Wednesday, November 19, 2008

From an email sent by Le Metropole Cafe, newsletter for GATA:


Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Wachovia Securities this month alerted its brokers and clients that it no longer would purchase precious metals for brokerage accounts, only shares in precious metals exchange-traded funds. In an explanation given to its brokers, Wachovia said the precious metals markets "are illiquid with wide bid/ask spreads and minimal transparency......"

This implies that real metal is awfully hard to get these days, and maybe that some brokerages would prefer that their clients not get it.


CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

13 comments:

D! said...

Gold is an old paradigm. And judging by most peoples' reactions it seems nearly everyone is willing to accept it again and again as a controlling mechanism. This is greed, and it is fear. You are afraid that if you don't have the shiny shit in your possession you wont be able to live. My entire point was embracing responsibility and taking effective action towards relieving the TPTB of their "burden" of rulership. Neither them or the systems the employ and enforce are concerned with the creation of free and happy populace. They treat human rights as a privilege, ready to strip it away at a moments notice based on their own judgement. And don't fool yourself into thinking that anything, absolutely ANYTHING belongs to you under the declaration of martial law. All you possess at that point is the choice shutting the fuck up or getting shot - oh yes! Let's keep playing by their rules sounds GREAT! Somewhere some asshole is singing "I'm proud to be an American..." Yes, shorebreak get involved in a community - change the way you live, expand your mind. If you are part of a mostly self-sufficient community some toolbox walking into town with sacks full of the stuff would seem absurd, people would probably barter with him out of pity. I agree that it "takes more than ideas to raise and protect a family." Don't delude yourself into thinking that just because someone has "ideas" that's all he possesses. I am a full-fledged pessimist/realist when it comes down to it. This is so because I am yet to see what giving the positive benefit of the doubt has done for the generations before me. Rulers have put stipulations into place to keep themselves there at all costs, they depend on your brand new evolutionary adaptation to bend over and take it. . . "proud to be an American where at least I can be free(ly stripped, raped, and sodomized in the name of Homeland Security).

Currency could be bullets and blueberries, far more useful anyway.

Los Doggies - there are hand water pumps that can reach over 1000' down, for a lot less than the solar pumps.

Everybody should read "Patriots Guide to the Coming Collapse" by James W. Rawles. A very sobering prediction of how things could likely play out.

businessman said...

GoldMoney.com is buying gold and silver for their clients at or close to spot prices right now. They have an interesting approach to owning gold and silver and James Turk, their founder, is very well-respected within the precious metals industry:

http://www.GoldMoney.com

In addition, Jenna mentioned Franklin Sanders at:

http://www.the-moneychanger.com

Franklin was in the movie "America: Freedom to Fascism" along with Mike, and he publishes a precious metals newsletter that has articles on subjects including organic farming in it.

If you haven't seen the movie "America: Freedom to Fascism" yet it's well worth the viewing. You can see it at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173

Rice Farmer said...

Citigroup buying back remaining SIV assets
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN1933094420081119

gildone84 said...

So even if you want gold it's getting hard to get. It seems to me that ordinary folk are stuck between a rock and a hard place. We can hang on to paper assets that are losing value (which makes no sense) or if we can get it, buy precious metals which can be confiscated by the federal government. What to do?

On another note, great article on the collapse of Wall Street and the lies and deceipt that contributed to it:

The End
by Michael Lewis:
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/11/11/The-End-of-Wall-Streets-Boom

Key Excerpt:

"But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage. In fact, there was no mortgage at all. “They weren’t satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn’t afford,” Eisman says. “They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That’s why the losses are so much greater than the loans. But that’s when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?”

Andrew_The_Fox said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQbs.CeeLMrs&refer=home


hmmmm

Gools said...

I bought silver and a bit of gold several years ago knowing about peak oil, knowing about limits to growth, (I've also bought and read Rubicon) I knew that the "markets" were unsustainable etc.

I've been waiting for my payday for about four years!! The recent market downturn has cut my portfolio by over 50% and I was hoping that my precious metals position would cushion that blow TO NO AVAIL.

