Irish Government To Issue Free Gold Coin To Protect Citizens From Brexit's Impact On Euro and EU

Irish Government To Issue Free Gold Coin To Protect Citizens From Brexit"s Impact On Euro and EU

– Unprecedented move to see Irish government issue free gold coin to Irish citizens
– Controversy as Irish government plans for Irish people to own 1 ounce of gold
– Irish Finance Minister said the “little people” were exposed due to risks from Brexit and the end of the euro
– “Gold can be stored for a long time … doesn’t lose its value for the population as a means of savings”
– Politicians in Ireland criticise move as “too generous” to Irish Americans given Ireland still close to bankruptcy

In an unprecedented move the Irish government is issuing and dispatching a free gold coin to all Irish citizens and foreign persons of Irish heritage.

In a controversial move, the Ministry of Finance plans for Irish people to own at least 1 ounce of gold bullion. The Irish Finance Minister said the “little people” were exposed due to the many risks that Brexit poses to Irish companies and the Irish economy and indeed the risks posed to the EU and the euro itself.

Irish politicians on the left have criticised the move as being “too generous.” They said that wealthy Irish Americans should not benefit from the move given that there is a homeless crisis in Ireland and given that the state was still close to bankruptcy.

Speaking on condition of anonymity the Irish Finance Minster Mr D. O’Gill stated in his Constituency office of Donaghue’s Bar on Baggot Street:

“Sure if the Brits leave us alone to fight the mad Germans and French Looney’ in Europe, sure we will be awful trouble and it won’t belong before the whole Euro project goes up in flames, a bit of gold in the hand will do wonders to calm nerves and keep the party going”.

All Irish people and those who claim Irish descent should register at the local Irish consulate. The Irish Embassy in Washington is expecting significant interest and Irish Americans began queuing the Embassy last night.

Seamus McSeamus, the preeminent personal finance journalist of his times said that the move was “financial lunacy” and that “sure don’t the dogs in the street know that gold is just a silly pet rock and a yellow metal of no value whatsoever. Gold is a volatile, high risk, barbaric relic that has no intrinsic value and should be consigned to the dustbin of history …  you cannot even eat gold … or euros or dollars … Gold is the root of all evil” he wrote in a recent op-ed.

Firebrand, populist Irish politician, Paddy ‘On the Money’ Murphy, has been the driving force behind the ‘Free Gold in Ireland’ campaign. Something of an Irish Nigel Farage – indeed some have said he is something of the beautiful child of a Farage and Le Pens – he has stocked nationalist fires in the campaign:

“The Evil English have their bloody Gold Sovereigns and ‘Rule Britannia’ gold coins and they have protected their wealth from devaluation of the pound over the years. We have nothing but debased base metal coinage and Mario Draghi’s debased euro currency … Its time to take the monetary power back …” 

he shouted to roaring crowds at a recent “Free Gold” rally.

It is about time us Pixies in magical mystical Ireland had our own gold coins – magical, lucky coins – so that us Irish can reclaim our national patrimony and our ‘Crock of gold’ at the end of the EU rainbow.

Ireland’s international gold broker GoldCore stated that the measure proves that gold remains an important safe haven asset and congratulated the Irish finance minister on its prudent measure.

April Fool’s Day !  : )

www.GoldCore.com

Vancouver Home Sales Crash 40%, As Toronto Home Prices Soar 22%

What a difference a year makes.

In January of 2016 horror stories were beginning to emerge about what would soon be confirmed as the biggest housing bubble in Canadian history, courtesy of a massive flood of Chinese "hot money" flooding into  Vancouver, which quickly became one of world’s hottest housing markets. As Bloomberg writes, buyers turned up throughout the winter for bidding wars and sales reached an all-time high. Fast forward to last week, when the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported transactions in Metro Vancouver plunged 40% in January over a year earlier, and down 11.1% relative to December, as both buyers and sellers continue to sit on the amid confusion over whether the recent price gains will continue or whether the bubble has - as we reported last summer - finally burst.

That’s the seventh straight month of declines, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg, and January"s sales were 10.3% below the 10-year average for the month. The ratio of sales to listings - used by the
industry as a harbinger of prices - is also at a two-year low, according
to the board.

And while transactions remain in free fall, prices have still to materially correct, with benchmark home prices up 15.6% in January from a year ago.  The average benchmark selling price of a single-family detached home in the Greater Vancouver Area rose 15.8% y/y to C$1,474,800.

The slowdown is hitting the market for single-family detached homes the hardest. Prices last year had been rising in double digits at this time. In the past six months, they’ve fallen 6.6% to C$1.47 million ($1.13 million), and a 0.6% drop compared to December 2016.

As BBG adds, in September, Vancouver topped a list by UBS Group AG of global cities most at-risk of a housing bubble. Since then, predictions of a downturn in Canada’s priciest real-estate market appear to be materializing after a 15% tax on foreign buyers in August and tighter mortgage rules from the federal government in October. Home prices in the Greater Vancouver region are headed for an 8.5 percent drop this year, Royal LePage forecast last month.

“It’s a lukewarm start to the year,” Dan Morrison, the board’s president, said in the statement. “Home buyers and sellers are more reluctant to engage so far in 2017.”

And while the future of the Vancouver housing bubble remains still in limbo, there are no such concerns about Toronto home prices, which rose more than 20% for the fifth straight month as buyers contended with a shrinking supply of properties on the market. The average home price in Canada’s biggest city jumped 22% to C$770,745 ($591,697) in January from a year earlier, according to the city’s real estate board, and sales climbed 12 percent to 5,188 deals Bloomberg reported. The number of active listings was half the year-earlier figure, and the average days on the market fell to 19 from 29.

“As we move through 2017, we expect the demand for ownership housing to remain strong, including demand from first-time buyers,” Larry Cerqua, president of the real estate board, said in a statement. “However, many of these would-be buyers will have problems finding a home that meets their needs in a market with very little inventory.”

What may be most interesting is that at current run-rates, the two housing markets may soon hit an inflection point, where the average Toronto home costs more than its Vancouver peer: the price for an average detached home in downtown Toronto was C$1.34 million and rising at a bubbly 22% pace, which is rapidly approaching the C$1.5 million average price in Vancouver, and falling. Housing in the western city has cooled, with a foreign-investor tax and escalated prices keeping many buyers on the sidelines, which prompted many foreign buyers to shift to Toronto, as we cautioned in September, and as the data now confirms.