Germany plans tax on bitcoin after virtual currency is recognized as
'private money'
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2013-08-19 19:54. Section: Daily Dispatches
From The Telegraph, London
Monday, August 19, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
The German Finance Ministry ruled that bitcoin is a "unit of account" and therefore "mining" them is a form of "money creation."
This means that, like stocks or shares, any profit from them is subject to Germany's capital gains tax, at 25 percent -- unless they are held for more than a year, according to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
However, the ruling may prove difficult to enforce, as Bitcoin are traded anonymously, and therefore cannot be traced.
In June, America's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it was examining the use of virtual currencies such as bitcoins amid fears that Americans are using them to evade taxes.
In the future, taxpayers could be forced to disclose to the IRS whether they are using PayPal accounts for the virtual transfer of money, according to Victor Lessoff, director of the IRS.
Last month Thailand became the first country to ban bitcoins after the central bank ruled it is not a currency.
The ruling means it is illegal to buy and sell bitcoins, buy or sell any goods or services in exchange for bitcoins, send any bitcoins to anyone outside of Thailand, or receive bitcoins from anyone outside the country.
Launched in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis, bitcoins are "mined" using complex computer source code. The virtual currency started as a relatively niche method of payment, devised by an anonymous programmer, but can now be used for anything from online gambling to pizza delivery.
Interest-rate derivatives explosion may be imminent, Embry tells KWN
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2013-08-20 18:29. Section: Daily Dispatches
Gold closed up $6.90 to $1373.10 (comex closing time ). Silver was down 9 cents to $23.07 (comex closing time).
In the access market today at 5:15 pm tonight here are the final prices:
gold: $1370.90
At the Comex, the open interest in silver rose by 1500 contracts to 133,784 with silver down 16 cents on closing Monday night.
Tonight, the Comex registered or dealer inventory of gold remains constant tonight, as it is still well below the 1 million oz mark, at 796,034.708 oz or 24.76 tonnes. This is dangerously low especially when we are now into the August delivery month. The total of all gold at the comex (dealer and customer) tonight rests just below the 7 million oz barrier resting at 6.981 million oz or 217.17 tonnes.
JPMorgan's customer inventory remains constant tonight at 130,044.021 oz or 4.04 tonnes. It's dealer inventory remains constant at 286,485.185 oz (8.91 tonnes)
The total of the 3 major gold bullion dealers( Scotia , HSBC and JPMorgan) in its Comex gold dealer account saw no change in gold inventory tonight and thus rests at 20.17 tonnes of gold. Brinks continues to record a low of only 4.13 tonnes in its dealer account.
The GLD reported a big gain in inventory tonight of 1.8 tonnes with a reading of 914.12 tonnes of gold. We had no change in silver inventory at the SLV. The reading of the SLV inventory tonight is 338.409 million oz.
Today, we have recorded the 32nd consecutive trading day for negative GOFO rates with the 3 months rate rising in negativity to .-08833 from Monday's-.08000%. The one month GOFO rate remains high in negativity at .110000 exactly the same as yesterday. The two month rate also remains constant in negativity at -.09667. ; and the 6 month GOFO rate continues in negativity at -.01000. Basically it means that gold is dearer in the present than in the future and it also signifies that London has scarce supplies of good delivery bars. No doubt that China, being a huge buyer of physical gold is responsible for this. The whacking of gold this month is incompatible with an increasing negative GOFO rates.
On the physical side of things, we have an important commentary with Eric King of Kingworld news with John Embry. John believes that the big meeting today with the big honchos of the USA financial world is quite possibly due to the implosion of interest rate swaps. This discussion is a must read!
Bill Holter tonight in his commentary also discusses what he thinks the big meeting today is all about..and yes he too believes that interest rate swaps have blown up!!
We also have a commentary by Jack Farchy of London's financial times on the huge exporting of gold out of London to the tune of almost 800 tonnes. Since England has no mining what on earth could account for such a large export? (this export does not include the Bank of England's 1300 tonnes of gold due to the fact that it is a lease and it is somebody else's gold)
Debbie Carlson of Kitco discusses the huge demand for silver eagle bullion coins out of the USA mint. It looks like 2013 will be a record setting year for these coins.
On the paper side of things, Ben Kesling talks about the poor reading today of Chicago's National Manufacturing Index report.
