BOTH PLATINUM and gold are useful metals. But where gold's use is ultimately social – being a thing of beauty, symbol of power, store of value and a means of exchange since the earliest civilizations – platinum is primarily an industrial metal. Which isn't helping platinum versus the gold price one bit right now. Full Story
Gold has been deeply out of favor lately, languishing in its usual summer doldrums. This sentiment wasteland is driving traders to flee wholesale, including the futures players. Their mass exodus from the gold market is readily apparent in futures data. But provocatively such behavior is a powerful contrarian indicator, heralding the birth of major new uplegs in gold. Bearish futures traders are a bullish omen. Full Story
From an initial list of 1,896 companies we were able to identify 212 entities (Public, Private and Government Sponsored Corporations) that own 439 gold deposits hosting over 1,000,000 ounces in all categories representing a total of 3,015,542,164 ounces of gold. The complete list can be found at the end of this report. Full Story
With a perfect storm brewing on the horizon, investors should be building their cash cache and running for cover, warns Harry Dent, author of The Great Crash Ahead. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Dent explains how central bank stimulus programs are fighting a futile battle because a huge army of aging baby boomers has reached the stage in their economic lifecycles when they curb spending. Full Story
Because of the worst drought since 1988 the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a federal disaster area in almost one-third of all the counties in the United States - more than 1,300 counties covering 29 states, the largest disaster declaration ever made by the USDA. Only in the 1930s and 1950s has a drought covered more land. Full Story
Official data sources have powerful interests to protect and Truth is often sacrificed. Thus it is essential to rely on other entities and persons such as Shadowstats, Deepcaster, Stockman, and Roubini for Genuine Data and Honest Analyses. Full Story
Summing up, the recent moves in precious metals are more of a pullback than a real rally. They could turn into a rally if something (like a rally in oil or breakdown in the USD Index) pushes them higher and they break above their respective resistance levels, but this remains to be seen. Full Story
A rise in interest rates would not be in the interest of the US Treasury or for the banks at the heart of the LIBOR scandal because of their huge holdings in derivatives. Yet the mere breaking of the scandal could start an unravelling that plays out over time. And as the scandal unravels the markets would be at risk and it may eventually overshadow the Euro crisis. Full Story
Now that the Audit the Fed bill has passed the House, it is on to the Senate. See what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says about Auditing the Fed in this video. Will he allow a vote in the Senate? Full Story
The world’s economy is passing through a low growth environment and this is in stark contrast to the first half of the last decade, when we had a global boom. Today, Europe is on the brink of recession, the US economy is growing at only 2% per year and it appears as though China is facing a major slowdown. Given these circumstances, we are of the view that the prices of natural resources will struggle to retain last decade’s momentum. Full Story
July 25, 2012 should go down in history as the date the Federal Reserve may become fully accountable to the US government. A motion to pass the bill as amended was unanimously approved by the house to require a full audit of the boards of governors of the Federal Reserve System and banks. This will be done by the Comptroller General of the US before the end of 2012 and they are required to issue their report within 12 months of enactment. Full Story
A recent FT article about ‘Disaster Economics’ by Gillian Tett caught our attention. We’ve been fans of Ms Tett’s work for a while, especially her excellent book ‘Fool’s Gold’. This article was about the bond markets, but it was some interesting financial history and commentary that caught our attention. Full Story
Gold’s historic run-up from $250 to nearly $2,000 an ounce in the last 10 years has underlined the long-term value and intrinsic worth of a key asset. It has also provided a fabulous, once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity for many individuals, not to mention a long-term momentum trade for both retail and institutional investors. Full Story
I realize many gold stock investors are very disappointed and depressed about the action in the gold market. We have seen gold in a consolidation pattern of about $1520 to $1900 an ounce . However, the gold stocks have acted much worse. The Amex Gold Bugs Index, an index of unhedged gold stocks, has dropped from 638 to 392. This is a drop of over 40 percent and represents the second worst gold stock decline of the past 10 years. Only the 2008 crash, which saw the HUI lose over 70 percent of its value, was worse. Full Story
Rep. Ron Paul’s bill to subject the Fed to broad audits sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday; now it goes to the Senate, where it is certain to die. Those who believe that Democrats and Republics are fundamentally indistinguishable should ponder the bill’s fate when November rolls around. While it’s true that Paul’s Federal Reserve Transparency Act drew bipartisan support in the House, garnering the votes of more than three dozen Democrats, Senate Democrats can be expected to take a harder line. Full Story
As preface, consider that the USTreasury 10-year yield went below 1.4% this week. Some unenlightened celebrate the asset appreciation and point to a successful asset in performance in an otherwise dismal financial market. The Jackass said in the June 6th public article "USTBonds: Black Hole Dynamics" that such a success is a marquee billboard message of economic meltdown and systemic failure. As the rally continues, possibly the onliest rally outside of corn and soybeans in yet another disaster, people should focus on whether the systemic collapse will occur before the 10-yield hits 1.0% in my warning. Full Story
LAST TIME the UK government backed and boosted a major export industry, we got the banking and finance crisis. This time they got smart – and spent lots of taxpayer cash in advance. Full Story
