Gold Delivery Strains Reappear & What Might Destroy COMEX"

"Today an outspoken hedge fund manager out of Hong Kong spoke with King World News about delivery strains in the gold market reappearing and what might destroy the COMEX.  William Kaye, who 25 years ago worked for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions, also discussed the major problems the entities managing the gold market are now facing.  Below is what Kaye had to say in this timely interview.

Kaye:  “Gold is still trading in a very narrow range.  I find this to be interesting, especially with all these heightened geopolitical tensions, as well as the recent FOMC minutes, which showed a scaling back in the timetable for any possible future tightening of monetary policy....

“All these things are positive for gold, but we really have not yet seen that much of a move since the beginning of the year.  Gold is now up a little over $100.  So we’ve essentially traded up from the low $1,200s to the low $1,300s, and gold is down from earlier in the year when it nearly reached the $1,400 mark.

You might recall that I was warning KWN readers in early March that the gold market was primed for a bit of short-term weakness.  That concern has now been addressed as gold has consolidated and filled a gap that existed since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

I believe that for readers who don’t feel they are fully invested in gold or silver, today’s prices are still very attractive.  It’s advantageous for long-term investors to continue to accumulate physical metal at these levels.  From a trading perspective, I now think the risks are pretty evenly balanced, but the footprints of official intervention continue to be present in the gold market.  So the risk still exists that we could see a further move to the downside.”

at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/4/10_Gold_Delivery_Strains_Reappear_%26_What_Might_Destroy_COMEX.html

The Solar Industry Has Been Waiting 60 Years For This To Happen — And It Finally Just Did

"It's now a question of how and where, not if, solar becomes a dominant force in energy markets.

AllianceBernstein's Michael Parker and Flora Chang published a note last week with the following chart showing how rapidly the cost of solar on a real-dollars-per-million-BTU equivalent basis has, in many instances, come to match that of conventional fuels.

Nothing else looks like this. And the title of the chart, Welcome to the Terrordome, reflects this almost violent decline in solar pricing..."

at http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-price-terrordome-chart-2014-4
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-price-terrordome-chart-2014-4#ixzz2yViVt6QF

Nomi Prins - All the President's Bankers: The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power

"This is from the book summary at Amazon.com:

"Culled from original presidential archival documents, All the Presidents’ Bankers delivers an explosive account of the hundred-year interdependence between the White House and Wall Street that transcends a simple analysis of money driving politics—or greed driving bankers.

Prins ushers us into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protégé relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. These families and individuals recycle their power through elected office and private channels in Washington, DC...

Prins divulges how, through the Cold War and Vietnam era, presidents and bankers pushed America’s superpower status and expansion abroad, while promoting broadly democratic values and social welfare at home. But from the 1970s, Wall Street’s rush to secure Middle East oil profits altered the nature of political-financial alliances. Bankers’ profit motive trumped heritage and allegiance to public service, while presidents lost control over the economy—as was dramatically evident in the financial crisis of 2008."

at  http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/nomi-prins-all-presidents-bankers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+JessesCafeAmericain+(Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain)

Exploring the transmission channels of contagious bank runs

"Contagious bank runs are an important source of systemic risk. However, with observational data it is near-impossible to disentangle the contagion of bank runs from other potential causes of correlated deposit withdrawals across banks. This column discusses an experimental investigation of the mechanisms behind contagion. The authors find that panic-based deposit withdrawals can be strongly contagious across banks, but only if depositors know that the banks are economically related..."

at http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/nomi-prins-all-presidents-bankers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+JessesCafeAmericain+(Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain)

Whole Eastern World Rebelling Against the Dollar-Jim Willie

"Financial newsletter writer Dr. Jim Willie thinks 2014 will be a pivotal year for the U.S.  Dr. Willie says, “We’re going to end this year with no resemblance to the beginning.  We spent a lot of years trying to hold this thing together.  The whole system broke in 2007 and 2008 with the subprime mortgages.  I was saying before that we’ve got the entire U.S. economy depending on the housing bubble and the mortgage finance bubble, and when that breaks, the system is going to break.  In the following couple of years, it continued to break. What did we do?  We went to zero percent interest rates and made it pretty clear it’s forever.  What else did we do?  We did bond monetization, QE.  I love QE, it makes it sound like CPR.  It’s death.  It’s hyper-monetary inflation.  It’s what Nazi Germany did . . . it wrecked everything.  These are desperation measures to hold it together because the system is broken.”  Dr. Willie, who holds a PhD in statistics, contends, “Now all the QE and bond purchases are causing some major problems, breaking major economic structures. . . It’s all breaking, it’s all breaking, and they are having a tremendous problem holding it together.  Now, the whole Eastern World is rebelling against the dollar.” 

