BEST POLITICAL QUOTE OF ANY ERA:  

 

“The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt.  People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.”

 

Cicero, 55 B.C.

 

So, we’ve evidently learned nothing over the past 2,073 years!

 

GOLD: $1317.90  up $5.25

Silver: $16.33 up 5 CENTS

Closing access prices:

Gold $1316.50

silver: $16.33

SHANGHAI GOLD FIX: FIRST FIX 10 15 PM EST (2:15 SHANGHAI LOCAL TIME)

SECOND FIX: 2:15 AM EST (6:15 SHANGHAI LOCAL TIME)

SHANGHAI FIRST GOLD FIX: $1321.3 DOLLARS PER OZ

NY PRICE OF GOLD AT EXACT SAME TIME: $1311.75

PREMIUM FIRST FIX: $9.55

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SECOND SHANGHAI GOLD FIX: $1318.49

NY GOLD PRICE AT THE EXACT SAME TIME: $1308.75

PREMIUM SECOND FIX /NY:$9.74

SHANGHAI REJECTS NY PRICING OF GOLD.

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ON APRIL 1  2018 I WILL NO LONGER PROVIDE THE LONDON FIXES AS THEY ARE MANIPULATED AND THEY WILL BE PROVIDED 36 HRS AFTER THE FACT AND  THUS TOTALLY USELESS TO US!!

LONDON FIRST GOLD FIX: 5:30 am est $1311.70

NY PRICING AT THE EXACT SAME TIME: $1310.70 ???

LONDON SECOND GOLD FIX 10 AM: $1312.40

NY PRICING AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. $1309.95 ????  SIGNALS CROSSED?

For comex gold:

MARCH/

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR MARCH CONTRACT:11 NOTICE(S) FOR 1100 OZ.

TOTAL NOTICES SO FAR:24 FOR 2400 OZ

For silver:

MARCH

28 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR

140,000 OZ/

Total number of notices filed so far this month: 5159 for 25,795,000 oz

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Bitcoin: BID $8221/OFFER $8,290: DOWN $288(morning)

Bitcoin: BID/ $8449/offer $8519: DOWN $59  (CLOSING/5 PM)

 

end

Let us have a look at the data for today

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In silver, the total open interest ROSE  BY A STRONG SIZED 1741 contracts from 208,501  RISING TO 210,242  DESPITE FRIDAY’S 15 CENT FALL IN SILVER PRICING.  WE OBVIOUSLY HAD ZERO COMEX LIQUIDATION. HOWEVER, WE WERE AGAIN NOTIFIED THAT WE HAD ANOTHER HUGE SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONGS TRANSFERRING THEIR CONTRACTS TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP : 3619 EFP’S FOR MAY AND ZERO FOR ALL  OTHER MONTHS  AND THUS TOTAL ISSUANCE OF 3619 CONTRACTS.  WITH THE TRANSFER OF 3619 CONTRACTS, WHAT THE CME IS STATING IS THAT THERE IS NO SILVER (OR GOLD) TO BE DELIVERED UPON AT THE COMEX AS THEY MUST EXPORT THEIR OBLIGATION TO LONDON. ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE CAN BE A DELAY OF 24-48 HRS IN THE ISSUING OF EFP’S. THE 3619 CONTRACTS TRANSLATES INTO 18.09 MILLION OZ  WITH THE RISE IN OPEN INTEREST IN SILVER AT THE COMEX.

ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S/SILVER/J.P.MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES, / STARTING FROM FIRST DAY NOTICE/FOR MONTH OF MARCH:

29,068 CONTRACTS (FOR 13 TRADING DAYS TOTAL 29,068 CONTRACTS) OR 145.34 MILLION OZ: AVERAGE PER DAY: 2236 CONTRACTS OR 11.180 MILLION OZ/DAY

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SUPPLY THIS MONTH IN SILVER:  SO FAR THIS MONTH:  145.34 MILLION PAPER OZ HAVE MORPHED OVER TO LONDON. THIS REPRESENTS AROUND 20.76% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION

ACCUMULATION IN YEAR 2018 TO DATE SILVER EFP’S:  627.164 MILLION OZ.

ACCUMULATION FOR JAN 2018: 236.879 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR MONTH OF FEBRUARY: 244.945 MILLION OZ

RESULT: WE HAD A STRONG SIZED GAIN  IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX OF 1741 DESPITE THE 15 CENT FALL IN SILVER PRICE.  WE ALSO HAD A HUGE SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 3619 CONTRACTS WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX AND TRANSFERRED THEIR OI TO LONDON AS FORWARDS. SPECULATORS CONTINUED THEIR INTEREST IN ATTACKING THE SILVER COMEX FOR PHYSICAL SILVER . FROM THE CME DATA 3619 EFP’S  FOR THE  MONTH OF MARCH WERE ISSUED FOR  A DELIVERABLE FORWARD CONTRACT OVER IN LONDON WITH A FIAT BONUS.   WE GAINED  5360 OI CONTRACTS i.e. 3619 open interest contracts headed for London (EFP’s) TOGETHER WITH A INCREASE OF 1741  OI COMEX CONTRACTS. AND ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITH THE FALL IN PRICE OF SILVER OF 15 CENTS AND A CLOSING PRICE OF $16.38 WITH RESPECT TO FRIDAY’S TRADING. YET WE STILL HAVE A HUGE AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING AT THE COMEX THIS MONTH.

In ounces AT THE COMEX, the OI is still represented by just OVER 1 BILLION oz i.e. 1.051 BILLION TO BE EXACT or 150% of annual global silver production (ex Russia & ex China).

FOR THE NEW FRONT MARCH MONTH/ THEY FILED: 28 NOTICE(S) FOR 140,000 OZ OF SILVER

In gold, the open interest  FELL BY AN CONSIDERABLE SIZED 8760 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 533,887  WITH THE GOOD SIZED FALL IN PRICE  FRIDAY ( LOSS OF $5.65) HOWEVER  FOR MONDAY, THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED AN HUGE SIZED  11,571 CONTRACTS :  APRIL SAW THE ISSUANCE OF 11,071 CONTRACTS, JUNE SAW THE ISSUANCE OF 500 CONTRACTS AND THEN ALL OTHER MONTHS ZERO.   The new OI for the gold complex rests at 533,887. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE WILL BE A DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S.  THE BANKERS REMOVE LONG POSITIONS OF COMEX GOLD IMMEDIATELY.  THEN THEY ORCHESTRATE THEIR PRIVATE EFP DEAL WITH THE LONGS AND THAT COULD TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 48 HRS SO WE GENERALLY DO NOT GET A MATCH WITH RESPECT TO DEPARTING COMEX LONGS AND NEW EFP LONG TRANSFERS. DEMAND FOR GOLD INTENSIFIES GREATLY AS WE CONTINUE TO WITNESS A HUGE NUMBER OF EFP TRANSFERS TOGETHER WITH THE MASSIVE INCREASE IN GOLD COMEX OI  TOGETHER WITH  THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF GOLD OUNCES STANDING FOR FEBRUARY COMEX. EVEN THOUGH THE BANKERS ISSUED THESE MONSTROUS EFPS, THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS TO SUPPLY METAL BUT IT TRANSFERS THE RISK TO A LONDON BANKER OBLIGATION AND NOT A NEW YORK COMEX OBLIGATION. LONGS RECEIVE A FIAT BONUS TOGETHER WITH A LONG LONDON FORWARD. THUS, BY THESE ACTIONS, THE BANKERS AT THE COMEX HAVE JUST STATED THAT THEY HAVE NO APPRECIABLE METAL!! THIS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD: THEY CANNOT SUPPLY ANY METAL TO OUR COMEX LONGS BUT THEY ARE QUITE WILLING TO SUPPLY MASSIVE NON BACKED GOLD (AND SILVER) PAPER KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE NO METAL TO SATISFY OUR LONGS. LONDON IS NOW SEVERELY BACKWARD IN BOTH GOLD AND SILVER  AND WE ARE WITNESSING DELAYS IN ACTUAL DELIVERIES. IN ESSENCE WE HAVE A GOOD  OI GAIN IN CONTRACTS: 8760 OI CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX BUT A HUGE SIZED 11,571 OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON.THUS  TOTAL OI GAIN: 2811 CONTRACTS OR 401,300 OZ =8.743 TONNES

FRIDAY, WE HAD 15,689 EFP’S ISSUED.

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF MARCH : 118,547 CONTRACTS OR 11,854,700  OZ OR 368.71 TONNES (13 TRADING DAYS AND THUS AVERAGING: 9119 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY OR 911,900 OZ/ TRADING DAY)

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS :   SO FAR THIS MONTH IN 13 TRADING DAYS IN  TONNES: 368.71 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2017, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 2555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 368.71/2550 x 100% TONNES =  14.45% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION SO FAR IN MARCH ALONE.

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2018 TO DATE:  1671.38 TONNES

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR JANUARY 2018: 653.22  TONNES

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR FEBRUARY: 649.45 TONNES

Result: A CONSIDERABLE SIZED DECREASE IN OI AT THE COMEX WITH THE  FALL IN PRICE IN GOLD TRADING ON FRIDAY ($5.65 LOSS).  HOWEVER, WE HAD ANOTHER HUGE SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONG TRANSFERRING TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE: 11,571 CONTRACTS AS THESE HAVE ALREADY BEEN NEGOTIATED AND CONFIRMED.   THERE OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE MUCH PHYSICAL GOLD AT THE COMEX AND YET WE ALSO OBSERVED A HUGE DELIVERY MONTH FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. I GUESS IT EXPLAINS THE HUGE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S…THERE IS HARDLY ANY GOLD PRESENT AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR DELIVERY PURPOSES. IF YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE 11,571 EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED, WE HAD A NET GAIN IN OPEN INTEREST OF 2811 contracts ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:

11,571 CONTRACTS MOVE TO LONDON AND 8760 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX. (in tonnes, the GAIN in total oi equates to 8.74  TONNES).

we had: 11 notice(s) filed upon for 1100 oz of gold.

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With respect to our two criminal funds, the GLD and the SLV:

GLD

WITH GOLD UP  $5.25 : ANOTHER HUGE  CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD / A DEPOSIT OF 2.07 TONNES OF GOLD

Inventory rests tonight: 838.15 tonnes.

SLV/

WITH SILVER UP 5 CENTS TODAY: 

A SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ A DEPOSIT OF 659,000 OZ

/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.671 MILLION OZ/

end

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1. Today, we had the open interest in silver ROSE BY A STRONG 1741  contracts from 208,501 UP TO 210,242 (AND now A LITTLE  CLOSER TO THE NEW COMEX RECORD SET ON FRIDAY/APRIL 21/2017 AT 234,787) DESPITE THE FALL IN PRICE OF SILVER (15 CENTS WITH RESPECT TO  FRIDAY’S TRADING).   OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE ANOTHER 3619 EFP CONTRACTS FOR MARCH  (WE DO NOT GET A LOOK AT THESE CONTRACTS AS IT IS PRIVATE BUT THE CFTC DOES AUDIT THEM) AND 0 EFP’S FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS. EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. WE HAD SOME COMEX SILVER COMEX LIQUIDATION. IF WE TAKE THE  OI GAIN AT THE COMEX OF 1741 CONTRACTS TO THE 3619 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S, WE OBTAIN A GAIN OF 5360  OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS.  WE STILL HAVE A STRONG AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES THAT ARE STANDING FOR METAL IN MARCH (SEE BELOW). THE NET GAIN TODAY IN OZ ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:  26.80 MILLION OZ!!!

RESULT: A STRONG SIZED  INCREASE IN SILVER OI AT THE COMEX DESPITE THE FALL IN SILVER PRICING  FRIDAY (15 CENTS FALL IN PRICE) . BUT WE ALSO HAD ANOTHER FAIR SIZED 3619 EFP’S ISSUED TRANSFERRING COMEX LONGS OVER TO LONDON. TOGETHER WITH THE STRONG  SIZED AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR MARCH, DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL SILVER INTENSIFIES AS WE WITNESS SEVERE BACKWARDATION IN SILVER IN LONDON.

(report Harvey)

.

2.a) The Shanghai and London gold fix report

(Harvey)

2 b) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore

(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge

and in NY: Bloomberg

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)MONDAY MORNING/SUNDAY NIGHT: Shanghai closed UP 9.37 POINTS OR 0.29% /Hang Sang CLOSED UP 11.79 POINTS OR 0.04% / The Nikkei closed DOWN 195.61 POINTS OR 0.90%/Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 0.16%/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 6.3320/Oil UP to 62.07 dollars per barrel for WTI and 65.94 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED RED   .   ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN AT 6.3320 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3325 /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR . CHINA IS NOT VERY  HAPPY TODAY (WEAKER CURRENCY &  MARKETS/AND TRUMP TARIFFS  INITIATED/WEAKER GLOBAL MARKETS ) 

3a)THAILAND/SOUTH KOREA/NORTH KOREA

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 c CHINA

4. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

ii)A terrific article penned by Tom Luongo.  He describes the huge lies everywhere and what it means to us:

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6 .GLOBAL ISSUES

7. OIL ISSUES

8. EMERGING MARKET

9. PHYSICAL MARKETS

10. USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

i)This is quite mundane…the Kushner companies are accused of filing false documents with New York City of which all developers are guilty of:

( zerohedge)

j)Trump emboldened by the McCabe firing and is demanding that the Mueller investigation to end. Trump will be keying off Fox News and if Judge Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity  turn it up a notch, then there is no telling what Trump will do..

( zerohedge)

k)A must read…ex FBI assistant director states the obvious: there was a high ranking plot top to protect Hillary and bring down Trump and Brennan was the weekly leaker

(courtesy Kallstrom ex FBI director/Fox/zerohedge)

l)Late this morning: it seems that Mueller is pivoting only to “obstruction” to which there is no case as Trump has the authority to fire Comey at any time.  Obstruction only occurs if there is a criminal element to it and there is nothing here..

(courtesy zerohedge)

m)DiGenova is to join President Trump’s legal team.  He is the husband of Victoria Toensing who is representing Campbell, the whistleblower in the Uranium One scandal.  It seems that Trump’s team is having difficulty getting documents on the Uranium One scandal.  Now that he is hired, he will just walk over and hand the documents to the President.(courtesy zerohedge)

n)No question about it:  this is going to get a lot uglier by the day

( zerohedge)

Trading Volumes on the COMEX

PRELIMINARY COMEX VOLUME FOR TODAY:285,582  contracts

CONFIRMED COMEX VOL. FOR YESTERDAY:  322,185 CONTRACTS

comex gold volumes are RISING AGAIN

Here is a summary of the latest gold trading volumes at the Comex per year

certainly the introduction of EFP’s has certainly had an effect:

Meanwhile, gold-trading volumes on the COMEX have never been higher:

end

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And now for the wild silver comex results.

Total silver OI ROSE BY A STRONG SIZED 1741  CONTRACTS FROM 208,501 UP TO 210,242 DESPITE OUR 15 CENT LOSS IN FRIDAY’S TRADING).   ALSO,WE WERE ALSO INFORMED THAT WE HAD 3619 EMERGENCY EFP’S FOR MARCH ISSUED BY OUR BANKERS AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS TO COMEX LONGS WHO RECEIVED A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON: THE TOTAL EFP’S ISSUED: 3619.   THE SILVER BOYS HAVE STARTED TO MIGRATE TO LONDON FROM THE START OF DELIVERY MONTH AND CONTINUING RIGHT THROUGH UNTIL FIRST DAY NOTICE JUST LIKE WE ARE WITNESSING TODAY. USUALLY WE NOTED THAT CONTRACTION IN OI OCCURRED ONLY DURING THE LAST WEEK OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH AS WE HAVE JUST SEEN IN GOLD TODAY. THIS PROCESS HAS JUST BEGUN IN EARNEST IN SILVER STARTING IN SEPTEMBER 2017. HOWEVER, IN GOLD, WE HAVE BEEN WITNESSING THIS FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS. NICK LAIRD WAS KIND ENOUGH TO SUPPLY US THE TOTAL FOR 2017 GOLD EFP’S AND IT WAS 6600 TONNES FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR.  WE OBVIOUSLY HAD ZERO LONG COMEX SILVER LIQUIDATION AND WE ALSO HAVE A STRONG SIZED GAIN IN TOTAL SILVER OI FROM OUR TWO EXCHANGES. WE ARE ALSO WITNESSING A STRONG AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR COMEX METAL IN THIS ACTIVE OF MARCH AS WELL AS THAT CONTINUAL MIGRATION OF EFPS OVER TO LONDON. ON A PERCENTAGE BASIS THERE ARE MORE EFP’S ISSUED FOR GOLD THAN SILVER.  ON A NET BASIS WE GAINED  5360  SILVER OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS AS  WE OBTAINED A 1741 CONTRACT GAIN AT THE COMEX COMBINING WITH THE ADDITION OF 3619 OI CONTRACTS NAVIGATING OVER TO LONDON.

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 5360 CONTRACTS 

AMOUNT STANDING FOR SILVER AT THE COMEX

We are now in the  active delivery month of MARCH and here the front month LOST 36 contracts FALLING TO 130 contracts. We had 48 contracts filed on FRIDAY, so we GAINED 12 contracts or an additional 60,000 OZ will stand in this active delivery month of March.(AS SOMEBODY IS IN URGENT NEED OF CONSIDERABLE PHYSICAL SILVER)

April LOST 7 contracts FALLING TO 414 .

The next big active delivery month for silver will be May and here the OI GAINED 1948 contracts UP to 150,536

We had 24 notice(s) filed for 140,000 OZ for the MARCH 2018 contract for silver

For MARCH:
Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 11 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 3 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by j.P.Morgan customer account.

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To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the MARCH. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (24) x 100 oz or 0 oz, to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of FEB. (507 contracts) minus the number of notices served upon today (11 x 100 oz per contract) equals 52,000 oz, the number of ounces standing in this nonactive month of MARCH (1.6174 tonnes)

Thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the MARCH contract month:

No of notices served (24 x 100 oz or ounces + {(507)OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (11 x 100 oz )which equals 52,000 oz standing in this  nonactive delivery month of March . THERE IS 10.556 TONNES OF REGISTERED GOLD AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY SO FAR.

WE LOST 21 CONTRACTS OR AN ADDITIONAL 2100 OZ WILL NOT STAND FOR DELIVERY IN THIS NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF MARCH.

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IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS 72 NET TONNES HAS LEFT THE COMEX.

end

And now for silver

AND NOW THE DECEMBER DELIVERY MONTH

MARCH INITIAL standings/SILVER

we had 0 inventory movement at the dealer side of things

total dealer deposits:  nil oz

we had 0 deposits into the customer account

i) nil

ii) Into JPMorgan:  nil oz

*** JPMorgan for most of 2017 and in 2018 has adding to its inventory almost every single day.

JPMorgan now has 137 million oz of  total silver inventory or 53.6% of all official comex silver.

JPMorgan  deposited zero into its warehouses (official) today.

total deposits today:  nil  oz

we had 1 withdrawals from the customer account;

i) Out of Scotia:  60,151.880 oz

total withdrawals; 60,151.880  oz

we had 2 adjustments

i)out of CNT: 550,930.824 oz was adjusted out of the dealer account and into the customer account of CNT

ii) Out of Scotia: 81,735.700 oz was adjusted out of the dealer account and this landed into the customer account of CNT

total dealer silver:  59.203 million

total dealer + customer silver:  256.857 million oz

The total number of notices filed today for the March. contract month is represented by 28 contract(s) FOR 140,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in March., we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 5159 x 5,000 oz = 25,795,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of Mar. (130) and the number of notices served upon today (28 x 5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

.

Thus the INITIAL standings for silver for the March contract month: 5159(notices served so far)x 5000 oz + OI for front month of March(130) -number of notices served upon today (28)x 5000 oz equals 26,305,000 oz of silver standing for the March contract month. 

We GAINED an additional 12 contracts or 60,000 additional silver oz will stand for delivery at the comex as somebody was in urgent need of physical silver.

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ESTIMATED VOLUME FOR TODAY: 64,899 CONTRACTS

CONFIRMED VOLUME FOR YESTERDAY: 78,094 CONTRACTS

YESTERDAY’S CONFIRMED VOLUME OF 78094 CONTRACTS EQUATES TO  390 MILLION OZ OR 55.7% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF SILVER

COMMODITY LAW SUGGESTS THAT OPEN INTEREST SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN 3% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION. THE CROOKS ARE SUPPLYING MASSIVE PAPER TRYING TO KEEP SILVER IN CHECK.

The record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price at that day at $18.42
The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

end

NPV for Sprott 

1. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): NAV FALLS TO -2.46% (MARCH 19/2018)
2. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV RISES TO -0.58% to NAV (March 19/2018 )
Note: Sprott silver trust back into NEGATIVE territory at -2.46%-/Sprott physical gold trust is back into NEGATIVE/ territory at -0.58%/Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail but being rescued by Sprott.
Sprott WINS hostile 3.1 billion bid to take over Central Fund of Canada

(courtesy Sprott/GATA)

3.SPROTT CEF.A FUND (FORMERLY CENTRAL FUND OF CANADA): NAV RISES TO -2.55%: NAV 13.57/TRADING 13.23//DISCOUNT 2.55.

END

And now the Gold inventory at the GLD/

March 19/WITH GOLD UP $5.25: ANOTHER HUGE DEPOSIT OF GOLD TO THE TUNE OF 2.07 TONNES/GOLD INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 840.22 TONNES

MARCH 16/WITH GOLD DOWN $5.65/OUR CROOKS DEPOSITED ANOTHER 4.42 TONNES INTO GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 838.15 TONNES

FOR THE WEEK: GOLD LOST  $11.80, BUT GOLD INVENTORY ADVANCED:4.42 TONNES

MARCH 15/WITH GOLD DOWN $7.85, NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 14/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.55/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 13/WITH GOLD UP $6.25/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 12/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.00/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 9/WITH GOLD UP $2.25/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

March 8/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 7/WITH GOLD DOWN 8.00/A SLIGHT CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/A WITHDRAWAL OF .25 TONNES TO PAY FOR FEES//INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.73 TONNES

MARCH 6/WITH GOLD UP $15.60/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.98 TONNES

March 5/WITH GOLD DOWN $4.10/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.98 TONNES

MARCH 2/WITH GOLD UP $18.70/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.98 TONNES

March 1/WITH GOLD DOWN ANOTHER $12.30/A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY/ A DEPOSIT OF 2.96 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 833.98 TONNES

FEB 28/WITH GOLD DOWN ANOTHER 70 CENTS/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 831.03 TONNES/.

feb 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $13.80 WE HAD NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 831.03 TONNES

FEB 26/WITH GOLD UP $2.40/WE HAD ANOTHER INVENTORY GAIN/THIS TIME 1.77 TONNE ADDITION TO THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 831.03 TONNES/WE HAVE HAD 5 INCREASES IN THE PAST 6 TRADING GOLD SESSIONS/

FEB 23/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.15, WE HAD A GOOD INVENTORY GAIN OF 1.47 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 829.26 TONNES

FEB 22/WITH GOLD UP 90 CENTS AGAIN TODAY, WE HAD NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 827.79 TONNES

FEB 21/ WITH THE 90 CENT GAIN WE HAD ANOTHER DEPOSIT OF 3.15 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 827.79 TONNES

Feb 20/WITH GOLD DOWN BY $24.25, THE CROOKS DECIDED THAT THEY HAD BETTER RETURN (DEPOSIT) 3.34 TONNES OF GOLD INTO THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS TONIGHT AT 824,64 TONNES

Feb 16/WITH GOLD UP BY 25 CENTS, THE CROOKS DECIDED AGAIN TO RAID THE COOKIE JAR BY WITHDRAWING 2.36 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 821.30 TONNES

Feb 15/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 823.66 TONNES

Feb 14/AN ADDITIONAL OF 2.95 TONNES OF GOLD INTO GLD WITH THE HUGE GAIN OF 27.40 IN PRICE/INVENTORY RESTS AT 823.66 TONNES

Feb 13/WITH GOLD UP $3.40 WE HAD NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REMAINS AT 820.71 TONNES

Feb 12/STRANGE!!WITH GOLD RISING BY 12.00 DOLLARS, THE CROOKS DECIDED AGAIN TO WITHDRAW 5.6 TONNES OF GOLD FOR EMERGENCY USE ELSEWHERE/INVENTORY RESTS AT 820.71 TONNES

Feb 9/AGAIN WITH HUGE TURMOIL ON THE MARKETS, THE CROOKS WITHDREW 2 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 826.31 TONNES

Feb 8/DESPITE THE GOOD GAIN IN PRICE FOR GOLD TODAY/THE CROOKS REMOVED .96 TONNES FROM THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 828.31 TONNES

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

MARCH 19/2018/ Inventory rests tonight at 838.15 tonnes

*IN LAST 344 TRADING DAYS: 100.92 NET TONNES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GLD
*LAST 274 TRADING DAYS: A NET 55.38 TONNES HAVE NOW BEEN ADDED INTO GLD INVENTORY.

end

Now the SLV Inventory

March 19/WITH SILVER UP 5 CENTS, THE SLV ADDS A SMALL 659,000 OZ TO ITS INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.671 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 16/WITH SILVER DOWN 15 CENTS/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.012 MILLION OZ.

FOR THE WEEK;  SILVER IS DOWN 42 CENTS YET ADDS 943,000 OZ OF SILVER INTO THE SLV/

MARCH 15/WITH SILVER DOWN 11 CENTS/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.012 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 8 CENTS/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.012 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 13/WITH SILVER UP 10 CENTS/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.012 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 12/WITH SILVER DOWN 8 CENTS/A BIG CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ A DEPOSIT OF 943,000 OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 319.012 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 9/WITH SILVER UP 21 CENTS, NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

March 8/WITH SILVER DOWN 1 CENT TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 7/WITH SILVER DOWN 27 CENTS/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 6/WITH SILVER UP 38 CENTS/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

March 5/WITH SILVER DOWN 11 CENTS/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 2/WITH SILVER UP 23 CENTS: A HUGE 1.479 MILLION OZ WAS ADDED TO SILVER’S INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.069 MILLION OZ/

March 1/WITH SILVER DOWN 11 CENTS TODAY/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.590 MILLION OZ./

FEB 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.590 MILLION OZ/

feb 27/WITH SILVER DOWN 17 CENTS/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.590 MILLION OZ

FEB 26/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.590 MILLION OZ/

FEB 23/WITH SILVER DOWN 10 CENTS TODAY, WE HAD ANOTHER HUGE ADDITION OF 1.315 MILLION OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.590 MILLION OZ/

fEB 22.2018/WITH SILVER DOWN  1 CENT TODAY, WE HAD NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 315.271 MILLION OZ/

FEB 21/WITH SILVER UP 15 CENTS TODAY, WE HAD A GOOD SIZED INVENTORY ADDITION OF 1.226 MILLION OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 315.271 MILLION OZ/

Feb 20/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ

Feb 16/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

Feb 15/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

Feb 14./NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY DESPITE THE HUGE RISE IN PRICE/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ

Feb 13./NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY TODAY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

Feb 12/AGAIN, WITH TODAY’S HUGE RISE IN SILVER PRICE, IN TOTAL CONTRAST TO GOLD: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

Feb 9/AGAIN WITH TURMOIL ON THE MARKETS, STRANGELY IN TOTAL CONTRAST TO GOLD: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

Feb 8/DESPITE THE TURMOIL TODAY AND A PRICE RISE: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 314.045 MILLION OZ/

MARCH 19/2018: A SMALL CHANGES TO SILVER INVENTORY/ A DEPOSIT OF 659,000 OZ

Inventory 319.671 million oz

end

6 Month MM GOFO 1.99/ and libor 6 month duration 2.36

Indicative gold forward offer rate for a 6 month duration/calculation:

G0FO+ 1.99%

libor 2.36 FOR 6 MONTHS/

GOLD LENDING RATE: .37%

XXXXXXXX

12 Month MM GOFO
+ 2.39%

LIBOR FOR 12 MONTH DURATION: 2.61

GOFO = LIBOR – GOLD LENDING RATE

GOLD LENDING RATE  = +.22

end

Major gold/silver trading /commentaries for MONDAY

GOLDCORE/BLOG/MARK O’BYRNE.

GOLD/SILVER

Crock Of Gold Hidden In Ireland? Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

17, March

Crock Of Gold In Ireland? Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

Wishing you health, wealth and good luck this Saint Patrick’s Day!

May your home be filled with laughter 

May your pockets be filled with gold
And may you have all the happiness
Your heart can holdThis Saint Patrick’s Day we bring you an interesting article from the Irish Post about the history of gold mining in Ireland and Ireland’s hidden gold hotspots.

by Jack Beresford via the Irish Post

IRELAND has a long and rich history of gold mining, dating back to the 1800s and continuing even today.

The first Irish gold rush occurred from 1795 through to 1860 with around 300kg of the mineral hand-mined from deep within the Emerald Isle.

Discoveries are still being made today with gold worth €546million recently uncovered at a mining site in Clontribet, Co. Monaghan just this week.

Valued at around €1,050 an ounce, discovering gold can be a life-changing experience – but where do you look?

According to the experts, Ireland has a couple of notable hidden gold hotspots – but do you live near one of them?

History indicates that some small clues to the true location of these hidden goldmines can be found in the place names of many of Ireland’s villages, mountains, rivers and towns.

These places were handed their names for a reason and indicate that there could well be gold in these old hills.

Here are some of the most famous supposed gold hotspots.

SLIEVEANORE

Slieveanore, which roughly translates as ‘Mountain of Gold’, near Feakle in Co. Clare is a townland thought to have been named in reference to the fact there was once an abundance of the mineral around the region.

Whether any still remains is a source of some speculation.

COOMANORE

Down towards the south coast of Ireland, between Bantry and Dunmanway in Co. Cork sits Coomanore, which translates to ‘Hollow of the Gold’ and is said to offer riches to anyone able to locate the source of that most precious and valued of minerals.

LUGANORE

Take a trip down to Luganore near Clonmel, Tipperary and you may come back with more than you bargained for.

Also known as the ‘Hollow of the Gold’, it’s attracted plenty of interest down the years from people looking to find their fortune.

GLENANORE

Otherwise known as the Glen of the Gold, Glenanore in Co. Cork is another favourite stomping ground for those eager to uncover the secrets living within these lands.

Several other possible gold hotspots, meanwhile, have emerged as a result of notable discoveries down the years.

LIMERICK

Ancient mining and smelting equipment and materials was uncovered in a bog near the popular Irish city.

Thought to be several thousand years old and sizeable in scale, the discovery prompted speculation that there could be more gold hidden in the region.

WICKLOW

A giant sluice box, dating back thousands of years, was uncovered under several feet of river gravels in the Woodenbridge area of the city. What else lies beneath?

Gold has also been discovered The River Dargle, The Avoca, The Avonbeg and at the foot of Bray Head. Other areas of Ireland where gold has been discovered include: The River Dodder near Rathfarnham, Cregganbaun and Croagh Patrick, Cavanacaw, Clontibret, Lecanvey and Bohaun in County Glaway.

In fact, it is likely that there are many more sources all over the country, given the sheer quantity of gold found dating as far back as the Bronze Age and now stored in national museums.

Ireland’s gold rush is still far from being over.

News and Commentary

Gold at 2-week low as dollar weighs, investors eye political tensions (MarketWatch.com)

PRECIOUS-Gold steady as political concerns offset rate hike fears (Reuters.com)

Venezuela gold reserve value falls 14 pct in 2017 (Reuters.com)

Stocks Drift, Dollar Drops Amid Political Turmoil: Markets Wrap (Bloomberg.com)

Bitcoin’s ‘Death Cross’ Looms as Strategist Eyes $2,800 Level (Bloomberg.com)

The Many Uses of Gold (GoldSeek.com)

$500 million in gold bullion rains down on Siberia after aircraft cargo bungle (News.com.au)

Tons of gold fall from sky in Russian cargo plane blunder (VIDEO, PHOTOS) (RT.com)

Gold’s relationship to interest rates isn’t so simple – Kosares (Gata.org)

Forget Brexit – here’s the real reason the UK housing market is fragile (MoneyWeek.com)

Gold Prices (LBMA AM)

15 Mar: USD 1,323.35, GBP 949.24 & EUR 1,070.72 per ounce
14 Mar: USD 1,324.95, GBP 949.59 & EUR 1,071.35 per ounce
13 Mar: USD 1,318.70, GBP 948.94 & EUR 1,069.60 per ounce
12 Mar: USD 1,317.25, GBP 950.66 & EUR 1,069.87 per ounce
09 Mar: USD 1,319.35, GBP 955.21 & EUR 1,072.50 per ounce
08 Mar: USD 1,325.40, GBP 955.08 & EUR 1,070.39 per ounce
07 Mar: USD 1,332.50, GBP 960.07 & EUR 1,071.86 per ounce

Silver Prices (LBMA)

15 Mar: USD 16.52, GBP 11.86 & EUR 13.37 per ounce
14 Mar: USD 16.61, GBP 11.88 & EUR 13.42 per ounce
13 Mar: USD 16.51, GBP 11.88 & EUR 13.38 per ounce
12 Mar: USD 16.46, GBP 11.88 & EUR 13.39 per ounce
09 Mar: USD 16.49, GBP 11.92 & EUR 13.40 per ounce
08 Mar: USD 16.48, GBP 11.89 & EUR 13.31 per ounce
07 Mar: USD 16.65, GBP 12.01 & EUR 13.42 per ounce

Mark O’Byrne

Executive Director

end

Andrew Maguire’s Kinesis money which is a “bitcoin” but backed 100% by allocated gold and silver is set to go.

it think it would be a great idea to look at this!

please read at:  https://kinesis.money/#/

(Andrew Maguire)

end.

Stephen Englander states that the uSA is stealthily lowering its exchange rate  (weaker dollar) as it is increasing the amount of short term paper bills.  The lowering of the dollar creates an gain for foreigners when they cash in one yr later on those bills.  This will surely help gold with the lower dollar.

(courtesy Bloomberg/GATA/Englander)

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)MONDAY MORNING/SUNDAY NIGHT: Shanghai closed UP 9.37 POINTS OR 0.29% /Hang Sang CLOSED UP 11.79 POINTS OR 0.04% / The Nikkei closed DOWN 195.61 POINTS OR 0.90%/Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 0.16%/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 6.3320/Oil UP to 62.07 dollars per barrel for WTI and 65.94 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED RED   .   ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN AT 6.3320 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.3325 /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR . CHINA IS NOT VERY  HAPPY TODAY (WEAKER CURRENCY &  MARKETS/AND TRUMP TARIFFS  INITIATED/WEAKER GLOBAL MARKETS ) 

3 a NORTH KOREA/USA

/NORTH KOREA/USA

 

3 b JAPAN AFFAIRS

END

c) REPORT ON CHINA

In a surprise move, China announces that Deputy POBC head Y Gang will replace Zhou.  He is USA educated but did not hold any positions with Goldman Sachs.  He is a free market believer:

(courtesy zerohedge)

4. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Early morning UK time zone:

Cable (Br Pound /USA Dollar) spikes above 1.40 on a Brexit breakthrough.  UK must abide by all EU rules for 21 months but they have no say on any EU new rules etc.  This is as good as it is going to get for the uK

(courtesy zerohedge)

end

authored by Tom Luongo,

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had a moment of clarity once.  He famously said, “When things get serious, you have to lie.”

Given the state of affairs in his beloved European Union right now Mr. Juncker and company are doing a lot of lying.

It is rare in politics to get that kind of honesty from a politician, especially one currently in office.  But, Juncker’s statement shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who is even a semi-serious political observer.

It’s why I find it funny that the Democrats and Antifa-Left get so bent out of shape when Donald Trump exaggerates or outright lies.  To him it’s a tactic.  Catching Donald Trump in a falsehood is like trying to ladle water with a sieve.

So, by the Juncker Maxim, things must be getting very serious because the amount and type of lies being thrown around by people who are supposed to know better have been staggering.

To the point that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, “I simply don’t have any normal terms left to describe all this.”

Lavrov has been the world’s most effective diplomat over the past few years, effectively talking to and cutting deals with people who should hate him and Russia’s policies.  What it highlights is that Lavrov and his boss, Vladimir Putin, have been effective simply because they make a deal and keep to it.

They are the opposite of Mr. Juncker.  When things get serious they become honest, speaking with one voice.

Part of that comes from having a single administration in power for the past 17 years.  It’s easy to keep to agreements when those in power don’t change.  The U.S.’s diplomatic history with North Korea, for example, highlights the problems of shifting domestic political winds in Washington.

But, that part stems from the way these men comport themselves on international stage.

So, watching the hyperventilations of of Theresa “Gypsum Lady” May and her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the poisoning of Former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia means there is a lot more going on here than anyone cares to admit.

The quick reversals from European leaders as well as Donald Trump from their initial skepticism of May and Johnson’s bloviating tells me that not only are they lying but they are being forced to lie by some vaguely unseen hand.

