Major gold sell off on Jobs Day , more of the same - COT reports for gold and silver , Turd Ferguson , Silver Doctors items and Ed Steer's posting covering TH and FR data and news.....

24 HOUR SILVER

24 HOUR GOLD

http://www.infowars.com/the-emperor-has-no-gold/

( The best guess is whatever amounts are allegedly at the Central Banks is false - then one must wonder it said gold was tested , would one find tungsten ? And of course , has this gold be subject to the feared  rehypo transactions so many times that  no one can actually determine who owns what ? )

The Emperor Has No Gold

Washington’s Blog
November 4, 2012

Are Central Banks Overstating their Gold Holdings?

Romania has demanded for many years that Russia return its gold.

Last year, Venezuela demanded the return of 90 tons of gold from the Bank of England.

As everyone knows, the German high court ruled that Germany must audit its gold reserves held in foreign countries such as the U.S., England and France. And German inspectors will actually travel to the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s gold depository and the Bank of England to inspect their gold.

Germany will also repatriate 150 tons of gold in order to test it for purity.

Germany’s not the only country. As Zero Hedge notes (quoting Bloomberg):

Ecuador’s government wants the nation’s banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support national growth, the head of the country’s tax agency said.

Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known as the SRI, said today that Ecuador’s lenders could repatriate about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients. Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to the South American nation’s poor.

Some people in the Netherlands want their gold back as well.

Jim Willie says that the gold is gone.

The fact that CNBC head editor John Carney is arguing that it doesn’t matter whether or not the Fed has the gold does not exactly inspire confidence.

Gerald Celente notes:

It’s not only Germany (who’s gold is missing), it’s the United Sates, it’s all of the countries. Nobody knows what’s in Fort Knox. They won’t let anybody in. Where’s the gold in the United States? How come we can’t go in and look in Fort Knox?

***

How come the people can’t have a reading? How come we can’t look at it? How come politicians can’t get in there? How come no one can get in there? The gold does not exist. All this does is confirm what so many of us already know, “The Emperor has no gold.”

Egon von Greyerz – founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management – agrees:

There probably isn’t anywhere near the central bank gold (governments claim they possess).

Ron Paul has called for an audit of Fort Knox, based upon the suspicion by many that the gold was sold off years ago:

How Much Gold is in Fort Knox?

Others allege that the gold has not been sold outright, but has been leased or encumbered, so that the U.S. does not own it outright.

$10 billion dollar asset manager Eric Sprott writes – in an article entitled “Do Western Central Banks Have Any Gold Left???“:

If the Western central banks are indeed leasing out their physical reserves, they would not actually have to disclose the specific amounts of gold that leave their respective vaults. According to a document on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical treatment of the Eurosystem’s International Reserves, current reporting guidelines do not require central banks to differentiate between gold owned outright versus gold lent out or swapped with another party. The document states that, “reversible transactions in gold do not have any effect on the level of monetary gold regardless of the type of transaction (i.e. gold swaps, repos, deposits or loans), in line with the recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines.”⁶(Emphasis theirs). Under current reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central banks refer to their gold reserves. The UK Government, for example, refers to its gold allocation as, “Gold (incl. gold swapped or on loan)”. That’s the verbatim phrase they use in their official statement. Same goes for the US Treasury and the ECB, which report their gold holdings as “Gold (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped)” and “Gold (including gold deposits and gold swapped)”, respectively (see Chart B). Unfortunately, that’s as far as their description goes, as each institution does not break down what percentage of their stated gold reserves are held in physical, versus what percentage has been loaned out or swapped for something else. The fact that they do not differentiate between the two is astounding, (Ed. As is the “including gold deposits” verbiage that they use – what else is “gold” supposed to refer to?) but at the same time not at all surprising. It would not lend much credence to central bank credibility if they admitted they were leasing their gold reserves to ‘bullion bank’ intermediaries who were then turning around and selling their gold to China, for example. But the numbers strongly suggest that that is exactly what has happened. The central banks’ gold is likely gone, and the bullion banks that sold it have no realistic chance of getting it back.

