasonal weakness. How should they cope with market softness? MC: Our general view is that gold equities should be traded. We’ve never really been proponents of long-term holds on gold stocks. Historically, equities haven’t been great long-term holds because of the way gold vacillates between “in favor” and “out of favor.” A lot of the larger producers have already given back 20–25% in the last couple of months so it hasn’t been a case of “sell in May and go away”; it’s been “sell in March and go away.” A lot of the producers are in the middle of their 52-week price ranges. I wouldn’t sell those stocks now; you might as well hold them. Some of those stocks will be pretty attractive opportunities in the next couple of months if they give back another 10% or 15%. TGR: Generally speaking, what is an ideal percentage of gold exposure in an investment portfolio? MC: Most portfolios would benefit from some gold exposure, but we’re not zealots insisting people need to have 50%, 75% or 100% of their portfolios in gold or gold equities. I think somewhere between 5% and 10% is a good place for most people. Investors at the upper end probably want a mix of equities and bullion. At the lower end investors can probably get by with just buying equities. TGR: What is your current investment thesis for small-cap gold equities or are there multiple theses? MC: We prefer the small caps to larger caps at this point and we are taking a three-pronged approach. Our primary focus is high-grade projects in low political-risk jurisdictions. On the low-grade side, we focus on potential heap-leach projects as those projects tend to have low capital expenses and low operating costs. And we still see some opportunities in the early-stage drill plays where there is a little more risk but probably good returns if these companies are successful in their drill programs. For the most part, we would focus on explorers seeking high-grade gold. TGR: What’s your top pick in the small-cap gold equity space? MC: Our favorite is Premier Gold Mines Ltd. (PG:TSX). The company ticks all the boxes. It is in low political-risk jurisdictions—Ontario and Nevada. It has a very strong management team, people who are good at exploring and financing, and who have built and run mines. Perhaps more importantly, Premier has more than $50 million ($50M) in cash so there are no concerns about shareholder dilution or having to finance at low equity prices. TGR: Assays from drill holes on the Helen Zone extension on Premier’s Cove property in Nevada are in and the grade looks promising. MC: Cove is interesting in that there are two, perhaps even three distinct types of mineralization. The current resource at the Helen Zone and some of the extensions below the previously mined Cove pit are all classic Carlin-style gold deposits with carbonate-hosted gold. It’s soft and easy to mine. What’s more interesting is that below the open pit Premier found this new zone that has massive sulphide mineralization, with base metals in addition to gold. For underground mining, that’s a much more competent rock to be mining, assuming Premier finds enough of it at decent grades. TGR: Premier is advancing three different projects. Does that confuse investors? MC: We’ve had similar feedback regarding the focus of the company. Five years ago, investors would pay $5 per share for Rahill-Bonanza, a high-grade discovery in the heart of the Red Lake mining district in northern Ontario that’s a joint venture with Goldcorp Inc. (G:TSX; GG:NYSE). The company is now much closer to finding something at Red Lake, but in the meantime these other assets have been advanced, especially Hardrock in the Geraldton-Beardmore area of Ontario. That asset has Measured and Indicated gold resources of 3.24 million ounces (3.4 Moz) and 3.78 Moz Inferred. Premier could have an interesting medium-sized open pit there. Then there’s a relationship with Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM:NYSE) at Cove. An aspect of Premier we’ve always liked is its potential for either a takeover or an asset selloff. Premier is a very attractive investment at $2/share. TGR: What are some other companies that fit your theses? MC: On the high-grade side we like Dalradian Resources Inc. (DNA:TSX). It has the Curraghinalt gold project in Northern Ireland, which has 1 Moz Measured and Indicated and 2.5 Moz Inferred gold resources at about 10 grams per ton (10 g/t). I think it can become a medium-sized gold mine in the next few years. TGR: Curraghinalt will undergo a feasibility study over the next 18 months, generally a weak period for a junior gold stock. Why should investors stick around? MC: The real incentive to own the stock now is clearly the valuation. When we look at market capitalization per ounce of resource, the global average is about $24 per ounce ($24/oz). But in the subset of non-producing gold companies with high-grade deposits similar to Dalradian, the average is $115/oz. Dalradian is valued at $25/oz—it’s the cheapest high-grade deposit we see out there. Mergers and acquisitions activity in the last four years in the non-producer space has been midtier or large caps buying the high-grade deposits owned by juniors. I think Dalradian fits that bill. The valuation is so compelling that during a period of depressed news flow, it’s something that you can buy and hold and the stock can move up as Dalradian progresses through the feasibility study. TGR: And you would consider Northern Ireland a low-risk jurisdiction? MC: Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. and recently it has certainly shown a willingness to advance projects. Last year Dalradian received environmental approval to drive underground development at Curraghinalt and proceed with some test mining. If the company could get permits for that kind of activity, it should be able to permit it for mining. TGR: Are there any more that fit that bill? MC: One that we don’t cover but definitely follow is Integra Gold Corp. (ICG:TSX.V). The company owns the Lamaque South gold project in Quebec’s Val-d’Or camp in northwestern Québec. It has high grade in the heart of mining country so it has great infrastructure. People may think it’s the old Lamaque property, but this is actually south of the old Lamaque mine. I visited Lamaque South in the spring. It’s as if Integra found the initial discovery at Lamaque, which was an underground mine. Integra has outlined a couple of mineralized zones and the resource is up to 800,000 ounces (800 Koz). The Lamaque mine produced 4.5 Moz gold before various companies tried to make it a big low-grade open pit. A preliminary economic assessment on that initial resource said Integra could put a mine into production for $70M in a toll-milling scenario but there are actually bankrupt mills sitting idle in the area. I think the market is waiting to see how it proceeds. We talked about Dalradian being very cheap but Integra trades at $30/oz, whereas high-grade situations elsewhere trade in excess of $100/oz. TGR: What about an exploration story? MC: Our favorite exploration-stage company that’s building resources is Cayden Resources Inc. (CYD:TSX.V; CDKNF:OTCQX). Initially our attention was drawn to its strategic land position in the middle of the Guerrero Gold Belt in Mexico where Torex Gold Resources Inc. (TXG:TSX), Newstrike Capital Inc. (NES:TSX.V) and Goldcorp’s Los Filos gold mine are located. Over the last nine months or so the focus has moved from the Guerrero Gold Belt to Cayden’s newer project, El Barqueño, on the west side of Jalisco state. About 250 Koz was mined there in heap-leach open pits over the last decade. We have seen some strong drill results and Cayden is building resources. El Barqueño has the potential to be the next multimillion-ounce deposit in Mexico. Cayden’s shares have done well despite the general malaise in the gold space. TGR: El Barqueño is the new focus but Cayden believes its Las Calles property sits above the mineralized extension of Goldcorp’s Los Filos mine. Do you agree with that thesis? MC: Cayden has two adjacent projects in the Guerrero Gold Belt: Morelos Sur and Las Calles. Morelos Sur is due west of Goldcorp’s Los Filos. Cayden hasn’t found anything there yet but Morelos Sur is probably the most prospective target in the Guerrero Gold Belt, which hosts five multimillion-ounce deposits. Goldcorp and Torex each have two, and Newstrike has the other. Cayden also has a sliver of ground between the two open pits at Los Filos. About half a dozen holes drilled in Las Calles have encountered gold at similar grades to what’s found north and south, so there’s definitely gold ounces on Las Calles. I think there’s strong potential for Goldcorp to acquire either just Las Calles or perhaps all of Cayden’s ground in the Guerrero Gold Belt. TGR: What are some companies that fit into that the low-grade, heap-leach thesis? MC: Kaminak Gold Corp. (KAM:TSX.V). The company has the Coffee project in the Yukon, which has a resource of 719 Koz gold Indicated and 3.4 Moz Inferred. What is less known is that there’s a fair bit of high-grade oxide mineralization at Kaminak that is potentially heap leachable. There’s probably 1 Moz at 4 g/t gold so that could be economic as a smaller operation, while still mining 100–200 Koz per year. That’s one we like. Another one we like in the low-grade, heap-leach space is Goldrock Mines Corp. (GRM:TSX.V). The company has the low-grade Lindero gold property in Argentina. It’s probably running 0.7–0.8 g/t, with 2.19 Moz Measured and Indicated gold and 710 Koz Inferred, including reserves of 1.5 Moz . Goldrock even has decent infrastructure for being in the Andes of Argentina. TGR: Goldrock bills itself as a near-term 100 Koz gold producer. Why haven’t more people heard of this story? MC: There have been two issues with Goldrock. One is that it’s in Argentina. Investors haven’t been excited about Argentina for a couple of years. That attitude is changing. We’ve seen an influx of money from international oil and gas companies. We haven’t seen that in the mining space yet, but I think that will follow. A change in government is expected later this year and the new regime should be more mining friendly. The other issue is financing. Goldrock has its feasibility study completed and permits in hand, but it lacks the capital to start building a mine. When people see some of the financing, whether it’s debt or equity, to move that project into construction, that will put the company back on a lot of people’s radar screens. TGR: Any others? MC: Another one I’d like to mention would be one of our favorite very early-stage explorers. Arena Minerals Inc. (AN:TSX.V) is looking for both copper and gold in Chile. The management team is familiar with that area of the world and has secured a large land package in the heart of copper mining country. The property is near six large copper mines owned by some of the world’s biggest copper miners. This is ground that has lain dormant for decades. Arena has a second property that’s north of Yamana Gold Inc.’s (YRI:TSX; AUY:NYSE;YAU:LSE) El Peñón mine, a high-grade underground mine that produces gold and silver. Arena could have some extensions of the mineralized structure on its property. TGR: Do you believe gold will finish 2014 above $1,400/oz? MC: I think we can finish the year somewhere in the $1,400–1,500/oz range. We’re seeing a flat summer and then there will be some catalysts later in the year to push gold higher. Our current target would be $1,400/oz plus. TGR: What would those catalysts be? MC: They are going to be things related to either political risk or that economies aren’t improving as much as people believed, or if there’s a hiccup with quantitative easing in the U.S. TGR: Michael, thank you for your time. Michael Curran is a managing director and mining analyst with Beacon Securities in Toronto. He was previously a director and a mining research analyst with RBC Capital Markets. Curran received the #1 Ranking for Mining & Metals research coverage by The Wall Street Journal (Annual Best on the Street Survey) in May 2013. He holds a Master of Science degree in mineral exploration and a Master of Business Administration, and is a CFA charterholder.   More on gold: Master trader Clark: The next major gold rally is starting now Is the gold bull market over? Read this and decide for yourself. If you have any doubt about owning gold, read this now

Deep State Silver and the Ultimate Loss of Control Posted: 14 May 2014 12:30 PM PDT Silver is a basket case in terms of paper prices and the emotions that come with it. Of course, the metal itself, (when held out of the system in personal position) does not do much at all. It is worthwhile to keep this in mind during the next inevitable illegally induced price move lower, and [...] The post Deep State Silver and the Ultimate Loss of Control appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Ukrainian Crisis Triggered by US Deep State in Preparation for Revamp of International Monetary System! State of Jefferson, Rise! Federal Government Excesses, State-level Indifference Reinvigorates a Vision for 51st State! UK Already Deep in Stagflation

Another massive 'bear raid' on gold hard to force - Phillips Posted: 14 May 2014 12:26 PM PDT Julian Phillips reckons if an attack on the gold price does take place it will make the market volatile but not yield the desired results.

Gold Beginning of End of Bottoming Process? Posted: 14 May 2014 12:14 PM PDT

Demand for platinum jewellery booming in India Posted: 14 May 2014 11:53 AM PDT In the bastion for gold jewellery, India, platinum gains favor especially among urban men.

Mercenary Links May 14th: Euro-Stimulus Posted: 14 May 2014 11:51 AM PDT Mercenary Links May 14th: Fresh signs of ECB stimulus plan… why bonds are rising… EU court’s anti-Google ruling… why we favorite tweets, delusions of the average American, and more. Fresh Signs Point to Possible European Central Bank Stimulus Plan Markets expect June action from the ECB ~~~ European Markets Look to Bank of England ECB eyes measures to boost lending to SMEs ~~~ U.S. Household Debt Increases More homes than ever are beyond the reach of the middle class ~~~ 4 Reasons Why Bonds Are Rising Lousy recoveries: No one (important) wants faster growth The Mysterious Death of Entrepreneurship in America ~~~ The Case for an Extended Bull Market in Stocks Pimco Sees 'An End To Bull Markets' For Next 5 Years Bill Gross: Investing in Slow-Growth Era The New Neutral | PIMCO Secular Forum ~~~ Crude stocks jump on refinery bottleneck Ezra Levant: Putin's new OPEC Russia Bans Rocket Engine Sales to U.S. Military ~~~ Nickel Drops Most Since Mid-2012 on Adequate Supply London's silver price fix dies after nearly 120 years U.S. Steel Imports Spark Wave of Trade Complaints ~~~ French Foreign Minister: ’500 Days to Avoid Climate Chaos’ Where’s the Fertilizer? Farmers Grow Worried Wheat Futures Extend Longest Slump in Five Months ~~~ Google must delete ‘irrelevant’ links, rules top EU court Google Faces Challenges in Europe After Privacy Ruling ~~~ Tech Star Is Leaving Goldman Sachs to Join Hedge Fund Tech Firms’ Cash Piles Cool Fears of a Meltdown Facebook Taking Steps to Open a China Sales Office ~~~ Sony, Hit by a Fresh Annual Loss, Expects Another to Follow Macy’s Saw Trends Improve in April; Dividend, Buyback Increased ~~~ Iranian Hackers, Evolving in Skill, Target U.S. Defense Companies Vietnam mobs set fire to foreign factories in anti-China riots Death Toll Rises in Turkish Mine Disaster ~~~ Are You Too Busy? How to Know Your Limits Why We Favorite Tweets, According To Science Average Americans Think They’re Smarter Than the Average American Sarah Baker Speaks for the Overweight on 'Louie' Recent Mercenary Links (scroll for archives) (select a post)Mercenary Links May 14th: Euro-StimulusMercenary Links May 13th: Demographic BidMercenary Links May 12th: Modi ManiaMercenary Links May 9th: Fresh BeatsMercenary Links May 8th: Slow Night at the Auction HouseMercenary Links May 7th: Pot PressureMercenary Links May 6th: Rich ListMercenary Links May 5th: Wage PressuresMercenary Links May 2nd: Kicking Into Higher GearMercenary Links May 1st: Most Affluent EhMercenary Links April 30th: Slowing to a CrawlMercenary Links April 29th: Labor ShortagesMercenary Links April 28th: Crisis WatchMercenary Links April 25th: Flash Boys STFUMercenary Links April 24th: Losing SteamMercenary Links April 23rd: Shorting Cool KidsMercenary Links April 22nd: Middle Class BluesMercenary Links April 21st: Sluggish ResilienceMercenary Links April 17th: Ramping UpMercenary Links April 16th: Power DrainMercenary Links April 15th: 1990Mercenary Links April 14th: SizzleMercenary Links April 11th: Tiger SoupMercenary Links April 10th: SelloffMercenary Links April 9th: Confusing MarketsMercenary Links April 8th: SabotageMercenary Links April 7th: Busy WeekMercenary Links April 4th: End of an EraMercenary Links April 3rd: Dovish DraghiMercenary Links April 2nd: Disaster PayoutsMercenary Links April 1st: Ford ToughMercenary Links March 31st: DovespeakMercenary Links March 28th: Don't Believe the HypeMercenary Links March 27th: Rumor and PanicMercenary Links March 26th: Lipstick on a Candy-Coated PigMercenary Links March 25th: The Bundesbank Said What?Mercenary Links March 24th: High OutputMercenary Links March 21st: Nothing At AllMercenary Links March 20th: Unintentionally HawkishMercenary Links March 19th: Minsky ComethMercenary Links March 18th: Developer BluesMercenary Links March 17th: ExpensiveMercenary Links March 14th: Switch-UpMercenary Links March 13th: Relentless RiseMercenary Links March 12th: QE and its DiscontentsMercenary Links March 11th: Shadow HaltMercenary Links March 10th: What's Up DocMercenary Links March 7th: $80.7 TrillionMercenary Links March 6th: Hello NakamotoMercenary Links March 5th: Chicken KievMercenary Links March 4th: Putin BlinksMercenary Links March 3rd: Cock the HammerMercenary Links Feb 28th: The New Great GameMercenary Links Feb 27th: GigafactoryMercenary Links Feb 26th: TensionMercenary Links Feb 25th: Electric BoogalooMercenary Links Feb 24th: Fresh RecordMercenary Links Feb 21st: TranscriptsMercenary Links Feb 20th: $19 BillionMercenary Links Feb 19th: Putin's NightmareMercenary Links Feb 18th: Hoover DamMercenary Links Feb 14th: Inflation, is that you?Mercenary Links Feb 13th: Deflationary ViceMercenary Links Feb 12th: Killer GlitchMercenary Links Feb 11th: Dovin' ItMercenary Links Feb 10th: Waning MagicMercenary Links Feb 7th: Undeterred FedMercenary Links Feb 6th: The Poverty EconomyMercenary Links Feb 5th: Ok Janet, Now WhatMercenary Links Feb 4th: No Pause For You!Mercenary Links Feb 3rd: War DrumsMercenary Links Jan 31st: End of an EraMercenary Links Jan 30th: Wobbly House of CardsMercenary Links Jan 29th: $10 BillionMercenary Links Jan 28th: Hut, Hut, HikeMercenary Links Jan 27th: 1997 ReduxMercenary Links Jan 24th: Capital FlightMercenary Links Jan 23rd: Dragon RattleMercenary Links Jan 22nd: Offshore PrincelingsMercenary Links Jan 21st: Animal SpiritsMercenary Links Jan 17th: Impossible DreamMercenary Links Jan 15th: Mao StimulusMercenary Links Jan 14th: Housing Bubble EhMercenary Links Jan 13th: Number One TraderMercenary Links Jan 10th: Cold SnapMercenary Links Jan 9th: SearedMercenary Links Jan 8th: Hair ShirtMercenary Links Jan 7th: Boom Shake the RoomMercenary Links Jan 6th: Imagine $79 OilMercenary Links Jan 3rd: Running Out of TrackMercenary Links Jan 2nd: UpbeatMercenary Links Dec 31st: Winners and LosersMercenary Links Dec 30th: Bumper YearMercenary Links Dec 27th: Shady MetalsMercenary Links Dec 26th: Blindsided KEFI study sees improved economics for Tulu Kapi gold project Posted: 14 May 2014 11:50 AM PDT KEFI Minerals has announced some encouraging preliminary findings as it heads towards completing its revised scoping study on the Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia.

Rebellion in the USA – Protesters Take Over Albuquerque City Council and Attempt to Arrest Police Chief Posted: 14 May 2014 11:30 AM PDT There is something very, very wrong with the Albuquerque, New Mexico police department, and the citizens have just about had enough.  Before I get into the heart of this story, I need to provide you with a little background. The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is well known for its outrageous and inappropriate use of violence.  So [...] The post Rebellion in the USA – Protesters Take Over Albuquerque City Council and Attempt to Arrest Police Chief appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Illinois Church Told by City Officials It Can No Longer Provide Homeless People Shelter "Puppycide" – Militarized Police Shooting Hundreds of Thousands of Dogs in America Can Police Search Your Cell Phone Without a Warrant? The Supreme Court is About to Decide

7 Companies Apple Could Have Bought That Are More Innovative Than Beats Posted: 14 May 2014 11:25 AM PDT What will come of Apple’s $160 billion stockpile? That question has grown murky since the 2011 passing of founder/CEO Steve Jobs. A little light was shed last week when a big announcement was made, and now some wonder: is Apple going to go on a spending spree? Is Silicon Valley about to hit it big, again, all thanks to Apple? Time will tell. What’s for sure? Apple has just made its biggest acquisition. Original post at Bitcoinomics Apple (AAPL) is nearing a $3.2 billion acquisition to buy Dr. Dre’s Beats Electronics. Many have suggested reasons for the purchase, but nobody really knows. One occurring reason, the simplest explanation, is that Apple sells music, and people listen to music with headphones. But were the headphones the best option for the company known for its cash stockpile? Bitcoinomics isn’t so sure, and we would like to offer five different companies that Apple might have better spent its money on. In short, what the following suggestions have in common, is they are decentralized technologies. 1.Open Garden Open Garden, Inc. is a free, closed source mobile application for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It enables peer-to-peer mobile internet connection sharing with faster data transmissions by automatically and actively choosing and switching to the best available network. Open Garden promotes open wireless networks and is a member of the Open Wireless Coalition, which was founded by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Like Bitcoinomics by clicking here.  This technology naturally scares mobile carriers. AT&T requested that Google Play block its customers access to Open Garden. A spokesperson stated that Open Garden violates company policies by enabling unauthorized tethering and mobile connection sharing. Open Garden’s founder and CEO, Micha Benoliel, stated this was a lie, and that his company does not do anything illegal. By entering into the space of decentralized internet carriers, Apple could become the gatekeeper of the internet, above all other telecom companies, if it should use to use its power in such a way. Decentralized solutions are the wave of the future, current trends suggest. 2. Twister As mass political protests swept across Brazil in June 2013, Miguel Freitas followed the news on Twitter. Tweets revealed information quicker than the mainstream media and even blogs. “Brazilian media is highly concentrated," says Freitas, an engineer based in Rio de Janeiro. "I have been able to read news that a lot of friends never heard about." Freitas likes Twitter, believing it promotes democracy and allows protests to be organized in places like Brazil and the Middle East. He became gravely concerned when Edward Snowden leaked details about the US government’s massive surveillance of internet traffic and social networks. Freitas started building a new version of Twitter. It was to be a more secure and robust version of Twitter, using code from two other massively successful online projects: bitcoin and BitTorrent. "As much as I like using Twitter for news reading, the possibility of a single entity being able to control this important flux of information made no sense to me," he says. Meet Twister – decentralized social network that theoretically cannot be shutdown by one entity. Furthermore, Twister is designed to prevent other users from knowing whether or not you’re online, your IP address, or who you follow. Just like Twitter, you can still post public messages, but when you send direct and private messages to others, they are protected using encryption. A test version of the app that runs on Android, Linux and OSX has been designed. The code is open source, so others can create a Windows or iPhone version. Twister is simple to use for an app that is decentralized and emphasizes security. Alternatives to Twitter and Facebook, like Pump.io, Identica and Diaspora, have required that you operate your own dedicated server or trust someone else to run a server for you. Twister works instead like peer-to-peer file sharing software: Launch the app, it connects with other users. Hence, no need for a central server. It uses the bitcoin protocol to achieve this. The protocol handles user registration and logins. Similar to how miners can verify transactions over the bitcoin network in order to make sure no one double-spends bitcoins and everyone only spends their own coins, a network of Twister computers verifies user names aren’t registered twice, and that posts attached to a particular user name are really coming from that user using. Handled through the BitTorrent protocol, posts themselves are distributed through the network quickly and efficiently, allowing users to receive near-instant notifications about new posts and messages, without the need for central servers. Apple would do well spending some of its cash on such tech companies as Twister. It is a revolution in communications, like the internet itself, and goes beyond Twitter, which has had a dissapointing stock price since its IPO in 2013. 3. BitCloud “We want to replace YouTube, Dropbox, Facebook, Spotify, ISPs, and more with decentralized apps based on proof of bandwidth,” stated Bitcloud, which aims to be a distributed autonomous corporation that hopes to “decentralize the current internet” so it can “create a new internet to replace it”. That might sound high-fallutin’, but it is a sign of the times in which we live. Technology is changing everyday and in big and meaningful ways. Life is exciting. And the internet is going to look completely different in 5-10 years, in large part thanks to bitcoin. 4. Bitcoin One of the main philosophies of Steve Jobs was to keep Apple’s “powder dry.” That is, Jobs liked having a lot of cash on hand. But buying other companies is not the only option Apple has with that grip of cash. Bitcoin has been around for the last 5 years and it has caught the attention of the world. Many people think bitcoin and think of something controversial, if not illegal almost. But the truth is, bitcoin is simply technology, and a technology that has changed the world already. Buy obtaining bitcoins, Apple would merely be taking stock in a new technology. It would be like holding cash, but with much more volatility. The upside potential, however, could turn Apple into the biggest company on the planet. And all they would have to do is spend a small amount of their fortune on the bitcoins. It would also fit in with their philosophy to keep funds outside the US banking system. 5. Genesis Coin GenesisCoin has developed a multi-featured bitcoin ATM. “Genesis Coin Inc. provides hardware and software solutions for digital currency markets, with plans to deploy 100 Bitcoin ATMs around the world by the third quarter of 2014. ” Genesis Coin Inc. provides hardware and software solutions for digital currency markets, with plans to deploy 100 Bitcoin ATMs around the world by the third quarter of 2014. The company is one of the more silent BitcoinATM companies, but has one of the more solid models. 6. Bittunes Apple obviously is interested in getting into the online music market, symbolized by its purchase of Beats Electronics. But, if it wants to be out in front of the future of the music industry, it must look to the decentralized mediums such as many of the aforementioned businesses. The vision for this project is about using the best aspects of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology often rightly called 'super distribution', and fusing that with the latest technology in digital payment systems, to radically change the way the technology has been applied so that ordinary people actually earn money by becoming the new distribution channel for digital music. In this way, Bittunes deals directly with the Music Piracy problem, with a carrot not a stick, rewarding artists fairly, and allowing users to potentially earn 5-10x profits on song purchases. To achieve this will not be easy, but the end result could be nothing short of revolutionary. If Apple truthfully wishes to get into the music space, then something along these lines is clearly the answer. 7. BitPay Bitpay just struck it big with another $30 million investment after having Peter Thiel climb onboard earlier. According to its website, BitPay will join CoinBase as a payment processor with zero fees. Currently, Coinbase is using the model towards a merchants' first one million sales, after which merchants will pay 1% fees. BitPay's new model, however, asks for $30 per month per merchant, with zero additional fees. This is unprecedented in payment processing space, and will certainly send shockwaves through various payment processing spaces. Both BitPay and Coinbase represent the world's first zero-fee payment processors, driving home how revolutionary modern payment methods are. This certainly must make leading credit card companies nervous, considering their 3% fees and history of high fee debacles: In July 2012, Visa, MasterCard and several major banks agreed to pay U.S. retailers a record $7.25 billion in penalties to settle a long-lasted lawsuit alleging the card giants conspired to fix so-called "swipe fees" paid by shops and supermarkets. Swipe fees are levied on retailers for using their cards for each transaction. The fee is deducted by the card's issuing bank.   To be certain, the news is bullish for the Bitcoin price, and will likely not make the impact it should via mainstream financial channels. Visionaries who invested in BitPay include Trace Mayer, Peter Thiel and Max Keiser.  Trace and Keiser recommended Bitcoin at $0.05 and $5.00 respectively. CONCLUSION Apple can of course do with its money as it likes. But, in the modern technological environment, Beats Entertainment doesn’t exactly make the most impressive company for Apple’s biggest acquisition ever. Apple is trying to stay relevant to the younger generation, but it might do this more efficiently by venturing into decentralized technologies and not a rap artist who hasn’t released an album since “2001.” At the end of the day, Beats Electronics $1 billion in revenue helped Apple make the decision. Justin O’Connell is the  CEO of GoldSilverBitcoin, Head Researcher at Dollar Vigilante, author of the first full-length bitcoin book, Bitcoinomics, as well as a co-host at Our Very Own Special Show, a lifestyle podcast about music, news, life and other topics.

Gold and silver on verge of trend decision for next two weeks but uncertainly reigns Posted: 14 May 2014 11:02 AM PDT Commodity Trader

China Reaching Its Tentacles All Over The Globe Posted: 14 May 2014 11:00 AM PDT This week Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visits four African nations: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya, to boost ties with Africa where Chinese direct investments reached $25 billion in 2013, up 44 per cent from 2008, according to the BRICS post. Li will also meet African Union leaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Chinese vice-minister for foreign affairs, Zhang Ming, told [...] The post China Reaching Its Tentacles All Over The Globe appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Brazil, China Sign Trade Deal to Bypass Dollars Australia and China Strike Another Nail into the US Dollar for Independence Day Petro Dollar Going the Way of the Dodo Bird as China Begins Selling Oil Using Yuan

Silver fix is broken Posted: 14 May 2014 10:26 AM PDT Gold and silver both continue to be underpinned by the crisis in Ukraine

West Virginia coal mine collapse kills two workers Posted: 14 May 2014 09:47 AM PDT Patriot Coal's Brody Mine No. 1 collapsed about 8:30 p.m. on Monday, trapping two miners, says the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The Fix is Out! London Silver Fix to End Aug 14th Posted: 14 May 2014 09:40 AM PDT Will 2014 go down in history as the year that the silver manipulation ended? First JPMorgan exited their commodities business, and today, the London Silver Market Fixing has announced that effective August 14th, 2014, The Company will cease issuing daily the silver fix permanently. 1. What will happen after 14 August 2014? Will the Silver [...] The post The Fix is Out! London Silver Fix to End Aug 14th appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Deutsche Bank to Quit PM Price Setting Due to Manipulation Investigation Bill Murphy’s London Source: “Silver & Gold Will GO NUTS in August!” Gold Rigging Goes Mainstream: FT Reports Evidence of “Collusive Behavior” on London Fix!

Russia On The Verge Of Dealing A Death Blow To The Petrodollar- Holds “De-Dollarization” Meeting Posted: 14 May 2014 09:35 AM PDT Is the petrodollar monopoly about to be shattered?   When U.S. politicians started slapping economic sanctions on Russia, they probably never even imagined that there might be serious consequences for the United States. But now the Russian media is reporting that the Russian Ministry of Finance is getting ready to pull the trigger on a “de-dollarization” [...] The post Russia On The Verge Of Dealing A Death Blow To The Petrodollar- Holds “De-Dollarization” Meeting appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Russia And China Stand In Agreement On Ukraine – And That Is Very Bad News For The United States How China Can Cause The Death Of The Dollar And The Entire U.S. Financial System Currency Wars: Bye Bye Petrodollar – Buy, Buy Gold

Interview: Bail-ins May Cause Bank Runs and Capital Controls In Western World - Russia, China Opt Ou Posted: 14 May 2014 09:02 AM PDT gold.ie

SEC Official Claims Over 50% of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior Posted: 14 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT Last week, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism penned a fantastic piece leveraging a talk by SEC official Drew Bowden. Mr. Bowden heads the SEC's examinations unit, and at a private equity conference he explained that "more than 50 percent of private equity firms it has audited have engaged in serious infractions of securities laws." What is so incredible about [...] The post SEC Official Claims Over 50% of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Goldman Builds New Private Bank for Wealthy Clients Interactive Brokers Issues Official Denial- Claims it has not Rehypothecated $14.5 Billion in Client Funds #AskJPM Fiasco Provides Blueprint to Rein In Criminal Banking Behavior

Fixing The Fix Posted: 14 May 2014 08:43 AM PDT Quite a bit of hubbub today regarding the announcement that the daily London silver fixing  will be ending in August. Is this something to be excited about? Yes. Is it a significant step forward in ending the manipulation? Not so much... read more

On Tap for Tomorrow Posted: 14 May 2014 07:53 AM PDT In light of that strong PPI number this morning, tomorrow's release of the CPI will perhaps take on some added significance. The market is expecting a 0.3% rise compared to the 0.2% rise last month. When food and energy are excluded, the consensus is a 0.2% rise. Interestingly, the market is expecting industrial production to have actually fallen in April. The number in the market is a 0.1% decline compared to a previous month 0.7% increase. Jobless claims are expected at 320K compared to the previous 319K. The huge rally in the bond market continues at this hour. Yield on the Ten Year has fallen to 2.548%. That is astonishing given the PPI reading. It is also helping to explain the  continued strength in gold which thus far has been holding above $1300. Copper, after moving lower on China news yesterday is now moving higher on China news today... Think about that for a moment and then realize why trading commodities is such a difficult game for so many people starting out. Crude oil is up after the EIA released data showing an unexpected BUILD in supplies. However gasoline stockpiles fell 772,000 barrels when the market was looking for a 100,000 increase. Distillate stocks fell 1.1 million barrels against an expected 600,000 increase. The products number kicked crude back up after it had an initial knee-jerk response lower. Crude is now trading near $102.50, and is back above the key $100 barrel mark. Coming on a day in which the PPI was sharply higher, higher energy prices are fanning the inflation fames. I shudder to think where we would be here in the US were it not for this massive shale oil production.

Century old London silver fixing firm closes shop Posted: 14 May 2014 07:52 AM PDT Regulators have been stepping up their scrutiny of how gold and silver prices are set in the wake of the London interbank offered rate-manipulation scandal.

THE FIX IS OUT! LONDON SILVER FIX TO END AUG 14TH Posted: 14 May 2014 07:49 AM PDT Will 2014 go down in history as the year that the silver manipulation ended? First JPMorgan exited their commodities business, and today, the London Silver Market Fixing has announced that effective August 14th, 2014, The Company will cease issuing daily the silver fix permanently. 1. What will happen after 14 August 2014? Will the Silver Fixing cease to exist? With effect from the close of business on 14 August 2014, the Company will cease to administer a Silver Fixing, and a daily Silver Fixing Price will no longer be published by the Company. 4. What happens after 14 August 2014 for market participants with contracts referencing the Silver Fix? The Company is not in a position to comment on such matters, but market participants can speak to their contractual counter-parties. More on the end of the London silver-fix:

PPI numbers send Precious Metals Higher Posted: 14 May 2014 07:02 AM PDT The Producer Price Index, PPI, which measures prices at the wholesale level, came in sharply higher than expectations this morning, and sent both gold, and especially silver, strongly higher. The April reading rose 0.6% for the month, well above the 0.2% increase that the market had baked into the cake. That was the sharpest rise since September 2012. When the usually volatile food and energy component was stripped out leaving the core measurement, the number rose 0.5%. The market expectation for the core reading was a 0.2% increase. The number caught the market by surprise and forced a good-sized round of short covering in the PM complex. The Federal Reserve is no doubt welcoming this PPI number ( the governors are probably doing cartwheels in the hallway)  as they have been scared to death of deflation. Their goal is to produce an annual inflation reading of 2%. As mentioned yesterday, silver MUST have inflation to rally and rally it did, although I am noticing that once again it has been stymied at the $20 level. One would have thought that the bond market would have fallen on the news, meaning interest rates on the long end would have risen but oddly enough, they fell lower. I am still trying to make sense out of that. Same goes for the US Dollar which could have been expected to move higher alongside higher US interest rates. That both moved lower has me scratching my head right now and wondering what is the thinking behind this. If the market was convinced that the uptick in price pressures is the development of a new trend, then that would lend credence to the view that the Fed would raise interest rates sooner rather than later. That would support the US Dollar, especially against the Euro where the discussion over there centers around lower rates. The long bond however is now up over a full point as I type these comments early in the session. Obviously the bond market is not the least bit concerned about inflation pressures. So what in the world is going on? Gold and silver are thinking "inflation" and bonds are thinking ????? - Deflation! Why else would they be moving higher today and sending rates lower on the long end? The bond vigilantes must be punch drunk. This is going to be very interesting to monitor to see whether or not it is the beginning of a trend or another one of those "one off's". Also, we will want to see if the feds show any sort of change in the CPI, which measures prices at the retail level to see if producers are passing the price rises along to end users or are absorbing those. One thing that has me a bit skeptical that we are witnessing a huge shift towards an inflationary bias right now is the forward structure in the grains and beans. Grain prices, if we get a good growing season ( and this is of course always a question), are showing ample supplies for later this year which will mean lower costs. Also pork production, along with beef production, is expected to increase late this year and into next spring, although it will not be burdensome. China's slowing growth is also a negative factor for commodity prices in general so all of this needs to be considered. That being said, I am looking at this data with an open mind and watching closely. Again, this big bond rally today has me really skeptical as the bonds are usually right. We'll see. Stocks certainly did not like the news one bit. Keep in mind that one of the big drivers behind the consistent rise in equities has been the lack of inflation. An ultra low interest rate environment has thus far driven money flows into stocks. If, and this is a big, big "IF", we do see a shift towards an inflationary bias in these PPI's and CPI's, we might finally see a bit more selling pick up in equities. I will get some more up later in the session. Let's see how things close today.

Who’s Telling the Truth on Silver Manipulation- Ted Butler or Bart Chilton? Posted: 14 May 2014 07:01 AM PDT In a recent column, silver analyst Theodore Butler presented information that leaves him somewhat optimistic that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is looking into the possibility that the silver markets might be rigged or manipulated. In the column,  Butler labels as "phony" a prior "investigation" conducted by The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to [...] The post Who’s Telling the Truth on Silver Manipulation- Ted Butler or Bart Chilton? appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Bart Chilton With Lauren Lyster on Large Position Concentrations and Precious Metals Manipulation! Bart Chilton Says CFTC Needs to Look into Bitcoin- While Latest Silver Manipulation is Ignored! CFTC’s Bart Chilton: Banks Must End 'Brazen, Flagrant' Manipulation

Different cycles for different markets Posted: 14 May 2014 06:55 AM PDT What is up with gold and Internet stock markets right now?

Chinese & Indian Gold Demand Trumps GLD Supply Posted: 14 May 2014 05:30 AM PDT Mainstream economists appear to be almost obsessed with the idea that strength in the Dow will produce waterfall-sized selling in the GLD SPDR fund. In contrast, my view is that most weak hands in that fund sold out in 2013. The total amount of gold held by the remaining SPDR investors is now only about [...] The post Chinese & Indian Gold Demand Trumps GLD Supply appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Is Chinese Gold Demand Decreasing…Or is Western Supply Running Dry? Indian and Chinese Bullion Demand Surge Further Indian Gold Dealer: "Gold Demand Cannot Go Down; By End Of December, All Jewelers Will Need To Replenish Stock"

Gold Analysis : May 14, 2014 Posted: 14 May 2014 05:30 AM PDT investing

Gold analysis for May 13, 2014 Posted: 14 May 2014 05:30 AM PDT mt5

Price & Time: Reversal or Consolidation in Gold? Posted: 14 May 2014 05:30 AM PDT dailyfx

US Gold mines production rise 9% y y in February Posted: 14 May 2014 03:48 AM PDT The production of gold by US mines was 18,900 kilograms (kg) in February, an 8% decrease compared with January production and a 9% increase compared with that of February 2013, as per the latest survey conducted by USGS.

The Chronic Exporters’ Curse? Posted: 14 May 2014 03:35 AM PDT Mercantilist trade strategies have been the rage among most countries, save the US, whose trade policies have been oriented towards making the world safe for American multinationals and investment banks. And one can see why. Sustained trade surpluses allow exporters to leech off other nations’ demand, allowing them to enjoy higher employment levels and/or better paid laborers than they’d have otherwise. It also allows exporters to enjoy both high domestic savings rate and budget surpluses. This is important because, it means the government isn’t playing a role that businesses find unappealing to reach full (or closer to full) employment. Michal Kalecki made this point in his seminal essay, “Political Aspects of Full Employment” in 1943: In should be first stated that, although most economists are now agreed that full employment may be achieved by government spending, this was by no means the case even in the recent past. Among the opposers of this doctrine there were (and still are) prominent so-called ‘economic experts’ closely connected with banking and industry… In the great depression in the 1930s, big business consistently opposed experiments for increasing employment by government spending in all countries, except Nazi Germany. This was to be clearly seen in the USA (opposition to the New Deal), in France (the Blum experiment), and in Germany before Hitler. The attitude is not easy to explain. Clearly, higher output and employment benefit not only workers but entrepreneurs as well, because the latter’s profits rise. And the policy of full employment outlined above does not encroach upon profits because it does not involve any additional taxation. The entrepreneurs in the slump are longing for a boom; why do they not gladly accept the synthetic boom which the government is able to offer them? It is this difficult and fascinating question with which we intend to deal in this article. The reasons for the opposition of the ‘industrial leaders’ to full employment achieved by government spending may be subdivided into three categories: (i) dislike of government interference in the problem of employment as such; (ii) dislike of the direction of government spending (public investment and subsidizing consumption); (iii) dislike of the social and political changes resulting from the maintenance of full employment. Put more simply, running trade deficits finesses the contentious political issues that arise when governments have to step in to provide for an adequate level of demand by running trade deficits. While many instinctively reject the notion that government deficits are desirable except when the economy is at full employment, the reality is that private investors demand a rate of return that would otherwise result in underinvestment (see Andrew Haldane and Richard Davies for one of many confirmations; you can also see it in rampant short-termism among investors). As a result, we’ve been in a protracted period (including before the crisis) where businesses around the world have been underinvesting. The so-called “savings glut” is a misnomer; it’s more accurately called a “corporate savings glut” or better yet, an “investment drought”. But the general point remains: being an exporter confers a lot of advantages. So most countries jockey to try to attain and maintain that position. And under the gold standard, there was no ready way to discipline countries who’d managed to peg the value of their currency low in gold terms and kept accumulating gold. The difficulty of reining in chronic surplus nations so concerned Keynes that he made solving that problem one of the important features of his proposed but never-adopted post World War II currency system, the bancor. But when you’ve gotten there, is it all that it’s cracked up to be? If you are a small country, say Nordic-scale, the answer is probably yes. But if you are large, the equation over time becomes more complicated. One of the issues with being a chronic exporter is that you are effectively funding your sales. You wind up exporting capital. You sell your goods to them and take their currency in return. Now of course, you could just sell those dollars or euros or pesos and convert it into your currency, but that is pretty much never done on a large scale, since selling those currencies will drive the home currency price up relative to them, undermining your position as exporter. Now the exporter can simply hold those foreign currency payments as cash, but that is seen as unimaginative, so most recipients at least put it into something with more yield (government bills or bonds) or more speculative assets (stocks, real estate, re-investment in the country in question). Now this still sounds ducky on the surface. The exporter can become a stealth colonizer or attain influence over the other country through holding so much in the way of its assets, right? Again, it’s not so simple in practice. For instance, it’s been a staple in certain corners of the financial blogosphere that China can tank the US any time it wants to by dumping Treasuries. But that would send the renminbi to the moon, the last thing the Chinese want. And the Fed could simply soak them up if it wanted to, as some parties argue the Fed did with a recent large sale of Treasuries by Belgium. Yes, but foreigners can also buy the real wealth of a country, in the form of real estate, mineral resources, and productive businesses. Robert Peston of the BBC argues today that, based on the research of Diana Choyleva of Lombard Street that the Chinese will keep exporting to the West as before, but the capital exports will come less in the form of government bond purchases through official FX reserves, and more from individuals and businesses. And those two types of investors are much more likely to want higher-return assets. This is where the exporters’ curse comes in. Readers may recall I worked with the Japanese when they were in the same position the Chinese are in now, that of exporting massive amounts of capital, and at the juncture when private businessmen were eagerly hoovering up foreign investments. In some ways, the Japanese then were better positioned than the Chinese are now due to the strength of the yen in the later 1980s (the result of the Plaza Accord of 1985 which sought to and succeeded in lowering the dollar relative to the yen). Before then, I did some advisory work for a cross-border M&A effort of a McKinsey client, and have been recruited by boutiques that were focused on cross-border investing. What I have seen directly and second hand: in the overwhelming majority of cases, foreign investors get leftovers. The best deals don’t get shopped broadly, but are snapped up by domestic buyers. The one exception is in very high end residential property in major cities, where the market is thin and the buyers are international top wealthy. Foreign investors also have trouble on other levels. For instance, they can’t get the best deal lawyers to work for them. If they go to a famous white shoe firm, they’ll get the second team. Even if they are looking at making a significant acquisition, they’ll be seen as at best intermittent clients, and thus vastly less attractive than financial buyers (PE firms) and major domestic corporations who buy all sorts of legal services in addition to M&A. If the foreign investor has really good connection or insight, he might be able to find a small firm with savvy attorneys who’d see them as an important potential client. But the foreign investor isn’t well qualified to judge the caliber of counsel, so even if he is sophisticated enough to try to find that sort of player, it’s an open question as to whether he can vet them successfully. I saw again and again how the Japanese were treated as marks. For instance, Japanese banks were big takers of leveraged buyout loan syndications. Sumitomo Bank, which was widely regarded as the best managed bank in Japan, had only very aggressive revenue targets for its branches, and no notion of adjusting revenues for capital used or risk assumed. So they were delighted, for instance, to lend $500 million to Campeau, a notorious end-of-cycle deal that went bust. All they could see was the $30 million up front fee, which they booked as profit. That magnitude of fee should have served as a huge warning about the level of risk, but that simply wasn’t a concern. If a big reputable bank like Chase offered it to them, surely it must be OK. I thought a lot of my job running an M&A business was trying to protect Japanese clients from being exploited without killing a deal. And you can see the evidence in how many bad investments the Japanese made: ridiculously overpriced golf courses and resorts, or even good assets turned into bad investments by paying too much for them (the purchase of Rockefeller Center was a classic example). I was even on transactions where people in the bank who’d managed to invade my deals were working against the client’s interest by pushing him to grossly overpay (one of the rules of M&A is “get the buyer’s price expectations up” because if the buyer is paying a really rich price, everything else becomes surprisingly easy to negotiate). Over time, that client came to realize I was the only person trying to protect him, which given that this was one of the bank’s most important clients, put the Japanese at the bank on tilt. The same appears to be happening to the Chinese who venture out on the risk curve. Remember how the Chinese were snapping up farms and other agricultural assets in Africa? On paper, that seemed smart. China has lots of mouths to feed; food security is only going to become a bigger issue over time. Mineral deals in Africa might seem a bit safer, since at least you aren’t expropriating, um, buying resources that could increase hunger among the locals. But Africa is a long way away from China and the Chinese ability to enforce their rights in a not exactly stable part of the world seemed to be an open issue. And the security of transportation is another big potential fly in the ointment. It turns out those deals are now seen as not having been so sound. From the Wall Street Journal last week, in Beijing Shows More Caution on Africa Resource Deals: China is taking a more cautious approach to Africa after a series of big loans and investments in resource deals over recent years have failed to pan out… China’s foreign direct investment in Africa is falling. Chinese companies invested $2.5 billion in 2012, the latest official available figures, down from $3.2 billion in 2011 and a peak of $5.5 billion in 2008, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce… China’s big push into Africa, which began as its economy revved up more than a decade ago, has led to some successes. But it has also caused problems. Some African officials have berated China for acting like a colonial power. Deals have foundered amid claims that Chinese companies breached safety and environmental standards. Other projects have gotten bogged down in the complexities of doing business in Africa.In some cases, China is trying to renegotiate contracts—many involving loans to build infrastructure in return for resources—that no longer make sense after commodity prices fell sharply from record levels. “Chinese were out there throwing money at anyone who would take it, and a lot of strange decisions were made,” said Derek Scissors, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Now “they’re not as frantic.” If you notice, private businesses have pulled back, but the Chinese government, which has more leverage, is trying to find a better way to make these investments. Perhaps they’ll be successful, particularly since they’ve had the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. But this is inherently difficult. There’s an additional issue, which is that an asset can legitimately be worth less in the hands of foreign owners than domestic ones. When at McKinsey, I was asked to value a privately-held Mexican air conditioning company that a US firm was keen to buy. There was a 10 times difference between what the buyer wanted to pay and what the seller was asking. When you did the valuation from each party’s perspective, allowing for tax issues (the domestic owner could play games to keep revaluing assets and minimize taxes that a big rich US multinational wouldn’t be allowed to do), the extra labor costs (a US buyer would have to be much nicer to the local union), and the very large difference in return requirements, (any US investor at this time assigned a huge risk premium to investing in the peso), plus other adjustments, each party’s valuation was actually pretty much correct. But a foreign buyer will have to pay the domestic price, even when he faces costs or complications that no domestic owner has to contend with. You can see how the Germans are in a similar fix relative to the rest of Europe, although for the most part, their capital recycling has taken place through loans rather than foreign direct investment. While the Germans as exporters have managed to squeeze the periphery countries harder than I had thought possible, it’s hard to see how they aren’t going to have to acknowledge losses at some point, whether directly, or through the deflation they are imposing on the periphery eventually infecting the core. But the Germans seem determined to delay restructurings as long as possible, which seems likely to increase their eventual cost. There are no simple answers. But the mercantilist ideal of exporting one’s way to economic power isn’t as simple or risk free as it seems. And as we’ve discusses separately, no country in modern times has made a crisis-free transition from being export-driven to having a large domestic consumer base. Development economists, late to recognize this issue, now recommend a more balanced growth model that places less emphasis on exports and more on building internal markets. But the current export champions seem unwilling or unable to abandon their past successful formula, even when it’s not working as well for them as it once did.

