How much gold does the US Government have actually ? First the fables ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository

The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located adjacent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, used to store a large portion of United States official gold reserves and occasionally other precious items belonging or entrusted to the federal government.

The United States Bullion Depository holds 4,578 metric tons (5,046.3 short tons) of gold bullion (147.2 million oz. troy). This is roughly 3 percent of all the gold ever refined throughout human history. Even so, the depository is second in the United States to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan, which holds 7,000 metric tons (7,716 tons) of gold bullion (225.1 million oz. troy), some of it in trust for foreign nations, central banks and official international organizations.

and.....

Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold

Return to Gold Report Homepage

Current Report: February 28, 2014

Department of the Treasury Financial Management Service STATUS REPORT OF U.S. TREASURY-OWNED GOLD February 28, 2014
Summary	Fine Troy Ounces	Book Value

Gold Bullion	258,641,878.074	$10,920,429,098.79
Gold Coins, Blanks, Miscellaneous	2,857,048.173	120,630,859.37

Total	261,498,926.247	11,041,059,958.16

Mint-Held Gold - Deep Storage

Denver, CO	43,853,707.279	1,851,599,995.81
Fort Knox, KY	147,341,858.382	6,221,097,412.78
West Point, NY	54,067,331.379	2,282,841,677.17
Subtotal - Deep Storage Gold	245,262,897.040	10,355,539,085.76

Mint-Held Treasury Gold - Working Stock
All locations - Coins, blanks, miscellaneous	2,783,218.656	117,513,614.74
Subtotal - Working Stock Gold	2,783,218.656	117,513,614.74

Grand Total - Mint-Held Gold	248,046,115.696	10,473,052,700.50

Federal Reserve Bank-Held Gold

Gold Bullion:
Federal Reserve Banks - NY Vault	13,376,987.715	564,805,850.63
Federal Reserve Banks - display	1,993.319	84,162.40
Subtotal - Gold Bullion	13,378,981.034	564,890,013.03

Gold Coins:
Federal Reserve Banks - NY Vault	73,452.066	3,101,307.82
Federal Reserve Banks - display	377.451	15,936.81
Subtotal - Gold Coins	73,829.517	3,117.244.63

Total - Federal Reserve Bank-Held Gold	13,452,810.551	568,007,257.66

Total - Treasury-Owned Gold	261,498,926.247	$11,041,059,958.16

Deep Storage: Deep-Storage gold is the portion of the U.S. government-owned Gold Bullion Reserve that the U.S. Mint secures in sealed vaults, which are examined annually by the Department of Treasury's Office of the Inspector General. Deep-Storage gold comprises the vast majority of the Reserve and consists primarily of gold bars. This portion was formerly called "Bullion Reserve" or "Custodial Gold Bullion Reserve."

Working Stock: Working-Stock gold is the portion of the U.S. government-owned Gold Bullion Reserve that the U.S. Mint uses as the raw material for minting congressionally authorized coins. Working-Stock gold comprises only about 1 percent of the Reserve and consists of bars, blanks, unsold coins, and condemned coins. This portion was formerly listed as individual coins and blanks or called "PEF Gold."

Now , the Inconvenient truths..... there may not be any gold not just with the US , but also Germany , and just 30 tons with France ! Note that was as of 2012 - any recall gold turbulence in April / May / June timeframe of 2013 ? Think there is much if any gold left in these Central Banks presently ( apart from maybe reserves of Cyprus , perhaps Greece and now Ukraine )

http://www.silverdoctors.com/the-federal-reserve-owns-gold-certificates-not-gold/#more-40317

and.......

http://sprottglobal.com/markets-at-a-glance/maag-article/?id=6590

Do Western Central Banks Have Any Gold

Left???

By: Eric Sprott & David Baker

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the world’s Western central banks lie vaults holding gargantuan piles of physical gold bars… or at least that’s what they all claim. The gold bars are part of their respective foreign currency reserves, which include all the usual fiat currencies like the dollar, the pound, the yen and the euro.