CHART B

This may sound like a conspiracy theory. But the banks have already been caught raiding allocated accounts. And governments have repeatedly been caught manipulating gold prices. And financial companies have been caught pretending they have reserves which they don’t. And gold bars have been found to have been filled with cheaper metals.

And at least one central bank – albeit a tiny one- has already been caught holding fake gold.

And as Eric Sprott points out:

We’re not talking about conspiracy here however, we’re talking about stupidity. After all, Western central banks are probably under the impression that the gold they’ve swapped and/or lent out is still legally theirs, which technically it may be. But if what we are proposing turns out to be true, and those reserves are not physically theirs; not physically in their possession… then all bets are off regarding the future of our monetary system.

and.......



http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/bundesbank-official-assures-ny-fed-gold-issue-will-go-away

Bundesbank Official Assures NY Fed That Gold Issue Will Go Away

¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD AND SILVER

It was pretty quiet during Far East and early London trading...and by the time the jobs numbers were posted at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, the gold price was down about eight bucks or so.
The initial hit at that point was only a bit over ten bucks, but the real engineered sell-off began about 10:15 a.m...about fifteen minutes after a very quiet London p.m. gold fix...and it was all down hill from there until the 1:30 p.m. Comex close.  The low tick of $1,673.80 spot came right at that moment.
There wasn't a lot price activity after that...and the gold price closed at $1,676.90 spot...just off its low, down $38.10 from Thursday's close.  Net volume was just over 201,000 contracts...a big number, but I was hoping for bigger than that.

The silver price chart looks like the gold price chart...and requires no further embellishment from me.  The low tick, also at the Comex close, checked in at 30.73 spot.
Silver closed the Friday trading session at $30.91 spot...down 1.35 on the day.  Net volume was pretty chunky at around 54,000 contracts but, like gold, I was expecting a bigger number than this.

Here's the 5-day dollar index chart.  As you can see, the low for this 'rally' came on Wednesday morning...11:20 a.m. GMT in London, 7:20 a.m. in New York, to be precise.  There was no net change in the dollar during the Wednesday trading day...and the dollar index only rose 8 basis points on Thursday.  On Wednesday and Thursday, the gold price barely moved.

The dollar index opened in Tokyo on their Friday morning at 84.04...and closed yesterday at 80.55...up 51 basis points.  Between the Tokyo open and the 8:30 a.m. New York jobs numbers, the dollar index was up about 26 points...and gold was down about eight bucks.  From 8:30 a.m. until the 1:30 p.m. Comex close, the dollar rose another 19 basis points...and gold got hit for another thirty-three bucks.
I'd guess that pretty much all of yesterday's price action in all four precious metals was an engineered event, including what happened at 8:30 a.m. in New York.  The dollar index and the jobs number were just fig leafs for "da boyz" in New York to hide behind as they did the dirty.

***

The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 9 gold and 8 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday.  I'd guess that the rest of the November delivery month will be pretty quiet.
There was no reported change in GLD...but there was a small withdrawal of 137,275 troy ounces out of SLV, which may or may not have been a fee payment of some kind.
The U.S. Mint had a somewhat more substantial sales report yesterday.  They sold 13,000 ounces of gold eagles...and 200,000 silver eagles.
The Comex-approved depository did not receive any silver on Thursday...but reported shipping 377,884 troy ounces out the door.  The link to that activity is here.
The Commitment of Traders Report for positions held at the close of Comex trading on Tuesday was another big surprise.  Both gold and silver showed increases in their respective Commercial net short positions...something I wasn't expecting.
Because it was so busy in the bullion store on Friday, I only had a few seconds to talk to Ted Butler...but he mentioned that the headline numbers were deceiving...and it was what was going on 'under the hood' that mattered.  I'll buy that...but I'll be more than interested in how Ted explains it in his commentary later today.
In a nutshell, the Commercial net short position in silver increased by 1,767 contracts, or almost 9 million ounces...and the net short position in gold increased by a fairly large 9,901 contracts...almost a million ounces.  Yesterday I mentioned that, based on the price action, both Ted and I were expecting a smallish decline in the Commercial net short positions.  That obviously did not happen.  But why?  I'll let you know when I find out from Ted, as he's the only real expert in these matters.
But no matter what he has to say, this sell off that began during the first week of October, is not shaping up like the 'normal' engineered price decline that preceded it...at least not from a COT perspective, especially silver.

I had a reader from Croatia send me a little something yesterday...and I thought it worth sharing.  This is what he had to say in his covering e-mail..."Dear Ed, I found "the most important graph" (KWN discussion with Egon von Greyerz, GSD, Nov. 2) slightly inaccurate in terms of proportion. Therefore, I constructed my own graph, by using Egon's data."

***

selected news of note.....

Con Ed Says ‘Vast Majority’ Will Have Power Restored By Next Weekend, Nov. 10-11

The effort to restore power to those impacted by mega-storm Sandy will apparently take longer than initially hoped.
Con Edison said Thursday that it expects to “restore the vast majority of customers who lost power by the weekend of Nov. 10 and 11. The remaining customer restorations could take an additional week more.”
As a reminder, a Con Ed “customer” is not necessarily an individual – it can be an entire building.  That said, Con Ed said it anticipated having power restored to customers in Lower Manhattan by Saturday.
Con Ed said some 900,000 customers lost power due to the storm in New York City and Westchester County.  Some 250,000 customers have had power restored, with roughly 650,000 to go.
This story was posted on the CBS New York website on Thursday afternoon...and I borrowed it from yesterday's King Report.  The link is here.

Stock certificates feared damaged by Sandy

Trillions of dollars worth of stock certificates and other paper securities that were stored in a vault in lower Manhattan may have suffered water damage from Super-storm Sandy.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., an industry-run clearing house for Wall Street, said the contents of its vault "are likely damaged," after its building at 55 Water Street "sustained significant water damage" from the storm that battered New York City's financial district earlier this week.
The vault contains certificates registered to Cede & Co., a subsidiary of DTCC, as well as "custody certificates" in sealed envelopes that belong to clients.
The DTCC provides "custody and asset servicing" for more than 3.6 million securities worth an estimated $36.5 trillion, according to its website.
This story was posted on the CNN website just before lunch on the East Coast yesterday...and I thank reader "David in California" for sending it.  It's worth reading...and the link is here.

U.S. Elections: Will the Dead Vote...and Voting Machines be Hacked

In a fascinating article in Harper’s Magazine (October 26, 2012) Victoria Collier notes that in the old technology, election theft depended on the power of machine politicians, such as Louisiana Senator Huey Long, to prevent exposure.

With the advent of modern technology, Collier writes that “a brave new world of election rigging emerged.” The brave new world of election theft was created by “the mass adoption of computerized voting technology and the outsourcing of our elections to a handful of corporations that operate in the shadows, with little oversight or accountability. This privatization of our elections has occurred without public knowledge or consent, leading to one of the most dangerous and least understood crisis in the history of American democracy. We have actually lost the ability to verify election results.”

The old ballot-box fraud was localized and limited in its reach. Electronic voting allows elections to be rigged on a statewide and national scale. Moreover, with electronic voting there are no missing ballot boxes to recover from the Louisiana bayous. Using proprietary corporate software, the vote count is what the software specifies.

This article is a must read for all American voters before they cast their ballot on Tuesday.  Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is always controversial but, in my opinion, just about always right on the money as well.  I consider this essay to be no exception.  I thank reader William Gebhardt for sending it along...and the link is here.

Greece is governed by a corrupt clique, says Kostas Vaxevanis

Greece is undergoing a crisis of democracy with press censorship at its centre, says the magazine editor in the middle of the media storm that has engulfed Athens. Speaking to the Guardian a day after being cleared of breaching privacy laws, Kostas Vaxevanis said Greece was ruled by a clique of corrupt politicians in thrall to businessmen who owned – and gagged – the media.
"There's a huge problem in Greece, a problem of democracy and essence," he said in his fifth-floor office, surrounded by copies of Hot Doc, the investigative magazine that last week published the names of more than 2,000 high-earning Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland. "The country is governed by a poisonous combination of politicians, businessmen and journalists who cover one another's backs. Every day laws are changed, or new laws are voted in, to legitimise illegal deeds."
With a substantial chunk of the Greek media owned by magnates or financed by banks, journalists were in effect silenced. "It's tragic. Greeks only ever learn half the truth and that is worse than lies because it has the effect of creating impressions," he said. "Had it not been for the foreign media taking such an interest in my own story, it would have been buried."
This story showed up in The Guardian yesterday evening...and it's no surprise that it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens.  The link is here.

