July 5, 2012

By Kevin Michael Grace

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Gold was up (at press time) $52.20 (+3.4%) for the week to $1,604.30, and silver was up $1.38 (+5.2%) to $27.67. Reuters attributed the increase to “increasingly poor economic data rais[ing] expectations that leading central banks will ease policy further to stimulate growth.”

The Bank of England announced a further £50 billion in quantitative easing Thursday, but gold fell $17.50 in response, which was blamed on the European Central Bank having “cut the main refinancing rate to record low of 0.75%.” According to Goldcore, “Analysts from Standard Bank in London say that a rate cut implies a lower real interest rate, which ultimately is bullish for gold.”

Further bullishness is indicated by the extraordinary events in London, where shamed former Barclays chief Bob Diamond testified before Parliament, a performance so graceless he will, in the words of Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, “likely now replace Jamie Dimon (who replaced Lloyd Blankfein, who replaced Angelo Mozilo, etc) as the reigning hateable-white-guy Face of World Financial Corruption.”

Las Vegas Mob Museum: Pikers compared to Wall Street and the City.

In advance of his testimony, Barclays released a 2008 email demonstrating that it had been coerced into manipulating Libor rates by the Bank of England, at the behest of Whitehall, ie, the British government, which implied it was high time Barclays joined the winning team.

Strangely enough, Diamond denied that pressure had been applied by the Bank of England and Whitehall, despite the evidence. Writing before the testimony, Taibbi suggested that Diamond would “have a difficult time, if this whole thing comes down to a test of his public credibility,” which is one explanation for his memory lapse. Another is that he remained true to the Gangsta Code: Stop Snitchin’.

The Daily Mail reports that Diamond is a fan of a former real-life banger who has since amassed a $450-million fortune peddling murderous fantasies to the white middle class: Jay Z. Diamond is pictured with his lovely daughter, Nell, at a private box at a 2011 concert by the “99 Problems” rapper making the “diamond” sign emblematic of Roc-A-Feller (sic) Records. Princeton-educated Nell, already at 23 an analyst for Deutsche Bank, reacted to her father’s dishonour with a tweet telling Chancellor George Osborne and Labour leader Ed Milliband to “go ahead and #HMD.” (A foul oath that won’t be repeated here.) What’s bred in the bone…

Alex Brummer declares that Diamond’s downfall marks “the downfall of genteel banking.” Brummer compares Barclays’ corrupt Protium scheme to “the scene in the gangster movie Goodfellas where the Robert de Niro character warns his fellow hoods to stash the money until it is safe so as not to attract the attention of the Feds.”

These days it’s hard to tell the hoods without a scorecard. Jay Z admires the Rockefeller name because he sees gangsta in it, while Bob Diamond and his insouciant scion admire gangsta Jay Z presumably because he’s richer than they are and has set the gold standard for bling. As for gentility, that and $16 will get you a glass of orange juice at the Savoy. And the would-be coppers are either bought off or part of the scam.

Nevertheless, the “rig is up,” says Jim Sinclair. “The Bank of England turning their backs on Barclays, the company who did their bidding, will be the event in time marking the trend change.” In other words, the gold and silver cartel is finished. “The paper trail is there. The worm has turned. Even more importantly is that this fight in the $1,540 gold price area was not for regaining the old high in gold. The six attempts to kill gold, supported by some gold writers looking for favours from the riggers was a now failed attempt to keep gold from trading above $3,500. The battle to stop gold has been lost.” He concludes, “I write this with total intellectual and spiritual certainty.”

Elsewhere, Ben Davies of Hinde Capital sees gold going to $4,500 or $6,000, while Dan Amoss at the Daily Reckoning claims, “There’s a plausible path to $10,000-an-ounce gold.”

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