http://www.kitco.com/reports/KitcoNews20130402JW_pm.html
( 1550 key support for gold , 26.50 key support for silver come into view... )
and.....
http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/fed-shorting-gold-to-support-the-dollar-former-assistant-treasury-secretary/
( 1550 key support for gold , 26.50 key support for silver come into view... )
P.M. Kitco Metals Roundup: Gold Hammered Down on Technical Selling, Bearish Outside Market Forces
Tuesday April 2, 2013 2:35 PM
(Kitco News) - Comex gold futures prices ended the U.S. day session sharply lower and hit a two-week low Tuesday. Renewed technical selling pressure surfaced as sell stop orders were triggered to accelerate the price down-move. The key "outside markets" turned more bearish for the precious metals on a daily basis Tuesday--a firmer U.S. dollar index and weaker crude oil prices. Also bearish for the raw commodity sector in general is the bull run in the U.S. stock market that saw the Dow and S&P indexes score new highs on Tuesday. The keener investor interest in equities is pulling funds away from other asset classes, including the safe-haven gold market. June Comex gold last traded down $23.70 at $1,577.20 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $22.20 at $1,577.75. May Comex silver last traded down $0.644 at $27.30 an ounce.
U.S. economic data released Tuesday was about in line with market expectations and had little impact on the gold and silver markets. Traders and investors are looking ahead to Friday’s release of the U.S. employment situation report, which is arguably the most important U.S. economic report of the month. The consensus forecast calls for the key non-farm payrolls figure to have risen by 200,000 in March, with the overall unemployment rate unchanged from the previous month, at 7.7%.
In overnight news, there was more dour economic data coming out of the European Union Tuesday. The number of Euro zone unemployed workers rose to a record level in February, which underscores the bloc’s economic and financial problems. The overall Euro zone unemployment rate was 12.0% in February, which is unchanged from January. Meanwhile, Euro zone manufacturing data for March showed weakness at an accelerating rate. The Euro zone manufacturing PMI was reported at 46.8 in March from 47.9 in February. There were no new developments on the Cyprus banking crisis front. European stocks were modestly higher Tuesday. Still, the overall European Union political and economic situation remains a concern for the market place and continues to make traders and investors more risk-averse.
The London P.M. gold fix is $1,583.50 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,598.25.
The U.S. dollar index was firmer Tuesday. The U.S. dollar bulls hold the overall technical advantage, which is an underlying bearish factor for the gold and silver markets. Meantime, Nymex crude oil futures prices were slightly lower but did hit a six-week high on Monday. The crude oil bulls have the near-term technical advantage, which is an underlying bullish factor for the precious metals bulls. These two key “outside markets” will continue to have a significant daily influence on gold and silver prices.
Technically, June gold futures prices closed near the session low Tuesday and hit a fresh two-week low. The gold bears have the overall near-term technical advantage and gained fresh downside momentum Tuesday. The gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,600.00. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at the February low of $1,556.40. First resistance is seen at $1,585.00 and then at $1,590.00. First support is seen at Tuesday’s low of $1,574.00 and then at $1,570.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 3.0
May silver futures prices closed nearer the session low again Tuesday and hit another fresh eight-month low. Silver bears have the solid overall near-term technical advantage and have gained fresh downside momentum this week. Bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at this week’s high of $28.36 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at $27.00. First resistance is seen at $27.50 and then at $27.81. Next support is seen at Tuesday’s low of $27.15 and then at $27.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 2.0.
May N.Y. copper closed up 10 points at 337.55 cents Tuesday. Prices closed near mid-range and saw tepid short covering in a bear market. Copper bears still have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Copper bulls' next upside breakout objective is pushing and closing prices above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of 348.65 cents. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at the August 2012 low of 332.00 cents. First resistance is seen at 340.00 cents and then at 342.50 cents. First support is seen at Tuesday’s low of 335.85 cents and then at this week’s low of 334.00 cents. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 2.5.
Jim Sinclair: Today's massive attempt to break gold
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2013-04-02 14:59. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Jim Sinclair
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
This is a massive attempt to break gold in order to camouflage the weakening Western banking sector. Paid bashers are flooding in to all pro-gold sites and many other pro-gold sites are under attack in other ways.
