Gold World News Flash |
- Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Falls Sharply and Leaves Advance in 3 Waves
- 65 Percent Of Americans Believe That 2013 Will Be A Year Of Economic Difficulty
- Yamada - Incredibly Important Chart & Commentary On Gold
- ArabianMoney’s top 2013 pick silver jumps 3% on first day of New Year beating everything except gasoline
- Channel Resources Institutional Research Report Obtained
- Doug Casey: There Will Be Panic Into Gold (Casey Research) – YouTube
- Gold To See 186% Gain As System Collapses & Silver Hits $150
- Tom Cloud: The Pieces Are In Place For A Gold Rally
- Europe's dream of toppling dollar fades as Asian Tigers dump euro
- Gold & The Frightening Picture Of Our Financial Abyss
- VIDEO: Interview of President and CEO Donald Robinson – YouTube
- Most Popular Financial Markets Analysis of 2012, Exponential Inflation Mega-trend Continues into 2013
- The Gold Price Backed Off $14.20 to $1,673.70 Dropping Through my Boundary of $1,685
- Al Jazeera Battles Time Warner Cable on Current TV: Video – Bloomberg
- Byron Wien: 10 Events That Will Likely “Surprise” Us In 2013
- Silver Update: 50 Cent Price Crash/Gap – YouTube
- Paul Dimitriadis – Bullish on Uranium,Oil and Natural Gas in the Long Term – YouTube
- Gerald Celente Invests in Gold and Silver in 2013 while for waiting WW III
- Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt
- The Federal Reserve Has No Practical Option To End QE
- HSBC says India's gold consumption likely to recover
- Gold Extends Drop as Dollar Gains After Fed QE3 Signals
- More Asians Going for Gold in the Vault
- Interview - Focus on Gold, Channel Resources and Brazilian Gold
- Guest Post: America's Bubble Dependent Economy
- Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Fall Over 1% and 2%
- Unstoppable Opportunity
- Gold Daily And Silver Weekly Charts - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow
- Special GoldSeek.com Event: “What’s in Store for Gold Stocks in 2013? A Look at the Charts”
- WALL STREET CRIMINAL BANKS ARE INSOLVENT
- Turk - A Black Swan Event, Global Monetary Reset & Chaos
- Fed split about when to halt QE3
- Gold, Silver, Your IRA ? and a FREE Silver Coin Offer
- Fund Money Flows Continue Wreaking Havoc
- The Fiscal Cliff Drama Is Over! Here Are the Winners & Losers
- Gold, Silver, Your IRA – and a FREE Silver Coin Offer
| Commodity Technical Analysis: Gold Falls Sharply and Leaves Advance in 3 Waves Posted: 03 Jan 2013 11:33 PM PST courtesy of DailyFX.com January 03, 2013 07:47 PM Sell strength if given the chance above 1660 Daily Bars Chart Prepared by Jamie Saettele, CMT Commodity Analysis: “Gold’s decline reversed just before the level where the decline from the October high would consist of 2 equal waves and the 61.8% retracement of the rally from the 2012 low. Currently testing short term trendline resistance and the 20 day average, a reaction would encounter support at 1680. Resistance is estimated above 1700.” 1680 proved ephemeral as gold has declined over $50 in less than 2 days. The advance from 1635 is left as a corrective 3 waves. Commodity Trading Strategy: Sell strength if given the chance above 1660 LEVELS: 1585 1610 1635 1660 1670 1684... |
| 65 Percent Of Americans Believe That 2013 Will Be A Year Of Economic Difficulty Posted: 03 Jan 2013 11:30 PM PST from The Economic Collapse Blog:
|
| Yamada - Incredibly Important Chart & Commentary On Gold Posted: 03 Jan 2013 10:01 PM PST  With continued volatility in the gold and silver markets, today King World News is pleased to share a piece of legendary technical analyst Louise Yamada's "Technical Perspectives" report. Yamada is without question one of the greatest technical analysts Wall Street has ever seen. This information is not available to the public and we are grateful to Louise for sharing her incredible work with KWN readers globally. Please note the fascinating formations on the gold chart Yamada features, along with her comments regarding the price moves for gold and subsequent consolidations during the 2005-2008 and the 2008-2011 time frames. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 03 Jan 2013 09:40 PM PST from Arabian Money:
The extent of the silver pop surprised even the most ardent of silver bugs. Gold prices also rose but trailed by comparison with barely a percentage point increase. $4,500 gold? However, the key to silver prices in 2013 lies in the hands of gold. Silver outperforms gold on the way up and underperforms on the way down. So is gold on the way up? |
| Channel Resources Institutional Research Report Obtained Posted: 03 Jan 2013 09:31 PM PST HOUSTON -- One of the companies we mentioned in the interview with Scott Gibson in New Orleans (see previous post) was recently picked up for coverage by Pope & Company, a Toronto based full service investment dealer serving institutional clients. Pope initiated coverage of Channel Resources (CHU-V or CHJRF) in December, with CHU then trading at C $0.065 with a Speculative Buy rating and a target price of $0.25 (+280%). CHU.V closed Thursday, January 3 at C $0.075. More... (Channel Resources 1mm oz. plus Mankarga 5 deposit, Burkina Faso.) (Mankarga 5 Drill Map) To read the full report, click on the link below. Please allow some time for download. Download 120412InitiatingCoverage-Channel
Disclosure: Channel Resources is a Vulture Bargain Candidate of Interest (VBCI) and is our fully fledged Vulture Bargain #17. Members of the GGR team are actively accumulating and may hold long positions in CHU.V. |
| Doug Casey: There Will Be Panic Into Gold (Casey Research) – YouTube Posted: 03 Jan 2013 09:24 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Gold To See 186% Gain As System Collapses & Silver Hits $150 Posted: 03 Jan 2013 08:40 PM PST from KingWorldNews:
But the fiscal cliff is just a minor issue which involves around $120 billion, at best, savings in a year. The US didn't even succeed in rearranging those little deck chairs because cost-cutting has been deferred. I'm sure that in 60 days when this is brought up again they will not cut costs significantly because no one will accept cost cuts. The politicians won't accept it because it means they won't be reelected. And the people won't accept it because they will be even worse off. Just like we've seen in Europe, austerity won't happen. Therefore, the deficits will continue, and they will continue at an accelerated rate." |
| Tom Cloud: The Pieces Are In Place For A Gold Rally Posted: 03 Jan 2013 08:23 PM PST In this week's talk with Tom Cloud of National Numismatic Associates, he explains why the upcoming debt limit negotiations are a bigger deal than the fiscal cliff for precious metals. DollarCollapse: Hi Tom. How's business? Specifically, what are your customers thinking about? Tom Cloud: The phone is ringing off the hook. Our customers are less concerned with the fiscal cliff being kicked down the road than with the fact that the debt ceiling is just a couple of months away. I'm also hearing a lot of complaints about president Obama cutting the fiscal cliff deal and then immediately charging taxpayers $3 million to take him and his family to Hawaii. One other thing that's leading a lot of people to look at precious metals is the recent announcement that Japan is buying more US Treasury bonds than China, and now has over $1 trillion worth. At this rate Japan will surpass China as the biggest holder of US Debt. When those two decide to sell, which they will eventually, it will be a nightmare. DC: Didn't we just raise the debt ceiling? TC: The last debt ceiling battle was in August of 2011, and they said it would last two-plus years. And now they're having to raise it again already. A Korean economist named Dr. Yoo published a chart showing an almost perfect correlation between the debt ceiling and gold. If this relationship holds, raising the debt limit by another $2 trillion would put gold at $2,000 an ounce. DC: It seems like in the past few months the world's governments, Japan and the US in particular, have given up trying to control spending and debt, and are now all about jobs and inflation. Do your customers share this perception? TC: Absolutely. The public is realizing that there's not going to be a recession. People were uncertain about the health care bill's impact and the slowdown in the US, but lately every announcement is about asset purchases and debt monetization. The Fed is up to $85 billion a month, and Japan's new leader seems to want the same thing. So the government isn't shutting down and the can is being kicked down the road. All the pieces are in place for an up-leg in precious metals. DC: Who's doing the buying right now? TC: Smaller investors haven't started piling in yet. I'm hearing mostly from big guys, seeing some of the largest sales in my career in the past month. We're getting orders from banks that I haven't seen in a long time. And countries. I actually made a sale to a country this week, with delivery to their embassy. The big, smart money seems to get it. For more information or to place an order, call 800-247-2812 or email Tom Cloud at tgcloud@bellsouth.net. Mention DollarCollapse.com for free shipping and insurance. |
| Europe's dream of toppling dollar fades as Asian Tigers dump euro Posted: 03 Jan 2013 08:01 PM PST January 03, 2013 11:57 AM - The share of euros in the world's rising powers' reserve holdings has fallen to its lowest level since 2002, dashing hopes that the single currency will soon challenge the US dollar for global primacy. Read the full article at the Telegraph...... |
| Gold & The Frightening Picture Of Our Financial Abyss Posted: 03 Jan 2013 07:40 PM PST from KingWorldNews:
"Potential energy is a scientific term that relates to real world phenomena, many of which we encounter in our daily lives. Gravity is a prime example. If you elevate a bowling ball to the top of the table, you have performed work. If the bowling ball were to fall to the ground, the impact it might make is one measure of the potential energy transferred to it through your efforts. Potential energy is also relative. From the table perspective, there is simply a ball sitting on it. There is no potential energy relative to the table, only to the floor. When stopping to ponder this, it made me think about the price of gold relative to the massive increase in the monetary base…. |
| VIDEO: Interview of President and CEO Donald Robinson – YouTube Posted: 03 Jan 2013 07:30 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Posted: 03 Jan 2013 07:20 PM PST by Nadeem Walayat, The Market Oracle:
But before looking ahead towards the prospects for the likes of the stocks stealth bull market for 2013 and other markets such as housing and commodities, this is a look back at a selection of the 10 most popular articles of 2012. |
| The Gold Price Backed Off $14.20 to $1,673.70 Dropping Through my Boundary of $1,685 Posted: 03 Jan 2013 07:02 PM PST Gold Price Close Today : 1673.70 Change : -14.20 or -0.84% Silver Price Close Today : 30.671 Change : -0.281 or -0.91% Gold Silver Ratio Today : 54.569 Change : 0.037 or 0.07% Silver Gold Ratio Today : 0.01833 Change : -0.000012 or -0.07% Platinum Price Close Today : 1576.70 Change : 11.60 or 0.74% Palladium Price Close Today : 696.45 Change : -10.80 or -1.53% S&P 500 : 1,459.37 Change : -3.05 or -0.21% Dow In GOLD$ : $165.40 Change : $ 7.50 or 4.75% Dow in GOLD oz : 8.001 Change : 0.363 or 4.75% Dow in SILVER oz : 436.61 Change : 3.28 or 0.76% Dow Industrial : 13,391.36 Change : -21.19 or -0.16% US Dollar Index : 80.57 Change : 0.716 or 0.90% By Comex closing today the GOLD PRICE had backed off $14.20 to $1,673.70, while the SILVER PRICE had lost 28.1 cents to 3067.1c. FOMC announcement panicked them down to $1,663.90 and 3013c. Clearly they didn't hold my lower boundaries set yesterday at 3100c and $1,685. Well, good enough. I can wait. I bought a little silver at day's end anyway, and some gold, just because today's action might not follow through, and because I know there's a bottom around here somewhere. Like the story of the two little boys, one an inveterate optimist and the other a pessimist. To test their responses a psychologist locked them in two different rooms, the pessimist in a room full of toys, the optimist in a room knee deep in horse hockey. Psychologist came back an hour later, opened the door to the pessimist's room, and there he sat in the corner, doing nothing. "Son," he asked, "You've got all these toys here. Don't you want to play with them?" "Naw," said the kid, "that stuff's dangerous. Look at that electric train: you could electrocute yourself on that thing. And that beebee gun: you'll shoot your eye out!" Psychologist moved on to the room with the little pessimist, opened the door, and a hail of horse manure came flying through the air. Little optimist was digging with both hands as fast as he could. "Son, son, what are you doing?" "Mister," the boy replied, "I don't have time to talk to you now. Look at all this manure! There's GOT to be a pony under here somewhere!" Only one other thing: GOLD/SILVER RATIO is around 54.5. If you have gold you meant to swap for silver but missed your chance earlier in the year, your chance has returned. Give us a call if you want to swap some gold for silver. From this 54.5 level the next big move will be a fall to 30:1 or lower, offering you a 75%+ increase in ounces. When month old news from the minutes of a clot of goofy apparatchiki who don't know an economy from Adam's off ox, let alone how to run one ("Ben, is this here the handle ya push to get this contraption a-goin'?" "Ed, fer heaven's sake! Don't touch that one or you'll blow up half the banks in the country. It's the OTHER one!" How many times I gotta tell ya?") can whack markets across the board, brain function in a large segment of humanity has ceased. Only thing you're left wondering is, How did these dimwits who react to such news by panic buying and selling ever get any money to invest in the first place? Isn't there some natural law that says, "Money runs away from stupid people?" Like, "Water runs downhill"? If a fool and his money are soon parted, how come these people have any left? Minutes after the metals markets had closed, out come the FOMC minutes that hint that some members of the highly decorative but otherwise non-functioning FOMC didn't want to inflate quite so much in 2013. But wait! What did this change? Will Ben the Beneficent slap his forehead and exclaim, "Wowser! I've got to stop inflating!" Not by the fuzz on your bald banker's pate. Nothing changes, absolutely nothing, except the money moved from the accounts of the gullible to those of the knowledgeable and the insiders. The US dollar index, which all day long had shown all the enthusiasm of a fat boy for jogging, jumped up on the news and now is trading 71.6 basis points (0.89%) higher than this time yesterday: 80.568. That paints a long line on the chart, but remains below the last high at 80.66, and below the 200 DMA at 80.82. It does take the dollar index above its downtrend line, and another internal resistance line. Were it to follow through, the dollar might reach 81.50, but more likely this is a short-covering panic. We'll see whether it can follow through. 'Twas the headsman's ax for the euro today. Closed down 1.01% at $1.3048. Gapped down past its 20 DMA (1.3138) and kept on falling below the last little low and below $1.3100. Might mark a downward reversal in the euro and upward reversal in the dollar. Yen firmed today to 114.57 cents/Y100, up 0.03%. Actually rose much higher during the day, but closed up only a skootch. Preposterously, politically oversold. A calm person would have expected a down day out of stocks today after yesterday's huge surge, but the FOMC announcement hit it hard. Dow was struggling above unchanged when the news hit. Ended down 21.19 (0.16%) at 13,391.36. S&P500 lost 3.05 (0.21%) to 1,459.37. Gaps, those open spaces on a chart where the market doesn't trade but jumps up or down, really aren't all that common. You can search a classic like Edwards and Magee's book, and you won't find many of them. So how come they are so common this year in currency charts, in stocks, in silver and gold and in cross market charts? Why, I reckon Mother Market -- the cousin of Mother Nature -- has just changed. After all, only other explanation might be that the Nice Government Men with their interventions and the moronic Fed with its announcements are jerking markets from side to side like a terrier with a tough weenie in his teeth. Never mind, forget the philosophical, and look at the Dow/Gold chart. It makes a topping formation that looks like an Island Reversal, then reverses the reversal and today even gaps up, nearly to the top of the island. Durned if I can figure it. What mystifies all the more is how markets -- which, by the way, are NOT by any means always right in processing information accurately -- keep moving contrary to reasonable cause and effect expectation. The Fed promises more inflation -- sure to poison the economy -- and stocks rise. Makes no sense, except that people have been brainwashed by Keynesianism. And folks, over the long term, silver and gold do NOT move tandem to the stock market, I don't care what they've done this year. Leave it be, my job is to report, not to criticize. Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com 1-888-218-9226 10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday © 2012, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.  |
| Al Jazeera Battles Time Warner Cable on Current TV: Video – Bloomberg Posted: 03 Jan 2013 06:56 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Byron Wien: 10 Events That Will Likely “Surprise” Us In 2013 Posted: 03 Jan 2013 06:18 PM PST "Follow the munKNEE.com"– Register to receive all future posts here For the 28th year running I have given my views on a number of So says Byron R. Wien, Vice Chairman, Blackstone Advisory Partners(www.blackstone.com) in excerpts from his original press release* entitled Byron Wien Announces Predictions for Ten Surprises for 2013.
Wien's Ten Surprises for 2013 are as follows: 1. Iran announces it has adequate enriched uranium to produce a nuclear-armed missile and the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms the claim. Sanctions, the devaluation of the currency, weak economic conditions and diplomacy did not stop the weapons program. The world must deal with Iran as a nuclear threat rather than talk endlessly about how to prevent the nuclear capability from happening. Both the United States and Israel shift to a policy of containment rather than prevention. [Read: What Happens to Oil Prices if Israel Bombs Iranian Nuclear Facilities?] 2. A profit margin squeeze and limited revenue growth cause 2013 earnings for the Standard & Poor's 500 to decline below $100, disappointing investors. The S&P 500 trades below 1300. Companies complain of limited pricing power in a slow, highly competitive world economic environment. [Read: S&P 500 Prospects Not Good Given Economic Situations in Europe & Asia – Here's Why and Dr. Faber and I Concur: There Are Major Reasons to be Very Cautious in 2013 – Here's What To Do] 3. Financial stocks have a rough time, reversing the gains of 2012. Intense competition in commercial and investment banking, together with low trading volumes, puts pressure on profits. Layoffs continue and compensation erodes further. Regulation increases and lawsuits persist as an industry burden. 4. In a surprise reversal, the Democrats sponsor a vigorous program to make the United States independent of Middle East oil imports before 2020. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude falls to $70 a barrel. The Administration proposes easing restrictions on hydraulic fracking for oil and gas in less populated areas and allowing more drilling on Federal land. They see energy production, infrastructure and housing as the key job creators in the 2013 economy. [Read: Interested In What Oil Prices Will Be In 2013 – and Why? Then This Article Is For You and Fracking: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know but Were Embarrassed to Ask] 5. In a surprise reversal the Republicans make a major effort to become leaders in immigration policy. They sponsor a bill that paves the way for illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship if they have lived in the United States for a decade, have no criminal record, have a high school education or have served in the military, and can pass an English proficiency test. Their goal for 2016 is to win the Hispanic vote, which they believe has a naturally conservative orientation and which put the Democrats over the top in 2012. [Read: America's Economic Advantage is Immigrants! Here's Why] 6. The new leaders in China seem determined to implement reforms to root out corruption, to keep the economy growing at 7% or better and to begin to develop improved health care and retirement programs. The Shanghai Composite finally comes alive and the "A" shares are up more than 20% in 2013, in contrast with the previous year when Chinese stocks were down and some developing markets, notably India, rose. [Read: Richard Duncan: China Headed Into a Serious Crisis] 7. Climate change contributes to another year of crop failures, resulting in grain and livestock prices rising significantly. Demand for grains in developing economies continues to increase as the standard of living rises. More investors focus on commodities as an investment opportunity and increase their allocation to this asset class. Corn rises to $8.00 a bushel, wheat to $9.00 a bushel and cattle to $1.50 a pound. [Read: Grantham's Advice: Allocate 30% to Resources (15% in Forestry, 5% in Efficiency Investments, 10% in "Stuff in the Ground" – Here's Why] 8. Although inflation remains tame, the price of gold reaches $1,900 an ounce as central bankers everywhere continue to debase their currencies and the financial markets prove treacherous. [Read: Alf Field: Once $1,800 Is Taken Out Gold Will See a Vigorous Climb to $4,500 Area] 9. The Japanese economy remains lackluster and the yen declines to 100 against the dollar. The Nikkei 225 continues the strong advance that began in November and trades above 12,000 as exports improve and investors return to the stocks of the world's third largest economy. 10. The structural problems of Europe remain largely unresolved and the mild recession that began there in 2012 continues. Civil unrest subsides as the weaker countries adjust to austerity. Greece proves successful in implementing policies that reduce wasteful government expenditures and raise revenues from citizens who had been evading taxes. European equities, however, decline 10% in sympathy with the U.S. market. "Also Rans" Every year there are always a few Surprises that do not make the Ten because either I do not believe they are as relevant as those on the basic list or I am not comfortable with the idea that they are "probable." Below are several "also rans" which did not make the Ten Surprises. 11. Having traded below 20 for most of 2012 the Volatility Index – surges 33% to 30, providing a bonanza for traders. The decline in the S&P 500 increases market volatility. 12. The Newtown, Connecticut, massacre finally convinces Congress to do something about gun control. As a first step they ban future civilian purchases of automatic weapons, including handguns, with clips of more than ten rounds and require more extensive background checks on all gun purchases. "It should not be easier to buy a gun than rent a car" becomes a slogan. 13. Congress begins to…talk of a value-added tax as well as a wealth tax, and these ideas appear to be slowly gathering momentum. [Read: Stealth Taxation in the Form of Financial Repression is Coming! Here's Why – and How] 14. Congress decides that high-frequency and other computerized algorithmic-based trading practices are putting the individual investor at a disadvantage. A transaction fee designed to slow down frenetic activity and protect against "flash crashes" and glitches is imposed on intra-day trades. 15. The planet finds itself saturated with technology. Semiconductor companies, software providers, social media favorites and personal computer manufacturers all report disappointing earnings and provide discouraging guidance. They lead the overall market lower. Users finally agree the present state of the art is fast enough and connected enough, and that they have more "apps" than they know what to do with. Apple bucks the trend and trades above $700 as its products continue to enjoy enormous success abroad.
*http://www.blackstone.com/news-views/details/byron-wien-announces-predictions-for-ten-surprises-for-2013 (The views expressed in this commentary are the personal views of Byron Wien of Blackstone Advisory Partners L.P. (together with its affiliates, "Blackstone") and do not necessarily reflect the views of Blackstone itself. The views expressed reflect the current views of Mr. Wien as of the date hereof and neither Mr. Wien nor Blackstone undertakes to advise you of any changes in the views expressed herein.) Related Articles: 1. Dr. Faber and I Concur: There Are Major Reasons to be Very Cautious in 2013 – Here's What To Do Dr. Marc Faber, the author and publisher of the "Gloom Boom And Doom" report is one of the most well-read economists out there. I am of the opinion that his suggestions and investment advice are more realistic than any other economist or analyst we hear and read regularly. The summary of Dr. Faber's latest monthly report suggests that he views 2013 as a year of capital preservation. In other words, Dr. Faber is not very bullish on risky asset classes for 2013. This article discusses Dr. Faber's views and the reasons to remain cautious in 2013. Words: 1494; Charts: 3; Tables: 1 2. The Most Important Questions (and Answers) Regarding What the Futures Hold for 2013
3. 2013 Forecasts: Do These 10 Analysts Know Something We Don't?
4. Goldman Sachs' Thoughts, Outlooks, Strategies & Picks for 2013
6. Lack of Economic Growth Expected to Continue Until 1 of 2 Things Change – Here They Are
7. 2013 Will Not Be A "Happy New Year" For Most Americans
9. Fiscal Cliff: 1 Step Backward – Then 2 Steps Forward
|
| Silver Update: 50 Cent Price Crash/Gap – YouTube Posted: 03 Jan 2013 06:01 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Paul Dimitriadis – Bullish on Uranium,Oil and Natural Gas in the Long Term – YouTube Posted: 03 Jan 2013 05:57 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Gerald Celente Invests in Gold and Silver in 2013 while for waiting WW III Posted: 03 Jan 2013 05:52 PM PST Check our website daily at... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.figanews.com for full Content ]]  |
| Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt Posted: 03 Jan 2013 05:16 PM PST With Spanish 10Y yields hovering at a 'relatively' healthy 5%, having been driven inexorably lower on the promise of ECB assistance at some time in the future, the market has become increasingly unsure of just who it is that keeps bidding for this stuff. Well, wonder no longer. As the WSJ notes, Spain has been quietly tapping the country's richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds - with at least 90% of the €65 billion ($85.7 billion) fund has been invested in increasingly risky Spanish debt. Of course, this is nothing new, the US (and the Irish) have been using quasi-government entities to fund themselves in a mutually-destructive circle-jerk for years - the only difference being there are other buyers in the Treasury market, whereas in Spain the marginal buyer is critical to support the sinking ship. The Spanish defend the use of pension funds to buy bonds as sustainable as long as it can issue bonds - and yet the only way it can actually get the bonds off in the public markets is through using the pension fund assets. The pensioners sum it up perfectly "We are very worried about this, we just don't know who's going to pay for the pensions of those who are younger now," or those who are older we would add. Via Wall Street Journal: Spain Drains Pension Fund In Borrowing Spree
And in other news, and completing the picture, if not the circle jerk, is news from Libremercado that according to the Spanish Confederantion of Employer Organizations, some 60% of the Spanish companies are now losing money. Via Google translate:
It is not exactly clear why google translate had a problem with that last word... |
| The Federal Reserve Has No Practical Option To End QE Posted: 03 Jan 2013 05:07 PM PST Dear CIGAs, Such an announcement has been part of QE either from MSM or some Fed board member since it began. The implication of stopping QE is so dire to the economy that it is in a practical sense impossible. When gold was being sold by central banks during the 1970s market announcements were Continue reading The Federal Reserve Has No Practical Option To End QE |
| HSBC says India's gold consumption likely to recover Posted: 03 Jan 2013 04:01 PM PST 03-Jan (Reuters) — Major bullion bank HSBC Holdings Plc cut its 2013 average gold price after factoring in a 2012 year-end price of $1,675 an ounce. The bank cut its 2013 price forecast to $1,760 an ounce from $1,850. It kept its 2014 gold forecast at $1,775 and introduced a 2015 forecast of $1,675 an ounce. The gold market is likely to trend higher in 2013 based in part on more positive underlying supply/demand fundamentals and Indian consumption is likely to recover based in historical consumption patterns. …"We believe that gold prices will recover this year and retain a pronounced bullish posture," Steel said. [source] |
| Gold Extends Drop as Dollar Gains After Fed QE3 Signals Posted: 03 Jan 2013 03:57 PM PST 03-Jan (Bloomberg) — Gold futures fell in electronic trading as the dollar extended a rally after Federal Reserve policy makers said they probably will end their $85 billion monthly U.S. bond purchases sometime in 2013. The greenback rose to a three-week high against a basket of major currencies after minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's Dec. 11-12 meeting showed members divided between a mid- or end-of-year end to the debt purchases. Earlier, gold settled down 0.8%, the biggest drop since Dec. 20, on renewed U.S. deficit concerns after a budget accord yesterday spurred a commodity rally. "After the initial euphoria, people realized that the announcements made yesterday were just a Band-Aid solution, and the problems remain," Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading in Chicago, said in a telephone interview. "Many investors are moving to cash." [source] |
| More Asians Going for Gold in the Vault Posted: 03 Jan 2013 03:42 PM PST
Gold is a popular choice for those seeking to diversify their holdings and spread risk, but it isn't the most mobile of assets. Still, gold has been moving east, and that has created opportunities for security companies in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai—financial hubs where the metal's popularity is soaring. Security companies are busy ordering two-ton steel doors and sophisticated monitoring systems, and hiring more armed guards as they expand their vault capacity in Asia. …Comprehensive data on the volume of high-security storage capacity in the region isn't available. But demand for gold is clearly rising. [source] |
| Interview - Focus on Gold, Channel Resources and Brazilian Gold Posted: 03 Jan 2013 03:00 PM PST Spend a few minutes with Scott Gibson of Beneath the Surface fame and your editor (Gene Arensberg) in a recent video interview in New Orleans. Topics include gold, silver and several of the companies we are focused on while the junior resource market remains in its bear phase – including Channel Resources (CHU-V) and Brazilian Gold (BGC-V). (Video on page 2.)
Source: Beneath the Surface with Scott Gibson Disclosure: Mr. Arensberg and members of the GGR team are actively accumulating and hold shares in several of the companies mentioned, including CHU.V, BGC.V and RVS.V. |
| Guest Post: America's Bubble Dependent Economy Posted: 03 Jan 2013 02:50 PM PST Via Global Macro Monitor, Interesting chart (which we marked up) from the JEC of the U.S. Congress illustrating household net worth as a percent personal income. If that doesn't look like a head and shoulders formation in the making, nothing does! The second chart illustrates why the U.S. economy is so dependent on the wealth effect generated by asset bubbles. It's stunning to think that average real earnings in the U.S. are almost 11 percent lower than where they were in 1973. Policymakers' focus should be on increasing worker productivity through: 1) reforming the country's education system; 2) unleashing entrepreneurship; and 3) in the words of ECB chief, Mario Draghi, "doing whatever it takes" to empower small businesses. This is tough political business, however, so we take the easy way out. The political pandering increases budget deficits, forcing the Fed to repress interest rates and print money to drive up asset prices. The boom side of the cycle is sustained longer than most expect because of the reserve currency status of the dollar. This temporarily generates artificially inflated demand (i.e, fake) through the wealth effect, which eventually collapses when asset markets crash. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is not a good long term economic strategy and sustainable path for permanent wealth creation, folks. It probably won't change until it is forced upon us and then the adjustment will be more abrupt and disruptive than if policymakers were more pre-emptive. America needs Mario Monti! (click here if charts are not observable) |
| Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Fall Over 1% and 2% Posted: 03 Jan 2013 02:13 PM PST Gold saw slight gains in Asia, but it then fell to as low as $1660.72 after today's FOMC minutes and ended with a loss of 1.2%. Silver slipped to as low as $29.972 and ended with a loss of 2.55%. |
| Posted: 03 Jan 2013 02:11 PM PST January 3, 2013
Before you get your hopes up, let's see how accurate that forecast is likely to be:
Oh, well, at least they're consistent, right? Forecasting is a tough business. You, dear reader, know that as much as anyone! These Fed projections give us reason to pause… and review some of our own forecasts from the past year. Let's get started… and see how things turned out.
The conundrum: After we'd spent more than a decade chronicling the mis-, mal- and nonfeasance of politicians and central bankers, culminating in "the mother of all financial bubbles," we were faced with a strong conviction among our analysts that a boom in cheap energy was about to lead to a revival in U.S. manufacturing. We also found ourselves strangely aligned with the mainstream media. During that very week, The New York Times, of all publications, boldly declared the terminal demise of U.S. manufacturing… and George Soros nonchalantly asserted we face "a decade of more stagnation, or worse"! And yet… "No matter how many times I review the data," our Byron King rebutted, "or how many ways I rearrange the pieces of the puzzle, the outcome is the same: America's fortune is set to change in a very drastic, very amazing way" — creating up to 3.2 million new manufacturing jobs and vast new wealth for early movers. The analyst whose newsletter Hulbert Financial Digest has rated the No. 1 top-performing in the industry over past decade… was betting against our very well-thought-out doom-and-gloom scenario!
By September, the Conference Board found that openings for skilled factory workers had grown 152% in a three-year span. "And the jobs pay well," CNN Money reported. "Starting salaries are often as much as $45,000-50,000. Overtime, which is common because of a shortage of skilled workers, can bump that up significantly."
Byron's readers who had the moxie to bet the other side of the trade have done very well with his Remade in America plays. One is up 30% in the last 18 months — before dividends. On another, he closed out a half-position in 2012 for a fat 170% gain… letting the other half ride. And… Byron's ready to double down. Which means the opportunity for you to get in may not have passed. In fact, he believes the next leg of the revival is due this spring. "The weak economy can't stop it," Mr. King says. "Government regulation and bickering politicians can't stop it. In fact, they secretly want it — it's the answer to their prayers." Allow Byron to present his case; ignore it and you run the risk of passing up an epic wealth-building opportunity. It's a good thing we don't top-down our analysts forecasts, eh? [Ed. Note: Below, readers of The 5 Min. Forecast PRO can learn about one company in the thick of the boom that's fueling manufacturing revival. The PRO is our new "sixth minute" delivering daily actionable advice drawn straight from the analysis you read in The 5. For access to a free two-week trial, upgrade your account here.]
The chart (reprinted here) showed the S&P reclaiming 1,300 for the first time since July 2011.
"But…" Greg said, keeping his powder dry. Despite our desire he make some early recommendations in the small-cap space, he wouldn't do it. "I would like to see some additional confirmation in the small- and microcap names." Said "confirmation" came in due course. But it took a while. Turns out his trepidation paid off. By September, the S&P hit a new post-2007 high at 1,466. Yesterday, the premier small-cap index, the Russell 2000, set a record. Greg and fellow technician Jonas Elmerraji have played the trend for a string of short-term gains — including 11% on a snack maker… 17% on a hated solar company… and 30% on the equally hated BlackBerry maker Research In Motion — each in 21 days or less. In 2013, we're planning to relaunch an advisory formally known as The Rude Awakening centered around Greg and Jonas' trend following and market timing research. You will have ample time to put their insights to work in your own portfolio…. or get a head start and check out their early work, here.
Among the impacts: "This will crimp demand for meals out — especially among middle-class households." Rising food costs and less foot traffic equal a squeeze on profit margins for the big chain restaurant operators. The thesis is taking longer to play out than Dan expected… but by year-end, one of the sector's major players, Darden Restaurants, issued an earnings warning. "When people aren't going to Olive Garden and Red Lobster," we wrote at the time, "it's not a good omen." Macro forecasting is part art, part science. But the results are in black and white. Dan called the bankruptcy of American Airlines last year and delivered a 95% gain to his readers. He also called the demise of Lehman Bros. in 2008… a call good for 462% gains. During 2012, his "margin squeeze" thesis has generated gains of 15% and counting on an auto parts maker… and 20% and counting on a convenience store operator. [Ed. Note: With the arrival of the new year, we've tapped Dan as the investment strategist for the aforementioned 5 Min. Forecast PRO. You'll be in good hands: Dan is thoroughly and formally schooled in Austrian economics... delivered the goods as an analyst for a major mutual fund group... and has been an integral part of the Agora Financial team since 2006. One more reminder: You can sign up for a free two-week trial of the PRO service at this link.]
Two jobs numbers were released this morning before the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regales us with its December jobs report tomorrow:
Later today, we get the minutes from the Federal Reserve's meeting last month, and December sales figures from major retail chains. We can't wait.
Hooray! A fine achievement, we say, although it appears to have offended some. "The 104th Congress (1995-96) currently holds the ignominious distinction of being the least productive session of Congress," the Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel barfed during the fiscal cliff debate last month. "Just 333 bills became law during that two-year period, meaning the 112th Congress needs to send nearly 100 more bills to Obama's desk in the next few days if it wants to avoid going down in history." Really? Is that how we want to judge the congressional track record? By the number of new laws they enact during their tenure? Have you seen some of those laws?
According to the Washington Examiner's Tim Carney — the Beltway's premier chronicler of crony capitalism — the bill includes "$76 billion in special-interest tax credits." General Electric is a beneficiary. So are Hollywood studios and the makers of Puerto Rican rum. But our favorite has to be a tax credit for "motorsports entertainment complexes." For all we know, the credit applies to struggling owners of D-list dirt tracks… but most of the modern major tracks are owned by either the France family (founders of NASCAR) or Bruton Smith. Before the economy went south in 2007-09, Jim France and Bruton Smith were both in the Forbes 400. Sorta puts those Dale Earnhardt Jr. commercials for TaxSlayer.com in a different light.
"More taxpayer-subsidized anything we can call R&D… more accelerated depreciation of stuff that doesn't really depreciate… more taxpayer-funded subsidies for the wealthy to buy Tesla cars and the ludicrous Chevy Volt… and a great deal for those collecting capital gains, dividends and carried interest, but not working for a living. And there's more. "Clearly, you all are part of the problem — not the solution, as you keep sucking on the government teat — and hide it all under your supposed libertarian conservative wrap. "Basically, I think you all are simply full of BS." The 5: Huh? The 5 silent..? Sucking on the government teat…? We're not even sure how to respond. But maybe this will help. In 2011, the U.S. government spent $175,587 trying to determine if cocaine makes Japanese quail engage in sexually risky behavior. Over the holiday, our research team drummed up the following graphic to help illustrate your very concern:
"You peg the economics well, but he pegs the history behind it. Maybe you too are afraid to reveal all of the truths to all of the mice that read your page. The fat cats will likely shut you down if you start showing all of the crimes that have been made for the sake of collectivism. "You will not print this, and you do not have to. Just send me an email back and tell me why you stay away from the meat and just play it safe." The 5: Sheesh. The ol' "you won't dare to print this" trick, eh? Something new in the water this year?
"Like I was really surprised. "It's not that I feel that it is not worth $49, but why must you be so deliberately deceptive? Free for a couple of trial weeks? Then you should have said that from the beginning. I haven't decided whether I will subscribe or not, as I'm not sure that I need to pay $49 (or, later, $99) for another investment letter, especially since it will likely be just a platform for more up-sells and another marketing gimmick. "That nonsense is so pervasive and low-class. It wasn't clear from your ad, but I'm assuming that the regular truly free 5 will no longer be available. It appears that you are just adding a feature in order to turn that into a paid subscription. Is that correct?" The 5: Oy. The 5 will remain "free" for paying subscribers to Agora Financial services. The 5 PRO will eventually be $49 a year. But as we're only one day out of beta testing it, we're giving you a two-week free trial. If you like it, please subscribe. If you don't, feel free not to. Your choice. For reference, our business model is very simple. We publish our "analysis" (i.e., The 5 Min. Forecast or The Daily Reckoning) for free, but if you want "advice" on what to do with your money, you must subscribe to one of our services. The 5 Min. Forecast PRO will be dispensing actionable advice on a daily basis; therefore, it will be a subscription based add-on to the otherwise "free" analysis you receive in The 5. We're confident some people will like it. And equally confident others won't. Again, the choice is yours. Happy New Year, Addison Wiggin P.S. For the record, we don't make any apologies for our model. We've gotta keep the lights on and the monitors glowing somehow. We do, however, apologize if you're offended in some way. While we're equal-opportunity offenders of politicians, economists, bureaucrats and other scalawags, the last thing we want to do is offend you… our paying subscriber! Your "free" 5 PRO content is below, enjoy…
       |
| Gold Daily And Silver Weekly Charts - Non-Farm Payrolls Tomorrow Posted: 03 Jan 2013 02:09 PM PST  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Special GoldSeek.com Event: “What’s in Store for Gold Stocks in 2013? A Look at the Charts” Posted: 03 Jan 2013 02:00 PM PST GoldSeek.com will hosting a special 30 minute online event with Rick Ackerman of Rick's Picks this coming Wednesday, January 9th starting at Noon Eastern, 9 am PST. GoldSeek.com readers will be able to attend this free online session with Rick Ackerman covering Gold Stocks in 2013, a technical look at the charts. |
| WALL STREET CRIMINAL BANKS ARE INSOLVENT Posted: 03 Jan 2013 01:27 PM PST If you still believe the Too Big To Control Wall Street Criminal Banks are solvent, read this article. They are insolvent criminal organizations propped up by Bernanke and Geithner. What's Inside America's Banks?Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as "black boxes" that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank's financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms. By Frank Partnoy and Jesse EisingerThe financial crisis had many causes—too much borrowing, foolish investments, misguided regulation—but at its core, the panic resulted from a lack of transparency. The reason no one wanted to lend to or trade with the banks during the fall of 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed, was that no one could understand the banks' risks. It was impossible to tell, from looking at a particular bank's disclosures, whether it might suddenly implode. For the past four years, the nation's political leaders and bankers have made enormous—in some cases unprecedented—efforts to save the financial industry, clean up the banks, and reform regulation in order to restore trust and confidence in the American financial system. This hasn't worked. Banks today are bigger and more opaque than ever, and they continue to behave in many of the same ways they did before the crash. Consider JPMorgan's widely scrutinized trading loss last year. Before the episode, investors considered JPMorgan one of the safest and best-managed corporations in America. Jamie Dimon, the firm's charismatic CEO, had kept his institution upright throughout the financial crisis, and by early 2012, it appeared as stable and healthy as ever. One reason was that the firm's huge commercial bank—the unit responsible for the old-line business of lending—looked safe, sound, and solidly profitable. But then, in May, JPMorgan announced the financial equivalent of sudden cardiac arrest: a stunning loss initially estimated at $2 billion and later revised to $6 billion. It may yet grow larger; as of this writing, investigators are still struggling to comprehend the bank's condition. The loss emanated from a little-known corner of the bank called the Chief Investment Office. This unit had been considered boring and unremarkable; it was designed to reduce the bank's risks and manage its spare cash. According to JPMorgan, the division invested in conservative, low-risk securities, such as U.S. government bonds. And the bank reported that in 95 percent of likely scenarios, the maximum amount the Chief Investment Office's positions would lose in one day was just $67 million. (This widely used statistical measure is known as "value at risk.") When analysts questioned Dimon in the spring about reports that the group had lost much more than that—before the size of the loss became publicly known—he dismissed the issue as a "tempest in a teapot." Six billion dollars is not the kind of sum that can take down JPMorgan, but it's a lot to lose. The bank's stock lost a third of its value in two months, as investors processed reports of the trading debacle. On May 11, 2012, alone, the day after JPMorgan first confirmed the losses, its stock plunged roughly 9 percent. The incident was about much more than money, however. Here was a bank generally considered to have the best risk-management operation in the business, and it had badly managed its risk. As the bank was coming clean, it revealed that it had fiddled with the way it measured its value at risk, without providing a clear reason. Moreover, in acknowledging the losses, JPMorgan had to admit that its reported numbers were false. A major source of its supposedly reliable profits had in fact come from high-risk, poorly disclosed speculation. It gets worse. Federal prosecutors are now investigating whether traders lied about the value of the Chief Investment Office's trading positions as they were deteriorating. JPMorgan shareholders have filed numerous lawsuits alleging that the bank misled them in its financial statements; the bank itself is suing one of its former traders over the losses. It appears that Jamie Dimon, once among the most trusted leaders on Wall Street, didn't understand and couldn't adequately manage his behemoth. Investors are now left to doubt whether the bank is as stable as it seemed and whether any of its other disclosures are inaccurate. The JPMorgan scandal isn't the only one in recent months to call into question whether the big banks are safe and trustworthy. Many of the biggest banks now stand accused of manipulating the world's most popular benchmark interest rate, the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which is used as a baseline to set interest rates for trillions of dollars of loans and investments. Barclays paid a large fine in June to avoid civil and criminal charges that could have been brought by U.S. and U.K. authorities. The Swiss giant UBS was reportedly close to a similar settlement as of this writing. Other major banks, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank, are under civil or criminal investigation (or both), though no charges have yet been filed. Libor reflects how much banks charge when they lend to each other; it is a measure of their confidence in each other. Now the rate has become synonymous with manipulation and collusion. In other words, one can't even trust the gauge that is meant to show how much trust exists within the financial system. Accusations of illegal, clandestine bank activities are also proliferating. Large global banks have been accused by U.S. government officials of helping Mexican drug dealers launder money (HSBC), and of funneling cash to Iran (Standard Chartered). Prosecutors have charged American banks with falsifying mortgage records by "robo-signing" papers to rush the process along, and with improperly foreclosing on borrowers. Only after the financial crisis did people learn that banks routinely misled clients, sold them securities known to be garbage, and even, in some cases, secretly bet against them to profit from their ignorance. When we asked Ed Trott, a former Financial Accounting Standards Board member, whether he trusted bank accounting, he said, simply, "Absolutely not." Together, these incidents have pushed public confidence ever lower. According to Gallup, back in the late 1970s, three out of five Americans said they trusted big banks "a great deal" or "quite a lot." During the following decades, that trust eroded. Since the financial crisis of 2008, it has collapsed. In June 2012, fewer than one in four respondents told Gallup they had faith in big banks—a record low. And in October, Luis Aguilar, a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, cited separate data showing that "79 percent of investors have no trust in the financial system." When we asked Dane Holmes, the head of investor relations at Goldman Sachs, why so few people trust big banks, he told us, "People don't understand the banks," because "there is a lack of transparency." (Holmes later clarified that he was talking about average people, not the sophisticated investors with whom he interacts on an almost hourly basis.) He is certainly right that few students or plumbers or grandparents truly understand what big banks do anymore. Ordinary people have lost faith in financial institutions. That is a big enough problem on its own. But an even bigger problem has developed—one that more fundamentally threatens the safety of the financial system—and it more squarely involves the sort of big investors with whom Holmes spends much of his time. More and more, the people in the know don't trust big banks either. After all the purported "cleansing effects" of the panic, one might have expected big, sophisticated investors to grab up bank stocks, exploiting the timidity of the average investor by buying low. Banks wrote down bad loans; Treasury certified the banks' health after its "stress tests"; Congress passed the Dodd-Frank reforms to regulate previously unfettered corners of the financial markets and to minimize the impact of future crises. During the 2008 crisis, many leading investors had gotten out of bank stocks; these reforms were designed to bring them back. And indeed, they did come back—at first. Many investors, including Warren Buffett, say bank stocks were underpriced after the crisis, and remain so today. Most large institutional investors, such as mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance companies, continue to hold substantial stakes in major banks. The Federal Reserve has tried to help banks make profitable loans and trades, by keeping interest rates low and pumping trillions of dollars into the economy. For investors, the combination of low stock prices, an accommodative Fed, and possibly limited downside (the federal government, needless to say, has shown a willingness to assist banks in bad times) can be a powerful incentive. Yet the limits to big investors' enthusiasm are clearly reflected in the data. Some four years after the crisis, big banks' shares remain depressed. Even after a run-up in the price of bank stocks this fall, many remain below "book value," which means that the banks are worth less than the stated value of the assets on their books. This indicates that investors don't believe the stated value, or don't believe the banks will be profitable in the future—or both. Several financial executives told us that they see the large banks as "complete black boxes," and have no interest in investing in their stocks. A chief executive of one of the nation's largest financial institutions told us that he regularly hears from investors that the banks are "uninvestable," a Wall Street neologism for "untouchable." That's an increasingly widespread view among the most sophisticated leaders in investing circles. Paul Singer, who runs the influential investment fund Elliott Associates, wrote to his partners this summer, "There is no major financial institution today whose financial statements provide a meaningful clue" about its risks. Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the SEC, lamented to us in November that none of the post-2008 remedies has "significantly diminished the likelihood of financial crises." In a recent conversation, a prominent former regulator expressed concerns about the hidden risks that banks might still be carrying, comparing the big banks to Enron. A recent survey by Barclays Capital found that more than half of institutional investors did not trust how banks measure the riskiness of their assets. When hedge-fund managers were asked how trustworthy they find "risk weightings"—the numbers that banks use to calculate how much capital they should set aside as a safety cushion in case of a business downturn—about 60 percent of those managers answered 1 or 2 on a five-point scale, with 1 being "not trustworthy at all." None of them gave banks a 5. A disturbing number of former bankers have recently declared that the banking industry is broken (this newfound clarity typically follows their passage from financial titan to rich retiree). Herbert Allison, the ex-president of Merrill Lynch and former head of the Obama administration's Troubled Asset Relief Program, wrote a scathing e-book about the failures of the large banks, stopping just short of labeling them all vampire squids. A parade of former high-ranking executives has called for bank breakups, tighter regulation, or a return to the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, which separated commercial banking from investment banking. Among them: Philip Purcell (ex-CEO of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter), Sallie Krawcheck (ex-CFO of Citigroup), David Komansky (ex-CEO of Merrill Lynch), and John Reed (former coâ€'CEO of Citigroup). Sandy Weill, another ex-CEO of Citigroup, who built a career on financial megamergers, did a stunning about-face this summer, advising, with breathtaking chutzpah, that the banks should now be broken up. Bill Ackman's journey is particularly telling. One of the nation's highest-profile and most successful investors, Ackman went from being a skeptic of investing in big banks, to being a believer, and then back again—with a loss of hundreds of millions along the way. In 2010, Ackman bought an almost $1 billion stake in Citigroup for Pershing Square, the $11 billion fund he runs. He reasoned that in the aftermath of the crisis, the big banks had written down their bad loans and become more conservative; they were also facing less competition. That should have been a great environment for investment, he says. He had avoided investing in big banks for most of his career. But "for once," he told us, "I thought you could trust the carrying values on bank books." Last spring, Pershing Square sold its entire stake in Citigroup, as the bank's strategy drifted, at a loss approaching $400 million. Ackman says, "For the first seven years of Pershing Square, I believed that an investor couldn't invest in a giant bank. Then I felt I could invest in a bank, and I did—and I lost a lot of money doing it." A crisis of trust among investors is insidious. It is far less obvious than a sudden panic, but over time, its damage compounds. It is not a tsunami; it is dry rot. It creeps in, noticed occasionally and then forgotten. Soon it is a daily fact of life. Even as the economy begins to come back, the trust crisis saps the recovery's strength. Banks can't attract capital. They lose customers, who fear being tricked and cheated. Their executives are, by turns, traumatized and enervated. Lacking confidence in themselves as they grapple with the toxic legacies of their previous excesses and mistakes, they don't lend as much as they should. Without trust in banks, the economy wheezes and stutters. And, of course, as trust diminishes, the likelihood of another crisis grows larger. The next big storm might blow the weakened house down. Elite investors—those who move markets and control the flow of money—will flee, out of worry that the roof will collapse. The less they trust the banks, the faster and more decisively they will beat that path—disinvesting, freezing bank credit, and weakening the structure even more. In this way, fear becomes reality, and troubles that might once have been weathered become existential. At the heart of the problem is a worry about the accuracy of banks' financial statements. Some of the questions are basic: How do banks account for loans? Can investors accurately assess the value of those loans? Others are far more complicated: What risks are posed by complex financial instruments, such as the ones that caused JPMorgan's massive loss? The answers are supposed to be found in the publicly available quarterly and annual reports that banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Financial Accounting Standards Board, an independent private-sector organization, governs the accounting in these filings. Don Young, currently an investment manager, was a board member from 2005 to 2008. "After serving on the board," he recently told us, "I no longer trust bank accounting." Accounting rules have proliferated as banks, and the assets and liabilities they contain, have become more complex. Yet the rules have not kept pace with changes in the financial system. Clever bankers, aided by their lawyers and accountants, can find ways around the intentions of the regulations while remaining within the letter of the law. What's more, because these rules have grown ever more detailed and lawyerly—while still failing to cover every possible circumstance—they have had the perverse effect of allowing banks to avoid giving investors the information needed to gauge the value and risk of a bank's portfolio. (That information is obscured by minutiae and legalese.) This is true for the complicated questions about financial innovation and trading, but it also is true for the basic questions, such as those involving loans. At one point during Young's tenure, some members of the Financial Accounting Standards Board wanted to make banks account for loans in the same way they do for securities, by recording them at current market values, a method known as "fair value." Banks were instead recording the value of their loans at the initial loan amount, and setting aside a reserve based on their assumptions about how likely they were to get paid back. The rules also allowed banks to use different methods to measure the value of the same kind of loans, depending on whether the loans were categorized as ones they planned to keep for a long time or instead as ones they planned to sell. Many accounting experts believed that the reported numbers did not give investors an accurate or reliable picture of a bank's health. After bitter battles, turnover on the board, worries about acting in the middle of the financial crisis, and aggressive bank lobbying, the accounting mandarins preserved the existing approach instead of switching to fair-value accounting for loans. Young believes that the numbers are even less reliable now. "It's gotten worse," he says. When we asked another former board member, Ed Trott, whether he trusted bank accounting, he said, simply, "Absolutely not." The problem extends well beyond the opacity of banks' loan portfolios—it involves almost every aspect of modern bank activity, much of which involves complex investment and trading, not merely lending. Kevin Warsh, an ex–Morgan Stanley banker and a former Federal Reserve Board member appointed by George W. Bush, says woeful disclosure is a major problem. Look at the financial statements a big bank files with the SEC, he says: "Investors can't truly understand the nature and quality of the assets and liabilities. They can't readily assess the reliability of the capital to offset real losses. They can't assess the underlying sources of the firms' profits. The disclosure obfuscates more than it informs, and the government is not just permitting it but seems to be encouraging it." Accounting rules are supposed to help investors understand the companies whose shares they buy. Yet current disclosure requirements don't illuminate banks' financial statements; instead, they let the banks turn out the lights. And in that darkness, all sorts of unsavory practices can breed. We decided to go on an adventure through the financial statements of one bank, to explore exactly what they do and do not show, and to gauge whether it is possible to make informed judgments about the risks the bank may be carrying. We chose a bank that is thought to be a conservative financial institution, and an exemplar of what a large modern bank should be. Wells Fargo was founded on trust. Its logo has long been a strongly sprung six-horse stagecoach, a fleet of which once thundered across the American West, loaded with gold. According to the firm's official history, "In the boom and bust economy of the 1850s, Wells Fargo earned a reputation of trust by dealing rapidly and responsibly with people's money." People believed Wells Fargo would keep their money safe—the bank's paper drafts were as good as the gold it shipped throughout the country. For a century and a half, Wells Fargo stock was also like gold, which is what led Warren Buffett to buy a stake in the bank in 1990. Since then, Buffett and Wells Fargo have been inextricably linked. As of fall 2012, Buffett's firm, Berkshire Hathaway, owned about 8 percent of Wells Fargo's shares. Today, Wells Fargo still prominently displays the stagecoach logo at branches, in advertising, on the 12,000-plus ATMs that dot the country, and even at the bank's museum stores. There, visitors can buy wholesome, family-friendly items: a stagecoach nightâ€'light; stagecoach salt and pepper shakers; a hand-painted ceramic stagecoach pillbox. These are more than tchotchkes. They are emblems of the bank's honest and honorable mission. Buffett's impeccable reputation has rubbed off on the bank. Wells Fargo is widely regarded as the most conservative of the nation's biggest banks. Many investors, regulators, and analysts still believe its financial reports reflect a full, fair, and accurate picture of its business. The market value of Wells Fargo's shares is now the highest of any U.S. bank: $173 billion as of early December 2012. The enthusiasm for Wells Fargo reflects the bank's good reputation, as well as one seemingly simple fact: the bank earned solid net income of nearly $16 billion in 2011, up 28 percent from 2010. To find out what's behind that fact, you have to read Wells Fargo's annual report—and that is where we began our adventure. The annual report is a special document: it is the place where a bank sets forth the audited details of its business. Although banks also submit unaudited quarterly reports and other periodical documents to the SEC, and have conference calls with analysts and shareholders, the annual report gives investors the most complete and, supposedly, reliable picture. (Today, big banks have to answer to a dizzying litany of regulators—not only the SEC, but also the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and so on. The disclosure regimes vary, adding to the confusion. Banks confidentially release additional information to these regulators, but investors do not have access to those details. That regulators have these extra, confidential disclosures isn't much comfort: given the inability of regulators to police the banks in recent years, one of the only groups that investors trust less than bankers is bank regulators.) Wells Fargo's most recent annual report, covering 2011, is 236 pages long. It begins like a book an average person might enjoy: a breezy journey through a year in a bank's life. On the cover, that stagecoach appears. The first page has a moving story about a customer. The next few pages are filled with images of guys in cowboy hats, a couple holding hands by the ocean, cupcakes, and solar panels. In bold 50â€'point font, Wells Fargo reports that it contributed $213.5 million to nonprofits during the year, and it even does the math to make sure we appreciate its generosity: "$4.1 million every week or $585,000 every day or $24,000 every hour." The introduction's capstone is this: "We don't take trust for granted. We know we have to earn it every day in our conversations and actions with our customers. Here's how we try to do that." The sheer volume of "trading" at Wells Fargo suggests that the bank is not what it seems. Fortunately for Wells Fargo, most people do not read past the introduction. In the pages that follow, the sunny faces of satisfied customers disappear. So do the stories. The narrative is replaced by details about the bank's businesses that range from the incomprehensible to the disturbing. Wells Fargo told us it devotes "significant resources to fulfilling all reporting requirements of various regulators." Nevertheless, these disclosures wouldn't earn anyone's trust. They are littered with language that says nothing, at length. The report is riddled with progressively more opaque footnotes—the financial equivalent of Dante's descent into hell. Indeed, after the friendly introduction, the report ought to bear a warning to the inquisitive reader intent on truly understanding the bank's financial positions: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." The first circle of Wells Fargo's version of the Inferno, like Dante's Limbo, merely hints at what is to come, yet it is nonetheless unsettling. One of the main purposes of an annual report is to tell investors how a company makes money. Along these lines, Wells Fargo splits its businesses into two apparently simple and distinct parts—"interest income" and "noninterest income." At first blush, these two categories appear to parallel the two traditional sources of banking income: interest from loans and customer fees. But here the descent begins. Suddenly, this folksy mortgage bank starts showing signs of a split personality. It turns out that trading activities, the type associated with Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, contribute significantly to each of Wells Fargo's two categories of income. Almost $1.5 billion of its "interest income" comes from "trading assets"; another $9.1 billion results from "securities available for sale." One billion dollars of the bank's "noninterest income" are "net gains from trading activities." Another $1.5 billion is income from "equity investments." Up and down the ledger, abstruse, all-embracing categories appear: "other fees earned from related activities," "other interest income," and just plain "other." The income statement's "other" catchalls collectively amounted to $6.6 billion of Wells Fargo's income in 2011. It will take the devoted reader 50 more pages to find out that the bank derives a big chunk of that "other" income from, yes, "trading activities." The sheer volume of "trading" at Wells Fargo suggests that the bank is not what it seems. Some bank analysts say these trading numbers are small relative to the bank's overall revenue ($81 billion in 2011) and profit (again, $16 billion in 2011). Other observers don't even bother to look at these details, because they assume Wells Fargo is protected from trading losses by its capital reserves of $148 billion. That number, assuming it is accurate, can make any particular loss appear minuscule. For example, buried at the bottom of page 164 of Wells Fargo's annual report is the following statement: "In 2011, we incurred a $377 million loss on trading derivatives related to certain CDOs," or collateralized debt obligations. Just a few years ago, a bank's nine-figure loss on these sorts of complex financial instruments would have generated major headlines. Yet this one went unremarkedâ€'upon in the media, even by top investors, analysts, and financial pundits. Perhaps they didn't read all the way to page 164. Or perhaps they had become so numb from bigger bank losses that this one didn't seem to matter. Whatever the reason, Wells Fargo's massive CDO-derivatives loss was a multi-hundred-million-dollar tree falling silently in the financial forest. To paraphrase the late Senator Everett Dirksen, $377 million here and $377 million there, and pretty soon you're talking about serious money. Even conservatively run banks can be risky, as George Bailey learned in It's a Wonderful Life. But the Bailey Building and Loan Association did not earn money from trading. Trading is an inherently opaque and volatile business. It is subject to the vagaries of the markets. And yet in the past two decades, as profits from traditional lending and brokering activities have been squeezed, banks have turned more and more to trading in order to make money. Today, banks' trading operations involve more leverage, or borrowed money, than in the past. Banks also obtain a form of leverage by promising to pay money in the future if some event doesn't go their way (much like an insurance company must pay out a lot of money if a house it covers burns down). These promises come in the form of derivatives, financial instruments that can be used to hedge |
| Turk - A Black Swan Event, Global Monetary Reset & Chaos Posted: 03 Jan 2013 01:21 PM PST  Today James Turk spoke with King World News about a "Black Swan" event, the coming global monetary reset, and the incredible price action that KWN readers can expect to see in gold and silver over the next 60 days. Here is what Turk had to say in this fascinating and powerful interview: "What we saw in 2012, Eric, is a good example of what I have been calling a 'managed retreat.' The central planners were out in force - particularly in the fourth quarter - trying to keep a lid on precious metal prices, and they managed to accomplish that to some extent. Nevertheless, despite their best efforts, last year gold rose 7.0%, and silver climbed 8.2% in US dollar terms."This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fed split about when to halt QE3 Posted: 03 Jan 2013 12:45 PM PST
The minutes show the new front line for debate on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee and give the first indication of how big the Fed's third round of quantitative easing – so-called QE3 – may be in total. …According to the minutes, a "few" of the 12 voting FOMC members want to keep buying assets until the end of 2013. They are backed by a "few" more who want "considerable accommodation" but did set a date. But "several" other members want "to slow or to stop purchases well before the end of 2013" and one member opposes them altogether. [source] PG View: Gold has retreated deeper into the range in reaction. While "several" (besides Richmond Fed's Lacker) on the FOMC seem to have suddenly adopted more hawkish bents, the doves ultimately carried the day and guidance now says the foot will remain on the gas pedal until the jobless rate reaches 6.5%. And so it shall be…as backtracking now would undermine the very credibility the Fed was looking to establish with it's more transparent guidance. |
| Gold, Silver, Your IRA ? and a FREE Silver Coin Offer Posted: 03 Jan 2013 12:43 PM PST "[B]Follow the munKNEE.com"– Register to receive all future posts here[/B] Many investors are concerned about what will happen to the future of their 401K, IRA, or other tax-sheltered account and, as such, are looking for safe-havens for their long term savings and retirement money.* Fortunately for gold/silver buyers, there is good news.* Current rules allow investors to…actually own physical gold/silver coins (or bars) in your retirement accounts. [Let's take a look at] how it works.*Words: 1022 So writes*Jason Hamlin ([url]www.goldstockbull.com[/url]) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled Gold, Silver, and Your IRA. [INDENT]This article is presented*by [B][COLOR=#0000ff][COLOR=#ff0000]www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com[/COLOR] (A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and [B][COLOR=#ff0000]www.munKNEE.com [/COLOR](Your Key to Making Money!)[/B] for information purposes only. It may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-tit... |
| Fund Money Flows Continue Wreaking Havoc Posted: 03 Jan 2013 12:43 PM PST [url]http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/[/url] [url]http://www.fortwealth.com/[/url] In yesterday's post I mentioned to not put too much into a single day's price action as hedge fund money flows are allocating money into various markets and yanking it out of others to start off the New Year. The result so far has seen gold giving back all of its gains from yesterday, plus some, with silver surrendering nearly all of its gains as I write this. Silver looked shaky to me yesterday given the fact that the other base metals were so strong. In that environment, it should not have faded 50 cents off its best level of the session. Even copper is surrendering some of its sharp increase from yesterday along with palladium, which is getting smacked. Platinum however is going the other way and that is up. Don't forget that we are now in an age in which the word "SUBTLE" is unknown amongst the giant hedge funds. They come crashing into and flying out of markets in the blink of an eye (c... |
| The Fiscal Cliff Drama Is Over! Here Are the Winners & Losers Posted: 03 Jan 2013 12:35 PM PST "Follow the munKNEE.com"– Register to receive all future posts here At the 13th hour, the House passed the compromise bill that appears to So writes Tyler Laundon (www.wyattresearch.com) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled Winners and Losers From The Fiscal Cliff Deal.
Laundon goes on to say, in part: I'm glad that there aren't many in the financial media showering credit on Washington for reaching a fiscal cliff deal one day after the actual deadline passed because most of us recognize that folks who, through their own stupid actions (or inactions as the case may be), plot their own course toward disaster don't deserve credit when they alter said course – they just avoid looking as stupid as they could have. Below are some of the apparent winners and losers included in the deal: Loser: Employees - The temporary payroll tax cut first enacted as part of the 2010 stimulus is gone. Employees will now pay 2% more toward social security (6.2% total) just like they did prior to 2010. For those making $40,000 to $75,000, this will increase their taxes by $800 to $1,500 annually, all else being equal. On the flip side, these same employees should be happy that their payments help improve Social Security's solvency projections (see below). Winner: Social Security -Actually, it's the social security trust fund that wins. The temporary 2% reduction mentioned above didn't help projections for the program's solvency. It should be on better footing with these payments coming back, assuming that unemployment doesn't go up as a result of the broader deal. Loser: The Wealthy - This assumes you believe those earning above $450,000 (married) are "wealthy," which President Obama clearly does. This group will see their income tax rate rise by 4.6% to 39.6%. It also increases their dividend tax rate by 5% to 20%. This said, we have a marginal tax rate system, so income below the $450,000 threshold enjoys the lower tax rate. [Read: 2% of U.S. Households Earn $450,000; 50% Only Earn $43,000 – Exactly Where Does Your Income Put YOU?] Winner: Dividend Stocks - The increase in the dividend tax rate is much smaller than that which could have been, and applies only to the "wealthy," as mentioned above. This should silence all those who suggested that investors sell dividend-paying stocks ahead of a looming big increase in the dividend tax rate (we were definitely not in that bunch). Loser: U.S. Debt-to-GDP Ratio - Congress started 2011 needing to trim around $4 trillion in spending to keep the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio, which currently stands at around 79% (according to The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [CRFB]) from rising. This deal slows the projected growth rate, but doesn't bring it anywhere closer to the 40% level we enjoyed at the beginning of the century. Winner: The Deficit … Sort of - The CRFB projects that this deal will reduce the deficit by $650 billion over 10 years, better than the estimated $4.6 trillion increase associated with extending the entire package. The projected reduction is a start, but nowhere close to what's needed to get the country on a path to sustainable debt-to-GDP levels. To view the CRFB's breakdown of the fiscal cliff deal, click here. Loser: The Debt Ceiling - The deal postpones dealing with the $110 billion in scheduled defense and domestic program spending cuts and the need to increase the country's borrowing limit. Get ready for a new catch phrase, maybe fiscal cliff 2.0? Winner: President Obama - With this deal Obama was able to avoid raising taxes on the middle class, and get Republicans to raise taxes on the "wealthy." Loser: Image of U.S. Politicians - As I stated earlier, Washington leaders hammered out a deal after the deadline to avoid a potential tragedy of their own creation. Rather than focus on what is best for the country, they appear to be more focused on preserving their jobs. This deal guarantees only that the political posturing will continue in the first half of 2013, and increases the policy uncertainty that is so exhausting to investors and business managers alike. Winner: The Market … for now - The market enjoyed two days of triple-digit gains as this deal took shape. Conclusion The good news is that tragedy has been averted, for now. The bad news is that the debate over our nation's borrowing limit and spending cuts still looms. That means there is still a lot of uncertainty for investors which, in other words, means: Expect more of the same in the first half of 2013. Good Investing, Tyler Laundon, MBA * http://www.wyattresearch.com/article/winners-and-losers-from-the-fiscal-cliff-deal/29189
Related Articles: 1. The Fiscal Cliff Will Prove to Be a Dud – and More Optimistic Forecasts for 2013
2. 2% of U.S. Households Earn $450,000; 50% Only Earn $43,000 – Exactly Where Does Your Income Put YOU?
4. Fiscal Cliff Would See Dividend Tax Rate Almost TRIPLE for Wealthy
5. U.S. Debt 101: If the U.S. Were A Stock Few Investors Would Own It – Here's Why
7. Would Higher Tax Rates On Rich Help Close America's Deficit Much?
8. It's in Your Own Best Interest to Learn Just How Bad America's Debt Problem Is – So Read On!
10. U.S Likely to Hit the Financial Wall by 2017! Here's Why
|
| Gold, Silver, Your IRA – and a FREE Silver Coin Offer Posted: 03 Jan 2013 11:04 AM PST
Many investors are concerned about what will happen to the future of their 401K, IRA, or other tax-sheltered account and, as such, are looking for safe-havens for their long term savings and retirement money. Fortunately for gold/silver buyers, there is good news. Current rules allow investors to…actually own physical gold/silver coins (or bars) in your retirement accounts. [Let's take a look at] how it works. Words: 1022 So writes Jason Hamlin (www.goldstockbull.com) in edited excerpts from his original article* entitled Gold, Silver, and Your IRA.
Hamlin goes on to say, in part: Here's How It WorksLet's say you have an IRA with $50,000 in it, and you don't like the risk of the stock market or the pathetic returns offered by savings and money market accounts. You can transfer that IRA money into a special Precious Metals IRA Account and use the $50,000 to buy physical gold or silver bullion. The funds are spent by your IRA custodian to purchase the bullion on your behalf, and then the bullion is stored in a secure vault in a US-based depository in your name. Those coins will sit there on the shelf in that vault with your name on them until you choose to take a disbursement from your IRA. That disbursement will be governed by all the normal rules on eligibility (including age, qualified expenses, etc.). The good news is that if things ever get really bad and you'd like to take physical possession of your gold/silver yourself, you can tell the depository to ship you your coins/bars (subject to any appropriate penalties) and take an early distribution. It's just like taking a cash distribution from your IRA, except instead of getting a check in the mail, the coins are shipped directly from the depository straight to your door within a couple days of your request. Pretty simple! As always, any first-time buyer that invests in gold and silver and mentions the "GoldStockBull" website will receive a FREE silver coin with their first purchase, and that includes IRA purchases! Call us at 800-558-4671 to get started. Details about Different Kinds of Accounts1. Traditional IRA's · You must store the metals in a third party depository until you take a disbursement from your IRA · You can create and fund a new IRA, or rollover an existing IRA · Only a few IRA custodians allow for Precious Metals IRA Accounts (most IRA custodians are not flexible enough to allow for precious metals purchases), so contact us for help on choosing who to work with. 2. Roth IRA's · These are treated like traditional IRA's, except your tax liability and distribution rules are different because you've already paid taxes on the money. 3. 401k plans · If you have an old 401k from a company you've left, you can roll that over into an IRA and put the money into precious metals. · If you are self-employed, you can have a self-directed 401k that allows you to put your money into gold and silver, and you aren't required to store the metal at a depository (you can store the metal yourself) · If you have an active 401k and you are not self employed, contact us to see if your 401k rules allow you to put money into physical gold and silver Getting Started – 4 StepsStep 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
FAQ1. Will my current IRA custodian let me put money in precious metals?
2. What Depository should I choose and how much will it cost?
3. What happens when I close my IRA or I want to take delivery of my metal?
For more information, visit www.CornerstoneBullion.com or call 800-558-4671, and don't forget to mention "GoldStockBull" for your free silver coin! Please note, we are not financial representatives and nothing in this article is intended to be construed as advice or recommendation of any particular financial decision.
*http://www.goldstockbull.com/articles/gold-silver-and-your-ira/ (Sign up for FREE email updates or click here to view the portfolio/newsletter (paid content).) Related Articles: 1. Can I Invest in Physical Gold & Silver in My IRA?
2. Americans: Which Gold/Silver Bullion Assets are Permitted in Your IRA? Some physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion assets, in addition to traditional paper assets, can be part of your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or Roth account and they can be bought and sold with no tax consequence until you move money out of the account. [This short articles reveals just what bullion assets can, and cannot, be included.] Words: 573 3. Will U.S. Gov't Eventually Mandate that 'x' % of IRA/401K Funds Be In Treasuries?
4. Is Your IRA or 401K a Target of Government Appropriation?
5. How Safe Is Your Retirement Money from the Government's Grasp?
6. Americans: Here's How to Protect Your Retirement Assets From Coming Gov't "Confiscation"
|
Do you believe that economic trouble is coming in 2013? If so, you have a lot of company. According to a brand new Gallup poll that was just released, 
The ArabianMoney investment newsletter's top pick for 2013 (
Today Egon von Greyerz told King World News that investors will now see a stunning 186% move in gold as the financial system begins to implode and silver heads to $150. Here is what Greyerz, who is founder of Matterhorn Asset Management in Switzerland, had this to say: "Eric, when we spoke last time I said that what's happening in the US with the fiscal cliff is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The US is sinking with debt of $1.5 trillion, and total liabilities, including unfunded liabilities, of over $7 trillion per year.
Today 40-year veteran, Robert Fitzwilson, wrote the following piece exclusively for King World News. Fitzwilson, who is founder of The Portola Group, has two absolutely fascinating charts of gold and the monetary base, which clearly illustrate how dramatically undervalued gold is relative to the massive fiat money base.
Whilst 2012 closed with a whimper, 2013 starts with a BANG! as the fiscal cliff collapse crash mantra goes the same way as the Mayan doom prophecies barely of a fortnight earlier. Though don't worry there will be plenty more cliff-hangers for the always imminent crash merchants to hang onto during 2013 that I will seek to debunk during 2013, unless that is the actual probability of such events is high.
The Federal Reserve estimates that the U.S. economy will grow around 3% this year, as measured by that "
Hmnn… not likely at all. The Fed has overshot their GDP growth estimates by an average of 1.5% over the last decade.
"The move above 1,300 helps the bulls' case," Greg wrote at the time. "Advancing stocks topping declining names at a rate of 4-to-1 doesn't hurt.
Production of oil and gas from shale formations is key to the renewal of U.S. manufacturing. The entire shale drilling supply chain will remain busy, and the top companies are in a position to prosper.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Save Your ASSets First To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment