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- Russian gold, forex reserves rise to $532bn
- India’s ultra rich: younger, richer and buying gold
- The Three Legs of the Precious Metals Bull: Part I
- Brazilian Real ETF Strengthens As Central Bank Fights Inflation
- A Bah, Humbug Consumer Christmas? Not So Fast
- Random Charts Tell Interesting Stories
- Jim Willie: The Coming Isolation of the US Dollar
- Kick Off the New Year With Poker in Biloxi!
- Gold And Silver To Join Stocks In Cliff Dive
- Harvey Organ: Cartel Manipulation of Gold & Silver is the Ultimate Treason, As US Wealth Flows East
- Azerbaijan to diversify foreign reserves from next year
- 1980 Top in Gold as Reference Point for PM Investors
- The problem faced by the Fed in trying to support the dollar
- Randgold’s Tongon gold mine production impacted by plant fire
- The truth should never be taken as an insult.
- Silver Goes Vertical
- DMCC grants DGD accreditation to Al Etihad Gold refinery
- Gold Moves Remind Jim Sinclair of Late 1970s Action
- Precious Metals 'Under Pressure' Ahead of Year-End
- Nepal Gold sheds Rs 800 per tola in one week
- Rohit Savant Expects Gold Bull to Pause in 2013
- Kimberley model Gold certification is still far away
- Eric Sprott: Why Are [Smart] Investors Buying So Much More Silver Than Gold?
- R.J. O'Brien's Senior Commodity Broker: Silver is His #1 Commodity Pick for 2013
- In gold's own country -- Kerala, India
- Iraq boosts gold reserves by 25 tonnes
- TF Metals Report: Ted Butler: Very Early Monday
- Don't Close the COMEX: Ted Butler...07 October 2003
- A forecast for a silver default on the Comex
- GoldMoney's Turk gives outlook for gold from 2013-15
- John Embry to preside at GATA fundraiser with Bob Bishop in Vancouver
- Seven King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews
- Miners Going Overseas for All that Glitters
- Gold slips again in Asian trade
- Why are (Smart) Investors Buying 50 Times More Physical Silver than Gold?
- Silver Prices & the Return of the Yen Carry Trade
- The January Effect and The Fiscal Cliff
- Recent gold price take down is like what happened before the big take-off in the late 70s recalls Jim Sinclair
| Russian gold, forex reserves rise to $532bn Posted: 27 Dec 2012 04:46 PM PST Russia's central bank has no immediate plans to diversify its foreign exchange holdings, Chairman Sergei Ignatyev said on last week | ||||||||
| India’s ultra rich: younger, richer and buying gold Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:27 PM PST India has one of the fastest growing high net worth segments in the world and its members like to have gold in the kitty | ||||||||
| The Three Legs of the Precious Metals Bull: Part I Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:49 AM PST Normally, at this time of year writers tend to turn their thoughts toward making predictions for the upcoming year. My own belief is that this practice has turned into a Fool's Game; as the saturation-level corruption in our markets and endemic propaganda from the Corporate Media mean that rationality is out the window. Without accurate information and legitimate, vigilant regulation; our markets have become nothing but rigged casinos – where "the House" doesn't even honour its losing bets when inconvenient. Prices are no longer the product of supply/demand fundamentals, but merely the outcomes of crime. In such an environment, investors are forced to purely "play defense." The object is not simply to seek out promising investment opportunities, but rather to survive the rapacious plundering of the banking cabal. It is not enough to identify assets which "should" or "probably" will turn a profit. Instead, investors need to identify asset classes which must appreciate in value (over the long term) at a greater rate than the spiraling inflation generated from the exponential money-printing of the banksters. At the top of the list are gold and silver, humanity's ultimate shield against financial crime in general and (predatory) inflation in particular. For those craving certainty/security in the most uncertain of times, the precious metals bull market (which began over a decade ago) offers "three legs" of support; or (alternately) three reasons why we know that gold and silver must outperform most/all other asset classes in our current circumstances. Excessive money-printing: Currency dilution is neither a theory, nor is it some obscure concept which can only be grasped by those with training in economics. Rather, it is the obvious and inevitable result of a simple relationship of arithmetic. Incredibly, while nearly all but the most novice of investors understand the concept of "dilution" when it applies to the printing of shares by our corporations, virtually none of those same investors comprehend the dilution of our (fiat) currencies – despite the fact that currency-dilution is precisely analagous to share-dilution in virtually every respect. If a corporation prints excessive quantities of its own shares, the share price will plummet. If the corrupt (private) bankers holding monopolies to all of our sovereign(?) printing presses print these fiat currencies in excessive quantities, they must plummet in value (i.e. purchasing power). This is "inflation." As we saw with the hyperinflation of Weimar Germany, it is possible to delay the effects of even the most extreme/insane excesses of money-printing. However, it is never possible to prevent such monetary depravity from totally destroying the value of one's own paper. How much is "too much" when it comes to money-printing? Under ordinary (i.e. sane) circumstances that can be a difficult answer to determine. Unfortunately current parameters are "extraordinary" in every respect – and not for the better. Current Western money-printing grossly exceeds any other time in any modern, major Western economy, with the exception of Weimar Germany. Worse still, it continues to ramp-up at an exponential rate. And even worse, we have these rapacious banksters now openly using words like "unlimited" (Europe) and "open-ended" (the U.S.) to describe their suicidal money-printing. | ||||||||
