Silver Buying Can Lead To A Broader Range Of Wealth

from Silver-coin-investor:

Silver buying is fast becoming a way for regular folks to keep some wealth on the sidelines – and out of harms way. Many of us have learned hard lessons through the recent economic troubles experienced by countries around the globe. Diversification and concentrating our resources on solid assets, such as precious metals, is key to pulling out of the quagmire that this recession has left many in.
Silver Buying VS. FIAT Investment
Silver bullion has been traded and exchanged for valued goods throughout history. It remains today the durable element it has always been. Fiat, known as paper currency that has been authorized by governments through edicts, cannot hold its own against precious metal.
Read More @ silver-coin-investor.com

Confusing Money for Value

by Dan & Sheila, SHTFPlan:

You should have seen us when we wore Rolexes, big diamonds and the latest fashions.  You should have seen our 3000 sq. ft. house that required a full-time housekeeper and gardeners, not to mention the electric, phone and water bills.  You should have seen my long, weekly manicured fingernails and perfectly coiffed hair.  You should have seen the Cadillacs we drove.   It was the image of monetary wealth – unfortunately, all too often confused with real value.
You wouldn’t have known we were people who could be happy in a 1 bedroom cinderblock house in which we must keep a fire going in order to stay warm.  That is, of course, unless you chose to look under the surface.  All that opulence never impressed us, even though it was never bought on credit but with money we had worked our buns off to make.  It was just a tool we used to get ourselves to our goal – a self-sufficient, off-grid survivalist retreat.
Read More @ SHTFPlan.com

The CFTC Exposed – Office Series 19

from BrotherJohnf:

Weekend Reading: John Henry Newman and the Significance of the Individual

 

Greek Bad Loans Climb To Record 25% Of Total

It appears that in the past few weeks, the number 25% is strange attractor of bad luck for Greece. First, a month ago we learned that Greek unemployment has for the first time ever reached 25%. Now we get to see the income statement and balance sheet manifestation of a society in socioeconomic collapse - Kathimerini reports that Greek bad loans, or those which haven't seen a payment made in over 3 months, have hit a record €57 billion, or 25% of all bank debt. "With one in every four loans not being repaid for more than three months, the bank system is feeling the pressure, leading to additional capital requirements that are expected to aggravate the state debt further." That was Kathimerini's spin. The reality is that just like in Spain, where between bad loans and deposit outflows, the country has become a protectorate of the ECB, which is now fully in control of its banking system, so too in Greece Mario Draghi's tentacles are now in every bank office. Should Greece repeat the festivities of this summer and threaten to pull out of the Eurozone, the ECB will merely in turn threaten to push the red button and cut off all cash to terminally insolvent Greek banks, which of course would also mean a total halt of all deposit outflow activity. So instead what will happen is the ongoing rise in unemployment, and the increase in bad loans as percent of total, until one day the economy, even with all the money in the world pumped into it from Frankfurt, will no longer move. That day is getting very close.

Judges to Review Constitutionality of NDAA Military Detention Legislation

from TheRealNews:

 

IMF keeps pretending it had to sell gold to help poor countries. …

by Sandrine Rastello, GATA:
… as if its member central banks aren’t in the business of just printing money.
The International Monetary Fund said today it agreed to distribute $2.7 billion in windfall profits from gold sales to subsidize loans to poor countries.
The IMF’s 188 members will receive a payment in proportion to their weight within the institution, the IMF said in an e-mailed statement today. As a pre-condition, countries must give assurances that they’ll make at least 90 percent of the $2.7 billion available to a trust fund that lends to low-income countries at zero interest rates.
“The strategy endorsed today by the executive board ensures the IMF is better positioned to help our low-income members absorb future shocks and underpin their efforts to achieve stronger and sustainable economic growth,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in the statement.
Read More @ GATA.org

Downside: After the Returns Stop Diminishing II

by Bill Bonner, Daily Reckoning.com.au:

“You can’t be too safe,” is an expression you hear from time to time. The government takes it upon itself to protect its citizens. It suggests that you can’t spend too much on military preparedness and that defense is too important to be left to popular preference. Leaders think they know better; they insist.
But is military spending really not subject to declining marginal utility? And what happens after even the marginal returns are gone?
Germany’s experience in WWII shows what you can get from ‘too much’ military spending; it was almost pure downside. But it was not obvious at first. Central planning can do a good job of imitating real progress – at least in the short run.
And in the ’30s, Germany’s economy began to look a lot like a success. Factories – reacting largely to orders from the military – began to recruit more labor. At the same time, the ranks of the army grew, removing able men from the workforce.
Click here for Part 1
Read More @ DailyReckoning.com.au

