*¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD & SILVER*
It was another day where gold chopped sideways in a wide range in rather directionless trading. This state of affairs latest until just before 9:30 a.m. EDT in New York. Then by 10:30 a.m. gold had tacked on fourteen bucks or so, and then worked its way a few dollars higher, closing the electronic session almost on its high of the day.
The low tick [around $1,315 spot] came shortly after 9 a.m. Hong Kong time, and the high tick [$1,337.70 spot] came very late in the New York Access Market.
The gold price closed on Wednesday at $1,336.50 spot, up $15.10 from Wednesday, just about regaining all it lost on Tuesday. Volume, net of August and September, was 128,000 contracts, with a big chunk of that coming before the 10:30 a.m BST London a.m. gold fix.
Here's the New York Spot Gold [Bid] chart on its own, so you can see the most important aspect of the Wednesday trading day, and that was the 1-hour rally in New York starting around 9:20 a.m. EDT.
The silver price began to rally right around the 8 a.m. BST London open, and never looked back. Most of the day's gains were in by minutes after 3 p.m. EDT in electronic trading in New York. After that, it traded basically flat.
I'd guess that the low tick was around $21.25 spot some time during the Hong Kong trading session, and the high tick was recorded by Kitco as $21.99 spot, and that came within an hour of the 5:15 p.m. EDT close of electronic trading.
Silver finished the day at $21.875, up 41.5 cents from Tuesday. Net volume was 39,000 contract but, like gold, a lot of this was of the HFT variety, and , like gold, occurred before the London a.m gold fix.
Platinum got sold down pretty good in Far East and London trading yesterday, but then dug itself out of that hole and closed up a hair on the day. It was pretty much the same chart pattern for palladium as well, but the price action was far more subdued. Here are the charts,
The *dollar index* closed late Tuesday afternoon in New York at 81.77, and when it opened on Wednesday morning in Tokyo, it traded in a very tight range for the entire day on Planet Earth yesterday, close in New York at 81.71, down 6 basis points. Nothing to see here, folks, please move along.
The gold stocks gapped up a bit more than a percent at the 9:30 a.m. EDT stock market open, and then rose quickly to their high of the day, which came shortly after 11 a.m. in New York, after that it traded flat in an extremely tight range for the rest of the day. The *HUI* closed up a very respectable 5.61%.
The same can be said for the silver stocks, and Nick Laird's *Intraday Silver Sentiment Index* closed up 4.16%.
(Click on image to enlarge)
The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that one gold and one silver contract were posted for delivery on Friday, and that was it! Checking the preliminary open interest numbers for Wednesday, I note that there are still 1,182 gold contracts open in the August delivery month.
*GLD* reported receiving some gold yesterday, as an authorized participant deposited 67,614 troy ounces. And as of 11:24 p.m. EDT, there were no reported changes in*SLV*.
There was no sales report from the *U.S. Mint*.
Over at the *Comex-approved depositories* on Tuesday, they reported receiving 99 troy ounces of *gold*, and shipped 32,365 troy ounces out of the stuff out the door. Virtually all the gold withdrawn was out of the HSBC USA vault. The link to that activity is here.
In *silver* on Tuesday, these same depositories reported receiving 574,138 troy ounces, and shipped out 191,210 troy ounces. The link to that action is here.
I have a decent number of stories for you today, and I hope that there are some in here that interest you.
*¤ CRITICAL READS*
-Rick Santelli on Q.E. Tapering: A Classic Rant-
This 4:30 minute CNBC video from yesterday is *well worth watching*. The talking heads are discussing 'tapering'...and just seconds after the 1:00 minute mark, Rick chimes in from the CME...and the rest, as they say, is history. I thank reader Tom Germain for today's first news item.
Read more...
-David Rosenberg: Here's Why I Finally Gave Up On My 20-Year-Old Deflation Call-
I have been laying out the groundwork for the next phase of this cycle, which is good news for Main Street even if not that great for Wall Street or my long-held belief in the longevity of this secular disinflationary cycle ... which I think is now in its mature stage.
I think the people that write off the prospect of cost-push inflation are taking on a very myopic view. Inflation is a process, and it takes a long while to build. There is evidence that the consumer deleveraging cycle is largely over. Subprime auto credit is up 30% from a year ago. We are up to a 20% share of mortgages being originated with down payments of less than 10%. CLO (collateralized loan obligation) issuance is back to 2007 levels. In the corporate space, fully one-third of high-yield debt issues this year have been centered in firms with the weakest balance sheets. At some point, money velocity and the money multiplier will stop falling. No doubt fiscal drag will take a chunk out of GDP growth in the near-term, but this too shall pass and the reality is that the aggregate supply curve (and this is true globally) has become increasingly inelastic. The pool of available skilled labour is shrinking rapidly and after five years of the weakest growth in the private sector capital stock, we are starting to see the lagged ill-effects on productivity growth. Potential non-inflationary growth had already been pared, in my estimates, to 1.7%. And the only way we could have experienced a drop in the unemployment rate in the past year from 8.2% to 7.4% in the face of sub-2% economic growth strongly suggests that we are now on our way to a potential non-inflationary speed limit of just 1%. Very European indeed.
So if you are an issuer, the time for refinancing is now, not later. And if you are an investor, don’t spend too long debating whether you should be starting to hedge your portfolio against the prospect of a rising long- term interest rate environment, even as central banks continue to keep short-term policy yields at the floor. From the perspective of an economist at a wealth management firm, this means embarking on strategies that over time will effectively hedge out interest rate risk, for example with exposure to hard assets, credit arbitrage, and screening in the equity market for companies with high fixed costs and low variable costs, high ratios of capital to labour, and firms with a proven history of being able to pass on cost increases to protect profit margins.
This longish presentation by Rosenberg was posted on thebusinessinsider.com Internet site very late yesterday afternoon EDT...and it should go on your *must read list* today for sure. I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to our attention.
Read more...
-Why Two Unknown Traders Could Take The Heat For The JP Morgan 'London Whale' Loss-
Neither Javier Martin-Artajo nor Julien Grout were the so-called "London Whale", yet they are the two former traders in the JP Morgan Chief Investment Office (CIO) that have been charged for various offenses related to the $6 billion loss that rocked the House of Dimon last year.
The question is why?
First thing's first, Bruno Iksil, the man known as the 'London Whale' has been talking to prosecutors about what happened in the CIO for months, and cut a deal to avoid prosecution. That leaves other traders in the CIO that managed the portfolio of synthetic derivatives in question to take the fall.
Yep, that's pretty much what I said about this situation the other day. This businessinsider.com story was posted on their Internet site shortly after the markets closed in New York yesterday...and it's courtesy of Roy Stephens as well.
Read more...
-DOJ Compounds Stat Screw-up by Whitewashing Old Eric Holder Speech-
Courtesy of old friend Paul Thacker, former Hill staffer and currently a fellow at Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, here's an interesting addendum to Bloomberg's highly embarrassing Eric-Holder-Caught-Juking-the-Stats story that came out this Sunday.
It turns out that Barack Obama's Justice Department, in the person of Attorney General Holder, didn't just grossly overstate the success of its Mortgage Fraud Task Force. In what at best is a bonehead mistake, the Department channeled 1984 and whitewashed a web page, re-transcribing an old speech of Holder's to better reflect the "updated" version of the mortgage facts.
By now most people who follow white-collar crime know the back story. Last year, on October 9th, Mr. Holder gave a press conference in which he touted the efforts of Barack Obama's Mortgage Fraud Task Force, claiming that in a year's time, the Department had secured "285 federal criminal indictments and informations against 530 defendants for allegedly victimizing more than 73,000 American homeowners --and inflicting losses in excess of $1 billion."
Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil did a number on Eric Holder in an op-ed piece I posted in this space on Tuesday...and now Rolling Stonejournalist Matt Taibbi is having a go at him here...with some of usual 'pithy prose' sprinkled about. It was posted on their website just before noon EDT time yesterday...and it's Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx's first offering in today's column.
Read more...
-A bad day for Jamie Dimon just got a lot worse-
Wall Street sheriff Preet Bharara directed both barrels at JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday afternoon, and he aimed his sights high.
While a news conference the U.S. attorney held ostensibly was to detail charges against two traders responsible for a $6 billion loss, there was a strong undertone of criticism straight at company CEO Jamie Dimon.
When news of the "London Whale" trade losses hit, Dimon called the matter a "tempest in a teapot."
Without mentioning him by name, Bharara said Dimon was dead wrong.
No flies on this guy. This short CNBC story was posted on their website yesterday afternoon EDT...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it our way. It's *definitely worth reading*.
