Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tungsten filled Gold bars
ABC Bullion received the following email from a refinery partner this week as a general warning to those in the bullion industry.
Note:
- ABC Bullion did not purchase this bar, the bar was bought by a dealer in the UK that has no connection to ABC Bullion, the email and photos were sent as a general warning.
- The bar is a "one off"
- I have xxxx'ed out the city's name to avoid any second guessing as to the name of the dealer.
19/03/2012:
Attached are photographs of a legitimate Metalor 1000gm Au bar that has been drilled out and filled with Tungsten (W).
This bar was purchased by staff of a scrap dealer in xxxxx, UK yesterday. The bar appeared to be perfect other than the fact that it was 2gms underweight. It was checked by hand-held xrf and showed 99.98% Au. Being Tungsten, it would not be ferro-magnetic. The bar was supplied with the original certificate.
The owner of the business that purchased the bar only became suspicious when he realized the weight discrepancy and had the bar cropped. He estimates between 30-40% of the weight of the bar to be Tungsten.
This is very worrying and reinforces the lengths that people are willing to go to profit from the current high metal prices. Please be careful.
 |
| 1000g Gold bar cut showing inserted tungsten rods The two halves of the cut bar |
Gold smuggling in India, the dollar carry trade and Central Bank buying
Interviewer: Geoff Candy
Wednesday , 21 Mar 2012
ITALY TO LAUNCH SKYNET TAX COLLECTION SYSTEM
By Simon Black
Original source
March 21, 2012
Santiago, Chile
This is something out of an Orwellian science fiction movie. The Italian tax authorities are now field testing a new system called ‘redditometro’, a database that automatically collects and analyzes taxpayers’ tax data vs. spending data based on automated collection of credit card and banking information.
For example, if the credit card reports show that you have an expensive gym membership… or perhaps you bought too fancy of a mobile phone, then the system will flag you if your annual tax liability isn’t commensurate with such spending habits.
Big Brother would be proud.
Preliminary results showed that a full 20% of Italian taxpayers will be initially flagged, much to the delight of agency director Attilio Befera. According to Befera, “We have €120 billion of tax evasion, and to cope with this emergency, we need to take emergency measures…”
Naturally, the way to deal with fiscal urgency is to treat everyone like a suspect. Befera has dismissed criticism from privacy groups, wrapping himself up in a blanket of duty and righteousness–’desperate times call for desperate measures’ and all that nonsense.
It’s the same rationalization you see with these lowlife government agents who molest children at airports; they look in the mirror each morning and convince themselves that they’re keeping the country safe from criminal terrorists. Their mission is noble… and that justifies the means.
Italy is in a world of hurt, no doubt. Despite all the talk of austerity and eliminating the budget deficit by 2013, recently released central bank figures from Banca d’Italia showed that the 2011 state budget balance actually deteriorated by 11.49%.
Moreover, the first numbers released so far for this year show a whopping 197% increase in central government borrowing requirements from January 2011 to January 2012.Hardly the right direction.
Throughout it all, Italy’s public debt has been steadily rising and is now closing in on 2 trillion euros, much larger than the country’s economy. Meanwhile GDP actually shrank in the 4th quarter of last year by an annualized rate of 2.6%.
In typical form, the government is sticking it to the people. Buying Italian bonds has become an issue of patriotism with strong calls and intense public pressure for citizens to plunk down their hard earned savings and bail out the government. They even have footballers and celebrities endorsing government bonds.
On the flip side of this coin are the Big Brother financial tactics– shaking down every last citizen based on a computer algorithm’s judgment of their spending habits. Given that one of the categories that the tax authorities are looking at is investment spending, buying Italian bonds may very well, in fact, get people flagged by Skynet.
If you step back and look at the big picture, this system is truly mind boggling. For years, politicians have been running wild, showering themselves with power and privilege at taxpayer expense.
When the magical fairy dust ran out and it became time to pay the toll, they’ve made it a patriotic issue for society to bail out their malfeasance, and are now proceeding to milk the people dry through Draconian tax policies and collection schemes.
Serf. Slave. Milk cow. Pick your metaphor. Their privilege, our expense. It’s an absolutely absurd system that’s ripe for change.
Big Brother would be proud.
Preliminary results showed that a full 20% of Italian taxpayers will be initially flagged, much to the delight of agency director Attilio Befera. According to Befera, “We have €120 billion of tax evasion, and to cope with this emergency, we need to take emergency measures…”
Naturally, the way to deal with fiscal urgency is to treat everyone like a suspect. Befera has dismissed criticism from privacy groups, wrapping himself up in a blanket of duty and righteousness–’desperate times call for desperate measures’ and all that nonsense.
It’s the same rationalization you see with these lowlife government agents who molest children at airports; they look in the mirror each morning and convince themselves that they’re keeping the country safe from criminal terrorists. Their mission is noble… and that justifies the means.
Italy is in a world of hurt, no doubt. Despite all the talk of austerity and eliminating the budget deficit by 2013, recently released central bank figures from Banca d’Italia showed that the 2011 state budget balance actually deteriorated by 11.49%.
Moreover, the first numbers released so far for this year show a whopping 197% increase in central government borrowing requirements from January 2011 to January 2012.Hardly the right direction.
Throughout it all, Italy’s public debt has been steadily rising and is now closing in on 2 trillion euros, much larger than the country’s economy. Meanwhile GDP actually shrank in the 4th quarter of last year by an annualized rate of 2.6%.
In typical form, the government is sticking it to the people. Buying Italian bonds has become an issue of patriotism with strong calls and intense public pressure for citizens to plunk down their hard earned savings and bail out the government. They even have footballers and celebrities endorsing government bonds.
On the flip side of this coin are the Big Brother financial tactics– shaking down every last citizen based on a computer algorithm’s judgment of their spending habits. Given that one of the categories that the tax authorities are looking at is investment spending, buying Italian bonds may very well, in fact, get people flagged by Skynet.
If you step back and look at the big picture, this system is truly mind boggling. For years, politicians have been running wild, showering themselves with power and privilege at taxpayer expense.
When the magical fairy dust ran out and it became time to pay the toll, they’ve made it a patriotic issue for society to bail out their malfeasance, and are now proceeding to milk the people dry through Draconian tax policies and collection schemes.
Serf. Slave. Milk cow. Pick your metaphor. Their privilege, our expense. It’s an absolutely absurd system that’s ripe for change.
Locking up people is the only growth industry left in the US
RTAmerica on Mar 21, 2012
While most folks are struggling to survive in these hard times, private prisons are flourishing in the US. In fact - there are tens of billions of dollars in business opportunities out there. It's an enourmous industry that's virtually recession proof with sky-high profits to boot. Joe Weisenthall of the Business Insider explains why the prison industrial complex is prospering in America during this tough economic time.
While most folks are struggling to survive in these hard times, private prisons are flourishing in the US. In fact - there are tens of billions of dollars in business opportunities out there. It's an enourmous industry that's virtually recession proof with sky-high profits to boot. Joe Weisenthall of the Business Insider explains why the prison industrial complex is prospering in America during this tough economic time.
John Hathaway on the Gold Market
Is a Massive Spike In The Price of Silver Is Imminent?
By Hubert Moolman
Gold and silver are very close to entering the mania phase of this bull market. In order for gold and silver to go into the mania phase, value has to be diverted from somewhere, and that “somewhere” is most likely stocks.
Since 2000, there has been a correction in stock values, in real terms; however, nominally, stocks are still significantly high (close to its all-time highs).
I expect that significant value will soon be diverted from the general stock market, to silver and gold, causing prices to rally significantly, until these metals also become overvalued.
This is exactly what happened in 2007/2008. Below is a graphic (charts from barchart.com) that illustrates how this happened in 2007/2008:
The top chart is for the S&P 500 and the bottom is for silver. I have drawn a yellow line, at the point where the S&P 500 peaked. It is only after the peak in the S&P 500 that silver broke out, and eventually rallied significantly (while the S&P 500 was crashing). From a “fractal” point of view, we are currently in a similar position, with stocks getting ready to peak.
Silver Fractal Analysis
Silver has made its way out of the giant flag; however, it fell back again, lower than the upper boundary of the flag, as shown in the following chart:
Previously, I have stated that price will eventually break out of the flag and go on to make much higher highs. Below, is some evidence to support this view:
The top chart is for gold and the bottom one is for silver. Gold and silver made similar patterns before and after reaching their respective 1980 highs. From the charts, you can see there is a similarity in how gold and silver approached their 1980 high. Both made a triangle-type pattern (green lines) just before it reached the 1980 all-time high. When it came out of that triangle pattern, it rallied strongly to the 1980 high, which started the formation of a flag-type pattern (yellow lines).
Gold passed its 1980 all-time high during 2008, while silver is yet to do so. By looking at the pattern of how gold passed its 1980 high, we can predict how silver might do it as well. If silver continues to follow the pattern that gold formed, then we can expect a massive spike towards the $50 and beyond, very soon. Read myprevious article for more about this comparison.
For more of this kind of analysis, see my Long-term Silver Fractal Analysis Report , or subscribe to mypremium service .
Hubert
hubert@hgmandassociates.co.za
http://hubertmoolman.wordpress.com
Gold and silver are very close to entering the mania phase of this bull market. In order for gold and silver to go into the mania phase, value has to be diverted from somewhere, and that “somewhere” is most likely stocks.
Since 2000, there has been a correction in stock values, in real terms; however, nominally, stocks are still significantly high (close to its all-time highs).
I expect that significant value will soon be diverted from the general stock market, to silver and gold, causing prices to rally significantly, until these metals also become overvalued.
This is exactly what happened in 2007/2008. Below is a graphic (charts from barchart.com) that illustrates how this happened in 2007/2008:
The top chart is for the S&P 500 and the bottom is for silver. I have drawn a yellow line, at the point where the S&P 500 peaked. It is only after the peak in the S&P 500 that silver broke out, and eventually rallied significantly (while the S&P 500 was crashing). From a “fractal” point of view, we are currently in a similar position, with stocks getting ready to peak.
Silver Fractal Analysis
Silver has made its way out of the giant flag; however, it fell back again, lower than the upper boundary of the flag, as shown in the following chart:
Previously, I have stated that price will eventually break out of the flag and go on to make much higher highs. Below, is some evidence to support this view:
The top chart is for gold and the bottom one is for silver. Gold and silver made similar patterns before and after reaching their respective 1980 highs. From the charts, you can see there is a similarity in how gold and silver approached their 1980 high. Both made a triangle-type pattern (green lines) just before it reached the 1980 all-time high. When it came out of that triangle pattern, it rallied strongly to the 1980 high, which started the formation of a flag-type pattern (yellow lines).
Gold passed its 1980 all-time high during 2008, while silver is yet to do so. By looking at the pattern of how gold passed its 1980 high, we can predict how silver might do it as well. If silver continues to follow the pattern that gold formed, then we can expect a massive spike towards the $50 and beyond, very soon. Read myprevious article for more about this comparison.
For more of this kind of analysis, see my Long-term Silver Fractal Analysis Report , or subscribe to mypremium service .
Hubert
hubert@hgmandassociates.co.za
http://hubertmoolman.wordpress.com
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