Saturday, March 31, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Gold Looks Great Long Term - Egon von Greyerz
Truly insightful MP3 interview with Egon von Greyerz discussing the world markets at the moment and what is happening with the gold and silver markets today. Pay attention here...buy gold and silver now before the prices of these precious metals soars beyond your means.
Listen to his comments with Eric King of King World news here
Egon von Greyerz (EvG): Founder and Managing Partner of Matterhorn Asset Management AG & GoldSwitzerland. Since the 1990s Egon von Greyerz has been actively involved with financial investment activities including Mergers and Acquisitions and Asset allocation consultancy for private family funds. This led to the creation of Matterhorn Asset Management -MAM an asset management company based on wealth preservation principles. MAM is part of the Aquila Group, Switzerland's largest independent asset management group. EvG makes regular media appearances on CNBC, BBC, etc. and publishes articles on the world economy and wealth preservation.
Egon von Greyerz (EvG): Founder and Managing Partner of Matterhorn Asset Management AG & GoldSwitzerland. Since the 1990s Egon von Greyerz has been actively involved with financial investment activities including Mergers and Acquisitions and Asset allocation consultancy for private family funds. This led to the creation of Matterhorn Asset Management -MAM an asset management company based on wealth preservation principles. MAM is part of the Aquila Group, Switzerland's largest independent asset management group. EvG makes regular media appearances on CNBC, BBC, etc. and publishes articles on the world economy and wealth preservation.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Not A Question Of IF, It Is A Question Of When!
From Greg Hunter Of USAWatchdog.com
IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTROL
21 MARCH 2012 91 COMMENTS
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (Revised)
Ever since the original Patriot Act was passed by Congress in 2001, American civil liberties have steadily shrunk and government control has steadily grown. In a financial crisis, your bank or brokerage can severely restrict the amount of money you can withdraw from your accounts. The government can now assassinate so-called terrorists anywhere in the world, including on U.S. soil. Think Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric who was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in September.
It can also indefinitely detain suspected terrorists without charge or due process, all thanks to the National Defense Authorization Act recently signed into law by the President. The government can shut down a website anywhere in the world without due process, just ask Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom from New Zealand. (Yes, that’s his real name.)
As of last Friday, President Obama has authorized the government to take just about whatever it needs in the name of national defense. It is an Executive Order appropriately called “National Defense Resources Preparedness (NDRP).” This allows members of Obama’s Cabinet to take resources such as livestock, water, fuel, farm equipment, vehicles, planes, boats, food and just about anything the government thinks it needs for “defense preparedness.” I am just skimming the surface here as there are many more details in the order. (Click here for the complete Executive Order — National Defense Resources Preparedness – NDRP.) Many are calling this a setup for peacetime martial law. After reading the Executive Order, I don’t see how anyone could disagree with this statement.
My question is why? If all that happened was an extension of the Patriot Act in 2011, I might not worry that much (although, Congress basically traded liberty for so-called security.) But when you look at several of the government’s big power grabbing moves, you can’t help but ask what are they getting ready for? Is it a Middle East war that will probably turn into world war? Is it another financial meltdown worse than the one in 2008? Or, is it all of the above?
On the war question, I have written many posts that say war is a “when” not an “if” scenario. Just last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he did not need the approval of the U.S. to attack Iran. Iran has said it has the right to strike first if it feels necessary. Now, there are reports of Russian troops landing in Syria. The U.N. calls this development a “bomb.” The world hasn’t been this close to a global war since the late 1930’s. War would plunge the world into a deep depression so fast that many could be wiped out financially literally overnight.
Another financial meltdown is not just probable but highly likely. In my opinion, and many other experts, another financial crash is also a question of “when” and not “if.” The Fed pumped out $16 trillion in the wake of the last meltdown, and it has frozen interest rates at near 0% through 2014. Talk of a so-called “recovery” is preposterous with a record 46.5 million Americans on food stamps and declining home values despite near record low mortgage rates. Sure, the stock market has doubled since 2009, but it was cut in half after the 2008 meltdown. How is anyone making money? Charles Biderman of the Wall Street research firm “Trim Tabs” recently said, the increase in stocks came mainly from trillions of dollars of new money printed by the Fed. (Click here to hear Mr. Biderman.) Shouldn’t this have fixed the economy? Shouldn’t the banks be able to go back to “mark to market” accounting and not value real estate and mortgage-backed securities at whatever the bankers think they will fetch in the distant future? No way is that going to happen because nothing is fixed from the last meltdown. The failing economy was just papered over with trillions of freshly printed dollars.
Economist Dr. Marc Faber of Gloomdoomandboom.com agrees the economy has been propped up by money printing, but that will not stop a financial crash forever. In a recent interview, he said, “. . . I think eventually the financial system will be an MF Global where you don’t get your money back from the banks and the investment banks and from the mutual funds and so forth and so on. And, so I think everybody has to think to himself, how do I protect myself against such a black swan event.” (Click here for the complete interview from ChrisMartenson.com) Dr. Faber is recommending physical gold and silver as portfolio insurance. (FYI, Faber also recommended buying stocks in 2009, at the very bottom of the last financial meltdown.)
You can read the rest here.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
US Bank Stress Tests - ALL FRAUD! B Of A Complicit
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
USA Headed For Financial DIsaster: David Stockman
David Stockman, former White House budget director under President Ronald Reagan, who resigned from that administration over deficit spending tells Bernard Condon of The AP in USA Today tate the USA is headed for a financial disaster that will make the Lehman Bros. collapse in 2008 look like a walk in the park!
David Stockman economy Q&A: Economic disaster in the works
Q: How does it end?
A: At some point confidence is lost, and people don't want to own the (Treasury) paper. I mean why in the world, when the inflation rate has been 2.5% for the last 15 years, would you want to own a five-year note today at 80 basis points (0.8%)?
If the central banks ever stop buying, or actually begin to reduce their totally bloated, abnormal, freakishly large balance sheets, all of these speculators are going to sell their bonds in a heartbeat.
That's what happened in Greece.
Here's the heart of the matter. The Fed is a patsy. It is a pathetic dependent of the bigWall Street banks, traders and hedge funds. Everything (it does) is designed to keep this rickety structure from unwinding. If you had a (former Fed Chairman) Paul Volcker running the Fed today — utterly fearless and independent and willing to scare the hell out of the market any day of the week — you wouldn't have half, you wouldn't have 95%, of the speculative positions today.
Q: You sound as if we're facing a financial crisis like the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Bros. in 2008.
A: Oh, far worse than Lehman. When the real margin call in the great beyond arrives, the carnage will be unimaginable.
Q: How do investors protect themselves? What about the stock market?
A: I wouldn't touch the stock market with a 100-foot pole. It's a dangerous place. It's not safe for men, women or children.
Q: Do you own any shares?
A: No.
Q: But the stock market is trading cheap by some measures. It's valued at 12.5 times expected earnings this year. The typical multiple is 15 times.
A: The typical multiple is based on a historic period when the economy could grow at a standard rate. The idea that you can capitalize this market at a rate that was safe to capitalize it in 1990 or 1970 or 1955 is a large mistake. It's a Wall Street sales pitch.
Q: Are you in short-term Treasurys?
A: I'm just in short-term, yeah. Call it cash. I have some gold. I'm not going to take any risk.
Q: Municipal bonds?
A: No.
Q: No munis, no stocks. Wow. You're not making any money.
A: Capital preservation is what your first, second and third priority ought to be in a system that is so jerry-built, so fragile, so exposed to major breakdown that it's not worth what you think you might be able to earn over six months or two years or three years if they can keep the bailing wire and bubble gum holding the system together, OK? It's not worth it.
Q: Give me your prescription to fix the economy.
A: We have to eat our broccoli for a good period of time. And that means our taxes are going to go up on everybody, not just the rich. It means that we have to stop subsidizing debt by getting a sane set of people back in charge of the Fed, getting interest rates back to some kind of level that reflects the risk of holding debt over time. I think the federal funds rate ought to be 3% or 4%. (It is zero to 0.25%.) I mean, that's normal in an economy with inflation at 2% or 3%.
Q: Social Security?
A: It has to be means-tested. And Medicare needs to be means-tested. If you're a more affluent retiree, you should have your benefits cut back, pay a higher premium for Medicare.
Q: Taxes?
A: Let the Bush tax cuts expire. Let the capital gains go back to the same rate as ordinary income. (Capital gains are taxed at 15%, while ordinary income is taxed at marginal rates up to 35%.)
Q: Why?
A: Why not? I mean, is return on capital any more virtuous than some guy who's driving a bus all day and working hard and trying to support his family? You know, with capital gains, they give you this mythology. You're going to encourage a bunch of more jobs to appear. No, most of capital gains goes to speculators in real estate and other assets who basically lever up companies, lever up buildings, use the current income to pay the interest and after a holding period then sell the residual, the equity, and get it taxed at 15%. What's so brilliant about that?
Q: You worked for Blackstone, a financial services firm that focuses on leveraged buyouts and whose gains are taxed at 15 percent, then started your own buyout fund. Now you're saying there's too much debt. You were part of that debt explosion, weren't you?
A: Well, yeah, and maybe you can learn something from what happens over time. I was against the debt explosion in the Reagan era. I tried to fight the deficit, but I couldn't. When I was in the private sector, I was in the leveraged buyout business. I finally learned a heck of a lot about the dangers of debt.
I'm a libertarian. If someone wants to do leveraged buyouts, more power to them. If they want to have a brothel, let them run a brothel. But it doesn't mean that public policy ought to be biased dramatically to encourage one kind of business arrangement over another. And right now public policy and taxes and free money from the Fed are encouraging way too much debt, way too much speculation and not enough productive real investment and growth.
You can read the whole interview here:Government Complicity In Theft At MF Global
Are you aware the MF Global Scandal?
MF Global was a large commodity trading house that went bust recently and lost all of their clients money, to the tune of $ 1.2 billion. MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, in testimony to Congress can't explain what happened and doesn't know where the money went. He said mistakes were made and he is clueless about what happened. And 4 months later, they, the SEC, FBI, CFTC, etc., can't figure out where the money went. There is no one in jail or even under the shadow of an indictment. Money just doesn't vaporize and go poof! There are electronic trails for all of this money, they know where it went, they just don't want to tell you. The money was stolen to cover MF Global's gambling losses, pay off unsecured loans and along with it the semblance of the rule of law in the United States. It is that simple.
The US Government is so corrupted that even the FBI won't go after these criminals. This is the first obvious and blatant rip off of the public and won't be the last. You can get an idea of what happened here with this breakdown of the situation by RT & James Koutoulas, attorney for 8000 of the MF Global customers who were bilked.
But you don't care about the guys who stole from "other" rich guys, because they are all in the 1% and deserve to screw each other. Well..... wrong! The guys who got screwed were ranchers, farmers, grain operators, airlines, etc., anyone who used the markets to reduce their exposure to the risk of changing seed or oil prices as an example. Which will mean much higher prices for the rest of us at the market or for gas prices!
Until you, the American people, decide to wake up and take a stand against these corrupt bankers and their government partners, this kind of wanton theft will continue.
From CNN:
CNN
Farmer faces planting season with seeds of distrust
By Wayne Drash
March 4, 2012
...Tofteland held the farm together after his father was killed, survived drought and the great flood of 1993. Then, commodity prices sank in the mid-1990s. And like most farmers, he has seen too many friends die young.
Such are the hazards of life on a farm.
But all that Tofteland has worked for was nearly lost in one fell swoop last October. This time, it wasn't a crisis brought on by tragedy or Mother Nature. It was the work of Wall Street and commodity power players in Chicago, a scandal that has become known simply as MF Global.
Tofteland had $253,000 in an account with the brokerage firm, money he planned to use to cover his farm's operating loan. As MF Global went bankrupt last fall, customers' segregated accounts were raided in clear violation of exchange rules. When the dust settled, more than 38,000 MF Global customers -- including thousands of farmers, ranchers and grain operators who used the firm to hold money for transactions on the futures market -- were out more than $1.2 billion.
On a recent February day, Tofteland points to the stirrups hanging in his barn. They've been there since the 1930s, when the first tractor arrived. Nearby, his fields stretch nearly to the horizon.
His seed bill last year was $230,000; fertilizer cost $150,000. In addition to his own land, he farms acreage he rents at a cost of $450,000. He has another $1 million tied up in equipment, plus four full-time employees. "We're talking big numbers, and you're taking all these risks," he says. "And you can get hailed out, droughted out, flooded out at any time."
That's why the MF Global scandal hurt so much: a financial tsunami that nearly wiped everything away. Tofteland had come to rely on the futures market. So eroded is his trust in the system, he hasn't used it since.
He notes he can track a hog from his farm to somebody's table. Yet somehow, he ponders, authorities haven't fully tracked the missing $1.2 billion, or who was behind it.
"It's either ignorance or fraud," he says. "Money doesn't vaporize. If my account is empty, somebody else's is full."
