Been down so long

 Ray Manzarek, RIP

Gold is (dead) Money

Let's update Monday's charts, shall we?

Two charts

 Two charts that go back 15 to 20 years.

Is Google Evil ? Open Forum

Artwork from cover of
'Screwtape Proposes a Toast'
by C.S. Lewis.

A few interesting observations from the previous thread, in relation to how Google harvests data and whether anything online is safe at all. I recently had an epiphany regarding my bank statement information: that the information is effectively 'owned' by whoever has access to it - this is a brave new world where most information is just a password away.

My own theory about Google is that 'being evil' is just a matter of size, i.e. that any central concentration of power and commerce will invariably be distorted by its own 'gravity', stepping on the toes of individuals in it's own insatiable quest for expansion. Additionally there would be cycles; companies previously evil find themselves becoming the underdog and must make a move to more trustworthy business practices or go out of business. Today the younger generation do not know of, nor appreciate the freedoms their parents saw, and so we hurtle towards an evolution of 'some-thing-or-other'.

Ultimately though, every information network can be expressed in terms of inputs, information usage, storage and configuration/implementation so the only unpredictable and unknown thing about our new technologies is how they all act in aggregate (e.g. there is nothing sinister about a digital camera, but there is concern about how it can be abused). Interpretations will also vary but is ultimately limited by the observers paradigm. Is it truly possible to provide a penultimate authoritative interpretation on our modern complex world? Only if you're vain.

Please feel free to use this thread to talk about Google or other technology giants - this thread is not precious metals related so venting your spleen about society's progression into orwellian decline is completely on topic, only request is to be civil to each other and to yourself. If you have a conspiracy theory, be prepared to test it yourself in terms of a framework/theory which can be falsified. This is a placeholder article while we prepare other content.

On Estimating Population of Gold Bars

I owe reader Michael H an answer to the question of "how many of the 200,000 bar signatures we see, are from GLD?". The answer is 158,289 i.e. roughly 80% of all bar signatures we know about, have appeared in GLD at least once, the other signatures are known from 18 other ETF's. Now I need to explain why I thought this worthy of sharing in a post.

More theft coming to a country near you

I have been tracking the Irish Banks for years. The level of corruption, incompetence and collusion is breathtaking in it's audacity. Most people have an idea of what's going on so I'll just point out the most recent and some of the more amusing.

Minister for Finance and beating up old ladies, Michael Noonan, assured the Irish people shortly after the Cypriots learned a lesson about trusting banks and politicians that "deposits of over 100,000 euros are sacrosanct" appears to be getting ready to either make good on that promise  or prove himself a liar once more.
a) The Irish banks have been putting out reassuring headline after headline that they are solid and "we only lost xxx million last year".
b) They appear to be trying to dump their UK mortgage portfolios or at least gouge their customers by hiking their mortgage repayments.
c) Blackrock audited them a couple of years back and reported a 24 billion shortfall. This was after the bailout which required the Irish people to be on the hook for their incompetence.
d) Because of the way property transactions in Ireland are conducted it is was entirely possible to pull multiple mortgages on a single property on the full value of the property. This means that it is possible to by a house for a million and borrow 5 Million against it or more. It just depends on whether you have the time to visit a 6th or 7th bank etc. So now the banks are fighting over ownership of houses that have been vacant for years. I could go on and on.  

For the last few months Reggie Middleton has been looking at the Irish banks and he doesn't like what he sees. Reggie is a great analyst but unfortunately his articles are horribly constructed with facts just randomly thrown on a page and links to more articles with links to more articles. The bottom line Reggie says "fraud".

Anyway, to my point. There are two articles that you need to read and it becomes blatantly obvious what is going to happen.

The first is this Ireland Agrees to Stress test ahead of EU Summit
"The Government has agreed the tests – aimed at gauging banks’ resilience to economic shocks – could take place ahead of a Europe-wide exercise, in line with the European Union and International Monetary Fund’s desire for the banks to be checked before the end of Ireland’s sovereign bailout deal in December.
Dublin had wanted the tests carried out in conjunction with a European-wide exercise, expected in early 2014."

Not terribly exciting except it points out the level of distrust is growing in the EU but then you have this today "Bank deposits of over 100K may be at risk"
"While the inclusion of large savers in future bank bailouts is now widely accepted, significant differences still remain between member states.
While the new rules governing bank resolution were first intended to come into place in 2018, since the Cypriot bailout there have been calls from senior EU figures such as European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and EU economics affairs commissioner Olli Rehn to introduce the new regime as early as 2015.
The Irish presidency of the European Council is hoping to reach a common position by the end of next month."

I read this as the next bail in outright theft will happen sooner than expected. It may happen across Europe in one shot because if this is just a gradual roll out then the smart people will be long gone.