Gold World News Flash |
- Today there are no gold-backed currencies in the world
- Sun Setting on Greece and Eurozone?
- GATA consultants Turk, Vieira to speak at CMRE spring dinner in New York
- Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Gain Almost 1% and 6% on the Week
- Alasdair Macleod: Inflation and equities
- On the Supreme Court building is engraved: 'Equal justice under law'
- Reference Point Revolution!
- Buy, Hold, and Keep on Buying Gold and Silver
- What’s really driving the Gold Price?
- Gold - weekly chart analysis
- Gold Stocks Valuations
- What's Really Driving the Gold Price?
- “Today's huge precious metal bull market is greeted with yawns, that is, if it is greeted at all.”
- Guest Post: Thoughts On The Liberty Dollar Debacle
- Silver Musings
- Gold Sets New Standard at $1,447
- Federal Reserve Officials Talking The Dollar Up–Gold Down On Cue
- Guest Post: GDP And Profits - An Economic Malaise
- Salivating at the Upside Potential of the Gold Market
- Gold Bubble: Written in the Stars
- In The News Today
- Mike Kachanovsky: Navigating the Discount
- We’re Number 28!
- Special report: The revolution in central banking
- Jim?s Mailbox
- Geithner won't shield forex options — sources
- Gold falls as stronger dollar trumps geopolitics
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Blythe Desperately Seeking Silver
- Government Profits from the “Never Go Bust” Guarantee
- Gold Support at 1420
| Today there are no gold-backed currencies in the world Posted: 25 Mar 2011 06:50 PM PDT In a really bizarre moment in history, a single American dollar was actually worth 4.2 trillion German marks. Share this:
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| Sun Setting on Greece and Eurozone? Posted: 25 Mar 2011 04:57 PM PDT
ekathimerinin reports, Papandreou optimistic following EU summit:
I wish I can tell you that Greece is rising from the ashes but it's not. Their economy is going through the ringer and all these austerity measures have caused a lot of pain. Austerity measures are going to fail in Greece, they're going to fail in Ireland and they're going to fail spectacularly in the UK. Ireland is probably looking at Iceland and thinking about joining them. What will additional austerity do? It will create more resentment in the periphery and pretty much kill these economies. After they collapse, growth will be easy. But don't worry, they won't collapse. Someone was asking me, should I buy Greek bonds and the National Bank of Greece? NBG just closed a difficult 2010 and is preparing for a perilous 2011. If you believe this is the bottom for the Greek economy and that Turkey will continue doing well, buy NBG and hold it. As for Greek bonds, I read an interesting comment from Steve Schaefer of Forbes, Why Euro Debt Matters More Than Oil Prices Or Chinese Inflation:
Are we heading towards a "major European default"? Are macro funds shorting the euro? Is owning Greek debt "ridiculous"? Of course not. Europe isn't going to collapse and if you think it is, you're going to be waiting forever. Europeans drag their feet but they're not dumb enough to let eurozone collapse. As for Greek bonds, some pretty big sovereign wealth funds, like Norway, own Greek bonds and the FT recently reported on EU debt swaps stating that hedge funds have been buyers of Greek debt, rather than CDS, and the widening in spreads was instead attributed to panic protection buying by overexposed banks. But I know people prefer jumping on the "Eurozone is doomed" bandwagon thinking that Greece and other periphery economies will implode. I'm not buying this drama. Let me end by wishing my fellow Greeks everywhere a Happy Greek Independence Day. There's one thing you should know about us Greeks. We're warriors, it's in our DNA. We simply never give up. So let the speculators bet against Greece. I know that no matter what happens, Greeks will survive and get passed it just like we have countless times in the past.
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| GATA consultants Turk, Vieira to speak at CMRE spring dinner in New York Posted: 25 Mar 2011 04:05 PM PDT 12:17a ET Saturday, March 26, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver): The venue for the spring dinner meeting of the Committee for Monetary Research and Education has been settled. The meeting will be held Thursday, May 12, at the beautiful Union League Club on East 37th Street in New York City, a short walk south on Park Avenue from Grand Central Station. The theme of the meeting will be "Confusion, Conflicts, Collapses -- The Terminal Phase of the Dollar Crisis." Speakers will include GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk; monetary historian, lawyer, and GATA consultant Edwin Vieira; James Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer; Daniel Oliver Jr. of Myrmikan Capital; renowned trader Victor Sperandeo of Enhanced Alpha Technologies; Leonard Liggio of Atlas Research; and Bob Hoye of Institutional Advisers. Cocktails will be served at 4:30 p.m. and the proceedings will begin at 5:15 p.m. Admission will be $175 for CMRE members and their spouses, $185 for others. A reservation form can be found here: http://www.gata.org/files/CMRE-05-12-2011-ReservationForm.doc For more information, contact CMRE President Elizabeth Currier at cmre@bellsouth.net. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture: Company Press Release, January 18, 2011 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy. PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding. Following the transaction: -- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC. -- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis. -- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp. -- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings. Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000. For the complete announcement, please visit: http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12 Or a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16 ADVERTISEMENT Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Company Press Release, October 27, 2010 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include: -- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres. -- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres. -- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre. Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface. "The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest." For the company's full press release, please visit: http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Gain Almost 1% and 6% on the Week Posted: 25 Mar 2011 04:00 PM PDT Gold fell $10.60 to $1424.10 in after hours access trade yesterday before it rebounded in Asia and London and saw a $3.14 gain at $1437.84 at about 7:30AM EST, but it then fell back off sharply in late New York trade and ended with a loss of 0.59%. Silver dropped to $36.82 in after hours access trade yesterday before it rebounded to $37.775 at about 8AM EST, but it also fell back off in late trade and ended with a loss of 1.04%.
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| Alasdair Macleod: Inflation and equities Posted: 25 Mar 2011 03:21 PM PDT 11:20p ET Friday, March 25, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver): Economist and former banker Alasdair Macleod explains today why inflation won't be as happy for equities as conventional wisdom maintains. Macleod writes: "The only sector that truly benefits from the death of paper currencies is precious metals. The miners will enjoy rising prices for their output and dramatically falling costs of production, measured in gold or silver. Net income, measured in paper money, expands exponentially, even without any increase in production. The costs of raw materials and equipment will rise in paper currency terms but will be falling heavily priced in gold and silver, reflecting the general collapse in economic demand. The cost of labor will also fall in real terms, and the cost of capital will become immaterial as legacy debt is inflated away and operations are funded entirely out of escalating profits." Macleod's commentary is titled "Inflation and Equities" and you can find it at his Internet site, Finance and Economics, here: http://www.financeandeconomics.org/Articles%20archive/2011.03.25%20Infla... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT The Gold Standard Now: It Can Work Today a dollar is worth 80 percent less than it was 40 years ago, and less than 5 percent of its value a hundred years ago. We deserve a dollar that is as good as gold, a dollar that will hold its value from year to year so we can be financially secure and our economy can generate more and better jobs. For most of America's history, our dollar was literally as good as gold. But on August 15, 1971, our politicians destroyed the link between gold and the dollar. They destroyed the foundations of our economic system. A new Internet site, TheGoldStandardNow.org, provides news and cutting-edge analysis about this most important issue and explains how the gold standard worked in the past and how it can work in the future. Visit us today: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/about/137-welcome-newsmax Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12 Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Resource Spins Off Platinum/Palladium Venture: Company Press Release, January 18, 2011 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V:PCY)and Pacific Coast Nickel Corp. announce that they have agreed that PCNC will acquire Prophecy's Nickel PGM projects by issuing common shares to Prophecy. PCNC will acquire the Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu and Lynn Lake nickel projects in the Yukon Territory and Manitoba respectively by issuing up to 550 million common shares of PCNC to Prophecy. PCNC has 55.7 million shares outstanding. Following the transaction: -- Prophecy will own approximately 90 percent of PCNC. -- PCNC will consolidate its share capital on a 10 old for one new basis. -- Prophecy will change its name to Prophecy Coal Corp. and PCNC will be renamed Prophecy Platinum Corp. -- Prophecy intends to distribute half of its PCNC shares to shareholders pro-rata in accordance with their holdings. Based on the closing price of the common shares of PCNC on January 17, $0.195 per share, the gross value of the transaction is $107,250,000. For the complete announcement, please visit: http://prophecyresource.com/news_2011_jan18.php
