Tuesday, April 16, 2013

What The Heck Just Happened To The Metals?

Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.  -  Baron Rothschild, 18th century British nobleman and member of the Rothschild banking family
I have to say, for as many people out there who fancy themselves a "contrarian" investor, the amount of kicking and screaming and fear that I've witnessed across all sectors of the investor community is quite staggering.   I guess many of you were not around in 2008, when silver and gold were systematically taken down from $21 and $1020 to $8.50 and $700, respectively in a 5 month time period, with most of it coming in July and August that year.  And the problem was that back then it was impossible to see what the catalyst would be to create the next bull run.  Furthermore, the big Central Banks were still net sellers of gold.  In other words, we didn't have the massive bid for physical coming from China (China imported nearly 100 tonnes of gold thru Honk Kong in February) and other big non-NATA countries who are buying gold aggressively.

And I guess very few were around for the early days (2001 - 2004).  I remember waking up in the morning and seeing gold down $10 and then watching in horror as the Comex operators took gold down another $10.  $20 on a base of $400 is 5%.  A 5% intra-day down-swing was not uncommon back then.  But not many people watched the sector (CNBC didn't even have a gold price indicator on it's market scroll) so not many remember those days

No one said this sector was going to be easy.  After all, gold is the "anti-Christ" of fiat currency-based Governmental and Central Bank systems.  It's Dave vs. Goliath, people.  The Old Testament tells me that David kicked Goliath's ass.

What just happened in the metals market was a by-product of a creatively planned and well-orchestrated take-down of gold/silver by the Federal Reserve, with the help of the bullion banks (JPM, Goldman, etc) and the unwitting help of the big, computer-driven macro hedge funds.  I don't want to go into a play-by-play accounting of the details - it will put you to sleep or many of you would be in disbelief.  But I know how manipulation works.  I used to help manipulate the junk bond market in the 1990's.  I remember the trade that put me on the map at my firm was $10 million face trade of bonds that the RTC had acquired in the S&L liquidation and into a firm owned by the very wealthy owner of one of the NFL football teams.  We manipulated that trade in order to create a 50% mark-up from the price we paid the Government to the price we got paid by the smart investor.  We had to hold the position overnight to get around the old NASD 5% mark-up rule and convinced the compliance people to look the other way.  Back then a $3 million profit on a junk bond trade might compose 30% of the desk P&L for the year. We did that in one trade.  Ya the market isn't manipulated...today the numbers involved and degree of illegality is many multiples of what they were 20 years ago.  Today we wouldn't have had to hide the trade from compliance until after the cash register was rung.

I have a bone to pick with an article posted on Yahoo yesterday in which some shit-for-brains market "expert" from Societe Generale claims that the "era"  of gold is over.  You can read his mindless drool here:  LINK   Here's the commentary that made me roll my eyes: 
Gold is a different animal than the rest of the commodities complex, driven primarily by macrodrivers,” and those macro-drivers now are driving gold prices lower... because the macroeconomy looks stronger.
Unless this guy, Michael Haigh, is unbelievably stupid, that has to be one of the most intellectually dishonest statements I have ever seen with regard to the relative strength of the economy and the true factors driving gold.

What are the factors Haigh is examining?  Is it the recent plunge in retail sales?  How about the fact that for the month of January the number of households using foodstamps hit a new record (23 million, which means roughly 20% of all households)  LINK.   How about the plunge in railcar loadings (I bet most of you weren't aware of that grass-roots economic indicator)  LINK   How about the fact that over 100 million people in this country are either unemployed or haven't been able to find work for so long that the Government has decided they're not part of the "labor force?"  Are those the indicators that Haigh is using in his analysis?

How about the fact the sovereign domicile of Michael's French employer, Societe Generale, is considered to be a candidate for the next EU country to go tits up?   It's unlikely, however, because both Germany (you'll have to plug this aricle into google translator but it basically reports how Germany is helping to fund the French financial system right now:  LINK) and the U.S. are taking measures to keep the French financial system solvent, including the Fed injecting $100's of millions into Societe Generale's U.S. subsidiary.  As a taxpayer, Michael, you're welcome.

At any rate, the true factors driving the price of gold are:  1)  the unstoppable and growing amount of money printing occurring globally;  2) the inability of Governments, especially the U.S. Government, to reign in massive and growing spending deficits;  3)  as a result of #2, the growing amount of outstanding direct Government debt being issued and the growing amount of indirect off-balance-sheet liabilities (medicare, Obamacare, pensions, war on terror, etc);  growing exposure to and potential catastrophic risk of the Too Big To Fail Bank OTC derivatives exposure.

There are other factors but 1-4 above are the primary drivers.  Just for the record, the decelerating - and soon to be tail-spinning down - U.S. economy will unmitigatingly prevent the Fed and the Government from fixing factors 1 thru 3.

What investors should really be afraid of is not the price-action in the gold market - but the underlying reasons for why the Fed orchestrated this paper attack on gold.  Recall that in 2008, two months after the metals take-down referenced above,  Lehman/AIG/FNM/FRE all collapsed and so began the great financial crisis and the massive Government/taxpayer funding and Fed money printing required to keep the system from completely collapsing and to let the big banks fund massive employee bonuses.

