"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat


Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God. – Archbishop Chaput

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Monday, August 1, 2011

Bank of Korea buys gold for the first time in 13 years

Dow Jones News is reporting this afternoon that the Bank of Korea has confirmed that it purchased 25 metric tons of gold between June and July of this year and now has gold reserves of 39.4 tons of gold as of the end of July.

The move is noteworthy because it confirms a move towards diversifcation by a large Asian Central Bank away from the Dollar.

While Korea is certainly not among the largest holders of gold in the world, (it ranks 45th in gold holdings according to the World Gold Council data), it indicates another Central Bank's desire to acquire additional gold. So much for the yellow metal being viewed as a "barbarous relic".

10 comments:

  1. HK metals exchange? Coincides with the opening I think? Could be a case of, "spend a buck in your local community and it circulates x number of times" vs. a foreign exchange (Comex).

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  2. human nature excludes the prescient use of money created by pulling it out of thin air.

    the last-worst case of ignoring human nature was carl marx'

    understanding human nature might be important thing one can learn.

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  3. Hey Dan,

    read very carefully...they do not have the gold:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/01/korea-economy-reserves-idUSL3E7J12SC20110801

    "The BoK declined to disclose the purchase price but said it had entrusted all of its gold holding to the Bank of England for possible use in gold lending and other related transactions in future. "

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  4. Hey Cooper,

    Thanks for the heads up and article link.

    Looks like the Koreans are doing their bit to help their western counterparts in the gold price suppression scheme.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. My first thought was, "Those goobers had better take delivery." and my second thought was, "Nah!"

    If Bank of England is holding the gold, then there is no gold, just like Coop said.

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  6. No problem, guys. This stuff isn't easy to spot at first glance. Living in Korea myself, I know better than to trust the Korean Government with handling finances, being more or less a puppet state to the U.S. They suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. In '97 they were suckered out of their gold by the IMF at multi-decade lows and now when they buy gold at all-time highs, the US and the British say "we'll keep it safe for you....trust us ;-) " They are the most naive people, but the [awakened] general public certainly is not.

    Jim Rickards on his KWN interviews talks about going to the gold market in Beijing and it being lit up like Times Square, well in Seoul it's lit up in a similar manner. Lots of people buying gold up like crazy (kilo bars or the "squares" denominated in 37.5 grams...ancient Korean unit). Silver's here but it's not as popular. You have to get it in industrial kilo bars or in commerative coins, like for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which are still good 1oz coins.

    For goodness sake, LG and Samsung and Hyundai Motors have more [physical] gold under their vaults than the BoK or the government does.

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  7. Great post, and the comments are even better! :) Even in Lisbon gold coins have been bought out. Today 10Y Italian and Spanish bonds are at 6.13% and 6.30%! Soon the ECB will be QE'ing the EFSF.

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  8. Nice blog. its excellent Really i loved read this blog. Its highly informative. I would be visiting your blog hereafter regularly to gather valuable information.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice blog. its excellent Really i loved read this blog. Its highly informative. I would be visiting your blog hereafter regularly to gather valuable information.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Cooper and all,

    Here's a take on the gold purchase by FOFOA:

    Go Go South Korea - http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2011/08/go-go-south-korea.html

    Things may be much more interesting than it seems.

    Cheers :)

    ReplyDelete

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