"We must always tell what we see. Above all, and this is more difficult, we must always see what we see."
Charles Péguy
The first chart below shows the amount of gold that has been taken out of the vaults of various funds and ETFs since the beginning of this year.
The number in black is the total number of tonnes that have been removed from their vaults, presumably to be sold off into the market, most likely heading for points East based on the import export data which we have seen.
The number in red is the percent decline in the fund or ETF total inventory this year.
The more I look into this, the more I see the fingerprints of a few Western bullion banks, with their activities centered in New York and London, with some minor involvement from the Swiss.
Physical supplies are a bit thin. That seems to be clear from various analyses of flows of gold from West to East. Even with the steep price declines in silver, there is absolutely nothing comparable to this happening with the silver ETFs and Funds.
I read a bank analyst opinion today that the declines in gold bullion inventory show 'investor disenchantment' with gold bullion. That might be more credible if the supplies of bullion held in these funds were not primarily determined by bullion banks, who are also playing the markets for their own books.
I am fascinated at the apparent repeal of the law of supply and demand.
The lack of reform in the financial system is strangling the real economy, and perverting the minds and hearts of weaker willed men and women who destroy their own selves in the service of 'easy money.'
One wonders where the gold will be obtained when this trend reverses. Venezuela seems to be willing to swap its sovereign wealth into the market. Germany and a few other countries are already there.
Weighed and found wanting.
Stand and deliver.
As always, this data is supplied by master data wrangler Nick Laird at Sharelynx.com.
This comes from a much larger chart of almost every major gold bullion publicly disclosed vault. I carve out those with major holdings and present them individually on the chart above. The master chart provides the 'big picture' and includes vaults with little activity, such as the Central Fund and the Sprott Fund.
Here is the chart in which Nick shows all 'transparently held' gold and silver in these public funds and ETFs as a single total. Compare gold to silver which is shown just below it.
For those who have expressed an interest here is the latest potential 'Owners Per Ounce' for gold bullion that is deliverable at these prices at the Comex. The figure in the first chart above is for total gold in all Comex warehouses, both deliverable and that which is in customer storage at one of their accredited vaults, but is not for sale.
There has been a sizable drain out of the Comex warehouses in general. I wonder why?
I think the reasons that these things are happening are not all that mysterious, but rather are easily understandable once you can see them for yourselves. The problem is getting some people to see what they in fact are seeing.
