We will have a mirror site at http://nunezreport.wordpress.com in case we are censored, Please save the link

Monday, January 20, 2014

Eurozone stress test could show over US$1 trillion shortfall in banks



An objective stress test of the eurozone’s biggest banks could reveal a capital shortfall of more than 770 billion euros (US$1 trillion) and trigger further public bailouts, a study by an adviser to the European Union’s financial risk watchdog and a Berlin academic has found.

The study and others published ahead of the EU stress tests, whose results are due in November, are important because they set the expectations against which markets will judge the credibility of the European Central Bank’s attempt to prove its banks can withstand another crisis without taxpayer help.

If official figures are far below independent estimates, authorities will struggle to convince markets the tests are robust enough, particularly given two previous rounds of EU tests that failed to reassure markets of banks’ health.

Banks have already raised over 500 billion euros from investors and taxpayers since the onset of the financial crisis, to bolster their balance sheets and help ward off a repeat of the 2008-09 financial crisis.

But the sector is again on edge ahead of the stress tests, because of the risk that regulators will call for even greater buffers against another credit crunch.

The new study, by Viral Acharya, a New York University professor and adviser to the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), and Sascha Steffen, of Berlin’s European School of Management and Technology, was circulated to banks, think tanks and the ESRB in recent weeks.

In their paper, Acharya and Steffen said eurozone banks would need up to 767 billion euros to bring their capital to the level seen by the Bank of England’s head of financial stability, Andrew Haldane, as needed for the banks to have withstood the last crisis.

The reference is to a 2012 speech where Haldane said the world’s largest banks would have needed equity equal to 7 percent of their total assets to guard against failure in the financial crisis.

But the 767 billion-euro figure only covers the 109 eurozone banks in the ECB’s exercise which disclose detailed data about their finances, so the figure across the 128 banks being tested would be even higher.

Banks across the globe will have to meet a 3 percent ratio under the new Basel III regulation, but some national authorities are pushing for a higher threshold.

“Balance sheets are not transparent enough for us to do what the ECB will do,” Steffen said. But their independence could be an advantage.

Acharya and Steffen, who singled out Belgium, Cyprus and France as countries whose banks could have significant shortfalls, along with Germany, also looked at how banks would be affected by a 40 percent fall in global stock markets over a six month period.



Credit to Shanghai Daily


China Preparing to Target U.S. Aircraft Carriers

China’s new hypersonic missile vehicle is primarily designed to target U.S. aircraft carriers, military expert Chen Hu told the state-run China Central Television (CCTV) in yet another admission of Beijing’s increasingly hostile geopolitical posturing.


The WU-14, a hypersonic glide vehicle which can penetrate missile defense systems by traveling at up to ten times the speed of sound, underwent its first test flight earlier this month.

Despite assurances by China’s defense ministry that the new vehicle was not aimed at any particular country, Chinese military expert Chen Hu told state media that the system, “can surely be used against US carriers in any region around the globe” and that it was “designed to strike large military targets including US aircraft carriers.”

Noting that the development of the vehicle was necessary in order to maintain the balance of power in East Asia, Chen said that its purpose is to prevent the United States from using its hypersonic weapons against China, adding that the Cold War-era doctrine of “mutually assured destruction” is guiding policy both in Washington and Beijing.

Last year, China reportedly sunk a mock U.S. aircraft carrier utilizing the DF-21D anti-ship missile, dubbed the “carrier killer,” during a wargame which took place in the Gobi Desert.

Bellicose rhetoric directed at the United States by China has intensified in recent months in light of heightened tensions over the disputed Senkaku Islands.

Last month, Beijing bragged that its first aircraft carrier combat task force, led by the inaugural Liaoning warship, matched anything the United States had to offer.

A lengthy editorial which appeared in Chinese state media last month explained how the Chinese military’s current reformation process was part of a move by President Xi Jinping to prepare the People’s Liberation Army for war in response to US aggression in the Asia Pacific, developments which have prompted “major changes” in China’s national security situation.

