tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post5579752002327494062..comments2023-10-28T17:54:39.467-06:00Comments on The Golden Truth: "It's Worse Than You Think"Dave in Denverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-44663455806467696712013-12-14T10:23:01.120-07:002013-12-14T10:23:01.120-07:00Re BitCoin
What is your take on BitCoin?
And, BitC...Re BitCoin<br />What is your take on BitCoin?<br />And, BitCoin vs Gold and Silver?<br />Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-90945734218161160722013-12-04T10:37:39.546-07:002013-12-04T10:37:39.546-07:00Dave , All the more reason to be owning the physic...Dave , All the more reason to be owning the physical metals , both gold and silver , aye ?!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-82298243626447406912013-12-04T10:31:28.026-07:002013-12-04T10:31:28.026-07:00“Implicit” Government Guarantees To Bail Out Bank ...“Implicit” Government Guarantees To Bail Out Bank Creditors Tighten Their Grip On US Taxpayers <br /><br />The bailout of investors has created, he said, “two mutually reinforcing expectations”:<br /><br /> First, many financial institution creditors feel protected by an implicit government commitment of support should the institution face financial distress. This belief dampens creditors’ attention to risk and makes debt financing artificially cheap for borrowing firms, leading to excessive leverage.<br /><br />In its 2013 estimate, using 2011 data, the Richmond Fed found that there were $44.5 trillion in total liabilities in the financial system, such as bank deposits and bonds. Of them, $10.6 trillion (23.8%) carried explicit guarantees, such as FDIC deposit insurance. And a stunning $14.83 trillion (33.4%) carried implicit guarantees. Unlike FDIC insurance, these guarantees are issued for free to the beneficiary, and when they come due during a bailout, all Americans are forced to pay, through either government or Fed action, to protect the wealth of the creditors. These implicit guarantees in 2011 amounted to 97% of GDP!<br /><br />They have done nothing but balloon. The Richmond Fed’s first estimate, using 1999 data, found that implicit guarantees amounted to $3.4 trillion (18% of the liabilities in the financial system). A mere 27.6% of GDP. Another screaming data point – as if we needed anymore – in how Wall Street’s risks have been wrapping their ever larger tentacles around the US economy and the taxpayer.<br /><br />How could this happen? How could these expectations of creditor bailouts balloon so fast so much? Who encouraged it? Well, the Fed and the government. “Through gradual accretion of precedents,” Lacker explained. One bailout followed by a bigger one, followed by an even bigger one, etc., followed by the massive bailouts during the financial crisis. It has been going on for four decades, he said.<br /><br />While these implicit guarantees have altered risk-taking on Wall Street, banks have become fewer and bigger. In the mid-1980s, there were over 18,000 federally insured banks. Now there are 6,891. Of the goners, 17% collapsed; the rest were mergers and consolidations, based on FDIC data cited by the Wall Street Journal.<br /><br />Of the survivors, 98.6% are banks with $10 billion or less in assets that control 12% of all assets in the banking industry. Then there are 70 regional banks with up to $250 billion in assets. They make up 1.2% of all banks but control 19% of all bank assets. Should any of them fail, it would entail private-sector losses and ownership changes with minimal governmental intervention. And then there are 12 megabanks – 0.17% of all banks that control 69% of the banking assets!<br /><br />Their “owners, managers, and customers believe themselves to be exempt from the processes of bankruptcy and creative destruction,” Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher pointed out when he once again vituperated against TBTF banks that, as “everyone and their sister knows,” were “at the epicenter” of the financial crisis. They “capture the financial upside” of their bets but are bailed out when things go wrong, “in violation of one of the basic tenets of market capitalism.”<br /><br />http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-12-04/%E2%80%9Cimplicit%E2%80%9D-government-guarantees-bail-out-bank-creditors-tighten-their-grip-uAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-62398820742805796622013-12-04T10:10:37.663-07:002013-12-04T10:10:37.663-07:00America in Worse Fiscal Shape than Detroit-Profess...America in Worse Fiscal Shape than Detroit-Professor Laurence Kotlikoff<br /><br /><br />Dr. Kotlikoff explains, “The bill has been endorsed by over 1,000 economists, including 15 Nobel Prize winners in economics . . .Never in the history of this country have this many top economists from all political persuasions endorsed a piece of legislation like this.” Dr. Kotlikoff and his fellow economists all contend, “The country needs to do honest accounting.” The professor charges the government is “disguising the true problem.” Dr. Kotlikoff says, “The government is printing mountains of money to pay its bills. The Fed is printing 29 cents of every dollar that Uncle Sam is spending.” What happens if this continues? Dr. Kotlikoff says, “Eventually somebody recognizes this and starts dumping the bonds, and interest rates go up, and inflation takes off, and were off to the races.” <br /><br />http://usawatchdog.com/america-in-worse-fiscal-shape-than-detroit-professor-laurence-kotlikoff/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-32468680482252380082013-12-04T09:21:10.613-07:002013-12-04T09:21:10.613-07:00Madoff Lieutenant Says It Was 'Impossible'...Madoff Lieutenant Says It Was 'Impossible' Not To Know Firm Was A Fraud<br /><br />Dec 3 2013 | 12:37pm ET<br /><br />Frank DiPascali, in his first day on the stand in the trial of five former Madoff employees, said that each of them were intimately involved in deceiving Madoff's investors and regulators—a deception that kept the wraps on a $65 billion Ponzi scheme for decades. DiPascali, who worked for Madoff for more than 30 years, told the jury that the fraud went on "as far back as I can remember" and that "it was virtually impossible not to know what was happening."<br /><br />The five former employees—Daniel Bonventre, Annette Bongiorno, Joann Crupi, Jerome O'Hara and George Perez—have said that they had no idea Madoff was a fraud, in part because DiPascali hid it from them. But DiPascali regaled the jury with anecdotes about close calls averted with the help of each of the defendants, with whom he said he worked closely on the fraud.<br /><br />In one case, an auditor for KPMG asked to see daily trading logs. DiPascali said that the defendants had prepared trading records for one day, but that the auditor asked for another.<br /><br />So, DiPascali said, he called O'Hara and told him to fetch the non-existent records from "the archives." He and the others than spent several hours dummying up the records, which they then put into a refrigerator—to cool down the hot-off-the-printer documents—and then tossed them around "like a medicine ball" to create creases and give a patina of age to the new records.<br /><br />"We all got a big chuckle out of that," DiPascali said. He added that he and his staff "literally" created trades out of thin air.<br /><br />In another instance, a feeder fund run by an accounting firm founded by Madoff's father-in-law found itself in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The only problem was, the trading records they had were full of red flags. <br /><br />"They were in essence the wrong faked trades," DiPascali said, so he and the others whipped up a new set of monthly records, covering three years, hiding suspicious transfers and inventing $86 million in Treasury investments to demonstrate that the feeder fund was, as it said it was, invested conservatively.<br /><br />http://www.finalternatives.com/node/25451<br /><br />well at least we know what the regulators can't do,,,??Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-16462666133559031092013-12-04T06:28:45.649-07:002013-12-04T06:28:45.649-07:00Wish I had answers. Because of the extreme degree...Wish I had answers. Because of the extreme degree of intervention going on right now by the Fed and the Exchange Stabilization Fund in order to cover the magnitude of the deterioration of the economy, the ballooning fiscal risks and political catastrophe in DC, I am not issuing any outlooks, either way.<br /><br />I will say the contrarian indicators are now even more lopsided than they were at the end of June and just about everyone is either issuing a sell or short recommendation on the metals, just like the last of the bear holdouts have turned bullish on equities.<br /><br />At this point it's anyone's guess.<br /><br />What is happening right in all of our markets is beyond the extreme irrationalism fueled by Wall St. fraud and DC corruption that far exceeds what we saw in 1999 leading into 2000's market crash. It will not end well for just about everyone except those who stand to benefit from the fraud and corruption.Dave in Denverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-58779489398173022992013-12-04T06:03:18.226-07:002013-12-04T06:03:18.226-07:00THE WAR ON SAVINGS IS GOING TO WORK OUT AS WELL AS...THE WAR ON SAVINGS IS GOING TO WORK OUT AS WELL AS THE WAR ON DRUGS...IT DIDN'T..............<br /><br /><br />In India, smugglers move gold like narcotics<br /><br />(Reuters) - Indian gold smugglers are adopting the methods of drug couriers to sidestep a government crackdown on imports of the precious metal, stashing gold in imported vehicles and even using mules who swallow nuggets to try to get them past airport security.<br /><br />Stung by rules imposed this year to cut a high trade deficit and a record duty on imports, dealers and individual customers are fanning out across Asia to buy gold and sneak it back into the country.<br /><br />Sri Lanka, Thailand and Singapore are the latest hotspots as authorities crack down on travellers from Dubai, the traditional source of smuggled gold.<br /><br />In a sign of the times, whistleblowers who help bust illegal gold shipments can get a bigger reward in India than those who help catch cocaine and heroin smugglers.<br /><br />"Gold and narcotics operate as two different syndicates but gold smuggling has become more profitable and fashionable," said Kiran Kumar Karlapu, an official at Mumbai's Air Intelligence Unit.<br /><br />"There has been a several-fold increase in gold smuggling this year after restrictions from the government, which has left narcotics behind."<br /><br />http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/12/03/india-gold-smuggling-idINDEE9B20HY20131203?<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-86632142513650913882013-12-04T05:56:05.923-07:002013-12-04T05:56:05.923-07:00Dave after days, weeks, months and now over 2 year...Dave after days, weeks, months and now over 2 years of getting crushed can you comment on the gold and silver miners please? <br />Tom the Hecla guy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-88951820050903179352013-12-04T03:28:40.631-07:002013-12-04T03:28:40.631-07:00HUI hits 2003 levels...guttedHUI hits 2003 levels...guttedAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-2579883479298946232013-12-03T22:09:13.932-07:002013-12-03T22:09:13.932-07:00Online sales represent less than 6% of total retai...Online sales represent less than 6% of total retail sales: http://research.nrffoundation.com/Default.aspx?pg=46<br /><br />I knew it was low, but I didn't know it was that insignificantDave in Denverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-82785228209141240622013-12-03T22:07:12.438-07:002013-12-03T22:07:12.438-07:00No. It's been fed to the big banks like babie...No. It's been fed to the big banks like babies at mommies tit gulping milk to prevent from dying.Dave in Denverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-11268965906042822112013-12-03T22:06:10.269-07:002013-12-03T22:06:10.269-07:00I don't believe I ever said that QE "impr...I don't believe I ever said that QE "improves" bank balance sheets. The QE is being done to prevent big banks from going insolvent.Dave in Denverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-24274898785902850902013-12-03T21:11:40.228-07:002013-12-03T21:11:40.228-07:00Dude!, I don't understand, you lost me. My fin...Dude!, I don't understand, you lost me. My financial planner told me the stock market has averaged eleven percent since the great depression ended and I need to be fully invested. Cramer says to BUY,BUY BUY! One of the titty monsters on Bloomberg was all giddy and said her mutual funds in her 401k were having their best year. EVER! I'm so confused right now. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-8108767130697424172013-12-03T14:26:35.233-07:002013-12-03T14:26:35.233-07:00Can I just check something - How does QE improve a...Can I just check something - How does QE improve a bank's balance sheet? My understanding is that, the bank in question purchases securities from the market on behalf of the Fed i.e. Dr Asset Cr Securities owners account. Then the Fed takes the security of the bank i.e. Cr Reserves Dr Securities. Net effect is less cash more reserves but net effect on balance sheet is zero. Am I wrong?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05979086683225931855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-73952382512449008152013-12-03T14:14:27.520-07:002013-12-03T14:14:27.520-07:00Cancer Patient and ObamaCare Critic Says He Now Fa... <br />Cancer Patient and ObamaCare Critic Says He Now Faces an IRS Audit<br />If this is true, it would be just another example added to the long list of examples demonstrating the rampant cronyism and complete lack of morality that has characterized the Obama Administration from the beginning. It would also serve as further confirmation that the status quo intends to use the IRS as a political weapon against anyone they do not like, or perhaps just ruin people's lives arbitrarily as was done to a Michigan grocer a few months ago.<br /><br />Such behavior represents a defining characteristic of the out of control, corrupt Banana Republic nation we have devolved into. More info from CNS:<br /><br />A cancer patient, who publicly discussed the cancellation of his insurance under ObamaCare, now says he has been informed by the Internal Revenue Service that he is going to be audited.<br /><br />http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/12/03/cancer-patient-and-obamacare-critic-says-he-now-faces-an-irs-audit/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-88662651953526639572013-12-03T14:08:40.052-07:002013-12-03T14:08:40.052-07:00Yea but cyber Monday was up 19% from last year so ...Yea but cyber Monday was up 19% from last year so Im thinking people stayed home and shopped online instead. Most of the sheeple havent a clue what is going down around them and are in a normalcy bias. Will hit them like a 2X4 smack between the eyes. Im still waiting to pull the trigger on some more SRS...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-87591080062504632012013-12-03T12:19:00.180-07:002013-12-03T12:19:00.180-07:00Risk and Reward: China's Golden Hammer
There ...Risk and Reward: China's Golden Hammer<br /><br />There are 35,274 ounces in a metric ton of gold. Let’s say that China’s actual total gold holdings are now around 5,000mt as reported in this Reuters article. Five thousand metric tons would be about 176 million ounces. As I type, the price of gold is roughly $1,250 per oz, meaning that China’s 176 million ounces would have a current market value in US Dollars of $220 billion dollars. Meh. No biggie.<br /><br />But what would happen if the Chinese prominently announced their gold holdings publicly? Surely such an announcement would shock the financial world, and even more so if they then publicly called into question the status of US gold reserves (unaudited since 1952, probably for good reason). What if China made the claim that they now have the largest amount of gold reserves of any nation on earth, and dared the US to prove them wrong with a fully public audit? What if they announced this fact while at the same time prominently noting all of the separate trade agreements they have signed in the last two years that cut out the US Dollar from trade settlement- you know, the agreements they have signed with Russia, India, Japan, France, Australia, Brazil, and others? It seems quite probable, in such a scenario, that gold priced in USD would reset quickly some multiples higher.<br /><br />I do not think that, in the resulting turmoil that would surely be caused by this scenario, a revaluation of gold to $10,000 per oz would be an unreasonable outcome. If so, what would/could this mean?<br />A revaluation of gold to 10,000$ per oz would make China’s “stack” worth 1.76 trillion in USD- a gain of 1.5 trillion dollars over its present worth. Not too shabby, but wait- there’s more.<br /><br />http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/5290/risk-and-reward-chinas-golden-hammerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-4135548544420064382013-12-03T08:01:46.701-07:002013-12-03T08:01:46.701-07:00Japan’s Secrets Bill Turns Journalists Into Terror...Japan’s Secrets Bill Turns Journalists Into Terrorists<br /><br />The leader benefiting most from the controversy, though, may be Japan’s Abe. With his own populace furious over China’s unilateral decree, the prime minister is seizing the opportunity to rush a chilling official-secrets bill into law.<br /><br />The entire process has echoes of George Orwell. If enacted, the secrecy law would allow government ministries to declare just about anything they want classified. It now even appears that trying to cajole information from someone privy to a state secret could warrant jail time. In other words, if I grab a beer with a bureaucrat and ask the wrong question, could I end up in handcuffs? Ambiguity reigns.<br />‘Terrorist’ Act<br /><br />Last week, the No. 2 official in Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba, issued a dark warning to anyone like me who might dare to question the bill. In a Nov. 29 blog post, the LDP secretary-general likened any such challenge to “an act of terrorism.” He’s since stood by his ominous statement.<br /><br />“How can the government respond to growing demands for transparency from a public outraged by the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accident if it enacts a law that gives it a free hand to classify any information considered too sensitive as a ‘state secret’?” Reporters Without Borders asked in a Nov. 27 statement. Essentially, the group argued, Japan “is making investigative journalism illegal, and is trampling on the fundamental principles of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources and public interest.”<br /><br />“Welcome to the land of the setting sun. Let’s see how much darker it will get,” Tokyo-based investigative reporter Jake Adelstein wrote in a Nov. 30 Japan Times op-ed. As Adelstein pointed out, the secrecy bill bears a resemblance to Japan’s pre-World War II Peace Preservation Law, which gave the government wide latitude to arrest and jail individuals who were out of step with its policies. Parts of the bill also echo the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney power grab that was the Patriot Act.<br /><br />http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-02/japan-s-secrets-bill-turns-journalists-into-terrorists.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-90728425516605330832013-12-03T06:52:37.537-07:002013-12-03T06:52:37.537-07:00Every so often I go back in my mind to a moment in...Every so often I go back in my mind to a moment in 2008 where observed on the news an outburst of joy by individuals who ran the markets on Wall Street. They had a microphone stuck in their faces being question after having walked out from the exchange. The question posed was "what was worthy of the chase for the day?" The answer by most was silver...PAPER silver . <br />At that moment I knew that any opportunity for the real thing, namely physical silver would be overshadowed by bullshit.<br />Move ahead to today - Physical's still being overshadowed by bullshit.<br />Absolutely amazing !!<br />Well, may as well make the best of it ! Keep stackin !!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-76903245898840960082013-12-03T06:37:13.804-07:002013-12-03T06:37:13.804-07:00You wrote: "Now, why is the Fed printing ove...You wrote: "Now, why is the Fed printing over $85 billion per month now only to have it sit collecting interesting by our Too Big To Fail banks? ... the Fed will not taper and that I believe it's because the banks would be largely insolvent if the Fed were not injecting this kind of capital onto their balance sheet ... "<br /><br />Is that money being "shoved down the throats" of the Too Big To Fail banks to muffle their screams about too much government involvement in the economy.)?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-53548277380465287802013-12-03T02:55:41.274-07:002013-12-03T02:55:41.274-07:00One thing the American people must understand is t...One thing the American people must understand is the sooner we get rid of The Fed, the better it will be for all Americans. Since the inception of the Fed in 1913, the dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power. The Fed has accumulated trillions in debt for future generations to pay. Put your children's and grandchildrens' faces on the bills. The main purpose of the Fed is to serve the interests of Wall Street and the banksters and not that of ordinary Americans. The bastards kept the reality of the Fed being a private company from the American people. Only until recently thanks to the internet have the masses discovered the truth about the Fed. This private company has the right to print an entire nations money supply and amazingly is not accountable to congress or the American people. How can the American people allow this insanity ?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-46798177474061041012013-12-02T20:19:49.707-07:002013-12-02T20:19:49.707-07:00US Black Friday sales dip for first time in seven ...US Black Friday sales dip for first time in seven years<br /><br />"Sales on the year's biggest shopping weekend dipped for the first time in seven years, according to the National Retail Federation.<br /><br />US consumers spent around $1.7bn less over the holiday weekend, with the average shopper spending $407.02 from Thursday to Sunday.<br /><br />That's down from $423.55 in 2012.<br /><br />Retailers blamed stagnant wages and economic uncertainty for keeping wallets shut, as they slashed prices to lure reluctant shoppers.<br /><br />In total, the National Retail Federation estimates that US shoppers spent around $57.4bn this year, down 2.7% from $59.1bn last year.<br /><br />Sales on Black Friday itself were down, as retailers opened stores on Thanksgiving Thursday and offered more details earlier in the week to entice shoppers.<br /><br />According to ShopperTrack, a market research firm, Black Friday foot traffic was down 11% and sales slumped by 13%."<br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25191657Michael Jacksonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-62589354964091930332013-12-02T18:24:51.964-07:002013-12-02T18:24:51.964-07:00wow, great stuff Dave. The monetary base is up ove...wow, great stuff Dave. The monetary base is up over 400% since 08 and I read today the Fed owns a 1/3 of the US bond float. <br />mania is back. R. Bart Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18194114771753073402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-38738614794948559042013-12-02T16:27:12.993-07:002013-12-02T16:27:12.993-07:00The Micawber Principle: "something will turn ...The Micawber Principle: "something will turn up"<br /><br />Last year – the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens – we recalled the Micawber principle: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”<br /><br />In that context, it is ironic that the central banks of the two largest English-speaking countries are engaged in massive quantitative easing (QE) to spur lending in an effort to violate the Micawber principle. Appropriately, the two-pound coin issued to celebrate the bicentennial of Dickens’s birth had one of Mr. Micawber’s more hopeful maxims inscribed along its edge: “something will turn up.”<br /><br />Many firmly believe that the global industrial growth outlook has brightened significantly, largely because of the improvement in a variety of widely-followed surveys, including purchasing managers index (PMI) data, in recent months. How accurate are such perceptions?<br /><br />http://www.businesscycle.com/ecri-reports-indexes/report-summary-details/economic-cycle-research-the-micawber-principle-something-will-turn-upMichael Jacksonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7982981413278241287.post-7705711358673793792013-12-02T15:52:20.453-07:002013-12-02T15:52:20.453-07:00LOL. Sorry dudeLOL. Sorry dudeDave in Denverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03016238915167131989noreply@blogger.com