Member Info for goldgnome

I agree 3bear. The predecessor to Horgan was a Geologist, and as a rule of thumb, they are good with rocks, but managing a mine or a company is beyond their skill level. Pardey proved this again and again. His next reign at Predicitve Discovery didnt add a lot of value. Anglo have a history of good managment and an outstanding history of Tier 1 gold discoveries, like Tropicana in Australia, and Silicon Project in USA. Plenty of room for improvement still, and plenty of mngt capacity to improve.

President Trump didn’t rule out attempting to take control of the Panama Canal.

“I don’t want to tell you that,” Trump said when asked by a reporter if he would seek to take back the canal. He added, laughing, “Sort of, that’s sort of on the table.”

President Trump said France’s Emmanuel Macron and Great Britain’s Keir Starmer “get a little rough…when I’m not around,” but added, “When I’m around, they treat me very nicely.”

Asked how far he is willing to go to acquire Greenland, President Trump told reporters at the White House, “You’ll find out.”

President Trump—at the start of a news conference to mark his first year back in the White House—said world leaders and CEOs are “very happily” waiting for his arrival in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

President Trump positioned his Board of Peace as an alternative to the United Nations in remarks at the White House on Tuesday. “I wish the United Nations could do more,” he said. “I wish we didn't need a Board of Peace, but the United Nations, you know, with all the wars I settled, the United Nations never helped me on one war.”

another day in Paradise, thanks DT

105.50 up6.47 (6.53%)

If only Trump would invade Norway ... or anyone else with a lot of oil ... before Russia does of course...win wink

For what its worth ...

The escalation of attacks on the Fed is most concerning. Central bankers are not perfect, but they do a far better job in keeping inflation low when they are independent of politicians and so set interest rates based on weighing the evidence, rather than being controlled by politicians who have a bias to lower rates in order to get re-elected. While Trump may not have known about the DoJ’s subpoena of Powell, he said that Powell is either “incompetent or he’s crooked” and it does look as if the move was aimed at removing Powell as a Fed Governor once his term as Chair ends in May in order to make it easier for Trump appointees to gain control of the seven person Fed Board. This in turn could severely threaten Fed independence in rate setting. Fortunately, Republican Senators are pushing back in support of Fed independence which could backfire for Trump and see Powell remain as Chair beyond his May expiry.

LOL

Its just like the wild west has never ended and to a degree it never has ... International Court of Justice, United Nations, etc

“Don’t fight the Fed” needs to be amended or replaced by a more relevant rule; “Don’t fight the Fed and beware of the US Treasury”.

There is a lot at stake, and will have increase political power in the financial system. Given the behaviours by the political class, this will not be a good thing.

The Fed policy rate is still important, but its balance sheet, regulatory influence and institutional authority are being eclipsed by Scott Bessent’s Treasury department.

The legal challenge against Fed chairman Jerome Powell should be understood in this context. It is not an isolated dispute over governance. It is part of a broader effort to weaken the Fed. By attacking the chairman directly, the administration undermines the legitimacy of independence.

Independence, once politicised, becomes harder to defend operationally.

What makes this strategy effective, at least for now, is the macro backdrop. Growth is cooling at the margin, consumer momentum is fading and inflation surprises have turned benign. This is not a crisis environment, but it is one in which easing can be framed as pragmatic rather than reckless.

This helps explain the most striking feature of recent markets: the absence of resistance. There has been no sustained bond market revolt, no surge in term premia, no collapse in the US dollar. Instead, rate volatility has fallen, equity valuations are supported, and the dollar has lost its scarcity

premium.

Markets are not protesting because they are being given what they want: liquidity, duration suppression and policy coherence.

None of this is without risk. Fiscal dominance has a long history, and it rarely ends cleanly. If inflation reaccelerates or markets begin to question the sustainability of duration suppression, the strategy will be tested because of the inherent growth bias of elected officials.

100.02

0.51 (0.51%)

Joy, bliss etc etc

Imagine the Europeans buying US Bonds LOL....

Imagine the US buying Euro Bonds ...

RECALL .... The Group of Twenty (G20) emerged from the financial turmoil that followed the collapse of the Thai currency in 1997, which rapidly spread financial instability from Thailand to the rest of Asia.

At that time, the finance ministers and central bank governors convened to forge a strategy to stabilise the global economy and prevent future crises. Their aim was to set up a forum to maintain global economic stability.

The G20 today is a voluntary international forum. It includes the advanced capitalist nations of the Group of Seven (G7) – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States – and the G7’s allies in the European Union, as well as the emerging and developing economies of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Türkiye, and the African Union in 2025.

So what happens when the USD collapses, as it is is, by design ...

Donald J. Trump HELP IS ON ITS WAY

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SAY

@realDonaldTrump

Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

There also similarities to the US restructuring of Iran of the 1950's. I wont bore you with the details...but for those brave enough ...

Ervand Abrahamian (2013) Writing after the release of more British and U.S. documents, Abrahamian (a leading historian of Iran) challenges the Cold War narrative that the U.S. acted only to stop Communism. He argues the meddling was almost entirely about oil and colonial control. ()oh no?)

Best for: Those who want a more rigorous, academic analysis that corrects some of the myths in earlier accounts.

Link: The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations

3. The "Smoking Gun" Documents: The National Security Archive

For those who want to see the actual "exposé" as written by the spies themselves, the National Security Archive has spent decades using FOIA requests to force the CIA to release its internal histories.

The "Wilber Report": In 2000, the New York Times published a leaked internal CIA history written by Donald Wilber, one of the coup’s planners. It is the literal blueprint of the meddling.

2017 Release: The State Department released a massive 1,000-page "Retrospective" volume that includes cables showing the U.S. knew the coup was failing at one point and nearly called it off.

Link: The Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup (National Security Archive)

4. Recent Exposés: Beyond 1953

Meddling didn't stop in 1953. Key investigations into later interference include:

The Iran-Contra Affair: Investigated the illegal sale of weapons to Iran by the Reagan administration to fund "Contras" in Nicaragua.

Link: National Security Archive: The Iran-Contra Affair

Pre-Revolution Contact: A 2016 BBC investigation revealed declassified documents showing the Carter administration had secret direct contacts with Ayatollah Khomeini before the 1979 revolution, essentially "paving the way" for his return to prevent a bloody civil war.

Link: Two Weeks in January: How America orchestrated Khomeini's return (BBC)

anyhow you get the idea ... there is a lot of water that has never gone under the bridge ...

and more OIL than anyone thought

the gnome, go gold. ...

For Victor Smorgon Group’s veteran gold-watcher, Cameron Judd, the current bull market is eerily similar to the 1978 to 1980 supercycle when the US Federal Reserve famously lost its battle on inflation.

Gold’s rally is showing no signs of slowing down in the new year.

That episode – which saw US rates spike above 19 per cent – eroded faith in the US dollar at a time when investors were craving safe haven assets from the Iranian Revolution and Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which rocketed gold 127 per cent higher in 1979.

Judd said the current rally, which kicked off in 2024, had tracked a remarkably similar trajectory in its first two years. So if history continues to repeat itself, gold is destined for huge gains this year.

...

“A similar rise in the current gold price from the end of 2025, implies a level higher than $US7000 an ounce

given the gross stupidity exhibitied, in times of heightened transparancy, shows the King has got a whole less clothes than usual LOL

a total debacle without a semblance of control ... lost ideologies fighting embattled egoes

"You can’t taper a Ponzi scheme."

Financial commentator Max Keiser originally said these simple yet profound words.

A Ponzi scheme is an unsustainable scam that relies on a continuous influx of new money to keep it going. The scheme collapses if the flow of new money slows down or tapers.

Many believe the Federal Reserve is running what amounts to a giant Ponzi scheme.

That’s because the US government’s obscene spending and skyrocketing debt have reached an inflection point where the whole system will collapse unless the Fed pumps an ever-increasing amount of new fake money into the system.

Government spending is the leading cause of the problem. However, the government cannot even slow the growth rate of spending, let alone cut it.

Same in Australia. Clueless to a tee. The government keeps decreasing productivity by investing in the most unproductive employment sector (government employees?) to bolster the employment numbers and of course ... keep everyone happy

Its not their money, its OPM again and again. OPM? Other peoples money ... They get their pension and sale into the next ambassadorial job with free airfares.

Ponzi scheme on sterois, but yet we are all relaxed and comfortable?

Global X investment strategist Justin Lin, are confident bullion could crack $US5,000 an ounce this year.

“We see gold as one of the most attractive investments of 2026,” he said. “The key drivers of gold’s strength are still in play. Central banks are set to continue purchasing gold, geopolitical risks remain elevated, and activity in exchange-traded funds is strong.”

Robin Tsui, a gold strategist at State Street Investment Management, said fresh volatility in global markets would keep the price of the precious metal breaking records, with a “bull case” of up to $US5,000 per ounce in 2026.

Gold and silver futures settled at new records in reaction to the DOJ criminal investigation into Jerome Powell — which sparked a retort from the Fed Chair that set the stage for a prolonged battle over the future of the board and interest rates. This and other sources of volatility from the Trump administration sent traders deeper into precious metals. “The size and speed of the rally in gold and silver is an eye opener, leaving many seasoned veterans of the metals markets wondering how far the rally can go,” says Robert Yawger of Mizuho Securities USA in a note. Front-month gold finishes up 2.5% to $4,604.30 a troy ounce, and silver settles up 7.3% to $84.61 a troy ounce.

Comex Gold Settles 2.54% Higher at $4604.30

Front Month Comex Gold for January delivery gained $114.00 per troy ounce, or 2.54% to $4604.30 today

—A new record high

—Up for three consecutive sessions

—Up $155.00 or 3.48% over the last three sessions

—Up five of the past six sessions

—Rose 72.22% from 52 weeks ago

—Up 6.72% from its 2026 settlement low of $4314.40 hit Friday, Jan. 2, 2026

—Month-to-date it is up 6.44%

All prices are calculated based on the settlement price of the current front month contract.

Has the King and his merry men lost the plot? Benjamin will undoubtedly put them right...LOL

Can anyone look at the relatively dull Hollywood blockbusters, anymore?

Gold Is Repricing Trust

On the surface, this looks like a simple crossover where gold’s share of global reserves are nudging past U.S. Treasuries for the first time since the 1990s.

But the real message that counterparty risk is back and central banks are reacting to it.

Reserves aren’t about return. They’re about survival. They exist so a country can stay liquid in a crisis and remain independent in a world that isn’t always cooperative. For decades, U.S. Treasuries fit that role perfectly: deep markets, stable institutions, and a dollar system that was boring in the best possible way.

What’s changed isn’t that Treasuries suddenly became bad. It’s that they became conditional. When payments, clearing, reserves, and access can be used as leverage, risk free stops meaning what it used to. Add chronic deficits and political volatility, and Treasuries start to look less like neutral ballast and more like an exposure you consciously size.

That’s the phase change. It’s slow for a long time… then obvious all at once. Gold doesn’t need to be productive. It just needs to be nobody else’s promise.

Gold’s endgame isn’t a single price target. It’s a role. It becomes the thing you settle in when you don’t fully trust the other side’s

Its a role I feel comfortable with.

I am disinctly uncomfortable with

Politicians of all flavours (?) - whats left

Economists (the very very dismal art ... no science here)

good night all , and good luck !

from the southern gulag

The Academic Benchmark: The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern US-Iran Relations

Author: Ervand Abrahamian (2013)

Status: Rigorous scholarly analysis.

For a more penetrative look at the Iranian side of the equation, Abrahamian is the leading authority. He challenges the "Cold War" narrative used by the U.S. to justify the coup.

• The Insight: Abrahamian argues that the U.S. didn't intervene just to stop "Communism" (as the CIA claimed), but specifically to maintain the global oil cartel.

• Why it's unique: He uses Persian-language sources and archives to show how the coup systematically destroyed the secular, democratic middle class in Iran, leaving a vacuum that religious radicals eventually filled.

The Wilber Report is arguably the most damning declassified document because it outlines the "mechanics of deception." It reveals that the CIA didn't just support an existing opposition; it manufactured a "war of nerves" through a sophisticated system of Black Propaganda.

Below are the specific tactics and excerpts from the report regarding the manipulation of the Iranian press and the "buying" of public opinion.

1. The "Fake News" Pipeline

The CIA maintained a "Press and Propaganda Program" that funneled articles into Tehran's newspapers. These were not merely biased; they were often entirely fabricated by the CIA’s "Art Group" in Washington and then translated into Persian.

The Content: Articles were designed to paint Mossadegh as an "unwitting victim of his unscrupulous, personally ambitious advisers" or as a secret ally of the communist USSR.

The Excerpt: The report states that just prior to the coup, the CIA would "give widest publicity to all fabricated documents proving secret agreement between Mossadeq and Tudeh [the Communist Party]."

