http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-10/executive-order-6102-precious-metal-purchasing-act-santellis-take
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/10/2013 15:47 -0500
and.....
http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/lawrence-williams-1-trillion-platinum-coin-hogwash
To "The Precious Metal Purchasing Act" From Executive Order 6102 - Santelli's Take
"Ever heard of SB3341?" is Rick Santelli's opening salvo in today's rantless discussion of the concerns he has with Illinois' 'Precious Metal Purchasing Act'. While passed in the Illinois Senate last year, and moth-balled in the House since, Rick notes that "the long and short of it is is they want an audit trail to any precious metals, whether you're talking coins or bullion." It does not seem too much of a stretch to this Chicagoan to the 1933 Executive Order#6102 that confiscated gold and cleared the way eventually for Nixon's 1971 disconnect of the dollar from gold. AsLiberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes: "So let me get this straight. First they want gun registration and now precious metal registration? I’m sure the government would only use such information in our best interests, because as we all know: Your Government Loves You. Sounds reasonable, after all, only 'terrorists' buy guns and gold anyway."
and.....
http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/lawrence-williams-1-trillion-platinum-coin-hogwash
Lawrence Williams: $1 Trillion Platinum Coin Hogwash
Jan
10
"How long this 'watching paint dry and grass grow' episode in the precious metals continues, remains to be seen."
¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD AND SILVER
Nothing of importance happened during the Far East trading session on their Wednesday...and the high of the day [around $1,666 spot] came at 9:00 a.m. in London. The gold price stayed in positive territory until about 9:00 a.m. in New York...five hours later. Then down went the price, with the low price tick [$1,650.60 spot] coming about forty-five minutes before the Comex close.
The price recovered a bit from there, but from around 2:15 p.m. Eastern time, it began to trade sideways into the close of electronic trading.
The gold price finished the day at $1,658.00 spot...down $2.80 from Tuesday's close. Net volume was light...around 106,000 contract.
The price recovered a bit from there, but from around 2:15 p.m. Eastern time, it began to trade sideways into the close of electronic trading.
The gold price finished the day at $1,658.00 spot...down $2.80 from Tuesday's close. Net volume was light...around 106,000 contract.
It was pretty much the same story in silver. The high tick [around $30.60 spot] at 9:00 a.m. in London...followed by the 9:00 a.m. selloff in New York. The low price tick of $29.98 spot came at 10:45 a.m. Eastern...about fifteen minutes before the London close.
The silver price chopped sideways from there...but rallied slightly once the Comex closed, before trading sideways from 2:15 p.m. Eastern onwards.
Silver finished on Wednesday at $30.36 spot...down a nickel from Tuesday. Volume was around 39,500 contracts.
The dollar index opened the Wednesday trading session in the Far East at 80.31...and then rallied slowly and steadily to its high of the day which came minutes after 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. From there it chopped sideways before fading a bit into the close. The index finished the Wednesday session at 80.61...up 30 basis points when all was said and done.
The silver price chopped sideways from there...but rallied slightly once the Comex closed, before trading sideways from 2:15 p.m. Eastern onwards.
Silver finished on Wednesday at $30.36 spot...down a nickel from Tuesday. Volume was around 39,500 contracts.
* * *
The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that only one lonely silver contract was posted for delivery on Friday within the Comex-approved depositories.
There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV...and there was no sales report from the U.S. Mint, either.
There was more big activity over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. They received 905,715 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 180,686 ounces of the stuff out the door. The link to that action is here.
Here's a chart and some commentary about gold that Washington state reader S.A. stole from somewhere yesterday.
There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV...and there was no sales report from the U.S. Mint, either.
There was more big activity over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. They received 905,715 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 180,686 ounces of the stuff out the door. The link to that action is here.
Here's a chart and some commentary about gold that Washington state reader S.A. stole from somewhere yesterday.
The commentary included with the graph was as follows... "As you can see, over the entire 12-year precious metal bull market, gold has bottomed in January seven times...but only once after April amidst the 2008 global meltdown...when the cartel viciously attacked to mask gold's "once and future" roll as a safe haven...only to see it recoup all such losses by February 2009."
The chart below arrived in my in-box courtesy of Nick Laird. Nick's calculations showed that China imported 63 tonnes of gold through Hong Kong in November on a net basis. The cumulative imports, the thick black line, shows that China has imported 1,242 tonnes of gold via HK...with the vast majority of that occurring since May of 2011.
The chart below arrived in my in-box courtesy of Nick Laird. Nick's calculations showed that China imported 63 tonnes of gold through Hong Kong in November on a net basis. The cumulative imports, the thick black line, shows that China has imported 1,242 tonnes of gold via HK...with the vast majority of that occurring since May of 2011.
and selected news items.....
Secret Goldman Team Sidesteps Volcker After Blankfein Vow
Sitting onstage in Washington’s Ronald Reagan Building in July, Lloyd C. Blankfein said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) had stopped using its own money to make bets on the bank’s behalf.
“We shut off that activity,” the chief executive officer told more than 400 people at a lunch organized by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., slicing the air with his hand. The bank no longer had proprietary traders who “just put on risks that they wanted” and didn’t interact with clients, he said.
That may come as a surprise to people working in a secretive Goldman Sachs group called Multi-Strategy Investing, or MSI. It wagers about $1 billion of the New York-based firm’s own funds on the stocks and bonds of companies, including a mortgage servicer and a cement producer, according to interviews with more than 20 people who worked for and with the group, some as recently as last year. The unit, headed by two 1999 Princeton University classmates, has no clients, the people said.
The team’s survival shows how Goldman Sachs has worked around regulations curbing proprietary bets at banks. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker singled out the company in 2009, saying it shouldn’t get taxpayer support if it focuses on trading.
This Bloomberg story was posted on their Internet site late on Monday evening...and I thank reader Jon Thone for our first story of the day. The link is here.
“We shut off that activity,” the chief executive officer told more than 400 people at a lunch organized by the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., slicing the air with his hand. The bank no longer had proprietary traders who “just put on risks that they wanted” and didn’t interact with clients, he said.
That may come as a surprise to people working in a secretive Goldman Sachs group called Multi-Strategy Investing, or MSI. It wagers about $1 billion of the New York-based firm’s own funds on the stocks and bonds of companies, including a mortgage servicer and a cement producer, according to interviews with more than 20 people who worked for and with the group, some as recently as last year. The unit, headed by two 1999 Princeton University classmates, has no clients, the people said.
The team’s survival shows how Goldman Sachs has worked around regulations curbing proprietary bets at banks. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker singled out the company in 2009, saying it shouldn’t get taxpayer support if it focuses on trading.
This Bloomberg story was posted on their Internet site late on Monday evening...and I thank reader Jon Thone for our first story of the day. The link is here.
Charlie Gasparino Says There's Going to be a Blood Bath at Morgan Stanley on Monday
Charlie Gasparino reports that Morgan Stanley is in for some deep cuts on Monday.
Bloomberg is reporting 1,600 job cuts at the bank next week as well.
None of this should come as a surprise. Morgan Stanley's CEO James Gorman has always made it clear that Wall Street had to downsize and that he wasn't afraid to have his own employees feel the pain.
That goes for compensation (down 9% since last year) and layoffs. The truly ugly year was 2011, when the firm was running layoff scenarios in the several thousands. At the beginning of last year, Gasparino (again) reported that by June 5,000 more people would be gone.
This Bloomberg article was posted on their Internet site mid-morning yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for his first of many contributions in this column. The link is here.
Bloomberg is reporting 1,600 job cuts at the bank next week as well.
None of this should come as a surprise. Morgan Stanley's CEO James Gorman has always made it clear that Wall Street had to downsize and that he wasn't afraid to have his own employees feel the pain.
That goes for compensation (down 9% since last year) and layoffs. The truly ugly year was 2011, when the firm was running layoff scenarios in the several thousands. At the beginning of last year, Gasparino (again) reported that by June 5,000 more people would be gone.
This Bloomberg article was posted on their Internet site mid-morning yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for his first of many contributions in this column. The link is here.
Irish house prices to fall another 20pc, warns Fitch
Irish house prices could fall a further 20pc and inflict stiff losses on holders of mortgage bonds, with a growing risk of property defaults across the eurozone periphery, according to Fitch Ratings.
The agency said the foreclosure process was now at the mercy of politics in Ireland, as well as Greece and Spain, as each takes steps to prevent repossession of homes by lenders.
This has already led to a surge in 90-day arrears to 11.3pc in Ireland, where distressed borrowers no longer feel constrained to pay their mortgages, knowing that they are safe and can expect big debt write-offs under new insolvency laws. “There is a moral hazard concern,” said Fitch.
A decree suspending home evictions has also raised the same risk for lenders in Spain, while Greece has suspended foreclosure sales on main homes.
This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard commentary was posted on the telegraph.co.ukInternet site early Tuesday evening GMT...and it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.
The agency said the foreclosure process was now at the mercy of politics in Ireland, as well as Greece and Spain, as each takes steps to prevent repossession of homes by lenders.
This has already led to a surge in 90-day arrears to 11.3pc in Ireland, where distressed borrowers no longer feel constrained to pay their mortgages, knowing that they are safe and can expect big debt write-offs under new insolvency laws. “There is a moral hazard concern,” said Fitch.
A decree suspending home evictions has also raised the same risk for lenders in Spain, while Greece has suspended foreclosure sales on main homes.
This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard commentary was posted on the telegraph.co.ukInternet site early Tuesday evening GMT...and it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.
Opposition in Berlin: Cyprus Bailout Could Fail in German Parliament
The urgently needed bailout of the Cypriot banking industry is in danger of being vetoed by the German parliament. The opposition Social Democrats say they are leaning towards voting no, according to a media report. With Chancellor Merkel unable to rely on her own majority, that could be bad news for Cyprus and for the euro.
Optimism has been in no short supply in the euro zone in recent weeks. Before the new year, both European Commissioner Olli Rehn and notoriously circumspect German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said they believed that the worst of the euro crisis had passed. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso joined the chorus late last week.
But for crisis late-comer Cyprus, the worst is almost surely still to come. Even more concerning for the Mediterranean island nation, Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) now say they are considering voting against a badly needed aid package for the country. And the Green Party is skeptical too. With Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer able to rely on her own parliamentary majority to push through euro-zone bailout packages, help for Cyprus may not be forthcoming.
Anyone who believes that the European banking crisis is ever going to go away, is dreaming in Technicolor as far as I'm concerned. This article was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us. The link is here.
Optimism has been in no short supply in the euro zone in recent weeks. Before the new year, both European Commissioner Olli Rehn and notoriously circumspect German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said they believed that the worst of the euro crisis had passed. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso joined the chorus late last week.
But for crisis late-comer Cyprus, the worst is almost surely still to come. Even more concerning for the Mediterranean island nation, Germany's opposition Social Democrats (SPD) now say they are considering voting against a badly needed aid package for the country. And the Green Party is skeptical too. With Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer able to rely on her own parliamentary majority to push through euro-zone bailout packages, help for Cyprus may not be forthcoming.
Anyone who believes that the European banking crisis is ever going to go away, is dreaming in Technicolor as far as I'm concerned. This article was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us. The link is here.
Japan Is Weighing Raising Military Spending
Japan’s new conservative government announced a review of national military strategy on Monday that analysts said was aimed at offsetting China’s growing military power and that may increase defense spending for the first time in a decade.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his government to replace the nation’s five-year military spending plan and to review defense guidelines adopted in 2010 by the left-leaning Democratic Party, which his party defeated in elections last month. Those guidelines called for gradual reductions in defense spending, and in the size of Japan’s military, particularly in the number of tanks and infantry members.
Mr. Abe had promised during the election campaign to strengthen the military to defend Japan’s control of islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China.
This news item showed up on The New York Times website on Monday...and I thank Nitin Agrawal for sending it. The link is here.
$1 trillion platinum coin hogwash – if it should happen buy gold and silver
Far be it for me to argue with a Nobel prizewinning economist, members of Congress and however many thousands have signed the White House petition to mint it, but this whole idea of a trillion dollar platinum coin is ludicrous.
It would have to constitute the most gigantic fraud ever perpetuated by a government and probably make the U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy the laughing stock of the world. If anything, it would trigger a huge investment surge into gold and silver as all faith in government-created money would evaporate!
Firstly – why platinum? It is based on a legal technicality allowing the U.S. to mint platinum coins of any face value. However, given that $1 trillion dollars worth of platinum at current prices represents around 8 or 9 times the amount of platinum ever mined throughout history, a trillion dollar face value coin would have to bring any kind of money creation into even more disrepute than it already is.
Amen to that...and everything else that Lawrie Williams has to say in this excellent article posted on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday. It's amust read...and the link is here.
