saveyourassetsfirst3 |
- Precious Metals “Defending Gains”, Central Bank Policy “Hugely Bullish” for Commodities
- When Silver Prices Finally Challenge Perception
- Dead Nevada mans home filled with gold
- Is Silver Fast On Its Way To $50 & Beyond?
- Faber: Own Gold – “Don’t Store It In The U.S., The Fed Will Take It Away From You One Day”
- Euro Gold Price Taking Off
- Gold, Silver, Aluminium to Benefit Most from QE3 – Standard Bank
- Silver Offers Investors the Best Protection Available Against QE3 Dollar Debasement
- More QE Must Be in the Context of Today’s Problems, Not Those of 2009
- Hedge Fund Silver Positions
- The Age of Boom & Bust Accelerates
- Silver Price Forecast: Is Silver Fast On Its Way To $50?
- How Sweet Is QE3 for Precious Metals?
- What Happens After Infinity?
- The Fraud of Negative Gold/Silver Lease Rates
- Timberline Partner Sells Half Interest in Butte Highlands
- Marc Faber: Own Gold – 'Don’t Store It In The US'
- Central Bank Policy 'Hugely Bullish' for Commodities
- Alex Jones: QE3 Warfare Against the Dollar
- Silver Update: Escape From America 9.16.12
- Weekly Gold & Silver Upodate: Bonds Collapse & Gold Explodes
- Berwick: Most People Will Not See this Coming
- Gold and Silver Market morning, September 17 2012
- The Chinese Are Setting the Gold Market On Fire
- Links 9/17/12
- Is QE3 Yet Another Stealth Bank Bailout?
| Precious Metals “Defending Gains”, Central Bank Policy “Hugely Bullish” for Commodities Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:44 PM PDT Precious Metals "Defending Gains", Central Bank Policy "Hugely Bullish" for Commodities THE WHOLESALE cost of buying gold dipped below $1770 an ounce during Monday morning trading in London, but remained less than ten Dollars below their six-month high hit last Friday, the day after the US Federal Reserve announced a third round of quantitative easing. Prices for buying silver fell to around $34.50 an ounce this morning – 1.3% off Friday's high – as stocks and industrial commodities also edged lower and major government bond prices rose. "Precious metals are for the most part defending the gains they have made in recent days," says Commerzbank in its morning commodities note. "Gold is still pretty bullish this week," agrees Phillip Futures analyst Lynette Tan in Singapore. "I think gold prices will remain firm and probably test the [$1790] high set in February…buyers are still buying gold, but it seems that profit taking may occur later." On New York's Comex, the so-called speculative net long position across all gold futures and options traders – based on the difference between bullish and bearish contracts – rose to its highest level since February last Tuesday, according to weekly data published each Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The world's largest gold ETF SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) meantime saw its bullion holdings climb above 1300 tonnes Friday for the first time since August last year. "We believe the macroeconomic environment for gold is turning more constructive," says a report from Deutsche Bank. "We expect that the growth in supply of fiat currencies is an important driver, the low interest rate environment is likely to continue to enhance gold's attractiveness given the negligible opportunity cost." Since the start of the month, both the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve have announced open-ended stimulus measures. The ECB said it will buy sovereign bonds on the open market "with no ex ante quantitative limits", while the Fed said it will buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities each month until it sees "substantial" improvement in the US labor market, a move generally being recognized as a third round of quantitative easing (QE3). "People will see commodities as something they want to hold, because they see these moves as inflationary," says John Stephenson, portfolio manager at First Asset Investment Management in Toronto. "It's hugely bullish in the short run, now that all of the central banks seem to be singing from the same hymnal." "The precious [metals] complex looks rather good medium to long term," adds a note from Swiss refiner MKS. "But after a month and a half rise without any correction, a violent crash for both gold and silver could happen." Since the ECB announced its plan on September 6, the Euro has gained around 4% against the Dollar, breaching $1.30 last week for the first time since May following the Fed QE3 announcement. "While we can easily see the Euro rising further in the next few weeks, to $1.35 or so, we still hold to a $1.15 target over the next 6-12 months," says this morning's note from Steve Barrow, head of G10 research at Standard Bank. Despite recent Euro strength however, the cost of buying gold in Euros remained within 2% of its spot market all-time high during Monday morning's trading. European finance ministers meeting in Cyprus over the weekend agreed to postpone a decision on whether to grant Greece more time to meet its austerity commitments until late next month. Decisions on the creation of a single European banking supervisor were also deferred. France's finance minister meantime has defended plans for a 75% tax rate for those who earn more than €1 million a year. "It's a strong, patriotic measure," Pierre Moscovici told RTL radio. "Those that got very rich over the past period can help in a patriotic way to turn around the country… Lowering the [national] debt is a necessary battle to have our sovereignty from the markets. I don't want France to be a prisoner of its debt." French economic growth is expected to remain "considerably below 1%" next year, Bank of France governor Christian Noyer says in an interview published in Les Echos Monday. The United States meantime is to complain to the World Trade Organization about China subsidizing car and car part manufacturing, the Financial Times reports. "The key principle at stake is that China must play by the rules of the global trading system," a White House spokesman said. "When it does not, the Obama administration will take action to ensure that American businesses and workers are competing on a level playing field." Ben Traynor Gold value calculator | Buy gold online at live prices Editor of Gold News, the analysis and investment research site from world-leading gold ownership service BullionVault, Ben Traynor was formerly editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the UK's longest-running investment letter. A Cambridge economics graduate, he is a professional writer and editor with a specialist interest in monetary economics. Ben writes and presents BullionVault's weekly gold market summary on YouTube and can be found on Google+ (c) BullionVault 2012 Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.
