🇬🇧🪙➡️🇺🇸 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Something Extraordinary Is Taking Place In The Gold Vaults Below Manhattan | January 30, 2025:

"There was an interesting article overnight in the otherwise conservative and establishmentarian Financial Times, perhaps best known over the past decade for religiously keeping its readers out of the best performing asset class of all time (bitcoin in particular, and crypto in general which have been relentlessly and constantly bashed with fanatical obsession by all of its now former FT Alphaville writers whose track record of picking trades leaves Jim Cramer in the dust).

While normally the FT does not bother with reports about gold, and certainly not global flows of gold, this time it made an exception, observing that in recent months there has been a unprecedented "shortage of bullion in London" (which as a reminder for new readers is ground central of the LBMA which stands for London Bullion Market Association) as a result of which "the wait to withdraw bullion stored in the Bank of England’s vaults has risen from a few days to between four and eight weeks, according to people familiar with the process, as the central bank struggles to keep up with demand."

“People can’t get their hands on gold because so much has been shipped to New York, and the rest is stuck in the queue,” said one industry executive. “Liquidity in the London market has been diminished.”

(...)

The whole point of Trump's tariffs - i.e., his view of trade in his statecraft agenda - is to encourage domestic production and to reposition global trade flows so the US benefits. None of that is applicable for gold, since the US is at best the 5th biggest producer in the world behind China, Russia, Australia and Canada, and no amount of sanctions or tariffs can change how much gold any given mine can produce. Trump knows this; more importantly traders know this, and admit that the "fear of tariffs" has nothing to do with the unprecedented shortage of gold in London, and the sudden flood of physical gold in New York. In fact, the FT itself hints at this:

“The movement of gold needed to make its way into New York, that is basically what has been driving ‘stockpiling’,” said Joe Cavatoni, market strategist at the World Gold Council. “That is leading a lot of people to say, ‘we want to get ahead of it’, and that is driving the futures market into a premium.”

However, Cavatoni said he was cautiously optimistic that the coming tariffs would most likely not apply to bullion. “We are not getting a sense from the rhetoric from the administration that it intends to go after the monetary metals,” he said."

#Geoeconomics

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source:

🇬🇧🪙➡️🇺🇸 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | Gold stockpiling in New York leads to London shortage | Wait to withdraw bullion from BoE rises sharply as fears of Trump tariffs drive shipments to US | January 29, 2025:

"Since November’s US election, gold traders and financial institutions have moved 393 metric tonnes into the vaults of the Comex commodity exchange in New York, driving its inventory levels up nearly 75 per cent to 926 tonnes — the highest level since August 2022.

Total gold flows into the US could be far higher than the Comex numbers reflect, according to market participants, because there are likely to have been additional shipments to private vaults in New York owned by HSBC and JPMorgan. The two banks declined to comment.

Traders say the shipments are intended to avoid tariffs on bullion that some fear could be introduced by US President Donald Trump."

#Geoeconomics

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🌎📈💸🔫 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Global Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since The Early '90s | January 31, 2025:

"Global military expenditure has nearly doubled since the early 90s.

Statista's Anna Fleck reports that, according to the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, the costs attributed to defense equipment, personnel, operations and maintenance came to nearly $1.3 billion in 1993 and rose to nearly $2.4 billion in 2023."

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source

🇪🇺💬🇷🇺🛢🕊🇺🇦 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | EU debates return to Russian gas as part of Ukraine peace deal | Advocates say reopening pipelines could help settlement with Moscow and cut energy costs | January 30, 2025:

"European officials are debating whether Russian pipeline gas sales to the EU should be restarted as part of a potential settlement to end the war against Ukraine, according to people familiar with discussions.

Advocates of buying Russian gas argue it would bring down high energy prices in Europe, encourage Moscow to the negotiating table, and give both sides a reason to implement and maintain a ceasefire.

But raising the idea of reopening flows of Russian gas into Europe, even in preliminary discussions, has already sparked a backlash among Ukraine’s closest allies in the EU.

Three of the officials briefed on the talks said the idea had been endorsed by some German and Hungarian officials, with support from other capitals that saw it as a way to reduce European energy costs. 

“There is pressure from some big member states on energy prices and this is one way to bring those down, of course,” said one official."

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 White House confirms COVID-19 originated from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.

📎 BRICSinfo

🇺🇸🇨🇦🇲🇽🇨🇳 The president will be implementing tomorrow a 25% tariffs on Mexico, 25% tariffs on Canada and a 10% tariff on China for the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country which has killed tens of millions of Americans

📎 CSPAN

🇺🇸🇲🇽 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces that the U.S. Military can now perform special ops against Mexican cartels, following President Trump's designation of them as terrorist organizations.

“All options are on the table.”

📎 Benny Johnson

🇺🇸🇺🇦 U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio: Ukraine has been set back 100 years by the war

“Ukraine has been set back a century. Its energy infrastructure has been destroyed. Someone will have to pay for its reconstruction. Many Ukrainians have fled to other countries and may never return.

The nation’s future hangs in the balance in this regard. From the president’s perspective, this is a prolonged conflict that must be resolved. Negotiations are necessary, and both sides of the conflict will need to make compromises.”

📎 NEXTA

🇬🇹 Guatemalan Police Arrested The Leader of a Jewish Cult, Lev Tahor after capturing 160 children from a trafficking operation.

Mexico has requested to extradite Yoel Alter due to facing similar charges there.

📎 Bikini Bottom News

🇨🇳China builds huge wartime military command centre in Beijing

Complex will be bigger than Pentagon and include bombproof bunkers for leaders, say US officials

https://www.ft.com/content/f3763e51-8607-42b9-9ef9-5789d5bf353d

https://archive.ph/KMQRD

🇺🇸🇸🇻🇨🇷🇬🇹🇩🇴 President Trump’s foreign-policy agenda begins close to home. Among his top priorities is securing our borders and reversing the disastrous invasion abetted by the last administration.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/an-americas-first-foreign-policy-secretary-of-state-rubio-writes-western-hemisphere-too-long-neglected-a81707b0

https://archive.ph/IVH4F

🇺🇸 Donald Trump this week ordered work on the most ambitious missile shield in US history, including space-based lasers.

To detect, intercept and destroy ballistic nuclear missiles during their so- called boost phase, the three- to five-minute period before they enter orbit, would require laser beams effective over hundreds of kilometres. No such technology currently exists.

Is the project potentially lucrative for Elon Musk’s SpaceX?

The space-based part of the programme would require hundreds of carrier satellites to be launched — a market currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

All this assumes the space-based programme, which Grego described as a “fantasy”, will be approved by Congress and goes ahead.

https://www.ft.com/content/62c01967-0100-46ee-9f4f-e9af467d7604

https://archive.ph/i4Mzj

🇨🇴🇺🇸 Colombia President Gustavo Petro urges illegal Colombians in America to return home.

📎 AF Post

🇺🇸 Karoline Leavitt announces that the White House has been flooded with over 10,000 applications for the "New Media" press seat.

📎 Benny Johnson

🇺🇸🇵🇦 Trump issues statement on the Panama Canal: "We're gonna take it back ... they've totally violated the agreement."

📎 Eric Daugherty

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 Trump comments on meeting with Putin: “Millions of young people are being killed. It's just a senseless situation, and it's gotta stop.”

📎 MarioNawfal

🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈❌🏳️‍⚧️ | United States State Dept removed any and all references for Transgenders and Trans from its travel guides.

Now it redirects the searcher for "trains"

🇺🇸❌🏴❗️ — "Kill them wherever you find them"? | On Twitter, United States President Donald J. Trump announces that he ordered the US Armed Forces to conduct targeted strikes against Islamic State Positions in Somalia, aiming to target and destroy hideouts of ISIS & kill Senior Leaders of the so-called Caliphate there

➡️ It happens as the Salafi terrorists are now conducting a mass offensive in Puntland region, taking positions of the weakened local militias, seeking to proclaim a Wylayat of their caliphate in Somalia

This morning I ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia.

These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies.

The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.

Our Military has targeted this ISIS Attack Planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldn’t act quickly enough to get the job done. I did!

The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that:

“WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”

https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1885740103223648412