Ted Butler, Jim Puplava etc. have repeatedly said that silver and gold (and related stocks) are a great buy ever since I started reading them and listening to the FSN several years ago.

With all of the craziness in the market lately I fully expected gold to rise not fall. Same with silver. What gives? If the manipulation is that powerfull then why invest in the first place? When will my knowledge and preparation/positioning (and all of the grief I've gone through with friends and family trying to explain this stuff) finally pay off?

I'm tired of hearing how gold and silver are the end all and be all of investing these days. WHEN! WHEN!! WHEN!!! will I see some results!!

I'm tired of watching things that are supposed to go up in times like these fall in value.

Not so patiently waiting (anymore)...
.

businessman said...

From Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing under President George H.W. Bush, on what just happened at the G20 Summit:

http://solari.com/blog/?p=1823

Nelson said...

Sorry for your situation, Michel - I'll take the gold off your hands, for, ohhh, $25 over spot? Howzat sound? j/k

Ruby said...

Michael, One doesn't buy gold to realize huge profits, although it can occur. One exchanges paper for metal to protect against inflation, to exit the obscenity that is FRNs, and have fun playing with shiny beautiful coins that sparkle in the light.

It's crushing to see the corruption that goes unchecked in the markets causing the price suppression of metal, but the confiscation of your paper through inflation is an even worse crime.

A time will come when no more suppression is possible by TPTB, and demand for metals will overwhelm the supply (as it's already doing "unofficially"). Then, as Voltaire said "Paper money always goes to its intrinsic value - zero". (something like that)

Then, our community connections, your own garden, and little pile of metal are gonna seem real good for sure.

brell said...

check out ole AIG

http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/10.15.08/news-0842.html

Rice Farmer said...

What's Frightening Saudis and Iranians into Buying Gold?
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7388.html

Read especially the section on the cargo trade.

Anonymous said...

I'd agree that Gold prices aren't transparent. It wasn't long ago that European banks notified folks that they were going to ration gold to drive up the price.

Honestly, I truly believe banks can drive up the price of gold and then let it plummet so they can buy it back cheap only to let it rise again.

The bible says: "though shall have no false gods" and that's why the green stuff or the gold stuff is off limits.

trobador said...

MIKE, SORRY TO INSIST BUT AFTER HAVING RED ALL OF THE COMMENTS POSTED IN THE LAST 3 WEEKS, I MUST INVITE YOU TO GEAR YOUR CONTACTS TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT-CONSOLIDATION OF NETWORKS WHERE MEMBERS CAN ASSIST EACH OTHER.

THE GOLD WILL BE FOR THE VERY FEW SO WE NEED TO FOCUS ATTENTION ON WHAT CAN SAVE, PROTECT AND FEED THE GENERATIONS TO COME. A CHANGE OF PARADIGM IS REQUIRED HERE.

I will leave you with a wise comment sent by one of your bloggers Peter J. Nickitas:

Consider Camus's "The Plague". Those who denied the plague's existence died fast. Those who denied the plague's magnitude died later. Those who invested too much in their own constructed legal or moral reality (i.e., the magistrate and the archbishop) died later. Those who looked at the danger squarely in the eye (Dr. Rieux), those who did their job (the assistant clerk), and those who loved deeply (the journalist), survived. The black marketeer (Cottard) also survived, but he went mad as soon as the plague lifted. Let us use our ears to hear, our eyes to see, do our jobs,look forward to a new day after Peak, and love deeply. That does not guarantee success. It increases the odds of success and enables one to meet genuine people on the way.

Peace on you Mike and on your friends and colleagues.


Consider Camus's "The Plague". Those who denied the plague's existence died fast. Those who denied the plague's magnitude died later. Those who invested too much in their own constructed legal or moral reality (i.e., the magistrate and the archbishop) died later. Those who looked at the danger squarely in the eye (Dr. Rieux), those who did their job (the assistant clerk), and those who loved deeply (the journalist), survived. The black marketeer (Cottard) also survived, but he went mad as soon as the plague lifted. Let us use our ears to hear, our eyes to see, do our jobs,look forward to a new day after Peak, and love deeply. That does not guarantee success. It increases the odds of success and enables one to meet genuine people on the way.