What Good is it if you Can't Spend It?
Jason Hommel

This article is more valuable than a Harvard Education!

Buying silver and gold today will likely be better than buying Microsoft or Apple stock way back when they first came out, and this article addresses the fundamental reasons why.

People often ask, "What good is silver or gold if I can't spend it?"

But that's exactly why we all should buy it! Low monetary demand means silver and gold are still cheap and undervalued liquid assets that investors should crave.

And crave it, they do. But 99% of silver investors are duped into buying the wrong kind of "silver", the kind that is not silver at all.

"Investors" have "bought" up to 200 billion "dollars" worth of "silver" in "accounts", which would be 15-20 years of annual mine supply. Clearly, that silver was never bought by the "brokers" who "sold" that much "silver" in "accounts" to "investors".

Source: http://silverstockreport.com/2012/morgan-silver-manipulation.html

Every word in quotes above needs clarification and/or translation. Each word is quoted to highlight the fact that while I'm trying to tell the story in the silver market, it's difficult to do, because there so much fraud all over the place that if I stopped to define each word as I went, it would be so distracting that I could hardly write a single sentence. Here's how those lines should read, if the discussion were a bit more truthful:

"Misinformed greedy gamblers" have "gambled on the paper currency value" of up to 200 billion "units of paper currency" worth of "paper promises of silver" in "computers", which if it were actually what it was supposed to be, would be 15-20 years of annual mine supply. Clearly, that silver was never bought by the "broker / casino operator / thieves" who "took money for" that much "paper promises of silver" in "computers" for "the gamblers".

Getting back to the point of why people should want real physical silver (outside of brokerage accounts) especially when you can't spend it.

The point is that without monetary demand, gold and silver are cheaper than they otherwise would be.

Also, as long as 15-20 years' worth of mine supply worth of investor demand is siphoned away from the real silver market into "computer" accounts, then silver prices will not go up as fast as they should.

Lower demand means a lower value. Investors know that they want to buy things that have a low value, knowing that the value will likely go up. But investors are still not understanding what silver is, since they continue to be satisfied with "paper silver", or perhaps "computer silver".

So, here's the fundamental reasons why gold and silver will continue to gain in value. Gold and silver are true money, even if they can't be used to buy groceries yet.

What makes gold and silver good at being money?

Many people are beginning to re-learn why gold and silver are the best money, and have been money for thousands of years. They seem to be able to recognize some of the self-evident and obvious truths that those metals have certain unique features making them essential and especially good at being money.

But these need to be listed, because sometimes people have funny ideas about money, because we live in a society that must convince us that paper is the best money.

There is a lot more here than I can remember all at once. I need a list I can refer back to and update, and you just can't find the truth about this stuff anywhere else. So you might want to keep this for future reference, too. None of this is "news", but it will be news to some, because they just don't teach this stuff anywhere.

I have a Harvard Textbook, "Principles of Economics", 4th ed., that defines the three functions of money, the medium of exchange, the unit of account, and the store of value.

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Economics-Gregory-Mankiw/dp/8131503127/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335397369&sr=8-4

It has a 5 star rating! So, it must be one of the best. But how can it be, when it is filled with so many lies?!

The book encourages the reader to "examine" the three functions of money on page 643, (and that's also the only page that mentions the gold standard!), but the book just defines the terms -- but they don't even explain what makes an item good at being one of the three functions of money; the medium of exchange, the unit of account, or the store of value. Furthermore, the textbook is full of lies, misinformation, and false innuendo about money.

It's propaganda of the State. Propaganda works best if you have to pay to learn it. Nobody would believe it if they strapped you to a chair, tied you down, and shouted at you, "believe our lies about the usefulness of paper money and the stupidity of gold, or else!" No, it only works when they make the kids have to pay to learn their propaganda, and then reward those who have the best memories for the lies, with high paying wall street jobs whereby they fleece the rest of the public.

The "Harvard" textbook actually suggests in two ways that only criminals have a large need for cash, because bank deposits leave a "paper trail", and because cash does not earn interest.

But paper is not the only form of "cash". There is also gold. Is all the gold owned by criminals, too? Nonsense. And why does gold have to earn 1% interest, when gold and silver have been going up in value by 15-30% per year for the last ten years? Interest on gold is nonsense.

Precious metals are a great store of value:

To be a store of value:

• It should be long lasting, durable, it must not be perishable or subject to decay. Gold does not decay, not even in seawater. Silver may tarnish and react with sulfur, but the tarnish is very thin and acts as a protective patina that prevents further decay. This is why food items, expensive spices, or even fine silks or oriental rugs, are not generally suitable as money.
• It should have a stable value. Gold and silver values do fluctuate, but their value has never gone to zero value, like paper money often does.
• It should be difficult to counterfeit, and the genuine must be easily recognizable. Paper money is rather easily counterfeited, and good counterfeits are very hard to detect.

Precious metals are a great unit of account:

To be a unit of account:

• It should be divisible into small units without destroying its value; precious metals can be coined from bars, or melted down into bars again, with a low percentage cost. Actually, gold gets more valuable when made into smaller tenth ounce coins, which carry a higher premium, or price percentage over spot. Furthermore, gold, when distributed to the people, creates monetary demand, and a higher value for the remaining gold in the world. Animal skins, or live animals, are not suitable as money, because they are not easily divisible, nor can they be put back together when taken apart. If an item can be divisible, it can be fungible, which is the next point.
• It should be fungible: that is, one unit or piece must be equivalent to another, which is why diamonds, works of art, or real estate are not suitable as money. If an item is fungible, then it can be countable, which is the next point.
• It must be a specific weight, or measure, or size to be verifiably countable. You must be able to weigh, measure, and count, your unit of account! And this is why paper dollars are not suitable as money any longer. What are you counting? What are you measuring? Dollars are nothing but promises to pay in more dollars.

Precious metals are a great medium of exchange:

To be a medium of exchange:

• It should be cheaply and easily tradeable, with a low spread between the prices to buy and sell, in other words, a low transaction cost, and be able to be quickly and easily bought and sold anywhere in the world. Land is not transportable. Even US cash is not accepted everywhere in the world anymore.
• It should have a high value to weight ratio, and thus be easily transportable, and cheap to store away. Precious metals have a high value to weight and size ratio. This is why oil, coal, or water are not suitable as money even though they are valuable. It's why real estate is not money, it's not portable at all. It's why copper is not money, nor is wheat, nor balloons. While even air is valuable and necessary to live more than 5 minutes, and while air can also fungible, air is neither rare nor valuable enough by any significantly measurable units to be useful -- unless perhaps you are a scuba diver under water.

  $300 of gold is .15 of an oz., and can be easily hiding in any wallet.
  $300 of silver is just under 10 oz., and such a bar easily fits into your back pocket.
  $300 of copper is 33 pounds, which is a major strain to lift.
  $300 of oil is 3 large barrels, and is too heavy to be lifted by a person's own strength.
  

• It should be durable. Gold does not decay. Silver tarnishes a bit, but it's negligible. Coins are often mixed with 10% copper to improve hardness and durability, and coins are made with ridges around the rim to prevent coin shaving or debasement. Paper money, surprisingly, is actually expensive as money, because paper wears out quickly, and it costs money to have to re-print the paper.

These fundamental reasons why silver and gold are true money, help to answer the top ten excuses why our friends have not bought silver and gold, which are listed here:

http://silverstockreport.com/2009/bashers-say.html

EXCUSE IN CAPS, followed by my answer/rebuttal.

TOO HIGH NOW. No, Gold and silver can never be valued "too high" against paper money. Paper money is by nature fraud, and always will be. It's interesting that people thought gold was "too high" at $1000/oz. back in Dec. 2009. Clearly, with gold at a stable $1600 just over two years later, we can see more clearly
that they were all wrong who called gold "too high" a few years ago.

HOW TO SELL? Gold and silver are easier to sell than US "dollars", which are not accepted in many nations these days.

CRAZY GOLD BUGS: No, we who understand gold are not crazy. People who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to Harvard to be taught lies might be crazy.

