Silver holds the 38 dollar level/Lousy economic news emanating out of the usa

Harvey Organ, Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Silver holds the 38 dollar level/Lousy economic news emanating out of the usa

 

 

Theatrical Vote To Raise Debt Ceiling By $2.4 Trillion Begins; Does Not Pass 

Update: As expected, debt ceiling does not pass.  Final vote:

• Nay (Republicans 236, Democrats 82), total: 318
• Yea (Republicans 0, Democrats 97), total: 97
• Not Voting (Republicans 3; Democrats 6); 9

As we reported first today, any minute now the Congress will pretend to vote on HR1954, a clean debt ceiling increase of $2.4 trillion to $16.7 trillion. This will not pass. Why Congress is doing this bullshit, and why the US debt ceiling is now nothing but a farce, is a question voters should ask themselves next time they vote for their representatives. Watch the tragicomedy live at C-Span below.

 

 

In The News Today

May 31, 2011, at 1:14 pm
by Jim Sinclair

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

When MOPE kills.

Fukushima Risks Chernobyl ‘Dead Zone’ as Radiation Soars  By Yuriy Humber and Stuart Biggs
May 30 (Bloomberg) — Radioactive soil in pockets of areas near Japan’s crippled nuclear plant have reached the same level as Chernobyl, where a “dead zone” remains 25 years after the reactor in the former Soviet Union exploded.
Soil samples in areas outside the 20-kilometer (12 miles) exclusion zone around the Fukushima plant measured more than 1.48 million becquerels a square meter, the standard used for evacuating residents after the Chernobyl accident, Tomio Kawata, a fellow at the Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan, said in a research report published May 24 and given to the government.
Radiation from the plant has spread over 600 square kilometers (230 square miles), according to the report. The extent of contamination shows the government must move fast to avoid the same future for the area around Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant as Chernobyl, scientists said. Technology has improved since the 1980s, meaning soil can be decontaminated with chemicals or by planting crops to absorb radioactive materials, allowing residents to return.
“We need to finish this treatment as quickly as possible, within three years at most,” Tetsuo Iguchi, a specialist in isotope analysis and radiation detection at Nagoya University in central Japan, said in a telephone interview. “If we take longer, people will give up on returning to their homes.”
More…





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Ever get the feeling that contacts have weakened and it is pile on time?

New York Fed Investigates Goldman Loan Division By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED and BEN PROTESS
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has begun an investigation into the mortgage-servicing arm of Goldman Sachs, looking at whether it systematically rejected borrowers’ efforts to lower their loan payments through government programs.
The inquiry by the New York Fed arose from a letter sent by an anonymous employee, who accused the Goldman unit, Litton Loan, of denying loans without properly reviewing applications.
The letter was brought to the Fed’s attention by The Financial Times after it received the tip.
“We are in possession of the letter and are conducting an inquiry,” a spokesman for the New York Fed said in a statement.
A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.
According to The Financial Times, the anonymous whistle-blower said he had examined loans that qualified for government modifications but were consistently denied.
The accusation against Litton is the latest headache for the unit, which Goldman is seeking to sell.
More…

Murray Pollitt: Electronic wheelbarrows

 

Gold and silver seen forming bullish divergences

 

GoldMoney interview: Egon von Greyerz on gold's return as currency

 

Tungsten-stuffed gold story delights inflation-wracked Vietnam government

 

Here Is Your Chance To Demand Answers From The Fed's General Counsel, Scott Alvarez 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/31/2011 17:01 -0400

For all Zero Hedge readers who have long waited for their chance to ask Mr. Scott Alvarez of "Have The Federal Reserve Or Prime Brokers Ever Tried To Manipulate The Stock Market?" fame a question about life, the universe or why the CME decides to hike ES margins in an environment of rising realized vol, here it is. Tomorrow, at 2PM, Ron Paul will lead a hearing by the Financial Services Committee, which will luckily be carried by C-SPAN meaning one will be actually able to hear the dialog (alas, the House continues to believe that investing in microphones for their internal webcasts is a bad idea), titled: "Federal Reserve Lending Disclosure: FOIA, Dodd-Frank, and the Data Dump." The witnesses will be Mr. Thomas C. Baxter, Jr., General Counsel, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the one and only Scott G. Alvarez, General Counsel, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. While the usual heeming and hawing will follow each and every question, what is unique about this session is that the FSC actually allows anyone to submit questions for the honorable lawyers. The link to submit questions is here: we urge Zero Hedge readers to take advantage of this opportunity and have Mr. Paul read their questions to the two general counsels, even if no legible answers will be (ever) forthcoming.