Member Info for mrtibbles

From 2019, not sure how much is still relevant

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities---threats/quantum-computing-and-code-breaking/a/d-id/1334251

"If the Chinese unlock Quantum computing and can crack any security codes, rather than antagonise the world by hacking military codes!"
Very good point Sastech, in fact you reminded me of a recent conversation I had with an acquaintance in the gold business recently, it seems there are a number of experts of the opinion that the Chinese are capable of cracking those codes any time soon should they choose!
Wonder if "Trumpo" has considered this when he is poking the Chinese with his pointy stick?

The fallacies and failings of past and present Conservative governments
Quite so Sasteck, In the eighties when the old Crone and her bunch of Tory bankster’s were selling the what already belonged to the gullible and sometimes selfish people at a knock down price (Council social housing, Water,Gas,Electric & other publicly owned utilities, Crown post offices, public transport and North Sea Gas whilst also cutting funding to education, the NHS & all other public services, whilst the spivs in the city brandished loads of money and changed their Porches on a weekly basis, it was tough for most ordinary people and certainly anyone starting out.
My wife and I both had reasonable salaries, but in those days of what are now brandished as being cheap housing mortgage rates were 13%-15% if you could get one, and the building society would not take my wife’s salary into account, they would only take the highest salary of a couple and because I worked in Municipal Transport and my wife was a postal; officer in a Crown office both targets for Tory privatisation we were regarded as high risks by most building societies.
We had to go on a mortgage waiting list despite being regular savers with our with our society, provide a 10% deposit and in addition I was required to take out an endowment policy by the society, also in this days house & contents insurance had to be through the society by direct debit
We found a house that we could afford and the building society said a mortgage would be available in three months so were forced to take a bridging loan to cover that period at 21.5%.
Needless to say money was tight and all our furniture was either unwanted stuff from family and friends, or from the auction, including a BW TV that worked sometimes, my car was a former council MK2 escort van and holidays were a week at my Aunties in Bournemouth if we were lucky.
Quite a difference I notice when young couples start out today, everything is new, even a car or two in many cases and mostly on credit, although we always knew that if interest rates dropped from double digits it would really be of no benefit because the house prices would just rise, swings and roundabouts!

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2004/apr/18/womenandmoney.observercashsection

https://www.familymoney.co.uk/uk-mortgages/uk-mortgage-guide/history-mortgages-uk/

I remember when we had this clown as chancellor and my mortgage rate increased four times in single morning!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/black-wednesday-john-major-norman-lamont-1992-bank-cost-a8460626.html

Our government is just kicking the can down the road by trying to shore up the broken, corrupt, and totally unfit for 21st century system, when instead radical change is needed with multinational cooperation to initiate new fiscal and trading practices that can deliver a better sustainable life to everyone and everything on our planet.

Seven-year note 99-82/256 0.4746 0.003
10-year note 99-132/256 0.6752 0.006
20-year bond 99-72/256 1.1658 0.015
30-year bond 99-4/256 1.4154 0.016

DOLLAR SWAP SPREADS
Last (bps) Net
Change
(bps)
U.S. 2-year dollar swap 6.75 -0.75
spread
U.S. 3-year dollar swap 5.50 -0.50
spread
U.S. 5-year dollar swap 3.75 -0.75
spread
U.S. 10-year dollar swap -2.25 -0.50
spread
U.S. 30-year dollar swap -41.25 0.00
spread



(Reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago and Karen Brettell in New
York; Editing by Will Dunham and Kirsten Donovan)

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

(Recasts with release of Fed meeting minutes and auction
results, updates yields, adds analysts' comments)
By Karen Pierog and Karen Brettell
Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury yields rose on Wednesday
after minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting indicated
that yield caps or targets were not on the horizon.
The benchmark 10-year yield was last up less
than a basis point at 0.6752%.
Many Fed policymakers determined that yield caps or targets
were not warranted at this time but should remain an option for
the future, according to the minutes.
"It seems the market is quite displeased with the discussion
about yield curve control specifically," said Tom Simons, a
money market economist at Jefferies in New York.
He added that the minutes suggest it is not likely to happen
this year unless something significant changes either in the
market or in the economy.
If the Fed will not be engaging in yield curve control
"these ultra-low yield levels that we've seen for the last
couple of months maybe aren't quite as appropriate especially in
light of how much supply Treasury is pumping into the market,"
Simons said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury sold $25 billion of 20-year
bonds at a high yield of 1.185%, which was around a basis point
higher than where the debt was trading before the auction. The
bid to cover ratio was 2.26 times.
"It was a pretty weak auction," said Kim Rupert, senior
economist at Action Economics in San Francisco. "I expected poor
results after the fairly disappointing 30-year. There wasn’t
much of a backup over the last couple of days with the Treasury
market rallying after a big selloff last week."
The 20-year yield was last up 1.5 basis points
at 1.1658%.
The auction marked the fourth and largest since the U.S.
Treasury began offering 20-year bonds in May for the first time
since 1986. It also followed last week's auction of $26 billion
of 30-year bonds that was met with weak demand.
A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve
measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury
notes, which is viewed as an indicator of
economic expectations, was last at 53 basis points, nearly a
basis point higher than at Tuesday's close.
August 19 Wednesday 1:45PM New York / 1845 GMT



Price Current Net
Yield % Change
(bps)
Three-month bills 0.1 0.1014 -0.005
Six-month bills 0.12 0.1217 0.000
Two-year note 99-247/256 0.1431 -0.002
Three-year note 99-226/256 0.1644 -0.008
Five-year note 99-222/256 0.2771 -0.002
Se

The dollar as the worlds reserve currency gives USA an amazing advantage over the rest of the , one of which it seems is being able to run an ever increasing national deficit with no detrimental effect on the dollar, quite the contrary it seems!

Strange how the POG came off from around 1600hrs to market close and now it seems to be rising again?
https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-price-chart.do

https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-news/gold-price-081920201

" Bloomberg quotes commodity strategist Christopher Louney at Canadian financial services group RBC Capital Markets, "but some of the more recent escalating issues bubbling between the US and China are just beginning to be priced in.

"We think politics and geopolitics together are the real under-appreciated upside risks for gold in the coming quarters."

Strange use of words,so the price of gold rising is now regarded as a risk by some?

thank you Mr Bond, just as you have said in the past and a great but also worrying read!
What does concern me is that so many of the general public don't care, are unaware, don't understand and make no effort to try to understand the effects on their daily and future lives of all this money printing!
As long as they can have the latest stuff on the never never they are reasonably content!
As long as the politicians can stay on their gravy train by telling the public that better days are coming as soon as Brexit is done, that its all the fault of someone else and keep kicking the covid can down the road then they are content!

Quite so Highanddry, the whole market and monetary system and political systems are absurd, self serving and totally unfit for purpose, even down as far as my local parish councillors who are so obsessed with meeting protocol rather than really achieving anything beneficial for the community they supposedly represent that the general public have given up on attending any of the meetings!
The very last one I attended after hearing one of the councillors speak I raised my hand to address the chair with my question, the chairperson replied stating that as a former local government officer I should know that parish council meeting protocol dictates that any question to the parish council from the public should be submitted in writing to the parish clerk 14 days prior to the next meeting,if the question was relevant then it could be placed on the agenda and allowed 2 minutes to be dealt with, as I hadn't done so my question couldn't allowed at this meeting and that I should remain quiet whilst the present business was being dealt with or leave the meeting.
With that I stood up and replied that I was well aware of parish council meeting protocol, however as I was unaware of what the councillor was going to say at this meeting then it was impossible for me to state my question prior to the meeting, also may I respectfully suggest that parish councillors would do well to considerer why I was the only member of the general public in attendance that evening and why most other parish council meetings were totally ignored by the public they supposedly represented, with that I left.

Understanding - Terry Pratchett quote


'Things that are back to front are often easier to comprehend if they are upside down as well, said Lord Vetinari, tapping his chin with the silver knob of his can in an absent-minded way. 'In life as in politics.'

Democracy - Terry Pratchett quote

‘I thought you told me a dimocracy was where people did what they wanted to do,’ she said.
‘It’s a democracy,’ I said. ‘And it’s fine for people to do what they want to do, provided they do what’s right.’

Keep well and keep Centamin!

Tibbs

Great posts, Tiger & Mr Gnome,
So good that we can share our frustrations and also share a joke or two to lighten the mood whilst the Centamin ATM keeps on chucking out the cash!

211.34

Pork Futures Warehouse

The Pork Futures Warehouse is a product of the Disc's general atmosphere of magic and Ankh-Morpork's general atmosphere of excessive literalism. The trading in pork futures – pork which does not exist yet – led to the construction of a warehouse in which to store it until it does. Pig carcasses can be seen hanging from its ceiling, semitransparent and unreal.

Something in the unreality or odd time flow of the place produces very low temperatures, making it a very good place for trolls to be smart in – always providing they can get out again – as it is apparently cold enough to freeze even a living rock to death (see Men at Arms, Thud!).

By the late Terry Pratchett

Pork Futures Warehouse

The Pork Futures Warehouse is a product of the Disc's general atmosphere of magic and Ankh-Morpork's general atmosphere of excessive literalism. The trading in pork futures – pork which does not exist yet – led to the construction of a warehouse in which to store it until it does. Pig carcasses can be seen hanging from its ceiling, semitransparent and unreal.

The reality -Hog Futures Rally Up More Than 60%; This Means Higher Pork Prices Coming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loYEHs9oHkM

Onion trading

Onion futures trading began on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the mid-1940s as an attempt to replace the income lost when the butter futures contract ceased.[2] By the mid-1950s, onions futures contracts were the most traded product on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In 1955, they accounted for 20% of its trades.[3]
Market manipulation

In the fall of 1955, Siegel and Kosuga bought enough onions and onion futures so that they controlled 98% of the available onions in Chicago.[4] Millions of pounds (thousands of tonnes) of onions were shipped to Chicago to cover their purchases. By late 1955, they had stored 30 million pounds (14,000 t) of onions in Chicago.[5] They soon changed course and convinced onion growers to begin purchasing their inventory by threatening to flood the market with onions if they did not.[5] Siegel and Kosuga told the growers that they would hold the rest of their inventory in order to support the price of onions.[6]

As the growers began buying onions, Siegel and Kosuga accumulated short positions on a large amount of onion contracts.[5] They also arranged to have their stores of onions reconditioned because they had started to spoil. They shipped them outside of Chicago to have them cleaned and then repackaged and re-shipped back to Chicago. The "new" shipments of onions caused many futures traders to think that there was an excess of onions and further drove down onion prices in Chicago. By the end of the onion season in March 1956, Siegel and Kosuga had flooded the markets with their onions and driven the price of 50 pounds (23 kg) of onions down to 10 cents a bag.[5] In August 1955, the same quantity of onions had been priced at $2.75 a bag.[6] So many onions were shipped to Chicago in order to depress prices that there were onion shortages in other parts of the United States.[7]

Siegel and Kosuga made millions of dollars on the transaction due to their short position on onion futures.[4] At one point, however, 50 pounds (23 kg) of onions were selling in Chicago for less than the bags that held them. This drove many onion farmers into bankruptcy.[4] A public outcry ensued among onion farmers who were left with large amounts of worthless inventory.[8] Many of the farmers had to pay to dispose of the large amounts of onions that they had purchased and grown.[9]
Regulatory action

In the aftermath of the crash, many commentators characterized Kosuga's actions as unprincipled gambling.[9] The abrupt change in prices gained the attention of the Commodity Exchange Authority.[6] Soon they launched an investigation and the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture and House Committee on Agriculture held hearings on the matter.[citation needed]

During the hearings, the Commodity Exchange Authority stated that it was the perishable nature of onion which made them vulnerable to price swings.[7] Then-congressman Gerald Ford of Michigan sponsored a bill, known as the Onion Futures Act, which banned fut

1500hrs London price fix spank down!, LBMA are in the pockets of the market manipulators!

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

? Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play

Very interesting Goldgnome,
I doubt things will return to normal for quite sometime(if ever in our lifetime) who can believe that the politicians have a credible plan for running their countries, let alone a pandemic!
What is normal anyway, more destruction of our woodlands and natural resources to build unneeded high speed rail lines and the chucking up more overpriced starter homes that people want to move out of almost before they move in, yet more consumerism by the masses of more poorly made crap that is superseded by the next piece of poorly made crap as soon as they get it, and certainly before they have paid for it on never ending credit, just to keep the consumerism merry-go-round turning whilst the worlds natural resources are polluted or destroyed because our politicians only care about keeping their greedy snouts in the trough at all costs.
Sky TV and most of the media keep suppressing free thought and the truth by feeding the masses regular doses of politically poisoned rhetoric and propaganda via their smart TV's & phones whilst the health and social care systems fail to function properly and the arms producers and dealers get richer supplying more and more killing and maiming equipment to oppressive dictatorships so that they can carry on inflicting more pain and suffering on the innocent ordinary people, these poor souls are then forced to flee their homes and hand over everything they have left to the misery traffickers in the vain hope that they may find some sanctuary in some European country.
its a sad state of affairs,although many of the masses won't really be aware or even care, just as long as they can carry on face booking one another with selfies and news of their favourite soap, or celebrity and letting all their friends know that they are in the baked beans isle of Tesco or eating an over priced Greggs cardboard bun or gargling on yet another Costa coffee!
In its present form whole sysytm corrupted and totally unfit for any decent purpose, with the ongoing pandemic so much of usual society is down the pan with little hope of things really changing any time soon.
Still at least we are lucky enough to be invested in Centamin rather than some of the other dead dog stock that is being pumped up for no good or sustainable reason!
Keep well
Tibbs

Quite so Goldgnome, the worlds fiscal system and market system is unfit for purpose, just like our present government and the majority of the other parasitical stooges that inhabit our UK parliment and the upper house!
V shaped, L shaped recovery as Jim Royle would say "Recovery my ar*e!"
Warning Don't watch this if Jim Royle quotes offends you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKMJDP-G4gU

Well Whitegates what is going on, perhaps you have your own opinion?

Although if you care to scroll back through some of the previous members posts on here you will see the explanations and opinions of some of the precious metals experts .

There is certainly nothing amiss with Centamin, the Sukari mine continues to spit out ever increasing cash like a demented ATM!

Exactly, this is just another toady hoping to curry favour with his political masters by repeating the same old rhetoric!