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In The News Today
US Currency in Circulation & Barron’s Gold Mining Index Part 3 of 3
Guest Post: Subprime Government And The Liquidity Trap, Parts I and II
Investment Legends, Part I
Mad Max Or Financial Meltdown?
World Stock Markets Uptrending
Audio of Hathaway and Embry interviews posted at King World News
What Does the Future Hold for the Dow:Gold Ratio?
Jonathan Lee: Gray Metal Driving Green Revolution?
Gold Mania: Are We There Yet?
LGMR: New Gold Record "All About the Dollar", Silver Bears "Consistently Wrong"
Utah Gold Standard, Part II
Dollar in danger of 'waterfall' decline, Norcini says in KWN metals review
Attention SLA: Dublin – Max Keiser will be appearing this Wednesday, 4/13 with the, “F*** JP Morgan Silver Liberation Army Tour”
Things
The Best of the Week
Gold Is Still Cheap Despite Record Surge: Marc Faber
Pension Ruling to Complicate Insolvency Proceedings?
Balancing the Budget with Silver
The Inflationary Depression Moves Foreward Relentlessly
The Gold/Silver Ratio Is Misleading

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 07:10 PM PDT

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Posted: 09 Apr 2011 05:31 PM PDT

View the original post at jsmineset.com... April 09, 2011 05:55 PM My Dear Friends, The media is making big deal of the compromise agreed to in principle to avoid a government shutdown. In the greater scheme of things economic, this compromise has very little to do with anything. No one ever expects a government to shut down for any extended period of time when, regardless of what party you focus on, the entire exercise is political theatrics. The net result of the agreement when calculated as a percentage of total spending borders on comic relief. Only people who religiously attend flee circuses can make much of this not so bold move. Gold finds its basis in too much debt. Gold is going to trade at $1650 and much higher. This entire performance of whether the government closing down or not is a great deal of insignificant noise. It will not change the direction nor the amount of future deficits. It is politics as we move towards an election year. Respectfully, Jim Last-min...

US Currency in Circulation & Barron’s Gold Mining Index Part 3 of 3

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 04:26 PM PDT

[EMAIL="Mlundeen2@Comcast.net"]Mlundeen2@Comcast.net[/EMAIL] [CENTER] [/CENTER] 08 April 2010 To fully understand the price trends in the Barron's Gold Mining Index (BGMI), and the Dow Jones Industrials, we must take into consideration how these asset prices are influenced by the shifting flow of funds within an inflationary economy. To fully appreciate the connection between credit creation and the stock market and gold mining shares, we need to examine what money and credit have been, and what they are now. Exactly what is money? Looking at [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money"]Wikipedia's definition of what money is[/ame], it's obvious that money is more a dynamic economic catalyst than just an asset to be spent. · Medium of exchange (frees society from barter exchanges) · Unit of account (standardizes the terms of commerce) · Store of value (allows for secure saving over time ) · Standard of deferred payment (allows the...

Guest Post: Subprime Government And The Liquidity Trap, Parts I and II

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 01:33 PM PDT

Submitted by nopat

Subprime Government and the Liquidity Trap

Part I

Intragovernmental debt holdings have been one of the more underreported topics during the last few economic cycles. This isn’t surprising. We’ve turned the federal debt argument into a legal, rather than financial or moral, debate where the fairness doctrine of universal applicability means any inconsistency of logic on the part renders the whole invalid. The result of this is the public grossly misunderstands the burden of proof to be the lack of controvertible evidence, and with it any hope of meaningful discourse is lost in the chicanes of grandiose political gestures. Arguments get boiled down into easy-to-swallow pills ready for mass consumption. We rally against illegal immigration without questioning who built our houses, and condemn illegal drug use while washing down an oxycodone with a highball of scotch. National debt is now far too high and government spending and waste far too pervasive. We must stop at nothing to rid ourselves of this indentured servitude.

Oh, dear Faust, if it were only that easy.

Like all political debates, the rub isn’t the national debt as a whole, it’s the composition of the national debt between publicly-held and held by agencies. To be fair, publicly-held debt is the larger amount – $9.4T of the $14T, or two-thirds. But focusing on the public portion of the national debt means the federal government can still dip its fingers in the other third of the pie that is the intragovernmental debt holdings without invalidating the “debt = the devil” position voters love casting, like a pair of bunched-up panties at a Tom Jones concert, their ballots towards. Clinton’s sepia’d legacy will be defined by the moment he paid down the national debt, if by “paid down” you mean “increased” $588B between 1996-2001 by raiding the Federal Trust Fund.

The whole thing works just like any institution sitting on a ton of cash: due to the timing between assets and liabilities (receiving money and paying expenses), it makes perfect financial sense to put that cash to work provided there’s an asset class with low enough risk so as not to disrupt operations. And there’s no single riskless asset class like US Federal Debt, backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government.

One of the reforms Lyndon Johnson ushered in with his Great Society was the creation of the General Trust Fund. The government isn’t “The Government”, it’s a collection of agencies waging a pitched battle for precious taxpayer resources. Now, on the rare occasion that spending is less than projected, or as is more likely, tax receipts earmarked for a specific agency came in above what was budgeted, this “surplus” is pooled into a general trust and lent out to other agencies at a rate assumed similar to a government market issue maturing and/or callable after 4 years. In other words, a medium-term to long-term Treasury note with terms set accordingly including interest paid back to the issuing agency.

In a manner of speaking, it was a way to become “half-pregnant”. For agencies like the SSA collecting 40 or 50 years of taxes from an individual before a withdrawal would be seen, this represents a massive source of funding for government operations. Without having to access the capital markets, interest rates would remain lower than they ordinarily would and the drag on the economy would be reduced. More importantly, it allowed politicians to expand the size of government without having to increase the direct tax burden. For the generation of guns-and-butter baby boomers who were raised during the unrivaled prosperity of post-WWII America, capitalism was now like being an organ donor, something at the bottom of a form you could opt into. It became as much of an inalienable Constitutional right as free speech, turkey at Thanksgiving, and the best education American tax dollars can buy.

