You are here
Desperate Swiss eye euro peg to repel safe-haven flood
And when the Swiss franc is closed as a safe haven amid the worldwide storm of currency devaluation, what's left as a safe haven but gold?
* * *
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph, London
Thursday, August 11, 2011
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8696289/Desperate-Swi...
The Swiss franc retreated against the euro in a wild one-day move on Thursday after top officials at the Swiss National Bank (SNB) floated ideas for a temporary euro peg, a once-unthinkable move.
"Nothing is excluded," said Jean-Pierre Danthine, a SNB board member. "The situation is extremely complex and difficult. There is no magic wand."
The Swiss franc has moved with gold over recent weeks, acting as a magnet for capital flight from the discredited debt currencies of the West. The SNB said the franc is "massively overvalued" and has moved into dangerous territory over the past month.
The hotel and restaurant lobby GastroSuisse said the 240,000-strong tourist sector was in an "extremely precarious" state, while the machine tool industry risks major layoffs and loss of investment to foreign sites.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Golden Phoenix Q2 2011 Conference Call Posted at Company Internet Site
The second quarter 2011 conference call of Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. (GPXM) has been posted at the company Internet site for immediate playback. The call includes updates on the start of gold production at the company's Mineral Ridge gold project in Nevada, the letter of intent to acquire the Santa Rosa gold mine in Panama, and the company's due-diligence efforts to secure a senior stock exchange listing.
The conference call is 18 minutes long and you download an mp3 of it here:
http://www.goldenphoenix.us/audio/GPXMCC071211.mp3
Or play back the call here:
http://goldenphoenix.us/conferencecalls/
Golden Phoenix is a U.S. mining company with international exposure to gold, silver, and strategic metals. The company's business model combines project generation and royalty mining that offers the potential for exploration upside, coupled with the backing of production and future royalty streams. View company videos here:
The SNB has already flooded the banking system with SwFr 80 bn (L65 billion), a vast sum for a country of less than 8 million people. This was overpowered by a wall of money on Wednesday after contagion hit French banks and the US Federal Reserve pledged to hold rates near zero until mid-2013.
The SNB has since gone further, hinting at unlimited liquidity through swap transactions. Short-term rates have fallen below zero, leading to "negative carry" to deter hedge funds, but this may not be enough.
Kurt Schiltknecht, the SNB's former chief economist, said every measure used to curb inflows in a similar crisis in 1978 proved a "failure," including negative rates.
Eventually the bank set a target against the Deutschmark (10 percent above market levels) and pledged to buy foreign currency with printed francs for as long as it took. "It worked well. After some hesitation, the market became convinced," said Mr Schiltknecht. A euro peg would be similar.
Thomas Jordan, the SNB's vice-president, said a "temporary link with Europe's common currency" might be allowable under the bank's mandate so long as it did not compromise Switzerland's monetary independence.
Hans Redeker, currency chief at Morgan Stanley, said Swiss companies have been shielded so far by currency hedges taken out two years ago but these contracts are expiring. "They are running against the clock. The Swiss economy has been stable until now because exporters are still operating at the earlier exchange rate. There could be significant problems next year."
Denmark has avoided Switzerland's fate by pegging to the euro, though the model may be hard to replicate. "Nobody is speculating with the Danish krona. I think a euro peg could work if the SNB is willing to defend the level by creating as much liquidity as needed," said Mr Redeker.
The franc came within a whisker of parity against the euro this week before moving back to SwFr 1.08. It was trading above SwFr 1.65 to the euro before the credit crisis in 2008. Sterling has more than halved against the Swiss currency in just three years.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 15-16, 2011
Sheraton Toronto Centre
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/toronto-resource-investment...
The Silver Summit
Thursday-Friday, October 20-21, 2011
Davenport Hotel, Spokane, Washington
http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/the-silver-summit-2011/48
New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 26-29, 2011
Hilton New Orelans Riverside Hotel
http://www.neworleansconference.com/
Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:
https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
Prophecy Platinum Reports 10.97 Million Ounces Inferred
and 1.04 Million Ounces Indicated PGM+Gold in Yukon
An independent resource report on the Wellgreen project in the Yukon Territory in Canada has just confirmed that it as one of the largest platinum group metals projects in Canada and one of the few outside South Africa, Prophecy Platinum Corp. Chairman John Lee says.
The report, compliant with Canadian National Instrument 43-101, was written by geologist Todd McCracken of Wardrop Engineering Inc., a Tetra Tech company. It incorporated drill data from 701 diamond drill holes (182 surface and 519 underground) totaling more than 53,222 metres. Using a 0.4 percent nickel equivalent cutoff grade, the Wellgreen deposit now contains a total inferred resource of 289.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.53 g/t platinum, 0.42 g/t palladium, 0.23 g/t gold (1.18 g/t PGM and gold), 0.38 percent nickel, and 0.35 percent copper. Separately, the deposit also contains an indicated resource of 14.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.99 g/t platinum, 0.74 g/t palladium, 0.52 g/t gold (2.25 g/t PGM and gold), 0.69 percent nickel, and 0.69 percent copper.
Prophecy Platinum Corp. trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol NKL, on the pink sheets in the United States as PNIKD, and in Frankfurt as P94P.
For the complete press release on the Wellgreen report, please visit:
http://prophecyplat.com/news_2011_july14_prophecy_platinum_new_resource_...
