The simple reason the Swiss are moving away from cash deposits and into gold

With negative interest rates sweeping the nation, investors are turning to gold to avoid cash charges

Swiss bank and wealth manager, Vontobel Holding AG, reports that Swiss investors are turning to gold as the Swiss National Bank is forcing banks to add charges to cash deposits. Coupled with concerns over Greece's potential exit from the eurozone and the possibility of increased conflict in Ukraine, this means that an increasing number of investors will be looking for safe haven assets to protect their holdings.

Gold has already climbed 4.2 percent this year in spite of potentially higher interest rates in the U.S. strengthening the dollar, as investors' holdings in gold-backed funds are reaching a peak not seen since October. Chief Executive Officer of Vontobel, Zeno Staub, told reporters that they "keep noticing that gold is coming back into favor with investors" when the company announced their yearly earnings on Wednesday.

The negative yield from holding onto Swiss francs and bonds is making bankers and their clients look for alternate investment options. The increased charges imposed by the Swiss National Bank on banks keeping their franc deposits in the central bank saw Vontobel increase their proportion of gold in discretionary managed investments by two percent.

Several prominent Swiss banks, including UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, as well as Geneva's biggest banks are all introducing additional deposit charges to certain types of customers in order to compensate for the introduction of negative interest rates by the Swiss National Bank. In order to avoid the cash charges, many investors are turning towards gold.

While Staub said that Vontobel charging some clients more is only meant to dissuade large investors (like banks) from seeking security and that smaller and private clients won't be affected by the changes, Chief Executive Officer of UBS Group AG, Sergio Ermotti, voiced his concerns that this might not be the case.

Ermotti believes that the franc's surge and negative interest rates in Switzerland and other euro areas might end up putting pressure on profitability should they continue, suggesting that private clients might end up being affected by the cost of negative rates as well.

---

Get even more news on gold from our Google+ profile.

photo credit: end_of_bar_on_carpet via photopin (license)

Official casts doubt on Federal Reserve policies

A long-time Fed is worried: "We're not going to be able to hold the line anymore."

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, voiced some serious concerns over the long-term effects and ramifications of the Fed's ongoing loose monetary policies.

Plosser, whose term as a key policy maker in the bank will end in March, has often criticized the Fed's policies during his nine-year term on the board.

Plosser maintains that history has proven that monetary policy is only a temporary way to assist economic growth and that, once we reach a tipping point with the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policies (such as Quantitative Easing and near-zero interest rates), we will experience significant negative backlashes. Most recently, the European Central Bank experienced this first-hand when the Swiss National Bank de-pegged the franc from the euro, thus sending the value of the euro plummeting. According to Plosser,

"At some point the pressure is going to be too great. The market forces are going to overwhelm us. We're not going to be able to hold the line anymore."

Plosser argues that the idea that low inflation somehow indicates a weak economy was rebutted in the 1970s, and therefore calls for raising short-term interest rates ahead of time – regardless of what the move's effects may be on inflation. By taking such an action, one of his primary hopes is to avoid reaching a point in the future when market forces dictate that the Fed must increase interest rates quickly. Such a scenario could be disastrous to the economy and cause significant volatility.

Plosser also stresses that any monetary or fiscal policies, especially as loose as those of the Federal Reserve, cloud our view of normal market conditions. He argues that we must deal with the economy in a realistic fashion rather than through unrealistic or overzealous application of stimuli. If anything, he believes that most of the Fed's loose policies should have ceased as soon as the financial crisis was over.

One major concern is what the consequences of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy will end up being, especially over the next five to ten years. Plosser claims that the real cost of what the Fed is doing has not yet been determined:

"I think the jury is still out on the costs. Because the cost I was worried about was the longer-term cost of unraveling all of this. So maybe I was right, maybe I was wrong. That remains to be seen."

Once the market realizes that the Fed can no longer keep holding interest rates back in order to increase liquidity, a snap-back in premiums will become unavoidable. This threatens to further plunge the economy into uncertainty and volatility as everyone would suddenly finds themselves with less money.

---

If you want to stay in touch on more news, visit BirchGoldNews.com for the latest on the economy and gold.

Photo Credit: Simon Business School via Compfight cc

Gold hits a 4-month peak

On the back of a stunning move by the Swiss National Bank, the dollar slumps and gold moves higher

No one saw it coming. Switzerland shocked the world last week when it abandoned its three-year cap on the franc. As a result, European shares and bonds yields tumbled and the dollar moved lower. Gold, however, rose to a 4-month high.

According to investment specialists, this rise has can be attributed to the uncertainty prevailing in the market. Ole Hansen, Senior Manager at the Saxo Bank explained, "Gold is gaining from a risk-off situation because nobody expected the Swiss central bank not to keep that cap." According to him, this has created "potential big losses in many places and is obviously triggering some flight to safety."

On the other hand, the dollar fell 0.2% percent and European stocks plummeted as a result of the move from the Swiss National Bank, which many believe was spurred on by the European Central Bank potentially announcing a money-printing program in the coming days.

Hansen further added that this could add more pressure on the euro as all this happened just "a week before the ECB meeting." Because of this, "gold in euro terms" is sure to benefit further.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, central banks have opted for more liquidity. This has over the years has had a very positive impact on the price of gold. The price of Euro-dominated gold rose to its highest level since May 2013 to 1,077.09 euros an ounce.

Though there is still some uncertainty about what the metal will do in the rest of the year, it has risen six percent in just this month.

---

Learn even more about the latest on gold from our YouTube profile.

Photo Credit: Canadian Pacific via Compfight cc

Are bonds a safe investment? Not according to veteran investment specialist

Ian Williams advises against investing in bonds, says gold a far better option

For more than 300 years, bonds have been one of the safest investment options available. No longer, according to Ian Williams, veteran investment specialist and Chief Executive Officer of Charteris Treasury Portfolio Managers. Why? Because bonds have been enjoying a bull run for the last 40 years, one which he predicts will end soon "with interest rates set to rise and lower oil prices boosting growth."

According to Williams, "Bonds are a highly-dangerous asset class" and carry extremely asymmetric risk as compared to the possible reward. In an email statement, he referred to the yields of UK government bonds, currently at their lowest since first launched in 1703. Williams adds, "Buying any asset at 300-year highs carries huge risks."

The 62-year-old Williams believes in 40-year cycles. And as the cycle for bonds is near its end, he has not only launched a special fund that will see higher payments as interest rates increase, but he has turned his attention to gold and silver, saying that they are set to become some of the best performing assets.

Of his new New Strategic Bond Fund, Williams says, "the expectation is that this fund will be in the one percent that does not lose capital when the bear market in bonds begins." And according to him, "If our 40-year cycle analysis is correct, that bear market is not very far away."

This trend is sure to be further accentuated in Europe where government debt has become a proportionately larger share of the GDP. As a result, bonds from some countries like France and Italy are no longer an attractive investment option, since they offer lower returns while the risk that the governments might renege on their debts is growing.

Interestingly, the yield rates on French and Italian bonds dropped to all-time lows amid rumors that the European Central Bank is planning to buy bonds to reduce deflation and bolster growth. The rate for French 10-year bonds went down as low as 0.718 percent while 5-year Italian bonds were knocked down to 0.781 per cent.

---

Get even more stories on the economy and gold from our Twitter account.

photo credit: LendingMemo via photopin cc

Ukraine Crisis Will Hurt the U.S. Dollar: Peter Schiff

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can ultimately hurt the dollar, says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.

Until now, the markets have been immune to the crisis in Ukraine and other current, major conflicts around the world. But these conflicts can influence the Federal Reserve, according to Schiff.

“The real deal is the Federal Reserve,” he told Yahoo Finance, “we do have a difficult international situation that may give the Fed the excuse that it needs to postpone the taper and rate increases. That’s what the market wants. That’s what’s driving this market. That’s the only thing driving this market.”

The situation in Ukraine is volatile and highly unpredictable, but historically markets didn’t care much about geopolitics. Markets do get spooked by geopolitics on occasion, but they typically recovered quickly.

Schiff is more concerned about America’s reaction to Ukrainian crisis than the crisis itself. He says that he had expected the dollar to fall for some time. “We’re flexing a lot of muscle we don’t have,” he added, “and we’re irritating people we need to be sucking up to. America depends on its ability to export dollars to import all the things we don’t produce.”

"We're creating extra incentive for people to move away from the dollar," Schiff said.  "That could ultimately be the biggest problem for the market. A big drop in the dollar and acceleration of inflation would put pressure on the Fed to raise rates."

Peter Schiff famously made predictions about the crash of 2008, 2009.

“The people that were ridiculing me back then are still ridiculing me,” he told Birch Gold Group, “because I’m still warning that the real crisis hasn’t even happened yet. Because everything that the Federal Reserve has done, everything that the government has done since the financial crisis of ’08 has just made the problems that they were trying to solve worse. Problems that they caused.”

---

Sources:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the dollar: Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff Exclusive Interview: On The Dollar Crisis, Federal Reserve And Future For Gold Prices

Image by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

Russia keeps buying gold and Chinese yuan, which may hurt the dollar

Russia is taking measures to protect itself against future sanctions from the European Union and the United States, says RT news.

The Russian Central Bank’s response to the rising pressure from Western economic sanctions has been to increase gold reserves and diversify away from the dollar and euro. Currently Moscow controls the world’s 5th largest foreign exchange reserves and the 6th largest gold reserves.

To protect itself from risks involving U.S. dollars and euros, in light of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Russia has cut its foreign currency reserves by 2.5 percent in the first half of 2014.

Rather than buying euros and dollars, the Russian central bank is now increasing bilateral currency swaps with China and other strategic trade partners. China’s central bank has agreed last week to increase currency swaps with Russia’s central bank.

Ebbing dominance of the U.S. dollar has worsened since the global financial crisis, and Russia’s measures to deal with the Western sanctions may accelerate its demise as the world’s reserve currency.

Global reserves of U.S. dollars has shrunk to under 61 percent from the 72 percent in 2001, according to Bloomberg, and since the global financial crisis Russia and other big emerging economies have promised to use their own currencies to conduct business.

Sources:

Russia seeks safe haven in gold, away from dollar and euro

Russia Sanctions Accelerate Risk to Dollar Dominance

Image by Prime Minister of Russian Federation

10 Countries with Largest Gold Reserves

See the ten countries with the biggest gold holdings according to a latest report by the World Gold Council. 

The World Gold Council, an association whose 21 members comprise the world’s leading gold mining companies has published its latest report on world gold reserves – gold held by national central banks around the world as a guarantee to redeem promises or secure a currency.

The International Monetary Fund maintains statistics of national central bank assets, and the same data is used by the World Gold Council to report official gold holdings of various countries and organizations. Gold reported by a country is not necessarily stored there.

Latest numbers on the World Gold Council’s table are from August 2014.

Below are the ten countries with the largest gold reserves in tonnes:

10. India

Official gold holdings:
557.7

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
7.3%

9. Netherlands

Official gold holdings:
612.5

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
54.3%

8. Japan

Official gold holdings:
765.2

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
2.5%

7. Switzerland

Official gold holdings
1,040.0

Percent of foreign reserves in gold
8.0%

6. China

Official gold holdings:
1,054.1

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
1.1%

5. Russia

Official gold holdings:
1,094.7

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
9.7%

4. France

Official gold holdings:
2,435.4

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
65.1%

3. Italy

Official gold holdings:
2,451.8

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
67.0%

2. Germany

Official gold holdings:
3,384.2

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
68.4%

1. United States<

Official gold holdings:
8,133.5

Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
71.9%

If the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was a country, it would be right behind Germany as the third largest holder of gold reserves – IMF holds 2,814.0 tonnes of gold.

Sources:

The World Gold Council

Wikipedia

Image by Rob Lavinsky