Thursday, September 6, 2012

Chart Of The Day: Smith & Wesson Sales



The attached chart of Smith and Wesson revenues needs no comment.









Jim Rogers – “If You Aren’t Worried About 2013…Get Worried!”

Investor Jim Rogers speaks to Chrystia Freeland about the future of the euro zone, threats to the U.S. economy, why he’s short technology stocks, and his next big investment idea.
 

Gross to Bernanke: QE3 Will Cause Banks to Lend Less

by Brittany Stepniak, Wealth Wire:
The Federal Reserve continues to disappoint. Not only were there last two rounds of quantitative easing little more than useless, but they’re planning a third round to go into effect sometime this fall. Jim Rogers believes QE3 is already underway, but the Fed’s staying quiet about their activity… for now.
The Federal Reserve’s FOMC is scheduled to conclude its meeting on September 13. The country is waiting on pins-and-needles to hear what the Fed’s decision will officially be…
Investors are riled up and scarcely anyone is excited about the coming QE3.
Now bond-guru and co-founder of asset management firm Pimco, and manager of the largest mutual fund in the world Bill Gross argues that the Fed’s latest QE efforts and bond buying programs will make borrowing so cheap that banks may not lend as readily anymore.
Read More @ WealthWire.com



Economic Fallacies And The Fight For Liberty

It’s easy to be pessimistic over the future prospects of liberty when major industrialized nations around the world are becoming increasingly rife with market intervention, police aggression, and fallacious economic reasoning.  The laissez faire ideal of a society where people should be allowed to flourish without the coercive impositions of the state is all but missing from mainstream debate.  In editorial pages and televised roundtable discussions, a government policy of “hands off” is now an unspeakable option.  It is presumed that lawmakers must step up to “do something” for the good of the people.  Thankfully, this deliberate false choice will slowly but surely bring the death of itself.   Illogical theories can only go on for so long before the push-back becomes too much to handle.  For those who desire liberty, it’s a joy that the statist economic policies of the Keynesians become even more irrational as the Great Recession drags on. The two following examples will illustrate this point.


The ECB Move, $4,000 – $5,000 Gold & $150 Silver

from KingWorldNews:

Today Egon von Greyerz told King World News, “… we are now seeing a lot of fund managers and investors moving out of gold ETF’s, and taking delivery of physical gold and holding it outside of the banking system.” Greyerz, who is founder and managing partner at Matterhorn Asset Management out of Switzerland, also warned this is happening because they are now, “… deeply troubled at the thought of a systemic collapse.”
Greyerz also noted, “This move in gold and silver has barely started.” But first, here is what Greyerz had to say about the ECB announcement: “Eric, we had the announcement today that the ECB has agreed to unlimited bond buying. That means whatever amount is necessary, they will buy. This is designed to reach the objective of controlling interest rates so they don’t get out of hand in the peripheral countries of Europe.
Greyerz continues @ KingWorldNews.com



Peter Schiff Discovers No Country For Corporate Profits

Peter Schiff pulled an OccupyWallStreet (remember that whole Occupy movement?) at the Democratic National Convention. What he did, was succeed in exposing some very disturbing prevailing beliefs about the government's role in establishing the 'utility' value of the free market as manifested by corporations, namely that according to a broad cross-section of society, it is the government job to "explicitly outlaw profitability."  We wish to remind readers that this has been done on numerous occasions in the past, but most "effectively" in the Soviet Union's centrally planned regime. Until the USSR's failure of course. The premise of eliminating profitability is also quite popular, and even has its own name: nationalization, and its result in a business "manager" who is perfectly ambivalent if the state owned enterprise makes or loses money. After all the wage is determined by a politburo, and is not a function of the profits, or losses, a business may engender. Furthermore, it is probably worth reminding that the primary tenet behind capitalism is the production of goods and services for a profit. Sadly, quite a few of these concepts appear to have not been made clear to not just one or two Americans as the following clip demonstrates.