Recently I helped out with some delivery chores. As I drove about, I discovered that one of the roads I would normally use was closed by roadblocks. It was, I imagine, due to road repair work. I had to reverse course and take a substantial detour. Full Story
Ladies and gentlemen, the ENTIRE interest rate curve has been horse-whipped to ZERO. This has been done in the name of U.S. national security, preservation of the global U.S. Dollar Standard, bailing out insolvent banks and at the expense of savers, pensions, pensioners and the capital stock. Full Story
It’s summer time and during this time of year I don’t write as many Gold Reports as I typically do during the rest of year. Nor do I hold as many Live Chatrooms. This is because so many people have their attention turned elsewhere during the summer months. Full Story
The once unthinkable might become policy: negative nominal interest rates. Investors should care as they may be increasingly punished for not taking risks. Yet masochistic investors believe they may be the prudent ones given the risks lurking in the markets. What are investors to do, and what are the implications for the U.S. dollar and currencies? Full Story
Because of this dramatic price decline in these stocks, investors have the opportunity to purchase explorers, developers and producers, often referred to as juniors, at about half of the company’s net asset value (NAV). Full Story
Since the start of the global economic recovery in 2009, the status of the U.S. economy has been a perplexing one. We’ve been bombarded with conflicting reports as to the economy’s strength or weakness at various times over the past 3+ years and at any given time it’s hard to get a good read on how well the domestic economy is performing overall. Full Story
Through its lawyer, William J. Olson P.C. of Vienna, Virginia (http://www.lawandfreedom.com/), GATA today filed federal Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, and Federal Open Market Committee, greatly expanding upon GATA's 2009 FOIA request to the Fed, which sought access to records involving gold swaps. Full Story
It is clear where the United States is headed: the Great Default. The promises made by the government, beginning in 1935, will be broken. There will be winners and losers. Today, workers who are still paying Social Security and Medicare taxes are the losers. The retirees are the winners. Full Story
Apple, the mother of all bellwether stocks, has taken a flying dive Tuesday night on news that Q2 earnings were merely sensational (i.e., up a little more than 20 percent). Presumably unaware that Samsung’s excellent smart phones have been breathing down iPhone’s neck, speculators were evidently caught unawares when Apple’s earnings report included the peevish detail that iPhone sales had slowed markedly. Full Story
When Casey Research Chief Technology Investment Analyst Alex Daley met former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman to talk about the economy and where he sees it leading taxpayers investors and savers in the near future, he got some very intriguing insights from a man who served right at the heart of the US federal government. Full Story
While gold and silver bullion are important holdings to many members of the gold community, it is the gold stocks sector that is the “first love” of most investors. Mining companies offer investors the opportunity to purchase a stake in real gold in the ground, at prices that are essentially far below the current market price of gold bullion. The million dollar question is not whether gold stocks enable the investor to purchase gold for far less than $1600 an ounce, but whether that gold can be sold at a higher price at a later point in time. Full Story
Well, that’s the question that the central planners need to answer, but not one seems ready to admit the fact that the US economy is slowing down further despite the rosy outlook of presidential re-election cast of characters, which includes most of the media. Full Story
It seems that every season we hear a new catch phrase, be it “subprime,” or “quantitative easing”, or “risk on, risk off” or “the new normal.” The latest bon mot if you haven’t already come across it, is “fiscal cliff” with the attendant worry that the U.S. is about to fall off a precipitous edge. Full Story
In Frédéric Bastiat’s 1850 essay Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas, the famous economist introduced the parable of the broken window. He illustrated the principle that intentionally breaking a window just so that someone can subsequently fix it did not actually represent an increase in the net wealth of an economy. Today we will examine a similarly misguided fallacy that has been the foundation of an equally disastrous pattern of economic policy. We will call this the fallacy of the debased currency. Full Story
Before one every buys a single troy ounce of gold and silver, one should ensure first and foremost that one understands that gold and silver are volatile in price every single year. Many people commit the same mistake in buying gold and silver that they commit when buying into the stock market – they don’t buy assets when asset prices are low, and only buy them after prices have soared and news of a steep short-term climb in price has been reported by the mainstream media news. Full Story
It is currently estimated that the largest 110 central banks have 16% of their reserves as gold. Anyone who follows the gold market knows that many central banks have become net buyers of gold in the last few years, and the pace of accumulation seems to be growing. While central banks continue to accumulate gold, the misinformed mainstream media are still chanting the “gold is in a bubble” mantra. Full Story
In recent commentaries we’ve written about the three phases of a bull market and how and why the final phase evolves as it does. Valuations, sentiment and market structure all explain why markets take a dramatic upward turn in the final phase after relatively stagnant performance in the previous phase. These are the “micro” behind why a bubble emerges in the final phase. Today we want to look at the intermarket driving forces behind the emergence of a bubble. Full Story
I see analysis popping up out there refuting the bearish Descending Triangle view and in my opinion that is with good reason; it looks a lot more like a massive consolidation of previous bullishness than a topping pattern. However, a common theme seems to be some kind of static about a QE3 'Super Sunday' (don't hold your breath) or some such noise and gold's imminent and preordained blast off, never to return to current levels as the 'banksters' take it higher and higher. Full Story
By: Peter Spina, President GoldSeek.com & SilverSeek.com - 23 July, 2012
My local bank in Colorado is literally offering to pay me no interest --just an offensive 0.05% annually, before taxes. The interest rate triples to 0.15% when the balance exceeds $50,000. Absolutely no incentive when one considers the risks the bank imposes on your capital, retaining only pennies on the dollar of your money, then leveraging your capital -- fractional banking. How can I be interested in a 0% savings rate deposited at a relatively risky institution while supporting the fractional banking system? Full Story
As global growth is being downgraded by the I.M.F. from 3.5% to 3.1% fears that the Eurozone is already in a recession and the U.S. is likely to enter one next year, are growing. As the world becomes more and more familiar with the economic and financial climate investors are realizing that economic life is far from simple and that growth is not something that governments or central banks can turn on or off. Full Story
It is rare to hear a bank advising their customers to buy gold. The yellow metal pays no commission to banks, and is a competitor for savings. So it was refreshing to see the head of trading for the National Bank of Fujairah’s treasury department, Junaid Anwar Khan telling clients to buy gold for portfolio diversification in The National today. Full Story
Spain's regional government debt is in focus again. Spanish 10-year government bond yields are trading near 7.5% as Spain’s central government is expected to bail out its regions – and in return may ask for a bailout itself. Guarantees don’t make a system safer, quite the opposite: everything is safe until the guarantor itself is deemed unsafe. While the failure of any one business of regional government is a tragedy, providing a guarantee puts the system as a whole at risk. Full Story
It has taken more than 25 years for me to fully comprehend a conclusion that I never wanted to reach, namely, that there is an organized war against the price of silver that has come to include the US Government. I think the US Government involvement came into being almost accidently, but even if it was an accident of sorts, that does not diminish the serious nature of what must be described as illegal activity at the highest levels. I am conflicted between feelings of sadness and outrage. Full Story
As the politics of HOPE are slowly replaced by the politics of FEAR the demise of the developed world’s empire, financial systems and economies continues to UNFOLD. NOWHERE are the lessons of history being EMBRACED as the elite powers that be: socio and psychopaths in power FIGHT to cling to power regardless of the outcomes their policies have sown in the past. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Richard (Rick) Mills - 23 July, 2012
Equity valuations have so far failed to keep pace with rising bullion prices, but that makes for some outstanding investor opportunities among a few particularly well-positioned juniors. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Mills, publisher of Ahead of the Herd newsletter, points to continued low interest rates and increasing inflation as reasons that precious metals prices will keep climbing. And if discussions about elevating gold to Tier 1 asset status come to fruition, hold onto your hat, because that could shift the rate of ascent from steady to meteoric in a New York minute. Full Story
The mainstream financial media touts a variety of 'anti-inflation' investments that can be used to protect wealth against the ravages of inflation. These typically range from buying commodities like oil and coal to more sophisticated instruments like inflation-protected treasuries and annuities. Full Story
Within the eurozone there are great stresses. At one extreme there are punitive costs of borrowing for Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy; at the other there is zero or negative interest rates for Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. Doubtless the first group begets the second, as captive investors in euros have to buy government bonds, and this requirement is being funnelled away from risk into safety. Full Story
Most would be investors and speculators in the Precious Metals sector at this time look and behave like the raw recruits at the start of the film An Officer and a Gentlemen - listless and muttering pathetically "This might not be the bottom - it could go down again" - so listen up you 'orrible lot and pull yourselves together - by the time you are done reading this you are expected to have cleaned yourselves up, straightened yourselves out and be ready for action - and insubordination will not be tolerated. Full Story
After spending an hour on Joe Cristiano’s Liberty Talk Radio program the other night, I was filled with an excitement that I haven’t felt since I posted my first ‘Two Cents’ piece back in early 2006. I got to thinking about all the progress that we together have made in the past half dozen years regarding the public’s knowledge of the causes of the financial crisis, to the role of the federal reserve in our economic fate. Full Story
I have been captivated by the concept of the seen and the unseen in economics since I was first introduced to the idea. It is a seminal part of my understanding of economics, at least the small part I do grasp. The idea was first written about by Frédéric Bastiat, who was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost. He was a strong influence on von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Henry Hazlitt, and even my friend Ron Paul. Full Story
Over the next decade, central banks will have their respective moments of truth. They will be called upon to bail out the West's economies, from Eastern Europe to China. The deeply confessional religion of fiat money as the creator of wealth and the guarantor of stability will suffer from events that do not conform to the confession. As surely as the voters of Massachusetts in 1833 abandoned two centuries of established churches, so will voters decide that West's central banks are liabilities. Full Story
Unfortunately the United States is the most economically stratified society in the western world. As of 2008 the top .01 percent, or 14,000 American families hold 22.2 percent of the country’s wealth - the bottom 90 percent, or over 133 million families hold just four percent of the nation's wealth - collectively the top 300,000 Americans have almost as much income as the bottom 150 million. Full Story
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