Has the collapse begun? Is paper gold selling in a panic to buy physical?

[mamboni]

The paper prices of gold and silver appear to be in free fall collapse. This is far faster than even TPTB would want IMHO because it puts tremendous strain on the bullion supply and is disruptive to markets. I am now wondering: are paper gold and silver prices collapsing as large players panic out of paper and make a mad dash for physical bullion? Why are COMEX inventories suddenly dropping in a waterfall? Why are GLD shares being redeemed at such a rapid pace? I am past worrying about the prices of gold and silver vis-a-vis my physical holdings. I have a bed feeling about what is transpiring now. I sense panic and fear, and those are never good when they're associated with markets. What do you guys think: is this just a mid-70s style vicious correction or is the bottom falling out of the paper gold market in prelude to the big collapse as foretold by FOFOA?:|~

[osoab]

I think this is the Asian hangover from Friday.

[Spectrism]

The drop can be driven by emotion stimulated by manipulation- of course. It does not have to make much sense logically... or fundamentally. Roller-coasters are more fun when they have steep dives. Just don't have a heart attack from the G-forces.

[Large Sarge]

I think this is quite serious

this might be the final act of desperation


awhile back Richard maybury explained the fed policy, and inflation like this

like pushing on a string.

you get waves of deflation

then waves of inflation

there seems to be some issues worldwide with velocity of money, people are scared to spend, invest, etc their money

Cyprus theft, and Japanese monster QE are in some regards sending a message to savers, get out there and party like its 1999

have to see what happens, but primarily it is psychology, as the good dr mamboni pointed out

[Glass]

agreed, the velocity of money is the main issue. Debt has to be created faster than it is extinguished. Consumers are not doing this so the Govt has to step in. As the people are the source of all credit/energy they get stiffed with the debt regardless.

[Jewboo]

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/197125/thumbs/s-BERNANKE-large.jpg


Dr. Roberts: “This is an orchestration (the smash in gold). It’s been going on now from the beginning of April. Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance.

Then, a couple of days ago, Goldman Sachs announced there would be further departures from gold. So what they are trying to do is scare the individual investor out of bullion. Clearly there is something desperate going on….
“I have assumed from the beginning that it is the Fed’s concern with the dollar because the dollar is being printed in huge quantities at the same time that other countries are abandoning the use of the dollar as international payment.

The exchange value of the dollar is (being) threatened, and if that collapses the Fed loses control over interest rates. Then the bond market blows up, the stock market blows up, and the banks that are too big to fail, fail. So it’s an act of desperation because they’ve got to establish in people’s minds that the dollar is the only safe place, it is the only safe haven, not gold, not silver, and not other currencies.



Linky (http://www.globalresearch.ca/fed-orchestrated-smash-in-gold/5331174)

[woodman]

The drop can be driven by emotion stimulated by manipulation- of course. It does not have to make much sense logically... or fundamentally. Roller-coasters are more fun when they have steep dives. Just don't have a heart attack from the G-forces.


So true. What is going on with the metals prices is like a storm. Weather is created naturally or perhaps in this case they have been using their haarp machine. In any case there is turbulence. It is a hell of a ride but we are experiencing wind-sheer. Hold on to your seat. If you need the vomit bag, use it, but realize that the aircraft is sound and there is still plenty of space between the craft and the ground. What goes up can come down, but what is forced down, will spring back up. Now is a good time to buy if one has the money.

[Spectrism]

I would suggest keeping a fair portion of your powder dry for now. Cover your vital needs first. I think very few of us will survive past 3 years so the idea of holding wealth through this storm is a false dream. We are in times UNLIKE any that have gone before. Many will say there have been world wars and famines and depressions and great genocides. I say- true. But the size of what is being unleashed makes all that went before seem small. The gun control push and the grab for weapons to fight law-abiding citizens should be the only clue you need. They mean to snuff all voices of liberty.

[mamboni]

I think this is quite serious

this might be the final act of desperation


awhile back Richard maybury explained the fed policy, and inflation like this

like pushing on a string.

you get waves of deflation

then waves of inflation

there seems to be some issues worldwide with velocity of money, people are scared to spend, invest, etc their money

Cyprus theft, and Japanese monster QE are in some regards sending a message to savers, get out there and party like its 1999

have to see what happens, but primarily it is psychology, as the good dr mamboni pointed out

The vexing question for the individual is: where is it safe to park one's wealth? Cash? Stocks and Bonds? Gold? Real Estate?

The vast majority of people have not discovered gold as an option for capital allocation. This recent correction/collapse will either be seen as a major negative or a major opportunity. Faber thinks the latter. Time will tell.

[JDRock]

mamboni, im sticking with silver ,lead and gold. I honestly believe this IS the beginning....this will follow the ammo shortage. first, the gov hoarding ammo ( slv & gld) then when the sheep realize the gov's intent the panic buying begins ....but alas, supply will not be found. jmho

[Shami-Amourae]

Litecoins are one of the best investments now I think. Call me crazy, but that's just my opinion. I could be wrong, and it is a risky bet.

I also don't think you should park your wealth all in one place. Do a bit of everything. My biggest regret is having so much Silver and Gold, personally now I'd like to have more cash, but I wouldn't dare sell at these prices.

Seriously though, I know a lot of you guys think this Cryptocurrency stuff is nonsense, but the best time to buy usually is right after a crash. Prices have stabilized (so far) at about $100 a BTC. The ratio between Litecoins to Bitcoins has been going up approximately 3-8% a day, and I seem to be the only one noticing this trend. Even if prices with Litecoins stabilize, you get more Bitcoins everyday for your Litecoins.

[gunDriller]

The vexing question for the individual is: where is it safe to park one's wealth? Cash? Stocks and Bonds? Gold? Real Estate?

The vast majority of people have not discovered gold as an option for capital allocation. This recent correction/collapse will either be seen as a major negative or a major opportunity. Faber thinks the latter. Time will tell.


Rick Rule says he uses Gold as Cash.

sometimes his cash gets $1600 an ounce, sometimes, $1400 an ounce ... sometimes, $1700 an ounce.


a 1/10 ounce Gold Eagle makes a far better $100 bill than a $100 bill. it's prettier, it has intrinsic value, it takes up less room - and today it's still worth $140+.

[mamboni]

Rick Rule says he uses Gold as Cash.

sometimes his cash gets $1600 an ounce, sometimes, $1400 an ounce ... sometimes, $1700 an ounce.


a 1/10 ounce Gold Eagle makes a far better $100 bill than a $100 bill. it's prettier, it has intrinsic value, it takes up less room - and today it's still worth $140+.

Rick Rule is filthy rich. While I aspire to think of my wealth in gold grams and silver ounces, unfortunately the tax man only accepts FRNs. Gold and silver are weak versus the FRN, short term.

[Shami-Amourae]

Rick Rule is filthy rich. While I aspire to think of my wealth in gold grams and silver ounces, unfortunately the tax man only accepts FRNs. Gold and silver are weak versus the FRN, short term.

Dunno if this is relevant, but saw it earlier today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuwWWQwGWNY

[mamboni]

Dunno if this is relevant, but saw it earlier today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuwWWQwGWNY

Good interview - Rick Rule is very wise and has an iron investment back.

Take away pearls: what's your alternative to holding physical gold? Treasuries? Yen? Yuan?
You hold gold for the long term based on the fundamentals which will prevail in the end.
Silver is like gold except supplies are very tight (draw your own conclusions).
Whether the system ends in deflationary collapse or hyperinflationary collapse you want to be holding physical gold (and silver).

Bottom line: sit tight or accumulate more, be patient, remain resolved and have faith in the fundmentals.

[Twisted Titan]

If i have a 100 grand i would break it into thirds

35k in physical cash in multiple denominations. nothing above 50 dollars because most wont beable to make change.

33 in Phyisical silver preferabally in mercury dimes because the premium is absolutely a pittance.

33 in tangible assests. this is the most difficult to cover because where does one start. Look around your house and start to purchase the most useful things and items that keep you comfortable and sanitary

But if i was sitting on a massive insurance check for example I would definately want Physical cash and physical hard currency both in my hand because we now have indisputable proof just how fast you can wake up stark naked.

[Spectrism]

100K? First, consider that the controllers are planning to usher in a new currency system. Cash will become worthless soon. Right now, however, cash will be king for a day. It will be useful when nobody else has any to spend. You will need to be able to swoop in on bargains and haul them away lightning fast. At some point, the cash will be shut off.

I could spend $30k on a long term solar power system alone. I could spend another $10k on food. And another $10 on weapons & ammo.

What is left in cash would be ready to scarf up super deals with the intent of having no more cash than is needed for emergencies and bills to cover the next 3 years. Part of that would be things you could barter with. Extra food, coffee, hardware, energy services, etc.

[Twisted Titan]

I fully agree with your assement.

I just find myself day dreaming about a large sum of "money" like that and how quickly i could make it dissapear on useful goods

[Uncle Salty]

When gold and silver stop bidding for dollars, the paper price crashes and then the paper markets crash and then the price and value become one. We are almost there.

[Atocha]

Buy Low, sell high. With all the countries and banks buying tons of gold, I would not be surprised if the price is being squashed so more gold can be bought for less dollars/euros. Hold what you got and buy more if you can.

Time is working against the American Dollar as is with all currencies. It is only a matter of time before another adjustment comes but in higher gold and silver prices.

I remember what the Ex-Fed Chairman Greenspan said. Something like, "I can print all the dollars you want but I can't guarantee they will buy anything. I take this also to mean. I can print all the dollars you want but I can not guarantee you will be able to buy gold or silver with it.

Everyone is rushing into the dollar from euros and such. I have a friend in Argentina that immediately converts his Argentinian money into dollars...or gold.

They want people to panic sell. Then big money comes in and buys everything up...and then boom...Price moves higher.

I am somewhat flabbergasted that the law of supply and demand is not affecting metal prices as they should in a supply and demand market.

The metals market is deliberately being squashed. It won't last for long.

[mamboni]

Buy Low, sell high. With all the countries and banks buying tons of gold, I would not be surprised if the price is being squashed so more gold can be bought for less dollars/euros. Hold what you got and buy more if you can.

Time is working against the American Dollar as is with all currencies. It is only a matter of time before another adjustment comes but in higher gold and silver prices.

I remember what the Ex-Fed Chairman Greenspan said. Something like, "I can print all the dollars you want but I can't guarantee they will buy anything. I take this also to mean. I can print all the dollars you want but I can not guarantee you will be able to buy gold or silver with it.

Everyone is rushing into the dollar from euros and such. I have a friend in Argentina that immediately converts his Argentinian money into dollars...or gold.

They want people to panic sell. Then big money comes in and buys everything up...and then boom...Price moves higher.

I am somewhat flabbergasted that the law of supply and demand is not affecting metal prices as they should in a supply and demand market.

The metals market is deliberately being squashed. It won't last for long.

Yes, your words ring of truth. But why punish the monkey (silver) and let the organ grinder go (gold)?

[osoab]

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2013/04/20130415_whosbuying_0.jpg

[Spectrism]

I fully agree with your assement.

I just find myself day dreaming about a large sum of "money" like that and how quickly i could make it dissapear on useful goods

I wish I could help you make dreams become reality. It would be a fun adventure.

[Spectrism]

When gold and silver stop bidding for dollars, the paper price crashes and then the paper markets crash and then the price and value become one. We are almost there.


I think the other way around.... the paper price skyrockets. There won't be enough worthless paper for an ounce of gold. You are right in your viewpoint- but are gold & silver really bidding for dollars or is it the money managers pretending they are? Since there is no physical metal to tie to the bids, I think the game is all fake at this point. They will convey so many tons of metals to keep up appearances, but they are keen to buy off demand with excess paper profits when supplies are showing too lean.

[Large Sarge]

gold VIX at record levels (pre-lehman),
something huge has broken


seriously

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-15/golds-vix-term-structure-most-inverted-lehman

[JDRock]

Things we KNOW : powerful forces are working in concert with the enemies of freedom to make it APPEAR that pm's are suddenly worth LESS than they were a few days ago. and, even they are unable to do this with actually buying or selling actual pm's so, just like the newsmedia they shuffle paper,print lies, and watch the sheep panic in their little pens. I am not panicing not selling not changing my plan of converting worthless paper to eternally valuable silver.

[Atocha]

Yes, your words ring of truth. But why punish the monkey (silver) and let the organ grinder go (gold)?

That is the million dollar question. Things do not make sense sometimes. Perhaps the powers that be do not want people to be independent. In fact I know they don't.

Gold, Silver, Beans and Bullets. I have seen what they have done to the ammo supply, I see what they are doing to gold and silver. Will food be next?

Water eventually finds its level. There is to much sloshing right now.

Instead of confiscation, which is hard to do, make the people panic and they themselves will sell it. I am not going to panic.

Damn the torpedoes...Full steam ahead.

[Atocha]

Agree! From what I understand, it is not necessarily that Gold or Silver is worth less BUT the dollar is stronger or weaker.

With the deficit in the TRILLIONS or maybe QUADRILLIONS, a sane person can not tell me that the pieces of paper backed by the American Taxpayer are worth more than a tangible item. The American Taxpayer is quickly becoming extinct. They are just moving digits on spreadsheet columns making the appearance that gold and silver has no value. It is a lie.

[Large Sarge]

so maybe they are getting rid of all their short positions, to let the metals run, about a week ago Sinclair said there was a shift in the market


they would need 1 final plow down to unwind all those positions,

[mamboni]

Jim Willie explains it all:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5rZlkoDZKQ&feature=player_embedded

[Kali]

The market makers have been doing this since the beginning.

They make their big bucks by making things go up and down. They bet both ways, and move the market right where they want it.

They will bet it going up soon and make another killing.

It has nothing to do with how much physical silver you and I buy or how hard it is for us to find any.

I say this every time people try to figure out wtf is going on.

Like I always do, I will buy in on the major dips and continue to all the way down, wherever that point is.

Then when *they* raise it back up I will sell most of it.

Play the game with them and make some money yo!!!

[mamboni]

I think Holter is dead on correct. All of us suffer from some degree of normalcy bias. We've been hearing predictions of a COMEX default and closing of the physical gold and silver window for years and it hasn't happened. We think it never will happen. Holter is predicting that the event is imminent. Once it happens, and the realization sinks in, it will be too late. The good news is that if you already hold physical then you covered and insured!


Force Majeure Was the End Game All Along! (http://blog.milesfranklin.com/force-majeure-was-the-end-game-all-along)

Author : Bill Holter
Published: April 15th, 2013
Tweet (http://twitter.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.milesfranklin.com%2Ffo rce-majeure-was-the-end-game-all-along&text=Force%20Majeure%20Was%20the%20End%20Game%20Al l%20Along%21%20via%20%40MilesFranklinCo&related=&lang=en&count=horizontal&counturl=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.milesfranklin.com%2Ffor ce-majeure-was-the-end-game-all-along)



Last week Barrick Resources announced the postponement of their giant Pascua Lama mine. This was to be one of the worlds largest mines and is now tied up in litigation over true ownership as it appears to show that Barrick does not have clear title. The probable reserves were nearly 18 million ounces of gold and almost 700 million ounces of silver. Work on this mine was completely ceased last Wednesday.