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Money Printing Will Absolutely Happen: Brien Lundin

from KitcoNews:






Draghi announce OMT or Europe's operation twist/Germany is not enamoured/

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen: Gold had a good day rising by $11.60 dollars finishing the comex session at 1702.60 crossing the 1700 dollar barrier for the first time since March 13/2012.  Silver also had a good day closing up 26 cents at $32.62. Today everybody waited for official announcements from Draghi and they certainly had an effect on the day's trading. I will be going over in great
 

The Income And Substitution Effect

Dave in Denver at The Golden Truth - 4 hours ago
*The gold/silver story is starting to seep into the masses. It will happen slowly, but if just 5% of the masses start to buy real gold and silver and eschew the fraudulent ETFs, there will be a serious price explosion. Imagine what will happen if 15-20% of the public start buying...it will be interesting to watch the gold/silver ratio, because as both metals get more expensive, there will be a serious display of the economic law of "income and substitution effect," and we'll see the "silver is poor man's gold" axiom on display in a major way. *- Dave in Denver Bill Murphy was ... more » 
 

Mogambo Nontraditional Policies (MNP)

Richard Daughty, a.k.a., 'The Mogambo Guru' at Mogambo Guru Report! - 4 hours ago
September 6, 2012 Mogambo Guru I was startled to read Reading Ben Bernanke's remarks, made at Jackson Hole, about using "nontraditional policies" at the Federal Reserve. Nontraditional policies, indeed! By "nontraditional policies" he no doubt means his current policies of 1) the inflationary horror of monetizing of debt by the simple expedient of simply creating the money to buy new government debt, and 2) the bizarre idea to purposely create inflation in consumer prices. Apparently, Mr. Bernanke is unaware that both of these sublime idiocies have been consistently denou... more » 

Drone Club


The first rule of Fight Club? You don’t talk about Fight Club.
Obama isn’t a member of Fight Club; he’s a member of Drone Club — which targets individuals in foreign lands, including American citizens and their families, for extrajudicial assassination by drone. And the first rule of Drone Club?
You don’t talk about it.



The Next (Lack Of) Trading Casualty: Nomura's Brand New $270 Million Trading Floor

Over the past several months (and years) we have been warning that the ongoing collapse in trading volumes, in part due to the lack of faith in capital markets that now have all the integrity of a rigged Vegas casino from the 1960s, in part due to investors' need to monetize assets in a world in which wages simply refuse to keep up with prices, will have not only irreversible implications on the shape of market structure, but also substantial consequences when it comes to the layout of modern banks, and associated up and downstream variables, such a jobs, real estate, support professions, municipal taxes and much more. Nowhere is this more evident (for now at least) than in the massive corporate reorganization taking place at Nomura's American division, which among many other things is about to lose its brand new $270 million trading floor even before a single trader set foot in it.


The Post Globalized World Part 2: Why The PIGS Are (Still) Out Of Luck


A world of ongoing global integration leads to rising global trade and to rising competition between companies from different countries and to some degree also between the countries themselves. Some countries have benefited from rising global trade and strengthened their positions, expressed by rising trade surplus; other countries have come under pressure, expressed by rising trade deficit. These global trade imbalances are a consequence of competitive differences. Deutsche Bank note that investors invest in companies and the countries are the platform of the companies. Therefore, an understanding of global competiveness of countries is key for investors. It is most helpful to look at the combination of competiveness and hourly wages. The more competitive a country is, the higher its wages can be justified. There is a clear relation between the two variables. Countries below the regression curve have a strong competiveness rank relative to their labour costs while countries above the curve have a lower competiveness rank relative to their labour costs. Greece is one of the most extreme outliers, but Italy, Spain, and Argentina are also above the curve. They have a long way to go to get close to competitive - but then again - why would they care?


TSA Continues Its Unchecked Expansion Across the U.S.

by Brandon Turbeville, Activist Post

In yet another example of the expansion of the role of the TSA beyond airport security, the now infamous agency is conducting “security” screenings at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
Of course, with the exception of a few alternative news sites, the fact that the TSA mission creep has advanced several steps further in recent weeks has scarcely been mentioned by major news sources. Predictably, the mainstream media has been almost completely silent on the issue save for a few passing mentions in the middle of articles describing the “electric” atmosphere of the DNC.
One such mention was made by John Sweeney, a reporter who is attending the DNC. In his article entitled, “Hurricane Bloodhound hovers over DNC,” in the September 5, 2012 edition of the Florence Morning News, Sweeney confirmed that not only was the TSA in attendance, they were indeed screening DNC participants upon arrival at the convention hall.
Read More @ Activist Post


Silver: “You ain’t seen nothing, yet” – Fractal Analysis

Fractal analysis charts suggest that silver could push up to around $150. Yet, there are both higher and lower potential price targets to consider.
by Goldrunner, MineWeb.com

The Fractal Silver Chart from the late 70′s is a bit different than today, mostly due to the effect that the deflationary psychology of the current period has had on Silver as a partly “economic metal.” This means that the chart of Silver has been much more volatile, especially in downside corrections compared to the late 70′s charts. The Silver parabola is a less fluid form than the Gold parabola with Silver making sharp vertical rises along the way. The Gold and Silver parabolas are driven by the flows of Dollar Inflation to Devaluation, yet big money and Central Banks mostly invest in Gold. This leaves Gold’s little sister, Silver, more prone to volatility and to speculation. This fact can create an advantage for Silver investors.
THE 70′S SILVER BULL
The first chart is an arithmetic chart of 70′s Silver. I have placed a blue angled line under the first portion of the late 70′s Silver Bull to show that Silver ran in an angled channel before its first thrust up to and above the 1975 high – the then historic high. I have drawn a green circle around the move up to the old high which likely corresponds to Silver’s run up in 2011 to the old 1980 high. Yet, going forward this creates “timing issues” compared to Fractal Gold so the red circle might fit the timing of the current point in the Silver Bull, better. The sharp rise out of that red circle appears to fit the type of move that we expect Gold to make, soon, based on the fundamentals where the Fed has already printed over $1.3 trillion while the markets have not yet devalued the US Dollar. At this point in the 70′s Gold appears to have doubled its log channel which is more in tune with the “1st sharp price expansion in 79″ as noted on the chart.
Read More @ MineWeb.com


Work Those Greeks! Advent of Modern Slavery?

from The Daily Bell:

EU Says Greeks Should Work Six-Day Week: Report … In the leaked letter, reported in The Guardian newspaper, the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund call for Athens to implement the measure as part of the bailout agreement with lenders. According to the paper, the letter states that more flexibility must be implemented to work schedules, including working into the weekend by increasing the number of maximum working days to six. The paper printed the following extract from the letter: “Increase the number of maximum workdays to six days per week for all sectors. Increase flexibility of work schedules; set the minimum daily rest to 11 hours; delink the working hours of employees from the opening hours of the establishment; eliminate restrictions on minimum/maximum time between morning and afternoon shifts; allow the consecutive two-week leave to be taken anytime during the year in seasonal sectors.” – CNBC

Dominant Social Theme: If you are Greek, you are lazy and need to work harder. You have weak blood.

Free-Market Analysis: Are leaks always a mistake? Someone may have wanted this memo disseminated and we figure it might be the troika itself: the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.
These are the new powers in Europe and represent the construction of a new society that one could call “technocracy.” Of course, we know where technocracy comes from. It comes from Plato and his idea of philosopher kings.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com


Is Central Bank Buying Just a Driving Force Behind Gold or Much More?! – Part II

Basel III Discussing Lifting the Accepted Value of Gold on Commercial Banks Balance Sheets from 50% to 100%
Part of the side-lining of gold from the monetary system was through either taxation on its sale (in some countries) or by undervaluing it as an asset.
by Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold Seek:
When the 2007 credit crunch hit hard, the loss in value of so many paper assets forced the sale even of those assets that did manage to retain both value and liquidity. Individual investors often sold gold, silver, and the like to cover margin requirements that screamed to be topped up in the hope of retaining assets that were losing value. That’s why asset values on so many fronts declined so markedly. Even assets whose market fundamentals remained solid were sold down only to recover when the storm passed. Gold and silver were among those.
At banking level, the pressure to go against investor logic was due to the regulations of the system. With gold a Tier II asset in bank’s balance sheets, only 50% of its value could be credited as an asset to that balance sheet. So its real market value could only be given meaning when it was sold. By selling gold and using the proceeds to buy Tier I assets, such as Treasuries, the bank ensured that their balance sheets benefitted fully from its value. Even when the gold price fell 20% it was worth selling, so that at least 80% of its former [$1,200] value could be credited to the bank’s balance sheet instead of just 50% [or 40% at the value after a fall in the price of 20%].
CLICK HERE FOR PART 1
Read More @ GoldSeek.com


Cheap ECB cash could prove to be the worst form of bailout

by Mats Persson, The Telegraph:
Stemming the crisis through cheap central bank money sounds so easy. The logic goes: Italy and Spain have economic problems which cause markets to push up their borrowing costs, which now have reached “irrational” levels as fear has taken hold. If left unchecked, this could threaten the Eurozone and Europe’s economy. The European Central Bank, it is said, has “unlimited” ability to create credit or cash and act quickly. Hence, it must “stand behind the currency” and save the euro – and Europe.
So when the ECB today announces that it will intervene further in the crisis, probably by buying up short term government debt, many bankers and politicians will love it. Bankers because it avoids losses (at least for a bit), politicians – including British ones – because it might just save their skins at the polls.
But for Europe’s long-term economic future, this is also why large-scale ECB intervention is so risky. Europe has for decades lived beyond its means and needs to adjust if it wants to thrive in this century and the next. Faced with economic reality, there’s still hope that over a number of years (if domestic politics allows it – a big if admittedly) countries like Spain and Italy will finally push through much-needed reforms and achieve the 20-30 per cent internal devaluation needed to become reasonably competitive with Germany inside a currency union. And Europe as a whole would be better off.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk


Obama and Romney – Gangsters for Fascism

by Sean Kerrigan, SeanKerrigan.com:
I honestly don’t think it matters who wins the election. Like all elections in the modern era, real choices are never provided. The politicians and the media concentrate on “faux issues” designed to create the appearance of an intense debate, meanwhile the pressing issues of our times are decided by connected elites behind closed doors. On these issues, the politicians are in complete agreement. The system is rigged to ensure that only corporate tools can rise to the level of “Actor in Chief.”
Take any issue of substance. Try to spot the difference of opinion between Obama and Romney: trade policy, the unaccountable Federal Reserve, the gulag prison system, the war on drugs, military spending, NSA surveillance, the destruction of civil liberties, banking regulations, gerrymandering, the role of international banking institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, Israel, energy policy, the wars, drone strikes… the list goes on I can assure you.
If you’re an intellectually enslaved partisan, you’re already probably reaching at straws, trying to justify your position choosing the “lesser of two evils.” The differences between the two parties on these issues is barely visible, and yet we somehow feel justified picking sides. Even judicial appointments, the final plea for party unity, has lost its credibility. They are not looking out for you.
Read More @ SeanKerrigan.com


Two Tears for Two-Tiers

by Bruce Krasting, Bruce Krasting Blog:
Over a number of years I had professional involvement with two-tiered markets. I’m not sure I can remember them all. Spanish A and B Pesetas come to mind. There was a two-tiered French Franc for a bit. I think Belgium had two markets as well. South Africa was two-tiered for years; Venezuela and the Philippines the same. At one point or another, all of the countries in South America were two-tiered. One of the more famous two-tiered markets was the Russian Ruble.
My interest in two-tiers was that they were (generally) exploitable. The markets had these features:
- Tier (A) was priced controlled by the central bank. There were limits on who could access this rate, and for what purpose.
Tier (B) was not supported by the central bank, and floated freely in price; subject to supply and demand and the whims of the market.
- The price of A was always “rich”.
- B always traded very cheap relative to A.
- Liquidity for B was weak (hence exploitable).
Of course all this business of As and Bs is 25-30 years old (and long since forgotten), so you might ask why am I writing about it today?
Read More @ BruceKrasting.blogspot.com


Singapore targets 15% share in global precious metals trade

from Bullion Street:
In an attempt to increase it’s share of global precious metals market to 10-15 percent, Singapore announced several tax amednments from October this year.
According to new plans, import and supply of investment-grade gold, silver and platinum, in the form of a bar, ingot, wafer and coin which meet certain criteria, will therefore be exempt from the 7% GST rate, while the supply of precious metals which are exported continues to be zero-rated.
Most of the measures are already announced in the 2012 budget while additional goods and services tax (GST) amendments were framed by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore after public consultation.
The 2012 Budget change proposed that the GST treatment for investment–grade gold, silver and platinum, be put on a par with other actively traded financial assets, such as stocks and bonds.
Read More @ BullionStreet.com

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