Monday, September 30, 2013

India's temples guard their gold from government


(Reuters) - India's temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India's current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country's richest temples asking for details of their gold.

It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms.

"The gold stored in temples was contributed by devotees over thousands of years and we will not allow anyone to usurp it," said V Mohanan, secretary of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad organisation in Kerala, in a statement.

Indians buy as much as 2.3 tonnes of gold, on average, every day - the weight of a small elephant - and what they don't give to the gods is mostly hoarded. Jewellery is handed down as heirlooms and stored away with bars and coins as a hedge against inflation or a source of quick funds in an emergency.

Read more

Michael Maloney On Drutter's Divergence

From whygoldandsilver

GSR interviews RICHARD DAUGHTY

From GoldSeek.com Radio

Published on Sep 27, 2013 With Richard Daughty "The Mogambo Guru" http://mogamboguru.com/


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Marc Faber: Chinese growth may slow to 4%

Tue 24 Sep 13

Marc Faber, Editor of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report explains why Chinese growth could slow down to a maximum of 4 percent. He also thinks gold, silver and Japanese equities are inexpensive.

The Organized Crime / Banking At Its Finest Show

From jungledrumradio

Published on Sep 28, 2013

In a new edition of their Organized Crime / Banking At Its Finest Show, Canadian financial analyst Rob Kirby and German financial journalist Lars Schall talk about this week's dismissal by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission of complaints about manipulation of the silver market.


Keiser Report: Lynching America

From RT

Published on Sep 28, 2013

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, discuss whether banking bonus outrage is equivalent to the lynching of African Americans in the Deep South and the money, money, money, MONEY! of the ex-Presidents of the United States. In the second half, Max interviews George Galloway, a Member of the UK Parliament, about his documentary film, The Killing of Tony Blair. They also discuss crowd funding democracy with Galloway's run for Mayor of London.



Update from George on his documentary



If you can please pledge funding for this film here

Saturday, September 28, 2013

SD Weekly Metals & Markets: The End Game With GATA's Bill Murphy

From silverdoctors

Published on Sep 27, 2013

On this week's show, GATA's Bill Murphy joins The Doc & Eric Dubin to discuss.

Weekend Chillout - Walking looking straight ahead

This week the CFTC concluded after walking for 7,000 hours through the badlands that everything is fine in the silver market. That the market will wake up strong in the morning if only they walk in a straight line. All will be fine if they are desperate believers.


Friday, September 27, 2013

What You Don't Know About The NSA Spying Scandal

From LeeCamp2

Keiser Report: Trickle-Down Flamethrowers

From RT

Published on Sep 26, 2013

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss flamethrowers and jihadis in the banking world. They also note that houses in London earn more per day than the average worker in London. In the second half, Max interviews Mitch Feierstein of PlanetPonzi.com about the Fed's balance sheet, housing bubbles around the world and putting lipstick on pigs.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Gold still has its safe haven appeal

Wed 25 Sep 13. 

Jordan Eliseo, ABC Bullion's Chief Economist, thinks gold over the long term is still the ultimate safe-haven trade.
 

Fifty Shades of Gold

Prescient video on the CFTC and Silver

From BrotherJohnF

Published on Sep 29, 2012


REALIST NEWS - CFTC ends Silver market investigation - No wrongdoing found

From jsnip4

Peter Schiff Was Right: The “Taper” Edition

From Peter Schiff

Published on Sep 25, 2013

When Ben Bernanke announced that the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee was going to continue its monetary expansion program it calls Quantitative Easing, almost everyone in the financial media was taken by complete surprise. According to the mainstream media, the non-taper "surprised almost everyone out there." Well it did not surprise me, nor anyone who had been paying attention to what I had been saying. As I said repeatedly over the past several months, the Fed knows that the appearance of economic health would evaporate if its stimulus were withdrawn, or even diminished. The Fed understands, as the market seems not to, that the current "recovery" could not survive without the continuation of massive monetary stimulus. In fact, the Fed's next big move will likely be to increase, rather than taper, its monthly QE dosage!


New US $100 Bill

Got to love the fact that Ben Bernanke and the New York Federal Reserve are counterfeiting $85Billion into existence every month but the guys in the print room in Fort Worth, Texas are worried about someone faking a piece of ugly looking paper. And guys that gold lettering ain't fooling anyone, it is still just a piece of paper.

From AssociatedPress

What The Pope Has Said That's Too Dangerous To Talk About

From LeeCamp2



House Intelligence Committee gives members of Congress the runaround

From RTAmerica


Gerald Celente on Market Crash, Tapering and Upcoming War

From Greg Hunter


CFTC Closes Investigation Concerning the Silver Markets

RELEASE: pr6709-13

September 25, 2013

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) Division of Enforcement has closed the investigation that was publicly confirmed in September 2008 concerning silver markets. The Division of Enforcement is not recommending charges to the Commission in that investigation. For law enforcement and confidentiality reasons, the CFTC only rarely comments publicly on whether it has opened or closed any particular investigation. Nonetheless, given that this particular investigation was confirmed in September 2008, the CFTC deemed it appropriate to inform the public that the investigation is no longer ongoing. Based upon the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring an enforcement action with respect to any firm or its employees related to our investigation of silver markets.

