Gold World News Flash |
- CEO GREG JOHNSON om GoldSeek Radio – Feb 4, 2013 – YouTube
- A U.S. Debt Downgrade Could Happen At Any Moment. By Gregory Mannarino – YouTube
- Trader Made A Very Big Bet Something Very Bad Will Happen in The Next 60 Days (Debt Downgrade?) – YouTube
- Yamada – 4 Spectacular Gold & Silver Charts
- Silver Prices – The Big Picture
- Gold 1650 or 1700 Break is Needed to Trigger Next Move
- The Dow-Gold Paradox
- The Stealth Hoodie: Another Reason to Like Silver
- US Dollar Continues Holding Chart Support
- What Changed in Swiss Gold Banking?
- The Tale of Three Silver Premium Spikes – YouTube
- Exit From Massive Silver Base Projects Staggering 1,020% Move
- Jim Rogers on Fed Easing? ‘This is going to end very very badly’
- Operation Freedom with Ken Ivory, Andy Hoffman and Lindsay Williams
- We Buy Gold!
- Bull Market in Stocks Isn?t About to End Anytime Soon! Here?s Why
- Sacre Bleu! France Collapses Right as Spain, Italy and Greece Become Embroiled in Corruption Scandals
- 'Europe's A Fragile Bubble', Citi's Buiter Warns Of Unrealistic Complacency
- Imagine what gold and silver subpoenas might dig up
- Doug Kass Gets ‘Summer of 1987 Feeling’
- The philosophy of economics with Stefan Molyneux – YouTube
- Why "This Time Won't Be Different" For Japan In Two Charts
- Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Part Three of Three
- The Gold Price Closed Towards the Top of Today's Range Up $5.30 at $1,677.70
- MEGA PRECIOUS METALS HAS IDENTIFIED POTENTIAL NEW MINERALIZATION AT ITS MONUMENT BAY GOLD CAMP AND RECOMMENCES DRILLING
- Indian Central Bank Aims To Transfer Massive Physical Gold Into Banking System
- Gold Miners vs. the SP - Surprising Conclusions
- Oil, Copper Sink as Eurozone Fears Dent Risk Appetite
- Gold Miners vs. the S&P – Surprising Conclusions
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts
- Why Unallocated Swiss Gold No Longer Pays
- Gold Miners vs. the S&P - Surprising Conclusions
- Ian Gordon: Economic Winter Could Thaw Gold Equities
- The Big Picture For Gold & The World Going Forward
- Bull Market in Stocks Isn't About to End Anytime Soon! Here's Why
| CEO GREG JOHNSON om GoldSeek Radio – Feb 4, 2013 – YouTube Posted: 07 Feb 2013 01:41 AM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A U.S. Debt Downgrade Could Happen At Any Moment. By Gregory Mannarino – YouTube Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:36 AM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:34 AM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yamada – 4 Spectacular Gold & Silver Charts Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:30 AM PST from KingWorldNews:
Gold spot price (GOLDS-1,667.45) has changed little from last month (see Figure 16) and remains in a 16-month consolidation, not unlike the 18-month consolidation that took place into 2009, and which could extend through Q1 of 2013, inclusive of another approach toward 1,600. Gold has traced out a declining channel since October 2012; the recent rally halted at the upper level. The potential to move toward the lower level would correspond to a return to 1,600 and a slip below the 40-week moving average (MA). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Silver Prices – The Big Picture Posted: 07 Feb 2013 12:05 AM PST (February 2013) Question: What do May 2004, January 2005, August 2005, June 2006, October 2008, February 2010, September 2011, December 2011, June 2012, and December 2012 have in common? Answer: They... {This is a content summary only. Click on the blog title to continue reading this post, share your comments, browse the website, and more!} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold 1650 or 1700 Break is Needed to Trigger Next Move Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:24 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com February 06, 2013 02:32 PM Weekly Bars Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT using Marketscope 2.0 Commodity Analysis: Gold’s rebound from the 61.8% retracement of the rally from 1522 and former resistance (June-August 2012 highs) is constructive but the near term picture is defined by roughly 1650 and 1700. A break of that zone will present the next directional opportunity. Commodity Trading Strategy: Flat LEVELS: 1626 1642 1652 1685 1697 1711... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:08 PM PST Andy Hoffman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Stealth Hoodie: Another Reason to Like Silver Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:04 PM PST Dollar Collapse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| US Dollar Continues Holding Chart Support Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:00 PM PST [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] The USDX continues to show very substantial buying down near the 79 level. For nearly 5 months now, every time the index has moved down towards that region, buyers have come in and bid it back up. It should be noted that this index has had difficulty maintaining its footing much above the 81 level for any length of time so effectively, it remains rangebound until proven otherwise. If it were to manage a solid weekly close above the 81.50 level, it would probably make a run towards 83.50. I want to continue to monitor this chart, especially in relation to the price of gold. So far the rising Dollar has not negatively impacted the price of gold as it has bounced off the $1660 level in spite of the US Dollar move higher off of its support level. We might need to see the Dollar break down however before gold can take out that very formidable resistance level above $1695 and extending to $1700. I... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What Changed in Swiss Gold Banking? Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:43 PM PST Bullion Vault | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Tale of Three Silver Premium Spikes – YouTube Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:24 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exit From Massive Silver Base Projects Staggering 1,020% Move Posted: 06 Feb 2013 10:02 PM PST  The following chart was put together exclusively for King World News by Kevin Wides out of Switzerland. Once again, this is a way for all King World News readers globally to take an important step back and look at the big picture in key markets such as gold and silver. Note that the minimum projected move for silver would cause convulsions for mainstream media pundits who have incorrectly been predicting the end of the metals bull run.This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jim Rogers on Fed Easing? ‘This is going to end very very badly’ Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:55 PM PST from OpenCurrency.com:
CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO INTERVIEW This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Operation Freedom with Ken Ivory, Andy Hoffman and Lindsay Williams Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:40 PM PST by Dr. Dave Janda, DaveJanda.com
CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO INTERVIEW This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:44 PM PST Florida Avenue is the main drag in our little town in central Florida. In less than a mile, you're likely to see three or four folks standing on the sidewalk wearing headphones, bopping to music, and waving big glittery signs or arrows with "We Buy Gold" written across them. It's a common sight across many cities today. During my annual trip to Arizona, my friend Phil asked me about gold. He owns some gold with no emotional value tied to it, and I convinced him of two things. First, he should not sell his gold; and second, he should hold it in a portable form with an easily recognizable value, like Gold Eagles. If things really get tough, he wouldn't want to have to barter jewelry with no easily agreed-upon value. There are many places where he could probably sell his jewelry, but how would he know if he was getting a fair price? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bull Market in Stocks Isn?t About to End Anytime Soon! Here?s Why Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:30 PM PST "Follow the [COLOR=#0000ff][U]munKNEE"[/U][/COLOR] via twitter & Facebook or Register to receive our daily Intelligence Report As*we all know, money printing always leads to inflation. It’s just*a matter of figuring out which assets get inflated. This time around gold is not*the only beneficiary, stocks are, too, and I’m convinced that*the chart below*holds the key to the end of the bull market. Words: 475; Charts: 1 So writes Lou Basenese ([url]www.wallstreetdaily.com[/url]) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled This Chart Holds the*Key to the End of the Bull Market. [INDENT]This article is presented compliments of [B]www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com (A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and [COLOR=#ff0000]www.munKNEE.com [/COLOR](Your Key to Making Money!) and may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. Please not... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:14 PM PST
The following is a excerpt from a recent client letter.
The house of cards that is Europe is close to collapsing as those widely held responsible for solving the Crisis (Prime Ministers, Treasurers and ECB head Mario Draghi) have all been recently implicated in corruption scandals.
Those EU leaders who have yet to be implicated in scandals are not faring much better than their more corrupt counterparts. In France, socialist Prime Minister Francois Hollande, has proven yet again that socialism doesn’t work by chasing after the wealthy and trying to grow France’s public sector… when the public sector already accounts for 56% of French employment.
France was already suffering from a lack of competitiveness. Now that wealthy businesspeople are fleeing the country (meaning investment will dry up), the economy has begun to positively implode.
The first sign of this came actually came from Germany. As we noted a few months ago, Germany had prepared a working group to examine the impact of an economic collapse in France.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has asked a panel of advisers to look into reform proposals for France, concerned that weakness in the euro zone's second largest economy could come back to haunt Germany and the broader currency bloc.
Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters this week that Schaeuble asked the council of economic advisers to the German government, known as the "wise men", to consider drafting a report on what France should do…
"The biggest problem at the moment in the euro zone is no longer Greece, Spain or Italy, instead it is France, because it has not undertaken anything in order to truly re-establish its competitiveness, and is even heading in the opposite direction," Feld said on Wednesday.
