International News • BitCrash: Down 50% In Massive Sell Off
: Over $1 Billion Vaporized In a Few Hours
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gol … Slavo&mk=1
by Mac Slavo – SHTFPlan
Published : April 11th, 2013
Just a few months ago the total net worth of all Bitcoins, a popular encrypted digital currency, was worth about $140 million. The non-tangible exchange mechanism is used by people all over the world to purchase everything from traditional goods and services, to illicit trade that may include drugs and stolen credit card numbers. The coins became a go-to digital store of wealth around the world after the meltdown of the Cypriot financial system, and was pushed as a ‘safe’ way to preserve wealth out of view prying government eyes. All of the excitement surrounding Bitcoin has driven the price of a single unit to in excess of $250, giving the total Bitcoins in global circulation a market capitalization of over $2.5 Billion in just a few months time.
Earlier this morning, Mike Adams of Natural News penned a warning to investors and those seeking privacy and wealth protection by utilizing the digitally encrypted BitCoin currency unit:
Bitcoin has become a casino. It is almost a perfect reflection of the tulip bulb mania of 1637 in these two ways: 1) Most people buying bitcoins have no use for bitcoins (just like tulip bulbs), and 2) The rapid increase in bitcoin valuations cannot be substantiated in any way that reflects reality.
In other words, there is no fundamental reason why bitcoins should be 2000% more valuable today than four months ago. Nothing has changed other than the craze / mania of people buying in.
…
When bitcoins were in the sub-$20 range, I was not concerned about any of this. I actually encouraged people to buy bitcoins and support the bitcoin movement. But alarm bells went off in my mind when it skyrocketed past $150 and headed to $200+ virtually overnight. These are not the signs of rational markets. These are warning signs of bad things yet to occur. (Via Infowars)
A few hours after Adams’ dire warning was posted, the crash he warned about has become a reality.
This morning, without warning, and moments after Bitcoin achieved its all time highs, the currency collapsed over 50%, essentially vaporizing upwards of one billion dollars in value.
This is what panic selling looks like – in real time:
Bitcoin-Collapse(Chart Courtesy Bitcoinbullbear.com)
And given that there are no protective mechanisms for the alternative free market Bitcoin trade, the crash may not yet be over.
Will it stage an amazing recovery? Alas, for this particular bubble, there are no NYSE circuit breakers nor is there a Federal Reserve-mandated “plunge protection team.” And why should there be? The central banks hate all currency alternatives. Firehats: on, especially since the volume is still relatively lite. (Zero Hedge)
The momentum for Bitcoin has now turned to the downside, much like it did in previous crashes where the currency achieved new highs, and was promptly sold off by those who bought into the bubble early at rock-bottom prices.
While BitCoin may be a preferred method of keeping payments for services and products private through its crypto-mechanisms, it is still a non-tangible asset and it require brokers and the internet to function properly.
Touted as a safe haven store of wealth and a “gold standard of the internet age” by Forbes, tens of thousands of investors bought into the hype.
Today they are paying the price.
During times of financial and economic stability BitCoin may function just fine as a suitable mechanism of exchange. But these are not ordinary times. Interesting, yes. Stable, no. And thus, exchanging one’s assets and turning them into digital Bitcoins may not be the best choice of asset protection during periods of financial, economic and political turmoil and uncertainty.
Only physical assets – the kind we can hold in our hand – can truly be called safe havens.
Statistics: Posted by DIGGER DAN — Sat Apr 13, 2013 3:16 am
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Gold and Silver • Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They
Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They Are Hoarding Gold Like Crazy?
By Michael, on April 10th, 2013
The big banks are breathlessly proclaiming that now is the time to sell your gold. They are warning that we have now entered a "bear market" for gold and that the price of gold will continue to decline for the rest of the year. So should we believe them? Well, their warnings might be more credible if the central banks of the world were not hoarding gold like crazy. During 2012, central bank gold buying was at the highest level that we have seen in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, insider buying of gold stocks has now reached multi-year highs and the U.S. Mint cannot even keep up with the insatiable demand for silver eagle coins. So what in the world is actually going on here? Right now, the central banks of the world are indulging in a money printing binge that reminds many of what happened during the early days of the Weimar Republic. When you flood the financial system with paper money, that is eventually going to cause the prices for hard assets to go up dramatically. Could it be possible that the banksters are trying to drive down the price of both gold and silver so that they can gobble it up cheaply? Do they want to be the ones sitting on all of the "real money" once the paper money bubble that we are living in finally bursts?
