The Golden Sources

Here's some nice graphics depicting the international gold picture.


Don’t have enough money to buy gold? Start saving your money into Online Savings Accounts. [Source: Money Hacker]

Gold Supply

" I think in order to properly characterize what’s happening in the industry, it's important to start from a big-picture perspective, which is that by and large the masses in this country are not involved in precious metals. In my experience, the move we've seen in gold over the last decade has primarily been from international investment – sovereign wealth funds in the Orient, petrodollars in the Middle East, India buying from the IMF, Russia and Japan accumulating, etc. If you factor in that very, very few people in this country have even held a gold coin – let alone own any gold, or understand the reasons to own it, or will even accept the arguments for owning it – I think the primary distinguishing characteristic of this market will be that people won’t be able to get product when they want it. The rising price in and of itself will not be the main hurdle. For the most part, people will overcome price, because they’ll want to own it. The real issue will be getting product in a timely fashion, and that will become difficult for the average American. People are afraid. They’re afraid of what's happening geopolitically, economically, fiscally, and want to hold on to their gold. As they should, because this is exactly the kind of circumstance gold is for. So I would argue that as gold and silver creep higher, there will be more and more buying and less and less selling. And less selling means less product for buyers. People are afraid. They’re afraid of what's happening geopolitically, economically, fiscally, and want to hold on to their gold. As they should, because this is exactly the kind of circumstance gold is for. So I would argue that as gold and silver creep higher, there will be more and more buying and less and less selling. And less selling means less product for buyers. Junk silver bags are becoming much harder to get. And I think the higher gold goes, the faster silver will disappear.Acquire as many gold and silver ounces as you can. In the end it’s not about price paid, it's about number of ounces. View the supply issue as critically as you would the price, because I believe that more than anything else, the lack of available supply will mark this industry."
Andy Schectman - Miles Franklin (Interview with Casey Research)

Opa - Part 2

Greece continues to make the headlines.  The EU is squabbling and this bankrupt country is seeking a bailout from the EU and the IMF.  Wouldn't it be nice if the media provided some information leading up to these crises?  It would be helpful to hear about the "tremors" before the "big quake" occurs.
Random Roving presented the case in December, 2008.

"The weakest fall first with more to follow. The onion gets peeled back one layer of a time."
Random Roving - March 6, 2009 - "Peeling Back The Onion"

India's Golden Acquisition

From Bloomberg:
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- "India, the world’s biggest gold consumer, bought 200 metric tons from the International Monetary Fund for $6.7 billion as central banks show increased interest in diversifying their holdings to protect against a slumping dollar.

The transaction, equivalent to 8 percent of world annual mine production, was the IMF’s first such sale in nine years and propels India to the ninth-biggest government owner globally, according to figures from London-based research company GFMS Ltd. The country previously held 358 tons, the data show."

The entire article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aa6oc6Wz9Ftg

An Unsustainable Trajectory

"The legacy of the crisis is a high and rising debt trajectory that could become unsustainable without significant medium-term measures." The International Monetary Fund

Changing of The Guard?

"This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil – yet again turning the region's conflicts into a battle for great power supremacy. China uses more oil incrementally than the US because its growth is less energy efficient. The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves. The decline of American economic power linked to the current global recession was implicitly acknowledged by the World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "One of the legacies of this crisis may be a recognition of changed economic power relations," he said in Istanbul ahead of meetings this week of the IMF and World Bank. But it is China's extraordinary new financial power – along with past anger among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations at America's power to interfere in the international financial system – which has prompted the latest discussions involving the Gulf states."
For the entire article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-demise-of-the-dollar-1798175.html