The easing of the Indian import rules is bullish for gold and the gold sector. Shares of jewellery companies surged after the RBI allowed banks to provide gold loans to the sector. The moves by the RBI, is likely to increase demand for gold. Curiously, gold prices saw little gains after the announcement.
Another important caveat to the figures is the ‘elephant in the room’ that is demand from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). The PBOC does not declare their monetary gold purchases to the IMF or release the data. However, most market participants accept that they have and are quietly buying significant amounts of gold as part of their foreign exchange diversification programme and as part of their strategic goal to position the yuan as a rival global reserve currency ...
The ECB, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Riksbank of Sweden announced a new gold agreement this morning. They announced they have no plans to sell significant quantities of gold and reaffirmed the importance of gold bullion as a monetary reserve asset.
Underappreciated risks to electronic bitcoin and all forms of investments and savings today, including gold, that are held electronically come in the form of modern warfare - involving as it does cyberwarfare and electromagnetic warfare. No electricity and no computer or internet access and you cannot access your savings, investments and money ...
Francine Lacqua (Interviewer): Jim, you also have this new book out, right, saying "The Death of Money" and this basically argues that if a number of things come together, we could have financial warfare, deflation, hyperinflation, market collapse. And yet the markets are merrily going along. Are we in a fictitious world?
And in Cyprus when it happened, the authorities said it was a once-off, because of all of the hot Russian money that is in Cyprus, and this will not happen anywhere else...but meanwhile they are planning for that scenario in most of our countries. People need to be aware of that and they need to prepare.
With Western nations heavily indebted, including the hugely indebted U.S., Russia looks like the only realistic source of such funds. Geopolitical risk remains very much underestimated and there remains the risk of financial, economic and currency wars where the Kremlin uses gold as a geopolitical weapon to undermine the dollar.
This is another example of creeping powers that pose a real threat to bank deposits. It will create further jitters about the safety of deposits and heighten the risk of bank runs. These risks highlight the importance of diversifying and having some of your wealth outside the vulnerable banking and financial system.
Silver is undervalued when compared with gold, platinum, palladium, base metals including copper, oil, stocks (S&P, DJIA, Nasdaq etc) bonds and the U.S. dollar ... There are very few, if any assets that remain at the same price levels that they were more than 30 years ago ...
Conflict with Russia may have a “massively bullish impact on gold prices.” The concept of MAD or mutually assured destruction was what prevented war between the superpowers during the Cold War. Today, there appears to be a lack of awareness regarding the risk of mutually assured economic destruction.
The ‘pensions time bomb’ looms: pension funds' lack of diversification, and overexposure to traditional assets may cost pension holders dearly according to research we have just released. Pensions allocations to gold are very low internationally and yet gold has an important role to play over the long term in preserving and growing pension wealth.
Silver coins with the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin are being minted in Russia. The coins weigh one kilogram (1kg - 2.2lb) and are being launched by the Art Grani foundry to mark Crimea’s reincorporation into Russia.
It is interesting to note that thousands of Indians have engaged in gold smuggling in recent months. Meanwhile smuggling in the western world consists primarily of drugs. This says something about the values system of India and Eastern societies versus what is valued in the western world.
Bloomberg Television’s “On The Move Asia” had a fascinating interview with Albert Cheng, the World Gold Council’s Managing Director, Far East. He discussed China’s gold market and what’s driving the country’s demand with Rishaad Salamat.
Since 2003, we have pointed out how China’s liberalization of its gold market would have enormous ramifications for the global gold market in terms of a huge new source of demand and would ultimately lead to higher prices in the long term.
The charts below gives an indication as to the terrifying magnitude and speed of the recent decline in the value of the currency. Year to date, Ukraine’s national currency has collapsed by 69% against gold in less than four months. This has resulted in the cost of food, fuel and basic staples surging for ordinary people in Ukraine.
