A Very Important JB-SFC

is really good!  Listened earlier, thanks Turd!

TF, Just a quick pat on the back for all you do.

Without your generous spirit, all our little threads would never have been.

Some souls have been saved because of your generosity, literally.

These acts of your kindness, are logged in the account book of Heaven.

Stored treasures in Heaven, away from moths, or thieves, waiting just for You, someday way off in the future.

God Bless your generous heart.

God Bless your wonderful Family as well.

foggy

Gold Proof Coin (as of August 6, 2014) 56,694

"

Yesterday, the Mint began sales of the eagerly awaited 2014 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half Dollar Gold Proof Coins. The coins are struck in 3/4 of an ounce of 24 karat gold featuring the original portrait design and a dual date of “1964-2014″.

The coins were offered at an initial price of $1,240 each. An ordering limit of five sets per household was imposed for phone and call center orders. A limit of only one coin per person was imposed for the limited number of pieces made available at retail locations.

Across all channels, the United States Mint has reported total sales of 56,694 coins for the opening day. This figure already exceeds the initial production amount of 40,000 coins. It is also more than double the first day sales figures achieved for last year’s 2013 Reverse Proof Gold Buffalo coins, which had opened at 21,009 coins, eventually reaching sales of 47,836 after a four week ordering window.

The Mint has previously indicated that they will be evaluating the first week sales figures for the gold half dollar and will adjust production plans accordingly. Ultimately, the coins do not carry a specified maximum mintage and will be produced based on demand."

http://news.coinupdate.com/us-mint-sales-report-opening-sales-for-gold-kennedy-half-dollars-4415/

Russia/Ukraine dollar hit:  From Cliff High at halfpasthuman.com  : 

A flash crash of the US dollar. Been waiting for this. Part of the pre-hyperinflation events in the [dollar tipping point]. One of three major temporal markers for [panic] (to own gold/silver), and [panic] (to get out of dollar). (8/6/2014)   Takes you to zerohedge: 

Dollar Flash Crashes

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-06/dollar-flash-crashes

Whoa!  Some type of hit as putin in conjunction with china feel out the vunerability.  Next hit could be financially nuclear to the USDinker dollar.  Think this got the fed fuds attention?

"67,000 COMEX contracts are the equivalent of 335 million oz of silver and I don’t think a single ounce of the concentrated short position is remotely linked to legitimate mining or inventory hedging. With eight crooked COMEX traders (mostly banks) net short 40% of the world’s mine production---and almost 200% of the total COMEX silver warehouse inventories, no one should wonder why silver is priced so cheap. Quite simply, silver is the most manipulated market in the world because it has the world’s most concentrated short position, thanks to the crooks at JPMorgan and the CME.

Accordingly, no one should wonder how and why I can get away with calling JPMorgan and the CME (and the CFTC) market criminals with no rebuke. I’d like to see anyone explain---with a straight face---how the world’s most concentrated and uneconomic short position is legitimate. It’s hard to calculate how high the price of silver would be if the illegitimate concentrated short position in COMEX silver didn’t exist." - Silver analyst Ted Butler: 02 August 2014

Jim Rickards @JamesGRickards

Leave it to Grandmaster #Putin to demolish two sets of US sanctions at once. He'll import Iran oil; reexport to China bit.ly/1ujzG1D

05 Aug
 

Vladimir Putin signs historic $20bn oil deal with Iran to bypass Western sanctions

Five-year accord will see Russia help Iran organise oil sales, but government denies it has violated international obligations

"Obviously the $50+ billion which Buffett is currently hoarding on behalf of himself, Berkshire Hathaway, and its (wealthy) shareholders can’t “work for them” when it’s sitting on the sidelines. Thus the only exception to the standard practice of all long-term investors to be fully invested in the market (or nearly so) is when they are expecting a large and imminent “correction”.

When vampires like Buffett (knowing in advance what will happen) sit on an especially large pile of cash, it’s because they are expecting a particularly large correction (i.e. a crash). When such a Vampire is sitting on the largest mountain of un-deployed cash in the 40+ year history of Berkshire Hathaway, it can only be because he is expecting the Mother of All Crashes."

http://www.bullionbullscanada.com/us-commentary/26548-buffett-sits-on-50-billion-cash-hoard-waiting-for-bubbles-to-pop

is trying to take one for the team.

I always respected his outspoken views on silver manipulation, but distrusted his subscription pushes.

After reading his "Dare ya!!" to the spooky banksters, my estimation of Uncle Ted has pegged the needle at max.

Harvey's Up! https://www.tfmetalsreport.com/comment/422666#comment-422666

• Mark O'Byrne: Gold is marginally higher in London this morning but remains in a tight range between 1,287/oz and 1,292/oz. Trade remains lackluster and futures trading volume was 50% below the average for the past 100 days this morning, Bloomberg data shows. Overnight gold in Singapore was marginally higher consolidating on the spike in gold seen in late trading in New York. Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.5% to $19.85 an ounce. Spot platinum was flat at $1,454.63 an ounce, while palladium added 0.2% to $851 an ounce. Gold remains in its summer doldrums despite the western world sleepwalking into another major conflict with Russia and potentially another World War.
• Harvey: Today the price of gold shot up at the Comex opening and at its high point it hit $1311.00 which is exactly 2%.The bankers may be playing their up 2% on day one, up 1% on day 2, even on day 3 and then whack badly on day 4. There is no question that they are deeply concerned with silver. The open interest on the silver contracts remain highly elevated at 157,000 contracts with silver below 20 dollars. As a comparison gold inventory is at extreme lows but gold is also low in price.  Another stunning statistic is that the SLV inventory has not budged for 10 days despite silver's high volatility. As I have mentioned to you on many occasions, I strongly believe that the inventory at the SLV is just not there. It is made up of nothing but hypothecated silver belonging to someone else. We are also witnessing continual inventory deposits/withdrawals with exact numbers which is impossible in the physical inventory like the Comex. CFTC officials had no comment to me when I brought this to their attention. Today we had a withdrawal in silver of 500,145.000 oz from CNT, and it was a farcical round number.
• Harvey on world affairs: Today Russia initiated sanctions against the west with regards fast food outlets and the banning of food exports into Russia from sanctioned nations. Yesterday they have banned plane access over Siberia for European airlines making the trip to the orient very expensive as they have to adjust their routes. In Japan, we see Abenomics not working as more and more families are now on welfare. Also in Japan, TEPCO announced that more fuel rods are melted. This presents a huge problem with all of that toxic water housed inside the Fukushima complex. In Europe, Italy has recorded its 2nd straight negative GDP growth and thus this nation is in recession by definition.
• GoldCore on the Petrodollar: Russia signed a historic $20 billion oil deal with Iran to bypass both western sanctions and the dollar based western monetary system yesterday. Currency wars are set to escalate as the petro dollar’s decline continues. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh signed a five-year memorandum of understanding in Moscow, which included cooperation in the oil sector. "Based on Iran's proposal, we will participate in arranging shipments of crude oil, including to the Russian market," Novak was quoted as saying. The five year accord will see Russia help Iran “organise oil sales” as well as “cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construction of power plants, grids, supply of machinery, consumer goods and agriculture products”, according to a statement by the Energy Ministry in Moscow. The deal could see Russia buying 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, the Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper has previously reported. Under the proposed deal Russia would buy up to 500,000 barrels a day or a third of Iranian oil exports in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.
• Steve D'Angelo: Myself and a few colleagues have been of the view that the big banks are having an even bigger problem sourcing silver to deliver into India and China, and that’s why they are so aggressively trying to pound silver using fraudulent paper on the Comex. You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think SLV silver has been massively rehypothecated for this purpose. "Let’s first look at what took place at the Shanghai Futures Exchange during the month of July. On July 1st, there were 234 metric tons of silver held in warehouse stocks. However, in the beginning of the month and especially during the last two weeks, there were large withdrawals."