Just Blame Putin-stan!

It’s not just that the Neocons are losing, like I talked about in my last article.  It is that stench of desperation that’s everywhere right now.

The level of histrionics, lying and insanity over Former Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s firing is telling.  From McCabe himself, to his disgraced former boss, James Comey, the level of mendacity, chutzpah and, frankly, evil on display is impressive.

I guess the situation’s been serious for a long time for the lies to come this easily to their tongues.

This week we had the staged walk-outs by high school students over the Parkland, Fl shooting calling for gun control.  How desperate are those clinging to power behind the scenes that they’ve turned to weaponizing mal-educated children to do their bidding?

The French Foreign Ministry instructing its diplomats to not travel to Syria is also telling.  It’s all about lying to support the narrative that Assad and Putin are the bad guys.

The Reuters article I just linked to spends more column inches perpetuating the lie that there are no humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, even though there are plenty images, video and reports of thousands of civilians having been liberated from ISIS/Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.

But it mentions reports of chlorine gas attacks, again neglecting to say anything about the Syrian Army liberating a major chemical weapons facility in their advances against US-backed proxies.

How bad is the situation behind the scenes in the financial markets that Goldman-Sachs CEO Lloyd “Doin’ God’s Work” Blankfein suddenly decides it’s time to step down?  Derivative book that bad, Lloyd?

Or did you bet that Gary Cohn would get Trump to heel to allow Goldman to finish destroying Europe?

Long-established diplomatic norms and rules of conduct are simply thrown out the window because they need to be to induce hysteria to take people to war, otherwise, a war-weary, anxiety-ridden population will turn on their own governments.

So, Theresa May tells Russia to prove to her they’re innocent to distract from her betrayals on Brexit

Boris Johnson threatens Putin directly and the moron in charge of Britain’s defense department screeches for the Russians to ‘shut up and go away.’  Presumably he said it from his safe space rubbing his safety pin like Captain Queeg.

Meanwhile Mr. Juncker continues to lie about everything as it pertains to Brexit negotiations because the EU’s financial situation must be that serious.  If it weren’t they wouldn’t be trying to shake the U.K. down for tens of billions of euros.

Why So Serious?!

Look around you, step back from the craziness and see the bigger picture.  When you do you just see a bunch of incompetent, venal people covering their asses.  While a lot of what I write here could be considered ‘conspiratorial’ I would disagree.

In fact, I rarely, if ever, chalk up to conspiracy that which incompetence explains far better.  As a root cause analyst, I prefer Occam’s Razor to Alex Jones.

Yes, there are groups of people with power conspiring to achieve personal and societal goals which are anathema to life and decency.

But, that doesn’t mean that because they have power they are competent at wielding it.  In fact, power makes you lazy.  Winning makes you complacent and, eventually, stupid.

Does anyone with any shred of self-respect believe that thirteen Russian trolls armed with Tweetium could derail Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign?  Really?

When the more obvious answer is that Hillary and her backers thought they had perfected the art of rigging an election and never conceived of losing.  It never crossed their minds until a few days before the election and internal polling forced Obama to campaign in Michigan on her behalf.

And he only did that to help himself, since he was in up to his neck in all of her dirty laundry.

The Theory of the All-Powerful Putin is a childish and nonsensical as the Alt-Right’s blaming Jews for everything.

The Gypsum Lady is trying to save her government by invoking it now.  So is Nikki Haley at the U.N., Mika Brzezinski at MSNBC, George Soros and David Brock, the leadership at CNN, Google, Facebook and Twitter.  The bigger the lies get, the more desperate you know they are.

All of the Obama administration traitors — Samantha Power, James Brennan, Susan Rice, Robert Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Eric Holder, etc. — lie every time they open their mouths. It their narrative fails it means the end of not only their careers, but the plans of the incompetent globalist oligarchs who fund and power them.

And those are the stakes in play here.

Ye Gods, and I haven’t even brought up the Saudi Arabians, yet.  Or the attempted military coup against the U.S. pet in Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, from within his own government, no less.

Talk about gross incompetence!

Cooler Heads or Heads in a Cooler?

While I’m not sanguine about how all of this plays out, I refuse to give into hysteria and add to the cacophony.  It serves no purpose.

The markets still believe, as they always do, that ‘cooler heads will prevail.’ But, markets aren’t allowed to believe anything else.  The central banks ensure that.  The sheer size of the money at stake makes it nearly impossible to move much of it without inducing even more panic.

So, the default position of most money managers is sit tight and hope.

But, hope is not a plan or a path to the stars.  It is, as I’ve said before, the worst thing in the world — that which you have when you have nothing else.  But, changes are coming, war or the collapse of the post-WWII institutional order or both.

As I’ve pointed out, banks are getting nervous, emerging market central banks are positioned for radical currency defense.  Rates are rising and dollar liquidity is falling.  Bitcoin and gold are screaming this.  If there was ever a time to get to cash it’s now.

The acceleration of events since Putin’s speech on March 1st is itself accelerating.  Windows are closing fast.  It’s time to get serious.

*  *  *

To support the production of more work like this and get access to Tom’s investment ideas and portfolio advice sign up for the Gold Goats ‘n Guns Investment Newsletter at my Patreon page.  

END

Gefira presents us with Europe’s perfect storm developing and will come to fruition in 2020

a must read..

(courtesy Gefira)

Deutsche Bank Just Never Disappoints

Even bigger loss than reported 6 weeks ago, cost cuts abandoned, bonuses quadrupled.

by Wolf Richter • Mar 16, 2018

You just have to love Deutsche Bank. I mean, how could you not? It’s Germany’s iconic bank. It’s like Wells Fargo for Americans: It just cannot do right. It tries, but it just doesn’t work out. On Friday, when no one was supposed to pay attention, and after it already released its Q4 and annual results on February 2, it released its Annual Report.

It says that the bank had a net loss of €2.425 billion for Q4, which brought its net loss for 2017 to €735 million.

“Our results were actually better than they may seem at first glance,” the Annual Report started out hilariously, because these results were even worse than the results the company had initially reported on February 2, when it disclosed the impact of the US tax reform. (Harvey:  you got to be joking)

On February 2, the earnings report was titled: “Deutsche Bank reports pre-tax profit of 1.3 billion euros and net loss of 0.5 billion euros for 2017.” At the time, it reported net loss of €2.2 billion which brought the loss for fiscal 2017 to €497 million.

CEO John Cryan said at the time:

“In 2017 we recorded the first pre-tax profit in three years despite a challenging market environment, low interest rates and further investments in technology and controls. Only a charge related to US tax reform at the end of the year meant that we had to post a full-year after-tax loss. We believe we are firmly on the path to producing growth and higher returns with sustained discipline on costs and risks.”

Sure sounded good at the time. But it was contradicted today, albeit with a lot less fanfare.

Today, in its Annual Report, the bank reported a loss for Q4 and the full year that was €238 million higher than the loss reported for the same periods on February 2. An appropriate finale for the third year in a row of annual losses.

Aggrieved shareholders, whose dividends had gotten slashed back in the day, have had to watch the shares in their portfolio plunge nearly 80% over the past ten years:

In terms of its cost cutting plans, which had been hyped endlessly in 2017 and 2016 – well, they’ve now been abandoned for 2018 due to unfortunate circumstances, described in the Annual Report thusly:

In March 2017, we announced an adjusted costs target of circa €22 billion for 2018 including circa €900 million of planned cost savings through business disposals. While we made progress on planned disposals, some of them have been delayed or in some cases suspended. As a result, we currently do not expect the planned €900 million of cost savings to materialize in 2018.

Furthermore, we expect higher costs from Brexit and MiFID II implementation in 2018.

Additionally, some of the cost synergies we expected to materialize in 2018 from the merger of Postbank into our German banking entity have been delayed as we expect this merger to be completed in the second quarter of 2018. Those savings are now expected to be realized in 2019 [to be postponed indefinitely since “synergies” hardly ever materialize?].

But there’s new hope for some cost cuts elsewhere, including assumptions about “foreign currency rates,” no kidding:

Nonetheless, we have been taking additional measures to offset these impacts and also benefit from current foreign currency rates in our reported costs relative to our earlier assumptions.

Therefore, we now expect our adjusted costs in 2018 will be circa €23 billion, which reflects our original €22 billion target plus the cost impact of the delayed and suspended business disposals.

Then there’s the part in the Annual Report that Germans really love about Deutsche Bank, much like Americans love it about Wells Fargo: when it comes to bonuses, there are a few ceremonial cuts at the top, but overall it’s no holds barred.

Even while Deutsche Bank spread the good news about having incurred even bigger losses in 2017 than previously stated, and even as it warned about higher costs and failed, abandoned, or delayed cost cuts in 2018, it also reported that it had more than quadrupled the amount in bonuses it paid for 2017, to €2.3 billion.

Back in 2016, under pressure from huge losses and a blistering fine from US regulators for the behavior of its bankers leading up to the Financial Crisis, and amid revelations of other scandals and misdeeds perpetrated by its bankers since the Financial Crisis, it reduced bonuses to them to €546 million.

But this is like so forgotten. Now Cryan told his aggrieved shareholders, who’re still smarting from having their dividends slashed and having the value of their shares crushed — and who might by be dreaming of investing in gold instead — that this was needed to retain staff. Were these the same folks that profited from misdeeds that, when found out about, threatened to take down the bank? We don’t know. Cryan only said this:

“If we want to live up to our claim of being the leading European bank with a global network, we have to invest in our employees so that we can continue to provide the best solutions for our clients.”

end

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

Russia/UK

The Kremlin is furious after Boris Johnson accuses Putin of personally ordering the poisoning of ex Russian citizens on British soil.  The death of a second ex Russian agent Glushkov, is now been classified as a murder.  An autopsy found a compression around his neck.  In English: he was strangled.

(courtesy zerohedge)

Kremlin Furious After Boris Johnson Accuses Putin Of Murder

Earlier today we reported that the world got that much closer to a second Cold War after Russia said it would expel UK diplomats in retaliation to Theresa May’s decision to kick out 23 Russians, while expanding its “blacklist” of US citizens in response to yesterday’s Treasury sanctions. That’s when things turned south fast because roughly at that time, the U.K.’s top diploma, Boris Johnson, directly accused Vladimir Putin, saying it was “overwhelmingly likely” that he personally ordered the nerve-agent attack on British soil.

In a dramatic escalation of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries, the Foreign Secretary said the U.K.’s problem was not with the Russian people but with the Russian leader.

“Our quarrel is with Putin’s Kremlin and with his decision – and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision – to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the U.K., on the streets of Europe, for the first time since World War II,” Johnson said in London.

Sky News✔@SkyNews

“Our quarrel is with Putin’s Kremlin” says @BorisJohnson as he responds to the #Salisbury poisoning

Predictably, the Kremlin was furious, said that blaming Putin personally for Skripal’s poisoning is “shocking and unforgivable.”

Speaking to Interfax, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that “We have said on different levels and occasions that Russia has nothing to do with this story” and added that “any references to our president is nothing but shocking and unforgivable diplomatic misconduct.”

Johnson’s statement was a “diplomatic blunder” on the part of the UK foreign secretary, Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin remains “puzzled” by the conduct of the British authorities during the Skripal crisis.

The diplomatic tension increased further Friday afternoon when London’s Metropolitan Police said it is treating as murder the death of Nikolai Glushkov, a close associate of Putin opponent Boris Berezovsky — a one-time billionaire who was himself found hanging dead in 2013 in his house outside London.

The Kremlin’s press secretary also expressed belief that “sooner or later the British side would have to present some kind of comprehensive evidence of Russia’s involvement, at least, to their partners France, the US, Germany, who declared solidarity with London in this situation.” Moscow earlier asked the UK to provide materials in the Skripal case, but received a negative answer.

Johnson’s claims of Putin’s personal involvement weren’t the only example of over-the-top rhetoric by UK officials during the Skripal crisis. UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Thursday that Russia “should go away and shut up” when asked about Moscow’s possible response to British sanctions.

In response, Russia’s Defence Ministry said Williamson was an “intellectual impotent” and Lavrov said he probably lacked education. “Well he’s a nice man, I’m told, maybe he wants to claim a place in history by making some bold statements,” Lavrov said. “Theresa May’s main argument about Russia’s guilt is ‘Highly probable’, while for him it’s ‘Russia should go and shut up’. Maybe he lacks education, I don’t know.”

* * *

The diplomatic tension spiked further on Friday afternoon when London’s Metropolitan Police said it is treating as murder the death of Nikolai Glushkov, the close associate of Putin opponent Boris Berezovsky – a one-time billionaire who was himself found hanging dead in 2013 in his house outside London, according to Bloomberg.

Glushkov, 68, was found dead at his home in the southwest of the U.K. capital on March 12. An autopsy showed he died from “compression to the neck,” the police said in a statement, adding that there was no evidence he had been poisoned or to link his death to the attack on the Skripals.

“The Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, which has led the investigation from the outset, is now treating Mr. Glushkov’s death as murder,” the statement said. “As a precaution, the command is retaining primacy for the investigation because of the associations Mr. Glushkov is believed to have had.”

Meanwhile, the Russian Investigative Committee said it was also opening a criminal case into Glushkov’s death, also describing it as “murder.” In a statement, it also said it would investigate the attack on Yulia Skripal.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Britain of breaching international law in its investigation of the attack on the Skripals in the city of Salisbury. May said the agent used has been identified by British scientists as Novichok, which was developed in the Soviet Union.

Britain says it has invited Russia to cooperate in the investigation and that this invitation hasn’t been taken up.

In a glimmer of hope that there may still be a diplomatic resolution, late on Friday May’s office said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had agreed to travel to Britain to collect a sample of the nerve agent and to support the U.K.’s investigation into the poisoning of the Russian double agent.

end

Russia/UK

Russia expels 23 British diplomats in retaliation for Britain removing 23 Russian diplomats.

(courtesy zero hedge)

Russia Expels 23 British Diplomats In Retaliation

Having warned it would retaliate proportionately, this morning Russia did just that when it expelled 23 British diplomats – the same number as the UK kicked out a few days earlier as punishment for Moscow’s alleged poisoning of a former double agent. It also ordered the closure of the UK consulate in St Petersburg and the Moscow British Council, a cultural and educational organization.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the British ambassador to Moscow and told him that the measures are “in response to the provocative actions of the British side and the unsubstantiated accusations” against Russia, the ministry said. Russia gave the British diplomats one week to leave. “If further actions of an unfriendly nature are taken against Russia, the Russian side reserves the right to take other retaliatory measures,” the ministry said.

A spokeswoman for the U.K. Foreign Office said that Britain had anticipated Moscow’s response.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter—the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable,” the spokeswoman said but added that  “we continue to believe it is not in our national interest to break off all dialogue between our countries but the onus remains on the Russian state to account for their actions.”

She said that the UK Foreign Office said the National Security Council would meet early next week to consider the next steps.

The order to close the British Council ends nearly 60 years of its work in Russia as the U.K.’s international organization for culture and education, Bloomberg reported. It opened offices in Moscow under a 1959 agreement with the Soviet Union and expanded to 15 Russian cities after the 1991 collapse of the Communist state. Its presence gradually reduced amid mounting political confrontation between the U.K. and Russia, which also disputed the legal basis for the council’s presence in the country. In 2008, Russia ordered the council to close all its offices except the Moscow headquarters as part of retaliation for the U.K.’s expulsion of diplomats over the radioactive poisoning of former security-service officer Alexander Litvinenko in 2006. A U.K. public inquiry concluded in 2016 that Putin “probably” approved the killing.

* * *

Diplomatic relations between London and Moscow collapsed to post-Cold War lows following the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence agent living in the UK, and his daughter Yulia earlier this month with a rare nerve agent manufactured during the Soviet era.

As reported last night, UK’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson escalated the diplomatic clash on Friday by accusing Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the poisoning. Boris Johnson said that it was “overwhelmingly likely” that the decision to carry out an assassination attempt was made by the Russian president.

Johnson said: “Our quarrel is with Putin’s Kremlin, and with his decision — and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision — to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the UK, on the streets of Europe for the first time since the second world war.” The Kremlin responded that his comments were “unforgivable” and “shocking”, while Downing Street declined to remark on the direct accusation.

Russia has denied any involvement in the attack on Mr Skripal, who was convicted of spying for Britain, then sent to the UK in a prisoner exchange in 2010. But Russia has also sent unambiguous messages on state TV about the fate of traitors.

The Russian foreign ministry said the UK’s accusations of Russian state involvement in the poisoning groundless. It said Laurie Bristow, the UK Ambassador to Russia, had been told the expulsions were ordered “in response to the provocative actions of the British side and the unsubstantiated accusations” against the country.

On Thursday, the U.S. joined the U.K., France and Germany in condemning the attack as “an assault on U.K. sovereignty,” saying it constituted a breach of international law and calling on Russia to explain its role in the poisoning in Salisbury, England.

President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shared the U.K.’s assessment that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack—the first use of a nerve agent in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization country. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has condemned the use of the poison, saying it “has no place in a civilized world.”

* **

Saturday’s retaliation by Moscow also comes after the Trump administration issued its first sanctions against Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, as well as for its role in the NotPetya cyberattack and in the nerve-agent poisoning.

Russia has denied any interference in the U.S. election, while Russian President Vladimir Putin, who runs for re-election Sunday, has steered an increasingly confrontational course with the West. The Kremlin previously expelled some U.S. diplomats in 2017 after Congress passed a Russian sanctions bill.

Moscow has yet to retaliate against the latest round of US sanctions.

END

Russia is now claiming that the USA is deploying warships for an imminent attack on Syria as they train militants for a false flag event

(courtesy zerohedge)

Russia Claims US Deploys Warships For Imminent Attack On Syria, Trains Militants For False Flag Attack

Last April, in one of the Trump administration’s first “diplomatic” ventures, the US fired 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria, in stated retaliation for the latest alleged chemical attack by the Assad regime, the same “false flag” excuse which was used by the US to officially enter the conflict back in 2013 when military tensions between the US and Russia nearly resulted in a regional war.

ABC News✔@ABC

MORE: U.S. official after U.S. missiles fired at Syrian airbase: “We’re done until another decision is made.” http://abcn.ws/2oOXE8K 

9:45 PM – Apr 6, 2017

US launches military strike on Syrian air base

Responding to a Syrian chemical weapons attack on Tuesday that left scores dead, the United States initiated a military strike Thursday on an airbase in Syria, multiple U.S. officials have confirmed,…

abcnews.go.com

Well, it appears that Assad is a relentless glutton for punishment, because not even a year later, the WaPo reported two weeks ago that the US is considering a new military action against Syria for – what else – retaliation against Assad’s latest chemical attack, which took place several weeks earlier.

How do we know Assad (and apparently, Russia) was behind the attack? We don’t: in fact, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a moment of bizarre honesty, admitted that he really doesn’t know much at all about “whoever conducted the attacks.” But hey: just like it is “highly likely” that Russia poisoned the former Russian double agent in the UK – with no proof yet – so it is “highly likely” that a clearly irrational Assad was once again behind an attack which he knew would provoke violent and aggressive retaliation by the US, and once again destabilize his regime.

And so we now wait for that flashing, red headline saying that US ships in the Mediterranean have launched a missile attack on Syria, just like a year ago. Only this time Russia – which is allied with the Assad regime – is not planning to be on the defensive, and according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, “US instructors” are currently training militants to stage false flag chemical attacks in south Syria, i.e., the catalyst that will be used to justify the US attack on Assad. The incidents, the ministry said, will be used a pretext for airstrikes on Syrian government troops and infrastructure.

“We have reliable information at our disposal that US instructors have trained a number of militant groups in the vicinity of the town of At-Tanf, to stage provocations involving chemical warfare agents in southern Syria,” Russian General Staff spokesman General Sergey Rudskoy said at a news briefing on Saturday.

According to the Russian, “early in March, the saboteur groups were deployed to the southern de-escalation zone to the city of Deraa, where the units of the so-called Free Syrian Army are stationed.”

“They are preparing a series of chemical munitions explosions. This fact will be used to blame the government forces. The components to produce chemical munitions have been already delivered to the southern de-escalation zone under the guise of humanitarian convoys of a number of NGOs.”

And, using the exact same worn out narrative as last April, and every prior “chemical attack by the Assad Regime”, the “planned provocations will be widely covered in the Western media and will ultimately be used as a pretext by the US-led coalition to launch strikes on Syria”, Rudskoy warned.

“The provocations will be used as a pretext by the United States and its allies to launch strikes on military and government infrastructure in Syria.”

Confirming the WaPo’s report from early March, it now appears that an attack is imminent.

“We’re registering the signs of the preparations for the possible strikes. Strike groups of the cruise missile carriers have been formed in the east of the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf and Red Sea.”

Rudskoy also warned that another false flag chemical attack is being prepared in the province of Idlib by the “Al-Nusra Front terrorist group, in coordination with the White Helmets.” The militants have already received 20 containers of chlorine to stage the incident, he said.

Moscow and Damascus have repeatedly warned about upcoming chemical provocations, and have highlighted that banned warfare agents have been used by the militants. Of course, none of that matters to the Western press which has its marching orders to expose the bloodthirsty killer Assad as an irrational despot who will use the exact same military method month after month and year after year, knowing well the response he will get from the US.

Meanwhile, just a few days ago, Syrian government forces reportedly captured a well-equipped chemical laboratory in Eastern Ghouta. Footage from the facility has been published by the SANA news agency.

The installation contained modern industrial-grade hard

The installation contained modern industrial-grade hardware of foreign origins, large amounts of chemical substances as well as crude homemade munitions ad their parts. It was unclear if the chemical lab was capable of synthesizing the novachok nerve gas used in the attempted murder of the Russian agent in the UK that has resulted in the latest diplomatic scandal involving Russia and the west.

end

Russia/USA

This ought to give all Americans confidence in their military:  a Russian nuclear sub quietly traveled right up to the Eastern side of the USA coast undetected

(courtesy zerohedge)

Russian Nuclear Sub “Quietly” Traveled To US Coastline Undetected

As Russia weighs retaliating against the UK over its decision to expel a cadre of Russian diplomats after determining that senior Russian leaders (perhaps Putin himself) were responsible for a nerve-gas attack on a former Russian spy, RT revealed that a nuclear-powered submarine recently completed a clandestine exercise that brought it all the way to the US coast.

The stunning revelation was made during a Russian TV program called Zvedzda (Star), the official TV channel of the Russian Defense Ministry.

“This mission has been accomplished, the submarines showed up in the set location in the ocean and returned to base,” the commander of the submarine squadron, Sergey Starshinov, told Zvezda.

The date and location of the covert mission have not been disclosed, but Russia said the submarine “reached the very coastline of the US.”

The disclosure follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s revelation during his annual speech to Russian lawmakers that Russia had developed a coterie of new advanced weapons – including a nuclear-tipped missile capable of evading NATO anti-ballistic missile defenses in the Europe.

The sub was a Shchuka-B dirigible, commissioned for the Soviet Navy in 1986. The nuclear-powered sub is capable of launching Kalibr or Granat cruise missiles and staying submerged for up to 100 days, according to open sources.

Back in January, we reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the State Armament Program for 2018 to 2025 – which comes with a budget of 19 trillion rubles ($330 billion).

The research and development stage of the project is scheduled to be completed next year. The goal is to have a cost-effective multi-purpose nuclear submarine, with a construction time of four to four and a half years to produce 15-20 submarines totally. There are few details about the class in open sources, but whatever is already known suggests that Husky subs will be a technological breakthrough.

Information about Russia’s submarine fleet is scarce – aside from what the Defense Ministry has willfully decided to disclose: It is understood that several submarines of this class are being operated by the Russian Navy or undergoing modernization. One Shchuka-B submarine was leased to India, where it entered service under the name INS ‘Chakra’.

The Pentagon has already started to raise concerns about Russia’s nuclear submarine arsenal.

“The submarines that we’re seeing are much more stealthy,” Admiral Mark Ferguson, commander of US Naval Forces in Europe at the time, told CNN. The Russians “have more advanced weapons systems, missile systems that can attack land at long ranges,”and their operational capabilities were getting better “as they range farther from home waters.”

The news about the stealth drill was released, notably, just days before Russia’s March 18 election, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is running for his fourth term in the office.

end

Turkey/Syria

Erdogan declares victory as the Turks wave a Turkish flag over Afrin, in the north part of Syria.  There are reports on ethnic cleansing. The Kurds now vowed to set up guerrilla warfare again the Turks

(courtesy zerohedge)

Erdogan Declares Victory As Turkish Flag Flies Over Afrin; Reports Of Ethnic Cleansing

After a bloody, two month cross-border campaign of Turkish forces to dislodge Kurdish YPG “terrorists” from the Syrian city of Afrin, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared complete victory on Sunday as Turkish and allied FSA flags have been raised for the first time over Afrin’s city center.

Kurdish YPG forces (or “People’s Protection Units”) were widely reported to have withdrawn before pro-Turkish forces entered the city before dawn on Sunday, allowing invading forces to secure the city while facing no resistance. In a televised speech Erdogan claimed to have “saved” the city through the “heroic” actions of his military while also framing the operation which took place entirely on Syrian soil as humanitarian in nature. He said, “This operation has shown the whole world that Turkey sides with the oppressed,” as reported by Rudaw.

Kurdish authorities of Afrin canton, for the their part, condemned Russia for allowing Turkey to use airspace to dislodge Kurdish protection units. At a Kurdish press conference, an Afrin canton official leveled the charge that “Russia actively participated in opening airspace for Turkey to ‘exterminate our people with all kinds of weapons and sacrificed our people for their interests in Syria, and under international silence, of the coalition, and EU'”. The spokesperson added that, “We decided to remove civilians from the city to avoid a more terrible humanitarian catastrophe.” 

Erdogan also appears to have taunted the retreating Kurdish forces, saying that a “large number” of Kurdish fighters had “fled with their tails between their legs,” and added that Turkish special forces have been deployed in the city, with demining operations also underway. “Now the Turkish flag will fly over there! The flag of the Free Syrian Army will fly over there!” said Erdogan.

He gave the address at a ceremony marking the battle to open the Dardanelles during the first world war, andthe neo-Ottoman aspirations of which Erdogan has long been accused of peppered the speech throughout, including reference to the Ottoman Turkish defense of Gallipoli during World War I. “We are fighting the same way we did in Canakkale,” he said, using the Turkish name for what was the only major historic Ottoman victory of WWI. “They thought that Turkey is not as strong as it was in Canakkale.”

In spite of Erdogan’s high-minded humanitarian rhetoric which has been consistent throughout Turkey’s ‘Operation Olive Branch’, significant evidence has mounted that pro-Turkish forces are actually engaged in an ethnic cleansing campaign targeting northern Syria’s large Kurdish population. In the last three days alone, according to numbers published in The Guardian, over 200,000 civilians have fled the Kurdish-majority city with many dozens killed.

View image on Twitter

Wladimir@vvanwilgenburg

BREAKING: Press conference now by military leadership and local authorities in #Afrin http://sterktv.net/ 

In all throughout two months of primarily Turkish shelling and aerial bombardment of the Afrin area, there have been close to 300 documented civilian deaths, but the number is likely far higher. Prior to this weekend’s most intense phase of fighting for control of Afrin, the Syrian opposition site Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that at least 245 civilians, including 41 children, have been killed, figures which the United Nations called “deeply alarming” – but stopped short of condemning Turkish actions.

During a Sunday press conference, Kurdish spokespersons for Afrin canton called on the UN Security Council to pressure Turkey “to stop cultural and political genocide against our society and to ensure return of ‘our people to their places with international guarantee.” At the close of the fighting, the Kurdish statement indicates that over 500 civilians were killed, with 1030 civilians injured, and 820 Kurdish fighters killed. 

View image on Twitter

Gissur Simonarson

✔@GissiSim

This is what Turkey brought to Afrin.

Over the weekend of intense fighting, Turkish forces struck cars packed with fleeing Kurdish civilians and stood accused of targeting Afrin’s lone functioning hospital, according to the BBC. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also issued reports detailing attacks on civilian homes, buildings, and infrastructure throughout the campaign. And also according to pro-rebel SOHR, over 400 pro-Turkish forces died since January 20.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s president had previously openly voiced a goal of radical demographic shift in northwest Syria based on claimed ethnic statistics as his army invades foreign soil. Syrian Kurdish media has consistently accused Turkey of launching the Operation Olive Branch campaign out of a desire to ethnicallycleanse the Turkish border region of its historically Kurdish identity. 

Kurdish spokesmen have also charged Turkey with employing current and former ISIS terrorists and other jihadists in order to do the Turkish state’s dirty work.

View image on Twitter

Tobias Huch

✔@TobiasHuch

ISIS in #Afrîn

Indeed Erdogan had previously vowed “to give Afrin back to its real owners” while claiming that “55% of Afrin is composed of Arabs with %35 of Kurds coming there later on”. This as invading Turkish-backed militias (FSA) have been filmed shouting chants related to the ethnic cleansing of Kurds, according to Middle East analyst Hassan Hassan, as well a desire to force all the region’s inhabitants to convert to Sunni Islam.

Currently, it appears an initiative to erase all visible monuments of Kurdish presence and history is already underway: pro-Turkish FSA forces have published a photo which shows them tearing down a statue of a blacksmith named Kawa, an important figure in Kurdish legend. According to Reuters, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces condemned the removal of the statue as the “first blatant violation of Kurdish people’s culture and history since the takeover of Afrin.”

Wladimir@vvanwilgenburg

Newroz symbol in #Afrin was destroyed by Turkish-backed rebels: Kawa statue (unveiled in March 2017) destroyed just a few days before the Kurdish New Year Celebrations (Newroz) that will take place on 21 March h/t @peshmerge

On Sunday afternoon, a Kurdish official told The Washington Post that Syrian Kurds have now entered “a new phase” of guerrilla warfare after Turkish troops secured Afrin. A full Kurdish statement was given at a press conference and reads as follows: “we would like to declare that our war against the Turkish occupation and the Takfiri forces called the Free Army has entered a new stage, the transition from direct confrontation war to hit-and-run tactics.”

Meanwhile, Washington continues to soft pedal the significance of this weekend’s events, saying merely citing “fear the Afrin offensive may divert attention from the anti-IS battle” according to the Post.

The Syrian government has again condemned the Turkish violation of Syrian sovereignty and will continue plead its case before the UN. Some analysts have accused the Kurdish YPG of purposefully allowing pro-Turkish forces to occupy Afrin instead of allowing pro-Syrian government factions to defend the town.

 end

the Turkish Army offers a heart felt thanks for the weapons left behind by the YPG  in Afrin

(courtesy zerohedge)

Turkish Army Seizes US Weapons Left By YPG “Terrorists” In Afrin

There are many reasons why US interventions abroad tend to backfire spectacularly and usually without fail, but the most embarrassing of all is when US weapons meant for one side end up in the hands of their enemies, and eventually used against the US itself. Most recently, this happened in the 2014-2016 period when ISIS steamrolled countless Iraqi towns, collecting Humvees, SAM missiles, guns and ammo in the process.

Today, it happened again in the Syrian-Kurdish town of Afrin, where the “victorious” Turkish army  seized an unknown number of weapons provided by the Pentagon to the (formerly) US-allied Kurdish YPG “terrorists” as they are called by Turkey.

One day after  the Turkish president declared victory in the Turkish campaign against the Kurdish outpost, on Monday Erdogan said that the Turkish army and FSA units entered Afrin and established full control over the settlement.

And while he failed to thank the US taxpayers for providing him with brand new, barely used, ultramodern weapons, initially meant for the YPG which less than bravely scattered as soon as the Turkish army approached, the delighted Turkish Deputy PM revealed Turkey’s plans concerning the ongoing Syria offensive, saying that the country’s forces would not remain in Afrin, instead leaving the city to its “real owners.”

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency news agency reported that a bomb had been planted by Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) that killed at least 7 civilians and 4 Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters in part of central Afrin which had earlier been cleared by Turkish military and FSA, citing a security source.

The bomb went off late Sunday in a four-story building in Afrin, killing at least 7 civilians and 4 FSA fighters, the agency specified. The explosion took place amid Ankara’s recent advance in the area: Turkish-backed forces managed to take over the town center on Sunday.

Ankara launched Operation Olive Branch on January 20 to neutralize YPG groups in Afrin. Turkey maintains that YPG is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey. The Syrian government has condemned the operation as a breach of the country’s sovereignty.

While the offensive has been strongly condemned by Damascus, which decried Turkey’s move as “a violation of the country’s sovereignty”, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that preservation of the territorial integrity of Syria is the common goal of Ankara and Damascus and that Turkish troops are not going to attack government forces in Syria.

So far Russia has supported the Turkish military campaign as it continues to clear the northern part of Syria of its Kurdish presence.

6 .GLOBAL ISSUES

7. OIL ISSUES

We knew that this was going to happen; Aramco kills its massive IPO and will offer shares only domestically:  why not enough demand and too high a price.

(courtesy zerohedge)

Aramco Kills Massive Offshore IPO, Will Only Offer Shares Domestically

The question that many oil traders were asking for the past two years – and certainly all of Wall Street’s investment banks – was answered moments ago when the WSJ reported  that as some had predicted, Saudi Arabia has decided to scale back its ambitions for a public offering for oil giant Aramco, either on the NYSE or elsewhere, and instead is moving ahead with a listing next year solely on the Saudi stock exchange while taking more time to decide if an international venue is worth it.

The news, which means Wall Street banks will make several hundred million less in IPO proceeds this year by not taking public the Saudi company which by some estimates was worth $2 trillion and had hoped to raise up to $100 billion, followed a Bloomberg report from last Friday according to which “Aramco said to get cool response on IPO from U.S. investors.”

While the original Bloomberg story was mysteriously taken down, what it reported was spot on: there was simply not enough demand for what would have been the world’s biggest IPO – at least, not at the $2 trillion price tag demanded by the Saudis.

At the informal dinners and meetings in New York, Houston and Washington, investors pushed back at several aspects of the deal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private meetings. Among the issues raised were the $2 trillion valuation Saudi Arabia wants for the world’s largest oil producer, the scale of dividends Aramco’s prepared to pay and the impact of the shale boom on oil prices over the next few years.

Aramco said in a statement it wouldn’t “confirm or deny whether such meetings took place.” The company added its policy is not to provide running commentary on the course of the IPO.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who’s made the IPO a key part of his ambitions to ready the economy for the post-oil age, is preparing to visit the U.S. for a trip that will include a White House meeting with Donald Trump on March 20. Trump has said that he’s keen for the listing to come to New York, which is vying with London and Hong Kong to win the international portion of the share sale. Prince Mohammed is set to travel to Houston, America’s oil capital, as part of his U.S. trip.

Meanwhile, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman landed in Washington on Monday to begin a two-week cross-country trip to try and lure more foreign investment to the kingdom.

Compounding the difficulty of floating the shares in the US, Saudi officials had also reportedly been wary that offering shares in the US could pose legal risks. Last week, we reported that the IPO had been delayed until at least 2019 – and could even be shelved indefinitely. The Kingdom had reportedly selected New York, London and Hong Kong as the three “finalist” venues for the offering.

The offering was meant to be the centerpiece of MbS’s “Vision 2030” initiative, meant to diversify the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil exports and guest workers.

Some Saudi officials who spoke with WSJ questioned the rationale of a Saudi-only listing…

“If you are doing Tadawul only, then you are changing the original message and pitching it as a way to give Saudis a chance to own a slice in their state bank. That’s totally different from what [the Prince] said first about the IPO,” the official said.

As WSJ pointed out, top Saudi officials had started making the nationalist case for listing on the Tadawul in recent weeks, with the country’s oil minister saying it would be a “catalytic” event for the country’s nascent markets.

“The only thing we know today is that the Tadawul will be the key listing location,” said Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih to CNN this month. “An Aramco listing on the Tadawul will be catalytic for that capital market.”

Still, some worry that the Tadawul isn’t developed enough to handle the massive trading volume that floating shares of Aramco – widely believed to be among the world’s most valuable companies – would require. The market capitalization of all stocks trading on the Tadawul is nearly $480 billion, compared with Aramco’s valuation of between $1.3 billion and $2 billion. Furthermore, Tadawul hasn’t yet been added to benchmark indexes such as the MSCI and the FTSE Russell, meaning that, by listing domestically, the shares will miss out on the (incredibly powerful) boost that accompanies passive flows.

Even a Tadawul listing could present problems for Aramco and the exchange itself, as it is a small venue and it is unclear whether the internal controls and technology could support large-scale trading that would come with listing a company as big as Aramco. The domestic listing is unlikely to happen by October, a deadline Saudi officials set last year. Officials and people close to the process say April 2019 is likely the soonest a local IPO could go ahead.

For what it’s worth, Aramco said in a statement that it’s still reviewing “international options.”

 end

8. EMERGING MARKET

VENEZUELA

My goodness is this weird:  trump issues an executive order banning any purchase of Venezuela’s cryptocurrency

(courtesy zerohedge)

END

And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

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