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Threat Of Cyber War – “Other Reason To Own Physical Gold” – Rickards
Threat Of Cyber War – “Other Reason To Own Physical Gold” – Rickards
- “Physical gold is a non-digital asset. You can’t attack it with cyberwarfare” – Rickards
- Greek crisis was necessary step towards fiscal unity in Europe
- “Euro creators want to force common fiscal control – Eurobonds”
- Currency wars between U.S. and China may resume next year
- Rickards emphasises importance of holding physical gold
- Eschews “paper gold” in the form of ETFs, futures or unallocated storage
- Gold insurance against “catastrophic event” … “on the horizon”

Author and monetary expert Jim Rickards says that gold, apart from its qualities as a form of insurance against conventional economic crises, is an essential hedge against cyber warfare.
In an interview with Henry Bonner at SprottGlobal.com, ahead of the Sprott-Stansberry Vancouver Natural Resource Symposium taking place this week, Rickards said this subject would form part of his talk at the conference.
We have frequently covered the risks posed by cyber warfare and cyber terrorism to markets, investments and deposits, and these risks remain, as yet, widely underappreciated in the mainstream media and the wider world.
For example, the Stuxnet virus believed to have been deployed by the U.S. and Israel in cyber war against Iranian nuclear reactors almost caused a major environmental disaster in 2010. Dormant malware – believed to be of Russian origin – was found hidden and awaiting activation in the software that runs the Nasdaq exchange.
Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab showed earlier this year that an international team of hackers gained access to bank’s customer accounts – with the ability to alter account balances without the banks even being aware of their presence.
These examples show the highly vulnerable nature of the interconnected systems upon which people in the west have come to rely.
As Rickards astutely points out,
“Physical gold is a non-digital asset. You can’t attack it with cyber warfare, so I think it has another insurance function for investors there.”

He believes that the Greek crisis was a foreseeable step in the centralisation of power in Europe. In 1992 when it was agreed to launch a single currency there was an appetite for a common currency but a strong aversion to fiscal and political union.
The architects of the euro knew that the single currency could not exist indefinitely in the absence of fiscal union and so the project was launched in full anticipation of a crisis which could then be used as a “forcing strategy” to achieve fiscal union.
“We’re getting closer to that now,” he says. “Greece now has to run its government according to German dictates. Greece has already outsourced its monetary policy to the European Central Bank, and now it’s sort of outsourced its fiscal policy to the German finance ministry.”
“So you’re on a path to unified fiscal policy and ultimately the Eurobonds – bonds backed by full strength and credit of not just any one country but the entire Eurozone.”
He believes that there has been a lull in the currency wars between China and the U.S. but that it will likely resume next year if China manages to get the yuan included in the currency basket that makes up the SDRs at the IMF.
He says the U.S. is the gatekeeper of the IMF and so China is on its “best behaviour”. He says the Chinese are resisting the temptation to depreciate their currency despite a sluggish economy with this goal in mind but that once the objective has been achieved it will go back to currency manipulation.
He points out that the Chinese continue to accumulate large volumes of gold and that China’s stated gold reserves are an understatement.
“I believe that the numbers they have shown are significant but not nearly as high as what they actually have.”
When asked whether now is a good time to hold gold, he replied,
“I think it’s always very important to own gold. I’ve recommended that investors have about 10% of their portfolio in the yellow metal.”
He believes that such a proportion will not hurt investors too much even if the price continues its decline but that,
“If I’m right and some catastrophic event is on the horizon, then that 10% would be your portfolio insurance.”
He emphasises, however, the importance of holding physical gold as opposed to digital or paper gold.
“These products allow the counterparties to terminate the agreement by giving the investor a dollar value of their gains. But that would deprive you of any future gains. You might get cashed out just as the crisis was beginning and not be able to participate in the upside as the crises worsened.”
Rickards is correct in these warnings. If you cannot visit, hold and easily take delivery of your gold in the event of a “catastrophic event” then you do not own gold – rather you are speculating on the gold price.
All financial service and investment providers and indeed gold brokers are at the mercy of and dependent on technology today. However, if you only have one point of contact with your gold – a website – and you cannot buy, sell or take delivery of your gold then you do not own gold as financial insurance and a safe haven asset.
Henry Bonner’s interview with Jim Rickards can be listened to here
Learn the importance of owning allocated, segregated gold that you can take delivery of here
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Prices were USD 1,085.65, EUR 989.74 and GBP 695.36 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Prices were 1,096.75, EUR 991.01 and GBP 701.65 per ounce.
Gold and silver on the COMEX again both rose marginally yesterday – to $1,097.20/oz and $14.82/oz.
At the close of trade in Asia, gold fell $9 in less than a minute. Again, there was heavy selling on the COMEX in the December futures contract. More than 750,000 ounces worth of futures contracts were sold in less than 20 minutes. Once again the heavy selling came at an unusual, less liquid time of day which suggests another bear raid by institutions unknown.
Gold is down nearly 0.8% this morning after the sharp selling – snapping two days of slim gains. Gold is on track for a sixth week of losses and is down more than 1% on the week – its longest such run lower in 15 years according to Reuters.
Silver‘s also down a bit, while platinum and palladium are climbing. Platinum’s on track to snap three weeks of losses, though with a rise of just 0.5% so far on a weekly basis
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Without cash, how do I pay my taxes? Last I knew. my town doesn't accept gold and silver.
Who owns you?
What? Your town's in violation of the constitution? Report them.
The Death of Money is the best book on the financial scene I have read. this is after years of trying to decipher Bob Prechters fractal world, and following every doom and gloom , Marc Faber, blogsite. I read Doug Nolands Credit Bubble Bulletin, John Hussman and all the posts at 321gold, its so much theory. This book is the insiders take on policy, they don't care about theory. Mostly this book resonates because it matches most of what i feel intuitively, such as why the Eurozone doesn't work, and why it isn't going away. You want to know what your government is going to do next, what they are planning. How much of America's sovereign wealth is being committed to the NWO, what do they think is owed China. In past years I would guess that fiscal, and governmental policies would affect these things, but not now. All these decisions are made by a few people who are not even elected to office, such is the nature of the Imperial presidency. The only event that will change that is Social Disorder, which Rickards mentions. All roads lead to gold.
If every (western) investor held 10% in fizzical gold, we would be at 50k already...
Ricktards just want to make lots of money with his investment "services" - that are now hawked by Agora Financial as high gloss packages for up to 1500 USD p.a. They must be ghost written because he appears to spend most of his time on a plane - or is he managing his hedge fund ? His Twitter feed is pretty nauseating - a mixture of self-aggrandisement and sycophantism.
Bought any land, fine art or long-short hedge funds recently (his investment recommendations) ?
First off Jim, shave your fucing head. To all you guys that are going bald, just shave your fucking head and own that shit. That pussy ass ponytail/balding thing is horrible. 2nd Jim Rickards is a disinfo agent. 3rd, zerohedge is going downhill... If I wanted bullshit I would of gone back to reddit.
+100 on the shave your head. True story, had a single friend who had bad widows peak going on, was only around 30yrs old, wasn't having much luck with the ladies, was heading into summer I told him to get that shaved down...iit would make him look younger.. 3 weeks later he met his now current wife. It looks horrible.. do these people not look in the mirror?? Makes me think he has no one around him who is willing to give him an alternative view that doesn't agree with what he is saying, that is one very good reason to stay away from someone like this.
I agree on many, many things with Rickards. but here is where he is too either a victim or a perpetrator of the relentless €-related propaganda, IMHO:
A "He believes that the Greek crisis was a foreseeable step in the centralisation of power in Europe. In 1992 when it was agreed to launch a single currency there was an appetite for a common currency but a strong aversion to fiscal and political union."
-> that aversion is still there, and won't go away just because propaganda pushes relentlessly. lots of EU federalists jumped on this vagon because they understood it this way, though, and the european Left of course too, being generally for more centralization
B "The architects of the euro knew that the single currency could not exist indefinitely in the absence of fiscal union and so the project was launched in full anticipation of a crisis which could then be used as a “forcing strategy” to achieve fiscal union."
-> pure propaganda, the kool-aid that is being drunk in gallons. gold, for example, did not need a global fiscal union, did it? explore a bit the world of "dollarization", for example. Montenegro, btw, just uses the EUR without being part of the eurozone. it functions, it works. also have a look at the currencies that the French national bank issues for a dozen countries in Africa. for all purposes, those countries use a currency they do not control, and which was tied to the French Franc, and now to the EUR. get real, see the facts
C “We’re getting closer to that now,” he says. “Greece now has to run its government according to German dictates. Greece has already outsourced its monetary policy to the European Central Bank, and now it’s sort of outsourced its fiscal policy to the German finance ministry.”
-> excellent example for this propaganda. explain how this "sort of" really functions, and you'll realize that it's... bullshit
D “So you’re on a path to unified fiscal policy and ultimately the Eurobonds – bonds backed by full strength and credit of not just any one country but the entire Eurozone.”
-> eurobonds. who wants them? bankers. the City of London is lobbying since years about them, and the european Left often parrots their talking points
E He believes that there has been a lull in the currency wars between China and the U.S. but that it will likely resume next year if China manages to get the yuan included in the currency basket that makes up the SDRs at the IMF. "
-> this is where the real fight is. and one of the main reasons why we wanted the EUR. to keep out of it, while the Bold Eagle and the Dragon tackle with each other on those issues
Exactly G..the "political union" argument is a distraction from the real issue. Which is a 'true market for debt'. The bankers don't want a true market. (e.g. real savers, real lenders of saved money, real interest rates struck between investors/risk appetite and ROI) We can't have that.
Oh, and by the way....I think it's funny when someone says "if I'm right you should have 10% of your assets in X"....because, in almost all cases, if the dude is right, then you should have had 100% of your assets in X. But there-in always lies the difficulty.
The Silver Buller and the Silver Shield
According to realtors, it is always a good tie to buy gold
and according to one note gold bugs, it' always a good time to buy gold.
the first group is wrong half the time and so is the second.
sure, why not catch a falling knife?
It didn't fall. Gold's always jammed in, then pulled out with an upward twist. Uuurghh
I might take a stab at a falling gold knife
To all ZH members, Please help a novice bullion owner with understanding two questions that I cannot find intelligent answers to. Your help much appreciated:
1) Reportedly, JPM Chase currently has over $4 trillion in Gold Derivitives which is the vast majority of the world pile.This past week gold lost significant % value reportedly due the dumping of just $50 billion on ostensibly worthless paper gold.
Could someone explain why the remaining huge pile of gold derrivatives could not be used to drive down gold's price much farther, especially when the next financial criis hits and the same manipulation is used to keep liquidity from stock market sales from going towards gold/silver as is the case currently?
2) Addmitedly, gold/ silver bullion has inherant worth, but paper/ certificate and derrivatives in PMs, have little or no foundation left in bullion.
This being the case; Why is there not three different values for gold/silver that relects the true value of "in-hand" bullion as compared to the two other incredibly dilluted/ devalued forms of PC transactions?
Input from ZH members would be most welcome. I am a firm supporter of bullion gold, but cannot find answwers to these important questions. Thanks for your help.
#2 There is a difference in the cash price, and market price of precious metals. It is expressed in terms of a "premium" Like the basis in agricultural commodities, the premium is used to encourage delivery at different locations.
When the market price is honest, and markets are stable, premiums are low. When supply chains are being stretched, premiums tend to be high.
A journalist who has been published worldwide, yet can't spell "derivative." Alrighty then...
Here is your answer "LIVE" old buddy- Only an idiot buys gold (or silver). Whoever "they" are can manipulate the price anytime and anywhere "they" please. Soooo - DOWN the price goes. If you do buy, be prepared to watch you wealth disintegrate. Oh! - What about the PM hucksters constant song of PM going to the moon? They SELL gold & silver stupid. Do you really believe these charlatans ( that's "One who lies" to those in Arkansas). If you just got in - GET OUT!
I will answer both questions. There is no reason that JPM or other large derivative holders can not drive the price anywhere they want. What will happen is that physical demand will increase to the point of crisis creating 2 separate markets. This is happening right now in silver. Physical demand is huge at the current manipulated price and the physical price has decoupled as can be seen by the big premiums now to get physical. I bought silver a few years ago and due to the premiums now it has not actually even gone down in price despite a much lower spot price. This is coming in gold but I can't tell you at what price it will happen but we are close right now. Asian demand is huge and my LCS has run out of nearly all bullion gold products.
100% correct. Dealer prices may fall by small amounts, but certainly do not reflect spot at all. I would really like to know where I can buy silver for spot price.
Even the scrap market is well over spot in general, from what I've seen.
this is not a direct answer; it is, however, relevant. i have read that one of the asian exchanges ---- i believe shanghai ---- is preparing to implement a daily price "fix" i.e. price quote, for the physical. good luck to you; i hope you find answers. you are absolutely correct to focus on only possession of pure bullion. i personally favor maples; the few times i have offered any of mine they have been taken immediately. also do not worry about so called price, think beyond the dollar paradigm. essentially price is irrelevant. dollars are toilet paper and/or vanishing electrical numbers. gold has eternal value. keep stacking.
Maples are my favorite as well.
I like these:
http://www.goldstackers.com.au/store/gold/perth-mint-1oz-cast-gold-bar.html
They look easy to swallow.
8 days on ZH and already live on scene.
I like his bio.
the real reason he wants to own gold is the IMFs proposal to issue gold backed SDRs, replacing dollar hegemony. part of me really doubts that creating a new fiat currency in which the BIS can have some confidence, will be more equitable than the petro dollar, that the US, which has the largest vote in the IMF, will forgo their money printing deficit running bond business just to placate the Chinese, and that if they do agree to the IMF plan, in which China has a seat at the table, that the rest of the world will agree to a gold backed fiat SDR, since the major players have the largest gold reserves, to the detriment of the EM commodity producing economies. under these circumstances gold could go to $9000, but his insight is from CIA planning committees, and this is the information the people who make these decisions are working from. its a totally machievellian deal, in which the US, Euro China and Russia run the currency and every other country is Greece..
I believe that we just had the first major skirmish in the digital war back when the Chinese stock exchange crashed and the NYSE and other sites went down. A huge number of sites went down that same day as the NYSE. Not even ZH caught them all.
That is because ZH was down.
What is this gold of which you speak? Can I eat it, like my stored food? Can I burn it to keep warm, like my tank of fuel oil? Can I drink it to stay hydrated, like the water from my well? Can I fix things with it, like my tools and the skill to use them?
This gold is odd stuff. It has no apparent use, yet it seems to drive people to make lousy choices. If we experience a financial meltdown as many predict, you will need food, water, and shelter.
GOT FOOD, WATER, AND SHELTER?
Gold is money. Money in and of itself is not utilizable in the almost absurdly improbable "Mad Max" scenario you are detailing; you can't eat US dollars either. You also can't eat stocks and bonds. Any reasonable financial advisor for HNW (high net worth) clients are typically more focused on wealth preservation, and those HNW clients are the people that put their money in stuff like real estate, art, gold, etc., with gold obviously being the most fungible of those wealth preservation assets. About the only fiat currency HNW give any kind of credence towards is the Swiss franc, and even that has really fallen off after repeated devaluation efforts that have been detailed on this site, esp. by Bruce Krasting.
What I will say is that, in the event of said very low probability "Mad Max" scenario, you would probably want to have some gold/silver in addition to whatever stockpiles/self-sufficiency you have developed, because eventually you're probably going to need to barter, and gold/silver is very easy to barter with in exchange for stuff. You see this practically if you go to any pawn shop in the country. Think someone is going to trade a spare hammer they don't need for fiat currency? How about a stock or bond certificate?
And this analysis is independent of gold's myriad industrial applications. There is a valuation floor on that basis alone. Fiat currencies have no said floor (ie., they have no tangible value).
A fukin chicken farm...........................and gold
Gold has a long history, but when the SHTF I suppose one could try trading hay for cheese.
During the Depression, the old doctors said that they got paid in chickens...everyone had chickens...it was the only currency.
But if you had a little gold or cash, I bet the doctors would go birth your wife first, ahead of the neighbouring chicken farmer's wife.
Can't eat gold. The chicken sounds good, though.
My point was that the doctors didn't need chickens...everyone was breeding them and letting them run loose eating for free. The doctors had so many they gave them away to other people who didn't need them either. The doctors needed some cash to buy medicine and gas for their car. Gold would do.
That's a viable trade. Cheese is made from hay, via cow - milk - cheese vat.
Gold will buy you all of the above when fiat goes teats up.
You idiots keep talking like someone who's thought ahead to stack gold and silver for some reason couldnt figure out to prepare other things like food, shelter and weapons. Only people who've never dealt with the black or grey markets spew idiotic shit like "you can't eat it"...hell even going to a swap meet will tell you most ppl will find worth in silver and gold....like fucking paper money is any mkre edible
Jeez! Take a Valium Mavis! I agree that gold and silver is good for rebuilding after the shitstorm. My point is too many people think of gold as a talisman that will make food, water, and shelter appear at will. Gold will do that if you have enough, but, it is better to have the basics stacked beforehand.
I saw the talisman effect many years ago. A neighbor was scared by a string of burglaries and bought a pistol. He proudly showed me a POS Jennings .22 ( known for malfunctioning once a magazine ) He kept the Jennings unloaded, with the box of .22 ammo beside it. When I asked if he could load the magazine in low light, under stress, he assured me that he could, even tho he had not tried :-) The guy would have done better with a Maglite and a large, sharp kitchen knife.
Its a baseline for labor. Anyone with two hands can mine it.
Nobody can create it and therefore undermine those who labor for it.
A man in china will value an oz of gold similar to what I may value an oz gold regardless of our cultural and government differences. It is the true P2P commerce.
Food, water and shelter are primary. Just ask the native americans.
The gold of which he speaks is the stuff that anyone will trade anything of value for ... food, gas, protection whatever, when trust in paper is almighty high and when it's not.
Oh, crud……
Au and Ag is Constitutional money.
Everything else is credit and a contrivance of the clowns who are trying desperately to destroy us and turn everyone into slaves.
It has been working pretty well for them for the last 102 years…
Maybe it might be time to change some things.
GW Bush mostly destroyed the 4th Amendment.
King Hussein has done a number on the 1st.
How much more can you take .... ??????????
It does not make much of a diff to me anymore... I might not be around a whole lot longer...
But if you have youngsters.. they will have big problems.
and WTF... how is it that we have a helmet head running finance that twaks like Tweetie Pie ????? ?
YOU CAN'T EAT GOLD!
But you can smoke it ==> http://shinepapers.com/
I am Chumbawamba.