investment

Central banks last year bought most gold since ’64

"The world's central banks last year bought 534.6 tons of gold in 2012, the most since 1964, as global gold demand hit a record value level, the World Gold Council said Thursday in a quarterly report. Purchases by central banks for the full year rose 17% compared with 2011, while fourth-quarter purchases of 145 tons marked a 29% rise from the same period a year earlier. In value terms, total gold demand in 2012 was $236.4 billion, an all-time high, the council said" Continue reading →

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The Fed Is Blowing More Bubbles

"As if any more evidence were needed (see my CB post earlier this week) that the Fed has succeeded, either through ignorance or design, in igniting new asset bubbles throughout the economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City just released a survey of bankers that confirms a continuing rise in U.S. farmland prices. The chart below from the report by the Kansas City Fed puts this stunning trend in temporal perspective and reveals that it extends across all farmland, including irrigated cropland and ranchland." Continue reading →

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“Boomerang Foreclosures” Are Back As Bernanke’s Second Housing Bubble Begins To Pop

"As the chart below shows, while California foreclosure activity is collapsing, things in other places are starting to indicate that the second housing bubble blown by Bernanke in 5 years, is finally starting to crack. In other words, ignore the sad and very much artificial reality of California where the real estate market is no longer indicative of what happens in a free market, and instead keep a close eye on those states where all artificial attempts to crush foreclosure starts and completions have been used up, and where reality is about to come back with a bang." Continue reading →

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Housing Industry Hopes Obama Line Will Soften Mortgage Rule

"U.S. Realtors and mortgage bankers say they hope President Barack Obama’s call for streamlined mortgage rules in his State of the Union speech will help them persuade regulators not to set a strict minimum down payment for home loans. At issue is the so-called qualified residential mortgage rule, which six banking regulators including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve are aiming to complete this year. The regulators drew protests in 2011 when they released a preliminary draft requiring lenders to keep a stake in mortgages with down payments of less than 20 percent and those issued to [debt-laden] borrowers." Continue reading →

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David Galland: Three Levels of Survival Skills

"While we all hope that things will turn out for the best, and they very well might, I suspect that, like me, most of you sense that something is fundamentally wrong in the world today. Trying to ignore the risks, effectively keeping your alert level at 'White,' leaves you woefully unprepared. Now is the time to think this stuff through, while you still can do so calmly. Now, moving on, I want to share with you stories from two individuals faced with severe disruptions in the norm – one from old friend Roger S. from Zimbabwe, who reports on the current state of things there and the other from an individual who survived the war in Sarajevo." Continue reading →

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Countries are using devaluation to gain an advantage – and Britain is one of the worst offenders

"At Wednesday’s Inflation Report press conference, Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, aired some apparently shocking numbers. Since the financial crisis began, not only had interest rates been reduced to close to zero, but the Bank of England’s balance sheet had been expanded by a factor of five. Expressed as a share of GDP, the increase has been greater than that of the US, greater than that of the European Central Bank, and greater than that of Japan. This is way beyond being an unprecedented degree of stimulus. These are completely uncharted waters we are in, and even Sir Mervyn seems to be getting worried by them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCountries are using devaluation to gain an advantage – and Britain is one of the worst offenders

From Watery Bourbon To Horse-Meat Chili: Hidden Inflation Is Everywhere

"We’ve had an endless series of products whose ingredients have been cheapened in order to maintain the price. Consumers won’t be able to taste the difference, the theory goes. So, as the horse-meat lasagna scandal in Europe is spiraling beautifully out of control, we’re now getting hit where it hurts: Maker’s Mark is watering down its bourbon." Continue reading →

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US State Representative adopts Bitcoin donation system

"US State Representative Mark Warden has added a Bitcoin donation system to his campaign Website, marking the first use of the decentralised virtual currency system by a sitting incumbent politician. He says Bitcoin will allow online transactions that are not 'subject to the inflationary whims of the Federal Reserve or other central banks'. 'This is a cutting-edge technology that is market based, voluntary, and extremely innovative,' counters Warden. 'I have constituents and vendors who prefer this medium of exchange, so it's natural to want to respond to the marketplace.'" Continue reading →

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The DEA Wants to Use a $37 Pot Sale to Seize a $1.5 Million Anaheim Building

"As it happens, the building owners are the kind of clients whom defense attorneys love to represent: law-abiding citizens. Specifically, they are married, in their late middle age and from Irvine. The wife is a dentist; the husband a computer engineer who holds a government security clearance, which is why the latter asked to remain anonymous. Although he feels he has done nothing wrong, he explains, even being accused of allowing his property to be used to break the law is embarrassing to him." Continue reading →

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FATCA: Do I have to report my offshore gold?

"Imagine what would happen if the Chinese government passed a law requiring US banks to share customer information with Beijing. People would go nuts. But in the Land of the Free, it’s normal. Crazy. It gets worse. FATCA was a mere 18 pages of poorly worded legislation that failed to define critical terms. How many pages of regulations did the IRS issue? The answer is a mind numbing 544 pages. After an initial read, though, the language of the regulation does suggest that custodial gold institutions (like GoldMoney, etc.) should be reported. Offshore safety deposit boxes (like Das Safe) do not." Continue reading →

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