It would have to constitute the most gigantic fraud ever perpetuated by a government and probably make the U.S. dollar and the U.S. economy the laughing stock of the world. If anything, it would trigger a huge investment surge into gold and silver as all faith in government-created money would evaporate!
Firstly – why platinum? It is based on a legal technicality allowing the U.S. to mint platinum coins of any face value. However, given that $1 trillion dollars worth of platinum at current prices represents around 8 or 9 times the amount of platinum ever mined throughout history, a trillion dollar face value coin would have to bring any kind of money creation into even more disrepute than it already is.
Amen to that...and everything else that Lawrie Williams has to say in this excellent article posted on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday. It's amust read...and the link is here.
India’s Gold Mania
Less than 1% of the world’s gold is mined in India. The rest comes from somewhere else. Still, India can’t get enough. It is the largest consumer of gold in the world, buying nearly a third of production in recent years. Some estimates say that 10% of all gold is held in India.
Indians save roughly 30% of their income, as opposed Americans, who save 5%. Plus, Indians are getting richer all the time. Once a very poor country, the rich and middle classes now outnumber the poor in this nation of 1.2 billion. The country has the sixth-largest economy in the world.
If people are left alone, high gold demand going forward is a lock.
This Doug French essay was posted on he Laissez Faire Today website on Tuesday...and it's worth reading. I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon...and the link is here.
Indians save roughly 30% of their income, as opposed Americans, who save 5%. Plus, Indians are getting richer all the time. Once a very poor country, the rich and middle classes now outnumber the poor in this nation of 1.2 billion. The country has the sixth-largest economy in the world.
If people are left alone, high gold demand going forward is a lock.
This Doug French essay was posted on he Laissez Faire Today website on Tuesday...and it's worth reading. I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon...and the link is here.
* * *
¤ THE WRAP
Not only is it true that all price manipulations must end; it is also axiomatic that the end of a price manipulation must be sudden and dramatic and that the price must move opposite to the direction in which prices were manipulated. When the silver manipulation ends, the price must quickly explode upward. Almost literally, the end of the silver manipulation and price explosion must come in a day...or a night. I can’t tell you which day or night, just that the decades-old manipulation will end in a flash. In a nutshell, that’s what keeps me invested even when JPMorgan looks likely to manipulate prices lower yet again; I can’t take the risk of missing what I believe is a sure thing – the sure thing being that silver is manipulated and that the manipulation must end violently. I can’t step aside and risk missing the one day that I’ve known must come for the last quarter of a century. - Silver analyst Ted Butler...09 January 2013
It was sort of a 'nothing' day in the precious metals where, once again, the prices of both gold and silver were carefully kept under their respective 200-day moving averages. How long this 'watching paint dry and grass grow' episode in the precious metals continues, remains to be seen.
So we just have to sit here and wait for events to unfold as far as the prices of the precious metals are concerned...down or up...and I hope you made careful note of what Ted had to say in the quote below the cartoons posted above.
In the meantime, we have this $1 trillion platinum coin story to keep us amused until it gets the official burial that it so richly deserves.
While on the subject of watching paint dry, that's pretty much what happened in Far East trading on their Thursday...and prices are quiet going into the London open. Volumes at the moment [2:49 a.m. Eastern time] are extremely light, with almost no roll-overs out of the February delivery month in gold, so it's my guess that the trading volume is almost all of the high-frequency trading variety...and the dollar index is down a hair.
It was sort of a 'nothing' day in the precious metals where, once again, the prices of both gold and silver were carefully kept under their respective 200-day moving averages. How long this 'watching paint dry and grass grow' episode in the precious metals continues, remains to be seen.
So we just have to sit here and wait for events to unfold as far as the prices of the precious metals are concerned...down or up...and I hope you made careful note of what Ted had to say in the quote below the cartoons posted above.
In the meantime, we have this $1 trillion platinum coin story to keep us amused until it gets the official burial that it so richly deserves.
While on the subject of watching paint dry, that's pretty much what happened in Far East trading on their Thursday...and prices are quiet going into the London open. Volumes at the moment [2:49 a.m. Eastern time] are extremely light, with almost no roll-overs out of the February delivery month in gold, so it's my guess that the trading volume is almost all of the high-frequency trading variety...and the dollar index is down a hair.
And as I hit the 'send' button at 4:42 a.m. Eastern time, nothing much is happening in London trading, either. Volumes are up a bit...and there are still no roll-overs in gold worth mentioning...and the dollar index is still down a hair.
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