Monthly Archives: August 2013

As prices soar, Indians exchange gold for cash

"Jewellery associations in Hyderabad said with the single day surge of Rs 2,500, customers were coming in droves from early morning to take back cash in exchange for their gold jewellery. Already reeling under protests and strikes over the bifurcation issue, the sudden increase in gold price has come as a death blow to the jeweler shops in Seemandhra areas. Jeweler shop owners in Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada said their existence would be doubtful if the present stalemate continued any further. With gold prices increasing, enquiries for gold loans are also on the rise, said Nagaraju Rao, a manager with one of the outlets of Muthoot finance group." Continue reading →

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Guarding Kerala’s Great Temple Treasures

"How much is the treasure, which has been estimated at up to one trillion rupees ($19 billion), actually worth? 'We have no idea because the digital inventory is going on,' he says before giving a mini inventory of his own, listing the items he has seen in the vaults. Mr. Harikumar estimates that the inventory of Vault A will take another year to complete – it began in February, with 3D images taken of each artifact with equipment provided by state-owned Keltron, an electronics specialist. Five of the six chambers have been opened but Vault B remains closed after a submission to the Supreme Court from the Travancore royal family that said opening it could unleash a curse." Continue reading →

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Can Indian Temple Gold Help the Rupee?

"At a time when nothing seems to be able to stem the Indian rupee’s decline, a novel idea to boost the currency is doing the rounds: use the tons of gold stashed away in people’s homes and in temples. There is no firm estimate of how much gold is held by Indian temples, but it is believed to be several thousand tons. Jamal Mecklai said banks could pay interest for gold, and then sell a large portion of the stock in the domestic market. London Bullion Market Association Chairman David Gornall told The Hindu Business Line newspaper that the Reserve Bank of India could swap the 200 tons of gold that it had bought from the International Monetary fund in 2009, for dollars." Continue reading →

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India might buy gold from citizens to ease rupee crisis

"The RBI will ask the banks to buy back jewelry, bars and coins for rupees. Lenders will have to offer better rates than pawn shops and jewelers to lure sellers. Selling gold reserves may sit badly with Indians, many of whom saw the 1991 sale [of 67 tonnes gold] as a public humiliation. The secret operation was only exposed after a vehicle carrying the first consignment of bullion broke down on its way to the airport from the central bank. The rupee, the worst-performing emerging market currency in Asia this year, rebounded from a record low on Thursday after the RBI said it will provide dollars directly to state oil companies to shore up the currency." Continue reading →

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Marc Faber on Gold & Debt

"We have had a meaningful correction in gold. From $1921 in September 2011 to less than $1200 at the bottom is a fairly large correction. But in longer-term bull markets, these kinds of corrections do occur. We had a 40-50% correction in 1987 in equity markets. But the bull market lasted until the year 2000. Looking at the fundamentals, looking at how debt will continue to increase and how central banks will continue their monetization not only in the US but on a worldwide scale, I assume the price of gold will trend higher. Most likely we've seen the lows below $1200. Eventually we will be over $1921. The question is, Will it be this year or in five years? That I don't know." Continue reading →

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PM Volatility Masks Impending Rise In Metals And Miners: Don’t Sell Out

"During the 12-year PM bull market, gold has tracked the increase in the US debt ceiling. The break of the past 15 months closely resembles the 2008 correction in PM prices that occurred even as the debt ceiling got a massive lift, one that the current incumbency has increased. With the national debt nearly $7 trillion above the level of January 1, 2009, PM prices have resumed their secular rise, increasing 18% since the June 26 lows. It resembles the initial rise of PM prices early in 2009. If gold continues to approximate the rise of this debt as it has for twelve years, by 2016, it will hit $3500/oz." Continue reading →

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How to Hide Your Gold and Silver

"Taking physical delivery of your gold or silver is often the most rewarding part of the purchasing experience, as it gives you, the bullion investor, a fuller understanding of the real value of tangible monetary assets. Like many of our bullion customers, we typically choose to take physcial delivery first and then secondly store additional purchases of gold and silver at one of the many segregated gold vault and silver storage locations we offer. Because we are such proponents of taking physical delivery first, we have compiled a few creative storage solutions based on voluntary, anonymous, customer feedback." Continue reading →

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‘Robin Hood’ band of ‘left-wing activists’ nabs school supplies from shop

"A Robin Hood-style band of Spanish left-wing activists openly stole cart-loads of school supplies from a supermarket on Friday, promising to distribute them to needy children. More than 200 members of the Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (Andalusian Union of Workers) emerged from a Carrefour supermarket in the southern city of Seville pushing about 10 shopping carts brimming with exercise books, pens, felt-tips and dictionaries. They loaded the back-to-school supplies into vans and left. School materials 'expropriated' this time would be given to needy families in the next few days, the union said in a statement, describing it as a 'symbolic act for equal opportunity'." Continue reading →

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It’s Official: New OVDP program designed for Swiss Banks

"The U.S. is clearly on a mission to confiscate assets throughout the world. In the beginning, there was OVDP for individuals. Now we have OVDP for banks. Coming soon, OVDP for financial advisors. Soon, we will all become Whistleblowers. The solution to this is for the U.S. to simply absorb all the other sovereign nations of the world. Once we become one country, there will be no more 'offshore accounts'. But, how would fines be imposed then? Conclusion and message to U.S. citizens abroad … You better enter OVDP before your bank does!" Continue reading →

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How Do You Like Your Central Planners, Bookish or Flamboyant?

"I knew Yellen in grad school and have encountered Summers in person, and I agree fully with these characterizations. But the Economist’s editorialist misses entirely the bizarre, indeed grotesque, context of this discussion. The Fed is the world’s most powerful government economic planning organization and its decisions affect the lives and prosperity of millions, if not billions. All this will hinge on the personality of one person? How about a system in which authority is decentralized, power is limited, and nobody cares who calls himself 'Fed Chair'?" Continue reading →

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