I bumped into an old friend the other day. Rick Freeman has always been an employee. Recently he became an entrepreneur and he’s helping people who either don’t have a banking relationship or refuse to have one. He cashes paychecks and provides a number of services to this group who don’t have the benefit of a bank holding their money. Years ago, we used to make fun of people who distrusted banks and held their funds in the “mattress.” Now adays, after the most recent financial crack-up, a large segment of the population has lost faith in the banking sector. While these parasitic institutions have taken trillions in government bailouts, they continue to milk their clients for every possible cent in fee income. It is this constant nickle and diming that has made the public extremely angry and resentful towards these crony capitlists. And it’s why Rick’s business is starting to take off.
Yesterday I got to spend the day with Jay Taylor, a fellow radio guy, who’s sites include Mining Stocks.com and Jay Taylor Media.com. Jay’s a former financial guy, who used to write a small newsletter as a hobby. Eventually, his hobby became his passion and he started writing full time and doing radio. He’s as passionate as yours’ truly and honest and completely authentic, which is why we hold him in such high esteem as the Financial Survival Network. We went to a Yukon Mining Presentation and there were a number of good companies presenting. This sector, is the casualty of the gold and silver manipulation scheme. Many of them are worth more dead than alive. But more importantly, the fund managers present had absolutely no concept of what’s going to hit the US and World economies shortly. And that was truly alarming.
Investors around the world are asking the critical question, are we looking at 2008 all over again or not? Today Michael Pento, of Pento Portfolio Strategies, writes exclusively for King World News to let readers know the answer to that all-important question. Here is what Pento had to say about the situation: “As most of you already know, I have for years been in the vanguard warning about the inflationary policies pursued by global governments and central banks. However, we now face a hiatus of monetary intervention and that has once again brought about the fear of deflation—which is the natural countervailing force to inflation.”
Department of Homeland Security forced to release list following freedom of information request. Agency insists it only looks for evidence of genuine threats to the U.S. and not for signs of general dissent
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as ‘attack’, ‘Al Qaeda’, ‘terrorism’ and ‘dirty bomb’ alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like ‘pork’, ‘cloud’, ‘team’ and ‘Mexico’.
Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.
Gold hit its low price of the day [about $1,551 spot] during the Hong Kong lunch hour yesterday…and then rallied in fits and starts for the rest of the trading day as it advanced westward across Planet Earth on Friday.
And, in a rare occurrence, gold closed virtually on its high of the day at $1,573.70 spot…up $15.90 spot. The actual high [$1,575.40 spot] came about twenty minutes after the Comex close, but it was on such tiny volume, it’s hardly worth dignifying with the words ‘high tick’. In front of the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend, net volume was a vanishingly small 82,000 contracts, give or take.
Gold closed at its highest point on Friday $1568.80 for a gain of $11.50. Silver also did pretty good
rising by 20 cents to $28.37. Friday was truly remarkable for our precious metals because they rose despite a 75 point drop in the Dow and a fall in the euro/usa dollar cross.
(The final dow figures: 12454 for a drop of 74.92 points.
The Euro/dollar cross closing: 1.25152)
The dream of virtually anyone who has ever traded even one share of stock has always been to generate above market returns, also known as alpha, preferably in a long-term horizon. Why? Because those who manage to return 30%, 20% even 10% above the S&P over the long run, become, all else equal (expert networks and collocated flow-frontrunning HFT boxes aside), legendary investors in the eyes of the general public, which brings the ancillary benefits of fame and fortune (usually in the form of 2 and 20). This is the ultimate goal of everyone who works on Wall Street. Yet, ironically, what most don’t realize, is that these returns, or Returns On Investment (ROI), are absolutely meaningless when put side by side next to something few think about when considering investment returns.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been negligent in failing to terminate the obvious manipulation ongoing in silver. Furthermore, the agency may be complicit in this manipulation. Worse, it has lied to the public and elected officials. This all goes back to the time when Bear Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan in March of 2008. It is well known that Bear Stearns went under as a result of a sudden loss of liquidity amidst a run by creditors and customers. What is not well known is that those problems were greatly exacerbated by a $2 billion margin call on silver and gold short positions from the end of December 2007 to March 2008. I believe the silver and gold margin calls were at the heart of Bear Stearns’ failure.
Of all the podcasts I’ve recorded, this is certainly one of the most important.
Our pal, Ned Naylor-Leyland, introduced me to John Butler a few weeks ago. I’m grateful that he did because John’s new book, “The Golden Revolution“, is the most important book that I’ve read in quite some time. At just 200 pages, the book neatly summarizes the history of global sound money, the circumstances surrounding the exit of the previous gold standard and the likely events that will effect and implement the next, global gold standard. Read this book and you will begin to understand how and why this new gold standard is inevitable.
The United States is home to a gigantic socialist sector, larger and with a greater reach than any in the world, and it is fed by tax dollars and managed entirely by the government. Strangely, the opponents of socialized medicine and socialized industry don’t complain about it. In fact, all throughout the 1980s and 1990s, they urged its expansion.
It is called the prison system. It’s a fairly new system, but the cruelties of similar systems are so famed throughout history that they are spoken of by the Psalmist: “For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.”
The presumption in the Psalms is that prisoners are despised, ignored, forgotten, dismissed — and they are in our country, where this topic is not even on the list in the mainstream debate.
The Greeks have had years of having fun and shirking taxes, but now it is payback time, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.
In a stern message to the crisis-hit country, Ms Lagarde said she has more sympathy for poverty stricken children in sub-Saharan Africa than she does for those in Athens, and called for Greek citizens to take responsibility if they are worried about their own children suffering from cuts to public services.
“Parents have to pay their tax…I think they should also help themselves collectively…by all paying their tax,” she told a newspaper.
Greece has a notoriously poor record of collecting taxes but agreed to clamp down on tax dodgers in order to reduce its budget deficit, under the terms of its bailout package.
Ms Lagarde yesterday spelled out that she has no intention of softening the country’s austerity measures, despite growing political unrest among its citizens. Reflecting the international community’s growing impatience with Greece, she made it clear she has little sympathy for the country’s objectionst.
I was recently in a spirited conversation with a small crowd of people about how my Stupid Mogambo Advice (SMA) to buy gold, silver and oil has not been working very well recently, and various theories were advanced as to why that should be the case.
One particular participant in the conversation volunteered to me that perhaps the reason is that I am stupid. He looked right at me and said “You’re a stupid, lying moron!”, whereupon everyone agreed by cheering and clapping.
Yet another opined that they have not become fabulously wealthy overnight because I am a “Halfwitted loudmouth blowhard who doesn’t know anything about anything”, which was followed by more cheering and clapping.
Yet another pronounced “The Mogambo is a big fat stupid loser! And he eats like a pig! And he smells like a pig, too!” which was followed by even more cheering and clapping, and more than a few “oink oink” noises, which is not as charming as it sounds.
According to IIF director Charles Dallara in a Bloomberg interview, “ECB will be insolvent if Greece were to exit the euro. Europe would have to first and foremost recapitalize its central bank.”
Excuse me for asking but how would they attempt to do that? Print Euros?
I read that Americans who have spoken to poll-takers express the fear that their children will not live as well as they have. Here is an example. The poll was taken in October 2011.
More than two-thirds of voters say the United States is declining, and a clear majority think the next generation will be worse off than this one, according to the results of a new poll commissioned by The Hill.
A resounding 69 percent of respondents said the country is “in decline,” the survey found, while 57 percent predict today’s kids won’t live better lives than their parents. Additionally, 83 percent of voters indicated they’re either very or somewhat worried about the future of the nation, with 49 percent saying they’re “very worried.”
The results suggest that Americans don’t view the country’s current economic and political troubles as temporary, but instead see them continuing for many years.
QE to infinity is going to be guaranteed by the taxpayer, you.
Derivatives have exploded again. Morgan’s losses must be humdingers.
You can be sure there are many more out there hiding is plain sight. That is what a step like this means.
A Mess the 45th President Will Inherit
Taxpayers now stand behind derivatives clearinghouses. May 23, 2012, 7:11 p.m. ET
President Obama’s standard gripe is that the economy has performed so poorly during his term because of the financial crisis he inherited from George W. Bush. But this week it is Mr. Obama who has bequeathed to his successors a landmark in financial regulation. It is bound to haunt them, though not as much as it will haunt taxpayers.
Technician Tracy Knudsen from Lowry Research joins Jim this week to assess the markets and sees selling pressure increasing. Jim also has this week’s Market Wrap-up, and Rob Bernard checks in with the Fixed Income Report. Also in this section, Jim’s first Big Picture topic: “Foundations, Tensions and Retirees−Useful Life Preservers in Stormy Seas.” Lastly, Jim takes some of your Q-Calls this segment.
Tracy Knudsen, CMT, is a Senior Vice President and Senior Analyst at Lowry Research and has been a market technician for 17 years. Prior to joining Lowry’s, Tracy held the position of Senior Market Strategist at Candlecharts.com and prior to that, Senior Technical analyst at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates. She has written articles for two Technical Analysis publications, Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities and Stocks Futures & Options magazine. Tracy is a member of the Market Technicians Association and has served on the board of directors of the American Association of Professional Technical Analysts (AAPTA).
The platinum price dropped as low as $1,410 per troy ounce yesterday morning, but has recovered slightly since. Worries about the euro’s survival are currently weighing on precious metals, with growing rumours about a Greek exit from the euro – which some predict could happen after elections in June. These fears continue to benefit the US dollar, which in recent weeks has been climbing to new highs. But this appreciation in the greenback has been weighing on precious metals prices.
05/25/12 Baltimore, Maryland – How do you like those wimpy, whiney investors? They lose money in Facebook. Do they take their losses like men? Nope.
They rush to sue everybody! The investment banks who were midwifes to the birth of FB into the public markets weren’t playing fair, they say. They gave their best clients more and better info than they fed to the public.
Well, what…you mean…could you be saying…that the insiders have an edge?
Well…duh…uh…
“The thing about this IPO,” said a friend at lunch, “was that the whole world was watching. That’s why this was so important. It showed everyone how Wall Street operates. Everybody got burned. And they blame Wall Street…because they can see that the pros were being only half honest. And the other half was incompetent.”
Sitting here in the wee hours on the fringe of the Memorial Day holiday, first cup of coffee at hand and an excellent live version of Safe from Harm by Massive Attack playing at moderate decibels, I suspect that my contribution to today’s missive will be somewhat shorter than usual. If for no other reason than that the kids have the day off and it’s been one of “those” weeks, so the idea of putting away the tools early is tugging at my sleeve.
To that end, a bit later on I will share the reprint of a controversial article that I have had on my desk for a couple of weeks. It’s long and may evoke all manner of reactions (though hopefully none of them violent), but will also make you think.
Before we get to that, however, some quick comments on gold and other commodities.
In a brief clip from a lengthier discussion between historian Niall Ferguson and ex-Greek PM George Papandreou at this week’s Zeitgeist conference, the effusive Englishman lays out perfectly what many are missing with regard to Europe: “Greece is not the problem – it is a symptom of a much more profound malaise that affects the entire monetary union.” – just as Lehman Brothers was not the ’cause’ of the US’s problems. The wasted energy spent moralizing about the ‘work habits’ of Mediterranean citizens as being the problem is incorrect as this is a European-wide problem – a systemic crisis of European banking and public finance. Papandreou pipes in by noting, in typical toe-the-line manner, that Germany must swerve (in the game of chicken) or there is a major danger of disintegration because “there will be contagion”.
For two months last fall, Eric Simons secretly took up residence inside the Internet giant’s Palo Alto, Calif., campus, eating free food, enjoying gym access, and building a startup in the process.
It was 6 a.m. when Eric Simons was jolted awake by the yelling.
After working until 4 a.m, the 19-year-old entrepreneur had finally passed out. A few hours of sleep would help with the day ahead.
But unlike most people working at AOL’s Palo Alto, Calif., campus who were surely still hours from showing up at the sprawling complex, Simons was already there. He’d been living there for two months, hiding out at night on couches, eating the company’s food, and exercising and showering in its gym. And now, with an angry security guard bellowing at him, it was all over.
The story of how Simons, just two years removed from a Chicago high school, came to be living in AOL’s Palo Alto campus could well become part of Silicon Valley lore, especially because it highlights the lengths some entrepreneurs will go to make their dreams a reality. And though stories abound these days of startup founders barely old enough to drink swimming in venture capital, far more have to get by on packaged noodles and the good will of friends with extra couches.
If you want authentic barbecue, it’s a good weekend to fire up your backyard pit because barbecue restaurants say some South Florida cities aren’t too hot on their traditional slow cookers.
The fragrant smoke that attracts ‘cue lovers is often a turnoff to neighboring homes, so a growing list of cities are adding restrictions to routine health and fire codes, making it difficult for restaurants to open.
“If they knew what they were going to have to go through to open a place, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would ever get into this business,” said Mark Vasturo, CEO of Miami-based chain, Shorty’s Bar-B-Q.
Open pits are legal under national rules, there are limits as to how the flame and smoke need to be controlled.
Whether it was Captain America’s roadshow or Uncle-Sam ‘wanting’ your help, the US always seemed to maintain some semblance of class when propagandizing its citizens into buying its government bonds. Whether for patriotic or xenophobic reasons, it appeared to work. Japan, though, with its increasingly desperate demographic situation, deficits, downgrades, and well, general malaise of Koo/Keynesian-stuffed economic stagnation has turned to the next best thing – the all-girl band AKB48. As The Telegraph notes today, the all-female pop group will headline a summer campaign for “reconstruction bonds” aimed at financing projects in regions hammered by last year’s quake-tsunami disaster. The debt campaign will see AKB48 – comprising about 90 performers, ranging in age from early teens to mid-20s – joined by sumo wrestling’s champion Hakuho and female football star Homare Sawa, Japan’s Jiji press agency reported. The group’s bubblegum pop and synchronized dancing has proved a huge hit with young girls. Perhaps more disturbingly (and why Japan chose them maybe?) – running the gamut from girl-next-door to sultry temptress, the band also has a substantial male following – many of whom are older – who support a vast merchandising industry. Japan has the industrialized world’s worst public debt, amounting to more than twice its gross domestic product – topping hard-hit eurozone countries including Greece, which have drawn fire from foreign investors over their fiscal management. On the bright side, AKB48 have also promoted the government’s suicide prevention program and appeared in a farm ministry rice campaign.
Chris Duane, the Silver Shield, joins us to discuss the unsustainable global economic system and the advent of the big break. Chris is very much in the silver market, and he, along with many others, feels the anxiety and tension building. Rumors of big silver orders being placed are running rampant, and according to Chris, the end of this summer seems like the most probable time for the big market break to happen. Chris knows this is the time to buy, and he has been frequently buying over the last week in a half, picking up all the bottoms as they’ve come along.
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I bumped into an old friend the other day. Rick Freeman has always been an employee. Recently he became an entrepreneur and he’s helping people who either don’t have a banking relationship or refuse to have one. He cashes paychecks and provides a number of services to this group who don’t have the benefit of a bank holding their money. Years ago, we used to make fun of people who distrusted banks and held their funds in the “mattress.” Now adays, after the most recent financial crack-up, a large segment of the population has lost faith in the banking sector. While these parasitic institutions have taken trillions in government bailouts, they continue to milk their clients for every possible cent in fee income. It is this constant nickle and diming that has made the public extremely angry and resentful towards these crony capitlists. And it’s why Rick’s business is starting to take off.
Investors around the world are asking the critical question, are we looking at 2008 all over again or not? Today Michael Pento, of Pento Portfolio Strategies, writes exclusively for King World News to let readers know the answer to that all-important question. Here is what Pento had to say about the situation: “As most of you already know, I have for years been in the vanguard warning about the inflationary policies pursued by global governments and central banks. However, we now face a hiatus of monetary intervention and that has once again brought about the fear of deflation—which is the natural countervailing force to inflation.”
The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.
Yesterday in Gold and Silver
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen:
The dream of virtually anyone who has ever traded even one share of stock has always been to generate above market returns, also known as alpha, preferably in a long-term horizon. Why? Because those who manage to return 30%, 20% even 10% above the S&P over the long run, become, all else equal (expert networks and collocated flow-frontrunning HFT boxes aside), legendary investors in the eyes of the general public, which brings the ancillary benefits of fame and fortune (usually in the form of 2 and 20). This is the ultimate goal of everyone who works on Wall Street. Yet, ironically, what most don’t realize, is that these returns, or Returns On Investment (ROI), are absolutely meaningless when put side by side next to something few think about when considering investment returns.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been negligent in failing to terminate the obvious manipulation ongoing in silver. Furthermore, the agency may be complicit in this manipulation. Worse, it has lied to the public and elected officials. This all goes back to the time when Bear Stearns was taken over by JPMorgan in March of 2008. It is well known that Bear Stearns went under as a result of a sudden loss of liquidity amidst a run by creditors and customers. What is not well known is that those problems were greatly exacerbated by a $2 billion margin call on silver and gold short positions from the end of December 2007 to March 2008. I believe the silver and gold margin calls were at the heart of Bear Stearns’ failure.
The United States is home to a gigantic socialist sector, larger and with a greater reach than any in the world, and it is fed by tax dollars and managed entirely by the government. Strangely, the opponents of socialized medicine and socialized industry don’t complain about it. In fact, all throughout the 1980s and 1990s, they urged its expansion.
In a stern message to the crisis-hit country, Ms Lagarde said she has more sympathy for poverty stricken children in sub-Saharan Africa than she does for those in Athens, and called for Greek citizens to take responsibility if they are worried about their own children suffering from cuts to public services.
I was recently in a spirited conversation with a small crowd of people about how my Stupid Mogambo Advice (SMA) to buy gold, silver and oil has not been working very well recently, and various theories were advanced as to why that should be the case.
I read that Americans who have spoken to poll-takers express the fear that their children will not live as well as they have. Here is an example. The poll was taken in October 2011.
Technician Tracy Knudsen from Lowry Research joins Jim this week to assess the markets and sees selling pressure increasing. Jim also has this week’s Market Wrap-up, and Rob Bernard checks in with the Fixed Income Report. Also in this section, Jim’s first Big Picture topic: “Foundations, Tensions and Retirees−Useful Life Preservers in Stormy Seas.” Lastly, Jim takes some of your Q-Calls this segment.
The 
In a brief clip from a lengthier discussion between historian Niall Ferguson and ex-Greek PM George Papandreou at this week’s Zeitgeist conference, the effusive Englishman lays out perfectly what many are missing with regard to Europe: “Greece is not the problem – it is a symptom of a much more profound malaise that affects the entire monetary union.” – just as Lehman Brothers was not the ’cause’ of the US’s problems. The wasted energy spent moralizing about the ‘work habits’ of Mediterranean citizens as being the problem is incorrect as this is a European-wide problem – a systemic crisis of European banking and public finance. Papandreou pipes in by noting, in typical toe-the-line manner, that Germany must swerve (in the game of chicken) or there is a major danger of disintegration because “there will be contagion”.
It was 6 a.m. when Eric Simons was jolted awake by the yelling.
Chris Duane, the Silver Shield, joins us to discuss the unsustainable global economic system and the advent of the big break. Chris is very much in the silver market, and he, along with many others, feels the anxiety and tension building. Rumors of big silver orders being placed are running rampant, and according to Chris, the end of this summer seems like the most probable time for the big market break to happen. Chris knows this is the time to buy, and he has been frequently buying over the last week in a half, picking up all the bottoms as they’ve come along.
Every Tuesday 11:00amEST