Given the shock and awe nature of this recent take-down, I would suggest that something really ugly - even worse than 2008 - is coming at us in the financial system and it will be just a matter a few months before we find out.  I would suggest that the event in Cyprus is likely what re-lit the fuse on the financial system that was stamped out with use of at least $1 billion in direct taxpayer money and, so far, more than $2.2 trillion of printed money.

56 comments:

  1. There is not only a currency war ongoing globally but a psychological mind war waged on the individual. The fight to maintain the legitimacy of the $US is turning into something to behold despite the pain for us having to live the history of it.

    GLTA and be strong, we are "swimming with drowning men" as Mike Maloney said recently.

    Thanks as always Dave!

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  2. You are scaring me (even more). Can you please elaborate what you think that something in the financial system is. Any advice for those who are holding paper gold and is now seriously underwater and waiting for an major uptrend to exit? Will this something bring Gold prices even lower? Are we going to have a huge deflationary event? Please excuse all my questions. Unfortunately, we live in scary times. Thank you very much Dave for your generous service.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ya - don't own paper gold. Buy physical and get your money OUT of the banking system.

      I don't know what's coming, but apparently there's major buzz in Switzerland right now about the possible failure of the international banking system.

      Delete
    2. Bank CEOs meeting with Obummer at the white house last week, metals takedown, S&P at "profound" resistance, money printing off the rails...

      Sound advice Dave my brother or sister anonymous above should take.

      I think they're preparing to make 2008 look like a garden party myself. We're all being set-up for something big here and not big good.

      It's all as fucked-up as a soup sandwich...

      Delete
  3. Why do China, India, Russia et. al. tolerate this manipulation? To get some metal at a cheaper price? Their populations associate wealth with gold. I'm sure the populace likes to buy more physical on the dips. Yet, I wonder if there comes a point when people think "Wait a minute, my wealth has just been reduced 20% in purchasing power so a couple major banks in the U.S.A. can make profits with paper trading". Maybe they have a different perspective on this takedown. I just wonder if some Chinese are really pissed off with the major takedown.

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    Replies
    1. They will "drain" metal from the West until they can't source any more metal at these levels and then they'll bid market up to a price level where more metal comes out. They LOVE this manipulation.

      Delete
  4. Dave
    What about the mining shares? I keep thinking they can't go much lower but they do. When you say get out and into physical do you mean get out of shares too? Hate to sell now since they have been trashed and I am down a TON but do not want to lose everything. Thanks for your blog!

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    Replies
    1. I think there's are a big move ahead for the mining stocks.

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    2. dave, a big move up or down? Thanks in advance for your answer

      Delete
  5. Dave, Regarding your reply above, when you state to "get your money OUT of the banking system"; do you think these unknown events could unfold in weeks, months or years down the road?

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    Replies
    1. I don't know. Apparently there is "chatter" in Switzerland right now that there's a big international financial system failure brewing - probably connected to Cyprus.

      Delete
  6. Dave, when you say "Buy physical and get your money OUT of the banking system. " Do you mean just banking, or all fiat investments? I'm at about 50% physical at this point, yet I just took a major hit on my paper investments (yes, I leveraged). This takedown looks like a wash-out and a low risk / high reward entry point on gld/slv/gdx. I am VERY tempted to invest more and buy covered calls to take in premiums over the next year and make up for some of those losses. Is your view to go all physical and leave paper for good at this point? Even if that means accepting significant losses?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hold your paper losses and then cash out. I think the shares have a big move ahead of them.

      Delete
  7. Dave, can you elaborate on Andrew Macguire's intereview on KWN. He claimed that the recent smashdown was created to bail out the LBMA because there is a run on the unallocated system. But the lower the price goes, the higher demand we have. Won't the smashdown make the run even worse? I really feel puzzled how the smashdown could be used to bail out the LBMA. Many thanks.

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    Replies
    1. They used the smash to drain 400 oz. bars from GLD and they are using that make deliveries.

      GLD has had an incredible amount of shares liquidate, the AP's (JPM, etc) convert the sold shares in bullion - problem alleviated, for now.

      Delete
  8. Dave,

    I've asked before -- all my paper gold is in PHYS, but not enough to take delivery if needed. It is spread in mine and my wife's IRA accounts. I know you have said to take the tax and penalty hit and get out, but I'm sure you understand that is a truly difficult step no matter what might be staring us in the face.

    You still recommend getting out I assume? Can I ask, are you out of any retirement accounts you may have and have a decent number of your family and friends followed suit?

    Not at all trying to ding you or anything. It is just an incredibly difficult step to take!

    Mike

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    Replies
    1. I cashed out of my IRA from 2006 - 2008 and moved it into gold/silver/my fund

      I know a handful of people who have done the same. You lead a horse to water...

      Delete
    2. Now is an excellent time to cashout before gold goes up again. You should seize it before the Govt obfuscates your pension

      Delete
  9. Just a footnote, I was starting to buy gold and silver around 2006 and I remember the drop of 2008, as well as the occasional mini takedowns all through 2006 and 2007. I didn't sell then and I ain't selling now.

    Gold and silver are competition for fiat and the banksters know it.

    Here is another idea to kick around, why is it when the stock market goes down all of the talking heads say "buy stocks, the market will bounce back" but when gold and silver go down they all say "gold and silver are finished, sell now or be sorry you didn't"

    Gold and silver have two enemies,
    1 High interest rates (which we won't see for a long time, since a hike in interest rates would derail the 'recovery' and a hike in interest for treasuries would cause the national debt to spike higher)
    2 Manipulation (which we have now)
    Hopefully this manipulation will end the way the London Gold Pool ended, though not soon enough for some of us.

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  10. 58/1 but you never show my post?

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  11. Next time your elected official is campaigning have him look you in the eye and explain to you how this passed so fast. GIGO.

    NPR: Congress Quietly Rolls Back the Law Against Congressional Insider Trading

    But on Monday, when the president signed a bill reversing big pieces of the law, the emailed announcement was one sentence long. There was no fanfare last week either, when the Senate and then the House passed the bill in largely empty chambers using a fast-track procedure known as unanimous consent.

    In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., shepherded the bill through. It was Friday afternoon at 12:52. Many members had already left for the weekend or were on their way out. The whole process took only 30 seconds. There was no debate...

    http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2013/04/congress-quietly-rolls-back-law-against.html?

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    Replies
    1. Those lackeys are for sale to the highest bidder, have been for a LONG TIME.

      Delete
    2. Stock Surge Linked to Lobbyist

      A key source for a private report that sent health-care stocks on a tear earlier this month is a former top congressional aide who is now a health-industry lobbyist.

      Mark Hayes is currently an outside lobbyist for Humana. His email to investment-research firm Height Securities, alerting it to a government decision that will save the industry billions of dollars, was a final piece of confirmation Height received before blasting a news alert to its clients. The Height report now is the subject of a preliminary probe from the SEC.

      The Height report now is the subject of a preliminary probe from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. The SEC has contacted individuals involved to determine whether anyone leaked or passed along word of the decision in violation of insider-trading laws.

      The SEC's probe represents the agency's first known look at the political-intelligence industry, the burgeoning business of collecting market-moving information from Washington and providing it to Wall Street.

      If anyone passed along material nonpublic information from the government, they could violate insider-trading rules. Prosecutors have brought few cases in this area, leaving the boundaries of how Washington shares information somewhat unclear.

      In this case, on April 1 Height sent a report to clients 18 minutes before the end of trading that predicted—correctly, it turned out—a government agency would drop planned cuts in funding for insurers that offered Medicare Advantage plans.

      The report snagged the attention of big hedge-fund firms that placed profitable trades, according to people familiar with the trading activity. Shares in several health-care companies, including Humana, climbed sharply before the market close and again when trading opened the next day.

      SAC Capital Advisors and Viking Global Investors, hedge-fund firms with billions under management, were among those placing bets that health-care stocks would rise, the people said. It isn't clear what factors went into their trading decisions. Representatives of the hedge-fund firms declined to comment.

      Mr. Hayes declined to comment. A spokeswoman for his employer, law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, said Mr. Hayes performed his own analysis and "did not receive or disseminate material nonpublic information."

      Mr. Hayes lobbies for Humana, which pressured the government's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to drop its planned cuts to certain insurance plans. A Humana spokesman said the company had no advance warning of the decision.

      In addition to his work as a lobbyist, Mr. Hayes and Greenberg Traurig work for Height, which is also a registered broker-dealer. They are paid to give advice on policy matters. Mr. Parmentier said his firm didn't know Mr. Hayes also worked for Humana.

      There are no rules preventing corporate lobbyists from working for political-intelligence firms. Because there are no requirements to disclose political-intelligence work, public officials have no way of knowing whether a lobbyist for a company also is passing along tips to traders.

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324345804578427102504475618.html

      investigate ?...they're all exempt from the law!

      Delete
  12. Hi Dave:

    Jumped in yesterday and bought a bunch of metal at APMEX & CNI. I asked both outfits if anyone was selling physical? Both sales people laughed and said 95% or more were buyers. Only CNI said one guy came in and dropped a few kilo bars and a bunch of ounces of gold. The customer said he was still up over 50% and wanted to take his "profits" while he still could. So, from this real assessment of movement of physical metals yesterday, it seems that the people who are paying attention are buying all the physical they can. The FED, JP Morgan & Goldman Sacked aren't shaking metal out of stronger hands who see what is coming.

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  13. Silverdoctor says the COMEX will default next week. If it does it default over the weekend either this one or next. The default price has to be within the pricing of the rainbows originally Au $1,000 but I read that the rollovers were at a higher price maybe Au 1,300. Whatever this number is it is most likely the default will take place at this number. Back in the day when the BIS were reporting derivatives they said 52% of the $1.4 quadrillion had a gold leg and 85% had a USD leg in the rainbow.

    These are the numbers that have to be addressed at default because all the bail ins in the world can't come up with that kind of money. So these contracts have to be netted down to manageable sizes that reduce the collapses and bleed out the banks.

    I would guess your Zurich buzz is about the collapse of the bullion pools not the banks. London has reported cash settlement is being forced on gold holders internationally. There is no point in allowing the system to collapse when the can do a Qaddafi on the account holders a la the Russians in Cypress. This is not a time to take down the system in the middle of Merkel's election look to November for the next leg of the collapse when they re-price the USDX legs.

