Category Archive: 6a) Gold & Monetary Metals

Gold At 3 Week High As Stocks and Dollar Fall On Trump’s Hard Line Stance Against Iran and China

◆ Gold has edged higher to reach three week highs at $1,535/oz today after Trump took a hard-line stance on China and Iran during his U.N. speech. ◆ Stocks fell in the U.S. yesterday and today in Europe on increasing political turmoil in the U.S. and the UK; Concerns about the global economy and the outlook for stocks is enhancing gold’s safe haven appeal.

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Treasury Bond Backwardation, Report 22 Sep

Something happened in the credit market this week. A Barron’s article about it began: “There have been disruptions in the plumbing of U.S. markets this week. While the process of fixing them was bumpy, it was more of a technical mishap than a cause for investor concern.” Keep Calm and Carry On. So, before they tell us what happened, they tell us it’s just plumbing, it’s been fixed, and that we should not be concerned.

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Central Bank Gold Buying Is “Sustainable and Indeed May Accelerate”

Why central banks including China and Russia will keep buying gold due to concerns about the outlook for currencies, including the dollar and the euro, Mark O’Byrne, Research Director of GoldCore told Marketwatch. While the gold tonnage demand from central banks in recent months has been significant and near records, gold remains a tiny fraction of most central banks’ massive foreign-exchange reserves,” O’Byrne says, adding that the trend is...

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Why Are People Now Selling Their Silver? Report 15 Sep

This week, the prices of the metals fell further, with gold -$18 and silver -$0.73. On May 28, the price of silver hit its nadir, of $14.30. From the last three days of May through Sep 4, the price rose to $19.65. This was a gain of $5.35, or +37%. Congratulations to everyone who bought silver on May 28 and who sold it on Sep 4.

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How Is Negative Interest Possible? Report 8 Sep

Germany has recently joined Switzerland in the dubious All Negative Club. The interest rate on every government bond, from short to 30 years, is now negative. Many would say “congratulations”, in the belief that this proves their credit risk is … well … umm … negative(?) And anyways, it will let them borrow more to spend on consumption which will stimulate … umm… well… all of the wasteful consumption for which governments are rightly...

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Gold To $3,000/oz By End Of 2020 As The Dollar Will Fall Sharply – Ron Paul

Where Does Gold Go From Here? — Ron Paul’s “Cautious” Prediction. “Gold is an ‘insurance policy’ as the dollar will continue go down in value as it is printed” and it will end in a monetary “calamity”. “Gold is not money due to any man-made laws. Gold is money despite man-made laws, and is a product of the voluntary marketplace”.

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Asset Inflation vs. Consumer Goods Inflation, Report 1 Sep

A paradigm is a mental framework. It has a both a positive pressure and a negative filter. It structures one’s thoughts, orients them in a certain direction, and rules out certain ideas. Paradigms can be very useful, for example the scientific method directs one to begin with facts, explain them in a consistent way, and to ignore peyote dreams from the smoke lodge and claims of mental spoon-bending.

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Cryptos/Switzerland: Mountain Pass

Facebook takes on global finance. But its proposed digital currency Libra frightens central banks and regulators. Below the radar, Switzerland launches its own skirmish. Two local crypto-finance pioneers this week became the first to win banking licences.

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Bitcoin-Friendly Banks

Over its 10 years of existence, Bitcoin adoption has been just like its price—up and down. At this point in time, it’s safe to say that the adoption of our favourite cryptocurrency has never been higher. Since adoption is so high, it has never been easier to buy bitcoin (with hundreds of payment methods available on peer-to-peer marketplaces).

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Switzerland’s First Crypto Banks Receive Licences

The Swiss financial regulator has awarded banking and securities dealer licences to two new “crypto banks”. SEBA and Sygnum have been cleared to operate in the new world of tokenised digital securities, a major milestone for the fledging industry.

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Directive 10-289, Report 25 Aug

Everyone must ask himself the question. Do you want the world to move to an honest money system, or do you just want gold to go up (we italicize discussion of apparent moves in gold, because it’s the dollar that’s moving down—not gold going up—but we sometimes frame it in mainstream terms).

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Deflation Is Everywhere—If You Know Where to Look, Report 18 Aug

At a shopping mall recently, we observed an interesting deal at Sketchers. If you buy two pairs of shoes, the second is 30% off. Sketchers has long offered deals like this (sometimes 50% off). This is a sign of deflation. Regular readers know to wait for the punchline. Manufacturer Gives Away Its Margins

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The Economic Singularity, Report 11 Aug

We have recently written several essays about the fallacious concept of Gross Domestic Product. Among GDP’s several fatal flaws, it goes up when capital is converted to consumer goods, when seed corn is served at the feast. So we proposed—and originally dismissed—the idea of a national balance sheet.

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Update on gold – bad news is good news

Increased trade tensions have boosted the gold price to above USD 1,500.The increased trade tensions following Trump’s 1 August tweet threatening additional tariffs on Chinese goods has boosted the gold price above USD 1,500 per troy ounce.The recent developments are supportive of gold investment demand because of a lower opportunity cost associated with holding gold and greater demand for safe haven assets.

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The Sound Money Showdown in U.S. States

Policies relating to sound money have been the subject of substantial debate at the state level this year, with bills, hearings, and/or votes taking place in nearly a dozen legislatures. As most state legislatures have now wrapped up their work for the year, let’s review the victories (both offensive and defensive)—and lone defeat—for sound money during the 2019 session.

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I Know Usury When I See It, Report 4 Aug

“I know it, when I see it.” This phrase was first used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, in a case of obscenity. Instead of defining it—we would think that this would be a requirement for a law, which is of course backed by threat of imprisonment—he resorted to what might be called Begging Common Sense. It’s just common sense, it’s easy-peasy, there’s no need to define the term…

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After Fed Disappoints, Will Trump Initiate Currency Intervention?

Following months of cajoling by the White House, the Federal Reserve finally cut its benchmark interest rate. However, the reaction in equity and currency markets was not the one President Donald Trump wanted – or many traders anticipated. The Trump administration wants the Fed to help drive the fiat U.S. dollar lower versus foreign currencies, especially those of major exporting countries.

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Obvious Capital Consumption, Report 28 Jul

We have spilled many electrons on the topic of capital consumption. Still, this is a very abstract topic and we think many people still struggle to picture what it means. Thus, the inspiration for this week’s essay. Suppose a young man, Early Enterprise, inherits a car from his grandfather. Early decides to drive for Uber to earn a living. Being enterprising, he is up at dawn and drives all day.

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Gold Consolidates Near All Time High In British Pounds

Sterling is under pressure today and gold near all time record highs in sterling (see chart) due to the likelihood that Britain’s ruling Conservative party will elect Boris Johnson (aka ‘BoJo’) as its new leader and Prime Minister today.

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Financial Media Elite Defensively Bash “Useless” Gold

At least the Financial Times now has come clean about its hostility to gold – as well as to free markets and elementary journalism. Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) friend Chris Kniel of Orinda, California, sent to the newspaper's chief economic columnist, Martin Wolf, the excellent summary of gold and silver market manipulation just written by gold researcher Ronan Manly.

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