Gold World News Flash |
- Silver is something most Americans can still afford, but aren’t smart enough to buy
- Silver’s Bull Market Summary
- Market Update
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Rise To New Highs Again
- Afterhours Slide Accelerates
- Jim Sinclair will speak at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London
- Gone Fishing but Checking in Briefly
- Long May Gold and Silver Run
- Why Swap Silver For Gold Now With the Gold SIlver Ratio at 34.47?
- Texas gold buy will encourage other institutions, Hathaway tells Bloomberg TV
- Quote du Jour
- I've joined the Silver Liberation Army!!
- Capital Context Update: Credit Where Debit Is Due
- China: Where Money Is Treated Best
- Friedberg Mercantile Group Q1 Commentary: Views On Asset Allocation And Gold In A Stagflationary Environment
- The Dollar’s Surprising Reaction to a Negative US Debt Outlook
- Agri-Food's Commodities Bubble?
- Stock Monday Mayhem, Panic Selling Has Set In!
- Sol Sanders -- Follow the Money No. 62 The 2012 electoral pageant begins
- Why Gold Stocks are Struggling Despite Record Gold Price
- Watershed Event for US
- Nuclear Overseers Are "Fake" Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry
- Margin requirements on silver useless
- “Negative” Outlook? Oh No!
- Why S&P’s Official Statement is Nothing But a Joke
- “Negative” Outlook? Oh No!
- Paul Dockweiler: Right Place, Right Time
- James Turk - Negative US Credit Watch Signals Dollar Collapse
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Nice Day for Bungee Jumping
- In The News Today
| Silver is something most Americans can still afford, but aren’t smart enough to buy Posted: 18 Apr 2011 07:26 PM PDT Why Silver Is Still The Best Revenge Share this:
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 05:56 PM PDT Mark J. Lundeen [EMAIL="Mlundeen2@Comcast.net"]Mlundeen2@Comcast.net[/EMAIL] 18 April 2011 How hot is the silver market? In the past 14 months, the Silver to Gold Ratio has been cut in half! Looking at Silver’s 1969-2011’s Bear’s Eye View (BEV) Chart below, we see the history of silver from 1969 to present. From 1969 to 1980, the largest correction in the price of silver was just short of 40%. This is a big decline in the Dow Jones, but something to be expected in Silver. After 1980, silver crashed down 92% by 1992, and for the most part, stayed there for the next 12 years. As this BEV Plot uses 17 January 1980 for its last all-time high, the March-October 2008 decline shows a loss of 25%. But that loss is in reference to Silver’s last all-time high from 28 years before, where investors in 2008 actually saw a seven month loss of 58% ($20.69 to $8.79 Ouch!). Silver does that occasionally to those who buy it, or so it use to....
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 05:34 PM PDT Gold Scents
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| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Rise To New Highs Again Posted: 18 Apr 2011 04:00 PM PDT Gold fell off to $1476.90 in London before it spiked up to $1497.53 in early New York trade and then fell back to $1482.70 in late morning trade, but it then rallied back higher midday and ended near its new all-time high with a gain of 0.43%. Silver jumped to a new 31-year high of $43.515 before it fell back to $42.198, but it also rallied back higher in late trade and ended with a gain of 0.63%.
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 03:50 PM PDT
In a notable shift from the traditional regime observed over the past year when the afterhours session would regularly see a quiet, persistent melt up, primarily in equities, post close of electronic trading recently has been all but traditional. As can be seen on the chart below, after an attempt to ramp equities into the regular close, ES is now back to the lows of the day, where it is joined by Crude and soon- the EURUSD, which leads us to believe that the front and center story today, which was Europe until the S&P escapade, is once again in focus. The weakness is not isolated to any particular asset class, and while gold saw no sell off following the S&P move earlier, precious metals are not spared now. Curiously, the only class that refuses to budge are LT bonds: the 10 Year has been locked at the 3.37% number since closing and is hardly moving.
On a relative basis, the dollar is currently leading the pack, with the DXY performing best, followed by the Trade Weighted, Asian DXY, and curiously enough, outperforming both silver and gold for once.
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| Jim Sinclair will speak at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London Posted: 18 Apr 2011 03:46 PM PDT 11:45p ET Monday, April 18, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Gold mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair -- chairman of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corp., veteran gold and commodities trader, and proprietor of the free Internet site of financial market information for the gold community, JSMineSet.com -- will speak at GATA's Gold Rush 2011 conference in London on August 4-6. For a decade now Sinclair has fearlessly and steadfastly predicted gold's ascent against the forces of price suppression and market propaganda, and he repeatedly has put his money where his mouth is in pursuit of gold's renewed recognition as the international currency. Back in 2004, as gold climbed its wall of worry to reach $400 per ounce, Sinclair arranged for his readers what might have been called the "Sinclair put" on the purchase of 1-ounce Vienna Philharmonic gold bullion coins from Monex Precious Metals in Newport Beach, California. If gold still wasn't above $400 a year hence, Sinclair pledged, he would buy the coins at that price from any disappointed reader. Emboldened by the Sinclair put, your secretary/treasurer bought 10 such coins -- and, of course, along with other Sinclair readers, wishes he had bought more. But that is only a part of the gold community's debt to Sinclair. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Sona Drills 85.4g Gold/Ton Over 4 Metres at Elizabeth Gold Deposit, Company Press Release, October 27, 2010 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Sona Resources Corp. reports on five drillling holes in the third round of assay results from the recently completed drill program at its 100 percent-owned Elizabeth Gold Deposit Property in the Lillooet Mining District of southern British Columbia. Highlights from the diamond drilling include: -- Hole E10-66 intersected 17.4g gold/ton over 1.54 metres. -- Hole E10-67 intersected 96.4g gold/ton over 2.5 metres, including one assay interval of 383g of gold/ton over 0.5 metres. -- Hole E10-69 intersected 85.4g gold/ton over 4.03 metres, including one assay interval of 230g gold/ton over 1 metre. Four drill holes, E10-66 to E10-69, targeted the southwestern end of the Southwest Vein, and three of the holes have expanded the mineralized zone in that direction. The Southwest Vein gold mineralization has now been intersected over a strike length of 325 metres, with the deepest hole drilled less than 200 metres from surface. "The assay results from the Southwest Zone quartz vein continue to be extremely positive," says John P. Thompson, Sona's president and CEO. "We are expanding the Southwest Vein, and this high-grade gold mineralization remains wide open down dip and along strike to the southwest." For the company's full press release, please visit: http://sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR19_2010.pdf Despite his prominence in the financial, mining, and precious metals fields, Sinclair has not spoken at a conference in more than five years, so GATA is especially thrilled that he will join us in London, along with Eric Sprott and John Embry of Sprott Asset Management, consulting firm Omnis Inc.'s James G. Rickards, London silver trader and CFTC whistleblower Andrew Maguire, Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies, and many other leading figures in the precious metals business and the movement for free precious metals and currency markets. At our London conference GATA plans to increase understanding of the gold price suppression scheme and hasten its downfall, right in the face of two of its major perpetrators, the Bank of England and the London Bullion Market Association. The conference will review where gold has gone amid GATA's hectoring over the last 12 years and examine where gold might go as it returns to its proper place at the center of the world financial system. We also aim to have some fun in a spectacular, historic, and heroic city that has been crucial to the rise and survival of Western civilization -- even if some of us could have done without George III, a few imperial wars, and Twiggy. Admission to the conference will cost US$800, US$1,500 for couples, which will cover all conference presentations as well as a reception on Thursday night, August 4, coffee breaks and lunches on Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6, and dinner Friday night, August 5. A ticket covering only the reception and meals is available for US$250. The conference venue hotel, the famous Savoy on the Strand adjacent to the River Thames -- -- is offering a discounted room rate to GATA conference attendees. To register for the conference, please send your name(s), postal address, and telephone number to LondonConference@GATA.org. Our conference staff will reply with registration and hotel reservation information. A more complete list of conference speakers can be found here -- -- and we'll advise further as plans for the conference develop. Jim Sinclair's participation shows that Gold Rush 2011 in London will be the center of the precious metals universe in August, a unique and memorable event, just like GATA's Gold Rush 21 conference in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada, six years ago. You'll be glad you were a part of it. Please join us if you can. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk World Resource Investment Conference 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
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| Gone Fishing but Checking in Briefly Posted: 18 Apr 2011 03:38 PM PDT SOUTHEAST TEXAS -- We are checking in briefly while we have the "Gone Fishing" sign on the GGR front door and no, we are not going to get into the thick of all the news and happenings giving precious metals a boost on Monday. The news that S&P downgraded the outlook for the U.S. from "stable" to "negative," being the most powerful of the near-term drivers. Gold spiked up to $1,497 and change just after that news was announced – within $3.00 of the Big Round Number of $1,500. Silver jumped up to $43.50 on the cash market.
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 03:10 PM PDT By Warren Bevan, preciousmetalstockreview.com It was another great week for gold and silver. Both hit new highs and soon we could see silver break into all-time highs. The S&P 500 has been consolidating with other markets after a strong bounce off the tsunami low. The S&P 500 is building what looks to be a reverse head and shoulders pattern here which should take it much higher after the pattern completes within a week or two. As always, I'm listening to some music while I write and as often happens some Neil Young came across the speakers so today's title is for his great song "Long May You Run". Unfortunately my reading and wiring computer is still down, apparently the part got lost in the mail! Hard to believe I know. And it's getting very frustrating. We should be completely back to normal by next week I think, but I thought that last weekend as well. The charts are looking pretty good here for both gold and silver and there are some incredible news items to talk about so with no further ado…
Gold rose 0.81% for the week and hit another all-time high nominally. A month long reverse head and shoulders pattern broke in early April and funny enough targets the $1,500 area almost to the dollar. Round numbers almost always cause pause and I don't think it will be any different this time around. It could take us a day, or a week to hit $1,500 but it's coming soon. The GLD ETF saw strong volume all week with Friday seeing over 19 million shares trade hands. I'd be looking for a spike to near 25 million shares and perhaps a false break to $1,510 or $1,520 before we see another correction. Enjoy strength, and buy weakness. This is strength.
Silver rose 5.01% for the week in what remains an amazing run. I'm not at all keen on trading this in our swing trading portfolio, but my grin grows wider almost daily when thinking about my physical silver hoard as it's been my largest position by far for about a year now. I sold most miners and increased the physical metals weighting last spring and whether it was dumb luck or plain old luck, it happened to be just before silver began this move. For so long the $18.50 level seemed like an insurmountable level and we got in below there. I don't see any reason to even think about reducing my weightings yet although many people are talking about trading the gold to silver ratio as it only takes about 35 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold nowadays which is in sharp contrast to the 70 or so ounces it would have taken last year, even as late as late August 2010. I'm not trading the ratio though. First I don't want to deal with the hassle and second I still think silver has 10 bagger potential from this level. I doubt gold has ten bagger potential from here, but it could certainly reach $10,000 quite easily. All I know is that the trends have been higher for a decade so until that ends there is only one trade for gold and silver. The SLV ETF saw heavy volume for the week with the strongest volume by far seen Monday and Tuesday as Silver was lower. This is a classic case of climbing the wall of worry which is typically defined as the second stage of a bull market before the third and final stage, the mania or blow off top. I know I worry everyday that silver is going to correct hard as it's really been due for a while, but it just doesn't. I can't trade it as it can move far too quickly against me for my liking so I'll just stick with the metal until I see another good trading opportunity. China's Q1 GDP came in the regular high rate. This time at 9.7% growth while inflation was tagged at 5.4%. This past week John Williams reported that US inflation would be around 10% if it were calculated as it was before 1980. I don't know why they changed their calculation….oh wait, yes I do. Do you really believe US inflation is in the 2% to 3% range as they report? Me neither. When I say house. What is the first thing that comes to mind? Home, investment, safety, something everyone should strive for. We've all been taught that buying a home is one of the key pillars to a long-term investment portfolio. We've been told that on balance houses always appreciate as well as the land they are built upon. Not so fast. Apparently the rules are being changed on us. The CEO of one of America's largest banks who happens to hold a massive mortgage portfolio on his books, actually they just created a good bank bad bank scheme to keep the bad assets and most mortgages off the good banks books which get all the headlines. But that is another story I've talked about in the past. The CEO stated that some people shouldn't be looking at their homes as an asset as the housing rebound may take a much longer time than expected. Now that's a slap in the face to those having bought near the peak in 2005. I don't see how anyone could have been suckered into the obvious fraud at the time, but I do understand how you can get caught up in things sometimes. I just hope none of you dear readers are in a bad predicament. This well written factual article is really all you need to read in order to scare you into buying some physical gold or silver. The US has simply dug a hole far too deep to climb out of. The small $38 billion cut in spending is a crumb. The US can NEVER pay of their debt and the chances of ever seeing a budget surplus are slim to none. I've pleaded before. Please protect yourself and do not rely on government to do it for you. We saw six banks fail and join this year's list of biggest losers. There's been a slowdown of failed banks lately but the surge this past week makes up for it. It's not long ago that Bill Gross announced he exited his position in US treasuries, now he is actually short them. Its one thing to not own something, but to short it is another animal altogether. It shows he's lost complete faith in the US dollar being viewed as a safe harbour asset. It wouldn't surprise me to see Bill announce he's bought some gold in the near future. He's smart and knows what gold is, although he doesn't voice this view publicly. The real issue is the enormity of his purchases would drive the price much higher. In order to bother at all he would have to buy at least $1 billion dollars worth and likely more in the range of $10 billion. He's got $73 billion sitting in cash alone so a few billion in gold would be nothing at all for his fund. The market would be severely disrupted with a purchase of this enormity unless he used the GLD ETF and I talked last week about the lack of premium with this instrument. I think he'd much rather own the gold that an ETF, but I've been wrong before and it's his only real option likely. The Texas University endowment fund is now storing almost $1 billion in physical gold. A very savvy hedge fund manager, who made a fortune on the sub-prime debacle, helped influence the decision. He views gold as "just another currency they can't print more of". Very smart words and they couldn't ring truer. This endowment fund will certainly need no bailing out in the times ahead. This trend will catch on and there just isn't that much physical gold to go around. I'm often asked if it's too late to invest in gold. It's not. We have multiples to go as gold has not even come close to its inflation adjusted high around $2,400. Silver has to reach about $140 to see its inflation adjusted high. Silver may seem a bit stretched here and it's a dangerous one to trade as it can move quicker than you can make a sandwich for lunch, but over a longer-term investment horizon I don't think we have anything to worry about. I don't like calling huge numbers out as targets as it only brings me flack and is only a guess but I would, actually I am, bet a large portion of my wealth that silver is going well over $200 an ounce. It doesn't take me long to make a case for $500 an ounce silver either, but I won't. Let's just suffice it to say both physical gold and silver have near ten bagger potential from here. There is no way to lose investing in the physical product. It is what it is and it's going to be more valuable and always worth something in the future. It can be cashed in for any currency in the world or whatever may come in the future. It's a riskless trade even at these levels in my opinion. News that a tunnel has collapsed at a silver mine in Idaho came late in the week. This comes at a time when I have been talking to subscribers about the dangers and risks of investing in mining companies. There are so many potential hazards, and once you think you've got all the risks covered another one pops up. Such as Bolivia threatening to nationalize some mines. Both the nationalization threat and the tunnel collapse has effected three of the largest silver miners just this past week.
Don't get me wrong I do invest in miners and have done well, but if you look at the major mining indices the HUI, XAU and GDX they've on balance not done as well as the physical metals themselves. There have certainly been some select companies who've rocked, but the big miners aren't anything I write home about and some of the smaller miners or exploration companies some days see less volume than a schoolhouse in Lost Springs! They are sure to have their day but I feel more comfortable holding more metal than miners. But that could change once again. The Belarus central bank has stopped selling gold for roubles as they fear a coming currency devaluation and really don't want to get stuck with worthless paper for their gold. Makes sense to me, does it to you? The joke of the week has to be the new US postage stamp which depicts the statue of Liberty. Or does it? Apparently it depicts the fake statue in Vegas instead. Is anything real in the US anymore? You've got to check out this ridiculous video of a guy getting arrested for cracking a joke to a guy who's getting a ticket for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. The NYPD at their worst and a true embarrassment in my opinion. Tax dollars hard at work. Let's leave on a funny, slightly risqué, note. A so called "Kiss Cam" at a recent Toronto Maple Leafs game had me rolling on the floor in laughter. Enjoy. Until next week take care and thank you for reading. Warren Bevan In my free, nearly weekly newsletter I include many links and charts which cannot always be viewed through sites which publish my work. If you are having difficulties viewing them please sign up in the left margin for free at http://www.preciousmetalstockreview.com/ or send an email to warren@preciousmetalstockreview.com with "subscribe" as the subject and receive the newsletter directly in your inbox, links and all. If you would like to subscribe and see what my portfolio consists of please see here. If you found this information useful, or informative please pass it on to your friends or family. Free Service The free weekly newsletter "Precious Metal Stock Review" does not purport to be a financial recommendation service, nor do we profess to be a professional advisement service. Any action taken as a result of reading "Precious Metal Stock Review" is solely the responsibility of the reader. We recommend seeking professional financial advice and performing your own due diligence before acting on any information received through "Precious Metal Stock Review".
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| Why Swap Silver For Gold Now With the Gold SIlver Ratio at 34.47? Posted: 18 Apr 2011 01:58 PM PDT Gold Price Close Today : 1492.30 Change : 7.00 or 0.5% Silver Price Close Today : 42.957 Change : 0.391 cents or 0.9% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 34.74 Change : -0.155 or -0.4% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.02879 Change : 0.000128 or 0.4% Platinum Price Close Today : 1780.00 Change : -11.50 or -0.6% Palladium Price Close Today : 735.20 Change : -34.50 or -4.5% S&P 500 : 1,305.14 Change : -14.54 or -1.1% Dow In GOLD$ : $169.02 Change : $ (2.73) or -1.6% Dow in GOLD oz : 8.176 Change : -0.132 or -1.6% Dow in SILVER oz : 284.04 Change : -3.29 or -1.1% Dow Industrial : 12,201.59 Change : -140.24 or -1.1% US Dollar Index : 75.49 Change : 61.000 or 420.9% Y'all pay attention now: this won't be elegant, but it will be fast. Bunch of y'all email me Friday questioning me why swap silver for gold now? Go to www.the-moneychanger.com and read article linked to homepage, "Why Silver Will Outperform Gold 400%." Here's further explanation. Pay close attention, test on Tuesday: With gold silver ratio at 70:1, you buy 70 oz. of silver. Wise choice. When the gold silver ratio hits 35:1, you swap 70 oz. of silver for TWO, not one, ounces of gold. Twice as many as if you'd bought gold in first place. No market, internet blowhards notwithstanding, shoots straight to the moon. The gold silver ratio will see 47 or 50 before it sees 16, although it will EVENTUALLY drop below 16. Ratio will, internet blowhards notwithstanding, correct. Will correct AT LEAST to where it fell out of long triangle at 47.5, maybe 50% of total fall from 84.3 to 35, so back to 59.65. When ratio reaches 47.5, you swap your two oz. of gold for 95 oz. of silver. You now have 25 more oz (35.7%) than if you had just lain around in silver the whole time. Then you do it again when the ratio falls again. TODAY'S MARKETS: GOLD and SILVER PRICES today just kept on powering up the gold price added $7.00 on Comex to close at $1,492.30. Silver gained 39.1c and ended Comex at 4295.7c but in the aftermarket is trading 4327.5c. Dear Ones, one thing people learn young drinking is that even when you have a full load in your belly, you cannot actually fly or perform miracles, no matter how you feel. This is fun, this is exciting, but this is moving to a sharp peak by mid-May, most likely. Yet before gold lies the minimum target, $1,525. The silver price I expect to hit $44 at the least, before the pain commences. I still recommend y'all swap gold for silver while you have time and before the reaction sets in. Something's wrong, something's right, and there's a whiff of skunk on the wind. US DOLLAR INDEX rose 61 basis points today (0.78%) to clear 75 and land at 75.493. Might be a reversal. Rise out of Friday low looks rally-ish. Euro, which we have long suspected was merely a shell of a shell-game, tanked 1.08% today to end at 1.4228. CLEAR island reversal, signaling copious downside, and closed below 20 DMA. Big fall. Yen today fell 0.61% to 82.441/$ (121.3c/100Y). Sniff of skunk on wind belongs not merely to the polecat US dollar, but also to Palladium and Platinum. Platinum fell 11.50 today and it fell Friday. Palladium fell a muscular $35 today, very stout wound when you begin at $769.70. Friends, this ought not be. Silver and Gold boogeying ought to take their friends Platinum and Palladium alone. Why are they standing around the edges of the dance floor, wallflowering? Bad juju. STOCKS took an ice-water shower in reality today and fell clean back to 12,200 support and below the 20DMA and nearly below the 50 DMA. Whooo, Nice Government Men don't like it when the magic buying doesn't work, do you? Stocks remain the cyanide in the Great Cabinet of Investment Poison. On this date in 1861 Col. Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies. He said, after great deliberation, that he could never draw his sword against his native state. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2011, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate in a bubble, primary trend way down. Whenever I write "Stay out of stocks" readers inevitably ask, "Do you mean precious metals mining stocks, too?" No, I don't. 
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| Texas gold buy will encourage other institutions, Hathaway tells Bloomberg TV Posted: 18 Apr 2011 01:35 PM PDT 9:30P ET Monday, April 18, 2011 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Interviewed today by Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television, Tocqueville Gold Fund manager John Hathaway was ambivalent about the necessity for the University of Texas' endowment to take delivery of its gold investment, presumably switching out of the exchange-traded fund GLD into metal in direct possession. But Hathaway was confident that the endowment's gold purchase will legitimize similar purchases by institutions. The interview is not quite eight minutes long and you can watch it here: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/68805158/ CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Canuc Resources Pursues Ecuador and Nova Scotia Gold Projects Canuc Resources Corp. (TSX: CDA) has confirmed high-grade gold and the potential for large-tonnage, low-grade copper and gold mineralization at its primary asset, property in the historic Nambija gold mining district in southeastern Ecuador. Last November Canuc took an option on the Mill Village gold property in southwestern Nova Scotia, which includes two past-producing mines. Canuc plans to begin surface and underground exploration at Mill Village in the next several weeks, financed by $2 million recently raised through a private placement. To generate immediate income, Canuc is acquiring MidTex Oil and Gas Co., owner of a producing gas well and a lease on 320 acres in Stephens County, Texas. Canuc's CEO, Gary Lohman, has more than 30 years of experience in the mining industry, primarily as a geologist, and the company's officers include similarly experienced people. For more information about Canuc, please visit http://www.canucresources.ca/. Join GATA here: An Evening with Bill Murphy and James Turk World Resource Investment Conference 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 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
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 12:20 PM PDT "Making Money is Art and Working is Art. And Good Business is the Best Art" ~ Andy Warhol Related reading . . . Andy Warhol Wikipedia Pop Goes The Easel Gold Coast News (10 Nov 07)
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| I've joined the Silver Liberation Army!! Posted: 18 Apr 2011 12:19 PM PDT Share this:
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| Capital Context Update: Credit Where Debit Is Due Posted: 18 Apr 2011 10:05 AM PDT
From Capital Context  S&P futures were down notably Stocks closed down, though well off their worst levels of the day, but underperformed credit quite notably once again on a beta-adjusted basis as regime shifts for many stat arb algos were snapped early on and killed the market for much of the middle of the day in stocks. A late day surge back up to the opening level of the day session, which coincided closely with the S&P futures VWAP (the volume-weighted average price of the day that so many HFTs use), left Treasuries still the notable underperformers despite so many people claiming victory over the ratings agencies thanks to the dollar and UST moves. We discussed some of the reasoning for these moves in the Midday Movers post, but critically there were notable regime shifts today that will bear watching for follow through as we remind readers that the US equity and credit markets were down pretty good early on anyway thanks to the continued denial-denial-denial in Europe (most notably Greece). The break between JPY crosses and the dollar, the 10Y TSY to ES link, 2s10s30s correlation to ES, Bunds vs TSYs, and gold/silver vs the dollar are all notable shifts today but once again the VIX/VXV term structure steepness of last Friday that we warned about as extreme and the continued medium-term richness of stocks to credit keep us from aggressively buying any dips here (yes our tongue is in our cheek a little there).
While we pulled back off the tights in credit as the major indices (HY and IG) followed S&P futures for the most part in the afternoon, this was still the biggest widening day in both indices since 3/21 and it is worth noting that the last time the S&P was around this range, VIX was very slightly higher and HY spreads were 12bps tighter. IG traded up to 97bps offered early on, just shy of the 97.5bps contract wides and back to 3/24 levels while HY traded at its lowest since inception of the series 16 index down to $101.685 (or ~459bps) before rallying back up to the contract's inception levels around the close - which we found coincidentally interesting. What was most contextually notable was that while equities were dropping early on and dropped rapidly at the announcement of the S&P outlook change (around 10 S&P pts in a couple minutes), credit gapped aggressively across the chasm, took out contact wides from Friday, and kept going. HY managed to get back to offered at the bid pre-drop before turning back down into the close and so did IG - the point being we filled the gap from the pre-outlook-change in credit and then turned back wider but were unable to in stocks.  Notice 10Y Treasury's flatline Stocks also failed to get back in line with Treasuries which while they staged a valiant attempt, after the initial spike higher in yields, to rally, we note the flatline performance for much of the afternoon as US equities, oil, and EUR rallied in sync once again. Did we just lose another algo regime? 2s10s30s disconnected greatly at the momemnt of the annoucnement and then spent the rest of the compressing the relationship almost perfectly - which makes us more confident that there is some real money behind that new relationship (which remember was not around a week or so ago). In credit land, breadth was very negative as one would expect with around 12 wideners to every tightener in 5Y CDS and notably curve flatteners in 3s5s outpaced steepeners (which is unusual on a day like this where liquidity tends to pool on 5Y and the rest of the curve gets left behind for reracks overnight). We have noted the 3s5s flattening in the index for a week or two as a concern and that is clearly shifting back to the single-names now too - perhaps many managers just waiting for the catalyst to shift. Financials were the major underperformer in CDS land and did not recover as much (relatively sopeaking) as the indices or non-financials from their wides of the day - though did rally off their wides in 5Y while 3Y gapped wider and stuck there (again 3s5s flattening). In bonds, financials saw net selling pressure from the buy-side as did Communications credits modestly with Energy notably bid on the day. Interestingly given the steepening in 2s10s and 2s30s TSYs, we saw the long-end of the corporate bond market being bought and the short-end being sold - this knee-jerk reaction to rapid rate rises is often seen as corporates 'generally' outperform on spread compression and price stability at the long-end on these moves BUT we worry that this is premature and the velocity of today's move may have mis-stepped a few managers reaching for yield and relative stability of corps over TSYs. The 1-3Yr region was the most sold on the day which fits with the short-end widening/flattening in CDS also. We wonder if we will see longer-dated vol players stepping in to arb the short-dated CDS market here with the idea of 'wings' trades outperfoming in this very binary future we face (Puts vs CDS or dividend-yield stocks vs CDS trades tend to perform the best in extreme scenarios so watch your sell-side desks start selling you on the ideas - we will publish this week some ideas on this trade). Top-down, VIX opened gap higher and slid lower all day as did VXV but the steepness flattened a bit more into reality. Implied correlation dropped - which we suggest once again is due to the disconnect in financials which we talked about a week or two back impacting the clustering nature of the sector correlations recently. We have seen notable rises in dispersion in credit recently and slow trends down in credit implied correlation and we think sector differences are driving equity implied correlation lower also. It is worth noting that while bottom-up vols did drop from the opening reracked levels they did not drop nearly as much as the index levels and continued to follow the path of up-in-quality vol compression. Contextually , only a very few names managed gains in both equity and credit today (an interesting bunch - MAR, TOL, HOT, DHI, PEP, and SVU) as homebuilders were interestingly near the top on the list of better performers in credit (which we suspect was related to the underperformance of the CMBX and ABX tranche markets as well as the higher beta exposure in some of the credit indices). Every sector was in agreement between credit and equity with a deteriorating move today as we note financials, leisure, and media were the worst beta-adjusted in credit relative to stocks on the day. Capital Goods, Utilities, and Consumer Noncyclicals performed the relative worst in stocks versus credit. The up-in-quality theme in credit is increasingly leaking into vol as we saw much less impact higher in vols in better-rated credits than in lower-rated credits. This was also the picture in credit though we did see the very highest rated names underperforming (financials?). This picture was somewhat different in equity-land where BB-rated and below names saw their stocks drop far less than A- rated and above names - once again we think this is to do with both financials dominating performance as well as the typical ratings/momentum correlation unwind. Bottom-Line : while there were plenty of significant shifts today, and we exited our very profitable ETF-based capital structure arb , we remain of the opinion that stocks have room to the downside and are not heeding the risks being called out from the archaic corners of the credit and vol space. We suspect a few algos might have been washed out early on today and while FX vol continues to rise, sharpe ratios will reduce the desire for FX-based carry leverage. Watch 2s10s30s for signals, HY credit for flows, and stay hedged in the A-List (which has outperformed recently as we expect it to do - just as the long-short book we track done considerably better). Europe Obviously the story of the day - oh yeah aside from the USA elephant in the room and Goolsbee's 'helpful' thoughts - was the continued destruction of any credibility for any European politician. There was littel to no let up in selling pressure as CDS and bond spreads (and yields) drifted higher all day and saw no help from any US recovery in the afternoon.  The yields of the PIIGS continue SovX closed at the wides of the channel of the last 3 months - back at mid-Jan levels while many of the underlying names broke to new record wides including Greece which traded over 1300bps early in the day for 5Y protection. Echoing the Midday Movers comments, there was widespread selling among every sovereign (though we note that USA has shifted back notably wide of Germany - which widened also today - to its widest difference in three months). This time though it did catch on and the contagion spread to non-financials more than it has in recent weeks. CEEMEA sovereigns were alo very weak today - double-whammied by the contagion and oil price drops early on. Main Ex-Financials widened 3.5bps (the biggest single day move since inception of this contract) which we have not seen much of as it has tended to be segregated in financials recently. The spread between senior and subordinated financials rose by 6bps - now 20bps wider on the week and broke back above 100bps (to 106bps). XOver and FINLs tracked wider and underlying single-names kept pace with the index moves but we note that Main underperformed intrinsics on the day and still remains over 2bps rich - we suspect the 'cheapness' of XOver and richness of Main points to the popularity of the decompression trade and while IG (in the US) is not as rich, HY remains 10-14bps wide of fair-value in 5Y and 5-8bps tight in 3Y (again suggesting our flattener idea is catching on). Banks dominated the weakest performers and we note Glencore (so much in the news with its IPO) is also underperforming. Only Utilities and very low beta credits outperformed today in Europe - Henkel, LVMH, and Suedzucker were among them. Asia Same story as the others - banks were underperformers and the rest of corporate credit and sovereign risk tended to trend along wider. Interestingly Japan outperformed today (well was unch anyway) as Asia ex-Japan widened a notable 3bps - slightly underperforming Asian sovereigns which averaged 2.5bps decompression. Aussie was more mixed but saw a similar theme though moves were minimal at best as the ITRX AUS index widened around 1bps. Index/Intrinsics Changes CDX16 IG +1.5bps to 95.75 ($-0.05 to $100.16) (FV +1.45bps to 94.19) (104 wider - 11 tighter <> 51 steeper - 72 flatter) - No Trend. Spreads were broadly wider in the US as all the indices deteriorated. IG trades 4.4bps wide (cheap) to its 50d moving average, which is a Z-Score of 1.4s.d.. At 95.75bps, IG has closed tighter on 155 days in the last 591 trading days (JAN09). The last five days have seen IG flat to its 50d moving average. HY trades 18.1bps wide (cheap) to its 50d moving average, which is a Z-Score of 1.5s.d. and at 451bps, HY has closed tighter on 77 days in the last 591 trading days (JAN09). Indices typically underperformed single-names with skews widening in general. Comparing the relative HY and IG moves to their 50-day rolling beta, we see that HY underperformed by around 2.3bps (or 21%). Interestingly, based on short-run empirical betas between IG, HY, and the S&P, stocks underperformed HY by an equivalent 13.3bps, and stocks underperformed IG by an equivalent 3.6bps - (implying IG outperformed HY (on an equity-adjusted basis)). Among the IG16 names in the US , the worst performing names (on a DV01-adjusted basis) were SLM Corp (+8bps) [+0.06bps], American International Group, Inc. (+5.34bps) [+0.04bps], and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (+5bps) [+0.04bps], and the best performing names were Toll Brothers, Inc. (-2bps) [-0.02bps], Du Pont E.I. de Nemours & Co (-1.24bps) [-0.01bps], and Autozone Inc. (-1.02bps) [-0.01bps] // (absolute spread chg) [HY index impact]. Among the HY16 names in the US , the worst performing names (on a DV01-adjusted basis) were Community Health Systems Inc (+41.44bps) [+0.39bps], Energy Future Holdings Corp. (+43.01bps) [+0.28bps], and PMI Group Inc/The (+34.24bps) [+0.28bps], and the best performing names were Nova Chemicals Corp. (-41.25bps) [-0.43bps], Liz Claiborne Inc. (-10.51bps) [-0.1bps], and CSC Holdings, LLC (-5bps) [-0.05bps] // (absolute spread chg) [HY index impact]. For those looking for entry levels in IG and HY, our pivots suggest short credit at 97.125bps in IG and 460bps in HY and long credit at 93.5bps in IG and 436bps in HY with stops at 95.25bps for IG and 447bps for HY. From Friday's levels we would be short HY and IG credit at 456bps and 96bps respectively with stops at 447bps and 95.25bps respectively
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| China: Where Money Is Treated Best Posted: 18 Apr 2011 10:00 AM PDT "9% Unemployment Rate is a Statistical Lie" is a pretty catchy title, and being the kind of vicious little rat that I am, and who suspects treachery and betrayal at every turn, I naturally take a look at it to confirm my worst suspicions. The bad news is that it is, indeed, scary stuff! The article is by Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com, who writes that John Williams of ShadowStats.com has calculated that "If unemployment was computed the way BLS did it prior to 1994, the true unemployment rate would be 22.2%." And while the prospect of more than a fifth of the workforce being idle is scary enough, inflation in consumer prices is even scarier, particularly to the aforementioned 1-in-5 unemployed. And while Michael Pento at Euro Pacific Capital does not mention the unemployed or their plight as concerns dealing with inflation in prices, he says, "In current economic analysis, inflation is largely in the eye of the beholder, and depending on how you choose to look, very different stories emerge." This is where I thought he would mention the unemployed, or the poor, and their harrowing experiences in paying higher prices without any income, but he doesn't. He says, instead, that it is all worse than I think, thanks to the way the American government calculates inflation. "In the US," he says, "food and beverages count for just 16.4% of the CPI calculation. The Chinese apparently believe that the basic necessities of life should count for more, assigning a 33% weight to the nutritional components. These differences in measurement are partially responsible for the divergent inflation climate in both countries, and make most people believe that inflation is fickle and localized." It is not, and Mr. Pento agrees, saying, almost poetically, "From my perspective, inflation is a global wave that will ultimately swamp all shores." I am sure that Mr. Pento is right because every country on the Face Of The Planet (FOTP) is desperately creating more and more money, and the money will eventually find its way to the place where it is treated best and/or has the best prospects, which is, in this case, Bob. Oops! I meant "China." Sorry! Bob is just a guy from my dim, dark past who treated my girlfriend better than I did, and she unexpectedly left me and went running off with him, sort of like how money goes to where it gets treated best, too, so you can see how I could get confused, and angry, and vow to track them both down to make them pay a terrible price for their treachery, a vow you'd almost forgotten about until just now. And speaking of China, Terry Lawrence, newsletter writer, reminds us that Obama is our 44th president, and that in the Cantonese dialect, the number 4 sounds like the word for "death." Naturally, I look askance at people fearing the number 4, as they should instead fear the number 13, and especially Friday the 13th, like everybody else, and if not that, then at least fear the government creating so much excess money because it means so much inflation in the prices of food and energy that people will actually die! In contrast, I never heard of anybody being killed by the number 4, unless it was because a metal numeral affixed to the side of a building suddenly broke free, falling down and down, gathering speed as gravity sucked it in towards the center of the earth until it hit somebody on the head who was walking by on the sidewalk below, not suspecting anything, killing them on the spot, blood everywhere, and it was, spookily, the number 4! Believe it or not! Apparently, nobody appreciated my interruption, or how this shocking tale of superstitious strangeness that I just made up is just one of the many, many mysteries of the universe, including how "In the Cantonese dialect, 44 is double death." Again, I interrupt to note that this "double death" is already known by anybody who has two children! Hahaha! Well, nobody laughed at my little joke, and so to add a little pizzazz, I decided to proceed Las Vegas style! I say, "And any long-shot Louie at a craps table on the glittering Vegas strip trying to impress a couple of beautiful showgirls with long, shapely legs down to here by 'making 8 the hard way' faces the Russian-roulette of death in the 1-in-36 odds of making two 4s, while risking the death of 1-in-6 odds of making craps, only to win a lousy 10-to-1 bet if he makes it! But even then, it is better than the odds of the Federal Reserve creating inflation in the money supply without creating inflation in prices, where the odds are literally infinity-to-zero! "And even then, the odds of avoiding disaster are better than having kids and expecting not to be driven completely out of your freaking mind! Hahaha!" Again, nobody laughed. I agree that this wasn't my best material, but in my petulant mood, I unfairly decided to punish them all by not telling them to buy gold and silver as a defense against the horrific inflation that is guaranteed by the Federal Reserve creating So Freaking Much Money (SFFM). That way, it will be me that has the last laugh! Me! Hahahaha! Me! Hahaha! Suddenly, I realize, "Whee! This investing and revenge thing is easy!" The Mogambo Guru China: Where Money Is Treated Best originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:44 AM PDT
First Quarter Report 2011 (PDF) Dear Investor, It gives me great pleasure to report to you the financial activities of our hedge funds for the quarter ended March 31, 2011. The Friedberg Global Macro-Hedge Fund and the Friedberg Global Macro-Hedge Fund Ltd. lost 4.3% and 4.1% for the quarter respectively but remain up year over year — the former by 11.4% and the latter by 11.5% (all figures in U.S. dollars). The statistics we present below are drawn from the larger Friedberg Global Macro-Hedge Fund Ltd., but the comments below apply equally to the Canadian version. After exhibiting extreme weakness well into the quarter, our portfolio was showing signs of recovery by the first week of February, and managed to end the quarter on an upbeat note even though returns for the quarter were negative, as noted. No material changes were made to the portfolio as we became even more persuaded than at the end of last quarter that the outlook dictated a very cautious stance towards the global economy. Stagflation in the months and years ahead is becoming an ever more compelling possibility. Central banks in the U.S. and the U.K. continue to show a pronounced and misguided reticence to return to less accommodative postures even as consumer prices begin to reflect the surging prices of internationally traded raw materials. As we have not tired of saying, these highly sensitive commodities respond quickly to excess money creation, and excess money creation has occurred as a result of maintaining interest rates pegged to the floor, well below inflation rates. This portfolio effect is aggravated by the fact that emerging countries are reluctant to allow their currencies to appreciate in the face of massive dollar inflows, intervening instead to maintain roughly unchanged nominal parities. These countries’ enormous accumulations of reserves lead to local money supply surges, which in turn lead to more buying of energy and food commodities. Finally, the financialization of commodities, made easier by a record of historically attractive risk-adjusted returns and low carry costs, adds a further destabilizing element to this scenario. Importantly, this inflationary episode, which threatens to last as long as the U.S. does not raise nominal interest rates above present rates of inflation (or, more to the point, real rates above the growth rate of the economy), has serious recessionary consequences, especially when wage and salary costs lag prices. In other words, what is being touted as a constructive element, the fact that labour costs are not showing signs of inflation, is reason to believe that the economy will soon be hit by another wave of retrenchments, as consumers are hit by shrinking real paycheques. Recessionary pressures in the U.S., adumbrated by downward revisions to second-quarter GDP forecasts in recent weeks, are being reinforced by economic weakness in the U.K., which is already undergoing a more severe bout of inflation, and the Eurozone (with the exception of Germany), which is in the grips of extremely high unemployment and negative growth per capita and stifled by excessive debt, rising taxes, and, believe it or not, low money supply growth. Consider, too, that most of the emerging markets are engaged in belated and not always conventional forms of monetary tightening in a desperate but ultimately futile hope of reducing inflationary pressures without disrupting real economic growth, and the resulting mix, you might guess, can only spell global economic trouble. What, then, does a prudent portfolio look like in this threatening scenario? It should be long inflation-linked government securities, for reasons of safety and because of the excess returns that come from inflation in energy and food costs, two leading edges in the recent surge of commodities. To put their attractive features in perspective, the breakevens of the TIPS of February 15th, 2040 express an average inflation expectation for the next 29 years of only 2.73%, modest when one considers that consumer prices in recent months have been running at 5%-6% per annum, just two years after the Great Recession and while unemployment hovers around 9%! Consider whether you would be willing to entertain a football-type bet that inflation will run at less than the breakeven (the “spread”) and soon you will realize that the bet is much too risky, and that you would probably want to add to the spread a minimum of 50 to 100 basis points above the breakeven before you were willing to bet that inflation would be contained, in order to protect yourself against the eventual monetization of the impossible-to-repay federal debt. If you agree, then long-term TIPS are indeed too cheap and yields ought to be trading much closer to where five-year TIPS are trading, minus 15 basis points; that is, you ought to be paying to receive a negative real return, simply because you have no way to guarantee that a security, any security, will successfully cover the expected rise in the cost of living. In sum, not only are we likely to receive substantial inflation-linked payouts from these instruments, but a move towards substantially lower real yields will also produce very significant capital gains. Through the Global Opportunities sector we have acquired, via repo’s (at a cost of one quarter percent per annum), a significant amount of TIPS, adding to those already held in the fixed-income sector and bringing total TIPS exposure to 104% of the fund’s capital. The market has finally begun to take a less sanguine view of inflation in recent weeks, with the result that breakevens have climbed and real yields have begun to fall, taking inflation-linked long bond prices well off the lows reached on February 10th, 2011. The prudent portfolio should also be long gold, for reasons that we have explained so many times in the past, namely, the return of gold to the monetary system. Not only are Asian central banks inevitably seen adding to their meager holdings but now it turns out that individuals worldwide, by continuing to add gold to their portfolios, are de facto turning gold into legal tender. We note with interest that Utah has recently passed legislation to make gold legal tender in the state and that other states are preparing such legislation. We continue to maintain a substantial long position in Bunds, the 10-year German bond, equal to approximately 94% of the fund’s capital, notwithstanding the fact that the trade has been a disappointment so far. Yields climbed to 3.35% from 3.15% during the first quarter, continuing an upward trend begun September 2010, as the belief gained ground that Germany was writing a blank cheque to bail out the weak members of the Eurozone, an event that would clearly damage its good credit standing. In recent weeks, the German electorate has given strong signals that it is not willing to provide support over and above the Merkel government’s initial commitment, that it will not back a joint Eurobond and further dilute its credit standing, and that it will insist on extracting meaningful austerity measures and drastic fiscal reforms from sovereign Eurozone borrowers — demands that, in all likelihood, will not be agreed upon by these debtors and will certainly never be met. It is almost a mathematical certainty that debtor countries will not be able to grow out from under their debt unless they can effect a real devaluation, i.e. deflation, to the tune of 25% to 40% vis-`-vis their hard-currency northern neighbours of Germany, Netherlands, Austria, and Finland — an almost impossible and unreasonable expectation. In our opinion, we are very close to a total breakdown of the painfully constructed bailout package put in place by the E.U. early last year. It is a matter of months if not weeks before Greece and/or Portugal unilaterally bolt out of the E.U., unable to grow out of their debt, unwilling to endure more austerity measures, and despondent over not seeing an end to their debt servitude. Given this scenario, Bunds are likely to regain much of the ground they have lost. A second reason for the recent rise in yields has to do with the worsening outlook for inflation in the Eurozone, to which the ECB has responded by raising the lending rate by 25 basis points. This problem has us unconcerned, firmly convinced that inflation will neither be validated nor become entrenched in the Eurozone because of the low rate of growth in broad money over the past 18 months. In sum, we believe that (synthetic) Bunds, stripped of euro exposure, continue to represent excellent investment value, all the more so when funded with short rates, as we have done. Two other major areas of concentration deserve special comment. The portfolio is short equities in line with the idea that stagflation will be detrimental to corporate fortunes. Our short bets are focused on Brazil, India, the U.K., Spain (via a single stock, Banco Santander SA), and Australia (via National Australia Bank Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp.). These bearish bets are partially offset by long positions in Ireland (via a single stock, Bank of Ireland), the U.S. housing sector (via two ETFs), the U.S. energy sector (via a single stock, Newfield Exploration Co.), and the Japanese Nikkei index, a very recent, post-earthquake, acquisition. Net of the long position, short bets represented 59% of the fund’s capital, a reduction from its exposure at the beginning of the quarter. A heavy long position in Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil, and Venezuela rounds out our largest commitment. I should note that CDSs and a short position in Fed Funds, hedging against a rise in interest rates, represent as much as 2.2x exposure out of a total exposure of 6.88x (see inside exhibit). Maximum losses on these positions can be ascertained in advance and do not carry the risks usually associated with leverage. The portfolio’s leverage is only barely higher than it was at the end of last quarter and, for all practical purposes, is not much higher than average. On the other hand, favourable outcomes hold significant capital gains potential. Reviewing actual results for the past quarter, we note that the Global Opportunities sector contributed close to 95% of the fund’s quarterly loss. In that pocket, the leveraged position in Bunds represented the largest single loss, followed closely by the long position in CDSs, gold (essentially the cost of carry and the decay on the long call position), the short positions in the Australian banks, Banco Santander SA, and S&P 500 futures, and the long position in Bank of Ireland. The Fixed Income sector and the Currency sector contributed modest losses, though these were pretty much offset by gains made through our long commodities exposure, managed by Covenant and augmented/complemented by us. The market-neutral U.S. equities program managed for the second consecutive quarter to overcome the low-dispersion/high-correlation phenomena and produced a respectable gain. The Friedberg Asset Allocation Fund and the Friedberg Asset Allocation Fund Ltd gained 1.1% and 1% for the quarter and are up 14.8% and 15.8% year on year, respectively (in U.S. dollars). Here, too, positions did not vary much, if at all, from the end of December, with gold representing approximately 55% at quarter-end, Bunds 9.80%, TIPS 21%, equities 9.40%, and commodities (crude oil) 5.30%. We are satisfied that these funds broadly replicate our macro views while being able to operate in deep and extremely liquid markets. Self-imposed restrictions on short-selling and leverage lower volatility and risk, though likely at the expense of dramatic returns. The risk/return profile of these funds suits many of our more mature clients and, consequently, these funds have been very well received, with combined assets reaching $114,000,000 as at the end of March. Besides those unimaginable “unknown unknowns,” the coming months will also see a good quota of “known unknowns,” a fact that you would not appreciate simply by observing the complacent behaviour of default swaps, global stocks, and options. This complacency itself is perhaps reason enough to believe that we are about to face a very troubling quarter.
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| The Dollar’s Surprising Reaction to a Negative US Debt Outlook Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:31 AM PDT Sniffing the obvious, Standard & Poor's cut its outlook for US sovereign debt from stable to negative this morning. "We believe," reads a statement released with the announcement, "there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the US within two years." As we type, the Dow is down more than 200 points. The S&P hangs by its fingernails to 1,300. And the yield on a 10-year Treasury has inched its way to 3.44% For the record… or, should we say, for what it's worth… S&P still considers US debt AAA. Given the fact the US government is 28 days away from bumping up against the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, we suspect the question of Uncle Sam's ability, let alone political will, to pay is too obvious to ignore. The current White House budget plan requires lifting the ceiling to $20.8 trillion by 2016. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's plan, passed by the House on Friday, would require a ceiling of $19.5 trillion, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg. Alas, "we believe there is a material risk," S&P warns, "that US policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013. "If an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation does not begin by then, this would in our view render the US fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer 'AAA' sovereigns." Unfortunately, in the world of late, degenerate capitalism, that's about as strongly worded as these statements ever get. Standard & Poor's continued to rate a host of mortgage-backed securities AAA right up to the point when they detonated in 2007-08. "A huge part of the reason the US is in its awful financial position," writes our friend Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, this morning, "is due to the fine work of S&P. The 'negative outlook' of US debt has come about because of the inability of Standard & Poor's to have performed their jobs rating mortgage-backed securities. "Ultimately, this enabled the entire crisis, financial collapse, enormous budget deficit and now political [squabble] over the debt ceiling." Of all the AAA-rated subprime MBS issued in 2006, 93% are now junk. Barry will be joining us in Vancouver again this year. Will we be seeing you there? Of course, on the S&P news this morning, in a move only our Abe Cofnas could pretend to understand, the dollar is rallying. In fact, at 75.4, the dollar index is the strongest it's been for more than a week. Oy. Chalk it up to an even uglier horse in the glue factory: the euro. Addison Wiggin The Dollar's Surprising Reaction to a Negative US Debt Outlook originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
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| Agri-Food's Commodities Bubble? Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:29 AM PDT A big question should be on the mind of investors. Is it 2008 all over again? Are we witnessing another commodity price bubble driven by speculation in paper commodities? With Silver clearly in a speculative bubble, allowing value investors to liquidate positions at overly inflated prices, one might think so. With paper oil ignoring the weakness in physical oil demand, one might be almost sure of it. When mob panics and dumps ~$800 million into GLD, one might need to start reconsidering one's ownership of some inflated commodities.
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| Stock Monday Mayhem, Panic Selling Has Set In! Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:24 AM PDT In overnight and pre-market trading the US Dollar posted a strong rally which in turn caused a sharp selloff in the equities market. The market is currently down 1.6 – 2.3% depending on the index traders are following. Here is what I see on the charts going forward a few days.
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| Sol Sanders -- Follow the Money No. 62 The 2012 electoral pageant begins Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:15 AM PDT
Follow the Money No. 62 The 2012 electoral pageant begins By Sol Sanders It looks like next year’s presidential election will be a beauty contest.
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| Why Gold Stocks are Struggling Despite Record Gold Price Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:14 AM PDT Gold looks fantastic. It is breaking away from a consolidation which could be called a running correction. Two weeks ago Gold broke to a new high. Last week Gold retested the breakout and then advanced to another new high at the end of the week. Its textbook bullish action. Yet the gold shares have really struggled.
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 09:01 AM PDT Richard (Rick) Mills Ahead of the Herd As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information Billions of Dollars "Common sense tells us that a government central bank creating new money out of thin air depreciates the value of each dollar in circulation." Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) Declining confidence in paper money is pushing gold and silver from the shadows to center stage. "The surge in commodity prices over the past year appears to be largely attributable to a combination of rising global demand and disruptions in global supply. These developments seem unlikely to have persistent effects on consumer inflation or to derail the economic recovery and hence do not, in my view, warrant any substantial shift in the stance of monetary policy." Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen "There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist take...
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| Nuclear Overseers Are "Fake" Agencies Funded and Controlled by the Nuclear Power Industry Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:57 AM PDT
The Christian Science Monitor noted recently:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is no better. As nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, Duane Peterson (president of VPIRG & coordinator for the campaign to retire Vermont Yankee nuclear plant), investigative reporter Harvey Wasserman and Paul Gallay (executive director of Riverkeeper) point out in a roundtable discussion:
Watch live streaming video from deepakhomebase at livestream.com Watch live streaming video from deepakhomebase at livestream.com Note: The videos appear to rotate, so if the nuclear roundtable is not playing at first, keep on watching, and it will eventually loop back.
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| Margin requirements on silver useless Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:52 AM PDT Share this:
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:40 AM PDT The 5 min. Forecast April 18, 2011 12:37 PM Addison Wiggin – April 18, 2011 [LIST] [*]S&P, kicking and screaming, downgrades U.S. "outlook"… but defends AAA… [*]Dollar defies S&P to rally, as euro-ugly comes back into vogue; Gold zooms to an all-new high as a Texas endowment piles in… [*]Shades of 2008: Rising food prices inspire the Great Tomato Caper… and prompt new warning from World Bank… [*]"Visually grandiose" or "brutally badly done"? Reader reviews of Atlas Shrugged: Part I… the Financial Times weighs in on Bonner's Dice Have No Memory… [/LIST] Sniffing the obvious, Standard & Poor's cut its outlook for U.S. sovereign debt from stable to negative this morning. "We believe," reads a statement released with the announcement, "there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the U.S. within two years." As we type, the Dow is down more than 200 points. The S&P hangs by its fingern...
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| Why S&P’s Official Statement is Nothing But a Joke Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:39 AM PDT You want a good laugh, Fellow Reckoner? We've got a great joke for you, courtesy of Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Inc. But first, the news… We had other notes prepared for you this morning, but then this headline crept across our screen: "S&P Moves US Outlook to Negative" The Wall Street Journal provides some details… "Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Inc. cut its outlook on the US to negative, increasing the likelihood of a potential downgrade from its triple-A rating, as the path from large budget deficits and rising government debt remains unclear." Stock markets, which apparently still hold faith in the ratings agencies' foresight (despite the agencies' best efforts to avoid deserving it), promptly reversed course from their ever-and-always upward trend after the news. The Dow, for its part, fell a couple hundred points at the open. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ were last seen bleeding from similar sized wounds. Could it be the impending breech of that looming debt ceiling that has the ratings gurus spooked? "Given the fact the US government is 28 days away from bumping up against the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling," wrote Addison in today's edition of The 5, "we suspect the question of Uncle Sam's ability, let alone political will, to pay is too obvious to ignore." Even the most "aggressive" cuts to the budget would still require heretofore-unimaginable levels of new borrowing and/or money printing. Continues Sr. Wiggin: "The current White House budget plan requires lifting the ceiling to $20.8 trillion by 2016. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's plan, passed by the House on Friday, would require a ceiling of $19.5 trillion, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg." Of course, even Rep. Ryan's plan is likely to fall flat in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But aside from all that, the debt ceiling story is hardly anything new, as Addison's letter to deaf ears, penned way back in January, shows. Whatever their reason for the outlook adjustment, S&P is still, for the moment, committed to maintaining the US's AAA rating. Of course, readers will do well to remember the appalling track record of the three, government-anointed agencies before and during the last (and, in many peoples' opinions, ongoing) financial crisis. All of the so-called "Big Three" – S&P, Moody's and Fitch – were trotting out AAA ratings for the most toxic MBSs on Wall Street right up until their collapse brought us, in one frantic politician's words, "to the edge of the abyss," back in 2007-08. What's the point of having a fire alarm if it only goes off when your house is burned to the ground? We have no idea. To us, putting reason where there is none seems as futile and misguided a task as slapping AAA ratings on the backs of those who don't truly deserve them. Something's gonna come unstuck. But just for entertainment value, let's take a look at what S&P had to say for themselves regarding their defense of the US's current AAA status. (And herein lies today's promised joke…) From S&P's official statement: "Our ratings on the US rest on its high-income, highly diversified, and flexible economy, backed by a strong track record of prudent and credible monetary policy. The ratings also reflect our view of the unique advantages stemming from the dollar's preeminent place among world currencies." "…prudent and credible monetary policy…"? That's what we're calling unabashed, bald-faced money-printing these days? "…the dollar's preeminent place among world currencies…"? That's what we're calling the temporary though fast-eroding kindness-of-strangers-borrowing-scheme? Oh stop it, S&P…our sides are splitting! The agency, barely clinging to any demonstrable comprehension of reality, goes on to note: "Although we believe these strengths currently outweigh what we consider to be the US's meaningful economic and fiscal risks and large external debtor position, we now believe that they might not fully offset the credit risks over the next two years at the 'AAA' level." Tough talk, indeed. Fellow Reckoner, at the end of the day, it's probably worth recognizing these announcements for what they really are: Johnny-come-lately, sideshow distractions. Usually, by the time the ratings agencies have arrived on the crime scene, the perpetrator is already over the border, enjoying a few daiquiris under a far away palm tree. If their analysis is to be taken seriously at all, it is surely more useful in the post-mortem stage than in any kind of predictive capacity. Joel Bowman Why S&P's Official Statement is Nothing But a Joke originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning recently featured articles on stagflation, best libertarian books, and QE2 .
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:37 AM PDT Addison Wiggin – April 18, 2011
"We believe," reads a statement released with the announcement, "there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the U.S. within two years." As we type, the Dow is down more than 200 points. The S&P hangs by its fingernails to 1,300. And the yield on a 10-year Treasury has inched its way to 3.44%
Given the fact the U.S. government is 28 days away from bumping up against the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, we suspect the question of Uncle Sam's ability, let alone political will, to pay is too obvious to ignore. The current White House budget plan requires lifting the ceiling to $20.8 trillion by 2016. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's plan, passed by the House on Friday, would require a ceiling of $19.5 trillion, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg.
"If an agreement is not reached and meaningful implementation does not begin by then, this would in our view render the U.S. fiscal profile meaningfully weaker than that of peer 'AAA' sovereigns." Unfortunately, in the world of late, degenerate capitalism, that's about as strongly worded as these statements ever get.
"A huge part of the reason the U.S. is in its awful financial position," writes our friend Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, this morning, "is due to the fine work of S&P. The 'negative outlook' of U.S. debt has come about because of the inability of Standard & Poor's to have performed their jobs rating mortgage-backed securities. "Ultimately, this enabled the entire crisis, financial collapse, enormous budget deficit and now political [squabble] over the debt ceiling." Of all the AAA-rated subprime MBS issued in 2006, 93% are now junk. Barry will be joining us in Vancouver again this year. Will we be seeing you there?
Oy. Chalk it up to an even uglier horse in the glue factory: the euro.
Of course, the Greek government denies this. The yield on a 10-year Greek bond has spiked to 13.93%. Examining the credit default swap market, we see traders now peg Greece's likelihood of default in the next five years at 64.6%.
The True Finns, not to be confused with the Dudesons, promise to block any Portuguese bailout.
Even though he called a rally in the dollar last week, this week Abe says he's more comfortable with an even more solid "risk aversion" trade. "The real market benefiting greatly from these sentiment swings is gold." Accordingly, this morning, Abe is putting readers of Strategic Currency Trader into a binary gold play this week. Like his other recommendations, you'll know the results of the trade by Friday. And as of this morning, the potential gain is 72%. To learn more about the unique market Abe recommends trades in, look here.
The nation's second-largest university endowment has plowed 5% of its assets into gold bars. Acting with guidance from hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, the University of Texas Investment Management Co. took delivery of 6,643 gold bars on Friday, worth $987 million. The Texas endowment totals $19.9 billion, second only to Harvard's. Notably, Bass encouraged the endowment to keep actual physical gold stashed in a New York vault owned by HSBC, rather than buying shares of GLD. Bass reasons that if the holders of only 5% of the gold contracts traded on the Comex tried to take delivery, there wouldn't be enough supply to meet the demand. Our own Byron King agrees that there's nothing like owning the real thing. If you haven't checked out his presentation called Nine Simple Ways You Can Still Get Rich With Gold, give it a look.
The world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis," he said over the weekend during a gathering in Washington. He estimates 44 million people worldwide have fallen into poverty so far this year, thanks to rising food prices.
 In a series of swindles, thieves in Florida made off with six tractor-trailer loads of tomatoes last month. And one load of cucumbers. "I've never experienced people targeting produce loads before," says Shaun Leiker, a trucking broker who was hit three times. "We've never seen anything like this," says Bob Spencer, the owner of a firm who lost 40,000 pounds of tomatoes worth $42,000. The thieves went so far as to set up a bogus company and register it with federal trucking regulators. That was in February — just as word was getting out that a hard freeze wiped out much of the tomato crop in Mexico, putting Florida tomatoes at a premium. A New York Times reporter looking for information called the Florida Department of Law Enforcement… who told him to call Miami-Dade Police. They were leading the investigation, he was told, which was in turn news to Miami-Dade Police. Presumably by now, the evidence has long since been pureed or paired with mozzarella, basil and a Pinot grigio.
"For folks like me, a 40-hour week would be called a vacation! I simply wish to express that most in my position are also carrying huge capital investments and usually some fairly large debts as a percentage of income for our businesses. We pay out many multiples of what we make ourselves in payroll." "It would be helpful if there were at least some distinction made in the tax code (and in political rhetoric) for business owners that actually employ a lot of people as we do. Currently, the tax code treats us mostly the same as someone who is a very successful day trader that employs no one else." "Businesses that employ dozens of people are already overburdened with regulations, and employing people these days is financially risky in and of itself. How about a tax break on a per employee basis averaged out over a three-year period? We 'evil rich' need to make a living after paying the bank, the government and our employees, you know." "Many a business has failed solely because they did not see the tax man coming soon enough. He is a big, scary man and carries an even bigger stick. If you make more than $250,000, you are definitely on his list… so heads up!"
"I agree that it would be confusing to those who have not read the book, but worth seeing for the refresher course."
"The movie was incredible and well-done. The talent and ability of the actors was extremely high. The settings were well-done. The quality of the entire production was outstanding. I can hardly wait for the second half." "The age group of the audience was 40s to 70s."
"The movie did not disappoint! We found it to be visually grandiose, superbly acted and telling a story our hearts longed to see told. Also, the casting was top-notch, in my book — the D.C. types were deliciously unctuous, and Dagny was awesome, while Hank Rearden was perfect in his indignation and resolve." "Guess I'd go with two big thumbs up for that!"
"Thanks for the heads-up on places it is being shown in USA." The 5: De nada.
"I'm afraid it will be well received only by those who want to hear the message."
The 5: Indeed, what you saw on Friday was… er, a work in progress, with "before" and "after" Track Changes. Things don't always go as smoothly as we would rather have them… especially with the amount of traveling we do. Today, we're on heightened alert for gremlins. Hope you'll bear with us. Cheers, Addison Wiggin P.S. "Gold," Warren Buffett once remarked infamously, "gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head." "I suspect," writes Merryn Somerset Webb in the Financial Times, "that as long as the Martian grasped the concept of money, he/she/it wouldn't be doing any scratching at all." She recommends anyone still in the Buffett camp give at look at Dice Have No Memory, Bill Bonner's collected essays from 10-plus years of Daily Reckonings. "Bonner, like me," she writes, "is a great believer in the idea that nothing brings on inflation (and so reduces the value of a currency) like an out-of-control deficit. Governments, says Bonner, 'yield to emergency like dieters to devil's food,' printing money to pay their bills and ignoring the long-term consequences." The collection is full of such gems. Somerset Webb also gives her opinion of John Mauldin's Endgame: The End of the Debt SuperCycle and How It Changes Everything. You can grab both books with 20% discount at Laissez Faire Books right here — cheaper than at Amazon.
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| Paul Dockweiler: Right Place, Right Time Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:31 AM PDT Source: Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report 04/18/2011 Armed with a degree in geology, in 2003 Silver Spartan LLC Founder Paul Dockweiler got himself invited to explore in a mineral-rich area of southwestern Nevada that was falling out of favor because the price of gold barely covered the cost of production. As Paul explains in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, a lot of virgin ground with the same mineralogy as a past-producing mine had never even been drilled and, of course, the gold price has since marched up fivefold. The Gold Report: Even though you've been in the field for only about 10 years, you're running a geological consulting firm based in the biggest gold-producing state in the U.S. Tell us a little about yourself and how you became a geological guru in Nevada. Paul Dockweiler: I am not a geological guru, just a geologist working on a good project. While I was still in high school, my dad showed me an article on Mr. Chuck Fipki, a geolog...
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| James Turk - Negative US Credit Watch Signals Dollar Collapse Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:30 AM PDT  With news from S&P about negative watch on the AAA US credit rating and gold closing at new all-time highs & silver at 31 year highs, today King World News interviewed James Turk out of London. Turk had this to say, "The big news today was the announcement by the S&P that they are putting the US government's debt on credit watch with negative implications. That announcement kept gold strong all day, but it couldn't quite make it to $1,500. Despite that, it still looks like we will be above $1,500 this week."
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| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Nice Day for Bungee Jumping Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:21 AM PDT |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2011 08:10 AM PDT View the original post at jsmineset.com... April 18, 2011 11:20 AM "The future belongs to those who prepare for it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Dear CIGAs, Many commentators will be saying woo unto the future of S&P. Let us consider for a moment that you are the Chairman of the Federal Reserve who has firsthand knowledge concerning the real condition of the solvency of Western world financial industry. 1. You know that even consideration of curtailing QE because of political pressure would create a collapse of such magnitude it would make the 1930s look like a picnic at the park. 2. There is a rating agency with the proper political leanings in their corporate culture. You would: Support the dollar and the long bond the day that Standard and Poors downgrades the USA's debt while having the caterers arrange the celebration of success for the continuation of "QE to Infinity." Management at the Fed therefore welcomes S&P’s downgrade for if QE does not exist, who will b...
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Sniffing the obvious, Standard & Poor's cut its outlook for U.S. sovereign debt from stable to negative this morning.
For the record… or, should we say, for what it's worth… S&P still considers U.S. debt AAA.
Alas, "we believe there is a material risk," S&P warns, "that U.S. policymakers might not reach an agreement on how to address medium- and long-term budgetary challenges by 2013."
Standard & Poor's continued to rate a host of mortgage-backed securities AAA right up to the point when they detonated in 2007-08.
Of course, on the S&P news this morning, in a move only our 
The government in Greece, reports a local paper, has asked the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for permission to restructure its debt. Or in language you and I would be forced to use … they want to declare bankruptcy.
Add to that a peculiar twist: Election results in Finland, of all places, are casting doubt on the prospects for a bailout in Portugal. The True Finns party won 19% of the vote for parliament, up from only 4% in 2007.
And like that… the euro has been knocked back to $1.41.
At last check, gold is powering to a new high at $1,493. But silver, which pushed past $43 on Friday, has retreated to $42.70.
"There is a mix of fears" Mr. Cofnas portends. "Fear of inflation, fear of a China slowdown, fear of eurozone weakness centered on Greece and Portugal."
With respect to the long-term trend in gold, we've been waiting to see a higher percentage of institutional interest… and this morning, we got a smidge.
With the president's signature last week, the infamous 
Grain prices are up this morning, a bushel of wheat fetching $8.09 on the Chicago Board of Trade, as World Bank chief Robert Zoellick is issuing another dire warning about food prices.
It was only a matter of time: If high copper prices inspire people to steal manhole covers, electrical wire, even scalding-hot copper tubing from a broadcast tower… this is pretty much inevitable.
"I am one of those so-called 'evil rich' with the tax target painted on his back right now," writes a business owner who caught 
"I saw Atlas Shrugged: Part I today," a reader writes, the first of a litany of eyewitness accounts in the inbox." At the end, applause broke out in Knoxville, Tenn. Good crowd for an afternoon showing.
"I attended the first showing of the film in Tempe, Ariz.," writes another. "The place was packed. We couldn't find six seats together after having arrived fairly early. When we came out after the show, there was a huge line waiting for the second showing."
"My wife and I caught the very first showing of Atlas yesterday at the Ventura Century 10 in Ventura, Calif.," adds a third, "I was pleasantly surprised by the rather robust turnout."
"Can't wait for Part II," writes a fourth, "Part I did great job in selection of character actors and following the story line, within the constraints of being based on a 1,070-page novel.
"While hoping it would be a great flick," offers a critic, "I have to say it was brutally badly done. I had to cringe when Rearden said, 'Is my metal good?' about six times in two minutes. The dialog was choppy, and the sex scene was unwatchable.
"Whoever was responsible for Friday's 5 must have been sleeping with the air traffic controllers. Lots of error in more ways than one."| 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 |
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