In September 2008 the CFTC confirmed that its Division of Enforcement was investigating complaints of misconduct in the silver market (see CFTC Release 5562-08, October 2, 2008). At that time the Commission had received complaints regarding silver prices. These complaints were focused on whether the silver futures contracts traded on the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX) were being manipulated.1 For example, the complaints pointed to differences between prices in the silver futures contracts and prices in other silver products, including retail silver products. The complainants generally asserted that because the prices for retail silver products, such as coins and bullion, had increased, the price of silver futures contracts should have also experienced an increase. By reference to publicly available information concerning large traders with short open positions in the silver futures contracts, the complaints also alleged that the large shorts in the silver market were responsible for lower futures prices. The Division of Enforcement conducted an exhaustive investigation of these and other complaints and focused on identifying and evaluating whether there was any trading activity in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission regulations including the anti-manipulation provisions.

The Division of Enforcement’s investigation utilized more than seven thousand enforcement staff hours. The staff reviewed and analyzed position and transaction data, including physical, swaps, options, and futures trading data, and other documents and information, and interviewed witnesses. The Division’s investigation included an evaluation of silver market fundamentals and trading within and between cash, futures and over the counter markets. The investigation was also undertaken with assistance by the Commission’s Division of Market Oversight, the Commission’s Office of Chief Economist, and outside experts.

Separately, the Division of Market Oversight continued surveillance of the silver market contemporaneously to the Division of Enforcement’s investigation. The Division of Market Oversight’s market surveillance function encompasses a robust monitoring of traders’ positions and transactions at the ownership and account levels to identify potential violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission regulations including, but not limited to, price manipulation, disruptive trading and trade practice violations. For example, after an episode of sharp price moves in any commodity, staff utilizes numerous visualization and analytical tools on data submitted daily to the Commission to discover indications of potential manipulation and other violations. Where questions remain, Division of Market Oversight staff regularly utilize the Commission authority such as the Special Call under Regulation § 18.05 to obtain additional detailed information from traders.

The Division of Enforcement takes complaints it receives seriously. The Division will not hesitate to use its authority, including new manipulation authority in the Dodd-Frank Act, to bring market manipulation charges as supported by the evidence.

If you have information about a violation of the Commodity Exchange Act or Commission regulations, you may either file a tip or complaint under our whistleblower program, or report such violations or other suspicious activities or transactions to our Division of Enforcement. The CFTC will pay awards to eligible whistleblowers who voluntarily provide us with original information about violations of the Commodity Exchange Act that lead us to bring an enforcement action that results in more than $1 million in monetary sanctions.

1 The CME Group now includes the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) as well as the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX). Market participants generally still refer to the silver futures contracts offered by the CME Group as “COMEX silver futures.”

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Paul Craig Roberts - Washington’s Tyranny

By Paul Craig Roberts

Article link

The war criminal Barack Obama has declared his “outrage” over the 62 deaths associated with the takeover of a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping mall by al-Shabaab fighters. But the attack on the shopping mall was Obama’s fault. Al Shabaab spokesmen said that the attack on the Nairobi mall was a retaliatory response to the Kenyan troops sent to fight against them in Somalia. The Kenyan troops, of course, were sent to Somalia as a result of pressure from Washington.

Just as the outbreak of violence in Mali resulted from the fighters that Obama used against Gaddafi moving into Mali, Washington’s violence against Somalia has resulted in the terrorist attack on the Nairobi mall.

This fact again raises the never asked question: What is the real agenda of Washington’s “war on terror”? The western presstitutes never ask this question, nor do western legislative bodies.

Washington has offered a variety of justifications for its twelve years of wars. One is that
Washington is rooting out terrorism in order to protect Americans from 9/11 type events. Another is that “dictators” must be overthrown and replaced with “freedom and democracy.” Still another is false claims of the possession of “weapons of mass destruction” (Iraq) and the use of “weapons of mass destruction” (Syria).

None of Washington’s claims can withstand the barest scrutiny. None of the governments that Washington has overthrown and seeks to overthrow are terrorist states. Indeed, some are not even Islamist governments. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had a secular government, as does Assad’s Syria.

Washington’s explanations for murdering Pakistanis and Yemenis with drones are even more nebulous. Moreover, using military means to kill citizens of countries with which the US is not at war lacks all legality.

When Obama gets on the moral high horse about deaths in Syria or Nairobi, his hypocrisy is astounding. A person would think obama would be ashamed. The Egyptian military, which is financed with $2 billion annually from Washington, has just overthrown the first elected president in Egypt’s history, banned the political party that Egyptians elected to power, and confiscated the political party’s assets, money, and buildings.

The Washington sponsored Egyptian military shot down in the streets many more Egyptians protesting the overthrow of their government by a military coup than died in the Nairobi mall. But we hear nothing from Washington or Obama about the need to support democracy in Egypt.

When the British Parliament voted down providing cover for Obama’s criminal attack on Syria, Parliament created space for Russia’s President Putin to resolve the Syrian situation by obtaining Syrian President Assad’s agreement to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and to turn over all Syrian chemical weapons to an international body.

The war monger Obama regime was outraged that Washington’s military attack on Syria had been blocked. Washington and the Israel Lobby went into full scale demonization of President Putin for orchestrating peace instead of war. The obama regime is trying to block the agreement by insisting on incorporating into the UN resolution an opportunity for attacking Syria if Washington is not convinced that all chemical weapons are turned over.

The entire world knows that Washington will again lie through its teeth, assert that all the weapons were not turned over and use the wedge that Washington is attempting to force into the UN resolution to start another war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has publicly stated that Washington is trying to blackmail Russia into accepting the potential for military intervention in Syria as part of the agreement.

Until the 21st century, Washington carried out its relentless nefarious activities against other peoples and countries under cover and out of sight. In the 21st century the criminal bush and Obama regimes have brazenly demonstrated their disregard for US law, international law, and human rights.