Over the past few weeks, nearly every major newspaper in the world has run at least one story telling people that it is time to sell their gold. For example, the following is from a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled "Goldman Sachs Turns Bearish on Gold"…
Another longtime gold bull is turning tail.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Wednesday that gold’s prospects for the year have eroded, recommending investors close out long positions and initiate bearish bets, or shorts. The shift in outlook was the latest among banks and investors who have soured on gold as its dozen-year runup has been followed by a 12% decline in the last six months.
Goldman began the year predicting gold would decline in the second half of 2013, but said Wednesday the drop began earlier than expected and doesn’t appear likely to reverse. Like others, the firm said the usual catalysts that have been bullish for gold during its run are no longer working.
Major banks over in Europe are issuing similar warnings about the price of gold. The following is from a Marketwatch article entitled "Sell gold, buy oil, Societe Generale analysts say"…
Analysts at Societe Generale predict in a note Thursday that gold prices will fall below $1,400 by the year’s end and continue heading south next year.
They cite two main reasons:
1. Inflation has so far stayed low and now investors are beginning to see economic conditions that would justify an end to the Fed’s quantitative easing program.
2. The dollar has started trending higher, which should make gold prices move lower as the physical gold market is extremely oversupplied without continued large-scale investor buying.
And even Asian banks are telling people to sell their gold at this point. According to CNBC, Japanese banking giant Nomura is another major international bank that has turned "bearish" on gold…
Nomura forecast gold prices will fall in 2013, on Thursday, becoming the latest bank to turn bearish on the precious metal which has been a favorite hedge for investors who fear aggressive monetary stimulus will lead to rising inflation.
"For the first time since 2008, in our view, the investment environment for gold is deteriorating as economic recovery, rising interest rates and still benign Western inflation (for now) will likely leave some investors rethinking their cumulative $240 billion investment in gold over the past four years," wrote Nomura analysts in a sector note on Thursday.
A lot of financial analysts are urging people to dump gold and to jump into stocks where they "can get a much better return". They make it sound like it is only going to be downhill for gold from here. The following is from a recent CNBC article entitled "Gold’s ‘Death Cross’ Isn’t All Investors Are Worried About"…
Gold is flashing the "death cross" but the bearish chart pattern is not the only thing scaring investors.
The magnetic appeal of a rising stock market has pulled some investment funds away from the yellow metal. Since the beginning of the year, stocks are up nearly 7 percent and gold is down nearly 6 percent.
But if gold is such a bad investment, then why are the central banks of the world hoarding gold like crazy?
According to the World Gold Council, gold buying by global central banks in 2012 was at the highest level that we have seen since 1964…
Worldwide gold demand in 2012 was another record high of $236.4 billion in the World Gold Council’s latest report. This was up 6% in value terms in the fourth quarter to $66.2 billion, the highest fourth quarter on record. Global gold demand in the fourth quarter of 2012 was up 4% to 1,195.9 tonnes.
Central bank buying for 2012 rose by 17% over 2011 to some 534.6 tonnes. As far as central bank gold buying, this was the highest level since 1964. Central bank purchases stood at 145 tonnes in the fourth quarter. That is up 9% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and the eighth consecutive quarter in which central banks were net purchasers of gold.
This all comes on the heels of decades when global central banks were net sellers of gold. Marcus Grubb, a Managing Director at the World Gold Council, says that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behavior by global central banks…
Central banks’ move from net sellers of gold, to net buyers that we have seen in recent years, has continued apace. The official sector purchases across the world are now at their highest level for almost half a century.
Meanwhile, insiders seem to think that gold stocks are actually quite undervalued right now. In fact, insider buying of gold stocks is now at a level that we have not seen in quite some time. The following is an excerpt from a recent Globe and Mail article entitled "Insider buying of gold stocks surges to multi-year highs"…
The TSX global gold index has lost about a third of its value over the past two years. The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange, stock full of gold mining juniors, hit a multi-year low this month.
Yet, executives and officers who work within those businesses are showing remarkable confidence that the sector is poised for better times.
In addition, the demand for physical silver in the United States seems to be greater than ever before. According to the U.S. Mint, demand for physical silver coins hit a new all-time record high during the month of February.