|
| When Silver Prices Finally Challenge Perception Posted: 17 Sep 2012 11:43 AM PDT Silver is typically perceived to be much less valuable than its underlying demand would imply. Also, the quantity of silver available in the form of above ground investment grade metal is actually less than gold. |
| Dead Nevada mans home filled with gold Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:59 AM PDT |
| Is Silver Fast On Its Way To $50 & Beyond? Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:23 AM PDT If silver continues to follow the pattern that gold formed, then we can expect a massive spike towards the $50 and beyond, very soon. We are very likely in that move to $50, given that the silver price has broken out of the pennant to the up-side. |
| Faber: Own Gold – “Don’t Store It In The U.S., The Fed Will Take It Away From You One Day” Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:48 AM PDT gold.ie |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:31 AM PDT
from goldmoney.com: After reaching a new all-time high of €1,365 per troy ounce last week, the price of gold looks ready to celebrate the new "unlimited" fashion at the ECB with some healthy action of its own, expect the following months to be very exciting. The temptation to print is just too strong, the old school bundesbankers stepped out and those left behind are more than happy to sound tough in press conferences, but still accommodate the politicians with easy money. The truth is that without free, unlimited money, they would actually have to make hard choices. Imagine that! The horrifying thought of having to choose between ice-cream and chocolate cake, instead of simply having both, is simply unconceivable. The idea that some banks should be allowed to fail is simply not countenanced. It is true that when a non-banking company fails, the assets and people don't disappear: the assets will find new owners and the workers new jobs. It might take some time, it might be traumatic and some value will be lost along the way, but eventually resources, if the market is allowed to clear and the price mechanism is allowed to work, will find productive and valuable employment. Keep on reading @ goldmoney.com |
| Gold, Silver, Aluminium to Benefit Most from QE3 – Standard Bank Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:30 AM PDT
from mineweb.com: GRONINGEN (MINEWEB) – According to a note out from Standard Bank on Friday, gold, silver and aluminium are the three metals likely to benefit most from the Fed's announcement last week of QE3. "Given that QE is initially purely a monetary phenomenon," the bank writes, "with a possible real economic effect only later, we note that price reaction may differ from what one would expect, looking purely at commodity specific fundamentals." Having said that, however, the bank says, following an extensive analysis of the periods following the announcement of QE1 and QE2 respectively, "Our analysis shows that gold, silver, Brent and aluminium are likely to move higher with the most certainty or highest confidence." Keep on reading @ mineweb.com |
| Silver Offers Investors the Best Protection Available Against QE3 Dollar Debasement Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:26 AM PDT
from silverseek.com: Silver prices are really going to be on a roll until at least next Spring after Ben Bernanke unleashed his latest round of money printing QE3 last week which echoed the 'unlimited' bond buying promised by the ECB the week before. It's coordinated 'QE to infinity' as Mr. Gold Jim Sinclair correctly forecast the week before. ArabianMoney like 'The Economist' magazine is a bit taken aback at the timing and intensity of QE3. We thought Mr.Bernanke might keep his powder dry for a while longer. He did not. Mr.Bernanke clearly knows a lot more than he is letting on and it is not good news. He is reacting to the nasty known-knowns coming up, namely: the US 'fiscal cliff' at the year-end with lower spending and higher taxes; the Chinese economic slowdown or crash that is happening now; and the interminable eurozone sovereign debt crisis with Greece not likely to get a third bailout and Spanish bonds about to be tested to destruction. Keep on reading @ silverseek.com |
| More QE Must Be in the Context of Today’s Problems, Not Those of 2009 Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:25 AM PDT
from telegraph.co.uk: For a more mature debate, the (currently) £375bn policy – which has been through three rounds – should be reviewed in the context of the economic backdrop at the time the specific actions were taken. After all, this is how interest rate decisions are reviewed. When the policy was introduced in early 2009, credit supply was non-existent as the banks clammed up in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse, deflation worries were high, 15-year gilt yields stood at 4.4pc and the UK had not yet achieved its status as a safe haven for investors. Within that context, QE's first-order aim to push gilt yields down signalled that policymakers were prepared to take extraordinary measures, in extraordinary times, to expand lending and keep the economy moving. It was the right thing to do. Keep on reading @ telegraph.co.uk |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:23 AM PDT
from traderdannorcini.blogspot.ca: Here is the latest breakdown of the hedge fund positions in the Silver market at the Comex based on Friday's COT data. Speculative money flows continue into Silver as hedge fund managers position themselves further on the long side of the market and continue reducing their short side exposure. Keep on reading @ traderdannorcini.blogspot.ca |
| The Age of Boom & Bust Accelerates Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:20 AM PDT
from news.goldseek.com: Like it or not, human will – and a hell of a lot of financial chicanery – has created this bull market. Powerful people, not duly elected but rather appointed, are continuing to degrade the peoples' money in the interest of keeping the system moving forward. Here is the S&P 500 shown establishing a new technical objective (hey, it's TA and it does not care about right and wrong) after hitting our long-standing target of 1460. I had no clue why SPX was targeting 1460 other than the election cycle that NFTRH followed all summer. But now I (and you) have a clue, thanks to the DML (Dear Monetary Leader) following up his Jawbone with action – very inflationary action. Keep on reading @ news.goldseek.com |