"France needs labour market reforms, it is the country among euro zone countries that works the least each year, so how do you expect any results from that? Things won't work unless more efforts are made."
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/uk-germany-france-economy-idUKBRE8A80MN20121109
This German concern has proven to be well founded, as the recent spate of French economic data has been truly horrific.
Auto sales for 2012 fell 13% from those of 2011. Sales of existing homes outside of Paris fell 20% year over year for the third quarter of 2012. New home sales fell 25%. Even the high-end real estate markets are collapsing with sales for apartments in Paris that cost over €2 million collapsing an incredible 42% in 2012.
Since the EU Crisis began in 2008, France and Germany have been the two key countries backstopping the implosion. The fact that France is now facing an economic implosion does not bode well for the future of the Euro or the EU.
The other sovereign backdrop for the EU, Germany, is also experiencing an economic slowdown.
The German economy was hit hard by the euro zone crisis in the final quarter of last year, shrinking more than at any point in nearly three years as traditionally strong exports and investment slowed, the Statistics Office said on Tuesday…
Gross domestic product shrank by 0.5 percent in the final three months of 2012, the worst quarterly performance since Germany fell into a recession during the global financial crisis in 2008/2009 and only the second contraction since it ended.
The parlous fourth quarter pushed overall growth for the year down to 0.7 percent, a sharp slowdown from the 3.0 percent registered in 2011 and a post-reunification record of 4.2 percent in 2010. The 2012 figure was a tad below a Reuters consensus forecast for growth of 0.8 percent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/15/us-germany-gdp-idUSBRE90E09Q20130115
Thus, we find that Europe’s primary political market props (EU leaders including ECB head Mario Draghi) are coming unraveled at the precise time that EU banks are showing warning signs and the most important EU economies are heading sharply south.
2013 is going to be a very interesting year for Europe.
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 Phoenix Capital Research
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| 'Europe's A Fragile Bubble', Citi's Buiter Warns Of Unrealistic Complacency Posted: 06 Feb 2013 06:05 PM PST Citi's Willem Buiter sums it all up: "...the improvement in sentiment appears to have long overshot its fundamental basis and was driven in part by unrealistic policy and growth expectations, an abundance of liquidity and an increasingly frantic search for yield. The key word in the recovery globally, and in particular in Europe, growth is fragile. To us the key word about the post summer 2012 Euro Area asset boom is that most of it is a bubble, and one which will burst at a time of its own choosing, even though we concede that ample liquidity can often keep bubbles afloat for a long time." His conclusion is self-evident, "markets materially underestimate these risks," and the post-Draghi european performance has "gone well beyond the point of possible self-validation and therefore looks fragile."
Excerpted from 'New and Old Risks in the Euro Area', Citi's Willem Buiter Then Buiter rips apart the Central Banker's meme of 'markets' as policy tools...
Eliminating or mitigating some risks of disaster does not create an engine for sustained growth...
The path to economic recovery, let alone sustained growth at an attractive growth rate of potential output remains an arduous and long one. Euro area policy actions or announcements have also been misinterpreted or at best over-interpreted.
In addition, a number of risks have in fact increased recently. 1) Political risks in Italy and Spain
2) Excessive contagious optimism among policymakers
3) Bail-ins of bank creditors (junior and senior) are undoubtedly coming closer.
The economic and financial risks facing the EA are not only driven by governments and politics. 4) The recent appreciation of the euro and the effective monetary tightening implied by the increase in money market rates (driven by the large repayments of the first 3Y-LTRO on Jan 30) are most unwelcome from the point of view of EA domestic demand. Summing up, in our view, the EA sovereign debt and banking crisis is far from over. If anything, recent developments, notably policy complacency bred by market complacency, combined with higher political risks in a number of EA countries highlight the risks of sovereign debt restructuring and bank debt restructuring in the EA down the line. Source: Citi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imagine what gold and silver subpoenas might dig up Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:53 PM PST Record of Trader Talk to Haunt RBS By Kara Scannell and Brooke Masters http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/84132b88-7083-11e2-a2cf-00144feab49a.html A senior yen trader at Royal Bank of Scotland made a revealing observation in mid-2007 about the bank panel that sets the borrowing rate in Japanese yen. "The jpy libor is a cartel now. It's just amazing how libor fixing can make you that much money," the senior trader wrote in an instant message to traders at two other banks, according to a filing by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. On Wednesday RBS admitted to manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate in yen and Swiss francs between 2006 to 2010 and agreed to pay L390 million to the CFTC, US Department of Justice, and the UK's Financial Services Authority. Its Japan subsidiary pleaded guilty to wire fraud. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Opinion Around the World Is Changing When Deutschebank calls gold "good money" and paper "bad money". ... http://www.gata.org/node/11765 When the president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, pays tribute to gold as "a timeless classic". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/09/24/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a leading member of the policy committee of the People's Bank of China calls the gold standard "an excellent monetary system". ... http://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphbenko/2012/10/01/signs-of-the-gold-stan... When a CNN reporter writes in The China Post that the "gold commission" plank in the 2012 Republican platform will "reverberate around the world". ... http://www.thegoldstandardnow.org/key-blogs/1563-china-post-the-gop-gold... When the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy of the U.S. House of Representatives twice called on economist, historian, and gold standard advocate Lewis E. Lehrman to testify. ... World opinion is changing in favor of gold. How can you learn why and what it will mean to you? Read the newly updated and expanded edition of Lehrman's book, "The True Gold Standard." Financial journalist James Grant says of "The True Gold Standard": "If you have ever wondered how the world can get from here to there -- from the chaos of depreciating paper to a convertible currency worthy of our children and our grandchildren -- wonder no more. The answer, brilliantly expounded, is between these covers. America has long needed a modern Alexander Hamilton. In Lewis E. Lehrman she has finally found him." To buy a copy of "The True Gold Standard," please visit: http://www.thegoldstandardnow.com/publications/the-true-gold-standard According to the FSA, 21 RBS employees, including one manager, were involved in the "misconduct," which included at least 96 written requests from traders to submitters, 131 "indirect" requests to move the rates made through other traders, and 30 instances where traders acting as substitute submitters took requests from their colleagues. The vast majority of rate requests involved rates for Japanese yen or Swiss francs, although regulators also documented five, apparently unsuccessful, efforts to influence the US dollar rates. RBS settled allegations it manipulated other rates, but the identity was redacted from the public filings, citing an ongoing investigation. The attempts at manipulation within RBS were so casual that one trader joked that he moved his fixes day to day as much as a prostitute draws up and down her underwear, while a broker at another firm offered a RBS rate submitter a steak dinner in exchange for a favourable fix, according to the CFTC order. Just as a senior yen trader's words would come back to haunt RBS, so would two strategic decisions the bank made in 2006: RBS combined its London-based money markets desk, which included the Libor submitters and their derivatives traders, and hired two superstar yen derivatives traders to buoy its presence. "Increased communication . . . was one of the primary objectives" for rolling the London desks together, according to the FSA's final notice. Known as short-term markets or STM, the submitters and traders sat elbow to elbow and were encouraged to share information. Authorities allege market colour turned to attempts at manipulation and soon traders began to fill in as substitute submitters, when the main people were on vacation or otherwise unavailable. Moving the rate benefited the trader's position and ultimate compensation, authorities alleged. Before the STM desk was physically separated in late 2008, there were relatively few written exchanges, but they included one conversation in which a trader asked for a low submission on Swiss francs. "What's it worth?" the submitter asked. "I've got some sushi rolls from yesterday," the trader responded. After the separation, the electronic conversations became more frequent. However, the nature did not change. "Libors as requested," a submitter wrote in 2009. "You a top dog." The messages and emails laid an evidence trail that authorities would eventually follow. It was also in 2006 when RBS's recruitment of two yen traders -- who were given control of round-the-clock yen trading from Asia to London to Connecticut -- appeared to be paying off. Revenues went from a small loss in 2006 to $200 million in 2010. By January 2007, one RBS yen trader became suspicious that a trader at UBS was working with interdealer brokers who acted as middle men to manipulate the rates, according to messages cited by the CFTC. It wasn't long before RBS traders allegedly colluded with the UBS yen trader identified as Tom Hayes. In December US prosecutors charged Mr Hayes with criminal fraud. His lawyer declined to comment. Traders' requests were frequent and often changed direction. In September 2009 a RBS submitter moved the submission high one day for a yen trader and then lower the next day. "... Make your mind up haha," the submitter said. "I'm like a whore's drawers," the yen trader replied. The regulatory documents also outline the passive response of RBS's compliance and internal audit functions. The bank failed to detect at least 30 wash trades -- matching buy and sell trades placed with the same counterparty for the same amount on the same day -- intended to steer L211,000 in brokerage commissions to employees at two different interdealer brokers, the FSA said. RBS had no rules governing the input of derivatives traders in Libor submissions until June 2011, 14 months after they had launched an internal investigation into the area at FSA prompting. A senior manager assured the watchdog in March 2011 that the bank "has in place adequate systems and controls for the determination and submissions of its Libor rates," the FSA said. The bank did not write rules preventing money markets traders from considering their trading books when making Libor submissions until March 2012. Although the British Bankers Association asked panel banks to examine their Libor submission processes after questions were raised in the media about the rates in 2008, RBS failed to return the required paperwork and did not do an audit until February 2011. The manager who directly supervised the derivatives traders told the FSA he was not aware that his traders were serving as substitute submitters. According to the CFTC, traders began to try to avoid scrutiny. The senior yen trader in November 2010 sent a written request to RBS's primary submitter, who promptly refused it. Within moments the submitter telephoned the yen trader, who said, "We're not allowed to have conversations" on instant messages. He agreed to move the rate, according a transcript of a recorded phone line cited in the CFTC order. RBS ended up paying a higher fine for Libor manipulation than Barclays because of the wash trades, the longer period of misconduct, and because it failed to clamp down on rate-rigging even after the FSA began investigating. Join GATA here: California 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 Get the real story about the precious metals Now you don't have to travel to attend a financial conference to hear Sprott Asset Management's precious metals experts -- Eric Sprott, Rick Rule, and John Embry. They'll be holding a round-table discussion via the Internet at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, February 12, and you can be part of it. Among their topics: -- Why are precious metals such a compelling investment opportunity? -- Why are non-G7 central banks buying gold? Do Western central banks have any left? -- Why are investors buying as much silver as gold in dollar terms? What does this mean for the price of silver? -- Is the growing supply deficit of platinum and palladium going to push their prices higher? 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| Doug Kass Gets ‘Summer of 1987 Feeling’ Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:20 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The philosophy of economics with Stefan Molyneux – YouTube Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:17 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why "This Time Won't Be Different" For Japan In Two Charts Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:50 PM PST While Japan's recent attempt to massively reflate and break out of its "liquidity trap" - an artificial construct to explain what happens when an artificial model, created by a flawed and artificial economic theory explodes in a singularity of Econ PhD idiocy leaving billions of impoverished people in its wake, is nothing new, there are those who are rather skeptical this latest attempt to achieve what Japan has not been able to do in over 30 years will work. And while one can come up with complicated, expansive, verbose theories based on Keynesian DSGE models and other such gibberish, why this time will be different for Japan, there is a very quick and simple argument why it won't. The simple counter-argument to this time being different is summarized in the two charts below, which show the relative asset and liability composition of the various key players in the Japanese and US market, split between the Household, Investment Trust, Pension Fund, and Insurance sectors, amounting to some $54 trillion in the US and 1.5 quadrillion yen. The key differences are highlighted in red.
What the charts above clearly show is how vastly lower the allocation to equities is in Japan relative to the US: this means that the 'wealth effect' generated in Japan as a result of the recent 20%+ surge in the Nikkei has only one fifth the impact it has had in the US. More importantly the equity asset boost resulting from perceived, if not actual, future inflation, will be woefully insufficient to offset the concurrent surge in the marginal cost of living, i.e. real inflation. As we wrote previously, not even three full months into Abe's latest and greatest reflation experiment the prices of gas and various other non-staple products has soared. This will only get worse as energy import costs explode in the coming weeks and months, putting the Japanese consumer - now with just one (and almost zero today) nuclear power plant and thus entirely reliant on outside sources of energy - into a spending vice, where the rise in costs far outweighs the "wealth effect" from the stock market. The primary reason for this is that unlike the US, Japan has traditionally, culturally and historically been a nation of savers: whether this meant allocating capital into the bond market (a phenomenon which had spared the Japanese bond market from complete annihilation so far even as its debt/GDP has exploded to over 230%), or keeping it planted firmly in the bank (where it gladly collected zero percent interest). This epic difference is best seen in the top chart, which shows that some 55.6% of all Japanese assets are in currency and deposits, compared to just 14.3% in the US. And this is where it all begins and ends. Prudent readers can guess where we are going from here: assuming that a few months of currency collapse manage to undo decades and generations of ingrained habits and behavioral patterns, which they most certainly can't, assuming Abe is successful in generating his own great rotation into stocks, the question is where will the money comes from. The answer: from the appropriate liability which matches the various "savings" tranches in the household balance sheet, namely Japanese government bonds. That's right: what Abe wants to do in Japan is nothing short of what Bernanke wants to do in the US - force everyone out of money markets (so far he has succeeded here - as the "great" inflow into equities, if only for the past four weeks, has not come from bonds but from money markets, which should also explain the steadfast desire of everyone from Volcker, to Geithner to the SEC to crush the $3 trillion money market industry) and out of bonds into stocks. The problem is that in Japan a great outflow of bonds means game over. Because while in the US Bernanke just may monetize every single bond issued by the Fed without causing hyperinflation, or at least not while the shadow banking sector continues to deleverage at a pace of some $150 billion per quarter as we have shown continues to happen, Japan has no such luxury. In fact, the biggest holder by far of JGBs are various domestic pension and retirement funds, which have already indicated they may soon rotate out of bonds. The problem is what happens once said rotation begins? Well, the clock begins ticking. Because with a debt load of some 230% of GDP, and with debt that is 2000% of government revenue, about five times more than the second highest (Greece), a simple doubling of average interest rates means half of all government revenues goes to pay interest. Double rates again, and it's game over for the funding side of the Japanese P&L statement, as all inbound cash will have to pay down interest, pushing Japan into the long-delayed hyperinflationary spiral. And, by the way, none of the above is new! In fact, everything said previously has been well-known to every Japanese PM, and central banker for the past 30 years. It is also the reason why nobody has attempted the kind of ultimately suicidal move that Abe is now trying. The good news is that it will ultimately be the bond market which puts an end to this latest bout of insanity before it is too late. Unless of course, we get bad news, which in Japan will means 2% inflation... then 12%... then 22%.... then 222% and so on. By that point every central bank will be openly monetizing not only its own but everyone else's debt too, as the full 1930s rerun, which most certainly included full-blown currency war just before full-blown trade war erupted, unfolds. And as everyone knows from history, both of the above metaphoric wars in the 1930s culminated with a different war. A real one. Source: Bank of Japan December 2012, Flow of Funds | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Part Three of Three Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:40 PM PST Perhaps a Crumble Rather Than a Collapse – Part Three of Three By Cognitive Dissonance
Chapter One may be found here. Chapter Two may be found here
The high priests of the religious cult When we point to the economic math as proof that the system is doomed, and then claim foul when 'they' manipulate the math (for example with understated inflation and unemployment rates or overstated GDP, corporate profits, total employment, growth etc.) all the hidden hands are really engaging in is massive (global) perception management among the mostly mindless minions. They are giving the unquestioning, but willing, a reason to continue to believe and a place to endow their faith. But even more important the high priests must preach to the choir for this is where the (new and improved) dogma and doctrine is directly passed on, reinforced and deeply embedded. Perception management must occur among the million or more (U.S. and global) financial professionals who act as local and regional 'economechanical' priests and centers of influence (read faith and belief leaders) of the artificial economic reality being created and manipulated in 'real' time by the elite. ['Economechanical' is a term I have coined to describe how the economists see the economy as a mechanical engine fueled by interest rates, incentives and stimulus rather than as an emotional organism driven primarily by faith and belief and (emotionally) manipulated by various whistles and bells. See Chapter Two for more details.] As long as the music still plays on (and by constantly and incrementally changing the tune the music can play for much longer than we think) even if the professional financial priest harbors great doubt about the viability of the system or the ethics of what he (or she) does, he must continue to dance or be left off the dance floor and out of this very financially rewarding (religious) profession. As long as the professional priests continue to dance and lend their perceived credibility and influence to those who might be best characterized as laymen, thus buttressing the layman's faith and belief, the system can and will limp along for quite a long time. Not only must the lower level financial professionals buy in and be in sync with the dogma of the promoted financial reality, so too must the upper level of the economechanical hierarchy. Faith and belief in nonsensical 'truths' is difficult to maintain in isolation, especially when it contradicts our inner knowing and common sense. The upper echelons (other than the true psychopaths) are not immune to cognitive dissonance and will waver if not steadied and externally supported. Those who are not reinforced from time to time tend to stray a bit and begin to lose faith, particularly when there are locals with pitchforks and torches outside the main gate. Thus we see the real reason behind high level financial and political conferences such as the recent gathering of the top tier faithful at Davos, Switzerland. Each level of the hierarchy must regularly gather in order to resynchronize with the ever changing alternative reality frequency, which in turn helps to harden the newly created psychological cement that binds together the money meme. This is vital if the farce is to be over powering and able to withstand dissent and disbelief. This is also the real reason behind the Federal Reserve Board meetings every six to seven weeks. The high priests must gather to conduct cult policy review and hand out holy dispensations and divine guidance to the lower levels of the cult hierarchy while simultaneously engaging in ritual practices to strengthen the money meme, first within the gathered select attendees and then filtered down to the brain washed cult followers and sycophants. Fed speak is at least equivalent to, if not exceeding, Pope speak and anyone who cannot see this is either in denial or just in too deep. Lots and lots of wiggle room If we wish to believe that two plus two equals five or that the answer to life, universe and everything is forty two, then math is no longer a constraining factor upon the present economic system. But the socioeconomic system relies on mathematics to support our faith and belief in the system primarily because we have near complete faith and belief in mathematics and the sciences. In chapter two I questioned the wide degree of wiggle room we afford the sciences, the constant backtracking, correcting and amending that occurs in the so called 'precise' sciences, including physics and economics. But one can see that this wiggle room, these allowed wide tolerances in what is consistently promoted as exact and precise, is actually regularly exploited by the cult leaders to maintain authority while handing down new and ever more fantastical decries and mandates. We observe the same thing in organized religion and various other 'consumer' cults. The word of (God, Fashion, Entertainment, Consumer products, fill in the blank) is THIS and must be followed to the letter…….except when it is this, this, that or those over there. Wait, is it Fed Tuesday? Then forget all that, because this right here is now the word of "Ben the Bearded Beneficent".