And demand for silver coins has not abated since then. Just check out what has been happening in April so far…
The US Mint has updated April sales statistics for the first time since last week, and to no surprise, the Mint again reported more massive sales, with another 833,000 silver eagles reported sold Monday! The April total through 6 business days is now 1.645 million ounces, bringing the 2013 total to a massive 15.868 million ounces. In response to the continued massive demand for silver eagles, the mint also has begun rationing sales of silver eagles to primary dealers resulting in supply delays! Just as was seen in January, tight physical supplies have seen premiums on ASE’s skyrocketing over the weekend and throughout the day, as ASE’s are rapidly becoming as scarce as 90%!
Something does not appear to add up here.
I also found it very interesting that according to Reuters, Cyprus is being forced to sell most of their gold reserves in order to help fund the bailout of their banking system…
Cyprus has agreed to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros (341 million pounds) and help finance its part of its bailout, an assessment of Cypriot financing needs prepared by the European Commission showed.
So exactly who will they be selling that gold to?
And I also found it very interesting to learn that Comex gold inventories have been falling dramatically over the last few months. The following is from a recent article by Tekoa Da Silva…
A stunning piece of information was brought to my attention yesterday. Amid all the mainstream talk of the end of the gold bull market (and the end of the gold mining industry), something has been discretely happening behind the scenes.
Over the last 90 days without any announcement, stocks of gold held at Comex warehouses plunged by the largest figure ever on record during a single quarter since eligible record keeping began in 2001 (roughly the beginning of the bull market).
In particular, something very unusual appears to be happening with JP Morgan Chase’s gold…
JP Morgan Chase’s reported gold stockpile dropped by over 1.2 million oz.’s, or rather, a staggering $1.8 billion dollars worth of physical gold was removed from it’s vaults during the last 120 days.
So what does all of this mean?
I don’t know. But I would like to find out. Someone is definitely up to something.
Meanwhile, the central banks of the globe seem determined to put their reckless money printing into overdrive.
For example, the Bank of Japan actually plans to double the monetary base of that country by the end of 2014 as a recent Time Magazine article described…
On Thursday, the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Haruhiko Kuroda, announced that the central bank would double the monetary base of the country — adding an additional $1.4 trillion — by the end of 2014 in an attempt to end the deflation plaguing the economy. To achieve that, Kuroda will buy government bonds and other assets to inject cash into the economy — what has now become familiar as quantitative easing, or QE — to bump inflation up to a targeted 2%. The plan is part of a greater strategy ushered in by new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to restart the economy through massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. It also expands on the efforts by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank to stimulate growth and smooth over financial turmoil by infusing huge sums of new money into the global economy.
Many in the western world have been extremely critical of this move, but the truth is that we actually started this "currency war". The Federal Reserve has been recklessly printing money for years, and even though we are now supposedly in the midst of an "economic recovery", the Fed is actually doing more quantitative easing than ever.
Anyone that thinks that gold and silver are bad investments for the long-term when the central banks of the world are being so reckless should have their heads examined.
However, I do believe that gold and silver will experience wild fluctuations in price over the next several years. When the next stock market crash happens, gold and silver will go down. It happened back in 2008 and it will happen again.
But in response to the next major financial crisis, I believe that the central banks of the globe will become more reckless than anyone ever dreamed possible. At that point I believe that we will see gold and silver soar to unprecedented heights.
Yes, there will be huge ups and downs for gold and silver. But in the long-term, both gold and silver are going to go far, far higher than they are today.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … like-crazy
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:58 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Why Are The Banksters Telling Us To Sell Our Gold When They Are Hoarding Gold Like Crazy?
The big banks are breathlessly proclaiming that now is the time to sell your gold. They are warning that we have now entered a “bear market” for gold and that the price of gold will continue to decline for the rest of the year. So should we believe them? Well, their warnings might be more credible if the central banks of the world were not hoarding gold like crazy. During 2012, central bank gold buying was at the highest level that we have seen in almost 50 years. Meanwhile, insider buying of gold stocks has now reached multi-year highs and the U.S. Mint cannot even keep up with the insatiable demand for silver eagle coins. So what in the world is actually going on here? Right now, the central banks of the world are indulging in a money printing binge that reminds many of what happened during the early days of the Weimar Republic. When you flood the financial system with paper money, that is eventually going to cause the prices for hard assets to go up dramatically. Could it be possible that the banksters are trying to drive down the price of both gold and silver so that they can gobble it up cheaply? Do they want to be the ones sitting on all of the “real money” once the paper money bubble that we are living in finally bursts?
Over the past few weeks, nearly every major newspaper in the world has run at least one story telling people that it is time to sell their gold. For example, the following is from a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “Goldman Sachs Turns Bearish on Gold“…
Another longtime gold bull is turning tail.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Wednesday that gold’s prospects for the year have eroded, recommending investors close out long positions and initiate bearish bets, or shorts. The shift in outlook was the latest among banks and investors who have soured on gold as its dozen-year runup has been followed by a 12% decline in the last six months.
Goldman began the year predicting gold would decline in the second half of 2013, but said Wednesday the drop began earlier than expected and doesn’t appear likely to reverse. Like others, the firm said the usual catalysts that have been bullish for gold during its run are no longer working.
Major banks over in Europe are issuing similar warnings about the price of gold. The following is from a Marketwatch article entitled “Sell gold, buy oil, Societe Generale analysts say“…
Analysts at Societe Generale predict in a note Thursday that gold prices will fall below $1,400 by the year’s end and continue heading south next year.
They cite two main reasons:
1. Inflation has so far stayed low and now investors are beginning to see economic conditions that would justify an end to the Fed’s quantitative easing program.
2. The dollar has started trending higher, which should make gold prices move lower as the physical gold market is extremely oversupplied without continued large-scale investor buying.
And even Asian banks are telling people to sell their gold at this point. According to CNBC, Japanese banking giant Nomura is another major international bank that has turned “bearish” on gold…
Nomura forecast gold prices will fall in 2013, on Thursday, becoming the latest bank to turn bearish on the precious metal which has been a favorite hedge for investors who fear aggressive monetary stimulus will lead to rising inflation.
“For the first time since 2008, in our view, the investment environment for gold is deteriorating as economic recovery, rising interest rates and still benign Western inflation (for now) will likely leave some investors rethinking their cumulative $240 billion investment in gold over the past four years,” wrote Nomura analysts in a sector note on Thursday.
A lot of financial analysts are urging people to dump gold and to jump into stocks where they “can get a much better return”. They make it sound like it is only going to be downhill for gold from here. The following is from a recent CNBC article entitled “Gold’s ‘Death Cross’ Isn’t All Investors Are Worried About“…
Gold is flashing the “death cross” but the bearish chart pattern is not the only thing scaring investors.
The magnetic appeal of a rising stock market has pulled some investment funds away from the yellow metal. Since the beginning of the year, stocks are up nearly 7 percent and gold is down nearly 6 percent.
But if gold is such a bad investment, then why are the central banks of the world hoarding gold like crazy?
According to the World Gold Council, gold buying by global central banks in 2012 was at the highest level that we have seen since 1964…
Worldwide gold demand in 2012 was another record high of $236.4 billion in the World Gold Council’s latest report. This was up 6% in value terms in the fourth quarter to $66.2 billion, the highest fourth quarter on record. Global gold demand in the fourth quarter of 2012 was up 4% to 1,195.9 tonnes.
Central bank buying for 2012 rose by 17% over 2011 to some 534.6 tonnes. As far as central bank gold buying, this was the highest level since 1964. Central bank purchases stood at 145 tonnes in the fourth quarter. That is up 9% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and the eighth consecutive quarter in which central banks were net purchasers of gold.
This all comes on the heels of decades when global central banks were net sellers of gold. Marcus Grubb, a Managing Director at the World Gold Council, says that we are witnessing a fundamental change in behavior by global central banks…
Central banks’ move from net sellers of gold, to net buyers that we have seen in recent years, has continued apace. The official sector purchases across the world are now at their highest level for almost half a century.
Meanwhile, insiders seem to think that gold stocks are actually quite undervalued right now. In fact, insider buying of gold stocks is now at a level that we have not seen in quite some time. The following is an excerpt from a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “Insider buying of gold stocks surges to multi-year highs“…
The TSX global gold index has lost about a third of its value over the past two years. The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange, stock full of gold mining juniors, hit a multi-year low this month.
Yet, executives and officers who work within those businesses are showing remarkable confidence that the sector is poised for better times.
In addition, the demand for physical silver in the United States seems to be greater than ever before. According to the U.S. Mint, demand for physical silver coins hit a new all-time record high during the month of February.
And demand for silver coins has not abated since then. Just check out what has been happening in April so far…
The US Mint has updated April sales statistics for the first time since last week, and to no surprise, the Mint again reported more massive sales, with another 833,000 silver eagles reported sold Monday! The April total through 6 business days is now 1.645 million ounces, bringing the 2013 total to a massive 15.868 million ounces. In response to the continued massive demand for silver eagles, the mint also has begun rationing sales of silver eagles to primary dealers resulting in supply delays! Just as was seen in January, tight physical supplies have seen premiums on ASE’s skyrocketing over the weekend and throughout the day, as ASE’s are rapidly becoming as scarce as 90%!
Something does not appear to add up here.
I also found it very interesting that according to Reuters, Cyprus is being forced to sell most of their gold reserves in order to help fund the bailout of their banking system…
Cyprus has agreed to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros (341 million pounds) and help finance its part of its bailout, an assessment of Cypriot financing needs prepared by the European Commission showed.
So exactly who will they be selling that gold to?
And I also found it very interesting to learn that Comex gold inventories have been falling dramatically over the last few months. The following is from a recent article by Tekoa Da Silva…
A stunning piece of information was brought to my attention yesterday. Amid all the mainstream talk of the end of the gold bull market (and the end of the gold mining industry), something has been discretely happening behind the scenes.
Over the last 90 days without any announcement, stocks of gold held at Comex warehouses plunged by the largest figure ever on record during a single quarter since eligible record keeping began in 2001 (roughly the beginning of the bull market).
In particular, something very unusual appears to be happening with JP Morgan Chase’s gold…
JP Morgan Chase’s reported gold stockpile dropped by over 1.2 million oz.’s, or rather, a staggering $1.8 billion dollars worth of physical gold was removed from it’s vaults during the last 120 days.
So what does all of this mean?
I don’t know. But I would like to find out. Someone is definitely up to something.
Meanwhile, the central banks of the globe seem determined to put their reckless money printing into overdrive.
For example, the Bank of Japan actually plans to double the monetary base of that country by the end of 2014 as a recent Time Magazine article described…
On Thursday, the new governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), Haruhiko Kuroda, announced that the central bank would double the monetary base of the country — adding an additional $1.4 trillion — by the end of 2014 in an attempt to end the deflation plaguing the economy. To achieve that, Kuroda will buy government bonds and other assets to inject cash into the economy — what has now become familiar as quantitative easing, or QE — to bump inflation up to a targeted 2%. The plan is part of a greater strategy ushered in by new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to restart the economy through massive fiscal and monetary stimulus. It also expands on the efforts by the Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank to stimulate growth and smooth over financial turmoil by infusing huge sums of new money into the global economy.
Many in the western world have been extremely critical of this move, but the truth is that we actually started this “currency war”. The Federal Reserve has been recklessly printing money for years, and even though we are now supposedly in the midst of an “economic recovery”, the Fed is actually doing more quantitative easing than ever.
Anyone that thinks that gold and silver are bad investments for the long-term when the central banks of the world are being so reckless should have their heads examined.
However, I do believe that gold and silver will experience wild fluctuations in price over the next several years. When the next stock market crash happens, gold and silver will go down. It happened back in 2008 and it will happen again.
But in response to the next major financial crisis, I believe that the central banks of the globe will become more reckless than anyone ever dreamed possible. At that point I believe that we will see gold and silver soar to unprecedented heights.
Yes, there will be huge ups and downs for gold and silver. But in the long-term, both gold and silver are going to go far, far higher than they are today.
So what do you think will happen to gold and silver in the years ahead? Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…
View full post on The Economic Collapse
Sell Crazy Someplace Else. We’re All Stocked Up Here.
Andrew J. Coulson
Homo sapiens evolved to deal with a natural world governed by consistent, predictable physical laws—so it stands to reason that when we fill our days studying public policy, we might occasionally become overwhelmed by all the crazy. It seems I was thus overhwelmed yesterday, when I blogged about the savings from Washington, DC’s private school choice program, forgetting about a backroom deal that was required to secure its passage.
