Gold myth No. 1: Gold is (too) expensive
The following note is abstracted from a Special Report on Gold published by Austria's Erste Bank and written by gold expert Ronald Stoerfele. Other abstracts and analysis from this report will also be published in due course Author: Ronald Stoeferle Posted: Friday , 03 Jul 2009 VIENNA (ERSTE BANK) - One might as well say that it is not the price of gold that rises, but the value of the respective paper currency that falls. Gold preserves the purchase power and in fact even increases it gradually. Comparing how many real assets one ounce of gold would buy in a historical context, can substantiate this statement. In 1980 the American currency had a significantly higher purchase power than today. According to the official inflation calculator of the Federal Reserve, the inflation-adjusted all-time-high of one ounce of gold is currently USD 2,300. In other words, the gold price would have to rise to USD 2,300/ounce in order to reflect the real equivalent value of 1980.

Gold, Silver Eagle Bullion Sales Surge in June
By Mike Unser
2009 American Eagle Gold Bullion CoinDemand is lower for bullion coins? Poppycock. US Mint sales figures released Wednesday say otherwise.Marking the third best month of a record setting pace year, demand in June for American Eagle Gold and Silver Bullion Coins jumped aggressively over May.Silver eagle sales soared in June, rising 340,500 higher than May figures. 2,245,000 silver bullion eagles were sold. The total is now 13,824,500 for an annualized rate that is easily on track to smash last year’s 20,583,000 record.Gold eagles sales sizzled and nearly doubled May tallies. 116,000 gold bullion eagles were sold in June. With half of this year now set in history, 670,500 have been purchased — one of the best six month totals since the series began in 1986.

Dollar's future in US hands
By Henry C K Liu
Since 2008, I have been widely recognized on the Internet as the person who changed China's policy regarding the US dollar by advocating since 2002 that Chinese exports should be denominated in yuan. Chinese readers doing a Google search on my Chinese name will find numerous posts to that effect.The issue is not whether Asian central banks will continue to have confidence in the dollar, but why Asian central banks should see their mandate as supporting the continuous expansion of the dollar economy through dollar hegemony at the expense of their own non-dollar economies. Why should Asian economies send real wealth in the form of goods to the US for foreign paper of declining value instead of selling their goods in their own economy? .

China moves to cut reliance on dollar
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
China has taken another step towards internationalising its currency and reducing reliance on the US dollar with the announcement of new rules to allow select companies to invoice and settle trade transactions in renminbi. The regulations released by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, will allow approved companies to settle transactions through financial institutions in Shanghai and other cities in southern China. Offshore, the trial scheme will allow transactions to be settled in renminbi in Hong Kong and Macao, the two self-governing territories on China's southern borders, and later in a limited fashion in south-east Asia as well.

Dollar Gains as China Says ‘Not Aware’ of Reserve Currency Talk
By Ron Harui and Yoshiaki Nohara
The dollar strengthened after a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said he hoped the greenback would remain stable and was “not aware” of a plan to discuss a new reserve currency at next week’s Group of Eight meeting.The dollar climbed from a three-week low versus the euro after falling yesterday when Reuters reported that China had asked to debate proposals for a new global reserve currency at the G-8 summit in Italy.

U.S. regulators close seven banks
U.S. bank regulators closed seven institutions on Thursday, including six banks in Illinois controlled by one family and a small bank in Dallas, bringing the total number of U.S. bank failures to 52 so far this year. Founders Bank, of Worth, Illinois, was the largest of the financial institutions seized. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Founders had $962.5 million in assets and approximately $848.9 million in deposits.The PrivateBank and Trust Co of Chicago (PVTB.O) will assume all of the deposits of Founders Bank.The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $188.5 million.

A grim life as Golden State runs out of gold
The grim economic outlook for US states risks crippling any chance of recovery, writes David Usborne
In Houston, the 4th of July fireworks tomorrow night risk being a bit of a damp squib with the display's budget cut by half. In some other American towns, from New England to the Pacific Northwest, there will be no pyrotechnics at all. But the punters had better not complain: when it comes to public services much worse may be on the way. And nowhere does the picture look as bleak as in Arnold Schwarzenegger's California, where the Governor has been forced to declare a fiscal emergency.
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Rogue trader pushes up oil price
A dealer at a London brokerage has caused a spike of $2 in the price of crude oil, losing his firm $10m in unauthorised dealing
By Euan Stuart
After the price of oil reached its highest level this year on Tuesday, it was revealed that the spike was due to the unauthorised activity of a London rogue trader, later identified as dealer Steve Perkins. The broker placed huge bets on the price of Brent crude in the early hours of Tuesday morning and after they went wrong cost his firm PVM Oil Associates - the world's biggest 'over the counter' oil brokerage - nearly $10m in losses. .

Wall Street’s Toxic Message
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security.Every crisis comes to an end—and, bleak as things seem now, the current economic crisis too shall pass. But no crisis, especially one of this severity, recedes without leaving a legacy. And among this one’s legacies will be a worldwide battle over ideas—over what kind of economic system is likely to deliver the greatest benefit to the most people.

