from eSilverPrices.net:
The US Mint has started 2012 with a bang, selling close to a jaw-dropping 3.2 million Silver Eagles on the very first working day of 2012.
Considering that total 2011 sales had stood at around 39.8 million, the January 3rd sale is almost 8% of entire 2011 sale and higher than any single monthly sale in all of 2011!
As of the Mints’s data, exact sales figure for Jan 3 stood 3,197,000 coins (approx 3.2 million). This is a more than 88% jump compared to 2011 first day sales of 1,696,000 coins.
This trend continues the steady increase in demand for theSilver coins. Since 2008, sales of the silver eagle has risen for 4 consecutive years and with 2012 starting off with a firecracker sale, one can expect a new yearly record this year.
Read More @ eSilverPrices.net
Governments will become more desperate as debt piles up
from FinancialSense.com:
Jim
welcomes back Martin Armstrong of Armstrong Economics for a
wide-ranging interview covering the possibility of capital controls in
the US, stagflation in the near-term, and why gold is likely to head
lower before heading much higher.ArmstrongEconomics.com offers a collection of research from Martin Armstrong, a world renown economist and the creator of the Economic Confidence Model, the author of the Greatest Bull Market in History, and founder of Princeton Economics. This web site is a resource to stay up to date on Martin Armstrong’s business accomplishments, legal battles, and views on the global economy.
Click Here to Listen to the InterviewPlundering the American Dream: College Students Demonstrate the Idiocy Of Our Education System
The Danger Of Worsening Geopolitical And Economic Conditions
Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 1 hour ago
Essentially what you could get in the world is worsening geopolitical and
economic conditions.
Let's say Israel attacks Iran. It's a negative event, basically, but it
could be countred by monetization everywhere in the world—in other words,
liquidity injections. So stocks could go up while conditions worsen. This
usually happens when you massively inflate the quantity of money.
But a mentally sound market in my opinion will only come about when the
system has been cleaned and moved down after the financial crises of 2008.
It's essentially just painting the building with fresh paint, ... more »
Gold Could Go To 1200-1300
Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 1 hour ago
In my view, gold could go to 1200 - 1300 (dollars an ounce)... Gold has
been up 11 years in a row which is extremely unusual in any financial asset
so gold is overdue for a correction. - *in Reuters*
*Related, SPDR Gold ETF (GLD), Newmont Mining (NEM), Goldcorp (GG), Barrick
Gold (ABX)*
*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.*
Intense Fear Hides Message of Market
Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 1 hour ago
Traders and investors lose when emotion supercedes discipline. The
invisible hand knows it. The following charts illustrate how the emotional
selling (panic) has been matched by disciplined accumulation by the
invisible hand. A second threshold reading in gold’s concentration index
(CI), illustrated in chart one, reveals this strength of its accumulation.
A second threshold reading in gold’s...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other
content, and more! ]]
More QE If The S&P 500 Index Drops Another 10 Percent
Admin at Marc Faber Blog - 4 hours ago
If the S&P 500 drops another 10 percent you can be sure that there will be
more QE in the United States. So the markets would be supported by
additional liquidity injections. - *in Newsmax*
Related ETFs, SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY)
*Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions
of the stock market and futures markets around the world.*
We’re Going To See A Lot Of Distortions In The Markets
Admin at Jim Rogers Blog - 4 hours ago
We’re going to see a lot of distortions in the markets because a lot of governments are going to be finding a lot of money and printing a lot of money. Can America continue to add staggering amounts of debt to the balance sheet and print staggering amounts of money? I don’t think so. - *www.ctv.ca* *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.*
by Michael LeMieux, NewsWithViews.com:
Directly on the heels of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), that arguably makes US Citizens detainable by the military, comes the coup de grace in the form of a new bill called the “Enemy Expatriation Act.”
But before I get into this bill let me preface that with a few observations.
First, our nation was founded upon the principle of individual liberty and self-determination. A belief that all men were created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights imbued within each of us at the time of our birth. We did not, and do not, derive our rights from government and therefore cannot legally have them taken from us by that government.
Second, as our Declaration of Independence states, the purpose of government is to secure the rights of its citizens, and as important, they derive their powers from the consent of the people. I ask you to think upon the following question in light of the previous statement: If the government derives its power from the people, how can the government wield power that the people do not have? If the people do not have such a power then the government, on their behalf, cannot likewise yield such power.
Read More @ NewsWithViews.com
So, according to this, Mediobanca is the largest shareholder of UniCredit.
I guess it could be custodial, but does explain why they are part of
the underwriting group that backstopped the deal. At the risk of making a
mountain out of a mole hill, Unicredit is the largest holder of Mediobanca (8.7% according to Bloomberg). Remember when CDO's all bought each other's BBB and BB tranches, because no one else would?
Much
to the chagrin of the US Department of Mass Disinformation, the market
has completely ignored the ridiculous ADP data, and has focused
squarely on what is happening in Milan where the serial halting of bank
trading has resumed. Following the 4th unhalt of UniCredit, its stock
is now down 15% on the day as it scrambles to catch up to the fair
value represented yesterday courtesy of the rights offering to be about
43% below the market price. As a result while the robotic decoupling
in the US continues, as somehow America is supposed to be able to
import and export from and to itself and completely ignore that it has about $3 trillion in European bank exposure, the EURUSD has just dipped to below 1.28 for the first time in over a year. Lastly, not helping things is the already noted implosion of
refiner Petroplus which just announced that access to all of its
credit lines has been suspended, sending the stock down 20%. Looks like
it will be a long, cold winter for Europe even as the US decouples to a
Dow 36,000 mushroom cloud.
That this week's consensus "beat" of 375K initial claims will
be revised to a miss next week is irrelevant - all that maters in a
job election year is to fudge the numbers. Which is why the fact that
"only" 372K initial claims were filed in the last week of 2011, even as
thousands of bankers were being laid off, is all that matters. Of
course, last week's revision was as always higher, from 381k to 387k,
which means that next week, the beat of consensus will become a miss,
but by then who will care - there will be another fake and
soon-to-be-revised number to fixate on and push futures even higher from
fair value. And confirming that it is all in the seasonal adjustment,
is the observation that while SA claims improved by 15K, Not Seasonally
Adjusted they increased by +37,423 hitting 535,112. In other words a
3K job difference to consensus is due to a statistical smoothing
adjustment based on BLS data integrity.
The New Year has ushered in a new pattern for the market - or perhaps has clarified an old one. The last 3 days has seen European credit markets notably underperform equity markets but stage a significant rally around the equity close each day. This rally then flops into US markets. Today was no different from yesterday - EURUSD leaked lower (holding under 1.28 here) all through the European day session - the question is whether we will see the same stability we saw during yesterday's US afternoon session in FX which will enable the equity strength to hold. We suspect not given that broad risk assets (CONTEXT) has notably not participated
in the equity markets pull higher so far. At the same time as Europe
closed, with financials massively underperforming, US financials were
breaking out as XLF went green and BofA broke above $6. Volumes are above yesterday but below Tuesday for this time of day - still notably low on a medium-term basis.
TSYs have been very volatile this morning but European sovereigns have
been on a one-way path wider all day - closing near their wides. Commodities are lower (USD strength) but Gold is holding up relatively best for now - well above $1600.
As
seems obvious from the market's reaction over the last week, European
problems are not solved by short-term liquidity band-aids. In fact, as
Goldman notes this week, the same economic and political risks remain even if some funding relief has been put in place. With sovereigns and financials leading one another to new lows since the LTRO, the negative feedback loops remain in full force.
Given the difficulties on the road ahead – and significant ongoing
differences across governments on how to resolve them – the risk of
political miscalculation or errors is unfortunately still very clear. In
the limit, those instabilities could still put the union on a path towards a break-up. Economic weakness in the meantime will intensify the challenges for the weaker sovereigns.
Directly on the heels of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), that arguably makes US Citizens detainable by the military, comes the coup de grace in the form of a new bill called the “Enemy Expatriation Act.”
But before I get into this bill let me preface that with a few observations.
First, our nation was founded upon the principle of individual liberty and self-determination. A belief that all men were created equal and endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights imbued within each of us at the time of our birth. We did not, and do not, derive our rights from government and therefore cannot legally have them taken from us by that government.
Second, as our Declaration of Independence states, the purpose of government is to secure the rights of its citizens, and as important, they derive their powers from the consent of the people. I ask you to think upon the following question in light of the previous statement: If the government derives its power from the people, how can the government wield power that the people do not have? If the people do not have such a power then the government, on their behalf, cannot likewise yield such power.
Read More @ NewsWithViews.com
Staff of Florida Social Security office not informed of drill, Homeland Security officials refused to talk to media
by Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars.com:
Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.
“With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building,” reports the Daily Commercial.
The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”
Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed FPS officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
by Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars.com:
Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.
“With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building,” reports the Daily Commercial.
The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”
Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed FPS officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
Reality Check: The Story Behind the Ron Paul Newsletters
I'll Hold Yours If You Hold Mine: The Italian Ponzi Comes Home
So, according to this, Mediobanca is the largest shareholder of UniCredit.
I guess it could be custodial, but does explain why they are part of
the underwriting group that backstopped the deal. At the risk of making a
mountain out of a mole hill, Unicredit is the largest holder of Mediobanca (8.7% according to Bloomberg). Remember when CDO's all bought each other's BBB and BB tranches, because no one else would?European Deathwish Exposed: Greek Bailout Package Delayed By Three Months
Looks like Europe plans (and we use the term very loosely) on pushing its fate literally to the wire. Yesterday we explained why for Greece March is D(eadline)-Day, and as Greece itself stated, absent bailout cash coming in, it is game over: for Greece, for the Eurozone, and for Europe as the serial chain of defaults and exits begins. Which is why we read with great surprise minutes ago that according to the European Commission, the entire Greek bailout package has been delayed by three months because of delays in payouts of the 2011 tranche! Naturally this is supposed to have the optics of punishing Greece for doing absolutely nothing to fix its fiscal situation but all it will do is send the market (the European one that is - America is still stuck in some idiotic limbo where it fools itself that it can exist in isolation from the world's biggest economy) even more into Risk Off mode, as the world will be forced to wait until the 11th hour and 59th minute to find out if the Euro and Eurozone will survive for a few more months. In the meantime, Mario Monti is off to Brussels to satisfy an unscheduled craving for Belgian beer and chocolate, or something.EURUSD Dips Below 1.28 As All Hell Breaks Loose In Italian Financials
Much
to the chagrin of the US Department of Mass Disinformation, the market
has completely ignored the ridiculous ADP data, and has focused
squarely on what is happening in Milan where the serial halting of bank
trading has resumed. Following the 4th unhalt of UniCredit, its stock
is now down 15% on the day as it scrambles to catch up to the fair
value represented yesterday courtesy of the rights offering to be about
43% below the market price. As a result while the robotic decoupling
in the US continues, as somehow America is supposed to be able to
import and export from and to itself and completely ignore that it has about $3 trillion in European bank exposure, the EURUSD has just dipped to below 1.28 for the first time in over a year. Lastly, not helping things is the already noted implosion of
refiner Petroplus which just announced that access to all of its
credit lines has been suspended, sending the stock down 20%. Looks like
it will be a long, cold winter for Europe even as the US decouples to a
Dow 36,000 mushroom cloud.Seasonal Adjustment Pushes Initial Claims Below Expectations At Least Until Next Week's Revision
That this week's consensus "beat" of 375K initial claims will
be revised to a miss next week is irrelevant - all that maters in a
job election year is to fudge the numbers. Which is why the fact that
"only" 372K initial claims were filed in the last week of 2011, even as
thousands of bankers were being laid off, is all that matters. Of
course, last week's revision was as always higher, from 381k to 387k,
which means that next week, the beat of consensus will become a miss,
but by then who will care - there will be another fake and
soon-to-be-revised number to fixate on and push futures even higher from
fair value. And confirming that it is all in the seasonal adjustment,
is the observation that while SA claims improved by 15K, Not Seasonally
Adjusted they increased by +37,423 hitting 535,112. In other words a
3K job difference to consensus is due to a statistical smoothing
adjustment based on BLS data integrity.European Close Prompts Rally For 3rd Day
The New Year has ushered in a new pattern for the market - or perhaps has clarified an old one. The last 3 days has seen European credit markets notably underperform equity markets but stage a significant rally around the equity close each day. This rally then flops into US markets. Today was no different from yesterday - EURUSD leaked lower (holding under 1.28 here) all through the European day session - the question is whether we will see the same stability we saw during yesterday's US afternoon session in FX which will enable the equity strength to hold. We suspect not given that broad risk assets (CONTEXT) has notably not participated
in the equity markets pull higher so far. At the same time as Europe
closed, with financials massively underperforming, US financials were
breaking out as XLF went green and BofA broke above $6. Volumes are above yesterday but below Tuesday for this time of day - still notably low on a medium-term basis.
TSYs have been very volatile this morning but European sovereigns have
been on a one-way path wider all day - closing near their wides. Commodities are lower (USD strength) but Gold is holding up relatively best for now - well above $1600.Presenting Europe's Complete €1 Trillion 2012 Monthly Bond Redemption Schedule
While we have previously presented aggregated level data showing European bond redemption needs by country, we have not had a chance to do so on a monthly basis and broken down by maturity (Bills, Notes, Bonds). Luckily, here is Goldman with a full monthly cheat sheet by country by maturity type of the €1+ trillion in scheduled 2012 bond redemptions.Goldman Remains Cautious On Europe As Negative Feedback Accelerates
As
seems obvious from the market's reaction over the last week, European
problems are not solved by short-term liquidity band-aids. In fact, as
Goldman notes this week, the same economic and political risks remain even if some funding relief has been put in place. With sovereigns and financials leading one another to new lows since the LTRO, the negative feedback loops remain in full force.
Given the difficulties on the road ahead – and significant ongoing
differences across governments on how to resolve them – the risk of
political miscalculation or errors is unfortunately still very clear. In
the limit, those instabilities could still put the union on a path towards a break-up. Economic weakness in the meantime will intensify the challenges for the weaker sovereigns.
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