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• African Barrick Gold considers name change to emphasise more autonomy
• Precious metals continue to consolidate – gold price little changed
• Gold and Silver
• KB Home Boosts Builders
• New tech to help gold miners tackle tough veins
• Blackstone’s Home Buying Binge Plunges 70%!
• Target: Why Did I Purchase This Dividend-Paying Company For A Third Month In A Row?
• Feelin’ the fire, investors are hot for gold
• The Fed And The Return Of Ad Hocery
• Fed to Continue Tapering - Gold Jettisoned as Dollar reacts
• Gold smuggling explodes in India
• Watch Janet Yellen’s First FOMC Press Conference LIVE at 2:30pm EST!
• TAPER ON! FED CUTS QE ANOTHER $10 BILLION A MONTH!
• Understand Gold coins, not become targets of scamsters: Goldcoin.net
• Taper On! Fed Cuts QE Another $10 Billion A Month!
• Why 2014 Is Beginning to Look A Lot Like 2008
• Channel Stuffing “Top” Law Schools Now Paying Their Graduates’ Salaries To Improve Rankings
• How to earn double-digit income from Apple. It's easier than you think.
• Big Brother Surveillance – Not Just For Governments Anymore
• Gold tipped to hit $1,400 on Russia fears and ETF buying
• Stewart Thomson: Gold Market Fear Is Unnecessary
• This "left for dead" country is quietly recovering. But almost no one has noticed.
• Is NOW The Right Time for Silver? The Doc Weighs In
• Pay Our Pensions Or We’ll Throw You in Jail: the Legalization of Looting
• Russias Lavrov Warns U.S. Crimea Sanctions "Unacceptable" And Threatens “Consequences”
• Gold losses continue
• JPMorgan Sells Commodities Unit to Mercuria for $3.5 Billion
• Does gold's rally have nothing to do with Ukraine crisis?
• Russia’s Lavrov Warns U.S. Crimea Sanctions “Unacceptable” And Threatens “Consequences”
• Crisis in Crimea creates an explosive opportunity for this stock
• Doug Casey's nine secrets for making a fortune in the markets
• Direct trading between RMB, NZ dollar begins
• ‘Exceptionally Strong U.S. Silver Jewelry Sales in 2013’
• For Swiss Data Industry, NSA Leaks Are Good as Gold
• Looming property default in China raises fears of broader crisis
• China to allow direct yuan, New Zealand dollar trades
• Four King World News Blogs
• Taiwan to allow banks to sell gold, silver coins from China
• Reserve Bank of India's foreign exchange reserves in gold fall 15%
• On Russia Today's 'Boom/Bust,' fund manager Tice endorses GATA's work
• Under new scrutiny, gold manipulators changing tactics, Sprott says
• Exceptionally strong U.S. silver jewelry sales in 2013’ - Survey
• Gold Bull Market Corrections Then and Now
• Silver and Gold Top Not Confirmed Yet
• Gold Price Analysis- March 19, 2014
• CHARTS - The Chart That Will Make You Bullish on Gold
• US Dollar Technical Analysis – Prices Set Monthly Low
• Gold Prices March 19, 2014, Technical Analysis
• Gold Spot Intraday: The Downside Prevails.
• Michael Gray: Is Goldcorp's Bid for Osisko a Harbinger of a Gold Renaissance?

African Barrick Gold considers name change to emphasise more autonomy Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:57 PM PDT An analyst report suggests African Barrick Gold is aiming for more autonomy from its Canadian parent and may be seeking to change its name to emphasise this prospective change in status.

Precious metals continue to consolidate – gold price little changed Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:26 PM PDT Precious metals prices continued to consolidate on Tuesday, pulling back by an average of 1.6 percent at the day's lows.

Gold and Silver Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:15 PM PDT The Silver GoldSpot

KB Home Boosts Builders Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:07 PM PDT By David Urani In earnings news, KB Home (KBH) is giving homebuilders a lift on its fiscal Q1 report (quarter ending February). They beat by $0.02 on the bottom line, with revenues up 11% to $451 million versus a $439 million consensus. Some other stats: Gross margin +290bps to 17.7%; average price +12% to $305k Backlog +21% to $852m (+4% in units) New orders +18% to $507m (units +6%); dollar value up in all regions Southwest +45%, Central +18%, +63% Southeast, -12% west Community count +10% First Q1 profit since 2007 Naturally, there's been some hesitation surrounding the housing market of late given a swath of data that's been underwhelming. On one hand the weather has certainly played a part in some of the soft sales data, but for others (including myself) there's also been a question of rising prices and higher mortgage rates playing a part. KBH is putting

New tech to help gold miners tackle tough veins Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:50 PM PDT As mines get deeper and costs and safety concerns ratchet upwards so, increasingly, gold and platinum miners are looking for new technological ideas to help solve their problems.

Blackstone’s Home Buying Binge Plunges 70%! Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:30 PM PDT Blackstone's home purchases have plunged 70% from their peak last year. Bloomberg reports: Blackstone Group LP is slowing its purchases of houses to rent amid soaring prices after a buying binge made it the biggest U.S. single-family home landlord. Blackstone's acquisition pace has declined 70 percent from its peak last year, when the private equity [...] The post Blackstone's Home Buying Binge Plunges 70%! appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: China Is On A Debt Binge And A Buying Spree Unlike Anything The World Has Ever Seen Before New Home Sales Decline in July to Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 298,000 HUD Debuts $100 Down REO/ FHA 203k Loans-

Target: Why Did I Purchase This Dividend-Paying Company For A Third Month In A Row? Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:20 PM PDT I added to my position in Target (TGT) for the third month in a row, using my no cost brokerage Loyal3. Basically, I am evenly spreading my equal dollar purchases in the stock every month throughout 2014 rather than making two or three larger purchases. By now you probably also know that Target is a dividend champion which has managed to increase dividends for 46 years in a row. The company sells for 14.40 - 15.50 times forward earnings for 2014. The forward earnings range is $3.85 - $4.15/share. Everyone is familiar with issues in Canada and the credit card breaches, so I am not going to keep repeating those. This has made many investors nervous about the company. Many seem to be going to the extreme, and projecting the recent news about the retailer onto the future. This is called recency bias, and is quite common among

Feelin’ the fire, investors are hot for gold Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:11 PM PDT Investors have seen gold steadily rise from its December low of around $1,200, to a new high of $1,350 just three months later.

The Fed And The Return Of Ad Hocery Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:02 PM PDT There has been sharp rise in US interest rates and the dollar in the immediate response to the Federal Reserve's statement. The key it seemed was the expectation that Fed funds would be at 1% at the end of next year. This is more than the market had expected. The December Fed funds futures were implying a yield of a little less than 65 bp prior to the statement. This is cited for illustrative purposes as it draws for the market what a 1% Fed funds target at the end of next year implies. We note that despite the stock market decline, financials are doing well. It is true that this is not a very actively traded futures contract, but it suffices for our purposes of illustrating the hawkish sense of the FOMC statement regardless of the other caveats they offered, like keeping rates low for longer. The fact that

Fed to Continue Tapering - Gold Jettisoned as Dollar reacts Posted: 19 Mar 2014 12:01 PM PDT All that was required to launch the US Dollar higher away from strong downside chart support near the 79 level on the USDX chart was a hawkish sounding Fed. With the announcement today that they would trim another $10 billion/month off of their bond buys, interest rates shot up on the long end of the curve and with that, so did the Dollar away from support. The rally in the Dollar, along with higher interest rates ( the latter is the big deal) resulted in a barrage of selling in gold as bulls rushed for the exits. The result was a clean break of the first level of chart support noted on the chart. The selling did not abate until gold reached the secondary support level noted. This level had better hold or gold is going to fall back closer to $1300. The breakdown in the ADX indicates the uptrend has been halted. I am closely watching those Directional Movement lines to see if we get a downside crossunder of the +DMI below the -DMI. So far the bulls remain in control of the market but if that support level gives way, I would expect to see it reflected in this indicator. That could very well put the bears back in control on the daily chart. Keep in mind, based on the long term monthly chart I posted up the other day, the bears have retained control over this market but their hold was slipping. If the daily chart breaks down further, they are going to be emboldened further and a lot of those who were forced out during this recent rash of short covering, are going to come back in on the short side once again. The jury remains out therefore. Let's see what we get. We are going to need some positive economic data to confirm the Fed's rather rosy view of the economic outlook. They are content to place a fair amount of blame for the recent poor data on the record breaking cold temps. That may be true but the warmer months are arriving and we will know very quickly whether or not that is indeed the case. One last thing - the Euro failed to best 1.40. In my view, that will be required for gold to best $1400.

Gold smuggling explodes in India Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:56 AM PDT A 38-kg bust of gold smuggling allegedly involving a ring of Afghan women is just the latest example of a massive surge in gold smuggling, evidenced by data on gold seizures at airports.

Watch Janet Yellen’s First FOMC Press Conference LIVE at 2:30pm EST! Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:20 AM PDT With the Fed announcing an additional $10 billion taper moments ago, bringing monthly asset purchases down to $50 billion a month (still a pace of $.6 Trillion a year), ultra-dove Janet Yellen is preparing to take to the podium to deliver her very first FOMC press conference & Q&A session. Watch it LIVE here at [...] The post Watch Janet Yellen’s First FOMC Press Conference LIVE at 2:30pm EST! appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Watch Bernanke’s LAST FOMC Press Conference LIVE at SD at 2:30pm EST! Watch Bernanke’s Press Conference LIVE Watch Bernanke’s Press Conference LIVE at 2:15pm EST

TAPER ON! FED CUTS QE ANOTHER $10 BILLION A MONTH! Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:06 AM PDT Janet Yellen's first FOMC statement is out: Fed tapers another $10 billion/month beginning in April Beginning in April, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $25 billion per month rather than $30 billion per month, and will add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $30 billion per month rather than $35 billion per month.  Gold & silver smash commences on que Click here for Janet Yellen's first Full FOMC release:

Understand Gold coins, not become targets of scamsters: Goldcoin.net Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:04 AM PDT Kelly believes that careful research and due diligence could prevent many of these misinformed buyers from becoming targets of gold dealer scams.

Taper On! Fed Cuts QE Another $10 Billion A Month! Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:02 AM PDT Janet Yellen’s first FOMC statement is out: Fed tapers another $10 billion/month beginning in April Beginning in April, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $25 billion per month rather than $30 billion per month, and will add to its holdings of longer-term Treasury securities at a [...] The post Taper On! Fed Cuts QE Another $10 Billion A Month! appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Taper! Fed Announces $10 Billion/Month Taper; Bernanke Says to Expect Further Taper at Each FOMC! No Taper, QEternity Continues at $85 Billion a Month FOMC: QE Continues at $85 Billion a Month for Indefinite Future! Metals Smash in Progress!

Why 2014 Is Beginning to Look A Lot Like 2008 Posted: 19 Mar 2014 11:00 AM PDT Does anything about 2014 remind you of 2008? For example, the increasing signs of stress in the global financial system, from periphery currencies crashing to China's shadow banking bailouts to the constant flow of official assurances that all is well and whatever situations aren't well are on the mend. The long lists of visible stress [...] The post Why 2014 Is Beginning to Look A Lot Like 2008 appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Cost for Saving System in 2008 Will Be Complete Debasement of US Dollar By 2014 The Case for a Crash in 2014 Jim Sinclair: 2013 Crisis To Trump 2008

Channel Stuffing “Top” Law Schools Now Paying Their Graduates’ Salaries To Improve Rankings Posted: 19 Mar 2014 10:00 AM PDT We knew that the legal market was in bad shape last summer when we came across the story that top law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced its first mass layoffs in 82 years, but I had no idea it was this bad. As most will be aware, U.S. News & World Report publishes a widely anticipated [...] The post Channel Stuffing “Top” Law Schools Now Paying Their Graduates’ Salaries To Improve Rankings appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Global Gold Mines & Deposit Rankings: The Infographic Texas Schools Teaching Boston Tea Party As Terrorist Act 4 Things the New President Cannot Fix: The Economy, Debt, Unemployment, & Salaries

How to earn double-digit income from Apple. It's easier than you think. Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:45 AM PDT From Amber Lee Mason, editor, DailyWealth Trader: Trading is easier than you think... Sure, big banks, big hedge funds, and other "big money" players dress it up with advanced technology and sophisticated trading systems. (I use some of those myself in DailyWealth Trader.) But you can build a lifetime of trading success – on your own – using a handful of basic strategies. Chief among those are smart position sizing and stop-loss discipline. But not far behind is an idea that has proven itself over and over again to my readers. The idea is: Good things happen when you buy great companies at good prices. Take consumer-tech giant Apple (AAPL) for example... The genius of Steve Jobs and his design team helped make Apple one of the world's largest companies in a relatively short time. In one recent quarter, the company sold 51 million iPhones (a record), 26 million iPads (another record), and 4.8 million Macs. According to Forbes, Apple owns the most valuable brand in the world, ahead of Microsoft, Coke, IBM, Google, and McDonald's. As you can see in the chart below, Apple shares have moved higher over the last 12 months. But even though shares are well off their summer 2013 lows, the stock is still cheap. Once you account for the company's huge $159 billion cash hoard, it trades at just eight times 2014 earnings. In short, this is a great company at a good price. Over the last nine months, I've suggested "trading for income" with Apple 12 times in DailyWealth Trader. If you've never tried this strategy, keep reading... It's more than worth your time to understand the basics. One way to "trade for income" is to sell covered calls… When you sell covered calls, you can collect cash upfront for agreeing to sell your shares for a higher price. You give up some of your potential capital gains for guaranteed income and added safety. This practice isn't for gamblers reaching for the moon. It's for folks interested in a safe, double-digit annual income stream. You can read more about how it works right here. Here's what it looks like with Apple… Right now, you can buy shares of Apple for about $535 and sell the May 17, $540 covered calls for about $16.75... That produces an instant "yield" of 3.1%. That might not sound like much. But if you use this strategy for a year, the gains will add up... The calls expire on May 17, about two months from now. If the stock stays where it is or moves lower, you keep your shares... and you can sell another round of calls. Including the quarterly dividend, your total return will be about 3.7%. If the stock has moved higher by expiration, you sell your shares at $540. Including the quarterly dividend, your total return will be about 4.6%. Making a trade like this six times a year will produce 22%-28% returns. That's a huge return for a safe strategy. (One thing to note here: Normally when you sell a covered call, you have to buy at least 100 shares of stock. At Apple's current prices, that would amount to $53,500. But with Apple, you can trade "mini" options, which cover 10 shares. That's a more manageable $5,350.) This double-digit Apple trade didn't require a million-dollar computer system to spot. You don't need a PhD to understand why it should work. It just has the basics: a good company at a great price. Good things are likely to happen. Crux note: Readers of Amber's DailyWealth Trader service get frequent updates on how to generate income using Apple. In fact, over the last nine months, they've generated 12 safe payouts that add up to double-digit annual income... all while taking on LESS risk than actually owning the stock. And that's just on Apple... They're doing the same with Coke, Microsoft, McDonald's, IBM, and more. Click here to see exactly how this strategy works. More from Amber Lee Mason: Amber Lee Mason: The answer to a BIG question you're probably asking about stocks Amber Lee Mason: The Three-Minute Trading Expert, Part 7 How to get rich in five years or less

Big Brother Surveillance – Not Just For Governments Anymore Posted: 19 Mar 2014 09:00 AM PDT Traditionally, when we have thought of "Big Brother technology" we have thought of government oppression.  But these days, it isn't just governments that are using creepy new technologies to spy on all of us. As you will see below, "Big Brother surveillance" has become very big business.  From End of the American Dream: In the information age, [...] The post Big Brother Surveillance – Not Just For Governments Anymore appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: The Rest Of The World Is Absolutely Disgusted With Our Big Brother Spying Methods Ron Paul: “If You Like The Surveillance State, You'll Love E-Verify” 10 Ways That The Iron Grip Of The Big Brother Prison Grid Is Tightening On All Of Our Lives

Gold tipped to hit $1,400 on Russia fears and ETF buying Posted: 19 Mar 2014 08:49 AM PDT German bank says that turmoil in Ukraine and a return of ETFs will push gold prices even higher in 2014 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Stewart Thomson: Gold Market Fear Is Unnecessary Posted: 19 Mar 2014 07:00 AM PDT Since the start of this year, gold has performed extremely well. The daily chart shows the shiny metal moving steadily higher, in a bullish channel. The current minor trend sell-off in gold is technically healthy. Also, this price correction should not come as a surprise to any fundamentally-oriented investor; the Crimean crisis seems to be [...] The post Stewart Thomson: Gold Market Fear Is Unnecessary appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: Stewart Thomson: Gold And The Phillips Curve Stewart Thomson: Perfect Storm of Demand to Send Gold to $2800? “Gold Bulls Have The Edge” – Stewart Thomson

This "left for dead" country is quietly recovering. But almost no one has noticed. Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:53 AM PDT From Bloomberg: Greece's comeback from an international bailout that roiled world markets and threatened to cause a breakup of the euro is underway. Piraeus Bank SA (TPEIR) sold 500 million euros ($697 million) of bonds yesterday in the first public debt sale from a Greek lender since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the same time, Infrastructure Minister Michalis Chrisochoides said Greece will probably sell debt for the first time in four years before May as the nation seeks to rebuild its finances. "I don't think Piraeus could have brought this deal a year ago but now the situation in the periphery has greatly improved," said Volker Marnet-Islinger, head of corporate bond investment at Deka Investment GmbH in Frankfurt who helps oversee about 22 billion euros of bonds. "We're seeing huge order books for high-yield deals." The newfound confidence mirrors sentiment toward the euro zone as a whole. Government bond yields from the peripheral nations of Greece to Ireland have sunk to the least since at least 2010 as the recovery from the sovereign-debt crisis gains momentum. Greece's bonds have earned 18 percent this year through March 17, the most among 15 euro-area debt markets tracked by Bloomberg World Bond Indexes. Portugal's returned 10 percent, and Spain's gained 5.3 percent. Performance The new Piraeus bond, due 2017 and priced to yield 4.52 percentage points more than the benchmark mid-swap rate, rallied 1 cent on the euro when trading began, according to brokers Jefferies International Ltd. The notes, which were initially marketed with a coupon of as much as 5.5 percent, pay interest of 5.125 percent. "It seems like the big disappointment was that it was only a three-year deal," said Tom Jenkins, a credit strategist at Jefferies in London. "People would have preferred a five-year to be sure of having that nice coupon for longer." The transaction reopens the financial market for Greek banks, showing the extent of investor confidence in the peripheral nations, and indicates the sovereign is likely to access the capital markets "imminently," strategists at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said in a note. Greece's bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which followed the nation's admission in 2009 that it had a bigger budget deficit than previously reported, started the euro region's sovereign debt crisis and was followed by an aid package for Portugal. The euro fell as low as $1.1877 in 2010 before rebounding to $1.3933 yesterday. Still Dependent The nation is still dependent on help. Simon O'Connor, a spokesman for EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Brussels yesterday that Greece reached an agreement with the so-called troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF on all "the most important policy areas" in the review of the latest adjustment program. The deal paves the way for the disbursements of the next portion of the bailout program. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said a review of the country's performance in meeting the terms of its bailout "proves doubters wrong." "We will get the next loan tranche, the country will return to markets, with a slightly high interest rate, which will fall after, and Greece won't remain in this drama of quarterly troika reviews," Chrisochoides, said in an interview in Athens. The sale will be part of "a series" of positive developments before this May's European Parliament elections, he said. Falling Yields Greek 10-year sovereign bond yields fell 22 basis points yesterday, or 0.22 percentage point, to 6.82 percent. The price of the benchmark 2 percent bond due in February 2024 rose 1.335, or 13.35 euros per 1,000-euro face amount, to 74.775. Piraeus sold 5 percent, three-year notes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The securities were priced to yield 452 basis points more than the mid-swap rate, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The debt may be rated Caa1 by Moody's Investors Service, or seven levels below investment grade, according to Bloomberg data. UBS AG called it the first public debt issue from a Greek lender in five years. Piraeus added to 31 billion euros of speculative-grade notes raised this quarter by companies in Europe, marking the busiest start to a year on record for such issuance. The average yield on the debt has dropped 48 basis points this year to 4.46 percent as of March 17, three basis points from a low reached March 11, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. Default Rates Borrowers are taking advantage of demand for riskier debt as central banks hold interest rates at record lows and as S&P says default rates will fall to 5.2 percent next year from 5.9 percent at the end of 2013. The average yield on euro-denominated bonds rated CCC and lower fell to a seven-year low of 8.12 percent on Feb. 27, before climbing to 8.39 percent this week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show. The outcome of the European elections won't affect political stability in Greece, where Samaras's coalition government is clinging to a three-seat majority in the 300-seat Parliament, said Chrisochoides, who took his first ministry post 20 years ago. His Pasok party, in government for 25 of the 40 years since the end of the military dictatorship in 1974 and now junior partner in Samaras's coalition, won't collapse, he said. A March 15 poll by Alco indicated that Greece's main opposition Syriza party, which has vowed to annul the bailout agreement with the troika, will get 19.1 percent support in the European elections, compared with 18 percent for the governing New Democracy. Pasok polled 5.1 percent, compared with a 36.7 percent result in the last European Parliament election in 2009. Greece in the next few weeks will begin tenders for a 750 million-euro airport project on the island of Crete and a 400 million-euro highway between Corinth and Patras, Chrisochoides said. Greece will also complete a high-speed rail network by the end of 2017, he said. More on Europe: Europe just made an incredibly rational decision you may not believe A surprising way to bet on a rebound in Europe European Central Bank warns: "Calm before storm" could be ending

Is NOW The Right Time for Silver? The Doc Weighs In Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:45 AM PDT Is NOW the Right Time for Silver? In this exclusive interview with Reluctant Preppers, precious metals advocate The Doc from SilverDoctors.com & SDBullion examines the essential points that must be considered when deciding whether NOW is the right time for silver. The Doc discusses where we are at in the current secular bull market, market [...] The post Is NOW The Right Time for Silver? The Doc Weighs In appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: JB Slear Weighs in on the PM Smash, $2,000 Gold Eric Sprott on Silver Market Manipulation The Illusion Of Economic Recovery Is Beginning To Fade

Pay Our Pensions Or We’ll Throw You in Jail: the Legalization of Looting Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:43 AM PDT Rather than deal forthrightly with the reality that unrealistic promises made to their employees cannot be honored, local government has pursued a strategy of legalizing looting. The gradual erosion of civil liberties, legal rights and government ethics are connected: our rights don’t just vanish into thin air, they are expropriated by government: Federal, state and local. Though much is written about the loss of civil liberties at the Federal level, many of the most blatantly illegal power grabs are occurring in local government. This expropriation is under the radar of the average citizen because the process slowly chips away the fundamentals of legality and justice: bit by bit, due process and the rights of the individual have been eroded by state and local governments until the fundamental Constitutional protections simply cease to exist. When local government looting is legalized, the entire system is illegal. Here are three recent examples of blatantly illegal looting by local governments. First up: privatizing the collection of traffic fines and probation to create a modernized debtor’s prison. We turn to The Nation for the story: The Town That Turned Poverty Into a Prison Sentence Most states shut down their debtors' prisons more than 100 years ago; in 2005, Harpersville, Alabama, opened one back up. What happened to Ford in the small town of Harpersville was tangled and unconstitutional– but hardly unique. Similar tales have been playing out in more than 1,000 courts across the country, from Georgia to Idaho. In the face of strained budgets and cuts to public services, state and local governments have been stepping up their efforts to ensure that the criminal justice system pays for itself. They have increased fines and court costs, intensified law enforcement efforts, and passed so-called "pay-to-stay" laws that charge offenders daily jail fees. They have also begun contracting with "offender-funded" probation companies like JCS, which offer a particularly attractive solution—collection, at no cost to the court.Harpersville's experiment with private probation began nearly ten years ago. In Alabama, people know Harpersville best as a speed trap, the stretch of country highway where the speed limit changes six times in roughly as many miles. Indeed, traffic is by far the biggest business in the town of 1,600, where there is little more than Big Man's BBQ, the Sudden Impact Collision Center and a dollar store. In 2005, the court's revenue was nearly three times the amount that the town received from a sales tax, Harpersville's second-largest source of income. Fines had become key to Harpersville's development, but it proved difficult to chase down those who did not pay. So, that year, Harpersville decided to follow in the footsteps of other Alabama cities and hire JCS to help collect. It was a system of extraction and coercion so flagrant that Alabama Circuit Court Judge Hub Harrington likened it to a modern-day "debtors' prison." Her fines for the three charges added up to $2,922, court papers show. Ward sentenced her–and others who said they couldn't pay their full fines that day– to probation. Once a means of allowing convicted offenders to stay out of jail on the condition of good behavior, probation had now become a court-sanctioned tool for debt collection. Burdette reported to the JCS office in nearby Childersburg, where she paid her probation officer $100. Of that, $45 went toward her fine, $10 toward a one-time "start-up fee," and the last $45 went to JCS as a monthly fee for service. Next up: illegal search and seizure under the pretext of traffic violations. As if “driving while black” isn’t bad enough, now “driving with cash” is pretext enough to be stripped of your rights and your property stolen by local government: Lawsuits over cash seizures settled in Nevada Tan Nguyen of Newport, Calif., and Michael Lee of Denver said in lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Reno they were stopped last year on U.S. Interstate 80 near Winnemucca about 165 miles east of Reno under the pretext of speeding. They said they were subjected to illegal searches and told they wouldn’t be released with their vehicles unless they forfeited their cash.The lawsuits claimed the cash seizures were part of a pattern of stopping drivers for speeding as a pretext for drug busts in violation of the Constitution. Nguyen was given a written warning for speeding but wasn’t cited. As a condition of release, he signed a “property for safekeeping receipt,” which indicated the money was abandoned or seized and not returnable. But the lawsuit says he did so only because Dove threatened to seize his vehicle unless he “got in his car and drove off and forgot this ever happened.” “He wasn’t charged with anything. He had no drugs in his car. The pretext for stopping him was he was doing 78 in a 75,” John Ohlson told KRNV-TV. “It’s like Jesse James or Black Bart,” he told AP in an interview last week. The district attorney’s statement said both men were stopped legally and that “every asset that was seized pursuant to those stops was lawfully seized.” Exhibit # 3: guilty until proven innocent: State of California seizes cash from “suspected” tax evaders with no evidence, no court action, no recourse. I have documented in detail how the jackboot of the State of California has pressed on the necks of thousands of law-abiding citizens whose only crime was moving out of California. The State of California presumes anyone moving out of the state who still has a source of income in California–for example, a few dollars of interest earned on a bank account–owes California income tax on all their presumed income, even if they have filed income tax returns in another state. If this isn’t the acme of illegal seizure and denial of basic rights, i.e. presumed innocent until proven guilty, then what is? Here is one reader’s account of how this legal looting works: I wrote about this in Welcome to the United States of Orwell: Law-Abiding Taxpayers Are Treated as Criminals While the Real Criminals Go Free (March 27, 2012). I received a letter last year that we owed the state of California’s Franchise Tax Board $90,000 for taxes in the year 2008.We replied to the Franchise Tax board in a similar manner as RT stating that: – Did not reside in California in 2008 – Did not file a State income tax return in California in 2008 – Did not have any outstanding tax issues with California in 2008 – Did no business in California in 2008 – Owned no property in California in 2008 The CA Franchise Tax board responded by putting a lien on us in the state – fortunately, our banks and assets have no business in CA or I am certain our accounts would have been robbed as well. After a great deal of uncertainty and angst, I found an accountant in CA who advised us that we needed to file a complete CA tax return for 2008 even though we did not owe any tax. We filed the return and received a response that we owed the state $625 to cover the State’s collection fees. We paid the fee and within two weeks received a “refund” check for the $625. On reflection, we felt as if we had been “held up” by some powerful gangsters and if it had not been for an honest tax accountant we would have suffered much financial damage. In other words, honest taxpayers are reduced to begging the predatory state of California to return their own money. Meanwhile, the bagmen for the local government thieves, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, among others, get to keep the $100 fee they charged the taxpayer for stealing their money. If this isn’t Orwellian, then what do you call it? “Legal”? If this is legal, legality has lost all meaning. For more on the blatantly illegal seizures of cash from people who aren’t even residents of California and who filed income tax returns in another state, please read: Welcome to the Predatory State of California–Even If You Don’t Live There (March 20, 2012) The Predatory State of California, Part 2 (March 21, 2012) Just as pernicious as outright looting is the growing dependence of local government on fines and related rip-offs. Correspondent Joel M. recently submitted this article which features New York City officials whining that the recent snow storm deprived them of sorely needed revenues from parking fines. Costs Have Piled Up Along With the Snow of a Difficult Winter (NYT.com) “If the winter was costly for individuals, it was even more so for municipalities. The snow triggered repeated suspensions of New York City's alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules, delighting car owners but costing the city an average of $270,000 a day in potential fines, officials said. That added up to $4.3 million during a three-week stretch in February alone, money that would have gone to help pay for city services, including the fire and police forces, city officials said.” Everyone who believes local government is “here to fill potholes and help disadvantaged people” needs to wake up and ask what kind of government we have when due process has been replaced with “legal” looting. Is local government focused on serving citizens or on funding public employee pensions and healthcare benefits? The erosion of ethics of those in government service is as pernicious as the rise of legal looting. Let’s be honest, shall we? Those in local government tasked with collecting all these forms of legal looting are “just doing my job,” but how many protest the process? How many public employee unions are outraged by the legal looting that fills the coffers of their pension funds? For context, government employees constitute about 15% of the employed workforce in the U.S.: 22 million out of 142 million. Unlike the other 85%, their employer can legalize looting on their behalf. Local government spending has soared for decades. So has local government debt. Promises were made to local government employees by craven, bought-and-paid-for politicos that cannot possibly be honored in a stagnating economy with widening wealth inequality. But rather than deal forthrightly with that reality, local government has pursued a strategy of legalizing looting. From the point of view of the hapless tax donkeys and debt-serfs being looted, this strategy boils down to a stark threat: Pay Our Pensions Or We’ll Throw You in Jail. Here’s the deal: government is supposed to serve the people, not the insiders. Please read the above news stories; can anyone claim that legalized looting is OK because the “ends” (public services) justify the “means” (legalized looting)? How many public employees care about where the money that funds their paycheck, pension and healthcare benefits comes from? Maybe public employees should start caring about where the money is coming from, because taxation approved by elected officials or direct voter approval is one thing, and legalized looting is another. If you don’t care that your pay/pension/benefits may be partly funded by legalized looting, perhaps you should start caring. Remember that we (the general public) can’t pull you over and “legally” steal your cash, nor can we order Wells Fargo to go into your bank account and “legally” steal your money without court review, evidence of wrongdoing or recourse. We can’t award private collection agencies the powers reserved for representative government and rig the probation system into a cash cow that benefits us. Please don’t trot out the “good German” excuse: I only take orders. You’re the ones who are pulling the levers of the legalized looting machine; us tax donkeys and debt-serfs are on the receiving end. Given that special interests own the state legislatures, the tax donkeys and debt-serfs have only three choices: opt out, move out or stop paying, and fill your modern debtors’ prisons to the brim.

Russias Lavrov Warns U.S. Crimea Sanctions "Unacceptable" And Threatens “Consequences” Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:32 AM PDT gold.ie

Gold losses continue Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:17 AM PDT Gold extended losses to a third session today.

JPMorgan Sells Commodities Unit to Mercuria for $3.5 Billion Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:14 AM PDT It appears that silver investors’ days of deriding Blythe Masters as the face of JP Morgan’s alleged gold & silver manipulation may be over, as Jamie Dimon has formerly announced the sale of JPM’s commodities division to Switzlerland’s Mercuria for $3.5 billion.   The Morgue will however reportedly continue its global commercial gold vaulting business, [...] The post JPMorgan Sells Commodities Unit to Mercuria for $3.5 Billion appeared first on Silver Doctors. Check out these similar articles: *Breaking: JPMorgan To Sell Physical Commodity Business! FERC Suspends JPMorgan Unit's Power-Trading Authority Blythe Masters to Lead Regulatory Affairs at JPMorgan Chase

Does gold's rally have nothing to do with Ukraine crisis? Posted: 19 Mar 2014 06:07 AM PDT The precious metal is poised for a tremendous rally.

Russia’s Lavrov Warns U.S. Crimea Sanctions “Unacceptable” And Threatens “Consequences” Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:24 AM PDT Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Western sanctions over the Crimea dispute were “unacceptable” and "will not remain without consequences.” Geopolitical risk shows the importance of owning gold as a hedging instrument and safe haven diversification. Today's AM fix was USD 1,346.00, EUR 967.16 and GBP 809.72 per ounce. Yesterday's AM fix was USD 1,362.50, EUR 979.37 and GBP 820.49 per ounce. Gold dropped $10.80 or 0.79% yesterday to $1,355.40/oz. Silver fell $0.31 or 1.47% to $20.82/oz. Gold extended losses to a third session today. Gold has fallen from the six month high of $1,391.76, touched earlier this week on the deteriorating geo-political situation between Russia and the West. Traders have taken profits as tensions have eased somewhat, in the short term at least. Gold should be supported by the deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that Western sanctions over the Crimea dispute were “unacceptable” and "will not remain without consequences.” Putin said he did not plan to seize any other part of Ukraine, and Kerry later cautioned that any incursion into other parts of Ukraine would be an “egregious step” and a major challenge for the international community. Geopolitical risk shows the importance of owning gold as a hedging instrument and safe haven diversification. Traders may be hesitant to go long gold, ahead of a policy decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve.  The meeting will be the first presided over by Fed Chair Janet Yellen and she will likely indicate that the Fed is going to continue to taper but maintain ultra loose monetary policies in the form of debt monetisation and near zero percent interest rates. Asian share markets were mostly lower and European shares mixed with investors keeping a keen eye on the Ukraine and Crimea crisis and the Fed review later in the session. Reuters reports that dealers of gold bullion in Singapore and Hong Kong, noted a slowdown in physical demand. Premiums have fallen and  domestic gold prices in China are trading at discounts to cash gold. Concerns about a spate of Chinese corporate bond defaults and the shadow banking system in China should support gold but demand appears to have  abated somewhat in recent days. Although it may be best to wait to see the monthly import export data prior to writing off Chinese demand just yet. Find out why owning physical gold in segregated, allocated accounts in Singapore is now one of the safest ways to own gold in our guide – The Essential Guide To Storing Gold In Singapore

Crisis in Crimea creates an explosive opportunity for this stock Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:00 AM PDT From Amanda Zappacosta at Stansberry Radio: The crisis in Crimea is getting worse. It feels like the start of a new Cold War. But what if there was a way to benefit from this mayhem? There is... It's called "crisis investing," and the returns can be astronomical. In this clip, taken from Stansberry Radio, Porter Stansberry describes an extraordinary opportunity. If Putin acquiesces to the West, this pick could remain flat... But, if the chaos continues, this stock could soar.   Share Share on Facebook Share on Twitter   To hear more Stansberry Radio, click here. More from S&A: Porter Stansberry: My top warning signs for 2014 Steve Sjuggerud: It's official... the gold crash is over Doc Eifrig: How to earn extra income... without leaving your house

Doug Casey's nine secrets for making a fortune in the markets Posted: 19 Mar 2014 04:00 AM PDT By Louis James, Chief Metals & Mining Investment Strategist, Casey Research: When I started working for Doug Casey almost 10 years ago, I probably knew as much about investing as the average Joe, but I now know that I knew absolutely nothing then about successful speculation. Learning from the international speculator himself—and from his business partner, David Galland, to give credit where due—was like taking the proverbial drink from a fire hose. Fortunately, I was quite thirsty. You see, just before Doug and David hired me in 2004, I'd had something of an epiphany. As a writer, most of what I was doing at the time was grant-proposal writing, asking wealthy philanthropists to support causes I believed in. After some years of meeting wealthy people and asking them for money, it suddenly dawned on me that they were nothing like the mean, greedy stereotypes the average American envisions. It's quite embarrassing, but I have to admit that I was surprised how much I liked these "rich" people—not for what they could do for me, but for what they had done with their own lives. Most of them started with nothing and created financial empires. Even the ones who were born into wealthy families took what fortune gave them and turned it into much more. And though I'm sure the sample was biased, since I was meeting libertarian millionaires, these people accumulated wealth by creating real value that benefited those they did business with. My key observation was they were all very serious about money—not obsessed with it, but conscious of using it wisely and putting it to most efficient use. I greatly admired this; it's what I strive for myself now. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The reason for my embarrassment is that my surprise told me something about myself; I discovered that I'd had a bad attitude about money. This may seem like a philosophical digression, but it's an absolutely critical point. Without realizing that I'd adopted a cultural norm without conscious choice, I was like many others who believe that it is unseemly to care too much about money. I was working on saving the world, which was reward enough for me, and wanted only enough money to provide for my family. And at the same instant my surprise at liking my rich donors made me realize that—despite my decades of pro-market activism—I had been prejudiced against successful capitalists, I realized that people who thought the way I did never had very much money. It seems painfully obvious in hindsight. If thinking about money and exerting yourself to earn more of it makes you pinch your nose in disgust, how can you possibly be effective at doing so? Well, you can't. I'm convinced that while almost nobody intends to be poor, this is why so many people are. They may want the benefits of being rich, but they actually don't want to be rich and have a great mental aversion to thinking about money and acting in ways that will bring more of it into their lives. So, in May of 2004, I decided to get serious about money. I liked my rich friends and admired them all greatly, but I didn't see any of them as superhuman. There was no reason I could not have done what any of them had done, if I'd had the same willingness to do the work they did to achieve success. Lo and behold, it was two months later that Doug and David offered me a job at Casey Research. That's not magic, nor coincidence; if it hadn't been Casey, I would have found someone else to learn from. The important thing is that had the offer come two months sooner, being a champion of noble causes and not a money-grubbing financier, I would have turned it down. I'm still a champion of noble causes, but how things have changed since I enrolled in "Casey U" and got serious about learning how to put my money to work for me, instead of me having to always work for money! Instead of asking people for donations, I'm now the one writing checks (which I believe will get much larger in the not-too-distant future). I can tell you this is much more fun. How did I do it? I followed Doug's advice, speculated alongside him—and took profits with him. Without getting into the details, I can say I had some winning investments early on. I went long during the crash of 2008 and used the proceeds to buy property in 2010. I took profits on the property last year and bought the same stocks I was recommending in the International Speculator last fall, close to what now appears to have been another bottom. In the interim, I've gone from renting to being a homeowner. I've gone from being an investment virgin to being one of those expert investors you occasionally see on TV. I've gone from a significant negative net worth to a significant nest egg… which I am happily working on increasing. And I want to help all our readers do the same. Not because all we here at Casey Research care about is money, but because accumulating wealth creates value, as Doug teaches us. It's impossible, of course, to communicate all I've learned over my years with Doug in a simple article like this. I'm sure I'll write a book on it someday—perhaps after the current gold cycle passes its coming manic peak. Still, I can boil what I've learned from Doug down to a few "secrets" that can help you as they have me. I urge you to think of these as a study guide, if you will, not a complete set of instructions. As you read the list below, think about how you can learn more about each secret and adapt it to your own most effective use. Secret #1: Contrarianism takes courage. Everyone knows the essential investment formula: "Buy low, sell high," but it is so much easier said than done, it might as well be a secret formula. The way to really make it work is to invest in an asset or commodity that people want and need but that for reasons of market cyclicality or other temporary factors, no one else is buying. When the vast majority thinks something necessary is a bad investment, you want to be a buyer—that's what it means to be a contrarian. Obviously, if this were easy, everyone would do it, and there would be no such thing as a contrarian opportunity. But it is very hard for most people to think independently enough to risk hard-won cash in ways others think is mistaken or too dangerous. Hence, fortune favors the bold. Secret #2: Success takes discipline. It's not just a matter of courage, of course; you can bravely follow a path right off a cliff if you're not careful. So you have to have a game plan for risk mitigation. You have to expect market volatility and turn it to your advantage. And you'll need an exit strategy. The ways a successful speculator needs discipline are endless, but the most critical of all is to employ smart buying and selling tactics, so you don't get goaded into paying too much or spooked into selling for too little. Secret #3: Analysis over emotion. This may seem like an obvious corollary to the above, but it's a point well worth stressing on its own. To be a successful speculator does not require being an emotionless robot, but it does require abiding by reason at times when either fear or euphoria tempt us to veer from our game plans. When a substantial investment in a speculative pick tanks—for no company-specific reason—the sense of gut-wrenching fear is very real. Panic often causes investors to sell at the very time they should be backing up the truck for more. Similarly, when a stock is on a tear and friends are congratulating you on what a genius you are, the temptation to remain fully exposed—or even take on more risk in a play that is no longer undervalued—can be irresistible. But to ignore the numbers because of how you feel is extremely risky and leads to realizing unnecessary losses and letting terrific gains slip through your fingers. Secret #4: Trust your gut. Trusting a gut feeling sounds contradictory to the above, but it's really not. The point is not to put feelings over logic, but to listen to what your feelings tell you—particularly about company people you meet and their words in press releases. "People" is the first of Doug Casey's famous Eight Ps of Resource Stock Evaluation, and if a CEO comes across like a used-car salesman, that is telling you something. If a press release omits critical numbers or seems to be gilding the lily, that, too, tells you something. The more experience you accumulate in whatever sector you focus on, the more acute your intuitive "radar" becomes: listen to it. There's nothing more frustrating than to take a chance on a story that looked good on paper but that your gut was warning you about, and then the investment disappoints. Kicking yourself is bad for your knees. Secret #5: Assume Bulshytt. As a speculator, investor, or really anyone who buys anything, you have to assume that everyone in business has an angle. Their interests may coincide with your own, but you can't assume that. It's vital to keep in mind whom you are speaking with and what their interest might be. This applies to even the most honest people in mining, which is such a difficult business, no mine would ever get built if company CEOs put out a press release every time they ran into a problem. A mine, from exploration to production to reclamation, is a nonstop flow of problems that need solving. But your brokers want to make commissions, your conference organizers want excitement, your bullion dealers want volume, etc. And, yes, your newsletter writers want to eat as well; ask yourself who pays them and whether their interests are aligned with yours or the companies they cover. (Bulshytt is not a typo, but a reference to Neal Stephenson's brilliant novel, Anathem, which defines the term, briefly, as words, phrases, or even entire books or speeches that are misleading or empty of meaning.) Secret #6: The trend is your friend. No one can predict the future, but anyone who applies him- or herself diligently enough can identify trends in the world that will have predictable consequences and outcomes. If you identify a trend that is real—or that at least has an overwhelming amount of evidence in its favor—it can serve as both compass and chart, keeping you on course regardless of market chaos, irrational investors, and the ever-present flood of bulshytt. Knowing that you are betting on a trend that makes great sense and is backed by hard data also helps maintain your courage. Remember; prices may fluctuate, but price and value are not the same thing. If you are right about the trend, it will be your friend. Also, remember that it's easier to be right about the direction of a trend than its timing. Secret #7: Only speculate with money you can afford to lose. This is a logical corollary to the above. If you bet the farm or gamble away your children's college tuition on risky speculations—and only relatively risky investments have the potential to generate the extraordinary returns that justify speculating in the first place—it will be almost impossible to maintain your cool and discipline when you need it. As Doug likes to say; it's better to risk 10% of your capital shooting for 100% gains than to risk 100% of your capital shooting for 10% gains. Secret #8: Stack the odds in your favor. Given the risks inherent in speculating for extraordinary gains, you have to stack the odds in your favor. If you can't, don't play. There are several ways to do this, including betting on People with proven track records, buying when market corrections put companies on sale way below any objective valuation, and participating in private placements. The most critical may be to either conduct the due diligence most investors are too busy to be bothered with, or find someone you can trust to do it for you. Secret #9: You can't kiss all the girls. This is one of Doug's favorite sayings, and though seemingly obvious, it's one of the main pitfalls for unwary speculators. When you encounter a fantastic story or a stock going vertical and it feels like it's getting away from you, it can be very, very difficult to do all the things I mention above. I can tell you from firsthand experience, it's agonizing to identify a good bet, arrive too late, and see the ship sail off to great fortune—without you. But if you let that push you into paying too much for your speculative picks, you can wipe out your own gains, even if you're betting on the right trends. You can't kiss all the girls, and it only leads to trouble if you try. Fortunately, the universe of possible speculations is so vast, it simply doesn't matter if someone else beats you to any particular one; there will always be another to ask for the next dance. Bide your time, and make your move only when all of the above is on your side. Final Point These are the principles I live and breathe every day as a speculator. The devil, of course, is in the details, which is why I'm happy to be the editor of the Casey International Speculator, where I can cover the ins and outs of all of the above in depth. Right now, we're looking at an opportunity the likes of which we haven't seen in years: thanks to the downturn in gold—which now appears to have subsided—junior gold stocks are still drastically undervalued. My team and I recently identified a set of junior mining companies that we believe have what it takes to potentially become 10-baggers, generating 1,000%+ gains. If you don't yet subscribe, I encourage you to try the International Speculator risk-free today and get our detailed 10-Bagger List for 2014 that tells you exactly why we think these companies will be winners. Click here to learn more about the 10-Bagger List for 2014. Whatever you do, the above distillation of Doug's experience and wisdom should help you in your own quest. More from Doug Casey: What resource legends Doug Casey and Rick Rule are thinking now Classic Doug Casey: What you need to know to make a fortune in gold stocks Doug Casey: A new crisis is coming this year

Direct trading between RMB, NZ dollar begins Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:49 AM PDT Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced the beginning of direct trading between the RMB and NZ dollar in Beijing on Tuesday... Read

‘Exceptionally Strong U.S. Silver Jewelry Sales in 2013’ Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT "Silver is now back below its 200-day moving average" ¤ Yesterday In Gold & Silver The gold price didn't do much at the open on Tuesday morning in Tokyo, but at 9 a.m. Hong Kong time, the price got taken down by around ten bucks.  From there it traded almost ruler flat until about 11:30 a.m. GMT in London---and that point it got sold down a bit more to its low of the day, which came around 8:45 a.m. in New York.  The subsequent rally took ten bucks off its losses for the day, but shortly before 1 p.m. EDT, the rally topped out---and from there it got sold down until 3:30 p.m. before trading flat into the 5:15 p.m. EDT close. The high and low price ticks were recorded by the CME Group at $1,367.90 and $1,351.10 in the April contract. Gold closed in New York at $1,355.50 spot, down an even 12 bucks.  Net volume was around 141,000 contracts, the same as Monday's volume. It was more or less the same price pattern in silver, except the sell offs were more extreme on a percentage basis.  The only real difference was that the low tick in silver came at precisely 9 a.m. EST in New York.  Other than that, the chart patterns were almost identical. The high and low ticks were recorded as $21.25 and $20.625 in the May contract, another intraday move of 3%. Silver finished the Tuesday session at $20.815 spot, down 37.5 cents from Monday's close.  Volume, net of March and April, was pretty heavy at 50,000 contracts. Here's the New York Spot Silver [Bid] chart on its own so you can see the precision of the low tick at 9 a.m. EDT.  Timing like this doesn't happen by accident---and as you know, dear reader, we see it all too often. The platinum price pattern was similar to both gold and silver---and palladium's spike low came at 8 a.m. New York time.  Both metals recovered off their respective lows, but both finished down on the day.  And as I said in this space yesterday, it's hard to believe by looking at the price action, that there has been a two month strike going on in one of the largest platinum and palladium producing areas of the world.  Here are the charts. The dollar index closed in New York late on Monday afternoon at 79.40.  After a tiny dip down to 79.34, it rallied to its high 79.54 high of the day shortly before 11 a.m. in New York.  It was all down hill from there---and the index closed at 79.38---basically unchanged.  The scale of the chart makes the action appear more impressive than it actually was. The gold stocks gapped down 2% at the open---and then didn't do much until shortly after 12 o'clock noon in New York.  From there they made it back to unchanged shortly before 1 p.m. EDT, which just happened to be the high price ticks for both gold and silver---and once gold got sold down after that, the stocks followed in sympathy.  The HUI closed down 1.37%. I was all prepared for similar price action in the silver equities, but I was in for a shock when I went to Nick Laird's website.  Yes, there was a spike down at the open, but the shares were back in the green within 20 minutes---and never looked back. The high of the day was at 1 p.m. EDT, which was silver's high tick---and from there they faded very little as the price got sold down.  Then about 15 minutes before the equity market's closed, the shares had a vertical spike of 1 full percent in seconds.  From there it traded sideways into the close.  Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up 2.51%. It beats me as to why silver shares did as well as they did---and that 3:45 p.m. spike got my full and undivided attention.  You have to ask yourself who was buying silver stocks with both hands yesterday---especially considering how poorly the gold equities performed.  What do they know that we don't? There were no reported changes in GLD---and as of 9:48 p.m. EDT, there were no reported changes in SLV, either. The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that only 6 gold and 2 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday.  JPMorgan Chase stopped "all of the above" contracts in its in-house [proprietary] trading account. The U.S. Mint had another sales report.  They sold 1,000 troy ounces of gold eagles---500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes---and 222,000 silver eagles. For the second day in a row there was no reported in/out movement in gold at the Comex-approved depositories. That certainly wasn't the case in silver on Monday.  They reported receiving 1,009,802 troy ounces.  All of it went into Brink's, Inc or CNT.  I've wondered on many occasions who owns all the silver being stored at Brink's---and especially at the CNT Depository, as it's the new kid on the block.  The link to that 'action' is here. Once again I have lots of stories---and I'll happily lave the final edit up to you. ¤ Critical Reads Eric Sprott: Deconstructing the U.S. Economy: The Non-Recovery We are now in the 5th year since the “official” end of the Great Recession (the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which officially dates U.S. recessions, said the recession ended in the second quarter of 2009), but it hardly feels like a recovery. Nonetheless, the media, sell-side economists, central bankers, the IMF, etc. all claim that the U.S. economy is now firmly out of the woods. President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union speech that he believes 2014 “can be a breakthrough year” for the U.S. economy and the IMF, which raised its forecast for U.S. GDP growth in a report titled “Is the Tide Rising?”, now predicts growth of 2.8% in 2014. However, a closer look at the data suggests that things are not improving and that the U.S. economy remains frail. Many point to the unemployment rate as a sign that things are getting better. Indeed, it has been declining steadily for many years and now stands at 6.7%. However, what many seem to forget is that the unemployment rate is declining for the wrong reasons. Yes, the U.S. has been adding new jobs, but a large share of the decline in the unemployment rate can be explained by discouraged workers leaving the labour force.2 This effect can be seen in the falling participation rate. Many argue that this decline in the participation rate is structural and is caused by population aging. This explanation is superficial and misleading. This month's edition of Markets at a Glance is certainly a must read. Adjustable-Rate Mortgages Back in Play Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which helped contribute to the housing bust last decade, are all the rage again. Lenders are offering ARMs at low interest rates, hoping to raise rates later on. Some ARMs stand at their cheapest levels compared with fixed-rate mortgages in more than 10 years, The Wall Street Journal reports. The trouble came in the 2000s when lenders issued ARMs to sub-prime borrowers who couldn't afford them. But now lenders say they're issuing ARMs to more-qualified buyers who are taking out jumbo loans. This news item appeared on the moneynews.com Internet site very early yesterday morning EDT---and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sharing it with us.   Milk Price Hits Record on Surging Demand for U.S. Dairy Exports Milk futures in Chicago jumped to an all-time high Monday, as surging U.S. dairy exports depleted supplies available for domestic consumers. Shippers sold 162,999 metric tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat and whey in January, up 19 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the U.S. Dairy Export Council. Almost 15 percent of milk production went to exported goods, up from 12 percent a year earlier, the group said. Cheese shipments climbed 46 percent. A rise in global demand for U.S. dairy goods comes as a drought threatens output in California, the nation’s top producer. Milk prices have jumped 21 percent this year, signaling higher costs for consumers and restaurants such as Domino’s Pizza Inc. and Potbelly Corp., while the cost of cheddar cheese also reached a record Monday. Here's another news item from the moneynews.com Internet site yesterday---and it's the second contribution of the day from Elliot Simon. Beef Prices Post Biggest Surge in a Decade What Americans paid for everything from haircuts to new cars barely rose, but the price of food alone was 0.4% higher in February from the prior month. Costs for meats, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs drove the gains. Most notably, beef and veal prices surged — just as Terri Weninger, a married mother of three in Waukesha, Wis., has learned. “Things are definitely more expensive,” the 44-year-old said. “I can’t believe how much milk is. Chicken is crazy right now, and beef—I paid $5 a pound for beef!” Prices for beef saw their biggest monthly change in February since November 2003.  This very short blog was posted on The Wall Street Journal website early yesterday afternoon---and the chart alone is worth the trip.  I thank reader M.A. for sending it our way. New York attorney general to investigate high-frequency trading New York’s top law enforcer has opened a broad investigation into whether U.S. stock exchanges and alternative venues provide high-frequency traders with improper advantages. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said today that he’s examining the sale of products and services that offer faster access to data and richer information on trades than what’s typically available to the public. Wall Street banks and rapid-fire trading firms pay thousands of dollars a month for these services from firms including Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ) and IntercontinentalExchange Group Inc.’s New York Stock Exchange.  The attorney general’s staff has discussed his concerns with executives of Nasdaq and NYSE and requested more information, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the talks were private. Schneiderman’s office is also looking into private trading venues, known as dark pools, and the strategies deployed by the high-speed traders themselves.  This Bloomberg news item showed up on their website early yesterday afternoon EDT---and I found it embedded in a GATA release.  A similar, but slightly different, story also appeared on the businessinsider.com Internet site late yesterday afternoon. It's headlined "New York Attorney General Endorses a Radical Change to the Way the World Trades Stocks"---and is courtesy of Roy Stephens. 28-Year Old Former JPMorgan Banker Jumps to His Death, Latest in Series of Recent Suicides Not a week seems to pass without some banker or trader committing suicide. Today we get news of the latest such tragic event with news that 28-year old Kenneth Bellando, a former JPMorgan banker, current employee of Levy Capital, and brother of a top chief investment officer of JPM, jumped to his death from his 6th floor East Side apartment on March 12. Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations. Several John Bellando e-mails were cited during testimony at the Senate Finance Committee’s inquiry into the bank’s losses during the infamous London Whale trade fiasco. This short Zero Hedge piece was posted on their Internet site late yesterday morning EDT---and my thanks go out to Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx for her first offering in today's column. Meet The Brand New, And Shocking, Third Largest Foreign Holder Of U.S. Treasu [The] glaring confirmation that all TIC data is made up on the fly, without any real backing, and merely goalseeked is disturbing enough. However, what was perhaps more disturbing than even that was the revelation that as of January, the U.S. has a brand new third largest holder of US Treasurys, one which in the past two months has added over $100 billion in US Treasury paper, bringing its total from $201 billion in November, to $257 billion in December, to a whopping $310 billion at January 31. The country? Belgium. One would think that the Europe's central bank is behind all this buying.  This short Zero Hedge piece, with a must see chart, was posted on their Internet site late yesterday afternoon EDT---and it's the second contribution in a row from Ulrike Marx. German court confirms euro zone bailout scheme is legal Germany's Constitutional Court upheld the legality of the euro zone's bailout fund on Tuesday, affirming a preliminary ruling during the debt crisis in 2012 that gave a green light to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The court reiterated that the 700 billion euro ($975 billion) fund did not violate the rights of Germany's Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, to decide budgetary matters as long as it had sufficient oversight powers over the ESM. Klaus Regling, head of the ESM, said in a statement that the verdict was "a good decision" both for Europe and for Germany and added that the court had "provided clarity once and for all" by confirming the overall tenor of its preliminary ruling. This Reuters article, filed from Karlsruhe, Germany, was posted on their Internet site at noon EDT yesterday---and I thank Ulrike Marx for her third contribution in a row. For Swiss Data Industry, NSA Leaks Are Good as Gold There is data security, and then there is Swiss data security. The difference was explained to me by Stéphan Grouitch in a conference room deep within a mountain in the Swiss Alps, lit by a subterranean buzz of fluorescent lights. To get to here, under more than 3,000 feet of stone and earth, I showed my passport (something I didn’t have to do to enter the country from Germany), had my finger scanned repeatedly, and passed under security cameras and motion detectors. A blast door, thicker than my forearm is long, is said to protect this old Cold War bunker against a 20-megaton bomb. “The country has always stored valuables for people all around Europe—even before money,” says Grouitch, CEO of Deltalis, the company that owns the bunker. When Deltalis first looked into acquiring the facility from the Swiss military, it considered storing gold bullion here. Instead, it now runs a farm of computer servers where data is safeguarded by strict privacy laws and a unique culture of discretion. To legally access someone’s data here, you’ll need an order from a Swiss judge. This very interesting story showed up on the technologyreview.com Internet site yesterday---and I thank Roy Stephens one more time. Venice votes in referendum on splitting from Rome Voting has begun in Venice and the surrounding region on whether to break away from Italy. Recent opinion polls suggest that two-thirds of the four million electorate favour splitting from Rome, but the vote will not be legally binding. The poll was organised by local activists and parties, who want a future state called Republic of Veneto. This would be reminiscent of the sovereign Venetian republic that existed for more than 1,000 years. This short, but very interesting news item, showed up on the bbc.co.uk Internet site very early Sunday afternoon EDT---and I thank reader Bill Busser for sharing it with us. Eleven Ukraine/Crimea/Russia-related stories 1. Russia 'planned Wall Street bear raid': BBC  2. Calls to escalate Russia sanctions leave E.U. in a quandary: Reuters  3. Lavrov tells U.S. sanctions 'unacceptable', threatens consequences: Voice of Russia  4. French FM Fabius: Russia's participation in G8 meetings suspended: Russia Today  5. Russia not suspended from G8 - French Foreign Ministry spokesman: Voice of Russia  6.  For Swiss Data Industry, NSA Leaks Are Good as Gold Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT For Swiss Data Industry, NSA Leaks Are Good as Gold There is data security, and then there is Swiss data security. The difference was explained to me by Stéphan Grouitch in a conference room deep within a mountain in the Swiss Alps, lit by a subterranean buzz of fluorescent lights. To get to here, under more than 3,000 feet of stone and earth, I showed my passport (something I didn’t have to do to enter the country from Germany), had my finger scanned repeatedly, and passed under security cameras and motion detectors. A blast door, thicker than my forearm is long, is said to protect this old Cold War bunker against a 20-megaton bomb. “The country has always stored valuables for people all around Europe—even before money,” says Grouitch, CEO of Deltalis, the company that owns the bunker. When Deltalis first looked into acquiring the facility from the Swiss military, it considered storing gold bullion here. Instead, it now runs a farm of computer servers where data is safeguarded by strict privacy laws and a unique culture of discretion. To legally access someone’s data here, you’ll need an order from a Swiss judge. This very interesting story showed up on the technologyreview.com Internet site yesterday---and I thank Roy Stephens one more time.

