Throughout my 2010 article series "Extend & Pretend" and "Sultans of Swap" I stressed that we were rapidly moving from the Financial Crisis of 2008, through the Economic Fallout of 2009 -2010, towards a Political Crisis in 2011 -2012. We are now clearly beginning to see the early emergence of the final part of this continuum. From North Africa to Wisconsin all are fundamentally based on the single insidious underlying problem - excessive global debt and credit levels. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Wayne Atwell - 25 February, 2011
As Casimir Capital Managing Director Wayne Atwell sees it, further political unrest in the Middle East could push gold higher, while inflation risk and sovereign debt issues in Europe are longer-term price catalysts. He also shares his insights on small-cap investment in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report. Full Story
Summing up, the USD Index declined this week but is still above its long-term support line. It is approaching a cyclical turning point and is still likely to move higher soon. Gold and mining stocks have also moved lower in the past few days but are still above their respective support lines. Respective trends remain up and recent price declines appear to be attributed simply to a short period of consolidation. Full Story
For several Months Now, we have thought the Markets, and especially the Equities Markets, were not pricing in Sufficient Risk. This coming March, Equities Markets would have had a two year Bull run but for this week’s Fall. But there are Important Reasons Equities, and other, Markets have not been pricing in sufficient risk. And knowing why certain markets have not, until this month, been pricing in sufficient risk, is the essential first step to gaining from Chaos Investing. Full Story
It is my belief that as the headlines continue to roll in about fiscal woes from sea to shining sea that we are going to get a full appreciation for the fraud that has been perpetrated on the American people in the form of the ‘economic recovery’ that the media has been stumping for since the middle of 2009. This ‘wag the dog’ type undertaking has been about confidence, perceptions, and little else. Full Story
By: Scott Wright, Zeal Intelligence - 25 February, 2011
Junior resource stocks are fickle little things. And most investors who dabble in this realm are fully aware of their capricious nature. One of the best ways to describe owning these stocks can be summed up by one of the most famous lines in literary history, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Full Story
First and foremost, we want to make it clear that we are not bearish about the long-term prospects of the Chinese economy. After all, the country has amassed the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world (US$2.85 trillion), it boasts a very high savings rate (37%), its household debt to GDP ratio is very low and its per-capita income is rising rapidly. Therefore, at first glance, the Chinese economy appears to be in good health. Full Story
Something big is going on in international finance as this Goldsmiths will explain. In the way of a backdrop, it must be said that several non-Rothschild controlled nations--like China, Russia, Iran and Venezuela--started a cry for a new monetary system back in 2008 and early 2009. It seems that they did not like one of the weakest currencies in the world, the US dollar, being used by the Rothschild-US team to buy goods and influence international politics worldwide just because the dollar was the so-called international reserve currency. Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 25 February, 2011
Mark Thornton of the Mises Institute writes, “The price of everything seems to have skyrocketed. Only housing, the dollar and inflation-adjusted income are negative.” Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 25 February, 2011
And how exactly does a weakening currency result in more attractive domestic prices? Or, are you suggesting that as the currency weakens that it will mean stronger U.S. exports, and therefore greater domestic growth? if so, then how, exactly, will these miraculous exports be manufactured? Full Story
By: The Daily Crux and Jeff Clark - 24 February, 2011
It’s hard to believe that less than three years ago, silver was $8.80 an ounce. Since then it has nearly quadrupled in value (up 385%) and more than doubled in the last 12 months alone. That’s great for those who already own the metal – but is it too late for the rest of us to get in? To answer that question, BIG GOLD Editor Jeff Clark sat down with our friends of The Daily Crux. Read what he had to say about the silver rally, and why you should view any correction as good news. Full Story
By: Michael Pento, Senior Economist at Euro Pacific Capital - 24 February, 2011
Civil revolt is currently spreading across the Arab world. What began in Tunisia has now metastasized into Bahrain, Egypt and Libya. Though two dictators have been ousted, the chances that these regimes will fundamentally transform from autocracy to a system of free markets and property rights are also up in the air. Full Story
The United States government and other nations have increasingly adopted an official economic policy of cheating their own savers, with particular damage inflicted on long-term retirement investors that follow conventional investment practices. This may sound like wild "conspiracy theory" talk, but interestingly enough, the facts involved are not in dispute. Full Story
In its latest Gold Demand Trends 2010 report, the World Gold Council said gold demand hit a decade high as jewelry buyers returned to the market after the previous year's near-absence and central banks became net buyers. Early indications this year suggest buying interest in main consumers India and China will stay firm. Full Story
The turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East is threatening not only to overthrow aging dictatorships, autocracies and monarchies, but also to upset the geopolitical balance between the countries of that region and the Western powers that has existed since at least the 1950s. For the West, the issue has always been the security of oil. For the US there is a second issue, and that is the security of Israel. Now both are under threat. Full Story
Emerging markets have been the hit hard by food inflation. We are now seeing food riots in many third world countries. Emerging markets just like financials during the last bull were one of the leading sectors. EEM is now starting to diverge from the rest of the global stock markets. It's now on the verge of breaking back below the November cycle low. Full Story
On several occasions over the past couple of years, thousands of you have taken the time to write to The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) concerning the issue of position limits in COMEX silver. Now the CFTC has solicited your opinion again for what will be the last time. Full Story
Carefully hidden in the depths of a recent Forbes blog was perhaps one of the most important stories for all of 2011, at least for silver. Robert Lenzner wrote that “China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) reports purchases of physical gold and gold-related investments are growing at record setting rates.” Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 24 February, 2011
As I was lying to my wife about where I had been when I was supposed to be home “over two hours ago,” it suddenly occurred to me that this is just an example of the lying crap that comes out of your mouth when called upon to cover up something bad about yourself. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 24 February, 2011
Someone noted in the Rick’s Picks forum the other day that it is unseemly for me to act so gleeful about the prospect of a market collapse. In fact, few things that I can imagine would be healthier for the economy. Otherwise, as long as we keep telling ourselves that things can’t really be that bad with the Dow Industrials trading above 12000, we will be unable to do what needs to be done to put the economy back on track. Full Story
What an incredible few weeks with global uprisings! It is not all too surprising that social eruptions over food prices come from the Arab world, since they spend up to 75% to 80% of income on food for basic needs. What proof that the global economy is not a closed system! The QE and QE2 initiatives have spread like a powerful virus, leading to global commodity prices heading upward and quickly. Even cotton is up 170% in price. The USFed has suffered even more credibility blows, calling the global food price inflation unrelated to its QE2 policy. It is obviously connected. Full Story
No, the concept of a robot first occurred to some unknown person in some far distant time, as he or she, engaged in a grinding, repetitive task, dreamed of a mechanical contrivance that could do some of the dirty work. We know that moment was more than five hundred years ago, because we have sketchbooks from the incomparable Leonardo da Vinci, dated 1495, that contain detailed plans for one. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Paul van Eeden - 23 February, 2011
Cranberry Capital Inc. President Paul van Eeden still favors the natural resources sector above all others because they are "absolutely central to our standard of living, our quality of life and the technological progress we've made." Despite the dangers, frothiness of equities and absence of fundamentals to support current valuations, he says, "there are always opportunities in the market. . .you just have to recognize them." Find out where Paul believes investors can find good value in the current market in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report. Full Story
"SILVER HITS new all-time highs in Euro" proclaimed Zero Hedge on Monday. Regular readers of the blog site won't choke to know it was wrong, this time by only one third. Mistaking (and showing) a chart of month-end prices for a chart of daily silver prices, Zero Hedge's pseudonymous host, Tyler Durden, missed the true Euro-equivalent spike to €32.80 per ounce of 18 January 1980 – hit in what was then the Deutsche Mark the very same day that silver priced in Dollars also hit its all-time high to date...some 44% above this week's top. Full Story
This week, the World Gold Council (WGC) confirmed something we’d already suspected: 2010 was a remarkable year for gold. Overall demand grew by 9 percent to reach a 10-year high on increased jewelry demand, strong momentum in key Asian markets and a paradigm shift in the official sector, the WGC says. Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 23 February, 2011
Public debt has become a problem worldwide. What is becoming more and more evident is that it is unsustainable and simply unpayable. It could be compared to a giant Ponzi scheme. We see no meaningful debt reductions thus, government will have to raise taxes, which will further suppress the economy, or people and companies will be forced to buy such bonds, or perhaps pension and retirement funds will be seized to continue the game for a while longer. Full Story
Precious metals gained on Friday amid the G-20 weekend summit, geopolitical concerns, and inflationary pressures. Gold traded at $1390 per ounce while silver was at $32.65 per ounce. So far, February has been an interesting month for gold. The development in emerging markets, inflationary pressures in the United States and lingering geopolitical worries have all contributed to its rally. Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 23 February, 2011
From the Economic Collapse Blog, an essay I found at LewRockwell.com, we learn the horrifying news that the United States Census Bureau has, for some reason, probably after spending millions and billions of dollars and countless man-hours, found out that there are approximately 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the United States, although what this has to do with the Census Bureau is beyond me, except that they are probably trying to justify their existence in light of looming budget cuts in light of a collapsing economy. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 23 February, 2011
The news media went zero-for-two yesterday trying to explain on the one hand why stocks fell, and on the other why oil prices rose. Stocks fell not because of fears over the spread of violence in the Middle East, as the pundits asserted, but because it was time for the Mother of All Bear Rallies, now almost two years old, to keel over and die. Full Story
By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster - Global Watch - 22 February, 2011
We have yet to complete two months of 2011 and so far we have already seen several attempted revolutions in Middle Eastern countries, with so far two of them successful. All of them have been unexpected and have caught the world by surprise. We are on the brink of the next successful revolution [Libya] disrupting the oil market and taking prices so high that we are likely to see them negatively impact growth in the developed world. The prospect of the dreaded, “double-dip” recession is now back on our screens. Full Story
The silver price has bounced 27% since January 28, a huge advance for a measly 16 trading days. It's already soared past its 2010 high and was selling for less than $16 this time last year, a double in 12 months. So, is it pricy? Or should we ignore the run-up and keep buying? Full Story
The S&P 500 has rebounded about 100% in 100 weeks. What crisis? What new normal? The economy is recovering and happy times are back again. Old normal is back. Stocks for the long run! Permabears be damned! The permabulls are back! Rates are low, core inflation is low, its Goldilocks time! Full Story
The Silver Train. Are you onboard? Just about six weeks ago, at the January highs for Silver, the average daily movement for Silver was about 50 cents a day. What is it now? It’s 50 cents an hour! I spoke yesterday about the new $30 to $40 Silver “Range Of Play”. This morning you have approx. two dollars an ounce of visible weakness on the chart, in the range of play, to buy into. My suggestion: Do it now! Full Story
The purpose of this article – it’s an attempt to bring some transparency to what’s really happening in the precious metals complex by underscoring the words and actions of players in the Central Banking community. Attention is drawn to the fact that these elitists lie as a matter of policy but are prone to making simple mistakes like all humans do. Specifically, light is shone on the degree to which these same elitists will go to keep their surreptitious market activities ‘secret’ and their irredeemable fiat currencies viable. Full Story
Dollar Inflation remains the driver of the pricing environment for almost everything denominated in U.S. Dollars as long as the Fed continues to monetize debt. The debt monetization creates Dollar Inflation that results in Dollar Devaluation. As the Fed ramps up the QE II that they have announced will end in June, I expect Gold, Silver, and the PM stocks to aggressively rise. Full Story
This is something of a rhetorical question. At the time of writing this article both gold and silver prices have slipped sharply off the highs of yesterday, while stock markets in Asia are taking a bashing. In every statement made on ArabianMoney commenting on the price of gold and silver we also add the rider that a big stock market correction would almost certainly bring gold and silver prices down. This is now happening, even though silver posted a 31-year high of $33.70 as recently as yesterday. Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 22 February, 2011
Naturally, I was aghast that things have gotten so bad that even the Bank for International Settlements (the infamous BIS) finally got around to noticing that the results of three decades of central banks creating more and more money is not, as they thought, A Truly Wonderful Thing (ATWT). Full Story
1st Hour: Headline news & the Market Weatherman Report. Spotlight Stock Picks. Host Chris Waltzek & Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster discussion and answer listener's questions. 2nd hour: David Morgon, Silver-investor.com Charles Goyette, The Dollar Meltdown Full Story
They have to go further and further into forbidden territory all the time now to keep our bubble economies inflated. Increasingly, and like a junkie, because the establishment will not allow for a real correction (slow down) in our fiat currency economy(s), more and more artificial stimulus must be added into the equation every day now because the patient is a walking zombie, devoid of natural and sustainable life. Because if they didn’t do this, the economy would collapse like an exhausted doper whose been too high for too long, never to be the same again, if not dead. That’s the way the geniuses in charge of our financial institutions and their puppet politicians who have been bought and paid for manage the economy and financial markets today, hoping the party can last until the next guy is on the hook. Full Story
Irrespective of the concerns over financial tightening, talks of a gold bubble and economical weakness, gold marked its tenth straight annual gain in 2010. Not only gold, other members of the precious metal group such as silver and platinum were also up last year. At this juncture, last year’s bull run appears to be running out of steam. However, both technicals and fundamentals indicate improved investment options in precious metals, particularly silver, if you have a long-term investment horizon. Full Story
Threats of further violence from the son of Quadaafi is having rather exactly the opposite effect that the toppling dictatorship had hoped. With defections among army and government to the side of democratic protesters, the fate of the Quadaafi government is as good as sealed. Full Story
Investors understand that the Federal Reserve’s ongoing purchase of U.S. Treasuries in the open market, known as quantitative easing two (QE2), injects newly created money into the U.S. financial system and economy, but the actual means by which newly created money monetizes U.S. government debt, stimulates the U.S. economy and flows into the U.S. stock market are involved. Proponents of QE2, namely Ben Shalom Bernanke, Ph.D., Chairman of the Federal Reserve, deny that the Federal Reserve is monetizing U.S. government debt and claim that QE2 promotes price stability, stimulates economic growth and helps to create jobs. Full Story
A week ago and you could have made a good argument for the silver price being at a double top. And typically after confirming a previous high, a downturn would be in prospect. But not after prices jumped to $32.60 by the end of the week, comfortably placing silver in a fresh stage of upward momentum. Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 21 February, 2011
The Fed tells us there is no inflation. Somewhere down the road we are told interest rates will be allowed to rise. After nine months of monetary injections employment is yet to really improve. The concept of an exit strategy seems to have been lost in the shuffle. It isn’t mentioned anymore. As a result of these failures QE2 continues and talk of QE3 is heard on Wall Street. After three years of QE1, QE2 and stimulus all that has been accomplished is the bailout in the financial sectors of the US and Europe and the purchase of Treasury and Agency securities. Full Story
Gold and silver have reversed to the upside and advanced substantially exactly as predicted in the last updates posted on 30th January, and now the majority of commentators are raving bullish again, but the internal technical condition of the sector following this rally suggests that it is about to reverse to the downside again, although longer-term the outlook remains strongly bullish. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 21 February, 2011
Western government and central bank officials discussed coordinating their gold market policies at a private meeting of the G-10 Gold and Foreign Exchange Committee in April 1997, according to minutes of the meeting released to GATA today by the Federal Reserve Board upon the order of a federal court. The minutes also quote a U.S. delegate as warning that a rising gold price would increase the U.S. government's debt burden. Full Story
Nobel economist Friedrich Hayek’s most enduring legacy is his defense of classical liberalism and free market capitalism. The Road to Serfdom is Hayek’s case against central planning, something he viewed as a product of human design as opposed to human action. Hayek and his mentor Ludwig von Mises were the preeminent writers and thinkers of the Austrian school of economics and political economy. Full Story
By: John Mauldin, Millennium Wave Advisors - 21 February, 2011
I am on yet another plane and writing, and I’ll finish this letter in Phoenix. As I start, I am not sure of a theme for this week’s letter, so (with a tip of the hat to my friend Burton Malkiel, who I will see at Rob Arnott’s conference in a few months), today we do a Random Walk Around the Frontlines, surveying what’s going on in the world. We’ll start with the Fed and interest rates, look at inflation, and see how far we get. And I might get a little controversial, but long-time readers know that is not all that unusual. Full Story
By: Michael "Woody" O'Brien ChFC - 21 February, 2011
A friend asked me this week, in a roundabout way, if there’s any mathematical limit to how high silver and gold could go under a hyperinflation outcome. Math and economic geek that I am, Zimbabwe and Weimar, Germany immediately came to mind. Hyperinflation so ravaged their bankster paper money, in the end, it only had value as heating fuel and, eventually, collector value on eBay. Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 21 February, 2011
I was somewhat staggered when I saw that Total Fed Credit shot up by an incredible $31 billion dollars last week, which (in the history of new Fed Credit) is right up there with “the biggies.” Another biggie was that the Fed created the money to buy $28.3 billion in US government securities! All of this in One Freaking Week (OFW)! Full Story
What’s taking place now throughout the Middle East, specifically in Libya, is horrifying. It’s even been called a massacre. In my opinion the best place to keep updated is through the Al Jazeera news organization. You can view their station on the internet or there is even an app which I use to watch while doing my nightly exercise routine, from my smartphone. Full Story
The content on this site is protected
by U.S. and international copyright laws and is the property of GoldSeek.com
and/or the providers of the content under license. By "content" we mean any
information, mode of expression, or other materials and services found on GoldSeek.com.
This includes editorials, news, our writings, graphics, and any and all other
features found on the site. Please contact
us for any further information.
Live GoldSeek Visitor Map | Disclaimer
The views contained here may not represent the views of GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC, its affiliates or advertisers. GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC makes no representation, warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy
or completeness of the information (including news, editorials, prices, statistics,
analyses and the like) provided through its service. Any copying, reproduction
and/or redistribution of any of the documents, data, content or materials contained
on or within this website, without the express written consent of GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC,
is strictly prohibited. In no event shall GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC or its affiliates be
liable to any person for any decision made or action taken in reliance upon
the information provided herein.
