Germany’s biggest lender, Deutsche Bank, has basically stolen 20 tons of gold belonging to Venezuela as collateral after Caracas defaulted on a gold swap agreement valued at US$750 million. The seizure comes as part of a deal clinched between the Bolivarian Republic and the lender as early as 2016, Bloomberg reports. Under the terms of the agreement, Venezuela received a cash loan from Deutsche... 

The trend is accelerating, just as I predicted it would. Countries all over the globe are growing anxious, as the geopolitical atmosphere of the world continues to heat up, threatening to hit a boiling point. Central bankers and government officials who see the world through an unfiltered, non-rose-tinted lens are well aware of this, and are beginning to take the necessary actions required to protect... 

China added to its official gold reserves for the third straight month in February as the country continues efforts to minimize its exposure to the US dollar. The People’s Bank of China added 10 tons of gold to its horde last month. It has accumulated an additional 32 tons of the yellow metal since the beginning of the year. According to the Financial Times, at this rate, China will surpass Russia... 

Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini seems set on shaking Europe’s financial establishment to the core. One day after the Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the League party, called for the elimination of Italy’s central bank and the country’s financial regulator, Consob, saying the two institutions should be “reduced to zero, more than changing one or... 

Police in Tokyo have arrested two Israeli Jews living in Japan for attempting to smuggle—by airmail—485 pounds (220 kilograms) of gold bars—the largest ever gold smuggling operation ever uncovered in that country. A report in the English-language Mainchi newspaper said the two Jews—named as Reuben Rosen, 58, an executive at a precious metals importer, and David Cohen, 55, were also held for... 

Gold output in South Africa fell for the 14th straight month in November. According to Bloomberg, it ranks as the longest streak of monthly declines since 2012. Production fell 14% from a year earlier, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said in a statement on its website last week. South Africa once led the world in gold production. The precipitous drop in the country’s mine output over the... 

A group of Chinese researchers may have discovered the science behind King Midas’ magic touch. By toying around with atoms, they managed to turn copper into a material that shares similarities with gold. Time to retire? Not quite. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Liaoning used electrically-charged argon gas to produce a thin layer of gold-like sand on a piece of copper. However,... 

The Bank of England (BoE) is refusing to release around $550 million in gold owned by Venezuela back to the country over the UK regulator’s claim of growing uncertainty about Caracas’s intentions for the 14 tons of gold bars. British officials are insisting that measures aimed at preventing money-laundering are taken, The Times reports. The Venezuelan government is reportedly expected to provide... 

Global stocks dropped while oil and gold surged on Wednesday following the escalation of tensions in the Middle East between nuclear superpowers Russia and the US. The S&P 500, Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite were losing almost a percent after US President Donald Trump tweeted a warning to Russia on Wednesday to “get ready” for Syrian missile strikes. “Russia vows to shoot... 

Central banks around the world have been building up their gold stockpiles to make sure they are stored on soil they can trust. The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) says it is bringing back three tons of the country’s gold reserves stored at the Bank of England in London, Gold Seek reported. The move to repatriate 130 million dollars’ worth of gold from Budapest previously stored on British soil... 

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) boosted its holdings of gold by almost 20 metric tons last month, with reserves reaching 1,857 tons. It has increased its holdings every month since March 2015. Russia is now among the top five gold holders after surpassing China, which reportedly holds 1,843 tons. Over the last 15 years, Moscow and Beijing have been aggressively accumulating gold reserves to cut their... 

A weak US dollar, a possible war between the US and North Korea or the impeachment of Donald Trump could result in one of the longest-ever rallies for gold, according to precious metals expert Jim Rickards. “This is gold’s breakout year. We are in the third bull market of my lifetime – and we have a very long way to run,” Rickards said in an interview to Kitco News. The reasons for... 

Peter Schiff was among the few economists who correctly predicted the financial crisis in 2008. Ten years later, he sees another crisis emerging: a crisis that can crash the stock market and wipe out the US dollar. “I predicted a lot more than just the stock market going down back then. I predicted the financial crisis, but more importantly, I predicted what the government would do as a result of... 

A prolonged period of cheap money and the shift of investor focus to gold as a haven from geopolitical and financial risk could boost the price of the precious metal to over $5,000 an ounce in five years, McEwen Mining CEO Rob McEwen says. If that happens, “there is going to be a tsunami of money looking for a place to go,” he told Bloomberg at a mining industry conference in San Francisco. One... 

Russia’s activity in the Asian region may undermine the world financial domination of the United States. Russia has recently concluded major oil and gas contracts with leading Asian countries. According to the South China Morning Post, Russia’s ambitious gas projects in the Far East may trigger a sharp decline in the volume of US oil and gas contracts with Tokyo and Beijing. A change in...