Special thanks to WilliamBanzai7 for this image.
In effect when the 'authorities' lie and manipulate they are distorting our perceived reality and relying on the fact that our desire to maintain our status quo within the system through our support of the system (the compromised 'we' I discussed in Chapter One) will be greater than our desire to know the 'truth' of the situation, which all of us know will undermine our faith and belief and the system with it. So help me God we really don't want to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Jean-Claude Juncker said as much when he stated that when things get serious you have to lie. The authority must lie because most people do not want to hear the truth precisely because that particular truth will undermine the BIG LIE. The official lie in question is actually just one lie within hundreds of deeper lies, all supporting each other like a house of cards. If the authority were to admit the truth, especially when faith and belief is at its weakest, then those who are psychologically dependent upon the entire house of lies would be forced to question everything if this truth were exposed. A crisis of faith is what would result, and the high priests (in this case Juncker) don't want that to happen when blind unquestioning faith among the dependent believers is all that is holding the economic wreck together. Based upon my casual discussions with average people everywhere I eat, shop and play, while the details may not be known, most people really do know that things are worse than we are being told. But to truly 'know' it, meaning to have it confirmed by an external authority, makes it real and undeniable and something we must now face. There will be no more wiggle room left for us to exploit; the warm dark place denial grows and prospers in. If we live by the affirmation of the external authority, then we die by the affirmation of the external authority. As long as they continue to tell us things are OK we're gonna believe them…..even if we really don't. Once we 'know' something it is now ours to own and deal with. Since we cannot un-know something, only deny it, we would much rather not know it in the first place. This leads directly to believing anything but the truth which helps explain some of the incredible lies the authorities seem to get away with. Simply put a lie is a deliberate distortion applied to a perceived reality and the lie is always used to maintain or buttress faith and belief in whatever we want to believe in, be it our spouse, children, employer, friends, neighbors, teachers, corporations, government etc. Or in this case the very socioeconomic system that offers us a direct and continuing promise to enable our health, wealth and wellbeing. As we all slide down the slippery slope to economic hell the dying cry will be "But they promised……………" The official lie is most effective when we want to believe the lie more than we wish to know the truth simply because the compromised person is supplying the unquestioning belief with no demand of the liar for 'proof' or confirmation. "Daddy, tell me another lie so that I may believe it is the truth." For example, when there is suspicion but an unwillingness to believe the suspicion (aka denial), how many people really want their spouse to tell them the truth about their infidelity? I'll bet ten bucks nearly every reader's ego just reflexively said "I would want the truth". Under those circumstances (suspicion and denial) not only will many want their spouse to lie, but they will want their spouse to lie well enough that they have less trouble believing the lie to be the truth. In order to do this we will deny our denial by telling ourselves and our spouse that we really do want the truth, while 'secretly' hoping to be lied too IF there really is infidelity involved. When deeply conflicted and compromised we ask questions in such a way as to telegraph our desired answer, for example "Tell me you're not cheating on me honey." Who has not felt great relief to hear what we wanted to hear ("No honey, I am NOT cheating on you.") even when nagging doubt and suspicion lingered? How many times have we avoided asking our children the really tough questions when we harbored strong suspicions we weren't getting the whole truth? Or that we ignored some glaring inconsistencies or a flat out lie in order not to know the truth we suspected might be lurking. Or sometimes we just want to avoid the hassle and confrontation, a convenient excuse, so we go along with it and not challenge the lie. If we do this often and long enough, soon we begin to believe the lie because it has never been directly refuted. In effect the lie is being indirectly supported by not being challenged by the person being lied to, making us in many ways complicit. The ultimate effect is that the lie begins to take on a 'truth' life of its own. When this happens, truth becomes whatever we want it to be because it is constructed almost entirely of lies with just enough truth mixed in to give it some street cred in our minds. No ugly shapes or sharp edges to deal with this way. But deep down inside we know we are living a lie and it eats at us from within, creating a deep neurosis and a thoroughly compromised being. Once we ignore the lie psychologically we become enablers of the lie. Every time we ignore the lie we are deepening our involvement and our own culpability. Soon enough we find ourselves defending the lie in order to defend ourselves. To out the lie and the liar at a later date means outing our prior complicity, even if only to ourselves. This is why we find so many people believing the official lie(s) and actively supporting that which is contrary to their best interest or basic beliefs. The greater the distance between the person and the effects of the (official) lie (i.e. death by Drone of brown people in Pakistan) the easier it is to maintain the lie. Vice versa, when close proximity to the effects of the lie threatens exposure to or even direct (emotional, psychological or physical) harm to us (i.e. death by Drone of American citizens in America) we tend to ramp up our righteous indignation to psychologically cover our complicity. Maybe it's just best to just leave sleeping dogs lie (sic). We do exactly the same thing with all aspects of the government, military, judicial system, corporations and of course the financial system. Please don't tell me because I just don't want to know. And to make sure I don't know what I don't want to know……I won't ask.
Willing participation doesn't necessarily mean in agreement with Earlier I stated that willing participation can be defined as just about any participation, regardless of whether it's agnostic, mindless, suspect, hostile, even forced or compelled. One's faith and belief in the socioeconomic system doesn't need to be total and unwavering (though that would be ideal) nor even in agreement, just that there be no other viable competing meme to divert or distract the participants' focus and energy. This helps explain the tremendous amount of energy expended by the fiat magicians to demean, deny and manipulate the meme competing precious metals. When you cut through all the smoke screens, deliberate distractions and ritual practices this is a truism for any cult, not just the money meme. In order to maintain its supremacy, a cult and its leaders cannot tolerate significant internal dissent or disbelief (or external for that matter, though it isn't quite as critical) because its primary energy source is belief. Even if we don't agree with the process, even if we feel compelled to do as we are told, as long as we exchange our labor, goods and services for script, then exchange that script for other labor, goods or services, we are willingly participating. It doesn't matter if we are locked into the money meme by law, which in turn is enforced with an implied state threat of violence if we do not obey. Each time we accept currency in exchange for our labor, we want to believe that it will maintain the 'value' we just embedded in it with our labor so that we can exchange the script for whatever it is that we wish to purchase at 'fair value'. The fact that it does maintain the vast majority of its value for the relatively short period of time it takes us to engage in most of our transactions just serves to reinforce our belief in the currency. The proof of our (mostly unquestioning) belief is that we give this concept little to no thought while we are engaged in our various purchases. We open our wallet or purse and pull out some currency or a credit/debit card and we pay. While we may complain about the price, on a day to day basis most of us don't see the rising price(s) for what it really represents, the diminished value of our currency, but rather just the need for more 'money' for that week's groceries because prices always go up. Even those of us who understand what's really going on don't automatically think currency devaluation when we stop at the gas pumps. We just think in terms of the need for more money because gas is up again. This just serves to prove how much faith and belief we really do have in a currency we say we don't believe in. To those who would argue that they really do not believe in the system, that they are simply going with the flow and accepting their paycheck or any other compensation they receive in whatever coin of the realm is demanded of them, my response is simple. The system feeds upon your 'willing' participation in whatever form you present it as. You believe that for now, with 'now' measured in years, months, weeks, days or just hours, that whatever fiat chit you are handed can and will be used to pay your bills, purchase your precious metals and do whatever else you desire. Belief does not have to be total and unquestioning in order to be effective and energizing. The system feeds off of this mental and emotional flow, and not necessarily in any static stock of belief. As Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden likes to say, it's not the stock but the flow. Our voluntary tax The same concept of 'willingness' applies to the US Federal income tax system. It is promoted as 'voluntary' by those who control and benefit from it because we voluntarily file our own tax return with 'volunteered' information. Our tax declaration (aka our tax return) is not prepared for us by a central authority (because that would be involuntary) but by us and us alone, thus the reasoning behind this twisted logic. Most importantly, we declare our voluntary participation in the money meme to be true or 'real' when we sign the tax form ("….and to the best of my knowledge and belief, they are true, correct, and complete.") thus closing the mind control loop with our affirmation of the true or 'real' nature of the artificial reality. We then document or seal this consent with our symbol of willing participation, our signature. This is an extremely powerful form of mind control magic in every sense of the word. This concept can be applied to all (financial) contracts we negotiate and enter into. In the eyes of the 'law' (another powerful mind control meme I won't even begin to discuss here) and with the benefit of centuries of social conditioning, as well as the proclaimed foundational basis for the capitalistic economic system we supposedly live within, we are all free to engage in commerce and to sell our labor to the highest bidder. The presumption is always that you are a willing and engaged participant and that any transaction you undertake is done without coercion or duress despite the obvious nature of your coercion and duress. In fact, even when we know that we 'have no choice' (aka under duress) we still (must) apply our symbol of acceptance and agreement, our signature, to the document saying that we do so willingly, freely and of sound mind and body. Without understanding (or believing) the subtleties of exactly how subliminal mind control works, it is extremely difficult to understand how powerful this force is. Our total subjugation is never more apparent as when we see polling that indicates that a tremendous percentage of the population believes that regardless of whether there might have been fraud involved in the mortgage process, since they signed the loan documents to purchase their home they are personally bound to honor the loan. This in spite of the clear and obvious fact that the other party to the fraudulent transaction did not feel honor bound either to (any of) their agreements or to the (spirit of the) law underpinning their agreements, thus invalidating the loan contract based upon common sense and moral grounds if nothing else. Sadly the average person still wishes to believe that the courts and the legal system are there to protect them (the prey) from the predators, when in fact it is explicitly designed to protect the predators from the prey. Only the thoroughly captured psyche of the mind controlled and conditioned (wage) slave exhibits such a distorted and misplaced sense of honor and subservience to their abusive owner/master. The controller/master will always stack the socioeconomic deck in his or her favor as long as willing wage slaves keep lining up to play. Sadly the system stacking goes so much deeper than just the deck.
Frogs in the pot I am not being judgmental here, just calling it as I see it. It is obvious that I'm cooking in the same mind subliminal control pot as everyone else and I struggle to find ways to protect myself and my family, often from me and my own life long conditioning. If I am to have any hope of success then I must understand both my mind and that of the predator, thus the reason for my constant self examination and for posting my occasional musings here on Zero Hedge. Unfortunately nearly everyone rejects the notion that they are under the influence of any type or form of mind control (well………they might be influenced, but certainly not me) despite enormous and glaring examples everywhere we turn. Advertising is a huge example of continuous overt and covert manipulative mind control and conditioning techniques employed to the nth degree. Because a more aware and deeper understanding of our everyday exposure to advertising totally contradicts our own deeply held (manufactured and conditioned) image of a self directed life, our ego goes to great lengths to shield us from this emotionally disturbing information. When shielded by our ego, when protected from ourselves by our 'self', we tend to mostly ignore any information contrary to our deep seated belief systems or we prefer to believe that we are forced into participating, that we have no choice in the matter. Victimhood is always and forever a perfectly blameless occupation. Or better yet, at least from the mind control perspective, we (want to) believe we have freedom of choice and that we willingly choose mind control and slavery. Though our ego would rather have us think of it in terms of modern day prosperity and opportunity via a college education and a career ladder. Every right thinking individual wants a well appointed hamster cage with exercise wheel and flat screen TV. This is where the leverage of the mind control comes from and where it is applied; by skillfully using our self induced blindness of what is quite obvious to any disinterested and unaffected observer against us. The art of mind control is not just to compel you to do something you would not ordinarily do if of sound mind and body, but to instill in you the belief that the idea originated within, and that it is what you truly desire. This sub conscious high jacking simply cannot be accomplished for long if we always keep a central self awareness in the front of our mind. I was the problem, I am the problem and I will always be the problem for as long as I do not see the problem. And the problem is that I am the problem. This is not an exercise in self abuse as some (egos) might claim, but rather an exercise in humility and self understanding. The problem, and thus the solution springs from within. If we understand how 'willing' doesn't mean 'in agreement' then it really doesn't matter if our Federal income tax participation is compelled in dozens of different ways, including involuntary tax withholding and mandatory reporting of our financial information from various financial sources. From the mind control perspective certain acts must appear to be voluntary in order for the (money meme) mind control to effectively work. I understand that this explanation of our 'willing' involvement will irk many who read this and rightfully so. It is never easy to face yourself naked in the mirror for the first, second or third time. But in a closed loop socioeconomic system there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. This fact just makes it that much more important that we be brutally honest with ourselves and that we proactively practice personal sovereignty beginning with eliminating our comforting and disabling self deceptions. We so want to believe and are hurt when we can't If the economic math doesn't fit the reality then slowly change the mathematical equations in order to create additional plausibility. This effectively extends and fortifies the severely weakened economic reality, essentially providing additional or renewed reasons to continue to believe. If nothing else this buys the system controllers more time which is then used by those who abuse and control to loot, pillage and batten down the hatches while further turning the screws of oppression on the willing wage slaves. As I have said before we really do want to believe, even those who claim they want the entire stinking mess to collapse. They see no alternative to the current state of affairs, so they champion scrapping the present system only because they wish to create a new, more fair and equitable (money meme) system upon which they can once again 'willingly' bestow their full faith and belief. The far more common apathetic response is actually still willing participation without exhibiting explicit agreement or resistance to the unacknowledged symbiotic bargain. An emotional escape route (apathy) is preloaded to relieve the pent up frustration and anger that comes from being (self) trapped with nowhere to hide. Long term caged wild (human) animals often demonstrate this behavior, a sign of deep neurosis and emotional paralysis. They still wish to believe, but are unwilling to invest the emotional energy to actually believe for fear of once again being bitterly disappointed. In the case of the more thoroughly captured minds, the thought of living without the present day money meme is so disorientating and frightening that they will plead with their abusers to do whatever it takes to continue the existing system. From the perspective of the mind control meme there really is no other way to describe all these mindsets other than 'willing' regardless of whether it is coerced, manipulated, passive or desperately offered. As simplistic as the above descriptions might sound they pass the smell test quite well. The mind control method of slow incremental changes to our perceived reality has actually been used repeatedly for hundreds (thousands) of years. The rules, particularly the unwritten ones, have been repeatedly changed and the outer boundaries continuously pushed further and further back. And yet even though the system appears to be ever more unstable, the music plays on and the puppets continue to dance. This in turn leads the clueless and asleep, as well as the doubting Thomases among the financial professionals, to think that things must be somewhat OK since the entire global economic contraption manages to creak along. It certainly helps to assuage the growing fear within the professional financial community that maybe she might just blow.