at http://usawatchdog.com/whole-eastern-world-rebelling-against-the-dollar-jim-willie/

Gold and the US Dollar Fight to the Death-Paul Craig Roberts

"Former Assistant Treasury Secretary, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, says, “Gold and the dollar are in a fight to the death.”  Dr. Roberts explains, “The Fed, in order to save a handful of banks too big to fail that are the mindless deregulation of the 21st century, the Fed has had to create a tremendous number of new dollars.  The United States has never experienced anything like the creation of new money it has issued from quantitative easing, which is now multi-years old. Because the dollar has been the world reserve currency since the end of WWII, countries all over earth have huge stocks of dollars.  It’s not just countries or central banks, but companies and   individuals.  As people view their holdings, an enormous supply of dollars in light of this extraordinary printing of new money by the Fed, they get nervous.  They say ‘I should lighten up my holdings of dollars and get into something else.  Maybe I should get into gold or foreign currency.’  So, this puts pressure on the dollar’s exchange value.  The first way that pressure manifested itself was the rising price of gold.  Despite the fact the price of gold has been pushed down since 2011, it still has about the highest rate of return of just about anything in the 21st century.   The Federal Reserve, in order to protect quantitative easing which is necessary to save the banks, began manipulating the gold price in a new and more intense way.  They used their bullion banks to short the gold in the COMEX futures market.  The trouble with this policy is that it’s been going on long enough that it’s being recognized by people who formerly thought ‘the Federal Reserve would never do anything like that.’  Of course they would, and people are catching on.” 

Dr. Roberts goes on to say, “Another factor is central banks such as China and Russia are purchasing more and more gold. . . . So, what is happening is the actual physical quantity of gold is moving out to Asia in such large quantities that supply in the West to meet purchases is diminished dramatically.  This is starting to bite on the ability of the Federal Reserve of this sort of operation of rigging the gold price. . . . So, it looks like the Fed could be running out of the ability to continue this policy, in which case it will be bad news for the dollar.”  So, is the Fed losing the fight to the death between gold and the dollar?  Dr. Roberts says, “They are not losing right now, but they’re running out of bullets; but the Chinese and the Russians are not running out of dollars in which to buy gold.  The Fed is running out of gold in which to make these deliveries.” 

What happens when physical gold can no longer be delivered to buyers?  Roberts predicts, “The gold price would skyrocket.”  Dr. Roberts doesn’t give the timing for physical non-delivery of gold.  He does point out, “The fact they are having now to use naked shorts in the futures market, paper gold, implies they don’t have enough real physical gold to suppress the price any longer. So, they have to take it to the futures market where they can do it with purely paper contracts. . . . Yes,the possibility of not being able, at some point, to make delivery is real.  Of course, that then would cause all confidence to be lost certainly in the dollar.” 

at http://usawatchdog.com/gold-us-dollar-fight-to-the-death-paul-craig-roberts/

Critical Metric Is Now Over 1,000 Times Higher Than Normal!

"These Numbers Are Stunning – Earlier this week, I alluded to the terrific speech that Richard Fisher, the President of the Dallas Fed gave on Friday, in Hong Kong to the Asia Society.  It contained facts and numbers that boggle the mind – at least my simple little mind.

 

Early on, he refers to the fact that much of the easing the Fed has done – QE and otherwise – has tended to lie fallow.

