Gold World News Flash |
- 20 Signs That All Point To The Exact Same Thing – Can You Guess What That Is?
- Seasonal Recycling in Gold
- Allocated Bullion Storage: Do You Really Own the Bullion?
- “The United States is Real Enemy” Says Former Judge in Kim Dotcom Case
- Silver Update 7/18/12 Unions Due
- Going to the Extreme: Euro-Preppers Get Ready for the Worst
- Bad Economic Signs 2012
- Spain 10 yr bond yields approach 7%. Problems continue in Sicily/Compton California is next city to file for bankruptcy protection
- Very Real Danger of Collapse: “Could Be So Severe I Don’t Think Our Civilization Could Survive It”
- Gold vs The S&P500 and The U.S. Dollar
- How Gold Will be Made Acceptable by the Powers that Be
- The Gold Price Has Drawn Support at $1,570 Be Patient and Buy the Dips
- Opposing Paul's audit bill, Bernanke guards secret transactions with foreign banks
- Brodsky On Gold, 'Credit Money', And Real Return Investing
- Gold 1554 Needed to Confirm Breakdown
- Bernanke's Libor Alternatives
- Gold 'Game Changer' as UK New Regulation Favours Gold
- Low Volume Equity Decoupling Becoming Farcical
- UBS: “We therefore think that the hyperinflation risk to global investors is largest in the US and the UK.”
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Lower
- For Gold And Silver, The Big One Is Near
- New UK Regulation is ‘Game Changer' For Gold
- Real Mogambo Laugh (RML)
- Peter Schiff - This Is My Single Greatest Fear
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Chart - The Old Shell Game
- Gold Producers in the Catbird Seat: Jay Taylor
- You Didn’t Build That
- Playing the Gold Price Averages in Summer 2012
- Another Day, Another Bank Attacks the Silver Revolution… Zzzzzzz… Wake Me Up When They Resurect Maximilien Robespierre
- “Eric Sprott has pointed out that on a daily basis, the paper markets (futures markets) in silver trade about 100 million ounces, while the physical market produces less than 3 million ounces each day. That’s an indicated 97 million ounce shortfall on
| 20 Signs That All Point To The Exact Same Thing – Can You Guess What That Is? Posted: 19 Jul 2012 12:15 AM PDT from The Economic Collapse Blog:
Read More @ TheEconomicCollpaseBlog.com
|
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:54 PM PDT Bullion Vault
|
| Allocated Bullion Storage: Do You Really Own the Bullion? Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:45 PM PDT Bullion Management Services
|
| “The United States is Real Enemy” Says Former Judge in Kim Dotcom Case Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:05 PM PDT from Silver Vigilante:
Kudos to Auckland district court judge David Harvey, who made the comment at a conference in Auckland last week. During a discussion about New Zealand's copyright laws and trade talks with the US, Judge Harvey, who specializes in internet laws, told the audience: "We have met the enemy and he is [the] US." Our thoughts must be with Judge Harvey as his courage could put his job and life in jeopardy. Apparently, Judge Harvey offered to leave his post, although this tidbit of information was not provided to the mainstream press by Harvey himself.
|
| Silver Update 7/18/12 Unions Due Posted: 18 Jul 2012 10:39 PM PDT |
| Going to the Extreme: Euro-Preppers Get Ready for the Worst Posted: 18 Jul 2012 10:01 PM PDT  It's not just in the USA that a growing number of people are preparing for far-from-equilibrium scenarios resulting from economic or geo-political collapse.Many Europeans have also taken note of the troubling signs all around them. In the following report, RT visits a man who wished to keep his name and location anonymous. Like many Americans, he is preparing for all hell to break loose and has spent the last few years gearing up his home and supplies for the worst. Like most preppers and survivalist, he has modified his lifestyle to become more self reliant and less dependent on the grid and existing government infrastructure. In addition to generating two thirds of his current energy consumption with wind and solar power, he grows his own food and raises cattle to supplement his diet in the event grocery stores run out of food or prices get so expensive in Euros that no one can afford to buy it. As is this case for many of his like-minded counterparts in the United States, for this Euro prepper it's not a matter of "if" the collapse happens – it's only a matter of when. And when "when" finally happens, he'll be ready for it. Read more...... 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 09:57 PM PDT  In January of this year, I wrote an analytic financial piece entitled 'Baltic Dry Index Signals Renewed Market Collapse':http://www.alt-market.com/articles/540-baltic-dry-index-signals-renewed-market-collapse In that article I discussed the record breaking low hit by the BDI and its implications for the global economy; namely, that it signaled a steep decline in true demand around the world for raw materials used in the manufacture of consumer goods, and that similar declines in the BDI's past have almost always prophesized a crisis event in financial markets. The mainstream media attempted to write off the implosion of the BDI as a fluke, tied to the "overproductions of cargo ships", instead of a warning sign of deteriorating demand. Of course, the past 6 months have proven that assertion to be entirely false. Manufacturing has tumbled in the U.S., the EU, and Asia simultaneously as orders drop back to the dismal levels last seen in 2008-2009 after the credit crisis first took hold: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-global-economy-idUSBRE85008R20120601 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/03/news/us-manufacturing-down-20120703 http://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/uk-production-falls-to-three-year-low-as-europe-crisis-worsens/ http://www.tokyotimes.com/2012/weak-demand-in-china-and-europe-hurts-japanese-exports/ Despite the astonishing amount of manipulation that goes into our fiscal system by major banks, there are still a few fundamental rules to economics that never change. The bottom line? Demand around the world is derailing, hinting at a broad spectrum disintegration of public buying power. Where demand goes, so goes the economy. Read more........ 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 09:46 PM PDT by Harvey Organ, HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca:
The price of gold fell $2.10 to $1589.10. Silver fell by one cent to $27.29. Today we witnessed the Spanish bonds creep ever so close to 7%. The Italian bonds also finished the day at 6.07%. Spain saw further deterioration in its finances as bank withdrawals continue unabated. Bad bank loans continue to play havoc in Spain as well as house prices continue to fall for the 14th consecutive month. In Italy, Mario Monti has asked for the resignation of Lombardo the governor of Sicily as this autonomous region is set to default on its bonds. Sicily represents 5.5% of Italy's GDP and has over 19.5% unemployment. The Euro/USA cross finished the day at 1.228 Read More @ HarveyOrgan.Blogspot.ca
|
| Very Real Danger of Collapse: “Could Be So Severe I Don’t Think Our Civilization Could Survive It” Posted: 18 Jul 2012 09:41 PM PDT  The single most important factor responsible for fueling the last several decades of economic growth has been credit expansion. Whether it's central banks lending money to large financial institutions, or private banks dispersing funds to businesses and individuals, our lifestyles simply would not have been made possible without it – builders couldn't build homes, manufacturers couldn't acquire raw materials, and consumers wouldn't be able to consume. Living in a country whose currency happens to be the reserve trade instrument for the entire globe has had its benefits. We've built huge homes, enjoyed healthy diets, taken luxurious vacations; we've even exported menial jobs that no civilized members of society would ever engage in to third world labor camps.In the process we've expanded our national debt to unprecedented levels, with some estimates suggesting that our total liabilities and commitments are approaching nearly $200 trillion in the next twenty five years. By all accounts, we live in a system built on nothing more than a promise to repay what we've borrowed. This reverse trickle-down economics has left everyone bloated with debt, including the government as a whole, as well as the individual American who has bought his house, car, furnishings and overall lifestyle by taking on insurmountable levels of debt. In 2007 we began to see cracks in this supposedly stable economic model. By late 2008 the entire world was in crisis as credit lending on all levels came to a standstill. Stock markets crashed, governments panicked, and the people grasped on to promises of hope and change. Read more..... 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Gold vs The S&P500 and The U.S. Dollar Posted: 18 Jul 2012 09:31 PM PDT |
| How Gold Will be Made Acceptable by the Powers that Be Posted: 18 Jul 2012 09:30 PM PDT by Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold Seek:
2. It must provide a workable application, right down to consumer level. Without meeting these requirements any attempt to mobilize gold in the system will fail eventually. So many writers have focused on ways to re-introduce gold in, for instance, a repeat of the old gold standard. We are of the opinion that this will not work, not simply because there is nowhere near enough gold at current prices to do the job, but it does not meet the first requirement above.
