by Kelly Bit, Bloomberg.com:
John
Paulson, the hedge fund manager seeking to rebound from record losses
in 2011, told investors his Gold Fund will outperform his other
strategies over five years, according to a person with knowledge of the
matter.
The billionaire, at a meeting yesterday at the Metropolitan Club in New York, said the metal is the best hedge against currency debasement as countries inject money into their economies, said the person, who attended the event and asked not to be named because the information is private. Paulson also cited gold as a hedge against the euro currency, as a breakup may occur, and an eventual increase in inflation.
The manager told clients his own money comprises 55 percent of the Gold Fund’s $1.2 billion in assets, the person said. The fund, which can buy derivatives and other gold-related securities, declined 11 percent last year after the metal slumped 14 percent in the final four months.
Read More @ Bloomberg.com
John
Paulson, the hedge fund manager seeking to rebound from record losses
in 2011, told investors his Gold Fund will outperform his other
strategies over five years, according to a person with knowledge of the
matter.The billionaire, at a meeting yesterday at the Metropolitan Club in New York, said the metal is the best hedge against currency debasement as countries inject money into their economies, said the person, who attended the event and asked not to be named because the information is private. Paulson also cited gold as a hedge against the euro currency, as a breakup may occur, and an eventual increase in inflation.
The manager told clients his own money comprises 55 percent of the Gold Fund’s $1.2 billion in assets, the person said. The fund, which can buy derivatives and other gold-related securities, declined 11 percent last year after the metal slumped 14 percent in the final four months.
Read More @ Bloomberg.com
Iran Moves Further To End Petrodollar, Announces Will Accept Payment In Gold Instead Of Dollars
Much has been spun in recent weeks to indicate that as a result of collapsing trade, Iran's economy is in shambles and that the financial embargo hoisted upon the country by the insolvent, pardon, developed world is working. We had a totally different perspective on things "A Very Different Take On The "Iran Barters Gold For Food" Story" in which we essentially said that Iran, with the complicity of major trading partners like China, India and Russia is preparing to phase out the petrodollar: a move which would be impossible if key bilateral trade partners would not agree to it. Gradually it appears this is increasingly the case following a just released Reuters report that "Iran will take payment from its trading partners in gold instead of dollars, the Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted the central bank governor as saying on Tuesday."Israel To Keep US In The Dark Before Launching Pre-emptive Iran Attack
It had been a quiet week in terms of geopolitical developments out of Middle East. Too quiet, well aside for that whole US escalating once again bit, and forcing Iran to eventually go over the edge. And while the role of the US and Iran has been extensively digested in the past few weeks, it is Iran that has remained in the shadows recently. No longer: as Al Arabiya reports, "Israeli officials say they won’t warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered the message to a series of top-level U.S. visitors to the country, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House national security adviser and the director of national intelligence, and top U.S. lawmakers, all trying to close the trust gap between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions, according to The Associated Press." Needless to say, the thoroughly effete and comical US foreign policy has no response to follow up queries: "The White House did not respond to requests for comment, and the Pentagon and Office of Director of National Intelligence declined to comment, as did the Israeli Embassy." And while there may be no comments here, look for more warnings about Israeli citizens being targetted by deranged Iranian around the world. Because when all else fails, fearmonger. Next up: the Status Quo will be telling the world how not attacking Iran would be tantamount to global destruction. The only trade off - will the spike in crude to $150 outdo the surge in Obama's popularity rating as the Nobel Peace Prize winner puts his name in the hat for a nomination in the Nobel War Prize category as well.
Friends of the Republic, cast your vote NOW at Drudge Report,
for the one candidate who stands for the Constitution. Sadly, with more
than 43,000 votes cast so far, Ron Paul is currently running third.MITT ROMNEY 35.01% (15,106 votes)
RICK SANTORUM 28.53% (12,310 votes)
RON PAUL 24.29% (10,478 votes)
NEWT GINGRICH 12.17% (5,250 votes)
iBubble: Apple's Market Cap Is Now The Same As The Entire Retail Sector, Bigger Than All The Semis
This
is simply stunning: one company, which has two flagship products, has a
bigger market cap than the entire Semiconductor space, and is just shy
of the entire S&P Retail sector.Gold Should Be $2100-$2200 RIGHT NOW – Jim Puplava
Broken Market: Short Muni ETF Flash Smash +43%
Presented
with little comment except absolute incredulity that this is still
occurring day-in and day-out with no real discussion beyond our friends
at ITG...*SHORT MUNI ETF PAUSED BY CIRCUIT BREAKER ON RISE OF UP TO 43%
SMB just jumped 43% in seconds on a string of 100/200 lot trades cascading up and then disappearing as circuit breakers halted it.
The Final LTRO Preview - Bottoms Up
There
is broad disagreement among European banks on whether they should (and
whether they will) choose to access the LTRO. We have discussed the top-down perspective and the very granular bank-by-bank perspective, and we end with a more bottoms-up perspective on the bank's own views of the LTRO. As SocGen notes, the investment banks (and certain Swedish banks) are very skeptical (and rightly so given the 'LTRO Stigma')
while the Italian and Spanish are open to taking whatever they can,
whenever they can (is that really a good sign?). Bank management must
weigh the transparency they will face at the end of the quarter when
sovereign bond holdings are exposed and just as SocGen points out, banks
with considerably higher exposure (implicitly through the carry trade)
may well face much more negative market action (even if Basel III
doesn't handicap that risk). As with LTRO 1, the ECB will only reveal aggregate data,
leaving the individual banks themselves to reveal their own take-up -
we suspect the investment banks will make a point of highlighting that
they did not take the funds, while the Portuguese, Italian, and
Spanish banks will promote the benefits of their
government-reach-around self-immolating ECB life-line. Discipline or Emotion - Vision or Blindness?
Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 2 hours ago
Emotions blind us from the obvious and force us to act hastily well after
the fact. Watch for breakout on a sign of strength in grains. iPath Grains
ETN (JJG): Spot Commodity Prices: CRB Spot Index (1947 - Present); 16-Raw
Industrial Spot Price (1935-1947); Great Britain Wholesale Price of All
Commodities (1885-1935) and Trend Z Scores Special Donation To Insights
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All Boats Rising?
Trader Dan at Trader Dan's Market Views - 3 hours ago
Take a look at the following set of charts and see if it leaves you as
confused as I am.
First the broader stock market as indicated by the S&P 500:
Now comes the commodity complex as illustrated by the Continuous Commodity
Index:
Lastly comes a chart of the US long bond:
The rising stock market is supposedly the outcome of an improving economy,
or so we are assured by all the experts. The economic recovery is evidently
proceeding "so well" that the S&P 500 just made a brand new 52 week high in
today's session and is now amazingly back at the exact same level it was
prior to... more »
Guest Post:The Existential Financial Problem Of Our Time
The
modern, debt-based economy requires constant economic expansion if
only to service all that debt. So what happens when the modern economy
goes ex-growth and stops expanding? Iceland already found out. Greece is
in the process of discovering. But we will all get a chance to
participate in this lesson. Runaway fiscal and monetary stimulus
throughout the western economies is in the process of destroying the
concept of creditworthiness at the centre of the modern monetary
system. Private investors, we suspect, have little or no conception of
the extent to which the state is now the predominant player in the
financial markets. Central banks control the money supply and interest
rates. Central banking and commercial banking interests have
essentially become fused. The ECB's long-term refinancing operations
are banking bailouts by the back door. Central banks are now also the
swing players in government bond markets which directly influences the
price for corporate credit. Central bank monetary stimulus also
directly influences equity market direction and confidence. Be careful,
be very careful about the sort of government debt you hold. You may
well end up being paid in whole- but in such depreciated terms that
being "kept whole" will be meaningless in real terms.Phantom Gold And Deconstructing PollyAnna
Many
want to believe that a stock market that has doubled from the March
2009 low (or added $9tn in market cap) has to mean that the US economy
is in a healthy long-term recovery. Unfortunately, as Charles Biderman
of TrimTabs explains, the PollyAnnas are wrong.
The sentiment, built on the three pillars of an improved labor market,
higher corporate earnings, and the return of the housing market, are
all based upon misleading data. Starting from the position of
discovering where the new money is coming from, the Bay Area Beau
dismantles each of the pillars one by one and ends by noting that it is not Gold, which has outpaced stock market gains, that is a phantom currency but the USD.Citi Previews The Bernank's Testimony To Congress Tomorrow
For a February 29, tomorrow will be even more remarkable, because while all eyes will be on the LTRO, just waiting for their chance to start fading the expansion of the ECB's balance sheet (which will hit a record €3 trillion+ as of market close tomorrow, or well higher than the Fed's $3 billion), some may be forgetting that across the pond, our own Bernanke will be holding the first of his biannual Humphrey Hawkins presentations to Congress hours after the LTRO news has printed. Expectations are high that despite $2 trillion in liquidity flooding capital markets in the past 6 months, that Bernanke will not dare to remove the punchbowl. Here is Citi's Steven Englander with a preview of what (not) to expect.Unsuccessful Irish Referendum Would Prevent A Future ESM-Funded Bailout
While the now scheduled Irish referendum on the fiscal treaty, which will likely not pass successfully absent major concessions on behalf of Europe, will not precipitate a failure of the recently agree upon compact, as 12 out of the 17 contracting parties need to support the Eurozone, it will have an impact in that it would impact future bailouts of Ireland courtesy of preset European bailout mechanisms. In other words, should things take a turn for the worse, and they will, in the near future, Ireland will have to rely on itself to save itself. As a reminder, it took Europe 2 years to (supposedly) firewall itself from default and a collapse of its banks. How long will the same take for Ireland, because while the country may be standalone, its banks most certainly will not be. Remember that money is fungible. So are massive unrecognized Mark to Market losses. Morgan Stanley explains.
The
US is famous for going to other countries with goals ranging from
retaliation to installing democracy to stopping a civil war. And quite
often the US Government and the military alike are surprised at what
they find: that people in those countries don’t want them there and, in
many cases, will risk or sacrifice their lives to make sure they leave.
We’re seeing a new low point in America’s longest war, unfolding as we
speak. Riots in Afghanistan, as citizens there protest the burning of
Korans by US military personnel at Bagram airbase. Some American
soldiers have been killed and many more Afghan citizens are dying as
well. And there’s beginning to be a sense that the battle to win the
hearts and minds there is simply impossible. Paul Craig Roberts, former
official with the Reagan administration, speaks to RT’s Kristine Frazao
about what happens if things don’t change dramatically.
by Gary Dorsch, GoldSeek.com:
As
the price of North Sea Brent crude oil touched $125 /barrel last week,
the topic of sharply higher gasoline prices suddenly caught the
attention of the Main Stream Media (MSM). Spin artists for the
re-election campaign of President Barack Obama were quick to deny any
responsibility for soaring oil prices, and instead blamed the upward
spiral on geo-political tension with Iran. However, since the days of
the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, – when the OPEC cartel placed an
embargo on crude oil sales and hiked oil prices by 70%, the price of
gasoline has been a key variable effecting the outcome of
US-presidential elections.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com
Please consider making a small donation, to help cover some of the labor and costs to run this blog.
As
the price of North Sea Brent crude oil touched $125 /barrel last week,
the topic of sharply higher gasoline prices suddenly caught the
attention of the Main Stream Media (MSM). Spin artists for the
re-election campaign of President Barack Obama were quick to deny any
responsibility for soaring oil prices, and instead blamed the upward
spiral on geo-political tension with Iran. However, since the days of
the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, – when the OPEC cartel placed an
embargo on crude oil sales and hiked oil prices by 70%, the price of
gasoline has been a key variable effecting the outcome of
US-presidential elections.Read More @ GoldSeek.com
Please consider making a small donation, to help cover some of the labor and costs to run this blog.
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