Gold

IMF concludes 403 metric tons of gold sales

People's Daily

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Tuesday the conclusion of the limited sales program covering 403.3 metric tons of gold that was approved by the IMF executive board in September 2009.

"These sales are a central element of the new income model for the IMF that was endorsed by the executive board in April 2008. They will also increase the IMF's capacity to support low-income countries under a strategy endorsed by the board in July 2009," the Washington-based agency said in a statement.

China approves gold fund of funds

MarketWatch

by Chris Oliver

China’s securities regulators have given the go ahead for a mutual fund to invest in foreign exchange-traded gold funds, potentially tapping interest among mainland China investors who face negative real interest rates on their bank deposits and want to hedge against inflation.

Lion Fund Management Co. said they received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission on Monday to proceed with the fund, the first of its kind for mainland China, according to a statement posted on the Beijing-based fund provider’s website.

The fund has been granted permission to invest outside of China under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII), the fund managers said in the statement.

The fund will invest in gold-backed exchange-traded funds operated outside of China, though the fund provider’s statement didn’t specify which ETFs, or which markets, it was considering.

Soros Reduces SPDR Gold Stake

Bloomberg

George Soros, who’s described gold’s surge as the “ultimate asset bubble,” cut his holding in the SPDR Gold Trust in the third quarter, while investing in the iShares Gold Trust. Rival fund manager John Paulson kept his bet in shares of SPDR Gold, maintaining the largest stake.

Soros Fund Management LLC sold 547,689 SPDR Gold shares as of Sept. 30, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The disposal represented 10 percent of his holding, Bloomberg calculations show, and follows sales in the first two quarters. He acquired 5 million shares in the iShares Gold Trust valued at $64 million, the filing shows.

Gold drops on China interest rate hike rumor, stronger dollar

China Daily

Gold futures on the COMEX Division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday suffered a sharp drop, falling below $1,400, on a stronger dollar and speculation that China will raise interest rates to tame inflation.

The most active gold contract for December delivery shed $37.8, or 2.7 percent, to $1,365.5 per ounce.

Market hearsay went that China is likely to raise its benchmark interest for the second time to rein in inflation. China's October's CPI, a major gauge of inflation, hiked 4.4 percent from the same period of last year, triggering wide speculation that the central bank will lift the interest rate.
China's central bank on November 10 raised the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points as of November 16, a measure to tight money supply in the banking system. Besides, it lifted the yield in the 1-year central bank bill, a beacon of its benchmark 1-year deposit interest rate.

The Gold Standard Never Dies

LewRockwell.com

by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

John Maynard Keynes thought he had pretty well killed gold as a monetary standard back in the 1930s. Governments of the world did their best to help him. It took longer than they thought. Gold in the money survived all the way to Nixon, and it was he who finally drove the stake in once and for all. That was supposed to be the end of it, and the beginning of the glorious new age of paper prosperity.

It didn’t work out as they thought. The 1970s was a time of monetary chaos. What was worth a buck in 1973 is worth only 20 cents today. Stated another way: a dime is worth 2 cents, a nickel is worth a penny, and a penny is worth...nothing at all. It is an accounting fiction that takes up physical space for no reason.

Welcome to the age of paper money, where governments and central banks can manufacture as much money as they want without limit. Gold was the last limit. Its banishment as a standard unleashed the inflation monster and leviathan itself, which has swelled beyond comprehension.