Gold World News Flash |
- SBSS 10. The Silver Paradigm Shift
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Mixed
- A "Quality Assessment" Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet
- Greg Weldon - The Fed is Hoping to Avoid a Nightmare
- COLLAPSE CONFIRMATION NEWS: Global Economic RESET
- Dear Valued Client: Goldman Is Trying Desperately To "Re-package" Those MBS for You
- The Jobless Recovery: A Train Wreck Waiting To Happen
- How Inflationary and Deflationary Outcomes Might Affect Your Bullion and Mining Shares
- SILVER: The Bastard Child Of The Commodities Family
- RBA Keeps Cash Rate Unchanged At 4.25% On Expectations Of 25 bps Cut, AUD Spikes
- Common Misconceptions About Gold
- Graphic: How exchange rates could collapse after a Euro break-up
- Gold Bearish Key Reversal
- Where a Nation’s Gold and Your Gold Should be Held – Part I
- Harvey Organ's Daily Gold & Silver Report
- Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance: An adult approach -- Part I
- Gary Wagner & David A. Banister – Cashing in on Gold’s Advance – 02-06-2012
- All Eyes On The Pig
- Greek Talks Falter / Sprott Offering Memorandum / Jobs Report Analysis
- NYTimes pays a little grudging respect to Ron Paul
- Mike Norman on Austerity in Europe, Debt Deflation, and the Emasculation of Wall Street?
- Eric Sprott Sets Out the Bull Case for Silver
- Finding Fundamentals Key to Gold Investing: Byron King
- Guest Post: What If We're Beyond Mere Policy Tweaks?
- Finding Fundamentals Key to Gold Investing
- The Gold Price Five Day Chart must not Breach Support Around $1,715 Otherwise $1,675 will be the Next Stop
- Rick Rule - Critical Differences Between Gold Bull Today vs 70s
- Essential Preparations for THE BIG ONE
- Greece and The Jobs Report
- Rick Rule: Critical Differences Between Gold Bull Today vs 70s
| SBSS 10. The Silver Paradigm Shift Posted: 06 Feb 2012 07:19 PM PST
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| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Mixed Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:30 PM PST Gold fell to as low as $1711.97 by about 8:30AM EST before it rebounded in New York, but it still ended with a loss of 0.31%. Silver slipped to as low as $33.003 in London, but it then climbed to as high as $33.824 in New York and ended with a gain of 0.03%.
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| A "Quality Assessment" Of US Jobs Reveals The Ugliest Picture Yet Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:29 PM PST Over the past week we have repeatedly exposed the BLS' shennanigans to both keep the headline unemployment rate suppressed and to generate an upward bias in the market courtesy of a "bigger than expected beat" of expectations. Granted, various semantics experts continue to scratch their heads in attempting to explain a collapsing labor force when even Goldman's Sven Jari Stehn just predicted that it will drop to 63.1% by the end of 2012 (and 62.5% by the end of 2015). Funny then that the US will have no unemployment left when the participation rate drops to 58.5%. And no, the "population soared argument based on revised data" doesn't quite cut it when the bulk of said surge not only did not get a job, but was not even counted toward the labor force. Yet what the biggest flaw with all these arguments that vainly (and veinly) attempt to defend the US economy as if it is growing, is that they focus exclusively on the quantity of jobs, doctored or not, and completely ignore the quality. We have decided to step in and fill this void. By now, most of our readers know that every incremental dollar of public debt leads to less than one dollar of GDP growth, courtesy of the debt/GDP ratio having surpassed 100% a month ago. Yet what most don't know is that the marginal utility of public debt is not the only thing that may have peaked: as of January 31, 2012, the date of the most recent BLS jobs report, it appears that the "marginal utility" of job formation (if such a concept existed) also turned negative. And since it doesn't exist, yet, allows us to explain. While the BLS is the best, if massively seasonally adjusted, tracker of job quantity, the only true indicator of job quality is the FMS's Daily Treasury Statement, which tracks and updates how much government revenue is generated any given day courtesy of withheld income and employment taxes. So to avoid any potential semantic confusion, we will stick to numbers and bullets: hopefully even the most dedicated newsletter sellers and "asset managers" can follow those without losing much in translation.
Presented visually - the black bar shows the cumulative divergence between the fiscal 2011 and 2012 data series. Below zero, such as that on January 31, is bad.
And yet...
But that's not the kicker. This is:
Translation: based on the above, even as America was "creating" jobs, 2 million to be precise (and 2.5 million between Sept 30, 2010 and January 31, 2012), the government tax revenues created by these jobs actually declined in 2012 compared to 2011, on a per job basis, by roughly 1.5%! This analysis ignores completely any seasonal fudging, census adjustments, "updated population controls" and all those other "fudge factors" which keep BLS Ph.D.s employed (especially during election years). It is pure math based on numbers reported by both the US Treasury and the BLS. This analysis also has substantial ramifications on the Treasury's forecast debt issuance schedule, which is driven substantially based on model assumptions for tax withholdings. Alas, absent some massive surge in income, and thus increased tax withholdings, going forward, we see no reason why there should be any material upside in government income tax revenues in 2012 compared to 2011. Which means that absent significant spending cuts, which we all know will never happen, the US is about to substantially underestimate just how much debt it has to issue for fiscal Q2 and Q3. Needless to say, this also means that the debt ceiling in such a case, would be breached far sooner than even in our pessimistic scenario of early November 2012. Finally, and most, importantly, we hope that this analysis has proven that while the BLS may play around with various numerators, denominators, seasonal adjustments, and other irrelevant gimmicks which are only fit for popular consumption particularly by those who have never used excel in their lives, a deeper analysis confirms our concerns, that not only is America slipping ever further into a state of permanent "temp job" status, but that a "quality analysis" of the jobs created shows that the US job formation machinery is badly hurt, and just like the marginal utility of debt now hitting a critical inflection point, so the "marginal utility" of incremental jobs is now negative, which means that Obama, or whichever administration, can easily represent to be growing jobs, and declining the unemployment rate by whatever gimmick necessary. Yet these very jobs are now generating far less in so very critical tax revenue for the US treasury, and continue to declining steadily in quality.
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| Greg Weldon - The Fed is Hoping to Avoid a Nightmare Posted: 06 Feb 2012 04:05 PM PST  With gold trading near the $1,720 level, today King World News was given exclusive permission to share some of Greg Weldon's work with our global readers. Greg is the founder of Weldon Financial and he has a following of some of the wealthiest investors in the world including individuals, institutions and financial firms. Here is a portion of what Greg has been sharing with his clients: "Of interest is the segue to be made from the Personal Income data, to the US Commercial Bank lending data, with a high degree of positive correlation between the two, as evidenced in the long-term monthly overlay chart on display below. We compare DPI (black line), Total US Commercial Loans Outstanding (red line) ... and ... the price of Gold (orange line)."
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| COLLAPSE CONFIRMATION NEWS: Global Economic RESET Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:40 PM PST  
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||
| Dear Valued Client: Goldman Is Trying Desperately To "Re-package" Those MBS for You Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:38 PM PST And so we've come full circle. The WSJ is reporting that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will be seeking bids by the middle of this week for roughly $6 Billion dollars worth of residential mortgage backed securities currently held in Maiden Lane II. This would be on the heels of a $7 Billion dollar sale on January 19th to Credit Suisse. What's notable here is that the Fed said the January sale was prompted by an unsolicited bid from Goldman Sachs (as ZH discusses http://www.zerohedge.com/news/fed-back-its-secretive-ways-sells-7-billion-maiden-lane-assets-directly-credit-suisse-without-p), and now Bloomberg is reporting that there was yet another unsolicited bid. Goldman, is that you, seeking to maximize bonuses shareholder value by buying paper for cents on the dollar? When the Fed bailed out AIG they purchased the "very risky" securities for $19.5 Billion dollars. As of the February 2nd H.4.1 release, the Fed claims to have $9.5 Billion left (at "fair" value). Potential losses be damned, the banks are struggling and are in need of some income. The list of firms that have been invited to bid are as follows:
And fear not about resale to their clients folks, as we learned from Goldman already: "There are prices in the market that people want to invest in things..."