Collectively, the governments/central banks of the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are believed to hold an impressive 23,349 tonnes of gold in their respective reserves, representing more than $1.3 trillion at today’s gold price. Beyond the suggested tonnage, however, very little is actually known about the gold that makes up this massive stockpile. Western central banks disclose next to nothing about where it’s stored, in what form, or how much of the gold reserves are utilized for other purposes. We are assured that it’s all there, of course, but little effort has ever been made by the central banks to provide any details beyond the arbitrary references in their various financial reserve reports.

Twelve years ago, few would have cared what central banks did with their gold. Gold had suffered a twenty year bear cycle and didn’t engender much excitement at $255 per ounce. It made perfect sense for Western governments to lend out (or in the case of Canada – outright sell) their gold reserves in order to generate some interest income from their holdings. And that’s exactly what many central banks did from the late 1980’s through to the late 2000’s. The times have changed however, and today it absolutely does matter what they’re doing with their reserves, and where the reserves are actually held. Why? Because the countries in question are now all grossly over-indebted and printing their respective currencies with reckless abandon. It would be reassuring to know that they still have some of the ‘barbarous relic’ kicking around, collecting dust, just in case their experiment with collusive monetary accommodation doesn’t work out as planned.

You may be interested to know that central bank gold sales were actually the crux of the original investment thesis that first got us interested in the gold space back in 2000. We were introduced to it through the work of Frank Veneroso, who published an outstanding report on the gold market in 1998 aptly titled, “The 1998 Gold Book Annual”. In it, Mr. Veneroso inferred that central bank gold sales had artificially suppressed the full extent of gold demand to the tune of approximately 1,600 tonnes per year (in an approximately 4,000 tonne market of annual supply). Of the 35,000 tonnes that the central banks were officially stated to own at the time, Mr. Veneroso estimated that they were already down to 18,000 tonnes of actual physical. Once the central banks ran out of gold to sell, he surmised, the gold market would be poised for a powerful bull market… and he turned out to be completely right – although central banks did continue to be net sellers of gold for many years to come.

As the gold bull market developed throughout the 2000’s, central banks didn’t become net buyers of physical gold until 2009, which coincided with gold’s final break-out above US$1,000 per ounce. The entirety of this buying was performed by central banks in the non-Western world, however, by countries like Russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the Philippines… and they have continued buying gold ever since. According to Thomson Reuters GFMS, a precious metals research agency, non-Western central banks purchased 457 tonnes of gold in 2011, and are expected to purchase another 493 tonnes of gold this year as they expand their reserves.¹ Our estimates suggest they will likely purchase even more than that.² The Western central banks, meanwhile, have essentially remained silent on the topic of gold, and have not publicly disclosed any sales or purchases of gold at all over the past three years. Although there is a “Central Bank Gold Agreement” currently in place that covers the gold sales of the Eurosystem central banks, Sweden and Switzerland, there has been no mention of gold sales by the very entities that are purported to own the largest stockpiles of the precious metal.³ The silence is telling.

Over the past several years, we’ve collected data on physical demand for gold as it has developed over time. The consistent annual growth in demand for physical gold bullion has increasingly puzzled us with regard to supply. Global annual gold mine supply ex Russia and China (who do not export domestic production) is actually lower than it was in year 2000, and ever since the IMF announced the completion of its sale of 403 tonnes of gold in December 2010, there hasn’t been any large, publicly-disclosed seller of physical gold in the market for almost two years.⁴ Given the significant increase in physical demand that we’ve seen over the past decade, particularly from buyers in Asia, it suffices to say that we cannot identify where all the gold is coming from to supply it… but it has to be coming from somewhere.
To give you a sense of how much the demand for physical gold has increased over the past decade, we’ve listed a select number of physical gold buyers and calculated their net change in annual demand in tonnes from 2000 to 2012 (see Chart A).

CHART A

Numbers quoted in metric tonnes.
† Source: CBGA1, CBGA2, CBGA3, International Monetary Fund Statistics, Sprott Estimates.
†† Source: Royal Canadian Mint and United States Mint.
††† Includes closed-end funds such as Sprott Physical Gold Trust and Central Fund of Canada.
^ Source: World Gold Council, Sprott Estimates.
^^ Source: World Gold Council, Sprott Estimates.

^^^ Refers to annualized increase over the past eight years.

As can be seen, the mere combination of only five separate sources of demand results in a 2,268 tonne net change in physical demand for gold over the past twelve years – meaning that there is roughly 2,268 tonnes of new annual demand today that didn’t exist 12 years ago. According to the CPM Group, one of the main purveyors of gold statistics, the total annual gold supply is estimated to be roughly 3,700 tonnes of gold this year. Of that, the World Gold Council estimates that only 2,687 tonnes are expected to come from actual mine production, while the rest is attributed to recycled scrap gold, mainly from old jewelry.⁵ (See footnote 5). The reporting agencies have a tendency to insist that total physical demand perfectly matches physical supply every year, and use the “Net Private Investment” as a plug to shore up the difference between the demand they attribute to industry, jewelry and ‘official transactions’ by central banks versus their annual supply estimate (which is relatively verifiable). Their “Net Private Investment” figures are implied, however, and do not measure the actual investment demand purchases that take place every year.

If more accurate data was ever incorporated into their market summary for demand, it would reveal a huge discrepancy, with the demand side vastly exceeding their estimation of annual supply. In fact, we know it would exceed it based purely on China’s Hong Kong gold imports, which are now up to 458 tonnes year-to-date as of July, representing a 367% increase over its purchases during the same period last year. If the imports continue at their current rate, China will reach 785 tonnes of gold imports by year-end. That’s 785 tonnes in a market that’s only expected to produce roughly 2,700 tonnes of mine supply, and that’s just one buyer.

Then there are all the private buyers whose purchases go unreported and unacknowledged, like that of Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund managed by David Einhorn, that is reported to have purchased $500 million worth of physical gold starting in 2009. Or the $1 billion of physical gold purchased by the University of Texas Investment Management Co. in April 2011… or the myriad of other private investors (like Saudi Sheiks, Russian billionaires, this writer, probably many of our readers, etc.) who have purchased physical gold for their accounts over the past decade. None of these private purchases are ever considered in the research agencies’ summaries for investment demand, and yet these are real purchases of physical gold, not ETF’s or gold ‘certificates’. They require real, physical gold bars to be delivered to the buyer. So once we acknowledge how big the discrepancy is between the actual true level of physical gold demand versus the annual “supply”, the obvious questions present themselves: who are the sellers delivering the gold to match the enormous increase in physical demand? What entities are releasing physical gold onto the market without reporting it? Where is all the gold coming from?

There is only one possible candidate: the Western central banks. It may very well be that a large portion of physical gold currently flowing to new buyers is actually coming from the Western central banks themselves. They are the only holders of physical gold who are capable of supplying gold in a quantity and manner that cannot be readily tracked. They are also the very entities whose actions have driven investors back into gold in the first place. Gold is, after all, a hedge against their collective irresponsibility – and they have showcased their capacity in that regard quite enthusiastically over the past decade, especially since 2008.

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

Sources:
1) http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/Documents/reserves/2012/Aug/tempoutput.pdf2) http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/IR-Position/Pages/08312012.aspx
3) http://www.ecb.int/stats/external/reserves/html/assets_8.812.E.en.html
4) http://www.boj.or.jp/en/about/account/zai1205a.pdf
5) http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/gold.htm
6) http://www.snb.ch/en/mmr/reference/annrep_2011_komplett/source

Notes:
ECB Data as of July 2012. Bank of Japan data as of March 31, 2012.

* European Central Bank reserves is composed of reserves held by the ECB, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.
** Bank of Japan only lists its gold reserves in Yen at book value.

Our analysis of the physical gold market shows that central banks have most likely been a massive unreported supplier of physical gold, and strongly implies that their gold reserves are negligible today. If Frank Veneroso’s conclusions were even close to accurate back in 1998 (and we believe they were), when coupled with the 2,300 tonne net change in annual demand we can easily identify above, it can only lead to the conclusion that a large portion of the Western central banks’ stated 23,000 tonnes of gold reserves are merely a paper entry on their balance sheets – completely un-backed by anything tangible other than an IOU from whatever counterparty leased it from them in years past. At this stage of the game, we don’t believe these central banks will be able to get their gold back without extreme difficulty, especially if it turns out the gold has left their countries entirely. We can also only wonder how much gold within the central bank system has been ‘rehypothecated’ in the process, since the central banks in question seem so reluctant to divulge any meaningful details on their reserves in a way that would shed light on the various “swaps” and “loans” they imply to be participating in. We might also suggest that if a proper audit of Western central bank gold reserves was ever launched, as per Ron Paul’s recent proposal to audit the US Federal Reserve, the proverbial cat would be let out of the bag – with explosive implications for the gold price.

