Posted on 04/11/2010 8:17:32 AM PDT by JustTheTruth
Metal$ are in the pits
Posted: 2:10 AM, April 11, 2010
There is no silver lining to the activities of JPMorgan Chase and HSBC in the precious-metals market here and in London, says a 40-year veteran of the metal pits.
The banks, which do the Federal Reserve's bidding in the metals markets, have long been the government's lead actors in keeping down the prices of gold and silver, according to a former Goldman Sachs trader working at the London Bullion Market Association.
Maguire was scheduled to testify last week before the Commodities Futures Trade Commission, which is looking into the activities of large banks in the metals market, but was knocked off the list at the last moment. So, he went public.
"JPMorgan acts as an agent for the Federal Reserve; they act to halt the rise of gold and silver against the US dollar. JPMorgan is insulated from potential losses [on their short positions] by the Fed and/or the US taxpayer," Maguire said. <...>
"HSBC conducts an ongoing manipulative concentrated naked short position in gold. Silver is much easier to manipulate due to its much smaller [market] size," Maguire added.
<...> Also during the CFTC hearing, Jeff Christian, founder of the commodities firm CPM Group, said that the LBMA, the physical delivery market for gold and silver in the UK, has been using leverage, which is another way to depress the price of gold and silver.
Christian said that the LBMA -- the same market Maguire trades in -- has leverage of about 100-1 on the gold bars settled on the exchange. In layman's terms, that means if 100 clients requested their bullion bars be delivered, the exchange could only give one client the precious metal. ... [exerpt only]
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
As far as the US is concerned, even assuming the Fed is telling us the truth (serious doubt there), $300 billion in gold reserves isn't of any serious value. That doesn't cover 1/6 of this year's admitted deficit. Forget the total debt.
$1.00/gal gas is all well and good ... until the supply abruptly runs out because no one can produce it at that cost. Then you’d be calling for someone’s head, same as the rest of us.
Why exactly would the Fed care what the gold price is doing? There hasn’t been a gold link with the dollar since Nixon.
If gold was spiking with everything else then the Fed would have big worries since it would indicate inflation. But gold can be high for reasons other than inflation, which is certainly the case right now. Gold is likely in a bubble and if big holders need to get liquid gold is going to suffer.
Run a search on "Gibson's Paradox".
Says it all right here.....ping.
If anyone on this board has purchased gold and is not in physical possession of it...he/she better move fast to locate it or its all over but the shouting...these merchants have sold more gold than exists.
I was just reading about the UKs gold debacle. How Gorden Brown thought it would a great move to sell a big portion of it’s gold reserves about 10 years ago when it was at a
major low.. Their government is trying to hide the number but it cost them billions in losses compared what it would be worth today . And given the massive inflation coming to that country and what could be the worst recession in decades, they now have almost no gold reserves to fall back on.
Are you sure you’re sure, Kilmer?
SEE: U.S. Gold, Going or Completely Gone?
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/kirby/2009/0529.html
I am interested in your opinion of the above article.
Plunge Protection Team
Lotta folks been questioning exactly how much Gold the Government really has...might not be as much as they are saying...
real-time
Agreed, while everyone is focused on QE and inflation...they don’t see the 500 trillion dollar gorilla in the room...Credit Default Swaps...as of yet to deleverage.
“The bubble that ate the World”.”
How can a person trust a commodity as volatile as gold has been? Isn’t it true that if something can go up astronomically that it can crash just the same?
He grew in office.
SEE: U.S. Gold, Going or Completely Gone?
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/kirby/2009/0529.html
I am interested in your opinion of the above article.
.......
I looked at the article. On table 3 the guy inserts in gold that “Almost 3000 metric tons of “Gold components” were exported from the US in 2008.”
However, if you read the table it says that the numbers on the table are denominated in “kilograms of gold, unless otherwise stated.”
The numbers for US gold exports are put in kilograms.
there are .001 metric tons in a kilogram.
so if you multiply 3000 metric tonnes by .001 you get 3.
The US exported about 6600 pounds of gold last year.
Thanks for the clarification. Wow! Do I feel stupid for not noticing.
except that it wasn’t Three thousand metric tons.
It was 3 metric tons.
Kindly read the table.
That said there is a posting around here that george soros doubled down on gold recently, so that’s a good sign its a good investment.
Negative. The table says 2,920,000 kg, which is 2920 metric tons. Which converts to 6.4 million pounds. The author rounded up to 3k metric tons.
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