Caution: Another Gold Margin Hike Imminent

Just like Interactive Brokers predicted the last CME margin hike with 100% precision, here it comes again. It is now all too clear that the CME risk managers have decided to do to gold what they did to silver: namely shake out the weak hands with as many as 5 or more margin hikes in a row. Since everyone else is all cash, the CME's attempt to manipulate the market is coming to an end.

Here Are Wall Street's Expectations For Tomorrow, As Goldman Makes The Case For $1 Trillion In QE3

After 3 months ago everyone was convinced there was no QE3 imminent ever, all it took for the lemming majority to shift to the other side of the ship was a 20% drop in stocks. Since then, following a stabiliziation in stock based precisely on beliefs that Bernanke would once again pull something from this bag of goodies, the lemmingrati once again shifted back, and the majority now pretends it does not expect anything out of Jackson Hole tomorrow, even though it does, as otherwise the market would resume its plunge. UBS earlier conducted a survey among money managers, finding that 50% of the 82 respondents expect Bernanke to limit Jackson Hole remarks only to reviewing the rationale for the Fed to pledge ZIRP until mid 2013. Then there are those who actually told the truth, such as Goldman which, in a note yesterday, basically says that $1 trillion in QE3 is an absolute minimum if the Fed wants to get GDP higher by at least 0.5%. To wit: "Taken together, our analysis suggests that QE3 is unlikely to be a panacea for growth. Nonetheless, our estimates suggests that $1trn of asset purchases–or an equivalent increase in the duration of the Fed's balance sheet–might increase GDP growth by up to 0.5 percentage point in the first year after any announcement of QE3." And since we are talking the truth here, why not stop pretending you care about GDP - just think of the marginal impact on Wall Street bonuses...

 

Irene Is Now Expected To Pass Right Over Wall Street With 74-95 mph Winds

There is a silver lining though: just as it has over the past 3 years, the world's Bernanke Put "Heads I win, Tails the world blows up" hub may survive simply courtesy of being in the eye of the Hurricane. Alas, this time around, the other side will arrive much faster: after all the Fed can not print windbreaks.

State Of Emergency Issued For New Jersey, Voluntary Evacuations For Jersey Shore

And so the Irene-induced state of emergency pronouncements start trickling in. First, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a state of emergency order and urged people at the Jersey Shore to leave voluntarily by mid-day tomorrow as Hurricane Irene approaches the Northeast. The governor, in a briefing with reporters, said he was considering a mandatory evacuation of the Jersey Shore area. Following this news is the announcement by the US coast guard which issued a hurricane alert for Long Island sound. But the biggest losers? Insurance companies: both Chubb and Allstate CDS have spiked on expectations this hurricane could be a doozy in claim terms (although we urge readers to check their hurricane insurance: many times the deductible is far higher if the damage is caused by a Hurricane than a Tropical Storm: alas, this may be a saving grace for some insurance cos). What would be amusing is if the biggest loser out of today, now that BAC is threatening to close read for the day, is Berkshire's insurance empire.

"A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing"

Krieger is on fire today: "The interesting thing about today is that I had intended to write this piece on Warren Buffett all week. It was just really fortuitous timing that this Bank of America news came out today. Gosh where to start. First of all, this $5 billion preferred investment by Uncle Warren in preferred stock is extremely bearish for the market, the economy and the financial system. This is not an investment, it is political-economic strategy. It tell us so many things that we probably already suspected. It tells us that Bank of America did indeed need capital. Even worse they probably need so much that they went to Uncle Warren for five big ones so that people would just look the other way and gain “confidence.” This is how out to lunch these guys are. They don’t understand that the root of the lack of confidence is that the people see a country devolving into a Banana Republic led by greedy oligarchs and politicians stealing everything in sight as the ship sinks....This is 1789 France folks as I have said many times before. Second, the fact that TPTB are resorting to Uncle Warren for everything now may mean the Fed is out of the game. No one has confidence in the Fed to come save the day so they need the next thing. That next thing is Uncle Warren. Unfortunately it’s not working and it is not going to work. You can see it in the market today. People are waking up. They are starting to see through the matrix. Buffett is a fraud and a shill. If you follow him it will be right over a cliff."





Panic & Anxiety Swirl a Storm
By: Jim Willie CB - 24 August, 2011





There They Go Again 



German Court Wields Huge Economic Power
By: John Browne, Senior Market Strategist at Euro Pacific Capital 





Gold Pullback Is Time to Sell? Or Buy?
By: Ed Bugos, The Dollar Vigilante 





Your Portfolio of Lies
By: Gary North 




Gold's 11% Plunge "Overdue, Unsurprising" But "Doesn't Change Long-Term Fundamentals"
By: Adrian Ash, BullionVault 

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