InvestorMind

It's a slow day in the small town of Pumphandle and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit. A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. (Stay with this....and pay attention) The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op. The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel Owner. (Almost done...keep reading) The hotel proprietor then places th

Every year India spends $12 billion on purchasing oil from Iran, but now it is using gold instead of dollars. India might not be alone; China has suggested it would jump on board with India. New Delhi and Beijing account for 40 percent of the Iranian oil exports. Priya Sridhar gives us her report.

Add this to the peace time Marshall law by presidential edict and you will understand the auction of my Sunnyview Farm promoted in the top left corner here on JSMineset. On multiple occasions I have broadcast my message to you by my action of buying gold. All these changes are not for fun or wall paper. They are tools that are presently or going to be used in the future. I have told you for years that if you did not have privacy do not try and create it as Big Brother watches everything, especially bank wires via the Swift system. Privacy is DEAD everywhere in the Western world. Somebody in the family must protect the family, and make way for the extended family. Many times I have broadcast a message by example. Recall I stood ready to buy back every gold coin you bought at $400. Did you do anything? Recall the wager on the price of gold at $1650. Did you do anything? You will recall the auction of my Sunnyfield Farm in 2015-2017. Will you have done anything? Probably not.

With gold, silver and oil hanging on to recent gains, today King World News interviewed Rick Rule, CEO of Sprott USA. Rule told KWN to expect that we are going to see a dramatic increase in volatility in global markets going forward. Rule discussed gold, silver and oil, but first, here is what he had to say about quiet markets: “You know, Eric, it’s amazing, given all of the turmoil in the world, how quiet markets are. My suspicion is the markets have been quieted by a huge blanket of liquidity put forward by the ECB and the Federal Reserve.” Rick Rule continues: “There is nothing that calms people down as much as liquidity, despite the fact that so much of that liquidity is counterfeit. As we’ve talked about before, we have a situation now where governments, backed by consumers, have declared a war on savers. The money you receive when you put money in the bank is nowhere near the amount of money that’s required to compensate you for inflation. As a consequence, people who

"Avery Largenumber, Economist" Originally aired on ABC TV's. Clarke and Dawe's skit on Quantitative Easing.

With gold remaining in a trading range below the $1,700 level, the Godfather of newsletter writers, Richard Russell, had this to say about what is happening with regards to gold, silver, stocks, inflation and the Fed: “Technically, both the US and Europe are dead broke, and their GDPs would have to run wild on the upside to make the debt to GDP ratio more acceptable. How will it all end? It will end with the central banks churning out junk fiat inflation-adjusted money in order to service the debts. Meanwhile, the precious metals and other tangibles are being bought up by millionaires and billionaires as they await their turns to feast on the remnants.” Richard Russell continues: “The fact is that the Fed is happy with 2% inflation each and every year. Compound 2% inflation year after year, and you know what's happening? -- you've effectively wiped out the middle class. Between inflation, stagnant wages, higher taxes, and no jobs, the middle class has hit the brick w

While Ben Bernanke may think gold is not money nearly every other country says otherwise by either their words or actions. This week Turkey was one of those countries. Right now Turkey is in a huge financial scrape. They are currently running a 10% deficit as a country and now they are trying to persuade Turkish nationals to transfer their vast personal holdings of gold and other wealth back into the country’s banking system For those who don’t know, Turkey has a history of economic volatility. As a result of this history many Turks choose to store their wealth in banks outside the country. The new initiative by domestic banks will try to create large incentives for natives to bring their gold back home. One idea that was discussed was a new interest-yielding gold-deposit accounts that would allow savers to withdraw gold bars from specially designed automated teller machines. While Turkey is not on the gold standard, some economists believe that because of the vast gold owne

(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday took aim at proponents of the gold standard, saying that such a system handicaps the government's ability to address economic conditions. Bernanke spoke in the first of a series of four public lectures at George Washington University that is the central bank's latest effort to counter a raft of negative public sentiment that has arisen from its handling of the financial crisis. The former Princeton economics professor delivers a second lecture on Thursday and two more next week. "Since the gold standard determines the money supply, there is not much scope for the central bank to use monetary policy to stabilize the economy," Bernanke said. "Under a gold standard, typically the money supply goes up and interest rates go down in a period of strong economic activity - so that's the reverse of what a central bank would normally do today." Embodied by Texas congressman and Republican president

With many global investors still concerned about the price of gold and silver, today King World News interviewed the “London Trader” to get his take on these markets. Here is what the source had to say: “Every time they have conducted raids in the paper market they lose more and more physical gold and we work from a higher level in terms of price. Right now we have washed an awful lot of the hot, weak money out of the gold market.” The London Trader continues: “This is when you see things turn and the manipulators rip it to the upside. There are buy stops on the upside that are attractive for them to target at this point. Traders are also watching the US dollar now because tomorrow the Iranians are scheduled to start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar. This is clearly an attack on the dollar by the Iranians. The Iranians are claiming the West saying Iran’s nuclear program is a threat is all nonsense. It’s merely an excuse because the US will threaten and attemp

David Tice, the former chief portfolio strategist for bear markets at Federated Investors, is bearish. His 18-month target for the S&P 500 is 1,000, and he thinks gold is headed to $2,500 within the next two to three years. Tice appeared on Fox Business News this afternoon. "We feel just like we did in 1999 and 2007," said Tice "[During] both of those periods, people were positive about credit being created, the central banks were easy, everybody was complacent, and we ended up having a big accident." "Right now the baton has been passed from the private sector leveraging to the public sector leveraging. We broke down the private securitization markets in '08, and now the Fed and the ECB have had to enlarge their balance sheets and they're going to destroy their currencies." On rising interest rates: "This is starting to pierce the government bond bubble." Tice didn't stop there. "You also see emerging market s

David Morgan on Silver.

Join guest host Mike Maloney as he chats with Jim Rogers about markets, Bernanke, the East/West Cycle and more.

In this week's interview with Ellis Martin, noted analyst and gold guru James Sinclair outlines not a scenario but a reality that is here now. The US has pulled the nuclear economic trigger on India and Japan in the interest of coercing them to cease trading for oil with Iran. The gun is actually pointed at ourselves. Listen and hear why the dollar is ultimately doomed as these countries now look to the Yuan and Euro as a trading tool instead of the dollar. That's India and Japan...Russia....China.....Europe....etc.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures fell on Tuesday, moving in step with weakness in global stock markets and softer commodity prices, as concerns about a slowdown in China flared up. Gold for April delivery  GCJ2   -1.09%   fell $20.30, or 1.2%, to end at $1,647 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Traders became nervous that top commodities consumer China may be due for a slowdown after comments from the president of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s BHP   -3.38%    UK:BLT   -4.05%  iron-ore division. BHP’s Ian Ashby told reporters in Perth on Tuesday that China’s iron-ore demand is easing and that demand growth will slow to single digits. The news sent mining stocks lower in Asia and Europe and weighed on commodity prices across the board.  Read more on BHP executive's comments “Anything indicating that China is slowing is going to hit risk assets in general,” said Matt Zeman, a strategist at Kingsview Financial in Chicago. For the better part of last ye

The past week has seen some rather sharp selloffs in the U.S. treasury market. Is "Operation Twist" failing? Will we soon see a resumption of overt quantitative easing? Diligent Turdites will recall that we've been discussing this possibility for months. For me, the key to correctly anticipating the resumption of  overt  QE is found in watching movements of long-term interest rates. As often stated here,  The Federal Reserve cannot allow interest rates to rise . Keeping rates low and funding the federal budget deficit are the two, primary goals of quantitative easing. Therefore, dropping bond prices (higher interest rates) signal that more QE (Fed buying on bonds) is necessary. Well, what to make of these charts? We know from reviewing the long-term charts of the 10-year and the Long Bond that previous drops in price preceded the announcement of QE1 and QE2. We're almost there again. The 10-year is now perched precariously above the all-important 127.50 level and the

An investment manager says officials in the United States may be trying to inflate the share market to restore investor confidence, as US stocks soar and Australia's benchmark index wavers. Local share market investors have had a rough 12 months, with Australia's ASX 200 index down 1 per cent for the 12 months to March 16. But in the United States, where economic conditions are far tougher, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 10 per cent in the same period. Analysts say Australia's index is heavily weighted towards mining shares and banks, which have not put in a strong performance recently. But investment manager Roger Montgomery also says there appears to have been a concerted effort by US authorities to inflate the share market in an attempt to inspire confidence. He points to strong gains in several key shares despite figures showing low levels of market participation. "That suggests to me that there may be some official buying of stocks, p

In this 40+ minute discussion, Jason Burack, Mo Dawoud and John Manfreda of Wall St for Main St, LLC discuss the fundamental factors driving higher oil and higher gasoline prices in the US. Factors exist on both the supply and demand side along with a devalued US Dollar. Peak, Cheap Oil and the world running out of light, sweet crude is also discussed.

India's love affair with gold.

The average prices of a gallon of gas and a barrel of oil are near 150-year highs. Most pundits expect them to go higher. Are you ready for $5-per-gallon gasoline? In a recent speech, President Barack Obama said: “We’re not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices.” Actually, to a large extent, we can. For proof, let’s compare what’s been happening in California to the extraordinary accomplishments in North Dakota. According to the Fraser Institute’s 2011 Global Petroleum Survey, California is the worst State in the Nation for its hostility to drilling. In fact, measured against the rest of the world, California ranks 91st. Thanks to years of placating environmental extremists, California’s anti-drilling regulations make it almost impossible to drill for new oil anywhere in the State, onshore or off. As a result, its production of oil has fallen by nearly one-third in the past 20 years. As oil production has declined, so has tax revenue. Even w

The Japanese Finance Minster, Yasushi Kinoshita, stated that, “”Japan is fiscally worse than Greece.“ This statement is huge. At a conference in Japan, the Finance Minister also noted that in 2011 Japan ran a 10% deficit and their debt to GDP ratio skyrocketed to over 230%. When we look back at economic history when a country breaks through the 160% debt to GDP number they usually have either economic collapse or a currency crisis. Only Great Britain during its imperial might in the 1700 and 1800’s were able to come out of a debt load this large. What makes all this particularly interesting is that most of Japan’s debt is held domestically. Because of this the Japanese financial system will be much more susceptible to fiscal shock. An additional piece of news makes the statement by the Japanese Finance Minister even more serious. This year alone Japan will have to pay back in full nearly $3 Trillion, nearly 25% of all the debt they owe. Financial stability will be completely

I just saw this, it looks really nice. It's a 12 oz silver bar with a One Trillion Dollar design. Here's the link to it.

David Morgan of Silver-Investor.com talks to Max Keiser about silver and silver leverage.

TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for. It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integri

Stop us when this confession from Greg Smith, a now former executive director and head of the Goldman's United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sounds exactly like everything we have said about the firm over the past 3+ years (and why we just can't wait for the next trading "recommendation" from Tom Stolper). Excerpts from the NYT . Highlights ours. Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs Today is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money .

How would you feel if you worked for a state or local government for 20 or 30 years only to have your pension slashed dramatically or taken away entirely?  Well, this exact scenario is playing out from coast to coast and in the years ahead millions of elderly Americans are going to be affected by broken promises and vanishing pensions.  In the old days, things were much different.  You would get hired by a big company or a government institution and you knew that the retirement benefits that they were promising you would be there when you retired in a few decades.  Unfortunately, we have now arrived at a time when government institutions and big companies have promised far more than they are able to deliver, and "pension reform" has become one of the hot button issues all over the nation.  Many Americans that have been basing their financial futures on their pensions are waking up one day and finding that their pensions are either gone or have been cut back drama

Performance and Trading You heard the saying, but what does it really mean? We live in a world where performance is stressed. Hedge funds can be measured on a monthly basis. Twenty percent charges on profits are levied by fund making their view short-term. Daily assessments are made, comparing one sector to another giving the impression that short-term performance is what it’s all about. But is it? No it is not. Just look at where real wealth resides and why it’s there. Old Money means wealth held for many generations. How can wealth be held in this way, and how was it made up? While that’s a huge subject and one we cannot cover here, it’s important for you to realize that this was not made on a monthly, trading basis. It certainly was not made through day or week or month trading. Many traders do well several times and then on a “certainty”, go into an investment that costs them their past profits, and more –this is more akin to gambling. Looking at a mo

We already know that Hayman Capital's Kyle Bass is getting ready for the worst. Case in point, he keeps all kinds of weapons on his Texas compound and he's buying up nickels because he believes the coins will eventually be worth more than 5 cents. He's also bullish on gold, and he reminded CNBC why in an interview today: "The pattern is set, we're going to continue to monetize fiscal deficits by expanding central bank balance sheets... I call it creating money out of thin air." He believes this so fully that while he was on the board of the University of Texas, he had them take physical delivery of $1 billion in gold. You can watch him explain why in the video below (via CNBC), but in a nutshell, he figured out that it would be much cheaper to store it. And for the record, Bass doesn't advocate going back to the gold standard, he thinks that's impractical. Instead, he believes our economy should be tied to a basket of goods and services. Read

Today at noon Eastern, the storied aircraft carrier Enterprise, aka CVN-65 , left its home port of Naval Station Norfolk one final time for its final voyage with a heading: Arabian Sea, aka Iran. There in a week it will join CVN 72 Lincoln and CVN 70 Vinson, as well as LHD 8 Makin Island, all of which are supporting any potential escalation of "hostilities" in the Persian Gulf region. As a reminder, back in January we learned that the Enterprise's final voyage will be in proximity to Iran , and in the meantime, the aircraft carrier held extended drills off the Florida coast to attack a "faux theocracy"  consisting of fundamentalist "Shahida" states. Why the Arabian Sea in about 7-10 days will be home to not two but three aircraft carriers and a big deck amphibious warfare ship is very much an open question, although we may have some thoughts.  More : Thousands of sailors will deploy today from Norfolk on the USS Enterprise for the last ti

Amid reports of Germany and Switzerland requesting their gold from the United States, Jan Skoyles asks why do they want it back considering their monetary policies? The repatriation of gold is a growing topic of interest since Venezuela demonstrated how much value they place on their gold reserves. With escalating gold prices, growing gold investment demand and faltering Western economies is it any wonder German and Swiss politicians are asking where their gold is. At the end of January Venezuela received the last of their 160 tonnes of repatriated gold reserves. Many, including some of the country’s own economists thought Chavez was mad to bring back the gold; that it was an expensive and unnecessary operation. But now it seems distance makes the heart grow fonder for other countries as well with reports of both Germany and Switzerland on the verge of requesting the return of their gold from the United States. This is not surprising considering both countries were at the forefron

Guessing whether the Federal Reserve will undertake another round of quantitative easing has become a popular parlor game on Wall Street. As could be expected, ahead of the Fed's Tuesday policy meeting, chatter has been renewed over whether the central bank should and could institute another round of QE to help the economy and keep its two mandates, high inflation and unemployment, at bay. Despite a more stable economy in recent months, the word last week was that the Fed is considering another potential long-term bond buying program called "sterilized QE." This program would be similar to QE2, except this time, the Fed would restrict how banks can use the funds earned from the sale of the securities. Markets loved the idea, since with each round of additional easing, asset prices have jumped. Lance Roberts, CEO of Streettalk Advisors, compares the Fed to a "drug dealer" for Wall Street -- he says Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke took on a third unofficial mandate

You didn't think investors would voluntarily give up on the potential to generate returns between 50% and 333 % now did you following the ' coercively voluntary ' (aka Schrodinger Spanish Inquisition) Greek debt exchange? Because here they come. Reuters reports that a Hamburg law firm representing 110 Greek bond holders have formed a class action group and intend to sue banks and the Greek state following the Greek swap. It is unclear yet if there are any hedge funds participating in the group, or if these are the entities represented by Bingham. Most likely not: those will almost certainly seek non-class action status so as not to dilute the legal effort, if not fees. However, now that the precedent is set, look for the onslaught of lawsuits to start in earnest. What is probably quite important is that European taxpayers will now be delighted to know they are paying the Troika lawyers' $1000/hour legal fees ( and uncapped expenses). From Reuters: Lawyer

Everything in moderation. Recent homebuyers can’t be cheered by forecasts of a looming slump in house prices so soon after paying record prices in what may be the tail end of a 13-year-long Canadian housing boom. But hold the Prozac. First, while house prices are widely forecast to soften this year, no one’s expecting a U.S.-style crash of the sort that had prices in overheated markets like Florida, California and Arizona plunging by 70 to 90 per cent between 2007 and 2009. That cataclysm set off defaults, foreclosures, a Wall Street meltdown, and the global Great Recession. By contrast, expect prices in admittedly overheated Canadian markets – conspicuously the GTA and Vancouver – to ease by 5 per cent to 10 per cent this year. And then to recover and begin making gains over purchase prices in 2013. There’s an unduly alarmist tone to the latest forecasts of declining Canadian house prices. The headlines give one the impression of an imminent sharp fall. A recent Maclean’s

For a global economy that is "improving" we sure are getting a whole lot of records in the won't direction in the last two days. Yesterday it was Japan which printed a record current account deficit (yes, the most indebted country in the world was once upon a time supposed to export its way out of debt). Today, we learn that in February the US will report its largest budget deficit in history , as the Keynesian floodgates open full bore, and as Zero Hedge has noted repeatedly, tax revenues just refuse to come in at anything close to the pace of accelerated spending, forcing the US to borrow 54 cents for every dollar it spends (not the often cited 42 cent number which does not take into account tax refunds - see here ). We would comment more on this, but frankly the chart speaks for itself. And now that the US has to fund an additional $100 billion due to the taxcut extension this means that things are only going to get worse, fast. And a longer term chart which

With many global investors still concerned about the price of gold and silver, today King World News interviewed the “London Trader” to get his take on these markets. Here is what the source had to say: “Yesterday when we dropped through $1,700, you would not believe the amount of physical tonnage orders that filled. US centric traders tend to concentrate on the COMEX, but the real market is made in London.” The London Trader continues: “The commercials have been covering their short positions and the local traders are all short at this point. All of the guys who were long and vulnerable at the highs, are now short and vulnerable and this exactly what we need to make a bottom. These momentum traders ran into a very large sovereign order near the $1,680 area. When gold broke through $1,680 there were layered physical orders. Over 40 tons of physical gold were filled below $1,680.... Continue reading the London Trader interview

Greece’s use of collective action clauses forcing investors to take losses under its debt restructuring triggers payouts on $3 billion of default insurance, the International Swaps & Derivatives Association said. A total 4,323 credit-default swap contracts may now be settled after ISDA’s determinations committee ruled the use of CACs is a restructuring credit event, according to a statement distributed today by Business Wire. Before the ruling, Greek swaps rose to a record $7.68 million in advance and $100,000 annually to insure $10 million of debt for five years. Swaps traders will hold an “expedited” auction March 19 to “maximize” the number of bonds that can be used to set payout amounts on the contracts, New York-based ISDA said on the committee’s website today. Auctions, which set a recovery value on the underlying bonds, typically are held about a month after credit events are triggered. A swaps trigger “raises the question of which country is next and which banks are m

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said Friday that the Greek government's use of collective-action clauses, or CACs, to amend to terms of Greece-issued bonds qualifies as a "credit event" for Greece. A credit event requires a payout to those who held credit default swaps as insurance to protect themselves in the event of a Greek default. The ISDA decision could trigger payouts on $3.2 billion of those insurance-like contracts, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The news comes after the Greek government announced that 83.5% of its private-sector bondholders agreed to a bond-swap deal. That rate fell short of the 90% needed to prevent legal force to get the rest of the private bondholders to participate, so Greece's finance ministry said it got approval for CACs, which would bring the total participation rate to 96% by forcing some bondholders on board. Original source

Mike Maloney and James Anderson on the shakeout.

"The only real investment opportunities that I see are basically in the commodity sector but they are volatile and you definitely need to know what you are doing..." starts David Morgan of http://Silver-Investor.com in a CurrencyCountdown interview with Tracy Weslosky, CEO for Pro-Edge Consultants Inc. in their ongoing discussions on the US market, collapse of the Euro -- and gold and silver today.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Federal Reserve officials are considering a new type of quantitative easing that will attempt to boost the economy without accelerating inflation, according to a report published Wednesday. Analysts said the new approach would allow the Fed to move despite high oil prices. Under the new approach, the Fed would print new money to buy long-term mortgage or Treasury bonds but effectively tie up that money by borrowing it back for short periods at low rates, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. This “sterilized” quantitative easing, would use reverse-repurchase agreements to keep the money from flowing to bank reserves. Markets reacted to the report, with stocks SPX +0.69% advancing to their strongest level of the day. Commodities also rose. Read more about stocks in Market Snapshot. Economists said that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke seemed to back away from more quantitative easing during two days of testimony before Congress last week. Finan