Soros Raises Gold Holding 0.5% in Fourth Quarter

There were a couple of inflation-related stories out of the U.K. yesterday. The first is a cnbc.com piece that was sent to me by reader Scott Pluschau early on Tuesday morning. The headline there reads "UK Inflation Surges to 4%, Highest Since Nov. 2008". British consumer price inflation surged to double the Bank of England's target in January, official data showed on Tuesday, raising pressure on the central bank to look seriously at increasing interest rates. The link is here.

Then late yesterday evening, Roy Stephens sent me a story on the U.K.'s inflation problem that was published late last night in The Telegraph. The headline reads "Interest rates to rise, Mervyn King hints". Mervyn King, the Bank of England’s governor, has given his clearest signal yet that rates could hit 1.25 per cent by the year end, as he warned that inflation could cause serious problems for families over the next three years. I'll be amazed if he raises rates by very much in the light of the other serious problems that the British economy has. The link is here.

Today's next inflation-related story is courtesy of yesterday's King Report. It's a Bloomberg offering that's headlined "China Inflation Data Today Cuts Food Weighting, Newspaper Says". It looks like China has at least one U.S. import...and that's ability to fix its inflation numbers so that everything is not as bad as it seems. Without doubt, they learned all about it from the BLS...and the link to the story is here.

Reader Phil Barlett provides the next item, which is from yesterday's edition of The New York Times. It's an interview with Bernie Madoff that's headlined "From Prison, Madoff Says Banks ‘Had to Know’ of Fraud". It's a rather longish story, but I found it to be a fascinating read...and the link is here.

The next piece is also from The New York Times...and is another story that I stole from yesterday's King Report. The headline of this op-ed piece reads "Wall Street's Dead End". The author says..."In truth, the stock market is becoming increasingly irrelevant — a trend that threatens the core principles of American capitalism."

"These days a healthy stock market doesn’t mean a healthy economy, as a glance at the high unemployment rate or the low labor-market participation rate will show. The Tea Party is right about one thing: What’s good for Wall Street isn’t necessarily good for Main Street. And the Germans aren’t buying the New York Stock Exchange for its commoditized, highly competitive and ultra-low-margin stock business, but rather for its lucrative derivatives operations."

The link to the story is here.

Today's next reading material is from The Telegraph and is courtesy of Roy Stephens once again. The headline here reads "Iranian police fire tear gas into protesters as unrest spreads across Middle East". Thousands of people marching illegally through Iran were targeted by police firing tear gas on Monday as the wave of Middle East revolution continued to spread beyond Egypt and Tunisia. The link to the story is here.

My first gold-related story today is a short piece imbedded in yesterday's Casey's Daily Dispatch. If you scroll down a bit, you'll come to a story headlined "Gold Sees First Major Outflow in Over a Year". It's a handful of short paragraphs and a couple of charts...all of which are worth your time...and the link is here.

The next item that's also worth your time is this piece from Amsterdam reader Ronald Langereis. Last week I ran a story about a Dutch pension fund that is being forced to sell part of its gold position. The appeal against the Dutch National Bank, that's being launched by the pension fund, is still pending...so it all may come to naught. But here's a story about it from Adrian Ash over at the bullionvault.com. It's headlined "Your Pension-Pot Warranty"...and it's worth running through...and the link is here.

Reader Scott Pluschau was kind enough to share the following Bloomberg item with us. It bears the headline "Soros Raises SPDR Gold Holding 0.5% in Fourth Quarter". It looks like these guys have been buying up gold and silver company shares left and right..and there's a list of them in this story. This is worth the read...and the link is here.

Eric King over at King World News sent me a Richard Russell blog in the wee hours of yesterday morning...but because my Tuesday column was already overflowing with stories...I passed on it until now. This one is titled "Richard Russell - Possibility of Gold Breaking to New Highs"...and the link is here.

Australian reader Wesley Legrand sent me the following piece about rare earths in Australia. It's a Bloomberg piece filed over at businessweek.com that's headlined "Australia Blocked Rare Earth Deal on Supply Fears". China’s bid to gain control of the world’s richest rare earth deposit in 2009 was blocked by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board on concern it would threaten supply to non-Chinese buyers. This is worth skimming...and the link is here.

In another blog over at King World News yesterday, it's reported that there is an Asian interest in liquidating shares of the silver exchange-traded fund SLV to obtain dwindling supplies of real metal. Once again KWN uses an un-named London source for this blog...so I would suggest that this piece be taken with a grain of salt. It's entitled "London Source - Asians Buying SLV to Take Delivery of Silver"...and the link is here.

Here's a Bloomberg piece that was filed from Mumbai earlier today. It bears the headline "Metals Demand in India May Double on Transport, Power Projects". Metals demand in India, Asia’s second-fastest growing major economy, may double in five years and remain robust for a decade, fueled by rising car sales and higher spending on infrastructure projects, analysts said. I thank Australia's Nick Laird for this story...and the link is here.

GoldMoney founder James Turk interviews Hugo Salinas Price, president of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver, about silver's potential to return as money and about sound money generally in a 22-minute video you can find posted at the GoldMoney Internet site here.

Lastly today is this Interview With Eric Sprott, the CEO of Sprott Asset Management in Toronto. It's conducted by Dr. Dave Janda over at WAAM 1600 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Eric was on Dave's Operation Freedom show on Sunday. If the length of my show on that station is any indication, this interview should run about 30 minutes in length...and the link is here.