The petition…asks the administration to “Declare an
executive order for all executive departments and agencies to be
closed 12/26/2014, for a four-day weekend.”
While the rest of us poor sods will be at work nursing our
eggnog hangovers, the feds are hoping for a longer holiday to help
them recover from a taxing year of
reading our emails and
taking our money. From
the petition:
Federal Employees have dealt with pay freezes and furloughs over
the past few years. Giving federal employees an extra holiday on
Dec. 26th, 2014 would be a good gesture to improve morale of the
federal workforce.
As of writing, the petition is still 60,000 signatures shy of
the 100,000 threshold required for the White House to respond. The
petitioners will probably get what they wish for, however, even if
the minimum isn’t reached in the next few weeks. Like George W.
Bush, Obama has a history of giving feds time off during the
holiday season.
Obama also
granted a petition in 2012 asking for a government Christmas
Eve holiday. And that’s just one of 150-odd petitions the White
House has responded to on a range of topics that deeply affect the
future of our polity, such as whether to institute the
metric system, how to address
pet homelessness, and whether to build a
Death Star.
But the administration has been reticent when it comes to
petitions that, you know, address issues that matter. Like the
one demanding
a pardon for Edward Snowden, to which the White House has yet
to respond more than a year after it reached 100,000 signatures.
GMO labeling
might be bunk, but a
popular petition on the subject from 2012 also continues to
gather cyberdust waiting for an administration response.
Among the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci’s “La Scapigliata” stands out distinctly from the rest.
The unfinished painting is of a common woman with disheveled hair. It’s remarkable particularly for depicting not the exceptional, but the real.
Part of da Vinci’s genius was the way he was able to capture life—genuine, unaffected reality, often intense detail. His notebooks reflect the same.
Leonardo, in fact, passed on to posterity great details of his finances. We know, for example, that around the time he painted La Scapigliata in the early 1500s, the great master was living in Milan and earning a salary directly from the king.
Leonardo’s journals state that in a ten-month period, he was paid a total of 240 scudi and 200 florins from the king.
The Italian gold scodo at the time was 3.42 grams of gold, and the florin was 3.54 grams. As of today’s gold price, that adds up to an annualized salary of $72,153.24.
Bear in mind, this was Leonardo’s ‘take home pay’ as there was no income tax, meaning his gross salary in today’s world would be just over $100,000 to account for income tax and FICA.
If we were to extend this analogy even further, given that Leonardo was on the government payroll back then as an artist/engineer, we can look up the US government employee pay scale today.
Da Vinci was an accomplished professional to say the least. His age, experience, and job title in the early 1500s would make him the equivalent of a GS-13 rank today (based on current US government pay scale).
And today’s salary for a GS-13 government worker? You guessed it. Right around $100,000.
It’s incredible how effective precious metals are as a long-term store of value. Even going back over 500 years, we can match up Leonardo da Vinci’s salary as being similar to what he might receive today.
Imagine for a moment that time travel were possible, and Leonardo could transport himself to today’s time—he would still be able to spend those coins. Or at least trade them for currency at the same purchasing power.
Now that is a store of a value. This is the real stuff.
Could you imagine the same if you were transported 500 years into the future? Imagine taking your pieces of paper to people of the future and trying to trade for goods and services.
Our paper today would mean nothing to them.
Today’s currency relies on everyone in the system having confidence in it. Or at least being fooled into having it.
But confidence in fiat money is ebbing away with each passing day.
If you want your money to be worth anything at all for your kids and even for yourself later in life, you’ll want to own real assets—productive businesses, land, and yes, precious metals.
As Leonardo’s story shows, these asset classes have been proven to maintain their value over the centuries.
from SOVEREIGN MAN http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/historical-figures-salaries-in-gold-leonardo-da-vinci-15485/
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In an attempt to exploit these fears for political gain this
midterm election season, candidates and independent groups have run
ads in Nebraska, Kansas, Alaska, and Colorado attacking opponents
for being “soft on crime”.
Some of these ads are so heinous, they’ve drawn comparison to
the infamous Willie Horton spot that aired in 1988. That ad went
down in the annals for making people believe Democratic
presidential candidate Michael Dukakis was to blame for the rape
committed by a scary black prisoner who was on weekend
furlough.
