Wednesday, December 28, 2011

War On Gold: China Applies Selective Ban

China has flipped flopped over gold. Over the past years, China has openly urged her citizenry to load up on gold and silver, and even installed their first gold ATMs; now a selective ban will be applied.

Reports the CNBC (hat tip: Bob Wenzel)

Gold exchanges in China outside of two in Shanghai are to be banned, authorities said in a statement released on Tuesday…

The notice — published on the central bank website (www.pbc.gov.cn) — said the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange are enough to meet domestic investor demand for spot gold and futures trading.

Existing exchanges or "platforms" were told to stop offering new services.

The PBOC cited lax management, irregular activities and evidence of illegality which were causing risks to emerge, as the reasons for taking the decision.

The assault on gold trading could be interpreted as an attempt to suppress the public’s growing interest over gold, which alternatively means that China’s inflation figures—4.2% as of December—has been materially underreported.

Also such response are manifestations of China’s boom bust cycles.

Policies are made in the interest of the government and of the political class, and hardly about the public.

Eventually, unsustainable political economic systems will be exposed.

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