The Berlusconi Bash

Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 11 minutes ago

Maybe that is a bit of an overexaggeration but it was the news that Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi was stepping down, resigning his position leading up the government, that sent the equity markets into an upside tizzy as giddy bulls threw caution to the wind and jumped out of anything resembling a safe haven and back into stocks. Down went the US long bond, a full point and a half, and down went gold after it had pushed solidly above the psychological resistance level of $1800. Even the mining shares had been moving higher adding onto yesterday's gains before they too gave way un... more »

 more »

Freeport McMoRan Still Says Risk-Off

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 5 hours ago

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc to copper ratio will help time the risk-on/risk-off trade. It's still risk-off for those scoring at home. Patience requires discipline to follow the money and ignored biased headlines. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc to Copper Ratio: [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

  more »

Diversify, Diversify

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 5 hours ago

The current environment is not one where you can sleep well, unless you are well diversified. - *in Taking Stock, Bloomberg* *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.* 

  more »

I Would Prefer Silver To Gold Just On Relative Value

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 6 hours ago

I would prefer silver because it is still depressed on a historic basis. Silver is thirty percent below its all-time high. Gold is ten percent below its all time high. I would prefer one just on relative value, silver is probably better. I am not buying either today, but I am certainly not selling. If they go down, I will buy more. - *in Economic Times* Tickers, IShares Silver ETF (SLV), SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD) *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortun... more » 

 

Accumulation/Distribution In Global Currencies

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 6 hours ago

Francois is following the money. Short-term distribution Australian Dollar (Kiwi) ETF Short-term distribution Canadian Dollar (Loonie) ETF Light volume sell off after a strong surge suggests accumulation. Swiss Franc ETF Positive divergence suggests accumulation US Dollar Index ETF For now, it's still risk off. Hi Eric. Thanks for your continued insights. Have you recently done a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

  more »

France to unveil new austerity steps

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 7 hours ago

Herbert Hoover knows better than most that offering balanced budgets- today’s austerity measures to world hungry for stimulus and devaluation will only intensify the sovereign debt crisis. Human nature which tends to live in the moment so easily forgets the message from history. Headline: France to unveil new austerity steps NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The French government will on Monday... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

  more »

Faber On Bloomberg: Audio Interview

Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 8 hours ago

Listen to the audio interview *HERE, "Faber Greece, Other Countries Probably Bankrupt."* *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.* 

  more »

Video Interview: Economic Times

Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 8 hours ago

Latest Jim Rogers video interview, Economic Times. *Jim Rogers is an author, financial commentator and successful international investor. He has been frequently featured in Time, The New York Times, Barron’s, Forbes, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and is a regular guest on Bloomberg and CNBC.*

In The News Today

November 8, 2011, at 1:32 pm
by Jim Sinclair in the category In The News |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Sure, and it could be tomorrow or a month from now.
Euroland makes a fool of themselves almost daily. The Fed is hiding, hoping it will all go away, but it will not.
That is what the gold trend is telling you.

Deutsche Bank on Europe: ‘It’s Not Inconceivable That We Could Be In Full Crisis Mode By The End Of This Week’
Joe Weisenthal | Nov. 7, 2011, 9:30 PM
Such is the severity of the situation in Italy.
Here’s Deutsche Bank’s Colin Tan talking about the same thing that everyone else is talking about:
Its not inconceivable that we could be in full crisis mode by the end of this week. The situation  with Italy feels increasingly like one that has little chance of materially improving until some extreme pressure is put on someone to act. It may not come to a head this week but the signs are not good that we can avoid an extreme situation emerging soon.
The big problem: Berlusconi doesn’t seem like he’s in an urgent mood to make reforms, the ECB isn’t doing much, and China and Brazil have dropped out of the picture.
Hence we could get a big bustup:
For us there is no obvious near-term solution other than a stress event which prompts action.
Maybe the EU authorities will use the experience learnt from the Greece situation last week
that a hard-line response is the only way to force countries to act in the way they want. It is a
big risk but at the moment the weaker countries seem to still want the Euro enough that the
ECB and Germans could play hard ball and get what they want if they are prepared to take the
risk. Indeed ECB Governing Council member Yves Mersch fired a warning over the weekend
saying that the ECB often discusses the possibility of ending the purchase of Italian
government bonds and could if it concludes Italy is not adopting promised reforms. Such talk
will not encourage private capital into Italy meaning that the ECB may need to intervene more
to have the required impact. 
More…

 

 

Jim’s Mailbox

November 8, 2011, at 10:54 am
by Jim Sinclair in the category Jim's Mailbox |  Print This Post |  Email This Post

Jim,

China called to say thank you!

CIGA JB Slear.

China’s gold imports jump sixfold By Leslie Hook in Beijing and Robert Cookson in Hong Kong
November 7, 2011 6:39 pm
Chinese gold imports from Hong Kong, a proxy for the country’s overall overseas buying, leapt to a record high in September, when monthly purchases matched almost half that for the whole of 2010.
The buying spree follows a sharp drop in the price of the precious metal. After hitting a nominal all-time high of $1,920.30 a troy ounce in September, gold fell to a three-month low of $1,534 an ounce later in the month. Chinese investors snapped up the metal as prices fell.
Analysts expect the September import surge to continue until the end of the year as Chinese gold buyers snap up gold in advance of Chinese New Year, China’s key gold-buying period.
“In September we saw some bargain hunters come back into the market on the price dip,” said Janet Kong, managing director of research for CICC, the Chinese investment bank.
China is the world’s second largest gold consumer and demand has grown rapidly over the past year as Chinese investors buy gold to hedge against inflation and consumers buy more gold jewellery. Beijing does not publicly disclose its gold imports, but analysts consider the Hong Kong import figures a good directional proxy for the country’s total gold overseas buying.
More…




Dear CIGAs,

A simple review of the cause of the bankruptcy of Western finance is offered by CIGA Giancarlo.
It is just that simple once the camouflaged legalize and math is removed. The worst of these is called Legacy Assets. The reason for good car sales is that if you are homeless you can buy yourself a Cadillac Escalade and live in it. Subprime loans are alive and well in the auto industry. Helga, having retired with a huge severance payment from the business of wine and spirits, is now the West’s largest new car dealer.

Helga is the proprietor of a bar. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers’ loans).
Word gets around about Helga’s "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in town.
By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Helga gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.
Consequently, Helga’s gross sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga’s borrowing limit.
He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral!!!
At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS.
These "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.
Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AA" "Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb!!!, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.
One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Helga’s bar. He so informs Helga. Helga then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.
Since Helga cannot fulfil her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Helga’s 11 employees lose their jobs.
Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank’s liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.
The suppliers of Helga’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions
and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.
Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government.
The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Helga’s bar.
Now do you understand?

Ladies and gentleman,
A big rally for the mining stocks is on the way.
Regards,
CIGA Las Sequeira