Now, this is where the story takes a bit of a turn. The dollar is the de facto reserve currency, and has been since Bretton Woods. When an

emerging economy wants to access the capital markets, investors demand the transaction to occur in dollars to ensure sufficient liquidity – that, in the event things fall apart quickly, there will be sufficient physical currency to be able to exit their positions. The same applies for commodities, precious metals, and a whole host of other asset classes. This influx of capital increases pressure on the currency markets to the effect of driving down the dollar (where capital is leaving) and increasing the value of the foreign currency (where capital is entering). To keep their goods cheaper for export, foreign central banks intervene by using their new influx of US dollars to buy assets priced in US dollars, causing dollars to increase in value relative to their currency. Given the need to quickly enter and exit these positions in response to changes in the market, the preference is for the next most liquid asset other than dollars – US Treasuries.

That’s the inside joke when we get into a pissing match over trade. A country wants to keep its currency cheap, so it makes our currency more expensive. The more expensive our currency, the cheaper it is for us to borrow. Borrowing devalues the currency, and the cycle continues, for as long as there is a buyer, dollars will be printed. Without a buyer, the currency becomes cheaper, borrowing costs increase, and inflation grips the economy. That’s the trade – we get their goods plus rock-bottom financing. The economy expands, unemployment drops to the floor, and tax receipts grow. Trust funds burst at the seams, the cost of borrowing from now lower than ever, allowing the unthinkably easy out of cutting taxes and expanding entitlement services. In return, they get our inflation. All gain, no pain. To a guns-and-butter baby boomer, it’d be inconceivable any other way. Any less, and the inequity of fairness would be worthy of protest.

Part II

Well, at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Except when it works too well, then it doesn’t work at all. And for the past 40 years, it’s been working exceedingly well. Which is to say, it’s about to fail miserably.

The interesting thing about the post-war baby boom and our guns-and-butter generation isn’t what happened during or as a result of this population tidal wave, but what didn’t happen: the birth rate in America abruptly fell during the mid-60s, and continued to fall even through to today. Compounding the problem, on one hand you have increasing life expectancies and the expansion of benefits placing financial burdens on the retirement system. On the other hand, increasingly competitive labor markets and trade liberalization placed further importance on education and technological adoption, which both increased the displacement of workers as the domestic value chain moved upstream and delayed the entry of individuals into the labor pool well into their 20s as they traded off starting a family for attaining college educations. These lengthened dependant obligations (from both ends of the curve) have necessitated longer workforce tenures, and are simultaneously acting as an artificial floor to wages for those already at the peak of their earnings trajectory while creating a ceiling as the next generation is kept in an advancement holding pattern, denied the skills and experience needed to achieve their own maximum earnings potential. The divide between rich and poor is as much a generational problem as it is access to education, technology, and capital resources.

The other interesting thing about the post-war baby boom was the impact on the savings rate. The rising percentage of income coming from transfer payments (i.e. entitlement programs) as a result of displacement on one end of the economic spectrum coupled with multiple streams of household income and smaller family sizes on the other drove an insatiable consumer demand that depressed the household savings rate, increased demand for foreign goods, and lowered borrowing costs as a vicious cycle was created. Attempts at intervening in the markets to protect trade and standards of living did little more than fuel government spending as the domestic value chain moved even higher, displacing more workers and shifting the demand for low-wage labor overseas.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 3 years…it should be pretty obvious this plan hinges on consumer spending. Now, consumer spending can come from one of three areas: wages, investments, and borrowing. Well, wages haven’t moved a whole lot over the past decade, and for that matter neither have investments. Which leaves borrowing. Lots of borrowing. Where possible, from ourselves. Free money, after all, is free money.

Except when it isn’t. Part of accessing the General Trust means having to pay interest, which the SSA has been more than willing to accept and the rest of the federal government has been more than willing to pay. For the past 20 years, each time it accesses these funds, it does so at lower and lower costs, with ever more funds to access as tax revenues have continued to grow. With borrowing costs lower than at any point in history, this should be a no brainer.

If only it were that easy.

The government at large faces an epic dilemma of where to come up with the cash to keep itself moving forward without drawing too much of a shock to the system. Nearly 1 in 5 is employed in the Public sector, likely more once you take into consideration all the private industries that live specifically off of government contracts. Almost $0.30 of every $1 of gross earnings is a government paycheck of some form. Taking into account that social security benefits paid by your employer isn't income, given it goes directly into someone else's pocket, the picture only gets worse. Public sentiment is clamoring for a reduction in the federal deficit without an increase in the per-capita level of taxes. Current spending levels are predicated on cheap and easy access to capital markets, which have left the central bank in the precarious situation of being unable to increase interest rates without increasing the overall costs to government, which can't reduce its size without contributing to a greater economic downturn. As it stands, the SSA can hope to bring in $114B of interest revenue on the debt currently outstanding, less than what it did in 2010. Unfortunately, there isn’t any capital left in those funds to roll the interest rates over, and unless there’s a miraculous recovery in the labor market (maybe Bill Hicks’ idea of using the elderly for stunt doubles will come to fruition, at least one can hope), payments will continue to outstrip receipts and a draw-down on $2.6T of the SSA trust will deprive the government of much needed oxygen to keep the machine moving forward.

Investment Legends, Part I

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 08:52 AM PDT

Bill Bonner View the original article. April 09, 2011 10:01 AM What will happen to the US economy and the dollar in the near term? Will inflation increase dramatically? What is the outlook for gold, and where should you put your money? BIG GOLD asked a world-class panel of economists, authors, and investment advisors what they expect for the future. Caution: strong opinions ahead… Jim Rogers is a self-made billionaire, author of the best-sellers Adventure Capitalist and Investment Biker, and a sought-after financial commentator. He was a co-founder of the Quantum Fund, a successful hedge fund, and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI). Bill Bonner is the president and founder of Agora, Inc., a worldwide publisher of financial advice and opinions. He is also the author of the Internet-based Daily Reckoning and a regular columnist in MoneyWeek magazine. Walter J. “John” Williams, private consulting economist and "economic whistleblower," has b...

Mad Max Or Financial Meltdown?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 08:50 AM PDT

Martin Armstrong's New Essay:
Well worth reading and understanding the implications of what he has to say.

PDF FILE HERE..

Mr. Armstrong like many others sees financial meltdown in our near future. What his models can't tell us is where we go from there.

I would suggest listening to this from Bix Weir:
Here..

I would also suggest tuning into what FOFOA has to say as regards Freegold: Here..
I would also suggest you tune into Jim "Santa" Sinclair:
Here..

A helping of Jim Willie would not go astray.
Here..

Richard Russell of Dow Theory letters: Here...

There are many others who are willing to put their reputations on the line. Some for money others for the greater good. The bottom line is we are in uncharted territory if the Dollar collapses or at least is no longer the worlds reserve currency.

There are many theories of what could happen or should happen all the way from a brave new world to hunting each other for food. See "THE ROAD" (TRAILER) for that particularly depressing thought. On second thoughts don't. I only managed to get 3/4's of the way through that miserable movie. It was just too depressing.

Best case scenario is Bix Weir/ FOFOA and worst case is "The Road". A controlled collapse by the good guys hurting many people but with a return to sound fiscal policy or worse than the dark ages.
What to take away from all this is we may muddle through, there might be a rapture leaving all the bankers here to fend off demons or we may simply have to start a new monetary system that everyone understands and can trust. We don't know.

But you can make some preparations if you see financial collapse in our future. Think "Mad Max" and "Bartertown" and you should be OK.
What do people want and what do people need?
The basics: Food, Water, Shelter and Self Defense.
Luxuries: Booze, smokes and toilet paper.

If it's Hyper Inflation, Stagflation get them now before the prices goes up.
If it's Hyper Deflation get them now while you still can.

The message is get what you can now.
LINK HERE..

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

World Stock Markets Uptrending

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 07:36 AM PDT

A very interesting week from a worldwide perspective. All the foreign markets we follow: Asia +1.4%, Europe +0.8%, the Commodity equity group +0.7% and the DJ World +0.9%, were all higher on the week. But the US ended mixed to negative: SPX/DOW mixed and the NDX/NAZ -0.6%. Economic reports for the week were sparse but mostly positive. On the downside ISM services and the M-1 multiplier. On the upside consumer credit rose, along with the WLEI, excess reserves and the monetary base, wholesale inventories remained positive and jobless claims declined. Bond yields are now uptrending again, Crude soared 5.1%, Gold gained 3.2% and the USD is making new lows. Next week we have the FED’s Beige book, the CPI/PPI and Options expiration.

Audio of Hathaway and Embry interviews posted at King World News

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 07:24 AM PDT

3:22p ET Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):

Audio of King World News' interviews this week with Tocqueville Gold Fund manager John Hathaway and Sprott Asset Management's John Embry has been posted at the KWN Internet site.

The Hathaway interview is here:

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2011/4/9_John_H...

The Embry interview is here:

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2011/4/9_John_E...

They're both pretty compelling at what seems like a turning point in the precious metals markets.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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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

Join GATA here:

An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk
Sponsored by Deutsche Edelmetall-Gesellschaft
Friday, April 29, 2011
Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany

http://www.goldmoney.com/munich-2011-april-29.html

Gold Rush 2011
GATA's London Conference
Thursday-Saturday, August 4-6, 2011
Savoy Hotel, London, England

http://www.gata.org/goldrush2011-london

Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:

https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12

Or a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

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:

http://www.goldrush21.com/

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:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

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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

What Does the Future Hold for the Dow:Gold Ratio?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 07:00 AM PDT

[B]Will Gold Surge and/or Stocks Fall?[/B] The Dow:Gold ratio is defined as the ratio of the price of the Dow Jones Industrial Average divided by the price of gold [or] how many ounces of gold it takes to buy the 30-stock Dow. The current Dow:Gold ratio of 8.5*is up 21.1% from its 17-year March 6, 2009 low of 7.0 and 81% below its 1999 peak of 44.77. [What does the future hold? Higher gold prices,*lower stock prices or vice versa?] Words: 400 So*says Kirk Lindstrom**([url]http://kirklindstrom.blogspot.com/[/url]) in*an article* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com, has further edited ([* ]), abridged (…) and*reformatted*below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. (Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.)*Lindstrom goes*on to say: [Let's take a look at the chart below for some insights.] Click for larger image [B]200 Year History of the Dow:Gold Ratio[/B] The DJIA-to-gold r...

Jonathan Lee: Gray Metal Driving Green Revolution?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 06:26 AM PDT

Vanadium, a gray metal mainly used as an additive to steel, could see a jump in demand as new technologies emerge in energy storage. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Jonathan Lee, a battery materials and technology analyst with Toronto-based Byron Capital Markets, talks about which vanadium producers are ready to grapple with the prospect of increasing demand from the adaption of "green" uses. The Gold Report: What are some development stories in the vanadium space that you're covering? Jonathan Lee: Largo Resources Ltd. (TSX.V:LGO) is one of the most advanced of all the juniors. At a 1.34% grade, Largo has the highest grade deposit of vanadium that is known right now. We currently have a Strong Buy on Largo Resources. TGR: And that's the Maracas project in Brazil? JL: It is in Brazil. That deposit is one of the highest grade deposits in the world at about 1.34% vanadium pentoxide. We really like that story. Apparently, a lot of the banks do, too. The compan...

Gold Mania: Are We There Yet?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 05:57 AM PDT

By Louis James, Casey International Speculator It's understandable that people want to know where the precious metals market is headed next. And not just because big fluctuations can be nerve-wracking, but because it makes a big difference how you'd invest today if, for instance, you think there's a big correction ahead (save cash to buy cheaper) or not (load up and ride the wave). But the reality is that I don't know. Nobody knows what will happen next. That's why it's called speculation. Further, you can be right about the trend and still get wiped out if your timing is wrong. That's why it's easier to say what is likely to happen than what is likely to happen next. And that, in turn, is why we at Casey Research still have quite a bit of concern and uncertainty about a possible correction in the near term, even though the Casey Consensus is unanimous in projecting rising prices for precious metals for years to come. Some investors are tiring of our cauti...

LGMR: New Gold Record "All About the Dollar", Silver Bears "Consistently Wrong"

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 05:51 AM PDT

London Gold Market Report from Adrian Ash BullionVault Fri 8 Apr., 08:45 EST New Gold Record "All About the Dollar", Silver Bears "Consistently Wrong" as Price Breaks $40/Oz THE PRICE OF GOLD hit new all-time Dollar highs in London trade on Friday morning, with dealing desks pointing to two short-term drivers – Japan's huge monetary response to the recent earthquake disaster, and the US government's impending "shutdown" after lawmakers failed to agree a new budget ceiling. Nato air-strikes reportedly damaged Libyan oil facilities, with crude oil extending the gains it made "once [Thursday's] Eurozone rate hike was out of way" as one dealer notes, rising to $124 per barrel in London. Major-government bonds all fell in price, while stock markets rose alongside base metals and agricultural commodities. Like the gold price, tin also hit new all-time highs. Silver bullion broke above $40 per ounce for the first time since 2 Feb. 1980. "Inflation expectations are...

Utah Gold Standard, Part II

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 05:44 AM PDT

How the Gold Standard kept prices stable...

Dollar in danger of 'waterfall' decline, Norcini says in KWN metals review

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 04:24 AM PDT

12:19p ET Saturday, April 9, 2011

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):

In the weekly precious metals market review at King World News, Bill Haynes of CMI Gold and Silver in Phoenix reports that buying surged over selling beginning Wednesday, while futures trader and market analyst Dan Norcini sees gold and silver in uncharted territory and the dollar in danger of a "waterfall" decline. The program is 22 minutes long and you can listen to it at King World News here:

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2011/4/9_KWN_We...

Or try this abbreviated link:

http://tinyurl.com/3f5ef2c

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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

Join GATA here:

An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk
Sponsored by Deutsche Edelmetall-Gesellschaft
Friday, April 29, 2011
Hofbrauhaus, Munich, Germany

http://www.goldmoney.com/munich-2011-april-29.html

Gold Rush 2011
GATA's London Conference
Thursday-Saturday, August 4-6, 2011
Savoy Hotel, London, England

http://www.gata.org/goldrush2011-london

Support GATA by purchasing gold and silver commemorative coins:

https://www.amsterdamgold.eu/gata/index.asp?BiD=12

Or a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

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:

http://www.goldrush21.com/

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:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16

Attention SLA: Dublin – Max Keiser will be appearing this Wednesday, 4/13 with the, “F*** JP Morgan Silver Liberation Army Tour”

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 03:13 AM PDT

UPDATE: Whichever locale we pick – if someone can bring a small amplifier and a microphone (if the place does not have any sound system) that would be nice. I am not saying whether I'll be packing any Silver Keisers as you lot in Ireland are desperate and I don't want to get mugged. ————————————————————- [...]

Things

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 03:00 AM PDT

The following is automatically syndicated from Grandich's blog. You can view the original post here. Stay up to date on his model portfolio! April 09, 2011 05:48 AM [LIST] [*]Is America the next Portugal? [*]The inevitable is now unfolding [*]Gold takeovers [*]The Donald [*]My son I never had? [*]The Canucks swim with the fishes? [/LIST] [url]http://www.grandich.com/[/url] grandich.com...

The Best of the Week

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:54 AM PDT

syndicate:

Author:

Vedran Vuk

Synopsis:

Welcome to the weekend edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch, a compilation of our favorite stories from the week for the time-stressed readers.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the weekend edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch, a compilation of our favorite stories from the week for the time-stressed readers.

Of course, if you want to read all of the Daily Dispatches from the week, you may do so in the archives at CaseyResearch.com.

Hidden Dangers – Challenges in Evaluating Big-Cap Risk

By the Casey Research Energy Team

When it comes to investing, one of the few certainties is that nothing is certain. Companies with the best-laid plans can get sideswiped by natural disasters, political uprisings, or global economic events, as we have seen so clearly of late. And companies with plans that are less than perfect or that play the risk-reward gamble sometime soar to great heights – but other times they get dealt a poor hand and lose it all.

There is no refuge from risk. Small-cap venture companies are certainly more risky than large, established companies, but don't let size lull you into complacency. Big companies carry risk too, and theirs is often more hidden. With venture companies, the whole investment concept centers on taking on significant risk in the hopes of a big reward. With majors it is very different – the investment focus is on production and cash flow, which are usually much more reliable. But to get that production and cash flow going, those companies have to invest pots of money into their projects, which means that money is left vulnerable to the whims of the world.

Take British Petroleum: Five years ago BP's shares were worth £7. By late 2008 the global recession had pulled that value down to £4. The company had just worked its way back up to the £6.50 range when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. BP dropped like a lead weight, bottoming just above £3. Now, almost a year later, the company is back at £4.67.

The recession was not BP's fault, while the Deepwater explosion was. But fault doesn't really matter. All the markets care about is the value of a company's assets and the size of its liabilities. The bigger the company, the bigger those numbers become. And in the machinations of a major company, it is easy to overlook the potential for value to transform into liability in an instant.

BP took a $41-billion charge to cover its cleanup and compensation costs at Deepwater Horizon. To pay that bill, the company has signed deals to sell $22 billion worth of oil and gas properties, on its way to a target of $30 billion in asset sales. And don't let that "billion" word wash – BP's market cap today stands at roughly $140 billion, so $41 billion is certainly a significant number. On top of that, federal prosecutors in the United States are now considering whether to pursue manslaughter charges against the company, based on decisions made before the Gulf of Mexico accident. The Department of Justice already launched a criminal investigation into the company's actions, and has filed a civil suit under the Clean Water Act against BP and several other companies involved in the accident.

And BP's troubles do not end with cleaning up one of the biggest oil spills in history. In January the company announced a $16-billion share swap and strategic Arctic exploration alliance with Russia's state oil major, Rosneft, a move that CEO Bob Dudley described as an important growth opportunity for the company as it tries to recover from the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Now that historic deal is dangling by a thread because of opposition from BP's partner in its other, established Russian venture.

In 2003 BP and several Russian businessmen, collectively known as AAR, joined forces to create a Russia-Ukraine oil company called TNK-BP. The partners each hold 50% of TNK, which is now Russia's third-largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. The billionaires behind AAR believe the structure of their joint venture requires BP to work through TNK for all of its Russian endeavors. As such they immediately moved to block BP's proposed deal with Rosneft, arguing it violates the TNK agreement.

The challenge led to a temporary injunction against the deal. Now a Stockholm arbitration tribunal has extended that injunction in a victory for AAR. BP is contemplating its options, including the possibility of scrapping the strategic alliance but going ahead with the share swap. Several of BP's large UK shareholders have told the company they are opposed to the share-swap-only idea, but Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin said last month that Rosneft would take legal action against all responsible parties if the deal falls through, leaving BP stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The point is that business is risky on every level. When the business in question is massive, the risk is just more difficult to pinpoint and assess. Until Deepwater Horizon exploded, only a few people very closely involved with the rig knew that the rock formation around the well kept cracking and collapsing as BP and Transocean worked to replace the drilling rig with a production rig; or that BP decided to use just six centralizers (used to ensure even cement distribution when sealing a well) when consultants had recommended 21; or that company officials decided to skip a test that probes cement stability before removing the drilling mud from the well.

The guys making these decisions had no idea their choices could possibly wipe out half of BP's market capitalization, but that is what happened. It wasn't a natural disaster: the rig exploded and oil gushed for four months because of human error. So when investors look to a company the size of BP for a low-risk investment, remember that even the majors cannot avoid risk. There are simply too many moving parts in a machine of that size to ensure that every bit functions perfectly.

Even if one could keep on top of everything, nature has a secret stash of curve balls that can knock a company flat... like an earthquake-tsunami combination with the power to send a nuclear power facility into a terrifying downhill spiral and to erase 75% of its market capitalization.

Does the unavoidable nature of business risk mean we should shirk investing completely? No, because with risk comes reward – and speculative investments carry the potential for very good returns. Just as important as making money when the going's good, however, is not losing money when things turn sour. To ensure that, you have to get your money out of the markets regularly. Our formula for that is known as the "Casey Free Ride," which is where we recoup our initial investment once the stock has achieved part of our expected gain. Once our money is off the table, we retain exposure to the remaining upside through shares that no longer hold any downside.

Companies rise and fall due to forces both in and out of their control. Mistakes, forces of nature, political transformations, bad gambles, economic shifts – all of these things translate into risk for every company. The only way to shield yourself from it is to constantly manage your risk exposure, whether your portfolio is full of venture startups or large-cap conglomerates. Risk management is one of the key principles that guides the Casey Energy team, because we want to both make money during bull markets and hold on to that money when the bull takes a back seat to the bear. Details here.

Silver Is Getting Too Popular… Right?

Jeff Clark, BIG GOLD

It's no secret that the silver market is red hot. As I write, silver American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs are sold out at their respective mints. Buying in India has gone through the roof, especially noteworthy among a people with a strong historical preference for gold. Demand in China continues unabated. Silver stocks have screamed upward.

So, as an investor looking to maximize my profit, I have a natural question: is the silver trade getting too crowded, meaning we're near the top? Have the masses finally joined the party such that we should consider exiting? After all, it's not a profit until you take it, and you definitely want to sell near the top.

There are several ways to measure how crowded the silver market might be. I prefer to look strictly at the big picture and not get caught up in the weeds. This means I'm looking for signs of market exhaustion or the masses rushing in. Nothing says "peak" more than an investment everyone is buying.

So how crowded are silver investments right now? Let's first look at the ETFs.

At $35 silver, all exchange-traded funds backed by the metal amount to $20.7 billion. You can see how this compares to some popular stocks. All silver ETFs combined are less than a quarter of the market cap of McDonald's. They're about 10% of GE, a company that still hasn't recovered from the '08 meltdown. Exxon Mobil is more than 20 times bigger. And this isn't even apples-to-apples, as I'm comparing the entire silver ETF market to a few individual stocks.

This is even more interesting when you consider that it's the ETFs where most of the public – especially those that are new to the market – first invest in silver. So while the metal has doubled in the past seven months, total investment in the funds is still far beneath many popular blue-chip stocks.

Okay, maybe all this money is instead going into silver mining stocks. How does the market cap of the silver industry compare to other industries?

While you fetch your magnifying glass, I'll tell you thatthe market cap of the silver industry is $73.1 billion. It barely registers when compared to a number of other industries I picked mostly at random. The dying newspaper industry is over 26 times bigger. Drug manufacturers are 213 times larger. Heck, even the gold market is 19 times greater. And here's the fun one: the market cap of the entire silver market, with all its record-setting prices and stock-screaming highs, represents just one-third of one percent of the oil and gas industry.

To be fair, there are a number of sectors that are smaller than silver. Radio broadcasters ($43.2B), video stores ($10.9B), and sporting goods stores ($2.5B) have puny market caps, too. But then again, who's buying DVDs or baseball mitts to protect their wealth from a coming inflation?

Silver hardly resembles the picture of an investment that is too crowded.

I'm not saying one should rush to buy silver right now. After all, it has doubled in seven months. Unless this is the beginning of the mania, prudence would certainly be called for at this juncture. The price will always ebb and flow in a bull market, and an ebb is overdue.

The question, of course, is from what price level it occurs. What if a correction doesn't ensue until, say, a month from now, and the price falls back to… where it is now? I remember some articles in January that insisted silver would fall to as low as $22, and, well, they're still waiting and have in the meantime missed out on some huge gains. For silver to fall back to $22 now would require a 40% drop; not impossible, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Fixating on market timing takes your focus off the ultimate goal. In my opinion, instead of worrying about what will happen next week or even next month, focus on how many ounces you have, and then buy at regular intervals until you reach your desired allocation. This has the added benefit of smoothing out your cost basis. And don't forget to buy more as your assets and income increase.

This is a market where you'll want to be well ahead of the pack. Someday in the not-too-distant future, average investors will be tripping over themselves to join in. That will make the market caps of our silver investments look more like some of the others in the charts above. And that will do wonderful things to our portfolio.

I think owning no silver in this bull market would be a mistake. In fact, we devote an entire issue of BIG GOLD to it every year, and we just released our annual Silver Buying Guide this morning.

This monster edition covers everything you need to profit from silver, whether novice or veteran
The behind-the-scene forces that will push on the price for years to come
If now is a good time to buy
A candid interview with a bullion insider and what has him worried right now
A directory that lists all physical forms of silver, including what we buy and what we don't
Our "Bullion Store" with suggestions from our recommended dealers and a location for free allocated storage outside of the U.S.
A special discount on silver bullion for BIG GOLD readers
And a new silver stock pick.

You simply won't find this depth of information for $79 anywhere else. Give BIG GOLD a risk-free try with a 3-month money-back guarantee, and I think you'll be very pleased with what your portfolio looks like in a few short years.

[Go straight to the order form to start reading "The Silver Buying Guide" edition right now, or click here for more details on how BIG GOLD can boost your portfolio.]

A Brief Look at Nanotech Today

By Chris Wood, Casey Extraordinary Technology

Even today, if you utter the word "nanotechnology" to most people, you receive in return either a blank stare or a rolling of the eyes. That's because many people still don't know what nanotechnology is – and those who do generally consider it a pipe dream for a far-off time not applicable to the world today.

In a nutshell, nanotechnology is the science of very small things; i.e., things at the nanometer or molecular scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or approximately the length of five to ten atoms placed side-by-side. For comparison, the thickness of a human hair is about 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers. So, we're talking really small stuff.

Those in the know understand that nanotechnology has the potential to change the world in many positive ways. And that it will improve many of the products that we use every day and make many new products possible. But even these folks tend to think that we won't reap the benefits of nanotechnology for many years to come. Not so.

And while it's true that we don't yet have the theoretical capability envisioned by renowned physicist Richard Feynman, who wanted "to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing simultaneously" from the bottom up, atom by atom – nanotechnology as it exists today is already making the world a better place.

Everything from the chips that power modern electronics, to specialized industrial, medical and military materials, to synthetic fuels and lubricants – all are manufactured at a nano-scale these days. As fabrication techniques become more cost effective and applications in more areas are discovered, the possibilities are virtually limitless.

Consider that just yesterday in the course of my daily research activities, I came across a number of scientific research articles summarizing various benefits of nanotech, including:

Using nanoparticles of graphite to improve the solar collection efficiency of photovoltaic cells;
Using polymer-coated gold nanoparticles to enhance detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to provide a means of detecting cancer earlier;
Using nanorods of manganese dioxide as an efficiency-enhancing positive electrode of a battery that uses the difference in salinity between freshwater and seawater to produce electricity; and
Using nanofibers of polyvinyl alcohol and polyethylene oxide to encapsulate antibiotics, which gives them the ability to destroy even the most drug-resistant bacteria so completely that scientists described the remains as mere "ghosts."

Nanotech is already a large part of our modern economy. And it's growing rapidly.

From an investor's point of view, right now seems like a great time to get positioned in the nanotech space because the initial hype seen in the early 2000s has died down, but the technology itself has matured rapidly. It looks like we're on the cusp of an explosion in nanotech over the next decade, and early investors will be rewarded handsomely.

The problem is, many of the most promising nanotech companies out there are early-stage private entities. And access to venture capital deals is generally restricted to accredited investors. However, there is a vehicle that allows us smaller investors to take advantage of the growing promise in nanotech – it's called a business development company (BDC).

These are publicly traded entities similar to venture capital funds that take ownership positions in promising start-ups. When one of the BDC's portfolio companies either goes public or gets acquired by a larger firm (called "exits" by industry insiders), you as an investor in the BDC are rewarded by either a payout of dividends or an increase in Net Asset Value (NAV), which boosts the value of the stock and gives you capital appreciation.

(It's important to keep in mind that these are very risky investments because the failure rate of the portfolio companies held by the BDC is so high. But the potential return is also huge, especially if you pick the right BDC to invest in.)

[In our Casey Extraordinary Technology portfolio, we're currently holding the BDC that we think is best poised to capitalize on the coming revolution in nanotech. Another booming sector we focus on, and that regularly hands smart investors remarkable gains, is biotech. Read here which companies we have found to be the top picks for your portfolio right now.]

On Furloughs

By Vedran Vuk

With the furloughs ready to start, I'm again disappointed by the media – as usual. Furloughs are a perk, a privilege of being in the employment of the government. Yet, they are being paraded around as some form of cruel injustice. Don't even get me started on the articles lamenting how federal employees won't be allowed to use their government-issued Blackberries. Oh, the horror!

If the government shuts down on Friday, every non-essential government employee should wake up really late in the day, turn on the TV, relax and smile in bliss. After all, they are lucky. When private companies have budget problems, the people on the non-essential worker list don't get a three-day weekend. They get a six-month "vacation" of filling out resumes, eating Ramen noodles, and worrying about their mortgages.

In comparison, the furloughed government workers will get an extra day to enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. What perfect timing.

When a private worker gets fired, he doesn't have an army of lobbyists and politicians pushing to get his job back. Instead, the worker gets the pink slip often without notice and goes straight to applying for new jobs. He or she doesn't protest in front of government buildings, but instead starts searching for work.

So, sorry, media. As someone who has actually been unemployed and not furloughed during the recession, I will not be feeling one ounce of pity for the government employees. Frankly, they're lucky to be furloughed rather than fired. However, I'll go one step further. The furloughs will provide us with some invaluable information.

People always ask, "Where would you make cuts in the government's budget?" Well, government agencies just made a list of their non-essential workers. As it turns out, the list covers 800,000 federal employees. There's no reason to throw this list away after the furloughs. Instead, take it right up to Congress and ask, "How many of the employees on this list are permanently non-essential?"

I bet that even the most fervent government supporter could find a couple of thousand government jobs to cut there.

When it comes to cutting entire government agencies, the debate can be fierce. But if the agencies themselves have identified non-essential workers, then the next logical step is to start trimming the fat across the board. That's what private companies do to survive recessions and keep going. No one sends all of their employees home. They fire the least essential and efficient workers so that the most efficient and essential workers can continue to work and pick up paychecks. Furlough days are the exact opposite – they shelter the worst employees and equivalently punish the effective and needed employees.

At some point, the United States government will face a catastrophic default. Government employees will lose their jobs by the tens of thousands. Continuing on the current path simply isn't an option. We can either choose to cut government jobs today in an orderly fashion, or we can do it when the U.S. dollar is worth less than toilet paper. In the end, the result will be the same, and many of those comfortable D.C. jobs will disappear forever.

Gold Is Still Cheap Despite Record Surge: Marc Faber

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:52 AM PDT

¤ Yesterday in Gold and Silver Starting early in the morning in Far East trading, the dollar headed south...and both precious metals headed north. There was a slight dip at an early London p.m. gold fix at 2:45 p.m. GMT...9:45 a.m. in New York...but other than that, gold rose pretty steadily throughout all of Friday trading. Volume was very light. The silver price gained a bunch during the Far East trading day, then basically flat-lined in London trading until the p.m. gold fix...then away it went to the upside, closing virtually on its high of the day. Volume was pretty decent, but not off the charts. The dollar fell out of bed starting at precisely 8:00 p.m. on Thursday night...which was 9:00 a.m in Hong Kong on their Friday morning. By the time the trading day was done in New York at 5:15 p.m. Eastern time on Friday afternoon, the world's reserve currency was down about seventy basis points. For some reason I thought that the 75 cent mark would offer come r...

Pension Ruling to Complicate Insolvency Proceedings?

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:08 AM PDT

Via Pension Pulse.

Jeff Gray of the Globe and Mail reports in CTV, Pension ruling to complicate insolvency proceedings:

A controversial Ontario Court of Appeal decision that boosts the rights of pension plan members when their employer heads into a restructuring could have wide ramifications, lawyers and lenders say.

The court ruled this week that two underfunded pension plans at Indalex Ltd. should rank ahead of a secured lender in the distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the company, which sought protection from its creditors in 2009 under the Companies Creditors Protection Act.

That reverses the conventional pecking order in CCAA proceedings, in which so-called debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders agreed to lend companies emergency funds on the understanding that they would be paid back before anyone else.

While a win for pension plan members, many in the financial and legal worlds say the ruling could have negative unintended consequences not just for the CCAA process, but for Canada’s credit markets in general.

Newton Glassman, head of Catalyst Capital Group Inc., Canada’s largest distressed-debt investor, cautioned that he has not studied the ruling in detail, but said it could make it harder and more expensive for struggling companies to get DIP financing.

These kinds of loans will become inherently more risky and less predictable, he argued, because lenders can no longer be certain that they will be first in line to get their money back.

Even for companies not in court protection from their creditors, he said, borrowing money could get harder as senior lenders take another look at whether pension obligations are being met.

“If the case is not read narrowly, it actually does have very wide implications, and very bad implications,” Mr. Glassman said. “Not just for DIP lending ... but I would argue for the credit markets generally.”

Every partner at Catalyst has been told to read the decision over the weekend, he said, as pension and insolvency experts scramble to predict its impact.

Elizabeth Brown, a pension lawyer with Toronto firm Hicks Morley Hamilton Steward Storie LLP, said the case will have a major impact.

“This case has everyone in the insolvency and pension world turned upside down,” Ms. Brown said, as unpaid pension deficits could now jump to the front of the line in an insolvency proceeding. “It’s quite a far-reaching decision.”

Lawyers who argued the case on behalf of the pension-plan members say the decision does not mean pension plans will always come first in future proceedings.

They say the ruling means that companies in a CCAA proceeding cannot automatically ignore an under-funded pension plan. Instead, companies will have to first make a case in court that they cannot meet their pension obligations.
Robin Schwill, a leading insolvency lawyer with Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP in Toronto, said the decision raises “thorny questions” and even creates uncertainty for CCAA cases currently under way.

The decision suggests that a formerly solid guarantee to a DIP lender could be thrown out by a court that later determines a company was guilty of a “breach of fiduciary duty” to pension plan members, he said.

“That’s going to cause any DIP lender a lot of pause,” Mr. Schwill said.
Kevin McElchern, a Toronto insolvency lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault LLP, said the decision could see creditors push ailing companies that are facing massive pension liabilities into full-blown bankruptcy. That’s because in a bankruptcy, as opposed to a restructuring under court protection from creditors, pension claims are pushed back again to the end of the line, he said.

“It’s a very big win for the pensioners, and of course every one is concerned about the pensioners, but I’m just not sure in the long run ... it won’t actually have a negative or rebound effect,” he said.

Some say predictions of widespread problems for CCAA financing are overblown.

“Practically speaking, it’s just a question of dollars and cents and of return rates. There’s still a lot of money to be made by being a DIP lender,” said David Ullmann, an insolvency lawyer with Minden Gross LLP in Toronto.

He said he did not believe the ruling means that pension plans would always rank ahead of other lenders, but that the pension issue would now have to at least be addressed in court during a company’s restructuring.

“It’s something else to add to the list, more than it is some sort of cataclysm that would prevent DIP lending,” Mr. Ullman said.

I agree, I don't see this as a 'cataclysm' for DIP lending or for Canadian credit markets. There is a lot of fear mongering going on right now but when the dust settles, this ruling won't have a material impact on DIP lending.

Meanwhile, CBC reports that Ex-Nortel workers look to make pensions an election issue:

A group of former Nortel workers are fighting to make bankruptcy reform an election issue, and are targeting Conservative incumbents in over 20 ridings, including three in the Ottawa area.

The group, calling itself the Silver Fox Alliance, says it is looking to unseat Conservative MPs in response to what they say was a lack of support when Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection.

Nortel pensioners had sought the government's assistance to give their pensions greater priority amongst creditors. In particular, the group was upset the Conservatives did not support an NDP private member's bill seeking to add that protection to pensions.

"For two years we have watched the ambivalence and apathy of the Conservative government and now we are just fed up," said John Tyson, a spokesman for the group who worked at Nortel for 35 years.

"We're going out to appeal to those millions of private-sector employees and pensioners and as this election unfolds, voter turnout is going to be the single-largest deciding factor", said Tyson.

In the Ottawa area, the group is focusing its energy on rallying support against sitting MPs John Baird, Gordon O'Connor and Pierre Polievre.

The Conservative party platform, released Friday, offers to extend wages and severance protections for workers whose employer's restructuring attempts take longer than six months and then fail.

The party also promised to work with the provinces and territories to establish a pooled retirement pension plan. But the platform is silent on changes to bankruptcy laws as it pertains to pensions or disability payments.

Tyson said the group hasn't aligned itself with one opposition party but is instead endorsing strategic voting and parties that support their cause.

"As the election campaign unfolds, we will in fact endorse opposition candidates that support the need for changes in the bankruptcy act," said Tyson.

Opposition parties offer different plans

The federal Liberals said in their party platform they would provide greater priority for long-term disability benefits owed to workers during bankruptcy proceedings.

Their platform outlines a plan to create a pension agency to ensure Canadian workers could transfer their pensions into the Canadian Pension Plan rather than placed in a low-return annuity.

The Green Party platform, released Thursday, calls for corporate pension plans to be audited to ensure they are fully funded and for party members to review federal and provincial laws with the view to enact legislation to protect pension benefits.

The NDP and Bloc Quebecois will not release their party platforms until this weekend, but both parties have argued for reform to bankruptcy laws.

Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar said Friday the party would push for legislation to allow pensioners to be put to the front of the line when it comes to recouping funds from companies that face bankruptcy or insolvency.

I referred to Nortel's disabled in my post on "Big CPP" being dragged into Canadian politics. They're still waiting for justice. Pension politics are heating up in Canada and it's about time politicians and voters wake up and start asking some tough questions on pensions. Importantly, bankruptcy laws are not there just to protect creditors. They should first and foremost protect disabled workers and pension plans. All this just confirms my thinking that companies should be offloading their defined benefit pension risk to new or existing government pension funds. Companies should worry about their business, not pensions.

Balancing the Budget with Silver

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:45 PM PDT

Today is Friday, April 8, 2011. Japan was hit with another earthquake this week. Portugal joined Greece and Ireland for a ECB bailout rendering them a ward of the EU state. The US Congress has yet to agree on a budget for the fiscal year as they haggle over spending cuts. The Republican plan is to leave the citizens with $15,800,000,000,000 dollars of debt in another year and the Democrat plan is to leave the citizens with $15,900,000,000,000 dollars of debt in another year. The current WHO (White House Occupant) has proposed a budget with a deficit of $1.6 trillion. Added to the current debt of $14.3 trillion, I extrapolate the debt in another year to be $15.9 trillion. So, our ‘representatives’ are arguing over whether or not to cut a paltry $100 billion from the proposed budget. Let’s be honest. Does it really matter any more?

The Inflationary Depression Moves Foreward Relentlessly

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:00 PM PDT

Management squeezes the worker to the end, the reality of an inflationary depression, the gold and silver bull, we remain haunted by lost opportunities to purge the excess and failures in the stock market.

The Gold/Silver Ratio Is Misleading

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 04:00 PM PDT

Many precious metals investors pay attention to the gold/silver price ratio. But few question whether the price ratio has relevance for the current day, or if other ratios between gold and silver may...