Guess where the country’s highest incomes are? Think government contractors. A great map.
"The wealth of the nation is concentrated in Washington DC. I wonder why much of America resents the city so much." Continue reading →
‘Pawn Stars’ Owner: Selling Personal Gold At A Loss For Tax Writeoff, Then Buying Back
"Harrison noted that while gold is plunging on the commodities exchanges, he's finding it difficult to build an inventory for his shop. 'I retail gold and silver and I'm having a real difficult time right now getting physical metal,' he explained. 'It's the crazy world about gold and silver: Sometimes the paper market is going down but you can't find actual physical items.' The reason, he said, was a lack of physical product, which he blamed on private and government mints not keeping up with demand. But this same phenomenon should help prices see a bottom shortly. 'I still pay right around spot — I don't think it's going to go much lower,' Harrison said." Continue reading →
LBMA: Volume Of Gold Transferred Climbs To 12-Year High In May On ETF Redemptions
"The amount of gold transferred between accounts of London Bullion Market Association members rose sharply in May, the organization reported Friday. Total gold transfers rose by 17.2% to a daily average of 28.2 million ounces, the most in 12 years. Despite continued offloading of gold by exchange-traded funds in the Western economies, strong physical demand for gold on falling prices -- particularly from India and China -- led to a significant increase in demand, the LBMA said, The value of gold ounces transferred increased by 11.2% to a daily average of $39.8 billion, the highest level since August 2011." Continue reading →
Central banks sell record sums of US debt
"Central banks sold a record amount of US Treasury debt last week while bond funds suffered the biggest-ever investor withdrawals as markets shuddered at the prospect of the US Federal Reserve ending its quantitative easing programme. Holdings of US Treasuries held at the Fed on behalf of official foreign institutions dropped a record $32.4 billion to $2.93 trillion, eclipsing the prior mark of $24 billion in August 2007. It was the third week of outflows in the past four. Private investors are also dumping fixed income. US funds were the worst hit, with withdrawals totalling $10.6 billion, but emerging market debt funds also saw record redemptions of $5.6 billion." Continue reading →
Why the Status Quo Is Doomed
"Every one of these implicit assumptions has been turned on its head: growth is barely above the rate of inflation; by some measures, it has already fallen below the real rate of inflation. Debt is increasing much faster than income or wealth. Virtually all of the recent expansion of wealth/income is flowing to the top 10%. This is why the status quo is doomed: there is no Plan B or even conceptual alternative to the 'more growth forever' agenda. The oft-touted fantasy is that 'we're going to grow our way out of this,' but it is abundantly clear that debt is rising far faster than growth or incomes." Continue reading →
“Banish Fractional Reserve Banking for Real Reform”
". . . says Thomas Mayer, a former IMF economist and former Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group and Head of DB Research, and now a Deutcshe Bank Senior Advisor. Mayer goes on to cite Austrian monetary and business-cycle theorist Jesus Huerta de Soto on the causal connection between fractional reserves and banking crises throughout history. He points out: 'Since there is no single state in the eurozone able to bail out banks in a systemic crisis, a banking regime without state backing is needed.' He concludes his letter with a four-step plan for 'comprehensive' banking reform that would implement just such a regime." Continue reading →
British central bank softens rules for banks to give economy £70bn boost
"The UK’s big four lenders will be able to reduce their cash and cash-like assets by 20pc under the recommendation, made by the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC). The excess 'liquidity' could then be used 'to support lending to the real economy', it said. The FPC estimated the impact of the rule change on the big four to be 'around £70bn'. Interest rates have been at a record low of 0.5pc for more than four years and households have become increasingly reliant on such cheap credit. The proportion of borrowers on variable rate mortgages linked to the 0.5pc rate is close to a historical high, the Bank said." Continue reading →
The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis
"Thanks to a mountain of evidence gathered for a pair of major lawsuits, documents that for the most part have never been seen by the general public, we now know that the nation's two top ratings companies, Moody's and S&P, have for many years been shameless tools for the banks, willing to give just about anything a high rating in exchange for cash. In incriminating e-mail after incriminating e-mail, executives and analysts from these companies are caught admitting their entire business model is crooked. 'Lord help our fucking scam . . . this has to be the stupidest place I have worked at,' writes one Standard & Poor's executive." Continue reading →
Mocking Germans Adds Irish Insult to Banking Injury
"Irish politicians say jibes at Germans by some of the country’s former bankers undermine their case for securing help to cut the 64 billion-euro ($83 billion) bill for saving the financial system. John Bowe, a former executive at the now defunct Anglo Irish Bank Corp., sang 'Deutschland Ueber Alles', according to recordings of 2008 conversations that were published this week. Irish borrowing costs surged in 2010 as investors grew concerned about the mounting burden on the taxpayer. Now the government is trying to persuade German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other euro-region leaders to refund part of what was spent on saving the country’s lenders." Continue reading →
Official figures reveal Ireland is back in a recession
"Ireland’s bailed-out economy slumped back into recession in the second half of last year, and continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2013, official figures showed on Thursday. GDP tumbled 1.0 percent in the third quarter of 2012 and by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, meeting the definition of a recession, according to revised data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which added that the economy shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year." Continue reading →
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