Gold World News Flash |
- Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency
- Silver Outperforming Gold May Signal Inflationary Rally
- Jason Burak – Inflation Is Guaranteed. Your Financial Survival Is Not
- Bron Suchecki - ETF PRICE SUPPRESSION MECHANICS
- Operation Freedom
- Golden Bullshine
- Getting tough on gold imports won't work, two former Indian central bankers say
- IT WAS A WONDERFUL LIFE (Oldie but Goodie)
- WTI Crude Oil To Test $65 Level in 2013
- Global Silver Mine Production
- What A Week!
- Gold and Silver Oppan Gangnam Style Bear Raid
- Use Logic, Not Your Emotions
- Gold's Big Fuss Over Nothing
- Gold and Silver Smart Money Exits Too Soon
- China Silver Demand — One Step Closer to the Edge
- The Gold Price Barometer
- The Chart That Keeps Ben Bernanke Up At Night
- Collapse Is What Is Really Taking Place Around The World
- Top SA gold miners could follow Gold Fields unbundling example
- Robert Wiedemer: Awaiting The Aftershock
- Gold Miners Downsizing Capital Expenses for Smart Growth 2013
- Golds Big Fuss Over Nothing
- Sprott: Shorts May Need To Deliver 40 Million Ounces Of Silver
- Gold Stocks Bullshine Investing
- We Have Reached a Major Turning Point in Central Bank Intervention
- Monthly Gold Charts
- Silver Taken Down, Fights Back to Seven-week High
- WORK?
- Former Cops To Police USSA Farms For DuPont
| Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency Posted: 01 Dec 2012 09:30 PM PST [Ed Note: We're no fans of the Bitcoin, but here's what's going on these days...] by Max Raskin, Business Week:
Created in 2009 by a mysterious programmer named Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoins behave a lot like any currency. Their value is determined by demand, and they can be used to buy stuff. Bitcoin transactions are encrypted and handled by a decentralized global network of tens of thousands of personal computers. Merchants around the world accept the currency, from a bakery in San Francisco to a dentist in Finland. Individuals who own bitcoins and wish to exchange them for physical currencies like euros or dollars can use exchange sites such as localbitcoins.com, a Finland-based site founded by Jeremias Kangas. "I believe that bitcoin is, or will be in the future, a very effective tool for individuals who want to avoid sanctions, currency restrictions, and high inflation in countries such as Iran," Kangas wrote in an e-mail.
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| Silver Outperforming Gold May Signal Inflationary Rally Posted: 01 Dec 2012 08:30 PM PST by Jeb Handwerger, 321Gold.com:
Nevertheless, we ignore the daily volatility and stick to the long term technicals and fundamentals which may be signaling that gold, silver, pgm's, uranium and heavy rare earths may reemerge as sectors where opportunity lies in 2013. Gold, silver and platinum appear to be on the verge of a major breakout as the Fed may be making noises about QE4.
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| Jason Burak – Inflation Is Guaranteed. Your Financial Survival Is Not Posted: 01 Dec 2012 07:30 PM PST from FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com:
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| Bron Suchecki - ETF PRICE SUPPRESSION MECHANICS Posted: 01 Dec 2012 07:11 PM PST We have found the writings and opinions of the Perth Mint's Bron Suchecki worthy of our time. The article below is no exception. The article speaks for itself. Bron begins:
There are some mistakes in the article that need to be addressed lest they become more virally accepted "truths" in the precious metal blogosphere. Andrew also uses some terminology/jargon that readers may not be familiar with. I'll cover both of these in the first section titled "Getting the facts straight". With the facts established I'll then seek to hopefully explain some of Andrew's "mechanics" a bit more clearly. I think it is a combination of jargon, poor wording and the fact that Andrew talks about different transaction mechanics that results in this sort of comment from Ed Steer: "I haven't a clue as to what he's talking about" and Ed's a smart guy who can follow an argument. This will be in the second section titled "Transaction mechanics". Finally, I'll discuss how significant the ETFs and the transaction mechanisms around them are to the market. ..."
Source: Bron Suchecki, Perth Mint Comment: Our own, long held contention is that gold and silver ETFs would be a terribly inefficient vehicle to attempt to alter the supply/demand/liquidity equilibrium, when there are much better, less transparent ways available. (Such as the OTC and COMEX markets. Mostly the former.)
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST by Dr. Dave Janda, DaveJanda.com
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 06:30 PM PST by Richard Mills, Ahead of the Herd: As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information
According to the Thomson Reuters GFMS's Gold Survey 2012 global gold mine production was flat (output rose 0.1 percent to 1,366 metric tons) in the first half of 2012. The average grade of ore processed globally dropped 23 percent from 2005 through the end of last year and is forecast to decline another four percent in 2012. The report also said the average cash cost across the gold mining industry for mining an ounce of gold is a record $727 per ounce. The average cash margin dropped to $872 an ounce in the second quarter from as much as $1,032 an ounce in last year's third quarter. Read More @ AheadoftheHerd.com
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| Getting tough on gold imports won't work, two former Indian central bankers say Posted: 01 Dec 2012 06:09 PM PST From The Indian Express, New Delhi http://www.indianexpress.com/news/-being-tough-on-gold-imports-won-t-wor... MUMBAI -- Two former governors of the Reserve Bank of India warned Saturday against taking tough measures to rein in gold imports -- a major reason for the persistently high current account deficit. The chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, said steps like banning gold imports would only push up its smuggling. Rangarajan, who served as RBI governor, said there are already indications that illegal shipments of the precious metal have gone up in the last three months after the hike in the excise duty. "That is an indication of how much gold is being smuggled in. I would say to some extent we should dissuade people from holding an asset that does not give a rate of return. However, you can't go beyond a particular point," Rangarajan said here at a function organised by the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, an institution set up by the RBI. ... 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 Former governor Y.V. Reddy said, "If Mercedes Benz and aftershave lotion can be imported, why not gold? It is both an investment and consumption good. Many people seem to mistake that it is only a hedge against inflation. There is a demand for it. It is being imported. If you can, try to stop it." The RBI Governor D. Subbarao said the central bank is "concerned about gold as means of saving because it blocks off savings." "We are concerned about gold ... lending against gold by non-bank finance companies because of financial stability concerns. We have been concerned about gold from an external management perspective because of the pressure it puts on the current account or the capital account depending on your account for it," Subbarao said. On growth and inflation, Bimal Jalan, Rangarajan's successor and Reddy's predecessor, said, "There are periods when growth is more important and you take policy measures to boost it. There are periods when you have to control inflation because that is the dominant public issue. So there will be periods when you take measures, however harsh they are, to control inflation." Reddy added household savings, which was an achievement until recently, is now the most critical challenge for the future. "The behavior of household savings indicates that they do not have faith in financial markets except banks. It is a bad sign." Rangarajan said, "If what has happened in the three-year period of decline is reversed either because of a fiscal consolidation program or because of inflation coming down, it is possible to get back ... if not the 9-percent but the 8-percent rate of growth." 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....
