Saturday, March 13, 2010

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Related:

"Fake gold bars in Bank of England and Fort Knox

It’s one thing to counterfeit a twenty or hundred dollar bill. The amount of financial damage is usually limited to a specific region and only affects dozens of people and thousands of dollars. Secret Service agents quickly notify the banks on how to recognize these phony bills and retail outlets usually have procedures in place (such as special pens to test the paper) to stop their proliferation.

But what about gold? This is the most sacred of all commodities because it is thought to be the most trusted, reliable and valuable means of saving wealth.

A recent discovery — in October of 2009 — has been suppressed by the main stream media but has been circulating among the “big money” brokers and financial kingpins and is just now being revealed to the public. It involves the gold in Fort Knox — the US Treasury gold — that is the equity of our national wealth. In short, millions (with an “m”) of gold bars are fake!

Who did this? Apparently our own government.

In October of 2009 the Chinese received a shipment of gold bars. Gold is regularly exchanges between countries to pay debts and to settle the so-called balance of trade. Most gold is exchanged and stored in vaults under the supervision of a special organization based in London, the London Bullion Market Association (or LBMA). When the shipment was received, the Chinese government asked that special tests be performed to guarantee the purity and weight of the gold bars. In this test, four small holed are drilled into the gold bars and the metal is then analyzed.

Officials were shocked to learn that the bars were fake. They contained cores of tungsten with only a outer coating of real gold. What’s more, these gold bars, containing serial numbers for tracking, originated in the US and had been stored in Fort Knox for years....
Bold
The Federal Reserve knows but is apparently part of the scheme....

--MORE--"

Also see:
Largest Private Refinery Discovers Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar

Yeah, haven't seen a word of that in the
Boston Globe.

Instead they front page s*** like this
:

"All that glitters may not be cash" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | March 5, 2010

As the price of gold hovers near historic highs of more than $1,000 an ounce, consumers have faced a barrage of flashy billboards, glaring electronic signs, and high-octane television advertisements promising they can make a mint by trading in unwanted jewelry.

But what the ads don’t say takes the shine off gold buyers’ pitches.

“People think there’s a big cash grab waiting for them and that’s simply not the case,’’ said Ben Popken, comanaging editor of Consumerist.com, owned by the publisher of Consumer Reports. “It’s a really bad deal for consumers.’’

To find out just how much gold jewelry might fetch, the Globe purchased three pairs of identical 14-karat gold hoop earrings at a local department store; each pair had a retail price of $160, and a sale price of $62....

So this is what the Globe's "investigative" reporters are up to, huh?

Pfffft!

Consumers often confuse the price they pay for jewelry with its actual value, he added, unaware of the steep mark-up for the craftsmanship that goes into a piece....

You mean CRAPMANSHIP for JEWelry, right, girl?

Correction: Because of a reporting error, this story about turning in gold jewelry for cash misstated the number of transactions conducted by Cash4Gold. The company has processed nearly a million transactions since 2007. A sentence was also omitted from the story....

Pfffffft!

No wonder newspapers are self-destroying and imploding.

One has been able to tell for a long time that not only do their news choices and selections suck, but the journalism by the current crop of reporters is the worst I've ever seen it from both a technical and substantive point of view.

--more--"

And it appears that the Secret Service has better things to do:

"Secret Service probing counterfeiting case

The US Secret Service has joined an investigation of the alleged use of counterfeit money by students at Falmouth High School, police said. Students have allegedly passed, or attempted to pass, $50 worth of phony bills since last week. Two students were arrested and charged with possession of counterfeit notes, Falmouth police said. Three counterfeit $10 bills were found March 4 during the final count of cafeteria receipts, police said.

Yeah, DON'T WORRY about the BANK, WAR LOOTING, or POLITICAL THIEVERY, Secret Service.

A student attempted to buy a bag of potato chips with a counterfeit $10 bill March 5 and was charged with possession of counterfeit notes and marijuana. Another student was charged after allegedly attempting use a counterfeit $10 bill at the cafeteria Monday, police said.

At least the kids are learning what it is like to live in a police state.

--more--"

Once again it looks like a long day of basketball, readers, I'm sorry. I am playing myself in about an hour and today is the State Championship Finals for the high-schoolers as well as tons of NCAA tournament action.

I make no promises of return today, although I am working on other posts.