Since Hurricane Sandy struck the East coast several weeks ago, many things have been either under-reported, or not reported at all. In my opinion, "The biggest piece of news being under-reported is CME Group declared a force majeure at one of its New York precious metals depositories yesterday, run by bullion dealer and major coin dealer Manfra, Tordella and Brooks (MTB), due to “operational limitations” posed by Hurricane Sandy.

MTB has “operational limitations” following Hurricane Sandy and can’t load gold bullion, platinum bullion or palladium bullion, CME Group Inc., the parent of the Comex and New York Mercantile Exchange, said today in a statement.

MTB must provide holders with metal at Brinks Inc. in New York to meet current outstanding warrants in relevant delivery periods with compensation for costs, Chicago-based CME said.

The CME said that MTB will not be able to deliver metal as the lower Manhattan company deals with "operational limitations" almost a month after the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.

MTB is one of five depositories licensed to deliver gold against CME's benchmark 100-troy ounce gold contract, held 29,276 troy ounces of gold and 33,000 troy ounces of palladium as of Nov. 23, according to data from CME subsidiary Comex." (source -http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/cme-declares-force-majeure...

Couple this with the second piece of under- reported news that 55 Water Street, in Wall Street, has been under more than 5 feet of water.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp (DTCC) holds trillions of dollars of stock certificates in trust for their owners, through its subsidiary Cede & Co.

DTCC subsidiary Deriv/SERV also clears substantial volumes of derivatives such as credit default swaps.

The international headquarters for DTCC and its Cede & Co. and Deriv/SERV subsidiaries is located at 55 Water Street in Manhattan, and the vault storing trillions in stock certificates and other instruments was apparently flooded by Hurricane Sandy. (source)

What is troubling about this, is the fact that there were alot of bearer bonds that are underwater.  CNN reports

"CNN reports:

Trillions of dollars worth of stock certificates and other paper securities that were stored in a vault in lower Manhattan may have suffered water damage from Superstorm Sandy.

 ***

 The vault contains certificates registered to Cede & Co., a subsidiary of DTCC, as well as “custody certificates” in sealed envelopes that belong to clients.

 

The DTCC provides “custody and asset servicing” for more than 3.6 million securities worth an estimated $36.5 trillion, according to its website.

 ***

 The building remains inaccessible, but the lower floors are believed to be flooded. The full extent of the damage cannot be assessed until power is restored and the building is deemed safe to enter.

The information is not lost, since it is stored on computer systems.  CNN notes:

DTCC Chief Executive Michael Bodson … said the DTCC’s computer records are intact and that the corporation has “detailed inventory files of the contents of the vault.”

But – as the Financial Times points out – there could be a hefty price tag associated with the damage:

As businesses in the affected areas continued efforts to pump out flooded basements, the DTCC admitted on Thursday that its vault remained underwater and officials had still not been able to assess the damage.

 ***

  “Hindsight is 20/20. We have taken a lot of precautions, in terms of protection both for the security of our systems and of our records, and we have a full inventory of the certificates, as well as a robust recovery plan.”

 ***

 In a white paper earlier this year, it said that it cost the financial industry almost $300m to replace $16 billion of certificates that disappeared in the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001."

The last piece of information is this video from James Turk, Chairman of GoldMoney and co-author of The Collapse of the Dollar (2004), about his claim that central banks are holding less in their physical gold reserves than many assume.

James Turk explains the problem that central banks report gold and gold receivables as one line item on their balance sheets. This allows them to lease out physical gold in return for paper claims -- posing the question of just how much physical gold is left.

They also discuss the Gold Money Index and the gold-based Fear Index. Both show that gold remains undervalued compared with historical norms. They talk about how close we are to a "Golden Cliff", where the western central banks stop lending out their gold, and what the systemic repercussions of this are likely to be.

Finally, they assess the chances of Western governments undertaking gold confiscation and capital control measures; the likely amount of physical gold held at Fort Knox; and the reasons behind their prediction of an upcoming failure of fiat paper currency.