| Brazilian Real ETF Strengthens As Central Bank Fights Inflation Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:41 AM PST By Tom Lydon: In an attempt to control inflation in its growing economy, Brazil's central bank has intervened in the currency market, strengthening the Brazilian real and related currency exchange traded fund. WisdomTree Dreyfus Brazilian Real Fund (BZF) gained 1.4% Wednesday, but is in the red for the year on a weak Brazilian currency relative to the U.S. dollar. The real rose to 2.0557, a six-week high, after the central bank sold $1.8 billion in currency swaps and agreed to lend as much as $2 billion in foreign-exchange credit lines, Bloomberg reports. "The central bank aims to keep the real trading at around 2.05 in 2013," Joao Paulo Correa, manager of foreign-exchange trading at Correparti Corretora, said in the Bloomberg article. "The swap auctions clearly show that its goal is to avoid raising the Selic rate in 2013." Swap rates dipped on speculation that the government will boost lending rates, Complete Story » | ||||||||
| A Bah, Humbug Consumer Christmas? Not So Fast Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:33 AM PST By Hale Stewart: By New Deal Democrat Yesterday, the econoblogosphere was all atwitter about a MasterCard report that said consumers had only spent 0.7% more this holiday season vs. last year. This is said to be the weakest showing since the recession collapse of 2008. But before you accept that a the final word on the subject of consumer sales at year-end 2012, take a look at this screenshot of Gallup's daily consumer spending report published yesterday, covering data from February 2008 through Dec. 23, 2012: (click to enlarge) The last two weeks have seen the highest amount of consumer spending since four years ago, and the spike last week is by far the highest since four years ago as well. So, how does this square with the MasterCard results? Two reasons are likely. First, the MasterCard result includes all shopping since Oct. 28 -- i.e., just before Sandy. Spending Complete Story » | ||||||||
| Random Charts Tell Interesting Stories Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:27 AM PST By Calafia Beach Pundit: Here is a random sampling of charts with up-to-date data that tell interesting stories about the economy and the markets. The economy continues to improve on the margin, albeit slowly, but markets are very nervous. (click to enlarge)
Complete Story » | ||||||||
| Jim Willie: The Coming Isolation of the US Dollar Posted: 27 Dec 2012 11:06 AM PST By Jim Willie, GoldenJackass.com The typical human reaction to any infection, vermin, danger, or toxicity is to stand back, to isolate the agent, to trap it, to prevent its further spread or release, then to remove it in a safe secure way if possible using trained professionals. Eventually decisions must be made on the level [...] | ||||||||
| Kick Off the New Year With Poker in Biloxi! Posted: 27 Dec 2012 10:56 AM PST
Jack and Mike will be spending the first weekend of the year (Jan 4-9) in Biloxi MS for the annual Million Dollar Heater series. The opening event for this venue is shaping up to be a great tournament with a $300k guaranteed prize pool, two separate entry flights, a healthy starting chip stack, relaxed blind structure, and plenty of fish flying in from around the country… Rumor has it that the cash games around this event feature some sick action. Tourists on tilt after busting out make particularly good targets, so we will be sticking around for a few extra days past the opening tourney. Part of the reason we travel to these events (besides the tournament and cash game profits) is to have the chance for Mercenary Trader meetups around the country – or more accurately, around the world… With that said, we'd love to see you in Biloxi. The plan is to grab drinks one evening in between events and cash game sessions to chat and compare notes on the trading environment for the coming year. (Of course there will be plenty of stories about dragged pots, bad beats, and stolen chips to go along with the market discussion). If you're planning on making it to the event and would like to meet up with us, make sure you shoot us an email and let us know (jack@ or mike@ mercenarytrader [dot] com) See you in Biloxi!  | ||||||||
| Gold And Silver To Join Stocks In Cliff Dive Posted: 27 Dec 2012 10:22 AM PST By Danny Furman: As Elliot Wave practitioner and silver trader Avi Gilburt points out in a recent Seeking Alpha article, gold (GLD) and silver (SLV) investors are an emotional bunch. Upon first learning about the history of the Federal Reserve, the end of the gold standard, positions held by major banks in PM markets and historical purchasing power of monetary metals, I too was bitten by the bug and bought all the physical silver I could. Despite a long history as stores of value, gold and silver are not what they once were. You can't go to the grocery store and buy a gallon of milk with a silver dime or fill your car up with gasoline in exchange for a silver dollar. You can't buy a car from a dealership with a 10 ounce gold bar. Today gold and silver are not money. They are assets and commodities. While policymakers Complete Story » | ||||||||
| Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:47 AM PST The Doc sat down with Harvey Organ Wednesday for the first of several interviews regarding the recent massive cartel intervention in the gold and silver markets post the QE4 announcement, the fiscal cliff, the CFTC's silver probe, and the unprecedented … Continue reading | ||||||||
| Azerbaijan to diversify foreign reserves from next year Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:44 AM PST Central Asian nation Azerbaijan announced plans to diversify country's foreign reserves including gold from next year. | ||||||||
| 1980 Top in Gold as Reference Point for PM Investors Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:38 AM PST We use the 1980 top for comparisons not because the current economic situation is very similar to the one in 1979-80. But the key point is the same – the fundamental situation was positive for gold in 1970s and it is the case right now.  | ||||||||
