The Keiser Report

This week Max Keiser and co-host Tracy Herbert look at the latest scandals of fetishes for black swans; American youth unconcerned by the coming collapse of their Social Security they bought and paid for; Tony Blair's 2007 photo op with Colonel Gaddafi. In the second half of the show, Max interviews Ned Naylor-Leyland of Cheviot Asset Management about the silver market. Note the excellent question supplied by ABC's Senior Metals Analyst, and author of this blog, at the 14:08 minute mark........watch here

Why gold is still the best buy for Agora investors

By Arabian Money: Spotting the consensus buy at an event like the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver last week is a good indicator of the way markets will move. Two years ago they got the stock market crash spot on.

This year the consensus pick among this line-up of contrarian speakers was gold by a mile. The 1,000 attendees heartily agreed....read on

The Enigmatic Silver Miners

By Jeff Nielson: Silver is roughly 17 times as plentiful as gold, as an element in the Earth's crust. Thus, it is no surprise that over the course of nearly 5,000 years, the gold/silver ratio has averaged approximately 15:1. What is surprising is how this ratio has been so thoroughly perverted by the manipulations of the anti-gold cabal - to sit at one of its most lop-sided extremes in history: currently greater than 60:1.

Under any circumstances, this ratio is obviously unsustainable. However, with the "industrial" usages of silver literally causing the vast majority of the world's silver stockpiles to be "consumed", there is less silver in the world today (relative to gold) than at any time in more than 4,000 years. Thus, at a time when the gold/silver ratio should be at its lowest level in history, it hovers at the opposite extreme - arguably the greatest disconnection between price and fundamentals in the history of markets....read on

Bullion, coin dealers call for investigation of U.S. coin blanks supply

From Mineweb: A congressional subcommittee has been asked to investigate the growing backlog in and foreign procurement of U.S. bullion and collectors' precious metals coin blanks manufactured by the U.S. Mint. Witnesses before and members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy have urged Congress to direct the U.S. Mint to buy U.S. manufactured blanks for gold and silver bullion coins and discontinue the practice of using Australian-made blanks.

Ranking Subcommittee Member Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said he opposes the Mint's current efforts to gain greater power in determining the composition of circulating coinage."We could not maintain the gold standard nor the silver standard. We could not maintain the copper standard, and now we cannot even maintain the zinc standard," Paul noted. "Paper money inevitably breeds inflation and destroys the value of currency."

Michael B. Clark, president of the Diamond State Depository, a subsidiary of the Dillon Gage group, one of 12 authorized purchasers of American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins, told the subcommittee, "The Mint's inability to keep pace with demand has had a negative and unnecessary impact on the investment and hobby community."

He added that the Mint's reliance on just three suppliers for planchets or blanks "is flawed. Moreover, there is some irony in the fact that while Congress requires the Mint to procure the gold for its Eagle bullion coins from newly mined U.S. deposits, the Mint then ships that gold to Australia to be made into blanks. Then, the fabricated blanks are later shipped back to the United States for the production of coins."....read on

The Death of Paper Money

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974.....read on

Platinum could outshine gold

From the UK Telegraph: Platinum demand should improve in the fourth quarter, according to Nick Moore, a metal analyst at RBS, and he sees strong upside for prices in the next few years. "We continue to expect significant upside to the platinum price with a 2013 average of $2,000 per ounce,"....read on

The Sultans of Swing

by Gordan T Long: The news rocked the global gold market when an almost obscure line item in the back of a 216 page document released by an equally obscure organization was recently unearthed. Thrust into the unwanted glare of the spotlight, the little publicized Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is discovered to have accepted 349 metric tons of gold in a $14B swap. Why? With whom? For what duration? How long has this been going on? This raises many questions and as usual with all $617T of murky unregulated swaps, we are given zero answers. It is none of our business!.....read on

Crossing over to the Dark Side

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton discusses the new financial regulations, dark markets, and positions limits in commodity markets. This could potentially impact the ongoing short side manipulations in the silver market.

SMOKING GUNS OF USTREASURY MONETIZATION

By Jim Willie: A significant feature of fiat money systems is the privilege for the custodian of the reserve currency to engage in regular practices of ham-fisted monetary management, even permission for fraudulent centers to flourish, surely developing a debt monster that an economy grows dependent upon. Fannie Mae might be the most offensive blight on such privilege.....read on

The Coming Silver Supernova

By Lorimer Wilson: "Few investment opportunities arise in our lifetime like silver. The stage is set for a silver price percentage gain of extraordinary magnitude! Forget the popular refrain of "Got Gold?" and make some additions to your portfolio to take advantage of the coming silver supernova!".....read on