Gold World News Flash |
- Special Webinar – Is there a Silver Shortage?
- Whither Peak Silver?
- Gold and Gold Stocks – A Change in Market Character
- Fascism, American Style
- Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You… It’s Official: Canadian Bank Depositors Are Now At Risk Of Bail-Ins
- Belgium Terror Prophetic Warning to U.S. McGuire
- It's Official: Canadian Bank Depositors Are Now At Risk Of Bail-Ins
- Michael Savage Donald Trump Interview Following Brussels Attack - 3/22/16
- All central banks swap gold, Venezuelan central banker says, but who asks why?
- Gold Price Closed at $1248.20 Up $4.40 or 0.35%
- Explosion rocks Brussels at 9:11am on 322 Skull and Bones Satanic Holiday (Mar 22, 2016)
- Japan’s (Third) Lost Decade
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Nothing Has Changed
- ISIS Claims Responsibility of The Belgium Attacks
- Hugo Salinas Price: It's 1790 all over again
- Prophecy Happening Worldwide 2016 (SHOCKING SIGNS!)
- Silver: The Best Is Yet To Come
- The Zika Virus Conspiracy
- Koos Jansen: Venezuela sent another 12 tonnes of gold to Switzerland in February
- The Rothschild Conspiracy Explained in 4 Minutes
- #BrusselsTerrorAttacks : Prepare To Be Searched As Terrorist Attacks Increase
- U.S. Corporate Profits Soar
- UPDATE: Belgium Attack 34 Dead 186 Injured ISIS Claims Responsibility
- BREAKING: Brussels Explosions Airport & Metros 34 Dead 136 Injured
- Donald Trump exposes The Illuminati MUST SEE!!!!!!
- Silver Price Forecast: A Big Reason Why Silver Is Set To Soar
- A Big Reason Why Silver Price Is Set To Soar
- Global Stocks Fall, Bonds and Gold Rise After Terrorist Attacks In Brussels
- Gold Holds on to Gains Despite Rollercoaster Ride on Rate Hike Rumors
- BitGold’s Secret: A Taxation Time Bomb
- The Fed, the Dollar, and Oil
| Special Webinar – Is there a Silver Shortage? Posted: 22 Mar 2016 11:00 PM PDT from | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2016 09:40 PM PDT from SilverSeek:
The United States Geological Survey recently published its silver summary and it turned out to be yet another record year of global mine production for silver. The 2015 estimate will be revised, but in the last twenty years, only four years (2000, 2003, 2005, and 2011) have been revised downwards in the subsequent summary. If it does happen that 2015 output comes in below 2014, that does not mean that Peak Silver has arrived as 35 years out of 115 years of global data have been dips from the previous year only to see silver production resume its upwards march. But, one day, global silver production will dip and it will never return to the heights it had previously hit.
A look at the chart below shows the global output of silver since 1900. If this was the share price of a company, you may decide that now is not a good time to invest in it since a correction would be on the cards. But this is not a chart of a company's performance, but rather an interplay of geological formations and market forces. As you can see, the story of silver mining can be broken down into three phases. The first is flat but erratic as the new century dawned and progressed to the beginning of World War II. After this, came the post-war boom and silver reacted by climbing up a new gradient. By the time the interruption of the 1992 recession and a silver bear bottom came and went, the stage was set for an even steeper rise as China and its one billion citizens entered the market and silver production entered its third and current phase. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold and Gold Stocks – A Change in Market Character Posted: 22 Mar 2016 09:00 PM PDT by Pater Tenebrarum, Acting-Man.com:
Similar to many others, we have been waiting for some sort of correction in gold and gold stocks, but obviously, not much has happened in this respect so far. We have written quite a lot about gold and gold stocks between August 2015 and February 2016, because we felt a good opportunity was at hand – a short term trading opportunity at the very least, but one with the potential to become more than that. The strength in gold and gold stocks that could be observed since then certainly suggests that something more than just a short term trading opportunity is at hand. In early February we showed a chart of how the first corrections in the nascent stage of three previous bull markets played out, with the size of the moves adapted to the chart of today's HUI index. Obviously, our expectations have been exceeded quite a bit – if the HUI had mimicked the strongest of these previous initial advances (which took place in late 2000/early 2001), it would have put in a short term peak at approximately 167 points. So far, it has made it to nearly 190 points intraday without correcting much as of yet. As far as we know (we stand ready to be corrected), the HUI's rally after putting in a new bear market low in mid January has been the strongest sector rally in all of history over such a short time period. It has risen by more than 90% in just two months. The rally in gold has been far weaker, but this is quite normal at this stage. It has nevertheless managed to overcome a number of short and medium term resistance levels, including a major downtrend line. Gold in USD has essentially followed the gold price trend in terms of other major currencies, which hasn't really surprised us. Readers may recall that we have highlighted this growing divergence for quite some time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2016 07:25 PM PDT Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
This is an indictment of every politician who has ever sold us out for the sake of money and power, it is a condemnation of every politician who has ever lied to us in order to advance their careers, and it is a denunciation of every political shill who has sacrificed our freedoms on the altar of Corporate America. They’re all fascists. If Donald Trump is a fascist—as nearly half of Americans surveyed believe—then so is every other politician in office or running for office in America who has ever prioritized money and power over human beings.
Writing for the New York Times in 1944, Vice President Henry A. Wallace noted that
As Wallace concluded, American fascists are not pro-Constitution:
We are being played for fools. Again. The United States of America, that dream of what a democratic republic ought to be, has become the Fascist States of America. We have moved beyond the era of representative government and entered a new age. You can call it the age of authoritarianism. Or fascism. Or oligarchy. Or the American police state. Whatever label you want to put on it, the end result is the same. Driven by our fears, we have entered into a corporate-controlled, militaristic state where all citizens are suspects, security trumps freedom, and the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens but instead is ruled by the rich and powerful. Any semblance of constitutional government that we might still enjoy today is a mere shadow, a mockery of what the founders envisioned. Constitutional government today—much like the farcical circus that purports to be the presidential election—is a sham, a hoax, an elaborate ruse maintained by the powers-that-be to mollify us into believing that we still have a say in the workings of our government. We do not. Shortly after World War II, historian William L. Shirer predicted that America may be the first country in which fascism comes to power through democratic elections. Former presidential advisor Bertram Gross also warned that we would not recognize fascism when it took over:
They were both right. However, what we failed to realize is that the fascist coup took place long ago. It was that subtle and that incremental. We are now ruled by the velvet-gloved, technologically savvy, militarized iron fist of what Gross termed “friendly fascism” or fascism with a smile. Having studied Shirer and Gross, tracked the rise of fascism in past regimes, and assimilated the necessary ingredients for a fascist state, I can attest to the fact—as I document in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People—that the parallels to modern America are impossible to ignore. Under fascism, the government:
Compare that to America today where, as economist Jeffrey Tucker rightly observes, “every industry is regulated. Every profession is classified and organized. Every good or service is taxed. Endless debt accumulation is preserved. Immense doesn’t begin to describe the bureaucracy. Military preparedness never stops, and war with some evil foreign foe, remains a daily prospect.” Fascism thrives by hiding behind the entertainment spectacle that is partisan politics. As Tucker points out, “It’s incorrect to call fascism either right wing or left wing. It is both and neither… fascism does not seek to overthrow institutions like commercial establishments, family, religious centers, and civic traditions. It seeks to control them… it preserves most of what people hold dear but promises to improve economic, social, and cultural life through unifying their operations under government control.” In this way, American-style fascism is deceptively appealing. It appears friendly. The news media covers the entertainment and political trivia. The basic forms of government remain intact. The legislators remain in session. There are elections. Consent of the governed, however, no longer applies. Actual control has finally passed to the oligarchic elite controlling the government behind the scenes. Yet the most crucial ingredient for fascism to succeed in America is that the majority of the people would have to agree that it’s not only expedient but necessary for the government to assume greater powers in order to keep them safe and secure, whether it’s by militarizing the police, stripping them of basic constitutional rights, criminalizing virtually every form of behavior, or spying on their communications, movements and transactions. Sound familiar? When you really drill down to what the various presidential candidates believe about the issues that will impact the future of our freedoms long-term—war, surveillance, civil liberties—you’ll find that most of them support the government’s position, which conveniently enough, profits the corporate sector. This is not freedom. It is despotism, which Gross refers to as “faceless oligarchs [who] sit at command posts of a corporate-government complex that has been slowly evolving over many decades.” Gross explains:
It is, in Gross’ words, “pretended patriots who desecrate the American flag by waving it while waiving the law”:
It is, concludes Gross, Big Business and Big Government in bed together:
When the votes have all been counted, “we the people” will be the losers. The joke will be on us. Whether we ever realize it not, the enemy is not across party lines, as they would have us believe. It has us surrounded on all sides. Even so, we’re not yet defeated. We could still overcome our oppressors if we cared enough to join forces and launch a militant nonviolent revolution—a people’s revolution that starts locally and trickles upwards—but that will take some doing. It will mean turning our backs on the political jousting contests taking place on the national stage and rejecting their appointed jesters as false prophets. It will mean not allowing ourselves to be corralled like cattle and branded with political labels that have no meaning anymore. It will mean recognizing that all the evils that surround us today—endless wars, drone strikes, invasive surveillance, militarized police, poverty, asset forfeiture schemes, overcriminalization, etc.—were not of our making but came about as a way to control and profit from us. It will mean “voting with our feet” through sustained, mass civil disobedience. As journalist Chris Hedges points out, “There were once radicals in America, people who held fast to moral imperatives. They fought for the oppressed because it was right, not because it was easy or practical. They were willing to accept the state persecution that comes with open defiance. They had the courage of their convictions. They were not afraid.” Ultimately, it will mean refusing to be divided, one against each other, as Democrats versus Republicans, and instead uniting behind the only distinction that has ever mattered: “we the people” against tyranny. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You… It’s Official: Canadian Bank Depositors Are Now At Risk Of Bail-Ins Posted: 22 Mar 2016 07:13 PM PDT from Zero Hedge:
Earlier today, Canada’s new Liberal government unveiled a stimulus budget meant to revive slumping growth with a surge in infrastructure spending and said it would run a deficit nearly three times larger than promised during last year’s election. The government projected a C$29.4 billion ($22.5 billion) deficit for fiscal 2016-17 and gave no target date for returning to a balanced budget. This budget broke virtually all pledges the Liberals made before the election,including running just three years of deficits of up to C$10 billion before balancing the books by fiscal 2019-20.
“We are seizing the opportunity to invest in people and the economy, and to prepare Canada for a brighter future,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said. What he is really seizing is the Bank of Canada money printer, because in order to monetize this surging deficit, the BOC will soon have to unleash its own QE in the coming months. As Reuters adds, because the Liberals command a majority in the Canadian Parliament’s House of Commons, the budget is guaranteed to pass. Which is bad news not so much for the Canadian Dollar, which will certainly devalue in the coming months as the market prices in what a massive surge in deficit spending means although so will all other currencies as the global debasement race accelerates once more in a few short months, but for bank depositors, because deep inside the budget announcement, in the section discussing “tax fairness and a strong financial sector”, we have official confirmation that Canada has just become the latest country to treat depositors as the bank creditors they are, and as such, they too will be impaired, or “bailed-in” the next time a Canadian bank needs to be rescued. The specific text:
This new “bail-in” regime is spun as benefitting taxpayers; what isn’t mentioned is that most of those taxpayers who will be “protected” also happen to be the impaired depositors (also known as creditors) in these soon to be bailed-in banks, which begs the question: just who or what is being protected here? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Belgium Terror Prophetic Warning to U.S. McGuire Posted: 22 Mar 2016 05:48 PM PDT Paul McGuire Terror Attacks in Belgium Prophetic Warning to America The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It's Official: Canadian Bank Depositors Are Now At Risk Of Bail-Ins Posted: 22 Mar 2016 05:42 PM PDT Earlier today, Canada's new Liberal government unveiled a stimulus budget meant to revive slumping growth with a surge in infrastructure spending and said it would run a deficit nearly three times larger than promised during last year's election. The government projected a C$29.4 billion ($22.5 billion) deficit for fiscal 2016-17 and gave no target date for returning to a balanced budget. This budget broke virtually all pledges the Liberals made before the election, including running just three years of deficits of up to C$10 billion before balancing the books by fiscal 2019-20. "We are seizing the opportunity to invest in people and the economy, and to prepare Canada for a brighter future," Finance Minister Bill Morneau said. What he is really seizing is the Bank of Canada money printer, because in order to monetize this surging deficit, the BOC will soon have to unleash its own QE in the coming months. As Reuters adds, because the Liberals command a majority in the Canadian Parliament's House of Commons, the budget is guaranteed to pass. Which is bad news not so much for the Canadian Dollar, which will certainly devalue in the coming months as the market prices in what a massive surge in deficit spending means although so will all other currencies as the global debasement race accelerates once more in a few short months, but for bank depositors, because deep inside the budget announcement, in the section discussing "tax fairness and a strong financial sector", we have official confirmation that Canada has just become the latest country to treat depositors as the bank creditors they are, and as such, they too will be impaired, or "bailed-in" the next time a Canadian bank needs to be rescued. The specific text:
This new "bail-in" regime is spun as benefitting taxpayers; what isn't mentioned is that most of those taxpayers who will be "protected" also happen to be the impaired depositors (also known as creditors) in these soon to be bailed-in banks, which begs the question: just who or what is being protected here? Should oil remain at its current price, or drift lower again, we will certainly find out in practice, because as even Canada's regulator is now warning, there is far less stability than meets the eye behind the "rock solid" balance sheet facade of Canada's banks.
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| Michael Savage Donald Trump Interview Following Brussels Attack - 3/22/16 Posted: 22 Mar 2016 04:45 PM PDT March 22, 2016 - Michael Savage Donald Trump Interview Following Brussels Attack The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All central banks swap gold, Venezuelan central banker says, but who asks why? Posted: 22 Mar 2016 04:29 PM PDT 7:32a ChST Wednesday, March 23, 2016 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: In the report excerpted below Reuters reminds us today that in February the president of Venezuela's central bank, Nelson Merentes, discussing gold swaps such as those the bank had begun, told the news agency: "It's normal. All central banks do this." Seven years ago the U.S. Federal Reserve confessed to GATA, if inadvertently, its own participation in gold swaps, though, unlike Venezuela's central bank, the Fed insisted on secrecy for its swaps: But if "all central banks do this," what is their objective? ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Buy metals at GoldMoney and enjoy international storage GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata In Venezuela's case the objective is plain: The kleptocratic regime that has driven the country into the ground needs foreign currency, for which the national patrimony is being pawned. But what are the Fed's purposes with gold swaps? And if Morantes is correct that "all" central banks undertake gold swaps, what are their purposes? What are they doing in the gold business? Is the objective similar to that of gold leasing by central banks, which, as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress in 1998, was undertaken to hold the gold price down?: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/1998/19980724.htm That is, are gold swaps often undertaken to move gold around as necessary to intervene surreptitiously in the currency markets and thereby manipulate and rig them? For example, do exchange-traded funds like GLD participate in gold swaps with central banks to prevent shortages from developing in the gold market and thus to hold the price down and to defend government currencies and bonds? And, of course, since the story has practically been hurled in their face, why aren't Reuters and other mainstream financial news organizations asking about those other gold swaps? In spite of these admissions, do the news organizations really believe the pontifications of Casey Research founder Doug Casey and others that central banks couldn't care less about gold? CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer * * * Venezuela Exports $456 Million in Gold to Switzerland Amid Cash Crisis By Alexandra Ulmer and Corina Pons CARACAS -- Venezuela exported about 443 million Swiss francs ($456 million) worth of gold to Switzerland in February, data showed on Tuesday, as the South American country's central bank carried out swaps to receive cash due to a biting economic crisis. Details of the data published by the Swiss customs bureau were not immediately clear, though Venezuela's central bank's president in February confirmed to Reuters it had been carrying out gold swaps. "It's normal. All central banks do this," said Nelson Merentes, adding that the operations have time frames of three to four years with multiple banks, which he did not identify. "As part of our strategy, the (central bank's) board of directors has decided to carry out swaps." The OPEC country is suffering from a severe recession, triple-digit inflation, and chronic product shortages. The government's currency control system has slashed approval of dollars for product imports, leading to empty store shelves and snaking supermarket lines. ... ... For the remainder of the report: http://www.reuters.com/article/venezuela-gold-switzerland-idUSL2N16U1UR Join GATA here: Mines and Money Asia http://asia.minesandmoney.com/ Mining Investment Asia http://www.mininginvestmentasia.com/ Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Price Closed at $1248.20 Up $4.40 or 0.35% Posted: 22 Mar 2016 04:04 PM PDT
About that jump-let in gold and silver prices today: If a market needs terrorist attacks to prop it up, it may have problems. Then again, it might be something else. The pattern gold has traced out might also be a continuation pattern, and not a top. If 'tis, then gold is gathering up its strength for a jump. Terrorist attacks are not positive for stock markets. For Europe an attack on Brussels resembles an attack on Washington or New York. European Nice Government Men must have been working overtime, because instead of diving European stock indices actually nosed up. Any sober adult would perceive that Europe has sunk into deep peril & mortal danger, but no sober adults are to be found among their politicians. Grievously sorrowful! Cicero said, "A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within." In the US stocks nudged down a hair. Dow lost 41.3 (0.23%) to 17,582.57 & S&P500 shaved off 1.8 (0.9%) to 2,049.80. Only significance I attach to this is that both indices have managed to climb over their 200 day moving averages. To my nat'ral born durn Tennessee fool mind, that brings them just that much closer to a break. Should come as no surprise that the US dollar index rose on the bad news, up 34 basis points (0.36%) but that was, as they say, a "muted" response. Flight to quality did take the dollar index up through 95.30 resistance, but looked none too perky. Ended at 95.64. Nice Government Men in Europe must have been busier than a one-armed man changing a diaper. They had to keep stocks from crashing AND the euro. In the end I reckon they did a heroic job, as the euro dropped only 0.2% to $1.1217. If you call manipulating markets "heroic". Yen fell 0.3% to 89.06. Not clear yet whether it has a mind to rise or fall. Although it hit an intraday high of $1,260, Comex gold rose only $4.40 (0.35%) to $1,248.20. After a 1604¢ high, silver settled Comex at 1587.7¢, up only 3.6¢ (0.23%). On the End of Day chart the gold/silver ratio has nearly bumped into the lower channel boundary. No cosmic law decrees it cannot fall further, but odds are it will bounce up from that line. Mathematically it can happen several ways, but a reversing gold/silver ratio means lower silver prices at least, and most likely lower gold. Let me try to make clearer the stakes here. Right around 1600¢ the downtrend line from the April 2011 high crosses silver's path. If silver breaks through that now, it will draw buyers like free sandwiches draw hobos. And it will jump hugely. That's why I keep telling y'all, all bets for a correction are off if silver can close above 1624¢. Silver & gold can't stay mired in this range forever. Every day they do increases the pressure to move up or down, but to MOVE. Today the gold price closed once again above its 20 day moving averages, after closing below it yesterday. If gold and silver prices can press through those blocking levels -- 1600¢ and $1,280 -- they will run like scalded dogs. However, the odds still favour a correction. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2016, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 18 ounces of silver. US $ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Explosion rocks Brussels at 9:11am on 322 Skull and Bones Satanic Holiday (Mar 22, 2016) Posted: 22 Mar 2016 02:57 PM PDT Belgian police mount nationwide manhunt for suspect seen fleeing Tuesday's bombing The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2016 01:38 PM PDT This post Japan's (Third) Lost Decade appeared first on Daily Reckoning. In the early 2000s, the phrase "lost decade" began to be applied to Japan's economic performance over the course of the 1990s. The lost decade started with the popping of one of the greatest stock market bubbles in history. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index hit an all-time high of 38,916 in December 1989, and then began a sickening 80% crash to a low of 7,831 in April 2003. But the lost decade included more than just stock market losses. Japan also saw crashing property values, falling interest rates, rising unemployment, declining and stagnant GDP, and the worst demographic profile of any major economy. In short, Japan exhibited all of the hallmarks of a depression of the kind not seen since the 1930s. As the term "lost decade" became commonplace among economists, a funny thing happened. Another decade came and went and the Japanese economy was still in depression. Today, a full 25 years after the bubble burst in Japan, that country continues to struggle with deflation, zero interest rates, weak banks, adverse demographics, and periodic bouts of negative growth. Japan has endured a 26-year depression, and there is no end in sight. That's important because Japan has the third-largest economy in the world, the third-largest bond market and the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any major developed economy. In December 2012, a new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, assumed office and vowed to get the Japanese economy moving again. He proposed a "three arrows" program known collectively as Abenomics. The first arrow was monetary policy consisting of practically unlimited money printing or quantitative easing. The second arrow was fiscal policy consisting of tax relief and more government spending on infrastructure. The third arrow was structural reform of the over-regulated, over-protected Japanese economy. The first arrow was fired almost immediately. The explicit goal of monetary ease was to cheapen the Japanese yen (JPY) relative to the U.S. dollar (USD) and the currencies of its Asia export competitors such as Korea, Taiwan and China. In December 2012, the JPY/USD exchange rate was about 75:1. By mid-2014 the exchange rate had fallen to about 100:1; then it began a dramatic plunge to 120:1 by early December 2014. Right now, the JPY/USD exchange rate is around the 112:1 level. Japanese exports picked-up somewhat. To that extent, the first arrow seemed to work, at least in the short run. The second arrow, fiscal policy, misfired. Instead of using fiscal policy to cut taxes and provide stimulus, Japan raised sales taxes, which was like slamming the brakes on the economy. (As noted above, another tax hike is a distinct possibility). Japanese GDP plunged 1.9% in the second quarter of 2014 and fell again by 0.6% in the third quarter. This was Japan's second recession in the past two years. Growth was positive in the fourth quarter of 2014, but the uptick was a modest 0.4%. The third arrow of Abenomics, structural reform, was never fired at all. Structural reform includes things like immigration, women in the workforce, greater efficiency in Japan's retail distribution network, and cleaning up bad debt from bank balance sheets. This is critical because structural reform is the only long-term solution to Japan's depressed economic condition. Depressions are different from normal business cycles because they are the result of structural impediments to growth that impede capital formation, investment and new hiring. Monetary and fiscal policies can only provide temporary relief and their impact diminishes the longer they are used. A structural problem requires structural, not cyclical, solutions. With interest rates already below zero and structural reform off the table, Japan is a one-trick pony. Its only policy tool has been to cheapen the yen. The purpose of a cheapened yen is to increase inflation in Japan in the form of higher import prices. This inflation may at least increase nominal growth even if it does not help with real growth. Japan needs nominal growth to deal with its massive nominal debt that now exceeds 200% of GDP. Even the cheap yen strategy is failing as the yen has appreciated about 8% this year, the most among the 10 major currencies. It just recently hit a 17-month high against the dollar, despite the imposition of negative interest rates in January. I've said that Japan's shock decision on Jan. 29 to impose negative interest rates was the monetary equivalent of setting off a thermonuclear device. With all three arrows of Abenomics having failed in different ways, the Japanese economy looks like it is starting to roll over again. This is revealed in the latest Japanese manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI). A business survey that came out earlier today revealed that Japan’s manufacturing activity will contract in March for the first time in almost a year. New export orders shrank sharply as the global economy shows continued weakness. Japan's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) just fell to 49.1. Anything less than 50.0 indicates that the manufacturing sector in Japan is now contracting. That's a long way from its all-time high of 56.20 in January 2014. And new export orders decreased for the first time since September. One index that tracks large manufacturers' sentiment swung to negative 7.9 for January-March from a positive 3.8 for the October-December period, decreasing for the first time in three quarters. The slowdown in China has taken a large toll on Japanese exporters as Japan’s exports fell for a fifth straight month in February. The bottom line is that the Japanese economy is stalling out again. It shrank in the final quarter of 2015, dragged down by slow wage growth and sluggish global demand. And 2016 is not looking any better. Taking into account Japan's goal of 2% inflation, the yen would have to plunge to a level of 150 or lower in order for Japan to come anywhere close to its inflation target. And if the yen were to get stronger, it would be devastating for Japan and would threaten to pull the U.S., China and Europe into the deflationary vortex they are trying to avoid. Oil prices in dollars have climbed back above $40 for the time being, which could bring some badly needed inflation to Japan. But recovery remains nowhere in sight. Regards, Jim Rickards P.S. Be sure to sign up for The Daily Reckoning — a free and entertaining look at the world of finance and politics. The articles you find here on our website are only a snippet of what you receive in The Daily Reckoning email edition. Click here now to sign up for FREE to see what you're missing. The post Japan's (Third) Lost Decade appeared first on Daily Reckoning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Nothing Has Changed Posted: 22 Mar 2016 01:30 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ISIS Claims Responsibility of The Belgium Attacks Posted: 22 Mar 2016 01:29 PM PDT The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks in Brussels after deadly blasts ripped through the city's aiport and subway. (March 22) The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hugo Salinas Price: It's 1790 all over again Posted: 22 Mar 2016 01:21 PM PDT 4:20a ChST Wednesday, March 23, 2016 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Hugo Salinas Price, president of the Mexican Civic Association for Silver, explains today why "It's 1790 All Over Again," another age of irredeemable money in which economists are not quite as smart as they think they are. His commentary is posted at the association's Internet site, Plata.com.mx, here: http://www.plata.com.mx/Mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=2... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Buy precious metals free of value-added tax throughout Europe Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries. Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world. Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com. Join GATA here: Mines and Money Asia http://asia.minesandmoney.com/ Mining Investment Asia http://www.mininginvestmentasia.com/ Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prophecy Happening Worldwide 2016 (SHOCKING SIGNS!) Posted: 22 Mar 2016 11:23 AM PDT PROPHETIC EVENTS from the past week are you ready end times new world order bible prophecy something big is happening the big event strange events happening worldwide shocking strange sounds loud booms worldwide prophetic events The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Silver: The Best Is Yet To Come Posted: 22 Mar 2016 11:11 AM PDT Graceland Update | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2016 10:22 AM PDT The Zika virus has had devastating consequences for many of those infected across areas of South America. But could the virus actually be man made? Alltime Conspiracies investigates The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries ,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Koos Jansen: Venezuela sent another 12 tonnes of gold to Switzerland in February Posted: 22 Mar 2016 10:10 AM PDT 3:06a VLAT Wednesday, March 23, 2016 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Venezuela's official gold reserves continue to flow to Switzerland, gold researcher and GATA consultant Koos Jansen reports today, with another 12 tonnes having been shipped in February to help sustain the beleaguered social government. Jansen's report is headlined "Venezuela Exported Another 11 Tonnes of Its Official Gold Reserves to Switzerland In February" and it's posted at Bullion Star here: https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/venezuela-exported-another... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Silver mining stock report comes with 1-ounce silver round Future Money Trends is offering a special 18-page silver mining stock report about how to profit with the monetary and industrial metal, and it comes with a free 1-ounce silver round. Proceeds from the report's sales are shared with the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts to expose manipulation in the monetary metals markets. To learn about this report, please visit: Join GATA here: Mines and Money Asia http://asia.minesandmoney.com/ Mining Investment Asia http://www.mininginvestmentasia.com/ Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Rothschild Conspiracy Explained in 4 Minutes Posted: 22 Mar 2016 09:34 AM PDT How did the Rothschild family become the wealthiest family on Earth? What do North Korea, Iran and Cuba have in common? What objectives did 9/11 really try to achieve? This video attempts to find answers to those questions. The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| #BrusselsTerrorAttacks : Prepare To Be Searched As Terrorist Attacks Increase Posted: 22 Mar 2016 09:20 AM PDT We should all be shaking in our boots in such fear that we should all be too afraid to get out of bed to go to work, not because of the terrorist card the elite have manufactured, but because we are run by a bus load of retards. The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2016 09:18 AM PDT This post U.S. Corporate Profits Soar appeared first on Daily Reckoning. Globalization (a.k.a. “free” trade) has become an election issue for two reasons: many voters blame “free” trade with China and other nations for job losses in the U.S. and rising income inequality as globalization’s “winners” in the U.S. outpace its far more numerous “losers.” A recent article in the New York Times looks at the issue from the perspective of recent economic studies: On Trade, Angry Voters Have a Point (via Lew G.) The case for globalization based on the fact that it helps expand the economic pie by 3 percent becomes much weaker when it also changes the distribution of the slices by 50 percent. Before we dig into this complicated set of interconnected macro-dynamics, let’s stipulate that there is no such thing as “free” trade. Every trade agreement defines winners and losers by the very design of the agreement. Also, other issues that are outside the confines of the actual trade agreement can have outsized influence on trade’s winners and losers. For example, trade between the U.S. and China cannot possibly be “free” because China pegs its currency to the U.S. dollar (USD). This peg enables China to arbitrarily keep its products cheaper than they might be if the market set the value of China’s yuan. We must also keep in mind that the owner of the reserve currency, the U.S., must export its currency in size, i.e. run a permanent and substantial trade deficit. I’ve explained Triffin’s Paradox many times; please read (or re-read) these essays if you want to understand why trade deficits are integral to the reserve currency and are not a feature of any particular trade agreement: Understanding the “Exorbitant Privilege” of the U.S. Dollar (November 19, 2012) The Federal Reserve, Interest Rates and Triffin’s Paradox (November 19, 2015) Many overlook the fact that central bank interventions play an enormous role in establishing globalization’s winners and losers. By lowering interest rates to zero (or less than zero) and flooding the banking sector with credit/liquidity, central banks encouraged an explosion of global carry trades, in which financiers borrow cheap in one currency to buy high-yielding assets in another currency/nation. The central-bank fueled explosion in credit also threw gasoline on speculative investments in emerging market nations, distorting currencies, markets and trade. The point here is that globalization, financialization and central bank interventions are tightly bound together. We cannot talk about any of these drivers in isolation; together, they form one system we loosely call “global trade.” Let’s move on to globalization’s impact on jobs, income and income disparity.The article linked above notes that one study found trade with China erased 2.4 million jobs in the U.S. Other studies have found an offsetting consequence: the purchasing power of middle-class and working class households rose by 26% due to globalization’s relentless reductions in the cost of imported goods. We must take all such estimates with a grain of salt, as there are many dynamics in play. The U.S. economy has been roiled by deep structural changes since the late 1960s; there has been no let-up in systemic turbulence: the end of the Bretton Woods stability in foreign exchange markets; the rise of Japanese and Asian imports in the 1970s and 80s; oil shocks and stagflation in the 1970s; the cost of dealing with industrial pollution of our air, water and soil; the tech boom–the cost of processors and memory have fallen while advances in software and robotics accelerate; the explosive changes wrought by the Internet; the rise of China and the Asian Tigers as the world’s low-cost workshop, and various speculative debt/fraud bubbles that burst with catastrophic consequences for participants and non-players alike. At the risk of overloading you with data, let’s look at a few key charts and mark the rise of China’s influence, the rise of financialization and income inequality and the explosive rise in U.S. corporate profits. Here are the charts we’ll be reviewing: — Civilian employment-population ratio (the percentage of the population who are employed in some fashion, including self-employed and part-time) — Productivity (and income disparity) — Income inequality — U.S. Financial profits — U.S. Corporate profits
On the face of it, the U.S. experienced a multi-decade boom in employment from the early 1980s to 2008. Many have noted that the key demographic driver of this rise in employment was the mass entry of women into the work force. Many believe the loss of purchasing power in the stagflationary 1970s pushed women into the work force as the only means of maintaining household buying power. There were other drivers, of course; nothing this structural reduces down to one single cause. This chart looks like a giant head-and-shoulders pattern that correlates with the rise and fall of financialization, which is the commodification of previously safe assets such as housing and the explosive rise in debt, derivatives and financial gaming (which quickly morphs into fraud if regulatory agencies fall asleep at the wheel). It’s difficult to separate China’s rise and the bursting of the tech bubble, as both occurred in the same time frame; undoubtedly both negatively impacted employment.
The disconnect between productivity and wages really took off with the rise of financialization and cheap technology tools in the early 1980s. This is not coincidental, and can’t be pinned on globalization or trade with China, which occurred much later.
As we see in this chart of income inequality, the top 10% (the “winners” in financialization and tech) had already pulled away from the bottom 90% when China entered the WTO in 2001. Clearly, the disparity began before China’s trade was large enough to impact the U.S. economy; the dramatic increase in trade with China post-2001 had little impact on the disparity between the top 10% and the bottom 90%.
This chart of financial profits and debt/GDP shows the dramatic expansion of debt from the early 1980s and the explosive rise in financial profits as interest rates were pushed to zero and the debt/housing bubble #2 took off. Could globalization have been a factor in this monumental expansion of financial profits? As noted above, it’s clear that the globalization of finance–carry trades, the expansion of financial markets in emerging nations–gave U.S. financiers, corporations and banks an enormously expanded field for skimming fees and profits via debt, derivatives and speculation.
Total U.S. corporate profits soared once trade with China and the financial free-for-all of housing/debt/fraud took off. This chart makes it clear that the winners from 2001 on were financiers and corporations exploiting two dynamics: offshoring production to China and maintaining product costs to reap outsized profits, and borrowing cheap money to expand overseas and skim profits from carry trades. What do we get if we add these charts up? 1. Offshoring of production jobs to China et al. undoubtedly slashed jobs for the bottom 90%, but these losses were offset (or masked) by the rise of housing/debt/fraud bubbles that boosted employment in the FIRE sector (finance, insurance, real estate). 2. Financialization and central bank intervention greatly rewarded those with the skills and sociopathologies needed to participate in the resulting debt/fraud booms. 3. U.S. corporations reaped the gains from offshoring jobs, and these gains flowed to top management and those who own corporate shares, i.e. the top 5%. 4. The trend of rising income disparity started long before China’s trade was significant enough to impact the U.S. economy, and correlates with the rise of financialization and cheaper technology tools. 5. These trends rewarded management, finance and technology expertise, which are concentrated in the top 10% of the work force. 6. Cheap imports, offshoring of production and the global expansion of financial markets have driven U.S. corporate and financial profits to unprecedented heights. Since these profits largely flow to top management, financiers, technocrats and owners of corporate capital–roughly speaking the top 10% or even top 5%–it’s no wonder wealth and income disparity is rising: there is no other output possible in the current system. Slapping fees on imports (which by the way is illegal in treaties such as the WTO) will not solve the larger problems of reduced employment, stagnant wages and rising income inequality. To make a dent in those issues, we’ll need to tackle central bank and central-state policies that have pushed finance and speculative churn to supremacy over the productive economy. Regards, Charles Hugh Smith P.S. Ever since my first summer job decades ago, I've been chasing financial security. Not win-the-lottery, Bill Gates riches (although it would be nice!), but simply a feeling of financial control. I want my financial worries to if not disappear at least be manageable and comprehensible. And like most of you, the way I've moved toward my goal has always hinged not just on having a job but a career. You don't have to be a financial blogger to know that "having a job" and "having a career" do not mean the same thing today as they did when I first started swinging a hammer for a paycheck. Even the basic concept "getting a job" has changed so radically that jobs–getting and keeping them, and the perceived lack of them–is the number one financial topic among friends, family and for that matter, complete strangers. So I sat down and wrote this book: Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy. It details everything I've verified about employment and the economy, and lays out an action plan to get you employed. I am proud of this book. It is the culmination of both my practical work experiences and my financial analysis, and it is a useful, practical, and clarifying read. The post U.S. Corporate Profits Soar appeared first on Daily Reckoning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UPDATE: Belgium Attack 34 Dead 186 Injured ISIS Claims Responsibility Posted: 22 Mar 2016 08:33 AM PDT ISIS (Daesh) claims responsibility for the twin attacks at the Airport and Metro Train Station in Brussels Belgium The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers ,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BREAKING: Brussels Explosions Airport & Metros 34 Dead 136 Injured Posted: 22 Mar 2016 08:33 AM PDT Many dead and wounded as 2 explosions at Brussels Belgium airport and more explosions in Brussels metro stations The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Donald Trump exposes The Illuminati MUST SEE!!!!!! Posted: 22 Mar 2016 08:01 AM PDT The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks trends and forecasts , futurists , visionaries , free investigative journalists , researchers , Whistelblowers , truthers and many more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Silver Price Forecast: A Big Reason Why Silver Is Set To Soar Posted: 22 Mar 2016 06:46 AM PDT Hubert Moolman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Big Reason Why Silver Price Is Set To Soar Posted: 22 Mar 2016 05:05 AM PDT There is only so much value in the world economy, and it is split between all the different instruments (like gold, silver, stocks, bonds, commodities, etc.) where value resides. For silver and gold to rise significantly, relative to other instruments of value, value will have to be diverted away from those other competing instruments. The stock market, in particular, has been the biggest obstacle to a rise in precious metals, due to it sucking up most of the available value on global markets. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Global Stocks Fall, Bonds and Gold Rise After Terrorist Attacks In Brussels Posted: 22 Mar 2016 05:01 AM PDT Safe haven assets, gold, silver and German bonds rose, while European stocks and global stock futures fell, after explosions rocked Brussels airport departure hall and a subway station near the EU parliament and other important EU institutions. At least 26 people are reported to have been killed after the explosions which the Belgian prosecutor has alleged are terrorist attacks. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Holds on to Gains Despite Rollercoaster Ride on Rate Hike Rumors Posted: 22 Mar 2016 04:53 AM PDT Gold has an interesting relationship with the U.S Federal Reserve – we all know the Fed has huge gold reserves. However, the relationship between the Fed and gold extends beyond the huge stockpiles of gold that the Fed hoards. The fed often wields the power to determine the trading price of gold and you can record massive gains or huge losses on your gold investments depending on what the fed does at any point. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BitGold’s Secret: A Taxation Time Bomb Posted: 22 Mar 2016 04:50 AM PDT Gold is not only the world’s best performing asset so far in 2016, but it’s also off to its strongest annual start since 1980. A key difference is that 1980 was the end of a bull market, while this is the beginning of a new one. Actually, it’s the beginning of the second leg of a long-term bull market that began over 15 years ago, which I believe will be even more powerful than the first. But today, I am warning potential gold buyers about another gold ripoff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 21 Mar 2016 05:00 PM PDT Five consecutive weeks of gains makes it hard to argue that we're in a bear market. While it may not seem like much has changed since the markets last swooned, a few key developments remain supportive of stock prices. In particular... |
Surprising Strength
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