saveyourassetsfirst3 |
- Gold And Silver – Gann, Cardnial Grand Cross, Mousetrap, And Wrong Expectations
- GOFO Plunging Again- Indicating A Big Move in Gold?
- Buy Gold as "World Backs Away" from Dollar: Rickards
- Weekly Gold Chart
- Ranges Persist, Though Sterling Is Exceptional
- SilverCrest Mines: A Wonderful Company At A Fair Price
- ALASDAIR MACLEOD: PAPER CURRENCIES FACE ULTIMATE COLLAPSE- LOSS OF CONFIDENCE IN THE DOLLAR COULD PROPEL SILVER TO $75!
- Why Maxcoin and Bitcoin is different from most other digital currencies
- Does China Really Have 1,000 Tons Of Gold Locked Up In Shadow Financing Deals?
- Gold mining giants reportedly neared merger, but talks failed
- Review Of "Nature Of Investing" And "World We Made"
- Merger talks between gold giants Barrick and Newmont break down
- Alasdair Macleod: Paper Currencies Face Ultimate Collapse- Loss of Confidence in the Dollar Could Propel Silver to $75!
- Gold At An Inflection Point
- Joe Firestone: Using Generational Warfare to Divert Attention from Oligarchy and Corporatism
- Goldman Sachs Is Highly Motivated To Low-Ball Gold Price
- Jim Willie: Fed Has Lost Control, Systemic Failure Flashing Warning Signals Now!
- Gold stands out as a value play as China and US stocks look weak
- Why is Maxcoin superior over gold?
- Charleston Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill at VA
- The Secret of The Seven Sisters & Black Gold
- Holter muses on Chinas silver scheme; Barron doubts new raid on gold ETFs
- Four-nation talks to "de-escalate" the Ukrainian crisis just ended. Here's what happened...
| Gold And Silver – Gann, Cardnial Grand Cross, Mousetrap, And Wrong Expectations Posted: 19 Apr 2014 12:51 PM PDT W D Gann has long been recognized as an astute market trader, and followers of Gann have been trying to figure out his genius. The best way to describe how he made so many successful market calls is, in a word, astrology. Having died in 1955, we did not know him, but we were fortunate enough to have met and befriended his assistant, Robert Courter. He, too, has since died, but he confirmed what many who study Gann know, that William Delbert Gann was an extraordinary astrologer, exceptional. The Square of Nine, the Circle of 360, his Hexagon, and Master Charts were all based on astrology. He did not openly admit that in his newsletters and writings, but he often mentioned "wheels within wheels," which was how the planets revolved around the Sun. Most people believe astrology to be akin to reading tea leaves or using a Ouija board, and he did not want to be put into that category. We will not get into astrology and the markets, but we have observed direct correlations between planetary movements and price action in stocks and futures. Not being astrologically adept, we leave it to others but acknowledge its validity. The point in mentioning Gann and astrology is next week's big astrological event, a Cardinal Grand Cross. Between April 20th through April 23rd, there are four days of supreme astrological intensity. They are bookended by the Full Lunar Eclipse, just passed on the 15th, and an Annular Solar Eclipse on the 29th. [Anyone can do an internet search to understand some of the terms below, like we just did to find out what a Blood Moon is.] Essentially, on 23 April, Pluto will be 180 degrees, [opposite] from Jupiter, and Mars will be 180 degrees from Uranus. All will be in the 13th degree of their respective Sun signs, forming a cross shape, thus the Cardinal Grand Cross. As the term implies, "opposition," usually entails a major polarizing effect. What can happen? The Ukrainian situation igniting that leads to war would be one example. Anyone interested can look up more. We just wanted to mention it because it could have an impact on world events, and to let people that from an astrological view, it was known ahead of time. [Not a specific event, but the basis for one.] Gann was mentioned to tie in a highly respected market guru with market astrology. Plus. we have witnessed market moves that were known to be timed to planetary aspects, in advance, and as recently as last week.
Source: AstroShaman.com You would think that how the fundamentals have been so misleading to so many in the PMs community, that more would pay attention to what the market says and less to what others have to say about the markets. It is like building a better mousetrap and expecting people to come flocking to buy it, which they do not. Why not? Creatures of habit may be the simplest answer. We see charts as the "improved mousetrap," as it were, and superior as a tool for market timing over fundamentals, or any other similar undertaking, for relating to what and when to buy in the markets. Still, there are not that many converts who pay more attention to what the market is saying. The one thing we know for sure is, regardless of whatever one has in the form of expectations, they are always subordinate to the final arbiter over price, and that is the market itself. We make such a distinction on the daily silver chart, at the end. For now, here is our ongoing read of developing market activity for gold and silver: For months, we have been saying that the gold charts are not indicating a wild or even a sustained move higher. To the contrary, despite all the positive fundamentals for demand, on so many levels, price is marching to a different tune, far removed from all the known and highly constructive news about gold. If you were to base your decision-making on news alone, one is not making any money from buying gold. Does that mean one should refrain from buying it? The best answer comes from knowing your objectives. If you want security from the out-of-control fiat spending of all Western governments, then yes, this continues to be the time to buy gold, [and silver]. In addition to the insane and unprecedented creation of "money out of thin air," world-wide events are turning darker and darker. Gold and silver remain one of the best means for attaining financial peace of mind, and one of the best forms of wealth preservation. In this regard, price is of no consequence. Ownership is. Stay the course. There is ample evidence that your own government sees any money you hold in banks as theirs for the taking, [Cyprus, Greece, Ireland]. Rules, laws, statutes are already in place to have your funds confiscated, if you [wrongly] believe that it cannot happen to you. Both in the US and UK, at a minimum, there have been several published stories about people's safety deposit boxes raided for their gold and silver contents. If you do not want to be subjected to what is going on, and will surely only get worse and more widespread, than yes, buying gold and silver makes sense, not to make money, as an incorrect measure in the short-term, but to be safe and secure in protecting what you already have from being confiscated, in some manner. Obviously, owning and holding PMs means you do not keep it in some bank or [not so] safe deposit box. If you want to be profiting from owning gold, [and silver], then no, now is not the time to be committing to the long side, in general. That is more of a function of trading, and futures and options are the typical choices. We do not trade options, so they are never a topic of the charts we discuss. The best we can say about gold is that it may be transitioning from its protracted down trend. The signs that gold remains under pressure are still there, bearish spacing, lower swing highs, etc, and that means any buying has to be very select, or not at all, again, profit being the only objective. The chart comments are apt, and we will add that in addition to the high volume from four weeks ago, the very small range bar, at the low, supports the prospects that the bottoming process continues with increasing positive signs. That can change next week, if the market were to make lower lows, but unless and until that kind of event happens, we can only draw conclusions from facts that are known, and not from what may or may not happen.  gold price For whatever reason that it happened, last week's wide range bar down on sharply higher volume may contain price activity for the next several TDs, [Trading Days]. Look at the wide range bar lower, at the beginning of April, in the weekly chart above. It captured price within its range for the next 7 trading weeks. Then, at the end of April, same chart, there were two large bars down, and with the exception of a brief rally above the first of those two bars, price has been trading with their range for the past year! Because price closed well off the low of last Tuesday's sell-off, the sharply higher volume, and price at important support, tells us buyers are defending the 1280 +/- area as support.  gold price Silver keeps trying. It is like the Little Engine That Could: "I think I can, I think I can…" One day, now sooner than later, it will move higher and get over the hill. As you view the daily chart, you can see price moving farther and farther along the RHS, [Right Hand Side] of the ongoing TR, [Trading Range]. The farther along price moves on the RHS, the closer it gets to reaching a final resolve, or a breaking free of the TR. That it is occurring at such a low-level, and at important support, an upside breakout is more likely. However, it is still possible for one more move lower to totally wash out weak hands and trigger sell stops, at the same time.  silver price Combined with comments on the weekly TR, you can see that silver just had a break to the downside of its recent little TR. We see it as a positive development because of how it happened: wide range, highest contract volume, close off the low, and no downside follow-through for next two TDs. Forget about your own expectations for higher prices, at least in the sense of wanting higher prices as soon as possible. It is the market that determines where price trades and for how long. Higher prices are coming! This is where all the developing fundamentals are put into a context, but the timing for when price will justify the fundamental expectations is determined by market activity. That activity, as just described, and as we have been saying for over a year, is saying, quite clearly, neither silver nor gold are showing evidence of an imminent move higher. Adjust your expectations to what the market is saying, and you will lower your anxiety level for disappointment and align yourself for what is. The definitions of is is that which is going on, right now, and not what is in your own mind, re gold and silver.  silver price |
| GOFO Plunging Again- Indicating A Big Move in Gold? Posted: 19 Apr 2014 12:00 PM PDT
 The oppressive and illegal manipulation of the gold market is starting to show unintended consequences again. At the beginning of April the LBMA (London) gold forward rate (GOFO) turned negative again. It's been getting more negative every day this month. From January 1, 1989 – July 7, 2013, there were only seven days in which a [...] The post GOFO Plunging Again- Indicating A Big Move in Gold? appeared first on Silver Doctors. |
| Buy Gold as "World Backs Away" from Dollar: Rickards Posted: 19 Apr 2014 10:45 AM PDT bullionvault |
| Posted: 19 Apr 2014 10:25 AM PDT I wanted to take just a short bit of time between firing up the pit smoker and throwing some bovine flesh upon it to put up a quick chart of gold for the readers. As I mentioned on Thursday, gold is totally at the mercy of events in Ukraine for the time being. You can see on the chart that the metal has been range bound for some time now ( about one year ). Please keep this is mind when you read more breathless talk about gold being poised for a big move "any time now". How many of these "any time now's" have we read over the last year? Whether it is the GOFO talk or backwardation talk or "Russia is going to dump the Dollar" talk, or whatever. Technically not a single one of these premises, or others not listed, have changed the technical posture of this market for a year. If and only if the price breaks out of this range, can we say with certainty that the market has become concerned with these things. For now, it could care less and thus neither should we.  The green rectangle defines the range which is near $1400 on the top side and just below $1200 on the bottom side for a range of some $200. Just last month ( March ) the price had rallied up to the top of the range only to meet with selling. That pushed it back down with it looking likely that it was headed down towards $1200 once more. However, events flared up in Ukraine and gold received some strong bids due to safe haven flows. Those bids came in near $1280. The circumstances due to these geopolitical concerns have created a new and higher bottom at the $1280 level. However, gold has been unable to push past $1320 for any length of time. That has carved out a new range within the broader range. This is marked on the chart as "Tighter Trading Range".  These two levels are our new boundaries which are confining the price for the time being. If the market senses any lessening of tensions in Ukraine, chances are that $1280 will not hold on the bottom. If not, there is a band of congestion between $1260 - $1240 that will draw it like a magnet should it fail. There is little support between $1240 and $1200 meaning that if $1240 were to fail, $1200 will be tested. On the upside, only a breach of $1320 would give the bulls the needed impetus to make a run to $1350. If events in Ukraine fade from traders' minds, the focus will shift back to US economic data with participants looking for clues to the Fed's future actions on in US interest rate front. Any improvements on the jobs front will immediately fan the flames of higher interest rates next spring, which the market continues to waver back and forth on. Higher rates will pressure gold as it should support the US Dollar. Again, we do not know what the economic data will look like and thus that leaves the markets very susceptible to sudden and sharp price swings either way as price responds to changes in expectations or sentiment along those lines. Lastly, here is the current Commitment of Traders data viewed in chart form as to the positioning of the large hedge funds in comparison to the price of the metal.  There was a rather large shift this week in the positioning of the hedgies as they were both liquidating stale longs and adding new shorts. The combination dropped their current net long position by some 8000 contracts or so. This is the reason for my concern if the $1280 level does not hold - there will be a significant amount of long liquidation among this category of traders if it does not. In another interesting development, the small traders, the general public, were selling gold this past week as well. Is the bloom coming off the metal for this category? They are net long still but this is the least bullish they have been in five weeks. Sentiment could be changing in the speculative community and that will bear close monitoring. Happy Easter. |
| Ranges Persist, Though Sterling Is Exceptional Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:50 AM PDT The US dollar rose against all the major currencies last week, except the British pound, which was lifted by a strong employment report and a tick up in wage growth. The greenback's gains are consistent with our caution last week against playing for a breakout as key support for the dollar had been approached. The issue remains the same for the week ahead. Assuming no exogenous shocks, such data or comments that require a significant reassessment of the macro view, that is to say, the continued status quo favors continued range trading. In a world in which we may not have seen the peak in central bank balance sheets, and the first Fed hike is still more than a year away, incentives favor riskier assets and the chase of yield. Once one minimizes the redenomination risk (i.e., the break-up of EMU) and recognizes the reform efforts, the |
| SilverCrest Mines: A Wonderful Company At A Fair Price Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:30 AM PDT Since I last wrote about SilverCrest (SVLC) in December shareholders have been on a wild ride. The stock traded at $1.64/share when I wrote the article. By February they traded as high as $2.78 before plunging back to Earth with the rest of the mining sector. SilverCrest's fall was particularly violent given two additional catalysts particular to the company. First, the company issued 8.9 million shares at $2.60/share, which added to the supply of shares on the market. Second, the company reported disappointing Q4 numbers on Monday, March 24th. With the stock now sitting at $1.69 the stock is still a nickel higher than where it was in December, although the gold price is about 5% higher. This, among other things, indicate that the stock should have performed better, and this means that there is an opportunity in SilverCrest shares that is arguably even better than that |
| Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:27 AM PDT Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Click here for the Special Extended Edition Metals & Markets With Alasdair Macleod: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Why Maxcoin and Bitcoin is different from most other digital currencies Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:16 AM PDT |
| Does China Really Have 1,000 Tons Of Gold Locked Up In Shadow Financing Deals? Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:07 AM PDT Any regular follower of the gold market knows that the supposed big driver of the gold price drop last week was related to a new World Gold Council (WGC) report that suggested that China may have more than 1000 tons of gold tied up to commodity financing deals. The narrative given to this drop in gold prices was that based on the aforementioned WGC report and goes something like this:
The WGC |
| Gold mining giants reportedly neared merger, but talks failed Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT seekingalpha |
| Review Of "Nature Of Investing" And "World We Made" Posted: 19 Apr 2014 03:30 AM PDT THE NATURE OF INVESTING by Katherine Collins, Bibliomotion, Inc., Brookline, MA, 2014 THE WORLD WE MADE by Jonathon Porritt, Phaidon Press, Forum for the Future, UK, 2013 Katherine Collins, author of The Nature of Investing, is also a successful veteran asset manager of a multi-billion dollar mutual fund for Fidelity, and head of their US Equity Research. After 20 years, Katherine Collins decided to widen her investment lens, first by earning an MTS degree at Harvard Divinity School, and then taking a professional course in biomimicry and becoming an investor in the field's premier global company, Biomimicry 3.8. For full disclosure, Collins also serves on Ethical Markets Advisory Board, and I am also an investor in Biomimicry 3.8 which is a privately held, Certified B Corporation, as is Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil). Collins takes the reader through all the intricacies of professional asset management |
| Merger talks between gold giants Barrick and Newmont break down Posted: 18 Apr 2014 11:31 PM PDT GATA |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2014 11:08 PM PDT
 London expert Alasdair Macleod returns to the SD Weekly Metals & Markets with his brilliant PM analysis, including: Chinese 2013 gold demand 7,603 tons- More than DOUBLE Global Supply & mainstream estimates! Macleod states that China’s total gold reserves (public & private) may be between 10 and 25,000 tons of gold! Vaulting companies have never seen [...] The post Alasdair Macleod: Paper Currencies Face Ultimate Collapse- Loss of Confidence in the Dollar Could Propel Silver to $75! appeared first on Silver Doctors. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 18 Apr 2014 10:00 PM PDT In the past, I have noted that many should not follow the bottom-calls of the so-called "gurus" in the metals arena. They have been terribly wrong because they can only see a market that is going up. No one should place significant reliance upon anyone who can only see one direction for a market. However, there are a number of those that have proven themselves to be relatively reliable sources of analysis, and even within that group, there are significant differences as to whether gold has bottomed. So, we should probably take a step back and try to understand what would cause such a diversity of opinion from ordinarily objective observers. Is it that sentiment is "mixed-up"? Or, could there be a different explanation based upon sentiment perspectives? As an aside, let me note that the gold "going forward" rates are now negative for 6 months, as the market now |
| Joe Firestone: Using Generational Warfare to Divert Attention from Oligarchy and Corporatism Posted: 18 Apr 2014 09:25 PM PDT Yves here. Even though the pitched battle to cut, erm, reform Social Security and Medicare has died down, don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s over. Neoliberals keep stoking generational warfare to drive a wedge between the young and old so as to keep them from noticing who is behind the campaign to have old people die faster.By Joe Firestone, Ph.D., Managing Director, CEO of the Knowledge Management Consortium International (KMCI), and Director of KMCI's CKIM Certificate program. He taught political science as the graduate and undergraduate level and blogs regularly at Corrente, Firedoglake and Daily Kos as letsgetitdone. Cross posted from New Economic Perspectives Some of the favored children of the economic elite who have a public presence, work hard in their writing and speaking to divert attention from inequality and oligarchy issues by raising the issue of competition between seniors and millennials for "scarce" Federal funds. That's understandable. If millennials develop full consciousness of who, exactly, has been flushing their prospects for a decent life down the toilet, their anger and activism might bring down the system of wealth and economic and social privilege that benefits both their families and the favored themselves in the new America of oligarchy and plutocracy. Here and here, I evaluated Abby Huntsman's arguments for entitlement "reform," and, of course, Pete Peterson's son, Michael fights a continuing generational war against seniors in pushing the austerian line of the Peterson Foundation. Now comes Catherine Rampell, who, in a recent column, sets forth the position that seniors haven't paid for their Social Security and Medicare because they "generally receive" more in benefits out of these programs than they pay into them. I'll reply to all of the main points in Rampell's argument, by quoting liberally and then replying to the points she makes in each quote. She says:
She continues by citing an Urban Institute study and pointing out that earlier age cohorts received much more in benefits from Social Security than they paid in, and also says:
After citing some details documenting "what a steal" Medicare is, Rampell concludes the first part of her argument with this:
This argument of Rampell's is disingenuous, because it takes the claim that seniors have already paid for their entitlements as saying that they've paid dollar-for-dollar, more or less, for what they're getting in benefits. But seniors who know how SS and medicare works certainly don't mean this when they say they've already paid for it. What they surely mean instead, is that Congress has legislated the SS and Medicare safety nets, and the benefits that currently exist, for the purpose of seeing to it that seniors have a minimum of economic insecurity during the period of their lives when a large proportion of them no longer have the capability to earn a decent living due to illness, other infirmities, or an extreme reluctance of private sector employers to hire them even when they are very skilled. To draw on the benefits of these programs seniors were required to pay FICA contributions during their working lives. These payments, according to the law, give them the right, in other words, entitle them, to receive the benefits of SS and Medicare that were mandated by Congress. No one ever said to today's seniors that there was some rule in the SS and Medicare programs requiring that their payments needed to, or ought to, correspond to the amount of their total benefits, since that was never the deal legislated by Congress. No, the deal was: "You pay your FICA contributions, and you get your benefits at retirement." Simple as that! So, people who followed the SS and Medicare rules and made their payments over the years rightly view themselves as having paid for their entitlement benefits, regardless of whether their cumulative FICA payments fall short of or exceed the cumulative sum of those benefits. Why shouldn't they, and why is Rampell implying that the deal implicit in our major entitlement programs is anything different? Additionally, I'm afraid that Rampell is also wrong when she says that today's seniors "paid for" their parents' entitlements. They certainly paid FICA and Medicare-related contributions, of course; but it is not true that these revenues paid for anything, in spite of Federal reports that appear to link the two, or the accounting that shows that the Social Security Administration has built up a $2.8 Trillion credit against future expenditures, and that Medicare has a much smaller volume of credit to be used for such expenditures. The reality of Federal monetary operations is that Congress mandates the spending for all Federal programs and then spending occurs through the Treasury keystroking reserves into recipients' accounts. Where do those reserves come from? They come from the Federal Reserve, of course, which has the delegated authority from Congress to credit reserves into Treasury accounts. When, where, and why does it do this? The main trigger events are 1) tax and FICA contribution revenues, 2) sales of Treasury securities, 3) credits from coin sales and deposits at the Fed (coin seigniorge), 4) sales of Federal property, and 5) return of Fed profits to the Treasury. Tax and FICA payments cause the Fed to credit Treasury Tax and Loan (TT & L) accounts with reserves. Treasury coin sales and deposits at the Fed cause it to credit the Mint's Public Enterprise Fund (PEF) account with reserves, and Fed profits and asset sales cause it to credit other Treasury accounts with reserves. So that's how reserves get into what might be called Treasury income accounts. From there, the Fed and the Treasury co-ordinate to ensure that there are sufficient reserve credits in Treasury spending accounts to allow Treasury to keystroke reserves into private sector accounts in fulfillment of all Treasury spending obligations. This occurs through the Treasury informing the Fed about its scheduled payments and peak reserve balance needs for a particular time period, and then the Fed and Treasury ensuring that the reserves will be there, if necessary through the issuance and sale of debt instruments, or even if Treasury would choose to do so through its creation (through the Mint), and deposit at the Fed, of platinum coins with face values specified by the Secretary (of course, this last option hasn't yet been used). So, two important points emerge from this account that Catherine Rampell and all who think that entitlement benefits are "paid for" by taxes and/or FICA contributions need to learn. First, once Congress mandates spending, there is no way that the Treasury can be forced into insolvency or an inability to pay its obligations as long as it is willing to make use of all the ways it can cause the Fed to create reserve credits in Treasury spending accounts which can then be used for its keystroking activities. And second, there is no way, in the Federal Government spending context, to link any specific category of tax revenues or FICA contributions to benefit spending. There is no way to accurately say that this tax pays for that spending. Or that this spending is "paid for" by that tax. Or that millennials, and other age cohorts, are paying for seniors' entitlement benefits, or for the difference between what seniors' payments were before they began to receive benefits and what they are now getting paid afterwards. The whole neoliberal construction of Government finance which assumes that the Government is a currency user with limited financial resources is false. The Government is a high-powered money creator of reserves, currency, and coins. It is the only high-powered money creator. It is the high-powered money monopolist. So, Catherine Rampell, as well as all the conservative and/or austerian, and most of the progressive pundits and politicians of all stripes, are wrong to spend time debating who does or should "pay for" entitlement benefits with their taxes. Federal taxes don't pay for anything. So, payments made to the Government "for" entitlement benefits should be, required, if at all, only for other purposes than "paying for" such benefits. They have only the following functions. Some unknown level of taxation gives a national fiat currency its value, by ensuring that people will need that currency to pay their taxes. Taxes also can drain excessive reserves and net financial assets from the financial system, reducing aggregate demand when this is desirable. They can also be used to reduce levels of behavior society believes is undesirable, or to incentivize behavior it considers desirable, and to reduce the accumulation of wealth across generations, or to drive resources to charities, and for other purposes as well. But, what they cannot do in a fiat currency system is to function as the actual effective means of "paying for" sovereign spending. The instrument that, in fact, enables such spending day-to-day is the sovereign and sole authority of the Government to create high-powered money. In the United States. This means it is the whole process of interaction among Congress, the Fed, and the Treasury that creates such high-powered money which determines the amount of spending we have and not the specific taxes we collect from any specific generational cohorts. And this brings us to Rampall's next point:
The facts of fiat money operations described earlier, make clear that nobody is making up that difference between seniors' current benefits and seniors' payments prior to their receiving entitlement benefits with their tax payments. What is happening instead, is that the Government is paying all benefits using established monetary operations, and its authority to create high-powered fiat money. So, Rampell has nothing to worry about. Her money isn't going to baby boomers or other seniors like me. Its destruction by the Government through taxation is fulfilling public purposes other than providing baby boomers and other seniors with their benefits. But while on this subject, what's the point of the reference to "the bloated baby boomer-cohort"? Are the boomers to blame for the size of their cohorts? Should they have increased their suicide and murder rates to bring the size of their cohort more in line with others? Do they bear a moral responsibility for continuing to live? Full disclosure: I'm a senior, though not a boomer, but I don't see what the point or the justification is for referring to them as "bloated" because their parents decided to celebrate the end of the Great Depression and World War II by having lots of children. In fact, I don't think referring to the boomer cohort as "bloated" makes any more sense than referring to the millennial generation as "spoiled." It's the kind of thing that in days of more simplistic philosophy people used to call "cognitively meaningless," and that we have always called ad hominem argument. As for health care costs rising enormously, and "the extra burden" that will place on other generations, there are many ways of handling that other than reducing benefits to seniors. For example, we could begin by recognizing that increasing health care costs are not a burden for a Government that can create high-powered money to buy anything for sale within its own borders, and that the REAL financial problem of rising health care costs isn't a government solvency problem, but a financial hardship problem for most Americans. It's they who need both lower costs and good health care outcomes, not the Government. So, rather than implying that Medicare benefits need to be cut, why doesn't Rampell propose that HR 676, enhanced Medicare for All, be immediately passed by Congress? We know from experience in other nations that HR 676 or similar legislation would reduce the rate of increase of health care spending much below today's levels. In addition, if we can get down to the same percent of GDP Canada spends for health care with such legislation, then we will spend roughly $1 Trillion per year less than we spend now on health care. Since health care involves no deficit spending right now, that means $1 Trillion per year left in the pockets and bank accounts of sectors of the economy other than health care insurers and providers. That's an awful lot of new jobs created, along with better health care outcomes, if the experience of other nations with single-payer systems is any guide. So, why isn't Rampell advocating that kind of solution, instead of saying things like "Look over here at that greedy old codger" and "Don't tax you, don't tax me; tax that senior standing under the tree"? Maybe we can find an answer to that question by looking at the last paragraph in her column.
So, here we have everything in a nutshell. Rampell, consistent with her false belief that entitlements are "paid for" by inherently limited Government fund raising through taxing or borrowing, also appears to believes the falsehood that Federal money is limited by the Government's ability to tax and borrow, and that the needs for a quality education for the young, infrastructure for a healthy economy, a good life and equal opportunity for children, the deeply poor, and, implicitly, opportunities for good jobs and a good life for her own millennial age cohort, are in competition for Federal money with the needs of seniors. However, Federal money sufficient to fulfill all these needs can easily be made available if Congress is willing to appropriate it. For example, the faux entitlement solvency crisis that Rampell worries about can easily be fixed by passing legislation providing for annual automatic funding of expected costs for all SS and Medicare trust funds. Congress does that now for Supplementary Medical Insurance (Medicare Part B), and Prescription Drug Benefits (Medicare Part D), and the same practice, using similar legislative language, can be extended to the SS Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) trust funds. Solving the crisis can be done this way in an afternoon if Congress really wants to do it. End of faux problem; almost end of story, apart from possible debt limit problems. Once legislation like this is passed, no gaps between SS revenue and benefits can be projected by institutions such as CBO, or other Petersonian deficit warriors. Because under current law, once those appropriations are set on automatic renewal annually, the Treasury will then have the obligation to spend those appropriations by using one or more of the various tools listed earlier to generate credits in the Treasury General Account (TGA). Again, the Treasury has no fiscal solvency problem, under current law, provided it has an appropriation mandating it to spend, since it can always use its authority to create the reserves in the Treasury spending accounts to pay all its bills including all those exceeding its revenues. The customary way of creating such reserves is to sell Treasury debt instruments, destroying reserves in the private sector, while adding the net financial asset of Federal debt to that sector, and getting the Fed to place an equal amount of reserves in its accounts. But, this way of getting the necessary reserves can be interrupted by debt ceiling crises. However, there are other ways it can be done that get around any refusal to raise the debt limit, if it wants to fulfill its obligations and pay all the benefits guaranteed by the change in the law to provide automatic appropriations that would solve this faux problem. The best way any gap appropriated by Congress can be closed under current law, is to use Platinum Coin Seigniorage (PCS) to do it. I've explained how this would work in my kindle e-book, as well as http://neweconomicperspectives.org/category/joe-firestone-2 in many blog posts. The basic idea is that its platinum coin seigniorage authority can be used by the Treasury to require the Fed to use its reserve creation authority to place reserves in Treasury accounts, without Treasury engaging in any additional taxing or borrowing. If Treasury doesn't want to do this, then it can use a type of debt instrument which isn't counted toward the debt limit such, as consols (See here). Just as Congress, along with the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, can work together to solve faux self-created entitlement crises, it can also legislate the deficit spending needed to fulfill all the needs Rampell is worried about. It is a question of will and intention, not a question of financial capability. Rampell should not write disingenuously as if a future entitlement funding crisis is an inevitable fact of nature, rather than an aspect of "shock doctrine" and a political choice. Entitlement benefits aren't in competition with other needs for scarce Federal funds, and what seniors have paid in FICA taxes aren't important for the level of benefits we decide to allocate to them. The whole debate over what's been paid in and what seniors get out is all sound and fury signifying nothing but neoliberal madness and moral bankruptcy. The proper frame to use when evaluating the question of how much the Government ought to subsidize one generational cohort as opposed to another isn't the competitive neoliberal framing used by Rampell at all. The framing Rampell should be using is this:
|
| Goldman Sachs Is Highly Motivated To Low-Ball Gold Price Posted: 18 Apr 2014 09:00 PM PDT marketoracle |
| Jim Willie: Fed Has Lost Control, Systemic Failure Flashing Warning Signals Now! Posted: 18 Apr 2014 03:12 PM PDT
 The US Federal Reserve has been printing money since 2011 to cover USGovt debt securities in a frenetic manner. They have lost control. They call it stimulus, when it is actually the opposite. It does assist the speculators with nearly zero cost money to borrow, but one must be a club member to win loan [...] The post Jim Willie: Fed Has Lost Control, Systemic Failure Flashing Warning Signals Now! appeared first on Silver Doctors. |
| Gold stands out as a value play as China and US stocks look weak Posted: 18 Apr 2014 02:38 PM PDT Bianco Research president Jim Bianco sees gold as a standout value play in a world where China is performing badly and US stocks look overbought. He discusses Federal Reserve monetary policy, corporate earnings and the state of the US and Chinese economies. He speaks with Angie Lau on Bloomberg Television’s ‘First Up’… |
| Why is Maxcoin superior over gold? Posted: 18 Apr 2014 02:24 PM PDT Maxcoin and gold have a lot of similarities:
Gold is great but has a lot of disadvantages. Thats why Maxcoin is superior over gold for three simple reasons >>> |
| Charleston Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill at VA Posted: 18 Apr 2014 01:45 PM PDT
 Some of you may wonder why of all the stories out there today I decided to focus on the $525 fine a construction worker in South Carolina received a for refilling his drink at a VA Medical Center without paying. The reason is to highlight the difference between what happens when a peasant breaks the law versus [...] The post Charleston Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill at VA appeared first on Silver Doctors. |
| The Secret of The Seven Sisters & Black Gold Posted: 18 Apr 2014 12:00 PM PDT
 On this slow Friday afternoon while the market is closed, and the Ukrainian crisis threatens to spiral into an all-out war, we present a four part documentary on the history of the oil cartels and how geo-political relations are dominated by black gold. The Secret of the Seven Sisters & Black Gold: [...] The post The Secret of The Seven Sisters & Black Gold appeared first on Silver Doctors. |
| Holter muses on Chinas silver scheme; Barron doubts new raid on gold ETFs Posted: 17 Apr 2014 03:01 PM PDT GATA |
| Four-nation talks to "de-escalate" the Ukrainian crisis just ended. Here's what happened... Posted: 17 Apr 2014 02:13 PM PDT From Bloomberg: Four-way talks on the crisis in Ukraine ended with an accord aimed at taking the first steps toward de-escalating the conflict, after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he hopes he won't have to send in troops. The agreement was announced after talks in Geneva today between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Deshchytsia, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign-policy chief. Their session lasted more than six hours, longer than scheduled. Kerry said Russia, which the U.S. and its European allies accuse of stoking the conflict, must start implementing the deal within days. "The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens," the four said in a joint statement. "All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation, or provocative actions. The U.S. and its European allies have threatened to ratchet up sanctions on Russia, their former Cold War enemy, if it doesn't act to calm the situation in eastern Ukraine. Pro-Russian separatists have seized government buildings and NATO estimates 40,000 Russian troops are massed on the border. U.S. Skepticism U.S. President Barack Obama said he remains skeptical about concrete results coming from the agreement, while adding that there remains a possibility that diplomacy can de-escalate the situation. "I don't think we can be sure of anything at this point," Obama said at a White House news conference. "We're not going to know whether, in fact, there's follow-through on these statements for several days." Putin, who annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea last month, today rejected accusations from Ukraine that he'd already deployed forces in the east of the country and said he would fight to defend compatriots outside Russia. The Geneva statement called for all illegal armed groups in Ukraine to be disarmed, seized buildings to be returned to their legitimate owners and occupied public places to be vacated. An amnesty will be granted to protesters. A mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will help oversee the measures. A new constitutional process will aim to establish "a broad national dialogue." Market Reaction As the talks took place in Geneva, Russia's Micex Index (INDEXCF) of equities extended a two-day advance to 1.4 percent in Moscow, the ruble jumped the most among 31 global currencies and Ukraine's hryvnia posted the longest rally since August. The Micex has still fallen 11.6 percent this year, while the hryvnia is the world's worst performer against the dollar, with a 26 percent loss. U.S. stocks rose and Treasuries fell the most in a month after the accord was announced. Obama held out the prospect of more sanctions against Russia if Putin's government continues to interfere in eastern and southern Ukraine and warned that they may be crippling. "We have no desire to see further deterioration of the Russian economy," he said. Speaking at a news conference after the talks, Kerry described the talks as "a good day's work," though "just the beginning" and added that "nobody has left behind the issue of Crimea," the annexation of which has not been recognized by the U.S. and the EU. Lavrov's View "The Ukrainians themselves must resolve this crisis," Lavrov told a separate news conference. "We have no desire at all to deploy our troops in Ukraine, a friendly state, a territory where a brotherly people lives; this is against the basic interests of the Russian Federation." He said Russia continues to be "very concerned at the discrimination by the current authorities against the Russian and Russian-speaking population, the Russian language, Russian culture." Ukraine's Deshchytsia told reporters that "the next couple of days will be crucial" and "will be a test for Russia if Russia wants to really show it's willing to have stability." Deshchytsia said separately that Putin's reference to the country's southeast being historically part of Russia raises concern about his intentions. 'Worrying Signal' "It is a very worrying signal, because President Putin is now trying to revise the borders, the border that exists and was internationally recognized after World War II and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union," Deshchytsia told Bloomberg Television today. Earlier today, Ukrainian police killed three pro-Russian fighters and wounded 13 following an attack overnight on a national-guard base in the southeastern city of Mariupol, less than 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Russian border, according to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. Special forces and helicopters were deployed in the operation, in which 63 people were detained and weapons captured, Avakov said. "We definitely know that we should do everything to help these people defend their rights and define their destiny," Putin said in a televised question-and-answer session in Moscow, when asked about Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. "We will fight for this. The Federation Council gave the president the right to use military force in Ukraine. I hope very much that I don't have to use this right." Putin said he didn't want to discuss what "red line" might trigger Russian military action. Ukraine's Response Ukraine's government sent troops this week to regain control of buildings that the government said are occupied by armed "extremists" operating under Russian orders in its eastern Donetsk region. They retook an airfield near Kramatorsk two days ago in a push that stalled yesterday when pro-Russian activists seized armored vehicles and disarmed some soldiers. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said his government has evidence Russian troops are present in the east of the country. "There is just one man in the entire world who believes that there are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine's east: His surname is Putin," Yatsenyuk told reporters in Kiev. "He is again telling a tale that those saboteurs who shaped a terrorist network in Ukraine are not Russian." Putin said the allegations Russian forces are operating in Ukraine are "nonsense" and that he annexed Crimea last month because Russian speakers were facing "real threats." The east and south of Ukraine are historically parts of Russia and the former Soviet republic has suffered an anti-constitutional revolution, Putin said. "Let me remind everyone, this is New Russia, using the terminology of Czarist Russia," Putin said, adding that regions including Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk and Odessa weren't part of Ukraine until last century. "These are the territories that were passed to Ukraine in the 1920s by the Soviet government. God knows why they did that." The U.S. will provide nonlethal military aid to Ukraine including "medical supplies, helmets, sleeping mats and water-purification units," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Washington. The U.S. already has provided ready-to-eat meals to the Ukrainian military. Some American lawmakers have criticized the Obama administration for not providing weapons and ammunition.
More on Russia and Ukraine: Ukraine update: Chances of a civil war just increased If you don't know where Ukraine is on a map, chances are you'll want to send U.S. troops Get ready... The crisis in Ukraine could return with a vengeance |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Gold World News Flash 2 To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment