Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold?
This month, the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department reported that China imported 102,779 kilograms of gold from Hong Kong in November, an increase from October’s 86,299 kilograms. Beijing does not release gold trade figures, so for this and other reasons the Hong Kong numbers are considered the best indication of China’s gold imports.
Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month.
So who in China is buying all this gold?
The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, has been hinting that it is purchasing. “No asset is safe now,” said the PBOC’s Zhang Jianhua at the end of last month. “The only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency—gold.” He also said it was smart strategy to buy on market dips. Analysts naturally jumped on his comment as proof that China, the world’s fifth-largest holder of the metal, is in the market for more.
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Gerald Celente on ZIRP and Gold
Monday, January 30, 2012
Reflecting on Sunnier times
By James Delingpole There's a great piece by David Rose in the Mail On Sunday nicely summing up what a lot of us here knew already: that the thing we really need to fear right now is not global warming but global cooling. And that, on current evidence, it's global cooling we're going to get.
The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997. Rose's piece comes hot on the heels of an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal signed by 16 distinguished scientists (proper ones: not "climate" "scientists") noting the continuing absence of ManBearPig.
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Pretend Money
Pity they haven't arrested Ben Bernanke for also producing high quality notes pretending to be money.
"Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself" ~ Thomas Jefferson 1788
Jan 26, 2012 by Euronews
"Paper is poverty,… it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself" ~ Thomas Jefferson 1788
Jan 26, 2012 by Euronews
BDI continues to plunge
As mentioned in this earlier post the BDI (Baltic Dry Index) is currently plunging, and has in fact fallen another 20% in last week. I have seen bricks with greater aerodynamics than this index. This is not looking good for any global recovery in the near term.
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