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| IT WAS A WONDERFUL LIFE (Oldie but Goodie) Posted: 01 Dec 2012 06:02 PM PST Tonight they are playing the classic It's a Wonderful Life on NBC. It's one of my favorite movies. Here is my take on the movie. This was my first article on my own TBP in March 2010. The year was 1946. It marked the inauguration of the last High in America. A Crisis had begun abruptly with the 1929 Black Tuesday stock-market crash. After a three-year financial free fall, the ensuing Great Depression prompted FDR's New Deal social welfare programs, an enormous extension of government, and expectations for a revitalization of our national community. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, America planned, mobilized, and manufactured for conflict on a level that made possible the colossal D-Day invasion. Two years later, the Crisis mood eased with America's unexpectedly painless demobilization. Director Frank Capra produced and directed one of the most beloved movies of all-time in 1946 – It's a Wonderful Life. The movie is a beloved Christmas classic. It is a story of hope, redemption, belief in the goodness of man, and belief in God. If you are down in the dumps or depressed, watch this movie and your spirits will be lifted. What is less evident, but more pertinent today, is the distinction between the America that we were versus the America we could have become. The America we did not want to become was controlled and manipulated by an evil, soul-less banker. It was a dark foreboding Gomorrah-like world of bars, strip joints, casinos and tenement housing. The citizens were angry, rude and mistrustful. In the movie, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, is able to see how his small town would have turned out if he had never been born. In the real world, people and countries don't have an opportunity to see how their decisions will affect the future. The American people and their elected leaders have made some dreadful decisions since 1946 that have drained the life out of the American Dream. God and morality have lost their meaning and importance in modern America. When the distinction between good and evil is blurred by the media and intellectuals, the degradation of society and morality leads to a downward death spiral. The Idea of America "Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion." – Dwight D. Eisenhower The Founding Fathers risked their lives in order to escape the tyranny and imperial oppressiveness of the British Empire. They dreamed of a country where all men were created equal. They believed that all citizens were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among them were Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. They did their best to create a country where everyone had an equal opportunity to succeed or fail. It is said that, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin and asked him what type of government had been decided upon by the delegates. Franklin stated: "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it." Franklin also deemed that the Constitution could only endure as long as the citizens themselves could sustain it: "In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults; if they are such; because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and I believe, further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other." The men who created this Republic were practical realists. They were skeptical of all forms of government. They knew that a government would only be as good and honorable as the people who represented the citizens. It was up to the citizens to keep those they elected from abusing their power. Each generation, each individual, needed to pay this price anew each and every day. In the words of Thomas Paine, "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." For many decades the citizens did undergo the fatigues of supporting it. They defeated the British in the War of 1812. They spilled the blood of 600,000 men in the War Between the States. They died in the trenches of France in World War I. They saved the world from Nazism and Fascism in World War II. Despite these remarkable sacrifices, the idea of America has been lost along the journey. The American Dream has become a nightmare as we have allowed individualism, materialism and selfish greed to override being a good citizen, good neighbor, and going as far as your ability and hard work would take you. "The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do and dare but freedom from care and worry." – James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America, 1931 Mr. Adams captured the spirit of America, a nation of opportunity. He saw it slipping away back in 1931. We've made fateful choices in the last century that have methodically stolen the spirit of the American Dream. Opportunity for each according to their ability or achievement has been replaced by – from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The twist to the Communist Manifesto is that those with ability who worked hard have had their wealth redistributed to the rich and the poor. The 1% ruling elite have utilized their positions of power, with the help of their benefactor – the Federal Reserve, to amass 40% of all the wealth in the country. The bottom 50% of Americans on the income scale, pay no income taxes and receive the majority of entitlement payments. That leaves the middle class on a permanent treadmill trying to achieve the American Dream, but never reaching the destination. The loss of the American Dream can be traced to 1913. The creation of the Federal Reserve by powerful banking interests and corrupt politicians marked the beginning of the end for the U.S. dollar. The implementation of a personal income tax opened Pandora's Box and unleashed incalculable horrors upon the American public. The top marginal tax rate in 1913 was 7%. It reached 94% by 1944. The tax code has grown from 400 pages in 1913 to 67,500 pages today. Politicians have exploited the tax code to recompense political contributors and punish their enemies. The amalgamation of a fiat currency being printed by a Central Bank resulting in a 95% loss in purchasing power and ever increasing tax burdens to support welfare program redistribution have devastated the middle class. With these monetary support mechanisms in place, politicians have been able to promise voters more and more benefits without bothering about future consequences. The American people have voted themselves more and more goodies. They have ignored their obligation to the past and the future. The Founding Fathers created an imperfect Republic. Ben Franklin knew its future depended upon people administering it well. Unborn future generations are dependent on their parents and grandparents to make choices that do not burden them with an anchor of unbearable debt. We have failed our brave forefathers and have sold our unborn into slavery. The people have been corrupted and the country is on course towards despotism. Today's "progressives" in the media and government have manipulated the fact that the Founders did not want a national religion to be misrepresented as keeping religion out of America. The Founders were religious men. They believed religion and morality were vital to the country being administered in a moral ethical way and guided by a code of conduct. As God, religion and morality have been denigrated by those in power we have moved further and further from the letter and spirit of the Constitution. Only a people with a strong moral backbone can be trusted to honor the Constitution. "We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." - John Adams Niall Ferguson, Harvard historian, recently detailed that the choices and decisions we've made as a nation have put us on a path of collapse. The believers in American Exceptionalism think it is sacrilege to mention the decline of the American Empire. They estimate that any decline would play out over a century or more. Ferguson notes the widely held belief that: "Great powers, like great men, are born, rise, reign and then gradually wane. No matter whether civilizations decline culturally, economically or ecologically, their downfalls are protracted." But what if they are wrong? What if the speed of the modern world also translates into the speed of declines? Ferguson understands that any grain of sand that falls on an instable portion of the sand pile can lead to collapse: "What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night? Great powers are complex systems. There comes a moment when complex systems 'go critical.' A very small trigger can set off a 'phase transition' from a benign equilibrium to a crisis — a single grain of sand causes a whole pile to collapse." Lack of courage, political corruption, greed, immorality, laziness, and materiality has left the country on the brink. Ferguson assesses the facts and concludes that collapse of the American Empire is closer than most people think: "Most imperial falls are associated with fiscal crises. Alarm bells should therefore be ringing very loudly indeed as the United States contemplates a deficit for 2010 of more than $1.5 trillion — about 11% of GDP, the biggest since World War II. A complex adaptive system is in big trouble when its component parts lose faith in its viability. Empires behave like all complex adaptive systems. They function in apparent equilibrium for some unknowable period. And then, quite abruptly, they collapse." How did we get to this point? In 1946 America sat on top of the world. America – 1946 – Bedford Falls "There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure." – Dwight D. Eisenhower Europe, Russia, and Japan were devastated by World War II. Their populations, cities, infrastructure and industries were ravaged. Only America remained unscathed by war. The rest of the world looked to the U.S. to lead and be the beacon of light on the hill as the shining example of capitalism, freedom, and morality. As the only country whose manufacturing base was still intact, America had huge economic advantages. Despite these advantages, the seeds of destruction were being planted. Almost 30% of our economy was based upon producing things the rest of the world wanted to buy. Another 12% of GDP was from the productive functions of agriculture and mining. Americans were settling into their post-war suburban oasis, leading to 15% of the economy being driven by retail & wholesale sales. Finance and professional services accounted for only 14% of the economy. Today, manufacturing accounts for 11% of the economy, while finance & professional services account for 33% of the economy. This dramatic shift has had a profound effect on the nation.
