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- India Markets Monday Wrap-Up: Indices Gain In Volatile Session
- The Silver Lining For Coal Company Cloud Peak
- The Dangers of Ideology
- Kyle Bass – Own Gold Good, Gold Standard Bad
- Gold as a Last Link to Reality
- March 12 Forex Week Preview: Bernanke Rejects A Strong Dollar
- Gold ETF Performance And Outlook
- “Battered” Gold Drops Below $1700, US Speculative Positions Fall After “Severe Blow”, But “Aggressive Monetary Policy” Makes Long Term Trend “Broadly Positive”
- China's Safe: ‘Won’t Put All the Eggs in One Basket’
- Taiwan bank made bonanza from gold purchases
- One big reason to expect another short-term decline in gold
- Unique new service could allow you to receive your stock dividends in physical gold
- Gold Remains in Consolidation
- Uh oh, CNBC pimping gold this morning.
- Morning Outlook from the Trade Desk 03/12/12
- Don’t fight the Fed
- Gold & Silver Market Morning, March 12 2012
- How high will the Gold Bull Climb ?
- The Legal Lie at the Heart of the $8.5 Billion Bank of America and Federal/State Mortgage Settlements
- Links 3/12/12
- Long-Term Silver Chart Analysis Bullish
- Gold Standard Ventures Valued at $120 million
- How to Increase your number of Silver Ounces by trading the physical
- Why Sweden’s central banker was beheaded [1719 AD] Scandinavian copper money
- Revisionist View Of The Great Depression (1 and 2)
- Revisionist View Of The Great Depression Part One
- How Much Gold Is The Proper Amount?
- Musings on Gold –Voltaire, Panama and Dollar Mutiny
- Silver Supply Shortage by August 2012
- Germany Preparing To Leave The Euro?
| India Markets Monday Wrap-Up: Indices Gain In Volatile Session Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:59 AM PDT By Equitymaster: Indian stock markets had a rather volatile outing today although they managed to trade into the positive for a larger part of the day. While the indices began the day's proceedings on a positive note, profit booking at higher levels took toll and pushed the indices towards the dotted line. However, they recovered as buying activity intensified and the final trading hour saw the indices close well into the positive. While the BSE-Sensex closed higher by around 84 points, the NSE-Nifty closed higher by around 26 points. The BSE Mid cap and the BSE Small cap also notched gains of 1% each. With respect to sectoral indices, gains were largely seen in banking and oil and gas stocks. Complete Story » |
| The Silver Lining For Coal Company Cloud Peak Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:54 AM PDT By Peter Epstein: Last week I met with Powder River Basin coal producer Cloud Peak's (CLD) head of Investor Relations. I learned that Cloud Peak is defensively positioned in this severe coal market downturn. The knocks against Cloud have been 1) short reserve life, 2) negligible exports, 3) no coking coal, 4) unhedged exposure to diesel fuel, and 5) lack of production growth. A year ago, those factors were a drag on sentiment, Cloud wasn't sexy enough in a bullish market. Today, sexy is out, and prudent is in. Cloud Peak is sitting on a mountain of cash, $479mm at 12/31/11. As a percentage of its market cap, it's substantially more than most peers. The company has $600mm of long-term debt comprised entirely of 2 bonds that mature in 2017 & 2019. Net debt to EBITDA is well under 1.0x, giving CLD a strong balance sheet. By comparison, near-term debt maturities and/or elevated Complete Story » |
| Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:48 AM PDT Labels and dogma sabotage communication, and thus they sabotage understanding. However these mental short-cuts undermine our intellects and analysis in very different manners. Any/every label is a simplistic representation of what it portrays, with the exception of totally generic labels/nouns. As a general example, if someone saw me walking through a crowd of people they might label me "that tall man", or "that bald man". Either label doesn't come remotely close to identifying what I'm all about as a person. However, if someone were to label me a capitalist or a communist, they have engaged in a very different type of simplification. They have attached a discrete set of intellectual properties/qualities to me. Some of these properties may be accurate, all of them could be accurate, or none of them could be applicable. Because these traits are not tangible, it is impossible to discern if that label is partially correct, entirely correct, or totally inapplicable. Thus as soon as we begin to introduce such labels into any discussion we immediately "muddy the waters" intellectually, and undermine any message or analysis we are attempting to convey. Dogma is an entirely different form of intellectual sabotage: it is a mental straitjacket. Dogma is nothing more than a "one size fits all" form of thinking, and thus rarely offers any insights into any analytical activity – as once again we are dealing with simplistic thinking. In a recent commentary I dissected a particularly abused piece of economic dogma: "free trade". I pointed out that this phrase (or label) was continually tossed around by one economic ideologue after another. While I had numerous criticisms of the zealots preaching this dogma, the most obvious one was that nothing close to "free trade" has ever existed in our global economy. I observed that a large part of the problem with these legions of zealots continually misusing this label with their dogmatic preaching was that none of them had ever taken the time to properly define their own dogma. I demonstrated how once we had simply taken the time to do so that it was totally obvious that this dogma had absolutely no applicability to the real world. Talking about "free trade" on the planet Earth has no more relevance than talking about agriculture on the Moon. How could all these zealots be so totally mistaken with their analysis? Simple. The greatest evil of dogma is that the zealots who preach it inevitably reduce their dogma to simplistic labels – in this example "free trade". At this point we can reduce all discussions of free trade down to a simple equation: it is a label used by zealots who do not even understand their own label, which they then misuse to describe dogma which has never existed. And this brings us to the world of ideologies. It goes without saying that when people use labels they don't understand to describe intangible dogmas – which don't even exist in the real world – that no useful thinking or analysis can ever come out of such a flawed mental exercise. And yet this describes virtually 99% of all discourse involving ideologies, whether we are talking about political ideology, religious ideology, or economic ideology. While "free trade" is clearly an example of dogma, it doesn't rank as an economic ideology. Rather, it falls under the domain of the economic ideology known as "capitalism". Capitalism is an ideology which preaches free and open markets, competitive industries, and warns of the unmitigated evils known as oligopolies and monopolies. So what do we see in the real world, even in the those nations labeled as "capitalist economies" by the zealots? Our markets have never been less "free and open", and "competition" has nearly disappeared completely from our economies – the result of allowing all of these supposedly capitalist economies to be entirely overrun by oligopolies and monopolies. Increasing the absurdity here, there is no nation on Earth which even attempts to operate a truly capitalist economy. In a true, capitalist economy there would be no unemployment insurance, no welfare (or even "food stamps"), no universal healthcare (or even "Medicare"), no Social (Old Age) Security, and of course no welfare for corporations either (i.e. the $trillions in subsidies which they extort from our governments each year). All of those programs and concepts are pure socialism, with the exception of corporate subsidies - which could be equally representative of socialism or fascism. Again we can reduce this analysis down to a very simple paradigm in the West. Our governments don't even attempt to operate true, capitalist economies. The economies we have today are the total antithesis of capitalism in virtually every respect. And yet we have an entire profession of brain-dead zealots (i.e. economists) who spend all of their time yammering about "capitalism" and our supposedly capitalist economies. |
| Kyle Bass – Own Gold Good, Gold Standard Bad Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:48 AM PDT Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital in Dallas and a trustee for UTIMCO (University of Texas Investment Management Company, one of the top three college endowment funds in the U.S.), tells CNBC's Bob Pisani that from a fiduciary standpoint it is irresponsible for fund managers to not take physical possession of gold. Bass was instrumental in getting UTIMCO to take possession of their billion dollar plus stake in gold, which he says is stored with HSBC in the COMEX system in New York. The arrangement saves the fund money over the cost of, say rolling futures contracts.The very successful fund manager says he does not favor a return to a classic gold standard because it would be too limiting. He does favor a link of currency to a basket of commodities instead. Bass sees continued "money printing" by the world's central banks as the prime reason people should continue to hang onto their gold. "Gold's got a lot further to go," he said.
Source: CNBC |
| Gold as a Last Link to Reality Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:41 AM PDT At the risk of turning this blog into Gold Day or Gold Week, I add the following commentary from GATA which cites Alan M. Newman's perspective of what has become an increasingly "unreal" world: Gold now defends not just liberty but simple reality By: CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer of GATA Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: |
| March 12 Forex Week Preview: Bernanke Rejects A Strong Dollar Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:26 AM PDT By Tim Clayton: The dollar will look to gain momentum from Friday's payroll data and the path of least resistance is a slightly firmer currency but substantial gains are likely to be effectively blocked by the Federal Reserve. There are three central bank meetings during the coming week and all three currency areas are looking to avoid being the international safe-haven currency of choice. The eurozone has, for now, fended off a Greek default, but structural vulnerabilities will continue to sap the currency. The Swiss franc was the clear choice in the first half of 2011 as it appreciated violently against the dollar and the Euro. The Swiss National Bank cut interest rates effectively to zero and introduced the minimum Euro level of 1.20 against the franc. The bank will certainly not be looking to relax its guard at this point and there will be no backing away from the minimum Euro level Complete Story » |
| Gold ETF Performance And Outlook Posted: 12 Mar 2012 04:20 AM PDT By Christian Magoon: Gold ETF products ended nearly flat for the week as the Greek debt drama played out in gold's favor. This helped to dilute the impact of strong U.S. job data which further squelched hopes of a potential QE3. A rally on Friday pushed physical gold ETF products out of negative territory and left them off about 1% for the last month. Year to date physical gold ETFs have now gained around 9.5% with the two largest gold ETFs, GLD and IAU within basis points of each other. Here's a snapshot the physical gold ETF performance grid. Source: GoldETFs.biz Stock based gold ETF products were well into negative territory for the week losing 2.5% - 3.6%. The week added to their month long decline. For the year however, gold stock ETFs are positive with the largest gold stock ETF Complete Story » |
| Posted: 12 Mar 2012 03:45 AM PDT
"Battered" Gold Drops Below $1700, US Speculative Positions Fall After "Severe Blow", But "Aggressive Monetary Policy" Makes Long Term Trend "Broadly Positive" THE DOLLAR gold price fell back through $1700 an ounce as US markets opened on Monday, continuing its slide begun when Asian markets opened several hours earlier. The silver price dropped to $33.63 per ounce – a 2.0% fall on last week's close – while stocks and commodities edged lower and US Treasury bond prices gained. By Monday lunchtime in London, the gold price was 1.2% below where it closed on Friday. "Gold's latest behavior has been rather volatile over the past week," says the latest commentary from Swiss precious metals refiner MKS, adding that gold last week was "battered by the economic news." The gold price "continues to look vulnerable on the charts," MKS adds. "Gold looks to have recovered from last week's technical dip," says a note out Monday from ANZ Ban, "but remains vulnerable to correction within a broadly positive longer term trend." On the gold futures and options market, the net long difference between bullish and bearish contracts held by so-called speculative gold traders dropped 22% in the week ended last Tuesday, the latest figures from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. "As expected, net speculative length was dealt a severe blow," says Marc Ground, commodities strategist at Standard Bank. "This was mostly the liquidation that occurred after market expectations of liquidity growth were undermined by Fed chairman Bernanke as he failed to mention further quantitative easing in his address to US lawmakers the previous week." The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision tomorrow, with some in the market wondering whether there will be a third round of quantitative easing. "If there's no QE3, then there will be disappointed selling again," reckons Ronald Leung, director of Hong Kong-based Lee Cheong Gold Dealers. Over in China, the world's second-biggest gold consumer in 2011, exports in February fell 23.6% from the previous month – while year-on-year growth slowed to 18.4% – according to figures published Saturday. The fall in exports contributed to a trade deficit of $31.5 billion, "the largest monthly deficit since at least 2000″ according to the Wall Street Journal. "It is still very much necessary that the policymakers in Beijing provide sufficient support for funding for investments in the coming period," reckons BNP Paribas economist Ken Peng. During the last three months, the People's Bank of China has twice cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks, which dictates how much money they have to hold as reserves as a proportion of total assets. "Theoretically speaking, there is much room for RRR cuts," PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Monday. "But there are restraints, and we are paying particular attention to the possible impact on capital flows, especially in a time of economic globalization." Zhou said last week that the Yuan should be allowed to fluctuate in a wider range against other currencies, a move seen by some analysts as a way of encouraging Chinese firms to get used to managing exchange rate risk. After Saturday's export data however, the PBOC set the Yuan's midpoint against the Dollar 0.33% lower on Monday. The move represented the second-biggest one day fall for the Yuan since China set up its foreign exchange market in 1994, with the biggest being the Yuan's 0.36% fall in August 2010, newswire Reuters reports. US lawmakers last year proposed a bill that would see tariffs imposed on Chinese imports into the US if China continued what some US politicians have called exchange rate manipulation. In Japan meantime prime minister Yoshihiko Noda said today that the Yen remains "somewhat overvalued" despite falling around 8% against the Dollar since the start of February. Japanese authorities intervened in the currency markets several times last year in an attempt to halt the appreciation of the Yen. Japan's finance minister Jun Azumi today added that the authorities "will take firm action against excessive and speculative moves" by currency traders. Here in Europe, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association confirmed Friday evening that the use of collective action clauses by the Greek government to force some investors to go along with a bond swap constitutes a credit event. An auction has been scheduled for March 19 to determine the recovery value of outstanding Greek debt, and thus determine how much credit default swaps should pay out. Eurozone finance ministers meantime are due to sign off Greece's €130 billion second bailout when they meet today, enabling Greece to meet maturing bond payments next week. Finance ministers are also expected to discuss Spain, which last week said it will ignore its European Union deficit target for 2012. Over in the US, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline rose above $3.80 on Monday, up from $3.77 last week and $3.51 a month back, according to motoring organization AAA. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Friday that it is still exceeding its production target despite a fall in production from sanctions-hit Iran. The value of all commodity assets under management rebounded in January to $366.8 billion – equivalent to over 2% of US GDP – according to a report by French investment bank Societe Generale. The report adds that "aggressive monetary policy" should benefit gold and silver prices, news agency Bloomberg reports. Ben Traynor Gold value calculator | Buy gold online at live prices Editor of Gold News, the analysis and investment research site from world-leading gold ownership service BullionVault, Ben Traynor was formerly editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the UK's longest-running investment letter. A Cambridge economics graduate, he is a professional writer and editor with a specialist interest in monetary economics. (c) BullionVault 2011 Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.
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| China's Safe: ‘Won’t Put All the Eggs in One Basket’ Posted: 12 Mar 2012 03:31 AM PDT Gold fell today as the US dollar rallied to its highest price in more than seven weeks. Investors may be waiting for the US Federal Reserve meeting tomorrow before making further commitments in the market. |
| Taiwan bank made bonanza from gold purchases Posted: 12 Mar 2012 03:25 AM PDT |
| One big reason to expect another short-term decline in gold Posted: 12 Mar 2012 01:49 AM PDT From Pragmatic Capitalism: On February 29, 2012, gold futures prices had a big one-day selloff, dropping by more than $100 an oz at one point intraday. Normally, a big drop in gold prices will send gold ETF investors heading for the sidelines, but there was nary a reaction to that big drop. In fact, total assets in GLD and IAU, the two biggest gold bullion ETFs, actually rose slightly that day, and have continued upward in the days since then. It is as if investors viewed that selloff as more of a buying opportunity than a reason for worry. What makes this interesting is that the crowd's view of that as an opportunity does not usually work out to be true. This week's chart is... Read full article... More on gold: Morgan Stanley: "Stay long gold" Why you should prepare for extreme volatility in gold and silver Casey Research: It's still a great time to accumulate gold and silver |
| Unique new service could allow you to receive your stock dividends in physical gold Posted: 12 Mar 2012 01:42 AM PDT From The Dynamic Dividend: Gold Bullion International today announced a new service in which shareholders of publicly-traded companies will have the opportunity to accept their dividends in physical precious metals. One prominent gold producer has already signed on. The GBI Physical Dividend Program will be available to all companies who pay dividends to their shareholders, not just miners. GBI touts itself as "the leading institutional precious metals provider to individual investors, institutional asset managers, and the wealth management industry." Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) announced today that it will be the first company to participate in the program. The low-cost gold producer, which raised its payout by 33% last April and tacked on a 25% dividend hike four months later, will offer shareholder the ability to accept next month's dividend in physical gold or silver instead of cash. The default company dividend will continue to be in cash, but Gold Resource shareholders will have the ability to... Read full article... More on dividends: How to know if you can retire on your dividend portfolio Why there's no need to worry about a dividend stock bubble The three big reasons you should build your own dividend-stock portfolio |
| Posted: 12 Mar 2012 01:03 AM PDT charts at the link guys: Gold Remains in Consolidation Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT | Mar 08, 2012 The Daily Gold Free Newsletter With Gold's failure at $1800, it should be obvious that the market is in a protracted consolidation. This is actually similar to 2006-2007 and it is something we wrote about in a missive in early January. At the time, Gold had bottomed and had the luxury of very strong support nearby. We believed Gold would be range bound, but because it was emerging from support, it would have an upward bias. With Gold's failure at $1800, now we can say range-bound with a downward bias. Before we get to today, I wanted to look at the 2006-2007 consolidation once again. Note that Gold had a nice rally from point C to point D. After a more than 50 retracement, Gold rallied from point E to point F. The lows were clearly in but the consolidation continued for several more months. A similar pattern to 2006-2007 continues to unfold. If the pattern continues then Gold should bottom at point E, which is slightly above the 300-day moving average. The same happened in early 2007. Judging from the price action and moving averages, Gold should have very strong support at $1600-$1650. After a rip roaring two year period in which Gold advanced from about $950 to $1900, the metal is in consolidation and digestion mode. After strong advances a market needs time to attract new buyers and new demand. Profits are taken and resistance emerges. This is why and how a consolidation develops. Then the market moves back and forth between supply and demand. Gold has been consolidating for six months. That is hardly enough to digest a 24 month move. At a minimum, we'd expect three more months of consolidation and perhaps five. Fear not gold investor. You should appreciate these consolidations. They will make you a better investor. You will learn how to buy lows and not get excited near highs. Buying lows is exactly what you should focus on. Gold has strong support at $1600-$1650 and that is an area to accumulate. Make a short list of your favorite companies and evaluate potential high reward/risk target prices. Now is the time to focus on your favorites and get ready to buy. Not when the market is surging to new highs. If you'd be interested in professional guidance in this endeavour then we invite you to learn more about our service. Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT Jordan@TheDailyGold.com The Daily Gold http://thedailygold.com/featured/gol...tion/?p=14495/ |
