Another Raid in silver and gold/trade deficit rises/budgetary deficit narrows in April

posted by Harvey Organ at Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report - 59 minutes ago

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: The banking cartel decided today at 7 am to raid silver, gold and other commodities.  The excuse given was news from China.  Actually, the announcement was quite tame with...

 

 

 

 

"The People Vs. Goldman Sachs" - Taibbi's Magnum Opus 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 15:57 -0400

Matt Taibbi does the seemingly impossible: translates the 650-page Levin report "Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse" in simple English, and lays out the criminal case against one Goldman Sachs for everyone to read, comprehend, and scratch their heads how nobody has gone to jail yet: "They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it. When it came time for Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein to testify, the banker hedged and stammered like a brain-addled boxer who couldn't quite follow the questions. When Levin asked how Blankfein felt about the fact that Goldman collected $13 billion from U.S. taxpayers through the AIG bailout, the CEO deflected over and over, insisting that Goldman would somehow have made that money anyway through its private insurance policies on AIG. When Levin pressed Blankfein, pointing out that he hadn't answered the question, Blankfein simply peered at Levin like he didn't understand....This isn't just a matter of a few seedy guys stealing a few bucks. This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it. But the prominence of this bank and the high-profile nature of its confrontation with a powerful Senate committee makes this a political story as well. If the Justice Department fails to give the American people a chance to judge this case — if Goldman skates without so much as a trial — it will confirm once and for all the embarrassing truth: that the law in America is subjective, and crime is defined not by what you did, but by who you are. 

 

 

 

 

 

Greek Police Brutality Caught On Tape 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 19:08 -0400

This won't sit too well with the GCLU. We are, in fact hearing, that there is already a protest organized to protest police brutality, which will culminate with more cops beating the austerty out of more protesters, and so forth at an exponential pace. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highway To The Gyro Zone: Latest Video Of Greek Violence 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 14:37 -0400

Because one video is worth one thousand pictures...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures From A Violent (And Media Blacked Out) Greek Exhibition 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 13:58 -0400

Some may accuse us of simply recycling the same post over and over, with pictures of what appears like periodic violent rioting in Athens. Trust us: these are brand new, and the main reason why there is a seemingly massive media blackout of the events in Greece is because the journalists themselves are on strike. Luckily, the WSJ has compiled the following selection of pictures showing just how ugly the reality in an otherwise civilized European country has become. And since much of the proposed next round of austerity spending cuts would come from reducing wage costs in the public sector, cuts in operating expenses at state-owned enterprises, and reduced defense and health-care spending, the vicious cycle of more violent demonstrations will continue as even more cuts are implemented. 

 

 

 

 

Guest Post: Some Thoughts On The Recent Commodity Correction 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 18:58 -0400

The recent correction in the commodities markets may be providing Bernake, Geithner and their easy money acolytes with a sense of relief given the relentless run up in prices of raw materials since the announcement of QE back in 2008, but they should not sleep tight just yet. As anyone in the markets will tell you, when any underlying has a price move so vertical in its trajectory it’s bound to face a correction as the smart money, having gotten in for fundamental reasons much earlier along the trend line now wait for the panic buyers or the Johnny-come-lately’s to give the rally that last unsustainable spike to unload their longs and leave the suckers holding $40.00 silver in their purses. So one must step back and take a long view. Although it would appear that those of us who warn that inflation is not just a threat but very much a fact of life now were knee-jerk pontificators jumping on the commodities rally trend for political (read: Fed/Obama bashing) reasons, the analysis is quite sound. Most important, it is methodical not emotional as price surges tend to make investors and analysts from time to time. Here are some facts: even with the inevitable correction in commodities, as of this writing crude oil is 35% more expensive than it was a year ago…advancing with ups and downs along the way from as low as $17.50/bbl in November of 2001 to its current level of over $100/bbl or around a 19% annual appreciation in a decade since the Fed started giving away dollars. Silver 93% Wheat 84% Cotton 100% Coffee 55% Cattle 10% etc etc. Gold is up 22% for the year. More revealing, it is up an astonishing 450% since 2001. In that same decade the USD index against all currencies shed 40% of its value. 

 

 

 

 

Chart Of The Day: Currency Devaluation, Old School Style 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 17:33 -0400

Our chart of the day comes courtesy of Dylan Grice, and his fascinating "Hyperinflation in Japan" presentation given at the CFA annual meeting in Edinburgh which we will shortly share with readers, which shows that currency devaluation is not a Ben Bernanke, nor even a central bank, phenomenon. As the chart below shows, and as most monetarists know too well, it was the Romans who engaged in the first act of voluntary currency devaluation-cum-dilution, by progressively reducing the silver content (yes, even back then currencies were backed by precious metals: and guess what - no CDOs squared, cubed, or quadratic, were conceived by the local office of Goldmanus Sachus) until such time as it hit zero... and the Roman empire was no more. Ironically, the nearly 100% devaluation of the currency in Roman times took just over 2 centuries. This compares somewhat favorable to the 97% drop in the purchasing power of the US currency since the inception of the Federal Reserve. 

 

 

 

And For Today's Margin Hike... 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 17:03 -0400

CME goes full retard, and is now seriously threatening to destabilize the clearing structure of the market with what appears a panicked margin hike every single day in one or more commodities. Among today's products impacted RBOB and RBOB crack spreads, up by 21% and 50%, respectively, as the CME makes it all too clear which products the Obama memo said need to be killed post haste.

Fed To Monetize Just $93 Billion In Next 30 Days: Lowest Monthly Total In All Of QE2 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/11/2011 14:14 -0400

The fed has just released its new POMO schedule for the period from May 12 to June 9. In essence, every single day between now and Thursday June 9 will see a POMO, except for holidays and June 2. The total amount to be monetized is just $93 billion consisting of $80 billion in Treasurys (no surprise) and just $13 billion in MBS, confirming that as we have expected, the QE Lite component of monetization is coming to a rapid end as few if any prepay their mortgages with the Fed any longer. The MBS component is down from $17 billion as of the last schedule, and from $22 billion two months ago. The total monthly amount of $93 billion is the lowest of any monthly QE2 schedule. And following the end of this schedule, there is just another 20 days before QE2 ends on June 30, meaning from now until the end of the ramp, there is at best about $160 billion in incremental capital courtesy of Brian Sack and Printocchio. Furthermore, as of the end of this POMO schedule, the Fed will have monetized just $711 billion. Throw in another $60 billion total for the remaining period through June 30, and the Fed will be woefully short of its upside range of monetizing up to $900 billion in USTs and Agencies.