Five Charts That Prove We’re in a Depression and That the Federal Reserve and Washington Are Wasting Money

Wall Street and mainstream economists are abuzz with chatter that we’re seeing a recovery in the US due to the latest jobs data. These folks are not only missing the big picture, but they’re not even reading the fine print (more on this in a moment).
The reality is that what’s happening in the US today is not a cyclical recession, but a one in 100 year, secular economic shift.
See for yourself. Here’s duration of unemployment. Official recessions are marked with gray columns. While the chart only goes back to 1967 I want to note that we are in fact at an all-time high with your average unemployed person needing more than 40 weeks to find work (or simply falling off the statistics).
Read More @ GainsPainsCapital.com

Careers & Jobs: Internment/Resettlement Specialist (31E)

FEMA Camps recruiting military personal as guards
[Ed. Note: Related.]
from GoArmy.com:
Overview
Internment/resettlement specialists are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility.
Job Duties

• Supervision of confinement and detention operations
• External security to facilities
• Counseling/guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program
• Records of prisoners/internees and their programs

Requirements
Those who want to serve must first take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a series of tests that helps you better understand your strengths and identify which Army jobs are best for you.
Read More @ GoArmy.com

Keith Barron: Greek Situation Catastrophic, Expect More Black Swans

from King World News:
Today one of the legends in the gold world told King World News the Greek situation will be catastrophic as it plays out over time. Keith Barron is responsible for one of the largest gold discoveries in history and consults with major gold companies around the world as well as international brokerage houses. Barron also said investors should expect to see more black swans on the horizon. Here is how Barron described the situation: “As I predicted, there have been massive payouts due to default insurance kicking in. The banking industry has been looking at this and the individuals involved must be thinking they are going to have the same situation the next time Greece defaults.”
Keith Barron continues: Read More @ KingWorldNews.com

Ron Paul’s First Caucus Victory Covered Up by Establishment Media

Ron Paul Wins First Caucus: MSM Changes Rules, Reports Romney Wins

When Ron Paul wins the popular vote it no longer counts
by Steve Watson, InfoWars.com

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul secured his first caucus victory over the weekend, by winning 29 percent of the popular vote among the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, the mainstream media decided to report that despite coming in second with 26 percent, Mitt Romney was the real winner.
The Republican Party of the U.S. Virgin Islands reported the results as “112 to Paul (29%), 101 to Romney (26%), 23 to Santorum (6%), 18 to Gingrich (5%),”
In response, The AP and other mainstream reports yesterday claimed that Mitt Romney won caucus, because he stands to come away with more delegates.
Ron Paul supporters and the campaign itself have been tirelessly pointing out that in many of the states that have already held primaries and caucuses, the amount of delegates the Congressman has secured does not always reflect his positioning in the straw polls. Indeed, in Iowa and New Hampshire Paul secured as many delegates as Romney and Santorum.
Yet the media has always reported the winner as the candidate who won the highest percentage in the popular vote.
Not so this time around. When Ron Paul secures a caucus victory, the media changes the rules and declares it is the delegate count that determines the real winner.
Read More @ InfoWars.com

MF Global: Mark Melin Interviews Haar And Koutoulas On What Really Happened

 

 

Report: Homeland Security to Build Bio Safety Level 4 Virus Research Facility Centrally Located In Kansas

by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan.com:

Because building a nuclear power plant in a heavily populated area, next to the ocean and near fourteen active fault lines turned out to be such a great idea, Department of Homeland Security has approved $50 million for the construction of a Bio-level 3 and 4 virus research facility geographically located in the center of America.
Reports indicate the new facility in Manhattan, Kansas is intended to replace the Plum Island bio-warfare testing facility, and like its predecessor, a DHS risk assessment says it will be used to research advanced biological pathogens and emerging threats that are not only hazardous, but highly contagious to human and animal populations.
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com

 

 

Gold Gets Support in Long-Term Uptrend from Alan Greenspan

from GoldSilver.com:

GoldSilver.com readers are familiar with hedge fund manager John Paulson offering the February 17 admission to investors,
“By the time inflation becomes evident, gold will probably have moved, which implies that now is the time to build a position in gold.”
What readers may not remember is not only has Paulson been correct on gold and timing for quite some time, he may have a slight advantage as he is able to employ someone with an excellent perspective on the supply of currency and credit to which gold will account for. We will let Paulson himself remind you:
“Lastly, and perhaps most important, from a monetary policy perspective in developing an ability to forecast the timing and future price of gold we believe we have an unparalleled team. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been extremely helpful to us in understanding the relationship between the monetary base, the money supply, inflation and gold prices.”
Read More @ GoldSilver.com

 

Is The ECB Masking Accelerating Deposit Flight In Italy And Spain?

While LTRO may have slowed the need for immediate asset sales and larger deleveraging in European banks, the two most significantly worrying trend concerns remain front-and-center – those of deposit flight and lending cuts. The latter remains a concern for the BIS, who note in their recent report, that lending curtailment by European banks focused primarily on risky (non-sovereign) and USD-denominated (EM mostly) debt as banks sought to reduce risk-weighted assets (RWA) to meet Basel III capital rules. It would appear though that banks remain in deleveraging (asset sale) mode, in anticipation of the end of ECB facilities down the road, which will become increasingly troublesome given the encumbrance of so many of their assets already by the ECB itself. What is most concerning though is the dramatic and accelerating deposit outflows from not just Greece but Italy and Spain (which just happen to be by far the largest ‘takers’ of LTRO loans). Read More @ ZeroHedge.com

Elite Promotion Rolls On – Are BRICs the Hope of the World’s Future?

from The Daily Bell:
Don’t be scared away by BRIC inflation … Whether it’s been ongoing inflation fears and rising interest rates or the extreme volatility in commodity prices, it’s been a pretty rough year for these four darlings of the emerging markets. With investors running scared from all things risky these days, it may get even worse in the weeks ahead, but that doesn’t mean that all is lost for the investment play that has led the way during most of the post-financial crisis rally. Indeed, it must not be forgotten that these developing nations have a powerful secular growth cycle at their backs and should ballooning inflation peak later this year as many analysts now expect, better performance from the BRICs will soon return. – National Post

Dominant Social Theme: The BRICs are great.

Free-Market Analysis: The power elite and its controlled mainstream media continue to “talk up” the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China. This is a swelling dominant social theme and one that bears watching because the powers-that-be will do anything to continue to prop up the world’s central banking economy.
We can see this elite dominant social theme in this article in the National Post, “Canada’s source for market intelligence.” The article makes the point that the BRICs are fairly troubled economies, but that investors shouldn’t be worried about it.
Read More @ TheDailyBell.com

The Battle Lines for Gold & Silver Are Set

by David Schectman, MilesFranklin.com:

Two events of note took place over the weekend. Daylight Savings Time ended and I celebrated my 70^th birthday. Also, silver once again moved above $34 and gold moved above $1,700. $1,764 and $38 are the numbers that are important and we are slowly moving back toward the “real” battle lines.
How long will it take before gold is knocking on the door at $1,800 and silver at $40? Maybe the answer will be with us before April Fools Day.
The first two articles in today’s daily deal with the Greek “Default.” Is it or is it not a “Default”? The consequences to this question are severe – but to who?
Last week we booked an order for $5,000,000 in silver. That’s right, one order for $5M! It wasn’t so long ago that an order for $100,000 was uncommon, but now orders for over a million are not unusual at all. What does this mean? To me, it is THE indicator that big money, serious “money,” is finally starting to move out of the dollar and into the safety of gold and silver. If a single billionaire decided to invest just 15% of his net worth in gold or silver, But what if two-dozen billionaires decided all at once to seriously move into precious metals? They had best be very patient and all I can say about the affect on the price is WOW!!!
Read More @ MilesFranklin.com

How High Will The Gold Bull Climb?

by Mark Motive, GoldSeek.com:
Gold is once again above $1,700 and eyeing its all-time high. Yet, the same two camps are saying the same things they have since the yellow metal was at $600: either this is a bubble, or it’s headed much higher. While the gold bulls have clearly been right for over ten years, that doesn’t mean they will always be right. There are many ways to determine whether gold will continue its historic climb. In the past, I have looked at gold fundamentals – such as monetary inflation, increasing government deficits, and an unsustainable debt – all which indicate a bullish future. Today, I am examining a technical bellwether which has been used for decades to analyze the relative performance of stocks vs. gold.
The S&P 500-to-gold ratio measures the value of the stock market relative to gold. When the ratio is high, stocks are considered expensive relative to gold, and vice versa. This is used as an “adjustment factor” that isolates stock market performance from the effects of monetary expansion. In other words, if the S&P 500 were rising in nominal terms but the ratio to gold were falling, investors holding the S&P 500 would be losing wealth in real terms.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com

Don’t Fight the Fed

from GoldMoney.com:
The gold price finished on a strong note at the end of last week, settling above an important technical support level at $1,700/oz. “Why an important support level?” You may well ask – or indeed, “what are these support and resistance levels that you refer to so often?” Support levels are as the name implies: points on the gold price chart where – based on a reading of recent market data – one can expect buying bids to increase, thus supporting the price.
“Resistance levels” are the opposite: points on the chart where a rising gold price can expect to meet selling pressure. Falls below support often presage a quickening price correction – or the very least, a continuing period of price consolidation – while closes above significant resistance levels are often a decent signal that the gold price is about to move sharply higher. In the words of the famous American trader Jesse Livermore: “prices, like everything else, move along the line of least resistance. They will do whatever comes easiest.”
Read More @ GoldMoney.com

The Greek Bailout And Germany’s “Plan B”: If Germany Bails On The Euro, The EU Will Collapse

The Black Swan NO ONE is Talking About
by Phoenix Capital Research, GlobalResearch.ca:
While the Second Greek Bailout may or may not be complete (depending on whether we get a credit event as a result of it), Germany can and will walk from the Euro if it needs to. This is the unforeseen black swan everyone is ignoring.
Obviously, Germany wouldn’t want to do this as it would result in Germany being blamed for the Euro failing. So thus far, “Plan A” for Germany has been to offer bailout funds that are contingent on requirements so unpalatable that Greece or any other PIIG would likely end up preferring to walk rather than submit to them.
Case in point, before the second Greek Bailout German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its April elections as part of the bailout package.
In simple terms, Schäuble is concerned that the unpopularity of the austerity measures being imposed on Greece as part of the second bailout package would lead to a “wrong” democratic choice.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca

Dude, Where’s My Gold?

by Jan Skoyles, TheRealAsset.co.uk

Amid reports of Germany and Switzerland requesting their gold from the United States, Jan Skoyles asks why do they want it back considering their monetary policies? The repatriation of gold is a growing topic of interest since Venezuela demonstrated how much value they place on their gold reserves. With escalating gold prices, growing gold investment demand and faltering Western economies is it any wonder German and Swiss politicians are asking where their gold is.
At the end of January Venezuela received the last of their 160 tonnes of repatriated gold reserves. Many, including some of the country’s own economists thought Chavez was mad to bring back the gold; that it was an expensive and unnecessary operation.
But now it seems distance makes the heart grow fonder for other countries as well with reports of both Germany and Switzerland on the verge of requesting the return of their gold from the United States. This is not surprising considering both countries were at the forefront of the increased gold demand in Europe in 2011. Germany particularly saw an increased demand for physical bars in allocated accounts.
It is interesting that whilst governments and their central banks choose to implement Keynesian-based policies when trying to quickly fix their economies, they cannot bring themselves to rid their country’s reserves of the barbarous relic. No domestic prices, in the West, are currently tied to gold, ‘nor does gold sit in reserve for any of the West’s currencies. So why are they so concerned?
Read More @ TheRealAsset.co.uk

Greek Bail-out To Get Sign-off From Eurozone Ministers

Eurozone finance ministers are expected to rubber-stamp Greece’s bail-out on Monday, despite concerns the country could need another rescue package.
by Rachel Cooper, Telegraph.co.uk:
Finance ministers will meet in Brussels tomorrow to give their final approval to the second bail-out, worth €130bn (£108bn).
Part of the aid package was immediately unblocked after the country pushed through a sovereign debt restructuring last week, persuading investors to forgive more than €100bn of debt.
That will lead to the declaration of a “credit event” that will trigger about $3.2bn (£2bn) of credit default swap insurance payouts.
There remains uncertainty over the effect the insurance payouts will have on markets, despite assurances from the head of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association that he did not see a significant market impact given the relatively small exposure.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk

Complain in Spain: New Wave of Anger Over Austerity Hits Cities

Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have taken to the streets to protest a labor law reform. The demonstrations organized by labor unions are paving the wave for a nation-wide strike planned for March 29. ­Workers are objecting to what they see as empowering employers at the expense of the employees under the pretext of an anti-crisis austerity policy.

Encumbrance 101, Or Why Europe Is Running Out Of Assets

Since the much-heralded 3Y LTRO program was envisioned and enacted, we have been clear in our perspective that while this appears to have signaled a removal of downside (contagion-driven) tail-risk for banks (and implicitly to sovereigns), the market’s perceptions are once again short-termist. Missing the unintended-consequence for the sugar high is something that we have seen again and again for the past few years but we worry that this time, given the sheer size of the program, that the ECB has got a little over its skis. By demanding collateral for their bottomless pit of low-interest loans, the ECB has not only reduced banks’ necessary deleveraging needs (and/or capital raising) but has increased risk for all bond-holders (and implicitly equity holders, who are the lowest of the low in the capital structure remember) as the assets underlying the value of bank balance sheets are now increasingly encumbered to the ECB. Post LTRO, Barclays notes that several banking-systems (PIIGS) now have encumbered over 15% of their balance sheets but LTRO merely extends a broader trend among European banks (pledging collateral in return for funding) and on average (even excluding LTRO) 21% of European bank assets are now encumbered, and therefore unavailable for unsecured bond holders, ranging from over 50% at Danske (more a business model choice with covered bonds) to around 1% for Standard Chartered. As the liquidity-fueled euphoria starts to be unwound, perhaps this list of likely stigmatized banks is the place to look for higher beta exposure to the downside (especially as we see EC B margin calls start to pick up). Read More @ ZeroHedge.com

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