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$5,000 Gold Later This Decade?
Gold bullion may reach $5,000 per ounce later this decade, bolstered by rising demand from India and China and slowing production growth, according to Standard Chartered Plc.
Yan Chen, head of metals and mining for the firm, stated that “We are looking for the gold price to reach about $2,000 by 2014,” in a Bloomberg television interview. ”There’s a chance that the gold price can be as high as $5,000 by 2020,” as income growth in China and India fuel demand for the yellow metal.
Chen’s comments came in the wake of yet another new all-time record high for gold prices, which this morning reached $1,603.80 per ounce. Gold has been supported of late by the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the uncertainty over the debt ceiling in the United States, and the prospects of a third round of quantitative easing (QE3) by the Federal Reserve.
The Standard Chartered strategist went on to say that “The gold market will be in deficit in the next couple of years. The central banks are now back buying gold massively, turning from net seller of gold into net buyer.”
China discloses J-10 fighter jet base to S. Korean defense chief
SEOUL, July 17 (Yonhap) — China disclosed a J-10 fighter jet base to the visiting South Korean defense minister last week, a defense official in Seoul said Sunday, a move signaling Beijing’s intent to further strengthen bilateral defense and military exchanges.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin visited a Chinese air force training base in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, on Saturday, the last day of his three-day visit to China for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, the official said.
During his visit to the base, about 200 kilometers south of Beijing, Kim watched the takeoff and landing of a J-10 jet, a China-developed fighter with an operational radius of 1,250 km, before having lunch with Chinese military officers there.
Liang said during his dinner with Kim on Friday that the J-10 jet base has never Read more…
The World Says China Will Overtake America
In the past decade, anti-Americanism grew around the world. This was in response to concerns about the unchecked global power of the U.S., when it invaded Iraq in the face of very wide international opposition. In sharp contrast, today America is seen as on its way to losing its status as the dominant global superpower.Currencies dropping like stones
The markets have not yet thought about it, but the biggest threat to the Euro is not Greece, Ireland or Portugal, but the dangers posed by the fourth largest economy in Europe, which is also the third largest in the Eurozone, that of Italy. Italy is passing austerity measures but the measures may not be enough. The problem that the Euro faces is that there is little central control over the EU economy, control that exists affects states within Europe that have not adopted the Euro, as well as those that have.
Eleven years ago when the merits of the Euro were debated I argued against it. I was not fondly wishing to hold on to the pound sterling for sentimental reasons. I felt that there was a Read more…
Update of Chinese Naval and Military Buildup
Seaborne commerce is an essential part of Chinese trade. According to recent Chinese statistics published in the 2010 China’s Ocean Development Report, ocean commerce in 2008 alone represented 9.87 percent of China’s gross domestic product, with a valuation of nearly 3 trillion RMB (approximately $456 billion). Moreover, some 85 percent of its international trade moves by the sea lanes.
China became the world’s largest shipbuilder in 2010, eclipsing long-time leader Read more…
China Violating Missile Proliferation Controls, Cables State
Recently leaked U.S. diplomatic memos assert that China has flouted missile proliferation controls by selling the arms and their components to Pakistan, Iran and Syria, the Washington Times reported on Wednesday (see GSN, June 2).
A classified September 2009 State Department memo written ahead of a meeting of the 34-nation Missile Technology Control Regime repeatedly references a “lack of political will” on Beijing’s part to block Chinese firms from proliferating missile technology.
The Missile Technology Control Regime is a voluntary coalition of nations that aims to constrain the sale of missiles with traveling distances in excess of roughly 185 miles and explosive payloads weighing more than 1,100 pounds. It also works to head off the proliferation of missiles designed to carry weapons of mass destruction.
“Chinese authorities and firms fail to Read more…
Official confirms ‘carrier killer’ is being developed
GAME CHANGER:Reports claim the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship missile has a range of almost 3,000km, nearly twice as long as previously assessed by the US military
General Chen Bingde speaks during a meeting with US officials at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Monday.Photo: Reuters
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde (陳炳德) confirmed earlier this week that China was developing the Dong Feng 21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), the first Chinese official to publicly state that the missile is in development.
His comments came as the English-language China Daily reported that the DF-21D had a range of 2,700km, well beyond assessments by the Office of Naval Intelligence last year, which put it at about 1,500km.
The missile, which is capable of hitting moving targets at sea and is seen as a potential threat to aircraft carrier battle groups, would represent a powerful deterrent to the US Navy in the Pacific.
However, Chen said the DF-21D, which can be fired from mobile Read more…
Chinese Satellites May Aid Strikes on U.S. Warships: Report
New advanced satellites could enable China to direct its ballistic missiles in striking U.S. naval vessels sailing in the region in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, Reuters reported on Monday (see GSN, Jan. 10).
(Jul. 13) - A U.S. guided missile destroyer fires an artillery round during an exercise last month in the South China Sea. China could train its ballistic missiles on nearby U.S. warships using a new generation of reconnaissance satellites, a report warns (U.S. Navy photo).
A soon-to-be-released analysis in the British Journal of Strategic Studies concludes that the fast pace of work on cutting-edge spy orbiters would give China the ability to monitor up-to-the-minute U.S. military movements and to steer its ballistic missiles in strikes on U.S. warships.
“The most immediate and strategically disquieting application (of reconnaissance satellites) is a targeting and tracking capability in support of the antiship ballistic missile, which could hit U.S. carrier groups,” according to the report.
“But China’s growing capability in space is not designed to support any single weapon; instead it is being developed as a dynamic system, applicable to other long-range platforms,” the analysis continues. “With space as the backbone, China will be Read more…
China’s military modernization in numbers
A look at the key figures that tell the tale of China’s increasing military power:
Malcolm Moore, Shanghai
* +12.6 per cent – the rise in China’s official military budget to around £56.2 billion, still a fraction of the £351 billion that the US has allocated for its core defence budget. (The UK spends £37 billion)
* £96 billion – What the US believes that China is actually spending on defence, rather than the stated figures.
* -22pc – the fall in the number of standing troops in the People’s Liberation Army as China pushes through its modernization programme. The army will shrink from 2.3 million soldiers to 1.8 million, still the largest standing Read more…
Vladimir Putin Calls Bernanke A Hooligan, Angry At American Money Printing
Who would have thought that Ron Paul’s ideological ally in his quest to take down the Chairsatan would be none other than the Russian dictator-in-waiting (or rather, in actuality), Vladimir Putin. In a speech before the of economic experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian prime minister had the following to say: “Thank God, or unfortunately, we do not print a reserve currency but what are they doing? They are behaving like hooligans, switching on the printing press and tossing them around the whole world, forgetting their main obligations.” What appears to have angered the former KGB spy is the end of QE2. According to RIAN: “Putin’s comments came in the wake of the completion of the US’ quantitative easing (QE) 2 program on June 30, in which the Federal Reserve bought $600 billion worth of Read more…
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