Skimming Profits Off Bad Loans: Bankers And Their Dirty Tricks

by Mike Whitney, Global Research:
Didn’t Ben Bernanke promise that another round of bond purchases would lower unemployment and boost economic growth?
We think he did, which is why we’re wondering why all the benefits from QE3 appear to be going to the banks. According to Bloomberg News:
“The Federal Reserve’s latest mortgage bond purchases so far are helping profit margins at lenders including Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) more than homebuyers and property owners looking to refinance…Since the Fed’s Sept. 13 announcement that it would buy $40 billion more securities per month, the rates offered for new 30- year loans have fallen by just 0.11 percentage point, compared with a drop of more than 0.6 percentage point for yields on the bonds into which the loans get packaged.” (“Fed Helps Lenders’ Profit More Than Homebuyers:Mortgages”, Bloomberg)
Well, how do you like that? That means that Mr. Bernanke’s trickle down monetary theories aren’t really working at all. Instead of the savings being passed along to homeowners in the form of lower rates, the banks are juicing profits by taking a bigger share for themselves. Who could have known?
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca

IMF completes $3.8 billion Gold profit distribution

from Bullion Street:
Six months after allocating the first part of profits from the 2009-10 403.3 tons gold sales to member country’s, IMF agreed to release the remaining $2.7 billion to boost financing to low-income countries.
According to a statement, IMF said it’s executive board earmarked the money for the global lender’s concessional lending program, the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
The IMF earlier earmarked the release the total $3.8 billion windfall from the gold sales to it’s 188 member country’s and released the first part of $1.1 billion in March.
The statement said the distribution of the windfall profits will occur only when members have given satisfactory assurances that an amount equivalent to at least 90 percent of the distribution will be made available to the PRGT.
Read More @ BullionStreet.com

The WTO Dictates Sell-Offs of American Infrastructure – But Obama Stops a Deal For First Time in 22 Years

from MOXNEWSd0tC0M via, TheSONSOFLIBERTYMC:

World Trade Organization Controls Sell-offs of America Infrastructure … Unless OBAMA saves the day? It’s the FIRST time in 22 years that a U.S. President blocked such a “foreign business deal”.

The New Stoics

by David Galland, Casey Research:
My Introduction to Stoicism
In my last column, on September 14, I mentioned a young genius who attended our Carlsbad Summit with her father. As you may recall, she entered MIT at 14 years old and graduated at 17, winning a highly contested Thiel Fellowship along the way.
As some of you have asked, and it’s readily available in the public domain, her name is Laura Deming, and it’s her personal mission to find cures for aging and to commercialize any discoveries. (You can watch a video profile of Laura and her work on the Thiel Fellowship site).
In any event, following up on a conversation I had had with Laura at our Summit, I reached out to her father, and a warm and interesting correspondence quickly developed.
In the course of our correspondence, John sent me the unedited text of an interview he did with the New York Times titled “Educating Laura” (FYI, she was homeschooled). In that interview and in subsequent emails, John mentioned the positive impact his reading of the stoic philosophers has had on how he views the world. Paraphrasing, his exposure to stoicism has helped him to greatly reduce what he worries about and, as a consequence, live a far more relaxed and contented existence.
Read More @ CaseyResearch.com

Iran’s Imminent Nuclear Weapon

Here’s some context behind the claims that Iran will imminently possess a nuclear weapon.

US Nuclear 'Fort Knox' Cracked By 82-Year-Old Nun

It's the weekend so forgive us this modest sidetrack but this 'Onion-esque' story was just too good to ignore.The company at the center of the Olympics' security debacle, G4S (whose directors resigned just yesterday over the "humiliating shambles") has gone one better. As Reuters reports, Megan Rice - an 82-year-old nun - cut perimeter fences and reached the outer wall where enriched uranium was stored at the US Government's nuclear storage 'Fort Knox' in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Can you guess who was responsible for the 'outsourced' security that enabled this SNAFU? G4S' subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W). Energy Secretary Steven Chu has said the incident was an important "wake-up call" for the entire nuclear complex. An investigation last month found a security camera had been broken for about six months and was part of a backlog of repairs needed for security at the facility. Several top-ranking NNSA officials have been 'reassigned' (Gulag?) but have no fear as B&W have stated that the active union workers involved will all be employed elsewhere. One more example of the ineptitude of government oversight, the unintended consequence of crony capitalism, or simply another 'fool-me-once...'/unpunished debacle?

Some "Curious" US And French Military Deployments

Regular readers are aware that periodically, usually weekly, Zero Hedge presents critical naval updates demonstrating the positioning of key US maritime assets, primarily strategic aircraft carriers. The location of these indicates far more what US foreign policy is focused on at any moment, than propaganda distributed for general consumption via the coopted media. Today, however, instead of focusing on aircraft carriers, using Stratfor analysis, we present several broad "curious" US and French military developments.

How Bad Was The Great Depression?

To properly understand the events of the time (and to put them in today's context), we believe, like the FEE, that it is factually appropriate to view the Great Depression as not one, but four consecutive downturns rolled into one. These four “phases” are: I. Monetary Policy and the Business Cycle; II. The Disintegration of the World Economy; III. The New Deal; IV. The Wagner Act. The first phase covers why the crash of 1929 happened in the first place; the other three show how government intervention worsened it and kept the economy in a stupor for over a decade. The following brief clip and article shine a light on how bad things were and what was done in the name of 'helping' - there are many shocking analogies for current government-inspired acts from taxation to protectionism to money-supply 'tricks'. Everyone has heard the sage observation of philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It’s a warning we should not fail to heed.

In The News Today

September 28, 2012, at 8:28 pm
by Jim Sinclair

My Dear Friends,

Please copy this and post it nearby. Today MSM would have you believe this is not so. It is so.
When Draghi, President of the ECB, says QE to infinity he is not kidding. Any thought that he does not have the fire power only needs to refer to this article and say the word SWAPS.
Jim

Plosser Says Fed is Prepared to Respond to Europe Crisis By Jeff Kearns and Tom Keene – Sep 27, 2012 9:33 AM ET
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said policy makers are monitoring Europe’s debt crisis and are prepared to act should officials in the region prove unable to contain its spread.
“The Fed is watching Europe very carefully and the consequences of that, how that will play out if Europe suffers a financial crisis for some reason,” Plosser said today in a “Bloomberg Surveillance” television interview with Tom Keene and Sara Eisen. “We are prepared to respond.”
Charles Plosser, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, also reiterated comments from his Sept. 25 speech in which he said new bond buying announced by the Fed this month probably won’t boost growth or hiring and may jeopardize the central bank’s credibility. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Spanish 10-year bond yields rose above 6 percent yesterday, climbing by the most in two months, as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy defied anti-austerity protesters with a plan to cut the deficit by at least 18 billion euros ($23.2 billion) next year. Police in Athens dispersed protesters with tear gas this week.
Plosser also reiterated comments from his Sept. 25 speech in which he said new bond buying announced by the Fed this month probably won’t boost growth or hiring and may jeopardize the central bank’s credibility. Policy makers said Sept. 13 that they’ll begin a third round of quantitative easing by purchasing mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month until labor markets “improve substantially.”
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

This does raise a significant problem for the manipulators that seek to shake you out of your positions to build up theirs.
The most dollars gained in gold in the shortest period of time is just in front of us.

South African Truckers Swell Strikers in Country to 100,000 By Carli Cooke – Sep 27, 2012 12:37 PM ET
South African truckers swelled the ranks of workers on strike to almost 100,000, escalating a conflict with mine owners and police that has shut 39 percent of the nation’s gold production and led to 46 deaths.
“This truck drivers’ protest has been accompanied by serious provocations, intimidations, public violence and even elements of criminality,” Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said today in a statement. Workers must refrain from intimidating and assaulting those still working, or destroying property, he said.
Miners have been emboldened to bypass union-led talks and make pay demands directly to management after Lonmin Plc last week awarded platinum workers a record increase of as much as 22 percent. Photographer: Alexander Joe/AFP/GettyImages
Security forces yesterday fired rubber bullets at strikers at a factory in Howick, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa Regional Secretary Mbuso Ngubane said today by mobile phone. About 20,000 transportation industry workers are on strike, the South African Press Association reported today.
Wildcat strikes have spread as workers sidelined traditional representatives for negotiating with management including the National Union of Mineworkers, a backer of the governing political party. Julius Malema, expelled by the ruling African National Congress, has called for workers to disrupt mines and the state to take over the operations.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Oh my goodness. Without position limits in today world, as a sea of liquidity, the potential of commodity markets to be wild is yet untapped. Look very carefully at who the plaintiff in this action is.

Dramatic Federal Court Ruling Vacates CFTC Positions Limit Rule 9/28/2012 @ 3:39PM
In International Swaps And Derivatives Association, et al., Plaintiffs, v. United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Defendant (D. Col., 11-cv-2146 (RLW), September 28, 2012), Plaintiffs International Swaps And Derivatives Association (“ISDA”) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) challenged Defendant CFTC’s recent rule that set position limits on derivatives tied to 28 physical commodities. See, Position Limits for Futures and Swaps, 76 Fed. Reg. 71,626 (Nov. 18, 2011) (“Position Limits Rule”), promulgated pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010) (“Dodd-Frank”). The proposed rule was controversial from its inception and the CFTC passed it by a vote of only 3 (Gensler, Chilton and Dunn) versus 2 (Sommers and O’Malia) on October 18, 2011.
Plaintiffs asserted that the CFTC misinterpreted its statutory authority under the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 (“CEA”) when it promulgated the Position Limits Rule and, accordingly, there was an incorrect and impermissible interpretation of the statute at issue. In framing the issue for its consideration, the Court stated on page 10 of its Opinion:
This case largely turns on whether the CFTC, in promulgating the Position Limits Rule, correctly interpreted Section 6a as amended by Dodd-Frank. Although both sides forcefully argue that the statute is clear and unambiguous, their respective interpretations lead to two very different results: one which mandates the Commission to set position limits without regard to whether they are necessary or appropriate, and one which requires the Commission to find such limits are necessary and appropriate before imposing them.
The Court granted Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment thereby vacating the Positions Limit Rule and remanding the matter back to the CFTC.
As a threshold finding, the Court early on telegraphed the direction of its ultimate holding. For example, on pages 17 and 18 of the Opinion, we are told that:
Accordingly, the Court concludes that § 6a(a)(1) unambiguously requires that, prior to imposing position limits, the Commission find that position limits are necessary to “diminish, eliminate, or prevent” the burden described in Section 6a(a)(1).
More…



My Dear Extended Family,

A day in gold, as today, is simply a redo of MSM induced action in the euro to benefit major trading banks.
Today’s airwave focus is on Spain with the normal will they, or will they not get bailed out by non economic demand for their bond market, both as banks and as countries.
The euro and gold backed off with the dollar putting on a little strength.
I think that we will only get down to real market business when MSM runs out of weak Euroland members on which they can play out this daily scenario and/or the game is overplayed someday very soon.
What you need to understand is the Fed is not kidding about QE to infinity, and the Fed backs up the ECB which is not trying for a joke when it is said that whatever is required will be provided.
It almost seems like a limo driver delivers a flash drive by hand to a selected money bunny waiting outside of the studio of financial TV each AM that contains the daily scenario for the airwaves.
The market seems to be less impacted by the daily din of above. Soon markets will not react to this daily farce as it becomes clear that whatever is required here and there will be provided to infinity.
Neither Bernanke nor Draghi are stand up comedians. Believe them. QE to infinity is here and real. Denial is media madness.
The impact of QE practiced in the entire Western Financial world will be colossal everywhere it emanates. That will transmit soon, and gold is going to and through $3500.
Enjoy your weekend and don’t think about this stuff. My problem is that I have no off switch, ever.
Regards,
Jim


Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

The financial times reports to us that in the last quarter Moody’s downgraded more than 300 municipalities. That is a fact that has gotten limited exposure in MSM. If you can hide the facts the public will not be disturbed is the basis of MOPE. There is no way to hide from the tide of dissolution that has been inherent in the downward spiral of the 2000s reflected in the rise of gold as Honest Money. It is this attempt to constantly paint all events as positive that has given us a prolonged bull market in gold as the dissolution continues. No downward spiral, be it drugs or finance, can be corrected without perfectly focused intervention. In economics that is fiscal stimulation that seems to be only in China. In the USA all the components of budget deficit prevents fiscal stimulation. War, entitlements and over-much spending has prevented the most powerful of stimulants for the US economy, which are fiscal.



Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

So much for the ability of central planners to run a business, or for that matter plan well.

Postal Service to default on second $5B payment Published September 28, 2012
The U.S. Postal Service, on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment it can’t afford to pay, is sounding a new cautionary note that having squeezed out all the cost savings within its power, the mail agency’s viability now lies almost entirely with Congress.
In an interview, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix.
For more than a year, the Postal Service has been seeking legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce its $5 billion annual payment for future retiree health benefits. Since the House failed to act, the post office says it’s been seeking to reassure anxious customers that service will not be disrupted, even with cash levels running perilously low.
"Absolutely, we would be profitable right now," Donahoe told The Associated Press, when asked whether congressional delays were to blame for much of the postal losses, expected to reach a record $15 billion this year.
He said the two missed payments totaling $11.1 billion for future retiree health benefits — payments ordered by Congress in 2006 that no other government agency or business is required to make — along with similar expenses make up the bulk of the annual loss. The remainder is nearly $3 billion in losses, he said, which would have been offset by savings if the service had been allowed to move to five-day mail delivery.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Reverend Edward Everett Hale vs. the U.S. Senate, when asked if he prayed for the Senators.





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Watch how China stimulates because they can afford to adopt fiscal measures.
In today’s world, fiscal stimulus in China will favor China’s recovery before that of the West, which is constrained to monetary stimulus.
How China stimulates is more important than if China will stimulate.

Emerging Stocks Rise on China Stimulus Speculation By Robert Brand and Shikhar Balwani on September 27, 2012
Emerging-market stocks rebounded from a two-week low as commodities rallied on speculation China will do more to support economic growth and bolster equities.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.8 percent to 998.36 at 5:26 p.m. in New York, its first gain in four days. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong climbed 1.5 percent as Citic Securities Co. (6030), China’s biggest listed brokerage, jumped on speculation the government will take steps to boost the stock market. Equity gauges in Colombia and Hungary surged more than 1 percent.
The Shanghai Securities News reported that there is speculation the China Securities Regulatory Commission will announce market-boosting measures. Spanish protesters marched in Madrid this week as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy presented a package of budget cuts. Orders for U.S. durable goods fell.
“China is the last major economy where you can see significant easing go on as Europe can’t do too much more and nor can America,” Gavin Redknap, an emerging-markets strategist at Nikko Asset Management, said by phone from London. “The market will seize any good news we hear from China.”
Commodities Gain
The S&P GSCI index of raw materials advanced. Copper for delivery in three months rose in London on speculation stimulus measures in China, the largest consumer of the metal, will boost demand. Crude oil rallied. The Russian ruble and Indian Rupee gained.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Whatever is required will be provided.
This is chump change in a bailout world

Spain’s Banks Need $77 Billion, as Expected: Stress Tests Published: Friday, 28 Sep 2012 | 12:12 PM ET
By: Reuters with CNBC.com
Spanish banks need around 60 billion euros ($77 billion) to return to health, an independent audit showed Friday, in line with expectations.
However, the amount Madrid finally taps from a credit line already agreed with the European Union for recapitalizing banks will be significantly less thanks to a series of other measures, a government source said.
Spain, the euro zone’s fourth largest economy, replaced Greece, Ireland and Portugal earlier this year as the main threat to the survival of the euro currency project.
Battered by a deep recession, mass-unemployment, indebted regions and crippled banks after a decade-long boom fuelled by a property bubble ended abruptly in 2007, the country secured the 100-billion-euro European lifeline for the banks in June, and has since then quietly laid the ground for a state bailout.
Both the 2013 budget presented on Thursday and results of the audit of Spain’s 14 main banks by consultancy Oliver Wyman are necessary steps for Madrid to request sovereign aid and trigger a bond-buying program by the European Central Bank.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos and banking executives said last week that the audit findings would be in line with preliminary estimates of 62 billion euros in capital needs for the banks, published in June.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Soon it will start to be recognized that QE really means business. Then that business will be recognized as colossal.
Gold will trade at and above $3500.

What Does QE3 Mean For The Gold Price?
Ben Bernanke recently announced QE3. It is estimated by Bank of America that the Federal Reserve balance sheet will go to $5 trillion in two years from now (end of 2014). If we know that the Federal Reserve balance sheet will go to $5 trillion in two years from now, I want to point out what this means to the U.S. dollar denominated in gold (GLD). How much depreciation in the U.S. dollar can investors expect due to QE3? For the answer we, need to take a look at the money supply measures of M0 and M1.

(click to enlarge)

Chart 1: Federal Reserve Balance Sheet

(click to enlarge)

Chart 2: Currency in Circulation

(click to enlarge)

Chart 3: Base Money (M0)

On Chart 1 we see the current Federal Reserve Balance Sheet, and this balance sheet correlates to base money M0 (Chart 3). M0 (or monetary base) is basically the U.S. dollars and coins in your wallet (Chart 2) (biggest part of M0 namely "currency in circulation") (not in the bank) + deposits held by depository institutions at Federal Reserve Banks.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

The deal is simple. The US Fed buys rotten mortgage paper from the banks. The banks put those funds in Treasury instruments. Voila! Debt monetization via a stooge.





Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

This speaks for itself.

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