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| On the Supreme Court building is engraved: 'Equal justice under law' Posted: 25 Mar 2011 02:57 PM PDT In Prison for Taking a Liar Loan By Joe Nocera http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/business/26nocera.html?emc=eta1 A few weeks ago, when the Justice Department decided not to prosecute Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide, I wrote a column lamenting that none of the big fish were likely to go to prison for their roles in the financial crisis. Soon after that column ran I received an e-mail from a man named Richard Engle, who informed me that I was wrong. There was, in fact, someone behind bars for what he'd supposedly done during the subprime bubble. It was his 48-year-old son, Charlie. On Valentine's Day, the elder Mr. Engle said, his son had entered a minimum-security prison in Beaver, West Virginia, to begin serving a 21-month sentence for mortgage fraud. He then proceeded to tell me the tale of how federal agents nabbed his son -- a tale he backed up with reams of documents and records that suggest, if nothing else, that when the federal government is truly motivated, there is no mountain it won't move to prosecute someone it wants to nail. And it was definitely motivated to nail Charlie Engle. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT The Gold Standard Now: It Can Work Today a dollar is worth 80 percent less than it was 40 years ago, and less than 5 percent of its value a hundred years ago. We deserve a dollar that is as good as gold, a dollar that will hold its value from year to year so we can be financially secure and our economy can generate more and better jobs. For most of America's history, our dollar was literally as good as gold. But on August 15, 1971, our politicians destroyed the link between gold and the dollar. They destroyed the foundations of our economic system. A new Internet site, TheGoldStandardNow.org, provides news and cutting-edge analysis about this most important issue and explains how the gold standard worked in the past and how it can work in the future. Visit us today: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/about/137-welcome-newsmax Mr. Engle's is a tale worth telling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its punch line. Was Mr. Engle convicted of running a crooked subprime company? Was he a mortgage broker who trafficked in predatory loans? A Wall Street huckster who sold toxic assets? No. Charlie Engle wasn't a seller of bad mortgages. He was a borrower. And the "mortgage fraud" for which he was prosecuted was something that literally millions of Americans did during the subprime bubble. Supposedly, he lied on two liar loans. "The Department of Justice has made prosecuting financial crimes, including mortgage fraud, a high priority," said Neil H. MacBride, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a statement. (Mr. MacBride, whose office prosecuted Mr. Engle, declined to be interviewed.) Apparently, though, it's a high priority only if the target is a borrower. Mr. Mozilo's company made billions in profit, some of it on liar loans that he acknowledged at the time were likely to be fraudulent and which did untold damage to the economy. And he personally was paid hundreds of millions of dollars. Though he agreed last year to a $67.5 million fine to settle fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was a small fraction of what he earned. Otherwise, he walked. Thus does the Justice Department display its priorities in the aftermath of the crisis. * * * It's not just that Mr. Engle is the smallest of small fry that is bothersome about his prosecution. It is also the way the government went about building its case. Although Mr. Engle took out the two stated-income loans, as liar loans are more formally called, in late 2005 and early 2006, it wasn't until three years later that his troubles began. As a young man, Mr. Engle had been a serious drug addict, but after he got clean, he became an ultra-marathoner, one of the best in the world. In the fall of 2006, he and two other ultra-marathoners took on an almost unimaginable challenge: they ran across the Sahara Desert, something that had never been done before. The run took 111 days, and was documented in a film financed by Matt Damon, who served as executive producer and narrator. Mr. Engle received $30,000 for his participation. The film, "Running the Sahara," was released in the fall of 2008. Eventually, it caught the attention of Robert W. Nordlander, a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service. As Mr. Nordlander later told the grand jury, "Being the special agent that I am, I was wondering: How does a guy train for this, because most people have to work from 9 to 5 and it's very difficult to train for this part-time." (He also told the grand jurors that sometimes, when he sees somebody driving a Ferrari, he'll check to see if they make enough money to afford it. When I called Mr. Nordlander and others at the Internal Revenue Service to ask whether this was an appropriate way to choose subjects for criminal tax investigations, my questions were met with a stone wall of silence.) Mr. Engle's tax records showed that while his actual income was substantial, his taxable income was quite small, in part because he had a large tax-loss carry forward, due to a business deal he'd been involved in several years earlier. (Mr. Nordlander would later inform the grand jury only of his much lower taxable income, which made it seem more suspicious.) Still convinced that Mr. Engle must be hiding income, Mr. Nordlander did undercover surveillance and took "Dumpster dives" into Mr. Engle's garbage. He discovered mainly that Mr. Engle lived modestly. In March 2009, still unsatisfied, Mr. Nordlander persuaded his superiors to send an attractive female undercover agent, Ellen Burrows, to meet Mr. Engle and see if she could get him to say something incriminating. In the course of several flirtatious encounters, she asked him about his investments. After acknowledging that he had been speculating in real estate during the bubble to help support his running, he said, according to Mr. Nordlander's grand jury testimony, "I had a couple of good liar loans out there -- you know, which my mortgage broker didn't mind writing down, you know, that I was making four hundred thousand grand a year when he knew I wasn't." Mr. Engle added, "Everybody was doing it because it was simply the way it was done. That doesn't make me proud of the fact that I am at least a small part of the problem." Unbeknownst to Mr. Engle, Ms. Burrows was wearing a wire. * * * Lying on a stated-income loan is, without question, a crime, and one ought not to excuse it even though, as Mr. Engle says, "everybody was doing it" -- usually with the eager encouragement of their brokers. But the Engle case raises questions not just about the government's priorities but about something even more basic: Did he even commit the crimes he is accused of? Partly, I concede, Mr. Engle is easy to root for. He is a personable, upbeat man who has conquered some serious demons. Part of his Sahara expedition was aimed at raising money for a charity to help bring clean water to Africa. "Every experience in life has the ability to teach lessons if I am open to them," he wrote on a blog as he prepared to enter prison. How can you not like someone like that? But the more I looked into it, the more I came to believe that the case against him was seriously weak. No tax charges were ever brought, even though that was Mr. Nordlander's original rationale. Money laundering, the suspicion of which was needed to justify the undercover sting, was a nonissue as well. As for that "confession" to Ms. Burrows, take a closer look. It really isn't a confession at all. Mr. Engle is confessing to his mortgage broker's sins, not his own. Perhaps anticipating that problem, when Mr. Nordlander finally arrested Mr. Engle in May 2010, he claims to have elicited a stronger, better confession while Mr. Engle was handcuffed in the back seat of his car. Mr. Engle fervently denies this. This second supposed confession, however, was never captured on tape. As for the loans themselves, on one of them Mr. Engle claimed an income of $15,000 a month. As it turns out, his total income in 2005, according to his accountant, was $180,000, which amounts to ... hmmm ...$15,000 a month, though of course Mr. Engle didn't have the kind of job that generated monthly income. (In addition to real estate speculation, Mr. Engle gave motivational speeches and earned around $50,000 a year as a producer on the hit show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.") The monthly income listed on the second loan was $32,500, an obviously absurd amount, especially since the loan itself was for only $300,000. It was a refinance of a property Mr. Engle already owned, allowing him to pull out $80,000 of the $215,000 in equity he had in the property. Mr. Engle claims that he never saw that $32,500 claim and never signed the papers. Indeed, a handwriting analysis conducted by the government raised the distinct possibility that Mr. Engle's signature and his initials in several places in the mortgage documents had been forged. As it happens, Mr. Engle's broker for that loan, John J. Hellman, recently pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud for playing fast and loose with a number of mortgage applications. Mr. Hellman testified in court that Mr. Engle had signed the mortgage application. This week Mr. Hellman received a reduced sentence of 10 months, less than half of Mr. Engle's sentence, in no small part because of his willingness to testify against Mr. Engle. Even the jurors seemed confused about how to think about Mr. Engle's supposed crime. When it came time to pronounce a verdict, the jury found him not guilty of providing false information to the bank, which would seem to be the only fraud he could possibly have committed. Yet it still found him guilty of mortgage fraud. "I think the prosecution convinced the jury that I was guilty of something but they weren't sure what," Mr. Engle wrote in an e-mail. Like many people, Mr. Engle's biggest mistake was believing that housing prices could only go up. When the market collapsed, Mr. Engle defaulted on the two properties, which of course is not a crime. Although his accountant tried to persuade the banks to do a complicated refinancing, they refused and foreclosed on the properties. Like many Americans, Mr. Engle wound up being punished by the market for his mistake, losing all his remaining equity along with the properties themselves. Thanks to the government, though, his punishment was far more severe than most. At his sentencing, Mr. Engle told the judge: "I can say with confidence that I can turn negatives into positives. I have no doubt I will make the best of it." With his inspiring prison blog, "Running in Place: A Blog About Surviving Adversity," he has already begun to do that. Even when he emerges from prison, though, his ordeal will not be over. As part of his sentence, Mr. Engle was ordered to pay $262,500 in restitution to the owner of his mortgages. And what institution might that be? You guessed it: Countrywide, now owned by Bank of America. Angelo Mozilo ought to get a good chuckle out of that one. Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12 Or a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon: Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: http://www.gata.org/node/16 ADVERTISEMENT Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Extending the Mineralization of the Southwest Vein on the Property Company Press Release, October 27, 2010 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include: -- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres. -- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres. -- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre. Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface. "The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest." For the company's full press release, please visit: http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:23 PM PDT I read a great article from Imprimis, the free publication put out by Hillsdale College in Michigan, titled The Floating Dollar as a Threat to Property Rights. [1] The article started out with the curious case of the incredible shrinking kilo (a problem normally faced only by drug lords that employ users as traffickers). Apparently this one particular metallic cylinder securely housed at the
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| Buy, Hold, and Keep on Buying Gold and Silver Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:22 PM PDT Gold Price Close Today : 1,426.20 Gold Price Close 18-Mar : 1,415.90 Change : 10.30 or 0.7% Silver Price Close Today : 3705.8 Silver Price Close 18-Mar : 3506 Change : $1.998 or 5.7% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 38.49 Gold Silver Ratio 18-Mar : 40.39 Change : -1.90 or -4.7% Silver Gold Ratio : 0.02598 Silver Gold Ratio 18-Mar : 0.02476 Change : 0.00122 or 4.9% Dow in Gold Dollars : $ 177.13 Dow in Gold Dollars 18-Mar : $ 173.13 Change : $ 4.00 or 2.3% Dow in Gold Ounces : 8.569 Dow in Gold Ounces 18-Mar : 8.375 Change : 0.19 or 2.3% Dow in Silver Ounces : 329.77 Dow in Silver Ounces 18-Mar : 338.24 Change : -8.47 or -2.5% Dow Industrial : 12,220.59 Dow Industrial 18-Mar : 11,858.52 Change : 362.07 or 3.1% S&P 500 : 1,313.80 S&P 500 18-Mar : 1,279.20 Change : 34.60 or 2.7% US Dollar Index : 76.234 US Dollar Index 18-Mar : 75.572 Change : 0.66 or 0.9% Platinum Price Close Today : 1,748.60 Platinum Price Close 18-Mar : 1,723.60 Change : 25.00 or 1.5% Palladium Price Close Today : 750.50 Palladium Price Close 18-Mar : 730.90 Change : 19.60 or 2.7% Quick look: Silver up 5.7% (two bucks) for the week. Stop fighting it, and climb aboard. Gold, up ten bucks but lots more fun coming in this ride. Gold/Silver ratio hitting new lows. Dow in Silver ounces hitting new lows. Dow and S&P500 sneaked up this week. Dollar index gained. I don't want to hear any whining and whinging about GOLD today. Merciful heavens! It rose six days running and hit a new all- time-since-creation high this week. Give it a break. Closed above the 20 DMA ($1,421.58), losing 8.70 to $1,426.20. Still trying to parse that Gold chart, what emergeth? A rectangular consolidation between 1308 and 1435. When it breaks out of that box, it'll add $110 so fast your head will be spinning like that girl in The Exorcist. (Right, I probably could have picked a more palatable comparison. Sorry.) Never mind all that. I feel like I'm waking up from an evil spell, cast on me by the gold and silver bear wizards. "Expect it to go down! Expect it to go down!" they kept droning at me, then my brain woke up and said, "Are y'all CRAZY? We are in a primary uptrend, a bull market, and there is one and only one strategy for a bull market: buy, hold, and keep on buying because it's going higher!" Mercy, I have fallen into the same trap I keep warning y'all against. It's a bull market, stop worrying about corrections. They won't amount to hill of baked beans. Get long - stay long-- get longer. That brings us to SILVER. Stop doubting. It's running away, and about to run harder. Silver today was forced to give back 33c, but didn't give a flip and closed above 3700c anyway, at 3705.8c. Traded up in the aftermarket. Let's stop talking about corrections and start looking for, oh, 3900c, 4200c maybe, before that happens. What are the floors? Silver must not close below 3650c, 3570c in a pinch. Gold wants to hold above $1,420, and $1,405 for sure. If y'all see the lower end of those prices, buy. Yes, someday, maybe soon, they will correct, but when they do simply buy more. GOLD/SILVER RATIO touched more new lows this week. Closed today at 38.486. Shhhh -- Listen. Come close and I'll tell y'all something you won't hear anywhere else, but don't tell anybody. At 38.486 the ratio stands below its 10 year, below its 20 year, below its 30 year, below its 50 year, below its 60 year, and below its 110 year average. In fact, it's nearer the 220 year average than the 110 year. Put that into perspective: the 10 year average is 60.53, 22 points higher. Friends, the big run has begun. Those Biblical scholars among y'all will remember what weapon Samson used against the Philistines in the 15th chapter of Judges. Just to show you some technology never goes out of style, the Federal Reserve unlimbered Samson's weapon this week against all the heathen who trust not the dollar. Three Federal Reserve governors whacked them hard with Samson's weapon, and old Ben the Buffoon even jumped in with an announcement that he would in future hold quarterly press conferences to announce what the Fed is doing. Be still, my beating heart! And Samson's weapon worked well enough to lift the dollar almost a full percentage point. Today the buck gained 57.8 basis points, climbing in fact above 76 resistance to roost at 76.234. Now the scrofulous dollar has lost a few feathers here lately, plucked and picked over by the market, but that turkey could still fly up to a high roost this week. What do you reckon the Fed will do? Will they stop the printing presses when Quantative Easing 2 expires in June? Or will they do QE3? Can a mad dog stop drooling? Institutionally, politically, monetarily, economically, intellectually, those Keynesian dodderers can't do a blessed thing but keep on inflating. However, the dollar is due and overdue for a rally, on its way to oblivion. Did it reach a double bottom this week with last November's low? Might have. Might have, but needs to top 77 before I'll even consider it. I've been suckered one time too many by the dollar. And, Buddy, you can HAVE that euro for my money. Ran straight up on news the EU had reached an agreement, maybe, to bail out Portugal but Portugal, amidst resignation of its government, says it doesn't need a bailout. Right, and pants don't need zippers, either. Here's the crazy-maker: on this, Portugal's bankruptcy brinkmanship, the ECB is making noises about RAISING interest rates. Well, that will certainly help the Portuguese, the Spanish, and whoever else is on the Financial Critical Care list. Reckon that's all the ECB can do to protect euro's exchange rate in the face of the inevitability it will flood the world with more euros bailing out its bankrupts. Technically Euro yesterday lunged upside in what looked strong, and stopped at 1.422. It paused, and then fell like an anvil tossed out of a third story window, clean back to the sidewalk at 1.406 where where it bottomed yesterday. This has a sloppy, key-reversal feel to it. And that island reversal on the longer term chart remains in play. Only a close above 1.4244 would negate it's deadly warning. NGM still have a leash on the yen. Rose a little today to 81.40/$ (122.85c/Y100). STOCKS have now bulged their way clean up to the downtrend line and are threatening to break through it. That's like a dog with dentures growling at you. Watch out! He might gum you to death, if he doesn't fall asleep first or take a coughing fit. Listen, I call 'em as I see 'em, and nobody with two good eyes can look at the Dow or the S&P500 and fail to see a broadening top that is begging to tunnel to the earth's core. Now those NGM may be able to make flatirons float airborne for a day or two, but I place my money on gravity in the long run. Dow today rose 50.3 to 12,220.59. S&P rose 4.14 to 1,313.80. Before anything significant takes place here, Dow must first best the March high of 12,283.10 (intraday) and then in short order breach February's 12,391.29 high. I doubt it, BICBW. On this day in 1894 Coxey's Army of the Unemployed set out from Ohio for Washington, DC. It was a year after the Panic of 1893, second year into a 4 year depression. In those days, friends, the imperial government bilked the people in a different way than they do today. Back then they did it with Deflation, but in our Enlightened Day they do it with Inflation. 6000 men finally reached Washington in April and the intensely sympathetic federal government (no change there) had the leaders arrested for walking on the grass at the Capitol (no kidding). By the way, deflation was the deliberate policy of the Republican run government (owned by the plutocrats then, too.). The deflation had several causes, one of which was shrinking the huge issue of fiat money from the war, then resumption of gold redeemability in 1879. But before that the Crime of 1873 demonetized silver, leading to the devaluation of, say, 15% of the money supply. But you must understand and have compassion on the needs of the bondholders. They had bought those bonds during the war with good paper money, 50c in gold on the dollar, and what would happen to the national government's credit if they weren't paid back in appreciated dollars fully redeemable in gold? Why, it would have been a shameful catastrophe, so once again, the Treasury and the nation's prosperity were sacrificed. As the French like to say, "The more this here changes, the more the same thing." But they say it in French, of course. Today is the celebration of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the announcement that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ. Until not too many years ago this day marked the beginning of the year in many countries, such as England, where it is called "Lady Day." Y'all enjoy your weekend. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2011, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate in a bubble, primary trend way down. Whenever I write "Stay out of stocks" readers inevitably ask, "Do you mean precious metals mining stocks, too?" No, I don't. 
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| What’s really driving the Gold Price? Posted: 25 Mar 2011 01:00 PM PDT Gold attracts tremendous emotion from people and it has always done so. It manages to bring out the extremes in investors, reporters, governments. It's either hated or loved. Copper isn't, nickel isn't and coal isn't. You can call it a commodity, a barbarous relic, money or a wealth preserver. Whatever title you use, someone will react.
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:16 PM PDT [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] ...
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 12:03 PM PDT Gold stocks aren’t feeling the love these days. They have merely been drifting sideways since their latest interim high in early December. Considering gold is edging up to new nominal all-time highs, and silver is surging, many traders find this lack of gold-stock responsiveness troubling. Is there a fundamental problem with this sector today? If so, it will show up in gold-stock valuations.
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| What's Really Driving the Gold Price? Posted: 25 Mar 2011 11:52 AM PDT Gold attracts tremendous emotion from people and it has always done so. It manages to bring out the extremes in investors, reporters, governments. It's either hated or loved. Copper isn't, nickel isn't and coal isn't. You can call it a commodity, a barbarous relic, money or a wealth preserver. Whatever title you use, someone will react. As a metal, it has certain qualities that other metals don't have, but that's not what produces these reactions. It's not even its price rise over the last decade that causes the noise. In fact, it's not about gold at all. Governments have in turn loved it, hated it and now are beginning to love it again. It's what it's purported to represent that causes all the fuss. Just look at the reasons put forward by some as to why it's rising in price and you get the picture.
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 11:16 AM PDT Richard Russell – Gold To Catch Fire and the Public Will Notice Share this:
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| Guest Post: Thoughts On The Liberty Dollar Debacle Posted: 25 Mar 2011 11:14 AM PDT
Thoughts On The Liberty Dollar Debacle By Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.com I was in the midst of the Save America Convention in Tampa, Florida when I heard, first, that Libya was under bombardment by the UN (led by U.S. forces), and, that Bernard von NotHaus of Liberty Dollar had been convicted of “counterfeiting”. It was a stressful day, to say the least. For those not familiar with the Liberty Dollar incident, In November of 2007, federal officials raided the group’s headquarters nestled in a strip mall and seized all documents and the gold and silver that backed up the paper certificates and digital currency being distributed through the Liberty Services website. The Justice Department asserted that Von NotHaus was placing gold and silver coins, along with precious metals currency, into circulation with the purpose of mixing them “into the current money of the United States.” To be clear, NotHaus made some serious mistakes, including pressing his coins to look semi-similar to standard federal currency, and also using language which could be interpreted to insinuate that his currency was “legal tender”. There are many barter networks in the U.S. that use gold and silver that do not have these kinds of problems with the government simply because they are careful not to make the same blunders. However, it wasn’t the conviction itself that struck me, so much as the language of the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins, in her post trial statement. Let me reprint my favorite parts for you here: “Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,” “While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country,” “We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.” Some in the Liberty Movement have interpreted this statement to be a warning to all of us that the Federal Government is declaring open season on alternative currencies. Others see it as a preliminary move towards the confiscation of all privately owned gold and silver. And yet others see the statement as dire prophecy, now cowering behind their 1040’s at the thought of the smallest barter transactions, as if the IRS is the all seeing eye of Sauron waiting to catch them in the act of trading apples for oranges and sending agents to crush them with their slimy orc-like fists of doom. Perhaps I am the only one, but in contrast, I see the prosecutor’s statement as an expression of blatant fear. I’ll explain, but first, let’s dissect the nonsensical and irrational idiocy behind the saber rattling of Anne Tompkins. First, U.S. prosecutors prevailed over NotHaus on a conviction of COUNTERFEITING! Unless I am confused, and he was using his silver currency to fashion a McGuyver-esque thermonuclear sound money bomb, it is more than just a stretch to try to equate his actions with domestic terrorism. In fact, the post trial statements of Tompkins are so insane it makes one question her level of paranoia, and perhaps her prescription drug habits. After finding no obvious hint of crazy eyed drool mouth in her photographs, I realized that perhaps she was not a zealot, but simply a messenger. My feeling (and this is only an intuitive notion) is that Tompkins had little to do with the writing of those statements, or had much “coaching” from the Department of Homeland Security, which has been expanding its absurd definition of terrorism to include almost anyone who does not agree with the philosophies of establishment elites and corporate global banks. Even returning military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have been listed as possible domestic terrorist threats. Why not proponents of gold and silver? What we see here is the not so subtle conditioning of average Americans towards categorizing certain innocuous behaviors as being related to possible criminal or terrorist motives. Owning guns is anti-social, and you are a naughty bad person for liking big boom boom stick. What’s that? A pocket Constitution!? Didn’t McVeigh or one of the 9/11 hijackers carry around something like that? You have a survival garden? Hmm, that sounds fishy. I better call the FDA and make sure everything you’re doing is on the up and up. You want to trade gold and silver? Privately?! That’s obviously “black market” barter, and you are the reason the economy is so unpleasant. I don’t get as many food stamps and free big brother goodies as I used to, and I blame you and your dastardly sense of self sufficiency! The IRS should have your head! And so it goes… So, I promote private barter networking and precious metals to safeguard communities from impending inflationary crisis, and am therefore a “non-violent domestic terrorist which represents a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country”? How does Tompkins or anyone else, with a straight face, declare alternative markets and sound money as a danger to economic stability, when the U.S. economy has already been annihilated by the derivatives bubble conjured by international banks and the private Federal Reserve? What about the constant fiat injections by our central bank which have created an atmosphere prime for dollar devaluation and hyperinflation? Why in the hell hasn’t the U.S. Attorneys Office or Anne Tompkins placed the terrorist label squarely on the doorstep of JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, or the Fed itself? I mean, if we are going to start equating the destabilization of the economy with white Al-Qaeda, then let’s be fair at least. Global banks have had far more to do with our financial downfall than gold or silver trade ever will. What about the follow up chest beating proclamations of “infiltration and disruption” of any organization which seeks to “challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government”? Wow. Isn’t that comment loaded with bile and stupidity. To begin with, if anyone, including Tompkins, can show me how our current form of government is legitimately “democratic” while both major parties are headed by globalists and corporatists who promote the same exact ideology and support the same exact legislation, while refusing to represent even a minority of Americans beyond the elite, then I welcome them to try. (By the way, Tompkins, I know they didn’t teach you this in public school, and probably not in college either, but America was founded as a REPUBLIC, not a democracy.) If the IRS or anyone else wants to “infiltrate” barter markets or gold and silver organizations and attempt to record every chicken egg or gallon of milk traded, then I welcome them to try. Please, expend all your precious energies in a futile attempt to chill barter economies or sound money movements. We would like nothing better. Why? Because you cannot stop barter networks from forming. They are inevitable. Every culture in history which has seen a severe economic implosion has reverted to barter, trade, gold, and silver to counter the resulting poverty and lack of mainstream commerce. The need for survival will far outweigh the populace’s fear of government reprisal. That is simply the nature of man. The only difference in respect to the Liberty Movement is that we are working to preempt collapse with supporting networks of commodity trade and community barter. We are not working to “undermine” the current economy, we are simply preparing for its eventual fall, and allowing for the safety of cities and states across the country. Why is this considered devious behavior? Why would the government react with such vitriol, not towards Liberty Dollar, but to the very concept of alternative currencies and economies? Because it is something they cannot control… Ultimately, what I see hidden in Tompkins statements are the wringing hands of bureaucracy, sweaty and shaking with a fear of the unknown. When people are desperate, and dominated by emotions, they become predictable, and this is exactly the kind of mindset governments like to insert into the collective unconscious. There are only two paths for any society in the midst of a full spectrum crisis; beg for more government and more dependency, even if that government created the crisis in the first place, or, move away from the ailing government, and towards independence. Today, in the face of possibly the greatest economic catastrophe in the history of the world, Americans are beginning to show an aptitude for independence. We are becoming unpredictable, and this frightens government. If our cities and states become fully sovereign, with our own insulated commerce, our own industries, our own food sources, our own defense, and, god forbid, our own currency, then we may then demand a government which actually represents us, and our Constitutional foundations, instead of global banks, for a change. They are moving to call us terrorists, because they truly are terrified of alternative market systems. They have tipped their hand. Which means, we must keep doing exactly what we are already doing. We do not live in a country built upon the rule of law anymore. Corrupt leaders have no concern for law as a means of balance, only as a means of dominance. Laws therefore change upon the whims of tyrants to fit whatever goals they happen to hold at the edge of the moment. Unjust laws do not deserve the respect or the compliance of the masses. At bottom, we are human beings. Truth and conscience take precedence over all things. If a law does not follow the inherent auspices of freedom and integrity, if it does not serve the true best interests of the people, then it should not be followed. Period. This goes for any law, current or pending, which would force Americans to abandon their ability to personally protect themselves, their families, and their communities, from financial disaster. I leave you with my final statement given at the Save America Convention to drive the point home: “Today, we stand at a bottleneck in the flow of history; a nexus of events which challenge our values, our resolve, and our better natures. Our deepest social and political beliefs will be called into question, our sacred principles of individuality and freedom will face an onslaught of malicious legislation and misguided cultural doubt. These principles always do in the face of global crisis. To waver is not an option. To retreat is unimaginable. To compromise our core, in this kind of conflict, is to welcome defeat. At bottom, we live in an age of wills that only the strongest of hearts can endure. As overwhelming as these kinds of struggle can be, as frightening as this kind of responsibility sounds, these are also days of truth and providence. Opportunities to right so many past wrongs in the single breath of an era are rare and precious. Men dream of living in the midst of such moments. As a people, Americans have been challenged. The test is not only one of might, but one of honor and benevolence. How far are we willing to go to not only save ourselves, but to save each other? What are we really fighting for? Personal survival? The temporary stability and solace of the present? Or something more? Do we intend to hide away, to merely eek out an existence at the dawn of economic and political catastrophe, or to stand steel faced and immovable in the very wake of the storm? To return to our foundations and hold fast. To not only subsist, but to prosper. To leave for the future something truly better than what we now have. The most powerful position of defiance we can commit to as a movement is to teach average Americans to stand on their own. To become the purveyors of their own destinies. For me, what we call the Liberty Movement is not only a political entity but a vital philosophy driven by decentralized action and intensified by the growing uniqueness of its participants. It is the anti-thesis of globalization, which aspires only to diminish and dominate the individual, and replace sovereign thought with weak minds and absolute tyranny. Ultimately, the greatest leaders do not actually seek to lead, but to teach. They do not seek power for themselves; they seek to empower the common man. This is an act of real survival, for a country of steadfast individuals is unconquerable. It is a place without fear.”
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 11:12 AM PDT [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] Silver actually put in a good showing for the week closing up $2.00 higher while setting a new 31 year high in the process. It was unable to maintain its footing above $38 for long but did hold support near the $37 level. Moving into next week if it can stay above the $37.00 - $36.80 level, it should be able to consolidate and set itself up for a run towards $38 once again. If that support level does not hold, it will drift down first towards $36.50 and then toward $36. I would prefer to see it stay above $36 as that had been a major barrier to the upside and should now serve as a major support level to the downside if the market is going to press on to new highs relatively soon. Deliveries for the March contract are picking up as expected since we are running out of days in the month. A total of 236 were issued for Monday with JP Morgan being the big kid on the sell side once again. I shoul...
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| Gold Sets New Standard at $1,447 Posted: 25 Mar 2011 11:05 AM PDT Gold prices soared to a new intraday record high during Thursday’s (March 24) trade on the New York NYMEX. The precious metal traded as high as $1,447 before falling to a closing price of $1,430.80. Wednesday’s closing price in New York established the new record high closing price at $1,438.60. The current gold spot rate in early Friday morning New York NYMEX trade is $1,436.40.
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| Federal Reserve Officials Talking The Dollar Up–Gold Down On Cue Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:55 AM PDT Dear CIGAs, It is no secret to those attuned to market action that the US Dollar's technical chart picture is horrendous. It had broken through a critical support level near 77 on the USDX last week and had further descended down towards the tremendously important 75 level. No matter what appeared to be happening in the world, the US Dollar could not get much if any of a safe haven bounce. Currency traders had been moving to the Swiss Franc as their choice of a safe haven. The Aussie has been making new highs and the Canadian Dollar has been very strong as well. Now, it is also obvious that the US would dearly love to see the Dollar stay weak to help it deal with its massive debt load but the ugly truth is that the Dollar was on course for a major crisis if it violated the 75 level. Enter the Fed officials today and yesterday. Apparently the strategy was to get several of the FOMC governors to hit the airwaves talking about ending the QE program. Since it is QE that has been partly responsible for Dollar weakness – along with the abysmal fiscal condition of the nation – something had to be done to prevent a Dollar crash. This is the reason we are getting a sudden rash of Fed officials looking for microphones and venues to talk about ending QE. Result? Up goes the Dollar and down goes the precious metals market. Coincidence? I hardly think so. If you understand what I wrote earlier this week explaining the antagonism of Western Central Bankers against gold, then you can easily understand that its rise to a new all time high is testifying against the steady debauchment of the US currency by the Federal Reserve. As a kicker, they also manage to further knock down the Japanese Yen saving themselves and the rest of their pals at the G7 from having to actually pay to undergo another round of currency intervention. You have just witnessed a shrewdly hidden round of verbal intervention camoflauged as normal policy discussions. Click chart to enlarge in PDF format with commentary from Trader Dan Norcini For further market analysis and commentary, please see Trader Dan's website at www.traderdan.net
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| Guest Post: GDP And Profits - An Economic Malaise Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:46 AM PDT
Submitted by Lance Roberts of Streettalk Advisors GDP And Profits - An Economic Malaise This morning GDP was released and it came in slightly, but statistically insignificant, better than the previously released 2nd revision of the 4th quarter 2010 GDP Estimate.
However, there is MORE to this story than just a correction in stock prices. The other half of this story is the future of our economy and the ability, or inability, to “grow” our way out of the economic malaise that 30 years of failed monetary policy has gotten us into.
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| Salivating at the Upside Potential of the Gold Market Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:31 AM PDT Not long ago, as I recall, a pension fund in some foreign country, one of those Scandinavian ones I think, was ordered to invest no more than about 3% of its custody assets in gold, meaning that the fund had too much gold, and to sell part of its gold holdings in order to comply. Personally, I think that the 4,500-year historical record shows that being 100% invested solely in gold over the long-term is almost always a Very, Very Good Idea (VVGI), while the 4,500-year record of being solely invested in stocks, bonds and housing over the long-term is almost always a Very, Very Bad Idea (VVBI). Thus, even to a really stupid guy like me, it doesn't take a lot of brain-horsepower to quickly see that to arbitrarily limit gold in one's entire retirement holdings to a measly 3% is, in a word, stupid, whereas 100% invested in gold is not, again in a word, stupid, but, rather, in yet another word, intelligent, in that gold soars while the debasement of a fiat currency is always complete and c...
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| Gold Bubble: Written in the Stars Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:07 AM PDT by Adrian Ash BullionVault Friday, 25 March 2011 Oh lordy! Gold investing is being tipped in tabloid horoscopes...Sell! "ARE YOU available for an interview this afternoon? I'd like to discuss the possibility that we're in a gold bubble!" So asked a journalist's email we got here at BullionVault...back on 30th January 2009. Such bubble talk has only grown louder since then. Yet gold has risen a further 56%. Which over two and more years is hardly the stuff of bubbles, however you define them. Gold investing used to be seen as a contrarian move, of course – a rejection of the happy-clappy bullishness pervading the late-20th century's credit-fueled stupidities. So what about mass participation – that frenzy of Joe Public buying as the mass media urges him on? Well, "My esteemed colleague, the astrologer Christine Skinner, says in her latest financial newsletter that over the next few months, 'precious metals should hold their value and, indeed, incre...
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:03 AM PDT Dear CIGAs, Keep focused. Gold's price is a product of debt levels and debt viability. Governments stand and fall on the condition of their debt and ability to borrow.
Jim Sinclair's Commentary More from John Williams' Shadowstats.com. - Revised Industrial Production Shows Much Deeper Recession "No. 360: Industrial Production Revisions"
Jim Sinclair's Commentary No fly zone? Syria Troops Open Fire On Protesters, Witness Says DAMASCUS, Syria — Violence erupted around Syria on Friday as troops opened fire on protesters in several cities and pro- and anti-government crowds clashed on the tense streets of the capital in the most widespread unrest in years, witnesses said. Soldiers shot at demonstrators in the restive southern city of Daraa after crowds set fire to a bronze statue of the country's late president, Hafez Assad, a resident told The Associated Press. Heavy gunfire could be heard in the city center and witnesses reported several casualties, the resident said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. An activist told the AP that witnesses had reported one demonstrator shot dead by security forces in the coastal city of Latakia, and another slain in the central city of Homs. He said several people had been hospitalized in Latakia. In the capital, Damascus, people shouting in support of the Daraa protesters clashed with regime supporters outside the historic Umayyad mosque, hitting each other with leather belts. The violence erupted after tens of thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country, shouting calls for greater freedoms in support of a more than week-long uprising in Daraa, according to witnesses, activists and footage posted online. The demonstrations and ensuing crackdown were a major escalation of the showdown between President Bashar Assad's regime and the crowds in Daraa who – inspired by pro-democracy unrest elsewhere in the Arab world – began protesting conditions in the drought-stricken south last week in demonstrations that have now spread around the country.
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| Mike Kachanovsky: Navigating the Discount Posted: 25 Mar 2011 10:00 AM PDT Source: Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report 03/25/2011 The terrible tragedy in Japan is shifting markets worldwide. Mike Kachanovsky, a consultant to both resource companies and institutional investors, believes the volatility has created a finite opportunity to scoop up resource stocks on the cheap. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Mike explains what impact the devastation have on the performance of rare earth companies, as well as how to navigate discounted stocks to avoid the duds. The Gold Report: Japan recently experienced one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history and suffered a devastating tsunami. It's certainly a terrible tragedy. In a recent commentary, you said the disasters could result in a buying opportunity for rare earth element (REE) plays, which seems counterintuitive. Can you explain that investment thesis? Mike Kachanovsky: The rare earth metals sector is a very tiny sector, but Japan accounts for about 25% to 30% of all...
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 09:48 AM PDT by Addison Wiggin - March 25, 2011
0:00 — Two weeks ago, Moody's downgraded the government debt of Spain. However, they still consider the government debt of the United States AAA. This morning, a new measure of fiscal soundness — courtesy of our friend, I.O.U.S.A. protagonist and former U.S. comptroller general David Walker — warns otherwise. 0:08 — Walker's Comeback America Initiative (CAI) just wrapped up six months of work with grad students from Stanford analyzing and ranking 34 countries in a survey they call the Sovereign Fiscal Responsibility Index. We'll spare you any dramatic buildup: The United States comes in No. 28. Australia looks pretty stout at No. 1.  A quick explanation of the numbers they crunched...
0:19 — The Stanford students also ran the numbers on the assumption Uncle Sam adopted the recommendations of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission. The U.S. ranking would move up to No. 8. You'll recall, however, the commission's final report late last year was met with mostly crickets — and a new $400 billion stimulus package from Congress. "It's time for the president and the Congress to seriously consider the commission's work," says Mr. Walker, "and come together to resolve short-term spending levels, and, much more importantly, agree on appropriate terms for increasing the debt ceiling limit." 0:27 — In the same spirit, 10 former chairs of the president's Council of Economic Advisers published an Op-Ed today at Politico urging "intense negotiations" on deficit reduction, using the deficit commission recommendations as a starting point. "There are many issues on which we don't agree," reads the statement. "Yet we find ourselves in remarkable unanimity about the long-run federal budget deficit: It is a severe threat that calls for serious and prompt attention." Unfortunately, the impact of the message is undercut when one of the signatories, Christina Romer, says things like this: "We should have a package for short-term stimulus that also includes concrete policies that deal with the deficit." Right. 0:38 — The Commerce Department released its third and final guess on GDP in the fourth quarter of 2010 — an annualized 3.1%, up from last month's estimate of 2.8%. Sounds OK, until you examine the factors commerce itself cites behind the number:
0:44 — Consumers are feeling their gloomiest in five months, according to the latest Reuters/University of Michigan survey. The index clocked in at 67.5, down sharply from last month's 77.5 — which was the highest reading in three years. The internals of the report are even worse, with large numbers of people expecting rising food and energy prices to take a bite out of their incomes. 0:51 — Corroborating this number, Bloomberg's own sentiment survey, the Consumer Comfort Index, has hit a seven-month low. "Even better-off households are feeling the pinch of rising prices, primarily at the pump," says Bloomberg senior economist Joseph Brusuelas. 0:59 — Good news for you: Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is going to start holding regular press conferences next month. "The introduction of regular press briefings," says a Fed statement, "is intended to further enhance the clarity and timeliness of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy communication." This ought to give us loads of entertainment-worthy nuggets for The 5. Stay tuned. 1:09 — "The death of a currency," muses Chris Mayer, "is often a protracted affair. It takes years. And as it unfolds, the people who experience it hardly believe it." Chris has been reading a fascinating book about the hyperinflation of 1920s Weimar Germany. First published in 1975, it achieved a near-cult status, people paying hundreds of dollars for used copies on Amazon. Now it's back in print, Chris wants to get it in your hands, and he's making it as easy as possible. He'll even arrange a one-month trial of Capital & Crisis, in which this week he closed out a position in an oil and gas producer, to the glee of many readers... "I couldn't have come in at a better time," writes one. "Subscribed in February 2009. It's unreal to see 1,083% in the Gain % Column." "Bought at 2.63, closed yesterday at 32.20, up 1,109.63%," adds another. "Thanks for the great pick!" "I purchased 1,000 shares on Jan. 14, 2009, for $4,255; 1,000 shares on Jan. 15, 2009, for $4,005; and 2,000 shares on March 17, 2009, for $5,005. I donated all 4,000 shares today to the Salvation Army, for a donation value of $132,200. With a total cost of $13,265, that makes this one of those 10-baggers that happen only rarely." That'll help protect your purchasing power. Grab the book, and a "C&C" trial, right here. 1:24 — Under a new "five-year plan" unveiled this month at the National People's Congress, China aims to double natural gas' share of energy consumption — from 4% to 8%.  You'll notice the data were compiled before the Japan disaster: Nuclear comes under the category of "renewables" on this chart, along with solar, wind and hydro. Even if the Chinese were to follow through on its plan to triple last year's nuclear capacity, nuclear would still remain a small part of the overall mix. Meanwhile, Russian, Turkmen and Australian firms are falling over each other to supply China with more gas. The government of Turkmenistan alone plans to boost pipeline shipments to China by 50%.... If you needed any more reasons to donate money to Japanese relief and get Byron's special report 11 Ways You Can Profit From the End of Nuclear and the Return of Natural Gas, this ought to do it. For just the next three days, we're making it available along with a one-month trial of Outstanding Investments, named the No. 1 performing letter over the last 10 years by Hulbert Financial Digest. Over the last five days, readers like you have been helping us try to beat our $80,000-plus raised for Haiti relief last year. Here's how you can help. 1:39 — Gold sits where it has most of this week, a few dollars shy of its all-time nominal record. At last check, the spot price is $1,437. 1:43 — "The notion that gold is being used to finance Gaddafi's war is a faulty one," says U.S. Global Investors chief and Vancouver favorite Frank Holmes, eager to debunk some sloppy journalism that's spreading like a brush fire. The Financial Times noted this week that Libya's central bank holds 143.8 metric tons of gold, adding breathlessly, "enough to pay a small army of mercenaries for months or even years." "While 143.8 tons sounds like a lot," says Frank, "it is merely 6% of the country's total foreign currency reserves. The U.S. has nearly 74% of its reserves in gold, and no one is suggesting we are financing our battles with gold. "Like many oil-exporting nations," Frank adds, "Libya is paid in U.S. dollars and euros, and that means it is far more likely Gaddafi's soldiers of fortune will be paid in those paper currencies than pieces of gold." 2:00 — Silver touched $38.15 yesterday, and then tumbled below $37 when the Chicago Mercantile Exchange upped traders' margin requirements. The crowd that loves to cry "manipulation" did exactly that... while the savvy traders jumped in to snag a bargain. As we write, the spot price has already rebounded to $37.57. "I've lost count of how many times they've raised margin requirements," quips Tennessee bullion dealer Franklin Sanders, "but certainly it's not doing any good." 2:21 — A professor at Indiana University says he's hit on a way to accurately predict the direction of the stock market 86% of the time. And now British investors are plowing $40 million into the software he's developed. The software tracks Twitter.  "We are looking at calm versus anxious, happy versus sad, friendly versus hostile," says Professor Jonah Bollen. "So we monitor those fluctuations and it tells us something about how society is, in general, feeling." That, he says, translates into market action. The software scoops up 5-10% of the 100 million tweets per day worldwide and analyzes the general mood. "Then we compare it to the Dow Jones industrial average and they correlated, but they correlated three or four days out," said Bollen. Bollen says he's looked for a flaw in his program, but can't find one. Heh. [Chapeau: Our former compatriot on The 5, Ian Mathias, sent this one along.] 3:18 — "I got through 11 Ways You Can Profit From the End of Nuclear and the Return of Natural Gas last night," writes a reader. "And I do have the subscription to the top-rated investment letter over the last 10 years, Outstanding Investments, edited by your own, and my favorite, Byron King. "I jumped on it today... natural gas plays and oil sands, locally. Why would I want to fight the investments related to war-torn, civil strife uprisings in the Middle East and tragedies in Asia? These plays keep things closer to home and are pretty stable. "Byron firmed up my beliefs. I like tangible goods, corn, wheat, oil from the pump into my car, heat in my home and beef on my plate. I like the feel of gold and silver coins. "I like the things that are real." The 5: As do we. If you haven't reviewed Byron's report yet, all we ask in return is that you make a donation for earthquake relief in Japan. Here's where to go. 4:02 — "'The Air Force bought its last five F-15E jets in 2001 for an average $79.24 million each,'" writes a reader quoting Bloomberg, upping the ante on the cost estimates for the U.S. in the new front of the forever war, Libya. "Block IV Tomahawks cost about $732,000 each," he adds, citing a report from Defense Industry Daily. In the first four days of the operation, 162 Tomahawks were launched. And at some point, they'll have to be replaced. "We're already approaching $1 billion." For perspective, "Every six hours, we have another billion-dollar deficit," says Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), a member of the Liberty Caucus we met with in October 2010. "This could cost us a billion dollars there," he continued, "which means simply another billion-dollar debt that our kids, our grandkids and our great-grandkids are going to have to pay back." The 5: We see Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have tacked an amendment on the next congressional spending bill denying funding for the Libya operation. We only bring it up to assuage our fondness for lost causes. 4:56 — "If you are wondering what to expect given your budget deficit and public debt," writes a reader weighing in with another international comparison, "here is what happened in my country, Belgium, more than 25 years ago:
"Let me be clear: Austerity meant (and still means) BOTH higher taxes and lower public spending. And for a long, long, long, long, long... time. "In most countries, once taxes have been raised, they tend to stay high... and depress growth. "Good luck to my American friends!" The 5: Thanks. Regards, Addison Wiggin The 5 Min. Forecast P.S. Next Thursday at 5 p.m. EDT, we'll release the next installment in our occasional video series 6 Stocks for Right Now. Our editors will name their favorite picks, bound to thrive whether the broad market goes up or down from here. This exclusive presentation comes with membership in the Agora Financial Equity Reserve. Members get access to every stock-picking service we offer for an incredibly low one-time fee — lower than you'd pay if you bought a year's subscription to each service separately, in fact. Actually, it's so low that when we close the door to new members next week, we will never offer it again at the current rate. The deadline looms... Take advantage here.  "Was ever there a fairer metier than ours?" the 2009 preface to Financial Reckoning Day opens." "The poor carpenter risks cutting his fingers or banging his knee. The used car salesman's hearing goes bad as soon as he takes up his job: 'No, I don't hear any rattle,' says he. The foot soldier gets sent to a godforsaken hole like Afghanistan, where the women are covered up and the liquor stashed away. "But in our trade as newsletter publishers, hardly a day passes without a good laugh. Our only occupational hazard is a rupture of the midriff. "Most people, after all, read the news pages for information. They lack the proper training and perspective to fully enjoy them. The consequence is that they are always in danger of taking the humbug seriously, or, worse, finding the people who populate the headlines important. "If you really want to appreciate the media, you have to get close enough to see how it works — like a prairie dog peering into a hay bailer — but not so close that you get caught up in it yourself. The investment newsletter business is perfect; it is part of the media, but it wouldn't be mistaken for a reputable part. "Colorful eccentrics, careful analysts, cheerful con men and self-assured delusionals trying to figure out how things are put together — this is the world of investment gurus. "But guess what? The gurus are often right. True, some financial gurus have gone broke following their own advice. But many have gotten rich." Others become jaded. We bring this up by way of reprinting a critique of The 5 Min. Forecast written by a former colleague brought to our attention by "pingback" when he linked to our blog site. His blog boasts he's revealing what "newsletter promoters don't want you to know." Really? You be the judge. Forthwith, for your leisure entertainment: Franchise and Inflation: How To Prime a Reader For the Next Purchase Serious investors wonder how such drivel can possibly be taken seriously: How come some newsletter editors not only get away with writing unadulterated trash? They also make money on it—gobs and gobs of it. It's all in the "franchise"! Let me tell you why... In newsletter theory, the concept of "franchise" used to be of paramount importance. To differentiate a letter from a competing one, a service had to develop a well-defined Unique Selling Proposition that would reconcile promo and editorial product. That franchise had to transcend mere sector "shoeboxing:" It was insufficient to just be an "international," "tech," "value" letter. A product had to have character to establish the reader appeal that would translate into a reliable renewal stream. It needed an sound, alternate world-view, an integrated, developing philosophy that provided rational interpretation of current events. As newsletters turned into multi-product publishing companies, copywriting departments into industrial-scale manufacturers of creative fiction, and editors spent more time spinning off ever more new products rather than fulfill on the old, that concept fell by the wayside. These days, "franchise" is reduced to various trading "systems" (which more often than not are complete B.S.)... and whatever personality an editor brings to the table. Slim pickings in many cases... The physics of editorial In the old franchise concept, the editor acted like a prism. His experience, know-how, unique way of looking at and interpreting news and trends would break the "white light" of daily news and events into a rainbow of colors, one or two of which might resonate emotionally with the reader. Not much is left of this genuinely interpretive role of the editor, either: The combined phenomena of sycophantism, follow-the-money, superficial thinking, information overload, and under-education have turned newsletter editors into collage "artists." Like possums, they navigate their contained and pre-packaged little world picking only the branches that might hold their weight. Like revivalist preachers, they fit any phenomenon of the modern world into a custom straight-jacket of Scripture. Mercilessly. No matter what garbage they come up with in the process. Reading the tea leaves What do I mean? Let me show and tell... On March 17, 2011, Agora Financial publisher Addison Wiggin showed us how it's done in his 5-Minute Forecast. "Official statistics confirm: In the race to the bottom, the United States surpasses Zimbabwe! If you live in the United States, your cost of living — even by official stats — is rising twice as fast as in Zimbabwe. "Yes, Zimbabwe... the country where at its worst $100 trillion was worth about 30 of the U.S. variety... and good for four loaves of bread. Yesterday, the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency announced that consumer prices slowed last month to an annualized 3%. "But this morning, here in the good ol' USA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.5% last month — which works out to a 6% annual clip. "Congratulations." The U.S. worse than Zimbabwe? We don't know what Mr. Wiggin is smoking. I started wishing that Mr. Wiggin would've spent more than 5 minutes thinking before writing this kind of nonsense. Maybe even researching. Or, regarding the big picture, even studying economics a bit more seriously than stringing hand-picked, franchise-conforming newsletter clippings into books and schlockumentaries. But it is what it is. As long as it fits the "franchise." Which in his (a
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| Special report: The revolution in central banking Posted: 25 Mar 2011 09:46 AM PDT By Paul Carrel, Mark Felsenthal, Pedro da Costa, David Milliken and Alan Wheatley … Since the early days of the financial crisis in 2008, the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have all been forced to adopt policies that just a few years ago they would have dismissed as preposterous. And the Bank of Japan responded to the Sendai earthquake and tsunami by doubling its own asset-purchase programme, to keep the banking system of the world's third-largest economy on an even keel. For a generation, the accepted orthodoxy has been to focus on taming inflation. Financial stability has taken something of a back seat. Now, whether mandated to do so or not, western central banks have bought up sovereign debt to sustain the financial system, printed money by the truckload to stimulate their economies, sacrificed some of their independence to coordinate monetary policy more closely with fiscal decisions, and contemplated new ways of preventing asset bubbles. Some — such as Bank of England Governor Mervyn King — have joined wider political protests at commercial banks that are still behaving as if they are "too big to fail", and as if being bailed out is just a hazard of business. In the measured world of central banking, it amounts to nothing short of a revolution. Otmar Issing, one of the euro's founding fathers and a career-long monetarist hawk, told Reuters that in buying government bonds the ECB had "crossed the Rubicon". The question now for the ECB — and for its counterparts in Britain, the United States and elsewhere — is what they'll find on the other side. Don Kohn, a former vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, realized central banking was changing forever at a routine meeting of his peers in Basel, Switzerland, in March 2008. The shockwaves from the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown had begun rocking banks around the world… "It was terrible," Kohn said. "One of the people at the meeting used the phrase, 'It's time to think about the unthinkable'." … After slashing interest rates practically to zero, central banks desperate to prevent a new global depression had no choice but to expand the volume of credit, rather than its price, by reaching for the money-printing solution known as "Quantitative Easing" (QE)…. Until that point, the Fed was a lender of last resort for deposit-taking banks. By invoking obscure legislation from the Great Depression, it also became a backstop for practically any institution whose collapse could threaten the financial system. Kohn and others at the Bear Stearns meeting had just done the unthinkable… Buying up bonds and bailing out failing firms does indeed blur the boundaries between monetary and fiscal policy. Critically, it also suggests that supposedly autonomous central banks are doing the bidding of politicians. … "There will have to be fundamental change … If institutions are too big to fail, they are too big to exist," Weber said, echoing comments by King at the Bank of England. The shift is already happening. "Bond investors are not facing a future change; they are living through a change," said Gieve, the former Bank of England deputy governor. … In truth, central banking, by its nature, has always been an intensely political enterprise. To pretend otherwise is naive. War, revolution, depression and calamity have always subjugated central banks to political necessity, and most are still state-owned. Like a country's highest court, a central bank cannot — no matter how vaunted its independence — be unaware of the political and social mood. [Click here. Read the full report]
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 09:40 AM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... March 25, 2011 08:43 AM Gold Is Getting Wild, Get Used To It CIGA Eric Experts rush to urge caution after an intraday plunge (hit) in gold and silver. They use words like outside reversal day and an unstable parabolic trend. An outside reversal day will be little more than "noise" within a secular trend in a few months, but fear is driven by the moment. As for a parabolic trend, yes, it’s critical to correctly identify them. Is the current parabolic trend extended far beyond previous advances? Discipline says no. Gold, London P.M. Fixed (Gold) and Z Scores from Primary Trend As Jim writes, you must realize that the point of correctness in the article How & When that is true is his $5000 to $12,500 and not prognostications of the next 90 days. Discipline sees not only the trees but also the forest. Armstrong also suggests that the correction into June does not necessary have to be down. Corrections can be down, sideways, or ...
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| Geithner won't shield forex options — sources Posted: 25 Mar 2011 09:02 AM PDT By Sarah N. Lynch and Rachelle Younglai Foreign exchange is a multi-trillion dollar market and derivatives, including options, are used by companies that run the gamut from financial institutions like Goldman Sachs to manufacturers like 3M to lock in prices as protection against swings in exchange rates. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law explicitly gives the Treasury secretary power to exempt the more commonly-used foreign exchange swaps and forwards from rules being written by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But some experts have said the law is unclear about whether Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has the power to also exempt options on those contracts…. The CFTC's new rules would force some of these derivatives into clearinghouses, which stand between parties to guarantee trades, and could drive up costs for investors protecting themselves against currency fluctuations. Geithner has not yet indicated publicly what he plans to do with foreign exchange swaps and foreign exchange forwards. [source]
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| Gold falls as stronger dollar trumps geopolitics Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:49 AM PDT March 25, 2011 (MarketWatch) — Gold futures settled lower Friday, hit by a stronger dollar even as ongoing conflict in Libya and the Middle East and Japan's nuclear disaster fed some safe-haven buying. Gold for April delivery fell $8.70 to $1,426.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $1,438.10 an ounce overnight. The metal lost steam in the last stretch of floor trading after wavering between small gains and losses for most of the session. On the week, however, gold gained 0.7%. Friday's trading was tinted by a technical reversal on Thursday, when the metal touched an intraday record high but ended lower. The reversal left gold vulnerable on Friday. But gold remains well supported and the technical reversal, while significant, is not expected to damage the long-term case for the metal, said Scott Meyers, a senior trading analyst with Pioneer Futures, a division of MF Global, in New York. "I don't think the technicals are going to win out," he said. "Pick a region, there's something going on." "There's potential for news out of Japan to get a lot worse," said Matt Zeman, trader at Kingsview Financial in Chicago. … Zeman said he sees gold trading at $1,500 an ounce in a matter of months on the geopolitical worries as well as fears of inflation and a low interest-rate environment in developed countries. [source]
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| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Blythe Desperately Seeking Silver Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:45 AM PDT | ||||
| Government Profits from the “Never Go Bust” Guarantee Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:12 AM PDT Bill Bonner View the original article. March 25, 2011 09:42 AM Gold is hitting new records. It's telling us that there is something very wrong with the world's dollar-based money system. But most investors don't notice. Gold is still a "kooky" thing to buy. And the feds have no idea what is going on. You gotta hand it to the feds. They're cool. They're incompetent. They could pass a lie detector test no matter what they did. Over at the US Treasury, they've been crowing about how much profit they've made. They rushed to save AIG and Citi by buying their toxic bonds. Then, they flew to the side of Fannie and Freddie when they were in trouble. As a result of these selfless rescue efforts, they came to hold a huge portfolio of securities; the Fannie and Freddie portion alone is worth $142 billion, say the papers. The Treasury has already sold its AIG and Citi paper – at a profit. And now, it is getting set to unload its hoard of Freddie and Fannie paper. Can you believe it; its egg...
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| Posted: 25 Mar 2011 08:12 AM PDT courtesy of DailyFX.com March 25, 2011 06:34 AM 60 Minute Bars Prepared by Jamie Saettele A break of long term trendline support is needed in order to suggest that an important top has formed in gold. The trendline is at 1357 this week. Near term, the new high makes 5 waves and should give way to at least a corrective decline back towards 1420....
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