Gold World News Flash |
- The Inflation Tsunami (Part Three of Three)
- Join GATA for Gold Rush 2011 in London in August
- Why Silver Will Go UP for Years to Come!
- A Few More Reasons for Gold-Backed Money
- Silver hits $40 in Asian trading
- The System Has Failed
- Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan
- More interesting speculation about gold revaluation
- $40.005
- US Dollar moving down towards major support in the Asian session
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher At New Highs
- Embry tells King he's amazed at hedge fund shorts in mining shares
- As China Raises Fuel Prices For Second Time in 2011, WTI Passes $111
- Failure To Reach Budget Resolution Sends Dollar Plunging, Silver At New Post Hunt High
- Global Tactical Asset Allocation Q2 Update On Commodities
- The Coincidental Rise of Oil and the Monetary Base
- Reference Point: Gold - Update #2
- Follow up on 100$+ silver for 2011, hyperinflation update, commodities charts
- Guest Post: And This Year’s Nobel Prize In Doublethink Goes To…
- WARNING: May not be suitable for children
- Watch $1460 Gold Price for a Breakout Above, and $1450 for a Breakdown Below
- US Prepares Operation "Boots On The Ground" A/K/A "The Presidente Was Only Keeeding"
- Three Important Consequences for the Return of the Carry Trade
- China’s “Rare Earths” Exports Collapse, World Prices Soar
- Ongoing Cover Up of Nuclear Crisis By American and Japanese Governments and Companies
- Geology of the Storm Gold Deposit
- Bring on QE3! “We Can’t Afford NOT to Do More,” Romer Says
- Mike Maloney: When To Sell Your Gold/Silver
- Save yourself from the doomed dollar
- Higher Rates Approaching
| The Inflation Tsunami (Part Three of Three) Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:25 PM PDT While we are confident in our ability to understand the deleterious effects that the current set of suboptimal policies are likely to have on the global economy over time, we nevertheless don't purport to know exactly how these policies might change from here or what impact or on what time horizon financial markets will adjust accordingly. There are too many unknowns, too much pure uncertainty. As such, when seeking to protect and preserve wealth, we need to rely primarily on the most fundamental form of insurance available to investors: Diversification. The problem many investors face, however, is that they have been conditioned to regard diversification in a rather narrow way. For example, instead of buying a single stock, some might seek to buy a stock market index. Yes, this diversifies within stocks but, in a world in which most large companies have huge direct or indirect exposures to the capriciousness of policymakers, does this really diversify the fundamental risk? No. Some investors might diversify into bonds but, if policymakers are seeking higher inflation, at some point these bonds are going to lose a substantial amount of purchasing power. The same is true for cash. The unpredictability of policymakers' actions and consequences–negative as they are likely to be in our view–casts a shadow over the entire spectrum of financial assets: Stocks, bonds and cash. What investors need to do is to get some portion of their assets off that spectrum entirely. This is where commodities come in. Unlike stocks and bonds, which pay dividends and coupons, commodities produce no cash flows. Unlike corporations and municipalities, commodities cannot go bankrupt and leave their investors with only a fraction of their investment, if any. Unlike financial assets, the prices of which are necessarily a function of the arbitrary and increasingly desperate policies of central banks around the world, commodities represent real goods, with real supply and real demand. This does not mean that they are always going to go up in price, nor does it imply that they are always going to outperform financial assets. But given the current, unfortunate state of the world, they offer real, tangible diversification in a way that financial assets do not. Yes, as policymakers consistently choose to pursue inflationary policies, it is more likely than not that inflation rates in future will be higher than those of today. Commodity prices will most likely rise. But we do not presume to forecast by how much, over what time horizon, or what commodities are likely to be the best performers. What pertains to asset diversification in general pertains to commodities specifically. Other factors equal, a larger basket is better than a smaller one. This is our response to those that claim that gold is the ultimate insurance policy against unsustainable and counterproductive economic policy. History offers much evidence for this claim. Yet it also offers much evidence that blending other commodities with gold can better diversify a defensive investor's overall portfolio. These other commodities should include metals, both precious and base; energy, in particular crude oil; agricultural products, in particular grains; and other soft or industrial commodities, with the understanding that, as one moves away from those most widely traded, liquidity will decline. From there, investors can further enhance returns by moving into business investments which represent the various stages of value added for these commodities: Mining, agribusiness, transportation and other infrastructure. Relative to history, stocks for these sorts of companies may be trading at what appear to be lofty valuations, but keep in mind that, if commodity prices continue to rise, those valuations are more likely to be sustainable and, of course, the dividends paid by these firms should continue to rise in future alongside commodity prices and profits, also providing an effective hedge against future inflation. Regards, John Butler, [Editor's Note: The above essay is excerpted from The Amphora Report, which is dedicated to providing the defensive investor with practical ideas for protecting wealth and maintaining liquidity in a world in which currencies are no longer reliable stores of value.] The Inflation Tsunami (Part Three of Three) originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
|
| Join GATA for Gold Rush 2011 in London in August Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:09 PM PDT ...Now GATA plans to accelerate that realization by reprising Gold Rush 21 with a conference from Thursday-Saturday, August 4-6, in London, home of the London Bullion Market Association and the gold-dumping Bank of England, which now are fairly warned. The conference will review where gold has gone on GATA's watch and examine where it might go as it returns to its rightful place at the center of the world financial system.
|
| Why Silver Will Go UP for Years to Come! Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:05 PM PDT If the US government spends new paper money that it does not have, is that inflationary? Will that make the new dollars tend to go down in value? If so, by how much? Are silver prices likely to go up, as new money buys silver to protect itself? In your opinion, much new money will be likely to buy silver next year? How much do you think the silver price will continue to be driven up, in the next year, by such buying?
|
| A Few More Reasons for Gold-Backed Money Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:02 PM PDT Charles Kedlac here at The Daily Reckoning asks, "What, then, should we make of 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas' claim '…one man cannot over-abound in external riches without another man lacking them'?"
|
| Silver hits $40 in Asian trading Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:31 PM PDT [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] ...
|
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:12 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... April 07, 2011 04:46 PM Dear CIGAs, The system has failed. It failed the day that Lehman Brothers was flushed. There is a financial condition of an ocean of liquidity making the broken remains of a failed financial system in the Western world opaque. There is no future failure coming. What is coming is a mass realization that exposes the fact there is no functioning system under all this liquidity. It is a sharp contraction in confidence that lies down the road. Realize this and know that there is one more step you need to make. Having the largest pile of gold and silver without considering one more step might make you a modern Midas. There is more to insurance than simply financial. Shortages of goods and services will occur because of currency induced cost push inflation resulting in dislocations of the organization and compensation in the distribution functions. That means there could be ample food in the system but little available o...
|
| Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:12 PM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... April 07, 2011 12:34 PM Dear CIGAs, 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 ...
|
| More interesting speculation about gold revaluation Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:52 PM PDT 12:53a ET Friday, April 8, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Zero Hedge's pseudonymous Tyler Durden has some interesting speculation tonight about an official revaluation of gold by central banks to offset deflation, a prospect GATA and others long have been raising. For example, see: And: And: The Zero Hedge commentary is headlined "Surprising Observations From TrimTabs: Are Central Bankers Loading Up On Gold?" and you can find it here: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/surprising-observations-trimtabs-are-ce... 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 Gold Rush 2011 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: http://www.gata.org/node/16 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
|
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:39 PM PDT
Lights out
|
| US Dollar moving down towards major support in the Asian session Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:23 PM PDT [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] ...
|
| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher At New Highs Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:00 PM PDT Gold rose to a new all-time high of $1464.75 by a little before 10AM EST before it fell back off into the close, but it still ended with a gain of 0.1%. Silver climbed to as high as $39.673 before it also fell back off in late trade, but it still ended with a gain of 0.48% and made a new 31-year closing high.
|
| Embry tells King he's amazed at hedge fund shorts in mining shares Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:55 PM PDT 11:51p ET Thursday, April 7, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver): Interviewed by King World News today, Sprott Asset Management's chief investment strategist, John Embry, was pretty optimistic that the breakout in gold and silver prices is under way. An excerpt from the interview is headlined "I'm Amazed Hedge Funds Are Short Mining Shares" and you can read it at the King World News blog here: 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 Gold Rush 2011 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: http://www.gata.org/node/16 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
|
| As China Raises Fuel Prices For Second Time in 2011, WTI Passes $111 Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:49 PM PDT
The ongoing total decimation of the dollar is sending everything that still has value through the roof. Case in point: WTI which just passed $111 for the first time since 2008. And with Brent waiting with open arms at $125 it is only a matter of time before gas prices in the US will make the teleprompter advise anyone who doesn't have Discount Window access to trade in their inline 4 for the "Wealth Effect." In the meantime, a centrally planned China was just forced to hike gas prices for only the second time in 2011 (lucky them): "April 7, China, Asia’s largest oil consumer, raised retail prices of gasoline and diesel for the second time this year, starting Thursday, as international crude oil prices continue rising, China Business News reported on Thursday. The benchmark retail price for gasoline will rise by RMB 500 a metric ton on April 7 and that for diesel will increase by RMB 400, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on Wednesday. According to several energy information institutions, the retail price of 90# gasoline will rise by 5.63% to RMB 9,380 per tonne, and that of 0# diesel will gain 4.9% to RMB 8,530 per tonne, the paper said." Bottom line - pretty soon the entire WTI curve will be in backwardation.
And why China's CPI next month will be at least 2% higher, from Business China:
We would be remiss if we didn't point out the dollar again. Thank you Central Planners.
|
| Failure To Reach Budget Resolution Sends Dollar Plunging, Silver At New Post Hunt High Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:44 PM PDT
Following news that an 11th hour attempt to resolve the budget impasse between Obama, Reid and Boehner has failed, the dollar, and all related carry pairs, are getting obliterated. At last check the EURUSD was north of 1.4350, while all Yen funding pairs rose back to intraday highs. Which in this bizarro world also means that futures are now at highs: yes - a government shut down is bullish for stocks. The good news for those who continue to believe, what is only being realized by others, namely that the dollar's days are numbered is that silver has just touched $39.85: a fresh post Hunt Brother high. Gold is following suit.
And the carry basket:
|
| Global Tactical Asset Allocation Q2 Update On Commodities Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:26 PM PDT
The latest commodities commentary from Damien Cleusix of Global Tactical Asset Allocation: Investors surveys are indicating a high level of optimism. Long gone are the days when they reached high levels of bearishness (at the end of August). Hedge Funds have increased their leverage (gross positions) and have their highest net long position since 2007. Full report -
|
| The Coincidental Rise of Oil and the Monetary Base Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:14 PM PDT Bill Bonner View the original article. April 07, 2011 11:23 AM "High oil prices start to apply the brake on drivers," says a headline in The Financial Times. As predicted, the feds' easy money policies are turning into hard times for the middle and lower classes. Oil prices have gone up with the Fed's balance sheet. For every dollar the Fed added, the price of oil ticked up too. Now, the Fed has three times the monetary base it had before the crisis. And oil is three times as expensive. Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to prove a direct cause and effect linkage. We wouldn't even try. But here's something else. Where's the price of gold? It hit a new record yesterday. $1,458. That's up about 3 times too? What a coincidence! Yeah, just a coincidence. No real connection between the feds pumping up the supply of money and prices going up…. Yeah…just a coincidence. And not a happy one for consumers. The FT article tells us that drivers are driving less. Especially those ...
|
| Reference Point: Gold - Update #2 Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:03 PM PDT With gold near its all-time high, it's time for another Eurosystem MTM party. And just maybe, there is a timely message here for Congress and the U.S. Treasury. Yesterday President Obama vowed to veto the Republican's short-term spending bill, and today Washington is facing a possible full-on government shutdown in less than 26 hours when the cash funding runs out. [1] Not only that, but while
|
| Follow up on 100$+ silver for 2011, hyperinflation update, commodities charts Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:55 PM PDT Share this:
|
| Guest Post: And This Year’s Nobel Prize In Doublethink Goes To… Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:48 PM PDT
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man And this year’s Nobel Prize in Doublethink goes to… General Tommy Franks, the rather straight-talking former commander of the war in Afghanistan way back in 2001, once described US defense policy wonk Doug Feith as “the dumbest fucking guy on the planet.” Feith, a bumbling architect of the failed Bush Doctrine, now has an intellectual match in Christina Romer, the former Chairwoman of Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors. Romer appeared Thursday on the Daily Ticker, leaving no doubt that she should be the undisputed frontrunner for the Nobel Committee’s much anticipated Doublethink Prize. Warning, do not watch this video while eating: food projectile WILL permanently damage your computer. Romer begins her remarks to the interviewer Aaron Task: “There are tools that we can use, and I think it’s shameful that we’re not using them.” Trillions of dollars of government spending, debt monetization, and money creation isn’t enough. Romer wants us digging ditches with teaspoons. “If I have a complaint about policy, it’s that we’re not doing enough.” Clearly, from the bank bailouts, to the systematic dismantling of GM in favor of the union, to programs that incentivize home and auto purchases, to stamping out all means of financial privacy, to trillion dollar deficit spending, the government isn’t involved enough. Romer goes on to say that the Federal Reserve’s plans to end the second round of quantitative easing (QE2) in June “is a mistake. The evidence is that it’s been very effective, and certainly QE1 was very effective. I don’t understand why we’d be dialing back that tool because I think it is certainly very helpful.” $1.5 trillion dollars later and what do we have to show? 50,000 minimum wage workers flipping Big Macs. I’m lovin’ it.
Next, Romer explains that “[quantitative easing] tends to lower long-term interest rates, it tends to lower the price of the dollar… both of those things are good for ordinary families.” So, completely screwing the people who have worked hard and are trying to save their money with sub-par interest rates that don’t keep up with inflation is good for America. Paying more for food, fuel, healthcare, insurance, state and local taxes, airfare, rent, building materials, household chemicals, etc. is good for America. (Yes Mr. William Dudley, the iPad 2 is as cheap as its predecessor– but bear in mind that the iTunes music store is slowly, surreptitiously raising its prices from 99 cents to $1.29… so the Apple deflation argument is lost on me.) Romer continues. “[Low interest rates] mean that it’s easier for consumers to afford borrowing.” Precisely, that’s what American households need– more debt. I can’t seem to recall a single instance in US history when consumers taking on increasing levels of debt posed any danger to the economy. Romer continues. “A lower price of the dollar tends to make our goods more competitive in foreign markets.” This is one of the biggest logical fallacies in politics– that a weak currency is good for an economy because it promotes exports. Right, because so much of the US economy is based on manufacturing. Nevermind that a weak currency imports higher input costs in the form of higher energy prices, raw materials, and component parts from overseas. A bewildered Aaron Task, now looking around for Ashton Kutcher to appear out of nowhere, asks “… but isn’t it true that long-term rates have risen since the Fed announced QE2 in August… and also… a lot of Americans probably feel that a weaker dollar is hurting them, not helping them…?” Despite having just claimed that quantitative easing was successful in keeping long-term interest rates low, Romer now says that “it’s hard to evaluate what QE has done to long-term interest rates… because there are lots of announcement effects.” Apparently fluctuations in long-term interest rates based on announcements or expectations of quantitative easing in fact have nothing to do with quantitative easing. They’re due to the weather. “What I can tell you,” she says, “is the academic studies that have looked at this absolutely say that QE does what we thought it was going to do.” The smoking gun! Academic studies validate QE, brought to you by the same folks who said that applying modern portfolio theory to a mega-pool of liar loans would result in superior risk-adjusted returns. The same folks who measure risk in sigma, who completely missed the boat on the crisis to begin with… all declare QE a success. Romer continues. “Everyone agrees that a lower price of the dollar… certainly tends to raise GDP.” Yes, everyone agrees. Absolutely everyone in that little ivory tower where Christina Romer lives with her funny mirrors and Paul Krugman. Breaking windows is also good for GDP, as are natural disasters, nuclear meltdowns, and civil wars fought by 13-year old soldiers with AK-47s. Hooray Japan! Hooray Africa! The truth is that a weak currency debases the standard of living. But that doesn’t seem to matter to Romer: “And… on the price of the dollar, we’re not talking about what’s happening to your purchasing power here…” Right, because purchasing power is completely irrelevant. The US government should continue conjuring money out of thin air, indebting future generations, and recklessly spending on programs and initiatives that simply don’t work because it’s good for nominal GDP, irrespective of the damage it does to household living standards. “Nothing says that you have to cut spending this year,” Romer explains. “You can do a fiscal expansion this year but have it be part of a package that ultimately gets the budget deficit down.” And continues to kick the can down the road for other generations to deal with. Romer typifies the mindset of the people making decisions in government, and the sort of advisors in President Obama’s circle. The US government is going on three years of massive, unprecedented fiscal and monetary expansion. Yet it hasn’t made a dent in unemployment, and prices are rising. At this point, even Doug Feith would look at the situation and say, “maybe we should reconsider our strategy.” Romer, however, delivers her lines with the demeanor of a concerned grandmother, and I can imagine the north/south nods of many viewers who unquestionably absorb the doublethink based solely on her delivery. It reminds me of one of the best quotes from George Orwell’s 1984: “In a way, the world-view of the Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything. . .” Big Brother is watching you.
|
| WARNING: May not be suitable for children Posted: 07 Apr 2011 12:04 PM PDT Hey Max! Love watching the Keiser Report and listening everywhere else you speak. I just want to share a video I made and entered into the Apmex (www.apmex.com) "Scary Boollion" contest last Halloween. It won second place (1 KILO OF SILVER!!!!) It's only two minutes – hope you watch and enjoy: Sincerely, Pete Shepard P.S. [...]
|
| Watch $1460 Gold Price for a Breakout Above, and $1450 for a Breakdown Below Posted: 07 Apr 2011 11:43 AM PDT Gold Price Close Today : 1458.50 Change : 0.80 or 0.1% Silver Price Close Today : 39.542 Change : 15.8 cents or 0.4% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 36.88 Change : -0.128 or -0.3% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.02711 Change : 0.000094 or 0.3% Platinum Price Close Today : 1786.00 Change : -10.10 or -0.6% Palladium Price Close Today : 775.65 Change : -9.35 or -1.2% S&P 500 : 1,333.51 Change : -2.03 or -0.2% Dow In GOLD$ : $175.88 Change : $ (0.32) or -0.2% Dow in GOLD oz : 8.508 Change : -0.016 or -0.2% Dow in SILVER oz : 313.83 Change : -0.45 or -0.1% Dow Industrial : 12,409.49 Change : -17.25 or -0.1% US Dollar Index : 75.58 Change : 0.039 or 0.1% I reckon wild, uncertain times call for great steadiness, patience, and calm. Reminds me of spring weather in Tennessee: if you don't like it, just wait. It'll change. So also these volatile markets. Just wait -- they'll change. Thus today the Dow's fall shouldn't have warped anybody's door too badly. Shouldn't have bothered y'all, anyway, if you've been listening to my denunciations of stocks. I've been busier denouncing stocks than Robespierre before the French revolutionary Committee of Safety denouncing royalists. I hope y'all have been paying attention and sent all your stocks to the guillotine. Dow today lost 17.26 points to 12,409.49 while the S&P500 lost 2.03 points to 1,333.51. These aren't open-artery closes, but they reflect stocks' confusion here at the ceiling. Doesn't act like a market about to run away. Quite the contrary. Now I don't usually pay attention to these silly kerfuffles, but customers are calling asking me what Comrade Barack O'Bama will do tonight. Will he let the US gummint run out of money and be forced to turn off all the electricity to the Capitol and the White House? What HAVE you all been drinking and smoking? Whatever 'tis, it has played Hob with your judgement. Now think: over one-half of the souls in the United States earn their income from government, about 60% of that from federal spending. Obama CAN'T let the gummint shut down because the entire national economy would seize up. Half your neighborhood would show up at your back door begging for a can of sardines. The whole farce amounts to nothing more than THEATRICS. The Republicans will pose, posture, and play tough while the Democrats do the same on the other side, and after all the puffing and blowing and foot scuffling they will get right back on track and do the only thing they can do, which is print/borrow more money to keep the wheels of tyranny economic, monetary, and political whirring merrily along. All else is polished nonsense, and not a single Republican or Democrat, let alone Bernard O'Bama, has imagination enough to let the whole machinery stop and set the country to working for a living and freeing itself from the Federal Reserve and Wall Street. Am I afraid of the yankee government shutting down? Merciful heavens, I'd welcome it! More than a new puppy or a $40 cigar. And except for not getting your mail, and not being harassed by a multitude of officers sent hither to eat out your substance, y'all wouldn't even notice for four or five months. Then you'd look around and realize that sanity and prosperity had returned because the almighty yankee gummint had shut down and was no longer messing in your business. Did I answer the question? Now back to the real world, the world of things with genuine meaning instead of show business. The US Dollar index climbed to 75.82 today, which is just nothing. Don't mean a thing, rising 3.9 basis points. Dollar is stalled between 75.80 and 75.45, and till it breaks those levels it's wasting words to talk about it. Yen continues to sink, closing today at 84.994Y/$ (117.66c/100Y). Euro remains at the November high but fell back today, leaving further gains in a doubtful limbo. The GOLD PRICE has stalled. Only gained a silly 80 cents today on Comex close at $1,458.50. High today reached $1,464.45, but the real barrier is $1,460. If the assembled US politicians and Bernard O'Bama are sufficiently foolhardy to let the US gummint come to a halt, the gold price will reach $1,600 on the first day, and who knows after that. Watch $1,460 for a breakout above, and $1,450 for a breakdown below. Let the croakers croak all they want, this is a rally in a bull market, not a bubble. If you don't own gold, you'd best buy some. The SILVER PRICE slowed down today also. It gained only 15.8c on Comex, closing at 3954.20. Low, how easily our expectations inflate! Silver sees a few 50c and 75c days, and we await that as our birthright. This looks to me like a sideways correction, trying to press through 3965 and conquer 4000c. As long as the silver price holds its position above 3900c it will go higher. Silver: don't leave home without it. On this day in 1795 the French Revolutionary assembly adopted the metric system. In line with their modest make-over of humanity and all its doings, they substituted an unhuman measuring system for one cut to the measure of man. Gone were inches a thumb wide or feet a foot long or yards stretching form nose to finger tip or rods, chains, furlongs, miles and all the other wonderful measures, and forced down humanity's throats was a system with length based on one-ten-millionth of the distance from the globe's equator to the pole. Now THERE'S a conceptually easy standard. Worse, the whole mess was moved to a decimal base, so those wonderful divisors 3, 4, 6, 12, etc. were guillotined in favour of 2 and five alone. Call me a troglodyte, but I never asked y'all to measure ten million of anything, and never will. 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. 
