Saturday, 3 September 2011

ECB Doesn’t Rule Out “PIIGS” Gold as Collateral for Gold Backed Eurobonds, Sends Gold Soaring

 

From GoldCore

ECB Doesn’t Rule Out “PIIGS” Gold as Collateral for Gold Backed Eurobonds

Gold and the Swiss franc are higher today as risk aversion has returned with global stock markets falling on concerns the US employment figure later today will disappoint and confirm that the US economy continues to weaken.

Gold is trading at USD 1,853.50, EUR 1,300.10 , GBP 1,143.30, CHF 1,446.50 and JPY 142,320 per ounce.


Cross Currency Table

Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,854.00, EUR 1,301.23, GBP 1,143.81 per ounce. The gold fix was higher than yesterday’s in all currencies - USD 1,815.50, EUR 1,270.73, GBP 1,118.95 per ounce.

Today, the President of the ECB, Jean- Claude Trichet did not rule out a gold backed euro bond in an interview with ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’ published on the ECB’s website.

The comments were a response to former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi who proposed - in Italian national daily business newspaper ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’ last week - the creation of a euro bond backed by member states’ gold reserves.

Prodi was President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004.

Trichet was asked about “the creation of a fund guaranteed by the gold reserves of countries that would issue bonds to buy back national debt and make new investments.”

Trichet did not answer the question directly but said “at this stage, we have the EFSF bonds, which are bonds with a European signature. The main message of the ECB Governing Council to governments is to implement rapidly, fully, comprehensively the decisions taken by the European heads of state and government on 21 July.”

Reuters reported today in an article entitled ‘Gold sales would not solve Europe’s debt troubles’ that “Europe’s most indebted nations are under heavy pressure from their richer neighbours to sort out their finances, but they are unlikely to mimic the impoverished gentlefolk of old by selling off the family silver — or in their case, gold – to do so.”

Reuters recount how senior German lawmakers and politicians have advocated so called ‘PIIGS’ nations sell their gold to fund “bailouts”.
Reuters says that the “demands ignore the fact that this gold is not the property of the PIIGS' governments to sell.”

"Foreign exchange reserves are held and managed by central banks, not by governments," said Natalie Dempster, director of government affairs at the World Gold Council. "Forex reserves are set aside for specific purposes - defence of currency, payment of external debt obligations and payment of imports."

"In the past you could have had incidences where governments might try to overstimulate their economies by running exceptionally loose monetary policy before an election," she said. "That is a reason why it is critical, in an advanced economy, that central banks are independent”, said Dempster.

With regard to Prodi’s proposal to create a euro bond backed by member states' gold reserves, Reuters said such proposals remain little explored according to analysts.

GFMS' Klapwijk said that "it has slightly surprised me that some of them haven't looked harder at some creative uses of gold in terms of gold-backed bonds, which might be a useful way of trying to lower the cost of borrowing."

"But again, they come up against the fact that the scale of the borrowing required is so large that there are probably other ways of trying to deal with the problem rather than using gold. That would probably be a drop in the bucket."

Separately the Central Bank of Ireland has said that it will not disclose whether the gold reserves of Ireland (a paltry 6 tonnes) have been swapped or loaned out or had any other receivable status recorded against them (see Commentary below).

A senior administrative officer for financial control at the Central Bank of Ireland responded to an inquiry regarding the custody and ownership of Ireland’s gold reserves: “The bank is not, however, in a position to provide further information, nor to outline its investment strategy in relation to the gold holdings.”


G10 Currencies and Gold – 1 Year Performance

Gold’s lack of counter party and debasement risk and its safe haven status is resulting in it being slowly remonetised in the global financial and monetary system.

Gold’s status as a finite monetary reserve makes it ideal collateral today especially with the risk of contagion in the Eurozone and wider global financial system.

For the latest news and commentary on financial markets and gold please follow us on Twitter

NEWS
(Reuters) -- Gold sales would not solve Europe's debt troubles
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/09/02/idINIndia-59110820110902

(Bloomberg) -- Gold Society in Hong Kong Says Trade Volume Doubled in August
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-02/gold-society-in-hong-kong-says-trade-volume-doubled-in-august.html

(Reuters) -- Gold flat ahead of U.S. payrolls data
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/02/us-markets-precious-idUSTRE7781Q420110902

(Your Money Site) -- Citigroup Global: Gold to reign in bull camp, $2,500 by year end
http://www.yourmoneysite.com/news/2011/sep/citigroup-global-gold-to-reign-in-bull-camp-eyeing-slippage-in-oil.html

(CNN) -- Gold wedding bands get dumped for tungsten
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/01/news/economy/wedding_ring_prices/index.htm?iid=HP_River

(CNBC) -- How the Gold Business Operates
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43974868

COMMENTARY

(Financial Times) -- Phantom gold haunts GLD vault tour
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d90e9d80-d4ac-11e0-a7ac-00144feab49a.html#axzz1WgoizGjg

(London Bullion Market Association) -- Adding Gold to Europe’s Liquidity Buffers
http://www.lbma.org.uk/assets/Alch6205Dempster.pdf

(London Bullion Market Association) -- The Real Price of Gold
http://www.lbma.org.uk/assets/The_Real_Price_of_Gold.pdf

(GATA) Cromwell must be laughing over Ireland's forfeited gold
http://gata.org/node/10371

(The Irish Times) – Rory Gillen: Gold is like Irish housing in 2003 - overpriced, rising and a risky bet
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0902/1224303346122.html

(The Irish Times) -- Prudent Financial Planners Advocate Importance of Having an Allocation to Gold
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0902/1224303346113.html

(The Telegraph) -- When debt levels turn cancerous
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100011744/when-debt-levels-turn-cancerous/

(Financial Times) -- Get used to world without ‘risk free’ rate
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/52a9169e-d4b6-11e0-a7ac-00144feab49a.html#axzz1WgoizGjg

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ecb-doesn%E2%80%99t-rule-out-%E2%80%9Cpiigs%E2%80%9D-gold-collateral-gold-backed-eurobonds-sends-gold-soaring

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Iceland Revolts vs. “Babylon the Great” – NEW

 

I’m sure all readers are aware of the Eurozone crisis which has resulted in bailouts of banks and bondholders in Ireland and in Greece in which the citizenry has to make ever-increasing sacrifices as part of the “bailouts” or “restructuring” of excessive sovereign debts. Portugal, Spain and Italy have been added to the list of nations needing bailouts and some media articles have speculated France may be next. The German people are reportedly growing very tired of bailing out their financially less-disciplined Eurozone partners, and there is speculation about whether the Eurozone can survive in its current status.

The first link below reveals that one nation has chosen another path. That nation is little Iceland, which was the first European nation to go bankrupt in the ongoing financial/monetary crisis. The article states that Iceland’s choice has been given a media blackout because its solution is “the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example.” Initially, Iceland was pressured by the international community, the IMF and especially by Holland and Great Britain to bail out the Icelandic banks’ mistakes with public funds. The banker-backed solution was for “each Icelandic citizen to pay 100 Euros (or about $130) for fifteen years, at 5.5% interest, to pay off a debt incurred by private parties vis-à-vis other private parties.”

Iceland rebelled against the banker-desired “solution.” The Icelandic Head of State “refused to ratify” this solution and submitted it to the voters of Iceland who rejected it by a 93% vote. In spite of dire threats from the international/banker community, Iceland has instead chosen to go after the bankers themselves. It “launched civil and penal investigations” of the bankers who caused the problem, and the former head of one bank is now hiding from an Interpol arrest warrant as “other bankers implicated in the crash fled the country.”

You can see why the international media has “spiked” this important story. If other nations’ citizens learned about the Icelandic solution to banker-caused debt problems, the Icelandic solution might be demanded by other nations’ voters as well. Perhaps other nations are considering the Icelandic solution behind the scenes. In a story barely covered by the media, Goldman Sachs’ CEO, Lloyd Blankfein “has hired a top defense lawyer” as a result of investigations by the US Department of Justice into the role of Goldman Sachs’ top executives in the recent financial crisis. The second link below reports that “Blankfein has come under scrutiny for allegations of conflict of interest, fraud and misleading Congress over his firm’s role in the 2007-2009 sybprime meltdown.” Hmmm. Could it be Blanfein has noticed what the government of Iceland did to its former bankers, and fears the US government is now considering a similar course of action?

All politicians in the nations affected by the financial crisis might be looking for others to blame in the event there is a major monetary/financial crisis. Going after the bankers instead of bailing them out has apparently made Iceland’s new leaders very popular with that nation’s voters. Politicians in other nations may have noticed that fact, and might see the Icelandic solution as a way to preserve their own political fortunes. If the crisis turns very bad, the politicians will likely be willing (perhaps even eager) to sacrifice the bankers to save themselves from public wrath.

Revelation 17-18 prophesies that the global financial/monetary system will experience a major collapse in the latter days, and that it will be replaced by a final global political/financial system called the “beast,” which will exist for a mere 42 months (Revelation 13:1-5) before the return of Jesus Christ puts an end to it (Revelation 19:11-21). Both Revelation 13:1 and 17:9-13 identify “seven heads and ten horns” (most likely sovereign nations) which will overthrow the political/financial system of “Babylon the Great” (our current global world system). Revelation 17:15-18 foretells this overthrow will not be a gentle one. It prophesies the “seven heads and ten horns” will overthrow the great whore (a term is used in this chapter interchangeably with “Babylon the Great” to describe our current global political/financial system), and states they will “hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked and burn her with fire.” That sounds like a classic “blood in the streets” scenario to me. Revelation 17:14 adds the seven heads and ten horns which overthrow the current Babylon the Great system and install a new global “beast” system will eventually make war against Jesus Christ (The Lamb) when he returns 42 months later. Revelation 19:11-21 reveals what the result will be when Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of the Most High Creator God, leads a heavenly army against the human armies of this world’s beast system. This account indicates there may be no human survivors in any human army which dares to fight against the Maker of all mankind. If you are in a military force and you see the Divine army of Jesus Christ appearing in the heavens at a future time to overthrow the eventual global human “beast” government, your only path to survival might be to fall on your knees before the returning Divine army of Jesus Christ instead of fighting it.

For new readers desiring more information about why the modern global financial/monetary system is called “Babylon the Great” in the Bible, I urge you to read my article, What Kind of Captivity?, available on my website’s Articles page. You will see detailed documentation that our modern global financial system was invented by the Sun-worship system of ancient Babylon. Also very germane to this subject is the article, Is Babylon the Great about to Fall, Ushering in a Global Beast System?, which is available at this website’s homepage.

http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/3057-a-story-missing-from-our-media-icelands-on-going-revolution.html

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/08/goldman-sachs-ceo-hires-lawyer-shares-drop/1

http://stevenmcollins.com/WordPress/?p=4408

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Friday, 2 September 2011

Lifting Potatoes

 

The absurdities of “population”
I was listening to an article this morning on the touchy subject of “population control”. In essence, a local Mayor in Serbia has been hosting “romantic evenings” in his town in a desperate attempt to increase the population. Serbians are leaving en masse and he fears his “herd” will vanish, leaving him as the most important person in an unimportant town.
The interviewer spoke to the local young people to find out why none are raising families
“No job. How can I afford to raise a family?” was the standard answer.
Of course. The simple arithmetic dictates that an unemployed person will not be able to support a family, so Serbs are leaving, finding work, sending money home. And sure enough, when they return, pockets bulging with cash from picking English potatoes, they will buy houses and settle down, as all migrant labour usually does. Turkey is awash with money earned by hard work in Germany. The mayor of the Serbian Town may not like it, but he will have to adjust to a population that find their own solutions to lifes problems. No amount of coaxing by a Politician is going to help.
Compare and contrast, if you will with the UK. No Mayor in the UK is desperately trying to bring couples together. Our society is blighted by single parents and unemployment. State sponsored bastards, spawning another generation of unemployables, soaked in the drip, drip of welfare benefits. Tax credits, housing benefit, council benefit, unemployment benefit, endless top ups to ensure that no matter what decisions they make, no matter how bad their choices may be, the responsibility lies firmly with the State – and the taxpayer. 1.8 million UK children now live in a household (I was tempted to write “family” but don’t want a knock on the door at 3am) where no one works. FOUR MILLION households where no one works. Just breeds. And claims “entitlement” and "benefits". Quite remarkable, quite unsustainable and utterly ridiculous.
Meanwhile, our Politicians will spout further nonsense about “lifting people out of poverty” whilst the fields of Lincolnshire are full of Serbians. Lifting potatoes.
Even as a plantation owner, the State is so utterly useless that we need to import genuinely free labour from abroad to bring in the harvest. Whilst our “workers” sit on the sofa, breeding yet more sofa surfers, all sponsored by the taxpayer – including Serbs with aching backs and ambition.

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2011/09/lifting-potatoes.html

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Scientists eye superfast Internet

 


Scientists say they have devised a way of using graphene, the thinnest material in the world, for a very speed exchange of data on the Internet.

British scientists, including last year’s Nobel Prize-winning scientists Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, believe that with the new method they can capture and convert more light than before, paving the way for advances in high-speed Internet and other optical communications, Reuters reported on August 31.

The scientists found that by combining graphene with metallic nanostructures, there was a 20-fold enhancement in the amount of light the graphene could harvest and convert into electrical power.

Graphene was discovered in 2004 and has been hailed as a “wonder material.”

Scientists had previously managed to produce a simple solar cell by placing microscopic metallic wires on top of graphene sheets and shining light on them.

Its superconductive properties meant that electrons could flow at high speed with extreme mobility.

However, early graphene solar cells were not very efficient, as the material was only capable of absorbing about 3% of visible light, with the rest shining through without being converted into power.

The latest research, overcomes that problem by using a method, known as plasmonic enhancement, to combine graphene with tiny metallic structures called plasmonic nanostructures.

As a result, its light-harvesting performance is increased by a factor of 20.

Source

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheEuropeanUnionTimes/~3/TTc27Ev2dcE/

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