Gold World News Flash

Deflation? Don't Count On It…
Vote for Silver!
Has the BIS gold pool succeeded the London Gold Pool?
Eric Sprott: US In a Recession, and Stimulus Policies Won't Help
Is Inflation Flowering?
Going For The Gold As Governments Destroy Currencies
FLASHBACK: How HSBC Launders Money For Western Terrorism
The Fed On Gold Price Manipulation
When They Come For Your Guns . . . You Will Turn Them Over
Global Financial Ponzi Scheme: Malicious Fraud and Cover-ups at the Highest Levels
2.5 Million Oz of Silver Withdrawn From Brinks’ Registered Vaults, JPM Transfers 90k Oz to Scotia
Embry, Leeb share monetary metals optimism with King World News
Got Gold Report: Most important silver COT chart for 2012
Gold June High above 1640 of Interest
Mike “Mish” Shedlock Answers: Is Global Trade About To Collapse; And Where Are Oil Prices Headed?
The Gold Price and Silver Price have Confirmed their Upside Breakout
Will a Bear Market in Stocks Hurt Gold Stocks?
Stock to Flow - Silver Supply in a Fiat Depression
Silver Price Psychology
The Federal Reserve, Gold, Oil, and the Dollar's Demise
Gold & Silver To Surge As Money Pours Into These Markets
Market Shadows Newsletter: Within Our Mandate
Contrarians and Confessions
Germany is Tapped Out... It's Only a Matter of Time Before the EU Breaks Up
Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Silver Would Not Be Denied
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Mixed
Harry Dent's Formula for Surviving the Great Bust Ahead
Most Important Silver COT Chart for 2012
No, this isn't a story about Mario Draghi
European euphoria

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 12:00 AM PDT

by James J Puplava, Financial Sense:

Deflationists and inflationists have been arguing for years. Each side has data to back up its claims, and the public doesn't see a clear winner. One of those data points is what historically occurs when an overburden of debt finally blows up, an event that's almost certainly dead ahead for us. Deflationists will point to periods in history where deflation resulted. But there's more to the argument, says Jim Puplava of Financial Sense. He emphatically states, "The outcome depends on whether or not the economy is operating under a fiat currency system, because there's never been a deflationary depression when one's been in place."

When I saw this claim, I wanted to hear more, because deflationary forces seem strong at the moment. And which way this goes has direct and significant implications for investments, including gold. Here's my interview with Jim.

Read More @ Financial Sense.com

Vote for Silver!

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 11:47 PM PDT

Silverstockreport

Has the BIS gold pool succeeded the London Gold Pool?

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 11:06 PM PDT

1:22a ET Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

An inquiry tonight about the Bank for International Settlements led your secretary/treasurer back into GATA's documentation archive --

http://www.gata.org/taxonomy/term/21

-- where the bank has figured prominently over the last year.

First there was GATA's disclosure of the presentation made to central banks that were recruited for membership in the BIS during a meeting at the bank's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, in June 2008, a presentation advertising BIS services including secret interventions in the gold market:

http://www.gata.org/node/11012

Then there was Zero Hedge's disclosure of a BIS gold trader's attempt to remove from his official biography a reference to his responsibility for those secret interventions:

http://www.gata.org/node/11257

And then there was the discovery by our Dutch friend, the economist Jaco Schipper of MarketUpdate.nl, of the memoirs of the late president of the Netherlands central bank and president of the BIS itself, Jelle Zijlstra, who wrote that, because of the insistence of the United States, "Gold is artificially kept at a far too low price":

http://www.gata.org/node/11304

But there was also something else from a bit farther back -- an extraordinary profile of the BIS by the investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, published in Harper's magazine in November 1983 after Epstein was given what appears to have been unprecedented access to the bank. Epstein described the BIS as running practically the whole world financially in virtual contempt of elected governments and in near-complete secrecy. But Epstein's references to the bank's involvement in the gold market are of greatest interest to GATA's work.

... Dispatch continues below ...

Was the only purpose of that trading really just to earn a little interest on those gold deposits, as that sentence suggests?

The rest of Epstein's essay about the BIS suggests otherwise.

"The membership of this club," Epstein writes, "is restricted to a handful of powerful men who determine daily the interest rate, the availability of credit, and the money supply of the banks in their own countries. ... It was in the wood-paneled rooms above the shop and the hotel that decisions were reached to devalue or defend currencies, to fix the price of gold, to regulate offshore banking, and to raise or lower short-term interest rates."

Epstein goes on to quote the president of the BIS, Karl Otto Pohl, then also president of the German Bundesbank, complaining "about the repetitiousness of the meetings during the 'Basel weekend.'" Pohl says: "First there is the meeting on the Gold Pool. Then, after lunch, the same faces show up at the G-10, and the next day there is the board, which excludes the U.S., Japan, and Canada, and the European Community meeting, which excludes Sweden and Switzerland."

Of course the "gold pool" with which many gold market followers are familiar is the London Gold Pool, the mechanism by which the United States, United Kingdom, and six of their Western European allies co-ordinated, through the Bank of England, the dishoarding of their gold reserves to hold the dollar gold price at $35 per ounce from 1961 through March 1968, when the gold pool collapsed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gold_Pool

But Epstein is writing 15 years later, interviewing BIS President Pohl in 1983, so Pohl is talking about another gold pool, one operated by the BIS itself -- only, unlike the London Gold Pool, entirely in secret.

GATA's gold market rigging litigator, Reginald H. Howe, targeted the BIS in his groundbreaking lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2000:

http://www.goldensextant.com/

And a month ago GATA consultant Robert Lambourne, a student of the BIS, reported that 41 percent of the bank's comprehensive income for fiscal 2011-12 came from gold:

http://www.gata.org/node/11502

Of course respectable people in the gold world may say that the BIS' involvement in the gold market is completely innocent. (To respectable people, everything is completely innocent, even today as corruption abounds.) But Epstein concludes that the great value of the BIS to its member central banks is that of a "convenient cloak" and a "disguise."

If there was any serious journalism about gold -- or, for that matter, any serious financial journalism at all today -- the BIS would be a ripe subject, plainly the center of vast and unaccountable power. But the bank's acknowledged secret dealings in the gold market may be enough to establish the general probability of market manipulation.

Epstein's report on the BIS is appended for safety's sake, lest it disappear from his own Internet site, from which it is copied.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

Ruling the World of Money

By Edward Jay Epstein
Harper's magazine
November 1983

http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/moneyclub.htm

Ten times a year -- once a mouth except in August and October -- a small elite of well dressed men arrives in Basel, Switzerland. Carrying overnight bags and attache cases, they discreetly check into the Euler Hotel, across from the railroad station. They have come to this sleepy city from places as disparate as Tokyo, London, and Washington for the regular meeting of the most exclusive, secretive, and powerful supranational club in the world. Each of the dozen or so visiting members has his own office at the club, with secure telephone lines to his home country. The members are fully serviced by a permanent staff of about 300, including chauffeurs, chefs, guards, messengers, translators, stenographers, secretaries, and researchers. Also at their disposal are a brilliant research unit and an ultramodern computer, as well as a secluded country club with tennis courts and a swimming pool, a few kilometers outside Basel.

The membership of this club is restricted to a handful of powerful men who determine daily the interest rate, the availability of credit, and the money supply of the banks in their own countries. They include the governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank, and the German Bundesbank. The club controls a bank with a $40 billion kitty in cash, government securities, and gold that constitutes about one tenth of the world's available foreign exchange. The profits earned just from renting out its hoard of gold (second only to that of Fort Knox in value) are more than sufficient to pay for the expenses of the entire organization. And the unabashed purpose of its elite monthly meetings is to coordinate and, if possible, to control all monetary activities in the industrialized world. The place where this club meets in Basel is a unique financial institution called the Bank for International Settlements-or more simply, and appropriately, the BIS (pronounced "biz" in German).

The BIS was established in May 1930 by bankers and diplomats of Europe and the United States to collect and disburse Germany's World War I reparation payments (hence its name). It was truly an extraordinary arrangement. Although the BIS was organized as a commercial bank with publicly held shares, its immunity from government interference, and even taxation, in both peace and war was guaranteed by an international treaty signed in The Hague in 1930. Although all its depositors are central banks, the BIS has made a profit on every transaction. And because it has been highly profitable, it has required no subsidy or aid from any government.

Since it also provided, in Basel, a safe and convenient repository for the gold holdings of the European central banks, it quickly evolved into the bank for central banks. As the world depression deepened in the 1930s and financial panics flared up in Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Germany, the governors in charge of the key central banks feared that the entire global financial system would collapse unless they could closely coordinate their rescue efforts. The obvious meeting spot for this desperately needed coordination was the BIS, where they regularly went anyway to arrange gold swaps and war-damage settlements.

Even though an isolationist Congress officially refused to allow the U.S. Federal Reserve to participate in the BIS or to accept shares in it (which were instead held in trust by the First National City Bank), the chairman of the Fed quietly slipped over to Basel for important meetings. World monetary policy was evidently too important to leave to national politicians. During World War II, when the nations, if not their central banks, were belligerents, the BIS continued operating in Basel, though the monthly meetings were temporarily suspended. In 1944, following Czech accusations that the BIS was laundering gold that the Nazis had stolen from occupied Europe, the American government backed a resolution at the Bretton Woods Conference calling for the liquidation of the BIS. The naive idea was that the settlement and monetary-clearing functions it provided could be taken over by the new International Monetary Fund.

What could not be replaced, however, was what existed behind the mask of an international clearinghouse: a supranational organization for setting and implementing global monetary strategy, which could not be accomplished by a democratic, United Nations-like international agency. The central bankers, not about to let their club be taken from them, quietly snuffed out the American resolution.

After World War II the BIS reemerged as the main clearinghouse for European currencies and, behind the scenes, the favored meeting place of central bankers. When the dollar came under attack in the 1960s, massive swaps of money and gold were arranged at the BIS for the defense of the American currency. It was undeniably ironic that, as the president of the BIS observed, "Yhe United States, which had wanted to kill the BIS, suddenly finds it indispensable." In any case, the Fed has become a leading member of the club, with either Chairman Paul Volcker or Governor Henry Wallich attending every "Basel weekend."

Originally, the central bankers sought complete anonymity for their activities. Their headquarters were in an abandoned six-story hotel, the Grand et Savoy Hotel Universe, with an annex above the adjacent Frey's Chocolate Shop. There purposely was no sign over the door identifying the BIS, so visiting central bankers and gold dealers used Frey's, which is across the street from the railroad station, as a convenient landmark. It was in the wood-paneled rooms above the shop and the hotel that decisions were reached to devalue or defend currencies, to fix the price of gold, to regulate offshore banking, and to raise or lower short-term interest rates. And though they shaped "a new world economic order" through these deliberations, according to Guido Carli, the governor of the Italian central bank, the public, even in Basel, remained almost totally unaware of the club and its activities.

In May 1977, however, the BIS gave up its anonymity, against the better judgment of some of its members, in exchange for more efficient headquarters. The new building, an 18-story circular skyscraper that rises over the medieval city like some misplaced nuclear reactor, quickly became known as the "Tower of Basel" and began attracting attention from tourists. "That was the last thing we wanted," Dr. Fritz Leutwiler, its president, told me, when I interviewed him in 1983. "If it had been up to me, it never would have been built." While we talked, he kept his eyes glued to the Reuters screen in his office, which signaled currency fluctuations around the globe.

Despite its irksome visibility, the new headquarters does have the advantages of luxurious space and Swiss efficiency. The building is completely air-conditioned and self-contained, with its own nuclear-bomb shelter in the sub-basement, a triply redundant fire-extinguishing system (so outside firemen never have to be called in), a private hospital, and some 20 miles of subterranean archives. "We try to provide a complete clubhouse for central bankers ... a home away from home," said Gunther Schleiminger, the supercompetent general manager, as he arranged a rare tour of the headquarters for me.

