David Morgan Silver Vancouver Canada January 22 2012 TheSilverWatch

Sprott Physical Silver Trust Announces Completion of its Follow-on Offering of Trust Units

TORONTO, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Sprott Physical Silver Trust (the "Trust") (NYSE: PSLV / TSX: PHS.U), a trust created to invest and hold substantially all of its assets in physical silver bullion and managed by Sprott Asset Management LP (the "Manager"), today announced that it has completed its follow-on offering of 26,450,000 units of the Trust ("Units") at US$13.20 per Unit for gross proceeds of US$349,140,000 (the "Offering"). This includes the exercise in full by the underwriters of their over-allotment option.  Purchasers in the Offering included Sprott Inc. and the Sprott Foundation, which are affiliates of the Manager.

The Trust will use the net proceeds of the Offering to acquire physical silver bullion in accordance with the Trust's objective and subject to the Trust's investment and operating restrictions described in the prospectus related to the Offering, and as of January 23, 2012 has contracted to purchase a total of approximately 10.57 million troy ounces of physical silver bullion. Once the Trust has taken delivery of all the silver bullion, it will publish the serial numbers of all bars held by the Trust on its website.  The net proceeds of the Offering per Unit were greater than 100% of the most recently calculated net asset value per Unit of the Trust prior to, or upon determination of, pricing of the Offering, as required under the trust agreement governing the Trust.

Eveillard - We are Headed for Enormous Inflation & Higher Gold

Auditing the FED's Gold

by Gary North

Recently by Gary North: Did Romney and Bain Capital Profit at the Expense of Bain's Employees? 

I have posted a video of something I thought I would never see: all five of the Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate verbally demanding an audit of the Federal Reserve System. You can see it here.
Bernanke is facing what no Federal Reserve chairman has ever faced: public awareness of the Federal Reserve System. From late December 1913, when an almost deserted Senate voted for the Federal Reserve Act, until 2008, when the recession confirmed Ron Paul's warning in late 2007, there was almost no public awareness or even a vague understanding of the Federal Reserve System. The genie is now out of the bottle, where it had been corked since 1913. Ron Paul has uncorked it.
From the November 1910 secret meeting at Georgia's Jekyll Island until Ron Paul's 2007 candidacy for the Republican nomination for President, The Federal Reserve had received a free ride from Congress. There had never been much oversight. That's because FED regulation was an oversight. (The same word is used to convey opposite meanings.)
The Texas Leftist-populist Democrat Wright Patman had been a critic. He had been the chairman of the House Banking Committee until 1975, a year before Paul arrived in Congress. He was a Greenbacker: a believer in a zero-interest economy that achieves this Utopian goal through the use of fiat paper money. Patman was not able to generate much interest in the FED.
Patman did inflict one major wound on the FED. He and California Congressman Jerry Voorhis, another Greenbacker, in the early 1940s persuaded Congress to pass a bill, which Roosevelt signed, that forbids the Federal Reserve from keeping the interest payments from the government bonds it has counterfeited fiat money to purchase. Today, the FED must return to the Treasury all of this money beyond its operating expenses. For 2011, the FED will pay back $77 billion.
A full-scale audit of the FED, if it ever comes, must include an audit of the gold every year. The auditors must see if the gold is in the two vaults. The first vault, at Ft. Knox, is more famous. The more important vault is located at 33 Liberty Street, New York City: the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This is the "Die Hard III" vault.
The auditors must do two things. First, they must determine whether there is the same amount of gold as is listed on the FED's books at the fake price of $42.22 per ounce. Second, the auditors must follow the paper trail of ownership. They must make sure that the gold in the vaults is still legally in the possession of the FED.
There is a possibility that the FED has transferred ownership of this gold, through swaps, to European central banks, which have in turn leased – sold – their gold to private buyers. It is not enough to determine that the physical gold is in the two vaults. It is also mandatory to determine whether the FED has indirectly sold the government's gold, which it has held in trust for the government since 1933.

[Note to auditors: pursue this phrase in the FED's statements: "deep storage gold." As to why, read this.]

The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran & Banned Iran From Trading Gold and Silver on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.

By Justyna Pawlak and Hossein Jaseb

BRUSSELS/TEHRAN | Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:16am EST

In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an oil exporting route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran should cut off oil to the EU immediately.

That might hurt Greece, Italy and other ailing economies which depend heavily on Iranian crude and, as a result, won as part of the EU agreement a grace period until July 1 before the embargo takes full effect.

A day after a U.S. aircraft carrier, accompanied by a flotilla that included French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf in defiance of Iranian hostility, the widely expected EU sanctions move was likely to set off further bellicose rhetoric in an already tense region.

EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.

Raid on gold and silver rebuffed/silver rises above $32.00 in access market/No deal on Private Greek debt

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

Before commencing we finally witnessed 3 banks enter the banking morgue. The FDIC holiday for the boys is now over.

Here are the latest entrants;

1. American Eagle Savings Bank of Boothwyn PA
2. First State Bank of Stockbridge GA
3. Central Florida State Bank, Bellview FL.

may they rest in peace.

end

I wrote to the CFTC last night suggesting to them that a probable raid was forthcoming on Friday. You could tell from the weak equity shares traded on Thursday despite gold bouncing off the $1650 level 4 times. The high OI is causing concern to the bankers as they are witnessing a large number of option holders standing for delivery in both gold and silver.

Wait to you see what happened inside the comex vaults.

Gold finished the comex session at $1663.70 for a gain of $9.60 on the day even though the bankers decided that another raid was in order. They drove the price of gold to around the $1645.00 level and immediately it started to rise above the $1650 level. Another push down had no effect and finally gold zoomed to finish the session at $1663.70. Silver however was the bright star refusing to buckle at any cost.
It finished the comex session at $31.65

In the access market, gold and silver continued its northern trajectory. Here are the final closing access market prices:

gold: $1667.00
silver: $32.20

Let us head over to the comex and assess trading, position limits, inventory levels and amounts of metal standing. Friday was an extremely busy day for the boys.

The total gold comex OI rose again by 2930 contracts and again this was fodder for the bankers.
Probably they hit gold due to silver's strong advance of late. The raid had no effect on silver as this poor man's gold showed no interest in the bankers antics. The total OI for gold rests this weekend at 441,320 contracts. The front options expiry month of January again mysteriously advanced 37 contracts today despite zero delivery notices yesterday. We thus gained another 3700 oz of gold oz standing. The next big delivery month is February which is a little over a week to go before first day notice, on Tuesday Jan 31.2012. Here the OI fell from 160,113 to 156,621 which is a little light on the rollovers. The estimated volume at the gold comex on Friday was quite tame at 152,745 if you consider some of the rolls. The confirmed volume on Thursday was a little better at 166,269 contracts.

The total silver comex OI again saw its OI fall from 102,870 to 102,055. The bankers are just refusing to supply any non backed paper. With very little non backed silver paper supply, it was easy for silver to rise above $32.00 yesterday.
The front options expiry month of January saw its OI fall from 175 to 152 for a loss of 23 contracts. We had exactly 23 delivery notices yesterday so neither gained nor lost any silver oz standing and thus no cash settlements either. The next big delivery month is March and here the OI fell by close to 2000 contracts from 53,240 to 51,351 contracts. It looks like the Sprott purchase of 10 million oz of silver (300million dollars) is scaring the dickens out of our bankers. The estimated volume at the silver comex on Friday came in at 45,753 which is a little higher than what we have been witnessing lately. The confirmed volume on Thursday was very weak at 35,826.

The USS Abraham Lincoln transits Hormuz. Scene set for US-Iranian talks

DEBKAfile Special Report January 23, 2012, 3:17 AM (GMT+02:00)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta aboard the USS Enterprise

 

Three weeks after Tehran threatened action against any US aircraft carrier entering the Strait of Hormuz, Washington made two moves: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta disclosed Sunday, Jan. 22, that the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group would steam through the strategic strait in March; a few hours later, the US Navy sent the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier through the strategic strait without incident, accompanied by British and French warships.
debkafile: Defusing the Hormuz crisis set the scene for resumed nuclear negotiations leading up to which several messages were exchanged through back channels between the Obama administration and Tehran in recent weeks - amid Israeli preparations to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.
These developments deepened the breach between the US and Israel. Two days earlier, on Friday, Jan. 20, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, visited Israel and with Israeli leaders emphasized the cooperation between Washington and Jerusalem on the Iranian threat. The Netanyahu government complained that action against Iran had been postponed for years on one pretext on another, and the same thing was happening to effective sanctions against Iran's oil exports and central bank. Israel was therefore compelled to exercise its military option against the mortal peril of a nuclear Iran, said the Israeli prime minister, before it was too late.

QE-Cating

Submitted by ilene on 01/23/2012 01:43 -0500


Excerpts from this week's Stock World Weekly 
Good week for the bulls - the major indexes were all up between 2.0% and 2.8%, capping the third consecutive week of gains. Investors saw some powerful signs of positive activity in the economy. For example, initial unemployment claims dropped a stunning 50k in one week. Conversely, the fact that this earnings season has seen the lowest percentage of companies beating expectations since Q3 2008 supplied some powerful ammunition for the bears, although the bulls still had it. (Earnings beats falling behind previous quarters)
We ended last week’s newsletter, “Cracks in the Facade” discussing the possibility of additional easing by the Fed, which would likely prove bullish for the markets. Quoting Phil, “It seems like a lot, but we're back to 760 on the RUT, which was our test line going the other way last week, and we still haven't filled the gap up from Monday's close, about another 1% down. Let's keep it in perspective though – we're up from 1,200 to almost 1,300 on the S&P in less than a month. So a 20-point pullback to 1,277 would not be very bearish in a longer-term trend and, if we get volume and hold it, it's actually a bullish confirmation...

Gold-market rigging has many whistleblowers; they're just always ignored

By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA

Remarks by Chris Powell
Secretary/Treasurer, Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
Vancouver Convention Center West
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday, January 21, 2012


Many people ask why, if there really is a gold price suppression scheme -- a scheme of currency market intervention to support the dollar and other currencies against the true international reserve currency, gold -- some whistleblowers haven't come forward to expose it.
In fact, the whistle has been blown on the gold price suppression scheme many times over the years, and by the highest authorities. They just haven't yet been recognized as whistleblowers by the news media and financial analysts.
Many of you may have heard of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's famous remark about gold in his testimony to Congress in July 1998: "Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise."
That is, Greenspan contradicted the usual central bank explanation for leasing gold -- supposedly to earn a little interest on a dead asset -- and admitted that gold leasing is all about suppressing the price. Greenspan's admission is still posted at the Fed's Internet site:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1998/19980724.htm
And at GATA's:
http://www.gata.org/files/GreenspanTestimony-07-24-1998.htm_.txt
But the official whistleblowing goes far beyond that.

'Gold and silver advances on inflation concerns'

By Eric McWhinnie
On Thursday, Gold and Silver prices were essentially unchanged. Despite positive economic data being released, gold prices settled at $1,654, while silver closed at $30.51. Newly released inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the prices consumers paid in December were roughly the same as they paid in November. However, investors are still showing a growing concern for inflation.

The monthly Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers survey shows a zero percent change on “All Items” on a seasonally adjusted basis, but a drop in energy commodities (-1.9 percent) helped to dampen the numbers. The inflation picture is somewhat clearer when using annual comparisons between 2010 and 2011.



As a result, some turn to Gold and Silver for inflation protection, even central banks, as they became net purchasers of gold for the first time in 20 years in 2010. Unlike current fiat currencies, both precious metals have survived thousands of years of global turmoil. Due to monetary policies over the past decade, gold prices have climbed from $250 to $1,660 per ounce today. Meanwhile, silver prices have surged from $4.50 to over $31.



Even though gold and silver have experienced a remarkable move, it comes at the cost of the U.S. dollar. As nations continue to struggle with a global insolvency crisis, central banks continue to provide stimulus measures that devalue fiat currencies. A growing consensus of economists predict that the Federal Reserve is likely to inject another $1 trillion worth of easing to stimulate the economy. Such a move, will provide yet another blow to the U.S. dollar, and another catalyst for higher gold and silver prices.

Limits of Voluntary Deal Hit as Greek Bondholders Draw Line in the Sand; Separating Fact from Fiction in Selective Reporting

MISH'S
Global Economic
Trend Analysis

The bickering over a half percentage point reduction on the discount rate continued over the weekend as Greek Bondholders Draw Line in the Sand


Private owners of Greek debt have made their “maximum” offer for the losses they are willing to accept, the bondholders’ lead negotiator has said, implying that any further demands could kill off a “voluntary” deal and trigger a default.

One banker said Friday’s demand by official creditors, led by the International Monetary Fund, for a further interest rate cut of 50 basis points on new long-term bonds to be swapped for existing Greek debt “may have put a voluntary deal out of reach”.

Mr Dallara said the IIF’s position tabled with Greek authorities on Friday night – believed to include a loss of 65-70 per cent on current Greek bonds’ long-term value – was as far as his side was likely to go.

Italy and Spain call for eurozone rescue fund booster

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International business editor
8:52PM GMT 22 Jan 2012

Political leaders in Italy and Spain have called for a massive boost to the EU rescue fund and a blast of monetary stimulus by the European Central Bank (ECB), putting them on a collision course with Germany over the handling of the eurozone crisis.
Italy's premier Mario Monti has told Berlin that the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM) must be doubled to €1 trillion (£828bn) to restore investor confidence in southern European debt, according to Der Spiegel.

The move comes days after Mr Monti warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel that austerity fatigue is growing in the debtor states and there will be a "powerful backlash" unless the creditor powers led by Germany do more to correct North-South imbalances and lower borrowing for the whole eurozone.

In what appears to be a coordinated move by the Latin bloc, Spanish foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil backed the plan for a bigger rescue fund. He called for an EMU debt union and sweeping changes to the structure of the eurozone.

Mr García-Margallo exhorted the ECB to step up bond purchases in a fully-fledged campaign of quantitative easing, implicitly suggesting a blitz of up to €2 trillion on top of the unlimited credit already provided to banks at 1pc for three years.

"The European Central Bank can do much more than it has done: it has bought European debt equal to just 2pc of GDP while the Bank of England has done 20pc," he said.

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