 

Thus far, much of the money we have pushed out into the economy has been stored away rather than expended to the desired degree. For example, we have seen a huge buildup in the reserves of the depository institutions of the United States. Less than a fifth of commercial credit in the highly developed U.S. capital markets is extended through depository institutions. Yet depository institutions alone have accumulated a total of $2.57 trillion in excess reserves—money that is sitting on the sidelines rather than being loaned out into the economy. That’s up from a norm of around $2 billion before the crisis..."

at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/4/10_Critical_Metric_Is_Now_Over_1,000_Times_Higher_Than_Normal%21.html

China Gold Imports Through Hong Kong

"Trend?  Change?  Not possible.

No one is interested in gold.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Chart by Data Wrangler Nick at Sharelynx.com.

at http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/china-gold-imports-through-hong-kong.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+JessesCafeAmericain+(Jesse%27s+Caf%C3%A9+Am%C3%A9ricain)

Russian Military Spending Soars

"Russia has announced that it will increase defense spending by some 18 percent this year despite its worsening economic outlook.

According to a report in Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Russian Federal Treasury announced late last month that “Expenditure on National Defense” will rise from 2,101.4 billion rubles ($58.2 billion) in 2013 to 2,488.1 billion rubles in 2014. This is projected to be about 3.4 percent of Russia’s GDP but over 20 percent of government spending. Another 16.5 percent of the government budget will go to national security and law enforcement..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-08/russian-military-spending-soars

40 Central Banks Are Betting This Will Be The Next Reserve Currency

"As we have discussed numerous times, nothing lasts forever - especially reserve currencies - no matter how much one hopes that the status-quo remains so, in the end the exuberant previlege is extorted just one too many times. Headline after headlines shows nations declaring 'interest' or direct discussions in diversifying away from the US dollar... and as SCMP reports, Standard Chartered notes that at least 40central banks have invested in the Yuan and several more are preparing to do so. The trend is occurring across both emerging markets and developed nation central banks diversifiying into 'other currencies' and "a great number of central banks are in the process of adding yuan to their portfolios." Perhaps most ominously, for king dollar, is the former-IMF manager's warning that "The Yuan may become a de facto reserve currency before it is fully convertible."

The infamous chart that shows nothing lasts forever...

Nothing lasts forever... (especially in light of China's recent comments)"

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-08/40-central-banks-are-betting-will-be-next-reserve-currency

Russia And China About To Sign "Holy Grail" Gas Deal

"Several weeks ago we reported that in response to ongoing alienation of Russia by the west Putin was aggressively setting the stage for Russia's eastward expansion, set to culminate with a "holy grail" gas deal with China. We said that "while Europe is furiously scrambling to find alternative sources of energy should Gazprom pull the plug on natgas exports to Germany and Europe (the imminent surge in Ukraine gas prices by 40% is probably the best indication of what the outcome would be), Russia is preparing the announcement of the "Holy Grail" energy deal with none other than China, a move which would send geopolitical shockwaves around the world and bind the two nations in a commodity-backed axis."

Reuters added, reflecting on the recent trip of Rosneft executive chairman to Asia, that "the underlying message from the head of Russia's biggest oil company, Rosneft, was clear: If Europe and the United States isolate Russia, Moscow will look East for new business, energy deals, military contracts and political alliances.  The Holy Grail for Moscow is a natural gas supply deal with China that is apparently now close after years of negotiations. If it can be signed when Putin visits China in May, he will be able to hold it up to show that global power has shifted eastwards and he does not need the West."

It's time for an update. According to Itar-Tass, "Russia's Gazprom and China are poised to conclude a gas supply contract in coming weeks, the first in a series of energy projects planned between the two countries. "We’re working now to sign a gas contract in May," said Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. "Consultations are continuing and Gazprom's leaders are holding talks with Chinese partners on the contract terms. We hope to conclude the contract in May and believe it should come into effect by the year end."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-09/russia-and-china-about-sign-holy-grail-gas-deal

Baltic Dry Collapses To Worst Start To A Year On Record

"If you listen very carefully, you will still hear absolutely nothing from any talking-heads of the utter collapse that the last few weeks have witnessed in the Baltic Dry shipping index. The Baltic Dry has dropped 12 days in a row and plunged back to $1061 - its lowest since August 2013. This is the worst start to a year on record... must be the weather.

The Baltic Dry has dropped 12 days in a row and is now back to its lowest levels since August 2013... and almost post-crisis lows..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-09/baltic-dry-collapses-worst-start-year-record

German Vice Chancellor Warns 'No Alternative To Russian Gas'

"Even Germany's vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel realizes that there is no alternative to Russian gas for Germany, at least not in the near future. It should be noted to this that Germany's energy policy has driven energy prices to the very edge of what the population and industry can still handle.

On the one hand, there is the vast subsidization of 'green energy', which is not only thoroughly uneconomic andblighting the landscape, but the costs of which have been off-loaded on consumers, who pay a special 'ecological fee' on top of their already far too high bills.

On the other hand, after the Fukujima accident, Germany's government quickly gave in to pressure from the Greens and decided to completely phase out nuclear energy (as if Germany were in danger of being hit by a tsunami). This is of course a completely futile gesture, as the country is surrounded by other countries brimming with nuclear reactors over which it has no control whatsoever (admittedly, even one nuclear accident would be one too many). However, this hasty step has once again made electricity more expensive.

Fracking also remains forever stuck in the 'debating stage' in Europe, with resistance organized by various NGOs growing steadily.

As Gabriel remarked:

“In the debate over Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas it is often falsely pretended that there are many other possibilities. This is incorrect.”

Moreover he warned of scaremongering and misplaced fears that Russia would stop its  deliveries, arguing that “even in the dark times of the Cold War, Russia has always fulfilled its contractual obligations.”

This insightful observation was followed by a succession of hollow phrases about how EU foreign policy must 'not be guided exclusively by economic interests'. Right. Still no alternative to Russian gas though. Tough titty, as they say. Moreover, as Gabriel rightly points out, it isn't a problem anyway..."

at http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-09/german-vice-chancellor-warns-no-alternative-russian-gas

Agnico CEO: Stunning Reasons Gold To Smash Through $2,000

"Today one of the top CEO’s in the world told King World News that the price of gold will break $2,000, in spite of the fact that the price being actively “managed.”  This interview is tremendous and it will let KWN readers around the world see the gold market through the eyes of one of the greatest and well-respected veterans in the business.  Below is what Sean Boyd, CEO of $5.4 billion Agnico Eagle, had to say in his powerful interview.

Eric King:  “Sean, as you know the appetite for gold by the Chinese continues to be insatiable.  Two years ago one of the top strategists in the world, Robin Griffiths, told King World News ‘Their (China’s) national reserves are probably only just over 2% in gold at the moment and they could easily move up to over 10%.’  At the time it meant that China would be adding a staggering 5,000 tons of gold to their reserves.”

Boyd:  “I always look to one key data point:  I can recall a press release from a dozen or so years ago from the Chinese government announcing the establishment of a gold exchange in Shanghai.  So clearly the Chinese have a long-term plan to increase their gold holdings.....

“The increase in gold holdings is not only for the people, but also for the People’s Bank of China.  So we are just seeing that plan play out in front of us.  We already know the It has been 6 years since we have had an update on how much gold China’s central bank possesses, and how much of their overall reserves the total gold tonnage comprises.

This is why the next update from the Chinese will be tremendously enlightening to the market.  This is about China diversifying out of U.S. dollars and it’s also all about physical gold.  We know the Chinese are long-term thinkers and this demand will continue for many years to come.”

Eric King:  “Sean, this insatiable demand from China, when will it lead to new all-time highs in the price of gold?”

Boyd:  “Last year we saw 900 tons of gold come out of the ETFs.  All of the analysis suggests that gold went to the Far East, which makes perfect sense.  But that is just one demonstration of the massive appetite for gold in China. Also, this gold came out of London vaults, went through Switzerland, was fabricated into smaller denominations, and was shipped to the Far East.  We believe there will not see that type of outflow from the ETFs, so when you take that out of the equation, 2014 must be a much stronger year for gold.

