Precious Metals

Capital Controls Rolling Into High Gear Under FATCA

"It isn't just affecting the most financially restricted people on Earth: US citizens... it is affecting everyone. Take myself, for example. I operate numerous businesses worldwide. I am a Canadian citizen as well as the citizen of a Caribbean country and our business operations are also operated out of a non-tax jurisdiction in the Caribbean. On top of that we hold no bank accounts, whatsoever, in the US... instead, we have bank accounts all over the world. Yet, in the last two months we have had our accounts or transactions frozen, denied or questioned in different jurisdictions at least ten times. And we have had countless other problems over the last two years." Continue reading →

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India easing gold import restrictions: Curb your enthusiasm

"Last week gold was boosted by news that the Reserve Bank of India is relaxing the much-maligned 80-20 import-export measure. Hopes that the measure could be fully phased out by October, ahead of the Diwali festival in October and the crucial gold-buying wedding season, has already seen the rupee price of gold drop to nine-month lows. Last month Rajesh Khosla, managing director of the country’s biggest refiner which is expanding capacity to 200 tonnes of gold per year, predicted the relaxation of the 80-20 rule, but added that 'while the form of restrictions may change, the government will continue to restrain buying.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndia easing gold import restrictions: Curb your enthusiasm

Barclays fined $44 million over gold price fixing

"A U.K. financial regulator has fined Barclays (BCS) $43.8 million after it accused a former trader at the bank of improperly influencing gold prices. The British bank will be fined £26 million ($43.8 million) for failures that allowed trader Daniel James Plunkett to exploit the weaknesses in Barclays' systems and controls to seek to influence the price of gold, which allowed the firm to 'profit at a customer's expense,' according to a news release. The fine was handed down by the Financial Conduct Authority. Separately, Plunkett was fined £95,600, or about $161,000." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBarclays fined $44 million over gold price fixing

Silver Fixing Company to Stop Running London Benchmark

"The company that runs the London silver fixing, a benchmark dating back more than a century, will stop running the process after Deutsche Bank AG said two weeks ago that it was dropping out of the price-setting ritual. The London Silver Market Fixing Ltd. will stop administering the fixing on Aug. 14, it said today in a statement. Regulators have been stepping up their scrutiny of how gold and silver prices are set in the wake of the London interbank offered rate-manipulation scandal. The FCA is visiting member banks involved in the gold fixing as part of its review of gold benchmarks. Deutsche Bank has said it is leaving fixings as it scales back its commodities business." Continue reading →

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Gold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months

"As per the report, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had filed 40 gold smuggling cases in the last year whereas it has increased to 148 cases in the past 12 months. The aggregate value of the seized illegal gold from 464 people in 2013-14 is estimated at Rs 245 crore. Most of the gold smugglers are arrested from the nation’s international airports. The customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said that they have nabbed 353 kg of gold worth at Rs 90 crore in this current financial year whereas it was 20-25 kg of gold in the last year. India had witnessed a dangerous increase of CAD to $88.2 billion which is about 4.7% of the country’s GDP in the year 2012-2013." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGold Smuggling in India Spikes 446% in Last 12 Months

Hidden Erosion of Corporate Worth Since U.S. Abandoned Money

"For 173 years, the United States used money as a medium of exchange. In 1965, it switched to using a floating accounting unit. This change coincided with a dramatic yet hidden reversal in the net trend of worth for U.S. corporations. The shift to fake money in 1965 just happens to coincide with the year that divides the long term trend of corporate worth in the United States from mostly up to mostly down. This chart reveals the breathtaking rise in total U.S. corporate worth during the money period and exposes the stunning net destruction of U.S. corporate worth since the start of the non-money period." Continue reading →

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Jeff Berwick: Bitcoin Is Equivalent to the Internet in 1993

"Perception of Bitcoin now is like of the Internet in 1993. Mt Gox, Tesla and the free market. US government pressuring foreign governments making it harder to get foreign citizenship. Staggering fraud in the banking sector and banker suicides. Crazy Keynsian thinking. Russia and China more free market than the West. Disaster brewing for the West. The move into precious metals stocks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJeff Berwick: Bitcoin Is Equivalent to the Internet in 1993

Ukraine’s Gold Reserves Secretly Flown Out by the New York Fed?

"The unconfirmed source quoted by Metal.com, says that the operation to airlift Ukraine’s gold had been ordered by the acting Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk with a view to safe-keeping Ukraine’s gold reserves at the NY Fed, against a possible Russian invasion which could lead to the confiscation of Ukraine’s gold reserves. The National Bank of Ukraine estimated Ukraine’s gold reserves in February to be worth $1.8 billion. According to William Kaye: 'That would amount to a very nice down payment to the $5 billion that Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland boasted that the U.S. has already spent in their efforts to destabilize Ukraine, and put in place their own unelected government.'" Continue reading →

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Gold Fix Study Shows Signs of Decade of Bank Manipulation

"The London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say. The paper is the first to raise the possibility that the five banks overseeing the century-old rate -- Barclays Plc, Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Societe Generale SA (GLE) -- may have been actively working together to manipulate the benchmark. Authorities around the world, already investigating the manipulation of benchmarks from interest rates to foreign exchange, are examining the $20 trillion gold market for signs of wrongdoing." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGold Fix Study Shows Signs of Decade of Bank Manipulation