Is a Central Bank Gold Run at Hand?

On learning that French gold was being held by the U.S. Federal Reserve, French President Charles de Gaulle is reported to have said, “I could hardly sleep easily with such an arrangement.” So in 1965 he ordered French navy ships to cross the Atlantic to pick up $150 million in gold held in the Fed’s New York vaults and deliver it to the Banque de France in Paris.
It was a prudent move by de Gaulle. And it was consistent with the advice I have long given: Do not leave your gold in the care of somebody else. Take physical possession of your gold.
De Gaulle realized the United States was running an international con. It had promised that holders of U.S. dollars would always be able to redeem them for gold at the official rate of $35 per ounce. But like someone writing bad checks, it was clear that the U.S. was printing more dollars than it could possibly redeem at that rate.
This article, written by Charles Goyette, was posted over at themoneyandmarkets.com Internet site yesterday...and it's definitely worth reading.  I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for bringing it to our attention...and the link is here.

Bundesbank official assures NY Fed that gold issue will go away

Our friend the German financial journalist Lars Schall calls attention to remarks delivered Thursday by a member of the executive board of the German Bundesbank, Andreas Dombret, at a reception held at the Bundesbank's office in New York in the presence of the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley. Dombret's remarks, appended here, confirm that, as GATA often has reported, Germany's gold reserves are held in large part at the New York Fed to facilitate their presumably secret trading, since, as Dombret notes, "Frankfurt is not a gold-trading center."
Dombret's remarks seem meant to pretend that the clamor and controversy over the foreign vaulting and secrecy around the German gold reserves will end quickly, preserving the trust between the Bundesbank and the Federal Reserve.
And yet the Bundesbank continues to refuse to answer whether it has any gold swap arrangements with the Fed or any other agency of the U.S. government.
This is another GATA release with a few stories embedded...and it, too, isworth your time...if you have any left, that is.  The link is here.

http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/4294/whatever

Whatever

Friday, November 2, 2012 at 11:03 am

Well, that all went to shit, didn't it?

Just goes to show ya, The Turd really isn't a soothsayer, a psychic or a witch. The Turd is just a regular dude, trying to do his best to educate and prepare the masses.

For now, all I know is this: 

As hard as it is to believe, the metals are poised for a tremendous 2013. Currently, the algos are in charge and they are driving the paper price lower and lower, regardless of the fundamentals. The Bullion Banks openly manipulate price while the inept and corrupted CFTC looks the other way. All the while, Western physical metal is being rapidly depleted and moved into the vaults of dollar-creditor nations such as Russia, China and India.

One day soon, this will all explode in spectacular fashion and the current global financial system, based upon dollar hegemony, will be radically altered. Until then, trade at your own risk. Even I, The Great and Powerful Turd, allowed myself to be sucked back into the casino this one, last time. Turd DumDum...fool me 5 or six times, shame on me!

http://www.silverseek.com/commentary/cot-silver-report-november-2-2012-7386

COT Silver Report - November 2, 2012

SilverSeek.com

 |

November 2, 2012 - 3:25pm

   

Silver COT Report: Futures
Large Speculators			Commercial
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short
46,782	10,565	27,053	36,939	90,671
-681	1,238	-2,904	1,153	-614
Traders
77	40	39	31	41
Small Speculators		Open Interest		Total
Long	Short	137,585		Long	Short
26,811	9,296			110,774	128,289
-626	-778	-3,058		-2,432	-2,280
non reportable positions		Positions as of:		127	104
		Tuesday, October 30, 2012		© SilverSeek.com

Silver COT Report: Futures & Options Combined
Large Speculators			Commercial
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short
47,198	8,627	52,692	51,422	108,298
-668	1,284	-4,604	854	-964
Traders
93	39	71	36	44
Small Speculators		Open Interest		Total
Long	Short	180,256		Long	Short
28,943	10,638			151,312	169,618
-1,031	-1,165	-5,449		-4,418	-4,284
non reportable positions		Positions as of:		157	129
		Tuesday, October 30, 2012		© SilverSeek.com

and gold.....

Gold COT Report - Futures
Large Speculators			Commercial		Total
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short	Long	Short
207,532	37,310	29,351	144,346	367,110	381,229	433,771
Change from Prior Reporting Period
-14,563	-2,742	-1,650	11,487	1,586	-4,726	-2,806
Traders
205	59	66	51	44	284	146
	Small Speculators
	Long	Short	Open Interest
	73,513	20,971	454,742
	3,632	1,712	-1,094
	non reportable positions		Change from the previous reporting period
COT Gold Report - Positions as of				Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Gold COT Report - Futures & Options Combined
Large Speculators			Commercial		Total
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short	Long	Short
220,648	27,254	159,131	229,878	478,060	609,657	664,445
Change from Prior Reporting Period
-10,754	588	-21,184	1,121	-9,449	-30,817	-30,046
Traders
238	68	150	55	50	343	223
	Small Speculators
	Long	Short	Open Interest
	80,105	25,317	689,762
	2,177	1,406	-28,640
	non reportable positions		Change from the previous reporting period
COT Gold Report - Positions as of				Tuesday, October 30, 2012

and.....





http://www.silverdoctors.com/192-million-ounces-of-paper-silver-dumped-on-market-in-10-minutes-on-nfp-release/#more-16624

192 MILLION OUNCES OF PAPER SILVER DUMPED ON MARKET IN 10 MINUTES ON NFP RELEASE!

NOVEMBER 2, 2012 BY THE DOC 54 COMMENTS

According to NetDania’s volume (which approximates volume from 5 separate sources and is not an exact indicator of volume data)  38,400 contracts, or 191.99 million ounces of paper silver (nearly a quarter of annual global silver production!) were dumped on the market in only 10 minutes between 8:30 and 8:40am EST upon the release of the NFP data.

Screen shot of the paper dump (with 3rd wave of attack in progress) below:

$31 has just been penetrated in the 3rd wave of the cartel attack, but price has quickly rebounded from $30.91 to $31.25.

*Update: Paper dumping has commenced again, with silver smashed back under $31 with a last of $30.77.  Expect support to emerge near $30-$30.50.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/five-things-repatriating-gold-bullion-says-about-germany

Five Things Repatriating Gold Bullion Says About Germany

"It was another Groundhog Day performance in all four precious metals again yesterday...and nothing has been resolved."

¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD AND SILVER

Nothing much happened during Far East trading on their Thursday...and the same came be said for early trading in London as well.  But the positive bias that had developed since the London open, got nipped in the bud at precisely noon local time...8 a.m. in New York.  Then, like Monday and Tuesday, it was all down hill into the 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Comex close.  From there, the gold price traded sideways into the 5:15 p.m. electronic close.
Gold finished the Thursday trading day at $1,715.00 spot...down $5.20 on the day.  Volume was in the neighbourhood of 134,000 contracts.

And as you can see from the chart, it was precisely the same story in silver...so I shan't dwell on the action.
Silver closed at $32.26 spot...flat on the day. Volume was around 32,300 contracts.

The dollar index opened at 79.96 in Far East trading on Thursday morning...and then traded within a very choppy 30 point range for the rest of the day...but only closed up 8 basis points at 80.04.  The gold and silver traded pretty much independently of the currencies yesterday...as it was obvious that other forces were at work in the precious metal markets yesterday.

Even though the gold price was unchanged at the open of the equity markets, the shares gapped down a percent...and by shortly after 10:00 a.m. in New York, were down about two percent.  They didn't do much after that...and the HUI closed almost on its low of the day...down 1.86%.

With the odd exception, the silver stocks did reasonably well...all things considered...and Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up a very respectable 1.57%.

