By Andrew Hoffman

It’s Friday morning, and I’m writing this article under extreme mental duress. There is literally nothing more stressful than one’s computer crashing; and amazingly, my six-month old HP may have done so while I was reading about baseball this morning, as I ate my Frosted Flakes. I’m writing from my laptop, but expect a long-weekend of computer hell ahead of me. Hopefully, I can get my computer back to normal within 24 hours, so I can tape a new audio blog. But if not, c’est la vie. In the meantime, please make sure to listen to my new podcast on the SGT report, which just published on Wednesday.

This morning, the literal WAR for $1,250/oz. gold continues; and I sense the bulls are about to win. PMs have endured identical, prototypical Cartel attacks each this week; and each day, has fought back to attain at least a “draw.” As I write at 10:45 AM EST, yet another “Cartel Herald” is attempting to stop gold’s from “breaking out” above the two-month “line in the sand at $1,250/oz., after having decidedly failed for the fourth time this week to push silver below its own, seven-month “line in the sand” at the very, very key round number of $20/oz. Of course, as the veritable swarm of PM-bullish data expands, such as this morning’s (truncated) list below, its ability to suppress gold and silver will become more and more diminished; particularly as the trend of global, PHYSICAL demand growth continues as its current, unprecedented pace.

1. Cratering Chinese stocks, on speculation of a major “shadow banking” bankruptcy and a miasma of fog blanketing Beijing
2. Miserable U.S. earnings, from Best Buy and Citigroup yesterday (the latter of which, doesn’t really “earn” anything; but instead, “writes up” assets to exploit fraudulent FASB rules) – to UPS, GE, and Intel today.
3. Following up on the Best Buy catastrophe, an industry trade group reported that U.S. video game software sales plunged an astounding 17% in December, compared to the year-ago period. Yes, video game sales; i.e., the lifeblood of a dumbed down America – from which no doubt, Wal-Mart has racked up enormous gains from people blowing food stamps, unemployment checks, and disability checks on – are finally collapsing, just like the rest of the U.S. economy. But don’t worry, America’s obsession with killing is still intact – as the top selling games are “Call of Duty – Ghosts” and “Battlefield 4.”
4. A massive, 10% sequential drop in housing permits and starts; followed by a plunging consumer confidence reading, which missed expectations by its largest margin in eight years.

The Dow is up, of course; care of the most maniacal PPT activity in financial market history; whilst the Fed has the 10-year Treasury yield safely below 3.0% – which as we discussed last week, can never be allowed to be breached. That is, until market forces eventually swamp that level on their own – which we assure you, they will. And then, of course, there’s the added possibility that hyperinflation is already starting to show itself, per John Williams’ prediction; as it appears to be in many corners of the globe, as stocks rocket higher, perfectly in tandem with accelerating money printing.

This is what initially occurred in Weimar Germany, modern Zimbabwe and hundreds of other hyperinflations throughout history; as initial “real” gains eventually turn nominal overnight. In 2013, Venezuela was the poster child of surging stocks combined with runaway inflation; and in 2014, it appears Argentina is taking the reigns – per this frightening article of how its Merval Index is exploding higher, while the Argentine Peso utterly collapses. And don’t forget that just yesterday, the Brazilian government – despite a rapidly weakening economy – was forced to raise interest rates in an attempt to stave off rapidly increasing inflation. I see the South African Rand and Turkish Lira are hitting ALL-TIME lows as well; as clearly, the next stage of the “Fragile Five’s” collapse is upon us – as the Miles Franklin Blog predicted in its year-end review.

On to today’s main topic, where we’ll start by returning to the Bloomberg article we presented yesterday; in which, amazingly, it commissioned its reporters to investigate the actual amount of Chinese gold reserves. While likely woefully low, the fact that they speculated the Chinese government holds 2,710 tonnes of gold reserves – compared to the “official” level of 1,054 tonnes – shows the mainstream world is finally starting to realize the real state of global physical markets. And how can they not; as amidst an unprecedented level of global money printing, amidst unprecedented economic misery, it’s plain to see that not only are COMEX, LBMA, and GLD inventories disappearing, but Swiss refineries running an unprecedented 24/7 to recast Western gold into Asian-friendly kilo bars. Throw in record coin sales at the Perth and U.S. Mints (in the latter case, only for silver); a run on UK sovereign gold coins; record Chinese gold imports; and record silver imports into India, amidst 25% physical gold premiums; and it becomes painfully obvious that something is not right in the fraudulent paper markets. Heck, if one simply reads the Miles Franklin Blog, they’ll know more about PM manipulation than 99.99999999% of the world’s population.

Anyhow, following up Bloomberg’s foray into actual physical gold demand, they published this article this morning, of how the President of Germany’s top securities regulator – Bafin – claimed gold manipulation is currently worse than LIBOR rigging. Think about such a statement, readers! Can you imagine the head of the CFTC saying such a thing – particularly a Goldman Sachs alumni like Gary Gensler? And to say it’s worse than the LIBOR scandal, which was unquestionably the most widespread, universally damaging financial scandal yet, is utterly incredible. Of course, he’s 100% right; as not only is gold trading rigged (i.e., suppressed) 24/7, but the catastrophic impact it had on the global economy is incomprehensible. However, hearing a mainstream outlet report it and a top securities regulator validate it, is simply amazing in today’s world of strict government media control.

And then you have Glen Beck, who – also yesterday – put out this amazing video about the Fed essentially stealing Germany’s gold; not to mention, the horrific ramifications when the world realizes how much Central bank gold has been re-hypothecated. Even a rebel like Glen Beck has never gone into such detail about the ongoing gold scandal; and trust me, this video will go viral.

Finally, in the most apropos of all follow-up news stories, just last night it was reported that Deutsche Bank is withdrawing from its daily participation in the London gold “fix”; amidst expanding probes regarding the manipulation of gold prices related to such activity! And then there were four, as only Scotia Macotta, HSBC, Barclays and Societe Generale remain; of which, Barclays is widely known for leading the LIBOR rate-rigging scandal, while HSBC is custodian to the “highly controversial” GLD ETF.

Unfortunately, that’s all the time I have; although amazingly, my computer just fixed itself! And thus, I plan to tape my audio blog as usual. Hopefully, this article helps you understand the urgency at which events are unfolding around the world; of which, this afternoon’s strong PM action may well be providing a “signal” that must be heeded.

Remember, when the next crisis commences – which as surely as death and taxes, it will; either you will have already protected your assets with REAL MONEY, or it will already be too late.

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 -- Published: Monday, 20 January 2014 | E-Mail  | Print  | Source: GoldSeek.com

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