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Ronan Manly is a precious metals analyst with BullionStar whose blogs
often cover current themes including what's going on in the
London gold market and the gold activities of central banks.
Ronan Manly
7 Comments
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are an ominous development that will soon be launched by central banks across the world.
Billed as a public interest technology innovation, the real aim of CBDCs is to provide central banks and governments with enhanced forms of surveillance and control.
CBDCs are the antithesis to monetary freedom, so it is critical to... Continue Reading 
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Palantir Technologies, the US analytical software company that counts the US Intelligence and spy agencies as some of it’s largest clients, recently purchased nearly 1 tonne of gold to hedge against possible ‘black swan events’.
The purchased gold, in the form of nearly three hundred 100-ounce gold bars, is stored in a vault in the north-east of the US, probably in a... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Nearly 22 tonnes of Afghan central bank gold stored with the New York Fed has just been frozen by the US Treasury.
This Afghan gold consists of a total of 1731 old “non-Good Delivery’ gold bars, which have been in the New York Fed vault since 1939.
This is also not the first time this Afghan gold has been blocked, as it was also frozen between 1999 and 2001. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
While a lot will be written about the 50th anniversary of the US Government famously suspending the convertibility of US dollars into gold on 15 August 1971, there is far less, if any, coverage about what exactly triggered it and why the timing had to be 15 August.
Bringing together never before seen material, this article blows a lid on the British and the Bank of England... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 13 Comments
As COMEX gold trading opened for the week on Sunday 8 August, while New York, London, Singapore and Tokyo were all closed, huge volumes of selling hit the market to take down the gold price.
Who were the sellers and who did they represent, and does this intervention have central bank involvement?
While a price smash in the paper gold and silver markets may fool Wall... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 7 Comments
After buying 53.5 tonnes of gold over May and June, Brazil is now the third largest central bank gold buyer so far this year, and currently claims to hold 121 tonnes of the yellow metal.
However, following a series of questions being put to the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) about this gold and where it is stored, the BCB has refused to answer every single question, citing... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
The legal fight over 31 tonnes of gold owned by Venezuela’s central bank (BCV) and stored at the Bank of England continues, and this month made it all to way to the Supreme Court in London.
At stake is who has the authority to withdraw the BCV gold, and who is the recognised president of Venezuela, Maduro or the US and UK backed Guaidó.
The ramifications of the... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 9 Comments
Recently, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, called for renewed IMF gold sales under the pretext of helping to finance African economies. In May and again in June, Macron and his advisers tried to ‘put the IMF gold sales idea on the table’.
But who benefits from such sales? Who wants to get their hands on the IMF gold? Is it a bullion bank bailout or a redistribution... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 3 Comments
With an addition to 90 tonnes of gold to its gold reserves over April and May, the Thai central bank, Bank of Thailand, has now leapt into pole position as the world’s largest central bank gold buyer so far in 2021.
Surprisingly, this gold accumulation by Thailand has gone largest unnoticed in the media, with little or no comment. Not helping matters has been the Bank of... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 7 Comments
Following LBMA threats against the Dubai gold market last November, the DMCC executive chairman had the courage to point out the hypocrisy of the LBMA’s position.
While this criticism of the LBMA has continued into 2021, now Dubai & the UAE are also fighting back with proactive gold market initiatives that could see UAE become an even bigger competitor to London. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
Central bank gold operations lie at the heart of the London Gold Market under the watchful eye of the Bank of England, but you would be forgiven for not knowing this, because they don’t want you to know.
Never in the history of financial markets has there been a trading venue that has been more opaque, more secretive, and more impenetrable than the London Gold Market. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
With the imminent arrival of the massive Russian sovereign wealth fund, the National Wealth Fund, as a new gold buyer in addition to the firepower of Russia's central bank, it now looks like Russia is upping the stakes in it's grand game of geo-political and monetary chess. Indeed a game of 4D chess that uses golden pieces. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 5 Comments
It has just come to light that the LBMA silver holdings in London vaults have been overstated by 3300 tonnes since they were reported in early April. Is this incompetence, or a case of blatant deception?
Since London silver vault holdings are an international gauge into the availability of silver supply for the investor and industrial markets, a full investigation of the LBMA... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
A new report on investment silver from the LBMA is surprising in that it acknowledges the Silver Squeeze movement as having made a profound impact on silver ETF and bar and coin demand, and also startlingly admits that there were real concerns in February that London would run out of silver if ETF demand remained at an elevated level. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 5 Comments
Following a 10 fold increase in its gold reserves in 2018 from 3.1 tonnes to 31.5 tonnes, the Hungarian central bank has done it again, this time tripling the 31.5 tonnes to 94.5 tonnes with a recent gold buying transaction. That’s a 3000% increase since October 2018.
The motivation, say the Hungarians, is to counter the growing risks to the global system of unlimited debt,... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 5 Comments
As the multi-year saga of the ScotiaBank withdrawal from the precious metals markets continues, the latest installment finds Scotia selling its COMEX New York vault to MTB / MKS PAMP. This deal includes a transfer of all the gold and silver in the NY Scotia vault to the care of MTB.
Despite this deal, Scotia is still very much involved in precious metals, especially in London,... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 15 Comments
In an Orwellian development, US regulator the CFTC may be preparing to investigate retail traders for manipulation of the silver price.
As a reminder, this is the same CFTC that for many years and in multiple investigations, failed to find any evidence of bullion bank silver price manipulation, until that is, the DoJ’s prosecution of JP Morgan forced the CFTC to confront... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 29 Comments
The panic among silver-backed ETFs triggered by a surge in demand for silver sees no sign of abating and is entering the realm of the Twilight Zone. First we had SLV, the world’s largest silver ETF, warning that there may not be enough available silver to supply to the iShares Silver Trust.
Now we have Aberdeen Standard, operator of the SIVR silver ETF, openly panicking about... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 15 Comments
In a dramatic development, the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), has just updated its prospectus warning that there may not be enough available silver supply for delivery into SLV, and that this may adversely affect investments in SLV Shares.
Even more dramatically, this warning was drafted into the latest SLV prospectus on 3 February, the exact day after which JP Morgan tapped... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 21 Comments
While many eyes were on the mammoth iShares Silver Trust (SLV) last week, that is only part of the picture, as there are 14 other silver-backed ETFs which claim to store their silver in London.
Between them SLV and these other ETFs hold over 85% of all the silver in the LBMA London vaults. Which means that a few more days of very strong inflows into silver ETFs will create a... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 11 Comments
In unprecedented fashion, a #SilverSqueeze movement has rapidly grown to take on the financial establishment in the 'paper' silver markets of London and New York.
But if it is to have any chance of success, this #SilverSqueeze movement must attack the Achilles heel of the bullion banks. That Achilles heel is the availability of physical silver. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 1 Comments
With the rapid proliferation of crypto exchanges and decentralized finance on the blockchain, it’s hard to believe that the first Bitcoin exchanges didn’t even exist less than 12 years ago.
From New Liberty Standard to Bitcoin Market to Mt. Gox, this article uses website archives to take a look back at the pioneering exchanges of 2009-2011, their founders and connections... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 12 Comments
While the world is fixated with nominal price changes in gold and silver, it is real (inflation-adjusted) prices of the two metals which are arguably more important.
Even when using the rigged CPI data of the US Government, nominal gold and silver prices in US dollars are currently far below their real (inflation-adjusted) all time highs.
But when using the more... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 2 Comments
According to the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), there are now record gold stocks of 9450 tonnes held in the London vaults.
While trumpeting record gold holdings may grab headlines, it’s a misleading claim if, as appears to be the case, only a tiny fraction of these total gold holdings are available to ‘back-up’ the gigantic fractionally-backed LBMA paper gold... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
2020 was a remarkably strong year for gold and silver bullion coins sales by the US Mint, Perth Mint and Royal Canadian Mint.
Gold sales increased by a massive 500% at the US Mint and more than doubled at the Perth Mint and Royal Canadian Mint. Silver sales doubled at the US Mint while the Perth Mint boosted silver sales by 42%. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 1 Comments
Both gold and silver put in very strong performances in 2020, with the gold price in US dollars rising by over 25%, gold’s best annual return since 2010. The silver price rise in US dollars was even more impressive in 2020, ending the year nearly 48% higher, also silver’s best performance since 2010.
With Bitcoin’s price rise again in the headlines, some may ask why gold... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 7 Comments
As the latest SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) annual 10-K statement hits the tape, there are a number of troubling developments which should concern the SEC and GLD investors alike. These include:
Why the GLD Sponsor CFO resigned on 29 September 2020, one day before financial year end of 30 September.
Why the latest GLD 10-K withholds data on how much gold the GLD held at the... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 10 Comments
In a startling overstep of its remit, the bullion bank consortium, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), under cover of the OECD and a group of NGOs, has just launched a campaign against the independence of gold trading centres around the world, threatening to blacklist any market which fails to follow an LBMA set of recommendations about gold sourcing.
The attack is... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
If the US presidential election is contested, appealed, and its outcome challenged, this will create near term market uncertainty, volatility and unrest. But whoever the victor, Fed QE and US government stimulus spending will continue, amid the associated destruction of the dollar and economy. All of which is gold price positive. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
A recent gold related article from newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ revisited the infamous United Kingdom gold sales of 1999 which were conducted under Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time Gordon Brown.
This article prompted Robert Pringle, founder of Central Banking Publications, first executive director of the Group of 30, and former head of World Gold Council's public policy... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 4 Comments
Since 2014, there have been a staggering six Chief Financial Officers in charge of accounting at the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, the famous NYSE listed SPDR Gold Trust (GLD).
Specialists in recruitment, sell-side analysts, and human resources academics all agree that high CFO turnover is something that raises red flags in corporate environments. It is also something... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 15 Comments
In January 2013, Germany’s Bundesbank announced that the deadline for its substantial gold repatriation plan was the year 2020. Two years later in 2015, the Austrian central bank in a similar move said that it too had a 2020 deadline for its gold repatriation operation.
Were these central banks inadvertently revealing that 2020 would usher in a monetary reset? Fast forward to... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 10 Comments
Another month, another US court case involving precious metals traders from the big banks being prosecuted for manipulating gold and silver prices.
This time it is traders from Germany’s Deutsche Bank being prosecuted by the US DoJ. But one important point that the media has missed is that one of these traders was a director of the critically important London Gold and Silver... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Claiming a sudden need for increased transparency, the Bank of England and LBMA in London have now moved from reporting gold and silver vault inventories on a 3 month lagged basis to a 1 month lagged basis.
However, there is more to this move than meets the eye, and the change looks to be part of a regulatory concession before rolling out COMEX contract delivery using metal... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 9 Comments
A few weeks ago, in a very stealthy manner, CME Group in coordination with the LBMA, massively expanded the lists of approved gold and silver bar brands that can be delivered against the flagship COMEX GC 100 gold and SI silver contracts.
While this signals gold and silver bar delivery constraints at the COMEX, that is only half the story, as the real intention of these changes... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 15 Comments
The latest SEC filing by the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) released this week contains the bombshell detail that the world’s largest gold-backed ETF is increasingly resorting to sourcing gold bars at the Bank of England. At least 70 tonnes of gold and possibly up to 150 tonnes.
With GLD and its custodian HSBC resorting to such tactics and interfacing with the murky world of central... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 2 Comments
After rising rapidly to the $2070 range, the US dollar gold price has now corrected sharply . What took nearly 2 weeks to go up, has now unwound in a matter of 3-4 days. But sometimes this is the nature of corrections, sharp and extreme.
Corrections are healthy and form stronger support. Markets never continually move in one direction. Over 12 years ago, famous gold guru Jim... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 7 Comments
In what is a memorable week for gold and silver prices, the US dollar price of gold is approaching an all time high, while the price of silver has surged this week by over 18%.
The current price action in gold and silver is igniting investment interest in everything from gold and silver mining shares to precious metals ETFs, while in the physical bullion markets, savers and... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 0 Comments
Zing News, one of Vietnam’s leading news and media platforms, this week published an article examining the reasons behind the strong upward move in the gold price and its sustainability, quoting extensively from BullionStar's input.
In Vietnam, which has a very strong tradition of gold ownership and use of physical gold in transactions, the Zing News digital newspaper has... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 2 Comments
Triggered by a COMEX-Spot spread blow out in the wake of a delivery failure in gold Exchange for Physical (EFP) transactions, an unprecedented 730 tonnes of gold has flowed into COMEX gold vaults between 24 March and 30 June, mostly into the vaults of JP Morgan and Brink's.
The chain of events can be traced back to the LBMA rush on 24 March to “facilitate physical delivery of... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 2 Comments
As a former Banque de France central banker joins the board of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) as an “Independent” director, replacing a former New York Federal Reserve central banker who also served on the same board as an “Independent” director, we must ask ourselves why have these central bankers so much interest in gold and the LBMA.
Particularly as the... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 9 Comments
The unprecedented shock which London and New York gold markets experienced beginning 23-24 March left a lot of fallout in its wake, from bullion banks scrambling to secure physical gold to send to New York, to deteriorating liquidity in both the COMEX and London markets.
Yet three months on from the detonation whose blast waves were felt on both sides of the Atlantic, the... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 5 Comments
There is something broken in the London gold market and the evidence points back to HSBC, both in physical and paper gold. During April, HSBC began turning to the Bank of England gold vaults to source at least 45 tonnes of gold for the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD). Did HSBC run out of gold in its own secretive London vault?
Now it emerges that... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 11 Comments
While media focus has recently been on the current gold price dislocation between London spot and COMEX New York futures, there is another persistently large discount that so far has evaded the spotlight. That is the twice daily LBMA Gold Price benchmark.
By ignoring the much higher COMEX gold futures prices while setting the LBMA Gold Price auction starting price, the auction... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 1 Comments
The US Mint has just implemented an indefinite shutdown to its West Point Mint facility due to a surge in coronavirus cases in Orange County New York where the West Point Mint is located.
As the only production facility for the famous American gold Eagles and American gold Buffalo bullion coins, the West Point shutdown puts a further strain on an already constrained supply... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 11 Comments
A newly discovered document from COMEX operator CME to the CFTC contains a full-scale admission that much of the ‘eligible gold inventory’ in COMEX New York vaults is held by long-term holders and cannot be included in deliverable supply.
The COMEX concedes that eligible gold should therefore have a 50% haircut applied. With this bombshell admission, it means there is far... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 5 Comments
As the saga of the large price differential continues to persist between COMEX gold futures prices and London gold spot prices, it is obvious that all is not well with the bullion banks in the paper gold markets.
And this is despite statements galore from the LBMA and COMEX and the launch of a new gold futures contract. The underlying problem seems to be the LBMA gold market... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 1 Comments
In the space of a week, the bullion bank dominated LBMA and CME(COMEX) in an air of panic, have issued not one, but two rushed out statements to try to placate the global gold market.
In the modern gold market this is unprecedented. While LBMA-CME claim that physical gold stocks in London and New York are at healthy levels, the reality is far more concerning. Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 8 Comments
As the LBMA and CME scramble to keep the paper gold show on the road and monopolise gold price discovery, they have now launched a new gold futures contract which is deliverable using 400 oz gold bars.
But according to the COMEX gold vault inventory report, there are no 400 oz gold bars in any of the COMEX approved vaults in New York. Is this yet again a giant smokescreen by... Continue Reading
Ronan Manly 6 Comments
With extreme demand and supply shortages in the physical gold market, it was only a matter of time before the paper gold markets in London and New York would come under strain. That time is now.
With the spot price of gold lagging the price of COMEX gold futures for the third day running, the LBMA is now colluding with the COMEX on bailing out bullion banks. But who is bailing... Continue Reading
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