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- BCM In Depth: Guide To The iPath Pure Beta Broad Commodity ETN
- Avoid These Bonds And Do This Instead
- How Helicopter Ben Helps Jobs &, Inadvertently, Gold
- Accelerating Money Supply & Gold Prices
- How Nearing Gold & Silver Top Would Look
- Gold is a crisis hedge, not an inflation hedge
- Anyone going to snap up the Comstock Limited Edition 1ozers?
- John Embry talks with King World News
- Rick Santelli talks with King World News
- Technicals: Silver Charts 10.8.12
- What Would the Market for Gold and Silver Look Like if We Were Approaching the Top?
- The SCO, China, Iran, and Gold
- More Stunning Developments In The Gold & Silver Markets
- Silver Market Update
- In The News Today – October 7, 2012
- Traders Bullish but 'Caution Advised' on China Slowing
- Secrets of the Pyramids
- Links 10/8/12
- Bill Gross, the Ring of Fire & Gold Prices
- Accelerating money supply and gold prices
- Stocks and commodities hurt by new bearish report
- Will Gold Help Iran’s Financial Plight?
- Philip Pilkington: Debt and the Decay of the Myth of Liberal Individualism
- The SCO, China, Iran & Bullion
- Race to Debase – Q3 Fiat Currencies vs. PMs
| BCM In Depth: Guide To The iPath Pure Beta Broad Commodity ETN Posted: 08 Oct 2012 12:26 PM PDT By CommodityHQ: By Stoyan Bojinov The exchange-traded products industry has provided investors with a new tactical tool for adding commodities exposure to their portfolios. Investors can now choose between a variety of ETPs that offer both broad-based and targeted exposure without having to encounter the difficulties and drawbacks of opening a futures account. One of the more intriguing products on the market is the iPath Pure Beta Broad Commodity ETN (BCM), which gives investors access to a basket of 24 different commodities. BCM's structure and unique strategy make this ETN an appealing option for investors who wish to establish broad-based exposure to commodities over the long-haul.
Vital StatsHere's a quick overview of the basics of BCM:
Complete Story » |
| Avoid These Bonds And Do This Instead Posted: 08 Oct 2012 11:52 AM PDT By The Financial Lexicon: During this era of ultra-low interest rates, investors are faced with a difficult conundrum. When searching for yield among bonds, do you increase the duration and decrease the credit quality of your portfolio, or do you follow the advice so often given nowadays and focus your buying on corporate bonds with shorter terms to maturity? If you are nervous about interest rates heading higher over the near- to intermediate-term, there is a good chance you have focused on corporate bonds with just a few years to maturity. After all, corporate bonds are known for offering higher yields than Treasuries, and there are plenty of decent corporations with bonds to choose from. Here are five such examples: AT&T's (T) senior unsecured note (CUSIP: 00206RBB7) maturing 2/13/2015 has a 0.875% coupon and is asking 100.932 cents on the dollar (0.474% yield-to-maturity before commissions). Rio Tinto Finance's (RIO) senior unsecured note (CUSIP: 76720AAA4) Complete Story » |
| How Helicopter Ben Helps Jobs &, Inadvertently, Gold Posted: 08 Oct 2012 11:48 AM PDT Gold investors have recognized the correlation by returning to gold en masse. In August, investors rushed into gold, with the massive inflows of money going into the gold exchange traded products in August more than each of the prior five months. |
| Accelerating Money Supply & Gold Prices Posted: 08 Oct 2012 10:06 AM PDT Not surprisingly, the pace of money creation is now having difficulty in keeping up with the hyperbola, which today is accelerating at over $300bn per month. Not even the Fed's creative powers with QE3 of $85bn per month can keep up with it. |
| How Nearing Gold & Silver Top Would Look Posted: 08 Oct 2012 08:03 AM PDT What would the market for precious metals look like if we were approaching the top of this decade-long bull market? You would almost certainly see a price spike of some significance, say a doubling of prices in 12 months. |
| Gold is a crisis hedge, not an inflation hedge Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:30 AM PDT Inflation Data.com |
| Anyone going to snap up the Comstock Limited Edition 1ozers? Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:27 AM PDT The 'ol Comstock is up and running again.:grin10: To commemorate the event they are selling limited edition 1oz bars made from metal from the first dore pour. :rolleyes: A little rich for my blood.:afraid: DoreBars.png Nice to see the Comstock producing again though. http://www.comstockmining.com/commemoratives http://www.321gold.com/editorials/mo...rty100812.html Not a subscriber or investor, DYODD etc. fyi, R. |
| John Embry talks with King World News Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:20 AM PDT John Embry talks with King World News
John Embry: Chief Investment Strategist for Sprott Gold & Precious Minerals Fund – John joined the now $10 billion strong firm SAM as Chief Investment Strategist in 2003, with a focus on the Sprott Gold and Precious Minerals Fund. He plays an instrumental role in the corporate and investment policy of the firm. Mr. Embry, an industry expert in precious metals, has researched the gold sector for over thirty years and has accumulated experience as a portfolio management specialist since 1963. John was named Vice-President, Equities and Portfolio Manager at RBC Global Investment Management, a $33 billion organization where he oversaw $5 billion in assets, including the flagship $2.9 billion Royal Canadian Equity Fund and the $250 million Royal Precious Metals Fund #1 ranked fund across the country for its 2002 net performance of 153%. Listen to the Interview Now @ kingworldnews.com |
| Rick Santelli talks with King World News Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:15 AM PDT Rick Santelli talks with King World News