    Why lose the game with a collapse after all they have had 400 years of rule living on top of the pile higher that sovereigns with no visibility or accountability. Mind you if look at the death rate in the Rothschild family being a member of it must feel like living in an episode of the Borgia's or Game of Thrones.

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  14. There are some people who should never be invested in P.M's. Back in the 1970's I was working in mining exploration and I recall an incident I had with my next door neighbor. He had approached me and asked for investment advice and because price of gold was just starting to move I relayed why I thought that would
    be a good investment. Well he followed my advice and then unfortunately the price moved down so my
    neighbor was losing money and then this guy starting hounding me about his paper loss. I just kept telling him that nothing had changed and the fundamentals for owning gold were still good so don't worry about it. Well time passed and he finally stopped bothering me when the price of gold started to move up again. Then one day when the price was moving into new record high ground he came over and started crying about having sold his gold investment. I asked why he had bailed out and he told me he
    had kept a running tally on how long he owned gold and how much his investment would have earned
    if invested in bonds and when he recouped that amount plus an extra 10% he sold so he was satisfied.
    Well of course he missed the major move in the metal which made him sick and made me happy because
    he had made such an ass of himself over what was well intentioned advice. I see the same movement in
    gold now that I lived through back then. People should just look at the big picture. Nothing has changed
    except the price of gold and gold mining shares. The fundamentals now are better than they were six months ago. What is happening is pure manipulation by a gang of scumbag thieves that make Madoff look like a piker. However the damage is done and now I just need to wait for the recovery which I
    know is coming as sure as day follows night. I see this as an opportunity of a lifetime to leave my
    children and grandchildren in much better financial shape than their neighbors. I agree with you Dave
    that very bad times are coming which is going to mean misery for the vast majority of the population while
    the banksters profit big time. I believe the banksters have used this drop to cover their shorts and have
    now gone long so the major move to the upside could start at any time while the so called analysts predict
    the end of the gold bull. I enjoy your insightful blog Dave. Good stuff.









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  15. Dave, Thank you for taking your time to write this blog. I don't want to sound like an idiot but, when you say get out of the banking system that means anything over 250k or do you mean everything. Just keep a small checking account for monthly expenses? Thanks again.

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  16. It's quite worrying reading articles like this, especially when all your money is in the banks! I think its time to start looking at more physical investments.

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  17. Don't forget number 5 Dave. COMEX and LBMA are going to go the way of ABN AMRO, so they need to (1) REPLENISH INVENTORY BY SHAKING OUT LEVERAGED LONGS AND (2) NAIL THE CASH PRICE TO THE FLOOR SO THAT AS PEOPLE CASH OUT THEY SAVE FACE.

    The Paper my friend (as in paper gold) is GOING DOWN. I made my 27% gains in 08, 09 and 10 then pulled the IRA and plowed half into physical.

    Go LONG brother, REAL LONG, but only on the real stuff, NO PAPER TRAIL!!

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  18. I agree, gold and silver is bankster cryptonite. Bill Holter makes a pretty good argument that in his opinion the reaon for the smackdown in PM is because the COMEX will be shutting down and all trades will be settled in dollars. This comes on the heels of the Kennecott mine collapse in Utah which there has been zero coverage in the MSM and the postponement of the Pascua Lama mine which was supposed among the worlds largest due to clear titlt issues.
    Your thoughts Dave

    Ken

    http://silverdoctors.com/force-majeur-was-the-end-game-all-along-comex-will-default-in-the-next-week/

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  19. Buy PHYSICAL Gold. NOW: The Discount of a Lifetime: Or Why You Must Abandon the Fake Paper Gold Market

    If there is one thing this latest shock-and-awe “theater” in the Gold market tells us, it’s that the government and banksters (i.e. the oligarchy) must be REALLY pissing their pants. It doesn’t show their strength – it lays bare their weakness. They just made it abundantly clear (again) how important Gold is in their scheme of things. A rapidly rising Gold price would reveal the utter fraud of their paper money Ponzi scheme and reveal them as simple hucksters, charlatans and scamsters counterfeiting money and hiding behind all the elegant regalia. The emperor would be naked. Can’t let that happen. The franchise of the paper dollar – arguably the most profitable franchise in history enabling theft on a global scale - must be protected at all costs. Something is or must be about to go seriously wrong with their empire of fake paper money (perhaps the recent gyrations in the JGB market is a tell).



    With this recent paper Gold market “drama” they have only shown their desperation and weakness. The level of their desperation this time is so great that they had their bought-and-paid-for shills in the media mouthpieces attack and mock Gold and its buyers even before the sell-off (which further goes to proves that it was orchestrated; I’ll provide more evidence below). Consider this in an article “Lust for Gold” which appeared in the New York Times on the 11th April by none other than the lead bankster shill and cheerleader Paul Krugman:



    After all, historically, gold has been anything but a safe investment…John Maynard Keynes famously dismissed the Gold standard as a “barbarous relic”, noting the absurdity of yoking the fortunes of a modern industrial society to the supply of a decorative metal…for a while, rising gold prices helped create some credibility for the goldbugs even as their predictions about everything else proved wrong, but now gold as an investment has turned sour, too. So will we see prominent goldbugs change their views, or at least lose a lot of their followers.



    Its funny how the paperbugs liken Gold buyers to a cult, while not realizing they themselves sound like one, with their irrational faith in and defense of paper money (well, not completely irrational - they know where their next paycheck is coming fromJ). While I may provide a full rebuttal to Mr. Krugman in a later article (it barely deserves one, childish and inane as it is), I will point out this: If Gold is so inconsequential and such a “barbarous relic”, why is the government lapdog media busy trying to discredit it and all those who buy it? I mean just look at the sheer gloating:
    I’ll tell you why - because underneath all the bullshit they are spewing they know that buyers of Gold are not actually buying anything but voting against their paymaster government and bankster oligarchy. There is nothing spectacular about Gold except for its ability to reveal the truth about the scam being run by our ruling feudal masters, and this is the one and only reason why Gold and all those who buy it are so vilely derided by the establishment.

    http://www.gekkosblog.com/2013/04/buy-physical-gold-now-discount-of.html

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  20. Felons in Charge of Our Largest Financial Institutions-Professor William Black

    Former bank regulator and Professor William Black says, “Apparently, regulators are much more sophisticated than we were because we had never thought of leaving felons in charge of our largest financial institutions.” Dr. Black contends, “This started with the first lie of the virgin crisis–that the banks are pure and had stopped violating the law. The second lie is that we can’t prosecute . . . because if we did, we would cause the financial system to collapse. This is ludicrous.” Dr. Black predicts, “The U.S. banking system is absolutely primed for the next meltdown. Dr. Black and others think, “There is pervasive fraud at the most reputable banks. . . . The U.S. financial system is sick, and we still have the fundamental dynamic of a regulatory race to the bottom.”

    http://usawatchdog.com/felons-in-charge-of-our-largest-financial-institutions-professor-william-black/

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  21. Hello Dave, I like the anti-Christ analogy but i look at it the other way. The paper debt based government fiat junk is the anti-Christ of real money,gold and silver, Gods money. David not only kicked goliath's arse but lopped his head off and paraded it around the streets.Gold and silver was always used as money in the bible.Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and the blood money was returned by Judas and used to purchase a plot of land to bury foreigners. Anyways love your writing.When do you think 30 silver coins will buy a piece of land once again? cheers

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  22. The Attack on Gold — Paul Craig Roberts

    The demand for physical possession of bullion rose so strongly that large wholesalers such as www.tulving.com and large retailers such as Gainesville Coins reported sold out items. Also, dealers raised the premiums above the spot price that is charged for coins. From Friday to Monday the premium on Silver Eagles at the large online retailer, Gainesville Coins, rose from $3.75 to $5.99 above the spot price of silver. The percentage increase in premium was larger than the percentage decline in the silver price. Thus, the price of a silver one Troy ounce coin did not drop despite the drop in the spot price. Today (April 16) the price of a silver eagle purchased with a credit card from retailer Gainesville Coins is $30.36. You would never know that the market had fallen out.

    Today (Tuesday, April 16) Tulving reported 29% of its bar and coin bullion categories sold out and had almost no silver coin stock. The premium over spot on new gold eagles was $63.95. At large online retailers the premium was $71. Gainesville Coins has no silver Buffalos and lists shipment of orders to commence when coins are available, estimated to be May 10.
    What I am reporting are facts, not a theory.


    Listening to the media and to academic economists such as Paul Krugman, you would think no one any longer wants gold and silver. But try getting your hands on some.

    As I understand it, the open interest or future contracts on COMEX greatly exceed the bullion available for delivery. This is a paper market mainly settled in cash, not by taking delivery. If the contracts had to be settled in bullion instead of cash, the COMEX would fail.

    When silver was taken out of US coins in the 1960s and copper was taken out of the US penny in the early 1980s, despite my opposition as Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy, all real constraints on fiat money were removed.

    Today we see the Fed protecting its protection of “banks too big to fail” with low interest rates by creating enormous sums of money in order to purchase both Treasury bonds and mortgage backed derivatives.

    These Fed purchasers are at the expense of savers and CD and bond purchasers who receive a negative real rate of interest.

    Now, to protect its bank rescue policy, the Fed is attempting to drive down the price of bullion, thus depriving Americans of any way of protecting their life savings from the inflation that the Fed’s money printing will ultimately cause.

    Save a handful of corrupt banks, screw the American public–that is the Fed’s policy.
    Like almost every other American institution, the Fed represents the mega-rich.


    http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/04/16/update-to-the-update-the-attack-on-gold-paul-craig-roberts/

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  23. Dave:

    Not sure it can be within months as per your comment for something beyond really huge to be revealed.
    I just read about a note in Gartman's letter, wherein he states Friday April 12 the move was 4.88 sd= once per almost 4800 years rare!
    Worse, when you compound the rare odds of the 12th with Monday's nearly same rare odds, you end up with a chance occurrence that shouldn't have happened yet since the universe was formed.
    Vertical headstand here= infinite energy required to sustain:
    http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?c=$SPX:$GOLD,uu[d,a]dacaynay[df][pb200!b28][iUk21!Ld21]&pref=G

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  24. Dave is there any hope left for ECU/AUM????

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    Replies
    1. I wish I had the answer to that. All these stocks are getting taken out back to the woodshed and shot in the head. Unreal.

      Delete
  25. Move is afoot to make government less open
    Sen. Tommy Tucker of Waxhaw said a mouthful with just 13 words on Tuesday.

    “I am the senator. You are the citizen. You need to be quiet.”

    It was no coincidence that Tucker’s silencing of an N.C. newspaper publisher – heard by at least three people who were there – came just after he railroaded a bill through his committee that would let government operate in more secrecy.

    The legislation, Senate Bill 287, would allow certain local governments to stop notifying the public about crucial government activities in the local newspaper. The governments could instead just post legal notices in the bowels of their websites, where few people are likely to see them. (Do you go to http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/countymanagersoffice/openmeck/meckconnect/pages/default.aspx often? Neither do we.)

    Your neighborhood about to be annexed? A zoning change that could alter the nature of your block? The government planning a big wastewater project nearby? State law requires the government to run legal notices in the newspaper, which reaches the largest audience in most communities.

    That would change under the bill Tucker’s committee passed Tuesday and which could be on the Senate floor as soon as today. (We guess it passed committee; the voice vote was darn close and Tucker refused a request to then take a roll call vote. Just trust him, we suppose.)

    Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/04/16/3986274/move-is-afoot-to-make-government.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

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  26. "The International Monetary Fund is urging the Federal Reserve and other central banks to closely monitor their extraordinary efforts to jump-start economic growth, warning that the policies could inflate asset bubbles and destabilize financial markets.

    The global lending organization said in a global stability report released Wednesday that the low interest rate policies, which are intended to spur borrowing, spending and investing, are providing "essential support" for economic growth and should continue. But it noted that the policies could have "adverse side effects," including excessive corporate debt, a stock market bubble and risky investments by pension funds.

    The fund says there are few signs of asset price bubbles yet."

    http://news.yahoo.com/imf-urges-fed-central-banks-monitor-stimulus-131742347--finance.html

    It's unfortuate that the IMF have been giving realistic warnings in the last 5 years while back-tracking on their own statements to applease the global community and bold-face lie to the world. We have a stock market bubble right now. We have excessive corporate debt right now.

    But, eventually, there will even be a "break" among these globalists. When things start braking down, so will their unity and cooperation among themselves.

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  27. Miners Miss Out on the Golden Age

    For gold miners, the past five years should have been similar to what tech companies experienced in the late 1990s.

    Back then, the Internet promised a brighter tomorrow; in recent years, it felt more like there might not be one at all. Such fear suits gold, and it is still up 45% over five years, despite the recent slide.

    Not so the gold miners, who supposedly offer leveraged exposure to price moves. The Philadelphia Gold & Silver index, down by almost half on a five-year view, is now back to where it was in December 2008. In other words, four years or so of subsequent gold fever may as well have not happened.

    Worse, for those who bought the sector five years ago, the highest gain was 19% if they sold at the index's April 2011 high point. With gold itself, investors could have doubled their money if they sold in September of that year.

    One problem is proliferating exchange-traded funds making it easier to gain direct exposure to gold. This negates needing to own the miners themselves, where cost inflation and ill-considered acquisitions have squeezed margins and cash flow. Meanwhile, gold ETFs, so supportive on the way up, now represents a hot-money overhang. At the end of 2012, they held metal equivalent to 90% of annual mine supply, according to HSBC HSBA.LN -0.97% .

    Miners' costs, already squeezing margins, can't be scaled back as quickly as an ETF portfolio, so falling gold prices hurt. All of which suggests that, having enjoyed little positive leverage to the most favorable environment for gold in a generation, the miners will provide a hefty dose of negative leverage as gold's popularity wanes.

    Makes you wonder why own these stocks at all. At least when the tech bubble burst, we still had the Internet.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324763404578428803208832248.html


    Unreal...can sentiment get any worse?

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  28. I you haven't watched Pale Rider in a while it may be time

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  29. Ring the Bell for Manhattan Real Estate: Calpers Buys the Top Again

    The dumbest of the dumb money has finally decided now is the time to buy Manhattan apartments. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (colloquially known as Calpers) just loves taking assets off of other people’s hands at the top. Let’s not forget the 10,200-acre desert site in Arizona they bought for $400 million in 2006, which was then sold for $32.5 million in 2011. Well the not so savvy managers of California’s retirement funds are at it again, once again paying the sum of $400 million, but this time for 345 apartments in Manhattan’s wildly overinflated real estate market. If there was ever the equivalent of a bell ringing at the top this has to be it. From Bloomberg:

    The California Public Employees’ Retirement System bought 345 apartments in two adjacent Manhattan towers from a partnership including Carlyle Group LP (CG), gaining rentals in New York as lease rates approach a peak.

    http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/04/17/ring-the-bell-for-manhattan-real-estate-calpers-buys-the-top-again/

    Everybody criticizes calpers but the big boys love them.....

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  30. 17/April/2013

    4-12 PSYOPS
    Hugo Salinas Price

    On the website wikipedia.org, under PSYOPS, the abbreviation used for “Psychological Operations” in government circles, we find:

    “PSYOPS
    “[….]Various techniques are used, by any set of groups, and aimed to influence a target audience's value systems, belief systems, emotions, motives, reasoning, or behavior.”

    This definition of PSYOPS – “psychological operations” - applies to the events of Friday, April 12 and Monday, April 15, 2013, which were preceded by years of preparation before the knock-out blows of those days. The prolonged and unceasing war on gold took the quoted price of gold down from $1895 in early September, 2011, to $1380 as of this date; a fall of 27%. .

    Following the wikipedia.org definition, the Psyops war on gold is intended to influence the target audience’s value system, belief system, emotions, motives, reasoning and behavior. I would add, especially this last, which is what directly affects the price of gold.

    The latest stage of the war began many weeks ago, with regular take-downs of the price of gold in waterfall fashion, at set times of the day.

    More recently, there appeared a series of planned announcements of oncoming doom from individuals prominent in finance and from bank analysts. The scenario painted for gold was one of a sky darkened by approaching thunderstorms.

    The purpose of the 4-12 Psyops was to instill fear in the minds of the “target audience” - investors in gold. If you shoot a crow, and hang it up in your field, the crows – your “target audience” - will avoid the field. The same principle applies to investors in gold.

    http://www.plata.com.mx/Mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=210

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  31. P&G taking longer to pay suppliers, offers financing


    (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) is increasing the time it takes to pay for supplies and offering financing to help mitigate the impact a longer payment cycle could have on small and midsize businesses, the household products maker told suppliers earlier this month.

    P&G plans to increase the time it takes to pay suppliers by as much as 30 days, which could free up to $2 billion in cash, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The world's largest household products company is seeking to pay its bills in 75 days from the average of 45 days it takes currently, the paper said.

    In a letter dated April 5 on a P&G website for suppliers, the company said that its "working capital program will focus on moving to longer payables with our external business partners."

    The letter from Chief Purchasing Officer Richard Hughes said that P&G discovered that its payment cycle was out of line with those of its competitors. Hughes said in the letter that P&G planned to offer supply chain financing through banks.

    P&G recently began negotiations with its suppliers about the new payments terms, which are expected to be implemented over three years and could affect hundreds of companies, the Journal reported. To help P&G's suppliers cope with changes, the company is working with banks to offer cash to suppliers after 15 days from delivery for a fee, the Journal said.


    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/17/us-procter-suppliers-idUSBRE93G14Z20130417?

    whats the 5 year adjustable on dish soap? economy's getting better my arse.

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  32. McGuire and Sinclair (Seligman) are both major insiders. McGuire trained with a Rothschild associated gold trading house whose name was Aaron and Co (I think) and the Seligman family got foreign exchange trading on the formation of the Fed. The Seligman family interests are now consolidated into Citibank foreign exchange (I think). Both of these insiders think the are prepared to say the fractional reserve system in gold nearly broke but in the take down dodged a bullet. As both of them have never suggested the system would break before this is very significant.

    Personally I think the system broke a long time ago and people have only now started to deal with that reality hence the meeting Obama of the bank heads. The system broke on the rainbows, you had a mechanistic pricing model that took a rainbow of fiat currency ponzi schemes and linked them to a real commodity gold. The figures are horrendous 52% of $1.4 quadrillion with a leg through a tiny pool of a commodity called gold. Gold was hard and the rainbows were all soft and the silly quasi stats models never took into account economics. Indeed economists were fired and physics graduates replaced them. This was insane.

    Now that the upper and lower confidence levels, the floors and ceilings, caps and collars have all been breached the banks are left with the reality that their balance sheets are dictated by random walk. Chaos theory predicts total collapse. This collapse has happened.

    You can't put the fractional reserve system right because everybody knows it is wrong. So the only way out is dictate, hence Obama. The size of the unwind precludes the fractional reserve system surviving. Furthermore these people have been doing this since Portugal was the centre of fractional reserve banking in the 1490's. These guys always loot the vaults and leave on a donkey in the dead of night.

    The LBMA has been bled out, the Bank of England has sold off it's customers gold, the only way out now is brute force. This is where we are. So I think Silverdoctors are right the collapse is starting now and the numbers on the COMEX the potential for fuel above 1620 on the charts blah, blah, blah is all over.

    Queues are forming outside the gold windows at UBS and Scotia Bank, the Perth Mint is getting overwhelmed. This is not going to stop if the price rises, it is going to accelerate. Consequently default very soon is the best option hence the Obama meeting.





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  33. By the way there is some legal scam in that the Courts go back three trading days to determine the price in the ring outs or cash settlement if is called. I don't remember this exactly but it certainly rang a bell with me when McGuire said wait three days in his KWN broadcast.

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  34. Finally I think the greatest laugh of all was Kramer recommending the GLD. I think he did this because the bleed out in GLD has been hideous and when the hammer comes down everyone is going to see who was inside and wheeled all the bars out of the building. However if a load of punters pour in through the front door and the figures can be made to match then won't see the man behind the curtain with the sack barrow of gold leaving through the tradesman entrance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Punters?" LOL - you must be British. My roommate in b-school was a Brit - one of the most "colorful" personalties I've ever met. Love that word. "Punters and chippees." No, it was "punt-uhs." lol

      I'm 95% certain the gold drain from GLD was used to alleviate an impending delivery problem on the LBMA. Those 400 oz bars went to Asia and wealthy people in Switzerland.

      Delete
  35. SEC to Move Past Financial Crisis Cases Under New Chairman White

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-18/sec-to-move-past-financial-crisis-cases-under-new-chairman-white.html

    everybody big got a free stay out of jail card.

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  36. Risking family’s fortune

    Charlie Finch, author of the book “Most Art Sucks,” said the arrest comes as a total surprise because “the Nahmads are like royalty in the art world.”

    That reputation and money got Helly high-profile friends like DiCaprio, who while visiting Miami would routinely stay in Nahmad’s $9 million penthouse at the Bellini Bal Harbor, an associate said.

    But a source who has known Nahmad for a decade was less surprised at his fall from grace.

    “Every night he’s in the nightclubs, throwing around five to 10 grand on bottle service, saying he’s been going to poker tables and bragging about his winnings and how he never loses,” the source said.

    Prosecutors unsealed a Manhattan federal court indictment accusing Nahmad’s and pal Ilya Trincher in a racketeering operation dating to 2006.

    That allegedly included booking bets from “celebrities, professional poker players and very wealthy individuals working in the financial industry,” a criminal complaint states.

    Nahmad allegedly helped launder “tens of millions of dollars” from the bookmaking ring. Nahmad’s lawyer declined to comment.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/son_bad_bet_FJXOewtrn83xuahYLPPWWP?

    talking about art...?

    BOOK REVIEW
    A Wolfe loose as Miami meets Moscow
    Back to Blood: A Novel by Tom Wolfe
    Reviewed by John Helmer

    MOSCOW - The value difference and profit opportunity between a genuine piece of art and a fake are so large there's no deterring entrepreneurial forgers. Until now, the cleverest schemes have, ethnically speaking, been the specialty of Englishmen, Americans, and well-known art auction houses, museum curators and experts in connoisseurship. That last term is upper-class slang for hucksterism.

    But when American Tom Wolfe, exponent of what was called the New Journalism 50 years ago, exposes a Russian oligarch for a plot to make hundreds of millions of dollars in fakes through donating some to a Miami art museum, and selling others on the side he has created a 700-page scapegoat for many things, including the loss of Wolfe's talent.

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NK17Ag01.html


    Most of us common folk would be amazed at the games being played with loans and insurance in this space of high society.

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  37. Brian McKenna explores The Secret World of Gold

    Documentarian reveals the drama and danger behind one of the world’s oldest currencies


    “I was just going to do a history piece, until I stumbled over a whistleblower,” McKenna said.

    A former gold and silver trader, Maguire denounces the shady tactics of the industry of which he was once an integral part, breaking down the ways in which precious metal prices are manipulated using insider trading.

    “He was tremendous,” McKenna said. “It took me eight months to persuade him to come on camera, but I was willing to wait. I knew he was critical to the film. It turns out he was burned by the BBC. He spent seven months showing them everything, going online and showing them the way things worked. Then after all that, they said, ‘The show’s been killed.’

    “Word on the street is that Tony Blair, who is on a retainer to JPMorgan for $2 million a year, made a call (and the story was dropped). Did that happen? I don’t know. It’s an opinion that people hold; it doesn’t make it so. But something made the BBC stop an important investigation into which they had probably invested three-quarters of a million dollars.”

    Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Brian+McKenna+explores+Secret+World+Gold/8255149/story.html#ixzz2QpbXRARx


    gives new meaning to The Blair Witch Project.

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  38. Interesting blog and statements about gold and where it's going
    You talk about your price magnet indicator at what price do u see gold being attracted to
    Approx 1530 for me with the high we have seen we need to see a swing low well below where we
    Are now maybe around 1111

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  39. CLSA Breaks The Wall Street Mold: Sells Japanese Equities To Buy Gold

    For such reasons this is a buying opportunity too good for investors to miss. This is why GREED & fear will today add another five percentage points to gold bullion in the global portfolio for a US dollar-denominated pension and will add more if gold declines to the US$1,200/oz level as is quite possible given the technicals. This will be paid for by selling the investment in the Japan long-only portfolio. GREED & fear remains of the view that the Tokyo market will rally further but Japanese equities have become a very high beta story, courtesy of the accomplished gaijin handler Kuroda, and therefore are not really appropriate in a pension portfolio.



    Meanwhile amidst all the media blather in recent days about gold leading the decline in commodities on the back of the weaker China growth data, GREED & fear would like to reiterate one critical, albeit elementary, point. That is that gold is not a “commodity” but money. Indeed gold is the purest form of “money” available not contaminated by the current fiat paper system, a system increasingly corrupted by the manipulation of the high priests of paper money, otherwise known as “central bankers”.

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-18/clsa-breaks-wall-street-mold-sells-japanese-equities-buy-gold

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  40. I think you're right. We are about to get a Lehman style collapse 10 times worse. They need to make gold and silver not look like a safe haven, so that people have to rush to dollars when it does happen. It is quite sickening that they are allowed to do this over and over again because we don't ever put these scumbags in jail.

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