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      "author": "steemitboard",
      "permlink": "steemitboard-notify-markobyrne-20190801t195112000z",
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      "body": "Congratulations @markobyrne! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@markobyrne/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@markobyrne) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=markobyrne)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:\nhttp://www.goldcore.com/uk/gold-blog/how-medicine-may-harness-the-power-of-gold-to-fight-cancer/",
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      "permlink": "gold-has-yet-another-purpose-help-fight-cancer",
      "title": "Gold Has Yet Another Purpose – Help Fight Cancer",
      "body": "– Gold has yet another purpose and may help fight cancer\n– Gold increases effectiveness of drugs used to treat cancer cells by acting as catalyst – research shows\n– Use of gold in technology and health growing each year\n– Tech use to increase- number of patent applications in 2017 grew\n– Industrial applications such as solar and bio-metrics reduce availability of above ground supply and gold for investment\n– Another string to the bow of gold and potential impact on sentiment towards gold and on the gold price\n– ‘Could gold finally have a purpose?’ bizarre headline ignores gold’s 2,500 plus year history as a means of exchange, money and a store of value\n\n\n![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVDWCQJNjfdDnBMYYCBsJE4M4h1rFMikYDunt6z7PpM1f/image.png)\nSource: Pinterest\n\n\nReal, scientific evidence has been popping up for a while now which suggests the precious metal can make some major contributions to the world of science and medicine.\n\nAs a fan of Goldschläger I have long been convinced of the health benefits of gold and just last week a research team at Edinburgh University announced results that showed gold nanoparticles could increase the effectiveness of drugs used to treat lung cancer cells.\n\nThis latest announcement from the field of science is one of many which have been cropping up outside of the investment space, from medicine to solar panels to space technology, gold is making significant strides when it comes to its place outside of the financial world.\n\nIn the last quarter, gold used in technology rose 2% y-o-y, according to the World Gold Council. This was mainly thanks to a growth in demand for bonding wire, Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) and LEDs.\n\nIt is not surprising that gold has a place beyond money. Due to it high conductivity, chemical stability and compatibility with other elements it is an ideal candidate in many applications.\n\nAs technology and research improves the number of use cases for gold is growing each year. This is beneficial for those who are investing in physical gold bullion.\n\nDemand for gold’s physical properties in science takes it out of circulation and increases the demand for physical gold thereby reducing the availability for investment purposes.\n\nBelow, we take a quick look at some of the use cases of gold and explain why this is good news for the gold market.\n\nGold compounds\n\nScientific research into the health benefits of gold has been going on for some time. But, as we have seen with other alternative treatments such as colloidal silver, there have been occasional negative results and this has slowed research in this area.\n\nFrequently uses for gold in medicine are pushed to the wayside due to a lack of technology that can maximise the benefits of the metal. This means side effects have been serious and enough to outweigh the benefits for many users.\n\nFor example, in 1935 studies into the benefits of ‘gold salts’ were carried out. The term refers to gold compounds used in medicine, a practice known as aurotherapy. One of the main uses for gold compounds in health was as an anti-inflammatory. However it was rarely encouraged by the medical mainstream due to unwanted side effects such as skin discolouration, chrysiasas and kidney issues.\n\nBut, as scientific methods improve research is able to find ways to harness the benefits of the precious metal without such dramatic side effects, as we have seen with this latest news. This is mainly thanks to the growing role of tech in health, as scientists work to see how we can use technology to improve diagnoses and treatment, rather than just look to chemicals and how they might cure us.\n\nA (perhaps) more impressive use for gold in health was revealed last year, in Israel when researchers from the Israel Institute of Technology developed sensors made from gold nanoparticles which can be used in a breath test in order to identify different diseases.\n\nWhilst the test is not yet accurate enough for mainstream use, the Institute’s sensors could identify the specific disease 86% of the time after allowing for factors such as age and gender.\n\nHealth remains a small field for gold as scientists work to perfect developments, but it can look to the area of technology for inspiration in terms of its potential.\n\nGold’s in vogue – energy and security\n\nOne of the major criticisms of gold, by the environmental lobby is the energy intensive process involved in mining for gold.\n\nWhilst mining companies work to reduce their impact on the environment, the yellow metal is being used in energy harnessing methods through solar panels and so is almost working on the flip side of this issue.\n\nIn 2011 a team of French and Dutch scientists found that a discontinuous film of gold nanodots just 0.5nm thick, across a solar panel could improve the efficiency of organic photovoltaic cells (already a low cost option in alternative energy). This layer needed to just cover 15% of the cells in order to see an improvement in performance.\n\nOf course, solar panels and alternative energy sources are increasingly important, especially as governments fight to work out a solution to the energy crisis. Another area growing rapidly (much to many readers’ chagrins) is the area of biometric security.\n\nThat trendy smartphone you have that lets you access your information using your fingerprint, is most likely using gold bonding wire. The wire is a key component in this area which has recently hit the mainstream.\n\nIn 2016 Samsung and Huawe began to use biometric security in their products. As a result, sensor makers in mainland China, Taiwan and South Korea were operating at full capacity leading them to increase both prices and lead time to meet demand.\n\n‘Could gold have yet another purpose?…’\n\nOne of the headlines about this news that grabbed our attention was courtesy of CNBC, it read ‘Could gold finally have a purpose? New research says it could help in the fight against cancer.’\n\nMight we suggest that the headline needs rewriting? Perhaps to read, ‘Could gold have yet another purpose?…’\n\nAs we said at the beginning, this latest announcement from the field of science is one of many which have been cropping up from medicine to solar panels to space technology, gold is making huge strides when it comes to its place outside of the financial world.\n\nGold save all ills? Financial disaster and now cancer\n\nGold retains an important place and a role in the financial and monetary world. It has been money for over 2,500 years and it continues to be. Not only for those in India and China, but also central banks and investors who see the purpose of gold as one of financial protection and long-term benefits.\n\nThe growing use of gold in industrial applications suggests that these new uses for gold have the potential to increase demand, reduce supply and increase the attractiveness of this ever-useful metal. In turn, this extra demand leads to more broad based demand and could lead to higher prices.\n\nIt is also worth asking if the industrial gold element of the market will be enough to cause physical gold demand to have more influence on the price of gold. Currently it is primarily driven by the paper and electronic market.\n\nThere is another way to look at this as well, investing in anything to do with tech is very fashionable right now, but it can also be as risky – see the FANG (Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google) stocks as an example.\n\nSo, when investing in physical, allocated gold you are not only investing in sound money but also a technological asset, which has a lot more real world uses backing it than a trendy online platform.\n\nIn short, gold is coming back in fashion and more importantly is becoming more useful by the day.\n\nwww.GoldCore.com",
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      "title": "Bank Of England Warns “Bigger Systemic Risk” Now Than 2008",
      "body": "– Bank of England warn that “bigger systemic risk” now than in 2008\n– BOE, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) concerns re financial system\n– Banks accused of “balance sheet trickery” -undermining spirit of post-08 rules\n– EU & UK corporate bond markets may be bigger source of instability than ’08\n– Credit card debt and car loan surge could cause another financial crisis\n– PRA warn banks returning to similar practices to those that sparked 08 crisis\n– ‘Conscious that corporate memories can be shed surprisingly fast’ warns PRA Chair\n\n![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcTmLKCADhGWjr9MnQT13ZgsFBWwJ1vPPHGu51ZqBpdPt/170709-02.jpg)\n\nStark warnings have been issued by the Bank of England and its regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).\n\nIn less than one week the two bodies issued papers and speeches to warn industry members that many banks are showing signs of making the same mistakes that led to the 2008 financial crisis – the outcomes of which are predicted to be worse than those seen just nine years ago.\n\nIncreased risks have been noted at different ends of the financial system, from the European corporate bond markets right through to retail lenders.\n\n![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmWy8kG149NzWsPZb4ccw5eefid1AWBTsjGwwY9X41d9gF/bank-of-england.jpg)\n\nThe Bank of England’s ‘Stimulating Stress Across the Financial System’ was released last week. It looks at how it will assess risk in future studies on the European corporate bond market. It concludes that the corporate bond market could create more instability during the next financial shock than it did in the crisis of 2008.\n\nJust two days before this stark warning, the PRA’s chief-executive Sam Woods told lenders that they were on thin ice with their innovations designed to reduce their capital requirements and buoy earnings. Woods said that whilst their innovations “might meet the letter of the regulation” they must not be “designed to circumvent the spirit” of banking rules.\n\nBank of England’s Woods accused banks of engaging balance sheet trickery to “circumvent the spirit” of post-financial crisis rules.\n\nBoth warnings over both sets of practices is yet another reminder of the stark difference of interests between taxpayers, regulators and the banking industry.\n\nNews of institutions circumventing regulations and non-bank corporate lenders creating more risk in the system begs the question if the financial system as we know it will ever be fit for purpose in terms of looking after the needs of borrowers and savers. It also rises concerns about how safe the banks are for depositors and whether banks are ‘safe for savers?’\n\nBalance sheet shenanigans\n\nOne of the ‘innovations’ being used by banks is the very same that was used in the run-up to and exacerbated the 2008 financial crisis. It is the use of special purpose vehicles which are used to hold riskier assets in order to free up capital.\n\nWoods told the news conference:\n\n“We have noticed that some institutions are now moving on-balance-sheet financing to off-balance-sheet formats using special purpose vehicles, derivatives, agency structures or collateral swaps.”\n\nPractices such as these are being done in order to reduce the burden of new rules which have come or are coming into play. The Bank of England and the regulatory authorities are close to completing and implementing the reforms that were agreed to following the 2008 crisis.\n\nHowever the changes designed to make banks less risky have meant margins are being squeezed from two directions, both by new regulations and record low interest rates.\n\nThe regulators’ concerns over these practices are that they circumvent a regulation designed to protect taxpayers from yet another bank bailout. These are the ring fencing rules much lauded about following the financial crisis. They require that those banks and building societies with more require financial institutions with more than £25bn of deposits to tie off their retail divisions from the riskier investment banking units by 2019.\n\nThis is the most costly of the reforms being put into place, rumoured to have a price tag of billions of pounds.\n\nWidespread illiquidity leads to panic\n\nMeanwhile, on the other side of the market (but still as entwined and as risky as banks’ circumvention tactics) the Bank of England study has shown that they have some significant concerns about the effects of non-bank lenders in a stressed market, particularly on corporate funding rates and their impact on the real economy.\n\nThe central bank is primarily concerned that those dealers making markets in bonds will not be able to cope with panic-selling levels by investors. The study found that 2008 levels of weekly mutual fund redemptions  (1 percent of assets under management) could increase corporate bond interest rates for companies with high credit ratings by about 40 basis points.\n\nDealers might struggle to absorb these sales if redemptions are only a third higher, an event which the study described as “an unlikely, but not impossible, event”.\n\nWhilst the study states that this was an incomplete exercise in assessing the risk in the system, it was clear that it had raised cause for concern namely due to such risks creating a feedback loop between individually safe parts of the market that amplified the shock.\n\n“Nevertheless, it has allowed a scenario to be explored in which large-scale redemptions from open-ended investment funds trigger sales by those funds, with resulting spillover effects to dealers and hedge funds.”\n\nConcerns over how widespread illiquidity can lead to panic amongst investors is fresh in regulators’ and institutions’ minds following the episode post-Brexit vote when there was a run on real estate funds and a temporary ban was placed on withdrawals following the surge in redemption requests.\n\nThere is little reason why, given the right set of economic circumstances, such an event wouldn’t happen in the corporate bond market.\n\nCurrently there are two events in the near future which could prompt a sell-off in corporate bonds.\n\nThe first is a potential reduction in the monthly €60 billion of securities the ECB currently buys. Should they decide to reduce these then investors may dump bonds in favour of equities, cash or gold.\n\nThe second potential problem is of course Italy. The general election is due to happen before next May and should Eurosceptic party, the Five Star Movement, win then we are likely to see panicked bond selling.\n\nWorries about corporate bond markets or balance sheet shenanigans by banks do not seem to be causing much concern amongst the UK electorate and savers. But a quick snapshot of how finances look at a household level should be provide a much needed wakeup call.\n\nA decade on, what damage can be done\n\nWoods’s speech about the state of banks’ clever balance sheets was ultimately about their desires to return ‘to the punchbowl’ as they try to boost credit and risk. The chief executive said that his organisation had seen”a shift in credit risk appetite as lenders compete with each other to find ways of widening the pool of available borrowers, increasing the size of loans available to them, or reducing the credit premium charged for inherently more risky loans.”\n\nThe state of the things at a retail level is somewhat terrifying. Household lending is growing at 10.3% a year – outpacing the 2.3% rise in household income. The total credit owed by UK consumers at the end of April 2017 was £198 billion, with credit card borrowing at a record £67.7 billion. The BOE is so concerned that it has told lenders to set aside £11.4 billion to protect against defaults.\n\nMore concerning about the state of household debt is that Bank of England data shows 15.75pc of all new mortgages taken out in the first quarter of 2017 were for terms of 35 years or more.\n\nBut, the latest growing area of debt is car financing. £58 billion of car dealership finance. Just £24 billion of this comes from banks. The rest is from other lenders, such as dedicated motor finance firms. They do not have to follow the strict lending rules on having capital buffers to cover losses like banks do – a development the Bank of England is concerned about.\n\nIt has been ten years since the last interest rate hike. A decade is a long-time, enough time for the market to welcome in a new generation of borrowers who are unfamiliar with higher interest rates and the dangers of borrowing. Most concerning is it seems no matter who they borrow from, they are disinterested in the state of regulatory demands.\n\nIt has been more than a decade since 60+ banks and building societies were issued a similar warning in 2004. Many failed to listen to the warnings given.\n\n“As survivors, societies here today ought to be well aware of the warning signs, but I’m conscious that corporate memories can be shed surprisingly fast…I would observe that part of the reason why only 44 societies are attending this conference rather than the 60+ that came to its equivalent in 2004 lies in the fact that many of those societies were unaware of, or failed to control, the risks they were taking.”\n\n– Sam Woods of PRA\n\nSimilarly aware of this lack of insight, the Bank of England recently asked lenders how these new borrowers affected the banks’ credit-scoring models, as the banks themselves are the first line of defence when it comes to protecting the economy (and taxpayers) against increased risk.\n\nSam Woods’s speech last week suggest that banks and building societies are most likely unconcerned with the risk these new borrowers bring to the system.\n\nIn May, the British households borrowed £1.7 billion in May, higher than the £1.4 billion that forecasters expected and the £1.438 billion borrowed in April. This rapid growth of consumer credit will pose a risk to banks when the economy falters and borrowers struggle to repay the loans.\n\nConclusion\n\nThese warnings from the Bank of England and the PRA just serve to remind us that there is little in the financial system which is not exposed to the highly speculative and risky lending practices of those charged with looking after our savings and investments.\n\nEven if some banks are listening to the warning cry of the regulators, the level of debt in the financial system in the UK and most western countries is completely unsustainable.\n\nUltimately all of the above means that your personal finances and your savings held in deposit accounts are at risk. The risk is that when authorities move to bailout the next bank who enjoyed the punch a bit too much, your savings may be confiscated in bank deposit bail-ins.\n\nWhy do we like physical gold and silver? Because when you buy it in the right way, you own it outright.\n\nWhen you own physical gold and silver coins and bars which is allocated, segregated and in your name, it cannot suffer a ‘haircut’ or be confiscated by bankrupted financial entities. Bullion coins and bars are yours and carry no counter party risk if you take insured delivery or store in the safest vaults in the world.\n\nwww.GoldCore.com",
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