💰 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 The race to move gold bars out of London is so frantic they're even in the cargo of your flight to JFK
🔶️ The stampede to jet gold to New York led to a weekslong queue, as the Brits call it, to withdraw bars from the Bank of England’s subterranean stocks. Officials tasked with monitoring London’s bullion market have fielded anxious calls from bankers asking to short-circuit the system, said people familiar with the matter. The Bank of England responded that they have to wait for their turns.
🔶️ The gold rush shows how Trump’s steps to reshape world trade are rippling through international markets. He recently said Europe’s trade stance versus the U.S. was an atrocity, and promised punishing levies on the region. While it isn’t clear whether any tariffs would affect gold directly, the price spread widened after Trump unveiled broad-based aluminum and steel tariffs this week.
🔶️ Security firms shuttle bullion to the airport in London in high-strength vans. Comex contracts require a different size of bar, so traders need to send gold to Swiss refiners to recast it before flying on to the U.S. Sometimes, they cut out the first European leg by handing the refiner gold in London in exchange for the right size of bar, or flying bullion in from Australia instead.
📝🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 - On the Brink: Showdown in the Middle East
Amid an escalating American buildup, it’s clear Witkoff’s list of demands is more of a request for surrender. Accepting the abolition of its nuclear program and limitations on its ballistic missile force would leave Iran powerless to defend itself in any future conflict, which is the entire point of asking for these “concessions”. This demarche is a poison pill meant to justify further action when Iran rightly refuses it or, should they be foolish enough to actually accept it, will make the job of Israel and the U.S. easier when they inevitably tear up any agreement to conduct strikes anyway. The goal here for Tel Aviv and Washington isn’t peace and anybody who thinks they actually care about protesters needs to get their head checked; they want a final showdown with Iran to remove it as an obstacle to themselves in the Middle East.
For those that don’t remember, in the lead up to the 12 Day War last year...