Michael, great article as usual. Thanks. A few snippets:
1) there is almost no gold or silver left in London that can be sold. LBMA is waiting for new stock from miners/refineries - which is why delivery is now being pushed out to 12 weeks.
2) COMEX has delisted several LBMA options. I suspect COMEX is trying to stop anyone shorting London gold/silver in infrequently traded options. These contracts would 'moonshot' in the event of an LBMA default. See this: https://www.cmegroup.com/notices/ser/2025/03/ser-9515.html
3) the US Treasury has called in the IOUs on 'Greenspan's' gold leases from the 1990s. The buyers are the bullion banks, who are being forced to buyback in the market. They need around 4,000 tones to buy back their IOUs.
4) huge problems in the silver market - see massive short on PSLV. They are utterly desperate to hold the price down. Expect some really odd things in the next few weeks.
The basis of the story is that, until the early 1990s, the Treasury's 8,133 tonnes of gold was physically still at Fort Knox and the other depositories. Then Nicholas Brady and Alan Greenspan changed things. They couldn't outright sell the gold (by law the proceeds would have had to be used to pay off the national debt) and instead "about half" was 'sold' (to various bullion banks) by way of a lease arrangement. On the basis that "gold never settles", that was the position until recently, when the leases were called in, presumably as part of Bessent's plans to "monetize the asset side of the Treasury's balance sheet". I believe that some compensation is payable to the banks but I do not have details.
We know for sure that various other games have been played. When Germany recalled its gold, some of the bars it finally received were 22ct. coin gold, which could only have come from the Treasury's holding and were certainly not from the bars originally deposited. Yet the official 8,133 tonnes did not change. Other bars the Germans received were modern Swiss bars. No wonder there has not been an audit.
I am told that, so far, the bullion banks have managed to buy "about half" of what they need; so say about 2,000 tonnes but that was the easy half.
Sooo interesting. I like the "We know for sure that various other games have been played. " Paul, you're too kind to Lizard People from The Dark Side...lol
Michael, great article as usual. Thanks. A few snippets:
1) there is almost no gold or silver left in London that can be sold. LBMA is waiting for new stock from miners/refineries - which is why delivery is now being pushed out to 12 weeks.
2) COMEX has delisted several LBMA options. I suspect COMEX is trying to stop anyone shorting London gold/silver in infrequently traded options. These contracts would 'moonshot' in the event of an LBMA default. See this: https://www.cmegroup.com/notices/ser/2025/03/ser-9515.html
3) the US Treasury has called in the IOUs on 'Greenspan's' gold leases from the 1990s. The buyers are the bullion banks, who are being forced to buyback in the market. They need around 4,000 tones to buy back their IOUs.
4) huge problems in the silver market - see massive short on PSLV. They are utterly desperate to hold the price down. Expect some really odd things in the next few weeks.
"Expect some really odd things in the next few weeks."
Odder than the really odd things that are already oddly happening?
Paul what more do you know about the bullion banks being forced to find 4,000 tons of Au? That sounds like an interesting bedtime story.
The basis of the story is that, until the early 1990s, the Treasury's 8,133 tonnes of gold was physically still at Fort Knox and the other depositories. Then Nicholas Brady and Alan Greenspan changed things. They couldn't outright sell the gold (by law the proceeds would have had to be used to pay off the national debt) and instead "about half" was 'sold' (to various bullion banks) by way of a lease arrangement. On the basis that "gold never settles", that was the position until recently, when the leases were called in, presumably as part of Bessent's plans to "monetize the asset side of the Treasury's balance sheet". I believe that some compensation is payable to the banks but I do not have details.
We know for sure that various other games have been played. When Germany recalled its gold, some of the bars it finally received were 22ct. coin gold, which could only have come from the Treasury's holding and were certainly not from the bars originally deposited. Yet the official 8,133 tonnes did not change. Other bars the Germans received were modern Swiss bars. No wonder there has not been an audit.
I am told that, so far, the bullion banks have managed to buy "about half" of what they need; so say about 2,000 tonnes but that was the easy half.
Sooo interesting. I like the "We know for sure that various other games have been played. " Paul, you're too kind to Lizard People from The Dark Side...lol