Posted on

Demand for Silver Eagles Spikes, Along with Premiums

FindBullionPrices.com

It’s become pretty indisputable that the economy is in the worst state that many Americans can remember since the 2008 financial crisis and the deep recession that followed.

As a result, investors are clamoring for gold and silver bullion like never before. Demand for government issued coins, like the American Silver Eagle and the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf have skyrocketed in recent weeks since the start of the banking crisis.

However, the US Mint continues to be slow and unable to meet demands, which has caused significant increases in recent weeks to a recent high of around 60% over spot price. Some dealers, such as APMEX and JM Bullion are currently showing premiums for silver eagles at over 88% above spot price.

The US Mint outsources the manufacturing of planchets, which are coin blanks that are pressed by the mint to produce the coins. Working only with a handful of select manufacturers that meet the requirements.

Disruptions to both global and domestic supply chains effecting precious metals continue to impact investors and industry.

The raw materials used to mint Silver Eagles must be sourced from domestic silver mines, as prescribed by law.

The Mint has been unable to meet demand since 2021 when more than 28 million coins were sold. While investor demand remained strong in 2022, the Mint was only able to produce around 16 million coins.

So far in 2023, the Mint has reported sales over more than 6 million coins. However, numerous reports state the mint shifted production in late 2022 to start producing coins for the current year, which is the main reason the Mint was able to report 3,949,000 coins sold in January.

Sales reports show only 900,000 coins being sold in each month of February and March which is far below the Mint’s production capacity.

In 2015, the Mint sold 47,000,000 Silver Eagle bullion coins, the highest on record.

Year 1 oz ASE bullion coins
201914,863,500 coins
202030,089,500 coins
202128,275,000 coins
202215,963,500 coins
2023
(4 months)		6,199,000 coins
Recent Years Sales and Mintage Totals of 1 oz Silver American Eagle coins

It’s pretty indisputable that the economy is in the worst condition many Americans have seen since the 2008 financial crisis and the deep recession that followed.

This time around, the economy has been wrecked by a record combination of prevailing events.

It began before COVID was even a thing in September 17, 2019.

Repurchase agreements, often referred to as “repos” are short term loans between banks and financial institutions. That morning, interest rates on overnight repurchase agreements more than doubled. By the end of the trading day the rates had increased by 500%.

The Fed responded to the crisis by injecting $75 billion PER DAY in new liquidity into the repo market for a week to prevent a collapse.

Once the rates began to stabilize, the Fed continued their daily injections of fresh liquidity into the repo market until October 10.

During that three week time period, some estimates put the total amount of liquidity injected by the Fed at over $500 billion.

A few months later, the Biden administration put the entire country into lockdown, effectively shutting down every sector of the economy, aside from companies like Amazon, Walmart and other select corporations deemed “critical”.

Rising inflation began to take hold as the Fed continued to print more money to fund the pandemic with stimulus checks and other government handouts.

To combat the inflation crisis, the Fed responded with multiple steep increases in key interest rates that come faster than has happened decades.

Posted on

Saudi Arabia Taking Active Steps to End Petrodollar Dominance

FindBullionPrices.com

Saudi Arabia is showing the world that it is taking active steps to end the dollar’s hegemony across the global economy through a multitude of political and diplomatic moves and financial investments.

Saudi Aramco, officially the Saudi Arabian Oil Group or simply referred to as Aramco, has announced the investment of more than $10 billion dollars to finance the construction of a new refinery and petrochemical complex. The construction is expected to take three years and when finished it will have the capacity to produce 300,000 barrels of oil per day.

The world’s largest oil exporting country has also opened dialog about joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional trade and security organization dominated by Russia and China.

In recent months, many more countries have expressed interest in joining the BRICS trade organization, which largely represents the global south in an effort to provide open trade and financial empowerment to developing nations.

CNBC reports that much of the rush to dump the dollar is largely seen as repercussions of the weaponization of the dollar to suit the foreign policy whims of the Biden administration, citing the financial sanctions imposed by the G7 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the decades of financial hardship placed on the people of Venezuela.

Central Banks continue to diversifying assets and dumping Treasury bonds and other dollar based assets in favor of commodities and growing currencies like the yuan. Globally, goods and services sold in dollars are going to get more expensive as the yuan and BRICS agreement picks up steam.

As the impact of the ongoing banking crisis begins to be felt at home, many Americans are shifting their priorities to protect their financial assets. This means we will continue to see a rapid shift of excess dollars into hard assets like gold, silver, land, ammunition and firearms and food in the coming months as more people prepare for further economic hardship.

COMEX silver and gold inventories are dropping as insiders ramp up the draining of physical precious metals from the vaults.

Some market analysts are predicting inflationary conditions to get worse as devaluing of fiat dollars accelerates following the Saudi decision to begin selling oil in other currencies. This is likely to lead to a ripple effect that will cascade to many other countries that rely on the dollar for settlement of global trade.

Last October, CEO of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon, the nation’s largest bank, warned investors that the country is heading into a recession this year that will be far worse than any in recent memory.

In December, he reiterated his warning, adding that the main risks to the economy may come from abroad, citing threats to the fracturing supply chain, high inflation, rising prices of commodities and the ongoing proxy war with Russia.

Last year, numerous executives and precious metals traders were convicted from JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and other large institutions in a long-term, ongoing price manipulation scheme that was intended to trick the markets and investors into wrongly believing that price movements in the metals markets were organic.

JP Morgan Chase, often cited as to be too big to fail, is reportedly holding massive gold derivative short positions that are potentially greater than the bank’s total assets. If the price of gold continues to rise, JPM may be forced into a situation in which they will need additional leverage to cover the shorts.

Price manipulation, corruption and unfair representation in the LBMA and other G7 controlled commodities market were just some of the many grievances voiced by Russia last year during the announcement of the Moscow World Standard.

Casual investors are beginning to see that one of the best ways to protect their long-term financial assets from the Federal Reserve imposing a consumer CBDC is to diversify their cash holdings and other liquid assets into silver and gold bullion.

Mainstream media has been reporting on the rapid dollarization occurring with varying attempts to denounce genuine fears as a conspiracy theory.

The Chinese Renminbi or yuan is the currency that would benefit most from removing the dollar as the reserve currency.

Posted on

Texas Bill Proposes Gold-Backed Digital Currency

FindBullionPrices.com

Elected officials from both the Texas Senate and House have proposed complementary bills to create a state issued digital currency option that would be backed with gold.

The State of Texas would hold gold in a trust require the state comptroller establish a digital currency that is fully backed by gold bullion for everyday transactions. The state issued digital currency would be fully redeemable for either fiat cash or gold.

The proposed digital fiat would be a legal alternative to Federal Reserve notes or any CBDC and shows strong leadership amongst the states in developing sound money principals.

There is growing interest across a variety of states to return to a gold standard.

The Goldback currency is a good example of a grass-roots level gold-backed specie. that is accepted for goods and services in Wyoming, Utah, New Hampshire and Nevada. Each foil note contains a fractional amount of gold based on the face value shown.

Goldbacks notes are available in a variety of denominations that are smaller than those typically found in fractional gold coins.

The Texas Bullion Depository

After the end of the Great Recession in 2012, elected officials sought to reassure Texans of the financial soundness of the state. The result is a state-of-the-art secure bullion depository that has been in operation just outside of Austin in Leander, TX.

The Texas Bullion Depository opened on June 1, 2018.

End the Fed

There has been a growing movement afoot amongst states to return to the notion of sound money as it’s described in the constitution.

Last year, the Fed announced a twelve week long trial of an interbank CBDC program amongst a variety of private banks and government agencies.

Last week, under the guise of the current banking crisis, policymakers at the Fed launched the FedNow service and will be requiring banks begin using it later this year.

There are many controversies surrounding the adoption of CBDC by the Federal Reserve. The long term goal of central bank digital currencies is to eventually remove all cash, coinage and paper money from the economy.

Removing cash from the economy and replacing it with a digital software token allows a central authority to control how you spend your money.

The Federal Reserve is the Central Bank of the United States. Many believe that the bank is owned by the US government. However, the Federal Reserve is a private bank that pays itself the profit of the interest payments on government debt.

In 1910, a group of elite bankers and politicians met in secret at a resort on a private island off the coast of Georgia and came up with the Aldrich plan which evolved into the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

Today, the Federal Reserve system is a series of twelve regional central banks that are overseen by a board of governors.

Each Reserve Bank is organized like a corporation. The member banks in each region own the capital stock of each regional reserve bank.

In simplest terms, the regional reserve banks are private companies that are given authority by the government to operate banking and economic activity on its behalf.

The reserve banks are instruments of the government and are neither wholly nor partially owned by the government. Employees are not civil service employees and the Fed continues to operate when the government shuts down.

There are currently several bills circulating in both the House and the Senate to block the Fed Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency in the United States.

Posted on

Preparing for the Impending CBDC Crisis

FindBullionPrices.com

Throughout the pandemic, the federal government’s ongoing dictation of seemingly bad policies was an intentional effort to upend the normal everyday lives of millions of people.

As has been pointed out, it is not a conspiracy theory to believe that the central bank intends to control the spending behavior of people using central bank programmable software tokens instead of currency.

The general manager of the banking cartel explicitly announced it to an audience of other central bank leaders during their annual meeting in 2020.

The Bank of International Settlements is an organization owned by its members, the Central Banks of 63 member countries, and acts as a self regulator.

The BIS is creator and establisher of the rules for banks to operate in the global ecosystem of international trade. They also have control over the SWIFT banking network, foreign currency exchange and other major parts of the global economy.

During the group’s annual meeting in 2020, the General Manager of the organization explained to the audience how CBDC will give the central bank absolute control over the rules, regulations and policies that will dictate how money is used down to the transaction level.

During the recorded videoconference he discusses how CDBC technology will be used to force changes in spending behavior amongst consumers and enforce consumer spending policies on behalf of the government.

Last year, Biden signed Executive Order 14067 in order to advance development of CBDCs to skirt push forward without Congressional approval. As usually, there has been a total lack of accountability or transparency.

So far, Federal Reserve and US Treasury have been working in relative secrecy, publishing only a small amount of vague and high-level papers and studies with several quietly announced project trials in conjunction with notable large global banks. Most of the press releases have come during times when other stories were the major focus of the mainstream media, such as the collapse of FTX.

At least one bill has been drafted by Congress in an attempt to prevent the Federal Reserve from weaponizing CBDC against US citizens. However, the rollout of central bank digital currencies is likely to happen soon if and when the Biden administration can attach it to a banking crisis like the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

More recent announcements show that the Fed and Biden Admin intend to roll out a CBDC even without the authority of Congress.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance told the attendees that a CBDC Working Group consisting of policy makers from a variety of agencies is developing an initial set of findings and recommendations to support the Biden administrations agenda.

Make no mistake, the central banks have made it crystal clear that they are coming for your money and will tell you how you can spend it. The move into CBDC in lieu of traditional currency is a political power grab with the goal of having further control of your life.

Nigeria’s Failed Experiment

Initially, the Nigerian government tried several soft approaches to encourage the adoption of CBDC. These included financial incentives such as offering discounts to taxi drivers and passengers to encourage use and adoption. All of which failed.

The government quickly turned to coercive measures once it became clear that the people weren’t interested.

The largest measures include the introduction of a new currency and devaluing the old currency along with adding restriction on cash withdrawals throughout the country. The plan included the issuance of new currency notes, but only enough to cover 85% of the current naira while promoting cashless transactions by limiting the use of cash for businesses.

Beyond banknote swap, the banking regulators placed policy restrictions limiting cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs to reduce the amount of cash in circulation. With limits of $225 on individuals and $1,110 on businesses to force CBDC adoption.

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said, “The destination, as far as I am concerned, is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria.”