Don't look now but….. When the international Gold standard was found to be too constrictive, 'they' changed the rules and parameters of the then present day paradigm and created a new reality of 'safe' un-backed leveraged fiat (the petrodollar was the eagerly accepted cover story) simply by gaining an overwhelming buy in first from the international high priests, then by the lower level local/regional faith and belief leaders (the financial professionals) who in turn induced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Gold Price Closed Towards the Top of Today's Range Up $5.30 at $1,677.70 Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:35 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1677.70 Change : 5.30 or 0.32% Silver Price Close Today : 31.861 Change : -0.002 or -0.01% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 52.657 Change : 0.170 or 0.32% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01899 Change : -0.000061 or -0.32% Platinum Price Close Today : 1736.50 Change : 30.80 or 1.81% Palladium Price Close Today : 764.40 Change : -0.65 or -0.08% S&P 500 : 1,512.12 Change : 0.83 or 0.05% Dow In GOLD$ : $172.34 Change : $ 7.50 or 4.55% Dow in GOLD oz : 8.337 Change : 0.363 or 4.55% Dow in SILVER oz : 438.99 Change : 0.25 or 0.06% Dow Industrial : 13,986.52 Change : 7.22 or 0.05% US Dollar Index : 79.76 Change : 0.218 or 0.27% The GOLD PRICE couldn't quite reach its 50 DMA ($1,681.40) with a $1,678.89 high, but did close toward the top of the day's range. And it's above its 20 DMA. The SILVER PRICE lost 2/10 cent today to 3186.1c. GOLD gained $5.30 to $1,677.70. This is tiresome, but underneath pressure is building. Both are pushing up against their downtrend lines, and must either break through toward the sky or plunge earthward again. Silver slung one leg over that 50 DMA (3171c) and that was progress. That 50 DMA has held silver prisoner too long. Left me uneasy that today's range (3186c - 3158c) was narrower and lower than yesterday's. Mercy, we've gone from riches to rags here, eking out these measly days with no range and no direction. Hush, be patient, time's a coming when silver and gold will roar again. Won't be long. Just look out for one thing: all this nicey-nicey feeling and puffed up good news changes nothing: banks are still filled with rotten assets, governments are back-breaking overindebted, inflation is ruing currencies and economies. This is no more than a January thaw, with hard freeze aplenty coming. Years ago I used to write for a very clever man who taught me always to ask one question about politics and government policies and legislation: Cui bono? Who benefits? Follow the money. Want to know whose behind ending logging on public lands in the Northwest? Follow the money. Whose pocket will the action fill? Likewise, look at the present government and Federal Reserve acts: who benefits? Which reminds me of something nearby. On National Proletarian Radio this morning they were droning about the danger of economic collapse in Greece or Puerto Rico. Suddenly I realized they are suckering us with that language. Think about Greece and Europe's "sovereign debt crisis." It's not the economy that's in danger of collapsing, but governments who can't pay their debts and banks who loaned to them. Get rid of those tapeworms, and the economy will hum along like a top. Let 'em collapse, I say. As I've been repeating, it's as dangerous trying to forecast a mania market like stocks right now as it is to take pity on a half-frozen rattlesnake and snuggle him in your bosom under your tee shirt to warm him up. He'll bite you every time. Yet I ain't no more'n a natural born fool from Tennessee, so here I'll try again. Don't bite me if I'm wrong! Dow has formed a diamond over the last seven days, a pattern that often marks a top. Sometimes they take a maddeningly long while to resolve, too, trans- mogrifying into a broadening top. Point is, stocks can't stop here, or they'll fall down. Mania feeds on itself, or dies. Dow today rose a tee-tiny 7.22 (0.05%) to 13,986.52. S&P500 rose an even tee-tinier 0.83 (also 0.05%) to 1,512.12. I may be a fool, but I ain't fool enough to ride that boat all the way over Niagara Falls. I'm still worrying at the Dow in Gold and Dow in Silver charts like a feist dog over a big rat. Dow in Gold has painted an Island Reversal top, between 8.28 and 8.42 oz, isolated by a clean gap beneath. Must close above 8.42 oz to gainsay that interpretation. Dow in Silver also has a cluster of trading days isolated by gaps, but I'm not brave enough to call it anything. Looks like one of those paper targets after you hit it with double ought buckshot. Doesn't look like any continuation pattern, though. I've been through this before, watching and vexing myself with the Dow in Gold chart in 1999. I watched it day by day, sweating it out, after it topped on 25 August 1999. After that the Dow hit its nominal high in January 2000 at 11,722, but the Dow in God was lower, strongly confirming that the trend had indeed changed. But I watched anxiously for months and months, toting up each succeeding confirmation. All this is my way of saying these spreads are very reliable, but call for mountainous patience. Looks like Japan staged a Pearl Harbor in the currency wars back in November. Closed today up 0.13% at 106.91 cents/Y100, down 17.5% since September. When it snaps back and catches all the shorts, don't be standing in the way. Euro eased off today 0.47% to $1.3519, reflecting the US dollar index' 21.8 basis point (0.27%) rise to 79.758. The dollar tried to pierce its 20 DMA (79.71) and was soundly slapped for its trouble. Euro may have topped with its $1.3711 high last Friday. TO MEMORIZE TODAY: "There are some things worse than hanging and extermination. We reckon giving up the right of self-government one of those things." -- Jefferson Davis, first president of the Confederate States of America. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com 1-888-218-9226 10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday © 2013, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 06 Feb 2013 04:10 PM PST In mid-2012, Mega's geological team, in conjunction with the University of Manitoba, determined that the gold mineralized zones have highly elevated concentrations of tungsten in the form of a mineral called Scheelite. The Gold/Scheelite association was determined using a UV light and has outlined the mineralized zones to be broad and continuous. These Scheelite veins occur within the current gold mineralized footprint at Monument Bay and could become a significant economic by-product (University of Manitoba Presentation Nov 2012). Mega's geological team has been reviewing in excess of 130,000 m of drill core to continue to outline these mineralized structures. Mega is pleased to announce its first preliminary analytical Tungsten assay results for core previously assays in 2011 only for Au mineralization has shown the potential for an economic by-product credit. The initial results have indicated Tungsten values in excess of 2.01% over 1m with a broad lower grade halo. A grade of 2.01% Tungsten equates to 20.1 kg of Tungsten per tonne. The current average January spot price of tungsten is $52.90/kg. As a point of reference, current Tungsten only mines have resource grades between 0.09 and 1.1% Tungsten with the average being ~0.49% Tungsten http://www.itia.info/minerals-deposits.html. There are currently over 17 holes with over 600 Tungsten assays pending for the initial program. A summary of the 2013 Tungsten assaying results are listed below with previously released gold grades.
Note: * Gold equivalent grade is calculated by multiplying the January Average Spot Tungsten price of $52,900/tonne by the %WO3 and then dividing by the Gold Spot price $52.05/gram ($1650/ounce), then adding the Gold grade. Mega's planned 7000 m step out drill program will focus on expanding the stockwork style high grade gold mineralization of the existing Twin Lakes Deposit, expand the new Mid East and AZ satellite deposits and test the newly found regional exploration gold targets such as the Connector and Gold Pond zones. All of these mineralized zones occur within 7 kms of the existing Twin Lakes Gold Deposit. In addition, Mega has commenced an update of its National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 Resource Estimate for the Twin Lakes Deposit & area within the Monument Bay Gold Camp. During 2012 work completed included 40 new drill holes (> 12,500 m), over 30 Old Core Assay Program ("OCAP") holes (> 11,568 m) and multiple kilometers of surface mapping and sampling which will be included in the updated resource estimate. Mega's President & Interim CEO, Glen Kuntz commented "These initial Tungsten results are very exciting as they demonstrate our ability to make new discoveries while continuing to expand the size and extent of the known mineralized zones and with the potential to greatly enhance the economics of our project. The very strong presence of tungsten in the form of scheelite throughout each of our gold bearing structures has demonstrated the polymetallic nature of our deposit and will have a significant cost advantage after by-product credit compared to many of our mining peers. The addition of 0.25% tungsten equates to increasing the Au grade equivalent by 2.5 gpt. This winter's drill program is a combination of infill and step out drilling which is designed to refine the resource model and test regional targets that are outside the current resource boundary. The gold/tungsten knowledge and other mineralization controls that we have gained over the past 12 months is valuable and provides encouragement that the large high grade mineralized systems that we are exploring along the 120 kilometer long trends will contribute to demonstrate the large scale potential of the system and provide strong growth in resources at our Monument Bay Gold Camp. Additional Gold and Tungsten results are pending from both our current drill program and our ongoing OCAP that will continue to add more resource ounces to this asset backed investment. We expect these programs to be complete by the end of April." Testing Shallow Targets – More Near Term Potential for Success It is management's view that our systematic approach continues to provide potential for significant value creation and plans to continue to test the near surface targets and believes that all of the new mineralization outlined since 2011 will potentially increase the areas for potential pits and High Grade underground mines. Mega is committed and focused with its exploration activities beyond the existing resource boundary to establish potential for future resource growth by outlining multiple gold targets along the 120 kms of prospective mineralized corridors. The current project is easily accessible by air and the Manitoba Government continues to initiate the development of infrastructure in the region, including upgradable power lines, low electricity rates ($0.2-0.4/kWh) and the construction of all season roads within the region in the next 5 years. Technical Information The design of Mega's drilling programs, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results is under the control of Mega's geological staff including qualified persons employing a QA/QC program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. A detailed review of Mega's QA/QC procedures is filed in the NI 43-101 report dated March 19, 2012 and on SEDAR. All drill core is transported by Company personnel from drill site to our camp for logging, sampling preparation are completed. Sampling intervals are defined after core logging and determination of scheelite content by examination under short-wave UV-light. One half of the core is sent for analysis, while the other half is retained in the core boxes for future reference. All samples are shipped to Accurassay Laboratories in Thunder Bay, Ontario and analyzed employing the appropriate gold fire assaying technique. For QA/QC purposes the Company as well as the lab submits standards and blanks every 20 samples. Samples are analyzed for W by XRF and Assay results for tungsten are reported by the laboratory as W%. WO3 values are calculated using a conversion factor of 1.2611. Glen Kuntz, President and Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the Qualified Person for the information contained in this press release and is a Qualified Person defined by National Instrument 43-101. Glen was Sr. Resource Geologist at the Campbell Gold Mine and Global Spatial Data Systems Coordinator for Placer Dome, Vice President Enterprise Mining Solutions for Runge Ltd., and most recently, Chief Operating Officer with Mega Precious Metals. Monument Bay Gold Camp - Measured, Indicated & Inferred Mineral Resources
Note: due to rounding, some totals may not appear to total properly. Resource calculation used USD $1271/Troy ounce. Mineral Resources Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues. The quantity and grade of reported inferred resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. The mineral resources in this press release were estimated using CIM Standards. Mega Precious Metals Inc. is a well-financed Canadian-based mineral exploration company with several projects in Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut. The Company is committed to an accelerated growth strategy and is backed by a team of experienced mining experts and a strong financial position. The Company is poised for rapid expansion through quick response to new opportunities and changes in the market. Mega's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MGP. For further information and presentation material, please review the Mega website at www.megapmi.com For further information, please contact: Mega Precious Metals Inc. Forward-looking Statements Certain statements in this press release relating to the Company's exploration activities, project expenditures and business plans are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of securities legislation. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent management's best judgment based on current facts and assumptions that management considers reasonable. The Company makes no representation that reasonable business people in possession of the same information would reach the same conclusions. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. In particular, fluctuations in the price of gold or in currency markets could prevent the Company from achieving its targets. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. More information about risks and uncertainties affecting the Company and its business is available in Mega Precious Metal's filings which are posted on sedar at www.sedar.com. There is no guarantee that drill results reported in this news release will lead to the identification of a deposit that can be mined economically, and further work is required to identify a reserve or resource. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indian Central Bank Aims To Transfer Massive Physical Gold Into Banking System Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:40 PM PST Western countries are still struggling to see the benefits of owning gold in physical form, at least on a large scale. If we want a taste of the coming gold mania in the West, we could look at the East, where people have been rushing into physical gold, especially in India and China. Ironically, just at the time when Indian rush for gold to protect themselves against the damaging effects of the (central) banking system, their very central bank tries to seduce the people to transfer their physical gold into the banks and slow the import of physical gold. India has traditionally been the largest consumer and importer of gold. Some 20,000 tonnes of gold is held by households currently. To put that figure into perspective, the largest central bank reserve worldwide is held by the US and totals slightly more than 7,000 tonnes. Total above the ground gold existing on the world is some 165,000 tonnes. The real objective of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is to profit from the gold rush in an attempt to decrease their current account deficits. Reuters reported today that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to:
RBI published a report on their website which presents in a detailed way the proposed measures from their internal working group. Several interesting charts show the magnitude of the gold market in India … and the potential profits for the central bank and banking system were they to implement their measures. Interestingly, the Indian gold imports as a ratio to their GDP stands at 3% approximately.
The report provides details about the limitations of gold imports, as summarized in the following quote:
The chart (also from the report) shows how gold has significantly outperformed other asset classes over the past four years in India.
Logically, as seen on the next chart, people hedge with gold against inflation. In years of inflation, gold imports have been rising in a consistent way. Is it any surprise that the RBI aims to implement their measures given their expectations of inflation as explicitly stated in the above quote?
Furthermore, the report mentions a need to monetize the gold stock for "productive purpose" (read: interest yielding).
The report, however, does not provide any detail about the "need" for a restructuring in the gold market. The only real need is in the following chart.
Holding physical gold is a conscious choice to stay outside the banking system. The key question is if the Indian people will resist the seduction to mix up their gold with paper based investments. According to expert Philip Klapwijk, head of Thomson Reuters GFMS, the government attempts will result in an increased smuggling of gold, which would be much worse for their deficits! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Miners vs. the SP - Surprising Conclusions Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:39 PM PST We often hear the claim that gold producers have not met investors' expectations for the past couple years. While there are many potential reasons for this, one explanation for their underperformance lies in the fact that ... Read More... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oil, Copper Sink as Eurozone Fears Dent Risk Appetite Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:21 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com February 06, 2013 06:32 AM Crude oil and copper are under pressure as Eurozone stability jitters spark market-wide risk aversion. The outlook for gold and silver appears clouded for now. Crude oil and copper are under pressure as Eurozone stability jitters spark market-wide risk aversion. The outlook for gold and silver appears clouded for now. Talking Points [LIST] [*]Crude Oil, Copper Sold as Eurozone Jitters Spark Risk Aversion Anew [*]US Fiscal Policy Worries May Compound Pressure on Sentiment Trends [*]Gold and Silver Trading Flat and Looking for Clear Directional Cues [/LIST] Crude oil and copper are under pressure as broad-based risk aversion across financial markets weighs on the sentiment-sensitive commodities. S&P 500 futures are pointing firmly lower ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street, pointing to more of the same ahead. A singular catalyst for the sour mood is unclear but returning Eurozone stability fears are viable candidate as ... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Miners vs. the S&P – Surprising Conclusions Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:57 PM PST We often hear the claim that gold producers have not met investors' expectations for the past couple years. While there are many potential reasons for this, one explanation for their underperformance lies in the fact that producers diluted their share structures, leaving shareholders with smaller gains than they would have otherwise harvested. To show how this dilution has impacted the industry, let's first review how gold miners performed last year compared to the S&P 500.
The chart is hardly a surprise: the precious-metals producers had a poor showing, losing 26.6% in 2012 – something we think will reverse this year – while stocks in the S&P 500 delivered a solid 14.2% annual gain. We think that while last year's performance of the S&P 500 companies is commendable, the future may disappoint investors who believe the US economic recovery is on solid footing: last week's GDP data suggest that our economy continues to struggle, something that was immediately reflected in the price of gold the day the news was released. As 2013 progresses, we expect to see more signs of a weaker economy and subsequently, stronger gold prices. But let's look at the bigger picture to see how the S&P 500 has expanded as a group during the past decade. To measure the rate of expansion, we plotted the total market capitalization against growth of shares outstanding. The idea here is to compare the rate of S&P 500 share dilution to the change in size of the companies. Size does not equal performance (we'll look at that in a moment), but it gives a rough idea about how much market value investors may have gained had there been no dilution at all.
[Technical note: We did not include all S&P 500 companies in the above chart – only those for which share structure data was available since the first quarter of 2003. For example, Google went public in 2004 and was not included. We followed the same method with the HUI Index, with the only stock excluded being New Gold Inc. (T.NGD).] Since there is little growth in shares outstanding, the majority of the market capitalization (Mcap) growth can be attributed to share price performance. The total Mcap of the S&P 500 increased by 78.6%, or about 6% per year on a compounded basis. And no wonder – the sector includes a lot of large stocks that do not grow at the same rate as mining juniors. However, the chart also shows how quickly market value can shrink when a crisis hits. Let's now have a look at what happened to the HUI constituents within the same time frame.
There are two observations to be made from these charts. First, compared to S&P 500 companies, gold producers grossly overissued new shares. Since 2003, as a group, they more than doubled their shares outstanding, significantly diluting existing investors. Second, despite the large increase in shares outstanding, HUI companies have grown their market capitalization by 302.5% as of the fourth quarter of 2012, quadrupling the size of the group. This comes in stark contrast to the 78.6% growth of the S&P 500. On a compounded annual basis, gold companies grew at 14.9% annually for the last ten years, more than twice as fast as the S&P. So while shares outstanding of the gold miners were increasing at a high rate, the market capitalization of the HUI constituents outpaced the growth of shares outstanding, because the assets miners purchased with the funds they received from the new shares generated extra value. Since market capitalization doesn't necessarily expand when new shares are issued, it's the price performance that accounts for this growth. Looking at the next chart, you can see that the performance of gold stocks continues to be both stronger and more volatile than the S&P 500. Note that we didn't modify the indexes here – these are the performance numbers that investors have been looking at for the past decade, and they make the case that the gold-mining sector has been far from lackluster.
The gold-mining sector has been outperforming the S&P 500 for the vast majority of the last decade. With this focus on efficiency and economics, gold companies should richly reward those bold enough to invest in them now. But there's another way to play the gold market that doesn't involve buying producers, nor does it require buying the yellow metal itself. And it could be even more profitable… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Slightly Higher Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:17 PM PST Gold fell $4.90 to $1668.10 at about 6AM EST, but it then climbed to as high as $1679.50 in New York and ended with a gain of 0.27%. Silver rose to as high as $31.873 and ended with a gain of 0.13%. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:06 PM PST This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why Unallocated Swiss Gold No Longer Pays Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:02 PM PST What the Swiss banks' move away from unallocated accounts says about gold, and about banking... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Miners vs. the S&P - Surprising Conclusions Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:00 PM PST We often hear the claim that gold producers have not met investors' expectations for the past couple years. While there are many potential reasons for this, one explanation for their underperformance lies in the fact that producers diluted their share structures, leaving shareholders with smaller gains than they would have otherwise harvested. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ian Gordon: Economic Winter Could Thaw Gold Equities Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:37 PM PST The Gold Report: Ian, you believe that 2013 is likely to be an economic and financial disaster. But you have been saying similar things for years. Why is 2013 likely to be different? Ian Gordon: Yes, I have been saying similar things for years. However, I know through my work that we are in a longwave winter. The whole purpose of the longwave winter is to cleanse the economy of debt. The longwave winter began with the stock market peak when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 11,750 in January 2000. That was akin to the 1929 stock market peak. Following the 1929 peak, the worst of the longwave winter that followed was over by 1933. Between 1929 and 1933, 10,000 U.S. banks failed, the U.S. stock market lost 90% of its value, U.S. unemployment reached a peak of 25% and U.S. gross domestic product collapsed by 45%. [INDENT]"The whole purpose of the longwave winter is to cleanse the economy of debt." [/INDENT]This time around, it's been 13 years since the peak and the process of debt... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Big Picture For Gold & The World Going Forward Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:37 PM PST  Today King World News spoke with the Managing Director of Investment Banking at Haywood Securities to get his take on what is happening around the globe, as well as key markets. Campbell is a veteran of the global markets, and has earned respect from the likes of such people as Rick Rule and the Lundin family; a true mining dynasty. Here is what Kevin Campbell had to say when asked about the global macro picture: "I'm feeling more confident in general, at least as far as it effects the mining industry. Broadly, I think of the world in four economic segments: The US; Europe; China; and Emerging Markets (apologies to Japan for the omission, but I assume zero-growth status quo there for now). I'm a believer that, despite unresolved long-term fiscal issues, the US is turning and will begin to consume more raw materials as the housing sector recovers." This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bull Market in Stocks Isn't About to End Anytime Soon! Here's Why Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:36 PM PST "Follow the munKNEE" via twitter & Facebook or Register to receive our daily Intelligence Report As we all know, money printing always leads to inflation. It's just a So writes Lou Basenese (www.wallstreetdaily.com) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled This Chart Holds the Key to the End of the Bull Market.
As you can see [in the chart below], the current bull market officially began right after the Fed ramped up its purchases of government debt and mortgage-backed securities.  It might be true that the Fed was simply the match that lit the fuse had it actually stopped buying bonds -but it didn't – it just kept buying more and more bonds over time and, sure enough, stock prices marched higher in near perfect unison with the additional quantitative easing (QE). [As such,] considering that Ben Bernanke is still cranking out the Benjamins nonstop – to the tune of $85 billion per month – we shouldn't expect the bull market to end anytime soon! I never rely on a single indicator to guide my investment decisions so, for good measure, here are three more reasons to be bullish on stocks in 2013. We Can Still Buy Low Despite more than three years of advancing prices, stocks remain a relative bargain. Case in point: At the end of January, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for the S&P 500 Index stood at just 14.9. That works out to about a 25% discount to the historical average since 1980. Sentiment is (Finally) Improving After years of doubting the rally – and missing out on the gains – individual investors are finally feeling optimistic about stocks. Two weeks ago, the weekly survey from the American Association of Individual Investors revealed that bullish sentiment topped 50% for the first time in a year. We're nowhere close to the danger zone of too much bullishness, though. Since the current bull market began, bullish sentiment has topped 50% on 14 other occasions…and each time stocks rose over the next three months by an average of 5.3%. Investors are Plowing Money Into Equities Investors aren't just feeling more upbeat about stocks, they're behaving like it, too. Since January 1, they've plowed $39 billion into equity funds, according to fund flow tracker, EPFR Global. Again, the sudden shift shouldn't cause any concerns. Since 2008, investors have withdrawn about $365 billion from stock funds in the United States, based on calculations by Nicholas Colas, Chief Market Strategist at ConvergEx Group. That means there's conservatively about $325 billion in capital still waiting to be reallocated into stocks – more than enough "dry powder" to push prices considerably higher from here. Bottom line: The current bull market isn't in jeopardy of coming to an end until the Fed finally stops buying up bonds – and there's no indication that day is coming anytime soon – so don't fight the Fed. Instead, keep taking advantage of the relative bargains and investors' changing attitudes toward stocks. Just remember to protect your downside by using trailing stops.
*http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2013/02/06/end-of-the-bull-market/ (Written by Lou Basenese; © 2013 Wall Street Daily, LLC. All rights reserved; To subscribe to Wall Street Daily go here.)
Related Articles: 1. QE Could Drive S&P 500 UP 25% in 2013 & UP Another 28% in 2014 – Here's Why
Ever since the Dow broke the 14,000 mark and the S&P broke the 1,500 mark, even in the face of a shrinking GDP print, a lot of investors and commentators have been anxious. Some are proclaiming a rocket ride to the moon as bond money now rotates into stocks….[while] others are ringing the warning bell that this may be the beginning of the end, and a correction is likely coming. I find it a bit surprising, however, that no one is talking of the single largest driver for stocks in the past 4 years – massive monetary base expansion by the Fed. (This article does just that and concludes that the S&P 500 could well see a year end number of 1872 (+25%) and, realistically, another 28% increase in 2014 to 2387 which would represent a 60% increase from today's level.) Words: 600; Charts: 3 2. 5 Reasons To Be Positive On Equities
For the month of January, U.S. stocks experienced the best month in more than two decades [and the Dow hit 14,009 on Feb. 1st for the first time since 2007]. Per the Stock Traders' Almanac market indicator, the "January Barometer," the performance of the S&P 500 Index in the first month of the year dictates where stock prices will head for the year. Let's hope so…. [This article identifies f more solid reasons why equities should do well in 2013.] Words: 453 3. World Economy & Market Forecast: More Sunshine & Less Stormy Weather Ahead
It seems clear that there are a number of investors who have gained confidence in the global economy and are seeking to capture the growth opportunities taking place around the world. With the European crisis comfortably in the rear view mirror and global central banks taking the position that they will continue their easing policies, investors have taken their foot off the brake and have begun to accelerate….We see more sunshine and less stormy weather ahead [and explain why that is the case in this article]. Words: 695; Charts: 3 3. Start Investing In Equities – Your Future Self May Thank You. Here's Why
As Winston Churchill once said: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" and in that vain I challenge all readers to fight off the negativity, see long-term opportunity in global equity markets and, most importantly, remain invested. Your future self may thank you. Words: 732; Charts: 6 4. What Recovery? Contradictions Between Reality & Political Claims Are Everywhere!
There is no recovery, regardless of what the elite and their minions in the media want you to believe. The economy is sick. It was made so by the malpractice of government and will become even weaker as government continues to administer the poison that got us to this point. The political class's version of remedy is akin to the medical profession's practice of bloodletting. Neither does any good and both, carried to extreme, are fatal. [Let me explain more fully.] Words: 548 5. Ignore Wall Street Cheerleaders: Market Technicals, Fundamentals & Other Info Says Otherwise!
[In spite of what] the typical Wall Street cheerleaders, I mean strategists, are predicting, we see the equity market ever more closer to its cyclical top, miners about to retest a major bottom and hard assets with a new catalyst. [This article analyzes 9 pieces of information, complete with charts, that show what is actually going on in the marketplace at this point in time and what the short-term future holds.] Words: 930; Charts: 8
Without economic growth, and real economic growth at that, there can be no meaningful long-term economic recovery in the developed countries. Growth or lack thereof will have to be reflected in the financial markets over time. Currently, I continue to see a disconnect between where the financial markets are pricing things, and where I think they ought to be pricing things. Words: 784
At some point we are going to see another wave of panic hit the financial markets like we saw back in 2008. The false stock market bubble will burst, major banks will fail and the financial system will implode. It could unfold something like this: Words: 660 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Today King World News is pleased to share four spectacular charts covering everything from gold priced in other currencies, to negative interest rates and gold, as well as the strength in silver. Legendary technical analyst Louise Yamada, author of the "Technical Perspectives" report, put together an absolutely fascinating series of gold and silver charts to go along with her commentary. Yamada is without question one of the greatest technical analysts Wall Street has ever seen. This information is not available to the public and we are grateful to Louise for sharing her incredible work with KWN readers globally. 
Jim Rogers of 
Topics discussed: Legal Tender Act, Criminal manipulation of markets, Political Corruption, Global Elite, International Banking Cabal, debt, Federal Reserve, Too Big To Fail Banks, Crony Capitalism, gold, silver, Debt Ceiling, Financial implosion, Unemployment, Recession, Economic Depression, New World Order, Obama Care, Ambassador Bridge, New world Order bridge 
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