Hubris and arrogance have run away with the “superpower.” The US stands reviled by the world. At the UN summit on September 23, the president of Brazil denounced the obama regime for its “breach of international law” revealed by the spy scandal. Bolivian President Evo Morales is filing a lawsuit against the Obama regime for “crimes against humanity.”

When the world looks at Washington, it cannot differentiate Washington from the dictatorships that Washington attributes to other countries. The Washington regime has declared that it is above both law and Constitution and possesses the power to detain citizens indefinitely and to murder them without due process of law. These powers comprise the necessary and sufficient conditions for dictatorship.

Who will liberate Americans from Washington’s tyranny, overthrow the executive branch dictatorship, and bring freedom and democracy to America?

Eric Sprott - The Fed Has Lost Control of the Bond Market

From silverdoctors


Obama UN Speech On Iran: We Are Not Seeking Regime Change

From The Young Turks

Mike Maloney - From DOLLAR CRISIS To Golden Opportunity

From SGTbull07


Santelli hits the debt ceiling reset button

Is There a Crack in the Great Firewall of China?

I suspect there is some truth to this article as this blog received its first significant hits from mainland China from the start of this year. Note in this video they mention the use of VPNs in China (Virtual Private Network) such networks access the internet via a third country such as the Netherlands and hence do not get tracked as coming from China.

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Shaun Rein, managing director at China Market Research Group, comments on China allowing access to Facebook and Twitter in the Shanghai free trade zone. He speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West."

How the Chinese view Gold

Via the In Gold We Trust blog:

First published 1 August 2012 in Qiushi magazine, the main academic journal of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee. Note: Sun Zhaoxue is the president of China National Gold Corporation. Translated by Soh Tiong Hum

By SUN Zhaoxue

Building a strong economic and financial security barrier for China

Because Gold possesses stable intrinsic value, it is both the cornerstone of countries’ currency and credit as well as a global strategic reserve. Without exception, world economic powers established and implement gold strategies at the national level. China is the world’s second largest economy, in order to enhance core competitiveness in a shorter period of time, an important aspect is an integrated policy of gold exploration, production, trade, consumption and investment so as to strengthen China’s control of this strategic resource, thereby effectively safeguard the country’s economic and financial security in the process of globalization and strengthen defense against external risks.

First, rediscover the status and role of gold reserves from a strategic height

After the disintegration of the Bretton Woods system in the 1970s, the gold standard which was in use for a century collapsed. Under the influence of the US Dollar hegemony the stabilizing effect of gold was widely questioned, the ‘gold is useless’ discussion began to spread around the globe. Many people thought that gold is no longer the monetary base, that storing gold will only increase the cost of reserves. Therefore, some central banks began to sell gold reserves and gold prices continued to slump. Affected by this point of view, the growth of gold reserves for China, the world's largest gold producer, began to slow.

Indeed, since mankind’s discovery of gold, gold because of its stability and rarity became mankind’s important method of exchanging labor and wealth. Along with the deepening of economic globalization gold stabilized societies and economies, prevented inflation, increased national credit-worthiness and stabilized exchange rates. It possesses a status that is irreplaceable by other capital assets. Especially since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, gold's safe-haven against inflation is increasingly prominent, its strategic position in the reserves of wealth regained world attention and central banks became net buyers of gold.

Currently, there are more and more people recognizing that the ‘gold is useless’ story contains too many lies. Gold now suffers from a ‘smokescreen’ designed by the US, which stores 74% of global official gold reserves, to put down other currencies and maintain the US Dollar hegemony. Going to the source, the rise of the US dollar and British pound, and later the euro currency, from a single country currency to a global or regional currency was supported by their huge gold reserves.

Especially noteworthy is that in the course of this international financial crisis, the US shows a huge financial deficit but it did not sell any of its gold reserves to reduce debt. Instead it turned on the printer, massively increasing the US Dollar supply, making the wealth of those countries and regions with foreign reserves mainly denominated in US Dollar quickly diminish, in effect automatically reducing their own debt. In stark contrast with the sharp depreciation of the US Dollar, international gold price continue to rise breaking $1900 US Dollars per ounce in 2011, gold’s asset-preservation contrasts vividly with the devaluation of credit-based assets. Naturally the more devalued the US Dollar, the more the gold price rises, the more evident the function of US gold reserves as a hedge. Although the international financial crisis was established in the US, the crisis failed to shake the dollar's status as an international currency. US net wealth did not appear to diminish with the same degree of the dollar's decline, an important reason why the US’ 8,133 tons of gold reserves play a role. In the global financial crisis, countries in the world political and economic game, we once again clearly see that gold reserves have an important function for financial stability and are an ‘anchor’ for national economic security.

After 30 years of reform and development, China has become a highly open country, not only moving in tandem with the world economy, but is playing an increasingly important role in the way the setup of the world economy changes. Therefore to win over new changes and challenges in the international post-crisis era, China must not only advance the internationalization of the Chinese RMB supported by a massive economy, but also view gold reserves as an important parameter and achieve a logical ratio between gold reserves and economic output. This requires us to make a forward looking judgment on the scale of gold reserves, build and implement quickly a national gold strategy that is suitable to China’s economic development.

Second, effort to increase domestic resource integration is our main channel to increase gold reserves

Because gold is a natural currency, from assuring national economic development and
security, to hastening the advancement of RMB internationalization, increasing gold reserves should become a central pillar in our country’s development strategy. International experience shows that a country requires 10% of foreign reserves in gold to ensure financial stability while achieving high economic growth concurrently. At the moment, the US, France, Italy and other countries’ gold accounts for 70% of forex reserves. Entering the new century, China increased its gold reserves twice in 2001 from 394 tons to 500 tons, and in 2003 to 600 tons. After the international financial crisis erupted, gold reserves were increased to 1054 tons but gold reserves account for less than 1.6% of forex reserves – a wide gap compared to developed countries.

Due to China’s huge forex reserves, it's difficult in the short term to make gold a main channel to accumulate forex reserves like the US and European countries. It's especially true that as global gold prices make new highs, increasing gold reserves also become more difficult [Author includes an idiom ’风物长宜放眼量’ from Mao Zedong here; idiom says that there are many setbacks and frustrations in life but one should adopt a long-term horizon to analyze a problem in order to find solutions]. We need to establish a more clear national gold strategy, look at benefits over a long term as a starting point, amply make use of two markets, two resources, continue to grow gold reserves and progressively become a ‘gold-reserve’ nation that is commensurate with the country’s economic strength. Based on current conditions, apart from accumulating gold from international markets at opportune moments, the main channel to implement a national gold strategy is to increases domestic gold integration through increasing gold production, this in order to strengthen the all-round development of China’s economy and financial ‘breakwater’.

In the new century, under the guidance of systematic development, China's gold industry ushered in a period of accelerated development and in one fell swoop got rid of the ‘poor gold country’ hat. From 2007 to 2011, China's gold production took global pole position and established a complete industrial system of gold, effectively supporting the national gold strategy. There are still many shortcomings in our current gold industry, particularly prominent problems include: generally small scale mining, low proven reserves, unconsolidated mining concessions, recovery of mining by-products, development order, environment protection and other aspects of uneven development. Statistics show that there were more than 500 Chinese regions that mine gold in 2011, making up more than 700 gold mines, yielding an average of 0.5 tons per mine. The world’s largest gold producer Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada produced 239.5 tons however.

To address this situation, China is also increasing gold resource integration efforts in recent years. However, due to long-standing lack of development of gold resources on strategic planning, and in recent years an illusion of wealth brought by the gold bull market, a variety of aspects of social capital have been involved in mining. To fundamentally solve these problems, the state will need to elevate gold to an equal strategic resource as oil and energy, from the whole industry chain to develop industry planning and resource strategies. First, we must restrict access, from a technical, financial, security and environmental protection perspective, to improve the access threshold for exploration of gold. To Raise the barrier of entry will gain the efficiency of mining. Second, to further improve mining management we must increase resource integration efforts, further develop and expand main gold exploration and development companies into leading enterprises, so as to achieve projects of scale. Third we should encourage key enterprises that are competitive to penetrate globally so as to avoid loss of bargaining power, because domestic enterprises consist of small players.

In addition, because individual investment demand is an important component of China’s gold reserve system, we should encourage individual investment demand for gold. Practice shows that gold possession by citizens is an effective supplement to national reserves and is very important to national financial security. World Gold Council statistics show that Chinese individuals possess less than 5 grams of gold per capita, a significant difference to the global average of more than 20 grams. This shows that there big potential for private ownership.

Third, committed to the promising and rigorous implementation of the national gold strategy

Formed in early 2003, China Gold Group Corporation is both China's largest gold production and sales enterprises, but also the gold industry’s only state owned enterprise. Under the direction of scientific development [this term appears several times – it can mean using a systematic approach or can also refer to a government directive] over the past 10 years, China Gold Group Corporation always adhered to building an excellent business, preventing financial risks and servicing the national situation as a top priority China Gold is committed to promote the coordinated development of gold industry’s exploration, mining, processing, consumption and investment in the industrial chain for a healthy development of China's gold market, in order to contribute to the effective implementation of the national gold strategy. In 2012, China Gold Group Corporation's total assets will exceed more than ¥60 billion yuan, sales revenue will exceed ¥100 billion yuan. Currently, the Group has a daily processing capacity of 150,000 tons of ore, business scope covers the entire value chain and has grown into China's gold industry leader. The group has to play a leadership role as state-own enterprise, to turn the gold industry into an important pillar of stable national economic growth under the national gold strategy.

In the "Twelve Five" period [abbreviation for central policy 5-year plan; 12-5 is the plan for period 2011-2015] we will target the gold industry with cutting-edge technology and continue to increase investment in science and technology for the implementation of a technology driven strategy to promote the optimization and upgrading of the gold industry. At present China Gold Group Corporation has three R&D projects incorporated into the "Twelve Five" National Science and Technology Support Program, appointed by the Ministry of Science to be a green gold mining technology feasibility study project.

The company plays a major role in promoting large-scale research projects. Through independent innovation and integrated innovation we address the constraints of gold exploration, mining, smelting and other areas of industry challenges, and continuously improve the comprehensive development and utilization of mineral resources capability. Meanwhile, we should focus on projects as an opportunity to revitalize the national equipment manufacturing industry as its mission, find ‘win-win’ models of cooperation for mining companies and equipment manufacturers, actively support localization of major equipment to promote the continuous innovation of major mining equipment producers.

To bear national responsibility and increase national gold reserves in the "Twelve Five" period, China Gold Group Corporation must firmly grasp the lifeline of resources with methods such as exploration to increasing proven reserves, merger and acquisition, base construction and opening up offshore gold resources to accelerate increase of national gold reserves. On the one hand, we should make full use of own research and manpower, increase number of talents, funds and equipment to carry out prospecting, achieve the highest gold reserves in the shortest time; on the other hand actively secure local government support to increase regional integration, breakthroughs, scientific development, achieving higher efficiency, to solve the gold industry’s problem of being resource-inefficient and environmentally destructive because of mining small, scattered, isolated, far’. In the near term, China Gold Group Corporation will, on the 20 national regions identified for gold production, speed up consolidation of small mines into a batch of technologically-advanced, environmentally friendly, ‘role-model’ enterprises that can produce 3-8 tons annually. Concurrently, actively implement a globalization strategy that will exploit overseas resources and increase channels to grow China’s gold reserves.

We should advocate to ‘store gold among the people’ and guide a healthy positive development in this segment. In recent years, the domestic gold industry’s rapid growth provided good conditions for various uses of gold, as well as create space for this business to grow faster. China Gold Group Corporation has to catch the opportunity, while increasing its supply capacity, to push ‘store gold among people’ strategy, actively extend the business value chain, increase gold investment types, encourage and promote individuals’ gold investment and consumption. Foremost, maximize the utilization of nearly 1600 China Gold retailers, increase sales channels, optimize sales network, strengthen branding and achieve to ‘store gold among the people’ and thus ‘store wealth among the people’. This is the objective under our gold strategy.

World economies are shaken and insecure, causes of instability are coming together and uncertainty is growing. The world economy faces new changes, new challenges and new opportunities, therefore we must relook the status and function of gold from a strategic height and create and implement a national gold strategy, to strengthen our country’s ability to counter complex situations. This is the only way for China’s gold industry to adopt a scientific evolution, to push China from across the milestone from a ‘large gold country’ to a ‘strong gold country’.

(Author : China Gold Group Corporation General Manager, President of China Gold Association)

Jim Rickards: Fed Knows Gold Has To Go Higher

From Kitco NEWS

Published on Sep 23, 2013

Kitco News was in New York City for Platinum Week and caught up with best-selling author Jim Rickards to talk the fed, gold and the international monetary system. According to Rickards, the Fed knows gold has to go higher but taper talks continue to put downward pressure on the yellow metal. Rickards expects the Fed to continue "tapering into weakness" and says there may even be a recession next year. Tune in now to hear his take on the global economy and hear more about his latest book entitled "The Death of Money & the Coming Collapse of the international Monetary System" due for release in April.


Jeff Berwick on the Nomad Capitalist: The Most Dangerous Word in the World

If you want to hear Jeff speak live and meet him after his presentation he will be one of the keynote speakers at the 6th annual Gold Investment Symposium in Sydney, 16-17 October 2013.

From TheDollarVigilante

Published on Sep 24, 2013

Jeff Berwick in Acapulco, Mexico is interviewed on The Nomad Capitalist Report http://nomadcapitalist.com/. The economic system is in a state of collapse and the United States is the epicenter. The US standard of living is based on debt and will soon be disappearing.

Jeff's Article "We is the most dangerous word in the world": http://www.lewrockwell.com/2011/07/je...

To find out more about Jeff's freedom enclave in Chile: http://galtsgulchchile.com/

Keiser Report: Banksters' God Complex

From RT

Published on Sep 24, 2013

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, discuss the US Federal Reserve Bank as 'the greatest hedge fund' in history and ask whether or not their quantitative easing policy is like trying to pass pork off as a prime cut of beef. In the second half, Max interviews precious metals trader, Andrew Maguire, about JPMorgan whistleblowers and the Federal Reserve Bank taper hoax.


Mike Maloney - Hidden Secrets Of Money 3 - Dollar Crisis To Golden Opportunity

From whygoldandsilver

Published on Sep 24, 2013

MORE: http://www.hiddensecretsofmoney.com Today we bring you Episode 3 of Mike Maloney's Hidden Secrets of Money. You may have heard stories on the news lately that suggest an international move away from the US Dollar is underway...but have you ever seen these events listed on a timeline?

Join Mike Maloney in Singapore as he states his case for why he expects the world to have a new monetary system in this decade. Whether it is countries repatriating their gold supplies, or creating bilateral trade agreements -- these events are all deemed to be 'Golden Nails' in the coffin of the U.S. Dollar Standard.



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Freedom fighters unite at LPAC

From RTAmerica

Published on Sep 23, 2013

The third annual Liberty Political Action Conference (LPAC) sponsored by Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty (C4L), was a four day event that brought together over 700 people from across the U.S. to "relax among likeminded people" in liberty. The biggest leaders in the libertarian movement were featured and spoke about how they are gaining traction in their campaign to advance the cause for liberty.


CrossTalk: Surveillance Inc.

From RT

Published on Sep 23, 2013

What are the true goals of the surveillance state? Have we willingly surrendered the right of privacy? Where is the revolt against the NSA and telecommunication companies? Is the government intimidating its citizens for their own safety? CrossTalking with Eugene Puryear, Michael O'Brien and TJ Walker.


Lauren Lyster interviews Jim Rogers on the best countries to live and invest in


Cyprus - A wake-up call: Rethinking money

First published on Apr 5, 2013

A brilliant documentary on the downfall of Cyprus and it's banking system, and the risk it could happen elsewhere in the Eurozone.

From GoldMoneyNews

Jim Rickards on the Fed and Gold

Jim Rickards discusses the recent Federal Reserve decision not to Taper and its effect on the Gold market. Listen to the AFE interview here

Gold Symposium 2013 Interview Series with Greg Scealy

From Symposium Events

Published on Sep 22, 2013

Interview with Greg Scealy, General Manager at Melbourne Mint, covers his thoughts on the current market, the history of gold and gold as currency. Mr Scealy also mentions what Melbourne Mint's CEO Peter August will be covering in his presentation at the 6th annual Gold Investment Symposium in Sydney, 16-17 October 2013.

Eric Sprott: Bonds Are for Losers - We Will See People Moving Into Gold and Silver

From Greg Hunter


Monday, September 23, 2013

Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Interview Series with Jeff Berwick

From Symposium Events

Published on Sep 22, 2013
Interview with Jeff Berwick, Chief Editor at The Dollar Vigilante, and keynote speaker the the 6th annual Gold Investment Symposium in Sydney, 16-17 October 2013. For more information visit http://symposium.net.au/gold

Gold Investment Symposium 2013 Interview Series with Chris Powell

From Symposium Events

Published on Sep 22, 2013

Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer with Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), and keynote speaker at the 6th annual Gold Investment Symposium in Sydney, 16-17 October 2013. For more information visit http://symposium.net.au/gold


Ted Butler on Sprott Money News

From Sprott Money

Jim Rickards: We're Witnessing One of the Greatest Failed Experiments in Economic History

From ChrisMartensondotcom

SBSS - Silver Confiscation

From TruthNeverTold

Uncertainty over Fed economic policy is bad in itself says Pimco’ Mohamed El-Erian


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Truth About Markets

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert with the Truth About Markets on Resonance 104.4FM







Chris Powell on the BIS and Gold

BIS HQ in Basel, Switzerland
Chris Powell discusses the admitted manipulation of Gold by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) plus much more. Listen to the KWN interview here.

If you want to listen and meet Chris in person he is one of the keynote speakers at the upcoming Gold Symposium in Sydney on 16-17 Oct 2013. For full details and bookings go here

Quote of the Week

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves"    Henry David Thoreau

Metals & Markets: Fed Monkeys Lose Control

From silverdoctors


Marc Faber: We Are in 'QE Unlimited'

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Gloom, Boom & Doom Report Editor Marc Faber comments on the Federal Reserve deciding not to taper QE today. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart."

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Keiser Report: Crimes & Cracks of Capitalism

From RT

Published on Sep 21, 2013

In this 500th episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert, discuss what the economy and financial sector look like five hundred episodes later. They find an economy where the wealth and income gap is the highest ever, median income has collapsed and the mainstream media alleges the government is 'assaulting' JP Morgan with all the fines for the bank's many criminal activities. In the second half, Max interviews Professor Steve Keen about banking and leverage five years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.


Mike Maloney - War & One World Currency

From whygoldandsilver

Karen Hudes Predicts Lawlessness when U S Dollar Loses International Currency Status

From Greg Hunter

Excellent discussion on Gold backwardation and much more.



Weekend Chillout - A whole lot of nothing

Well that was a week of intense nothingness, with the highlight being the market spiking event of the Fed doing nothing, well nothing they weren't already doing.

....this version is much easier on the eyes and ears compared to anything from Whitney.



On reflection Ailee is way too good just to post one song....


Friday, September 20, 2013

Ron Paul: Fed Decision To Not Taper Is A Really Bad Sign


Keiser Report: Housing Bubble Ponzi

From RT

Published on Sep 19, 2013

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the triangle of fraud in the housing sector and the policy of Icarus economics in which banks can't crash soon enough because then they can get their bailouts from the taxpayer. In the second half, Max interviews Simon Rose of SaveOurSavers.co.uk about the George Osborne's 'New Deal' of putting estate agents to work as flocks of pigs fly across the London sky. They also discuss the five years of unintended consequences, including that which has led to the idea being floated of a government cap on house price rises to correct the problem of government intervention in the mortgage market.



Thursday, September 19, 2013

In Emerald City JP Morgan wears a Golden Crown

Only in Emerald City would the JP Morgan building be bound in silver and crowned with gold.

JP Morgan building, Castlereagh St, Sydney with a golden crown of the Sydney tower

The Aussie loves a good non-event

Not only did Gold and Silver spike on the no tapper from the Fed the Aussie dollar also went along for the ride.

So due to the US affirming that they will keep the pedal to the metal in debasing their fiat currency backed by nothing the Aussie dollar a fiat currency backed by nothing has risen in strength. Go figure. Maybe this why I trade bullion (money) not currencies.

chart from xe.com

The Resident: McMansion Wasteland, USA

From RTAmerica

Published on Sep 18, 2013 Despite first-time home-buying rates being at a 40-year low, developers continue to build McMansions. Photographer Michael Light has put together a collection of images which showcase how the quest for giant luxury homes transformed the terrain of the American midwest - and how many of those homes now are left unfinished or abandoned. The Resident (aka Lori Harfenist) discusses.


Clarke and Dawe - Chewing through the agenda

From ClarkeAndDawe

"Joe Hockey. Federal Treasurer." Originally aired on ABC TV: 19/09/2013

Gold and Silver are Money - My Title Deed Says So

Your blogger is currently in the process of buying some Sydney real estate. I have just been sent the contract for sale from the other party and I note with interest it lists the original owner of the estate, that was subsequently subdivided. It seems the land was originally purchased from the crown by James King on 21st January 1839. I have seen many sales contracts in my investing career and never have I noted the text "resn all mines of gold & silver" (under the date).

So it seems Queen Victoria as sovereign of the colony of New South Wales was willing to sell 150 acres of ridge top bushland with no permanent water, that could be only be accessed by row boat across a choppy shark invested harbour, but damn it she wasn't going to give title to any gold and silver found on that land - because they, even in the fledgling colony of New South Wales, were Money!

Here is were we get into some strange Australian history. Gold was 'officially' unknown the colony in 1839. But proving government conspiracies are nothing new gold had actually been discovered in three different places in 1823, 1839, and 1841, though the government of the colony chose to suppress this information fearing a mass exodus from Sydney. In 1848 these fears were realized, but not due to gold discoveries in New South Wales, but due to the gold rush in California.

From wikipedia: ......to stem the exodus of people from New South Wales the colonial government decided to alter its position and encourage the search for payable gold. In 1849 the colonial government sought approval of the Colonial Office in England to allow the exploitation of the mineral resources of New South Wales. A geologist was requested and this led to the appointment of Samuel Stutchbury.[5] A reward was offered for the first person to find payable gold. Twenty-eight years after the Fish River discovery a man named Edward Hargraves discovered a 'grain of gold' in a waterhole near Bathurst, this was in 1851.[6]


A blowup of the text below the date above

I dug a little bit deeper into this story and found the following entry in the Sydney Gazette from 22nd April 1839, listing the actual transfer.

 

Queen Victoria looking down on the citizens of Sydney in Martin Place today, and she is not amused.

Gold and Silver Throw a Taper Tantrum

With the “no-tapering” announcement from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee overnight gold and silver have thrown a massive tantie, and gaped higher in the after hours NY Globex market. Gold is up over 4% and Silver up a stunning 5.5% since the COMEX close.


charts from goldprice.org 

 For further commentry watch the following Kitco video:

click on image to access video

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Greg McCoach - Gold is going to $10K within 5 years

From Cambridge House

Published on Sep 14, 2013 Greg McCoach, the president of Amerigold, predicts gold will potentially hit $10,000 within 5 years.



Vanessa Collette interviews Frank Holmes on China

From Cambridge House

Published on Sep 13, 2013

Frank Holmes, the CEO & Chief Investment Officer of U.S. Global Investors, chats with Cambridge House Live's Vanessa Collette about the current economic and social situation in China.



Ronald Stoeferle on Australian Sky Business News

From ABC Bullion



India Increases Import Tax on Gold Jewelry

From WSJ.com

Article link

NEW DELHI—India Tuesday increased the import tax on gold jewelry to 15% from 10%, the latest in a series of moves to curb imports of the metal to help narrow the country's current-account deficit.

The step is prompted by a pickup in gold jewelry imports after India raised the import tax on gold, including bars and coins, to 10% from 8% in August. At the time, the government had left unchanged the tax on jewelry imports, which was already at 10%.

The government said the latest step is aimed at also helping local jewelry manufacturers because the difference in taxes between imported raw gold and jewelry had vanished.

India imported gold jewelry valued at $5.04 billion in the last financial year, accounting for about 10% of the country's total imports of the metal.

India relies on imports for all the gold it consumes. The bulk of gold sold in the country is in the form of jewelry, and most of the ornaments are made by local manufacturers.

India imported gold jewelry valued at $5.04 billion in the last financial year ended in March, accounting for about 10% of the country's total gold imports.

Read more

David Morgan on Replacing Ben Bernanke and the Reaction of Gold and Silver

From silver investor.com


Silver & Gold Vs Stocks & Real Estate - Where Are We In The Cycle?

From whygoldandsilver

Keiser Report: CIA, NSA & Economic Espionage

From RT

Published on Sep 17, 2013

Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss economic espionage and, perhaps, sabotage by the NSA against the corporations and innovators of competitor nations. In the second half, Max interviews author, journalist and filmmaker, Greg Palast of GregPalast.com, about the Larry Summers' secret 'End Game' memo and the decriminalization of what were once financial crimes.


Truth About Markets

Originally aired 14 Sep 2013. Max and Stacy's latest radio show from Resonance104.4fm











Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Vanessa Collette interviews Tekoa Da Silva

From Cambridge House


Top 1% Vs The Bottom 99%

From The Young Turks

Gold vs Real Estate - Why I’m not buying the housing market

By Jordan Eliseo

With the recent weakness in gold prices, and the resurgence in Australian home values, the never-ending gold vs. real estate argument has taken a turn back towards brick’s and mortar, at least in the mainstream financial media who are heavily talking up the latest property price movements. But which is the better investment?

Both are ‘real assets’, and are theoretically limited in supply. Both should, at least theoretically, over the long run, protect purchasing power, in that housing also has a reasonable track record of maintain its value versus inflation.

But I’m sticking with bullion for a number of reasons, and the recent correction has only encouraged me to top up my holdings, at a discount to boot.

First is liquidity. Gold is highly liquid, with tens of billions of dollars a day traded around the world, the bullion I own (and that you own) is easy to sell when and if I either need to, or decide to.

Second is transaction costs. Yes there is a transaction cost to purchasing and selling physical bullion, but it pales into comparison versus the stamp duty, legal and agency fees required to buy a property, as well as the fees to a sales agent you’ll pay when and if you sell.

Third is ongoing management. Gold is like a good girlfriend. Pretty and low maintenance! You can pay someone to store it (free with ABC Bullion or for a percentage management fee for our allocated/premium allocated product), or you can access a private storage vault for a couple of hundred dollars a year.

Property needs constant attention. It needs painting, gardening, you have to pay council rates and property rates, and there are repairs and maintenance. And if its tenanted, you’ve got people to manage, or a property agents fees who’ll take a decent clip of the rent to remove this headache from you.

Fourth is leverage. Physical gold can, and typically is bought without leverage. Sure the price can go down, but you can’t lose more than your original investment, and over the long run gold is the only asset no one has ever lost money in.

For most property investors, you can only access is with excessive leverage (something that will be worrying the RBA right now with the latest news that over 30% of Australian mortgages being written today have loan to value ratio’s of over 80%).

For those investors, if the home value drops only 20%, and they are forced to sell, they’ll end up with less than zero. That’s something property spruikers don’t spend much time clarifying to investors, especially those encouraging people to set up a SMSF these days.

The fifth rule is diversification. If you have a $500k portfolio, you could easily have say 25% of your portfolio in gold, cash, shares and bonds. If you don’t like one asset class any more, or you want to rebalance, it’s easy to sell out of one or adjust your portfolio in order with how you are now comfortable.

In the case of property, chances are your $500k portfolio is just the one illiquid asset. If you decide you only want $400k in property, you can’t very well sell off 1 bedroom or the kitchen. Diversification is impossible.

All of those reasons are strong enough reasons to prefer gold over housing in my opinion, but there are two other ones that are particularly relevant for Australian investors.

The first is that the home will in all likelihood be the major asset most Australians buy throughout their life. As such, as a general rule, residential real estate is already going to be a major investment for most Australians, so the idea of concentrating more capital (and risk) in one asset class is one people should approach with appropriate suspicion.

But the final reason for being wary about investing in Australian homes, and preferring gold instead, is relative valuations at this point in the cycle.

Property has been in an incredible bull market for over 30 years. As a general rule, if an asset has gone up for 30 years uninterrupted, ask hard questions before throwing your money at it. We’ve all heard the comment about it being darkest before the dawn, but in this case it’s worth reminding readers that a star burns brightest just before it bursts.

This bull market in property has taken it to truly historic valuations, well above long term averages versus national incomes or versus rental yields. In the last decade alone they’ve grown from merely 4 to over 7 times the average annual income.

What that means is that Australians are so far in debt today, that even with interest rates at record lows, we are paying more, as a percentage of our disposable income, than what we were back in the early 1990’s when interest rates were over 15%!

That is something you don’t hear the big 4 banks talk about often.

It’s highly unlike a new house price boom will be sustainable, or will run for many years when its starting at such high valuation levels already.

Furthermore, one of the major arguments from property spruikers, and the big 4 banks (but then I repeat myself) as to why property prices will always rise is our supposed housing shortage.

Before you accept that one hook line and sinker, google the ABS Housing and Occupancy Costs report released this year. It shows over 75% of Australians reporting they have at least 1 spare bedroom in their home. With roughly 8 million households in the nation, that’s the better part of 6 million spare bedrooms already.

As times get tougher (and they are when you consider the unemployment rate is rising, as well as skyrocketing costs for utilities, insurance, health and childcare etc), Australians are going to come to the realization they don’t need all those spare rooms.

Maybe it’s a young family thinking they’ll only have 1 child, hence they only need a 2 bed house, or a graduating university student thinking they can stay with Mum and Dad a couple more years to save some rent money, or a couple of friends sharing a 3 bedroom house thinking that it might make sense to have another friend move in to save on rent.

Either way, there’s huge scope for Australians to use our existing homes more efficiently (gee that sounds like boring economist talk). And that’s exactly what we saw with the last census data, which showed that, for the first time in 100 years, the number of Australians living in each and every house actually rose between 2006-2011.

That’s a trend worth paying attention too, and it will prove a headwind for house prices.

Last but not least, the one thing you never hear property analysts talk about is the role of the ageing population. As it stands, the baby boomers, who represent 25% of the Aussie population, control 50% of the nations housing stock, and it is by far their major asset, underpinning their net worth.

Unfortunately, most are unprepared financially for retirement, with ASFA data indicating a couple between 61-64 would have only circa $300k in retirement assets. Even if they were to earn 8% per annum (won’t be easy considering the risks in the market right now), this money would run out within 7-8 years based on them spending circa $55k a year (ASFA estimate of requirements for a ‘comfortable’ retirement).

Bottom line, many are going to have no choice but to sell, so that they can unlock their existing equity in order to pay for their lifestyles.

More boomers needing to sell, coupled with less Gen-Y’s and Gen-X’s willing and able to buy. It’s hard to see prices rising sustainably with these dynamics in play.

Gold on the other hand, is ‘cheap’.

Relative to inflation, the housing, stock and bond markets, global money supply or as a percentage of total financial assets, gold is still hugely undervalued. On top of that, with interest rates at record lows around the world, and with central banks continuing to print money, we are still in the perfect macroeconomic environment for gold, despite the discomfort the current volatility is causing to some investors.

In fact, over the last 130 years, there have been 3 major cycles in relative valuations between gold and house prices. At each peak in gold (relative to housing), you’ve been able to buy an entire house in Sydney for 100 ounces of gold.

100 ounces of gold right now will set you back the better part of $150k. That’s barely enough for a deposit on the median Sydney home which is in the $700k range today, indicating in relative sense how undervalued gold still is today.

As such, if history is any guide, those ounces of gold will appreciate far more rapidly than the average house price in the years to come.

Each and every investor needs to make their own decisions, but market cycles, if they don’t repeat, certainly do rhyme.

For me personally, I am going to continue investing my money in physical gold over housing. One day I might make the switch, but it won’t be for a while, which is no problem at all. As the Rolling Stones said: Time, its on my side!

Jordan Eliseo
Chief Economist
ABC Bullion

Giving - Thai Style

From TrueMoveH


Can you spot a bubble when you see one?

Well obviously it is easier to spot a bubble when it has passed you buy, but then it is harder to make money that way. My favourite chart from Zero Hedge in a long time (post link)


Mark Dice confirms that America is brain dead when it comes to Gold and Government Confiscation

From MarkDice

Published on Sep 16, 2013 
Obama supporters in San Diego, California sign a petition to ban and confiscate gold coins from people's homes and safe deposit boxes as part of the President's economic recovery plan. Author and media analyst Mark Dice uses the key words "will you help Obama" and that's all it takes for people to sign his crazy petition.



Brother JohnF - Silver Retirement

From BrotherJohnF


Money vs Currency - Michael Connell

Beware the Fiat Chicken!

From Michael Connell - Comedian