Gold World News Flash |
- Gold Market Update
- Big Moves Coming in December, January & February
- The Weekend Vigilante
- Welcome to the Currency War, Part 5: The Dollar Gets Serious Competition
- Dollar Tells Us Stocks are Likely to Pullback - Simple Analysis
- Why the SP 500 and Gold Rallied in the Face of Negative News
- On Artificial Interest Rates And The Forfeiture Of Growth For Dividends
- Subir Gokarn for dematerialisation to arrest rising gold demand
- Stocks, Dollar and Commodity Markets Trend Forecasts into February 2013
- U.S. Dollar tell us Stocks are Likely to Fall
- Shadow banking: the next landmine
- Why the Stock Market and Gold Rallied on Bad News
- The Four Debt Ceiling Possibilities For 2013
- Jim Sinclair: Gold Will Not Be Confiscated, But Your Guns Will Be!
- Reserve Bank of India's latest trick to reduce gold demand – Dematerialize Gold
- Gold Will Not Be Confiscated, But Your Guns Will Be
- In The News Today
- Jim's Mailbox
- Innovation Spurs Need For More, Not Less Silver
- Doug Casey on the America That Was – Now the United (Police) State of America
- Bruce Lee vs. Keith Weiner – Battle of the Silver Dragon
- Mas Trouble In Little Spain As Country Layers Constitutional Crisis Onto Economic Depression
- Fiscal Cliff Update: 'Little Progress Toward A Compromise In Past Ten Days"
- Stock Market Last Push Higher Before the Big Collapse?
- Silver Major Uptrend Underway, Not to Late to Go Long
- Indian central bank's candid objective: to 'dematerialize' gold, making it only imaginary
- Gold Breakout, Starts MAJOR Uptrend, Not Too Late to Jump Aboard
- US DOLLAR: It Can Decline Against the Canadian Dollar
- Silver Market Update
- Keith Weiner is literally a weiner
| Posted: 26 Nov 2012 09:00 AM PST It was a big day for the Precious Metals sector on Friday, for the dollar broke down hard from its recent uptrend, and at the same time gold broke out upside from its Head-and-Shoulders base pattern. Silver anticipated this – it broke out from its base pattern back on Tuesday. These developments have grave implications for the dollar, but at the same time are believed to mark the start of major uptrends in gold and silver.
|
| Big Moves Coming in December, January & February Posted: 26 Nov 2012 12:05 AM PST Gold Scents
|
| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 09:30 PM PST by Jeff Berwick, Dollar Vigilante:
I realize that as a commentator on semi-important things like preserving hard-earned assets and trying to live free in a fairly unfree world that I am supposed to speak in a professional manner and not talk too personally. But, today is my birthday and I really just want to speak from my heart today. I truly apologize in advance if you don't like it and it is only a delete key away from being quickly erased from your own reality. I will return to more professional writings as soon as Monday… I am looking out on what is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, Acapulco Bay…warm weather, refreshing breezes, green-blue sea and deep blue skies… high above, large eagles circle tranquilly, tropical birds tweet and chirp and do what they do. A hummingbird comes and does its dance with the flowers that encircle my home. My two chihuahuas Bruce Lee and Lucy lie lazily in the sun at my side while Rango the cocker spaniel looks at me with eyes full of love and with his tail wagging. I hear my two children giggling and playing downstairs. My beautiful wife is out buying all the necessities for a party soon to start. And I think to myself, what a beautiful world. Read More @ DollarVigilante.com
|
| Welcome to the Currency War, Part 5: The Dollar Gets Serious Competition Posted: 25 Nov 2012 08:53 PM PST Not so long ago the dollar was the world's only reserve currency. Everything else was ono step down in terms of safety and liquidity, and major financial institutions acted accordingly, accumulating dollars for the risk-free parts ...
|
| Dollar Tells Us Stocks are Likely to Pullback - Simple Analysis Posted: 25 Nov 2012 08:50 PM PST The stock market is at a very critical pivot point which I feel will generate opportunities in December and for the first quarter of 2013. Trading with the trend is not always an easy task...
|
| Why the SP 500 and Gold Rallied in the Face of Negative News Posted: 25 Nov 2012 08:44 PM PST The amount of negative news that we have seen recently has been mind-blowing. Europe is going into recession, Greece and several other countries are on the verge of bankruptcy, the Middle East is a powder-keg ...
|
| On Artificial Interest Rates And The Forfeiture Of Growth For Dividends Posted: 25 Nov 2012 05:46 PM PST Diapason Commodities' Sean Corrigan provides an insightful introduction to the critical importance of a market-set rate of interest and central banks' manipulated effect on the factors of production.
As Ron Paul also confirms in the clip below "with artificial interest rates, we get an artificial economy driven by mal-investment leading to the inevitable bubbles" and while central banks hope for this 'created credit/money' to flow into productive means (Capex), instead it has (in today's case where QE is no longer working) created an investor-class demand for yield - implicitly driving management to forfeit growth-and-investment for buybacks-and-dividends.
Ron Paul's interview with Laisses Faire outlines the impact an artificial interest rate has on the economy... and Sean Corrigan of Diapason Commodities provides a more in-depth look at the process by which a manipulated interest rate impacts the factors-of-production (or the risks and rewards of the real business cycle)...
Clearly, we have no gold standard to impose discipline on either the ruling elite or the bankers who are their political symbionts... granted, we have a wider range of non?bank and other credit instruments to confuse the issue; but none of them alter the fact that investment is best undertaken when both the money and the means corresponding to that money have been voluntarily set aside to finance it, or that, conversely, investment is worst entered upon when it is launched on a soon cresting wave of counterfeit capital, conjured up by the banks or the government printing press. 12-11-20 TA - As a Matter of Interest
which leads to the current remarkably non-traditional text-book situation that Citi describes - where equities are now the yield-providing asset as management is punished for spending capital on growth or investment and is praised for buybacks and dividends as the Fed's artificial premise in which we live has created a monster...
If we are to salvage any residue of our liberty, restore any semblance of our prosperity, and again secure to ourselves the right to enjoy our property, this [manipulation] must be ended before it consumes our capital... If all this means that we have fewer projects underway at any one time, so be it: we will waste far less of what we hold scarce and end up holding fewer things as scarce as we do now. The Garden of Eden may well be denied us, but that does not mean the only remaining choices are the debtor's gaol or the soft totalitarianism of de Tocqueville's worst imaginings... ...it is saving that makes us rich, not spending, and it is only by saving – not through authoritarian fiat ? that a naturally lowered interest rate confers a lasting aid to capital formation.
Source: Citi, Diapason Commodities
|
| Subir Gokarn for dematerialisation to arrest rising gold demand Posted: 25 Nov 2012 05:00 PM PST from The Economic Times:
"It (high gold imports) is creating some macroeconomic stresses and so the challenge is to find ways to replicate the financial characteristics of gold without necessarily causing physically importing," Gokarn told the last day of the two-day annual Bancon here. Read More @ economictimes.indiatimes.com
|
| Stocks, Dollar and Commodity Markets Trend Forecasts into February 2013 Posted: 25 Nov 2012 04:45 PM PST Well how was that for the start of a new intermediate cycle? While many analysts were calling for continued losses or even a market crash I repeatedly warned traders that an intermediate degree bottom was coming and that markets routinely rally violently out of those bottoms, often generating 5-8% gains in the first 12 to 15 days. This particular intermediate bottom has already gained 5% in just the first five days.
|
| U.S. Dollar tell us Stocks are Likely to Fall Posted: 25 Nov 2012 04:31 PM PST The stock market is at a very critical pivot point which I feel will generate opportunities in December and for the first quarter of 2013. Trading with the trend is not always an easy task. It is human nature to predict and jump to conclusions and usually it’s better to trade with the trend no matter what your emotions are telling you. The current trend is down and I stick with that until we are proven wrong.
|
| Shadow banking: the next landmine Posted: 25 Nov 2012 04:30 PM PST from Gold Money:
Perhaps helping to drive this trend is a fall in the general level of charge-off and delinquency rates to less than 1.5% of all loans and leases, down from the crisis levels of twice that. According to an article at Bloomberg dated August 6, "…. households have cut debt since the 2008-09 crisis, while banks have increased liquidity and bolstered capital buffers". So the up-coming fiscal cliff permitting, conditions are in place for a further expansion of bank credit and we can put the past behind us.
|
| Why the Stock Market and Gold Rallied on Bad News Posted: 25 Nov 2012 04:26 PM PST The amount of negative news that we have seen recently has been mind-blowing. Europe is going into recession, Greece and several other countries are on the verge of bankruptcy, the Middle East is a powder-keg, and the U.S. is facing a fiscal cliff. Shockingly for most retail traders, the past week has produced a very strong return for U.S. equity indexes as well as risk assets in general.
|
| The Four Debt Ceiling Possibilities For 2013 Posted: 25 Nov 2012 03:33 PM PST An extended excerpt from Bill Buckler of The Privateer The Four Major Possibilities For 2013 There are four likely "scenarios" for what will happen when the US Congress - and the president - come up against the limit to the Treasury's credit card sometime in the first quarter of 2013. The first one is the most obvious. They could simply abolish or "repeal" or draw a line through the legislation which set up the debt limit in 1917. There is no shortage of eminent US historians, economists, captains of industry, politicians, legal scholars, bankers, investors and others from all walks of life advocating this procedure. If the US Dollar was not the world's reserve currency and US Treasury IOUs were not the world's preferred holding of reserves behind their own currencies and financial systems, the Treasury's debt limit would have been done away with a long time ago. But the US Dollar IS the world's reserve currency so the debt of the US government IS the underpinnings of the global financial system. That being the case, the system stands or falls on the continuing perception that Treasury debt paper is a viable form of "reserve" and that the debt of the US government will NEVER become "unsustainable". An announcement by the US government that it was getting rid of any "limits" to its debt-generating capacity would put that perception at risk - quite possibly at grave risk. That is the reason why the debt limit remains - even though it has not been an impediment to ever increasing Treasury indebtedness for well over half a century. It is easy to laugh at the seeming absurdity of a Treasury "debt limit" and many people do. Take it away, however, and the fiction that sovereign debt is "sustainable" - let alone any "confidence" in its eventual repayment - would be MUCH harder to maintain. Absurdities abound in history, and the more abject the absurdity, the more tenacious it tends to be. Today, a US Treasury debt "limit" is a very necessary absurdity. This does not mean that the debt limit will NOT be abolished. But it does mean that the new Congress convening early next year will be very reluctant to take such a step. The second possibility is that the US government will follow the lead of one of the few other major nations which maintains a "debt limit" on its Treasury. That nation is Denmark. Denmark last raised its debt limit in December 2010. The Danish government did not mess about - they more than DOUBLED the limit from 950 Billion to 2 TRILLION Kroner. The current debt limit of the Danish government is about three times as much as their official funded debt. If the US government was to increase the Treasury's "limit" by as big a percentage as the Danish government did in 2010, they would raise the Treasury's debt limit from its present $US 16.394 TRILLION to almost $US 34.5 TRILLION. If they wanted as big a "buffer" between their current debt and their debt limit, they would raise the Treasury's limit to almost $US 49 TRILLION. Like the US, Denmark has its own currency, the Kroner. The Danes did not choose to adopt the Euro in 1999. But unlike the US, the Danish Kroner is NOT the world's reserve currency. The third alternative is a very popular one - especially in Democrat political circles. It was suggested by many of them during the mid 2011 crisis and was being advocated right up to a few days before the deal was cut in early August. This "solution" would be for President Obama to do an end run around the whole sorry mess in the Congress and raise the Treasury's debt limit by executive order. The rationale for the President's power to do this is said to reside in the Fourteenth Amendment, which begins like this: "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." Mr Geithner has advocated this method of getting around the Congress. So has Bill Clinton. So has the current majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid. As these gentlemen see it, any reluctance to raise the Treasury's debt limit or any "conditions" put on such an action is calling into question - "The validity of the public debt of the United States". This is clearly UN-constitutional. Mr Obama was urged to take this step in 2011 and refrained. He has now been elected for a second and last term. With no more elections to win or lose, he may not be nearly so reluctant this time. This is the last of our four major possibilities. There are variations on all four of them, but these are the major alternatives. The US government could do what they have been doing for many decades now. They could just make another deal and go on pretending they have found a solution to an insoluble problem. That alternative becomes fraught with danger when one considers the situation in which the Congress will be deliberating for the rest of this year and probably well into next year. The funded debt of the US Treasury has risen by more than $US 1 TRILLION in every fiscal year since 2008. Fiscal 2012 was the fifth year in a row and fiscal 2013 has begun with the debt increasing by $US 220 Billion over the first seven weeks of the year. The Fed has held its controlling rate at 0.00-0.25 percent for more than four years. They have promised to keep that rate until mid 2015. Barring a catastrophe and/or a market rebellion (which would amount to the same thing), 2013 will be the fifth straight year of the ZIRP. The Fed bought more than 60 percent of ALL the new Treasury debt sold in 2011. The final "score" for 2012 is not yet in but it is a safe bet that the total will be even higher. Recent mainstream reporting has put Fed monetisation at over 90 percent of the new longer-term Treasury debt being sold. But there is one overriding fact which is NOT made it into the mainstream media but which has nonetheless been reported in many places and never denied by the US government or its Treasury. The budget of the US government is divided into "discretionary" and "mandatory" categories. There is also a third category which is interest payments on existing debt but that is also mandatory. For a while now, the government has not been able to collect enough revenue to meet the demand for its mandatory payments (aka entitlements) and debt servicing (even at historically low interest rates). That means that the government could cut the "discretionary" portion of its budget to zero - AND THEY WOULD STILL BE IN DEFICIT. Please note here that the "discretionary" portion of the budget INCLUDES military spending. Even if that was cut to ZERO - the deficit would still survive. There is absolutely no prospect of ANY reduction in the debt of the US government (or most any other government) unless and until a meat axe is taken to "entitlements". This would involve a HUGE dismantling of the welfare state, something that neither side of US politics wants to even discuss. The situation is that simple.
|
| Jim Sinclair: Gold Will Not Be Confiscated, But Your Guns Will Be! Posted: 25 Nov 2012 02:43 PM PST The legendary Jim Sinclair advised subscribers yesterday that gold will not be confiscated in this bull market as its current function is vastly different in today's monetary system than its role in the 1930′s. Sinclair sent another alert to subscribers … Continue reading
|
| Reserve Bank of India's latest trick to reduce gold demand – Dematerialize Gold Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:35 PM PST Indian demand for gold doubled to 1,000 tonne annually since 1999 despite a massive rally in prices. As gold imports touched a record high last year, these are some of the things the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been doing or plan on doing to curb the rising demand: Discourage people from offering gold to gods at [...] 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Gold Will Not Be Confiscated, But Your Guns Will Be Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:24 PM PST Dear CIGAs, Every governor of every state by law can create and many have created a state defense force. That is not the national guard. As the name implies, it is a state defense force. It is rumored that these organizations are in the crosshairs of the Administration. The moment you see these state Continue reading Gold Will Not Be Confiscated, But Your Guns Will Be
|
| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:22 PM PST Sand that has little grains of mica is valuable. But the sand, which has veins of gold, is much more precious. Thus, sand is valued according to the preciousness of the metal, which it has in its fold. Similarly, human hearts are evaluated by the contents therein. –SSB 2001
Jim Sinclair's Commentary This Continue reading In The News Today
|
| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:21 PM PST Dear EP, As long as this French curve up trend line holds you are safe as gold remains in the long term up trend. For more short term try to get touch points for a Bezier Curve downtrend on each reaction and examine how it works looking back. Jim Jim, The plot Continue reading Jim's Mailbox
|
| Innovation Spurs Need For More, Not Less Silver Posted: 25 Nov 2012 01:17 PM PST The new polymer incorporates silver nanowires about 0.1 microns thick, about one-thousandth the width of a human hair, and titanium dioxide nonoparticles as an electrode. "I think that solar has to take a different attitude," says Yang. "Whenever people think … Continue reading
|
| Doug Casey on the America That Was – Now the United (Police) State of America Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:51 PM PST (Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator) L: Doug, after conversations like the one we had last week, we often get letters from angry readers who accuse you of hating America, disloyalty, and perhaps even treason. These people don't know or understand what I do about you – that you love the idea that was America. It's the United State it has become for which you have nothing but contempt. Perhaps we should try to explain this to them? Doug: I doubt it would work; it's a tough row to hoe, trying to explain things to people who are so set in their thinking that they truly and literally don't want to hear anything that might threaten their notions. A person who feels threatened by ideas and who responds with emotion is acting irrationally. How can we have a discussion with someone whose emotion trumps their reason? How do we even begin to untangle the thinking of people who will gather this week to give thanks for the bounty produced by freedom and hard work – the famous puritan work ethic – by eating a turkey bought with food stamps? But we can outline the ideas, for the record. L: I'll bring a copy if they ever do put you on trial for thoughtcrime – which is frighteningly close to being real these days and called treason to boot. Doug: It's not just close; it's here. Just try telling an unapproved joke in a security line in an airport these days. L: True enough. Where to begin? Doug: At the beginning. America was founded as a confederation of independent countries – that's what a state is. Or was, in our language. The original United States of America was a confederation of countries that banded together for protection against larger and more powerful countries they feared might be hostile. This is not a disputed interpretation of history, but as solid a fact as the study of history produces – and yet a largely neglected one. L: We did cover this ground briefly in our conversations on the Civil War and the Constitution. Doug: So we did… the short version being that the US Constitution was essentially a coup; the delegates to what we now call the Constitutional Convention were not empowered to replace the existing government – only to improve upon the Articles of Confederation between the then-independent states. The framers of the Constitution drafted it with the notion of a national government already in place, but calmed fears of loss of state sovereignty by calling the new government the "United States of America" – a verbal sleight of hand that worked for over half a century. Then the southern states decided to exercise what these words imply; their right to leave the union. While slavery was and is a wholesale criminal activity I object to in every way possible, the southern states did have the right to secede, both legally and ethically. But the question was settled by force, not reason, and the wrong side won. L: Another coup? Doug: More like an exposure of the first one for the whole world to see. But by then it was way too late. Despite this, the relative freedom of the US – because it was for many years far freer than other countries – made it possible for artists, engineers, inventors, and businesspeople to flourish and create a society more wealthy and powerful than any the world had ever seen. This is what I call the idea of America – the America That Was. But the seeds of destruction were already sown at the very beginning – with the Alien and Sedition Acts being perhaps the first highly visible step in the wrong direction. Then came the forceful assertion of one national government, with states reduced to administrative regions via the War of Southern Secession, from 1861-'65. I'm no fan of state governments, incidentally, but at least they're smaller and closer to their subjects than the federal government. Another major step in the wrong direction occurred with the Spanish-American War of 1898, where the US acquired an overseas empire by force. The next major step downhill was the creation of the Federal Reserve and the income tax, both in 1913, just in time for World War I. It took time for these things to make the system crash, because it was still a fairly free economy. L: But crash it did in 1929… Doug: Yes. And it led to the Great