The EconoMises

Google Public Data Charts

2012-01-08T12:25:00.001-08:00

I stumbled upon Google's Public Data Explorer.
The most alarming when looking at our GDP was how much person consumption is (10.7 Trillion) vs the net exports of NEGATIVE 0.56 Trillion. How long can the country consume and not produce enough?

Even with the U3 Unemployment rate for 16-24 yrs old is horrible ~17%

20% Discount on Gold - Chart

2012-01-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a chart from late 2009. Gold ran from the summer 904 low to Thanksgiving 1227 high. A 35% gain. In early 2010, gold fell to 1044. A 15% drop.

The chart below show gold has dropped 20% from the late summer highs.

Think of this as a 20% discount off gold. What is happening is normal and has allowed you to save cash during the rally and use it to buy today. Think of yourself inhaling and exhaling and then look at then charts.

Useless Stock Headlines

2012-01-03T06:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.finviz.com/ is a great website. The news portion aggregates the other websites and blogs for the latest posts. One of the sites is http://finance.yahoo.com/news. Here is a useless headline "Five ETFs to Watch This Week". The target audience is the retail crowd in which can only go long and does not know how to trade. I read the article as we want you to watch these ETF's, react to a price spike and buy. There is no plan. There is not target price to enter. There is not OCO bracket order (one cancels the other) which defines your risk as once your order is filled, you will either be stopped out or your profit target hit. Regardless, your equity broker wins with the commissions.

TV News Weather Hype

2012-01-03T05:58:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend stumbled upon the local news and the weather segment. The forecast was amazing sunny upper 70s from New Year's Day until Friday. A perfect week! Yet, all the hype or worry was about temps dropping into the mid-60s by the weekend. I can see if there was going to be a major storm, but going form the 70s to 60s and still sunny is not alarming, yet at the end of the weather segment you were left with that nervous feeling. Why can't they say the next 6 days are going to be flawless and enjoy? (BTW, the forecast for next weekend is the lower 70s). This is why I use http://weather.gov and http://weatherspark.com for the forecast since it is plain text and no hype.

SP500 vs Gold

2011-12-31T07:19:00.000-08:00

Here you go mr "buy sp500". Keep inmind, when the dow jones index = the price of gold, that is when I will beexiting gold/silver. My guess is 2017.

How come you didn’t tell me to buy feeder cattle on jan 1^stand sell it yesterday? This is the perception of the graph, I know of know one who buys on jan 1st and sells on dec 1st. http://www.finviz.com/futures_performance.ashx?v=16

Buy silver! Only $2.49 over spot! Again, the lowest silver can drop to in the next month is the 2008 high of21.40. Pull this post up in 1 year and you will be lookingdown at these prices as a bargain.

http://www.goldmart.com/bullion-1/silver-bullion/american-silver-eagles-2012-prior/2012-1-oz-american-silver-eagle-20-coin-tube.html

Silver Coin Premiums

2011-12-28T07:09:00.001-08:00

With the paper silver market trading around $27.50, the premium over spot price of a Silver Eagle Coin is $2.89 I still cannot convince people to buy.
The lowest price silver will go is the 2008 high of $21.44. The mistake in thinking you will get that price is:
A - It is not a fact it will get that low.
B – The price might happen overnight. (can't buy while you are sleeping)
C - I expect the premiums to increase.
Example
$24 silver with a $3 premium = $27 per coin
$22 silver with a $5 premium = $27 per coin
The only way to "catch" the low is with a futures contract and the SLV ETF of the price occurs during regular trading hours. But, this is for trading and not physical.

$200 Gold Coupon

2011-12-15T20:36:00.000-08:00

A $200 drop in the price of gold in USD in the past week. Pretty amazing. 1760 to 1562. I see this as a $200 coupon for the last chance to buy sub-1600 gold and sub 30 silver.

click on chart to enlarge

Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking?

2011-10-25T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is an old story, but with the recent killing of Gaddafi, I thought it would be interesting to examine the real reasons behind what happened there. This article does it perfectly:

Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking?

By Ellen Brown

April 14, 2011

opednews.com

Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank -- this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:

I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences.

Alex Newman wrote in the New American:

In a statement released last week, the rebels reported on the results of a meeting held on March 19. Among other things, the supposed rag-tag revolutionaries announced the "[d]esignation of the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and appointment of a Governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi."

Newman quoted CNBC senior editor John Carney, who asked, "Is this the first time a revolutionary group has created a central bank while it is still in the midst of fighting the entrenched political power? It certainly seems to indicate how extraordinarily powerful central bankers have become in our era."

Another anomaly involves the official justification for taking up arms against Libya. Supposedly it's about human rights violations, but the evidence is contradictory. According to an article on the Fox News website on February 28:

As the United Nations works feverishly to condemn Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi for cracking down on protesters, the body's Human Rights Council is poised to adopt a report chock-full of praise for Libya's human rights record.

The review commends Libya for improving educational opportunities, for making human rights a "priority" and for bettering its "constitutional" framework. Several countries, including Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia but also Canada, give Libya positive marks for the legal protections afforded to its citizens -- who are now revolting against the regime and facing bloody reprisal.

Whatever might be said of Gaddafi's personal crimes, the Libyan people seem to be thriving. A delegation of medical professionals from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus wrote in an appeal to Russian President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin that after becoming acquainted with Libyan life, it was their view that in few nations did people live in such comfort:

[Libyans] are entitled to free treatment, and their hospitals provide the best in the world of medical equipment. Education in Libya is free, capable young people have the opportunity to study abroad at government expense. When marrying, young couples receive 60,000 Libyan dinars (about 50,000 U.S. dollars) of financial assistance. Non-interest state loans, and as practice shows, undated. Due to government subsidies the price of cars is much lower than in Europe, and they are affordable for every family. Gasoline and bread cost a penny, no taxes for those who are engaged in agriculture. The Libyan people are quiet and peaceful, are not inclined to drink, and are very religious.

They maintained that the international community had been misinformed about the struggle against the regime. "Tell us," they said, "who would not like such a regime?"

Even if that is just propaganda, there is no denying at least one very popular achievement of the Libyan government: it brought water to the desert by building the largest and most expensive irrigation project in history, the $33 billion GMMR (Great Man-Made River) project. Even more than oil, water is crucial to life in Libya. The GMMR provides 70 percent of the population with water for drinking and irrigation, pumping it from Libya's vast underground Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System in the south to populated coastal areas 4,000 kilometers to the north. The Libyan government has done at least some things right.

Another explanation for the assault on Libya is that it is "all about oil," but that theory too is problematic. As noted in the National Journal, the country produces only about 2 percent of the world's oil. Saudi Arabia alone has enough spare capacity to make up for any lost production if Libyan oil were to disappear from the market. And if it's all about oil, why the rush to set up a new central bank?

Another provocative bit of data circulating on the Net is a 2007 "Democracy Now" interview of U.S. General Wesley Clark (Ret.). In it he says that about 10 days after September 11, 2001, he was told by a general that the decision had been made to go to war with Iraq. Clark was surprised and asked why. "I don't know!" was the response. "I guess they don't know what else to do!" Later, the same general said they planned to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

What do these seven countries have in common? In the context of banking, one that sticks out is that none of them is listed among the 56 member banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That evidently puts them outside the long regulatory arm of the central bankers' central bank in Switzerland.

The most renegade of the lot could be Libya and Iraq, the two that have actually been attacked. Kenneth Schortgen Jr., writing on Examiner.com, noted that "[s] ix months before the US moved into Iraq to take down Saddam Hussein, the oil nation had made the move to accept Euros instead of dollars for oil , and this became a threat to the global dominance of the dollar as the reserve currency, and its dominion as the petrodollar." According to a Russian article titled "Bombing of Lybia -- Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar," Gadaffi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar. Gadaffi suggested establishing a united African continent, with its 200 million people using this single currency. During the past year, the idea was approved by many Arab countries and most African countries. The only opponents were the Republic of South Africa and the head of the League of Arab States. The initiative was viewed negatively by the USA and the European Union, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling Libya a threat to the financial security of mankind; but Gaddafi was not swayed and continued his push for the creation of a united Africa. And that brings us back to the puzzle of the Libyan central bank. In an article posted on the Market Oracle, Eric Encina observed:

One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned . . . . Currently, the Libyan government creates its own money, the Libyan Dinar, through the facilities of its own central bank. Few can argue that Libya is a sovereign nation with its own great resources, able to sustain its own economic destiny. One major problem for globalist banking cartels is that in order to do business with Libya, they must go through the Libyan Central Bank and its national currency, a place where they have absolutely zero dominion or power-broking ability. Hence, taking down the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) may not appear in the speeches of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy but this is certainly at the top of the globalist agenda for absorbing Libya into its hive of compliant nations.

Libya not only has oil. According to the IMF, its central bank has nearly 144 tons of gold in its vaults. With that sort of asset base, who needs the BIS, the IMF and their rules?

All of which prompts a closer look at the BIS rules and their effect on local economies. An article on the BIS website states that central banks in the Central Bank Governance Network are supposed to have as their single or primary objective "to preserve price stability." They are to be kept independent from government to make sure that political considerations don't interfere with this mandate. "Price stability" means maintaining a stable money supply, even if that means burdening the people with heavy foreign debts. Central banks are discouraged from increasing the money supply by printing money and using it for the benefit of the state, either directly or as loans.

In a 2002 article in Asia Times titled "The BIS vs National Banks," Henry Liu maintained:

BIS regulations serve only the single purpose of strengthening the international private banking system, even at the peril of national economies. The BIS does to national banking systems what the IMF has done to national monetary regimes. National economies under financial globalization no longer serve national interests.

. . . FDI [foreign direct investment] denominated in foreign currencies, mostly dollars, has condemned many national economies into unbalanced development toward export, merely to make dollar-denominated interest payments to FDI, with little net benefit to the domestic economies.

He added, "Applying the State Theory of Money, any government can fund with its own currency all its domestic developmental needs to maintain full employment without inflation." The "state theory of money" refers to money created by governments rather than private banks.

The presumption of the rule against borrowing from the government's own central bank is that this will be inflationary, while borrowing existing money from foreign banks or the IMF will not. But all banks actually create the money they lend on their books, whether publicly-owned or privately-owned. Most new money today comes from bank loans. Borrowing it from the government's own central bank has the advantage that the loan is effectively interest-free. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of public projects by an average of 50%.

And that appears to be how the Libyan system works. According to Wikipedia, the functions of the Central Bank of Libya include "issuing and regulating banknotes and coins in Libya" and "managing and issuing all state loans." Libya's wholly state-owned bank can and does issue the national currency and lend it for state purposes.

That would explain where Libya gets the money to provide free education and medical care, and to issue each young couple $50,000 in interest-free state loans. It would also explain where the country found the $33 billion to build the Great Man-Made River project. Libyans are worried that NATO-led air strikes are coming perilously close to this pipeline, threatening another humanitarian disaster.

So is this new war all about oil or all about banking? Maybe both -- and water as well. With energy, water, and ample credit to develop the infrastructure to access them, a nation can be free of the grip of foreign creditors. And that may be the real threat of Libya: it could show the world what is possible. Most countries don't have oil, but new technologies are being developed that could make non-oil-producing nations energy-independent, particularly if infrastructure costs are halved by borrowing from the nation's own publicly-owned bank. Energy independence would free governments from the web of the international bankers, and of the need to shift production from domestic to foreign markets to service the loans.

If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank joins the BIS, whether the nationalized oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and health care continue to be free.

Occupy Wall Street was Planned by Acorn and the SEIU

2011-10-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Stephen Lerner, a board member of the Service Employees International Union, and Acorn founder Wade Rathke planned the whole fucking thing.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/38593

from JULY:

From Capital Research Center publication Organization Trends, July 2011

By F. Vincent Vernuccio and Matthew Vadum

Summary: Led by the radical Service Employees International Union (SEIU), left-wing unions and activist groups have been planning to launch a national campaign of economic strong-arming and sabotage. Their plan envisions mortgage and student loan strikes and bank boycotts. Also contemplated are acts of harassment and intimidation directed against bank officials, corporate heads and public officials deemed to be enemies of the people.

On March 25 ACORN founder Wade Rathke, a one-time president of an SEIU local in New Orleans, announced what he described as “days of rage in ten cities around JP Morgan Chase.” Rathke said the forthcoming campaign of demonstrations, strikes and disruption will mark “the beginning of the anti-banking jihad.”

This kind of inflammatory language hasn’t been in the news since the days of Patty Hearst, the Weathermen, and the Black Panthers. But it has always characterized the rhetoric of left-wing activists. Now, as the labor movement lurches increasingly to port in frustration at the stalemated politics of Washington, D.C., you can expect to hear more fighting words from the activist Left.

Since at least the late 1960s, the American Left has embraced what could be characterized as economic strong arming. Striking fear into the hearts of big corporations is a tactic that has proven to be both politically useful-and lucrative. The shakedown artists of ACORN and Jesse Jackson’s Wall Street Project can attest to that.

Many activists conceal their in-your-face agenda behind the comforting message of “community organizing.” But others revel in it. For example, Bruce Marks, president of the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, has proudly described himself as both a “banking terrorist” and an “urban terrorist.” (NACA was profiled by David Hogberg in the April 2009 Organization Trends.)

The current campaign is still in the planning stages and descriptions of it vary depending on the audience. That’s the kind of strategem that would appeal to President Obama, who as a presidential candidate promised three years ago to do the bidding of Saul Alinsky-inspired groups such as ACORN, Gamaliel Foundation, National People’s Action, and the Center for Community Change (CCC).

Almost a year before Obama told Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher that he planned to “spread the wealth around,” the candidate made it clear to the nation’s cadre of far-left community organizers that they would be major players in his administration. At the CCC-sponsored Heartland Democratic Presidential Forum on Dec. 1, 2007, Obama promised that he would “be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda ... for the next presidency of the United States of America.”

On With the Financial Attacks

The lead organizer of what Rathke called the “anti-banking jihad” is Stephen Lerner, a well-known SEIU operative. Lerner is a board member of SEIU and is tremendously respected and influential in leftist organizing circles. He has reportedly visited the Obama White House at least four times.

SEIU happens to be President Obama’s favorite union. The labor organization went into hock when it spent a staggering $85 million in the last election to promote Barack Obama and other Democratic Party candidates. SEIU even produced a documentary film called Labor Day to let Americans know how much hard work it did to put Obama in the White House.

SEIU is one of America’s largest and fastest growing labor organizations with 2.1 million members. It is certainly one of labor’s most politically active unions. Unlike some unions that focus on preserving the pay and benefits of existing members, SEIU is eager to expand by aggressively organizing new members by almost any means necessary. SEIU leadership understands that focusing on signing up new members and negotiating higher pay is not enough. If it is to survive in a modern global economy labor unions must develop new ways to confront and intimidate corporations.

The goal is to have these companies sign neutrality agreements with unions. Such pacts prevent workers from learning about the consequences if they unionize. In almost all cases unions want the company to deny workers the right to vote by secret ballot on whether to join a union. Unions prefer the undemocratic “card check” method because it allows union leaders to intimidate workers into voting for unionization. Their motivation is simple: more members equals more union dues.

The best-known leaders of SEIU are two of its former presidents, John Sweeney, who went on to become president of the AFL-CIO, and Andy Stern, who often challenged Sweeney for not doing even more to confront corporate management. But below Sweeney and Stern are large numbers of dedicated and talented organizers, whose knowledge and zeal have made SEIU a very powerful-and dangerous-organization.

_____

This is the same Stephen Lerner who is closely affiliated with the Obama Administration:

Not only does Lerner maintain the clout of being a former SEIU executive, but his influential position seems to have gained him access to the Obama White House on more than one occasion. According to White House visitor logs, “Stephen Lerner” has visited the White House four times over the past two years.

Two of these visits were for public gatherings: a large group’s private White House tour and a White House Hanukkah celebration. But at least two other visits were scheduled for private meetings with high-level executive offices.

On May 22, 2010, Lerner met with a presidential personnel officer who manages economic agencies. While the minimal information in the WH visitor log offers no real information on what this meeting was about, it’s distressing to know a) anyone in the White House would meet with the kind of man who could openly call for the deliberate dismantling of the American economy, and that b) that White House official works to recruit personnel for the federal government’s economic agencies.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/uncovered-did-the-leftist-encouraging-economic-terrorism-have-access-to-obamas-white-house/

________

This was pretty obvious from the start, the protests have focused on pretty much the opposite of the real reasons that people should be angry about Wall Street.

________

UPDATE: Obama scheduled an 11 a.m. press conference this morning to push his latest jobs bill, and stated that Occupy Wall Street "expresses the frustration that the American people feel...you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight methods to keep (financial meltdown) from happening again".

________

UPDATE #2: Traveling Professional Agitators Making $120K per Year to Occupy Wall Street

http://biggovernment.com/laborunionreport/2011/10/02/meet-occupywallsts-jeffrae-professional-rabble-rouser-agitator-organizer-labor-activist/

Among Saturday’s arrestees was one Jeff Rae, from Washington, DC. Mr. Rae describes himself on Twitter as a “rabble rouser, agitator, organizer, labor activist.” According to Mr. Rae, he was arrested for ‘failure to obey order, prohibited use of roadway, and blocking traffic.’

...

In fact, it appears that Mr. Rae is the same Jeffrey Ray who is employed as the Director of New Media by the Transport Workers Union in Washington, DC—the same union that joined the #OccupyWallSt protests last week. And, as a professional rabble rouser, agitator, organizer and labor activist, Mr. Rae isn’t one of those downtrodden masses for whom the Neo-Communist protests are allegedly meant for since Mr Rae seems to be doing quite well for himself…

In fact, as many Americans have been losing their jobs and homes during the Great Recession, Mr. Rae has actually seen his income as a professional rabble rouser, agitator, organizer and labor activist increase substantially—from $69,353 in 2008 to $118,534 in 2010.

Mr. Rae also appears to be the same Jeffrey Rae who traveled to Bejing in 2008 and was arrested and detained six days, as well as traveled to Wisconsin earlier this year.

_____

So, apparently, this asshole sets up protests online, and actually travels to the hotspots (Beijing, Wisconsin, Wall Street, etc) and does further organizing. The sole point of his job is to sew and agitate civil unrest, get arrested, smoke dope and play bongos with braindead hippie scum, etc. $120k/year.

End of eBay deals on silver/gold coins – Part 2

2011-09-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

As a update to my post 3 months ago http://theeconomises.blogspot.com/2011/06/end-of-ebay-deals-on-silvergold-coins.html

Next Saturday, October 1^st, Ebay will no longer offer eBay Bucks for purchases from the Bullion category within Coins & Paper Money. http://pages.ebay.com/rewards/terms.html

Re-read the original post. This will mean the only discount will be from your credit card. Unless ebay can beat the dealers final price, the buyers will focus on the dealers over ebay. That is a tough break for ebays sellers who have to deal with the ebay/paypal fees http://www.rolbe.com/ebay.htm

A $5 coupon code http://www.retailmenot.com/view/gainesvillecoins.com#

Here a purchase 14 months ago on ebay. This does not include the discount from mr rebates and the credit card. Today a roll of 25 maple leafs goes for over $1100. Seems like a buy one get one free deal a year ago.

Bing Cashback - You received $88.40 from your eBay purchase on 7/2/2010
2010 CANADA SILVER MAPLE LEAF COINS NEW UNC 50 LOT Unit price: $1105.00

Stock Markets Are HFT Algo Chaos

2011-08-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the images below, which show just how much, and how quickly trading has change since 2007. We sifted through 1,152 trading days of U.S. Equity data, from January 2007 through August 16, 2011, and plotted this data for each minute of the trading day. There were 513 billion quotes and 34 billion trades, during regular trading hours. The time scale indicates the hour or minute in Eastern Time (Military format). Charts are colored by date according to the legend, which shows dates in the format M/YY (so 8/11 indicates August 2011). The most recent data on all the charts is colored red, with older data using colors towards the blue end of the spectrum. Click on any of the charts for the full resolution image.

Note the significant changes from late 2009 (light green/aqua-marine).

The below chart shows the one-second peak quote rates. Note how the spikes at 10am, which were driven by significant news events in years past, pale in comparison to normal trading today. Those 10am events would always saturate and overload quotation systems. They still do, but at much higher levels.

You can see that the rates in 2007 (way at the bottom of the chart in black) were about 100 times lower than the peaks of today.

One-Second Peak Quote Rates

MORE SOBERING DATA HERE

Publication Date: 08/18/2011
http://www.nanex.net

This report and all material shown on this website is published by Nanex, LLC and may not be reproduced, disseminated, or distributed, in part or in whole, by any means, outside of the recipient's organization without express written authorization from Nanex. It is a violation of federal copyright law to reproduce all or part of this publication or its contents by any means. This material does not constitute a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities or investments. The opinions expressed herein are based on publicly available information and are considered reliable. However, Nanex makes NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY SORT with respect to this report. Any person using this material does so solely at their own risk and Nanex and/or its employees shall be under no liability whatsoever in any respect thereof.

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

2011-08-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

From: http://www.alternet.org/

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.

July 31, 2011 |

Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them.

How exactly has American society subdued young Americans?

1. Student-Loan Debt. Large debt—and the fear it creates—is a pacifying force. There was no tuition at the City University of New York when I attended one of its colleges in the 1970s, a time when tuition at many U.S. public universities was so affordable that it was easy to get a B.A. and even a graduate degree without accruing any student-loan debt. While those days are gone in the United States, public universities continue to be free in the Arab world and are either free or with very low fees in many countries throughout the world. The millions of young Iranians who risked getting shot to protest their disputed 2009 presidential election, the millions of young Egyptians who risked their lives earlier this year to eliminate Mubarak, and the millions of young Americans who demonstrated against the Vietnam War all had in common the absence of pacifying huge student-loan debt.

Today in the United States, two-thirds of graduating seniors at four-year colleges have student-loan debt, including over 62 percent of public university graduates. While average undergraduate debt is close to $25,000, I increasingly talk to college graduates with closer to $100,000 in student-loan debt. During the time in one’s life when it should be easiest to resist authority because one does not yet have family responsibilities, many young people worry about the cost of bucking authority, losing their job, and being unable to pay an ever-increasing debt. In a vicious cycle, student debt has a subduing effect on activism, and political passivity makes it more likely that students will accept such debt as a natural part of life.

2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance. In 1955, Erich Fromm, the then widely respected anti-authoritarian leftist psychoanalyst, wrote, “Today the function of psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis threatens to become the tool in the manipulation of man.” Fromm died in 1980, the same year that an increasingly authoritarian America elected Ronald Reagan president, and an increasingly authoritarian American Psychiatric Association added to their diagnostic bible (then the DSM-III) disruptive mental disorders for children and teenagers such as the increasingly popular “oppositional defiant disorder” (ODD). The official symptoms of ODD include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules,” “often argues with adults,” and “often deliberately does things to annoy other people.”

Many of America’s greatest activists including Saul Alinsky (1909–1972), the legendary organizer and author of Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals, would today certainly be diagnosed with ODD and other disruptive disorders. Recalling his childhood, Alinsky said, “I never thought of walking on the grass until I saw a sign saying ‘Keep off the grass.’ Then I would stomp all over it.” Heavily tranquilizing antipsychotic drugs (e.g. Zyprexa and Risperdal) are now the highest grossing class of medication in the United States ($16 billion in 2010); a major reason for this, according to theJournal of the American Medical Association in 2010, is that many children receiving antipsychotic drugs have nonpsychotic diagnoses such as ODD or some other disruptive disorder (this especially true of Medicaid-covered pediatric patients).

3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy. Upon accepting the New York City Teacher of the Year Award on January 31, 1990, John Taylor Gatto upset many in attendance by stating: “The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions.” A generation ago, the problem of compulsory schooling as a vehicle for an authoritarian society was widely discussed, but as this problem has gotten worse, it is seldom discussed.

The nature of most classrooms, regardless of the subject matter, socializes students to be passive and directed by others, to follow orders, to take seriously the rewards and punishments of authorities, to pretend to care about things they don’t care about, and that they are impotent to affect their situation. A teacher can lecture about democracy, but schools are essentially undemocratic places, and so democracy is not what is instilled in students. Jonathan Kozol in The Night Is Dark and I Am Far from Home focused on how school breaks us from courageous actions. Kozol explains how our schools teach us a kind of “inert concern” in which “caring”—in and of itself and without risking the consequences of actual action—is considered “ethical.” School teaches us that we are “moral and mature” if we politely assert our concerns, but the essence of school—its demand for compliance—teaches us not to act in a friction-causing manner.

4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” The corporatocracy has figured out a way to make our already authoritarian schools even more authoritarian. Democrat-Republican bipartisanship has resulted in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, NAFTA, the PATRIOT Act, the War on Drugs, the Wall Street bailout, and educational policies such as “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” These policies are essentially standardized-testing tyranny that creates fear, which is antithetical to education for a democratic society. Fear forces students and teachers to constantly focus on the demands of test creators; it crushes curiosity, critical thinking, questioning authority, and challenging and resisting illegitimate authority. In a more democratic and less authoritarian society, one would evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher not by corporatocracy-sanctioned standardized tests but by asking students, parents, and a community if a teacher is inspiring students to be more curious, to read more, to learn independently, to enjoy thinking critically, to question authorities, and to challenge illegitimate authorities.

5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously. In a 2006 survey in the United States, it was found that 40 percent of children between first and third grade read every day, but by fourth grade, that rate declined to 29 percent. Despite the anti-educational impact of standard schools, children and their parents are increasingly propagandized to believe that disliking school means disliking learning. That was not always the case in the United States. Mark Twain famously said, “I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.” Toward the end of Twain’s life in 1900, only 6 percent of Americans graduated high school. Today, approximately 85 percent of Americans graduate high school, but this is good enough for Barack Obama who told us in 2009, “And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country.”

The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class. In the 1880s and 1890s, American farmers with little or no schooling created a Populist movement that organized America’s largest-scale working people’s cooperative, formed a People’s Party that received 8 percent of the vote in 1892 presidential election, designed a “subtreasury” plan (that had it been implemented would have allowed easier credit for farmers and broke the power of large banks) and sent 40,000 lecturers across America to articulate it, and evidenced all kinds of sophisticated political ideas, strategies and tactics absent today from America’s well-schooled population. Today, Americans who lack college degrees are increasingly shamed as “losers”; however, Gore Vidal and George Carlin, two of America’s most astute and articulate critics of the corporatocracy, never went to college, and Carlin dropped out of school in the ninth grade.

6. The Normalization of Surveillance. The fear of being surveilled makes a population easier to control. While the National Security Agency (NSA) has received publicity for monitoring American citizen’s email and phone conversations, and while employer surveillance has become increasingly common in the United States, young Americans have become increasingly acquiescent to corporatocracy surveillance because, beginning at a young age, surveillance is routine in their lives. Parents routinely check Web sites for their kid’s latest test grades and completed assignments, and just like employers, are monitoring their children’s computers and Facebook pages. Some parents use the GPS in their children’s cell phones to track their whereabouts, and other parents have video cameras in their homes. Increasingly, I talk with young people who lack the confidence that they can even pull off a party when their parents are out of town, and so how much confidence are they going to have about pulling off a democratic movement below the radar of authorities?

7. Television. In 2009, the Nielsen Company reported that TV viewing in the United States is at an all-time high if one includes the following “three screens”: a television set, a laptop/personal computer, and a cell phone. American children average eight hours a day on TV, video games, movies, the Internet, cell phones, iPods, and other technologies (not including school-related use). Many progressives are concerned about the concentrated control of content by the corporate media, but the mere act of watching TV—regardless of the programming—is the primary pacifying agent (private-enterprise prisons have recognized that providing inmates with cable television can be a more economical method to keep them quiet and subdued than it would be to hire more guards).

Television is a dream come true for an authoritarian society: those with the most money own most of what people see; fear-based television programming makes people more afraid and distrustful of one another, which is good for the ruling elite who depend on a “divide and conquer” strategy; TV isolates people so they are not joining together to create resistance to authorities; and regardless of the programming, TV viewers’ brainwaves slow down, transforming them closer to a hypnotic state that makes it difficult to think critically. While playing a video games is not as zombifying as passively viewing TV, such games have become for many boys and young men their only experience of potency, and this “virtual potency” is certainly no threat to the ruling elite.

8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism. American culture offers young Americans the “choices” of fundamentalist religion and fundamentalist consumerism. All varieties of fundamentalism narrow one’s focus and inhibit critical thinking. While some progressives are fond of calling fundamentalist religion the “opiate of the masses,” they too often neglect the pacifying nature of America’s other major fundamentalism. Fundamentalist consumerism pacifies young Americans in a variety of ways. Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see. A fundamentalist consumer culture legitimizes advertising, propaganda, and all kinds of manipulations, including lies; and when a society gives legitimacy to lies and manipulativeness, it destroys the capacity of people to trust one another and form democratic movements. Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements.

These are not the only aspects of our culture that are subduing young Americans and crushing their resistance to domination. The food-industrial complex has helped create an epidemic of childhood obesity, depression, and passivity. The prison-industrial complex keeps young anti-authoritarians “in line” (now by the fear that they may come before judges such as the two Pennsylvania ones who took $2.6 million from private-industry prisons to ensure that juveniles were incarcerated). As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed: “All our things are right and wrong together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.”

Streaming Football for $40.40

2011-07-31T12:53:00.000-07:00

As an followup to the streaming football games post from last year. Live247.tv just posted a deal for 6 months for $40.40 using the coupon code NFL4ME when you sign-up with this link.

Financial Podcasts

2011-07-31T08:17:00.001-07:00

In my eyes a podcast is just an MP3 file. I use a tiny $20 SanDisk Sansa Clip MP3 Player to listen to music, audio books and podcasts. I use Winamp to sync the mp3s to the player. I use google reader to manage the RSS feed. Here is a list of financial related podcasts that do not have any of the mainstream media nonsense and interruptions.

*Main Website*	*RSS*	*Info*
King World News	Link	Around 5 interviews per week, each 10-25 mins long.
Financial Sense Newshour	Link	Around 5 interviews per week, each 15-30 mins long.
Goldseek.com Radio	Link	2 interviews released mid-week.
The Lew Rockwell Show	Link	~15 mins long released on Tues.
S&A Investor Radio	Link	45-60 mins released on Weds.
The Disciplined Investor	Link	1 hour long released Sunday Nights
DH-Unplugged	Link	1 hour long released on Weds.

No Job, free home for 1 year?

2011-07-08T07:02:00.001-07:00

"Starting August 1st, the Federal Housing Administration will extend the forbearance period for unemployed homeowners in its programs from three or four months to a full year. That'll allow qualified homeowners to miss payments for 12 months before the foreclosure process begins."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2011-07-06-help-for-unemployed-homeowners_n.htm#

http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov

So, collect an unemployment check and not have to pay your mortgage for 1 year now?!? What a mess. They really do not want to flood the market with foreclosures. What is wrong with renting?

Gold/Silver vs. 70+ fiat currencies

2011-07-08T06:52:00.001-07:00

Enough said. Gold and silvers % gain/loss vs. 70+ fiat currencies in the first 6 months of 2011. What liquid saving account offered 5.7% interest?

http://goldsilver.com/re/includes/modules/print_new.php?id=12946

High-Interest Savings Accounts vs. Real Inflation Rate

2011-07-03T12:12:00.001-07:00

http://lifehacker.com/5817597/five-best-banks-for-high+interest-savings-accounts list top five savings rates as:
Capital One: 1.10% (minimum $1,000 balance)
Ally: 1.04%
SmartyPig: 1.10%
ING Direct: 1.00%
Discover: 1.15% (minimum $500 balance)

The top five are under 1.25%. Meanwhile, the real inflation rate http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts as of May is 11%

If you were to store $1,000 USD of fiat currency for one year with the "best" saving bank you would have $1,011.50 or a gain of $11.50
If the real rate of inflation is 11%, that mean you are losing 10% of your purchasing power per year. I can see why this is a hidden tax as your saving account does not display a loss of 10% or $100

If you look at Gold's % Annual Change http://www.goldmoney.com/gold-research/gold-rises-in-2010-to-end-a-stellar-decade.html?print it has averaged 18.4% from 2001-2010. You would have not only maintained your purchasing power, but increased it. For those who say gold is risky, this displays saving fiat currency is risky.

Confluence of technicals = ~1440 the summer bottom in gold?

2011-07-02T11:58:00.001-07:00

The 1^st chart shows gold has bounced of the 150 day simple moving average (SMA) since the summer of 2009.

The 2^nd chart adds the Fibonacci retracements measure from each year's winter lows to spring highs. The rule is buy the 50% retracement. The target is the -23.6% retracement. The stop loss is a break of the 61.8% retracement.

Will gold repeat 2010 of where the 150 day SMA meets the yearly 50% retracement to mark the bottom for gold? I think so. I will be a buyer in the 1425-1450 range. If I am wrong and gold breaks 1400, then I will still have extra USD's on standby to buy it even cheaper.

End of eBay deals on silver/gold coins

2011-06-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

It looks like the end of deals (below dealer price) for silver/gold coins on ebay.

Over a year ago, you could stack the discounts:

8% - Bing (ended July 30, 2010) (was up to 35% in late 2009)
3% - Mr Rebates (suspended as of June 16, 2011) side note: ebay created its "Bullion Center" on the 15th.
2% - ebay bucks (paid quarterly)
1.5% - American Express (paid annually)
---
14.5%

If mr rebates and/or the other affiliate programs do not resume in 3 months (decided by ebay), then you only have 3.5% off from ebay bucks and amex.

Today with silver near $36….
Gainesville coins sells a roll of silver eagles for $807 + 18 shipping = $825 – 1.5% from amex = $813
The cheapest price on ebay is for a roll is $849 shipped. 849 – 2% ebay bucks – 1.5% amex = $820

So, for the first time that I can recall in the past 1.5 years, the dealer is cheaper than ebay!
Why? Look at the ebay fees calculator. The person who is selling the roll of eagles for $849 is only getting back $769.64 after the ebay and paypal fees!

I did not find any other non-dealer sites for deals. This should drive sales to dealers like Gainesville coins as what is the point in buying on ebay unless you want to play a premium for specific years coin.

Bottom line. I think this is the end of an era for deals on silver/gold coins on ebay as the seller fees are increasing while the buyer discounts are decreasing. It was great while it lasted in that I was getting "paid (in USD)" to exchange my USD for silver/gold.

Past 6 Months - Gas & Silver

2011-04-07T16:08:00.000-07:00

Gas per gallon
$2.61 to $3.61
38% increase

Silver per Oz
$22 to $39
77% increase

Gas:Silver Ratio
.11 to .09

12 gallons of gas in a tank paid in silver
1.32oz to 1.08oz

Proves if we were paid in silver, the cost of gas has gone down in the past 6 months.

Bernard von NotHaus Interview

2011-04-02T07:52:00.001-07:00

Here is a 25 minute interview of Peter Schiff interviewing Bernard von NotHaus - http://www.schiffradio.com

Bernard was found guilty on making of counterfeit coins http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/20/us-crime-currency-idUSTRE72J46L20110320

I do not think this is counterfeiting, but more of an alternate choice to say a silver eagle or Canadian maple leaf.

Here is how liberty dollar website looked back in March of 2009:
http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090303160528/http://www.libertydollar.org/

In Utah, US Mint only silver/gold coins became legal tender. I like the no capital gain tax in this act. http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=124156&sn=Detail&pid=102055

Gasoline Prices

2011-03-01T18:47:00.001-08:00

More and more of my peers are complaing about the constant increase in gas prices. They think it is due to the instability overseas. I asked everyone if they would rather purchase gold/silver/house for price appreciation and they chose a house. I still do not get it. When will the masses wake up to gold/silver? I can easily sell some of my gold or silver, but you cannot sell a chunk of your house. Plus, people are pissed that their house is not going up in nominal terms while their paycheck is being eaten away by gas/food. Everyone sees the price increase but does not think for one moment that the currency is losing value. Well, if you exchanged your USD for gold or silver, the cost of gas would be the same or even lower with silver. It seems extremely difficult for people see/understand this perspective.

Egypt is telling us Gold preserves wealth

2011-02-27T12:23:00.001-08:00

Wow! Egypt bans the export of any form of Gold https://research.tdwaterhouse.ca/research/public/Markets/CommoditiesNews?documentKey=1314-WEB1950-1

"to preserve the country's wealth". Hmm, so Gold is a store of value?

Gold Silver Margin Increases

2011-02-19T08:29:00.001-08:00

An increase in margin to buy or sell a gold or silver futures contract by the CME increases 30% on 11/9/10 causes the metals to sell off, but yesterday's 50% increase caused the metals to increase in price. Looks like the shorts were forced to cover this time at much higher prices.
The backwardation in silver continues. http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/metals/precious/silver.html

Feb 2010 $32.298
Dec 2015 $31.568
People want the physical delivery now and are willing to pay a premium. Anything still think $50 this year is still a pipedream? Posts: Jan 23, 2011
Nov 8, 2010

Acceptance of Gold

2011-02-19T08:12:00.001-08:00

More proof of acceptance most recently by JPM. The major exchanges also accept gold as collateral.

2/7/11 - J.P. Morgan Collateral Management Offers Automated Use of Gold - http://investor.shareholder.com/jpmorganchase/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=547977

11/11/10 – ICE says will takes gold as collateral http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USLDE6AA12520101111

10/19/09 - CME to allow gold as collateral for all exchange products http://www.marketwatch.com/story/story/print?guid=8F1E8264-27B8-4E48-98C0-DFEFAA90D9D9

$42 Gold

2011-02-19T07:58:00.001-08:00

Yes, the current book value of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold gold is currently $42.2222 per troy ounce! Everyone thinks I am joking around, but here is the link http://www.fms.treas.gov/gold/index.html Who is correct? The market thinks $1389 per troy ounce is the correct price as of 2/18/11

IMF sub-site and SDR’s

2011-02-12T12:50:00.001-08:00

Enhancing International Monetary Stability—A Role for the SDR? http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2011/010711.pdf Hardly a peep on gold.

http://imsreform.org/ - Seems they are pushing for 1 world currency.

Cheviot's Sound Money Conference

2011-02-12T12:31:00.001-08:00

Here is the link to the conference held on 1/27/11. The speakers include James Turk, Chris Powell, David Morgan and Hugo Salinas-Price.

I would convert the speeches to mp3 as each is at least a half an hour long.

I would rather listen to this conference than the nonsense on mainstream media.

Make a Pledge!

2011-01-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Watch the video. This would be great! And you are only charged if the debate happens (Krugman accepts challenge).

New FED Accounting Rules

2011-01-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

I find this all hilarious. This should confirm to everyone that Bernanke and FED economists will fight to the end to prove that central banking, and their theories that go along with it, can work. Anyone who thought they had to accept reality at some point was wrong. They just keep getting crazier.

The new accounting change essentially allows the Fed to denote losses by the various regional reserve banks that make up the Fed system as a liability to the Treasury rather than a hit to its capital. It would then simply direct future profits from Fed operations toward that liability. This is convenient and better than the alternative of the FED facing insolvency, better for the FED and the banks that is.

There is no market, it is simply a thing of the past. It will not return until the FED destroys itself. I strongly suggest considering this fact before putting too much money into something that does not reflect reality such as the stock market, a home, and any interest bearing assets. Someone eventually has to eat these losses, don't let it be you.

Backwardation in Silver / $25-27 will be the bottom

2011-01-23T08:13:00.001-08:00

James Turk pointed out in a recent post on the condition of the silver market - backwardation.
You can see this in plain sight. Compare the table below with gold/oil/uranium where those forward month prices are higher.
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/marketquotes/index.php3?market=SI

<><><><>

Jan 11	27.416
Mar 11	27.427
May 11	27.451
Jul 11	27.465
Sep 11	27.476
Dec 11	27.488
Jul 12	27.539
Dec 12	27.574
Jul 13	27.629
Dec 13	27.666

I believe $25-27 will be the bottom for silver. Once silver breaks $30, we will never see silver in the 20's every again when measured in USD's. $50 silver is not a pipe dream in 2011. The backwardation condition is just the groundwork for a blast to upside. With silver in the 20's, there is no reason not to exchange your USD's for silver from a financial standpoint. I understand that $1341 gold is not affordable for everyone to purchase every month.

It should be interesting, from a dealer perspective, if we see $25-27 silver in terms of premiums increases and delivery delays.

A note on gold. If gold breaks $1300 and tests the breakout price of $1265, I bet all of the weak hands who bought $1300+ in Oct-Jan will throw in the towel and sell…meanwhile the strong hands and smart money will be buying those shares/contracts as they foresee $1600 in 2011.

World needs $100 Trillion in the next 10 Years?

2011-01-23T07:14:00.001-08:00

http://www.weforum.org/news/over-us-100-trillion-additional-credit-needed-support-global-growth?ol=1

This sounds like a move towards one world bank and a group that managers each countries debt. I bet the $100 trillion will be in the form of SDR's. The WEF does not mention gold…hmmm.

How is this not inflation???

2011-01-12T03:13:00.000-08:00

Percent change at seasonally adjusted annual rates    M1                    M2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Months from Aug. 2010 TO Nov. 2010                   20.5                   7.2
6 Months from May 2010 TO Nov. 2010                  14.8                   5.4
12 Months from Nov. 2009 TO Nov. 2010                  8.6                   3.3

Source: http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/current/

Sprott Physical Silver Trust Updates Investors on the Delivery Status of its Silver Bullion Purchases

2011-01-12T02:44:00.000-08:00

Go here for more on the late delivery and concern of trust management:

"Frankly, we are concerned about the illiquidity in the physical silver market," said Eric Sprott, Chief Investment Officer of Sprott Asset Management. "We believe the delays involved in the delivery of physical silver to the Trust highlight the disconnect that exists between the paper and physical markets for silver."

As someone who frequents websites to see what physical is for sale to the average consumer there has been a strong, scary almost how strong it is, trend of longer and longer wait times for expected delivery of not just coins but bars and even scrap silver (gold too but much lesser of a degree). This is if they even are offering it for sale or it has not already been sold out. It is remarkable that anyone would call this a bubble right now, the laws of economics promise us this will go ape shit to the up side on. All that is needed is the first failure to deliver of physical metals from one of the major exchanges. This will set off a chain reaction of every paper metal holder in the world trying to claim what they thought was being held for them in good faith. It will be a good old fashion bank run on the exchanges and I predict they will be shut down and allowed to deny delivery. When, that is impossible to say. We are approaching the trigger event rapidly. I would be shocked if it makes it another 5 years, but you never know, the white shoe gang can be pretty creative with their ponzi schemes and at robbing the public blind.

Decade of Silver/Gold vs. Fiat

2011-01-03T18:35:00.001-08:00

Here are the tables comparing silver/gold to all major fiat currencies from James Turk's recent post http://goldmoney.com/gold-research/gold-rises-in-2010-to-end-a-stellar-decade.html Enough said!

Jim Rickards Presentation / Feds 4 Options

2010-12-25T07:57:00.001-08:00

This was a slide on Jim Rickards "Economics and National Security" presentation on 12/7/10 from the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. The mp3 and notes are posted here: http://outerdnn.outer.jhuapl.edu/rethinking/VideoArchives.aspx It is funny how a child can pick the correct answer. The presentation is over 90 minutes, but worth listening or reading as it provides a fresh perspective and different thinking than main stream media. The gold portions start about 57 minutes in. Gold revalued to $3,000-7,000 per ounce is not a pipe dream. The charts in the presentation point out that the US is gold superpower (our gold is like the Saudi's oil with 8,000 tonnes and custody of 6,000 tonnes to convert as needed) and why China is playing catch up in purchasing gold.

I would also listen to Jim Rickards recap of 2010 and predictions for 2011.

Feds 4 Options from the above interview.

It would not be politically correct to increase interest rates with high unemployment.
If they sold their assets to reduce the money supply they would be bankrupt due to mark to market losses.
If they continue to do the same will devalue the US dollar and its stability.
If they stop and do nothing, asset values will drop to real market values.

It is scary to see how we compare to Weimar Germany. The masses think when the cost of food and energy goes up; the problem is the price, when in reality the problem is the currency. Also, when the stock market is up, the increase cost of food/energy is "padded" as the stock markets gains make you "feel" like you a breaking even. You only see a 20% food/energy increase as 5% due to the 15% stock market gain.
After listening to all 3 mp3's, the fed has a wild card up their sleeve with the US being the largest hold of gold. Today's $1375 spot price of gold will look cheap in a few years, yet of we drop the $1265 in the next month, the masses will be afraid to exchange their US dollars for gold coin in fear it will "crash" while I see it as a sale to accumulate.

STORYBOARD P performs THE BULLITTS' "CLOSE YOUR EYES" - directed by MARC...

2010-12-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

Amazing

So you want to be a lawyer...

2010-11-30T13:22:00.001-08:00

Top holder of US Debt is now the Fed

2010-11-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

I am catching up on the news and as of 11/23/10, the federal reserve has overtaken china as the biggest holder of our debt. http://www.zerohedge.com/print/253891

Hmmm, the next day Russia and China are using their own currencies for a bilateral trade.

11/24/10 http://business.asiaone.com/print/Business/News/Story/A1Story20101124-248833.html

My Interview at Airport: I Come in At 1:33

2010-11-24T10:19:00.001-08:00

This is the most mild thing I said, but still I am glad it got on TV maybe 1 other person will change their thinking which is better than none.

share

Max Keiser: Crash JP Morgan - Buy Silver!

2010-11-19T15:34:00.001-08:00

If Americans were serious about killing the financial terrorists, this is how to do it. Anyone informed on the precious metals markets and exchanges knows this to be true. And unlike the balance sheets they can't just print digits here. They will be expected by counter parties to deliver a hard asset in the form of silver. It will force them to acknowledge the fraud they have been committing.

Finger Lickin' Chicken Cornish x Rocks - Day 11 (6-21-2010)

2010-11-18T22:22:00.000-08:00

My little brother has been busy with school and work but promised to get on this soon so we can share this entire process with anyone interested and hopefully learn from any critique or suggestions.

Please come back to http://fingerlickingchicken.blogspot.com/ soon as I think this blog will become more active and eventually a great source of knowledge from first hand experience.

Unclaimed Tax Refunds

2010-11-18T21:45:00.001-08:00

3,194 people in AZ have $4,722,912 in unclaimed tax refunds http://www.kpho.com/arizona/25830071/detail.html

In listening to this story on the news, it sounds like you should celebrate if you are one of the 3,194 people. Why is it good news when you get a tax refund? I am upset as it proves they f'ed up as they took too much out. It is a real kick in the face when prices of silver/gold increase during that tax year when measured in USD's as someone could have used the USD's and purchased silver/gold at a lower cost during the year.

Warren Buffet Writes Thank-you Letter to Uncle Same: Buffet is a Crook in My Opinion

2010-11-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

DEAR Uncle Sam,

My mother told me to send thank-you notes promptly. I’ve been remiss.

Read the rest of this disgusting a$$ kissing here.

Silver Margin

2010-11-18T07:07:00.001-08:00

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange increased the margin requirement to trade future contracts of silver twice in the past 2 weeks. As a small retail trader, this only matters if you hold overnight. Day trading is still 1k (8 times less) per contract. If you are trading overnight, you can still use the mini-silver contract as the margin is still $1,755. I wonder if NYSE (mini) will follow Comex's steps soon. A 1 point move in silver = 5k vs 1k for the mini. Plus, we all know that a 1% move in silver at $26 vs $17 a few months ago seems more drastic now, especially with futures as each tick remains the same.

Updated Special Drawing Right (SDR)

2010-11-16T07:27:00.001-08:00

The IMF's 5 year "re-basketing" of fiat currencies shows a 2.1% drop in USD's.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr10434.htm

U.S. dollar 41.9 percent (compared with 44 percent at the 2005 review)

Euro 37.4 percent (compared with 34 percent at the 2005 review)

Pound sterling 11.3 percent (compared with 11 percent at the 2005 review)

Japanese yen 9.4 percent (compared with 11 percent at the 2005 review)

$50 Bill / Silver

2010-11-08T08:57:00.001-08:00

Silver broke $27 an oz today http://www.finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=SI&p=d1

Silver has been around $17 an oz for pretty much all of 2010 before it broke out in late August. I was hammering my fist down and telling everyone to buy since it is cheap for under $20 an ounce.

A $50 bill in you left hand = 3 silver ounce coins in your right hand. Today, you can't even buy 2 coins for $50. By next spring, it will be even $50 for an ounce of silver.

This is a loss in purchasing power of the USD, yet the public would rather have the $50 bill as silver seems risky. Plus, since they still have that $50 bill, they do not perceive that they have lost purchasing power. Once the public wakes up, we will see shortages of physical bullion and parabolic prices in USD for silver and gold.

The fact is, when silver/gold goes up, it is really showing how much purchasing power the USD is losing.

Max Keiser Getting Pissed

2010-11-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

He is right. Anyone who thinks the current financial/banking world is legitimate, even a little bit, either doesn't understand how it works (most common) or are simply lying to protect their own ego. There are also the scumbags who don't respect property rights of any other individual and are willing to steal and kill to get more wealth and power. The latter group tends to end up in government or connected to government in some capacity.

See Krugman Debate Murphy: Keynesian vs Austrian Business Cycle Theory

2010-10-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

All proceeds go to buy food for poor in New York City. They are at $34,000 as I post this. Can Krugman have no heart and refuse the challenge? He still has neglected to address it. This is great, I wonder how Krugman will back out of this one...

UPDATE: Murphy is training hard by the looks of things.

Sparks Goes to the White House

2010-10-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

Study Suggests Curveballs Break Only in Batters' Minds: Video

2010-10-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

Off topic a little, but I found this to be very interesting:

Loud and Clear Buy Signal

2010-10-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

World stocks gain as Fed notes signal more easing

Fed Mulls Raising Inflation Expectations to Boost Economy

Big Ben is telling you to buy gold/silver. I think their fear of deflation, will cause massive inflation. "protecting the recover" means adding more chips to the casino of the stock market? More USD into the system = higher price of gold/silver in USD.

TV Shows and Set-top Boxes

2010-10-09T13:18:00.001-07:00

If you look at the current line of set-top boxes like the boxee box, roku, apple tv and google tv that connect to your tv and connect to the internet are shaping the young generation of tv show watchers. We are no longer told when to watch a show. Just like playing mp3's in your car, you do not need the radio station choosing what music you can hear at that specific time. For word of mouth tv shows, the idea is you should be able to stream the first 2-4 episodes to get hooked and then pay x dollars for the rest of the season. A tivo device is not needed since you do not have a subscription to cable or satellite. All of the shows are in the "cloud" so you do not have worry about the nonsense of having enough hard drive space to store your shows. Hopefully the price will be cheap enough per season/show or have monthly cost of having access to all the shows. The next step is for these devices to steam sports in full HD.

Foreclosure Freeze

2010-10-09T08:14:00.001-07:00

This will start to become a trend among the banks.

Bank of America freezes foreclosure sales nationwide

The way I see it, is if you are underwater or your mortgage payment, stop paying as now the process is going to take longer. This is 1-2 years of "free money" since there are no short term consequences of not paying your mortgage. As for the banks, they do not want to face the losses. All in all, just an ugly situation.

Non-gold holders

2010-10-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

It seemed this past week when the price of gold hit $1366 USD overnight, the general public noticed. The funny part is when it dropped to $1325 that same day, those who do not own or follow gold started to celebrate that the price dropped. Is this envy? Can they not afford it? I am not sure. One said - how come you did not sell the top? Well, if your target is 3-5k, then there is no need to. I think 2 prices where gold will pull back to in the next 2 weeks are 1305 and 1265. After that, a run towards $1450. During the pull back in the next 2 weeks, the haters will celebrate, but I will tell them that gold is "on sale" and buy if you do not have a core position. If they think they know the markets better, than I will tell them to open a futures trading account to prove it.

Perception of % Gains

2010-10-09T07:52:00.001-07:00

If you look at the % gains of gold vs. silver in the past 3 months, silver has outperformed gold by 17%. But, no one seems to care or notice silver.

During the run of the past 2 months, silver when from (rounded) $17 to $23 and gold from $1155 to $1355 an ounce. That is $6 for silver and $200 for gold.

1155/17 = 68 ounces of silver. 68 times 6 = $408 profit vs. gold's $200 Yet, everyone is focused on gold.

I guess it comes down to big/small number perception. A $1000 stock dropping 50% to $500 is more dramatic and noticeable than a $3 stock dropping to $1.50 when looking that the price alone and not percent gains.

The reason for writing this is, even today, I think silver will outperform gold in terms of % gains, but will go unnoticed for quite some time.

Salary - Ounces of gold per year

2010-09-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

I was looking over my social security statement and thought it would be interesting to see how many oz of gold I earned. (I changed the salary #'s around because I do not want to post how much I am making)

In 1999, I was a bagger/clerk at a grocery store working part-time during my senior year of high school. That year, before taxes I could have bought 10 oz of gold.

I started working full time at a real IT job in 2003. That salary could by 76 oz. of gold that year.

Using $1300 of USD's for 1 oz of gold in 2010, the salary could by 47 oz. of gold.

Here is the staggering point. The salary has nearly doubled from 2003 to 2010. 76 – 47 = 29. How can a salary nearly double, but buy 29 oz of less gold than 2003?!?! You mean to tell me a 4k bagger in 1999, today only can buy 1/5^th of gold compares to someone making ~15 times that salary in 2010?

What upsets me is how can you get excited about 5-10% raise when the cost of food and energy continues to increase? Who wants to work when more and more of your paycheck is goings towards the basics like food, utilities and gasoline? I am not looking to break even. I am look to save a percentage of my paycheck to afford nice leisure time.

Rare Earths Update

2010-09-25T08:23:00.001-07:00

This article was posted by the WSJ on Thursday "China Denies Halting Rare-Earth Exports to Japan". Remember China hold ~97% of the world's rare earths production.

The rare earth sector has already been on fire, but this just dumped a barrel of gasoline. Here are 2 traded on the US exchanges:

Rare Element Resources Ltd. – Up 32% since the Thursday's announcement. Up 114% in 1 month.

Molycorp, Inc. - Up 13% since the Thursday's announcement. Up 86% in 1 month.

The masses are far away from this sector. Once would think a 100%+ gain is time to get out and celebrate, nope, I am looking for 5-15 times gains in the years to come.

FACTBOX-What are rare earth elements?

HFT in Action?

2010-09-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with a new volume study and for grins ran it for the most active stock - Citigroup. A half of a billions shares were traded on Friday. Click on this chart for the full screen view. This is a 1 minutes chart and you can see the price trade between $3.96 - $3.99 after the open. Look at the price action and volume. People talk about HTF and looking at this chart, it makes we wonder how many humans are buying or selling this stock as a swing trade or accumulating. Is it the HFT bots just scalping for tenth a of penny profits between each other to make up this top volume stock?

Headline Nonsense - Amid

2010-09-19T09:24:00.001-07:00

I continue to notice headlines with the preposition "amid". Yahoo is notorious for this. Google search: "amid" site:finance.yahoo.com

I think average people read the headline only and think amid is the reason why. Like an equals sign. I think this is a foolish mistake.

Here an example of the price of oil. Headline – My interpretation

Oil falls to near $75 amid high US crude supplies – Oil will drop when there is high supply.

Oil jumps above $77 in Asia amid US pipeline leak – Oil will increase when there is a pipeline leak.

Oil hovers above $77 amid US pipeline leaks - No, wait, Oil remains flat when there is a pipeline leak.

Oil hovers below $75 amid mixed US economic data - Oil remains flat when there is mixed econ data.

Toronto stock market heads for lower open amid falling oil prices – A drop in oil price will cause the TSE to open lower?

Oil hovers near $74 amid growth uncertainty – Someone was expecting growth, not they are not sure of the growth and that causes oil to remain flat?

Oil rises near $73 amid light 4th of July trading – I do not understand the point of this headline. It is giving the price of oil and letting you know the trading volume is light.

Stocks fall amid uncertainty over the economy – Who determined this uncertainly? I would like to know so I can put on a day trade short to profit.

Stocks mixed amid swine flu concerns, better than expected consumer data – So, stock would have been up because of the consumer data, but were not due to the swine flu concern? If there was no positive consumer data, the stock would have close down due the flu?

Overall, I think it is a bunch of nonsense. Prices always gyrate and there is a waterfall of news every day.
I can say Blizzard in Vermont amid a foggy morning in San Diego.
Or a foggy morning in San Diego amid a Blizzard in Vermont.
So, anytime Vermont gets hit with a blizzard, SD will experience a foggy morning? Or anytime SD experiences a foggy morning, VT will get hit with a blizzard? Of course not. All you are doing is stating 2 facts in 1 headline. I just worry than non-critical thinkers make the wrong assumption about a pair of events being the cause and effect. Amid is not "due to".

Rare Earths / Uranium / $1200 USD Gold is cheap

2010-08-29T18:53:00.001-07:00

I am really hesitant to post my silver/gold/rare earth/uranium stock portfolio.

The writing is on the wall….

8/29/10 China Backs Rare Earth Controls

7/25/10 Uranium Bottoming as China Boosts Stockpiles

Nice chart to keep in mind for those who think $1200 is too high.

http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2010/8/27_Gold_-_The_Big_Picture.html

Streaming Football Games - update

2010-08-29T18:32:00.001-07:00

As an update to my Streaming Football Games post, I was reading an LA times article stating that you can buy the stream only package, but you have you have to meet some rules. It basically boils down to is if you can receive the satellite service, then you will be forced to pay for the TV package. While this is better, I still think the satellite service company sees the uptrend in HTPC's. Why spend $300, when you can spend $50 to steam all of the games on the HTPC to your 55" TV? This reminds me of ATT wireless around 2002. This was before they became Cingular and the back to ATT wireless. ATT offered free unlimited incoming text messaging. They removed this option and forced you to a purchase x amount of incoming and outgoing text message plan. I do not think the big company's want you kill your cable/satellite TV package in favor of steaming. I think the consumer will win since we want to steam wirelessly on our laptops. It just so happens that a $250 HTPC can do the same for your 55" TV.

Streaming Football Games

2010-08-14T09:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/sports/nfl_online_mobile

I noticed you can now finally stream the games via your computer or phone now. But, it is $49.95 on top of the $300 TV package. The problem is you cannot purchase the streaming package only. So, if you cannot install a dish where you live, you are out of luck. This does not seem fair.

The solution? http://live247.tv For $37.87 USD after using the coupon code from http://live247.tv/newsletter/w31/w31.html, you can steam all of the professional and college games this season. As far as how they pull this off from a legal standpoint, I do not know. To take it step further, you can purchase a $300 HTPC http://shop.lenovo.com/us/landing_pages/ideacentre/2010/q150 to steam the games to your large HDTV. Again, this is an alternative solution for those whom cannot install a dish at he/her house or apartment.

Unemployed, Underwater? No problem.

2010-08-14T08:33:00.001-07:00

http://reversemortgagedaily.com/2010/08/12/hud-provides-1-billion-of-emergency-loans-to-homeowners-ti-default-solution/

"..$1 billion Emergency Homeowners Loan Program to provide assistance to homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure and have experienced a substantial reduction in income due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment, or a medical condition."

"HUD's emergency homeowners loan program will work through a variety of state and non-profit entities. The loans will be a deferred payment "bridge loan" (zero percent interest, non-recourse, subordinate loan) for up to $50,000 to assist eligible borrowers with payments on their mortgage principal, interest, mortgage insurance, taxes and hazard insurance for up to 24 months."

A $50,000 0% non-recourse loan; sweet deal. So, if you are unemployed and underwater on your home, you will receive USD to not foreclose for the next 2 years? What is wrong about foreclosing and finding a house that you can afford to rent? Where are the perks for those who are not in this pinch?

Iran to start selling oil in any currency

2010-08-14T08:08:00.001-07:00

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6308125.cms?prtpage=1

Again, the writing is on the wall with the world rejecting the USD.

Read page 95 http://www.jhuapl.edu/urw_symposium/proceedings/2009/Authors/Rickards.pdf where gold will be a constant. A new dollar/gold equilibrium. So, 1 oz of gold would equal a fixed amount of wheat, corn, oil, etc. But, 1 USD will then be equal to say 1/4000^th of an oz of gold. This would be a realistic case of gold going to $4,000 an oz. We would have to convert the USD into gold to purchase a commodity as the seller of the commodity does not accept USD's.

Hedging Your Paycheck

2010-06-27T15:41:00.001-07:00

No one I work with thinks to hedge their paycheck. They are bullish on funding their 401k since the company provides a certain percent to match. Some buy TIPS, but as we know the inflation numbers, CPI, etc are all fudged.

Here is the fact. We all get paid in US dollars. That is not going to change. If you are not in debt and are looking to save, why not buy physical gold or silver? I know 1 oz of gold is too much for one to buy every month, but silver coins are only around $20 per oz. Why not buy a few coins per month? In the worst cash of the price of silver/gold goes down, your US dollar paycheck "should" be able to purchase more goods.

I think we could see $30 per oz Silver by the end of this year. I think once silver breaks $60 an oz, the public will take notice and then manic buying will send the price above $100.

For those who say gold is in a bubble, I disagree. I was at the local mall recently and noticed a new gold to cash store. If we were in a bubble, that store would be selling gold and those kiosks would be selling gold/silver. I do find it funny that these cash for gold store exists since this is the time to keep/accumulate gold and not sell it. But, I understand that if you have to pay debts and if you are out of work or a discourage worker, you sell what can and not what you want to pay the bills.

Finger Lickin' Chicken - Our New Educational Venture I Hope You Follow With Us

2010-06-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Me and my Brother Joe are looking to start a local Farm at some future date. We started with 27 (now 25 as 2 died shortly after delivery) Cornish x Rocks and have been documenting by video and a new blog, Finger Lickin' Chicken.

Classic Letter to University Alumnus Office on Craigslist

2010-06-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

Read it here, at Craigslist.

Surprise, Surprise: US Finds Close to $1 Trillion in "Previously Unknown" Mineral Deposits in Afghanistan

2010-06-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Convenient. Maybe there was more than just poppy and pipelines that influenced our decision to go into Afghanistan. The NYT reports here on this story.

I wonder if the Afghanistan citizens will be allowed to profit from any of this. Call it a hunch, but the US is not going to share much, but just it's a hunch.

Could this Be Why The Germans Want a EURO Short-Selling Ban?

2010-06-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Commerzbank AG leveraged 150:1??

The rest of the list, as you can see, is very highly leveraged as well

Drones Were Bad Enough...

2010-06-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Unmanned drones making decisions based completely on AI is something only a psychopath would consider a good idea.

Al Qaeda Larger Threat Than Believed: They Can Resurrect the Dead!

2010-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

The 3rd in command of Al Qaeda stubbornly just won't stay dead.

August 2008

October 2009

June 2010

This is going to make winning the "War on Terror" far more complicated than we once thought.

Ron Paul Correctly Predicts Obama Lie

2010-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Bullshit! How Can Someone Get Away With This?

2010-05-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am as anti-socialism as it gets. I am also all about people being responsible for themselves. But this video pisses me off. This lady owned her home, which probably has a value of 5-10k at most if you know the area (which I do). Baltimore sold her water bill debt which at time of eviction was a little more than $700. So no confusion can be had: SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! And these fucking banks, who wouldn't exist without the money they robbed us of, have the pretense to pull this shit. Fuck that! How can this be justified in anyone's mind in light of what has taken place. Put it in perspective here. For a fraction of the bailout, we could have bailed out every single mortgage in the country. And it would have been cheaper than what we did and still are doing. Anyone who thinks we live in a society with equal citizenship is blind, simple, or just plain ignorant.

Greeks Paying Over $1,700 Per Ounce For Physical Gold

2010-05-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

http://news.coinupdate.com/panicky-greeks-paying-for-physical-gold-0293/

"Bank officials estimate that at least 100,000 other coins changed hands on the black market. The Bank of Greece has received as much as $409 per coin, which works out to a price of more than $1,700 per ounce of gold! Prices paid on the black market are reckoned to be even higher. A popular spot for street vendors to sell their coins is near the Athens Stock Exchange. There the traders wait for citizens to bring payments received from unloading their paper assets like stocks and bonds."

"As each day passes, the risk is growing that owning any form of "paper gold" could turn out to be as worthless as the paper currencies used to purchase it. While you still can, you should protect yourself by converting such "assets" into real physical gold."

The question is when this panic will come to America?

Where's deflation in my electric bill?

2010-05-26T08:51:00.001-07:00

(click on the images to enlarge)

By the way, I got a letter like this 2 years ago with the same type of increase. I see inflation and not deflation in my electric bill.

Notice this is only in effect from May-Oct, the only months out of the year that the air conditioner is used. Although, we have had only 1 day above 100F this May vs. 15 days last year. The electric company does not like that. Off the top of my head, I think i used the heat 5-7 nights this past winter.

SP500:Gold

2010-05-26T08:35:00.001-07:00

Where's the equity recovery when deflated by gold? (copy the link into a new tab/window)

http://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=$SPX:$GOLD&p=W&yr=3&mn=0&dy=0&i=t65820977414&r=7166

With the recent correction the SP500 and drop in the Euro, look around the May 6^th "flash crash" on how gold and silver decoupled. UUP is the US dollar and is the better of the bad fiat currencies for now. People should take this opportunity to buy gold and silver while the dollar is "strong". The writing is on the wall when you look at the Euro. Not only can you buy less gold/silver, but the cost of imports goes up.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=FXE#chart2:symbol=fxe;range=3m;compare=^gspc+slv+gld+uup;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Wealthy investors are buying items of intrinsic value

2010-05-26T08:15:00.001-07:00

http://etfdailynews.com/blog/2010/05/19/dan-sullivan-joins-richard-russell-in-bear-camp-moves-to-cash/

"Yet in the background big money, wealthy investors, are seriously worried. In their hearts, they don't trust fiat currency. They are familiar with the history of fiat currency, and they know that no fiat currency has ever survived for long. Therefore, these people are buying items of intrinsic value — gold, silver, platinum, gems, top quality art, rubies, jade, beach property, collectables"

The post also lists some gold/silver ETF's. I still like PHYS over GLD.

Do everyone agree that buying gold, silver, platinum, gems, top quality art, rubies, jade, beach property, collectables is a good idea? None of my coworkers are buying items of intrinsic value. There is no fear of the US dollar dropping. People are still in the mindset of buying a house to get "rich".

Bank Failures: This Speaks for Itself

2010-05-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

Are the United States a Christian nation?

2010-05-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

First, read the following quote:

"The Constitution of the U. S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion."

To see who said this click here.

Another interesting quote:

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.

You can find who said this and the context here

Article 1 of the Bill of Rights:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The following is from the US Treaty with Tripoli in 1797 which "was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved. John Adams, having seen the treaty, signed it and proudly proclaimed it to the Nation." In Article 11 we find:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

It is pretty straight forward if you ask me. Religion should be left out of political discussion unless it is to defend a group who is being oppressed in the free practice of their beliefs. I am a little tired of the "radical" Christians politicizing if we are a Christian Nation and go off the handle when someone says otherwise. And I have decided, since not all Christians fall in this camp, to call them "radical" Christians. The same label to be used on the Evangelicals who look to accelerate the Rapture through political support to Israel. This seems fair, since they also go off the handle if you won't call someone a "radical" Muslim.

Max Keiser: Attacking Banks on Every Level Possible

2010-05-16T03:37:00.000-07:00

These are a few months old, but very informative and as always entertaining. The first is a very quick one, the 2nd is pretty long.

Bernanke: Prohibiting swaps will weaken risk mitigation of banks

2010-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Correct me if I am wrong, but I was not aware that there was risk mitigation taking place. That is unless you take into account the put that taxpayers had shoved down their throat by the banks and governments. I could mitigate risk too if I had a FREE PERPETUAL PUT!

Bernanke, in a May 12 letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, said the proposal, part of the Senate financial-overhaul bill, would harm the Fed’s ability to monitor systemic risk among financial institutions. He had previously spoken privately against the proposal crafted by Senator Blanche Lincoln, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“Prohibiting depository institutions from engaging in significant swaps activities will weaken the risk mitigation efforts of banks and their customers,” [translation: much less $$$ for my pals Lloyd and Jamie] Bernanke wrote in the letter, according to a copy obtained by Bloomberg News. “Depository institutions use derivatives to help mitigate the risks of their normal banking activities,” he said in the letter, which was also sent to Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat.

Out of Curiosity, What Country Needs the Next Bailout?

2010-05-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

I say Italy, but Spain, Ireland and Portugal all are bad off and could take it. I still say Italy followed by the three mentioned. Greece will find its way back in, but eventually the entire Eurozone is defaulting and/or being bailed out.

And the Hits Keep Coming

2010-05-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

We still have a long way to go:

UPDATE: Now 4 US Banks in 'Perfect 10' Club

2010-05-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is what a government monopoly (the only kind that can truly ever exist) looks like. This is unheard of. A week straight would be unheard of, but 4 large banks with an entire quarter of positive days...preposterous! And please, spare me the fool's paradise "they are the smartest guys in the finance world and are just riding the recovery." If they were so smart, why were they all recently bankrupt and losing billions a quarter? They are financial terrorists, to steal a line from Max Keiser. Anyone who thinks this happened in an honest fashion has lost all sense of reality.

‘Perfect Quarter’ at Four U.S. Banks Shows Fed-Fueled Revival
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Four of the largest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc., racked up perfect quarters in their trading businesses between January and March, underscoring how government support and less competition is fueling Wall Street’s revival.

Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the first, second and fifth-biggest U.S. banks by assets, all said in regulatory filings that they had zero days of trading losses in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc., the third-largest, doesn’t break out its daily trading revenue by quarter. It recorded a profit on each trading day, two people with knowledge of the results said.

Read the rest here.

The Irrepressible Max Keiser

2010-05-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

From January 2009. It is old but he speaks on issues from the United States and Israel military connection to the financial markets and derivatives, all of which are still not out of date topics.

JPMorgan Joins "Perfect 10" Club With Flawless Trading Quarter, Morgan Stanley Loses Money On Just 4 Days

2010-05-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we discussed the statistically impossible trading desk results of Goldman Sachs, which reported in its 10Q that it lost money on exactly 0 days last quarter, and was profitable on 63 out of 63 days. Today we find that the rape and pillage of the middle class was not isolated to Goldman, and that JP Morgan also had a flawless quarter.

Read the rest at ZeroHedge

Also see:

Unfuckingbelievable: Goldman Has Zero Trading Loss Days In Last Quarter

If you ever wanted to see what monopoly looks like in chart form, here it is:

Peter Schiff on Bailouts, American Style

2010-05-11T14:35:00.001-07:00

Great Article from LewRockwell.com

2010-05-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

False Virtue: The Politics of Lying About History

by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Recently by Thomas DiLorenzo: In Defense of Sedition

In 1961 Life magazine invited the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren (author of All the King’s Men, and nineteen other novels) to record his thoughts on the meaning of the American “Civil War” on the centennial of that event. Warren responded with a long essay on the “symbolic value of the war” which was eventually published as a small book entitled The Legacy of the Civil War.

If Robert Penn Warren were to write this book today, he would be loudly condemned as an Enemy of Society (and a “Neo-Confederate”) by all the usual defenders of the central state, from race-hustling “civil rights” activists to beltway “libertarians” and of course, the Lincoln Cult. For example, he wrote (p. 7) that in addition to slavery, there was a “tissue of causes” of the war, including the dispute over the constitutionality of secession, “the mounting Southern debt to the North, economic rivalry, Southern fear of encirclement, Northern ambitions, and cultural collisions . . .”

There were also economic causes of the war apart from slavery, Robert Penn Warren believed. “The Morrill tariff of 1861 actually preceded the firing on [Fort] Sumter, but it was the mark of Republican victory and an omen of what was to come; and no session of Congress in the next four years failed to raise the tariff.”

“Even more importantly,” Warren wrote, “came the establishment of a national banking system . . . and the issuing of national greenbacks . . . plus government subsidy [to corporations].” “Hamilton’s dream” of a large national debt was also realized, and “this debt meant a new tax relation of the citizen to the Federal government, including the new income tax” [introduced by the Lincoln administration for the first time].

“Out of the Civil War came the concept of total war,” i.e., the bombing, plundering, and mass murdering of civilians. In this regard, Warren quotes an 1862 speech by Lincoln in which he said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present . . . . As our case is new, we must think anew, and act anew.” That is, “we” must abandon the law of nations with regard to the criminality of waging war on civilians, and “we” must abandon the U.S. Constitution as well, since it is one of the chief “dogmas of the quiet past.”

A major theme of The Legacy of the Civil War is that the war left the North (which is to say, the U.S. government) with “a treasury of virtue” (p. 54). This is the “psychological heritage” left to the North, and it is an insidious heritage, wrote Robert Penn Warren. “The Northerner, with his Treasury of Virtue, feels redeemed by history . . . . He has in his pocket, not a Papal indulgence peddled by some wandering pardoner of the Middle Ages, but an indulgence, a plenary indulgence, for all sins past, present, and future . . .” (emphasis added).

Thus, this “treasury of virtue” would become the excuse for why the U.S. government would commence a twenty-five year campaign of extermination against the Plains Indians just three months after Appomattox; shamelessly rob the treasury for the benefit of railroad corporations; plunder the South for a decade after the war under the laughable guise of “reconstruction”; murder more than 200,000 Filipinos who opposed being ruled by the American empire after having escaped from the imperialistic clutches of the Spanish empire; and enter a European war that was none of our business to supposedly “make the world safe for democracy.” It was all done in the name of virtue, freedom, and democracy, or so we are told.

Robert Penn Warren called this “moral narcissism” (p. 72). It is “a poor basis for national policy,” he wrote, but is the “justification” for “our crusades of 1917–1918 and 1941–1945 and our diplomacy of righteousness, with the slogan of unconditional surrender and universal spiritual rehabilitation for others” (emphasis added).

Posing as The Most Virtuous Humans to Ever Inhabit the Planet requires that many “facts get forgotten,” wrote Robert Penn Warren. For example:

[I]t is forgotten that the Republican platform of 1860 pledged protection to the institution of slavery where it existed, and that the Republicans were ready, in 1861, to guarantee slavery in the South, as bait for a return to the Union. It is forgotten that in July, 1861, both houses of Congress, by an almost unanimous vote, affirmed that the War was waged not to interfere with the institutions of any state but only to maintain the Union. It is forgotten that the Emancipation Proclamation . . . was limited and provisional: slavery was to be abolished only in the seceded states and only if they did not return to the Union before the first of the next January (p. 61).

It must also be forgotten, wrote Warren, that most Northern states “refused to adopt Negro suffrage” and that Lincoln was as much a white supremacist as any man of his time. “It is forgotten that Lincoln, at Charlestown, Illinois, in 1858, formally affirmed: I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”

Thus, after so much history is forgotten, and much of the rest of it rewritten as a string of fairy tales, “the War appears, according to this doctrine of the Treasury of Virtue, as a consciously undertaken crusade so full of righteousness that there is enough overplus stored in Heaven, like the deeds of the saints, to take care of all small failings and oversights of the descendants of the crusaders, certainly unto the present generation” (p. 64).

Warren quotes the historian Samuel Eliot Morison as commenting that one effect of this Treasury of Virtue on his (Morison’s) native New England was that “In the generation to come that region would no longer furnish the nation with teachers and men of letters, but with a mongrel breed of politicians” obsessed with “profiteering” through their political connections.

Among other effects are that “the man of righteousness tends to be so sure of his own motives that he does not need to inspect consequences.” And, “the effect of the conviction of virtue is to make us lie automatically and awkwardly . . . and then in trying to justify the lie, lie to ourselves and transmute the lie into a kind of superior truth.” This, I would argue, is a perfect definition of so-called “Lincoln scholarship,” especially the Straussian variety.

Warren believed that most Americans are content with all of these lies about their own history, the results of “the manipulations of propaganda specialists, and their sometimes unhistorical history” (p. 79). For they “are prepared to see the Civil War as a fountainhead of our power and prestige among the nations” (p. 76). They have been good and brainwashed as obedient little nationalists, in other words, who place a very high value on the “prestige” of the American state as bully of the world.

This is yet another dire consequence of the war: Americans came to believe in Alexander Hamilton’s notion that the “prestige” of the state through its pursuit of “imperial glory” was a legitimate function of government. Limiting the role of government to the protection of God-given natural rights to life, liberty, and property became one of Lincoln’s “dogmas of the quiet past.”

May 6, 2010

Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland and the author of The Real Lincoln; Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe and How Capitalism Saved America. His latest book is Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution – And What It Means for America Today.

Why Not Feel Sorry for the Oil Company?

2010-05-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

By: Murray N. Rothbard

To say that the oil spill has been blown up to hysterical dimensions is a grave understatement. Hysteria abounds everywhere, and everywhere the term "disaster" is freely used. Even Pat Buchanan, who of all the media commentators I thought would be most resistant to the wiles of environmentalism, used that term. The Idiotic Overstatement Award of the Year goes to Alaska Judge Kenneth Rohl, who opined about the oil spill, "We have a manmade destruction that has not been equaled, probably, since Hiroshima."

Hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese were massacred at Hiroshima; that's a disaster. Over the last several months, the Ayatollah's government has murdered thousands of political prisoners; a million Iranians and Iraqis were killed in their late monstrous war; the Pol Pot regime, in the mid-1970s, genocidally massacred one-third of the Cambodian population.

Those are disasters. That's "man-made destruction." In the Valdez oil spill, not a single human life was lost. Not a single person was even injured.

Furthermore, those disasters were intentional; the oil spill was, quite obviously, an accident. Who suffered the loss of the oil spill? None other than the Exxon Corporation, which lost ten million gallons of crude oil; in addition to the $5 million this loss represents, Exxon will be forced to pay cleanup costs, as well as compensation to the economic losses incurred by the fishing industry in Alaska. And so the only loser is Exxon, suffering from the negligence of its allegedly drunken sea captain. So is everyone feeling sorry for Exxon, as I do? Hell no; to the contrary, Exxon has been reviled every day by virtually everyone in the media and in public life. Contrary to government when it commits an accident or similar "externality," Exxon, as a private corporation, must pay the costs it inflicts on others.

So what's the problem? Once in a while, accidents happen. Are we to ban all oil tankers, because once in a long while, a tanker runs aground? Are we to outlaw all shipping because some ships sink? Are we to prohibit all air flight because once in a while a plane crashes?

The problem, of course, is that environmentalists don't give a tinker's dam about paying for external costs. They have their own agenda, scarcely hidden any more. Look at all their bellyaching about the poor birds, and the sea otters, and the salmon, etc. Look at their whining, too, about the beauty of the pristine blue water now befouled with black or brown oil slicks.

(Well, hell, maybe a coating of black on blue waters provides an interesting new esthetic experience; after all, once you've seen one chunk of blue water, you've seen them all.) The environmentalists are in pursuit of their own perverse and anti-human value-scale, in which every creature, animal, fish, or bird, heck even blue water, ranks higher than the wants and needs of human beings. The environmentalists welcome this trumped up "crisis," because they want to shut down the Alaska pipeline, which supplies a large chunk of domestic American oil; they want to reverse the Industrial Revolution, and get back to pristine "nature," with its chronic starvation, rampant disease, and short, ugly, and brutish life span.

Note the difference between the berserker reaction to the Valdez oil spill, and the response to the last great oil spill in 1978, off the French coast, when the Amoco Cadiz let loose no less than 60 million gallons of crude oil into the Atlantic – the worst oil spill in history. There was no hysteria, no screaming headlines, no bellyaching on television. The courts quietly forced Amoco to pay $115 million to compensate for costs of the accident, and that was that. The reactions were different because, in the meantime, the virus of environmentalism has deeply infected our culture. Arguing on the basis of private firms paying the costs of liabilities they impose upon others is all very well, but, as we see in the smears against Exxon, it is not enough.

We must no longer allow the environmentalists to seize, undisturbed, the moral high ground, and arrogate to themselves the good of the cosmos while the rest of us are portrayed as narrow, selfish, short-sighted, and immoral. There is no greater immorality than deep opposition to mankind per se, and environmentalism must be exposed as that kind of immoral and destructive creed. Only then will the party of mankind be able to take back our culture.

Published in the July 1989 issue of Liberty Magazine.

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was dean of the Austrian School, founder of modern libertarianism, and academic vice president of the Mises Institute. He was also editor – with Lew Rockwell – of The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, and appointed Lew as his literary executor.

Anyone Else See the Trend? Below are all very recent statistics or events...

2010-05-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing about this recovery, but the governments behavior would indicate they are scared stupid. It reminds me of the cartoons where in a sinking boat with multiple holes the character would never have enough fingers and toes to plug 'em all up. This is an unorganized post of all cut and paste really. Didn't take me long since there is really nothing good to find in terms of the economy if your honest with yourself.

World Bank Reforms Voting Power, Gets $86 Billion Boost

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2010 - Historic Package Expands Capacity to Provide Finance, Gives Developing Countries More Influence, Sets Post-Crisis Strategy, Endorses Comprehensive Reform Program

April 15, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: Phil Cogan, +01 (202) 565-3200

Ex-Im Bank Doubles Export Loan Authorizations to $13.2 Billion; Record-Setting Pace of Export Financing Continues

Europe and IMF Agree €110 Billion Financing Plan With Greece

IMF Survey online

May 02, 2010
Greece reached agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank on a focused program to stabilize its economy, become more competitive, and restore market confidence with support of a €110 billion financing package.

	USDA ANNOUNCES UPCOMING PURCHASES OF COMMODITIES FOR FEDERAL FOOD AND NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

	WASHINGTON, April 30, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced USDA's plan to purchase $161.4 million in a wide variety of foods for federal food and nutrition assistance programs.

March 25, 2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Freddie Mac Delinquency Rates March 2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Mortgage Market Share in Q1 96.5% of Mortgages Backed by Gov't Entities

Peter Schiff - How an Economy Grows & Why it Crashes

2010-05-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

Peter Schiff talks about his new book, "How an Economy Grows & Why it Crashes," and more.

Gold

2010-04-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

I know there are "gold bugs" on this blog and I wanted to bring in advice for those who do not own gold/silver. You can use the bing cash back on ebay to get 8% off coins. The question is, what type of coins do you buy? I like the Gold Eagles PR70 rated coins by the NGC. Ultra High Relief MS70 is the best, but some people may think it is too much money. My take is to buy the best gold and silver coins since how many in reality are you going to physically own? If you are going to own a handful, why not purchase the best/rarest?

I still worry down the road, the government can "confiscate" an ETF like GLD in your trading or roth ira account. While it does do a great job at tracking the price, the government can take over and give you inflated US dollars. The Sprott Physical Gold Bullion Trust http://www.sprottphysicalgoldtrust.com/ just came out which you can purchase with your trading or roth ira account to own the physical gold bullion.

As for the gold and silver miners, GDX, GDXJ, SIL are etf's that own a basket of the miners. The 2 reasons I prefer the ETF's is they own miners non traded on the NY stock exchange and it is easier to manage. The only con is one of the miners can explode 200% and you will only see a small increase in the ETF since the EFT may only have a 3% holding in that particular miner.

Anyway, I wanted to get some of these gold thoughts out there to receive some feedback.

Short term, gold is looking to make another run toward $1200. 0 sigma held and the 200 bar just when inside -3 sigma.

SEC Charges Goldman with Fraud over CDOs

2010-04-16T09:05:00.001-07:00

I do not have time to write much about this now, maybe someone else can do that. I just wanted to post a link to the complaint so everyone can read it if they want to. Here it is: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2010/comp-pr2010-59.pdf

The wikileaks video of Iraq Shooting - WARNING Graphic and You May Become Nauseous

2010-04-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here it is. Way to go wikileaks, no wonder the Government tries so hard to shut them down. The video speaks for itself.

Capital Controls = Forced inflation tax

2010-04-05T09:29:00.001-07:00

I am surprised the "herd" media outlets have not picked this this up.

LINK

"Provision requires that foreign banks not only withhold 30% of all outgoing capital flows (likely remitting the collection promptly back to the US Treasury) but also disclose the full details of non-exempt account-holders to the US and the IRS."

So now, it is illegal to have a foreign bank account that is not in part of the US umbrella. If you trade the Asia/Europe markets with an overseas broker, you have to waiting until tax time to get back up to 30% of your profits? Unreal. This is the camel's nose under the tent as they do not want anyone to get out of the dollar. It's not about home many dollars that you have, but what can those dollars purchase. I really do not want gold to got to 10k an ounce since that will mean 1k US dollars today would be = to $10 in a 10k gold environment. But, the writing is on the wall.

YouTube to MP3

2010-03-29T08:20:00.001-07:00

Recently Peter Schiff gave an excellent 55 minutes speech in Killingly, CT. Link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K70vAAhpk-c

My pain point is I do not want to set in front of my computer for 55 mins just to listen to speech and to click a link every 10 mins. If the video was a webinar, then that is a different story.

Here is what I have been doing.

I use Firefox as my web browser. http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

I use the Firefox extension DownloadHelper http://www.downloadhelper.net/

I visit YouTube and download the .flv video file(s) to my computer.

I use Leawo Free FLV Converter http://www.leawo.com/flv-converter/ to convert the .flv files to an MP3. The neat part is the software can take the 5 parts of the speech and combine it into 1 mp3 file.

I can now multitask by listening to the speech and performing a physical activity vs. sitting in front of the computer screen.

$10K Homebuyer Tax Credit in California

2010-03-29T07:47:00.001-07:00

Gov. Schwarzenegger Extends $10K Homebuyer Tax Credit in California

Link - http://www.dsnews.com/articles/print-view/gov-schwarzenegger-extends-10000-homebuyer-tax-credit-in-california-2010-03-26

"….important housing bill that will get people off the fence and into homes…."

Why not let the free market lower prices by apx. 25-100k? We do not need an artificial market forces interfering with prices.

Why would anyone want to purchase an artificial price for a house?

This is helping the seller of home and not the buyer. The credit is trying to round up more sucker buyers in my opinion.

Blockbuster bankruptcy warning – bailout?

2010-03-17T11:31:00.001-07:00

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Blockbuster-shares-tumble-apf-1343630299.html/print?x=0

Let take a vote, will Blockbuster video be bailed out?

This reminded me if CIT situation back in July.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31939425/ns/business-small_business/print/1/displaymode/1098/

The Cops Have Quotas? Tell Us Something We Don't Know

2010-03-06T15:17:00.000-08:00

This is a well known practice to most but it is a wonder to me how everyone seems to accept it as normal. It seems to be people will look the other way on just about anything as long as they are not impacted. Of course, when it is them they are shocked and can't believe people allow such things to happen and ask why no one will help.

The following shows how even the few who will stand up for others are ignored, as nothing will be done to fix the current quota system. There are some police who actually mean to serve and protect others, and are police for that very purpose. The government prefers police who serve and protect the state and not the people and does not tolerate honesty and character.