I'M CLUELESS ABOUT GOLD: Well, if you went to Harvard, I can see why. And I hope this article helped to change that for you and your friends.

SHUT UP: Well, this is written, not oral.

PRICE CHANGES: As you can see, it's paper money that is changing in value, far more than gold and silver, but silver and gold will continue to gain value during this time.

GOVERNMENT WILL FIX: As you can see, government cannot change a single fundamental nature or property or feature of silver and gold. Gold and silver expose the lies of excess paper money printing by governments.

SILENCE: Yes, I know, the nay sayers are once again speechless. Hey, gold also doesn't talk, but that does not mean gold and the nay sayers are useless. Gold, if you examine it, reveals its properties to you. Similarly, by examining the arguments, or silence, of the nay sayers, we can see we are on the right track.

I'M BROKE: Hey, gold is not for every man. It's really just for those who would be kings.

BAD BROKERS: Now you can see why the brokers, and their lackeys, the "financial advisors", talk people out of gold and silver. They would go bankrupt if people bought the real things, because their short positions are 15-20 years of mine supply. Furthermore, brokers don't earn commissions on gold that you hold in your own possession and keep in your own vault, and neither do we. We only earn our commission one time, when you buy it from us.

Getting back to the fundamentals.

Gold is easily transportable. This means that the brokers really have no excuse to not send it to you when you buy it. Assays are free. Shipping and insurance for the shipping costs are less than 1% of the value. Thus, the only reason to not send you your gold or silver when you buy it, is because the sellers are running a scam, or are bankrupt.

And there you have it. You now know more about the essential nature of gold than 99.9% of people in the world.

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.12/whatgood.html

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

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Silver is Money

This is fascinating… how silver is mined… and why it SHOULD be much more valuable! After you watch this, you will understand why everyone has been saying that silver is grossly UNDER priced… and… Why this price manipulation is causing a depletion /extinction of this metal in the marketplace.

Why Silver & Not Gold

The Silver Suppression Scheme
Is Ending
David Morgan

SGS Notes: Okay, we've crammed a lot into this newsletter, we admit it! But, if you've been following the economic news and the precious metals market, you'll be aware that there is a lot looming on the not-too-distant horizon. We feel the urgency to get you as much information as possible so that you can be prepared.

Two Scenarios For Next Precious Metals Rally (Part I)
Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls, Canada

Let me preface this piece by first stating that my reason for writing it was not to induce people to guess which scenario they found more probable, and then to place their bets beforehand. Rather, my purpose was exactly opposite: to prepare people for either scenario so that when they recognized one or the other unfolding they wouldn't do something stupid in a moment of panic (or greed).

Sadly, in our markets to "do something stupid in a moment of panic" generally means doing precisely the opposite of what one should be doing. This also explains why the bankers like to start panics. First of all, as the cause of these panics the banksters are neither "panicked" nor (obviously) surprised themselves. So they continue to operate calmly (in this feeding-frenzy) while the sheep make themselves especially easy to shear.

As a result of this never-ending game being played in our markets by the bankers, there is genuine utility in looking ahead (something the sheep almost never do) so that when events do unfold we will be prepared to act (calmly) - as opposed to reacting in panic (as the bankers desire).
With that preface out of the way, the next task is to explain/define these two, looming scenarios:

• The crash-driven rally
  
• The event-driven rally
  

Putting aside the fact that gold and silver are the most undervalued assets on our planet today; despite this ever-present truth the sheep generally need a "reason" to jump on the precious metals bandwagon. The irony here of course is that simply by jumping on the bandwagon the sheep supply the necessary momentum to drive prices higher - meaning that no "reason" is every truly necessary for gold and silver prices to go higher, in accordance with their ultra-bullish long-term fundamentals.
So the Catch-22 of the precious metals market is that we always need some catalyst to break gold and silver free of the intermittent bankster-created "log-jams" which have occurred in this market over the course of its 10+ year bull run, even though there is never any reason necessary to bid-up these grossly undervalued assets. In the last several years we have seen (arguably) three such catalysts. Two of those catalysts were events and one was a "crash".

Taking these catalysts in chronological order, the first of the three was the Crash of '08. Critics will argue that a "crash" is precisely an example of an event-driven catalyst. However, as I alluded to previously a market-crash is a particularly unique form of event, due to the extreme and unusual sentiments which accompany that event. The second reason to distinguish this catalyst from an "ordinary" event which serves to drive the market higher is that the circumstances prior to a crash will be markedly different from the circumstances of any other event-driven rally.

To begin with, one very likely clue that we will be on the precipice of another banker-created crash is that gold and silver (and likely all commodities) will begin to rally strongly without any identifiable cause for their strong surge in prices. To be more precise, the mainstream media (i.e. the propaganda machine) will not supply us with any "reason" for these soaring prices (other than pointing to their favorite scapegoats, the evil "speculators").

They will not tell us that those price increases are nothing but playing catch-up for the previous $trillions in money-printing. Understand that what responsible precious metals commentators generally tell their audience is that we accumulate gold and silver merely to preserve our wealth - i.e. we're not doing this (greedily) looking to turn a profit. However, the fundamental truth is that the decades of suppression, and the even more extreme manipulation of recent years mean that gold and silver are more undervalued today than they were at the beginning of this bull market over ten years ago.
Similarly, with the banksters' paper grossly overvalued, this means that most commodities should be soaring to much higher prices, simply based upon the long-term ramifications of year after year of hyperinflationary money-printing. Here we come to the ultimate fear of the banksters, and the political stooges who serve them: they know that the end of their entire, paper Ponzi-scheme will be imminent when prices for hard assets (i.e. gold, silver, and commodities) begin to soar without any explicit short-term causes.

Unlike the brainwashed sheep, they know their history. They know that the ultimate cause of all hyperinflation is a general loss of confidence in (worthless) paper - just as the Dutch "lost confidence" in their precious tulips 400 years ago. Thus when prices begin soaring (i.e. the paper begins to crash) "for no reason", the real reason will be that people are losing confidence in the paper and dumping it in favor of hard assets.

This precisely describes circumstances in the spring and summer of 2008, and explains why the bankers decided that nothing less extreme than a "crash" would suffice to put the brakes on the looming hyperinflation. What this means is that unlike an ordinary event-driven rally for the precious metals sector we will be tipped-off prior to the next crash being manufactured: we will see another instance of spiraling gold, silver, and commodities prices with charts showing a clear exponentially-rising pattern.

The banksters will not sit back quietly and allow their $100's of trillions in Ponzi-paper to evaporate. Inflicting severe economic hardship on 100's of millions means nothing to them. Indeed, the bankers have an even more extreme "solution" for dealing with a pending hyperinflation scenario: starting a war.

Hitler started World War II to cope with the aftermath of Germany's hyperinflation from the Weimar Republic. However Hitler wasn't a banker. He had no mountains of worthless paper to protect. His only motives were to create a smoke-screen for the economic ruin from the preceding hyperinflation and to cover-up his own economic mismanagement, which is an inherent aspect of all Fascism.
With the bankers (and the ultra-wealthy Oligarchs) being firmly in charge of our governments today, war would be a tool that they would use undoubtedly before any hyperinflation reduced their mountains of paper to what it really is: "Monopoly money". Thus should we see another repeat of the explosion in gold, silver, and commodities prices which took place in the spring and summer of 2008, many would suggest that we should hope for a market crash.

Those with the inclinations to be "traders" (i.e. the greedy) will be sensing opportunity at this point. They will note that we will have a clear warning before the next crash is manufactured. They will note that such a crash will occur when we see a distinctive repeat of what occurred in gold, silver, and commodity markets in the spring/summer of 2008. They will look at the charts for gold and silver for 2008, and they will think to themselves "sell".

This would be a colossal failure of analysis, and another triumph for naked greed. Simply because identical circumstances cause the bankers to use an identical "tool" (i.e. a market crash) does not mean that the consequences of their reckless intervention in markets will be identical.

Our economic circumstances in 2012 are enormously different than in 2008. Today our economies are all much weaker. Today our economies are all much less solvent. These two different dynamics both have significant implications in any crash scenario. Create a crash in a (relatively) strong economy and there is resistance; that is, that residual economic strength will push back against the downward economic pressure of a crash - slowing the descent and stretching-out the length of time of that downward slide before "bottom" is hit.

Conversely, create a crash in a weak economy and all you have is free-fall. We would (will?) see a crash which is much faster, and much more severe. This alternately means that anyone attempting to "time" this event by selling their gold/silver and then (assuming they can) buy it back it cheaper could miss badly in either direction.

The fact that a 2012 crash would tend to be a much faster event would mean that it could be over before all the would-be traders are expecting. They are sitting-and-waiting (for even cheaper prices) with their pile of depreciating paper, while prices have already began bouncing back. And as with the Crash of '08, the rebound in gold and silver prices will be at least as rapid as their plunge, and likely even more rapid - leaving all those greedy "traders" still waiting at the station.
On the other hand, with a crash in 2012 undoubtedly a much more severe economic event, would-be traders could easily jump back into the market too soon - and do their buying with prices about to plunge much lower. We can assess those relative probabilities by looking at our other different dynamic for 2012: much less solvent governments.

The Crash of '08 sparked the Money-Printing of '09, which in turn has directly led to the Debt Crisis of 2010-to-present. The "64-trillion-dollar question" today is this: if a crash in 2008 caused a debt-crisis (when our economies were relatively strong), what would a crash do in 2012 - with our economies all weak, and all of Europe already in a debt-crisis. The answer to that question is really simple. Everybody is Greece.

The combination of an even worse crash, with much weaker economies, already in the midst of a debt-crisis means that either the money-printing would have to be much, much more extreme (i.e. guaranteed hyperinflation) or it would fail to halt our economic crash despite the extreme money-printing.

Understand that every new "dollar" of paper created is created with more debt. Understand that our interest rates are already as low as they can go, and still we see the debt-dominoes going bankrupt one-by-one. So doing much more money-printing means piling on exponentially more debt onto already insolvent economies while revenues are simultaneously plummeting lower. This precisely describes what just took place in Greece.

So when "everybody is Greece" (including the world's worst debt-sinner, the United States) what are the holders of $10's of trillions in Western bonds going to do? Will they stoically and nobly "go down with the ship" like the Captains of Finance that they are? Or will they all scramble for the nearest "lifeboat" like proverbial rats deserting that sinking ship? I'll let readers answer that one for themselves.

In the Crash of '08, it was only the gold-bugs (and silver bulls) who were thinking to themselves "paper is going to zero". The sheep were still all running towards that worthless paper. In any crash in 2012 (or 2013) it will be obvious to everyone that "everybody is Greece", and all that paper is going to zero.

What this means is that in any future crash event, any sell-off in gold and silver will end very quickly and very abruptly, when all of the "rats" from the bond-market (belatedly) try to swap (worthless) paper for (valuable) metal. Naturally, all of the extreme money-printing taking place means that the underlying paper currencies are just as worthless as the bonds.

This should mean that all the sheep would be dumping their paper currencies for gold and silver too. However, that would imply rational thinking. Since the panic of any crash event means the opposite of rational thinking, the holders of our paper currencies will undoubtedly do even worse than the bond-holders.

As I continue to point out to readers, it would take much less than 10% of these paper-holders turning toward the 5,000 security of gold and silver to cause precious metals prices to soar to many multiples of present prices (especially in the tiny silver market). This comes at a time when people are only holding about 1/10th as much precious metals in their portfolio as is the historic norm.
The question for the precious metals bears and skeptics is this: if gold and silver prices can go on a 10+ year bull-run while ignorant Western investors have under-owned this asset class to the greatest degree in history, what happens when all of the "stupid money" of the West belatedly rebalances their holdings?

As an aside, this raises a secondary question: how can the drones in the mainstream media continue to talk about "bubbles" in gold and silver while these assets have never been so under-owned by Western investors?

When thinking investors begin to ask (and answer) these questions for themselves, their strategy for any crash scenario should be clear: don't idiotically sell the gold and silver they are already holding, greedily hoping they can cash-in on some "obvious" short-term trade. Rather they should be buying more gold and silver in any crash, even in the face of rapidly falling prices. They would know that any plunge would be very short in duration, and will reverse higher very, very strongly, when all of the paper-holders finally begin to "see the light".

Naturally, the my hope and that of all other gold and silver bulls is that we can see gold and silver begin their next, inevitable rally from some event which inspires much less fear and economic carnage than an economic crash. In Part II, I will flash-back to two such events, and note both their significant similarities and significant differences.

To read Part 2 click here

New At SGS!

Introducing our new Silver Bullet !

Whether you are protecting yourself from Werewolves or Inflation, this Silver Bullet is for you! We are excited to introduce this Silver Bullet novelty item. This item includes a set of TEN 1/10 oz .999 fine Silver Walking Liberty rounds, contained in a semi-transparent 12 gauge shotgun shell.

This item is not only a great investment in precious metals, it makes for a great conversation piece. If your group or organization would like to customize this item, we will work with you to create a custom label with your favorite slogan or logo. (Additional pricing will apply)

We also have the 1/10 oz rounds available for purchase individually on our site now. These are the size of a dime and a good alternative to junk silver which is only 90% pure.

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"Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have - to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."

- George Washington

 Where a Nation's Gold and Your Gold Should be Held - Part I

Julian Phillips
Proprietor at Global Watch - The Gold Forecaster

Purpose of Holding Gold
Most central banks hold their nation's gold in the vaults of the world's leading financial centers' central bank vaults. These include New York, London, and Canada among others. In a peaceful, cooperative world, this is sensible as one of the prime purposes of central banks holding gold is to cover the nation's international trade payments when their own currency becomes unacceptable and their reserves of foreign exchange are depleted. By positioning the gold outside the country, it's instantly accessible for payments or guarantees of payments.

Dangers of a Nation Holding Gold in Another Nation's Central Bank
In the last week we have heard the announcement that Iran has (according to them) 907 tonnes of gold. The developed world has just outlawed Iran dealing in gold and silver (there are other places, where if they wished to do so they will be able to trade). With their gold inside Iran, it is outside the reach of the developed world though. If they had held their gold in the world's main, developed world vaults that would have been frozen along with Iran's other overseas assets. We may not agree to Iran's politics and attitudes, but there is a lesson to be learned here.
Ownership implies the freedom to do what you want with an asset. In this case we are talking about a nation's assets. The handling of Iran's assets by freezing of their assets shows that other nations can interfere with that freedom. Governments feel free to impose restraints on other people's assets within their jurisdiction. It is this concept of a right to restrain the rights of ownership that will prove a growing issue.

With the world changing from an under-developed world with a developed world to an emerging world drawing down power and wealth from the developed world, there are many changes taking place which will lower the levels of international cooperation in the days ahead as political, religious, monetary and economic pressures rise.

One nation that has foreseen these pressures coming is Venezuela. Their 160 tonnes of gold was held in Canada, the U.S. and European vaults and out of their full control. Their policies -including the nationalization of gold mining and export-have proved unpopular in the developed world too. With Venezuela being an oil exporter primarily, the unpopular President (outside the nation) felt it prudent to ship his nation's gold back home. The process began a few months ago.

Venezuela's Gold Comes Home
Venezuela has now succeeded in bringing its 160 tonnes of gold from the developed world's central bank vaults (i.e. Canada, U.S. and Europe). There's no doubt that such a move does secure the nation's monetary sovereignty. Now, Venezuela's gold cannot be subject to the political wishes of the U.S., Canadian or European governments.

Furthermore, there's a potential 3,000 tonnes of gold under the ground in Venezuela and the likelihood that the government will take that into their vaults over the time it takes to mine it. They will then be in a position to take the U.S. dollars they receive for their oil and pay their miners for the gold, so diversifying their reserves away from currencies and into gold. If they do that, then this is one more source of supply that will be removed from the gold market.

Whatever the nation's politics, it is a central banker's duty to do all in its power to protect its nation's gold and foreign exchange reserves in terms of control and value. With dollar hegemony, a great deal of that power remains in the hands of the issuer of that currency. As sovereignty issues grow, it is becoming incumbent on central bankers to do more to protect nation's reserves. The most vulnerable nations are those whose politics differ drastically from the developed world or those whose international trading is not dependent on the major developed world. After all, if you are a kind of economic colony of a major nation it will exercise its influence far more effectively through other routes.

The conclusion that best suits vulnerable nations logically is to hold as much of its gold at home. Its dollars have to be held in New York and its euros in Europe -something they can do little about. But a nation like Venezuela with its reserves of gold at home and a 'natural' diversifier in the gold under the ground, is acting in that nation's interests in building up its gold reserves at home.

China Following the Same Path
China has outlawed the export of gold and vigorously broadened the number of banking import licenses for gold. The resulting flows of gold in with nothing coming out, is leading to the total national stock of gold in China rising fast.

" Last year saw around 360.96 tonnes of gold produced there with the government encouraging this growth of local production. But this figure may be a heavy underestimation as scrap and non-China Gold Association member's production is not included in that number.

" 490 tonnes of gold came into China through Hong Kong with more imports possible through other routes, not included in this total.

" At the start of 2012, demand for gold during the lunar New Year jumped over 50% pointing to much higher imports in 2012. These could lead to a jump of reported imports of 750 tonnes in 2012.
China is preparing Shanghai as the center for Yuan trading and as their leading financial center. Hong Kong is the current, financial center and has huge modern gold vaults already. We have issued an article in our newsletter Gold Forecaster giving our views on China growing to a second or first gold market hub in time. But we repeat that NO gold is allowed to leave the country! With privately held gold open to confiscation at some point in time, we consider the total gold held inside China as part of that nation's available stock of gold in their reserves.

Read Part II Here

New At SGS!

Introducing our new Silver Bullet !

Whether you are protecting yourself from Werewolves or Inflation, this Silver Bullet is for you! We are excited to introduce this Silver Bullet novelty item. This item includes a set of TEN 1/10 oz .999 fine Silver Walking Liberty rounds, contained in a semi-transparent 12 gauge shotgun shell.

This item is not only a great investment in precious metals, it makes for a great conversation piece. If your group or organization would like to customize this item, we will work with you to create a custom label with your favorite slogan or logo. (Additional pricing will apply)

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Quote of the Week

"Nothing is more important than balancing the budget with the least increase in taxes."

- Herbert Hoover, March, 1932

Other Articles      

Gold and Silver Manipulation and How They Do It
Safe Haven

BRICS Plan to Abandon U.S. Dollar Will Hurt U.S. and Help Gold
TradePlacer

IMF: Gold Is Scarce "Safe Asset" And "Growing Shortage of Safe Assets"
Zero Hedge

Eric Sprott: Financial Train Wreck Coming Soon! Got Gold? Better Yet, Got Silver?
Eric Sprot

Silver Heading to $80 an Ounce
Greg McCoach, WealthDaily

How The Silver Manipulation Game Works
Ted Butler

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Silver Shortage This Decade,
Silver Will Be Worth More Than Gold

New 1/10 oz Rounds      

1/10 tr. Oz .999 fine silver

Coin Tubes also available!

SGS Notes: Our main article this week is one of several from the Cheviot Sound Money Conference that was held in the January. Clicking on the photo link will allow you to listen to one of the key speakers of the conference who gave this speech below. Don't miss the links in the right column of that page to other very informative other speeches...

Gold & Silver Are The Currencies of the Free

Dominic Frisby
Goldcore 

The President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, called for a new post Bretton-Woods currency system involving gold, in November 2010. Zoellick said that gold was worthy of consideration as a reference point for modern currencies and as an indicator to help set foreign exchange rates.

At the end of January, the Cheviot Sound Money Conference held an excellent conference in London which examined the practical application of gold and silver as money within a modern context.

The context to these proposals is crucial as without an understanding of the modern financial and monetary system one cannot possibly comprehend the continuing importance of gold and silver.

We live in an era of surging trillion dollar deficits and surging national debts in the US and internationally.

The US recorded its biggest monthly deficit in history two days ago with a $223 billion deficit for February alone, the 29th straight month of deficits – a modern record. The US budget deficit in 2010 was over $1.45 trillion and is forecast to be of a similar magnitude in 2011. At the close of business on Feb. 28, the total federal debt stood at $14.195 trillion ($14,194,764,339,462.64).

We live in an era of massive creation of government bonds.

Foreign central banks hold $5 trillion in US Treasury bonds and agency debt alone. Chinese foreign exchange reserves alone are soon to reach the $3 trillion level.

We live in an era of of thousands of trillions of dollars, euros, pounds etc. of derivatives.

The enormous OTC sector of derivatives alone is worth nearly $600 trillion on paper, roughly 10 times world economic output.

We live in an era seeing the creation of and speculation with trillions of dollars (euro, pound etc.) of electronic currency.

According to the Bank for International Settlements, as of April 2010, average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets was estimated at $3.98 trillion, a growth of approximately 20% over the $3.21 trillion daily volume as of April 2007 - soon after the financial crisis began. Some firms specialising in foreign exchange have put the average daily turnover in excess of US$4 trillion.

We are experiencing a scale of global currency debasement, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

We live in an era where thousands of millions of people live on less than a dollar or two a day in the "developing world". While millions of people in the "developed world" are now debt slaves - both individually and as citizens of increasingly bankrupt nation states.

Reformation or replacement of our debt-based fiat paper and electronic financial and monetary system is one of the most important debates of our times.

The modern monetary system of paper and electronic money is inherently unstable and unsustainable and there is a strong case for considering using gold and silver as money once again.

At the Cheviot conference, Money Week's Dominic Frisby gave an excellent talk in which he outlined why gold is the currency of the free.

Frisby eloquently outlined how the modern system of finance, banking and credit (or debt) impoverishes and enslaves. It has "made wars that should never have happened possible; its brought about a relentless needless commercial expansion and malinvestment that has raped the earth."

He points out how the world is cursed by monetary illiteracy and it is amazing how few people understand the modern monetary system, and how it is to blame for the huge inequalities in wealth we see in the world today.

"Money must be sound and true, at the moment it is neither and society is corrupted as a consequence."

Dominic Frisby's lecture can be watched here:
http://www.cheviot.co.uk/sound-money-conference/presentations/why-gold-is-the-currency-of-the-free

There were a number of other excellent talks all of which are worth viewing. The highlights include Chris Powell, the Secretary/Treasurer of GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee), lecture 'Gold price suppression purposes and proofs':
http://www.cheviot.co.uk/sound-money-conference/presentations/gold-price-suppression-purposes-and-proofs

There is then an excellent panel discussion and question and answer session on gold at the end which involved Max Keiser, James Turk, David Morgan, Ben Davies, Richard Cragg, Sandeep Jaitly. It is surprisingly entertaining and very informative:

http://www.cheviot.co.uk/sound-money-conference/presentations/panel-discussion-with-audience-q-and-a

GoldNomics - Cash or Gold Bullion?

Our educational video, 'Goldnomics - Cash or Gold Bullion?' complements the excellent interviews from the conference. It clearly shows how gold has retained value throughout history.

'GoldNomics' can be viewed by clicking on the image above or on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/goldcorelimited

The US dollar has been the strongest fiat currency in the world in the last 100 years and indeed it became the reserve currency of the world during the period (due to victories in the two World Wars and the accumulation of the largest gold reserves in the world).

Despite that the dollar has lost 97% of its value in 97 years. The massive loss of purchasing power of the preeminent currency of our age, the US dollar, clearly shows gold's importance as a currency, as money and as a store of value.

Individuals, families and societies can never be free as long as money is based on debt and compounded interest and as long as the money we use day to day is constantly depreciating and being debased.

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Once Upon A Time

The story of two different monetary conferences, two "committees of experts" that both met in Genoa, and changed the course of monetary history.

