Monday, March 26, 2012

Jim Sinclair – US Launches Economic War, Gold Reacting

from King World News:
Today legendary trader and investor Jim Sinclair told King World News that gold has taken a major step towards becoming the currency of choice when it comes to international trade. Sinclair also said the US has launched an economic war against key Asian countries and it is having an immediate impact on the gold market. Here is what Sinclair had to say about the situation: “Wall Street goes to war and the weapon is money. There was a day when we went to war and the weapon was an armada of ships. It was landing on Iwo Jima, mano y mano, it was bravery and honor. Today it’s dollars.”
Read More @ KingWorldNews.com




Martin Armstrong: Sovereign Debt Crisis to Reach US by 2015

from Silver Doctors:
Martin Armstrong discusses the implications of the discovery of tungsten filled gold, gold’s recent 17 day decline, and predicts that the sovereign debt crisis will wash up on our shores in the 3rd quarter of 2015 in his latest gold update.  Armstrong’s timeline matches up exactly with Jim Sinclair’s call for the dollar’s collapse in 2015.
Armstrong also states that inflation has passed gold by and gold is due a ‘huge burst of price movement‘ in order to catch up with inflation.

Gold is a good investment NOT because of all the fiat nonsense, but because inflation has passed it by and there will be a huge burst of price movement. That will come when the Sovereign Debt Crisis hits the USA and that does not seem likely until 2015.75
Read More @ SilverDoctors.blogspot.com




Embry – Massive QE Near as System Moves Closer to Collapse

from King World News:
With gold moving towards the $1,700 level, up another $23 today, and silver closing in on $33, today King World News interviewed John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist of the $10 billion strong Sprott Asset Management. Embry said US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s comments prove that massive money printing is necessary in order to avoid a collapse. Here is what Embry had to say about the situation: “There is so much interference in the gold market. Because of that it will be interesting to see what price level will spark interest in gold again. I do think it’s important to recognize the news backdrop, the real news, not the constant babble that is coming out of the powers that be.”
Read More @ KingWorldNews.com




“We Have Entered the Most Favourable Era for Gold Prices in Our Lifetime…”

by Tim Price, Sovereign Man:
Acclaimed screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, among many others) famously began his autobiography with three telling words: “Nobody Knows Anything.”
The same logic would seem to apply to much conventional reporting of the financial markets. Any investor looking for informed analysis of market developments can therefore save themselves a few minutes every day by choosing not to read any of the ‘Companies and Markets’ section of the FT, which typically constitutes a fantastic piece of fiction.
(If there is a more thankless task in finance than trying to explain why certain markets did what they did yesterday, we don’t know what it is… unless it’s working in the PR department at Goldman Sachs.)
Read More @ SovereignMan.com




 

Gold rises by $23.10. Silver by 48 cents to $32.73. We are marking time.


Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: Gold closed up today by $ 23.10.  Silver finished the day up 48 cents to $32.73 I caught hit with a virus today so my commentary will be short as I cannot think straight as my temperature is over 105 degrees.  I will try and write later tonight. Let us head over to the comex and assess trading over there today. today will be very short: The total gold comex




Mondays with “Ranting” Andy–When The Bernank Speaks, Gold Listens–03-26-2012

from Kerry Lutz.com:
I hadn’t reviewed gold prices since early Monday morning. I was surprised to see gold up over $22 per ounce, but Andy wasn’t. Ben Bernank spoke today, and he confirmed the rumors that have been flying around. Yes, he’s still a money printer, and he has no intention of stopping. Hopefully, he will be stopped before the dollar turns into worthless bits and bytes on computers around the world, but there’s no indication that this is about to happen.
Andy and I also discussed how Apple has become the tail, wagging the stock market’s dog. As the most valuable company in the world, Apple can not only send computer suppliers and parts makers into an immediate frenzy, it can also do the same to stock markets. It has a disproportionate share of the NASDAQ’s valuation as well as the S&P’s. So it is truly the bellwether stock of our times. But that doesn’t mean the paper markets are at all healthy. The public has dropped them like a group of kids playing catch with a hand grenade. The averages are constantly being whipped around by high frequency trading and by the algorithm boys. So what is anything really worth these days, anyway?
Click Here to Listen to the Audio
Read More @ KerryLutz.com





A Fistful of Euros

by Dr. Ron Paul, Paul.House.gov:
This week, my congressional committee will hold a hearing to examine how the Federal Reserve bails out European banks, propping up spendthrift European governments in the process. Unfortunately this bailout comes at the expense of American citizens, in the form of higher prices and diminished savings down the road.
A good analysis of the Fed’s “swap” scheme first appeared in the Wall Street Journal back in December, in an article by Gerald O’Driscoll entitled, “The Federal Reserve’s Covert Bailout of Europe.” Essentially, beginning late last year the Fed provided U.S. dollars to the European Central Bank in exchange for Euros– sometimes as much as $100 billion at a time. The ECB then funneled those dollars to European banks to provide liquidity and prevent crises from bank insolvencies. Since the currency swap was not technically a loan, the Fed did not have to embarrass itself by openly showing foreign bank debt on its balance sheet. The ECB meanwhile did not have to print new Euros and expose the true fragility of big European banks.
Read More @ Paul.House.gov




Bullish Future for Mexican Silver Mining

by Roman Baudzus, Gold Money:
Mining pit In an interview with The Gold Report, the Canadian gold and silver analyst Mike Kachanovsky, a.k.a. “Mexico Mike”, stated that the precious metals bull market still has plenty of life left in it yet. Kachanovsky expects the world’s current economic problems to persist, and that central banks will continue to monetise debt – which will eventually have inflationary consequences. This will benefit mining stocks and, according to Kachanovsky, especially benefit Mexican silver producers.
Despite the drug war in Mexico, Kachanovsky feels confident about the quality and the good prospects of the country’s silver producers. He visits Mexico regularly, and notes that production is only slightly affected by the war between the Mexican government and the country’s main drug cartels. There are many good reasons to invest in Mexican silver producers, as most companies are highly profitable and have strong balance sheets. In his view, Mexican mines generally have greater potential for growth in comparison with mines in many other producing countries.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com




The Bernank Suggests More Easing and the Metals Jump. the Fed Chairman Does Powerpoint.






Why Printing Money is Immoral, Value Subjectivism and Monetary Instability

by Ron Hera, Market Oracle:
Subjectivism is the philosophy that reality is what we perceive to be real and that no underlying, true reality exists independent of human perception. In other words, the nature of reality for an individual person is dependent on that individual’s own consciousness. It follows that each person experiences their own reality that is not shared with others. What is true and what seems moral to one person may not be true or moral for another person, i.e., truth and morality are relative. In contrast, objectivism is the philosophy that reality exists independent of human consciousness; that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception; and that objective knowledge of reality can be obtained through perception, evidence and logic, e.g., through scientific methods.
Read More @ MarketOracle.co.uk





Marc Faber: Continuing Financial Crisis Must Be Endured

by Ed Bace, CFA, Seeking Alpha:
Marc Faber, editor of “The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report,” kicked off the CFA Institute Middle East Investment Conference by quoting Ernest Hemingway who said, “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring permanent ruin.” On this downcast note, Faber attacked short-term Keynesian spending and reviewed the implications for investors of the accelerating shift of world economic and political power from the developed countries to the developing world.
Central bank action to cut interest rates, whilst intended to boost consumption and hence economic growth, has had unintended and severely negative consequences. Faber argued that “dollar bills dumped by helicopters” all over the US have not been channeled into housing, as hoped, but into other more speculative asset classes, particularly commodities such as precious metals and oil. He added that expansionist monetary policies have contributed to higher financial and economic volatility, in addition to inflation. Since greater money supply does not flow evenly across sectors, this gives rise to asset bubbles, which are not easy to identify.
Read More @ SeekingAlpha.com





Empires Then and Now

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Paul Craig Roberts.org:
Great empires, such as the Roman and British, were extractive. The empires succeeded, because the value of the resources and wealth extracted from conquered lands exceeded the value of conquest and governance. The reason Rome did not extend its empire east into Germany was not the military prowess of Germanic tribes but Rome’s calculation that the cost of conquest exceeded the value of extractable resources.
The Roman empire failed, because Romans exhausted manpower and resources in civil wars fighting amongst themselves for power. The British empire failed, because the British exhausted themselves fighting Germany in two world wars.
Read More @ PaulCraigRoberts.org





If Obamacare Is Constitutional, Then Why Did the Founding Fathers Bother with a List of Enumerated Powers?

by Dan Mitchell, International Liberty:
I think Obamacare is bad policy because it exacerbates the main problem with the current healthcare system, which is third-party payer. And as a public finance economist, I’m obviously not happy about the new taxes and additional spending in Obamacare.
But those issues are temporarily on the back burner now that the Supreme Court is deciding whether the underlying law is constitutional.
I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on TV. But I can read, and when I look at Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, I don’t see that Congress has the power to coerce me into buying a health insurance policy. Heck, I don’t see any role for the federal government in healthcare.
The statists say that the commerce clause (“To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”) is a blank check for federal intervention, but that’s a bastardization of the original meaning and purpose of that passage, which was inserted to prevent states from imposing protectionist barriers.
What matters, though, is how the nine Justices on the Supreme Court interpret that passage.
Read More @ DanieljMitchell.wordpress.com





Still Think Your Vote Counts?...

Obama Promises Russia To Be More "Flexible" After Election

In today's open mic farce that has made the president a target of a fresh republican onslaught, we have Obama telling Russian presidential pawn Dmitry Medvedev that "this is his last presidential election", and that he will have "more flexibility after the election." One can only assume that Obama is referring to the aggressive NATO expansion which has angered Russia substantially as noted previously, and even led to Russia putting radar stations on combat alert. It could be this or it could be anything, including US posturing vis-a-vis Syria assuming the stance a huanitariam, if completely impotent, do-gooder globocop, or for that matter any other foreign policy fiasco in which Russia now have the upper hand by default. Naturally, one wonders why Obama would be pandering to Russia (well, aside for the country's premier export position when it comes to nat gas and crude of course) in the first place. Or more importantly, as the GOP has now figured out, why does the president need to be more flexible after the election to begin with, and to what other special interest will Obama be far more responsive than to his mere electorate. Either way, nothing but more theater as central planning continues on its merry way to terminal dislocation with reality.




Bernanke Decrees: Gold Rips, VIX Slips, And Volume Dips

Gold managed a 1.8% surge today (back above $1690 and its 200- and 100-DMAs and its largest jump in 2 months) from Friday's close thanks to the combination of the ECB on Friday and Merkel and Bernanke today assuring the world that anything more than a 2% dip in stocks will not be tolerated. While Silver outperformed Gold from Friday's close, based on its 2-3x beta of the last year this was a notable 'underperformance' as Gold outpaced everything (beta adjusted). Perhaps importantly, the S&P 500 when priced in gold met and rejected resistance at a key level today - even with its nominal 30pt rally off of Friday's S&P lows. Volumes were abysmal with stocks well below YTD average and the S&P futures 20% below average and among the lowest few days' volumes of the year. Credit markets did not participate as exuberantly (though HY outperformed IG as you would expect) but the day seemed split into 4 segments: pre-Bernanke (quiet/sideways), Bernanke to US Open (rampfest, Gold outperforms, TSY rally), US Open to EU Close (TSY selloff notably, equities sideways, Gold rips), and then from EU Close to US Close (Equity/Gold/TSY rally as USD leaked lower). In FX, JPY was relatively stable at its lows after Bernanke's speech as the rest of the majors strengthened versus the USD (as EUR broke above 1.3350 once again). Oil managed a small rally on the day but underperformed the USD's 0.5% weakness from Friday as Treasuries were very flip-floppy today - ending the day with a small twist around 7Y (30Y +3bps). VIX made new lows and closed there as the term structure flattened further to its flattest in almost 4 months (with the largest six-day flatttening in 8 months).
 




Guest Post: John Corzine- An Insider Helping Out Fellow Insiders

Few men have a resume quite like Jon Corzine.  Not only has Corzine served in the U.S. Senate and been governor of New Jersey, he has also been the CEO of Goldman Sachs and the recently imploded brokerage firm MF Global.   The insider blood filtrated through cronyism and the endless squandering of the public dime flows heavily through his veins. When MF Global went belly up back in the fall, Corzine was finally revealed for the inept, overly connected bureaucrat he really is.  Corruption seemingly follows the former Senator, Governor, and banker like shadows on a sunny day.  Earlier this week, New Jersey was declared the least corruptible state in the union much to the surprise of, well, everyone.  But as the great Jonathan Weil pointed out, the methodology in the study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity was horribly flawed.
 



TBTF Get TBTFer: Top 5 Banks Hold 95.7%, Or $221 Trillion, Of Outstanding Derivatives


Every quarter the Office of the Currency Comptroller releases its report on Bank Derivative Activities, and every quarter we find that the Too Big To Fail get Too Bigger To Fail. To wit: in Q4 2011, of the total $230.8 trillion in US outstanding derivatives, the Top 5 banks (JPM, BofA, Morgan Stanley, Goldman and HSBC) accounted for 95.7% of all Derivatives. In some respects this is good news: in Q2, the Top 5 banks held 95.9% of the $250 trillion in derivatives. Unfortunately it is also bad news, because $220 trillion is more than enough for the world to collapse in a daisy chained failure of bilateral netting (which not even all the central banks in the world can offset). What is the worst news, is that the just released report indicates that in addition to everything else, we have now hit peak delusion, as banks now report to the OCC that a record high 92.2% of gross credit exposure is "bilaterally netted." While we won't spend much time on this issue now, it is safe to say that bilateral netting is the biggest lie in modern finance (read How US Banks Are Lying About Their European Exposure; Or How Bilateral Netting Ends With A Bang, Not A Whimper for an explanation of this fraud which was exposed completely in the AIG collapse). And just to put this in global perspective, according to the BIS in the first half of 2011, global derivative gross exposure increased by $107 trillion to a record $707 trillion. It will be quite interesting to get the full year report to see if this acceleration in gross exposure has increased. Because if it has, we will now know that in 2011 European banks were forced up to load up on several hundred trillion in mostly interest rate swap exposure. Which can only mean one thing: when and if central banks lose control of government bond curves, an rates start moving wider again, the global margin call will be unprecedented. Until then we can just delude ourselves that central planners have everything under control, have everything under control, have everything under control.




Chinese Business Media Cautions Japanese Bond Bubble Is Ready To Burst, Anticipates 40% Yen Devaluation

It is a fact that when it comes to the oddly resilient Japanese hyperlevered economic model, the bodies of those screaming for the end of the JGB bubble litter the sides of central planning's tungsten brick road. Yet in the aftermath of last month's stunning surge in the country's trade deficit, this, and much more may soon be finally ending. Because as Caixin's Andy Xie writes "The day of reckoning for the yen is not distant. Japanese companies are struggling with profitability. It only gets worse from here. When a major company goes bankrupt, this may change the prevailing psychology. A weak yen consensus will emerge then." As for the bubble pop, it will be a sudden pop, not the 30 year deflationary whimper Mrs. Watanabe has gotten so used to: "Yen devaluation is likely to unfold quickly. A financial bubble doesn't burst slowly. When it occurs, it just pops. The odds are that yen devaluation will occur over days. Only a large and sudden devaluation can keep the JGB yield low. Otherwise, the devaluation expectation will trigger a sharp rise in the JGB yield. The resulting worries over the government's solvency could lead to a collapse of the JGB market." It gets worse: "Of course, the government will collapse with the JGB market." And once Japan falls, the rest of the world follows, says Xie, which is why he is now actively encouraging China, and all other Japanese trade partners of the world's rapidly declining 3rd largest economy to take precautions for when this day comes... soon.





Forget Money On The Sidelines, Institutional Investors Are All-In

We have discussed the money-on-the-sidelines fallacy a few times recently in the context of the circular money-flows (clear misunderstanding of the idea of a buyer and a seller) as well as mutual fund cash levels, retail sentiment, demographic shifts, and insider transactions. There is mounting evidence, as Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson notes, that 'make no mistake...institutional investors are all-in' as the rolling beta of mutual funds relative to the S&P 500 tops 1.10x at multi-year highs, institutional investors are most exposed to high beta sectors since MS data began, and long/shorts funds are near their most levered long since MS records began. Combine this with the massive surge in Insider Selling transactions in the last few weeks (apropos Charles Biderman's comments on the rally's support by Insider buying til now) and perhaps bearish retail sentiment will lead this market down as we hope that finally 'money-on-the-sidelines' fades from the parlance of all but the most aged and incompetent of market prognosticators.




Fed's Easing Efforts Having Less And Less Impact As Macro Seasonals Turn Negative

As we noted this morning, the hope trade seems to be morphing from 'we don't need no stinking QE' to 'good is good but bad is better' as 14 of the last 16 data points have missed expectations. With a relatively heavy calendar of data this week, we are sure there will be ups and downs and micro-trends to call for the all-in but as Jim Reid if Deutsche Bank notes, this is the start of the point in the year when seasonals have often led to data disappointments over the past decade. The data typically beats expectations between November and January but then disappoints for 8 of the next 9 months with the notable exception of May. Overall its certainly a relationship to have in mind, especially as we travel through a period, theoretically, post maximum liquidity for now. Adding to this concern is the fact that real economic activity has 'improved' less and less with each extreme easing action by the Fed - with 'Operation Twist' barely budging the needle on ECRI's growth index relative to QE1 or 2 - and with economic data missing expectations rather consistently already, history suggests negative returns for the S&P will be evident.




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