Tag Archives: GATA

CME Pledged Gold: Did The Comex Rescue HSBC

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

A couple days after the CME allowed clearing members to use warehouse warrants as collateral for the mandatory performance bond, the new form of collateral was implemented by HSBC.

With help from Craig Hemke (TF Metals Report) it appears as if the Comex activated a low-grade rescue of HSBC.  Chris Powell at GATA believes this “hypothesis fits the decades-long practice of the international gold price suppression scheme of governments, central banks, and bullion banks. That is, to keep metal moving around so fast that it can be applied to pressure points before its real owners notice that it’s missing — to make a single ounce of gold seem to be in as many as a hundred places at once.”

On November 4 authorization for traders on the New York Commodities Exchange to use “London gold” and Comex gold warrants as collateral was tripled, raised from $250 million to $750 million. HSBC now has used $340 million, or 45.3 percent, of its new collateral limit. It seems more than coincidental that HSBC took advantage of the collateral increase so soon after it was put into effect.

I see the rule change as a low-grade bailout of HSBC, analogous to the Fed’s low grade bailout of the big banks with the “repo” “quantitative easing.” The rule change also flags HSBC as the largest trader in the commitment-of-trader category that designates the percentage of the long and short contracts held by the four largest traders on the Comex.

Assuming, as is likely, that HSBC’s short position was largely put on at lower gold prices, the bank is probably getting hammered with a mark-to-market loss.

Here is the issue that needs to be answered but likely never will be: Do any of the warrants HSBC has pledged as collateral involve gold not owned by HSBC?

In my opinion, probably all the gold in these warrants is not really owned by the bank.

Most likely HSBC is using for collateral purpose gold that does not belong to the bank — customer gold. That is outright hypothecation.

I wonder if the agreement signed by the vault operators allows them to hypothecate gold held in the vault and not owned by the bank.

Now here’s where it gets even more interesting. Assume HSBC is short those warrants pledged as performance bond collateral and the price of gold moves a lot higher. Then HSBC is getting killed technically being short gold collateral it has pledged for its own liability but doesn’t own. How does the bank remedy this?

It uses an exchange-for-phyiscal or privately negotiated transaction using “London gold.” Since HSBC is the vault operator for the major gold exchange-traded fund GLD, this London gold EFP/PNT would likely use GLD vault gold that may or may not have been hypothecated.

HSBC is likely getting financially squeezed to a major extent on its Comex futures short position and the CME bailed it out by changing the collateral and performance bond margin rules.

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What’s Driving The Price Of Gold and Silver?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Fear, Greed and Reality. Also Bill Murphy’s “Commercial Signal Failure,” which occurs when physical demand for deliverable gold and silver overwhelms the paper derivative short positions used by the western Central Banks to manage the price of gold and silver.

The naked short position in paper gold and silver is so big that any government or central bank with a substantial FX surplus could pull the plug on it by trading enough Treasuries, or even euros or yen, for real metal. Russia and China, among several other eastern hemisphere Central Banks are doing just that.

Silver Doctor’s James Anderson invited me to discuss the factors behind what appears to be a major move higher in the precious metals, possibly leading to the eventual geopolitical and financial systemic reset (Silver Doctors/SD Bullion):

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a miniumum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

Is the Federal Reserve losing control of the gold price?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , , ,

For the majority of the last 20 years, the western Central Banks, under the direction of the BIS, have been able to use the precious metals derivatives markets to “manage” the price of gold.  As long as counterparties who are “synthetically” long gold and silver are willing to settle the derivatives trade in cash or ETF shares, gold derivatives can be created in infinite quantities and used to keep a lid on the price of gold.

But since late spring, it seems that the attempts to use the paper gold and silver markets on the Comex and LBMA to drive the price lower have been met with aggressive buying.  For now the only explanation is that a large buyer  (or maybe several) may be accumulating physical gold/silver, which is preventing the price managers from indiscriminately printing and flooding the market with paper derivative contracts to drive the price down.  The tail may no longer be wagging the dog.

My friend and colleague, Paul Craig Roberts wrote this commentary about the possibility that the physical gold market is taking away:

After years of being kept in the doldrums by orchestrated short selling described on this website by Roberts and Kranzler, gold has lately moved up sharply reaching $1,510 this morning. The gold price has continued to rise despite the continuing practice of dumping large volumes of naked contracts in the futures market. The gold price is driven down but quickly recovers and moves on up. I haven’t an explanation at this time for the new force that is more powerful than the short-selling that has been used to control the price of gold.

You can read the rest of PCR’s analysis here:  Is The Fed Losing Control Of Gold

Gold, Silver, Mining Stocks Are A Coiled Spring

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , , ,

Currently gold and silver are behaving in a way that I have not seen since late 2008. The gold open interest on the Comex is near a record high (657,776 on July 11, 2016). The Comex banks continue pile into the short side while the hedge funds pile into the long side. However, every attempt to start a “waterfall” type sell-off is met with buying. Several attempts to take gold below $1400 this week have been thwarted. Silver all of sudden started moving higher manically. Based on the data I see daily, India and China are not participating in the buying. At least overtly. It feels like someone “big” is out “there” accumulating gold.

Phil Kennedy of Kennedy Financial put together a roundtable discussion with Bill Murphy, Dave Collum, Rob Kirby and me to discuss our thoughts on the gold market:

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a miniumum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

It Looks, Sounds And Smells Like A Gold Bull Market

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , ,

Gold tends to perform the best when the real rate of interest (interest rates minus the real inflation rate) is negative. For now, the Central Banks have been able to contain the movement of gold in order to prevent the price from doing what it should be doing when interest rates are negative.

With that enormous amount of negative yielding debt globally, and Treasury yields in the U.S. heading south quickly, from a fundamental standpoint there’s a high probability we have started the next big move higher in gold. Silver will eventually “catch up” and begin to outperform gold. That said, get used to a higher level of price volatility in the precious metals sector. Keep a core position but sell rallies and buy sell-offs if you want to trade the volatility. Otherwise, sit tight and be right.

The Prepared Mind invited to its podcast to discuss a wide range of issues from precious metals to geopolitical problems. Here’s Part 2 (click to view Part 1):

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a miniumum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

The explosive questions the gold riggers won’t answer-and the press won’t ask

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , , ,

Over the years, I’ve asked several skeptics of the idea that Central Banks and Governments, using the bullion banks as their agents, manipulate the gold price this question:   The Big Banks have been convicted and fined numerous times for manipulating interest rate and currency markets.  Is it realistically conceivable given this fact that they would leave the gold market alone?  The question, of course, is rhetorical and I’ve yet to receive an answer.

The answer is obvious to anyone who has looked at the facts.  I have written several articles with Paul Craig Roberts detailing how the manipulation is executed on the Comex and the motivation behind the manipulating the gold market.  Remarkably, there are public notes of a meeting chaired by Henry Kissinger in 1974  that discusses the importance of removing gold completely from the monetary system which is conveniently ignored.

The following is a re-post of an article posted by GATA’s Chris Powell. Even if you have your had in the sand and refuse to believe that Central Banks and Governments manipulate the global gold market using paper gold derivatives, at least brush the sand out of your eyes and read this carefully:

How easy it would be for any major financial news organization or trade association to confirm, expose, and combat the rigging of the gold market by governments and central banks. Such an effort could start with the documentation, most of it from official sources, collected by GATA and compiled here: Taxonomy

Everything could be nailed down to the present moment by a few specific questions put to the key participants in the rigging. These questions already have been prepared and posed, just not publicized enough.

— Three months ago U.S. Rep. Alex X. Mooney, R-West Virginia, wrote to the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve asking what the U.S. government’s policy on gold is and whether it remains, as government records from years ago establish, to drive the monetary metal out of the world financial system. Mooney also asked whether the U.S. government, directly or through intermediaries, like the Bank for International Settlements, trades in gold and gold derivatives and what the purposes of any such transactions are. Mooney’s letter is posted at GATA’s internet site here: Mooney Letter

Mooney has received no response.

– Last November GATA put similar questions to the BIS. What, GATA asked, is the purpose of the gold swaps and derivatives purchased and sold by the bank and the purpose of the bank’s involvement in the gold market generally?

The bank replied promptly but only to say it would not answer the question: BIS Letter

— Five weeks ago your secretary/treasurer and GATA consultant Harvey Organ wrote to the comptroller of the currency in the Treasury Department, Joseph M. Otting, whose office regulates the banking industry, calling attention to the recent explosion in use of the emergency procedure of “exchange for physicals” to settle gold and silver contracts issued on the New York Commodities Exchange by government-regulated banks. The financial risks undertaken by the banks in these transactions, GATA wrote, apparently were not being reported to the comptroller.

GATA’s letter concluded: “Could you review this matter and let us know your conclusions?” The comptroller has not responded.

Please click here to read the rest – it’s worth the time spent:   Unanswered Questions About Official Gold-Rigging

The Gold Cartel, Sex Scandals and GATA

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, ,

The point is going up against the rich and powerful is known to be a losing proposition … for most, but not ALL, of the time, The tide has now turned when it comes to serious sexual harassment issues. The scandal took decades to surface. And, in my opinion, the same is going to be the case for the biggest financial market scandal in US history, that being the wrongful suppression of the gold/silver prices

Bill Murphy’s speech at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference is a must-read. The truth about the Central Banks and Government intervention in the precious metals market is out “there” for everyone to see. But the public prefers to keep its eyes wide shut. Those elected or appointed to positions to prevent illegal market interference are well-paid by the banks to look the other way. The suppression of gold/silver prices is designed to hide horrifying truths about the U.S. financial and economic system. Truths that most do not recognize and most of the rest prefer to pretend don’t exist. But, you can ignore reality but you can’t ignore the consequences of reality. Then the reality hidden by gold price suppression can no longer be ignored, 99.5% of the populace will have no chance to protect themselves – the prices of gold and silver will be out of reach….

Hello Everyone

It is much fun having the opportunity again to make a presentation here in Vancouver on behalf of The Gold Anti- Trust Action Committee … in order to expose the manipulation of the gold/silver markets by The Gold Cartel.

My first trip here was 19 years ago for an arranged meeting at the airport with Normandy Mining Chairman Robert Champion DeCrespigny on his way back to Australia. After flying all that way from Dallas, this arrogant man refused to see me. GATA went all that distance to help his firm, the gold industry, and the gold market … and he could have cared less about those issues and our effort. Little did we know back then this type of reception would become much the norm, as not.

What a journey it has been all these years.

What we have learned over this period time is how all encompassing the market manipulation schemes really are. Initially, we realized that various bullion banks (such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan) were collectively suppressing the gold price to keep it below $300 an ounce. Eventually we realized the manipulation extended to silver also AND included the Fed, The Treasury, Exchange Stabilization Fund, BIS and other central banks.

Over the many years it became apparent the market rigging extended even further to other financial markets … including acknowledged intervention in our bond market and clandestine operations in our stock market, marshaled by the infamous Plunge Protection Team. One of the first people to acknowledge the magnitude of it all was my colleague Chris Powell, who at GATA’s 2008 conference outside of Washington, D.C. came up with his great line, “There are no markets anymore, just interventions.”

For nearly 20 years Chris has been documenting the evidence of the intervention in the gold/silver markets by The Gold Cartel. It is all there on GATA’s website ( www.GATA.org) for anyone who wishes to get a grasp on how real and massive the intervention really is.

One of the most telling bits of evidence of what The Gold Cartel is all about emanates from one of the ringleaders of the scam, the Bank for International Settlements, which can be found at their own website. Regard what it explains to the investment world as one of their products.

And yet, incredibly enough, despite the obvious there are very few in the gold world who will touch the subject … THE most important one of ALL to those with any interest in the precious metals.

My role has been to chronicle the day to day activities of this cabal on my LeMetropoleCafe website, which many times are so blatant even a caveman could spot them. Our colleague James McShirley, a lumber company CEO with decades of experience in the futures market, has been invaluable in that regard. No other markets in history have traded the way gold and silver have … over, and over again, sometimes in the most absurd of fashions. The latest of which is the astonishing and unprecedented rise in the gold open interest on the Comex with The Gold Cartel doing the selling, and the hideous punishment of silver each time its price rises to $17.25.

Course many of you in this audience understand this and know of our efforts of nearly two decades to expose what will eventually become the most infamous financial market scandal in U.S. history. As part of that effort…*We have held 4 international conferences – in South Africa, Alaska, Washington D.C., and London.

At our 2005 Dawson City conference a senior economic advisor to Russia’s President Putin, Andrey Bykov, showed up and said it was the finest conference he ever attended. The price of gold had been comatose. Two days later the gold price began to take off.

NINE months after GATA’s conference in Alaska, the gold price had risen 70%. *We have been to Washington numerous times to meet the likes of the Speaker of the House; Ron Paul; Monetary Committees, etc. *Organized letter campaigns to Congress. *Been on various cable TV financial shows. *Presented at conferences, such as this one, etc.

YES, it has been some journey…*Most gratifying of all has been the terrific people we have met over the years, such as yourselves … many of whom have financially supported our efforts.

*Unfortunately, we learned the industry as a whole will never do anything about dealing with the most important factor in the gold/silver world. Yes, to do so would mean dealing with some permitting issues by governments and financings by bullion banks. Yet, any other industry would form an organization to deal with, or correct, the problem, so they could not be individually blamed. Not this one, which has The World Gold Council refusing to do anything about this devastating issue. The situation is so bad that when Chris, John Embry and I went to see their acting CEO in London in 2010 we had to sign a waiver of sorts saying we were never there.

Huh? The World Gold Council’s CEO today is Randall Oliphant, who actually aided The Gold Cartel’s operations when he directed Barrick Gold’s massive hedging operations at the turn of the century. GATA’s confrontation of Barrick Gold as an arm of The Gold Cartel back then, and for some years to follow, is a presentation all in itself. Just a few key points:

*In lawsuit proceedings Barrick Gold confessed that it and its bullion banker, JP Morgan Chase & Co., were the direct agents of the central banks in the international control of the gold price … that the central banks, having what is called sovereign immunity against suit, simply could not be included in the suit; and that the suit therefore had to be dismissed. The suit was not and was settled out of court.

*It is no fluke that past Barrick Board members included George Bush, Brian Mulroney, the notorious Adnan Khashoggi, etc. All rich and powerful men. – and something to keep in mind for the rest of this presentation. Barrick was connected directly to the bullion/central bank rigging operations.

*Those gold rigging operations came to an end with Barrick taking something like an $8 billion dollar loss when its ludicrous gold hedges were forced to be lifted. The Barrick shareholders paid the price for that firm’s complicity with The Gold Cartel operations.

*Despite being the world’s largest gold producer, its share price today is less than when gold was below $300 and GATA came into being. What goes around come around in that regard.

*One final note, I made another trip up here to Vancouver in 2006 on behalf of the Nova Gold CEO, who, at the time, wanted GATA’s help to stave off an unwanted Barrick bid back then. We did what we could, but eventually those two companies got together and we never did receive any thanks from the CEO.

So, here we are all these years later and so what? Why carry on when the industry refuses to deal with its most important issue and let’s themselves get mugged by a corrupt operation? The answer is quite simple.

For Chris and I, “It is the life we have chosen” … a term appropriately taken from an old Mafia movie. Most importantly, major scandals in the past have taken many years to come out in the open. They include Enron, who was voted the US corporation of the year 5 years in a row by a major US financial magazine … and who can forget the Bernie Madoff scandal, one in which no one would listen to whistle blower Harry Markopolis for nearly a decade, despite the overwhelming evidence he presented to the authorities. Insiders at Enron who tried to expose the truth were fired.

How hard is it to get the truth out there? Last summer GATA spent many hours sending some 50 emails to a Wall Street Journal reporter doing a front page story on the Fed and its gold. We introduced the reporter to a number of those in the GATA camp. But guess what? When that story surfaced, everything in there from GATA, or Chris Powell and myself, was cut out. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! But were we surprised? Nope

But why carry on is best exemplified by what occurred this past year regarding the sex scandals in the U.S. A sexual harassment horror show by rich and powerful men in the U.S. praying upon women was an ongoing fact of life for many decades, but was kept on the down low. Finally, it all really began to surface with some 50 women accusing one of my childhood heroes, Bill Cosby, of date rape.

One or two could be a misunderstanding. But FIFTY? (Which is the equivalent to the sort of evidence GATA has on The Gold Cartel.) While that was more than unsettling, Cosby still has not been convicted of anything yet. However, it surely set the stage for the Hollywood Harvey Weinstein revelations, an issue that requires the intervention of those knowledgable in sexual harrasment law to investigate…

The sexual harassment accusations against this famous Hollywood big shot were so outrageous and over the top that it sent out reverberations throughout the media/political world. Senator Al Franken has resigned, as have media giants Matt Lauer of NBC and Charlie Rose of PBS Broadcasting. Good grief! Within just months of Weinstein’s outing! Seems to me those reverberations are unprecedented in terms of speed.

The point here of this presentation is that these were hideous provocations just waiting to be exposed, which is just why GATA stays on the manipulation of the gold/silver markets. The reason so many of the coerced women were silent for so long is because they were going up against the MOST POWERFUL and RICHEST people in their field. LEGENDS in many cases. Who was going to believe them against who they would be charging? Most importantly, in terms of the GATA issue, they might get fired, or face retribution, for even making such charges.

I know exactly what I am talking about here. My very young sister Kris back then was a successful model in New York City in the 1980’s. She went on an interview with Harvey Weinstein in a New York hotel suite and he had her dress up in a Teddy outfit with high heels on. So scared, she ran for the hills, but did tell my brother Tim at the time exactly what happened.

The point is going up against the rich and powerful is known to be a losing proposition … for most, but not ALL, of the time, The tide has now turned when it comes to serious sexual harassment issues. The scandal took decades to surface. And, in my opinion, the same is going to be the case for the biggest financial market scandal in US history, that being the wrongful suppression of the gold/silver prices.

Its time will come when your average Joe and Jane is devastated financially and wants an explanation of, “HOW COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED?”

Which brings me to a critical point of my presentation for all of you here who are interested in the gold and silver markets. Because of what The Gold Cartel has done, the gold and silver prices are the most undervalued assets in the world … by a hefty margin. GATA realizes we are not wanted in certain circles in the precious metals arena because of what we have to say … that the richest and most powerful people in the world are preventing them from making money, going against them. So why bother to go there? Keep GATA out of sight and out of mind is their thinking. Nothing could be more out of whack in a big picture sense.

Think about it. Assets of all kind have soared over the past years, including stocks, art, real estate, etc. Incredibly low interest rates have enhanced all of them, but not the two markets which should have gone up the most with all the paper money hoarded into the financial market system. The orchestrated suppression of the gold/silver prices was put into play by The Gold Cartel to deflect from what the powers were doing … inflating the system, and perhaps very dangerously so.

As a result, the gold/silver prices have been forced to retreat to artificially LOW prices which will not stand. They will catch up to and go way beyond what most other assets have done these past years! IMO, understanding what The Gold Cartel has done is THE most important reason right now to be in the gold/silver markets.

Which brings me to a topic of conversation surely to be a part of many at this conference, the Bitcoin/cryptocurrency phenomenon.

One year ago I presented at a Jeff Berwick conference in Acapulco. The conference focused on precious metals and crypto currencies. The crypto folks were ecstatic back then as Bitcoin had risen to the same price of gold at $1240. Even then, the crypto crowd was bubbly as could be. So upbeat compared to the gold/silver crowd, which included myself, because of the nauseating price suppression. Can you imagine what that convention will be like this year with Bitcoin having reached $19,000 not long ago? Good for them.

Which leads us to another key issue for our camp. The crypto geniuses realized the advent of a technological way to put money outside of the traditional financial market system … for a myriad of reasons. The win for those who bought in prior of Jeff’s conference has been astronomical, the most phenomenal in all of recorded history. What has occurred exemplifies just how much the outside of the fiat money system gold and silver prices have been suppressed these past many years … which many of you are already too aware of.

But while what the Bitcoins have done has been a short term negative in the west regarding current interest in the precious metals, it is likely to be a boon of all booms once these undervalued assets begin to take off. A reason is that there are now a number of momentum traders around the world who have made so much money in various markets, they will not be afraid to pour into gold and silver investments as they really begin to REALLY move. This will be a force The Gold Cartel has not had to deal with before.

It is only a matter of time before the physical supply needed by the cabal forces to keep the gold/silver prices at such ridiculously low price levels dries up. The momentum traders will pounce all over this new, delicious opportunity. The Gold Cartel will be forced to retreat.

So, for what it is worth, this is what I see for the rest of this year…

*The gold and silver prices really get going, and they keep on going. The cheapest assets on the planet won’t be by the end of 2018.

*Gold will launch towards new all-time highs in the not too distant future.

*Once the price of silver, the cartel’s krytonite, takes out $21 it goes bonkers and eventually trades akin to what Bitcoin has done. The efforts by the JP Morgan forces to hold the silver price down at levels which are 2/3 less where it managed to trade 38 years ago are the most obvious and onerous I have even seen in 40 years. Silver has been so ludicrously depressed, Newton’s Law of Equal and Opposite Reactions, will finally take hold. $100 silver should be achieved faster than most anyone can imagine right now.

*Many of the beat up junior/exploration stocks will trade in Bitcoin fashion too and repeat the returns they made after the turn of the century, which were extraordinary to say the least.

GATA: Those Who Deny Gold / Silver Manipulation Won’t Answer Basic Questions

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , ,

IRD Note:  For nearly two decades, GATA has seized on Frank Veneroso’s original research which provided first-hand evidence that Central Banks were actively operating to suppress the gold and has presented direct evidence of precious metals manipulation.  Beyond this, there are public admissions from Henry Kissinger and Alan Greenspan acknowledging this fact.   Unfortunately, those who deny that gold/silver are manipulated have never offered any response to the direct proof that Central Banks intervene directly in gold trading.  The article below presenting just the facts was published by GATA.

Newsletter writer Steve Saville of The Speculative Investor, who long has denied that manipulation of the monetary metals markets means much, has seized on the recent essay by Keith Weiner of Monetary Metals as the conclusive refutation of silver market analyst Ted Butler’s longstanding complaint that JPMorganChase has been rigging the silver market.

Weiner’s analysis, headlined “Thoughtful Disagreement with Ted Butler” and posted here – LINK – argued that JPMorganChase is undertaking only ordinary arbitrage in the silver market, exploiting spreads between bid and ask prices.

Saville, in commentary headlined “A Silver Price-Suppression Theory Gets Debunked” – LINK – cheers Weiner’s essay and goes on to remark: “Entering a debate with someone who is incapable of being swayed by evidence that invalidates his position is a waste of time and energy, so these days I devote no commentary space and minimal blog space to debunking the manipulation-centric gold and silver articles that regularly appear.”

But when has Saville himself ever addressed evidence of manipulation of the gold and silver markets? Of course if he declines to address the evidence, he too can’t be swayed by it. The manipulation deniers never address the evidence. [IRD note: this is similar to Hilary Clinton never denying the allegations of corruption – instead she deflected the issue using the scare tactic of blaming the Russians for making the evidence public]

Weiner’s technical analysis is no refutation of silver market manipulation, for even if JPMorganChase is just doing arbitrage in silver, a judgment on manipulation would require knowing for whom the investment house was doing the arbitrage. JPMorganChase’s former chief of commodity operations, Blythe Masters, said on CNBC five years ago that the investment house had no position of its own in silver and was trading only for clients:  LINK

So might those clients include governments and central banks, entities with nearly infinite resources sufficient to nullify markets? The question is compelling because filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission by CME Group, operator of the major futures exchanges in the United States, assert that governments and central banks are clients of the exchanges and that the exchanges give them special volume trading discounts for trading all futures contracts, not just financial futures contracts: HERE and HERE

Do Weiner and Saville know that JPMorganChase is not trading silver futures for governments and central banks? Do Weiner and Saville know that governments and central banks are not trading gold and gold derivatives surreptitiously? If Weiner and Saville think they know, they’re wrong, for the Bank for International Settlements admits that it operates as a broker in gold and gold derivatives for its member central banks: BIS admission

Indeed, in 2005 the director of the BIS’ monetary and economic department, William R. White, told a conference at BIS headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, that a primary purpose of international central bank cooperation is “the provision of international credits and joint efforts to influence asset prices (especially gold and foreign exchange) in circumstances where this might be thought useful“: LINK

The BIS even advertises that its services to its member central banks include surreptitious interventions in the gold market: LINK

Anyone who wants to engage in honest argument about gold and silver market manipulation needs to address a few simple questions:

1) Are governments and central banks active in the monetary metals markets or not?
2) Are the documents asserting such activity genuine or forgeries?
3) If governments and central banks are active in the monetary metals markets, is it just for fun or is it for policy purposes?
4) If such activity by governments and central banks is for policy purposes, do those purposes involve the traditional objectives of defeating an independent world currency that competes with government currencies and interferes with government control of interest rates, objectives documented at length by GATA here?: LINK

Of course if largely surreptitious intervention in the monetary metals markets by central banks and governments is ever acknowledged, technical analysis of those markets is meaningless, which may explain why technical analysts like Weiner and Saville avoid the crucial questions and just sneer at those who raise them.

Former FOMC Member Admits The Fed Manipulates Asset Prices

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , ,

The Fed often treats financial markets as a beast to be tamed, a cub to be coddled, or a market to be manipulated. It appears in thrall to financial markets, and financial markets are in thrall to the Fed, but only one will get the last word. – Former FOMC member, Kevin Warsh – The Fed Needs New Thinking

Please note, a large portion of the source links, plus the idea for this commentary, were sourced from GATA’s latest dispatch regarding the possible appointment of Warsh as the next Fed Chairman.

The quote above is from former FOMC board member,  Kevin Warsh, who appears to be Trump’s top candidate to assume the Fed’s mantle of manipulation from Janet Yellen.   By way of relevant reference, Warsh happens to be the son-in-law of Ronald Lauder,  who is a good friend of Trump’s.  He is also a former Steering Committee member of the Bilderberg Group.    GATA has published a summary reprise of direct evidence from previous written admissions by Warsh the the Fed actively manages financial asset prices, “including bolstering the share price of public companies” (from link above).

In addition to stocks, Warsh admitted in the same essay that, “The Fed seeks to fix interest rates and control foreign-exchange rates simultaneously” (same link above). This task is impossible without suppressing the price of gold, something which began in earnest in 1974 when, under the direction of then Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, paper gold futures contracts were introduced to the U.S. capital markets. This memo, written by the Deputy assistant Secretary of State for International Finance and Development, was sent to Kissinger and Paul Volcker in March 1974: Gold and the Monetary System:  Potential U.S.-EC Conflict (note:  the source-link is from GATA – it was discovered in the State Department archives by Goldmoney’s John Butler).

The nature of discussions after that memo, the minutes of which are now publicly available, center around the fact that several European Governments were interested in re-introducing gold into the global monetary system.  This movement was in direct conflict with the interests of U.S. elitists and banking aristocrats, as U.S. had successfully established  the petro-dollar as the reserve currency.

In 2009 GATA sent a Freedom Of Information Act request to the Fed in an attempt to get access to documents involving the Fed’s use of gold swaps (this letter written by Warsh confirms the existence of the use of gold swaps).  Warsh, who was the FOMC’s “liaison” between the Fed and Wall Street, wrote a letter back to GATA denying the request.

The fact that Warsh has openly acknowledged that the Fed manipulates assets, including an implicit admission that the Fed seeks to suppress the price of gold,  might give some in the gold community some hope that Warsh, if appointed to the Chair of the Fed, might reign in the Fed’s over interference in the financial markets.

On the contrary, I believe this makes him a bigger threat to democracy, capitalism and freedom than any of his recent predecessors.  Warsh is better “pedigree’d” and politically connected than either Bernanke or Yellen.  His high level involvement in the Bilderberg Group ties him directly to the individual aristocrats who are considered to be the most financially and politically powerful in the western world.    Without a doubt he has far more profound understanding of the significance of gold as a monetary asset than any modern Federal Reserve FOMC member except, perhaps, Alan Greenspan.

The good news for the gold investing community is that it becomes increasingly evident that China, together with Russia and several other eastern bloc countries, is working to remove the dollar as the reserve currency and reintroduce gold into the global monetary system.  A contact and subscriber to my Mining Stock Journal who happens to live and work in Shanghai has sent further evidence  (and here) that China is working toward launching a gold-backed yuan oil futures contract.

This will be a complete game-changer.  It’s also likely why the western Central Banks have doubled their efforts to keep the price of suppressed over the last 6  weeks.   My contact believes there’s a possibility that the contract will be rolled out after Xi is “re-elected” toward the end of October (the Party Congress convenes after the week-long National Holiday observance).

My personal view is that China will work more gradually to roll out a futures contract that effectively “disconnects” the petro-dollar and the dollar’s reserve status in order to minimize the adverse, albeit temporary, consequences of this.  The first iteration could be a simple yuan-denominated contract to get the system working.  The foremost consequence of this, of course, will be the massive transfer of wealth and power from the United States and its European vassal countries to the emerging global power in the eastern hemisphere.

Why Is The BIS Flooding The System With Gold?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , ,

A consultant to GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee) brought to our attention the fact that gold swaps at the BIS have soared from zero in March 2016 to almost 500 tonnes by August 2017 (GATA – BIS Gold Swaps). The outstanding balance is now higher than it was in 2011, leading up to the violent systematically manipulated take-down of the gold price starting in September 2011 (silver was attacked starting in April 2011).

The report stimulated my curiosity because most bloggers reference the BIS or articles about the BIS gold market activity without actually perusing through BIS financial statements and the accompanying footnotes. Gold swaps work similarly to Fed repo transactions. When banks need cash liquidity, the Fed extends short term loans to the banks and receives Treasuries as collateral. QE can be seen as a multi-trillion dollar Permanent Repo operation that involved outright money printing.

Similarly, if the bullion banks (HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays, etc) need access to a supply of gold, the BIS will “swap” gold for cash. This would involve BIS or BIS Central Bank member gold which is loaned out to the banks and the banks deposit cash as collateral to against the gold “loan.” This operation is benignly called a “gold swap.” The purpose would be to alleviate a short term scarcity of gold in London and put gold into the hands of the bullion banks that can be delivered into the eastern hemisphere countries who are importing large quantities of gold (gold swaps outstanding are referenced beginning in 2010).

I wanted dig into the BIS financials and add some evidence from the GATA consultant’s assertions because, since 2009, there has been a curious inverse correlation between the amount of outstanding gold swaps held by the BIS and the price of gold (as the amount of swaps increase, the price of gold declines). You’ll note that in the 2009 BIS Annual Report, there is no reference to gold swaps so we must assume the amount outstanding was zero. By 2011 the amount was 409 tonnes.

The gold swaps enable the BIS to “release” physical gold into the banking system which can then be used to help the Central Banks manipulate the price of gold lower. This explains the jump in BIS gold swaps between March 2016 and March 2017 and the drop in the price of gold from August 2016 until early July 2017. It also explains the rise in the price of gold between July and September this year, which correlates with a decline in the outstanding gold swaps between April and July . Finally, the hit on gold that began earlier this month coincides with a sudden jump in BIS gold swaps in the month of August. (Note: there would be a short time-lag between the gold swap operation and the amount of time it takes to “mobilize” the physical gold)

The graphic below shows the increase in gold swaps from March 2016 to March 2017:

As you can see, the total amount of the gold loans outstanding increased by 14.1 billion SDRs (note: the BIS expresses its financials in SDRs). The accompanying note explains that most of this gold loan is comprised of an increase in the BIS’ gold swap contracts outstanding.

I find it interesting that the reports of gold backwardation in London (see James Turk’s interviews on King World News) and the backwardation I have observed between the current-month (delivery month) Comex gold contract and the London gold fixings over the past several months correlates well with the sudden jump in gold swap activity at the BIS.

Backwardation in any commodity market indicates that the demand for delivery of the underlying commodity is greater than the near-term supply of that commodity. It’s hard to ignore that the backwardation observed on the LBMA and with Comex gold delivery-month contracts has been accompanied by soaring gold demand from India, as reported by the Economic Times of India (article link): Gold Imports Jump Three-Fold in April-August.

Furthermore, it appears as if the BIS gold swap activity continued to increase between March 2017 and August 2017, as the BIS’s August Account Statement shows another 2.2 billion SDR increase in amount of outstanding gold loans (a BIS monthly account statement only reports the balance sheet with no accompanying disclosure). These loans primarily are swaps, per the disclosure in the 2017 Annual Report.

However, this jump in gold swaps between March and August is somewhat misleading. The outstanding amount of loans declined from 27.2 billion SDRs at the end of March to 24.6 billion SDRs at the end of July. The price of gold rose over 11% between July and early September. By the end of August, the BIS balance sheet shows 29.3 billion SDRs. A jump of 4.7 billion SDRs worth of gold swaps.

It was around April that the World Gold Council began to forecast that India’s gold importation would drop to 95 tonnes per quarter starting in Q2. As it turns out, India imported 248 tonnes of gold in Q2 2017. This number does not include smuggled gold. Please note the curious correlation between the jump in BIS gold swap activity at the end of the summer and the unexpected surge in Indian gold imports.

In my view, there is a direct correlation between this sudden leap in the amount of gold swaps conducted by the BIS between July and August and the price attack on gold that began two weeks ago. The gold swaps provide bullion bar “liquidity” to the bullion banks who can use them to deliver into the rising demand for deliveries from India, China, Turkey, et al. This in turn relieves the strength and size of “bid” on the LBMA for physical gold which in turn makes it easier for the same bullion banks to attack the price of gold on the Comex using paper gold. This explains the current manipulated take-down in the price of gold despite the rising seasonal demand from India and China.