Yearly Archives: 2013

Historic Gold Crash. What To Expect Next [Bearish]

"First, central bank money-printing has lost its impact on the markets. Second, austerity measures in Europe and the United States are also overpowering the inflationary impact of money-printing. Third, and most importantly in my view, the Cyprus confiscation of uninsured depositor money has completely turned the world upside down. Money is no longer safe in a bank in Europe. That, in turn, is causing hundreds of billions of dollars to essentially go into hiding. But not in gold, which is subject to confiscation, real or imagined. Fourth, Japan’s new aggressive policy to devalue its currency is also not bullish for gold." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHistoric Gold Crash. What To Expect Next [Bearish]

David Stockman: This Is a Giant Ponzi Scheme, It’s Just Debt on Top of More Debt

"Two days ago, former White House Budget Director in the Reagan Administration, David Stockman, dropped some financial bombs in an interview on FOX. He said the Social Security Trust Fund was 'filled with confetti.' Stockman said if the Fed was 'gone fishing' for six weeks (meaning it would stop the $85 billion a month 'open-ended' money printing), 'there would be calamity in the markets.' It seems everybody on both sides of the aisle hates his new book called 'The Great Deformation.' That tells me he’s doing something right." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Stockman: This Is a Giant Ponzi Scheme, It’s Just Debt on Top of More Debt

Bill Bonner: Tough luck for investors!

"For five years now, the US private sector has been trying to deleverage - while the public sector insists that it borrow more. Result: economic stagnation. Also, US consumers have watched their wages and family incomes fall for more than ten years. And adjusted for inflation (however you calculate it) investors are still below where they were in 2000. And now, the world has changed...almost the opposite of 1980, when the big boom began. Today, stocks are expensive, not cheap like they were in 1980. Interest rates are low, not high like they were in 1980. Total debt is now around 350% of GDP, not 150% like it was in 1980." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Tough luck for investors!

Fed Could End Up Paying Banks $77 Billion Annually on Excess Reserves

"The Federal Reserve could pay more than $77 billion a year in interest on the excess cash reserves it holds for commercial banks if rates follow the highest path forecast by Fed policy makers. The central bank already has paid more than $13 billion since 2008 when Congress authorized interest on reserve balances as part of financial-rescue legislation. The Fed earns interest income on its bond holdings and, after covering its operating expenses, returns the profit to the U.S. Treasury. Last year, the Fed remitted $88.4 billion. As the interest payments on reserves rise, this profit could shrink or disappear." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed Could End Up Paying Banks $77 Billion Annually on Excess Reserves

Echoes of the bubble in agents’ descriptions of real estate markets

"Astonishingly low mortgage rates, which the Federal Reserve has driven down in the hopes of stimulating borrowing and goosing the economy, have given qualified purchasers more buying power. A 1 percent decline in mortgage rates increases buying power by about 10 percent. Even though agents might worry about overvalued homes, that's not stopping buyers from bidding up prices, a phenomenon happening in markets with tight inventories across the U.S. Maxwell Rabin, an agent at TTR Sotheby's International Realty, said the Washington, D.C. market is experiencing 'very, very high demand and almost historically low supply.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEchoes of the bubble in agents’ descriptions of real estate markets

Bill Bonner: Is this the end for the bull market in gold?

"Is this the end for the bull market in gold? Everybody says so. And this was before gold tumbled on Friday. The fact is, the masses never got anywhere near gold. Not even close. Most people have never seen a gold coin....and few are as reckless as the aforementioned Mr. Norstog. Most are even more reckless! They'll wait gold to hit $2,000...or $3,000 before they buy. Which is why we're nowhere close to the top. Wall Street never marketed gold, deftly...or any other way. Not even in its usual greedy, heavy handed fashion. And the masses never bought it. Just the opposite. As the price of gold rose we saw ads in the paper soliciting people to SELL gold." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Is this the end for the bull market in gold?

Iron Age burial site points to long-lost glories of Gaul

"During this time, the Celts expanded from their core territory in central Europe to as far afield as northern Scotland and the Atlantic coast of Spain. They clashed with the emerging Roman empire, whose writers recorded the invaders as pale-skinned savages, dressed in breeches with bleached hair, who cut off their enemies’ heads, preserving those of high rank in cedar oil. The barbarian image, though, has been dispelled by historical research in recent decades. It has laid bare a complex civilisation that had a mastery of metal and a trading system which spanned Europe and generated great wealth." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIron Age burial site points to long-lost glories of Gaul

John Browne Explains the Great Game

"Of countries that have to make something, like the Swiss – the Swiss have got a heap of granite with icing on the top of it and yet they're one of the richest countries in the world. It's the people that do this stuff. It's the people and the leadership and if they believe in something they do it, and the Germans, too. They believe in hard work but what's more, they believe that the hard work of today's citizens should be kept intact so that those hard working people, when they retire, should be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The Anglo-Americans say the hell with the future, the hell with children, the hell with grandchildren. We want that money now." Continue reading →

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Supreme Court refuses to take up challenge against New York public gun law

"The Supreme Court declined on Monday to discuss a challenge to a New York state law requiring prospective gun owners to demonstrate they need to defend themselves before getting a concealed-carry license for a handgun. The New York Times reported that the court’s decision effectively backs a ruling by the federal Court of Appeals for New York upholding the law. New York state attorney general Eric Schneiderman filed a brief to the high court arguing that the New York law, similar to measures in at least seven other states, operated in accordance with the Second Amendment." Continue reading →

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Destroying the middle ground

"Imagine yourself in an alternate United States where the First Amendment is not as a matter of settled law considered to bar Federal and State governments from almost all interference in free speech. In this alternate America, there are many and bitter arguments about the extent of free-speech rights. The ground of dispute is to what extent the instruments of political and cultural speech (printing presses, radios, telephones, copying machines, computers) should be regulated by government so that use of these instruments does not promote violence, assist criminal enterprises, and disrupt public order." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDestroying the middle ground