HSBC adjusted 1.2 million ounces of silver into eligible vaults on Wednesday- COMPLETELY UNACCOUNTED FOR!
COMEX WAREHOUSE SILVER INVENTORY UPDATE 12/22/11
*Brink’s received a small deposit of 9.132 ounces into eligible vaults
*Brink’s also had a withdrawal of 108,856 ounces out of eligible vaults

*The Delaware Depository received a small deposit of 4,050 ounces into eligible vaults

*No Changes for JP Morgan or Scotia Mocatta

*HSBC adjusted 1,182,386 ounces into eligible vaults.  This was an adjustment- meaning not a new deposit.  There was no corresponding adjustment out of registered vaults, simply 1.2 million ounces of silver suddenly appeared in HSBC vaults out of thin air!
*TOTAL COMEX REGISTERED SILVER Inventories were unchanged at 34,012,301 ounces
*TOTAL COMEX ELIGIBLE SILVER Inventories increased to 79,921,895 ounces
*TOTAL COMEX SILVER Inventories increased to 113,934,196 ounces

Once again, NO MENTION OF THE CME OF THE MISSING 1.4 MILLION OUNCES OF REGISTERED SILVER, which now reportedly per Max Keiser was obtained from JP Morgan by Jamie Dimon threatening Jon Corzine with DEATH unless he turned over the MFG clients’ phyzz and funds!!!

As a strangely coincidental supply turned up in JPMorgan vaults almost simultaneously as the MFGlobal clients phyzz went missing, until the CME provides an update of what happened to this stolen inventory, The Doc will continue to provide the latest available info on this from the CME:

*Registered ounces of metal currently not available for delivery
as of 11/4/11 due to MFGI bankruptcy. Included in above totals.

TOTAL                                                               1,420,916

Great article from the economiccollapseblog which puts everything in perspective.

“European Central Bank has already spent over 274 billion dollars directly buying up European government bonds, and yet bond yields continue to hover in very dangerous territory.”

“At this point, the ECB has the weight of the entire world on its shoulders.  One false move and we could see a huge wave of bank failures and we could be plunged into a major global recession.”

 I have learned that watching what people do is much more important than listening to what they say.  Back in 2008, financial authorities in the United States insisted that everything was gone to be okay.  But we all know now that was a lie.  Well, right now financial authorities in the U.S. and Europe are once again trying to assure us that everything is under control and that we are not headed for a global recession.  Unfortunately, their actions are telling a very different story.  All over the world, bailouts are flying around as if the end of the world is coming.  Governments and central banks are stepping in with gigantic mountains of money to prop up bond yields, major banks and even stock markets.  What we have seen over the past few months has been absolutely unprecedented.  So why are such desperate measures being taken if everything is going to be just fine?  Unfortunately, debt problems are never solved with more debt, so these bailouts really aren’t solving anything.  We are still headed for a massive amount of financial pain.  It would just be nice if the authorities would quit lying to us and would actually admit how bad things really are.

Read Full Article from economiccollapseblog>>

Guest Post
It all comes down to quality and rarity. Gold and Silver are the world’s oldest safe haven assets. The 16:1 silver to gold ratio had been in use for 5000 years before some short sighted men decided to try this Keynesian nightmare we are currently living through. Some even feel we have depleted Silver to the point that it really should trade at a 10:1 ratio to gold. That remains a possibility. The only certainty I can share, though, I cannot give a day or time when the collapse will come, is that it will certainly come.

We thought we’d lighten things up a bit to help our readers cope with the constant fraud and corruption being exposed daily here at SD…

The Average Joe has not yet discovered silver and gold as a protection against fiat debasement by The Fed, but according to ammo.net, he has begun hoarding guns and ammo.  Is this the first sign of the awakening of the sheople?

More Americans are buying ammunition and guns than ever before.  Are the same trends that are prompting ordinary Americans to buy gold also prompting them to stock up on guns and ammo?

Graphic courtesy: Ammo.net

Anonymous: I’m 5 foot 6, Blythe is this tall.
You figure out the rest.  I can’t do the math.

Conno: Look Doc….I’ve had it up to here with your 
SilverDoctors Blog….back off

Anon #2: Heil Goldman!

The question is whether this was developed to find your guns or your precious metals.  Our bet is both.

American Science and Engineering, Inc has developed a mobile version of those naked imaging, cancer causing, backscatter machines that are used at airports. Yes, Homeland Security will soon be able to cruise down your street and check out what is really going on under your clothes.
This is from the AS&E web site:

A breakthrough in X-ray detection technology, AS&E’s Z Backscatter Van™ (ZBV) is a low-cost, extremely maneuverable screening system built into a commercially available delivery van. The ZBV allows for immediate deployment in response to security threats, and its high throughput capability facilitates rapid inspections. The system’s unique “drive-by” capability allows one or two operators to conduct X-ray imaging of suspect vehicles and objects while the ZBV drives past.

The ZBV can also be operated in stationary mode* by parking the system and producing X-ray images of vehicles as they pass by. Screening can also be accomplished remotely while the system is parked. Remote operation allows scanning to be done safely, even in dangerous environments, while maintaining low-profile operation. The system is unobtrusive, as it maintains the outward appearance of an ordinary van.

Read more:

The Greek 1-year yield has just hit a new all-time high of 375%. 

Greece Govt Bond 1Year Yield (GGGB1YR:IND)

Value	375.00
Change	29.391 (8.504%)
Open	366.44
High	375.00
Low	348.07

The ECB’s first ever long term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) that had been estimated to provide upto Euro 350 billion to Europe’s bankrupt banks in the form of cheap 1% 3 year loans, instead a huge Euro 489 billion was borrowed by 523 banks in a rush to grab cheap money that amounts to QE in all but name regardless of ECB propaganda.
The ECB’s stealth QE objective was first to prevent the insolvent euro-zone banks from collapsing over the next few weeks as they were unable to refinance their short-term maturing debts as well as a run on the banks in progress in the euro-zone, and secondly (directly related) to encourage the banks to buy sovereign debt of bankrupting euro-zone countries because the ECB is not allowed to buy sovereign debts. Today’s actions of giving cheap money to the banks (1% per year interest rate) achieves both objectives as the banks took the money to use it to cover short-term maturing debt as well as buy a load of PIIGS debt, and thus are buying time (a couple of months at best) and so greatly diminishes the risks for what was looking like a near imminent collapse of the euro-zone (regardless of whether the trigger was a bankrupt Sovereign or large bank as both ).

Read More at Market Oracle>>

 How long does a long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) have to be to become quantitative easing (QE)?

By Stephen Lewis, Monument Securities
LONDON (Dow Jones)–How long does a long-term refinancing operation (LTRO)have to be to become quantitative easing (QE)? This is a question for all thosemarket commentators who propagate the notion that the ECB was engaging in QE bythe backdoor when it conducted its three-year LTRO yesterday.After all, this was not the first time the ECB had resorted to LTROs.In May 2009 the ECB’s Governing Council decided to provide liquidity through aone-year LTRO. This action was not hailed then as the ECB’s version of QE,though QE policies were highly topical since both the US Federal Reserve andthe Bank of England had recently introduced them with much fanfare. Perhaps we are expected to believethat because this week’s operation was for a three-year term, rather than forone year only, it was more like QE than the ECB’s previous liquidity-supplyingactions. Where, then, is the dividing-line to be drawn between LTROsthat are not QE and those that are? Or could it be that whenthe ECB’s Anglo-Saxon critics spent years castigating it for its failure toadopt QE, it had all along been conducting what was, in effect, QE? Whateverthe answers, itcan hardly represent a game-changing revolution in ECB thinkingthat it has extended the term over which it is prepared to undertakerefinancing operations.
This discussion, in fact, prompts a deeper question regarding theappropriate criteria by which to judge whether a central bank is engaging in QE. The phrase ‘quantitative easing’ arose inrecognition of the direct effects that measures falling under this heading haveon the quantity of money, as opposed to the cost of credit. For a central bank action toconstitute QE, there ought, therefore, to be an observable impact on a monetaryaggregate. Unfortunately, in practice, it is well-nigh impossible to distinguishthe effects on money supply of the central bank’s QE from those of a multitudeof other influences affecting the outcome, even in those countries where central banks are avowedly pursuinga QE policy. In any case, the baseline, that is, what would have happened inthe absence of the central bank action, is purely hypothetical. Because of thepractical difficulty in applying a results-based test for QE, central banks have takento using the impact of their actions on their own balance sheets as thecriterion for determining whether those actions constitute QE. Thus, the Bank of England refers toits QE as ‘the programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of centralbank reserves’. If a rise in the central bank’s reserves is the result of itsoperations, then those operations are QE. For the markets, however, QE has come to meancentral bank buying of government bonds. This may well be becausesuch purchases have figured prominently in the QE of the Fed and the Bank ofEngland. But a central bank’s buying of government bonds is not necessarilyfinanced by an increase in its reserves. In the Fed’s current ‘Operation Twist’, for example,the central bank is financing its purchases of long-dated government securitiesby selling some of its holdings of shorter-dated government notes and bonds.These transactions are not regarded as QE because it is obvious that the Fed’s operations are not aiming toincrease the aggregate volume of US Treasuries it holds or the size of itsbalance sheet. However, the original ‘Operation Twist’ in the 1960s alsofailed the QE test, though less obviously because the Fed wasthen financing its purchases of longer-dated government securities by sellingdown its holdings of Treasury bills.
The ECBwill not be financing its latest LTRO by selling any of its recently-acquiredgovernment bonds but there could yet be substantial shifts inthe composition of its liabilities, without any increase in their volume, toaccommodate the extension of liquidity through the LTRO. The maturity of a€141.9bn short-term loan from the ECB to lenders will offset part of theincrease in reserves that would otherwise stem from the three-year operation.But that is unlikely to be the only consequential adjustment in the ECB’sbalance sheet. Until the full picture emerges with publication of the ECB’s next weeklyreport, it is hard to judge what the balance sheet impact of the LTRO might havebeen.
Whether the banks which have entered into LTRO arrangements with the ECBtake advantage of their enhanced liquidity to buy government bonds or not willhave no bearing on the effect the LTRO has on the ECB’s liabilities. Further, Mr Draghi has neverendorsed the view that the reason why the ECB decided to conduct the LTRO wasto provide banks with funds to purchase government bonds. The notion that the ECB had beentrying to deliver support to peripheral government bond markets, via thecommercial banks, gained credence largely from comments from Mr Noyer, of theBank of France, in the weekend following the EU summit. That was a criticaljuncture for French policymakers, struggling to defend France’s ‘triple-A’credit rating. Market judgment on the summit’s outcome was in the balance. Thegovernance reforms had been positively received but the meeting had been thinon proposals to stabilise euro zone markets in the near term. In suchcircumstances, it is understandable that Mr Noyer should have been eager toemphasise the possibilities opened up by the ECB’s 8 December decisions aimedat strengthening banks’ liquidity.
Certainly, the financial markets were disposed to believe the euro zoneauthorities were delivering what investors most wanted, support for theperipheral government bond markets. So the story evolved that theECB had dramatically changed tack by embracing QE and that thiswould unleash substantial bank buying of hitherto shunned government bonds. In fact, what the bankswill do with the liquidity they have gained through the LTRO is far from clear. Mr Nicastro of Unicredit todaydeclared his bank would boost lending to industry and households. The ECB willbe pleased to hear that but, recently, the correlation has been low betweenwhat banks say they are doing and what shows up in the lending data.

Hope you already finished your coffee…

Ann Barnhardt scares the s*** out of Peter Schiff in this interview over MF Global (lets just say Ann’s suggestions would kill Euro Pacific Capital) . Barnhardt makes Schiff sound like an MSM figure. MUST WATCH!!

Nomi Prins, former Goldman Sachs Managing Partner turned bankster-fighter asks Yahoo Finance:
WHERE WERE THE REGULATORS!?!

The WSJ is aghast, AGHAST! that Ron Paul’s personal portfolio holds no bonds or bond funds, and no Apple, ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, or GE.
The WSJ analyst calls Paul’s portfolio with 64% of his assets in “tiny, extremely volatile” gold and silver mining stocks ‘the most extreme bet on economic catastrophe‘ he has ever seen, and ‘a half-step away from a cellar-full of canned goods and nine-millimeter rounds’.
Personally, a $5 million + portfolio in paper looks rather risky if anything in the wake of the MF Global segregated funds theft.
Makes you wish you could see the look on the face of the WSJ analyst if he saw The Doc’s portfolio of PHYZZ…

Here at Total Return, we’ve looked at hundreds of the annual financial-disclosure forms in which the members of Congress reveal their assets and trades – and we’ve never seen a more unorthodox portfolio than Ron Paul’s. 
According to data available through his 2010 “Form A” financial disclosure statement, filed last May, Rep. Paul’s portfolio is valued between $2.44 million and $5.46 million.
Yes, about 21% of Rep. Paul’s holdings are in real estate and roughly 14% in cash. But he owns no bonds or bond funds and has only 0.1% in stock funds. Furthermore, the stock funds that Rep. Paul does own are all “short,” or make bets against, U.S. stocks. One is a “double inverse” fund that, on a daily basis, goes up twice as much as its stock benchmark goes down.
The remainder of Rep. Paul’s portfolio – fully 64% of his assets – is entirely in gold and silver mining stocks. He owns no Apple, no ExxonMobil, no Procter & Gamble, no General Electric, no Johnson & Johnson, not even a diversified mutual fund that holds a broad basket of stocks. Rep. Paul doesn’t own stock in any major companies at all except big precious-metals stocks like Barrick Gold, Goldcorp and Newmont Mining.
Rep. Paul also owns 23 other miners – many of them smaller, Canadian-based “juniors” whose stocks are highly risky. Ten of these stocks have total market valuations of less than $500 million, a common definition of a “microcap” stock. Mr. Paul has between $100,010 and $326,000 (roughly 5% of his assets) invested in these tiny, extremely volatile stocks.
Rep. Paul appears to be a strict buy-and-hold investor who rarely trades; he has held many of his mining stocks since at least 2002. But, as gold and silver prices have fallen sharply since September, precious-metals equities have also taken a pounding, with many dropping 20% or more. (Sorry to interrupt your nice article, but what are Mr. Paul’s gains since he initiated his long term mining positions in 2002? +800%? + 1500%? You don’t think that would be relevant information? Just that they are down 20% over the past few months? Ok, thank you, please proceed)  That exposes the risk in making a big bet on one narrow sector.
At our request, William Bernstein, an investment manager at Efficient Portfolio Advisors in Eastford, Conn., reviewed Rep. Paul’s portfolio as set out in the annual disclosure statement. Mr. Bernstein says he has never seen such an extreme bet on economic catastrophe. ”This portfolio is a half-step away from a cellar-full of canned goods and nine-millimeter rounds,” he says.
Read more:

Back on March 22nd, when NATO was first deploying a “no-fly-zone” over Libya, The Doc suggested that the Libyan campaign was all about Gaddafi’s 143 tonnes of GOLD, rather than oil.  Jim Willie validates that conclusion in his latest Hat Trick Letter, stating that recent central bank gold dumps and negative lease rates are in fact Gadaffi (Libya) ‘s gold being dumped on the market in a desperate last ditch attempt to control precious metals prices.

The gold cartel has benefited significantly from the fresh Libyan gold supply (144 metric tons) and Greek gold supply (111 metric tons), not to mention the ample Dollar Swap Facility. It is the bankers New Gold, as reported by intrepid Jeff Neilson. In a fresh sign of bankster desperation, the lease rates for gold have been pushed down to net negative levels. The fresh supply from the two broken nations has greatly aided the COMEX, providing new cannon fodder. Perhaps more wars to liberate the oppressed can be conjured up, to release more tyrant wealth. It is not a coincidence that negative gold lease rates came when Libyan gold was made available (heisted) and when Italian sovereign bonds went into critical DEFCON mode. The gold supply helped to aid the lack of bond demand.
Divergence between paper gold and physical gold price is happening, the process begun. Actual physical shortages have kept the price up. The naked shorting of futures has kept the paper price down. The fraud cases and lawsuits, with no hint of prosecution, provide the levered force to create much wider divergence, as traders and entire firms depart the tainted crime scene that is the COMEX. Trust has vanished along with private accounts.


DYNAMICS OF PAPER VERSUS PHYSICAL BASIS

Grand divergence dynamics are becoming clear. Ann Barnhardt explained in detail how the COMEX will go away. It will not default, but rather fall into irrelevance. She laid it out in credible detailed form with numerous factors coming to play. The COMEX might still suffer the shame and spotlight of criminal prosecution. It will more certainly suffer from being ignored and shunned. The physical basis market will not respond to the declines in the paper futures market. The current dominant market will go away due to lost integrity and eroded trust. The consequences and implications of the recent major scandal and coverup are enormous, staggering, and sweeping. The changes from the MF Global failure and theft of private segregated accounts will come in time, perhaps accelerated by another similar event to slam the message home. The Syndicate has turned desperate, resorting to theft in the open daylight, which has resulted in direct consequences. Hundreds of COMEX clients waited in line for delivery of gold, and had their wallets stolen by JPMorgan. Their Gold & Silver set for delivery found its way into JPMorgan accounts at the COMEX. The details of the missing silver then reappearing silver is discussed in the December Hat Trick Letter. The slow mentally overlook this fact. The alert who point to fraud consider it a smoking gun. On its face, evidence mounts that JPMorgan simply converted 614k ounces of MF Global client silver into JPM licensed vaults. Big hats off to the SilverDoctors for excellent financial fraud forensic analysis. Do not expect prosecution over the crime, for MF Global, for JPMorgan, or for the accomplices in London, not even Jon Corzine. The Fascist Business Model in the Untied States does not permit prosecution. The bigger the crime, the more likely the perpetrator is in control of the government high offices, the financial ministry, the printing press, or the regulators.

ONE GOLD EVENT, THE BIG SQUEEZE

No gold chart will be shown in this article, out of disrespect deserved for the COMEX criminal activity. A story was recounted in recent days from my best source of solid reliable gold information. The aware gold community has overlooked a phenomenon that might be more profound in action here and now. A major squeeze is on that capitalizes on the artificially low COMEX price and the higher honest physical price. The Barnhardt effect can be seen, or at least recounted. A gold trader informed that some multi-$billion purchase Gold orders have been in the process of filling at or near the $1600 price per ounce. The price must remain near $1600 to complete the orders and permit them to clear. Call it Agent2000 who seeks the massive amount of Gold, one of the Good Guyz. The name fits since their goal is to force the Gold price back over $2000/oz after the sale transaction clears. Since so large, the orders take time to fill completely. The low-ball buy orders have been filling for over two weeks. At the same time, the Agent2000 buyer has enlisted the aid of numerous assistants to push down the paper Gold price by putting extreme pressure on some bad players, some nasty types from the usual list of suspects in the Western banking sector. These bankers are being squeezed out of their gold, as they contend with deep insolvency, reserves requirements, falling sovereign bond values, depositors exiting, and more. They are players in what has been widely called the Gold Cartel. The Jackass term has been applied in a wider sense, as they have been part of the Syndicate that reaches into the Wall Street banks, the defense contractors, news media, and big pharma.
Click here for the rest of Jim Willie’s Hat Trick Letter: