Gold World News Flash |
- GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Louis Navellier & Chris Waltzek
- Gold and the Cold War
- Norcini - The World Is Balancing On A Razors Edge
- There Will Be War In The Middle East
- Asian Metals Market Update
- Global gold demand reflects challenging global economic climate: ETFs up 56% and India up 9% in Q3 2012
- Prepare for Market Meltdown
- Panic or Tax Loss Spike Example
- Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Enters Day 4 of Tight Consolidation
- House Republicans Find Corzine Guilty Of MF Global Collapse, Missing Funds; Democrats Refuse To Endorse Findings
- MAJOR BUYING OPPORTUNITY
- The Unabridged Ron Paul Guide To Being A Libertarian
- Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange seeks warehouse in China
- Ron Paul departs with 'Our Constitution has failed'
- INMATES TAKE OVER THE ASYLUM
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher
- Doug Casey on the Inconvenient Truths of US Foreign Policy
- Jim's Mailbox
- With Over 100,000 Supporting Texas Secession, Ron Paul Weighs In
- The Gold Price Continues to Move Higher with $1,740 as it's Next Hurdle
- Why Financial Repression Will Fail
- Greenlight Capital And Third Point September 30 Holdings Summary
- Shorts In Gold Nothing More Than A Few Large Hedge Funds
- Inquiries On Gold
- On Russia Today's 'Capital Account'...CFTC's Chilton Repeats Belief in Silver Market Manipulation
- Gold May Hit $2,000 on Money Printing: Deutsche Bank
- S&P 500 Drops through Support
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
- Turkey Pushes For Gold & Global Gold Production To Plummet
- TRUTH IS TREASON IN AN EMPIRE OF LIES – RON PAUL'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS
| GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Louis Navellier & Chris Waltzek Posted: 15 Nov 2012 08:29 AM PST GoldSeek.com Radio Gold Nugget: Louis Navellier & Chris Waltzek
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| Posted: 15 Nov 2012 08:18 AM PST No gold mined in either China or Russia is sold on the open market. All gold mined in China and Russia stays in that country. Clearly, the East has a different strategy than the West and gold is a critical part of that strategy. The West, however, is primarily concerned with protecting the economic system, i.e. capitalism, which allowed it to conquer and exploit much of the world for almost three hundred years. Such leverage is rarely come by and the fact that it may be ending has only redoubled Western efforts to save it.
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| Norcini - The World Is Balancing On A Razors Edge Posted: 14 Nov 2012 11:35 PM PST  On the heels of some wild trading in many key global markets, today acclaimed trader Dan Norcini told King World News, "It is a good question for people to be asking themselves, can gold and silver continue to stay firm in the face of weakness in the stock market, as well as the mining shares themselves? There are traders that have been buying gold in anticipation of stronger demand from India during Diwali, which is right around the corner."
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| There Will Be War In The Middle East Posted: 14 Nov 2012 11:30 PM PST from The Economic Collapse Blog:
Read More @ TheEconomicCollpaseBlog.com
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 11:11 PM PST Gold will not rise by much if the US dollar remains firm and stock markets fall. Overall performance of gold and silver has been excellent after the US president elections in view of stock market bear shock which has been received by the investors. Physical demand as well as jewelry demand of gold and silver should fall now in India.
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 11:00 PM PST Global gold demand in Q3 2012 was 1,084.6 tonnes (t), down 11% from the record Q3 2011 figure of 1,223.5t. This dip in demand is in comparison with exceptional demand in Q3 last year. Gold demand remains resilient. Q3 2012 was above the five year quarterly average of 984.7t, according to the World Gold Council's Gold Demand Trends Report.
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 10:40 PM PST from AnotherBoringWeek:
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| Panic or Tax Loss Spike Example Posted: 14 Nov 2012 09:43 PM PST Following the most recent Got Gold Report discussing tax loss selling and the potential for panic spikes, we received a great question from Vulture E. C. asking what a panic spike looks like on a chart. Below is an example. A tax loss spike and a panic spike are virtually identical and one can lead to the other. The short term chart below is of one of our Vulture Bargain issues during the brutal buyer's strike this past spring and summer.Short Term Chart In both of the spike examples above, shown in a volume candle chart for the added effect of relative volume during the event, a seller came in hot and heavy until they had used up their "inventory." Their selling was not on all that much volume, but it overwhelemed the available buying power. As soon as their selling ended, MRO snapped right back to whence it came. Below is how it appears in a longer term weekly chart for both spike events. Notice that the first panic spike occurred within a single week, resulting in a long tailed trading bar. The second one took two weeks to unfold, resulting in a full weekly reversal. When looking for a tax loss seller or panic spike, one thing to look for is that the volume is not excessively high - just coming in too fast for the available buying pressure. In our experience, tax loss kamikazes with large positions often become reckless with their sales. We guess that is because once they have made the decision to liquidate, they want to get it over with. That is opportunity knocking for Vulture Speculators. Thanks for the good question.
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| Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Enters Day 4 of Tight Consolidation Posted: 14 Nov 2012 09:40 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com November 14, 2012 05:31 PM Daily Bars Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT Commodity Analysis: Gold has traded sideways the last 4 days after rallying for 4 days from a multi month low. The 61.8% retracement at 1749 remains of interest. 1780 can’t be ruled out either. The low on day 3 of the month and emotional trade at the low (11/2 was a JS Thrust day) suggests that price is likely to stay above 1672.50 for the remainder of November. Commodity Trading Strategy: I’m on the lookout for a wave 2 or B top below the October high at higher levels. LEVELS: 1685 1698 1713 1749 1762 1780...
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 08:45 PM PST [Ed. Note: What can you say about the "Democrats"? We loathe most of the "Republicans", but the "Democrats", they're in a hellish league all their own.] from Zero Hedge:
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 08:42 PM PST I'm just going to do a quick post today. The relevant factors are that gold appears to have put in an intermediate degree bottom last week. Miners are being dragged down at the moment as the stock market makes its final move into an intermediate bottom. This happens pretty much like clockwork every 20-25 weeks (currently on week 23).  Invariably when stocks move down into one of these major cycle bottoms the selling pressure infects everything. It finally grabbed the miners today even though gold has barely budged. Not to worry though, we've seen this happen dozens of times in the past, and the miners always snap back violently once the selling pressure in the stock market exhausts. More importantly than where things are going tomorrow or the next day is where they are headed over the next intermediate cycle. As I have diagrammed in the chart below the dollar is due for a move down into a yearly cycle low around mid February or early March. Roughly the same time as last year. This will drive the next intermediate rally in gold (and stocks) for about the next 12-15 weeks.  I'll say it again. Buying anywhere around these levels will deliver big gains over the next 3-4 months. Probably largest in the miners, but certainly significant in virtually all sectors. This is that period of time that comes only once or twice a year when the chartists get fleeced (the charts always say the market is going lower at intermediate bottoms. This is why chartists always miss these major bottoms. You need different tools to spot these kind of buying opportunities.) and the smart money positions for the next leg up. The choice is yours. Do you want to sell at the bottom again, or will you be a buyer this time and make some money? (I think big money.)       
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| The Unabridged Ron Paul Guide To Being A Libertarian Posted: 14 Nov 2012 07:40 PM PST Presented with little comment since whatever we say would likely be superfluous to this all-encompassing speech. The full Ron Paul 'Farewell to Congress' speech and transcript:
Full Speech Here:
Transcript Wordcloud:
Full Transcript (via Campaign For Liberty): Farewell to Congress This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I'll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty. It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security. To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire. The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.
How Much Did I Accomplish? In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways—thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history. All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer. A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn't give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn't give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues. As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe. The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending. The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there's no "loot left to divvy up." Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January. I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell. Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled.
Authoritarianism vs. Liberty If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty. There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government. During my time in Congress the appetite for liberty has been quite weak; the understanding of its significance negligible. Yet the good news is that compared to 1976 when I first came to Congress, the desire for more freedom and less government in 2012 is much greater and growing, especially in grassroots America. Tens of thousands of teenagers and college age students are, with great enthusiasm, welcoming the message of liberty. I have a few thoughts as to why the people of a country like ours, once the freest and most prosperous, allowed the conditions to deteriorate to the degree that they have. Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth. In our early history we were very much aware of this. But in the early part of the 20th century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax. The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be "progressive" ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable. They failed to recognized that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British. Some complain that my arguments makes no sense, since great wealth and the standard of living improved for many Americans over the last 100 years, even with these new policies. But the damage to the market economy, and the currency, has been insidious and steady. It took a long time to consume our wealth, destroy the currency and undermine productivity and get our financial obligations to a point of no return. Confidence sometimes lasts longer than deserved. Most of our wealth today depends on debt. The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected. As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary.
The Age of Redistribution This neglect ushered in an age of redistribution of wealth by government kowtowing to any and all special interests, except for those who just wanted to left alone. That is why today money in politics far surpasses money currently going into research and development and productive entrepreneurial efforts. The material benefits became more important than the understanding and promoting the principles of liberty and a free market. It is good that material abundance is a result of liberty but if materialism is all that we care about, problems are guaranteed. The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail. We have ended up with a system that doesn't produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends. If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time. Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue.
