Barry Stuppler

China has the deepest historical appreciation of the dangers of paper money and yet they embrace it like there is no tomorrow. Have they, like their Western contemporaries, learnt nothing from history? Or are they in fact not only learning from history but from the current mess they see on the other side of the world?

Perhaps, this was all part of the reform process. When it comes to their economic future, China’s holdings of US debt and their covert gold investment program are . . . .

The Silver Institute today released a  report, The Outlook for Silver Industrial Demand,  that examines the current and future outlook for global industrial silver demand.  The 14-page report features an economic outlook, as well as current and future silver industrial demand projections in all the main categories of silver industrial demand through 2014 . . . .

This year the Federal Reserve and FDIC circulated a letter to banks that proposes to harmonize US regulatory capital rules with Basel III. BASEL III is an accord that tells a bank how much capital it must hold to safeguard its solvency and overall economic stability. It’s a global standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing, and market liquidity risk. At the top of the proposed changes is the new list of “zero-percent risk weighted items,” which now includes “gold bullion,” right after “cash.” That’s the part to take notice of . . . .

Global gold supplies contracted 2% year-on-year in the third quarter to 1,188.3 metric tons due to lower mine production and less recycling of scrap gold, the World Gold Council said Thursday . . . .