Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Next One will be the Big One

by Greg Hunter, USAWatchdog:
I don’t see how anyone could say the financial system is stable.  The facts say it is anything but well-balanced and steady.  The Western world is in crisis with Europe leading the way over the financial cliff.   Pick a country in the EU.  France, Greece, Spain or Italy are all capable of causing the next financial panic.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard or read the word “collapse” in reporting on this spiraling financial crisis.  On Monday, German media giant Der Spiegel ran a headline that read “Investors Prepare for Euro Collapse.”  The story said, “Banks, companies and investors are preparing themselves for a collapse of the euro. Cross-border bank lending is falling, asset managers are shunning Europe and money is flowing into German real estate and bonds. The euro remains stable against the dollar because America has debt problems too. But unlike the euro, the dollar’s structure isn’t in doubt.”  (Click here for the complete Der Spiegel post.)   If the Euro goes down, the dollar will follow probably after a short spike.  This is just one of many recent examples of the fragility of the financial system.
There is too much debt and not enough growth or taxes to service it.  It’s the same problem almost everywhere on the planet.  Governments are just printing money to try and make the problem go away.  Egon von Greyerz, founder of Matterhorn Asset Management ($5 billion in assets), said this week, “This is why money printing is guaranteed in Europe, the US, UK and Japan. 
Read More @ USAWatchdog.com



BTFD...Keep Stacking...

If you have to own one precious metal buy silver not gold

by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, Silver Seek:
Veteran investor and an early spotter of the commodities bull market, Jim Rogers says if he could only invest in one precious metal this summer it would be silver. Why is that?
Silver prices are more volatile than gold. And over the past five years gold has actually been a slightly better performer. The central banks hold gold, not generally silver.
Money printing
As an investor you always look at two things: upside and downside potential. So if you are optimistic about the outlook for precious metals – and with all the central banks of the world with their fingers on the button to let the printing presses roll this is a logical conclusion – then does gold or silver have the most upside?
It does just have to be silver. Consider this: silver is the only major commodity not to have reached a new all-time high in this bull market; silver is still cheaper than it was 32 years ago, prices are astonishingly depressed.
Read More @ SilverSeek.com

 

$12,000 Gold, Paulson, Soros & A Coming Mania In The Shares

from KingWorldNews:

Today acclaimed money manager Stephen Leeb spoke with King World News about a coming move in gold to $12,000 and a mania in the gold shares. Leeb, who is Chairman of Leeb Capital Management, had this to say: “It’s already been reported that John Paulson and George Soros have just increased their gold holdings. Paulson, in particular, is really betting the house on gold. I believe gold now comprises 44% of Paulson’s fund. Soros, who also knows a thing or two about macro-economics, added a pretty big chunk to his gold holdings.
So we have some very savvy investors moving heavily into gold. We also have people like legendary value investor Seth Klarman, that are aggressively increasing their positions in the mining shares. Klarman’s firm has one of the best track records of any fund around for the last generation.
So whether investors are looking to buy gold or quality mining shares, it is important for them to know they are in good company….”
Leeb continues @ KingWorldNews.com

John Stossel Believes Ron Paul Will Be Placed Into Nomination At RNC

from matlarson10:




Federal Reserve Economists Warn About Municipal Bond Market

from Economic Policy Journal:
Although not coming out with a full warning about the municipal bond market, some New York Fed economists come pretty close to warning just that. It’s probably as far as these economists could go without getting fired.
Given this analysis along with the earlier analysis by these economists that (my bold):
 ….there has been some recovery in the state sector, but we expect that the hangover from the recession will affect both state and local governments and the economy for years to come. Some of the actions taken to address short-term funding needs can increase the severity of the long-term structural challenges that states and localities face, including underfunded pension plans and deficient infrastructure stocks. Until these challenges are successfully resolved, the state and local public sector may continue to be a drag on economic activity in the years ahead.
This is likely to be the closest you are going to get from the Federal Reserve itself that the municipal bond market is a minefield that investors stay away from. What’s most intriguing is that these economists show the graph which displays that 75% of municipal bonds are held either directly or through muni bond funds by individuals. Could they be suggesting that if muni defaults pick up there could be a run out of the muni bond market? As far as I am concerned, reading between the lines, that is exactly what they are saying.
Read More @ economicpolicyjournal.com.au



Why QE Is Not Working

Up until now we were a lone voice in the wilderness, with our "dry-humored" Transatlantic colleagues, working for a newspaper funded with Goldman Sachs advertisements, periodically mocking our "misunderstanding" of credit and money creation. We are now delighted that none other than one of the foremost opinions on all topics "shadow" stood up this week, and admitted that indeed, it is Zero Hedge whose view on money creation is the correct one. Behold several absolutely critical observations by Citi's Matt King. The same Matt King who a week before the collapse of Lehman wrote "Are The Brokers Broken" and explained to all those who had heretofore been reading and basing their understanding of finance on the above-mentioned Transatlantic newspaper, why everything they know about the modern financial system is wrong. Lehman filed for bankruptcy 12 days later. Unless and until this $3.8 trillion 'shadow banking' hole is plugged, one thing is certain: risk is not going anywhere.



Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF

by Jeff Nielson, SilverGoldBull:
For approximately three years; our governments, the banking cabal, and the Corporate Media have assured us that they knew the appropriate approach for fixing the economies that they had previously crippled with their own mismanagement. We were told that the key was to stomp on the Little People with “austerity” in order to continue making full interest payments to the Bond Parasites – at any/all costs.
Following three years of this continuous, uninterrupted failure; Greece has already defaulted on 75% of its debts, and its economy is totally destroyed. The UK, Spain, and Italy are all plummeting downward in suicide-spirals, where the more austerity these sadistic governments inflict upon their own people the worse their debt/deficit problems get. Ireland and Portugal are nearly in the same position.
Now in what may be the greatest economic “mea culpa” in history, we have the media admitting that this government/banking/propaganda-machine Troika has been wrong all along. They have been forced to acknowledge that Iceland’s approach to economic triage was the correct approach right from the beginning.
Read More @ SilverGoldBull



41 Years After The Death Of The Gold Standard, A Look At "How We Ended Up In This Economic Purgatory"

As we await the latest developments out of the Eurozone and Washington, JPMorgan's Kenneth Landon takes a moment to look back on this very important day in history. If you want to understand current events, then you first have to understand history. How did we get here? More specifically for financial markets, how did we end up in this mess -- this economic purgatory? This being August 15, 2012, students of the history of monetary economics no doubt are aware that this is the 41th Anniversary of the breakdown of Bretton Woods. It was on this day 41 years ago that President Nixon defaulted on the promise to exchange gold for paper dollars presented for exchange by foreign central banks. The crisis in confidence that we observe today resulted from cumulative effects of those measures.



Why SICK COWS Should Always Get The Axe


Two weeks ago we reported that as the market's fascination with the "get poor quick" schemes known as 3x levered ETFs fades away, the time for the next logical step, the death of levered ETFs, has arrived when Direxion announced that it is closing 9 3x levered ETFs, among which the Direxion Daily Healthcare Bear 3X Shares (SICK) and Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bear 3X Shares (COWS). For those curious why everyone should be delighted that such uberlevered, gambling-enabling abortions as SICK COWS should always get the axe, here is a visual explanation from Nanex.



Amerika is Toast: Labor Dept. to Stop Layoffs by Giving States $100 Million to Subsidize Payrolls

By Penny Starr, CNS News:
The Labor Department announced on Monday that it will be awarding almost $100 million in grant funding to states to prevent layoffs by allowing businesses to pay employees as part-time workers and the federal government will pick up the tab for the cost of a full-time paycheck.
The “work-sharing” program was passed as part of a Republican-led bill in the House, H.R. 3630, and Senate Amendment 1465 to extend the payroll tax deduction and unemployment benefits. In February 2012, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law, which included the $100 million in funding.
“Establishing or expanding work-sharing programs nationwide will help business owners better weather hard economic times by temporarily reducing their labor costs while still keeping their existing skilled employees,” Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said in the press release announcing the grants. “This program is a win-win for businesses and employees alike.”
Read More @ CNSnews.com



22 Stats That Show How The Emerging One World Economy Is Absolutely Killing American Workers

For decades our politicians have promised us that the “free trade” agenda would bring us greater prosperity than ever before. They insisted that merging our economy into the emerging one world economy would cause millions upon millions of new jobs to be added to the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, it was all a giant lie. Trading with other countries is not a bad thing as long as the level of trade is fairly equal on both sides. When trade becomes very unequal, the consequences can be absolutely catastrophic. Since 1975, the United States has bought more than 8 trillion dollars more stuff from the rest of the world than they have bought from us. We are the only economy on earth that could have had 8 trillion dollars drained out of it and still be standing. Instead of leaving the country, those 8 trillion dollars could have gone to U.S. businesses and U.S. workers. If we could go back and have a “do over”, how much more prosperous would we be today if we had kept that 8 trillion dollars inside the country?
Read More @ TheEconomicCollpaseBlog.com



Price of Ground Beef Hits Record High

By Terence P. Jeffrey, CNS News:
The average price of ground beef hit a record high in the United States in July, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS has been tracking the average price of a pound of 100% ground beef since 1984. In July, it cost $3.085, up from $3.007 in June.
Prior to June, the average cost of 100% ground beef in the United States had never topped $3.00.
In January 1984, the first month BLS tracked the price off 100% ground beef, the price was $1.29 per pound. Had that price merely tracked the rate of overall inflation, according to the BLS inflation calculator, it would have risen to $2.66 per pound by 2009, when President Obama took office. However, between 1984 and 2009, the average price for a pound of 100% ground beef did not increase as much as overall inflation. Thus, in January 2009, when Obama was inaugurated it was only $2.357.
Read More @ CNSnews.com



Why are Gold, Silver Mining Share Prices Not Moving Higher?

by Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold Seek:

This is perhaps one of the most asked questions among gold investors today. But the answer is not a simple one. It goes to the basics of which people invest in gold in the first place and what form of gold they buy. In this, the first of a two part article, we delve deeper into this subject.
Who Buys Gold?
It’s so easy to become short-sighted in the different facets of the gold market. In the U.S., it’s easy to believe that gold price rises seen since 2005 are due to either the economic outlook of the U.S. or the strength and weakness of the USD. There’s no doubt that in the short-term, gold price movements are driven by traders focused on the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro. But what gold are they buying?
The sophisticated trading operations and tools available in the developed world are able to discount such moves quickly and dramatically, seemingly providing such gold and silver price dominance. Looked at on a day-to-day basis, the evidence of such dominance is overwhelming. The volumes of gold bought and sold daily are enormous. But are they buying the sort of gold that moves the gold price?
Read More @ GoldSeek.com



Silver Update 8/15/12 Sleeping Sentinels

from BrotherJohnf:



The Real Face of the European Union – Preview of a North American Union?

from JudgeNapolitanoFTW :

In this documentary featuring members of the EU Parliament and other EU analysts, producer Phillip Day covers the history and goals of the European Union, as well as the disturbing, irrevocable implications the EU continental government has for every British citizen. With a similar process unfolding in America, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Americans and Canadians are starting to ask themselves if their elected officials should be allowed to go down the same path, and create a North American Union.

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Obama’s Illegal Immigrant ‘Dream Relief’ a HUGE Hit in Chicago

As many as 50,000 undocumented immigrants lined up for the program, according to estimates
By Anthony Ponce and Michelle Relerford, CNS News:
The turnout for Wednesday’s Dream Relief workshop in Chicago was so strong that organizers began turning people away.
The line of undocumented students wrapped around Navy Pier and at one point across the Chicago River to apply for deferred action to allow them, at least in the short-term, not to worry about deportation. As many as 50,000 lined up for the program, according to estimates.
Following a major immigration policy change about two months ago, the Dream Relief workshop helps children who were illegally brought into the United States apply for a work permit and even a driver’s license.
Five thousand people initially signed up for the workshop, and as the 9 a.m. start time came and went, the crowds kept filing toward the lake. Organizers said they would be able to provide full services for 1,500 people today and partial services to another 6,000.
The new policy announced by President Barack Obama this summer took effect Wednesday and will allow more than 75,000 young undocumented immigrants in Illinois and 1.7 million across the country the temporary right to live and work openly in the United States.
Read More @ CNSnews.com



The Mississippi River Is Drying Up

from Michael Snyder,, Activist Post

The worst drought in more than 50 years is having a devastating impact on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi has become very thin and very narrow, and if it keeps on dropping there is a very real possibility that all river traffic could get shut down. And considering the fact that approximately 60 percent of our grain, 22 percent of our oil and natural gas, and and one-fifth of our coal travel down the Mississippi River, that would be absolutely crippling for our economy.
It has been estimated that if all Mississippi River traffic was stopped that it would cost the U.S. economy 300 million dollars a day. So far most of the media coverage of this historic drought has focused on the impact that it is having on farmers and ranchers, but the health of the Mississippi River is also absolutely crucial to the economic success of this nation, and right now the Mississippi is in incredibly bad shape. In some areas the river is already 20 feet below normal and the water is expected to continue to drop. If we have another 12 months of weather ahead of us similar to what we have seen over the last 12 months then the mighty Mississippi is going to be a complete and total disaster zone by this time next year.
Unfortunately, vast stretches of the Mississippi are already dangerously low. The following is an excerpt from a transcript of a CNN report that aired on August 14th….
You might think this is some kind of desert just outside of Memphis. It’s not. I’m actually standing on the exposed bottom of the Mississippi River. That’s how dramatic the drought impact is being felt here. Hard to believe, a year ago we were talking about record flooding.
Read More @ Activist Post



The INSANITY of More War: Israeli minister warns of 30-day war with Iran

A strike on Iran’s nuclear sites would spark a 30-day war with missile attacks on Israel’s cities and as many as 500 dead, according to the Israeli minister responsible for preparing home defences.
from, The Telegraph:
Matan Vilnai, who is stepping down as home front defence minister to become ambassador to China, said the country was “ready as never before”.
“The assessments are for a war that will last 30 days on a number of fronts,” he told the Maariv newspaper.
“It could be that there will be less fatalities, but it could be there will be more, that is the scenario that we are preparing for according to the best experts.”
Speculation is growing that Israel is planning a unilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear programme – or that it is using the question to increase pressure on Barack Obama to launch an American strike.
Western governments share the fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions but oppose military action and want to give more time to diplomacy.
Read More @ Telegraph.co.uk



Ammo? What Ammo? DHS Takes Unprecedented Step of REDACTING Mass Ammunition Purchase

by Mac Slavo, SHTFPlan:

One possible reason behind why DHS is now trying to erase any record of how much ammunition they are purchasing is newly proposed legislation in California that would red flag anyone who purchases more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in a five (5) day period. Perhaps Homeland Security’s redaction is an effort to stay off the red list (of which so many of our readers are certainly now members of).
All kidding aside, there must be something to this.
For what reason would a public agency redact a public purchase order without the approval of Congress? Perhaps there is already a national security issue in place that we have not yet been made aware of. As DHS notes in their order, there is an “unusual and compelling urgency” to purchasing this ammunition.
Apparently the one billion rounds already purchased in the last twelve months isn’t enough and Homeland Security is planning on running out. Either they’ve been doing some serious target shooting across the country to burn through that much ammo, or they plan on using it soon and expect that a billion just isn’t going to cut it. What could possibly be so urgent that they are running low given how much they have already stockpiled?
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com



U.S. Rep Timothy Huelskamp: “I think GMO’s are perfectly safe”

[Ed. Note: To our friends in Kansas, vote this Monsanto-bag-carrying idiot out. please.]
from WeAreChange:

Kansas Representative Timothy Huelskamp gets asked by WeAreChange correspondent Julio N Rausseo about if he favors labeling genetically modified food or not.



Richard Duncan on Riding out this Depression on a Deflationary Debt Raft!


Welcome to Capital Account. As the economic crisis unfolds, and we see evidence of ‘crony-capitalism’ and ‘corportasim’, we wonder if capitalism even still exists. Our guest, Richard Duncan, believes we live in a system he calls ‘creditism.’ He has flown half-way around the world from Thailand, to explain to us why he fears civilization could not survive a true crisis of ‘creditism’.
Also, billionaires George Soros and John Paulson have increased their holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, according to an SEC filing yesterday. We talk to Richard Duncan, Chief Economist for Blackhorse Asset Management, about the future of gold as a monetary metal and how the abandonment of the gold standard has fostered a boom in credit and debt that may not longer be sustainable. The choice could be one of devastating inflationary fires, or freezing deflationary ice!
And as the US continues to run trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits, the question remains how long can this continue? While China has slowly unloaded US debt, Japan has stepped in as a creditor. We discuss this with Richard Duncan, author of “The New Great Depression, The Breakdown of the Paper Money Economy.”



Must Share... Sheeplez Wake Up Juice: “What is the Fed’s Future?” with Roger Garrison

Part 3 of Ron Paul’s Fed Lecture Series
from CongressmanRonPaul:

Rep. Ron Paul sponsored this Congressional lecture on “What Is the Fed’s Future?”, the final lecture in a three part series on the Federal Reserve System for Congressional staff. As a continuing educational tool this lecture was filmed and is provided to the public. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Roger Garrison, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Auburn University.
Dr. Garrison’s lecture describes how the economic precepts on which the Fed operates are fundamentally flawed, making it only a matter of time before the Fed is the creator of its own demise. By contrasting the Keynesian macroeconomic theory upon which the Fed is based with the Austrian macroeconomic theory, what Garrison calls the capital-based framework, Dr. Garrison illustrates the market-distorting effects of the Fed’s actions on the structure of production. Using this comparison, Professor Garrison provides a simple yet comprehensive explanation of how the Fed’s monetary policy actions created the housing bubble and the subsequent financial crisis. He concludes by highlighting the bleak future for the Fed’s ability to manage the economy, and emphasizes the necessity of decentralized banking.



Silver Investor Holdings Hit RECORDS! (David Morgan KITCO EXCLUSIVE)

from silverguru:



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