Depression of 1929-'46, which lasted so long entirely because of the unmitigated disaster of the New Deal (which we discussed recently). The New Deal injected socialist-fascist ideas into mainstream American thought like a poisonous acid, corrupting the heart of the idea of America that once made the place great. The process was completed with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, which really established the basis of the welfare-warfare state. It truly set the stage for the total ethical, economic, social, political, and even military disaster now unfolding before our eyes. Still, the beating heart of the idea of America – which is to say both social and economic freedom – took time to corrupt. Like a strong man who doesn't know he's headed for a heart attack, American culture didn't really peak until the 1950s. The bullet-finned 1959 Cadillac is a symbol of this peak, in my mind. L: Then we had Johnson and his "guns and butter" policy – War in Vietnam and War on Poverty at the same time – followed by tricky Dick kicking the last leg out of under the stool by taking the dollar off an even theoretical gold standard. Doug: Yes. Nixon was arguably even a worse President than Johnson, with the devaluation of the dollar in 1971 and his creation of the War on Drugs. Things have spiraled out of control since then. In The Casey Report, we've written reams about these last decades and how they led to and shaped what's happening now. But I have to say, the focus has been largely financial. L: Which is as it should be, in a publication designed to help investors navigate these turbulent times. Doug: Yes, but the corruption goes way beyond that, beyond even the senseless wars and idiotic foreign policy we discussed last week. America, once the land of the brave and the home of the free, is well on its way to becoming a police state – worse than any we've seen in the past, including the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. L: How could it get worse than that? Doug: Because Big Brother has better technology now, allowing possible manipulation and control of the population that Stalin and Hitler never dreamed of. And because the US used to be such a great place, a lot of people have been tricked into believing it's the same as it was. But there's no more resemblance between the America of old and the US of today than there was between the Rome of the Republic and the Rome of the later emperors. Furthermore, most Americans have conflated the government with society. They're not only different things, but often antithetical. L: I thought you said you're an optimist! Doug: I am. But that's for the survivors who make it through the wringer the global economy – and every person on this planet – is about to go through. I keep telling you that the coming Greater Depression is going to be even worse than I think it is. You may think I'm joking, but I'm not. I do think that, primarily for reasons we discussed in our conversation on technology, what comes next will not only be even better than I imagine, it will be better than I can imagine… but first we have to go through the wringer. I see no way around it. I truly don't. L: Okay, I know you believe that. Can you substantiate the police-state claim? Doug: Well, rather than give you anecdotal evidence – of which there are masses more each day – let me refer to a rather perceptive blog post by a George Washington law professor named Jonathan Turley, titled 10 Reasons Why the US Is No Longer the Land of the Free. I'm sure I don't see everything the way the professor does, but the list struck me as quite accurate and very important for people to understand. L: I'm sure I don't want to hear this, but okay, shoot. Doug: [Chuckles] Maybe you don't, but I know you value the truth. These points underline something I've said for years: the Bill of Rights is a completely dead letter. It's essentially meaningless and rarely even gets the benefit of lip service. Quoting it will result in derision, if not arrest as a dangerous radical. Frankly, I didn't think the civil liberties situation could get worse than it was under Cheney-Bush, but it has. Obama has repealed none of what they did – and added more. So, let's go through the list. First: Assassination of U.S. citizens: "President Obama has claimed, as President George W. Bush did before him, the right to order the killing of any citizen considered a terrorist or an abettor of terrorism." Of course the very concept of terrorism is highly malleable, with over 100 definitions floating about – as we've discussed. But apart from that, it's now accepted that the president and his minions have the right to kill almost anyone. This conceit will get completely out of control after the next real or imagined major terrorist incident. L: This reminds me of the extraordinary powers given to government agents to battle the War On Some Drugs – like the RICO statutes – which have now been turned against ordinary citizens who have nothing to do with the drug trade. Doug: Exactly. Once you give the state a power – for whatever good reason you imagine it needs it – it will use that power for whatever those in charge feel is in their interests. And those in charge are never saints. Next: Indefinite detention: "Under the law signed last month, terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism." This was a precedent set by Guantánamo, where scores of the accused continue to rot without even a kangaroo-court trial. Arbitrary justice: "The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal, a system that has been ridiculed around the world for lacking basic due process protections. Bush claimed this authority in 2001, and Obama has continued the practice." As the government becomes more powerful, it's completely predictable that everything – including the justice system – will become ever more politicized. And government very rarely relinquishes a power it's gained. I particularly like the Supreme Court ruling in April 2012 that allows anyone who's arrested for anything – including littering or jaywalking – to be strip-searched. L: Note to readers: you can't hear Doug's voice, but I assure you that his use of the word "like" is sarcastic. Doug: Just so. Moving right along: Warrantless searches: "The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens' finances, communications and associations. Bush acquired this sweeping power under the Patriot Act in 2001, and in 2011, Obama extended the power, including searches of everything from business documents to library records." Privacy is now a completely dead concept, from both a legal and a practical point of view. If you want to retain privacy, you now have no alternative to relocating outside the US. L: Or any advanced Western country. I've read that there are more surveillance cameras per square mile in London than anywhere else. Doug: I've heard that too. The opposite being true in rural Argentina is one of the things I like about it. Back to the list: Secret evidence: "The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security…" "National security" essentially amounts to nothing more than government security, which amounts to cover for the individuals in the government. Nazi Germany and the USSR were national-security states. As I've tried to explain in the past, once a critical mass is reached, it's impossible to reform a government. I believe we've reached that state in the US. War crimes: "The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law." Torture by field operatives under the stress of combat is one thing; torture as official policy is something else again. But torture is now accepted in the US. Worse, there are far more serious war crimes than torture being committed in the name of the US that are going unpunished. L: This is, after all, a far darker version of the same US government that deliberately infected black US citizens with syphilis just to see what would happen, and sent US citizens of Japanese descent to concentration camps during WWII. Doug: Exactly. The next point is: Secret court: "The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has expanded its secret warrants to include individuals deemed to be aiding or abetting hostile foreign governments or organizations. In 2011, Obama renewed these powers, including allowing secret searches of individuals who are not part of an identifiable terrorist group." You no longer live in a free country when there's zero privacy for citizens, but 100% secrecy for the government and those it employs. Immunity from judicial review: "Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy." The government has outsourced some of its functions – not least the use of contractors in war zones. Increasingly, being associated with the government gives you a "get out of jail free" card. In the USSR they called this a "krisha" – a roof. Continual monitoring of citizens: "The Obama administration has successfully defended its claim that it can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review." Bad as this is, it's just one example. There's also the use of domestic drones, and hundreds of thousands of cameras that take pictures of everyone everywhere. Extraordinary renditions: "The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition, which has been denounced as using other countries, such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, to torture suspects." Yes, if someone is kidnapped, there's plausible deniability if the torturing is done abroad by a third party. And they're likely to have even fewer compunctions. L: That's a pretty depressing list, Doug. Doug: And this is just the beginning. As I've said before, I don't call the shots – just try to tell the truth as I see it. The point is that you couldn't assemble a list like this even 15 years ago. But now it's part of the firmament. Worse, it's going to grow. As the economy turns down over the next few years, the people – acting like scared chimpanzees – will ask the government to "do something." And it will. The trend is going hyperbolic. L: I can't argue… and I agree it is not likely to be stopped. So if this is a sure trend, are there investment implications? Doug: This just goes to reinforce what I've been saying for some time. As great as a US citizen's risk is in the marketplace these days, the greatest single risk to their wealth and health is the government. People simply must internationalize to diversify their political risk. I can't stress that strongly enough. L: Would you go so far as to say that being a taxpayer in the US now is like being a Jew in Germany in the mid-1930s? Doug: That's a good analogy. It's costly and upsetting to uproot, but the risk if you don't is unimaginably worse. And I would warn people in other countries to take the same precautions. All of these nation-states are dying dinosaurs that will cause a lot of damage as they thrash about in their death throes. No place is completely safe, but you improve your odds by not putting your eggs all in one basket. L: Okay, I guess we've covered that plenty of times. Is there a "police-state play" – any investments one could make before the new Iron Curtain slams down? Handcuff manufacturers? Doug: Nah – they have those plastic zip-binder things now; they're so cheap that I doubt the manufacturer can even make big money in volume. But I do remember a speech I attended in the '90s given by William Bennett, the ex-Drug Czar, who recommended investing in prisons. I excoriated him as a sociopath at that meeting – but he was right. However, that ship has sailed; it's hard to believe the US can incarcerate more than the current 2.3 million people. Besides, I find it morally offensive to capitalize what I consider to be criminal enterprises. No, for now the only absolutely crystal-clear imperative is as above: You've got t have a Plan B ready in case you need to get out of Dodge – and you need it pronto. And to those who will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I urge you to remind those you carve the turkey with that it was hard work and the freedom to profit from it that created the bounty the pilgrims celebrated. It was this enterprising spirit and the liberty to exercise it that was the heart of the idea of the America That Was – the idea that made America great. Those corrupt politicians who have been undermining these values for so long, and the willfully ignorant ideologues who support them, are responsible for turning this country into the United (Police) State of America. They should be criticized and opposed at every opportunity. L: Okay, Doug. Thanks for another challenging but enlightening conversation. Doug: My pleasure. On this day before the Thanksgiving holiday, we here at Casey Research want to thank you for being a loyal subscriber to Casey Daily Dispatch. People like you who support our work have enabled us to experience enviable growth (earlier this year, Inc. 5000 magazine – again – listed us among the fastest-growing private businesses in the US). Every year, thousands of investors from around the world grow right along with us by "crisis investing" – making calculated speculations designed to leverage calamities like the one Doug is warning about. At a time when most investors are struggling to make money, subscribers of our oldest and most reputable service are currently sitting on a number of triple-digit gains in select precious-metals companies. That service is Casey International Speculator, and on Friday – for one day only – we're offering 50% off a yearly subscription. As you're a loyal reader of the Casey Daily Dispatch, we're offering you a chance to claim your 50% off subscription before everyone else. Learn more about this offer and how Casey International Speculator can help you grow your portfolio.
|
| Bruce Lee vs. Keith Weiner – Battle of the Silver Dragon Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:17 PM PST If I am reading the basis for Keith Weiner's argument correctly, it would go as follows. 1. Never borrow cash from the bank and store it in your own safe if you can pay back your bank debt later with … Continue reading
|
| Mas Trouble In Little Spain As Country Layers Constitutional Crisis Onto Economic Depression Posted: 25 Nov 2012 12:07 PM PST Catalonia's exit polls confirm over two-thirds of votes will go to pro-independence parties that will likely push for a referendum to break away from Spain, which the central government will challenge as unconstitutional. The more-populous-than-Denmark region is home to car factories and banks that generate one-fifth of Spain's economic wealth (larger than Portugal's). The incumbent, Artur Mas, has converted to a more radical separatist bias since huge street demonstrations in September showed the will of the people. As Reuters notes, growing Catalan separatism is a huge challenge for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is trying to bring down painfully high borrowing costs by persuading investors of Spain's fiscal and political stability. Critically, the exit polls suggest the dominance of separatist parties will mean a referendum for secession within two years - leaving us asking the simple question: who will buy any Spanish debt, even fully backstopped by the ECB, if there is a real risk that in under two years, 20% of Spanish GDP will simply pick up and leave.
Pro-Referendum/Separatists:
Anti-Referendum
Via Reuters:
The only possible spin by the statists is that there is a possibility that the CIU and ERC will not come to an agreement over a referendum, and that the wealth redistribution from Europe's solvent to its insolvent can continue under the guise of a common currency:
Follow the results live here:
|
| Fiscal Cliff Update: 'Little Progress Toward A Compromise In Past Ten Days" Posted: 25 Nov 2012 10:00 AM PST Two Fridays ago on November 16, just as AAPL was in danger of plunging below the absolute last support level of $500 after which freefall for it and the entire market begins, a truly unexpected deus ex machina appeared for those still clinging to long stock positions: politicians, in this case John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, who held a press conference in which they defined the recently launched "Fiscal Cliff" talks as "constructive." In reality, this appearance was nothing but a photo opportunity for talking heads (as explained in "Risk Ramp on Boehner Banality"), and one which as Nancy Pelosi herself admitted later, served simply to halt what then looked like an assured free fall in the markets. Since then the ongoing rally in stocks and the EURUSD has been predicated on the "constructiveness" of the talks actually being real. Because while a fiscal cliff solution, or rather a compromise - one in which the status quo will be extended and no news spending cuts or major tax hikes will appear, will certainly be implemented, the question is what will take to get the career politicians to bend to even this tiny "compromise" and what is the sequence of events of such a catalyst. As is well-known, Goldman, unlike almost every other sellside group on Wall Street, except for Morgan Stanley, still sees a tumble in the S&P to unchanged for the year levels as being the key driver that forces DC to cobble a deal (to be sure, Goldman then expects stocks to surge to over 1500 for 2013). Judging by the latest update from Reuters, Goldman will likely be right, if only in the short term. As Reuters admits, " U.S. lawmakers have made little progress in the last 10 days toward a compromise to avoid the harsh tax increases and government spending cuts scheduled for Jan. 1, a senior Democratic senator said on Sunday." That this update comes after the "big" market swoon into the recent lows from November 16, is certainly cause for alarm, because it means that at least one more violent market whipsaw to the downside will have to take place before there is any cliff progress to report. From Reuters:
In other words, our assessment of the Boehner-Pelosi photo-op was once again spot on. Remember: politicians are never in a rush to "resolve" something unless real money loss - either their own or of their primary lobbyists - is at stake. And Wall Street will make sure of just that. It will also be sure to buy ahead of everyone else once the real can kicking exercise du jour is completed. At least until the realization that nothing has been actually resolved kicks in. That bridge will be crossed in due course. But first a far more looming bridge is that of the Cliff, on whose crossing there has been no progress made, for which Obama has said will demand double the previously expected amount in tax hikes ($1.6 trillion over ten years, or enough to fund the US budget deficit for one month), and which will collapse very soon, as there are now just 12 full sessions of Congress until the end of the year.
|
| Stock Market Last Push Higher Before the Big Collapse? Posted: 25 Nov 2012 09:59 AM PST With most of Wall Street on vacation, those few traders manning their desks are taking advantage of the low volume to push the market sharply higher. This, combined with a large move up by the Euro has pulled the entire risk trade up forcing the US Dollar lower.
|
| Silver Major Uptrend Underway, Not to Late to Go Long Posted: 25 Nov 2012 09:49 AM PST Recent action in silver has been very bullish. It barely paid lip service to the technical requirement to drop back and form a Right Shoulder to its Head-and-Shoulders bottom before breaking out of this base pattern back last Tuesday, without waiting for either gold to break out, or for the dollar to break down. When gold did actually break out on Friday, and the dollar broke down, it built on these achievements by breaking clear above the resistance near to its 50-day moving average.
|
| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 09:43 AM PST If only India would try "dematerializing" its central bank instead. * * * Reserve Bank Official Supports 'Dematerialisation' to Arrest Rising Gold Demand From The Economic Times http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/subir-gok... PUNE, India -- Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn today said there is a need to "dematerialise" gold like any other financial product to reduce its physical imports, the rise of which has been blamed for the high current account deficit that is feared to touch new record high this year. High gold imports are "creating some macroeconomic stresses and so the challenge is to find ways to replicate the financial characteristics of gold without necessarily causing physical importing," Gokarn told the last day of the two-day annual Bancon conference here. The current account deficit has been rising on the back of record trade deficits, which in October jumped to a 12-year high of $21 billion on the back of rising oil and gold imports. ... Dispatch continues below ... 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 Reeling out the high gold import data, Gokarn said a working group headed by KUB Rao of RBI will shortly be coming out with its report on the ways to deal with the problem arising from high gold imports on the macroeconomic front in the form of balance of payments. He said while global gold output has stayed stable at around 4,000 tonne per year, the domestic [Indian] consumption of the yellow metal has doubled to 1,000 tonnes annually since 1999, despite a massive rally in the gold price. "More expensive gold is being imported in larger quantities, which is compounding the trouble," he said. As gold imports touched a record high last year, pushing up the current account deficit to a historic high of 4.2 per cent in the year, the Reserve Bank has unveiled a slew of curbs on gold purchases and financing. Last fiscal year there was a 39 per cent rise in gold imports and in gross terms it constituted 80 per cent of the current account deficit, which reached an all-time high of 4.2 per cent, Gokarn said, adding that the net gold imports constitute for 1.8 to 2.4 per cent of GDP. This spike in gold demand was in spite of the record price rally that the metal witnessed last fiscal year. In April the RBI brought down the loan to value that gold loan companies like Muthoot Finance or Manappuram Finance could offer to just 60 per cent of the market value, from a high of 85-90 per cent. In the October 30 credit policy, the RBI also banned banks from funding gold buying by gold loan companies and non-banking financial companies. 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 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....
|
| Gold Breakout, Starts MAJOR Uptrend, Not Too Late to Jump Aboard Posted: 25 Nov 2012 09:17 AM PST It was a big day for the Precious Metals sector on Friday, for the dollar broke down hard from its recent uptrend, and at the same time gold broke out upside from its Head-and-Shoulders base pattern. Silver anticipated this – it broke out from its base pattern back on Tuesday. These developments have grave implications for the dollar, but at the same time are believed to mark the start of major uptrends in gold and silver.
|
| US DOLLAR: It Can Decline Against the Canadian Dollar Posted: 25 Nov 2012 08:58 AM PST Canada maintains a competitive advantage over the United States. The United States Dollar (USD) against the Canadian Dollar (CAD) should decline to 0.9870 in the short-term and then eventually fall to between 0.9700 and 0.9600 in the longer-term.
|
| Posted: 25 Nov 2012 08:52 AM PST Recent action in silver has been very bullish. It barely paid lip service to the technical requirement to drop back and form a Right Shoulder to its Head-and-Shoulders bottom before breaking out of this base pattern back last Tuesday ...
|
| Keith Weiner is literally a weiner Posted: 25 Nov 2012 06:58 AM PST Stacy Summary: I assume this is the same Keith Weiner who had a cognitive dissonance meltdown after our expose of the fundamental contradiction at the heart of his alleged ideology. Here he is with an opinion piece trying to tell … Continue reading
|
Hello beautiful but screwed up world,
PUNE: 
The Federal Reserve Board originally led us to believe that it was necessary to expand money supply through quantitative easing to offset the contraction of bank credit. Bank credit is no longer contracting, and indeed was already expanding when QE3 was introduced. This objective is now being satisfied as illustrated in the chart below.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Save Your ASSets First To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment