Only a few weeks ago, the Bank of England's subsidiary, the western gold industry mouthpiece so-called the World Gold Council. Claimed that global central bank gold buying last year in 2022 hit the highest level since a year before their London Gold Price rig failure in 1967.
This past week, the Bank of England's World Gold Council admitted a massive central bank gold-buying error in their reports of the ongoing facts.
You might recall me flashing this chart from a Financial Times article published last week.
They messed up and accidentally reversed their data sets from the last time they failed to keep the gold price politely suppressed.
In our video, you can see their admitted erroneous chart from 1950 to 2022.
Here is the correct portrayal of historical central bank gold demand data post WW2. Last year was allegedly the largest central bank gold bullion buying spree since WW2.
And me being the gold data nerd that I am, we're going further back to see how this government gold bullion buying galore stands up to when he had more disciplined albeit still pseudo gold standards in effect.
This longest-term official world gold reverse chart from the United States Civil War era to 2022.
The thin red line running vertically through it likely marks the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement. The world monetary agreement at the end of World War 2 set us up as the near-unscathed gold powerhouse we were at the time. Still, to this day, the leverage produced by the global monetary rules of the then-game agreement has allowed us to dominate the world with our waning reserve fiat currency, US dollar, and fiat financialization plumbing power (e.g., US debt assets and payment infrastructure).
On the chart, left of the thin red vertical line, is 5-year combined data bars; thus, it's near impossible to tell if last year was the all-time central bank gold bullion net buy volume in one year.
Regardless, all the major financial media rags worldwide misinformed their readerships. Don't expect Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, or the Financial Times to make amends or publish new articles stating their error. That it is at least not since WW2 and the Bretton Woods Agreement we have seen legal tender currency issuing cartels buy this much gold bullion.
After all, central banks have been front-running this trade since the 2008 global financial crisis. So while they collude in trying to quickly build fiat CBDC systems to trap their citizens into high inflationary digital control grids to come.
Regarding aggressive reserve allocations into bullion, watch what they are doing at record paces for a clue of where we're heading.
The silver and gold markets continued sideways to slightly down for the week.
The spot silver price closed the week just over $22 oz ask. The spot gold price finished near an $1870 oz ask price.
The spot gold-silver ratio slightly moved higher, now near 85.
Another industry council revised some of its data this week.
The Silver Institute increased last year's silver bullion demand figure to an all-time record high of 1.24 billion oz. Silver demand in 2022 outweighed supply by now, an updated -253 million oz mismatch. That's 59 million more ounces than their original estimate late last year of -194 million oz.
And while this week they published a report of how the silver market may continue facing headwinds this year, they are still projecting another deficit of -119 million oz for this year 2023.
Of course, we'll see about that guess in time.
In terms of silver supply in 2023, let's quickly look at breaking silver-related news in the world's 3rd largest-producing country of silver, Peru.
Last year, in 2022, their output fell to 3,100 metric tonnes, roughly 100 million oz or about 1/8th of the world's yearly fresh silver mined ore.
This is a monthly Peru silver production chart, and you can see that continued protests and strikes throughout the country over the last few years are having their effect on dwindling outputs.
This past Monday, Feb 6th.
Minas Buenaventura suspended operations of the "Julcani mine" after acts of vandalism by people from communities who broke into the camp and forced the workers to leave the facilities after reading their demands.
And nearly at the same time this week, the Financial Times is publishing articles claiming that gold equities are viewed as a safe haven. Well, I have to ask this important question.
Gold equities are a safe haven from what?
Flat-out failure and underlying stock shares going to zero?
No.
General and overall underperformance versus physical bullion?
No.
Mining shares have been underperforming bullion pretty much since the 2011 highs.
If we're indeed in an era where central banks are front-running everyone buying up as much physical gold bullion as possible on the long-term cheap. As gold bullion supplies in metric tonnage dry up, the next move for many scrambling governments, especially in emerging markets, will be nationalizing mines. Unsecured and especially foreign shareholders are damned.
I know many of you own miners and bullion, and good luck to you. I'll stick with bullion for the increasing costs, risks, and supposed upside leverage in mining shares that all cut both ways.
In this ongoing winter of discontent and structural system changes to come. I'd rather simply own the real things like the Central Banks are increasingly doing.
Finally, to finish this week's update...
I couldn't find a verifiable image of a ticket to the game's face value. This one from a few years ago shows $950 to get a seat. Of course, in the secondary market, the prices paid for these games get ultra silly, but let's assume a $1000 face value per ticket to the game in 2023.
In January 1980, during the last major silver mania phase, it cost $30 face value to get a seat in Miami. So less than an ounce of silver bullion at the time of the game.
Since 1980, the US government has increasingly rigged price inflation data. Looking back at their data, the government would claim that $30 in 1980 would get you about $160 in today's fiat US dollars in 2023.
If using the same pre-1980 inflation tracking data and methodology by Shadow Government Statistics, that 1980 figure balloons to number closer to 1,000 fiat Fed notes today. A seat at the world's largest bread and circus event this Sunday.
I'll watch the silly game live on TV from the comfort of my couch and continue saving bullion for the next mania phase building. Enjoy it if you are too.
That's all for this week's SD Bullion Market Update.
As always, to you out there. Take great care of yourselves and those you love.
