Free Republic

An increasing number of countries are repatriating gold reserves as protection against the sort of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, according to an Invesco survey of central bank and sovereign wealth funds published on Monday.The financial market rout last year caused widespread losses for sovereign money managers who are "fundamentally" rethinking their strategies on the belief that higher inflation and geopolitical tensions are here to stay. Over 85% of the 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks that took part in the annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study believe that inflation will now be higher in...

A man unearthed a huge hoard of Civil War-era gold and silver coins on his Kentucky farm A Kentucky man got the surprise of his life while digging in his field earlier this year: a cache of over 700 coins from the American Civil War era.The "Great Kentucky Hoard" includes hundreds of U.S. gold pieces dating to between 1840 and 1863, in addition to a handful of silver coins. In a short video, the man who discovered the hoard — whose identity and specific location have not been revealed to the public — says, "This is the most insane thing...

QUESTION: Do you think the BRICS would create a gold-back currency as proposed by Russia? SJ ANSWER: The Neocon has directed the Biden administration to remove Russia from SWIFT. Their single-minded goal is destroying the world economy, but they do not care. They think they will conquer Russia and China and dominate the world so they will worry about the monetary system afterward. You have to understand that if the BRICS followed that directive and created a single gold-back currency, they would have to end any idea of international trade. This proposal is understandable given the hostility of the United...

In a move expected to fuel the ongoing de-dollarization trend, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have announced plans to introduce a new trading currency backed by gold. The official announcement is slated to take place during the BRICS summit in South Africa in August. This development comes as central banks worldwide have been increasing their gold reserves to diversify away from the U.S. dollar—especially those belonging to the BRICS nations. In fact, the Chinese and Russian central banks have purchased no less than 130 tons of gold in Q1 and Q2 2023 alone. In 2022,...

In an op-ed posted on The Daily Reckoning on Tuesday, former CIA and Department of Defense advisor and investment banker James Rickards predicted that August 22 will be the day the U.S. dollar’s status, as the world reserve currency and medium for exchange will formally collapse.Many factors are worth considering, including the weaponization of the dollar against Russia’s economy amid the conflict in Ukraine, the U.S.’ own national debt of $31 trillion, and recent talks on the part of the BRICS+ group to create an alternative trade and reserve currency that would rival the dollar.“On August 22, about two-and-a-half months...

I know, the Soviet Union’s Josef Stalin was known as Country Joe. Here is Country Joe singing “I feel like the US economy is fixin’ to die.” On the commodity side, Spot Silver is up 1.46%. Iron Ore is up 1.60%, but I don’t think my neighbors would appreciate me taking delivery on 10 tons of iron ore on my driveway! Heating oil is up 2.90%. On the crypto side, bitcoin is up 20.84 (0.08%) with Ethereum up slightly more. Bitcoin and silver doing well as the US Dollar loses ground since September 2022. Biden is out of touch with...

Fridays are always fun in the market. Bitcoin is up 3.23% as The Fed took a pause yesterday. Note that bitcoin and gold are moving together since March 2023 as the US Dollar deteriorates. And expectations of Fed rate hikes (yellow dashed line) increases. As least Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria knows better than to trust Creepy Grandpa Joe! Or Pedo Peter as his son Hunter calls him.

Time to once again consult the great hive mind that is my fellow FReepers... I am a relatively new (about 6 months) silver stacker (and gold, when I can afford it). One thing I've been hearing for a long time is "Silver is undervalued."I know silver is used for a zillion industrial uses -- solar, electronics, medical, etc. I know there is a huge deficit between "paper" silver and actual physical silver to back that paper. I know demand has been through the roof for many months -- not just in the U.S. but around the world -- and not...

I have gotten a flood of emails and text messages asking about what happens if Biden defaults on the US debt. In short, Biden has made a career out of spending money, as has Speaker McCarthy. They both have an incentive to raise the debt ceiling, but whether it is cuts to Biden’s insane budget (higher than Covid-era spending) and wants to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it. McCarthy wants a trimmed budget (aka, back to pre-Covid spending levels) and NOT raises taxes. They will eventually agree somewhere in the middle (US Congress member Pramila Jayapal...

Thinking of buying precious metals for SHTF (economic collapse)scenario. In a SHTF scenario would one ounce of silver be worth more or less if it were an American Silver Eagle (coin), a one ounce silver round, or a one ounce silver bar? Same goes for gold. Also, in an American SHTF scenario , would a silver coin minted in Canada or Australia be worth more or less provided their economies had not collapsed. As far as I know the US mint only mints Silver Eagles and Gold Eagles. Why are some other rounds called coins. I understand that in order...

The first-quarter dip never happened. Some observers say that’s a problem. Credit-card balances hit $986 billion in the fourth quarter, but remain largely unchanged in the first quarter of the year, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its most recent quarterly report on household debt. It looks increasingly likely that credit-card debt is on track to hit the $1 trillion mark this year, and experts say that this number could be an indicator of a looming economic downturn.

With new rules requiring IRS disclosure for all sales over $600, and in view of the fact that eBay dealers were specifically mentioned, does anyone have any idea of what buyers and sellers are doing for sales over $600 privately? How about a seller to a jewelry store or gold dealer?

Gold isn’t raining from the sky in California, but it might be flooding into the rivers by summer. “Nugget Nick” Prebalick expects the record snowpack in northern California to deposit even more gold in Woods Creek in Tuolumne County, where he shares a claim with his father and son near Jamestown. The family has been offering tours to those who want to experience gold mining and learn about the history of the gold rush in the state. “I’m already finding more gold,” Prebalick told The Epoch Times. “I’ve been finding gold every tour.” The Prebalicks, who own California Gold Panning,...

Lucky for you, these gold rush hot spots have not yet run their mining courseMillions of Americans have tried their luck at gold panning. In 1852, the peak production year of the Gold Rush, $81 million worth of gold was discovered in California alone, coming to about $3.2 billion in today’s dollars. And still, two centuries later, prospectors search for gold in public areas across the American West. “Once you see your first flake of gold pop out of the pan, it hooks you,” says Andy Brooks, president of the Central Valley Prospectors gold panning club based in Fresno, California....

Americans continue to deal with rising prices even as the economy deteriorates. But the US isn’t the only country with an inflation problem. As Peter Schiff explained in a recent podcast, every country has let the inflation horses out of the barn. When you couple that with the de-dollarization trend, it’s bullish for gold.More and more economic indicators signal a looming recession. The Leading Economic Index is now lower than in the early stages of the 2008 recession. In a recent interview, Peter said we’d be lucky to escape with just a recession.Now, we don’t just have a weak economy,...

India has taken its first step towards liberating itself from dependence on the US dollar by buying oil from Russia in Indian rupees We have seen the continuous rise of the dollar since the First World War. After World War I, in exchange for supplies, the Allies began paying in gold to the United States, due to which America became the world's largest gold reserve. After the end of the war, various countries linked their currencies with the dollar and with this, the 'Gold Standard' ended in the world and thus the dollar became the world's most preferred currency. All...

OTTAWA — Early Monday evening, a special container, about five to six square feet, was unloaded from an airplane at Toronto’s international airport. Inside it was more than 20 million Canadian dollars, about $14.8 million, in gold and other valuables. It was swiftly moved into a secure cargo holding facility. Then, like many a suitcase, it vanished. Announcing the theft on Thursday, Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn of the Peel Regional Police, the force that patrols Toronto Pearson Airport, offered few details about how the high-value container had disappeared beyond perhaps the obvious: by “illegal means.” The investigators gave so little information...

BANDITS have stolen almost two tons of gold worth a whopping £80million from an airport in one of the world's biggest-ever heists. The gold, which was being held in a secure facility, was in the process of being moved through Toronto Pearson International Airport. But crafty crooks somehow managed to intercept the swag that weighed a hulking 1,630kg. The airport is often relied on to transport gold that has been mined in Ontario to bling lovers around the world. Police are now desperately searching for the masterminds behind the extraordinary heist.

Biden, The Federal Reserve and insane Federal spending are killing King Dollar. Countries that used to use the US Dollar as reserve currency are dumping the dollar like a month old burrito. What countries are dumping the dollar? A lengthy list of countries are moving away from using the US dollar, which has long been the reserve currency of the world. The following countries are in the process of reducing their dependency on the dollar. Russia China Iran Brazil Argentina Saudi Arabia UAE India The result? Biden has vacationed 40% of the days he has been President. In his defense,...

Joe Biden is dethroning King Dollar in real time. The US dollar’s financial dominance is under siege from a uniquely bad combination of foreign and domestic policies, and Americans should be deeply concerned by the fallout if the dollar loses its 80-year reign as the world’s reserve currency. In just the past weeks, China conducted the first major LNG sale in renminbi instead of dollars, struck a major deal with Brazil to conduct trade in their own currencies, and just announced the sale of 65,000 tons of LNG to France denominated in yuan. This dovetails with the Biden administration’s inflationary...