Read more...
-Growth! Germany Helps Haul Euro Zone Out of Recession-
The euro zone's economy has finally begun to grow again, thanks largely to strong second-quarter performances by both Germany and France. Even Portugal got into the act, with the strongest performance of all in the single currency area.
The euro-zone economy has had a difficult year and a half. For six quarters in a row, economic output declined, marking the longest recession in the history of the European common currency area. But on Tuesday, the European Union statistics office Eurostat announced that growth has returned.
According to the agency, the combined economies of the 17 euro-zone member-states showed seasonally adjusted growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter. It marks the first quarter-on-quarter expansion in the single currency area since the final quarter of 2011.
It's a safe bet these numbers were cooked just right. I don't believe for a second that Europe has turned the corner. If you wish to believe it, dear reader, please be by guest. This article was posted on the German website spiegel.de early yesterday afternoon Europe time...and it courtesy of reader M.A.
Read more...
-Italy's President Worried About Jobs, Won't Seek Bailout-
Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, told CNBC that the euro zone's third-largest economy is in no danger of going the way of Portugal and Ireland and won't seek a financial bailout.
"We don’t see any danger in this sense," he said. "We already took austerity measures and we will go on in order to arrive in a few years at a zero percent deficit and GDP ratio." That figure is currently at about 120 percent.
He said the Italian economy "is recovering, not without difficulties, and I could say there are ups and downs in this recovery. We know that we have some weaknesses as regards our public debt."
He is more concerned about unemployment, particularly of younger people, which he called a "social, political and human problem."
This news item appeared on the CNBC website late yesterday morning EDT...and I thank U.A.E. reader Laurent-Patrick Gally for sending it.
Read more...
-'War zone': Scores killed in Egypt violence, month long state of emergency proclaimed-
A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday after Egyptian security forces violently broke up sit-in camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo. Officials say at least 281 have been killed nationwide.
There are conflicting casualty reports. According to the Health Ministry, at least 281 people including 43 policemen have been killed and 2,001 injured in Wednesday’s violence nationwide.
"The dead are both from police and civilians," said the ministry's spokesman, Hamdi Abdel Karim.
However, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad claimed that as many as 2,000 people had been killed and 10,000 injured in the police operation.
This article was posted on the Russia Today website in the wee hours of yesterday morning Moscow time...and it's the third offering of the day from Roy Stephens.
Read more...
-Iraq Kurds reach out to Baghdad to fight surging al Qaeda-
When hundreds of al Qaeda fighters in armored trucks attacked the northern Iraqi town of Shirqat with machine guns last week, the local army unit called for backup and set off in pursuit.
But after a two-hour chase through searing desert heat, most militants vanished into a cluster of Kurdish villages where the Iraqi army cannot enter without a nod from regional authorities.
It was just one example of how distrust between the security forces of Iraq's central government and of its autonomous Kurdish zone helps the local wing of al Qaeda, the once-defeated Sunni Islamist insurgents who are again rapidly gaining ground, a year and a half after U.S. troops pulled out.
This Reuters piece, filed from Baghdad, was posted on their website early yesterday morning EDT...and it's another contribution from Roy Stephens...and is a *must read* for all students of the New Great Game.
Read more...
-Sprott's Thoughts: Shanghai Surprise-
The Economist recently reported that The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) displaced Bank of America to become the world’s biggest bank in 2012, marking the first time in history a Chinese bank has reached this pedestal. China now has four of the world’s ten biggest banks.
Together, these Chinese banks have a combined market capitalisation of close to $1 trillion Canadian dollars, or three times the market cap of the Canadian banking sector. ICBC alone has 393 million individual customers, which according to the Telegraph is the equivalent of a single bank managing the bank accounts of every man, woman and child in Western Europe. In fact, Chinese banking sector assets have increased by $14 trillion since 2008, which is the entire size of the US commercial banking sector. China is a global banking force to be reckoned with.
From the outside, however, observing the Chinese banking system can be “like watching two dogs fighting under a carpet.” It's clear that something is happening, but it’s hard to tell exactly what .
This *must read* commentary by David Franklin was posted on thesprottinc.com Internet site yesterday.
Read more...
-Three King World News Blogs-
1. *Ron Rosen*: "Gold and Silver to Skyrocket as Stocks Begin Historic Collapse". 2. *Grant Williams*: "Singapore Fund Manager - Perfect Storm Now in Gold and Silver". 3. *Robert Fitzwilson*: "We're Seeing History Being Made in the Gold and Silver Markets".
Read more...
-CFTC war on precious metals schemes snares supposed scam-
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is keeping up the pressure on Southern Florida companies reportedly involved in multi-million fraudulent precious metals schemes—this time accusing the Worth Group and a brother and sister team of fraud in a scheme involving $73 million in precious metals sales.
The complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida claims that, from July 16, 2011, through the present, Worth Group has purported to sell physical gold, silver, Platinum and palladium on a fully-paid basis as well as on a finances basis, to hundreds of retail customers throughout the United States.
The complaint alleges that pursuant to the scheme, “Worth took in over $73 million in customer funds between July 18, 2011 and December 31, 2012.” However, the CFTC contends that, although retail customers paid the full purchase price for metals, Worth did not actually deliver metal to most customers from at least Aug. 15, 2011 through Nov. 8, 2012.
Now if the CFTC would be just as diligent by making a move against JPMorgan Chase in that almost-five-year-old silver price management scheme, then I'd really have something to write about. This news item appeared on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday...and it's courtesy of reader Walter Stepko.
Read more...
-Royal Canadian Mint: Gold, Silver Product Demand Is 'Very Strong'-
Demand for the Royal Canadian Mint's gold and silver bullion products remains "very strong," said an official from the mint on Wednesday.
"Year-to-date, after the second quarter, we've had record volume for silver Maple Leafs, the greatest we've had in the over 25 years that we've produced them. We've seen near-record volume, only second to 2000, year-to-date, for our gold Maple Leafs," said Chris Carkner, managing director, sales, for bullion, refinery and exchange-traded products at the Royal Canadian Mint.
When the mint released its annual report in May, it also made a special mention of sales volumes for the first four months of 2013, calling demand "aggressive" at the time.
The Northern Hemisphere summer is traditionally a slow time for coin and metal sales, but that's not the case this year, he said. That's following a trend established over the past five to six years where demand holds up. "That's because of the extended bull market," he said. Reported by Proactive Investors 3 days ago.
It was another day where gold chopped sideways in a wide range in rather directionless trading. This state of affairs latest until just before 9:30 a.m. EDT in New York. Then by 10:30 a.m. gold had tacked on fourteen bucks or so, and then worked its way a few dollars higher, closing the electronic session almost on its high of the day.
The low tick [around $1,315 spot] came shortly after 9 a.m. Hong Kong time, and the high tick [$1,337.70 spot] came very late in the New York Access Market.
The gold price closed on Wednesday at $1,336.50 spot, up $15.10 from Wednesday, just about regaining all it lost on Tuesday. Volume, net of August and September, was 128,000 contracts, with a big chunk of that coming before the 10:30 a.m BST London a.m. gold fix.
Here's the New York Spot Gold [Bid] chart on its own, so you can see the most important aspect of the Wednesday trading day, and that was the 1-hour rally in New York starting around 9:20 a.m. EDT.
The silver price began to rally right around the 8 a.m. BST London open, and never looked back. Most of the day's gains were in by minutes after 3 p.m. EDT in electronic trading in New York. After that, it traded basically flat.
I'd guess that the low tick was around $21.25 spot some time during the Hong Kong trading session, and the high tick was recorded by Kitco as $21.99 spot, and that came within an hour of the 5:15 p.m. EDT close of electronic trading.
Silver finished the day at $21.875, up 41.5 cents from Tuesday. Net volume was 39,000 contract but, like gold, a lot of this was of the HFT variety, and , like gold, occurred before the London a.m gold fix.
Platinum got sold down pretty good in Far East and London trading yesterday, but then dug itself out of that hole and closed up a hair on the day. It was pretty much the same chart pattern for palladium as well, but the price action was far more subdued. Here are the charts,
The *dollar index* closed late Tuesday afternoon in New York at 81.77, and when it opened on Wednesday morning in Tokyo, it traded in a very tight range for the entire day on Planet Earth yesterday, close in New York at 81.71, down 6 basis points. Nothing to see here, folks, please move along.
The gold stocks gapped up a bit more than a percent at the 9:30 a.m. EDT stock market open, and then rose quickly to their high of the day, which came shortly after 11 a.m. in New York, after that it traded flat in an extremely tight range for the rest of the day. The *HUI* closed up a very respectable 5.61%.
The same can be said for the silver stocks, and Nick Laird's *Intraday Silver Sentiment Index* closed up 4.16%.
(Click on image to enlarge)
The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that one gold and one silver contract were posted for delivery on Friday, and that was it! Checking the preliminary open interest numbers for Wednesday, I note that there are still 1,182 gold contracts open in the August delivery month.
*GLD* reported receiving some gold yesterday, as an authorized participant deposited 67,614 troy ounces. And as of 11:24 p.m. EDT, there were no reported changes in*SLV*.
There was no sales report from the *U.S. Mint*.
Over at the *Comex-approved depositories* on Tuesday, they reported receiving 99 troy ounces of *gold*, and shipped 32,365 troy ounces out of the stuff out the door. Virtually all the gold withdrawn was out of the HSBC USA vault. The link to that activity is here.
In *silver* on Tuesday, these same depositories reported receiving 574,138 troy ounces, and shipped out 191,210 troy ounces. The link to that action is here.
I have a decent number of stories for you today, and I hope that there are some in here that interest you.
*¤ CRITICAL READS*
-Rick Santelli on Q.E. Tapering: A Classic Rant-
This 4:30 minute CNBC video from yesterday is *well worth watching*. The talking heads are discussing 'tapering'...and just seconds after the 1:00 minute mark, Rick chimes in from the CME...and the rest, as they say, is history. I thank reader Tom Germain for today's first news item.
Read more...
-David Rosenberg: Here's Why I Finally Gave Up On My 20-Year-Old Deflation Call-
I have been laying out the groundwork for the next phase of this cycle, which is good news for Main Street even if not that great for Wall Street or my long-held belief in the longevity of this secular disinflationary cycle ... which I think is now in its mature stage.
I think the people that write off the prospect of cost-push inflation are taking on a very myopic view. Inflation is a process, and it takes a long while to build. There is evidence that the consumer deleveraging cycle is largely over. Subprime auto credit is up 30% from a year ago. We are up to a 20% share of mortgages being originated with down payments of less than 10%. CLO (collateralized loan obligation) issuance is back to 2007 levels. In the corporate space, fully one-third of high-yield debt issues this year have been centered in firms with the weakest balance sheets. At some point, money velocity and the money multiplier will stop falling. No doubt fiscal drag will take a chunk out of GDP growth in the near-term, but this too shall pass and the reality is that the aggregate supply curve (and this is true globally) has become increasingly inelastic. The pool of available skilled labour is shrinking rapidly and after five years of the weakest growth in the private sector capital stock, we are starting to see the lagged ill-effects on productivity growth. Potential non-inflationary growth had already been pared, in my estimates, to 1.7%. And the only way we could have experienced a drop in the unemployment rate in the past year from 8.2% to 7.4% in the face of sub-2% economic growth strongly suggests that we are now on our way to a potential non-inflationary speed limit of just 1%. Very European indeed.
So if you are an issuer, the time for refinancing is now, not later. And if you are an investor, don’t spend too long debating whether you should be starting to hedge your portfolio against the prospect of a rising long- term interest rate environment, even as central banks continue to keep short-term policy yields at the floor. From the perspective of an economist at a wealth management firm, this means embarking on strategies that over time will effectively hedge out interest rate risk, for example with exposure to hard assets, credit arbitrage, and screening in the equity market for companies with high fixed costs and low variable costs, high ratios of capital to labour, and firms with a proven history of being able to pass on cost increases to protect profit margins.
This longish presentation by Rosenberg was posted on thebusinessinsider.com Internet site very late yesterday afternoon EDT...and it should go on your *must read list* today for sure. I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to our attention.
Read more...
-Why Two Unknown Traders Could Take The Heat For The JP Morgan 'London Whale' Loss-
Neither Javier Martin-Artajo nor Julien Grout were the so-called "London Whale", yet they are the two former traders in the JP Morgan Chief Investment Office (CIO) that have been charged for various offenses related to the $6 billion loss that rocked the House of Dimon last year.
The question is why?
First thing's first, Bruno Iksil, the man known as the 'London Whale' has been talking to prosecutors about what happened in the CIO for months, and cut a deal to avoid prosecution. That leaves other traders in the CIO that managed the portfolio of synthetic derivatives in question to take the fall.
Yep, that's pretty much what I said about this situation the other day. This businessinsider.com story was posted on their Internet site shortly after the markets closed in New York yesterday...and it's courtesy of Roy Stephens as well.
Read more...
-DOJ Compounds Stat Screw-up by Whitewashing Old Eric Holder Speech-
Courtesy of old friend Paul Thacker, former Hill staffer and currently a fellow at Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, here's an interesting addendum to Bloomberg's highly embarrassing Eric-Holder-Caught-Juking-the-Stats story that came out this Sunday.
It turns out that Barack Obama's Justice Department, in the person of Attorney General Holder, didn't just grossly overstate the success of its Mortgage Fraud Task Force. In what at best is a bonehead mistake, the Department channeled 1984 and whitewashed a web page, re-transcribing an old speech of Holder's to better reflect the "updated" version of the mortgage facts.
By now most people who follow white-collar crime know the back story. Last year, on October 9th, Mr. Holder gave a press conference in which he touted the efforts of Barack Obama's Mortgage Fraud Task Force, claiming that in a year's time, the Department had secured "285 federal criminal indictments and informations against 530 defendants for allegedly victimizing more than 73,000 American homeowners --and inflicting losses in excess of $1 billion."
Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil did a number on Eric Holder in an op-ed piece I posted in this space on Tuesday...and now Rolling Stonejournalist Matt Taibbi is having a go at him here...with some of usual 'pithy prose' sprinkled about. It was posted on their website just before noon EDT time yesterday...and it's Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx's first offering in today's column.
Read more...
-A bad day for Jamie Dimon just got a lot worse-
Wall Street sheriff Preet Bharara directed both barrels at JPMorgan Chase on Wednesday afternoon, and he aimed his sights high.
While a news conference the U.S. attorney held ostensibly was to detail charges against two traders responsible for a $6 billion loss, there was a strong undertone of criticism straight at company CEO Jamie Dimon.
When news of the "London Whale" trade losses hit, Dimon called the matter a "tempest in a teapot."
Without mentioning him by name, Bharara said Dimon was dead wrong.
No flies on this guy. This short CNBC story was posted on their website yesterday afternoon EDT...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it our way. It's *definitely worth reading*.
Read more...
-Growth! Germany Helps Haul Euro Zone Out of Recession-
The euro zone's economy has finally begun to grow again, thanks largely to strong second-quarter performances by both Germany and France. Even Portugal got into the act, with the strongest performance of all in the single currency area.
The euro-zone economy has had a difficult year and a half. For six quarters in a row, economic output declined, marking the longest recession in the history of the European common currency area. But on Tuesday, the European Union statistics office Eurostat announced that growth has returned.
According to the agency, the combined economies of the 17 euro-zone member-states showed seasonally adjusted growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter. It marks the first quarter-on-quarter expansion in the single currency area since the final quarter of 2011.
It's a safe bet these numbers were cooked just right. I don't believe for a second that Europe has turned the corner. If you wish to believe it, dear reader, please be by guest. This article was posted on the German website spiegel.de early yesterday afternoon Europe time...and it courtesy of reader M.A.
Read more...
-Italy's President Worried About Jobs, Won't Seek Bailout-
Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, told CNBC that the euro zone's third-largest economy is in no danger of going the way of Portugal and Ireland and won't seek a financial bailout.
"We don’t see any danger in this sense," he said. "We already took austerity measures and we will go on in order to arrive in a few years at a zero percent deficit and GDP ratio." That figure is currently at about 120 percent.
He said the Italian economy "is recovering, not without difficulties, and I could say there are ups and downs in this recovery. We know that we have some weaknesses as regards our public debt."
He is more concerned about unemployment, particularly of younger people, which he called a "social, political and human problem."
This news item appeared on the CNBC website late yesterday morning EDT...and I thank U.A.E. reader Laurent-Patrick Gally for sending it.
Read more...
-'War zone': Scores killed in Egypt violence, month long state of emergency proclaimed-
A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday after Egyptian security forces violently broke up sit-in camps of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo. Officials say at least 281 have been killed nationwide.
There are conflicting casualty reports. According to the Health Ministry, at least 281 people including 43 policemen have been killed and 2,001 injured in Wednesday’s violence nationwide.
"The dead are both from police and civilians," said the ministry's spokesman, Hamdi Abdel Karim.
However, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad claimed that as many as 2,000 people had been killed and 10,000 injured in the police operation.
This article was posted on the Russia Today website in the wee hours of yesterday morning Moscow time...and it's the third offering of the day from Roy Stephens.
Read more...
-Iraq Kurds reach out to Baghdad to fight surging al Qaeda-
When hundreds of al Qaeda fighters in armored trucks attacked the northern Iraqi town of Shirqat with machine guns last week, the local army unit called for backup and set off in pursuit.
But after a two-hour chase through searing desert heat, most militants vanished into a cluster of Kurdish villages where the Iraqi army cannot enter without a nod from regional authorities.
It was just one example of how distrust between the security forces of Iraq's central government and of its autonomous Kurdish zone helps the local wing of al Qaeda, the once-defeated Sunni Islamist insurgents who are again rapidly gaining ground, a year and a half after U.S. troops pulled out.
This Reuters piece, filed from Baghdad, was posted on their website early yesterday morning EDT...and it's another contribution from Roy Stephens...and is a *must read* for all students of the New Great Game.
Read more...
-Sprott's Thoughts: Shanghai Surprise-
The Economist recently reported that The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) displaced Bank of America to become the world’s biggest bank in 2012, marking the first time in history a Chinese bank has reached this pedestal. China now has four of the world’s ten biggest banks.
Together, these Chinese banks have a combined market capitalisation of close to $1 trillion Canadian dollars, or three times the market cap of the Canadian banking sector. ICBC alone has 393 million individual customers, which according to the Telegraph is the equivalent of a single bank managing the bank accounts of every man, woman and child in Western Europe. In fact, Chinese banking sector assets have increased by $14 trillion since 2008, which is the entire size of the US commercial banking sector. China is a global banking force to be reckoned with.
From the outside, however, observing the Chinese banking system can be “like watching two dogs fighting under a carpet.” It's clear that something is happening, but it’s hard to tell exactly what .
This *must read* commentary by David Franklin was posted on thesprottinc.com Internet site yesterday.
Read more...
-Three King World News Blogs-
1. *Ron Rosen*: "Gold and Silver to Skyrocket as Stocks Begin Historic Collapse". 2. *Grant Williams*: "Singapore Fund Manager - Perfect Storm Now in Gold and Silver". 3. *Robert Fitzwilson*: "We're Seeing History Being Made in the Gold and Silver Markets".
Read more...
-CFTC war on precious metals schemes snares supposed scam-
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is keeping up the pressure on Southern Florida companies reportedly involved in multi-million fraudulent precious metals schemes—this time accusing the Worth Group and a brother and sister team of fraud in a scheme involving $73 million in precious metals sales.
The complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida claims that, from July 16, 2011, through the present, Worth Group has purported to sell physical gold, silver, Platinum and palladium on a fully-paid basis as well as on a finances basis, to hundreds of retail customers throughout the United States.
The complaint alleges that pursuant to the scheme, “Worth took in over $73 million in customer funds between July 18, 2011 and December 31, 2012.” However, the CFTC contends that, although retail customers paid the full purchase price for metals, Worth did not actually deliver metal to most customers from at least Aug. 15, 2011 through Nov. 8, 2012.
Now if the CFTC would be just as diligent by making a move against JPMorgan Chase in that almost-five-year-old silver price management scheme, then I'd really have something to write about. This news item appeared on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday...and it's courtesy of reader Walter Stepko.
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-Royal Canadian Mint: Gold, Silver Product Demand Is 'Very Strong'-
Demand for the Royal Canadian Mint's gold and silver bullion products remains "very strong," said an official from the mint on Wednesday.
"Year-to-date, after the second quarter, we've had record volume for silver Maple Leafs, the greatest we've had in the over 25 years that we've produced them. We've seen near-record volume, only second to 2000, year-to-date, for our gold Maple Leafs," said Chris Carkner, managing director, sales, for bullion, refinery and exchange-traded products at the Royal Canadian Mint.
When the mint released its annual report in May, it also made a special mention of sales volumes for the first four months of 2013, calling demand "aggressive" at the time.
The Northern Hemisphere summer is traditionally a slow time for coin and metal sales, but that's not the case this year, he said. That's following a trend established over the past five to six years where demand holds up. "That's because of the extended bull market," he said. Reported by Proactive Investors 3 days ago.