"When the dollar goes, Washington’s power goes, which is why the bullion market is rigged." - Former U.S.Treasury Undersecretary Paul Crag Roberts, 5/18/13 "Patience, the markets always do what they're supposed to -- but never when." - Richard Russell, 5/1/13 Dear All, In a story dictated to The Wall Street Journal, its print media disinformation vessel -- the Federal Reserve released a narrative on May 10th claiming that it has "mapped out a strategy" for winding down Quantitative Easing: WSJ: Fed Maps Exit From Stimulus With the plethora of opinion and conjecture as to if and when the Federal Reserve... Continue reading

"An absolutely amazing flood of anti-gold vitriol has been spewing forth in the media in recent days, in many cases penned by people who demonstrably know absolutely nothing about gold, mostly Keynesian gold haters from the statolatry faction. Not one of them ever told people to buy gold at the lows of course, or at any point on the way up. But they sure all just know now that the bull market is over!" -- Peter Tenebrarum Dear All, On April 12th and 15th, in 10 hours and 20 minutes of trading, more gold was sold under futures contracts on... Continue reading

Dear All, Bloomberg Asia Television today interviewed Haywood Cheung, president of Hong Kong's 100 year-old Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange. The Exchange, which is essentially a physical market has according to Cheung, sold out of most of its gold bullion: Bloomberg Asia: Gold exchange runs out of gold A plethora of reports indicates that there was an extraordinarily powerful global run on physical gold this week in response to the bargain paper prices brought to you by the usual suspects. The current gold price is untenable. Higher prices are coming, and quickly. Best, Jeff Continue reading

Dear All, If this artificial smackdown of gold and silver prices has you dazed and perhaps doubting the natural direction of price, pay attention to the market for physical metal. Bullion dealer CMI's president Bill Haynes spoke with Eric King about yesterday's market action: Bullion Shortages Develop As Retail Demand Skyrockets "Gold and silver buyers are still outpacing sellers by a stunning 50 to 1. There were premium increases on everything bullion related. The wholesalers are now telling us four to six weeks on silver maple leafs, and wholesalers quit taking orders on one ounce silver rounds. Wholesalers also kicked... Continue reading

Dear All, The European Central Bank's (ECB) theft of Cypriot bank deposits is the opening act in the next drama of the financial crisis, which will feature bank failures and depositor losses elsewhere. The credibility that western central planners (including the Fed) continue to enjoy given the events of the past number of years is a head-scratcher. It is worth recalling that it was less than two years ago that Cyprus' banks passed the EU's "stress test" administered by the ECB and European Banking Authority. There is some speculation now that a rationale behind the confiscation of Cyprus bank deposits... Continue reading

. Dear All, . I'm putting out this second update on the subject because I feel the Cyprus events are that significant. There is talk now of the IMF and Brussels amending the terms of the bank deposit confiscation plan, which is obviously blowing up in a manner unforeseen by these geniuses. . It matters little what revisions might be made to the proposal, even were it to be scrapped entirely. The cat is now out of the bag. The IMF and Euro-elites have revealed their souls and what they are willing to do. A threat alone is sufficient to... Continue reading

. Dear All, . For any of you who may be missing this weekend's European news (and I suspect you have given the U.S. media's scant coverage of it) Cyprus' banks have collapsed. Euro Ministers and the IMF have come to the rescue in the face of depositor runs with an imposed liquidity "solution" whereby small depositors will lose 6.75% of their savings and depositors with over 100,000 Euro's will forfeit 9.9% (According to reports, Germany and the IMF had initially demanded a 40% across-the-board haircut). . Reuters: Cyprus' savers bear brunt of unprecedented bailout . It should be pointed... Continue reading

Dear All, Chris Powell, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's secretary/treasurer made an appearance on CNBC Asia yesterday, where he was interviewed by Bernie Lo. Lo's casual acknowledgement of paper gold machinations stands in sharp contrast to that of CNBC's U.S. counterpart, where GATA has been blacklisted for 14 years (since Bill Murphy's January 1999 interview by the dimly lit Ron Insana) and only stock market and Fed cheerleading is permitted. Note Chris' penetrating observation: "None of us alive today has ever seen a free gold price." Chris Powell on CNBC Asia 3/13/13 - Jeff Continue reading

"But I am concerned that the size of some of these institutions become so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them when we are hit with indications that if we do prosecute — if we do bring a criminal charge — it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy." -- Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder on 3/6/13 asserting that the largest banks are above the law. Dear All, The "Labor Force Participation Rate," the Department of Labor's assertion as to the percentage of working-age persons in... Continue reading

"What makes you a man isn't the ability to conceive a child; it's having the courage to raise one." - President Obama in his State of the Union Address lowering the bar for valiance by characterizing the act of not abandoning one's child as 'courageous'. Dear All, Gretchen Morgenson is one of the more capable mainstream financial journalists. Unfortunately she is employed by the New York Times. An accomplished surface-scratcher, she can be relied on to stop short of laying out the uncomfortable conclusions of her rhetorical narrative, leaving that undertaking to members of the ethically unencumbered blogosphere: NYTimes: Don’t... Continue reading

"If you're so focused on nominal pricing in equities and the monetary base is growing as fast as it is, the analogy I drew...is...one of the best performing equity markets of the last decade's been Zimbabwe -- but your entire equity portfolio now buys you three eggs." "When I asked a senior member of the Obama administration last week, ‘how are we going to grow exports if we won’t allow nominal wage deflation?’ He says, ‘we’re just going to kill the dollar." -- Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, in separate interviews Dear All, Financial media remains enamored with the nominal... Continue reading

"All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party." -- Mao Tse Tung Dear All, If you harbor any doubt that mainstream media has an agenda on gun control, you might ask yourself why you aren't aware that two days following the Connecticut killing there was a shooting in San Antonio in which a man entered a restaurant, shot and killed a woman and then chased fleeing patrons into an adjoining theater where he opened fire. Perhaps it was... Continue reading

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. Dear All, Appearing on RT's (Russia Today) 'Capital Account' this afternoon, GATA's Bill Murphy and Chris Powell were interviewed by Lauren Lyster. In contrast to the censored drivel served at CNBC, the discussion openly examined the manipulation of the gold and silver price, the nefarious activities of JP Morgan acting as the Fed's agent in doing so, and GATA's discovery of a private 3/10/99 internal IMF document evidencing the conspiracy among western central banks to obfiscate their methods of surpressing the price of gold -- subjects verboten in mainstream media: RT: GATA's Bill Murphy & Chris Powell on Gold... Continue reading

"We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it." - Jean-Claude Junker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg Dear All, Prime Minister Junker, quoted above in a moment of candor thus revealed the essential dilemma of economic stewardship under fiat monetary systems. The more government largesse to which the electorate is accustomed, the less tolerant it becomes of threats of its cessation. Private sector profit (and a stable currency) is the mother milk of liberty and higher living standards. Once a threshold is crossed where the majority no longer grasp this, the... Continue reading

"What is now unloved and misunderstood, will be a must own in the future. Eventually everybody will know the gold price. Right now, virtually nobody knows the price of gold. So 2012 will be the end of an era, and 2013 will start a horrible period in history." -- Egon von Greyerz, Matterhorn Asset Management AG, 11/10/12 Dear All, As you are bombarded by the media talking up the sideshow that is the "fiscal cliff," I draw your attention to the center ring. Consider: * Federal tax revenue from all sources ($2.5 trillion) constitutes approximately 65% of federal expenditures. This... Continue reading

Dear All, You may wish to read this excellent piece on the theatrical ritual that will take place this Tuesday in which millions of Americans will patiently wait in line to pull levers, handle paper or push computer screens that will register nothing other than their consent to continue to be victimized by political machines that hold them in contempt. (cont'd below) It is pure ceremony. The real voting has already occurred and loyalties long ago cemented. Jeff Continue reading

"The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." ~ H. L. Mencken Dear All, A 2 percent inflation rate?...Really? Suppression of COLA (Cost of Living Adjustments) is one among several motives for the federal government to understate the inflation rate. Shadowstats' current measure of consumer inflation at 9.6% annualized is nearly five times greater than the official rate. Seniors are getting terribly ripped off and once the inflation wave arrives the purchasing power of social security incomes will be decimated:... Continue reading

. . "Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods." - H.L. Mencken . . Dear All, . Shoot the messenger...Let's back up a second before we even examine the vitriol with which the establishment took ex-GE CEO Jack Welch to task for daring to accuse the Obama administration of cooking the books on the most recent pre-election unemployment report. For years we have been ranting here about the farcical economic reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics produces and worse, the near unanimity with which economists and financial media so willingly accept them. The politicization of data... Continue reading

"[T]his performance of the gold stocks as a group is the least commented on, and yet most remarkable transformation of the year. To go from virtually the bottom of the pack, to virtually the top of the pack, in a matter of less than two months, that’s an extremely rare event for equity markets. So it’s telling you something.” - Don Coxe, BMO Capital Markets, 9/27/12 Dear All, As abysmal as yesterday's GDP report of 1.25% growth may have been, it was grossly overstated. As Shadowstats' John Williams reminds, skewed government statistics beget skewed government statistics. One of the components... Continue reading

"Thirteen years ago, it took a bit more than 42 ounces of gold to buy the DOW. In the year 2007, when the DOW made a brand new all time high in nominal terms, it took half the amount of gold to buy that same Dow, namely a bit more than 20 ounces. Today, as the DOW is once again flirting with moving back towards the all time high in 2007, it takes an astonishing LESS THAN 8 OUNCES of GOLD to buy that same DOW!..Stocks are losing value against gold and have been so doing since 1999. The more... Continue reading

Dear All, The folks at GATA are reporting that Bill Murphy's broadcast interview with Lauren Lyster on RT (Russia Today) -- which has 200 million subscribers has gone a bit viral, according to RT. Please check out the interview (brought to you by the central media outlet of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and take note of the moment. A Fourth Estate power passage is underway; Serious content, intelligence, editorial balance, journalistic courage and controversial interviews on taboo subjects are increasingly the purview of eastern media. With its growing and increasingly educated middle classes, Asian broadcasters are setting... Continue reading

Dear All, The liquidity drops were already underway when this morning's dismal labor market report was released. As usual, the phony headline numbers belie the reality. The BLS reported that a mere 96,000 jobs were created last month, slightly less than the estimated 100,000 that are needed monthly just to keep pace with population growth. Yet the unemployment rate fell from 8.3% to 8.1%. How's that possible? Once again the U.S. Labor Department is playing games with the Labor Participation Rate by alleging that an additional 368,000 out-of-work Americans became discouraged in the pursuit of employment last month, promptly dropping... Continue reading

"Criminal investigators can bust the Russian mob.They can break up drug syndicates. They doggedly run 'roided-up pitchers into court. Twice. They beat the hell out of Napster. But set them down amid the financial-services crowd and, suddenly, they can't find a whore at high Mass. -- Charles P. Pierce, on The Politics Blog, commenting on reports that Jon Corzine will likely avoid criminal prosecution in the MF Global scam. Dear All, With his having achieved the trifecta in sociopathy, one would have expected Jon Corzine, a former co-head of Goldman Sachs, a U.S. politician, and now an un-prosecuted financial fraudster... Continue reading

"The Fed has destroyed the money market. It has destroyed the capital markets....you can't have capitalism if the capital markets are dead, if the capital markets are simply a branch office – branch casino – of the central bank. That's essentially what we have today." -- Former Reagan Budget Director, David Stockman, 7/24/12 Dear All, The pencil pushers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics released another of their more deviceful novelettes on Friday, "beating expectations" by creating 163,000 jobs. As Zerohedge explains, 'created' really is the operative word:"[O]f the 163,000 jobs 'added,' 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging." The... Continue reading