Advanced Q & A on the Silver Manipulation
Bix Weir


Donald Trump Confirms His Confidence in Gold
NY Magazine

Identities of JP Morgan Silver Manipulators Exposed
King World News
 

The New Bankster 'Weapon' Against Gold/Silver
Jeff Nielson

The Precious Metals Tsunami
Goldrunner

Run To Safety
Mary Anne & Pamela Aden
 

Central Banks Waging War on Gold At This Hour
Trader Dan

Gold-Backed Dollar Puts ‘Fair Value’ at $10,000 an Ounce
Bloomberg
 

The Case for Gold and Silver Investment Gets Stronger and Stronger
MineWeb

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Silver Shortage This Decade, Silver
Will Be Worth More Than Gold
Future Money Trends

SGS Notes: This week we can only say, there's a 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!' Not just geologically, but in the markets as well... we've seen silver up over $44 this week, and gold broke through the $1900 barrier before heading back down. We see the big manipulators scurrying to cover their short positions and a lot of new activity 'out there'... The Warren Buffet Bailout of B of A is a big item...another is the Jackson Hole conference on the economy. This week's newsletter, like many, will try to cover the highlights...

The Upside for Gold and Silver will Knock Your Socks Off Embry

Geoff Candy Mineweb

With no easy solutions to the globe's debt problems visible, Sprott Asset Management's John Embry expects gold and silver to be significant beneficiaries but the road ahead will not be easy.

With no easy solutions to the globe's debt problems visible, Sprott Asset Management's John Embry expects gold and silver to be significant beneficiaries but the road ahead will not be easy.

For many commentators, gold is considered not only a constant store of value but, also, a barometer for the health of the global economic system and the currencies that pump through its veins.

For, John Embry, chief investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management, the current parabolic rise in prices, which have beat even his optimistic performance expectations this summer, is indicative of the unsustainable debt situation in which the world now finds itself.

Speaking on Mineweb.com's Gold Weekly podcast, Embry explains, "We've reached a stage in the debt cycle where it doesn't appear we can move forward and on that basis you need more and more debt creation to generate the same dollar real GDP growth - and I don't think we can get that kind of debt growth. So to keep these systems stuck together they [governments] are going to have employ quantitative easing in massive quantities, and if they don't, the current softness in the economy is going to turn into a rout."

Given the current levels of growth, Embry says, any halt in the funds propping up the banking system will result in significant deflation in "fairly short order" because the deflationary pressures within the West are huge.

But, he says, it is not just the West that is likely to suffer. "The Chinese miracle is grinding to a halt, they've dined out in the West for years and they paid for it by taking back our crappy paper but the fact is that they kept their economy going at breakneck pace and I would also say it is probably one of the most unbalanced economies I have ever seen.

"They have depended so heavily on exports and capital spending and now the export markets are weakening at the same time they have massive over capacity. So those two engines are coming to a halt and the hope is that they can do lateral arabesque into consumer demand to keep the thing going. I think that will be a hard act in the short run and consequently China faces some fairly difficult economic problems going forward.

What this means for prices?

While this rather bleak scenario does not bode well for the financial system as a whole, gold's performance over time [as well as that of silver] is likely to "knock your socks off", Embry says. But, he adds, especially after this latest move, he would prefer to see a correction in prices before that happens.

"I don't want to see this thing just scream away and become out of control and conceivably if you got a strong effective action in either Europe or the United States - that might be the catalyst for a significant correction of a couple of hundred bucks - but having said that I don't see the easy solution."

Embry points out that it is also important to note that, "It's not gold and silver that are doing anything. There have been constant stores of value for centuries. It's the value of the paper money that they are being denominated in that is at risk here and you know every attempt in history, fiat paper currency has always ended in tears and this one has been going for 40 years since Nixon closed the gold window and it's probably in its terminal stages."

Indeed, he is of the belief that the world will ultimately see a return to some kind of a gold standard.

"When we do have to recast the currency system, just to restore confidence there will have to be some backing that maintains discipline - and gold has traditionally filled that role. So I can see gold being introduced as a maybe fractional reserve like there was before 1971 in the United States. but to do that given the amount of paper out there and the limited amount of gold, they would have to mark the gold price up dramatically."

And, while he cannot put any kind of timing on such an event, he does think that gold could move as high as $2,500 within the next twelve months.

Quotes  ____________     

“Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency,” he said. “And the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It’s not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.”

Alan Greenspan

For Full Article, Click Here

SGS Note: Perhaps Mr. Bernanke needs to confer with Mr. Greenspan...

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Currency Devaluation and Revaluation

British Government Begins Stealing its Peoples’ Bank Deposits Ahead of the Global Financial Collapse

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Buffetoon – Implications of silver remonetization
Response to
"A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing"
The Wolf Invests in Bank of America

The World's 30 largest banks by market capitalization

SGS Notes: The big news this week was the downgrading of the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ with S&P. I won't fill the newsletter with that since it's been in all the news... But what we are about to watch is the coming spike in gold and silver prices due to this and other factors... The downgrading of the US Dollar will have a huge domino effect on other currencies around the world. So we will be seeing unbelievable volatility everywhere in the markets... and demand is about to go sky high.

Silver's Performance to Triple That of Gold over The Next 3-5 Years..

Eric Sprott

Silver is likely to be the investment of the decade in the same way that gold was the investment of the last one as both industrial and investment demand come to the fore, says Eric Sprott

According to Sprott Asset Management CEO, Eric Sprott, Silver is the investment of the decade. Not only is it likely to reach $50 an ounce by the end of the year but, he says, over the next three to five years, it's performance is likely to treble that of gold's.

Speaking on Mineweb.com's Metals Weekly podcast, Sprott said, "We've been huge proponents of gold over the last 11 years, and we've been involved in silver over that same time period but beginning about a year ago it became extremely evident to us that the investment demand for silver was massively understated."

This move also appears to be occurring in India, where festival celebrants, deterred by high gold prices have been buying silver ornaments as gifts. (See: Silver puts gold in the shade.)

He adds, as a result of this, the ratio between the two metals is likely to get back to a more "appropriate" level around 16:1 - it is currently around 37:1 and only in June last year it was sitting around the 70:1 level.

"If one looked at the silver and gold sales as an example of the US Mint, so far this year, people have put the same dollars into silver as they've put into gold - which can't carry on with the price being 38:1 - you just can't have the same amount of money going in. We see the same thing in the ETFs - the silver ETFs have been growing while the gold ETFs so far this year, have declined," he says.

One of the main reasons for this, according to Sprott is that more and more people are viewing gold, and now silver, as the reserve currency and given the state of the world, there is a shift from paper to hard currencies.

It is not, however, just Sprott who sees this shift toward hard currencies. The state of Utah, recently signed a law which has made it the first U.S. state to recognize federally issued gold and silver coins as legal tender.

Asked why there is likely to be such a large relative outperformance, Sprott says, "the fundamentals for the two metals are entirely different. There is huge industrial demand for silver, there's not much industrial demand for gold. It's interesting when you look at how many dollars of gold are produced in a year and what's available for saving, and how many ounces of silver are produced per year, and how many of those ounces are available for investment, the ratio is something like there are 10 times more gold available for investment in dollars every year, than there is silver. So if the guy is just as happy to own silver as gold, the fundamentals are going to diverge markedly here."

With the growing industrial uses for the metal in, among other areas, photovoltaic cells, and the medical field (for its antibacterial properties) on top of the growing investment demand, higher prices could result in some substitution but, according to Sprott this is not really a concern as the dollar value of the silver is almost immaterial to the total cost of the product.

Any clouds to the silver lining?

Asked if there are any potential hiccoughs to the run for silver that he is predicting, Sprott says that while there are a few things that would cause him to change his mind, he does not really see any of them coming to pass any time soon

The first cloud, according to Sprott would be fiscal and monetary responsibility by governments and central banks but, he says, this is certainly not evident at present and would go so far as to say, " ever since we had QE1, the reason to own gold and silver has just changed materially here because of the irresponsibility of the central banks in the world

The other potential hiccough, he says would be some kind of massive mania type blow off, " you have to take your best guesses when something like that might end - I don't see it as being anywhere near that stage at this point."

And, finally he says, "The other thing that would have an impact is if, ultimately, gold and silver in fact are named reserve currencies - then we will all have accomplished what we're after and you may or may not need it neat because it's now money."

Where to from here?

According to Sprott Silver will move to $50 dollars this year before powering ahead, "If you ask me in the three to five year time frame, obviously I think it's going to go north of $100 simply because we'll get that 16:1 ratio and I certainly see gold going a lot higher, so that's my outlook here and therefore the rewards for owning silver and the equities will be quite outstanding."

Quote of the Week                               

“By this means (fractional reserve banking) government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.”

--John Maynard Keynes
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920

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Gold Is The True Reserve Currency

We Are at the Cusp of a Global Move into Gold and Silver

Chris Weber

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Jim Sinclair Interview
with James Turk

SGS Notes: We are watching a political theater unfold that is certain to have a dramatic and lasting effect on silver and gold prices well into the future.

Gold and Silver Beyond the Limit

Peter Schiff

Perhaps the debt ceiling should be renamed the "national debt target," for it seems Washington is always trying to reach it. One could say it's their only reliable, time-tested achievement. And without fail, upon reaching their national debt target, they promptly extend it further in order to discover how quickly it can once again be attained!

While I have little doubt that the ceiling will be raised, my readers have been curious as to the implications for gold in each of the debt and "default" scenarios possible after August 2nd. This month, I'll outline how each outcome could affect the price of gold and silver.

BEARISH GOLD CASE #1: DEBT CEILING NOT RAISED - ENOUGH CUTS MADE TO AVERT DEFAULT

My readers know that this scenario is actually what the US government should do. The debt ceiling should not be increased and massive cuts must be made. We know this outcome is extremely unlikely - it would require not only a resolute steadfastness to sound money, but also a 180-degree change of philosophical beliefs by the majority of Congress (and the American public) overnight.

Yet in our fantasy world, if this did occur, it would be bearish for gold. It would mean the US government was shrinking, that debts were being paid, that the entire US economy was becoming more solvent and viable. Gold would be less important to own, as the risk of both currency crises and sovereign debt crises would be lower.

BEARISH GOLD CASE #2: DEBT CEILING RAISED - FEDERAL BUDGET BALANCED

If the debt ceiling is raised in order to avert imminent default, but the spare time is used to truly bring the federal budget into balance, the US economy might still be saved. But when I say "balanced," I mean it. This would mean not only eliminating the entire $1.5 trillion deficit, but also leaving enough of a surplus to cover all outstanding debt and unfunded liabilities. For perspective, Senator Rand Paul's proposal to but $500 billion a year, widely considered more radical than landing a man on Mars, would only address 1/3 of the annual deficit - it would take cuts many times that for the US to return to solvency.

But let's be optimistic: if the budget could be balanced, then the fact that the debt ceiling was being increased yet again would not be so awful. Since the US government's fiscal policies would be completely reversed, we could expect to start seeing a strengthening of the dollar (so long as Bernanke stopped the printing presses too) and a weakening of gold and silver.

However, this is just as much of a pipe dream as the first scenario. No government in history has dug itself out of the hole we now face without defaulting. If Congress even tried to enact a plan like this, people would be rioting in the streets over their lost entitlements. And we'd suddenly have millions of unemployed soldiers. Not exactly a recipe for peace and prosperity.

BULLISH GOLD CASE #1: DEBT CEILING NOT RAISED - US DEFAULTS ON TREASURY DEBT

This is the scenario that President Obama and Secretary Geithner are threatening. They claim that if the debt ceiling is not raised, they will have to immediately begin defaulting on Treasury interest payments. This is rather unlikely, as interest payments make up only 10% of spending, but let's say they stop paying anyway.

If they do this, market interest rates for US debt would skyrocket, meaning the only buyer left at rates the Treasury could afford would be the Fed. In other words, if they default on August 2nd, QE3 will start on August 3rd. Of course, a default would be absolutely devastating to the dollar and a boon for gold and silver. Global confidence in the invincibility of the United States would be shattered, and the underlying problem of excessive spending would still remain to be addressed.

Another interesting scenario would be if Congress didn't raise the debt ceiling and the Treasury just kept borrowing anyway. It's not like the Executive Branch follows laws scrupulously nowadays. What if they just ignored it? Someone could challenge the act in federal courts, but the odds are often in the President's favor. In this case, gold and silver might experience less of an initial spike, but their long-term prospects would be elevated as the world recognized that we were one step closer to becoming a banana republic.

BULLISH GOLD CASE #2: DEBT CEILING RAISED - SYMBOLIC CUTS IN SPENDING

This scenario is by far the most likely outcome of the debt talks in Washington; they will raise the debt ceiling and make spending cuts which sound substantial, but which only mange to slow the accumulation of new debt.

The plans on the table suggest cutting a couple trillion in cumulative spending over the next decade. In other words, they propose cuts that only reduce deficits by about 10-20%; they do nothing to reduce actual debt levels. So if these talks are successful, then instead of a $1.5 trillion deficit each year, perhaps we only suffer a $1.2 trillion deficit. Meanwhile, the debt continues growing. This is "success" in Washington.

Clearly, this is bullish for precious metals. It means more of the same - more spending, more debt, and necessarily more money-printing.

Over the past 50 years, the US debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times. In other words, there is no ceiling at all - it is as fictitious as the idea that central planning works, or that the US has anything resembling a "free market."

So, I guess it stands to reason that regardless of the debt ceiling increase, it is likely that the US will be downgraded by one or more ratings agencies. The effect will be massive because the world's largest pension, mutual, and sovereign wealth funds typically mandate investment only in AAA-rated securities. A downgrade of US debt means those funds must immediately sell off their primary reserve asset. The effect of this cannot be overstated, and gold would be the first and best refuge for an onslaught of orphaned capital.

Despite gold once again hitting new highs, I can only recommend my readers continue to keep a healthy portion of their portfolio in precious metals. Given the sad realities of the US fiscal and monetary situation, it's prudent to assume that nothing will be solved by August 2nd.

Quote of the Week                               

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MarketWatch

U.S. debt ceiling crisis only a minor player in gold and silver prices
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The Buzz Around Gold Is Growing Louder
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Ron Paul to Bernanke:
Is Gold Money?

Eric Sprott, of
Sprott Asset Management

Financial Sense
Newshour

" Silver Set to 'Explode' "

SGS Notes: This week's news has centered around the debt ceiling, the budget 'crisis', and the impending economic crises for Europe, Italy, Greece (again)... all of these things are having an impact on gold and silver prices.

Central Banks Unanimously Prefer Gold Over Paper

Jeff Nielson

After the Western banking cabal engineered the "crash" of the global gold market in 1980, Western central banks spent more than a quarter-century perpetrating the lie that gold was a "barbarous relic" - which was supposedly "inferior" to the worthless, un-backed paper they were cranking out (in record amounts) on their privately-owned printing presses.

Their incentive was obvious. In getting the entire world to believe that lie, they were able to enrich themselves by $10's of trillions of dollars. This was done by creating those $10's of trillions ("out of thin air"), pretending that this paper actually represented real wealth - and then getting people all over the world to give them $trillions more paying interest on worthless paper which never represented any real wealth in the first place.

While it was the largest fraud (and theft) in the history of the world (by a factor of more than 1,000), it was by no means an original act of fraud - being nothing more than the same scam which all bankers always perpetrate, whenever they are (foolishly) granted the privilege of inventing "money" out of thin air, going back a thousand years.

During the first twenty-five years of this institutionalized fraud/theft, the bankers supported their fraud by dumping their vast hoards of gold onto the market (in the largest quantities in history). "Look," they would say, pointing with their evil talons, "Even we bankers, the greediest creatures ever hatched on this planet, have no use for this archaic, yellow metal - so why would any of you want to own it?"

The price of gold was pushed to an all-time low (in real dollars), so low that more than 90% of the world's gold mines were forced to close since they couldn't manage to break-even at those fraud-induced prices. And individual holdings of gold (especially in the West) fell to their lowest level in history.

Obviously, with that privilege to print money not having been revoked yet (a literal "license to steal"), their incentive to continue this fraud/theft is as strong as ever. However, over the past five years a "funny" thing has occurred. First these central banks rapidly slowed their dumping of gold, then they stopped it altogether, and now they are the single-largest bloc of gold-buyers on the planet.

Recent statistics released by the World Gold Council allow us to go even further. Over the past two years, the world's central banks have demonstrated a 100% unanimous preference for gold over their own banker-paper (i.e. all those un-backed "fiat currencies"). During that span of time, only three nations have been modest "net sellers" of gold - and in all three cases this related to "long term sales agreements" (i.e. old obligations). During the past two years, not one single central bank on the face of the Earth has chosen to be a net-seller of gold over that time.

I drive a Toyota

Let me construct an analogy here. A person goes shopping for a car. He goes to a Ford dealership, and after getting the full "sales pitch" on what wonderful vehicles all Ford products are, the shopper asks the salesman "what kind of car do you drive?" And the salesman answers "I drive a Toyota."

The car-shopper then goes to a GM dealership, a Chrysler dealership, a Volkswagen dealership, and every other auto-dealership he can find. At each dealership, the salesman tells the shopper what "wonderful vehicles" they make, but when the shopper asks each one what car they drive themselves, every one replies "Toyota". The obvious question to ask is that armed with such data, is there a single (rational) auto-buyer who would buy anything other than a Toyota?

The equally obvious answer is that "no", no rational buyer would ever choose any vehicle other than a Toyota - unless he/she simply couldn't afford the purchase price.

The most charitable statement we can make about the world's central bankers is that they are the world's "sellers of money". Indeed, since I have already pointed out that what they are selling is worthless, we could obviously come up with a long list of terms less-neutral than "sellers". Unquestionably, with armies of statisticians and data-gatherers at their disposal, they are the world's foremost experts on "money" (assuming we generously include their fiat currencies with that label).

Much like a hypothetical world where all the sellers of automobiles (who know these cars the best) all buy a single brand of automobile themselves, all of the world's foremost experts on "money" are showing a 100% preference for one kind of money: gold. The message from the world's central bankers is absolutely unequivocal: only chumps would choose to hold paper over gold.

Clearly, the massive paper-fraud of these banksters is in its final stages of decay: a Ponzi-scheme of unimaginable proportions, where people willingly funneled $trillions of their own wealth into the clutches of Western bankers - only to ultimately end up with zero (or near-zero, or less-than-zero). We know this, because the scammers themselves are now publicly fleeing from their own scam.

Ironically, the same, semi-comatose mainstream media which still alerts us when "insiders" in our equity markets are "dumping" their shares, has been 100% oblivious to the "insiders" in our monetary markets dumping their banker-paper (in favor of gold). The parallel cannot be missed: when corporate insiders are unanimously dumping their shares, only the "Mother of All Fools" would be a buyer in equity markets. When all of the world's monetary "insiders" are dumping their banker-paper in favor of gold, only an equivalent "fool" would attempt to swim against that tide.

To avoid getting "lynched" by all of the silver-bulls who follow my work, let me take a moment to include silver in this analysis. To begin with, if anything the bankers have even more fear/hatred of silver than gold. However, their hatred/aversion to silver is so extreme that rather than merely lie about silver (so people would not want to hold it), and then hoarding as much as possible themselves, they decided on the "nuclear option": destroying the world's stockpiles of silver. The only reason why the world's central banks have shown no interest in silver is because inventories have been decimated to such an extreme (more than 90% lower than 15 years ago) that (relative to gold) there is no silver for the central banks to start hoarding.

At the household level, the world's silver shortage is not yet that extreme. We can still buy what we want/need as individuals - and at "sale" prices, thanks to the recent ambush of the silver market by the CME Group. Of particular relevance, for those small investors who are finding the price of gold moving out of their "reach", silver remains accessible - and a fantastic bargain.

Short of B.S. Bernanke starting to walk around with a neon sign hanging around his neck saying "buy gold", it is impossible for ordinary investors to get any clearer warning that "cash is trash" and bullion is "golden". Ignore such a warning at your own peril.

Quote of the Week                               

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Bullion Blows Up Banksters

Jeff Nielsen

When precious metals commentators (including myself) talk about the pathological fear/hatred which bankers exhibit toward gold and silver, we typically focus on their aversion to higher bullion prices – as being the “canary in the coal mine” which warns us that banker money-printing has spun out of control.

There is, however, an even more fundamental antagonism which the paper-pushing “elites” feel toward precious metals: the simple act of holding bullion is effectively an involuntary “de-leveraging” of the endless $trillions in bankster Ponzi-schemes which have totally contaminated nearly all Western economies.

Readers should not confuse my title with the popular “take down JP Morgan” campaign spearheaded by a few so-called “silver vigilantes”. When I talk about bankers being “blown up” by bullion, this is an entirely passive process. First of all, our purchasing of bullion (as has been often explained) is a defensive move to “insure” our dwindling wealth against the currency-dilution inflicted upon us by the excessive money-printing of the bankers. Secondly, the “harm” caused to the bankers by bullion is indirect, and entirely a function of their own excessive behavior.

Let me quickly cover the first premise by once again reviewing the monetary abomination known as “fractional reserve banking”. In the typical, modern “fractional reserve system”, each time we deposit a (paper) dollar with a bank (or invest it), our eternally greedy bankers are allowed to effectively print-up ten more dollars, loan them out into the economy (or “invest” them) – and thus that $1 dollar suddenly becomes $11, with the other $10 dollars being a windfall created (literally) out of thin air, which has neither been “earned”, nor does it have anything at all “backing” its value.

This ten-to-one dilution of our currency – which is nothing less than (legal) systemic fraud – is precisely how the Federal Reserve has been able to reduce the value of the U.S. dollar by roughly 98% (over its 98-year existence). But even stealing at this rapacious rate was not enough to sate the greed of the 21st century Wall Street bankster.

They directed their spineless servants in Washington to change a vast number of rules (and eliminate even more “safeguards”) allowing these banksters to increase that (already obscene) 10:1 leverage to an utterly insane level of greater than 30:1 – which turned the entire U.S. financial system (and most of its debt and equity markets) into a collection of hopelessly unstable Ponzi-schemes. This leverage-insanity has culminated in the creation of the banksters’ private casino: the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives market – by itself more than twenty times bigger than the entire global economy.

Thus when a small minority of individuals engage in the “defensive” strategy of buying bullion, we are protecting ourselves in two ways. First of all, we are isolating our waning wealth in a form which the banksters cannot dilute/debauch with their money-printing. Secondly, we are accumulating this insurance against the inevitable financial collapse when the bankster Ponzi-schemes finally implode. There is, however, an indirect “virtuous circle” which is set in motion by the simple act of buying bullion, which (to the best of my knowledge) is not being discussed by other commentators – either in the mainstream media, or within this sector itself.

Let us back-up to the basic premise upon which fractional-reserve banking exists: we invest or deposit a dollar with a banker, and then they are legally allowed to dilute that dollar by anywhere from a factor of 10:1 or 30:1. However, each and every time that we take one of our dollars and invest it into precious metals, we are breaking that cycle of dilution (and currency-destruction).

As this purchasing of bullion increases, we thus began to weaken the cycle of serial currency-dilution, and effectively de-leverage our own financial systems. Note that this “involuntary de-leveraging” of Wall Street (in particular) has been made 100% necessary due to the complete failure of servile politicians and corrupt regulators to rein-in the 30:1 insanity of Wall Street. Indeed, after only a brief drop-off (when there were no “chumps” available to take their bets), all reports indicate that the Wall Street vampires are just as leveraged today as they were before they almost destroyed the global financial system the first time – except that this insane leverage is now concentrated in even fewer hands.

This means that as individuals accumulate bullion to personally insure and insulate their wealth from the fractional-reserve piracy of modern banking, that collectively our actions are insuring and insulating our entire economies against the inevitable economic carnage as the paper-bubbles collapse – including all of the worthless, fiat currencies themselves.

In fact, I only began to consciously explore this line of reasoning myself when I was admiring the brilliance of Hugo Salinas Price’s movement to re-institute silver money as a “parallel currency” in Mexico. Critics of this scheme have argued that most of the silver money being created would quickly disappear: people would spend their paper money, and hang onto their (higher quality) silver money.

My rebuttal to that has been that this is the beauty of Salinas Price’s proposal. Effectively, instead of Mexicans having paper “savings accounts”, where they give their pesos to bankers – and then suffer the economic rape of currency-dilution – Mexicans would have “silver savings accounts”, 100% immune to the monetary depravity of bankers. I then added to that by pointing out the cumulative effect of this: permanently reducing the percentage of our wealth which is under the control of bankers, and (simultaneously) permanently reducing our vulnerability (i.e. leverage) when these paper-pirates (yet again) destroy themselves (and our system) with their insatiable greed and reckless gambling.

The mainstream media have been programmed with their own rebuttal. They call such behavior “hoarding”. This is nothing less than a perversion of semantics. In fact, for more than 4,000 years most of humanity has held their “savings” in the form of gold or silver, and billions of people do so today, primarily in Asian economies.

What has been “savings” for 4,000 years does not become “hoarding” simply because the mainstream media chooses to be an accomplice of the banksters in helping them steal our money through their fractional-reserve Ponzi-schemes.

This supplies ordinary citizens with yet one more motivation to insure a large percentage of their wealth by converting it to (“physical”) gold or silver. Not only are we protecting ourselves individually, but collectively we are engaging in the “bank reform” which our cowardly and corrupt political leaders have failed to do.

This means that each and every time you hear some media talking-head parrot the words “hoarding silver”, you can immediately translate that to mean “insuring our financial system”. The fact that it will ultimately help to “blow up the banksters” (as a consequence of their own greed) is merely a fringe benefit.

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SGS Notes: The crazy ride continued this week…the week began Monay with a sharp rise from $46.86 to$47.88, then Tuesday spike up into the high $49s… closely pressing the $50 threshhold…then back down by end of day to just over $45. By Wednesday night, the price was back to the mid $48 level, continuing strongly in that range until close of week Friday night. The ratio has remained constant at 32/1… but we've also seen Gold do a huge $58 spike this week. The dollar went to 73.2 in the wake of the S&P downgrading the US credit rating down to C - lower than Mexico… We've had several inquiries this week about whether silver is still a good buy at $50+… This week's newsletter will be addressing that…

Psst! Letting you in on a little 'secret'… if you watch our Facebook page for SGS, (see link at right) you will see a flurry of activity of postings on Fri/Sat … this is because we post a lot of articles and links that we come across while preparing for the Newsletter, but 'reject' for newsletter publication… lots more extra stuff there, folks!

The Reason Silver Has Been Rising Faster Than Gold
Analysis of the different advance which has occurred in the silver price vis-à-vis gold in the past few months where the former has substantially outperformed the latter.
Author: Julian Phillips, MineWeb

Silver is breaking new records at around $40 and gold is touching new highs of close to $1,460. Looking back, over the past few years we have seen gold rise from around $312 to $1,460 a rise of 4.68 times and silver from around $6 to $40 a rise of 6.67 times.

But this does not give a clear picture, so we went back over the last year and what did we see? Since early 2009, gold has moved from $900 to $1,460, a respectable 62%. Over the same period silver has moved from $10 to nearly $40 a remarkable 400%. Why the difference in relative performance?

Both metals have moved as money. Gold and silver Exchange Traded Funds have attracted massive investments in the developed world where trust in the monetary system is far higher than it is in the emerging world. But it was the underlying gold and silver that attracted investors. Waning confidence in the value of paper currencies gave way to demand for precious metals as a store of value retainers for investors.

Gold and silver have substantial differences as value retainers which help us to identify why the two metals have differed so much in performance.

Gold is and has always been the 'senior' monetary metal held by Central Banks as money until 1971 and after that as a valuable reserve asset in the vaults of central banks.
Silver was rejected as money and as a reserve asset by the mid-fifties, despite it being treated as money throughout the ages before that.

Both gold and silver have been attacked as money through 'official' sales from the seventies until last year. But gold was sold to undermine the reality that it is money. Silver was sold out from reserves almost completely by central banks discarding it as money, completely.

Apart from a brief period when Egypt was at its height and supplies of silver less than those of gold, gold has always been in far shorter supply than silver and considered far more valuable than silver.

Silver in the past few decades has been seen as a commodity, mined mainly as a by-product of base metal mining, with only 30% mined in a pure silver mine.

Most silver is consumed whereas gold is not, which will continue to be the case until less expensive substitutes are found. This will only happen at far higher prices still.

GOLD AS AN INVESTMENT

Gold has always been the precious metal of choice for wealthy individuals, institutions and central banks. It has never been abandoned as such. Even when "Official" selling was at its peak, central banks sold only what they thought was sufficient to add credibility to the paper currency they were pushing to the centre of the system, first to add credibility to the dollar then after 1999 to the euro. With those tasks completed, Central Banks are now either holders or buyers of gold.

The amount sold in most cases was around 20%, but in the case of the uninspired then-Chancellor Brown of the U.K.'s case, half of Britain's reserves were sold. The largest holders of gold sold none or only small amounts. So while it was underpriced and we believe still is, did not see its price 'crushed' completely.

The path back to investment acceptance is a slow one and a long one with most of the journey still to come. We believe that we are on the brink of major changes in price levels in 2011 and beyond.

SILVER AS AN INVESTMENT

Silver had not really been an investment metal until 2004 and not a significant one until 2009.

It was a commodity metal in so short a supply that the Hunt brothers of Texas felt they could corner the market. In 1979, they took the silver price from its high of $8 an ounce [it had doubled since it stood at $4 an ounce in the mid- 1970s' already] to $50 an ounce by the early 1980's. It then fell all the way back to $5 an ounce thereafter as the Hunt Brothers found they were unable to sell the silver until prices had fallen back to those levels where they stayed until October 2003. Until 2009, it was relegated to the sidelines as an investment metal.

It started to regain popularity as an investment metal because it began to be considered as "poor man's gold" as the gold price rose out of reach of the poorer investment classes.

For instance, in India until its middle classes began to grow substantially, 70% of all gold bought was bought by the agricultural sector, whose income was directly related to the quality of the monsoon rains. When profits were good, they found their way into property and into gold, As the price rose, the quantity of gold available to such people fell. Then $1,500 bought five ounces of gold, but with gold at $1,460, it only buys just over 1 ounce of gold.

In India, precious metals are used in commercial transactions so the divisibility of silver relative to gold was far greater and more flexible. It also remained affordable in larger quantities. After all, now one ounce of gold buys 36.5 ounces of silver. So, silver remains affordable far lower down the economic ladder than gold does. It therefore can attract a far wider market than gold does currently at retail levels. Bearing in mind that precious metals are attracting a huge and growing market in the emerging parts of the world, the demand, as a wealth protector, at the retail end of the market is expanding rapidly.

CATCH-UP

It would therefore be wrong to still categorize silver as a monetary metal. Its day will come, but not until its price is much higher and not until paper currencies have lost considerably more credibility than at present.

The most difficult part of silver's rise as a wealth protector has been from October 2004 to October 2008, from when its price moved from $5 an ounce to a peak of over $20 an ounce then to fall back to than less $10 an ounce before taking off on its current path. The fall coincided with the onset of the 'credit-crunch.

All the while, demand from the photographic sector has waned. More importantly, the uses of silver have morphed from discretionary demand to a need. Even in a downturn, the demand for silver will remain strong as its uses are considered vital now.

So as a non-monetary, more volatile precious metal, its future then was far cloudier than now. The transition from those days to 'poor man's gold was its re-birth as an investment metal. While we believe it has now returned as such to stay, it still has a lot of catching up to do. By catching up we mean that it still has to return to the concept fully, that it is a lower category investment metal respected from institutions [eventually by central banks] as well as the retail end of the market.

Gold is already at that point. This does not mean that the gold price has reached a ceiling of any kind. It does mean that the gold price will rise relative to the value of currencies from now on with its metallic qualities being far in the background. Silver is still a long way off from that point.

Julian Phillips is a long time specialist analyst for gold and silver and is the principal contributor to the Gold Forecaster - www.goldforecaster.com - and Silver Forecaster- www.silverforecaster.com - websites and newsletters

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