saveyourassetsfirst3 |
- Bonfire Of The Verities
- Central Bank Gold Run could be a possibility ?
- Another Look at the SLV Silver ETF
- Why Gold Will Benefit From The Global Debt Crisis
- Germany to repatriate and audit 150 tons of Gold reserves from the FED
- Gold and Silver Clobbered After “Good” Jobs Report–Updating Levels
- Corleone Market
- Jobs Tally Increase Sends Gold Below $1,700/oz
- Keiser Report: Fraud by Day, Fraud by Night
- Santilli: Banksters & Attorneys Panicking! $43 Trill Lawsuit Officially In Fed Court
- Greg: Seventeen Trillion Dollar Debt Is Just Around The Corner.
- Guido Hulsmann on Mises' invaluable legacy
- Get Ready For Big Moves In Gold, The US Dollar & The Euro
- Greyerz – Gold & The Incredible Financial Destruction We Face
- Greyerz – One Of The Most Important Charts Ever
- GoldCore Comments on Silver
- Precious Metals Lower Ahead of Jobs Data
- November Silver Strength to Follow Recent Weakness
- Bullion Waiting for US Election Results & ECB
- Transition for the World Bullish for Gold
- Indirect Exchange : The Gold Standard
- Gold and Silver Market morning, November 02, 2012
- Links 11/2/12
- Five Things Repatriating Gold Bullion Says About Germany
- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Don't cry for me, François
- American Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Break Losing Streak
| Posted: 02 Nov 2012 11:22 AM PDT By Scott Sumner: Back in 2007 one could take some pride in being an economist. There were a set of truths that were pretty widely accepted, at least among the more elite macroeconomists. Now that entire edifice seems to have gone up in smoke, and I'm not entirely sure why. This will be a very long post, as I'll try to document just a few of the truths we used to accept, which have been recently tossed aside. 1. "Monetary policy can be highly effective in reviving a weak economy even if short-term interest rates are already near zero." The quote is from Mishkin's text editions 1-9 (removed from 10). Friedman and Bernanke made similar statements, as did many others. 2. A much more stimulative monetary policy, perhaps involving leaving the gold standard, would have prevented the 50% fall in NGDP during the early 1930s, and thus would have largely prevented the Great Complete Story » |
| Central Bank Gold Run could be a possibility ? Posted: 02 Nov 2012 10:00 AM PDT |
| Another Look at the SLV Silver ETF Posted: 02 Nov 2012 09:30 AM PDT Though SLV hasn't actually taken much silver off the market over the last year and a half or so, there is no denying its impact since inception. And when silver starts to rock once again, SLV ought to see a healthy flow of stock-market capital.  |
| Why Gold Will Benefit From The Global Debt Crisis Posted: 02 Nov 2012 08:16 AM PDT |
| Germany to repatriate and audit 150 tons of Gold reserves from the FED Posted: 02 Nov 2012 08:07 AM PDT |
| Gold and Silver Clobbered After “Good” Jobs Report–Updating Levels Posted: 02 Nov 2012 08:02 AM PDT The Fundamental View |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2012 08:01 AM PDT "Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!" - Michael Corleone  click to enlarge
Tech was already bearish — thanks to pronounced weakness in juggernauts AAPL and GOOG — and small caps had also gone red. The major indices then seemed to complete the picture with a clean breakdown on October 22nd. And from there, sideways consolidation in a classic bear flag pattern…
And yet, reason for caution remained, as these markets have been notoriously reversal-prone for a seemingly endless amount of time now, blocking all budding trends like Dikembe Mutombo stuffing an NBA rookie… And thus, after multiple days of sideways congestion — and a 2-day weather break for hurricane Sandy, an occurrence last seen in 1888 — the major indices resolved higher on Thursday, rather than lower, shredding the bear flag via the strongest single-day surge in seven weeks.  click to enlarge
And on Thursday, turn they did… while at the same time, a host of "risk off" plays — US treasuries, utilities, gold stocks — saw decline. Call it a Corleone market. Just when you think you're out, the bulls pull you back in.
A market that flashes major warning signs, then reverses higher in negation of all negative signals, ultimately rewards no one but the "true believers" who buy and hold with their eyes closed — and that group winds up losing all its money in the end anyway…  click to enlarge
For example: Even as equities catch a bid, the dollar is getting stronger. This is a reversal of the normal order of things, as the buck is generally a negatively correlated "risk off" instrument. One of the few current longs in our risk-curtailed portfolio is UUP, the Powershares dollar bullish index. UUP is registering a meaningful breakout today (Friday Nov 2nd), even as gold and silver tank.  click to enlarge
To briefly recap various elements of our thinking (as they have been spelled out in various places these past few years), gold is an instrument of extremes. Precious metals can do very well when things are "hot" — i.e. when inflation pressures are wreaking havoc on markets — or when market conditions are "cold," because the icy grip of deflation paradoxically increases the odds of central bank panic and emergency super-stimulus.  But when market conditions are neither "hot" nor "cold" but maddeningly lukewarm, precious metals are not the place to be (in our humble opinion). The surges in gold and silver we have seen of late have been tied to big statements and big moves from Bernanke — but these expectations of some big inflationary drama developing have simply not been matched by reality, or by reality's future prospects in the near term.
We remain short QQQ from higher levels, along with a few select individual equities. Our only notable bullish position is long $USD (via the aforementioned UUP). In some market environments the name of the game is capital preservation, as opposed to profit accumulation, and this is one of them. If you would like to see our day-to-day trading decisions and setups, along with in-depth commentary, research notes, position sizing metrics etc., we invite you to check out the Mercenary Live Feed! JS (jack@mercenarytrader.com)   p.s. Like this article? For more, visit our Knowledge Center! p.p.s. Sign up for our Hedge Fund Regulatory Alerts!  |
| Jobs Tally Increase Sends Gold Below $1,700/oz Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:33 AM PDT The US dollar broke substantially above the pivotal 80.00 mark on the trade-weighted index this morning, prompting fairly sizeable selling in the precious metals' complex. Spot gold fell to an overnight low of $1,705 while spot silver showed bids near $31.80 per ounce.  |
| Keiser Report: Fraud by Day, Fraud by Night Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:21 AM PDT In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss Chinese investors pouring money into silver, while American investors pour money into bonds 33 times faster than into equities. They also look at the latest updates to the mystery of there being no Chinese gold bars in the GLD vaults and on the fly by day operations at the Federal Reserve Bank. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to John Butler, author of The Golden Revolution and chief investment officer of Amphora Capital, about German gold and a German exit from the euro. from russiatoday: ~TVR |
| Santilli: Banksters & Attorneys Panicking! $43 Trill Lawsuit Officially In Fed Court Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:13 AM PDT Tonight on The Pete Santilli Show Pete takes an in-depth look at the $43 Trillion dollar lawsuit levied against the major banks and their lending partners givingВ Listen as Pete takes on the opposing attorney Richard Gotlieb (Chicago), who has petitioned the U.S. District Court in the eastern district of New York to move theВ During the interview Mr. Gotlieb looses his composure after Pete schools him with the fact that these banks and lenders have destroyed the lives of millions of people andВ The Bunker News Break is brought to you by occupycorporatism.com and Susanne Posel.В Susanne is live starting at 8:08 P.M. PT giving you a sneak preview ofВ We will see you all back tomorrow night on RBN Where Pete will cover: Iran and Israel, Benghazi and the Drug war that DHS now claims has been infiltrated by Hezbollah. from petersantillitv: ~TVR |
| Greg: Seventeen Trillion Dollar Debt Is Just Around The Corner. Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:10 AM PDT |
| Guido Hulsmann on Mises' invaluable legacy Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:07 AM PDT Episode 63: 2012 marks the centennial of the publication of one of the Austrian School of economics' most important books on monetary theory: The Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises. GoldMoney's Andy Duncan interviews Professor Guido HГјlsmann about his forthcoming special book — a "Festschrift" honouring Mises which will be published to mark this centennial. xq HГјlsmann is a Professor of Economics at the University of Angers in France, and a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. He's also the author of several important Austrian School books, including Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism (2007) and The Ethics of Money Production (2008). This podcast was recorded on 31 October 2012. from goldmoneynews: ~TVR |
| Get Ready For Big Moves In Gold, The US Dollar & The Euro Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:02 AM PDT from kingworldnews.com: Today Tom Fitzpatrick spoke with King World News about what to expect going forward from gold, silver, the US dollar, and the euro. Fitzpatrick has been astonishingly accurate in forecasting the movements of both gold and silver. Now Fitzpzatrick lets KWN readers know what to expect from the currencies as well as the metals. Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com |
| Greyerz – Gold & The Incredible Financial Destruction We Face Posted: 02 Nov 2012 07:01 AM PDT from kingworldnews.com: Earlier today King World News published the extraordinary chart sent exclusively to KWN by Egon von Greyerz. In part II of his interview, Greyerz, who is founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management, discusses the incredible chart, and gives readers a shocking price for gold which is based on that 'cubed' chart. Here is what Greyerz had this to say in Part II, along with his comments about the fascinating chart: "I discussed the real over-the-counter derivatives earlier, which stand at $1.1 quadrillion, and this is worldwide. Every time there is a problem in a bank it seems to be derivatives related, such as what happened with JP Morgan which recently lost $5.6 billion, and UBS which lost $2.3 billion." Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com |
| Greyerz – One Of The Most Important Charts Ever Posted: 02 Nov 2012 06:59 AM PDT from kingworldnews.com: Today Egon von Greyerz sent King World News one of the most important charts you will ever see. Greyerz, who is founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management, demonstrated, in this one chart, the incredible danger facing the global financial system and why gold will explode higher in price. This is the first of two interviews KWN will be releasing with Greyerz today. Here is what Greyerz had this to say in Part I, along with his chart: "If I look around the world, the problems continue. China has yet another round of QE totaling $60 billion. China is under real pressure. And if you look at ArcelorMittal, which is the biggest steel producer in the world, and for them China is a massive market, they had a 20% decline in sales in Q3." Keep on reading @ kingworldnews.com |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2012 06:24 AM PDT GoldCore's Mark O'Byrne was recently interviewed for Mineweb's Metal's Weekly Podcast. The full interview follows below: GEOFF CANDY: Welcome to this week's edition of Mineweb.com's Metals Weekly podcast. Joining me on the line is the founder and head of research at GoldCore, Mark O'Byrne. Mark we wanted to talk to you about silver because silver prices fell roughly speaking, 4,5% this week and clearly there's been a lot of talk about what's been going on, and perhaps some sense of fatigue setting in terms of quantitative easing particularly on the gold side. This has perhaps fed into silver to some extent as well. How do you see the lay of the land with regards to the silver market at the moment? MARK O'BYRNE: As you said it was down 4,5% this week and in the month of October we are actually down 6,7%. But we do see it as a correction within a longer term secular bull market for both gold and, indeed, the silver market. Basically both gold and silver had good moves up in the August and September periods. And then as we entered into October, which is traditionally one of the weakest months for gold and indeed for silver, we actually warned coming into the end of September that if there is to be a correction it's most likely to be in October and that has materialised. But, we do believe that this is short-term weakness and that the long-term fundamentals will drive the gold and silver market prices higher in the coming months and particularly because November is one of the strongest months for both gold and silver. So, we do believe though we're probably not near the lows. I think we'll possibly hit the lows in the next week or two and then we're in for a period of strength in November. But, remember December, January and February are traditionally quite strong months for precious metals and I think we may see another intermediate peak coming into March 2013. GEOFF CANDY: Now you talk of these traditional peaks, how much of that is related to jewellery demand out of Asia and clearly in a year where we've not seen particularly stellar growth in that sector of that market, given the high prices, especially in the likes of rupee terms., how does that impact on precious metals prices and in particular on silver? MARK O'BYRNE: Yes, traditionally demand for jewellery in Asia, particularly from India, has been a fundamental driver and the Indian festival season in particular with regards to gold was a driver of that. And that may have led to the strength that you see in the month of November because we're coming into that month again and then obviously more recently since the liberalisation of the Chinese gold market, the Chinese demand coming into the Chinese New Year is another factor that people are believing is exerting pressure on the price coming into year end. So, I think that's still a factor, but, possibly less of a factor there than it was before. When you talk exclusively about jewellery - Asian demand has changed so much and there is obviously more coin and bar demand from Asia and I suppose Asians in general are becoming a little bit more sophisticated in the way they buy gold and they're trying to buy it in more cost effective ways oftentimes and also obviously we have the advent of the ETF and indeed the advent of many other types investment vehicles whether it be digital gold or gold certificates which have become more popular in the western world. So the jewellery demand is still a factor but it seems to be more of a factor whereby it's almost supporting the price on the dips. It's not what is driving the price on to record levels. It's just more an underlying support for the marketplace and we believe that will continue to be the case because the Chinese and particularly Indian buyers tend to be much more price sensitive. They seek value and tend to buy in the dips whereas our experience of western buyers is, unfortunately, they do tend to buy near intermediate highs and they aren't very good at buying on the price corrections. GEOFF CANDY: That does beg the question though then, are we perhaps seeing over time either a flattening out of the cycles to some extent or a shift in what is the traditionally higher or better performing ones and those that aren't? MARK O'BYRNE: I don't know. Possibly from India because obviously the amount of gold ownership in India is huge - they are the largest owners of gold in the world, so it's a very developed marketplace. But China on the other hand has a similar population of nearly 1.3bn people if you include the Chinese Diaspora and its interesting because the per capita consumption of those 1.3bn people is increasing very sharply but from a near zero base because they were banned from owning gold from 1950 to 2003. Their per capita ownership levels of gold are still nowhere near the levels seen in India. So it is believed in time that they will reach levels seen say by their compatriots in Hong Kong and by expats in Singapore and around Asia. Gold is very deeply ingrained in the Chinese psyche because of their experience of hyperinflation within the lifetime of many Chinese people. So I think it's very difficult to say but I think the Asian demand story is never going to go away. It may decrease from the record levels seen recently but I and I think most analysts would be surprised if it decreased a whole lot, especially given the uncertainties that are out there with regards to both the Chinese and Indian economies and indeed the global economy. GEOFF CANDY: I want to get into those fundamental factors as well in just a second but in terms of silver particularly and the other side of the silver demand coin outside of investment, outside of jewellery, it is the much more industrial metal than perhaps gold as a precious metal as well, and we have seen a fairly large over supply of in the photovoltaic market as well, that clearly must have had some effect - how do you see that playing out as a demand for silver and in general how it would impact prices? MARK O'BYRNE: Well this photovoltaic demand is interesting because there have been huge increases in demand in that sector (the solar energy sector) and that demand has come off a little. The share price of a lot of these solar energy companies have gone to the wall and the share prices have come off quite significantly. I think there was a nascent bubble there and that demand has fallen as you say, but I do think that long-term there is likely to be a degree of demand in the photovoltaic sector. But, it may fall from these levels but I think there will always be a base amount of demand in that sector. And, while people have tended to focus on that sector more recently, it is important to note that silver is still used in huge amounts of industrial applications. People would be amazed at the little bits of silver that are in microwaves and fridges and all sorts of everyday appliances. It's also used massively in the medical sector in an increasing number of applications, there's a huge amount of new, different devices, silver is being used basically in these medical applications because it has anti-bacterial properties that have been known throughout history and even the US army has developed some of the clothing that's used by some of the US military personnel has little particles of silver because it helps the soldiers out in the field who are basically at risk of... you know, if they're wearing these clothes for long periods of time, sweating a lot there's a risk of disease... so basically you have surgical gowns, draperies and indeed actual medicine itself so that is a sector that is very interesting. But more importantly I suppose we will probably go into this now, investment demand is becoming if not as important, I think in time it may become as important as the industrial side and obviously in the 1980s and 1990s after the silver bubble burst demand was more on the industrial side and less investment demand but that shift has begun to change and will continue to see that change in the coming months and years. GEOFF CANDY: How much of that has to do with the fact that gold prices are so much higher than perhaps they were in the past? MARK O'BYRNE: I agree absolutely that is a factor, particularly in Asia, it is seen as poor man's gold, more so than in the west. So there is demand that we're seeing, particularly in India, but in other Asian countries as well, people increasingly find it hard to hold gold in any sort of quantities so they are buying silver because the ratio is roughly 53, 54 to 1 as we speak. So, long-term the ratio is 15:1 because geologically there are 15 parts of silver to one part of gold, so we believe long-term that the ratio will gradually return to that level of 15:1 of the very long term because a huge amount of silver has been used in industrial applications in the last 100 years whereas obviously all the gold that's ever been mined continues to be recycled at a much higher level. So that is part of it and there is some money in the western world, investment money is looking at silver as undervalued vis a vis obviously gold above its nominal high from 1980, whereas silver continues to be well below its nominal high for 1980 so I think that will continue to lead to investment demand internationally. GEOFF CANDY: Where do you see prices going? MARK O'BYRNE: Well we're not jumping on the bandwagon. As early as 2003 we said that we believed silver would go over $50 per ounce . So $50 per ounce was the nominal high in 1980. We said it would go above that price in 2003 - it reached there a year and a half, two years ago and we believe we'll get back above that level. But we also said that gold and silver would reach inflation adjusted highs and gold's inflation adjusted high is $2,400 an ounce and silver's inflation adjusted high is $140 per ounce and we see no reason to change those long-term forecasts. Indeed the amount of money that's been printed in the world today would suggest that if you've got a parabolic spike as we saw in 1980, prices could go much further higher on the upside you know... GEOFF CANDY: Just quickly to close off with - what is likely to be the next catalyst for silver prices either on the downside or the upside? MARK O'BYRNE: Well I think it is the fiscal cliff. Once this election is over, the folks will turn to whether the US Congress can get their act together and address the fiscal cliff, and many people are concerned that even if they do manage to quit the political squabbling, and achieve a degree of consensus, that there are concerns that the scale of the fiscal problems in the US in terms of the national deficit and indeed of the massive unfunded liabilities which are between $50tr and $100tr, there is a risk that this is, I hate to call it insurmountable, but it's a momentous task that they ahead of them, and I think once the markets begin to focus on that again I think the dollar will come under pressure and indeed I think all fiat currencies will come under pressure in the coming years given the degree of fiscal imbalances in most western economies and I think that that bodes well for both gold and silver in the final two months of this year and into 2013 and indeed in the coming years I do think this is a long-term - people talk about the super-cycle in commodities, many commodity markets and indeed a lot of markets have long-term 15 to 20 year cycles in prices. And I think quite possibly that's what we are witnessing in both the gold and silver markets. GEOFF CANDY: And we're about 10 years in at the moment... MARK O'BYRNE: Exactly. We are 12 years in so, who knows. I mean we try not to get into price predictions and try and predict the future because it's absolutely unknowable, but we do think price will not peak until at least until 2015 - I think sometime between 2015 and 2020. Hopefully at that stage, you know many of the fiscal monetary problems that are... today will have been addressed and we'll have come through the worst of the crisis and only at that stage I suppose will we have more clarity on the longer-term outlook... November 2, 2012 (Source: GoldCore) http://www.goldcore.com/goldcore_blog/goldcore-comments-silver |
| Precious Metals Lower Ahead of Jobs Data Posted: 02 Nov 2012 05:23 AM PDT Spot market prices to buy gold in dollars dropped to below $1,710 an ounce Friday morning, reversing gains from earlier in the week, while stocks and commodities fell and the US dollar rallied ahead of the release of key US jobs data.  |
| November Silver Strength to Follow Recent Weakness Posted: 02 Nov 2012 05:10 AM PDT Gold inched down near $1,700/oz on Friday after a drop through its support level at $1,710-$1,712 initiated stop loss selling. Better than expected employment data was seen as potentially negative for gold.  |
| Bullion Waiting for US Election Results & ECB Posted: 02 Nov 2012 04:45 AM PDT Upcoming important events to watch will be the October US non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate, the US Presidential election, ECB and the UK monetary policy meetings and the start of the Chinese Communist Party Congress.  |
| Transition for the World Bullish for Gold Posted: 02 Nov 2012 04:30 AM PDT |
| Indirect Exchange : The Gold Standard Posted: 02 Nov 2012 04:30 AM PDT Mises.org |
| Gold and Silver Market morning, November 02, 2012 Posted: 02 Nov 2012 04:00 AM PDT |
| Posted: 02 Nov 2012 03:52 AM PDT Hedgehog trapped in crisp packet in Weston-super-Mare BBC (Richard Smith). Only in England…. Coup at Environmental Journal? Inside Higher Ed (Aquifer) The Eurozone's Combined Manufacturing PMI Fell To 45.4 Clusterstock. Germany sucked too. Coalition troubles in Athens FT Alphaville Storm over 'Lagarde list' intensifies Financial Times and Greek journalist acquitted in Swiss account scandal Reuters (Richard Smith) Storm porn:
Hurricane Sandy Aftermath Reveals Massive Inequality Gap in New York City Dave Dayen, Firedoglake Ads Pushing for Romney Victory Vary by Area on Abortion Issue Bloomberg Roger Ailes Offered Bush Administration "Off the Record Help" in Private Note Gawker (Lambert) The Economic Consequences of Mr. Obama Fadhel Kaboub, New Economic Perspectives Ron Wyden Blocks Surveillance Bill That Is Barack Obama Priority Roll Call (Lambert) Chart: Almost Every Obama Conspiracy Theory Ever Mother Jones (furzy mouse) Revealed: the day Obama chose a strategy of silence on climate change Guardian Ohio Supreme Court rules for homeowners in foreclosure case Cleveland Plain-Dealer War on Facts: Republicans Complain About Nonpartisan Congressional Study on Tax Cuts for the Rich, Get It Taken Down David Dayen, Firedoglake Barclays case shocks the energy market Financial Times. As much as cases like this are badly overdue, it also feeds perceptions that American regulators are only willing to get tough on non-US institutions (what about JP Morgan and silver markets??? Or as Matt Taibbi has pointed out, pretty much all the major US banks and municipal bid rigging?) Little Federal Help for the Long-Term Unemployed New York Times Low Rates Lure Yield Seekers Onto Thin Ice Bloomberg * * * lambert here: Mission elapsed time: T + 55 and counting* Can you help a fellow American down on his luck? — Fred C. Dobbs, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Montreal. Corruption: "A computer program that for years spat out wildly inflated estimates on public works contracts in Montreal is still being used by the city to help determine how much infrastructure projects should cost." Gee, I'm trying to think if there are other computer systems under elite control in criminogenic environments…. AL. Abortion: "One of the photos in this article is human. One is an eleven week old elephant fetus. Can you spot the difference? If you can't, should you be deciding these matters for everyone in the country? Think about it. Take all the time you need. " CA. Police state: "People who've e-mailed Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan over the past year about Occupy Oakland probably didn't get much of a response. [H]e used a spam filter to dismiss messages sent to him with "Occupy Oakland" in the subject line/ Same goes for the phrases "stop the excessive police force," "respect the press pass" or "police brutality." [T]hose messages went straight into his junk mail folder, which he apparently never looked at. Because of those filters, Jordan missed e-mails from other city officials and a federal court monitor." Never forget that police state functionaries aren't necessarily smart or competent. … Charters: "'With an unprecedented surge of cash from charter schools and their high-tech backers, normally low-profile school board campaigns have morphed into big-bucks contests to elect charter-friendly candidates and defeat their challengers. The six-figure spending by independent committees highlights the muscle of charter proponents in Santa Clara County, where the county Board of Education is rapidly approving charter schools that compete for students and funding with established public schools." DC. Occupy the Department of Veteran's Affairs: "The Small group of veterans and their supporters who have been encamped in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs at, 810 Vermont Ave, in Washington, DC, just several hundred yards from the White House, have been battling it out with the with the V.A. since the beginning of October." FL. System D? "'The still, that was just a science project,' said a sheepish Mark Davis, 38, a friend who both men agree helped assemble the still out of an empty beer keg." GA. Occupy Athens: "'There were a lot of anarchists and punks that thought there was going to be a revolution,' [Chris Dowd, 37] said. 'Then, when they realized there wasn't going to be a revolution they left. Then there were a lot of mainstream liberals that came in, but a lot of them had work and other things going on.'" … Public good: "Dr. Todd Groce, President of the Georgia Historical Society: 'This is not just about people doing historical research. The State Archives exist to allow the citizens to be able to have access to the information as to what is going on within their government.'" Which would be why it's on the chopping block! IN. Mourdock: "The major party candidates in IN's U.S. Senate race are pointing to sharp upticks in online contributions as evidence that R nominee Richard Mourdock's recent controversial remarks about rape and abortion are increasing their grassroots support." MD. Enthusiasm: "Harriet, a phonebanker with MOCO Democrats, called my cell yesterday asking for money. I politely, calmly, said No, please take my name off this call list. She said, Sure, then asked me why, and I politely, calmly told her an abbreviated and profanity-free version of what I motherfucking yodel here. She sighed. You're not the first." ME. Democrats: "'The scariest thing for Ds is that this will be their second nominee for a major race who will come in with under 20 percent of the vote in two years,' said Jennifer Duffy, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. 'They have a lot to worry about.'" … Occupy Our Homes: " Members of Occupy Maine are focusing their efforts on housing foreclosures. The newly formed Occupy Our Homes [here] is offering services that include general information, legal assistance, and fundraising. Some of the core activists involved participated in the occupation of Lincoln Park in Portland. [Another was from] Minneapolis, MN, where one of the first Occupy Our Homes groups was founded." … Wind: "Staff at the state's top environmental agency recommended the denial Thursday of an application to build a 14-turbine industrial wind site on Passadumkeag Mountain, saying the windmills would disrupt a "one-of-a-kind" view from Saponac Pond." MI. Referendum: "MI's controversial emergency manager law appears to be in trouble with 43% of MI voters ready to scrap it and just 35% wanting to keep it, a Detroit Free Press/WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) poll shows." MN. Occupy Homes: "'It wasn't an attorney, it wasn't a loss mitigation specialist, it wasn't a collection agent, it wasn't a mortgage broker, it wasn't even an executive — it was a social-media liaison,' says Occupy organizer Anthony Newby. 'They're paying very close attention to this public narrative. What they haven't figured out is how to combat it, how to effectively neutralize what's becoming an outcry of public opinion around the country'" (good long form). MT. Corruption: "The office of the Montana Commissioner on Political Practices was burglarized Wednesday night, police and office staffers said. [A spokesperson] said that the so-called 'Colorado Documents'* that may contain sensitive information on 23 candidates in Montana, are in a secure location and are not missing" [*the "meth house" trove]. ND. Voting: "[ND] is the only [state] with no voter registration. Ds are imagining buses of ineligible voters streaming to polling places, particularly arriviste oil-field workers in the booming northwest corner of the state who could cast affidavit ballots even if not they're not permanent North Dakota residents." NJ. Christie 2016! "Governor Christie has a particular loathing for NJ Transit. His [first] budget cut $300 million from NJ Transit, causing fares to skyrocket and improvements to be cut. Instead, Christie's administration gave $300 million to the developers of a white elephant shopping mall extravaganza in the Meadowlands. Those developers lost their shirts in 2008 before they could finish the mall that nobody wanted. This is the same governor who yells at teachers and makes the rest of us feel like parasites. He belongs to the party that cut back unemployment bennies for people in this state by 26 weeks. Let's not make a hero out of Christie." … Voting: "'I'd like to have the polling places powered up for next Tuesday,' Christie told reporters. 'I'm not yet to the point where I know whether we're going to be able to do that or we're not going to be able to do that.'" NM. Police state: "A state motor transportation police officer Tased a 10-year-old student during a school career fair in May in Tularosa, causing him to black out, according to a lawsuit filed by the boy's family. Officer Christopher Webb pointed the stun gun at the boy after the boy made a joke and said, 'Let me show you what happens to people who do not listen to the police.'" An accident. Not systemically, though. NY. Ursula Rozum: "Even though the [R donor] Graces' contributions would more than triple the amount of money she has to spend in the last week of the campaign, [Green candidate Ursula] Rozum decided not to keep them. She held a press conference Thursday to announce that she would give the money to charity. 'It's rare that I have thousands of dollars to give to organizations that I like,' she said." We will be hearing more from Rozum. … Hurricane Sandy: "The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) is using one of its exhibits to provide the community with free cell phone charging. Working with environmental group Times Up, MoRUS has set up OWS bike generators on Avenue C between 9th and 10th Street. For the past two days, volunteer riders have been pedaling as crowds of people gather to charge up their cell phones." … Hurricane Sandy: "I was told that 70 percent of people living in public housing down there, which someone estimated was 15,000–20,000 people, are without power. Keep in mind that this community is already highly marginalized–far from services, with peeling paint and poor management, where people in at least one building last year went three months without stoves and were told to cook on hot plates instead" (this is a good post about how to serve). … Hurricane Sandy: "Two days after Hurricane Sandy, the situation in the storm-stricken Rockaways and other southern Queens neighborhoods is getting worse in terms of the need for basic supplies and aid. Anger is growing that the government relief agencies have been slow to deal with the problems. 'People are saying, there's no National Guard, no Red Cross, no FEMA, they were elsewhere, but they weren't here,' [resident Dan] Mundy says. 'This is a long term thing. They say 4 to 5 days for the power, but I think it'll be 7 to 10, and then you have to check it's safe, and then deal with the oil burners and the structural damage. Right now, we need a FEMA tent, food, hot showers'" (AH). … Hurricane Sandy: "As the days without power drag on for an estimated 600,000 New York City residents, hot showers and charged cell phones aren't the only comforts missing in their lives. They're also without heat." … Hurricane Sandy: "'We just saw all these people in the [Met Food] Dumpster. This isn't a trash can. This is a heap of food,' [NYU student Ilana Breen] said showing off a $7.49 bottle of organic vanilla chai she found. 'We don't have any power. I have this book bag and we are going to come back with a suitcase.'" OH. Hurricane Sandy: "FirstEnergy reports that around 100,000 customers were still in the dark before dawn Thursday, with most of the outages concentrated in Cleveland and the western suburbs. The utility says it hopes to have most of it restored by the end of the weekend." … Voting: "The 6th U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Wednesday put on hold a lower court's ruling that said provisional ballots cast not just in the wrong precinct but in the wrong polling location altogether must still be counted." PA. Fracking: "The PA Department of Environmental Protection has created incomplete lab reports and used them to dismiss complaints that Marcellus Shale gas development operations have contaminated residential water supplies and made people sick, according to court documents and other sources." … Fracking: "Toxic fracking wastewater is often stored in open air pits close to homes. Pursuant to the Clean Water Act, these facilities are required to prepare, amend and implement spill prevention plans. But, the NRDC reports [that the EPA] visited 120 oil and gas development sites and found 105 were out of compliance with the law. 'This is all increasingly terrifying as Sandy bore down on the Marcellus region, where there are many open pits filled with fracking and related waste. Because the oil and gas industry is also exempt from our hazardous waste laws, no one knows exactly how dangerous the waste at any particular site might be,' says [Amy Mall of the NRDC]." … The Romney: "'Every sign points to a head-fake,' said Keegan Gibson, the editor of politicsPA.com. 'If they were responding to the underlying nature of the race, they would have gone up here a few weeks ago.'" TN. Voting: "The TN Supreme Court Thursday ordered state and local election officials to accept Memphis' library photo identification cards for voting purposes in Tuesday's general election provided the voter is properly registered." TX. Women's health: "Texas health commissioner Kyle Janek said Wednesday that errors in a state-crafted database intended to help women find reproductive health care providers are "a real problem." VA. Strategic hate management: "Wow. These are actual Romney supporters? I mean, they're just (pick one or more adjectives): a) hateful; b) bigoted; c) nuts; d) clueless; e) brain dead; f) ignorant; g) rabid. It's astounding, but there are tens of millions of people like this in our country. Sometimes I wonder how we ever make any progress at all. Ugh, I feel like I need a long, hot shower. More to the point, we can NOT let these people win; can you imagine what they'd do to this country? So do whatever you can possibly do in the next 4 days to elect Democrats across the board. Thanks." Yes, I'm aware that strategic hate management is practiced by both legacy parties. USVI. Warren Mosler: Interview here starts 16:04; Mosler is a candidate for USVI Representative. WI. Occupy: "On Saturday, about a dozen people — most of them homeless — set up tents on the 800 block of East Washington Avenue, near the former Occupy Madison site."] … The Obama: "Obama will wrap up his reelection campaign with a rally in Madison on Monday, November 5, the day before Election Day. It will be his second trip to town in a month. The AP reports that Bruce Springsteen will be performing at the rally." Obama will be reprising his support for unions in the Walker recall campaign. Oh, wait…. Outside baseball. Utilities: "Energy consultant Steve Mitnick argued that more of those crews should have been on each company's payroll in the first place, instead of called in from other states. "Those guys from MO, they don't know the neighborhoods of NJ.'" … Where it hurts: "Intel has revealed new details about its plan to exclude organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation from its corporate giving, a move that could cost some Boy Scout troops thousands of dollars in donations. Meanwhile, [Zach Wahls of Scouts for Equality] whose campaign helped pressure Intel into announcing the plan has turned his attention to UPS, another of the Scouts' corporate backers." The trail. Tipping point: "OH remains the tipping-point state in the forecast, the one that [Obama] him over the top to 270 electoral votes. There, [he] leads by 2.6%, which should convert to a victory about 80% of the time.Romney is not in a position to tolerate any movement in Mr. Obama's favor given how close we are to the finish line" (Nate Silver). The dead woman/live boy scenario (as it has been all along). … The racist card: "[T]he well-read pro-Obama blog Balloon-Juice went far beyond legitimate, aggressive critique. Based on that article, the blog publicly smeared Stoller as a racist without the slightest basis [here] (Glenn Greenwald). [Par for the course with Obama's thought police in the blogosphere. --lambert] … Media critique: "Like, some people say that Barack Obama will win re-election, while others say that his opponent, Mitt Romney, will prevail! WHO ARE WE TO TRUST?" … Swing states: "WaPo's Chris Cillizza said today that he considers IA only the eighth-closest state (after CO, FL, VA, WI, NH, OH, and NC)" (via). … Voting: "Thomas Rymer, a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the group will abide by election laws after officials in those states warned about possible criminal prosecution if the observers came within hundreds of feet of polling places. 'The U.S., as a participating state and founding member of the OSCE, has made certain commitments to allow international observers,' he said. 'That said, our observers aren't there to interfere.'" … Voting: "[T]he ability of voters to vote at all — presuming polling places are not flooded and voters are able to get to them — is imperiled by states such as VA, PN, WV, MD, NJ, NC and even OH, all of which force all, or some of their voters to vote on systems which simply do not work if they do not have power. While most of those states require a small percentage of emergency paper ballots be made available at the precincts, that number is unlikely to be enough in the event that voting machines are unavailable all day at the polls on November 6th. Moreover, battery backups on the electronic touch-screen systems are unreliable at best and, even when working, can only be counted on for a small number of hours." The Romney. Jeep flap: "For Ohioans targeted by Romney's misleading rhetoric, the [Toledo Blade] confuses more than it clarifies." … Air war: "The ads [one on Jeep] raise the possibility that the Romney campaign is employing a tactic that poses a crucial challenge to the press: attempting to win over late-deciding swing voters who have not been following the race with false and even previously debunked messages." The Obama. Colin Powell endorsement: Video. Because vials of anthrax! … Bloomberg endorsement: "[A]nd over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks." While turning the country into a petro-state… … Economist endor |
| Five Things Repatriating Gold Bullion Says About Germany Posted: 02 Nov 2012 03:21 AM PDT ¤ Yesterday in Gold and SilverNothing much happened during Far East trading on their Thursday...and the same came be said for early trading in London as well. But the positive bias that had developed since the London open, got nipped in the bud at precisely noon local time...8 a.m. in New York. Then, like Monday and Tuesday, it was all down hill into the 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Comex close. From there, the gold price traded sideways into the 5:15 p.m. electronic close. Gold finished the Thursday trading day at $1,715.00 spot...down $5.20 on the day. Volume was in the neighbourhood of 134,000 contracts. And as you can see from the chart, it was precisely the same story in silver...so I shan't dwell on the action. Silver closed at $32.26 spot...flat on the day. Volume was around 32,300 contracts. The dollar index opened at 79.96 in Far East trading on Thursday morning...and then traded within a very choppy 30 point range for the rest of the day...but only closed up 8 basis points at 80.04. The gold and silver traded pretty much independently of the currencies yesterday...as it was obvious that other forces were at work in the precious metal markets yesterday. Even though the gold price was unchanged at the open of the equity markets, the shares gapped down a percent...and by shortly after 10:00 a.m. in New York, were down about two percent. They didn't do much after that...and the HUI closed almost on its low of the day...down 1.86%. With the odd exception, the silver stocks did reasonably well...all things considered...and Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up a very respectable 1.57%. (Click on image to enlarge) The CME's Daily Delivery Report for 'Day 2' of the November delivery month showed that 112 gold and zero silver contracts were posted for delivery on Monday within the Comex-approved depositories. The Bank of Nova Scotia was the short/issuer on 111 of those gold contracts...and JPMorgan was the biggest stopper with 65 of those contracts. The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday, but over at SLV an authorized participant added 774,614 troy ounces of silver. The U.S. Mint had a very tiny sales report yesterday..and I don't know why they bothered with it. They sold 3,000 ounces of gold eagles...and that was all. Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday, they reported receiving 504,897 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 21,902 ounces out the door. The link to that activity is here. This happy looking chart posted below is courtesy of Nick Laird of all people...and it's surprising, because it isn't even his! That's a first for him. He 'borrowed' it from the gracelandupdates.com website. (Click on image to enlarge) It was a pretty slow news day yesterday...so I hope you have the time to glance through what few stories I do have. It was another Groundhog Day performance in all four precious metals again yesterday...and nothing has been resolved. Nick Barisheff: Unallocated Gold Storage Or Accounts...Avoid This Risk When Buying Gold. Bron Suchecki – The Perth Mint Really Does Have The Metal. American Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Break Losing Streak ¤ Critical ReadsSubscribeU.S. planned layoffs jump to a 5-month highThe number of planned layoffs by U.S. firms jumped 41.1 percent in October to the highest level in five months, although the number includes more than 10,000 jobs in U.S.-owned auto plants in Europe, a report said on Thursday.  Tempers flare in N.J. city where 20,000 strandedOfficials in the city of Hoboken, N.J., are defending their response to severe flooding from super-storm Sandy. Public Safety director Jon Tooke says at least 25 percent of the city on the Hudson River across from Manhattan remains under water. He estimates at least 20,000 people are stranded and says most are being encouraged to shelter in place until floodwaters recede. Tempers flared Wednesday morning outside City Hall as some residents complained the city was slow to get food and other supplies out to the stranded. Tooke says emergency personnel have been working 24/7. He says the "scope of this situation is enormous." I've got some really bad news for some of these most unfortunate citizens...as it will take months if not years for the situation to return to any sort of normalcy. This is all there is to this short AP story that was picked up by the news.yahoo.com Internet site on Wednesday...however, there are lots of pictures attached to it. I found it in yesterday's edition of the King Report...and the link is here.  New Yorkers in fuel scramble as storm-hit pumps dry upDrivers and homeowners scrambled to secure fuel for their cars and generators in the U.S. Northeast on Wednesday as storm-hit gasoline stations started to run dry. More than half of all gasoline service stations in the New York City area and New Jersey were shut because of depleted fuel supplies and power outages, frustrating attempts to restore normal life, industry officials said. Reports of long lines, dark stations and empty tanks circulated across the region. Some station owners were unable to pump fuel due to a lack of power, while others quickly ran their tanks dry because of increased demand and logistical problems in delivering fresh supplies. The lack of working gasoline stations is likely to compound travel problems in the region, with the New York City subway system down until at least Thursday and overland rail and bus services severely disrupted. This Reuters story from Wednesday was also picked up by the news.yahoo.com Internet site...and is also from yesterday's King Report. The link is here.  Bank of England's Charlie Bean signals no more QEThe prospect of more money printing has receded after Charlie Bean, the Bank of England's deputy governor, revealed he had doubts about how much growth the policy would deliver in what could be a key shift at the central bank. Mr Bean appeared to signal a change of stance in a speech in Hull that is likely to mean quantitative easing (QE) is voted down next week, when the Bank's nine rate-setters make their monthly decision. Until recently, most economists had expected the Bank to re-launch QE in November, with another £50bn injection on top of the £375bn completed. In July, when QE was last increased, two members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted against QE – including chief economist Spencer Dale. A swing against by such a senior figure as Mr Bean, who is deputy governor for monetary policy and a former chief economist, would be expected to carry other members, too. It also raises the prospect of Sir Mervyn King, the Governor, being outvoted twice in just six months. Sir Mervyn is expected to call for another £50bn round as he did in June, when he was in the minority and Mr Bean was one of those who voted him down. This story was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site early on Wednesday evening...and I thank Donald Sinclair for digging it up on our behalf. The link is here.  Game Over: UBS swings the axeUBS is not the only bank to be scaling back its ambitions...as almost all big European banks are doing so in one way or another. But the Swiss bank has chosen to "undress in public", says one analyst. Its promise to start paying at least 50% of its profits in dividends, after it reaches a certain ratio of capital to assets, helped lift UBS shares by 4% on the day of the cull. Investment banks have had their fair share of foul-ups in recent years, but UBS has been particularly accident-prone. The division has produced meagre profits since losing close to SFr60 billion ($54 billion) from 2007 to 2009. It took a huge hit on subprime mortgage-backed securities, prompting the Swiss government to inject capital. It suffered heavy losses in the botched Facebook listing earlier this year. Only this week a tearful junior trader took the stand in a London courtroom to defend himself against charges that he lost the bank SFr1.8 billion in rogue trading. As long ago as 2010 Philipp Hildebrand, the then governor of the Swiss central bank, very publicly raised doubts that UBS, and its big Swiss rival Credit Suisse, could succeed in full-service investment banking and urged them to concentrate on their strengths. It has taken time for that message to sink in, but pressure inside and outside the bank helped. Axel Weber, the chairman of UBS since May and a former president of the German Bundesbank, "is bleak and leery about the world," comments a UBS-watcher. Above all, the requirements of Finma, the Swiss regulator, which has imposed extra charges on the two Swiss banks that are "too big to fail", have made it harder to hit targets for returns. This rather short story, filed from Berlin, is from The Economist...and it's well worth reading. I thank Donald Sinclair for sending it our way...and the link is here.  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Don't cry for me, FrançoisFrench leader François Hollande is uncomfortably close to a collapse in credibility. His poll rating has sunk to 36pc. The speed of decline has been shocking. The latest broadside comes from ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, supposedly his ally on the Left. "The election promises of the French president are going to shatter on the walls of economic reality," he said in Paris. The backsliding in the retirement age is indefensible and "cannot be financed". Two or three more blunders of this kind and "reality will catch up with out French friends". AE-P takes Hollande to task in this blog from yesterday...and hoists him with his own petard. It's worth reading...and I thank Roy Stephens for sharing it with us. The link is here.  Barclays faces $470m fine for electricity market manipulationThe US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has provisionally fined Barclays a total of $435m and ordered the bank to repay $34.9m in "unjust profits" as it accused the lender of engaging in a "coordinated scheme to manipulate trading at four electricity trading points in the Western United States". Four Barclays traders were named by the authorities and fined a total of $18m for taking part in the alleged scheme. Scott Connelly, managing director of North American power at Barclays, who was described by the regulator as the "leader of the manipulative scheme" and its "highest paid member", was hit with the largest fine and provisionally ordered to pay $15m. Three other traders, named as Daniel Brin, Karen Levine and Ryan Smith, were each fined $1m. One wonders what fine JPMorgan et al will face if the silver and gold price management scheme is ever allowed to see the light of day in the public press. This story was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site very late on Wednesday night GMT...and is another offering from Donald Sinclair. The link is here.  Debt Crisis: Wealthy Greeks Still Don't Pay TaxesAverage Greeks are reeling under the strict austerity measures passed in order to balance the country's budget. Top earners, on the other hand, continue to evade the tax man. Most of the self-employed in Greece significantly underreport their earnings, whereas shipping magnates enjoy generous exemptions. The principle of tax justice may be enshrined into the Greek constitution, but it has become increasingly obvious that not all Greek taxpayers are created equal. Currently, the government in Athens is preparing yet another round of harsh austerity measures, severely testing the cohesion of both the coalition and society. Already, such measures in combination with tax hikes have slashed average household income in Greece by half since the beginning of the crisis. Measures now planned will see pensions sink by 25 percent. At the same time, though, a small elite of wealthy Greek ship owners is fighting to defend its tax-free status -- also, ironically enough, enshrined in the constitution. Meanwhile, other moneyed Greeks, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, continue to systematically avoid taxes. According to a recent study, seven out of 10 self employed Greeks significantly underreport their earnings. Indeed, though the crisis has been raging for five years now, many wealthy Greeks are under no more pressure to pay taxes than they were before. This story was posted on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for bringing it to our attention. The link is here. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Don't cry for me, François Posted: 02 Nov 2012 03:21 AM PDT  French leader François Hollande is uncomfortably close to a collapse in credibility. His poll rating has sunk to 36pc. The speed of decline has been shocking. The latest broadside comes from ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, supposedly his ally on the Left. "The election promises of the French president are going to shatter on the walls of economic reality," he said in Paris. The backsliding in the retirement age is indefensible and "cannot be financed". Two or three more blunders of this kind and "reality will catch up with out French friends". |
| American Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Break Losing Streak Posted: 02 Nov 2012 03:21 AM PDT  For the first time this year, the United States Mint's American Gold and Silver Eagle bullion coins recorded higher monthly sales than the year ago period. The economic turmoil and uncertainties experienced during 2008 led to renewed interest in precious metals investment. This situation led to problems for the United States Mint, which was unable to produce an adequate supply of bullion coins to meet public demand. The often dubbed "unprecedented demand" led to temporary sales suspensions and prolonged periods of allocation, during which available supplies were rationed amongst authorized purchasers. |
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