Infinite Unknown

As any MSM brainwashed sheep can clearly see there are no shortages and silver and gold are in a bubble.

ROFL!

Got silver and gold?

Expect gold at$10,000/oz and silver above $500/oz (with corrections in between).

Over the past hour Zero Hedge has been inundated with reader comments notifying us that Ampex has, validating the earlier post speculating about a possible silver shortage at the metals distributor, launched a “reverse ïnquiry” in which it will pay “you $3.00 over the current spot price of Silver for your Silver American Eagles. ANY year, ANY quantity!” and “We will pay you $38.00 over the current spot price of Gold for your Gold American Eagles. ANY year, ANY quantity!” So aside from this first public confirmation that one of the biggest wholesale retailers of precious metals is now inventoryless [sic], we can certainly see why Asia has decided to take silver down in the afterhours electronic session.

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/25/2011 19:22 -0400

Source: ZeroHedge

Tags: Commodities, Economy, Global News, Gold, Silver

There is nothing inherently wrong and certainly nothing “illegal” about J.P. Morgan Chase gaining a vault license for storing and taking delivery of gold/silver/platinum/palladium from the futures markets known as NYMEX/COMEX. However, the speed, timing and manner in which the exchanges just granted it troubles us.

The process of being approved as a licensed vault or weigh-master/assayer for the NYMEX/COMEX futures exchange usually involves a careful security inspection of the vaults, a full report of that inspection, and a completely transparent package submitted to the U.S. Commodity Futures Exchange Commission (CFTC) for approval. This process will ordinarily consume considerably more than 45 days. Apparently, such correct and careful practices apply only to banks and independent storage facilities that are not J.P. Morgan Chase.

Some vault operators are more equal than others. JPM appears immune from processes that everyone else must suffer through. On March 15, 2011, the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) advised the CFTC that they had approved J.P. Morgan’s application to become a licensed vault facility, using a “self-certification” process. The newly licensed vault, located at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, NY, NY, is ready to roll as both “weighmaster” and depository, for delivery of gold, silver, platinum and palladium contracts, as of March 17, 2011, two days later.

As a smaller player, the NYSE-Liffe exchange uses COMEX licensed depositories for delivery and storage of its metals. The new JPM vault, therefore, will also qualify to accept delivery of metal coming from the maturity of NYSE-Liffe gold and silver futures contracts, including the smaller 1,000 ounce silver contract.

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Tags: Banking, COMEX, Commodities, Economy, JPMorgan, Silver

Additional recommended reading:

- The Silver Bullet And The Silver Shield (Must-read!)

- Best Article on Silver in Ten Years!:

Bob, of 321gold.com, is part of the problem. He would rather not publish well researched facts, to “save his readers” from buying into what he thinks was a near term top that might see a 10% pullback. He doesn’t want his readers to buy into a top; to protect his readers, or to protect his reputation? OK, I hope I helped to expose him for what he is. Apparently, Bob was trying to protect his readers from the risk of buying silver at $6/oz., too! HA HA!!

- Listening to Liars (Bob Moriarty – 321gold)

- The Silver Rocket:

(I have already been accused of “showing my ass and shaking my pom poms” for silver by 321Gold.com. I figured I would spend the month of March cheering on silver from the sidelines, since I am not a player

I made the prediction that silver would hit $50 by the end of March. This prediction was based off of a possible CRIMEX default of physical silver in the delivery month of March. By all accounts we are already looking pretty good with a 4% jump on Friday to $35.67. There are rumors that silver is already $50 at the CRIMEX and that JP Morgue is paying 80% premiums not to take delivery in the crucial month of March. There are only 40 million ounces available for delivery and little under $1.5 billion would expose this greatest of frauds.

I believe that we just are in the early stages of a Mania Phase in Silver. So I put a chart together to put this silver market into perspective.

As always, I want to warn all of you “greedy, little bastards” to be very careful of this silver bull. This is a very volatile market and I know of many investors that got wiped out in 2008. There are big market makers that can turn the silver market on a dime. Remember, the market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent. If you need further analysis of silver fundamentals, I suggest you read the Silver Bullet and the Silver Shield. Continue reading »

Tags: COMEX, Commodities, Economy, Global News, JPMorgan, Silver

Each day this week, silver has been hammered down at approximately 9:00 am EST. Now, we all know that this isn’t atypical…the EE have been doing this for years and we did see copper sell off at roughly the same time. However, several readers have brought to my attention the little nugget below and I think it requires your serious consideration.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

First things first, here’s a 15-minute May silver chart to peruse. Keep in mind that today’s smackdown was in the face of ongoing strength in gold and crude, so, silver acted somewhat independently.

