from TF Metals Report:
As you are all well aware, years of observation and trading has led
me to the conclusion that the precious metals “markets” are grossly
manipulated, managed and suppressed. My confidence in this assumption is
what makes the price analysis we do here relevant.
What is satisfying to me and the many others who have been trumpeting
this cause is the gradual awakening of the investing public. The
long-term policy of currency debasement combined with the long-term bull
markets for the metals has brought attention to the metals sector like
never before. With that attention comes additional critical analysis
and, not surprisingly, much of this analysis comes to the same
conclusion many of us “grizzled veterans” have been spouting for years.
Just in the past 24 hours, we’ve seen three very important “research”
pieces be released. First came the latest newsletter from Sprott Asset
Management. Though Eric tries to rein in some of his conspiratorial
impulses, he nonetheless lays out some convincing statistics regarding
the latest “Leap Day” samshdown:
http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/3586/latest-sprott-newsletter
Read More @ TF Metals Report.com
[Ed. Note: There seems to be a theme developing here tonight. This cashless society thing is catching on.]
from The Economic Collapse Blog:
Most people think of a cashless society as something that is way off
in the distant future. Unfortunately, that is simply not the case. The
truth is that a cashless society is much closer than most people would
ever dare to imagine. To a large degree, the transition to a cashless
society is being done voluntarily. Today, only
7 percent
of all transactions in the United States are done with cash, and most
of those transactions involve very small amounts of money. Just think
about it for a moment. Where do you still use cash these days? If you
buy a burger or if you purchase something at a flea market you will
still use cash, but for any mid-size or large transaction the vast
majority of people out there will use another form of payment. Our
financial system is dramatically changing, and cash is rapidly becoming a
thing of the past. We live in a digital world, and national
governments and big banks are both encouraging the move away from paper
currency and coins. But what would a cashless society mean for our
future? Are there any dangers to such a system?
Those are very important questions, but most of the time both sides
of the issue are not presented in a balanced way in the mainstream
media. Instead, most mainstream news articles tend to trash cash and
talk about how wonderful digital currency is.
Read More @ TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
[Ed. Note:
Let's all march to the land of the cashless society where the ultimate
goal is for you to have all of your personal and financial data on an
implantable chip, which can be deactivated at any time, just as Aaron Russo warned us .]
by Beth Deisher, Coin World:
The timeline futurists have predicted for the arrival of a cashless
society came into sharp focus March 22 when financial industry experts
briefed members of Congress on the rapid development and public adoption
of mobile payment devices.
During the first of three hearings the House Subcommittee on
Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit says it plans to conduct on
the future of money, technology experts noted that the ability to use
handheld devices — smart phones — to access financial services in-store
and online has already opened up channels of transactions that were not
possible just a few years ago.
And, amazingly, the experts said that
within the next five
years smart phones are likely to become the primary way most Americans
pay for goods and services, no matter the size of transactions.
Read More @ CoinWorld.com
[Ed. Note:
Heads up, every single U.S. nickel in circulation is worth 5.3 cents in
metal value alone, not counting minting costs. You may want to get
yourself a stack.]
by Joseph N. DiStefano, Yahoo News:
Like an old man with a cart picking up junk on Ridge Avenue, Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner is trying to turn scraps of metal into cash.
Geithner wants to strip copper and other valuable metals from the
Philadelphia and Denver coining lines that mint America’s small change.
“Currently, the costs of making the penny and the nickel are more than
twice the face value of each of those coins,” he told a House
Appropriations Committee panel Wednesday.
Treasury wants a law that would give it the freedom “to change the
composition of coins to utilize more cost-effective materials” without
having to ask Congress for permission every time it dilutes the content
of the national coinage.
Read More @ News.Yahoo.com
[Ed. Note:
Heads up, pre-1983 U.S. pennies are 95% copper and worth 2.5 cents each
in copper value alone. You may want to get yourself a stack.]
by Eric Pfeiffer , Yahoo News:
The Canadian government announced on Thursday that it plans to
pull the penny from circulation at the end of 2012, saying the copper-coated currency is more expensive for the Royal Canadian Mint to produce than its actual currency value.
“Pennies take up too much space on
our dressers at home. They take up far too much time for small
businesses trying to grow and create jobs,” said Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty. He also said
it costs 1.5 cents to produce each penny.
“We will, therefore, stop making them,” he said.
The U.S. faces a similar dilemma,
where it costs nearly two cents to produce a single penny. U.S. pennies
are in fact composed primarily of zinc, and have a thin copper coating.
The
Wall Street Journal
wrote that the Obama Administration has proposed using less expensive
materials in the production of pennies and nickels, but public
misinformation on the perceived value of coins would likely stir up
controversy.
from Russia Today:
The BRICS summit has wrapped up in India. Creating an alternative
global lender and stepping away from the dollar as a reserve currency
were among their main objectives. RT’s Priya Sridhar is in New Delhi.
Earlier RT spoke to Dr Sreeram Chaulia, who is a Vice Dean at the Jindal
School of International Affairs. He believes institutions like the IMF
and the World Bank have outlived their uselfulness.
March 29, 2012, at 6:58 pm
by
Jim Sinclair
My Dear Friends,
The future is US dollar Bloc down, Euro Bloc sideways, Bric Bloc up.
This means the absolute end of dollar dominance. Utilizing the SWIFT system as a weapon caused it.
It began today.
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
It depends on who collects the information.
Technology Comforting or Creepy? Google to Provide a Monthly Report of What It Knows About You
Posted on March 29, 2012 at 9:41am by Liz Klimas
We all know that online tracking is increasing but to what extent
is your activity being watched? In an effort to be more transparent,
Google is helping you “step back and take stock of what you’re doing
online” with a new optional feature called Account Activity.
If you sign-up for the service, Account Activity will provide you
with a monthly report of all your online activities using Google
products. Here‘s an example from the company’s Public Policy blog post
on the new feature:
For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I
sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3
percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I
conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month,
and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and
[hotel].
What an activity report will look like. (Image: Google’s Public Policy Blog)
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Release of any strategic reserve only has a temporary market benefit.
It has always been that way. It will always remain that way.
“The only successful manipulation of any market by anyone, even
government, must be in the direction the market wishes to go anyway.”
That is Livermore/Seligman wisdom.
Someday I will share with you how to defeat a short raid according to Livermore/Seligman. This was never written in any book.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
A man who the gold gang helped get out of the can with thousands of
letters on his behalf is talking trash about the dedication of gold
investors.
I firmly believe he is dead wrong, and shooting himself directly in
the foot. I knew him in the 70s and I guess nothing really ever changes.
Respect and gratitude is not the long suit of many. Have no fear because we are here.
Regards,
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This is called debt monetization in case you forgot.
WSJ: Fed Buying 61 Percent of US Debt
Wednesday, 28 Mar 2012 11:08 AM
By Julie Crawshaw and Forrest Jones
The Federal Reserve is propping up the entire U.S. economy by
buying 61 percent of the government debt issued by the Treasury
Department, a trend that cannot last, Lawrence Goodman, a former
Treasury official and current president of the Center for Financial
Stability, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion article published
Wednesday.
“Last year the Fed purchased a stunning 61 percent of the total
net Treasury issuance, up from negligible amounts prior to the 2008
financial crisis,” Goodman writes.
Goodman also warns that U.S. economy and markets are “at risk for a sharp correction” if conditions aren’t “normalized.”
“This not only creates the false appearance of limitless demand
for U.S. debt but also blunts any sense of urgency to reduce supersized
budget deficits.”
The U.S. government is growing increasingly more dependent on
borrowing to finance itself, with net issuance of Treasury securities
hitting 8.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on average per
annum, more than double levels before the crisis.
Fed intervention in the government debt market makes demand for
Treasury bonds appear higher than it really is, as foreign creditors and
other investors have fled U.S. government debt instruments and are
looking elsewhere until the government makes serious attempts to curb
spending and narrow its gaping deficits.
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The internationalization of the Yuan goes unnoticed by dollar managers and investors.
China’s African Odyssey
March 28, 2012, 8:54 a.m. ET
Roughly one million Chinese nationals are working or doing
business in Africa, from Egypt’s Mediterranean shore to South Africa’s
Cape of Good Hope.
Theirs are the faces behind China’s soaring direct investment in
Africa— which, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce—rose 87% to
$1.1 billion during the first three quarters last year compared to the
same period 2010. China’s Ministry of Commerce said the value of all
China-Africa trade between January and September last year topped $122
billion—a record amount that was equal to total two-way trade for all
2010.
Central to China’s success and ambitions is South Africa, where
mainland companies run textile mills and mining operations. Industrial
& Commercial Bank of China Ltd. owns 20% of South Africa’s Standard
Bank Group Ltd. Moreover, South Africa is often a starting point for
Chinese businesses that plan to expand into less-developed countries to
the north.
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Better crank up the SWIFT system Phil, some more emerging economies are getting feisty.
BRICS summit: Emerging economies condemn military threats against Iran, Syria
By Rama Lakshmi, Thursday, March 29, 8:50 AM
NEW DELHI — Leaders of five of the world’s fastest-growing
economies called Thursday for an end to the rhetoric of military action
against Iran and Syria, as they met in India to develop measures to
boost mutual trade in their local currencies.
The leaders of the coalition known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa — said unilateral sanctions against Iran
would affect their trade and economic growth.
“We must avoid political disruptions that create volatilities in
global energy markets and affect trade flows,” Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh said. “We agreed that lasting solution to the problems in
Syria and Iran can only be found through dialogue.”
Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, echoed Singh’s concerns when
she said that she does not “support any embargo policy” and “escalation
of pro-violence rhetoric.” She called for “opening a room for compromise
solution” on Iran.
The statements come at a time when Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu is warning of a possible military strike against
Iran’s nuclear facilities. In Syria, a violent crackdown on an
opposition uprising by the government of President Bashar al-Assad has
killed about 9,000 people, according to U.N. estimates.
More…
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
I wonder if the West will have a SWIFT response
BRICS to change world economy
“The BRICS countries’ leaders are preparing for their annual
meeting. These countries make up 42 percent of the world’s population
and a quarter of its landmass. They are also responsible for 20 percent
of the Global GDP and
own a whopping 75 percent of the foreign reserve worldwide. In these tough
times for world economics these countries are trying to find a solution
for the situation. RT’s Priya Sridhar gives us a sneak peak of the
summit from India.”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Marshall Law in peace time under presidential order is now in place as a facility to be used.
Things in place tend to get used.
Zakaria: Incarceration nation
By Fareed Zakaria
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt of Fareed Zakaria’s column in this week’s TIME Magazine, which you can read in full here, behind a paywall.
“Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history
is a fundamental fact of our country today,” writes the New Yorker’s
Adam Gopnik. “Over all, there are now more people under ‘correctional
supervision’ in America – more than 6 million – than were in the Gulag
Archipelago under Stalin at its height.”
Is this hyperbole? Here are the facts. The U.S. has 760 prisoners
per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than in most other
developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. Japan has 63 per
100,000, Germany has 90, France has 96, South Korea has 97, and Britain
– with a rate among the highest – has 153….
This wide gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is
relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.’s prison population was about 150
per 100,000 adults. It has more than quadrupled since then. So something
has happened in the past 30 years to push millions of Americans into
prison.
That something, of course, is the war on drugs. Drug convictions
went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an
almost tenfold increase. More than half of America’s federal inmates
today are in prison on drug convictions. In 2009 alone, 1.66 million
Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested on
assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for
possession….
More…
Repatriate our Gold!
Gold has been natural money for thousands of years. It has been
used throughout history either as physical coinage or as solid
cornerstone for stable paper currencies. Up until 1913, most Western
societies prospered and grew steadily and naturally under a monetary
standard with at least partial gold backing. The gradual abandonment of
the gold backing throughout the 20th century and the ultimate delinkage
of all currencies from gold in 1971 is the fundamental cause of the
ongoing inflation (the US-Dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power
since 1913) as well as the main reason for the global financial crises
since 2007. We believe it is essential to re-introduce a (partial)
goldbacking for the world´s monetary system. And in order to back future
national currencies, the gold needs to be physically present in the
respective country. Gold needs to be re-monetized – at least on a
voluntary basis as a means of payment the people are free to choose
anytime.
We therefore campaign for …
… independent, full, neutral and physical audits of the gold hoards of the world´s central banks
… the repatriation of all central bank gold; i.e. the physical transport into the respective ownership countries
More…
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David McWilliams (of Punk Economics) is back (previous discussions here and here)
and this time he takes on the the flood of liquidity and the false
recovery that has been created. Starting with a discussion of gas prices
and the central banks' recklessness behind it, he
swiftly shifts to the 'shambles in Greece' where more debt is supposed
to solve the problem of too much debt yet again. From extreme highs in
Greek rates to extreme lows in rates among the major developed economies
he juggles with the conundrum of injecting liquidity to reflate a bubble in order to avoid the consequences of the bursting of a bubble
- brilliant (as those Guinness chaps would say) - as this merely pushes
the next crash out a few more years but making it bigger and more
devastating. Global Central banks have pumped $8.7tn
into the banking system to 'save the world'. Saving the banks has cost
more money than it cost to fight WWII, the first Gulf War, put a man on
the moon, clean up after last year's Japanese Tsunami, and the entire
African aid budget for the last 20 years all put together. Context is key
- is it any wonder asset prices have risen since there has been so much
cash looking for a new home - why hold something that is printed
everyday (cash) when you can hold something that is actually running out
like oil or gold. The punchline is what goes in must come out - and that means inflation - as the 'trip' of excess liquidity comes home to roost. Must watch. 
The one indicator which the Chinese Politburo can not fudge: power production and hence: demand, speaks volumes about the true state of China's economy.
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