| Uh oh, CNBC pimping gold this morning. Posted: 12 Mar 2012 12:53 AM PDT Jimmy Creamer and minions are showing off a couple of 400 oz gold bars, pimping for some kind of special report on gold to air tonight. With friends like these...  |
| Morning Outlook from the Trade Desk 03/12/12 Posted: 12 Mar 2012 12:27 AM PDT Markets relatively flat overnight. Fed holding one day meeting tomorrow to determine rates, which are widely expected to stay the same. The market will closely monitor what the Fed expectations are for short term clues on further easing. The focus on metals will be on the US$ and the equity markets. the markets are thin and vulnerable to any headline. Gold should hold the $1,690-$1,720 range until further catalysts develop. |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2012 11:00 PM PDT The gold price finished on a strong note at the end of last week, settling above an important technical support level at $1,700/oz. "Why an important support level?" You may well ask ... |
| Gold & Silver Market Morning, March 12 2012 Posted: 11 Mar 2012 10:00 PM PDT |
| How high will the Gold Bull Climb ? Posted: 11 Mar 2012 09:59 PM PDT EuroPac |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2012 09:55 PM PDT One in a while, you can discern a linchpin lie on which other important lies hinge. We can point to quite a few in America: the notion of a permanent war on terror, which somehow justifies vitiating not just the Constitution, but even the Magna Carta, or the idea of an imperial executive branch. Now the apparently-to-be-filed-in-court-today Federal/state attorneys general mortgage settlement is less consequential than matters of life and limb. But it still show the lengths to which the officialdom is willing to go to vitiate the law in order to get its way. HUD Secretary Donovan, the propagandist in chief for the Federal/state mortgage pact, has claimed he has investor approval to do the mortgage modifications that are a significant portion of the value of the settlement. We'll eventually see what is actually in the settlement, but the early PR was that "no less than $10 billion" of the $25 billion headline total was to come from principal reductions. Modifications of mortgages not owned by banks, meaning in securitized trusts, are counted only 50% and before Donovan realized he was committing a faux pas, he said he expected 85% of the mods to be from securitizations, so that means $17 billion. Bear in mind that investors, analysts, and commentators have objected to the very premise of this arrangement. A settlement involves a release of liability, and in anything other than the through-the-looking-glass world of rule by banks, the party that did the bad stuff is the one that pays for the settlement. This deal is like stealing your neighbor's gold watch and using it to resolve charges of embezzlement. But what about this investor approval that Donovan says he has? He has told both journalists and mortgage investors directly that the bulk of the mods will come from Countrywide deals and he has consent via the $8.5 billion Bank of America/Bank of New York settlement. Huh? First, it seems more that a bit cheeky to rely on a major piece of a program via a deal that has not yet gone through (the Bank of America settlement was removed to Federal court and has now been sent back to state court, and there will be discovery in the state court process, so approval is not imminent). But second and more important, investors approved nothing. Bank of New York is trying to act well outside its authority as trustee for the 530 Countrywide trusts in the settlement. It's tantamount to having a friend that you gave a medical power of attorney claim that it gave him the authority to sell your car and write checks on your account. The terms of Countrywide PSAs vary, but all appear to restrict mods. The prohibitions varied by credit quality of the deal. Alt-A and early vintage (2004 and earlier) deals often barred mods completely; subprime and later vintage deals generally allowed for a higher limit on mods, with 5% the top amount across these deals. The idea was that some mods were expected in the dreckier mortgage pools. Nevertheless, all of them, as well as the few that had no caps, also required Bank of America to buy the modified loans back at par. That is something the battered Charlotte bank would be very keen to avoid doing. Now remember, as we have discussed, that these Countrywide deals also typically elected New York law as governing law for the trust. New York trust law is both well settled and unforgiving. Trusts are permitted to act only as stipulated; any deviation is a "void act" and has no legal force. And a trustee can ONLY exercise the authority the trust has; as an agent, it cannot exceed the legal rights its principal has. On top of that, Countrywide pooling and servicing agreements (the contracts that govern the securitizations, and in particular, set forth the duties of the servicer and the trustee), again like all PSAs, require an amendment to the PSA to change their terms. That in turn requires approval of the certificateholders, meaning the investors. Our Tom Adams has looked at a few Countrywide PSA, and what he has found so far is that it take the approval of either 51% or 2/3 of the certificateholders in each class, meaning in each tranche of the deal. To wit:
Now how does the Bank of America/Bank of New York settlement agreement deal with this wee problem? It pretends it does not exist (emphasis ours):
Now this might not strike you as amiss until you realize this deal is between the trustee, Bank of New York, and Bank of America. The investors are NOT party to it and their consent has not been obtained, either properly, via amendments to the PSA, or by any other means. You might say, "Weren't there 22 big investors who originally signed a letter that led to this deal?" Yes, and that happens to be irrelevant. Those 22 investors didn't have even as much as 25% in most of the 530 trusts (the necessary percentage to take action against a trustee); there are many trusts in this settlement where these 22 investors have NO interest at all. So Bank of New York can't pretend it has enough in the way of investors via the investor letter to give it the authority to ignore the PSA. Keep this in mind: Bank of New York's petition to the court to approve the deal in an Article 77 hearing makes NO mention of the fact that they will effectively be amending the PSA to permit modifications to stay in the trust and to exceed 5% of the pool balance. Since the purpose of the hearing is to obtain a judicial determination whether Bank of New York acted properly in settling with Bank of America, one would assume the parties to the action are bound by the normal requirements of making accurate submissions to the court, just as they are at trial (Judge William Pauley, who approved the removal of the case to federal court, argued that this hearing fits "comfortably" within the definition of a trial). Thus BoNY should mention that the modification provision excerpted above requires an amendment which requires consent of 51% or more of the certificateholders in each class in each trust. Instead, they instead discuss the broad powers of the trustee! And yet they later argued the reverse to Judge Pauley. He noted in his ruling: "If, as BYNM [Bank of New York Mellon] argues, the only relevant legal standards for evaluating its conduct as trustee are found in the PSAs…" If they have only the authority given them by the PSA, they have no authority to authorized mods beyond those contemplated in the PSA for each deal. And as we observed above even if BoNY could be argued to have additional authority under common law, that extra common law authority in New York is nada. It is hard to conclude anything other than that Gibbs & Bruns, the firm representing Bank of New York, lied to the court about what the settlement constitutes and what the PSAs permit. The PSAs have very clear terms on modifications and changing them should require an amendment. But lying to the court seems to be standard operating procedure for Kathy Patrick, the partner leading the settlement deal. Alison Frankel of Reuters described how Gibbs & Bruns lied about why they were leading this action:
You need to read the Alison Frankel article in full to have some appreciation as to what happened. The pre-existing, and likely larger group of investors (I am told it included Fannie, which is one of the biggest investors in MBS) had concluded an investigation and found breaches in every single Countrywide securitization (Bill Frey had developed proof of Countrywide modifying loans where Bank of America owned a second lien behind that first and had not wiped it out first, as would be required). But when Fannie confirmed the Frey information and said it was in, Blackrock suddenly withdrew and went with Patrick, as shortly did another existing Gibbs & Bruns client, Pimco. Now why, might you ask, would investors drop out of a group that had hard evidence of breaches and could prove real economic harm, and switch to one that could only handwave? I'm no fan of rep and warranty cases, and even so, I've estimated this deal is a screaming bargain for those liabilities alone; the servicing breaches that the earlier (Grais & Ellis) group found would add to the total value of the deal, as does its waiver on chain of title claims. It's not hard to guesstimate that this settlement is worth easily ten times the $8.5 billion Bank of America plans to pony up. And Mr. Market agrees. BofA's stock was trading below $6 when both settlements were in doubt; it's now up more than 33%, closing last Friday at $8.05. So why would Pimco and Blackrock abandon a strategy that would seem likely to bear more fruit? Recall that Blackrock signed on to the Gibbs & Bruns negotiated settlement while it was still 49% owned by Merrill, um, Bank of America. So its motives seem straightforward, even if they also happen to be a breach of its fiduciary duty to its investors. Pimco is awfully active in Washington; it is almost certainly one of the fund managers that the Fed chooses to talk to about its interest rate thinking, which effectively means Pimco has permitted inside information (one of my readers refused to invest in Pimco funds because the returns were sufficiently out of line with benchmarks that the funds either had to be taking on more risk than they pretended to or were reliant on privileged information). So Pimco has plenty of reason to curry favor rather than make life miserable for Bank of America, and by extension, the Administration, which has thrown its lot in fully with the big banks. Now let's go back to the Donovan lie, which depends on the Gibbs & Bruns lie not being challenged by the court, or the $8.5 billion settlement not coming unglued for some other reason. Donovan is relying on the authority supposedly conferred by the $8.5 billion settlement…which has not been approved by court, meaning it is not yet valid and may not come to fruition. Yet (per leaks) the banks are to get credit for mods starting March 31 even though the Federal/state AG deal won't be approved by that date either. And remember also that four other large servicers are signing up to the Federal/state settlement. Even though the authorities anticipate that the other major servicers will enter into private settlements along the BofA/BoNY lines once it is approved, that is some ways away even if everything breaks in the banks's favor. Recall how sanctimonious Timothy Geithner has been about not breaking contracts, such as the AIG credit default swaps agreements and employment contracts with AIG staffers. Similarly, Obama pay czar Kenneth Feinberg excoriated bankers for the bonuses they took out of firms they blew up but refused to try to claw back pay, because it might lead to lawsuits. So? The Administration didn't necessarily need to win that litigation to prevail. If it did discovery on what executives were paid, what they did, and how derelict they were in their duty, they could have created such a huge and cry so to keep bankers cowed for at least five years. And as we have pointed out repeatedly, Team Obama has also refused to use the best weapon in its arsenal: Sarbanes Oxley, which would allow it to file civil and from that if successful, criminal charges for false certifications about the adequacy of internal controls, in particular, risk controls. Now the railroading of investors may not seem all that important to many of you. But you are in fact all exposed. The failure of Fannie to pursue valid claims, for instance, is a direct subsidy from taxpayers to Bank of America and other banks. And more important, if investors are for the most part, too afraid, too compromised, or too plain lazy to take action against banks, and will sit passively as their contracts are violated, what hope is there for ordinary, less well connected citizens? This settlement farce reveals yet again that contracts in America have become decidedly one sided affairs: banks will take advantage of every trap and snare, and engage in further abuses if they can get away with them, but woe betide anyone on the other side. You have perilous little hope that you will get a fair hearing from regulators (witness the farce of the OCC foreclosure reviews) or courts, since banks both outgun and outlie most opponents. The banks and the authorities seem remarkably unaware of what they are doing in undermining the rule of law, which is critical to resolving disputes peacefully in a complex and combative society. They are likely to find that undermining the protective role of the judiciary will leave them more exposed than they could possibly imagine.
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| Posted: 11 Mar 2012 09:50 PM PDT Yves will be speaking at a conference hosted by the Atlantic in Washington, DC, on Wednesday called "360 Degrees: What Will it Take to Fix the US Economy?" The day long program includes Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Sheila Bair (don't get too excited, the big dogs get solo turns, Yves in on a panel). Her session on "Diagnosing a Sick US Economy: Why Did We Get Here and What is the Fix?" is from 10:20 AM to 11:45 AM and you can watch the live stream here. New Shark Species Discovered in Galapagos Wired. Boost Your WiFi Signal Using Only a Beer Can Discovery Channel (Sideshow). 'Global interest rates: Libor – a benchmark to fix' FT. Fix? 'US bank dividends set to double' FT. Bipartisan consensus on weakening Sarbox includes Obama Times editorial. What could go wrong? The Bloom Comes Off the Unemployment Report Rose Economic Populist. NAACP to challenge state voting laws before U.N. panel in Geneva McClatchy. 'Obama Plans Big Effort to Build Support Among Women' Times. Sweetie. After slaying of 16 Afghan civilians, American Army sergeant held for investigation Boing Boing. Good roundup. Check these tweets from the Beeb's Kabul correspondent. Afghani reports say more than one soldier. Obama "shocked" [, shocked]. Foreign policy establishment: #FAIL. Gingrich: #FAIL. Poll: #FAIL. Another poll: #FAIL. My question: What do we know now that we didn't know in 2011, 2010, or 2009? And remind me who was President in 2011, 2010, and 2009? Was it that same guy who courageously opposed "dumb wars" back in 2008? Just asking. –lambert Why the American Empire Was Destined to Collapse Alternet (MS). Madness of March: NCAA gets paid, players don't Salon. NCAA Men's Basketball: 2012 Tournament Yahoo Sports. The brackets. Japan's rubble economy Al Jazeera. Shovel ready! NOAA: Fourth Warmest Winter on Record Weather.com. Only the winters of 1991-1992, 1998-1999, 1999-2000 were warmer. Canadian Government Targeting Opponents of New Oil Sands Pipeline Truthout. Protesters link arms around the world to decry nuclear power AFP. 140 miles takes 60K people. Tribes opposing solar power projects in Mojave desert Guardian. Oil spill aftermath: A tale of three plaintiffs Reuters. Ken Griffin: "I think (the ultra-wealthy) actually have an insufficient influence" Chicago Tribune. Six Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying Cracked (PQS). 'Occupy' as a business model: The emerging open-source civilisation Al Jazeera (author). Just Cause and Occupy Oakland Team Up for Foreclosure Defense Occupy Oakland Media Collective. The 1 percent recovery Chrystia Freeland Reuters.
That's not a bug. It's a feature. Snowclones. An oldie-but-goodie analytical tool for the media critique. Antidote du jour via Furzy Mouse:        NOTE: The cats next time.
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| Long-Term Silver Chart Analysis Bullish Posted: 11 Mar 2012 09:34 PM PDT From a price point of view, there is an indication that this move is not over yet. If two patterns continue their similarity, it would be reasonable to expect the final top of the current pattern at higher than $150. |
| Gold Standard Ventures Valued at $120 million Posted: 11 Mar 2012 08:04 PM PDT After publishing the latest drill assays on Feb. 22, the stock price of Gold Standard Ventures Corp. rose from $1.20 to $2.20 on the TSX. With 61 million shares issued and outstanding, the market now values the company at $120 million. |
| How to Increase your number of Silver Ounces by trading the physical Posted: 11 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PDT |
| Why Sweden’s central banker was beheaded [1719 AD] Scandinavian copper money Posted: 11 Mar 2012 05:45 PM PDT Bullion Vault |
| Revisionist View Of The Great Depression (1 and 2) Posted: 11 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Gold University |
| Revisionist View Of The Great Depression Part One Posted: 11 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Gold University |
| How Much Gold Is The Proper Amount? Posted: 11 Mar 2012 04:26 PM PDT Jeff Clark at Casey Research believes strongly that now is the time for gold and silver. He believes the following: If 10% of your total investable assets (i.e., excluding equity in your primary residence) aren't held in various forms of gold and silver, we at Casey Research think your portfolio is at risk. Whether that is the |
| Musings on Gold –Voltaire, Panama and Dollar Mutiny Posted: 11 Mar 2012 03:52 PM PDT The life of the dollar as the world's reserve currency is coming under pressure from both large and small countries. The conc*ern is from allies and non-allies of the US. As expressed by Jim Willie: The developing nations of the world are in revolt against the USDollar. They see no future in holding US$-based bonds |
| Silver Supply Shortage by August 2012 Posted: 11 Mar 2012 12:16 PM PDT Silver Will Be in a Severe Supply Shortage by August 2012 from Silver Doctors:
Why? Greek sort of got bailed out, leaving the price of silver to float upwards as opposed to downward should central banks and private owners need to dump PMs to get liquidity. Absorption of silver continues apace with speculative and aggressive longs outnumbering shorts two to one. Read More @ SilverDoctors.com |
| Germany Preparing To Leave The Euro? Posted: 11 Mar 2012 12:10 PM PDT from The Economic Collapse Blog:
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com |
For a long time, most analysts have believed that if someone was going to leave the euro, it would be a weak nation such as Greece or Portugal. But the truth is that financially troubled nations such as Greece and Portugal don't want to leave the euro. The leaders of those nations understand that if they leave the euro their economies will totally collapse and nobody will be there to bail them out. And at this point there really is not a formal mechanism which would enable other members of the eurozone to kick financially troubled nations such as Greece or Portugal out of the euro. But there is one possibility that is becoming increasingly likely that could actually cause the break up of the euro. Germany could leave the euro. Yes, it might actually happen. Germany is faced with a very difficult problem right now. It is looking at a future where it will be essentially forced to bail out most of the rest of the nations in the eurozone for many years to come, and those bailouts will be extremely expensive. Meanwhile, the mood in much of the rest of Europe is becoming decidedly anti-German. In Greece, Angela Merkel and the German government are being openly portrayed as Nazis. Financially troubled nations such as Greece want German bailout money, but they are getting sick and tired of the requirements that Germany is imposing upon them in order to get that money. Increasingly, other nations in Europe are simply ignoring what Germany is asking them to do or are openly defying Germany. In the end, Germany will need to decide whether it is worth it to continue to pour billions upon billions of euros into countries that don't appreciate it and that are not doing what Germany has asked them to do.| You are subscribed to email updates from Gold World News Flash 2 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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