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the Defense Department ‘manufactured’ Ebola

Last week, President Obama announced an ambitious — and expensive — plan that effectively placed the U.S. military at the forefront of the global fight against the worst Ebola outbreak in history. In an effort that could cost as much as $750 million in the next six months, he assigned up to 3,000 military personnel to West Africa to “combat and […]

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‘You are not a product’: Privacy-friendly ad-free ‘anti-Facebook’ network Ello explodes

A mostly obscure, privacy-orientated social network – an ‘anti-Facebook’ of sorts – has recently undergone meteoric growth. It poses itself as an advert-free enterprise which is not going to become a tool to manipulate its users. ‘Anti-facebook’ network Ello kicked off in July as an invite-only social network seeking to have an advert-free user-orientated role […]

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Russia Discovers Massive Arctic Oil Field Which May Be Larger Than Gulf Of Mexico

In a dramatic stroke of luck for the Kremlin, this morning there is hardly a person in the world who is happier than Russian president Vladimir Putin because overnight state-run run OAO Rosneft announced it has discovered what may be a treasure trove of black oil, one which could boost Russia’s coffers by hundreds of […]

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Moscow fast-tracks law limiting foreign media ownership to 20%

The Russian Duma has passed the final reading of a law forbidding holders of foreign passports from controlling or owning more than 20 percent of any media outlet. The law, proposed just ten days ago, will extensively affect Russia’s publishing sector. “The freedom of the press is guaranteed by our Constitution, and won’t be affected,” […]

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Currency Wars Deepen – Russia, Kazakhstan Buy Very Large 30 Tons Of Gold In August

Russia and ex Soviet States Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic and Azerbaijan continued to accumulate significant gold reserves in August in a trend that we highlighted last month.
Latest official gold reserve data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that Russia again added to its gold reserves in August, with the Central bank of the Russian Federation purchasing  232,510 ozs (7.23 tonnes) and bringing its total gold reserves to 35.769 million ozs or 1,112.5 tonnes. 
Likewise, the National Bank of Kazakhstan purchased a massive 795,213 ozs or 24.7 tonnes in August bringing its total gold reserves to 5.848 million ozs (181.9 tonnes).
Turkey was also a gold buyer in August and the Turkish central bank adding 96,783 ozs (3 tonnes) to bring its total official gold reserves to 16.45 million ozs (511.6 tonnes), which is the world’s 12th largest official gold holding.
According to the IMF data, other countries which added to their gold reserves in August included the central banks of Azerbaijan and Ukraine. 
With the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, its not clear where the official Ukrainian are now stored. There had been reports in March that the Ukrainian gold was flown out of Kiev to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, but neither central bank would comment on this issue at the time.
Kazakhstan now has the world’s 23rd largest holdings, just behind the Philippines which has 194.4 tonnes of gold reserves. 
With 1,112.5 tonnes, Russia remains the world’s 6th largest official gold holder, ahead of China (1,054.1 tonnes) and Switzerland (1,040 tonnes).
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has not been a gold buyer recently but this may change if a Swiss gold referendum to be held in November goes through, which would force the SNB to maintain 20% of its reserves in gold and to repatriate all gold held abroad back to Switzerland.    It is widely believed that China’s gold reserves are understated and as David Marsh of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said last week “over the past six or seven years the Chinese authorities probably have been adding to their holdings in different ways.”
As we pointed out last month, as well as being a reserve diversification strategy, the ongoing gold accumulation trend by both Russia and Kazakhstan could be part of a coordinated monetary policy since the two countries are members of the Eurasian Customs Union along with Belarus.
Next year the three countries plan to turn this Eurasian Customs Union into a more formal Eurasian Economic Union. Coordinated accumulation of gold reserves would make sense in this context. 
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are also members of larger regional cooperation organisations, namely the Eurasian Economic Community and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). It will be interesting to see what a pooled gold holdings total for Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and other SCO members will look like when China finally does provide the world with an update on its official gold holdings.
UK Treasury plans to criminalise benchmark manipulation
Yesterday, the UK Treasury announced a consultation review into widening UK financial benchmark legislation and make manipulation of key currency, precious metals, and interest rate benchmarks a criminal offence. The only benchmark that is currently regulated is the interest rate LIBOR benchmark. HM Treasury plan to add a further seven key benchmarks to the legislation. 
These benchmarks are the WM/Reuters 4pm London fix (currency), ISDAFix (interest rate), the London Gold Fixing benchmark, the new LBMA Silver Price benchmark, the ICE Brent futures contract (crude oil), and two index swap benchmarks called the Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) and the Repurchase Overnight Index Average (RONIA).
The London Gold Fixing process is in disarray after multiple claims of manipulation and the prosecution of Barclays by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last May for manipulating the gold price in the fixing auction. The London Gold Market Fixing Company (LGMFL) and the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) are now attempting to ‘circle the wagons’ on regulatory compliance and investor litigation by moving to a new LBMA Gold Price process modelled on the recently introduced LBMA Silver Price. 
The LBMA Silver Price auction has not really evolved in any way since being introduced on August 15, and its current ‘phase 2’ stage, by design, only allows bullion banks and brokers to participate due to the lack of a central clearing counterparty and limitations on bi-lateral credit lines for auction participants. 
However, this has not stopped the LBMA ploughing ahead with a similar plan for the gold fixing process which still has the CME Group and Thomson Reuters as the leading contender.
Following up today on the news of the Treasury’s benchmark consultation, Bloomberg contacted the four London Gold Fixing banks and the LBMA seeking comment, but reported this morning that “Representatives of the banks that contribute to the London gold fixing declined to comment or didn’t immediately return calls and emails seeking comment. The LBMA wasn’t immediately available.”
With the London gold fixing process being so central to the determination of the world gold price, any moves by the UK authorities to criminalise manipulation of the gold fixing price are welcome.
MARKET UPDATE Today’s AM fix was USD 1,210.50, EUR 950.61 and GBP 742.05 per ounce.  Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,224.00, EUR 952.87 and GBP 746.11 per ounce.
Gold fell $5.70 or 0.47% to $1,217.20 per ounce and silver slipped $0.10 or 0.56% to $17.70 per ounce yesterday.
Spot bullion in Singapore slipped 0.3% to $1,213.60 an ounce by 0043 GMT, after losing 0.5% in the earlier session. Gold is close to an 8 1/2 month low of $1,208.36 reached earlier in the week.
U.S. Mint September American Eagle gold coin sales are almost 50,000 ounces, nearly twice its sales in August, with heightened  geopolitical risk and a cheaper bullion price contributing to the interest from investors. 
If further bullish U.S. economic data comes out this week it will strengthen the U.S. dollar and weaken gold’s appeal, as investors think the U.S. Fed will react with an earlier than expected interest rate hike.
by Ronan Manly , Edited by Mark O’Byrne
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No More Foreplay: Russia Threatens European Gas Supply Disruptions

It appears Vladimir Putin is willing to hit’em while they’re down. Early European equity weakness (and safe-haven flows) on asset-freeze threats have accelerated as Bloomberg reports, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak threatens gas supply disruptions if the EU continues to re-export Russian gas to Ukraine. 3Y German bond yields have plunged to -4.1bps, a record […]

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Welcome To The Oligarchy – US Leads The Developed World In Low Wage Jobs

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, In an apparent attempt to advise investors on how they can take advantage of America’s transformation into a neo-feudal oligarchy in a 50-page research report, Morgan Stanley has put together some very interesting charts.. We will be sharing many of them in the next few days but […]

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US cracks down on ‘unpatriotic’ corporations’ tax inversion deals

The American corporations labeled unpatriotic for exploiting loopholes to avoid US taxes may see the so-called tax inversion schemes much less lucrative with the new rules announced by the US Treasury to crack down on the practice. The American corporations labeled unpatriotic for exploiting loopholes to avoid US taxes may see the so-called tax inversion […]

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U.S. Ramping Up Major Renewal in Nuclear Arms

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A sprawling new plant here in a former soybean field makes the mechanical guts of America’s atomic warheads. Bigger than the Pentagon, full of futuristic gear and thousands of workers, the plant, dedicated last month, modernizes the aging weapons that the United States can fire from missiles, bombers and submarines. It […]

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Scottish referendum result undoubtedly rigged

Apparently terrorized by the fear-mongering tactics of the British establishment media, in the form of hysterical warnings about food price rises and “societal disintegration”, the fiercely independent Scottish people voted to remain in the UK. Or so the British establishment media would have us believe. The official result matched the predictions of polls conducted by […]

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