It's a Wonderful Life teaches us that family, friendship, and virtue are the true definitions of wealth. It also broaches the subject of small town America where small business owners and hard working Americans were treated with respect by small town bankers and valued as lifelong customers. The movie clearly distinguishes between the small town banker who believes that every townsperson deserved a chance at a better life and the big time banker who treated people like cattle and only cared about how much profit he could generate by keeping those people under his thumb. Mr. Potter represents every evil banker that has ever walked this earth and taken advantage of the poor and middle class to enrich himself. George Bailey represents the kind of banker that built this country by making loans to his fellow hard working Americans. This was a very early picture of how allowing a single all-powerful corporate banker to exercise monopolistic control would ultimately destroy the community and enslave the citizens. The scene when Potter offers the depositors 50 cents on the dollar for their shares of Bailey Building & Loan is representative of how thug like corporate bankers will resort to anything in order to put small banks out of business and steal the deposits of average Americans. The point of the movie, that money won't buy happiness and that good works are more important than consumerism, was cast aside by America with assistance from the bankers who control the Federal Reserve. The result is a country of bureaucrats, paper pushers, and government lackeys, producing nothing and borrowing at ever increasing amounts in order to live the good life today with no thought about tomorrow. The message of materialism has been preached by the holy trinity of bankers, government, and corporate media. Value Added as a % of GDP
Path of Least Resistance "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." – Abraham Lincoln "The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life." – Theodore Roosevelt Americans were lured into believing they could live the good life without making the sacrifices necessary to obtain that life. They chose to take "50 cents on the dollar" from Potter. They borrowed the other 50 cents from Potter and let the Bailey Building & Loan go out of business. In the world Americans have chosen, George Bailey committed suicide. The United States government made a choice too. The politicians who hold the reins of power in America's Gomorrah, Washington D.C., sold their souls to the devil of fiat currency printed by corrupt bankers. All the power of the Federal Government has been put in the ravenous claws of the Federal Reserve, a private bank owned and controlled by the biggest banks in the world. Politicians hit the jackpot in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the institution of an individual income tax. These fateful decisions have allowed slimy depraved elected officials to promise their constituents trillions of dollars in unfunded entitlements, tax credits for their buddies, and promises of safety and security in order to buy votes. The government made a pact with the banking cartel which has unleashed a torrent of debt that has skyrocketed to levels never conceived by the Bedford Falls America of the 1940's. Net U.S. debt now exceeds $52 trillion, a full 372% more than GDP.
Total U.S. debt as a percentage of GDP now exceeds the levels at the depths of the Great Depression by 24%. Ask yourself who profits from printing money and ever increasing levels of debt. Bankers and politicians profit. Who loses from ever increasing levels of debt? The middle class, who have been ensnared by banker deception and phony promises into the belief that possessing extravagant objects is real wealth while sinking ever deeper into debt, are today's losers. Unborn future generations who will be stuck with the bill for the Baby Boomer orgy of materialism are the real losers. The current fascination with the affluent, the influential, and the celebrated was not found in Bedford Falls. To Frank Capra, the well-to-do and elite had none of the critical traits to safeguard liberty in America, nor did they display any of the core cultural values the country was built upon. The country was built upon the hard work of small close knit communities supported by small town banks and freedom to succeed or fail without government interference. An entrepreneur with a good idea could attain a higher place in the social order through their brains and work ethic. The choice of government to support monopolistic mega corporations and mega banks has destroyed the vital values of the country. Profit and wealth have become the ends, with the means being inflation and debt.
Credit card debt didn't exist until the late 1960s because credit cards didn't exist. Until 1970 Americans bought things by saving money until they accumulated enough to make the purchase. Noble bankers were able to put their luminous minds to the task and created the credit card to "help" all Americans. We are now referred to as consumers rather than citizens. The chart above chronicles the "success" of this banker invention. They didn't have another such outstanding "success" until the creation of the subprime mortgage, the credit default swap, and the no doc Option ARM. There are 310 million Americans and 1.5 billion credit cards in circulation. The top 10 banks control 88% of the credit card market. Americans owe these banks more than $800 billion. In 1980, at the outset of the great credit hurricane, a credit card application was 700 words and fit on one sheet of paper. Today, a credit card application is 30 pages of unintelligible legalese. Did bankers increase the complexity to help consumers or mislead, bamboozle, and confuse them? I'm sure their motives were honorable. The ethical bankers are so concerned about young Americans they have managed to issue, on average, 4 credit cards per undergraduate student in the country. They are surely looking out after the best interest of these teenagers. Through devious marketing, with the help of the mainstream media that glorifies the rich and famous, the largest banks in the land convinced a vast majority of Americans they deserved to live like kings. They deserved a McMansion castle, a BMW chariot, a flat screen to watch fools entertain them, and instead of gold coins as real wealth – a gold Amex to create faux wealth. The banking elite hit the jackpot when they "invented" derivatives that allowed them to package credit card and mortgage debt and sell it to unsuspecting suckers. This opened the door to unheard of wealth for the banking elite, as their models told them they could loan money to people who had no chance of paying you back, package the loans, bribe S&P and Moody's to rate the package of shit as AAA, and sell it to pension funds, small towns, and grandmothers. Wall Street surely cared about their responsibility to the community at large. America – 2010 – Potterville "All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." – John Adams "A free America… means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it." – Frank Lloyd Wright America had an option in 1946. We had a choice between Bedford Falls and Pottersville. Sadly, over time, Americans came to a fork in the road and took it. Life is about choices. As a nation we have undoubtedly made more ghastly choices than superior ones. Essentially, the choices were the same ones faced by George Bailey. Do I act in the best interest of myself or do what is best for the community as a whole? Do I choose the path that will give me the most benefits and greatest personal wealth, with the least sacrifice? Or, do I choose a path based upon the values we hold dear like hard work, sacrifice, charity, and loving thy neighbor. A civilization cannot be sustained with making money as its chief pursuit. In that scenario we are no more than animals. Our transition to a brutish society began when citizens became consumers. A citizen is concerned with their civic responsibility, fiscal accountability and obligation to future generations. A consumer devours whatever they can get their grubby little hands on and cares not about debt or unborn generations. Americans bought into two huge lies. They believed that "free market capitalism" and "globalism" would make their lives better. These fabrications were spread by the monopolistic mammoth corporations that control Washington D.C. and their puppets in Congress. Big media spread the gospel of free markets and the benefits of a global economy incessantly. The fact is free markets aren't really free and global markets meant your job was shipped to China or India. Americans fell for the hook of cheap goods sold by mega-retailers and produced by slave labor in Far East countries and paid for with loans at 19.99%. This was not free market capitalism, but predatory capitalism. The capitalism that thrived in Bedford Falls was humane capitalism. It was a capitalism where one's commitment to being benevolent took priority over greedy self interest; when the welfare of the person was rooted in the best interests of the society, and when the profit motivation was employed to meet societal needs, rather than Potter-like inhumane bankers and gluttonous corporate CEOs. These monsters of capitalism have the same contempt for the American people as displayed by Henry Potter. They are as bigoted towards America's working class just as Potter referring to the townsfolk as suckers, riff raff, and garlic eaters. Frank Capra depicted bankers as prejudiced predators, angling to direct America toward a rapacious existence under their sphere of influence. In my opinion, he was too generous, as the Wall Street bankers of today personify pure evil. Only soulless parasites could create subprime, no doc, and Option ARM mortgages, sell them as packages to pension funds, bet they would collapse, beg for a taxpayer rescue, use the money to gamble in the stock market, and pay themselves billions in bonuses. That defines American capitalism today. The banking elite have been so successful, the average American hasn't realized their standard of living has been steadily declining for decades. Even using the fraudulent government manipulated CPI, real average weekly earnings are below the level of wages in 1964. Average Americans are making less than they did 46 years ago. In a fascinating coincidence, Alan Greenspan and his minions began "tweaking" the CPI calculation downward in the early 1980's just as banks opened the spigot on easy revolving credit. Using the true CPI, as calculated by economist John Williams, real weekly earnings are 70% lower than they were in 1964. Revolving credit outstanding per household has risen by 1,100% since 1980. Knowing the average American doesn't understand the concepts of inflation, interest or debt has allowed bankers and politicians to convince Americans they were getting richer when they were really descending into the abyss.
Here we sit in 2010. We are blessed with 4,300 Wal-Marts, 2,200 Home Depots, 1,500 Lowes, 1,000 Best Buys, 15,000 McDonalds, 11,000 Starbucks and 2 million other retail stores. Americans need to ask themselves whether cheap economy packs of tube socks were worth allowing small town America to disintegrate and blow away. Small businesses that were the heart of America in 1946 have been methodically driven out of business by predatory mega-retailers. The free market capitalists claim this has been good for America. Is it free market capitalism when these companies use their billions to buy politicians, zoning boards, and local officials? The next time you drive through a small town and see boarded up stores, for lease signs, and decaying infrastructure think about the true cost of big business capitalism. Succumbing to corporatism and debt financed materialism has resulted in a society marred by divorce, broken families, decaying cities, drugs, murder and police chases - the Potterville of It's a Wonderful Life. Was it worth it? Sympathy for the Devil "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." – Frederic Bastiat Frank Capra ended his movie on an optimistic note. This makes sense, as the U.S. was just entering a new High. There were bad people in the world, but the good people had just defeated the bad people in a World War. Good people had the support of God and his angels. Every time a bell rang, an angel got their wings. Today, every time a bell rings, a Goldman
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| WTI Crude Oil To Test $65 Level in 2013 Posted: 01 Dec 2012 05:49 PM PST
By EconMatters
WTI closed November just shy of $89 a barrel on hopes of an improving economy. I think there is an argument for an improving economy in 2013, but it is just too early to tell how things are going to come together with the economy, and all the ramifications of basically an anti-business and social agenda political leadership of the last four years.
I am not making a political statement that there aren`t some benefits to be gained by such governmental policies, more to state the fact that with a lot of the legislative and fiscal policies of the last four years we have yet to fully understand some of the costs and unintended consequences of these policies like higher taxes, increased healthcare costs, and increased business regulation costs.
So this is an area that remains to be seen how all this plays out in the economy. Just last year many analysts were expecting 2013 to be an increased chance of a recession, we shall see.
But even with the best case scenario for a stronger 2013 economy in the US, this isn`t going to effectively change the actual demand picture for Petroleum products in a mature market like the US to any significant degree.
In addition, with the latest employment numbers coming out of Europe and the slowdown finally hitting Germany it appears Europe is not going to have a robust 2013. Asia, namely China appears to be coming off the bottom, but the days of 12% economic growth are over for the emerging market, in short, they have finally "emerged"!
China has infrastructure and inflation constraints that hamper growth levels higher than 7% going forward, and real growth may be much less than reported. This economic reality is priced into the Chinese stock market, which has had an abysmal year.
In regard to Japan, they are about to have another leadership change, the 7thone in as many years, and this economy is in a state of perpetual deflationary decline which has lasted for the last twenty years. So despite the new leadership change, Japan has major demographic and anti-competitive businesses constraints that auger more of the same for 2013.
So the US market, which is a mature market may actually have the best economy of the major economies and users of Petroleum products in 2013, and that`s not saying much from the demand side of the equation.
Now we get to the supply side of the equation, and here is the problem for Oil bulls, and partly the reason so many funds got killed in 2012 trying to aggressively invest in Oil through Futures, ETF`s and the like. No established trends could take hold because the supply levels globally and domestically are well above the five-year average, and at the height of that range. So we have had a drop in WTI from $109 to $78 totaling $31 a barrel, and $100 to $84 totaling $16 a barrel which is not good if you're a fund manager investing long-term.
The most noteworthy trend in the Oil markets for 2012 is the increased role of US and Canadian production, and it is only going to get stronger for 2013 and into the future. The trend is definitely not a fluke; we have had a nice run of over a decade of high prices which has spurred a lot of economic investment into new technologies and an increase in smaller, independent operators searching for opportunities to make money by producing oil in North America.
Well, we are finally starting to see the results of the increased capital investments, and just like Shale Natural Gas, these projects once they get going stay online, even as prices drop substantially. Expect the same for Oil, as frankly, there just aren`t a lot of areas where you can make the kind of margins that are attainable in the Oil market. It is a good business to be in versus many other industries vying for capital resources.
