Strange Days, Indeed

Is a strange day....

Still digging, but sometimes it's nice to come into the warmth and take a break.

Be back later, I just couldn't resist. 

my lucky day 

silver66

The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself and remember to be fearless with your stackin.

My point precisely, Swineflogger.  WBJ has a continued presence in my refrigerator.  6 half-pint jars per batch.  When the last one is opened, a new batch is sure to follow soon.  We can all thank Xty for opening that door.  Where else can one find such valuable, perhaps, ... dare I say it? .... life changing information.

wax off

This recipe was from the same episode as the jam, and we made it the other day, using cinnamon (because the suggestion surprised me) and way more bacon than he calls for.  It was fabulous.

This beautiful pork tenderloin is wrapped in bacon and sprinkled with herbs. A quick, easy and incredibly delicious dish.

Preparation time:
Cooking time:
Yield: 2

Ingredients
1 pound pork tenderloin
3-4 slices of bacon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar (or your favourite sweet)
1 teaspoon herb or spice, dried thyme, fresh rosemary or ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon any mustard
lots of freshly cracked black pepper

Directions ...

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Main/Herbs/recipe.html?dishid=12886

Thanks Turd. Great insights and much appreciated. The data does seem to be darned confusing. I guess that's what happens when everything is so dramatically disconnected from true market (and price discovery) fundamentals.

This sideways chop is tiring, to say the least. But, we are on the right side of this mess as we prepare and stack ever on. I've said it before and I feel a fool to say it again (my wife reminds me of this weekly) .. But, I just get this feeling in the pit of my stomach that things are drawing to a head. March does look to be an interesting month, indeed.

And - thanks for posting that letter from the lady Turdite. I have to say that I am pretty much 100% on side with the thoughts conveyed in that letter.

i like it just fine unfocused.................i do not want to be focused.

and anyone who pushes a 'liberal' aganda here can do it all they want to.............i will take exception to their 'ideas' not their 'parentage'.

and i will NEVER ask turd to 'clean the place up' so i can read freely without reading something political i dissagree with.

when i get tired of 'taking exception'.......i'll stop.

but this is his house he can run it as he sees fit.............and then i can make my choices.

I saw your post and proceeded directly to the freezer to take out a pork tenderloin that was just hanging out in there.  I now know what's for dinner.  Just happen to have some butternut squash in the garage, left from the garden.  It should go nicely with the tenderloin.  I love this place! Off topic? NOT!

wax off

Isn't accepted at the Citadel...

Thanks for all the hard work Turd. Clearly a lot of time to put the data together. It is very interesting and one can only wonder who the LS are? In spite of the continual beat downs in the price of silver off the last run at $35 it  seems that the cartel just hasn't  been able to milk those LS longs like they have traditionally done in the past. Combine that with the dramatic drop in LS short positions and again one has to wonder, as many are beginning to, whether these current LS are not very strong handed, very deep pocketed entities not swayed to puke up their positions on the orchestrated waterfall takedowns and are more than willing to take on JPM. How many times recently have we seen OI rise on the waterfall take downs and a CoT report showing JPM's inability to cover on them? One would like to think the JPM wouldn't be dumb enough to keep doubling down, but then, they've shown very recently that they are (London Whale). How many reports are coming out of KWN recently about a massive short squeeze in silver. Are they all wrong or do they really know more then the average Joe? And it is beyond reason how in the world the CFTC can continue to look the other way when the evidence between the CoT and BPR shows the JPM is short at least 35% of the entire Comex silver short position which clearly violates current commodity laws. If that was a long position (Hunt Brother's) is there any doubt in anyone's mind as to just how long it would take the same regulator to step in and put a stop to it. Interesting to that one of the biggest gold/silver bull websites that daily puts forth pertinent information telling of the foreboding and imminent  collapse of the current system and where gold and silver are headed get viciously hacked and shut down. Strange days indeed. I'll take these prices as long as I can to continue to stack.

I'm another "average person" who follows this site, and want to give a strong second to that email. I'm also perfectly capable of hitting the "ignore" button myself. But I'd like to be able to refer others to the site, and all it takes is a couple of those "political wing nut" comments to blow both the site's credibility and my own. Thanks Turd, both for the work you do and for the concern about keeping things focused.

Across Europe, economic growth is faltering and in many Eurozone countries, sovereign debt yields are dangerously high.

The World Gold Council has been exploring ways that Eurozone Member States could use their gold reserves to help bring down the cost of borrowing.

We believe that using a portion of a nation's gold reserves to back sovereign debt would lower sovereign debt yields and give some of the Eurozone's most distressed countries time to work on economic reform and recovery.

The following video explores why such a measure could offer an alternative to austerity for the Eurozone.

Gold as collateral

Gold is increasingly being used in the financial system as a source of high-quality collateral. Its lack of credit risk and countercyclical behaviour make it ideal for this purpose. The European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) now permits Central Counterparty Clearing Houses (CCP) throughout Europe to accept gold as collateral. Gold’s use as collateral at commercial banks is also growing. Gold could also serve this function in the public sector, enhancing the credit quality of government bonds and lowering bond yields

Gold-backed sovereign debt

As Eurozone policymakers continue to seek out a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Euro crisis, the key questions remain: how to stem the unsustainable borrowing costs now facing the most challenged Eurozone countries, stimulate the growth required to pay down debt and emerge as self-sustaining robust economies. Numerous potential solutions to this dilemma have been proposed, some of which have focused on how to get the most out of the substantial gold reserves currently held by European Central Banks.

The Eurozone’s gold reserves stand at over 10,000 tonnes, and it is well known that some of the countries worst affected by the crisis, including Portugal and Italy, are responsible for a significant proportion of these assets. These reserves have served those countries well over the years, not least over the last decade, thanks in part to gold’s unique wealth preservation characteristics. Nevertheless, the question is rightly being asked as to the role that these gold reserves can, and should, play to help alleviate the problems now facing the Eurozone and the individual member states within it.

Most agree that outright sales of gold are not the answer. Aside from the obvious problem that the outstanding debt level of the struggling European countries far surpasses the value of their gold reserves, existing EU laws prohibit such a move to finance governments, as do the provisions of the Central Bank Gold Agreement, which limits gold sales in order to protect the collective value of Western Europe’s reserves. To illustrate this point, the gold holdings of the crisis-hit Eurozone countries (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Ireland and Italy) represent only 3.3% of the combined outstanding debt of their central governments. A one-time sale of all of their gold reserves would probably not cover even one year’s worth of their debt service costs. This would be akin to an individual selling everything they owned in order to make one month’s mortgage payment.

If we exclude gold sales therefore, what contribution can gold make to a comprehensive and robust solution? We believe that gold could be leveraged in the short term to allow Europe the much needed time to arrive at longer term corrective measures. In particular, this could be done by partly collateralising new government debt, which we estimate could be issued at substantially lower yields than existing debt.

The European Central Bank (ECB) intends, with its proposed third round of secondary bond market purchases called Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT), to reduce bond yields in the most distressed Eurozone countries. It is trying to fix the “monetary policy transmission mechanism”. In other words, it is trying to bring sovereign debt yields closer to the official Refinancing Rate set by the ECB which currently stands at just 75 basis points.

The OMT and the ECB’s other bond buying programmes have undoubtedly been controversial. While the purchase of government debt in the secondary bond market is not expressly prohibited, for many it has been tantamount to government financing. It has other perceived shortcomings too. Some have argued that by buying back debt, the ECB reduces the incentives for distressed countries to pursue structural reforms. There is also a perceived threat of inflation if the ECB’s purchases are not fully sterilized.

Our analysis shows that using gold reserves to collateralise government debt could achieve the same reduction in yields without the SMP’s associated shortcomings. Firstly, it would not represent a fiscal transfer from one country to another, as a country would use its own gold, to lower its own interest rates, to jump start its own economy. Nor would this disincentivise countries from pursuing much-needed structural reforms. Quite the opposite, the threat of losing one’s gold would surely act as a catalyst. And it would most certainly not be inflationary. Gold is as hard and real an asset as you can get. Finally, it would not affect the ECB’s balance sheet, as the gold that still remains with national central banks would, we estimate, be more than sufficient to collateralise the bonds.

In the Eurozone, gold is held and managed by the European System of Central Banks and decisions on its use are made by the Governing Council regardless of whether or not it has been transferred to the ECB. The Governing Council could, we believe, direct a national central bank to use its gold reserves in such a manner under its secondary objective of supporting the general economic policies of the European Union. Or indeed, justify it in the same manner as it did the SMP.

Europe faces an exceptionally challenging period and unconventional policy responses are called for. A gold-backed bond would seem to offer at least a partial solution to Europe’s woes.

http://www.gold.org/

Vid at link...

http://www.gold.org/government_affairs/research/

Gold, the renminbi and the multi-currency reserve system

Demand for gold is likely to rise as the world heads towards a multi-currency reserve system under the impact of uncertainty about the stability of the dollar and the euro, the main official assets held by central banks and sovereign funds.

This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging analysis of the world monetary system by OMFIF, the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum formed around a core of public sector asset and reserve holders at the heart of world finance.

Driven by China’s desire to increase its financial influence, the Chinese renminbi is likely to emerge gradually as a genuine international currency as Beijing eases restrictions on its use in transactions and investments abroad, but is unlikely to pose any immediate threat to the dollar.

Any setbacks to the renminbi’s rise as a reserve currency will probably benefit gold as a result of doubts about the overall strength of world monetary arrangements.

The OMFIF report, the product of analysis of historical and contemporary data and discussions with global policy-makers and financial experts, explores the consequences for official asset management of greater dispersion of economic power around the world. It states: ‘The world is headed towards the uncharted waters of a durable multi-currency reserve system, where the dollar will share its pivotal role with a range of other currencies, including the renminbi.’

The OMFIF report includes a foreward by Prof. Lord (Meghnad) Desai, chairman of the OMFIF Advisory Board. In reflecting on the different economic scenarios for the five years 2013-18 which the report studies, he states: ‘Whether the world moves into full crisis with the end of the euro, or whether we have a recovery, or whether we experience something in between: all paths lead to towards a multi-currency system, in which gold’s role is likely to become more significant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dated but relevant and still significant...

China should increase gold reserves to internationalize RMB

Bankers hold gold ingots in Hong Kong. (Photo/Xinhua)

It is imperative for China's central bank to increase its gold reserves and reduce the proportion of the US dollar in its foreign reserves if the renminbi is to become the world's dominant currency.

Gold accounts for only 1.5% of the People's Bank of China's foreign reserves of US$3.6 trillion, a proportion lower than that of most western countries.

This phenomenon is also seen in Japan, with gold accounting for less than 2.7% of Japan's foreign reserves, estimated at US$1.5 trillion. However, Japan faces greater challenges in its attempts to cut its dependence on the dollar, as it has to deal with pressure from Washington and the prospect of a rising yen.

The low proportion of gold in the foreign reserves of China, Japan, Taiwan and Asian countries in general results from a lack of appreciation of the gold standard as a monetary system.

European countries including Germany, France and Britain, which have a thorough knowledge of the gold standard, insist on maintaining a specific level of gold in their foreign reserves.

China should now rapidly increase its gold reserves, without pushing up prices of the precious metal excessively. It could pursue this goal by mining gold in the country on a larger scale, buying gold from overseas and launching US dollar-denominated gold passbooks.

With regard to the last measure, China could adopt the Taiwanese model of allowing the use of the US gold passbook as a non-resident account to hedge against inflation or currency fluctuation, which is sure to help the central bank increase its gold reserves while reducing its US dollar holdings.