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Thursday 04.05.2012
Will Gold be Part of the Emerging World's Future Monetary System?
By: Julian D. W. Phillips - GoldSeek.com
In our last two articles we discussed just how the U.S. dollar came to be the central part of the world's monetary system and held onto that position when its economy and balance of payments were structurally inadequate to do so. In the second article, we described how the U.S. was flexing its muscles in taking action to stop Iran from selling its oil and receiving payments for it.
The collateral damage from this exercise embraced China, India and other nation's, who were the customers of Iran. It has become clear to these nation's that the power in the hands of the U.S. in oil matters is far too great for their future, and that they should be making plans to remove the impact of that power from off them. If they are (China in particular) to be able to make their own decisions in the future –particularly on oil and currencies—then they must develop a monetary system that is independent of the U.S.
Gold at $2175/oz, Crude oil at $85/barrel:
Morgan Stanley forecasts
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Morgan Stanley expects gold prices to remain bullish for 2012 but sees risk to oil prices. The bank forecasts gold prices to average $1845/oz in 2012 while oil prices are expected to average $105/barrel
On oil, even though the bank expects prices to average $105/barrel in 2012, current high prices are likely to slow demand and support more production by OPEC causing "bearish inventory trends". In a bear case scenario, oil prices could fall to as low as $85/barrel
Beyond Currency Wars,
the Coming Global Gold Standard w/John Butler
Silver may rise to $150 this year,
superb choice for investors
FLORIDA(Commodity Online): Silver will be the emergent king for precious metals investing in 2012 as a manufacturing boom will push its price upwards to $150 per ounce by the end of year, predicts Stephen M Smith, Managing Member of Smith McKenna, LLC.
Smith points out that in today's economy it is crucial to diversify investment portfolio, and commodities like silver is a superb choice.
According to Smith, who has over 20 years of experience in precious metal commodities and nobly boasts the lowest spreads in the commodities investing market, emerging dynamics are already spurring silver to experience its best quarter in a year's time.
Trump Warns 'Massive Inflation' Coming, Prepare
By NewsMax Wires - MoneyNews.com
Billionaire Donald Trump says the U.S. economy is poised for "massive inflation" and is warning investors to take steps now to protect themselves.
In the gripping CNBC interview, Trump also told investors they should not trust official government statistics.
He even questioned the "official unemployment" numbers. "It's over 20 percent. It's not 8.3 percent," Trump said.
PIMCO's Gross heavily exposed in MBS
on bet Fed keeps low rates--CNBC
(Reuters) - PIMCO's Bill Gross, who runs the world's largest bond fund, said on Wednesday his heavy exposure in agency mortgage-backed securities is more a bet on interest rates remaining at exceptionally low levels than an extension of quantitative easing.
Agency mortgage-backed securities provide higher yields and look attractive if the Federal Reserve keeps its short-term interest rate "where it is through 2014," Gross told CNBC television.
Budget War Threatens America's Survival
Greg Hunter's USA Watchdog.com
President Barak Obama gave a speech to newspaper executives about the recently passed Republican budget in the House of Representatives. It proposes to cut spending by more than $5 trillion over the next ten years. Yesterday's speech was, basically, a declaration of war against the GOP and its vision of the government's budget. The President said, "This Congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. It is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who is willing to work for it. A place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of middle class."
Spain back in the crosshairs of euro-zone crisis
By Howard Schneider - WashingtonPost.com
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned Wednesday that his country was facing "extreme difficulty" as its cost of borrowing money on global markets jumped and doubts increased about whether the government can stick to the strict austerity program designed to bring its debt under control.
Facing recession and treacherously high unemployment, Spain is struggling to keep its debt from exceeding targets set by European officials. So far, Spain has been able to remain in the good graces of international investors, raise the money it needs to finance itself and avoid the need for an international bailout.
Destruction of Spain's Economy Duplicates Greece
by Jeff Nielson - BullionBullsCanada.com
More than two years ago I began warning readers of the most heinous acts of fraud ever perpetrated by the Western banking crime syndicate, which I dubbed "economic terrorism". These swindles involved nothing less than the destruction of entire European economies, solely so that the banksters could profit on approximately $100 trillion in bets they had placed on the debts of these economies.
The mechanics of this economic rape have been explained many times in the past. First of all the bankers duped governments and institutions all over the Western world into placing trillions of dollars (and/or euros) in bets that interest rates were about to soar higher – just before theycrashed interest rates to the lowest levels in history. This swindle is known as "interest rate swaps"
BRICS Plan for the Future
By: John Browne - GoldSeek.com
Last week, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa met in New Delhi for their fourth annual "BRICS" summit. The meeting brought together five countries that together represent 43 percent of the world's population and 18 percent of the world's GDP. (More importantly, the group is currently attracting 53 percent of global financial capital.) When the gathering concluded on March 29, the coalition subtly issued its latest challenge to the increasingly desperate bankers and politicians of the West. They announced more definitive plans to establish a BRICS-focused development bank, to be solely funded by the BRICS countries themselves. Such an institution could allow this emerging bloc to pursue independent policies on the world stage, thereby challenging the global financial dominance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which for nearly 70 years have served as powerful monetary levers for Western interests.
The Worst of All Monetary Policies
Mises Daily: by Thorsten Polleit
I. Monetary Expansion Is Kept Going
In monetary analyses, the balance sheet of the commercial banking sector is typically kept separate from the balance sheet of the US Federal Reserve (Fed). However, combining the two balance sheets might be much more informative.
First, adding up the business volumes of commercial banks and the Fed provides a (much) better insight into the expansion of the monetary sector as a whole over time — especially so in times of the financial and economic "crisis."
YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET – PART THREE
By James Quinn - TheBurnin
The 2008 election happened in the midst of the catalyst events. A sweeping political realignment did not occur. In fact, the 2010 mid-term elections produced a result which has essentially gridlocked the political process in Washington D.C. The reunification and reenergizing of society has yet to occur. Neil Howe in his recent article pondered the question of regeneracy:
"We may like to imagine that there is a definable day and hour when America, faced by growing danger and adversity, explicitly decides to patch over its differences, band together, and build something new. But maybe what really happens is that everyone feels so numb that they let somebody in charge just go ahead and do whatever he's got to do. I'm thinking of how America felt during the bleak years of FDR's first term, or during Lincoln's assumption of vast war powers after his repeated initial defeats on the battlefield.
The Beginning of the End
By Toby Connor, GoldScents - GoldSeek.com
As convincing as this rally has been I am confident this is an ending phase and not the start a new secular bull market. Actually the bear market began last year in May but was temporarily aborted by massive Central Bank printing. Let me explain.
The last four year cycle that started in 2002 and bottomed in 2009 was the longest four year cycle in history. It was stretched to these extreme lengths by Bernanke's desperate strategy of debasing the currency to avoid the bear market that should have begun in 2006. Instead the stock market cycle stretched all the way into the spring of 2009.
Marc Faber: Brace For "Massive Wealth Destruction"
By Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul - ETFDailyNews.com
Reminiscent of the 1970s and the U.S. fiscal and monetary conditions which soared gold from $35 to $875 per ounce by Jan. 1980, Marc Faber, author of the Gloom Boom Doom Report warned investors of the dire implications of the world's central banks presently engaged in a global currency war.
But unlike the 1970s and the problems with the U.S. dollar, this time, in addition to the dollar, the euro, pound sterling and yen are also devaluing against everything of tangible value. And the speed at which these currencies depreciate in the coming years will most likely dwarf the decade which included the Vietnam War, Middle East conflicts, U.S. budget deficits and resulting stagflation.
The Fed's Con Appears To Be Working
But The Curtain Is Rising On The Third Act
By Lee Adler - WallStreetExaminer.com
In today's conomic news, the mainstream media focused on the disappointment surrounding the FOMC Minutes, the massaged and sanitized fairy tale about what the participants said at last month's FOMC confab. The market was shocked! SHOCKED! that most of the members saw no need for additional QE, unless things got worse. I had concluded that a couple of months ago based on the fact that every time QE speculation arose, not only did stocks rally, but so did energy and other commodity prices. The commodity vigilantes, I thought, would tie the Fed's hands. That and the fact that the conomic data was coming in relatively perky, at least in terms of the headline data, made it highly unlikely that the Fed would do any more money printing.
Gold and Silver-the Ultimate Anti-Fiat Currency
vs Fed's 'Sophisticated Swindle'
By Brian Sylvester - SilverBearCafe.com
....Richard Karn: It's interesting that if you go back to the late 18th century, the dollar has been on the gold standard roughly the same amount of time it has been on the Federal Reserve System, which presents us with a wonderful opportunity to compare the dollar's purchasing power over time.
Throughout the 19th century, with all of the booms and busts, the wars, and the incredible territorial and industrial expansions, the dollar maintained its purchasing power very well on the gold standard. Since 1914, when the U.S. went to the Federal Reserve System and especially since it has become a purely fiat currency system since closing the gold window in 1971, the dollar's purchasing power has collapsed. Under the Fed's administration, the dollar has lost well over 95% of its purchasing power.
Marc Faber, "The Ego of Mr. Bernanke
has been Badly Inflated"
Geithner: US Can't Let Deficit Fears Stop Investments
Thomas/Reuters - MoneyNews.com
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that Americans can't let fear of future deficits stymie necessary government investment in projects that are needed to spur growth.
Speaking to the Chicago Economic Club, Geithner tackled Republican opponents of the Obama administration who claim that spending is excessive.
Dennis Gartman Now Long
Of Flip Flopping In Laughing Stock Terms
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
That the market can be stupid long enough to make anyone seem like a fool is well-known and appreciated by all (even if the final fate of centrally planned markets is even better known by all). What apparently is not known by those who are self-professed trading experts, is that flipflopping like a windsock in a hurricane, with the comic regularity of a Goldman FX advisor who shall remain nameless hell bent on skewering what little clients one has left, only makes one look like a complete and utter buffoon. And yet this is precisely what "one of the best gold traders" CNBC knows does over and over and over, to the point where not only does nobody give any credibility to the utterances from said expert's mouth, but it makes the entire venue into sheer unadulterated, laugh out loud stand up comedy (even more so than normal). And while we do not grasp how CNBC's producers consistently invite said individual to dig ever deeper holes for himself, the other perspective is quite clear: after all each contributor makes $200 per CNBC appearance. In the case of the abovementioned gold expert, we can see how this is a make or break cash infusion.
Why the Fed Will Intervene If Stocks Fall Too Far
By Jeff Cox, CNBC
Investors looking for more Federal Reserve intervention can pretty much ignore the economic data and train their sights on one area: the stock market, and how much of a drop it will take before the central bank comes to the rescue.
Though the recent market selloff is worrisome, it could take as much as a 10 percent drop or more before the Fed acts.
The Fed's IOUs Can Cripple the Economy in 2013
By Liz Peek - TheFiscalTimes.com
Does Fed Chair Ben Bernanke know what he's doing? We better hope so. Every tweet and cluck from the Open Market Committee has the power to move markets, as we saw again yesterday. Traders dumped stocks after reading the minutes from the central bank's March 13 meeting; the report hinted at a slightly better job market and doused hopes for another round of quantitative easing. (And today, stocks opened sharply lower, after investors fully digested the Fed's latest release.)
No wonder all eyes are on the Fed. With fiscal policy frozen, monetary stimulus is the only game in town. Not only is the Fed rolling the dice that near-zero interest rates will promote growth and not light the inflation fuse, the central bank is playing with ever-bigger chips.
'US next Greece if debt is not dealt with'
Americans brace for next foreclosure wave
By Nick Carey
(Reuters) - Half a decade into the deepest U.S. housing crisis since the 1930s, many Americans are hoping the crisis is finally nearing its end. House sales are picking up across most of the country, the plunge in prices is slowing and attempts by lenders to claim back properties from struggling borrowers dropped by more than a third in 2011, hitting a four-year low.
But a painful part two of the slump looks set to unfold: Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures.
The Second Foreclosure Tsunami Is Coming,
And Is About To Kill Any Hopes Of A "Housing Bottom"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
In what appears to be surprising news for some, Reuters has an article titled "Americans brace for next foreclosure wave" whose key premise is that "a painful part two of the [housing] slump looks set to unfold: Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures." Thank the robo settlement, where in exchange for a few wrist slaps, contract law was thoroughly trampled by America's attorney general, but far more importantly to the country's crony capitalist system, the foreclosure pipeline was once again unclogged, and whether one does or does not have a legal title on a given house, the banks are now fully in their right to foreclose on it. What this means also is that America's record shadow housing inventory, which is far greater than any fabricated number the NAR reports on a monthly basis, is about to get unleashed on buyers, shifting the supply curve much further to the right, as up to 9 million new properties slowly but surely appear on the market. And while many will no longer be able to live mortgage free, forcing them to go out and rent (and no longer be able to afford incremental iGizmos), it also means that the prevalent price of homes is about to take another major tumble, making buffoons out of all those who, once again,called for a housing bottom in early 2012. Here's the simply math: there will be no housing bottom until the 9 million excess homes clear. Period. Until then it is a buyer's market, even if said buyer is unable to obtain bank financing, as ultimately it will be the seller who is forced to monetize (or vacate if underwater) their home in a world of ever diminishing cashflows. The fear of the supply onslaught will only make the dumpage that much faster.
Report finds racial discrepancies
in upkeep of foreclosed properties
By Brady Dennis - WashingtonPost.com
Banks and lenders have maintained and marketed foreclosed properties far better in white neighborhoods than in minority neighborhoods, according to a report released Wednesdayby the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Investigators for the group evaluated more than 1,000 foreclosed properties in nine metro areas around the country — Atlanta; Baltimore; Dallas; Dayton, Ohio; Miami/Fort Lauderdale; Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and Washington.
Probe of Insurers Gains Steam
By LIZ RAPPAPORT And LESLIE SCISM - WSJ.com
New York's top financial regulator is expanding an investigation of insurers that force homeowners policies on borrowers after turning up evidence that consumers were charged too much, according to people familiar with the situation.
Benjamin M. Lawsky, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, is issuing new subpoenas and formal document requests to several insurers, demanding justification for how their rates and loss ratios were calculated, these people said.
The Impact of Changes to FHA Mortgages
ml-implode.com
Over the past several years, FHA (Federal Housing Administration) has had a very active role in the mortgage industry as it has become a major source of mortgage lending for low to middle income consumers and first time home buyers. After a temporary decrease in loan limits, it once again made its mortgage programs available to higher earning individuals with the reinstatement of the FHA loan limit to $729,750. Since that time, guidelines and fees have been updated making it a little more difficult to qualify for a FHA mortgage. The impact of current changes to FHA mortgages will not be known until its next market share numbers are released in the near future.
The Broken Promise That Can Beat Obama
By Michael Medved - Townhall.com
In the last 100 years, every U.S. president who lost his bid for a second term did so because he abandoned his principal promise to the American people. If Republicans can persuade the public that Barack Obama similarly shattered the pledge at the very core of his presidency, they will succeed in denying him the new lease on the White House he insists he deserves.
Four elected chief executives in this century failed in their reelection campaigns—and each of them flopped by landslide margins. For William Howard Taft in 1912, Herbert Hoover in 1932, Jimmy Carter in 1980, and George H.W. Bush in 1992, broken promises doomed their chances for another four-year term.
When Trucks Stop, America Stops
Trucking.org
Commercial truck traffic is vital to our nation's economic prosperity and plays a significant role in mitigating adverse economic effects during a national or regional emergency. Our economy depends on trucks to deliver ten billion tons of virtually every commodity consumed — or nearly 70 percent of all freight transported annually in the U.S. In the U.S. alone, this accounts for $671 billion worth of goods transported by truck. Add $295 billion in truck trade with Canada and $195.6 billion in truck trade with Mexico and it becomes apparent that any disruption in truck traffic will lead to rapid economic instability.
The unimpeded flow of trucks is critical to the safety and well-being of all Americans. However, it is entirely possible that well-intended public officials may instinctively halt or severely restrict truck traffic in response to an incident of national or regional significance.
Is Obama About to Gamble With the JOBS Act?
by J. Jennings Moss - Portfolio.com
Count Andrew Ross Sorkin among the haters of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. In a New York Times Dealbook post published Monday night, Sorkin makes the case that the measure—which President Barack Obama will sign into law Thursday—is an invitation for investors to gamble.
Sorkin, the business news wunderkind who balances jobs as editor of Dealbook and co-host of CNBC's Squawk Box, takes an intriguing tack with his criticism of the JOBS act. He uses the lesson of Groupon (one, which the Chicago-based daily deals company teaches us in real time every day) as the biggest reason why Obama should think twice before signing the legislation.
His Royal Imperial Highness, Barack Obama II
By Ben Shapiro - Townhall.com
America's constitutional structure is built on checks and balances. The idea behind these checks and balances is simple: We want interest counteracting interest, ego counteracting ego. We don't want any one person to gain too much power -- or any one faction or any one way of thought.
Gridlock, for lack of a better word, is good.
President Barack Obama, however, has a different idea. He believes that America must be fundamentally transformed. That fundamental transformation cannot be effectuated without a fundamental transformation of the system of American government.
Pelosi predicts 6-3 victory for health law
By Stephen Dinan - WashingtonTimes.com
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday predicted the Supreme Court will uphold the health care law on a 6-3 vote, saying she and her colleagues "wrote the bill in an ironclad way."
"I'm predicting 6-3 in favor," Mrs. Pelosi told the Paley Center for Media. "We shall see. It's a lesson in civics, and I respect it."
She didn't say which six justices she thought would uphold the law.
White House in damage control
over Obama Supreme Court remarks
(Reuters) - The White House was forced on the defensive on Wednesday as it sought to explain controversial remarks President Barack Obama made earlier in the week about the Supreme Court's review of his signature healthcare reform law.
"What he did was make an unremarkable observation about 80 years of Supreme Court history," Carney told reporters during a White House briefing dominated by the topic.
Mike Bloomberg's New York: Cops in Your Hallways
By Matt Taibbi - RollingStone.com
An amazing lawsuit was filed in New York last week. It seems Mike Bloomberg's notorious "stop-and-frisk" policy – known colloquially in these parts by silently-cheering white voters as the "Let's have cops feel up any nonwhite person caught walking in the wrong neighborhood" policy – isn't even the most repressive search policy in the NYPD arsenal.
Bloomberg, that great crossover Republican, has long been celebrated by the Upper West Side bourgeoisie for his enlightened views on gay rights and the environment, but also targeted for criticism by civil rights activists because of stop-and-frisk, a program that led to a record 684,330 street searches just last year.
Sheriff of the year Patrick Sullivan jailed in Colorado
Retired lawman who served on police task forces is sentenced to 30 days for drug possession and soliciting prostitutes
Reuters in Denver - Guardian.co.uk
A winner of Sheriff of the Year has been sentenced to 30 days in the US jail that bears his name after he pleaded guilty to trading drugs for sex with male prostitutes.
Retired sheriff of Arapahoe County, Colorado, Patrick Sullivan, 69, was taken into custody on Tuesday after pleading guilty in court to felony drug possession and solicitation of a prostitute, the state's attorney general's office said in a statement.
Dr. Bill Deagle w/ Jeff Rense 2012/03/27 - Multiple Updates
Everything You Wanted to Know
About Data Mining but Were Afraid to Ask
A guide to what data mining is, how it works,
and why it's important.
By Alexander Furnas - TheAtlantic.com
Big data is everywhere we look these days. Businesses are falling all over themselves to hire 'data scientists,' privacy advocates are concerned about personal data and control, and technologists and entrepreneurs scramble to find new ways to collect, control and monetize data. We know that data is powerful and valuable. But how?
This article is an attempt to explain how data mining works and why you should care about it. Because when we think about how our data is being used, it is crucial to understand the power of this practice. Without data mining, when you give someone access to information about you, all they know is what you have told them. With data mining, they know what you have told them and can guess a great deal more. Put another way, data mining allows companies and governments to use the information you provide to reveal more than you think.
Yahoo confirms layoff of 2,000 employees
in bid to renew company
Chief executive of beleaguered internet giant says Yahoo needs to return to its 'core purpose' with a trimmed down workforce
By Dominic Rushe in New York and Mark Sweney - Guardian.co.uk
Yahoo has announced a massive round of layoffs as the troubledinternet company struggles to turn around its fortunes.
In a statement, the company confirmed earlier reports that it was cutting 2,000 jobs, about 14% of its workforce. It is the sixth mass layoff in the past four years for the beleaguered company.
Why Is The Heartland Of America
Being Ripped To Shreds By Gigantic Tornadoes
That Are Becoming More Frequent And More Powerful?
By Michael Snyder -TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
What in the world is going on in the heartland of America? Spring has barely even begun and we are seeing communities all over America being ripped to shreds by gigantic tornadoes. A lot of meteorologists claimed that the nightmarish tornado season of 2011 was an "anomaly", but 2012 is shaping up to be just as bad or even worse. These tornado outbreaks just seem to keep getting more frequent and more powerful. For example, several "supercell" tornadoes ripped across the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area on Tuesday. People all over America were absolutely horrified as they watched footage of these tornadoes toss around tractor trailers as if they were toy trucks. Personally, I have never seen a tractor trailer tossed 100 feet into the sky before. This is not normal. CBS 11 meteorologist Larry Mowry told his viewers that one of these torandoes was "as serious of a tornado we've seen in years". So why is this happening? Why is the heartland of America being ripped to shreds by gigantic tornadoes that are becoming more frequent and more powerful?
Dr Deagle Show 2012/03/29 - TIM ALEXANDER
Dr Deagle Show 2012/03/28 - HARLEY SCHLANGER -
Obama Shows the British War Game is On
Dr Deagle Show 2012/03/30 -
PREPAREDNESS AND EARTH CHANGES PANEL
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