"Virtually from the day that Germany demanded to have its gold delivered back to the Bundesbank, three very clear phenomena have occurred: 1. The gold price, which had been trending sideways, has plummeted. 2. The physical gold held at the COMEX has been pouring out of the warehouses. 3. The amount of physical gold held by the ETFs has stopped rising and started falling. Fast. Coincidence? I very much doubt it." Continue reading →
"I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time." Continue reading →
"'It is hard to imagine a world,' says the unimaginative study, 'where the main currency is based on an extremely complex code understood only by a few and controlled by even fewer, without accountability, arbitration, or recourse.' Blink, blink. This is the Fed talking here. Talk about complex. When the Fed governor speaks in Congress, he (soon she) speaks in such a blithering array of econ-babble that no one dare respond, for fear of seeming ignorant. It’s like the first day of an Intro to Physics class. The professor asks if there are questions, and everyone sits in terror. In a half-century of this nonsense, only Ron Paul ever really dared to ask serious questions of the Fed." Continue reading →
"Money printing will continue and financial instruments will therefore continue to inflate, both in Europe and the US. There will be much hand-wringing about deflation and a lack of jobs, but this is not serious. The system cannot function any other way. As we have pointed out before, we are in the reflationary leg of a bear-market cycle. There will doubtless be significant volatility but the power elite controlling the financial system seems determined to create yet another blow-off. You may not have a job but if you have assets you will be able to participate in it and possibly reap significant rewards if you are careful and pay attention to the timing of additional money flows. Good luck." Continue reading →
"Looks like the MintChip domain from the Royal Canadian Mint has expired: http://mintchipchallenge.com/ ? Guess they have abandoned ship..." Continue reading →
"In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss drinking the kool aid (never mind the cyanide) while the young and unemployed of Ireland are encouraged to emigrate by government economists determined to flatter their Troika stats. In the second half, Max interviews author and investor, Peter Schiff, about inflation in fraud as governments want a cut of financial crimes and the trickle down monetary policy ponzi scheme." Continue reading →
"I walked into a Subway sandwich shop and noticed a big change in the menu. I noticed that the list of sandwiches in its $5 menu keeps shrinking. Pretty soon, Subway will have to come up with a new name for its menu. This is also happening at other fast-food restaurants. In January, Wendy’s turned its $0.99 menu into a 'Right Price, Right Size' menu. And, recently, McDonald’s announced it’s turning its $1 menu into a 'Dollar and Up' menu. These price hikes seem like inconsequential changes. But they represent something bigger … Without its $1 menu acting as an anchor, McDonald’s is now free to start passing along its higher input costs to consumers in the form of rising prices." Continue reading →
"It's depressing that firstly key government departments have not apparently to the best of my knowledge even discussed this potentially revolutionary technology. It's even more depressing that in a democratic society, discussion of policy regarding this technology is conducted in secrecy. HMRC's VAT legislation is already outdated in many areas especially regarding online trade. My confidence that they will appear from behind these doors with legislation based on a firm understanding of Bitcoin is low. These responses also indicate glaring misunderstandings of what Bitcoin is, hilariously the Bank of England wrote back to tell me 'There have been no meetings held at the BoE attended by Bitcoin'." Continue reading →
"Sudan's economy has been in turmoil since South Sudan's secession in 2011 took away of three-quarters of oil production. Oil was the driver of the economy and source for dollars needed for food and other essential imports. The central bank has been trying to bridge a ballooning gap with the black market rate where one dollar costs 7.8 pounds as import firms struggle to get their hand on hard currency. The black market rate has become the benchmark for banks and firms. The secretive central bank tends not to announce devaluations, which are embarrassing for the government, which denies there is a shortage of hard currency." Continue reading →
"The central bank’s board approved a resolution to restrict local lending to the seven largest grains exporters, forcing them to obtain foreign currency financing, which may bring $2 billion into Argentina by year end, said two people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be named because the resolution hasn’t been made public. Reserves have tumbled $10 billion to $33.3 billion this year to a six-year low as the nation increases energy imports and uses the funds to pay foreign debt. Banks will only be able to lend 0.3 percent of their total lending portfolio to companies that export 75 percent of their output and have more than 200 million pesos of outstanding bank loans, the people said." Continue reading →