Beijing has also pontificated about China’s ability to attack US military bases in the Western Pacific, as well as releasing a map showing the locations of major U.S. cities and how they would be impacted by a nuclear strike launched from the PLA’s strategic submarine force.

Credit to Paul Joseph WatsonInfowars.com

Marc Faber Reduce Government by Fifty Percent Minimum

Mega Default In China Scheduled For January 31



On Friday, Chinese state media reported that China Credit Trust Co. warned investors that they may not be repaid when one of its wealth management products matures on January 31, the first day of the Year of the Horse.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sold the China Credit Trust product to its customers in inland Shanxi province. This bank, the world’s largest by assets, on Thursday suggested it will not compensate investors,stating in a phone interview with Reuters that “a situation completely does not exist in which ICBC will assume the main responsibility.”

Zhenfu was undoubtedly desperate for money. One of its vice chairmen was arrested in May 2012 for taking deposits without a banking license, undoubtedly trying to raise funds through unconventional channels. 

 In any event, the company was permitted to borrow long after it should have been stopped—reports indicate that it had accumulated 5.9 billion yuan in obligations. Zhenfu, according to one Chinese newspaper account, has already been declared bankrupt with assets of less than 500 million yuan.There should be no mystery why this investment, known as “2010 China Credit-Credit Equals Gold #1 Collective Trust Product,” is on the verge of default. China Credit Trust loaned the proceeds from sales of the 3.03 billion-yuan ($496.2 million) product to unlisted Shanxi Zhenfu Energy Group, a coal miner. The coal company probably is paying something like 12% for the money because Credit Equals Gold promised a 10% annual return to investors—more than three times current bank deposit rates—and China Credit Trust undoubtedly took a hefty cut of the interest.

There has never been a default—other than one of timing—of a WMP, so the Credit Equals Gold product could be the first. If it is, it will edge out the WMP that invested in loans to Liansheng Resources Group, another Shanxi coal miner. Jilin Trust packaged Liansheng’s loans into a wealth management product sold by China Construction Bank , the country’s second-largest lender by assets, to its customers. Liansheng is in bankruptcy, and it looks like the WMP holders will not be repaid in full.

A WMP default, whether relating to Liansheng or Zhenfu, could devastate the Chinese banking system and the larger economy as well. In short, China’s growth since the end of 2008 has been dependent on ultra-loose credit first channeled through state banks, like ICBC and Construction Bank, and then through the WMPs, which permitted the state banks to avoid credit risk. 

Any disruption in the flow of cash from investors to dodgy borrowers through WMPs would rock China with sky-high interest rates or a precipitous plunge in credit, probably both. The result? The best outcome would be decades of misery, what we saw in Japan after its bubble burst in the early 1990s.


Credit to Forbes

ObamaCare’s Attack on the Elderly




In October of 2012, the Daily Mail exposed the highly disturbing realities of the Liverpool Pathway (LCP), the series of guidelines for treating terminally ill patients developed for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).

The most egregious of those realities concerned cash incentives paid to hospitals to ensure a certain percentage of hospital patients would be put on the regime. As healthcare expert Besty McCaughey reveals, a similar horror show is occurring on this side of the Atlantic, courtesy of ObamaCare. Beginning the the same time the LCP scandal was being exposed, the Obama administration began awarding hospitals bonus points for spending the least amount of money on elderly patients. Even worse, the idea was sold to the elderly as a good thing during the 2012 presidential election campaign.

During that campaign, Obama promised seniors that $716 billion in Medicare cuts over the next decade, used to fund the $1.9 trillion in new healthcare spending that expanded Medicaid and created the healthcare exchanges, wouldn’t affect them. When Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney ran an ad attacking the cuts,Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith called it hypocritical. ‘The savings his ad attacks do not cut a single guaranteed Medicare benefit,’ she declared.

Much like everything else this administration contends, the devil is in the very deceiving details. While it’s technically true the cuts didn’t change the Medicare insurance benefits for those receiving them, $416 billion of that $716 billion in cuts were realized in ‘updates to fee-for-service payment rates.’ That was a euphemism used to obscure the reality that hospitals, doctors, hospice care, home care, and Advantage plans paid to care for seniors would be getting reduced payments.

Elderly Americans were supposed to believe those reduced payments would have no negative consequences whatsoever regarding the quality and/or availability of their healthcare.

This is utter nonsense, and there is data to prove it. As McCaughey further notes, research sponsored by the National Institute on Aging and RAND examined over two million elderly patients treated at 208 California hospitals from 1999 to 2008. Published in 2011, the research revealed that elderly patients treated in lower-spending hospitals received less care and had lower survival rates than those treated at higher-spending hospitals.
Cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals
The numbers are stark. According to the data,13,613 seniors with pneumonia, stroke, heart attacks and other common conditions who died at low-spending hospitals would have survived—and returned home—had they received treatment at higher-spending institutions. Those totals represent only the state of California, which contains about 10 percent of the Medicare population.

Similar cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals made in 1997 produced similar results. Over the course of four years, $40 billion was cut out of the Medicare program. As a result, one-third of America’s hospitals went from being profitable to losing money. Seniors treated for heart attacks at hospitals absorbing the largest cuts had a 6-8 percent greater chance of dying than those treated at other hospitals. Despite claims by ObamaCare defenders that reduced payments to hospitals eliminates ‘fraud, waste, and abuse,’ researchers concluded that hospitals actually reduced something else, namely nursing care, to cope with the shortfalls.

In 2011 testimony given to Congress, Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of Medicare and Medicaid Services for the Obama administration, revealed that the cuts to hospitals engendered by ObamaCare, which amount to $247 billion over ten years, could force as many as 40 percent of them to operate at a loss, and that as many as 15 percent could stop accepting Medicare altogether, even though the program is their largest source of revenue.

Foster also revealed something far more ominous. Because Medicare will eventually pay doctors less than they’re getting for the already low-paying Medicaid, and only about one-third of what they get paid for treating someone with private insurance, seniors will have even more trouble finding hospitals and doctors willing to treat them. As disquieting as that reality is, it will be exacerbated: ObamaCare bars doctors from providing their patients with necessary care for an extra fee. Many will simply fall through the cracks on the road to ‘better care for everyone,’ even as individual seniors bear the painful—or deadly—brunt of this leftist utopian fantasy.

And such cuts will affect far more than critical care. Quality of life procedures, such as knee and hip replacements, angioplasty, bypass surgery and cataract operations will also be pared back. Thus, seniors who have grown accustomed to the active lifestyles made possible by medical advancements may have to lower their expectations.

Callousness of the president
In 2009, President Obama admitted as much at a White House ‘town hall’ meeting to promote the healthcare bill. A woman named Jane Sturm spoke about her nearly 105-year-old mother, initially denied a pacemaker five years earlier by one doctor, due to her age. Sturm explained that another doctor, who saw the elderly woman’s ‘joy of life,’ gave her the procedure.

She asked the president to address that reality. ‘Outside the medical criteria,’ Sturm asked Obama, ‘is there a consideration that can be given for a certain spirit… and quality of life?’ Obama responded by talking about the waste that exists in the system ‘that’s not making anybody’s mom better’ including ‘loading up on additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence show is not going to improve care’ before coming to the conclusion that ‘maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking a painkiller.’

Aside from the callousness of the president’s observation, it should be noted that loading up on additional tests or drugs is more familiarly known as practicing ‘defensive medicine,’ a reality exacerbated by potential litigation. Because trial lawyers are some of the Democratic Party’s main campaign supporters, it is no accident that the massive healthcare bill enacted solely by that party didn’t contain a single word about tort reform.

Furthermore, Obama is wrong. Currently Medicare pays hospitals an average of 91 cents on the dollar for the costs associated with caring for seniors. That’s a loss, not a profit. And peer-reviewed scientific research reveals that seniors who receive quality of life surgeries, such as a knee replacement to alleviate the pain associated with severe osteoarthritis, have a 50 percent higher chance of being alive five years after the operation than seniors who merely endure the condition. Thus in many cases seniors,are better off having the surgery.

Unfortunately, much like the ‘tick box’ treatment British seniors received until it was condemned as a ‘national disgrace,’ individual care matters less than the ‘greater good’ of containing costs. Thus, in addition to across-the-board cuts, hospitals will be forced to cope with an ObamaCare regulation called’ Medicare spending per beneficiary.’ Bonus points will be awarded to those institutions that spend the least on seniors, while those that don’t get demerits. Those spending calculations include up to 30 days of post-discharge treatments, such as physical therapy following surgery for a joint replacement.

In Britain, the LCP is being axed in favor of personal healthcare plans to address end-of-life issues. It is being done because the British government recognized the inevitable cruelty that occurs when treating the aged becomes little more than a numbers game. Yet, in America, we are moving in precisely the opposite direction, one bonus point or demerit, after another. For shame.

Credit to Canda Free Press

Agenda 21 Killed Their Son, Now Agenda 21 Forces Are Targeting the Parents



smart meters 2
There are people who want to be left alone and there are those that just won’t leave them alone.
Rich Farver, a graduate student at San Diego State University, fell victim to the “Smart Grid” along with eight other students on that campus. They died from RF poisoning which led to brain cancer. In the process, the death of Rich Farver turned a lovely lady, Rich’s mother, Virginia, into an fire-breathing opponent to the electromagnetic attacks which are taking place against unsuspecting American citizens.
This is the story of a mom who suffered a tragic loss and the forces which murdered her son. These same Agenda 21 forces are threatening to make Mr. and Mrs. Farver homeless in the very near future. Rich Farver’s story and his mother’s rise to be a well-respected advocate is detailed on Deborah Tavares’s website.

Agenda 21 Victimizes Anyone, Anywhere

Before we get to the Farver story, I think it is critical for everyone to realize that nobody is safe from the ravages of Agenda 21. Agenda 21 forces do not respect the rights of parents, private property rights, the right to make a living, nor do these evil forces respect the Constitution of the United States.
For the farmers that live in Northern California, or Southern Oregon, they already know that the Agenda 21 servant, the EPA, is trying to force them off of their land by denying them access to water for their farms or ranches because some fish, out of its natural habitat, might be swimming in the water flow. Under Agenda 21, fish come before people on the pecking order of bureaucratic power.
For the independent people in Antelope Valley,located  in the outer reaches of Los Angeles County, they are being swat teamed and forced off of their land for minor code violations. One resident, Kim Fahey, was sentenced to 543 days in jail because he did not have the financial resources to comply with the LA County’s demand to tear down his house and dispose of all the material.
And of course there is the anti-Agenda 21 activist, Stacy Lynne, who had her son, Jaden, stolen from her by a corrupt court system without so much as an allegation of wrongdoing. Stacy was on the wrong side of Agenda 21 and some very nefarious corporate and political forces conspired to steal Jaden without even severing Stacy’s parental rights. Stacy has not seen her son in over 16 months. the judge in the case, Julie Kunce Field, used to work as a consultant to the IMF and the World Bank.
Add Virginia Farver to this mix of people who stand up to their local government’s support of Agenda 21, only to get slapped down. After losing her son in 2008, Virginia discovered that her son fell victim to the “Smart Grid” which is an Agenda 21 creation. Since that time, Virginia has worked tirelessly to expose these dangers to an unaware public. As was the case with Stacy Lynne, the forces of the Fort Collins area are coalescing and are now attempting to force the Farver family from their home in an attempt to silence Virgina.

Virginia Farver Is a Declared Enemy of the State

Virginia is on “an enemies of the state list” which proclaims that if she, and others like her do not capitulate and accept the Smart Meters, they will be denied access to all public offices within the City of Fort Collins. Further, the notification sent to Virginia Farver advises here that if she continues to publicly identify the inherent risks of Smart Meters, the same prohibition will be enforced against her. For anyone else, does the word “Unconstitutional” come to mind?

Are Smart Meters Dangerous?

Even the organization which formally gave birth to Agenda 21,  the United Nations and their sponsored World Health Organization through their International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), announced that Smart Meters can indeed cause cancer as well as electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). Deborah Tavares has detailed the danger of Smart Meters on her website. Some of this information is embedded inside Deborah’s article about the plight of the Farver family.

The City of Fort Collins vs. the Health of Local Citizens

The City of Fort Collins Utilities (Fort Collins) was awarded a Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the deployment of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) system and other smart grid technologies. But wait a minute, the City of Fort Collins loves its citizens so much that they have allowed its citizens to opt out of Smart Meters as evidenced by the following regulation:
City of Fort Collins CURRENT CODE regarding Smart Meters.  The wording will supposedly be changed on January 21 that would make all smart meter mandatory:
SECTION 26-712 Fort Collins city Code
http://www.colocode.com/fcmunihtml.html
 
 Meter reading charge, per month, for those customers who request the option of mechanical electric meters and/or a mechanical water meter instead of the standard advanced metering 
equipment $11.00.

Yet, where personal and public greed and career advancement and opportunity meets reality, Section 26-712 and the “opt out” provision in Fort Collins City Code is being ignored. As we see with all forms of Agenda 21, the rule of law is forsaken for the rule of tyranny!
The individuals who opt out, are now being targeted with a swat team style confrontation as utility workers are trespassing on private property, accompanied by armed police officers, in order to force people to accept the Smart Meters. These armed thugs do not have warrants and are not respecting the rule of law. But we forget, this country is no longer the United States of America and the rule of law rarely applies.

The Shame of Fort Collins Public Officials

It is the same in any tyrannical form of government.
It is the same in any tyrannical form of government.
Driven by greed and blinded by an egoistic desire to advance one’s career while risking the safety and health of innocent citizens that these officials are duty-bound to serve, the following individuals have seen fit to “force” the public to accept the new Smart Meters despite the inherent and well-known risks. Please take note of the following “public servants”, contact them and politely remind them of the error of their ways.
Wayne Sterler is the manager of International Operations for Electric Distribution Safety & Training Supervisor at the City of Fort Collins. Serler is rumored to be connected with FEMA which would put a whole new spin on this. Regardless of his origins, Sterler is the most rabid supporter of Smart Meter installation. This man, who clearly loves the democratic process and respects the opt out provision for the city which pays him his salary, can be reached at 970-221-6700.
Darin Atteberry is the Fort Collins City Manager and he has four children. I am sure that Darin loves his kids. Remind him of how his children’s brains are going to bake under the effects of a Smart Meter. Perhaps the nation needs to call him and ask him if he does not care about the welfare of his children. He will be careful with his answer because he lives in a county where the courts steal children from parents who do not go along with the United Nations, Agenda 21 company line, just ask Stacy Lynne if this not true.  Call Mr. Attenberry and ask him how much KoolAid he is consuming to accept what is being done to his four children. He can be reached at 970-221-6505.
Dennis Sumner  is the Senior Electrical Engineer City of Fort Collins . According to Virginia Farver, Mr. Sumner likes to call and harass people who opt out of receiving smart meters. Sumner called both Mr. and Mrs. Farver and strongly chastised them for not accepting a smart meter. Perhaps, Mr. Sumner would like a taste of his own medicine by calling him at 970-416-2622.
Karen Kweitkunat is the Grand Inquisitor for the Smart Meters. As the city mayor she would ultimately in charge of orchestrating swat teams going to the homes of people who tried to opt out under city policy. Let the Grand Master know your feelings by calling her at 970-416-2154.
Police Chief John Hutto is a transplant from Austin, Texas. Ft. Collins, CO., Santa Cruz, CA., and Austin, Texas are the jewels of the Agenda 21 empire of ICLEI. Hutto would be the one organizing the swat teams in order to raid non-compliant smart meter protesters. What does the Agenda 21 hierarchy do, simply keep reshuffling this New World Order trash until they get the desired effect, as they move from one Agenda 21 controlled city to another? Hutto can be reached at 970-221-6540 ( non-emergency).
All anti-Agenda 21 advocates should have a special place in their heart for Amanda Nagl from Neighborhood Services.  Below is the written text of the phone call Nagl made to Virginia Farver.
Hello,
   I’m Amanda Nagl, I’m the neighborhood administrator for the city of Fort Collins.  Just wanted to reach out too you all, and see if we could discuss the concerns you have with the electric and water meter upgrades, and my goal is to really just try and understand more of what those are?  Hopefully in the long term be able to work out solutions.  I also want to let you know that your services are not in danger of being terminated until after February 14th.  You will receive a letter later this week that explains that a bit, and also encourages you to contact me, so that we could talk through some of your concerns.  My phone # is 970-224-6070, again 224-6070.  I’m Amanda Nagl, I’m new to the city, about 3 1/2 months now, and I work in neighborhood services and my title is Neighborhood Administrator.  I look forward to talking with you, and learning from you, and hopefully form a relationship with you.
I thought I would  add my interpretation and provide my translation from the transcript of the Nagl voicemail:” I know Smart Meters cause cancer in humans. However, I want you to call me so I can dress up the lies and make you feel good about being poisoned to death“.
Let Amanda Nagl know what you think about her cheery form of tyranny, Agenda 21 style.
When you call these “public servants”, make sure that you remind them that they and their children have to live in the same cesspool that they are creating for everyone else.

The Farver Fate

You can see, from the above letter, that the Farver’s have until February 14, 2014 to agree to the installation of a Smart Meter on their property or their water and power will be shut off. In the severe winter currently besieging Colorado, this could prove to be a life-threatening event. However, don’t count on the empathy of Fort Collins officials.
Virginia stated on my show that she is not going to back down and if she has to be martyred in order to bring attention to these heinous events, so be it.
I predict that the Farver’s will be swat teamed just like the 80 year old Fort Collins lady was a couple of weeks back as armed thugs showed up at her house and demanded obedience to the New World Order.

Conclusion

I find the fate of the Farver’s to be unacceptable. They have already suffered enough through the loss of their son as his very promising life was tragically cut short. It is time for America to heed the call to action. We need to oppose this tyranny by calling attention to it. Therefore, I am calling for a massive phone-in campaign to the six public officials listed above until these rats run for cover after facing exposure for their dastardly deeds.
If we can turn back this tyranny in Fort Collins, we can stop Agenda 21 elsewhere. If we collectively engage in this fight, you will not just helping the residents of Fort Collins, you will be dramatically slowing down the progress of this newest form of eugenics in your neighborhood. Make this the Lexington Green and stand up for yourself and the residents of Fort Collins.
Credit to Common Sense 

Scientists warn the Sun has 'gone to sleep'



The Sun's activity is at its lowest for 100 years, scientists have warned.

They say the conditions are eerily similar to those before the Maunder Minimum, a time in 1645 when a mini ice age hit, Freezing London's River Thames.

Researcher believe the solar lull could cause major changes, and say there is a 20% chance it could lead to 'major changes' in temperatures.



Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent, as this image shows - despite Nasa forecasting major solar storms

'Whatever measure you use, solar peaks are coming down,' Richard Harrison of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire told the BBC.

'I've been a solar physicist for 30 years, and I've never seen anything like this.'

He says the phenomenon could lead to colder winters similar to those during the Maunder Minimum.

'There were cold winters, almost a mini ice age.

'You had a period when the River Thames froze.'

Lucie Green of UCL believes that things could be different this time due to human activity.

'We have 400 years of observations, and it is in a very similar to phase as it was in the runup to the Maunder Minimum.

'The world we live in today is very different, human activity may counteract this - it is difficult to say what the consequences are.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2541599/Is-mini-ice-age-way-Scientists-warn-Sun-gone-sleep-say-cause-temperatures-plunge.html#ixzz2qtp9Ud2L

"China Expected To Announce It Has More Than Doubled Its Gold Reserves"

The topic of China's below the radar accumulation of gold is nothing new: first revealed here in September 2011 as part of a Wikileaks intercept, watchers of Chinese gold imports have been stunned by the ravenous pace with which Chinese customers have been gobbling up both domestic and foreign gold production month after month. One needs merely to glance at the net imports of gold just through Hong Kong to get a sense of just how much gold has flowed into the country which has now surpassed India as the largest buyer of gold.
But the biggest question mark since 2009, when China gave its last official gold holdings update, has been how much gold has the People's Bank of China accumulated. One thing is certain: it is well more than the official number of just ovef 1000 tons.
Recall the confidential memo revealed through Wikileaks:
According to China's National Foreign Exchanges Administration China 's gold reserves have recently increased. Currently, the majority of its gold reserves have been located in the U.S. and European countries. The U.S. and Europe have always suppressed the rising price of gold. They intend to weaken gold's function as an international reserve currency. They don't want to see other countries turning to gold reserves instead of the U.S. dollar or Euro. Therefore, suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries towards reserving more gold. Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the RMB.
In other words, between 2009 and 2011, China's gold reserves had increased according to internal data. One can assume they have increased substantially since then, however the PBOC, judiciously, has refused to provide an updated amount of its gold holdings for five years in a row: after all why buy at higher prices (if the world knows that the PBOC is buying at any price), when it can buy cheaply?
However, the period of stealth - and cheap - accumulation may be ending. At least according to the largest English-language portal in East China: Shanghai Daily.
The website, which cites an analysis by Jeffrey Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisors, reports that the Chinese central bank is about to announce its gold holdings have nearly tripled from 1054 tons to 2710 tons.
China may soon announce an increase in its official gold reserve from 1,054 tons to 2,710 tons, Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors, said.

The People’s Bank of China has not reported any increase in official gold holdings since 2009, when the central bank said the official reserve was at 1,054 tons, which accounted for only about 1 percent of its multi-trillion foreign exchange reserves.

The PBOC has been “surreptitiously” adding to its official gold reserves. It has bought a total of 654 tons in 2009 through 2011, another 388 tons in 2012, and more than 622 tons last year, mostly from domestic mine production and secondary supplies, Nichols said in a commentary posted on NicholsOnGold.com yesterday.

Central bank purchases comprise the smallest fraction of global gold demand — less than 10 percent.

“If China announces an increase in gold reserves, there would be an immediate drag-up force in the gold market,” Albert Cheng, managing director of the industrial association World Gold Council for the Far East, told Shanghai Daily.

China is the biggest gold consumer and producer in the world.

Combined demand in China in the first three quarters amounted to 821 tons and the demand for the whole last year is expected to exceed 1,000 tons, according to the council’s earlier statements.
Oh well: the period of quiet accumulation was fun while it lasted.
That said, we for one would be happy if Nichols is wrong, and if the PBOC were not to announce any time soon it has become the fourth (or third, or second) largest official holder of gold in the world. Because unlike clueless, momentum-chasing traders everywhere, it is always better to buy lower than higher: a concept which the entire Western "developed" markets and the HFT algos and sophisticated "hedge fund" investors that trade them, have either forgotten or never grasped to begin with.
Zero Hedge

BRAZIL'S CHRIST STATUE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

Violent protests in Kiev: Rioters beat up police officers


Hyperinflation, Dollar Devaluation and Wage Stagnation.