Precious Metals

Germans hoarding mountains of gold

"Like Scrooge McDuck or the dragon Smaug in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Germans are gathering vast quantities of gold - a study showed that the average German owns close to €6,000 worth of the shiny metal. Even though Europe's largest economy has weathered the world economic crisis relatively well, Germans have still been extra jittery about their savings, a study by the Steinbeis Research Center for Financial Services in Berlin revealed. Around 32 percent of the gold owned in Germany in the form of bars and coins was accumulated since the financial and economic crises began, the study concluded." Continue reading →

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An Afghan Mystery: Why Are Large Shipments of Gold Leaving the Country?

"Without knowledge of how much gold is leaving, it is impossible to calculate the value of the trade. But airport security forms that cover the last two weeks of October indicate about 560 pounds, worth about $14 million, were carried by hand out of Afghanistan during that period. That is a princely sum in one of the world’s 10 poorest countries. But it is perhaps a measure of the current state of affairs in Afghanistan that seemingly no one — not Afghan bank regulators, not American investigators of illicit financing, not European economic experts — found it particularly surprising that gold appears to have joined bank notes in the skies over Afghanistan." Continue reading →

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The 12 Gold Bugs of Christmas

"None of these parties think the gold bull market is over, nor the price too high. They recognize the implications of a world floating on fiat currencies, and that government 'solutions' to debt and deficit spending will significantly – perhaps catastrophically – dilute the value of currencies, the fallout of which has yet to materialize. As for me, I think that the longer the malaise continues, the more likely the breakout is to be both sudden and dramatic." Continue reading →

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Iran: Oil for gold deals bypass sanctions, US unveils new penalties

"The United States and European Union have imposed tough sanctions on Iran that have weakened its economy. But Tehran has found ways to bypass the penalties, such as Turkey's use of gold to pay for Iranian natural gas imports. The Menendez-Kirk measure would allow the president to impose sanctions in cases of the sale or transfer of precious metals, targeting efforts by Iran to circumvent the penalties." Continue reading →

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Montana lawmaker asks to be paid in gold

"A Montana state lawmaker is asking that he be paid in gold coins because of his lack of faith in the U.S. dollar amid a rising deficit. Jerry O’Neil, a Republican just reelected in his northern Montana district, says his constituents told him he was not honoring his duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution, which O’Neil and Gold Standard supporters say requires the government to print money backed by gold. So he wrote a letter to the state Legislature asking to be paid his public salary in gold. O’Neil said that he collects about $7,000 annually from the Montana Legislature." Continue reading →

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Detlev Schlichter: Some personal thoughts on surviving the monetary meltdown

"That government bonds are a safe investment can, of course, not be left a matter of simple opinion but has to be enshrined in the laws of the land, and the state’s rapidly expanding finance constabulary is already working on it. Via legislation and regulation, the state is busily building itself a captive investor base for its own debt. I fear that to a large degree this is even welcome by the asset management industry. In an unstable and increasingly uncertain world, being told what to buy lifts a great responsibility off one’s shoulders." Continue reading →

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Fed delays Basel III bank capital buffer rules

"U.S. regulators on Friday delayed the effective date of a global agreement on greater bank capital buffers reached in response to the financial crisis of 2008. The rule delay could help big banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who must ultimately comply with the rules, as well as smaller banks who also will have to meet the requirements. The largest 19 U.S. bank holding companies would have a capital shortfall of $50 billion, if the Basel III capital buffer rules proposed Thursday were to be made effective immediately, a Fed official said in June." Continue reading →

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Bank Of England To The Fed: “No Indication Should, Of Course, Be Given To The Bundesbank…”

"At least two central banks have conspired on at least one occasion to provide the Bundesbank with what both banks knew was 'bad delivery' gold amounting to 172 bars. The 'bad delivery' occured even as official gold refiners had warned that the quality of gold emanating from the US Assay Office was consistently below standard, and which both the BOE and the Fed were aware of. Instead of addressing the issue of declining gold quality and purity, the banks merely covered up the refiners' complaint." Continue reading →

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Bank Of England To The Fed: “No Indication Should, Of Course, Be Given To The Bundesbank…”

"At least two central banks have conspired on at least one occasion to provide the Bundesbank with what both banks knew was 'bad delivery' gold amounting to 172 bars. The 'bad delivery' occured even as official gold refiners had warned that the quality of gold emanating from the US Assay Office was consistently below standard, and which both the BOE and the Fed were aware of. Instead of addressing the issue of declining gold quality and purity, the banks merely covered up the refiners' complaint." Continue reading →

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Karl Denninger: Watch for Market Dislocations

"The big picture is this: We have all lived for the last 30 years in a world where we believe that the price of certain things will always go up – houses being one of them, stocks being another. We have also lived in a time when an insane amount of monetary inflation has taken place. Most people look at the Consumer Price Index or some other government-provided thing, or they look at M1 OR M2, the growth of the money supply, for example. But what you really ought to be looking at for the growth of the monetary base is the total amount of money and credit that is in the system, and add those two together. When you do that, you find a very ugly picture." Continue reading →

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