Here Is The Real Biggest News Out Of The FOMC Today
The biggest FOMC news released today was not the December minutes - there was absolutely no surprise there. The biggest news, by far, is that as we wrote a few weeks ago, the composition of the FOMC voting members changes drastically as of January 1, with Hawks Fisher, Kocherlakota and Plosser now out of the voting rotation, and replacing them will be the gaggle of ferocious doves Pianalto, Lockhart and Williams. In fact the only hawk left in the Fed as of today through the end of the year is Richmond Fed's Jeffrey Lacker who has shown substantial dovishness in the past. In other words, from a rotation of 7 and 3, the hawk is now dovish by a 9 to 1 majority. So does this mean that printing is imminent? Stay tuned and find out in 3 short weeks: the January FOMC statement comes out on January 25. The only good news: Charles "the fire hydrant" Evans is finally out.
Would A Ponzi By Any Other Name Smell As Bad?
The
bond market has always had clever names for bonds in specific
markets. Eurobonds, Yankee bonds, Samurai bonds, and now, Ponzi bonds.
I’m not sure what else to call these new bonds, but Ponzi bonds
seems as good as anything. NBG issued these bonds to themselves, got a
Greek government guarantee (how can a country that can’t borrow,
provide a guarantee?) and took these bonds to the ECB to get some
financing. The ECB won’t buy National Bank of Greece bonds
directly, they won’t buy Hellenic Republic bonds in the primary market,
but they will take these ponzi bonds as collateral? Greece, and Italy, is sacrificing the people and the country for the good of the bank.
The market had made some attempt to charge banks with bad risk
management, awful assets, and opaque books, more than they charged the
country they were domiciled in. But rather than let the market
(and common sense) rule, a mechanism to let banks fund themselves
cheaper than the countries they rely on, was created. Asides from giving Ponzi a bad name
(at least until the ECB just admits that they are printing faster than
even Big Ben) this is tying the banks and the countries ever closer. A
long, long, time ago (1 month) it was conceivable that a bank could
fail and the sovereign survive. That is becoming less clear.
from The Daily Bell:
Every verbal assault in the Media against Ron Paul is a Victory for his campaign, it was not so long ago that they just ignored him with Silence, remember Jon Stewart’s Media Bashing? – Daily Bell Feedbacker “Col.”
Dominant Social Theme: He’s really not worth taking seriously.
Free-Market Analysis: We received the following feedback from “Col.” And while we are not much for military metaphors generally, the point made in the feedback seems fairly appropriate to us.
The feedback is mostly comprised of a series of headlines that one can find in numerous places throughout the Internet. The headlines supposedly come from the French newspaper Moniteur, circa 1815.
They are very interesting headlines because they seem to show us how an organ of its day dealt with an incipient change in leadership at a national level. The headlines start out in horror and end up in hosannas.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com
Every verbal assault in the Media against Ron Paul is a Victory for his campaign, it was not so long ago that they just ignored him with Silence, remember Jon Stewart’s Media Bashing? – Daily Bell Feedbacker “Col.”
Dominant Social Theme: He’s really not worth taking seriously.
Free-Market Analysis: We received the following feedback from “Col.” And while we are not much for military metaphors generally, the point made in the feedback seems fairly appropriate to us.
The feedback is mostly comprised of a series of headlines that one can find in numerous places throughout the Internet. The headlines supposedly come from the French newspaper Moniteur, circa 1815.
They are very interesting headlines because they seem to show us how an organ of its day dealt with an incipient change in leadership at a national level. The headlines start out in horror and end up in hosannas.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com
Remember Who You Are...
FOMC Minutes: Fed To Start Releasing Official Fed Funds Rate Forecasts
Summary of the yawn-inducing minutes via Bloomberg:- SEVERAL ON FOMC FAVORED CHANGE TO MID-2013 RATE VOW BEFORE LONG
- FOMC SAID GLOBAL FINANCIAL STRAINS POSE `SIGNIFICANT' RISK
- FED PLANS TO RELEASE OFFICIALS' FED FUNDS RATE FORECASTS (this is not news, and if the Fed is as accurate in "predicting" - note not setting - FF rates as it is in forecasting everything else, woe is us)
- FOMC MEMBERS SAW LONG-TERM INFLATION EXPECTATIONS AS STABLE
- FOMC MEMBERS SAW ECONOMY `EXPANDING AT A MODERATE RATE'
- FOMC MEMBERS SAID CONSUMER SPENDING `STRONGER THAN EXPECTED'
- MOST FOMC MEMBERS PREDICTED INFLATION WOULD `MODERATE'
- 'A NUMBER' OF FOMC MEMBERS SAW POSSIBLE NEED FOR MORE EASING
War Imminent In Straits Of Hormuz? $200 A Barrel Oil?
There are dim lights at the end of the seemingly darker and darker tunnel. The proposed sanctions legislation allows Obama to waive sanctions if they cause the price of oil to rise or threaten national security. Furthermore, there is the wild card of Iran’s oil customers, the most prominent of which is China, which would hardly be inclined to go along with increased sanctions. But one thing should be clear in Washington – however odious the U.S. government might find Iran’s mullahcracy, it is most unlikely to cave in to either economic or military intimidation that would threaten the nation’s existence, and if backed up against the wall with no way out, would just as likely go for broke and use every weapon at its disposal to defend itself. Given their evident cyber abilities in hacking the RQ-170 Sentinel drone and their announcement of an indigenous naval doctrine, a “cakewalk” victory with “mission accomplished” declared within a few short weeks seems anything but assured, particularly as it would extend the military arc of crisis from Iraq through Iran to Afghanistan, a potential shambolic military quagmire beyond Washington’s, NATO’s and Tel Aviv’s resources to quell. It is worth remembering that chess was played in Sassanid Iran 1,400 years ago, where it was known as “chatrang.” What is occurring now off the Persian Gulf is a diplomatic and military game of chess, with global implications.Silver in the Roaring 20′s and Great Depression
A new year and a new figure to pine over for the debt-stricken world…
According to a report from Bloomberg, the governments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year. Most of these countries are facing a rise in borrowing costs as well.
The figure is staggering when looking at the whole picture of the global economy, and it only grows when crunching the numbers even more. The amount needing to be refinanced rises to more than $8 trillion when interest payments are included in the equation.
Japan leads all countries with $3 trillion,
while the United States is not far behind with $2.8 trillion. The Group
of Seven nations as a whole (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom,
Canada, and the already mentioned Japan and United States) team up with
with Brazil, Russia, India, and China to reach a record number in debt
for the world’s largest economies. The amount is up from $7.4 trillion
at this time last year.
Read More (and Watch the Video) @ WealthWire.com
from Global Investments Ltd, via SilverSeek.com:
2011 was both an amazing and disappointing year for silver investors. The most disappointed of all are those who bought in during the April highs, when silver almost reached $50. However, what these investors need to remember is that not too long ago, people were fretting over changes in prices of ten cents or less. Not too far down the road, the difference between $29 silver and $50 silver will also seem rather minimal.
A look at some of the fundamentals which underpin the silver market will help remind our readers why G.I. Metals DMCC holds that silver will ultimately outperform gold, and what type of highs we might eventually see in an inflationary – and not hyperinflationary – environment. With current levels of central bank intervention to solve sovereign debt problems, we expect to see more economic contraction for the first part of 2012, followed by even more excessive money printing which will lead to inflationary, and eventually hyperinflationary, conditions. This only requires a greater level of velocity to occur, along with a loss of confidence in the world reserve currency, which we expect will begin to happen when bond speculators’ attention is moved from Europe to America.
Read More @ SilverSeek.com
2011 was both an amazing and disappointing year for silver investors. The most disappointed of all are those who bought in during the April highs, when silver almost reached $50. However, what these investors need to remember is that not too long ago, people were fretting over changes in prices of ten cents or less. Not too far down the road, the difference between $29 silver and $50 silver will also seem rather minimal.
A look at some of the fundamentals which underpin the silver market will help remind our readers why G.I. Metals DMCC holds that silver will ultimately outperform gold, and what type of highs we might eventually see in an inflationary – and not hyperinflationary – environment. With current levels of central bank intervention to solve sovereign debt problems, we expect to see more economic contraction for the first part of 2012, followed by even more excessive money printing which will lead to inflationary, and eventually hyperinflationary, conditions. This only requires a greater level of velocity to occur, along with a loss of confidence in the world reserve currency, which we expect will begin to happen when bond speculators’ attention is moved from Europe to America.
Read More @ SilverSeek.com
by Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls Canada:
Spending as much time as I do writing about the Land of Fraud, I never thought I would see myself using the phrase “maximum fraud” to describe any U.S. market. Each time I thought I had witnessed the apex of human fraud, within a matter of weeks or perhaps months I would witness some even more extreme outrage.
One should never underestimate Federal Reserve Chairman B.S. Bernanke, however, when the subject turns to fraud and deceit. This is the same man who told the world (day after day) that the U.S. had a “Goldilocks economy”, where U.S. markets and house prices would keep going up forever – at the very peak of the made-in-Wall-Street U.S. housing bubble. This is the same man who then promised the world (again and again) that the U.S. economy would experience a “soft landing” after that gigantic bubble had already burst. This is the same man who has announced more “exit strategies” than Harry Houdini – with not one of them ever materializing.
Read More @ BullionBullsCanada.com
Spending as much time as I do writing about the Land of Fraud, I never thought I would see myself using the phrase “maximum fraud” to describe any U.S. market. Each time I thought I had witnessed the apex of human fraud, within a matter of weeks or perhaps months I would witness some even more extreme outrage.
One should never underestimate Federal Reserve Chairman B.S. Bernanke, however, when the subject turns to fraud and deceit. This is the same man who told the world (day after day) that the U.S. had a “Goldilocks economy”, where U.S. markets and house prices would keep going up forever – at the very peak of the made-in-Wall-Street U.S. housing bubble. This is the same man who then promised the world (again and again) that the U.S. economy would experience a “soft landing” after that gigantic bubble had already burst. This is the same man who has announced more “exit strategies” than Harry Houdini – with not one of them ever materializing.
Read More @ BullionBullsCanada.com
by David Schectman, MilesFranklin.com:
My dear readers, I need your help.
As those of you who have been with me for any length of time, you know how passionate I am about physical gold and silver. As I’ve noted many times, those precious metals make up the overwhelming majority of my financial net worth, so I very much practice what I preach.
I’ve gone over the many reasons why the U.S. dollar, and indeed ALL the world’s fiat currencies, are destined to fail and continue in that failure to rob you of your hard-earned wealth. By our government’s own admissions (see, for example the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Inflation), the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has fallen over 95% since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913. The majority of that drop in value has occurred since the U.S. ultimately dropped any tie of its currency to gold when President Nixon “closed the gold window” in 1971.
Read More @ MilesFranklin.com
My dear readers, I need your help.
As those of you who have been with me for any length of time, you know how passionate I am about physical gold and silver. As I’ve noted many times, those precious metals make up the overwhelming majority of my financial net worth, so I very much practice what I preach.
I’ve gone over the many reasons why the U.S. dollar, and indeed ALL the world’s fiat currencies, are destined to fail and continue in that failure to rob you of your hard-earned wealth. By our government’s own admissions (see, for example the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Inflation), the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has fallen over 95% since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913. The majority of that drop in value has occurred since the U.S. ultimately dropped any tie of its currency to gold when President Nixon “closed the gold window” in 1971.
Read More @ MilesFranklin.com
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