The Goal: To create a "nationalist" justification for the coup. By framing Mossadegh as a communist puppet, the CIA made his overthrow look like a patriotic necessity rather than a foreign intervention.

2. The "Black Leaflets"

Beyond newspapers, the CIA utilized "black leaflets"—materials that appeared to come from one group but were actually produced by the CIA to discredit them.

Tactical Excerpt: The report notes the use of black propaganda to "direct Tudeh members not to take any action" or to incite them to "extremist actions" such as looting.

The Logic: By distributing fake communist flyers calling for the destruction of mosques or the overthrow of the Shah, the CIA successfully terrified the religious middle class, pushing them into the arms of the pro-Shah military.

3. Financial Manipulation of the Media

The Wilber Report is very specific about the "purchasing" of influence. The CIA station in Tehran had a massive budget for bribes.

The Figures: The CIA was authorized to spend up to $1,000,000 for the operation. A significant portion went to "subsidizing" the anti-Mossadegh press.

and so on, and so forth ...

GOLD to $7,000

1. Top 7 by Profit & Free Cash Flow (FCF)AngloGold Ashanti (AU) moved into the top three in 2025 due to a massive surge in cash conversion, surpassing Barrick in FCF growth percentage.

RankCompanyTickerPerformance Highlight (2025/2026)

1 Newmont CorpNEMLargest total dollar FCF ($1.6B+ in Q3 2025).

2 Wheaton PreciousWPMHighest profit margin (80%+) via the streaming model.

3 AngloGold AshantiAURecord 141% YoY FCF growth ($920M in Q3 2025 alone).

4 Barrick GoldGOLDSignificant profit but currently pivoting heavily to copper.

5 Franco-NevadaFNVPerfect balance sheet with zero debt and high net income.

6 Agnico EagleAEMHighest cash flow per ounce among North American miners.

7 Perseus MiningPRUTop mid-cap cash generator ($800M+ net cash position).

2. Top 7 by Resources & Reserves (Total Gold Ounces)While AngloGold Ashanti is a production leader, it sits in the middle of the pack for total reserves compared to the "mega-merger" size of Newmont.

Newmont (NEM): ~125 Million oz.

Barrick Gold (GOLD): ~77 Million oz.

Agnico Eagle (AEM): ~54 Million oz.

AngloGold Ashanti (AU): ~50.5 Million oz (Boosted significantly by the Centamin/Sukari acquisition).

Polyus (PLZL): ~45 Million oz.

Gold Fields (GFI): ~43 Million oz.

Zijin Mining: ~40 Million oz (Rapidly growing via Kazakh acquisitions).

3. Top 7 by Growth of Resources & ReservesAngloGold Ashanti is a standout here because of its aggressive "portfolio pruning" and high-impact M&A in 2025.

1. Northern Star (NST): Leader in growth via the $5B De Grey Mining deal.

2. AngloGold Ashanti (AU): The M&A winner of 2025. Their acquisition of Centamin (Sukari mine) added ~4M oz of reserves and turned them into a 3M+ oz annual producer. They also consolidated the Beatty District in Nevada via the Augusta Gold deal.

3. Zijin Mining: Most active buyer in Central Asia and Africa.

4. Agnico Eagle (AEM): Strongest organic growth through Canadian mine expansions (Detour Lake).

5. Gold Fields (GFI): Expanded reserves through the Gold Road acquisition.

6. Alamos Gold (AGI): 12% reserve growth through the Island Gold project.

7. Kinross Gold (KGC): Massive reserve additions at the Great Bear project in Ontario.

Why AngloGold Ashanti is currently the "Market Darling" (2026):

Stock Performance: Its stock has skyrocketed ~280% over the last year, vastly outperforming Newmont (+177%) and Agnico Eagle (+126%).

Debt-to-Cash Flip: In a single year, they swung from $900M in debt to a $450M net cash position.

Dividend Policy: They now return 50% of Free Cash Flow to shareholders, making them one of the highest-yielding senior miners.

Operational Turnaround: Massive production hits at Obuasi (+30% output) and the integration of the Sukari mine have made them a "growth" story in a "value" sector.

Exactly, its another boot in the guts after the riduclous farce which passes for development capital

Look at health. Billions have been spent on health in Africa, yet what is sustainable? What has been achived apart from reports written in European capitals, yet who pay pays back how much money on the interest ? Who pays the 10-30% bribes, faciliation and corruption monies? Who talks about the things that really matter..prevention? Who talks about the sugar laden drinks that are made and distributed by developed countries companies that create the obesity crisis in the most impoverished nations....when will they tell the king ...

We have been here before ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCUR_aoO2Jw&t=25s ... perhaps we have to bring him back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Swa9nHr5p8

David Stockman ..."Last year there were 178 million alcohol drinkers in the US, which, unfortunately, resulted in 178,000 alcohol related deaths in the US. That’s a regrettable 0.1% fatality rate among users.

But alcohol isn’t illegal because America hasn’t forgotten the bitter lessons of the Prohibition disaster 100 years ago.

By contrast, the only illegal drug that comes in from Venezuela is cocaine. There is no evidence whatsoever by the Federal government’s own lights that any fentanyl comes into the US from Venezuela.

So the "killer" drug they are gumming about is cocaine. Yet even then Venezuela grows zero percent of the annual US supply of about 826,000 pounds, and accounts for only 8% of US bound shipments via transit from Colombia and other sources.

Still, cocaine may well be both illegal and a dubious source of recreational stimulants for most people, but it is actually no more deadly than alcohol. To wit, according to DEA and other government agencies, last year there were about 5 million cocaine users in the USA and about 5,000 deaths from pure cocaine overdoses.

In this regard, the higher figure of 20,000 cocaine deaths per year often cited by drug prohibitionists reflects the widespread spiking of street cocaine with deadly fentanyl. The latter is far, far cheaper at 0.3 cents per dose versus versus $150 per dose for cocaine or more than 1,000X more.

In any event, the fatality rate among cocaine users purely from cocaine is just 0.1% or the same as alcohol. Yet due to Nixon’s long-running misbegotten War on Drugs, we spend billions each year trying to eradicate it—a pointless effort that now includes even the mobilization of the US Navy against fishing boats.

But here’s the thing. Using $40 billion carrier battle groups to blow-up cocaine-transiting speed boats is simply the stupidest, most irrational action ever conceived on the banks of the Potomac, and there is surely plenty of competition for that honor.

Last year there were 178 million alcohol drinkers in the US, which, unfortunately, resulted in 178,000 alcohol related deaths in the US. That’s a regrettable 0.1% fatality rate among users.

But alcohol isn’t illegal because America hasn’t forgotten the bitter lessons of the Prohibition disaster 100 years ago.

By contrast, the only illegal drug that comes in from Venezuela is cocaine. There is no evidence whatsoever by the Federal government’s own lights that any fentanyl comes into the US from Venezuela.

So the "killer" drug they are gumming about is cocaine. Yet even then Venezuela grows zero percent of the annual US supply of about 826,000 pounds, and accounts for only 8% of US bound shipments via transit from Colombia and other sources.

Still, cocaine may well be both illegal and a dubious source of recreational stimulants for most people, but it is actually no more deadly than alcohol. ... BUT OIL IS ANOTHER STORY

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaPOV564YWA

There is a lot of form in countries buying parts of other countries, and it does seem a lot more civilised way of doing MandA tha blowing the place to pieces like they are doing in Gaza.

The form? The U.S. is exceptional in the extent to which it has expanded through land purchases, starting with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. That acquisition from France by President Thomas Jefferson added land that now accounts for more than one-fourth of the area of the continental U.S.

1946 Greenland offer $1662 m

U.S. Virgin Islands $633 m

Louisiana $420 m

Gadsden (from Mexico) $386 m

Alaska $158 m

Florida $127 m

1868 Greenland offer $126m

The U.S. also bought parts or all of states including Florida, California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona from Spain and Mexico. Alaska, bought in 1867 from Russia, accounts for roughly one-fifth of all current U.S. territory.

European countries have bought territory from each other for centuries, both in Europe and on other continents when they were colonial powers.

Denmark has been among the more active traders. The Caribbean islands that it later sold to the U.S. were partly purchased from France in 1733. Denmark also sold colonies in India and the Gold Coast (part of modern-day Ghana) to the U.K. in the mid-19th century.

So? Business as usual, everything is for sale at the right price, and Donald is the champion negotiator...LOL

good luck to the people of Greenland ...please drive a hard bargain ... get paid in gold !!!

the gnome