Free Republic

Brexit is back in the news, but this time it's weighing on gold prices and gold mining stocks. The difference: Unlike in June, there's no real panic, just a vague sense of foreboding, but nothing bad enough to keep the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates. December gold closed down 3.3% to $1,269.70 an ounce on Tuesday, the biggest one-day decline since December 2013. It was the sixth straight losing session as gold undercut a key technical level. Gold price moves have a big impact on the profitability of gold miners, which tumbled on the stock market today... ...A stronger...

The Uck! factor aside, the case was also an illuminating look at security measures inside the Mint, the building on Sussex Drive that produces hundreds of millions of gold coins annually for the federal Crown corporation.... One day a teller became suspicious at the size and number of Ottawa Gold Buyers cheques being deposited and Lawrence’s request to wire money out of the country. She then noticed on his account profile that he worked at the Mint. The first red flag was up.

Iran may have received an additional $33.6 billion in secret cash and gold payments facilitated by the Obama administration between 2014 and 2016, according to testimony provided before Congress by an expert on last summer’s nuclear agreement with Iran. Between January 2014 and July 2015, when the Obama administration was hammering out the final details of the nuclear accord, Iran was paid $700 million every month from funds that had previously been frozen by U.S. sanctions. A total of $11.9 billion was ultimately paid to Iran, but the details surrounding these payments remain shrouded in mystery, according to Mark Dubowitz,...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

"Striking gold" is mainly a term to express when someone gets really lucky nowadays, but by golly, someone has actually done it. A 145-ounce gold nugget has been reportedly found in Victoria, Australia by a real life prospector and could be worth more than A$250,000 ($190,710) when it goes to auction. The big 'ol nugget has been named "Friday's Joy" on account of the day it was found.

When World War I began, many analysts believed that the international gold standard would keep the war short. A war of attrition was not thought to be possible because the disciplining effects of the gold standard — capital flight and gold outflow — were supposed to restrain the ability of states to mobilize resources in times of war. As many believed at the time, states under the gold standard would quickly run out of money to pay for soldiers and resources. No one ever imagined that the war would last four long years and that most countries would stop using...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Geno Auriemma and Diana Taurasi shared a long, emotional embrace. Mission accomplished. The dominant U.S. women's basketball team did what was expected, winning a sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal and doing it in impressive fashion. In yet another rout, the U.S. dismantled Spain 101-72 on Saturday.

Hello all, I was gifted a couple gold coins a few years ago -- just basic, 1 oz American Eagle coins, no special edition or date or anything like that. I kind of forgot I had them, but recently decided to sell one of them off to finance my conspicuous consumption of .22 ammo, and came a bit of a cropper, as our British cousins might put it. Simply put, aside from selling the thing at a pawn shop for pennies on the dollar, how are you supposed to sell the damn thing? What research I've done seems to indicate...

Michelle Carter won the shot put gold medal Friday night at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 32 years after her father, Michael, took the silver in the same event at the Los Angeles 1984 Games. "Of course, I can't wait until I get the medal and I can walk around the house and say 'Daddy, I got you,'" said Carter, who will receive her gold medal in a victory ceremony Saturday.

[Full title: ‘A high-stakes dispute over ten pieces of gold’: Court reclaims priceless Double Eagle coins for U.S. government] When the coins were struck in 1933, the United States Mint must have understood the golden pieces were the last of a dying breed. What the minters could not have foreseen was the saga of thievery and legal limbo that would unfold over the next 90 years, centered on 10 of the gold coins that bore Lady Liberty on the front and a soaring eagle on the reverse. At the time they were minted, the gold pieces had a face value...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world. The full edition of the New York Tribune from Tuesday July 21, 1896 (digitized). Some other headlines from today's paper... VENEZUELA MAKES RELY: An Elaborate Brief Filed with the Boundary Commission| THREATS OF LYNCHING: A Brooklyn Prisoner Kept in Police Station for Protection| LOUD THREATS OF BOLTING - WAR CLOUDS OVER ST. LOUIS: Populists Divided Over Bryan Into Hostile Camps

As the Clinton-led State Department dragged its feet against Boko Haram, Clinton Foundation donors made millions from Nigerian oil fields The attacks on Jan. 20, 2012, began not so much as an explosion but as an earthquake. ....In coordinated bombings at 23 separate locations in the city of Kano, including police headquarters and military barracks, the group left one of Africa’s largest cities in disarray and panic. The January attacks killed more than 185 people—Africa’s worst terrorism since the 1998 al-Qaeda attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. ...Boko Haram often showed up better equipped than the Nigerian military...prominently...

ISIS is now issuing its own currency referred to as the ‘Golden Dinar,’ with engravings bearing the words “Islamic State.” The coins, currently being released in limited quantity, are to primarily be used by traders in the oil industry in areas under Islamic State control, according to reports on jihadi online forums. Activists in Deir ez-Zor, Syria reported oil traders have been ordered to use the new Dinar when purchasing from ISIS-held oil fields. Reports from the Iraqi city of Mosul have indicated the Golden Dinar is being introduced to the currency market as part of a serious attempt to...

Unearthed: the humble origins of world diplomacy By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent 19 January 2003 Archaeologists have discovered evidence of an invasion of the Middle East by one of the world's first superpowers, which destroyed much of the region 33 centuries ago. Under the ruins of a 3,800-year-old royal palace in western Syria they have found part of an ancient diplomatic and administrative library, the most important archaeological discovery of its kind for more than 20 years. Accounts on clay tablets describe the region's conquest by one of the Bronze Age's superpowers, the Hittite Empire, in 1340BC. This helped to...

Tyler Durden Jul 3, 2016 10:50 PM Update: Silver just exploded above $21 - up almost 8% - its biggest single day surge since September 2013. Silver is limit up on SHFE as Gold is also surging back towards Brexit highs near $1360... China's CFETS Renminbi basket just hit a record low..(snip)Lots of charts...click on link(snip)

George Soros may be getting rich on an implosion in British markets—again. The landmark vote in the U.K. to leave the European Union has rocked global markets, sending the British pound GBPUSD, -7.3484% to its lowest level in more than 30 years. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.27% plunged as much as 700 points at one point and Europe’s benchmark stock-index SXXP, -6.10% was facing its worst one-day plunge since 1987. It is precisely the scenario Soros, writing in Britain’s Guardian newspaper last week, warned of. The global financial carnage and Friday’s carnage could be adding to...

It may seem unusual that an economist would talk about culture. Usually, we talk about prices and production, quantities produced, employment, the structure of production, scarce resources, and entrepreneurship. But there are certain things that economists can say about the culture, and more precisely, that economists can say about the transformation of the culture. So what is culture? Well, to put it simply, it is the way we do things. This can include the way we eat — whether or not we dine with family members on a regular basis, for example — how we sleep, and how we use...

Fairfax Global Markets CEO Paul Dietrich on the potential market implications of a British exit from the European Union, the state of the U.S. economy and the 2016 presidential race.

On June 23, the voters of Great Britain will decide whether or not to leave the European Union (EU), which Britain joined in the early 1970s. With a week until the decision is due, the forces of “Leave the EU” have increased sharply over the “Remain” vote. This has caused a collapse in the British pound in anticipation of the vote. This has also caused many Britons to exchange their weak pound sterling for gold. One leading British gold dealer said that the U.K. is outstripping all other regions for demand growth this month, up 59% in June. Their head...