The central bank began devaluing in the months before the switch while removing old notes from circulation leaving millions of Nigerians with no money or food.

Nigerians have violently rejected the new digital currency and cash restrictions as protests and riots have broken out outside of banks and spread throughout the country.

The war on cash and some form of crisis will bring on the introduction of CBDCs.

Precious Metals Stacking for CBDC Insurance

Gold and silver are the oldest and most trusted form of money. With all of the uncertainty in the economy, gold is safe haven from fiat and digital currency tokens.

Investing some of your cash in buying physical gold and silver bullion can help keep you in control of your financial future.

Posted on

Transitioning to Gold Backed Digital Currencies for Trade Settlements

FindBullionPrices.com

The push toward dedollarization that began after the 2008 financial crisis has taken hold in recent years.

Many central bank are preparing for the elimination of the dollar from international trade settlements in favor of local currencies and are preparing by stocking up on gold and other commodities.

Development of the BRICS+ basket currency began more than ten years, with reforming the global finance system at the top of the plan.

The EuroAsia alliance and the push for the Moscow World Standard, a gold market that is outside of the manipulation from the corrupt Western banking elite is seen as a key driver for adoption of a basket currency.

This week, the Iraqi central bank announced they are dropping the dollar and switching to the Yuan for their trade with China after the US Treasury forced stricter SWIFT transfer rules last year.

While the intent of the tighter rules was to curtail money laundering and to prevent the siphoning of dollars to heavily sanctioned countries. It is yet another political move that appears to have backfired.

Jamie Dimon seems to have lost faith in the Federal Reserve. During a recent interview with CNBC, the JP Morgan Chase CEO said that he believes the Fed has lost control of inflation, while suggesting that it is still possible to have a “soft landing” of the economy.

While the stock market appears to be having a fragile recovery since the market bottom at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns, the housing market has completely collapsed in record time.

As the rest of the world begins to transition to a gold-backed CBDC for international trade, the risk of out of control inflation to continue remains high and the chances of a soft landing for the economy is increasingly low.

The Federal Reserve has been piloting a number of different CBDC projects in recent months while recent legislation in Congress has been introduced to restrict the central bank from issuing any digital currencies to individuals.

In the long term, gold and silver preserve wealth and spending power while central bankers devalue fiat currency.

Even if the Fed is able to reduce inflation without destroying other sectors of the economy, the long term goal is to devalue the dollar by 2% annually with the inflation targets.

The global economy is shifting back towards some form of a gold standard. Everyone should be buying some physical gold and silver to have at home or in a secure location to be prepared for whatever happens this year.

The US Treasury continues to hold the largest gold bullion reserves. The January 31 report from shows 258,641,878.085 troy ounces, or roughly 8082.56 tons. According to some reports, 2,665 tons seized from citizens by FDR during the depression.

Storing physical gold and silver at home alongside firearms and other valuables is more common than you might think. If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it. Physical metals avoids counter-party risk.

Last year, the US Mint sold 980,000 troy ounces of gold eagle coins, a substantial drop from the 1,252,500 ounces that were sold in 2021.

Though 2022 saw an increase in sales of US Mint Gold Buffalo coins by nearly 60,000 troy ounces which shows that some gold bugs have been turning to .9999 fine gold.

Premiums on current year 1 oz Gold Eagle coins have fallen with online dealer premiums as low as 4.6% of gold spot price, and premiums on random year 1 oz Gold Buffalos are slightly higher from 5.14%.

Gold Eagles are minted from a 90% pure gold that is alloyed with small amounts of copper and silver. The addition of silver helps to gives these coins their unique color and luster.

Gold Buffalos are minted from .9999 pure 24k gold. The coins are beautifully sculpted and minted from gold that is refined from US mines.

Both coins each contain one troy ounce of pure gold.

Posted on

Gold Price Spikes to 6 Month High at Start of Year

FindBullionPrices.com

The spot gold price futures hit a six month high at the start of the year.

Rising expectations of a recession and a general decline in stocks and crypto have led to growing demand from central banks and investors.

Analysts from CNBC are anticipating precious metals price will rise, calling this year the “new secular bull market.”

Central banks bought record numbers of gold in the final quarter of 2022. Led by China reporting purchases of more than 300 tons of gold bars.

CNBC analyst Juerg Kiener, managing director and chief investment officer at Swiss Asia Capital, said last month that the current market conditions mirror those of 2001 and 2008.

“It is not going to be just 10 or 20%, I think I’m looking at a move which will really make new highs”.

Using data available from CME Group, analysts from FX Street see rising interest in the futures markets. The number of open interests in gold futures rose by more than 8k contracts for the third day in a row.

Miners are expecting bullish returns in 2023 as they expect the gold prices to catch up with inflation.

The Fed’s decision to hike interest rates higher and more frequently and in such reactionary manner despite experts predicting dire consequences.

Long time gold bug, Robert Kiyosaki is predicting that gold prices can reach $3,800 an ounce this year.

He’s also bullish on other metals, predicting that we will see silver prices will rise to $75 per ounce this year in a recent Tweet.

Dealer premiums on 1 oz gold bars have drop to as low as 2% in recent weeks.

Now is a great time for retail precious metals investors. Premiums on 100 oz silver bars have recently dropped as low as $1.49 per ounce over spot. This is similar to the premiums when shopping from online bullion dealers prior to the pandemic.

The FOMC committee is meeting. Powell’s remarks following the meeting in December indicate that the Fed is going to continue rate hikes this year, albeit at a slower pace. Today’s announcement is expected after 2:00.

Update:

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) is responsible for managing the key interest rates that drive the economy.

In December the Fed announced their decision to continue the aggressive rate hikes.

The meeting minutes that were released today provide some guidance on the Fed’s plans for 2023.

The Fed is expected to continue to raise interest rates this year as it attempt to reduce the rate of inflation towards a target of 2%. Albeit with smaller incremental increases.

Recent CPI data shows that prices suggests that inflation has slows to around 7.1%, down slightly from 7.7%.

Yet, egg prices have climbed more than 49% in recent months. Some videos circulating on social media show egg prices in some NYC stores approaching $10 per dozen.

It’s expected that prices of basic essentials are expected to continue to rise as the impact of the rate hikes start to ripple across the economy.

Spot gold price held onto some earlier gains, silver prices are down slightly on the news.

Posted on

New Global Gold Standard Emerging from Recession

FindBullionPrices.com

The dollar emerged as a reserve currency following World War II as part of the Bretton Woods Accord. This was due to the United States having the largest gold reserves at the time. Bretton Woods provided fixed gold prices that was pegged to the USD making it the central spoke for trade.

NPR did a report in 2019 that gives some history on the Bretton Woods agreement, the development of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund or other organizations involved in evangelizing the use of the dollar in international trade.

More About Bretton Woods

In 1971, economic conditions were not entirely different than they are today. At the time, the economy was suffering from a relatively high rate of inflation, the ongoing war in Vietnam led to significant budget deficit and mounting debt, and there had been a longstanding decline in the U.S. monetary gold stock, and a recent, sharp rise in external dollar liabilities held by central banks.

Corruption in government had also reached a tipping point which later led to Watergate, the Church Committee and other investigations.

In August of 1971, Nixon held a top-secret meeting at Camp David with his top financial and economic advisors that included the likes of Arthur Burns, John Connally, Paul Volker and others.

Together they created a strategy for a controversial policy that removed the dollar from the gold standard which disrupted the global economy.

Long term, the decision to remove the dollar from the gold standard led to a decline in central bank holdings that reached the lowest point around 2010.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, Central Banks have been following the lead of BRICS nations and continued their gold buying streak in 2022. Globally, central bank holdings have now reached their highest point since 1974.

The Biden Administration faces additional problems today that didn’t exist in 2008.

Russia began exchanging rubles for gold and requiring foreign nations to pay for gas and oil in rubles to flout US sanctions. Some of this has been factored into gold prices this year.

Recent news of Qatargate involving the arrests of several prominent members of the European Parliament is more evidence of the corruption ingrained in the dollarized financial system.

Although the origins of Bitcoin remain up for debate, the original cryptocurrency also developed in response to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis that resulted from the US recession.

Cryptocurrency ledgers provide a shared and public transaction record that could provide central banks with more transparency.

However, the adoption of CBDC as proposed by the G7 as a programmable currency is fraught with controversy. Much of this causes confusion with consumers who are already struggling with mass adoption of crypto.

The recent crash of the FTX crypto exchange highlights significant issues of corruption within the current system that continues to spread to other sectors of the economy. plus the evidence of the emergence of a global BRICS currency backed by the combined gold reserves of member nations are just two of the additional challenges.

Discussions of a BRICS mixed basket currency began to emerge following the global financial crisis in 2008. Which was triggered by lax lending standards, record amounts of consumer debt and other factors that fueled the first housing bubble.

BRICS countries have been in discussion to establishment of a new digital reserve currency that is a mix of member countries.

The BRICS reserve basket currency allows member nations to engage in trade bypassing the USD. The strength of their local currency will help to strengthen their influence in the basket.

Some economist see this as a real threat to the dollar as a global reserve currency, thus reducing the demand for dollars worldwide.

On a macro level many of these things are seen as good indicators of strong demand and long term upward movement in gold prices.



Posted on

NY Federal reserve launches CBDC “trial” on the heels of FTX collapse

FindBullionPrices.com
central bank digital currency

Several weeks ago, the New York Federal Reserve quietly launched a 12 week long trial of a CBDC “digital dollar” pilot program in partnership with global banking giants like Citigroup Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Mastercard Inc and Wells Fargo & Co.

The NYFR describes the project as an attempt to test the feasibility of using blockchain tokens and distributed ledger technology as a mechanism for settlement of liabilities.

This is one of many software and technology projects that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been developing through their New York Innovation Center.

The Biden administration has been attempting to take control over the digital assets markets through a combination of Executive Orders and enforcement with the hiring of 70,000 new IRS agents.

On March 9, 2022, Biden signed Executive Order 14143, titled “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets”.

Government agencies have been funding research projects at private institutions aimed at implementing a fully programmable digital currency such as those endorsed by the G7 and World Economic Forum (WEF).

What is the Federal Reserve New York Innovation Center?
The Federal Reserve Innovation Center is a group within the bank who’s mission is to collaborate on technology research, experimentation and prototyping with banking regulators, the banking industry, academia and international central banks, the Federal Reserve System, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, academia, and the private sector through technical research, experimentation, and prototyping.

The team is chartered to generated insights into high-value central bank-related opportunities, enabling stakeholders and the central bank community to enhance the functioning of the global financial system.

Much of the G7 are following recommendations for CBDC systems endorsed by the WEF that are designed to be centrally controllable and programmable which is the opposite of having a decentralized blockchain.

Back in 2019, the General Manager of the International Bank of Settlements openly spoke about their intent to use CBDC to control which products citizens will be allowed to spend their digital dollars.

The Federal Reserve New York Innovation Center is likely following suggestions endorsed and suggested by the WEF, IBS, G7 and other organizations that have no absolutely no legal authority over the US economy or any other economy.

According to data provided by CBDCTracker.org, more than 60 countries are currently researching or launching pilot programs using CDBC blockchain ledger technology.

Many of the political rank and file in Congress reportedly received donations from FTX and affiliated crypto organizations in the run up to the mid-term elections.


Republicans in Congress have already announced their intent to hold hearings on the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and into influence peddling by the White House.

In the current bankruptcy petition, the company discloses that it owes its top 50 creditors a total of $3.1 billion dollars but has yet to publicly disclose the list of names.

Shortly after signing EO 14143, former US President Bill Clinton and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair were both guest speakers at the Crypto Bahamas Conference.


Private Gold Ownership in the United States

During the pandemic the US Mint sold more ounces of gold, silver and platinum coins than ever before.

As a result of the pandemic, private ownership of gold and silver is now the highest it has been since Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933.

Looking at only cumulative bullion sales of the American Gold Eagle coin series, the US Mint has sold roughly 45.5 million troy ounces of gold eagles from 1986 until 2021.

So far in 2022, it’s reported that the US Mint has sold roughly 976,000 ounces of gold coins as of November.

There have been a variety of problems reported by the US Mint in recent years related to supply chain and planchets that have effected the production of both Gold and Silver bullion coins.

Many investors have been fleeing from the stock and crypto markets due to ongoing inflation, mass layoffs, rising interest rates and fears of a recession or worse. Millions of Americans continue to lose faith in the US economy as millions face layoffs the war in Ukraine drags on without any end in sight.

Buyers demand low premiums on gold and silver. Investors, preppers and many every day Americans continue to search for a safe haven investment as some lobby for a return to a gold-standard economy.

As of March 5 2021, the US Mint stores 147.3 million troy ounces of gold at Fort Knox, down from the highest highest historic gold holdings of 649.6 million ounces in December 31, 1941.

According to the US Mint more than 512.3 million troy ounces of gold has been removed from the Fort Knox Gold Repository since 1941.

According to weekly published reports by the Federal Reserve, roughly 20 million troy ounces is stored in the New York Federal Reserve system.

Monthly Gold Report data provided by the Department of Treasury shows 261,498,926.2 million troy ounces in their inventory, with roughly 147.6 million ounces being held in Fort Knox, 43.8 million in Denver, CO and 54.0 million in West Point, NY. The DoT reports gold holdings at the Federal Reserve to be around 13.5 million ounces.

Between 1941 and 2022, the Department of Treasury seems to have a discrepancy of roughly 388 million troy ounces of gold.

Maybe someone should be asking where did all the gold that was removed from Fort Knox go?

Blockchain Backed Gold Ownership

Many central banks that increased their gold holdings during the pandemic, including Russia, China and other BRICS nations are experimenting with blockchain technology and how it may be able to help their economy.

Bitcoin and other decentralized blockchain technologies are a perfect use case to establish trust amongst sovereign central banks and in developing and emerging nations to validate their gold, other precious metals and minerals holdings to allow for fair participation in world trade and wealth building.

The first mined Bitcoin’s Genesis block contains an encrypted message attached to the blockchain that reads, “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” 

Cryptocurrency technology was created in response to the crash of the financial markets in 2008.

The purpose behind the bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain movements have evolved over the last decade.

Most importantly, these technologies can enable trust for the banking and financial system that has been plagued by corruption and mistrust since Roosevelt helped the bankers at the Federal Reserve steal the gold from the American public in 1933.

Posted on

Weekly Precious Metals News and Gold Prices

FindBullionPrices.com

Gold, Silver and Platinum began trading higher in the lead up to the midterm elections.

There continues to be controversy surrounding the counting of votes in some states and precincts. Most mainstream media outlets have confirmed that the balance of power in the House of Representatives will shift across the aisle to the Republican party.

Gold prices surged leading into the midterm elections resulting from the state of the economy and the Biden administrations ongoing support for the war in the Ukraine.

Millions of Americans were already facing difficult economic times resulting from the lasting effects of problems caused by forced shutdowns and additional failed government policies during the pandemic.

The Biden Administration’s handling of the pandemic response is one of the leading factors that the mainstream media has blamed for the shift in control of congress to the Republican party following tabulation of election results.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury continue their strategy of increasing interest rates in an attempt to bring down the rate of inflation.

Global commodities markets, particularly those involved in the trading of precious metals such as gold and silver, and those involved in petroleum, oil and natural gas, have been a lot of unexpected price swings and short selling as traders look for opportunities among the market chaos.

The latest CPI from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that inflation and stagnant wage growth are two of the biggest ongoing problem for most working Americans.

October 2022 data released last week shows that all items index prices increased more than 7.7%, with the sharpest increases in food, housing, gasoline and fuel oil.

The price of fuel oil has surged to the highest peak since the 2008 Housing Crisis, leaving millions of underpaid Americans with concerns about how to pay for heat this winter.

The problems for the US economy continue to get worse as major companies announce mass layoffs to reduce their employee headcounts now that the midterm elections have been completed.

Crime continues to surge in major cities, particularly in States that are heavily controlled and governed by Democrats with growing homeless encampments and criminal gangs looking to exploit opportunities.

Bitcoin and crypto investors are beginning to realize that the current fiat based system that has been led by the Federal Reserve is not likely to provide the stimulus needed to bring about a full economic recovery in the short-term.
Many leading industry experts and executives have suggested that Blockchain technology can be implemented to assist central bankers with international trade and other economic growth with the support and agreement of foreign trade organizations that are backed by precious metals, particularly gold.

Representatives from countries that belong to the G20 are meeting this week in Indonesia to layout a strategy for global economic recovery.

Industry observers expect that many of the G7 countries will promote the use of CBDC as a mechanism to control the flow of digital and crypto currency between nations as a leading solution to the problems with the fiat and global credit system. https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-11-08/Gold-price-soars-on-short-covering-bargain-hunting-crypto-rumors.html

Financial experts continue to warn that the fallout from the FTX fiasco is likely to be bigger than the housing bubble and collapse that proceeded the recession and financial crisis that began in 2008

The collapse of FTX and the founder being investigated for related financial and election related crimes is beginning to shed some light on further corruption by government officials in the United States and Ukraine, with millions of dollars of military aid suspected of being laundered through various crypto exchanges being donated to hundreds of Democrat candidates and Soros funded lobbying organizations throughout the country.

Over the last few years central government banks have been adding tons of gold bars to their vaults while attempting to repatriate additional gold stored in foreign vaults. https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-11-08/Silver-holdings-in-London-vaults-drop-to-record-lows.html

Venezuela, which has had much of their gold reserves stored in vaults in the UK, United States and Canada, has been attempting to repatriate their gold bars since the Presidency of Hugo Chavez.

In 2012, Venezuela was able to repatriate some gold reserves, valued at roughly $9 billion at the time. Attempts to move an additional 14 tons of gold reserves in 2018 were refused by government officials in the United States due to economic sanctions against the Maduro presidency which continues to cause economic harm to millions of Venezuelans seeking asylum.

Global demand for gold and silver is stronger than ever, especially in Asia where gold is viewed as a store of family wealth.

The Perth Mint of Australia continues a record breaking year, with exports and sales of gold coins reportedly shipping more than 183,000 troy ounces of gold in October.

Random Year Canadian Maple Leaf 1 oz Silver Coins – available from Silver Gold Bull and other dealers from $30.29 per troy ounce.

The best price for Random Year Silver Eagle coins this week can be found on eBay.

Fractional gold bars maintain their popularity and intrinsic value with investors and stackers searching for some economic security. The most savvy investors use the Closest to Spot tools to find the best prices on fractional gold bars in sizes that range from 1 gram to 20 grams.

Posted on

Federal Reserve Votes to Raise Key Interest Rate .75%

FindBullionPrices.com

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee hiked the benchmark interest rate by 3/4 of a percentage point at the end of their two day meeting.

Ongoing failed attempts by the Biden administration and Congress to get worries about the economy and a recession out of the minds of voters leading into the mid-term elections are failing miserably as prices of everyday basics continue to soar for many already living paycheck to paycheck. 

Industry leaders, including JP Morgan Chase CEO are predicting the economy may take a turn worse than a recession. Mass layoffs have already been announced at many large companies across a variety of industries.

Despite economic sanctions against Russia by the LBMA, world leaders from Brazil, India and other mineral rich developing nations are looking towards the Moscow World Standard as an alternative precious metals exchange. 

In response the economic sanctions, Russia took steps to back the ruble with gold earlier this year. Leaders of developing nations are seeing how returning to a gold-standard economy may help deflect repercussions of the recession and other issues facing the US and Europe.

Key Points