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Julius Baer Group Ltd. / Key word(s): Annual Results 02-Feb-2023 / 07:01 CET/CEST Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR All targets for 2020–2022 strategic cycle achieved – Second-highest net profit in Group’s history – Significant net inflow acceleration towards year-end – Dividend unchanged at CHF 2.60 per share Financial targets for 2020–2022 cycle fully achieved: 2022 a djusted cost/income ratio 65.9% (target: <67%) 2022 adjusted pre-tax margin 27 bp (target: 25–28 bp) 2022 adjusted return on CET1 capital 34% (target: >30%) Average annual growth in adjusted profit before taxes over cycle 10.3% (target: >10%) Second-highest result in history of Julius Baer Group Ltd., amidst challenging operating environment: Operating income stable, as benefit from higher interest rates offset impact from market-driven decline in assets under management (AuM) and lower client activity, resulting in higher gross margin of 87 basis points (bp) (2021: 82 bp).

Jay Powell: A Breathing Weapon Of Mass Destruction? Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Below we track how the Powell Fed serves as a contemporary weapon of mass destruction. Powell’s so-called “war against inflation” will fail, but not before crushing everything from risk asset, precious metal and currency pricing to the USD. As importantly, Powell is accelerating global market shifts while sending a death knell to the ignored middle class. Let’s dig in. The Fed: Creators of Their Own Rock & Hard Place In countless interviews and articles , we have openly declared that after years of drunken monetary driving, the Fed has no good options left and is literally caught between an inflationary rock and a depressionary hard-place. That is, hawkishly tightening the Fed’s monthly balance sheet (starting in September at $95B) while raising the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) into a recession was, is and will continue to be an open head-shot to the markets and the economy; yet dovishly mouse-clicking more money (i.e., QE) would be fatally inflationary.

Why Austria''s Monetary Gold Transfer To Switzerland Is Delayed By Jan Nieuwenhuijs of Gainesville Coins In my first article on this topic I wrote the Austrian central bank (OeNB) had implemented a new gold storage concept in 2015, because the national court of audit ( Rechnungshof , RH hereafter) found it was storing too much gold in London at the Bank of England (BOE). OeNB planned to repatriate 90 tonnes from BOE, and transfer 50 tonnes from London to Switzerland. Within five years (by 2020) the new storage concept should have materialized. In 2018, ahead of schedule, the gold had arrived in Austria. However, the shipment to Switzerland hasn’t arrived until this day. First, the problem isn’t in London. There hasn’t been any problem for OeNB withdrawing 90 tonnes to repatriate, so there is little reason to think another 50 tonnes couldn’t be taken out. Austria is politically on good footing with the U.K., unlike Venezuela which has been blocked from repatriating in recent years. Second, in two documents by RH— one from 2015 and another from 2018 —there is evidence OeNB was already storing gold at the Swiss central bank (SNB), and wanted to add 50 tonnes to the same depository.

Julius Baer Group Ltd. / Key word(s): Annual Results 02-Feb-2023 / 07:01 CET/CEST Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR All targets for 2020–2022 strategic cycle achieved – Second-highest net profit in Group’s history – Significant net inflow acceleration towards year-end – Dividend unchanged at CHF 2.60 per share Financial targets for 2020–2022 cycle fully achieved: 2022 a djusted cost/income ratio 65.9% (target: <67%) 2022 adjusted pre-tax margin 27 bp (target: 25–28 bp) 2022 adjusted return on CET1 capital 34% (target: >30%) Average annual growth in adjusted profit before taxes over cycle 10.3% (target: >10%) Second-highest result in history of Julius Baer Group Ltd., amidst challenging operating environment: Operating income stable, as benefit from higher interest rates offset impact from market-driven decline in assets under management (AuM) and lower client activity, resulting in higher gross margin of 87 basis points (bp) (2021: 82 bp).

Jay Powell: A Breathing Weapon Of Mass Destruction? Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com, Below we track how the Powell Fed serves as a contemporary weapon of mass destruction. Powell’s so-called “war against inflation” will fail, but not before crushing everything from risk asset, precious metal and currency pricing to the USD. As importantly, Powell is accelerating global market shifts while sending a death knell to the ignored middle class. Let’s dig in. The Fed: Creators of Their Own Rock & Hard Place In countless interviews and articles , we have openly declared that after years of drunken monetary driving, the Fed has no good options left and is literally caught between an inflationary rock and a depressionary hard-place. That is, hawkishly tightening the Fed’s monthly balance sheet (starting in September at $95B) while raising the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) into a recession was, is and will continue to be an open head-shot to the markets and the economy; yet dovishly mouse-clicking more money (i.e., QE) would be fatally inflationary.

Why Austria''s Monetary Gold Transfer To Switzerland Is Delayed By Jan Nieuwenhuijs of Gainesville Coins In my first article on this topic I wrote the Austrian central bank (OeNB) had implemented a new gold storage concept in 2015, because the national court of audit ( Rechnungshof , RH hereafter) found it was storing too much gold in London at the Bank of England (BOE). OeNB planned to repatriate 90 tonnes from BOE, and transfer 50 tonnes from London to Switzerland. Within five years (by 2020) the new storage concept should have materialized. In 2018, ahead of schedule, the gold had arrived in Austria. However, the shipment to Switzerland hasn’t arrived until this day. First, the problem isn’t in London. There hasn’t been any problem for OeNB withdrawing 90 tonnes to repatriate, so there is little reason to think another 50 tonnes couldn’t be taken out. Austria is politically on good footing with the U.K., unlike Venezuela which has been blocked from repatriating in recent years. Second, in two documents by RH— one from 2015 and another from 2018 —there is evidence OeNB was already storing gold at the Swiss central bank (SNB), and wanted to add 50 tonnes to the same depository.

Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Future of Surveillance And Control Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com One of the most potentially far-reaching trends in the financial landscape right now is the imminent roll-out of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and the parallel attacks which central bankers are waging on private digital currencies and tokens as they tee up the launch of their CBDCs. First some clarifications. While the majority of central bank issued currencies (fiat currencies) in existence around the world are already in digital form, a fiat currency held in digital form is not the same as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). What is a CBDC? A CBDC generally refers to electronic or virtual central bank (fiat) money that is created in the form of digital tokens or account balances which are digital claims on the central bank. CBDCs will be issued by central banks and will be legal tender. Many CBDCs that are being researched and developed employ Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), with the recording of transactions on a blockchain .

Stocks, Bonds, Bullion, & Bitcoin All Drop As Dollar Pops Cryptos made all the headlines today as they pumped and then super-dumped around a narrative of El Salvador ''sell the news'' chatter (and IMF, BIS, and World Bank disappointment that the South American nation dared to edge away from their fiat-uber-alles world) Source: Bloomberg Interestingly, through the last few weeks since El Salvador unveiled its plans to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, the market''s perception of the nation''s credit risk has improved significantly... Source: Bloomberg A little context for today''s move in bitcoin is perhaps worthwhile... (Bitcoin fell from just below $53,000 to just below $43,000 today, but is still up over 50% since El Salvador first floated the idea in early June)... Source: Bloomberg It felt a little like this for a while today... But then the El Salvadorean president stepped in along with a few others to buy the engineered dip... Source: Bloomberg Equities were also dumped today with Nasdaq the only major index to manage gains from Friday.

Did The NY Fed Confiscate $1.3 Billion In Afghan Gold: Striking Revalations From Afghanistan''s Central Bank Chief Yesterday morning, shortly after the acting Afghan central banker chief, Ajmal Ahmady, fled the country (after he was " somehow pushed on board " of a military plane by his colleagues), and warning on twitter that the country has no dollars left domestically (this likely means that any US currency and gold currently stored at the local central bank vault has been pillaged by the Taliban even though the country''s new rulers said in a statement on Saturday that the treasury, public facilities and government offices were the property of the nation and " should be strictly guarded" ), sparking domestic bank runs and a record rout in the local currency, the Afghani, some asked what that means for Afghan reserves stored offshore. Conveniently, overnight Reuters provided a handy breakdown of the international reserves owned by the DAB (as the Afghani central bank is called). The most recent financial statement posted online shows DAB holds total assets of about $10 billion, including $1.3 billion-worth of gold reserves and $362 million in foreign currency cash reserves, according to currency conversion rates on June 21, the date of the report.

British Requests For $3 Billion In US Treasury Gold: The Trigger That Closed The Gold Window Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com "I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States." Richard Nixon, Sunday 15 August 1971 Exactly 50 years has passed since the US Government famously suspended the convertibility of US dollars into gold on 15 August 1971 in a speech announced by then US president Richard Nixon. This convertibility of US dollars into gold applied to US dollars held by foreign governments and foreign central banks, which based on the rules of the Bretton Woods monetary system, allowed them to legally show up anytime at the gold window of the US Treasury and exchange their excess US dollars for physical US Treasury gold. There will be much written this month about the 50 th anniversary of the closure of the US gold window, but less so about what exactly triggered it and why the timing had to be 15 August .