Here are some of the worst Willie Horton–style ad campaigns
running this year:
Nebraska
The ad that most closely resembles the Willie Horton spot comes
from Nebraska. Paid for by the National Republican Congressional
Committee, it tries to link Democratic state senator Brad Ashford
to the murders committed by Nikko Jenkins, a man who was released
from prison early . The ad has been viewed over 162,000 times on
YouTube.
Like the fear mongering Willie Horton ad, this ad plays up
racial stereotypes with menacing footage of Nikko Jenkins, a black
man heavily covered in facial tattoos, yelling at the camera while
in his prison uniform. As this footage plays, a female narrator
states Jenkins was released from prison after serving only half of
his sentence because of the state’s “good time” law, which Ashford
supported and still defends.
Indeed, Nebraska’s good time law, which was expanded in 1992 to
allow prisoners to earn automatic credits toward reductions in
their sentences, is why Jenkins was released after 10 and a half
years. He had received a maximum 21-year sentence for two
carjackings committed as a teenager and two assaults committed
while behind bars.
But it’s still not right to take away all offenders’ ability to
earn credit for good behavior just because there’s a chance one of
them might commit a crime in the future. The implication that
Ashford, who didn’t even vote on the law, is somehow responsible
for Jenkins’ murders is ridiculous at best.
If that’s not bad enough, there’s more. Yesterday, the NRCC
released a second ad attacking Ashford for being soft on crime. The
narrator once again links his support of the state’s good time law
to Nikko Jenkins’ murders—and adds that he also supported removing
sex offenders from the state registry.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, that claim refers
to amendments Ashford offered that would allow the state to
differentiate between high-risk offenders, like those convicted of
child molestation, and low-risk offenders, like those convicted of
public urination. As far as the NRCC is concerned, this means he
wants to prevent families from knowing if sexual predators are in
their neighborhoods.
Kansas
This ad comes from the current Republican governor of Kansas,
Sam Brownback. It starts by showing two scary black men, the Carr
brothers, who went on a “killing spree” and were subsequently
sentenced to death row. The Kansas Supreme Court later
overturned those sentences because of legal errors made during
the sentencing phase of trial.
However, the narrator states that “liberal judges” changed the
Carr brothers’ death sentences and that Brownback’s Democratic
opponent, Paul Davis, “supported these judges.” The ad goes on to
accuse Davis of being a “liberal defense lawyer” who will appoint
“liberal judges” to the Kansas Supreme Court who will let
murderers, like the Carr brothers, “off the hook.”
The thing is, the Carr brothers weren’t let out of prison, as
the ad suggests—their convictions stand. The likelihood that
they’ll be released before they die is roughly 0 percent. And even
if their death sentences had been upheld, they likely wouldn’t have
been executed, as
Kansas hasn’t performed an execution since 1965.
But who cares about all of that when there’s fear to manufacture
and exploit?
Alaska
Alaska Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat, initially ran an ad
attacking his Republican challenger, Dan Sullivan, on his crime
record, but pulled it after it received massive backlash.
The ad, which can still be viewed on Politico, suggested that as
the state’s attorney general, Sullivan was responsible for the
early release of a convicted sex offender who later murdered a
couple and sexually assaulted their 2-year-old granddaughter. It
features a retired police sergeant parking in front of the location
where the brutal crimes took place and even lists the address.
But Jerry Active, the man accused of committing these crimes,
hasn’t been convicted yet. In fact, the trial hasn’t even begun.
The victim’s family attorney contacted Begich’s campaign and
asked him to take down his ad, partly out of fear it could
poison the jury pool.
Moreover, Sullivan had nothing to do with Active’s release. He
was let out of prison in 2009 after serving four years of a plea
deal that, according
to Politico, happened “because of a clerical error that took
place before Sullivan became attorney general.”
The controversial ad received a “pants on fire” rating from
Politifact.com.
Sleazy, yes. Facutally inaccurate, potentially harmful to
Active’s trial and traumatizing to the victims’ family? Who cares.
An election is at stake!
Colorado
The Republican Governors Association is spending $2 million to
air an attack ad against current Democratic governor John
Hickenlooper. The ad suggests he is considering granting Nathan
Dunlap, a prisoner sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of three
people at a Chuck E. Cheese, “full clemency,” allowing him to walk
free.
Republican candidate for governor Bob Beauprez is running a
similar ad suggesting Hickenlooper let a prisoner out who
threatened to “kill as many people” as he could.
The ad ends with text that reads, “With John Hickenlooper as
Governor, is your family safe?”
Terrifying, indeed.
Besides being inflammatory, inaccurate, and/or misleading, all
these ads have the potential to do some real harm. A recent study published by the
American Constitution Society and two Emory Law School professors
found that airing a lot of state supreme court election ads makes
justices less likely to rule in favor of criminal defendants.
It’s one thing to run ads criticizing a candidate’s record on
crime, but using scary images of heinous criminals and attempting
to link your opponent to the crimes they committed crosses a line.
It’s irresponsible, and it reinforces the misconception that crime
is going up and politicians need to “do something” about it. Good
policy rarely comes from hysteria.
Can an army of bloodthirsty theocrats survive a
brutal ribbing? Well…yes. And a new supply of
Chinese ground-to-air missiles gained courtesy of Qatar isn’t
exactly going to make ISIS hemhorrage too terribly under assault
from even the most rapier-like wit. But political comedian Dean
Obeidallah
points out at The Daily Beast that the terrorist
group/fundamentalist state has become a popular target of
entertainers across the Middle East. Says he, “they mock ISIS on
everything from being hypocrites when it comes to Islam to being
bumbling idiots to simply smelling like crap.”
He writes that one of the funnier videos he’s seen translated
into English is a Palestinian-produced take (embedded below) on an
ISIS checkpoint manned by the Three Stooges of homicidal
fanaticism. Belly-tickling-wise, it’s probably better than some of
the material that Saturday Night Live has inflicted on its
audience. It ends with an off-tune dig to the effect that ISIS is
more interested in terrorizing Arabs than in tormenting
Israelis.
Which, again, is better than some of the material that Saturday
Night Live has inflicted on its audience.
Whatever their quality, the comedic attacks, Obeidallah
emphasizes, are a means for people across the region to defy ISIS.
For comics in Syria and Iraq, that defiance potentially risks
serious consequences, since entertainers face death for poking fun
at the group.
Fed comes in with a bit of a Hawkish tilt as it rids of key policy line around labor market and keeps “considerable time.” The buying program has ended. Hawks Fisher and Plosser voted for the action, while Kocherlakota voted against it, which is a flip from recent votes.
“The dove dissenting says it all,” trader quips.
And Brean Capital’s Peter Tchir adds:
Hawkish statement:
1) QE gone.
2) The hawks were on board, and a dove took the time to dissent – in our Fed “U” shape pattern, we think the shift to hawkish overall Fed has commenced and the pure hawks are appeased and winning and the pure doves, losing.
3) Job highlighted and as Yellen said back at Jackson Hole – structural unemployment is higher than she thought, so less slack, and as San Fran Fed said recently, when a period occurs where wages were sticky, once they finally start to rise, it happens very quickly
Is March back on the table? If they are only fighting inflation now, they have less ability to enact more dovish policy.
I think this should be a “risk off” trade.
Initial reaction might be “risk on” as they are touting the economy and growth and talk about a great GDP print tomorrow, but
Growth going forward is frought with risk, especially with a less helpful Fed, which will support the long end of treasuries – not the front end.
The market started its big reversal on Bullard’s comments and I find it hard to believe that having his comments not be reflected at all in the statement means we have to head back lower.
HY has been a bit heavy past few days, and since we never saw a true “clearing level” we should see that.
The Fed’s implicit tightening and simplification of monetary policy was not apparent merely in the message conveyed by the FOMC moments ago: it was also clearly visible in the grammar of the statement itself, and specifically in the word count. Because after hitting a record 895 words last month, the October statement tumbled in complexity and its message to just 707 words: this is also the fewest words the Fed used to explain its actions in over a year, or since July of 2013.
To those who lament the Fed’s inability to explain what it will do, fear not: we are quite confident that within a year, we will see the first 1000+ word FOMC statement as the Fed finds itself in the same place it was after QE1… and QE2… and Operating Twist… and so on.
When no lessor man that WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath struggles to find anything dovish among the rubble of the QE-ending FOMC statement, it appears the dovish observers have something to worry about…
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it would stop its long-running bond purchase program at the end of October, ending a historic experiment that has stirred intense debate about its effects in markets even though the central bank said it accomplished its main goal of reducing unemployment.
At the same time, the Fed upgraded its assessment of the job market’s performance while pointing to some short-term downside risks on inflation. It stuck to an assurance that short-term interest rates will remain near zero for a “considerable time.”
Taken together, the moves mark a vote of confidence by the Fed in the U.S. economy, which appears to have grown at a pace near 3% or more in the third quarter. That’s a much better performance than rivals in Japan and Europe and a hopeful sign for the world economy when growth in China appears to be flagging.
Pointing to “solid job gains” and a falling unemployment rate, the Fed said a range of labor market indicators suggest that labor market slack is “gradually diminishing.” In the process it struck from the statement an earlier assessment that labor market slack was substantial, a phrase investors have been watching closely for signs the Fed is becoming more confident about the economy.
“The Committee judged that there has been substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market since the inception of its current asset purchase program,” the Fed said. “Moreover, the committee continues to see sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy to support ongoing progress toward maximum employment in the context of price stability.”
If all goes as they plan, officials will turn their attention in the months ahead to discussions about when to start raising short-term interest rates and how to signal those moves to the public before they happen. Many expect to move on rates by the middle of 2015. Fed officials stuck to an assurance that rates will remain near zero for a “considerable time,” a strong suggesting that their thinking about the timing of rate increases hasn’t changed much.
Yet plenty could go wrong and force the Fed to tear up the plan. Twice before officials declared the Fed would stop bond-buying, only to restart the effort later when growth, hiring and inflation appeared to sag. The Fed’s rate assurance included a new qualifier: If the job market improves more quickly than expected or inflation rises, rate hikes could come sooner, and vice versa.
The Fed did point in its statement to news risks on the inflation front, noting that inflation expectations had softened in Treasury Inflation Protected Securities markets. Officials also pointed to downward moves in energy prices, but said they they didn’t expect downward pressure on inflation to last.
The Fed launched the latest round of bond purchases in September 2012, when it said it would buy $40 billion a month of mortgage bonds and keep going until it saw substantial improvement in the job market. It expanded the purchases to $85 billion a month of Treasury bonds in December 2012 and gradually began phasing the program out in January.
Its legacy likely will be a subject of hot debate on Wall Street, academia and central banking for decades to come. Critics of the Fed for years have argued it risked stoking inflation, devaluation of the dollar and market distortions. Officials hoped to suppress interest rates and push investors into risky assets, and in turn spur borrowing, spending, investment, growth and hiring.
The worst fears about bond buying – or “quantitative easing,” as it is often described – clearly have not come to pass. A wide range of indicators point to it. For instance, Inflation, as measured by the Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditure price index, has been unchanged at 1.5% since September 2012. Meantime the dollar, as measured by the Fed’s broad dollar index, is up 6.7% in value compared to the world’s other currencies.
Yet demonstrations of its benefits are elusive. Though the jobless rate has declined from 8.1% before the latest program was launched to 5.9% in September, this is in part due to people leaving the work force and the ranks of those counted as unemployed. Job growth was 2.2 million in the twelve months before the Fed launched the new round of bond buying in September 2012, and 2.6 million in the last 12 months, but it is hard to prove the faster growth comes from the Fed’s efforts and not other factors.
The Fed said it would continue for now its practice of using proceeds from maturing securities to buy other securities in order to keep its portfolio at the same overall size.
St. Louis Fed president James Bullard said before the meeting the Fed should consider continuing the program because inflation expectations had fallen of late. But several other Fed officials have suggested in recent weeks they would only consider restarting the program, but only if the economy seriously falters.
Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota dissented. He wanted the Fed to continue bond purchases and to pledge to keep rates low more assertively.
Have the Japanese learned their lesson? Are they decommissioning nuclear plants which are built in dangerous environments?
Of course not!
Instead, they’re re-starting a nuclear plant near a volcano which is about to blow …
A month ago, there was an eruption at Mt. Ontake:
Screenshot from Youtube Video shot on September 29th of Mount erupting. 57 hikers were killed by the explosion
But – as Newsweek reports – a nuclear plant only 40 miles away will be re-started anyway:
Local officials have voted to reopen a nuclear plant in Japan, despite warnings of increased volcanic activity in the region from scientists.
The decision comes despite a warning on Friday that Japan’s Seismological Agency had documented an increase of activity in the Ioyama volcano, located 40 miles away from the power station.
***
Sendai will become the first Japanese nuclear plant to reopen in since 2011.
However the decision comes as scientific authorities warned of increased seismic activity on the island. Volcanologists have warned that the 2011 earthquake, which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, may have increased the likelihood of volcanic activity throughout the region. [Background.]
***
The Sendai plant is also situated only 31 miles from Mount Sakurajima, an extremely active volcano which erupts on a regular basis.
The documentation of new activity comes barely a month after the eruption of Mount Ontake, when 57 hikers were killed on its slopes. There were no accompanying signs of seismic activity prior to the eruption which might have alerted Japanese authorities to the impending disaster.
The vote has been seen as an attempt to resurrect the country’s nuclear industry, which the Japanese government hopes to restart despite public opposition to nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
***
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) approved Sendai’s safety features in September, but the plant must still pass operational safety checks before it will be able to reopen.
A cauldron eruption at one of several volcanoes surrounding the Sendai nuclear power plant could hit the reactors and cause a nationwide disaster, said Toshitsugu Fujii, head of a government-commissioned panel on volcanic eruption prediction.
Wall St Journal, Oct. 23, 2014 (emphasis added): One major volcanic eruption could make Japan “extinct,” a study by experts at Kobe University warns… “We should be aware… It wouldn’t be a surprise if such gigantic eruption were to take place at any moment.”
Japan Times, Oct. 24, 2014: Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan at any time: study — Japan could be nearly destroyed by a volcanic eruption over the next century that would put nearly all of its population of 127 million people at risk… “It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan extinct as a country,” Kobe University earth sciences professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and associate professor Keiko Suzuki said… A disaster on Kyushu… would see an area with 7 million people buried by flows of lava and molten rock in just two hours [and] making nearly the entire country “unlivable”… It would be “hopeless” trying to save about 120 million…
Japan Times, Oct. 24, 2014: Volcano near Sendai nuclear plant is shaking and may erupt… Authorities warned on Friday that a volcano a few dozen kilometers from the Sendai nuclear plant… may erupt. It warned people to stay away… Ioyama [shows] signs of rising volcanic activity recently, including a tremor lasting as long as seven minutes… the Meteorological Agency’s volcano division said… [T]he area around the crater is dangerous, he added… On Friday, the warning level for the Sakurajima volcano was at 3, which means people should not approach the peak… Experts warn [the] earthquake in March 2011 may have increased the risk of volcanic activity throughout the nation…
Japan Times, Oct 18, 2014: Sendai reactors vulnerable to eruptions [and] could cause a nationwide disaster, said Toshitsugu Fujii, University of Tokyo professor emeritus who heads a government-commissioned panel… [R]egulators ruled out a major eruption… [Fujii] said at best an eruption can be predicted only a matter of hours or days. Studies have shown that pyroclastic flow… at one of the volcanos near the Sendai plant… reached as far as 145 kilometers away, Fujii said. He said a pyroclastic flow from Mount Sakurajima… could easily hit the nuclear plant, which is only 40 kilometers away. Heavy ash falling from an eruption would make it impossible to reach the plant… he said. Many nuclear power plants could be affected…
Asahi Shimbun, May 12, 2014: Now is the time to rethink the risk of operating nuclear power plants… it is the first time that Japan has seriously evaluated… the danger posed by volcanoes… Nuclear power plants… would suffer devastating damage from catastrophic eruptions… radioactive materials will continue to be scattered throughout the world…
University of Tokyo professor Toshitsugu Fujii, head of government panel on eruption prediction: “Scientifically, they’re not safe… If [reactors] still need to be restarted… it’s for political reasons, not because they’re safe, and you should be honest about that.”
*FED ENDS THIRD ROUND OF QUANTITATIVE EASING AS PLANNED
*FED SEES `SOLID JOB GAINS’ WITH LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT
*FED REPEATS RATES TO STAY LOW FOR `CONSIDERABLE TIME’
And so now the “flow” has stopped; given that “bond buying” did not work, we are reminded of Alan Greenspan’s warning that “I don’t think it’s possible” for the Fed to end its easy-money policies in a trouble-free manner. Full redline below
The U.S. Mint has sold nearly 60,000 ounces of American Eagle gold coins so far in October due to increased global demand from store of wealth buyers as economic and geopolitical uncertainty increased. With only three business days left until the end of October, the U.S. Mint has sold 59,500 American Eagle bullion one ounce gold coins. On a year-on-year basis, U.S. gold coin sales in October are up 21% from 48,500 ounces in October 2013. U.S. Mint Silver Eagle, 2014 (1 Ounce) Store of wealth silver bullion buyers continue to stack silver at a steady clip. They bought 4.12 million ounces of American Silver Eagle coins so far this month, versus 4.14 million ounces in September. This means that nearly 68 times more silver in ounce terms was bought than gold. Silver buyers continue to see silver as severely depressed with silver below $20/oz and the gold silver ratio at 71 or $1,228/oz divided by $17.24/oz. The gold bullion coin sales from the U.S. Mint are the highest monthly sales since January and are higher than the 58,000 that were sold in September. The 58,000 ounces sold in September was more than double the demand in August, mint data shows Ultimate Financial Insurance – U.S. Mint “Monster Box” With 500 Silver Eagles “(Islamic State), Ebola, Putin and Ukraine… There is a litany of these things which have risen in the last year or so which have provided a negative backdrop,” Scott Spitzer of MTB told Reuters. Sales to European buyers rose on the belief that a proposal to prohibit the Swiss National Bank from selling any of its gold reserves and a provision that the SNB may have to have a 20% gold backing to the Swiss franc may lead to increased demand both from the Swiss central bank and from other central banks. It is important to note the following: * Bullion coins are purchased by long-hold collectors and financial insurance buyers
* Bullion coins attract demand from savers and store of wealth buyers, rather than speculative investors and speculators
* Bullion coins are used frequently to store intergenerational wealth and pass wealth from one generation to the next
Gold and silver bullion coins remain the preserve of a tiny minority of buyers who are more risk conscious and generally more aware of geopolitical, monetary and indeed systemic risk than the broader public. Smart money is willing to pay a small premium to own segregated and allocated coins and bars rather than have the exposure of an ETF or digital gold platform. Prudent diversification into physical coins and bars will again reward those who take a long term view.
GOLDCORE MARKET UPDATE Today’s AM fix was USD 1,228.00, EUR 963.67 and GBP 761.65 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,228.25, EUR 967.58 and GBP 762.23 per ounce.
Spot gold was up 0.3% to $1,230 an ounce in New York yesterday. Gold traded little changed above a two week low in London today despite very robust global demand for physical gold.
Gold in U.S. Dollars – 5 Years (Thomson Reuters) Gold for Swiss storage or for immediate delivery was flat at $1,228.40. Silver for immediate delivery added 0.1% to $17.2285/oz. Platinum rose 0.4% to $1,271.25/oz. Palladium climbed 0.6% to $797.89/oz. It’s up for a fifth day in the longest run of gains since August 15. Fed watchers continue to see the Fed’s interest rate decision as key to the outlook for gold. It may indeed cause price volatility in the short term. However, global physical demand may again be of more importance to the gold market. This seems likely as interest rates are set to remain low for the foreseeable future. Asian demand remains strong, especially in India and China. Volumes on the Shanghai Gold Exchange’s (SGE) benchmark gold bullion spot contract rose to a three week high today. Gold’s biggest buyer, China, continues to see very robust demand. Imports of gold from Hong Kong rose to a five-month high in September, data showed this week and even more importantly imports ex Hong Kong remain very high as seen in the withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE).
Silver in U.S. Dollars – 5 Years (Thomson Reuters)
India saw very high demand for gold for the Hindu festival of Diwali, a major cultural and religious gold buying event. Central banks remain net buyers too. Russia and Kazakhstan were among nations that substantially added bullion to their reserves in September, data on the International Monetary Fund website showed today. The U.S. Mint sold 59,500 ounces of American Eagle gold coins so far this month – the most ounces of American Eagle gold coins sold since bullion coin inventory stocking in January (see above).
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