Adrian Douglas writes a compelling article in Before it's News about the 'paper gold' that is being created globally, and in particular by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Here is an excerpt: "I estimate that as much as 50,000 tonnes of gold has been sold that does not exist. That is equivalent to all the gold reserves in the world that are yet to be mined, or put another way, 25 years of gold production. That is the grand-daddy of all short positions! The fractional reserve operation of the LBMA is likely to be the next Madoff scandal, except multiplied by 100…a 5 trillion dollar fraud as opposed to a 50 billion dollar fraud."

Further he wirtes…"There is only one way to protect yourself and to profit. You should own physical bullion. Simply don’t trust intermediaries like the LBMA who purportedly sell you gold but label you an “unsecured creditor”. Anyone who thinks they hold gold on the LBMA should demand delivery. The major desirable and unique characteristic of gold is that it is no one else’s liability, unlike almost every other financial asset. If you own a credit risk, an I.O.U. gold, you have not achieved the principle objective of owning gold. Are you a “gold owner” or an “unsecured creditor”?…you can not be both!" Read the article here: LBMA

Do you own real gold?

The Financial Times has picked up the story that the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) has been championing for years – that manipulation in the precious metals markets is a fact. Here is an excerpt from FT: "When the US commodities regulator sought public input last year on a plan to damp oil speculation, most of the hundreds of missives it received were not about energy, but silver and gold.

One letter read: "I know your time is precious so I will make my request short and sweet. Please limit concentrated short positions in the silver futures market. This will allow the little guy a fighting chance against powerful market manipulators."

The barrage was the latest salvo from a group of small silver and gold investors who claim that a cabal of banks is conspiring to keep precious metals too cheap.

Now the silver and gold bugs have got the regulator's ear. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission this week announced it would host a public meeting in late March to discuss speculation limits in US metal futures."  Read more on the GATA site here: GATA

More on possible manipulation in the precious metals market. This from Ron Kirby on Financial Sense. Here is an excerpt: "Something of significance occurred last week that went unreported in the mainstream financial press. This important development was the admission of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] that it was suppressing information that would expose precious metals market manipulation.

This issue was first publicly reported by GATA director, Adrian Douglas, in a February 20, 2010 article posted here.

Beginning in December, 2009, the CFTC began suppressing the disclosure of the identity of banks participating in the silver futures market [via the Bank Participation Report or BPR]." Read more here: CFTC

A good article by JS Kim writing on Seeking Alpha about the continued manipulation of gold and silver through COMEX. The focus in this is the recent announcement by the IMF on its planned sale of gold. Here is and excerpt: "The recently announced IMF sale of 191.3 tonnes of its gold reserves, though it caused an immediate sharp knee-jerk reaction in gold futures markets, will have a negligible effect on the long-term price of gold. Here’s why.

In December, 2009 the commercial bullion banks that serve as agents for the leading Western Central Banks were net short 303,791 contracts of gold. Each COMEX gold futures contract represents 100 troy ounces, so the Commercials were net short 30,379,100 troy ounces of gold. With the average price of gold $1,134.72 per troy ounce in December 2009, this net short commercial position represented $34.47 billion worth of gold. There are 32,150.74533 troy ounces in one metric tonne. So 30,379,100 troy ounces/ 32,150.74533 troy ounces = 944.90 metric tonnes of gold. Since gold contracts are supposed to be good for physical delivery, the commercial bullion banks that were short nearly 38% of annual world production of gold this past December should have had 944.90 physical metric tonnes of gold in their vaults to back up their short position at that time. In reality, this situation never exists." Read more here: IMF Gold Sales

The latest edition of BullionBuzz is out and you can find it here: BullionBuzz One of the articles is a piece by Richard Russell who discusses the role of gold today and the sorry financial state that the US has gotten itself into. Read an excerpt here: "A hundred years ago gold and silver were the only items accepted as money. Paper money was used because it was convenient as opposed to gold and silver, which are heavy. If you had any doubt about the paper, you could exchange it at any national bank for gold. And the dollar was backed by one of the strongest and most prosperous nations on earth. Today the dollar is backed only by the full faith and credit of the US, the greatest debtor the world has ever seen. Questions are now arising about the credit-worthiness of sovereign debt. Many analysts believe that the US will never be able to pay off its debt, which is not only rising but compounding. The Obama administration is putting off the solution of the debt and deficit problems to future administrations, a dangerous procedure that ensure future generations won’t have the fun and easy life this one has enjoyed. Today’s unsustainable debt is destroying the world, and the end will involve both deflation and monetary inflation through the production of fiat money. The survivor, the last man standing, will be gold."

Credit issues in the country of Greece continue to cause concern in global financial markets. Recent events have given a boost to gold. Here is an excerpt from BusinessWeek: “Sovereign debt concerns should continue to provide background support,” James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, said in a report. “With the role and stability of the euro being seriously questioned, we could see a broader shift by investors toward hard assets, particularly gold.” Read more here: BusinessWeek

The new BullionBuzz newsletter is out and as usual contains a number of good articles from different writers. This one by Peter Souleles looks at deficits ahead in the US and the need to own gold. Here is an excerpt: "The US government has approved a new debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion, an amount that can never be repaid but will one that will place increasing pressure on taxpayers as well as the world's economy. Ongoing deficits, rising interest rates, demographic speed bumps, stratospheric unfunded liabilities and the phenomenon of compounding will force the US government to renege on its promises. Alternatively, the nation will implode in an effort to meet those promises. The US government's debt is the greatest non-recourse loan in history, because it is not secured by anything; it's a credit card advance, and the cardholder keeps increasing the limit in order to keep spending." Read more here: BullionBuzz

Writing in SeekingAlpha Jeff Nielson points out the tremendous misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding ETS's – how they influence the price of gold and other precious metals. Jeff believes it is an intricate scam to keep the price of gold in check. Here is an excerpt: "An article put out by Reuters Sunday morning noted that holdings of the largest (so-called) bullion-ETFs shrank significantly in January. As with most “analysis” of precious metals by mainstream talking-heads, Reuters totally misunderstood the dynamics at work.

“Analysts fear sustained outflows from gold ETFs if investors' attitude towards bullion sours, which could be a drag on prices,” said Reuters, proving that these anonymous “analysts” know nothing about the precious metals sector.

As I have written on numerous occasions, the large “bullion-ETFs” – which are backed by nothing but banker promises – exist for one purpose: to dramatically dilute the number of dollars entering this sector, in order to assist the anti-gold cabal of bankers in their three-decade long price-fixing campaign." Read more here: Bullion ETF Shrinkage Good for Sector

BMG has added a new mutual fund to its lineup. This one is an open-ended mutual fund like its current BMG BullionFund, which invests only in gold, silver and platinum bullion. The new fund will invest only in gold bullion, with the same discriminating approach the BMG uses for all its investment offerings – no 'paper assets'. Here is an excerpt from the announcement: "Bullion Management Group Inc. (BMG) has expanded its line of precious metals bullion funds with the launch of BMG Gold BullionFund. The new fund invests exclusively in uncompromised physical gold bullion and is designed for investors seeking a core holding that offers long-term security and potential capital growth.  BMG Gold BullionFund is an open-end mutual fund trust that can be purchased and redeemed daily at Net Asset Value. As a result, it has the same liquidity as bullion itself. All bullion meets London Good Delivery Standards." Read more here: BMG BullionFund

The latest BullionBuzz Newsletter is available now. Articles include Why Soros is Probably Buying Gold Now,Gold Stocks Versus Gold Bullion, and Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows. Read the Buzz here: BullionBuzz