This Is What Gold Does In a Currency Crisis - www.zerohedge.com
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/18/2014 09:19 -0500
Submitted by John Rubino via Dollar Collapse blog,
To say that gold is in a bear market is to misunderstand both gold and markets. Gold isn't an investment that goes up and down. It is money in the most basic store-of-value sense. Most of the time it just sits there, and when its price changes in local currency terms that says more about the local currency than about gold.
But when currencies collapse, gold shines.
Consider the above from the point of view of a typical Russian. The ruble is tanking (no need to understand why - all fiat currencies go this way eventually and the proximate cause is almost irrelevant). Russians who trusted their government and kept their savings in, say, a bank account, are losing their shirts. But those who own boring, doesn't-pay-interest, in-a-bear-market gold have seen their capital appreciate in local currency terms by about 60 percent in just the past month. They're not "making money," but they are preserving wealth.
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| Dollar Collapse.com |
This is how it has gone always and everywhere when governments have destroyed their currencies. In the Roman Empire, revolutionary France, revolutionary America, most of Latin America in the 20th century, and now big parts of the developing world, local currencies evaporate but gold just sits there, buying the same amount of stuff as ever, impervious to the games governments play.
It won't be long before this chart is replicated in a whole lot of other places. But by then it will be too late to prepare. The gold will be gone and those who trusted their governments will have to make do with promises.
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IMF Now Ready To Slam The Door On The U.S. And The Dollar - www.zerohedge.com
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/17/2014 22:25 -0500
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market blog,
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| Alt-Market.com |
As I write this, the news is saturated with stories of a hostage situation possibly involving Islamic militants in Sydney, Australia. Like many, I am concerned about the shockwave such an event will create through our sociopolitical structures. However, while most of the world will be distracted by the outcome of this crisis (for good or bad) for at least the week, I find I must concern myself with a far more important and dangerous situation.
Up to 40 people may be held by a supposed extremist in Sydney, but the entire world is currently being held hostage economically by international banks. This is the crisis no one in the mainstream is talking about, so alternative analysts must.
As I predicted last month in "We Have Just Witnessed The Last Gasp Of The Global Economy," severe volatility is now returning to global markets after the pre-game 10 percent drop in equities in October hinted at what was to come.
We expected such destabilization after the wrap-up of the Fed taper, and the markets have not disappointed so far. My position has always been that the taper of QE3 made very little sense in terms of maintaining the manipulated illusion of economic health - unless, of course, the Federal Reserve was implementing the taper in preparation for a renewed financial catastrophe. That is to say, the central bankers have established the lie of American fiscal recovery and then separated themselves from blame for the implosion they KNOW is coming. If the markets were to collapse while stimulus is officially active, the tragedy would be forever a millstone on the necks of the banksters. And we can't have that now, can we?
This is not to say that individual central banks and even currencies are not expendable in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the long-term goal of globalists has been to consolidate all currency systems and central banks under the outward control of the International Monetary Fund and the Bank Of International Settlements, as I outlined in "The Economic Endgame Explained."
That particular article was only a summary of a dangerous trend I have been concerned about for years; namely the strategy by international financiers to create a dollar-collapse scenario that will be blamed on prepositioned scapegoats. I have no idea what form these scapegoats will take - there are simply too many possible triggers for fiscal calamity. What I do know, though, is the goal of the endgame: to remove the dollar's world reserve status and to pressure the American people into conforming or even begging for centralized administration of our economy by the IMF.
The delusion perpetuated in the mainstream is that the IMF is a U.S.-dominated institution. I have outlined on many occasions why this is false. The IMF like all central banks is dominated by the international corporate banking cartel. Central banks are merely front organizations for globalists, and I am often reminded of the following quote from elitist insider Carroll Quigley when I hear people suggest that central banks are somehow independent from one another or that the Federal Reserve is itself the singular "source" of the world's economic ills:
It must not be felt that these heads of the world's chief central banks were themselves substantive powers in world finance. They were not. Rather, they were the technicians and agents of the dominant investment bankers of their own countries, who had raised them up and were perfectly capable of throwing them down.
The substantive financial powers of the world were in the hands of these investment bankers (also called "international" or "merchant" bankers) who remained largely behind the scenes in their own unincorporated private banks. These formed a system of international cooperation and national dominance, which was more private, more powerful and more secret than that of their agents in the central banks.
No one can now argue against this reality after we have witnessed hard evidence of Goldman Sachs dictating Federal Reserve policy, as outlined here.
And, most recently, we now know that international bankers control political legislation as well, as Congress passed with little resistance a bill that negates the Frank-Dodd restrictions on derivatives and places the U.S. taxpayers and account holders on the hook for more than $303 trillion in toxic debt instruments. The bill is, for all intents and purposes, a "bail-in" measure in disguise. And it was pushed through with the direct influence of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
The Federal Reserve, the U.S. government and the dollar are as expendable to the elites as any other economic or political appendage. And it can be replaced at will with yet another illusory structure if this furthers their goal of total centralization. This has been done for centuries, and I fail to see why anyone would assume that globalists would change their tactics now to preserve the dollar system. They call it the "New World Order," but it is really the same old-world monetary order out of chaos that has always been exploited. Enter the IMF's old/new world vision.
While the investment universe has been mesmerized by the deterioration of the Russian Ruble and oil prices, the IMF has been a busy little beehive...
In articles over the past year, I have warned that the plan to dethrone the dollar and replace it with the special drawing rights basket currency system would be accelerated after it became clear that the U.S. Congress would refuse to pass the IMF reforms of 2010 proclaiming "inclusiveness" for developing economies, including the BRICS nations. The latest spending bill removed any mention of IMF reforms. The IMF, under Christine Lagarde, has insisted that if the U.S. did not approve its part of the reforms, the IMF would be forced to pursue a "Plan B" scenario. The details on this "plan B" have not been forthcoming, until now.
The Financial Times reported on the IMF shift away from the U.S. by asserting the authority to remove the veto power America has always enjoyed over the institution. This action is a stark reminder to mainstream talking heads and to those who believe the U.S. is the core economic danger to the world that the IMF is NOT an extension of American policy. If anything, the IMF and the U.S. are extensions of international banking power, just as the BRICS are nothing more than puppets for the same self-serving financial oligarchy clamoring for the same IMF-controlled paradigm, as Vladimir Putin openly admitted:
"In the BRICS case we see a whole set of coinciding strategic interests. First of all, this is the common intention to reform the international monetary and financial system. In the present form it is unjust to the BRICS countries and to new economies in general. We should take a more active part in the IMF and the World Bank's decision-making system. The international monetary system itself depends a lot on the US dollar, or, to be precise, on the monetary and financial policy of the US authorities. The BRICS countries want to change this..."
And of course the Chinese have pronounced their fealty to the IMF global currency concept:
The world economic crisis shows the "inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system," Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an essay released Monday by the bank. He recommended creating a currency made up of a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund and said it would help "to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability."
The BRICS are not the only nations demanding the U.S. lose its supposed "influence" over the IMF. Germany, the core economic pillar of the EU, called for America to relinquish its veto power back in 2010 just as the reforms measure was announced.
The IMF decision to possibly eliminate U.S. veto power and, thus, influence over IMF decisions may come as early as the first quarter of next year. This is the great "economic reset" that Largarde has been promoting ad nauseam in multiple interviews and speeches over the past six months. All of these measures are culminating in what I believe will be a more official announcement of a dump of the U.S. dollar as world reserve currency.
Along with the imminent loss of veto power, I have also written on the concerns of the coming SDR conference in 2015. This conference is held only once every five years. My suspicion has been that the IMF plans to announce the inclusion of the Chinese yuan in the SDR basket and that this will coincide with a steady dollar dump around the globe. Multiple major economies have already dropped the dollar in bilateral trade with China, and engineered tensions between the U.S. and the East have exacerbated the issue.
The timing of the SDR conference has now been announced, and the meeting looks to be set for October of 2015. Interestingly, this linked article from Bloomberg notes that China has a "real shot" at SDR inclusion and official "reserve status" next year, but warns that the U.S. "may use its veto power" to stop China's membership. I have to laugh at the absurdity of it all, because there are many people in the world of economic study who still believe the developments of globalization and fiscal distress are all "random." I suppose that if it is all random, then it is a rather convenient coincidence that the U.S. just happens to be on the verge of losing veto power in the IMF just before they are about to bring the BRICS into the SDR fold and supplant the dollar.
This is it, folks; this is the endgame right in front of our faces. The year of 2014 is the new 2007, with all the negative potential but 100 times more explosive going into 2015. Our nation has wallowed in slowly degrading financial conditions for years, hidden by fake economic statistics and manipulated stock prices. All of it has been a prelude to a much more frenetic and shocking event. I believe that we will see continued market chaos from now on, with a steep declining trend intermixed with brief but inadequate "dead cat" stock bounces. I expect a hailstorm of geopolitical crises over the next year to provide cover for the shift away from the dollar.
Ultimately, the death of the dollar will be hailed in the mainstream as a "good and necessary thing." They will call it "karma." They will call it "progress." They will even call it "decentralization" and a success for the free market. But it will not feel like a positive development for the American public, who will suffer greatly as the dollar crumbles. Only those educated in the underpinnings of shadow banking will understand the whole thing is a charade designed to hide the complete centralization of sovereign economic governance into the hands of the globalists, using the IMF and BIS as "fiscal heroes," saving the world from a state of economic destruction the elites themselves secretly created.
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Is Ruble Collapse Act of War - Paul Craig Roberts - usawatchdog.com
By Greg Hunter On December 17, 2014
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Dr. Paul Craig Roberts thinks the only thing that explains the plunge in the Russian ruble is that it is being attacked by America. Roberts contends, "It is not a currency crash in the sense there are no economic reasons for the ruble's fall. Unlike the United States, which has a massive trade deficit, and if the currency markets were not rigged, the dollar would be collapsing, the Russian economy has a trade surplus. Therefore, there is no pressure on its currency for economic conditions." Dr. Roberts goes on to say, "This is not some independent action of market forces. So, it's either hedge funds, currency speculators like Soros, or it's an Act of War on behalf of the United States government by the Federal Reserve or the Exchange Stabilization Fund. . . or possibly both hedge funds working with the federal government."
Manipulating the markets, any market, is supposed to be illegal, but don't count on the bankers going to jail. Dr. Roberts, who has a PhD in economics, thinks, "The big banks, the big Wall Street money, are essentially agents of the government. This is why they don't get prosecuted. This is why they can break all kinds of laws, commit felonies and settle with a fine. This is what we've been watching in the financial arena. When these financial gangsters are caught, instead of being indicted and put on trial, they pay money."
How could the Russians retaliate? Dr. Roberts says, "If the Russians wanted to do payback, it's very easy for them. The next time all of these contracts, paper gold contracts, are dumped on the futures market, the Russians need to go and buy them all up, then demand delivery because there is no gold to deliver. The whole system would collapse. So, the Russians could cause a gold squeeze here anytime they want. . . . They would blow the system wide open because they can't make delivery."
On war, Dr. Roberts says recent resolutions passed in Congress certainly point to it. Dr. Roberts explains, "These resolutions demonize Russia and define it as a great threat. They call on Obama to arm the Ukrainians so we can use the Ukrainians to fight Russia. In other words, we are going to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian. Of course, the Ukraine can't fight Russia. The whole purpose of this is to have the Russians slap them down, then we can go to the Europeans and say see, see the Russians invaded and look how dangerous they are. You're next. They will be in Berlin tomorrow. They'll be in London by the end of the week. Paris will fall, and Rome will burn. We can't wait to tell the Europeans this because the whole purpose of this is to completely break every kind of relationship, economic, political and cultural, between Russia and Europe. That's what Washington's goal is. That's what it's all about. This includes attacks on the ruble and sanctions. They are setting up a war that nobody can win, for what reason? For American superiority? You don't have superiority if the world is awash in radioactive waste and there is nuclear winter. The climate has collapsed. The whole thing is an absurdity."
On the teetering economy and possible economic collapse, Dr. Roberts says, "We know something serious is wrong. The only provision of Dodd-Frank that has any teeth is the provision that says if the big banks are going to be casinos and gamble on derivatives, they cannot do that in the depository institution where depositors have their accounts. They have to farm it out into subsidiaries. So, if the subsidiaries get into trouble, the subsidiaries have no access to depositors' money. This is the only real reform part of Dodd-Frank. Citigroup got put into the recent spending bill, the repeal of this, so they can gamble on derivatives, and taxpayers and depositors are on the hook for the losses. Why would you do that unless you had a lot of derivatives trouble. It could easily be the oil derivatives. . . . The banks can gamble all they want and they are covered by the FDIC, which has no money. . . . This gives the banks access to depositors' money. . . . This is sick, and it shows the United States government is the most corrupt government on earth, far more corrupt than Russia or China."
Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with economist Dr. Paul Craig Roberts.
(There is much more in the video interview with Dr. Roberts.)
Video Link
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| Paul Craig Roberts-US Government Most Corrupt on Earth |
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U.S. Gold Exports Jump 70% In September - srsroccoreport.com
by SRSrocco on December 17, 2014
According to the USGS most recent data, total U.S. gold exports increased significantly in September. Not only did U.S. gold exports surge in September, they were 70% higher than the previous month. This was probably due to increased demand as the price of gold declined $80 during the month.
U.S. exports started off very strong in January, reaching 80 mt (metric tons) with the majority heading to Hong Kong. However, gold exports fell to 47 metric in February and dropped even further in March at 30 mt. If we look at the chart below, U.S. gold exports continue to remain weak from April to August until the spike up in September:
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| SRSRocco Report |
As we can see, total gold exports for each month were less than 30 mt. However, when the price of gold fell to a new low, gold exports increased to 50 mt. The majority of gold exports in September were shipped to Switzerland, the U.K. and Hong Kong:
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| SRSRocco Report |
China also received a direct shipment of 3.3 mt of gold while Thailand imported 3 mt, Italy 2.6 mt, Singapore 2 mt, and the UAE 1.5 mt. What is interesting here is the 2.6 mt of U.S. gold exported to Italy. Italy has imported gold scrap from the U.S., but not much in the way of gold bullion.
Matter-a-fact, I went back and looked at the past ten years of USGS Gold Yearbooks and only found one entry listing U.S. gold bullion exports to Italy in 2009 at a paltry 21 kilograms, which is 653 troy ounces. Compare that to the 2.6 mt or 83,590 troy ounces of gold exported to Italy in September.
U.S. gold exports for the first nine months of 2014 are down compared to the same period last year. From Q1-Q3 2013, total U.S. gold exports were 573 mt compared to the 370 mt in the first three quarters of 2014. However, the price of gold fell to a new low in November, thus gold exports from the U.S. may continue to be strong for the remainder of the year.
Continue reading on SRSRocco Report.com.
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In The News Today - www.jsmineset.com
Posted December 16th, 2014 at 3:17 PM (CST) by Jim Sinclair
Mr. Williams shares the following with us.
- Headline November Housing Starts Fell Month-to-Month and Year-to-Year Amidst Ongoing Unstable Revisions
- Smoothed for Extreme Reporting Volatility, Aggregate Housing Starts Show Pattern of Plunge and Low-Level Stagnation, No Economic Recovery
"No. 682: November Housing Starts"
Web-page: http://www.shadowstats.com
Gold Imports 'Phenomenal' In India - 571 Percent Surge To 150 Tonnes in November Posted on December 16, 2014 by Mark O'Byrne
Gold Imports 'Phenomenal' In India - 571 Percent Surge To 150 Tonnes in November
India's gold imports were over a staggering 150 tonnes in November and have seen a "phenomenal" rise in India according to India's Trade Secretary, Rajeev Kher.
A few weeks ago we said that the death of the Indian gold market was greatly exaggerated. The latest gold import data out of India confirms this.
The import restrictions on gold that were imposed on Indians in August of 2013 were lifted at the end of last month. Despite the fact that the restrictions were still in place gold importation in November surged an incredible 571% relative to the same month last year at over 151.58 tonnes.
This was an increase of 38 percent from 109.55 tonnes a month earlier, trade ministry data showed on Tuesday.
The Indian government had recognized the socially destructive impact of the 80:20 scheme - which obliged importers to export 20% of it's gold imports before bringing in another shipment - by pushing business into the hands of smugglers and thereby empowering criminality while losing out on the 10% duty currently charged on all gold imports. It had been assumed that, because demand was being met by these "informal" supplies, the relaxing of the 80:20 policy would not have a dramatic impact on gold imports into India. That remains to be seen. Smuggling networks are now well established and arguably could provide cheaper gold than government-sanctioned channels.
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