South Africa is a member of both the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements, organizations that help execute the gold price suppression scheme of the major developed countries to exploit the developing world. GATA would be glad to make a presentation to the South African government and the Reserve Bank of South Africa to explain the scheme and how it devastates the country. If you have any contact with the government or central bank, please ask them about their indifference to this issue and why South Africa is a rich country insisting on being poor.

* * *

Gold Street Is Where South Africa's Mining History Goes to Die

By Ana Monteiro and Felix Njini

Bloomberg News

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The death rattle of the industry that once symbolized South Africa can be heard in the town of Carletonville -- on Gold Street.

That's where Paseka Selemela has been guarding cars since 2010, when the scaffolding business he worked for closed. Prior to that he was an assistant at a now-shuttered mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. Nor has he found work in other gold mines around the town, home to the world's deepest shafts. Many of his friends and family members also have joined the legions of the retrenched, including 8,500 people in the area last year alone.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Additional cuts are to come across mines and towns in South Africa, once the world's biggest producer of gold. A volatile currency, uncertainty about regulations and demand, labor union tensions, harder-to-access ore, high operating costs, and falling prices mean about half of gold and platinum operations are loss-making.

More than 6 million people are unemployed and looking for work, taking the jobless rate to about 28 percent, a 15-year high. This excludes 2.5 million discouraged job seekers. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/gold-street-is-where-...


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By Eric Lam

Bloomberg News

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Cryptocurrencies dropped after the second South Korean exchange in as many weeks said it was hacked, renewing concerns about the safety of digital-asset trading venues.

Bithumb, ranked by Coinmarketcap.com as the world's seventh-largest crypto exchange by traded value, said today that hackers stole about 35 billion won ($32 million) and that Ripple was among the coins taken. The exchange halted cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals, said it will compensate victims, and moved investor assets to a so-called cold wallet, which is disconnected from the Internet and less vulnerable to theft. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/cryptocurrencies-fall...

By Evgenia Pismennaya and Anna Andrianova

Bloomberg News

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

What do you do when your two biggest trading partners are embroiled in economic standoffs with the United States? You buy as much gold as you possibly can.

At least that's what Kyrgyzstan's central bank is doing in a bid to protect itself from currency volatility in China and Russia. The central Asian nation hopes to grow the share of gold in its $2 billion international reserves to 50 percent from around 16 percent now.

"The rules of the game are changing," Kyrgyz central bank Governor Tolkunbek Abdygulov, 42, said in an interview in the capital, Bishkek. "It doesn't matter what currencies we have in our reserves -- dollars, yuan, or rubles all make us vulnerable." ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-20/tiny-asian-nation-hoa...

By Gabriel T. Rubin

The Wall Street Journal

Monday, June 18, 2018

WASHINGTON -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay a $65 million fine to settle claims that it tried to manipulate a global interest rate benchmark, the latest fine levied by U.S. regulators to punish crisis-era manipulation schemes by large banks.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said JPMorgan employees between 2007 and 2012 made false reports and attempted to manipulate the U.S. Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix, a benchmark that is referenced in many derivatives products.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The settlement with the CFTC makes JPMorgan just the latest major bank to settle charges of alleged interest-rate manipulation in recent years, as the CFTC noted in its announcement of the settlement. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jpmorgan-to-pay-65-million-fine-for-dollar-...


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By Mary Price

Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Divers recovering artifacts off the steamship Pulaski have made an eerie find that gives credence to eyewitness accounts of the night the ship sank in 1838, taking some of the nation's richest people to the bottom of the Atlantic.

A mysterious "grapefruit-sized" encrustation found at the site off North Carolina's coast turned out to be a heavily decorated solid gold pocket watch attached to a gold chain.

However, what has historians buzzing is that the watch's hands are frozen at 11:05.

That's 5 minutes after the time witnesses say the ship's boilers exploded on the night of June 14, 1838. The dramatic sinking, often referred to as "the Titanic of its time," occurred 180 years ago this month. ...

The divers have found items valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, including 150 gold and silver coins dating back to 1759. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article213337689.html

10:40p ET Sunday, June 17, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Dave Kranzler of Investment Research Dynamics notes that far more paper gold was sold Friday on the New York Commodity Exchange than real metal was available at the exchange for delivery, and that the smashdown occurred after the Chinese and Indian markets were closed. His analysis is headlined "Was Gold Actually Dumped Friday?" and it's posted at IRD here:

http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/was-gold-actually-dumped-friday/

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

By Edward Robison

Bloomberg News

Sunday, June 17, 2018

The Bank for International Settlements just told the cryptocurrency world it's not ready for prime time -- and as far as mainstream financial services go, may never be.

In a withering 24-page article released Sunday as part of its annual economic report, the BIS said Bitcoin and its ilk suffered from "a range of shortcomings” that would prevent cryptocurrencies from ever fulfilling the lofty expectations that prompted an explosion of interest -- and investment -- in the would-be asset class.

... Dispatch continues below ...

In one of its most poignant findings, the BIS analyzed what it would take for the blockchain software underpinning Bitcoin to process the digital retail transactions currently handled by national payment systems. As the size of so many ledgers swell, the researchers found, it would eventually overwhelm everything from individual smartphones to servers.

"The associated communication volumes could bring the Internet to a halt," the report said. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-17/bitcoin-could-break-t...


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9:58p ET Saturday, June 16, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA board member Ed Steer's commentary for today in his Gold and Silver Daily letter, headlined "'Da Boyz' Drop the Hammer," covers Friday's smashing of gold and silver futures prices and is posted in the clear at GoldSeek here:

http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1529238120.php

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

Hedge Funds Pick the Wrong Time to Go Big on Gold as Prices Drop

By Luzi-Ann Javier

Bloomberg News

Friday, June 15, 2018

Hedge funds just mistimed their gold bets.

Money managers as of Tuesday pushed their wagers on a bullion rally to the highest in seven weeks. The next day, Federal Reserve policy makers signaled more interest-rate increases this year than earlier projected. Gold ended up posting a weekly loss as the dollar rallied.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Even rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China that sent equities and bond yields tumbling Friday weren't enough to boost gold's haven appeal as the metal fell the most in 18 months. Geopolitical risks that previously supported prices are also fading after President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-15/hedge-funds-pick-the-...


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To contribute to GATA, please visit:

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From Russia Today, Moscow

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Russia has held a major selloff of U.S. Treasury bonds, dumping some $47 billion worth of papers and momentarily dropping six places on a list of major foreign holders of U.S. securities, recently released statistics for April have shown.

In just one month Russia proceeded to sell $47.4 billion out of the $96.1 billion the country had in U.S. Treasury bonds in March. The latest statistics released by the U.S. Treasury Department on Friday showed that, in April, Russia had only $48.7 billion in American assets, occupying 22nd place on the list of "major foreign holders of Treasury securities."

... Dispatch continues below ...

Japan, which is positioned second on the list, in the same timeframe sold off some $12 billion, leaving just over a trillion dollars in U.S. bonds.

Ireland, which had $300.4 billion in April also managed to ditch over $17 billion in U.S. assets. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.rt.com/business/429931-russia-sells-us-treasuries/


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9:22a ET Saturday, June 16, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Interviewed this week by Craig Hemke of the TF Metals Report for Sprott Money News, financial commentator Doug Casey charges that complaints of gold market manipulation by governments are "ridiculous" and "laughable" because governments "don't care" about gold. Casey adds that while GATA's officers are "nice" and "sincere" people, "they really wear tinfoil hats when they start talking about this stuff."

Yet just a few seconds earlier Casey acknowledges that governments do care about gold.

"Of course governments want a low gold price," Casey says, "because that would indicate that there's no inflation and that there's nothing to worry about economically or financially."

"But," Casey continues, "are they suppressing the price of gold? They want a lower gold price but they're not doing anything about it."

... Dispatch continues below ...

The gold price, Casey notes, has risen from $35 in 1971 to nearly $1,300 today. He asks: "Is that successful gold price suppression?"

Yet the common disparagement about gold is that its price has not kept up with inflation as other assets have done, nor with the world's monetary base. So yes, even a rise of nearly more than $1,200 in nearly 50 years might be considered successful suppression. If suppression had been any more successful, supply of the metal might have ceased, exposing and exploding the suppression scheme.

Governments "couldn't even suppress the price of gold at $35 per ounce" when that was the official price, Casey says. "How can they do it now? ... It's impossible."

Yet since modern central banking began early in the last century, the United States and its allies have frozen the gold price for long periods at various levels, including $35, and have done so in the open as well as surreptitiously. Omniscient as Casey seems to consider himself, he should have heard of the London Gold Pool, the public mechanism of Western central bank intervention that, with dishoarding of central bank reserves, froze the gold price at $35 during the 1960s before being overwhelmed March 1968. It wasn't "impossible" at all; it worked for eight years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gold_Pool

How, Casey asks with incredulity, can governments suppress the gold price now?

Someone of Casey's omniscience also might have heard of gold swaps, leases, and derivatives, like those maintained by the agent of all major governments and central banks, the Bank for International Settlements, which, according to its own financial reports, intervenes secretly in the gold market every month on behalf of its members and refuses to explain the purpose of its interventions:

http://www.gata.org/node/18228

http://www.gata.org/node/17793

The British economist Peter Warburton observed in 2001 that by using derivatives central banks easily and inexpensively could control not only gold prices but the prices of all major commodities traded on futures exchanges:

http://www.gata.org/node/8303

The director of market operations for the Banque de France, Alexandre Gautier, answered the "how" question at a meeting of the London Bullion Market Association in Rome in September 2013. Gautier said the French central bank trades gold for its own account "nearly on a daily basis" and is "active in the gold market for other central banks and official institutions":

http://www.gata.org/node/13373

Asked about this intervention a couple of years later, Gautier, like the BIS, refused to explain it, adding that the French central bank seldom gives interviews:

http://www.gata.org/node/14954

If, as Casey pontificates, governments "don't care" about gold, why such secrecy about their activity in the market?

Indeed, the supposed indifference of governments to gold is further disproved by the discounts given to them for their secret trading in the monetary metals futures markets operated by CME Group, discounts of 15 percent. Confirming Warburton's thesis, CME Group gives governments and central banks discounts for secretly trading all commodity and financial futures contracts:

http://www.gata.org/node/17976

Continuing his exoneration of governments in the gold market, Casey asks: "Why would they want to suppress it, if they could, because the Russian and Chinese governments have been buying huge amounts of gold for years? Should the U.S. be suppressing the price of gold so that the Russians and Chinese get a bargain in buying it?"

Casey seems unaware that his merely rhetorical question actually frames a primary suspicion about U.S. government policy in the gold market, a suspicion recently expressed by a financial expert who has had U.S. government security clearance, James G. Rickards. Having spoken confidentially with officials around the world, Rickards maintains that the U.S. government indeed has been providing Russia and China with bargain prices in gold to forestall their dumping U.S. Treasury bonds from their foreign exchange reserves, gold being a hedge against the dollar's eventual devaluation:

http://www.gata.org/node/18235

Two American economists, Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance, came to a similar conclusion in a paper published six years ago:

http://www.gata.org/node/11373

GATA's documentation file contains much more official acknowledgment of the largely surreptitious involvement of governments and central banks in the gold market and related markets in recent decades and continuing to the present.

For example, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Kevin M. Warsh, writing in The Wall Street Journal in December 2011, just months after he resigned from the board, confirmed market rigging by central banks.

Warsh wrote: "Policy makers are finding their authority, credibility, and firepower being tested. In turn they are finding it tempting to pursue 'financial repression' -- suppressing market prices that they don't like. But this is bad policy, not least because it signals diminished faith in the market economy itself."

Warsh's essay can be found here:

http://www.gata.org/node/10839

The material GATA has compiled and published is not mere "conspiracy theory" but official public record from government archives and public statements and memoirs from central bankers, even if those statements were made and memoirs were written when central bankers thought only their colleagues were listening:

http://www.gata.org/taxonomy/term/21

Those central bankers may have been confident that someone who considers himself as omniscient as Casey does would never notice anything they said or put in writing, much less anything they did.

At the New Orleans Investment Conference in October 2014 your secretary/treasurer was assigned to debate Casey about gold price suppression. Your secretary/treasurer wanted to review in detail the documentation of the suppression policy and came with a PowerPoint presentation showing some of the documents that GATA had compiled. He hoped to discuss them with Casey one by one:

http://www.gata.org/node/14617

But Casey declined to address them. Casey didn't just contend that governments don't care about gold; he contended that central banks themselves don't matter. That refusal to address the evidence precluded any real debate.

Casey describes himself as an "anarcho-capitalist" but governments and central banks can't be wished away by mere ideology. The free markets of Casey's ideology may win eventually but we live in the present and eventually may be a long way off, when most of those alive now are dead. Government agencies empowered to create infinite money and bestow it secretly as central banks are empowered are the actual rulers of the world, since they control the value of all capital, labor, goods, and services.

Just holding major governments and central banks accountable for what they do is terribly hard and is yet to be accomplished anywhere, not even in nominally democratic countries. GATA does what it can but in refusing to examine the evidence and instead whitewashing central banking, Casey protects the totalitarianism he purports to oppose.

Casey's comments on gold price suppression run from the 12:50 mark to the 15:24 mark at the Sprott Money internet site here:

https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/ask-the-expert-doug-casey-june-2018.htm...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


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By Stephanie Yang

The Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 15, 2018

Some makers and sellers of gold coins and bars are turning to blockchain, the digital ledger that underpins bitcoin, hoping to add some cryptocurrency luster to bullion trading.

In doing so the industry is banking on a trend that has seen a lot of buzz but so far little result. Businesses from iced tea to photography have embraced blockchain in name, as last year's cryptocurrency craze ignited interest in the technology.

This year producers and traders are experimenting with a platform that logs ounces of bullion on a digital chain of ownership and creates a representation of trades. Gold sellers are hoping blockchain technology will help win over investors who dismiss bullion as burdensome to own or simply outdated. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-pushes-ancient-gold-market-to-try-d...

The World's Largest Gold Fund Is Getting a Cheaper Little Brother

By Rachel Evans

Bloomberg News

Wednesday, June 14, 2018

The price of gold is falling, at least for investors in exchange-traded funds.

The World Gold Council is readying a new fund that will charge less than any other gold exchange-traded fund, regulatory filings show. It will vie for assets with 35 other precious-metals exchange-traded products in the United States, including SPDR Gold Shares -- known by its ticker GLD -- the $35 billion market leader, which the council also started.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Investors will soon be able to get a piece of that action for a lower price. The SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust, which will trade as GLDM, will cost just 18 basis points in management fees, or $1.80 for every $1,000 invested, the filings show. By comparison, GLD charges $4 for every $1,000 invested. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-13/world-s-largest-gold-...


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9:18p ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

In attacking the mammoth trade deficit of the United States, Hugo Salinas Price of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver writes today, President Trump is attacking the dollar's function as the world reserve currency and foreshadowing the replacement of the dollar with gold.

Salinas Price writes: "If the dollar -- such as it is -- is going to be the basis of the world's monetary system, and therefore required by all central banks as reserves, there is only one way that these central banks can obtain those reserves: Their countries are forced to undersell all U.S. producers, in order to be able to sell more to the United States than they buy from the United States. The dollars they get from sales are more than the dollars they spend to buy from the U.S. That difference -- the U.S. trade deficit -- flows to the central banks of the world and swells their reserves."

... Dispatch continues below ...

Salinas Price's commentary is headlined "Donald Trump's 'Madness'" and it's posted at the association's internet site, Plata, here:

http://plata.com.mx/enUS/More/353?idioma=2

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

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9:07p ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Federal Reserve, USAGold's Mike Kosares writes, signalled yesterday that it wants banks to lend money that has been deposited with the Fed as "excess reserves," thereby encouraging inflation. This, Kosares writes, well may be an upward turning point for the monetary metals.

His analysis is headlined "Why a Seemingly Run-of-the-Mill Announcement Yesterday by Fed Chairman Powell Might Signal a Major Turning Point for the Gold market -- and Perhaps All Markets" and it's posted at USAGold here:

http://www.usagold.com/cpmforum/2018/06/14/why-a-seemingly-run-of-the-mi...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

11:51a ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GoldMoney research director Alasdair Macleod argues today that central banking's long suppression of interest rates has created enormous imbalances in the world financial system and has made rate increases a huge threat to businesses. As rising rates collapse businesses and real estate, Macleod continues, governments will respond with ever-more money creation to save banks and prevent foreclosures and this will cause the collapse of currencies.

Macleod's analysis is headlined "Living Dangerously" and it's posted at GoldMoney here:

https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/living-dangerously...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

11:28a ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

This correspondence may be of interest.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Dear Chris:

I briefly met you maybe eight years ago in New York when we heard a presentation by Jim Sinclair at the annual dinner of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education. I am an independent 78-year-old engineer and have followed GATA's reports on gold price suppression.