The top floor, with a panoramic view of three countries -- Germany, France, and Switzerland -- is a deluxe restaurant, used only to serve the members a buffet dinner when they arrive on Sunday evenings to begin the "Basel weekends." Aside from those 10 occasions, this floor remains ghostly empty.

On the floor below, Schleiminger and his small staff sit in spacious offices, administering the day-to-day details of the BIS and monitoring activities on lower floors as if they were running an out-of-season hotel.

The next three floors down are suites of offices reserved for the central bankers. All are decorated in three colors -- beige, brown, and tan -- and each has a similar modernistic lithograph over the desk. Each office also has coded speed-dial telephones that at a push of a button directly connect the club members to their offices in their central banks back home. The completely deserted corridors and empty offices, with nameplates on the doors and freshly sharpened pencils in cups and neat stacks of incoming papers on the desks, are again reminiscent of a ghost town. When the members arrive for their forthcoming meeting in November, there will be a remarkable transformation, according to Schleiminger, with multilingual receptionists and secretaries at every desk, and constant meetings and briefings.

On the lower floors are the BIS computer, which is directly linked to the computers of the member central banks and provides instantaneous access to data about the global monetary situation, and the actual bank, where 18 traders, mainly from England and Switzerland, continually roll over short-term loans on the eurodollar markets and guard against foreign-exchange losses (by simultaneously selling the currency in which the loan is due). On yet another floor gold traders are constantly on the telephone arranging loans of the bank's gold to international arbitrageurs, thus allowing central banks to make interest on gold deposits.

Occasionally there is an extraordinary situation, such as the decision to sell gold for the Soviet Union, which requires a decision from the "governors," as the BIS staff calls the central bankers. But most of the banking is routine, computerized, and riskless. Indeed, the BIS is prohibited by its statutes from making anything but short-term loans. Most are for 30 days or less that are government guaranteed or backed with gold deposited at the BIS. The profits the BIS receives for essentially turning over the billions of dollars deposited by the central banks amounted to $162 million last year.

As skilled as the BIS may be at all this, the central banks themselves have highly competent staffs capable of investing their deposits. The German Bundesbank, for example, has a superb international trading department and 15,000 employees -- at least 20 times as many as the BIS staff. Why then do the Bundesbank and the other central banks transfer some $40 billion of deposits to the BIS and thereby permit it to make such a profit?

One answer is of course secrecy. By commingling part of their reserves in what amounts to a gigantic mutual fund of short-term investments, the central banks created a convenient screen behind which they can hide their own deposits and withdrawals in financial centers around the world. And the central banks are apparently willing to pay a high fee to use the cloak of the BIS.

There is, however, another reason why the central banks regularly transfer deposits to the BIS: They want to provide it with a large enough profit to support the other services it provides. Despite its name, the BIS is far more than a bank. From the outside, it seems to be a small, technical organization. Just 86 of its 298 employees are ranked as professional staff. But the BIS is not a monolithic institution. Artfully concealed within the shell of an international bank, like a series of Chinese boxes one inside another, are the real groups and services the central bankers need -- and pay to support.

The first box inside the bank is the board of directors, drawn from the eight European central banks (England, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands), which meets on the Tuesday morning of each "Basel weekend." The board also meets twice a year in Basel with the central banks of other nations. It provides a formal apparatus for dealing with European governments and international bureaucracies like the IMF or the European Economic Community (the Common Market). The board defines the rules and territories of the central banks with the goal of preventing governments from meddling in their purview. For example, a few years ago, when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris appointed a low-level committee to study the adequacy of bank reserves, the central bankers regarded it as poaching on their monetary turf and turned to the BIS board for assistance. The board then arranged for a high-level committee, under the head of banking supervision at the Bank of England, to preempt the issue. The OECD got the message and abandoned its effort.

To deal with the world at large, there is another Chinese box called the Group of Ten, or simply the "G-10." It actually has 11 full-time members, representing the eight European central banks, the U.S. Fed, the Bank of Canada, and the Bank of Japan. It also has one unofficial member: the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority. This powerful group, which controls most of the transferable money in the world, meets for long sessions on the Monday afternoon of the "Basel weekend." It is here that broader policy issues, such as interest rates, money-supply growth, economic stimulation (or suppression), and currency rates are discussed -- if not always resolved.

Directly under the G-10, and catering to all its special needs, is a small unit called the "Monetary and Economic Development Department," which is, in effect, its private think tank. The head of this unit, the Belgian economist Alexandre Larnfalussy, sits in on all the G-10 meetings, then assigns the appropriate research and analysis to the half dozen economists on his staff. This unit also produces the occasional blue-bound "economic papers" that provide central bankers from Singapore to Rio de Janeiro, even though they are not BIS members, with a convenient party line.

For example, a recent paper called "Rules versus Discretion: An Essay on Monetary Policy in an Inflationary Environment," politely defused the Milton Friedmanesque dogma and suggested a more pragmatic form of monetarism. And last May, just before the Williamsburg summit conference, the unit released a blue book on currency intervention by central banks that laid down the boundaries and circumstances for such actions. When there are internal disagreements, these blue books can express positions sharply contrary to those held by some BIS members, but generally they reflect a consensus of the G-10.

Over a bratwurst-and-beer lunch on the top floor of the Bundesbank, which is located in a huge concrete building (called "the bunker") outside of Frankfurt, Karl Otto Pohl, its president and a ranking governor of the BIS, complained to me in 1983 about the repetitiousness of the meetings during the "Basel weekend."

"First, there is the meeting on the Gold Pool. Then, after lunch, the same faces show up at the G-10, and the next day there is the board which excludes the U.S., Japan, and Canada, and the European Community meeting which excludes Sweden and Switzerland." He concluded: "They are long and strenuous -- and they are not where the real business gets done." This occurs, as Pohl explained over our leisurely lunch, at still another level of the BIS: "a sort of inner club."

The inner club is made up of the half dozen or so powerful central bankers who find themselves more or less in the same monetary boat. Along with Pohl are Volcker and Wallich from the Fed, Leutwiler from the Swiss National Bank, Lamberto Dini of the Bank of Italy, Haruo Mayekawa of the Bank of Japan, and the retired governor of the Bank of England, Lord Gordon Richardson (who had presided over the G-10 meetings for the past 10 years). They are all comfortable speaking English; indeed, Pohl recounted how he has found himself using English with Leutwiler, though both are of course native German-speakers. And they all speak the same language when it comes to governments, having shared similar experiences. Pohl and Volcker were both undersecretaries of their respective treasuries; they worked closely with each other, and with Lord Richardson, in the futile attempts to defend the dollar and the pound in the 1960s. Dini was at the IMF in Washington, dealing with many of the same problems. Pohl had worked closely with Leutwiler in neighboring Switzerland for two decades. "Some of us are very old friends," Pohl said. Far more important, these men all share the same set of well-articulated values about money.

The prime value, which also seems to demarcate the inner club from the rest of the BIS members, is the firm belief that central banks should act independently of their home governments. This is an easy position for Leutwiler to hold, since the Swiss National Bank is privately owned (the only central bank that is not government-owned) and completely autonomous. ("I don't think many people know the name of the president of Switzerland -- even in Switzerland," Pohl joked, "but everyone in Europe has heard of Leutwiler.") Almost as independent is the Bundesbank; as its president, Pohl is not required to consult with government officials or to answer the questions of Parliament -- even about such critical issues as raising interest rates. He even refuses to fly to Basel in a government plane, preferring instead to drive in his Mercedes limousine.

The Fed is only a shade less independent than the Bundesbank: Volcker is expected to make periodic visits to Congress and at least to take calls from the White House -- but he need not follow their counsel. While in theory the Bank of Italy is under government control, in practice it is an elite institution that acts autonomously and often resists the government. (In 1979 its then governor, Paolo Baffi, was threatened with arrest, but the inner club, using unofficial channels, rallied to his support.) Although the exact relationship between the Bank of Japan and the Japanese government purposely remains inscrutable, even to the BIS governors, its chairman, Mayekawa, at least espouses the principle of autonomy. Finally, though the Bank of England is under the thumb of the British government, Lord Richardson was accepted by the inner club because of his personal adherence to this defining principle. But his successor, Robin Leigh-Pemberton, lacking the years of business and personal contact, probably won't be admitted to the inner circle.

In any case, the line is drawn at the Bank of England. The Bank of France is seen as a puppet of the French government; to a lesser degree, the remaining European banks are also perceived by the inner club as extensions of their respective governments, and thus remain on the outside.

A second and closely related belief of the inner club is that politicians should not be trusted to decide the fate of the international monetary system. When Leutwiler became president of the BIS in 1982, he insisted that no government official be allowed to visit during a "Basel weekend." He recalled that in 1968 U.S. Treasury undersecretary Fred Deming had been in Basel and stopped in at the bank. "When word got around that an American Treasury official was at the BIS," Leutwiler said, "bullion traders, speculating that the United States was about to sell its gold, began a panic in the market."

Except for the annual meeting in June (called "the Jamboree" by the staff ), when the ground floor of the BIS headquarters is open to official visitors, Leutwiler has tried to enforce his rule strictly. "To be frank," he said, "I have no use for politicians. They lack the judgment of central bankers." This effectively sums up the common antipathy of the inner club toward "government muddling," as Pohl puts it.

The inner-club members also share a strong preference for pragmatism and flexibility over any ideology, whether that of Lord Keynes or Milton Friedman. Rather than resorting to rhetoric and invoking principles, the inner club seeks any remedy that will relieve a crisis. For example, earlier this year, when Brazil failed to pay back on time a BIS loan that was guaranteed by the central banks, the inner club quietly decided to extend the deadline instead of collecting the money from the guarantors. "We are constantly engaged in a balancing act -- without a safety net," Leutwiler explained.

The final and by far the most important belief of the inner club is the conviction that when the bell tolls for any single central bank, it tolls for them all. When Mexico faced bankruptcy in the early '80s the issue for the inner club was not the welfare of that country but, as Dini put it, "the stability of the entire banking system." For months Mex

Eric Sprott: US In a Recession, and Stimulus Policies Won't Help

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:59 PM PDT

from Forrest Jones and Kathleen Walter, MoneyNews:

The United States has likely slid into another recession despite repeated attempts by the Federal Reserve to jolt the economy with stimulus measures that, in reality, have done little more than inflate asset prices, said Eric Sprott, chairman of Sprott Money Ltd.

Since the downturn several years ago, the Fed has rolled out two rounds of quantitative easing (QE1 and QE2), which injected a combined $2.3 trillion into the economy to stave off decline via buying bonds held by banks, a policy often dubbed as printing money out of thin air that sows the seeds for inflation down the road.

Weak economic indicators are fueling talk that the Fed will roll out a third round of quantitative easing.

Such a move would come right on the heels of the recent decision to extend a Fed program that buys up longer-dated Treasury bonds in the market while simultaneously selling short-term government debt, dubbed by the markets as Operation Twist.

Fed officials themselves say continued use of these tools — all designed to push borrowing costs down throughout the economy — are becoming more likely.

Meanwhile in Europe, the European Central Bank has juiced its own economy via providing banks with a round of low-cost loans known as long-term refinancing operations (LTROs).

Read More @ MoneyNews.com

Is Inflation Flowering?

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:36 PM PDT

Since commodities for the most part are priced in dollars, it is natural that they tend to move in the opposite direction from the greenback. When the dollar strengthens, then commodities are more expensive to non-dollar consumers, and they ... Read More...

Going For The Gold As Governments Destroy Currencies

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 10:01 PM PDT

Today Michael Pento warned, "It is now becoming blatantly apparent that the central banks of the developed world are becoming desperate in their pursuit to fight deflation." Pento also clarified, "... a central bank can always create inflation when they so choose. All they need is a firm commitment to destroy the value of the currency, and a government that is compliant towards that goal."

Pento also stated that key governments are on board with that agenda: "That situation is quickly coming into fruition in Japan, Europe and the United States." Today Michael Pento, of Pento Portfolio Strategies, writes exclusively for King World News to put global readers ahead of the curve, once again, on what is unfolding as a result of the major, and unprecedented moves by central banks.

Here is Pento's piece: "It is obvious to me that the world of economics has now fully entered the Twilight Zone. As evidence, last week European Central Bank Head Mario Draghi pledged to, 'Do whatever it takes preserve the Euro. And believe me, it will be enough.' In this upside down world of phony Keynesian Economics, apparently doing 'whatever it takes to preserve the Euro' now means promising to dilute the purchasing power of the currency into oblivion."

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

FLASHBACK: How HSBC Launders Money For Western Terrorism

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:40 PM PDT

[Ed. Note: Just a gentle reminder, this is the corporation acting as "Custodian" for the GLD ETF. Caveat emptor my friends.]

from Help Free the Earth:

A Senate report has revealed that British International banking giant HSBC financed terrorist groups and funneled Mexican drug money into the US economy. The bank's bosses have apologized (congratulated each other) for their "misconduct" (crimes).

David Bagley, HSBC's Head of Group Compliance, resigned after admitting during the Senate subcommittee hearing that the company had made many lapses (committed many crimes).

What was the destination of the laundered money? The money trail led to Western sponsored terrorist groups (mercenaries) in Libya, Syria and Iran. Their mission? To destabilize, disarm and overthrow nations surrounding Israel with the help of NATO.

NARCO BANKING

The report cites HSBC's activities in Mexico. Mexico was treated as a low-risk client even though Mexico is a known hub for drug trafficking and money laundering. HSBC's Mexican affiliate bank transported a total of $7 billion in hard cash to HSBC's American bank HBUS from 2007 to 2008. The money OBVIOUSLY came from illegal drugs sales.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is a (corrupt) US financial regulator that failed to regulate (report) HSBC's (criminal) activities.

The OCC reported multiple failings on the part of HSBC in 2010 to implement anti-money laundering measures, namely its failure to monitor $60 trillion in bank transfers and 17,000 account alerts detailing suspicious activity. 60 TRILLION????

Read More @ Help Free the Earth

The Fed On Gold Price Manipulation

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 09:07 PM PDT

from Zero Hedge:

Lately various media outlets have been swamped with stories and allegations of precious metal manipulation ranging from the arcane, to the bizarre to the outright ridiculous. At issue is not that these claims of price fraud are unfounded – they very well may be completely true – but without a notarized facsimile of an actual trade ticket signed by Brian Sack, or his replacement Simon Potter, or any of the BIS traders confirming they are indeed selling gold on behalf of the Fed, BOE, ECB, SNB or BOJ simply to keep the price of the metal down, what such constant factless accusations (and no, sorry, a chart showing that the price of gold may go up or go down sharply indicates merely that and nothing about the underlying factors for such a move) do is to habituate the broader public to the real issues surrounding precious metal, and other asset class, manipulation. So instead of searching for circumstantial evidence which one can easily find everywhere, we decided to go straight to the source. To do that we go back to a post we wrote back in September of 2009, based on an internal previously confidential Fed document, which conveniently enough explains everything vis-a-vis gold manipulation and leaves nothing to speculation or misinterpretation. Zero Hedge presents the smoking gun that may provide responses to all the various open questions regarding the Fed's Modus Operandi in the gold arena which answer the core question – motive - courtesy of a declassified memorandum, written by none other than the then Fed Chairman, and addressed to the president of the United States.

Read More @ Zero Hedge.com

When They Come For Your Guns . . . You Will Turn Them Over

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 08:45 PM PDT

by Jim Karger, The Dollar Vigilante:

When they come for my gun, they will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands," is a common refrain I often hear from the Neo-Cons when there is a threat, credible or otherwise, that the US government is going to take their firearms.

And, when I hear this crazy talk, I agree with them openly. "You are right. They will pry your gun from your cold dead hands," which I often follow with the question, "And where will that leave you except face down in a pool of your own blood the middle of the street, just another dead fool resisting the State?"

This is not a question they are comfortable with, if only because the intent of their saber-rattling was to imply they would fight to keep their weapons, and win.

Nice fantasy. It's not happening.

If the federal government decides to disarm the public, and one of these (see above) rolls down your street after a not-so-subtle request that you kindly turn over your firearms and ammunition "for the common good," it will be nothing less than suicide by cop to do anything other than what you are told.

Read More @ DollarVigilante.com

Global Financial Ponzi Scheme: Malicious Fraud and Cover-ups at the Highest Levels

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 08:00 PM PDT

by Nick Hodge, Wealth Daily:

Is what we're all chasing even real? Trades and investments we make today are largely done electronically.

You aren't trading gold-backed dollars for commodities or equity in a company. You're trading a string of ones and zeros for another string of ones and zeros.

Think about it… When's the last time you took delivery of a commodity or were sent a stock certificate after you bought shares?

Half the time, I'm in and out of trades faster than something could be stamped and delivered. So, how do we even know those commodities or shares are real?

JPMorgan, for example, is estimated to have sold between $1 billion and $3 billion of silver that doesn't even exist. You or I would call that fraud. On Wall Street it's called something like "naked short selling" or a "derivative" or "leverage" or some other bogus term to pull the wool over our eyes.

Read More @ WealthDaily.com

2.5 Million Oz of Silver Withdrawn From Brinks’ Registered Vaults, JPM Transfers 90k Oz to Scotia

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 07:56 PM PDT

from Silver Doctors:

We have unprecedented silver inventory volatility to report from Friday's COMEX silver action, with the big news being a massive 2.5 million ounce REGISTERED (dealer) silver withdrawal from Brink's.

There was a total of 4 inventory movements involving dealer (registered) inventories, and 9 total inventory movements to report.

Besides the massive withdrawal from Brink's vaults, there was also an 89,842.240 ounce silver withdrawal from JP Morgan, and a coinciding identical 89.942.240 oz deposit into Scotia Mocatta.

In summary: We're long Post-It-Notes.

Read More @ Silver Doctors

Embry, Leeb share monetary metals optimism with King World News

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 07:17 PM PDT

9:15p ET Monday, July 30, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Sprott Asset Management's John Embry tells King World News today that "interference" with the gold market is blatant and, not surprisingly, gold market sentiment is just about at its worst ever. But he expects events to overpower the market manipulation in August. An excerpt from his interview is posted at the King World News blog here:

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/7/30_Em...

Also at King World News, fund manager Stephen Leeb says that "a world where you can't earn any interest on your money" soon will send "an ocean of paper money moving into the gold and silver markets." Of course if the paper money moves only into paper gold and silver, which is as easily created as paper money and which long has been arranged by Western central banks, gold and silver prices won't be going anywhere. An excerpt from the Leeb interview is posted at the King World News blog here:

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/7/30_Go...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization
at Blackdome in British Columbia -- 13.6g over 1.5 Meters

From a Company Press Release
November 22, 2011

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

Join GATA here:

Toronto Resource Investment Conference
Thursday-Friday, September 27-28, 2012
Toronto Sheraton Centre Hotel
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.cambridgehouse.com/event/toronto-resource-investment-conferen...

New Orleans Investment Conference
Wednesday-Saturday, October 24-27, 2012
Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.neworleansconference.com/

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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:

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Prophecy Platinum Announces Wellgreen Preliminary Economic Assessment:
38% Pre-Tax IRR, $3.0 Billion NPV, and a 37-Year Mine Life

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
Initial capital investment: $863 million
IRR pre-tax (100% equity): 38 percent
NPV pre-tax (8% discount): $3 billion
Mine life: 37 years
Total mill feed: 405.3 million tonnes
Mill throughput: 32,000 tonnes per day

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...

Got Gold Report: Most important silver COT chart for 2012

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 07:02 PM PDT

9p Monday, July 30, 2012

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Over at the Got Gold Report, Gene Arensberg's assistant, Colette Chapman, reports that traders who constitute what's called "managed money" are hugely short silver now, which Arensberg considers bullish since those traders will be especially quick to cover and go long on any rally. Arensberg thinks the key price is between $28.50 and $29. Chapman's commentary is headlined "Most Improvement Silver COT Chart for 2012" and it's posted in the clear at the Got Gold Report here:

http://www.gotgoldreport.com/2012/07/most-important-silver-cot-chart-for...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

Gold June High above 1640 of Interest

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 06:30 PM PDT

courtesy of DailyFX.com July 30, 2012 11:37 AM Daily Bars Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT Gold has cleanly broken through its triangle pattern. I had pegged the action in recent months as a bearish triangle but was proven wrong today with the move above the resistance line and 7/3 high. One must respect the bullish break and respect potential for a move back towards (not necessarily above) the 2012 high of 1790.55. The February low is of interest just above 1700. LEVELS: 1592 1600 1610 1641 1672 1705...

Mike “Mish” Shedlock Answers: Is Global Trade About To Collapse; And Where Are Oil Prices Headed?

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:13 PM PDT

From James Stafford of OilPrice.com

Is Global Trade About To Collapse? Where are Oil Prices Headed? A chat with Mike Shedlock

As markets continue to yo-yo and commentators deliver mixed forecasts, investors are faced with some tough decisions and have a number of important questions that need answering. On a daily basis we are asked what's happening with oil prices alongside questions on China's slowdown, which commodities or instruments will provide safety in the current environment, will the Euro-zone split in the future and what impact the presidential election is going to have on the economy and markets?

To help Oilprice.com look into these issues and more we were fortunate enough to speak with the award winning economic commentator Mike "Mish" Shedlock.

Mike's blog: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis is one of the most popular and informative economic blogs online. His millions of dedicated monthly readers find his advice invaluable and we recommend anyone interested in learning more about the global economy and financial markets to stop in and take a look: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

To find his blog, you can also do a Google search for Mish

In the interview, Mish discusses:

· Why global trade will collapse if Romney wins

· Why investors should get out of stocks and commodities

· Why we have been oversold on shale gas and renewable energy

· Why oil prices will likely fall in the short-term

· Why the Eurozone is doomed

· Why there may soon be an oil war with China

· How government interference is ruining the renewable energy sector

· Why we need to get rid of fractional reserve lending

Oilprice.com: With oil prices now in the high 80's and news out of Europe getting worse every day, do you expect prices to stay in this range, or do you see them dropping in the short term?

Mish: There are two conflicting forces here. One of them is oil prices over the long-term and the other is oil prices over the short-term.

Even in the short-term you will find there are conflicting forces at play. For example, stress in the Middle-East puts an upward pressure on oil prices. However, economic problems in Europe, a slow-down in Asia and a slow-down in the United States put downward pressure on oil prices. New orders are falling at a staggering rate across the board in Asia, China, Japan, Europe, and the United States which also puts further downward pressure on oil prices.

Long-term, forces such as peak oil and population growth in China are putting pressures to the upside.

One needs to balance all of those factors out when they are about ready to give a prediction on oil prices. My opinion is that over the short to mid-term, oil prices will go down. Long-term, energy is a good place to invest.

Oilprice.com: If your prediction is correct and oil prices do go down – what sort of impact do you see this having on the U.S. economy, if any?

Mish: That's an interesting question. However, the question puts the cart before the horse.

Looking at prices in a vacuum is a mistake. One also has to look at why prices are doing what they're doing. For example, falling oil prices that happen when supply shocks are alleviated are a positive thing. Falling oil prices because of falling demand is another. You seldom see this kind of distinction in mainstream media.

Right now, oil prices are primarily falling because of falling demand, and that is in spite of geopolitical tensions. That is not a healthy sign for the economy.

Oilprice.com: As we have seen with the recent oil workers strike in Norway and subsequent rise in oil prices. Geopolitical risks always remain to keep the markets off balance. Apart from Iran are there any other geopolitical risks you think people should be aware of?

Mish: A key geopolitical risk in the long-term is that China cannot continue at its expected rate of growth. For years, the mantra has been "China, China, China," and many thought China could maintain its 8% to 10% per year growth going forward. That's not going to happen.

I agree with Michael Pettis at China Financial Markets, that China is more likely to see 2% growth than 8% or even 6% growth over the next decade.

2% growth is a shocking reduction, even from the lowered expectations that we've seen regarding China. The implication is commodity prices, especially base metals, are going to be under extreme pressure because of China stockpiles. For further discussion please see "China Rebalancing Has Begun"; What are the Global Implications?

Oilprice.com: What are your longer term projections for oil prices – say 3-5 years out?

Mish: I think it's a fool's game to make such projections. Most of the projections on the price of gold, silver and oil are ridiculous. They are designed to sell newsletters. The bigger the hype, the greater the sales. On occasion, I will make a call. For example, when crude hit $140+ in the summer of 2008, and others called for $200, I said oil prices would drop to the $45.00 - $50.00 range or so. Oil went to $35.

Moreover, those predicting $200.00 never bothered to think what that would do to the global economy. We saw the same thing in natural gas. People were predicting $25. Look at prices now, at roughly $3.00 NG fell all the way to $2.20, lower than even this staunch deflationist thought.

I'm not willing to go out on the same limb and predict energy prices three years in advance. The reason is we really don't know for sure how central bankers are going to respond. China is particularly important. If there's universal printing of money everywhere, I would expect a lot of that to flow back into prices of gold, perhaps of silver, and perhaps energy, but we really don't know what they're going to do. We don't know when or how the Euro Zone is going to break up. I think it will, but how is as important as when.

In the US, we don't know the results of tax hikes following the 2012 election. Heck, we don't even know who the next president in the United States is going to be. Will it be Republican? Will it be Democrat? Numerous political and economic forces are pulling and tugging in different ways.

I don't believe there's anyone out there that can predict, with any kind of accuracy, what oil prices are going to do. Which is why I believe trying to predict oil prices in the midst of all of these possibilities is a fool's game.

Oilprice.com: What are your views on inflation and hyperinflation.

Mish: Hyperinflation is a complete collapse in currency. It is a political event that kicks off hyperinflation, not a monetary one. Hyperinflation talk hit an extreme when oil prices hit $140. Such talk was silly then, and it is still silly now.

Hyperinflationists in general fail to understand the role of collapsing demand for credit. The total credit market is over $54 trillion. Base money supply is $2.6 trillion and excess reserves are about $1.5 trillion. Seems to me we had huge expansion in credit and Bernanke is struggling to reignite demand. I suggest he will not succeed.

The idea the US$ will suddenly go to zero is ridiculous. The US is the world's largest holder of gold reserves, and that alone would stop it. Also note that Bernanke, as misguided as his policies are, is still beholden to the banking system. As such he has no desire for it to collapse.

As far as inflation goes, I am still widely misunderstood. I view inflation as an increase in money supply and credit, with credit marked to market. Deflation is the opposite. If one insists that inflation is about prices, then we are in a state of inflation with 10-year treasury rates below 1.5%.

For those who woodenly view inflation in terms of prices, well, prices may or may not rise. Price have generally risen, but credit is the key behind housing prices, family formation, hiring, and in fact everything driving the economy. So, where is credit going? Demographics and student debt suggests nowhere. Indeed, credit has gone nowhere in spite of heroic efforts by Bernanke.

Oilprice.com: You just mentioned that we don't know who the next president is going to be and sticking to this topic how big an impact do you see energy prices having on this year's presidential elections?

Mish: I don't think energy prices are what's on people's minds. What's on people's minds right now are jobs. Oil prices have kind of stabilized and in the very short-term they are likely to stay stable unless there are some dramatic results in the Mid-East or a dramatic slowdown in the US economy. Both are possible, but a major US slowdown is arguably more likely. Regardless, I think energy prices are going to be a minor election issue.

Oilprice.com: The message on peak oil seems to be confused. Many are adamant that peak oil is the largest threat to ever face humanity, whilst others believe that with new technologies and new fields being found, peak oil is a myth and we are actually swimming in oil. What are your thoughts?

Mish: The idea that we're swimming in oil is preposterous. Moreover, abiotic oil is a ridiculous pipe-dream. That said, the idea that the global economy is going to come grinding to a halt in the next year or two because of oil is also preposterous (discounting a geopolitical Mid-East shutdown). In general, I would side with the peak oil folks, noting that a global recession will likely pressure prices more than anyone thinks, barring a breakout of war or supply disruptions in the Mid-East.

Long-term, 8% growth in China is mathematically not going to happen. People really need to get a grip on exponential math and the implications thereof. If China does attempt to grow at 8-10% as some people have predicted, there's going to be an oil war of some kind between the United States and China because there's simply not enough oil.

For a good discussion on the limits of exponential growth, please see Calpers Pension Plan Reports 1% Return; Stunning "What If" Charts at Various Compound Annualized Rates-of-Return Going Forward

Oilprice.com: Shale gas has been generating a great deal of headlines recently. Do you believe it could be the solution to America's energy challenges? We are also seeing developments in oil & gas extraction technologies. Have we been oversold on such possibilities?

Mish: I think we're oversold on everything. We're oversold on the idea of cheap energy, of free energy, of green energy, of clean energy. We're oversold on the stock market. We're oversold on what Obama can deliver. We're oversold on what Mitt Romney can deliver. We're oversold in so many areas, I can't even mention them.

In regards to new technologies, how much water will it take to extract these reserves in the midst of these droughts? What are we going to do with the contamination, how do we get rid of the waste byproducts? These kinds of projects look good on paper, but are they truly scalable in practice?

I hope I am wrong.

Oilprice.com: What is the role of government in alternative energy sources?

Mish: The role of government should be to get the hell out of the way and let the free market work. If peak oil really is a problem (and I think it is), the free market will come up with a solution if left alone.

Instead, the government is trying to pick winners. Look at the results. President Obama backed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra and the DOE loan guarantee scheme blew sky high.

Our ethanol program is a total disaster. By government mandate, corn has been diverted to ethanol production smack in the midst of a drought. Corn is not an efficient way to produce ethanol, even if there was not a drought.

Governments seldom back winners. Instead, government bureaucrats back companies that contribute to their campaigns. This is worse than it looks because such activities deprives companies with real solutions a chance at funding.

We need to get government out of the energy business completely and let the free market work.

Oilprice.com: Sticking with the renewable energy theme, do you see them making a meaningful contribution to global energy production over the next 10 years?

Mish: Adding to my previous answer, government subsidies of unviable products and unviable ideas gets in the way of the free market actually producing viable products and viable ideas. Simply put, the more government interferes, the less likely we are going to see advances in the actual direction of a true solution.

Oilprice.com: In regards to presidential elections, how do you think energy will fare under Obama and under Romney? Which sectors will benefit, and which will suffer?

Mish: Mitt Romney has declared that if he's elected he is going to label China a currency manipulator and increase tariffs on China across the board. That's something that I believe he might be able to do by mandate. If he's elected and he does follow through, I think the result will be a global trade war the likes of which we have not seen since the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act compounded problems during the Great Depression. Simply put, I think that global trade will collapse if Romney wins and he follows through on his campaign promises.

Unfortunately, campaign rhetoric now is heating up to the point where President Obama and Mitt Romney are trying to outdo each other on who's going to do more to China. Thus, we may very well see a global trade war regardless of who wins.

As an aside, Mitt Romney is pledging to increase military spending. Given Romney's statements on Iran, it's more likely he would start a war with Iran than Obama. Note that the U.S. military is one of the biggest users of petroleum worldwide and oil price shocks could be devastating.

None of this is any good for the world economy at all. I believe that Romney will do what he says. I believe he's more likely to start wars than Obama, but that doesn't make Obama any good. This is the worst slate of candidates in U.S. history running for president, and I'm writing in Ron Paul.

Oilprice.com: As the global economy slows, where do you see the best investment opportunities available to investors?

Mish: At this point, the best thing to do is wait for better opportunities. I am talking my book, but something like 70-80% cash (or hedged equities) and 20-30% gold seems reasonable. I'm telling people, "Get out of the stock market. Get out of commodities except gold and perhaps a bit of silver."

A global slowdown is underway. Actually, I made a Case for US and Global Recession Right Here, Right Now.

Although nothing is certain, central bankers worldwide are highly likely to pump up money supply hoping to counteract the slowdown. If so, I think gold is going to be one of big beneficiaries. Silver may be a huge beneficiary, and I like it here. However, silver is also an industrial commodity, so gold is safer.

Bear in mind, I may seem like a broken record on this thesis given cash and gold has been my call for the last year and a half or so.

In spite of calling the global economy exceptionally well, I've simply been wrong about U.S. equities. They have risen far more than I thought, but I still caution that risk is high.

I'm going to repeat my general message here, that another slow-down, and another big downturn in the stock market is highly likely. Equities are quite overvalued at this point, cash is not trash, and staying liquid now, with a percentage in gold, is a good idea.

Oilprice.com: I was hoping you could tell us your thoughts on the Euro. You mentioned previously, that you think the E.U. will split in the future, why do you think this will occur, and what will the economic and political implications be?

Mish: I think it's pretty clear that the euro's going to split because no currency union in history has ever survived without there being a corresponding fiscal union in place. Right now we're in a situation where Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel says that "There should be no fiscal union until there's a political union." Francois Hollande said, "There should be no political union until there's a banking union," and the German Supreme Court will not allow a political union or a fiscal union, nor a banking union without a German referendum."

I did a post on this, and it's called, "It's Just Impossible."

If politicians could not get agreements when times were good, how are they going to get these agreements now, when they're bickering over every little thing, including the amount of the ESM, whether or not the bailout of Spain should be via the ESM or the EFSF, and whether or not the Spanish government should be backstopping this loan.

They can't get an agreement on anything, and the German Constitutional Court is hanging like a Sword of Damocles over the entire thing.

For these reasons, the Euro is going to bust up. What happens to the price of the Euro depends on how it busts up. If the breakup is piecemeal and disorderly, it means one thing. If it's orderly and prepared in advance with Germany leaving and the northern states leaving, it's a completely different scenario. Any point along that line is possible, but piecemeal seems more likely. How disorderly remains to be seen.

For example, if Germany exits the Euro and goes on the deutschmark, the value of the deutschmark will soar, whilst the value of the Euro will decline.

Instead, if we see a break-up by Spain leaving, by Greece leaving, by Italy leaving, and the bulk of what's left is Germany and the northern States, then the value of the Euro can soar. Those are the two conflicting possibilities here. The market has not decided which one of those is more likely.

Meanwhile, the Euro is in a low 1.20 range to the U.S. dollar. A breakout or a breakdown might be a signal that the market is expecting one of those possibilities over the other.

We are in uncharted territory and everyone is guessing.

Short-term I am neutral on the US dollar at this level because the euro is a bit oversold, the idea of a Greek exit is no longer unfathomable, and the Fed is likely to initiate QE3 at some point. This is a change from my previous US dollar bullish stance.

Oilprice.com: We mentioned China earlier, and I was wondering what you think the future holds for China, both politically and economically.

Mish: A regime change in China is coming up. The current regime has been focused on growth. However, I think the next Chinese government already understands that the growth at any cost of the current regime is not sustainable. If so, we're going to see a major shift away from an export-driven production model dependent on investment on roads, on bridges, and more production, to a consumption-driven model. That shift will be one of the major forces in the global economy.

If I'm correct on this, then it's going to be a painful adjustment, regardless of what China does. For example, a Chinese slow-down towards consumption would increase the value of the renminbi, would decrease their exports, would help the balance of trade between China and the United States and Europe, and would put intense pressure on commodity prices. In turn, asset prices and currencies of the commodity producing countries, like Australia, Brazil, and Canada will come under heavy pressure.

Oilprice.com: Mark Faber is not a fan of the Federal Reserve, blaming them for the current US economic situation. He said, "Usually under a gold standard you have a bubble under one sector of the economy but you don't have it across the board globally and that's really what the Federal Reserve has done over the last couple of years." Do you agree? Is the Fed to blame? And what can be done to avoid this in the future?

Mish: I agree with part of it, if not most of it. However, the idea that the gold standard itself causes bubbles is fallacious. The gold standard does not cause huge bubbles. The real culprit is fractional reserve lending. Historically, problems happened when banks lent out more money than there was gold backing it up.

The gold standard did one thing for sure. It limited trade imbalances. Once Nixon took the United States off the gold standard, the U.S. trade deficit soared (along with the exportation of manufacturing jobs).

To fix the problems of the U.S. losing jobs to China, to South Korea, to India, and other places, we need to put a gold standard back in place, not enact tariffs.

Oilprice.com: Mish, thank you for your time this has been a very enjoyable and enlightening conversation for us.

For those of you who haven't seen Mish's superb blog and daily economic commentary we strongly recommend you visit his site: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com. You can also do a Google search for Mish.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Interviews/Global-Trade-Likely-to-Collapse-if-Romney-Wins-Interview-with-Mike-Shedlock.html

Interview by James Stafford of Oilprice.com

The Gold Price and Silver Price have Confirmed their Upside Breakout

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:36 PM PDT

Gold Price Close Today : 1619.70
Change : 1.70 or 0.11%

Silver Price Close Today : 2801.0
Change : 53.7 or 1.95%

Gold Silver Ratio Today : 57.826
Change : -1.068 or -1.81%

Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01729
Change : 0.000314 or 1.85%

Platinum Price Close Today : 1410.30
Change : 3.60 or 0.26%

Palladium Price Close Today : 587.55
Change : 16.50 or 2.89%

S&P 500 : 1,385.30
Change : -0.67 or -0.05%

Dow In GOLD$ : $166.85
Change : $ (0.19) or -0.11%

Dow in GOLD oz : 8.071
Change : -0.009 or -0.11%

Dow in SILVER oz : 466.73
Change : -9.22 or -1.94%

Dow Industrial : 13,073.01
Change : -2.65 or -0.02%

US Dollar Index : 82.79
Change : 0.115 or 0.14%

The GOLD PRICE baby-stepped up today, adding $1,70 to close Comex $1,619.70. Resistance at $1,625 stopped today's high cold at $1,624.70. Range was only $10, very small and quiet.

Yet GOLD has now made good its escape from the triangle (upside breakout) good for three days. Couldn't ask much more than that.

The SILVER PRICE leapt 2% (53.7 cents) to 2801.4c after a 2823c high. Lo, silver is joining the race! 'Tis not unusual for silver to lag in the first few yards of a rally, as it has the last 3 days. But today it o'erleapt that 2800c resistance. O, yes, the close at 2801.4c looks symbolic only, but it might have been the NGM painting the tape, too, since the aftermarket has boosted silver to 2815c and gold to 1,621.40.

Today's close confirmed the SILVER PRICE breakout from the triangle for the second day, and took silver above the 50 DMA (2777c). Full of hope.

The US DOLLAR INDEX rose 11.5 basis points (0.139%) to end the day at 82.791. This saith not a lot, and certainly doesn't change the dollars immediate direction. Of course, the euro lost 0.28% to $1.2257 so maybe sobriety is again wreaking its hung-over vengeance on euro buyers. Yen also lost 0.25% to 127.91c (Y78.18), which also changes nothing, says nothing, and means nothing.

Now the hard part comes for ECB head Mario Draghi. He fired off the blarney cannon last week, spooking all the birds off the electric lines, but now he has do DO something. Take some action. And what precisely can he do to save the European economy, the euro, and the universe? He's shooting blanks.

Well, the lawyers have started circling. The first inevitable lawsuit in the Libor scandal has been charged as a small New York bank has filed suit alleging it was damaged by Libor price fixing. Y'all ain't seen nothing yet. Odds scream that not one but every bank colluded, and that the Big Brothers in that collusion were the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, because they were. Central banks' reason for existing is to fix interest rates and inflate.

Have y'all ever seen a road-killed armadillo in the road that's been baking in the sun a couple of days? If you went and picked it up, that stuff that would run out is exactly what's inside the entire financial system, including banking and central banking: corruption and maggots.

STOCKS lost their merriment today when some suspicious soul asked exactly HOW Draghi was going to save the universe. Dow lost 2.65 (0.02%) and closed 13,073.01 after a ragged day. S&P500 lost 0.67 (0.05%) to 1,385.30. Friday's punch through resistance looks now like a fluke, but stocks still have plenty of time to come back, and make highs equal to or better than May highs before the Jaws of Death snap shut. Point to observe: the Jaws WILL snap shut, taking great mouthfuls of capital with them.

By the way, yields on US treasuries staggered again today. That bubble is due to bust, but it's not yet clear whether the needle's been stuck in it. It surely will be, and when that begins the flight out of the dollar will commence.

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.

Will a Bear Market in Stocks Hurt Gold Stocks?

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:35 PM PDT

The relationship between gold stocks (while in a secular bull market) and the broad market (while in a secular bear market) is difficult to diagnose and that is what makes it so interesting. There is no single rule of thumb ... Read More...

Stock to Flow - Silver Supply in a Fiat Depression

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:34 PM PDT

Making a case for higher silver prices can involve two ways of looking at its supply: [LIST] [*]The total amount of silver ever mined. [*]The total amount of silver available in investment grade bullion form. [/LIST] The result of this supply analysis yields two different ratios for gold versus silver. Stock to Flow Ratios for Gold Versus Silver Interestingly, gold has a very high stock-to-flow ratio compared with silver. Gold’s stock or total volume ever produced is roughly 170,000 tonnes, while its yearly production or flow was reported at 2,586 tonnes in 2010 by the World Gold Council. This puts gold’s stock to flow ratio at 65.7 years, while silver’s is less than one third of that. Other key commodities — like crude oil, copper, corn and wheat — have much lower ratios, as the following chart illustrates. (Source: Gold Special Report: Erste Group Says Foundation Of A Return To Sound Money Has Been Laid, Expects Gold To Hit ...

Silver Price Psychology

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:33 PM PDT

People have a natural tendency to seek and understand value. The currently dominant baby boomer generation has a speculative mindset with regard to investment. The relatively frugal generation that lived through the first great depression is now fading in influence, along with their collective memory of harder times. Both professional and individual traders tend to chase momentum, with pros often using technical analysis to justify market movements and their positioning in the market. Individual investors also listen to professionals talking their book, rather than to more objective experts. Silver Prices Spikes Nevertheless, in the silver market, any significant spike higher tends to feed on itself. This is not only due to speculative buying momentum, but also due to short covering buying as the truly limited supply of physical silver exerts its upward influence on the metal's price. While inevitable does not imply imminent, the longer the current price suppress...

The Federal Reserve, Gold, Oil, and the Dollar's Demise

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:12 PM PDT

The Federal Reserve through its various monetary mechanisms has a major impact on the value of the U.S. Dollar and over time has destroyed the purchasing power of the fiat base currency used in the United States. Read More...

Gold & Silver To Surge As Money Pours Into These Markets

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT

Today Stephen Leeb told King World News, "There is no plan for growth, and so in this type of environment people are going to remain very frightened." Leeb, who is Chairman of Leeb Capital Management, also predicted, "This will lead to an ocean of paper money moving into the gold and silver markets."

The acclaimed money manager also discussed Europe and the US, but first, here is what Leeb had to say about the ongoing crisis: "One thing that defines us today is fear, at least in this country. We are a very frightened people right now. For the first time that I've seen we've had a dramatic drop in median income. I'm not talking over the last 20 or 30 years, I'm talking about since this horrible recession began."

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Market Shadows Newsletter: Within Our Mandate

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:58 PM PDT

Excerpts from the latest MarketShadows Newsletter, July 29 2012

Event Horizons

The S&P 500 rose 3.6 percent on Thursday and Friday alone. The rally was triggered when European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi said, "Within our mandate, the European Central Bank is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro, and believe me, it will be enough." His statement sent the markets up, UP and AWAY!

The talk didn't convince former FX trader Bruce Krasting. He wrote in response, "On Friday we got some clarification of what exactly Draghi has up his sleeve when he promised, 'It will be enough.' From Bloomberg: 'DRAGHI'S PROPOSAL SAID TO INCLUDE BOND BUYS, RATE CUT, NEW LTRO [Long Term Refinancing Operation].'

"Bond buys? Rate cuts? New LTRO? That's Draghi's bazooka? These things have been tried in the past and have failed. These steps might buy the EU a few weeks (or hours) of market relief, but they have no chance of turning the EU around."

These measures cannot turn the EU around because the market based-system is not dead yet, in spite of central bank manipulation. Market forces will prevail. Bruce continued, "Draghi is either bluffing or lying. That, or he is as blind as a bat...

"An interesting outcome of the Draghi comments is that the Euro ended the week north of 1.2300 (up 1.5%). Whatever chance the EU may have, it is dependent on a weaker Euro exchange rate. In my book, Mario's words have set the EU back, not forward." (Draghi – We Will Continue to Fight Until Everyone is Dead)

Instead of Draghi's promise to save the euro causing a euro selloff, the euro rose, the US dollar fell, and a massive short squeeze in equities followed. Unfortunately, the words "within our mandate" were neglected in the headlines. Perhaps, they were lost on the high frequency trading computers.

In Wolf Richter's view, Draghi's main worry now is Spain. The cost of saving Greece is manageable, but saving Spain is prohibitive.

"Despite repeated assurances that Spain would not need a bailout other than the €100-billion bank bailout, Spanish Economic Minister Luis de Guindos flew to Berlin to meet with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble ... to discuss a bailout. For €300 billion. And hours beforehand, 'sources' told the Spanish media that if Spain didn't get its wish list, whose top item was a massive bond-buying program by the ECB to force Spain's borrowing costs down, Spain would consider 'more forceful measures.' Because Spain had no money to meet its obligations in October, it would have to default! The D-word made into print. A scary message for the fearless leaders of the Eurozone [for that whole debacle, read.... The Extortion Racket Shifts to Spain].

.

"It worked! Thursday, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi caved... 'within our mandate,' is controversial. It's where the ECB had clashed with the German Bundesbank and others who stubbornly clung to the notion that the treaties governing the ECB gave it only one mandate: price stability. Not propping up stock and bond markets.

.

"Draghi outlined a way around that single-mandate limit... In other words, every time yields go up somewhere in the Eurozone, the ECB is free to 'do whatever it takes' to force them down..."

.

Of course, an important, unanswered question is "Who The Heck Is Going To Do All The Bailing Out?" (War Of The Central Banks?)

Bruce Krasting concluded that Germany would be telling Mario that he "can't have our cake and eat it too." He noted an article appearing in Germany's Handelsblatt: Schäuble denies reports of bond purchases." Next week, Draghi meets with the Bundesbank Weidmann to hammer out their differences.

Market-Moving Forces

Trading Volume ~ The On Balance Volume (OBV) is a technical analysis indicator that measures buying and selling pressure. When the market rises on low volume, as it has been, it is easy to manipulate market moves in any direction.

Investor Sentiment ~ AAII investor sentiment hit a low last week and has since rebounded a little... The S&P remains elevated – on low volume buying...

Sector Exploration

Read MarketShadows July 29 to see what we're doing with OPK and ABX in our Virtual Portfolio.

Charting the Universe

Secret Summits

By Allan Harris of Allan Trends

New Signals

GS Daily —————->LONG

PBKEF Daily ———->LONG

Weekend Market Commentary

Here is the GS Daily Trend Model chart going back six months:

(Click on charts to enlarge)

Nice trends: Buying in December @ $100 reversing to short in April @ $116 and riding it down to today's reversal long @ $100. After three winners in a row, one would expect the next one to be off a bit. But expectations don't work, even when we think they do - it's probably more luck than inspiration. I bought September 100 calls today (7/27), even though I "expect" that this market rally is about over.

The same logic applies to the S&P Hourly chart below. Even though I have been pointing out the ominous nature of the April-May TOP pattern, this trading model has a mind of its own:

SPX Hourly

It whipsawed in late June, but nailed the short term trends before and after with seven winning signals against two losers.

Intermediate term, here is a chart of the Nasdaq Daily Trend Model:

NASDAQ Daily

A trading regimen of using SSO/SDS based on the SPX Hourly Model and QLD/QID based on the Nasdaq Daily Model would have done well over the past few months. There is no reason to think it won't continue, although as the regulators like to have me say, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Finally, longer term, the chart that I expect will ultimately make us the most money going into the final five months of 2012, the DJIA Weekly Trend Model:

DJIA Weekly

The Perfect Set-Up: As you can see by the last bar on the weekly chart above, the DJIA closed at it's high tick for the week. If it makes a higher high next week, then closes lower for the week, I intend to act aggressively on the short side of the market. Some definitions of these kind of "Buying Climaxes" require heavy volume and/or 52 week highs to qualify as an orthodox signal, but with yet another European "summit" and news from one of the Fed's own regularly scheduled, "Secret Summit Among Fiends" due out on Wednesday, if this market can't finish up by the close next Friday, I'm taking that as a bearish omen.

Full update here.

(Allan's Trend Following Model is based on his trend-following trading system for buying and selling stocks and ETFs. Most trades last for weeks to months. Risk-free trials: Standard Trial & Active Trader Service. )

Monopoly Money

By Springheel Jack

Draghi's statement, and apparent agreement of leaders in Europe, has caused changes in the technical landscape. Bonds (TLT) and the US dollar have broken their short term rising support trendlines, and SPX made a new high off the June low. Gold broke up from a two month symmetrical triangle. There is a potential double-bottom on gold indicating it might rise to new highs. This may be the start of a bull run on precious metals:

On the SPX 60min Chart, the failure so far to establish a support trendline from the June low had looked bearish, but not so much any longer. At the low last week, the SPX established a rising channel from the June low. That is potentially bullish and establishes a support trend-line. It would look bullish if the SPX breaks higher.

Short term, I expect a retracement. SPX hit the upper bollinger band on the daily chart and a perfect bearish rising wedge formed on the 15 min chart from Wednesday's close. Longer term, earnings and fundamentals are weak, but technicals are bullish. There's channel support on the SPX in the 1335 area. So I'm skeptical but leaning bullish in spite of my doubts.

Full update here.

Next Week's Travels

In addition to more earnings reports, there will be a plethora of data this week including, on Wednesday, the ADP employment report, ISM manufacturing, and the FOMC rate decision. On Thursday, it's Initial Jobless claims and an ECB meeting.

Describing the recent flow of money through the system, Lee Adler wrote,

"ECB head Draghi came out on Friday and said the ECB would take whatever steps necessary to save the Euro, and the sentiment reversed on a dime. As opposed to all the piling in [to US Treasuries] earlier in the week, suddenly it seemed that everyone rushed for the exits. Actually, it was probably just a few, but that's all it takes at the margin.

.

"If European investors stop fleeing that system for the "safety" of the US Treasury market, we will see a sea change in the bond market. All it will take is for the flood of European capital into the US to slow. That should be enough to end the panic driven bubble in Treasuries. Over the next few days and weeks, we should keep a close eye on the bond market technical indicators for signs of the turn.

.

"The calendar will be very light next week, with just the 13, 26, and 4 week bills. After Monday's big settlement is absorbed, the market will have it easy for the rest of the week and for the rest of the month, relatively speaking. The TBAC estimate for the mid month note and bond settlement is for less than $20 billion in new paper. That will seem like a piece of cake for a market accustomed to absorbing double or triple that. Overall, August will be a month where the market faces very little pressure from new Treasury supply until the end of the month.

.

"Whether the greater benefit accrues to stocks or bonds remains to be seen, but Friday's action suggests that the stock market will be the beneficiary..."

MarketShadows Newsletter, July 29 2012

Please visit us at our Market Shadows website and Facebook page.

Contrarians and Confessions

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:44 PM PDT

Dave Gonigam – July 30, 2012

Ben Bernanke's "spectacular job"… candid confessions from resource pros… Bill Bonner's suspicion of the number zero… and other surprises from the final day at Vancouver
The best time to buy into emerging markets… and two "sunrise economies" worth a look
Three X factors that could move markets this week… and the possibility of a 12.9% gain by Friday
Brokerage bankruptcy begets — get this — a copyright lawsuit… readers lash out at Doug Casey… an art gallery faux pas… and more!

"I think Ben Bernanke's done a spectacular job."

Not the sort of remark you're accustomed to hearing at the Agora Financial Investment Symposium… but the final day's sessions on Friday delivered several surprises.

In fairness, Cranberry Capital's Paul van Eeden prefaced the above remark by saying, "If you look at the job a central banker has to do…" That is, Bernanke has performed superbly within the confines of a central banker's mandate: Avoid catastrophic deflation at all costs.

In 2008-09, so many debts on the balance sheets of the banks were going to "money heaven" that $1.4 trillion of "QE1" had the effect of merely keeping monetary inflation within historical norms. After $600 billion of QE2 in 2010-11, said Mr. van Eeden, "QE3 is not necessary from a monetary perspective."

This is highly relevant to the price of gold: "The gold price anticipates future events," he said. It anticipated QE1 and 2. "I think gold has peaked, I think the fear has subsided. I don't believe the U.S. is facing any serious inflationary threat. Bernanke has shown himself very capable of preventing monetary deflation.

"I think it would be perfectly rational for the gold price to decline over the next five years."

Not so for junior gold stocks, he says: They're already beaten down so badly that "if you have a five-15-year time horizon, you can spend the next two-five years buying some of the highest-quality mineral exploration stocks in the world at very depressed prices."

Gold begins a new week where it began last week, around $1,619. Silver, however, has quietly hoisted itself above $28.

"I made the substitution mistake," conceded resource guru Rick Rule, in another mild surprise during Friday's session.

Rick posed the question to the "resource round table": What mistake did you make during the last bull cycle in resources that you're determined not to repeat the next time?

Newsletter editor Brent Cook — who focuses on junior gold explorers — said he gave in to temptation when he sold big gainers, substituting other juniors.

"In retrospect," Rick chimed in, "the best substitution was cash."

Other remarks from the resource round table…

Newsletter editor Matt Badiali: "I am significantly concerned about the price of oil. I think it's going to crash. I've been shifting my focus away from my comfort zone." In his case, that means looking into a uranium play
Oil executive Marcio Mello disagrees, pointing to falling production in Mexico and Nigeria
Brent Cook on the possibility of a 2008 rerun: "I'm personally sitting on half cash"
Byron King on the same possibility: "I'm not focused on investing for the apocalypse. A lot of people are going to go down with that ship, and they won't let it go down. What I see out there, I meet these wonderful people who are doing great things. They're finding all this good stuff."

Still Byron's on guard for black swans, especially what he calls a "fracking Fukushima" — a massive disaster that, say, destroys an entire town's water supply. No guarantees, but all the same, it can't be ruled out. "Nobody expected the Deepwater Horizon spill, either."

The key to investing in emerging markets: Buy after a financial crisis, said the always-popular Karim Rahemtulla.

Karim says you're best off bypassing the BRIC nations and looking for the next Vietnam. When he visited, the stock market was down 70%, in the midst of a financial crisis, with rampant inflation. "But what was happening on the ground was not reflective of that. People were walking around, doing commerce at 7:00 a.m. Maybe 10% of Vietnamese are invested in the stock market. It means nothing to the person on the street."

Vietnam ended up the top-performing emerging market in 2011. "It is still cheap," he says.

Karim identified one absolute no-no to investing in emerging markets… and he suggested a strict time horizon that might surprise you. He reveals all on our exclusive collection of recordings from last week's conference.

Go for the "sunrise economies," advises Leopard Capital chief Doug Clayton.

Vietnam is too far along for him. Clayton's firm — backed by heavyweights, including Marc Faber — aims to be the first fund that enters a country. He's active in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia and post-earthquake Haiti.

Now he's eyeing two other countries. Burma — or Myanmar, if you prefer — is "like Thailand 40 years ago, China 30 years ago and Vietnam 10 years ago."

His other favorite is the one that's also gotten Chris Mayer's attention — Mongolia. "Mongolia could be the Saudi Arabia of Asia," says Marc Faber.

"Every number used by economists is a lie," said Bill Bonner, delivering the valedictory talk.

"I've turned sour on numbers, I no longer trust them." He finds zero particularly suspect, for reasons that brought down the house.

But the raucous laughter masked many uncomfortable truths that Bill touched on during a wide-ranging and fast-moving 35 minutes. "Most of the world is slowing down. For the last 50 years, we've seen declining growth rates. Birth rates are at a 25-year low. Energy use and GDP growth are both going down."

"What if," he posited, "something's going on that's not subject to policy?" That is, something that can't be moved by printing more money and introducing more credit.

Contra Mae West, "too much of a good thing is a disaster," Bill suggests — whether it's government, or credit creation or numbers themselves.

The endgame Bill lays out is something you'll want to give serious thought to. It was a fitting conclusion to a week of thought-provoking and highly profitable guidance from an all-star lineup of expert speakers.

Whether it's resources, or biotech, or emerging markets or plays that react to macroeconomic factors… there's much for you to chew on. And this year, we offer an added advantage we haven't been able to before: full high-definition video coverage. Now you can see all the charts, all the names and ticker symbols and all the laugh-out-loud pictures that accompanied everyone's talks.

We've had a phenomenal response to this year's video offerings; of course, if audio-only is your bag, that's still available too. But no matter your preference, the window is about to close on the best-available price. After midnight tomorrow, it goes up. We'll send you a reminder e-mail tomorrow morning, but as long as it's fresh in your mind, now's the time to move.

Major U.S. stock indexes are flat as a new week begins. The Dow is at 13,075.

"The markets have surged recently due to better expectations on managing the eurozone," says Abe Cofnas, introducing his "mock trade" for the coming week. "We have the Federal Reserve meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, the European Central Bank meeting Thursday and U.S. nonfarm payrolls on Friday."

With that in mind, Abe anticipates September Dow futures to end the week at 12,775 or higher.

On the binary options market Abe follows, the cost of the trade is $88.50. If the trade pays off, it's good for $100… or a 12.9% gain in five days.

It's not only ripped-off farmers hoping in vain for recompense from Russell Wasendorf Sr., the head of the bankrupt commodities trading firm PFGBest.

So are the writers of one of the '70s' most annoying songs.

Here at The 5, the PFGBest saga is the gift that keeps on giving. Last week, we brought you the story of the silver SpongeBob coins Wasendorf's firm was hawking… and which are now in FBI custody. Now comes word that The Knack is going after Wasendorf for using a remix of "My Sharona" to advertise his restaurant, called MyVerona.

"Among other things," reads a Reuters account, "the song was a soundtrack to a video montage shot in the restaurant, including clips of a plate of wood-grilled beef tenderloin, hand-cut pasta and a glimpse of the restaurant's collection of more than 240 varieties of wine."

(Warning: Click on the video only if you can handle the song going through your head the rest of the day. The 5 bears no responsibility for any resulting fits of rage…)

The band seeks $150,000 in damages. Good luck collecting, guys: At this point, Wasendorf is still represented by a public defender. Get in line…

"Were Doug Casey's remarks regarding the elderly in the preindustrial age made in jest?" writes the first of several readers after Friday's episode.

"In any case, they were disgusting. The point is not that we should eliminate the feeble, but that families should take care of their own and not the government."

"Such a foolish comment makes eugenics, Hitler and Planned Parenthood sound like solutions for our problems. Human beings are resources, not costs. More importantly, they are created in God's image."

"Doug Casey just revealed to us how much he doesn't know," says another. "Does he have diaries or other artifacts from such preindustrial cultures as evidence? Perhaps a book by a leading archeologist?"

"Because everything I've read about preindustrial cultures is that almost all of them respected their elderly and gave them subsistence even when they were too weak to hunt or gather. Yet he makes such a statement — and you repeat it — as if it is entirely uncontroversial. Such hubris is absolutely breathtaking!"

"I suggest you take a different path to wisdom. The only culture I have associated this 'ice floe' story with is the Eskimos. They do not have a culture I wish to emulate. On the other hand, all Western cultures, including our own, have a long history of compassion for the elderly, and our family structures have been a very important means of creating and continuing that culture. That is the culture I wish to emulate."

"As for Mr. Casey, who seems eager to abandon our shared culture in favor of ice floes and his 'all taxes are theft' philosophy, he's always free to move to an Eskimo village."

"Doug's comment is becoming a kind of mantra in the Orwellian world we live in today," says a third, "but it is an appalling point of view: cold, cruel, merciless and immoral."

"The notion the only value of a living being is their continued ability to create revenue is disgusting… and fundamentally untrue in its implications. As a young mother, when I could have coldly and mercilessly served myself, I instead served and sacrificed everything without question for the benefit of my children. I love them and am honored to be loved in return."

"In addition to providing for them, I also provided for my future as much as I was allowed to, according to the economic reality of the time. My future has been stolen, ripped away by criminals masquerading as business people and politicians. The notion of throwing me out into the night when I became elderly is hideous and wrong; it's wrongheaded as well. Unless or until we actually become robots, this is unacceptable, inhuman and inhumane."

"Rather, we need to look at the REAL problems of economic criminality: the international central banking cabal, fiat currencies and fractional reserve banking… combined with FUNDING illegal and bankrupting WARS of mass murder and theft, which is the single greatest cause of the impoverishment of our nation, and which is controlled by war profiteers. Let's have them step out onto the ice floes, shall we? Thank you for your time."

The 5: We wouldn't dare presume to speak for Mr. Casey, but we doubt he'd take issue with anything in your laundry list of "real problems." (He did say, "Bankers are complicit, but government is to blame.")

We suggest if you want to hear his remarks in full context, you get the full collection of audio and/or video recordings from our Vancouver sessions. In addition to Casey's provocative comments, there's a host of actionable investment advice. Plus, the always popular written summary of the afternoon workshops, which get down to the nitty-gritty with dozens of names and ticker symbols.

Just a reminder, the price of these recordings rises by as much as 50% as of midnight tomorrow. Act now for the best available price.

Cheers,

Dave Gonigam
The 5 Min. Forecast

P.S. "The whole room turned to look first at the painting," writes Jim Amrhein, "then directly at me as though I had a dunce cap on."

As always, Jim captures a colorful side to the week's events in Vancouver; for an amusing account of the Thursday night gallery tour and the Friday sessions, give this a look.

Germany is Tapped Out... It's Only a Matter of Time Before the EU Breaks Up

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:24 PM PDT

The European Crisis is accelerating with every day. Indeed, at this point there’s a new major development (if not more than one) on a daily basis.

Rather than detailing every single news item, I’d rather address the larger concerns. This will better help you understand the larger systemic issues and how this is all likely to play out.

Greece, which we’ve been told was “saved” more than a dozen times, is back on the ropes and on the verge of needing a third bailout:

Greece will need more debt restructuring…EU officials

Greece is unlikely to be able to pay what it owes and further debt restructuring is likely to be necessary, three EU officials said on Tuesday, a cost that would have to fall on the European Central Bank and euro zone governments.

The officials said that twice bailed-out Greece would be found to be way off track by EU and International Monetary Fund officials who have been assessing the country.

Inspectors from the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF -- together known as the troika -- returned to Athens on Tuesday and will complete their debt-sustainability analysis next month, but the sources said the conclusions were already becoming clear.

It means Greece's official-sector creditors -- the ECB and euro zone governments -- will have to restructure some of the estimated 200 billion euros of Greek government debt they own if Athens is to be put back on a sustainable footing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/24/us-eurozone-greece-idUSBRE86N11D20120724

How this can be a surprise to anyone is beyond me. Greece was already asking for repayment extensions after its first bailout. Put another way Greece was already showing that it couldn’t meet its easier/ more lax debt repayment schedule back in 2010.

As a standalone item, Greece is now at the point of either leaving the Euro or defaulting. Both items are receiving coverage in the mainstream financial media, which tells us that high-level officials have plans in place for either eventuality (things don’t get out into the media in Europe until political “sources” plant them).

Greece’s Far-Left Leader Says Country Will Default

Greek’s leftist leader said his country would default, and has forecast that the ruling coalition government would look into returning to using the country’s old currency.

Syriza party head Alexis Tsipras said in an interview Saturday with Greek weekly Real News that the government will “soon present” the idea for Greece to stop using the euro and use the drachma, reported the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Tsipras said that any extension of the deal with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union is “essentially a longer rope with which to hang ourselves.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/greece-s-far-left-leader-says-country-will-default-268844.html?popular

Tsipras is the head of Greece’s anti-Euro Syriza party, which has grown rapidly in popularity over the last few elections:

	October 2009	May 2012	June 2012
SYRIZA’s % of Vote	4%	16.8%	26.9%

Indeed, in the most recent election, Syriza lost by less than 3%. With Greece now showing a GDP contraction of 20% (this is on par with Argentina in 2001 which was accompanied by systemic collapse and full-scale defaults), it is highly likely that should Greece hold another election, Syriza would take is Parliament. The man who says Greece should just default would then be in charge of things in Greece.

On the other side of this debate is Germany whose political leaders are increasingly calling for Greece to leave:

Angela Merkel's coalition partners are lining up to demand a Greek exit from the euro, mounting pressure on the German chancellor and fanning market fears that Greece could shortly leave the single

currency bloc.

Patrick Döring, general-secretary of Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners the Free Democrats (FDP), told the regional Passauer Neue Presse newspaper that Greece could recover and regain competitiveness more quickly outside the eurozone.

"If Greece was no longer a part of the eurozone it could create trust on markets", he said in remarks published Tuesday (24 July).

He is the latest of a number of top-ranking members of the two smaller parties in Merkel's coalition to call for an exit for the benefit of Greece and to prevent contagion, mindful of the rising cost to Germany of bailing out weaker eurozone states.

Rating agency Moody's acknowledged that burden on Monday, dropping its outlook on German debt from stable to negative.

http://drugi.euractiv.com/euro-finance/merkel-partners-call-greek-euro-news-514099

The Moody’s outlook change on Germany lets us know that this time around the debate is more than political posturing. If Germany loses its AAA status, then it’s GAME OVER for the EU: the German population, already outraged by the EU bailouts, and now facing a recession will NOT tolerate a credit rating downgrade.

As I’ve stated many times, Germany is THE REAL backstop of the EU. And it’s comprised its own solvency as a result: the country is only €328 billion away from reaching an official Debt to GDP of 90%, the level at which national solvency is called into question.

Moreover, that €328 billion has already been spent via various EU props. Indeed, when we account for all the backdoor schemes Germany has engaged in to prop up the EU, Germany's REAL Debt to GDP is closer to 300%.

Folks, Germany is tapped out. It’s now only a matter of time before the EU is broken up.

On that note, we’ve recently published a report showing investors how to prepare for this. It’s called What Europe’s Collapse Means For You and it explains exactly how the coming Crisis will unfold as well as which investment (both direct and backdoor) you can make to profit from it.

This report is 100% FREE. You can pick up a copy today at: http://www.gainspainscapital.com

Good Investing!

Graham Summers

PS. We also feature numerous other reports ALL devoted to helping you protect yourself, your portfolio, and your loved ones from the Second Round of the Great Crisis. Whether it’s a US Debt Default, runaway inflation, or even food shortages and bank holidays, our reports cover how to get through these situations safely and profitably.

And ALL of this is available for FREE under the OUR FREE REPORTS tab at: http://www.gainspainscapital.com

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Silver Would Not Be Denied

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:17 PM PDT

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Mixed

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:16 PM PDT

Gold fell $9.32 to $1614.08 by about 8:30AM EST, but it then climbed to as high as $1624.86 in afternoon New York trade and ended with a loss of 0.08%. Silver slipped to $27.53 in Asia, but it then rose to as high as $28.23 in New York and ended with a gain of 1.55%.

Harry Dent's Formula for Surviving the Great Bust Ahead

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT

The Gold Report: Your considerable research over many years indicates that the size and age of its citizens drive a country's economic growth or decline. Because people have predictable consumption patterns throughout life, you can predict well in advance national economic growth or decline. How does that work? Harry Dent: We've identified a peak spending wave indicator that correlates strongly with the stock market and the economy. It doesn't apply so much to emerging countries, where we look at urbanization rates, which greatly affect incomes, and workforce growth because emerging nations don't have a middle-class curve where typical consumers earn $60,000 a year at the peak of their careers. [INDENT] Related Articles: Porter Stansberry: Enough Already, Let's Return to the Gold Standard! The Ultimate Gold Bull Peter Grandich vs. The Muted Bear Steve Palmer The Recovery Is an Illusion: John Williams [/INDENT]In developed countries, though—countries with higher-tech infrastructur...

Most Important Silver COT Chart for 2012

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 12:14 PM PDT

Mr. Arensberg wanted me to share with you-all the chart below, which he says is the "most important chart for the CFTC commitments of traders (COT) data for silver so far in 2012." Gene already commented on the very bullish positioning in the Vulture subscriber charts over the weekend, but he wanted a visual representation of it available.

The chart is of the short positions by the traders the CFTC classes as "Managed Money," including hedge funds, Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) and other funds that trade futures for clients. They are normally on the long side for silver futures, but over the past couple months they have been adding more and more short positions up to a new record high for the entire disaggregated COT report data going back to 2006.

Here is the chart:

Source: CFTC for COT, Cash Market for silver.

As of Tuesday, July 24, with silver at $26.93, Managed Money traders held the highest ever number of bets that silver would fall in price (17,575 short contracts).

Continued…

The high Fund short position is a big reason that the Managed Money net long position is so very low, at just 3,015 contracts. Their shorts offset a slightly higher number of longs. Here is that graph:

That is a very, very small net long position! And, if you believe like we do, a very low Managed Money net long position means there is a lot of buying horsepower sitting on "go" for when the Funds think a new rally is getting underway.

Mr. Arensberg is convinced that the Funds have built up that record high short position as a kind of insurance – a "just in case hedge" to protect them if silver broke down through the super-important long time technical support level of $26. (But silver did not break down through $26, did it.)

He believes that if silver were to move back higher, up through about $28.50 or maybe $29 or so, the Funds would be quick to buy back those short bets on silver – because it will have broken out of a bottom consolidation pattern.

What is more, once it is clear that the Funds have started closing out all those record high short bets, all the regular traders on the N.Y. COMEX will be trying to front run that short covering, sort of like switching on an afterburner. Then, when that is going on the other shorts might be trying to take profits, buying back their shorts all at the same time with the algo traders trying to jump on it for the ride.

"It could be an explosive move if that happens," Gene said. "We could even see an offer vacuum for a little while, which we have not seen since January," he added.

An offer vacuum is the opposite of a bid vacuum. They occur when many traders suddenly pull all their offers because the price is going vertical.

Gene isn't predicting it as such, but he says it is definitely something to keep an eye out for and silver is not that far under where the fireworks ought to start, currently at about $28.

All I can say is … it's about time for a silver reversal, isn't it?

Colette Chapman for Got Gold Report

No, this isn't a story about Mario Draghi

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 12:10 PM PDT

German investors hit in multi-million dollar ponzi scheme Prosecutors in Mannheim, Germany said they have evidence that 1,295 investors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland lost at least $37 million in a pyramid scheme allegedly run by a German man arrested … Continue reading →

European euphoria

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 11:58 AM PDT

Good day, and welcome to another Monday morning. It was quite a wild ride last week that took us from one extreme to the other in the span of a few short days. I was sitting here trying to think of something that I could draw for comparison, and for some reason the old TV show The Incredible Hulk popped into my head. I was picturing the mild-mannered man going about his everyday life and then something triggers the transformation into this green monster that nobody understands or likes. Fear then jumps into the picture along with overreaction, and then as quickly as the Hulk wreaked havoc, he disappears and we see that same mild-mannered man walking down the street with his backpack until the next eruption.

I know that's it's too easy to let yourself get sucked into the latest episode, but in these times, looking at the big picture will probably be associated with prudence. We went from the European problems almost boiling over, at least from a headline perspective, to an improvement in the outlook that things might end up being all right by the time we packed it up for the weekend. I'll be sitting at master controls until tomorrow, and then Chris takes us through the weekend as Chuck stays off the grid while he takes his summer vacation. If we take a look at the currency returns from last week, it actually turned out to be a decent week, as most currencies appreciated by about 1%. I'll hit on the currencies later, but first, let's take a look to see what happened on Friday.

As Chris reported, things got started as European policymakers said they would do everything necessary to protect and preserve the euro (EUR). Those words alone were enough to move the markets and provided the security blanket they were so desperately seeking. Who knows how long this will last, but it's a what have you done for me lately kind of world that we live in, so we could be singing a different tune by the end of the day. A big part of the issues we saw early last week stemmed from the perception that the ECB wasn't taking enough steps, but this broad statement did the trick. The question now becomes what does everything exactly mean.

It's looking more likely that another round of bond buying or quantitative easing will soon be on the horizon. ECB president Mario Draghi is supposed to meet with the Bundesbank in an effort to come up with a plan. It's reported that Europe's rescue fund will buy government bonds on the primary market while the ECB purchases on the secondary market in order to reduce borrowing costs for Spain and Italy. Additional rate cuts and loans to banks are also on the table, but the fact that Germany appears to be on board is not only a must, but also adds instant credibility. Officials said that giving a banking license to the European rescue fund isn't a part of the immediate plan, but would provide assistance down the road.

At the end of the day, European officials threw the markets a bone in hopes they stay preoccupied for a while, or at least until they're done scrambling around. I'm sure we'll get some pushing back and forth before the ECB Governing Council meets on Thursday, so it could be another bumpy ride. This week also looks to be a busy one for U.S. economic data, so maybe things won't be as bad, since all eyes won't squarely be focused on Europe. First, let's take a look at the economic prints from Friday.

We finally saw confirmation that the second quarter did, in fact, slow down, which came as no surprise. The first print of second-quarter GDP came in marginally better than expected at 1.5%, but was considerably lower than the revised first-quarter printing of 2%. Bernanke recently said that economic activity appears to have decelerated somewhat during the first half of the year, but I would say it's a complete understatement. I don't know about you, but I would say a 51% fall in economic growth in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter and then followed by a 25% fall in the second quarter would be considered more than somewhat of a deceleration.

There were a ton of revisions made to growth figures over the past few years, some positive and some negative, but that's all out of sight and out of mind. I did come across an interesting tidbit called Okun's law, which is name after the late Yale professor Arthur Okun. This observation tries to correlate the statistical relationship between GDP and unemployment changes. The gist of it basically says that for every 1% year-over-year growth that exceeds the trend rate, which the Fed defines as between 2.3-2.6%, unemployment should drop 0.5%.

The rubber that meets the road here is that the unemployment rate dropped 1%, going from 9.5% in June 2009 to 8.5% in December 2011, but GDP grew at an average 2.3%. If my math is correct, then we would have needed a 4.3% GDP growth rate to support the fall in unemployment, assuming the lower end of that range. Those of you who are frequent readers know one of the explanations of how this can happen, namely the government simply not taking an accurate count by excluding certain segments. But that discussion is for another day.

Moving on to more disappointment, personal consumption fell to 1.5% in the second quarter, from a revised 2.4% showing on the previous report. The 37% reduction in household spending was the ninth time over the past 10 reports and remains consistent with the gloomier outlook in corporate spending. Consumer spending is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy so these types of reports don't paint a rosy picture. There isn't much on the horizon that would look to provide a jump-start, so as long as employment gains remain grounded, these types of results would look to be the norm.

We also saw the final revision to July consumer confidence, and it didn't end pretty. The index came in at 72.3 and represents the lowest level of the year so far as the usual suspects remain at play. The employment picture is, obviously, the big one, but the troubles in Europe and the rough patches in the financial markets for the better part of the month also had a heavy hand. It would be one thing if there were light at the end of the tunnel, but unfortunately, it's still very dark, so it's no wonder the consumer outlook over the next six months has waned.

As I mentioned, it's going to be a jampacked week, so there's going to be plenty of stuff on the minds of investors. We ease into it today, as we'll see only the Dallas Fed manufacturing report, which is expected to show more weakness. But we take off from there. Some of the big reports that we have in store include personal income and spending, manufacturing, the FOMC meeting and the all-important July jobs report. The two reports that should pack the biggest punch are be the Fed meeting on Wednesday and the July jobs jamboree on Friday. The Fed rate decision is a given, but the markets can't wait to see if there will be any stimulus talk, so look for some volatility leading into the meeting.

With economic growth slowing as much as it has and consumer spending remaining in the same boat, you would have thought the stock market was headed for some trouble, but it did the exact opposite. The euphoria, as temporary as it may be, from Europe spilled over and just goes to show you that the markets were looking for an excuse to rally. At the same time, aggregate earnings from S&P 500 companies are expected to drop 0.8% in the second quarter for the first time since 2009, so it was just a matter of time before slow consumer growth went full circle. I'm not even your last choice on looking at the stock market, but thought I would report what I saw.

Well, I told you as I opened the show that it actually turned out to be a decent week for the currencies, but that's not to say it wasn't a bit hair-raising for a few days. The South African rand (ZAR), which was getting clobbered, turned in the best score card by rising 1.5% to end the week. Surprisingly enough, the euro finished runner up with a gain against the dollar of 1.35%. How about that for a turn of events? The yen even turned a fractional gain, so everything finished up, including both gold and silver. As we've warned many times in the past, this market volatility has no sense of direction and can snap either way at a moment's notice.

The change in scenery that really caught my eye as I was heading out the door to start my weekend was the fact the euro was trading with a 1.23 handle and the price of gold was firmly above $1,600. In fact, the euro touched a three-week high of 1.2377 on Friday morning amid the proclamation from policymakers, even though Spanish unemployment rose to 24.6%, the highest on record, and Italian business confidence fell more than expected. Aside from the euro, the announcements also had a profound impact on bond yields as Italy's 10-year yield fell below 6% and the Spanish counterpart fell to 6.74%, which is a far cry from a couple days prior.

The Canadian dollar (CAD) got close to breaking on through to the other side of parity, which it hasn't seen since mid May, as it traded all the way to $0.9965. The rise in oil prices and stocks represented the helping hand. We didn't see any economic data that would have gotten the ball rolling, so it was merely a risk on type of move. The increased risk appetite also cast both the Australian dollar (AUD) and New Zealand dollar (NZD) into the top of the charts on Friday, so the word of the day was definitely risk on.

In the spirit of the Olympics, I'll move over to the pound sterling, (GBP) which did manage to squeeze out a slight gain on Friday by trading into the 1.57 handle. The Bank of England, and the ECB, for that matter, meets later this week and is expected to maintain its bond-buying program. It's not likely they will increase the scope, as they'll most likely want to see the progression thus far. Since the U.K. has found itself in the middle of its first double-dip recession since the 1970s, it's no wonder why they have only allocated $14.6 billion of public money to host the summer games, compared with the $70 billion that China forked over on the Beijing Olympics. That's about as black and white as you can get.

Jumping around a bit, the rand got a boost as central bank officials explained that further monetary easing isn't automatic. After they took the markets by surprise in cutting rates at the previous meeting, the markets translated that action into the start of another rate cut cycle. While the Swiss franc (CHF) is connected at the hip with the euro, we did see a leading indicators type of report rise for a sixth straight month, and to the highest level in nearly a year. The domestic economy has been hanging on with unemployment remaining at three-year lows, but the continuing slowness out of the eurozone is expected to take its toll as the year progresses.

In another surprising turn of events, the Norwegian krone (NOK) finished in last place on Friday by falling 0.5%. There weren't any data reports to initiate its depreciation, so it looks as though the increased sentiment from the eurozone prompted some movement out of the so-called safety of Norway. The fundamentals remain in place, and its high sovereign credit rating remains a beacon for the safe-haven flow of money, but as we saw, the opposite effect is also possible.

As I came in this morning, the dollar has regained some lost ground against the euro as Spain's second-quarter GDP contracted 0.4%. We also had a European consumer confidence indicator fall to the lowest level since September 2009. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Swedish krona (SEK) has put together a decent day so far, as their second-quarter economic growth increased more than expected, to 1.4%. Other than that, gold and silver are sitting on slight losses, but it's shaping up to be another day for the dollar.

Then There Was This: Evidence signals wider Libor manipulation; FSA to fast-track review. In addition to Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS might have been deeply involved in manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, according to court documents and sources. "RBS is one of the banks tied up in Libor," CEO Stephen Hester said. "We'll have our day in that particular spotlight as well." Other information suggests manipulation began in earnest in 2005. U.K. Chancellor George Osborne instructed the Financial Services Authority to fast-track a review of the matter and report its findings by the end of September.

To recap: Which market personality will show up today? It was all about European optimism as policymakers pledge to do everything possible, so now we just need to wait and see what actually happens. Aside from a rise in the euro, the other immediate impact was the fall in Italian and Spanish bond yields. Second-quarter GDP and consumer spending both slowed and just confirmed that things aren't heading toward the right path. It's going to be a busy week in the data department, with the Fed meeting and July employment numbers holding the most weight. The currencies ended the day as well as the week on a positive note. And Olympic spending tells a tale.

Mike Meyer
for The Daily Reckoning

European euphoria originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, published by Agora Financial provides over 400,000 global readers economic news, market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas. Recently Agora Financial released a video titled "What Causes Gas Price to Increase?".