14 May 2016 — Saturday
YESTERDAY in GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM and PALLADIUM
[NOTE: After eleven months without missing a column, I’m taking next week off, as we have a house full of company coming from overseas—and there’s just no way that I’m going to be able to spend the 7 to 8 hours it takes to put together each daily column. But if something does go ‘bump’ in the night during the week, I’ll have some charts, along with a few comments as well, but they will be very brief. — Ed]
The gold price rallied in fits and starts in Far East trading, before getting capped minutes after 2 p.m. HKT on their Friday afternoon. At that juncture it was up 12 bucks the ounce. It chopped sideways from there until 1 p.m. BST in London, which was twenty minutes before the COMEX open in New York. ‘Da boyz’ spun their algorithms, or spoofed the price lower, peeling 10 dollars off the price by 8:35 a.m. EDT. The absolute low tick came at the London p.m. gold fix, or very shortly thereafter—and the price then rallied quietly until around 2:30 p.m. in the after-hours market. From there it chopped sideways into the close.
The high and low ticks were reported as $1,277.70 and $1,264.00 in the June contract.
Gold finished the Friday session in New York at $1,272.80 spot, up $9.60 from Thursday’s close. Net volume was just over 146,000 contracts—and roll-over volume out of the June contract wasn’t overly heavy.
Here’s the 5-minute gold tick chart courtesy of Brad Robertson once again. As you can tell, the volume that mattered began to appear shortly after 6 a.m. Denver time on the chart below—and shortly before the 8:20 a.m. EDT COMEX open. Volume dropped to background once the rally in after-hours ended at 2:30 p.m. in New York, which was 12:30 p.m. MDT on the chart below.
The vertical gray line is midnight in New York, noon the following day in Hong Kong—and don’t forget to add two hours for EDT. The ‘click to enlarge‘ is a must here.
The price action in silver, was similar in most ways to what happened in gold, with the only glaring difference being the fact that silver’s low tick came a minute or so before 9 a.m. in New York trading. Silver then chopped higher until 11:15 a.m. EDT—-and wasn’t allowed to do much after that.
The high and low ticks in this precious metal were recorded as $17.20 and $16.85 in the July contract.
Silver finished the Friday session at $17.08 spot, up 13 cents from Thursday’s close. Net volume was a hair under 42,000 contracts.
Here’s the New York Spot Silver [Bid] chart from yesterday, so you can see how quiet the price action was starting at, or shortly after 11 a.m. EDT.
‘Da boyz’ worked platinum over the same way they did gold and silver—and it closed up only 4 bucks on the day at $1,049 spot.
Ditto for palladium, except it didn’t recover much after its low tick was set at the London p.m. gold fix —and it closed at $591 spot, down a dollar from Thursday’s close.
The dollar index closed late on Thursday afternoon in New York at 94.16—and when it opened later, it traded flat until the ramp job began at 2 p.m. HKT on their Friday afternoon. That lasted until 8:30 a.m. in London—and then it moved a bit lower until a few minutes after the COMEX open—and at that point it added 30 basis points in just a few minutes. Most of the gains were in by the London p.m. gold fix, which was 10 a.m. EDT in New York—and it quietly sold off from there, as the dollar index closed higher by 45 basis points at 94.61. The high tick of the day was 94.85.
Here’s the 6-month U.S. dollar chart—and you can see that the index touched its 50-day moving average on yesterday’s high tick print. But as you can also tell, this rally is getting lots of help from the usual ‘gentle hands’.
The gold stocks opened unchanged—and rallied to their respective highs around 11:15 a.m. in New York trading—and then they began to weaken from there. The HUI closed up only 1.41 percent.
The silver equities also rallied until shortly after 11 a.m. EDT—and then they chopped more or less sideways until shortly after 2 p.m. At that point, they began to slide—and Nick Laird’s Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed higher by the same 1.41 percent. Click to enlarge.
For the week, the HUI closed down 2.06 percent—and the ISSI closed higher by 3.25 percent. Year-to-date the HUI is up 99.2 percent—and the ISSI is up 124 percent.
The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 28 gold and 8 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the COMEX-approved depositories on Tuesday. In gold, the lone short/issuer was HSBC USA out of its own account—and the two biggest long/stoppers were no surprise—Canada’s Scotiabank and JPMorgan with 20 and 5 contracts out of their respective in-house [proprietary] trading account. In silver, there were three different short/issuers, but the two “usual suspects” were the long/stoppers. JPMorgan with 6 contracts for its own account—and Scotiabank picked up the other two. The link to yesterday’s Issuers and Stoppers Report is here.