|
| US Prepares Operation "Boots On The Ground" A/K/A "The Presidente Was Only Keeeding" Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:27 AM PDT
The natural step in the US-led invasion of Libya's oil fields, which could be seen from a mile away and as was discussed on Zero Hedge previously, is about to unfold with the proverbial silver-tipped bang. Courtesy of Army Gen. Carter Ham we learn that the Nobel war prize winner "may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, the former U.S. commander of the military mission said Thursday, describing the ongoing operation as a stalemate that is more likely to go on now that America has handed control to NATO." Nothing like a little land war in Asia, er, Africa, to distract the peasantry from an insolvent government which can't legally issue any more debt on top. Make no mistake though - this is all about "humanitarian intervention." From MSNBC:
Anyone recall Obama's promise to not send a land force in Libya? Add that one to the lies you can believe in.
Next, while the constitutional lawyer is usurping the constitution, let's just toss the whole checks and balances thing away as well.
Surely this latest uber-transparent move to sequester 2 MMBD/oil will raise America's glorious standing within the Muslim crescent.
|
| Three Important Consequences for the Return of the Carry Trade Posted: 07 Apr 2011 10:06 AM PDT It started in Asia. Now it's spread westward to Europe. And before it's all over, it might even reach the United States. Swine flu? No. "It" is rising interest rates and an end to the free flow of easy money that flooded the globe in response to the 2007-08 financial crisis. The world's monetary mandarins are deciding, one by one, that it's time to close up the spigot, if only a little. It began last October, when China raised interest rates. Three more increases have followed, the most recent on Tuesday. In Europe, despite an agreement to bail out Portugal to the tune of some $100 billion, the European Central Bank (ECB) voted this morning to bump up its benchmark lending rate for the first time since July 2008 — from 1% to 1.25%. "Central banks increase interest rates when they want to slow down an economy that may be overheating and generating too much inflation," explains our currency trader Abe Cofnas. "The central banks' rate hikes reveal a new commonly shared sentiment: fear of inflation. "Essentially, it is a huge tectonic shift in the fundamental forces that move currencies. For traders and investors, it's also a great opportunity. When a central bank changes interest rates, it creates an imbalance in capital flows. Those imbalances ripple through almost every currency traded." "This is due to the 'carry trade,', where in which investors sell or borrow currencies with low interest rates and use that capital to buy currencies with higher interest rates." "The carry trade was a very big deal just a few years ago," Abe says. Japan maintained bargain-basement rates in a futile attempt at stimulus. "Borrowing yen to invest in higher-yielding currencies was an almost guaranteed way to make money." That came to an end during the Panic of 2008. The whole world began turning Japanese, slashing rates. And borrowers had to bring their capital back home to pay off their debts. So how can you keep a pulse on the carry trade? "Just watch the iPath Optimized Currency Carry ETN (ICI)," Abe says. This exchange-traded note (similar to an exchange-traded fund) uses the carry trade as an investment discipline. Any gains in ICI reflect a strengthening carry trade." Abe is closely watching the $47 level on this chart. "If it breaks above this price, it's a clear signal that the carry is back!"
So what if the carry trade is back? Abe sees three consequences…
One huge caveat: "If Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signals that quantitative easing is not likely to be extended, or signals vigilance on inflation, traders may anticipate a rate hike." For clues to what might happen, Abe took the minutes from the March Fed meeting and plugged them into a "word cloud" to see how often certain words turned up:.
"Clearly, the word 'inflation' came up a lot," Abe says, "and that doesn't bode well for low interest rates. Still, we won't know for sure until the next Fed meeting" on April 27. Addison Wiggin Three Important Consequences for the Return of the Carry Trade originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
|
| China’s “Rare Earths” Exports Collapse, World Prices Soar Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:45 AM PDT Let's think back to September 2010. Japan confronted China at sea in a dispute over fishing rights. The Japanese arrested a Chinese fishing boat captain. The Chinese soon imposed an embargo on rare earths exports to Japan. Suddenly, rare earths – a relatively obscure set of industrial minerals, oxides and metals – became the stuff of high international attention and intrigue. It became common knowledge that China controls about 97% of the world's rare earths output. Overnight, the dire industrial and political implications of that geological monopoly became apparent. Investors were – and are – right to be interested in this situation. Just last week, we learned that the value of China's rare earths exports has soared almost nine-fold, year on year. That is, a tonne (i.e., a metric ton) of Chinese rare earths – a weighted composite of 17 different materials – currently rings the cash register for just over $109,000. This is up dramatically since July 2010, when each tonne averaged buyers a mere $14,405. In other words, China is raking it in. In fact, the prices of rare earths out of China have averaged about a $10,000 increase per tonne per month over the past year! It gets worse for non-Chinese users. In February 2011 China reportedly exported a total of 750 tonnes of rare earths to a global array of buyers. This was slightly more than the 647 tonnes China shipped in January. Yet in just this one month, the average price for a tonne of rare earths leapt ahead by $34,000, according to a calculation by Reuters News Service based on data from China's customs office. The rapid increase in price is due to the Chinese government's successful effort to restrict and reduce the volume of rare earths exports. Adding to the confusion, China has also changed the way it reports rare earths exports. This has artificially boosted the volume figures by including products made from rare earth metals in the total. Could things get worse for Western buyers and users? Well, yes. Also last week, we learned that China might soon start importing some of the rare earths that its economy needs but doesn't produce in sufficient quantity. According to Liu Junhua, the deputy secretary for China's Baotou Rare Earth High-Tech Industrial Development Zone Committee, "China may eventually need to import [heavy rare earths] materials." According to Mr. Liu, speaking at a recent conference, there's a "strong possibility of [China] importing heavy rare earths" in the next three-four years. So here's the scenario: Chinese export volumes are down. World prices are rising, and fast. And China may soon be importing the heavy rare earths for its own industrial needs. Let's review what this all means for investors… The share prices for rare earths companies began to soar last fall. After the Japan-China dust-up in September, rare earths companies quickly became stock market darlings. Many of the rare earths stocks I recommended to the subscribers of Energy & Scarcity Investor doubled in fairly short order. I suggested taking profits on two of those stocks, but still advocated long-term investments on selected stocks in this sector. Looking back toward the end of 2010, pretty much any company with a "rare earths" tag line was a strong performer in the stock market. The investment community threw big money at a large stable of rare earths investment opportunities. But times have changed. In the past six weeks or so, in the face of tight demand and fast-rising prices, investors have looked at the rare earths sector with even sharper, more discerning eyes. The rationale is twofold. First, only a few non-Chinese companies will achieve output – and begin to generate cash flow – within the next three years. And second, only a small handful of companies will survive in the long-term race to supply the world with rare earths over the next decade or so. One company I recommended should have a new mine up and running by the end of this year. Another company, one that I consider an excellent speculation, is modernizing a rare earths facility in Russia. Meanwhile, there's Molycorp, a company that is reconstructing its mine, mill and other facilities at Mountain Pass, Calif. It's a major effort, with a sticker price in the vicinity of $500 million. The announced time scale is in the 24-month range. My concern about Molycorp is that the California project involves building a brand-new plant, with new equipment and bringing in a newly hired work force that's still in training. Anything could go wrong and cause delays. And considering that it's happening in mining-unfriendly California? I'm sure you get my point. The larger point is the rare earths story is not going away. It is getting bigger every day and is sure to provide some outstanding opportunities for vigilant investors. Regards, Byron King China's "Rare Earths" Exports Collapse, World Prices Soar originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
|
| Ongoing Cover Up of Nuclear Crisis By American and Japanese Governments and Companies Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:45 AM PDT
I've previously documented that Japanese seismologists and nuclear engineers warned years ago that the risk of a large-scale nuclear accident in Japan were high, with one Japanese seismologist warning in 2004 that the risk of a nuclear accident was
I also showed that whistleblowers have been ignored:
And after the March 11th disaster, the Japanese government has been covering up information. Indeed, nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen points out that American and Japanese governments and nuclear companies are covering up many core facts concerning the Japanese nuclear crisis.
Closing Ranks: The NRC, the Nuclear Industry, and TEPCo. Are Limiting the Flow of Information from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
Tepco Tepco is covering up crucial information, including:
Foreign Nuclear Companies It's not just Tepco. Foreign nuclear companies are covering up as well. For example, the large french nuclear corporation, Areva, has privately determined that:
But publicly, Areva is saying no problem, nuclear is safe. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC staff privately identified significant problems and dangers at Fukushima, including:
But the NRC is telling Congress and the public that the situation is under control. Incidentally, Reuters reported yesterday:
|
| Geology of the Storm Gold Deposit Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:34 AM PDT nbmg
|
| Bring on QE3! “We Can’t Afford NOT to Do More,” Romer Says Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:09 AM PDT With unemployment still near 9% and the "real" unemployment rate at 15.7%, "we can't afford not to do more," says Christina Romer, the former chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. It's a "mistake" for the Fed to end QE2 in June as planned, Romer continues. "The evidence is it's been very effective. I don't understand why we'd be dialing back that tool." More controversially, Romer lauds QE for helping to weaken the dollar. A weaker dollar makes U.S. goods more competitive overseas, boosting exports and GDP growth, and ultimately hiring. While that's true, she seems to overlook the impact a weak dollar has on ordinary Americans in terms of falling buying power and punishment for savers and those living on fixed-incomes. PG View: Of course Ms. Romer ignores the real impact of inflation on working families. It's far easier for politicians to confiscate wealth stealthily via inflation — as they've been doing for decades — than to sit down and have a serious talk about spending cuts and tax hikes.
|
| Mike Maloney: When To Sell Your Gold/Silver Posted: 07 Apr 2011 09:00 AM PDT |
| Save yourself from the doomed dollar Posted: 07 Apr 2011 08:37 AM PDT By Dan Caplinger Relatively few investors in the U.S. pay much attention to the foreign currency exchange markets, unless they're planning a trip abroad for the summer. But lately, currency movements have played a huge role in the financial markets, and all indications are that they'll remain important both in the immediate future and for some time to come. Lately, the dollar has been under pressure versus nearly every major currency on the planet. …… The source of currency woes for the U.S. rests largely in the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy. The European Central Bank is expected to raise interest rates today, with Switzerland potentially following suit. In doing so, they'll join countries around the world, including Brazil and most recently China, in tightening monetary policy to combat inflationary pressures. Meanwhile, the Fed seems bound and determined to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future. That has unmistakable benefits for borrowers, including the U.S. government. But it also discourages savers from holding onto greenbacks. … Given that you're likely to get paid in dollars for the rest of your life, moving some of your investments away from dollar-denominated assets could help hedge your bets if the dollar falls further. [source] RS View: As far back as fifteen years ago I regularly espoused the same sentiment represented in that concluding remark as being the basis of an ideal diversification — that is, while working for an income that represents 100% exposure to the dollar itself, it makes natural sense to mitigate the depth of that exposure by putting 100% of savings completely outside the dollar system — i.e., in physical gold. "…And it's worked out pretty well so far."
|
| Posted: 07 Apr 2011 08:30 AM PDT The 5 min. Forecast April 07, 2011 11:54 AM by Addison Wiggin – April 7, 2011 [LIST] [*]Like swine flu, rising interest rates spread westward across the globe… Abe Cofnas on the return of the "carry trade" and prospects for the dollar [*]Another harbinger of a stock rally due for a rest… and why thin volume is about to get even thinner [*]Global food prices take a breather… a new threat to the housing market, starting tomorrow… and new wind in Colombia's sails [*]Up 168% in two years… Inflation greets late arrivals as the Masters gets under way today [/LIST] 0:00 — It started in Asia. Now it's spread westward to Europe. And before it's all over, it might even reach the United States. Swine flu? No. "It" is rising interest rates and an end to the free flow of easy money that flooded the globe in response to the 2007-08 financial crisis. The world's monetary mandarins are deciding, one by one, that it's time t...
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Save Your ASSets First To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment