Category Archive: 6a) Gold & Monetary Metals

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Textbook Falling Interest Behavior

2018-10-04

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2018-10-04

This is a textbook case. Well, it would be if there was a textbook that presented the dynamics of the rising and falling interest rate cycles. Costco is spending over a quarter billion dollars, to make a capital investment in chicken processing. This is not the typical entrepreneurial investment, which seeks to increase margins by serving an unserved or underserved demand.

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Yield Curve Compression – Precious Metals Supply and Demand

2018-10-03

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2018-10-03

Gold and Silver Price
The price of gold fell nine bucks last week. However, the price of silver shot up 33 cents. Our central planners of credit (i.e., the Fed) raised short-term interest rates, and threatened to do it again in December. Meanwhile, the stock market continues to act as if investors do not understand the concepts of marginal debtor, zombie corporation, and net present value.

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LBMA Clearing and Vaulting data reveal the absurdity of the London ‘Gold’ Market

2018-10-02

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2018-10-02

LBMA gold vaulting data report for end of June 2018: Published 1st October
The first day of each month sees the reporting of a number of statistics about the London Gold Market by the bullion bank led London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). These statistics focus on clearing data and vault holdings data and are reported in a 1 month lag basis for clearing activity and a 3 month lag basis for vault holdings data.

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Permanent Gold Backwardation, Report 30 Sep 2018

2018-10-01

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2018-10-01

CHF Gold Basis, 2018-2019
Sometimes, one just needs to look in the right place. And often in those cases, it just takes a conversation to alert one where to look. We had a call with a Swiss company this week, to discuss gold financing for their business. They reminded us that there is a negative interest rate on Swiss francs. And then they said that a swap of francs for gold has a cost. That is, the CHF GOFO rate is negative (the dollar based 12-month MM GOFO™ is +2.4%).

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Central Banks Positivity Towards Gold Will Provide Long Term “Support To Gold Prices”

2018-09-28

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2018-09-28

Central Bank Gold Reserves, Q1 2000 - Q1 2018
– There has been a recent change for the better in central bank attitudes to gold. – There has been “net gold demand by central banks – approx. 500 tonnes per year – as a source of return, liquidity and diversification”. –  Policy shift to maintaining stable gold holdings reflects central bank concerns about financial markets and geopolitics. – Little in the current global economic and political environment to support any reason to change in this...

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Seasonality in Cryptocurrencies – An Interesting Pattern in Bitcoin

2018-09-27

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2018-09-27

The last time we discussed Bitcoin was in May 2017 when we pointed out that Bitcoin too suffers from seasonal weakness in the summer. We have shown that a seasonal pattern in Bitcoin can be easily identified. More than a year has passed since then and readers may wonder why we have not addressed the topic again.

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We Need a Free Market in Interest Rates

2018-09-26

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2018-09-26

We do not have a free market in interest rates today. We have not had one since the creation of the Fed in 1913. The Fed began buying bonds almost immediately, which pushes up the price and hence pushes down the interest rate. However, as I discuss in my theory of interest and prices, the Fed creates a resonant system with positive feedback loops.

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Why Are Wages So Low, Report 23 Sep 2018

2018-09-25

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2018-09-25

Income Inequality Infographic Workers Middle Class and CEOS get Compared
Last week, we talked about the capital consumed by Netflix—$8 billion to produce 700 shows. They’re spending more than two thirds of their gross revenue generating content. And this content has so little value, that a quarter of their audience would stop watching if Netflix adds ads (sorry, we couldn’t resist a little fun with the English language).

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Trump’s Backdoor Power Play to Rein In the Fed

2018-09-21

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2018-09-21

“Just run the presses – print money.” That’s what President Donald Trump supposedly instructed his former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn to do in response to the budget deficit. The quote appears in Bob Woodward’s controversial book Fear: Trump in the White House.

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Silver Is ‘Undervalued’ Relative to Stocks, Bonds, Gold – GoldCore

2018-09-20

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2018-09-20

Silver Price, Sep 2008 - 2018
– Silver is ‘undervalued’ relative to stocks, bonds and gold: GoldCore. – Silver at $14/oz is cheap relative to gold with gold-silver ratio over 85. – Silver drops to 32-month lows prompting sellout of Silver Eagle coins at U.S. Mint. – U.S. Mint said “recent increased demand” prompted a “temporary sell out” of its American Silver Eagle bullion coins as investors see silver coins as a bargain.

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Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Avocado Toast, Report 16 Sep 2018

2018-09-17

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2018-09-17

Gold and Silver Price
For about ten bucks a month, Netflix will give you all the movies you can watch, plus tons of TV show series and other programs, such as one-off science documentaries. They don’t offer all movies, merely more than you can watch. Oh, and there are no commercials. They don’t just give you old BBC reruns, which you know they can get for a pittance.

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Rep. Alex Mooney: Bring Back Gold!

2018-09-12

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2018-09-12

Washington has been quite the circus lately. Bret Kavanaugh’s appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee prompted dozens of interruptions from Democrats and numerous protests from leftists. During Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s testimony to the House Commerce Committee, journalist Laura Loomer demanded to be verified on the social media platform, and Representative Billy Long (R-MO) held an auction.

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Why the Fed Denied the Narrow Bank, Report 9 Sep 2018

2018-09-11

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2018-09-11

Gold and Silver Price
It’s not every day that a clear example showing the horrors of central planning comes along—the doublethink, the distortions, and the perverse incentives. It’s not every year that such an example occurs for monetary central planning. One came to the national attention this week. A company called TNB applied for a Master Account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Illicit Arbitrage Cut by Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Report 3 Sep 2018

2018-09-04

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2018-09-04

Gold and Silver Price
This week, we are back to our ongoing series on capital destruction. Let’s consider the simple transaction of issuing a bond. Party X sells a bond to Party Y. We will first offer something entirely uncontroversial. If the interest rate rises after Y buys the bond, then Y takes a loss. Or if the interest rate falls, then Y makes a capital gain. This is simply saying that the bond price moves inverse to the interest rate.

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As Emerging Market Currencies Collapse, Gold is being Mobilized

2018-09-03

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2018-09-03

EM-cartoon
In recent weeks, global financial markets have been increasingly spooked by an intensifying crisis in emerging market currencies including those of Turkey and Argentina. Add to this the ongoing currency crisis in Venezuela and the currency problems of Iran.

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Why Am I Fighting for the Gold Standard?

2018-08-31

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2018-08-31

Monetary Metals
Life is good. They could not have imagined what we have now, back in the dark ages. So I have never understood why people prep for a return to the dark ages. The only thing I can think of is that they don’t really picture what life is like. 14 hours a day of back-breaking labor to eke out a subsistence living. Subject to the risks of rain, sun, and insects.

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Another Gold Bearish Factor, Report 26 August 2018

2018-08-27

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2018-08-27

Gold and Silver Price
Last week, we said that the consensus is that gold must go down (as measured in terms of the unstable dollar) and then will rocket higher. We suggested that if everyone expects an outcome in the market, the outcome is likely not to turn out that way. We also said that this time, there is likely less leverage employed to buy gold and that gold is less leveraged as well.

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Annual Mine Supply of Gold: Does it Matter?

2018-08-21

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2018-08-21

Cumulative Global Gold Production: 1835 to present day.
The topic of how much extractable gold is left in the world has become increasingly discussed within the last few years. This is because of increased focus on ‘peak gold’ and also a concern about remaining levels of unextracted gold reserves. Peak gold is a term referring to the phenomenon of annual gold mining supply peaking (i.e. the rate of gold extraction increases until it peaks at maximum gold output and subsequently diminishes).

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In Next Crisis, Gold Won’t Drop Like 2008, Report 19 August 2018

2018-08-20

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2018-08-20

Gold Basis Continuous, 2004-2008
Last week, we discussed the tension between forces pushing the dollar up and down (measured in gold—you cannot measure the dollar in terms of its derivatives such as euro, pound, yen, and yuan). And we gave short shrift to the forces pushing the dollar down. We said only that to own a dollar is to be a creditor. And if the debtors seem in imminent danger of default, then creditors should want to escape this risk.

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Fundamental Price of Gold Decouples Slightly – Precious Metals Supply and Demand

2018-08-18

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2018-08-18

Gold and Silver Price
Keith Weiner’s weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

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