Gold banks are flogging the paper market seeking to depress the price but without selling too much.
It is so obvious that this is a gold bank-organized strategy to keep gold under $1,600. Old lows will hold and the reversal will be at a spiritual level.
My strategy is simply to do nothing.
Alasdair Macleod: BIS is coordinating plans to expropriate bank depositors
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2013-04-02 13:48. Section: Daily Dispatches
In fact, he called me up this morning and said "I really hate to think about it, but your scenarios for what could happen in this country are starting to look real. He also commented that "the system crashed in 2008 and never really recovered except superficially from all of the money printing by the Fed and financial support of the banks by the Government."
Regarding his remark about people who understand the markets and are terrified - that observation comes from the fact that he chats regularly with high level wealth management people at the big banks.
The truth is, any kind of economic recovery is really only being "experienced" by an increasingly smaller part of the population. Fact: food stamp usage hits a new record every month - currently 48 million (as of the end of December) were on food stamps - that's 15% of the population and by household, 19% of the households. Fact: currently a record 11 million people are now receiving social security disability benefits - 5.9 million added during Obama's 1st term. Fact, the labor force participation rate (the number of people working + the number of people looking for work divided by the population) is down to a near-record low 63.5% - it was 65.7% when Obama was inaugurated and and has declined nearly every month since then.
How can Bernanke possibly claim the economy is improving given those FACTS? Now you know why he wants to leave at the end of his current term. A two-term'er vs. Greenspan, who was a 6-term Fed head. We all know why, it's just very few are willing to be "intellectually honest with themselves."
The fact is, there's 2.2 trillion reasons the economy superficially appears to be improving and the stock market keeps hitting new record levels. That's the number of dollars printed and injected into the system since the Fed QE program started in March 2009. By the end of 2013, that number will be 3.2 trillion.
The housing market? Really? Fact: the Government is financing, using Taxpayer-subsidized money, around 97% of the mortgage market now. In fact, the Government has recently ramped up its refinancing of underwater mortgages to now include the once-notorious no-documentation mortgages. This is for mortgages that are already underwater and in danger of defaulting. Since the FHA stepped in to replace the void left by the FNM/FRE bankruptcy, the FHA's liberal home purchase mortgage programs have gone from 2% of the housing market to close to 20%. FACT: the 2008 vintage FHA mortgage delinquency rate is now approaching 30%.
Want more? FACT: since the Fed announced the additional mortgage QE - i.e. printing money to buy mortgage paper, the Fed has been purchasing roughly 2/3's of all Government agency-financed mortgages. Translation: the Fed is printing money to enable some people to buy homes. FACT: currently, based on Census Bureau numbers, there are 18 million vacant homes in this country, of which about 4.5 million are in process of being converted by investment funds into rentals (there goes the rental market) and 4.5 million are considered vacation homes. That's 9 million vacant homes with no intended purpose. I'm not making that up, those are Census Bureau numbers. There goes the low housing inventory story. Wanna know where a lot of those homes are? They're sitting on bank balance sheets, foreclosed, being financed by the money printing: LINK
As my friend said, the economy collapsed in 2008 and never really recovered. Instead, there's been slow systematic erosion in the general standard of living for an increasing percentage of the population. Here's one more FACT: since June 2009, the inflation-adjusted median household income has declined by 7.2%. That is not the type of statistic we would be looking at if things were really getting better.
The golden truth is that the Fed's money printing program is doing nothing more than delaying the inevitable: a complete systemic reset/collapse which will likely destroy the standard of living for everyone in this country except the truly wealthy .5% (that's point 5 percent). And those in the .5% who don't own any gold/silver will be reset into relative poverty. Death by a 1000 paper cuts (or 3.2 trillion printed dollars).
9:49a ET Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Expropriating large depositors at troublesome banks is now international policy coordinated by the Bank for International Settlements, GoldMoney's Alasdair Macleod writes today, and while distribution of one's deposits to preserve coverage by government deposit insurance may provide some protection, in the end any wealth held in the international banking system is vulnerable.