Just to give the reader an idea of some of this dynamic change in US production numbers alone,the United States is on track for a 7% increase in oil production this year to an average of 10.9 million barrels per day. Furthermore, The U.S. Department of Energy is forecasting that U.S. production of crude and other liquid hydrocarbons will average 11.4 million barrels per day in 2013. For comparison sake Saudi Arabia's output is approximately 11.6 million barrels per day. The only reason Oil isn`t much lower currently is that there has been a lot of increased Oil storage for newly built capacity in China and the US. For example, Cushing Oklahoma which is the location that the WTI Futures contract is based upon, had a storage capacity of approximately 47 million barrels in March 2011, with increased Capacity upgrades it stands just above 60 million barrels as of March of 2012.
But here is the kicker, on September 30, 2011 Cushing had just under 30 million barrels in storage, as of last week Cushing has 46 million barrels stored at this location, this is an increase of 16 million barrels in one year, if we have a repeat in 2013, which all signs point to as the trend is getting stronger not weaker, than Cushing will be running out of working storage capacity of just over 60 million barrels. I am sure Cushing is building more workable storage capacity as we speak, but at some level what is the point, 2013 is when WTI starts really pricing in some of this supply glut that comes from increased US and Canadian production. The supply glut just isn`t in WTI it is felt in total US inventory levels which to quote directly from the EIA Report: "At 374.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are well above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year." The US Inventory level will probably bust through the 400 million level in 2013 for the first time in history.
Prices have also been supported by international cases of many supply disruptions during the past two years, but slowly but surely, this oil is coming back online, and expect more output internationally.
Libyan oil is now up to full speed, Iraq output had been greater than expected, and is the real wildcard because they are just now starting to hit their stride, and have the potential for much more on the upside if all those new projects start producing, not only for 2013, but for the next decade plus, it all depends upon political stability in the country.
But here is the thing you have to remember about international Oil, everybody needs money, regardless if your extremist, Islamic fundamentalist, Democratic it still all applies to the need for money, and whomever is in charge, is going to need to monetize their resources, and these countries have very little competitive options other than oil for generating revenue, one way or another this Oil finds its way to the market.
As it happens, many of the international countries robust in Oil resources need to generate Oil revenues because a large portion of their respective populations is subsidized through Oil exports, this trend will continue as it has for the last 30 years with no major supply disruptions.
In fact, I expect OPEC will need to start entertaining supply cutbacks in 2013 to address swelling inventory levels globally, but again here is the irony, they may talk up the market with production cuts, but the fact remains, the incentive is even greater for cheating on quotas the lower the price goes, because the governments still have budgets based upon the same level of revenue, and the only way to get the same revenue with lower prices is to pump more oil.
Moreover, since a lot more capacity is capable of coming online in 2013 globally, and all these governments from Iraq to Sudan need money, expect greater achievement towards capacity which is bearish for Brent Oil prices as well, i.e., expect Brent to test the $85 level sometime in 2013.
The last decade has been exemplified by higher energy prices, and with this came increased CAP EX investment, new technologies were refined, and North America has seen a rebirth in energy activity. It all started with natural gas, and now we are starting to experience this sea change in the Oil market.
Prices in 2012 started addressing this dynamic change, but the real effects of this trend will start taking shape in 2013 as storage constraints start kicking in, demanding a re-pricing of the commodity.
After all, no matter how much the Fed devalues the dollar, unlike Gold or Silver, you can only store so much Crude Oil, and with 700 million in the Strategic Reserves, another 400 million in US Reserves, how much do we really need to store in an increasingly energy independent North American Region?
Economics will dictate that you can only build so much storage to avert the price drop from continual over supply, and right now the world produces more Oil than it consumes each day, and it has for the past 16 months, this trend will only get worse in 2013. So expect prices to finally start to address this over supply issue in the Oil Markets in 2013.
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 05:30 PM PST from Gold Silver Worlds:
Silver demand is on the rise for a variety of reasons, in large part due to big increases in investment demand. And this has naturally created a structural imbalance that has spawned a major secular bull market. A bull in silver of course translates to higher prices. And silver's much higher prices have provided ample incentive for the major sources of supply (recycling and mining) to boost output. On the recycling front, silver's higher price (+1094% from its 2001 low to its 2011 high) has prompted more folks to recover silver scrap from devices that would normally end up in junk yards. And as a result, we've seen a 30% increase in scrap supply over the last 10 years (per the latest figures from research and consultancy powerhouse GFMS). Read More @ GoldSilverWorlds.com
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 05:12 PM PST from TF Metals Report:
First, I thought it'd be crazy. Then, by Tuesday, I thought it'd be dull. It turned out crazy. Just another week in the life of a Turd. What did we see:
Before we look at the setup for next week, let's look back at yesterday so that we all can get on the same page regarding the mechanics of the selloff. Without doubt, the action of Wednesday and Friday was directly related to First Notice Day and contract expiration of the Dec12 gold and Dec12 silver. An overly-simplified way to explain this is: Read More @ TF Metals Report.com
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| Gold and Silver Oppan Gangnam Style Bear Raid Posted: 01 Dec 2012 04:12 PM PST Another bit of a bear raid in the metals took gold back down to touch the 30% retracement on the handle intraday. Otherwise it was an uneventful day, as the true money believers placed another appendage in the dike of their illusions, and hoped for the best.
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 04:06 PM PST Dear CIGAs, If you believe that fiat paper will survive this you are so wrong. Gold is the only asset that will survive the constant manufacturing of paper money and the dynamic expansion of debt. Pension funds, if they had to mark their assets to market, would be as broke as the Student Loan Continue reading Use Logic, Not Your Emotions
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 03:30 PM PST How the gold price has gone nowhere – fast and aggressively – ahead of 2013… by Adrian Ash, Gold Seek:
That meant it also unwound half of this week's sharp 2.0% plunge from Wednesday. It also puts the gold price in US Dollars right back where it stood a month ago. Which is also where gold stood 12 months ago, at the start of December last year. And then it went and slumped $15 again, taking gold pretty much right back to its monthly average for November. Hey-ho. Many people are surprised both by this volatility, and by the lack of action it actually leaves behind when the shouting is done. Because the long-term crisis in money has only grown worse this year, flattening Greece and squashing savers and retirees beneath the wheels of zero interest rates. And the looming fiscal cliff in the United States – followed immediately by a fresh "debt ceiling" row in Feb. 2013, plus urgent debt repayments for Spain and Italy all through next year – must surely be good for gold investing. Which leaves analysts scratching their heads.
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| Gold and Silver Smart Money Exits Too Soon Posted: 01 Dec 2012 03:11 PM PST “Too little, too late” could well describe the current plight of the 'smart money' silver investor, since many seem to be arriving late to the party when the market has not even yet entered the final phase for investment demand in either silver or gold. Of course, some investment money has trickled in to the precious metals, but to the average investor, prices are still correcting and the market’s fundamentals remain very much misunderstood.
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| China Silver Demand — One Step Closer to the Edge Posted: 01 Dec 2012 03:08 PM PST The Hong Kong based Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society or CGSE announced recently that it will launch Yuan-based silver spot trading in Hong Kong in the first part of next year. The exchange says growing demand for silver has prompted the decision. This move shows that China is inching closer and closer to the silver market and is quietly nibbling away at Western demand for silver.
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 03:01 PM PST There are some very respected technical analysts who are calling for an exploding gold price and there are also a few respected technical analysts who disagree with that view. One analysis that recently arrived in my inbox shows that gold’s On-Balance-Volume chart is giving sell signals. From a technical perspective, if one takes emotion out of the equation, there are three charts that seem to me to be of importance (four if one includes that OBV chart which I am unable to reproduce for copyright reasons. It was produced by Kimble Charting):
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| The Chart That Keeps Ben Bernanke Up At Night Posted: 01 Dec 2012 02:50 PM PST What changed in the last 30 days? Did the world just wake up to the idea that the only way out of this quagmire is a twisted currency war that appears to have re-ignited thanks to Abe's efforts? Something appears to have snapped in the American psyche as the last 30 days have seen the largest physical gold sales on record. Between the search volume for 'bulk ammo' and this, we fear something is afoot and while Congress fiddles as our economy burns, Bernanke going 'back to work' is perhaps what the physical 'horders' are thinking... or maybe they understand, as we noted here, that just as Kyle Bass has confirmed previously, Paper Gold is just like allocated, unambiguously owned physical bullion... until it's not.
(Source: US Mint) (h/t Alex Gloy of Lighthouse Investment Management)
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| Collapse Is What Is Really Taking Place Around The World Posted: 01 Dec 2012 02:35 PM PST  After a wild week of trading, King World News is pleased to share with its global readers the kind of interview you will never see in the mainstream media. This piece lays out the harsh reality of what is really taking place around the world, not the sugar-coated version you see on TV and read in the papers. Fasten your seat belts, here is what Egon von Greyerz, founder of Matterhorn Asset Management in Switzerland, had this to say: "Eric, I'm looking around the world and what is happening in France is quite amazing. We all know Hollande is in charge and he is now threatening French steel producer ArcelorMittal. Business is weak and they are looking to lay off some employees."
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top SA gold miners could follow Gold Fields unbundling example Posted: 01 Dec 2012 02:30 PM PST It's going to be a race, says Cadiz mining analyst Peter Major. by Dorothy Kosich, MineWeb.com
One of my earliest memories from school is watching a television ad for a chocolate called TV Bar. I would watch as a boy, roughly my own age, huddled at a bus stop in the pouring rain. Then, he turned to his friend and described a river of milk, swirling in a whirlpool of chocolate, crispy rice and coconuts, before uttering the words, "Imagine eating all of that, now!" Listening to Cadiz Corporate Solutions mining analyst, Peter Major, speak on SAfm's Market Update with Moneyweb, on Thursday about the creation of Sibanye Gold, which will carry Gold Fields' mature South African assets, I couldn't help but be reminded of the ad. "Imagine," Major said, "being the manager of Beatrix or Driefontein (two of the old mines being unbundled) and being told: "All that money you make, is yours. You don't have to send it overseas. We're not going to strip everything and cut your capex back because we've got other projects, other kids that need feeding. You're going to get that money. Do you want to sink another sub-vertical shaft? Do you want to take over the property next to you? Go for it, whatever adds value, go for it."
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| Robert Wiedemer: Awaiting The Aftershock Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:23 PM PST Submitted by Adam Taggart of Peak Prosperity, Bob Wiedemer, author of the best-seller The Aftershock Investor: A Crash Course in Staying Afloat in a Sinking Economy, regards the 2007 puncturing of housing market prices and the 2008 financial market swoon as the precedents to two much larger and much more dangerous bubbles. These more pernicious threats are the dollar bubble ("printing money") and the government debt bubble ("borrowing money"). While both are expanding at a sickening pace, in the near term they deceptively make things seem much better than they are. But, like all bubbles, they are unsustainable. And when these collapse, they are going to take the entire financial system, and very possibly the currency, with them (a.k.a. the "aftershock") Bob predicts the rupture of both these bubbles will most likely happen in the next 2-4 years and accelerate astonishingly rapidly once it begins. Part of the reason for this is that the Fed, now boxed in by its committed course of action, will print like mad to slow the process down -- which ultimately will serve instead as fuel for the fire. This will be the point at which the Fed loses control of interest rates. Wiedemer is fairly confident that the Fed is well-aware of this dire probability, but finds itself increasingly stuck to avoid it. At this point, the major financial markets (stocks, bonds, housing) are so dependent on Fed liquidity that any efforts to withdraw the punchbowl will send prices lurching downwards, threatening the weak global economy. It's now a binary choice between damned-if-it-does and dammned-if-it-doesn't. As Chris summarizes, the Fed's main strategic consists completely of "hope". It's backup strategy? "Panic" Not surprisingly, Bob and Chris discuss the wisdom of focusing on preservation of purchasing power, and positioning one's financial assets safely before the aftershock arrives. For many, that will include working with a financial adviser who understands the nature of the risks in play and can help you allocate your assets accordingly (a reminder that we know a few, if you're looking).
Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Bob Wiedemer (40m:50s):
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| Gold Miners Downsizing Capital Expenses for Smart Growth 2013 Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:23 PM PST Smart companies are beginning to ignore analysts' insistence that production growth is always good, and to focus instead on growing their margins by lowering capital expenses. This is good news to U.S. Global Investors Inc.'s Brian Hicks, co-manager of the Global Resources Fund, and Ralph Aldis, senior mining analyst and portfolio manager of the Gold and Precious Metals Fund and World Precious Minerals Fund. Learn what kinds of companies attract the interest of these active managers in this Gold Report interview. The Gold Report: The Nov. 1 edition of Frank Talksuggested that gold equities generally perform poorly in a U.S. election year but rebound strongly the following year. Do you expect a better year for gold and gold equities in 2013?
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:18 PM PST How the gold price has gone nowhere – fast and aggressively – ahead of 2013... WHAT A FUSS over nothing! Gold crept back Friday morning to right where it stood before last Friday's sudden 1.4% jump, trading at $1730 the ounce.
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| Sprott: Shorts May Need To Deliver 40 Million Ounces Of Silver Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:15 PM PST from KingWorldNews:
Eric King: "We have the LBMA eliminating reporting on silver lease rates, we covered that extensively with James Turk. There is frustration out there. How much longer can they keep gold and silver effectively manipulated? Are we getting very close to where they are going to lose control of these markets?" Sprott: "That's the $64 million question. I wish I knew the answer. You can't know because the central banks balance sheets are totally non-transparent. I can just tell you, Eric, I heard it's possible the Chinese are going to start selling more gold coins to their citizens." Sprott continues @ KingWorldNews.com
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| Gold Stocks Bullshine Investing Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:15 PM PST In 2001 and 2002 miners were producing gold for sub-$180 cash costs - the operational cost of the mine divided by the ounces of production. By 2005 cash costs had risen 45 percent to US$250. Data from GFMS shows world gold production costs for the first half of 2009 averaged $457/oz. Average cash costs in 2011 were US$657. According to the Thomson Reuters GFMS’s Gold Survey 2012 global gold mine production was flat (output rose 0.1 percent to 1,366 metric tons) in the first half of 2012. The average grade of ore processed globally dropped 23 percent from 2005 through the end of last year and is forecast to decline another four percent in 2012.
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| We Have Reached a Major Turning Point in Central Bank Intervention Posted: 01 Dec 2012 01:08 PM PST
I believe we are at a major turning point for the financial system.
For nearly four years, the entire financial system has been held together (just barely) by extraordinary interventions on the part of the world’s Central Banks.
These interventions have resulted in capital fleeing the markets (hence the low trading volume), moral hazard becoming the norm and a marketplace in which hope of more intervention has a greater impact than the actual intervention itself.
The problem with this, from day one, was that eventually we would reach the point at which additional intervention no longer had any effect. This would come about due to:
Few people understand just how close we came to #2 early this past summer. Indeed, there was a brief period there, where we were literally on the verge of systemic collapse courtesy of the Spanish banking system imploding.
It all started with the collapse of Spain’s Bankia in May 2012. Bankia was formed by merging seven smaller bankrupt banks. In early May 2012 Bankia had to be nationalized. This was a potential Lehman moment that kicked off a massive bank run and resulted in the ECB putting the entire Spanish banking system on life support to the tune of over €300 billion Euros (the entire equity base for every bank in Spain is only a little over €100 billion).
At that time, the Spanish Ibex (stock market) broke out of its 20-year bull market and nearly took down all of Europe with it.
The one thing that held the system together was ECB President Mario Draghi promising that he may provide unlimited buying (which would give Spanish banks a chance to dump their assets in exchange for cash to fund liquidity needs… they were in that bad a shape). That pulled the system back from the edge and things rallied.
The ECB did indeed announce an unlimited bond buying program on September 6 2012. The Federal Reserve then announced an open-ended QE program a week later on September 13 2012.
And that’s when everything changed.
Instead of blasting off into the stratosphere, stocks fell soon after this announcement. That was the first sign that the game has changed: after every other announced program in the past four years, the markets fell briefly but then rallied hard and didn’t look back.
Not this time.
And so we experienced the first item I listed above (investors grew accustomed to Central Bank intervention that they no longer respond to additional measures).
We now are also experiencing #2 (Central Banks are facing a problem so massive that it is beyond the power to stop it). That problem is the fiscal cliff which Bernanke himself has admitted that the Fed cannot contain. “I don’t think the Fed has the tools to offset [the fiscal cliff].”
This is Ben Bernanke, arguably one of the most powerful if not the most powerful man in the Western financial system, admitting that the Fed doesn’t have the tools to address an issue. This has never happened before. For every single issue that has arisen going back to 2006, Bernanke claimed he had things under control.
Not this time.
So, we have investors now so accustomed to Central Bank intervention that even the promise of unending intervention doesn’t appease them… at the exact same time that an issue so great (the fiscal cliff) appears that even the Fed has admitted it cannot manage it.
No one is picking up on this because everyone is focusing on Black Friday and the Santa rally which I mentioned in last issue. But things have changed. And they have changed in a big way.
And no one has a clue how to deal with what’s coming.
Ever since the EU Crisis began in earnest in January 2010, EU leaders have maintained the following strategy:
The prime example is Greece. There have been no less than 30 “Greece is saved” press releases/ announcements, accompanied by market rallies only to discover that Greece is not saved and in fact is worsening by the week.
We’ve now had two formal Greece bailouts. We’re currently working on a third/ debt buyback program, the stated goal of which is to get Greece’s Debt to GDP ratio to 120% by 2020.
Again, the goal for the current proposal is to get Greece to the point at which it will still be totally broke in eight years. It’s amazing no one laughs out loud at EU meetings.
Actually they did… the below came from a recent Q&A session with Jean-Claude Juncker, current Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
Question: Is the goal still to get Greece's debt to 120%? Juncker: The fact is that the target of 120% will remain, but the target as far as the time frame is concerned has been postponed to 2022. [Laughter in the room] Juncker: That was not a joke! Source: ZeroHedge
The reality is that no politician wants to implement actual solutions (total default, wipe out of all bad debt, and massive economic structural changes) because all of them are 100% politically toxic.
Meanwhile Greek unemployment worsens while its GDP continues to collapse. Indeed, from peak to today, Greek GDP has fallen nearly 20%. This collapse is equal to that of Argentina in 2001, when it had a full-scale systemic implosion.
Again, this is the country that political leaders and financial luminaries claim has been “saved” dozens of times.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to navigate this mess, we have produced a FREE Special Report available to all investors titled What Europe’s Collapse Means For You and Your Savings.
This report features ten pages of material outlining our independent analysis real debt situation in Europe (numbers far worse than is publicly admitted), the true nature of the EU banking system, and the systemic risks Europe poses to investors around the world.
It also outlines a number of investments to profit from this; investments that anyone can use to take advantage of the European Debt Crisis.
Best of all, this report is 100% FREE. You can pick up a copy today at: http://gainspainscapital.com/eu-report/
Best Regards,
Graham Summers
PS. We also offer a FREE Special Report detailing the threat of inflation as well as two investments that will explode higher as it seeps throughout the financial system. You can pick up a copy of this report at:
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 12:30 PM PST [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] ...
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| Silver Taken Down, Fights Back to Seven-week High Posted: 01 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST by Michelle Smith, Silver Investing News:
The path for Friday's action was partially paved ahead of North America's opening as prices were up during overseas trade. Silver also benefited from supportive headlines, including a better-than-expected Chinese PMI and speculation that a Greek debt deal would be reached. Further, during US trading, there seemed to be much optimism that the fiscal cliff would be resolved. Silver clearly benefited from improved macroeconomic sentiment, though some of Friday's action was also attributed to short covering. Read More @ SilverInvestingNews.com
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| Posted: 01 Dec 2012 11:40 AM PST It's amazing how many people that used to feel compassion and wanted to help the poor are now angry. That job has been taken away from ordinary folks, and is now the responsibility of the government. And to pay for it, our taxes are going up, up, up. It doesn't help that the government runs billboards encouraging people to sign up for disability and other Federal benefit programs, or that lawyers are on T.V. night and day encouraging people to get on disability so they can get back pay for jobs they never had and live the good life till they die on the gold standard of entitlement programs (disability). Work is so overrated. Why get a job when you don't have to work? Nobody has to feed themselves anymore, or secure their own housing, or medical care, or phones. It's an idyllic paradise really. And, the latest thing for those that choose not to work is to wear fleece pajamas out in public, the ultimate statement of "fuck you, I don't have to work, I don't even have to get dressed in the morning". If you haven't seen people walking around town in their pajamas, you will. Many cities and townships are passing laws banning people from pajamas in public: "In Louisiana, the commissioner who proposed the recent anti-pajama ordinance told the Wall Street Journal, "The moral fiber in America is dwindling away. What is it going to be tomorrow? Walking around in your underwear?"
