Silver - search results
Video: 'Bitcoin outperforms gold, silver, US stock market' – entrepreneur
Nate Silver and 538’s Measurable 3.5% Democratic Bias and the 2018 House Race
Supreme Court Silver Lining
Video: The Peter Schmeichel Show: Danish legend talks to US coach, SilverLakes & LAFC...
Video: Keiser Report: ‘Silver lining’ of US mortality rates (E1111)
‘We Are Seeing No Selling of Physical Gold or Silver’
The Healing Power of Gold and Silver
RT America earns Silver & Bronze World Medals at NY Festivals World’s Best TV...
No More Silver Lining: Trump Turns Clintonian
Video: ‘Not a silver bullet’: Mosul op is going to increase level of chaos...
Resume Inflation at the NSC: Lt. General McMaster’s Silver Star Was Essentially Earned for...
Sarah Silverman Mistakes Construction Markings for Swastikas
2017: Spectacular for Gold and Silver
The Silver Lining of the Rigged Election
Video: Mesmerizing ‘alchemy’: Growing silver out of production waste
Video: Media fan flames of US-Russia ‘war’ at Olympics – Silver medalist Efimova on...
How Nate Silver Provides Political Cover for Hillary Clinton
Savage Delights of the Silver Screen
Video: ‘Wonderful gift’: DiCaprio receives 2nd ‘Oscar’, silver figurine from Siberian fans
Video: Russian women donate silver to make alternative Oscar for Leo DiCaprio
Supply and Demand in the Gold and Silver Futures Markets — Paul Craig Roberts...
Gold And Silver — The U S Is A Corporation. PMs Stand In The...
JP Morgan stockpiling physical silver: Are you getting ready for what is coming?
Silver Could Rise in 2014 – Here are 4 Reasons Why
A Precious Metals Renaissance? What the Federal Reserve Bank’s Endless QE Means for Gold...
Silver Iodide being sprayed on us via chemtrails
Iran wins silver in Asia rowing tourney
Paul Craig Roberts: Worse Than The Great Depression, Gold And Silver Prices Will Explode
A Precious Metals Renaissance? What the Federal Reserve Bank’s Endless QE Means for Gold...
Big Banks Manipulated Gold and Silver Markets
Iran wins 2nd silver at taekwondo event
Iranian women's futsal team wins silver
Silver makes antibiotics thousands of times more effective
JP Morgan Cleared Of Conspiracy “To Drive Down Silver Prices”
From GoldCore
JP Morgan Cleared Of Conspiracy "To Drive Down Silver Prices"
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,602.50, EUR 1,238.41 and GBP 1,059.78 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,599.50, EUR 1,236.09 and GBP 1,057.45 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $28.86/oz, €22.38/oz and £19.16/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,605.25/oz, palladium at $757.00/oz and rhodium at $1,250/oz.
Gold climbed $13.70 or 0.86% and closed yesterday at $1,578.10/oz. Silver hit a high of $29.05 finished +0.56%. A national holiday was observed in Ireland yesterday and markets were closed.
The Troika's raid on the deposits of families and businesses in Cyprus is still being digested but it may be another watershed moment leading towards gold again becoming a foundation asset and key core holding of savers and investors internationally.
Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)
JP Morgan Chase & Co won their case of a nationwide investors' lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to drive down silver prices.
U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson in Manhattan said the investors, who bought and sold COMEX silver futures and options contracts, failed to show that JPMorgan manipulated prices, by creating long short positions that were not in synch with market events at the time period.
The judge acknowledged that the firm could influence prices, but said that it was not proven that the bank "intended to cause artificial prices to exist" and acted accordingly.
Gold Commodity, 6March2013-19March2013 – (Bloomberg)
The plaintiffs had nearly 43 complaints filed from 2010-2011, which accused banks of profiteering in over $100,000,000 by illegally manipulating silver prices.
The lawsuits against major Wall Street firms were consolidated, naming JPMorgan and 20 unnamed individuals as defendants.
Gold in Euros, 6March2013-19March2013 – (Bloomberg)
The complaint had sought triple damages for what it saw as antitrust violations in jiggering silver prices from 2007-2010, including through alleged "fake" trades during low market volumes.
The CFTC began investigating queries of silver price manipulation in 2008, and after 2 years it tightened its regulations to foil traders who try to manipulate prices.
Silver remains a vital diversification and remains undervalued vis-à-vis gold and most assets.
Gold hovers above $1,600/oz on Cyprus concerns - Reuters
JP Morgan wins dismissal of silver price-fixing lawsuit - Reuters
Gold Tops $1600; Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Top 13 Million – Coin News
Bullish Bets Jump Most Since July as Gold Rebounds - Bloomberg
Daylight robbery in Cyprus will come to haunt EMU – The Telegraph
Risk, complacency, perception and gold - Mineweb
Your rating: None
Roma actor wins Silver Bear at Berlinale
Nazif Mujic holds the Silver Bear for Best Actor he received in a press conference following the awards ceremony in Berlin on February 16, 2013.
A Roma actor has won the best actor award at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Nazif Mujic, the real-life protagonist of the Bosnian docudrama Epizoda u zivotu beraca zeljeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker), won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the closing ceremony of the Berlinale in the German capital on Saturday.
The movie, which was directed by Danis Tanovic, is about impoverished Mujic's desperate attempts to pay for his wife's emergency operation.
"I think he (Mujic) feels like Neil Armstrong when he went to the moon, seriously… And I really do hope it is going to change his life for the better," Tanovic said.
Between 220,000 and 1.5 million Roma were killed in World War II.
And the Roma are still the most suppressed people in Europe.
NT/HGL
Investing in Silver, Moving out of the Dollar: The Roman Denarius, the American Dollar...
If the US dollar collapses, it will have a dramatic impact on the world economy because the dollar is the standard unit of currency for commodity markets, especially gold and oil. The U.S. dollar is still the world’s reserve currency, but the reality is that it can lead the world into an economic depression.
Nations with large external debts will not be able to trade sufficiently to earn the needed income to service their debts. They will slide into bankruptcy. However, countries such as Russia and China are taking necessary steps to avoid an economic tsunami caused by a collapse of the US dollar by announcing in 2010 that they will use their own currencies which is the Russian Ruble and the Chinese Yuan for bilateral trade.
Iran and India decided to trade gold for oil due to US sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program.
Japan and China announced that they will also trade in their own currencies despite diplomatic problems involving the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. One thing is certain, the world is slowly but surely moving away from the US dollar.
The cost of living among people who deal with the US dollar on a daily basis especially by those who live within the United States will see a rapid decline in the standards of living due to Federal Reserve Bank’s debasement of the dollar by printing unlimited amounts of money through Quantitative easing (QE). The Federal Reserve’s action will cause food, clothing and energy prices to soar, which will hurt the average family. As the US Federal Reserve Bank continues to print dollars, the result will be inflation. It will cause panic on the world markets and civil unrest among the people who realize that the US dollars they depend on would no longer be able to buy their basic necessities. What can be done around the world to avoid such a scenario when the collapse of the dollar is inevitable? History proves that silver can become an alternative currency that can replace the dollar, although many countries are purchasing large amounts of gold such as Russia and China with other countries in Latin America and Asia following in the same footsteps. However, silver will still be a good option. At least you have a choice in which precious metals you can invest in.
Silver has been used for thousands of years as a monetary system for the economies of past civilizations. Silver was first discovered in 4000 BC in Anatolia, today’s Modern Turkey with the use of “Electrum”, a gold and silver mix currency. Between 449-413 BC Greece used the “Athenian Owl” a pure silver coin remained in circulation up to 30 BC.
Silver was recognized as more precious than Gold in ancient Egypt as early as 930 BC. The Roman Empire relied on silver to pay for certain commodities such as silk from China. In the Roman Empire, the “denarius”, a pure 100% silver coin was the currency of choice for more than 5 centuries until its gradual debasement that began with Emperor Augustus.
This debasement of the metal in terms of purity fluctuated with the strength of the Empire through its military. It was an indication that Rome lacked precious metals and reduced treasury savings due to their expansionist Imperial policies that resulted in inflation. High taxes on the Roman population further weakened the economy to pay for military expenses. Roman Emperor Nero (54-68 A.D.) preferred to debase the denarius to 87% silver to pay the costs of the military and the ever expanding bureaucracy than raise taxes on the people who were already being heavily taxed. But Nero and other emperors that followed chose to debase the currency by reducing the denarius metal content was already a form of taxation. The devaluation continued with the silver content valued at 50% towards the end of the 2nd century. By the middle of the 3rd century, the denarius was comprised of 0.05% silver.
Around A.D. 215, Rome issued the “Antoninianus” that was valued at twice that of a denarius but was short lived, as the silver content was also removed over several decades of devaluation. The coin was then made from bronze that eventually became useless as the circulation of these coins contained no silver as the Roman currency became worthless.Rome collapsed soon after.
China also used silver throughout most of its history for trade. In 1791, the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States Alexander Hamilton called for the establishment of a national currency with gold and silver or “bimetallism” as a form of money. The US Congress passed legislation the following year by establishing gold and silver as the “monetary standards” of the United States through the 1792 Coinage Act. The gold standard was regulated at 15 times the value of silver. The dollar was then established as the basic monetary unit that was instrumental in the creation of the national mint. The dollar was defined through the weight of silver. The death penalty was enacted as a rule of law for anyone who decided to debase the value of the new currency. But these laws were changed as the system became politically corrupt as the years went by. In Article 1, Section 10 of the US Constitution stated the following:
No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
The future of silver has potential to become an alternative currency because the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar, is not stable. “The dollar is an unreliable international currency and should be replaced by a more stable system” according to CNN on June 29, 2010 based on a report conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Silver can be used for a number of industries that produce goods that can be sold internationally. It can open the global markets for trade among nations. Silver is the best conductor of electricity. From computers to cell phones and switches all must use silver. Technology based industries that produce lasers, satellites, and robotics need silver to operate. Digital technology and telecommunications also need silver. It is used in televisions, wall switches and refrigerators and other appliances. Silver is used in the chemical industry for the production of plastics. In the Healthcare industry silver is found in many pharmaceuticals such as silver sulfadiazine, which is used for burn treatments. It can be used for water purification purposes as well. And the list goes on. Silver is a valuable metal that can be used for many industries.
The US government is on the path to an economic collapse just as the Roman Empire when Ben Bernanke announced unlimited QE back on September 13, 2012. This means endless printing of the dollar until it becomes completely worthless. The US has devalued their currency by printing dollars to bail out the banks and auto industry and to fund the Military-Industrial Complex which will have an impact on the economy. The more you print, the dollar becomes less valuable just as what happened to the denarius during Roman times. The US dollar will collapse sooner or later as countries around the world continue to move away from the dollar and look to other forms of currencies that are reliable.
The United States government cannot finance its debt by printing more money. Market forces will dictate when interest rates will rise as it would make the US Federal debt more expensive to service the debt.
If the Federal Reserve Bank decided to run the printing press, it would lead to hyperinflation. A scenario the US population and the rest of the world does not want to see. The US population would no doubt witness a massive rise in interest rates on practically everything from credit cards, home mortgages, student loans, auto loans and every other loan you can imagine.
The best option for anyone who wants to protect themselves from the dollar collapse should invest in silver or any other precious metals that includes gold. History has shown that precious metals especially silver can be used as a currency that has intrinsic value. The best thing people and nation-states can do is to look outside the US dollar because sooner or later the Federal Reserve Bank would not able to sustain the economy with the printing press because market forces as always will be the deciding factor. Silver is a viable option for both short and long-term investments. The most important factor to investing in silver is to protect you and your family. Silver will be in demand in the near future as it was in the past because history has always told us so.
Rush To Safety: Americans Buy Nearly Half a Billion Dollars Of Gold and Silver...
While public officials may be ignoring the continued deterioration of our economy, job losses to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people weekly, and the unprecedented demand for government emergency support services like unemployment insurance and food assistance, Americans who sense uncertainty in the air are flocking to the safety of physical resources.
Our first point of interest is a recent report from the Federal Reserve that indicates some $114 billion dollars in cash was withdrawn from the nation’s largest banks in the last thirty days. Those holding their money at bailed out financial institutions are understandably concerned because the government’s $250,000 deposit insurance guarantee program, originally implemented to restore confidence in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, expired at the end of 2012. That and the US fiscal situation has never been worse, with one Obama official recently having said the solution to the country’s woes is to simply kill the dollar.
This suggests investors and cash savers are no longer confident in the purported safety of the country’s “too-big-to-fail” institutions.
The next obvious question then is, “where did this money go?”
Part of the mystery may have been unraveled when the US Mint released its latest sales and inventory report.
According to the mint, investors purchased nearly half a billion dollars in gold and silver in the last 30 days. There was, in fact, so much money shifting into physical precious metals in January that the mint was actually forced to cease operations because they couldn’t meet demand.
A massive 7.4 million Silver Eagles were purchased from the U.S. Mint in January, considerably higher than the previous record from early 2011.
After halting Silver coin production/sales for over a week, the Mint re-opened yesterday and demand once again surged.
Having almost doubled from the first week in January, there remains two more days before the book is closed on January’s sales.
At 140,000 ounces, the Mint has also sold the most ounces of gold in January in almost three years, suggesting the rising ‘currency wars’ are stoking people’s ongoing rotation from paper-to-physical assets as their ‘wealth’ slowing loses its value.
With a Silver Eagle trading at around $31 per ounce and the gold spot price at near all time highs of $1650, the US Mint saw some $460 million dollars shift into precious metals in the month of January alone.
What’s equally as interesting, and perhaps a harbinger of the coming chaos, is that the People’s Republic of China is also shifting a large amount of its cash reserves into physical resource based investments that include agriculture, energy, and precious metals, a move that has caused confusion among experts at the United Nations.
With the political situation in this country rapidly dwindling because of government interference on all levels, a recession for 2013 already baked into the cake, and a global economy on the brink of collapse, there is one primary motivating factor driving money into gold and silver.
Uncertainty.
As we’ve seen recently with shortages in emergency food rations and supplies, firearms and magazines, and now gold and silver, Americans are no longer confident in the stability of the system as a whole, and they are diversifying their assets into physical resources that will retain value should the global financial, economic, monetary, and geo-political systems come unhinged.
Silver Eagle Sales Surge To All-Time Record In January
Government to Dispose of Radioactive Waste By Putting It In Our SILVERWARE
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that any amount of radiation – no matter how small – can cause cancer and other serious health effects.
(Current safety standards are based on the ridiculous assumption that everyone exposed is a healthy man in his 20s – and that radioactive particles ingested into the body cause no more damage than radiation hitting the outside of the body. In the real world, however, even low doses of radiation can cause cancer. Moreover, small particles of radiation – called “internal emitters” – which get inside the body are much more dangerous than general exposures to radiation. See this and this. And radiation affects small children much more than full-grown adults.)
But the Department of Energy – the agency which is responsible for the design, testing and production of all U.S. nuclear weapons, promotes nuclear energy as one of its core functions, which has been covering up nuclear accidents for decades, and has used mutant lines of human cells to promote voodoo, anti-scientific arguments – proposes letting radiation into our silverware.
Counterpunch notes:
Even the deregulation-happy Wall St. Journal sounded shocked: “The Department of Energy is proposing to allow the sale of tons of scrap metal from government nuclear sites — an attempt to reduce waste that critics say could lead to radiation-tainted belt buckles, surgical implants and other consumer products.”
Having failed in the ‘80s and ‘90s to free the nuclear bomb factories and national laboratories of millions of tons of their radioactively contaminated scrap and nickel, the DOE is trying again. Its latest proposal is moving ahead without even an Environmental Impact Statement. Those messy EISs involve public hearings, so you can imagine the DOE’s reluctance to face the public over adding yet more radiation to the doses we’re already accumulating.
Congressman Markey writes:
A Department of Energy proposal to allow up to 14,000 metric tons of its radioactive scrap metal to be recycled into consumer products was called into question today by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) due to concerns over public health. In a letter sent to DOE head Steven Chu, Rep. Markey expressed “grave concerns” over the potential of these metals becoming jewelry, cutlery, or other consumer products that could exceed healthy doses of radiation without any knowledge by the consumer. DOE made the proposal to rescind its earlier moratorium on radioactive scrap metal recycling in December, 2012.
The proposal follows an incident from 2012 involving Bed, Bath & Beyond stores in America recalling tissue holders made in India that were contaminated with the radio-isotope cobalt-60. Those products were shipped to 200 stores in 20 states. In response to that incident, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson advised members of the public to return the products even though the amount of contamination was not considered to be a health risk.
This is not the first time this has happened.
As the Progressive reported in 1998, radioactive scrap metal was ending up in everything from silverware to frying pans and belt buckles:
The Department of Energy has a problem: what to do with millions of tons of radioactive material. So the DOE has come up with an ingenious plan to dispose of its troublesome tons of nickel, copper, steel and aluminum. It wants to let scrap companies collect the metal, try to take the radioactivity out, and sell the metal to foundries, which would in turn sell it to manufacturers who could use it for everyday household products: pots, pans, forks, spoons, even your eyeglasses.
You may not know this, but the government already permits some companies under special licenses, to buy, reprocess and sell radioactive metal: 7,500 tons in 1996, by one industry estimate. But the amount of this reprocessing could increase drastically if the DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission … and the burgeoning radioactive metal processing industry get their way.
They are pressing for a new, lax standard that would do away with special permits and allow companies to buy and resell millions of tons of low-level radioactive metal.
A couple of years later, Congressman Markey successfully banned most radioactive scrap … but now DOE is trying to bring it back.
Radioactive scrap is a global problem. As Bloomberg reported last year:
“The major risk we face in our industry is radiation,” said Paul de Bruin, radiation-safety chief for Jewometaal Stainless Processing, one of the world’s biggest stainless-steel scrap yards. “You can talk about security all you want, but I’ve found weapons-grade uranium in scrap. Where was the security?”
More than 120 shipments of contaminated goods, including cutlery, buckles and work tools such as hammers and screwdrivers, were denied U.S. entry between 2003 and 2008 after customs and the Department of Homeland Security boosted radiation monitoring at borders.
The department declined to provide updated figures or comment on how the metal tissue boxes at Bed, Bath & Beyond, tainted with cobalt-60 used in medical instruments to diagnose and treat cancer, evaded detection.
***
“The general public basically isn’t aware that they’re living in a radioactive world,” according to Ross Bartley, technical director for the recycling bureau, who said the contamination has led to lost sales. “Those tissue boxes are problematic because they’re radioactive and they had to be put in radioactive disposal.”
Abandoned medical scanners, food-processing devices and mining equipment containing radioactive metals such as cesium-137 and cobalt-60 are picked up by scrap collectors, sold to recyclers and melted down by foundries, the IAEA says.
Dangerous scrap comes from derelict hospitals and military bases, as well as defunct government agencies that have lost tools with radioactive elements.
Chronic exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cataracts, cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A 2005 study of more than 6,000 Taiwanese who lived in apartments built with radioactive reinforcing steel from 1983 to 2005 showed a statistically significant increase in leukemia and breast cancer.
***
India and China were the top sources of radioactive goods shipped to the U.S. through 2008, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Bartley, a metallurgist who has tracked radioactive contamination since the early 1990s, said there’s no evidence the situation has improved.
***
Two years after an Indian scrap-metal worker died from radiation exposure, the world’s second-most populous country hasn’t installed alarms, the Ministry of Shipping said in December.
***
“The same thing could easily happen again tomorrow,” said Deepak Jain, 65, who owns the yard where the worker died. “We have no protection. The government promised a lot, but has delivered absolutely nothing.”
Indeed, we are being bombarded with low-level radiation from all sides:
- Above-ground nuclear tests created “background” levels of radioactive cesium and iodine for the first time
- Countries dump everything from radiation from nuclear meltdowns to radioactive submarines in the ocean
- In Japan, radioactive crops are being mixed into non-irradiated foods
- The U.S. apparently signed a pact with Japan agreeing that the U.S. will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite that food is not being tested for radioactive materials
- Much of our food is now intentionally irradiated
What can we do? Counterpunch notes:
You can tell the DOE to continue to keep its radioactive metal out of the commercial metal supply, commerce, and our personal items. You can demand a full environmental impact statement. Comment deadline is Feb. 9, 2013. Email to: scrap_PEAcomments@hq.doe.gov (with an underscore after “scrap_”). Snail mail to: Jane Summerson / DOE NNSA / PO Box 5400, Bldg. 401K. AFB East / Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
James Turk: Central Banks Are Losing The War to Suppress Gold & Silver Prices
Submitted by Adam Taggart of PeakProsperity
James Turk: Central Banks Are Losing The War to Suppress Gold & Silver Prices
My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big up year for the precious metals, but we still have to contend with the central planners and the various government policies, which have been actively trying to keep the gold and silver prices from reaching fair value. The central planners are losing the war. They may win an occasional battle or two, but they’re losing the war, and eventually gold and silver are going to go higher.
So predicts James Turk, founder and Chairman of GoldMoney.com.
From James’ perspective, gold is not an investment. It’s a sterile asset, meaning it does not generate income. What it is, is money. Its function is to store wealth.
But money, like investments, can be overvalued or undervalued. And what we’re witnessing on the world stage is a gross mispricing of money as central banks engage in depreciation of their fiat currencies via inflation (i.e. money printing).
The process causes a transfer of wealth from those holding overvalued money to those who hold undervalued money. That’s what’s been going on for the past decade as the price of gold has steadily marched upwards versus fiat currencies.
But this process is not efficient. Mass awareness of this wealth transfer is low, so confidence in paper currencies is still high, supporting their perceived value. Market intervention by central banks and other parties conspires to keep the prices of precious metals artificially low and suspect.
This maintains an arbitrage for individuals to buy gold and silver at a discount to true value, which James believes will be slowly realized in full over the next several years as the bull market in precious metals approaches its third and final phase.
A factor in this rise will be the increasing fragmentation of coordination among the central banks. Increasingly, central banks outside the influence of the US’ Federal Reserve are treating the precious metals as true money, and becoming net buyers of bullion for their reserves.
Ultimately, Turk predicts the price of gold will move to somewhere between $8,000-10,000/oz, and that we'll see even higher price appreciation in silver.
The way markets normally work is, after you do have a big move, you get a correction. Even over the past 12 years, if you look at gold, you had big moves in 2005, 2006, and 2007 where you were in some years generating over 20% appreciation in gold. Then you had the correction in 2008. Even though that was a correction, gold was still up that year. Then, in 2009 and 2010 and the earlier part of 2011, you had again big moves. Then you had the correction where basically they moved sideways. My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big moves on the upside, because what’s important here is not so much the price of gold, but whether it’s a good value.
The proper way to manage a portfolio is, you move assets that are overvalued out of your portfolio and you concentrate on assets that are undervalued. That’s true regardless of whether you’re talking about investments or money. You want undervalued forms of money. You want undervalued investments. I use a couple of mathematical formulas which I’ve written a lot about, one being the Fear index and the other being the Gold money index; by both of those measures, gold is still very, very undervalued, as is silver, for that matter. Silver is even more undervalued than gold. My expectation is that these undervalued assets will continue to rise in price, because the market doesn’t like levels of overvaluation or undervaluation. The market is always constantly changing, moving money out of overvalued assets and moving into undervalued ones. And that’s what we’re basically seeing in the precious metals: people are moving out of overvalued fiat currencies and moving into undervalued gold and silver.
My guess is that 2013 and 2014 are going to be big up years, but we still have to contend with the central planners and the various government policies, which have been actively trying to keep the gold and silver prices from reaching fair value. The central planners are losing the war. They may win an occasional battle or two, but they’re losing the war, and eventually gold and silver are going to go higher – assuming that governments and central planners and central banks still continue to follow these same policies that they’ve been doing, which is defacing fiat currencies.
An interesting thing is that when we saw the price drop in gold and silver at the end of 2012, the demand for physical metal rose tremendously because people recognized that these assets are undervalued, and if they’re going to be sold down to such cheap prices, they may as well just pick them up and continue to accumulate them. So it certainly has a perverse affect when the central banks intervene. In fact, as we’ve noted, gold has risen 12 years in a row against the U.S. dollar – double-digit rates of appreciation. But I guess the best way is using an analogy. If you've got a pot of water boiling on the stove and it’s bubbling away, every once in a while you have to release or pull off the lid to let a little bit of steam out, and then you put the lid back on.
That’s sort of what the central planners are doing. Every year they release the lid, and gold on average has risen over the last 12 years by 16.8%. Then they put the lid back on. One of these days they're not going to be able to put the lid back on, and you're going to go into the third stage of a bull market where gold just keeps rising and rising and rising because confidence will be lost in the currency. I think that’s what we have to be focusing on.
I can’t say that trust between central banks is waning, but you have to recognize that there are two categories of central banks: There are central banks that are in the U.S. circle of control and dominance, and then there are central banks outside the circle of U.S. control and dominance. The ones that are outside of the U.S. control and dominance are accumulating physical gold. The ones within the U.S. control tend not to do that, although it’s interesting that Germany, Netherlands, and now Austria, too, are talking about bringing their gold back.
It’s quite clear that a lot of promises have been made, particularly by politicians and most governments around the world, and those promises cannot possibly be fulfilled. A lot of those promises are going to be broken. Particularly when it comes to the area of gold, a lot of central banks are relying on the promises of other central banks. Oh, yeah, we’ll be good for the gold if you ever ask for it. Those promises are likely to be broken as well, as the demand for physical metal continues to grow. Whether it’s going to accelerate in 2013, 2014, I don't know. But, my guess is the demand for physical metal is indeed going to accelerate over the next couple of years, because I’m looking for serious financial problems to be hitting.
Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with James Turk (34m:47s):
Click here to read the full transcript
Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)
Silver Bars Being Secured By HSBC — Buys $876 Million Worth From Poland
From GoldCore
Silver Bars Being Secured By HSBC – Buy $876 Million Worth From Poland
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,692.25, EUR 1,268.84, and GBP 1,066.19 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,692.50, EUR 1,268.17, and GBP 1,068.36 per ounce.
Silver is trading at $32.33/oz, €24.32/oz and £20.46/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,700.50/oz, palladium at $725.00/oz and rhodium at $1,200/oz.
Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)
Gold climbed $6.40 or 0.4% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,690.50/oz. Silver slipped to $31.79 in London, but it then climbed to a high of $32.34 in New York and finished with a gain of 1%.
Gold hovered near a 1 month high on Wednesday supported by loose monetary policies of central banks. There are renewed hopes regarding U.S. debt ceiling talks and the U.S. House of Representatives plans to pass a bill on the almost 4 month extension of the borrowing limit.
Total Known ETF in Silver, Jan 2008-2013 – (Bloomberg)
Silver has now rallied for 7 days due to the flood of inflows into silver backed ETF’s and investment demand for coins and bars internationally. Analysts polled by Reuters expect silver to rise in 2013.
Holdings of iShares Silver Trust, the world's largest silver ETF, stood at 10,689 tonnes on Jan. 22, up 604.9 tonnes, or nearly 6 percent, from the end of 2012.
By comparison, SPDR Gold Trust, the world's top gold ETF, saw an outflow of nearly 15 tonnes so far this year.
This has helped silver prices rally over 6% so far this year and 4.5% last week alone. The close above $32/oz yesterday was bullish technically and could lead to silver testing the next level of resistance which is at $34/oz.
The U.S. Mint has sold out of 2013 American Eagle silver coins and will resume sales the week of January 28 when the US Mint said inventory would be replenished.
Chinese silver turnover surged to 2,200 tonnes on Friday and analysts say Chinese investor’s interest in silver is continuing to rise as many are looking at silver as a cheaper alternative to gold.
Hence, trading volumes for the precious metal on the SGE soared in 2012.
Silver bullion imports by China remain robust too. Silver imports were 228 metric tons in December, according to data released by the customs agency.
There are also rumours that Apple is experiencing delays in producing the new iMac due to difficulty in sourcing industrial silver in volume in China. More silver than is typically used is utilised in the new 21.5" Apple iMacs.
HSBC Buying KGHM Silver Bars
HSBC has quietly moved into acquiring large amounts of silver bullion.
The bank has secured another deal to buy silver bars from KGHM which brings their total purchases of silver from KGHM alone in the last 12 months to $876 million or PLN 3.65 billion.
KGHM is one of the largest producers of silver in the world and is the second-largest producer of refined silver in the world.
They produce silver bars registered under the brand KGHM HG that are attested to by “Good Delivery” certificates issued by the London Bullion Market Association and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre.
Silver Daily, 2010-1013 – (Bloomberg)
Listed metals producer KGHM signed an estimated PLN 1.67 billion deal on 2013 sales of silver to HSBC, KGHM said in a market filing yesterday.
The deal puts the total value of deals between KGHM and HSBC in the last 12 months to PLN 3.65 billion or $876 million, the filing read.
The Management Board of KGHM announced that on 21 January 2013 a contract was entered into between KGHM and HSBC Bank USA N.A., London Branch for silver sales in 2013.
The estimated value of the contract is PLN 1,672,260,469.66. As a result of entering into this contract, the total estimated value of contracts entered into between KGHM and HSBC Bank USA N.A., London Branch over the last 12 months exceeded 10% of the equity of the Company and amounts to PLN 3,654,120,061.59.
The highest-value contract signed during this period is the above-mentioned contract. The criteria used for describing the contract as significant is that the total estimated value of the contracts exceeds 10% of the equity of KGHM.
KGHM is one of the largest companies in Poland and one of the largest mining & metallurgy companies in the world.
The main customers of Polish silver in recent years have been the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium. HSBC appears to be one of their main customers now.
Respected and erudite, James Steel, the chief commodity analyst at HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. continues to be bullish on silver and recently said how “silver tends to track gold, except it over performs in a bull market” and how he was “moderately bullish on silver” in 2013.
XAG/GBP Daily, 2010-2013 – (Bloomberg)
XAG/EUR Daily, 2010-2013 – (Bloomberg)
HSBC did not comment on the deal and it only came to light as KGHM is a listed company and had to report the deal which was then picked up in Polish media.
The massive deal could simply be HSBC securing supply for the NYSE listed ETFS Physical Silver as they are the custodian.
Or it could be that senior people in HSBC are concerned about securing supply as they expect robust investment demand to continue and possibly increase resulting in higher prices.
Standard Bank Says Physical Gold Purchases Unusually High - Bloomberg
Gold up on Japan stimulus, US stocks at 5-year high - Reuters
Gold ends back above $1,690 on safe-haven appeal – Market Watch
Davos leaders uneasy over glut of easy money - Reuters
Video: German Repatriation Of Gold Is "World Historical" - Yahoo
The Entrance To The Second Phase Of The Gold Market Ascendancy – JS Mineset
Silver Dollar From 1794 Could Go for $6 to $7 Million - Bloomberg
Gold Super-Spike To Be Dwarfed By The Mania In Silver – King World News
Gold, Jack Lew and the Circle Game – Financial Post
A Visual History Of Gold – Zero Hedge
For breaking news and commentary on financial markets and gold, follow us on Twitter.
Your rating: None
Silver Lining For Obama In Official Portrait
The White house has released the second official presidential picture of Barack Obama following his victory in the general election in November.
Obama's first and second official portraits
Although smiling, the 44th president of the United States boasts a few more grey hairs than the previous portrait, while his faced is etched with the strains of a first -term that in which a bellicose opposition pushed against the Democrat at every turn.
And with the debt ceiling debate due to become increasingly prominent in the run up to the March deadline, perhaps Michelle should prepare herself for a bit more silver atop the “leader of the free world”.