Looming property default in China raises fears of broader crisis Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Looming property default in China raises fears of broader crisis China faces the biggest property default on record as credit curbs threaten to break the housing boom, leaving a string of “ghost towns” across the country. The Chinese newspaper Economic Daily News said Xingrun Properties, in the coastal city of Ningbo, is on the brink of collapse with debts of $570m, mostly owed to banks. The local government has set up a working group to contain the crisis. “As far as we know, this is the largest property developer in recent years at risk of bankruptcy,” said Zhiwei Zhang, from Nomura. “We believe that a sharp property market correction could lead to a systemic crisis in China, and is the biggest risk China faces in 2014. The risk is particularly high in third and fourth-tier cities, which accounted for 67pc of housing under construction in 2013,” he said. This longish Ambrose Evans-Pritchard commentary was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site early Monday evening GMT---and I found it in yesterday's edition of the King Report.

China to allow direct yuan, New Zealand dollar trades Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT China to allow direct yuan, New Zealand dollar trades China has allowed direct domestic trading of the yuan against the New Zealand dollar to encourage such trading as it internationalizes the Chinese currency. The move, announced on Tuesday by the central bank during a visit by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to Beijing, comes after China doubled the yuan's trading band over the weekend in a milestone step that gives investors more freedom to set the value of the tightly controlled currency. China is New Zealand's largest export destination and a major buyer of dairy products produced in the South Pacific nation. The move was seen as promoting trade between the two countries, which rose 25.2 percent to NZ$18.2 billion ($15.71 billion) in 2013, and increase capital flows. This Reuters story was posted on their website early Tuesday evening EDT---and I thank Ulrike Marx for sharing it with us.

Four King World News Blogs Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Four King World News Blogs 1. Dr. Stephen Leeb:  "We Are Now Living in a Corrupt JP Morgan World"  2. Gerald Celente: "Internet World War to Create Terrifying Global Panic"  3. Rick Rule: "The Greatest Opportunity For Investors in 14 Years"  4. Richard Russell: "Silver is the Greatest Buy in the World Today"

Taiwan to allow banks to sell gold, silver coins from China Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Taiwan to allow banks to sell gold, silver coins from China Taiwan will allow local banks to sell gold and sliver coins from China, the island's Financial Supervisory Commission said on Tuesday. The move comes amid deepening ties in cross-strait relations, it said in a statement. Trade and financial ties between Taiwan and China has gathered steam since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008. A slew of trade pacts have been signed since then. The above three paragraphs are all there is to this tiny Reuters story which was filed from Taipei very early yesterday morning EDT---and it's another contribution from Ulrike Marx.

Reserve Bank of India's foreign exchange reserves in gold fall 15% Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Reserve Bank of India's foreign exchange reserves in gold fall 15% Portfolio managers who have been losing money in the past year — be it on gold or fixed income securities — need not feel bad. They are in the company of Reserve Bank of India. The central bank's foreign exchange reserves in gold fell 15% in value between March and September last year, and the yield on reserves fell 2 basis points amid low interest rates across the developed world. Gold accounted for about 8% of the total foreign exchange reserves in value terms in September last year. The value of precious metals with RBI was $21.765 billion at the end of September last year, from $25.692 billion in March last year. The RBI held 557.8 tonnes of gold, of which 265.5 tonnes are held abroad with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements. Gold prices in India fell during the first half of last year on account of global softening of prices amid recession and a fall in demand for the yellow metal as a safe investment haven. This gold-related news item, filed from Kolkata, showed up on The Economic Times of India website early yesterday morning IST---and it's the final offering of the day from Ulrike Marx.

On Russia Today's 'Boom/Bust,' fund manager Tice endorses GATA's work Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT On Russia Today's 'Boom/Bust,' fund manager Tice endorses GATA's work Interviewed yesterday by Erin Ade on Russia Today's "Boom/Bust" program, fund manager David Tice said he believes in GATA's work and that the gold price is suppressed by central banks to deceive the markets. Tice's comments about gold begin at the 10-minute mark of the program as archived at the RT Internet site. I found this video clip embedded in a GATA release.

Under new scrutiny, gold manipulators changing tactics, Sprott says Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Under new scrutiny, gold manipulators changing tactics, Sprott says In an interview with Sprott Money News, Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott discusses gold market manipulation and speculates that the immediate participants in gold market manipulation have had to change their tactics now that they have become the subjects of official investigations. The interview is 8 minutes long and can be heard at the Sprott Money Internet site.  I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing this introduction for us.

Exceptionally strong U.S. silver jewelry sales in 2013’ - Survey Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:35 AM PDT Exceptionally strong U.S. silver jewelry sales in 2013' - Survey A survey conducted by jewelry trade publication National Jeweler on behalf of the Silver Institute’s Silver Promotion Service found silver jewelry sales were robust last year, with 73% of jewelry retailers reporting increased sales in 2013---and 92% of the retailers who responded to the survey said they are optimistic that the current silver boom will continue for the next several years. 65% of the retailers surveyed increased their silver jewelry inventory in 2013, an average of 23%. 46% observed that silver experienced the best inventory turnover rate in 2013. Of the jewelry retailers surveyed, 66% said their 2013 holiday sales of silver increased over the 2012 season. 56% said their silver jewelry sales increased between 11-25%, while 10% saw and increase over 25%. The average increase in 2013 for silver sales was 17%. This excellent story was posted on the mineweb.com Internet site in the wee hours of this morning.  It's a must read of course.

Gold Bull Market Corrections Then and Now Posted: 19 Mar 2014 02:00 AM PDT Le Cafe Américain

Silver and Gold Top Not Confirmed Yet Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:15 AM PDT minyanville

Gold Price Analysis- March 19, 2014 Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:15 AM PDT dailyforex

CHARTS - The Chart That Will Make You Bullish on Gold Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:10 AM PDT economicvoice

US Dollar Technical Analysis – Prices Set Monthly Low Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT dailyfx

Gold Prices March 19, 2014, Technical Analysis Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT fxempire

Gold Spot Intraday: The Downside Prevails. Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:05 AM PDT forexyard

Michael Gray: Is Goldcorp's Bid for Osisko a Harbinger of a Gold Renaissance? Posted: 19 Mar 2014 01:00 AM PDT Optimism. Momentum. Buoyancy. Call it what you will, a positive current is running through the gold space. Macquarie Capital Markets' Canadian Mining Equity Research Team Head Michael Gray... Visit the aureport.com for more information and for a free newsletter

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