| Silver Price Forecast: Is Silver Fast On Its Way To $50? Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:05 AM PDT Is Silver Fast On Its Way To $50? By Hubert Moolman There is not just a similarity in how gold and silver trade at the same time period, but also how they trade at similar milestones, despite the fact that those milestones are sometimes reached at different times. This can cause silver or gold [...]  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How Sweet Is QE3 for Precious Metals? Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:02 AM PDT Precious metals prices headed a bit lower at the opening this morning, mainly on the back of light profit-taking that ensued after the euro retreated and the US dollar rose owing to apprehensions about Europe and Asia. |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2012 06:42 AM PDT
…Meanwhile, it is probably worth marking down September 13, 12:30 PM Eastern, S&P 500 1438 as the point when the Fed finally went all-in, much to our relief – allowing the market to presume unlimited QE, and removing the constant anticipation that the Fed would draw the last arrow from its quiver to kill off every prudent element of our economic system. As Bernanke noted at his press conference, the Fed has been down to two main tools given that interest rates are effectively zero: "balance sheet action, and of course, we can restructure those – change those in various ways. The other type of tool is communication tools. And we could – we continue to work on how to best communicate with the public." So the Fed has now left itself with nothing but talk. We continue to view QE as being of no real economic benefit, and though it has clearly affected financial markets, QE has typically boosted the stock market by little more than the amount it has lost over the prior 6 month period. That's another way of saying that I doubt the Fed's actions will be of much durable effect here at all. As I noted in July, the probable upside benefit to QE3 was likely to be limited to the upper Bollinger band of the S&P 500 on weekly and monthly resolutions. And here we are. The S&P 500 now sits atop its upper Bollinger bands (two standard deviations above its 20-period moving average) at daily, weekly and monthly resolutions. Further progress requires the market to sustain these strenuously overbought conditions. Investment advisors are now bullish by a margin of greater than two-to-one, and the pace of selling by corporate insiders has tripled since July to a rate of six shares sold for every share purchased. You can see the extreme positioning of the S&P and the U.S. dollar in the two bollinger band charts below:  click to enlarge Now some folks have said, in the aftermath of last week's craziness, that anyone who thought the Fed would fall short on Thursday should essentially feel shamed / embarrassed by their bad analysis. To which we reply, really? Ben Bernanke basically went insane on Thursday. Are you really supposed to discount a guy going insane? By "insane" we mean that the Fed has instituted a policy akin to pushing its entire stack of chips into the center of the table. Once you go "infinite" what have you got left? Zimbabwe-style bricks of cash shipped out via Amazon prime? Liquidity shot in people's faces with water cannons? The following from Gavyn Davies at the Financial Times, Why Did Ben Bernanke change his mind, also sheds light on the surprisingly weak rationalizations for the Fed's lunacy:
To which again we say, hmm. Really? The Fed has decided to basically use everything it's got… leaving nothing in reserve from a psychological perspective… because it is so suddenly worried about unemployment that all of a sudden, oh my gosh, ALL OF THE CHIPS go in the middle right now? It is a real possibility, one supposes. It is possible that Bernanke is a true drinker of his own kool-aid, which would make him the monetary policy equivalent of cult leader Jim Jones. It is also possible that Bernanke and the FOMC can be counted among the worst traders ever, with a sense of risk management so nonexistent, so awful, that they happily accelerate screamingly overbought trends (in stocks) and oversold trends (in the dollar) at the same time, ahead of a pending Greece-related Europe flare-up, just because they are immensely dense like that. Such a course would be on par with pointlessly canceling one's hurricane insurance even as the storm bears down on the beach house, but no matter. It is at least theoretically possible the Fed is that stupid… but why give credit to such unlikely dumbness, when a plausible alternative explanation is readily available. We think the Fed pushed all in, e.g. "went infinite," with specific political motivation prior to the November elections. But regardless of whether you believe that, the game has now shifted significantly because a series of open questions has been put on the table:
One can imagine an exchange going like this: Mr. Chairman, what will you do if "infinite" QE fails to work as advertised and does not bring down unemployment? Bernanke: Well, then we will just print more. But what about inflationary concerns? Bernanke: Inflationary concerns are worth the risk. We are attempting to create inflation. But what if no amount of juice solves the problem? What if your created inflation makes unemployment worse, by forcing savers to save even more as a bulwark against rising food and energy costs, lowering consumer spending further? Bernanke: … Does an "off" switch even exist? To what ends will you pursue "infinity?" Will you recreate Argentina or Venezuela, where unofficial inflation numbers run higher than twenty percent a month? Would Evans and Rosengren and your number one Keynesian superfan Krugman be satisfied then? Bernanke: … At the end of the day we are traders, not economists or prognosticators. But this stuff matters from a trading perspective because at some point the market is going to clue in to the fact that even "infinite" QE will not work… and will likely even cause more harm than good. When that happens, it is going to be very, very ugly. It is also entirely possible that the Fed's infinite QE actually worsens the consumer spending picture through the mechanism as described in our hypothetical dialogue. If strapped middle class consumers, who are already paying a form of "stealth inflation" tax in rising food and energy prices, are forced to save and retrench FURTHER because of QE's inflationary impact, consumer spending could actually DROP. Wealth effect? For the 1% maybe, or just possibly the upper 30%. For the 70% that comprises most of the country, a wealth effect in reverse… And such could occur at a time when corporate profit margins were long overdue for a drop already, via finally seeing the backside of multi-year cost-cutting and fat-trimming gains (which can only go so far) and a post-2008 global stimulus bounce that has now all but run its course… All told, we actually find it a less frightening notion to see the Federal Reserve as epically corrupt versus epically stupid or epically in thrall to their own "bet the farm" Jim Jones kool-aid notions. An organization that is corrupt but intelligent can at least be counted on to consider the merits of pulling itself back from the brink. An organization run by out-to-lunch academic kool-aid drinkers is a threat to destroy both itself and the world for the sake of institutionalized idiocy. What the Federal Reserve is doing has been properly labeled the greatest mad science monetary experiment of all time, and the risks of blowing up the laboratory have just increased dramatically. Whether Bernanke is a maniac at the poker table or a deviant calculated risk taker playing an insider's game in which the real fate of the average American be damned, the net result is the same: The Fed's approach to monetary policy makes LTCM (Long-Term Capital Management) look like they were playing with a third grader's milk money and the markets will feel the consequences. In terms of positioning we continue to look for short opportunities in a market that is extremely, insanely overbought, via companies that have ample exposure to ongoing global slowdown (which QE3 does not change) and which showed their weakness via lackluster response to the Fed run-up. We also continue to see the dollar as a prospect for violent snapback given its extreme oversold state and the increasing likelihood of a market rethink once the euphoria of infinity wears off. We are not opposed to going long into Soros style false trends but only from reasonable pockets of consolidation with evidence that a meaningful period of intermediate term upside is sustainable or at least plausible – such certainly does not seem the case here. All positions documented and time stamped in the Mercenary Live Feed. JS (jack@mercenarytrader.com)   p.s. Like this article? For more, visit our Knowledge Center! p.p.s. If you haven't already, check out the Mercenary Live Feed! p.p.s. follow us on Stocktwits & Twitter! @MercenaryJack and @MercenaryMike |
| The Fraud of Negative Gold/Silver Lease Rates Posted: 17 Sep 2012 06:07 AM PDT |
| Timberline Partner Sells Half Interest in Butte Highlands Posted: 17 Sep 2012 06:06 AM PDT Company Welcomes New JV Partner at Soon-to-be High Grade Gold Mine in Montana HOUSTON -- On Monday, September 17, Timberline Resources (NYSE MKT: TLR; TSX:TBR.V) announced that its 50% joint venture partner in the Butte Highlands Joint Venture project (Highland Mining, LLC) had sold its one-half interest in the soon-to-be underground gold mine to Montana State Gold Company (MSGC), a private Montana firm with a focus on creating jobs via mine development funding. (Read press release here.) The announcement effectively ended a bid by Timberline to acquire the half interest in the Butte Highlands Joint Venture (BHJV) it did not already own from its then JV partner, headed by former Small Mine Development owner, Ron Guill. Mr Guill remains Timberline's largest shareholder and a Timberline director. Currently in the advanced permitting stage with final permits expected sometime next year, the Butte Highlands project will soon be a high-grade underground gold mine, with gold mineralization averaging roughly a third of an ounce per ton of rock. The BHJV has completed a large fraction of the work necessary to begin production. Continued... Earlier this year, Timberline announced a non-binding letter of intent (LOI) with Mr. Guill to purchase his half interest, which, had it closed, would have resulted in the company being responsible for all the remaining costs to get the mine into production. (Read our previous coverage of the LOI here.) The LOI was later amended to, among other terms, eliminate an upfront $5 million cash requirement. (See our coverage of the amendment here). All for naught as Mr. Guill apparently decided to sell his interest to an unrelated third party instead and has done so.
The new transaction announced today effectively "returns" Timberline to its original ownership of the Butte project before the announcement of the LOI; a 50% carried interest in the Butte Highlands project, with Timberline's new partner (MSGC) assuming the BHJV obligation to fund the development of the mine through to commercial gold production. The net effect is that TLR now has a new, well funded JV partner at Butte Highlands. Sources close to the matter said recently that in addition to the approximately $24 million already expended by the joint venture to build all the mining infrastructure, including headquarters, equipment barns, sediment ponds and excavating about 4,000 feet of development ramp into Nevin Hill (to within feet of the gold deposits), along with extensive technical and hydrological studies required by Montana regulators, it is estimated that $10 to $15 million in additional capital expenditures will be necessary before the mine will be in production. In our view this transaction, in which the new partner essentially assumes Mr. Guill's position in the original BHJV, removes a source of financing uncertainty that has surrounded the issue since the April, 2012 announcement of the LOI. Today's press notice included this comment from Paul Dircksen, Timberline's Chief Executive Officer.
