Gold dropped today, flinching ahead of the European Central Bank meeting tomorrow. Yellen also spoke out of both sides of her mouth today, a job requirement for any Fed apparatchik. Fed-watchers, which is everybody but me, interpreted her remarks as an intention to raise interest rates later this month. If on Thursday the ECB criminals lower interest rates deeper into negative territory & announce more Quantitative Easing, they will scuttle the euro (hoping to raise stocks) and send the dollar soaring. Relative interest rates between currencies (nominal interest rate less expected inflation loss) primarily determine currency exchange rates. If the charm-challenged Mrs. Yellen & her dipsy dwarves raise US interest rates, they'll push up the dollar and scuttle the US export economy. Probably also scuttle the stock market and the whole US economy. The "recovery" Yellen & the other Fed-niks brag about exists wholly & entirely in their brutish imaginations. Central bankers find themselves in the same situation as Harry Houdini's famous trick where he was suspended head down & feet up in a big glass box full of water, bound in chains & locks. Trouble is, central bankers don't know how to pick a station on a radio dial, much less pick all those locks & untangle those chains. In Greece the government has ordered all taxpayers to declare all cash "under the mattress" or safe deposit boxes containing more than 15,000 euros as well as jewelry, precious stones, and gold beginning on 1 January 2016. Clearly, as soon as the government knows who has what, they'll tax or confiscate it. In the words of my Greek friend, HG, "Good luck trying to enforce that one. Molon labe." That's the response the Greeks at Thermopylae gave when the Persians demanded they surrender their weapons: "Molon labe! Come and take 'em." In a replay of volatility, stocks today lost nearly everything they gained yesterday. Dow gave back 158.67 (0.89!) to 17,729.68 while the S&P500 fell 23.12 (1.1%) to 2,079.51. US dollar index rose 18 basis points (0.18%) to 100.01. No new information there. Euro dropped 0.13%, market's expecting bad news for the euro from the ECB. Yen dropped 0.29% to 81.16. Gold dropped $9.60 (0.9%) to close Comex at $1,054.20. Silver lost 7.6 cents (0.5%) to 1397.9c. Nothing will happen until after the ECB announcement tomorrow, then we'll see. The shadow of the ECB meeting gets the blame for gold's drop, but mark that gold only made a double bottom with last Friday's low. This would be a great place for gold to reverse. We wait, we watch, we know that gravity's law hath not been repealed. SPECIAL OFFER: ASSORTED TWENTY FRANCS Take advantage of gold's price drop today! Spot gold basis for these offers is $1,054.20 A customer sold me fifty of what he thought were Belgian 20 francs, but it turned out there were also Swiss, Hungarian and Austrian, and a few very old French 20 francs, back to Napoleon I in 1812. No collector value, just fascinating. All original issue, no re-strikes (some I had never seen before). Empires used to run on gold, that's why so many 20 franc coins are still extant & traded in the world. France's Latin Monetary Union encouraged other countries to mint gold coins of the same size, so the Belgians, Swiss, & Austrians followed suit. Twenty francs rank among the most popular gold coins in the world & contain 0.1867 troy ounce of fine gold. I'll sell these MIXED types (my choice of types) at $206.00 each (a 4.8% premium over gold) till stock is gone. One lot contains ten (10) Twenty 20 franc coins at $206.25 each or a total of $2,062.50 plus $35 shipping for a total of $2,297.50. I have only 7 lots. Special Conditions: First come, first served, and no re-orders at these prices. I will write orders based on the time I receive your e-mail. Sorry, we will not take orders for less than the minimum shown above. All sales on a strict "no-nag" basis. We will ship as soon as your check clears, but we allow Two weeks (14 days) for your check to clear. Calls looking for your order two days after we receive your check will be politely and patiently rebuffed. ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS: 1. You may order by e-mail only to offers@the-moneychanger.com. No phone orders, please. Please do NOT order by replying to THIS email, because it will delay your email. Your email must include your complete name, address, & phone number. We cannot ship to you without your address. Sorry, we cannot ship outside the United States or to Tennessee. 2. When you buy from us, we cannot later change or cancel the trade. We are giving you our word that we will sell at that price, & you are giving us your word that you will buy at that price, regardless what later happens in the market, up or down. If you break your word to us, we will never again do business with you. 3. "First come, first-served" means that we will enter the orders in the order that we receive them by e-mail, till supply is exhausted. 4. If your order is filled, we will e-mail you a confirmation. If you do not receive a confirmation, your order was not filled. 5. You must send payment by personal check or bank wire (either one is fine) within 48 hours. It just needs to be in the mail, not in our hands, in 48 hours. Sorry, no credit cards. 7. "No Nag Basis" means that we allow fourteen (14) days for personal checks to clear before we ship. Want your order faster? Send a bank wire, but that's not required. Once we ship, the post office takes four to fourteen days to get the registered mail package to you. All in all, you'll see your order in about one month if you send a check.
Argentum et aurum comparanda sunt —
Silver and gold must be bought.
— Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger
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