Jim Rogers – CNBC 28 December 2011 – YouTube

Jim Rogers – CNBC 28 December 2011 – YouTube.

Trustee to Seize and Liquidate Even the Stored Customer Gold and Silver Bullion From MF Global

The bottom line is that apparently some warehouses and bullion dealers are not a safe place to store your gold and silver, even if you hold a specific warehouse receipt. In an oligarchy, private ownership is merely a concept, subject to interpretation and confiscation.

Although the details and the individual perpetrators are yet to be disclosed, what is now painfully clear is that the CFTC and CME regulated futures system is defaulting on its obligations. This did not even happen in the big failures like Lehman and Bear Sterns in which the customer accounts were kept whole and transferred before the liquidation process.

Obviously holding unallocated gold and silver in a fractional reserve scheme is subject to much more counterparty risk than many might have previously admitted. If a major bullion bank were to declare bankruptcy or a major exchange a default, how would it affect you? Do you think your property claims would be protected based on what you have seen this year?

You always have counter-party risk if you hold gold and silver through another party, even if they are a Primary Dealer of the Federal Reserve. As Ben said, the Fed offers no seal of approval.

If a Bankruptcy Trustee can pool your bullion into the rest of the paper assets and then liquidate it at prices that are being front run by the Street, you will have to accept whatever paper settlement that they give you.

The customer money and bullion assets are not lost, or rehypothecated or anything else. This is a pseudo-legal fig leaf, a convenient rationalization.

The customer assets were stolen, and given to at least one major financial institution by MF Global to satisfy an 11th hour margin call in the week of their bankruptcy, even as MF Global was paying bonuses to its London employees.

And in an absolutely classic Wall Street move, they are still charging the customers storage fees on the bullion which they have misappropriated from them. lol.

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via Trustee to Seize and Liquidate Even the Stored Customer Gold and Silver Bullion From MF Global | ZeroHedge.

Hedge Funds Facing Worse Year Since 1990

Friday, 09 Dec 2011 06:42 AM

By Forrest Jones

This year could shape up to be the worst year for hedge funds since 1990 overlooking 2008, which was roiled by the near collapse of the global financial system, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.

The average hedge fund has lost 4.37 percent so far this year in absolute returns, Hedge Fund Research reports, and while 2008 was worse, disaster struck all at once in the last quarter of the year, while 2011 roiled in volatility all year, the Financial Times reports.

Blame the eurozone crisis and issues such as political impasses during the U.S. debt ceiling debacle and ensuing downgrade of U.S. ratings by Standard & Poor’s.

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via Hedge Funds Facing Worse Year Since 1990.

Forget Gold—What Matters Is Copper

Gonzalo Lira: Forget Gold—What Matters Is Copper.