Gold and Silver Current News Rundown

Three news stories that gold and silver investors need to know about!

1. Gold and Silver Prices Break Out!

Precious metals have made their biggest weekly gains of this year, with the gold price moving decisively back over $1,800.  Gold closed Friday (5/7) (CME) at $1,831.  That’s up from the March low of $1,673, and gold’s highest close in three months.

Silver closed Friday (5/7) (CME) at $27.48.   That’s up from its March low of $23.74.

2. The Dollar’s Global Dominance Continues to Slide!

As we have repeatedly warned, the most important trend on the global monetary front is the movement away from dollar reserves held by foreign central banks.  Now the International Monetary Fund reports that the dollar’s share of central bank reserves has fallen to 59 percent.

Twenty years ago, the dollar’s share of allocated reserves was over 70 percent.  

The IMF news release noted the obvious:  “Some analysts say this partly reflects the declining role of the US dollar in the global economy…”

We would be less interested if the trend was merely a movement away from one fiat currency like the dollar and into another fiat currency like the euro.  But central banks are adding to their gold reserves instead.

3. Government Raids Private Deposit Boxes

In March, the FBI raided a private storage vault company in Beverly Hills.  But while its allegations were against the vault company itself, the government broke into the customer’s private storage boxes, taking all of their contents and personal possessions;

Here are a few details from an article in the Orange County Register:

Late last month, hundreds of people across Southern California woke up to a nightmare: their private security-deposit boxes had been raided by federal law enforcement. Customers of U.S. Private Vaults learned the FBI raided the Beverly Hills company after an indictment for federal crimes. More to their horror, those customers learned their precious valuables were being held at an undisclosed location and that they would need to identify themselves to the FBI to reclaim their property.

Those customers must have been gobsmacked. The government’s allegations were against U.S. Private Vaults, not them.  The indictment didn’t allege that U.S. Private Vaults customers had done anything wrong…  

But to listen to the feds, every one of the company’s customers is a potential criminal. The indictment points out that U.S. Private Vaults advertised the anonymity of its services, including the fact it wouldn’t force customers to divulge personal information. To the government, any individuals who may want anonymity cannot be “law-abiding citizens.”

So it’s little surprise that the government broke into every deposit box at U.S. Private Vaults, emptied them, and took all their contents. Now the FBI refuses to return any customer’s stuff until he or she comes forward, identifies him or herself as the box’s owner, and submits to an FBI “investigation.” In other words, people must prove their own innocence to secure their property’s return.

This might be a good time to cite the Fourth Amendment:  “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause….”

Here’s a link to the piece from the Institute for Justice.