Notwithstanding the recent conversions of PIMCO’s Bill Gross, Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio and Ned Davis Research to gold, we realize that many mainstream institutional investors still continue to struggle with the topic. We also realize that some readers may scoff at any analysis of the gold market that hints at “conspiracy”. 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. As a general rule of common sense, when one embarks on an unlimited quantitative easing program targeted at the employment rate (see QE3), one had better make sure to have something in the vault as backup in case the ‘unlimited’ part actually ends up really meaning unlimited. We hope that it does not, for the sake of our monetary system, but given our analysis of the physical gold market, we’ll stick with our gold bars and take comfort as they collect more dust in our vaults, untouched.

and....

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Gold and silver updates - October 1 -2 , 2013 ...... With Regulators away for the Shutdown , manipulators have a field day with shorting gold and silver ! By the way , check the link and note how much in total reserves has disappeared from the US , France , Germany , Greece , Italy et al ( from 2011 to 2012.) And then ask again , how much gold do these countries really have ?

http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2013/10/oct-2world-gold-bank-records-no-gold.html

( Highlighting the big , big news CNBC won'r mention.....)

Fellow Canadian Bryant Blake (who goes by the handle Rhody) has discovered something huge with respect to accounting for gold by the World Bank. The world bank has hinted in the past that it wished to discount leased gold. Its looks to me that they followed through on their promise. I will send this to Reg Howe is the authority on these matters and I will report back on his findings.

from Bryant Blake

"please feel free to bring in any of your associates to investigate the drop in reserves for the U.S, Germany, and France that is shown on the World Bank reserve table

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FI.RES.TOTL.CD.

You might want to post the world bank link table on LeMet in case the world bank removes it from the public domain. Below is a table which converts the drops in reserves to drops in gold holdings. Based on the numbers, all of the U.S. and German gold, and most of the French gold is gone if it is assumed that SDR and currency reserves stayed the same from 2011 to 2012. Even if the SDR and currency reserves for these countries dropped to zero, the 2012 reserves indicate gold holdings dropped about 70%. -Bryant

Change in Sovereign Reserves

Country	United States	Germany	France
2011 Gold Price	$1531/oz	$1531/oz	$1531/oz
2011 Total Reserves($Mil)	530,267	234,104	168,490
2011 Gold equivalent of reserves (mil oz)	350.92	152.91	110.05
2011 Gold equivalent of reserves (Tonnes)	10,915	4,756	3,423
Official Gold Reserves 9/13 (Tonnes)	8,134	3,391	2,435
% Gold value of total reserves	74.5%	71.3%	71.1%
% Gold value of total reserves WGC 9/13	71.6%	68.6%	66.8%
2012 Gold Price	$1657/oz	$1657/oz	$1657/oz
2012 Total Reserves($Mil)	139,138	67,422	54,230
2012 Gold equivalent of reserves (mil oz)	83.97	40.69	32.73
2012 Gold equivalent of reserves (Tonnes)	2,612	1,266	1,018
Drop in Gold Reserve (mil oz)	266.95	112.22	77.32
Drop in Gold Reserve (Tonnes)	8,303	3,490	2,405
Remaining Gold (Tonnes)	0	0	30

Total Gold Reduction (Tonnes) = 13,930
Total Gold Reduction (Mil Oz) = 447.86

***
More from Bryant...

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=annual_report The 2012 us mint report on page 42 reports deep storage gold with a market value of $435 billion on 9/30/12. This compares with end of 2012 us reserve per world bank of $139.1 billion. I remember some talk of the world bank discounting leased gold a few years ago. If they have implemented this it appears the us has leased all of its gold and has none which is unencumbered.

and today's items to consider.....

http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/ted-butler-suing-jpmorgan-and-the-comex

¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD & SILVER

It was pretty quiet in gold in Far East trading on their Friday, as it rose and fell about five bucks between the Tokyo open and up until 30 minutes after the London open. At that point, the gold price took off to the upside, only to be met with a firestorm of selling by the sellers of last resort.

