News Articles

Fool’s gold? CFTC says 12 firms sell phantom metals.

The CFTC is cracking down on firms playing up demand for metals during these uncertain economic times.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday, it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against 12 firms and their executives for fraudulently marketing illegal, off exchange retail commodity contracts . . . .

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 . . . .

Whether you were a supporter or critic of President Obama during his re-election campaign, his victory will guarantee a significant increase in the value of Gold and Silver coins and bullion for another four years . . . .

A newly re-elected President Barack Obama will continue encouraging loose monetary policies that will fuel inflation rates down the road, and investors need to get ready now, said famed commodities investor Jim Rogers . . . .

Steelmaking raw materials stand to benefit if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins next week’s U.S. election, while a victory for President Barack Obama would aid gold, Alfa Bank said . . . .

Where does Germany keep its gold reserves? It might sound like a silly question. In Germany, of course. Probably in a very deep vault somewhere in Frankfurt, surrounded by the best security systems that Teutonic technical brilliance can create. As it turns out, however, that is the wrong answer . . . .

As the US presidential election draws closer, many continue to wonder how the outcome will affect financial markets. Among gold market observers, there has been speculation about how the metal might react if Mitt Romney wins. Many have hypothesized that the more conservative Romney might . . . .