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SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has begun to sell large amounts of gold to China in a bid to tide over its economic crisis, multiple sources familiar with North Korea affairs said Wednesday.

How many times have parents said to their children, “Because I said so.” Contemporary parenting dictates rationalizing with your child, giving them explanations for everything, and of course being a buddy. But even the most modern of parenting techniques will undoubtedly run into roadblocks, ultimately leading a frustrated parent to utter that infamous justification, “Because I said so.” And speaking of notorious rationalizations, as the world loses confidence in fiat currency (paper money), and the “inflationistas” of the world continue to pound the drum in favor of alternative currencies (specifically precious metals), more and more typical investment portfolios will...

Surrounded by fire-worn trees and beautiful mountains lies the deserted town of Seneca — a historic miner’s retreat that has recently gone up for sale. The town, which was surrounded by flames from the Chips Fire a little over a year ago, is an unincorporated community in Plumas County that was founded in 1851 after gold was discovered in the area. With dreams of riches, people flocked to the area and the town quickly grew to more than 1,000 residents. According to an engraved bronze plaque located inside the town, 500 of the residents were Chinese miners who earned 10...

In the wake of all the misguided pleas for negative interest rates in Europe (hoping to get banks to lend), comes news US banks warn Fed interest cut could force them to charge depositors. Leading US banks have warned that they could start charging companies and consumers for deposits if the US Federal Reserve cuts the interest it pays on bank reserves. Depositors already have to cope with near-zero interest rates, but paying just to leave money in the bank would be highly unusual and unwelcome for companies and households. The warning by bank executives highlights the dangers of one...

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is holding the first congressional hearing on the future of Bitcoin. The first panel features senior figures from the Obama administration. And their comments about Bitcoin have been remarkably positive.

I checked the stock market today and noticed it's down. But I also noticed that precious metals appear to be tanking. Gold is at $1245/oz and Silver at $19.85/oz. What's going on here? Is J.P. Morgan or some other major player manipulating the precious metals market?

As Bitcoin soars over $600, another alternative to the fiat currency system is being monkey-hammered lower this morning as status quo support does everything it can to rotate stocks above the key levels we discussed earlier... because stocks rising on anything but fundamentals cannot be exposed for the liquidity-fueled excesses a rising precious metals price would unveil. Gold is still holding above recent lows but Silver has broken to fresh 3-month lows...

"We already live in a financial economy in which the debt and capital markets exceed the value of the real economy by far," Marc Faber explains to Germany's Finanzen100, "and that's before the current formation of bubbles." His most ominous warning, and one that fits perfectly with the seeming insanity of Federal Reserve (and all developed market central banks) is that "the next time a bubble bursts, then the capitalist economic system as we know will falter."

One day before the Senate's digital currency hearing titled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies", Bitcoin is largely oblivious to any potential regulatory threats, either at the legislative or the city level, where as reported previously the New York superintendent is in a rush to enforce BitLicenses on businesses that accept BitCoin, and moments ago crossed $500 for the first time ever. Instead, it appears that as we also reported previously, the Chinese Bitcoin craze has reached the parabolic threshold, going so far as making Bitcoin an acceptable payment for real estate, which means...

Federal Reserve Chair nominee Janet Yellen sang Do Ho’s classic tune “Tiny Bubbles” in the US Senate confirmation hearing. Yellen claims that there is no bubble in asset markets. Apparently, The Fed is unconcerned about the blistering house price increases compared to real median household income. realmedincomcase One reaction in the markets on Yellen’s statement was a rise in gold prices of 1.25%. goldkitco Senator Chuck Schumer asked Yellen about income disparity in the US. She replied that it has grown since the 1980s. {Note to Yellen: the GINI coefficent has been rising since the 1960s. Nice try at blaming...

Bitcoin, an online-only currency scarcely four years old, is breaking out to new highs this week and now sports a total value of $2.8 billion. Just a few months ago, it looked like this economic experiment as the world’s first decentralized technology-based form of money would crash and burn. Since then, ConvergEx's Nick Colas points out that the U.S. government has shut down a large drug website which accepted bitcoins and promised further scrutiny of its uses; and omputer science experts have warned that bitcoin is neither especially private – one of its notional values – or especially well constructed....

A fortune in gold, gleefully chucked into a Colorado Springs trash bin? That's the claim of Earl Ray Jones, a Teller County man who says he converted $500,000 in life savings into gold in May and then threw it away - all to prevent his wife of 25 years from seeing a nickel in their pending divorce. **SNIP** Jones is facing a Nov. 4 sentencing in Teller County for menacing after he beat up his wife and held her captive in their Divide home during a March fight over finances. April Jones filed for divorce three weeks after the assault....

The next Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting in on October 30th, a preview of Halloween. Despite the lack of evidence of positive growth in the economy, The Fed will likely keep on printing. fedbalshet102613 Two of The Fed’s tools in its arsenal are the Fed Funds rate and longer-term asset purchases (aka, quantitative easing). So, what is the record on the employment front with regard to Fed policies? Let’s take a look. Here is a chart of the unemployment rate (white line) compared to the Fed Funds Target rate (gold) and The Fed’s Balance Sheet (longer-term asset purchases). u3fedpol2...

China is now overtly pushing for the US dollar to be replaced as the world’s reserve currency.Xinhua, China’s official press agency on Sunday ran an op-ed article which kicked off as follows: As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world. China does have a broad strategy to prepare for this event. She is encouraging the...

Proud to be an American... Something is really wrong with this picture...

The Indian government on Friday began digging for treasure near an ancient temple after a tip off from a holy man who said he dreamed 1,000 tons of gold was buried there. Swami Shoban Sarkar said he was approached in a dream by a 19th century ruler called Rao Ram Bux Singh who told him about the $40 billion bonanza buried near an ancient temple. But despite having no money, land, or even a bank account, Sarkar did not keep the mystical vision to himself. Instead the civic-minded citizen informed the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in the hope the...

In what is the most remarkable news of the day, which has so far passed very quietly under the radar, Fosun International, China's largest private-owned conglomerate which invests in commodities, properties and pharmaceuticals also known as "Shanghai's Hutchison Whampoa", announced in a statement filed just as quietly with the Hong Kong stock exchange, that it had purchased JPM's iconic former headquarters, the tower built by none other than David Rockefeller, at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza for a measly $725 million.

The fiscal drama in Washington DC is over … until January 15th when they have to do it again. In fact, there is no “Rocky” celebration. USuscdseur credit default swaps (CDS) barley fell. The US Treasury 10 year yield dropped 5 basis points as of 10:18am EST. ust10101713 The VIX? Barely a small wave in the ocean. vix101713 Bloomberg Confidence Index? Lowest since 2011, the last time Congress has their budget duel. BBExpectations The only noticeable change was in gold which rose 3% this morning. gold101713 Remember, we still have a slow growing economy and a dreadful piece of tax...

Berlin antiquities museum wants Holocaust survivor's family to return ancient gold tablet A Holocaust survivor's family urged New York's highest court Tuesday to let them keep an ancient gold tablet that their late father somehow obtained in Germany after World War II. Attorney Steven Schlesinger argued that the estate of Riven Flamenbaum has a legal claim, whether the native of Poland bought the relic from a Russian soldier or simply took it to compensate for losing his family at Auschwitz, the concentration camp where he spent several years. "Under the Soviet rules at the time, there was permission to pillage...

CHICAGO, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange bottomed out of a three-month low Monday. The most active gold contract for December delivery increased 8. 4 dollars, or 0.66 percent, to settle at 1,276.6 dollars per ounce. The weakening dollar against other major currencies as well as the rebound of the U.S. stock market Monday lent certain support to gold. Nevertheless, gold's growth was limited on news that President Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders of both parties Monday afternoon. Over the weekend, talks in the Senate aiming to avoid...

China has just one thing to say to all those who engage in the now daily slamdowns of gold just around the time of the London fixing, after 8 am Eastern, which lately have gotten so vicious they have resulted in "stop logic" market halts not on one but at least two occasions, keeping the price of gold delightfully low for all those who instead of selling, are looking to buy: "thanks." As the chart below shows, in the past two years since September 2011 (ironically the same month we wrote "Wikileaks Discloses The Reason(s) Behind China's Shadow Gold Buying...

Today was a bad day for precious metal investors. Both gold and silver dropped 2% today. commod101113 As global equity markets rallied. gem13 The gold sentiment index fell. goldent Comex gold holdings dropped. comexgoildinv At least the gold forward curve is modestly upward sloping (orange line). goldfexo Too bad the USA went off the gold standard. While some blame President Richard Nixon for taking the USA off the gold standard, the truth is that the USA had been dumping its gold holdings since 1957. goldike

China as finally come out in very strong terms and told the U.S. to get its financial house in order. This is now in public. Their warning was straightforward as compared to previous warnings that were generally of the “read between the lines type.” They hold $1.3 trillion worth of treasuries and well over $3 trillion in dollar denominated assets. No matter what anyone says, China now has the ability to “pull our strings” in Washington. Without going any further I should add that I believe that they certainly will pull our strings AND pull the plug on this whole...

Ben S. Bernanke, the world’s most-powerful central banker, says he doesn’t understand gold prices. If his peers had paid attention, they might have stopped expanding reserves that lost $545 billion in value since bullion peaked in 2011. Bernanke, who holds economics degrees from Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led the Federal Reserve through the biggest financial disaster since the Great Depression, told the Senate Banking Committee in July that “nobody really understands gold prices and I don’t pretend to really understand them either.” Central banks, which own 18 percent of all the gold ever mined, will...

India’s temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy. The central bank, which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India’s current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country’s richest temples asking for details of their gold. It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms. “The gold stored in temples...

In 64 A.D., in a naïve attempt to deceive the populace, Nero decreased the silver content in the coins and made silver and gold coins slightly smaller ... central planners have been clipping coins and devaluing the The People’s hard-earned currency for at least two thousand years. The Roman Emperor Nero of course devalued the Roman currency for the first time in the Empire’s history. What was it that gave both the Roman and Ottoman Empires the audacity to plunder the purchasing power of their people? After 200 years of operating as an independent bank, what made the British Empire...

The markets were stunned by The Fed’s decision last week not to begin tapering. Investors reacted … like deer in the headlights. deerheads Take the Dow Jones Industrial Average. After initial optimism on The Fed’s “No Taper” message, it has turned down. djiapostfomce The 10 year Treasury yield dropped with The Fed announcement and has continued to drift downwards. ust10postfomc As would be expected, both mortgage rates (yellow) and the Fannie Mae 30 year current coupon rate have drifted downwards. mtgratepostfomc Gold? Gold prices surged initially but had drifted downwards to about pre-announcement levels. goldpostfomc The good news? Both the...

After some initial digs, a Dutch filmmaker believes he may have found the site of buried Nazi treasure long rumored to exist. He was led to the Bavarian town of Mittenwald after cracking a code believed to be hidden in a music score. Three attempts have been made in recent weeks to find buried Nazi treasure in the Bavarian town of Mittenwald, close to the Austrian border. Even though the holes in the ground have since been filled, the traces left by drills and blue markings are still visible below a thin layer of autumn leaves. Authorities granted permission for...

COMMODITIES Updated September 19, 2013, 3:15 p.m. ET Gold Climbs Nearly 5% Futures Extend Post-Fed Rally Gains By MATT DAY and FRANCESCA FREEMAN NEW YORK—Gold futures rose nearly 5% on Thursday, extending the gains made after the Federal Reserve surprised investors by announcing it would stick to its bond-buying program. The bond purchases have pumped cash into the financial system, raising the specter of inflation or a weakened dollar. Some investors view gold as a hedge against either scenario. The most actively traded gold contract, for December delivery, rose $61.70, or 4.7%, to settle at $1,369.30 a troy ounce on...

Bernanke’s surprise (NO TAPER) resulted in a large decline in the 10 year Treasury yield yesterday and a small rebound today. ust10091913 But despite the surprise, the yield curve has declined only slightly compared to its increase after May 1st. yc091813 World bond markets are in a sea of green, particularly the UK and Italy. Even beleaguered Greece dropped 21 basis points in 10 year sovereign yield. wbm091913 Precious metals (gold, silver) soared on The Fed’s Taper bluff. goldsilvfed2 To quote The Who, “We won’t get fooled again!”

Russia has climbed 10 places since 1995 in a global ranking of economic freedom, while the United States has fallen 13 spots over the same period, according to a report from a Canadian public policy think-tank released Wednesday. Russia ranked 101st out of 151 nations, up 10 places from 1995 and 12 places better than its ranking in 2000, in the “Economic Freedom of the World” report, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute. After ranking as the world’s third freest economy behind Hong Kong and Singapore for most of the two decades from 1980-2000, the United States began to lose ground...

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee released its update to QE: no change. The market was expecting $5 billion to be cuts from Treasury purchases, but nada. fedannouince Here is the redlined FOMC statement: 169179285-September-FOMC-Redline The Federal Reserve unexpectedly refrained from reducing the $85 billion pace of monthly bond buying, saying it needs to see more evidence of improvement in the economy. “The Committee decided to await more evidence that progress will be sustained before adjusting the pace of its purchases,” the Federal Open Market Committee said today at the conclusion of a two-day meeting in Washington. While “downside risks”...

Students: As we discussed in our last class, wars can be quite disruptive to financial markets. But the markets can bounced back if one side capitulates or promises a poke in the eye instead of a massive missile strike and “boots on the ground.” But Secretary of State John Kerry did just that. After beating the war drums loudly, he said today in the US Senate that the US strike on Syria would be “unbelievably small.“ Like sending Miley Cyrus to Damascus for a goodwill tour of Syria? The reaction in financial markets today? Gold is up over 1% and...

For a President that won a Nobel Peace Prize for his kumbaya rhetoric and a Secretary of State that was a war dove (remember Kerry’s testimony where he compared US soldiers to Genghis Khan?), they sure like to launch attacks in The Middle East. When Kerry confirmed rumors yesterday about a possible attach on Syria for allegedly using chemical weapons, markets reacted in dismay. The US Treasury 10 year yield fell after Kerry’s announcement. ust10082713 The S&P 500 index fell as well. sp6500kerry Gold? It rose following Kerry’s drone (verbal, not flying kind). gold082713C Oil? As you can imagine, oil...

Following the poor new homes sales report in the US and economic weakness in developing countries, we see gold and silver rising this morning. Gold: gold082313 Silver: silver082313 And the USD/EUR is plunging. usdeur666 And the USD/JPY is doing likewise. usdjpy082313 The 10 year US Treasury yield is down 8 basis points. ust10082313 Stay tuned!

Index fund provider ETF Securities has teamed up with Government-owned coin maker Royal Mint to offer investors with shares in its leading exchange traded fund ETFS Physical Gold the option of cashing in shares for physical bullion coins. Exchange traded funds have mushroomed in recent years as a highly popular way for private investors to own gold. Real holdings of gold, stored in bank vaults, are represented by shares which trade daily on the London Stock Exchange. This makes it possible for investors to buy and sell cheaply – and in relatively small quantities. Investors can choose to receive Britannias...

Below are today’s likely price locations of buy and sell stop orders for the active Comex gold and silver futures markets. The asterisks (**) denote the most critical stop order placement level of the day (or likely where the heaviest concentration of stop orders are placed on this day). See below a detailed explanation of stop orders and why knowing, beforehand, where they are likely located can be beneficial to a trader. ..........See Graph At Link................ Stop Orders Defined Stop orders in trading markets can be used for three purposes: One: To minimize a loss on a long or short...

What’s a clueless government trying to micromanage the affairs of over a billion people supposed to do when the wheels start coming off the wagon? If you’re India, you blame the country’s financial and societal woes on the buying of gold and attempt to prevent people from purchasing it. When that doesn’t work, and your currency continues to collapse, then what? Well, you decide to double down on a surveillance state. That’s precisely what the enlightened government bureaucrats at India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have decided to do. From The Hindu: Amid a raging global debate on privacy versus...

CBS' White House correspondent Mark Knoller noted earlier: Meeting with POTUS tomorrow are heads of the CFPB, FHFA, the Fed, CFTC, FDIC, NCUA, the SEC & Comptroller of the Currency. while correlation is not causation (but suggests you are on the right path), recall what happened the last time the President, somewhat unexpectedly, met with the CEOs of all the big banks.

The mining industry is at a “breaking point” as calls from governments and workers for a greater cut of profits hasten an investor exodus, Gold Fields Ltd. said. “Governments in particular are seeing mining as a means of putting more into their central coffers,” Chief Executive Officer Nick Holland said today in a speech in Johannesburg. “A lot of it has come about because of the metal boom that we’ve seen.” The “equity model is at breaking point,” he said in an accompanying slide show. Australia, Namibia and Zimbabwe are among nations that have sought to expand their share of...

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, who told investors as recently as last month that they should own gold, cut his holdings in the metal by more than half as prices plunged into a bear market. Paulson & Co., the largest investor in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product for the metal, pared its stake to 10.2 million shares in the three months ended June 30 from 21.8 million at the end of the first quarter, according to a government filing Wednesday. The New York-based firm, which manages $18 billion, cut its ownership for the first time since...

The economy has been having trouble reaching the magical 80% level for capacity utilization. Capacity utilization fell to 77.6% in July. It has never reached 80% under President Obama while achieving 80% under President Bush. Obama’s economic model of 1) MORE regulation (EPA, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare), 2) MORE taxes and 3) ignoring crises in entitlements (see $70 trillion in off-balance sheet entitlements) is a blueprint for SLOW economic growth and part-time jobs. caputil081513 Still, Treasury yields continued their doleful rise after May 1st on Fed tapering fears. ust10081513 Gold has risen today. gold081513 As did silver. silver08152013 And the VIX jumped...

The federal government has been low-balling the public for years on how much debt it actually has, a University of California, San Diego economics professor says, adding that the real amount is $70 trillion – not $16.9 trillion. James Hamilton's claim the United States is in a much deeper financial hole than many realize comes as Congress gets ready for another budget battle when lawmakers return in September. Both sides have been digging in on their policy positions over the debt, spending and the country's future fiscal health. Hamilton believes the government is miscalculating what it owes by leaving out...

The stock market has experienced a fantastic run with the advent of quantitative easing (QE) policies by The Fed. Here is a chart of the S&P 500 index versus the Fed Funds Target rate. spxfed20`13 But The Hindenburg Omen* oracles (like Mark Faber) are coming out with warnings of a 20% drop in the SPX. To be sure, the Hindenburg Omen is flashing red. hund080913 Will this be a redux of the 1987 stock market crash (as Mark Faber claims) when The Fed jumped in after the crash? spx1987 Or will it be a gradual decline line gold? gold080913 Of...

Hot or Not? Rihanna Instagrams her gold AK-47 grill In a recent Instagram post, controversial pop-star, Rihanna, shows off her new, golden AK-47 grill. Her fan reviews are mixed. Some seem to love the new dental bling while others cast it off as just another attempt to maintain her “bad girl” image. What do you think?

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho -- Several hundred thousand dollars worth of rare silver and gold coins were stolen in a burglary early Sunday in Coeur d’Alene. It happened around 12:55 a.m. when the 54-year-old homeowner returned home to find an unknown man standing in her doorway and a car parked in her driveway. When she asked him what he was doing in her home, a second man emerged from the car. ... Police said the thieves took two safes filled with rare coins valued at a total of $250,000.

Hi, I wondered if you or your readers might know anything about fake gold coin/bars from China cropping up. It seems that tungsten has almost the same density as gold and hence can pass the common specific gravity test.

I have a $100K investment that is about to mature. I have been strongly considering buying real gold -- the kind I can hold in my hand and put in a vault. I am thinking of building a strong save (too afficed to move) in my home, buying $50K or so of real Gold, then splitting it between my home safe and a Bank Safety Deposit Box. But now I am ready to do it, I am really concerned and so I come to you, my Freeper brethren, for real-world advice. 1) Is this a good idea (I want to...

Is the paper gold scam about to be brutally crushed by a crippling shortage of physical gold? If so, what will that do to global financial markets? According to the Reserve Bank of India, “the traded amount of ‘paper linked to gold’ exceeds by far the actual supply of physical gold: the volume on the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) OTC market and the major Futures and Options Exchanges was OVER 92 TIMES that of the underlying Physical Market.� In other words, there is a massive amount of paper out there, but very little actual physical gold to back it...

Over two years ago, in March of 2012, when it was taboo to even suggest the Fed may be forced to admit failure once again with its then "final" monetary intervention Operation Twist (following similar failures with QE1 and QE2), we explained clearly "Why The Fed Will Have To Do At Least Another $3.6 Trillion In Quantitative Easing." The premise was simple: while the Fed had succeeded in raising the notional amount of traditional bank liabilities, primarily deposits (through a matched reserve expansion) courtesy of unsterilized QE, it was failing to expand the universe of money-equivalent collateral in the...