|
| The Gold Price Has Drawn Support at $1,570 Be Patient and Buy the Dips Posted: 18 Jul 2012 08:09 PM PDT Gold Price Close Today : 1,570.40 Change : -18.70 or -1.18% Silver Price Close Today : 2707.00 Change : -2.00 or -0.08% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 58.010 Change : -0.645 or -1.10% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.0172 Change : 0.0002 or 1.11% Platinum Price Close Today : 1,401.80 Change : 3.50 or 0.25% Palladium Price Close Today : 576.30 Change : 5.55 or 0.97% S&P 500 : 1,372.78 Change : 9.11 or 0.67% Dow In GOLD$ : $169.92 Change : $ 3.36 or 2.02% Dow in GOLD oz : 8.22 Change : 0.16 or 2.02% Dow in SILVER oz : 469.20 Change : 2.96 or 0.63% Dow Industrial : 12,908.70 Change : 103.10 or 0.81% US Dollar Index : 82.97 Change : -0.00 or -0.00% The GOLD PRICE lost $18.70 (1.18%) today, closing Comex at $1,570.40. Silver lost less, 22.1 cents (0.8%), to end at 2707.1 cents. GOLD & SILVER are just in the middle of things. Middle of the trading range defined by Bollinger bands, middle of the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) and in the middle of the Williams % R. Just middlin', that's all. The SILVER PRICE over the past 3 days has formed a sort of diamond formation that could break further or could merely found a continuation. Gold's chart isn't nearly so clean, but has drawn a support line at $1,570 with last Friday's low. I know to remain alert always, but can't see anything in all this other than the indecisive back & forth trading in a triangle. It will resolve. Be patient, & buy the dips. I hate to waste y'all's time with meaningless stuff -- and everything that happens in Washington is meaningless -- but this was too ridiculous to pass up, because it is simply a hilarious, gargantuan, bald- faced lie, colossal even by Washington standards. Federal Reserve chairman & noted criminal Ben "the Bloviator" Bernanke spoke to the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Somebody brought up Ron Paul's bill to audit the Fed and allow congress to review the Fed's monetary policy decisions. The very thought of that sent Bernanke's Lying Gland squirting into overdrive. The result is so hilarious I have to share it with y'all, from the Reuters report: "Bernanke said it would be a 'nightmare scenario' if politicians decided to second-guess monetary policy. [Nightmare? Nightmare? Worse than what we suffer now? -- FS] "That is very concerning [this is barely recognizable as English -- FS] because there's a lot of evidence that an independent [Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!] central bank that makes decisions based strictly on economic considerations [Yuck! Yuck!] and not based on political pressure [Yuck, yuck even more!] will deliver lower inflation & better economic results in the longer term." To maintain the Fed does not base its actions on political pressure is, well, simply hilarious. And to claim that with or without political pressure it can deliver "lower inflation & better economic results in the longer term" flies in the face of all known history since the Fed's founding in 1913. Maybe he's not just a criminal. Maybe he's a sociopath, too. Or maybe he's practicing to be a stand up comedian! So, all joking aside -- and them central bankers are notoryus jokers, all funny bone -- what happened to markets today? Dollar took a tee-tiny hit from the Bernancubus' comments, stocks read in them the soon-coming Jubilee, & silver & gold tucked tail and ran. The US dollar index right now is trading down 4/10 of a basis point, but below the 83 psychological barrier at 82.972. For three days now the buck has knocked on 89.92, increasing the odds that next time it knocks, the trap door will open. Euro lost 0.7% today, basically flat at $1.2284. Yen added 0.34% to 126.91c (78.80), but is just vibrating around its 200 day moving average 126.71), unable to make up its mind and still trapped in a downtrend. Stocks drank a bunch of that Bernanke Booze & ran hog wild. Dow rallied 103.16 (0.81%) to 12,908.70. S&P500 gained 0.7% (9.11) to 1,372.78. Tame your jubilation, stock investors. This merely brings both indices closer to the neckline of the head & shoulders top they already smashed in May. More, they have scratched out Rising Wedges, which generally fail & crash. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com 1-888-218-9226 10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday © 2012, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't. 
|
| Opposing Paul's audit bill, Bernanke guards secret transactions with foreign banks Posted: 18 Jul 2012 05:34 PM PDT Like the transactions at issue in GATA's freedom-of-information lawsuit against the Fed: * * * Audit the Fed? Bernanke Fights Back against Ron Paul By Annalyn Censky http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/18/news/economy/fed-bernanke-ron-paul/index... NEW YORK -- In what is likely to be the last showdown between Ron Paul and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman once again fought back against the congressman's calls to audit the Federal Reserve. Rep. Paul, a Republican from Texas and author of "End the Fed," has been trying for years to pass a law that would give Congress the ability to examine the central bank's decision-making process. Now he's closer than ever before, after his colleagues voted last month to finally take up his bill on the House floor. The vote is expected to happen next week. It's important, though, not to confuse the aim of the bill with a financial audit. The Federal Reserve's finances are already audited every year by an independent accounting firm. (Last year it was Deloitte and Touche.) The central bank also publishes its balance sheet every Thursday online. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization From a Company Press Release VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its latest surface diamond drilling program at its 100-percent-owned, formerly producing Blackdome gold mine in southern British Columbia, Sona Resources Corp. has discovered a potentially high-grade gold-mineralized area, with one hole intersecting 13.6 grams of gold in 1.5 meters of core drilling. "We intersected a promising new mineralized zone, and we feel optimistic about the assay results," says Sona's president and CEO, John P. Thompson. "We have undertaken an aggressive exploration program that has tested a number of target zones. Our discovery of this new gold-bearing structure is significant, and it represents a positive development for the company." Sona aims to bring its permitted Blackdome mill back into production over the next year and a half, at a rate of 200 tonnes per day, with feed from the formerly producing Blackdome mine and the nearby Elizabeth gold deposit property. A positive preliminary economic assessment by Micon International Ltd., based on a gold price of $950 per ounce over eight years, has estimated a cash cost of $208 per tonne milled, or $686 per gold ounce recovered. For the company's complete press release, please visit: http://www.sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR18_2011-opt.pdf Instead, what Paul is aiming for is a full investigation of the way the Fed determines monetary policy. Those deliberations currently take place behind closed doors. Minutes are released with a three-week lag, and full transcripts are published only five years after the fact. Bernanke, speaking at a hearing about the economy and monetary policy Wednesday, said he prefers to keep it that way to protect the Fed's independence. Having Congressional investigators in the room could "create a political influence" and have a "chilling effect," the chairman said. Bernanke said he could envision a "nightmare scenario" where Congress would disagree with a Fed decision on interest rates and try to get other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, to review it. Current law also protects the Federal Reserve from audits that reveal transactions with foreign central banks and governments, the reserves of its member banks, and discussions among its employees about these issues. Reforming or even abolishing the Fed has been one of Paul's top priorities. But Paul, who has served more than 24 years in Congress, has indicated he plans to retire when his current term ends later this year. One of his colleagues even joked about Paul's battles with Bernanke. "His leadership on the committee, especially during these hearings when we've had the Federal Reserve chairman up here before us, have certainly made the hearings more interesting and provided several memorable YouTube moments," Rep. Spencer Bachus said. In the remainder of the hearing Wednesday, Bernanke reiterated his gloomy outlook for the economy and urged lawmakers to act now to boost growth and the job market in particular. Much of his testimony echoed similar comments before the Senate Banking committee a day earlier. Join GATA here: Toronto Resource Investment Conference New Orleans Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Platinum Announces Wellgreen Preliminary Economic Assessment: Company Press Release VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) reports the results of an independent NI 43-101-compliant preliminary economic assessment for its fully owned Wellgreen nickel-copper-platinum group metals project in the Yukon Territory. The independent assessment, prepared by Tetra Tech, evaluated a base case of an open-pit mine (with a mining rate of 111,500 tonnes per day), an on-site concentrator (with a milling rate of 32,000 tonnes per day), and an initial capital cost of $863 million. The project is expected to produce (in concentrate) 1.959 billion pounds of nickel, 2.058 billion pounds of copper, and 7.119 million ounces of platinum, palladium, and gold during a mine life of 37 years with an average strip ratio of 2.57. The financial highlights of the preliminary economic assessment, shown in U.S. dollars, are as follows: Payback period: 3.55 years Prophecy Chairman John Lee says: "We are pleased with the preliminary economic assessment results. The numbers indicate that Wellgreen is one of most exciting mineral projects in the Yukon. The company is drilling to upgrade and expand the resource base. The infrastructure is excellent as the project is only 1,400 meters in altitude and 14 kilometers from the paved Alaska Highway, which leads to the Haines deep seaport. Discussions are under way with support from local stakeholders regarding permitting and logistics." For the complete press release, please visit: http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_june18_prophecy_platinum_announces_res...
|
| Brodsky On Gold, 'Credit Money', And Real Return Investing Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:53 PM PDT Macroeconomic issues currently playing out in Europe, Asia, and the United States may be linked by the same dynamic: over-leveraged banking systems concerned about repayment from public- and private-sector borrowers, and the implication that curtailment or non-payment would have on their balance sheets. Global banks are linked or segregated by the currencies in which they lend. Given the currencies in which their loan assets are denominated, market handicapping of the timing of relative bank vulnerability is directly impacting the relative value of currencies in the foreign exchange market, which makes it appear that the US dollar (and economy?) is, as Pimco notes, "the cleanest dirty shirt". Is there a clean shirt anywhere – creased, pressed and folded?
QBAMCO's Paul Brodsky (in a deep dramatic voice-over) sets the scene: In a world where time series stand still... and real purchasing power value has no meaning... a few monetary bodies stand between economic death and destruction... between commercial hope and financial despair... between risk-free returns and return-free risk. Amid this set of conditions it seems entirely prudent to position purchasing power in vehicles that would benefit as the nominal stock of base money grows at a rate far in excess of the gold stock growth rate.
Full article below QBAMCO - Real Return Investing
|
| Gold 1554 Needed to Confirm Breakdown Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:41 PM PDT courtesy of DailyFX.com July 18, 2012 12:45 PM Daily Bars Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT If a triangle is unfolding from the May low, then the range will tighten for perhaps another few weeks or more before the break. “Gold has oscillated on both sides on 1600 since May 2011. This length of consolidation will probably fuel an impressive break…eventually. The sideways trading from the May 2012 low is taking on the form of a head and shoulders continuation pattern (bearish) but a break below 1548 is needed to confirm. Exceeding 1641 would shift focus to 1671 (May high).” LEVELS: 1526 1548 1554 1600 1611 1625...
|
| Bernanke's Libor Alternatives Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:22 PM PDT Via Stone & McCarthy, Libor is not a market determined interest rate, rather it is a trimmed mean from a survey of banks participating in a survey conducted on behalf of the British Bankers Association (BBA). There are a number of problems inherent in the survey-based Libor calculation. First, there is the stigma associated with a higher than average Libor posting. This stigma results in an under-reporting of Libor. Banks that submitted Libor postings above the average submission, risked being punished by speculators, depositors, and other creditors including other banks. This dynamic rendered a "gaming" of submissions that rendered an understandable under-representation of Libor. The Fed as well as most market participants were aware of this problem back in 2008. See: Everyone Knew, Not Just FRBNY, Banks Underreported Libor (Stone, July 13, 2012) Second, there have been incentives for banks to attempt to manipulate Libor by submitting Libor postings that would alter the trimmed mean. The ethics of such manipulation is materially different than the aforementioned stigma associated under-representative of Libor. Here the manipulation was an attempt to foster Libor rates that enriched trading operations of the submitting bank. Bernanke Alternatives Chairman Bernanke was asked in testimony several times yesterday whether Libor should be dropped as a benchmark interest rate. His answer was Libor should be repaired or some market determined interest rate should be embraced as an alternative. He offered up 2 market-determined replacement possibilities for Libor: (1) Repo Rates Both are market determined interest rates, but neither in our minds captures the essence of what Libor is supposed to measure. For example, dollar Libor is suppose to measure the cost of unsecured interbank borrowing of dollars by a subset of banks in London. Effectively, this is the eurodollar rate for these banks. Our preference for a Libor alternative would simply be the eurodollar rate. The Fed publishes this rate daily. The Fed's source for the eurodollar rate is the ICAP eurodollar screen on the Bloomberg at 9:30am eastern time each morning. Certainly, if timing is an issue, a 6:30am snapshot could be taken to be more closely aligned with the timing of current Libor snapshot.
Why Not Repo Rates? Repo rates represent the cost of secured funding as oppose to unsecured. Repo rates are subjected to issues surrounding dealer positions, the availability of repo collateral, and do not necessarily reflect the cost of unsecured funds to banks.
Why Not the OIS Funds Rate? The OIS funds rate is simply the implicit expected average funds rate based on the fixed side of a swap agreement. Importantly, the funds rate is not the same as the cost of dollar deposits to banks outside the US. It was for this reason that the Libor-OIS spread and the eurodollar-OIS spread enlarged dramatically during the dark days of the financial crisis. While the funds rate does represent the cost of unsecured inter-bank funding amongst US banks, it is below that paid be banks outside the US if for no other reason than US banks have direct access to the liquidity safety net provided by the Fed's discount window. Not all banks operating in London have even indirect access to the Fed's discount window.
The Fed effectively targets the overnight funds rate, and the term OIS funds rate is in concept a construct that should mirror something close to the average expected funds target over the specified term. In concept the term eurodollar rate is the expected average overnight eurodollar rate over the term. But the difference between the funds rate and the eurodollar rate reflects both perceived credit risk, and bank funding needs.
When banks outside the U.S. find themselves with increased term-dollar funding requirements, or stains due to balancing sheet dressing by US Money Market Funds associated with quarter or year-ends--the eurodollar rate will go up, not necessarily so for the overnight funds rate or the 1-mo, 3-mo, etc OIS funds rate.
|
| Gold 'Game Changer' as UK New Regulation Favours Gold Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:02 PM PDT Today's AM fix was USD 1,579.50, EUR 1,288.65, and GBP 1,012.57 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,595.00, EUR 1,296.85 and GBP 1,020.47 per ounce. Silver is trading at $27.09/oz, €22.23/oz and &ound;17.43/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,415.75/oz, palladium at $574.18/oz and rhodium at $1,190/oz.
|
| Low Volume Equity Decoupling Becoming Farcical Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:22 PM PDT UPDATE: AXP (down AH) and IBM (up AH) miss top-line; QCOM misses everything and guides down (up AH - AAPL staggered a little but unch now), EBAY beat (small up AH); KMI miss (down AH) Far be it from us to say but once again equity markets spurted far and away beyond credit, interest rates, FX carry, commodities, and reality would have expected with only good-old VIX crashing to breathe that levered life into them. Ending the day with a 15 handle, VIX closed at its lowest in over three-and-a-half months and notably beyond where equity and credit relationships would expect as the front-end of the curve remains under huge pressure. Gold, the USD, and Treasury yields all played along on the day - trading with a decent correlation in a relatively narrow range but the open of the US day-session saw the appearance of the infamous equity rally-monkey who lifted us 1% in 30 mins then extended 10 more points into the European close. A late day check with reality nipped ES back down to VWAP but not to be outdone, VIX was pressed again back below 16% and sure enough S&P 500 e-mini futures pushed up to near the highs again. Credit markets were quiet (cash busier than synthetic) as IG, HY, and HYG all underperformed for the second day. Gold and Silver limped lower on the day as WTI surged back above $90 to two month highs. Treasuries traded in a very narrow range ending the day -2bps across the curve. EUR roundtripped on the day leaving USD practically unch but -0.35% on the week. Financials underperformed as Tech and Industrials reached for the skies with a 1.75% boost today (makes perfect sense after the earnings?). Decent average trade size on the day which was more prevalent up above 1365 suggests more unwinds of blocks into strength but something has to give with VIX for this train to stop running. Equities in a world of their own once again...
equities continue to dance in their high beta way around credit markets...
equities looked tempted to test reality but stalled at VWAP...
and VIX remains notably cheap to equities...
Just to focus briefly on the day - there are always different correlated drivers of risk markets, and today appeared to have 5 notable periods: 1) first 30 mins - everything ramping led by HYG's exuberance - being less liquid and easier to drive up; 2) VXX started to fall back (rally) and so focus was more on TLT and HYG to keep SPY moving on up; 3) TLT started to leak higher (bearish for SPY) and so focus shifted almost entirely to HYG - which as is clear became synced with SPY and lifted all the way into the last hour; when 4) everything got a kick with VXX ripping back down, TLT plunging and HYG soaring, then as 5) VXX couldn't hold its gains, HYG once again took over and maintained its bid to hold everything in line...(se chart upper left below for how this played out on a model basis)...
In FX markets, we are seeing its not different this time...notice anything odd about the performance of the EURUSD aroun dthe open of the US day session into the close of the Europe session...EUR gets sold into the US open and then rapidly bought back into the European close (almost as if the algos use retail to soak up the pressure that they know will come as Europe closes and EURs get repatriated in a hurry...?)
And with WTI now back at $90 - rising in a straight line the last week - up over 12% from pre-EU Summit, while Gold is unch and Silver modestly higher...
and aggregated across asset-classes, risk was very much in wait-and-see mode (upper right - green line = CONTEXT) when compared to the exuberance of equities (red). Within the ETF capital structure HYG was dragged up to SPY's heights in the afternoon while VXX and TLT were relatively quiet (upper left). Correlation crumbled between reality and stocks (lower right) and VIX remains off with the nickel-picking fairies relative to any short-term fair-value...
Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: Financials underperformed overall and were very weak in the majors. BofA was the big loser -4.8% today and Citi was apparently down due to Ackman - but doesnt seem so bad compared to the rest...
|
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:16 PM PDT UBS Issues Hyperinflation Warning For US And UK, Calls It Purely “A Fiscal Phenomenon” Since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) that started in 2007 and got rolling with the Lehman collapse in 2008 I’ve read a lot of articles about … Continue reading
|
| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Lower Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:12 PM PDT Gold climbed to $1584.69 in Asia before it fell back to as low as $1567.62 by about 9AM EST, but it then climbed back to as high as $1582.53 in late morning New York trade and ended with a loss of just 0.28%. Silver rose to $27.30 before it dropped back to $26.90, but it then rose to a new session high of $27.31 and ended with a loss of just 0.07%.
|
| For Gold And Silver, The Big One Is Near Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:11 PM PDT Finally, the mainstream media is not only reporting on global banking fraud, but accusing the banks of fraud as well. This has been a LONG time coming! And yet, when it comes to the manipulation of Precious Metals prices, the mainstream media has a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately, it will [likely] only be after "The Big One", that the mainstream media will reveal the Truth about the decades long suppression of the prices of Precious Metals by the banks. July 18, 2012 By Eric King Today four-decade veteran John Hathaway told King World News, "People have talked about gold manipulation ... There is tremendous corruption in the banking system, and I think the banks are now essentially agents of the state, more than they ever have been." The prolific manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund also warned, "... people are concerned that their liquid assets are not safe," and "... there is enough in the system, right now, to justify gold trading well above $2,500." Here is what Hathaway had to say: "All of us look at the fundamentals and say, 'How can gold not be $2,500?' I remember back in 2008, and I asked myself, how can gold not be at a much higher number? What I learned then is the causes for gold to be trading higher are there, but you don't get instant gratification in this game." "Let's not forget we are fighting the powers that be, and they don't want to see gold going to $2,500. So they are trying to paint the tape. People have talked about gold manipulation, and now we know that banks have manipulated LIBOR. There is tremendous corruption in the banking system, and I think the banks are now essentially agents of the state, more than they ever have been. So that's just one more reason to be distrustful of financial assets you have in the banking system.... Continue reading the John Hathaway interview here : ======================== July 17, 2012 By Eric King Today Stephen Leeb told King World News that the gold market now boils down to a "war between establishment and the non-establishment." Leeb, who is Chairman of Leeb Capital Management, also said, "When the banks finally get scared that they are short too much gold, you will see a major explosion in price." The acclaimed money manager also stated, "The banks continue to charge the customers for holding their gold as 'allocated,' even though the gold has gone out the door to aid in the gold price suppression scheme. This is fraud, plain and simple, but this fraud is being encouraged by the establishment." Here is what Leeb had to say about the war in gold, who the players are, and how it will end: "I've been reading through your past interviews, Eric, and it's becoming more and more apparent to me that the gold market is really at the center of what is the major divide in this world, and that's the establishment vs non-establishment." "The establishment believes the dollar should be currency. I'm just saying they have a vested interest, a very, very strong interest in making sure the dollar maintains its status as a reserve currency. The problem is that it is becoming clear to virtually all savvy investors that gold is a better currency to own. Gold has gone up almost six and a half fold since the beginning of this century.... Continue reading the Stephen Leeb interview here : ======================== July 16, 2012 By Eric King Today John Embry told King World News, "As the global economy continues to deteriorate, the natural reaction to that (by central planners) is to create as much money as humanly possible, to make sure that it (the economy) doesn't implode." Embry also said, "To me, that's enormously supportive of higher gold prices." Embry, who is Chief Investment Strategist of the $10 billion strong Sprott Asset Management, also discussed market manipulation. Here is what Embry had to say: "Gold survived another attack from the other side last week, and posted a very strong recovery on Friday. So I'm not the least bit surprised meeting resistance today because one of the mantras in this whole gold suppression scheme is to keep excitement to a minimum." "One way you do that is you don't permit follow-through of any significance. You don't have a day where gold is up 3% or 4%, and then follow it with another day like that. So now gold is struggling to hold its price it reached on Friday. But the fact is we are coming into a seasonally strong period of demand.... Continue reading the John Embry interview here : ======================== "How outrageous and hypocritical is this one?… Bernanke said to Congress that the LIBOR manipulation was "unacceptable." Excuse me Bernanke! You have the cojones to say that publicly while your own outfit manipulates the price of gold and silver nearly every day?" -Bill Murphy, GATA From Bill Holder, GATA [ http://lemetropolecafe.com ] Please Subscribe! http://www.cnbc.com/id/48193471 To all; "How close are we to a new Great Depression?" This was a question and article put out by none other than CNBC yesterday. Going back to the piece that I wrote yesterday, had we not run a deficit equal to 10% per year of GDP, the 2008-09 "recession" would have seen a decline of OVER 10% (a 10% or greater decline of GDP IS the definition of a "depression") and we would never have had a positive quarter since then. In short, the answer to CNBC's question is that we ALREADY are and HAVE BEEN in a depression since late 2007, early 2008. Look at housing for example, I can remember back in the mid to late 1980's where 1.5 million new homes were built per year in the U.S. Fast forward to the current "recovery", we have only built 1.5 million homes in the last 4 YEARS,...total! This by the way is a drop of 75% or so. Inventories are still very high and the foreclosures just keep on coming. Banks have been withholding foreclosed homes from the market and not dumping them so as to not shoot themselves in the foot and smash prices further. Ask yourself, are the banks on more solid footing today than they were back in 2008? Look at the auto industry, back in the heyday, 16-17 million units were sold per year. Now, after dropping to slightly less than 10 million units, 13 million is all we can hope for and still 20% lower than "the good old days". These are 2 pretty significant industries and at one point the heart of our economy. Neither has, nor will, even come close to the glory days even with interest rates as low as they have ever been. The "bubbles" have not reflated and after seeing interest rates drop to the current levels, who can argue "recovery or even green shoots" with a straight face? My point is this, ALL of the past "policy tools" that used to work, now don't and they haven't worked in a very very PUBLIC FASHION! It is not like fiscal policy was used on it's own, neither was monetary policy. No, they were used jointly and absolutely blasted full force at the economy, the result? Not enough umpf to kick this dying carcass of an economy forward for more than a few months at a time. I would also like to add that the "numbers" we are forced to use are compiled by the government and are not even close to the reality as compilation methods have been changed numerous times to elicit "more favorable" numbers! Even with false unemployment, inflation and sales numbers, the policy tools have not worked. Now, we face municipalities, states, the Treasury and the Fed having to go forward with impaired balance sheets and the ability to "borrow and spend" more being impaired. Make no mistake, on the municipal and state levels, taxes will be raised and services cut unlike anything we have ever seen or "nightmared" about. Which leaves only the Fed and Treasury as the "engines of new credit". The balance sheet of the Fed is now laden with junk credit and the Treasury's admitted debt (not counting war debt, Medicare, Social Security and many other obligations) is already over 100% of GDP. Folks, this is a depression and will be seen as one shortly. We are just one market event, bankruptcy event, one more MF Global or PFG Best or other fraud event uncovered (ie. where's the Gold?) away from this realization. People ask me all the time "when do you think it will happen?" to which I now always reply, "could be tomorrow, next week, next month or whatever, it should have already happened long ago". If not for bogus reporting of economic numbers, bogus accounting and "marking of assets" by banks, official sector propping (officially and behind the curtains) of the stock and bond markets, bogus reporting by our media to keep the herd calm, the roof would have already caved in. In this business you can never ever "guarantee" anything but I will guarantee you this, when, not if the roof caves, you will hear from every direction possible, "who could have seen this coming?". A better question would be, "who couldn't?". Every "Black Swan" event is by definition a "surprise". In the current, because something is "needed" to point a finger at, you can bet your last Dollar that some sort of Black Swan event which "no one could have seen coming" will appear out of nowhere. Every policy tool has been used and every financial and economic number fudged or forged, the only thing left is to point fingers which may be exactly what this LIBOR scandal will morph into. In the meantime you have only one job to do, do not let yourself be fooled, bored or scared out of your precious metals positions. It is WAY TOO LATE IN THE GAME to make that mistake now! Regards, Bill H. ======================== The markets are brimming with "Fed Hopes" as they levitate higher on next to NO VOLUME. Ya gotta hand it to "Baffle Them With My B.S." Ben, he has does the impossible, and kept the US equity markets from collapsing with nothing more than the words from his quivering lips and the lips of his companion Fed Heads. What is most amusing is that the higher the equity market's "hopes" levitate the markets, the LESS likely "Been There Done That Didn't Work" Bernanke will be able to pull another rabbit out of his hat...let alone be right in doing so: ========================= Even the Precious Metals Markets have fallen victim to the "Fed Hopes" sentiment...falling when these "hopes" are dashed, rising when they are raised. I've grown tired of watching the Precious Metals markets move in sync with equities...haven't you? I honestly believe that until either these Fed Hopes are extinguished, or Bubble Blower Ben unleashes QE3 [only to be greeted with its complete failure], the Precious Metals markets will remain mercilessly tethered to the levitation and air pockets in the equity markets. And when the Precious Metals Markets and the Equity Markets go their separate ways, then, and only then, will we get The Big One. The End of the Bernanke Put is HereFor well over a year, even after Ben Bernanke admitted that the consequences of QE outweighed the benefits, the financial media world is awash with claims that QE 3 is just around the corner. It doesn't matter than it's been over a year. Nor does it matter that the Fed has staged 10 FOMC meetings without launching more QE, everyone claims QE is coming. Guess what? It's not. And I'm going to lay this idiotic theory to rest right here and now. First off, the Fed cannot launch QE because of the political climate in the US. In case you missed it, the last time the Fed engaged in a large monetary move (outside of just extending some pre-existing policy) was in November 2011 when it facilitated a coordinated Central Bank move to lower the pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements. The political response to this was extreme. Every GOP candidate under the sun began to target the Fed. Some began calling for Bernanke to be fired. Meanwhile, Obama became totally silent on defending the Fed. Let that sink in for a moment. Obama, who reappointed Bernanke, didn't defend Bernanke's actions. In fact he acted as if nothing had happened. The message was clear: the Fed had become politically toxic and if Obama wanted a shot at re-election, he needed to distance himself from the Fed. It was only a few months later that the Fed went into full on damage control mode by increasing its town hall meeting efforts (Bernanke now goes to colleges to explain why the Fed is great), writing complaints about how the media is presenting its moves during the financial crisis along, and of course the now famous "Bernanke's a normal guy who drives a Sebring and reads a Kindle" article in the Wall Street Journal. Consider that Bernanke, only a few years ago, lied to Congress about monetizing debt. Around that same time the Inspector General in charge of oversight of the Fed said that the Fed: 1) Didn't know where it was sending hundreds of billions of Dollars. 2) Had not launched any investigations into where the money had gone 3) Had not launched any investigations into why Lehman Brothers had been allowed to fail Has everyone forgotten this? Bernanke, the savior of capitalism, Time Magazine's Man of the Year, and arguably the most powerful human being in terms of monetary clout ON THE PLANET is now going into classrooms to explain why the Fed is wonderful and should continue to exist. Even more than that, he's having his favorite mouthpiece at the Wall Street Journal portray him as a normal American who drives a US car and reads his kindle. This is the HEAD OF THE FED we're talking about. Since when does Bernanke need anyone to depict his private life? The guy used to tell the media to get stuffed when it snooped around the Fed's actions… now he's openly going to the media asking to get profiled? Folks, the political game has changed in the US. The Fed is no longer invulnerable. In this climate more QE cannot possibly happen. End of story. Indeed, if the Fed were to launch QE at any time between now and the election, Obama is DONE. The last possibly chance for QE without it being a clear hand-out to Obama (and a gift from the political gods to Romney) was June. The Fed passed on that. |
| New UK Regulation is ‘Game Changer' For Gold Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:10 PM PDT 18-Jul (WealthWire) — Gold as an investment or savings mechanism has been frowned upon by the financial services industry in the UK and internationally for many years. This was due to the bursting of the gold bubble in 1980 (when Volker increased interest rates to nearly 20%), the poor performance of gold in the 1980's and 1990's and the superior performance of cash, bonds and equities in that 20 year period. It was also due to the fact that gold bullion was not lucrative for financial advisers and financial institutions such as stockbrokers and banks. Gold bullion is bought as a long term investment or store of value and as financial insurance. It is normally bought and kept and owned by the owner for a long time – even passing it onto children. This means that financial institutions do not make continuing commissions which is their stock and trade. Gold bullion is also a very low margin business when compared to structured products and the many investment products with non transparent and often very high charges and fees. …Gold bullion is set to benefit from the axing of commission for IFAs and the implementation of the RDR "should be regarded as a game changer" for gold as an investment in the UK, according to the World Gold Council. …"During most market crises over the last 25 years, gold has consistently increased portfolio gains or reduced its losses," according to the report. [source] PG View: Interestingly, our firm has seen a marked rise in inquiries from professional wealth managers and financial advisors in recent years. In some cases, the advisors were getting out in front of anticipated client demand for physical gold, looking to establish a relationship with a reliable, highly regarded gold broker in advance of the client inquiries they knew were coming. More often than not though, the managers were clearly reacting to already existent client demand. Bottom line, I concur that the "latest research reinforces gold's credentials as a core portfolio asset which reduces losses and preserves wealth" and individual investors — either directly or through their financial advisors — would be well-served to explore this underutilized asset.
|
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:08 PM PDT July 18, 2012 Mogambo Guru I always get a Real Mogambo Laugh (RML), the one famous for dripping with scorn and disrespect, when someone, like Ben "Mental Case" Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, says that inflation is good because it makes your fixed debts less burdensome. Of course, a classic Real Mogambo Laugh (RML) contains a lot of coughing and gagging and spitting up as a result of laughing while being so angry at such stunning, senseless stupidity, so I recommend that you NOT be sitting at your computer at the time, since you will get flecks of what appears to be blood-tinged spittle all over everything, making a big mess. And if you are also eating a burrito, too, then it's an even bigger mess, making the whole "inflation thing" a LOT more unpleasant. Trust me. Ugh. So the next time somebody says that inflation is some kind of wonderful thing, you, as a bona fide Junior Mogambo Ranger (JMR), are entitled to laugh loudly and rudely, perhaps also using a Real Mogambo Laugh (RML) to express your extreme displeasure. To be completely fair, I guess, inflation DOES make the actual debt itself less burdensome, but at the expense of everything else going up in price. To this unhappy result, I again say "Hahahaha!", which is another Real Mogambo Laugh (RML)! If you are like most people, you are saying "Shut the hell up, Mogambo! We don't like you or your stupid theories! Ben Bernanke is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, while you are just a creepy old man hanging around the mall and bothering people." Instead of respecting your privacy and bowing gracefully from the scene, let me give you an example. Let's say you used to spend $9,000 a year in mortgage payments on your $100k house, and you spent $20,000 for food, energy, cars and those tasty little things that aren't really "food" because they are seemingly nothing but high-fructose corn syrup, simulated chocolate and various chemicals. Sometimes with nuts. And/or caramel. Actually, both, usually. Anyway, just about the time you are finishing your wonderful candy bar and considering eating another, along comes the inflation that is supposed to solve your problems. Soon, you still only spend $9,000 a year in mortgage payments, but you have to spend $2,000,000 a year to buy food, energy and the aforementioned tasty "food" products! Congratulations! I say "Hahahaha!" which is yet another Real Mogambo Laugh (RML)! It is exactly here, in my screeching and tiresome tirade, that I will handily sum up: You used to spend a combined $29,000 for mortgage, food and energy, but now you have to spend $2,009,000 a year! Again, I say "Hahahaha!" which is more Real Mogambo Laugh (RML)! And, to put a little icing on the inflation cake for you, if you ever decide to buy another house and move out of your old, debt-fixed-at-$100,000 house, it will cost a billion dollars for the next one, whereas you will be lucky to get a half-billion for your old house! So (pardon my laughing and coughing and gagging) how, exactly, did inflation "save" anybody? I say "Hahahaha!" which is more Real Mogambo Laugh (RML)! And this is all, all, all blithely ignoring all the other many, many, many ugly, ugly, ugly things that happen because of inflation in prices, a terrible economic fate which is so frighteningly horrific that the Founding Fathers specifically addressed it in the Constitution of the United States by requiring that money be only of silver and gold, which prevents an expansion of the money supply (money inflation), and thus automatically prevents generalized price inflation. Unfortunately, this important -- verily vital! -- anti-inflation device was nullified by a treacherous Supreme Court in the '30s, and upheld by every treacherous Supreme Court since, but which is a sad, sad story for another day. So, I am aghast that anyone would ever -- ever! -- advocate for higher inflation in prices, especially Ben "Lame Brain" Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, who has actually implemented a program of setting a deliberate "inflation target" of at least 2%, according to laughable statistics that he cooks up himself, and is already pressing for an inflation target higher than that! Gaaahhh! Deliberately creating inflation in prices! It's so staggeringly unfathomable, and all so terrifyingly real, that it is, finally, for me, a guy heretofore called Laughing Boy Mogambo (LBM) but now called Weeping Doofus Mogambo (WDM), beyond laughing. It is Far Too Late (FTL) to do anything to save the economy at this point, as certainly implied by the phrase We're Freaking Doomed (WFD)! The only thing left to laugh about, as far as I can see, is how easy it is to buy gold, silver and oil, and how completely certain are the wonderful financial windfalls accruing to those who do so! A that I say "Whee!", relieved to be laughing once again, at long last, after suffering through the last few gloomy paragraphs without one. "This investing stuff is easy!" 
|
| Peter Schiff - This Is My Single Greatest Fear Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:07 PM PDT  Today Peter Schiff stunned King World News by speaking about his single greatest fear. Schiff, who is CEO of Europacific Capital, gave an extraordinarily candid interview. Here is what Schiff had to say: "My biggest worry is that capitalism and the free markets will get the blame when it really hits the fan. When we get the real crash and everything implodes, and it's really an Armageddon style collapse, my fear (again) is that capitalism and free markets take the blame for problems that were created by government."
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Chart - The Old Shell Game Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:07 PM PDT |
| Gold Producers in the Catbird Seat: Jay Taylor Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT The Gold Report: Jay, in the June 20 issue of your newsletter, you made the case that gold has broken away from the downtrend that started in late 2011. Why is gold a better investment now? Jay Taylor: At the time, I was convinced we were looking at a breakthrough in the junior gold index on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Now, it seems it may have been a false breakthrough. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index was as high as 450 back in September/October 2011, dropping to 270 by May 2012. Today, it is around 282. I see the junior gold index as a barometer of the industry as a whole. Although I was getting optimistic, I remain concerned about the possibilities of much lower levels in gold shares as a whole. The companies that have to raise capital and put money in the ground are my greatest concern. I am less concerned about companies that are in production and generating cash flow from operations, many of which are doing extremely well. TGR: In that newsletter, you wrote that the va...
|
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 12:39 PM PDT Dave Gonigam – July 18, 2012
Mr. Tucker takes part in a morning conference call with us via Skype. We were discussing the president's now-infamous words: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." So Jeffrey sought out the text of the speech. "You know what?" he said. "It is far worse in context. If an American president has ever before said something so insulting and disparaging toward an essential American idea (free enterprise), I've not heard it. It's an absolutely chilling speech." "No matter what you have done in life, the president thinks the government should get the credit. And why? Because the government built the Hoover Dam (in 1935!), the Golden Gate Bridge (in 1937, built and funded by private funds!), went to the moon (43 years ago!) and invented the Internet (it was privatized in 1995, and only then became mainstream!)." "To say the government is the source of prosperity is like saying that the ticks are keeping the dog alive."
At the website didntbuildthat.com, you find brilliant and devastating takes like this:  … and this editor's personal favorite: 
"The dam's water promise gunned the growth of Southern California cities and attracted farmers to the West to grow water-intensive crops like cotton, despite the lack of normal rainfall required to support this kind of agriculture," Mr. French writes in a can't-miss essay at Laissez Faire Today. Longtime readers of The 5 know well about the chronically low levels at Lake Mead, which carries the Herculean task of supplying water for more than 8 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. "Now that millions have migrated to the Southwest and private industry has invested millions of dollars," writes Mr. French, "Hoover's and FDR's promises have confined those living and doing business in the West 'in the straitjacket of an ever-intensifying water shortage,'" to draw on the words of author Michael Hiltzik. Heckuva job, Herbie…
"God bless folks who are doing successful — who are successful and doing well," he said at a rally in Cincinnati. " The only thing that Michelle's parents, my mom, my grandparents, the only thing they didn't like is when you felt like folks at the top were taking advantage of their position and not following the same rules as everybody else and keeping other folks down."
A Senate subcommittee has found that Europe's biggest bank "enabled drug lords to launder money in Mexico, did business with firms linked to terrorism and concealed transactions that bypassed U.S. sanctions against Iran," as a Bloomberg story put it. "HSBC's Mexican bank shipped $7 billion in bulk cash to the firm's U.S. bank in 2007 and 2008," the story goes on. "That was more than all HSBC affiliates and other banks in Mexico." Washington is suitably scandalized. Senators are tut-tutting. But we can forecast the outcome now: A slap-on-the-wrist fine that will amount to a fraction of HSBC's market cap, which the execs can chalk up to the cost of doing business. There's precedent: Before Wachovia succumbed to the 2008 crisis, it laundered money for Mexican drug gangs — channeling $378 billion through Mexican currency exchanges. Of that total, $4.7 was in bulk cash. Wachovia's new parent, Wells Fargo, settled the case for $160 million in fines and penalties.
"Unlike criminal forfeiture, in which property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law," explains the Institute for Justice, "with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property." Thus did New Jersey resident George Reby nearly lose $20,000, with which he planned to buy a car. He was stopped for speeding along Interstate 40 near Nashville. Reby foolishly consented to a search, whereupon Officer Larry Bates of the Monterey, Tenn., police confiscated the cash on the theory it might have been drug money. "Why didn't you arrest him?" a reporter from WTVF-TV asked Bates. "Because he hadn't committed a criminal law," he answered. "But it's not illegal to carry cash," said the reporter. "No, it's not illegal to carry cash," Bates said. "Again, it's what the cash is being used for to facilitate or what it is being utilized for." The burden of proof was on Mr. Reby to demonstrate he obtained the cash legally. He managed to get his money back… but only after four months, and only after the TV station started looking into the case. And he had to come back from New Jersey at his own expense to claim it.
"What about the business firm? Here we have a beautiful example of cooperative action. And no business can get anywhere in a market economy without the cooperation of consumers. As for entrepreneurs themselves, there is no class of people with a broader gaze on the public interest. They are hungry for information about what people want. They are the ultimate servants of the people, extracting all the information they can get and acting on it in service of their fellow human beings." "The whole world as we know it is built by human hands operating in a market, working together, yet this guy can't see it." [Ed. note: There's an insight about the president's speech you won't read at partisan political sites like RedState or The Daily Caller. But insights like these come in torrents to members of the Laissez Faire Club, with the able guidance of Mr. Tucker and Mr. French. Every new Club member gets bound copies of a four-volume set we've come to call "Economics in One Library":
Every Friday, members receive a new e-book. This week, it's a Laissez Faire exclusive: Wendy McElroy's new release, The Art of Being Free. Of course, access to the archive of previously released e-books is also part of the package. For a full rundown of membership benefits, follow this link.]
Huh? Only yesterday did the market tank, however briefly, because Bernanke refused to drop any hints about QE3. Now we have a rally because he said, in so many words, that QE3 isn't necessary? [Reaching for an Advil. OK, moving on...]
After a 4.8% drop in May, June brought a 6.9% increase to the highest level since October 2008. The year-over-year rise works out to 23.6%. What gives, when unemployment remains stuck at 8.2% and 15% of Americans are on food stamps? "The simple answer," writes a prolific Doug French this morning, "is that there is a lack of home inventory for buyers looking to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates. "Millions of homeowners who would love to sell are not because their lender will not approve a short sale. Many of these same millions are not making payments and essentially squatting in these homes, and have been for the last two-three years." Then there's the hangover from the "fraudclosure" scandal: "As mortgages were sliced, diced and bundled into securities for Wall Street to sell during the boom, the traditional mortgage assignment paper-and-ink trail was scrapped for an electronic version through MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems). This was all well and good when most were making their payments and housing prices were still believed to never decline. In the aftermath of the housing crash, judges like to see actual documented proof that the entity foreclosing actually owns the mortgage. And robo-signed versions will not do, either." "Hopeful home builders," concludes Mr. French, "are reading distorted economic tea leaves through rose-colored glasses." Doug, by the way, will be a first-time participant in the Whiskey Bar — the "no holds barred" round table that's an annual hit at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium. There's serious potential for a knockdown drag-out fight over the housing market's prospects, only one week from tonight. Whiskey Bar veterans Barry Ritholtz and Doug Casey will also take part. We're pleased to announce the recordings of this year's Symposium are now available for presale. In years past, the audio CDs and MP3s have flown out the door. This year, we're adding a new component to the package. Details here. Please note: By signing up now, you lock in the best available price.
"I simply had to enter in my address and a few personal pieces of information. After that, I accepted the terms and conditions. Hard Assets Alliance sent me an email less than 10 minutes later announcing that my account was created and ready for funding. I'm in the process of funding." "It couldn't have been easier." The 5: Thanks for sharing your experiences. We're pleased to know the sign-up process is as easy as it looks. And the interface on the website is super simple too. Commissions and storage fees, you wonder? Very reasonable. The Hard Assets Alliance is now up and running. If you missed the announcement on Monday, all the details and a comprehensive FAQ are at this link.
The 5: The new bills have been issued in C$20 denominations… which means a lot of them are going to be left in pockets and go through the laundry. Will they hold up to a dryer's high-heat setting? Cheers, Dave Gonigam P.S. "In some sense, of course, everything we do is dependent on the foundation built by those who came before us," writes Breakthrough Technology Alert's Patrick Cox with his own thoughts about the you-didn't-build-that speech. "We also depend on those around us at times. The inference that the president makes, that successful people therefore owe more in taxes, is troubling." "Successful businesses have been built all over the world, often in locations where government is synonymous with organized crime. Government in America today is far more of an impedance than it is a benefit to startups, especially in the medical fields. Moreover, the difficult business conditions startups are enduring were caused the failure of politicians and government to deal with the debt crisis — which we've all known was coming for decades. Still, the current administration's solution is to give more control to a bloated, overpaid government sector and take even more resources from the struggling private sector." "We've seen this philosophy implemented more fully in the states of Illinois, California, New York, as well as the countries of Greece and Portugal. It doesn't work. It never has. We are in the process now of returning power and resources to individuals and businesses, but the Mandarin classes will fight every step of the way. Since they are, in the main, incapable of creating successful businesses, it's not surprising. They will, however, lose." Patrick is one of the most eagerly awaited speakers every year at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium. If you can't make it, there's always the next best thing — high-quality recordings of the event, made available as little as a week after the close of the conference. This year, we're doing something different, in response to popular demand. Check it out here.
|
| Playing the Gold Price Averages in Summer 2012 Posted: 18 Jul 2012 12:17 PM PDT |
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:54 AM PDT Capital One fined for misleading millions of customers “HSBC has blood on its hand and this is a stain which will never wash off.” "How can the UK consumers have faith in the banking system when every day a new … Continue reading
|
| Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:50 AM PDT The physical silver market is getting dangerously tight
|
The U.S. economy is in a massive amount of trouble. There aren't enough jobs. There isn't enough money to go around. Business activity is slowing down again. Household wealth has been falling. Food prices have been rising. Many state and local governments all over the country are flat broke and are drowning in debt. The federal government has been rolling up 
The judges in New Zealand's high court are not ready to kowtow to their corporate masters and government thugs, as the New Zealand judge who was to hear the extradition case of Kim Dotcom to the United States regarding his company, Megaupload, and the mainstream touted "copyright infringement conspiracy" has "stepped-down," according to the mainstream press, from his position after he referred to the US as the "enemy."
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
The critical requirements of gold's return to the monetary system are twofold:
"Surely, I thought his words were being taken out of context," said Laissez Faire Books executive editor Jeffrey Tucker.
The president delivered his speech last weekend in Roanoke, Va. Aside from the political tempest it set off, it has also inspired an Internet meme.
About one of the alleged accomplishments the president cited, the Hoover Dam "provided a few thousand jobs 80 years ago, but has spurred migration, farming and development that is likely unsustainable," says Laissez Faire Books senior editor Doug French.
To be sure, the president knows he stepped in it. So in the parlance of our times, inflicted on us by Beltway journalists, he's "walked back" his remarks.
You mean, Mr. President, like HSBC?
Meanwhile, if you carry bulk cash, you run a significant risk it will all be confiscated, thanks to "civil forfeiture" laws.
"If you listen to what the president said," Jeffrey Tucker goes on, "he can't conceive of cooperative human relations apart from ridiculous government projects."
Stocks are rallying modestly today. The S&P pushed past 1,370 when Fed chief Ben Bernanke told Congress he doesn't expect a double-dip recession.
Helping along the rally today: A silly good number on housing starts from the Commerce Department.
Gold is getting its bearings after getting knocked down a bit yesterday. At last check, the spot price was $1580. Silver's down to $27.25.
"It took less than five minutes to open an account," writes a reader relating his experience signing up for the 
"Looks as if," says a reader who caught our item about melting Canadian bank notes, "our neighbors have found a way to beat the U.S. at shrinking the actual dollar, rather than just the value like Big Ben."| You are subscribed to email updates from Save Your ASSets First To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment