Sunday, December 17, 2017

Nomi Prins: 'Dark Money' Runs The World

"Authored by Nomi Prins via The Daily Reckoning,
Few people know financial markets’ biggest secret...
For the last 40 years, most people believed the stock market always goes up.Simply buy and hold long enough, the theory went, and you could sit back and watch the money accumulate in your account. No thought or hard work needed.
It was a nifty strategy — until the idea burned most investors in 2008. Almost a decade later, the scar tissue is still fresh for many investors.
Even today, after the U.S. stock market has rallied by 271% since the bottom on March 6, 2009 — nearly tripling investors’ money — only about half of Americans are invested in the stock market, according to NPR. That’s down from two-thirds compared to a decade ago.
The rest are in cash on the sidelines. Maybe that’s been you.
And who can blame you? “Fool me once, shame on you,” the saying goes. “Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Last June, Fortune surveyed readers. 71% of respondents said “the economic system in the U.S. is rigged in favor of certain groups.”
A few years earlier, the Los Angeles Times reported “Poll finds 64% of voters believe stock market is rigged against them…
They’re not wrong.
Somebody’s made gains from all of those sectors in the stock market. It just hasn’t been Main Street.
Since I’ve left the world of big banking, I’ve made it my mission to change that. That leads me to the catalyst for my new project…
Dark money.
Dark money is the #1 secret life force of today’s rigged financial markets. It drives whole markets up and down. It’s the reason for today’s financial bubbles.
On Wall Street, knowledge of and access to dark money means trillions of dollars per year flowing in and around global stock, bond and derivatives markets.
I learned this firsthand from my career on Wall Street. My first full year working on Wall Street was in 1987.
I wasn’t talking about “dark money” or central bank collusion back then. I was just starting out.
Eventually, I would uncover how the dark money system works… how it has corrupted our financial system… and encouraged greed to the point of crisis like in 2008.
When I moved abroad to create and run the analytics department at Bear Stearns London as senior managing director, I got my first look at how dark money flows and its effects cross borders.
The “dark money” comes from central banks. In essence, central banks “print” money or electronically fabricate money by buying bonds or stocks. They use other tools like adjusting interest rate policy and currency agreements with other central banks to pump liquidity into the financial system.
That dark money goes to the biggest private banks and financial institutions first. From there, it spreads out in seemingly infinite directions affecting different financial assets in different ways.
Yet these dark money flows stretch around the world according to a pattern of power, influence and, of course, wealth for select groups. To be a part of the dark money elite means to have control over many. How elite is a matter of degree.
These is not built upon conspiracy theories. To the contrary, alliances make perfect sense and operate publicly. Even better, their exclusive dealings and the consequences that follow are foreseeable — but only if you understand how the system works and follow the dark money flows.
It’s easy to see how this dark money affects the stock market at a high level, because we can monitor its constant movement.
Here’s the smoking gun:
Dark Money
The red line shows you how much “dark money” the Federal Reserve has printed since 2008.
The blue line shows you the S&P 500.
They move together — more dark money drives the market higher. Much higher.
There are dark money charts from around the world, just like the one I showed you for the Federal Reserve and U.S. stock market.
Look at this “dark money” chart from Japan, for example:
Japan
The blue line shows the dark money created by their central bank, The Bank of Japan. The red line shows Japan’s major stock index, the Nikkei 225, going up as well. The dark money drove the market much higher over the past eight years.
Or, look at this “dark money” chart from the U.K.:
England
Again, the blue line shows the “dark money” created since 2009 by the U.K.’s central bank, The Bank of England. The red line shows how the FTSE 100, their stock index, has followed higher in lock-step.
To invest profitably in financial markets, you need to understand the hidden power relationships that drive financial and political events. Ideologies and personal associations among elites are oblivious to political party lines and international boundaries. So is dark money..."
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-16/nomi-prins-dark-money-runs-world

We Are Approaching The Brick Wall

"As we come to the end of 2017, we are approaching a brick wall.
December 15 (King World News) – Here is a portion of today’s note from legend Art Cashin:  Of Reflective Central Bankers – My good friend, Peter Boockvar, over at the Lindsey Group, penned a note this morning on some recent commentary from ECB members.  Here’s a bit:
A day after the ECB held everything constant in terms of both policy and their rhetoric, Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny spoke today and explained why on the latter as the former was of course expected. “Central banks are generally well advised to keep a certain continuity in their announcements and maintain a steady hand. It was clear that we wouldn’t make any changes in our communication now after we already made significant changes last time.” He acknowledged that they don’t want to fall behind the monetary curve because “it’s clear that the economy is developing” but at the same time “it also mustn’t act too quickly though.” Also of note in his comments is that he is not a fan of corporate bond purchases. “I am somewhat skeptical about this program, because it is concentrated on very large companies…Of course it leads to cheaper refinancing for those companies, but whether that is passed on to small and medium sized companies is something I am not so sure about. That’s why I don’t think it’s something we should necessarily expand.”
at https://kingworldnews.com/we-are-approaching-the-brick-wall/

Bullion Banks Cover Near-Record Number Of Gold & Silver Short Positions!

"As we approach the end of the year, the bullion banks have just covered a near-record number of gold & silver short positions.
Massive Short Covering In Gold & Silver!
December 15 (King World News) – As we close out trading for the week, there has been massive short covering in the gold and silver markets
.
The commercials covered an enormous number of short positions in the gold market (see chart below).
Massive Short Covering In Gold!
kwn-v-12152017
After the recent action in gold, it will be very interesting to see the next COT report..."
at https://kingworldnews.com/massive-gold-silver-short-covering-by-bullion-banks/

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Bullion Banks Cover Massive Number Of Short Positions In The Silver Market!

"The bullion banks just covered a massive number of short positions in the silver market! Short covering taking place in gold as well.
Significant Short Covering In Gold & Silver
December 8 (King World News) – As we close out trading for the week, there has been significant short covering in the gold and silver markets, particularly in silver
..."
at https://kingworldnews.com/bullion-banks-cover-massive-number-of-short-positions-in-the-silver-market/

Egon von Greyerz Warns A Storm Is Coming In 2018

"Today Egon von Greyerz warned a great storm is coming in 2018.
December 9 (King World News) – Egon von Greyerz:  “If we look at 2018, I see debt continuing to accelerate. .."
at  https://kingworldnews.com/egon-von-greyerz-warns-a-storm-is-coming-in-2018/

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Russia, China, India Unveil New Gold Trading Network

"Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com
One of the most notable events in Russia’s precious metals market calendar is the annual “Russian Bullion Market” conference. Formerly known as the Russian Bullion Awards, this conference, now in its 10th year, took place this year on Friday 24 November in Moscow. Among the speakers lined up, the most notable inclusion was probably Sergey Shvetsov, First Deputy Chairman of Russia’s central bank, the Bank of Russia.
In his speech, Shvetsov provided an update on an important development involving the Russian central bank in the worldwide gold market, and gave further insight into the continued importance of physical gold to the long term economic and strategic interests of the Russian Federation.
Firstly, in his speech Shvetsov confirmed that the BRICS group of countries are now in discussions to establish their own gold trading system. As a reminder, the 5 BRICS countries comprise the Russian Federation, China, India, South Africa and Brazil.
Four of these nations are among the world’s major gold producers, namely, China, Russia, South Africa and Brazil. Furthermore, two of these nations are the world’s two largest importers and consumers of physical gold, namely, China and Russia. So what these economies have in common is that they all major players in the global physical gold market.
Shvetsov envisages the new gold trading system evolving via bilateral connections between the BRICS member countries, and as a first step Shvetsov reaffirmed that the Bank of Russia has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China (see below) on developing a joint trading system for gold, and that the first implementation steps in this project will begin in 2018..."
at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-02/russia-china-india-unveil-new-gold-trading-network

One Of The Greats In The Business Just Flashed This Major Alert On Gold And The Miners

"One of the greats in the business just flashed this alert on gold and the miners.
This piece was delayed from being published due to technical difficulties that have now been resolved. KWN apologizes for the delay.
Gold & Miners: Bridging The Performance Gap
By Trey Reik, Senior Portfolio Manager, Sprott USADecember 1 (King World News) – In this month’s report, we examine the interplay between gold bullion and gold equities. This relationship has been noteworthy in 2017, given an anomalous performance gap that we believe may provide investment opportunity for precious metals investors.
At Sprott, we view investment merits of gold and gold shares as distinctly different. Gold offers the ability to remove investment capital from the traditional financial system at a moment’s notice. Gold shares, on the other hand, offer two important variations. First, gold mining equities provide well-documented torque to cyclical advances in spot gold prices. In essence, high-quality gold miners introduce a value-creation proposition to the secular opportunity of rising gold prices. Second, we believe gold shares represent a tactical portfolio allocation capable of generating significant alpha during periods in which excessive ebullience for U.S. financial assets is being recalibrated. We suspect that we may be coming upon one of those periods now…"
at https://kingworldnews.com/one-of-the-greats-in-the-business-just-flashed-this-alert-on-gold-and-the-shares/

Despite Repeated BIS Interventions, China Plans To Send The Price Of Gold Skyrocketing

"Today one of the greats in the business says that despite repeated interventions by the BIS to halt gold’s advance, China plans to send the price of gold skyrocketing.
China Plans To Send Gold Prices Soaring
December 3 (
King World News
) – 
Dr. Stephen Leeb: 
 “When you write a Ph.D dissertation, before you’re awarded your degree, you go before a panel of professors who grill you about your work. If you can’t defend your arguments well enough, answering every counterpoint your questioners (tormentors) raise, you can say good-by to putting a “Doctor” before your name.
It’s a nerve-wracking test. But it’s also useful. If you can’t answer reasonable questions convincingly, maybe your case isn’t so strong after all. 
I’ve been making the case that gold is on the threshold of a sustained bull market. In a nutshell, my case centers on China. In the past decade and a half, China has surpassed the U.S. as the biggest global trader. China, which, like the rest of the world, got burned by the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, is leery of the dollar. It wants an international monetary system that isn’t dependent on the dollar, or any paper currency for that matter. China has a deep abiding faith in gold and has been accumulating gold as it anticipates bringing about a monetary system in which gold will be an integral part. Implementation of such a system will be one reason gold will soar…"
at https://kingworldnews.com/despite-repeated-bis-interventions-china-plans-to-send-the-price-of-gold-skyrocketing/