JPMorgan et al managed to put the fire out by shortly after 11 a.m. GMT in London---and from there the price traded quietly lower until around 10:30 a.m. EST in New York. After that it didn't do a lot, although a tiny rally that began around 12:30 p.m. EDT got sold down at 3:30 p.m. before it could get anywhere.

The CME Group recorded the high and lows ticks as $1,328.00 and $1,343.00 in the April contract.

The gold price finished the week at $1,334.70 spot, up $6.20 from Thursday's close. Net volume was very quiet at 87,000 contracts, with at least 50% of that used to kill the morning rally in London.

Here's the New York trading session up close and personal---and you can see the not-for-profit selling show up at 3:30 p.m. in electronic trading.

It was more or less the same price pattern in silver, so I'll spare you the play-by-play.

The high and low price ticks were recorded at $20.585 and $20.265 in the May contract.

Silver closed in New York at $20.275 spot, up a whole half a penny. Volume, net of March and April, was pretty low at 28,000 contracts but, like gold, it's a good bet that almost half of that volume was JPMorgan et al throwing Comex paper at the price during the rally in early trading in London.

The platinum chart was a mini version of the gold and silver charts---and the metal managed to close up a few dollars. Here's the chart.

Not surprisingly---and for the second day in a row---there was a decent rally in palladium, as news about the two new palladium ETFs in South Africa hit the Internet. The rally began just before 10 a.m. GMT in London---and just as obviously got capped less than an hour later. Then shortly after 9 a.m. in New York, the price went vertical---and a seller of last resort [probably JPMorgan] showed up and prevented the price from taking out the $800 spot level, which it would have certainly done if left to its own devices.

As it turned out, the high tick in palladium was 800.00 right on the button---and the low tick was $768.20---in the June contract, which is the current front month.

You pretty much have to have to have been born stupid, willfully blind, or be a bought and paid for whore of the World Gold Council and/or Silver Institute, not to see that JPMorgan et al prevented an upside explosion in the precious metals yesterday. If Russia really wanted to screw the U.S. over real good, all they would have to do is put an end to this price management scheme in all four precious metals, as they've known about it for at least a decade now---and China has, as well.

If these two countries wanted to be heroes to all the poor resource-producing countries of Africa, South America and elsewhere, they could change these country's fortunes virtually overnight---if Russia and China thought it in their own respective best interests to do so.

The dollar index closed on Thursday afternoon in New York at 80.19---and then spent all of Friday quietly chopping lower in a very tight range. The index close yesterday at 80.12, which was down 7 basis points on the day.

****

The CME's Daily Delivery Report drew a blank yesterday, as no gold or silver contracts were posted for delivery on Tuesday within the Comex-approved depositories. There was activity, but it was all in palladium.

Much to my surprise, an authorized participant added 134,905 troy ounces of gold to GLD yesterday. I'm only speculating here, but based on the price action all week, I'd guess that this deposit was being used to cover an existing short position. And as of 10:10 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV.

The good folks over at Switzerland's Zürcher Kantonalbank updated their gold and silver ETFs for the week ending Friday, March 14. Their gold ETF continues to slide. During this reporting week, it declined by another 29,224 troy ounces. But their silver ETF showed an increase of 123,009 troy ounces.

The U.S. Mint had a sales report yesterday. They sold 3,500 troy ounces of gold eagles---1,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes---and 140,500 silver eagles. They also sold 300 one-ounce platinum eagles sometime during the reporting week as well.

Month-to-date the mint has sold 16,500 troy ounces of gold eagles---10,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes---9,000 one-ounce platinum eagles---and 3,283,500 silver eagles. Based on these numbers, the silver/gold sales ratio for the month so far stands at 124 to 1---and it's about 200 to 1 if you just compare silver eagles sales to gold eagles sales. These are incredible sales ratios.

There was a fairly large gold deposit---160,750 troy ounces---over at the Comex-approved warehouses on Thursday, all of which went into JPMorgan's depository. Nothing was shipped out. The link to that activity is here.

In silver, nothing was reported received, but 302,242 troy ounces were shipped out of four of the six depositories---and the link to that action is here.

The Commitment of Traders Report was a mixed bag. Silver was way better than I expected, but gold was terrible---and I'll leave the discussion about copper up to Ted Butler in his commentary to paying subscribers later today.

In silver, the Commercial net short position actually improved by 1,734 contracts, or 8.67 million ounces. The Commercial net short position now sits at 179.5 million ounces. That's the 'good' news.

The bad news is that of the 2,700 short contracts put on/bought by the Big 8 short holders, Ted figures that 2,000 of those contracts were done by JPMorgan. This brings their short-side corner in the Comex silver market up to around 20,000 contracts, or 100 million troy ounces. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Commercial net short position in silver was 179.5 million ounces, so this means that JPMorgan holds about 55% of the Commercial net short position all by itself---and about 33% of the short position held by the eight largest traders on the short side combined. This is a short-side corner by definition.

As an aside in silver, the raptors---the Commercial traders other than the Big 8---bought 4,400 long contracts during the reporting week.

Gold was ugly. The Commercial net short position blew out by 20,567 contracts, or 2.06 million troy ounces. The Big 8 increased their short position by about 8,500 contracts---and the raptors [the Commercial traders other than the Big 8] went short about 8,000 contracts---and Ted Butler said that JPMorgan sold between 7-8,000 of their long-side corner, which is now down to somewhere between 39 and 40,000 contracts, or 3.9 to 4.0 million ounces of the stuff.

All of this was done in gold [and silver] by JPMorgan et al in order to prevent prices from blowing sky high during the reporting week, just like these same precious metals attempted to do again yesterday. As you already know, "da boyz" are the not-for-profit sellers---and the sellers of last resort. If they weren't there 24/7, then precious metal prices would be just outside the orbit of Pluto by now.

Here's a chart from Nick Laird that I haven't posted for many a moon. It's the "Days of World Production to Cover Comex Short Positions". It still looks much the same as it has for the last couple of years. Silver, except for a few weeks, has always occupied the far right position on this chart, with palladium and platinum not that far behind.

To give you some idea of JPMorgan's short position in silver compared to the total short positions of the Big 4 or Big 8 shorts---their 100 million ounce short-side corner in Comex silver translates into roughly 50 days of world silver production. The numbers on this chart are a graphic representation of the short positions of the 4 and 8 largest traders in all physical commodities on the Comex---and the data for this chart came straight out of yesterday's COT Report.

****

Non redundant news and views....

Doug Noland: April/May/June Dynamic?

Chinese defaults and acute financial fragility weren’t issues a year ago. Confidence in Chinese finance and economic fundamentals was much stronger. Geopolitical risks were much lower. And, importantly, the market was clear on China’s policy of steady currency appreciation versus the dollar. This year’s “April/May/June Dynamic” could easily incorporate a major Chinese component. Chinese reserve holdings declined only slightly last May and June, before “hot money” flows returned with a vengeance by late summer. The prospect of China selling Treasuries was not a market concern.

Everything is just so much bigger than before: The Fed’s balance sheet; PBOC international reserves and the Chinese Credit system; the leveraged speculating community; the big “macro” hedge funds; the powerful “quant” funds; the sovereign wealth funds; the ETF complex; the big mutual fund companies. As history has shown, epic financial Bubbles by their nature spur a concentration of financial power. I often ponder how a marketplace dominated by big players tends to function differently than traditional decentralized marketplaces. Then I contemplate how such a “centralized” marketplace operates with assurances of ongoing central bank support. In my mind – and I see evidence for as much in the marketplace – the markets become more of a game, more speculative and increasingly detached from fundamental prospects.

And all of this really begs the question: to what degree can the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet be counted on as the markets’ future liquidity backstop? Actually, whether the Fed builds its holdings (“prints money”) or not is of seemingly little concern to the markets - that is so long as the markets remain buoyant (as they’ve been). Yet an eruption of de-risking/de-leveraging would have this backstop issue quickly elevated to the top of market worries. Moreover, this liquidity issue would be significantly compounded if the change in China’s currency policy incites a reversal of “hot money” flows and, perhaps, a resulting turnabout in China’s international reserve holdings.

Four King World News Blogs

1. Art Cashin [#1]: "This Key Event Has Only Occurred 24 Times Since 1940" 2. Andrew Maguire: "An LBMA Default Was Delayed, But It's Coming" 3. Egon von Greyerz: "People Would Be Terrified if They Knew What Was Happening" 4. Art Cashin [#2]: "Historic Short Squeeze Will Create Massive Panic and Contagion"

GOLDMAN: Here's Why Gold Is Going To Plunge Again This Year

One of the star performers of 2014 has been gold.

It started the year around $1,200/oz and recently nearly got to $1,400/oz before slipping back a bit.

In a new note, Goldman argues that the rise in gold has been driven by three unsustainable factors: Weather-induced economic slowdown in the U.S., a spike in Chinese demand due to credit concerns, and increased geopolitical tension.

The firm argues that all of these tailwinds will fade and that gold will hit $1,050 this year.

China gold demand up 29% so far this year, Koos Jansen reports

China's gold demand as measured by withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange is up 29 percent so far this year as compared to last year, China gold market researcher and GATA consultant Koos Jansen reports yesterday. I

India's Gold jewellery exports up first time this fiscal year

India’s export of gold jewellery rose 1.04 per cent in February, rising for the first time in fiscal 2013-14.

According to figures from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), cumulative gold jewellery exports from April 2013 to February 2014 fell 45.6 per cent to $6.352 billion.

Exports of gold jewellery have taken a beating in 2013-14 with the government imposing restrictions on the import of gold in a bid to control the current account deficit (CAD) resulting in very limited gold supplies. The measures included higher import duty of 10 per cent on gold and an 80:20 scheme which made it mandatory for gold importers to export a fifth of the gold imported.

Speaking to The Hindu, Pankaj Parekh, Vice-Chairman, GJEPC, said “The blame for poor availability in the market would have to be on the Customs Department. There have been inordinate delays in releasing consignments of imported gold”.

Official gold market to open in South Korea

On March 19, two gold bars were brought to Ilsan in Gyeonggi Province and deposited in the safe of the Korea Securities Depository (KSD), an organization that stores gold for the gold market. In order for the gold market to open, there needs to be actual gold to be bought and sold, and this was the first gold bullion to arrive at the safe.

The gold bars, which have a purity of 99.99%, weighed 1kg each, and a security label was attached to the bottom bearing the mark of the Korean Mint.

The KSD announced that, once the gold commodities market takes off, it is expecting to handle an average of 4-7 tons, or 4000-7000 gold bars, each day.

Alasdair Macleod: Implications of the Ukrainian situation for gold

The West is not just confronting Russia, but potentially China and the other SCO members as well. Russia's relationship with the SCO brings with it the possibility of using gold as a weapon against the West, because most governments involved with the SCO have been actively buying gold while western central banks have been providing it. So far the SCO members have been content to accumulate the west's gold on falling prices, being careful not to disrupt the market.

We cannot say the Ukrainian crisis is over. It is more than likely Putin will not be fully satisfied until there is a Russian-friendly government in Kiev. And if a senior Russian politician cares to have another conversation with China over maximising turmoil on Wall Street, driving up the gold price is the obvious financial weapon of choice.

Ted Butler: Suing JPMorgan and the COMEX

I’ve had some recent conversations with attorneys who were considering class-action lawsuits regarding a gold price manipulation stemming from reports about the London Gold Fix. I told them that while there is no doubt that gold and, particularly, silver are manipulated in price, I didn’t see how the manipulation stemmed from the London Fix. I wished them well and hoped that they may prevail (the enemy of my enemy is my friend), because you never know – if the lawyers dig deep enough they might find the real source of the gold and silver manipulation, namely, the COMEX (owned by the CME Group) and JPMorgan.

So I thought it might be constructive to lay out what I thought a successful lawsuit might look like, although I’m speaking as a precious metals analyst and not as a lawyer. I’ll try to put the whole thing into proper perspective, including the premise and scope of the manipulation as well as the parties involved.

The first thing I should mention is how unprecedented it is that I’m writing this in the first place. Here I am, directly and consistently accusing two of the world’s most important financial institutions of market manipulation (making sure I send each all my accusations) and I have received no complaint from either. I don’t think that has ever occurred previously. Now I am taking it one step further; presenting a guide for how and why JPMorgan and the CME should be sued for their manipulation of gold and silver (and copper, too).

Ted's been at this for almost 30 years, so he knows a thing or two about what might be the best way to end the price management scheme in the precious metals. You have to ask yourself why private individuals are the ones that have to storm the ramparts when the World Gold Council and The Silver Institute should be doing it on our [and the miners] behalf. But as I've said countless times in this column, the sole reason that these two organizations exist, is to ensure that this very thing never happens---and that the mining companies are kept in line.

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¤ THE WRAP

You pretty much have to have to have been born stupid, willfully blind, or be a bought and paid for whore of the World Gold Council and/or Silver Institute, not to see that JPMorgan et al prevented an upside explosion in the precious metals yesterday. If Russia really wanted to screw the U.S. over real good, all they would have to do is put an end to this price management scheme in all four precious metals, as they've known about it for at least a decade now---and China has, as well.

Today's pop "blast from the past" is only 15 years old---and one of the few modern pop songs that I think is worth listening to. Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas do the honours---and the link is here.

Today's classical "blast from the past" is another Jean Sibelius number, but it's totally different from the one that I posted in this space last week. The Swan of Tuonela is an 1895 tone poem---and is the second part of Op. 22 Lemminkäinen(Four legends), tales from the Kalevala epic of Finnish mythology. It's a melancholy piece---and the solo by the cor anglais is perhaps the best known for this instrument in all of orchestral literature. The link is here.

Well, I'll be the first one to admit that yesterday's price rally shortly after the London open came as a big surprise to me. What wasn't a surprise---and a disappointment---was the immediate explosion in open interest as JPMorgan et al, as sellers of last resort, were there to kill the rallies stone cold dead. Of course they had to give a little ground in palladium because of the announcement of the two new South African palladium funds, but even then, their footprints at the $800 mark were obvious for anyone who cared to examine the price chart carefully.

As I said in The Wrap in yesterday's column, it didn't appear that "da boyz" were about to give up control of the precious metal market any time soon---and this turned out to be prophetic within hours of me writing it.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess. The roll-overs out of the April delivery month in gold have to be all done by next Friday---and I'm sure that JPMorgan would still dearly love to take out both the 50 and 200-day moving averages in that precious metal before then, but yesterday's price action sort of threw a spanner into the works.

And as I mentioned in the first part of today's column, the dichotomy between the gold and silver equities is still something I'm keeping an eye on---and Friday's numbers only reconfirmed my suspicion that someone with very deep pockets is taking a very large position in silver equities using the engineered price decline as cover.

Taking a look at the preliminary volume report from the CME yesterday, I note that there are only about 35 gold contracts and just under 200 silver contracts still open in the March delivery month---and those have to delivered into, or rolled over, by next Friday as well.

I'm only speculating here, but it appears that it may be anything but "business as usual" next week---and for that reason I'll be watching the 6 p.m. EDT open in New York on Sunday evening with more interest than normal.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend---and I'll see you here on Tuesday.

Additional items.....

http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2014/03/march-21gld-inventory-advances-by-huge.html

( highlighted information and news / views )

Friday, March 21, 2014

march 21/GLD inventory advances by a huge 4.19 tonnes/SLV inventories constant/gold advances/silver falls a bit/Report on Ukrainian/Russia conflict/

Gold closed up $5.50 at $1336.00 (comex to comex closing time ). Silver was down 11 cents to $20.29

In the access market tonight at 5:15 pm

gold: $1334.00

silver: $20.30

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Comex gold/ contract month

March 21.2014 the March delivery month.

Gold	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	160,750.000 oz (5,000 kilobars????)
No of oz served (contracts) today	12 (1200 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)	47 (4700 oz)
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	78 (7800 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month	1399.97 oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month	128,127.25 oz

***

And now the Gold inventory at the GLD:

March 21.2014: tonnage 816.97 (a huge increase of 4.19 tonnes of gold/great news as China still brings in close to 6 tonnes of physical gold into Shanghai each day. The Bank of England must be worried!!)