The FT Goes There: “Demand Physical Gold” As One Day Paper Price Manipulation Will End “Catastrophically”
What have we done: after a series of reports in late 2012 in which we showed, with no ambiguity, that not only might the Bundesbank’s offshore held gold be severely “diluted” (follow our 2012 exposes on German gold here, here, here, and here), but that on at least one occassion, the Fed and the Bank of England conspired against the Buba in returning subpar quality gold, the Bundesbank shocked everyone in early January 2013 when it announced it would repatriate 300 tons of gold helt in New York and all of its 374 tons of gold held in Paris. But convincing the Bundebsbank to demand delivery was peanuts compared to changing the tune of the Financial Times – that bastion of fiat “money”, and where the word gold is mocked and ridiculed, and those who see the daily improprieties in the gold market as nothing but “conspiracy theorists” – to say the magic words: “Learn from Buba and demand delivery for true price of gold”, adding that “one day the ties that bind this pixelated gold may break, with potentially catastrophic results.”
WORLD
Crippled eurozone to face fresh debt crisis this year, warns ex-ECB strongman Axel Weber
Ex-Bundesbank head Axel Weber expects fresh market attacks on eurozone this year and economist Kenneth Rogoff says the euro was a “giant historic mistake”
US imposes Ukraine sanctions, EU voices ‘worry’
Its embassy in Kiev said on Wednesday (22 January): “In response to actions taken against protestors on the Maidan in November and December of last year, the US embassy has revoked the visas of several Ukrainians who were linked to the violence.”
Contagion Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow
The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.
Argentine Default Chaos Relived as Blackouts Follow Looting
At one point last month, the 37-year-old shop owner refused to open the metal shutters protecting her corner grocery in downtown Buenos Aires more than a few inches — just enough to sell soda to passersby on a sweltering summer day.
UK’s Cameron tells Davos he can keep Britain in the EU
In some of his most pro-European remarks to date, Cameron told the World Economic Forum in Davos that changes needed to make the euro zone function better meant the EU would need to alter its treaties.
West’s 30-year vendetta with Iran is finally buried in Davos
The Iranian nuclear deal is on. Hassan Rouhani’s charm offensive in Davos has been a tour de force, the moment of rehabilitation for the Islamic Republic. His words were emollient.
Why can’t India, US see elephant in room of strained ties?
It is indeed ironic that while at the end of Singh’s first term, Indo-US bilateral relations were soaring. Now, as his second term is about to end, ties between New Delhi and Washington are on the rocks. The two sides’ principals – Singh and US President Barrack Obama – have done precious little to stem the rot.
Japan-China war of words goes ballistic in Davos
Anybody who thinks China’s dispute with Japan is subject to rational calculation should have heard the astonishing outburst a few minutes ago by China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi.
China Considers “Teaching Investors A Lesson” In Moral Hazard With Trust Default
China faces a very significant test of its reform policy pursuit rhetoric. With China’s Bank regulator set to issue an alert on coal-industry loans – “as a result of outout cuts, they don’t have much cash flow and thus they can’t repay loans and debt,” the massive growth in wealth products such as the CEG#1 (which offered a 10% yield for a 3 year term) based on these loans leaves the Chinese with a moral hazard dilemma – bailout or no bailout. ICBC has made it clear it wil not bailout investors since reputational damage would be “well manageable,” and former-PBOC adviser Li Daokui adds that “a controlled default is much better than no default,” noting critically that trust defaults “will teach future investors a very important lesson.” Belief that contagion can be “contained” brings back memories of 2008 in the US but a total (or even partial) bailout will merely increase the leverage and risk-taking problem and signal government talk of policy reform is not real.
Is The China Bank Run Beginning? Farmers Co-Op Unable To Pay Depositors
While most of the attention in the Chinese shadow banking system is focused on the Credit Equals Gold #1 Trust’s default, as we first brought to investors’ attention here, and the PBOC has thrown nearly CNY 400 billion at the market in the last few days, there appears to be a bigger problem brewing. As China’s CNR reports, depositors in some of Yancheng City’s largest farmers’ co-operative mutual fund societies (“banks”) have been unable to withdraw “hundreds of millions” in deposits in the last few weeks. “Everyone wants to borrow and no one wants to save,” warned one ‘salesperson’, “and loan repayments are difficult to recover.” There is “no money” and the doors are locked.