• Tyler Durden: The Indian people are known for their generosity (and love of gold) which makes the following news even more intriguing. For the first time in two years, The Economic Times reports, a record-breaking 1,800 kg of gold offerings - made by devotees of deity Lord Venkateswara at the famous hill shrine at Tirumala - was deposited this week with the State Bank of India. This donation takes the total deposits made by the well-known temple (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD)) to more than 5,000 kg. What is even more fascinating, under the SBI Gold Scheme, IB Times reports, TTD will earn one percent of gold as interest.
• Jeff Nielson: The Golden Rule here when dealing with compulsive liars (i.e. the minions of the One Bank) is that whenever they say something we don’t believe it’s true. Rather, we assume (as is almost always true) that they are lying. Indeed, generally “the truth” is the exact opposite of what the Liars claim to be doing/saying. So, when the Big Bank tentacles of the One Bank claim to be “leaving commodity markets”, leaving behind a multi-trillion dollar crime-racket, and surrendering control of all of the world’s commodities markets; most likely what they are really planning on doing is expanding “the business”. Thus if anything (substantial) is actually taking place amidst all this smoke-and-mirrors it would be a restructuring of the One Bank’s commodities racket – and guess which Vampire is already drooling in anticipation. Should any of the names change, as the One Bank engages in this paper-shuffle between corporate-fronts all owned and operated by itself; don’t be fooled. This would just be more “sham transactions” by the banksters – like their (alleged) 100+ phony/illegal “trades”, every second of every day that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is in operation.
• Agence France-Presse: India's central bank governor, renowned for forecasting the 2008 financial meltdown, has warned that the world economy faces risk of another market crash as asset prices surge. Increasing global financial instability stems from investors chasing ever higher yields, Raghuram Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist, told the Central Banking Journal. Another financial-sector crisis "may not happen if we can find a way to unwind everything steadily," Rajan, who is famed for predicting the 2008 market crash years in advance, said in the interview, posted late Wednesday on the journal's website. "But it is a big hope and prayer," said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, adding there is a risk of sudden price reversals and sharp spikes in financial volatility. Rajan, author of the acclaimed 2011 book Fault Lines on how hidden financial fractures threaten the world economy, added he feared central banks globally "may be exhausting room" in their monetary-easing arsenal to cope with any economic crisis. Rajan compared today's state of affairs as similar to the 1930s which was the era of the Great Depression.
• Bill Holter: Two other well known quotes from Sun Tsu are "There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare" and "Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.” These quotes speak to China's knowledge that any war must be swift and that they are costly in not only economic terms but in terms of life. Please do not forget, war is not just a physical or military undertaking, it is also an "economic" undertaking. I believe that the Chinese would like to strike swiftly from an economic standpoint when they finally pull the plug. They will demand delivery of all sorts of Comex products, particularly gold and silver. They will default on many derivatives and leave the Western banking system holding the bag. Oil and resource contracts will be triggered where the flow moves East as opposed to West (think Saudi Arabia and others here). The wholesale dumping of U.S. Treasuries and dollars will also be a distinct possibility. And as you know, the prices of gold and silver will be marked up and away from the grasp of "buyers" who finally "get it" but just a little bit too late. Of course, the flow of manufactured goods and even necessities that we no longer produce in the U.S. will cease. In short, we will economically be put into a vice grip overnight.
• Tyler Durden: With everyone focused on China as the source of next systemic risk, most forgot or simply chose to ignore Europe, which through Draghi's verbal magic was said to be "fixed." Or at least everyone hoped that the rigged European bond market would preserve the "recovery" illusion a little longer giving the world some more time to reform pretend it is doing something to fix it. Turns out that was a mistake, confirmed earlier not only by the plunge in German Factory Orders which cratered -4.3%, down from 7.7% and below the 1.1% revised, and UK Industrial production which missed expectations of a 0.6% boost, rising only 0.3%, but most importantly Italy's Q2 GDP shocker, which as we reported earlier, dropped for the second consecutive quarter sending the country officially into recession. As a result, European stock markets, Stoxx600, has joined the DJIA in the red for the year while Germany's 2 Year Bund just went negative on aggressive risk aversion, the first time since 2012.
• Zero Hedge: Just in case the legacy of Abenomics wasn't clear enough (it should have been after we reported that its legacy is "Japan's Greatest "Misery" In 33 Years"), here is another confirmation that in the New Normal, only bad things happen when you forget to BTFD. From Japan Times: The number of households on welfare in Japan hit a record high of 1,603,093 in May, up 2,852 from the previous month, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said on Wednesday. The rise came as a growing number of single-person elderly households, or people aged 65 or older who are living alone, became recipients, ministry officials said.
• Tyler Durden: After years of obfuscation and, simply put, lies; TEPCO has admitted in a new report that more nuclear fuel had melted at the Fukushima nuclear reactor than previously stated. While this is dreadful news, it gets worse, as the report further confirms that despite Abe's promises and TEPCO's state-funded efforts to build ice-walls, it may miss an important deadline binding it to clean radioactive water stored inside the Fukushima nuclear plant. Bloomberg reports officials commenting "we are doing everything we can do," but it appears, that is not enough as tens of thousands of tons of toxic water are expected to remain at the site by the imposed deadline. As of July 29, the site had more than 370,000 tons of water contaminated with radiation, with its levels rising at a rate of 400 tons a day. We anxiously await Shinzo Abe's statement of calm and that everything's ok...because he has been so honest so far. But we leave it to TEPCO to conclude: "We have been saying that we cannot say when the (restart) will be," a TEPCO spokesman said.
• Zero Hedge: While Jack Lew promised the economic impact on the US economy of Russian sanctions would be minimal, the facts suggest the opposite. Admittedly, Russia is not the US' largest trade partner but escalating sanctions have resulted in a 34% collapse in US exports to Russia - the largest absolute drop since 2010. Imports (from Russia) also fell (for the 3rd month in a row) but while the US is suffering 'costs' it is clear Russia is hurting more (for now - as Putin is set to unleash his countermeasures).
• Tyler Durden: On the heels of yesterday's comments from Poland's Sikorski, NATO has confirmed there's a risk of Russia sending troops into Ukraine under the 'pretext' of a humanitarian or peacekeeping mission. "We're not going to guess what’s on Russia’s mind, but we can see what Russia is doing on the ground - and that is of great concern," a NATO spokesperson warned, adding, "this is a dangerous situation." Then US SecDef Hagel added, "the threat of Russian incursion in Ukraine is a reality." Russia's response to this warmongering (as Ukraine appears desperate to instigate something before the money runs out) is to blast the disinformation, "reports of troop buildups near the Ukraine border are groundless."
• Tyler Durden: So the government of Switzerland recently signed a bilateral currency swap agreement with China, enabling the two countries to buy and sell up to 150 billion RMB or 21 billion Swiss Francs of each other’s currencies. Switzerland is just the latest to join the queue, as nearly 25 other central banks already signed similar agreements with China.

All this and more on...

The Harvey Report!

https://www.tfmetalsreport.com/comment/422666#comment-422666

...and anyone who's ever picked up a history or economics book knows it today.  We here at The Watchtower have seen the economic end-game coming for years now.  I myself have been somewhat surprised at the length of time they've been able to extend and pretend - at one point in 2009 I was 'certain' that we had 6 months at the outside.  

Color me impressed.  The emperor has been strutting around for 5 years now in nothing but his birthday suit.

Yes, war is the answer and war is coming.  The only thing that matters is where and when they'll start it.  

Who better than the Nobel Peace Prize winner to reluctantly but inevitably loose the dogs of war upon the new pariah and his filthy, inhuman and soulless armies?

If you're new to this line of thinking here's a test for you.  Tune in to your choice of mainstream media, it really doesn't matter which because war is good for business, it's good for ratings and it - of all things - is bi-partisan.  So get a piece of paper and a pen, get comfortable, tune in to a prime-time 'journalist' of your particular political stripe and then write down the adjectives being used to describe Ukraine, the Russian Separatists, Putin and NATO.  I suspect you'll see a list of words carefully crafted to convince, cajole and coerce the idea that that war is both justified and inevitable.

Prepare and may God have mercy upon us all.

-Jack