NO, MR. OBAMA, I DON'T HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO TAKE CARE OF THE LESS FORTUNATE President Hopenchange gave his usual message today and with it was heavy with the usual BS about helping the poor. At the risk of sounding like a hard-hearted, greedy, sexy bastid, I'm just about sick of the poor! I consider "the poor" to be those who receive welfare payments, food stamps, Section 8 government housing, and all manner of government programs. You know, the ones with new Nike Air Jordans and brand new iPhone 5′s! It appears to me the "poor" sure get a lot of things paid for by guys like me! You know, guys with jobs and iPhone 4s who work our guts out trying to not go on food stamps! When is President Obama going to be concerned about me? Oh, on the 12th? That's good! The 12th of Never! If you remember, white guys don't even exist in the socialist la-la land of Obama and his foaming at the mouth libtard friends! Obama said today: "But most of all, it's a time to give thanks for each other, and for the incredible bounty we enjoy. That's especially important this year. As a nation, we've just emerged from a campaign season that was passionate, noisy, and vital to our democracy. But it also required us to make choices – and sometimes those choices led us to focus on what sets us apart instead of what ties us together; on what candidate we support instead of what country we belong to …. We're also grateful that this country has always been home to Americans who see these blessings not simply as gifts to enjoy, but as opportunities to give back. Americans who believe we have a responsibility to look out for those less fortunate – to pull each other up and move forward together." No, Mr. Obama, my responsibility is to take care of my family and me! The government has MADE it my responsibility to take care of others by the force of a gun you hold to my head. If I don't pay the heavy tax burden you have placed around my neck, I go to jail. So please save the drama telling me it's my responsibility to take care of the poor! No, it's not my responsibility…or at least shouldn't be. It's the law! All that cat can do is redistribute wealth! Like I once heard Walter Williams put it perfectly, if I want to give a bum a dollar from my earnings, that is my right to do so. It's money I have earned. But I have no right to reach into the wallet of my friend and give that bum a dollar of his earnings. I have not earned that money. So how does the government have the right to do the exact thing? Because they have the guns and will put my ass in prison if I don't pay up each year. America under Obama and the Dims has become too focused on the poor. None of the remedies of additional welfare and programs will fix the poverty problem in America. Not that any leftist wants "the poor" to become "the wealthy." Think of all the lost Democrat voters! More has to be done to reward performers that add to America rather than dole out our money to those who add nothing but dependency! I am not responsible for anyone being in poverty and I shouldn't have to bear the financial burden of the poor decisions "the poor" have made to remain there. There is no shame being born into poverty. But there is no excuse for doing little to rise above it! Too many on welfare wouldn't go to work if they got a job as a Playboy photographer! So forgive my lack of compassion for the growing hordes of lazy, unskilled, ignorant welfare mooching hordes who want more from my thin wallet! Magician Penn Jillette said it along the same lines but far better than I can: It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness. People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we're compassionate we'll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint. Well, he IS a magician, after all. But he's exactly right! I'm tired of government looters telling us what OUR responsibility is! Especially libtards. Studies show liberals give less of their own money away than Ebeneezer Scrooge. Like Margaret Thatcher said, "socialists eventually run out of other people's money to spend." And they're quickly running out of mine! You can weigh in on that if you like. I'd like to hold on to more of what I earn. If I want to help someone, I will. But I won't ask them or the government for anything! http://angrywhitedude.com/2012/11/no-mr-obama-i-dont-have-a-responsibility-to-take-care-of-the-less-fortunate/
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| Former Cops To Police USSA Farms For DuPont Posted: 01 Dec 2012 11:30 AM PST from Silver Vigilante:
DuPont is nervous that, for some reason, demand for their Roundup Ready soybeans might not be what they like, so they are trying to protect their Roundup by Monsanto ready crops. Monsanto has carried the task of patrolling the crops of the US, but they are getting out, moving onto a new line of seeds, and so DuPont will now have to police the "illegal beans."
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Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It's settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank's fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there's one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency. 
We are approaching the end of the year where investors are facing a confluence of mixed signals such as tax loss selling, fiscal cliff discussions, the Greek bailout, future Fed actions and Middle Eastern geopolitical turmoil. Short term shakeouts like yesterday's early morning drop in precious metals should be expected. The precious metals markets appeared to have found support of a massive sell order at the open. We may see more turbulence as investors react to news driven reports emanating from the gridlock in Washington.
Jason Burack of 
Topics discussed: NDAA, market manipulation The Destruction of the middle class, fascism, Agenda 21, rule of law, The Constitution, the erosion of unalienable rights including property, inflation, financial contagion,debt, gold bullion, silver, hyperinflation, Obama Care, Global elite, small farming, GMO, Federal Reserve First Hour Guest: Dan Johnson – Founder, PANDA (People Against The National Defense Act) 
In 2001 and 2002 miners were producing gold for sub-$180 cash costs – the operational cost of the mine divided by the ounces of production. By 2005 cash costs had risen 45 percent to US$250. Data from GFMS shows world gold production costs for the first half of 2009 averaged $457/oz. Average cash costs in 2011 were US$657.
In order to satiate the world's growing hunger for silver, a lot of pressure has been placed on its supply chain. And with total annual supply recently exceeding 31k metric tons (1.0b ounces) for the first time ever, the suppliers of this white metal have so far made a valiant effort to meet demand.
WHAT A FUSS over nothing! Gold crept back Friday morning to right where it stood before last Friday's sudden 1.4% jump, trading at $1730 the ounce.
Today billionaire Eric Sprott spoke with King World News about key players on the Comex that may be standing for delivery of as much as a staggering 40,000,000 ounces of silver. This is the second in a series of interviews with Sprott that will be released today which reveals what is going on behind the scenes with the increasingly desperate Western central planners and their gold and silver price suppression scheme. 
Silver put on a bullish closing act last week. Silver futures hit a six-week high on Friday and the spot market gained $0.75 to close at $34.10. But this performance was later outdone when silver was knocked down, but managed to claw its way back to post a seven-week high.
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