However, gold is a currency, and all currencies get ‘managed’ every day.  Meaning, like other currencies, the price of gold is ‘managed.’  But the reality is that the demand for gold and the reasons for owning gold will only get stronger in the future, especially given the uncertainty in the financial markets..."

at  http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/4/9_Agnico_CEO__Stunning_Reasons_Gold_To_Smash_Through_$2,000.html

High-Frequency Trading and the Shrinking Trust Horizon

"The list of markets where big players are cheating the rest of us (and each other) keeps growing. First there was the Libor interest rate, then foreign exchange, then gold. And now comes high-frequency trading (HFT), where Wall Street banks use supercomputers to monitor incoming stock market orders, analyze their likely impact on prices, and place orders ahead of those trades to capture a bit of the price impact. In an HFT-dominated market, individual investors get fractionally-less-favorable prices, which they seldom notice, while in the aggregate billions of dollars are siphoned each year from retail investors, pension funds and even some hedge funds to big Wall Street banks.

Since this practice adds absolutely nothing to the efficiency of the equity markets, and since “front running” is clearly illegal, HFT is a crime without offsetting social benefits. But Wall Street gets away with it — and will continue to get away with it — because the major banks and exchanges make a lot of money from it and donate sufficiently to both major parties to buy a degree of immunity..."

at http://dollarcollapse.com/trust-horizon/high-frequency-trading-and-the-shrinking-trust-horizon/

Jim Rogers : You Cannot Revive An Economy By Printing Money

"You cannot revive a country or an economy with printing money and debasing your currency. That has never worked in the long term or even in the medium term. And building more and more debt, that has never worked too."

at http://jimrogers1.blogspot.com.tr/2014/04/jim-rogers-you-cannot-revive-economy-by.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/WOHK+(Jim+Rogers+Blog)

Record-Breaking Gold Backwardation Shocking Banks & Shorts

"As global markets continue to see some wild trading, today James Turk told King World News that the record-breaking backwardation in the gold market has literally shocked the shorts and the banks, especially those short of the physical metal.  Turk predicted this will create a mind boggling move to the upside in both gold and silver..."

at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/4/7_Record-Breaking_Gold_Backwardation_Shocking_Banks_%26_Shorts.html

High Frequency Trading Hits 60-Minutes Scrutiny; Trading or Skimming?

"In the wake of a 60-Minutes report on High Frequency Trading, numerous people have sent dozens of links. Let's take a look at a few of them..."

at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/03/high-frequency-trading-hits-60-minutes.html#Tst2sa670DK7PgtJ.99

Shocking Chart Shows Gold Will Rise Over 100% In One Year

"...The disinformation coming from the mainstream media really makes one shake their head in disbelief.  Everyone following KWN is getting the information that the mainstream media will not share with the public, like the following chart which I presented at the beginning of 2014.  I have updated it to make it current. 

 

King World News note:  If you look at Turk’s astonishing chart above, it reveals that gold and the S&P 500 have essentially tracked the increase in the Fed’s balance sheet over a period of many years.  This remained the case until Western central planners made the decision to intervene in and manipulate the gold market in a much more aggressive manner.  As the chart above clearly illustrates, what they have done to the price of gold is totally unsustainable, but it is breathtaking to look at the distortion in the very short-run.

Turk continues: “We can clearly see the base that gold has been forming, just as clearly as we can see the intervention by central planners.  It is illustrated by the breakdown in the correlation between the expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet when it announced a $1 trillion QE program in March 2009, and the simultaneous rise in gold and the S&P 500 up to January 2013."

at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/3/31_Shocking_Chart_Shows_Gold_Will_Rise_Over_100_In_One_Year.html

This Disaster Signal Has Only Been Triggered 3 Times In History

"...It's All In The Margin – Monday morning, our friend, Peter Boockvar, over at the Lindsey Group, sent out the following email:

 

NYSE margin debt rose to another record high in February to $465.7b, up from $451.3b in January. The absolute level though doesn’t provide perspective and its why I believe measuring it against GDP is more relevant. It is now at 2.7% of nominal GDP, up from 2.6% in January, exceeds the level of 2.6% seen in July 2007 and is just below the record high of 2.8% in March 2000. At least in the S&P 500, to use one index, the $21b increase in margin debt from December 31st to February 28th brought just a .6% rise in the index vs the $36b increase in margin debt in January/February 2013 which coincided with a 6.2% gain over those two months last year. This data doesn’t tell us where markets go in the very short term but does say a lot about the leverage that is in the market that has helped to get us here."

at http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/4/1_This_Disaster_Signal_Has_Only_Been_Triggered_3_Times_In_History.html