Tofteland opens the door to one of his four hog barns. More than 250 piglets scamper in pens in the climate-controlled barn. The smell is so wretched it takes every ounce of strength for a newcomer not to vomit. The analogy is inescapable: What stinks worse, a hog barn or ...?
Tofteland doesn't even pause to think. "I would say MF Global. Our money was stolen and nobody is being held accountable..."
Read the rest here.
MF Global was a large commodity trading house that went bust recently and lost all of their clients money, to the tune of $ 1.2 billion. MF Global CEO Jon Corzine, in testimony to Congress can't explain what happened and doesn't know where the money went. He said mistakes were made and he is clueless about what happened. And 4 months later, they, the SEC, FBI, CFTC, etc., can't figure out where the money went. There is no one in jail or even under the shadow of an indictment. Money just doesn't vaporize and go poof! There are electronic trails for all of this money, they know where it went, they just don't want to tell you. The money was stolen to cover MF Global's gambling losses, pay off unsecured loans and along with it the semblance of the rule of law in the United States. It is that simple.
The US Government is so corrupted that even the FBI won't go after these criminals. This is the first obvious and blatant rip off of the public and won't be the last. You can get an idea of what happened here with this breakdown of the situation by RT & James Koutoulas, attorney for 8000 of the MF Global customers who were bilked.
But you don't care about the guys who stole from "other" rich guys, because they are all in the 1% and deserve to screw each other. Well..... wrong! The guys who got screwed were ranchers, farmers, grain operators, airlines, etc., anyone who used the markets to reduce their exposure to the risk of changing seed or oil prices as an example. Which will mean much higher prices for the rest of us at the market or for gas prices!
Until you, the American people, decide to wake up and take a stand against these corrupt bankers and their government partners, this kind of wanton theft will continue.
From CNN:
CNN
Farmer faces planting season with seeds of distrust
By Wayne Drash
March 4, 2012
...Tofteland held the farm together after his father was killed, survived drought and the great flood of 1993. Then, commodity prices sank in the mid-1990s. And like most farmers, he has seen too many friends die young.
Such are the hazards of life on a farm.
But all that Tofteland has worked for was nearly lost in one fell swoop last October. This time, it wasn't a crisis brought on by tragedy or Mother Nature. It was the work of Wall Street and commodity power players in Chicago, a scandal that has become known simply as MF Global.
Tofteland had $253,000 in an account with the brokerage firm, money he planned to use to cover his farm's operating loan. As MF Global went bankrupt last fall, customers' segregated accounts were raided in clear violation of exchange rules. When the dust settled, more than 38,000 MF Global customers -- including thousands of farmers, ranchers and grain operators who used the firm to hold money for transactions on the futures market -- were out more than $1.2 billion.
On a recent February day, Tofteland points to the stirrups hanging in his barn. They've been there since the 1930s, when the first tractor arrived. Nearby, his fields stretch nearly to the horizon.
His seed bill last year was $230,000; fertilizer cost $150,000. In addition to his own land, he farms acreage he rents at a cost of $450,000. He has another $1 million tied up in equipment, plus four full-time employees. "We're talking big numbers, and you're taking all these risks," he says. "And you can get hailed out, droughted out, flooded out at any time."
That's why the MF Global scandal hurt so much: a financial tsunami that nearly wiped everything away. Tofteland had come to rely on the futures market. So eroded is his trust in the system, he hasn't used it since.
He notes he can track a hog from his farm to somebody's table. Yet somehow, he ponders, authorities haven't fully tracked the missing $1.2 billion, or who was behind it.
"It's either ignorance or fraud," he says. "Money doesn't vaporize. If my account is empty, somebody else's is full."
Tofteland opens the door to one of his four hog barns. More than 250 piglets scamper in pens in the climate-controlled barn. The smell is so wretched it takes every ounce of strength for a newcomer not to vomit. The analogy is inescapable: What stinks worse, a hog barn or ...?
Tofteland doesn't even pause to think. "I would say MF Global. Our money was stolen and nobody is being held accountable..."
Read the rest here.
Financial Collapse Is Coming, The Question Is When?
I have been posting many videos of late, I think, because others are doing a better job
than I, of clearly stating the issues that effect us financially on the earth today.
I am finding it more and more difficult to find new ways to point out that we are headed
over a cliff as a nation, without screaming, "wake up! Do the Math!" at anyone within howling distance.
Yet, the MSM keeps pumping out lies and pablum that the government number crunchers
design without asking why they don't add up. Most Americans only give the news a cursory glance or listen and rarely more than that unless an incident effects them directly. They get most or all of there news from the main stream media who aren't interested so much in being a governmental watchdog or following up on a story of merit. The numbers don't lie folks. We are headed for the abyss and one would think surely, the MSM can see the headlights of this fast approaching train, feeling the vibrations on the tracks, but their blinders keep them from
seeing the light.
It seems only a few German politicians and Central bankers are trying to point out that you can't fix the debt problems of Europe - The same problems here in the USA, only larger - with increasing debt loads and yet they do because they need to pay the interest on the old debt. So, they & we keep adding new debt loads to our children. In the USA today we have more than 15.5 trillion in debt that we keep kicking down the road and additional debt obligations to Social Security, Medicare, Military spending, interest etc, we are looking at an additional 32 trillion. These are numbers that are so large that they are mind numbing and thus are ignored. Our continual myopia of our debt issues will cause our financial system to implode unless we act right now! This will be painful, but it must be done, but we won't. The government and the MSM pundits will say no one saw it coming, this monumental collapse. But they would be wrong. They don't want to see, hear or admit that their policies are expensive follies that can NOT be paid for. They have outsourced all of the jobs, hence, no money to pay additional taxes.
So I remind you that you need to prepare for the coming financial breakdown as best you can. One needs to get out of personal debt as best you can and to arrange your financial affairs without relying on government assistance. These actions can be deliberate and focused. It is up to you to make this happen as best as you can. The harder issue is what to do with your after tax earnings, you can't get a positive interest rate and you can't trust the banks not to implode when this crisis hits. You should consider holding some physical gold and silver - not paper! You can look at APMEX and CNI as trustworthy dealers of precious metals, from whom I have successfully purchased metals recently. Metals are insurance for when the financial implosion happens. Look for real goods, items that can be stored and used barter or trade. What am I talking about? Food, water, clothing, alcohol, tobacco, personal hygiene products, toilet paper, etc. There is a list of 100 items that disappear in a crisis and you can see the list here.
The collapse won't happen all at once, it will begin with a crisis and slowly build behind government promises to control the problem. They won't, but this should give you time to finalize your plans and make as many people as you can aware of what is happening. An interesting article on planning ahead is linked here.
What if the collapse doesn't happen? I wish that was true, but with the US government continually raising the debt limit and refusing to make any substantial cut to the budget, the collapse will happen. It is just a matter of when. Will you be prepared? I hope so!
It seems only a few German politicians and Central bankers are trying to point out that you can't fix the debt problems of Europe - The same problems here in the USA, only larger - with increasing debt loads and yet they do because they need to pay the interest on the old debt. So, they & we keep adding new debt loads to our children. In the USA today we have more than 15.5 trillion in debt that we keep kicking down the road and additional debt obligations to Social Security, Medicare, Military spending, interest etc, we are looking at an additional 32 trillion. These are numbers that are so large that they are mind numbing and thus are ignored. Our continual myopia of our debt issues will cause our financial system to implode unless we act right now! This will be painful, but it must be done, but we won't. The government and the MSM pundits will say no one saw it coming, this monumental collapse. But they would be wrong. They don't want to see, hear or admit that their policies are expensive follies that can NOT be paid for. They have outsourced all of the jobs, hence, no money to pay additional taxes.
So I remind you that you need to prepare for the coming financial breakdown as best you can. One needs to get out of personal debt as best you can and to arrange your financial affairs without relying on government assistance. These actions can be deliberate and focused. It is up to you to make this happen as best as you can. The harder issue is what to do with your after tax earnings, you can't get a positive interest rate and you can't trust the banks not to implode when this crisis hits. You should consider holding some physical gold and silver - not paper! You can look at APMEX and CNI as trustworthy dealers of precious metals, from whom I have successfully purchased metals recently. Metals are insurance for when the financial implosion happens. Look for real goods, items that can be stored and used barter or trade. What am I talking about? Food, water, clothing, alcohol, tobacco, personal hygiene products, toilet paper, etc. There is a list of 100 items that disappear in a crisis and you can see the list here.
The collapse won't happen all at once, it will begin with a crisis and slowly build behind government promises to control the problem. They won't, but this should give you time to finalize your plans and make as many people as you can aware of what is happening. An interesting article on planning ahead is linked here.
What if the collapse doesn't happen? I wish that was true, but with the US government continually raising the debt limit and refusing to make any substantial cut to the budget, the collapse will happen. It is just a matter of when. Will you be prepared? I hope so!
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