| The problem faced by the Fed in trying to support the dollar Posted: 27 Dec 2012 09:30 AM PST Be sure and read the quotes, above – especially the first Sinclair quote. Trust what he has to say. I do. Yes, I believe that gold is headed to $4000 or higher during the 2015-2017 period, and the dollar is in danger of a massive devaluation. Sinclair, as usual, tells it like it is and pulls no punches. Be long gold and short dollars. Follow that advice and you win. Ignore it and you lose. It's just that simple. Recently, I read reports from Stansberry and Larry Edelson suggesting that gold was in danger of a major correction, down into the $1300s or low $1400s. Both of these gentlemen assure us that they are still bullish toward gold and silver, but not short-term. At least they are long-term bullish and acknowledge that the bull market is far from over. Personally, I strongly disagree with their analysis, which is strictly based on technical analysis. I have less faith in TA than they do, in a market place dominated by manipulation. When you consider the kind of information that they are presenting, it has to make you uneasy. What if they are right? After all, anything is possible. Bearish views, like those presented by Stansberry and Edelson, are not in tune with writers like John Embry, Bill Murphy, Andy Hoffman, Bill Holter, Jim Sinclair, Jim Willie and myself, to name but a few. What do all of us share in common? Most of us have been heavily involved in the precious metals industry for decades. We may not be right, but we are not fools and we are very experienced. You know my view – I am still very bullish and believe that January through April will be very kind to gold and silver. We shall see. So how should you react to the following question: Is it prudent to hold off buying gold and silver now, at these low "correction" prices? As we head into 2013, I would like to share a few of my thoughts on what lies ahead for gold and silver. First and foremost, I remind you that GOLD IS NOT AN INVESTMENT; GOLD IS MONEY. A simple statement, but it has deep meaning. When you think of gold only in terms of profit and loss, you become speculators. Count your gold IN OUNCES not IN DOLLARS. Your wealth, in the long run, and even in the rather near-term, will be measured in how many ounces you own. The price will take care of itself. Here are a few of the forces in play for 2013 that will determine where the price heads. On the one hand, there are the traders at JPMorgan, HSBC and their crony bullion banks that are very, very "short" paper gold and silver on the COMEX. They prefer prices to stay low or fall. And there are the mega-hedge funds, some of which also benefit from low and falling prices. They all operate in the world of "paper" gold and silver. The Fed and the US Treasury also prefer that gold and silver remain comatose. They want to keep you in the dollar and they need to support US Treasuries. When gold and silver rise, it casts doubt on our greenback and makes it harder to sell our bonds, especially with our interest rates so ridiculously low. All of these negative forces have been in play for over a decade, since the bull market in precious metals commenced. In spite of these negative forces, it takes 6.5 times as many dollars to buy gold today, and over seven times as many dollars to buy silver as it did in 2001. The forces that are at work to suppress the price haven't been successful, and going forward they won't be either. Let's look at the problem faced by the Fed in trying to support the dollar – because if the dollar continues to fall, gold and silver will not only continue to rise, they will explode, and supply will become hard to come by. According to industry icons, James Turk and John Embry, silver is already in very short supply – physical supply, not paper. If the economy falters, and I expect it will, the Treasury will take in less taxes and the welfare sector will demand more funding. This will cause the deficit to rise and more bonds will have to be sold to finance the shortfall. The Fed will be the buyer of many of or most of these bonds, and that means an expanding money supply. It will put even more pressure on the dollar. Remember, we cannot buy our debt with newly printed money without debasing the dollar. No nation has ever been successful with that approach and we won't be either. Should the economy heat up, the banks will start lending the money that they are currently sitting on (or using to buy "safe" bonds), and that will create more demand and a noticeable rise in inflation. That will also harm the dollar and be very gold and silver friendly. It's a situation where nothing the Fed does will succeed – and the dollar will lose value. It's merely a question of how much and how fast. No one can tell you exactly when it will happen or how low the dollar will fall, but you will be better served to be early rather that scrambling to adjust your portfolio after the fact. One thing is certain; the Fed always resorts to printing more money every time a bubble pops or the economy heads toward recession. The Fed will be 100-years old next December. In that time frame, the dollar has lost 96% of its value. That means that the four cents in buying power that remain were worth one dollar in 1913. Translated into gold, in 1913 a dollar was worth one-twentieth of an ounce of gold. Today it's worth one-one thousand six hundred and fiftieth of an ounce of gold. The dollar is NOT a store of value. That's pretty scary, since the dollar is the currency we all rely on as the foundation of our investments. That is unless you trade your dollars for gold and silver. Then you sidestep dollar-related issues. 2013 will be the year when the dollar starts to show cracks and it loses its Reserve Currency" status. It won't happen all at once, but the process has already started and it is accelerating. Currently there are hundreds of billions less demand for the dollar (a number to surely move into the trillions) as India, China, Russia, and Brazil (the BRICS), along with many other small countries are already trading with each other in their own currencies, bypassing the dollar. This is the Fed's Achilles Heel – and they have no solution to the problem. The result must be a loss of the Reserve Currency status of the dollar and the ensuing inflation and rise in the cost of food and energy will wreck havoc on the middle class. This is not a hypothetical scenario, it is coming. You will be very well served to move your spare dollars into gold, silver and strong foreign currencies. The one thing you don't want to be is dollar-heavy in 2013. When this becomes clear to you, then you will understand that the current "discounted" price of gold and silver is a blessing, not a curse to you. Check out the following and you will see how hopeless our situation really is. I grabbed the following data from JSMineset and it does a wonderful job of putting the Fiscal Cliff numbers that are "too large to comprehend," into numbers you can understand.
