My new podcast episode is out.

Thomas Klitgaard and James Narron — Crisis Chronicles: Gold, Deflation, and the Panic of 1893

In the late 1800s, a surge in silver production made a shift toward a monetary standard based on gold and silver rather than gold alone increasingly attractive to debtors seeking relief through higher prices. The U.S. government made a tentative step in this direction with the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, an 1890 law requiring the Treasury to significantly increase its purchases of silver. Concern about the United States abandoning the gold standard, however, drove up the demand for gold, which drained the Treasury’s holdings and created strains on the financial system’s liquidity. News in April 1893 that the government was running low on gold was followed by the Panic in May and a severe depression involving widespread commercial and bank failures.…

FRBNY — Liberty Street Economics
Crisis Chronicles: Gold, Deflation, and the Panic of 1893

Thomas Klitgaard, vice president in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group, and James Narron, First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Don Quijones — Clinton Emails: NATO Destroyed Libya to Prevent African Gold-Backed Currency

This was reported here at MNE previously, but it's worth bringing up again.

Raging Bull-Shit
Clinton Emails: NATO Destroyed Libya to Prevent African Gold-Backed Currency
Don Quijones

TASS — Islamic State militants plan to set up their own currency

The coins will be minted from pure gold and silver as it was done in early Islam

TASS
Islamic State militants plan to set up their own currency

David Schwartz — Arizona Silver & Gold Bill Passes State Senate

More of the crazy.

The Arizona Senate on Tuesday approved a measure to make gold and silver legal currency in the state, in a response to what backers said was a lack of confidence in the international monetary system....

The push to establish gold and silver as currency has become increasingly popular in the United States in recent years among some hardline fiscal conservatives, with the backing of groups including the Tea Party movement, American Principles Project and the Gold Standard Institute.

Keith Weiner, president of the Gold Standard Institute advocacy group and a supporter of the bill, said the legislation was needed to counter what he sees as insolvency in the global monetary system.

"The dollar system and all of the other derivative currencies, including the euro, are a recipe for worldwide bankruptcy," Weiner told lawmakers at an earlier hearing, adding that a "sound and honest money system such as gold and silver" was needed to bring stability. 

Do I sense some conflict of interest here?

The Huffington Post
Arizona Silver & Gold Bill Passes State Senate
David Schwartz | Reuters

Economic Collapse — Unprecedented Shortages Of Ammo, Physical Gold And Physical Silver

All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver. Recent events have helped fuel a "buying frenzy" that threatens to spiral out of control. Gun shops all over the nation are reporting that they have never seen it this bad, and in many cases any ammo that they are able to get is being sold even before it hits the shelves. The ammo shortage has already become so severe that police departments all over America are saying that they are being told that it is going to take six months to a year to get their orders. In fact, many police departments have begun to trade and barter with one another to get the ammo that they need. Meanwhile, the takedown of paper gold and paper silver has unleashed an avalanche of "panic buying" of physical gold and physical silver all over the planet. In the United States, some dealers are charging premiums of more than 25 percent over the spot price for gold and silver and they are getting it. People are paying these prices even though they are being told that delivery will not happen for a month or two in many cases. Some dealers are feverishly taking as many orders as they can, and they are just hoping that they will be able to get the physical gold and silver to eventually fill those orders. Personally, I have never seen anything like this. If things are this tight now, what is going to happen when the next major financial crisis strikes and people really begin to panic?

The Economic Collapse
Unprecedented Shortages Of Ammo, Physical Gold And Physical Silver
Michael

Christian Science Monitor — Americans pile into silver, gold coins

Americans pile into silver, gold coins (via The Christian Science Monitor)

Copyright ImageClick to View Gold coins are on display to a buyer at the Republic Monetary Exchange in Phoenix in 2011. Sales of silver and gold coins have surged this year, even as silver and gold prices have fallen. (Matt York/AP/File) As the banking crisis struck in 2007-08, investor Will Mitchell…

Dani Rodrik — The New Mercantilist Challenge

Short summary of mercantilism v. liberalism.

Project Syndicate
The New Mercantilist Challenge
Dani Rodrik | Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government

Neoliberalism combines features (and bugs) of mercantilism and liberalism.

Brian Sylvester interviews Marshall Auerback — Get Ready for the Gold Rebound Before It Is Too Late

Marshall shows that MMT proponents' rejection of a gold standard because it limits policy options doesn't mean that they are not realistic about the gold market.

The Gold Report
Get Ready for the Gold Rebound Before It Is Too Late: Marshall Auerback
Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report interviews Marshall (8/8/12)
(h/t Roger via email)

Even if you are not interested in the gold market, follow the link and scroll down to a look at what Marshall has to say by way of MMT analysis. He expresses it very clearly and precisely. His presentation of the MMT JG is particularly exemplary and positive in tone.

See also Marshall Auerback: Gold and Silver Opportunities in Turbulent Times
Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report interviews Marshall (10/19/11)

Backwardation in Gold And Silver

Because the next successive contracts are not in backwardation (in silver, all contracts from Jul 2015 on are backwardated), it is not a collapse of trust. I think that it is a lack of unencumbered metal. The markets for precious metals, silver more than gold, have become quite tight.

Read it at Zero Hedge
Backwardation in Gold And Silver
by Keith Weiner

Question is why so tight? PM markets signal expectations.

From a balance budget amendment to gold and silver coin

It's getting crazier out there.

The US Senate Gets Gold Rush Fever

Good news, gold bugs. In an effort to promote hard money as an alternative to paper dollars, three tea party senators—Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)—introduced legislation this week to exempt gold and silver coins from taxation....

...states that are looking to go back to gold face a few obstacles—namely, that there's no infrastructure to actually handle an infusion of gold currency. Carrying around a pouch of gold coins would be a burden (and vaguely Medieval), and so boosters tend to agree that for it really to take off, you'd need a centralized storage facility and then a debit-card-like transaction system, neither of which currently exist. And then there's the cost: gold and silver coins from the US Mint are the only coins that could be used as legal tender, and there's a significant markup on those in addition to the taxes. The Lee-Demint-Paul bill is attempting to tackle just one piece of the problem by making it less cost-prohibitive....