Brown's Bottom

Lets take a retrospective look at the early days of the current bull market in gold. The start of the current run up in gold is usually associated with an event that has become known as "Brown's Bottom".

In 1999 Gordon Brown the then Chancellor of the Exchequer (the equiv. of the Treasurer in Australian terms) sold half of Briton's gold reserves, over 400 tonnes, for a multi-decade low of approx US$250/oz. That insane and possibly politically corrupted decision has cost UK citizens billions of pounds in lost value since 1999, and the losses are increasing, seemingly on a daily basis as much of the cash raised by the gold sales was used to purchase Euros as an alternate reserve holding to gold.

The following video is from the visionary documentary maker and former stock broker, Max Keiser.

Is Saudi Arabia also stocking up on silver as well as gold?

News that Saudi Arabia has secretly doubled its official gold reserves over the past few years should come as no surprise to readers.....read on

Saudi gold reserves over twice previous estimate

AP Business Writer, CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia's central bank holds more than twice the amount of gold previously estimated......read on

Fifty Years Of Suppressing Silver

by Jeff Nielson: Sophisticated precious metals investors are well-aware of the rampant manipulation of the gold and silver markets. They are also generally aware of the reason for such manipulation. A rapid rise in the price of gold and silver is like an economic "warning siren" - alerting savers that their wealth (i.e. the purchasing power of their currency) is being rapidly eroded by the monetary depravity of bankers.....read on

The Gold Standard

Hugo Salinas Price discusses the gold standard and the destruction going off the gold standard has brought to the West.......read on

Once you have read the article above go on a trip back in history to 1971. In the video below Tricky Dicky takes the USA, and by default the rest off the World, off the Gold standard, in the process making all the World's currencies paper promises backed by nothing.

Some background:

The President of France Charles De Gaulle fearing a future default by the USA on its gold backed dollars instructed the Banque de France to increase the rate at which new US dollars holdings were converted into gold bullion and sent the French navy across the Atlantic to hand over US dollars and bring back gold bullion in exchange. In 1965 alone, the French navy ferried back over $150 million of gold bullion thereby increasing the proportion of French national reserves held in gold from 71.4% to 91.9%.

Due to inflationary pressures on the US$ as a result of printing to many dollars and foreign borrowings to fund the Indo-China (Vietnam) war on August 15, 1971, President Nixon imposed a 90-day wage and price freeze, a 10 percent import surcharge, and, most importantly, “closed the gold window”, ending convertibility between US dollars and gold.

Five important charts for gold bugs

A great summary of charts showing gold's historic and possible future price against 5 fundamental measures......read on

Blanchflower says rob the pensioners to pay off UK debts

Former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member and leading UK economist David Blanchflower is suggesting that the UK target a higher inflation rate to deal with one of the highest national debt moutains in the world......read on

The coming Silver Shortage

Veteran market commentator Stephen Leeb, Chairman of Leeb Capital Mgmt. explains in simple terms the virtues of silver the potential shortages that could be experienced in the near future. Take away quote "Silver - there is very little of it and we need it for everything"

EU toxic debt

European mega toxic loans, which amount to $2.6 trillion just for Greece, Spain and Portugal.....it is all too well known that France and Germany will go bust overnight if PIIGS debt is allowed to be marked even halfway to market pro forma for governmental bailouts, on the banks' balance sheets....read more from Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge ---> here

17 Reasons to own Gold

Definitive summary of the main reasons to own Gold (most also apply to Silver) by the legendary John Embry of Sprott Asset Management. Read ---> here