Month-to-date JPMorgan has stopped 1,016 COMEX silver contracts for its own account—and Canada’s Scotiabank has stopped 344 contracts for its own account as well. And I know for sure that Ted will have a goodly amount to say about the May delivery situation in both gold and silver in his weekly review this afternoon.
The CME Preliminary Report for the Friday trading session showed that gold open interest in May declined by 53 contracts, leaving an incredible 1,141 still open. This is a huge amount for what is not a traditional delivery month for gold. The daily delivery report on Wednesday evening showed that 73 gold contracts were posted for delivery on Monday, so this means that 73-53=20 COMEX gold contracts were added to the May delivery month. Silver o.i. in May fell by 149 contracts—and since Wednesday’s daily delivery report showed that 119 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Monday, it means that 149-119=30 short/issuers in silver were let off the hook by the long/stoppers because they didn’t have any physical silver backing their short positions. There are still 759 silver contracts open in May.
Despite the fact that the gold price has been edging mostly lower over the last two weeks, physical gold continues to pour into GLD. Yesterday, an authorized participant added another 191,068 troy ounces of the stuff. Since May 1, there has been 1.56 million troy ounces of gold added to GLD, with no withdrawals.
And as of 8:54 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV once again. Since May 1, there has only been one deposit into SLV of 1,807,390 troy ounces. But during the same time period, there has been 3,741,060 troy ounces withdrawn.
I know for sure that Ted Butler will have something to say about “all of the above” in his weekly commentary to his paying subscribers this afternoon.
There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint yesterday. Month-to-date the mint has sold 22,500 troy ounces of gold eagles—10,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes—and 2,058,000 silver eagles. Since retail sales are lousy just about everywhere in North America, Ted’s “big buyer” theory is still fully intact, as it’s an excellent bet that whatever John Q. Public isn’t buying, is disappearing in the hands of JPMorgan—and some of their clients.
There was virtually no in/out activity in gold over at the COMEX-approved depositories on Thursday. Nothing was reported received—and only one gold bar weighing 104 troy ounces was shipped out of HSBC USA. It almost goes without saying that I won’t be linking that activity.
But it was an entirely different story in silver, as Thursday’s activity was the highest it’s been in quite some time—and for the week it was pretty active in total as well. On Thursday the depositories reported receiving 1,750,376 troy ounces—and shipped out 1,465,084 troy ounces. You’ll have to click on the link below to see it all, but I will point out that JPMorgan picked up another 599,383 troy ounces, which was about the same amount they received on Wednesday. As Ted has mentioned on several occasions over the last month or so, JPMorgan is still owed 1,076 silver contracts that it stopped in the March delivery month—and these two shipments [greatly delayed—and probably due to difficulty in finding large quantities of physical metal] most likely represent the first two shipments of the approximately 5.4 million troy ounces owed. I know for sure that Ted will have something to say about this as well. The link to this action is here—and it’s worth a quick look if you have the interest.
It was a big day over at the COMEX-approved gold kilobar depositories in Hong Kong on their Thursday, as they reported receiving 4,177 kilobars—and shipped out 3,108 of them. All of the activity was at Brink’s, Inc. once again—and the link to that, in troy ounces, is here.
The Commitment of Traders Report for positions held at the close of COMEX trading on Tuesday was a split decision. There was slight deterioration in the commercial net short position in silver, but a decent improvement in the short position in gold.
In silver, the Commercial net short position increased by a smallish 1,138 COMEX contracts, which is only 5.7 million troy ounces of paper silver. They arrived at this by selling 1,861 long contracts, but they also decreased their short position by 723 contracts—and the difference between those two numbers is the change for the reporting week. The commercial net short position is an eye-watering 458 million troy ounces of paper silver, which works out to 199 days of world silver production—more than six months. This is another new record.
I didn’t talk to Ted yesterday, so I don’t have the break down of the three groups of traders, but with such a small weekly change, any internal changes in these three categories would not be material, although I could be proven wrong. But I doubt very much that the short position in JPMorgan has moved much off the 25,000 contract mark.
Under the hood in the Disaggregated COT Report the Managed Money traders added 4,574 contracts to their already incredible net long position. They did this by purchasing 5,720 long contracts, but the also added 1,146 short contracts—and the net of those two number is the 4,574 net increase in the Managed Money long position. The other big change was in the Nonreportable/small trader category as the increased their net short position by 3,258 contracts. Although the changes in the Legacy COT Report weren’t overly large, that certainly wasn’t the case in the Disaggregated Report.
