Kitco News
(Kitco News) – The gold and silver market saw healthy trading activity in February, but the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) says the latest data have little meaning as the global economy and precious metals markets have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The post Gold and silver saw healthy trading activity in February appeared first on WorldSilverNews.
Miles Franklin sponsored this article by Gary Christenson. The opinions are his.
Silver is real money, not a debt-based fiat currency that will eventually fail. Silver bullion production requires capital and effort to mine and refine. We use it for solar panels, iPhones, cruise missiles and thousands of other items. Silver is monetary sanity.
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Bloomberg/Alessandra Migliaccio and John Ainger/3-30-2020
“Two decades since the euro began, one of the principal worries of its founders is materializing as the coronavirus rages through the region’s third-largest economy. The longstanding suspicion that Italy’s profligate borrowing could ultimately become the whole of Europe’s problem was the recurring nightmare of German finance officials throughout the 1990s.”
USAGOLD note: Italy’s national debt stands at $244 billion and its debt to GDP ratio is nearly 135%. It is facing two major problems at this point in time: the virus and a rapidly developing economic meltdown. But Italy is not the only problem in Europe. There is another directly across the Ionian Sea that was once viewed as a terminal threat to the euro and the European Union.
Chart courtesy of TradingEconomics.com
321Gold/Stewart Thomson/3-31-2020
“The US stock market can rise in this mayhem, but the nation is in a depression. Because the government and citizens failed to take quick action, there won’t be any V-bottom for the US economy. “
USAGOLD note: The world in 24 bullet points from Stewart Thompson ……He says there is a 30% chance gold will go to $1400 and a 70% chance it will “blast over $1700.”
Hedging the decline and fall of a currency
The baseline case for gold hasn’t changed much in 1700 years
Book Review
The baseline case for gold 320 AD
“We sometimes forget that inflation is a process rather than an event. One of the better-known examples of that axiom is the nearly two centuries-long debasement of Rome’s silver denarius – an inflationary episode Jack Whyte, a writer of historical fiction, skillfully addresses in his latest novel, The Burning Stone.
Set in Great Britain in the fourth century AD during the Roman occupation, The Burning Stone is a prequel to Whyte’s engaging, seven-book series on King Arthur – The Camulod Chronicles. Throughout the series, Whyte juxtaposes the rise of Arthur’s Camelot against Rome’s decline. This particular story is told through the lens of a young Roman from a wealthy family with banking, political and military interests who flees to Britain ……”
[LINK to the rest of the story]
…… which includes The baseline case for gold in 2020 AD ……
We invite to visit the March edition of News & Views (linked above).
And sign-up for the April edition to be released around the 10th of the month.
Daily Reckoning/James Ricards
Graphic courtesy of HowMuch.net
“The specter of a global debt crisis suggests the urgency for new liquidity sources, bigger than those that central banks can provide. The logic leads quickly to one currency for the planet. The task of re-liquefying the world will fall to the IMF because the IMF will have the only clean balance sheet left among official institutions. The IMF will rise to the occasion with a towering issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs), and this monetary operation will effectively end the dollar’s role as the leading reserve currency.”
USAGOLD note: What Ricard’s assessment might mean for Americans is difficult to determine at this stage of the game. He warns of a major dollar devaluation from 50% to 80% under those circumstances and suggests “buying gold – if you can find any.” We emphasize that we offer Mr. Ricards opinion as a matter of interest but do not necessarily agree that a one-world currency is in the offing anytime soon – even with the current crisis taken into consideration. For one thing, it would require an agreement among the primary nation-states at a time when they cannot cooperate on much of anything.
GeoTrendlines/Frank Knopers
“ABN AMRO leaves gold investors empty-handed, as the bank closes all weight accounts for gold, silver and platinum. Approximately 2,000 customers who have precious metals in their weight account at the bank have to sell them before April 1. If they fail to do so, ABN AMRO will sell their positions at the current market price. The bank cannot guarantee that they will sell the precious metal at a favorable price.”
USAGOLD note: The ABN Amro situation illustrates with a high degree of clarity why it is important to own metal in hand rather than in some paperized version of gold ownership subject to the whim of the institution managing the account. In this particular case, we cannot help but note that ABN Amro’s closure of paper gold fund comes at a time when bullion is in short supply and owners of the fund are likely to have a stronger than average desire to take delivery of the position. Investors of the fund were forced to sell their positions at a time when it is very difficult to acquire a replacement in the open market. A bird in hand, as the old saying goes, is worth two in the bush.
Repost from 3-26-2020
