Turkey, ‘Axis of Gold’ and the End of US Dollar Hegemony

 

Introduction

With a ‘Hard Brexit’ looking more likely and Trump’s inauguration this week, 2017 is well and truly under way.

What we expect the year to hold is probably not even half of what it really will. But from what we know, the upcoming French and German elections, referendums, geopolitical crises, steps towards reverse globalisation and a third of global government debt yielding negative interest rates, governments are already prompting central banks and investors to turn to the one asset that has survived millennia of financial and monetary crises.

One that is highly liquid and convertible into other currencies – gold.

Jim Rickards: China likely has accumulated 2,000 — 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves!

The Daily Ticker’s Lauren Lyster interviewed Jim Rickards regarding the Bundesbank’s recent announcement that it will repatriate over 600 tons of German gold from the NY Fed and the Bank of France, and its implications on the gold market over the short and long term.

Rickards stated that the Bundesbank’s gold repatriation is world historical, is massively bullish for gold, and believes that China has doubled to tripled its gold reserves since the last official statement of 1,054 tonnes in 2009!

Turk – 15,000 Tons Of Western Central Bank Gold Is Gone

Today James Turk once again shocked King World News when he stated, “… in 1997 over (a stunning) 2,000 tons of gold moved out of Great Britain.”  Turk added, “Now since Great Britain is not a gold miner, we know that gold had to come out of the Bank of England (where they store other countries gold), and it probably went into Zurich (Switzerland) for what’s called ‘leasing’ but I use the word ‘lending,’ or lending into the market.”

But first, here is what Turk had to say about his last interview titled, “The Entire German Gold Hoard Is Gone,” which has received an incredible amount of attention around the world:  “Yes, it’s getting increasing attention, Eric, and rightly so.  There has been a lot of deception about how much gold is really in central bank vaults.

The reason why there is this deception, if you look at a balance sheet of a central bank like the Bundesbank, Bank of Italy or the Bank of England, they basically say gold in the vault and gold out on loan, they show it as one line item.  They call it, ‘gold and gold receivables.’

Anybody who understands generally accepted accounting principles knows that ‘cash’ is different from an ‘account receivable.’

Hoarders: China Has Imported 383 Tons of Gold in the Last 6 Months

Ironically, in another article several days ago, it was mentioned (See “China Recasts Gold Bars” heading) that China was recasting larger gold bars into smaller ones. A possible motive for this being a new globally dominant currency that will end the USD’s rein. The validity of this remains to be seen, however, the world is one crisis away from a collapse. This is likely economic warfare

Not impressed by the headline? Consider the following: China has acquired more gold in the last six months than there is in all of Portugal, one of the EU’s largest holders of the precious metal.

Does that sound a bit more impressive?

“While the highly ‘sophisticated’ traders that make up the gold market continue to buy or sell the precious metal based on whether the Fed will or will not do the NEW QE [Quantitative Easing] tomorrow … China continues to do one thing. Buy,” writers at Zero Hedge report.

And they’re not kidding. China is on a mission:

…

“[I]nstead of purchasing US paper, Beijing continues to buy non-US gold, in the form of 68 tons in imports from Hong Kong in the month of June. The year to date total (6 months)? 383 tons,” the Hedge reports.

“In other words, in half a year China, whose official total tally is still a massively underrepresented 1054 tons, has imported more gold than the official gold reserves of Portugal, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and so on, and whose YTD [Year to Date] imports alone make it the 14th largest holder of gold in the world,” the report adds.

…

“[T]he moment the PBOC [People’s Bank of China] does announce its official updated gold stash, a gold price in the mid-$1000 range will be a long gone memory,” Hedge adds ominously.

Let’s do a quick recap, shall we?

1. Has China been selling off its stake in U.S. Treasurys? Yes.

2. Has China been importing hundreds of tons of gold? Yes.

3. Has China been buying and developing large portions of land in Africa? Yes and yes.

4. Are both land and gold considered safe haven investments during times of economic and social unrest? Yes and yes.

If China’s actions are any indication of what lies ahead, is it safe to assume things are going to get really interesting, really fast?

Full article: Hoarders: China Has Imported 383 Tons of Gold in the Last 6 Months (The Blaze)

India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunned

As pointed out previously, countries are moving away from the dollar being used as a means of trading for oil and this is but an extension. Look for this trend to continue increasing as Iran becomes more hostile and other countries become more weary of US debt.

India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, DEBKAfile’s intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively.  Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran’s total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets.

By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank’s assets and the oil embargo which the European Union’s foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan. 23. The EU currently buys around 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

The vast sums involved in these transactions are expected, furthermore, to boost the price of gold and depress the value of the dollar on world markets.

Continue reading article: India to pay gold instead of dollars for Iranian oil. Oil and gold markets stunned (DEBKAfile)