The financing uncertainty was exacerbated by a very tough market environment for junior miners and mine developers, especially from March to June of 2012, and was in no small part responsible for price pressure on shares of TLR. Investors and shareholders worried that TLR would be forced to finance using equity – when the share price was abnormally low - which would have been dilutive, or perhaps by using forward sales of the gold at what might be unattractive terms. Now that won't be necessary. Bottom Line: Mr. Guill's decision to sell his half interest to an unrelated third party, who has agreed to assume the future development costs, effectively removes the Butte development financing uncertainty. We have prepared a chart below to illustrate the notion. As we see it, Timberline is now free to focus on the important permitting and development of Butte Highlands while they also advance their South Eureka prospects in Nevada, including their flagship Lookout Mountain project, toward a production decision. Lookout Mountain is not part of the BHJV. TLR controls 100% of it, by the way. While those who are not closely familiar with Timberline may find the new announcement confusing, it is actually very simple. TLR is no longer attempting to "stretch" to buy out their JV partner in Butte Highlands and instead now has a deep-pocketed and motivated new partner able and willing to fund the project to production, which is expected within a year or less. Below is a longer term monthly chart we have shared with subscribers in the past, updated through Friday, September 14, for reference. We believe it indicates that there is a great deal of upside potential in shares of TLR. That is all for now except to say that in the event shares of TLR are driven irrationally lower, we will almost certainly add to our already oversized position. Of course everyone can and should make up their own minds about such things. Disclosure: Timberline Resources is a Vulture Bargain Candidate of Interest (VBCI) and is our fully fledged Vulture Bargain #4. Members of the GGR team are actively accumulating shares of TLR and continue to hold a speculative long position in the company. |
| Marc Faber: Own Gold – 'Don’t Store It In The US' Posted: 17 Sep 2012 05:23 AM PDT Gold is slightly weaker today but hovering near a seven month high, as the US Fed's announcement of QE3 has led to some investors diversifying into bullion as a hedge against inflation risk. |
| Central Bank Policy 'Hugely Bullish' for Commodities Posted: 17 Sep 2012 04:47 AM PDT The wholesale cost of buying gold dipped below $1,770 an ounce during Monday morning trading in London, but remained less than ten Dollars below their six-month high hit last Friday, after the US Federal Reserve announced a third round of quantitative easing. |
| Alex Jones: QE3 Warfare Against the Dollar Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:19 AM PDT On the Sunday edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex covers the private bankster cartel known as the Federal Reserve and its latest QE warfare against the dollar, the American people and ultimately the sovereignty of the United States. Alex also talks about the horrific prospect of war in the Middle East — which he puts at 50% — as an armada gathers in the Persian Gulf. Alex says there is a 30% chance a war waged against Iran may quickly develop into a catastrophic world war and a global conflagration. from thealexjoneschannel: ~TVR |
| Silver Update: Escape From America 9.16.12 Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:16 AM PDT brotherjohnf: Silver Update 9/16/12 Escape From America ~TVR |
| Weekly Gold & Silver Upodate: Bonds Collapse & Gold Explodes Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:15 AM PDT On this segment, Patrick MontesDeOca explores the bond and gold market action last week on the face of QE3, a U.S. credit downgrade and what it means for the price of gold. For more information call 805-418-1744 or email support@ema2trade,com. from tradingtalk: ~TVR |
| Berwick: Most People Will Not See this Coming Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:05 AM PDT "We've never had a global system like this die before," says Jeff Berwick. One way to protect your assets is to buy precious metals, but you better not wait too long to buy them. from usawatchdog: Berwick predicts, "It will be impossible to buy gold and silver in the next few years." Berwick thinks the dramatic change that is coming, ". . . is going to be the biggest event that has ever happened in human history . . . most people in the U.S. will not see this coming." Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with Jeff Berwick of Dollarvigilante.com. from usawatchdog: ~TVR |
| Gold and Silver Market morning, September 17 2012 Posted: 17 Sep 2012 03:00 AM PDT |
| The Chinese Are Setting the Gold Market On Fire Posted: 17 Sep 2012 02:23 AM PDT The Chinese could be buying gold for the simplest reason of all: it's going up. Private gold ownership carried a death penalty there four years ago. Today there are precious metals coin shops in every city center. |
| Posted: 17 Sep 2012 01:51 AM PDT World's Oldest Message in a Bottle, Part of 1914 Citizen-Science Experiment Atlantic (Lambert) 'Three-parent baby' fertility technique could be made legal Telegraph Those of us who would not have been born if these techniques had been used (a person with different genes is a different person), such as women with mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes or people from families with a history of schizophrenia) might wonder about this sort of progress towards a world where everyone is tall, blond, athletic, straight, male, and psychopathic. Microwave weapons: Wasted energy Nature World's Most Dangerous Beaches Huffington Post (Carol B) Cargill and Others Behind anti-Organic "Stanford Study" Land Destroyer (furzy mouse). Note that the Stanford researcher went to some length to say that their study was not corporate funded but did not mention the considerable ties the university has to Big Ag. Condom used as evidence in Assange sex case 'does not contain his DNA' Daily Mail. Remember, this IS the Daily Mail! Four Corners (a highly respected weekly investigative show in Oz) did an indepth report on the Assange rape charges. The bit that stuck out was the women REFUSED TO SIGN the police report. Australia's Ferguson Says Commodity Price Boom Has Ended Bloomberg US to launch WTO action against China Financial Times Hezbollah calls for week of protests over Islam film Guardian Armada of British naval power massing in the Gulf as Israel prepares an Iran strike Telegraph (Mrs. G) US media angrily marvels at the lack of Muslim gratitude Glenn Greenwald Teachers Vote to Continue Strike Wall Street Journal Volusia County may predict the future for Obama and Romney Tampa Bay Times Subversive Haiku (Scott) Policy euphoria makes way for humdrum data Reuters. Translation: Since this will take a LONG time to work, if it works, keep those asset prices high until further notice. Earnings in United States Are Beginning to Feel a Pinch New York Times. Noticing only now? A lot of companies have been managing earnings expectations down. Email From Lead Analyst, Weekly Petroleum Supply Team on Possibility of Recession Michael Shedlock (furzy mouse) HUSSMAN: Market Conditions Have Hit The Single Worst Point That We Have Ever Observed Clusterstock. Gotta love someone who does not mince words. The Puppetry of Quotation Approval New York Times Pre-Anniversary Occupy Arrests by the NYPD Kevin Gosztola * * * lambert here: Mission elapsed time: T + 10 and counting* "Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple." –Woody Guthrie Chicago Teachers Strike. There was no contract (!!): "Instead, delegates and union leadership said Friday that they wanted to see the deal 'in writing' first. That skepticism continued Sunday, when delegates got a 23-page summary but not the final proposal, which is expected to number of 180 pages." … 'Til Tuesday: "[T]he House of Delegates voted NOT to suspend the strike, but to allow two more days for delegates to take the information back to the picket lines and hold discussions with the over 26,000 members throughout Chicago. Teachers and school staff will return to the picket lines at 7:30 a.m. Monday and, after picketing together, will meet to share and discuss the proposal. The House will reconvene on Tuesday afternoon." … Good faith negotiations: "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel tonight vowed to seek a court injunction to force teachers back to school after their union declined to suspend its week-old strike in the nation's third-largest city." … Salaries: "It became commonplace in he media to say over and over that the average salary for Chicago teachers is $71,000-$76,000. [In fact, it's] is $56,720 [here]. Maybe this will make the teachers' cause somewhat more tolerable to the pundits in the media who can barely get by on four times that much." …. Issues: "Among the big points of contention are the tying of teachers' pay to student performance [VAM] and job security with the expansion of charter schools and the closure of other public schools." F*ck Rahm and the corrupt charter movement he rode in on. That's the issue, even if Izvestia disagrees. Worth another two days, maybe? Occupy. #S15, Saturday: "A commander wearing a white shirt took one man by the arm and threw him forcefully face down on the sidewalk. Some in the crowd said that officers appeared to be pointing out specific individuals for arrest" (TimCast; more linky goodness). Arm-locking. Chalking. … #S16 Sunday: "On Sunday, hundreds gathered on Gansevoort Street and the Hudson River Greenway, to protest Spectra Energy, and the construction of a gas pipeline in the West Village that will be supplied by fuel obtained in shale drilling." Evening photos in Zucotti Park. … #S17, Monday: "Monday morning ultimately remains a wildcard, given the unpredictable spatial strategies of the NYPD. The widely published OWS plan will combine the People's Wall, at several targeted intersections near the Stock Exchange, with mobile actions launched from a series of overlapping thematic zones, including the 99 Percent Zone." … #S17, Monday: "'Wear a suit.' This was the official Occupy Wall Street call to protesters heading to the financial district Monday morning to mark the first anniversary of the movement, in its crucible." … #S17, debt: "Why are you here? 'The student loans and the financial aid that's available. Basically, it's a circle of debt with us. Like it's over and over, I already owe money." [Ashley] Valdespino [(19)] said." Good quotes. … #S17, networking: "One of the refrains I keep hearing is this: 'After this year I know the people I'll be organizing with my whole life.'" AK. Climate: "It's always curious to hear protests from the Lower 48 insisting that climate change is a hoax, especially when one lives down the road from glaciers that aren't–shall we say–what they used to be" (photos and trailer of Chasing Ice). AL. Gardening: "To those who say why go to the trouble of making pickles when the grocery store has plenty for $2.50 or so, I say why do you go to a concert when you can buy the CD for $15 or the song you like for 99 cents? It is not the same." CA. Woody Guthrie: "Guthrie 'became the voice of an entire generation of displaced Americans, many of whom came to California to start over,' Altman said."… Foreclosure: "Before they tried to carry out the April eviction, deputies were warned that the homeowner had weapons, the claim says. Locksmith Glendon Engert paused while disabling the lock on a metal security door when he heard something inside, but deputies directed him to keep drilling, the claim says." No spoiler. … Recall: "A threat to recall [San Bernardino] Councilman Chas Kelley unless he put a city charter repeal on the November ballot has been found not to illegal (they were looking at it as a bribery or extortion charge)." … Greens: "'It makes him (Romney) a global-warming denier,' said Soto. He said he might vote for the Green Party candidate, though he wasn't sure who that was. (It's Dr. Jill Stein, a Massachusetts physician.) … March: "About 50 [Wal-Mart] workers each day are marching the route taken by the trucks that carry the goods they load — from Riverside, CA., to Downtown Los Angeles. Sleeping each night along the way on church floors and relying on supporters for meals, the marchers will deliver a letter outlining the alleged abuses they have suffered." FL. Trafficking: "Tesoro is one among thousands of victims of human trafficking, a crime federal investigators say is growing across the country — and in South FL. Palm Beach County, with its agriculture and tourism industries always on the lookout for low cost labor, is a 'perfect storm' for human trafficking, investigators say." … Water and sewer: "More development means more taxpayers. Yes it is a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme built on an ocean of sh*t. It's what taxpayers do." …. Charters: "[Internal] documents that show for-profit online educator K12′s student-teacher ratio is as high as 275-to-1, nearly twice the maximum ratio used by FL's state-run virtual school." LA. Oil: "After Hurricane Isaac uncovered tar balls and tar mats along Louisiana's coastline, BP said it wants to 'deep clean' the state's beaches. The company's proposal is to sift out contaminants to as deep as four feet." MI. Fracking: "Livingston County is one of the purest pieces of Pure MI. The state of MI's Department of Natural Resources has sold drilling rights to land underneath the Brighton Recreation Area and Lakelands Trail to open up the area to 'fracking.' No townhall meeting is scheduled. It's not on agendas of the county commission." NC. Woody Guthrie: "Guthrie is one of those rare musicians whose work we know, even if we do not know the composer, [Poet and singer Kim Arrington] said. She cites "This Land Is Your Land." "I asked my kid about it," she said. "He didn't know Woody Guthrie's name, but he could sing that song." That kind of influence "means your song has broken through a different place, when your song is known before your name is associated with the song.'" NY. Fracking: "Signers — 5,000 to date — of the 'Pledge of Resistance' represent a commitment [to employ tactics used in the 1960s Civil Right's movement] that seems to extend beyond an ill-defined crowd that can be written off as reactionaries, hellions, ideologues, and band-wagon riders. Alliances within the group cut across demographics, with heavy representation from baby-boomers, some with a history in the Civil Rights movement that defined 1960s-era activism. [A]nti-fracking campaigners are represented by credentialed leadership including politicians, academics, and professionals with family and jobs. And they appear ready to push their comfort zone." … Fracking: "The Quinnipiac poll finds that New Yorkers surveyed believe that the economic benefits of natural gas drilling, including job creation, outweigh the potential harmful environmental effects. [F]or the first time in more than a year, a growing number of upstate voters, many of whom live in areas above the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposits, support hydrofracking by 48 percent to 41 percent." … Queenborough Community College: "Yesterday I reported that the English department at Queensborough Community College had voted to reject an administration-initiated restructuring of their composition program, and that the college's Vice President for Academic Affairs had in response informed them that the department will be largely dismantled next fall." OK. Woody Guthrie: "SHAWNEE — As the worldwide Woody Guthrie centennial celebration continues, the late, great folk troubadour's sister will sign copies of her new book [Woody's Road] about the Oklahoma icon Thursday evening at Rose Manor Nursing Home." PA. Fracking: "The PUC suggested that a provision in the proposed North Towanda ordinance that completely prohibits water impoundment areas within a federally designated flood plain is at odds with a section in the law that states well sites that include water impoundment areas may not be drilled in a flood plain unless a waiver is obtained from the state Department of Environmental Protection." Which was probably the point, but never mind that. … Climate: "Over the last 50 years in Pennsylvania, significant rain events — when more than an inch of rain falls within 24 hours — are up by 50 percent. But our average rainfall totals have remained about the same." … Protest: "ACT UP Philadelphia also held a rally today outside [Gov.] Corbett's office. Their gripe with the governor: His budget cutting off general assistance funds for the poor, sick and disabled." TN. Voting: "Despite expressing confidence in the reliability of electronic poll books, the Davidson County Election Commission on Thursday stuck with its decision not to use the devices in the November election." TX. Trafficking: "Brilliant observation, and true: What's the secret ingredient to Texas' much-ballyhooed job creation boom that you'll never hear from Rick Perry on the presidential campaign stump? Drug trafficking" (golden oldie, via). … Supply chain: " On Friday, a federal judge ruled that the people in Hillcrest and other Corpus Christi neighborhoods that were harmed by the illegal pollution created by Citgo's East Refinery have the right to be considered crime victims in the sentencing phase of the case against Citgo. This is a landmark case, as it is the first time a refinery has ever been convicted of criminal charges. It is also the first time residents living near a refinery have been recognized as potential crime victims" (more). VA. Uranium: "In the call, [State Sen. Bill Stanley] can be heard saying that he had been called and asked to 'reach out' by [Gov.] McDonnell to persuade the board to shelve the uranium resolution. He tells [Supervisor Jerry A. Hagerman], who has come out openly against ended [sic] the state-wide moratorium against uranium mining, that going along with dumping the resolution could be good for him 'personally and politically.'" … Mining: " [Kyanite