Free Republic

YORK, Pa. -- Salvation Army bell ringers in York have collected the first gold coin of this year's kettle campaign. [The South African gold krugerrand is valued at nearly $1,200.] The South African gold krugerrand is valued at nearly $1,200. The coin was dropped in a Salvation Army kettle on Friday outside a Kmart on Haines Road. The South African gold krugerrand is valued at nearly $1,200. It was wrapped in a $1 bill. "As soon as the staff person saw it in the kettle, they called me and called George. They were so excited. They wanted us to come...

America, as synonymous with the people who created the Federal Union known as the United States of America, was born to a gold standard; was intended, always, to remain on a gold standard! No reading of Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution, coupled with key provisions of Article I, Section 8, can lend itself to any other interpretation. The first paragraph of Section 10 reads in relevant part: No State shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.Note, there is no exception provided. Contrast that paragraph with the second...

This is what a serious bet looks like. By now, everyone and their cat knows gold is the hottest commodity on the planet. EconomPic (via The Reformed Broker) has compiled an interesting chart of who is holding the most gold. And who happens to take the top position? None other than John Paulson and company:

An ancient saying has it that “gold doesn’t stink.” A modern corollary might be: “Investors do.” Well, at least I’ve caught a whiff of something: A short-term fall in the price of gold, soon. A subset of investors have gone perhaps a bit too whole hog, and the price of gold is now racing upwards at an increasingly unsustainable rate. It’s an ancient observation: What goes up must come down. The exceptions are those rare things that reach escape velocity. Gold hasn’t reached that, nor is it likely to. For some reason, in markets, whenever prices move upward faster, there’s...

"It has been proved, by indisputable evidence, that power is not the grand principle of union among the parts of a very extensive empire; and that when this principle is pushed beyond the degree necessary for rendering justice between man and man, it debases the character of individuals, and renders them less secure in their persons and property…" ~ James Winthrop, Antifederalist No. 11 I doubt there are many who have thought about the transitive verb, secure, used by James Winthrop in the quote above. Noah Webster’s, 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, says secure is to make certain;...

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Interviewed today by the Russia Today channel about problems in the world financial system, international journalist Max Keiser remarked that sources at Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, have told him that the Bundesbank is about to join other central banks in announcing gold purchases. You can watch the interview at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSWSwhn-AWc&feature=player_embedded#

Gold is the immutable standard of value. Everything I watch is now sinking in relation to gold. And I'm talking about stocks, the Dow, the S&P, almost all the world's currencies, all the world's stock averages, most commodities, bonds, real estate, land, you name it. My old friend, James Dines calls it the "great stealth bear market," and he's been very right.I could include relative strength charts of gold against all of the above items, but what's the use -- you get the idea. Against the standard, gold, the world is deflating, and no amount of paper-creation has been able...

I was on assignment in Singapore on Nov. 24 when gold hit an all-time high of $1,174 an ounce. That was fortuitous because Singapore is the home base of commodities guru Jim Rogers, creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index. Meantime, back in the U.S., reports were surfacing about growing discontent in the halls of Congress over the performance of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the possibility he might be replaced by JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon. When I rang up Rogers, he was his usual low-key self, with quiet opinions about the future of gold prices, commodities to...

With gold reaching record high prices as recently as Tuesday there is an increasing demand for the precious metal, and there is a new group preparing to go in after it. According to Timberline Resources of Idaho and Butte Highlands LLC, ore sample testing suggests more gold is likely to exist in the Butte Highlands Mountain area than initially thought. But that can't truly be known until the mine is fully operational. Project manager Henry Bogert says he hopes the state can provide a permit to enable the mine to start producing gold in just over a year. In the...

The U.S. Mint has announced that will stop selling 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Demand has been so strong that they've effectively run out of 2009 American Eagle coins. They sold 124,000 coins in November alone, after selling 115,000 in October and September. Have no fear, they plan to resume coin sales in early December. Reuters via CNBC: Produced from gold mined in the United States, the 22-karat American Eagles have been novel items among collectors and investors since their introduction in 1986. Each coin has a face value of $50 but it is sold by authorized dealers at a premium...

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures fell on Friday but traded off their lows, as Dubai World's debt woes fueled a sell-off in commodities and stocks, while the U.S. dollar gained against its rivals. Gold for December delivery tumbled from a high of $1,195 an ounce to an intraday low of $1,130.10 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. That is a decline of nearly $65, or more than 5%. In recent trading, gold fell $26.80, or 2.3%, to $1,160.20 an ounce.

As an American living in Canada and a do-it-yourself (DIY) investor, I've decided to short the US dollar and to keep the majority of my holdings in Canada resource companies (oil and gas, gold mining). This is a play that has worked well so far. When the resource-heavy Canadian stock market felt serious pressure during the credit crisis I was able to pick up some bargains. I am far from alone in this strategy. PetroChina's purchase of a $1.9 billion stake in Alberta's Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. and Korean National Oil Corp.'s plan to acquire outright Harvest Energy Trust for...

I have a Canadian maple leaf does anyone know where I can sell it?? Thanks, Luigi

As long as the cost of borrowing money is zero, gold will continue to strengthen and the dollar will continue to weaken. Gold is going into strong hands like hedge funds managed by John Paulson, Paul Tudor Jones, David Einhorn, Eric Mindich, David Hayman--the cream of the crop. Public institutions like central banks in India and China are big buyers too. Momentum on gold is building now, as latecomers climb on the bandwagon. We're seeing demand for gold all over the world. Pension funds allocate about 5% as protection against the weakening dollar. Chinese citizens are encouraged by their government...

Please someone tell me this is NOT true. Fake gold bars! What's next? It's one thing to counterfeit a twenty or hundred dollar bill. The amount of financial damage is usually limited to a specific region and only affects dozens of people and thousands of dollars. Secret Service agents quickly notify the banks on how to recognize these phony bills and retail outlets usually have procedures in place (such as special pens to test the paper) to stop their proliferation. But what about gold? This is the most sacred of all commodities because it is thought to be the most...

China, gold, and the civilization shift By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: November 26th, 2009 Stephen Jen from the hedge fund Blue Gold Capital has a warning for those who think that gold has risen far too high, is necessarily in a speculative bubble, and must soon come clattering back down. Mr Jen is an expert on sovereign wealth funds from his days at Morgan Stanley. The gold story — essentially — is that the rising economic powers of Asia, the Middle East, and the commodity bloc are rejecting Western fiat currencies. China, India, and Russia have all been buying...

Investors Buy Gold As Central Banks On Course To Crash World Economy Commodities / Gold & Silver 2009 Nov 26, 2009 - 02:59 AM By: Bob_Chapman Investors buy gold when there is inflation and when there is a flight to quality. They buy gold when they no longer trust currencies, due to government or central bank profligacy. Due to those and other reasons gold has broken out to new highs. It could well be that gold may never see $1,000 again. Long ago the world’s central banks set the course for a planned collapse of the world economy to implement...

Gold retreats from record high Hit a record high of $1,194.90 earlier Thursday, but pulls back as U.S. dollar bounces Humeyra Pamuk London — Reuters Published on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009 6:48AM EST Last updated on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009 6:51AM EST Gold (GC-FT1,185.50-1.50-0.13%) fell from a record high hit earlier on Thursday as the dollar rebounded from its lows, but the market was still expected to seek higher ground due to prospects for central bank buying and further dollar weakness. Spot gold hit a record high of $1,194.90, but had retreated to $1,182.70 an ounce by 1023 GMT versus...

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that it has sold 10 metric tons of gold to Sri Lanka, the third customer to acquire a portion of its gold holdings. The IMF in September finalized a plan to sell 403.3 metric tons of gold—an amount equivalent to about one-eighth of its total holdings. The IMF previously announced the sales of 200 metric tons of gold to India and 2 metric tons to Mauritius.

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures fell on Thursday after climbing to a record just below $1,200 an ounce, as the dollar rebounded against its rivals, pressuring the precious metal. Gold for December delivery dropped $3.30 to $1,183.70 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex.

The United States Mint has a gold problem. As demand for precious metal in the futures indexes and in physical gold bullion coins increases as the dollar weakens, there's been a run on the Mint. Don't worry, there's no shortage of gold. It's just that the Mint doesn't have the resources to make it into coins due to outsourcing and budget cuts decades ago. The problem lies in manufacturing the blanks. The blank planchets are not made at the Mint, which hasn't had the production capacity for this stage of the minting process since the budget cuts of 1981. The...

Gold futures rose to a record high near $1,188 an ounce Wednesday, getting a fresh lift on reports central banks were in the market to buy bullion and as the U.S. dollar slid to a key level against the euro. Also providing support, holdings in the biggest gold exchange-traded fund rose again. Climbing for the ninth straight session, gold for December delivery rose as high as $1,187.50 an ounce. The contract ended up $21.20, or 1.8%, at $1,187 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. India, Sri Lanka Analysts said speculation India could buy more...

Gold closed at 1192.90 up $23Baltic Dry index turned downDollar down against the Euro and the Swiss Franc. Is this the beginning of the actual Collapse or can the FED and Goldman push enough money around to cap this for another day?

Gold at 1191.80

Another Crisis Looms Right Around The Corner by: The Housing Time Bomb November 24, 2009 Folks, I consider this to be one of my most important posts. I am going to offer a warning and some advice. I am extremely concerned about the things that I am seeing in the markets. The US dollar carry trade, soaring gold, and the apparent imminent passing of health care reform are the last straws that are going to eventually break this market's back. As a result, I have tweaked my investment strategy. I will explain my concerns in further detail later on in...

A dollar plunge could ravage the U.S. economy as soon as 2012, when foreign investors are likely to exit en masse from U.S. assets, according to a new book by two analysts who forecast the recent credit crisis. Even after credit, stock and housing bubbles popped in the past two years, dollar denominated assets are still overvalued, and a bigger crisis is yet to come, write the authors of "Aftershock: Protect yourself and profit in the next global financial meltdown". Huge U.S. government debt issuance will drag the dollar into a much deeper dive, say analysts David Wiedemer and Robert...

Gold is on a tear this morning, just breaking $1,182. The dollar is losing serious ground against the Euro during early AM trading. Check out the Euro/Dollar spike in the second chart below.

Video at site. RCMP have solved a bizarre mystery: How did $15.3 million in gold vanish from the Royal Canadian Mint? And while their report is still two weeks away, CTV News has learned the answer. "Senior government officials say there was a colossal error at the mint itself," said CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife on Tuesday night. Mint officials double-counted some gold bullion they sold, and also underestimated the shrinkage of the gold during processing. The federal government had withheld bonuses for mint executives until the mystery was solved. It's unclear whether those bonuses will still be paid...

Vietnam has been forced to devalue its currency, the dong, for the third time since June 2008. The country's pegged exchange rate will shift to 17,961 dong per dollar vs. 17,034 previously. The Vietnamese central bank will also hiking interest rates to 8% from 7% in an attempt to control inflation.

A new record high in the price of gold and fresh speculation of an increase in Australian interest next week are pushing the dollar lower, with the euro making another attempt to break over $1.50. Spot gold touched a fresh record high of $1180.10 per troy ounce and, at 0730 GMT, was trading at $1177.85, up $7.55 from the New York close. “In the runup to Thanksgiving it would appear the desire to lock in profit is still not greater than that to accumulate new long positions,” said Barclays Capital in a research note.

India plans to buy more gold from IMF Nov 24 2009 India is open to buying more gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It bought 200 tonnes for $6.7 billion on November 3. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may well buy IMF’s remaining hoard of 201.3 tonnes on acceptable terms, which are now under negotiation. A government official said that the additional purchase would depend on the “successful pitching by RBI”. “RBI is an independent body, and the government does not interfere in its affairs. It will get the gold if its bid is successful and at the...

"The point of fiat currencies is to debase them as needed" While some investors remain concerned that lax monetary policy could end up resulting in inflation sometime down the road, we would argue instead that the whole point of having a fiat currency is to be able to debase it when the economic conditions require it. LINK TO PDF

I was struck with Bernanke’s comment last week at the Economics Club regarding bubbles. He said: ”It is not obvious to me that there are any misalignments in the US financial system”. This comment has already gotten the attention of the media. Two years from now the blogs will be quoting it along with other notable words from the Chairman. Remember the following? Mr. Bernanke regrets having said this. “We (the Fed) do not expect significant spillovers from the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.” When Mr. Bernanke made those comments back in...

Since up is down and left is right in an anchorless fiat currency world, one must keep a perspective on things. As a Gold investor, I am not exactly bullish on the U.S. Dollar. However, I also am not bullish on other international paper currencies, either. I wouldn't place faith in the Euro, the British Pound, the Swiss Franc, the Japanese Yen or the Chinese Yuan over the next few years. When the chips are down and the global economy falters, every country now seems to have an endless ability to create more debt and start the party up again...

Nov. 23, 2009, 11:44 a.m. EST New gold bugs making gold investments mainstream Tudor, Paulson, Greenlight, Hayman bring precious metal in from the fringe By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold has long been favored by a fringe of the investment world, but this year some of the world's leading hedge-fund managers have loaded up on the precious metal amid concern government efforts to avoid another Great Depression that could undermine major currencies and fuel rampant inflation. "I have never been a gold bug," Paul Tudor Jones, chairman of hedge-fund giant Tudor Investment Corp., wrote in an Oct....

A Mad Rush as Gold Bugs Get the Boot By CAROLYN CUI Fleets of armored trucks piled with gold bars and coins have been streaming out of midtown Manhattan in one unexpected consequence of the gold craze. Amid gold's rise -- it has gained 32% this year and reached a record on Monday -- investors have been loading up on bullion and coins. One big problem now is where to store it. The solution from HSBC, owner of one of the biggest vaults in the U.S.: somewhere else. HSBC has told retail clients to remove their small holdings from its...

(SNIP) "......In the wake of last year's run on the modern financial system, hoarding(gold) has come roaring back into fashion in some rarified echelons of the investment community. Some of the world's most-respected hedge fund managers have amassed large gold positions this year to protect against a possible inflation surge and a plunge in paper currencies as governments unleashed an unprecedented series of monetary and fiscal stimuli to avert another Great Depression.

Gold hits record above $1,170/oz as dollar slides By Jan Harvey 42 mins ago LONDON (Reuters) – Gold hit a record high at $1,170.55 an ounce on Monday as dollar weakness pushed the metal through key technical resistance levels, fuelling momentum buying after the metal's sharp run higher earlier this month. Spot gold was bid at $1,168.90 an ounce at 8:14 a.m. EST (1418 GMT), against $1,148.20 late in New York on Friday. U.S. gold futures for December delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $22.50 to $1,169.30 an ounce. "Gold has a lot of...

There has been an endless amount of chatter about the price of gold being too high (it's not) and perhaps representing a bubble. It also seems that fair amounts of ink and windage have been wasted on worries about the gold trade being "too crowded." In my daily column on my own Web site, on Sept. 17, I noted a remark by Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter that the gold market was "terribly, egregiously, preposterously, shockingly overpopulated." That day, gold closed at $1,014 an ounce. Here we are, about two months later, and gold is more than 10% higher....

$1160 now shattered. Just like last week, gold is rocking out of the gate, breaking $1160/oz for the first time. Astounding.

Looks like it's up $$ 11.60 right now. I was thinking there were some contracts expiring today or something like that.

Visitors to America might have noticed the television ads urging us to buy gold. One such “spokesman”, formerly in charge of managing the government’s hoard of the yellow stuff, including the ingots buried at Fort Knox, points out that the value of gold has never fallen to zero. Why investors are expected to find such a modest claim reassuring I can’t imagine. But something is persuading people to buy gold, driving the price to and past $1,100 per ounce, from about $270 at the beginning of this decade, and around $700 when the financial crisis first hit.

Visitors to America might have noticed the television ads urging us to buy gold. One such “spokesman”, formerly in charge of managing the government’s hoard of the yellow stuff, including the ingots buried at Fort Knox, points out that the value of gold has never fallen to zero. Why investors are expected to find such a modest claim reassuring I can’t imagine. But something is persuading people to buy gold, driving the price to and past $1,100 per ounce, from about $270 at the beginning of this decade, and around $700 when the financial crisis first hit. This is not...

From a speculator's perspective, the total return potential now in silver is probably greater than gold. On a percentage basis, the price of silver can easily outpace gold over the next few years as both metals hit record highs after adjusting for inflation since 1980. Silver might achieve that goal far more quickly than gold. But as gold reaches over $1,145 this week (+10% in November) there's one missing ingredient required to legitimize this historic bull market; silver must exceed its March 2008 high of $20.78 an ounce. Spot silver trades at $18.71 an ounce this morning in New York....

Video at site In a new video, one noted doomsayer, Peter Schiff, takes on another one, Nouriel Roubini, on the subject of gold. Nouriel Roubini believes every asset, including gold, is over-inflated due to the dollar carry trade. Schiff disagrees, and says Roubini doesn't understand the fundamentals behind gold -- that it's going to keep heading higher as a result of government action.

Gold prices, which have already soared to record levels in recent weeks, could get a further boost from a new investor: central banks. Several central banks are joining average investors in betting that weak currencies—particularly the US dollar—could be a friend to the gold trade for quite some time. AP After a weak summer, gold has rallied strongly over the past three months on the belief that that the dollar will continue to fall until the US economic recovery is on more solid footing. For Rob Lutts, CIO of Cabot Management in Salem, Mass., bull markets such as gold's run...

Ask yourselves why the price of gold is headed to $1500. The answer is that this government has lost control of the currency and therefore the economy. Normally price appreciation is great except when it comes to gold. It means our political leaders have no idea what they are doing and there are going to be very severe consequences. Very! Last November gold was at $700. Now it is at $1100 on its way to $1500. We will all have third rate health care with no jobs. What a future.

Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction. In a report entitled "Worst-case debt scenario", the bank's asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private. It must be reduced by the hard slog of "deleveraging", for years....

The following story in italics is a potential fictional time line for the day the dollar died. I hope not to instill fear or loathing but to give everyone some perspective on a POSSIBLE outcome which does not really take much of a reach to come to any conclusion. Despite popular belief and promises from those who wish to rob you of your savings and investments, the collapse of the dollar might just be an event measured in hours, not days as their control is not what it seems…..

Video at site. Federal Reserve officials on Thursday downplayed the consequences of the falling U.S. dollar, pounting to deflation as a lingering threat. The dollar has fallen 7 percent so far this year and likely has become a funding vehicle for bets on higher-yielding currencies in growing emerging markets. So how should investors guard their portfolios? Jim Rickards, senior managing director of market intelligence at Omnis, shared his insights.