The Government is Catching on (That You are Catching on)

Today, Rick Santelli of CNBC discusses SB 3341 in the state of Illinois. What is it?

From the bill (found here)

...Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall obtain a proof of ownership, create a record of the sale, and verify the identity of the seller. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall not pay for the precious metal in cash and shall record the method of payment.

Requires the purchaser to keep a record of the sale for one year or, if the purchase amount is over $500, for 5 years.

Watch the video here



They want you to register your guns and your gold! Why? Maybe because of this:

Chart Of The Day: Chinese November Gold Imports Soar To 91 Tons; 2012 Total 720 Tons

Regular readers are familiar with our monthly series showing the inexorable surge in Chinese gold imports. It is time for the November update, and it's a doozy: at 90.8 tons, this was the second highest gross import number of 2012, double the 47 tons imported in October (which many saw, incorrectly, as an indication of China's waning interest in the yellow metal), and brings the Year to Date total to a massive 720 tons of gold through November. If last year is any indication, the December total will be roughly the same amount, and will bring the total 2012 import amount to over 800 tons, double the 392.6 tons imported in 2011.

Indicatively, should the full year total import number indeed print in the 800 tons range, it will mean that in one year China, whose official reserve holdings are still a negligible 1054 (and realistically at least double, if not triple, this number), will have imported more gold than the official holdings of Japan, last pegged at 765.2 tons (and well more than the ECB's 502.1 tons).

Finally, putting the November import number in context, so far in 2012 China has bought some $39 billion worth of gold. How many US Treasurys has China bought in the same time period? Under $10 billion.
Finally, let's not forget that recently China surpassed South Africa as the world's biggest producer of gold with annual output in the hundreds of tons. Add the net imports number to this total (which amounted to some 281 tons in 2012 according to Bloomberg) and one can get a sense of how big China's appetite for hard assets, instead of trillion dollar coin-backed "promises of repayment", has become.

And this:

US Mint Sells Massive 3.9 Million Ounces Of Silver Coins In First Few Days Of 2013, Triple December's Total

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/08/2013 15:32 -0500



Just a few days ago we noted the massive surge in physical gold coin sales from the US Mint, with silver surprisingly lagging. Today, we see an even more dramatic surge in the sales of physical Silver Coins in the first week of January, which in a few short days hit 3.94 million oz, already surpassing the entire December total of 1.64 million ounces. It seems that the paper-to-physical currency rotation is gathering pace even as, or thanks to the trillion dollar platinum coin mercifully ending its 15 minutes of page-clicking, ad revenue infamy. In the secondary market, inventories (via APMEX) of Silver coins remain negligible, if any: American Eagles are available as follows: 2013s may be available 1/18, maybe not; 2012 - 0; 2011 - 0; 2010 - 0; 2009 - 0; 2008 - 0; 2007 - 0; 2006 - 0; 2005 - 0; 2004 - 0; 2003 - 0; 2002 - 0. They do have some 2000, 2001 and 2007, all about $5-6 over spot! It seems ever more people are getting nervous about the impact of currency wars on their "money"... or perhaps just want to make Silver shirts to attract the females?