Last Wednesday was also an important day for the Kennecott copper mine in Utah, the ground started to shift more rapidly prior to this weekend’s landslide. They knew this was coming as they closed the visitor center on April 1st and had all equipment and personnel out of harms way. This mine produces some 400,000 ounces of gold and over 3 million ounces of silver as a by product of copper. This is the largest copper mine on the planet. Have you heard even a peep out of the mainstream media on this on? I didn’t think so.


Is it not strange that these two events came to a head last Wednesday? The same day that out of nowhere gold reversed from being up and give up $40? And then of course there was Friday with $85 and another $75 this morning. gold is now down $200 per ounce in just over 3 trading days. Between these two projects, one not coming online and the other going off line, a VERY significant amount of production is not going to happen. Does this make sense? Did you not learn in school that “less” supply meant higher prices? In the real world?


We don’t live in “the real world”, we live in a world where everything financial is manipulated. Here is what I see happening. They knew that this mine was going to collapse and the production would stop. Then the ruling on the Pascua Lama mine was sent down. Last Thursday president Obama met with 15 heads of the biggest banks and brokers in the country, THIS was discussed as sure as the sun came up this morning: we have hit the bottom of the barrel! Reserves that could be fed into the market are and have dried up at the same time that production has dropped and future production delayed. The paper game is blowing up …RIGHT NOW and the topic of discussion at the White House was about “how it would play out.”


The COMEX will default in the next week or several weeks and people will be “settled” with dollars, no more metal will be delivered! So, knowing that “game over” has arrived, they are dumping a massive volume of paper contracts with impunity to push the metals prices as low as possible before the “default.” This way the “shorts” do not have to and will not be “covered” when “supply” cannot be obtained because of “an act of God.” They will be settled in cash (at a profit no less) because these “unforeseen” disruptions in supply. “Who could have seen it coming?” will be the mantra. I would suspect that banking stress and “bail ins” will also become prevalent globally. The pricing structure will now push any and all physical sellers away from the markets and the “door” to safety is effectively being shut. Either you own metal or you don’t.


I tried to “be nice” in my piece from last night talking to those who worry about price. What is now happening is exactly what I spoke of. You must count ounces because “availability” is going away right here and right now! After the closure of the COMEX and LBMA doors there will be no availability and “price” will be meaningless. Your ability to protect yourself is right now for all intents and purposes being eliminated.


We received a few (very few) angry letters from customers who say that Jim Sinclair, Mr. Sprott and Embry, James Turk and others including myself are and were wrong. That we should hang our heads in shame and that we are nothing more than charlatans hawking gold and silver. We will soon, very soon, see just how right or wrong we really are. What is happening right now is very clear to me, what I don’t understand is how anyone could miss this as it has all been laid out for you to see (for years now), understand and prepare for. Life, all of life as we knew it, is about to change forever. Hopefully you understood this and have already prepared for it!

[vacuum]

because these “unforeseen” disruptions in supply

http://silverdoctors.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/silver-mine.jpg

[mick silver]

first they came for are guns then they came for are gold and silver ... so whats next the food and water our bodys need so we can live

[Uncle Salty]

To be living in times when the Comex and LBMA go belly up is perhaps one of the coolest things ever...if you hold physical.

This beat down must be the canary in the coal mine. No other rational explanation is possible. Printing to infinity and gold is more in demand than ever. Yep, its price should be crashing.

[mamboni]

Certainly, JPMorgan and the other crooked commercials have bought super-aggressively in gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium and crude oil on Friday and previously. It is clear that this buying has set the stage for the coming resolution to the upside. When, not if, that rally commences the question will be how aggressively the commercials sell and specifically, how much, if any, does JPMorgan add to silver short positions. Considering that JPMorgan and the commercials are now better positioned in gold, silver and copper for a significant price advance than at any time I can recall in the past, it would not be surprising for the coming upturn to develop into the big one in silver.


-Ted Butler, ButlerResearch.com (http://www.butlerresearch.com/)



John Paulson (who's made a huge $1.5Bn loss so far) said that his position is unchanged and he's sticking with his commitment to gold.

[Spectrism]

All I can figure is that there are worries about SPain, Italy, Portugal and Greece having to sell their gold to pay off debts. AND, there are banksters with short positions that need to be covered with much cheaper PM prices. They started a stampede to run the buffalo off the cliff. It sure is easier getting the whole herd to commit suicide.

[mamboni]

All I can figure is that there are worries about SPain, Italy, Portugal and Greece having to sell their gold to pay off debts. AND, there are banksters with short positions that need to be covered with much cheaper PM prices. They started a stampede to run the buffalo off the cliff. It sure is easier getting the whole herd to commit suicide.

See my post just prior to yours. I've been readings voraciously and thinking on the info available and the different perspectives of the experts. Here's the big picture (I think):

1. I think Japan's BOJ was the trigger. With their massive QE announced, the yen started falling and the gold price in yen started going parabolic.
2. The big boys saw Japan and said: "this thing is ripe, if not Japan now it'd be someone else later. Time to bust gold, rotate out of shorts and go long, and free up some physical to keep China and Russia at bay."
3. A lot of the gold price rise in the last 2 years was leveraged money. These longs were asking for a beating. As Sinclair warned many times: do not buy gold with leverage - that's their game and they will eviscerate.
4. FED initiates operation Fuck-Auric last week, instructs traders to sell massive gold shorts, triggering margin account stops all the way down, cascading gold down. Pressure continues on Monday as margin calls add fuel to the gold fire. Gold buyers in Japan lose all gains prior to Abe QE announcement as USD/JPY carry reverses and golfd price in Yen turns negative, stopping the parabolic rally in it's infancy.
5. Central bankers come in to grab some physical bullion. FED bankers and big commericals unwind massive gold shorts and go massively long gold while speculators buy their shorts - suckers! They're picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. They will be flattened when gold turns higher.
6. Collateral damage to physical market acceptable - only a tiny amount of folk have the smarts to be buying physical or not selling out of their longs. The big gold moves are being controlled by the soveriegns and their agents, the bullion banks.

I think we will hit bottom very soon. Much lower prices put too great a strain on the bullion banks and risk a COMEX/LBMA default. Then again, that may be the plan all along. If that happened, the big winners would be China and Russia, because I don't think the FED has anywhere near the 8,000 tons they claim. Even if they do, with everyone happy with their allotments of gold, the reset can begin: COMEX/LBMA defaults, all physical gold sales stop, paper gold price vaporizers, and physical gold price skyrockets. Dollar is effectively devalued by 50% or more.

Anyway, I'd appreciate other ideas on this, to flesh it out. We are still not certain of who's behind this and why: what is the endgame here?

[mick silver]

Stock Markets Up, Gold Down – Is Something Wrong With This Picture?

[Spectrism]

I think you have some good angles on this Dr M. I can tell you the end of the game.... so the end game can be figured out. The end of the game looks like this:

One massively evil narcissistic bastard ruling the world with a money system that controls every facet of life.

The end of the end of the game comes very quickly after this but as the throes of trama experienced during childbirth, we will be thrust to and fro with pressures eventually forcing us into a new world beyond the new world order.


To usher in this new world order, the baby must be birthed by pain and pressure. The cold and bright reception must become better than the dark warm and comforting environment we now have. Pain and pressure will drive the simpletons onward and those too simple will be euthanized on the march. A large part of that experience includes removing all wealth from the commoners.




Stock Markets Up, Gold Down – Is Something Wrong With This Picture?


Yeup... surreal. But those who think their wealth is protected in those accounts will be shocked to see it vanish. Wealth- if it can be seen it can be wanted; if it can be wanted, it can be stolen. The controllers will not be denied their worldly rewards.

[mamboni]

Excellent analysis and guidance from David McAlvany:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uWrUDBvtBI&feature=player_embedded

[vacuum]

Is it time to buy?

[Hitch]

Is it time to buy?

I bought SLV and GLD. Don't hang me yet folks...it was digits in my IRA and roth IRA.

I don't have the cash on hand to buy physical now unfortunately. Go SLV!!

[Cebu_4_2]

I bought SLV and GLD. Don't hang me yet folks...it was digits in my IRA and roth IRA.

I don't have the cash on hand to buy physical now unfortunately. Go SLV!!

For what it is I think this is as good a time as any to get on board.

[Hitch]

For what it is I think this is as good a time as any to get on board.

I don't know what else to do with my IRA and Roth IRA.

Seems like SLV and GLD right now might be the best gamble. I know the IRA's can go poof, and be taken, it's all gambling in this market. Heck, Cyprus showed us any money in the bank is gambling, we inherit the risk, of the bank, just by having our money in the account.

What a scam. If I put my money in the bank, at a .05 interest rate, how is it fair I share the risk of the banks bad decisions? I should instead buy bank stock, and at least get some return on that investment.

Folks should not have bank accounts, they should own bank stocks instead. At least, the greedy bonus they chase can increase the stock price a little.

[Jewboo]

Good interview - Rick Rule is very wise and has an iron investment back.



Note the following... about Rick Rule...
1) He does not believe in any manipulation or conspiracy. The world is normal according to Rick.
2) Gold and Silver price take-down is a non-event. Despite Merrill-Lynch selling over 400 Tons and others adding to the sale in the space of only a few hours, we know who did it!
3) AT THE 8 MINUTE MARK NOTICE THE MASSIVE FREUDIAN SLIP!!!
4) Notice how smug and how he is constantly smirking, he's actually laughing at gold and silver investors.
5) Rick has a long track history of "predictions" that are all wrong! But in this video he claims NOT to make predictions when he always does! In this video LINK (http://video.tvguide.com/Money/Gold+Poised+to+Bounce+Rick+Rule/18761858?primary=&primaryvalue=The%20Fundamentals), he claims that gold will bounce.
See HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cUAYhDdjYGY) and read the comments below like... "Rudy S 3 months ago Rick Rule has had so many BNN Top Picks become dogs, it's not even funny. I trust this guys opinion as far as I can throw him." and " thesheeeet 1 month ago google stockchase rick rule expert and look at his picks picked over a number of years. I don't see where you come up with your conclusion."

Funny at the same time, a "charitable foundation" of Eric Sprott sells off Silver too.

Haha, people are now realising TPTB in charge mean business and this includes in gold and silver markets. They've been wondering if it was a set up and now it's dawning on them what they are up against. I think people really believed that they could win against them so easily...

Even David Morgan's latest Propaganda piece "co-incidentally" coincided with the price take-down.

Is the price an opportunity? I hope so.

Linky (http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthread.php?44879-Is-the-NWO-a-Jewish-Agenda-%28the-thread-that-took-GIM-down%29&p=529471&viewfull=1#post529471)

???

[mamboni]

I bought SLV and GLD. Don't hang me yet folks...it was digits in my IRA and roth IRA.

I don't have the cash on hand to buy physical now unfortunately. Go SLV!!

Sell SLV and GLD and convert to CEF. The former are tools being used by the bankers to short the metals and crash gold and silver. SLV and GLD are metals slush funds for the manipulators. If you have to hold paper (and I do), then buy CEF. It is fully backed by physical gold and silver bullion and the trust is held in Canada. Paul Craig Roberts has mentioned CEF repeatedly though was careful never to specifically recommend it. You must read between the lines.

[mamboni]

Posted April 15th, 2013 by Jim Sinclair (http://www.jsmineset.com/author/jimsinclair/) & filed under General Editorial (http://www.jsmineset.com/category/generaleditorial/).


My Dear Extended Family,

I deeply appreciate the many kind emails today.

I have no doubt that gold will perform to the levels we have anticipated. The action in this market has been the product of two firms that act as gold banks selling paper in amounts that exceed any imaginable long position. The means of the sales have been vicious and clearly intended to depress the price.

Personally, I am horrified that markets are in the hands of such people, but more so that I did not fully appreciate how disorderly they would act in markets that now have no rules for the Banksters. For this I offer my heartfelt apology.

You and your financial affairs are precious to me. I feel your pain. Your positions, and mine are on the same side.

There is no doubt whatsoever that gold will perform exactly as we expect now to enrich the Banksters, just as it occurred in the 1970s bull market.


Sincerely,
Jim

[Hypertiger]

April 15 is Tax day.

The top lives off the yield from the bottom.

The top does all the buying and selling...The bottom follows along and speculates.

The master elploys the slaves to supply all teh power to the top wholesale...teh top then marks it up and sells it to the bottom retail.

the difference between the wholesale cost and the retail price is the tax the master lives off of.

The yield...the Profit...the Interest...etc.

Usury.

Or taking more than you give.

The top grows richer in power by taking more power than they give from the bottom while the bottom grows poorer in power by giving more power than they take from the top.

If the growth rate is 5% and you tax away 4%...that leaves 1% numbers are green.

but if the growth rate is 3% and you tax 4%...that leaves -1% numbers are red.

red numbers on tax day means taxes have gone up significantly.

Remember cyprus?

That was a tax operation...in the blink of an eye taxes by the top were raised to the point that people's hopes and dream's for the future were blown out like a candle.

[mamboni]

Note the following... about Rick Rule...
1) He does not believe in any manipulation or conspiracy. The world is normal according to Rick.
2) Gold and Silver price take-down is a non-event. Despite Merrill-Lynch selling over 400 Tons and others adding to the sale in the space of only a few hours, we know who did it!
3) AT THE 8 MINUTE MARK NOTICE THE MASSIVE FREUDIAN SLIP!!!
4) Notice how smug and how he is constantly smirking, he's actually laughing at gold and silver investors.
5) Rick has a long track history of "predictions" that are all wrong! But in this video he claims NOT to make predictions when he always does! In this video LINK (http://video.tvguide.com/Money/Gold+Poised+to+Bounce+Rick+Rule/18761858?primary=&primaryvalue=The%20Fundamentals), he claims that gold will bounce.
See HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cUAYhDdjYGY) and read the comments below like... "Rudy S 3 months ago Rick Rule has had so many BNN Top Picks become dogs, it's not even funny. I trust this guys opinion as far as I can throw him." and " thesheeeet 1 month ago google stockchase rick rule expert and look at his picks picked over a number of years. I don't see where you come up with your conclusion."

Funny at the same time, a "charitable foundation" of Eric Sprott sells off Silver too.

Haha, people are now realising TPTB in charge mean business and this includes in gold and silver markets. They've been wondering if it was a set up and now it's dawning on them what they are up against. I think people really believed that they could win against them so easily...

Even David Morgan's latest Propaganda piece "co-incidentally" coincided with the price take-down.

Is the price an opportunity? I hope so.

Linky (http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthread.php?44879-Is-the-NWO-a-Jewish-Agenda-%28the-thread-that-took-GIM-down%29&p=529471&viewfull=1#post529471)

???

What "MASSIVE" Freudian slip?

So gold and silver are a scam? Fine. I'll buy your premise for the moment. SO, what is your alternative?

[mamboni]

April 15 is Tax day.

The top lives off the yield from the bottom.

The top does all the buying and selling...The bottom follows along and speculates.

The master elploys the slaves to supply all teh power to the top wholesale...teh top then marks it up and sells it to the bottom retail.

the difference between the wholesale cost and the retail price is the tax the master lives off of.

The yield...the Profit...the Interest...etc.

Usury.

Or taking more than you give.

The top grows richer in power by taking more power than they give from the bottom while the bottom grows poorer in power by giving more power than they take from the top.

If the growth rate is 5% and you tax away 4%...that leaves 1% numbers are green.

but if the growth rate is 3% and you tax 4%...that leaves -1% numbers are red.

red numbers on tax day means taxes have gone up significantly.

Remember cyprus?

That was a tax operation...in the blink of an eye taxes by the top were raised to the point that people's hopes and dream's for the future were blown out like a candle.

OK, we get it. Where are you going with this?

[mamboni]

With massive selling once again in the gold and silver markets, today whistleblower Andrew Maguire told King World News the reason for the recent takedown in gold and silver was because of an imminent LBMA default. Here is what Maguire had to say in part II of this remarkable and exclusive interview.

Maguire: “Gold and silver only have this type of selling when there are extreme shortages of the physical metal. I am totally aware that before this takedown occurred there was an imminent LBMA default.


We had already seen COMEX inventories plunging. In 90 days COMEX inventories saw an incredible decline. So immediately available physical gold was disappearing. People around the world don’t understand what has been happening since Cyprus....


“Entities went to the LBMA and said, ‘We don’t trust anybody anymore. We want our physical metal.’ They were told they would be cash settled instead by a bullion bank. The Western governments have been trying to plug holes, and the reason for it has to do with the default that was taking place at the LBMA.


This is why this smash has been orchestrated because of the run that has been taking place on physical metal. So Western governments had to do this because of an imminent run on the unallocated LBMA system. The LBMA bullion banks had become so mismatched at one point on their trading positions vs real world demand that they had to orchestrate this smash.
This orchestrated smash in gold and silver was nothing short of a bailout for the bullion banks. So there is a run on physical gold that is taking place and the Ponzi scheme the West is running is being threatened because of it.”


Maguire also added: “We are nearing the end of this decline. Physical demand is already beginning to catch up with leveraged paper. If gold were to trade into the low $1,300s it would be unsustainable for very long.”


http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/4/15_Maguire_-_LBMA_Default_Triggered_Gold_%26_Silver_Takedown.h tml

[irmatvep]

mamboni

I've read most of your comments and would like your opinion. How much of a role do you think Russia and China are playing in the current financial collapse and do you see this as being a battle between capitalism and communism?

[osoab]

mamboni

I've read most of your comments and would like your opinion. How much of a role do you think Russia and China are playing in the current financial collapse and do you see this as being a battle between capitalism and communism?

You can't have communism without capitalism. Both created by the same group.

[irmatvep]

You can't have communism without capitalism. Both created by the same group.

I realize that both systems were created by the same vultures. However, what we are witnessing now is the death throes of capitalism. In my humble opinion, I believe that Communism (even though the brainchild of same criminals) was always intended to be the ultimate victor. Even though the world has never truly enjoyed free market capitalism there has never been any other economic system in which the majority of people were allowed to keep most of the fruits of their labor. Indeed many people were able to become very wealthy and creativity flourished. However under Communism it's the exact opposite. Only the ruling elites who are comparatively few in number own and control most of the wealth and resources. The majority of the people are reduced to miserable serfdom. I think this was always the plan of those who own and control the worlds banking system. These evil men only allowed capitalism to exist long enough to enable all the great advances in technology and wealth accumulation. It was their plan from the very beginning. As soon as these goals were achieved they would swoop down like the greedy vultures that they are and rob every honest hard working person of all they possessed. At least this is the way I see things.

It's no secret that Russia and their partner China along with all their other allies hate the West, particularly America and that they are working diligently toward our destruction. Russia in particular resents us because they are no longer a super power and they can't wait for us to be completely stripped of all power so that they can reign supreme. I also believe that Russia is only using China to achieve this end and that as soon as they are no longer necessary they will flush them down the toilet like a turd. It's also no secret that the collapse of the Communism in 1991 was a total sham designed to lull the idiots in the West to sleep and to convince them that Communism is dead and no longer poses a threat. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was all a big lie! All the evidence is there for anyone interested in learning the truth. The KGB had been working out all the details of this plot as early as 1956. The Communists know that they are no match against us and that they will never defeat us honestly. That is why they resort to such tactics as infiltration and subversion. They excel at these things. America has been infiltrated for decades by Communists and now they are in control of every aspect of our society. Joe McCarthy was right. Unfortunately he was silenced. If anyone doubts this all they need do in order to be convinced of the truth of what I'm says is to study the 45 goals of Communism. We've had what Lenin termed "useful idiots" serving as presidents who've allowed the Commies to steal our military technology right under our noses. The current occupant of the WH is doing all in his power to weaken us even further. Our military is being dismantled, our stockpile of nuclear weapons, our only means of preservation, is being reduced. Obama wants to cut our stockpile of nuclear weapons to 300. Our military is being stretched beyond the breaking point by our involvement in all these foreign wars which do not benefit us in the least. Isn't that the whole purpose our enemies intend? America is literally being bankrupted by these wars and eventually we will become so demoralized and weakened that we will not be able to offer any resistance. Meanwhile Russia and China are busy increasing their stockpile of nuclear weapons, building up their armed forces and equipping them them with all the latest and best technology courtesy of America. God only knows the full extent of their activities. Don't even get me started on who has been fueling Islamic rage against us is aiding and abetting all the turmoil in the Middle East.

Russia and China are amassing gold as if it were going out of style which means that if Jim Willie is correct, all the worlds wealth is being transferred to the East. It's like 1917 all over again. The biggest transfer of wealth is happening before our very eyes. Only instead of confining all the looting to one country, this time these vipers are pillaging the entire world.

[Twisted Titan]

A nice analysis indeed

You did tend to tip toe around the zionist fingerprint of both" isms" but i will spot you that.

I never really thought about China getting ditched by Russia but that is a extremely plausible scenario

I know what i have pondered and rather deeply is when America finally does fall.

She will NEVER rise again to the superstar status she held.

She will be spoken about in the future like how Britan is today a throughly emasculated empty shell.

[mamboni]

mamboni

I've read most of your comments and would like your opinion. How much of a role do you think Russia and China are playing in the current financial collapse and do you see this as being a battle between capitalism and communism?

I think China and Russia are playing the dominant role in the wealth transfer that is occurring, as gold moves from west to east. I don't think it's capitalism versus communism. Rather, a hybrid political-philosophy, a fusion of capitalism and communism has emerged. It is not fully formed and is still evolving. In twenty years, the BRIIICS trade zone will dominate the world economy. It is to employ so combination of top-down command economy communism-socialism and free-market capitalism in decentralized but contained units. Whether the system can balance the greed for money and power by the few against the need to give the masses enough freedom and private property rights to incentive them to produce remains to be seen. There is a long cultural tradition of authoritarian government in the east, unlike America which was unique in being founded on virgin ground by libertarians and the intellectual fruits of the enlightnment. I think history will look back at birth of America as a unique and miraculous event, when freedom and justice manifest in nationstate reached the apex of opportunity and prosperity for common man whilst also providing for stable government. Unfortunately nothing so near perfect lasts forever. And today's America is a far cry from the one the founders created. We won't see another nation of greatness to rival America, or republican Rome before her, for a thousand years.

[mamboni]

Gold's Price Collapse And 4,500 Tons Of Mysterious American Gold Exports...






-- Posted Tuesday, 16 April 2013 | Share this article (http://javascript<strong></strong>:void(0)) | Disqus (http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1366140621.php#disqus_thread)

By The Goodman Letter


Leveraged gold speculators panic whenever someone decides to sell large numbers of transient short positions into the market. That isn't anything unusual. It is because they are gamblers who, like their soul-mates in Las Vegas, ignore common sense and think they can win against the House. But, the House always wins. It is no different with the world's derivative players who play at derivatives casinos. The only difference is that while casinos in Las Vegas admit that the odds are rigged in their favor, derivatives casinos are more deceitful, and don't.
The derivatives casino gamblers always set automatic points, where their positions will be automatically sold if the price dips low enough. This is supposed to show that they are "investing" rather than gambling. But, the stop positions are well known, because they cluster around technical "resistance" and "support" levels. The gamblers virtually all believe that they can foresee the future through non-living psychics, known as "charts". Coordinated short selling, therefore, will ALWAYS be devastating. It will be targeted to trip those automatic stop-loss orders, to result in the dominoes falling, and a deep decline in paper prices.


The short selling on Friday, April 12th, was bigger, but essentially no different from all other price takedowns from 2001 until now. These events often, if not always, cluster around big economic announcements. Bad economic news should ordinarily increase the attractiveness of gold-related investments. Yet, because of the short sellers, gold habitually moves in a counter-intuitive manner. Suffice it to say that futures market short selling tends to be at its most intense at the moment that economic news is at its worst. Thus, "up becomes down" and "down becomes up".


New data, out of the USA, shows that the hopes and dreams of the economic optimists are unjustified. We now have much higher real unemployment, reflecting huge rolls of discouraged workers, collapsing retail sales, collapsing home builder confidence than the so-called "experts" ever thought possible. It is a reversal of all the trends that the gold bears at Societe Generale and Goldman Sachs, for example, cited as justification for a prediction that gold prices would decline. Yet, gold still went down, in spite of heavy increased buying reflected in a vastly larger open interest. All that increased buying was absorbed by multiple waves of paper short selling.
But, most people buying physical gold, as opposed to the paper traded on derivatives markets, are not overleveraged get-rich-quick schemers. The fear-mongerers at Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs and other Fed primary dealers hold no weight with them. They don't care about the movement of the stock market. According to Forbes magazine (http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalearcher/2013/04/15/why-are-small-investors-still-buying-gold-a-psychology-lesson/), sales of physical investment gold skyrocketed when the spot prices were reduced by the futures markets. Over the coming days, no doubt, we will learn that the same phenomenon has occurred everywhere in the world.

much more about the missing 4,500 tons of FED gold at: http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1366140621.php

[Rubberchicken]

Thanks for the updates Mamboni. There are many pieces to the puzzle and I appreciate your help in connecting the dots. Keep up the good work.

[mamboni]

Gold Is Over – Just Like in 1976

By Jeff Clark, Senior Precious Metals Analyst


Goldman Sachs has lowered its gold price projections and says the metal is headed to $1,200. Credit Suisse and UBS are bearish. Citigroup says the gold bull market is over.

So I guess it's time to pack it in, right?


Not so fast. As we've written before, these types of analysts have been consistently wrong (http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/bvPuh/CDD) about gold throughout this bull cycle. Another reason to disagree, however, is history; we've seen this movie before. In the middle of one of the greatest gold bull markets in modern history – the one that culminated in the 1980 peak – gold experienced a 20-month, one-way decline. Every time it seemed to stabilize, the bottom would fall out again. From December 30, 1974 to August 25, 1976, gold fell a whopping 47%.


1976 had to be a tough year for gold investors. The price had already been declining for a year – and it just kept on sinking. Since that's similar to what we're experiencing today, I wondered, What were the pundits were saying then? I wanted to find out.


I enlisted the help of two local librarians, along with my wife and son, to dig up some quotes from that year. It wasn't easy, because publications weren't in digital form yet, and electronic searches had limited success. But we did uncover some nuggets I thought you might find interesting.
The context for that year is that the IMF had three major gold auctions from June to September, dumping a lot of gold onto the market. Both the US and the Soviet Union were also selling gold at the time. It was no secret that the US was trying to remove gold from the monetary system; direct convertibility of the dollar to gold had ended on August 15, 1971.

The public statements below were all made in 1976. You'll see that they aren't all necessarily bearish, but I included a range to give a sense of what was happening at the time, especially regarding the mood of the gold market. I think you'll agree that much of this sounds awfully darn familiar. I couldn't resist making a few comments of my own, too.


To highlight the timing, I put the comments into a price chart, pinpointing when they were said relative to the market. Keep in mind as you read them that the gold price bottomed on August 25, and then began a three-and-a-half year, 721% climb…



http://www.caseyresearch.com/sites/default/files/resize/TheEndoftheGoldBullMarketin1976-486x323.jpg (http://www.caseyresearch.com/sites/default/files/TheEndoftheGoldBullMarketin1976.jpg)(Click on image to enlarge)
[1] "For the moment at least, the party seems to be over." New York Times, March 26.
[2] "Though happily out of the precious metal, Mr. Heim is no more bullish on the present state of the stock market than any of the unreconstructed gold bugs he's had so much fun twitting of late. He's urging his clients to put their money into Treasury bills." New York Times, March 26.
Me: These comments remind me of those today who poke fun at gold investors. I wonder if Mr. Heim was still "twitting" a couple years later?
[3] "'It's a seller's market. No one is buying gold,' a dealer in Zurich said." New York Times, July 20.
Turns out this would've been an incredible buyer's market – but only for those with the courage to buy more when gold dropped still lower before taking off again.
[4] "Though the price recovered to $111 by week's end, that is still a dismal figure for gold bugs, who not long ago were forecasting prices of $300 or more." Time magazine, August 2.
The "gold bugs" were eventually right; gold hit $300 almost exactly three years later, a 170% rise.
[5] "Meanwhile, the economic conditions that triggered the gold boom of 1973 through 1974, have largely disappeared. The dollar is steady, world inflation rates have come down, and the general panic set off by the oil crisis has abated. All those trends reduce the distrust of paper money that moves many speculators to put their funds in gold." Time magazine, August 2.
This view ended up being shortsighted, as these conditions all reversed before the decade was over. Does this sound similar to pundits today claiming the reasons for buying gold have disappeared?
[6] "Our own predictions are that gold will go below $100, with some hesitation possible at the $100 level." As stated by Mr. Heim in the August 19 New York Times.
Yes, this is the same gentleman as #2 above. I wonder how many of his clients were still with him a few years later?
[7] "Currently, Mr. LaLoggia has this to say: 'There is simply nothing in the economic picture today to cause a rush into gold. The technical damage caused by the decline is enormous and it cannot be erased quickly. Avoid gold and gold stocks.'" New York Times, August 19.
You can see that these comments were made literally within days of the bottom! Take note, technical analysts.
[8] "'Gold was an inflation hedge in the early 1970s,' the Citibank letter says. 'But money is now a gold-price hedge.'" New York Times, August 29.
Wow, were they kidding?! This reminds me of those dimwits journalists who said in 2011 to not invest in gold because it isn't "backed by anything (http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/reporter-gives-terrible-economic-advice-video/)."
[9] "Private American purchases of gold, once this was legalized at the end of 1974, never materialized on a large scale. If the gold bugs have indeed been routed, special responsibilities fall on the victorious dollar." New York Times, August 29.
The USD's purchasing power has declined by 80% since this article declared the dollar "victorious."
[10] "Some experts, with good records in gold trading, declare it is still too early to buy bullion." New York Times, September 12.
Too bad; they could've cleaned up.
[11] "Wall Street's biggest brokerage houses, after having scorned gold investments during the bargain days of the late 1960s and early 1970s, made a great display of arriving late at the party." New York Times, September 12.
No comment necessary.
[12] "He believes the price of bullion is headed below $100 an ounce. 'Who wants to put money over there now?'" As stated by Lawrence Helm in the New York Times, September 12.
The price of gold had bottomed two weeks before, making the timing of this advice about the worst it could possibly be.
[13] Author Elliot Janeway, whose book jacket states, "Presidents listen to him," was asked by a book reviewer about his preferred investments. He writes: "Then, gold and silver? He likes neither. In fact he writes: 'Any argument against putting your trust in gold, and backing it up with money, goes double for silver: silver is fool's gold.'" New York Times, November 21.
Mr. Janeway ate his words big-time: from the date of his comments to silver's peak of $50 on January 21, 1980, silver rose 1,055%!
[14] "Mr. Holt admits that 'in 1974, intense speculation caused the gold price to get too far ahead of itself.'" New York Times, December 19.
http://www.caseyresearch.com/images/goldarrow.jpg So, anything sound familiar here? Yes, it was a brutal time for gold investors, but what's obvious is that those who looked only at the price and ignored the fundamentals ended up eating their words and dispensing horrible advice. Investors who followed the "wisdom of the day" missed out on one of the greatest opportunities for profit in their lifetimes.


I was pleased to learn, though, that not all comments were negative in 1976. In fact, in the middle of the "great selloff," there were those who remained stanchly bullish. These investors must've been viewed as outliers – they, much like some of us now, were the contrarians of the day.
Also from 1976…



"Many gold issues, in fact, are down 40 percent or more from their highs. Investors who overstayed the market are apparently making their disenchantment known. The current issue of the Lowe Investment and Financial Letter says, 'We are showing losses on our gold mining share recommended list… but keep in mind that these shares are for the long-term as investments.'" New York Times, March 26.

Sounds like what you might read in an issue of BIG GOLD (http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/bvRfc/CDD) or the International Speculator (http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/bvRgL/CDD).



"The time to buy gold shares," [James Dines] declares, "is when there is blood in the streets." New York Times, September 12.

If you glance at the chart above, Jim's comments were made within two weeks of the absolute low.



"We're recommending to clients that they hold gold and gold shares," [C. Austin Barker, consulting economist] says. "The low-production-cost mines in South Africa might be interesting to buy for the longer term because I see further inflation ahead." New York Times, September 12.

Investors who listened to Mr. Barker ended up seeing massive gains in their gold and gold equity holdings.



"The probability of runaway inflation by 1980 is 50%... In light of this, the only safe investments are gold, silver, and Swiss francs,'" said the late Harry Browne on November 21 in the New York Times.

Browne's Special Reports were edited by our own Terry Coxon (http://www.caseyresearch.com/our-staff/terry-coxon) for 23 years, along with all his books since 1974.



"In the longer run, [Jeffrey Nichols of Argus Research] believes gold's price trend 'is much more likely to be upward than downward.'" New York Times, December 19.

The "longer run" won.



"'I think the intermediate outlook for gold is a period of consolidation and a bit of dullness,' says Mr. Werden. 'However, six or nine months from now, we could see renewed interest in gold.'" New York Times, December 19.

He was right; within nine months gold had risen 13.5%.



"Mr. Holt offers some advice to investors who are taking tax losses on their South African gold shares – some of which are selling at just 30 to 35 percent of their peak prices in 1974. 'If leverage has worked against you on the way down,' he reasons, 'why not take advantage of it on the way up?'" New York Times, December 19.

Solid advice for investors today, too.



"What's his [Thomas J. Holt] prediction for the future price of gold? 'A new high, reaching above $200 an ounce, within the next couple years.'" New York Times, December 19.

His prediction was conservative; gold reached $200 nineteen months later, by July 1978.

It's clear that there were positive "voices in the wilderness" during that big correction, and as we all know, those who listened profited mightily.
There were other interesting tidbits, too. For example, gold stocks had been performing so poorly for so long that some advisors suggested a strategy we also hear today…



"It is probably too late to sell gold shares, the stock market's worst-acting group these days, except for one possible strategy: selling to take a tax loss and switching into a comparable gold security to retain a position in the group." New York Times, September 12.

Even back then, it was widely known that gold often bucks the trend of the broader markets…


"You might put a small portion of your money into gold shares and pray like the dickens that you lose half of it. In that way, chances are that if gold shares go down, the rest of your stock portfolio will go up." New York Times, September 12.

Gold miners provided critical revenue and jobs, just like today. From the August 2 issue of Time magazine…


"South Africa, the world's largest gold producer, is being hurt the most. The price drop will cost it at least $200 million in potential export earnings this year."



"Layoffs at the gold mines would make it even worse – the joblessness could intensify South Africa's explosive racial unrest."



The Soviet Union, the world's second-largest gold producer, is feeling the price drop, too. The Soviets depend on gold sales to get hard currency needed to buy US grain and other imports."

Gold was also used as collateral…


"The international gold market was also roiled yesterday by a report by the Commodity News Service that Iran was negotiating to lend South Africa roughly $600 million, predicated on a collateral of 6.25 million ounces of gold."

And just like today, there were plenty of stupid misguided US politicians: From the New York Times on August 27:



"The drop in gold bullion prices from $126, which was the average at the first IMF auction June 2, provoked the Swiss National Bank to attack Washington's attitude toward the metal as 'childish.' Aside from the estimated $4.8 billion of gold reserves held by Switzerland, bankers there advocate some role for the metal as a form of discipline against unrestricted printing of paper money."


That last statement from the Swiss bankers is hauntingly just as true today.
Last, you know how the government in India has been tinkering with the precious-metals market in its country? And how it's led to smuggling? From the New York Times on August 27:



"India announced it was resuming its ban on the export of silver. India is believed to have the largest silver hoard and the government there freed exports earlier this year as a means of earning taxes levied on overseas sales. However, most silver dealers minimized the significance of India's move yesterday. As one dealer explained, 'Smuggling silver out of India is so ingrained there that the ban will have no effect on the flow. It never has. Indian silver will continue to ebb and flow into the world market according to price.'"



So what's the difference in mood today vs. the mid-1970s? Nothing! This shows that the same concerns, fears, and confusion we have now existed at a similar point in the gold market then. There were also those who saw the big picture and stayed vigilant. Virtually every comment made in 1976 could apply to today. Keep in mind that most of the statements above are from two publications only; there are undoubtedly many more similar comments from that year.
The obvious lesson here is that patience won out in the end. It took the gold price three years and seven months to return to its December 1974 high. It only took another 18 months to soar to $850. Today, that would be the equivalent of gold falling until June this year, and not returning to its $1,921 high until April, 2015. It would also mean we climb to $6,227 and get there in November, 2016. Could you wait that long for a fourfold return?
This review of history gives us the confidence to know that our gold investments are on the right track. I hope you'll join me and everyone else at Casey Research in accepting this message from history and staying the course.

So, what will your kids or grandkids read in a few decades?



"Buy gold. It's going a lot higher." Jeff Clark, Casey Research, March 4, 2013.

[Spectrism]

Yeah- why would you want gold? It isn't backed by anything!

Now look at this beeeeeeautiful little federal reserve note:

http://stephansmithfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/United-States-Twenty-Dollar-Federal-Reserve-Note.jpg

It is backed by the full faith and credit of... well.... uhhh.... another federal reserve note.

[mamboni]

WHO SAID THE HYDRA WOULD TAKE IT LYING DOWN
while its several heads were being chopped off one-by-one?


Antal E. Fekete
New Austrian School of Economics


I have never appealed to the so-called conspiracy theories in trying to explain
the strange world of fluctuations in the price of monetary metals. But neither
have I ever said that the fiat-money Hydra will take it lying down when it comes
to chopping off its several heads one-by-one.

Markets for the monetary metals under fiat money

Here are the relevant facts:

(1) The U.S. government defaulted on its obligation to pay its short -term
dollar debt to foreign governments and central banks in gold at a fixed rate, as
confirmed by several international treaties and by the solemn pledges of several
sitting presidents, on August 15, 1971. Subsequently it has been bankrolling a
chorus of servile academic cheer-leaders and other sycophants to shout from the
roof-top that the gold standard was a ‘barbarous relic’ anyway, quite ripe to be
gotten rid of – in an effort to cover up the shame of fraudulent default
(fraudulent because the U.S. did have the gold and could have lived up to its
international obligations).

(2) Thus the U.S. confiscated some of the gold belonging to institutions
outside its own jurisdiction, but could not confiscate all of it. University
economics departments and research institutions have failed to investigate what
gold at large will do in the long run. They just assumed that it will be business
as usual without gold in eternity. Well, it didn’t quite turn out that way.
Speculators soon started trading gold futures, first in Canada, then in 1975 in the
U.S. as well. No universities and think-tanks showed an interest in studying gold
futures trading and its long-run consequences. Why, gold has been reduced to
the status of frozen pork bellies. We know all that is to be known about trading
frozen pork bellies, don’t we? Supply and demand, right? And when push comes
to shove, it is easier to increase the supply of paper gold than that of frozen pork
bellies, isn’t it? (With due apologies to the late Fritz Machlup of Princeton
University for this interpretation of his theory of gold futures trading.) We may
bypass the question whether our institutions ignored problems connected with
futures trading of monetary metals on their own volition, or whether they did so
under duress. As it turned out two scores of years later, the failure to study the
consequences of the so-called demonetization of gold (euphemism for highway
robbery) has caused an unprecedented world disaster: the disintegration of the
world’s payments system that is now unfolding before our very eyes.


(3) A scientific inquiry would have shown back in the 1970’s that the gold
basis (defined as the difference between the nearby futures price and the price
for immediate delivery of gold) would be robust, in fact, it would be at its
maximum (equal to the carrying charge, or opportunity cost of holding gold).
But soon it would start its relentless decline all the way to zero and beyond. A
negative gold basis, a condition known as backwardation of gold, would create
an extremely unstable situation in international finance because it meant risk
free profits for holders of gold. Knowledgeable market participants realize that
persistently falling basis means increasing scarcity which, in the case of gold, is
not and cannot be alleviated by current output from the mines. Output ultimately
proves no match for the mass movement of gold going into hiding, first
gradually, eventually reaching crescendo when the threat of permanent gold
backwardation starts looming large. At that point all deliverable supplies of
physical gold would be gobbled up by gold hoarding. In case of monetary
metals, in contrast with all other commodities, high and increasing prices may
not bring out new supply. Rather, they might make supply shrink. Monetary
metals are exempt from the law of supply and demand.


Under permanent backwardation, as no gold were offered for sale at any
price, the ‘price of gold’ would become a vacuous concept. Gold, silver and,
soon enough, all other highly marketable goods would only be available through
barter. In other words, paper money as we know it would simply cease to
function. We cannot fathom how our complex world economy could operate
under such circumstances. One thing was certain, though: the world economy
would contract in a way that would make the contraction in the 1930’s appear as
a blip on the screen.


(4) All bubbles, all currency and financial crises of the past forty years are
direct or indirect consequences of the vanishing gold basis – whether we admit it
or not. A few years ago Professor Robert Mundell of Columbia University
invited me to attend his annual seminar at Santa Colomba, with most of the
leading monetary scientist in attendance. I circulated a statement warning of the
danger of permanent gold backwardation and how it would adversely affect the
world economy.


I argued that permanent backwardation of gold would be a watershed -event. As long as the gold futures markets are open, U.S. Treasury debt is still gold-convertible (albeit at a fluctuating rate, never mind that the rate is
minuscule). But no sooner had gold futures trading stopped after the advent of
permanent backwardation than gold was no longer to be had in exchange for
U.S. Treasury debt. The entire outstanding debt of the U.S. was worth not one
ounce of gold. Not one gram of it. It is insane to pretend that this would make no
difference in world trade, as pretended by official doctrine. This event would
mark the transition from monetary economy to barter economy.


My missive did not provoke a single rejoinder. It was simply ignored. All
the same, I have reasons to believe that people in the U.S. Treasury and the
Federal Reserve started to listen and they took a crash course on the problem of
vanishing gold basis and the threat of permanent gold backwardation.


(5) To summarize, in forcing the world off the gold standard in 1971 the
U.S. government created a many-headed Hydra. The problem was compounded
by the apparent gag order, muzzling research on the gold basis – as a face-saving exercise to cover up the fact of default.

Gold is not the same as frozen pork bellies after all
In waking up too late that there was a problem after gold futures markets have
been flirting with backwardation for a year or so, officialdom was forced to act.
Act it did in a typically haphazard fashion. A few days ago, on April 12 and 15
the paper gold market was demoralized by a ferocious attack on the lofty gold
price. This in and of itself is proof that Bernanke is fully aware that permanent
gold backwardation is imminent, and that it will create and unmanageable
situation. It’s got to be stopped in its track at all hazards.


Well, well, well. Gold is not the same as frozen pork bellies after all. The
Hydra is not taking it lying down. The kid gloves have finally come off.
Bernanke is trying to stop gold backwardation by selling unlimited
amount of gold futures contracts through his stooges, the bullion banks. He is
underwriting losses they are certain to suffer in due course. We can take it for
granted that they haven’t got the gold to make delivery on their contracts. In
fact, delivery of gold will be suspended under the force majeure clause. Short
positions will have to be settled in cash, to be made available by the Fed’s
printing presses. Gold futures trading will be a thing of the past.

Bernanke and columnist Paul Krugman, formerly his subaltern colleague
at Princeton don’t understand that the issue is not the price of gold. The issue is
backwardation or contango. In trying to wrestle the gold price to the ground the
Fed makes “the last contango in Washington”* an accomplished fact.
From the frying pan into the fire.

Ostensibly a lower gold price would solve the problem Bernanke has.
Demoralized gold bugs would be forced out of their holdings through margin
calls. Disillusioned investors would shun gold. This would make physical gold
available to rescue the strapped gold futures market.

In fact, however, a lower gold price is making the problem more
intractable, not less. The Fed is diving from the frying pan into the fire. This is
the point missed by almost all observers and market analysts. They ignore the
underlying flight into physical gold that continues unabated, in spite of (or,
better still, because of) the panic in the paper gold market. The Fed’s
intervention in bankrolling short interest is going to back-fire, for the following
simple reason. The Fed’s strategy is inherently contradictory. A lower price for
paper gold makes it easier, not harder, to demand delivery on maturing futures
contracts.

The more paper gold Bernanke sells, the lower the cost of acquiring
physical gold in exchange for paper gold becomes. The price of the nearby
futures contract will drop to hitherto unimaginable depths, relative to the cash
price, making backwardation worse, not better. Ultimately this will make
backwardation irreversible. Welcome to the world of permanent gold
backwardation.

From what hole does the evil deflationary wind blow?
Academia and the financial press have utterly failed to recognize the relevance
of gold backwardation as regards deflation. They might fret about hyperinflation
as a result of unbridled money-printing (euphemism for the monetization of
government debt). Yet the real danger is not on the inflationary but on the
deflationary front as realized even by Krugman – while he is perfectly clueless
on the question from what hole the evil deflationary wind blows (other than
conservative wishful thinking).


Well, I can pinpoint the location of the hole to within yards for the benefit
of Krugman. It is on Constitution Avenue, in Washington, D.C. The evil
deflationary wind is blowing from the building of Federal Reserve Board.
If Bernanke thought that his attacks on the gold price would stem
deflation, well, his efforts were counter-productive, to put it mildly. They have,
in fact, made the flight into physical gold accelerate. Permanent backwardation
of gold, and its concomitant, the re-invention of barter – the ultimate in deflation
– will be the result.


There is no reason to fear that the Fed is pushing the world into hyper-inflation. In fighting the gold price the Fed unwittingly pushes the world into
hyper-deflation.

All the same, it is destroying the dollar and the international monetary
and payments system.



April 18, 2013.

[mamboni]

Let's not forget what we saw before the takedown:

1) ABN Amro announces to clients they won't deliver any gold. Forced cash settlement.

2) Multiple reports of individual large clients being forced to take cash settlement for their gold when they attempted to retrieve it from LBMA banks in the aftermath of the Cyprus FUBAR.

The purpose of the takedown was to drain the GLD etf to bail out the LBMA. Every time somebody sells shares in the GLD, gold bullion is transferred from the client side of the vault to the trustee side. That's why buying SLV or GLD plays right into the hands of the EE.

[mamboni]

Interesting comments/'gossip' allegedly from Dave in Denver (via DavidPierre @ ZH (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-29/spot-price-precious-metals-becoming-irrelevant#comment-3512583)) in the comments of the same article:

"My buddy in NYC just called me. He was chatting with a high level relationship manager in a big bullion bank private wealth management area. It's a pretty small-knit community. This guy worked at JPM until about 6 months ago and now works at another Euro-based bullion bank (there's only a few).

He (my friends contact) said that there's a massive scramble going on in Europe right now by very wealthy families and individuals to get their 400 oz. bars OUT of the bank vaults. He said "imagine a very wealthy Swiss family walks into a JPM office and says 'Id like to take my $30 million in gold bars out of your bank and if you don't let me do that I'll move my $100's of millions you manage somewhere else.'" Apparently this scenario is going on en masse. In fact, he said not too long ago JPM sent around a notice to wealthy clients that their bars were safe in a segregated vault account at JPM.

He said everyone is aware of what's going with the paper vs. physical scheme and now these wealthy entities are doing what they can to get their physical bars out of the bullion bank vaults. It certainly explains the drain in "eligible" gold from the Comex, most of coming from JPM's vault.

He also said that he suspects - although he can't confirm - that someone like a John Paulson held a gun to GLD's head to get their gold out of GLD. That's part of the bar drain from GLD. He can't confirm it was Paulson specifically, but Paulson is a private bank client of JPM's. JPM is also Paulson's main hedge fund prime broker."
Denver Dave


www.lemetropolecafe.com (http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/)

[gunDriller]

He (my friends contact) said that there's a massive scramble going on in Europe right now by very wealthy families and individuals to get their 400 oz. bars OUT of the bank vaults. He said "imagine a very wealthy Swiss family walks into a JPM office and says 'Id like to take my $30 million in gold bars out of your bank and if you don't let me do that I'll move my $100's of millions you manage somewhere else.'"

might make a good core plot for a movie.

[mamboni]

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5176742669bedd5a0300001a-1200-900/hong-kong-gold.jpg



Retail Demand For Gold Is Going Nuclear In Asia And Shops Can't Keep It On Their Shelves [PHOTOS]

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/asian-physical-gold-demand-2013-4#ixzz2SAEBxUfy

[mamboni]

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Global "Fractional" Paper Bullion Market Is Collapsing (http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-global-fractional-paper-bullion_6103.html)


I wrote last week that there was a scramble going on globally by entities seeking to take physical possession of the gold on which they have a legal claim, most of which is sitting either in alleged "allocated" big bank bullion vaults or in alleged "allocated" accounts in Comex custodial warehouse vaults.

I also demonstrated mathematically, using the reported numbers on the CME website for precious metals futures open interest and warehouse gold/silver stocks, that the amount of gold represented by Comex futures open interest far exceeds the amount of deliverable gold on the Comex (the analysis is even more extreme for silver). In fact, if less than just 10% of the buyers of June gold contracts demand delivery, the Comex won't have enough gold to cover the legal claims. For silver (July silver) it's even more extreme.

This is a global problem and not just endemic to the Comex. Globally, the legal claim of ownership on physical gold far exceeds the amount of gold represented by paper futures, LMBA forward contracts, leased gold and vault receipts. The latter - vault receipts - is where the big banks in London have the most severe problem, as gold this is supposed to be sitting in "allocated" accounts under the name of the legal owner who bought and paid for those bars has been largely leased out. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, I received this comment from John Brimelow's "Gold Jottings" report, which comes from Gerhard Schubert, head of Precious Metals at Emirates NBD, the largest banking group in the Middle East. Keep in mind that Middle Eastern buyers demand physical delivery of their gold. Here's the quote from his latest weekly report:


I have not seen in my 35 years in precious metals such a determined and strong global physical demand for gold. The UAE physical markets have been cleared out by buyers from all walks of life. The premiums, which have been asked for and which have been paid have been the cornerstone of the gold price recovery. It is very rare that physical markets can have a serious impact on market prices, which are normally driven solely by derivatives and futures contracts…

I did speak during the week with several refineries in the world, of course including the UAE refineries, and the waiting period for 995 kilo bars is easily 2-3 weeks and goes into June in some cases. A large portion of the 995 kilo bars in the UAE goes normally into the Indian market, but a lot of the available 995 kilo bars are destined for Turkey, at this time. We heard that premiums paid in Turkey have reached anything between US $ 20 and US $ 35 per ounce.



The price hit of two weeks ago has triggered a serious scramble for physical gold and silver. Reports like the above comment have been flooding from Europe, the Comex has had about 30% of its gold bars literally drained from the customer accounts of the Comex bank custodian vaults and the U.S. mint is running way behind on demand for silver eagles and some weights of gold eagles. Ditto for the Canadian mint.

And then I get a call from a close friend in NYC last Friday. His career has been in private wealth management in the private bank department of the Too Big To Fail banks. He's been looking for work and chats with old colleagues all the time. He called my Friday and told me he just got off the phone with a very high level private banker from a big Euro-based TBTF bullion bank, but who was at JP Morgan until about six months ago.

This guy told my friend that there is a scramble by many very wealthy European families/entities to get their 400 oz bars out of the big bank vaults. He knows this personally, for a fact. He said the private banker community is small over there and the big wealthy families all talk to each other and act on the same rumors/sentiment. The Bundesbank/Fed and the ABN/Amro situations triggered this move. He knows for a fact JPM tried to calm fears about 3 months ago by sending a letter to it's very wealthy clients assuring them their bars were safe, in allocated accounts. He said right now those same families are walking into the big banks like JPM and demanding delivery of their bars or threatening to take their $100's of millions in investment portfolios to competitors. His wording was "these people are putting a gun to the heads of private banks and demanding their gold."

I know this information is good because I know my friend's background and when he tells me his source is plugged in, the guy is plugged in. Not only that, my friend's source said that there's no doubt that someone like a John Paulson, not necessarily specifically him, but entities like him or it may include him, have held a gun to GLD and demanded delivery of physical in exchange for their shares.

Regarding the Bundesbank/Fed situation, recall that the Bundesbank asked to have some portion of its gold sitting - supposedly - in the NY Fed vault in NYC sent back Germany. The total amount is 1800 tonnes. After behind the scenes negotiations, the Fed agreed to ship 300 tonnes back over seven years. To this day, the time required for that shipment has never been explained. Venezuela demanded the return of its 200 tonnes held in London, NYC and Switzerland and received it all within about four months.

And regarding the ABN/Amro situation. ABN/Amro offered a gold investment account product that offered physical delivery of the gold in the investment account when the investor cashes out. About a week before the gold price smash, ABN sent a letter to its clients informing that the physical delivery of the bullion was no longer available and that all accounts would be settled with cash at redemption.

I believe it was these two events that triggered the big scramble for physical gold by wealthy families/entities who were suspicious of the integrity of their bank vault custodial arrangement anyway.

In fact, what we are now seeing is the final stages of the paper gold/silver bullion market, which has grown at a parabolic rate over that last 13 years, and includes Comex futures, LMBA forward contracts, OTC derivatives - which is an even bigger paper market than the Comex - leased gold claims/contracts and warehouse receipts.

At some point there will be an even bigger "run on the bank" by those looking for delivery of the physical gold/silver that they have been "assured" is sitting in their "trusty" bank custodian vault. I know for myself that I have seen enough from the JPM's of the world to not trust anything they do or say. I think a lot more people are finally coming to that same conclusion. At some point there will be a complete collapse of trust in the paper monetary system and the price of gold/silver will really go parabolic, as the masses realize all at once - and far too late I might add - that everything that was rumored over the last 13 years about paper gold, gold leasing, etc is actually true.

Posted by Dave in Denver at 10:55 AM

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-global-fractional-paper-bullion_6103.html

[Serpo]

from above

It is very rare that physical markets can have a serious impact on market prices...hahahahahah

[mamboni]

from above

It is very rare that physical markets can have a serious impact on market prices...hahahahahah

Yeah, I picked that little gem up too! It's like what does the supply and demand of the actual physical commodity have to do with the price in this bizarro world?! LOL Everything is perception management by TPTB.

[Spectrism]

Yeah, I picked that little gem up too! It's like what does the supply and demand of the actual physical commodity have to do with the price in this bizarro world?! LOL Everything is perception management by TPTB.


Its worse than that. It is fake digits on exchange computers controlled to be whatever they decide they want. The plunge protection team has taken full control over the pretend market.

[Twisted Titan]

The jist of what i am i getting is that not the Big Fish but the Fat Fish are starting to realize there has been a change in the diet of plankton they have been feeding on.

So they are Quitely moving to another part of the pond.



Something that has been rumored for ages but to actually see it happening is quite amazing

Thank God I own Three Mercury Dimes

[mamboni]

The jist of what i am i getting is that not the Big Fish but the Fat Fish are starting to realize there has been a change in the diet of plankton they have been feeding on.

So they are Quitely moving to another part of the pond.



Something that has been rumored for ages but to actually see it happening is quite amazing

Thank God I own Three Mercury Dimes

Three? I don't know if I'd boast about that on a publci forum TT.;D

[mamboni]

This was posted on Turd's blog today. Ponder it's incredible significance and ask yourself why is gold at clearance sale prices in the US and 99% of your friends and family aren't buying or don't know anything about it:


I live with a couple of roommates who are young, adventurous and love to travel. recently they -guy and his girl- went to Hong Kong and then mainland China for two weeks. He said that the one oz gold Pandas sold there for $2,800 each! Yes, you read that correctly. He also said that the next time he goes to HK or China he might first buy a couple of Pandas here and resell them there and pay for his trip.

[mamboni]

This is a paid message from a third party. StreetAuthority is not affiliated with and does not endorse any publicly traded companies or products mentioned below. Please read all disclaimers.





Dear Reader,

A prominent financial journalist sent one of his research assistants to the Federal Reserve in downtown Manhattan to get a good look at their gold vault.

He suspected that what they claimed was down there wouldn't stand up to an independent audit. But he was stunned at what was discovered. This was his assistant's report:


"I went to the Federal Reserve yesterday to have a peek at their gold vault, and what I saw was pretty shocking...
"First, I knew ahead of time that my camera would be confiscated before I was let in the building. They also took my mini recorder and my cell phone, so this is from handwritten notes, which I had to scribble as quickly as possible when I got back outside (because, as I soon learned, no note taking is allowed either).

"Anyway, what struck me the most when I got down there is how tiny it is. You'd think that the largest storehouse of gold in the world would be impressive...but it looks about the size (and color) of the locker rooms at my high school. Actually, even smaller. But that's not what shocked me...

"I estimated the size of the vault to be about 60 feet long by 30 feet wide by 9 feet high. A room that size could hold about 615,000 bars of gold, packed full.

"According to my guide, there are currently 533,000 bars of gold stored there. So, on the surface, the numbers seem to add up. At today's prices, that's about $298 billion worth of gold...

"There's just one problem: The vault I saw was half full, at best.

"If my estimates are right, there could be a discrepancy of 106 million ounces -- or $148 billion -- between what they say is there and what's actually there.

"And it's not just the fed. As I've dug into this, the numbers don't seem to add up anywhere..."

It was just one more piece in what this journalist claims is the "greatest scam in U.S. history."

And in a groundbreaking exposè, this man is now revealing the full details of what he discovered.

It follows years of investigation into every facet of the gold markets -- and explains why he believes many gold investments will soon be worthless.

If you have any money invested in gold or silver, I urge you to watch this exposè now. It will likely save your financial life.

But even if you haven't invested in gold, I think it's critical that you know the full extent of this story. Because it could have dire consequences for the American economy, and your finances.

Get the full details, and find out how to protect yourself, right here (http://www.streetauthorityfinancial.com/link.cfm?r=976593399&sid=24646859&m=2623730&u=StreetAuth&j=13979746&s=http://pro1.stansberryresearch.com/119439/).



Sincerely,
George Rayburn
Publisher, S&A Research

[ximmy]

This was posted on Turd's blog today. Ponder it's incredible significance and ask yourself why is gold at clearance sale prices in the US and 99% of your friends and family aren't buying or don't know anything about it:


I live with a couple of roommates who are young, adventurous and love to travel. recently they -guy and his girl- went to Hong Kong and then mainland China for two weeks. He said that the one oz gold Pandas sold there for $2,800 each! Yes, you read that correctly. He also said that the next time he goes to HK or China he might first buy a couple of Pandas here and resell them there and pay for his trip.

that is interesting

[Large Sarge]

JPM gold hits another record low

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-08/jpm-eligible-gold-drops-fresh-record-low-following-withdrawal-28-holdings

[mamboni]

Wednesday, May 8, 2013The Truth About The Gold Being Drained From GLD (http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-truth-about-gold-being-drained-from.html)

In over 30 years of studying, researching, trading and investing in the financial markets, I have never seen the contrarian signals flashing as bullishly as they are for gold right now. - Link: Update On Gold: Is This The Bottom? (http://seekingalpha.com/article/1415061-update-on-gold-is-this-the-bottom)
It's really quite astonishing. Especially the degree to which the negative media reports - especially from Bloomberg News and CNBC - are piling up like dead bodies in the aftermath of the Mt. Vesuvius eruption.

I want to "connect some dots" for everyone who has been worried about the rather large liquidation of gold from GLD. In fact, media citations of this gold drain have proliferated like the odor of burning marijuana in the streets of Denver now that pot has been legalized (trust me, it's everywhere).

But what is really going on? Let's look "under the hood" at some relevant information that is being left out of a lot of the financial reporting in the U.S. To begin with, the way gold is put into or taken out of GLD is via the Authorized Participants. These are the primary market makers in GLD shares. When they collect a basket of 100,000 shares from buyers or sellers, they take the cash proceeds and either buy gold to move into GLD or buy gold from GLD to remove the gold from the trust. The current list of AP's, at least according to GLD's latest 10-K filing are: Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sach, HSBC, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Newedge (a online hedge fund oriented futures bookie), RBC, UBS, and Virtu Financial (another online hedge fund bookmaker).

If the price of gold - for whatever reason, legitimate or not - gets crushed, it will tend to generate a lot of selling in the shares of GLD. In turn, that will generate the ability of the AP's to collect 100,000 share baskets and convert those baskets into gold that is removed from the GLD vault and into the "custody" of the specific AP who is turning in the shares. At today's price of gold, 100,000 shares represents about $14.2 million - 9,627 ozs of gold, or roughly .29 tonnes. Since the beginning of the year, roughly 293 tonnes of gold has been drained from GLD, which had 1350 tonnes in it - allegedly - on 12/31/12. Nearly 30% of the total amount of gold that has been drained from GLD occurred in the 3 weeks since the April 16-17 price massacre.

So where, you might ask, is all this gold going? It's not just vaporizing into thin air. Using today's price of gold, 293 tonnes is worth about $14.5 billion. If you look at that AP list above, all of them except the two hedge fund bookies are LBMA "bullion bank" market makers. Unless these bullion banks are keeping the gold for themselves - and if any of them were, it would have to show up in the footnotes of their next 10-Q - that gold is being delivered to buyers of it on the other side.

So, who would be buying this gold? Based on numerous news service reports, which often seem to never make their way into the U.S. financial media reporting, India and China combined through the end of April have imported somewhere around 700 tonnes of gold, plus or minus 100 tonnes. What's 100 tonnes among bullion bank friends when GLD still has 1,057 tonnes left? Here's one news report - actually from Bloomberg - which is calculating that China purchased around 223 tonnes of gold in March alone: LINK (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/china-s-gold-purchases-from-hong-kong-expand-to-record-in-march.html) That is a staggering amount of gold (mostly 400 oz bars - the type of bar in GLD's vaults) when you consider that the global annual mined production of gold is around 2500 tonnes, and declining.

And here's an account out of India about the massive gold demand there in April and May:

“The biggest slump in gold prices in more than three decades on April 15 spurred banks, traders and jewelers to import more than 100 tons last month, said Rajesh Khosla, managing director of MMTC-PAMP India Pvt. Purchases this month will match April’s imports, he said”And here's a refreshingly honest assessment of the situation from an Indian newspaper:

The jump in Chinese physical demand also prompted some banks to ship in more supplies from London and Swiss vaults, traders said LINK (http://www.firstpost.com/economy/gold-hungry-china-braces-for-surge-in-imports-761179.html?utm_source=fwire&utm_medium=hp)If you read that entire article, you'll see that in 2012, India/China imported more than 1/3 of the global gold production and will likely account for close to 50% this year. This is the unintended consequences for the Central Banks who are spear-heading the manipulation of the price of gold for the purposes of defending the dollar and fiat currencies.

This rabid demand for 400 oz. gold bars from China/India (not to mention Russia, Turkey, Viet Nam, pretty much all of southeast Asia) goes a long way toward explaining the rumors that were circulating during February and intensified in March that the LBMA was in danger of facing a big delivery default.

Layer on top of this the fact that many wealthy families in Europe are now demanding delivery of the gold bars that JPM and other bullion banks are holding custody of. The report on this from my friend was confirmed independently by a source of Bill Murphy's over in Europe. This is exactly why ABN/Amro announced a week before the $200 hit on gold that they would no longer deliver physical gold from their gold investment account product and would instead only settle redemptions in cash. That product catered to high net worth investors over there. ABN didn't have the gold that would be required to satisfy delivery claims. It was a fractional bullion investment account, just like all the other big bank "bullion" investment products. Morgan Stanley settled a lawsuit several years ago for this type of scheme using silver. But they never admitted guilt.

So in connecting all the dots, there is no question in my mind that the big price smashing of gold in mid-April was an operation designed to shake loose enough 400 oz. gold bars out of GLD in order to satisfy the enormous delivery demands coming from Asia, India and even within Europe. GLD is the only possible source of above-ground 400 oz. gold bars that could be used to satisfy this enormous demand for physically deliverable bars.

At some point, and probably sooner than most people are willing to believe, this physical demand is going to force an upward "explosion" of the paper derivatives being used to hold down the spot price right now. In 30 years of studying and trading the financial markets, I have never seen contrarian indicators for any market sector flashing as bullishly as they are for gold and silver, which further confirms my view that the metals have bottomed and are getting ready to give those of us who held on the ride of a lifetime.


http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-truth-about-gold-being-drained-from.html

[Serpo]

Yes they have to suck GLD dry first

[Large Sarge]

check this one out, JPM in panic mode as customers realize there is no gold in their allocated accounts (shocking!), just like Jim Willie said way back, and he said when word leaks out about all that missing gold, expect gold to double or triple in price in weeks....


http://investmentwatchblog.com/is-the-gold-manipulation-backfiring-jpm-sent-letter-to-wealthiest-clients-to-assure-safety-of-gold-same-clients-are-now-demanding-their-physical-endgame-nears/

[mamboni]

check this one out, JPM in panic mode as customers realize there is no gold in their allocated accounts (shocking!), just like Jim Willie said way back, and he said when word leaks out about all that missing gold, expect gold to double or triple in price in weeks....


http://investmentwatchblog.com/is-the-gold-manipulation-backfiring-jpm-sent-letter-to-wealthiest-clients-to-assure-safety-of-gold-same-clients-are-now-demanding-their-physical-endgame-nears/

Yeah, this report is a few days old. But I was waiting for the customers to react to the letter JPM reassuring them that their gold is safe and sound and not to worry. In the business world, when you get a letter like this it is a tell: thay are in actual fact leveraged, short and running a scam. Damn straight if I got that letter I'd be at the doors of the vault first thing in the AM demanding delivery of my gold.

[Large Sarge]

well, JPM has almost no physical gold left at the COMEX, coincidence?

;)

[Large Sarge]

FWIW, I think we are near a major inflection/tipping point, global demand for gold/silver is insatiable....

World war 3 is ready to really blow

Stock market setting all time records, in defiance of anything sane

money printing like no tomorrow

now the discovery that ther eis no gold in those allocated accounts

Dutch bank default on Gold,

Swiss Bank default on gold,


all these things that politicians and bankers have "kicked down the road" for years on end, well the road has finally stopped

I think oddly enough, Bix Weir might finally be right, and May might be the pivotal month for the last 50 years

[Libertarian_Guard]

FWIW, I think we are near a major inflection/tipping point, global demand for gold/silver is insatiable....

World war 3 is ready to really blow

Stock market setting all time records, in defiance of anything sane

money printing like no tomorrow

now the discovery that ther eis no gold in those allocated accounts

Dutch bank default on Gold,

Swiss Bank default on gold,


all these things that politicians and bankers have "kicked down the road" for years on end, well the road has finally stopped

I think oddly enough, Bix Weir might finally be right, and May might be the pivotal month for the last 50 years

So what do you think LS, another two or three weeks?

???

[mamboni]

FWIW, I think we are near a major inflection/tipping point, global demand for gold/silver is insatiable....

World war 3 is ready to really blow

Stock market setting all time records, in defiance of anything sane

money printing like no tomorrow

now the discovery that ther eis no gold in those allocated accounts

Dutch bank default on Gold,

Swiss Bank default on gold,


all these things that politicians and bankers have "kicked down the road" for years on end, well the road has finally stopped

I think oddly enough, Bix Weir might finally be right, and May might be the pivotal month for the last 50 years

-"Difficult to predict, always in motion the future is"

-Yoda

[Large Sarge]

So what do you think LS, another two or three weeks?

???

I think something happens before June, as far as what? Hard to tell, that Fed interview (Fischer) with santelli, he said we are in uncharted waters, and we have no way home...

someone once said Gold is like a barometer, to the health of the monetary/financial system,

kind of like the temperature gauge or oil pressure gauge in your car. So, rather than let the gauge signal a problem, they have jimmied all the gauges to show "everything is fine", including this rising stock market.

So, just like your car that is overheating, and running on no oil, barreling down the highway doing 90 mph, and its making some funny noises, and you smell smoke, but all the gauges say everything is fine....

something is going to give,

the fact that they are starting world war 3 shows they know the game is almost over...

notice how the indian govt keeps trying to cool off physical demand for gold,


I am not sure, there are so many things screwed up now....

I always thought it would be physical silver that defaulted,

I say something gives before June, World war 3, a major default, bank collapse/holiday, something is going to give

[Large Sarge]

paper gold market is dying, another article


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-09/are-we-verge-witnessing-death-paper-gold-scam

[mamboni]

The dollar – and the USA – is toast

Exclusive: Lord Monckton sees China prepping for final collapse of America
Published: 1 day ago

Lord Monckton (http://www.wnd.com/author/cmonckton/) About (http://javascript<strong></strong>:;) | Email (cmonckton@wnd.com)| Archive (http://www.wnd.com/author/cmonckton/?archive=true)

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, high priest of climate skepticism, advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wrote leaders for the Yorkshire Post, was editor of the Catholic paper The Universe, managing editor of the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, assistant editor of Today, and consulting editor of the Evening Standard. He invented the million-selling "Eternity Puzzles," "Sudoku X" and a promising treatment for infections. See the Science & Public Policy Institute. (http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/personnel.html)

Obama has done it. He has brought America down. It only took him just over four years. The Republicans could have stopped him. They didn’t.

How did the nihilistic left succeed in destroying America? Simple. They learned just a little of the capitalism they hate, and they drove your nation into outright bankruptcy.

And here is what the GOP has to say about it: just about nothing.

The once-mighty United States is now the most indebted nation on Earth. In round numbers, here are just some of the vital statistics as the patient dies:

National debt: $17 trillion, or $50,000 per man, woman and child, or $150,000 per taxpayer. Annual federal deficit: $1 trillion. Medicare/Medicaid/Obama”care”: $1 trillion a year. Social Security: another $1 trillion a year. Defense: two-thirds of a trillion. Unemployment handouts: $2 billion per working day. Debt interest: $1 billion per working day. Federal pensions, ditto.

Now for the big numbers. Your government’s Social Security liability is as big as the national debt: $17 trillion. Its prescription drug liability is $22 trillion. Then there’s the Medicare liability of $86 trillion. Total unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government are $125 trillion.

Net assets for each U.S. citizen are $300,000. The net liability of the U.S. government, shared among its citizens, amounts to almost four times that: $1.1 million a head. And the government’s debt is growing at $1 million every 45 seconds. To cover its annual deficit, it is printing $1 trillion a year of currency that is not backed by any asset whatsoever.
Here is what will happen next. When the crash comes, don’t say you weren’t given fair and clear warning.
First, the dollar will cease – no, make that “is already ceasing” – to be the world’s reserve currency. China, as I have been warning you she would, has realized the dollar is finished. So she is quietly making startling progress with bilateral and multilateral deals to replace the dollar with the yuan as the world’s currency of choice.

Sterling, once the world’s reserve currency, went precisely the same way in 1967 under orders from Moscow, which then largely controlled the governing Socialist Labor party in Britain.

After the Second World War, the Socialist/Communist governments of Attlee and Wilson bankrupted Britain with health-care and welfare programs and nationalization of industries. Inflation rose to 27 percent.

Obama’s copycat policies are different in only one respect. Moscow is no longer calling the shots. International totalitarianism no longer needs direction. Its cruel, hate-filled, destructive mission now advances on autopilot.

Watch some of the straws in the wind. China and Korea have come to a little-noticed agreement that international trade between them will no longer be denominated in U.S. dollars, but in yuan, or Won.

Behind the closed mahogany doors of the world’s finance houses, elaborate and secret preparations are being made for the upheaval and international financial collapse that will follow the deliberate printing-out and consequent implosion of the dollar.
Your GOP representatives should be, but are not, asking the administration to reveal to them the ever-tougher terms on which the Chinese continue – with ever-greater reluctance –to lend money to keep their communist ally in the White House afloat.
Do not believe China cannot afford to let her biggest creditor fail. She can, she will, and she is making careful preparations to do just that.

If you thought the crash of 2008 was bad, think again. The crash that is coming –I cannot put a date on it, but it is not far away now – will be orders of magnitude worse.

So, what should you do to protect yourself and your family? First, get rid of every dollar you have. Dollars are now all but worthless. When the crash comes, they will have no value at all.

In hard times, most financial instruments – currencies, stocks, bonds – are not worth the paper they are printed on. Get rid of them now. Buy silver coins. They will quintuple in price once the crash sets in, and they are small enough to be fungible when the dollar dies.

Buy land, some of it well-wooded, some of it arable, some of it grassland. You will need the timber to power your steam tractor. Gasoline will be a costly rarity. And make sure you can defend yourselves. Starving mobs are no respecters of persons. Do what the Mormons do: Get three months’ supply of imperishable foodstuffs and hide them in the basement.

Absurd though this advice may now seem, there is a real danger that the crash will sudden. If so – perhaps for several months, and even for years – the fabric of civilization, including the food-supply chain, will fail.

It is not my custom to write in millenarian or apocalyptic terms. But the very best that can be said for your current administration is that it simply has no idea what damage it is doing. It is printing money in the vain hope of buying itself time. Yet every fake dollar that comes off the printing-presses makes the problem worse and the solution harder.

At worst, what is now happening to your nation may be deliberate. In that event, your current “president” will go down as history’s greatest villain. In any event, he will go down as history’s greatest incompetent.

Do not believe none of this can happen. Psychiatrists study what they call “normalcy bias.” People expect that everything will carry on and that America is too big to fail. She is not. She has failed. You will pay a heavy price for her failure, unless you act now to defend yourselves against what your government, with the culpable, silent acquiescence of the GOP, is doing to destroy your nation.

Finally, pray. God bless America. It has been nice knowing you. Only when you are gone will the world realize how much it misses you, and – paradoxically – how much it owes you.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/the-dollar-and-the-usa-is-toast/#8ouJ7IwGxWuLrcGh.99 (http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/the-dollar-and-the-usa-is-toast/#8ouJ7IwGxWuLrcGh.99)

[mamboni]

Why There May Be a Lot Less Gold than We Realize

Chris Martenson (http://gold-silver.us/our-staff/chris-martenson-0), Cofounder, Peak Prosperity
May 8, 2013 5:37pm



Exactly How Much Gold Do We Have?

There's growing concern that a lot of official gold has been leased out into the market and that sooner or later, as happened back in the late 1990s, one or more parties, perhaps bullion banks or a metals exchange, would run into difficulty trying to meet a physical gold delivery commitment.

For a short video on the mechanics of gold leasing, click here (http://www.peakprosperity.com/discussion/81543/more-chris-mike-maloney-why-did-silver-gold-collapse).

If a lot of gold has been leased out, someday it will have to be rebought, and difficulties may emerge if the gold cannot be rebought in sufficient quantities without creating mayhem within the financial system by causing a very large hike in the price of gold.
Important: The amounts of gold leased by central banks is a very closely guarded secret, and we do not have direct information on them, which means we have to try and back-calculate these amounts by other means.

A recent and thought-provoking study regarding gold leasing was done by Sprott Asset Management in March. After accounting for all known flows of gold into and out of the US over the past 22 years, the Sprott team arrived at a figure of nearly 4,500 tonnes of gold that cannot be accounted for.

Here's the summary flow chart:



http://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image1.jpg (http://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image1.jpg)(Source (http://www.sprott.com/markets-at-a-glance/do-western-central-banks-have-any-gold-left-part-ii/))

In short, because gold is not consumed and never misplaced, there has to be a balance between gold supply and demand. It cannot be printed out of thin air, and it is this inconvenient fact that really matters the most here.

One caveat: Because of the explosive nature of the above findings, Adam and I sought out an opposing view. We talked with a managing partner at an NYC commodity firm that tracks and reports on gold and silver as specialty areas, and their view was that the US has actually been a net importer over the same time period. I could not resolve the massive discrepancy between these views, so I have more research to do. When asked directly how the US government's own import-export data could be this far off the mark, the response was that gold is only counted if it is in wrought form, meaning that it has been fashioned into bars, coins, rods, etc. Uncomfortable with the implication that the US had somehow imported 4,500 tonnes of unwrought gold – that is, gold in the form of dust, pellets, or gold ore – I asked if it was realistic that unwrought gold along could account for so many missing tonnes. The response left me with plenty of doubts. So more digging is required.


Presumably this gold came from leasing arrangements and from official sources, as there are no private suppliers that could possibly match these enormous amounts. Further, it should be noted that one very important missing value in this flow chart is private investment – such as gigantic hedge funds buying gold, or you or I buying coins – which means that the actual shortfall would be higher than 4,500 tonnes, because private investment subtracts tonnage from the amount available for export.

Depending on how much private demand you estimate (and it has been considerable over the past 13 years), you might double the shortfall or perhaps even go higher.

There's really no other possible source for that gold than from "official" sources, meaning the Fed and/or the Treasury. The only other explanation is that thousands and thousands of tonnes of gold somehow got into this country without being detected by US trade and customs officials, which implies that a rather large series of crimes had to be committed.

Because I almost completely discount the idea of illicit gold imports being of a material size, that just leaves us to try and figure out how much leasing the Fed and the Treasury have supported over the prior decades, as we will see below.

The facts are easy enough to grasp. The US has exported vastly more gold than it has imported, and that gold had to come from somewhere. It is very doubtful that accounting errors can explain away even 1% of this discrepancy.

This leaves gold-leasing from the Fed as the most likely source for all that gold, and it is such a large amount that I know of no possible source on the face of the planet where such an amount could be purchased. This is why Germany seeking to repatriate their gold is such a big deal. What if that gold has already been loaned out?

To put it mildly, any whiff that the world's central-bank gold is not where people think it is would really be an enormously unsettling admission to have to make.


Another caveat: There are other experts out there who dispute the figures of this Sprott study. I'm in contact with one of them, probably the best-credentialed of the bunch. If I receive data contradicting Sprott's analysis, I'll present it in a subsequent post here on the site.

Where It Came From

In the meantime, let's play a game here. Suppose for the sake of argument that the US is missing 4,500 tonnes of gold that has been leased out, and it's time to either admit that it's been lost to the world or get it back somehow. That is, the bullion banks will have to pay back the gold they borrowed with cash, or come up with the gold.

How much are we talking about? In current terms of ~$1,380 per ounce, those 4,500 tonnes of missing gold pencil out to a liability of some $200 billion. While the Fed might decide that it is able and willing to forgo its gold and allow the bullion banks to deliver cash instead of physical to avoid their probable failure, the Fed does not own that much gold to deliver. Not even close.

If you look at the Fed's balance sheet, they claim to have ~$11 billion in gold (listed as an asset, by the way), but that number is a historical aberration. The Federal Reserve, just like the Treasury Department, carries gold on its books at the rate of $42.22, a price set way back in the 1930s and not touched since.

This means the Fed has, on its books as an asset, some 261 million ounces of gold, or more than 8,000 tonnes of gold.



The Federal Reserve Balance Sheethttp://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image2.jpg (http://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image2.jpg)(Source (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/current/))

If you do the math, that $11.041 billion in "gold stock" works out to 261 million ounces of gold, or more than 8,000 tonnes. That's a nice pile and more than enough to forgo the return of 4,500 tonnes, right?

Not so fast. Those 261 million ounces of gold actually belong to the US Treasury.

Quite confusingly, both the Fed and the Treasury claim this same reserve amount of gold on their balance sheets, an accounting mystery that I have not resolved to my complete satisfaction. (I have heard that the Fed's balance sheet has an offsetting liability, though I have yet to locate it). Here's the current report of US gold holdings put out by the Treasury:



http://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image3.jpg (http://d1w116sruyx1mf.cloudfront.net/ee-assets/channels/article_default/130508image3.jpg)(Source (http://www.fms.treas.gov/gold/current.html))

See? There are those same 261 million ounces of gold listed for the identical $11.041 billion. So who really owns it? Well, that's another mystery to be resolved on another day. For now, let's just try to figure out where the 4,500 tonnes of gold came from before we worry about the claims and responsibilities of actual ownership.

The main point I want to make here is that if 4,500 tonnes has been leased out by the Federal Reserve, it could not have been done without the Federal Reserve leasing out either gold belonging to the US Treasury (i.e., US citizens) or belonging to other countries for whom the Fed is holding gold "in custody."

How can I be sure? Because the Fed does not have any other gold listed anywhere else on its balance sheet. If it's holding some as an asset, it's hiding it, and I just don't think that's the case. The Fed is holding a lot of gold for other countries as a custodian, but that's a liability of the Fed, not an asset.

So the conclusion is simple enough: The Fed has leased out the gold of US citizens, other countries, or both. One other possibility is that the Treasury Department did it directly, but they, to my knowledge, have never been involved in gold leasing, nor have I heard even the first hint of rumor that they might have been involved. Any gold leased into the market belonging to the US Treasury was almost certainly conducted via the Federal Reserve.

I would presume that if the Fed has lent out a lot of Uncle Sam's gold, that had to have been done with the full knowledge of the Treasury Department, because that gold could only have come from the so-called "deep storage" category, which means either the Fort Knox, Denver, or West Point vaults.

Recently, there was a big splashy show of claiming that the United States' gold had been audited. Not only was it all there, we were told, but we learned it was more pure than previously thought! Carefully read the below article and see what impressions are created for you:


Gold at NY Fed Is Intact, Some Purer than Thought, Audit Finds (http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/18/business/la-fi-mo-gold-new-york-fed-audit-pure-20130218)
Feb 13, 2013


NEW YORK – The U.S. government's gold in New York is safe in a vault underneath Manhattan, and some of the precious metal there is purer than previously thought.
That's according to a first-ever audit conducted last year by the Treasury Department of U.S. gold on deposit at Federal Reserve banks in New York and elsewhere.
The New York Fed holds 99.98% of the U.S.-owned gold bars and coins in the custody of the Federal Reserve. The rest of the gold is on display at Fed banks in cities such as Richmond, Kansas City and San Francisco.



If you came away with the impression that 99.98% of all the United States' gold was audited and 1) found to be there and 2) found to be in even better shape than originally thought, then congratulations are in order to whomever wrote those careful, slippery words.
The truth is that the Fed only holds 13.4 million ounces of the Treasury's physical gold (see image above of Treasury gold) out of some 261.5 million ounces – just about 5%. So the more accurate sentence would have read: "The New York Fed holds 5% of the US-owned gold bars and coins, and these were fully accounted for in our recent audit. The other 95% has not been fully audited in decades." Not quite as impressive-sounding, is it?

So the audit confirmed that at least 5% of the nation's gold is safe and sound. But that's all we know. Because every audit request by former Congressman Ron Paul to check in on the gold held in deep storage has been utterly rebuffed. No such audit has been conducted by an independent third party in many decades. So we really don't know. But we are still left with Sprott's unexplained data showing that the US has exported 4,500 tonnes more than it has imported, and perfectly sane logic leads us to conclude it had to have come from the Fed, the Treasury, or both.

Now, suppose again that the 4,500 tonnes are missing and that either an audit or a collapse in the bullion-leasing game would reveal as much. If you were in charge of that potentially nightmarish scenario, what would you do? If it were my job, I would do everything possible to scare that gold back into the markets where I could purchase it, preferably at a cheap rate and on the sly, with the hopes that I could get that done before anybody was any the wiser.

The alternative – a breakdown in the gold delivery market – would create massive price spikes, panic, immediate demands by other central banks for their gold, and quite possibly a lot of financial instability at a very, very vulnerable time in financial history. I should remark that there's never really a good time for such an event, but now would be especially poor timing, given the state of things.

If indeed the US is short 4,500 tonnes (or 145 million ounces), then for every dollar that the price of gold is dropped, $145 million of potential losses are avoided on the repurchase of the leased gold.

This could be the story of the decade, maybe century, if the Sprott data is remotely accurate. If it is, then when all of this has to finally be undone, my prediction is that agreements will be broken, allies will be stiffed, and the Fed will not willingly part with whatever gold actually remains, no matter who thinks they own it (Germany, et al.) or how many times Bernanke says that the Fed holds it merely out of tradition. The level of secrecy surrounding gold, gold leasing, and the complete lack of a full audit of deep-storage gold all suggest there's something to hide here – not the opposite.

There's an awful lot of smoke out there right now, and the concerted US public relations campaign to convince the world that gold is useless strikes me as both strident and desperate.
Conclusion

Again, if the Sprott analysis is accurate, there's a lot of missing gold in the US equation, and it had to come from official sources, either of US origin or belonging to other countries. Either way, the leased gold represents a tremendous liability of the Fed and the bullion banks to which it was loaned.

In this context, the gold slam begins to smell like an operation designed to shake as much gold as possible out of weak hands so that the bullion banks can begin to recover it to square up their accounts. GLD, the gold ETF that so many small investors participate in, is one large, obvious target, as it was sitting on 1,350 tonnes as of January 2013. The most recent figure I have shows that GLD has coughed up close to 175 tonnes and will certainly lose more in the coming days, as long as the price of gold is held down or even dropped further.
But even if GLD loses it all, that won't even cover a third of lowest possible estimate of the US shortfall. And we can be sure that other central banks in the UK and European arena have played similar games, so there will certainly be some competition for every tonne of gold that is released.

It is my distinct impression that something is very wrong behind the scenes, and I am about as worried now as I have ever been. But I'm also excited because it means that finally some interesting things are about to happen. The long, boring quiet period in the markets, where the price of everything was manipulated or distorted by official actions and volatility was managed down to unbelievably low levels, is probably over.
This is good news because it means that markets might again be able to function more normally and give us useful information and price signals that can help us determine which direction to go in.

Along with this feeling of unease, one line of thinking I have is that gold and silver are getting closer to the day when you or I will not be able to purchase physical bullion at any price. Were a major bullion bank to openly renege on its lease commitments, or the LBMA or COMEX were to declare force majeure and fail to deliver physical, all domestic stocks of gold and silver bullion would evaporate for all practical purposes.
When queried about what would happen if even 10% of the US population decided to access the physical bullion market, one large dealer told us it would just break the system. It's a very narrow pipeline that delivers relatively few rounds, bars, and coins to a very small population of bullion holders. Any big flood and the 5-6 week wait times we now see will certainly get longer. Not many dealers and/or wholesalers will want to honor such long lead times when/if prices are volatile or skyrocketing higher.

Where there's smoke there's fire, and there is a lot of smoke in the bullion world right now. I am more certain than ever that holding physical bullion is a must-do for everyone who wishes to preserve their purchasing power.

I am not yet issuing an Alert on this matter, but I am wrestling very hard with the urge to do so. I need some more hard information to justify such a drastic step, but for now my gut is telling me that something is about to break open.

More to come as this fast-breaking situation develops.


Chris Martenson

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/why-there-may-be-a-lot-less-gold-than-we-realize

[Half Sense]

What could happen is that the countries like Germany once they get shafted out of their gold by Uncle Sam could go after private owners of gold, concluding that Germany's gold had to go SOMEWHERE, and maybe it was used to make Gold Eagles...so all holders of Gold Eagles are actually illegal holders of Germany's sovereign gold. Or something like that. Hell, it's likely the Feds will tell Germany that's EXACTLY what happened to their gold.

[mamboni]

What could happen is that the countries like Germany once they get shafted out of their gold by Uncle Sam could go after private owners of gold, concluding that Germany's gold had to go SOMEWHERE, and maybe it was used to make Gold Eagles...so all holders of Gold Eagles are actually illegal holders of Germany's sovereign gold. Or something like that. Hell, it's likely the Feds will tell Germany that's EXACTLY what happened to their gold.

Don't forget about gold teeth.:)sal

[mamboni]

The Basel Committee and the Global Banking Mafiahttp://www.globalresearch.ca/the-basel-committee-and-the-global-banking-... (http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-basel-committee-and-the-global-banking-mafia/5334459)
excerpt from article:

«Basel III»: the partial rehabilitation of gold

Before the 1970s, when the Bretton-Woods currency system existed in the world and there were not yet any «Basel» standards, everything was different. Banks were principally valued in terms of the amount of gold in their equity. The more gold there was relative to the total amount of capital and the total amount of assets, the safer the bank was believed to be. It was all simple, clear and logical. However, those good old times came to an end with the collapse of the gold standard and the IMF’s decision to carry out a full and final demonetisation of gold. Gold was demoted to a run-of-the-mill exchange commodity like oil, wheat or coffee. As a last resort, banks could use gold as an investment medium, but the metal stopped being regarded as a valuable financial asset.

Up to now, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has stored the gold in its «black body», so to speak. On the whole, the rules of the game were such that there was no benefit in banks hoarding their gold. At best, bankers regarded the yellow metal with the eyes of speculators buying and selling gold to make short-term profits.

Basel III has raised the status of gold dramatically. New rules have been provided to transfer gold to a bank’s tier 1 capital at 100 percent of its value. Banks now have the opportunity to replace their paper assets (primarily US Treasury bonds) with gold. Experts have calculated that such a practice will create additional demand for the precious metal to the extent of at least 1700 tonnes. There have been even higher estimations of up to 3000 tonnes. A number of experts believe that the development of Basel III was carried out with powerful lobbying from the Rothschilds, who have an interest in restoring the monetary status of gold in the world. For the last two centuries, the Rothschilds have had control over the main gold reserves, been involved in the extraction of gold and are «market makers» in the precious metals market. In September 2012, before the Basel Committee’s new standard had even come into force, the heads of one of the world’s largest banks, Deutsche Bank AG, which falls within the Rothschilds’ sphere of influence, made a public statement that gold had again been transformed from a commodity into money. The statement caused a painful reaction on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, first and foremost in the US Federal Reserve System. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, once again issued a standard statement that gold was far from the best type of money.

It is not difficult to see that Basel III is a blow to the US dollar and the American economy. America’s reaction was sufficiently prompt and harsh. At the end of last year, America’s monetary and financial regulators (the Federal Reserve system, the Deposit Insurance Agency and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency) reported that they had been sent a petition by leading American banks stating that the new Basel standards were crippling for lending and borrowing organisations. After this, the Federal Reserve System and other US financial regulators went to the Committee and announced that the introduction of Basel III in America was being postponed, and no date for transition to the new standard was given. At this point, European banks started to feel anxious, believing that if they began the transition to the new standard, they would find themselves uncompetitive in comparison with American banks. Therefore, they also refused to shift to Basel -III.

So who exactly has embraced Basel III since 1 January 2013? The list is not very long, with a total of 11 countries in all: Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Switzerland, South Africa and Japan. It is also possible to add India here, which announced it would be joining Basel III from 1 April 2013. It is remarkable that the list contains just four countries from the «golden billion» zone: Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Japan.

more at the link.

[Serpo]

What could happen is that the countries like Germany once they get shafted out of their gold by Uncle Sam could go after private owners of gold, concluding that Germany's gold had to go SOMEWHERE, and maybe it was used to make Gold Eagles...so all holders of Gold Eagles are actually illegal holders of Germany's sovereign gold. Or something like that. Hell, it's likely the Feds will tell Germany that's EXACTLY what happened to their gold.

Sounds like they have stolen as much gold as they can because these people know that in the end all that will matter will be gold/silver.These crooks are accumulating the stuff and my guess its stashed in Israel so when there ponzi scheme collapses we will get a gold backed currency based on looted gold.

[mamboni]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4GwHXx3aiho/UZFwb8pRJiI/AAAAAAAApgA/aoeFUR4vuwQ/s640/bernankebondfraud.JPG

[Serpo]

Gold Demand in Dubai Now Running at 10x Normal LevelsPosted on May 13, 2013 2The disconnect between the massive physical buying of gold versus the falling paper derivatives price has now become nothing short of extraordinary. While we have all seen the figures describing the gold buying frenzy in China and India, now we have some more detailed information about what is happening on the ground in Dubai. Incredibly, we find that since the April paper price crash, 50 tons of gold has been purchased, which is the equivalent of the entire amount of 51.8 tons purchased in all of 2012.One of the most comprehensive looks at the massive physical versus paper disconnect I have read is courtesy of Goldbroker.com, a company that specializes in physical bullion stored in Switzerland. I suggest checking out their latest Gold Market Report.

https://www.goldbroker.com/news/gold-silver-market-post-crash-analysis-239.html



Now from Emirates 24/7 we find that:Dubai demand for gold has been witnessing a massive surge since the price collapse of last month, with demand far outstripping supply.Various estimates suggest that demand in the past few weeks has been nothing short of astronomical, surging by 10 times the normal demand.According to the latest precious metals weekly report by Gerhard Schubert, Head of Precious Metals at local bank Emirates NBD, “Participants of the physical industry in Dubai believe that an additional 50 tonnes have been bought since the price crash in April. These sales figures are in addition to the ‘usual’ numbers and put a little perspective on the derivative side of the market.”The usual numbers that Schubert refers to are the same as the demand seen since April. According to World Gold Council data, total consumer demand for gold in the UAE (not just Dubai) stood at 51.8 tonnes for the entire year 2012, which means that demand was about 4.31 tonnes per month during last year.Compared with that, as Schubert mentions, Dubai demand in the past few weeks has been 50 tonnes plus ‘usual’ numbers, in effect reflecting the massive surge in interest that gold has seen in this past few weeks.“We have been running out of gold coins and bars even before they reach our stores,” he added. “There are people who are ‘pre-booking’ gold bars with us, and they collect it once new supply arrives,” he said. http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/

[Serpo]

from above link...

1) The Global Context : Nothing has Changed



- Protecting the Dollar :

Price manipulation has but one goal : protecting the value of the dollar in order to keep the Fed in control of interest rates and, thus, in control of US Treasury bonds and derivatives, largely held by the big banks.

If the Fed loses control of the dollar, which is bound to happen inevitably, since it’s printing billions of dollars every month, interest rates are going to go up radically, the value of US bonds will crash, the credit derivatives bubble will explode, taking with it the whole banking system.

Manipulating the price of gold serves the purpose, for the masses, of destroying the signal that would reflect the upcoming crash of the dollar and, by way of contagion, of the whole financial system.

Let me refer you to an excellent article by Paul Craig Roberts which explains in details how this recent manipulation took place and to whom it profits.



- The Fed continues to print $85 Billion each month. Japan announced the most ambitious quantitative easing plan of its history with an injection of $1.4 Trillion within two years. All this with no signs of any limitations on QE-type inflationary monetary policies.



- Holland’s Prime Minister has confirmed, as has a report from the FDIC, that deposits confiscations in Europe will be applied in future bailout plans, like in Cyprus. Trust in the European banking system is now at its lowest.



- Since 2007, the S&P has progressed by a mere 1% and, even after the last days’ correction, gold has performed over 100%.



- The gold spot price, this year, tumbled less than Apple shares, which lost 39% since its peak of last year.




2) The Situation on the « Paper » Gold Market



- Between Friday, April 12 and Monday, April 15, 1 million short contracts have been sold on the COMEX, i.e. 12% more than the annual world gold production.



- 150 tons of paper-gold were sold within an hour last Friday.

This sale was realised on the COMEX by a single entity, and it triggered a cascade of forced selling by investors totalling 500 tons of gold. One could logically ask the following question : Who has the financial power to realise such an operation? No trader ever sells such a position in one block at once.

Paul Craig Roberts: « Who has the capacity to sell the equivalent of 500 tons of gold on the markets for an amount of $24.8 Billion (or 16,000,000 ounces of gold, about 15% of world global production)? Who would own so much gold, enough to cover eventual delivery requests on those naked shorts?

Also, nobody sells this much gold all at once; such a sale is done progressively so as not to crash the price and, thus, limit the losses.

As a matter of fact, this massive sale entailed a $1.168 Trillion loss. Who can afford to lose such an amount, but one who can print it? »

His answer : Only the Fed can finance such an operation and tolerate such a loss, since it can print money.

Parenthesis : The CFTC, supposedly in charge of regulating derivatives, notably those on gold and silver, authorises enormous concentrated short positions (thus taken by one or more entities) that perturb the normally free price determination mechanism. There could not be any manipulation of gold or silver if the CFTC were doing its job of regulating the derivatives.



- The COMEX and the LBMA could be close to defaulting.

The COMEX functions on a fractional basis. There is not enough physical gold and silver in the COMEX inventories to guarantee the convertibility of all contracts.

Let’s recall that Kyle Bass, one of the most important hedge fund managers in the USA, who had correctly anticipated the bursting of the subprime bubble, confirms, in this video, that the COMEX does operate on a fractional basis. He decided, a few years ago, to ask for delivery of his gold held via his fund, because he didn’t have faith in the COMEX capacity to make good on future delivery requests. It would only take about 5% of contract holders asking for delivery to cause the COMEX to default.



- Available physical gold on the COMEX and the LBMA is dwindling.

And this is happening at the fastest pace since the start of the bull market in 2001. Delivery requests on the COMEX for the last 90 days represent 2 million ounces, or $3 Billion, as shown by this graphics.

Trust in the « paper » gold markets is waning. Investors do not want to be exposed to counterparty risk anymore. Either the COMEX or the LBMA, or both, will default in the coming months. The situation is untenable at the rythm at which investors are asking to convert their contracts to physical gold or silver.

Which has Andrew Maguire, a specialised gold trader in London, saying that this last crash’s objective is also to bring the prices down before an eventual default announcement from the COMEX or the LBMA. Read the interview with Andrew Maguire.

This default will trigger a rapid rise in prices and what Egon von Greyerz anticipates as the most important short squeeze in history. Read the article by Egon von Greyerz.



- The « paper » gold price in Yen is at its highest in 33 years.

No wonder, with Japan’s most ambitious quantitative easing plan of its history. In less than two years, Japan will inject the equivalent in Yen of $1.4 Trillion, an unprecedented amount in the history of Japan.

Facing this inflationary threat, Japanese institutional investment funds, and Japanese people as well, are starting to migrate toward physical gold at the time that the speculators’ short positions (see COT report) on gold and silver are at a record high.

This global migration toward physical gold and silver is threatening a little more each day to trigger the explosion of the COMEX and LBMA markets. A single delivery default on these markets would make the price of gold rocket. The situation for the long term is untenable on these markets. The physical gold to cover delivery requests from contract holders is simply not there, it does not exist.




3) The Situation on the Real Physical Gold and Silver Markets



- China took advantage of last Friday’s crash to acquire 50 tons of physical gold.

Andrew Maguire, a trader on the physical gold market in London, has confirmed, in a recent interview, that China had acquired 50 tons of gold last Friday, right in the middle of the « paper » gold crash.

Visibly, China, and a host of other countries, are taking advantage of each price correction to acquire physical gold.



- The Two Most Important Bullion Dealers in the USA (Amark and CNT) Are Out of Silver.

Following the crash of these last few days, a massive demand has taken place in the USA and around the world for physical silver. Just the fact that this has virtually no effect on the « paper » silver spot price goes to prove that the « paper » silver market, just like gold’s, isn’t real anymore.



- Important Premium Hikes on Silver Coins :

Silver dealers pay up to $3/oz commission to acquire (when possible) silver coins, like the Silver Eagles. This commission comes before the one charged to the customer. So, at the end, the customer might pay up to 10-12% over the spot price for the coins. Which means that either producers or silver coins holders are not ready to sell on the basis of the « paper » spot price, and that the two markets are disconnected.



- A landslide in one of the mines exploited by Rio Tinto, in Utah (the second-most important mine in the USA), causes the equivalent of 16% of the US annual silver production to disappear.

This event occurred last Wednesday, before the crash. The mine will probably be closed for a few years. Here is the media release.

Let’s ask this question : How can it be that such a reduction in world silver production hasn’t had any effect on the prices?





I’m maintaining my long-term analysis and continuing to recommend holding physical gold and silver for protection against coming events : bank failures, inflation and deposits confiscation. There is no chance at all for our actual monetary system of non-convertible currencies to last for a very long time.

These corrections are hard to take, but multiplying one’s capital in a context of disinformation, currency war and price manipulation entails some volatility. Investors must get a global understanding of the current events and trust their own interpretation of the situation.above link.....

[Serpo]

Kaye: “The paper gold price has been driven well down. We’re nowhere close to when gold peaked above $1,900. We’re in the low $1,400s as I speak now, Eric.



So price has gone down, but what about volume (in gold)? Well, I can tell you that volumes in China year over year are up four to five times
. I can tell you that volumes in Thailand, a similar amount (to China, up four to five times).










Volumes in India, despite an increase in taxes, and despite the fact they are making it more difficult for average people in India to acquire gold, all of the dealers that we talk to who deal into India tell us it’s the same experience as China. It’s up four to five times....



Continue reading the William Kaye interview below...



http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/5/14_Global_Banks_Massive_Criminal_Conspiracy_In_The _Gold_Market_files/shapeimage_22.jpg








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“Now that’s really interesting. Show me another bear market where demand goes up as prices collapse. You can’t. It hasn’t happened in history. So what that confirms is this (drop in the price of gold) is all mythology.



The Fed is the only entity that would actually have both the financial wherewithal, and the ability to totally disregard risk to achieve a strategic agenda of reinforcing the notion that the US dollar is a solid currency, which it is not. And deliberately suppressing, with their agents the bullion banks, the price of gold.










... It strongly suggests the central banks themselves do not have unencumbered, eligible, deliverable gold. Because if they did they would have a huge incentive, instead of engaging in the outright manipulation of the paper market that’s taking place, to simply lend out that gold to agent banks like ABN AMRO so that the system stays in place, so that no one has to default and create the potential for a buying panic.



http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/5/14_Global_Banks_Massive_Criminal_Conspiracy_In_The _Gold_Market_files/KWN%20Kaye%20I%205%3A14.jpg





So the fact that didn’t happen, and this manipulation occurred in its place, tells you that there just isn’t deliverable gold in the system. This crash occurred, the single event of great importance, and I think Andrew (Maguire) talked about it in the interview with you, was the sudden appearance on the day that prices collapsed of a naked short sell order for 400 tons of gold.



Who has 400 tons of gold? Goldman Sachs reportedly entered that order, but they don’t have 400 tons of gold. Who has 400 tons of gold? If 400 tons of (physical) gold is just lying around somewhere, why couldn’t ABN AMRO borrow it? Why did they have to default?



That was the first sign that this was the new strategy, and we (central planners) are going to engage in the wholesale raid, the wholesale manipulation of the precious metals market. We’re just going to scare the public out of this thing, destroy investor psychology, and we the elite, the insiders, will acquire more at these cheap prices. And if the downside is there is a redistribution of tangible wealth from West to East, so be it. So to sum up, Eric, this is a criminal conspiracy.”


http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/5/14_Global_Banks_Massive_Criminal_Conspiracy_In_The _Gold_Market.html