saveyourassetsfirst3 |
- Iran attracts $529 million Gold investments
- Gold in doesn't beat stocks shocker!
- Gold, Silver head for fourth straight weekly drop
- Valcambi to introduce CombiBar Gold bars in India
- A trader's road map for stocks and gold going into the New Year
- A great list of last-minute holiday gift ideas
- Gold ends 2.2 percent lower for the week
- Standalone silver project shaping up for Endeavour Silver in Jalisco state, Mexico
- South Africa's Golden Tightrope
- Confiscation of Gold – Then What? Part 3
- QE3 Silver Impact
- 12 Gold Bugs Bring Christmas Cheer
- Citigroup futures expert sees $26 bottom for silver and rally in second half of 2013
- Shock! Horror! - Gold doesn't-beat-stocks in 2012!
- Michael Hoexter: “Deficit” is the Wrong Word and Concept
- Inflation still to offer the ‘Trade of the Decade' says Doug Casey as the US stares over the fiscal cliff
- Gold price takedown a plot by the Fed and the bullion banks says veteran gold bug Jim Sinclair
- By the Numbers for the Week Ending December 21
- Andrew Maguire: “Unprecedented” Silver Premiums in China
- Tiny gold bars latest rage for jittery investors
- 2 Agriculture ETFs To Keep An Eye On
- Private Meetings With Miles Franklin
- How Government Thieves Have the Monopoly on ‘Wrong’
- Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for December 21
- Can I Bum a Match?
- Friday Humor: CFTC Mission Statement
- What's Going on With Gold
- Brazil doubles gold reserves as central banks buy bullion
- We are on the cusp…
- Stock Market Breather & Gold Yearly Cycle Low
- Stocks Beat Gold for 1st Time Since 2004
| Iran attracts $529 million Gold investments Posted: 22 Dec 2012 03:38 AM PST The UAE Company has invested $29 million in the Sarigouni gold mine which holds one of the country's largest gold deposits. |
| Gold in doesn't beat stocks shocker! Posted: 22 Dec 2012 03:35 AM PST So the world didn't end on the shortest day of 2012, as forecast by no-one beyond lazy journalists and internet frauds. |
| Gold, Silver head for fourth straight weekly drop Posted: 22 Dec 2012 03:21 AM PST Wholesale gold bullion prices hovered around $1650 an ounce Friday morning in London, having earlier hit fresh four-month lows, while stocks edged lower and US Treasuries gained despite little evident progress in Washington to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. |
| Valcambi to introduce CombiBar Gold bars in India Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:54 AM PST Valcambi is building a sales network in India and plans to launch the CombiBar on the US market next year. In Japan, it wants to focus on CombiBars made of platinum and palladium. |
| A trader's road map for stocks and gold going into the New Year Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:48 AM PST From Gold Scents: The stock market has known all along that the fiscal-cliff issue was going to be pushed out to the last minute. This is just how Washington works. Nothing is ever settled until everybody gets all of the pork needed to buy their vote. The correction today is nothing more than a short-term breather before the market makes a final push to test the all-time highs, probably by the first week in January. I'm guessing we will get some kind of stopgap measure, or extension of the deadline next week that will trigger another explosive move up to test those September highs. At that point, the market will find some excuse to drift down into a daily cycle low around the middle of January. Once a deal is struck, the daily cycle correction will end and the market should explode to new highs, maybe big, new highs... More trading ideas:       |
| A great list of last-minute holiday gift ideas Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:47 AM PST From The Big Picture: So far this year, I've thrown out a few "shopmas" gift guides... • TBP Holiday Shopping Ideas! (an assortment of various baubles, books, and gifts from $20-$3,200) • More Shopmas Gift Ideas! (more of the same) • Even More Holiday Shopping Ideas (emphasis on $50-$500 price range) • Gift Giving Guide for the Traders in Your Life... More Cruxallaneous:    |
| Gold ends 2.2 percent lower for the week Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:32 AM PST Silver for March delivery rose nearly 2 percent, gaining 52.5 cents to settle at $30.203 an ounce Friday.Copper and palladium rose, while platinum fell. |
| Standalone silver project shaping up for Endeavour Silver in Jalisco state, Mexico Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:25 AM PST Early indications favour the potential for a standalone operations at Endeavour Silver's San Sebastian silver project in Mexico. |
| South Africa's Golden Tightrope Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:58 AM PST By At the African National Congress (ANC) national conference in Bloemfontein this week, policy makers decided to exclude provisions for nationalizing mines from party documents. Instead, the world's fifth-largest gold producer compromised with more radical party elements and agreed to impose greater taxes on mining companies. The ANC previously hasn't had an official position on nationalizing mines, but supporters have remained active since the end of Apartheid. With a backdrop of deadly labor disputes, state involvement in the mining sector, and relentless calls for nationalization among some factions, many foreign miners have elected to dig elsewhere. Canadian gold miners, for example, have found better opportunities in places like Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal. A threat of new taxes could hinder investment by foreign companies in South Africa, which already has lost ground to the likes of Nigeria and Angola. To make matters worse, Moody's and S&P have downgraded Complete Story » |
| Confiscation of Gold – Then What? Part 3 Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:18 AM PST Gold Forecaster |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:05 AM PST Zealllc |
| 12 Gold Bugs Bring Christmas Cheer Posted: 21 Dec 2012 10:44 PM PST While the price of gold has languished in a trading range much of the year, leaving some investors scratching their heads, many have been buying - and in some cases, really loading up. It's a tad puzzling that gold hasn't broken into new highs, despite enough catalysts to move a herd of stubborn mules. But that's the hand we're dealt right now. We can't get up from the table until the game reaches its conclusion. Besides, I think the stall in prices is giving us one last window to buy before prices break permanently into higher levels for this cycle. At least that's how a number of prominent investors and institutions are viewing the price action right now. Here's a sampling of this year's "gold bugs" and what they've been doing about precious metals recently. Jim Rogers, billionaire and cofounder of the Soros Quantum Fund, publicly stated Complete Story » |
| Citigroup futures expert sees $26 bottom for silver and rally in second half of 2013 Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:44 PM PST Citigroup futures specialist Sterling Smith talks about the price of silver and his investment strategy on Bloomberg TV. He thinks silver could put in a bottom of $26 by the year-end but is then set up for a strong 2013, particularly in the second half. Silver is leveraged to the gold price on the upside and downside, so gold's recent weakness is reflected in the silver price and then some… |
| Shock! Horror! - Gold doesn't-beat-stocks in 2012! Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:32 PM PST Gold in 2012 is set to underperform the US stock market for the first time since 2004...Perhaps that's what the Maya were forecasting? |
| Michael Hoexter: “Deficit” is the Wrong Word and Concept Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:20 PM PST By Michael Hoexter, a policy analyst and marketing consultant on green issues, climate change, clean and renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives The hour is late and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are attempting to shrink the social welfare state in the name of a lack of funds. Barack Obama has made it now abundantly clear that he is no friend to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, after years of signaling overtly and covertly that cutting social programs was his intention. Obama is as beholden as any right-wing politician, a group among which some might count him, to the notion that the government is running out of money, as if our money was still backed by a limited supply of gold bullion. According to Obama and his fiscal advisors, the government's supposedly limited funds must be conserved by cutting the activities of government while also raising taxes to, in the "hard-money" telling of the story, "increase revenue" from the private sector for the remaining government programs. The former activity of cutting social welfare spending seems in Washington DC to take political precedence over the latter, in part because the wealthy in the private sector are a powerful lobby for their monetary holdings and income. Meanwhile the poor and middle class have not been, over the past 40 years, a powerful lobby for the social safety net which puts a "floor" under their standards of living. The only economic school that has a plausible account of fiat-currency issuing governments' monetary role in the economy and the flow of funds between the three main sectors of the economy, the Modern Money (MMT) school, has discovered that in fact government deficits are absolutely necessary for economic growth and they represent no strain on a monetarily sovereign government issuing a non-convertible floating currency, like the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, and Japanese national governments. In the era of fiat currencies, these governments cannot run out of their currency which they create via spending on goods and services available for sale in that currency. These governments with their central banks are the source of the US dollar, pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and yen, respectively without the intermediation of bond markets. Even in the era of the gold standard, a similar principle applied as government spending over taxes collected grew in order for economies to grow, limited by the availability of the element Au in metallic form, the supply of which grew in the "golden age" of the gold standard. Monetary sovereign governments' ability to create and spend their own currencies' in any amount has a role in enabling economic growth to occur at all. A necessary though not sufficient component of economic growth is a net growth in the supply of money in circulation or in savings. Bank and other private sector-to-private sector loans have no net effect in the growth of money, even though they temporarily create money that is circulated in the economy before its repayment; bank lending is not the reuse of other people's money but the creation of new money in the hope of making a profit in the form of interest. The repayment of the loan zeroes out the loan principle leaving only the sum of interest payments which, in aggregate across the entire economy, come from another source, ultimately government deficit spending. Through loan creation, banks can temporarily create money but not "mint" it. Tax collections by a national currency-issuing government effectively destroy money/demand in the private sector, though local and regional governments, which do not issue their own currencies, use taxes as revenues to pay for expenses. Therefore, the only consistent source of overall growth in the monetary economy and in overall monetary wealth is the net "excess" spending of currency issuing national governments, the surplus of spending over federal taxes collected. To count as economic growth, the overall increase in monetary holdings must be accompanied by the creation of real goods and services but this observation does not alter or diminish the role of government spending above taxes collected, i.e. government deficits. Apologists for the ideal of a purely or largely private economy attempt to split off government's role from the functioning of the economy, leaving in the minds of policy makers and the public the ideologically "desirable" but false image of a self-sufficient private sector. Though it has theoretical and empirical justification for its attitude toward deficits, unlike other economic schools in this regard, the Modern Money school stands practically alone in its assertion that budget deficits are almost de facto desirable, if the goal of economic activity is considered to be economic growth,. To be consistent, if one, as a policymaker, citizen, or economist, endorses economic growth in a capitalist (monetary) economy, one must be "for" almost permanent government budget deficits of varying amounts. Because of a number of ideological factors, economic and political actors are either unaware of this fact or choose to run away from it. Austerity advocates/deficit hawks are in full flight away from economic policies that would result in economic growth even as they claim otherwise. A few nations with large trade surpluses (unlike the US), which of necessity cannot be the majority of nations, can also experience economic growth without budget deficits, but this is not necessarily an economically virtuous condition. Running a large trade surplus requires other nations to run equally large trade deficits in net, and a willingness to therefore "finance" the trade surplus generating country by buying its output. Overall, for the world economy to grow, in aggregate the governments of the world must spend more than they tax, injecting more money into the world's economies to represent in monetary terms the growing sum of real goods and services that have been bought and sold within and between nations. Net growth in the number of currency "markers" available for economic actors to account for their gains and losses in the economy must come from a net growth in government spending of the world's various currencies. Terminological Imprecision and Cognitive Dissonance From the MMT account of monetarily sovereign government budget deficits, one can conclude that budget deficits are for the most part a critical, positive driving force in the world economy, at least if one endorses the idea, as is the common assumption of many, that economic growth is a good thing. However, the way the concept of "deficit" is handled by the rest of the economic profession, by the media and by the public, one gets exactly the opposition impression: "deficits" are to be avoided or, alternatively, temporarily indulged in only to be expunged later on. The former position can be stylized as the "deficit hawk" position while the latter is the "deficit dove" position to which left Neo-Keynesian economists like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich adhere. None of these actors would say that economic growth is "to be avoided" or "temporarily indulged in" even though this would be essentially a restatement of the same position. MMT economists and writers have explained that the word "deficit" means something different when applied to a currency issuing government but these explanations have I believe tended to fail to make significant headway in the public sphere. Most often MMT economists draw a distinction between governments and households. In MMT treatments of this issue usually there is the explanation that of the three major sectors of each national economy (private sector, public sector, and "rest of the world"), the public sector is the only one that can remain untroubled by any given amount of "deficits". Furthermore, in some public efforts to build bridges with "deficit doves", I've noticed that sometimes the difference between the MMT position and that of those who abhor or just "tolerate" deficits" starts to be washed away. In the wish to create a united front with those economists who recognize the horror of the austerity drive, MMT's contribution to our understanding of money and the macro-economy is lost. The problem is that both in denotation and connotation the word "deficit" is not up to the job to describe the concepts it is supposed to describe as called upon by Modern Money Theory. The word "deficit" is a hold-over from conventional accounting and the era of the gold-standard when currencies were supposed to be fixed in their quantity by convertibility of the currency into a fixed quantity of precious metal. Deficit means primarily a "lack", an "absence" and in conventional accounting it means being "in the red", not having taken in enough income to cover expenditures. But currency-issuing governments don't take in income in their own currency. "Deficit" can apply to the spending gaps of local governments and the Euro-Zone governments that cannot create their own currencies but a government that creates its own currency can never be in "deficit" within its own currency. Conventional accounting applies to "currency users" but not currency issuers. I have made the case elsewhere that we need to formulate a "macroeconomic accounting" or an "open systems" accounting methodology to understand and guide the workings of a currency-issuing government. If the same word "deficit" is used to describe the very different accounting operations of currency users and currency issuers, too much of the "negative capabilities" of the listener/reader are required to keep separate the kind of deficit that a currency user runs (a real deficit) versus the spending output of the currency issuer over taxes collected. If the word "deficit" is used for the latter, many additional cognitive operations are required to remind oneself that this deficit is not one that requires intake of more funds from outside the government (i.e. taxes) to fill. While MMT economists have worked for years with these assumptions attached to the word "deficit", it cannot be expected that those coming from the outside of the MMT community will be able to apply the entire MMT framework to "keep" the denotation of the word "deficit" separately. Connotatively the picture is even clearer: deficit sounds "bad" and evokes fears of holes and things that are missing or lacking. MMT economists do not conceive of deficit spending as in fact a hole nor should it be viewed with trepidation or disgust. The connotative problem also points to political problems in continuing the use of the word "deficit" as applied to monetarily sovereign government accounting. A Proposed Alternative: Government's "Net Contribution" Instead of a "deficit", I would submit that the excess of spending over taxes collected represents the government's "net contribution" to the economy. One can either expand or contract this phrase depending on the needs of the situation: it could be made more explicit by expanding it to "the government's net monetary contribution to the growth of the economy" or shorten it to "the contribution". "Contribution" denotes the adding of something without necessarily the subtracting of something else from someone else. The connotations would seem to apply much more accurately for work of the currency issuer in the "production" of additional monetary units. I think that it needs the word "net" for precision because spending below or at the level of taxes collected also is part of government's "contribution" to the economy. Taxation would be the "removal of demand" from the economy by the currency issuer. "Net contribution" also encourages us to look qualitatively at how and where government is spending and active in the economy not just to look at government spending as an amount in a ledger. Potentially the government could "contribute" to the economy in a way or at points within the economy that distorts it or undermines the public purpose as broadly defined. It could also "contribute" too much making private initiative less viable in areas where this is not desirable or spend in a way that inflated the value of critical goods and services. Additionally, in connotation, "net contribution" is much, much more positive than "deficit" both in the sense of a positive evaluation as well as positive in terms of "something observable, present, existent". The positive connotations and the more accurate denotations of the new term would, if usage was widespread enough would start to outweigh the inaccuracies and negatives associated with "deficit" and "deficit spending". From my understanding of how economies work, that they are mixed economies in almost every modern case, the positive connotations of the word "net contribution" are completely warranted. Again, the negative potential of the possibility for excessive government spending is not banished or suppressed by using the term "net contribution" but it does allow for the critical role of government within the broader matrix of the mixed economy. Not Simply a Re-Framing Lately at New Economic Perspectives there has been discussion of framing and memes to help MMT ideas gain a wider diffusion. I would submit that this re-naming is not simply a re-framing, though it does introduce a more positive frame to discuss government spending and the excess spending of government over taxes collected. The use of this new term opens up new perspectives on how to view the accounting process of monetarily sovereign governments and also allows more precise explanations of the mechanisms of economic growth. The introduction of this term makes a distinction where previously there was not one (deficit spending by sovereigns versus deficit spending by currency issuers) and therefore represents a terminological advance. It is therefore both a change in terminology and a noticeable change in the conceptual framework, to which those terms refer . While I believe what I am proposing here will lead to better social science in terms of more accurate descriptions of economic, political and social events, I also want to see real economic solutions proposed in political debates, which currently are conducted using largely false assumptions about economics and how to improve overall social welfare. With a new appreciation of what the excess spending of government does, there now exists the potential to overturn the entire premises of the political debate, a debate which in both Europe and North America is leading governments astray. With both better understanding and better arguments, based on a terminology that is no longer mired in misleading assumptions, I believe we stand a better chance of changing the terms of the debate, whether from within the halls of power or from without.         |
| Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:20 PM PST This is the time of year for the pundits to offer their wisest advise for the New Year. Veteran contrarian, the always controversial Doug Casey this week wrote about what a failure to resolve the US 'fiscal cliff' would mean and how inflation will still be the 'Trade of the Decade'… 'Here's what would happen,' says Doug Casey, if the White House and Congress can't come to terms… and the government does stumble over the cliff. 'Higher taxes would suck more capital out of the productive economy and divert it to the government – that's very bad. Pain and gain 'And lower government spending would help unravel distortions and misallocations of capital that spending was causing – which is good. In the process, some people would have to find new jobs, and some businesses dealing with government handouts would go bust. Painful, but necessary, and we need to see lots more of both.' Instead, 'The tax increases they're proposing are significant and immediate… capital gains are set to go from 15to 20 per cent, and the top income tax rate to 39.6 per cent, including dividend income. 'The spending cuts are modest and mostly for the future — only a 0.25 per cent decrease in actual outlays by the government in 2013. That's a rounding error. 'In short, it'll be harder to earn an honest living, and there will be less incentive to invest wisely, but bloated government will continue running the printing presses as fast as they'll go. I think we'll see at least a trillion-dollar deficit next year. Maybe more like $1.5 trillion.' Money printing This deficit the Federal Reserve will proceed to monetize. 'The one thing we know for sure is that the world is being flooded with new funny money. Economic contraction is masking the effect, and that money is just sitting in banks now, but you can't print trillions and trillions of new currency units indefinitely without inflation showing up. 'Timing is always the hard part – confusing what's inevitable with what's imminent – but this is as sure a thing as I can see in today's market.' But don't pile into an inverse Treasury ETF, Doug warns: 'There's no telling exactly when the tide will shift; and until it does, investors in such vehicles run the risk of losing their patience and giving up too early. 'There will be time to invest in that when the tide shifts, but has not yet gained momentum – then shorting government bonds will be the 'Trade of the Decade',' he concludes. |
| Gold price takedown a plot by the Fed and the bullion banks says veteran gold bug Jim Sinclair Posted: 21 Dec 2012 08:42 PM PST The year-end slump in the gold price by around $100 in three weeks is a plot by the Fed and the bullion banks to disguise the true state of the US economy, argues veteran gold bug Jim Sinclair on his website this weekend. Sell now and you are being caught in their trap. Mr. Sinclair has the gold price shooting to $3,500 and higher in the near future. His predictions have been very accurate for more than a decade now. However, even if he gets the long-term trend right, there is no accounting for the manipulation by the Fed and the bullion banks. Market manipulation 'There is not one professional who does not know sales in extreme volume at a time of low activity internationally have but one purpose, and that is to reduce the price of gold,' he explains. 'You cannot fix the problems of the Western Economic system by breaking the telltale thermometer, which is the price of gold.' He adds: 'The idea that the patient (Western financial system) will recover because Dr. Strangelove [we assume he means Ben Bernake] of the Fed jumped up and down on the fever thermometer (the gold price) is the height of rank, blatant, foolishness and ignorance I thought the Fed leadership was not even capable of. They did this in the 1970s and it failed as miserably as this act of desperation will also.' Buying opportunity Mr. Sinclair points out that all this achieves is to drive gold into the hands of China where eager buyers will snap up this insurance against the coming devaluation of the US dollar. Many global central banks, particularly from the BRICS nations will do the same. ArabianMoney would also note that we faced exactly the same crisis of confidence over gold and silver prices this time last year (click here). Could it not also be a bit of profit taking by hedge funds at the year-end? This year prices took off nicely in January after many predictions of the end of gold towards the end of 2011. So often with gold it is a case of deja vu all over again. What we have not seen is the massive price spike that would indicate an end to this bull run. Then we would be looking at Mr. Sinclair's $3,500 an ounce and everybody would be talking about gold going much higher. |
| By the Numbers for the Week Ending December 21 Posted: 21 Dec 2012 08:36 PM PST This week's closing table is just below. Vultures, (Got Gold Report Subscribers) please note that updates to our linked technical charts, including our comments about the COT reports and the week's technical changes, should be completed by the usual time on Sunday (by 18:00 ET). |
| Andrew Maguire: “Unprecedented” Silver Premiums in China Posted: 21 Dec 2012 06:10 PM PST After boldly calling for a bottom in the gold and silver markets yesterday, today whistleblower Andrew Maguire told King World News that the premium for physical silver expanded to shocking and "unprecedented" levels in China. Maguire also spoke with King World News about the challenges the shorts are now facing in both the gold and silver markets. This is the fourth in a series of interviews with Maguire lifting the curtain on what is going on behind the scenes in the gold and silver war. Eric King: "Andrew, yesterday you were saying we had hit a bottom, and certainly the markets are acting that way with gold up around $10. Your thoughts here because I think for some people it felt like the end of the world on that (recent) price drop." Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com |
| Tiny gold bars latest rage for jittery investors Posted: 21 Dec 2012 05:40 PM PST Tiny gold bars latest rage for jittery investors By Oliver Hirt ZURICH Dec 21 (Reuters) - Private investors in Switzerland, Austria and Germany are lining up to buy gold bars the size of a credit card that can easily be broken into one gram pieces and used as payment in an emergency. Now Swiss refinery Valcambi, a unit of U.S. mining giant Newmont, wants to bring its "CombiBar" to market in the United States and build up its sales presence India - the world's largest consumer of gold where the precious metal has long served as a parallel currency. Investors worried that inflation and financial market turmoil will wipe out the value of their cash have poured money into gold over the past decade. Prices have gained almost 500 percent since 2001 compared to a 12 percent increase in MSCI's world equity index. Sales of gold bars and coins were worth almost $77 billion in 2011, up from just $3.5 billion in 2002, according to data from the World Gold Council. "The rich are buying standard bars or have deposits of phsyical gold. People that have less money are buying up to 100 grams," said Michael Mesaric, CEO of Valcambi "But for many people a pure investment product is no longer enough. They want to be able to do something with the precious metal." Mesaric said the advantage of the "CombiBar" - which has been dubbed a "chocolate bar" because pieces can be easily broken off by hand into one gram squares - is that it can be easily transported and costs less than buying 50 one gram bars. "The produce can also be used as an alternative method of payment," he said. Valcambi is building a sales network in India and plans to launch the CombiBar on the U.S. market next year. In Japan, it wants to focus on CombiBars made of platinum and palladium. Elsewhere, demand is particularly strong among Germans, still scarred by post-World War One hyperinflation, when money became all but worthless and it took a wheelbarrow full of notes to buy a loaf of bread. "Above all, it's people aged between 40 and 70 that are investing in gold bars and coins," said Mesaric. "They've heard tales from their parents about wars and crises devaluing money." CRISIS PAYMENT The CombiBar is particularly popular among grandparents who want to give their grandchildren a strip of gold rather than a coin, said Andreas Habluetzel head of the Swiss business of Degussa, a gold trading company. Other customers buy gold for security reasons. "Demand is rising every week," Habluetzel said. "Particularly in Germany, people buying gold fear that the euro will break apart or that banks will run into problems." Some fund managers, however, remain sceptical. Stephan Mueller, who manages bank Julius Baer's $6 billion gold fund, said one problem with using gold as a method of payment is that people have to take its value on blind trust. "Gold is a useful store of value," Mueller said. "However I doubt whether it will succeed as a method of payment." Nonetheless, as developments in the euro zone lurch from one crisis to another, demand for gold that can be sold in vending machines is also growing. "Sales rise according to the temperature of the crisis," said Thomas Geissler, whose firm Ex Oriente Lux operates 17 gold vending machines in Europe, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The machines saw record sales in 2010, one day after the then Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann raised doubts over whether Greece would be able to pay its debts. Since the launch of the machines, which operate under the name "GOLD to go", 50,000 customers have withdrawn more than 21 million euros in gold. The average buyer is male, over 50 years old and well off. "Customers are hoarding gold mostly at home as a precaution against a crisis, just as their fathers and grandfathers did before them," Geissler said. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8NL4N820121221 |
| 2 Agriculture ETFs To Keep An Eye On Posted: 21 Dec 2012 04:32 PM PST By Thomas Meyer: 2013 will be an interesting year for investors. With so many unanswered questions, investors must decide how to best allocate their capital. One industry that I think will be strong is the agriculture space. Although there are several companies worth considering, I think a better play is to consider investing in an exchange traded fund. They offer the benefit of diversification, which in this case makes the most sense, as the industry as a whole is set to perform well. Below are two ETFs worth considering, especially in light of the possibility of inflation setting in towards the latter part of next year. Why Agriculture? If inflation sets in, one sure way to hedge is to get long agriculture. This typically includes fertilizer, grains, and foods. When the dollar weakens, these items become more expensive in real dollar costs. Additionally, with the world population continuing to increase, demand for Complete Story » |
| Private Meetings With Miles Franklin Posted: 21 Dec 2012 03:45 PM PST Thursday Afternoon Wrap-Up for 12/20/2012 and the Friday Morning Commentary for 12/21/2012 Each day, the following blurb is inserted in David Schectman's morning "DAILY" and my afternoon "RANT": Miles Franklin seeks creative ways to partner with its clients to market Precious Metals to nationwide audiences. If you are interested in hosting a private meeting – or sponsoring a Webinar presentation - with Andy Schectman, President of Miles Franklin, and "Ranting Andy" Hoffman, Marketing Director, please inquire via email to aschectman@milesfranklin.com or ahoffman@milesfranklin.com; or via telephone at 800-822-8080. At Miles Franklin, we are always seeking creative ways to market our services; while simultaneously achieving our modus operandi of EDUCATING the public about Precious Metals – and in our view, these are effective means. This year, Andy and I participated in private gatherings in numerous cities; while David Schectman and Joel Kravitz hosted several meetings in South Florida, where they live (separately) for the winter. With Andy in Minneapolis, David and Joel in the Miami area, and me in Denver, there are a host of alternatives we can entertain, in essentially any city. We do not charge fees to give presentations; and in fact, relish the opportunity to discuss our world – be it the financial markets, Congressional proposals that may affect our lives, or the bullion industry itself. There is no question too large or small; and thus far, numerous professional relationships- and friendships – have emanated from such meetings. Just let us know if you have a group – large or small – that might be interested in an entertaining presentation and/or dialogue, and we'll figure out a way to make it happen. Alternatively, Andy and I are happy to host a "READER SPONSORED WEBINAR" – as we just did for the good folks at Survivalist magazine; or any other form method of effectively exchanging ideas. In other words, we're here to help. All you need to do is ASK! PROTECT YOURSELF, and do it NOW! Call Miles Franklin at 800-822-8080, and talk to one of our brokers. Through industry-leading customer service and competitive pricing, we aim to EARN your business. Similar Posts:
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| How Government Thieves Have the Monopoly on ‘Wrong’ Posted: 21 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST If you're sick of the stock market, or if you haven't bought the black sheep in your family a Christmas present yet, this is the book for you: The Right Way to Do Wrong by Harry Houdini is about picking locks, dodges and other money making tricks. Here's a section to get you warmed up to the idea:
(Just to be clear, we don't recommend trying this.) The horse-dodge is not the most brilliant 'dodge' though. Here's the real cracker:
That's capital! But don't try it. These days, there aren't many horses to hide behind. And not many shopkeepers stock molasses. There are plenty of thieves though. They've just moved up in the world. Small print has taken the place of hats and exit fees are the new molasses. But those aren't even the real kind of thieves. You see, you have a choice when you do business with questionable people and institutions. It's the thugs who don't give you a choice that are the real problem. Believe it or not, those thugs steal about a third of Australia's GDP each year. We're talking about the government of course. Just like the Mafia, our politicians expect us to pay protection money. And if we don't, we're off to prison. In an economy where it's the norm to steal like this, and then deal in stolen goods by handing them out to political supporters, you shouldn't be surprised that people are willing to get in on the act. If politicians can rob Peter to pay Paul, why not be Paul? Why not apply for subsidies, implicit bailouts and industry controls to prevent competition? But every now and again, the victims fight back against the government and its cronies. A couple of months ago, a hedge fund which owned Argentine bonds that had been defaulted on decided to get their own back. They impounded the Argentine warship, the Libertad, while it was docked in Ghana. They offered to release it for a small fraction of the money the Argentine government owed them. This was just the latest episode for poor old Argentina. Other assets impounded by bondholders include the presidential aircraft and a satellite. Anyway, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg recently decided 'Ghana shall forthwith and unconditionally release the frigate ARA Libertad'. The problem is, Ghanaian authorities aren't convinced the court has authority. And so the story continues.
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| Gold and Silver Disaggregated COT Report (DCOT) for December 21 Posted: 21 Dec 2012 01:48 PM PST This week's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disaggregated commitments of traders (DCOT) report was released at 15:30 ET Friday. Our recap of the changes in weekly positioning by the disaggregated trader classes, as compiled by the CFTC, is just below. More... In the DCOT table above a net short position shows as a negative figure in red. A net long position shows in black. In the Change column, a negative number indicates either an increase to an existing net short position or a reduction of a net long position. A black figure in the Change column indicates an increase to an existing long position or a reduction of an existing net short position. The way to think of it is that black figures in the Change column are traders getting "longer" and red figures are traders getting less long or shorter. All of the trader's positions are calculated net of spreading contracts as of the Tuesday disaggregated COT report. |
| Posted: 21 Dec 2012 01:33 PM PST I know you all probably think I'm crazy, particularly after the action this week...but I'm here to tell ya, just below the surface, something is definitely brewing in the silver pit.      |
| Friday Humor: CFTC Mission Statement Posted: 21 Dec 2012 01:15 PM PST While we have posted this previously, we thought it apropos to re-post the CFTC's Mission Statement at the end of a week that saw the most blatant and egregious market manipulation of gold and silver since the May 2011 take-down. CFTC's full Mission Statement (in polished granite) below: 2013 Silver Eagles As Low as $2.59 [...] |
| Posted: 21 Dec 2012 01:02 PM PST Ranting Andy discusses the ongoing gold raid with Rahul of Alt Investors: Andy Hoffman- What's Going on With Gold Similar Posts: |
| Brazil doubles gold reserves as central banks buy bullion Posted: 21 Dec 2012 01:02 PM PST By Glenys Sim | Bloomberg Brazil boosted gold reserves for a third month in November to double the country's holdings since August as central banks from Russia to Belarus and South Korea add the metal to diversify their assets. Brazilian holdings expanded 14.7 metric tons in November to 67.2 tons, the most since November 2000, according to data on the [...]  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:55 PM PST It had not occurred to me until last night that we truly are on the cusp… of 100 ounces of Gold becoming real money. Of course it always was "real" money but very soon as the cabal loses control, it will become REAL money. Money, as in enough to not only purchase a house for your family but a REAL house. I'm talking about a real house, a McMansion house, a house that will (already has) be "puked up" by an over leveraged owner. Let's go back 10-12 years and see where we came from. Back in the year 2000, Gold was trading in a $250-$270 trading range. A nice house back then would have cost let's say $200,000. This would not have been a McMansion but it would have been a nice home of maybe 2,000 or 2,500 sq. ft.. Basically you would have needed about 800 ounces of Gold to purchase this house. Fast forward to today and let's say that the market value (yes I know, some places are ridiculously higher and others lower but stay with me) is $250,000-$300,000. For arguments sake let's say that it could be bought 175 ounces. …Do you see where I'm going with this? Now, for a little bit of speculation on my part. You can agree with me or disagree with what I'm about to write. Please keep in mind that I personally did start accumulating metals and miners back in 1998. I shipped my metals out of the country and took possession of all my certificates more than 5 years ago. I did sell my home and real estate back in late 2006/early 2007 and rented for 5 years and anyone who has read my material knows that I was one of the first back in 2007 and '08 to openly write and question the solvency of the U.S. Treasury and the Fed. Many of these moves at the time were real "eyebrow raisers" and I have been viewed for years as a charter member of the "tin foil hat society." All I am asking is that you give me a little slack and pre suppose that I may be correct, if not totally then partially. That said, the current laughable and public display of desperation by those running the printing presses will end and end badly. In my opinion, Gold prices will explode and go to numbers that no one has yet to express or even think of (but let's assume that I am over bullish and wrong). Let's assume that the latest number, $3,500 per ounce that Jim Sinclair speaks of is THE number for Gold (yes I know that he has mentioned $12,000 per ounce to back our foreign debt). If he is correct, a mere 100 ounces will be worth $350,000. At $3,500 per ounce you could purchase a nice home (yes I know, only a shack on the west coast) and maybe not even spend 100 ounces. But this is where the thought process gets interesting. Interest rates have ONLY one way to go now and that is UP. "Up" may be an understatement when Mother Nature gets her chance to sort out this mess. Interest rates very well may absolutely explode but let's assume that they don't, let's assume that they only go up 2 percentage points and that mortgage rates go from roughly 4% now to 6%. What does this mean? Put bluntly, your monthly "mortgage Dollar" will only purchase 2/3rds of what it does now. Does real estate drop another 33%? Maybe, maybe not but higher interest rates will definitely put pressure on real estate. So let's make another assumption, let's assume that real estate softens 25% from here and then do some math. Your 250K-300K house is now in the neighborhood of $200,000 at the same time that Jim Sinclair's (VERY CONSERVATIVE in my opinion!) figure of $3,500 per ounce comes into play. Now you are looking at only 60 ounces to buy a decent house! But wait there's more! I have a story to tell you about the Weimar hyperinflation experience. Once the fiat currency was replaced with a Gold backed currency, real estate dropped 30% and THEN started going down! Real estate went down because there was "no money on the street" and credit dried up to a standstill. I am sure you have already heard the story of the bellboy who saved a 1 Gold ounce "tip" that he received and bought the hotel that occupied an entire city block in the aftermath of the hyperinflation. True? Maybe, maybe not, but Gold became VERY VERY valuable in relation to not only real estate but virtually everything else you could think of. My point is this, we are on the cusp of 100 ounces of of Gold becoming very real and very valuable. Depending on location you may be able in the next couple of years to purchase a newly built (and defaulted on) McMansion of 5,000 sq. ft. with a pool and some acreage for 100 ounces or maybe even much much less! Laugh if you want to but in my opinion, a 25-30% drop in real estate from here may be quite conservative and $3,500 for Gold is VERY conservative! $3,500 is laughably low and I am sure that Mr. Sinclair is simply using that number so as not to sound like a lunatic. $12,000 Gold only covers our foreign debt (I think the real number is now closer to $20,000 since we've piled on debt since $12,000 was calculated). What kind of number do we need if ALL debt is included? What about if we use ALL debt, obligations, promises and guarantees? Oh yes, one more question, what price would Gold need to be if ALL central bank Gold were needed to back ALL debt and derivatives on the planet? Anyone have the answer for this one? All I am trying to do here is to help you step back and see "value". Even if you can't afford 100 ounces, maybe you can afford 50, or 10… or 5. Or maybe you can only afford 100 ounces of Silver (which I personally believe will outperform Gold by at least 2 to 1). Something, anything precious metal… is better than nothing and I think that when all is said and done, a "little" will go a long LONG way! My best regards, Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas wishes to all. Similar Posts: |
| Stock Market Breather & Gold Yearly Cycle Low Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:19 PM PST The gold market however has been rather confusing of late. Now with the benefit of hindsight it's apparent that the yearly cycle low that I was expecting sometime in April or May has been moved up to correspond with last year's D-Wave bottom.  |
| Stocks Beat Gold for 1st Time Since 2004 Posted: 21 Dec 2012 11:42 AM PST - SO the WORLD DIDN'T END on the shortest day of 2012, writes Adrian Ash at BullionVault, as forecast by no-one beyond lazy journalists and internet frauds. But the long bull market gold has choked its last. Or so some soothsayers claim. Bloomberg: "Gold, [enjoying] its longest winning streak in at least nine decades, is poised to enter a bear [...]  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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