$150 Silver Price, “This Will Happen,” Says Swiss Money Manager

by Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul, SilverBearCafe.com:
If there was ever a sleeper asset poised to moonshot, it is silver. And $150 is the target price for the white metal on this next major move higher, says Swiss money manager Egon von Greyerz.

“We could see those levels ($4,500 – $5,000 ongold) within a year and possibly much faster,” von Greyerz tells King World News, Thursday.”This autumn we are going to have a very strong move.

“If we look at silver, silver is going to move a lot faster than gold.The same technical target for silver is $150.That would move the gold/silver ratio down to 30/1.”

With PIMCO’s bond king Bill Gross going on the record today on CNBC, saying an open-ended quantitative easing program by the Fed is all but a “done deal”, silver investors can expect, not only a massive and unprecedented short squeeze in the silver market, but momentum traders and value-based accumulators hopping on board the silver bullet, as well—a veritable trifecta of rocket fuel presently under-appreciated by the casual investor, according to von Greyerz.
A move in the silver price, from $30 to $150, is “hard for investors to comprehend, but this will happen because we have had an energy building up in these markets for almost a year,” von Greyerz continues.
Read More @ SilverBearCafe.com

Ron Paul: "I Don't Fully Endorse Romney For President"

On the 'new' eve of the Republican Convention, it appears all is not well in the Romney-Ryan ranks. In what is quite a stunning admission, though not entirely surprising given his outspoken desire for a change to the status quo, the NY Times is reporting that Ron Paul does not fully endorse Romney for President. Mr. Paul, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted by the Romney campaign, and that he give a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Romney. He declined. "It wouldn't be my speech," Mr. Paul said. "That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president." Whether this is Paul playing an admirable 'long-game' and/or standing by his libertarian roots (or angry at his apparent marginalization) is unclear but one thing is for sure; with the dominance of 'young' voters (seeking 'change'?) behind Ron Paul relative to 'old' voters with Romney, this rebuff will not help in the fight against TOTUS. As BigStory reports, Paul is telling his supporters to stand firm because "we will become the tent eventually!"

The Rot Runs Deep 1: The Federal Reserve Is A Parasitic Wealth Transfer Machine

What do we call a power center that enables and enforces neofeudal exploitation and predation? We call it evil. The Federal Reserve is a force of evil that should be abolished at once. Its purpose - enabling and enforcing a neofeudal transfer of wealth from the productive many to the unproductive, parasitic few - is evil. Those within it are serving evil. Those who defend it are serving evil. Those who worship its power are serving evil. Those who mask its true nature are also serving evil. In a society and culture that has lost its moral compass, a culture of greed, self-serving lies and corrupt vested interests, the word "evil" has lost its power. It has been reduced to a cartoonish label, a cynic's smarmy joke.

Ron Paul Refused Romney’s Offer to Speak at GOP Convention

from, Activist Post
Many Ron Paul supporters and delegates have been very disappointed that Paul wasn’t given a prime time speaking slot at the upcoming GOP convention in Tampa.
However, it has been revealed by the New York Times today that Paul was indeed offered the opportunity to speak at the convention.  An offer which he turned down.
According to the New York Times, the Romney campaign offered the speaking slot on the condition that the speech was vetted and that Paul fully endorse Romney:

Mr. Paul, in an interview, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted by the Romney campaign, and that he give a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Romney. He declined. 

“It wouldn’t be my speech,” Mr. Paul said. “That would undo everything I’ve done in the last 30 years. I don’t fully endorse him for president.”

Paul’s statement also put to rest any speculation that he would be endorsing Romney for president in 2012.
Read More @ Activist Post

For Dexia, Third Bailout Will Be The Charm. They Promise

Bail me out once, shame on you; bail me twice, shame on me; shame on me; come back for a third (and final, we promise!) bailout, only a Franco-Belgian SNAFU is capable of such Einstein-ian repetition. Dexia, that stress-test-passing bastion of all things entirely wrong with European banking and politics is back at the trough. Reuters is reporting what we have known all along, that without massive additional capital injections the bad-bank, crap-bank model simply cannot work. To wit: Dexia needs to recap its Luxembourg unit (BIL) before its apparently 'imminent' sale to a Qatari sovereign wealth fund (one more billionaire sucker family born every day it seems). The somewhat comical aspect is that the post-October (the second - and final, we promise - bailout), BIL's 'legacy' bond portfolio was 'transferred' to its parent Dexia at December 2011 prices - creating a net loss of EUR1.9bn for the subsidiary. This significantly affected the sub's solvency - making it unlikely to meet its capital requirements (which it was 'sure' would be 9% Tier 1 by now!). But given Dexia's own extensive losses - EUR11.6bn in 2011 and EUR1.2bn in the first six months of 2012 - a capital increase for Dexia BIL may force Dexia to seek funds itself. That would mean mo' money, mo' bailout from the states currently guaranteeing its borrowings - principally Belgium and France, and to a lesser extent Luxembourg - which now look set to rise to EUR90bn in aggregate!

Pre-election America Reads In Red And Blue

If the following "heatmap" of readership political bent by state from Amazon is any indication of the votership inclination in the coming election, then Mitt Romney, more natural disasters notwithstanding, has nothing to worry about. Then again in the world of oxymorons, there are few quite as potent as "America Reads" (with the exception of the occasional money-losing Kindle for the aspirationally cool reader).

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On Sub-Pennying, 'Internalizers', And Why The Flash Crash Could Happen Any Second Of Any Day

Nanex's excellent and thorough analysis of sub-penny trade data doesn't support SEC's conclusions about internalizers as written in the final flash crash report. There is abundant evidence that internalizer software was acutely sensitive to the integrity of the consolidated feed and would switch off internal matching only if and only when the quote was crossed. Furthermore, short term volatility had little, if any impact on the number of sub-penny trades. About the only thing Nanex findings have in common with the SEC report on this matter, is that the date in question was May 6, 2010. This revelation, that internalizer software is sensitive to the integrity of the consolidated quote, means someone could manipulate the consolidated quote in order to cause internalizer software to reject valuable retail orders and spill them to dark pools or exchanges. This may explain the common micro-bursts of activity that occur throughout the trading day and cause a number of stocks to have crossed quotes in the consolidated feed - and implicitly open the broad market itself to these micro-bursts causing another flash crash.

Is Isaac The 'New' Katrina?

Tropical Storm Isaac has battered the hopes of an on-time departure of the Romney-Ryan express and now looks set to threaten New Orleans and the Gulf. Weather trackers are predicting an increase in intensity given its size and the storm's predicted paths are set to cross straight through the middle of the Gulf's oil production in a replay of the terrible August of Katrina (though we can only hope not as severe). All major rig operators are evacuating which leaves output notably down already. (via Bloomberg)
*U.S. SAYS 24%  OF OIL OUTPUT SHUT FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8.2% OF NATURAL GAS OUTPUT SHUT FOR ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 39 PLATFORMS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
*U.S. SAYS 8 RIGS EVACUATED FOR TROPICAL STORM ISAAC
and as a reminder - the average US retail gas price rose 75c during Katrina...

With Vacation Over, Europe Is Back To Square Minus One: Merkel Backs Weidmann, Demands Federalist State

Earlier today we showed for the nth time that with insanity and insolvency ravaging the old continent, at least one person has the temerity to avoid sticking his head in the sand of collectivist stupidity and denial. That person is Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann, who until now may or may not have had the backing of Germany's elected leader, Angela Merkel. Moments ago it became clear whose side Merkel, who recently came back from vacation and is set to spoil the party that the (insolvent) mice put together in her absence, is on. From Reuters, who quotes Merkel in her just released interview with German ARD: "I think it is good that Jens Weidmann warns the politicians again and again," Merkel said. "I support Jens Weidmann, and believe it is a good thing that he, as the head of the German Bundesbank, has much influence in the ECB."

Vive La Stagnation!

There was a time when the market at least pretended to be influenced by the economy. Alas, with the advent of officially endorsed central planning those days are gone. Which in turn may be the primary reason why so many retail investors, brought up on the myth that the market is efficient and anticipating the facts instead of, as it has now become all too clear, reactionary, and anticipating liquid release by central planning academics who have never held a real job in their entire lives, have left the rigged casino. So what's a status quo regime that needs the retail dumb money (which is anything but in the past three years) to do? The only thing it can do: lower expectations. Which is precisely what Goldman has done. Because apparently one no longer needs growth to justify insane multiples. All one needs is a, drumroll please, stagnation. That's right - all you need, apparently, to buy stocks is hope and prayer that the US economy can sustain its stagnant state, and all shall be well. Of course, with GDP rising at best at a 2% rate each year, even as the public debt soars at 4-5x times that level, stagnation may well be the best thing the US economy can hope for.