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| The Jobless Recovery: A Train Wreck Waiting To Happen Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:35 PM PST The essay below pretty much uncovers the CON in confidence: The Burning Platform   The last week has offered an amusing display of the difference between the cheerleading corporate mainstream media, lying Wall Street shills and the critical thinking analysts like Zero Hedge, Mike Shedlock, Jesse, and John Hussman. What passes for journalism at CNBC and the rest of the mainstream print and TV media is beyond laughable. Their America is all about feelings. Are we confident? Are we bullish? Are we optimistic about the future? America has turned into a giant confidence game. The governing elite spend their time spinning stories about recovery and manipulating public opinion so people will feel good and spend money. Facts are inconvenient to their storyline. The truth is for suckers. They know what is best for us and will tell us what to do and when to do it. The false storyline last week was the dramatic surge in new jobs. This fantastic news was utilized by the six banks that account for 80% of the stock market trading to propel the NASDAQ to an eleven year high and the Dow Jones to a four year high. The compliant corporate press did their part with blaring headlines of good cheer. The entire sham was designed to make Joe the Plumber pull out one of his 15 credit cards and buy a new 72 inch 3D HDTV for this weekend's Super Bowl. When you watch a CNBC talking head interviewing a Wall Street shyster realize you have the 1% interviewing the .01% about how great things are. What you most certainly did not hear from the MSM is that the NASDAQ is still down 42% from its 2000 high of 5,048. None of the brain dead twits on CNBC pointed out the S&P 500 is trading at the exact same level it reached on April 8, 1999. Twelve or thirteen years of zero or negative returns are meaningless when a story needs to be sold. On Friday the hyperbole utilized by the media mouthpieces was off the charts, leading to an all-out brawl between the critical thinking blogosphere and the non-thinking "professionals" spouting the government sanctioned propaganda. Accusations flew back and forth about who was misinterpreting the data. I found it hysterical that anyone would debate the accuracy of BLS (Bureau of Lies & Swindles) data. The drones at this government propaganda agency relentlessly massage the data until they achieve a happy ending. They use a birth/death model to create jobs out of thin air, later adjusting those phantom jobs away in a press release on a Friday night. They create new categories of Americans to pretend they aren't really unemployed. They use more models to make adjustments for seasonality. Then they make massive one-time adjustments for the Census. Essentially, you can conclude that anything the BLS reports on a monthly basis is a wild ass guess, massaged to present the most optimistic view of the world. The government preferred unemployment rate of 8.3% is a terrible joke and the MSM dutifully spouts this drivel to a zombie-like public. If the governing elite were to report the truth, the public would realize we are in the midst of a 2nd Great Depression.  The unemployment rate during the Great Depression reached 25%. Without the BLS "adjustments" the real unemployment rate in this country is 23%. Cheerleading and packaging the data in a way to mislead the public does not change the facts: There are 242 million working age Americans. Only 142 million Americans are working. For the math challenged, such as CNBC analysts, that means 100 million working age Americans (41.5%) are not working. But don't worry, the BLS says the unemployment rate is only 8.3%. Things are going so swimmingly well in this country the other 33.2% are kicking back enjoying the good life. The labor force participation rate and employment to population ratio are at 30 year lows. The number of Americans supposedly not in the labor force is at an all-time record of 87.9 million. A corporate MSM pundit like Steve Liesman would explain this away as the Baby Boomers beginning to retire. Great storyline, but the facts prove that old timers are so desperate for cash they have dramatically increased their participation in the labor market.  The data being dished out by the government on a daily basis does not pass the smell test. The working age population since 2000 has grown by 30 million people. The number of people working has grown by only 4.7 million. A critical thinker would conclude the unemployment rate should be dramatically higher than the reported 8.3%. But the government falsely reports the labor force has only increased by 11.8 million in the last eleven years. They have the gall to report that 17.9 million Americans just decided to leave the workforce. The economy was booming in 2000. It sucks today. Don't more people need jobs when times are tougher? The Boomers retiring storyline has already proven to be false. The fact that 46 million (15% of total population) people are on food stamps is a testament to the BLS lie. A look at history proves how badly the current figures reek to high heaven: 2000 to 2011 - Not in Labor Force increased by 17.9 million. 1990′s – Not in Labor Force increased by 5 million. 1980′s – Not in Labor Force increased by 1.7 million. The Not in the Labor Force category is utilized to hide how bad the employment situation in this country really is. They conclude that 17 million out of 38 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in the labor force. That is complete bullshit. From the time I turned 16, I worked. Everyone I knew worked. I worked through high school and college. It is a lie that 45% of these people don't want a job. If you dig into their data, you realize the horrific state of employment in this country: 74% of 16 to 19 year olds are not employed 85% of black 16 to 19 year olds are not employed 31% of black 25 to 54 year old men are not employed 40% of 20 to 24 year olds are not employed 22% of 25 to 29 year old males are not employed 22% of 50 to 54 year old males are not employed According to the BLS, 11% of men between 25 and 54 are not in the labor force Not only is real unemployment at Depressionary levels, but those that do have jobs are falling further and further behind. Wages have gone up less than 2% in the last year and have been rising at an annual rate below 3% for the last four years. According to our friends at the BLS, inflation has risen 3% in the last year. This is almost as ludicrous as their unemployment rate. Anyone living in the real world, as opposed to the BLS model world, knows that inflation on the things we need to live has been rising in excess of 10%. It is a fact that if you measure CPI exactly as it was measured in 1980, at the outset of our great debt inflation, it exceeds 10% versus the fake 3% reported without question by the MSM to a non-thinking public. A poor schmuck making the median salary of $25,000 who gets a 2% raise thinks he has $500 more to spend when in reality he has lost $2,000 of purchasing power. Federal Reserve created inflation is an insidious hidden tax that destroys the 99%, while enriching the 1%.  Until Debt Do Us Part "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results." – Albert Einstein  The recovery storyline being touted by the oligarchy of politicians, bankers and media is designed to make consumers feel better. This is a key part of their master plan. Any honest assessment of the financial disaster that struck in 2008 would conclude it was caused by too much debt peddled to too many people incapable of paying it back, too few banks having too much power, the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates too low for too long, and that same Federal Reserve doing too little regulating of the Too Big To Fail Wall Street mega-banks. I wonder what Albert Einstein would think about the "solutions" rolled out to fix our debt problem. Would he find it insane that total credit market debt has actually risen to an all-time high of $53.8 trillion, up $533 billion from the previous 2008 peak? Our leaders have added $6.1 trillion to our National Debt in the last four years, a mere 66% increase. This unprecedented level of borrowing certainly did not benefit the American people, as real GDP has risen by $96 billion, or 0.7%, over the last four years.  Would Einstein find it insane that the governing elite would encourage the 4 biggest banks, that were the main culprits in creating a worldwide financial collapse, to actually get bigger? The largest banks in the U.S. now control 72% of all the deposits in the country versus 68.5% in 2008. The Too Big To Fail are now Too Bigger To Fail. Rather than liquidating the bad debts, breaking up the insolvent banks, selling off the good assets to well run banks, firing the executives, and wiping out the shareholders & bondholders foolish enough to invest in these badly run casinos, the powers that be chose to protect their fellow .01% brethren and throw the 99% under the bus.  Ben Bernanke, in conjunction with Tim Geithner and his masters on Wall Street, implemented a zero interest rate policy designed to enrich the Wall Street banks, force investors into the stock market, and encourage Americans to borrow and spend like it was 2005 again. Rather than accepting that our economy has been warped for decades, with over-consumption utilizing debt as the driving force, and allowing a reset, the Federal Reserve insanely encouraging banks and consumers to do the same thing again. We do know Bernanke has stolen $450 billion of interest income going to savers and senior citizens and handed it to Jamie Dimon, Vikrim Pandit, Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of the Wall Street cabal. The "austerity is bad" storyline is pounded home on a daily basis by the politicians, corporate chieftains, Wall Street billionaires, and MSM pundits. The definition of austere is "practicing great self-denial". Did you see the mob scenes on Black Friday? Americans are incapable of any self-denial, let alone great self-denial, and the masters of our country will not allow it to happen. One look at our GDP figures confirms the non-austerity occurring in this country. In 2007, prior to the collapse, consumer spending accounted for 69.7% of GDP. Today, consumer spending accounts for 71% of GDP, with investment accounting for 12.7% of GDP. In the good old days of 1979 prior to the epic debt bubble, when the financial industry do not run this country, consumer spending accounted for 62% of GDP and investment accounted for 19% of GDP. What an insane concept. You spend less than you make and save the difference. You then invest that money where you can get a reasonable return (.15% in a money market account is not exactly reasonable).  