-- For those people who own gold
Dear Freddy,
freddyv wrote:
> From his oldness, Richard Russell:
> Question -- Russell, if there is a stampede to buy gold, how do
> you think it will start? ...
I wanted to do some further research on this, and I stumbled across
the following:
Midas Letter wrote:
> There is a far more comprehensive summary by Eric deCarbonnel,
> that has just come out, well worth reading in which he concludes
> with the following;
> “Basically, the gold market operates on a fractional reserve
> basis. On average there are several claims of ownership on each
> gold bar conforming to London Good Delivery (LGD) standard on the
> "pool" of gold which acts as liquidity for the massive OTC gold
> trade based in London. Similarly, there are several claims of
> ownership on the gold bars in Comex wherehouses [sic]. If a
> sufficient number of market participants become concerned about
> this (which is happening) and there is a stampede to take delivery
> of physical bullion, the entire gold market will come crashing
> down, taking most of the global financial system with it. Market
> failure isn't a risk, it is a certainty. The unregulated gold
> market is an accident waiting to happen.” (Gold Market Reaching
> The Breaking Point)
> I could go on, but the main point to take away from this is that
> the ongoing gold and silver price suppression, initially via the
> dumping of physical bullion into the market and more recently by
> the use of paper trading derivatives, is possibly being finally
> curtailed by shortages of the physical metal as more and more
> investors request delivery. This in turn is uncovering fraudulent
> issues that exist within the precious metals markets which if made
> public could cause severe market dislocations and significantly
> higher PM prices. Rising gold prices will put pressure on all fiat
> currencies, not only impacting market confidence. They also
> increase the chances of precipitating currency crises and
> derivatives implosions.
>
http://www.midasletter.com/commentary/0 ... llapse.php
I never realized that this was going on. Essentially, it says that
the same bar of gold is being sold multiple times to different
people, under the assumption that none of them will request actual
delivery.
For years I've been telling people that if you must buy gold, then
make sure that you take delivery. The reason was that the company
holding your gold may go bankrupt in the financial crash, and you
would lose all your gold.
But this is an even more important reason. Even if the company
doesn't go bankrupt, they possess only a small fraction of the gold
that they're holding for their customers.
I strongly urge all readers of this web site who own gold to review
your situation, because you may be in danger of losing all the gold
that you think you own. You should immediately try to take physical
possession of any gold you own, and find a safe place to keep it.
I cannot resist re-posting the following, describing the last days of
the Tulipomania bubble in the 1630s:
Edward Chancellor in Devil Take the Hindmost, a history of financial speculation wrote:
> "No actual delivery of tulips took place during the height of the
> boom in late 1636 and early 1637 as the bulbs remained snug in
> the ground. A market in tulip futures appeared, known as the
> <i>windhandel</i> (the wind trade): sellers promised to deliver a
> bulb of a certain type and weight the following spring, buyers
> took the right to delivery -- in the meantime, cash settlement
> could be made for any difference in market price. Most
> transactions were expedited with personal credit notes which also
> fell due in the spring when the bulbs would be dug up and
> delivered. Gaergoedt boasts of having made 60,000 guilders from
> his tulip speculations but admits that he has only received
> "other people's writing." By the later stages of the mania the
> fusion of the <i>windhandel</i> with paper credit created a
> perfect symmetry of insubstantiality: most transactions were for
> tulip bulbs that could never be delivered because they didn't
> exist and were paid for with credit notes that could never be
> honoured because the money wasn't there." (pp. 16-18)
If you substitute "gold bars" for "tulip bulbs," then nothing has
changed in 370 years. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
John