Empty Vaults! [With Jeff Nielson]

from Bigdad06:

Click HERE for Part 2

OMG, Tax Evasion In Switzerland! By The Swiss! But At Least It’s “Officially Silenced To Death”

by George Dorgan, Testosterone Pit.com:
The arm-wrestling between the US, Switzerland, and Swiss banks over funds that US citizens have stashed away in Swiss bank accounts has been going on for years to the point where the Swiss are now actually cracking down on US citizens, or at least aide them in circumnavigating the reporting requirements. In Germany, a similar fight has broken out, albeit with more consideration for the rich. Other governments, desperate for moolah, are also going after their own with funds in Switzerland. Turns out the Swiss themselves, long praised by their politicians for their tax compliance, do what others do: evade taxes—which is part of the human DNA. In Switzerland, however, it’s “officially silenced to death.”
Now Margret Kiener Nellen, Swiss National Council member, former President of the Finance Commission, and member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, has thrown down the gauntlet when she declared with some bravado, “The Federal Government, cantons, and municipalities are deprived annually of 18 billion.”
With bravado, because there aren’t any real numbers. And that’s part of the problem. To arrive at a number at all, she had to do her own calculations; neither the Federal Tax Administration (ESTV) nor the Finance Directors of the cantons have current estimates, laments Kiener Nellen. They purposefully don’t have them.
Read More @ TestosteronePit.com

U.S. ‘Prison Economy’ Secretly Grows

by Jeff Nielson, Bullion Bulls Canada:
In writing “The U.S. Prison-Cell Economy” five months ago, I was speaking at least somewhat in metaphorical terms. However, as Bloomberg reveals to us in a recent article, for more and more of Corporate America, a U.S. “prison economy” is already a very literal concept.
Before I delve further into the “great, new market” which Corporate America has discovered for itself; for those readers who didn’t peruse my original article let me briefly recap what inspired it. Every month, month after month, year after year; U.S. home-builders start construction on 50% to 100% more units than they sell. Yet (in totally perverse fashion) the propaganda machine claims that the inventories of U.S. new homes have been plummeting straight down – rather than shooting straight up (as directly implied by the starts and sales).
I then stated a simple/obvious conclusion. Either the official U.S. housing numbers were total fabrications; or, more than half of these “housing starts” were units which did not require a “sale” to an individual owner in order for the builder to be paid (since no builder can stay in business building twice as many units as they sell).
Read More @ BullionBullsCanada.com

US Markets are Rigged…So What?

by Chris Mayer, Daily Reckoning.com.au:
Great gobs of money continue to drain away from stock mutual funds. And even some big-name investors have put up the white flag. Louis Bacon famously gave back $2 billion to his investors a couple of weeks ago because, he says, he can’t figure the stock market out.
This has led some to say that the era of stocks is over. “The cult of equities is dying,” writes the oft-quoted Bill Gross, who manages money at Pimco. “Like a once bright-green aspen turning to subtle shades of yellow then red in the Colorado fall, investors’ impressions of ‘stocks for the long run’ or any run have mellowed as well.”
Well, maybe…
I’m with David Goldman, who writes in the Asia Times under the penname Spengler that Gross is only “half-right.” The market, as always, has its enthusiasms. He writes:

Visible and reliable cash flows trade at an unprecedented premium as bond yields collapse. Valuations of utility, tobacco, energy trust and other big dividend payers are stupidly rich and are likely to remain so. A sea change in equity valuations has put a premium on secure cash flows while amplifying the effect of uncertainty. It is possible to measure these changes by a number of statistical means, some direct, some indirect.
Goldman points to mining stocks, which are very uncertain and have returned a negative 24% in the last two years. Utilities, by contrast, are very stable. Utilities have returned 30% in the last two years. That’s very frustrating for those holding mining stocks.

Read More @ DailyReckoning.com.au

On Ben and Tampa

by Bruce Krasting, Bruce Krasting Blog:
Ben Speaks
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote a letter to  Ben Bernanke and Ben wrote back. The WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath covered the story (Link). Not surprisingly, Hilsenrath spins the exchange of letters as a triumph for Big Ben.
Bernanke defends the Fed’s efforts as well as he can. But in the absence of definitive information on the success of QE, ZIRP and Twist, the best Ben can do is argue, “it coulda been worse”:

“the Fed’s bond-buying of recent years has helped to promote a stronger recovery than otherwise would have occurred”

Really Ben? In the darkest days of 2008 and 2009 the Fed took actions that helped avoid a complete collapse. But there is very little evidence (if any) to support Bernanke’s claim since then.
There is one section in Bernanke’s letter that got to me. Issa asked if it were premature to consider additional monetary moves, Bernanke responded:

the Fed must make policy in light of a forecast of the future performance of the economy

Come on Ben, your economic crystal ball is cloudy. Want proof?
Read More @ BruceKrasting.blogspot.com

Kodak Sells Film Business: Company’s Silver Up For Grabs?

from Silver Vigilante:

Eastman Kodak announced Thursday that it is eyeing an end scene to its print film, photo paper, photo kiosk, commercial scanner, heavy-duty commercial scanners and corporate software divisions, as it looks to sell them. The move comes on the heels of chapter eleven bankruptcy this past spring, and as the business auctions off its portfolio of digital patents.  The move was expected, but not until the beginning of the year. The company said that it is selling a business unit which includes its “traditional photographic paper and still camera film products.“
At the time of its bankruptcy, Kodak said it had $5.1 billion worth in assets. How much of this $5.1 billion is in the $1 billion annual silver market?

Would Kodak be selling off silver reserves via their film division or any other divisions? Kodak recycles a lot of silver used in film. Is this a part of the film division?

It’d be easier to tell if their “Kodak Silver Refining and Film Recycling” page had content on it.

Kodak is shuttering in many ways right now, with big companies assisting its disassembly, as its’ patent auction kicked off this month with 1,000 digital patents up for grabs. Initial estimates of the market value for the patents was $2.6 billion, but Apple and Google opened bidding with an estimated $150-$250 million in options. Just last week, to be sure, rumors surfaced that the two “rivals” will conspire to acquire the patents at a wholesale price. Read More @ Silver Vigilante

Russia Plays Game of Arctic Roulette in Oil Exploration

by Benjamin Bidder, Matthias Schepp and Gerald Traufetter, Spiegel International:
Thawing sea ice and improved technology is opening up the race for natural resource exploration in the Arctic Circle, home to nearly a quarter of the world’s untapped oil reserves. Russia leads the race and has promised to adhere to environmental guidelines. But accidents and other damage resulting from the country’s oil exploration tell a different story.
The instruments hanging in the Russian city of Severodvinsk — one by the mayor’s office at Victory Square, two more at buildings belonging to the Disaster Prevention Agency — look like oversized clocks.
But rather than showing the time, they indicate radioactivity. They’re dosimeters, and they’re meant to reassure people here on Russia’s northwestern coast, in this city that serves as a home port for Russian nuclear submarines between their trips north into the seas. Less reassuring is the knowledge that just a year and a half ago, one of the submarines caught fire.
For decades, these fleets have been both a blessing and a curse in this region with little other infrastructure. The boats have provided jobs, but they have also brought with them the fear of a Chernobyl at sea. Now the region has another cause for hope, as well as a new source of danger: oil.
Read More @ Spiegel.de

Gold Prices Seen Rising Next Week, Survey Participants Say

by Debbie Carlson, Kitco:
After pushing through resistance at the $1,650 an ounce level, basis the December gold futures at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a majority of participants in the weekly Kitco News Gold Survey see gold prices building on the gains.
In the Kitco News Gold Survey, out of 32 participants, 24 responded this week. Of those 24 participants, 13 see prices up, while five see prices down, and six are neutral or see prices moving sideways. Market participants include bullion dealers, investment banks, futures traders, money managers and technical-chart analysts.
Those who see higher prices said momentum could push values up, with a trip to $1,700 possible. Also, gold might try to hold its firmer tone ahead of the Federal Reserve confab next week in Jackson Hole, Wyo., as gold bulls hope Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will tip his hand to show if there is any timeframe for possible stimulus. After this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes for August were released, gold price rallied on thoughts the Fed was inching closer to action.
Those who see weaker prices said they expect some sort of retracement after this week’s gains, especially if there are no soothing words from Bernanke.
Read More @ Kitco.com

Merkel and Hollande sidestep Greece’s plea for breathing space

Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande pledged to keep Greece in the eurozone, but offered Greece no immediate relief from its current regime of painful austerity measures.
by Rachel Cooper, and agencies, The Telegraph:
Francois Hollande, the French president, said that Greece must stay in the eurozone but must first prove it is determined to overhaul its economy so Europe can do its part and move on from the debt crisis.
Following talks with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, on Saturday, Mr Hollande said that “Greece is in the eurozone and Greece must stay in the eurozone”.
But, he cautioned: “It still has to demonstrate the credibility of its programme and the willingness of its leaders to go the whole way, while doing it in a way that is bearable for the population.”
“Once these commitments, which are not only financial but about structural reforms that the Greeks want, have been ratified by parliament and confirmed, Europe must do its part,” the French president added.
However, Mr Hollande side-stepped Greece’s request for more time to implement the harsh austerity measures its creditors insist upon.
As part of a €130bn bailout package from the EU and IMF, Greece has committed to sweeping reforms and some €11.5bn of cuts in 2013 and 2014. But, it is thought that Mr Samaras wants two more years to make the cuts.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk

Drones Won’t Patrol Tampa During RNC, Federal Authorities Say

from Jamal Thalji,Tampa Bay Times:

Federal officials say unmanned drones will not be patrolling downtown’s skies and streets during next week’s Republican National Convention.
A Naples company planned to outfit small unmanned helicopters and ground vehicles with cameras and operate them on behalf of unnamed government agencies during the convention, according to a report that ran in the Tampa Tribune on Friday and on its website, TBO.com.
The part of the story about aerial drones patrolling the RNC is “completely inaccurate,” Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said.
George Ogilvie, spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, which is overseeing security, released this statement: “The Secret Service is not aware of any drones being used for the security planning of the national special security event.”
Read More @ tampabay.com

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