The London Silver Fix To Be Scrapped Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT "Nothing to see here, folks---please move along" ¤ Yesterday In Gold & Silver Well, it was more or less the same price story on Tuesday as it was on Monday, as the rally that began 10 minutes after the Comex open ran into the usual seller of last resort---but this time the gold price didn't get a change to either break $1,300 or the 200-day moving average, as the price was stopped cold before either event could occur.  It was also another day where the low and high ticks aren't worth looking up. Gold closed in New York on Tuesday at $1,294.70 spot, down $1.00 from Monday's close.  Net volume was pretty light at only 89,000 contracts with more than a third of that occurring by about 9 a.m. BST in London. I shan't repeat myself by discussing the silver price chart from yesterday---as it, too, looks almost identical to its counterpart on Monday.  It barely broke above its 20-day moving average on Tuesday.  The high and low aren't worth looking up, either---as silver traded in a two bit price range for the entire day. Silver closed yesterday at $19.53 spot, up the magnificent sum of 3 cents---courtesy of JPMorgan et al.  Volume, net of May and June, was only 29,500 contracts---which was considerably less than the 45,000 contract volume on Monday. Platinum and palladium did better, but some of their nice gains got shaved off starting the moment that Zurich closed for day, which was noon in New York.  Here are the charts. The dollar index closed late Monday afternoon in New York at 79.88---and from there it didn't do much of anything until shortly after 9:30 a.m. BST in London.  By the time the subsequent rally was done for the day, the dollar index was up to 80.17 by 1:30 p.m. EDT---which just happened to be the Comex close in New York.  After that it drifted down a handful of basis points, finishing the Tuesday trading session at 80.12---up 24 basis points from Monday's close. The gold stocks struggled to stay in positive territory, but finally gave up the ghost about 10:15 a.m. in New York---and slid into the red for the rest of the day.  The HUI finished down 0.68%. The silver stocks posted some decent gains by 11 a.m. EDT but, like gold, couldn't hold onto them.  But they managed to finish in the black, as Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed up 0.49%. The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 7 gold and 85 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday.  JPMorgan stopped all 7 gold contracts offered by Canada's Scotiabank.  In silver it was Newedge USA and ABN Amro as the two short/issuers of note with 60 and 18 contracts respectively.  There were nine different long/stoppers, most of whom were "the usual suspects."  The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday---and as of 9:47 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changed in SLV, either. The good folks over at Switzerland's Zürcher Kantonalbank updated their website for both their gold and silver ETFs as of the end of business on Friday, May 9.  They reported that their gold ETF declined by another 23,633 troy ounces---and their silver ETF declined by a further 34,314 troy ounces. Well, the U.S. Mint made up for its lack of a sales report on Monday, with a big one on Tuesday.  They sold 5,500 troy ounces of gold eagles---3,500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes---100 platinum eagles---and an absolutely stunning 1,939,500 silver eagles.  Once again I [along with Ted Butler] ask the question:  "Who the #%$& is buying all these things, especially the silver eagles?"---because it sure as hell isn't the general public, as retail bullion sales are the pits. Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Monday, there was very little action in gold, as only 3 kilobars were shipped out---all from HSBC USA.  The link to that activity, if you wish to dignify it with that description, is here. There was more activity in silver, as 300,106 troy ounces were reported received---and a smallish 5,123 troy ounces were shipped out.  The link to that action is here. I have a decent number of stories again today---and I hope you find something of interest in here. ¤ Critical Reads Federal Budget Surplus Falls Short of Estimates The U.S. posted a smaller budget surplus in April than economists projected, as spending increased at more than twice the pace of tax receipts. Revenue exceeded spending by $106.9 billion last month, compared with a $112.9 billion surplus a year before, the Treasury Department said Monday in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 24 economists was for a $114 billion surplus. So far this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the country is running a budget shortfall that’s about 37 percent smaller than it was a year earlier. Still, the economy nearly stalled in the first quarter, while spending rose last month on defense and entitlement programs. “We’ve kind of seen the best numbers we are going to see,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. The degree of improvement in the federal budget over the past year or so may not continue unless economic growth accelerates, he said. Today's first story was posted on the moneynews.com Internet site on Monday afternoon EDT---and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for bringing it to our attention. Traders may have gained early word on Fed policy, study finds Some investors between 1997 and 2013 may have gotten early word of changes to Federal Reserve policy and profited by trading before the Fed announced the policy shifts, according to Singapore-based researchers. Trading records show abnormally large price movements and imbalances in buy and sell orders that are "statistically significant and in the direction of the subsequent policy surprise," according to a paper by Gennaro Bernile, Jianfeng Hu, and Yuehua Tang at Singapore Management University. The moves occurred before and during the time that reporters were given the Federal Open Market Committee statement in so-called media lockups. This Bloomberg article showed up on their Internet later in the afternoon Denver time yesterday---and I found it embedded in a GATA release. The New York Sun: The dwindling Fed The Federal Reserve Board has many vacancies, The New York Sun observed yesterday, but Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is threatening to delay appointments to the board unless the Senate permits a vote of his proposed Federal Reserve Transparency Act, the legislation championed by his father, former Rep. Ron Paul. The Sun writes: "The Federal Reserve fears this audit. It fears the private businesses. It fears the Congress that is its creator. It claims that an audit of the kind the House wants would interfere with its 'independence.' What independence? The staff of the Sun dissolved the entire text of the United States Constitution in a chemical solvent and then put the solution through a Hamilton-brand high-speed, rotary separator. Yet we were unable to detect even a particle of a requirement that monetary policy be independent of the Congress of the United States. "There is no need to rush to fill the board of the Fed. Better for Congress to look to the substance and see what share of the blame the Fed itself deserves for the Great Recession that destroyed the presidency of Barack Obama, stranded millions without work, and forced us into retreat overseas." This editorial was posted on their website yesterday morning---and it's another news item I found on the gata.org Internet site. Scotiabank: The Murder and the Money Trail Her name was Maru Oropesa. She was the 41-year-old branch manager of a Scotiabank located in an upscale Mexico City neighbourhood. The divorced mother of two, she lived with her young sons and her mother. The nightmare began with a phone call for her oldest son Lauro Gonzalez Oropesa, just 13 at the time. The phone rang at 2:00 am on September 28, 2001. A man’s voice on the other end demanded 300,000 pesos (almost 30,000 dollars) - or else his mother would die. The caller said he would call back. Lauro, his brother, and their grandmother waited by the phone all night. The second call never came. Questions about a link between her death and her job would soon reach the executive suites of Scotiabank’s head office in Toronto. Investigators focused on one of Oropesa’s large investment accounts, and discovered that she had signed off on the illegal transfer on nearly $5 million to an account in Switzerland - all without her client’s knowledge. The man behind the plan was Jaime Ross, branch manager at Oropesa’s Scotiabank before her. By the summer of 2001, he had left to become a vice-president at another foreign bank in Mexico City, France’s BNP. This edition of "the fifth estate" was aired on CBC Television last October, but I just found about it on Sunday---and I thank John Di Tomasso for sharing it with us.   This story involves the second largest short holder in silver in the Comex future market---Scotiabank---but it's not about silver.  Hopefully the CBC will get around to doing a program about that as well someday.  The video itself runs for 45:12 minutes---and is definitely worth watching if you can fit it into your schedule. Portugal 'land grab' laws: meet the families who could lose homes Edwina Luz, 26, and her family have owned their Portuguese property in Praia da Luz in the western Algarve since the Sixties. Miss Luz, who is half Portuguese and half British, has a strong attachment to the place, which was originally bought by her grandparents because her grandfather suffered from tuberculosis and benefited from a warmer climate. They bought a three-bedroom seaside cottage in 1963 from a local couple for around €1,200, lived there for many years and raised a family. In 2008 the property was passed down to Miss Luz's mother, aunt and uncle. These family ties mean nothing, though, under draconian laws passing through parliament in Portugal. British expats who own waterfront property in Portugal have been left in limbo as the country's government decides whether to water down plans that could see thousands lose their homes. This item appeared on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site yesterday morning BST---and it's courtesy of U.K. reader Tariq Khan. German Investor Confidence Drops for Fifth Straight Month German investor confidence fell for a fifth month in May in a sign of growing concern that threats from low inflation to a strong euro may undermine the recovery. The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said its index of investor and analyst expectations, which aims to predict economic developments six months in advance, slid to 33.1 from 43.2 in April. The gauge is at the lowest level since January 2013. Economists forecast a decline to 40, according to the median of 33 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The index has dropped every month since reaching a seven-year high of 62 in December. Investor caution in Europe’s largest economy reflects concern that the slow recovery in the 18-nation euro area leaves it vulnerable to shocks. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has signaled he may add monetary stimulus in early June because policy makers are “dissatisfied” with the inflation outlook, in part due to an increase in the exchange rate. This Bloomberg news item, filed from Frankfurt, showed up on their Internet site in the wee hours of yesterday morning MDT---and my thanks go out to South African reader B.V. Seven Ukraine/Russia-related stories 1. ‘Russia is not interested in territorial expansion by means of Ukraine’: Russia Today  2. Russia’s third largest bank moves money from Europe to Moscow for safe keeping: Russia Today  3. Russia Keeps Its Distance After Ukraine Secession Referendums: The New York Times  4. Russia Retaliates: Blocks GPS, Bans U.S. Use of its Rocket Engines: Zero Hedge  5. Separatists kill seven Ukraine soldiers in heaviest loss for Kiev forces: Reuters  6. May 11 referendums should be treated as signals of deep Ukraine statehood crisis - Moscow: The Voice of Russia  7. Russia should ignore Washington's 'new Cold War': Russia Today [The above stories are courtesy of reader B.V.---and Roy Stephens] Pepe Escobar: Ukraine---The Waiting Game Everything one needs to know about mediocre political elites allegedly representing the "values" of Western civilization has been laid bare by their reaction to the referendums in Donetsk and Lugansk. The referendums may have been a last-minute affair; organized in a rush; in the middle of a de facto civil war; and on top of it at gunpoint - supplied by the Kiev NATO neo-liberal neo-fascist junta, which even managed to kill some voters in Mariupol. An imperfect process? Yes. But absolutely perfect in terms of graphically depicting a mass movement in favor of self-rule and political independence from Kiev. This was direct democracy in action; no wonder the U.S. State Department hated it with a vengeance. Turnout was huge. The landslide victory for independence was out of the question. Same for transparency; a public vote, in glass ballot boxes, with monitoring provided by Western journalists - mostly from major German media but also from the Kyodo News Agency or The Washington Post. This absolute must read commentary by Pepe was posted on the Asia Times website yesterday---and I thank reader M.A. for being the first person through the door with it. Ten King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews 1. Dr. Stephen Leeb: "China, Russia, Germany and Soaring Gold and Silver Prices"  2. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: "Washington is Driving the World to the Final War"  3. Victor Sperandeo: "Financial Destruction---and the Last Great Systemic Earthquake"  4. Egon von Greyerz: "$1.4 Quadrillion Derivatives Meltdown, Chaos and $11,000 Gold"  5.  Andrew Maguire: "Massive Physical Buy Orders In Gold At This Level"  6. Robert Fitzwilson: "Unprecedented Wealth Confiscation---and the Disastrous Endgame"  7. Michael Pento: "This Will Trigger Massive Crisis and Panic All Over the World"  8. The first audio interview is with Andrew Maguire.  9. The second audio interview is with Eric Sprott---and the third and final audio interview is with Art Cashin [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]

Scotiabank: The Murder and the Money Trail Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Scotiabank: The Murder and the Money Trail Her name was Maru Oropesa. She was the 41-year-old branch manager of a Scotiabank located in an upscale Mexico City neighbourhood. The divorced mother of two, she lived with her young sons and her mother. The nightmare began with a phone call for her oldest son Lauro Gonzalez Oropesa, just 13 at the time. The phone rang at 2:00 am on September 28, 2001. A man’s voice on the other end demanded 300,000 pesos (almost 30,000 dollars) - or else his mother would die. The caller said he would call back. Lauro, his brother, and their grandmother waited by the phone all night. The second call never came. Questions about a link between her death and her job would soon reach the executive suites of Scotiabank’s head office in Toronto. Investigators focused on one of Oropesa’s large investment accounts, and discovered that she had signed off on the illegal transfer on nearly $5 million to an account in Switzerland - all without her client’s knowledge. The man behind the plan was Jaime Ross, branch manager at Oropesa’s Scotiabank before her. By the summer of 2001, he had left to become a vice-president at another foreign bank in Mexico City, France’s BNP. This edition of "the fifth estate" was aired on CBC Television last October, but I just found about it on Sunday---and I thank John Di Tomasso for sharing it with us.   This story involves the second largest short holder in silver in the Comex future market---Scotiabank---but it's not about silver.  Hopefully the CBC will get around to doing a program about that as well someday.  The video itself runs for 45:12 minutes---and is definitely worth watching if you can fit it into your schedule.

Ten King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Ten King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews 1. Dr. Stephen Leeb: "China, Russia, Germany and Soaring Gold and Silver Prices"  2. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: "Washington is Driving the World to the Final War"  3. Victor Sperandeo: "Financial Destruction---and the Last Great Systemic Earthquake"  4. Egon von Greyerz: "$1.4 Quadrillion Derivatives Meltdown, Chaos and $11,000 Gold"  5.  Andrew Maguire: "Massive Physical Buy Orders In Gold At This Level"  6. Robert Fitzwilson: "Unprecedented Wealth Confiscation---and the Disastrous Endgame"  7. Michael Pento: "This Will Trigger Massive Crisis and Panic All Over the World"  8. The first audio interview is with Andrew Maguire.  9. The second audio interview is with Eric Sprott---and the third and final audio interview is with Art Cashin [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]

Lawrence Williams: Gold's pent-up demand Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Lawrence Williams: Gold's pent-up demand While the West is wholly opposed to the latest referenda and has declared them totally illegal, it should also recognise that there is a large section of the Ukrainian people vitriolically opposed to what they see as a right wing controlled anti-Russian dangerous coalition in power in Kiev, and whether this is true or not it is hard to see how any kind of consensus can now be possible.  The Ukraine government is wholly committed to uniting the divided country while the eastern separatists might settle for a semi-autonomous position within greater Ukraine if Russia is unwilling to actually absorb Donetsk and Luhansk.  But the key to it all is violence.  If the Ukrainian troops do move in and a shooting war develops than the chances of Russian military intervention are probably high – and the gold price could soar.  But some kind of consensus could prevail before then. No virus found in this message.<br> Checked by AVG - <a href="http://www.avg.com">www.avg.com</a><br> Version: 2013.0.3469 / Virus Database: 3722/7488 - Release Date: 05/13/14<o:p></o:p></span></p> "" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" style="border: 0px currentColor; border-image: none; vertical-align: bottom;" frameborder="0" height="250" scrolling="no" width="300"> Thus we must remember other - perhaps more lasting - developments that could could drive the price of gold, namely, no real surprise here, India and China. On the other side of the world, exit polls are suggesting that Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition will triumph in the Indian elections – with most predicting an outright parliamentary majority.  Modi is seen as business oriented and is viewed as pro-gold with many suggesting he will, if elected, reverse the draconian import restrictions on gold – or at least mitigate them.  But one doubts this would be any new government’s primary policy and in India, with its massive deep-seated bureaucracy, things can move slowly.  We reported here yesterday that India’s April gold imports showed a massive drop year on year, although last year’s April figures were particularly high so perhaps the perceived drop is less relevant than has been suggested.  However, should the gold import restrictions be dropped or even reduced than this could unleash some massive pent-up demand, perhaps even matching that of China.  However it is far from certain what India’s gold imports even are nowadays with a totally unknown amount coming in through unofficial channels (smuggling) – and this is believed to be substantial. This commentary by Lawrie was posted on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday---and it's the first contribution to today's column from Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx.  It's certainly worth reading.

The story of Indians and gold in Dubai Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT The story of Indians and gold in Dubai Vending machines that spew out gold coins, a gold market where you'll find rows of narrow alleys glittering with strands upon strands of gold, gold dust coffee, Gold leaf facials - No wonder then, that the Middle East is seen as Midas's land. Along with oil wells, opulence, dust storms and the dishdasha, the yellow metal would probably be one the most common stereotypes of the region. The general idea being - there's plenty of gold here. More importantly, gold that is very cheap. As a matter of fact, the notion isn't too far off the mark. Gold is cheaper here, largely because the import duties are non-existent. Then the proximity to the subcontinent, combined with the fact that a majority of the population is Asian, ensure the metal is always in high demand. Jewelry shops go dime a dozen, and jewelers tend to display jewels as per the area - more traditional and mass produced designs in Indian dominated areas; and more exclusive, and thereby expensive displays in designer malls. A recent survey showed that almost all visitors to the region go back with some amount of gold purchases. And like just about everything here, gold purchase too, varies along regional lines. It is usually a small souvenir trinket for most visitors from Europe and beyond, who ideally come in for the sun and sand. And it is usually expensive purchases for visitors from the subcontinent. But while buying the gold in the Middle East is an attractive and possibly economically easy option, taking it back home to India is not. This short, but interesting story, was posted on The Times of India website early Monday evening IST---and the stories from Ulrike just keep on coming.

Interpol hunts for Chennai gold smuggler Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Interpol hunts for Chennai gold smuggler Interpol has issued a lookout notice for a Chennai resident called Mohammed Haneef, one of the most wanted gold smugglers from the region. "Tall, well-built and charming," is how a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officer described Haneef. The hunt led investigators to three women who claimed to be his wives. They provided enough background about the man, but had little information about his whereabouts. Interpol issued the notice was after officers seized 50kg of gold from his operatives in various consignments in the past six months. Going by the handwritten receipts and some papers recovered from Haneef 's house in Seven Wells in December 2013, investigators believe Haneef and his associates have smuggled at least 1,000kg of gold into the country. "His 'account books' show that he has clients in Myanmar, Singapore, Colombo, Chennai and Thrissur. Many famous jewellers in Chennai and Kerala are on his list," an officer said. This is another story from The Times of India.  This one was posted on their Internet site late Tuesday afternoon India Standard Time---and it's also a contribution from Ulrike Marx.

Gold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Gold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months While comparing to last year, the gold smuggling has spiked 446% at present in India as the country imposed harsh import duties to curb its over mounted current account deficit last year. As per the report, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had filed 40 gold smuggling cases in the last year whereas it has increased to 148 cases in the past 12 months. The aggregate value of the seized illegal gold from 464 people in 2013-14 is estimated at Rs 245 crore.   Most of the gold smugglers are arrested from the nation’s international airports. The customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said that they have nabbed 353 kg of gold worth at Rs 90 crore in this current financial year whereas it was 20-25 kg of gold in the last year. I would suspect that gold smuggling is even more important than this tiny story suggests.  It was posted on the scrapmonster.com Internet site yesterday---and it's the final offering of the day from Ulrike Marx.

Chinese fund offers 46% premium for Laotian gold/copper miner Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Chinese fund offers 46% premium for Laotian gold/copper miner China's Guangdong Rising Assets Management has proposed a A$1.1 billion ($1 billion) takeover offer for copper and gold miner PanAust Ltd., the second bid for an Australian resources firm by a Chinese state-owned company in two weeks. PanAust rejected the unsolicited bid from its biggest shareholder as too low but agreed to allow it to conduct due diligence in the hope of getting a better offer. The takeover proposal comes amid a slew of interest in Australian mining assets from Chinese firms eager to secure global resources. This Reuters story, co-filed from Sydney and Melbourne, was posted on their Internet site in the wee hours of Tuesday morning EDT---and it's another article I found on the gata.org Internet site yesterday.

Bill Rice: Who should GAO believe - Ted Butler or Bart Chilton? Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Bill Rice: Who should GAO believe - Ted Butler or Bart Chilton? In a recent column, silver analyst Theodore Butler presented information that leaves him somewhat optimistic that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is looking into the possibility that the silver markets might be rigged or manipulated. In the column, Butler labels as “phony” a prior “investigation” conducted by The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to Butler and the CFTC itself, this “investigation” lasted five years and included “7,000” man hours of work on the part of CFTC employees doing the investigating. I too believe this alleged exercise in fact-finding was either bogus or clearly not worthy of the label of “investigation.” This longish commentary by Bill Rice, Jr. showed up on the silverseek.com Internet site yesterday---and it's worth your while.

Perth Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales Slide Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT Perth Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales Slide The Perth Mint of Australia has released their latest figures on the amount of gold and silver sold as coins and minted products. The monthly sales for each metal declined to their lowest levels in more than a year. For the month of April 2014, total gold sales measured 23,461 troy ounces. This was down from the prior month when sales had reached 30,177 ounces. The latest monthly total was down significantly from the prior year period when a sudden drop in market prices had caused a surge in demand to 111,505,06 troy ounces. For the year to date, gold sales have now reached 165,459 ounces. This is down by 39.1% compared to the sales of 271,594 recorded in the comparable year ago period. This short, but worthwhile read, was posted on the coinupdate.com Internet site on Monday---and I found it on the Sharps Pixley website yesterday.

U.S. mined gold rises sharply in February Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT U.S. mined gold rises sharply in February Production of gold by U.S. mines was 18,900 kilograms (607,649 troy ounces) in February, up from 17,300 kg (556,207 oz) in February 2013, said the U.S. Geological Survey. U.S. gold mine output for January and February combined was 39,400 kg (1,266,739 oz), said the USGS. In 2013, the U.S. fell from being the World’s third largest gold producer to fourth, having been overtaken by the Russian Federation. This short gold-related news item was posted on the mineweb.com Internet site in the wee hours of this morning MDT.

The London Silver Market Daily Fixing to Close Posted: 14 May 2014 02:22 AM PDT The London Silver Market Daily Fixing to Close The London Silver Market Fixing Limited (the 'Company') announces that it will cease to administer the London Silver Fixing with effect from close of business on 14 August 2014. Until then, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Bank USA N.A. and The Bank of Nova Scotia will remain members of the Company and the Company will administer the London Silver Fixing and continue to liaise with the FCA and other stakeholders. The period to 14 August 2014 will provide an opportunity for market-led adjustment with consultation between clients and market participants. The London Bullion Market Association has expressed its willingness to assist with discussions among market participants with a view to exploring whether the market wishes to develop an alternative to the London Silver Fixing. Well, this is certainly a surprise---and what it means in the grand scheme of things is unknown at the moment.  Maybe the gold fixings will follow the same path. This marketwatch.com story, filed from London, showed up on their website at 2:01 a.m. EDT this morning---and I found it on the Sharps Pixley website.  It's definitely worth reading.

Gold Retreated Back To $1290 Posted: 14 May 2014 01:00 AM PDT investing

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