Last week I held a hearing to examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. The purpose was to spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed’s problems, hopefully leading to concrete actions to rein in the Fed.
First, it is important to understand the Federal Reserve System. Some people claim it is a secret cabal of elite bankers, while others claim it is part of the federal government. In reality it is a bit of both. The Federal Reserve System is the collusion of big government and big business to profit at the expense of taxpayers. The Fed’s bailout of large banks during the financial crisis …
[Gary Leibowitz frequently raises hackles in the Rick’s Picks forum with his mantra that business is great, stocks are underpriced, and -- at least for the time being -- the U.S. economy is going great guns. Who knew that he is also expecting a global depression that will last for more than a decade? In the guest commentary below, he explains why – but also why, with two caveats, gold is likely to be one of the best places for investors to be for at least the next six years. RA]
I must confess that I’d been a gold bear for many years. When I reevaluated my position, I surprised myself when my conclusions made a 180-degree turn. On …
I like investing in commodities because they’re very simple to understand—it’s all about supply and demand. Naturally, I take a very strong interest in the increasing demand for gold coming out of China. You see, in the short run, the paper markets (leveraged traders) rule the day. In the longer run, the physical market is all that matters. In the past few months, we’ve seen some very important changes in the physical market for gold—China is hungry.
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Monthly Chinese Gold Imports (excludes March’s 63 Tons)
In this year’s first quarter, Chinese gold production hit a record around 80 tons, but that’s only part of the story. The real story is on the import side, where China imported 135.5 …
Beijing is planning to avoid U.S. financial sanctions on Iran by paying for oil with gold. China’s imports of the metal are already large, and you can guess what additional purchases are going to do to prices.
On the last day of 2011, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. The NDAA, as it is called, attempts to reduce Iran’s revenue from the sale of petroleum by imposing sanctions on foreign financial institutions conducting transactions with Iranian financial institutions in connection with those sales. This provision, which essentially cuts off sanctioned institutions from the U.S. financial system, takes effect on June 28.
The NDAA gives the president the power to waive the sanctions depending on …
As we near the end point, the point where the economy collapses, government becomes more desperate to convey the myth of a recovery. Government data have always been suspect because of the political ramifications of a good vs. bad economic report. Fudging the numbers, or at least the ways of measuring various statistics, likely began once government began issuing economic data. The propaganda value of such data began to increase under Kennedy. Now we have reached a point where manipulation is beyond anything the manipulators dared just a couple of decades ago.
Behind the need to increasingly lie about the economic condition of the country is the dying economy. If that is too strong for you to accept, then the …
Spain will reluctantly swoop in with public money this week to clean up bad loans at its largest group of savings banks, Bankia, the government said on Monday.
Bankia, Spain’s fourth-biggest listed bank created from a merger of seven savings banks, is the most exposed to Spain’s property market, which collapsed in 2008, destroying millions of jobs and leaving piles of bad credit.
Spain’s financial sector is a significant concern to investors, who fear the unknown cost of rescuing the industry could derail efforts to stem a rapid rise in sovereign debt and stave off a bail-out.
“We are finalising a plan to clean up the bank,” said an economy ministry official.
The scheme would use public money, and changes in …
Harvey Organ has been analyzing the bullion markets closely for decades. The quality and accuracy of his work is respected enough to have earned him an invitation to testify before the CFTC on position limits for precious metals back in 2010.
And he minces no words: Gold and silver prices are suppressed. With extreme prejudice.
In this detailed interview, Harvey explains to Chris the mechanics of how he sees this manipulation occurring, why he predicts this fraudulent pricing scheme will collapse soon, and why it’s critical to be holding physical (vs. paper) bullion when it does.
The real suppression of the metals started in 1988. That’s when the leasing game started and was invented by J.P. Morgan.
Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,648.25, EUR 1,246.22, and GBP 1,017.88 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,641.25, EUR 1,241.49 and GBP 1,019.54 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $30.85/oz, €23.45/oz and £19.14/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,563.00/oz, palladium at $658.75/oz and rhodium at $1,350/oz.
After moves down and then up, gold finished $2.60 or 0.16% higher in New York yesterday and closed at $1,643.80/oz. Gold fell some $10 as the FOMC meeting commenced prior to going positive.
Gold gradually eked out gains in Asian and early European trading prior to seeing some weakness.
Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)
Support for gold is at $1,612/oz and resistance is at $1,663/oz and $1,684/oz.
Gold climbed on Thursday on concerns that the Fed …
Legendary gold trade Jim Sinclair is seriously suggesting that gold could spike to $3,000 in a short squeeze because of the Chinese decision to pay for oil in gold bullion (listen here). Basically there will be a sudden demand for physical gold that cannot be met and short sellers will be forced to cover and buy gold at higher prices.
He told King World News: ‘You have seen in the last month, a phenomena. If you have eyes in your head, you have to know when the gold banks enter into the gold market, offering more for sale than would be mined in the next five years, they are not in there to sell anything. They are in there to …
