Jim,

This my view of our current set of Politicians and their banker buddies. They are stocking up on tax money for the long depressionary winter to come that they themselves caused…

Jim,

The same intellectual laziness that characterises the SEC characterises the American Public and therefore your readership. They deserve their fate. What they don’t deserve is you having to not only guide them through the darkness of these dangerous times, but to take every goddman last individual (supposed adults) by the hand and teach them how to read a F*!"ing map! There is enough on JSMineset to keep anyone busy from dawn to dusk WITHOUT having to badger you on the phone to repeat yourself ad infinitum

I AM DISGUSTED!

I want you to know that three of us, from London, Singapore and New York spent a good hour on a conference call yesterday just discussing the Armstrong PDF, the theories behind it, and the timing of how it might play out, after spending a good two hours or more reading it and doing background research associated to it.

None of this could have happened without you. Nobody would be properly protected without your help. Many of my friends, (all educated at top tier Universities, and allegedly intelligent) have made massive changes to their assets which have SAVED THEIR ASSES, solely because they started reading you. YOU were the one who gave us Armstrong. YOU were the one who turned us on to Harry Schultz. YOU were the one who said, years ago, that it would all end this way.

Gratitude will never be enough. Jim, you have played a significant role in saving the future of my family… of my children! I don’t really think I can say that about anyone else I know. I remain indebted, and at your service completely. I only wish there was a way to repay you.

Since you have intimated that you need deck-hands scanning the news, please know you have at least THIS researcher who works not only for himself, but is scanning the information network 7 days a week, in the hope that he may, in some small way, pay back the enormous debt he feels is owed to you.

These people leaning on you are Bums! They are like the SEC!

THROW THE BUMS OUT!

Your students are here Jim. We DO read. We DO study. We know our future survival depends on paying attention… especially to JSMineset. This is no abstract intellectual process, this crap is for real and believe me, some of us are very gravely aware of that… and very grateful for what you have bestowed.

I remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant.

CIGA Pedro

Dear Pedro,

I take immense joy in your, your family, and friends having protected themselves.

This has been our mission here.

You have made me very happy on a flu filled day.

Thank you,
Jim

Dear Mr. Sinclair,

I hope you are well! Did you see this article from the Wall Street Journal on February 12, 2009?

Senator Greg Walker has introduced a bill to Authorize the exchange of goods and services with gold and silver in the state of Indiana by the end of 2009. See the link below.

Click here to view the article…

Will other states follow?

CIGA Juan

Dear Juan,

Counting on the greatest conspiracy in human history, stupidity, the answer is no.

Regards,
Jim

Hi Jim,

Did you notice that Britain is now beginning to use the D word? They can only get out the first syllable so far. It’s kind of like the Fonz trying to apologize but can only get out sor…

CIGA Bernie

Bank may start printing money to reverse ‘deep’ downturn
February 12, 2009

The Bank of England’s Governor admitted yesterday that Britain is now in “deep recession” and signalled that it is ready to start “printing money” as soon as next month in aggressive, last-ditch moves to limit the slump.

Mervyn King indicated that the Bank is poised to move beyond relying on further interest rate cuts to combat recession. It will give a green light within weeks to a strategy of “quantitative easing”, the modern equivalent of printing money, he made clear.

More…

Dear Mr. Sinclair,

In this video Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland Law Professor discusses "naked" credit default swaps and makes a recommendation to have them banned.

Mr. Greenberger appears visibly nervous however he does not waver in his message and his criticism of the CDS market.

Best Regards,
CIGA Marc

Dear Marc,

What is the difference between a naked credit default OTC derivative and what I think the ETFs are doing in gold? The answer is there is no difference.

Jim

Dear Editor Dan,

Here is an important piece of research for you.

Find out for me (ASAP) the reported amount of gold every Gold ETF has on the planet as of their last reporting period.

I smell a massive fraud that could easily collapse on a rising price of gold by the failure of the sellers to deliver anything.

The Madoff equation is saying that none of this gold is paper gold on a clearinghouse exchange. It can’t based on its size be real bullion, leaving only toxic paper (OTC derivative) gold.

I believe I know exactly how it is being done and by whom.

It is totally legal but so are OTC derivatives.

Jim

Jim,

I am working on it now. More on what I find out  soon…

Regards,
Editor Dan

 

Jim,

In your posting, entitled "Where Do All The Gold ETFs Get Their Bullion From?", you wrote the following:

"Don’t you think it is about time GLD and all the other popular international gold ETFs told its owners exactly what kind of gold they claim to own? …

"This begs one major question: From where did all the gold claimed to be owned by all the gold ETFs come from?"

I agree with what you wrote regarding the GLD ETF in the United States.

However, the "ETFS Physical Gold" Exchange Traded Commodity (ETC) Fund in the United Kingdom (UK) actually appears to provide some of this information on the ETF Securities web pages at http://www.etfsecurities.com/en/securities/etfs_physical_exposure.asp and http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/etfs_physical_gold.asp

I suggest that you click on the underlined URL link entitled "Click here to view the list of allocated metal bars held by the Custodian" on either of these two web pages, which will download an Excel spreadsheet at http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/bar_list.xls. I do not know if this list of allocated metal bars is accurate or not, but this list is publicly available for anyone to download and study or criticize.

If you download this bar list, you will discover that it also contains a list of all of the physical Platinum bars held by the "ETFS Physical Platinum" ETC Fund at http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/etfs_physical_platinum.asp, a list of all of the physical Palladium bars held by the "ETFS Physical Palladium" ETC Fund at http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/etfs_physical_palladium.asp, and a list of all of the physical Silver bars held by the "ETFS Physical Silver" ETC Fund at http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/etfs_physical_silver.asp.

All of these ETC Funds managed by ETF Securities claim to be "Shariah compliant"! I do not know what it means for these Funds to be "Shariah compliant".  However, if this means that the underlying precious metals must actually exist, and each physical bar held be publicly accounted for, then I’m all for having ETF and ETC Funds that are "Shariah compliant".

The US GLD Fund does not claim to be "Shariah compliant", and does not make available any kind of similar list of all of its alleged Gold bar holdings.

There is one other point to consider:  In October, 2008, "ETF Securities Limited, the innovator and pioneer of Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC), has formally completed the acquisition of the world’s first gold ETCs – Gold Bullion Securities listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: GBS) and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: GOLD)."

See the ETF Securities press release at http://www.etfsecurities.com/en/news/etfs_news_081023.asp for further information.

The "Gold Bullion Securities" Exchange Traded Commodity (ETC) Fund is shown on the ETF Securities web pages at http://www.etfsecurities.com/en/securities/etfs_physical_exposure.asp and http://www.etfsecurities.com/msl/etfs_gold_bullion.asp. However, this Fund does not claim to be "Shariah compliant", but it does now make available a separate public list of its of its Gold bars. The latter web page for the "Gold Bullion Securities" ETC Fund also contains the same above referred to URL link entitled "Click here to view the list of allocated metal bars held by the Custodian", but this link takes you to a separate PDF document at http://www.goldbullionsecurities.com/pdf/gbs_bars_list.pdf. I do not know if ETF Securities intends to make its "Gold Bullion Securities" ETC Fund "Shariah compliant" sometime in the future. However, making the above list of its Gold bars publicly available might be a preliminary step in this direction.

The bottom line is that the GLD ETF Gold Fund in the US appears to be very different from its above two counterpart Gold Funds in the UK, the latter of which do make publicly available purported listings of all of their physical Gold bar holdings.

CIGA Richard

Dear Richard,

In today’s Madoff world who cares if the gold, claimed to be held in a vault, is claimed to be divinely compliant?

Thank you for all the reference material.

Respectfully yours,
Jim

Hi Jim,

Where Do All The Gold ETFs Get Their Bullion From?

You are wise to raise these questions.

Analysis complied by work done by James Turk
Source: www.goldmoney.com

Taken from the prospectus:

"The Custodian is not liable for the acts or omissions of its subcustodians".

In other words, if the subcustodian does not have the gold, ETF:

"Shareholders cannot be assured that the Trustee will be able to recover damages from subcustodians…for any losses relating to the safekeeping of gold by such subcustodian". This means that "Because neither the Trustee nor the Custodian oversees or monitors the activities of subcustodians who may hold the Trust’s gold, failure by the subcustodians to exercise due care in the safekeeping of the Trust’s gold could result in a loss to the Trust."

These prospectus disclosures raise the question of does the gold owned by ETFs really exist? Why is the objective of the fund to provide investors with the opportunity to own gold rather than simply track the price?

“The Trust’s independent auditors may…visit the Custodian’s premises in connection with their audit of the financial statements of the Trust."

In what appears to be a glaring omission, the prospectus fails to disclose the important risk that the independent auditors will not visit the vaults of the subcustodians and sub-subcustodians, and more to the point, that the BoE does not allow auditors into its vault, even though the prospectus allows for the possibility that all of the fund’s gold may be stored in the BoE.

Taken from 10-Q Filings:

The asset reported on ***’s balance sheet says: "investment in Gold". It does not say just: "Gold." By declaring ***’s asset to be an "investment", it is an easier hurdle to meet for auditing purposes.  Investments in gold can be nearly anything gold related, and for example, include gold certificates and other promises to pay gold. All *** has to do to satisfy the auditors therefore is to show them a bank statement of the Bank of England for example, or any other subcustodian (i.e., a piece of paper) that says gold is stored with them.

CIGA Eric