saveyourassetsfirst3 |
- David Morgan talks to Silver Doctors
- Mining Stocks Most Oversold Since Start of Bull Market
- Winners of Great Panther Silver Miners Challenge
- Ron Hera: Gold Standard Unlikely
- Bradford Cook: Miner's Saving In Silver
- Silver Manipulation Acknowledged By Government - Christian Garcia GoldSilver.com
- Hugo Salinas Price: Civilization is at Stake...Along With Currencies
- Three King World News Audio/Blogs
- Bank of Korea cuts dollar reserves by 3%
- Will the Situation in the Stock Market and in the Dollar Affect Gold?
- Molyneux: Your Soul Has Been Sold for Gold
- Post-Capitalism, Entrepreneurialism, and the Contrarian Index
- The Myth of the Gold Supply Deficit
- S&P 500 Since 1980 Shows Lower Highs And Lower Lows
- Peak Gold, easier to model than Peak Oil ? Part II
- Gold Rises and Silver Surges In Q1 2012 - Fiat Currency Devaluation Continues
- The Decline and Fall of the USD
- Gold Juniors to Explode?
- "Persistent Investment Needed" to Support Gold as Indian Duty Hike "Kills Imports"
- By the Numbers for the Week Ending March 30
- John Exters liquidity pyramid and Gold
- The Goldbug Variations II
- Charles Biderman: The Problem with Rigged Markets
- How Goldman Sachs Stole Silicon Valley
- Everything Is Going To Be Alright?
- Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption on Pennsylvania Avenue
- Today’s Winners and Losers
- Stocks, Cocktail Parties and Balance Sheets
- China Prepares for a Scary Future
- Silver Avoids 4th Straight Quarterly Loss, Gold Heads for Gains, India’s Imports “Overstate Trade Deficit”
| David Morgan talks to Silver Doctors Posted: 31 Mar 2012 05:24 AM PDT |
| Mining Stocks Most Oversold Since Start of Bull Market Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:46 AM PDT The following chart shows the performance of mining stocks (XAU) versus the broader stock market (S&P 500). This comparison is useful in identifying periods when mining stocks are oversold or overbought versus the stock market as a whole. As you can see from the long-term chart, mining stocks have been outperforming the S&P 500 over [...] |
| Winners of Great Panther Silver Miners Challenge Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:26 AM PDT Well, it's been a tough six months for mining investors, and equally so for the 100+ contestants for the 2011-12 Great Panther Silver Miners Challenge. Despite the extremely profitable (and in many cases record) results for these mining companies, we have seen the sector generally grinding lower – in the worst stretch for these miners since the Crash of '08. However, even with the strong "headwinds" that these miners faced, both of our top two performers managed to more than double in price over our six month contest, while the 3rd place finisher posted a very respectable 97% gain. Behind them, ten other miners picked by our contestants recorded gains of 40% or more over these six months. Of course none of this would have been possible without the generous sponsorship of our contest by Great Panther Silver. Not only did Great Panther cover the cost of our contest prizes, but they actually provided the prizes themselves – out of their own inventory of silver bullion products. As a reminder to our contestants (and for any who missed the original announcement of our contest), here is a list of the prizes being awarded to our contestants:
And now to end the suspense, here are our top-three mining companies and the contestants who picked them: 1st place: Unigold Inc ("Valero") 2nd place: Silvercrest Mines ("Investorquest") 3rd place: Rye Patch Gold ("Pioneerurban") |
| Ron Hera: Gold Standard Unlikely Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:25 AM PDT from AltInvestorshangout: ~TVR |
| Bradford Cook: Miner's Saving In Silver Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:23 AM PDT Silver Mining CEO Responds to Eric Sprott's Letter to Save in Silver, Not Cash *Exclusive from VictoryIndependence: ~TVR |
| Silver Manipulation Acknowledged By Government - Christian Garcia GoldSilver.com Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:05 AM PDT |
| Hugo Salinas Price: Civilization is at Stake...Along With Currencies Posted: 31 Mar 2012 01:46 AM PDT ¤ Yesterday in Gold and SilverThe gold price didn't do much of anything during morning trading in the Far East on Friday...and then it took from early afternoon Hong Kong time until the close of New York trading at 5:15 p.m. Eastern for gold to gain less than ten bucks. Gold closed Friday at $1,668.70 spot...up $7.30 on the day. Net volume was around 117,000 contracts. I wouldn't read a lot into yesterday's trading action, but I thought the volume rather high for such a small price move.
Silver's price action was a little more structured/managed...not doing much until shortly before London opened...and by 9:40 a.m. Eastern time had reached its high tick of the day at $32.74 spot...which was 50 cents higher than Thursday's close. Then a not-for-profit seller showed up...and by the time the next rally in silver began at 12:15 p.m. in New York, silver had given up all its previous gains. From there, silver rallied about two bits, reaching a secondary high at the close of Comex trading at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. At that point, the not-for-profit seller returned...and by 4:30 p.m. in electronic trading, silver had its low price print of the day at $32.06 spot. From there it rallied a bit into the close. It's obvious that if this not-for-profit selling hadn't occurred, the silver price would have closed with quite a nice gain. In the end, the silver price closed at $32.28 on the day...up the magnificent sum of two whole cents from Thursday's close. Net volume was a very light 25,000 contracts.
The dollar index opened just a hair above 79.10 before falling about 35 basis points to its low at 8:00 a.m. in London. From there it slowly gained back some of those loses, but finished the Friday trading session just under the 79.00 level.
The gold stocks roughly followed the gold price movement yesterday...and despite the rather anemic price action, the HUI finished up 1.09% on the day.
Despite the poor finish that silver had on the day, the associated stocks for the most part, did reasonably well...and Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up 0.97%.
(Click on image to enlarge) The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 1,055 gold contracts were posted for delivery on Tuesday. The biggest short/issuer was Deutsche Bank with 926 contracts...and the biggest long/stopper was JPMorgan with 481 contracts in its customer account...and 408 contracts in its in-house account. There were no deliveries reported in silver. The link to the Issuers and Stoppers Report is here...and it's definitely worth a few seconds of your time. There were no changes in either GLD or SLV yesterday, either. The U.S. Mint had a small sales report for the last day of March. They sold another 100,000 silver eagles and nothing else. The month ended up with the mint selling 62,500 ounces of gold eagles...26,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes...and 2,542,000 silver eagles. The Comex-approved depositories reported receiving 596,947 troy ounces of silver on Thursday...and shipped just about the same amount out the door...634,634 ounces. The link to that action is here. I must admit that I was rather astonished by yesterday's Commitment of Traders Report. Silver's numbers were even better than I dared hoped. The Commercial net short position declined by 2,448 contracts, which represents 12.24 million ounces. The Commercial net short position is now down to 148.4 million ounces of silver...and although not a record low, it's still a very low number. The four largest traders on the short side of the silver market are currently short 40.6% of the entire Comex futures market in that metal, once the market-neutral spread trades are subtracted from the Non-Commercial category of the COT. Wow! And the concentration is even higher than that if you start digging into the disaggregated COT report and subtracting some of the spread positions that it shows that don't show up in the legacy report that I use. On the other hand, the COT numbers for gold were worlds away from the silver's change in open interest. Gold's Commercial net short position increased a whopping 18,938 contracts...or 1.89 million ounces of gold. Ted says that it had to do with the price action of gold on its two big up days during the reporting period. From its low to its high last week, gold was up about $65...and Ted Butler says that both the key 20 and 200-day moving averages in gold were breached...and the technical funds and small traders came pouring back into the gold market...and JPMorgan et al went short against all comers. This didn't happen in silver. I asked him if there could be a mistake with the gold data...and he said 'no'. I have never seen a more bifurcated COT report than that one. Here's a chart that Washington state reader S.A. sent me yesterday...and it requires no further explanation from me.
Since it's Saturday, I've been saving a few extra stories for today's column that were either too long, or too off-topic to include in my regular weekday columns. I hope you have the time to look through all of them over the next couple of days. It was certainly obvious that JPMorgan et al weren't going to let silver do what it really wanted to do. Richard Russell: Hang onto gold, massive collapse coming. Bill Gross and James Grant bullish on gold. Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail: Matt Taibbi ¤ Critical ReadsSubscribeManeuvering for an Immunity DealWhen a witness has valuable information and may be implicated in a violation, there are delicate maneuvers between prosecutors and defense lawyers. That is playing out behind the scenes for Edith O'Brien, an assistant treasurer at MF Global, who could have crucial information about how millions of dollars of customer money went missing in the firm's final days. Ms. O'Brien asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination at a House subcommittee investigating MF Global's collapse, but The Wall Street Journal reports that her lawyers are discussing with prosecutors her possible cooperation in the investigation. Until an agreement is reached with the Justice Department, however, she will maintain her silence. This story was posted in The New York Times on Thursday...and I thank Phil Barlett for sending it along. The link is here.  After First-Quarter Rally, Prospect of a Slip LoomsStocks shot out of the gate in 2012 to post their best first quarter in 14 years, but a familiar anxiety is creeping back into the markets. But the widespread optimism that began the year is fading to some degree. The data pointing to the economic recovery is leveling off, showing weaker manufacturing activity and stagnant personal income. The S.& P. 500 fell during 6 of the last 10 trading days in March. April has traditionally been the best month for blue-chip stocks, and among the best for other public companies. But over the last two years, April has also been the time when early-year rallies gave way to big summer drops. Even investors and strategists who do not expect a big pullback think that at least a short-term decline is in the cards. This is a story from yesterday's edition of The New York Times...and is another Phil Barlett offering. The link is here.  Richard Russell: A Massive Stock Market Collapse Will Wipe Out 60 Years Of Inflation And LeveragingRichard Russell, writer of the Dow Theory Letters, is just looking for the right time to buy stocks. But that time isn't now. And until that time comes, Russell will be keeping his wealth in gold. He writes in King World News: "What I want to illustrate is that great fortunes are made at super-bear market lows. But you must have the money at the lows. Which is why gold is so singular and valuable. If you have gold at the bottom of the next bear market, you can exchange it for a collection of great common stocks or funds, and then sit back and relax." This story was posted on the businessinsider.com website last night. It's a short read...and certainly worth your time. It's Roy Stephens first offering of the day...and the link is here.  Moody's May Downgrade 17 Banks, Securities FirmsMoody's warned on Thursday it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign that the impact of the euro zone government debt crisis is spreading throughout the global financial system. The U.S. rating agency said its action on financial institutions from 16 European nations reflected the impact of the debt crisis and deteriorating creditworthiness of its governments. Moody's said it was reviewing the long-term ratings and standalone credit assessments of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada. This short story was posted over at cnbc.com yesterday...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it our way. It's worth running through...and the link is here.  James Grant Speaks at the Fed...and then to CNBCJim had the opportunity to lay it on the line when he spoke at the Federal Reserve on March 12th...and he made the most of it. Here's a 6:19 minute absolute must watch CNBC interview from Thursday where he goes over the highlights of his speech with Maria Bartiromo. The speech was posted over at the zerohedge.com website in its entirety yesterday. It's headlined "Must Read: Jim Grant Crucifies The Fed; Explains Why A Gold Standard Is The Best Option".and the link to that story is here. I thank Phil Barlett for providing both stories.  Bill Gross bullish on real assetsFor a generation of investors, the standard approach to allocating assets has been to invest the bulk of their holdings in equities and bonds and leave only a small percentage, usually 5% to 10% in cash. This strategy has worked well for the better part of four decades, because of the heavy use of credit by capital markets to generate profits and growth. As a result, stocks and bonds have been the backbone of most investment portfolios, but Bill Gross, managing director of PIMCO, the well-respected investment firm headquartered in Newport, Calif., believes metals and minerals as well as real assets such as land, buildings and machines should take precedence over the next few years as individuals, companies and governments around the world continue the arduous process of paying down their debts. "Commodities and real assets become ascendant, certainly in relative terms, as we by necessity de-lever or lever less," Mr. Gross said in his April outlook published this week. This must read story was posted in Canada's Financial Post yesterday...and I thank Elliot Simon for sharing it with us. The link is here.  Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail: Matt TaibbiAt least Bank of America got its name right. The ultimate Too Big to Fail bank really is America, a hyper-gluttonous ward of the state whose limitless fraud and criminal conspiracies we'll all be paying for until the end of time. Did you hear about the plot to rig global interest rates? The $137 million fine for bilking needy schools and cities? The ingenious plan to suck multiple fees out of the unemployment checks of jobless workers? Take your eyes off them for 10 seconds and guaranteed, they'll be into some #%!@ again. This bank is like the world's worst-behaved teenager, taking your car and running over kittens and fire hydrants on the way to Vegas for the weekend, maxing out your credit cards in the three days you spend at your aunt's funeral. They're out of control, yet they'll never do time or go out of business, because the government remains creepily committed to their survival, like overindulgent parents who refuse to believe their 40-year-old live-at-home son could possibly be responsible for those dead hookers in the backyard. This 5-page article was posted over at the Rolling Stone website earlier this month...and I thank Australian reader Wesley Legrand for bringing it to my attention. This long read is "R" rated...as Matt uses his usual pithy prose to make his points. It's definitely worth the read if you have the time...and the link is here.  Martial Law by Executive OrderPresident Obama's National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the Constitution in particular -- completely eviscerates any due process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government deemed in the interest of "national security." Like the NDAA, the new Executive Order puts the government completely above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen. The United States is essentially now under martial law without the exigencies of a national emergency. If you're an American citizen, this rather short Huffington Post article from March 21 is a must read...as it's just plain terrifying. I thank reader Bruce Brantley for sending it along...and the link is here. Three King World News Audio/Blogs Posted: 31 Mar 2012 01:46 AM PDT  The first is the Richard Russell blog that was quoted in a story further up in this column. It's headlined "Hang onto Gold, Massive Collapse Coming". The second is the audio interview with Rob Arnott...and it's linked here. And lastly is the audio interview with ERIC SPROTT. The blog of both these interviews was posted in Friday's column. |
| Bank of Korea cuts dollar reserves by 3% Posted: 31 Mar 2012 01:46 AM PDT  South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, pared the share of dollars in its foreign-exchange reserves to the lowest level since the global financial crisis erupted in 2007. Dollar holdings dropped to 60.5 percent of foreign- exchange reserves at the end of last year from 63.7 percent in 2010, the central bank said in its annual report for 2011 released today. The drop underscores a shift among reserve managers to diversify assets, with China's yuan and Australia's dollar among the beneficiaries. South Korea's government earlier this year announced plans to invest in Chinese equities as well as bonds as the yuan's international role increases. |
| Will the Situation in the Stock Market and in the Dollar Affect Gold? Posted: 31 Mar 2012 01:00 AM PDT SunshineProfits |
| Molyneux: Your Soul Has Been Sold for Gold Posted: 31 Mar 2012 12:39 AM PDT Stefan Molyneux host of Freedomain Radio is interviewed by Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media about the challenges of philosophical and peaceful parenting, the horrors of government indoctrination through education, the 'selfishness' of libertarianism, and the historical exploitation of money? from stefbot: ~TVR |
| Post-Capitalism, Entrepreneurialism, and the Contrarian Index Posted: 30 Mar 2012 11:26 PM PDT We've heard billionaire investor Warren Buffett saying the rich should be taxed more. That he should be taxed more. He's mad ethe case very publicly and with much fanfare, that he pays 17.7% in taxes, a lower tax rate than his secretary…and not just his secretary…all of his office staff. from CapitalAccount: Sounds impressive, but our guest today asks if we should slap a warning label on each one of Buffett's public pronouncements as well. Before we get into the matter at hand, let's look back at a little history. Back in 2003, for example, Buffett was warning about the value of the dollar, the nation's debt, and what he said was the US exporting its net worth abroad. He wrote an article warning about this exact issue back in 2003…the famous "squanderville vs. thriftville." The article was titled "America's Growing Trade Deficit is Selling the Nation out from Under us." The US, of course, was Squanderville. Warren Buffett wrote, among other things, that sooner or later the Squanderville government, facing ever greater payments to service debt, would decide to embrace highly inflationary policies — that is, issue more squander bucks to dilute the value of each. But fast forward to the 2008 financial crisis and Buffett was not worrying about the debt-increasing-bailouts of the financial system; he was advocating for them. Remember how he pushed for TARP? This as the treasury's action plan which Hank Paulson was pushing. This was before it was passed by congress and signed into law by Bush, but AFTER it had failed in the House the first time around. Warren seemed a little flustered during those "free market" hours… While speaking to Charlie Rose during an interview on October 1st, 2008, Warren Buffet said: I don't know who the next Treasury secretary will be. I would say this — I would — they hate this term in Washington, obviously, but I would hand something pretty close to a blank check to a fellow like Hank Paulson…[annexed from a statement made later in the same interview] he's got the interest of the country at heart. That pretty much sums up the crony capitalism that we are talking about. Warren Buffett wanted to give his boy at the treasury and former Goldman alumni Hank Paulson a blank check, so he could bailout his company and everything that Warren invested his money in. Nice. Before TARP was passed, Buffett invested 5 billion dollars to save Goldman Sachs, announced in September of 2008. And then he's out there advocating a bailout for the banks after it fails the first time. A bailout of banks he now has a stake in. What happened to squanderville and the devaluing US dollar? Oh well… But what is Warren Buffett really trying to achieve with his "tax the rich" pronouncements? Our guest, contributing editor of the daily reckoning, Eric Fry, recently wrote: Warren Buffett has not become a latter-day tax crusader so that he can pay his "fair share"; he has become a crusader so that he can continue plundering his unfair share of tax receipts and crony favoritism. By lending his reputation to the "tax fairness" crusade, Buffett legitimizes the progressive/socialist agendas that tickle the fancy of so many political leaders. As a result, Buffett endears himself to those with the power to advance his financial interests. We have Eric Fry on the show to expand on his thoughts, and to tell us where, in this post-capitalism America, where pockets of free-market forces may still be at work. One is the housing market. ~TVR |
| The Myth of the Gold Supply Deficit Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:30 PM PDT |
| S&P 500 Since 1980 Shows Lower Highs And Lower Lows Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:20 PM PDT Notice the sinking PMO momentum that peaked in 1999-2000 just as the Nasdaq tumbled lower. It later recovered somewhat, but the trend is obvious and the trend is down. We see selling in fall 2012 sliding to 1050 support and then 9580. Ultimately, this market touches 800 support and then falls further on oversold, out of control panic selling on an overshoot to 500-600. Destruction of wealth will be massive and joblessness rises to +35% with 75,000,000 on food stamps with riots. "Cloward and Piven's article is focused on forcing the Democratic Party, which in 1966 controlled the presidency and both houses of the United States Congress, to take federal action to help the poor. They stated that full enrollment of those eligible for welfare "would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies and fiscal disruption in local and state governments" that would "deepen existing divisions among elements in the big-city Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority poor." -Wikipedia
"To avoid a further weakening of that historic coalition, a national Democratic administration would be constrained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would override local welfare failures, local class and racial conflicts and local revenue dilemmas." They wrote: "The ultimate objective of this strategy—to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income—will be questioned by some. Because the ideal of individual social and economic mobility has deep roots, even activists seem reluctant to call for national programs to eliminate poverty by the outright redistribution of income." "Michael Reisch and Janice Andrews wrote that Cloward and Piven "proposed to create a crisis in the current welfare system – by exploiting the gap between welfare law and practice – that would ultimately bring about its collapse and replace it with a system of guaranteed annual income. They hoped to accomplish this end by informing the poor of their rights to welfare assistance, encouraging them to apply for benefits and, in effect, overloading an already overburdened bureaucracy." In our view we think this is immoral, will create economic havoc, and badly hurt the poor by tying them to handouts for a lifetime. This destruction is premeditated and now underway in America.
        This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Peak Gold, easier to model than Peak Oil ? Part II Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:30 PM PDT The Oil Drum |
| Gold Rises and Silver Surges In Q1 2012 - Fiat Currency Devaluation Continues Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:30 PM PDT gold.ie |
| The Decline and Fall of the USD Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:25 PM PDT Gold Forecaster |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:20 PM PDT Zealllc |
| "Persistent Investment Needed" to Support Gold as Indian Duty Hike "Kills Imports" Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:14 PM PDT |
| By the Numbers for the Week Ending March 30 Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:33 PM PDT This week's closing table.
Brief comments: Gold and silver near net flat for the week. Tiny, mostly positive money flow for the ETFs. Both gold and silver were higher Tuesday to Tuesday for the COT cutoff, but notice that the commercial hedgers increased their net shorts for gold but decreased net shorts for silver, even though silver was 1.3% higher. Mining shares slightly net lower, but had to recover quite a bit to get there. DXY modestly lower by Friday, by 35 ticks, but strangely the ICE commercial traders covered or offset a big 7,130 contracts of their huge net short position with the DXY off 54 ticks Tuesday to Tuesday. Quarter end profit taking? DXY LCNS still near 70%, so the ICE commercials are strongly net short the greenback still. GSR near flat, no signal there. A falling GSR would be better. Ted spread flat, a worry it is not falling. Copper still holding the $3.80s, a positive sign. Euro gold slightly weaker. Note higher highs and lows for both gold and silver with widening hi-lo spreads, a modestly bullish sign. Large drop in gold open interest at quarter end are not uncommon. Choppy, difficult to trade markets at present, but apparently rising support again for gold and consistent support for silver showing with a $31 handle. Much more in the linked charts for subscribers by Sunday evening. That is all for now, but there is more to come. |
| John Exters liquidity pyramid and Gold Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:30 PM PDT |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Gold University |
| Charles Biderman: The Problem with Rigged Markets Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:07 PM PDT "Even Wile E. Coyote had to come back down to earth sooner or later", says Charles Biderman, founder of TrimTabs Investment Research. In his opinion, the prices of stocks and bonds – enabled by excessive financialization of our economy and central bank money printing – have been defying gravity for a dangerously long time. from ChrisMartensondotcom: If we continue to do all we can to preserve the status quo — to maintain "phoney" asset price levels as Charles calls them — at best we will restrict overall growth and handicap the economy. The problem isn't so much the unfairness and malinvestment evident in a rigged market. As Charles shrewdly asks: what happens when the market becomes un-rigged? We've never experienced the unwinding of an entirely manipulated financial system, so we can't predict for sure. But at this point, a painful collapse of our markets and loss of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency seem entirely plausible. ~TVR |
| How Goldman Sachs Stole Silicon Valley Posted: 30 Mar 2012 11:09 AM PDT By Simit Patel: The recent New York Times op-ed from former Goldman Sachs (GS) director Greg Smith paints the investment bank in a rather negative light. Smith basically says the firm profits from ripping off their clients -- from knowingly giving their clients sub-optimal results. This might be worth considering when one observes that Goldman Sachs is now a major player in Silicon Valley, being one of the primary investors pushing Bubble 2.0. Goldman, along with DST and billion dollar VC funds like Andresseen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Accel, and Greylock, could be seen as the "smart money" driving the bull market in social media -- the force with the muscle and intent to push a market higher. It's worth noting that all of the aforementioned firms have at least one -- usually more than one -- staff member or special advisor who was previously on Goldman's payroll or had received significant Complete Story » |
| Everything Is Going To Be Alright? Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:18 AM PDT 
Below, I have compiled a list of things that I have entitled "Everything Is Going To Be Alright?" It is composed in the form of a song, but it really isn't meant to be sung. It is probably actually more of an economic horror poem than it is a song. What I have tried to do is to point out the absurdity of what we are all being told by our politicians and by the media. Hopefully you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.... ----- Yahoo is going to be laying off thousands of workers starting next work. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. Best Buy has just announced plans to close 50 stores. Don't worry about a thing - JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says everything is going to be alright. The mayor of Los Angeles has announced that the city will be laying off "a large number of employees". Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. Baltimore is so broke that it has decided to look into selling off some of the most famous historical landmarks in the city. Don't worry about a thing - the mainstream media says everything is going to be alright. The city of Costa Mesa, California is so broke that is has decided to sell off its police helicopters. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The city of Trenton, New Jersey is so broke that it has decided to indefinitely postpone buying more toilet paper for city buildings. Don't worry about a thing - Joe Biden says everything is going to be alright. The capital city of Pennsylvania is so broke that it has decided to start skipping debt payments. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The state of Nevada has a 12.3 percent unemployment rate. Don't worry about a thing - the pretty people on television say everything is going to be alright. Total student loan debt in America has now passed the 1 trillion dollar mark, and about 270 billion dollars of those loans are at least 30 days delinquent. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The savings rate in the United States has fallen back to pre-financial crisis levels. Don't worry about a thing - Harry Reid says everything is going to be alright. Home prices in the United States hit a 10 year low in the month of January. They are now down 34.4 percent from the peak in 2006. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is rapidly approaching the $4.00 mark. Don't worry about a thing - Anderson Cooper says everything is going to be alright. Median household income in the United States is down 7.8 percent since December 2007 after adjusting for inflation. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. When Barack Obama first took office, the number of "long-term unemployed workers" in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million. Don't worry about a thing - Nancy Pelosi says everything is going to be alright. The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are publicly declaring that it is time to move away from the U.S. dollar as the primary reserve currency of the world. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. One out of every five Americans will be 65 or older by 2030 and nobody has any idea where all the money is going to come from to pay them the benefits that they have been promised. Don't worry about a thing - Rachel Maddow says everything is going to be alright. More Americans are dependent on the government right now than at any other time in all of U.S. history. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14 million since Barack Obama became president and is sitting at an all-time record high. Don't worry about a thing - Hillary Clinton says everything is going to be alright. The U.S. government will add more to the national debt in 2012 than it did from the time that George Washington became president to the time that Ronald Reagan became president. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. The U.S. national debt is currently increasing by about 150 million dollars every single hour. Don't worry about a thing - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says everything is going to be alright. The Federal Reserve bought approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2011. This is a Ponzi scheme that will completely collapse at some point. Don't worry about a thing - Barack Obama says everything is going to be alright. ----- So what is your opinion? Do you believe that everything is going to be alright? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....
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| Tim Geithner Covers for Corruption on Pennsylvania Avenue Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:10 AM PDT Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner charged in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that those who oppose the Obama Administration's regulatory regime for the financial services industry "seem to be suffering from amnesia about how close America came to complete financial collapse under the outdated regulatory system we had before Wall Street reform." Au contraire, Secretary Geithner, it is you who choose to ignore and misrepresent the lessons of the financial crisis by perpetuating the myth that the source of the crisis was a lack of regulation. First, your essay glosses over the central role the federal government played in creating the crisis. In particular, the government through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directed $5.2 trillion (that is trillion with a "t") of capital to increase the supply of mortgages. In addition, it passed a law that required banks to make billions of dollars in loans to individuals that were unlikely to pay off the loans, in the end with 0% down. In 1998, Fannie Mae announced it would purchase mortgages with only 3% down. And, in 2001, it offered a program that required no down payment at all. Between 2001 and 2004, subprime mortgages grew from $160 billion to $540 billion. And between 2005 and 2007, Fannie Mae's acquisition of mortgages with less than 10% down almost tripled. These loans are now known as "subprime" and "alt A" loans. At the time they were made, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac encouraged their issuance by lowering their standards and buying them up from the now vilified mortgage brokers, S&Ls, banks and Wall Street investment banks. This activity was not due to a lack of regulation or oversight as you claim. Both companies are under the direct supervision of a federal regulator and Congress. At the time these loans were being purchased by these two Government Sponsored Enterprises, their actions were defended by many in Congress who, led by Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, saw such reckless lending as a successful government initiative. At the same time, the easy money policies of the Federal Open Market Committee, of which you were a voting member, were feeding an asset bubble in residential real estate, providing what proved to be an irresistible lure not only for speculators, but also for American families trying desperately to buy a house before inflation robbed them of their chance for home ownership. Yes, mortgage brokers and banks encouraged reckless borrowing, though many who borrowed, with a little honest reflection, could have known that they would be unable to meet the financial obligation of paying the mortgage that they were using to buy a house that they could not afford. Nor does any of this excuse the poor judgment of those on Wall Street who levered their firms' balance sheets so that even a 4% loss on their investments would leave them either bankrupt or in need of a bailout. But, the culpability of those in the private sector should not be used to cover up or excuse the irresponsible behaviour of those in the federal government. The self-regulatory check normally provided by markets on activities that are likely to lose money - lenders backing away - was simply blocked by the government's intervention in the capital markets. As you must know, six top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud for hiding the size of the purchases of low quality mortgages from the market. In addition, the normal check on excessive leverage provided by unwilling lenders was overwhelmed by the perception, now validated, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt were backed by the full faith and credit of the federal government. This created a willing buyer backed by the federal government with unlimited access to credit markets and a trillion dollar budget. No wonder S&Ls and Wall Street found ways to satisfy the demand. Blaming a lack of regulation for the subsequent losses is political spin meant to cover up the greed and corruption on Pennsylvania Avenue that led to the crisis. Second, your claim that increased regulatory oversight would have prevented the crisis requires a credulous belief in the wisdom and courage of those in power. Regulators with all of the necessary powers have failed in their most basic task of preventing fraud including Bernie Maddoff's Ponzi scheme, and now the still unexplained disappearance of $1.6 billion of customer money at MF Global. Yet, you ask us to believe tens of thousands of pages of new regulations will somehow empower you and other elite public servants to prevent another financial crisis? As we know now, you and the other members of the Federal Open Market Committee in 2006 did not grasp the implications of the then faltering housing market for the general economy or the health of the banking system. As a consequence, you and your colleagues did not use the powers you had to head off the financial crisis when there was still plenty of time to act. As former Prime Minister Tony Blair writes in his memoir, A Journey of My Political Life, an important contributor to the financial crisis was a failure "of understanding. We didn't spot it...it wasn't that we were powerless to prevent it even if we had seen it coming; it wasn't a failure of regulation in the sense that we lacked the power to intervene. Had regulators said to the leaders that a huge crisis was about to break, we wouldn't have said: There's nothing we can do about it until we get more regulation through. We would have acted. But they didn't say that." Third, the new regulatory regime for the financial industry created by the Dodd-Frank bill - ironically named after two of the perpetrators of the financial crisis - omits any reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yet, unlike the commercial and investment banks who have repaid the government bailout money, these two state sponsored financial giants have cost taxpayers more than $140 billion and are seeking billions more in bailout funds. At the same time, HUD is moving forward on issuing new rules that would support racial quotas for bank mortgages, which no doubt will again force banks to make loans to individuals who cannot afford them. In light of this evidence and your own experience, your promise that a new, expansive regulatory regime reduces the risk of financial crisis is not credible. The regulatory maze created by Dodd-Frank not only robs the private sector of real resources that otherwise would be committed to allocating capital to credit worthy borrowers, it also undermines market skepticism essential to preventing systemic risk. In addition, it puts even more power in the hands of a few individuals who, like you, are fallible, rather than dispersing power among market participants. You conclude your essay by writing: "We cannot afford to forget the lessons of the crisis and the damage it caused to millions of Americans. Amnesia is what causes financial crises." With all due respect Mr. Secretary, federal government policies, not amnesia, were at the heart of the financial crisis. The arrogance of power revealed by your selective memory and political spin, and the expansive regulatory regime you support are now the primary source of systemic risk to the US financial system and the economic security of the American people. Regards, Charles Kadlec This article originally appeared in The Daily Reckoning USA. From the Archives... Gold Money: A Once-in-a-Generation Buying Opportunity A Question Australia Might Have to Answer Australian Tax: Running Government at a Profit China: Why All Feasts Must Come to An End Greg Smith - A Former Goldman Sachs Insider Finally Speaks Out
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| Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:04 AM PDT GDX gained by 0.98% while GDXJ gained by 1.66% and SIL gained by 0.50% Here are today's best performing Silver and Gold stocks: 
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| Stocks, Cocktail Parties and Balance Sheets Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Where do you get your latest stock tips from? Scouring through balance sheets, poring over profit and loss statements and scrutinising cash-flow statements? Or do you listen to the latest punt your mate Joe is boasting about at a cocktail party? Believe it or not, the second option might be a better bet. At least in a sense. Whatever you do, don't buy the stock Joe is punting on and then write an email to letters@dailyreckoning.com.au complaining it went down. That's not what we mean by 'get your latest stock tip'. Instead, think of Joe as your market signal. The louder he is, the more he drinks and the newer his shoes, the wider the perception gap. The what? The Perception GapIt's the difference between what people think will happen and what will happen. Or, strictly speaking, it's the difference between what can reasonably be expected and what is expected. Consider this: If Joe is telling everyone that ASX listed stock XYZ is about to cure cancer, that doesn't mean the stock is a buy. Because if Joe knows about it, everyone else probably does too. And they will have bid up the stock's price already, probably well beyond a justifiable price. Especially if the other gullible people at the party add to the buying pressure. What's true of an individual stock is just as true of an entire stock market and any other asset class. If the Joes of the world are spruiking the life out of a certain investment, the opportunity is probably dead already. The most obvious example of all this is the tech bubble of 2001.  Back in 1999, tech stocks were being peddled like ... well ... subprime mortgages in 2006. Companies that barely existed and had nothing to sell were listed on the stock exchange. If you had an idea, why not go public (with the company, not the idea). Like all crazes, it ended in tears. Stocks crashed. Back to the point of today's Daily Reckoning. The perception gap was what made tech stocks such a bad bet. Even many of the stocks that survived the carnage and become profitable businesses were bad investments back then. Because they were perceived to be better than they really were. The stock prices didn't match the fundamentals. So that's an example of a positive perception gap - where expectations are delusional to the upside. Irrationally exuberant, as some might say. A positive perception gap means things are overvalued, overestimated and perceived to be safer than they really are. But there are also negative perception gaps. Where people think things are worse than they really are. The master of discovering negative perception gaps is Daily Reckoning founder, Bill Bonner. He invests in lost causes, stands up for the down trodden and supports the underdog every time. And the fact that you're reading this today shows that it works quite well as a business model and investment strategy. The trick is to find negative perception gaps that fit the puzzle piece that is you. For Bill, a decade ago, the obvious answer was gold. No doubt Bill likes gold. But that's not why he made it the buy side of his 'trade of the decade' so many years ago. It was because it was the asset nobody wanted to have anything to do with. It was perceived as a rubbish investment. And so Bill had the perception gap well in his favour. Even if gold had been a poor investment, people perceived it to be much worse than it was. It turned out that gold was a good investment and Bill was right to take a shine to it personally. But the investment decision, we suspect, had more to do with the perception gap. What makes your editor think so? Well, Bill's new trade of the decade is to buy medium-sized Japanese companies. And the only reason he could possibly have to come up with such a completely ridiculous idea is that it seems ridiculous. There is a negative perception gap. People perceive the Japanese stock market and economy to be more of a basket case than it actually is. Now, there's a reason the trade is called the trade of the decade. Gold didn't stage its dramatic surge until very late in the last decade. And so Japanese stocks must be given quite some time to prove themselves. By the way, we've only covered half of both trades of the decades. There is a 'sell' recommendation to match each buy, too. And sure enough, there is a perception gap on the sell recommendations. This one is a positive perception gap, because over enthusiasm hints at trouble. People in 2000 thought stocks were in for a great run. And so Bill said they were a sell. It turns out that people's optimism was based on hot air, or freshly printed money if you prefer. Goldman Sachs actually referred to stock performance since 2000 as a bear market in one of its recent reports. That's not something thrown around lightly by a mainstream investment bank, even in hindsight. But Bill threw the same idea around back then, when it was a useful idea. So Bill's ears successfully twigged to a perception gap in stocks and he was proven right. This decade around, it's government bonds and their perceived 'safe haven' status that is vastly overvalued. And so they form the sell side of Bill's trade of the decade. Back to Joe at the cocktail party you're attending. Consider him your perception price signal. The more sure he is of something, the more overvalued the perception. The more dismissive he is of your ideas, the more enticing the opportunity. So what are the Australian Joes telling cocktail party goers? Well, it's a buyer's market in the property world, that's for sure! And gold remains a barbarous relic because it pays no interest. In fact, it's in a bubble. Be sure to invest in the likes of wind and solar power, or iron ore the ever-growing Chinese Dragon will consume. But don't touch the fracking energy companies or radiating uranium miners. Let us know about any perception gaps you discover listening to Joes at cocktail parties. Or the pub. There is another person you could watch closely to find perception gaps you can take advantage of. Greg Canavan's entire investment philosophy is based on a slightly more scientific version of the perception gap. And he reckons he has found a combination of investments that are either over or undervalued. And he's researched what to do about the fact that they are. Find out more here. Until next week, Nickolai Hubble. ALSO THIS WEEK in The Daily Reckoning Australia... Why Australian House Prices Are Set to Crash The result is that house prices are unaffordable, mortgage delinquencies are rising, prices are falling, risk is concentrated in the banks, and the country is headed for a giant reckoning with the idea that higher house prices are a "cultural thing". They were a "cultural thing" in the UK, the US, and Ireland. And they still fell when the credit expansion ended and prices became too high for the punters. Investing in An Age of Monetary Anarchy Writing as an investment manager with more than a little sympathy for the so-called Austrian perspective (for the ideal of sound money; libertarian principles; a quixotic yearning for small government), the world has gone mad. Watching Europe waltzing towards the abyss, I am not entirely alone in my fears. European Banks: The Biggest Fire Sale in History "The list of asset sales is the longest I've seen in 10 years," says Richard Thompson, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. Knowing how these things work, the final tally could well be double that. The world has never seen anything this big before. Where will the cash come from? This is our opportunity. There is no better, more-reliable way to make money than to buy something from someone who has to sell. Bankers are the best people in the world to buy from. Believe me, I know. Are You an Investing Mannequin? So, do you want to run with the herd or get out of the way now before it suddenly changes direction again? You're either in this rally because you genuinely believe it or you're just riding the momentum, betting you can get out the door first when someone yells fire. As for us, we hate herds. They're scary and make us nervous. They're dumb too. And as dumb as we are, we'd prefer to be wrong by ourselves. You learn much more from the mistakes you make on your own. What Does "the Market" Mean to You? "The market," in any case and as it pertains to most people, is less likely to be the Wall Street Casino variety of leveraged buyouts, inside (the 495 Beltway) trading and high frequency, automated jockeying and, rather, more likely to be the local market...And there are, believe it or not, markets that are springing up - flourishing, even - that exist very much outside the relatively narrow spectrum of activity crawling across the bottom of the CNBC news screen. The vapid neckties appearing on that show, and their like, don't report on these markets because they aren't supposed to exist. Similar Posts:
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| China Prepares for a Scary Future Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:56 AM PDT The Chinese oil company PetroChina recently surpassed Exxon Mobil as the world's largest publicly trade oil producer, according to a recent Associated Press report. The announcement highlights China's determination to suck every last drop from its aging oil reserves, as well as import as much as it possibly can from others. When considered in light of its recent practice of putting more of its dollars into gold, less into U.S. Treasuries, and its blessing on gold investment by private citizen, it begins to look like China is battening down the hatches and stocking up for some really bad weather it sees coming on the economic horizon. |
| Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:53 AM PDT
U.S. DOLLAR gold bullion prices hit $1669 an ounce ahead of US trading, more or less in line with where they started the week. Stocks and commodities edged higher and US Treasuries dipped, while the Euro gained ahead of today's Eurozone finance ministers' meeting in Copenhagen. Silver bullion meantime rose to $32.61 – a gain of 1% from the start of the week. Heading towards the end of the first quarter of the year, gold bullion prices looked set to record their highest ever quarter-end London Fix of in Dollars, Euros and Sterling. Silver meantime avoided a fourth straight losing quarter, positing gains of 15% in Dollars, 11% in Sterling and 11.6% in Euros. However, most of the net gains in gold and silver for Q1 came in the first week of January, with gold having fallen sharply since gold failed to break $1800 last month. "The physical market has stopped playing an important supportive role," one Singapore dealer told news agency Reuters this morning. "There is so much physical material, yet we don't see any good offtake, as people are worried that it's not the right time to invest in gold now…we don't expect to see real physical demand until prices drop below $1600." Many Indian gold dealers remained on strike Friday, having closed their stores for the past fortnight following the Union Budget on March 16 which doubled the import duty on gold bullion and introduced a 1% tax on gold jewelry sales. India's government has said it is reviewing the gold sales tax, but finance minister Pranab Mukherjee says the import duty hike will not be reversed. India imported an estimated 969 tonnes of gold bullion in 2011, according to World Gold Council data. Including gold bullion imports in its trade figures may be "overestimating" India's current account deficit problem, according to Rajeev Malik, senior economist at Asia-Pacific investment group CLSA. "Although it is technically correct to include gold imports and exports in the current account balance as per IMF guidelines," Malik says, "we peg the 'overestimation' of the current account deficit due to net gold imports to be around 20 to 30%." "The close to $200 billion in imported gold over the past decade does not represent a drain on India's resources," adds Taimur Baig, chief economist India, Indonesia and Philippines at Deutsche Bank. "Rather [it is] a diversification of India's wealth into precious metals." One senior gold industry figure, Rajan Venkatesh of bullion bank Scotia Mocatta, suggested this week that the Indian government could encourage gold certificates and other measures to encourage people to deposit gold with the banking sector. Turkey meantime, which like India has a current account deficit and satisfies much of its gold consumption via imports, is also considering proposals designed to encourage the growth of gold deposit accounts in its banking sector. "Turkey has historically been affected by repeated currency crises and resultant inflationary pressures, hence households traditionally hold substantial amounts of gold," says the latest precious metals note from French bank Natixis. This week, Turkey raised the proportion of Turkish Lira reserves banks can hold as gold from 10% to 20% – while cutting the proportion of foreign exchange reserves that can be held as gold from 10% to zero. Combined with the move to encourage gold deposits with banks, the moves represents "an easing of monetary conditions, as well as enabling the Turkish banks to bolster their balance sheets through the use of a cheap source of capital," says Natixis. Back to Friday, and "focus is firmly on the Eurozone," says a note from Marc Ground, commodities strategist at Standard Bank. "We expect precious metals to follow the gyrations of the Euro/Dollar as markets react to speculations and/or announcements on this front." Eurozone finance ministers were today expected to approve combining the €440 billion temporary European Financial Stability Facility with the €500 billion permanent European Stability Mechanism when the latter becomes operational in July. The move is aimed at raising Europe's so-called 'firewall' against sovereign debt contagion, which was identified at last month's G20 meeting as a prerequisite for additional International Monetary Fund aid. "If the investors deem the plan as sufficient in reducing near-term Eurozone liquidity issues, we believe risk assets including gold may benefit," says a note from HSBC today. Since many Eurozone policy announcements have already been leaked, however, any moves in gold and silver prices are likely to be "knee-jerk reactions, rather than signal a new longer-term trend" says Standard Bank's Ground. Spain, which was hit by a general strike yesterday, was due to unveil a so-called austerity budget Friday. Norway's $610 billion sovereign wealth fund meantime – which owns 2% of all European stocks – is to cut its exposure to Europe from 60% of its assets to 40%, the Financial Times reports. Iran has been helping Syria to ship oil to China in defiance of Western sanctions, Reuters reported today. 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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