Is Obama about to crash the Gold market again?
2:28p ET Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Sprott Asset Management's John Embry today tells King World News that President Obama's meeting today with officials of major U.S. government financial regulatory agencies well may involve the danger of an explosion of interest-rate derivatives as the government loses control of the bond market. An excerpt from the interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2013/08/gld-rises-to-91412-tonnescomex.html
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
GLD rises to 914.12 tonnes/Comex inventory gold remains constant/gold rises/silver falls in price/32nd consecutive day for negative GOFO/6 month GOFO also negative/
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Gold closed up $6.90 to $1373.10 (comex closing time ). Silver was down 9 cents to $23.07 (comex closing time).
In the access market today at 5:15 pm tonight here are the final prices:
gold: $1370.90
silver: $23.04
At the Comex, the open interest in silver rose by 1500 contracts to 133,784 with silver down 16 cents on closing Monday night.
The open interest on the entire gold comex contracts rose by 2028 contracts to 382,810 with gold's fall in price on Monday to the tune of $5.50 .
Tonight, the Comex registered or dealer inventory of gold remains constant tonight, as it is still well below the 1 million oz mark, at 796,034.708 oz or 24.76 tonnes. This is dangerously low especially when we are now into the August delivery month. The total of all gold at the comex (dealer and customer) tonight rests just below the 7 million oz barrier resting at 6.981 million oz or 217.17 tonnes.
JPMorgan's customer inventory remains constant tonight at 130,044.021 oz or 4.04 tonnes. It's dealer inventory remains constant at 286,485.185 oz (8.91 tonnes)
The total of the 3 major gold bullion dealers( Scotia , HSBC and JPMorgan) in its Comex gold dealer account saw no change in gold inventory tonight and thus rests at 20.17 tonnes of gold. Brinks continues to record a low of only 4.13 tonnes in its dealer account.
The GLD reported a big gain in inventory tonight of 1.8 tonnes with a reading of 914.12 tonnes of gold. We had no change in silver inventory at the SLV. The reading of the SLV inventory tonight is 338.409 million oz.
Today, we have recorded the 32nd consecutive trading day for negative GOFO rates with the 3 months rate rising in negativity to .-08833 from Monday's-.08000%. The one month GOFO rate remains high in negativity at .110000 exactly the same as yesterday. The two month rate also remains constant in negativity at -.09667. ; and the 6 month GOFO rate continues in negativity at -.01000. Basically it means that gold is dearer in the present than in the future and it also signifies that London has scarce supplies of good delivery bars. No doubt that China, being a huge buyer of physical gold is responsible for this. The whacking of gold this month is incompatible with an increasing negative GOFO rates.
On the physical side of things, we have an important commentary with Eric King of Kingworld news with John Embry. John believes that the big meeting today with the big honchos of the USA financial world is quite possibly due to the implosion of interest rate swaps. This discussion is a must read!
Bill Holter tonight in his commentary also discusses what he thinks the big meeting today is all about..and yes he too believes that interest rate swaps have blown up!!
We also have a commentary by Jack Farchy of London's financial times on the huge exporting of gold out of London to the tune of almost 800 tonnes. Since England has no mining what on earth could account for such a large export? (this export does not include the Bank of England's 1300 tonnes of gold due to the fact that it is a lease and it is somebody else's gold)
Debbie Carlson of Kitco discusses the huge demand for silver eagle bullion coins out of the USA mint. It looks like 2013 will be a record setting year for these coins.
On the paper side of things, Ben Kesling talks about the poor reading today of Chicago's National Manufacturing Index report.
We will go over these and many other stories today, but first......
****
Comex gold/August contract month:
August 20.2013
Ounces
| |
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
|
nil
|
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
|
nil
|
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
|
nil
|
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
| nil |
No of oz served (contracts) today
|
24 ( 2400 oz)
|
No of oz to be served (notices)
|
1089 (108,900 oz)
|
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
|
2989 (298,900 oz)
|
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
|
29,518.655 oz
|
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
| 218,360.0 oz |
*****
August 20/2013: July silver contract month:
August contract month
August contract month
| Silver |
Ounces
|
| Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory | nil |
| Withdrawals from Customer Inventory | 458,799.755 oz (Brinks,HSBC) |
| Deposits to the Dealer Inventory | nil |
| Deposits to the Customer Inventory | 129,496.909 (Brinks,Delaware) |
| No of oz served (contracts) | 3 ( 15,000 oz) |
| No of oz to be served (notices) | 10 (50,000 oz) |
| Total monthly oz silver served (contracts) | 219 (1,095,000) |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month | 3,026,205.5 oz |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month | 3,594,704.8 oz |
*****
August: 20: 2013: we gained 1.8 tonnes of gold into the GLD
Tonnes914.12
Ounces29,389,901.67
Value US$40,325 billion
****
Bill Holter ponders as to why the special meeting at the White House with every major banker, the SEC, the CFTC etc present. The open interest on gold is already at record lows as there is nobody left to fleece. However premiums on gold are appearing in Hong Kong and Shanghai and most of the physical gold is heading that way. Great Britain's export of close to 800 tonnes of gold (together with the lease of the Bank of England's 1300 tonnes of somebody else's gold) results in a huge 2100 tonnes of gold entering the gold market and that gold is now gone!! We now have 32 consecutive trading sessions of negative GOFO rates. Is this the reason for the meeting? Or is the meeting due to interest rate swaps bursting on the 10 yr and 30 year bond for our major bank underwriters.
An extremely important commentary courtesy of Bill Holter/Miles Franklin)
Bill Holter ponders as to why the special meeting at the White House with every major banker, the SEC, the CFTC etc present. The open interest on gold is already at record lows as there is nobody left to fleece. However premiums on gold are appearing in Hong Kong and Shanghai and most of the physical gold is heading that way. Great Britain's export of close to 800 tonnes of gold (together with the lease of the Bank of England's 1300 tonnes of somebody else's gold) results in a huge 2100 tonnes of gold entering the gold market and that gold is now gone!! We now have 32 consecutive trading sessions of negative GOFO rates. Is this the reason for the meeting? Or is the meeting due to interest rate swaps bursting on the 10 yr and 30 year bond for our major bank underwriters.
An extremely important commentary courtesy of Bill Holter/Miles Franklin)
Is Obama about to crash the Gold market again?
I received quite few e-mails yesterday after Zerohedge put this article
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/
I don't think so. I wrote back to those fearful yesterday with a simple "can you imagine the premiums and shortages this would create?". Since April we have seen premiums shoot higher for physical metal, we have seen shortages all over the globe and now we are seeing a backward basis in London's GOFO rates (for the last 32 days and counting) as well as COMEX futures. Simply put, the plan backfired. It backfired so badly that the Bank of England apparently had to ship some 1,300 tons and another 900 or so tons was shipped from LME to Switzerland for "re" melting into bars that suit the Asian demand.
To put this in perspective, the 2,200 tons that left Britain in the first 6 months is equal to the entire global Gold production (minus China) for an entire year! AND the result was what you ask? A backwarded market with premiums to purchase and shortages of supply. In other words, even with this "extra" 2,200 tons of supply there are still acute shortages. There is no hiding it anymore. Were another "April operation" like the last be attempted, the paper markets would probably just cease to exist.
No, I don't think that Mr. Obama's meeting was about crashing Gold. I believe the meeting had something to do with the currently crashing bond market(s). It may also have had something to do with the upcoming G-20 meeting. We may have been tipped off that something wicked comes our way. "Something wicked" as in some sort of currency agreements already having taken place around the world that isolates the U.S. and lessens demand for Dollars used to settle international trade.
As for the crashing Treasury market, it now verges on "out of control". We touched 2,9% yesterday which is almost a 100% increase in interest rates since the beginning of the year. The Fed for their part have lost over $300 billion on the move so far, how much has been lost by market participants? Who are they and more importantly who are their counter parties? I don't know what THE number is on interest rates that will blow up the derivatives market (it may have already blown and we don't know it yet) but rates cannot move as fast as they have without someone, somewhere losing huge sums of money and becoming insolvent.
Could the meeting yesterday have been as simple as the MSM/White House explanation that "Dodd-Frank" regulations need to be sped up? Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. I deep down believe that control has been lost in the Treasury market and has set of the nuclear derivatives time bomb that we all knew existed but never wanted face. We will soon see as the Fall season arrives because insolvent counter parties cannot be hidden (for long). The Dollar index has weakened but Treasury bonds have crashed like never before. For those of you who remember 1987, it was a declining bond market (rising interest rates) that triggered the whole event.
From that point forward the markets have been "managed" and "saved" time after time after time. Just as the Green Bay Packers used to "sweep right or sweep left" play after play, the Plunge Protection Team has come in with the same play to support the Dollar and Treasuries. Part of this "playbook" was the suppression of precious metals as alternative currencies with the occasional drive by shooting's of their prices. Just as other NFL teams figured out how to stop "Packer sweeps", the world has become wise to the PPT playbook. The world is abandoning and exiting the "safety" of the U.S. Treasury market space in favor of precious metals. We have so far seen ferocious exodus of Treasuries, massive demand into the metals but only 15-20% movement in price. Assuming that (maybe not a good idea to assume) the metals do not have an overnight "markup", the short term price damage that was done should be reversed and then some to compensate and appease the defiance of Mother Nature.
In summary, I think there are far bigger fish to fry currently than mobilizing the remaining Gold inventories to suppress price. I think that JP Morgan knew this and is the reason that they are now long Gold. Could they actually view their long position as a hedge to their interest rate and derivatives exposure? Ya think ?
Regards, Bill H.
I received quite few e-mails yesterday after Zerohedge put this article
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/
I don't think so. I wrote back to those fearful yesterday with a simple "can you imagine the premiums and shortages this would create?". Since April we have seen premiums shoot higher for physical metal, we have seen shortages all over the globe and now we are seeing a backward basis in London's GOFO rates (for the last 32 days and counting) as well as COMEX futures. Simply put, the plan backfired. It backfired so badly that the Bank of England apparently had to ship some 1,300 tons and another 900 or so tons was shipped from LME to Switzerland for "re" melting into bars that suit the Asian demand.
To put this in perspective, the 2,200 tons that left Britain in the first 6 months is equal to the entire global Gold production (minus China) for an entire year! AND the result was what you ask? A backwarded market with premiums to purchase and shortages of supply. In other words, even with this "extra" 2,200 tons of supply there are still acute shortages. There is no hiding it anymore. Were another "April operation" like the last be attempted, the paper markets would probably just cease to exist.
No, I don't think that Mr. Obama's meeting was about crashing Gold. I believe the meeting had something to do with the currently crashing bond market(s). It may also have had something to do with the upcoming G-20 meeting. We may have been tipped off that something wicked comes our way. "Something wicked" as in some sort of currency agreements already having taken place around the world that isolates the U.S. and lessens demand for Dollars used to settle international trade.
As for the crashing Treasury market, it now verges on "out of control". We touched 2,9% yesterday which is almost a 100% increase in interest rates since the beginning of the year. The Fed for their part have lost over $300 billion on the move so far, how much has been lost by market participants? Who are they and more importantly who are their counter parties? I don't know what THE number is on interest rates that will blow up the derivatives market (it may have already blown and we don't know it yet) but rates cannot move as fast as they have without someone, somewhere losing huge sums of money and becoming insolvent.
Could the meeting yesterday have been as simple as the MSM/White House explanation that "Dodd-Frank" regulations need to be sped up? Maybe, but I seriously doubt it. I deep down believe that control has been lost in the Treasury market and has set of the nuclear derivatives time bomb that we all knew existed but never wanted face. We will soon see as the Fall season arrives because insolvent counter parties cannot be hidden (for long). The Dollar index has weakened but Treasury bonds have crashed like never before. For those of you who remember 1987, it was a declining bond market (rising interest rates) that triggered the whole event.
From that point forward the markets have been "managed" and "saved" time after time after time. Just as the Green Bay Packers used to "sweep right or sweep left" play after play, the Plunge Protection Team has come in with the same play to support the Dollar and Treasuries. Part of this "playbook" was the suppression of precious metals as alternative currencies with the occasional drive by shooting's of their prices. Just as other NFL teams figured out how to stop "Packer sweeps", the world has become wise to the PPT playbook. The world is abandoning and exiting the "safety" of the U.S. Treasury market space in favor of precious metals. We have so far seen ferocious exodus of Treasuries, massive demand into the metals but only 15-20% movement in price. Assuming that (maybe not a good idea to assume) the metals do not have an overnight "markup", the short term price damage that was done should be reversed and then some to compensate and appease the defiance of Mother Nature.
In summary, I think there are far bigger fish to fry currently than mobilizing the remaining Gold inventories to suppress price. I think that JP Morgan knew this and is the reason that they are now long Gold. Could they actually view their long position as a hedge to their interest rate and derivatives exposure? Ya think ?
Regards, Bill H.
Mike Krieger discusses the huge export of gold leaving London for Switzerland.
Switzerland is the world's biggest country for refining of gold and no doubt this country is working triple overtime, reworking the huge 400 oz London bars into Kilo bars...the choice of Asians.
(courtesy Mike Krieger)
Mike Krieger discusses the huge export of gold leaving London for Switzerland.
Switzerland is the world's biggest country for refining of gold and no doubt this country is working triple overtime, reworking the huge 400 oz London bars into Kilo bars...the choice of Asians.
(courtesy Mike Krieger)
Gold Is Flooding Out Of London To Switzerland At An Alarming Rate
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/20/2013 11:32 -0400
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
This is one of those stories about the gold market that almost seems too wild to be true since the numbers are so extraordinary. According to a Reuters article from earlier today, Australian bank Macquarie has reported that gold is flooding out of London and into Switzerland at a mind-boggling rate. Specifically, 240 tons were exported in May alone and 797 tons during the first half of 2013. That means gold is being exported at a annualized run rate of 17x the 92 tons exported for all of 2012. That’s insane.
Moreover, it seems a lot of that gold is being sent to Switzerland so that the 400oz bars can be melted down into different sizes that are more amenable to Asian sensibilities. So, as many of us suspected all along, what has happened is lobotomized Westerners have sent much of their gold to Asia just as the financial system prepares to melt down again. The fact that the market has absorbed all of this and yet we still have a backwardated market is extremely bullish.
From Reuters:
Aug 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s gold exports to Switzerland surged in the first half of this year, Australian bank Macquarie said on Monday, suggesting bullion being sold out of exchange-traded funds may be heading for Swiss refineries before being sold on in Asia.
The UK exported 240 tonnes of gold to Switzerland in May alone, while its exports over the first half of this year totalled 797 tonnes, Macquarie said in a note.
In contrast, Britain exported just 92 tonnes of bullion to Switzerland in the whole of last year, it said.
“The UK does not have gold mines, so where has it all come from? The obvious source is the gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), most of which hold their gold holdings in London vaults, and which saw huge outflows in 1H 2013,” Macquarie said.
It added: “But a bigger factor, we think, is that the gold bars from ETFs have gone to Switzerland, where most of the world's gold refining capacity is, to be remelted into different size bars and coins and then sold on end consumers, predominantly in Asia, specifically China and India.”
Full article here.
******
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
This is one of those stories about the gold market that almost seems too wild to be true since the numbers are so extraordinary. According to a Reuters article from earlier today, Australian bank Macquarie has reported that gold is flooding out of London and into Switzerland at a mind-boggling rate. Specifically, 240 tons were exported in May alone and 797 tons during the first half of 2013. That means gold is being exported at a annualized run rate of 17x the 92 tons exported for all of 2012. That’s insane.
Moreover, it seems a lot of that gold is being sent to Switzerland so that the 400oz bars can be melted down into different sizes that are more amenable to Asian sensibilities. So, as many of us suspected all along, what has happened is lobotomized Westerners have sent much of their gold to Asia just as the financial system prepares to melt down again. The fact that the market has absorbed all of this and yet we still have a backwardated market is extremely bullish.
From Reuters:
Aug 19 (Reuters) – Britain’s gold exports to Switzerland surged in the first half of this year, Australian bank Macquarie said on Monday, suggesting bullion being sold out of exchange-traded funds may be heading for Swiss refineries before being sold on in Asia.The UK exported 240 tonnes of gold to Switzerland in May alone, while its exports over the first half of this year totalled 797 tonnes, Macquarie said in a note.In contrast, Britain exported just 92 tonnes of bullion to Switzerland in the whole of last year, it said.“The UK does not have gold mines, so where has it all come from? The obvious source is the gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), most of which hold their gold holdings in London vaults, and which saw huge outflows in 1H 2013,” Macquarie said.It added: “But a bigger factor, we think, is that the gold bars from ETFs have gone to Switzerland, where most of the world's gold refining capacity is, to be remelted into different size bars and coins and then sold on end consumers, predominantly in Asia, specifically China and India.”
Full article here.
******
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