Late at night on November 6, along with John Mauldin, Doug Casey and a group of partygoers in a café here in Cafayate, we watched on a small television as Obama's contract was renewed by a majority of the mob. As was the case with many readers, I suspect, my initial reaction was disbelief. Full Story
By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 14 December, 2012
By upping the ante once again in its gamble to revive the lethargic economy through monetary action, the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee is now compelling the rest of us to buy into a game that we may not be able to afford. At his press conference this week, Fed Chairman Bernanke explained how the easiest policy stance in Fed history has just gotten that much easier. First it gave us zero interest rates, then QEs I and II, Operation Twist, and finally "unlimited" QE3. Full Story
Below is a chart from an equal-weighted index we put together. It contains 20 companies which are gold producers. The median market cap is $900M, which is quite large. For the most part, these are the junior producers who were successful from the 2008-2010 bull market. After all, if a junior producer is successful during a cycle, then it’s no longer a true junior! Full Story
You might think that keeping inflation low is what central banks are for. But that's so late-20th century! And the Fed this week walked further away from that mandate. Central banks everywhere are similarly losing their "independence" to keep inflation in check. So guess what comes next – what must come next – before there's any true chance of central banks hiking their rates to try and curb your cost of living. Full Story
By: Richard (Rick) Mills, Ahead of the herd - 14 December, 2012
Investors seeking leverage to precious metals should focus on junior resource companies who own the world’s undeveloped gold and silver deposits as they provide the best exposure to a rising precious metals price environment. You need to find the quality management teams with money in the treasury, the ability to raise more and owning the advanced projects that are well along the development path towards a mine. Full Story
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - 14 December, 2012
Although you wouldn’t know it from listening to all the bearish commentary out there, silver is actually enjoying a strong young upleg. Its technicals are very bullish, contradicting the prevailing pessimism gripping traders. This glaring disconnect between price action and sentiment won’t last forever. It has hammered silver stocks to depressed levels that offer a smorgasbord of opportunity for brave contrarians. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Heiko Ihle - 14 December, 2012
Miners in Latin America are facing both growth and challenges. Heiko Ihle, senior research analyst with Euro Pacific Capital, examines the factors behind these trends. In this Gold Report interview, Ihle urges investors to evaluate mining companies based on three important features rather than on the performance of others in the region. Full Story
Those who follow the day to day developments in the gold and silver markets have typically seen rampant market manipulation by large traders and bullion banks. Although supposedly against the rules — and even being subjected to an ongoing investigation by the CFTC that now reaches into its fifth year — this market bullying is nevertheless allowed to happen over and over again without effective regulatory intervention. Full Story
Yesterday we saw substantial declines in the whole precious metals sector (the only important exception was palladium that actually managed to close higher after a huge price drop earlier during the day) even though the Fed announced Wednesday that it would continue its monthly purchases of $85 billion in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. This makes it probable that the Fed announcement was already priced into the market, hence the lack of its reaction. Full Story
Last summer I told traders to watch the oil cycle as the CRB was working its way down into a final three year cycle low. At the time I was confident that the entire commodity complex was just waiting for the oil cycle to bottom. Once it did, the rest of the commodity complex launched out of that bottom like a rocket. Full Story
How many times have we seen a bank robber movie in which the clever thieves hoist a locked safe deposit box onto a truck before driving away, or simply drill holes into it to get the goodies inside? Many times. In fact, such movies are usually shot in a way to make us root for the criminal to get away with the crime! Full Story
Although some of the events that we expected did occur this year, the "indefinite halt" has not. The nationwide wildcat strikes that ended in mid-November suggested that that scenario was possible, but the bubbling pot simmered down. We were asked by our readers to share our view on the implications of those actions on the price of platinum. Full Story
By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster - Global Watch - 13 December, 2012
Several analysts and respected members of the gold community have stated that the confiscation of gold is unlikely because the conditions that precipitated it in 1933 don’t exist anymore. We agree wholeheartedly with that view. But we feel that the confiscation of gold is extremely likely for very different reasons. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 13 December, 2012
Maybe it's just a coincidence but maybe instead it's a propaganda campaign launched by the British government and the Bank of England to assuage growing international concerns about the oversubscription, lending, and swapping of Western central bank reserves. Full Story
In a remarkable Coup, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (gata.org) has uncovered even more evidence that Major Central Banks and their Allied Banks are Systematically Suppressing the Prices of Gold and Silver. This Ongoing Price Suppression legitimizes and bolsters the Ostensible Value of their Treasury Securities and Fiat Currencies as stores and measure of value vis-à-vis Gold and Silver. Full Story
Aside from the presents, getting the biggest Turkey in the shop, making sure the house is warm and festive and the compulsory family argument the other tradition at Christmas is the vast expense it costs us all. Full Story
We can ignore the fact that gold is real money, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring real money. Prices were stable for most of the 19th century when gold was real money. But since 1971, when paper money has been backed by nothing more substantial than “full faith and credit,” prices have dramatically increased. Can you remember (even imagine) cigarettes costing $0.25 per pack or buying gasoline for $0.27 per gallon? Pretending unbacked paper money is real money has inflationary consequences. Full Story
Featured is the five year weekly gold chart. The green boxes highlight pullbacks from overbought conditions. The blue boxes show the testing of a breakout from below the 50 week moving average. The green arrows point to the expected upward direction upon the completion of this test. Full Story
With youth unemployment at 56.4% in Greece and 55.9% in Spain, with nearly 1/3 of 25-34 year olds in America living with their parents, with more than 100,000,000 in China still earning $1 or less a day, and with food prices rising by more than 32% since 2007 in the UK, all due to immoral Central Bank monetary policies that deliberately devalue global fiat currencies in a race to the bottom, a gold standard is quite capable of returning the world to global economic prosperity and ushering in one of the most stable economic growth periods in the history of the world. Full Story
The Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday moved his money printing into a higher gear with an additional $45 billion in asset purchases a month on top of the existing $40 billion program and set a target of 6.5 per cent unemployment before he would start to reverse this monetary stimulus. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 13 December, 2012
The institutional crazies, village idiots and knee-jerk opportunists who bought shares yesterday following a Fed announcement of yet more monetization seem not to have been paying attention, at least initially, to the nasty sell-off in T-Bonds. Well before yesterday, any sentient being would have surmised that easing’s impact on the economy had reached the point of diminishing returns. With administered rates pegged at zero and mortgage loans near historical lows, how much more boost are we to expect from yet another gaseous effusion of bank-system credit? Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 12 December, 2012
In their latest market letter, Lee Quaintance and Paul Brodsky of QB Asset Management in New York add credence to speculation that the gold price could not have been so restrained lately without the assistance of China and Russia and maybe even Japan and South Korea, all eager to hedge their dollar exposure with gold but unable to get it in size without a long period of price suppression. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Porter Stansberry - 12 December, 2012
With nary a glimmer of hope that economic sense will supplant political expedience, Stansberry & Associates Investment Research Founder Porter Stansberry expects rampant inflation to roar in once the cost of capital rises. How is he preparing himself? Stansberry tells The Gold Report he continues to buy and hold gold, and discusses another investment vehicle he has been pursuing. Full Story
We follow up on our essay on gold and the dollar collapse from December 4, 2012. In that essay, we speculated what could happen with gold if the U.S. defaulted on its debt in real terms. Today, we describe possible scenarios in the opposite case where the greenback is not destroyed in spite of excessive debt. Full Story
ArabianMoney editor and publisher Peter Cooper goes down to the Sharjah Gold Souk with Sandra Mergulhao from MyDubaiMyCity to investigate the silver market and finds traders forecasting a 30 per cent price hike for 2013 after a disappointing 15 per cent over the past 12 months. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 12 December, 2012
Stocks rallied yesterday on the prospect of a budget deal, but don’t expect them to get very far. With yesterday’s moderate surge in the broad averages, investors appear to have upped their bet that Obama and his heartfelt enemies in Congress will do what we have confidently expected them to do all along – i.e., agree to kick the can down the road. Full Story
By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 11 December, 2012
In January 2009, just as the "Peter Schiff was Right" YouTube video that catalogued my previously derided predictions about a coming financial collapse was racking up views and attracting mainstream attention, a blogger and investment advisor named Mike Shedlock (aka "Mish") saw an opportunity to make an unethical grab at my current and prospective clients by breaking the nascent wave. Full Story
Stocks remained buoyant this week as the market believes the Fed will remain accommodative in view of the latest drop in U.S. unemployment numbers. It’s widely expected the Federal Reserve will maintain its easy money policy when it meets on Wednesday. Full Story
The FOMC meeting this week could be the fundamental catalyst that drives gold above $1800, and turns it into a “here to stay” floor. Currently, about half of the bonds bought by the Fed are financed by other bonds it holds. That process is referred to as “sterilized QE”, but the Fed is quickly running out of short term bonds. Ben Bernanke also appears to be well aware that the real unemployment rate is quite a bit higher than 7.7%. Full Story
No matter what confidence game is being run, confidence is the necessary pre-requisite. This is why confidence indicators are so closely monitored by central bankers. If consumers and businesses lack confidence, they will not partake of the central banker’s credit; a necessary step in the indebting of otherwise willing victims. Full Story
Bankers have engaged in a huge misinformation campaign against gold and silver to deliberately keep people out of buying physical gold and physical silver and the best mining companies, that while paper, are backed by actual physical gold and physical silver. If you’re a newbie thinking about buying gold and silver assets for the first time ever, here’s what you need to know. Full Story
By: John Mauldin, Millennium Wave Advisors - 11 December, 2012
A consistent theme in this letter has been the connections between items that may seem to be far removed from each other but are actually linked at the very core. If you push on one end you get a reaction in what would seem to be the most unlikely spots. Today we explore the connection between the fiscal deficit and energy policy. Full Story
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - 11 December, 2012
According to a recent comment by a well-respected analyst, one of the problems with using gold as money is that the supply of gold could experience large swings due to changes in mine production. The ignorance reflected by this comment is simply breathtaking. The usual complaint about using gold as money is that the supply of gold doesn't increase fast enough to facilitate strong economic growth, as if producing more stuff requires more of the general medium of exchange. Full Story
Traditional cancer treatment options are little more than a crude mix of "slash, burn, and poison" – that is surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There are radical new treatments in labs and trials all over the world that promise to throw out this trifecta; no other disease has received more of the research interest and funding that have defined modern biotechnology over the past three decades. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 11 December, 2012
Western central banks conceal their gold loans and swaps because information about them is "highly market-sensitive" and accountability about them would hinder secret currency market interventions by central banks, according to a confidential report by the International Monetary Fund obtained this week by GATA. Full Story
Precious metals market as a whole has been sending mixed signals recently. We’ve seen local bottoms in gold and silver along with indications of a strong rally emerging, but then the prices refused to go much higher and currently there seem to be no clear signs as to when the rally resumes, based on the charts of these metals alone. Full Story
I saw a YouTube video published by Nick Barisheff recently (not an endorsement), which details his argument for hyperinflation and $10,000 oz. gold. While I don't doubt the possibility of $10,000 oz. gold, I’m highly skeptical of the possibility of hyperinflation in the United States and Europe. The reason is simple: Money today is not what money was 50 or 100 years ago. Full Story
By: John Browne, Senior Economic Consultant at Euro Pacific Capital - 10 December, 2012
Put simply, the fiscal cliff debate is an illustration of staggering political cowardice. Politicians of both parties are unwilling to ask voters to pay for all of the big government promises that they made on the campaign trail. They would rather risk the country's long term future than risk losing the next election. As a former elected legislator, I can assure them that their offices are not worth the price they are asking us, the voters, to pay. Full Story
Gazing into their crystal balls last week, Wall Street firms interpreted differing futures for gold next year. Morgan Stanley awarded gold the “best commodity for 2013” while Goldman Sachs called the end of the metal’s hot streak. After seeing 11 consecutive years of positive performance from gold, one needs to be wary of research analysts’ price forecasts, as they have consistently underestimated the shifting dynamics driving the precious metal higher. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Peter Grandich - 10 December, 2012
The fundamentals at many junior mining companies have improved, yet their stock prices continue to languish. In this interview with The Gold Report, market guru Peter Grandich gives his thoughts on when this may end and where gold is headed in 2013. Full Story
With our dear monetary leaders only two days away from bestowing upon us their latest financial wizardry, we should be aware of the money supply dynamics in play. This week FOMC will either ramp the production of printed money, hang back and play coy while letting the existing $40 billion in MBS carry the load or heaven forbid, talk in some sort of austere manner in a bizarre game of brinksmanship. Full Story
ALTHOUGH the price of gold has fallen over the last couple of months, there has been a marked increase in demand for physical bullion. The amount of bullion held to back gold exchange-traded funds has risen to record levels. November meantime saw the United States Mint record its best month for sales of gold American Eagle coins since July 2010. Full Story
You may be among those investors who had the opportunity, but did not seize it, to buy gold cheap in the early 2000s. You may also be willing, but hesitant, to do so at current prices, while still desiring the "anti-crash insurance" it represents. However, you should be aware that the yellow metal is increasingly valued as a reserve asset, which will tend to push the price up, independently of all other factors. Due to new regulations, you may also have to bid in the future alongside financial institutions, including several banks, to acquire it. Full Story
Take look at the five-year chart for silver then you can appreciate both why silver investors are so anxious and why they really have nothing to worry about. True if you bought silver 19 months ago when it hit $48.50 an ounce ready for an exponential take-off then you have reason to be annoyed. Full Story
The world will not end on December 21, 2012 or anytime soon. I think the Mayan calendar indicates the end of a very long-term cycle that has a gradual impact upon the world, just as other long-term cycles make significant but gradual changes. Increases and decreases in solar output (a long-term cycle) may create ice ages or droughts that slowly and gradually change the world. Full Story
Show Highlights: Guest Interviews. Headline news & the Market Weatherman Report. Host answers phone calls and email questions. Guests: Peter Grandich, The Grandich Letter Gerald Celente, The Trends Research Institute Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 9 December, 2012
A study by the International Monetary Fund in 1999, obtained last week by GATA's researcher R.M., reported that more than 80 central banks had lent 15 percent of official gold reserves into the market and that central banks then lending gold included the German Bundesbank, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the central banks of Austria, Portugal, and Venezuela. Full Story
Around this time each year we like to remind our clientele that the real rate return should be one of the most important factors influencing the way you handles your savings. The real rate of return -- yield minus the inflation rate -- governs the flow of international capital into various investment vehicles. It also influences the way private investors employ their capital. When interest rates go above the inflation rate, like they did in the 1980s, the incentive is to save in the form of government and commercial bonds and bank savings deposits. When interest rates stay below the inflation rate, as they have for most of the last decade, the incentive is to save in the form of gold and other hard assets. Full Story
None of this, though, seems to bother the navigators of our ship, who are stubbornly steering us farther from care than danger on a course across an ocean of debt to follow the great white whale of business as usual. These are interesting times alright, and historically interesting times have been the best times to own real, tangible, physical gold. Somewhere, of course, where the navigators can’t steal it. Full Story
Just when you think things can’t get any more ludicrous or obscene in terms of insulting the truth, out comes the BLS with its monthly jobs numbers. I’m going to break those down in a minute. But wait! There’s much more. We’ve got the fed, which had been promising to raise rates starting in 2010, then 2011, then ’12, and now they’re all the way out in 2015. Double that for the monetization (not just asset purchases). Full Story
We had a great week with markets consolidating recent gains and setting up for higher prices this coming week by the looks of things.n Many stocks were hit hard but most are just consolidating after some huge recent gains and are setting up for more upside in the very near future. As for the precious metals they are not in good shape with the exceptions of platinum and palladium. Full Story
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