“WB: JPM is in worse shape then we ever dared to hope 20-Nov-10 07:06 am

Blythe,

This is what I am now hearing from traders on the floor. These traders are not even sure if Blythe knows the full extent of JPM’s silver exposure.

When I first started to realize that JPM has shorted far more silver than they could ever hope to cover, my first question was “why would they do that?” Not only that, why do it with a commodity where you must report your positions through the COT and Bank Participation Report? After all,the whole world can see what you are doing. [my added comment: Ted Butler included!]

Now I know the answer. According to Max Keiser and now a couple of other independent sources, it seems the reasons why first Bear Stearns and now JPM are so desperate to manipulate the price of silver down is due to the fact that BS and JPM shorted billions (yes billions not millions) in ounces of silver through their derivatives.

Just like Joe Conason at AIG, silver shorting through derivatives have caused literally billions in losses not the millions that we know about publicly. That is why JPM has been so desperate to manipulate the price of silver downward so blatantly. If I am right about this, then JPM will be dead when silver hits $60 or so. Based upon the COT and BPR, if silver hits $60, JPM will lose around an additional $6 billion dollars, a large number but not nearly large enough to bring down mighty JPM.

But what is not known is that due to the way that its derivatives are written, JPM’s losses are exponentional once silver breaks $36 or so. Rumors has it that JPM could be losing as much as $40 billion once silver is above $50. It has something to do with how the derivatives are written with payment tied to the price of silver.

Since JPM was a price manipulator with respectt to the price of silver, JPM assumed that any derivative payments tied to silver would be less than they would be tied to some other index like the CPI or TIPS implied inflation index. JPM’s inability to hold down the price of silver relative to other measures of inflation will cause unbelievable losses due to a mismatch in their derivative structures.

In essence,JPM has bet (a huge amount)through derivatives that silver will never outperform inflation. And why not,since JPM assumed that it will always be able to manipulate the price of silver. We have now come to understand that JPM’s loss exposure to silver is much greater than we have ever dared to hope.
WB: In an effort to clear up some recent confusion regarding my latest posting, I will try to explain what I have recently uncovered.

JPM’s current short silver position is estimated to be approximately 150 million ounces down from the recent 180 million ounces in August. The losses from these positions are easy to figure out. For every $10 rise in the price of silver, JPM will lose $1.5 billion. But what I have recently discovered is that through its derivative positions, JPM will lose about 5 times that amount ounce the price of silver is above $36. And ounce silver is above $45 dollars, JPM’s losses will increase to 8 times the amount of losses in their short positions. The reason is that as the price of silver increases, certain provisions get activated which multiplies the losses.

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Tags: Banking, Bear Stearns, Blythe Masters, Commodities, Economy, Global News, JPMorgan, Silver

* Hedge fund boss says more dollars flows favor silver

* Wary of investing in base metal due to uncertain economy

TORONTO, March 8 (Reuters) – Silver is likely to keep outperforming gold thanks to strong dollar flows, though both are still good investments compared with copper and other base metals, according to Eric Sprott, the hedge-fund manager and Canadian investment guru.

“I watch where the money goes and the money’s going into silver. There’s as much money going into silver as into gold in dollar terms,” said Sprott in an interview with Reuters.

Sprott, who heads Toronto-based hedge-fund Sprott Asset Management, said it is important to note that silver available to buy is relatively scarce in terms of value, and that bodes well for further gains.

“There is 75 times more dollars worth of gold to buy than silver, but the money’s going in one to one,” says Sprott, while speaking on the sidelines of an investor event held in conjunction with the annual PDAC mining convention in Toronto.

Silver stocks in COMEX warehouses are near their lowest since April 2006, when the metal traded at $5 an ounce. Demand for silver coins has also picked up, especially in the United States, where it was at record levels early this year.

“My biggest thing is silver — I think silver is going to go up a lot here. Gold’s right in there, but not as good as silver,” said Sprott, following a presentation to hundreds of investors in a resplendent ballroom at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel.

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Tags: COMEX, Commodities, Economy, Eric Sprott, Global News, Gold, Silver

Tags: Commodities, Dollar, Economy, Global News, Gold, History, Silver

Apres Nous, Le Deluge

Happy days are here again! Stock markets are strong, company profits are up, bankers are making record profits and bonuses, unemployment is declining, and inflation is non-existent. Obama and Bernanke are the dream team making the US into the Superpower it once was.

Yes, it is amazing the castles in the air that can be built with paper money and deceitful manipulation of all economic data.  And Madame Bernanke de Pompadour will do anything to keep King Louis XV Obama happy, including flooding markets with unlimited amounts of printed money. They both know that, in their holy alliance, they are committing a cardinal sin. But clinging to power is more important than the good of the country.  An economic and social disaster is imminent for the US and a major part of the world and Bernanke de Pompadour and Louis XV Obama are praying that it won’t happen during their reign: “Après nous le déluge”. (Warm thanks to my good friend the artist Leo Lein).

Moral and financial decadence

A deluge of an unprecedented magnitude is both inevitable and imminent. The consequences of the economic and political mismanagement will have a devastating impact on the world for a very long time. And the consequences will touch most corners of the world in so many different areas; economic, financial, social, political and geopolitical. The adjustment that the world will undergo in the next decade or longer, will be of such colossal magnitude that life will be very different for coming generations compared to the current social, financial and moral decadence. But history always gives us lessons and the one that is coming will be necessary and eventually good for the world. But the transition and adjustment will be extremely traumatic for most of us.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Bonds, Commodities, Debt, Dollar, Dow Jones, Economy, Egon von Greyerz, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Government, Hyperinflation, Inflation, Matterhorn Asset Management, Middle East, Obama administration, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Silver, Stock Market, U.S., Wall Street

Must-see:

- JP Morgan Silver Manipulation Explained (Part 1-4)

(New York Times) — As Americans know all too well by this point, commodity prices — for corn, wheat, soybeans, crude oil, gold and even farmland — have been going through the roof for what seems like forever. There are many causes, primarily supply and demand pressures driven by fears about the unrest in the Middle East, the rise of consumerism in China and India, and the Fed’s $600 billion campaign to increase the money supply.

Nonetheless, how to explain the price of silver? In the past six months, the value of the precious metal has increased nearly 80 percent, to more than $34 an ounce from around $19 an ounce. In the last month alone, its price has increased nearly 23 percent. This kind of price action in the silver market is reminiscent of the fortune-busting, roller-coaster ride enjoyed by the Hunt Brothers, Nelson Bunker and William Herbert, back in 1970s and early 1980s when they tried unsuccessfully to corner the market. When the Hunts started buying silver in 1973, the price of the metal was $1.95 an ounce. By early 1980, the brothers had driven the price up to $54 an ounce before the Federal Reserve intervened, changed the rules on speculative silver investments and the price plunged. The brothers later declared bankruptcy.

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Tags: Banking, COMEX, Commodities, Economy, Global News, Government, HSBC, JPMorgan, Politics, Silver, U.S.

Rogers Interview on Commodities, Global Stocks, Feb. 28

“Saudi Arabia has been lying about the reserves for decades.

Saudi Arabia the last two times said they are going to increase production and they couldn’t increase production. Don’t fall for that.

The reason oil is going up is the world is running out of known reserves of oil.”

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) — Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, talks about his investment strategy for global stocks and commodities. Gold advanced, approaching a record, as tensions in the Middle East boosted oil prices, increasing demand for precious metals as a protector of wealth and hedge against inflation. Rogers also discusses his strategy for the U.S. dollar. He speaks in Hong Kong with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television’s “On the Move Asia.”

Source: Bloomberg




Tags: Agriculture, Commodities, Economy, Global News, Gold, Government, Jim Rogers, Nasdaq, Oil, Oil Prices, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Saudi Arabia, Silver, Stock Market, Sugar, Wall Street

There’s major shift occurring right now in financial markets.

Sure, the food and freedom riots that are spreading across the globe are a major indicator that civil unrest follows very closely behind resource shortages and economic turmoil… but there’s something else that I’ve noticed recently– it’s a sea change in the financial system.

In the past, major crises normally caused investors to seek safe haven assets, and everything else equal, the dollar would rise. They call it a ‘flight to safety’, and investors would flock towards the perceived stability of US Treasury securities.

In 2008, for example, the Lehman collapse spurred the market to go rushing into the dollar. The pound, euro, S&P, oil, and gold all went into freefall, and the dollar surged. Anyone holding cash felt pretty smart, and the market paid tribute to the US dollar as the world’s safe haven currency.

There were a lot of reasons for why this happened. The US government likes to claim that it has never failed to pay on its debts. Of course, even the most cursory analysis would lead one to conclude that they trade debt for inflation… and more debt.

Regardless, when financial markets were collapsing in 2008, investors made a rational decision to accept negative real rates in the dollar (effectively paying a fee to hold short-term treasuries) over other currencies and asset classes.

It was the lesser of all evils at that particular moment and should not be conflated with ‘confidence’.

The other big reason for the dollar’s 2008 surge was that many of the world’s financial markets were leveraged to the hilt… in dollars. When Greenspan started slashing rates in 2001, investors around the world had been able to borrow cheap US dollars and park them in higher yielding assets abroad.

This global carry trade helped produce huge returns in emerging financial markets as investors borrowed four to six times their dollar equity at 2% to 8% and invested in China at 20%+.

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Tags: Commodities, Debt, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Government, Inflation, Oil Prices, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Silver, U.S.