Gold Resource Corp (GORO)

[GORO2020]

Panic TIME.............Move Your Worthless DOLLARS into GOLD. This DOLLAR Rally will End when the FED is Forced into action when the Dollar Index breaks through 104.............

DXY US Dollar Currency Index

DXY US Dollar Currency Index (.DXY:Exchange)

100.68 +0.50 (+0.49%)

There’s a major sovereign debt crisis looming

There’s a major sovereign debt crisis looming
By Simon Black via Sovereign Man

By the mid 1300s, the Republic of Florence in modern day Italy had experienced one of the greatest economic booms in human history.

In less than a century, Florence had grown from a tiny, irrelevant backwater to become one of Europe’s largest cities and preeminent financial center.

The expansion was truly impressive. Florence’s population had grown 10x. It had become a leading manufacturer in both weapons and textiles.

(Many etymologists believe the word ‘pistol’ is derived from the name of a town near Florence called Pistoia, which was renowned for its quality arms.)

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And the city’s innovations in the banking industry were revolutionizing business across Europe.

Florence’s phenomenal economic success is quite similar to what the United States experienced in its early history.

Naturally, though, they managed to screw it up.

At the turn of the century in the year 1300, the Republic of Florence’s public debt was quite manageable at just 50,000 gold florins. That’s less than $100 per capita in today’s money.

By 1338, after a series of costly wars and expensive public works projects, Florence’s debt had ballooned to 450,000 gold florins. Four years later (after yet another war) it had grown to 600,000 gold florins.

This was crippling to public finances given that the government of Florence was paying between 10% and 15% interest on its debt.

To make matters worse, some of Florence’s most prominent banks had made bad loans to foreign governments– most notably to King Edward III of England, who had suffered terrible defeat against France in what would become known as the Hundred Years War.

Edward would ultimately default on his Italian bank loans, sparking a terrible banking crisis in Florence.

News traveled quickly that the most powerful financial center in Europe was in trouble. The government was near ruin, and the banks were collapsing.

And then came the plague.

In 1348, the Black Death ravaged Florence, wiping out at least 25% of its population. The famed Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio was living in the city at the time, and he wrote about his first-hand experiences in the Decameron:

“[S]uch terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.”

Business and commerce ground to a halt. Tax revenue dried up. Florence’s government was unable to pay its debts. People were wiped out.

As local politician Giovanni Villani described the situation, “Our republic has lost all its power and our citizens have nearly all been impoverished.”

Amazingly enough, Florence’s misfortune didn’t stop there.

In the late 1340s, torrential rains destroyed local agricultural production, resulting in widespread famine.

City managers tried desperately to import food, but because Florence’s credit was so poor, few traders were willing to do business with them.

It was a historic and unprecedented fall from power; Florence had gone from being one of the wealthiest cities in Europe to literally begging for food in less than a decade.

I can’t help but wonder which countries are going to be begging as a result of our modern crisis.

Just like Florence in the 1300s, there are dozens of countries who were already in severe financial hardship going into this pandemic.

Now their tax revenues are dwindling, and they’re forced to spend absurd amounts of money to stimulate their economies.

A few years back our holding company acquired a private business in Australia that, thankfully, is holding up extremely well.

The CEO of that company called me a few days ago to tell me about some of Australia’s stimulus efforts; in addition to waiving payroll taxes, extending tax deadlines, and making direct loans to businesses, the Australian government is now directly subsidizing certain employee wages, up to $3,000 per month.

We’re seeing similar stimulus packages all over the world.

In the United States, of course, the government recently passed a $2 trillion stimulus plan… though I expect they’ll quickly realize that $2 trillion buys them about 4-6 weeks.

So if this pandemic drags on, they’re going to have to spend another $2 trillion, and another $2 trillion after that.

Remember that US government debt increased by $10 trillion in the first few years following the last financial crisis. It certainly seems reasonable to expect a repeat performance.

Some places will be able to afford such prodigious spending.

cont..............


"Panic Stations": What Are The LBMA And COMEX Trying To Hide?

"Panic Stations": What Are The LBMA And COMEX Trying To Hide?
by Ronan Manly

Between 1962 and 1968, a cartel of central banks from the US and Europe ran a price manipulation scheme in London, aiming to keep the price of gold at $35 per ounce. They did this by constant intervention into the market, pooling their gold reserves to sell down the market. Conceived and coordinated at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland by the G10 central bank governors, the dirty work of actual gold market intervention was done by the Pool's agent, the Bank of England gold trading desk in London.

The syndicate, known as the London Gold Pool was successful until it wasn’t, with the beginning of the end in early March 1968 as the huge run on gold became a tidal wave with sterling and US dollar weakness. On 10 March 1968, a Sunday, the consortium released a statement claiming that: “the London Gold Pool reaffirm their determination to support the pool at a fixed price of $35 per ounce”. At the same time, Fed chairman William McChesney Martin even vowed that the US would defend the Pool “to the last ingot”.

The Pool then proceeded to airlift hundreds of tonnes of gold bars from the US Treasury’s Fort Knox to RAF Mildenhall, which they dumped into the London market for the rest of the week (March 11 -14). With all the Good Delivery Gold siphoned off to the Market (actually a consortium of European merchant banks), the Rothschild and the Bank of England pulled the plug, and the London Gold Pool collapsed on the evening of 14 March 1968, ushering in an era of free market gold prices.

Moral of the story, don’t believe the pronouncements of the powers that be in the London and US gold markets, especially during a crisis.

Fast forward to today, and the parallels of the Pool with the modern bullion bank cartel, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and CME’s Commodity Exchange (COMEX) are uncanny. In the space of a week, the LBMA – COMEX nexus, which together control price discovery in the global gold market through their combination of fractionally backed synthetic unallocated gold, and cash settled gold futures, has issued two statements to try to placate the gold market, each one more panic stricken.

Last week, as the contango between COMEX futures and London spot gold blew up to a nearly $100 differential, and London market maker bid-ask spot spreads blew out to $100, the LBMA in a rush to deflect attention, issued a statement claiming that:

“The London gold market continues to be open for business. There has, however, been some impact on liquidity arising from price volatility in Comex 100oz futures contracts. LBMA has offered its support to CME Group to facilitate physical delivery in New York and is working closely with COMEX and other key stakeholders to ensure the efficient running of the global gold market."

As we asked at the time last week:

* Why is the LBMA colluding with the COMEX?

* How can the London gold market be open for business if LBMA market makers are not providing liquidity in spot gold

* Why is the LBMA deflecting attention from the London market and pinning the focus on the COMEX?

* Why does the LBMA want to facilitate physical delivery in New York when its remit is the London Gold Market (loco London)?

* Who are the other key stakeholders that the LBMA and COMEX are colluding with?

Then yesterday, April 1, for a second the LBMA and CME issued an unprecedented second statement, more desperate than the first, with the pair seemingly running scared:

cont.............


Worrying Anomalies With U.S. Gold Reserves At Fort Knox

Worrying Anomalies With U.S. Gold Reserves At Fort Knox
by SilverBullionSG

SBTV's latest guest is Jan Nieuwenhuijs, a precious metals analyst with Voima Gold. Jan used to write under the Koos Jansen pen name and is well known for his research in the China gold market, Chinese gold reserves and the global monetary system.

Discussed in this interview:

01:43 Researching precious metals and monetary system as Koos Jansen
03:46 How much gold reserves does China really have?
07:24 Under-reporting of gold reserves by China
09:25 Why China is hoarding gold?
14:02 The pattern of the West-East ebb and flow of gold
25:08 U.S gold reserves at Fort Knox
31:49 How much above-ground silver is there?
34:08 Is silver still relevant as a monetary metal?