While Banks Crumble, The Next Leg Up For Gold Prices Draws Near

I blogged about the BIS reconsidering gold's status as a Tier 1 asset earlier.  Here's another take.

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article35347.html

Epic, Grotesquely Surreal Friday Humor

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/epic-grotesquely-surreal-friday-humor

Pretext:  Tier 1 Capital is a measure of a bank's financial strength.  Dexia, rated "best under adverse scenario" in this so-called stress test, just collapsed earlier this week.  You can't make this $hit up.

Note the additional irony that Bank of America organized this event.  Yes, that same bastion of American banking stability.  /sarcasm

LBMA campaigns for gold to be Tier 1 asset for banks under Basel III

http://www.arabianmoney.net/gold-silver/2011/09/20/lbma-campaigns-for-gold-to-be-tier-1-asset-for-banks-under-basel-iii/

LBMA campaigns for gold to be Tier 1 asset for banks under Basel III

It is indeed interesting that the LBMA is advocating gold to be a Tier 1 asset, as the LBMA members are the worst perpetrators of gold price suppression schemes. 

http://www.arabianmoney.net/gold-silver/2011/09/20/lbma-campaigns-for-gold-to-be-tier-1-asset-for-banks-under-basel-iii/

European central banks have become net buyers of gold for the first time in more than two decades, a significant sign that the role of precious metals in currency markets is not only being reassessed but actually changing, reported The Financial Times, while there also is a campaign afoot to include gold as a Tier 1 bank asset with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

However, the Basel III initiative is highly significant too because it would trigger a far wider use of gold within the banking system, not quite a return to the gold standard but the next best thing as far as demand for the yellow metal is concerned.

Presently Tier 1 assets include government bonds such as Greek bonds and a widening of Tier 1 to include precious metals is seen as a way of shoring up confidence in the banking sector with assets that do not require official rating because there is zero counter-party risk.
The Chinese central bank has openly called for gold to be a part of a basket of assets used to support a new super-currency from the IMF, another indication of mounting support at the highest levels for giving a greater role to gold in the global economy,...

There is presently no pressure for silver to return to its old monetary role. Nonetheless if gold becomes more important then it would be logical to include silver, if only because the additional demand for gold would put considerable upward pressure on the gold price and silver is an alternative precious metal.

That is where the interest comes for gold and silver speculators of course. There is not sufficient gold in all of the world, for example, to back the US dollar fully with gold, and to do so estimates of the gold price range from $10-12,000 an ounce.

Silver is even rarer than gold with far smaller physical stocks and very little capacity to expand production that is often a by-product of huge copper mines.