Here’s the 3-year COT chart for silver. Click to enlarge.
In gold, the commercial net short position declined by a respectable 9,905 COMEX contracts, or 991,000 troy ounces. This came about as they added 6,567 contracts to their long position, plus they covered 3,338 short positions—and the total of those two numbers is the net change for the reporting week. The commercial net short position is down to 28.50 million troy ounces, which is still a monstrous and ugly number.
Under the hood in the Disaggregated COT Report, the Managed Money traders sold 2,060 longs—and they added 5,644 short contracts, for a total weekly change of 7,704 contracts, which was a goodly chunky of the change in the commercial net short position. And, like in silver, the rest of the big changes were in the Nonreportable/small trader category, as they increased their net short position by 3,155 contracts.
Here’s the 3-year COT chart for gold. Click to enlarge.
I certainly wasn’t happy to see the Commercial net short position in silver become more extreme that it already was—and on top of that, watching the Managed Money traders go either more obscenely long than they already are. We’re still locked and loaded for an engineered price decline that will take your breath away, but for the moment, JPMorgan et al are just marking time.
Ted is still of the opinion—and rightly so—that we’ll see one of two scenarios unfold: a correction of some type before the ‘big move’ up—or we break out to the upside from here, as the Big 8 get over run. All we can do is watch—and await developments.
Here’s Nick Laird’s “Days to Cover” chart updated with yesterday’s COT data for positions held at the close of COMEX trading on Tuesday. It shows the days of world production that it would take to cover the short positions of the Big 4 and Big 8 traders in each physically traded commodity on the COMEX. Click to enlarge.
As I say in every Saturday column—the short positions of the Big 4 and 8 traders in silver continues to redefine the meaning of the words ‘obscene’ and ‘grotesque.’ This week the Big 4 are short 149 days [5 months] of world silver production—and the ‘5 through 8’ traders are short an additional 71 days of world silver production—for a total of 220 days, which is 7+ months of world silver production, or 506 million troy ounces of paper silver held short by the Big 8.
And it should be pointed out here that in the COT Report above, the Commercial net short position in silver is 458 million troy ounces. So the Big 8 hold a short position larger than the net position—and by a goodly amount—48 million troy ounces! That’s how grotesque, twisted, obscene—and dangerous—this COT situation in silver has become—and gold’s not far behind. One glance at the above chart tells all.
And as an aside, the two largest silver shorts on Planet Earth—JPMorgan and Canada’s Scotiabank—are short about 107 days of world silver production between the two of them—and that 107 days represents around 72 percent [almost three quarters] of the length of the red bar in silver in the above chart. The other two traders in the Big 4 category are short, on average, about 21 days of world silver production apiece.
You couldn’t make this stuff up—and the CFTC and the CME Group don’t do a thing! Nor do the miners that we own shares in. How did it come to this?
I have a very decent number of stories for you today—and I hope you have time in what’s left of your weekend to read the ones that interest you.
CRITICAL READS
Nordstrom Plummets After Reporting Terrible Earnings, Slashing Guidance
After many prominent blow ups in the retail and consumer space in the past week, moments ago Nordstrom was the latest casualty of the US consumer’s unwillingness to spend money when the company reported Q1 EPS of $0.26, missing consensus estimates of $0.46 by nearly half, and about a third of what the company earned last year despite relatively flat revenues of $3.25 billion which also missed expectations of $3.29 billion. Comparable sales dropped -1.7% on estimates of an unchanged print.
The one good thing about JWN is that the company did not blame a stronger dollar (because it wasn’t in Q1), nor weather, but instead admitted the problem: lower sales. To wit:
“Our first quarter results were impacted by lower than expected sales. In response we have made further adjustments to our inventory and expense plans,” said Blake Nordstrom, co-president, Nordstrom, Inc. “As the pace of change in retail continues to accelerate, we remain committed to serving customers by taking steps that will continue to meet their expectations while driving profitable growth.”
The bottom line, of course, is that just like all the other retailers, Nordstrom is merely suffering from the same reason all the other retailers are getting crushed in Q1 — a U.S. consumer who simply refuses to spend. Since that same consumer accounts for two thirds of US GDP, the Federal Reserve has a major problem on its hands.
This worthwhile news item put in an appearance on the Zero Hedge Internet site at 4:20 p.m. on Thursday afternoon EDT—and it’s the first of two offerings from David Perks. Another link to this story is here.
This Won’t End Well – Business Inventories Signal Recession Imminent
Autos & parts inventories-to-sales ratios soared to 2.30x from 2.18x — levels that have only been higher during the financial crisis. This, combined with a rise in clothing inventories to sales, held overall business inventories at their highest to sales since the crisis and deep in pre-recessionary territory.
Retail inventories rose 1.0% MoM despite a 0.3% drop in sales (with motor vehicles inventories up 2.3% as sales tumbled 3.2%) leaving the inventories to sales ratio at cycle highs…
This 1-chart Zero Hedge news item showed up on their website at 10:11 a.m. EDT on Friday morning—and it’s the second contribution in a row from David Perks. The chart is certainly worth a quick look.
David Stockman CNBC Interview: Get Out of the Casino—2% Upside, 40% Downside
Former Reagan OMB Director David Stockman talks Trump and the economy, with CNBC’s Jackie DeAngelis and the Futures Now Traders.
This 10:07 minute CNBC video clip appeared on David’s website yesterdays sometime—and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it.
Gundlach: “I See the S&P Going to 1600”, Bashes Hillary Clinton
In what is now a weekly tradition for the new bond king, overnight DoubleLine’s Jeff Gundlach spoke to Reuters’ Jenn Ablan following his periodic investor conference call, to discuss such things as the Fed’s rate hike, on which he remains understandably skeptical and said the Fed will be “challenged” to raise interest rates this year. Specifically he said that there appears to be “some (hawkish) rebellion showing up at the Fed.” This came following the latest statement by Kansas City Fed President and noted hawk, Esther George, who said on Thursday that the Fed is keeping interest rates too low and risks encouraging companies to take on excessive amounts of debt.
Gundlach told Reuters that the with the S&P500 range bound around 2,050 for some time, “it’s tough to get much of a rally off of price-to-earnings this high with earnings falling and the Fed itching to tighten with GDP growth already projected to decline,” he said.
In keeping with his recent skepticism, he said that his forecast on the market remains a gloomy one: “I’m sticking with my ‘2 percent upside and 20 downside’ prediction on U.S. stocks…. it’s working, I can see it going to 1,600.“
It is unclear if Gundlach is as, less, or more bearish than fellow billionaire Carl Icahn, whose IEP recently revealed it had a record -149% net short exposure to the market.
This Zero Hedge piece showed up on their website at 7:50 a.m. on Friday morning EDT—and I thank Richard Saler for sending it our way. Another link to this news item is here.
Doug Noland: Ominous Portends
Friday headlines from Bloomberg: “Retail Sales Rise Most in a Year, Marking U.S. Consumer Comeback” and “Consumers Turn Out to Be U.S. Growth Lifeline After All.” Ironically, U.S. retail stocks (SPDR S&P Retail ETF) were slammed 4.3% this week, trading back to almost three-month lows. Poor earnings were the culprit. Macy’s sank 15% on Wednesday’s earnings disappointment. Kohl’s missed, along with Nordstrom and JC Penney.
It may be subtle, yet it’s turning pervasive. Support for the burst global Bubble thesis mounts by the week. With stated U.S. unemployment at 5.0% and consumer confidence at this point still in decent shape, spending has enjoyed somewhat of a tailwind. Yet the overall U.S. economy has begun to succumb to a general Credit slowdown. Despite the bounce in crude, the energy sector bust continues to gather momentum. The tech and biotech Bubbles have peaked. Cracks have quickly surfaced in fintech. There are as well indications that some overheated real estate markets across the country have cooled. Whether it is from China or Latin America or Europe, the rush of “hot money” into U.S. real estate and securities markets has slowed meaningfully.
After last week’s drubbing, global financial stocks saw little relief this week. U.S. bank stocks were down 1.6% Friday, more than erasing the modest gain from earlier in the week. Bank stocks are now down 9.7% year-to-date, with the broker/dealers losing 12.7%.
Globally, Italian banks sank another 2.9% this week, increasing 2016 losses to 36.9%. European bank stocks were volatile but ended the week little changed (down 22.1% y-t-d). The Hang Seng Financials sank 2.5% this week, increasing 2016 losses to 17.8%. It’s worth noting that the Shanghai Composite dropped 3.0% this week, increasing its y-t-d decline to 20%. China’s ChiNext (“innovative and fast-growing enterprises”) Index was clobbered 4.9%.
Ominous portends indeed! Doug’s weekly Credit Bubble Bulletin is always a must read for me—and this weeks commentary appeared on his website sometime after midnight Denver time this morning. Another link to his thoughts is here.
Declassified documents detail 9/11 commission’s inquiry into Saudi Arabia
Investigators for the 9/11 commission would later describe the scene in Saudi Arabia as chilling.
They took seats in front of a former Saudi diplomat who, many on the commission’s staff believed, had been a ringleader of a Saudi government spy network inside the US that gave support to at least two of the 9/11 hijackers in California in the year before the 2001 attacks.
At first, the witness, 32-year-old Fahad al-Thumairy, dressed in traditional white robes and headdress, answered the questions calmly, his hands folded in front of him. But when the interrogation became confrontational, he began to squirm, literally, pushing himself back and forth in the chair, folding and unfolding his arms, as he was pressed about his ties to two Saudi hijackers who had lived in southern California before 9/11.
Even as he continued to deny any link to terrorists, Thumairy became angry and began to sputter when confronted with evidence of his 21 phone calls with another Saudi in the hijackers’ support network – a man Thumairy had once claimed to be a stranger. “It was so clear Thumairy was lying,” a commission staffer said later. “It was also so clear he was dangerous.”
This longish commentary is certainly worth reading. It put in an appearance on theguardian.com Internet site at 12:17 p.m. BST on their Friday afternoon, which was 7:17 a.m. in Washington—EDT plus 5 hours. I thank Patricia Caulfield for this—and another link to this story is here. Patricia also sent us a related story. This one is headlined “The ’28 pages’: Americans deserve to know if Saudis financed terror“—and the link to that is here. It also appeared on The Guardian‘s website on Friday afternoon.
Making the Chicken Run: Doug Casey
“Making the chicken run” is what Rhodesians used to say about neighbors who packed up and got out during the ’60s and ’70s, before the place became Zimbabwe. It was considered “unpatriotic” to leave Rhodesia. But it was genuinely idiotic not to.
I’ve written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance.
I’m directing these comments toward the U.S. mainly because that’s where the problem is most acute, but they’re applicable to most countries.
Now, in 2016, the U.S. is in real trouble. Not as bad as Rhodesia 40 years ago—and definitely a different kind of trouble—but plenty serious. For many years, it’s been obvious that the country was eventually going to hit the wall, and now the inevitable is rapidly becoming imminent.
This absolute must read commentary by Doug showed up on the internationalman.com Internet site yesterday—and another link to this article is here.
The Great Leap Backward: America’s Illegal Wars on the World
Can we face it in this election season? America is a weapons factory, the White House a war room, and the president the manager of the neoliberal conspiracy to recolonize the planet. It exports war and mass poverty. On the economic front, usurious neoliberalism; on the military front, illegal wars. These are the trenches of America’s battle for world domination in the 21st century.
If not stopped, it will be a short century.
Since 1945, America’s Manifest Destiny, posing as the Free World’s Crusade against the Red Menace, has claimed 20 to 30 million lives worldwide and bombed one-third of the earth’s people. In the 19th century, America exterminated another kind of “red menace,” writing and shredding treaties, stealing lands, massacring, and herding Native populations into concentration camps (“Indian reservations”), in the name of civilizing the “savages.” By 1890, with the massacre of Lakota at Wounded Knee, the frontier land grab—internal imperialism– was over. There was a world to conquer, and America trained its exceptionally covetous eye on Cuba and the Philippines.
American external imperialism was born.
This longish must read essay was posted on the counterpunch.org Internet site yesterday—and as I said, it’s definitely a must read, especially if your a student of the New Great Game. I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to our attention—and another link to it is here.
Canaccord Founder Sells $31 Million Vancouver Mansion To Chinese Student
Everybody loves a good Vancouver real estate horror story. Here is a great one.
In the endless series of reports about wealthy Chinese oligarchs, billionaires, money launderers, or mere criminals, never have we encountered anything quite like this yet, because according to The Province, the majority owner of this Point Grey mansion located at 4833 Belmont Avenue and which was recently ranked 16th among the most expensive homes in Vancouver, was sold earlier this year by Canaccord founder Peter Brown for a record $31.1 million is a “student,” property records show. A Chinese “student”… of course.
Land title documents list Tian Yu Zhou as having a 99-per-cent interest in the five-bedroom, eight-bathroom, 14,600 square-foot mansion on a 1.7-acre lot at 4833 Belmont Ave. Zhou’s occupation is listed as a “student.”
The other owner of the property, which boasts sweeping views of the North Shore mountains and Vancouver, is listed as Cuie Feng, a “businesswoman.” Feng has a one-per-cent interest in the property, which was assessed this year as having a total value of about $25.6 million, records show.
Efforts to reach Zhou and Feng through the lawyer listed on the land title documents were not successful, and realtor Cherry Xu, who reportedly served as the buyer’s agent, did not want to comment on the sale, citing privacy considerations.
The insanity continues. I saw this story the other day, but now it has appeared on the Zero Hedge website. It showed up there just before 9 p.m. EDT last night—and I thank reader U.D. for passing it around. Another link to this news item is here.
House prices and stock market will tumble if U.K. votes for Brexit, IMF warns
A Brexit vote would only have negative economic consequences for the U.K. and could trigger a downward spiral of plummeting house prices and lower growth, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.
Christine Lagarde said the impact on the economy of leaving the E.U. ranged from “pretty bad” to “very, very bad“, depending on the trade deals that Britain forged.
Echoing Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, Ms Lagarde said the “serious disruption” to activity in the immediate aftermath could even throw Britain into recession.
The IMF said next month’s referendum posed the “largest risk” to the U.K. economy as it warned that a vote to leave would “precipitate a protracted period of heightened uncertainty“.
This story appeared on the telegraph.co.uk Internet sit at 10:05 a.m. BST on their Friday morning, which was 5:05 a.m. in Washington—EDT plus 5 hours. I thank Roy Stephens for pointing it out—and another link to it is here.
IMF meddling on Brexit is scandalous skulduggery — Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
If the International Monetary Fund and its co-conspirators in the Treasury wish to deter undecided voters from flirting with Brexit, they have certainly failed in my case.
Having listened to their irritating lectures, I am more inclined to opt for defiance, for their mask of objectivity has fallen. There can no longer be any doubt that they are playing politics with the democratic self-determination of this country.
The Fund gives the game away in point 8 of its Article IV conclusion on the UK economy. It states that “the cost of insuring against a UK sovereign default has doubled (albeit from a low level)”. Any normal person who does not follow the derivatives markets would interpret this as a grim warning from global investors.
Yes, the price of credit default swaps on 5-year UK debt – the proxy we all use – has jumped from 17 to 37 since late last year. But the IMF neglected to mention that it has risen from 15 to 33 in Switzerland, from 26 to 43 in France, and from 45 to 65 in Korea.
The jump has almost nothing to do with Brexit, and the IMF knows this perfectly well. The French have an expression that will be familiar to the IMF’s Christine Lagarde: ils font feu de tout bois.
Ambrose tells Madame Lagarde not only where to go, but how to get there in this must read commentary that showed up on The Telegraph‘s website at 4:29 p.m. BST yesterday afternoon, which was 11:29 a.m. in New York. Another link to this story is here—and I thank Patricia Caulfield for sharing it with us.
‘Europe signals discontent with Russian sanctions, U.S. moves to strengthen propaganda’
$20 million over the next two fiscal years will be made available in the form of grants to unspecified people in Europe who will presumable carry stories that are more in line with U.S. policy, Jim Jatras, former U.S. diplomat, told Russia Today.
U.S. lawmakers have introduced a new bill aimed at preventing alleged efforts to subvert democracy. In particular, they want to create a new body, to counter so-called ‘disinformation’ spread by Russia and China.
RT: Is there any factual basis that this legislation is based on? Or is it just legislators blowing hot air?
Jim Jatras: I don’t think they are just blowing hot air. They are addressing what they perceive to be a need. We all know that Secretary [John] Kerry denounced it [RT] as a “propaganda bullhorn,” which means in essence that the material that your network puts out disagrees with the official narrative which, I am sorry to say, American media pick up like bulletin boards from government agencies very uncritically and just simply put it out there. And no other points of view are really entertained.
This interview was posted on the Russia Today website at 12:43 p.m. Moscow time [4:43 a.m. EDT] on their Friday afternoon—and it was subsequently updated about four hours later. It’s certainly worth reading if you’re a serious student of the New Great Game. I thank Roy Stephens for finding it—and another link to this interview is here.
Putin: Russia will consider tackling NATO missile defense threat
Russia is being forced to look for ways to neutralize threats to its national security due to deployment of the NATO anti-missile shield in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after the alliance launched a missile defense site in Romania.
“Now, after the deployment of those anti-missile system elements, we’ll be forced to think about neutralizing developing threats to Russia’s security,” Putin said.
The U.S. missile shield in Europe is a clear violation of Russian-American arms treaties, Putin said at a meeting with Russian military officials, adding that the anti-missile facilities can be easily repurposed for firing short and midrange missiles.
The U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe is yet another step in increasing international tensions and launching a new arms race, he stressed.
This news item appeared on the Russia Today Internet site at 12:50 p.m. Moscow time yesterday afternoon, which was 4:50 a.m. in Washington—EDT plus 8 hours. I thank Roy Stephens for this article as well—and another link to it is here.
Russia, the Ukraine, NATO: John Batchelor Interviews Stephen F. Cohen
YouGov reports Vladimir Putin as the 6th most admired man in the world according to an annual survey. This is the headline for this week’s pod cast and a product of the U.K. pollster, that still places Barack Obama in number two spot. Cohen considers Putin’s place in the world as a huge dichotomy of either “the greatest statesman of this early 21st century” or depending on point of view, “the greatest demon”. From the U.S. point of view of Putin is a demon, he has no achievements in the world but is responsible for many crimes of state.
But Putin’s successes are hugely impressive as Cohen describes Russia’s climb under his leadership from a virtually failed economy to one that his own peers have described as in the “savior” category. Cohen applauds, for example, how Russia managed its nuclear arsenal and materiel during the early disintegration of the Soviet Union from falling into terrorist hands; he mentions Putin’s support for Washington in Afghanistan, the Syrian debacle, the Iran debacle, and finally the military successes against ISIS in Syria. None of this is seriously accredited to Putin in the American Press.
The second part of the discussion asks the question whether Putin is “the warlord that the West sees and is this the reason for the demonization?” Cohen states that the “indictment of Putin” has the following key elements: the failing democratic institutions of Russia and its aggressive foreign policies. The theme of Putin as despot, however, came from former president Yeltsin – although Putin has still been elected for three successive terms in office. The accusation of aggressive Russia began with the conflict with Georgia (dismissed in discussion of the facts by Cohen), but this as a propaganda theme that has never ceased since 2008 as NATO continued to encroach on Russia’s borders. The Ukrainian coup involving NATO was also a continuing disillusionment for Putin. The deal offered to Ukraine by the E.U. would have included NATO membership – as Cohen describes it: “by the back door”. Putin, ever the optimist, continued to try to treat Washington honestly and hoped for change. Cohen considers the hostility to Russia as Washington’s greatest failure of its strategic interests and there is little hope for change in this stance. Putin as “war lord” is a manufactured concept and is repeated daily in the American mainstream press.
In my opinion Putin’s biggest error of judgement was thinking Russia could be a partner with the US in world affaires and that all his assistance to the U.S. would be reciprocated favourably. Washington simply treated this support as weakness. Instead Russia was betrayed by successive presidents and now has the largest hostile force (NATO) on its land and sea borders since the German build up during WW2, and a hostility from Washington and the E.U. towards Russia that could be seen as greater in this New Cold War than the last. Given the incredible abuses that Washington has delivered to Russia, in my humble opinion Putin is much too low on the list of most admired men in the world; Putin has so far kept us out of World War Three and that should put him firmly at number one spot.
This 40-minute audio interview appeared on the audioboom.com Internet site on Tuesday. I thank Ken Hurt for the link, but the BIG thank you goes out to Larry Galearis for providing the above executive summary. It’s a must listen for any serious student of the New Great Game—and another link to this interview is here.
‘Scared to death’ of U.S. retaliation, Europe shuns trade with Iran
European businesses that want to continue working with the American financial systems know that if they are caught cooperating with Iranian enterprises the US would go after them, Jacob Hornberger, Director of the Future of Freedom Foundation, told Russia Today.
Despite the nuclear deal reached with Iran, the U.S. still prohibits Iran’s access to America’s financial system.
RT: Iran says it’s not getting the economic relief it was promised. Do you think they have a fair point?
Jacob Hornberger: I think they do. This is pretty much standard for the U.S. government: they make a deal and then they double-cross the other side on the deal. Everybody understood that when the deal was made that all of the sanctions would be lifted and the spirit of the agreement was that that would include all of these other sanctions and regulations that punish European countries and other countries from dealing with Iran. Now these countries are scared to death because the regulations have not been lifted and they have reason to be scared. If they violate these regulations there is no doubt that the U.S. government would go after them, seize their assets. What everybody thought was an agreement to lift all of these sanctions, rules and regulations hasn’t turned out that way.
This brief interview showed up on the Russia Today website at 1:41 p.m. Moscow time on Friday afternoon—5:41 a.m. EDT—and was subsequently updated about two hours later. I thank Roy Stephens for this story as well—and another link to it is here.
Chinese Government Now Fretting about Auto Industry
Overcapacity weakened the U.S. auto industry before the Financial Crisis, and destroyed it during the crisis, with two of the Big Three automakers, some of the biggest component makers, and numerous smaller component makers going bankrupt. It was during the bankruptcy process that the industry restructured, laid of hundreds of thousands of people, shuttered and shed plants, mauled creditors, destroyed stockholders, and finally got rid of overcapacity.
Overcapacity is devastating to the industry, employees, investors, and creditors. But it feels good on the way up.
And now the Chinese auto industry has that problem. The automakers active in China, including all global brands, have had no patience with doubters, and announcements of new assembly plants being built in different parts of China became a near weekly ritual.
China went from automotive backwater to the largest auto market in the world, blowing past the US in the process, within a decade. Last year, 24.6 million vehicles were sold in China, and no one was going to stop this blistering rate of growth, not even the slowing economy.
This very interesting news item put in an appearance on the wolfstreet.com Internet site on Friday—and I thank Roy Stephens for his final contribution to today’s column. Another link to this news story is here.
The great leap upward: China’s Pearl River Delta, then and now
The region where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea has seen some of the most rapid urban expansion in human history over the past few decades – transforming what was mostly agricultural land in 1979 into what is the manufacturing heartland of a global economic superpower today.
In 2008, China announced plans to mesh Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhaoqing, Foshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen, Zhongshan and Zhuhai into a single megacity. A series of massive infrastructure projects are under way to merge transport, energy, water and telecoms networks across the nine cities. Development has been relentless, and the World Bank recently named the Pearl River Delta as the biggest urban area in the world in terms of population and geographical size.
A 30-mile-long bridge and tunnel is under construction to join the Pearl River Delta metropolis of Zhuhai to the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong.
This amazing then-and-now photo essay was posted on theguardian.com Internet site on Tuesday—and I thank Patricia Caulfield for sending it our way—and also for her last contribution to today’s column. It’s worth your while if you have the time. Another link to this incredible photo essay is here. I visited both Hong Kong and Macau before the Chinese takeover—and so this story holds a special interest for me.
5 Reasons Stock Market to Crash, Gold and Silver Price to Soar – Mike Maloney
This 8:57 minute video presentation by Mike is certainly worth watching if you have time. It was posted on the goldsilver.com Internet site on Thursday—and I thank Jim Gullo for bringing it to my attention, and now to yours.
Gold jewelry sellers faced with changing demands from youngsters
China’s gold jewelry sellers are facing new challenges as young gold buyers are seeking out fresh and modern takes on jewelry designs, coupled with a declining gold consumption in the first quarter, officials said on Thursday.
“The post 90s (generation) will become the main buyers for gold jewelry in the next decade, and they have a different view of investing in such expensive items,” Wang Lixin, general manager of the World Gold Council, told China Daily. “Unlike older generations, they prefer jewelry that can represent themselves, something customized and personalized.”
China is the world’s fastest-growing market for gold jewelry, driven by an expanding and affluent middle class, who believe the precious metal can bring in good luck and fortune.
But the shifting trend is posing challenges to the country’s gold industry from designers to producers and dealers, who will be forced to roll out more items with distinctive designs, he said.
It was a slow news day for the precious metals on Friday—and this one, plus the Maloney commentary, is all I could find. This piece showed up on the chinadaily.com.cn website at 7:24 a.m. Beijing time on their Friday morning. I found this story on the Sharps Pixley website—and another link to it is here.
The PHOTOS and the FUNNIES
Every spring for the last three years a row, a pair of cinnamon teals has shown up at a particular storm-water run-off lake—and every year there are always photographers seeking them out, including me. I thought shoveller ducks were wary, but these birds are something else again. I’ve never gotten close enough for a decent shot—until this year. I find the reflections of the dead cattails in the water almost as interesting as the birds themselves—and the female brings new meaning to the word ‘nondescript’. The drake blue-wing teal in the third shot was a bonus. All three shots were taken within a couple of minutes as they swam past, one after the other. The ‘click/double-click to enlarge‘ feature really makes a difference here.
The WRAP
Here’s a song that was an even bigger smash hit in Europe than it was in North America back in 1970—which is 46 years ago if you’re doing the math. This youtube.com video is the Spanish version, but that doesn’t take a thing away from the tune. Veteran French songwriter Hubert Giraud conceived of the song while waiting out a traffic jam in Paris. The link to the tune is here. And even more incredible than that was that fact that he composed this classic as well—“Sous le Ciel de Paris ~ Under Paris Skies”—and the link to the accordion version is here.
I’ve never been must of a fan of most 20th century music. There are exceptions of course—and here’s one of them. It’s American-born composer George Gershwin—and his classic work for piano and orchestra, Rhapsody in Blue. This version was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in 1976. The video quality is certainly dated, but the audi