The Great Gold Heist

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by shaberon (here)
You'll freeze to death before they skip a bank payment.

This is the beast manifest:

Their claim of a "rule of law" under which "debt service is superior to all else".

You may lose your home, your fields, your hearth, your food, your family, your community, your church and your nation, but all the Kings horses and all the Kings men will enforce servicing debt above all else ... not just your debt, but also the debt of all the institutions formed by their legal system with the power to encumber your property and enslave your person with servicing that debt.

[shaberon]

Posted by TrumanCash (here)
Federal Reserve Auditing Unit Denominations = F.R.A.U.D.s The FRAUD began on December 23rd, 1913 when most congress people went home for Christmas. Am I wrong about that? Does not FRAUD vitiate a contract? Who contracted with what? Who is challenging the original FRAUD?

I don't pose much challenge to it, but I don't like it. I am rather atavistic in that I favor a series of rollbacks that remove "modernizations" such as this. I don't believe the thing can be "fixed". The prudent thing to do would be to figure out how to re-formulate affairs and handle it effectively, rather than violence or shortages of food and fuel, and other dreadful things that often accompany substantial change.

[Ravenlocke]

Barchart

Foreign Central Banks now own more Gold than U.S. Treasuries for the first time in almost 30 years 🚨🚨🚨

https://x.com/Barchart/status/1982508654684520715

[shaberon]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
Foreign Central Banks now own more Gold than U.S. Treasuries for the first time in almost 30 years

Yes...that already came up as posted on September 2.

You can just...see the cycle of the petrodollar as if it were a bad idea....

[shaberon]

I'm not sure if this is a record, or if it helps us find physical gold or determine the value on it, but it is stellar performance of gross mismanagement to the nth degree:

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that food assistance benefits for the poor will be given out only when the federal government shutdown ends, despite a court order requiring his administration to make payments by Wednesday.

SNAP benefits “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

A 35-day stalemate on government funding between majority Republicans and Democrats in Congress has compromised benefits for nearly 7 million low-income Americans.

A federal court in Rhode Island on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to make full food aid benefit payments by Monday, or partial payments by Wednesday, while acknowledging the “irreparable harm” that exists without their timely payment.

The Trump administration on Monday made $450 million in tariff revenue available for a childhood nutrition program imperiled by the federal government shutdown, according to federal funding records.

But it said in a court filing that it will not draw on the pool for the $4 billion required to fully fund November SNAP benefits.

Why should Rhode Island have to beg the Fed for cash to feed the poor?

That's because it's not a priority, it's not something we care about, nor do we know how to do it. Obviously, here is a bat sh!t crazy tin pot dictator trampling you in order to leverage power. That's not to mention how bad and stupid the designs are that led to this situation, but, here we are. Will this help sell some new Treasury Bonds? Seems unlikely.

[shaberon]

Brief response on this:

Speaking on November 5, 2025, Dr. Paul analyzed a series of colliding economic and political crises. His comments came as the Federal Reserve injected $125 billion in emergency liquidity into the repo market, while simultaneously facing public criticism from the President's own Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, over a "housing recession."

A "K-Shaped" Stagflation

Dr. Paul pointed to a slew of conflicting economic data released today as proof of this chaos.

While a report from ADP showed private payrolls unexpectedly grew by 42,000 in October, data from the real economy told a different story. According to a McDonald's earnings call this morning, "lower-income consumer traffic is declining by double digits," even as higher-income traffic grows.

Dr. Paul said this "K-shaped" economy is proof the headline data is a lie. "It can't be true," he said.

He argued that the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) report, also released today, confirms a stagflationary environment. According to that report, the Prices Paid Index soared to 70.0 while the Employment Index contracted for the fifth straight month to 48.2.

"That's the dilemma the financial markets have," Dr. Paul said, comparing the economy to a "drug addict... begging for another shot" of liquidity.

At the core of the crisis, Dr. Paul said, is the U.S. balance sheet. The nation is facing a $1.9 trillion deficit, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, while the ongoing government shutdown costs a reported $15 billion per week.

He argued that the Fed's $125 billion injection is not independent of this, but a consequence of the Treasury issuing massive debt to fund the deficit, which forces the Fed to provide the offsetting liquidity.

When asked about the shutdown and an ISM report classifying many government functions as "non-essential", Dr. Paul was blunt.

"That's good. I would put that up about 80% as being, being non-essential," he said.

He warned this "debt spiral" has only one ending. "We will eventually have to pay... the debt one way or the other," he stated. "Most... likely it'll be liquidated by being paid off with, uh, funny money. You know, just print the money".

I'm not sure what he means by "K", but, yes, you could probably say the "upper branch" is fine, as they will always secure things in favor of themselves. The "lower branch" appears to be eating less cheap fast food. I don't think that means they get more of a better kind. As we eat and function less, the "upper branch" will exhaust its avenues of "doing fine", until there is no "K" at all.

[shaberon]

Quick recap in time for whatever violence looms:

Against the Japanese yen , the dollar weakened 0.04% to 155.6.

U.S. Treasury yields fell after the consumer price data, with benchmark U.S. 10-year notes falling 3.1 basis points to yield 4.12%, from 4.151% late on Wednesday.

The 30-year bond yield fell 3.2 basis points to 4.7958%. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 1.7 basis points to 3.468%.

Doesn't sound like a rally, more like something to hide.

[Ravenlocke]

DD Geopolitics

🇨🇳🇷🇺 China Sets Record With Massive Russian Gold Purchases

In November, China imported $961 million worth of gold from Russia, marking the largest single bilateral gold trade deal on record, according to media reports citing Chinese customs data.

— $961M in Russian gold imported in November alone
— $1.9B total Russian gold imports in the first 11 months of 2025
— Nearly 9× increase compared to the same period last year

China is aggressively stockpiling physical gold while deepening financial ties with Russia amid sanctions, currency fragmentation, and declining trust in Western reserve assets.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/2003243309494567229

[shaberon]

This is a complex shell game, because it's really an interplay between Gold and Securities (US Treasury Bonds or Treasuries).

Last year we posted the expectation -- based on poor refreshing of Treasuries -- of a violent outcome.

Attacking Venezuela matches that description.

Right now we will notice the ICE budget is more than ten times that of the FBI, and, if the "new" level of $900 B for Defense was not staggering enough, the current proposal practically doubles it to $1.7 T.

Correspondingly the Debt Ceiling is asked to be raised something like another $4 T.

Violent episodes have the air of cash grabs, even if not ultimately successful.

This is not something I particularly want to succeed. It's happening because people were told it was a better investment that Gold, and, when I say "told", in many cases it means "forced to use".

The Supreme Court is expected to say something about tariffs on the 14th.

Just to refresh on how the Federal government is supposed to work, its revenue is mostly supposed to be from tariffs, meaning reasonable ones. If that's what it did, I would not complain. I'll give you 10% for am imported product. If you let me do that, I would actually get a lot of them. You'd have to figure out how to compete. That would be a little easier, since it would be done without income tax.

All these uncertainties favor the steady rise of the value of Gold, while, for cash and credit, the United States looks to be going to extremes.