While the vouchers only cost $14 million per year over the course of the initial five year trial, school choice advocates had to commit to spending an extra $13 million on DC public schools each year, as a palliative to local public school and political leaders. Some might consider this political payoff an additional “cost” of the voucher program, thereby reducing the program’s net savings. That would be a mistake. This payoff was just yet another cost of operating a state school monopoly whose rent-seeking masters demand to be financially appeased if even a few of “their” students are emancipated. It is at that system’s feet that these costs should be laid.
So, after reflecting on this particular bit of crazy, I’ll stick with the DC voucher savings estimate I offered yesterday.
View full post on Cato @ Liberty
Gold and Silver • Tom Cloud: How to Sell Gold Without Reporting It
Tom Cloud: How to Sell Gold Without Reporting It
by John Rubino on December 20, 2012 ·
In this week’s talk with National Numismatic Associates’ Tom Cloud, he answers two big questions that confront precious metals buyers: Why are sales of some coins and bars reportable to the IRS and others not? And is it possible to buy and sell precious metals confidentially?
Dollar Collapse: Hi Tom. So, what are you hearing from clients this week?
Tom Cloud: A lot of people are asking for British sovereigns, Swiss francs, and Austrian coronas, coins that don’t require filing 1099s when you sell them.
DC: The fact that some coins and bars have to be reported and some don’t seems both arbitrary and important in deciding what to buy. Could you give an overview of US precious metals reporting rules and how your clients tend to approach the issue?
TC: Sure. When they created the Patriot Act [in 2001], the excuse was that the terrorists who blew up the Twin Towers had used pure gold and silver to finance their flight training. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know. But the US imposed reporting requirements on sellers of 24-carat gold coins. If you sell more than 24 ounces in one year you’re required to file a Form 1099 with the IRS.
The 24-coin threshold applies to individuals, not families. If a husband and wife buy gold under their own names, they can each sell up to 24 ounces without having to report it. But if they bought the gold jointly, for instance with a check with both their names on it, they can only sell a total of 24 ounces in any given year. If a client sells 12 in March and 13 in December, all 25 ounces have to be reported to the government. If a client comes to me and sells 12 ounces and goes to another dealer and sells 13 ounces, they have triggered the reporting requirement, and it’s their responsibility to report it. Even if they think they’re getting away with something they may not be. I’m required to keep records, so if the government calls I have to reveal them. There are several cases where coin sellers have had to pay huge penalties for trying to avoid reporting by using more than one dealer.
Most 22-carat gold coins are exempt from Patriot Act reporting requirements, the only exception being the krugerrand.
DC: You mentioned European coins. Why are they exempt?
TC: There are some European coins that aren’t being made any more. Technically, people consider them to be rare, semi-numismatic coins. But some of them are actually cheaper than the major bullion coins. For example, the Austrian corona was only made from 1908 to 1915. It has .9802 oz of gold in it. If you’re out there today buying a gold eagle, you’re going to pay 5% – 6.5% over spot. But I buy Austrian coronas from a central bank as bullion coins, and can sell them at 2.75% over spot.
Another good example is the French 20 franc coin, which was made from 1856 to 1914. It contains 0.1867 ounce of gold, so it takes 5.35 of them to equal an ounce. Fractional coins usually have very large premiums. For example, a quarter-ounce gold eagle is somewhere between 10% and 12% over melt. We’ve got French 20 franc coins at 4.5% over spot and we’re selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of them because they’re completely confidential. So the best buy right now is the European coins because of their combination of low premiums and confidentiality. Every major wholesaler that I deal with puts a price out trying to buy these European coins every day. There’s big demand for them.
DC: Let’s summarize with a list of which coins are and are not reportable.
TC: The following one-ounce gold coins are reportable beyond the 24-ounce threshold: the maple leaf, philharmonic, kangaroo, krugerrand, Mexican onza, and buffalo. All one-ounce gold bars are also reportable above 24 ounces.
The following 22-carat gold coins are not reportable: US gold eagle, Mexican 50 peso, Austrian 100 corona, British sovereign, French 20 franc, Swiss 20 franc.
DC: Got it. What about silver?
TC: Silver is very easy. There are only two things. One is a full bag of junk silver which contains 715 ounces and constitutes $1,000 face value. It is reportable in the calendar year that it’s sold. The other is silver bars and coins in any combination – one-ounce, ten-ounce, 100-ounce or 1000-ounce – once the total hits 1,000 ounces. So you can actually sell more ounces in silver bars than you can of junk silver and not have to report it.
DC: Any risk of these rules being tightened?
TC: They tried with the health care bill provision that any transaction over $600 required a 1099, but when everybody realized that whether you bought a high-def TV at Wal-Mart or a gold bar or a car, both the buyer and seller would have to send a 1099 to the government, they dropped that rule. I don’t see anything similar on the horizon.
For more information or to place an order, call 800-247-2812 or email Tom Cloud at tgcloud@bellsouth.net. Mention DollarCollapse.com for free shipping
http://dollarcollapse.com/precious-meta … orting-it/
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:53 pm
View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com
Why Feds Won’t Sell GM Stock
The U.S. Treasury Department has invested $50 billion in the General Motors bailout and now owns 26.5 percent of GM stock, about 200 million shares and more than one-fourth of the company. GM was happy to get the taxpayer dough but now wants the government to sell its stock. Trouble is, the government won’t comply. What’s the deal here?
According to news reports GM executives complain that the heavy government ownership “hurts the company’s reputation and its ability to attract top talent due to pay restrictions.” So apparently even $50 billion federal bailouts come with strings attached that are not beneficial to the company. That reality apparently got lost on the front end.
The Feds say selling the GM shares would mean “huge investment losses,” according to one report. At current share price of about $24.14, the feds would lose about $15 billion. To break even on the bailout GM stock would need to more than double to $53 a share. GM sales are up only 11 percent over last year, according to the company, so such a jump is unlikely.
The bailout may have hurt GM’s reputation, “Government Motors” and all that. President Barack Obama, however, relies on the bailout to enhance his own reputation as The Man Who Saved America. So no mystery he’s not eager to sell. His view of the role of government also comes into play.
He doesn’t want the government to maintain a level playing field. Rather, he wants the federal government to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. That comes through in the GM bailout and Solyndra, an outfit that failed spectacularly despite more than $500 million in stimulus money. Another Obama connection got stimulus money for biofuel, which the Navy buys at many times the cost of conventional fuels.
The President of the United States likes the idea of Government Motors. That’s why the Treasure Department won’t sell its 200 million GM shares. This development comes as GM shuts down production of the Chevy Volt, an administration favorite, due to slow sales.
View full post on MyGovCost | Government Cost Calculator
Ron Paul: How to Sell Liberty
Dr. Ron Paul has been a three-time candidate for President of the United States; as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and 2012. He served for many years as the U.S. Representative for Texas’s 14th congressional district, and is widely known for his libertarian views and his criticism of the federal government’s foreign, domestic, and monetary policies. He is the author of several books including The Case for Gold (1982), A Foreign Policy of Freedom (2007), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), and Liberty Defined (2011).
In this video Dr. Paul speaks to a crowd in San Francisco in 1990 at an International Society for Individual Liberty conference. Having run for office under the Libertarian Party’s banner two years prior, Dr. Paul shares his experience on how to sell libertarianism to make it palatable to both liberals and conservatives.
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Agriculture • Drought forces farmers to sell livestock; feed is too costl
Drought forces farmers to sell livestock; feed is too costly
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
CHICAGO – Some farmers are selling off their livestock herds because they can’t afford to buy feed, marking a new level of fallout from the drought that will affect consumers and possibly the entire U.S. economy.
The cost of meat at the grocery likely will drop as farmers liquidate cattle and pigs in the next few weeks, but higher pork prices and even shortages could follow in "as soon as six months," says Mike Platt, executive director of the Indiana Pork Producers.
"We’re going to see a very tight market" for beef "around the Christmas holidays and into January," says Joe Moore, executive vice president of the Indiana Beef Cattle Association.
When that happens, small meatpacking plants might be forced to reduce shifts or lay off workers just as consumers tighten their budgets after a summer of high air-conditioning bills, says Chris Lehner, a Kansas City, Mo., commodities broker.
"We could see it affecting the whole economy," he says.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the nation’s cattle herd numbered 97.8 million as of July 1 — the lowest inventory since it began the count in 1973.
The drought, which now affects almost 63% of the contiguous USA, has seared crops and sent corn prices to record highs this week. Soybean prices rose more than 20% in the past few weeks.
A coalition of meat and poultry organizations, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, this week asked the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive a federal mandate requiring petroleum blenders to use corn-based ethanol in gasoline. The groups say the move would free up more corn for feed.
When the price of feed is too high to ensure profits later when animals are sold, farmers cull their herds. Platt says some farmers in Indiana, which is among the hardest-hit drought states, are giving away piglets to avoid having to pay high feed prices during the six months it takes for them to grow large enough to be slaughtered.
Moore says some farmers who sell their cattle now might be forced out of business, because it takes 2-3 years to breed and raise cattle for the market. "I’m sure some people are liquidating and they’ll be done," he says.
Will Spargo, who raises corn and soybeans on a 3,300-acre farm in Naylor, Mo., says he’s keeping his crops alive — but at a high price. He irrigates his corn every three days, up from once a week in a normal year, and has had to shut down pumping from some streams because they ran dry. Seed and fertilizer costs were "up tremendously" this year, he says.
"It’s not going to be a banner year by any means," Spargo says.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/drought … 56716506/1
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:14 am
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Gold and Silver • Re: Time To Sell Silver NOW
Deo Vindice wrote:
It was a very good call. Spot on. (pardon the pun).But is it now perhaps time for smart folks to buy having bounced along this level for awhile?
Yes
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:26 pm
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Business • SELL SIGNAL CONFIRMED
SELL SIGNAL CONFIRMED
22 MAY 2012 BY LANCE ROBERTS
By Lance Roberts, CEO, StreetTalk Advisors
In this past weekend’s missive we stated that: “There is very little doubt that the confirming sell signal will occur by the end of this week, or, early next week at the latest. Enough deterioration has occurred within the market at this point that it is now just a function of time.” As of this morning the recent initial sell signalwas confirmed by a crossover in our longer term indicator as shown in the first chart.
Also, the expected oversold bounce is now officially engaged.This is NOT a buying opportunity — this rally should be used to sell and reduce exposure to portfolio equity risk. Our short term moving average has now turned down, and like last summer, will cross below our long term moving average by July. Last summer the market correction made a full 2-standard deviation correction (black box). In the current market environment a similar 2-standard deviation reversion would take the market to 1175ish today. However, I suspect that the lower band will be closer to 1200 by the time this correction cycle is complete.

The next chart details the correction process in a little more detail. Last summer after the “confirmed sell signal” was issued the market proceeded to reach “oversold conditions” in a brutal 6 week sell off. The current magnitude of the selloff has likewise gotten the markets to an oversold state which is why, like last summer, we expected a fairly strong countertrend bounce. Currently, using Fibonacci retracement analysis, we can find three potential areas that the bounce could obtain: 1337, 1351, and 1364.

It is important not to become hung up on exact numbers. These are general areas to begin reducing equity exposure during the rally. Begin reducing exposure to equities as the market approaches the first level and continue to do so as the market rally ensues.
As stated this past weekend the guidelines to implement in your portfolio, based on your current position, are as follows:
Situation A) I Am Overweight Equities
1. Reduce equity exposure on any rally to align with model.
2. Sell losers/laggards and rebalance winning positions back to original allocation weightings.
3. Hold cash raised from the liquidation until correction is complete.
4. Raise fixed income allocation to 35% of portfolio.
Situation B) I Am Underweight Equities
1. Keep equity exposure at current levels.
2. On a rally sell losers/laggards completely. Rebalance winning trades back to original allocation weightings.
3. Hold cash until correction is complete.
4. Adjust bonds to 35% of portfolio.
Situation B) I’m All Cash
1. When correction is complete, and the next buy signal is generated, align equity exposure with model.
2. Raise bonds to 35% of portfolio.
The currently rally can fizzle out at any moment. We are walking along a very thin tightrope with Europe with any misstep a potential to rout the financial markets. The easiest path currently for the market is down. Until that changes, which will be indicated by our current“sell” signal reversing, our job is to “sell rallies” and be patient.
Patience is the basis of successful long term investing because in order to be truly successful with your investments in the long term you must have a strong investment discipline to mitigate risks, rational expectations of performance and the patience to wait for the right opportunities to present themselves.
Finally, always remember Warren Buffet’s investment rules.
1) Never lose money
2) Refer to rule #1
http://pragcap.com/sell-signal-confirmed
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon May 21, 2012 10:33 pm
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