In times of financial crises and imminent sovereign defaults, gold is the investment on everyone's lips. As a safe investment, one could traditionally rely on gold markets for good, stable performance, however in recent years, they have seen surprising volatility and price fluctuation, with no visible reason as to why. In The Gold Cartel, seasoned commodity analyst Dimitri Speck illustrates in detail how central banks have secretly manipulated the price of gold in an effort to calm financial markets and control inflation. Using quantitative analysis of historic gold market patterns, the author shows how and when central banks intervene in gold markets, and how this has affected price movement and impacted the global financial markets, leading to the creation of a mega-bubble. Since the abolition of the gold standard in 1971, the indebtedness of the global economy has increased rapidly and has now reached levels way beyond comprehension. What are the mechanisms that have led us to this mega-bubble? Is it possible to avoid a catastrophic outcome like deflation or hyperinflation? And how does this relate to the gold markets? This book has the answers.
Preface 1. Why Gold? 2. The Crises of the 1990s 3. The Strange Behavior of Gold During Crises 4. The Strange Intraday Behavior of Gold 5. The First Statistical Studies 6. Statistical Proof and Dating of Gold Interventions 7. Intraday Movements of the Gold Price 1986-2012 8. Gold is Different 9. Means of Gold Market Intervention I: Sales 10. Means of Gold Intervention II: Gold Lending 11. The Gold Carry Trade 12. Coordination of Private Banks and Central Banks 13. Giving the Game Away: Central Bankers are Human Beings Too 14. The Books are Silent 15. The Miraculous Gold Multiplication 16. How Much Gold is on Loan Worldwide? 17. Means of Gold Intervention III: Intervention through the Futures Market 18. The Gold Pool and Other Gold Market Interventions before 1993 19. August 5 1993, 8:27 a.m. EST: The Beginning of Systematic Gold Market Interventions 20. The Decisive Fed Meeting 21. Greenspan Ponders Gold Market Interventions 22. Phases of Gold Price Suppression 23. Shock and Awe 24. The Financial Market Crisis of 2008 and the Euro Crisis of 2011 25. Strong Dollar and Weak Mining Stocks 26. Interventions in the Silver Market 27. Swapped Bundesbank Gold and Other Mysteries 28. Who Intervenes? 29. The Mystery of May 18 2001, 12:31 30. The Effects of Gold Price Suppression 31. The Wonderful World of Bubbles 32. Have Many Mini-Bubbles Created a Mega-Bubble? 33. Money or Credit 34. Possible Scenarios for the Future 35. Back to Gold