"When people lose everything, they have nothing left to lose. And they lose it." - Gerald Celente





Ron Paul Questions Alan Greenspan
This video, from February 2000, has Congressman Ron Paul questioning Alan Greenspan, the then Chairman of the Federal Reserve, on the issue of management of the money supply. In this discussion Alan Greenspan admits that the Federal Reserve has not been able to come up with a good definition of money. He also admits that you cannot manage something that you cannot define. Length: 7:24
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2AqGQirW1Y&feature=related






Merrill Lynch: The 3 big reasons gold and silver will soar


Tuesday, June 22, 2010Text Size:
From Mineweb:Merrill Lynch metals analysts maintain gold will hit a US$1,500 per ounce target by the end of next year as investor demand pushes gold prices higher.In research published Monday, analysts Michael Widmer, Francisco Blanch, and Alex Tonks are predicting average gold price forecasts of US$1,200/oz this year, $1,350/oz in 2011, and $1,400/oz in 2012, up from $1110/oz, $1179/oz and $1109/oz. respectively."We also believe that silver has further upside and see prices averaging..."Read full article...





Is U.S. Now on Slippery Slope to Tyranny?





Three Reasons You Should Buy Silver Right Now





Fresh Economic Worries Trigger Fresh Rush into Gold





Finding Gold in the Mainstream





Spain Could Test the Euro to its Limits





The Euro's Inevitable Failure Will Be Horrendous for All of Us





Global Systemic Crisis/Second Half of 2010: The Global System's Four Single Points of Failure





California on 'Verge of System Failure'.





Financial Reform Is a Disaster For Banks, Consumers: Bove. Did you notice how the key topic of derivatives trading wasn't even mentioned per se in this article?





GOLD
Don Coxe Dissects Gold
Tyler Durden
What do you do if you can no longer believe in real estate, bank deposits, the dollar, the yen or the euro? What can you believe in? Gold. So old it’s new again, the yellow metal can’t be synthesized and acts as a store of value for future generations. Until recently, the case for gold was almost always presented as a hedge against inflation. That case remains valid, because if the US and European economies revive, then the pressure on the Fed and ECB to raise rates will become intense, even though unemployment will still be at historically high levels and politicians will be screaming that any rate increases will punish the poor to reward the rich. If the major central banks do not raise rates, investors worldwide will begin to bet heavily on a return of inflation. However, those monetary points of no return seem off in the distance, given modest US growth, and barely perceptible recoveries or renewed downturns within the Eurozone. Durden believes gold should be a significant component in most high net worth wealth preservation programs, and in most endowment and pension funds. For the first time since 1980, Germans and other Europeans with long memories are rushing to exchange euros for coins and small gold bars. Germans have watched as twice in the past century their currency was utterly destroyed. They believed Ludwig Erhard, who crafted the plan for West Germany's post-World War II economic recovery, when he said their nation could have a currency that was as good as gold. That belief was the underpinning of Germany’s rapid post-war reconstruction, but the faith is now dwindling and individual savers are protecting themselves.
www.zerohedge.com/article/don-coxe-dissects-gold-oldest-established-store-value-moves-center-stage





Gold Reclaims its Currency Status as the Global System Unravels
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The ECB has revealed that its systemic risk indicator surged to an all-time high on May 7, during the Eurozone money-market meltdown. “The probability of a simultaneous default of two or more euro-area large and complex banking groups rose sharply,” it said. The banks in question were not identified. It remains unclear whether the multi-billion-euro rescue package will solve the problem, and this general worry may be behind gold’s rise to an all-time high of $1,258 an ounce. Several central banks have been buying gold, and Saudi Arabia has “restated” its reserves upwards from 143 million to 323 million tonnes. The general feeling is that the global currency system is unraveling, and that gold is reclaiming its role as the ultimate safe haven and benchmark currency. Inflation is not currently a problem, but may become one. The US seems doomed to suffer a double-dip recession, or else grind along for the next 12 months in a growth slump. For Europe, nothing short of a sustained global boom can lift the Eurozone out of the deflationary quicksand already swallowing up “Club Med.” Investors do not believe the EU can be relied upon to back its rescue rhetoric with hard money, and for good reason. Germany’s coalition, damaged by fury over the Greek bailout, could break apart at any moment. Far-right populist Geert Wilders is suddenly the second force in the Dutch parliament. Flemish separatists have just won the Belgian elections in Flanders. The likelihood that an ever-reduced group of German-bloc creditors facing disorder and budget cuts at home will keep footing the bill for an ever-widening group of Latin-bloc debtors in distress is diminishing daily. Fitch says it will take hundreds of billions of bond purchases by the ECB to stop the crisis escalating, but Germany is unlikely to sanction such full-blown quantitative easing. The struggle between Teutonic and Latin Europe will go on as the crisis festers.
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7841961/Gold-reclaims-its-currency-status-as-the-global-system-unravels.html





Gold May Decline 50% Before the World Cup is Over
(And the World Cup May be Won by a Herd of Wild Burundi Elephants)
Eric Janszen
A recent Morgan Stanley analysis predicts that gold will plunge 70%. That is unlikely, writes Janszen, unless a credible proposal to pay down US government debt and reduce contingent liabilities is not only constructed, but also approved by dozens of special interest groups. The recent performance of the US political system at the relatively simple task of getting more health care to Americans at a lower cost is not encouraging. Janszen discusses gold as a currency hedge; historical amnesia; the central banking paradox; central bank (and IMF) gold reserves of over 100 tonnes each; why gold cannot be “just a commodity” if it is the only metal owned by central banks; China and Russia; who holds gold; and the countdown to a crisis. He loses no sleep worrying about gold prices plunging. Instead, he worries about the disastrous financial condition of US households and the US government, and the lack of political will to address them, which threaten the very foundation of the global money system. This is the reason for gold’s relentless rise. The problems are structural and endemic. Perhaps war is the only thing capable of unseating the special interests that perpetuate them. Gold prices do not float on a sea of liquidity; they float on a sea of dangerous fallacies: that asset bubbles don’t cause lasting damage to economies; that the US can continue to borrow to finance its fiscal deficit; the invulnerability of the dollar as a reserve currency. Janszen won’t bet against global central banks, and they are betting on gold. Soon, everyone will catch on.
www.itulip.com/forums/showthread.php/15978-Gold-may-decline-50-before-the-World-Cup-is-over-Eric-Janszen?p=165275#post165275





Ten Important Real Estate Charts
Dr. Housing Bubble
The US housing market has been turned upside down thanks to unprecedented amounts of government intervention; there has been so much interference that even the seasonal pattern has changed. Spring and summer, usually the best selling times, will not likely enjoy that distinction in 2010 with the tax credit gone and the Fed done with buying mortgage-backed securities. It is unlikely that market conditions will improve any time soon, with unemployment in the top housing bubble states at peak levels. In California, unemployment remains at 12.6% and there are over 100,000 unemployed Californians that have now exhausted a stunning 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. All over the US, a similar story is playing out. Ten charts (housing starts, single family home sales, household debt service, Texas ratio at big banks, home price to median income, construction spending, pending home sales, mortgage applications, nationwide foreclosures and homeowner equity) paint a dismal picture of America’s housing market. From Alt-A and option ARMs to strategic defaults, unprecedented trends are showing up. In short, homeowners are tapped out. And with one-third of mortgage holders underwater, there is no home equity to borrow against, a phenomenon that supported the US economy for the entire bubble decade. While the tax credit did provide some momentum, that has petered out with little effect on the overall megatrend. Unfortunately, the US is a long way from any kind of recovery.
www.doctorhousingbubble.com/10-real-estate-charts-texas-ratio-pending-homes-sales-showing-no-recovery-in-2010/?source=patrick.net





US Debt and the Greece Analogy
Alan Greenspan
Don’t be fooled by today’s low interest rates, writes Greenspan; the government could very quickly discover the limits of its borrowing capacity. “With huge deficits currently having no evident effect on either inflation or long-term interest rates, the budget constraints of the past are missing. It is little comfort that the dollar is still the least worst of the major fiat currencies. But the inexorable rise in the price of gold indicates a large number of investors are seeking a safe haven beyond fiat currencies. The United States, and most of the rest of the developed world, is in need of a tectonic shift in fiscal policy. Incremental change will not be adequate. In the past decade the US has been unable to cut any federal spending programs of significance. I believe the fears of budget contraction inducing a renewed decline of economic activity are misplaced. The current spending momentum is so pressing that it is highly unlikely that any politically feasible fiscal constraint will unleash new deflationary forces. I do not believe that our lawmakers or others are aware of the degree of impairment of our fiscal brakes. If we contained the amount of issuance of Treasury securities, pressures on private capital markets would be eased. Fortunately, the very severity of the pending crisis and growing analogies to Greece set the stage for a serious response. That response needs to recognize that the range of error of long-term US budget forecasts (especially of Medicare) is, in historic perspective, exceptionally wide. Our economy cannot afford a major mistake in underestimating the corrosive momentum of this fiscal crisis. Our policy focus must therefore err significantly on the side of restraint.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109852/us-debt-and-the-greece-analogy?321