text:
Home » Posts tagged 'Richard Nixon'
Tag Archives: Richard Nixon
Germany Has Recovered A Paltry 5 Tons Of Gold From The NY Fed After One Year | Zero Hedge
Germany Has Recovered A Paltry 5 Tons Of Gold From The NY Fed After One Year | Zero Hedge.
On December 24, we posted an update on Germany's gold repatriation process: a year after the Bundesbank announced its stunning decision, driven by Zero Hedge revelations, to repatriate 674 tons of gold from the New York Fed and the French Central Bank, it had managed to transfer a paltry 37 tons. This amount represents just 5% of the stated target, and was well below the 84 tons that the Bundesbank would need to transport each year to collect the 674 tons ratably over the 8 year interval between 2013 and 2020. The release of these numbers promptly angered Germans, and led to the rise of numerous allegations that the reason why the transfer is taking so long is that the gold simply is not in the possession of the offshore custodians, having been leased, or worse, sold without any formal or informal announcement. However, what will certainly not help mute "conspiracy theorists" is today's update from today's edition of Die Welt, in which we learn that only a tiny 5 tons of gold were sent from the NY Fed. The rest came from Paris.
As Welt states, "Konnten die Amerikaner nicht mehr liefern, weil sie die bei der Federal Reserve of New York eingelagerten gut 1500 Tonnen längst verscherbelt haben?" Or, in English, did the US sell Germany's gold? Maybe. The official explanation was as follows: "The Bundesbank explained [the low amount of US gold] by saying that the transports from Paris are simpler and therefore were able to start quickly." Additionally, the Bundesbank had the "support" of the BIS "which has organized more gold shifts already for other central banks and has appropriate experience – only after months of preparation and safety could transports start with truck and plane." That would be the same BIS that in 2011 lent out a record 632 tons of gold…
Going back to the main explanation, we wonder: how exactly is a gold transport "simpler" because it originates in Paris and not in New York? Or does the NY Fed gold travel by car along the bottom of the Atlantic, and is French gold transported by a Vespa scooter out of the country?
Supposedly, there was another reason: "The bullion stored in Paris already has the elongated shape with beveled edges of the "London Good Delivery" standard. The bars in the basement of the Fed on the other hand have a previously common form. They will need to be remelted [to LGD standard]. And the capacity of smelters are just limited."
So… New York Fed-held gold is not London Good Delivery, and there is a bottleneck in remelting capacity? You don't say…
Furthermore, Welt goes on to "debunk" various "conspiracy websites" that the reason why the gold is being melted is not to cover up some shortage (and to scrap serial numbers), but that the gold is exactly the same gold as before. Finally, to silences all skeptics, the Bundesbank says that "there is no reason for complaint – the weight and purity of the gold bars were consistent with the books match." In conclusion, Welt reports that in 2014 "larger transport volumes" can be expected from New York: between 30 and 50 tons.
Here we would be remiss to not point out that the reason why the German people and the Bundesbank have every reason to be skeptical is that as Zero Hedge reported exclusively in November 2012, before the Buba's shocking repatriation announcement and was the reason for the escalation in lack of faith between central banks, it was the Fed and the Bank of England who in 1968 knowingly sent Germany "bad delivery" gold. Which is why we have a feeling that the pace of gold transportation will certainly not accelerate until such time as the German people much more vocally demand an immediate transit of all their gold held at the New York Fed: after all, it's there right – surely the Bundesbank can be trusted to melt the gold (if any exists of course) into London Good Delivery or whatever format it wants.
Unless of course, the gold isn't there…
From November 9, 2012:
Bank Of England To The Fed: "No Indication Should, Of Course, Be Given To The Bundesbank…"
Over the past several years, the German people, for a variety of justified reasons, have expressed a pressing desire to have their central bank perform a test, verification, validation or any other assay, of the official German gold inventory, which at 3,395 tonnes is the second highest in the world, second only to the US. We have italicized the word official because this representation is merely on paper: the problem arises because no member of the general population, or even elected individuals, have been given access to observe this gold. The problem is exacerbated when one considers that a majority of the German gold is held offshore, primarily in the vaults of the New York Fed, and at the Bank of England – the two historic centers of central banking activity in the post World War 2 world.
Recently, the topic of German gold resurfaced following the disclosure that early on in the Eurozone creation process, the Bundesbank secretly withdrew two-thirds of its gold, or 940 tons, from London in 2000, leaving just 500 tons with the Bank of England. As we made it very clear, what was most odd about this event, is that the Bundesbank did something it had every right to do fully in the open: i.e., repatriate what belongs to it for any number of its own reasons – after all the German central bank is only accountable to its people (or so the myth goes), in deep secrecy. The question was why it opted for this stealthy transfer.
This immediately prompted rampant speculation within various media outlets, the most fanciful of which, of course, being that the Bundesbank never had any gold to begin with and has been masking the absence all along. The problem with such speculation is that, while it may be 100% correct and accurate, there has been not a shred of hard evidence to prove it. As a result, it is merely relegated to the echo chamber periphery of "serious media" whose inhabitants are already by and large convinced that all gold in the world is tungsten, lack of actual evidence to validate such a claim be damned (just like a chart of gold spiking or plunging is not evidence that a central bank signed the trade ticket, ordering said move), and in the process delegitimizing any fact-basedinvestigations that attempt to debunk, using hard evidence, the traditional central banker narrative that the gold is there and accounted for.
And hard evidence, or better yet a paper trail of inconsistencies, is absolutely paramount when juxtaposing the two most powerful forces of our times: i) the central banking-led status quo (which isde facto the banker-led oligarchy whose primary purpose in the past several centuries has been to accumulate as much as possible of the hard asset-based fruits of people's labor, who toil in exchange for "money" created out of thin air – a process which could be described as not quite voluntary slavery, but the phrase would certainly suffice), and ii) "everyone else", especially when "everyone else" still believes in the supremacy of democratic forces, accountability, and an impartial legal system (three pillars of modern society which over the past 4 years we have experienced time and again have been nothing but mirages). Because without hard evidence, not only is the case of the people against central bankers non-existent, even if conducted in a kangaroo court co-opted by the banker-controlled status quo, it becomes laughable with every iteration of progressively more unsubstantiated accusations against the central banking cartels.
Finally, when it comes to cold, hard facts, which expose central banks in misdeed, even the great central banks have to be silent silent, as otherwise the overt perversion of justice will blow up the mirage that modern society lives in a democratic, laws-based world will be torn upside down.
And while others engage in click-baiting using grotesque hypotheses of grandure without any actual investigation, reporting or error and proof-checking to build up hype and speculation, which promptly fizzles and in the process desensitizes the general public and those actually undecided and/or on the fences about what truly goes on behind the scenes, Zero Hedge travelled (metaphorically) in space – to London, or specifically the Bank of England Archives – and in time, to May 1968 to be precise.
While there we dug up a certain memo, coded C43/323 in the BOE archives, official title "GOLD AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE OFFICE FILE: FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK (FRBNY) – MISCELLANEOUS", dated May 31, 1968, written by a certain Mr. Robeson addressed to the BOE's Roy Bridge as well as its Chief Cashier, and whose ultimate recipient is Charles Coombs who at the time was the manager of the open market account at the Fed, responsible for Fed operations in the gold and FX markets.
This memo, more than any of the other spurious and speculative accusation about Buba's golden hoard, should disturb German citizens, and of course the Bundesbank (assuming it was not already aware of its contents), as the memo lays out, without any shadow of doubt, that the BOE and the Fed, effectively conspired to feed the Bundesbank due gold bars that were of substantially subpar quality on at least one occasion in the period during the Bretton-Woods semi-gold standard (which ended with Nixon in August 1971).
At least two central banks have conspired on at least one occasion to provide the Bundesbank with what both banks knew was "bad delivery" gold – the convertible reserve currency under the Bretton Woods system, or in other words, to defraud – amounting to 172 bars. The "bad delivery" occured even as official gold refiners had warned that the quality of gold emanating from the US Assay Office was consistently below standard, and which both the BOE and the Fed were aware of. Instead of addressing the issue of declining gold quality and purity, the banks merely covered up the refiners' complaints
It is this that the Bundesbank, the German government, and the German people should be focusing on. If in the process this means completely ridiculing the Buba's "she doth protest too much" defense strategy that what is happening in the media is a "phantom debate" as per Andreas Dobret's recent words, so be it. In fact, one may be well advised to ignore anything Buba has said on this matter, because in attempting to hyperbolize the matter out of irrelevancy, the Buba is now cornered and will have no choice now but to explain just what the true gold content of the gold even in its possession is, let alone that which is allocated to the Buba account 50 feet below sea level, underneath the infamous building on Liberty 33.
Full May 1968 memo from the BOE to the NY Fed: highlights ours:
MR. BRIDGE
THE CHIEF CASHIER
U.S. Assay Office Gold Bars
1. We have from time to time had occasion to draw the Americans' attention of the poor standards of finish of U.S. Assay Office bars. In addition in 1961 we passed on to them comments from Johnson Matthey to the effect that spectrographic examination did not support the claimed assay on one bar they had so tested (although they would not by normal processes have challenged the assay) and that impurities in the bar included iron which caused some material to be retained on the sides of crucible after pouring.
2. Recently, Johnson Matthey have put 172 "bad delivery" U.S. Assay Office bars into good delivery form for account of the Deutsche Bundesbank. These bars formed part of recent shipments by the Federal Reserve Bank to provide gold in London in repayment of swaps with the Bundesbank. The out-turn of the re-melting showed a loss in fine ounces terms four times greater than the gross weight loss. Asked to comment Johnson Matthey have indicated verbally that:-
(a) the mixing of "melt" bars of differing assays in one "pot" could produce a result which might be a contributing factor to a heavier loss in fine weight but they did not think this would be substantial ;
(b) a variation of .0001 in assay between different assayers is an extremely common phenomenon;
(c) over a long period of years they had had experience of unsatisfactory U.S. assays
3. It is not, however, possible to say that the U.S. assays were at fault because Johnson Matthey did not test any of the individual bars before putting them into the pot.
4. The Federal Reserve Bank have informed the Bundesbank that adjustments for differences in weight and refining charges will be reimbursed by the U.S.Treasury.
5. No indication should, of course, be given to the Bundesbank, or any other central bank holder of U.S. bars, as to the refiner's views on them. The peculiarity of the out-turn will be known to the Bundesbank: it has so far occasioned no comment.
6. We should draw the attention of the Federal to the discrepancy in this (and any similar subsequent such) result and add simply that the refiners have made no formal comment but have indicate that, although very small differences in assay are not uncommon, their experience with U.S. Assay Office bars has not been satisfactory.
7. We hold 3,909 U.S. Assay Office bars for H.M.T. in London (in addition to the New York holding of 8,630 bars). After the London gold market was reopened in 1954 we test assayed the bars of certain assayers to ensure that pre-war standards were being maintained. It might be premature to set up arrangements now for sample test assays of U.S. Assay Office bars but if it appeared likely that the present discontent of the refiners might crystalise into formal complain we should certainly need to do this. In the meantime I would recommend no further action.
P.W.R.R.
To summarize: Bank of England discovers discrepancies with US Assay Office gold bars, notifies the NY Fed that its gold bars have major "bad delivery" issues, but, and this is the punchline, on this occasion, we'll keep it quiet, because the Bundesbank got these bars. This is merely one documented assay occasion: one can imagine that of the hundreds of thousands of gold bars in official circulation, the "good delivery" quality of bars outside of the US, and perhaps BOE, official holdings has progressively declined over the decades of Bretton Woods. One can also only imagine what has happened to all those "good delivery" bars currently held by the Fed as custodian at the NY Fed. Literally: imagine. Because there is no way to check what the real gold consistency of these gold bars is, and whether the refiners found ongoing future inconsistencies with "good delivery" standards of bars handed off to other "non-core" central banks. And, yes, without further evidence the above is merely speculation.
As to the remaining relevant facts: the US ran out of good delivery gold in March 1968 and only had coin bars remaining. Which is why it closed the gold pool and went to a two-tier price system. The Bundesbank went on to cover some of the outstanding gold debts of the Fed to the gold pool. Subsequently, the US then did several deals with the BOC to get a substantial amount of gold to pay back the Bundesbank which was sent over to England from March until June 1968. One can, again, only speculate on the quality of said gold. The Fed then created unsettled accounts to account for these transfers between itself and the Buba.
In light of the above facts and evidence, one can see why the Buba is doing all in its power to avoid the spotlight being shone on the purity of its gold inventory: after all the last thing the German central banks would want is someone to go through the publicly available archived literature, to put two and two together, and figure out that it does not take one massive "rehypothecation" (see "to Corzine") event for German gold credibility to be impaired: all it takes is death from a thousand micro dilutions over the decades to get the same end result. Because chipping away one ounce here, one ounce there for years and years and years, ultimately adds up to a lot.
We eagerly look forward to the Buba's next iteration of self-defense. We can only hope that this one does not include a reference to a "phantom debate", to "East German terrorist Simon Gruber" or toGoldfinger, as it will merely further destroy any remaining credibility the Bundesbank may have left in this, or any other, matter.
Things That Make You Go Hmmm… Like Being Completely Out Of Touch With Reality | Zero Hedge
December 17, 2013 8:05 pm / Leave a comment
Things That Make You Go Hmmm… Like Being Completely Out Of Touch With Reality | Zero Hedge.
On January 29, 1845, the New York Evening Mirror published a poem that would go on to be one of the most celebrated narrative poems ever penned. It depicted a tragic romantic's desperate descent into madness over the loss of his love; and it made its author, Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most feted poets of his time.
The poem was entitled "The Raven," and its star was an ominous black bird that visits an unnamed narrator who is lamenting the loss of his true love…
So, with the vision firmly planted in your mind's eye of a man completely out of touch with reality, seeking wisdom from a mysterious talking bird — knowing that there is only one response, no matter the question — Dear Reader, allow me to present to you a chart. It is one I have used before, but its importance is enormous, and it will form the foundation of this week's discussion (alongside a few others that break it down into its constituent parts).
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you (drumroll please) total outstanding credit versus GDP in the United States from 1929 to 2012:
This one chart shows exactly WHY we are where we are, folks.
From the moment Richard Nixon toppled the US dollar from its golden foundation and ushered in the era of pure fiat money (oxymoron though that may be) on August 15, 1971, there has been a ubiquitous and dangerous synonym for "growth": credit.
The world embarked upon a multi-decade credit-fueled binge and claimed the results as growth.
Fanciful.
Floated ever higher on a cushion of credit that has expanded exponentially, as you can see. (The expansion of true growth would have been largely linear — though one can only speculate as to the trajectory of that GDP line had so much credit NOT been extended.) The world has congratulated itself on its "outperformance," when the truth is that bills have been run up relentlessly, with only the occasional hiccup along the way (each of which has manifested itself as a violent reaction to the over-extension of cheap money).
Folks, rates WILL have to go up again. They cannot stay at zero forever. We all know that. When they DO, because of all the additional debt that has been ladled atop the existing pile, the whole thing will come tumbling down.
All of it.
There is simply no way out, I am afraid. But that is clearly a problem for another day. Right now, everything is fine, so we can all go on pretending it will continue that way.
Evermore.
So now, if you'll indulge me in a little poetic license (not to mention there being not one but four mysterious strangers in my offering), I give you, "The Maven" (abridged version):
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of financial lore
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door
Only this and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — for the world had sought to borrow
From both friend and foe and neighbour — borrow, borrow, borrow more
For the cheap and easy money which the bankers forth did pour
Shall be paid back nevermore.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered words, "Some More?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the words, "Some More"
Merely this and nothing more.
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped four stately Mavens from the Central Banks of yore;
Not the least obeisance made they; not a minute stopped or stayed they;
But, with air of lord or lady, stood inside my chamber door —
Standing by a mug from Dallas just inside my chamber door —
Stood, and stared, and nothing more.
Then these tired-looking men beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance they wore,
"Though thy faces look unshaven, thou," I said, "art sure enslaven'd,
Ghastly grim and ancient Mavens wandering from the Nightly shore —
To free money ever after lest the markets pitch and yaw."
Quoth the Mavens, "Evermore."
While I marvelled this ungainly bearded man explained so plainly,
Though his answer little meaning — little relevancy bore;
For he cannot help a-printing, brand new currency a-minting
Ever yet was blessed with seeing nothing wrong in doing more
Mortgage bonds upon his balance sheet he'll place, then markets jaw
With the promise "Evermore."
"You there" said I, "standing muted — what is there to do aboot it?"
In a heavy accent quoth he — that by God he was quite sure
That more money being printed and, new measures being hinted
At would quell all fear of meltdown and the markets all would soar
Would this mean the printing presses would forever roar?
Quoth the Maven, "Evermore."
Lastly to the fore there strode a small and bookish man, Kuroda,
Who with glint of eye did warn that he was happy to explore
Measures once thought so outrageous as to never mark the pages
In the history of finance — but those times were days of yore
Drastic printing was required, this was tantamount to war
And the Mavens, never blinking, only sitting, only thinking
By the Cowboys mug from Dallas just inside my chamber door;
Really do believe their action has created decent traction,
And that freshly printed money can spew forth for evermore;
But the truth about the ending shall be seen when markets, bending
Shall be lifted — nevermore!
The full must-read Grant Williams letter is below:
Ttmygh Dec 09 2013
'Watch what we do, not what we say': Shell cancels U.S. gas-to-liquids plant
December 16, 2013 6:53 am / Leave a comment
'Watch what we do, not what we say': Shell cancels U.S. gas-to-liquids plant.
When civil rights advocates grew restless because of President Richard Nixon's right-wing rhetoric on the issue of desegregation, then-Attorney General John Mitchell told them, "Watch what we do, not what we say."
Those following the hype over America's supposed newfound abundance of oil and natural gas would do well to follow that advice when evaluating what oil and gas company executives and their surrogates say.
When Royal Dutch Shell pulled the plug on its U.S. gas-to-liquids project recently, the company offered the same explanation it used when it shut down its oil shale project earlier this year: Shell sees better opportunities elsewhere. This explanation–much like the I'm-resigning-to-spend-more-time-with-my-family explanation–tends to deflect questions about why things aren't working out.
What's not working out for Shell is a planned $20 billion plant in Louisiana designed to turn natural gas into diesel, jet fuel, lubricants and chemical feedstocks, products typically produced by oil refineries. The plug was pulled, however, while the project was still in the planning stage.
Shell did actually say a little more about why it is abandoning the project in this almost inscrutable piece of corporate prose:
Despite the ample supplies of natural gas in the area, the company has taken the decision that GTL is not a viable option for Shell in North America, at this time, due to the likely development cost of such a project, uncertainties on long-term oil and gas prices and differentials, and Shell's strict capital discipline.
Now, here's the same paragraph translated into simple English:
The plant is going to cost a lot more to build than we thought it would. Natural gas prices are going up and could easily make it uneconomical to produce diesel and jet fuel from natural gas when compared to making them from oil. And, we don't have unlimited funds to spend on everything we think of just to see if it works.
Shell CEO Peter Voser has voiced doubts about the so-called "shale revolution" in the United States (which refers to advances in drilling technology that have opened previously inaccessible shale deposits of natural gas and oil to exploitation). In fact, Shell took a $2.1 billion write-down on its shale assets in the United States. In lay terms, the company had to reduce the value of those assets on its balance sheet to reflect reality. The company also sold small tight oil fields related to shale deposits, fields that it no longer wishes to develop.
Voser said he still believes Shell's remaining $24 billion investment in U.S. shale gas and tight oil will "be a success story for Shell." Three-quarters of that investment is devoted to natural gas from shale. But, Voser added that the potential for natural gas and oil from shale elsewhere in the world has been "a little bit overhyped" citing concerns specifically about Europe.
Now, because this rhetoric is coming from an oil industry CEO, we can assume that he is walking the line between saying things which will get him removed from the invitation lists of his fellow oil executives' cocktail parties–things otherwise known as the awful truth–and misrepresenting the facts to shareholders, which would get him into trouble in other ways.
But abandoning the gas-to-liquids plant speaks much more loudly than Voser's actual remarks. It means Voser expects that natural gas prices simply won't stay low long enough to make such a huge investment pay off. And, that means that he doesn't believe the hype about an ongoing glut of U.S. natural gas.
So, Voser directs Shell to abandon a gas-to-liquids plant, the profitability of which would be destroyed by high prices for the natural gas which the plant must purchase. At the same time, he has Shell retain most of its shale gas wells, a move which only makes sense if he expects U.S. natural gas prices to go higher. And, those prices will only go higher if there is increased demand or reduced supply, or a combination of both.
It's not hard to figure out the meaning of what Peter Voser is doing. But it is understandably difficult to shut out the constant din of abundance stories sponsored by the industry and its well-financed public relations machine–that is, until you understand that it's not what the industry says that's important, but what it actually does.
Gold Is Disappearing from the West: Alasdair Macleod | Peak Prosperity
December 6, 2013 7:17 pm / Leave a comment
Gold Is Disappearing from the West: Alasdair Macleod | Peak Prosperity.
Western central banks have tried to shake off the constraints of gold for a long time, which has created enormous difficulties for them. They have generally succeeded in managing opinion in the developed nations but been demonstrably unsuccessful in the lesser-developed world, particularly in Asia. It is the growing wealth earned by these nations that has fuelled demand for gold since the late 1960s. There is precious little bullion left in the West today to supply rapidly increasing Asian demand. It is important to understand how little there is and the dangers this poses for financial stability.
An examination of the facts shows that central banks have been on the back foot with respect to Asian gold demand since the emergence of the petrodollar. In the late 1960s, demand for oil began to expand rapidly, with oil pegged at $1.80 per barrel. By 1971, the average price had increased to $2.24, and there is little doubt that the appetite for gold from Middle-Eastern oil exporters was growing. It should have been clear to President Nixon's advisers in 1971 that this was a developing problem when he decided to halt the run on the United States' gold reserves by suspending the last vestiges of gold convertibility.
After all, the new arrangement was: America issued the petrodollars to pay for the oil, which were then recycled to Latin America and other countries in the West's sphere of influence through the American banks. The Arabs knew exactly what was happening; gold was simply their escape route from this dodgy deal.
The run on U.S. gold reserves leading up to the Nixon Shock in August 1971 is blamed by monetary historians on France. But note this important passage from Ferdinand Lips' book GoldWars:
Because Arabs did not understand bonds and stocks they invested their surplus funds in either real estate and/or gold. Since Biblical times, gold has been the best means to keep wealth and to transfer it from generation to generation. Gold therefore was the ideal vehicle for them. Furthermore after their oil reserves are exhausted in the distant future, they would still own gold. And gold, contrary to oil, could never be wasted.
According to Lips, Swiss private bankers, to whom many of the newly-enriched Arabs turned, recommended that a minimum of 10% and even as much as 40% should be held in gold bullion. This advice was wholly in tune with Arab thinking, creating extra demand for America's gold reserves, some of which were auctioned off in the following years. Furthermore, Arab investors were unlikely to have been deterred by high dollar interest rates in the early eighties, because high interest rates simply compounded their rapidly-growing exposure to dollars.
Using numbers from BP's Statistical Review and contemporary U.S. Treasury 10-year bond yields to gauge dollar returns, we can estimate gross Arab petrodollar income, including interest from 1965 to 2000, to total about $4.5 trillion. Taking average annual gold prices over that period, ten percent of this would equate to about 50,500 tonnes, which compares with total mine production during those years of 62,750 tonnes, over 90% of which went into jewellery.
This is not to say that 50,000 tonnes were bought by the Arabs; it could only be partly accommodated even if the central banks supplied them gold in very large quantities, of which there is some evidence that they did. Instead, it is to ram the point home that the Arabs, awash with printed-for-export petrodollars, had good reason to buy all available gold. And importantly, it also gives substance to Frank Veneroso's conclusion in 2002that official intervention – i.e., undeclared sales of significant quantities of government-owned gold – was effectively being used to manage the price in the face of persistent demand for physical gold as late as the 1990s.
Transition from Arab demand
Arabs trying to invest a portion of their petrodollars would have left very little investment gold for the advanced economies. As it happened, U.S. citizens had been banned from holding bullion until 1974, and British citizens were banned until 1971. Instead, they invested mainly in mining shares and Krugerrands, continuing this tradition by using derivatives and unbacked unallocated accounts with bullion banks in preference to bullion itself. This meant that, until the mid-seventies, investment in physical gold in the West was minimal, almost all gold being held in illiquid jewellery form. Western bullion investors were restricted to mainly Germans, French, and Italians, mostly through Swiss banks. The 1970s bull market was therefore an Arab affair, and they continued to absorb gold through the subsequent bear market.
By the late-nineties, a new generation of Swiss investment managers, schooled in modern portfolio theory and less keen on gold, persuaded many of their European clients to reduce and even eliminate bullion holdings. At the same time, a younger generation of Western-educated Arabs began to replace more conservative patriarchs, so it is reasonable to assume that Arab demand for gold waned somewhat, as infrastructure spending and investment in equity markets began to provide portfolio diversification. This was therefore a period of transition for bullion, driven by declining Western investment sentiment and changing social structures in the Arab world.
It also marked the beginning of accelerating demand in emerging economies, notably India, but also in other countries such as Turkey and those in Southeast Asia, which were rapidly industrialising. In 1990, the Indian Government freed up the gold market by abolishing the Gold Control Act of 1968, paving the way for Indians to become the largest officially-recognised importers of gold until overtaken by China last year.
Lower prices in the 1990s stimulated demand for jewellery in the advanced economies, with Italy becoming the largest European manufacturing centre. At the same time, gold leasing by central banks increased substantially, as bullion banks exploited the differential between gold lease rates and the yield on short-term government debt. This leased gold satisfied jewellery demand as well continuing Asian demand for gold bars.
So, despite the fall in prices between 1997-2000, all supply was absorbed into firm hands. When gold prices bottomed out, Western central banks almost certainly had less gold than publicly stated, the result of managing the price until 1985, and through leasing thereafter. This was the background to the London Bullion Market Association, which was founded in 1987.
The LBMA
In 1987, the unallocated account system became formalized under London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) rules, allowing the bullion banks to issue gold IOUs to their customers, making efficient use of the bullion available. The ability to expand customer business in the gold market without having to acquire physical bullion is the chief characteristic of the LBMA to this day. Futures markets in the U.S. also expanded, and so derivatives and unallocated accounts became central to Western investment in gold. Today the only significant bullion held by Western investors is likely to be a small European residual plus exchange-traded fund (ETF) holdings. In total (including ETFs), this probably amounts to no more than a few thousand tonnes.
The LBMA was established in 1987 in the wake of the Financial Services Act in 1986. Prior to that date, the twice-daily gold fix had become the standard pricing mechanism for international dealers, whose ranks grew on the back of the 1970s bull market. This meant that international banks established their bullion dealing activities in London in preference to Zurich, which was the investment centre for physical bullion. The establishment of the LBMA was the formalization of an existing gold market based on the 400-ounce "good delivery" standard and the operation of both allocated and unallocated accounts.
During the twenty-year bear market, attitudes to gold diverged, with capital markets increasingly taking the view that the inflation dragon had been slain and gold's bull market with it. At the same time, Asian demand – initially from the Arab oil exporters but increasingly from other nations led by Turkey, India, and Iran – ensured that there were buyers for all the physical gold available. Mine supply, which benefited from the introduction of heap-leaching techniques, had increased from 1,314 tonnes in 1980 to 2,137 tonnes in 1990 and 2,625 tonnes by 2000. Together with scrap supply, London was in a strong position to intermediate between a substantial increase in gold flows to Asian buyers, and it was from this that central bank leasing naturally developed.
Gold backed by these physical flows was the ideal asset for the carry trade. A bullion bank would lease gold from a central bank, sell the gold, and invest the proceeds in short-term government debt. It was profitable for the bullion bank, governments were happy to have the finance, and the lessor was happy to see an idle asset work up some extra income. However, leasing only works so long as the bullion bank can hedge by accessing future supply so that the lease can eventually be terminated.
Before 2000, this was a growing activity, fuelled further by Swiss portfolio disinvestment in the late 1990s. As is usual in markets with a long-term behavioral trend, competition for this business extended the risks beyond being dangerous. This culminated in a crisis in September 1999, when a 30% jump in the price threatened to bankrupt some of the bullion banks who were in the habit of running short positions.
Bull markets always start with very little mainstream and public involvement, and so it has proved with gold since the start of this century. So let us recap where all the gold was at that time:
Total above-ground gold stocks were about 129,000 tonnes, of which 31,800 tonnes were officially monetary gold. Of the balance, approximately 85-90% was turned into jewellery or other wrought forms, leaving only 10-15,000 tonnes invested in bar and coins and allocated for industrial use.
Out of a maximum of 15,000 tonnes, coins (mostly Krugerrands) accounted for about 1,500 tonnes and other uses (non-recovered industrial and dental), say, 1,000 tonnes. This leaves a maximum of 12,500 tonnes and possibly as little as 7,500 tonnes of investment gold worldwide at that time.
After Swiss fund managers disposed of most of the bullion held in portfolios for their clients in the late 1990s, there was very little investment gold left in European and American ownership.
Frank Veneroso in 2002 concluded, after diligent research, that central banks had by then supplied between 10-15,000 tonnes of monetary gold into the market. Much of this would have gone into jewellery, particularly in Asia, but some would have gone to the Middle East. This explains how extra investment gold may have been supplied to satisfy Middle Eastern demand.
Middle Eastern countries must have been the largest holders of non-monetary gold in bar form at this time. We can see that 10% of petrodollars invested in gold would have totalled over 50,000 tonnes, yet there can only have been between 7,500-12,500 tonnes available in bar form for all investor categories world-wide. This may have been increased somewhat by the addition of monetary gold leased by central banks and acquired through the market.
It was at this point that the second gold bull market commenced against a background of very little liquidity. Investment bullion was tightly held, the central banks were badly short of their declared holdings of monetary gold, and from about 2004 onwards, ETFs were to grow to over 1,500 tonnes. Asian demand continued to grow (led by India), and China began actively promoting private ownership of gold at about the same time.
Other than through physically-backed ETFs, Western investors were encouraged to satisfy their demand for bullion through derivatives and unallocated accounts at the bullion banks. There are no publicly available records detailing the extent of these unallocated accounts, but the point is that Western demand has not resulted in increased holdings of bullion except through securitised ETFs. Instead, the liabilities faced by the bullion banks on uncovered accounts will have increased to accommodate growth in demand. Therefore, the vested interests of the bullion banks and the central banks overseeing the gold market call for continued suppression of the gold price, so as to avoid a repeat of the crisis faced in September 1999 when the price increased by 30% in only two weeks.
Where are the sellers?
Price suppression can only be a temporary stop-gap, and there has never been sufficient supply to allow the central banks to retrieve their leased gold from the bullion banks. Therefore, Frank Veneroso's conclusion in 2002 that there had to be existing leases totalling 10-15,000 tonnes is a starting point from which leases and loans have increased. There are two events which will almost certainly have increased this figure dramatically:
When the price rose to $1900 in September 2011, there was a concerted attempt to suppress the price from further rises. The lesson from the 1999 crisis is that the bullion banks' geared exposure to unallocated accounts was forcing a crisis upon them; if they had been forced to cash-settle these accounts, the gold price would almost certainly have risen further, risking a widespread monetary crisis.
Through 2012, Asian demand, particularly from China, coinciding with continued investor demand for ETFs, was already proving impossible to contain. In February this year, the Cyprus bail-in banking crisis warned depositors in the Eurozone that all bank deposits over the insured limit risked being confiscated in the event of a wider Eurozone banking crisis. This drove many unallocated account holders to seek delivery of physical gold from their banks, forcing ABN-AMRO and Rabobank to suspend all gold deliveries from their unallocated accounts. This was followed by a concerted central- and bullion-bank bear raid on the market in early April, driving the price down to trigger stop-loss sales in derivative markets and subsequent liquidation of ETF holdings.
It is widely assumed that the unexpected rise in demand for bullion that resulted from the April take-down was satisfied through ETF sales, but an examination of the quantities involved shows they were insufficient. The table below includes officially reported demand for China and India alone, not taking into account escalating demand from the Chinese diaspora in the Far East and from elsewhere in Asia:
These figures do not include Chinese and Indian purchases of gold in foreign markets and stored abroad, typically carried out by the rich and very rich. Nor do they include foreign purchases by the Chinese Government and its agencies. Despite these omissions, in 2012, recorded demand from these two countries left the world in a supply deficit of 131 tonnes. Furthermore, ahead of the April smash-down in the first quarter of this year, the deficit had jumped to 88 tons, or an annualised rate of 352 tonnes.
Demands for delivery by panicking Europeans in the wake of the Cyprus fiasco could only provoke one reaction. On Friday 12th April, 400 tonnes of paper gold were dumped on the market in two orders, triggering stop-loss sales and turning market sentiment bearish in the extreme. Western investors started to think about cutting their losses, and they sold down ETF holdings to the tune of 325 tonnes in 2013 by the end of May. However, this triggered record demand among those who looked on gold as insurance against currency and systemic risks.
Later that year, in July, Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee he didn't understand gold. That was probably a reference to the April gold price smash orchestrated by the central banks and how it unleashed record levels of demand. It was an admission that he thought everyone would follow the new trend by acting like portfolio investors, forgetting that if you lower the price of a commodity, you merely unleash demand. It was also an important admission of policy failure.
Since those events in April, someone has been supplying the market with significant quantities of gold to keep the price down. We know it is not Arab gold, because I have discovered through interviewing a director of a major Swiss refiner that Arab gold is being recast from LBMA specification bars into one-kilo .9999 bars, which has become the new Asian standard. Arab gold does not appear to be being sold, only recast, and anyway, it is only a small part of their overall wealth. We also know from our long-term analysis that any European gold bullion is relatively small in quantity and tightly held. There can only be one source for this gold, and that is the central banks.
I discovered that there was a discrepancy in the Bank of England's custodial gold of up to 1,300 tonnes between the date of its last Annual Report (28th February) and mid-June, when a lower figure was given out to the public on the Bank's website. This fits in well with the additional amount of gold needed to manage the price between those months. Furthermore, the Finnish Central Bank recently admitted that all its gold held at the Bank of England was "invested" – i.e., sold – and further added that the practice "was common for central banks."
Bearing in mind Veneroso's conclusion in 2002 that there must be 10,000-15,000 tonnes out on lease and loan from the central banks at that time, one could imagine that this figure has increased significantly. Officially, the signatories of the Central Bank Gold Agreement, plus the U.S. and U.K. own 20,393 tonnes. A number of other central banks are likely to have been persuaded to "invest" their gold, but this is bound to exclude Russia, China, the Central Asian states, Iran, and Venezuela. Taking these holders out (amounting to about 3,000 tonnes) leaves a balance of 8,401 tonnes for all the rest. If we further assume that half of that has been deposited in London, New York, or Zurich and leased out, that means the total gold leased and available for leasing since 2002 is about 12,000 tonnes. And once that has gone, there is no monetary gold left for the purpose of price suppression.
Could this have disappeared since 2002 at an average rate of 1,000 tonnes per annum? Quite possibly, in which case, the central banks are very close to losing all control over the gold price.
In Part II: The Very Real Danger of a Failure in the Gold Market, I discuss why the Chinese are buying so much gold and why the Reserve Bank of India is trying to suppress gold demand. I show that gold is substantially undervalued and why that undervaluation is likely to correct itself spectacularly, precipitating a financial crisis.
Click here to access Part II of this report (free executive summary; enrollment required for full access).
1974 Enders To Kissinger: "We Should Look Hard At Substantial Sales & Raid The Gold Market Once And For All" | Zero Hedge
1974 Enders To Kissinger: "We Should Look Hard At Substantial Sales & Raid The Gold Market Once And For All" | Zero Hedge.
Four years ago we exposed what appeared to be a 'smoking gun' of the Fed's willingness to manipulate the price of gold. Then Fed-chair Burns noted the equivalency of gold and money, and furthermore pointed out that if the Fed does not control this core relationship, it would "easily frustrate our efforts to control world liquidity." Through a "secret understanding in writing with the Bundesbank that Germany will not buy gold," the cloak-and-dagger CB negotiations were exposed as far back as 1975. Recently, we exposed Paul Volcker's fears of "PetroGold" and the importance of the US remaining "masters of gold." Today, via a transcript of then Secretary of State Kissinger's 1974 meeting we see how clearly they understood that demonetizing gold was a critical strategy to maintaining a dominant power position in the world, and "raiding the gold market once and for all."
Burns' 1975 Smoking Gun…
On June 3, 1975, Fed Chairman Arthur Burns, sent a "Memorandum For The President" to Gerald Ford, which among others CC:ed Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and future Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, discussing gold, and specifically its fair value, a topic whose prominence, despite former president Nixon's actions, had only managed to grow in the four short years since the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971. In a nutshell Burns' entire argument revolves around the equivalency of gold and money, and furthermore points out that if the Fed does not control this core relationship, it would "easily frustrate our efforts to control world liquidity" but also "dangerously prejudge the shape of the future monetary system."
Furthermore, the memo goes on to highlight the extensive level of gold price manipulation by central banks even after the gold standard has been formally abolished. The problem with accounting for gold at fair market value: the risk of massive liquidity creation, which in those long-gone days of 1975 "could result in the addition of up to $150 billion to the nominal value of countries' reserves." One only wonders what would happen today if gold was allowed to attain its fair price status. And the threat, according to Burns: "liquidity creation of such extraordinary magnitude would seriously endanger,perhaps even frustrate, out efforts and those of other prudent nations to get inflation under reasonable control." Aside from the gratuitous observation that even 34 years ago it was painfully obvious how "massive" liquidity could and would result in runaway inflation and the Fed actually cared about this potential danger, what highlights the hypocrisy of the Fed is that when it comes to drowning the world in excess pieces of paper, only the United States should have the right to do so.
Lastly, the memo presents a useful snapshot into the cloak-and-dagger, and highly nebulous world of CB negotiations and gold price manipulation:
"I have a secret understanding in writing with the Bundesbank that Germany will not buy gold, either from the market or from another government, at a price above the official price."
Volcker's 1974 "PetroGold" concerns…
First, here is what the S intentions vis-a-vis gold truly are when stripped away of all rhetoric:
U.S. objectives for world monetary system—a durable, stable system, with the SDR [ZH: or USD] as a strong reserve asset at its center — are incompatible with a continued important role for gold as a reserve asset.… It is the U.S. concern that any substantial increase now in the price at which official gold transactions are made would strengthen the position of gold in the system, and cripple the SDR [ZH: or USD].
In other words: gold can not be allowed to dominated a "durable, stable system", and a rising gold price would cripple the reserve currency du jour: well known by most, but always better to see it admitted in official Top Secret correspondence.
Specifically, this is among the top secret paragraphs said on a cold night in March 1968:
If we want to have a chance to remain the masters of gold an international agreement on the rules of the game as outlined above seems to be a matter of urgency. We would fool ourselves in thinking that we have time enough to wait and see how the S.D.R.'s will develop. In fact, the challenge really seems to be to achieve by international agreement within a very short period of time what otherwise could only have been the outcome of a gradual development of many years.
And Now Kissinger's 1974 Transcript…
Via Mike Krieger's Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The following excerpts are from a transcript of a 1974 meeting held by the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his staff. This particular meeting was held on April 25, and focused on an European Commission Proposal to revalue their gold assets. What follows is an incredible insight into the minds of powerful American leaders scheming to maintain power and show other nations their place. What is most significant is how clearly they understood that demonetizing gold was a critical strategy to maintaining a dominant power position in the world.
So to those who continue to say that "gold doesn't matter" because it hasn't been used as an official asset in the monetary system for decades, I say give me a break. In fact, the reality of gold having been largely demonetized makes it an even greater threat going forward if the U.S. does not have all the gold it claims to, and other nations have more than they admit to.
Thanks to In Gold We Trust for bringing this to my attention. Choice excerpts are provided below, and breaks in the conversation are denoted with an "…" Enjoy.
Secondly, Mr. Secretary, it does present an opportunity though—and we should try to negotiate for this—to move towards a demonetization of gold, to begin to get gold moving out of the system.
Secretary Kissinger: But how do you do that?
Mr. Enders: Well, there are several ways. One way is we could say to them that they would accept this kind of arrangement, provided that the gold were channelled out through an international agency—either in the IMF or a special pool—and sold into the market, so there would be gradual increases.
Secretary Kissinger: But the French would never go for this.
Mr. Enders: We can have a counter-proposal. There's a further proposal—and that is that the IMF begin selling its gold—which is now 7 billion—to the world market, and we should try to negotiate that. That would begin the demonetization of gold.
Secretary Kissinger: Why are we so eager to get gold out of the system?
Mr. Enders: We were eager to get it out of the system—get started—because it's a typical balancing of either forward or back. If this proposal goes back, it will go back into the centerpiece system.
Secretary Kissinger: But why is it against our interests? I understand the argument that it's against our interest that the Europeans take a unilateral decision contrary to our policy. Why is it against our interest to have gold in the system?
Mr. Enders: It's against our interest to have gold in the system because for it to remain there it would result in it being evaluated periodically. Although we have still some substantial gold holdings—about 11 billion—a larger part of the official gold in the world is concentrated in Western Europe. This gives them the dominant position in world reserves and the dominant means of creating reserves. We've been trying to get away from that into a system in which we can control—
Mr. Enders: Yes. But in order for them to do it anyway, they would have to be in violation of important articles of the IMF. So this would not be a total departure. (Laughter.) But there would be reluctance on the part of some Europeans to do this. We could also make it less interesting for them by beginning to sell our own gold in the market, and this would put pressure on them.
Mr. Maw: Why wouldn't that fit if we start to sell our own gold at a price?
Secretary Kissinger: But how the hell could this happen without our knowing about it ahead of time?
Mr. Hartman: We've had consultations on it ahead of time. Several of them have come to ask us to express our views. And I think the reason they're coming now to ask about it is because they know we have a generally negative view.
Mr. Enders: So I think we should try to break it, I think, as a first position—unless they're willing to assign some form of demonetizing arrangement.
Secretary Kissinger: But, first of all, that's impossible for the French.
Mr. Enders: Well, it's impossible for the French under the Pompidou Government. Would it be necessarily under a future French Government? We should test that.
Secretary Kissinger: If they have gold to settle current accounts, we'll be faced, sooner or later, with the same proposition again. Then others will be asked to join this settlement thing.
Isn't this what they're doing?
Mr. Enders: It seems to me, Mr. Secretary, that we should try—not rule out, a priori, a demonetizing scenario, because we can both gain by this. That liberates gold at a higher price. We have gold, and some of the Europeans have gold. Our interests join theirs. This would be helpful; and it would also, on the other hand, gradually remove this dominant position that the Europeans have had in economic terms.
Mr. Rush: Well, I think probably I do. The question is: Suppose they go ahead on their own anyway. What then?
Secretary Kissinger: We'll bust them.
Mr. Enders: I think we should look very hard then, Ken, at very substantial sales of gold—U.S. gold on the market—to raid the gold market once and for all.
Mr. Rush: I'm not sure we could do it.
Secretary Kissinger: If they go ahead on their own against our position on something that we consider central to our interests, we've got to show them that that they can't get away with it. Hopefully, we should have the right position. But we just cannot let them get away with these unilateral steps all the time.
Full transcript here.
Economies Don't Die – Monty Pelerin's World : Monty Pelerin's World
November 15, 2013 9:01 am / Leave a comment
Economies Don't Die – Monty Pelerin's World : Monty Pelerin's World.
This country will die. History will record the cause as due to an event worse than the Great Depression. That diagnosis will be wrong.
Economies do not die except when they are murdered. Free markets are self-equilibrating, healing themselves unless they are prevented from doing so.
The very purpose of government intervention is to produce outcomes that otherwise would not occur. Intervention is always an attempt to overcome the natural equilibrium at which an economy would settle. Its very purpose is to thwart the intentions of individuals who make up the economy. Intervention is intended to alter the natural healing process.
Every so-called "economic" problem can be traced back to prior political intervention(s). Political actions deemed necessary today result from damages inflicted by prior government interventions.
Damages and distortions are cumulative. Once begun, politicians are unable/unwilling to stop intervening as the pain of allowing the economy to return to equilibrium increases with each intervention. Eventually an economy's ability to grow and recuperate is impaired:
Prices become inflated and distorted by liquidity and regulatory interventions. They no longer reflect true supply and demand.
Capital is mis-allocated as a result of false interest rate signals. Eventually this capital is seen as unprofitable and is abandoned.
Cheap lending and low lending standards encourage imprudent and eventually unsustainable levels of debt.
These distortions decrease an economy's efficiency. General economic metrics like GDP eventually grow more slowly as a result, prompting calls for more political intervention. Eventually the distortions and disincentives grow to a point where standards of living and economies stagnate and then retrogress.
These relationships are as old as civilization itself. Politicians know, but they find it politically advantageous to ignore. The political class believes itself to be superior and entitled. They consider themselves to be above the law. For them, citizens are sources of plunder, to be exploited so that they may hold onto power and wealth.
The economic crisis is coming. It will occur because feckless, venal "leaders" consider the personal cost of stopping their actions to be greater than continuing. That may be true for them, but it is not true for the country.
Sadly, much of the electorate is as corrupt as the political class as Angelo M. Codevilladiscusses below. The economic collapse is inevitable. It may also be deserved.
Democracy has no cure for a corrupt demos. Politicians' misdeeds taint them alone, so long as their supporters do not embrace them. But when substantial constituencies continue to support their leaders despite their having broken faith, they turn democracy's process of mutual persuasion into partisan war.
Consider: In 1974 President Richard Nixon lied publicly and officially to cover up his subordinates' misdeeds. His own party forced him to resign. In 1998 President Bill Clinton lied under oath in an unsuccessful attempt to cover up his own. But his party rallied around him and accused his accusers. In 2013 President Barack Obama lied publicly and officially to secure passage of his most signature legislation. But when the lies became undeniable, his party joined him in maintaining that they had not been lies at all.
The point is that Nixon's misdeeds harmed no one but himself because no one excused them. But Clinton's and Obama's misdeeds contributed to the corruption of American democracy because a substantial part of the American people chose to be partners in them.
The difference between the mentalities of Republicans circa 1974 and of Democrats twenty-five and forty years later is the difference between a society before and after democratic corruption. Forty years ago, just as in our time, the President of the United States headed a coalition of groups with material and ideological interest in his Administration. But, back then, the beneficiaries of power were willing enough to subordinate their interests to the greater good of maintaining the bounds of democratic partisanship. In our time, however, the constituents of Democratic Administrations so identify their own status and benefits with "the greater good" that the very notion of bounds to their own partisanship makes no sense.
Today's Democrats argue that, some deceptive language aside, President Obama had every right to implement his view of medical care for America, as well as other things, because he was elected twice having promised something of the sort. But, in 1974, Republicans could have argued that Nixon had been elected twice, the second time by the largest margin in US history, specifically to undo the 1960s. In fact, Nixon's lies about what he knew of his subordinates' misdeeds were entirely irrelevant to the purpose for which he had been elected. Why should the Republican constituencies who had worked so hard have given up on the Nixon Administration? Why did Barry Goldwater, Mr. conservative himself, go to the White House to tell Nixon he had to resign?
Quite simply because he knew – everyone seemed to know, then – that respect for the truth is what enables a democratic society that resolves its differences by mutual persuasion, and that absent that respect society devolves into civil war. Nixon's lie had not imperiled the workings of American government. But it had transgressed the essential principle. Thenceforth, no one could take him at his word. All would have to regard him as acting for himself or his party, alien to the rest. And if his party stuck with him, the rest of America would have to regard that party as alien.
Bill Clinton's 1998 lie under oath, and then on national television proved so by DNA analysis of his own sperm, placed him precisely in Nixon's position. But his party, by sticking with him, reversed the essential principle to which the Republicans of 1974 had adhered. Its constituencies had worked hard to reverse Ronald Reagan's 1980s. They had raised taxes, institutionalized abortion, and vastly expanded government. By this time, they had convinced themselves that the rest of America is composed of inferior people. Why should they have jeopardized their position just because their man had fellatio in the Oval Office and lied about it?
Thus by placing their own material and ideological interests above the truth, the Democrats took upon themselves a license to lie – not just about personal matters, which was their argument at the time – but about whatever might serve their purpose.
Obama's premeditated, repeated, nationally televised lies about the "Affordable Care Act" are integral, indeed essential, to his presidency and to the workings of the US government. The outcome of two national elections depended on it.
Even more significant is his contention that he never said what he said, and that what he said was true anyhow. In interpersonal relations, such a contention is an insult that makes civility impossible; because to continue to treat with someone who makes such affronts is self-degradation of which few are capable. In political life, such an insult is a declaration of war.
The deadly problem is that Barack Obama is not just an individual, nor even the head of the US government's executive branch. He is the head of the party to which most government officials belong, the party of the media, of the educational establishment, of big corporations – in short of the ruling class. That class, it seems, has so taken ownership of Obama's lies that it pretends that those who are suffering from the "Affordable Care Act" don't really know what is good for them, or that they are perversely refusing to suffer for the greater good.
This class, in short, has placed itself as far beyond persuasion as Obama himself. Democracy by persuasion having become impossible, we are left with democracy as war.
Talking Real Money: World Monetary Reform
November 14, 2013 11:54 am / Leave a comment
Talking Real Money: World Monetary Reform.
Published in Market Update Precious Metals on 14 November 2013
By Michael O'Brien
Today's AM fix was USD 1,283.25, EUR 955.23 and GBP 801.53 per ounce.
Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,276.00, EUR 951.25 and GBP 798.75 per ounce.
Gold rose $4.40 or 0.35% yesterday, closing at $1,273.30/oz. Silver slipped $0.19 or 0.92% closing at $20.56. Platinum fell $5.55 or 0.4% to $1,424.20/oz, while palladium fell $9.50 or 1.3% to $727.97/oz.
Gold inched up again after Federal Reserve Chairman nominee Janet Yellen said the U.S. economy and labor market must improve before QE is reduced. This lifted confidence as silver prices recovered from their lowest levels since August. "The focus for the bullion market may shift to the upcoming testimony by Yellen," James Steel, an analyst at HSBC, commented. "Chinese gold demand remains brisk. However, gold is likely to remain on the defensive in the near term", wrote Steel.
The latest long term gold trend research from Nick Laird at ShareLynx indicates that the price of gold may rise in the near future. In the chart below, Nick references those periods from the past when it was prudent to buy and to sell. He also indicates that this particular period, November 2013, may be a prudent time to to buy. This chart reaffirms GoldCore's long term outlook for the price of gold.
Long Term Gold Trend (www.sharelynx.com)
"Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don't mean." Bob Dylan
The Bank of England says the UK recovery has taken hold and Chancellor George Osborne is reported as saying "the report was proof the government's economic plan was working." The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said the bank will not 'consider' raising interest rates until the jobless figure falls below 7%.
However, The Bank of England threw a get-out-of-jail card on the table and said that there was a two-in-five chance of the unemployment rate reaching the 7% threshold by the end of 2014. And then added that the corresponding figures for the end of 2015 and 2016 are around three in five and two in three respectively. What exactly does the Bank of England mean or what does this not mean?
The financial crisis of 2007-2008 has sparked the most intense interest in international monetary reform since Richard Nixon closed the gold window at the New York Fed and devalued the U.S. dollar in 1971. Nixon's action was widely seen at the time as presaging the end of the dollar-based world trade and financial system. On the face of it, this probably wasn't an unreasonable expectation at the time. Within fewer than ten years, however, it was proven to be far off the mark. The dollar fell alright, but by the middle 1980s had recovered strongly.
In retrospect it is clear why the dollar sceptics were wrong. To begin with, the U.S. economy was still the world's largest and the U.S. was still the leader of the "free world," that is to say the world outside the communist bloc. The NATO countries of Western Europe were wholly dependent on the U.S. for security as well as for markets.
The same applied to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, while the signatories of the secret UK/USA intelligence agreement (the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) represented the Anglo core of the old British Empire, a group with no interest in seeing the dollar replaced. Communist Russia and China were in no position to register an opinion, much less offer an alternative. By default, the dollar soldiered on, thanks to the geopolitical realities of the time.
But what about today's realities? Continue this fascinating story in our November edition of Insight – Talking real money: World Monetary Reform.
Click here to download your own copy of Talking real money: World Monetary Reform
Click Gold News For This Week's Breaking Gold And Silver News
Click Gold and Silver Commentary For This Week's Leading Gold And Silver Comment And Opinion
Like Our Facebook Page For Breaking News, Interesting Insights, Blogs, Prizes and Special Offers.
This one chart shows you who's really in control
November 7, 2013 10:07 pm / Leave a comment
This one chart shows you who's really in control.
Check out this chart below. It's a graph of total US tax revenue as a percentage of the money supply, since 1900.
For example, in 1928, at the peak of the Roaring 20s, US money supply (M2) was $46.4 billion. That same year, the US government took in $3.9 billion in tax revenue.
So in 1928, tax revenue was 8.4% of the money supply.
In contrast, at the height of World War II in 1944, US tax revenue had increased to $42.4 billion. But money supply had also grown substantially, to $106.8 billion.
So in 1944, tax revenue was 39.74% of money supply.
You can see from this chart that over the last 113 years, tax revenue as a percentage of the nation's money supply has swung wildly, from as little as 3.65% to over 40%.
But something interesting happened in the 1970s.
1971 was a bifurcation point, and this model went from chaotic to stable. Since 1971, in fact, US tax revenue as a percentage of money supply has been almost a constant, steady 20%.
You can see this graphically below as we zoom in on the period from 1971 through 2013– the trend line is very flat.
What does this mean? Remember– 1971 was the year that Richard Nixon severed the dollar's convertibility to gold once and for all.
And in doing so, he handed unchecked, unrestrained, total control of the money supply to the Federal Reserve.
That's what makes this data so interesting.
Prior to 1971, there was ZERO correlation between US tax revenue and money supply. Yet almost immediately after they handed the last bit of monetary control to the Federal Reserve, suddenly a very tight correlation emerged.
Furthermore, since 1971, marginal tax rates and tax brackets have been all over the board.
In the 70s, for example, the highest marginal tax was a whopping 70%. In the 80s it dropped to 28%.
And yet, the entire time, total US tax revenue has remained very tightly correlated to the money supply.
The conclusion is simple: People think they're living in some kind of democratic republic. But the politicians they elect have zero control.
It doesn't matter who you elect, what the politicians do, or how high/low they set tax rates. They could tax the rich. They could destroy the middle class. It doesn't matter.
The fiscal revenues in the Land of the Free rest exclusively in the hands of a tiny banking elite. Everything else is just an illusion to conceal the truth… and make people think that they're in control.
by Simon Black
Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur, permanent traveler, free man, and founder of Sovereign Man. His free daily e-letter and crash course is about using the experiences from his life and travels to help you achieve more freedom.
The Conspiracy is Systemic and Legalized. | Collapse of Industrial Civilization
October 11, 2013 10:04 am / Leave a comment
The Conspiracy is Systemic and Legalized. | Collapse of Industrial Civilization. (FULL ARTICLE)
If you are a person who gets their news solely from mainstream media and forms a worldview from that information, then this website would perhaps strike you as radical, off-base, and conspiratorial. But what if nearly everything you listen to and read has been filtered through the monied interests of the most powerful entities on the planet? And what if those entities quite literally control the government by way of a revolving door, campaign contributions, and lobbyists who unduly influence the crafting of legislation in favor of big business while ignoring the needs of the common citizenry? What if you are merely a pawn in the machinations of such a system — a consumer for the all-important world market and a disposable human resource in its labor pool? What if the wealth created by such an economy is amassing at the very tip of this pyramid scheme while leaving those below to fend for themselves in a world depleted of its resources and poisoned by industrial waste. Would such a grim reality be considered a conspiracy theory? In other words, would the previously described outcome of such a socio-economic system necessarily have to be the plan of a secret cabal of powerful people? If corporations must compete to survive and are legally bound to look after the financial interests of their shareholders, then protecting and growing profits must in the end override all other concerns — environmental and social. The gross wealth disparity, environmental destruction, and political disenfranchisement created by capitalism is not the byproduct of a conspiracy; it's simply the end-result of a system operating as intended. Concentration of wealth, a characteristic result of capitalism, inevitably leads to a near total corruption of journalism and democracy. Of course the corporate elite may collude to price-fix, bribe regulators or heads of state, and cover up environmental damage and dangers to public health, amongst many other devious activities, but it is invariably done in the interest of gaining dominance in the market place and protecting profits. Capitalism and democracy are not compatible. In fact, life on Earth is ultimately not compatible with capitalism….
A conspiracy theory that is chilling – are they planning for a collapse (amanwithaphd.wordpress.com)
Collapse of the Industrial Civilization Interview with Michael Ruppert (disclose.tv)
Are conspiracy theorists really the sane ones? (mobile.wnd.com)
Conspiracy Documentary New World Order (financearmageddon.blogspot.com)
Veteran New York Times Reporter: "This Is Most Closed, Control-Freak Administration I've Ever Covered" | Washington's Blog
October 7, 2013 4:32 pm / Leave a comment
Veteran New York Times Reporter: "This Is Most Closed, Control-Freak Administration I've Ever Covered" | Washington's Blog. (FULL ARTICE)
Seasoned CBS News Anchor: "Whenever I'm Asked What Is The Most Manipulative And Secretive Administration I've Covered, I Always Say It's The One In Office Now"
American constitutional experts say that Obama is worse than Nixon.
The government has taken to protecting criminal wrongdoing by attacking whistleblowers … and any journalists who have the nerve to report on the beans spilled by the whistleblowers. (The government has also repealed long-standing laws against using propaganda against Americans on U.S. soil, and the government is manipulating social media – more proof here and here).
The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined.
And it goes out of its way to smear whistleblowers, threaten reporters who discuss whistleblower information and harass honest analysts….
Obama's ATF Trying to Silence Fast and Furious Whistleblower (breitbart.com)
CBS' Anchor: 'Most Manipulative and Secretive' Administration Ever (independentsentinel.com)
Norman Solomon: Repression of Whistleblowers: Making It Easier to Attack Syria (huffingtonpost.com)
Snowden to EU: Whistleblowers need protection (euobserver.com)


text:
Q: How to take name to endpoint from configuration? ASP.NET MVC WEBAPI I want named endpoint in controller that I use name of endpoint from configuration:
"DefaultParams": {
    "EndPointName": "Test"
  }

[HttpPost("$$$(_configuration.GetValue<string>("DefaultParams:EndPointName"))$$$")]
public async Task<ActionResult<bool>> FromAnotherServer(IFormFile uploadedFile)
{
}

How I can do it?
I think I have to write in Program.cs but I don't know how to redirect from MapPost to Controller

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Turn Imagination into Innovation / Web Only / April 10, 2018
A Topic "Ripe" for Exploring
Theatre Professor Pens Play About School Shootings
by Sala Levin '10 | Photo above by Kalman Zabarsky; Photo below courtesy of Jennifer Barclay
What makes a shooter kill? Can a mother tell when her child is on the verge of violence? Can tragedy be prevented, or are parents helpless to stop disaster even with the ferocity of their love?
In "Ripe Frenzy," theatre Assistant Professor Jennifer Barclay's new play that feels almost uncomfortably ripped from the headlines, characters grapple with questions they'd rather avoid as a small town deals with the ramifications of mass shootings nationwide.
"I feel like this has been such a five-alarm, urgent issue in our society for a very long time," Barclay says. "I hope this play will help bring to light more bipartisan conversation since it's not a partisan play. It's not about gun control."
Set in the fictional Tavistown, N.Y., "Ripe Frenzy," which opened in Boston in February and is having its Atlanta debut this week, follows local historian Zoe as she tells the audience about her town, especially the high school's tradition of producing Thornton Wilder's classic play "Our Town." Zoe takes the audience through this year's production of the play, which finds the cast and crew on edge after a shooting at a university in Michigan. It soon becomes clear that violence lurks in seemingly innocuous Tavistown, too—and even closer to Zoe's family.
WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, praised the production in that city as "sensitively told and deeply affecting."
Barclay was inspired to write "Ripe Frenzy" after the 2015 shootings of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, Virginia journalists who were killed during a TV broadcast. The shooter filmed his actions on a GoPro camera and posted the video online—behavior that's echoed in the play. Stills from the video published in newspapers "were available to anyone walking through the streets," says Barclay.
She and Jared Mezzocchi, an assistant professor of theatre at UMD who specializes in projection design, began to wonder whether social media and traditional media were somehow perpetuating mass shootings by creating notoriety for the shooter, potentially making violence "appealing to the next person—it becomes this sort of contagion."
Working with Mezzocchi, Barclay began to incorporate video projection as a core component of her storytelling. GoPro video—which Mezzocchi has changed for each production by filming each new cast in their new location—is projected onstage throughout the play, its content changing to show the audience characters' darker dimensions, even as Zoe tries to pretend the darkness doesn't exist.
Part of Zoe's blindness—willful or not—comes from a source Barclay knows well: a mother's love, and the question of whether that can change a child's nature. Reading "A Mother's Reckoning," the memoir by Sue Klebold, mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold, gave Barclay insight into how a mother can reconcile her love for a child with the truth of his violence—while never being able to "have a conversation with him about it to understand the disparity," says Barclay, who has two young children.
Barclay hopes that the play will inspire audiences to "have real conversations about what we as a national community are doing to perpetuate these shootings and what we could do to change it," she says. "One thing playwrights can do is imagine the scariest thing and then start there to write a play that's really honest."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Two friends posted stories of kindness on their Facebook pages (Click here to read their status updates.) Amazing! Stories such as these make me wish I had an endless supply of money to surprise and bless others unexpectedly.
While at the beauty salon, I looked out the window and observed an elderly gentleman opening the car door for his wife (in the rain, mind you).
Standing in a very long restroom line at an amusement park, the person at the front of the line allowed a mom with a young child to go first instead of herself.
People picked up trash on the ground and placed in trashcans.
Several drivers showed patience and kindness by allowing others to get in front of them in the midst of two separate traffic jams.
Coworkers offered to drive when going to the same location for lunch.
Two people brought over fresh fruit and vegetables from their garden "just because".
Several friends sent emails, notes and messages just to let others know they were thinking of them.
Wow! What a blessed week indeed! There is SO MUCH kindness out there if we just take the time to SEE!
My favorite story of observing kindness in others happened between my two oldest children. It was the last "official" day of summer break (as I was returning to work the next day) and I offered to play board games with them in the afternoon when the youngest child was napping. "Today is YOUR day! You each get your very own "Mommy Time" this afternoon! Choose a board game, any game you want, and I will play with you!" Now, if you know our family, you know we have a TON of board games. Scrabble. Sorry. Clue. Monopoly. Triominoes. Mouse Trap. Checkers. Apples to Apples. You name it, we probably have it. In fact, we have SO many board games that we actually converted one of our coat closets into a game closet just to make the games more accessible to the children.
So you can imagine my surprise (and delight!) when BOTH children chose their favorite game and said they wanted their sibling to play as well. What fun! We could all play together! We played three rounds of Twister and one (very long) game of Life.
Kindness in others. It's amazing how inspiring it can be. Just a little shift in perspective can make such a difference in your disposition. This week I have tried to focus my attention on the GOOD things people are doing and I have to say it has made me a happier gal indeed!
It's that time of year again. School supplies overflow colorful backbacks, tennis shoes sparkle with unworn treads, and back-to-school paperwork has arrived in the mail. There's an unmistakable aura that surrounds us now: a mixture of excitement, anticipation, maybe even a little apprehension for what the coming school year may bring.
Packing your child's backpack for the elusive first day of school can almost be considered an Olympic sport, challenging the mental and physical capacity of any adult. How many times have you tried to get all those pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue to fit in that tiny pencil case that never quite closes all the way? Do you find yourself stuffing every zippered pocket and space with small items just to make room for the binders, notebooks, and folders that always seem larger than the backpack itself? Inevitably, I end up sending my children to school with so much stuff you would think I had abandoned them to the streets with all their possessions in hand. Backpack, lunchbox, and at least two grocery bags with extranious items like tissues, ziploc bags and multiple containers of hand sanitizer, my children can barely board the bus without a near fatal collision. There's just so much STUFF!
This morning, as I was reading my friends' Facebook posts, one in particular grabbed my attention. One of my friends was describing how her son took time to get to know another child who was already pushed to the outside fringe of social acceptance the very first week of school. (You can read her post here.) We've all been there, at one time or another. Maybe you were the popular kid, maybe you were the outcast, maybe you were somewhere in the middle. No matter what invisible label you carried, you've been there. You've seen it happen either as a participant or observer. LUNCH TIME. RECESS. GYM CLASS. Times of a school day meant for having fun, relaxing with friends, enjoying just being a kid. Unfortunately for many children, this is not the case. Do you remember when you had to find somewhere to sit at lunch (desperately seeking out a familiar face so you wouldn't be forced to sit at the "other" table?) Do you remember that sinking in the gut feeling when you realized all seats were taken? Oh, how my heart just breaks thinking about children having to face this challenge on a daily basis at school! In the lower grades, some teachers recognize this dilemma and try to help out with assigned seats or creating a buddy system (with or without a child's knowledge.) But at the middle and high school level? Folks, it's just a free for all. Good luck with that.
As I think back to all the STUFF I packed in my children's backpacks for the first day of school, in which zippered pocket did I pack compassion? Empathy? Confidence? Aren't these supplies just as important as the objects they use to read and write? What will my children do when they see another child being left out? Do they have enough inner strength to go against the crowd to be kind to others? We are all different, after all. Some of our differences are more obvious, but we are ALL different. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Will my children have enough maturity to recognize this and be accepting of all their classmates?
Saturday morning yard sales. Have you ever had a yard sale before? Surely if you've never had one yourself, you've driven past one or maybe even stopped at one if something unique caught your eye. Or maybe you are an avid yard saler, planning out your destinations with newspaper or Craigslist ads. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. At one point of my life, I was an avid yard saler (even stopped at a yard sale on my wedding day with my maid of honor as we were heading to get our hair done!) Now, with 3 kids and a husband who has marathon training runs on Saturday mornings, I rarely get caught up in the yard sale hype anymore.
Some gals I know sent me a message that they were hosting an "Adoption Yard and Bake Sale". Of course the title alone intrigued me. At first I thought it was an animal adoption event (I do NOT need any more pets in my home!!) Then, after reading more, I realized it was a benefit yard sale to help a wonderful family we know raise money to adopt another child. The message was merely letting people know the details of the event, but I couldn't resist the now-quite-familiar tug at my heart. I knew I had to perform another act of kindness!
So I spent the week sorting things in my house ("One man's trash is another man's treasure", right?) and I realized three things: 1) I have too much junk in my house. 2) I have too much junk in my house. 3) I have too much junk in my house. Bean bags we haven't used in years. A lamp that was never big enough to light anything. Movies. Toys. Blankets. The more items I priced the more items I found. It was like a treasure hunt in my own house!
Then as I was walking through my dining room, I saw them. My most adored Charming Tales collectible figurines. Cute little mice, intricately detailed with such precision you could see the individual hairs poke through on the mice's ears. I started this collection twelve years ago with the passing of my grandmother, who had her own mice collectibles. These mice reminded me of her, kept her memory alive. But did I really NEED them?
That question stopped me in my tracks. Did I really NEED them? Well, of course I did! They were my collectibles! I have them because of Grandma! But wait… did I REALLY need them? In an instant I knew the answer. No, I did not NEED them. I did not need a figurine collection to remind me of my grandmother's legacy of laughter and love. Those memories had long been sealed in my heart with every sunrise, rain storm, and flickering light I saw around me. These cute little mice, which were once so near and dear to my heart, had been transformed by time into painted objects that required a little too much dusting for my busy life. No. I did not need them. And despite the sentimental attachment I had placed on every figurine, they each received a pricing sticker and were added to the donation pile.
By the end of the week I had accumulated a small stack of items to donate to the yard sale. I priced everything so there would be no additional work for someone else to do.
I even made cookies with my daughter to donate to the bake sale – 3 cookies for $0.50. We ended up making 16 bags worth of cookies!
I dropped off my items to the yard sale and was amazed by the quantity of STUFF other people had also donated as acts of kindness. My cookies and collectibles were nothing compared to the other items donated (A treadmill! Tools! An entire bathroom ensemble!), and yet I knew in my heart that it was important for me to be a part of this event. It was truly inspirational to see all the ways this family would be blessed by everyone simply clearing out unwanted items from their home.
I remember those days all too well. In fact, just typing the paragraph above exhausted me! How on EARTH do we, as parents, survive those first few months? It is a small sacrifice to pay for the joys of having a child and over time the pain of sleepless nights does fade to a weathered snapshot we place in our mental scrapbooks. But is there anything we can do DURING the process to make it a little easier?
Which brings me to my next Act of Kindness. A dear friend of mine is living this reality right now. She. Is. Tired. I know she would never ask for help (and living several hours away, she wouldn't feel comfortable with me keeping her baby for a weekend), so instead of waiting for an invitation, I simply made the decision to visit her for an overnight stay and bless her and her husband with one night of uninterrupted sleep.
I arrived in the evening, after dinner time, and told them of my plans. "Please don't go to any extra trouble – I can sleep on the sofa!" A pillow and a blanket was all I needed. The baby was simply precious. Big brown eyes staring up at me, little fingers grasping my hand as I held the bottle to his mouth… oh, the joy! Seven hours and two bottles later, the house was silent as I rocked this little jewel back to sleep, just in time to see the sunrise.
As an extra act of kindness, I decided to make breakfast for the family. Ham and cheese omelets. Pancakes. The works. It was such a blessing to ME to surprise my friends with not only a full night's sleep, but a full stomach as well.
What did this Act of Kindness cost me? A few hours of lost sleep. The bottles were made with formula they had already purchased. The breakfast was made with ingredients found in their fridge and pantry. My friends woke up refreshed. Restored. Rejuvenated. All from a simple act of kindness.
One of the immense joys of approaching your 40th birthday is receiving the mailed notification from the Department of Motor Vehicles that you need a new driver's license. With a new photo. New paperwork. The works. Wait… am I using my sarcasm font for this post? Joyous? Definitely not. I haven't updated my license in years – 9 years to be exact. For once, I actually LIKED the photo they took (despite being pregnant with my second child – maybe it was that maternal glow?) and I was determined to keep that photo permanently affixed to my license for all eternity. But alas, the choice was not mine to make. DMV… here I come.
The paperwork was simple. Name. Check. Address. Check. Organ Donation. Check. I sat holding a numbered ticket waiting to be called, staring at the clock slowly ticking my life away. Forty minutes later, the dreaded photo had been taken, and I was out the door free to go about my merry way. There was nothing monumental or exciting about the task, just another line item checked off my to-do list.
Until today. Scanning through Facebook posts of my friends, one post stopped me in my tracks. A friend of mine was writing a thank you note to the family whose organ donation extended her father's life. Because of one person's choice to put a check beside "Organ Donation" on their driver's license, my friend had another 870 days of life, love and laughter with her dad. One check. One choice. 870 days. WOW. That is what I call an unselfish act of kindness right there!
Which brings me to my Random Act of Kindness for the day. I am an organ donor. When my time here on earth is done, I have no need whatsoever for this earthly body God gave me. Take it. Use it. Bless others. Give someone else the joy of 870 days. How exciting to know that even after I am gone, I will STILL perform a random act of kindness!
If you are already an organ donor, celebrate your kindness! If you are not an organ donor, consider the possibility. You truly can change someone's life.
If you would like to read my friend's thank you note click here. If you would like more information on becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.organdonor.gov. Be blessed, my friends!


Ask an Orthodontist.com is operated by Dr. Joseph Thompson, Specialist of Orthodontics. Dr. Thompson has been practicing orthodontic treatment in the Huntington, WV area since 1988 and is still currently seeing patients at his Huntington office. Dr. Thompson decided to start Ask an Orthodontist.com to answer people's questions about dentistry and orthodontics.
Dr. Thompson is a member of the American Association of Orthodontists, American Dental Association, West Virginia Dental Association and Huntington Dental Society. He is also a member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce and is an advocate for small businesses.
Dr. Thompson expresses his profession opinion about dentistry and orthodontics on Ask an Orthodontist.com. He suggests that any information received from this website should not be the only source of information to make a personal health decision. A person should see their local dentist or orthodontist for an examination and consultation.
Just FYI, the website uses the light purple, lilac color because that is the official color for the Schools of Dentistry across the United States.
All pictures on Ask An Orthodontist.com are copyright and usage is not authorized unless you get written permission from Dr. Thompson. All images of registered logos and trademarks are the property of their rightful owners.
If you have a question for Dr. Thompson, email him at info@askanorthodontist.com or you can leave a comment under the "Ask a Question" tab.


Fine Jewelers Coupons: Take 10% off sitewide at FineJewelers.com - Shop now and save!
Take 10% off sitewide at FineJewelers.com - Shop now and save!
Shop more, Save more! Take $75 Off Orders $500+ at Finejewelers.com!
Shop more, Save more! Take $50 Off Orders $300+ at Finejewelers.com!
Shop more, save more! Take $15 Off Orders $100+ at Finejewelers.com!
Take 20% off Sitewide + Free shipping on all orders $150+ at Finejewelers.com!
Take 50% off all Angelica Bangle- Offer valid until 10/19!
40% Off Angelica Collection from Fine Jewelers. Offer Ends, 12/31!
30% off Zable Beads Collection from Fine Jewelers. Offer Ends, 12/31!
25% Off Our Intuition Collection- Offer Ends, 07/30!
15% Off Total Order- Labor Day Sale. Offer Ends, 09/06!
Free weekly giveaway confor a $60 value product on September 15th! Enter to win at Finejewelers.com!
Make Your Jewelry unique with personalized engraving at no extra charge at Finejewelers.com!