As Ludwig von Mises pointed out, a false boom created by credit expansion will ultimately collapse. We had the chance in 2008 – 2009 to voluntarily abandon the Wall Street induced credit expansion and allow our country to reset. The pain and misery would have been great, especially for the 1% who own most of the stocks, bonds and peddle the debt to the ignorant masses. As you can see in the chart below, the powers that be need debt per employed American to grow at an ever increasing rate to maintain their power and wealth. The miniscule reduction in debt from 2009 to 2011 was unacceptable. The governing powers will not be satisfied until von Mises' final currency catastrophe is achieved.  Bernanke and his Wall Street puppet masters' plan is actually quite simple. It's essentially a confidence game. A confidence game (also known as a con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, or swindle) is an attempt to defraud a group by gaining their confidence. The people who commit such tricks are often known as con men, con artists, or grifters. The con man often works with one or more accomplices called shills, who help manipulate the mark into accepting the con man's plan. In a traditional confidence game, the mark is led to believe that he will be able to win money or some other prize by doing some task. The accomplices may pretend to be random strangers who have benefited from successfully performing the task. Bernanke and the 1% are the con men. They are attempting to defraud the 99% by convincing them their "solutions" will benefit them. The shills acting as accomplices are Wall Street bankers, bought off economists, politicians, journalists, and mainstream media pundits. You are the mark. The game has multiple facets but is based on more freely flowing low interest easy debt. The con man has reduced interest rates to zero at the behest of his puppet masters. The Wall Street accomplices offer enticing financing to the marks for big ticket items like automobiles, furniture and electronics. As the marks go further into debt, the Wall Street shills report record earnings ($26 billion from loan loss reserve accounting entries), consumer spending rises and GDP goes higher. The mainstream media accomplices dutifully report an improving economy. The government accomplices massage the employment and inflation data and declare a jobs recovery with no inflation. The marks are supposed to feel better about the future and spend even more borrowed money. This is what is considered a self-sustaining recovery by the psychopaths running this country. All you have to do is open your daily paper to see the confidence game in full display. Last week the MSM reported another surge in automobile sales. Our beloved American automobile manufacturers are back baby!!! Automobile sales are now pacing above 14 million on an annual basis. This is up from the depths of the recession in 2009 when the annual rate was below 10 million. We've breached the Cash For Clunkers level and there is nowhere to go but up. The storyline is that Obama was right to save GM and Chrysler with your tax dollars. They are now making splendid vehicles (except for the exploding Chevy Volts) and employing millions of Americans. This is a true American comeback success story. Clint Eastwood should do a commercial about it.  There is one little problem with this storyline. It's bullshit. Remember GMAC? You bailed them out when all their subprime auto and mortgage loans went bad in 2009. They have a brand new business plan. Change your name to Ally Bank and start making as many subprime auto loans as possible. You will be happy to know that according to Experian, 45% of all auto loans being made today are to subprime borrowers. What could possibly go wrong? In addition, the average loan term has grown to almost 6 years. Executives at Ally Financial said that subprime car lending had become "very attractive" because profit margins on the loans more than cover the cost of expected losses from borrowers who fail to repay what they owe. I'm sure they have everything completely under control. Gina Proia, a company spokeswoman, said the company places "greater emphasis on the higher end of the nonprime spectrum" and only lends to people who show they can pay. I can't believe they are restricting their loans to only people who they think can pay. I'm surprised Obama isn't condemning them for such restrictive loan terms. If you open your paper to the auto section you will see financing offers of $0 down-payment, and 0% interest for 7 years across the board on most models. But why buy, when you can lease a luxury automobile for $300 per month? It is simply amazing how many vehicles you can "sell" when "credit challenged" Americans can rent them for seven years. I wonder if this explains why I see dozens of $40,000 luxury autos parked in front of $25,000 dilapidated hovels during my daily commute through West Philadelphia. It also seems the Big Three are "selling" a few extra vehicles to their dealers in January as pointed out by Zero Hedge. No need to let a few facts get in the way of a feel good story. Ford month-end inventory 86-day supply at end of Jan. (492k vehicles) vs 60-day supply (466k) as of Dec. 31 Chrysler had 83-day supply (349k units) end of Jan. vs 64-day (326k units) as of Dec. 31 GM month-end inventory 89-day supply (619k units) vs 67-day supply (583k) Dec. 31 The facts prove the issuance of billions in easy credit is creating the illusion of recovery. Non- revolving (auto & student loans) consumer credit outstanding is now at an all-time high of $1.7 trillion. Even with billions in bad debt write-offs since 2009 the amount outstanding has risen by $100 billion. Does this sound like austerity is gripping the nation? The Federal government is dishing out student loans like candy, as hundreds of thousands of students get worthless degrees from for-profit diploma mills like the University of Phoenix and its ilk. By keeping them occupied in school, the government is able to keep them in the Not in the Labor Force category. Not to be outdone, our friends at GE Capital, Wells Fargo and the other too big to fail entities have been doing their part on the revolving credit side of the scam. I've recently been seeing an ad by the largest U.S. furniture retailer, Ashley Furniture, offering 0% interest with no payments for 7 years. I don't know about you, but my kids destroy a couch in less than 7 years. Wells Fargo Credit doesn't seem too worried. A critical thinker might ask, how can Wells Fargo possibly make money offering these terms? But there is the rub. Ben Bernanke is loaning Wells Fargo money at 0% so they can perpetuate the confidence game. These insane bankers truly believe they can kick start this moribund debt saturated economy by issuing billions more in debt to people incapable of repaying them. Einstein would be amused.  The McKinsey Group put out a report a couple weeks ago analyzing the amount of American household debt and optimistically concluding that it could be back on a sustainable path by 2013. Mike Shedlock pointed out that sustainable is in the eye of the beholder. It seems the bright fellows at McKinsey haven't grasped the concept of regression to the mean. First of all their analysis is flawed because real disposable personal income is actually declining and Ben Bernanke's master scam is working and Americans are now adding to their household debt. The little blue line has turned upwards since they gathered their data. Secondly, as Mish so accurately points out, the sustainable level of household debt is really at the levels prior to the debt bubble that began in the early 1980s. That is a debt level of approximately 70% of disposable personal income, as opposed to the current level of 110%.  The implications of household debt levels regressing to their long-term mean would be catastrophic to the 1%. Their kingdom of debt would come crashing down. Their power and wealth would be swept away. This is why it is so vital for them to create the illusion of recovery. Their confidence game is built upon an ever increasing flow of credit expansion. It will not work. There is no avoiding the final collapse of a boom created solely by credit expansion. Those in power will never voluntarily relinquish their grand game of pillaging the wealth of the nation, so economic collapse will be the ultimate result. They will continue to use propaganda, printing presses, and half-truths to further their agenda. But those who examine the facts will come to a logical conclusion that we are being sold a great lie. "Half the truth is often a great lie." – Benjamin Franklin Two Freight Trains Collide Head-On The Financial Crisis Of 2008 Was Just A Warm Up Act For The Economic Horror Show That Is ComingThe Economic Collapse February 6, 2012 The people out there that believe that the U.S. economy is experiencing a permanent recovery and that very bright days are ahead for us should have their heads examined. Unfortunately, what we are going through right now is simply just a period of "hopetimism" between two financial crashes. Things may seem relatively stable right now, but it won't last long. The truth is that the financial crisis of 2008 was just a warm up act for the economic horror show that is coming. Nothing really got fixed after the crash of 2008. We are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and it has gotten even bigger since then. The "too big to fail" banks are larger now than they have ever been. Americans continue to run up credit card balances like there is no tomorrow. Tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities and millions of jobs continue to leave the country. We continue to consume far more than we produce and we continue to become poorer as a nation. None of the problems that caus
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| How Inflationary and Deflationary Outcomes Might Affect Your Bullion and Mining Shares Posted: 06 Feb 2012 03:33 PM PST Whilst we, as staunch Austrians, would prefer less liquidity provision and more allowance for markets to naturally self-correct and deleverage… we suspect that as markets try to self-correct, the authorities generally will be forced to print more and more [as] it is the easiest course for them to take and the typically all too human option…As such we look once more at how inflationary and deflationary outcomes might affect precious metal investors. Words: 1323 So says Will Bancroft *([url]www.therealasset.co.uk/[/url]) in edited excerpts from his original article* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com (A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!) has edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. The article’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have b...
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| SILVER: The Bastard Child Of The Commodities Family Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:53 PM PST In light of the above, the once Bastard Child will soon become the Elite Silver Star and Pride of the Commodities Family.
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| RBA Keeps Cash Rate Unchanged At 4.25% On Expectations Of 25 bps Cut, AUD Spikes Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:44 PM PST When all else fails, pretend it's all good. Like what Australia did, following the just released announcement by the RBA that it is keeping the cash rate unchanged at 4.25% on expectations of a 25 bps rate cut. Which begs the question: is China re-exporting the lagging US inflation it imported over 2011? So it appears to Glenn Stevens, who just said that "Commodity prices declined for some months to be noticeably off their peaks, but over the past couple of months have risen somewhat and remain at quite high levels." Or maybe they are not pretending and inflation is still alive and very much real? It also means that Chinese inflation continues to be far higher than what is represented, but we probably will just take the PBoC's word for that. Or not, and wonder: did the RBA just catch the PBOC lying about its subdued inflation? And if that is the case, does anyone really wonder why that very elusive RRR-cut is coming with the same certainty as the Greek creditor deal? Either way, the AUDJPY spikes by 80 pips on the news, however briefly, and if the traditional linkage between the AUDJPY and the market is preserved, it should have a favorable impact on risk as it means at least one hotbed of inflation remains. On the other hand, it also means that Chinese easing is a long way off... and in a market defined solely by hopes for central bank intervention this is not good. And amusingly, just as we write this, Bloomberg release a note that the PBOC is draining funds: "China's money market rates rose after PBOC resumed fund drain via a repo operation, showing it remained cautious toward policy easing." Translation: "Hopes for a near-term RRR cut could be dashed, Credit Agricole CIB strategist Frances Cheung writes in note to clients." Oops. Furthermore, the PBOC did 26 billion yuan in repos, meaning it is set to conduct a net liquidity withdrawal for this week according to Credit Agricole. Withrawing liquidity when the market expects RRR cuts? Fughetaboutit. (and reread the Grice piece on why only idiots define inflation by the CPI or the PCE).
Official Statement from the RBA Statement by Glenn Stevens, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.25 per cent. Information becoming available since the December meeting confirms that economic conditions in Europe were weakening late last year, with risks still skewed to the downside. Reflecting this, most forecasters have lowered their forecasts for world GDP growth this year to a below trend pace. That said, recent data from the United States suggest a continuing moderate expansion after a soft patch in mid 2011. Growth in China has moderated as was intended, but on most indicators remained quite robust through the second half of last year. Conditions around other parts of Asia have softened. Commodity prices declined for some months to be noticeably off their peaks, but over the past couple of months have risen somewhat and remain at quite high levels. The acute financial pressures on banks in Europe were alleviated considerably late in 2011 by the actions of policymakers. Much remains to be done to put European sovereigns and banks on a sound footing, but some progress has been made. Financial market sentiment, though remaining skittish, has generally improved since early December. Share markets have risen and term funding markets have re-opened, including for Australian banks, albeit at increased cost compared with the situation prevailing in mid 2011. Information on the Australian economy continues to suggest growth close to trend, with differences between sectors. Labour market conditions softened during 2011 and the unemployment rate increased slightly in mid year, though it has been steady over recent months. CPI inflation has declined as expected, as the large rises in food prices resulting from the floods a year ago have been unwinding. Year-ended CPI inflation will fall further over the next quarter or two. In underlying terms, inflation is around 2½ per cent. Over the coming one to two years, and abstracting from the effects of the carbon price, the Bank expects inflation to be in the 2–3 per cent range. Credit growth remains modest, though there has been a slight increase in demand for credit by businesses. Housing prices showed some sign of stabilising at the end of 2011, after having declined for most of the year. The exchange rate has risen further, even though the terms of trade have started to decline. This is largely a reflection of a decline in the euro against all currencies. Nonetheless, the Australian dollar in trade-weighted terms is somewhat higher than the Bank had previously assumed. At today's meeting, the Board noted that interest rates for borrowers have declined to be close to their medium-term average, as a result of the actions at the Board's previous two meetings. With growth expected to be close to trend and inflation close to target, the Board judged that the setting of monetary policy was appropriate for the moment. Should demand conditions weaken materially, the inflation outlook would provide scope for easier monetary policy. The Board will continue to monitor information on economic and financial conditions and adjust the cash rate as necessary to foster sustainable growth and low inflation.
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| Common Misconceptions About Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2012 02:24 PM PST When reading stuff about the pros and cons of investing in gold we regularly come across two misguided assertions, the first being that changes in gold's price in terms of a currency do little more than offset changes in the currency's ... Read More...
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| Graphic: How exchange rates could collapse after a Euro break-up Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:36 PM PST With the break-up of the Euro still a distinct possibility we take a look at what new currencies such as a new Greek drachma & Portugese escudo would be worth...
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| Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:22 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com February 06, 2012 03:33 PM Daily Bars Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT Gold reversed last week near the December high and has declined about 2% in the last 2 days. Price is nearing potential support from a trendline that extends off of the 12/29 and 1/25 lows. A drop below the trendline would shift focus to the January congestion zone at 1647/85. A bearish bias is valid against 1765.90. Bottom Line – short, stop 1765.90, target open...
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| Where a Nation’s Gold and Your Gold Should be Held – Part I Posted: 06 Feb 2012 01:00 PM PST Most central banks hold their nation's gold in the vaults of the world's leading financial centers' central bank vaults. These include New York, London, and Canada among others. In a peaceful, cooperative world, this is sensible as one of the prime purposes of central banks holding gold is to cover the nation's international trade payments when their own currency becomes unacceptable and their reserves of foreign exchange are depleted. By positioning the gold outside the country, it's instantly accessible for payments or guarantees of payments.
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| Harvey Organ's Daily Gold & Silver Report Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:38 PM PST Greek talks Falter/Sprott offering memorandum/jobs report analysis
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| Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance: An adult approach -- Part I Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:30 PM PST 8:30p ET Monday, February 6, 2012 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: In their latest market letter, Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance of QB Asset Management in New York argue that investors shouldn't fight the Federal Reserve but rather bet on it and other central banks. Brodsky and Quaintance write that indebted governments have ceded to banking systems, without conscience or public accountability, the power to inflate currencies. They write: "If the global banking system has ultimate power over how global wealth is perceived, (as it does), and it is the only institution powerful enough to keep indebted governments in control of their societies (which it is), then the only reasonable strategy for an independent investor is to think like a Rothschild: Don't fight the Fed -- Bet on it." The Brodsky-Quaintance commentary is titled "An Adult Approach, Part I -- Investing in a Vulgar Age" and it's posted at GATA's Internet site here: http://www.gata.org/files/QBAMCOAnAdultApproachPart1-02-2012.pdf CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Free Month Subscription to Market Force Analysis for GATA Supporters Market Force Analysis is a unique, patent-pending approach to commodity market analysis. An algorithm has been developed to extract supply and demand weightings from futures market data. The difference between supply and demand is the market imbalance that is called "market force," so named because it is what drives price. It brings clarity to past market action and predicts market trends. Because it is derived from accurate futures market data it is not subject to the errors inherent in macro-level estimates of supply and demand. Learn more here: https://marketforceanalysis.com/About_MFA.html Market Force Analysis focuses on short-term (15 days) and medium-term price predictions to help both short-term traders and long-term investors understand market moves and benefit from the generated prediction of prices. To read subscriber comments that show how much the service is appreciated, visit: https://marketforceanalysis.com/Testimonials.html The MFA service has been pioneered by market analyst and Gold Anti-Trust Action board member and researcher Adrian Douglas. The Market Force Analysis premium service provides: -- A bi-weekly report. -- Access to the MFA hot list of junior mining stocks derived from analysis of more than 800 mining stocks. The MFA hot list consistently outperforms well-known mining share indices like the HUI, GDX, and GDXJ. -- E-mail alerts about actionable trades. -- E-mail updates with important information. To obtain your 1-month free trial subscription to the Market Force Analysis letter, e-mail info@marketforceanalysis.com and put "MFA Free Trial" in the subject field. Join GATA here: California Investment Conference http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/california-investment-confe... Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html 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 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:
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| Gary Wagner & David A. Banister – Cashing in on Gold’s Advance – 02-06-2012 Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:25 PM PST from The Financial Survival Network:
Gary and David agree that the recent price increases in gold and silver are indicative of a major upward wave in prices. Right now, they believe that gold is in a slight correction trend that shouldn't go much below 1690, if it goes that far. Therefore, buying on slight dips should prove profitable. And don't be afraid to sell out a position at a profit. Always remember, when an investment rises very quickly, it is quite possible that it will experience a drop in price nearly as fast. And with your profits locked in, you'll be well positioned to invest in another asset with good prospects. Send us your feedback. This is the first many roundtables to help you prepare for the coming global financial reset. Click Here to Listen to the Podcast
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| Posted: 06 Feb 2012 12:17 PM PST from TFMetalsReport.com:
First, though, I'm confident that there is a concerted effort being taken to "correct" the price of gold. Last week's CoT was lousy and I'm sure that the brief rally through 1750 late last week was allowed by The Cartel as an attempt to suck in a few more spec longs before putting the hammer down…and the hammer is falling as I type. Gold was first savagely attacked after the spectacularly manipulated BLSBS number on Friday. Then, as gold was attempting to rally overnight, the goons on the LBMA put the wood to it. Gold would have certainly fallen even farther on the Comex today had it not been for a pesky little Pig that failed to cooperate. Read More @ TFMetalsReport.com
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| Greek Talks Falter / Sprott Offering Memorandum / Jobs Report Analysis Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:59 AM PST by Harvey Organ: Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: The banking cartel continued to launch their assault on the precious metals with gold falling by $13.00 to $1722.80 and silver slipping 1 cent to $33.72. The bankers are in no mood to see the rise in the precious metals. The lease rates lowered considerably Thursday night. Could the following have been a harbinger of things to come i.e. the raid on Friday?
Let us head over to the comex and see how trading fared today and determine amounts of metals standing. We had a vicious raid on Friday and generally the bankers hope to shake many gold leaves from the gold tree and many silver leaves from the silver tree. You will be totally surprised by the data. Read More @ HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.com
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| NYTimes pays a little grudging respect to Ron Paul Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:59 AM PST Ron Paul's Flinty Worldview Was Forged in Early Family Life By David M. Halbfinger http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/us/politics/for-ron-paul-a-distinctive... His parents married two days before the crash of 1929. He was reared on nightmarish stories of currency that proved worthless, told by relatives whose patriarch had fled Germany in the dark of night when his debts were about to ruin him. Hard times, and fear of worse, were constants in Ron Paul's boyhood home. His father and mother worked tirelessly running a small dairy, and young Ron showed the same drive -- delivering The Pittsburgh Press, mowing lawns, scooping ice cream as a soda jerk. He also embraced their politics, an instinctive conservatism that viewed Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman as villains and blamed Democrats for getting America into wars. As a young doctor in training, dissecting cadavers or practicing surgery on dogs, he would tell all who would listen about how the country was headed down the wrong path, about the urgency of a strict gold standard and about the dangers of allowing government too much power over people's lives. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Golden Phoenix Receives Inferred Gold Resource Estimate Company Press Release Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. (OTC: GPXM) reports that on behalf of Golden Phoenix Panama S.A., the joint venture entity that owns and operates the Santa Rosa gold mine in Panama, it has received from SRK Consulting (U.S.) an initial resource estimate for Mina Santa Rosa. The Santa Rosa project is a volcanic-hosted epithermal gold-silver deposit previously operated as an open pit-heap leach operation. Production ceased in 1999 in part because of low gold prices. SRK Consulting reports an in-situ inferred resource at the former Santa Rosa and ADLM pits totaling 23.1 million metric tonnes at 0.90 grams/tonne gold, for a contained 669,000 ounces of gold at a 0.30 g/t gold cutoff. The resource also contains an average grade of 2.87 g/t silver for a contained 2.1 million ounces of silver. John Bolanos, Golden Phoenix's vice president of exploration, remarks: "In addition to SRK's inferred resource estimate of 669,000 contained ounces of For the company's full statement, including a table detailing the resources at Santa Rose, please visit: http://goldenphoenix.us/press-release/golden-phoenix-receives-initial-ni... "Once that got ingrained, that became his religion," said his brother Jerrold, a minister and a psychotherapist. "He says he preaches the 'gospel of freedom- -- that's the money quote. Politics became his crusade." But for the silver hair, the baggy eyes, and the grandchildren, the 76-year-old man running for president today -- carrying the torch for a gold-based currency, agitating to "end the Fed," warning of threats to personal freedom and prophesying imminent economic collapse -- is almost indistinguishable from the Ron Paul of half a century ago. Supporters and detractors often marvel at his consistency since entering politics in 1974, citing it as evidence of either levelheadedness or lunacy. It contrasts sharply with some of the rivals he is trailing in the Republican primaries, including Mitt Romney, who is often accused of ideological flip-flopping. While the Austrian economists who deeply influenced Mr. Paul have gone in and out of fashion among conservatives, his own fidelity to them has never wavered. Even his investment portfolio, nearly two-thirds of which is in gold and precious-metal stocks, shows the same commitment to principle -- not to mention preparation for a financial catastrophe. Now, with a solid third-place showing in Nevada and ardent grass-roots support expected to help him in caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, Mr. Paul is likely to command greater attention for his inimitable mix of doom-saying and doses of folksy, homespun humor. But to Mr. Paul, his candidacy is just another step in a lifelong quest "to find the plain truth of things." "I like to think that's what I do," he said in an interview. "Imperfectly -- but most people don't even care. Do you listen to these debates? Are they seeking the plain truth of things? I think that's why people sense I'm somewhat different." What jumps out most from interviews with Mr. Paul and scores of his relatives, friends, and colleagues is not only how different his ideas are, but also how early in life he developed his worldview -- one that appears to have guided nearly every political and financial move he has made ever since. ... Hard Times, Hard Work Social Security, a pillar of the New Deal, was signed into law a week before Ronald Ernest Paul was born in 1935. But his family believed Roosevelt's economic policies were a threat to capitalism and an affront to the values of hard work and private charity. From a young age, Ron, the third of five, and his four brothers earned pennies picking raspberries that their grandfather, a farmer, sold in Pittsburgh, and plucking dirty milk bottles from the crates of empties in their basement. Yet they saw their parents let customers short on cash slide on paying their bills for months at a time. "I think Ron reflects that," Jerrold Paul said. "He's fiscally frugal, but he's also a generous guy." Raising five sons born in the space of seven years, Howard and Margaret Paul worked every day but Christmas and spoke English at home but swore at their sons in German and were the last in the neighborhood to buy a TV set. "We were poor, but we didn't know it," said David Paul, a brother who, like Jerrold, is a Lutheran minister (the other two brothers are a retired math professor and an accountant). The boys were free to do what they wanted, up to a point. When Billy Graham brought his crusade to downtown Pittsburgh, Ron, a teenager, headed off to the revival on his own. But when he shot a BB gun at a neighbor's passing car, he lost the gun for good. His parents did not impose their politics on their sons. But family lore about hyperinflation, property as the safest investment, and a great-grandfather's escape from crushing debt in 19th-century Germany all made an impression. As did a grade-school janitor who hired young Ron to paint the walls and ranted about bankers being "the source of our problems," as Mr. Paul recalled in one of his books. Wartime rationing also left a mark. When he saw a local butcher shop ignoring the rules on Saturdays and selling "all the meat you wanted, at a price," Mr. Paul wrote, it was "my first real-life experience in the free market solving problems generated by government mischief." A high school athlete -- he wrestled opponents 20 pounds heavier and won the Pennsylvania championship in the 220-yard dash -- he was offered a full athletic scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, even after an injury and crude surgery severely damaged his knee. But he turned down the offer, saying it would be wrong to accept given his doubts that he could compete. In private, he despaired of ever racing again -- and railed against a God who, as he told Jerrold, "would give me something and then take it away." He went off instead to Gettysburg College, where he paid his way washing dishes and managing a campus coffee shop, the Bullet Hole. His brothers in Lambda Chi Alpha took note of his rectitude. "You'd go out for a beer, and he'd have a Coke," said James Fuller, a classmate. "He never missed church. He was a very straight shooter." "Peer pressure wasn't going to change him," said Samuel Blackwell, another classmate. The same went for his politics. Mr. Fuller said he pegged Mr. Paul as "to the right of Attila the Hun." Others said he was so opinionated that the fraternity's cook -- a local farmer and a liberal Democrat -- took delight in goading him into political arguments. Mr. Paul was pre-med but he gravitated to economics and political science classes, though he said his college instructors mainly caused him to doubt his own instincts. "They were always trying to beat them out of me," he said. By the time he graduated, Mr. Paul was sprinting again (he is tied for fifth on Gettysburg's all-time list in two sprint events) and had married Carol Wells, who had asked him to escort her to her 16th birthday party. He had never dated anyone else. ... Life-Changing Books At the Duke School of Medicine, the Pauls had the first two of their five children. But even with the demands of medical school and a family, Mr. Paul found time to plow through "Atlas Shrugged" and "Doctor Zhivago," new best sellers that would inspire generations of conservatives and libertarians. If the Ron Paul who had arrived at Gettysburg was a bundle of visceral conservative political impulses in search of an intellectual framework, he found it at Duke through his extracurricular reading. It was "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek that became the ur-text of Mr. Paul's emerging ideology, introducing him to Austrian economics and its Manichaean choice between laissez-faire capitalism and a government-run economy destined for disaster. (Mainstream economists have long dismissed the Austrian school, but it retains a devoted following among libertarians and some conservatives.) On his visits home, his brothers noticed, Mr. Paul began sharing what he was learning. His father, a man with an eighth-grade education and a steel handshake, and his mother, who dreamed of teaching but never attended college, beamed with approval. "My parents would say, 'He really articulates what we think,'" Jerrold Paul remembered. "What was instinctive for them became intellectual for him." Fellow medical students too remember his exhortations about the gold standard and the encroaching welfare state. "He believed in not too much federal government," said Siegfried Smith, a classmate. "And this was a time when we didn't have a lot." Jerrold Paul, who said he broke with his brother politically over Ron's early advocacy for Barry M. Goldwater, recalled that Ron -- who today opposes foreign aid and military intervention of almost any kind -- also started adopting nationalist, or at least noninternationalist, views. When Jerrold announced plans to move to Egypt as a missionary in 1959, he said, Ron urged him to reconsider, saying, "We need people in this country." The young Dr. Paul worked as an intern in Detroit before being drafted as an Air Force flight surgeon around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. After two years based in San Antonio, where he befriended two doctors who regularly invested in silver dollars, he returned to Pittsburgh for a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Magee-Women's Hospital. Abortion was still illegal, but, increasingly, legal exceptions were being made for psychiatric reasons. Mr. Paul traces his opposition to the procedure to the time when he wandered into an operating room there and saw a pregnancy terminated by Caesarean section, with a 2-pound fetus, delivered alive, left in a corner to try to breathe, try to cry, and die. Other co-workers from that time, however, recalled that women butchered by back-alley abortionists were frequent patients; some did not survive. Mr. Paul said he never came across such a patient in his three years. Despite long hours and heavy demands, Mr. Paul never lacked the energy to preach, recalled Dr. Sheldon Weinstein, a fellow obstetrics and gynecology trainee. "He was always talking about how much gold there was in Fort Knox, how we shouldn't be in Vietnam," Dr. Weinstein said. "For me, it was novel -- he was an oddball. He was worried about the monetary system; I didn't have any pennies, let alone dollars." ... Planning for the Worst Dr. Weinstein and other residents recalled whispering that Mr. Paul must be a member of the John Birch Society, the ultraconservative group whose views on the monetary system, economics and foreign policy Mr. Paul has described as much like his own. Mr. Paul denies ever belonging to the group, though he was listed as a subscriber to its magazine, American Opinion, according to Birch records in Brown University's archives. And when he planned his first run for office in 1974, he has said, the first person he called for advice was Larry McDonald, a right-wing congressman who was later president of the group. Mr. Paul and the John Birch Society are also 50-50 co-owners of a 3.8-acre property in Sweeny, Tex., that was bequeathed to them by a constituent of the congressman who died in 2010; Mr. Paul's campaign said it was surprised by the gift, and the group said the property would be sold off. In the interview, Mr. Paul said he parted ways with the John Birch Society over its emphasis on conspiracy theories -- "that 12 or 15 people for hundreds of years get together and plan the world." But he hastened to say that conservatives' rejection of the society, as far back as the 1960s, was wrong. "I've known these people, and I saw them as mostly strict constitutionalists," he said. "To turn that into something radical and mean is not fair." Mr. Paul jumped at the chance to return to Texas in 1968 after learning of an obstetrician who was retiring in an area with no competition. The leap paid off. Before long, he had amassed a farm outside town, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a beach house, and other real estate investments. In 1971, however, President Richard M. Nixon's abandonment of the gold standard propelled Mr. Paul to buy gold for the first time -- and to embark on a new career. He saw it as a "declaration of bankruptcy for our country," he later wrote. The so-called Nixon Shock was an unimaginably grave threat to ultraconservatives, said Chip Berlet, a historian of the ultra-right wing. Many "saw it as a sign that a conspiracy had penetrated the Republican Party -- as subversion from within," he said. Mr. Paul ran for Congress in 1974 and lost, then won a special election in 1976. To keep up his medical practice, he took on a young partner, Jack Pruett. In their first meeting, Dr. Paul laid down two conditions: They would perform no elective abortions, and they would not participate in Medicare or Medicaid. They treated poor women at a discount or free, Dr. Pruett said, sometimes receiving vegetables or eggs instead of cash. But Mr. Paul's mind remained focused elsewhere. His medical office was lined with economics textbooks, Dr. Pruett recalled. And when they closed the books one year and found that they had $60,000 left over to split, Mr. Paul proposed that they invest in gold coins. "I still have my Krugerrands," Dr. Pruett said. "We paid $132 apiece. They're worth about $2,000 today." Mr. Paul continues to invest according to his principles, and he has outperformed the stock market. From 2001 to 2011, his holdings in gold, silver, mining companies and other bets on an economic collapse more than doubled in value, an analysis of his Congressional disclosures suggests, to between $1.6 million and $3.5 million. His entire portfolio is now worth between $2.4 million and $5.4 million. He also continues to maintain his medical license, for the same apocalyptic reason that he urges young people to learn a trade. "That is the ultimate protection," he said, even safer than stockpiling gold. "Even if you have to live in a totalitarian society, somebody's going to want your skills." Join GATA here: California Investment Conference http://cambridgehouse.com/conference-details/california-investment-confe... Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html 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 Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Be Part of a Chance to Discover Northaven Resources Corp. (TSX-V:NTV) is advancing five gold and silver projects in highly prospective and politically stable British Columbia, Canada. Check out the exploration program on our Allco gold/silver project : -- A large (13,000 hectare) property, covering more than 15 square kilometers of a regional mineralized trend just 3km from a recently announced 1.2-million-ounce gold and 15-million-ounce silver deposit. -- The property hosts historic high-grade silver workings and many mineral showings as well as former mines at the property's northern and southern boundaries. -- A deep-penetrating airborne geophysics survey has just been completed on the entire property and neighboring deposits and its results are eagerly awaited. To learn more about the Allco property or Northaven's other gold and silver projects, please visit: http://www.northavenresources.com Or call Northaven CEO Allen Leschert at 604-696-3600.
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| Mike Norman on Austerity in Europe, Debt Deflation, and the Emasculation of Wall Street? Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:57 AM PST from CapitalAccount: As Greek debt talks continue to painfully drag on, new EU statistics speak to the success of debt crisis policy prescriptions in counties forced to seek bailouts…THET DEBT, rose in Greece, Portugal and Ireland in Q3 of 2011. So when is this giant elephant in the room going to be confronted? Are politicians and economist alike at all interested in confronting a reality where debt levels are now cursing any hopes for future growth? And the cover of New York magazine shows a wall street banker holding his recently "emasculated" genitalia. Is this for real? Are we really to believe that Wall Street has been emasculated? How about we see some of these financial criminals face charges for their roles and maybe go to jail? How about some of these executives who head up bailed out banks are forced to give up their multi-million dollar bonuses and knighthoods like in the UK and get fired. So far, we still see a lot of signs that the biggest firms are getting favors not punishment from the regulators with the power to emasculate. We are going to talk to economist Mike Norman about this, as well as about deficits and whether or not the US can sustain this mounting debt going forward, or if Europe is a unique example of what happens when you owe money that you can't print. And on the issue of politics, Ron Paul may not be leading in the polls for the republic nomination but is he amassing the political capital needed to reign in the fed's crony capital? Could he help shed even more light onto the federal reserve, and maybe even abolish it? We will ask Mike Norman about this as well!
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| Eric Sprott Sets Out the Bull Case for Silver Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:32 AM PST Sprott Asset Management chief Eric Sprott lays out the supply demand case for silver at the Casey Research "When Money Dies" Conference last October. We suggest our favorite physical metal product right after the video. We can do without the unnecessary disparagement of the ETFs, but understand that Mr. Sprott runs a competing family of products, most with higher fees or premiums or both. But we definitely do appreciate Mr. Sprott's dedication to the silver bull case and do indeed agree with his view about the market fundamentals – about the structural and significant changes in the supply and demand recently - about the money flow into silver being roughly equal to gold although the gold/silver ratio is still in the 50s – which augers well for silver bulls and suggests the GSR is likely to fall looking ahead. Accumulate physical metal – trade the major, liquid, ETFs is and has been our view. As always we urge our Vulture members to consider the premiums associated with all silver products, paper, real metal or otherwise. High premiums on anything are to be avoided, if possible. When the choice is between similar vehicles, always seek the least premium possible and refuse to buy products that carry high premiums, including closed end funds (when the premiums are high) and high priced bullion items, like U.S. Silver Eagles. We won't always have the opportunity to puchase silver at low premiums if what we think is unfolding in the silver market plays out like we expect it will.
As long as circulated U.S. silver coins continue to fetch the lowest premium among all the silver products we track they will remain our favored way to accumulate silver metal. The bags are liquid, easily divisible, very difficult to counterfeit and everyone understands what they are. In times of severe silver shortage, such as we saw during the 2008 collapse in spot prices, 90% silver bags end up commanding a premium (also shown in the chart). We expect 90% to trade at a premium again in the future, but it is available today at something close to par. - More silver for one's silver investing dollar for now in other words. Hold down the fort and pay attention to the GGR charts on the member pages. Source for the video above: Casey Research
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| Finding Fundamentals Key to Gold Investing: Byron King Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:32 AM PST The Gold Report: Byron, anyone who reads your reports knows two things: you like to tell stories and you like precious metals. The gold price has spent the last 11 years trending higher. Do you see it continuing upward? Byron King: I anticipate that gold, silver and platinum will all continue to rise in price. There are currency-driven reasons why metal prices are going to keep rising, as well as other issues with overall supply and falling production. In terms of production, the gold and the platinum production spaces are very precarious. A few very bad things could happen at random and knock global production for a loop and seriously impact supply. Think in terms of a major mine accident in, say, South Africa. Supply could fall off a cliff overnight. In terms of politics and monetary issues, precious metals create an outside limit on people's political power. Thus I expect massive amounts of manipulation as we roll along, too. The dollar value of gold, silver or platinum will ten...
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| Guest Post: What If We're Beyond Mere Policy Tweaks? Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:26 AM PST Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds What If We're Beyond Mere Policy Tweaks? The nation's ills cannot be fixed by thousands of pages of regulation or more policy tweaks. Only a profound cultural transformation can address our problems. The mainstream view uniting the entire political spectrum is that all our financial problems can be fixed by what amounts to top-down, centralized policy tweaks and regulation: for example, tweaking policies to "tax the rich," limit the size of "too big to fail" financial institutions, regulate credit default swaps, lower the cost of healthcare (a.k.a. sickcare), limit the abuses of student loans to pay for online diploma mills, and on and on and on. But what if the rot is already beyond the reach of more top-down policy tweaks? Consider the recent healthcare legislation: thousands of pages of obtuse regulations that require a veritable army of regulators staffing a sprawling fiefdom with the net result of uncertain savings based on a board somewhere in the labyrinth establishing "best practices" that will magically cut costs in a system that expands by 9% a year, each and every year, a system so bloated with fraud, embezzlement and waste that the total sum squandered is incalculable, but estimated at around 40%, minimum. Does anyone really think that the lack of another centralized Federal fiefdom and thousands of pages of additional regulation is what ails sickcare? Of course not. In effect, we as a society have completely lost the ability to honestly admit a problem exists and that the solution is not to paper it all over with more regulation and insatible, ever-rising debt-based funding, paid for by our children, grandchildren, and their children. Consider the National Security State, busily constructing rectangular mountains of office space to house its vast, unchecked, oversight-free Empire. Does anyone actually know what tens of thousands of highly-paid people are doing in all these sprawling fiefdoms of National Security? And I don't mean the Pentagon or the NSA--the buildings sprouting all over the tonier bits of D.C. and its suburbia are the metastasizing results of the "green light" given to anything remotely connected to GWOT--the global war on terror, the war that by definition can never be declared won or even ended, the war that always requires more funding lest one "event" slip through the cracks. If nobody in the elected chain of command actually knows where all this "black budget" money is going, what are the odds it's being spent wisely and prudently? "No meaningful oversight" inevitably leads to abuse of budget and power. If we haven't learned that, then we are well on the way to financial and political self-destruction. Consider the Glass-Steagall Act, at 37 pages in length, and the 2,319-page monstrosity of corrupted Federal power, the "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act:" (Source)
Though few have delved into the ramifications of this monstrous power-grab, it seems that the Executive Branch has grabbed potentially unprecedented powers with little if any oversight by Congress--all in the supremely Orwellian pursuit of "consumer protection." If a 37-page bill took care of the problem in 1933, why can't the same 37-page bill be re-instated? Why, indeed. The reason is that the bill impedes the flow of public funds to favored cartels and opportunities for financial looting by these cartels, and so a monster is created that nobody understands and which limits or simply overwhelms oversight by elected officials outside the Imperial Presidency. The entire financial and political infrastructure is corrupt. Perhaps it is time to note that the most thoroughly, venally, pervasively corrupt nations on Earth all have abundant regulations against corruption. Regulations don't stop or limit corruption, fraud and embezzlement by magic. Sickcare is beyond being "fixed" by thousands of pages of policy tweaks, limitations and regulations. The financial system is beyond being "fixed" by thousands of pages of arcane regulations that only serve to obfuscate the looting and predation while enshrining another vast Federal fiefdom that harvests the national income while accomplishing nothing of substance. Regulation only functions if the culture and the society have a value system and a will to enforce it. The American people have lost those values and the will. Complicity reigns supreme. Instead we support going through the motions of adding layers of bureaucratic bloat, and listening to Soaring Rhetoric (TM) from bloviated politicos who promise us "prosperity," "recovery" and all the rest without any sacrifice or engagement. Going through the motions never solved anything. 2,000-page regulatory thickets are one thing, and one thing only: purposeful obfuscation via complexity. ( America Is Just Going Through the Motions (November 19, 2010):
The painful truth is that we are far beyond the point where policy/legalist regulatory tweaks will actually fix what's wrong with America. The rot isn't just financial or political; those are real enough, but they are mere reflections of a profound social, cultural, yes, spiritual rot. This is the great illusion: that our financial and political crises can be resolved with top-down, centralized financial reforms of one ideological flavor or another. It is abundantly clear that our crises extend far beyond a lack of regulation or policy tweaks. We cling to this illusion because it is easy and comforting; the problems can all be solved without any work or sacrifice on our part. Our complicity in the corruption is never mentioned: our votes for kleptocractic politico toadies who promise us that our share of Federal swag will not be sacrificed, our interest payments to the banking cartel/oligarchy, our acceptance of bogus statistics, bogus "reforms" and ceaseless propaganda as legitimate, and lastly, our silence in the face of destructive deficits, lest our share of the swag be cut. This is how once-great Empires end: toothless regulations are passed by bought-and-paid-for legislatures for the purposes of perception management, and a populace addled by constant entertainments and staged combats in the Coliseum listlessly pursues their "right" to bread and circuses of distraction.
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| Finding Fundamentals Key to Gold Investing Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:21 AM PST The market isn't rewarding fundamentals just yet for precious metal miners, according to Byron King, editor of Daily Resource Hunter, Outstanding Investments and Energy & Scarcity Investor. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, King maps out when rising gold prices will actually lead to rising stock prices for companies with quality projects and solid treasuries.
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| Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:59 AM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1722.80 Change : -15.10 or -0.87% Silver Price Close Today : 3372.20 Change : -0.003 cents or -0.01% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 51.088 Change : -0.443 or -0.86% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01957 Change : 0.000168 or 0.87% Platinum Price Close Today : 1625.20 Change : 3.70 or 0.23% Palladium Price Close Today : 705.15 Change : 0.15 or 0.02% S&P 500 : 1,344.33 Change : -0.57 or -0.04% Dow In GOLD$ : $154.13 Change : $ 1.15 or 0.75% Dow in GOLD oz : 7.456 Change : 0.056 or 0.75% Dow in SILVER oz : 380.91 Change : -0.47 or -0.12% Dow Industrial : 12,845.13 Change : -17.10 or -0.13% US Dollar Index : 79.02 Change : 0.072 or 0.09% The Silver and GOLD PRICE have just about locked up my mind today. Nothing about this jells. The GOLD PRICE fell $15.10 to $1,722.80, which after Friday was to be expected. The SILVER PRICE, on the other hand, after making a low at 3305c when New York was just opening, traded up like a basketball released underwater, hit a high of 3378.2c, then closed -- get this -- three-tenths (3/10) of a cent lower than Friday. That's a thorny non-confirmation. Overnight SILVER PRICE did the expected, fell down to its next support at 3300c, as gold did. But whence arose all that enthusiasm that floated it back to practically unchanged? Could mean several different things. First, NGM might have been busy pushing gold down so that the euro wouldn't tank, and got too busy to push down silver, too. But let's deal with the non-confirmation, which whispers that either gold's fall or silver's rise was false. And since silver is the little brother here, which under such circumstances should be weaker, I'm tempted to guess that gold doesn't intend to go much lower. After all, low today was $1,713.12, fairly strong given Friday's stumble. Metals are blowing hot and cold out of both sides of their mouth. Five-day gold chart must not breach support around $1,715. If it does, $1,675 will be the next stop, and despite today's puzzling non-confirmation, we ought to expect that because that's where the short term trend is headed: down. If silver steps through 3300c, 3100c is a likely target. 50 DMA stands at 3099c. Well, a Greek Debt Deal is still Near, but drawing nearer only glacially. For some reason, the Greeks refuse to co-operate with their own economic rape. Hard to know who to back in this one, the Greeks who brought this on themselves by following the "government can support everybody" theory, or the purveyors of phony money -- IMF, ECB, and European Commission -- who make the theory plausible, at least until it metastasizes beyond the economy's ability to support the blood loss. Then there's that bailout. Amazing how investors will lose half of their claim in Greek bonds, but it will be called a "swap" or some such euphemism so that the banks that sold the insurance against a Greek bond default (derivatives) won't have to pay the investors' losses. As George Orwell's pigs remarked in Animal Farm when the other animals noticed them acting just as the farmer had before the Revolution, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." How do y'all like "Government of the banks, by the banks, and for the banks"? Not surprising anyone, the euro had a tough day today. Closed down 0.17% at 1.3133, but dipped as low as 1.3028. Lurching through 1.3000 would demolish enthusiasm for the euro. Japanese yen bounced like a dead cat, rising 0.08% to 130.66c/Y100 (Y76.53/US$1). This leaves the yen below support and it could well plunge to 128.25c. But who can ken the ways of fiat money? Might put on any sort of technical pattern, then for hidden policy reasons the Nice Government Men smash the pattern. Stocks couldn't penetrate last resistance at last May's high (call it 12,850 - 12,875). Oh, 'twasn't a large drop, just 17.1 points (0.13%) for the Dow, which ended at 12,845.13. S&P500 gave up even less, 0.57 point (0.04%) to 1,344.33. HOWEVER, if you will picture the ballistics curve for any flying object, you will notice a portion when the ascent rate slows, the curve rolls over as the object loses momentum, then begins to descend. Loses momentum -- how stocks felt today. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2012, 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 bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. 
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| Rick Rule - Critical Differences Between Gold Bull Today vs 70s Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:38 AM PST ...you will see more dramatic upside moves in both gold and silver than what we witnessed in the decade of the 70s."
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| Essential Preparations for THE BIG ONE Posted: 06 Feb 2012 10:30 AM PST The U.S. Dollar's Ultimate Crash will likely be Rapid, Williams puts the no-later-than date at 2014.
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| Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:55 AM PST by Andrew Hoffman, MilesFranklin.com:
…in ten years of watching the NFP report publication – and subsequent PM attacks – I have never seen anything like yesterday's "FEBRUARY NFP FARCE," a combination of BLS data manipulation and PAPER gold and silver attacks rivaled only by the blatancy, viciousness, and desperation of other key "named storm" days like "D-DAY," the "SUNDAY NIGHT PAPER SILVER MASSACRE", "OPERATION PM ANNIHILATION I," and "OPERATION PM ANNIHILATION II." Let's start with the NFP report itself, which per the commentary in Friday's RANT, has drawn as much fact-based skepticism of any I can remember in my 23-year career. Each month the NFP data becomes more suspect, as manipulation requirements increase. Cheaper labor costs in, and U.S. outsourcing to, the Eastern Hemisphere has caused a secular employment decline, augmented by building cyclical pressures that promise to get a lot worse before they get better. Just the slightest drop in CONFIDENCE will derail President Obama's re-election campaign, and potentially the GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM to boot. Below are four articles analyzing Friday's "FEBRUARY NFP FARCE," each describing the ridiculousness of reporting such a high number versus the fact-based expectations.
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| Rick Rule: Critical Differences Between Gold Bull Today vs 70s Posted: 06 Feb 2012 09:51 AM PST from King World News:
Rick Rule continues: Read More @ KingWorldNews.com
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A new first for the Financial Survival Network–a virtual round table. Gary Wagner and David A. Banister joined me for a discussion about the current price direction of the precious metals and how best to maximize your profits. Strategy is everything. From personal experience, I can attest to the fact, that there is no stronger intoxicant than a rapidly rising investment portfolio. Quick returns have been known to do in even the most experienced investors. Therefore, controlling your emotions and being open to advice from others can help. After all, learning from another's expensive mistake can help insure that you don't do the same.
Lots of thisses and thats today regarding the precious metals. I suppose that some commentary has merit but, really, it's all about The Pig.
King World News has received many questions about what to expect from this bull market versus the 1970s, so today KWN interviewed Rick Rule, Founder of Global Resource Investments, to get his take on the situation. Here is what Rule had to say about how this bull market will proceed as opposed to the one from the 1970s: "It's a very interesting topic. That was, of course, the last really good gold market. People remember the 1970s bull as a market where gold ran from $35 an ounce to $850 an ounce. This was a truly spectacular bull market and great fortunes were made."| 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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