Alexander Cockburn on the Honduras coup
By Alexander Cockburn
There's no continent where the liberal left in the United States has entertained higher hopes of Obamian change from traditional US thuggery than Latin America. American radicals in their sixties have been rooting for Cuba ever since they cheered Fidel Castro's triumphant entry into Havana in 1959. Twenty-five years later, in the mid-1980s, the hottest issue for young people on the Left in the US was the brutal and ultimately successful efforts of the US government in the Reagan years to crush revolutions in El Salvador and Nicaragua. To this day the 'Hands off Central America' movement remains by far the most determined mobilisation of the US left in the post-Vietnam era.
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Jewish UN official: IDF seizure of Gaza-bound ship is 'criminal'
By Reuters
A United Nations human rights investigator on Thursday called Israel's seizure of a ship carrying relief aid for the Gaza Strip "unlawful" and said its blockade of the territory constituted a "continuing crime against humanity".Israeli authorities on Tuesday intercepted the vessel, which was also carrying 21 pro-Palestinian activists, and said it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area and its existing naval blockade.Richard Falk, an American Jew and the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said the move was part of Israel's "cruel blockade of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza" in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting any form of collective punishment against "an occupied people".

Britain more violent than SA and US - report 
By James Slack Daily Mail
Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European union, it has been revealed. Official crime figures show the UK also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa - widely considered one of the world's most dangerous countries.
The figures comes on the day new Home Secretary Alan Johnson makes his first major speech on crime, promising to be tough on loutish behaviour.The Tories said Labour had presided over a decade of spiralling violence.In the decade following the party's election in 1997, the number of recorded violent attacks soared by 77 per cent to 1,158 million - or more than two every minute..

'I dropped to my knees and thanked God'
By Thandi Skade
As he looked down the barrel of the gun, two thoughts occupied his mind: never again seeing his four-month-old daughter, and that the trigger would be pulled."Get out, get out!" the gun-wielding man shouted at Chris Joubert.Snapping out of his thoughts, Joubert obeyed. The man jumped into the car and an accomplice got into the passenger seat and they drove off. 'I dropped to my knees and thanked God for saving my life On Wednesday afternoon, Joubert, a Boksburg Audi dealership employee, escaped a hijacking at a petrol station in Boksburg unharmed, but his client's new silver Audi Q5 2.0T had gone.

Beaten academic too traumatised to talk
Despite being hit over the head repeatedly with a garden spade, renowned South African criminologist Professor Anna van der Hoven continued to fight off her attacker.The 64-year-old Unisa-based criminologist's struggle lasted several minutes until she lost consciousness as her attacker, who had been building a water feature in her garden for her, throttled her and tried to smother her on the lawn of her Lyttelton home before he punched her bloodied and bruised face over and over again.The attacker, believing she was dead, ran into Van der Hoven's Glover Avenue home before he fled with a laptop, handbag and cash, leaving her bleeding profusely from her wounds..

07/02/2009

Chinese Government Wants To Purchase Another $80 Billion Of Gold!
By Patrick A. Heller
Nine weeks ago, the Chinese government admitted to the mainstream media that it had added 14.6 million ounces of gold reserves from 2003 through 2009. For years before that disclosure, several of us non-mainstream media members had reported this activity to smaller audiences. It wasn't until about June 9 that the mainstream media was told that the Chinese government was planning to purchase an additional huge quantity of gold. The information became public when U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) was interviewed on Fox News by Greta Van Susteren.

India, China pushing gold price
Article from:  The Australian
WE pay far too much attention to the daily movements of gold. Will it go through $US1000 per ounce or will the US economy and dollar stage a miracle recovery, sending the yellow metal back below $US600? You have to see the context. Or, if you prefer, the big picture.The market has already discounted the forthcoming sale of about 400 tonnes by the International Monetary Fund. We now indications that, in fiscal 2010, India will import about 600 tonnes of the metal, near enough to about a quarter of global mine production..

China Seeks ‘Stable’ Dollar, Monetary Diversification
China, the largest holder of foreign currency reserves, reiterated its call for a stable dollar and a diversification of the international monetary system. “We hope that as the main reserve currency the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar will be stable,” Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei told reporters in Beijing.The vice minister said he wasn’t aware that China had pushed for the subject of a reserve currency to be on the agenda of this month’s Group of Eight summit, though “if this issue is raised by leaders during the meeting it is nothing strange, it is natural because we are all discussing how to respond to the international crisis.”.

China Restricts 'Virtual' Economies
by John D. Sutter
As Internet-based economies edge closer to their real-world counterparts, one country is apparently trying to build a wall between the two.China has announced new rules that prevent "virtual currencies" like Linden Dollars and QQ coins from being traded for real cash."It's a pretty important step," said Edward Castronova, a professor at the University of Indiana who studies virtual currency. "These virtual currencies, as they grow, are going to become competitors to real-world currencies – and apparently that's what happening in China. These QQ coins are becoming things you can use at the corner store to top off your bill.'

For U.S. metals and mining, gold is all that glitters - S&P
Although the financial ratios of U.S. metals and mining companies will continue to weaken, Standard & Poor's expect credit trends to slowly start to improve in the sector during the next several quarters. Gold continues to be a rare bright spot for U.S. metals and mining companies, while steel continues to be of concern to the credit analysts at Standard & Poor's.Meanwhile, S&P's outlook for the U.S. metals and mining sector remains negative, "given the poor operating environment and deteriorating credit quality." In an industry report card published Wednesday, Credit Analysts Marie Shmaruk, Michael Scerbo, Maurice Austin and Sherwin Bradford estimated that S&P has downgraded 20 domestic mining and metals companies since the beginning of this year."

Never-Ending Government Lies About Markets
By Thomas DiLorenzo
The purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not. Throughout history, governments have used violence, intimidation, coercion, and mass murder to enforce this system. But governments' first line of "defense" is always a blizzard of lies - about its own alleged benevolence, altruism, heroism, and greatness, along with equally big lies about the "evils" of the civil society, especially the free market. The current economic crisis, which was instigated by the government's central bank and its boom-and-bust monetary policies, among other interventions, has once again been blamed on "too little regulation" and too much freedom.
Will Americans ever catch on to this biggest of all of government's Big Lies?

Staffer at SEC Had Warned Of Madoff
Lawyer Raised Alarm, Then Was Pointed Elsewhere
An investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned superiors as far back as 2004 about irregularities at Bernard L. Madoff's financial management firm, but she was told to focus on an unrelated matter, according to agency documents and sources familiar with the investigation. Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot, a lawyer in the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, sent e-mails to a supervisor, saying information provided by Madoff during her review didn't add up and suggesting a set of questions to ask his firm, documents show. Several of these questions directly challenged Madoff activities that much later turned out to be elements of his massive fraud. ?

'Fight Them Over There vs. Over Here' a False Choice
by Ron Paul
Recently by Ron Paul: International Bailout Brings Us Closer to Economic Collapse
There is no area in which Republicans have further strayed from our traditions than in foreign affairs.Generations of conservatives followed the great advice of our Founding Fathers and pursued a restrained foreign policy that rebuffed entangling alliances and advised America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, not to "go abroad looking for dragons to slay."Sen. Robert Taft, the stalwart of the Old Right, urged America to stay out of NATO. Dwight Eisenhower was elected on a platform promising to get us out of the conflict in Korea. Richard Nixon promised to end the war in Vietnam.

Racism debate after Russian and Nigerian gas companies combine to form 'Nigaz'
By Mail Foreign Service
When a $2.5billion international venture is being planned you might expect there to be hours of debate over what to call it. Yet branding is not the forte of some companies, it seems. Russian Energy giant Gazprom has inadvertently walked into a racism row with the announcement of its joint venture in Nigeria - Nigaz.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Yar'Adua last week agreed the deal to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Africa's most populous nation.
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Who You Callin’ a Conservative?
by Paul Gottfried
A recent syndicated column by Thomas Sowell “Republicans in the Wilderness” includes useful advice but also misleading conclusions. According to Sowell, while “Republican moderates” Bob Dole and John McCain “lost disastrously to Democrats,” Republicans who have stood their ground, like Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, have been more successful politically. Victorious Republicans have understood that “far more Americans describe themselves as ‘conservatives’ than as ‘liberals,’” and dynamic conservative Republican leaders have therefore “come up with alternatives to the Democrats’ many solutions rather than simply be nay-sayers."

Turmoil in S. Carolina as calls mount for Sanford to quit
By Roddie Burris, Clif LeBlanc and Gina Smith | The State
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Tom Davis, Gov. Mark Sanford's former chief of staff, said Wednesday he has spoken with both the governor and First Lady Jenny Sanford about the governor's future. Davis, in a statement, said only after those conversations and conversations with Attorney General Henry McMaster and SLED Chief Reggie Lloyd will he take a public position on Sanford's future."Obviously I have tremendous concern for my friends, Mark and Jenny Sanford and their family, but I also have a job to do as an elected official," said Davis, a Beaufort Republican. "Before any important decision I make comes due diligence, and I owe it to my constituents to perform that due diligence before taking a public position on an issue as important as whether to call for the resignation of a duly-elected statewide official."”

America's Praetorian Guard Is Slowly Crumbling
 by Jack D. Douglas: The Pakistani Crisis Has Become Acute and Global
Professional armies have traditionally been far more disciplined, especially under the stress of longer-run warfare.BUT that does not mean they have no turning points or breaking points. In Rome the professional, imperial guard, The Praetorian Guard, was highly disciplined and bore casualties well in the early years. But over the decades of imperial struggles and military in-breeding common to such armies largely cut off from the civil population, they became bored with routine, self-centered, arrogant, puffed up with their own importance, and started deposing and imposing emperors, forcing them to put more and more of the national wealth into the military and so on.

McKinney still held on ship of activists detained by Israel
By KENT A. MILES The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Israel on Wednesday reportedly sent home two of the 21 people taken aboard a ship that attempted to break through a blockade and deliver supplies to Gaza.Authorities released an American filmmaker and a Danish human rights activist, according to freegaza.org, the web site of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the voyage opposing the blockade.The other passengers remain in Israeli custody, among them former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire, who co-founded a group that worked for peace in Northern Ireland.

Pirates of the Mediterranean
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons, is being towed to Israel as I write.

Amnesty says Israel 'wantonly' destroyed Gaza
Amnesty International said on Thursday Israel inflicted "wanton destruction" in the Gaza Strip in attacks that often targeted Palestinian civilians during an offensive in December and January in the Hamas-run enclave.The London-based rights group, in a 117-page report on the 22 days of fighting, also criticised the Islamist movement Hamas for rocket attacks on Israel, which it called "war crimes".Among other conclusions, Amnesty said it found no evidence to support Israeli claims that Gaza guerrillas deliberately used civilians as "human shields", but it did, however, cite evidence that Israeli troops put children and other civilians in harm's way by forcing them to remain in homes taken over by soldiers.

Netanyahu: Our bond with the US is unbreakable
Speaking at Independence Day celebrations at US ambassador's home in Herzliya amidst growing tensions over settlement issue, prime minister pledges Israel's ties to America are 'close and unbreakable' "We have a close relationship with the United States, which President Obama defined in his speech in Cairo as unbreakable, and it is indeed unbreakable," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday at the US ambassador's 4th of July party.The event celebrating the United States' 233rd Independence Day was moved to Wednesday as the actual date falls on Shabbat.

U.S., Israel officials talk emergency management
By Eric Fingerhut
Top officials from the U.S. and Israel met Tuesday to exchange information on common emergency management practices. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate and Maj. Gen. Yair Golan of the Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command will also serve as co-chairs of an emergency management work group to discuss problems and issues, as well as exchange information. Here's the announcement from FEMA:
FEMA ADMINISTRATOR FUGATE MEETS TOP ISRAELI official to discuss EMERGENCY management issues
WASHINGTON –Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate met today with Maj. Gen. Yair Golan of the Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command (IDF/HFC), continuing to foster a working relationship with Israel and bolstering the exchange of information on common emergency management practices.
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UK is violent crime capital of Europe
The United Kingdom is the violent crime capital of Europe and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, worse even than America, according to new research.
By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Analysis of figures from the European Commission showed a 77 per cent increase in murders, robberies, assaults and sexual offences in the UK since Labour came to power.The total number of violent offences recorded compared to population is higher than any other country in Europe, as well as America, Canada, Australia and South Africa.

07/01/2009

Fed’s Yellen Says Interest Rates May Stay Near Zero for Years
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen said the prospect that policy makers will leave the benchmark U.S. interest rate near zero for the next several years is “not outside the realm of possibility.” “We have a very serious recession, we have a 9.4 percent unemployment rate,” and inflation possibly falling over time below the Fed’s preferred level, she told reporters yesterday after a speech to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. Given the recession’s severity, “we should want to do more. If we were not at zero, we would be lowering the funds rate."

Mr. Sunshine? Ron Paul Wins Support to Audit Fed Reserve
by Judson Berger
All of a sudden, Congress is paying close attention to Ron Paul. The feisty congressman from Texas, whose insurgent "Ron Paul Revolution" presidential campaign rankled Republican leaders last year, now has the GOP House leadership on his side – backing a measure that generated paltry support when he first introduced it 26 years ago.”Paul, as of Tuesday, has won 245 co-sponsors to a bill that would require a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010.Paul attracted just 18 co-sponsors when he authored a similar bill, which died, in 1983. While the impact Fed policies have on inflation is once again a concern, fears about loose monetary policy and excessive federal spending appear even more widespread in 2009.

On Giving Goldman a Chance
by Matt Taibbi
After my recent piece about Goldman, Sachs hit the newsstands last week, I started to get a lot of mail. Most of it was thoughtful and respectful criticism, although there was an amusingly large number of people writing in impassioned defense of their right, under our American system, to be ripped off by large impersonal financial companies. “If my pension fund is buying [crap mortgages] from Goldman, and my pension fund loses lots of value, that’s not Goldman’s fault,” wrote one reader. “No one is forcing anyone to buy anything. The only thing Goldman is guilty of is making profits.”.

Meltdown Reveals Causes of Housing Bust
by Bill Haynes
There it was, in The Arizona Republic. It had to be true: Real-estate cycles still mysterious. The article started with the timeworn cliché, "This real-estate downturn has entered uncharted territory." Obviously, the writer had not read Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods Jr. The third paragraph provided still more evidence that the writer had not read Wood's bestseller. "Much less is known about housing boom and bust cycles than, say, historic performance patterns for the stock or bond markets." To support his position, the writer cited an unnamed report released in June by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The report asserted that "Most of the larger historical downturns were caused by sharp increases in unemployment rates and shocks to personal income." But, as the writer admitted, these factors were not in play when housing "started into its tailspin for other reasons.

Treasury details new consumer agency, and banks cry foul
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday sent Congress a detailed plan to create one of the most ambitious parts of the president's proposed overhaul of financial regulation, a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.The Treasury Department's proposal would gather consumer protection powers that now are spread among many bank regulators and place them under a single roof. If it's enacted, this would be a huge step by government into private banking after a hands-off approach for the past two decades.

CFTC Looking at All Options for Fair Markets, Gensler Says
he Commodity Futures Trading Commission will use all of its regulatory power to ensure fair operations of futures markets for oil, agriculture, currencies and interest rates, the agency’s chairman said.“It’s important that the CFTC use all of its current authorities to vigorously fulfill its mission that markets are free of fraud and manipulation,” Gary Gensler, who was sworn in as chairman on May 26, said in an interview yesterday. In his first week, he “asked the staff here to report up options and recommendations with regard to these markets, particularly as it relates to the markets for physical commodities.”

Gold's Leading Authority Expects Gold to Break Price Record
By Luke Burgess
Don't own gold yet? Don't worry...
Because even at $940 an ounce, gold prices are still positioned to surge by three... four... or even five times!In fact, if gold prices perform even half as well as they did during the bull market of the 1970s, the yellow metal will explode to over $2,500 in a matter of months.The world's top gold consultant agrees...GFMS Ltd. (formerly known as Gold Fields Mineral Services) recently echoed Gold World's longstanding rationale for higher gold prices and predicted a new price record within the next few weeks.

Gold Manipulation Redux
by: Hard Assets Investor
We at HardAssetsInvestor.com (HardAssetsInvestor.com) often hear the volume level rise precipitously in the conversation whenever the words "gold" and "manipulation" are strung together in the same sentence. So it was no surprise that the recent publication of "Has Gold Been Manipulated?" excited the chattering classes. The article questioned an assertion made by newsletter publisher Ted Butler, among others, that short gold and silver futures positions held by U.S. commercial banks are artificially depressing the metals markets.A subsequent interview ("Bill Murphy: Manipulation Of The Gold Market") with the chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee [GATA] also lit up the discussion boards..

Gold price will rise in real terms - Roulston
Newsletter writer and analyst Lawrence Roulston provides his thoughts on the outlook for the economy and what factors impact gold and other metal markets. "As the Western world gets back on track," says Roulston, "commodity prices will continue higher." Interview with The Gold Report.
The Gold Report: Lawrence, you have just returned from trips to Dubai, Hong Kong and Europe. What does the rest of the world think of the health of the U.S. and European economies?
Lawrence Roulston: It is striking how different the outlooks are in different parts of the world. In North America, most people are totally focused on the U.S. economy, which is not looking that promising in the near term. Therefore, investors are quite gloomy. Europe is also not very upbeat. But, in Europe, they are more pragmatic and they tend to look a little further into the future..

Don’t Be Fooled By Gold’s Tired Look
By: Rick Ackerman,
Gold futures eased lower yesterday, apparently too tired for the time being to continue treading water. The Comex August contract settled at 927.40, down a little more than one percent on the day.  If you’re a long-term investor looking to do some bargain-hunting, however, we’d advise waiting for even better prices, since it looks as though the futures could fall to as low as 899.00 over the next 6-8 days. That would be a back-up-the-truck buying opportunity as far as we’re concerned, since the downside in bullion seems limited for now. The 899.00 target is a “Hidden Pivot” support, and it appears capable of engendering a tradable bounce. Although that number is not yet a lead-pipe cinch to be reached over the near term, it would become an odds-on bet following a two-day close beneath a less important “hidden” support at 924.00."

The Politics of Gold
by: Bruce Krasting
On June 18, I wrote a piece on gold. At the time I thought the Iranian election story could lead to an unanticipated source of demand for the yellow metal. I thought there were three possible outcomes. Either (a) peace and harmony would break out, or (b) the police and military would fail to shoot at the protesters and the Regime would fall or (c) the protesters would be crushed and talk that Israel would bomb Iran would come on the table. I guessed (c).Approximately one month ago a leading Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, published portions of a report produced by Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) titled Study on a Possible Israeli Strike on Iran's Nuclear Development Facilities. This link will take you to a page where the full report is available for download. .

Israeli peace activist faces jail over homes demolition protest
Ezra Nawi expects sentence of up to 18 months for resisting 'dehumanisation' of Palestinians
A prominent Israeli peace activist is expected to be sentenced to several months in jail tomorrow in a high-profile prosecution which began after he tried to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.Although activists who challenge the Israeli occupation are often arrested or detained for short periods, Ezra Nawi, a plumber from Jerusalem, is expecting a sentence of up to 18 months. He said he would lodge an immediate appeal, which may keep him out of prison initially, but it is likely he will be jailed within weeks.

Israel's Man of Conscience
By Ezra Nawi:
The author is going to prison--for peacefully resisting settler and army violence against West Bank Palestinians and the illegal expropriation of their land.
I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I "provoke local residents."

Israel to deport peace activists sailing to Gaza
After aid boat from Cyprus en route to Gaza Strip intercepted by Israeli Navy, 21 peace activist passengers will be deported in coming days Israel is planning to deport within the next few days the 21 peace activists who arrived on a boat from Cyprus with the intention of entering the Gaza Strip. An Israeli Navy unit boarded their boat and escorted it to Ashdod port. Immigration police will transport the detained activists to Ben Gurion Airport, and from there they will be deported out of the country.Among the peace activists are two Israeli-American citizens, and 19 others, including five from Ireland, three from Britain, five from Bahrain, three Americans, and Danish, Jordan, and Yemenite citizens. "

Judaism and racism
By Avirama Golan
For years it was hard to swallow the comparisons that some observers on
the left made between Israel and South Africa, and especially their use of the word apartheid, which seemed exaggerated and even harmful when applied to a complicated conflict. But in recent years, it has become impossible to continue hiding our heads in the sand: Israel is rapidly losing the last vestiges of its humane posturing and is closing its heart and conscience not only to Palestinians in the territories, but to anyone who, quite simply, is not Jewish.


06/30/2009

Royal Canadian Mint Releases Missing Gold Findings
By Royal Canadian Mint
OTTAWA, ON — The Royal Canadian Mint today released the findings of a third party review related to the unreconciled difference between the Corporation’s rolling inventory and the physical count of precious metals for the 2008 fiscal year. The scope of the review, conducted by Deloitte and Touche, was to specifically determine if the unreconciled difference in gold was the result of an accounting or transaction recording error. The report concluded that "the unaccounted for difference in gold does not appear to relate to an accounting error in the reconciliation process, an accounting error in the physical stock count schedules, or an accounting error in the recordkeeping of transactions during the year."

Gold still unaccounted for after audit at Canadian mint
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – About 17 500 oz of gold remains “unaccounted for” at the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM), after a third-party review by Deloitte & Touche of a difference between the RCM's rolling inventory and a physical count of precious metals at the year-end.At current prices, the discrepancy, which represents some 0,32% of the RCM's throughput during 2008, would be worth around $16,4-million.Canadian Minister of Transport John Baird and Minister of State Rob Merrifield said on Monday the situation was "inexcusable"."

Last chance saloon for gold investors to jump in?
The currently stuttering gold price as the northern hemisphere enters the summer season, traditionally a weak time for the gold price, could, some experts believe be the last opportunity to buy gold before an autumnal surge. Some analysts see the regular annual hiatus in investment in gold during the northern summer season, which is now upon us, coupled with what they see as unwarranted strength in the U.S. Dollar, as providing the last major chance for gold investors to buy at 'reasonable' prices before a big surge in the gold price later in the year. Buy on weakness is the cry - again! They may have a point, but gold has a nasty habit of defeating its proponents and does seem to have found so far a seemingly insuperable psychological barrier to advancement beyond the US$1,000 level - despite it from time to time surpassing old high points in most other major currencies.

Why silver is back in demand
MUMBAI: After the fall, the rise. That is the new silver lining for the white metal. Silver has again found favour with investors following its recent rise after the fall it witnessed since mid-2008. Main reason for its gain is the rise in industrial demand and investors’ new found love for the white metal. Since mid-2008 , silver had slumped by 57 %. One reason for silver’s fall was the correlation of the white metal with base metals like copper — which declined by 67% during the period — and a rise in the industrial use of silver in the last couple of years.

Miners and the Dollar
Natural resource companies with global operations have no shortage of business challenges to deal with—supply and demand trends, political instability, regulatory hurdles, remote and dangerous working conditions, inadequate infrastructure and much, much more.And even if they have managed all of these factors, there’s another variable that can have a huge impact on their success and yet is completely out of their control.It’s the value of the U.S. dollar.Commodities are bought and sold in dollars, so if you are a Russian manufacturer seeking to buy 1,000 metric tons of copper from Peru, you first have to get your hands on enough dollars to do the deal..

Treasuries Drop, Set for Steepest First-Half Loss in 3 Decades
Treasuries fell, heading for their steepest first-half loss in three decades, before a report that may show U.S. consumer confidence is rebounding and as rising stocks sapped demand for the safety of fixed-income assets.Government notes snapped a three-day gain before an industry report that economists said will show consumer sentiment increased to a nine-month high in June. The MSCI World Index of equities advanced 0.4 percent, taking the increase from its 2009 low in March to 42 percent. .

UK economy shrinks at fastest rate for 50 years
Miles Costello
The UK economy shrank by 2.4 per cent in the first quarter, its fastest rate in more than 50 years and far worse than expected, according to official figures today.Revised figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the economy had contracted by its fastest rate since 1958.The ONS' initial estimate was for an economic contraction of 1.9 per cent in the first three months of the year.Analysts had predicted that today's revised numbers would show a slowdown in the economy of about 2.1 per cent.

Cap and Trade Will Lead to Capital Flight
Ron Paul
In my last column, I joked that with public spending out of control and the piling on of the international bailout bill, economic collapse seems to be the goal of Congress.  It is getting harder to joke about such a thing however, as the non-partisan General Accounting Office (GAO) has estimated that the administration’s health care plan would actually cost over a trillion dollars.  This reality check may have given us a temporary reprieve on this particular disastrous policy, however an equally disastrous energy policy reared its ugly head on Capitol Hill last week.
The Cap and Trade Bill HR 2454 was voted on last Friday.  Proponents claim this bill will help the environment, but what it really does is put another nail in the economy’s coffin.

By Dan Denning
Hey here's a question to start your Tuesday off with. If Bernie Madoff gets 150 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme, what do you think the people who designed Social Security and the Superannuation scheme ought to get? And speaking of colossally stupid government programs, you may have seen the news that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a climate change bill on Saturday by a narrow vote of 219-212. The cap-and-trade bill, otherwise known as Waxman-Markey (for the nominal writers of the bill) mandates that U.S. manufacturers and utilities reduce carbon emissions 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050.

Up, down, out and doomed
By The Mogambo Guru
I usually have a "get prepared" to visit John Williams at his famous shadowstats.com site so that I am "feeling no pain", and this time I was happy, as his headline was "Inflation, Money Supply, GDP, Unemployment and the Dollar - Alternate Data Series".As for inflation, his calculation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) "reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980", which I note is back when inflation was a measurement of the change in prices of things that you buy, and not, as it is now after the villainous Alan Greenspan and Michael Boskin came up with their ludicrous "hedonic" measurements of inflation with which to disguise it.

Scalia breaks ranks, slams Bush officials on bank regulation
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal bank regulator erred in quashing efforts by New York state to combat the kind of predatory mortgage lending that triggered the nation's financial crisis.The 5-4 ruling by the high court was unusual. Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative jurist, wrote the majority's opinion and was joined by the court's four liberal judges.The five justices held that contrary to what the Bush administration had argued, states can enforce their own laws on matters such as discrimination and predatory lending, even if that crosses into areas under federal regulation.

WORLD GLOBALIZATION OF THE BANKING & REGULATORY STRUCTURE PART 2
By Joan Veon
Concentrating Total Financial Power at the Bank For International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board
BASEL, SWITZERLAND - There are those who have been predicting a time when there would appear a world government structure. That time is here. Many, however, have predicted that it would be political in power. That is not necessarily so. Although the United Nations has been an organizing power worldwide to harmonize national law with international law, they do not issue or print money—for that is the role of central banks. With the new and vast empowerments being given to the central banks of the world and with the restructuring of the Financial Stability Board, it appears that world government is financial and economic. .
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Basic Premises
by Charley Reese
What follows are a few of the basic premises on which I base my thinking. You might or might not agree with them, but may I suggest that you make a list of your own basic premises. It will help you clarify your thinking.
1. Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do it in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.
2. The American government is corrupt from top to bottom.
3. If you rely on the mass media to inform you about your community, state and nation, you will, with rare exceptions, be woefully ignorant of what is really going on.
4. The universal franchise is a bad idea. The notion that the destiny of the nation should be put in the hands of ignoramuses, parasites, boobs, party hacks and idiots is absurd on its face.
5. Public education in America is a failure and is so flawed it cannot be reformed.
6. Not much has changed in the past 5,000 years of human history.



06/29/2009

Beijing Formalizes Call for New Reserve Currency
BEIJING -- China's central bank reiterated its call for the creation of a new international currency that could replace currencies such as the dollar in countries' official reserves. In its annual report on financial stability, issued Friday, the People's Bank of China said the country will push reform of the international currency system to make it more diversified and reasonable. While it didn't specifically target the U.S. currency, it said it aims to reduce over-reliance on the current reserve currencies, of which the dollar is the biggest. "To avoid the shortcomings of sovereign credit currencies acting as reserve currencies, we need to create an... international reserve currency that can maintain the long-term stability of its value," the PBOC said.

Dollar Rises as China Says Currency May Dominate Global Trade
By Yoshiaki Nohara and Ron Harui
 The dollar rose against the euro for the first time in three days after China said the U.S. currency may keep dominating global trade and it won’t alter its foreign- currency reserves suddenly.The dollar gained versus all 16 major currencies after Guan Tao, deputy head of the international payment department at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, wrote in Chinamoney Magazine that the dollar may maintain its status as the world’s reserve currency. The yen fell against the dollar after a Japanese report showed retail sales slid for a ninth month, reducing the currency’s appeal as a refuge from the global slump.
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China, Brazil reported planning currency trade deal
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- The central bank governors of China and Brazil have agreed in principle to allow trade between the two countries to be settled in their respective currencies, reports said Sunday.People's Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan and Banco Central do Brazil President Henrique Meirelles met on the sidelines of the Bank for International Settlement's annual general meeting in Basel and said they would study how to implement the plan, the reports said.The move would bypass the U.S. dollar, to settle trade invoices in Chinese yuan and Brazilian reals.The reports follow China's central bank's repeated assertion Friday that a new global reserve currency is needed. See full story on China's latest call for new global reserve currency. .

China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us
Fitch Ratings has been warning for some time that China's lenders are wading into dangerous water
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
China's banks are veering out of control. The half-reformed economy of the People's Republic cannot absorb the $1,000bn (£600bn) blitz of new lending issued since December. Money is leaking instead into Shanghai's stock casino, or being used to keep bankrupt builders on life support. It is doing very little to help lift the world economy out of slump.

Will Gold Beat The Summer Doldrums This Year?
By: Peter Cooper, Arabian Money
Summer is not traditionally a good time for gold prices but this year could be the first exception in this bull market. Much depends on how stock markets fare from here. If there is a sharp correction then that would rally the dollar and take gold prices down, at least for a month or two.
If, on the other hand, the stock market rally continues over the summer then gold prices are likely to gain traction and surpass $1,000 an ounce again. Wall Street has shown some signs of hesitation over the past two weeks, and a sell-off followed by a sideways move over the summer can not be ruled out.
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Stephen King: Who will end this financial insanity? 
Mervyn isn't happy with Alistair because Alistair's housekeeping doesn't quite add up. Adair isn't happy with Mervyn because Mervyn wants to play with Adair's regulatory toys. Alistair doesn't trust Mervyn because he suspects Mervyn is sneaking off to tell George all of Alistair's secrets. Mervyn is irritated because Alistair refuses to show Mervyn his new White Paper. But George is full of cheer because he thinks Mervyn is his new best friend. That, I think, is the human aspect of the rumpus that's unfolded over the past few days. Personalities aside, the row reveals obvious tensions in the UK's monetary, fiscal and regulatory framework.

Hyper-Deflation on the Streets of Paris
By Bill Bonner
Scarcely a block from our office in Paris is a monetary phenomenon that has escaped the financial press. In one of the highest-cost economies in the world, you can buy a woman's shirt for 2 euros. A dress? Four euros. A man's jacket can be had for the price of a cup of coffee.The shop is tended by Chinese merchants...apparently dodging France's employment laws by only hiring family members. The merchandise, too, dodges high rents by squatting the sidewalk, under improvised blue awnings.How come such cheap duds in such a dear city? The latest figures show negative consumer price inflation in 14 countries. In Ireland prices are collapsing at a 4.7% rate. In the United States, they are falling at 1.3% annually - their biggest drop in 59 years. In Britain, consumer price inflation is still positive...but falling. But clothing on the Boulevard de la Villette seems to have been thrown out of an airplane. It is not in deflation; it is in hyper-deflation..

More Dismal than Ever
Recently by Ira Katz: The Wall Street Address
Economics is well known as the Dismal Science. In my opinion it is more dismal than ever as the world economy is being looted, pillaged, and run into the ground by a group of frauds and hucksters. The intellectual cover for this heist is being provided by people who call themselves economists but are really propagandists. Perhaps in these times the best quantitative measure of health for a society is the ration of true economists to propagandists. I would estimate that it is more than 1 to a 1000 today reflecting the current dire circumstances. It is disgusting that the likes of Krugman, Bernanke and Geithner have power, wealth and influence, while the likes of Guido Hülsmann, Bob Higgs, and others associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute are relatively obscure.

All the Collateral that’s Fit to Print
by Richard Daughty
I was really ready for a laugh when I read the Bloomberg article, “Derivatives Industry Gets Second Look From Congress.” To start off the festivities, it opens with a photo of the odious Christopher Dodd, the self-important arrogant loudmouth from Connecticut who milks the job for special “favors” and personal aggrandizement, actually chairs the House banking committee and, as a long-time member of Congress, is directly responsible for the economic catastrophe befalling us and the world, a sorry fact that I hope is a complete and utter embarrassment to the voters of Connecticut..

The Great American Bubble Machine
Here's the full text of Matt Taibbi's article on Goldman-Sachs, quoted from Something Awful (via LOLfed). Despite the weapons-grade snark in the first paragraph, which I underlined, it's a Big Picture post, very analytical, and has a hypothesis of what is to come that we can test for. So I recommend you read the whole thing, even though it is quite long.


Obama's Energy Bill is a Recipe for Economic Destruction
by Gerard Jackson
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad is an ancient saying that Obama seems intent on confirming with his energy bill. It has been estimated that if implemented this bill will added $9 trillion to energy costs by 2050. And the bad news does not stop there. Critics point out that the these costs will be felt throughout the US economy, particularly in the production of goods and services. However, Americans will not have to wait until 2050 for a severe energy crisis to strike.The brilliant Waxman and Markey are demanding that electric utilities use grossly inefficient solar and wind power sources to generate 20 per cent of their power. This is the kind of insanity that raised California energy prices to nearly twice the national average and in doing so contributed mightily to the state's current economic crisis.

Republicans who helped pass "cap and trade" benefitted from environmental donations
By: Kevin Mooney
House Republicans who received campaign donations from environmental groups helped make up the narrow margin of votes needed to send the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill over to the U.S. Senate.The legislation passed by a vote of just 219 to 212 on Friday with critical assistance from eight Republicans. They are: Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Mike Castle (Del.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), John McHugh (N.Y.), Dave Reichert (Wash.), Chris Smith (N.J.).  This support proved critical with 44 Democrats voting against the regulatory scheme.

Subsidies for Israel, Sanctions for Iran
by Grant Smith,
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress. On June 17 the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a “markup” session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar group that sought to suspend or condition foreign aid over Israel’s use of U.S. weapons that left 3,000 Palestinians dead during the Bush administration. The subcommittee held its session in a tiny Capitol room, denying activists and members of the press access to determine whether there was any discussion on aid to Israel. The budget quickly passed and is now before the full House Appropriations committee.

Gaza war victims tell of Israeli shelling in first public hearing
A UN human rights mission listened as witnesses described in detail the Israeli shelling of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip during a three-week offensive at the turn of the year. The delegation planned to hold two days of public hearings as part of its investigation into alleged war crimes during the 22-day offensive launched in late December that killed about 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.The group is headed by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who previously served as chief prosecutor for international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
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Honduras Defends Its Democracy
Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object.
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground.

US says had no role in Honduran coup
Washington rejects claims it backed plans to oust Honduran President Zelaya, who has fled to Costa Rica after being arrested 'in his pajamas' by military troops earlier today The United States on Sunday denied any involvement in the military coup d'etat against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, after he called on Washington to clarify if it had a role in the action. "There was no US involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official said.Zelaya says soldiers rousted him out of bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pajamas in what he criticized as "a coup" and "a kidnapping."

Flood of Afghan heroin fuels drug plague in Russia
By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers
CHELYABINSK, Russia — Young men with sores on their arms shuffled up the stairs of a dark, underground shopping arcade and into the daylight to plop dingy wads of rubles into the drug dealers' hands. The dealers casually reached into their pockets or plastic shopping bags and handed over tablets of synthetic morphine, a type also used as a horse tranquilizer, and paper packets that appeared to contain heroin.Across the street in this gray, post-Soviet industrial town, two Russian policemen sat in a faded wooden booth, and a couple more sat in a police truck outside. They didn't seem the least bit interested..

Battle for Iran shifts from the streets to the heart of power
The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Rafsanjani's manoeuvres against Khamenei come as tensions between the speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appeared to be coming to a head.Mass demonstrations on the streets against the election results have been effectively crushed by a massive police and basiij militia presence that has seen several dozen deaths and the arrests of hundreds of supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. But the splits within Iran's political elite are deepening

The ultimate U-turn from Labour, the dying Government
By abandoning targets, Labour is admitting the depth of its failure, says Philip Johnston.
Philip Johnston
Our younger son is on a rite-of-passage trek across the globe and on Friday came the news from somewhere in South America that he had been mugged and all his bank cards stolen. Still, he was OK and it was not the end of the world; it just required me to cancel the cards and order him some new ones. The former is easy; the latter almost impossible.After getting through an interminable succession of disembodied orders I finally spoke to a human being. "I am afraid that we need to talk to your son," he said. "Well you can't because he is in Peru, his mobile is not working and he is contacting us via the internet – and he can't get through your phalanx of automated instructions..


06/28/2009

Whither the Consumer
Americans, the once-reckless free spenders, are embracing a new era of saving that threatens to reverberate across the global economy and snuff out hopes of a quick recovery.