Mining Corp.] is turning to the VA Supreme Court to block a lower court's order forcing the company into receivership and eventual liquidation. At stake is the mining company, valued at least at $160 million and tens of millions of dollars in assets represented by approximately 28,000 acres of old growth timber and the immensely valuable Cavalier Hotel waterfront property in Virginia Beach. WI. Swing state: "Romney's selection [of] Ryan — pushed WI to the short list. Last week marked WI's move into full battleground status with candidate visits and television buys." Outside baseball. Cheri Honkala: "The fight of the next generation is going to be over who determines how land is used and who does that land belong to." Nice framing. Emergent parties. Ballot access: Handy chart. "Obama and Romney and have automatic ballot status in all 50 states and DC, so they are not included" (but see for corrections). The trail. Polls, Nate Silver: "At the very least, Obama's lead in the national polls no longer seems to be growing. If he gained additional ground following the attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya — or from Mitt Romney's response to it — there has been no sign of it in the most recent national tracking surveys. … Undecideds: "A striking finding of the [NBC/WSJ/Marist] poll is how many voters have already made a choice. Just 5 percent were undecided in Florida and Ohio, 6 percent in Virginia. All the ads and campaigning — and the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in this race for the White House — are for them.: The Romney. Comedy: "NY Post Full Page Ad, 'Obama's Big Lie Revealed'" Which one, you may ask. But in vain… More comedy: "Romney associates are baffled that such a successful corporate leader has created a team with so few lines of authority or accountability. Romney has allowed seven distinct power centers to flourish inside his campaign, with the strategy pod, headed by [Stuart] Stevens and [Russ] Schriefer, handling the most essential ingredient — the candidate's public message and image." The article is a Stevens takedown, but it looks like The Romney isn't taking Steven's advice. Weird. … Desperate: "The peril to Romney's candidacy of being seen through the lens of desperation can't be overstated. " The Obama. Comic impersonator: "Jay Pharoah debuted his Obama impression on Saturday Night Live last night, but the whole skit was hijacked by Jason Sudeikis's Mitt Romney." … Comic impersonator: "'There's your choice America,' [T]he Obama character says, 'stick with what is barely working, or take your chances with that.'" … Master debater: "'He's got to speak shorter, that's all,' Axelrod said." * Slogan of the day: Long live Commander-in-Chief Presumptive Willard Mitt Romney! * * * Antidote du jour (furzy mouse):
|
| Is QE3 Yet Another Stealth Bank Bailout? Posted: 17 Sep 2012 01:15 AM PDT It's difficult to puzzle out what Bernanke thinks he is accomplishing with QE3. The level of bond buying, as various commentators have pointed out, is much lower than in the earlier QE programs. And pulling out bigger guns in the past was not terribly productive. As we wrote in April 2011 in a post titled "Mirabile Dictu! Economists Agree All the Fed Has Done is Goose Financial Markets!":
Back to the current post. Given that previous QEs amped up the stock market, weakened the dollar, lifted commodity prices, and made central bankers in emerging markets mighty unhappy (risk on trades boosted their currencies and sent hot money into their economies, developments they did not like), all on a temporary basis, it's quite a stretch for Bernanke to depict it as a way to boost employment in the US, unless he has a very bad case of "if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail" syndrome. One interpretation is that Bernanke, despite his protests otherwise, is giving the stock market a short term sugar high to assure an Obama reelection. The Republicans have threatened to take hot pokers to the Fed, so Bernanke could rationalize his actions as preserving his institution rather than mere electioneering. Another is that the central bank is quite cognizant of what it is doing and is deliberately boosting bank profits, perhaps also hoping that the banks will eventually feel robust enough to do more lending. The wee problem is that financial speculation is so much more profitable and much easier to dial up and down quickly. Even though mortgage backed securities prices rose (as in interest rates fell) sharply after QE3 was announced, mortgage rates remained unchanged:
The New York Times' Dealbook on Friday evening took note of the failure of banks to lower borrower interest rates in light of more favorable funding costs:
Today, the Financial Times took note of the issue, but added a bit of bank PR: they really, truly want to lend more, but golly gee, they haven't staffed up:
MBS Guy confirmed our skeptical view:
Note that there has not been a peep out of the Fed on the failure of the banks to lower borrower rates to reflect their cheaper funding costs. The central bank has a powerful bully pulpit, and if it were to make noise, you'd see Congresscritters and the media piling on. One wonders if the Fed has even broached the topic privately. I can imagine Jamie Dimon grousing about the loss of profits on float and the flatter yield curve justifying them taking margin wherever they find it, and the Fed unwilling to point out that the banks created the new normal and they need to adjust to it too. So the Fed looks to be completely on board with this sort of rent-seeking. Perhaps the central bank believes its charges need more in the way of earnings to strengthen their balance sheets, even though history shows they prioritize executive bonuses over building their equity levels. Or maybe Bernanke was being completely truthful when he said QE3 was targeting employment. After all, fatter bank margins will preserve their staffing levels.
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gold World News Flash 2 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment