Max & Stacey take their radio show to Cairo to soak up the atmosphere of the revolution.......listen here
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Ben Davies on the Mid East, rate rises and debt
Ben Davies of Hinde Capital discusses the Middle East issues and the expected ECB rate rise with Eric King of King World News......listen here
Revolutions in the Arab world
The Tunisian revolution took place a month ago, giving rise to uprisings and revolutions in the Arab world. Libya has paid the highest price in martyrs, some reports indicating 6000 dead. Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has instructed his army to defend the regime at any cost, while Saudi Arabia is awaiting march 13 day of rage, as it experienced protests on Friday, the day of Friday prayers, with its neighbor Bahrain witnessing massive protesters in Manama's Pearl Square. Almost all have one thing in common: their people want Regime Change.
Frost over the World - John McCain shrills for a Libyan "No Fly" Zone
Poor John, he never got to bomb Iran as he so wanted, now he is shrilling for the bombing of Libya. To have a No Fly zone you need to remove any chance of your planes being shot down, this means to having to destroy all anti-aircraft hardware, regardless of who is controlling it. So John is really pushing for the bombing of the Rebels as well as Gaddafi's supporters.
Saudis mobilise thousands of troops to quell growing revolt
By Robert Fisk, Middle East CorrespondentThe Independent:
Saudi Arabia was yesterday drafting up to 10,000 security personnel into its north-eastern Shia Muslim provinces, clogging the highways into Dammam and other cities with busloads of troops in fear of next week's "day of rage" by what is now called the "Hunayn Revolution".
Saudi Arabia's worst nightmare – the arrival of the new Arab awakening of rebellion and insurrection in the kingdom – is now casting its long shadow over the House of Saud. Provoked by the Shia majority uprising in the neighbouring Sunni-dominated island of Bahrain, where protesters are calling for the overthrow of the ruling al-Khalifa family, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is widely reported to have told the Bahraini authorities that if they do not crush their Shia revolt, his own forces will.
The opposition is expecting at least 20,000 Saudis to gather in Riyadh and in the Shia Muslim provinces of the north-east of the country in six days, to demand an end to corruption and, if necessary, the overthrow of the House of Saud. Saudi security forces have deployed troops and armed police across the Qatif area – where most of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslims live – and yesterday would-be protesters circulated photographs of armoured vehicles and buses of the state-security police on a highway near the port city of Dammam.
Although desperate to avoid any outside news of the extent of the protests spreading, Saudi security officials have known for more than a month that the revolt of Shia Muslims in the tiny island of Bahrain was expected to spread to Saudi Arabia. Within the Saudi kingdom, thousands of emails and Facebook messages have encouraged Saudi Sunni Muslims to join the planned demonstrations across the "conservative" and highly corrupt kingdom. They suggest – and this idea is clearly co-ordinated – that during confrontations with armed police or the army next Friday, Saudi women should be placed among the front ranks of the protesters to dissuade the Saudi security forces from opening fire.
If the Saudi royal family decides to use maximum violence against demonstrators, US President Barack Obama will be confronted by one of the most sensitive Middle East decisions of his administration. In Egypt, he only supported the demonstrators after the police used unrestrained firepower against protesters. But in Saudi Arabia – supposedly a "key ally" of the US and one of the world's principal oil producers – he will be loath to protect the innocent......read on
MASSIVE gold demand continues to break records in China
Latest reports out of China put consumer gold demand in the first 2 months of the current year at a phenomenal 200 tonnes - and buying momentum is still continuing.
From mineweb.comAuthor: Lawrence Williams
In amongst all the comment and analysis regarding the effects of the various Middle Eastern and North African power struggles on the gold price, the latest news on Chinese domestic gold demand has almost passed by unnoticed. According to Peter Hickson, the global commodities strategist for gold-focused Swiss Bank, UBS, in a report by Bloomberg, Chinese gold demand hit no less than 200 tonnes in the first two months of the current year. If that is extrapolated over a fill year - and the gold purchasing momentum caused by inflation-nervous purchasers suggests that there is even a possibility that demand could rise - this would mean that the Chinese consumer could be in line to buy close on 50% of global mined gold (and this does not include what the country's Central Bank may be salting away as well.)
The 200 tonnes in two months figure is MASSIVE. We recall that only a couple of months ago we were reporting that Chinese gold imports in the first 10 months of 2010 totalled 209 tonnes, itself a 500% increase on the previous year. It now seems that demand by individuals is reaching almost frightening levels. Not only is jewellery demand seen as being up by 70% year on year, but investment demand (coins and bars as opposed to jewellery, which has been the main outlet for gold purchases in the past) is also coming on strongly from virtually nothing a couple of years ago to a WGC estimate of close on 180 tonnes in 2010. If the pace of growth continues investment demand alone could reach as much as 300 tonnes in 2011!
If the Chinese Central Bank is absorbing domestic production, as many believe then total Chinese demand this year could soar past India's. The potential is almost beyond belief. Indeed Chinese offtake is more than matching any disposals from gold ETFs, and with the continuing justified worries about inflation in China the momentum is likely to continue regardless of the gold price elsewhere.
This area of demand is something which has only really come to life in the past two years, and it seems that many observers and analysts are just not feeding this information into their predictions. As we've noted here beforehand this kind of demand level - particularly as it is not from a population which trades in and out on price, but holds its bullion and jewellery as insurance against really hard times - does tend to limit downside risk in the gold market.
But what of the Chinese Central Bank? There is evidence that China is positioning itself to make the yuan at least a part of any new reserve currency package which might replace the still-declining U.S. dollar in global trade. There is the strong suggestion that it needs to build its gold reserves as backing for this at least to levels approaching those of the biggest European Central Banks, which suggests a doubling of Chinese gold reserves at the very least in a relatively short space of time. We know that China has been buying on gold price dips as various officials have confirmed this in the past, although we have no idea of the volumes involved. Maybe the country will announce another revaluation of its reserves in the near future, even though it tends to be cagey about such announcements as it knows any significant increase will affect the global gold price and while it may be soaking up excess gold it still wants to buy it at what it may see as bargain prices!
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