Letting bubbles inflate and then fighting them when they burst actually worked for a while. That’s what makes it dangerous. It worked in the ’90s. But you shouldn’t read too much into this: This period was assisted by unusually favorable conditions. From 1981 until early last decade, commodities were in a bear market after a bubble in the ’70s and early ’80s. And interest rates were falling throughout the ’80s and ’90s, too. They almost never stopped falling. That made Fed policy look like it was working.

Bubbles can still happen without expansionary monetary policy. In the 19th century, you had bubbles in railroads, for example. But today, the Fed has created a bubble in everything — in every single asset class. This is an achievement even for a central bank. Stocks. Commodities. Bonds. Real estate. Gold. Everything goes up when the Fed prints. The only asset that goes down is the U.S. dollar.

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The London Bullion Market Association has just taken the highly unusual step of blocking access to statistics relating to the trading activities of its member bullion banks. This information has been available to the public since 1997 but as of this week it is available only to LBMA members. (See http://www.lbma.org.uk.)

I have recently written a series of exposes of the LBMA (see References 1-4 below) using the association’s own data to show that the LBMA’s bullion banks are operating on a “fractional reserve” basis. My analysis indicates that the bullion banks are holding only 1 real ounce for about every 45 ounces of gold that they have sold, a reserve ratio of just 2.3 percent

At the March 25 public hearing of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on precious metals futures markets I cited the LBMA’s own statistics to label the “unallocated gold” accounts of the bullion banks as a Ponzi scheme. (See Reference 3 below.) There were bullion bank representatives at the hearing but no one expressed an objection. That hearing was videotaped and posted at the CFTC’s Internet site but the bullion banks have not made any public statement rebutting what I said. In fact at that hearing Jeffrey Christian, CEO of the CPM Group, acknowledged that what is widely called the “physical market” is in reality a largely “paper market” trading gold and silver as if they are financial assets and not physical metals. Christian stated that 100 ounces of paper gold are traded for every 1 ounce of physical gold.

…Read rest of article at GATA

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Uploaded by MaxJordano. – News videos hot off the press.

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If you haven’t listened already, be sure to catch interviews with Bill Fleckenstein, Peter Schiff, John Williams, Matt Simmons and Ben Davies.

US Senate Candidate, Founder of Euro Pacific Capital & Successful Author (NEW BOOK “How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes”). Schiff tears apart the ‘recovery’ and points to a precipitous decline in the US dollar. Don’t listen at your own risk.
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Bill Fleckenstein

President of Fleckenstein Capital, a money management firm based in Seattle. The outspoken critic of Alan Greenspan rails on the mess that the money printers have left us.
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John Williams

Founder of Shadow Government Statistics Newsletter and Specialized Economic Consulting Services: Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting. A resolute independent, Williams cracks open our suspicions that the mainstream media is rigged.
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Matt Simmons

Founder and Chairman of the Board of the Ocean Energy Institute & Former Chairman Emeritus of Simmons & Company International. Simmons presents some scary thoughts on the BP disaster…putting his own reputation on the line. Let’s pray that Simmons isn’t right.
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Absolute Must Listen: Ben Davies

CEO of Hinde Capital – Ben ran trading for RBS Greenwich Capital in London where he managed a macro portfolio. Davies presents the stunningly convincing case for gold.
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Jeffery Saut

Managing Director & Chief Investment Strategist for Raymond James – Jeffrey known for his insightful market commentary is a regular on Wall Street Week, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and more. A fantastic interview for a surprisingly opinionated CIS of a mainstream broker – Saut has been a leading thinker in the investments industry for a long, long time.
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James Turk

Chairman and Founder of Goldmoney.com – James has written “The Freemarket Gold & Money Report,” an investment newsletter since 1987. Turk makes the ultimate case for the barbaric relic, highlighting its true value vs. its price.
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Source: KingWorldNews

Grantham Summer Essays

While some have hastily argued this makes a bearish case for gold, what analysts must understand is that the gold has not hit the free market, and is unlikely to do so even in the event of a counterparty default. Regardless, markets reacted negatively to the discovery – partly because of the added degree of uncertainty.

Moe from: Financial Times

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Just make sure you have a tall drink to lean on as this might get gloomy.