Rick Santelli: CNBC's Business News On-Air Editor – Rick Santelli stepped away from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade to give King World News listeners globally an uninterrupted and in-depth interview. Rick joined CNBC Business News as On-Air Editor in June 1999, reporting live from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. His focus is primarily on interest rates, foreign exchange, and the Federal Reserve. He began his career in 1979 as a trader and order filler at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in markets that included gold, lumber, CD's, T-bills, foreign currencies, and livestock. During the time he spent as a financial trader and executive, Santelli worked for Drexel Burnham Lambert as the Vice President of Interest Rate Futures and Options. Rick is also credited with being a catalyst in the early formation of the Tea Party Movement via a statement he made on February 19, 2009. Listen to the Interview Now @ kingworldnews.com |
| Technicals: Silver Charts 10.8.12 Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:13 AM PDT |
| What Would the Market for Gold and Silver Look Like if We Were Approaching the Top? Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:06 AM PDT
from silverseek.com: What would the market for precious metals look like if we were approaching the top of this decade-long bull market? You would almost certainly see a price spike of some significance, say a doubling of prices in 12 months. Have we seen anything like that? The surge in silver to almost $50 an ounce some 18 months ago is the closest we have come to it, and the silver price has not collapsed since then. Far from it, the price chart is one of consolidation for another surge. Keep on reading @ silverseek.com |
| The SCO, China, Iran, and Gold Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:05 AM PDT
from goldmoney.com: I make no apology for returning to the subject of China, its role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and gold. Gold is now a strategic metal for present and future SCO governments, which between them have over 40% of the world's population; and now that the price of gold is re-establishing its rising trend, understanding its future role as a replacement for the US dollar is increasingly urgent, because gold is wealth and this wealth is being transferred from west to east. The SCO is an economic bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Between them they produce about 26% of the world's gold, none of which leaves the SCO. Other nations accepted as future members are India, Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia and as soon as NATO leaves, Afghanistan. Belarus and Sri Lanka are on the waiting list. It is no less than the economic unification of most of Asia, with a combined population of three billion. All their central banks are buying gold, and the gold imported by the citizens of just two of them (India and China) accounts for all but 400-500 tonnes of the rest of the world's mine production – and some of that (particularly in Africa) is now also controlled by China. One of the SCO's economic objectives is to do away with the dollar for cross-border trade between members. Any doubts we may have on the matter have now been dispelled as a result of the US Government's monetary sanctions on Iran. Keep on reading @ goldmoney.com |
| More Stunning Developments In The Gold & Silver Markets Posted: 08 Oct 2012 07:01 AM PDT
from kingworldnews.com: Today King World News is reporting on incredibly important developments taking place in the gold and silver markets. Acclaimed commodity trader Dan Norcini told KWN that swap dealers, "… have radically reversed their position (in the silver market)." He also stated, "There is a (massive) battle being raged at that $35 level in silver, just like the $1,800 level in gold. Whichever side blinks first in this is going to experience pain, that's for sure." Norcini has been stunningly accurate in his predictions of the movement of the gold and silver markets. Now the acclaimed trader discusses these incredibly important developments in gold and silver: "What we've got going on in these markets right now is a build in open interest, speculative inflows being met with commercial selling and swap dealer selling. It has effectively stalemated the action. What we have now (is a situation) where whichever side blinks first, that's the side that is going to get hit." Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2012 06:59 AM PDT
from silverseek.com: A bloodbath is believed to be imminent in the silver market, now that its cheerleaders have herded their flocks into the corral, ready to be fleeced again. In the last update posted early last week, we expressed the view that an intermediate top was forming in gold and silver, a view that is reinforced further by the inability of both metals to break higher later in the week, and the now towering Commercial short position in silver as revealed by the latest COTs. On its 6-month chart we can see how silver has continued to track sideways beneath a resistance level approaching $35. It had a go at breaking out upside on Thursday when the dollar apparently broke down, but failed, and weakened again on Friday. If we look carefully at this chart we can see that, following failure of the steep uptrend that began in the middle of August, a potential Double Top is completing beneath this resistance that portends a drop, and we have already observed several bearish candlesticks with long upper shadows developing beneath the resistance, which is a big reason why we turned bearish. Failure of the support level shown, which is probably imminent, can be expected to lead to a brutal plunge. Keep on reading @ silverseek.com |
| In The News Today – October 7, 2012 Posted: 08 Oct 2012 06:51 AM PDT
from jsmineset.com: My Dear Friends, Did you notice that $1775 was Friday's low in gold? $1775 has taken on more meaning as it has been arbitrarily elected maybe because of its implications in the silver/gold ratio. Personally, I think ratios have 20/20 vision backward and are blind looking forwards. They do however make good conversation when there is nothing else to talk about. The range for gold now is clearly $1750 to $1800. We witnessed the most transparent false report on employment in statistical history Friday. What party does not want to see gold above $1800 before the election? I would say the party of the Banksters, therefore their tool is the gold banks. Keep on reading @ jsmineset.com |
| Traders Bullish but 'Caution Advised' on China Slowing Posted: 08 Oct 2012 04:50 AM PDT Wholesale-market prices to buy gold fell 0.5% to $1,770 per ounce in Asian and London trade Monday, holding more than $25 below Friday's new 11-month high as world stock markets also fell together with commodity prices. |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2012 04:46 AM PDT
from worldtruth.tv: The idea that civilizations progress from a primitive state to a more advanced one is a fallacy that evolutionists try to apply to history. If one abandons evolutionist nonsense and prejudice, and looks at the historical references and findings with an unbiased mind, what one encounters is civilizations that used highly advanced technologies. Remains left from ancient Egypt, the Mayans and the Sumerians indicate that branches of science such as electricity, electrochemistry, electromagnetics, metallurgy, hydrogeology, medicine, chemistry and physics were used to a considerable extent. Electricity was efficiently generated and widely utilized in ancient Egypt. The Baghdad battery and the first arc lights were used at that time. But was electrical generation limited to these in ancient Egypt? A careful examination of Egyptian history immediately reveals the sophistication in perfect illumination. No soot has been found in the corridors of the pyramids or the tombs of the kings because these areas were lit using electricity. Relief carvings show that the Egyptians used hand-held torches powered by cable-free power sources. THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT WERE GIANT POWER PLANTS GENERATING ELECTRICITY 1 The outer casing of the Great Pyramid was covered with white tufa limestone, so tightly built that not even a razor blade could fit between the blocks. The white tufa limestone does not contain magnesium and has high insulating properties. This insulation property prevented the electricity inside the pyramid from being released without control. 2 The stone blocks used inside the pyramid were made of another form of limestone containing crystal which is an extremely high electrical conductor and a small amount of metal, which allow for maximum power transmission. The shafts inside the pyramid were lined with granite. Granite, as a conductor, is a slightly radioactive substance and permits the ionization of the air inside these shafts. When we look at an insulated electric cable, we see that conductive and insulation materials are used in the same way as in the pyramids. 3 The conductive and insulating properties of the pyramid are an example of flawless engineering. However, a source of energy is needed for electricity generation. The Giza Plateau where the pyramids stand is full of underground water channels. The pyramids rise above limestone layers, the spaces between them being full of water. These special layers of rock that transmit electricity upward as they carry underground water to the surface are known as AQUIFERS. The high volume flow of the River Nile that passes through these aquifers produces an electric current. This is known as physio-electricity. The pyramid's underground chambers are granite conductors built within the rock charged with physio-electricity. This electric current is conducted directly to the upper part of the pyramid's granite covered subterranean chambers. Granite is a very good conductor of electricity. The electromagnetic field that forms at the bottom of the pyramid is transmitted in concentrated form to the upper layers of the pyramid. On the top of the pyramid there was a gold capstone gold being an excellent conductor of electricity. This section is no longer there in our day. This means the top of the pyramid has lost its structure of flawless geometry. This gold capstone facilitated a conductive path for the transfer of negative ions to the ionosphere. This way a current was generated. Keep on reading @ worldtruth.tv |
| Posted: 08 Oct 2012 03:55 AM PDT Information is Beautiful Awards Winners! Be sure to click through. Is the success of urban coyotes a sign of bigger things to come? LA Times Sleeping Brain Behaves as If It's Remembering Something Science Daily Hugo Chavez re-elected as Venezuelan president BBC Jimmy Carter says: "Election Process in Venezuela is the Best in the World" Real News Network The Muni Bond Market, Mired in Its Past Gretchen Morgenson, Times Wall Street Week Ahead: Big-name profit warnings may mean a pullback Reuters Economic recovery 'on the ropes' FT. US "brightest spot." The jobs numbers: never mind the quantity, check the quality Guardian Addressing the BLS Truther Controversy Big Picture Lost Bet Mish's Global Economics Trend Analysis Exploring the Wild, Weird World of Employment Numbers From Statistical Space Economic Populist America's Real Jobs Gap Science 30 Years Of US Black Middle Class Economic Gains Have Been Wiped Out Business Insider Weekend Reading – Ode to Financial and Political Narcissists Jesse's Café Américain Fired miners vow to fight to the death BusinessReport. Anglo American Platinum. Breakdown of labour strife gripping SA BusinessDay Foxconn suffers unrest at iPhone factory FT Europe Seeks to Contain Spanish Troubles as Finance Chiefs Meet Bloomberg Thousands take to streets in protest over government cuts El Pais Debt crisis: ECB board member shuts door on Greek pleas for leniency Telegraph Fortress Athens: 6,000 Cops to Guard Merkel Greek Reporter My favorite things Korea Marginal Revolution Factory Girls The New Yorker. K-pop. The AMERICAN Government Is Dictating Japanese Nuclear Policy George Washington Congestion in the Death Zone Der Spiegel. Everest. How Archaic Local Regulations Are Killing the Future and Homes Built Like Bunkers Resilient Communities The long tail of Lego Reuters. Maker triumphalism? DIY Solar Pocket Factory Machine Can Print a Solar Panel Every 15 Seconds! Inhabitant The Beauty of the Airline Baggage