Gold World News Flash |
- GATA Reveals Confidential Document Authorizing Central Banks To Hide Their Gold Reservers
- Gold Investors Need Unsterilized Milk
- Webinar About Silver: Outlook For 2013 & Safely Own Silver
- Sorry Protesters: Your Jobs Are Being Sent To China And They Aren't Coming Back
- The Essential Buying Guide for Gold & Silver Newbies
- If One Has Wealth To Preserve, The Time For Action Is Now
- Gold & Bond Markets Are Now At A Massive Inflection Point
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Lower
- U.S. Mint gold and silver coin sales skyrocket y-o-y after Presidential election
- Sorry Protesters: Your Jobs Are Being Sent To China And They Aren't Coming Back
- The Retired & Their McMansions: 40% of Baby Boomers Look to Sell Homes
- Small Business Apocalypse Or Political Vendetta?
- In India, 'investment in gold is like social security'
- Gold mining CEOs told to fix slump as investors prove restless
- SS boots Liberty Dollars off eBay but no prosecution of HSBC money launderers
- OBAMACARE – THE SCREW THAT KEEPS SCREWING
- The Gold Price Peaked Yesterday at $1,716.74 Closing Down $4.80 at $1,708.20
- James Turk: Why everyone should have a precious metals portfolio
- "Better Off On Benefits"
- Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Fibonacci Level of Interest at 1427
- Why the Pros Bet Contrarian: Sprott Execs Bambrough and Dimitriadis
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
- Mish Shedlock Exposed
- Is Gold’s 13 Year Run Almost Over?
- Short Gold! Really?
- The Perils of Doom and Gloom
- Silver Breakout from Mother of All Mid Point Consolidations?
- Mish Mike Shedlock Exposed, the Deflation Great Pumpkin
- Secret IMF Report: Hide Gold Loans and Swaps For Market Manipulation
- LGMR: "Massive, Open-Ended Stimulus" Expected from Fed, More QE "Could See Gold Rally"
| GATA Reveals Confidential Document Authorizing Central Banks To Hide Their Gold Reservers Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:15 AM PST The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) was able to obtain a confidential report from the International Monetary Fund, written in 1999. The report defines that Western central banks would become allowed to hide their gold loans and swaps within their gold reserves, not disclosing the amount of their monetary gold but only the value assigned to it. The report contains a proposal to strengthen financial reporting standards for central banks. The IMF consulted top officials of the organization itself but also from other institutions like the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the German Bundesbank, amongst others.
GATA is a long time proponent of transparency in the gold market. The race for clarity (which is the opposite of manipulation) is the main objective of GATA. The document from the IMF shows that their assumptions are correct. Read the confidential IMF document on the GATA website (pdf at the bottom of the article). | ||||
| Gold Investors Need Unsterilized Milk Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:00 AM PST Graceland Update | ||||
| Webinar About Silver: Outlook For 2013 & Safely Own Silver Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:56 PM PST GoldCore organizes a webinar about the outlook for silver in 2013 and what to take into account to safely own silver. The special guest for the event is David Morgan, publisher of the Morgan Report and a worldwide expert on silver. It's an online only event (webinar) that requires subscription. We will attend and report after the event. The topics that will be covered:
The webinar takes place on Wednesday, December 12, 2012 from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM GMT. Subscriptions are open, attendees need to register on this web page.
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| Sorry Protesters: Your Jobs Are Being Sent To China And They Aren't Coming Back Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:30 PM PST from The Economic Collapse Blog:
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| The Essential Buying Guide for Gold & Silver Newbies Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:30 PM PST from SmartKnowledgeU: | ||||
| If One Has Wealth To Preserve, The Time For Action Is Now Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:01 PM PST  Today 40-year veteran, Robert Fitzwilson, wrote the following piece exclusively for King World News. Fitzwilson, who is founder of The Portola Group, discusses the true price of gold and silver, confiscation, price suppression, coming shortages, and what powerful entities are doing in this chaotic environment. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| Gold & Bond Markets Are Now At A Massive Inflection Point Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:00 PM PST from KingWorldNews:
Here is what Fleckenstein had to say: "The angst people have about gold, you would think it was down 20% on the year instead of up. For the last twelve years while gold has been increasing in price, people have been uncomfortable and there has been a lot of talk about the bull market being over." | ||||
| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Lower Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:00 PM PST Gold climbed $2.70 to $1714.30 by a little before 8AM EST before it fell back to $1704.82 in the next two and a half hours of trade, but it then rallied back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended with a loss of just 0.09%. Silver bumped up to $33.22 before it dropped back to $32.758 and then bounced back higher, but it still ended with a loss of 0.72%. | ||||
| U.S. Mint gold and silver coin sales skyrocket y-o-y after Presidential election Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:30 PM PST As investors' attention turns away from the November elections to the U.S. fiscal cliff crisis, U.S. Mint gold and silver coin sales have been spiraling upwards. by Dorothy Kosich, MineWeb.com
The U.S. Mint also reported that gold sales increased 132% from 59,000 ounces in October 2012 to 136,500 gold ounces in November 2012. In a news release, Arthur McGuire, vice president of East Haven, Connecticut-based Gold Coin, said, "The fiscal cliff is causing a huge stir in investment markets, and this is precisely why gold coin sales skyrocketed in November." | ||||
| Sorry Protesters: Your Jobs Are Being Sent To China And They Aren't Coming Back Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:51 PM PST Sorry Protesters: Your Jobs Are Being Sent To China And They Aren't Coming BackCourtesy of Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse
There is a lot of passion on both sides of this debate, but I am afraid that both sides in this debate are missing the bigger picture. If we keep shipping millions of our jobs to China, there isn't going to be work for anyone no matter how much power unions have or don't have. During the month of October, the U.S. trade deficit increased to 42.2 billion dollars. Our trade with China accounted for most of that deficit. Our trade deficit with China in October increased to a new all-time one month record of 29.5 billion dollars. Nearly 30 billion dollars that could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers went to China instead. Since 1975, a total of about 8 trillion dollars that could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers went to the rest of the world instead. Shiny new factories are going up all over China, and meanwhile our once great manufacturing cities are degenerating into desolate wastelands. So what is going to happen when all of the good paying manufacturing jobs are gone? Are we all going to fight bitterly over whether we should unionize the low paying jobs that remain at places such as Wal-Mart and McDonalds? Such an approach is not going to bring back prosperity to America. We desperately need to start building things and start creating real wealth inside this country once again. We desperately need to stop sending tens of thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of our national wealth out of the country. Unfortunately, I don't see anyone out there holding protests about our trade deficit. Nobody really seems to care, so our economy will continue to bleed good jobs and the middle class will continue to be destroyed. The funny thing is that the workers that are out there protesting these union bills actually voted for the politicians that are killing their jobs. Both parties are married to the one world economic system and the "free trade" agenda, and Barack Obama has been one of the worst offenders. He has been pushing for more "free trade agreements" throughout the past four years, and yet union workers continue to support him enthusiastically. How foolish can they possibly be? Yeah, let's merge American workers into a global labor pool with workers in third world countries on the other side of the globe that work in absolutely nightmarish conditions for as little as 45 dollars a month. That sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? Oh, but you don't want to work for 45 dollars a month? You don't even want to work for 450 dollars a month? Well, then the big corporations that fund politicians like Obama will just take your jobs and send them halfway around the planet. Do you think that your unions will save your jobs? Michigan already has the highest rate of union membership in the Midwest. It also has the highest rate of unemployment in the Midwest. Over the past couple of decades, thousands of businesses in Michigan have either closed down or moved facilities overseas. Did the unions prevent any of that? No. If union bosses really wanted to do some good, they would be organizing protests against our incredibly foolish trade policies. But instead, they tell their members to vote for politicians like Obama and then they run out to the stores and fill their carts with huge piles of products that were made in China. Union workers need to wake up to one fundamental economic fact - in a one world economic system, the big corporations simply do not need you. They can make their products in lots of other countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages. But instead of getting upset about what is really killing their jobs, union workers in Michigan are screaming mad about a couple of new laws that will take some power away from the unions. That is kind of like being obsessed with a broken fingernail when your leg has just been sawed off and you are gushing blood all over the floor. Oh, but union workers did put on a good show up in Michigan. The following is how a Bloomberg article described the protests...
The anger surrounding these protests was almost palpable. One state representative even declared that "there will be blood". Meanwhile, many of those same protesters will buy toys for their kids that were made in China with wrapping paper that was made in China and they will put them under a Christmas tree that was made in China. Merging our economy with the economy of communist China was one of the stupidest economic moves that we could have ever made. They are systematically taking our wealth, and then we have to go over there and beg them to lend money back to us. Pretty soon the Chinese economy will dwarf ours. According to the National Intelligence Council, the GDP of Asia will have surpassed the GDP of North America and the GDP of all of Europe combined by 2030. But if we had never opened up trade with communist China none of this would have ever happened. Why won't American workers get upset about this stuff? Do you really want your standard of living to decline to the level of a Chinese factory worker? You can see some photos of what life is like for workers in China's toy factories right here. This is what the future holds for American workers unless something is done. For much more on how our trade policies are absolutely gutting our economy, please see the statistics in this article: "55 Reasons Why You Should Buy Products That Are Made In America This Holiday Season". But no, the big unions will never dare oppose Obama. They love him far too much to do that. Meanwhile, we continue to bleed good jobs. Large companies have announced the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs since November 6th, and it looks like 2013 is going to be a very difficult year for American workers. If you are an American worker, you need to ask yourself why anyone would want to hire you in this kind of economic environment. You are 10 to 20 times more expensive than workers on the other side of the globe. In addition, our politicians just keep piling more rules, regulations and taxes on to the backs of the employers in this country. It is more difficult than ever to make a profit from the labor of an American worker. Honestly, I understand why most small businesses don't want to hire anyone in this economic environment. It just doesn't make sense. For much more on this, please see this excellent article by Charles Hugh-Smith. And there are signs that things are going to get even worse. For example, the NFIB Small Business Outlook survey dropped like a rock during November. That is a very bad sign for hiring. And another ominous sign for the economy was that the latest trade report showed that imports and exports are both declining. That is usually a signal that a recession is coming. Exports fell faster than imports did, and that is the reason why the trade deficit grew. If imports and exports both fall again next month, it will be time to become extremely concerned. When imports and exports both decline, that is a sign of slowing economic activity. The United States will always need to trade with other nations, but we need to do it in a way that is balanced and that protects American workers. Right now there is a one way conveyor belt taking businesses, jobs and money out of this country. If we don't do something about our mammoth trade deficit, we will have no chance of reversing the steady decline of the U.S. economy. Hopefully we can get the American people to wake up and realize this. Instead, most of the comments at the end of this article will probably be about the pros and cons of unions. That will be yet another sign that most people still don't get these issues. | ||||
| The Retired & Their McMansions: 40% of Baby Boomers Look to Sell Homes Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:40 PM PST from Silver Vigilante:
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| Small Business Apocalypse Or Political Vendetta? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 07:54 PM PST Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter The National Federation of Independent Business tried to shock the world with its report that small-business owner optimism plunged 5.6 points to 87.5%—below the 87.8% of the apocalyptic post-Lehman November 2008. A huge setback; small businesses are the job creating machine of the economy. “Something bad happened, and it wasn’t Sandy,” said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg. “It was the election.” Small-business Optimism took a nasty hit during the financial crisis—and hasn’t recovered yet. When NFIB started the monthly surveys in 1986, it set the level at 100. Optimism would drop into the 90s then bounce back above 100. From late 2003 through 2004, peaks approached 110. But in 2005, Optimism faded. It dipped below 90 for the first time in March, 2008, as Bear Stearns blew up. By September, it was back at 92.9, the high for the year. Despite Lehman’s collapse. Small-business owners apparently liked that Wall Street got clobbered. As markets nosedived, however, optimism followed. In October 2008, it dropped 5.4 points to 87.8, rose a smidgen in November, then descended to its low of 81.0 in March, 2009. Recovery of small-business Optimism was only slight, unlike the markets that were goosed by the trillions that the Fed handed to its cronies. Small businesses got no more than crumbs. By April 2010, Optimism ventured above 90, then dropped again. In February, 2011, it reached a post-crisis high of 94.5, dropped again, hit that high once more in April, 2012, then dropped and finally hit 87.5% in November. A tough slog. The most significant factor in November’s plunge? “The expectation that future business conditions will be worse than current ones,” Dunkelberg explained, the Outlook for General Business Conditions having crashed from +2% to -35%—worse than anything during the crisis. A “poisonous climate for investment and expansion,” Dunkelberg said. Problems were lurking everywhere, such as inventories that were too high, but some sub-indices, particularly for “actual” sales and earnings, weren’t all bad, given the debacle of the post-crisis years. Credit was plentiful. Actual and planned job openings continued to tick up, as did hiring plans. Bad news for workers though: planned compensation has been dropping this year, after a feeble recovery from crisis lows. In this manner, the details, graphs, and tables of the report don’t paint a picture of the sudden apocalypse that the headline number promised—but of a long-term depression that started in 2005 and has improved only a few notches since the trough of the crisis! All in an economy whose growth is “lumpy” [read... It’s Official: The Consumer Is Alive and Dead]. But what jumps out already in the introduction is a political agenda rather than objective interpretation of data: “Between the looming ‘fiscal cliff,’ the promise of higher healthcare costs, and the endless onslaught of new regulations, owners have found themselves in a state of pessimism. We are forced to ask: is this the new normal?” So who are these “owners,” and who is “we?” A lobbying and advocacy organization with offices in Washington DC and all state capitals, NFIB claims to be “nonpartisan” despite its support for Republican candidates. Its PAC, the SAFE Trust (Save America’s Free Enterprise Trust), is “the most powerful and effective small business political action committee in the country.” Among NFIB’s many, often laudable, causes was its fierce opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obama-care; it joined 26 states in the lawsuit that challenged its constitutionality. And lost when the Court upheld most provisions. With 350,000 members—of the 6 - 30 million small businesses in the US, depending on who is being counted—the organization represents between 1.2% and 5.8% of all small-business owners. These members received the surveys that would lead to the report. Of the 3,938 responses, 733 were deemed “useable.” They represented companies ranging from one-employee operations (10%) to companies with more than 40 employees (7%). The data collected from the “useable” responses was further trimmed by excluding the results from the “Sandy States,” namely “NJ, DE, NC, DC, VA, WV, MD, MA, CT, and eastern portions of PA and NY.” Even though there were “no significant differences” in states impacted by Sandy—capital spending plans were “slightly higher,” labor force indicators “slightly worse,” etc.—the report comes to the conclusion that the decline in Optimism wasn’t related to Sandy but “the resolution of the election.” And it used the trimmed and manipulated results to lash out against President Obama. “The ‘war’ on success is now public policy as the President insists on higher tax rates for the ‘rich,’ those making $250,000 or more,” Dunkelberg states. “He continues to obfuscate by claiming that only 3% of small-business owners will be impacted, as if even those are not a concern.” Hence, the sudden and apocalyptic post-election decline in small-business optimism. But the long shadow of a political agenda darkens the validity of the data—just when we need accurate data the most. A similar thing occurred with a thermometer into the brains of corporate America that also plunged to lows not seen since the financial crisis. But just before Lehman, these CEOs had exactly zero predictive capabilities. Read.... Fear of Impending Economic Collapse Or Just Manipulation? And here is California, in trouble again: revenue for November fell 10.8% below budget. Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it appears high-income earners have “voted-with-their-feet,” resulting in a $1 billion shortfall in taxes, and the beginning of a new financial crisis. Read.... California’s Budget Goes Off the Cliff. | ||||
| In India, 'investment in gold is like social security' Posted: 11 Dec 2012 07:49 PM PST India Must Tap Household, Temple Gold to Reduce Imports, Jewellers Say By Pratik Parija http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-11/india-must-tap-household-temple... NEW DELHI -- India, the world's largest bullion buyer, should mobilize idle gold lying with its citizens to curb imports and lower a record current-account deficit, according to the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation. Households including temples carry about 25,000 metric tons and a successful plan to gather at least 10 percent of the gold reserves for lending to jewelers will ensure supplies for three years, Bachhraj Bamalwa, chairman of the federation, which represents about 300,000 jewelers, said in a phone interview. The plan should be run by the central bank, which can help India halt imports for three years, he said. India is grappling with the highest ever current-account deficit, the broadest measure of trade, mainly because of its gold and crude oil imports, weakening the rupee to a record against the U.S. dollar. The central bank is mulling a gold investment plan to curb the deficit, Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn said last month. Imports climbed to a record 969 tons last year, according to the World Gold Council. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT GoldMoney adds Toronto vaulting option In addition to its precious metals storage facilities in Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, GoldMoney customers now can store their gold and silver in a high-security vault operated by Brink's in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. GoldMoney also has recently partnered with Rhenus Freight Logistics to offer another gold storage option in Switzerland. The Rhenus vault is in the secured zone of Zurich Airport and offers customers superb security as well as the ability to inspect their gold. Storage at the new vaults in Canada and Switzerland is available at GoldMoney's lowest fees. Customers can select their storage location when placing their buy order. GoldMoney customers can take delivery of any number of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars from any GoldMoney vault, as well as personally collect their bars stored in the Hong Kong, Switzerland, and U.K. vaults. It's easy to open an account, add funds, and liquidate your investment. For more information, visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata "The only way India can reduce its dependence on imports is to tap the gold lying with individuals and temples," Kishore Narne, head of commodity and currency at Motilal Oswal Commodity Broker Pvt., said in a phone interview. "By doing this the country can reduce influx of gold at these high prices. Appetite for gold is never going to diminish." Imports more than doubled in three years through 2011 as the economy grew an average 7.8 percent in the past decade, boosting disposable incomes and spending on ornaments, cars, televisions, and fridges. Investment demand for gold has climbed almost fivefold to 366 tons in the same period as a rally for 12 straight years boosted bullion's appeal as a store of value. India's current-account deficit widened to a record $21.8 billion in the quarter through March and was $16.6 billion in the three months through June, official data show. That has weakened the rupee 2.4 percent this year to 54.3450 per dollar after an almost 16 percent plunge in 2011. A weaker currency raises import costs and fuels inflation in a country that meets more than 80 percent of its oil requirements from overseas and is the world's biggest user of gold. Bullion for immediate delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,709.40 an ounce at 3:11 p.m. in Mumbai yesterday. The contract for delivery in February dropped 0.3 percent to 31,385 rupees ($578) per 10 grams on the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. yesterday. The most-active contract climbed to a record 32,464 rupees on Nov. 26. India can cut imports by offering investment plans that offer returns equivalent to gold, extend tax incentives, easy liquidity and redemption in physical gold through tie-ups with banks and jewelers, said Nilesh Shah, president for corporate banking at Axis Bank Ltd. "The benefits of lower gold imports will be reflected by way of a stronger rupee, lower interest rates, higher liquidity, higher investments, higher employment generation, higher growth, higher tax collection, lower trade and fiscal deficits, higher credit rating, and lower poverty levels," Shah said in a note. Gold imports account for 80 percent of the current-account deficit, the central bank's Gokarn said Nov. 25. The monetary authority last month issued guidelines prohibiting commercial banks from lending funds for purchases of gold, other than for jewelers' working capital needs. The objective of any investment plan should be to put the idle gold into productive use and provide people an opportunity to earn interest income on their holdings, said Prithviraj Kothari, a former president of the Bombay Bullion Association. India has eased restrictions on the metal in the past decade to stop it being smuggled into the country. A plan to allow banks accept gold deposits against bonds that pay interest in 1999 failed to attract investors. In November 2003 a 4-decade-old ban on futures trading in gold was ended. The import duty was doubled to 4 percent this year to check the surge in imports. "The only way to reduce gold imports is to increase the import tariff and one can hope that demand then goes down," said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist with Credit Analysis & Research Ltd. India's official gold stockpiles are estimated at 557.7 tons, compared with world reserves of 31,491 tons, according to the gold council. The Reserve Bank of India held $27.8 billion worth of gold, or 9.4 percent of its $294.51 billion of foreign exchange reserves, as of Nov. 30. "Even if the depositors bring in unaccounted gold, the government should not ask them about the source," the federation's Bamalwa said. "Indians will continue spending on gold for marriages and festivals. In a country like India, there is no scheme for social security, and investment in gold is like a social security." Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||
| Gold mining CEOs told to fix slump as investors prove restless Posted: 11 Dec 2012 07:40 PM PST By Thomas Biesheuvel http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-12/gold-ceos-told-to-fix-slump-as-... Gold-mine investors are losing patience with management in the $60 billion industry as their shares head for the first back-to-back annual slump since 1998, even as the metal completes a dozen years of gains. Producers from Canada's Barrick Gold Corp., the world's biggest, to Newmont Mining Corp. of the United States are failing to control expenses. The average cost to extract an ounce of gold by the largest miners jumped 23 percent to $584.70 in 2011, data compiled by Bloomberg show. In contrast, silver production costs fell 12 percent to the lowest since 2007, the data show. Money managers including billionaire investor George Soros reacted by boosting stakes in physical gold, pushing gold-mine executives to resign, or shifting into silver. Direct holdings of the metal reached a record 2,629.3 metric tons Dec. 10, valued at $145 billion, after more than tripling in five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. "Investors are very critical, voting with their feet and pushing management teams to resign," said John Wong, a portfolio manager at CQS Group's New City Investment Managers, who increased his silver holdings. "You can tell from the way investors sold Barrick down that they are on short fuses." ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy open All Pro Gold Longtime GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy have brought their many years of experience in the precious metals and numismatic coins to All Pro Gold as metals brokers who specialize in the delivery of gold and silver bullion bars and coins as well as numismatic gold and silver coins. Fred and Tim follow these markets closely and are assisted by a team of consultants in monitoring market trends. All Pro Gold offers GATA supporters competitive pricing on all bullion products and welcomes inquiries. Tim can be reached at 602-299-2585 and Tim@allprogold.com, Fred at 602-799-8378 and Fred@allprogold.com. Ask about their ratio strategy and the relationship of generic $20 dollar gold pieces to 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Visit their Internet site at http://www.allprogold.com/. Barrick replaced Chief Executive Officer Aaron Regent with Chief Financial Officer Jamie Sokalsky on June 6, saying it was "disappointed" in the share performance after costs rose and production dropped. Since then the stock lost another 19 percent as the company missed earnings for four straight quarters amid delays and cost overruns at its Pascua-Lama project on the mountainous Argentina-Chile border. At least five more gold CEOs lost their jobs this year. Silver producers comprise three of the five biggest holdings in Wong's $94 million Golden Prospect Precious Metals Ltd., led by Silver Wheaton Corp. In 2010 four of the funds' five largest holdings were gold producers. The NYSE Arca Gold BUGS (HUI) Index of gold mining companies has declined 24 percent in the past two years compared with a 4.4 percent gain in the MSCI World Index. The performance is a result of an "appalling track record of value destruction" by management teams, according to Evy Hambro, manager of BlackRock's $12 billion World Mining Fund. Hambro's biggest holding is Rio Tinto Group, which produces gold only as a byproduct from copper mining. Gold producers make up six of the eight worst performers in the S&P Global Resources index this year, with IAMGOLD Corp., Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd., and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. posting the biggest declines. The Arca benchmark gold index fell about 12 percent this year compared with a 9 percent gain in gold's price. The Bloomberg World Mining Index is little changed, while key materials such as iron ore and thermal coal dropped 11 percent and 16 percent respectively. Copper has gained 6.7 percent. Gold companies also face competition from gold-backed exchange-traded products, or ETPs, as investors bet on bullion without the operational risks from mining. Billionaire Soros boosted his stake in exchange-traded products backed by gold in the third quarter. Soros Fund Management increased its investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest fund focused on the metal, by 49 percent to 1.32 million shares as of Sept. 30 from three months earlier, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed. "We are at a watershed where the message from shareholders is very loud and clear: 'We do not like what you do,'" said Markus Bachmann, Johannesburg-based manager of the Craton Capital Precious Metal Fund. "The costs are too high. The returns are not good enough." To be sure, producers with good management and operations may be set to benefit from slowing cost inflation and rising gold prices, investors say. Gold may advance to $1,850 an ounce next year, according to the median forecast of 24 analysts, while cost inflation of 19 percent in the past 12 months may ease as the mining industry curtails expansion in response to faltering Chinese demand. "There are signs that the cost inflation is contained, which will help the companies," said Bachmann. "By and large we will see a healthier industry next year." Kinross Gold Corp., Canada's third-largest producer, fired CEO Tye Burt in August, saying a change of leadership was needed to guide the company through capital allocation and project development improvements. In October, Kinross said CFO Paul Barry will leave the company. "Kinross was in fact the first of the majors to respond decisively in early 2012 to industry-wide cost escalation -- first by resequencing our growth projects to reduce our overall capital commitments and second by pausing a large build at our Tasiast expansion project in order to review smaller, less capital intensive options," J. Paul Rollinson, Kinross CEO, said in an e-mailed statement. "As a third step after I assumed the role of CEO in mid-year we reduced our capital spending by $200 million from our original 2012 forecast and are continuing to look for every opportunity to reduce costs," Rollinson said. Barrick said it's continuing a review of its assets and has deferred about $3 billion in capital expenditure. All alternatives for investing shareholder capital will compete against each other to allow it to return more to shareholders in the future, repay debt, and invest in assets. "Our overriding objective is to translate Barrick's strengths and results into higher shareholder returns," Barrick said in an e-mail. "We intend to deliver this through a disciplined capital allocation approach that maximizes risk-adjusted returns on investment and free cash flow." Newmont, the largest U.S. gold producer, was one of the first companies to respond to costs rising across the industry, the company said in a statement. That included reductions in operating costs, sustaining capital, general and administrative costs, development capital, and exploration and advanced projects, it said. Precious metal producers spent a record $53 billion on deals in 2010 and a further $43 billion last year as record gold prices spurred deals. That led to writedowns that are an admission of overpaying. Newmont took a $1.61 billion writedown on its Hope Bay mine in Canada in February after putting the project on hold. The company gained control of the mine as part of its C$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion) acquisition of Miramar Mining Corp. in 2007. Kinross took a $2.49 billion writedown on its Tasiast mine in Mauritania, which it bought as part of its all-stock C$8 billion acquisition of Red Back Mining Inc. in September 2010. Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. wrote down its Meadowbank project in northern Canada. "The lack of capital discipline is probably the biggest issue," Wong said. "They've all relied on the gold price to bail them out, which actually is a very bad way to manage a business." Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Opinion Around the World Is Changing When Deutschebank calls gold "good money" and paper "bad money". ... http://www.gata.org/node/11765 When the president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, pays tribute to gold as "a timeless classic". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/09/24/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a leading member of the policy committee of the People's Bank of China calls the gold standard "an excellent monetary system". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/10/01/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a CNN reporter writes in The China Post that the "gold commission" plank in the 2012 Republican platform will "reverberate around the world". ... http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/key-blogs/1563-china-post-the-gop-gold... When the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy of the U.S. House of Representatives twice called on economist, historian, and gold standard advocate Lewis E. Lehrman to testify. ... World opinion is changing in favor of gold. How can you learn why and what it will mean to you? Read the newly updated and expanded edition of Lehrman's book, "The True Gold Standard." Financial journalist James Grant says of "The True Gold Standard": "If you have ever wondered how the world can get from here to there -- from the chaos of depreciating paper to a convertible currency worthy of our children and our grandchildren -- wonder no more. The answer, brilliantly expounded, is between these covers. America has long needed a modern Alexander Hamilton. In Lewis E. Lehrman she has finally found him." To buy a copy of "The True Gold Standard," please visit: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.com/publications/the-true-gold-standard | ||||
| SS boots Liberty Dollars off eBay but no prosecution of HSBC money launderers Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:34 PM PST 8:41p ET Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Coin World's Paul Gilkes reports this week that the Internet auction house eBay has forbidden listing of Liberty Dollar coins ... er, medallions ... at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, which considers them counterfeits of U.S. coinage: http://www.coinworld.com/articles/liberty-dollars-ban-goes-into-effect-a... Liberty Dollar founder Bernard von Not Haus still awaits sentencing for his conviction 21 months ago in federal court in North Carolina on counterfeiting charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department. The U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina accused von Not Haus of "domestic terrorism": http://www.gata.org/files/USAttorneyPressRelease.pdf Also this week the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against any officers of HSBC, the biggest short in the gold market, upon the bank's agreement to pay nearly $2 billion in fines for laundering $881 million in Mexican and Colombian drug gang money. The Justice Department also accused HSBC of doing business with customers in Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma, and Cuba in violations of sanctions law: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/11/us-hsbc-probe-idUSBRE8BA05M201... HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver said HSBC now "is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes." Maybe von Not Haus is a changed man too. At least now he has every right to look at the inscription above the columns of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington -- http://www.gata.org/files/USSupremeCourtBuilding.jpg -- and laugh ruefully. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Opinion Around the World Is Changing When Deutschebank calls gold "good money" and paper "bad money". ... http://www.gata.org/node/11765 When the president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, pays tribute to gold as "a timeless classic". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/09/24/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a leading member of the policy committee of the People's Bank of China calls the gold standard "an excellent monetary system". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/10/01/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a CNN reporter writes in The China Post that the "gold commission" plank in the 2012 Republican platform will "reverberate around the world". ... http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/key-blogs/1563-china-post-the-gop-gold... When the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy of the U.S. House of Representatives twice called on economist, historian, and gold standard advocate Lewis E. Lehrman to testify. ... World opinion is changing in favor of gold. How can you learn why and what it will mean to you? Read the newly updated and expanded edition of Lehrman's book, "The True Gold Standard." Financial journalist James Grant says of "The True Gold Standard": "If you have ever wondered how the world can get from here to there -- from the chaos of depreciating paper to a convertible currency worthy of our children and our grandchildren -- wonder no more. The answer, brilliantly expounded, is between these covers. America has long needed a modern Alexander Hamilton. In Lewis E. Lehrman she has finally found him." To buy a copy of "The True Gold Standard," please visit: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.com/publications/the-true-gold-standard Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy open All Pro Gold Longtime GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy have brought their many years of experience in the precious metals and numismatic coins to All Pro Gold as metals brokers who specialize in the delivery of gold and silver bullion bars and coins as well as numismatic gold and silver coins. Fred and Tim follow these markets closely and are assisted by a team of consultants in monitoring market trends. All Pro Gold offers GATA supporters competitive pricing on all bullion products and welcomes inquiries. Tim can be reached at 602-299-2585 and Tim@allprogold.com, Fred at 602-799-8378 and Fred@allprogold.com. Ask about their ratio strategy and the relationship of generic $20 dollar gold pieces to 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Visit their Internet site at http://www.allprogold.com/.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| OBAMACARE – THE SCREW THAT KEEPS SCREWING Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:33 PM PST Remember when Pelosi said we had to pass the 2,700 page healthcare abortion of a bill in order to find out what was in it? Remember when Obama told us that families would save $2,500 per year if Obamacare was passed? Remember when Obama and Reid declared that Obamacare would add nothing to the National Debt? Well now we know what is in it. It seems when you add 30 million people to the healthcare system and guarantee to cover all pre-existing conditions, it actually costs money. Obama and his minions snuck a little clause into page 1,869 that requires every employer in the country to pay a $63 fee per person covered under their plans to pay for the pre-existing conditions. That's a mere $25 billion extracted from employers. If you think employers are going to eat that fee, you're smoking some good Colorado shit. A middle class family of four will see their employer pass that $250 annual cost onto them. I urge every employer to put this fee on the paycheck of every employee with the description of Obamacare Fee. Remember when Obama declared that all employers had to cover dependents up until the age of 26? Do you think employers ate that added cost? Not a chance. My co-pays went from $15 per visit to $25 per visit over two years. Obamacare has only just begun to screw you, your employer, and the country. It will add trillions to the National Debt. You will be waiting weeks for basic services. Employers will drop millions from health coverage. Millions will not be hired by businesses because of Obamacare. I hope you enjoy being screwed. Surprise 'Obamacare' fee to be passed on to workersBy RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed on to workers. Employee benefits lawyer Chantel Sheaks calls it a "sleeper issue" with significant financial consequences, particularly for large employers. "Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will) be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary. Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee. The Obama administration says it is a temporary assessment levied for three years starting in 2014, designed to raise $25 billion. It starts at $63 and then declines. Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014. The program "is intended to help millions of Americans purchase affordable health insurance, reduce unreimbursed usage of hospital and other medical facilities by the uninsured and thereby lower medical expenses and premiums for all," the Obama administration says in the regulation. An accompanying media fact sheet issued Nov. 30 referred to "contributions" without detailing the total cost and scope of the program. Of the total pot, $5 billion will go directly to the U.S. Treasury, apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees. The $25 billion fee is part of a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama's expansion of coverage to the uninsured. It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000. People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income. But the insurance fee had been overlooked as employers focused on other costs in the law, including fines for medium and large firms that don't provide coverage. "This kind of came out of the blue and was a surprisingly large amount," said Gretchen Young, senior vice president for health policy at the ERISA Industry Committee, a group that represents large employers on benefits issues. Word started getting out in the spring, said Young, but hard cost estimates surfaced only recently with the new regulation. It set the per capita rate at $5.25 per month, which works out to $63 a year. America's Health Insurance Plans, the major industry trade group for health insurers, says the fund is an important program that will help stabilize the market and mitigate cost increases for consumers as the changes in Obama's law take effect. But employers already offering coverage to their workers don't see why they have to pony up for the stabilization fund, which mainly helps the individual insurance market. The redistribution puts the biggest companies on the hook for tens of millions of dollars. "It just adds on to everything else that is expected to increase health care costs," said economist Paul Fronstin of the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute. The fee will be assessed on all "major medical" insurance plans, including those provided by employers and those purchased individually by consumers. Large employers will owe the fee directly. That's because major companies usually pay upfront for most of the health care costs of their employees. It may not be apparent to workers, but the insurance company they deal with is basically an agent administering the plan for their employer. The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63. It will phase out completely in 2017 — unless Congress, with lawmakers searching everywhere for revenue to reduce federal deficits — decides to extend it. | ||||
| The Gold Price Peaked Yesterday at $1,716.74 Closing Down $4.80 at $1,708.20 Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:18 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1709.80 Change : -4.80 or -0.28% Silver Price Close Today : 32.941 Change : -0.359 or -1.08% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 51.905 Change : 0.415 or 0.81% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01927 Change : -0.000155 or -0.80% Platinum Price Close Today : 1638.50 Change : 16.70 or 1.03% Palladium Price Close Today : 695.30 Change : -7.95 or -1.13% S&P 500 : 1,427.84 Change : 9.29 or 0.65% Dow In GOLD$ : $160.33 Change : $ 1.41 or 0.89% Dow in GOLD oz : 7.756 Change : 0.068 or 0.89% Dow in SILVER oz : 402.19 Change : 6.70 or 1.69% Dow Industrial : 13,248.44 Change : 78.56 or 0.60% US Dollar Index : 80.07 Change : -0.261 or -0.32% The silver and GOLD PRICE had a punk day. Silver forked over 35.9 cents to close at 3294.1c while gold gave back $4.80 to $1,708.20. Here, too, markets are holding their breath waiting for tomorrow. After rising from last Thursday, the GOLD PRICE peaked yesterday at $1,716.74 and traded sideways today between $1,714.30 and $1,705.45. That $1,705 support is still gold's line in the sand. Cross that and drop a long ways. Up above the barrier is $1,725. Cross that and rise a long piece. The SILVER PRICE low today at 3275c looks feisty, but it's still holding breath. Silver is caught in a range like gold: must hold 3250c, must better 3340c. Meanwhile we wait. Don't misread all this. You are watching the tail-end of a silver and gold correction. Whether by month end or next month, both will come roaring up out of this hole, launching skyward like an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile out of a Nebraska silo. If you have none, you'd better be buying some. If you have some, you'd better be planning to buy more. Nasty US dollar index today lost a weighty 26.1 basis points (0.34%) to end at 80.067, barely hanging on above the morale bruising 80 level. Scabby dollar has spent its fuel, but is hovering today, awaiting news from tomorrow's meeting of the FOMC (Fiends Opposed to Monetary Character). I've given up on trying to figure out how markets will react to anything the Fed or its cancerous committees do. Whatever they do, other than shut and bolt the doors and go out of business, will HURT the dollar long term. Tomorrow's question hinges on whether the Fed will continue "Operation Twist" whereby the Fed obstructs, hamstrings, hampers, hinders, hobble, and handcuffs the real economy by suppressing long term interest rates AND continuing to misdirect capital away from truly profitable and useful undertakings. Let me predict that in some transmogrification or other, they will, because the only other answer -- stop digging the hole deeper -- will never occur to their control-starved brains and Size 1 consciences. (Sizes 1 through 18 consciences fit ringworm fungus, the larger single-celled animalcules, some bacteria, cockroaches, mealy bugs, most worms, planaria, tapeworms and other internal parasites, all the way up to earwigs, ticks, chiggers, leeches, and lamprey eels. Most mammalian consciences are Size 80 or larger.) Euro rose 0.5% today to $1.3005, Yen fell 0.2% to 121.20c/Y100. US4=Y82.51=E0.7689=0.030 357 oz Ag= 0.000 585 oz Au. Stocks bumped up today, apparently expecting good news from the Friends Of Monetary Corruption. Dow gained 78.56 (0.6%) to 13,248.44 (I told y'all, 13,300 is coming). S&P500 added 9.29 (0.65%) to 1,427.84. Only question left in what passes for my brain is whether the Dow will drop like a poleaxed steer from 13,300 or race on up to pull in as many poor victims as possible. I hope y'all tie yourselves to the mast and refuse to harken to the Sirens' song. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com 1-888-218-9226 10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday © 2012, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.   | ||||
| James Turk: Why everyone should have a precious metals portfolio Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:47 PM PST 7:45p ET Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver): GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk tonight delivers a formal address explaining why everyone should have a precious metals portfolio, an address that documents the long and continuing trend of international currency debasement against gold and concludes that gold remains undervalued. Turk's address comes in a nine-minute video posted at GoldMoney here: http://www.goldmoney.com/video/james-turk-everyone-should-have-a-preciou... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT GoldMoney adds Toronto vaulting option In addition to its precious metals storage facilities in Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, GoldMoney customers now can store their gold and silver in a high-security vault operated by Brink's in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. GoldMoney also has recently partnered with Rhenus Freight Logistics to offer another gold storage option in Switzerland. The Rhenus vault is in the secured zone of Zurich Airport and offers customers superb security as well as the ability to inspect their gold. Storage at the new vaults in Canada and Switzerland is available at GoldMoney's lowest fees. Customers can select their storage location when placing their buy order. GoldMoney customers can take delivery of any number of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars from any GoldMoney vault, as well as personally collect their bars stored in the Hong Kong, Switzerland, and U.K. vaults. It's easy to open an account, add funds, and liquidate your investment. For more information, visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||
| "Better Off On Benefits" Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:15 PM PST There is "no point" earning less in a minimum wage job is how Leanna Broderick - 20-year-old mother of two - justifies the benefits she claims adding that "she is better off on benefits" and would not get a job unless she could continue her luxury lifestyle, which includes designer outfits, holidays abroad, clubbing, lunches out and expensive gifts for her daughters Zelekah, two, and Zakirah, one. The UK's Daily Mail reports that Leanna saved GBP2,500 (~USD4,000) last year while living on GBP15,480 (~USD25,000) which she intends to spend on iPads and gold earrings for her kids - adding that "This way, taxpayers know I'm raising two well-brought-up kids." However, all is not rosy in Leanna's house as she fears next year may not be so lavish because of Government benefits cuts. "I'm not against the cuts, but only if the Government helps me find a job," she said, "In the meantime, I'll stay on benefits and get as much as I can out of it."
Via The Daily Mail:
The full feature appears in Closer Christmas issue, on sale now or go to www.closeronline.co.uk | ||||
| Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Fibonacci Level of Interest at 1427 Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:15 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com December 11, 2012 02:54 PM Daily Bars Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT Commodity Analysis: “Viewed in light of the 3 wave advance from 1672.50, the trend is lower.” Friday’s JS Spike right at mentioned support (1685) will probably propel gold to at least the 61.8% retracement of the decline from the 11/12 high at 1727. There is trendline resistance to keep an eye on as well. Commodity Trading Strategy: Look to short strength from 1727 to 1738 with a 1754 stop. LEVELS: 1673 1683 1704 1727 1738 1754... | ||||
| Why the Pros Bet Contrarian: Sprott Execs Bambrough and Dimitriadis Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:32 PM PST The Energy Report: Much has happened on the economic, political and financial fronts since your last interview in February 2011. Obama has been reelected, oil is now at $87 a barrel (bbl) and quantitative easing is the new normal. Have any of these developments changed your investment perspective? Kevin Bambrough: They haven't changed our perspective because we've been prepared for these events for some time. We view this as a 15- to 20-year trend where runaway deficits and printing money is the chosen solution central bankers will provide to the markets. It will ultimately result in the U.S. dollar losing its reserve currency status and paper money, as we know it, becoming essentially worthless over time. Real businesses and real assets are what you should own. We focus solely on resources at Sprott Resource Corp. (SCP:TSX) and Sprott Inc. (SII:TSX) focuses primarily on resource-related investments. Our long-term strategy is to sell businesses with strong margins in fairly buoyant s... | ||||
| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:15 PM PST  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:06 PM PST In January 2009, just as the "Peter Schiff was Right" YouTube video that catalogued my previously derided predictions about a coming financial collapse was racking up views and attracting mainstream attention, a blogger and investment advisor named Mike Shedlock (aka "Mish") saw an opportunity to make an unethical grab at my current and prospective clients by breaking the nascent wave. | ||||
| Is Gold’s 13 Year Run Almost Over? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:43 PM PST [While] the price of gold has gone up for 12 straight years, and is on pace to make it 13 when this year comes to a close, it seems that despite all of the gold bugs calling for the metal to surge to unbelievable highs, major financial institutions are calling for the gold bubble to finally burst in the coming months. [Let's examine what they and others have to say.] Words: 450 So says Jared Cummans ([url]http://commodityhq.com[/url]) in edited excerpts from his original article**entitled*Gold's 12 Year Run May Finally Be Over. Lorimer Wilson, editor of [B][COLOR=#0000ff]www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com (A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!), may have further edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) the article below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The author's views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included t... | ||||
| Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:43 PM PST Gold's loss of momentum in the past months has predictably brought out calls to short gold [Read: It's Time to Seriously Consider SHORTING Gold – Here's Why]. [This article offers] a brief guide to whether you should consider or ignore these [suggestions]. Words: 1184; Charts: 1 So says Cliff Wachtel in edited excerpts from his original article* posted on seeking Alpha under the title The Only Reason To Short Gold. [INDENT]*Lorimer Wilson, editor of [B][COLOR=#ff0000][COLOR=#ff0000]www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com [/COLOR](A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and [COLOR=#ff0000]www.munKNEE.com[/COLOR] (Your Key to Making Money!), may have further edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) the article below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The author's views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Please no... | ||||
| Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:38 PM PST December 11, 2012
The National Federation of Independent Business is out this morning with its monthly Small Business Optimism Index. At 87.5, the number is the lowest it's been since June 2009 — as coincidence would have it, the end of the "official" recession.
There's been a shift in what we consider the most intriguing part of the survey, asking what small-business owners think is the "single most important problem" they face. For months, there's been a three-way tie between "poor sales," "taxes" and "government regulations and red tape." In the new survey, regulations take a back seat to taxes and poor sales — both at 23%. While the president says higher tax rates on families making $250,000 or higher will affect only 3% of small businesses, the NFIB reckons it will be closer to 15%. "This administration," our biotech maven Patrick Cox chimes in, "has so far shown little interest in doing anything that would encourage investors to fund the startups that create 100% of all net new jobs."
"If you fall for that trap, you're going to miss out on the upside of the recovery, which will be the greatest in our generation. If you think that this time, for the first time in modern history, America won't recover, explain one thing to me: Michigan."
A second bill applying to the private sector will likely pass by the time you read this. Gov. Rick Snyder says he'll sign both bills. Michigan would become the 24th right-to-work state. Passage of the bill, says Patrick, "is a harbinger of what will happen to California, New York and Illinois at some point. Remember, swing voters don't vote on ideas. They vote based on the pain caused by ideas. It's operant conditioning. "Seriously, Michigan's turning, even after the auto bailouts, is evidence that there is a maximum pain threshold, and collectivism brings the pain." Patrick is already looking ahead to the opportunities that will unfold during the "greatest recovery in our generation." One of them will open up barely 48 hours from now… while the economy's still in the tank.
Here's the story: An obscure arm of the Pentagon known as the Defense Logistics Agency recently mandated that all supplies furnished to the Pentagon use a single type of anti-counterfeiting technology. Only one company produces this technology. "Said a different way," Patrick goes on, "this tiny firm with just 21 employees has been granted a monopoly by the United States government." The company is planning a significant announcement on Thursday… one that Patrick believes will produce an immediate and substantial gain in the share price… on the way toward the sort of "life-changing" gains that he aims to deliver for his readers. Shares can be had for only 19 cents each, so you don't need much money to take a flyer on this little firm. In fact, we've never prepared a research report on a company with a share price this low. Patrick can tell the rest of the story much better than we can. But as you've already figured out, the time to act is short: Click here to decide whether this opportunity is for you.
The Federal Reserve has begun two days of meetings. At 12:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, smoke will emerge from the top of the Marriner Eccles Building and we'll know whether the monetary conclave has chosen to expand the current round of "quantitative easing." The betting on the Street is they will. "Markets expect the Fed to replace its expiring Operation Twist purchases with unbridled, unsterilized purchases of U.S. Treasuries," says our macro strategist Dan Amoss. Dan is agnostic on whether traders will "sell the news" tomorrow… but on a longer time horizon, he's quite certain of the effect on markets: "Sooner or later, circumstances will force investors to think through the implications of central banks printing money to finance government deficits. They'll conclude that profit margins at most companies have peaked amid rising production costs and they'll rush to bid up precious metals and other inflation hedges." In the meantime, gold is off slightly at $1,710. Silver is down nearly 1% and is losing its grip on $33. The weakness comes even as the greenback is weakening; the dollar index sits at 80 on the nose. Crude is flat at $85.68.
It's called "chained CPI" — another way to jimmy the consumer price index for what economists call the "substitution effect." Addison explained it this way last July: The wonks already assume that if steak gets too expensive and you substitute hamburger instead, your cost of beef hasn't really gone up. Under chained CPI, if you give up hamburger and substitute beans, your cost of protein hasn't really gone up. "Putting a chain on CPI," writes Derek Thompson at The Atlantic, "has attracted support from Republicans who'd like to cut Social Security, Democrats who want to appear receptive to entitlement fixes and moderates everywhere who argue that our current inflation measure is too generous." Not only would chained CPI lower future Social Security payments, it would also have the effect of pushing people into higher tax brackets sooner. Back when the Simpson-Bowles Commission first floated this notion in mid-2010, it estimated — here we go again with Washington's fetish for 10-year projections — chained CPI would generate $300 billion in additional revenue for Uncle Sam over the following decade.
"I was attending the second Rancho Santana Sessions," Chris writes, "hosted by my publisher at that sunny locale, to tackle whatever issues are on the minds of the attendees. We had a good group of people and there was a lot of discussion, some of it running happily into the wee hours at La Finca y El Mar, the clubhouse by the sea. "Though we did not plan it, both Joel Bowman (the co-editor of The Daily Reckoning) and I gave talks peppered with cheerful conclusions. Joel came down optimistically on the political side of things ('the state is doomed'). And I came down optimistically on the side of investing in certain opportunities in today's stock market."
"What I am really advocating is a rationalist approach. "People get lost in big-picture abstractions when it comes to investing. It is easy to look around and shrink up like a frightened turtle at, say, the towering debt the U.S. government owes. There is always plenty to worry about." Although Chris takes the pits into account, "I also take a long view of history," he points out. "We have been through worse. In every crisis, there are opportunities."
"So in my Rancho Santana Session, I had this one simple chart that sums up how I think about investing:
Chris' presentation at Rancho Santana cites a few industries at the turn of an up cycle. He also reveals a couple of his absolute favorite plays to ride these skyward sine waves. [Ed. Note: Haven't gotten your Rancho Santana Sessions Two HD videos yet? Time's running out... we're pulling them off the shelf at midnight tonight. Don't miss out on the HD videos of two days, seven speakers and a slew of investment insights, ideas and plays... just in time to prepare for the new year. Click here to get the full rundown... ]
There's been little to say about the silver coin designed by Bernard von NotHaus, not since he was convicted in March 2011 of "making coins resembling and similar to United States coins; of issuing, passing, selling and possessing Liberty Dollar coins; of issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins intended for use as current money; and of conspiracy against the United States." The U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case went so far as to declare, "Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism."
Sellers received a notice informing them, "We appreciate that you chose to list this coin on our site and understand there was no ill intent on your part. Your listing fees have been credited to your account." One of the sellers, Dave Gillie, tells Coin World that eBay canceled his listings on Nov. 29. He adds he'll still accept payment in Liberty Dollars for meals at the hot dog joint he owns in Mount Morris, Mich. "Several questions remain unanswered by the Secret Service," the Coin World article goes on. Such as are Liberty Dollars legal to own, sell or distribute? And "Will federal law enforcement authorities seek to seize any of the tens of thousands of Liberty Dollars still in private hands?" And, we might add, whether Mr. Gillie and others like him might be prosecuted on charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist plot. Sheesh…
"Does that mean that the bureaucratic cost for distributing those benefits was nearly 25% of the total cost? That would be almost 33% added to the actual cost of the benefits distributed. But under Obamacare, insurance companies are required to spend at least 85% (or is it 80%?) of premiums on actual health care. Is this a prime example of hypocrisy … not to mention the bloated waste!"
"Even the American Express bank would round up or down our paychecks when cashing them. Only the US Post Office on base still used pennies, and spent a small fortune shipping them in from the States." The 5: Interesting. While the days of the penny and nickel might not be numbered — yet — the Mint remains up to something interesting. Come Friday, it could also prove quite profitable. Dave Gonigam P.S. Final reminder: If you want access to recordings of the Rancho Santana Sessions — either HD video to watch on your computer or audio files for on-the-go convenience — you have until midnight tonight to order. Here's where to go.        | ||||
| Silver Breakout from Mother of All Mid Point Consolidations? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:17 PM PST HOUSTON -- From the Chart Book. Once again we share the long term graph for silver showing what we have dubbed THE MOTHER OF ALL MID POINT CONSOLIDATIONS or MOAMPC. Silver has broken out of the giant flag consolidation and has put in one new higher high and low since doing so. A print above $35.50 will establish the second higher high. Bull markets are measured on charts as a series of higher highs and lows. More... Since 2003 silver has redefined upper resistance four times in what we call Definition Moves (DMs). Definition Moves are periods where the issue or market breaks out above long time resistance, surging, often in a parabola, to define a new, much higher level of resistance for a significant period of time. If silver is in the beginning of a new DM, now, 20 months after its test of the all time high, we would expect it to challenge the resistance area more than once before it blasts higher in another parabolic thrust. It has done so (tested the new resistance zone without breaking out more than once) in all of the previous DMs. We note that silver has already tested the resistance zone once. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. | ||||
| Mish Mike Shedlock Exposed, the Deflation Great Pumpkin Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:13 PM PST In January 2009, just as the "Peter Schiff was Right" YouTube video that catalogued my previously derided predictions about a coming financial collapse was racking up views and attracting mainstream attention, a blogger and investment advisor named Mike Shedlock (aka "Mish") saw an opportunity to make an unethical grab at my current and prospective clients by breaking the nascent wave. Shedlock put together a misleading marketing piece entitled "Peter Schiff was Wrong" which compared my recent investment performance with that of his little known firm, Sitka Pacific Investment Advisors. The piece, that circulated widely in the press and on the Internet, focused on how the foreign stocks and currencies I favored had fallen sharply in 2008 while the Sitka Pacific strategy prevented huge losses during the crash. By ignoring long-term data in favor of highly selective short-term performance, the piece tempted people to bail on positions that were poised to make sharp upward moves and lured them into a strategy that has been a long-term disaster for investors. | ||||
| Secret IMF Report: Hide Gold Loans and Swaps For Market Manipulation Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:13 PM PST "Today is the 1-day FOMC meeting...and I have no idea what that portends for the precious metals...if anything." [COLOR=#7f4028] Yesterday in Gold and Silver It was a very quiet day in the gold world yesterday. The price didn't do much until early in the afternoon Hong Kong time...and the small rally that began at that point ran into a seller about ten minutes after the Comex open. The sell-off, such as it was, was over by the London p.m. gold fix...and then gold traded sideways into the close of electronic trading. Gold closed at $1,712.60 spot...up $8.10 on the day. Volume was extremely light...around 84,000 contracts. It was pretty much the same story in silver, with silver's high tick coming at the same 8:30 a.m. Eastern time as gold's...and from there got sold down into the London p.m. gold fix...and traded sideways from there as well. Silver closed at $33.27 spot...up 16 cents on the day. Volume was around 24,500 contracts. The dollar... | ||||
| LGMR: "Massive, Open-Ended Stimulus" Expected from Fed, More QE "Could See Gold Rally" Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:12 PM PST London Gold Market Report from Ben Traynor BullionVault Tuesday 11 December 2012, 07:30 EST THE WHOLESALE gold price rose to $1712 an ounce Tuesday morning in London, a few Dollars above where they started the week, while stocks edged higher and US Treasury bonds fell ahead of tomorrow's Federal Reserve policy decision. All-but-one of 49 economists polled by news agency Bloomberg predict the Fed will buy US Treasury bonds in addition to the $40 billion per month of mortgage-backed securities purchases announced in September. "It's going to be massive and open-ended in size," says Deutsche Bank's chief US economist Joseph LaVorgna. "[Fed policymakers] view this stimulus as what's needed to sustain the economy," agrees John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. "If the Fed comes out with $45 billion of bond purchases [as some analysts have suggested], it could be the spark we need for another gold rally," says Matthew Turner, precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi. ... |
Did you see the huge crowds of protesters that flooded the Michigan Capitol on Tuesday? They were there to protest two bills there were being considered by the state legislature that would limit the power of unions in the state. Michigan lawmakers approved the bills and this absolutely infuriated the protesters. There is a lot of passion on both sides of this debate, but I am afraid that both sides in this debate are missing the bigger picture. If we keep shipping millions of our jobs to China, there isn't going to be work for anyone no matter how much power unions have or don't have. During the month of October, the U.S. trade deficit increased to 
Today Bill Fleckenstein spoke with King World News about gold and the bond markets now being at a massive inflection point. Fleckenstein, who is President of Fleckenstein Capital, also believes that the Fed will come to be, "… viewed as the enemy that it should have been viewed as all along."
Sales of American Eagle gold bullion coins more than tripled in November of this year from 41,000 ounces sold in November 2011 to 131,000 ounces.
More than 40% of US citizens between the ages of 50-65 are planning on 
There's little doubt: Small-business owners hate the outcome of the election.
Can't blame it on Hurricane Sandy: Business owners in states untouched by the storm are no less gloomy than in those that were damaged.
Chained CPI shows up in House Speaker John Boehner's latest budget proposal… and the White House has been open to the idea from the get-go. You're on notice…
Caption: Investing 101: Buy when down, hold for rebound"In the real world, of course, no market works just so neatly," Chris admits. "But if you look back over time, you find many such basic outlines."
Coins of the terrorist realm, as far as the feds are concerned…Von NotHaus still awaits sentencing; he faces more than 20 years. Meanwhile, the Secret Service has pressured the auction site eBay to pull down all Liberty Dollar listings.
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