Everything the Gold Bulls Predicted is Coming True

Well, the Fed has decided to keep interest rates close to zero for at least the next two years. That just means that more people will pile into gold and silver than ever before. Year-to-date, gold is up 23.5%...and silver is up 23.0%. Only the Swiss franc has done better. Please note the graph above.

I stole this Reuters story from a GATA release earlier today...and the link is here.

Here's a little something from the 'you can't make this stuff up' file cabinet....and it was a story from The Telegraph that was filed a couple of weeks back.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the most expensive footballer in history, has joined the European Central Bank [ECB] on a free transfer. Sources say the authorities want his help on the sovereign debt crisis – by kicking the can further down the road. Ronaldo could become ECB property after he was pledged as collateral for emergency liquidity support by Spain's struggling savings bank, Bankia.

It's only a handful of short paragraphs, but it's a must read in my opinion. This is what the world has come to...thanks to our banking system...and the politicians that bow down to it.

I thank reader Thorsten Winkler for this story...and the link is here.

Sheep rustling is booming as the price of meat soars, according to figures obtained by The Independent, with thieves targeting British farms at almost double the rate they were six months ago.

Already 32,926 sheep have been stolen from farmyards and fields across Britain since January, compared with 38,095 taken throughout 2010, say NFU Mutual, the insurance wing of the National Farmers' Union.

I swear that I'm not making this story up. It was in the Monday edition of The Independent out of the U.K...and you can read all about it by clicking here. I thank reader U.D. for sharing it with us.

Riots spread to new areas of London and another UK city Monday on the third consecutive day of violence, with youths hurling missiles at police, looting shops and setting alight vehicles and buildings, leaving fires raging in several districts.

This all started the day before I left London...and it was all over the papers there. I expect that this social decline will slowly but surely get worse in all nations as we plunge further into Doug Casey's 'Greater Depression'.

This is a Roy Stephens offering from the france24.com website...and the link is here.

A chorus of global economists has called on the European Central Bank to go far beyond pin-prick purchases of eurozone debt.

It needs to launch quantitative easing on a massive scale to head off a eurozone debacle, if necessary purchasing half the entire stock of Italian and Spanish debt, they argue.

Stephen King, HSBC's chief economist, said the ECB should drop its ideological opposition to QE and embrace easy money in "exactly the same" way as the US Federal Reserve.

"At the heart of the problem is the ECB's unwillingness to be seen 'monetizing' government debt. Yet if the alternative to QE is the collapse of the euro or a descent into depression, then massive expansion of the ECB's balance sheet seems a small price to pay," he said.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who never met a paper dollar he didn't like, is up on his high horse in this piece from late Monday night in The Telegraph.

It's a longish read, but worth your while...as you can't make this stuff up. This is another Roy Stephens offering...and the link is here.

The next taboo has already been broken in Europe, with the European Central Bank now buying up Italian bonds. With its interventionist policies, the ECB is becoming increasingly similar to the US Federal Reserve. It's a path fraught with serious risks.

The original sin occurred 15 months ago -- in May 2010, when the European Central Bank (ECB) caved in for the first time. After a dispute with politicians that lasted weeks, the central bank agreed to purchase bonds from euro-zone member countries that had been brought to the abyss by the crisis. By doing so, the ECB also lost its independence -- at least that's how critics of the central bank's policy see it.

Here's a different spin on the same story as was posted in The Telegraph. This one is posted over at the German website spiegel.de...and it, too, is well worth the read. Again I thank Roy Stephens for providing this story...and the link is here.

With gold spiking higher and London on fire, today King World News interviewed former LBMA commodities broker and trader and current MEP Nigel Farage to get his take on the situation.

This is a blog that Eric King sent me yesterday...and the link is here.

With the Dow trading up 429 points and gold hitting new all-time highs, King World News interviewed acclaimed money manager Stephen Leeb to get his thoughts on where things are headed.

This is another KWN blog that Eric sent me yesterday...and the link to this one is here.

Chinese customs data for June showed that net silver imports had fallen for the third consecutive month, with June levels of 175 mt down 46% from a year ago. That represents the lowest level since December 2009.

In the first half of 2011, net silver imports to China declined by 29% to a total of 1,328 mt. Last year, Chinese imports of 3,579 mt were a major supporting factor for the silver price, according to analysts.

Of course, what this analyst fails to mention is the fact that the silver price is not a free-market price...and the supply/demand fundamentals don't mean anything when the price of this metal is controlled by the '8 or less' traders in the Comex futures market.

I thank Bron Suchecki over at The Perth Mint for sending me this platts.com story late last night...and the link is here.

The West is close the point where its paper currency system is insolvent and, as a result. gold is heading to $5,000 an ounce, according to the manager of a gold fund.

"A paper currency system ultimately ends in insolvency," said Ben Davies, the chief executive of Hinde Capital in an interview with CNBC.com on Tuesday. "We have arrived at this point in the West. So why own worthless paper?"

I 'borrowed' this story from a GATA release yesterday...and I couldn't agree more with what Ben has to say. The link to this must read CNBC story is here.

Gold and the Swiss franc jumped to new records after the US debt downgrade drove investors to seek haven in an ever-narrowing range of "safe" assets.

The precious metal soared more than 3 per cent to surpass $1,700 an ounce for the first time, while the Swiss franc hit a record SFr0.7497 against the dollar.

Traders said investors ranging from sophisticated hedge funds to European savers were turning to bullion as they pulled money out of tumbling equity markets. Investors in gold through exchange traded funds hold a record 2,276 tonnes of gold, more than most central banks. Dealers said sales of coins and small bars to European investors were on Monday the highest so far this year.

This is a story that appeared in the Financial Times yesterday...and it's printed in the clear in this GATA release. It, too, is a must read...and the link is here.

Reginald H. Howe's presentation to GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London, "Constitutional Money: Don't Ask, Don't Tell," has been posted at his Internet site, the Golden Sextant.

Reg's speech falls into the absolute must read category. Along side Jim Rickards, and Reg Howe's business partner, Bob Landis...Reg is one of the sharpest knives in the drawer. It's on the longish side...but very much worth your time...and the link is here.