Don’t squander China’s wealth on arms race, warns Japan PM
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, launches thinly-veiled attack on China, warning that the country’s new wealth should not be “wasted on military expansion”
EU court rebuffs UK legal challenge to short-selling law
In 2012, the EU passed a law giving it the power to ban short-selling – betting on whether shares or other securities will fall in price – in emergency situations.
Ukrainian opposition and the West ‘playing with fire siding with extreme nationalists’
There is a danger that the Ukrainian extreme right are serving the political purpose of the apparently moderate leaders, who in fact want a revolution, Mark Almond, professor of history at Oxford University, told RT.
Trying to deleverage China without blowing up the system
China is walking a tightrope without a net. There is an acute cash crunch. Credit at a viable cost is being fiercely rationed. Foreign buyers with money in hand can – and are – buying up nearly completed buildings from distressed developers for a song.
Banks Take On European Debt, Despite Underlying Problems
ATHENS — A wave of euphoria has swept over financial markets because investors now think Europe’s sovereign debt crisis may be ending. But the enthusiasm masks a lingering problem. The harsh austerity programs used to regain their confidence have fanned deep recessions and high unemployment across Southern Europe.
Italian Bad Loans Hit Record High – Up 23% YoY
With all eyes gloating over Ireland’s recent ability to issue debt in the capital markets once again (and now with 10Y trading only 40bps above US Treasuries), Europe’s game of distraction continues. However, while spreads (and yields) tumble in all the PIIGS, with Italian yields at almost 7-year lows, it is perhaps surprising to some that Italian bad loan rates are at their highest on record.
Peace Talks In Chaos As Greeks Refuse To Refuel Syrian Flight
The Syrian peace talks – much heralded by investors and politicians worldwide as a brave step towards a better future – are on the ropes this morning. Following the UN acquiescence to the US demand that they rescind Iran’s invite to the so-called Geneva II conference,and yet another suicide bombing in Lebanon, this morning’s incredible SNAFU is thanks to the Greeks:
Iran censures UN decision to withdraw Syria conference invitation
Ban Ki-moon rescinded his invitation late on Monday, under intense U.S. pressure, after Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group threatened to boycott the long-awaited conference.
Mega Default In China Scheduled For January 31 – Forbes
On Friday, Chinese state media reported that China Credit Trust Co. warned investors that they may not be repaid when one of its wealth management products matures on January 31, the first day of the Year of the Horse.
Chinese Banks Are Jumping Into A Business Western Banks Are Dropping Left And Right
China Merchants Securities (CMS), mainland China’s 6th largest brokerage by assets, just launched a subsidiary in Britain to expand into commodities markets with a focus on derivatives trading.
Study says ‘true’ eurozone stress test could show over US$1 trillion shortfall in banks
An objective stress test of the eurozone’s biggest banks could reveal a capital shortfall of more than 770 billion euros (US$1 trillion) and trigger further public bailouts, a study by an adviser to the European Union’s financial risk watchdog and a Berlin academic has found.
Germany skeptical of Obama’s pledge that NSA will not spy on foreign leaders
Germany has called for less rhetoric and more action in the wake of President Obama’s pledge to stop spying on world leaders. While the announcement was greeted with optimism, politicians said it was “too little, from a German point of view.”
Ukraine anti-government protests swell into fiery street battles
Police responded with stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons, but were outnumbered by the protesters. Many of the riot police held their shields over their heads to protect themselves from the projectiles thrown by demonstrators on the other side of a cordon of buses.
EU suspends Iran sanctions, but mistrust remains
Officials said the move will be enshrined in the Union’s Official Journal later on Monday (20 January), allowing it to enter into life without the normal lag of 24 to 48 hours.
In German newspaper, Bundesbank makes lame excuses for slow repatriation of gold
The German newspaper The World on Sunday today provides the Bundesbank’s excuses for being so slow to repatriate the gold it supposedly has vaulted at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York –
DOMESTIC
Banks Keep Their Mortgage Litigation Reserves a Secret
From JPMorgan Chase’s $13 billion settlement over mortgage securities to lawsuits brought by bondholders, a barrage of litigation has been raining down on Wall Street banks. Yet the banks are not disclosing a number that is crucial for assessing their ability to deal those legal costs. And, curiously, the regulator that has sway over companies’ disclosure practices has not called on the industry to reveal this important figure so that investors can weigh the institutions’ health.
Fined Billions, JPMorgan Chase Will Give Dimon a Raise
A year after an embarrassing trading blowup led to millions of dollars being docked from Jamie Dimon’s paycheck, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase is getting a raise.
Top 1% Has 65 Times More Wealth Than The Bottom Half And The Global Elite Like It That Way
As we previously noted, the 85 richest people in the world have about as much wealth as the poorest 50% of the entire global population does. In other words, 85 extremely wealthy individuals have about as much wealth as the poorest 3,500,000,000 do. This shocking statistic comes from a new report on global poverty by Oxfam. And actually Oxfam’s report probably significantly underestimates the true scope of the problem, because Oxfam relies on publicly reported numbers.
Geithner Warned S&P Chairman US Would Retaliate For Downgrade
Considering that the US was downgraded by S&P just 4 months later, one person who certainly will never forget his idiotic preannouncement, is the former Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner. And being the sore loser that everyone suspected he was (although one hopes his recent well-paid move to Warburg Pincus will help soothe his sensitivity) it will come as no surprise that Geithner told the Chairman of embattled rating agency Standard & Poor’s, that its downgrade of the US from AAA to AA+ “would be met by a response.”
U.S. Consumer Sentiment Dips in January
U.S. consumer sentiment slipped in its first January measure, weighed by lowered expectations among lower- and middle-income families, a survey released on Friday showed.
Wall Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, ‘misery index’ worst in 40 years
Don’t believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real unemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud.
CURRENCIES/INFLATION
Guess The Mystery Chart
If you said the underlying data is comparable store sales for McDonalds in the United States, which just dipped by 1.4% – the most since the Lehman crash – then you were 100% accurate. That’s right: in Q4 the American consumer, obviously “because of the weather” just said no to the biggest US diet staple.
BOJ Approaches Limit Of Its Existing Bond Buys, As Doubts Spread It Will Boost QE
One of the conventionally accepted “truths” (as wrong as they may end up in retrospect) for 2014 is that in addition to the ECB eventually commencing Fed-style QE (and if it doesn’t, anyone holding peripheral bonds at these idiotic levels – watch out), the BOJ will launch an expanded dose of bond monetization as soon as April (certainly not last night, despite what some were expecting) maybe because so far Abenomics has failed to boost wages for 18 consecutive month, maybe because the coming sales tax hike is sure to crush any fleeting nominal economic gains, or maybe energy import prices just aren’t stratospheric enough yet and those record monthly trade deficits could be… record-er. So yes: a new QE may or may not happen, but in the meantime, a new development is emerging: Japan is near the limit for the bond buys it can do under its current mandate.
Moo-ar Inflation
With the world awash in liquidity and yet every one of the world’s leaders spreading the “ogre of deflation” myth to ensure the administration of moar free money; we thought it interesting that with government identified inflation statistics entirely benign that the prices of US cattle and milk have reached record highs (and show no sign of stopping as Cattle is limit-up today again). The rise has been almost non-stop beginning in early 2009… now what else began to rise in an almost straight line then?
HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals
Listeners have told Radio 4′s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.
PRECIOUS METALS
Long-term silver chart points to huge price gains very soon
The long-term chart for silver shows the formation of a classic cup-and-handle formation. It almost always portends a massive breakout to the upside. Silver currently trades at a 60 per cent discount to the price of 34 years ago, and is quite clearly the most underpriced commodity in the investment universe.
Gold Mint Runs Overtime in Race to Meet World Coin Demand
Austria’s Muenze Oesterreich AG mint hired extra employees and added a third eight-hour shift to the day in a bid to keep up with demand. Purchases of bullion coins at Australia’s Perth Mint rose 20 percent this year through Jan. 20 from a year earlier. Sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the best month since April, when the metal plunged into a bear market.
Sonia Gandhi seeks easing of gold curbs – reports
(Reuters) – Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi has asked the government to review tough import restrictions on gold, which include a record 10 percent import duty, a television channel and a news website said on Thursday.
Global mined gold output rose 4% in 2013
Contrary to many reports and arguments put forward by gold commentators, the latest analysis by Thomson Reuters GFMS shows global new mined gold output as rising in 2013 – to 2,982 tonnes – an increase of around 4% on the 2012 figure. As the GFMS report suggests this tends to show the gold mining sector’s short term inelasticity to the sharp fall in the gold price
Gold Target Cut by Morgan Stanley Seeing ‘More Pain to Come’
Gold will extend declines this year as gains in equity markets reduce the need for haven assets and increased regulation hurts risk appetite, according to Morgan Stanley, which lowered its bullion forecasts.
Mineweb top 5 gold forecasters beat LBMA experts hands down
Every year now the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) solicits precious metals price forecasts for the year from an invited group of analysts in an annual competition – and every year now Mineweb likewise runs a similar competition, but just for the gold price, but ours is open to all readers – see entry form at the foot of this article if you still would like to participate in this year’s competition which has a closing date of January 31st.
Abenomics Spurs Gold Sales in Japan as Inflation Hedge
Gold sales by Japan’s biggestbullion retailer surged 63 percent to a five-year high as pricesslumped and investors sought refuge from Prime Minister ShinzoAbe’s campaign to stoke inflation and weaken the yen.
Gold Chat: The Bundesbank & the Narrative of Central Bank Omnipotence
My post yesterday on the German gold repatriation got a lot of comments pro and con. GATA picked up on my post and said that I didn’t seem to think that the secrecy around it implied that something was wrong (central bank secrecy and transparency deserves its own post). I also got people telling me that it was easy to ship all the gold over in one go and therefore that lack of doing so was proof there was no gold. Before I address these issues, I want to explain my post from a different angle, which may help in people understanding my point.
Hedge Funds Raise Gold Wagers as Goldman Sees Drop
Hedge funds raised bullish goldwagers to the highest in eight weeks as signs of strongerChinese demand drove prices to the longest rally since August.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the gains will be short-lived.
Gold Spikes To Highest Since November
Following yesterday’s early morning surge when gold jumped $30 from the low $1230, on news that India may relax its gold capital controls, today’s sharp spike follow through is more a function of ongoing emerging market currency devaluation and overall risk-offness hitting equities around the globe. And with Bitcoin going nowhere even as both Turkey and Argentina continue to turmoil, it means there is only one good old faithful fiat-alternative – the barbarous relic. Sure enough, at last check, gold was trading north of $1270, back to levels last seen in November, and one sovereign default away from
Professional gold market ‘obsessed’ with tapering issues
In Thomson Reuters GFMS’ 2013 Gold Survey – Update 2, released today, the specialist consultancy’s Rhona O’Connell – Head of Metals Research and Forecasting – notes that the professional market seems to be over-obsessed with issues around the Fed’s proposed tapering programme but that “private individuals in the traditional gold investing countries had no such qualms and as the price tumbled in the second quarter, hordes of these buyers appeared in the market.”
Go Against Bearish Flow and Bet on Gold
Most investment banks are betting gold will do poorly again this year, but that’s precisely why some smart contrarian investors are saying the embattled precious metal could rally, MarketWatch reported.
Four Forces for Gold’s Next Rally
Gold has inched up lately after a terrible 2013. Skeptics believe the recent positive action is insignificant – just a natural bounce after a terrible 2013 or the result of worries about inflation.
Gold Chat: Why the Bundesbank is (slowly) repatriating (some of) its gold
I agree with Jim Rickards, as paraphrased by GATA, “that Germany’s Bundesbank really doesn’t want any of its gold returned from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has arranged for the return of a small part of it only as a political sop to agitation in Germany’s parliament.” (see this story CDU Politician Wants to Bring German Gold Home for an example of that political agitation.)
This Is The Greatest Financial Market And Currency Manipulation Of All Times
The most remarkable event of the past week was the Federal Reserve investigating whether traders at the world’s biggest banks have been rigging currency rates. According to Bloomberg, the Fed is probing whether traders shared information that may have let them manipulate prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market for profit maximization (source).
This Is The Greatest Financial Market And Currency Manipulation Of All Times
The most remarkable event of the past week was the Federal Reserve investigating whether traders at the world’s biggest banks have been rigging currency rates. According to Bloomberg, the Fed is probing whether traders shared information that may have let them manipulate prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market for profit maximization (source).
It’s A Bloodbath In The Global Currency Markets Today
The U.S. dollar is up a whopping 14.1% against the Argentine peso today. Yesterday, Argentina introduced new capital controls restricting residents to only two online purchases from foreign retailers per year. The central bank is also reducing currency market intervention in order to protect its remaining foreign exchange reserves, which have been going fast.
Gold as a disinflation hedge
(The following is the second of a five-part series on how gold performs during periods of deflation, chronic disinflation, runaway stagflation and hyperinflation. The second installment examines gold’s safe-haven role during a disinflationary breakdown like the one in 2008-2009.)
Russian gold miners to cut 2014 output after price slump
Two Russian gold miners – Petropavlovsk and Nord Gold – plan to cut production in 2014 as they focus on cost reduction after a slump in the gold price, they said on Thursday.
Century-Old London Gold Benchmark Fix Said to Face Overhaul
Banks are considering an overhaul of London’s century-old gold benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to buy, sell and value the precious metal, according to a person with knowledge of the process.
Singapore drops plans for gold fix amid London pricing probe
Singapore has dropped plans to set a daily reference price for gold, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as regulators in Europe investigate suspected manipulation of precious metals prices by banks.
Is Germany’s gold in France as impaired as its gold at the New York Fed?
Today’s fuss about the German Bundesbank’s repatriation over the last year of only 5 of the 300 tonnes of its gold that it planned to repatriate from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York should include a fuss about the Bundesbank’s similarly pitiful repatriation of its gold vaulted at the Banque de France in Paris.
Gold importers come under tax scanner in India
The dramatic joint move by customs and tax authorities is aimed at curbing suspicious ferrying of gold into India by carriers — mostly low income expatriate workers in the Gulf — deployed by organised gang of ‘indirect’ importers.
Pakistan Enforces 30-Day Ban On Gold Imports To Stall “Steep Increase” In Smuggling To India
As we have discussed numerous times, India’s ban and tariffs on gold imports (supposedly to protect their current account balance) is having numerous unintended consequences. From flights full of gold-laden passengers entering the country, to trying to roll-back centuries of tradition surrounding Indian weddings, the capital control efforts are back-firing as the smuggling epidemic spreads. The foolishness of this ‘control’ is also spreading as Pakistan has noticed the surge in smuggling, concerned at a steep increase in import duties on gold in a “neighboring country,” and has imposed a 30-day ban on gold imports to curb the ‘trade’.
“China Expected To Announce It Has More Than Doubled Its Gold Reserves”
The topic of China’s below the radar accumulation of gold is nothing new: first revealed here in September 2011 as part of a Wikileaks intercept, watchers of Chinese gold imports have been stunned by the ravenous pace with which Chinese customers have been gobbling up both domestic and foreign gold production month after month. One needs merely to glance at the net imports of gold just through Hong Kong to get a sense of just how much gold has flowed into the country which has now surpassed India as the largest buyer of gold.
China set to hike official gold reserves to 5,000 tonnes next to combat its growing financial crisis?
The Internet is abuzz with rumours that China may be about to reveal its new official gold reserves with a total of up to 5,000 tonnes way above its previous 2009 tally of 1,054 tonnes. Last week the world’s second largest economy pumped in $42 billion to shore up its faltering credit system.
Six-week high for gold at $1,260 an ounce as Shanghai Gold Exchange delivers a record 2,197 tonnes in 2013 « ArabianMoney
Gold prices hit a six-week high this week at $1,260 an ounce as data confirmed that Chinese demand was making up for the slack in investment demand from the West.
Chinese gold imports may fall as buying frenzy calms
SINGAPORE/LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Chinese gold imports,the lone bright spot in an otherwise disastrous year for bullion in 2013, look set to fall from last year’s record levels, adding to pressure on gold as analysts forecast a price decline for a second year.
COMMENTARY
The Prudent Bear: Credit is Gold #1 and Icebergs
Backdrops conductive to crises can drag on for so long – sometimes seemingly forever – as if they’re moving in ultra-slow motion. Invariably, they lull most to sleep. Better yet, such environments even work to embolden the optimists. This is especially the case when policy measures are aggressively employed along the way, repeatedly holding the forces of crisis at bay. In the face of mounting risk, heightened risk-taking and leveraging often work only to exacerbate underlying fragilities. But eventually a critical juncture arrives where newfound momentum has things unwinding at a more frenetic pace. It is the nature of such things that most everyone gets caught totally unprepared.
The Golden Truth: Something Ominous May Be Coming At Us
Earlier this week 30-day/4-wk T-Bills were auctioned off a 0% rate. Intra-day, after the auction, the rate went negative. Negative short term rates were last observed in 2008, before the Lehman/AIG/Goldman collapse occurred. Of course, Lehman was allowed to implode and Goldman, who’s ex-CEO was the Treasury Secretary, was bailed out. AIG was the beneficiary of that bailout because Goldman had impaled itself on AIG nuclear waste.
Why doesn’t the monetary metals mining industry defend itself?
“I have been following your work for years. It astounds me that the big mining companies don’t financially support you. I can only guess that they are beholden to these big banks and financial institutions. That is, if the big mining companies supported GATA, maybe they would be put on a blacklist where they would not get any funding for their projects or would be branded ‘conspiracy nuts.’ You’re up against some of the most powerful, corrupt, and greedy people on the planet. Keep up the good work and be careful. Remember Harry Markopolos.”
Yikes! Financial Times awakens to the paper gold fraud
A year ago the Bundesbank announced that it intended to repatriate 700 tons of Germany’s gold from Paris and New York. Although a couple of jumbo jets could have managed the transatlantic removal, it made security sense to ship the load in smaller consignments. Just how small, and over how long, has only just become apparent.
This isn’t the Alamo but rather Valley Forge
This is not the Alamo; we’re not going to be wiped out until they turn off the lights and the Internet and close the borders, and long before that ever happens the bad guys will be out in the open and will have many more adversaries than little GATA. The situation for us right now is rather more like Valley Forge — with boots we’ll march again. Two very promising expeditions are already planned, and the bad guys are more vulnerable than ever.
Inteligencia Financiera Global: BILLIONAIRE HUGO SALINAS PRICE: EVERYTHING IN OUR MODERN WORLD IS A LIE (EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!)
The Inteligencia Financiera Global blog (Global Financial Intelligence Blog) is honored to present an exclusive interview with billionaire entrepreneur Hugo Salinas Price. We are sure our readers from around the world will enjoy it.
The Prudent Bear: Historic Year 2014 Thesis
I’m proceeding with the view that 2014 is poised to be a key year in economic/financial history. Actually, I suspect future historians will look back at 2013 as a critical juncture. Last year saw the Fed and Bank of Japan combine for almost $2 TN of QE. Of significant consequence, an over-liquefied and increasingly speculative marketplace shifted its sights to stocks. “Money” flooded into U.S. and (predominantly “developed”) global equities, working at the same time to spur flows and excess in corporate debt. Speculative dynamics took firm hold, with potentially profound ramifications for global financial flows and stability. Real economies became an only bigger side show. Will central banks have the resolve to pull back?
Is confidence returning to the gold markets?
One doesn’t know yet if it’s just stale bulls clutching at straws or if something else is afoot, but there certainly seems to be a renewed confidence in the precious metals markets arising during the opening weeks of the current year – an element that was mostly lacking throughout 2013.
AUDIO/VISUAL
It Looks Like An Awesome Box Of Money. When You Take A Closer Look, It’ll Seriously Blow Your Mind
A skill like woodworking takes years and thousands of hours to become more than just a proficient at, but this man invested that time to be a certifiable master. His name is Randall Rosenthal and he has talent that can result in mind-bending illusions. The project in the gallery below all started with three pieces of white pine he glued together. What he turned that block of wood into is so cool.
The Matterhorn Interview Special 2014: Jim Rickards
In this January 2014 Matterhorn Interview , Jim Rickards talks to German investigative journalist Last Schall. Jim is the author of bestseller Currency Wars and soon to be released sequel The Death of Money.