Member Info for goldgnome

Amazingly lax procedures. Quite a few US Institutions seem a tad lax...

Lest we forget .... "After more than 30 years of policy work, government experience, teaching and research, I see no mystery here. Concealment, deception and outright lies have characterized U.S. national security policy for decades – from the overthrow of democratically elected governments in Iran and Guatemala to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and more." https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20191220-from-vietnam-to-afghanistan-all-us-governments-lie.cfm

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/aug/06/joseph-stiglitz-america-wrong-side-of-history

I dont know why nothing surprises me anymore ...

Trust the US, or its paper promises....not. Gold is good to go. Far higher....

Trump Musk interview was a rip snorter ...?

regards

the Gnome

You definitely have it right Mr T. Never take your eyes of FCF of FCFF

If you havent got enough cash, you are in deep trouble, ... quickly ...

The yen carry trade – the practice of borrowing short in cheap yen to buy higher-yielding assets such as US tech stocks. Cheap yen loans have fuelled global finance ever since the Bank of Japan embarked on QE in the late 1990s, albeit to a degree that has fluctuated, depending on US and European rates.

an auction for $US42 billion of 10-year bonds last week produced an unexpectedly weak result.

the BoJ deputy governor pledged to “maintain current levels of monetary easing”, contradicting hints from the BoJ governor last week that more rises loom.

there will be (another) shock when the BoJ or Swiss National Bank wind down the equity portfolios they acquired in recent years – the former owns an estimated 7 per cent of Japanese stocks; the SNB has big exposures to US tech names such as Microsoft and Meta.

The S&P 500 has a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 15.5x excluding the Magnificent Seven, while the Magnificent Seven has a P/E of about 35x, according to data compiled by FactSet as of January 2, 2024.

Collectively, Magnificent Seven stocks are up about 57% in the past year, as of market close on June 27 — more than double the 25% return of the whole S&P 500. Chip maker Nvidia's stock alone has tripled in that time. How much is due to a notion which does not have a defintion (AI), nor is there any proof of the value of the notion? Concerned?

key point is that insofar as free(ish) money was fuelling asset inflation in America and Japan, and this is coming to an end

BOUNTIFUL FREE MONEY IS NOT A “NORMAL” STATE OF AFFAIRS, AND THE SOONER INVESTORS REALISE THIS THE BETTER — WHETHER THEY ARE MUM ‘N’ POP SAVERS, PRIVATE EQUITY LUMINARIES, HEDGE FUNDERS OR THOSE CENTRAL BANKERS.

JUST TO HAND, BUT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE YEARS AGO ..

Google’s Search Saga

CREDIT: GINA M RANDAZZO/ZUMA PRESS

By Miles Kruppa

For almost two decades, people using Apple’s Safari have been steered to Google when searching through the browser’s address bar.

This past week’s ruling against Google in an historic antitrust trial means that might not be the case much longer, as I reported this past week.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday decided Google’s contracts to be the default search engine on smartphones and in browsers illegally cemented its monopoly. The company has long paid companies such as Apple to make Google the default, giving it an unfair advantage over rival search engines like Microsoft’s Bing, Mehta ruled.

The judge will now oversee proceedings to determine what Google should change about its business practices—a decision that will likely have ramifications for the way we all interact with mobile devices from Apple, Samsung and others. As we learned during the trial, consumers rarely change defaults.

It’s possible Mehta will end Google’s ability to pay for the default placements on browsers and devices made by other companies. Instead, Apple and Samsung could offer a

AUKUS is where the much needed nuclear submarines appear ...

anyhow for those who are far more serious about defense can I recomend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neIMa5mODlo

this is where Australia gets some of its defense polices from ... reruns

best, single malt, 15 years

NUCLEAR SUBS FOR OZ COAST ... THE NEVER ENDING STORY (s) OF A FAILING GOVT

The government is prioritising platitudes over substance as critics question the $368 billion nuclear submarine project (LOL)

This situation arises from a persistent failure in communication, an unwillingness to take the public (or anyone for that matter, except Joe Biden, and you know what his memory is like) into their confidence and the inability to explain the basic strategic purpose of why Australia seeks to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. How unreasonable you think...fancy having to have a strategic purpose to bang $368 billion up against the wall, or wind ...

The latest manifestation of this public relations debacle was the announcement last week that US President Joe Biden had informed Congress that a new AUKUS agreement had been struck, one which included undisclosed “political commitments”...oh dear, the plot thickens?

OH DEARY DEAR ...COULD IT GET ANY WORSE ...

Even more extraordinary than Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ plan this week to tackle the cost-of-living squeeze by opening a dozen government-owned petrol stations was that the federal treasurer supported the move.

AND MORE ... Melbourne’s $200 billion-plus suburban rail loop project that has been captured by the law-breaking and bikie-infiltrated-and managed Labor donor, the CFMEU (U IS FOR UNION), and which has not passed any credible cost-benefit test.

The Victorian government has slapped a “mental health and wellbeing” payroll levy on companies that employ people...VICTORIA BEING THE MOST INDEBTED STATE IN AUSTRALIA BY A COUNTRY MILE OR 1 MILLION MILES ... NOW THATS NOT THE REAL MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS, THERE ARE MORE SERIOUS MATTERS ...

Not to be outdone ... Labour Minister Bill Shorten last month declared that the NDIS, projected to cost $100 billion within a decade (!!! THERE WONT BE ENOUGH TAX PAYERS TO TAX TO PAY FOR IT LOL), will no longer put taxpayers on the hook for funding sexual services (GOODNESS, NOW THATS REALLY SERIOUS, WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO??!!). How did it come to that?

NO I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP, SUCH IS THE STATE OF PLAY OF THE BRAINLESS CROWD DOWN UNDER ..

AND YES, THERE IS MORE TO MAKE A NEW STANDUP COMEDY SHOW TO START JUST AFTER (OR DURING ??) THE NEXT ELECTION ...

Go Gold

The Gnome

If the Fed wanted to actually take possession of that gold, the Congress would also have to authorize the Fed to redeem its certificates in gold.

This is all very unlikely barring a very big change in the ideology of the ruling regime. Indeed, barring said ideological change, I suspect that in a true crisis, the Fed’s extremely tenuous claim to owning its pre-1934 gold stockpile would be null and void altogether. If the Treasury finds itself truly strapped for cash, the Congress would only have to declare the Fed’s gold certificates permanently unredeemable. Or, the Treasury could simply buy back the gold certificates at the ridiculously low statutory price. Then there would be no doubt about who owns that gold. The Treasury could then simply sell off all the gold to Wall Street banks in exchange for dollars that would go to luxury hotels for illegal immigrants or more bombs for the State of Israel.

NOT MY VIEWS ...

https://mises.org/power-market/federal-reserve-does-not-own-gold

FUNNY OLD WORLD EH?

SO THERE IS MORE THAN ONE REASON THAT GOLD IS ASCENDENT ....The rising purchases of gold by central banks are an essential factor justifying the recent increase in demand for the precious metal. Central banks, especially in China and India, are trying to reduce their dependence on the dollar or the euro to diversify their reserves.

AND WHY WOULD YOU RELY OR BASE YOUR FUTURE ON THE HAPPENINGS AND SHENANINGANS THAT PASS FROM POLITICS AND POLICY INT HE USA, TONOT TO MENTION THEIR "FOREIGN AFFAIRS" ..ETC

BUT THERE IS ONE FED RESERVE BANK THAT DOES NOT FOLLOW THIS PATTERN...WHY?

The Federal Reserve does not own gold.

The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 required the Federal Reserve System to transfer ownership of all of its gold to the Department of the Treasury. In exchange, the Secretary of the Treasury issued gold certificates to the Federal Reserve for the amount of gold transferred at the then-applicable statutory price for gold held by the Treasury.

Gold certificates are denominated in U.S. dollars. Their value is based on the statutory price for gold at the time the certificates are issued. Gold certificates do not give the Federal Reserve any right to redeem the certificates for gold.

The statutory price of gold is set by law. It does not fluctuate with the market price of gold and has been constant at $42 2/9, or $42.2222, per fine troy ounce since 1973. The book value of the gold held by the Treasury is determined using the statutory price.

Although the Federal Reserve does not own any gold, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York acts as the custodian of gold owned by account holders such as the U.S. government, foreign governments, other central banks, and official international organizations. No individuals or private sector entities are permitted to store gold in the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or at any Federal Reserve Bank.

A small portion of the gold held by the U.S. Treasury (roughly $600 million in book value)--about five percent--is held in custody for the Treasury by the Federal Reserve Banks, as fiscal agents of the United States. The vast majority of this gold is located in the vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and a very small portion is on display in several Federal Reserve Banks. The remaining 95 percent of U.S. Treasury gold ($10.4 billion in book value) is held in custody for the Treasury by the U.S. Mint.

It is possible to imagine that the Fed could start buying gold, but it’s hard to see why the Fed would be motivated to do so.

Moreover, given that the Fed’s gold certificates have essentially no connection to the actual market price of gold, changes in the price of gold have virtually no effect on the value of the Fed’s assets.

The only way gold prices would become relevant to the Fed’s portfolio would be for the Congress to change the statutory price of gold from $49.2222.

Central banks purchase gold to offset their own money destruction

gold ascendant

Why is the price of gold rising if the global economy is not in recession and inflation is allegedly under control? This is a question often heard in investment circles, and I will try to answer it.

We must begin by clarifying the question. It is true that inflation is slowly decreasing, but we cannot say that it is under control. Let us remember that the latest CPI data in the United States was 3% annualized and that in the eurozone it is 2.6%, with eight countries publishing data above 3%, including Spain.

This is why central banks need to give the impression of hawkishness and maintain rates or lower them very cautiously. However, monetary policy is far from being restrictive. Money supply growth is picking up, the ECB maintains its “anti-fragmentation mechanism,” and the Federal Reserve continues to inject money through the liquidity window. We can say, without a doubt, that monetary policy is beyond accommodative.

At the end of this article, the price of gold is above $2,400 an ounce, up 16.5% between January and July 19, 2024. In the same period, gold has performed better than the S&P 500, the Stoxx 600 in Europe, and the MSCI Global. In fact, over the past five years, gold has outperformed not only the European and global stock markets, but also the S&P 500, with only the Nasdaq surpassing the precious metal. This is a period of alleged recovery and strong expansion of the stock markets. On the one hand, the market is discounting the central banks’ continued accommodative and expansionary policies, even possible high debt monetization, given the unsustainable deficits in the United States and developed countries. That is, the market assumes that the Federal Reserve and the ECB will not be able to maintain the reduction of their balance sheets in the face of rising debt and public spending in many economies. As a result, gold protects many investors against the erosion of the currency’s purchasing power, i.e., inflation, without the extreme volatility of Bitcoin. If the market discounts further monetary expansion to cover the accumulated deficits, it is normal for the investor to seek protection with gold, which has centuries of history as an alternative to fiduciary money and offers a low-volatility hedge against currency debasement.

https://mises.org/mises-wire/central-banks-purchase-gold-offset-their-own-money-destruction?

Beazely and his likes are pushing an agenda of war drums whch is one fo the most unproductive in the world...who benefits (we know but it not economies), uncertainty, anxiety, loss of faith in governments...not to mention lack of productivity increase in a context of rising wages, means inflation wins out ... and inflation is winning as wecan see in a lot of countries, and certainly Australia. So Beazely is adding fuel to inflation, which is good for gold and for Centamin. Hint look at the POG historical charts which is a measure of the loss fo value of the fiat currency

Apart from light entertainment and comical utterances, politicians today are appalingly lacking in common sense, no matter what their idelogy or party. There once was a time when politicians said what they mean and meant what they say, and it largely meant sense.

Former PM (Paul Keating) of Australia to former Deputy PM (Kim Beazley)

Kim Beazley is utterly wrong, says Paul Keating

Kim Beazley is utterly wrong in arguing that Western Australia is at risk from China (“Beazley: WA is most open to attack by China”).

China has neither the intention nor the need to attack the West Australian coast for any purpose – especially when it can buy and secure all the minerals it reasonably needs in the marketplace, including – and particularly – iron ore.

Alarmist utterances of this kind, which Kim specialises in, are designed simply to inject drama as cover for the facilitation of US naval emplacements in Western Australia, which Kim enthusiastically supports.

If Kim or any other Austral-Americans truly believe China presents a military risk to Australia, why do they so blithely support Australia continuing to ship 900 million tonnes of iron ore annually to the supposed “enemy”?

If one truly believed China was a militarily aggressive state and was focused on military conquest of Australia or even Western Australia, one would be arguing for the immediate cessation of the iron ore trade.

But Kim is not arguing that. And he is not arguing that because he knows China has no intention in attacking Australia. And as for his analogy that half a dozen nuclear submarines firing traditional torpedoes, the same torpedoes our current Collins class boats fire, would represent some “hungry panther” in our backyard looking out for us – this is simply comic book material.

There are 20,000-odd shipping movements a year around Australia – does Kim really believe six subs with only two on station, firing eight or 10 traditional torpedoes, would be capable of protecting a shipping fleet of that scale? Or more than that, dealing with the 60-odd submarines China already possesses and can field?

The answer for Australia in dealing with China is common sense, trade and diplomacy – not local drama from warship enthusiasts like Kim who, in respect of China, are happily singing from the US songbook.

Paul Keating, Potts Point, NSW

Good on ya Paul...keep it up !!! Its amazing the rhetoric that jumps and sees a foe under every bed, and wanst spend billions on buying bombs and isslies and nuclear submarines, when there are far more sustainable options to follow that have worked in the past few decades ..diplomacy, treating people with dignity, trade, ...etc

PS we have about 34,000 of coast line, which is nuclear sub about every 8,000 coast line kms...??? plus or minus a few kinks ...

best

the gnome

Cowichan

Do you read cartoons late at night in phone booths?

It soothes the nerves

the gnome

Yes, well what does one invest in, when one sells into liquidity...which means USD. Holding USD is a short term jump as everyone kows which way the USD is going by design. So what does a poor man do when holding his or her USD?

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US0jIiWAdAU

amazing stuff ... there are actually some smart people in the USA

The extra benefits of meddling in affairs you dont understand ... for the benefit of who? ...nonsense has no ends when one deals with politicians ...chasing rainbows....or votes or anything else ...

ICC to rule if the Australian Government is complicit in Israel’s genocide

by Farah Abdurahman | Aug 6, 2024 | Comment & Analysis, Latest Posts

Is Anthony Albanese’s government guilty of aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza? If the ICC finds him guilty, Australia’s PM could face criminal proceedings. Farah Abdurahman reports.

The evidence of complicity by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior parliamentarians has been accepted into the ongoing International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the Situation in the State of Palestine.

The ‘Article 15 Communication’ submitted by Birchgrove Legal in March this year named Prime Minister Albanese as an accessory to genocide, making him the first leader of a Western nation to be referred to the ICC under the Rome Statute.

In personalised correspondence received this week, the Office of the Prosecutor – International Criminal Court (OTP-ICC) advised Birchgrove Legal that the 92-page document, which was endorsed by more than one hundred Australian lawyers and barristers, had been “added to the evidence gathered and transmitted to relevant staff members for further review.”

Usual score. Lawyers 100, Victims 5, Commonsense 0

but who listens to the ICC, the UN, the ICJ or the XYZ? just money sinks, sinking slowly

best

the gnome

Thanks Auson

I understand your message and it is a very important one !!!

Watch the LENOVO v MICROSOFT battle ...

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Copilot+ PC is one of the best Windows laptops we’ve reviewed because it has a 14.5-inch OLED screen to die for; because it weighs just 1.3 kilograms and is just 13mm thin, making it an unbeatable machine for anyone who needs a Windows laptop when they’re travelling; and because it has an absolutely fantastic keyboard that we think is better than the brilliant keyboard on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air.

But over and above all those great reasons, we think the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Copilot+ PC is one of the best Windows laptops because of its battery life.

thanks

the gnome

Sorry..."the odds of me finding the truth buried in 4,000 years of history are abysmally small"

As an aside I was involved in a quite a famous affair, and I was shocked at how the historical accounts that were written about that affair, were all wrong and missed out on the most important matters. The affair was only about 15 years ago now, and the correct history book has not been written yet on it. What chance the history books on events 100 years ago, let alone 1000 ...

As I travelled around the world incessantly (I still do) I was continually amazed at how the worlds media (social, mass of various flavours) reporting of places and events I had been to first hand, had so little to do with reflecting what I saw and experienced when I travelled/worked. My daughter (teen) rung me one time in Doha, as I was about board a plane to Paris...she was almost hysterical saying I should not go to Paris, as their are terrorist attacks, the city is burning and the airport is shut. I asked the airline what was going on, they said business as usual, the flight is departing. I asked for a security check, and ... Paris was OK, yes, their was an act of terrorism, and to keep out of a certain part..but go and take care...so on I went, to Bamako in Mali ...and so on and so forth

The world is a lot lot different to what you find in social media, mass big media and history books by eminent persons whose position can be financed by people like George Soros (LOL)

You can lose your life in the mud of media...for what / why?

I wouldnt be too concerned about the gold price, but I would be concerned about the social media stocks which prop up the US markets and many Indices. Stock prices propped up by the perenial hot air that steams out of wall street. Did you hear that Facebook was promising it could reach 25 million more people in the US than actually existed LOL I laughed reading Kevin Frisch's (UBER) experience of turning off $100m of the $150m ad spend on social media sites, and found there was NO CHANGE IN THE NUMBER OF RIDER APP INSTALLS ??!!!..further investigation revealed $120m or 80% of their spend attributable to fraud !!!

I am not too concerned about gold, and the US market can do what it likes as there is obviously so much hot air and blowing BS everywhere and has been for sometime.

The stuff about AI is hilarious, when one considers there is no definition of what exctaly AI is, let alone evidence of the benefits it brings (I worked on AI in 1990/91 LOL) ... another tulip in the making, and of course wall street is all over it ...cant help themselves, got to find somewhere to invest their loot ...gold is the lads...!!!

the gnome

Put in another way, what I am saying is most people do not know what is really going on, and what the real agendas are. I could real off several very plausible agendas, and if I dug deeper several more. Why would I bother, the odds of me fiding the truth in 4,000 + years of history are enormous. Is there ana bsolute truth? Or will it always be relative?

There is a classic line from Dire Straits (walk of life) “two men claim they are Jesus, one of them must be wrong”.

One of the things you do find is if you do go fighting other peoples wars, the probaility of life being shorter than normal escalates.

I often wonder how many of the young Australians who died in the ANZAC ca mpaign ever knew what they died for.

Its not too bad living at a bus stop next to the end of the world, downunder.

Before I go, a passing comment about Mali, and Burkina Faso. The "liberation" of Libya (LOL) liberated a lot of young men with amibitions, who knew how to use guns, and who had guns and vehicles, and who wanted to make a lot of money, who knew the sahara landscape...and who knew some of the best cash trades/businesses drug running, human trafficking across the Sahara (both tragic affairs)...the rest is history, but it had little to do with Russia...wink, wink, I was there when it exploded...

Dont believe everything you read on twitter, X or Y there lots of agendas running through the threads, and a lifetimes worth of red herrings

Good luck with your pontifications.

I think its best that the people who understand these tensions and the causes of these tensions figure things out themselves. I am not a judge, nor jury, nor have any desire to be one or the other.

I do feel very sorry for the innocent majority (democracy?) who just want to live a happy life, have children, watch them grow up, put food on the table every night, have a chance to make it big ...that they cede control of their lives to the activists, and psychopaths, dictators, ..and we know why the media does this...sells advertising ... etc

Just so singularly disapointing that both sides have learnt next to nothing about 4,000 year history, about how to lead constructive and inspiring lives (why?), and are mired in ... but who benefits ... not the innocent majority,,,...

so hope they stand up, and tell the very well meaning psychopaths to GF (LOL)

... the gnome

We had a magnificent you beaut Treasurer (thats what he and some of his sycphants thought), who relished selling two thirds of our gold reserve for A$2.5b in 1997. This amount of gold at $3,650 per ounce would have been worth $19.5 b .. thats a loss of value of $17b in 24 years on our gold reserve ...

The Liberal politician misunderstood the Treasurers job did not require him to sell the countries Treasure - and this Polly of great wisdom still sits on the public pension, and a few other "public benefit positions"

The other man of infinite economic wisdom, Alan G, stated “Gold has special properties that no other currency, with the possible exception of silver, can claim. For more than two millennia, gold has had virtually unquestioned acceptance as payment. It has never required the credit guarantee of a third party. No questions are raised when gold or direct claims to gold are offered in payment of an obligation. Today, the acceptance of fiat money – currency not backed by an asset of intrinsic value – rests on the credit guarantee of sovereign nations endowed with effective taxing power, a guarantee that in crisis conditions has not always matched the universal acceptability of gold. If the dollar or any other fiat currency were universally acceptable at all times, central banks would see no need to hold any gold.”

Is there a government in the world you would trust with your money?

where will it end ...

the gnome

Fascinating stuff, thanks Mr T. I am partial to debt forgiveness. Imagine an entity loans money to a country/national government, knowing full well the money is going to not go to purpose nor the intended beneficiaries/tax payers benefit, but rather will go to Swiss bank accounts of government officials and relatives and devotees, and tenderpreneurs... I think it ends up going something like this: the principal and interest must be paid by the intended beneficiaries/tax payers ... ? The rich robbing the poor to benefit the rich?

Debt as % of GDP....

Lebanon 349.88%

Japan 255.07%

Sudan 187.88%

Eritrea 179.66%

Greece 172.6%

Singapore 167.5%

Cape Verde 147.58%

Italy 141.7%

Venezuela 133.61%

Bhutan 127.33%

Barbados 122.51%

United States 121.31%

Suriname 119.64%

Bahrain 117.58%

Maldives 114.37%

Portugal 112.4%

France 111.8%

Spain 111.6%

Canada 107.38%

Belgium 104.3%

Mozambique 101.2%

If you are a business (Bank of some sort), and given you promote yourself as such and you have the staff and facilities to commit proper DD, and you make a bad loan, dont you deserve to take a hair cut? Why should the innocent beneficiaries who saw no benefit be on the hook? I must have missed something in my education?

Anyhow, those that know best are doing their best, but as I travel throughout Africa extensively...the results are very thin on the ground...in fact in many cases appalling...to no effect

https://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2023/Debt-relief-under-the-heavily-indebted-poor-countries-initiative-HIPC

cheers

The Gnome