Must Read: Jim Grant Crucifies The Fed; Explains Why A Gold Standard Is The Best Option
In the not quite 100 years since the founding of your institution, America has exchanged central banking for a kind of central planning and the gold standard for what I will call the Ph.D. standard. I regret the changes and will propose reforms, or, I suppose, re-reforms, as my program is very much in accord with that of the founders of this institution. Have you ever read the Federal Reserve Act? The authorizing legislation projected a body “to provide for the establishment of the Federal Reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper and to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes.” By now can we identify the operative phrase? Of course: “for other purposes.” As you prepare to mark the Fed’s centenary, may I urge you to reflect on just how far you have wandered from the intentions of the founders? The institution they envisioned would operate passively, through the discount window. It would not create credit but rather liquefy the existing stock of credit by turning good-quality commercial bills into cash— temporarily. This it would do according to the demands of the seasons and the cycle. The Fed would respond to the community, not try to anticipate or lead it. It would not override the price mechanism— as today’s Fed seems to do at every available opportunity—but yield to it.
Why The Mega Millions Jackpot Is Nothing But Another Tax On America's Poor
Now that the Mega Millions Jackpot has just hit a record $640 million, people, mostly those in the lower and middle classes, are coming out in droves and buying lottery tickets with hopes of striking it rich. After all, with $640 million one can even afford a few shares of Apple stock. Naturally, we wish the lucky winner all the (non-diluted) best. There is, however, a small problem here when one steps back from the Sino Forest trees. As ConvergEx' Nicholas Colas explains, "Lotteries essentially target and encourage lower-income individuals into a cycle that directly prevents them from improving their financial status and leverages their desire to escape poverty. Yes, that’s a bit harsh, and yes, people have the right to make their own decisions. Even bad ones… Also, many people tend to significantly overestimate the odds of winning because we tend to assess the likelihood of an event occurring based on how frequently we hear about it happening. The technical name for this is the Availability Heuristic, which means the more we hear about big winners in the press, the less uncommon a big payday begins to seem." Call it that, or call it what one wishes, the end result is that the lottery is nothing but society's perfectly efficient way of, to use a term from the vernacular, keeping the poor man down while dangling hopes and dreams of escaping into the world of the loathsome and oh so very detested "1% ers". Alas, the probability of the latter happening to "you" is virtually non-existant.Equity Resistance Becomes Support
Resistance has become support says the market to the equity market bears.
Chart 1: Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) Chart 2: Dow Industrials ETF (DIA)
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Happy Friday! The Sheeplez Get Tee'd Up For Slaughter - Again...
*"It's the only place I can find any yield whatsoever with a reasonable
risk," said Lee Hevner, an individual investor who said he started buying
junk bonds this year for the first time.*
Those will be famous last words. That poor sot allowed his ignorant,
greedy investment advisor talk him into putting 15% of $500k stash in junk
bonds. Hope he can afford to lose most of it.
Once again, courtesy of the Fed's zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and the
Government's catastrophic fiscal policies, the yield-starved individual
investor has been flooding the high yield market with money ... more »
I Think That We Are At The Beginning Of A More Meaningful Correction
Right now, investor sentiment if anything is rather bullish, the market is overbought, insider selling is very high and the technicals have deteriorated in the sense that in the latest rally,the number of new highs has diminished significantly and so, I rather think that we are at the beginning of a more meaningful correction. - *in Bloomberg Radio* *Related, SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF (SPY), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF (EEM)* *Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.*
Friday Funny: Sino Forest Seeks $4 Billion From Muddy Waters In Damages... As It Files For Bankruptcy
Actually, in retrospect this may well be the funniest pair of headlines in one place ever.- SINO-FOREST TO FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY, MAY SEEK SALE OF COMPANY
- SINO FOREST SEEKING $4B IN DAMAGES AGAINST MUDDY WATERS
FoxConn Workers Furious At Work Hours Cut, Demand More Work
It appears the miracle of unionization has not penetrated Chinese labor markets. Contrary to expectations that suicidal workers would be elated at news that the world's second biggest employer in the world (after Wal Mart) with 1.2 million workers, FoxConn, has given employees "landmark concessions" the reality is actually different. Very, very different. "At the Foxconn factory gates, many workers seemed unconvinced that their pay wouldn't be cut along with their hours. For some Chinese factory workers - who make much of their income from long hours of overtime - the idea of less work for the same pay could take getting used to. "We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money," said Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China. Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime. "We are here to work and not to play, so our income is very important," said Chen Yamei, 25, a Foxconn worker from Hunan who said she had worked at the factory for four years." Hold on, Hold on... You mean to say that whatever values are cherished in the good old US of lazy A, such as bathroom, coffee and cigarette breaks, not to mention "democracy", "American Idol", "high cholesterol", $0.99 apps" and "liberated oil" just may not be appropriate to the 95% of other people around the world? But... But... how will America spread its deeply unique "humanitarian" values of globalized freedom and trade interchange (funded by cheap credit of course - those global debt slaves won't enslave themselves on their own - for more see here), and occasionally using kinetic intervention (never war: one needs Congressional approval for that) when said people dare to express a different outlook, and set of values on life? Preposterous. Nay, Inconceivable!Mark Grant Explains The Farce, The Hustle, And The Scam
When considering the financial condition of each and every country in the European Union there are certain facts that are left out and left out on purpose. In our opinion, the structural deformity of the European Union is, in itself, one of the main reasons that any attempt at a fiscal or economic fix never seems to work. Whether some proposed firewall is $760 billion or $1.3 Trillion or $13 Trillion makes no difference as in zero, nada, nothing and null. It is an IOU, a promise to pay and it is not counted in any European sovereign debt numbers nor is it counted in the figures for the European Union’s debt. It will not stop Spain or Portugal or Italy from asking for or needing money. This whole discussion is a head fake, a deception and a ruse carefully plotted out for investors in one more attempt to mislead the entire world. If you wish to be a statistic in the Greater Fool Theory be my guest but I refuse to be apart of this unadulterated scam.Is Spanish Regional Debt Out Of Control?
Spanish regional debt currently stands at 13% of GDP and has surged from EUR60bn in 2006 to over EUR140bn currently. As Credit Suisse points out, the top four regions account for the majority of GDP,
two-thirds of regional debt, and, with the exception of Madrid,
substantially missed their deficit targets. What is more worrisome is
the heavily front-loaded nature of the maturing debt with
substantial refinancing needs in the next 2 years and this regional
debt is split between bonds and loans - with many of the latter from
Spanish banks - yet another illustration of the interconnected contagion
that is building more rapidly. The growing crisis in refinancing
(liquidity and costs) for regional debt developed the idea of Ponzibonos 'Hispabonos' -
debt issued by regions but guaranteed by the central government. The
conditionality of these guarantees with regard to deficit targets wil be
critical but once they are issued, the risk is that the regions are
unable to get their finances under control, the Spanish debtload
increases, and there is no longer the flexibility for a regional debt restructuring, should one be necessary.
[Ed. Note:
Based on this report, Wall Street apparently believes an unsustainable
silver to gold ratio of 52 to 1 can be maintained in perpetuity. We,
along with Sprott, Turk, Morgan, Duane, Chapman, King, Hoffman and
Sinclair wholeheartedly disagree.]
from Business Insider:
Silver is expected to remain volatile in 2012
2012 average year price:
$35.00 / ounce
2013 average year price:
$42.00 / ounce
Silver is another safe haven that is cheap relative to gold. However, silver prices are much more volatile and much more vulnerable to weak industrial demand.
The key risks for silver are that a weaker economic outlook in 2012 and 2013 will cut fabrication demand (manipulation of metal from one state to another), but not enough to deter production.
Read More @ BusinessInsider.com
from Business Insider:
Silver is expected to remain volatile in 2012
2012 average year price:
$35.00 / ounce
2013 average year price:
$42.00 / ounce
Silver is another safe haven that is cheap relative to gold. However, silver prices are much more volatile and much more vulnerable to weak industrial demand.
The key risks for silver are that a weaker economic outlook in 2012 and 2013 will cut fabrication demand (manipulation of metal from one state to another), but not enough to deter production.
Read More @ BusinessInsider.com
from Kerry Lutz.com:
Drug dealers and other citizens outside the main stream economic system
are cleaning up money laundering’s new image with Extra-Strength Tide.
It really gets the Feds out; seems stolen Tide laundry detergent has
almost become an alternative currency in certain parts of the Country.
While it’s not exactly portable or very convenient either, it has its
uses. While the government is attempting to phase out physical cash,
entrepreneurs of every walk of life will seek substitutes. This is just a
basic law of economics and nothing can change it. So after Tide, what
will come next? Perhaps that 450 million rounds of ammunition Homeland
Security has ordered is really the foundation of new monetary system.
Bullets are easy to carry and extremely portable; and a box of
cartridges is very divisible. We’ll see when they start stamping
denominations of the outside, then we’ll know for sure.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio
Read More @ KerryLutz.com
The Flaw In Europe’s Austerity Plan: Elections
Gold and Silver Prices Holding Above Important Support
We would rank these as some of the more notorious bankruptcies. These weren't normal course of business bankruptcies. These were dark and deviant. They have many similarities. Opaque and convoluted accounting and finances are common to them all. Whether it was Jedi for Enron, repo 105 for Lehman, or off-market swaps with Goldman for Greece, they all used every trick in the book to keep debt off balance sheet and to obfuscate the risk. It is hard to watch what is going on in Europe and not believe that Greece is just the first of many. Countries and their banks. Countries and their regions. Countries and EU programs. Banks and their national central banks. Banks and the ECB. It is hard to pin down the fatal flaw, but for us it is harder to believe that there is nothing to see there and we should happily move along.
California Slammed With Fukushima Radiation
Drug dealers and other citizens outside the main stream economic system
are cleaning up money laundering’s new image with Extra-Strength Tide.
It really gets the Feds out; seems stolen Tide laundry detergent has
almost become an alternative currency in certain parts of the Country.
While it’s not exactly portable or very convenient either, it has its
uses. While the government is attempting to phase out physical cash,
entrepreneurs of every walk of life will seek substitutes. This is just a
basic law of economics and nothing can change it. So after Tide, what
will come next? Perhaps that 450 million rounds of ammunition Homeland
Security has ordered is really the foundation of new monetary system.
Bullets are easy to carry and extremely portable; and a box of
cartridges is very divisible. We’ll see when they start stamping
denominations of the outside, then we’ll know for sure.Click Here to Listen to the Audio
Read More @ KerryLutz.com
by Dr. Jeff Lewis, The Market Oracle:
Silver paste is used as a highly efficient conductor of electricity in the vast majority of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, which are the most prevalent form of solar cell used to generate solar power. Solar cell manufacture uses as much as 12 percent of the global silver supply on an annual basis.
Solar cell manufacture has grown substantially recently. In addition, competition among makers of this clean energy product has increased notably over the last few years, largely due to a remarkable expansion in China, where over 700 companies now make solar energy panels.
Solar energy has also been extensively promoted by government subsidies in the United States and elsewhere that encourage the use of cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives to increasingly costly fossil fuels. In addition, government programs, such as President Obama’s SunShot Initiative, have been aimed at developing highly efficient and cost effective solar energy technologies.
Read More @ MarketOracle.co.uk
from GoldSeek.com:
Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,660.75, EUR 1,245.31, and GBP 1,038.68 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,655.75, EUR 1,245.86 and GBP 1,041.22 per ounce.
Gold fell $3.00 or 0.18% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,660.10/oz. Gold traded sideways in Asia prior to seeing a slight climb to $1,665.55/oz in late Asian trading and is now trading in Europe near 1,662.65.
Gold has been trading in a tight box around $1,660/oz today, as euro zone finance ministers meet in Copenhagen to discuss the scale of the permanent “bailout fund” set for July.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com
Silver paste is used as a highly efficient conductor of electricity in the vast majority of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, which are the most prevalent form of solar cell used to generate solar power. Solar cell manufacture uses as much as 12 percent of the global silver supply on an annual basis.
Solar cell manufacture has grown substantially recently. In addition, competition among makers of this clean energy product has increased notably over the last few years, largely due to a remarkable expansion in China, where over 700 companies now make solar energy panels.
Solar energy has also been extensively promoted by government subsidies in the United States and elsewhere that encourage the use of cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives to increasingly costly fossil fuels. In addition, government programs, such as President Obama’s SunShot Initiative, have been aimed at developing highly efficient and cost effective solar energy technologies.
Read More @ MarketOracle.co.uk
by Scott Lazarowitz, Lew Rockwell.com:
My articles for LRC have been increasingly difficult and frustrating to write. More recently I have been trying to get people to understand America’s current police state. Yes, I have received some favorable emails when my articles have appeared, but there are also ones from those in denial, who refer to me as “nuts,” “conspiracy theorist,” and so on.
Now, to say that America is becoming like Nazi Germany is not an exaggeration. But too many people glance over such assertions in disbelief, perceiving such things as absurdities. They are in denial, and just do not want to believe what’s going on. I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.
In my article on martial law, I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.
Read More @ LewRockwell.com
My articles for LRC have been increasingly difficult and frustrating to write. More recently I have been trying to get people to understand America’s current police state. Yes, I have received some favorable emails when my articles have appeared, but there are also ones from those in denial, who refer to me as “nuts,” “conspiracy theorist,” and so on.
Now, to say that America is becoming like Nazi Germany is not an exaggeration. But too many people glance over such assertions in disbelief, perceiving such things as absurdities. They are in denial, and just do not want to believe what’s going on. I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.
In my article on martial law, I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.
Read More @ LewRockwell.com
from GoldSeek.com:
Gold’s London AM fix this morning was USD 1,660.75, EUR 1,245.31, and GBP 1,038.68 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,655.75, EUR 1,245.86 and GBP 1,041.22 per ounce.
Gold fell $3.00 or 0.18% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,660.10/oz. Gold traded sideways in Asia prior to seeing a slight climb to $1,665.55/oz in late Asian trading and is now trading in Europe near 1,662.65.
Gold has been trading in a tight box around $1,660/oz today, as euro zone finance ministers meet in Copenhagen to discuss the scale of the permanent “bailout fund” set for July.
Read More @ GoldSeek.com
[Ed. Note:
I believe this is referred to as 'throwing good money after bad'. As
Bob Chapman has long lamented, it won't be enough - the European Union
debt problems run into the multi-Trillions.]
by William L. Watts,, Market Watch:
[Excerpt] Euro-zone finance ministers on Friday agreed to temporarily boost the lending capacity of the region’s rescue funds to 700 billion euros ($934 billion) from €500 billion in an effort to convince markets they can contain the region’s long-running sovereign debt crisis.
Financial markets took the announcement in stride. The figure came in below the €1 trillion level pushed by international officials and others but was in line with overall market expectations.
In a statement, the ministers said they agreed to effectively allow the temporary European Financial Stability Facility operate in combination with the permanent, 500-billion euro European Stability Mechanism, which becomes operational in July, in order to provide an effective ceiling of 700 billion euros in lending through mid-2013.
Read More @ MarketWatch.com
by William L. Watts,, Market Watch:
[Excerpt] Euro-zone finance ministers on Friday agreed to temporarily boost the lending capacity of the region’s rescue funds to 700 billion euros ($934 billion) from €500 billion in an effort to convince markets they can contain the region’s long-running sovereign debt crisis.
Financial markets took the announcement in stride. The figure came in below the €1 trillion level pushed by international officials and others but was in line with overall market expectations.
In a statement, the ministers said they agreed to effectively allow the temporary European Financial Stability Facility operate in combination with the permanent, 500-billion euro European Stability Mechanism, which becomes operational in July, in order to provide an effective ceiling of 700 billion euros in lending through mid-2013.
Read More @ MarketWatch.com
Judge asks government lawyers if NDAA can be used on ordinary citizens
by Steve Watson, Infowars:
A Federal court in New York heard arguments Thursday for a preliminary injunction against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill signed by Obama that legislates for the ‘indefinite detention’ of American citizens without trial.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest heard testimony from seven witnesses including MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Pentagon Papers source Daniel Ellsberg and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author and Middle East expert Chris Hedges.
Hedges himself filed the class action lawsuit claiming that the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of the legislation, otherwise known as the ‘Homeland Battlefield Bill’, could see him sent to Guantanamo Bay simply for doing his job, and at the very least would have a “chilling effect” on the work of journalists and activists.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
by Steve Watson, Infowars:
A Federal court in New York heard arguments Thursday for a preliminary injunction against the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the bill signed by Obama that legislates for the ‘indefinite detention’ of American citizens without trial.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest heard testimony from seven witnesses including MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Pentagon Papers source Daniel Ellsberg and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author and Middle East expert Chris Hedges.
Hedges himself filed the class action lawsuit claiming that the ‘indefinite detention’ provision of the legislation, otherwise known as the ‘Homeland Battlefield Bill’, could see him sent to Guantanamo Bay simply for doing his job, and at the very least would have a “chilling effect” on the work of journalists and activists.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
by Mark Sherman, My Way:
While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the
Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care
case by the time they go home this weekend.
After months of anticipation, thousands of pages of briefs and more than six hours of arguments, the justices will vote on the fate of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in under an hour Friday morning. They will meet in a wood-paneled conference room on the court’s main floor. No one else will be present.
In the weeks after this meeting, individual votes can change. Even who wins can change, as the justices read each other’s draft opinions and dissents.
But Friday’s vote, which each justice probably will record and many will keep for posterity, will be followed soon after by the assignment of a single justice to write a majority opinion, or in a case this complex, perhaps two or more justices to tackle different issues. That’s where the hard work begins, with the clock ticking toward the end of the court’s work in early summer.
Read More @ apnews.myway.com
While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the
Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care
case by the time they go home this weekend.After months of anticipation, thousands of pages of briefs and more than six hours of arguments, the justices will vote on the fate of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in under an hour Friday morning. They will meet in a wood-paneled conference room on the court’s main floor. No one else will be present.
In the weeks after this meeting, individual votes can change. Even who wins can change, as the justices read each other’s draft opinions and dissents.
But Friday’s vote, which each justice probably will record and many will keep for posterity, will be followed soon after by the assignment of a single justice to write a majority opinion, or in a case this complex, perhaps two or more justices to tackle different issues. That’s where the hard work begins, with the clock ticking toward the end of the court’s work in early summer.
Read More @ apnews.myway.com
by Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls Canada:
In the topsy-turvy world of U.S. “newsertainment”, it is common knowledge that comedian Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is one of Americans’ “most admired journalists”. Regrettably, the U.S. mainstream media has chosen to compete with Stewart…by producing comedy.
In the topsy-turvy world of U.S. “newsertainment”, it is common knowledge that comedian Jon Stewart of The Daily Show is one of Americans’ “most admired journalists”. Regrettably, the U.S. mainstream media has chosen to compete with Stewart…by producing comedy.
Their
favorite front-man is famed stand-up comedian, B.S. Bernanke. Bernanke
became famous for such immortal one-liners as “the Goldilocks economy”,
“the soft landing”, “the exit strategy”, and his most oft-repeated joke:
“the U.S. economic recovery.”
As
is often the case with popular humor, “the U.S. economic recovery” has
been repeated ad nauseum by the mainstream media. Inevitably, the joke
quickly became boring, and is now just very, very annoying.
from Wealth Cycles:
He destroyed commodity brokerage firm MF Global is back in the news recently as stonewalling company executives are hauled before Congress. The gist of the alleged criminal case seems clear—someone high up at MF Global—probably former New Jersey Governor and MF Global CEO John Corzine—made high-risk trades—and then used customers’ money to pay for losses. Now, with the company in ruins and creditors at the gates, money, including real money (gold and silver), is missing. But the devil is in the details. As the case begins wending its way through the courts, several mysteries remain unsolved: Why did Corzine bet his customers’ farm in deals that were almost sure to lose—and who benefited? How did the same pieces of gold and silver, bearing unique identifying numbers, come to be owned by more than one entity at the same time? And how did JP Morgan wind up with all of the gold from the MF Global vaults?
By some accounts Jon Corzine, an ousted Goldman Sachs executive who left Wall Street to salvage his dignity by getting elected Governor of New Jersey, was obsessed with winning and with the desire to regain “face” by hitting it big on a high-risk deal.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
He destroyed commodity brokerage firm MF Global is back in the news recently as stonewalling company executives are hauled before Congress. The gist of the alleged criminal case seems clear—someone high up at MF Global—probably former New Jersey Governor and MF Global CEO John Corzine—made high-risk trades—and then used customers’ money to pay for losses. Now, with the company in ruins and creditors at the gates, money, including real money (gold and silver), is missing. But the devil is in the details. As the case begins wending its way through the courts, several mysteries remain unsolved: Why did Corzine bet his customers’ farm in deals that were almost sure to lose—and who benefited? How did the same pieces of gold and silver, bearing unique identifying numbers, come to be owned by more than one entity at the same time? And how did JP Morgan wind up with all of the gold from the MF Global vaults?
By some accounts Jon Corzine, an ousted Goldman Sachs executive who left Wall Street to salvage his dignity by getting elected Governor of New Jersey, was obsessed with winning and with the desire to regain “face” by hitting it big on a high-risk deal.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
The Flaw In Europe’s Austerity Plan: Elections
by John Rubino, DollarCollapse.com:
Getting Europe’s mainstream politicians and appointed technocrats to agree to bailouts and austerity was actually the easy part. The real challenge for these guys will be holding onto their jobs — and preserving the deals they’ve cut — in upcoming elections.
Voters, it seems, aren’t convinced that that a depression is the only solution to the euro’s design flaws. Faced with the immediate reality of poverty, they’re listening to formerly fringe voices calling for a better deal, either in the form of more help from Germany (via the European Central Bank) or a quick exit from the euro zone and a return to national monetary sovereignty. Greece, of course, is first in line:
Getting Europe’s mainstream politicians and appointed technocrats to agree to bailouts and austerity was actually the easy part. The real challenge for these guys will be holding onto their jobs — and preserving the deals they’ve cut — in upcoming elections.
Voters, it seems, aren’t convinced that that a depression is the only solution to the euro’s design flaws. Faced with the immediate reality of poverty, they’re listening to formerly fringe voices calling for a better deal, either in the form of more help from Germany (via the European Central Bank) or a quick exit from the euro zone and a return to national monetary sovereignty. Greece, of course, is first in line:
Greece’s Fringe Parties Surge Amid Bailout Ire
ATHENS—Weeks after agreeing to an agonizing bailout deal with Europe, Greece is splintering politically ahead of national elections, raising the risk that it won’t be able to make the economic sacrifices still needed to keep it in the euro.
Read More @ DollarCollapse.com
Gold and Silver Prices Holding Above Important Support
from Gold Money:
Gold and silver are holding above important support levels, despite selling pressure yesterday. The gold price moved back above $1,660 this morning, after flirting with $1,650. The silver price
sunk below $32 briefly yesterday afternoon – hurt indirectly by talk
from the US, Britain and France about releasing petroleum reserves, thus
temporarily lowering oil prices – but has moved back above support at
$32. James Turk discusses the significance of this price action in his latest King World News Interview.
Though the gold market has been struggling for direction in recent weeks, this price action in combination with increased chatter about “QE3” in America and Spain’s debt problems may help the bulls. Though there have been times in recent years – notably during the spring of 2010 – when gold performed well during periods of EURUSD weakness, a lot will depend on how the dollar performs. The Dollar Index has again fallen below 79.00 in trading this morning, and is struggling to maintain the kind of upward momentum seen at the end of last year, when euro fears were dominant. Further dollar weakness will encourage gold buying.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com
Gold and silver are holding above important support levels, despite selling pressure yesterday. The gold price moved back above $1,660 this morning, after flirting with $1,650. The silver price
sunk below $32 briefly yesterday afternoon – hurt indirectly by talk
from the US, Britain and France about releasing petroleum reserves, thus
temporarily lowering oil prices – but has moved back above support at
$32. James Turk discusses the significance of this price action in his latest King World News Interview. Though the gold market has been struggling for direction in recent weeks, this price action in combination with increased chatter about “QE3” in America and Spain’s debt problems may help the bulls. Though there have been times in recent years – notably during the spring of 2010 – when gold performed well during periods of EURUSD weakness, a lot will depend on how the dollar performs. The Dollar Index has again fallen below 79.00 in trading this morning, and is struggling to maintain the kind of upward momentum seen at the end of last year, when euro fears were dominant. Further dollar weakness will encourage gold buying.
Read More @ GoldMoney.com
From Enron To Sino-Forest - Same Old Song
Enron --> Worldcom --> Adelphia --> Lehman --> MF Global --> Greece --> Sino Forest --> ????We would rank these as some of the more notorious bankruptcies. These weren't normal course of business bankruptcies. These were dark and deviant. They have many similarities. Opaque and convoluted accounting and finances are common to them all. Whether it was Jedi for Enron, repo 105 for Lehman, or off-market swaps with Goldman for Greece, they all used every trick in the book to keep debt off balance sheet and to obfuscate the risk. It is hard to watch what is going on in Europe and not believe that Greece is just the first of many. Countries and their banks. Countries and their regions. Countries and EU programs. Banks and their national central banks. Banks and the ECB. It is hard to pin down the fatal flaw, but for us it is harder to believe that there is nothing to see there and we should happily move along.
California Slammed With Fukushima Radiation
03/30/2012 - 12:26
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