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| Randgold’s Tongon gold mine production impacted by plant fire Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:31 AM PST A difficult year for Randgold Resources' Tongon gold mine in Côte d'Ivoire has been exacerbated by a fire in the plant which will adversely affect throughput for up to a month. | ||||||||
| The truth should never be taken as an insult. Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:30 AM PST
The above words were spoken by Canadian Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre. How true are these words? How simple, straight forward and easy enough for a 3rd grader to understand? Are you insulted? You shouldn't be. In the news today all we hear is fiscal cliff this and debt ceiling that, yet these are small pimples on the elephant's behind. Our lawmakers are at loggerheads trying to find $1.2 trillion over the NEXT 10 YEARS while we are piling up multiples of that year after year. We are adding a $1.5 trillion deficit each year along with countless aid, loans, guarantees and other liabilities which total another $5+ trillion per year. Washington cannot agree on $1.2 trillion over the next ten years while truth be told another $60-70 trillion of liabilities will accumulate over these 10 years. 10 years may seem like a long time but in the scheme of things they are not, 10 years in other cultures like China merely represent tomorrow morning. The thing is, we don't have 10 years left. There is no way that investors (trading partners) don't wake up long before this. In my opinion, investors will wake up this coming year when they order metal and don't receive it but that's a story for another writing. Please go back and reread the quote from Mssr. Poilievre if you will and forget about "2020″. We are now paying China interest on their Treasury holdings nearly enough to fund their entire defense budget. Yes, WE are paying to support the Chinese army. How could we have been so stupid? How could we have ever gotten to this position? I can see how foreigners with enough foresight would allow (even help) us get here but what were our leaders thinking? In a nutshell, our so called leaders were thinking of one thing and one thing only… getting re-elected. Getting re-elected so that they could bury their fat pig like faces in the largesse of feeding at the Treasury's trough. While riding through the streets passing out the goodies, naturally some of the slop would end up in politicians pockets. Besides, while in office they have the power to make the rules no matter how ill advised and as you all know, "power is intoxicating." Folks, the above quote is not some whacko spinning out of control because he forgot to take his Prozac one morning. No, THIS is how foreigners see us because this is truth, this is reality… THIS is how it really is. We are broke, flat broke and only able to go forward because we have the ability to print Dollars to pay the interest. Were we not the issuer of the reserve currency, I assure you that we would not have even made it to 2008 much less through it by printing even more. Were is not for the status of reserve currency issuer, we would have already been thrown under the bus, shut off from credit and put on disadvantageous trade terms by the rest of the world. We would have been sat down in the corner with a dunce cap on and put in a serious timeout long ago until we came to our senses! The above is not only what "would" have happened… it is exactly what WILL happen. The only thing is that now, we are further in debt and even more despised by the rest of the world so the comeuppance will be that much harsher. It is like we were traveling at 140 mph directly into a brick wall up until 2007-08 where a smart person would have applied the brakes but no, our leaders hit the turbo boost button with an added touch of NOS and now no amount of brake pressure can avoid the crash. I am not even sure why they are playing out the "fiscal cliff" drama at this point other than to be able to say "we tried but failed" when mobs in the streets start calling for some heads. …Or, maybe the plan has been all along to turn this nation into 300 million (debt) slaves who will do anything for their next meal? Whatever the plan, many of the individual players were stupid or greedy, those "pulling the strings" knew what they were doing all along! PS I wrote this piece from the standpoint of government finances… I could have just as easily (probably easier) written it from the standpoint of individual finances and been even more tragic/comical.
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| Posted: 27 Dec 2012 08:14 AM PST After trading in the shadow of Wednesday's chart overnight and throughout the early morning, silver has just broken algo control with a vertical move to the upside. After breaking below $29.70 in early trading, silver has just shot up .80 nearly vertically to $30.59. Gold has also made a strong move to the upside, and [...] | ||||||||
| DMCC grants DGD accreditation to Al Etihad Gold refinery Posted: 27 Dec 2012 07:43 AM PST DMCC also concluded its Dubai Good Delivery ('DGD') renewal cycle for accredited refineries this month which now stands at 19 refineries across 13 countries represented. | ||||||||
| Gold Moves Remind Jim Sinclair of Late 1970s Action Posted: 27 Dec 2012 07:16 AM PST Mr. Gold offers a unique perspective on gold from the position of an old-timer who made a fortune from great timing. Past success does not guarantee future success but choosing your market guides on this basis is surely better than not doing so.  | ||||||||
| Precious Metals 'Under Pressure' Ahead of Year-End Posted: 27 Dec 2012 05:10 AM PST US dollar gold prices traded above $1,650 an ounce Thursday morning, in line with where they started the week, as the London market reopened following Christmas. Silver meantime hovered either side of $30 an ounce.  | ||||||||
| Nepal Gold sheds Rs 800 per tola in one week Posted: 27 Dec 2012 04:28 AM PST In early trade Thursday, gold became cheaper by Rs 200 per tola (11.664 grams) and was traded at Rs 58,300 per tola. | ||||||||
| Rohit Savant Expects Gold Bull to Pause in 2013 Posted: 27 Dec 2012 04:01 AM PST Many gold analysts are forecasting much higher gold prices in 2013 but the senior commodity analyst at the CPM Group says he believes all of the positive gold fundamentals, such as global turmoil, are already factored into the gold price.  | ||||||||
| Kimberley model Gold certification is still far away Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:57 AM PST However, they said gold business in Switzerland is very nontransparent as Swiss trade statistics do not tell you where the gold comes from that is imported to Switzerland. | ||||||||
| Eric Sprott: Why Are [Smart] Investors Buying So Much More Silver Than Gold? Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST ¤ Yesterday in Gold and SilverDecember 24th trading was pretty quiet in gold. The price rose to the $1,665 spot mark into the London open...and then slowly got sold off from there into an early New York close. It finished the trading day on Monday at $1,658.30 spot...and it was no surprise that volume was very light. I didn't even both writing it down. On Tuesday, gold got sold down the moment trading began at 6:00 p.m. in New York on Christmas Day/evening...but an hour later, 9:00 a.m. in Tokyo on their Wednesday morning, the bottom was in. The gold price made a rather slow recovery from there...but rallied as soon as the noon silver fix was in, in London...and was back to unchanged by the Comex open. At that point a serious buyer showed up...and the usual not-for-profit sellers appeared around 9:20 a.m. Eastern. If they'd waited until the 10:00 a.m. London p.m. gold fix, the gold price would have been a very large number by that time, as there were no legitimate short sellers in sight. Gold's high tick at 9:20 a.m. was $1,669.00 spot. After that, the gold price got sold down until about half past lunchtime in New York...and then traded sideways for the rest of the day. The gold price finished the Wednesday session at $1,659.40 spot...up $1.10 from Monday...and would have finished materially higher if allowed to, which it wasn't. Volume was fumes and vapours at around 55,000 contracts. It was pretty much the same story in silver on the day before Christmas. Silver's high tick on Monday came shortly after 9:00 a.m. in London...and then down it went, right along with the gold price, until 12:30 p.m. in New York. It recovered about a dime into an early close. In Wednesday trading, silver traded within a dime of it's Monday closing price right up until the noon silver fix in London...which turned out to be its low price tick over there. The subsequent rally continued right through the Comex open before running into the same set of not-for-profit sellers that gold did at 9:20 a.m. Eastern time The high tick of the day [$30.32 spot] came shortly after that...and it was, as they say, all down hill until about half past lunchtime in New York...the same as on Monday. The silver price made another rally attempt from there, but got sold off after 3:00 p.m. in electronic trading. Silver closed at $30.04...up twelve cents from Monday's close. Net volume was a puny 14,500 contracts. Despite some minor rallies and declines, the dollar index didn't do much. It closed on Friday at 79.53...and traded pretty close to that price on Monday, Tuesday...and yesterday. It's impossible to connect yesterday's currency activities to the rally/sell-off in gold and silver between 7:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Here's the 3-day dollar index chart... The HUI closed up 0.49% on Monday...and then added another 0.57% gain yesterday. Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up 0.43% on Monday...and closed up a tiny 0.04% yesterday. (Click on image to enlarge) The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 23 gold and 1 lonely silver contracts were posted for delivery on Friday within the Comex-approved depositories. The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV yesterday...and the U.S. Mint reported selling only 2,500 ounces of gold eagles. Over at the Comex-approved depositories they reported receiving 216,674 troy ounces of silver on Monday...and didn't ship any out. The link to that activity, such as it was, is here. On Saturday I posted a story about the new Valcambi 50 gram gold 'Combibar'. I heard back from a couple of readers on this issue over the weekend...Roger B. and Paul Laviers. Hi Ed...One of the bullion dealers I use, the Guernsey Mint, has recently started selling the Valcambi 50g Gold 'Combibar'. It's current price is £1,762.23, which I calculate to be a premium of around 7% on the current spot price...Paul. [A hair more than I was hoping/expecting, but not too bad. - Ed] I was just looking into these combibars, and have found that Valcambi also produce two silver combibars (10 x 10g) and (100 x 1g) and a palladium combibar (50 x 1g) as well as two Cook Islands CombiCoins...whatever they might be! All the details, including prices, are linked here. I have a fair number of stories saved up over the last five days...and that's the main reason for today's column. The other question remaining is, when these rallies get started, will JPMorgan et al go back on the short side? R.J. O'Brien's Senior Commodity Broker: Silver is His #1 Commodity Pick for 2013. Iraq boosts gold reserves by 25 tonnes. Don't Close the COMEX: Ted Butler...07 October 2003. In gold's own country -- Kerala, India ¤ Critical ReadsSubscribeU.S. Treasury to take steps to avoid borrowing limitThe U.S. Treasury Department will begin taking steps on Friday to delay hitting the government's $16.4 trillion borrowing limit on Dec. 31st. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders that the department will use accounting measures to save approximately $200 billion. That could keep the government from reaching the limit for about two months. The move comes as President Barack Obama and the GOP congressional leadership resume negotiations over how to avoid a series of tax increases and spending cuts, known as the "fiscal cliff," that are scheduled to take effect in the new year. Obama has sought to include an increase in the borrowing limit in any agreement to avoid the cliff. But Speaker John Boehner and other Republican leaders have demanded concessions in return. The negotiations hit a stalemate last week. Obama and lawmakers are returning to Washington this week to try again. This AP article was picked up by the finance.yahoo.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank Scott Pluschau for today's first story. The link is here.  ProPublica: Government Now Runs the US Mortgage MarketplaceThe American home mortgage market has, for all practical purposes, become nationalized since the 2008 financial meltdown, according to an analysis by ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism project. This item was posted on the moneynews.com Internet site last Friday...and it's courtesy of West Virginia reader Elliot Simon. The link is here.  MF Global Overseers Reach Accord Over ClaimsThe officials supervising the wind-down of MF Global's remains said on Saturday that they had reached a broad settlement over claims among the entities they oversee. The trustees representing the failed firm's main brokerage arm and its holding company, James W. Giddens and Louis J. Freeh, agreed to settle claims with the administrators of MF Global's London arm. The deal means that an estimated $500 million to $600 million will be returned to MF Global's brokerage unit, which has been paying back customers. Mr. Giddens had previously sought to take back about $700 million from the London unit. The CME Group should have made MF Global's customers whole the day after this happened, but didn't. This fits in nicely with the fact that the CME is up to their necks in the silver price management scheme as well. This article showed up on The New York Times website on Saturday...and I thank Phil Barlett for sending it. The link is here.  Chilling economic report strikes fear into CEOsOver an early-morning coffee with the chief executive of a FTSE 100 business last week, talk turned to the outlook for 2013. Where I had expected some guarded optimism, instead I heard a chilling analysis. The CEO said he had been reading a new paper from Boston Consulting Group headed "Ending the Era of Ponzi Finance". The lessons he had taken from it were miserable. [The report appears to be free, but you have to sign up for it. - Ed] The BCG study by Daniel Stelter which is doing the rounds of corporate C-suites does not pull its punches. In fact, its punches are really just a softening-up exercise for a barrage of kicks and painful blows aimed at anyone who thinks that kicking the can down the road is a suitable substitute for radical action. The West was not going to find its way to the right economic path with a little tweaking at the edges, the CEO said. What is needed is a wholesale overhaul of the economic system to tackle record levels of public and private debt. Was anyone brave enough to do it, he wondered aloud. This commentary, plus the link to the report, was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site late on Saturday evening BST...and it's courtesy of Nick Laird. The link to 'all of the above' is here.  Who Is François Hollande? Crisis Will Reveal French President's True ContoursIs French President François Hollande a reformer or a traditional leftist? He's a man who enjoys his role as France's leader, but many voters are asking themselves who it is they elected. He's a staunch opponent of Angela Merkel's austerity measures and has made combating them a priority. His true political agenda may only become apparent as the euro crisis continues. François Hollande has been speaking for two hours and 37 minutes, from his place at the podium in the grand ballroom of the Elysée Palace. It is mid-November, and this is the French president's first press conference since taking office. He hasn't yet even broken a sweat. Hollande evokes the economic situation in France in a dramatic tone and reports a laundry list of measures he is either considering or has already implemented. Then he answers the journalists' questions, all delivered in a deferential tone and some of them equally as flowery as the president's answers. At one point Hollande says, "And now I will answer another question no one has asked." He's allowed to do that. This is a fascinating moment for two reasons. For one thing, it shows how France's presidential democracy works. Hollande's press conference is not really a press conference, but rather a symbolic performance that demonstrates the president's authority. You couldn't make this stuff up. The story was from the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and the first of two in a row from Roy Stephens. The link is here.  Greece not doing enough to fight tax dodgers, say EU and IMFAthens has collected just half the tax debts and conducted less than half the audits it was supposed to under the targets set by its lenders, according to a survey by the country's international lenders which was compiled in November. The lenders urged Greece to improve tax collection and focus on the cases most likely to produce results. "Doctors and lawyers are a good place to start," they said. Tax evasion is endemic in Greece, making it more difficult for the government to shore up its finances under its €240bn international bailout. This story, which is worth skimming, was posted on The Telegraph's website early Monday afternoon local time and, as mentioned above, is the second of two in a row from Roy Stephens. The link is here.  Japan's incoming PM keeps up pressure on BOJ to attack deflationIncoming Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe kept up his calls on Tuesday for the Bank of Japan to drastically ease monetary policy by setting an inflation target of 2 percent, and repeated that he wants to tame the strong yen to help revive the economy. "We have advocated beating deflation, correcting the strong yen and achieving economic growth during the election, so we must restore a strong economy," he said, adding that the stagnant economy was also undermining Japan's diplomatic clout. Abe, a security hardliner was sworn in as premier on Wednesday...and he is also expected to appoint his cabinet, is prescribing a mix of aggressive monetary policy easing and big fiscal spending to beat deflation and rein in the strong yen. Print...or die! The disease is now terminal in the Western world. This Reuters story was filed from Tokyo on Christmas Day...and I found it in yesterday's edition of the King Report. The link is here.  | ||||||||
| R.J. O'Brien's Senior Commodity Broker: Silver is His #1 Commodity Pick for 2013 Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  Phil Streible spends a minute or so telling viewers why silver is his number one pick. But unspoken in this Bloomberg interview from December 24th is the fact that RJ O'Brien is an insider in the silver market. If they aren't part of the '5 through 8' silver traders on the Comex...they are certainly one of Ted Butler's raptors. I would be prepared to bet a few dollars that he's placing his bets on the basis of insider information...although he looks far to young to be a "senior analyst" of anything... ;-) | ||||||||
| In gold's own country -- Kerala, India Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  Lord Padmanabha, the presiding deity of Thiruvananthapuram, also known as Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, who is depicted as reclining on a gigantic snake, Anantha, suddenly went up in the estimation of his devotees recently, when it was discovered that he has an inestimable treasure of gold in his custody. | ||||||||
| Iraq boosts gold reserves by 25 tonnes Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  Iraq has joined the growing list of countries buying gold for their official reserves, purchasing more than 25 tonnes of the precious metal in the market to beef up the gold reserves of its central bank for the first time in years. The purchases by Baghdad come as Iran is using gold as a currency to settle import-export transactions with neighbouring countries, including Turkey. But Iraq has so far not disclosed any gold transaction with Tehran. Analysts said it was unclear whether the purchases showed dealings with Iran or were simply a sign that the Iraqi central bank is diversifying its foreign exchange reserves, as others in emerging countries have done recently. | ||||||||
| TF Metals Report: Ted Butler: Very Early Monday Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  It's going to be a while before I can write up a full new post so, with the current post pushing 40,000 views, I thought I'd better give you a new thread to chew on overnight. Following along with the previous post here at TFMR, Uncle Ted crafted these two paragraphs in his Weekly Review back on Saturday. Concise but with an added level of detail I failed to provide, these two paragraphs provide an essential background to the entire silver manipulation story. I hope that Uncle Ted doesn't mind. He's the patriarch of our movement and, as you know, I hold him in very high regard. I would strongly encourage you to consider subscribing to his site, especially at this critical moment in our history. | ||||||||
| Don't Close the COMEX: Ted Butler...07 October 2003 Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  As you can see from the above headline, this 'Close the Comex' issue is nothing new. And as I've said countless times, there's nothing about silver that hasn't already been advanced by Ted Butler long before I, or anyone else, could even dream this stuff up. Ted re-visited this issue within the last six weeks in one of his commentaries to his paying subscribers...and I've mentioned it a time or three in my own column over the years, but even these comments were based on what Ted had said almost a decade prior. Please keep this sort of thing in mind when you're reading the latest silver 'expert' out there. | ||||||||
| A forecast for a silver default on the Comex Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  Interviewed by Lars Schall for GoldSwitzerland, GoldMoney research director and economist Alasdair Macleod explains why he thinks the New York Commodities Exchange will default on its silver contracts and why central banks put themselves in great jeopardy when they start being candid about their gold reserves. Alasdair makes this grand statement about a Comex closure in silver...but then just leaves it lay there without further explanation...and I'll have more on that in the next story. This Macleod/Schall interview was posted on the goldswizerland.com Internet site on Saturday...and the link is here. | ||||||||
| GoldMoney's Turk gives outlook for gold from 2013-15 Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  In a video posted this week at GoldMoney's Internet site, GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk reviews and elaborates on the forecast for gold he made in Forbes magazine in 2003, explaining why he still thinks the gold price will reach $8,000 by 2015. Currency debasement, Turk notes, is both policy and compelling politics in the West, and the long-term charts he presents prove it. Turk's presentation is titled "James Turk's Outlook for Gold for 2013 to 2015". I borrowed 'all of the above' from a GATA release on Saturday...and the link is here. | ||||||||
| John Embry to preside at GATA fundraiser with Bob Bishop in Vancouver Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  Sprott Asset Management's chief investment strategist, John Embry, will be master of ceremonies for GATA's fundraising reception with retired newsletter writer Bob Bishop at the conclusion of the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference on Monday, January 21. Embry, known worldwide for his advocacy of ownership of the monetary metals and the companies that mine them, is a longtime GATA supporter and will be speaking during the Vancouver conference as well. Bishop, retired editor of the Gold Mining Stock Report newsletter, spoke at GATA's Washington conference in 2008 and his expertise long has been sought by thousands in the precious metals sector. | ||||||||
| Seven King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:16 AM PST  1. John Embry: "Catastrophic Loss of Confidence to Spike Gold & Silver". 2. Michael Pento: "Who Has Been Naughty or Nice & What to Expect in 2013". 3. Andrew Maguire: Audio interview Part One. 4. | ||||||||
| Miners Going Overseas for All that Glitters Posted: 27 Dec 2012 03:01 AM PST At every juncture, conversations among gold mining executives at the recent China Mining Conference in Tianjin turned toward a single topic: The quest for gold mines overseas... Read | ||||||||
| Gold slips again in Asian trade Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:32 AM PST Spot gold was seen trading at $1657.42 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while US gold was seen trading at $1658.39 an ounce on the comex division of nymex. | ||||||||
| Why are (Smart) Investors Buying 50 Times More Physical Silver than Gold? Posted: 27 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST Eric Sprott of Sprott Asset Management writes: As long-time students of precious metals investing, there are certain things we understand. One is that, historically, the availability ratio of silver to gold has had a direct influence on the price of the metals. The current availability ratio of physical silver to gold for investment purposes is approximately 3:1. So, why is it that investors are allocating their dollars to silver at a much higher ratio? What is it that these "smart" investors understand? Let's have a look at the numbers and see if it's time for investors to do as a wise man once said and "follow the money." Average annual gold mine production is approximately 80 million ounces, which together with an estimated average 50 million ounces of annual recycled gold, totals around 130 million ounces available per year. In comparison, annual mined silver production has averaged around 750 million ounces, while recycled silver is estimated at 250 million ounces per year, which adds up to approximately 1 billion ounces. Using this data, there is roughly 8 times more silver available to buy than there is gold. However, not all gold and silver is available for investment purposes, due to their use in industrial applications. It is estimated that for investment purposes (jewelry, bars and coins), the annual availability of gold is roughly 120 million ounces, and of silver it is 350 million ounces. Therefore, the ratio of physical silver availability to gold availability is 350/120, or ~3:1.1 Now, let's examine how investors are allocating their investments between gold and silver. The data below is from the US Mint showing gold and silver sales in ounces:
As you can see, investors are choosing to buy silver at a ratio to gold that is well above what is available. This uptrend doesn't show any signs of slowing either. The ratio of the physical silver to gold is both rising and extraordinarily above the availability ratio of 3:1. We can also use other data such as the most recent issues of the Sprott Physical Gold and Silver Trusts. The last Gold Trust issue in September 2012 raised US$393 million and the last Silver Trust issue raised US$310 million. On the basis of prices for each metal at the time of issue, we could purchase ~213 thousand ounces of gold and ~9.1 million ounces of silver. This represents a purchase ratio of 43:1. If we examine ETF holdings in both gold and silver, we note that in the period from 2007 to 2012, the increase in silver holdings amounted to 12,000 tonnes, compared to 1,200 tonnes of gold – meaning, investors purchased ten times more silver than gold. These are only three factual data points to consider, but there are other indications that silver investment demand is way out of line with availability. Our favourite question to the bullion dealers we meet, is to ask the ratio of their dollar sales in gold versus silver. The answer is that dollar sales are equal, which means that physical silver sales relative to gold are greater than 50:1. A recent news headline on Mineweb read, "Silver Sales to Outshine Gold in India.2" It went on to quote a bullion dealer that "investors and jewelry lovers prefer silver jewelry these days." As the largest importer of gold in the world, it would be impossible for India to purchase an equivalent amount of silver, as it would require more than one billion ounces, essentially more than the current annual mine production. While these last two confirmations of silver demand are anecdotal, the statistics from the US Mint, the ETFs, and our Physical Trust issues, are factual. For the time being, the silver price is essentially set in the paper market where the daily average trade on the Comex is approximately 300 million ounces. An outrageous number when you compare it to the daily mine production of about 2 million ounces. As Bart Chilton, Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission stated on October 26, 2010, "I believe there have been repeated attempts to influence prices in silver markets. There have been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control that price. Based on what I have been told and reviewed in publicly available documents, I believe violations to the Commodity Exchange Act have taken place in the silver market and any such violation of the law in this regard should be prosecuted."3 Which brings us back to the phrase "Follow the money." In our view, it is almost inconceivable that investors would allocate as many dollars to silver as they would to gold, but that is what the data shows. The silver investment market is very small. While the dollar value of gold in the world approaches $9 trillion, the value of silver in the forms of jewelry, coins, bars and silverware is estimated at around $150 billion (5 billion ounces at $30 per ounce). This is a ratio of 60:1 in dollar terms.4 How long can investors continue to buy silver at the current ratios when the availability for investment is only 3:1? We are surprised that the price of silver has remained at such a depressed level compared to gold. Historically, the price ratio between gold and silver has been 16:1, when both were currencies. Today the ratio is 55:1, so what are the numbers telling us? We believe this is one of those times when smart investors will be well rewarded to "Follow the money." On behalf of all of us at Sprott, I wish you safe and happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year. P.S. – US Mint Sold Out of Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Until January 7, 2013
December 26, 2012 (Source: Sprott Assest Management LP) | ||||||||
| Silver Prices & the Return of the Yen Carry Trade Posted: 26 Dec 2012 11:22 PM PST Silver traders are seeing prices move downward as a result of the expression of market structure. Nevertheless, that market structure and its macroeconomic backdrop is now changing, as the currency wars heat up once again as the world moves into a new year.  | ||||||||
| The January Effect and The Fiscal Cliff Posted: 26 Dec 2012 10:40 PM PST The year-end for 2012 has some unusual issues for stock market investors, especially those relating to the uncertainty regarding the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff is not an event that will cause the economy to implode (although it is doing quite nicely without any outside help). It is an event that can have profound effects | ||||||||
| Posted: 26 Dec 2012 10:16 PM PST The recent falls in the gold price are absolutely nothing to worry about for long-term investors who have a gold price target way off the present scale, and this is a repeat of the take down in gold that happened in the late 1970s just before the big price take-off, says the 70's gold king who made it all happen then. Jim Sinclair offers a unique perspective on gold from the position of an old-timer who made a fortune from great timing. Past success does not guarantee future success but choosing your market guides on this basis is surely better than not doing so. Mr. Gold 'I have seen this type of take down before,' says Mr. Sinclair in his latest missive.'It was just prior to the major move in gold in the 70s wherein gold rose the most over the shortest period of time. 'The operation of gold's price is not for a short to profits as its market character speaks of deep pockets only governments can have. I suspect that battle for the survival of the euro might soon be reversed into the battle for dollar survival. 'Euroland, Russia and Asia from central banks to connected financial entities have been buyers of gold. The tables have shifted. The signs of the new triumvirate being on the offensive sits right in front of us. 'This is the transition that I believe is at hand. This operation is from some mega interest not seeking to profit on a short, but to obtain the most gold possible for this market event which will play into 2015 to 2017.' Big macro picture Take the longer view and do not concentrate on short-term price volatility. People said gold was a spent force as it battled to get above $1,000 and fell back three times. Look where it sits only three years later, and that after the current price take down. You are playing a big macro economic game with gold, not making a trading investment. Silver is the same only saddle up for an even bumpier ride to even higher performance. The US dollar is going to be the next casualty in the global currency game, according to Mr. Sinclair… 'The first signs are definitively in that the long war conducted by the US and GB against the euro has been lost. The euro is in a new birthing process, against all odds, as rising into the category of reserve demand. Euroland and all the BRICs have been buyers of gold for reasons not motivated by emotion, but based on events yet to occur.' Gold of course is the ultimate insurance policy against a failing US dollar. |
What better way to kick off the New Year than with a juicy large-field poker tournament?
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