Gold and What Moves it.

Egon von Greyerz tells King World News:

“I think this move will continue and we should see at least $2,000 by the end of March. It’s obvious why, since we last talked the Greek package has come and gone. Everybody who understands this knows it has failed.

"What central banks around the world are trying to do, the Titanic, the world economy, is sinking and they can’t even rearrange one deck chair. The one deck chair is Greece. Greece isn’t solved. In the end Greece will default.

"In the last eighteen months world money supply has gone up by $10 trillion. There is massive money printing taking place worldwide. So, central banks are doing this, but it is the wrong remedy because we are not going to solve anything by printing.

"The forest fire actually needs to burn the whole forest down. This what needs to happen to the whole world economy. We need to reset the world economy and start again. Iceland is the best example of that and this is what needs to happen to the whole world...."

Eric Sprott letter:

"2012 is proving to be the 'Year of the Central Bank'. It is an exciting celebration of all the wonderful maneuvers central banks can employ to keep the system from falling apart. Western central banks have gone into complete overdrive since last November, convening, colluding and printing their way out of the mess that is the Eurozone. The scale and frequency of their maneuvering seems to increase with every passing week, and speaks to the desperate fragility that continues to define much of the financial system today."

{Click the title and head over for the full analysis and letter from Eric Sprott}

Julian Phillips:

"So the euro is rising against all currencies but the dollar is rising against strong currencies too. It does not take the intelligence of the CIA to see that these currencies are being ‘assisted' to find these levels. Frankly, exchange rates have become a tool in international trade competitiveness, not a measure of value. If this was not clear to the world before, it is becoming clear on a day-to-day basis. History shows such management can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

"That's why gold remains the thermometer of the state of the monetary system and there's a fever a' coming!

"Put another way, something in the world's monetary system must reflect value and precious metals being the focal point of value the world over, will discount any games played with currencies, if left un-confiscated by government."

"The same dynamic that's driving energy prices is fueling the rise in gold and silver: Big time inflation concerns. With those about to get worse, the rise in the glitter stuff is set to continue.

"Looking at the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the People's Bank of China, the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank, these central banks have pumped the equivalent of nearly $7 trillion into the system over the last four years.

"Those levers have been pulled. That strategy has been tried. With the rich world drowning in $8 trillion in excess debt according to Credit Suisse estimates, more debt isn't the answer."

"You may feel because you’re retired, work for a big business, or a government worker this type of loss doesn’t relate to your situation, I’m sorry but you are wrong. When small businesses struggle bad things happen and these bad things are on a local level. Local unemployment increases, local loss of tax revenue, loss of local expansion, and worst of all, loss of a local business. When General Motors shutters a plant in Michigan the effects of such a closure are devastating but mostly within the plant community. When small businesses suffer on a larger scale, like today, this devastation affects communities across the board.

"You won’t find much for bailout or stimulus offered to small business and to be truthful the type of folks owning small businesses aren’t receptive to gov’t handout. They’ve built businesses from hard work, honesty, customer service, and by developing a business friendly reputation. As honorable as these traits are most small businesses fail to realize the level of wealth evaporation taking place. Their focus is on creative ways to keep doors open and squeeze a little profit out along the way. It’s sobering how little monetary value such a business has in today’s economy; I see little opportunistic changes anytime soon."

"In a relatively quiet trading day, the GOLD market rallied $25 after spending most of the PIT TRADING DAY attempting to break and set up a correction to the recent rally. Shorts ran for cover. WHY? Two stories that gave the rally a rationale:

"1. THE FED WAS RUMORED TO BE EXTENDING OPERATION TWIST BEYOND THE JUNE 2012 PERIOD

"2. A STORY IN THE NEW YORK TIMES “GROWING AIR OF CONCERN IN GREECE OVER NEW BAILOUT,” by RACHEL DONADIO."

Trader Dan:

"You can see from this longer term oriented chart, the significance of the round number of $1800. That is where the next focus is shifting and it will hold as much significance as $1750 did on the way up. Gold bulls have the wind at their back right now; the big question is how much money do they want to commit to the metal in terms of position size. Certainly they are making a strong play in silver right now which will tend to benefit the gold market as well." 

"The strike at Implats is ongoing for over a month now and has resulted in the loss of two lives, numerous injuries, reports of intimidation and damage to property.

"AMCU said the cause of the strike is that there are genuine complaints raised by employees caused by management failure and NUM's incapacity to deal with the issue of salary disparities.

"It is a well known fact that rock drill operators are the employees who are most exposed to risks due to the conditions they work under. Their lives are always in danger, yet they are paid slavery wages" said Mathunjwa. Slavery wages was defined as not being able to afford the basic daily necessities and send children for further education."

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  I keep asking myself, when is a deal not a deal?

"Let’s be frank here, Greece is going to default. In the end, it will be the best choice–not for the bankers but for the people. The bailout is really more debt put on the backs of the Greeks to help the bankers who made very bad loans. You want to see what I call a true headline that tells the real story? It comes from Graham Summers of Phoenix Capital. It says, “Greece Is Not Lehman 2.0 as I’ll Show You, Its Far Far Worse.” Now, that’s a headline you will not see on the mainstream media, but in this case, it’s probably a much better analysis of what is really going on. Summers says, “In plain terms, Greece racked up too big of a tab and simply doesn’t have the means of paying it. End of story. The world needs to realize this. Because Greece will default and it will default in a big way.”"

Trader Dan:

"Gold priced in terms of the British Pound is surging higher being reinforced in its upward trajectory by news that the Bank of England was further expanding its bond purchase program (Read this as its version of QE). This is more evidence that nearly the entirety of the Western World Major Central Banks are completely engaged in the process of adulterating their currencies."

Ben Davies tells King World News:

"A new player came into the market and that caught the market substantially offside. It started on Monday. The market was quiet but a lot of option activity was taking place in the market and then again on Tuesday in the physical (market).

"A bigger player (and a new player) came into the market and it’s a central bank. The fact is people don’t get what’s happening and that tells me the market is going higher.”

"Below is some more hard data where you won't find the much anticipated, 'any minute now', housing recovery. While the first chart shows the annualized new home sales sold data, which came in at meaningless 321K in January on expectations of 315K, and a meaningless drop from an upward revised 324K, all this shows is that 3 years after the "recovery", there is zero improvement in housing. In non-SAARed terms, there were just 22K homes sold in January. Naturally, this is to be expected because as long as the government continues to prevent true price discovery, there will be no real housing market. Which is just what the second chart shows: Completed houses for sale at the end of period dropped to 57K - this is the lowest point in the 40 years of this data series." {click the title to go over and see the rest along with the 2nd chart}

$15 TRILLION is equivalent to the the federal debt of the U.S. Treasury Department. Lord James of Blackheath has spoken in the House of Lords holding evidenc...

{Currency Wars, folks. Currency Wars}

"In American politics, it takes an enormous amount of money to win campaigns, and the rise of the "Super PACs" is allowing the wealthy to exert even more influence over the political process than they did before. When you examine the results of federal elections over the past several decades, you quickly discover that the candidate that raises the most money almost always wins. Wealthy individuals are limited by law as to how much money they can give directly to a political campaign, but there are no limits on how much money they can give to Super PACs. During the 2012 election season, some of these Super PACs actually have more money than the campaigns of the candidates that they support do. Buying the vote is not illegal in America, and these Super PACs are buying huge amounts of advertising in key states. Unfortunately, most Americans have never learned to think for themselves. Instead, they let the television do much of their thinking for them. If their trusted friend, the television, tells them to vote a certain way, then that is what they are likely to do. Super PACs are much more likely to run negative ads than the actual candidates are, and we have already seen very negative ads dramatically move the poll numbers in some of the states. Sadly, as long as very negative ads keep working people are going to keep using them."

"Well, first of all, I find highly unlikely that, after a four-week trading range, the metals won't fall back for a test of what-should-now-be support. This means the silver will fall back to 34.40 or lower and gold will fall back to 1765. IF those levels then hold as support, the metals will spring higher and begin The Battle Royale. This is likely what will happen with gold where demand and fundamentals are so strong that all dips should and will be bought.

"Silver, on the other hand, might still be subject to a brief but sharp correction for the reasons mentioned above. Let me state this clearly : IT DOESN'T HAVE TO. THE FUNDAMENTAL CASE FOR SILVER IS EXTRAORDINARILY STRONG AND I STILL EXPECT MUCH HIGHER PRICES."

Julian Phillips:

"There has been a palpable change in the tone of the gold and silver markets in the last day. This tone reflected markets taking their eyes off Greece and looking at the ‘big' picture. The euro is climbing showing attention has moved away from there.

"Growth in the U.S. is there but nowhere near as vigorous as the media would have us believe. Growth in China is lower than double figures reflecting the anemic global economy. Growth in Europe is non-existent while the E.U. is still in recession. The weaker members of the E.U. are moving towards a depression.

"So while Greece has gained a reprieve, national debt levels worldwide are rising as a percentage of GDP because government revenues are falling as a result of poor growth."

Trader Dan: "Bulls have their sights set on putting a handle of "18" in front of the gold price. The Central Bank pals - the bullion banks - are going to try to prevent that. If the bulls can keep gold above $1780, they should be able to take out the bullion banks."