... Dispatch continues below ...

It does appear to me that the dominance of the U.S. dollar is nearing an end. Several factors should have driven the gold price sky-high by now, yet it remains stuck around $1,300 per ounce.

-- The U.S. money supply has tripled or quadrupled in recent years. It appears that this trend will accelerate.

-- The Muslim world now finally permits followers to invest in gold.

-- China, Russia, and India are buying more gold than ever.

-- China's issuance of the petro-yuan is the beginning of the decline of the dollar.

But the investing world greets all this with a yawn and instead bids up the already overpriced U.S. stock market, lending credence to GATA's argument that the gold price is being artificially suppressed.

I hold a healthy chunk of my retirement savings in a variety of precious metal mutual funds and my advisers claim that it is time to dispose of them and instead invest in the general stock market. Yet that market has not had a correction for a decade and is long overdue for one.

Do you have any gold timing advice or can you recommend anyone for that?

-- B.B.

* * *

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Dear B.B.:

Thanks for your note.

GATA is not an investment adviser, but we think the basics for gold are very much as you understand them and thus incredibly bullish except for central bank price-suppression policy.

Yes, there are increasing indications of stress in the gold banking system, but the central banks haven't lost control yet. My guess is that as the metal the central banks are prepared to lose runs out, they will revalue gold substantially upward, repurchase the metal they have been selling and leasing, and restart the price-suppression scheme at a more sustainable level for another half century.

But they won't be letting us know in advance the date of such a reset. I'm 68 and I am not sure that I will live to see that day.

And then, of course, there is the question of whether, after a reset, governments will let people keep their gold and let mining companies keep their properties. I think the East will be less confiscatory than the West, but no one can be sure.

So how long should anyone hold out with the monetary metals? That's investment advice. I'm holding out but it's mainly for spite. It's all GATA can do to keep documenting the market rigging and pressing the issue with all who will or should listen.

Unfortunately with a few courageous exceptions, the mining industry itself is almost entirely useless in this regard, as are mainstream news organizations. The suppression policy of various governments envelops them too.

GATA's support is very limited and steadily diminishing as the market rigging by governments becomes more aggressive and those who believe in free and transparent markets and individual liberty grow demoralized by the long struggle.

These are our Valley Forge days. But at least we still have boots and so we will press on as best we can.

Thanks again for writing. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


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https://neworleansconference.com/

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GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

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To contribute to GATA, please visit:

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10:55a ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The Liberty Dollar of monetary architect Bernard von Not Haus, who was ridiculously prosecuted by the U.S. government as a counterfeiter and convicted by a deluded jury, has been reincarnated as an asset-backed cryptocurrency. The announcement can be read here:

https://ld2coin.io/

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

10:43a ET Thursday, June 14, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA Chairman Bill Murphy, interviewed this week by Chris Waltzek for GoldSeek Radio, says fundamentals for the monetary metals have never been more favorable but governments and their bullion bank agents are making sure that excitement falls on other investments. Murphy thinks that because of the long suppression of their prices, the monetary metals are more likely to rise in an explosion than in a gradual bull market.

The interview is 12 minutes long and can be heard at GoldSeek Radio here:

http://radio.goldseek.com/nuggets/murphy.06.13.18.mp3

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

By Jill Serjeant

Reuters

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

LOS ANGELES -- A one-of-a-kind 18th-century gold coin bearing the likeness of the first U.S. President, George Washington, is expected to fetch more than $1 million when it goes up for auction in August, auctioneers said today.

The 1792 Washington President gold eagle coin was never circulated as money, but is instead thought to have been presented to Washington when post Revolutionary War plans were being drawn up for the first U.S. Mint.

Currency researchers believe that the Washington President coin, which has his head on the front and an eagle on the back, was given to him as part of a sales promotion in a bid to obtain a contract to strike U.S coinage, and that Washington carried it as a personal memento. ...

... For the remainder of the report, and photos of the coin:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-auction-washingtoncoin/unique-george-...


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GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

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Russia Today is operated by the Russian government and this report shows again that Russia knows what is happening in the currency markets and is acting on its knowledge.

* * *

From Russia Today, Moscow

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Efforts by the United States to suppress gold prices in order to prop up the dollar are allowing Russia and China to build up huge reserves of physical gold by purchasing large quantities of the precious metal at significantly lower prices.

Net central bank purchases in the first quarter of the current year surged by 42 percent compared to the same period a year ago, totaling 116.5 tons, according to data compiled by the World Gold Council. The number reportedly represents the highest quarterly total since 2014.

... Dispatch continues below ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.rt.com/business/429573-us-china-russia-physical-gold/


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How hypocritical! For the LBMA is the agent of central bank price suppression policy, which induces miners to skimp on environmental protection and remediation -- to take the metal and run, leaving polluted gashes in the land.

* * *

By Henry Sanderson

Financial Times, London

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

The world's biggest producers of gold will have to prove their green credentials if they want their metal to be traded on London's $5.5 trillion-a-year bullion market.

Under the new standards being introduced by London Bullion Market Association, refiners and miners will have to provide data on a range of environmental benchmarks including energy usage, pollution, water usage, carbon emissions, as well as health and safety.

... Dispatch continues below ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.ft.com/content/fa802a08-6d91-11e8-852d-d8b934ff5ffa


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By Matt Robinson and Matthew Leising

Bloomberg News

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Tether, one of the most-traded cryptocurrencies, shows a pattern of being spent on Bitcoin at pivotal moments, helping to drive the world's first digital asset to a record price in December, according to research by a University of Texas professor known for flagging suspicious activity in the VIX benchmark.

"Tether seems to be used both to stabilize and manipulate Bitcoin prices," finance professor John Griffin and co-author Amin Shams wrote in a paper released today.

... Dispatch continues below ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-13/professor-who-rang-vi...


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8:34p ET Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Writing at Sprott Money today, Craig Hemke of the TF Metals Report notes that since November the strange "exchange for physicals" mechanism has settled New York Commodities Exchange futures contract claims for more than 4,500 hundred tonnes of gold. This is almost double annual world gold production and five times the metal held by the vaults in the London Bullion Market Association system.

Hemke asks: "How is this even possible?"

... Dispatch continues below ...

"For now, the investment world accepts the risks associated with this arrangement. But some time soon the day will come when a holder of 'gold' -- who mistakenly believes he owns actual, unencumbered physical metal with clear title and demonstrable provenance -- is going to be told that he does not own anything of the sort. He will likely be surprised to learn that he owns simple gold 'exposure' in paper certificate form instead."

Hemke's analysis is headlined "Comex EFP Use Continues to Surge" and it's posted at Sprott Money here:

https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/comex-efp-use-continues-to-surge-craig-...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org


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12:43p ET Monday, June 11, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Since the U.S. government is not likely to have the political fortitude to cover the projected Social Security and Medicare revenue deficits with tax increases or benefit reductions, the TF Metals Report's Craig Hemke writes today that the deficits will be monetized, leading to more devaluation of the U.S. dollar. Against devaluation, Hemke writes, the monetary metals already are offering outstanding protection in places like Brazil and Turkey.

Hemke's analysis is headlined "The Volcano of Debt" and it's posted at Sprott Money here:

https://www.sprottmoney.com/Blog/the-volcano-of-debt-craig-hemke-gold-an...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

12:21p ET Sunday, June 10, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA has appealed to the U.S. comptroller of the currency, who has regulatory authority over banks, to review financial risks certain banks may have incurred through derivatives in the monetary metals markets, particularly through the recent heavy use of the "exchange for physicals" mechanism of settling gold and silver futures contracts on the New York Commodities Exchange.

The appeal was made in a letter sent May 5 to the comptroller, Joseph M. Otting, whose office is part of the U.S. Treasury Department, by your secretary/treasurer and GATA futures market consultant Harvey Organ.

... Dispatch continues below ...

GATA has received no acknowledgment of the letter. Its text is below and a PDF copy of it is here:

http://www.gata.org/files/ComptrollerOfCurrencyLetter.pdf

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

May 5, 2018

Joseph M. Otting, Comptroller of the Currency

U.S. Treasury Department

400 7th Street, SW

Washington DC 20219

Dear Comptroller Otting:

Please let us bring to your attention financial risks to major banks involving their possibly unreported exposure to derivatives in the monetary metals markets.

In recent months gold and silver future contracts issued by U.S. banks on the New York Commodities Exchange have been moved off-exchange for delivery through a mechanism known as "exchange for physical" (EFP) contracts. Until recently use of this mechanism was considered an emergency procedure when a seller did not have access to metal for delivery through Comex warehouses. Now the mechanism seems to be in use for a large share of front-month contracts for which delivery is sought.

Here is an example that is happening at the Comex in the front active month of April for gold and the inactive delivery month of April for silver.

In gold, there were 229,436 EFP contracts for 713.64 tonnes, an average of 10,925 contracts and 1,092,500 ounces per trading day.

In silver, there were 77,150 EFP contracts for 385,750,000 ounces, an average of 3,673 contracts and 18,369,000 ounces per trading day.

London Bullion Market Association rules suggest that these contracts may not be reported to regulators. The LBMA's bylaws say:

"Figures above exclude any contracts not subject to risk-based capital requirements, such as FX contracts with an original maturity of 14 days or less, futures contracts, written options, and basis swaps. Therefore, the total notional amount of derivatives by maturity will not add to the total derivatives figure in this table."

We are told that these EFP contracts are transferred from the Comex to London as what are called "serial forwards" and their duration is always less than 14 days, which exempts them from being reported.

It is our understanding that in each quarter your office prepares a report detailing risk undertaken by the banks under the comptroller's supervision.

These risks include derivatives undertaken by U.S. banks and other obligations that may cause a bank to fail. Our concern is that your office may not be aware of large unreported derivative exposure by banks.

Could you review this matter and let us know your conclusions?

Sincerely,

CHRIS POWELL

Secretary/Treasurer

HARVEY ORGAN

Consultant

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

7 Villa Louisa Road

Manchester, Connecticut 06043-7541


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As the fraternity brothers observed in "Animal House":

Boon: A vicious mother, isn't he?

Otter: He can't do that to our pledges.

Boon: Only we can do that to our pledges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQR60rdKffw

* * *

U.S. Regulator Demands Trading Data From Bitcoin Exchanges in Manipulation Probe

By Gabriel T. Rubin, Dave Michaels, and Alexander Osipovich

The Wall Street Journal

Friday, June 8, 2018

WASHINGTON -- Government investigators have demanded that several bitcoin exchanges hand over comprehensive trading data to assist a probe into whether manipulation is distorting prices in markets linked to the cryptocurrency, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation followed the launch of bitcoin futures on CME Group Inc.'s exchange six months ago. CME's bitcoin futures derive their final value from prices at four bitcoin exchanges: Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit, and Kraken. Manipulative trading in those markets could skew the price of bitcoin futures that the government directly regulates.

... Dispatch continues below ...

The exchanges ultimately provided some data, but only after CME limited its request to a few hours of activity, instead of a full day, and restricted to a few market participants, the people added.

The dispute frustrated CME's regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, these people said. In response, the commission subpoenaed the exchanges for the data. CFTC officials backed the launch of bitcoin futures, saying they viewed it as a risky but worthwhile project.

The CFTC was upset CME didn't have in place agreements that would compel bitcoin markets to share trading data tied to futures contracts, these people said. Such agreements would detail what information the cryptocurrency venues would have to provide to CME, including the time of trades, unfilled or canceled orders, the size of orders, and traders' identities. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-regulators-demand-trading-data-from-bit...


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By Eric Lam and Jiyeun Lee

Bloomberg News

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Bitcoin extended losses for a third day, tumbling as much as 6 percent today as South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail said there was a "cyber intrusion" in its system.

The largest cryptocurrency declined 4.6 percent to $7,277 as of 10 a.m. time, the biggest drop since May 23, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from Bitstamp pricing. That widens Bitcoin's losses for the year to 49 percent. Peer cryptocurrencies Ethereum and Ripple fell 5 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively.

... Dispatch continues below ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-10/bitcoin-tumbles-most-...


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By Catherine Bosley

Bloomberg News

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Swiss voters dismissed a radical proposal to overturn one of the financial system's core tenets.

The so-called sovereign money initiative, or "Vollgeld," would have ended the system of fractional reserve banking that has been around for centuries by allowing only the Swiss National Bank to "create" money. But 75.7 percent of voters rejected the measure, according to the government. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-10/swiss-set-to-reject-s...