"That the BIS feels it has been necessary to co-ordinate G20 nations into a common approach to bank rescues using uninsured non-monetary and financial institutions' deposits is evidence that bank failures capable of threatening the global financial system are definitely an ongoing risk," Macleod writes. "The central banks will have calculated that raiding this category of deposits is a matter of expediency, and any run on deposits out of vulnerable banks can be contained by central banks acting as lender of last resort. This is based on the simple fact that either deposits are moved around the system, or when they are drawn down in favor of something else, the money released remains in the banking system. However, raiding these deposits is only an interim solution, because the underlying assumption is that the financial condition of the whole banking system does not deteriorate further."
Thus, Macleod concludes, gold held securely outside the banking system is the best protector of wealth. His commentary is headlined "Danger in Bank Accounts" and it's posted at GoldMoney's Internet site here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2013/04/death-by-1000-paper-cuts.html
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013
Death By 1000 Paper Cuts
If you're intellectually honest with yourself, what's happening in this country right now is truly frightening...people who understand the markets are terrified by what's going on...Now we know why Bernanke is stepping down and running for the safety of his academic ivory tower - it has to be embarrassing for him to stand up in public and say: "look at the stock market - see, everything is fine."Those comments are from a good, long-time friend of mine from NYC who used to tell me back in 2003 - in response to my prognostication about what's unfolding in this country and why owning gold was imperative - that I was "seeing black helicopters coming."
In fact, he called me up this morning and said "I really hate to think about it, but your scenarios for what could happen in this country are starting to look real. He also commented that "the system crashed in 2008 and never really recovered except superficially from all of the money printing by the Fed and financial support of the banks by the Government."
Regarding his remark about people who understand the markets and are terrified - that observation comes from the fact that he chats regularly with high level wealth management people at the big banks.
The truth is, any kind of economic recovery is really only being "experienced" by an increasingly smaller part of the population. Fact: food stamp usage hits a new record every month - currently 48 million (as of the end of December) were on food stamps - that's 15% of the population and by household, 19% of the households. Fact: currently a record 11 million people are now receiving social security disability benefits - 5.9 million added during Obama's 1st term. Fact, the labor force participation rate (the number of people working + the number of people looking for work divided by the population) is down to a near-record low 63.5% - it was 65.7% when Obama was inaugurated and and has declined nearly every month since then.
How can Bernanke possibly claim the economy is improving given those FACTS? Now you know why he wants to leave at the end of his current term. A two-term'er vs. Greenspan, who was a 6-term Fed head. We all know why, it's just very few are willing to be "intellectually honest with themselves."
The fact is, there's 2.2 trillion reasons the economy superficially appears to be improving and the stock market keeps hitting new record levels. That's the number of dollars printed and injected into the system since the Fed QE program started in March 2009. By the end of 2013, that number will be 3.2 trillion.
The housing market? Really? Fact: the Government is financing, using Taxpayer-subsidized money, around 97% of the mortgage market now. In fact, the Government has recently ramped up its refinancing of underwater mortgages to now include the once-notorious no-documentation mortgages. This is for mortgages that are already underwater and in danger of defaulting. Since the FHA stepped in to replace the void left by the FNM/FRE bankruptcy, the FHA's liberal home purchase mortgage programs have gone from 2% of the housing market to close to 20%. FACT: the 2008 vintage FHA mortgage delinquency rate is now approaching 30%.
Want more? FACT: since the Fed announced the additional mortgage QE - i.e. printing money to buy mortgage paper, the Fed has been purchasing roughly 2/3's of all Government agency-financed mortgages. Translation: the Fed is printing money to enable some people to buy homes. FACT: currently, based on Census Bureau numbers, there are 18 million vacant homes in this country, of which about 4.5 million are in process of being converted by investment funds into rentals (there goes the rental market) and 4.5 million are considered vacation homes. That's 9 million vacant homes with no intended purpose. I'm not making that up, those are Census Bureau numbers. There goes the low housing inventory story. Wanna know where a lot of those homes are? They're sitting on bank balance sheets, foreclosed, being financed by the money printing: LINK
As my friend said, the economy collapsed in 2008 and never really recovered. Instead, there's been slow systematic erosion in the general standard of living for an increasing percentage of the population. Here's one more FACT: since June 2009, the inflation-adjusted median household income has declined by 7.2%. That is not the type of statistic we would be looking at if things were really getting better.
The golden truth is that the Fed's money printing program is doing nothing more than delaying the inevitable: a complete systemic reset/collapse which will likely destroy the standard of living for everyone in this country except the truly wealthy .5% (that's point 5 percent). And those in the .5% who don't own any gold/silver will be reset into relative poverty. Death by a 1000 paper cuts (or 3.2 trillion printed dollars).
and.....
http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/fed-shorting-gold-to-support-the-dollar-former-assistant-treasury-secretary/
¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD & SILVER
Easter Monday turned out to be a real yawner everywhere on Planet Earth yesterday, as most non-North American markets were closed. Ted Butler said that both Hong Kong and London were shut tight...so it was pretty much all U.S. bullion banks trading on the Globex amongst themselves yesterday.
Gold made several weak attempts to break above the $1,600 spot price mark, but each one was easily turned back, as there was no volume worth mentioning.
Gold closed at $1,599.40 spot...up $1.80 on the day. Gross volume was anemic...only 64,000 contracts.
The price pattern was pretty much the same in silver, but there were a couple of important differences. The first was a new low price tick...$27.77 spot...which is a price we haven't been at since August of 2012. And the second was much bigger gross volume...as 41,000 contracts were traded...which was pretty decent. Silver finished the Monday trading day at $28.02 spot...down 28 cents from Thursday's close.
As you can see, the platinum and palladium markets had minds of their own yesterday. But, like gold and silver, there was no currency related moves to explain yesterday's price action in either white metal.
The dollar index opened at 83.00...and then rose to its high of the day [83.16] around 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time. It hung in there for a bit before rolling over. It hit its nadir [82.67] around noon in New York, before recovering a bit as the afternoon wore on. The index closed around 82.73...down 27 basis points from its Thursday close. It should have been obvious to anyone that, once again, there was no correlation between the dollar index and the precious metal prices again yesterday.
* * *
The CME's Daily Delivery Report for 'Day 2' of the April delivery month showed that 14 gold and 149 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Wednesday. Jefferies was the short/issuer on all 149 silver contracts....and the two big silver shorts, JPMorgan Chase and Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia, were the only two long/stoppers that mattered, with 75 and 63 contracts respectively. The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here.
The GLD ETF reported another withdrawal by an authorized participant...the first one since March 21st. This time the amount was 135,435 troy ounces. There were no reported changes in SLV.
The U.S. Mint had a sales report to start off the month of April. They sold 2,000 ounces of gold eagles...and a very chunky 812,000 silver eagles. I would suspect that those silver eagle sales actually belonged in March, as none were reported sold for the last three days of that month.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday, they reported receiving 300,180 troy ounces of silver...and shipped a smallish 16,387 troy ounces of the stuff out the door. The link to that activity is here.
Well, despite the Good Friday holiday, the Commitment of Traders Report [for positions held at the close of Comex trading on Tuesday, March 26th] was posted on the CFTC's website just like Ted Butler said it would be.
In silver, the Commercial net short position declined by 2,398 contracts...and now sits at 120.2 million ounces, the smallest amount since the lows of last summer according to Ted. What Ted also pointed out in his weekend commentary was that the raptors [the Commercial traders other than the Big 8] hold their biggest long position in history...a new record high...and the technical funds are holding a record gross short position...and the smallest long position that Ted can remember. The elastic is stretched pretty tight.
In gold, the Commercial net short position was reduced by 389,100 troy ounces of gold...and now sits at 15.85 million ounces. This is not a record low, but it's still very low comparatively speaking. According to Ted, the raptors covered about 8,000 short contracts...and the did the '5 through 8' largest traders covered about 1,000 short contracts. The 'Big 4' added more than 5,000 contracts to their short position.
Here's Nick Laird's "Days of World Production to Cover Comex Short Positions" of the largest 4 and 8 traders in each physically traded commodity on the Comex. Palladium is now tied with silver at 124 days of world production to cover the short positions of JPMorgan et al...and platinum is only seven days of world production behind them. Gold sits at only 61 days of world production to cover the short positions of the Big 8...almost a free market...LOL!
(Click on image to enlarge)
While on the subject of Nick Laird's charts...here are two more he sent me late yesterday evening. They show the intraday price movements for both gold and silver for the month of March.
(Click on image to enlarge)
(Click on image to enlarge)
To give you and idea of what these charts look like over 12 months...here are the 12 month rolling averages for both gold and silver.
(Click on image to enlarge)
* * *
selected items - focus on PMs.....
Venezuela's Move Seen as Currency Devaluation
A Venezuelan government foreign currency auction for local importers has triggered a de-facto currency devaluation, the second in less than 50 days, analysts said.
The government scrapped a program that exchanged currency at a rate of 5.3 bolivars per dollars because officials said it allowed for "speculation" and dollars wound up on the black market.
Instead, it launched a new plan known as SICAD through which it auctioned $200 million on Wednesday to a group of chosen companies. The government said that 383 companies participated, but did not name them.
Neither did they reveal the sale price of the dollar.
This AFP story was picked up the uk.finance.yahoo.com Internet site early Sunday morning British Summer Time...and I found it in a GATA release yesterday.
Argentine Bonds Fall on Government Proposal to Default Holdouts
Argentina’s dollar-denominated debt dropped on speculation the government’s offer to pay defaulted debt holders on similar terms as past restructurings will spur a U.S. court to order the nation to pay in full.
The government’s restructured notes due 2033 fell 1.09 cents to 52.66 cents on the dollar at 3:30 p.m. in New York after earlier declining to 51.76 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield on the bonds jumped 33 basis points, or 0.33 percentage point, to 16.81 percent, the highest level on a closing basis since June 2009.
Concern is mounting that an appeals court order forcing Argentina to pay hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. and other holdout creditors in full would prompt the country to halt payments on the notes from the 2005 and 2010 restructurings. An attorney for Argentina told the appeals court in February that the nation wouldn’t obey a lower court order to pay the holdouts the full amount, which totals more than $1 billion. The lower court order forbids Argentina from servicing the restructured bonds without paying the holdout creditors, meaning an upholding of the full payment ruling could trigger a new default.
This Bloomberg story was posted on their Internet site early yesterday afternoon Mountain Daylight Time...and is courtesy of Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx.
Capital Flight Accusations: Probe Puts Cypriot President Under Pressure
Several Cypriot companies were allegedly able to move millions out of the country ahead of tight capital restrictions imposed as part of the recent bailout. President Anastasiades has been accused of passing on insider information to relatives to help them avoid losses.
A new list containing the names of dozens of companies and individuals who allegedly emptied accounts worth hundreds of million of euros held at LaikiBank -- just days before Nicosia enforced capital controls and a steep losses on holders of savings accounts -- are causing a political earthquake in Cyprus.
The latest revelations come just days after the publication of another list containing names of businesses and prominent Cypriot politicians who allegedly saw their loans generously written off by Cypriot banks.
This must read commentary was posted on the German website spiegel.de at 4:15 p.m. Europe time yesterday afternoon...and it's another offering from Roy Stephens.
Bail-In Blues: Luxembourg Warns of Investor Flight from Europe
The debate over this week's "bail in" of bank account holders in Cyprus as part of the country's debt crisis bailout is continuing to simmer in Europe. In Luxembourg, Finance Minister Luc Frieden has warned that the example set in Cyprus by taxing people holding €100,000 ($129,000) or more in their accounts could drive investors out of Europe.
"This will lead to a situation in which investors invest their money outside the euro zone," he told SPIEGEL. "In this difficult situation, we need to avoid anything that will lead to instability and destroy the trust of savers."
Early last week, Euro Group President Jeroen Dijsselbloem sparked an enormous controversy after stating that the solution found in Cyprus could be applied throughout the euro zone in the future.
This item showed up on the spiegel.de Internet site just before lunch in Europe on Friday...and my thanks go out to Roy Stephens once again.
Egypt, Short of Money, Sees Crisis on Fuel and Food
A fuel shortage has helped send food prices soaring. Electricity is blacking out even before the summer. And gas-line gunfights have killed at least five people and wounded dozens over the past two weeks.
The root of the crisis, economists say, is that Egypt is running out of the hard currency it needs for fuel imports. The shortage is raising questions about Egypt’s ability to keep importing wheat that is essential to subsidized bread supplies, stirring fears of an economic catastrophe at a time when the government is already struggling to quell violent protests by its political rivals.
Farmers already lack fuel for the pumps that irrigate their fields, and they say they fear they will not have enough for the tractors to reap their wheat next month before it rots in the fields.
This alarming story out of Egypt is no surprise to me. It appeared in The New York Times on Saturday...and it's Roy's final offering in today's column, for which I thank him.
Korean Peninsula ‘on a knife edge’
Pyongyang says it is in a 'state of war' with South Korea following the latest round of sanctions over its nuclear test two months ago. Seoul warned that it’s ready to carry out a pre-emptive strike on its neighbor, if they believe an attack is imminent.
The United States has sent F-22 stealth fighter jets, to participate in ongoing military exercises with South Korea. The move is highly controversial and can be interpreted differently, James Corbett, host of the Corbett Report told Russia Today.
This short item was posted on the Russia Today website early yesterday afternoon...and Roy Stephens snuck it in my in-box when I wasn't looking in the wee hours of this morning.
Ten King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews
1. Commentary from the latest Investors Intelligence Report: "What's Happening With Bulls, Bears and Global Markets". 2. John Embry: "This Will Signal the Final Collapse and End Game Has Started". 3. Jim Sinclair...No. 1: "The Most Dangerous and Potentially Fatal Gamble in History". 4. Michael Pento: "The Real Fallout From Cyprus". 5. RobertFitzwilson: "Cyprus Changed Everything, How to Safeguard Your Money". 6.Jim Sinclair...No. 2: "Something Has Western Central Banks Terrified" 7. Keith Barron: "Coming Financial Collapse Moved Up a Notch Post Cyprus". 8. Three audio interviews...Rick Rule...Egon von Greyerz...JohnMauldin.
Sprott's Thoughts: The New Cartel on the Block
During the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) summit, South Africa and Russia announced that they plan to set up a consortium to control the flow of PGM exports. The consortium would be modelled on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a cartel formed by 12 nations that collectively supply about 41% of the world's oil output. This is a game changer for the PGM industry, as South Africa and Russia are the largest two producers of PGM's globally, together controlling about 80 percent of platinum group metal reserves.
According to a Bloomberg report, the two countries have so far signed a "framework" accord and are forming working groups to discuss joint actions. A meeting is scheduled this summer to discuss the mechanisms in more detail. "It can be called an OPEC," said Russian Natural Resources Minister SergeyDonskoy. He added, "Our goal is to co-ordinate our actions... to expand the markets. The price depends on the structure of the market, and we will form the structure of the market."
Along with silver and gold, platinum and palladium are two of the most rigged markets on earth...and I'd bet serious coin that JPMorgan Chase holds the lion's share of the short positions in those two market as well. David Franklin over at Sprott Asset Management has a few things to say about it...and it's a must read. But read it quick, before it gets overwritten with the next commentary.
Is bitcoin a better hedge, freer from government market rigging than gold?
Along with the last bitcoin story over at goldmoney.com...and posted above...there's been a literal blizzard of stories about it recently...and all of them are linked in this GATA release that Chris Powell posted on the gata.orgInternet site early on Saturday morning.
However, if given a choice between $10,000 in bitcoin currency, or an equal amount in physical gold or silver in hand...the decision would be a no-brainer for me...and for you as well, I'd guess.
If You Don't Own your Bank Deposit, Do you Own your Gold?
Just as bank depositors were under the impression that they owned their deposits and didn't, so it is possible in the gold world to find oneself in a similar position. Gold owners should be very clear on this danger.
This was highlighted when we read about the repatriation of gold by Germany and the likely repatriation of gold by Switzerland after their referendum on the subject. The possibility that the foreign central banks is making money out of a foreign nation's gold by leasing it out to the market was reinforced by the fact that it is going to take seven years to get it back to Germany. This places such banks in the same place as a bank depositor.
The fear that their gold is held in other central banks in unallocated accounts incited their fears. The danger to us is not that the gold is not there in the foreign central bank, but that it is held in unallocated accounts. What does this mean?
This commentary by Julian Phillips was posted on the 24hgold.com Internet site yesterday...and it's definitely a must read.
In Daily Reckoning interview, Sprott notes central banks' deceptive accounting of gold
Interviewed by Alex Cowie of The Daily Reckoning's Australian edition last week during the Mines and Money conference in Hong Kong, Sprott Asset Management Chairman Eric Sprott stressed the deceptiveness of central bank gold accounting, particularly the failure to distinguish gold in the vault from gold that has been swapped or leased into the market. This misleading accounting, Sprott says, is masking high demand for real metal around the world.
Sprott adds: "When Venezuela devalued by 40 percent, if the citizens had owned gold they would have lost nothing. When Iceland devalued, if the residents had owned gold they wouldn't have lost 60 percent of their money. I don't know how many more countries it takes to have these events happen to until the world finally clicks in to realising it's better to own gold than it is to have a bank deposit."
Dr. Cowie sent me this interview yesterday evening...but I was more than happy to steal Chris Powell's two paragraphs of introduction from his GATA release, which saved me the trouble of wordsmithing it myself. It's a must read as well.
Fed shorting gold to support dollar, former Assistant Treasury Secretary Roberts says
Interviewed this past week by Chris Waltzek of GoldSeek Radio, former U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts says he believes the Federal Reserve is surreptitiously shorting gold to support the dollar in the Fed's low-interest-rate environment, which ordinarily would weaken the currency.
This should come as no surprise to you, dear reader, as GATA has been going on about this for over 13 years now. The interview is 29 minutes long andRoberts' comments about gold begin at the 17-minute mark. But the first 16 minutes of this interview are worth listening to as well, as Paul is nobody's fool and sees with absolute precision what awaits us. I thank reader John Bastian for bringing this interview to my attention..and now to yours.
Grant Williams tells Hong Kong conference about gold price suppression
Grant Williams, portfolio adviser to Vulpes Investment Management in Singapore...and editor of the Things That Make You Go Hmmm... newsletter...has posted his brilliant presentation of March 19th at the Mines and Money conference in Hong Kong, which, drawing in part of GATA's research, outlined and illustrated the Western central bank gold price suppression scheme built on the creation of a vast supply of imaginary "paper gold."
Williams' presentation, titled "Risk: It's Not Just a Board Game" is 39 minutes long...and an absolute must watch/listen if there ever was one. It's posted on the youtube.com Internet site...and this link, plus one other, is contained in this GATA release from Friday.
¤ THE WRAP
I would now calculate JPMorgan’s net short position to be 23,000 contracts as of the cut-off. While down 12,000 contracts from their large short of 35,000 contracts on Feb 5, simple math shows that JPMorgan held 96% of the total commercial short position of 24,000 contracts in the latest COT report. I doubt such an extreme measure of concentration has ever occurred in any other regulated futures market. On this measure alone, it is safe to conclude that JPMorgan has manipulated the silver price, as there would be virtually no commercial short position in COMEX silver without this crooked bank. That the CFTC and the CME Group can sit by and allow such an unnatural concentration to exist shows how inept and corrupt the regulators have become. - Silver analyst Ted Butler...30 March 2013
With yesterday being a slow volume day in all metals, I don't have much to add except to what I've already said at the top of this column. It certainly does appear that, based on what the Commitment of Traders Report shows in gold, silver and copper...that we appear to be locked and loaded for rallies of some consequence in these metals. Only the timing is unknown...and whether or not JPMorgan Chase et al will be going short against all comers once again.
It appears that we are fast approaching the end game of all things paper...and if it's my guess that the countdown clock is ticking away like mad. Only the timing is unknown...and the closer the end gets, the more nervous I'm getting. When the end finally does arrive, there's not much we'll be able to do about it except watch...and hope we survive it all.
Overnight trading in the Far East was reasonably uneventful, although all four precious metals did have small rallies...and all of them got sold down to their current lows as of the 8:00 a.m. London open. Gold is back under $1,600...and silver is back under $28 the ounce. But it's always what happens in New York that matters. Gold's volume is pretty light, but silver's volume is average. The dollar index, which had been down a bit earlier, is now back to virtually unchanged as I hit the 'send' button at 5:02 a.m. Eastern time.
Today, at the 1:30 p.m. close of Comex trading, is the cut-off for this Friday's COT Report...and it will be interesting to see how today's price action unfolds based on that fact.
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See you tomorrow.