The CME's Daily Delivery Report for 'Day 2' of the November delivery month showed that 112 gold and zero silver contracts were posted for delivery on Monday within the Comex-approved depositories.  The Bank of Nova Scotia was the short/issuer on 111 of those gold contracts...and JPMorgan was the biggest stopper with 65 of those contracts.  The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here.
There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday, but over at SLV an authorized participant added 774,614 troy ounces of silver.
The U.S. Mint had a very tiny sales report yesterday..and I don't know why they bothered with it.  They sold 3,000 ounces of gold eagles...and that was all.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday, they reported receiving 504,897 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 21,902 ounces out the door.  The link to that activity is here.
This happy looking chart posted below is courtesy of Nick Laird of all people...and it's surprising, because it isn't even his!  That's a first for him.  He 'borrowed' it from the gracelandupdates.com website.

and selected news of the day......

Bank of England's Charlie Bean signals no more QE

The prospect of more money printing has receded after Charlie Bean, the Bank of England’s deputy governor, revealed he had doubts about how much growth the policy would deliver in what could be a key shift at the central bank.
Mr Bean appeared to signal a change of stance in a speech in Hull that is likely to mean quantitative easing (QE) is voted down next week, when the Bank’s nine rate-setters make their monthly decision. Until recently, most economists had expected the Bank to re-launch QE in November, with another £50bn injection on top of the £375bn completed.
In July, when QE was last increased, two members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted against QE – including chief economist Spencer Dale. A swing against by such a senior figure as Mr Bean, who is deputy governor for monetary policy and a former chief economist, would be expected to carry other members, too.
It also raises the prospect of Sir Mervyn King, the Governor, being outvoted twice in just six months. Sir Mervyn is expected to call for another £50bn round as he did in June, when he was in the minority and Mr Bean was one of those who voted him down.
This story was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site early on Wednesday evening...and I thank Donald Sinclair for digging it up on our behalf.  The link is here.

Barclays faces $470m fine for electricity market manipulation

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has provisionally fined Barclays a total of $435m and ordered the bank to repay $34.9m in "unjust profits" as it accused the lender of engaging in a "coordinated scheme to manipulate trading at four electricity trading points in the Western United States".
Four Barclays traders were named by the authorities and fined a total of $18m for taking part in the alleged scheme.
Scott Connelly, managing director of North American power at Barclays, who was described by the regulator as the "leader of the manipulative scheme" and its "highest paid member", was hit with the largest fine and provisionally ordered to pay $15m. Three other traders, named as Daniel Brin, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith, were each fined $1m.
One wonders what fine JPMorgan et al will face if the silver and gold price management scheme is ever allowed to see the light of day in the public press.  This story was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site very late on Wednesday night GMT...and is another offering from Donald Sinclair.  The link is here.

Debt Crisis: Wealthy Greeks Still Don't Pay Taxes

Average Greeks are reeling under the strict austerity measures passed in order to balance the country's budget. Top earners, on the other hand, continue to evade the tax man. Most of the self-employed in Greece significantly underreport their earnings, whereas shipping magnates enjoy generous exemptions.
The principle of tax justice may be enshrined into the Greek constitution, but it has become increasingly obvious that not all Greek taxpayers are created equal. Currently, the government in Athens is preparing yet another round of harsh austerity measures, severely testing the cohesion of both the coalition and society. Already, such measures in combination with tax hikes have slashed average household income in Greece by half since the beginning of the crisis. Measures now planned will see pensions sink by 25 percent.
At the same time, though, a small elite of wealthy Greek ship owners is fighting to defend its tax-free status -- also, ironically enough, enshrined in the constitution. Meanwhile, other moneyed Greeks, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, continue to systematically avoid taxes. According to a recent study, seven out of 10 self employed Greeks significantly underreport their earnings. Indeed, though the crisis has been raging for five years now, many wealthy Greeks are under no more pressure to pay taxes than they were before.
This story was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to our attention.  The link is here.

Jan Skoyles: Five things repatriating gold bullion says about the country

Jan Skoyles, research director for U.K. bullion dealer The Real Asset Co., takes note of the clamor in Germany for repatriation of the nation's foreign-vaulted gold and GATA's disclosure that the U.S. Federal Reserve has secret gold swap arrangements with foreign banks, likely including the Bundesbank. Skoyles' commentary is headlined "5 Things Repatriating Gold Bullion Says about the Country".
I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing the introduction on our behalf.  The commentary is posted on therealasset.co.uk Internet site...and is definitely amust read.  The link is here.