Tag Slate New Captcha system uses empathy to distinguish humans from bots The Verge. Do Androids … How It Could Happen, Part One: Hubris The Archdruid Report * * * Mission elapsed time: T + 30 and counting* "I'd like to see you move up to the goat class, where I think you belong." ― Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This Week with George Stephanopolous as told to The BobbleSpeak Translations: "NOONAN: Barack is man of mystery KRUGMAN: this is classic Obama – he barely went after McCain in 2008 CARVILLE: he really didn't want to be there – he wanted to spend the evening giving an order to kill a terrorist and making love to his wife" AL. Police state: " A police officer at the University of South Alabama has fatally shot a naked student whom authorities said repeatedly charged the officer." CA. Education: "For the first time in generations, CA's community colleges and state universities are turning away qualified new students and shrinking their enrollments as state funding continues its long, slow decline." CO. Fracking: "'It's going to take a number of years to understand what's occurring at the well sites," [Kent Kuster, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's oil and gas liaison] said. There is no data that exists on local, state or federal level to draw any definitive conclusions about public-health impacts from oil and gas development.'" So, at best a medical experiment without informed consent. At worst, there is data. … The economy: "62% of [CO] Rs say their personal economic situation has gotten worse over the past year, while only 7% say it's improved. 40% of Ds say their personal economic situation has improved and 12% say it's gotten worse." … Unions: " CenturyLink and [The Communications Workers of America] representing 13,000 workers in 13 states in the West and Midwest have failed to reach a contract agreement, but have signed onto a day-to-day extension of the expired pact. The union opposes a proposed increase in health care premiums and wants to bring more jobs back to the U.S. The union had authorized a strike in the event that a new deal couldn't be reached with the Monroe, La.-based telecommunications company." CT. Legalization: "CT's law allows properly registered patients 'to lawfully possess up to one month's supply of marijuana,' [the state's Michael] Lawlor said. 'For the time being, one month's supply is 2.5 ounces.'" FL. Voting: "We still have not secured the process to ensure that that machine has read that ballot correctly and it is 100 percent accurate. Because it is wrong to assume that the machines are always right. They're not, "[Ion Sancho one of the most veteran election supervisors in the state of FL] tells CBS4 Chief Investigator Michele Gillen" (BradBlog has more.) … Voting: " [V]otes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth, statistics show. Election officials reject almost 2 percent of ballots cast by mail, double the rate for in-person voting. 'The more people you force to vote by mail,' Mr. Sancho said, 'the more invalid ballots you will generate.'" … Mass incarceration: "[T]he brutish goals of Jim Crow America never died, but simply reshaped themselves to the sensibilities of the 21st century, learned to hide themselves in the bloodless and opaque language of officially race-neutral policy. Garbage is garbage, no matter how pristine the can" (Leonard Pitts). KS. Strikes: "Union members voted Saturday 79 percent in favor of rejecting [Bombardier's] proposal of a five-year contract, which offered significant increases in health care costs and low general wage increases, and 79 percent in favor of a strike." LA. Privatization: " I just hope all these medical 'private partnerships' involve health providers who believe evolution is real." Haw. MA. Warren/Brown: "[M]embers of the International Association of Heat & Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Local #6, headquartered in Dorchester, will protest outside Scott Brown's South Boston campaign off ice this morning to ask him 'to take down a campaign ad that lies about Elizabeth Warren's work in a case involving victims of asbestos poisoning.'" … Warren/Brown: "One month before election day, [Warren] is leading the [Brown] 50 to 45 among likely voters, according to a poll released Sunday by the Western New England University Polling Institute." ME. Angus King: "Americans Elect aired the first of two television ads Friday promoting King as a solution to the gridlock in Congress. Bloomberg contributed $500,000, Americans Elect's founder Peter Ackerman put in $500,000 and Passport Capital's founder John Burbank contributed $750,000." … Corruption: "Wells Fargo has built up a significant lobbying presence in state capitals to manage the torrent of mortgage-related bills flooding legislatures. After becoming a national bank, Wells Fargo now has lobbyists bending state legislators' ears everywhere from Denver to Baton Rouge, LA. In ME, state records show Wells lobbied on three bills, including one that would require banks to provide original documents while foreclosing. It was vetoed by the governor. Wells had no lobbyists in Maine five years ago." OK. The tribes: "With their 60,000 gaming devices, Oklahoma's Indian tribes generate an estimated $3.5bn per year, second in the country for total Indian gaming revenues after California." PA. Libertarian Party: "PA petition process showed that the statewide Libertarian petition has enough valid signatures, even should the State Supreme Court reverse the favorable ruling of the Commonwealth Court of several weeks ago, concerning voters who moved, signed, and had never updated their registration records." … Fracking: "[SB 367] makes PA State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) campuses available [for] any form of extraction–including fracking. Its sponsor, Donald C. White (R) received $94,150 from the industry" (Gov. Corbett has said he will sign the bill; explainer). TX. Water: "Some 66 percent of the state remains in drought, a major improvement from a week ago. Nonetheless, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality still says 23 communities, many of them in West Texas, could be within 180 days of running out of water." … Crime: "[I]tt often galls me to see so much attention paid to petty criminals like Class C shoplifters, who are more pathetic than dangerous, while corporate criminals – whether on Wall Street or at DFW-area home health agencies – are robbing the public blind, in this case allegedly stealing more than three-thousand times the amount annually attributable to Class C shoplifters in Dallas. These are vast numbers: 800 area businesses collectively defrauding Medicare of nearly half a billion dollars! Extraordinary! And the issue is not isolated in Big D." WA. Water: "The dry fall weather is delaying the cranberry harvest on the Long Beach Peninsula, and growers are nervously monitoring their bogs to ensure they have enough water. Industry experts say the drought will push the harvest out into November, drive up labor costs and put the crop at risk of frost damage." Fracking. Supply chain: "[J]ust one drill job uses 20,000 pounds of [guar gum] beans. [T]here has been so much demand for guar gum that a shortage is expected in the second half of the year, driving up prices for oil and gas companies who need to buy the gel for use in fracking operations." … Public relations: "'Promised Land' stars Matt Damon as a gas-company salesman trying to lease natural-gas drilling rights in rural PA. [T]he industry is working up responses [including] bombarding film reviewers with scientific studies, distributing leaflets to moviegoers and mounting a 'truth-squad' effort on Twitter and Facebook." Outside baseball. Charters: "Standardized tests are a good way to measure what percent of your students live in poverty and what percent are affluent. The former school will be labeled 'failing,' and the latter will be a success." … Voting: "[I]f your vote is your voice, you should vote what your real voice is, no matter what the outcome is" (Bruce Dixon). … Class warfare: "The median estimated wealth of members of the current Congress rose 5 percent [while] the average American saw median household net worth drop 39 percent from 2007 to 2010." The trail. Polls: "The forecast gives [Romney] roughly a 20% chance of winning the Electoral College, up from about 15% before the debate" (Nate Silver). Voting: ""Every voter restriction that has been challenged this year has been either enjoined, blocked or weakened," said Lawrence Norden of the Brennan Center for Justice." … The debate: "Does Obama's poor performance last week indicate a subconscious desire to quit the White House and withdraw to Harvard or Chicago to write books?" No. It reflects a subconscious desire to go on TV and make a boatload of money. …. The debate: "The question [National Journal's Jim Tankersley] urged moderator Jim Lehrer to ask Romney and Obama reflects the frustration and urgency journalists should be bringing to this issue–not just 'What's your jobs plan?' but 'Why aren't you seriously trying to solve the jobs crisis?'" Good question. Maybe some reporter should ask it. … The debate: "OBAMA The girls are fine, that wasn't the problem. In the debate prep we — BARTLET Whoa … there was prep?" (MoDo). … The debate: "Viewers of the first presidential debate had plenty of souped-up second screen options to track simultaneous conversation and provide expanded coverage and polling. I sampled several of them during the debate — from apps to live blogs –but the real winners were Twitter and real-time fact checkers." True! Libertarian Party. Legalization: "After Prohibition's repeal in 1933, kids didn't start drinking in record numbers. Society didn't collapse. Today, bathtub gin dealers don't run amok on playgrounds; microbreweries don't protect their turf with automatic weapons. Instead, a safe environment to drink was created when the government began regulating and taxing alcohol" (Gary Johnson). The Romney. Crowds: "Romney was greeted by one of his largest crowds to date, as the groups of supporters coming to see him speak having grown daily since the debate, [drawing an] estimated crowd of 5,600 on Friday in St. Petersburg, another 6,300 in Apopka on Saturday night, and here today just outside Palm Beach, it was estimated that more than 9,000 came to Romney's event. Obama drew an estimated 30,000 people last week in WI." … Have a beer with: "Romney spoke of an old friend who ended up a quadriplegic after an accident and came to see Romney recently, the day before he died. A crowd of more than 5,500 stood rapt listening to him speak, many with tears welling in their eyes. 'Ohhhhh,' they gasped." The Obama. Jon Lovitz & Dana Carvey: 'Why Don't Any Comedians Target Obama? Daily Bail. Not my favorite comedians, but an interesting question. See Stoller. … Veal pen: "What was true in 2008 is still true today:* electing Obama is a necessary first step, but the more complex challenges commence after election day" (The Nation). [* And 2016… And 2020 … And forever and ever. Amen.] * Forward with The Obama! Insist on doing exercise; participate in all sports/musical activities! * * * Antidote du hour (MR):
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| Bill Gross, the Ring of Fire & Gold Prices Posted: 08 Oct 2012 03:41 AM PDT Thank Bill Gross for adding muscle this week to the already strong gold prices. The Pacific Investment Management Co. founder and co-chief investment officer said US fiscal problems will burn investors if they aren't protected by gold and real assets. |
| Accelerating money supply and gold prices Posted: 08 Oct 2012 03:30 AM PDT On October 6, GoldMoney posted my podcast with Robert Wenzel of EconomicPolicyJournal.com. In that podcast, Wenzel expressed concern about the future inflationary implications of the build-up of ... |
| Stocks and commodities hurt by new bearish report Posted: 08 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT Precious metals have started the week on a weak note, with gold falling back to $1,770 - after reaching an 11-month high of $1,796 on Friday - while silver is trading just below $34. ... |
| Will Gold Help Iran’s Financial Plight? Posted: 08 Oct 2012 01:44 AM PDT Since the beginning of 2012, the Iranian rial has been devalued against the US dollar by over 80%. However, last week saw the devaluation gain pace dramatically with the currency falling by 18% on Monday and 9% on Tuesday. |
| Philip Pilkington: Debt and the Decay of the Myth of Liberal Individualism Posted: 08 Oct 2012 12:50 AM PDT Philip Pilkington is an Irish writer and journalist living in London. You can follow him on Twitter @pilkingtonphil Whose owl-eyes in the scraggly wood – Sylvia Plath, 'The Death of Myth-Making' Myth is a peculiar thing. Like symbolic language, out of which it is built, it seems to be what sets us apart from the lower animals. Certainly a man and an ape may appear to have a lot in common, but one could not imagine a gathering of apes around a campfire telling tales imbued with symbolic meaning. But what is myth? What does it do? And how does it work? What is Myth? The Structuralist school of anthropology argued that myth is the means by which we organise our world. Some anthropologists stressed the social aspects of this; others emphasize the fact that mythic or symbolic structures were important in shaping our perceptions. Social structure as mythic or symbolic is easy to imagine. As Hamlet says in a moment of lucid madness: "The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body." The king is a social or symbolic function, not a physical thing. A particular king – say, James II – is no different biologically from his fellow men, yet he puts on a crown, sits on a throne and assumes a symbolic position of authority. It is from this place, backed by a mythic structure (divine right, for example), that the social structure itself borrows its substance. Perceptions are a little trickier. But it might be useful to imagine a sailor who believes that beyond a certain point on the map lie dragons and other foul creatures. In a very real sense this myth structures the spatial orientation of the sailor's perceptions. Today it is generally rules of hygiene that structure our spatial perceptions – with taboos placed on certain "unclean" areas. A good example is the toilet seat which is generally the cleanest place in the bathroom and yet it is viewed as a space that arouses disgust and caution in most. The function of myth, then, is to structure our world – at both a macro or social and a micro or perceptual level, with one feeding into the other. But against what is it structuring our world? Well, to look again at our two examples should prove instructive. In both of these examples the myths structure the world in such a way that anxiety is avoided. This anxiety may take the form of outright terror, as it does in the case of our sailor, or disgust, as it does in the case of our toilet seat; indeed it could take many other forms, but at the end of the day it is always some form of anxiety that is being avoided through mythic construction. Freud knew this well. Although he did not have access to contemporary structuralist theory, he knew that the psychological formations he encountered in patients were all too similar to myths, albeit constructed at an individual level – hence why they appeared as idiosyncratic neurotic symptoms to others rather than being socially accepted norms as our myths proper. Freud also knew that ultimately all these formations – whether idiosyncratic (psychological symptoms) or socially sanctioned (myths) – were all defences against anxiety. What Freud added was that the root causes of the anxiety being defended against were lodged in the deepest layers of Man's psyche. The myths for Freud were the result of a person's or a society's attempt to negotiate between peaceful cohabitation and the primitive, anti-social emotional forces that man had inherited from the beasts. It was these primitive, anti-social emotional forces – of violent envy, murderous rage and bottomless despair – that Man negotiated through his myths. Without his myths Man stood naked in the world – a bipedal beast. Myopia and Myth What is so peculiar about myth is that those that live under its sway always remain semi-blind to its function. Not wholly blind, of course. At some level people do recognise the function of the mythic structures they live by, but this is pushed aside as they live day-to-day. Money, for example, is a mythic or fetish object and most people know that it is ultimately just bits of old paper and metal. But in our day-to-day intercourse we treat money as a sacred object with mythic properties – we defend it, hoard it, accumulate it. And yet, at some level we know that it is ultimately just bits of old paper and metal. In this very real sense we repress the reality of money – we render it unconscious – in order to allow it assume its mythic and social function. If we did not do this, and instead simply treated it as scraps of paper and lumps of useless metal, the entire social economy would collapse. It is the same with myth proper. Today many of our most cherished myths are scientificised and although most people – educated people included – remain wedded to them almost completely, it is far from impossible to recognise many for what they are and yet continue to live within their rule. The less important among them are merely tittle-tattle for dinner table conversation, usually thrown around to indicate a person's superiority over the "backward" ways of religion; but the more substantial and important truly do function as do the myths of a jungle tribe or a religious state: they have an immediate impact on the way society is run and to genuinely shun them in "reasonable" company is to be something of an outcast. It is to one of the most central of these that we now turn. That is, the elaborate mythology published in 1776 under the title "The Wealth of Nations" by one Adam Smith. The Wonderful World of Mr Smith Smith's enduring legacy is as ill-defined and disputed as it is well-known. Some might say that it was his crowning of the capitalist economy. Others might say that it was his scientific contribution of the "division of labour". We look to something rather different. All these are important and, indeed, enduring points. But they do not account for Smith's legendary, indeed mythic, status today. For Smith was by no means the first economist. Nor was he the first economist to champion free-trade. One could even make the case that he was not the first to champion capitalism. But he was the first to try to ground an understanding of economic relations in a very particular conception of Man – in a very particular form of myth. The Physiocrats, the French agricultural economists who had come before Smith, had a very different myth structuring their economic reasoning. They claimed that society was at the mercy of certain "natural laws" and that these laws were handed down by a higher power. To interfere with these laws was to engage in folly and, in order for a leader to properly rule over a prosperous economy, he should adhere to these laws and run society accordingly because to do otherwise was to go against a set of natural laws handed down by the Creator Himself. Here we can see the mythic structure quite clearly in that the rules of the game are set out quite explicitly. A story is being told about a Creator – the Great Other – who has created society in line with a set of constant rules and laws. The scientist (in truth, the weaver of myths) sets out to discover these laws and once they are discovered the society can be run in such a way that it reflects them. For example, the Physiocrats claimed that farming capital should not be taxed. If the French monarch went against this, in the eyes of the Physiocrat he was simply a fool who refused to play by the rules of the game set out by the Creator – and society, together with the ruler's overall tax revenues, would suffer as a result. Smith placed at the centre of his economic analysis a very different kind of myth, a myth that has endured as his lasting legacy right up until today; a myth that was best recognised and highlighted by the early-20th century Russian economist I.I. Rubin. The cornerstone of Smith's mythic structure is not that of a Great Other, a Creator, who has laid out the rules of the game, but instead in a supposedly "natural" conception of Man himself. Smith grounds his mythology in the notion that there are certain features of Man which are completely immutable, timeless and "natural". Notice the shift here: no longer is there a divine set of rules that are called natural, but instead there are some supposed aspects of Man that are natural. The status of the term "natural" here is ambiguous. Is Smith saying that these features of Man are themselves divine rules, like those of the Physiocrats? Since "natural" is something of a metaphysical statement in this context it would seem that he is indeed saying something like this. But the gulf between the two perspectives is enormous. Where the Physiocrats laid out a series of natural rules handed down from on high and advised rulers to follow them, Smith points to what are supposed to be innate tendencies in Man. This is a far more forceful and violent manner of reasoning because, whereas the Physiocrats highlighted their mythic laws and advised ruler to follow them, thereby allowing rulers the option of ignoring them, Smith claimed that it was completely impossible for rulers to ignore the "natural" tendencies of Man because they would always win. Smith's argument was that the "natural" forces he had discovered in Man were always pushing against anything that stood in their way – and, Smith claimed, they would always come out on top. This "natural" conception of Man about which we speak is the cool, slightly disinterested individual of the exchange economy. The man whose ties to much of society are impermanent and negotiated and settled on-the-spot, thus leaving no nasty social residue to interfere with his perfect, individualistic freedom. This is the individual proper: atomistic, free and without any hidden chains binding him to the social body – not yet the true "homo economicus", but certainly a step toward him. And it is this kernel of Smith's myth that we remain living our lives under today; not just, as we shall see, in our minds, but also in our actions. Banishing Debt and Obligation Recently the anthropologist David Graber, in his wonderfully popular book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years", has brought out what he seems to take as one of the most important departure points of Adam Smith. That is, his creation of the "barter myth" which he uses to plaster over the fact that most human economies are debt-based rather than money-based economies. Smith did not invent the barter myth, traces of it go right back to Aristotle. However, he did render it more precise and it soon became the basis from which a pure monetary economy was at once assumed and justified. It goes like this: in the beginning people barter. Then they realise that it is inconvenient to do so if their wants do not overlap at any given point in time. Finally, they create a money standard to allow them to disperse trades across space and time. Graeber is quite clear about how important this founding myth was for the emerging discipline of economics:
Graeber is quite correct here provided that we read his words carefully. The Physiocrats, as we have seen above, were concerned with a field of study that we could broadly call the "economy", but for them it was tied up with moral and political questions. For while the Physiocrats thought that they had found natural laws of the economy laid out by the Creator, they were clear that the politicians of the day would have to accept them in order for them to function. For them a change in the moral and political order in line with the dictates of these "natural" laws was desirable, but in no way inevitable. Smith, as we have seen, had a wholly different view. He thought that he had found "natural" tendencies in Man himself and that these would function regardless of whatever contingent social, political and moral system was in place at any given time. In part it was the barter myth that allowed him to do this. But his real project ran much deeper. Smith's true legacy runs as an undercurrent through all his work. Like all good myths in modern times, its true essence is not stated explicitly very often – instead it is allowed to structure his overall discourse itself. However, Smith does provide a lucid formulation in his earlier work "A Theory of Moral Sentiments":
The astute reader will instantly spot the importance of this passage for Smith's mythology together with its connection to the barter myth that he later puts forward in "The Wealth of Nations". The point of connection, of course, lies in the words: "no man in [society] should owe any obligation, or be bound in gratitude to any other". What Smith is doing here is banishing the role of debt in a rather violent manner in order to create a mythology of free individual agents, unbounded to one another except in the act of mutual and free exchange. The Breakdown of the Myth of the Unbounded Individual But why is this so important? Let us recall once again what the function of myth is. As stated earlier, myth is essential in that it structures peoples' relations to one another and society at large and in doing so banishes both acute anxiety and the more violent emotions. If structuring myths break down the result would, on a personal level be that of anxiety, but on a social level it might be far more profound – the violent emotions might begin to break through. Recall our discussion of money earlier. There we proposed that, despite the fact that money is just pieces of paper and lumps of metal, its mythic function allows economic relations to be bound together. Without this mythic function, the social economy would break down. Similarly, without structuring myths about who we are and how we find our place in the world the concern is that the anxiety generated within society at large would be sufficient to result in the emergence, on a mass scale, of crude behaviours and primitive emotions. Smith was well aware of this. Immediately after the passage cited above, which founded the myth of the fully independent individual, he writes:
The myth of the unbounded individual, the lone merchant with the devil-may-care attitude toward his fellow men allowed Smith to conceive of a society in which men might live without close ties to one another and yet a society which would not descend into barbarism. Emotional distance, a lack of love or compassion, need not descend into violence and murder, according to Smith, because of the principles of disinterested commerce and exchange which he thought that he had uncovered in Man. This is the legacy that Smith has left us today. Not just in the field of economics, but also as a sort of moral or mythic code by which we arrange our social intercourse in mass society. When we step into a shop and purchase a good or a service we are acting as Smithian individuals. We see ourselves as unbounded to those around us and free to make whatever decisions we please. And we believe that once the transaction is complete we can wash our hands of it. The problem is that this is not true and it probably never has been. Today, instead, we see all too clearly the importance of debt. Debt is what ties us together. We may be in the position of creditor or in the position of debtor – or we may even be in the position of neither – but debt affects all of us. Even those of us that balance our books perfectly and do not engage in any form of lending nevertheless rely on banking systems and systems of government founded on the simple and timeless principles of debt. And it is these principles that bind us together. We are not, in any way, "men who owe no obligation to one another". Our entire social system is founded on obligation and interconnectedness. This was likely true even in Smith's time, but his genius was to have hidden it from view and in doing so to construct the founding myth of liberal individualism as it exists in modern times. Yet today the debt issue explodes once more. And because Smith's mythology cannot contain it we see all around us anxiety together with its attendant primitive emotions such as envy, anger, spite and malice and, in countries such as Greece, a general collapse of the entire social economy. We see politicians obsessed over government debt sending their countries into ruin simply because they adhere to a redundant mythology. In short, we see the chaos that terrified Smith of a society in which, in his words, injustice prevails. What Smith gave to humanity in his founding of economics was a great lie with which to structure our newly forming nation-states and mass societies. But it was a lie that was in many ways quite fragile. And it is this lie that we see cracking up all around us today. The question is whether we, as a species, will continue to live within this crumbling fiction or whether we can construct a different mythological system founded on principles that are a closer fit to our really existing circumstances. Almost every moral pillar of our contemporary societies – from the discipline of economics, to ideas that dominate about what constitutes good statesmanship – militates against the formation of such a new mythology. And, as psychopathology teaches us well, people are quite stubborn in their giving up of their mythologies, despite their possibly high degree of dysfunction. But given that the stakes are rather high and humans are a fairly adaptive species, we may surprise ourselves yet.
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| The SCO, China, Iran & Bullion Posted: 08 Oct 2012 12:04 AM PDT Iran is important, because it supplies crude oil to China and India, and the Americans have banned all countries from buying Iranian oil on pain of sanctions. The consequence has been to force Iran to settle some of her trade in gold. |
| Race to Debase – Q3 Fiat Currencies vs. PMs Posted: 07 Oct 2012 10:23 PM PDT With recent announcements of even further central bank monetary easing policies (QE3, Japan, Brazil, etc.) we fully expect the current gold bull market and silver bull market revaluation trend to not only continue, but to quicken moving forward. |
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