GOLD MAKE A NEW CLOSING HIGH AS BULLION CLOSES OVER $2500 AN OUNCE - AND STILL NO US RETAIL BUYING:

This chart illustrates is the most dramatic shift in the gold market since the world shifted from Britain having the world reserve currency status pre World War II where gold was priced in brtish pounds to the US having the world reserve currency status post WWII where gold is priced in dollars.

The next seizmic shift in the gold market came in 1973 as Richard Nixon closes the gold window when certain European countries demanded to repatriate their gold and we didn't want to (or couldn't) pay.  This took the world off the gold standard for the first time since - well, sometime before 3000 BCE.  We don't know when because there is no surviving written language before then.

This also launched an era of unprecedented global debt accumulation as the debt no longer had to be converted into gold.

THen in 2004 the GLD ETF is launched and ever since every gold rally was led by US speculative interest in purchasing gold.

And each time gold was about to break out, the Fed and the bullion banks were able to manage the gold breakout by dropping untold throusands of futures sell orders on a thin market.

UNTIL NOW.

The great gold breakout rally has finally occured after years of the most talked about Cup and Handle technical pattern perhaps ever as gold formed this massive pattern that suggested a breakout the next time the US public got excited about gold.

But, instead, the breakout has come - without any particiapation of the US public.

And without the Fed having the ability to cap it.

How has this happened? 

Eastern Central Banks.  Led by China. And also led by the retail public in the Eastern countries where the central banks are both buying and promoting  private ownership of gold.

This has overwhelmed a basically thin market, taken the US retail buyer totally by surprise and overwhelmed the Fed's ability to control the market.

Clearly there is a massive divergence of views between East and West as to the ultimate - and near term - safety concerning the mountain of Paper Assets denominated in US dollars.  Largely because the debt component of these assets as roughly 35 trillion government, 20 trillion corportate, 17 trillion private, and additional 120 trillion in unfunded liabilities and a dollar denominated derivative debt market or about 4 qudrillion dollars (over the counter and unregulated).

The concern in the East is also very much caused by the recent weaponization of the dollar and the US swift system along with violent anti global rhetoric coming out of our political system.  And the coming election is most likely to intensify this violent rhetoric, and produce equally financially violent policy.

The altenative has been chosen.  And it is Gold.

Nobody here wants to see that yet.  And Americans are very good at burying their heads in Internet Nonsense.  We've become a country of internet ostriches looking for scapegoats, conspiracies and fastening on code words as outlets for frustration and hatred.

None of that will help us though.

What will help is seeing what is going on and finding a way to participate positively to protect yourself.

If we can't do it as a country it is up to each of us as individuals to make smart choices.

ANd the sooner we start the better.

GOLD FLOWS EAST: US INVESTORS REMAIN CLUELESS

 

GLD, the major US stock tracking the price of gold has been rising steadily, to new highs week after week.  And week after week US gold investors have been pulling money out of the fund.  So accordingly the fund divests gold holdings. 

CEF the Sprott gold and silver fund most favored by US investors is trading at a 5 perent discount to NAV.  When US investors are bullish on gold the fund can trade at a 15 percent premium or higher.

At the same time gold funds in China are selling at a 30 percent premium to NAV.  This reflects the Chinese public appetite for gold purchases.

And the Eastern Central Banks are buying hand over fist.

I track gold purchases of all sorts of semi-bullion collector coins: Limited central mint runs of coins that were either circultion coins like French 100 franc gold angels or Peruvian 100 soles gold coins, or coins intended primarily as limited run bullion like certain Chinese Pandas or British Mint collector bullion, and many pieces that have interest for Asian collectors have gone crazy in price in the last year.

Gold is flowing from West to East.

And US traders and technical analysts are bewildered.  Gold keeps going up in spite of the fact that yields are also going up, stocks are going up, and nominal inflation is coming down.  And the charts have gone hyperbolic.

Nobody here gets it.

Yet.

The fact is everybody in the world can see that the US is spinning out of control in terms of debt, debt service, debt refinancing, and there is no Political Will to do anything about it.

The whole world can see that either outcome in this election will lead to more debt and less Poltical resolve to address it.  Because the both candidates have already pledged to increase the debt.  Biden through massive social spending and Trump through tax cuts, tarrif wars, and dropping rates back to zero.

Both are a recipe for greater inflation.  Though one leads to stagflation and the other leads to hyperinflation.  

So a death by a thousand cuts.  Or death by a massive blow to the head.

Nobody in the world is waiting to find out which, because it doesn't matter.

The Fed is in a box.  They can't raise rates without provoking a debt crisis.  They can't drop rates without stoking inflation.  Meanwhile, they're losing control of the long end of the rate curve.

The billionaire class doesn't care.  They get richer either way, because inflation leads to asset inflation.

If you're not a billionaire and you care, think about protecting yourself the way the rest of the world is doing.

Sooner or later you'll have to.

Sooner is probably better.

Hs the Fed lost control of the gold market?

 

It's been no secret the the Fed and the bullion banks that own the Fed have kept on lid on the gold market for the last 40 years as the value of the dollar has been inflated away.  

It's easy for them to do this simply by dropping thousands of sell orders on the futures market late in the off hours, running everyone's stops, and setting off a flight out of speculative long positions by small investors which generally follows through into the opening and right through the next trading session.  Then when everyone has sold the bullion banks cover their shorts and go long, making money both ways.

They've done with with clockwork-like regularity for the last 40 years.  Everyone sees it.  And even the regulators (SEC and CFTC) have slapped JP Morgan with nearly a billion dollars worth of fines for manipulating the gold market, yet the trades are so luctrative the billion in fines is like a gentle slap on the wrist.

But a funny thing has happened.  Not so funny maybe to the Fed and JP Morgan but really funny to those of us that have longed for the day that a big enough player enters the market that everytime the bullion banks pull a raid, this new Big Player steps in and hands them their heads by simply taking the other side and buying after gold drops a bit.

And then as gold starts to rise, JP Morgan has to cover and gold ends up rising 40 dollars instead of dropping 40 dollars.

This is the Chinese Central Bank.  They are buying hand over fist.  But they have company: the Turkish Central Bank, and the Polish Central Bank and the Czech Central Bank and the Jordanian Central Bank and many others.  

But the Chinese have decided it is time to take control of the price.  You can speculate as to why.  Perhaps they will eventually launch a gold backed currency.  Perhaps they simply want out of the US dollar/swift system before they are kicked out by an agressive anti Chinese regiem.  So they are replacing US Treasury reserves with gold.

It really doesn't matter why.  It will eventually.  But right now what matters is that they've taken over.  Which means that every time the Fed wants to knock down the gold price in order to solidify their claim that inflation is essentially under control and the US banking sysemt is essentially sound, and the US economy is on firm footing - there's a buyer on the other side waiting to take advantage of every artificial dip.

And all this is happening without any significatnt US retail participation.

Nobody in the US is in this gold trade. Institutions here don't support it, because they can't monetize this trade.  The government doesn't support it because it is difficult to tax and regulate and it sends the wrong message.

Other countries are encouraging their populations to buy gold.  The Eastern and Mid Eastern countries all have a long tradition of gold buying and preserving wealth through gold.  Europe has a tradition of protecting private wealth through gold as the two world wars were fought there.  And only those with gold were able to preserve their wealth.

But the US public seems to have become the very last to realize what's going on,

Eventually they'll catch on.

Or not.

It doesn't really matter to this global market anymore.

gold prepares for the election

 

I've never believed the stock market discounts the future.  Because it relies on the psychology of the masses.  And the masses are usually wrong.

Gold, however is excellent at looking into the future, because its movement is ultimately decided by the the global central banks that conrol the economic and political future.

And Gold, right now, has its eye firmly on the US coming election.

Because Gold thrives on chaos, strife, and most of all Gold thrives on War.

There are already two hot wars, one involving Europe and Russia, one involving Israel and Hamss/Iran/Hesbollah.  And both wars have an enormous impact on the all importan US-China relationship.  

And the coming election will be key in what happens to those two hot wars.  

Gold sees an outcome in the coming election that will cause the wars to boil over and spread.

And as the war spreads international trade dies and commodity prices are driven up and up and up.  At the same time war kills demand for discretionary purchases.

Gold also thrives on trade war.  Trade war is highly inflationary globally.  Tarrifs are a tax on the consumers of the country that imposes the tarrifs.  At the same time it drives up prices in the exporting countries that seek to recoup lost profits.  Global GDP dives as global costs rise.  Trade war is wonderful for Gold - if nothing else.

Gold sees an outcome in the coming election that will mean massive Trade War.

Gold thrives on civil war.  It doesn't have to be declared war.  Just violent tension between various citizen groups tends to eventually kill the animal spirits that drives discretionary spending.  Eventually people start hoarding essentials that they belive to be scarce or that they believe will become scarce.  This is highly inflationary.

Gold sees an outcome in the coming election that bodes well for civil war.

Gold thrives on poltical warfare.  The less civil an election cycle the more gold likes it.  The more the various branches of government appear to be at war amongst themselves the better it is for gold.  The stronger the Centralized government becomes the better for gold.  This is because an economy thrives on Trust.  The belief in its institurions in crucial for that trust.  As trust erodes people stop spending and start hoarding.  In the early stages of trust erosion you may well get YOLO - you only live once - spending.  But as the erosion of trust continues you get Survivalism.

Gold sees an outcome in the coming election that will lead to a survivalist mentality.

Gold particularly loves Autocracy.  The more likely the election is to result in Autocracy the better for gold.  Look at Turkey - or Hungary - for democracies that have moved towards Autocracy.  The inflation rate in Hungary is 30 percent.  The inflation rate in Turkey is 65 percent.  

Gold sees an election outcome that will lead towards Autocracy.

It's not as if Gold is omniscient.  But Gold is the reflects the collective vision of the global central banks.  Ands this is what gold sees.  

GOLD AND THE CRASH

 

Nobody knows when a crash is coming.  A lot of people see it coming.  But if it's 5 years away you look like a fool waiting for it while everyone else is cashing in on the precrash mania.

Because without the mania there wouldn't be a crash.

And manias can go on and on and on.

Right now, however, we are in an unprecedented period where rates were kept at ZERO year after year so that everything from Governments to Real Estate to Companies were funded with DEBT issued at or near ZERO.

This wan't because there was no  inflation.  It was because globalization was a heavily deflationary force that kept the inflation of the massive money printing/debt regiem in check.

Now globalization has reversed.  Hot war in Europe and the Middle East , nascent trade war, East vs West cold war that could morph into hot war over Taiwan or Poland or Iran or wherever, at any moment has crushed the old supply lines, regarding commodity inputs, labor, and international cooperation, so that the inflationary forces of money printing/debt are now being pressured mightily by higher rates.

And the wars themselves are highly infaltionary.

And the central banks only control short term rates.  So they will start to cut short rates as the burden of underwater bonds start to impact Governments, Real Estate, Corporations, and especially the BANKS that own alot of the debt.  Most of the banks, including the central banks are dead broke if they had to mark all their bonds to market.

They don't.

But as the bonds mature they do have to either realize the losses or try to refinance at much higher rates - or both.

And even if the Fed cuts short rates, it doesn't mean the long rates will follow.

That's the catch.  That's when the Fed loses control. And that's inevitable with debt load of this size.

This debt problem is imminent.  Just because we've been able to keep it under control so far doesn't mean we'll never discover the breaking point.  TWO TRILLION dollars of corporate debt finaced at Zero comes due over the next two years.  The Commercial - and multi family home  - Real Estate business is dead broke. And the every central bank is carrying massive balance sheets comprised of underwater debt.,  The US Fed still has 8 trillion dollars of it (despite supposed QT).  Other central banks are in the same boat. 

And all the commercial banks - even the big ones - are in the same boat.

There is no out.  There is no soft landing.  There is no  way to resolve this except hyper inflation or default - or both.

Evey Central banker knows this.  That's why central banks are buying gold.

And in the Eastern governments are heavily encouraging their citizens to buy gold - because they know when the debt crash comes gold will get you through it.  They're not worried about people using gold to evade taxes because if you evade taxes there they'll just kill you.  Even if you're rich.

Here in the West Governemnts won't do that because they need money to stay in the local currencies - Dollar or Euro so they can keep control of the Tax structure.  Here if everyone had gold and stopped spending so much on useless crap the goverment tax collecting would implode,  And here they can't even prosecute rich people for avoiding taxes because they own the legistlators and have already put in so many loopholes they don't pay much tax anyway.  If Government lost any revenue from the middle class it would be a disater.  Or even more of a disaster.

So here it's up to you to figure this out and buy gold on your own initiative.

Before it's too late.

GOLD A NEW CLOSING HIGH: CORRELATION VS CAUSATION

 

Gold has just made a new closing high in US dollar terms, and still retail investors in the US are just compltely oblivious.

Why?

Because nobody here can understand why gold is going higher.

That is because here in the US there is a lamentable confusion between correlation and causation.  Not just in the gold market, but in all levels and areas of thought.

Traditionally gold has moved opposite the US dollar.  Why?  Because traditionally the dollar strengthens when the US economy is strengthening so there is no need for gold as a hedge.

That is a correlation.  Not a causation.

Now, the dollar is strenthening because massive dollar printing/debt is causing an interest rate differential between the dollar and other currencies.  This is destabilizing.  So gold is rising along with the dollar.

A different correlation.

Traditionally gold rises as inflation goes out of control.  That is because inflation can be destabilizing.  That is also a correlation.  Not a causation.  

Now inflation is abating yet gold is rising quickly.  That is because the real cost of living is already too high for most middle class citiziens to make rent and buy food.  So a sinking rate of inflation simply means things are getting even more expensive - just at a slower rate.  That is increasingly destabilizing so gold is zooming higher.

You see, the correlations shift according to a constant which is the actual cause of gold's rise: STABILITY - or INSTABILITY.

The more unstable things become - financially, politically, and most importantly (though impossible to qnantify) EMOTIONALLY, the higher the price of gold.

On top of a raging inflation (that is 40 years in the making - but was held in check by 40 years of deflationary globalization) there is also tremendous political instability both domestically and internationally.  

And there is an emotional instability that is being exponentially magnified by Social Media which fragments society and stokes Hatred and Violence and Resentment through algorythms.  

So though you can not quantify Instability it is the prime causation of the rise in the gold price.

Therefor the old correlations that were based in an era that was fundementally more stable because Globalization produced a period of deflationary cooperation between nations that kept the massive money printing inflation in check and kept Nationalistic hatreds in check and kept the differences between liberal and conservative in check - have now all reversed.

The old correlations have broken down and new correlations of instability have arisen.

And this feeds on itself as people looking for answers are looking into the past and at past correlations.

And all of this confusion is turned into hatred, violence and scapegoating by unprincipled politicians and their accolytes on social media.

So look for the instability to increase.  And with it the price of gold.

And eventually when the US public realizes that the gold price is rising for a good understandable reason, they will participate - and drive the gold price that much higher.

BULLION VS COLLECTOR COINS: ABOUT 5000 YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY TO COLLECT

 

The old question for those who know they want gold is simply to store your weath in gold bullion, or to veer off into the 5000 years of gold coinage that defined, described, illustrtated and chronicled the waxing and waning of human political culture.

Bullion is the safe bet.  So if what you're doing is safeguarding your wealth that's your best bet.

Collector coins are close to collecting Old Master Art; there's a lot to know, there's risk involved, and there's potential for great appreciation.

The drawbacks of bullion are 

1) storage.  It's best to store it accessibly.  If the world devolves and your gold isn't accessible it may not serve its purpose.

2) Portability.  If you have a lot of bullion it is very heavy and tough to move.  But if you can afford a lot of bullion you can probably affford and armored  courier service.

3) It's not as easy for the government to track as say electronic tranactions.  But storing a sizable amount of bullion or converting it to currency may attract the attention of the Government.  You may be fine with that.  It bothers some people.

The advantages of bullion: it is a global market: bought and sold fungibly in all the major urban centers on earth.  The price is set by weight.  Everyone knows it.

Collector coins are interesting for all their drawbacks.  In fact it is largely on account of these drawbacks that many people are attracted to them:

1) Very few people know their value.  However they do have a value within a set range but this will vary with condition, availability and demand.  If you happen to be expert on those elements, that value can be known fairly precisely to you.

2) Coin and medallions of great value can be very portable.  That doesn't mean you wouldn't prefer to send them with an armed courrier.  But, in a pinch, you can put them in your pocket and flee.

3) They are just as difficult for the government to understand and track as they are for the average collector.  Few people (in the government) are even aware of the difference between, for example, a Ptolemaic Oktodrachm and a donative of mulitple ducats of Antonio Venieri.  It might take quite a long time to explain the difference in type, place of issue,  value etc.  This opacity makes them quite attractive to people who don't mind putting in the time to learn and especially attractive to those who value privacy.

And the thing about collector coins are that there are as many types as there have been local centers of  commerce in the entire world over that last 5000 years. That's a lot of types.  And there tend to be a lot of collectors for each type.  

The trick is knowing where they are, and how they value their particular pieces of history.