We Need an Intellectual Awakening Without an intellectual awakening, the turning point will be driven by economic law. A dollar crisis will bring the current out-of-control system to its knees. If it's not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties. Prosperity for a large middle class though will become an abstract dream. This continuous move is no different than what we have seen in how our financial crisis of 2008 was handled. Congress first directed, with bipartisan support, bailouts for the wealthy. Then it was the Federal Reserve with its endless quantitative easing. If at first it doesn't succeed try again; QE1, QE2, and QE3 and with no results we try QE indefinitely—that is until it too fails. There's a cost to all of this and let me assure you delaying the payment is no longer an option. The rules of the market will extract its pound of flesh and it won't be pretty. The current crisis elicits a lot of pessimism. And the pessimism adds to less confidence in the future. The two feed on themselves, making our situation worse. If the underlying cause of the crisis is not understood we cannot solve our problems. The issues of warfare, welfare, deficits, inflationism, corporatism, bailouts and authoritarianism cannot be ignored. By only expanding these policies we cannot expect good results. Everyone claims support for freedom. But too often it's for one's own freedom and not for others. Too many believe that there must be limits on freedom. They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force, certain liberties. Some decide what and whose freedoms are to be limited. These are the politicians whose goal in life is power. Their success depends on gaining support from special interests.
No More 'isms' The great news is the answer is not to be found in more "isms." The answers are to be found in more liberty which cost so much less. Under these circumstances spending goes down, wealth production goes up, and the quality of life improves. Just this recognition—especially if we move in this direction—increases optimism which in itself is beneficial. The follow through with sound policies are required which must be understood and supported by the people. But there is good evidence that the generation coming of age at the present time is supportive of moving in the direction of more liberty and self-reliance. The more this change in direction and the solutions become known, the quicker will be the return of optimism. Our job, for those of us who believe that a different system than the one that we have had for the last 100 years, has driven us to this unsustainable crisis, is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers. We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause. It worked, but we allowed our leaders to concentrate on the material abundance that freedom generates, while ignoring freedom itself. Now we have neither, but the door is open, out of necessity, for an answer. The answer available is based on the Constitution, individual liberty and prohibiting the use of government force to provide privileges and benefits to all special interests. After over 100 years we face a society quite different from the one that was intended by the Founders. In many ways their efforts to protect future generations with the Constitution from this danger has failed. Skeptics, at the time the Constitution was written in 1787, warned us of today's possible outcome. The insidious nature of the erosion of our liberties and the reassurance our great abundance gave us, allowed the process to evolve into the dangerous period in which we now live.
Dependency on Government Largesse Today we face a dependency on government largesse for almost every need. Our liberties are restricted and government operates outside the rule of law, protecting and rewarding those who buy or coerce government into satisfying their demands. Here are a few examples:
Questions Excessive government has created such a mess it prompts many questions:
Trust Yourself, Not the Government Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust in government and not enough in themselves. Fortunately, many are now becoming aware of the seriousness of the gross mistakes of the past several decades. The blame is shared by both political parties. Many Americans now are demanding to hear the plain truth of things and want the demagoguing to stop. Without this first step, solutions are impossible. Seeking the truth and finding the answers in liberty and self-reliance promotes the optimism necessary for restoring prosperity. The task is not that difficult if politics doesn't get in the way. We have allowed ourselves to get into such a mess for various reasons. Politicians deceive themselves as to how wealth is produced. Excessive confidence is placed in the judgment of politicians and bureaucrats. This replaces the confidence in a free society. Too many in high places of authority became convinced that only they, armed with arbitrary government power, can bring about fairness, while facilitating wealth production. This always proves to be a utopian dream and destroys wealth and liberty. It impoverishes the people and rewards the special interests who end up controlling both political parties. It's no surprise then that much of what goes on in Washington is driven by aggressive partisanship and power seeking, with philosophic differences being minor.
Economic Ignorance Economic ignorance is commonplace. Keynesianism continues to thrive, although today it is facing healthy and enthusiastic rebuttals. Believers in military Keynesianism and domestic Keynesianism continue to desperately promote their failed policies, as the economy languishes in a deep slumber. Supporters of all government edicts use humanitarian arguments to justify them. Humanitarian arguments are always used to justify government mandates related to the economy, monetary policy, foreign policy, and personal liberty. This is on purpose to make it more difficult to challenge. But, initiating violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence. Good intentions are no excuse and are just as harmful as when people use force with bad intentions. The results are always negative. The immoral use of force is the source of man's political problems. Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic authoritarians endorse government initiated force to change the world. Even when the desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when well-intentioned—the results are dismal. The good results sought never materialize. The new problems created require even more government force as a solution. The net result is institutionalizing government initiated violence and morally justifying it on humanitarian grounds. This is the same fundamental reason our government uses force for invading other countries at will, central economic planning at home, and the regulation of personal liberty and habits of our citizens. It is rather strange, that unless one has a criminal mind and no respect for other people and their property, no one claims it's permissible to go into one's neighbor's house and tell them how to behave, what they can eat, smoke and drink or how to spend their money. Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and order. Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search warrant.
No Government Monopoly over Initiating Violence Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil society. Permitting such authority and expecting saintly behavior from the bureaucrats and the politicians is a pipe dream. We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc. numbering over 100,000. Citizens are guilty until proven innocent in the unconstitutional administrative courts. Government in a free society should have no authority to meddle in social activities or the economic transactions of individuals. Nor should government meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful, even when controversial, should be permitted. We must reject the notion of prior restraint in economic activity just we do in the area of free speech and religious liberty. But even in these areas government is starting to use a backdoor approach of political correctness to regulate speech-a dangerous trend. Since 9/11 monitoring speech on the internet is now a problem since warrants are no longer required.
The Proliferation of Federal Crimes The Constitution established four federal crimes. Today the experts can't even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the books—they number into the thousands. No one person can comprehend the enormity of the legal system—especially the tax code. Due to the ill-advised drug war and the endless federal expansion of the criminal code we have over 6 million people under correctional suspension, more than the Soviets ever had, and more than any other nation today, including China. I don't understand the complacency of the Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession with passing more Federal laws. Mandatory sentencing laws associated with drug laws have compounded our prison problems. The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax code has 72,000 pages, and expands every year. When will the people start shouting, "enough is enough," and demand Congress cease and desist.
Achieving Liberty Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied the aggressive use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government is needed. To achieve it, more than lip service is required. Two choices are available.
Once government gets a limite
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| Hong Kong Gold and Silver Exchange seeks warehouse in China Posted: 14 Nov 2012 07:30 PM PST By Polly Yam http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/13/precious-hongkong-exchange-idU... HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society (CGSE) is in initial talks with Chinese officials to set up a bonded warehouse on the mainland in a bid to boost business with exchanges and traders there, its president said on Tuesday. The CGSE is a leading physical gold marketplace in Asia. President Haywood Cheung said the CGSE was seeking to set up a warehouse for gold and silver in Qianhai, a new financial zone in the southern city of Shenzhen. "We are definitely interested in setting up warehouses in the mainland," Cheung told Reuters in an interview. "Officials for Qianhai have said that initially this can be considered and is a good idea." ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Opinion Around the World Is Changing When Deutschebank calls gold "good money" and paper "bad money". ... http://www.gata.org/node/11765 When the president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, pays tribute to gold as "a timeless classic". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/09/24/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a leading member of the policy committee of the People's Bank of China calls the gold standard "an excellent monetary system". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/10/01/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a CNN reporter writes in The China Post that the "gold commission" plank in the 2012 Republican platform will "reverberate around the world". ... http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/key-blogs/1563-china-post-the-gop-gold... When the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy of the U.S. House of Representatives twice called on economist, historian, and gold standard advocate Lewis E. Lehrman to testify. ... World opinion is changing in favor of gold. How can you learn why and what it will mean to you? Read the newly updated and expanded edition of Lehrman's book, "The True Gold Standard." Financial journalist James Grant says of "The True Gold Standard": "If you have ever wondered how the world can get from here to there -- from the chaos of depreciating paper to a convertible currency worthy of our children and our grandchildren -- wonder no more. The answer, brilliantly expounded, is between these covers. America has long needed a modern Alexander Hamilton. In Lewis E. Lehrman she has finally found him." To buy a copy of "The True Gold Standard," please visit: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.com/publications/the-true-gold-standard China does not currently allow foreign exchanges to set up storage on the mainland, and the CGSE is considered a foreign entity. This policy, however, is expected to change soon. The central government is also expected to allow the Qianhai zone, near Hong Kong, to implement special policies to encourage investment. Up to 25 percent of the CGSE's trade came from the mainland in 2011 and this figure is expected to rise to between 25 percent and 30 percent this year, Cheung said. In a bid to further boost business and liquidity in the mainland, the CGSE is also in talks with the Shanghai Gold Exchange, China's leading physical gold marketplace, to pool accredited gold bar providers, Cheung added. To expand its silver business, the CGSE plans to launch an electronic platform to trade the precious metal in Hong Kong dollars in the first quarter of 2013. It currently offers electronic trading for Loco London gold and silver, which are denominated in U.S. dollars, and the Renminbi kilobar gold. Asked about his outlook for precious metals, Cheung said he expects spot gold prices to rise to $2,000 an ounce in the first quarter of next year, an increase from current prices of about $1,700-$1,800 an ounce. Cheung also expects silver prices to rise to around $40 an ounce in the first quarter of next year, from about $32 an ounce currently. "If precious metals investors believe metals prices would rise, they would pick silver now because gold prices are already high," Cheung said, adding that jewellery manufacturers in Asia were using more silver and platinum in their products, boosting physical demand. Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy open All Pro Gold Longtime GATA supporters Fred Goldstein and Tim Murphy have brought their many years of experience in the precious metals and numismatic coins to All Pro Gold as metals brokers who specialize in the delivery of gold and silver bullion bars and coins as well as numismatic gold and silver coins. Fred and Tim follow these markets closely and are assisted by a team of consultants in monitoring market trends. All Pro Gold offers GATA supporters competitive pricing on all bullion products and welcomes inquiries. Tim can be reached at 602-299-2585 and Tim@allprogold.com, Fred at 602-799-8378 and Fred@allprogold.com. Ask about their ratio strategy and the relationship of generic $20 dollar gold pieces to 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Visit their Internet site at http://www.allprogold.com/.
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| Ron Paul departs with 'Our Constitution has failed' Posted: 14 Nov 2012 07:24 PM PST By Chris Good U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the iconic libertarian congressman from Texas, has delivered what will most likely be his final address to Congress. In a sprawling, 52-minute speech to the House chamber, Paul lambasted U.S. government, politicians, and special interests, declaring that the American people must return to virtue before the government allows them to be free, and that the Constitution has failed to limit the scope of an authoritarian bureaucracy. "Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed," Paul said. "The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified." ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Prophecy Platinum Intercepts Best Pt+Pd+Au Grades Yet Company Press Release VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) announces more results of its 2012 drill program on the company's fully-owned Wellgreen platinum group metals, nickel, and copper project in southwestern Yukon Territory, Canada. Four surface holes and four underground holes all intercepted significant mineralized widths, ranging from 28.5 meters (WS12-201) and up to 459.5 metres (WS12-193). Highlights include WU12-540, which returned 8.9 metres of 5.36 grams per tonne platinum, palladium, and gold; 1.73 percent copper; and 1.01 percent nickel within 304.5 meters of 0.66 g/t platinum-palladium-gold, 0.20 percent copper, and 0.27 percent nickel. The surface drill program started in June and has completed 16 holes (assays pending for 12 holes) with two rigs now on site. The surface program continues to progress at a steady pace. Prophecy Chairman John Lee commented: "Wellgreen is a very large nickel, copper, and platinum group metals project with near-surface high-grade zones. High-grade intercepts will be incorporated into resource modeling and mine planning in the pre-feasibility study. We expect further positive drill results from Wellgreen shortly." Wellgreen features a low 2.59-to-1 strip ratio, is situated at an altitude of 1,300 meters, and is only 15 kilometers from the two-lane paved Alaska Highway. Those factors significantly minimize the project's indirect costs. For the complete company statement with full tabulation of the drilling results, please visit: http://prophecyplat.com/news_2012_sep11_prophecy_platinum_drill_results.... For the retiring Republican, 77, the "current crisis" isn't quite what it is for other members of Congress, who routinely use that word to describe the economic recession that followed the 2008 financial crash. To the Texas Republican, that's part of it, but the causes are deeper, and it's also a crisis of governmental authoritarianism and the vanishing of personal liberty. "If it's not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis, we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties," said Paul, an obstetrician and gynecologist by training. The problem isn't just government's size but its use of force, both in starting preemptive wars and as it coerces U.S. citizens with police power. To Paul, this is the fault of Americans who no longer prioritize liberty, and it will lead to the unraveling of orderly society unless people change. "Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can lead only to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger, and the breakdown of civil society," Paul said. "We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corps of Engineers, etc., numbering over 100,000 civil society." More than coercive, to Paul the government is also corrupt: "All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state -- and frequently their own wealth and power," he said. Throughout his speech, Paul questioned not only the fundamental health of America's social compact but specifics like fiat money, the power of the Federal Reserve, the PATRIOT Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act modifications, undeclared war, the illegalization of medical marijuana, mandatory sentencing requirements for drug crimes, the illegalization of hemp, TSA searches, federal debt and borrowing, the White House's authority to assassinate those it declares terrorists, the legalization of detaining U.S. citizens for national-security purposes, the political power of AIPAC, and the regulation of light bulbs and toilets in people's homes. For Paul, the list of grievances is long, and he might not have accomplished much in Congress: "In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little," he said. "No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways, thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without congressional declaration." In thinking about the champions of liberty, his lesson is a bitter one: "History has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled," but his prescription is hopeful. Paul left the podium, for the last time, offering an "answer" to all these problems: that people should choose liberty and limit government, and seek change within themselves. "The No. 1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow," Paul said, urging an end to two motives that have hindered U.S. society: envy and intolerance. "I have come to one firm conviction after these many years of trying to figure out the plain truth of things. The best chance for achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people worldwide, is to pursue the cause of liberty. If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land." * * * Full video of Paul's address, courtesy of C-SPAN, is posted here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/ron-paul-departs-with-our-c...
Join GATA here: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference * * * Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: ADVERTISEMENT GoldMoney adds Toronto vaulting option In addition to its precious metals storage facilities in Hong Kong, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, GoldMoney customers now can store their gold and silver in a high-security vault operated by Brink's in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. GoldMoney also has recently partnered with Rhenus Freight Logistics to offer another gold storage option in Switzerland. The Rhenus vault is in the secured zone of Zurich Airport and offers customers superb security as well as the ability to inspect their gold. Storage at the new vaults in Canada and Switzerland is available at GoldMoney's lowest fees. Customers can select their storage location when placing their buy order. GoldMoney customers can take delivery of any number of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bars from any GoldMoney vault, as well as personally collect their bars stored in the Hong Kong, Switzerland, and U.K. vaults. It's easy to open an account, add funds, and liquidate your investment. For more information, visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 07:07 PM PST You nutjobs and lunatics are now in charge. I'm outta here. I won't be posting anything for awhile. It will be up to those with contributor status to post interesting articles. I will be able to logon for a few minutes per day to release any pending posts. Hopefully the world doesn't collapse until after I get back. I'm sure the normal high standards of TBP dialogue and civility will be maintained. You will have to run off any newbie dumbasses without my help.
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| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher Posted: 14 Nov 2012 07:00 PM PST Gold edged up to $1729.23 in Asia before it fell back to $1720.65 in London and then chopped up to as high as $1733.60 by about 2PM EST, but it then fell back off in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with a gain of just 0.03%. Silver slipped to $32.36 in London before it rose to as high as $32.908, but it then fell back off in late trade and ended with a gain of just 0.65%.
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| Doug Casey on the Inconvenient Truths of US Foreign Policy Posted: 14 Nov 2012 06:45 PM PST (Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator) L: Hola, Doug. Congrats on calling the election correctly. You got your wish: the global economy should exit the eye of the storm on Obama's watch. Hopefully, leftist ideas will get the blame they deserve this time. Doug: Well, that's only the second time I've ever called a US presidential election accurately, so I won't let it go to my head. However, although I know most readers were rooting for Romney because he appeared to be the lesser of two evils, it's quite arguable that we're better off – for the long run – with the disastrous Obama. Let's look at the bright side: first, as you mentioned, Obama will get blamed for the Greater Depression. But also, Romney appeared even more warlike than Obama, and war is the health of the state. Despite the US's huge, unsustainable deficits, he actually promised to increase military spending – presumably using money borrowed from the Chinese. Plus, he promised not to cut medical and welfare spending. But those are consequences we'll never see now. The actual reason Obama won, in addition to his promises of a free lunch for everyone, is that people are much more socially liberal than in the past. They don't want the state putting its nose into their bedrooms with bans on gay marriage, abortion, and the like. Romney was a throwback to the '50s – even down to that phony, condescending smile that was always painted on his face. So let's batten down the hatches for four more years, recognizing there were no good choices. But what's really on my mind this week are things military, starting with the expanding sex scandal involving top military brass and the newly deposed head of the CIA, General Petraeus. Then we can get into the 19 reasons why the continuing war in Afghanistan is a total disaster. L: You've always said that once you get above the staff-sergeant level of the military, it's hopelessly corrupt, and that generals above two stars are necessarily political operatives. The top spot of any government agency is always a political appointment anyway, and we all know that your regard for politicians couldn't get any lower – so this can't be a surprise. Doug: No, it's no surprise – just more evidence for those who care to open their eyes as to just how dysfunctional things are at the top. L: But is this really a sign of corruption? A famous – or infamous – bon vivant like you can't possibly care whom generals screw, as long as it's not taxpayers? Doug: True. I couldn't care less who's sleeping with whom; it's just that these people are typically such self-righteous hypocrites. But for all we know, Petraeus had an open relationship with his wife and wasn't even cheating. Given that what we read in the papers doesn't count as knowledge, only selective reporting of facts released by the government, buttressed by hearsay, conjecture, and lawyered-up statements, we really know almost nothing. As Mark Twain said, if you don't read the papers, you're uninformed; if you do read them, you're misinformed. But as a matter of principle, it's always an excellent thing to see the mighty in these praetorian agencies fall into disgrace. Almost by definition, only bad apples can make it to the top in them, and they deserve to fall. I can only hope this scandal will grow and expose the CIA for being the corrupt, incompetent agency it is, and the entire thing will be abolished. L: You're an optimist. But I should have known that if you had an opinion about Petraeus, it wouldn't be based on unverified information, but on principle. And as a matter of principle, I'd have to say that a guy who's supposed to be the country's top spy and can't even keep a romantic liaison private doesn't seem fit for the job. Doug: Yes, although the very foundation of the CIA – its whole raison d'être, its essential modus operandi – is based on lies, cheating, and deception. You've got to expect the worst from these people, even while they sanctimoniously blather on about things like loyalty, truth, and honor. Such concepts are as alien to them as they were to the KGB and the Stasi. The whole rotten mess of lies, failures, and cover-ups turns my attention to an interesting article I read in the Washington Post a few months ago. It was a list of 19 things Afghanistan veterans agree are true, but that generals don't dare say in public. I'm no fan of the Washington Post, but one can't disregard a message simply because one doesn't like the messenger. The list of unacknowledged facts "everyone knows" but can't speak out loud is not just interesting, but impresses me as extremely accurate. It details what a disaster the US misadventure in Afghanistan has been and continues to be. L: For example? Doug: It starts with this assertion: "Pakistan is now an enemy of the United States." This impresses me as being a completely accurate allegation. The place is not really a country at all, but an agglomeration of dozens of Islamic tribes – most of which are at odds with each other – cobbled together by the British in the process of granting India's independence. It will eventually fall apart into any number of satrapies, principalities, and warlord fiefdoms. That might not matter to people who live on the far side of the planet, except that the current country is said to possess about 100 nuclear weapons, some of which are bound to fall into the hands of some real Bad Boys when the place inevitably implodes. L: Makes sense. Also, though I don't claim to have much in the way of real facts at my disposal, it's hard for me to believe that Osama bin Laden was able to set up an extensive household – we're supposed to call it a "compound" if we don't like the people inside – right under the noses of Pakistani security without anyone in power there knowing what was going on. And whatever else may be said, harboring an enemy is hardly the act of a friend. Doug: That's right. The next point, referring to Afghanistan, is: "We don't know why we are here, what we are fighting for, or how to know if we are winning." This seems absolutely true to me. The US went to Afghanistan because a group almost entirely composed of Saudis supposedly flew a couple of airliners into buildings in the United States. It was alleged that the Taliban in Afghanistan was sympathetic to them and gave them succor. That's no reason to invade a country, but they did, and the Taliban government was toppled – but the US is still there more than a decade later. So, it's true. No one really knows why our troops are still there, making enemies while bankrupting the US. It's a complete boondoggle and disaster. L: The government was toppled, but the enemy merely dispersed. An expensive failure. Doug: Exactly; the Taliban itself had absolutely nothing to do with the events of 9/11, and even offered to cooperate in extraditing those responsible upon presentation of proof. The next item is: "The strategy is to fight, talk, and build. But we're withdrawing the fighters, the Taliban won't talk, and the builders are corrupt." This is true as well. Almost everyone there hates the foreign invaders as much as Americans would hate an army of Muslim teenagers in the US. Fighting is just making more enemies, so of course the troops are being withdrawn. And why should the locals talk with the invaders? They know they'll go away eventually, as the Soviets did, and others before them. The builders, of course, get overpaid to build schools, hospitals, and other future targets for bombing; their only concern is to steal as much as possible while they can. The whole thing would be a comedy of errors if it weren't such a tragedy. L: We've filled a lot of holes in the sand and made a lot of new ones. Krugman must think it's a great stimulus to the economy. Doug: War also sends a lot of unskilled labor off to the slaughtering fields, so maybe the politicians view this as a good way to reduce unemployment. But to continue, the next point is: "Karzai's family is especially corrupt." Well, that goes without saying. The whole point of getting elected – especially in these backward, tribal countries – is to steal as much as you possibly can. It's not just an assumption; it's axiomatic all over Africa, Asia, and South America – and for that matter in the US as well. How else could a man from a white-trash family like Bill Clinton start with nothing, get elected and end up worth a hundred million dollars? Of course now in the US, you wait until you're out of office to get a delayed payoff in the form of huge speakers' fees, corporate directorates, consulting contracts, book advances, and sweetheart deals. Lyndon Johnson was a more classic example, in that he made it while he was still in office. But it's worse in these backward countries, where the plunderers can operate with much more brazenness and impunity. L: Nolo contendere. Next? Doug: "We want President Karzai gone but we don't have a Pushtun successor handy." This speaks again to the fact that Afghanistan is a totally artificial country, assembled from a bunch of mutually antagonistic tribes. Of course we don't have stooges from each possible faction warring for control. We're outsiders. Does Washington really think the locals will accept any quisling we put in charge of them? The next point is more interesting: "The problem isn't corruption, it is which corrupt people are getting the dollars. We have to help corruption be more fair." As we've pointed out in a previous conversation, corruption can actually be a good and necessary thing. That's the case whenever irrational, counterproductive laws slow the economy and stifle society – then you need a way around them, just to survive. This absolutely applies in Afghanistan. The US is the major cause of corruption today, even as it talks about eliminating corruption. The locals think we're not only stupid, but hypocrites as well. L: The exact opposite of "winning hearts and minds…" Doug: The next one is a good one: "Another thing we'll never stop here is the drug traffic, so the counter-narcotics mission is probably a waste of time and resources that just alienates a swath of Afghans." That's absolutely true. I understand that opium is essentially Afghanistan's only export product. So when Americans or anyone else invades and destroys their only cash crop, it only makes the Afghans hate them more. It makes no dent at all in the trade, because destroying a crop drives up the price. And that encourages farmers to plant more next season, and be more clever about it. It's completely idiotic to fight and kill poor farmers around the world who grow plants just because a few uptight puritans in the West don't like them. If the monumentally stupid War On Some Drugs were ended and recreational drugs were legalized, almost all the ills associated with drug use would go away. L: Did you see that in the recent US elections, referendums legalizing marijuana were passed in two states? Not just medical marijuana, but recreational use as well. Doug: Yes – Washington and Colorado. It'll be interesting to see if that catches on. I think the majority of Americans today favor ending marijuana prohibition, but the politicians don't realize it yet. This may at last be the boy shouting out that the emperor has no clothes. L: You really are in an optimistic mood today… So, next? Doug: "Making this a NATO mission hurt, not helped. Most NATO countries are just going through the motions in Afghanistan as the price necessary to keep the US in Europe." This is interesting and probably true. One has to wonder why anyone should want US troops in Europe today, now that the Cold War has ended. My guess is that it's because US troops are relatively highly paid, and US bases contribute huge amounts to local economies. Losing them would be like wiping a bunch of cities with big import industries off the map. US soldiers in Europe serve absolutely no useful purpose – except to pad the income statements of defense contractors and stimulate the local economy. Although they spend their money mostly in the bars and cathouses. But the next point is more interesting: "Yes, the exit deadline is killing us." Well, of course! If the people you're fighting know exactly when you have to leave, they know when you will have to demobilize and become vulnerable. And they know they can just wait you out. This just underscores how pointless the whole charade is. Then: "Even if you got a deal with the Taliban, it wouldn't end the fighting." Again, of course: there are many tribes and warlords there with their own agendas. Focusing on one group – the Taliban, which is just a coalition anyway – seems to me to be more of a public-relations exercise than anything to do with reality on the ground. Fighting has been the national pastime in this part of the world for many centuries. L: When it comes down to it, isn't the basic reality that the US is not fighting a government or other organization that can be decapitated and neutralized? They won't admit it, but they are fighting a culture, a way of life – an idea. It's like a hydra: you cut off one head, and two more grow back to replace it. As long as there's a single person left alive who believes it, the fight will never end. Doug: Yes; cloud-sourced warfare. This relates to the next point, which really is the bottom line: "The Taliban may be willing to fight forever. We are not." This is so obvious, but so important. Of course the locals don't want these blue-eyed invaders and infidels to tell them how they should do things in their land. And most US taxpayers can't even find Afghanistan on a map – and yet they're being told it's vital to their interests to send their sons there to die. This is completely unethical and counterproductive. L: Next? Doug: "Yes, we are funding the Taliban, but hey, there's no way to stop it, because the truck companies bringing goods from Pakistan and up the highway across Afghanistan have to pay off the Taliban. So yeah, your tax dollars are helping Mullah Omar and his buddies. Welcome to the neighborhood." This just goes to show how smart bin Laden's strategy of provoking the US into bankrupting itself was. Getting back to Petraeus, who was running the show in Afghanistan for many years: if he had any gumption or sense of strategy, he would have recommended pulling out or resigned for this very reason. He would have admitted the untenable logistics and pulled out. Instead, he endorsed the troop surge and so forth. He's just a slick bureaucrat. Next up: "Even non-Taliban Afghans don't much like us." That's laughably obvious, but the author is right that people just won't talk about it. Many fools think that invading Afghanistan is like liberating France or Belgium during WW2 – but it's just the opposite. You knock down people's doors in the middle of the night, you bomb people's wedding parties, and send in drones to strafe them… You kill tens of thousands of people: of course they won't all be Taliban, and of course the rest of the locals won't like you. The reality here is that the US is making ten enemies for every real or imagined enemy killed – almost all of whom are of no possible threat to the US today. L: Perpetuating the forever war. If it's true that war is the health of the state, maybe this is not an accident, and maybe those at the top are evil, not stupid? Doug: That would fit some of the data, but not all of it. As a rule, I'm not prone to believing in conspiracy theories. Although, at this stage of the US Empire, sociopaths have pretty well captured the apparatus of the state. The next point is: "Afghans didn't get the memo about all our successes, so they are positioning themselves for the post-American civil war." Well, that's certainly true. As we said before, it's not a real country – it should be at least a half a dozen, based on languages and tribal groupings. Of course they'll have a civil war as soon as the foreign power holding the place together is gone, and they all fight for the right to exploit each other. L: Okay, no need to belabor that one… Next? Doug: "And they're not the only ones getting ready. The future of Afghanistan is probably evolving up north now as the Indians, Russians and Pakistanis jockey with old Northern Alliance types. Interestingly, we're paying more and getting less than any other player." This is absolutely true. And I'd add China to the list of interested parties. Any country within reach and with an interest in plundering some part of Afghanistan's resources will be jockeying for position with the various local factions to gain their support for future economic looting. Next: "Speaking of positioning for the post-American civil war, why would the Pakistanis sell out their best proxy shock troops now?" Well, if the first point is true – that Pakistan is an enemy of the US – then it's in their interest for the US to use up its weapons and bankrupt itself blowing up sand and rocks in Afghanistan. Covert Pakistani support for the Taliban only makes sense. And: "The ANA and ANP could break the day after we leave the country." That's the Afghanistan National Army and Police, organizations set up by the US – members of which are already opening fire on US troops. The enemy has already infiltrated these organizations. Given all that we've said about all the mutually hostile groups in Afghanistan, of course they won't last. It's completely hopeless and naïve to think they won't disintegrate and use their weapons to fight each other. L: Agreed. Next? Doug: "We are ignoring the advisory effort and fighting the 'big war' with American troops, just as we did in Vietnam. And the US military won't act any differently and work with the Afghan forces seriously until when American politicians significantly draw down U.S. forces in country – when it may be too damn late." This seems true and gets back to the question of why the US has troops there in the first place. Assuming the cover story of attacking the Taliban because they supported the 9/11 terrorists even made sense to begin with, that was over and done with long ago. The whole thing is a nonsensical fiasco. It's just like in Vietnam, where US troops did all the fighting to support a puppet government. Then the whole artificial structure collapsed when they left. L: This reminds me of what you've said about the military always fighting the last war. But these guys aren't just fighting the last war, they're fighting the previous one, which was also a disastrous failure. Doug: Yes, and to top things off, I believe the locals and other Muslims around the world are really beginning to see US foreign policy as a War On Islam, under cover of a War On Terrorism. Well, there are more Muslims than Christians in the world, and more of them have little to lose and not much better to do than to join the fight. It's a no-win scenario. The last one is: "The situation America faces in Afghanistan is similar to the one it faced in Vietnam during the Nixon presidency: A desire a leave and turn over the war to our local allies, combined with the realization that our allies may still lose, and the loss will be viewed as a U.S. defeat anyway." Well, our only allies are people who are collaborators, swilling at the trough created by the US military and various US Government agencies. The people in and around the Karzai government are only our allies so long as that enables them to steal as much as possible. I'm sure Karzai has already salted away a couple billion dollars in various places around the world and has a jet ready to whisk him out of the country as soon as he loses his grip. When the fundamentalists win, the collaborators will be hung – just like the French hung the Nazi collaborators at the end of WWII. So, yes, it's just like Vietnam, propping up a totally corrupt and dysfunctional puppet government, until the mobs tear it apart. L: Okay, I get that… But the impending failure of the US military in Afghanistan is both beyond my control and far from my direct concerns – except for possible investment implications. What do you see? Doug: It's all more evidence of the intractable nature of the problems facing the world today, when those supposedly in charge cannot allow themselves to admit even the most obvious truths that strike anyone with open eyes right away. The US is as corrupt as the governments it's supporting. It's going to bankrupt itself in the process. It's going to destroy the dollar. It's destroying freedom in the US. And the average American is going along with all of it – just like the average German did in WWII. This underscores what we've been saying about rigging for stormy weather, investing in gold, speculating in "crisis investing" type stocks, and diversifying internationally to mitigate your own political risk. L: [Sighs] And this was looking on the bright side? Okay Doug, thanks for your thoughts. Doug: You're welcome. Now that the US has re-elected President Obama and kept a split Congress, we could be in real trouble. This is the same cast of characters that failed to address the critical issues of massive debt and reckless government spending. There is nothing to suggest they will tackle these problems now. What happens if they don't stop us from plummeting off the fiscal cliff? Would a compromise solution be better for the country? And what about QE-Infinity? What happens to the purchasing power of our savings if the Fed keeps its easy-money policies? Will our economy make it if Washington, DC can't come together? To help you answer questions like these, the folks at Mauldin Economics are putting together a free online event featuring some of the world's leading economists and investing experts. They include John Mauldin of Mauldin Economics… Mohamed El-Erian of PIMCO… James Bianco, president of Bianco Research, LLC… Barry Habib, vice president and chief market strategist of Residential Finance Corporation… Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ… Richard Yamarone, senior economist, Bloomberg Brief… and Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc. They will discuss such critical issues as the fiscal cliff, ballooning deficits and debt, entitlements, the Fed's easy money polices, and the world economy. More important, they'll offer solutions – including solutions to help you protect what's yours from new risks in the post-election economy. This event will be held online at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, November 20. Learn more and register here.
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 06:34 PM PST Dear Jim, Jim Rogers recently told CNBC he is very bullish on Gold. He said he plans to sell Federal debt and purchase more Gold and Silver. Who sold today? The weak hands? $HUI down – 4.59%. In my view the $HUI will see 1000 points in a couple months. With no fundamental reasons Continue reading Jim's Mailbox
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| With Over 100,000 Supporting Texas Secession, Ron Paul Weighs In Posted: 14 Nov 2012 04:47 PM PST With just 5 days needed for the Texas secession petition to surpass 100,000 signatories, all is not well with the Union...
... actually, not only are things not well with the Union, things are getting worse by the minute, as American society splinters into diametrical opposites to a degree not seen in decades, a process which in itself virtually assures there will be no cliff compromise before the opportunity cost of ending the stand off becomes far too great. And with the option of the Mr. Chairman "getting to work" to fix things, one wonders - is even the market a motivating enough factor given a 20, 30 or even 50% drop in the rearview mirror: after all as the Fed has demonstrated, there is no need for a fiscal compromise to get the S&P to just shy of all time highs. Certainly, even America's politicians are very much aware of this by now (of course, this assumes that Bernanke is still in charge of the market: something we have claimed for two months is very much in question). Regardless, with the topic of secession on everybody's lips, here is what none other than Ron Paul has said about this suddenly very volatile issue. Ron Paul: Secession Is an American Principle
Ron Paul: This weekend I got a couple of calls from the media asking me questions about Rick Perry, our governor here in Texas and the statements he made about possible secession. Now, he didn't call for secession, but he was restating a principle that was long held and at least in the original time of our country, and that is that there was a right to secession. Actually, after the Civil War, nobody believes there is a so-called right to secession, but it is a very legitimate issue to debate because all of the states that came into the Union before the Civil War believed they have a right to secede and New England in the early part of the 19th century actually considered it, and nobody questioned them about whether they had the right to do it or not. Since the Civil War, it's been sort of a dead issue, but he brought it up. It stirred the media and believe me, it really stirred some of the liberal media where they started really screaming about what is going on here. "This is un-American", I heard one individual say, "This is treasonous to even talk about it." Well, they don't know their history very well because if they think about it, it's an American tradition. It's very American to talk about secession. That's how we came into being. Thirteen colonies seceded from the British and established a new country, so secession is very much an American principle. What about all the strong endorsements we have given over the past decade or two of those republics that seceded from the Soviet system? We were delighted with this. We never said, "Oh no. Secession is treasonous". No. Secession is a good principle. Just think of the benefits that would have come over these last 230-some years if the principle of secession had existed. That means the federal government would always have been restrained, not to overburden the states with too much federalism, too many federal rules and regulations. But since that was all wiped out with the Civil War, the federal government has grown by leaps and bounds and we have suffered the consequences, and we need to reconsider this. It's not un-American to think about the possibility of secession. This is something that's voluntary. We came together voluntarily. A free society means you can dissolve it voluntarily. That was the whole issue was about. Just remember one of the reasons that Wilson drove us in unnecessarily into World War I. He talked about what we have to give, have every country in the world the benefit of self-determination, a good principle. Of course, I don't think he really believed that. But self-determination is a good principle. It's a very American principle, so to me it's a shame that we can't discuss this. You know, it's interesting that so many of us have been taught for so many years, and as long as I can remember from the first grade on up taking the pledge of allegiance that we have a republic that's "indivisible" and we have been preached that and preached it. So therefore, there is no contest, no question since the Civil War that we have even the thought that this could happen. But you know what a lot of people don't talk about and they really don't even know about is who wrote the pledge to the flag. The pledge to the flag came from, for instance, Bellamy, an avowed Socialist who wanted to put into concrete in the pledge this principle of being indivisible, and he did it, you know, for the celebration ironically 400 years of the celebration of the landing of Christopher Columbus, so it was in 1892. I mean, the pledge of allegiance has not been here, you know, all our history. So I think it's worth of discussion. I think people should discuss this because right now, the American people are sick and tired of it all and I think the time will come when people will consider it much more seriously is when the federal government can no longer deliver. That time will come when the dollar collapses. No matter what they do and how many promises they have and how many bailouts they have, they can't do it if the money doesn't work. So then, the independence of the states will come back and it doesn't mean that you'll be un-American to even contemplate what might have to be done once the dollar crashes. While this video was originally recorded on 4/19/2009, Ron Paul spokeswoman Rachel Mills confirmed earlier today (11/13/2012) that Ron Paul "feels the same now" about secession as he did in this video.
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| The Gold Price Continues to Move Higher with $1,740 as it's Next Hurdle Posted: 14 Nov 2012 04:02 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1729.50 Change : 5.30 or 0.31% Silver Price Close Today : 32.871 Change : 0.393 or 1.21% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 52.615 Change : -0.473 or -0.89% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01901 Change : 0.000170 or 0.90% Platinum Price Close Today : 1588.60 Change : 5.20 or 0.33% Palladium Price Close Today : 640.75 Change : 4.95 or 0.78% S&P 500 : 1,355.49 Change : 19.04 or 1.42% Dow In GOLD$ : $150.25 Change : $ 21.80 or 16.97% Dow in GOLD oz : 7.269 Change : 1.054 or 16.97% Dow in SILVER oz : 382.43 Change : 52.50 or 15.91% Dow Industrial : 12,570.95 Change : 1,855.23 or 17.31% US Dollar Index : 80.93 Change : -0.179 or -0.22% The GOLD PRICE gained $5.30 to $1,729.50, while silver gained 39.3 cents today to 3287.1 cents. The GOLD PRICE preserved yesterday's spike bottom or upside-down head and shoulders by not violating the neckline. Low came a little higher than yesterday's $1,717.80 at $1,720.81. Solid support there. Gold reached a little higher today, to $1,733.29. 'Twas a day of consolidation, that's all. $1,740 looms as gold's next hurdle. Now that five day silver chart looks much stouter. The SILVER PRICE fell no lower than 3234c today, and flew as high as 3291, closing near the high. Silver remains comfortably above its 20 DMA (3209c) and is stretching out its hands toward the 50 DMA (3329). Barrier standing before silver is 3300c. Once silver overcomes that it can concentrate on 3550c again. The silver and GOLD PRICE both continue to confirm their November 2 lows and affirm their aim to move much higher. Another indicator that silver aims to move higher is the premium on US 90% silver coin, which continues to rise. I associate that with past similar rises that usually presage higher silver prices. Also, the gold American Eagle premiums has risen a bit, but this is due alone to the same tiresome year-end drama we see every year. The US mint, that wondrous socialist enterprise, ceases producing current year American Eagles and begins minting next year's date in December. That shortens supply a bit, and dealers and collectors, who appear to have the same memory span as a gnat, forget the same thing happened last year and grow frantic for Eagles, both this and next year's. By February when the mint begins delivering, all those premiums settle back to usual. Let me go on record now by forecasting that the "fiscal cliff," mentioned 2,000 or 3,000 times a day right now in the news, will prove no more catastrophic than a speed breaker. Not because America has any statesman bold enough to address the underlying issues (fiat money and a government-spending dependent economy), but because all those rabbity Congressional cowards will merely cobble up some six or twelve month patch to delay the inevitable -- until they are out of office. European Union shirkers have been dancing this same lily-livered waltz for several years. Of course, it won't work forever, but show me a politician with a time horizon longer than 5:00 p.m. and I'll show you a creature rarer than a passenger pigeon. The Germans have a word: Schadenfreude or "shame-joy." That describes the feeling someone has when he gloats over an evil that happens to another. I hasten to add that I find no joy in reporting painful events, like huge drops in the stock market, even as rotten as the system is. In fact, it pains me to ponder how much more pain lies in the future, not merely for the stock markets, but for the abused US economy while that dying power class, central bankers, struggle to hold on to power. Today's currencies: US$1=Y80.24=E0.7851= 0.0304 silver oz = 0.0058 gold ounce. OWCH! The Yen gapped down today with a massive 1.01% loss. Ended at 124.63 cents/Y100. Today it fell about 2/3 of the way to its last low at 123.97. With rioting in Spain, Italy, and Greece, the euro still managed to rise on news that Greece will not be repo'ed this Friday. It was up 0.27% to $1.2737. It didn't jump much, and only managed to touch the downtrend line above. Remains below all moving averages, including the crucial 62 DMA. Sick, sick, and looking at $1.2000. US dollar index is now trading at 81.122, up an inconsequential 0.009. Dollar had a wearing day with a spike low to 80.90. May be rolling over for a few day's correction. If not, twill clear 81.25 tomorrow. Stocks hurt almost too much to talk about. Dow lost a colossal 185.23 (1.45%) to 12,570.95 and S&P500 lost 19.04 (1.97% to 1,355.49. This tumble came not with a great cliff-plunge, but rolled steadily downhill all day like a snowball gaining momentum. I keep thinking, "This looks like the last downleg of this move," and stocks keep beating even my low expectations If they break through this level the next support comes at the June low, way down there at 12,035. The Dow in Gold Dollars has simply collapsed, straight down with hardly a pause. Today landed at G$150.25 (7.269 oz). Has now broken down past the bottom of that diamond topping formation sketched out from February through August. That is the final confirmation of a breakdown. Ultimate target for this move is BELOW G$117.62 (5.69 oz), the August 2011 low. Miss not this message: stocks will weaken against gold for a long time. Against silver today stocks lost over 52 ounces, falling to 382 ounces, a new low for the move. Message is the same: stocks will weaken against silver for a long time. (I caught myself wanting to say "weaken strongly." Should it be "weaken weakly"?) Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com 1-888-218-9226 10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday © 2012, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't. 
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| Why Financial Repression Will Fail Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:40 PM PST By Ron HeraNovember 14, 2012 ©2012 Hera Research, LLC Excessive leverage and risk in the financial system, e.g., using customer funds to speculate, never ends well. Stock market crashes, bank and investment firm failures or economic recessions are all potential consequences. Following the failure of the United States to regulate over the counter (OTC) derivatives and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, U.S. banks became the largest financial business entities in history. The U.S. real estate bubble, sub-prime lending and mortgage backed securities (MBS), along with unregulated OTC derivatives, then lead to bank insolvencies, a historic stock market crash and a near collapse of the global financial system. Central banks and governments intervened to prevent systemic collapse but governments were saddled with enormous debts due to bank bailouts, lost tax revenues and massive social welfare costs. Rather than systemic collapse, and perhaps another Great Depressi...
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| Greenlight Capital And Third Point September 30 Holdings Summary Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:34 PM PST With the star (and legend) of John Paulson long dead and buried, and his Disadvantage Minus fund an embarrassment, wrapped in a monkeyhammering, inside a humiliation, there are few "groupied" HF managers left. One of them is Dan Loeb, who still manages to generate positive Alpha regardless of how Beta does, another one used to be William Ackman (not so much anymore, especially not with the whole JCP fiasco), some others are David Tepper, Seth Klarman, and a few others, but nobody has quite the persistent clout and following of young master, and poker maestro, David Einhorn, and his fund Greenlight. Below we breakdown his latest just released 13F, which as a reminder shows, his holdings as of September 30. Key changes: Einhorn cut his holdings in Best Buy, Carefusion, Compuware, Expedia, Hess and UnitedHealth, and started new, small, positions in Yahoo, Babcock and Wilcox, Aecon and Knight Capital. More importantly, he cut his top position, Apple, by nearly 30% from 1.45 million to 1.09 million shares, cut modestly his second biggest position Seagate, added materially to GM, making it his third position, added to Cigna at #4 and added modestly to the GDX Gold Miners ETF. Sad to say, unless he has changed his portfolio dramatically since September 30, Einhorn is likely not doing too hot, especially in the last week or two.
Source: SEC And as a bonus here is Dan Loeb's Q3 equity holdings. Obviously this does not include bond positions such as his (not quite so) recent foray into Portugal, and (his far more recent) purchase of Greek bonds on hopes of either a distressed buy back (not happening) or an OSI cramdown (Germany just said 9-9-9).
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| Shorts In Gold Nothing More Than A Few Large Hedge Funds Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:33 PM PST Jim Sinclair's Mineset My Dear Extended Family, Most commentators and participants in gold shares are under the assumption that the short interest is made of thousands of hedge funds, from the smallest to the largest. That is totally incorrect. The short in gold shares is very concentrated in just a few large hedge funds with a few hangers on. This is why when there is no fundamental reason for selling they are manipulated against the gold price improvement, just like today. This is to play with your emotion. The better companies from exploration to development and mining continue to increase their gold assets, knowing they are collecting mined and mineable money. We will overcome this multi-year concentrated short on the gold shares that is totally illogical for good companies. Respectfully yours, Jim...
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| Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:12 PM PST November 14, 2012 [LIST] [*]"Dr. Doom" and Jonas Elmerraji weigh in on Greece, the fiscal cliff and the S&P... disagreements arise, but one wants you to help him prove his point... [*]Inquiries on gold: Why not gold ask a prime minister and a Republican senator... How much gold would it take asks a U.S. debt calculator... [*]Patrick Cox arrives on the scene with another "forehead slapper"... 15 years in the making, one "blueberry cure" is set to change millions of lives... [*]One unforeseen consequence of not voting... readers weigh in... and argue... blood, sweat and tears or grumbling, moping and whining? You decide... and more! [/LIST] "I don't think markets are going down because of Greece," our old friend Marc Faber offered as an alternative explanation for the market's recent malaise to CNBC's Squawk Box yesterday. "I don't think the markets are going down because of the 'fiscal cliff,'" he added, "because there won't be a 'fis...
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| On Russia Today's 'Capital Account'...CFTC's Chilton Repeats Belief in Silver Market Manipulation Posted: 14 Nov 2012 03:11 PM PST "I'm also curious to know how warm it's getting over at Canada's Scotiabank/Scotia Mocatta..." ...
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| Gold May Hit $2,000 on Money Printing: Deutsche Bank Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:50 PM PST 14-Nov (Bloomberg) — Gold will probably rally to a record above $2,000 an ounce next year as central banks ramp up stimulus to sustain the recovery, according to Raymond Key, London-based global head of metals trading at Deutsche Bank AG. "We'll take out $2,000, we'll go higher," Key said in an interview in Hong Kong, where he attended the London Bullion Market Association's annual conference. "That's on the view that they'll continue to print money." [source]
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| S&P 500 Drops through Support Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:41 PM PST [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] The S&P 500 was attempting to hold near the low formed last week that came on the heels of the post-election collapse in the US stock markets. It just so happens that the low was in the very near vicinity to the critical 50% Fibonacci Retracement Level of the entire rally of the late May/early June swing low. It bounced away from that level yesterday but today, down it went. The index is now poised to drop all the way to the next Fibonacci retracement level, the 61.8% level, or the 1340-1344 region. Failing to hold there, it should retrace the entirety of the rally meaning that we could very well be looking at a drop through the 1300 level on down towards 1275 or lower. The onus is now on the bulls to hold the next level of support at 1340 if they have any chance of regaining the near term advantage, which clearly lies with the bears. ...
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| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:15 PM PST |
| Turkey Pushes For Gold & Global Gold Production To Plummet Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:12 PM PST  Today one of the wealthiest men in the resource space urged people to take very seriously Keith Barron's warning that global gold production was poised to fall off a cliff. Rick Rule also spoke about comments from Turkey's leader that gold should be considered when it comes to stabilizing the financial system. Here is what Rule had to say: "The President of Turkey was speaking in the context of the European Economic Community, reserve currencies and exchange mechanisms, and he asked the assembled political leaders, 'Why not gold? What's the matter with gold? Nobody can print gold.'"
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| TRUTH IS TREASON IN AN EMPIRE OF LIES – RON PAUL'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS Posted: 14 Nov 2012 02:07 PM PST Farewell Dear Doctor. You were the last remaining patriot. I salute you for your wisdom, courage, and honesty. You alone were the shining light during this dark time. You are no longer alone in your fight for freedom, liberty, and truth.
By Ron Paul | Delivered on the House Floor, November 14, 2012 Farewell to Congress This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I'll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty. It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security. To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire. The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start. How Much Did I Accomplish? In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little. No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways—thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history. All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer. A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn't give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn't give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues. As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe. The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending. The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there's no "loot left to divvy up." Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January. I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits. If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell. Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled. Authoritarianism vs. Liberty If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty. There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government. During my time in Congress the appetite for liberty has been quite weak; the understanding of its significance negligible. Yet the good news is that compared to 1976 when I first came to Congress, the desire for more freedom and less government in 2012 is much greater and growing, especially in grassroots America. Tens of thousands of teenagers and college age students are, with great enthusiasm, welcoming the message of liberty. I have a few thoughts as to why the people of a country like ours, once the freest and most prosperous, allowed the conditions to deteriorate to the degree that they have. Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth. In our early history we were very much aware of this. But in the early part of the 20th century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax. The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be "progressive" ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable. They failed to recognized that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British. Some complain that my arguments makes no sense, since great wealth and the standard of living improved for many Americans over the last 100 years, even with these new policies. But the damage to the market economy, and the currency, has been insidious and steady. It took a long time to consume our wealth, destroy the currency and undermine productivity and get our financial obligations to a point of no return. Confidence sometimes lasts longer than deserved. Most of our wealth today depends on debt. The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected. As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary. The Age of Redistribution This neglect ushered in an age of redistribution of wealth by government kowtowing to any and all special interests, except for those who just wanted to left alone. That is why today money in politics far surpasses money currently going into research and development and productive entrepreneurial efforts. The material benefits became more important than the understanding and promoting the principles of liberty and a free market. It is good that material abundance is a result of liberty but if materialism is all that we care about, problems are guaranteed. The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail. We have ended up with a system that doesn't produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends. If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time. Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue. We Need an Intellectual Awakening Without an intellectual awakening, the turning point will be driven by economic law. A dollar crisis will bring the current out-of-control system to its knees. If it's not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties. Prosperity for a large middle class though will become an abstract dream. This continuous move is no different than what we have seen in how our financial crisis of 2008 was handled. Congress first directed, with bipartisan support, bailouts for the wealthy. Then it was the Federal Reserve with its endless quantitative easing. If at first it doesn't succeed try again; QE1, QE2, and QE3 and with no results we try QE indefinitely—that is until it too fails. There's a cost to all of this and let me assure you delaying the payment is no longer an option. The rules of the market will extract its pound of flesh and it won't be pretty. The current crisis elicits a lot of pessimism. And the pessimism adds to less confidence in the future. The two feed on themselves, making our situation worse. If the underlying cause of the crisis is not understood we cannot solve our problems. The issues of warfare, welfare, deficits, inflationism, corporatism, bailouts and authoritarianism cannot be ignored. By only expanding these policies we cannot expect good results. Everyone claims support for freedom. But too often it's for one's own freedom and not for others. Too many believe that there must be limits on freedom. They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force, certain liberties. Some decide what and whose freedoms are to be limited. These are the politicians whose goal in life is power. Their success depends on gaining support from special interests. No More 'isms' The great news is the answer is not to be found in more "isms." The answers are to be found in more liberty which cost so much less. Under these circumstances spending goes down, wealth production goes up, and the quality of life improves. Just this recognition—especially if we move in this direction—increases optimism which in itself is beneficial. The follow through with sound policies are required which must be understood and supported by the people. But there is good evidence that the generation coming of age at the present time is supportive of moving in the direction of more liberty and self-reliance. The more this change in direction and the solutions become known, the quicker will be the return of optimism. Our job, for those of us who believe that a different system than the one that we have had for the last 100 years, has driven us to this unsustainable crisis, is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers. We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause. It worked, but we allowed our leaders to concentrate on the material abundance that freedom generates, while ignoring freedom itself. Now we have neither, but the door is open, out of necessity, for an answer. The answer available is based on the Constitution, individual liberty and prohibiting the use of government force to provide privileges and benefits to all special interests. After over 100 years we face a society quite different from the one that was intended by the Founders. In many ways their efforts to protect future generations with the Constitution from this danger has failed. Skeptics, at the time the Constitution was written in 1787, warned us of today's possible outcome. The insidious nature of the erosion of our liberties and the reassurance our great abundance gave us, allowed the process to evolve into the dangerous period in which we now live. Dependency on Government Largesse Today we face a dependency on government largesse for almost every need. Our liberties are restricted and government operates outside the rule of law, protecting and rewarding those who buy or coerce government into satisfying their demands. Here are a few examples:
Questions Excessive government has created such a mess it prompts many questions:
Trust Yourself, Not the Government Too many people have for too long placed too much confidence and trust in government and not enough in themselves. Fortunately, many are now becoming aware of the seriousness of the gross mistakes of the past several decades. The blame is shared by both political parties. Many Americans now are demanding to hear the plain truth of things and want the demagoguing to stop. Without this first step, solutions are impossible. Seeking the truth and finding the answers in liberty and self-reliance promotes the optimism necessary for restoring prosperity. The task is not that difficult if politics doesn't get in the way. We have allowed ourselves to get into such a mess for various reasons. Politicians deceive themselves as to how wealth is produced. Excessive confidence is placed in the judgment of politicians and bureaucrats. This replaces the confidence in a free society. Too many in high places of authority became convinced that only they, armed with arbitrary government power, can bring about fairness, while facilitating wealth production. This always proves to be a utopian dream and destroys wealth and liberty. It impoverishes the people and rewards the special interests who end up controlling both political parties. It's no surprise then that much of what goes on in Washington is driven by aggressive partisanship and power seeking, with philosophic differences being minor. Economic Ignorance Economic ignorance is commonplace. Keynesianism continues to thrive, although today it is facing healthy and enthusiastic rebuttals. Believers in military Keynesianism and domestic Keynesianism continue to desperately promote their failed policies, as the economy languishes in a deep slumber. Supporters of all government edicts use humanitarian arguments to justify them. Humanitarian arguments are always used to justify government mandates related to the economy, monetary policy, foreign policy, and personal liberty. This is on purpose to make it more difficult to challenge. But, initiating violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence. Good intentions are no excuse and are just as harmful as when people use force with bad intentions. The results are always negative. The immoral use of force is the source of man's political problems. Sadly, many religious groups, secular organizations, and psychopathic authoritarians endorse government initiated force to change the world. Even when the desired goals are well-intentioned—or especially when well-intentioned—the results are dismal. The good results sought never materialize. The new problems created require even more government force as a solution. The net result is institutionalizing government initiated violence and morally justifying it on humanitarian grounds. This is the same fundamental reason our government uses force for invading other countries at will, central economic planning at home, and the regulation of personal liberty and habits of our citizens. It is rather strange, that unless one has a criminal mind and no respect for other people and their property, no one claims it's permissible to go into one's neighbor's house and tell them how to behave, what they can eat, smoke and drink or how to spend their money. Yet, rarely is it asked why it is morally acceptable that a stranger with a badge and a gun can do the same thing in the name of law and order. Any resistance is met with brute force, fines, taxes, arrests, and even imprisonment. This is done more frequently every day without a proper search warrant. No Government Monopoly over Initiating Violence Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil society. Permitting such authority and expecting saintly behavior from the bureaucrats and the politicians is a pipe dream. We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc. numbering over 100,000. Citizens are guilty until proven innocent in the unconstitutional administrative courts. Government in a free society should have no authority to meddle in social activities or the economic transactions of individuals. Nor should government meddle in the affairs of other nations. All things peaceful, even when controversial, should be permitted. We must reject the notion of prior restraint in economic activity just we do in the area of free speech and religious liberty. But even in these areas government is starting to use a backdoor approach of political correctness to regulate speech-a dangerous trend. Since 9/11 monitoring speech on the internet is now a problem since warrants are no longer required. The Proliferation of Federal Crimes The Constitution established four federal crimes. Today the experts can't even agree on how many federal crimes are now on the books—they number into the thousands. No one person can comprehend the enormity of the legal system—especially the tax code. Due to the ill-advised drug war and the endless federal expansion of the criminal code we have over 6 million people under correctional suspension, more than the Soviets ever had, and more than any other nation today, including China. I don't understand the complacency of the Congress and the willingness to continue their obsession with passing more Federal laws. Mandatory sentencing laws associated with drug laws have compounded our prison problems. The federal register is now 75,000 pages long and the tax code has 72,000 pages, and expands every year. When will the people start shouting, "enough is enough," and demand Congress cease and desist. Achieving Liberty Liberty can only be achieved when government is denied the aggressive use of force. If one seeks liberty, a precise type of government is needed. To achieve it, more than lip service is required. Two choices are available. 1. A government designed to protect liberty—a natural right—as its sole objective. The people are expected to care for themselves and reject the use of any force for interfering with another person's liberty. Government is given a strictly limited authority to enforce contracts, property ownership, settle disputes, and defend against foreign aggression. 2. A government that pretends to protect liberty but is granted power to arbitrarily use force over the people and foreign nations. Though the grant of power many times is meant to be small and limited, it inevitably metastasizes into an omnipotent political cancer. This is the problem for which the world has suffered throughout the ages. Though meant to be limited it nevertheless is a 100% sacrifice of a principle that would-be-tyrants find irresistible. It is used vigorously—though incrementally and insidiously. Granting power to government officials always proves the adage that: "power corrupts." Once government gets a limited concession for the use of force to mold people habits and plan the economy, it causes a steady move toward tyrannical government. Only a revolutionary spirit can reverse the process and deny to the government this arbitrary use of aggression. There's no in-between. Sacrificing a little liberty for imaginary safety always ends badly. Today's mess is a result of Americans accepting option #2, even though the Founders attempted to give us Option #1. The results are not good. As our liberties have been eroded our wealth has been consumed. The wealth we see today is based on debt and a foolish willingness on the part of foreigners to take our dollars for goods and services. They then loan them back to us to perpetuate our debt system. It's amazing that it has worked for this long but the impasse in Washington, in solving our problems indicate that many are starting to understand the seriousness of the world -wide debt crisis and the dangers we face. The longer this process continues the harsher the outcome will be. The Financial Crisis Is a Moral Crisis Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms but few understand it's, in reality, a moral crisis. It's the moral crisis that has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal government power. Without a clear understanding of the nature of the crisis it will be difficult to prevent a steady march toward tyranny and the poverty that will accompany it. Ultimately, the people have to decide which form of government they want; option #1 or option #2. There is no other choice. Claiming there is a choice of a "little" tyranny is like describing pregnancy as a "touch of pregnancy." It is a myth to believe that a mixture of free markets and government central economic planning is a worthy compromise. What we see today is a result of that type of thinking. And the results speak for themselves. A Culture of Violence American now suffers from a culture of violence. It's easy to reject the initiation of violence against one's neighbor but it's ironic that the people arbitrarily and freely anoint government officials with monopoly power to initiate violence against the American people—practically at will. Because it's the government that initiates force, most people accept it as being legitimate. Those who exert the force have no sense of guilt. It is believed by too many that governments are morally justified in initiating force supposedly to "do good." They incorrectly believe that this authority has come from the "consent of the people." The minority, or victims of government violence never consented to suffer the abuse of government mandates, even when dictated by the majority. Victims of TSA excesses never consented to this abuse. This attitude has given us a policy of initiating war to "do good," as well. It is claimed that war, to prevent war for noble purposes, is justified. This is similar to what we were once told that: "destroying a village to save a village" was justified. It was said by a US Secretary of State that the loss of 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children, in the 1990s, as a result of American bombs and sanctions, was "worth it" to achieve the "good" we brought to the Iraqi people. And look at the mess that Iraq is in today. Government use of force to mold social and economic behavior at home and abroad has justified individuals using force on their own terms. The fact that violence by government is seen as morally justified, is the reason why violence will increase when the big financial crisis hits and becomes a political crisis as well. First, we recognize that individuals shouldn't initiate violence, then we give the authority to government. Eventually, the immoral use of government violence, when things goes badly, will be used to justify an individual's "right" to do the same thing. Neither the government nor individuals have the moral right to initiate violence against another yet we are moving toward the day when both will claim this authority. If this cycle is not reversed society will break down. When needs are pressing, conditions deteriorate and right
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The military action that we are watching in the Middle East right now is just a preview of coming attractions. Tensions in the region are rising with each passing day, and all sides have been anticipating future conflicts and preparing for war for decades. It would be wonderful if everyone could sit down, forgive each other and agree to quit fighting, but that is not going to happen. Most of us that live in the western world have a very difficult time understanding the mindset of those immersed in these conflicts. In the Middle East, there are vendettas and grudges that go back literally thousands of years. Children are raised in schools where they are taught to bitterly hate their enemies from the time that they are first able to speak. As Americans, we have forgiven former enemies such as Germany and Japan and we just expect that everyone else should be able to forgive as well. But that is simply not the way that it works over there, and there is no long-term solution in the Middle East that is going to be acceptable to all sides. Right now, Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria and Iran are all preparing for war. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in this current crisis, but that will only delay the inevitable. There will be war in the Middle East. Yes, politicians such as Barack Obama will do their best to broker more "peace agreements", but even the declaration of a "Palestinian state" will never stop the fighting. In fact, it would just set the stage for more war. I don't mean to sound pessimistic about the region, but the truth is that there will be more war until it is not possible to fight any longer. Any "peace plan" will just be a pause in the warfare.
It appears that these days not even the Corzining of client money can happen without it being split across furiously polarized party lines. As it turns out hours ago, the Committee on House Financial Services released an advance glimpse into a report to be released in its entirety tomorrow, which puts the blame for the collapse of not only MF Global, but also the disappearance of millions in client money, right where it belongs: the firm's then CEO Jon Corzine. Yet that Corzine corzined millions, leaving clients scrambling in bankruptcy court in an attempt to recover what should have been segregated money from the very beginning, and also just happened to blow up one of the 21 Fed-anointed Primary Dealers, is not surprising: this has been long known by everyone. Those who need a refresher are urged to recall the Honorable's testimony before the House… or maybe not: after all it is not as if Corzine himself could recall a whole lot. Where it gets interesting is that the former Democratic governor, and senator, not to mention primary bundler for president Obama, is, in the eyes of the members of the committee, innocent: All the democrats on the Investigations Subcommittee refused to sign off on the findings, meaning that to them, Corzine is completely innocent. That this is purely a political move is glaringly obvious. It is also abhorrent, because as long as political ideology gets in the way of pursuing and imposing justice, the Banana States of America will remain just that.
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