Tag: news

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“Just as we did for the Occupy Wall Street protestors in Zucotti Park and the Snow Park encampment in Oakland, we are here to support your just cause…”

 

WB7:

Just sayin’

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/lJzecTrXzS8/story01.htm williambanzai7

Just after 10pm Eastern, a big block in the S&P futures, over 10k contracts, was dumped in the very thin Sunday night tape, sending the complex lower by over 10 points, and after opening at 1768.5, ES dumped as low at 1754 in a matter of seconds, before recovering some of the losses to 1760. The Nikkei was hit concurrently by correlation algos impacted by the same downdraft, which also pinged the various JPY pairs lower, if leaving the EUR largely untouched. Needless to say there was no news of note to prompt this move, which appears to have been either a partial fat finger, or someone trying to exit the market in a hurry ahead of next week’s FOMC festivities.

ES:

Nikkei likewise dropped:

If a reason for the drop manifests itself, we will update this post, in the meantime, we expect Overnight Ramp Capital to arrive promptly or else confidence in central-planning may take a hit ahead of the Wednesday Taperish FOMC, and Thursday’s double POMO.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/_9sG53I9GQM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Just after 10pm Eastern, a big block in the S&P futures, over 10k contracts, was dumped in the very thin Sunday night tape, sending the complex lower by over 10 points, and after opening at 1768.5, ES dumped as low at 1754 in a matter of seconds, before recovering some of the losses to 1760. The Nikkei was hit concurrently by correlation algos impacted by the same downdraft, which also pinged the various JPY pairs lower, if leaving the EUR largely untouched. Needless to say there was no news of note to prompt this move, which appears to have been either a partial fat finger, or someone trying to exit the market in a hurry ahead of next week’s FOMC festivities.

ES:

Nikkei likewise dropped:

If a reason for the drop manifests itself, we will update this post, in the meantime, we expect Overnight Ramp Capital to arrive promptly or else confidence in central-planning may take a hit ahead of the Wednesday Taperish FOMC, and Thursday’s double POMO.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/_9sG53I9GQM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Due to western central bank price manipulation, the mining sector is in critical condition, the supply line is all but halted, and the physical supply is being swallowed up by Asia. The last shoe to drop is for major mining companies to start closing down production at major mines. Though this would be perceived as the end for gold, speculators will be happy to know that this would be the beginning of the biggest Fed induced bubble in history! But unlike previous Fed bubbles where they support the price increase, the gold bubble will be a result of western central planners mis-managing the gold price for the past 3 decades and finally losing control. As Peak Resources explains in the brief clip, the perfect storm is coming for gold…

 

 

Via Peak Resources,

Friday October 11th, gold trading was shut down for 10 seconds according to the CME.

Why, because someone sold 2 million ounces of gold at one time. Who does this? Who sells nearly 2 and half percent of annual gold production in a single minute? The gold valued at over $2.5 billion could not have been sold by a small trader, and certainly not the smart money, institutional investors know that you don’t exit a large trade like this…

So who could it be? Try the dumb money, The Western Central Banks.

As noted by organizations like GATA, TF Metals Report, ZeroHedge, and Shtfplan, gold manipulation is out in the open. Friday October 11th is just one of the daily examples.

With the western central banks suppressing the price, the eastern central banks have been happy buyers.

However, PeakResources.org believes this gold price suppression scheme is nearing its end.

With the Federal Reserve on a fiat currency suicide mission with QE forever, and the U.S. federal government bankrupt, the days of dollar supremacy are in its last days.

For gold though, the central banks have really screwed themselves.

At a price of $1,250, gold mining companies can no longer make a profit. Recent studies show their all in cash cost anywhere from $1,400 to as high as $1,700. Liquid fuels, human energy, and new exploration are costly in the mining process, so it is unlikely these costs can be cut to accommodate the low gold price.

Since gold’s peak in 2011, the TSX Venture exchange, home to the worlds gold exploration companies, is down more than 59%

The gold juniors index, the GDXJ, is down 83%

And the large cap gold companies, despite seeing a 400% increase in the price of gold over the past 12 years, are trading at lower valuations then they did even 20 years ago.

As noted in our video Peak Gold, no major gold discoveries have been found in more than 10 years! Gold production as a whole has plateaued.

Remember, all mines have a limited supply of gold, at some point in time they either deplete themselves or become uneconomical. Uneconomical meaning companies can’t mine for profit, which is exactly the case for nearly all gold mines today!

Consider a very famous gold mining region, South Africa

In 1971 South Africa produced 47.5 million ounces of gold, accounting for 68% of global mine production.

In 2011, South Africa accounted for only 7% of gold production with about 8 million ounces of mine production.

Despite all the technological advances and billions in exploration and development, South African gold production is down 82%.

South Africa isn’t an anomaly either, here in the U.S. production in the past 20 years is down 30%.

Current discoveries are small, in remote areas, and are lower grade deposits.

PeakResources.org recently attended a gold mining event in London, what we learned was that exploration budgets were being slashed! No development, no exploration, and a scaling back of projects.

What this all leads to is a price spike in gold, just as gold rose rose from $35 to $850 in the 70s, The Dow Jones from 2,000 to 11,000 in the 1990, and Bitcoin from a penny to $1,200 more recently, so to can gold have a parabolic spike.

The perfect storm is coming for gold…

Due to western central bank price manipulation the mining sector is in critical condition, the supply line is all but halted, and the physical supply is being swallowed up by Asia.

The last shoe to drop is for major mining companies to start closing down production at major mines. Though this would be perceived as the end for gold, speculators will be happy to know that this would be the beginning of the biggest Fed induced bubble in history! But unlike previous Fed bubbles where they support the price increase, the gold bubble will be a result of western central planners mis-managing the gold price for the past 3 decades and finally losing control.

With fiat currency being pumped into the system daily and the gold sector in shambles, the central banks are in for a big surprise because sooner or later supply and demand economics will crush the very people who are behind the devastation we have seen in the gold mining and precious metal industry.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/1sbiPsEYqgM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

David Stockman’s exclamation at the “betrayal” realized within the latest so-called “festerng fiscal” budget deal is taken a step further with Peter Schiff’s head-shaking diatribe on Congress’ inability to show that it is truly “capable of tackling our chronic and dangerous debt problems.” So America blissfully sails on, ignoring the obvious fiscal, monetary, and financial shoals that lay ahead in plain sight. I believe that will continue this dangerous course until powers outside the United States finally force the issue by refusing to expand their holding of U.S. debt. That will finally bring on the debt and currency crisis that we have created by our current cowardice.

Submitted by Peter Schiff via Euro Pacific Capital,

They Bravely Chickened Out

Earlier this week Congress tried to show that it is capable of tackling our chronic and dangerous debt problems. Despite the great fanfare I believe they have accomplished almost nothing. Supporters say that the budget truce created by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray will provide the economy with badly needed certainty. But I think the only surety this feeble and fictitious deal offers is that Washington will never make any real moves to change the trajectory of our finances, and that future solutions will be forced on us by calamity rather than agreement.

There can be little doubt that the deal resulted from a decision by Republicans, who may be still traumatized by the public relations drubbing they took with the government shutdown, to make the 2014 and 2016 elections a simple referendum on Obamacare. Given the ongoing failures of the President’s signature health care plan, and the likelihood that new problems and outrages will come to light in the near future, the Republicans have decided to clear the field of any obstacles that could distract voters from their anger with Obama and his defenders in Congress. The GOP smells a political winner and all other issues can wait. It is no accident the Republican press conference on the budget deal was dominated by prepared remarks focusing on the ills of Obamacare. 

Although he had crafted his reputation as a hard nosed deficit hawk, Paul Ryan claimed that the agreement advances core Republican principles of deficit reduction and tax containment. While technically true, the claim is substantively hollow. In my opinion the more honest Republicans are arguing that the Party is simply making a tactical retreat in order to make a major charge in the years ahead. They argue that Republicans will need majorities in both houses in 2014, and the White House in 2016, in order to pass meaningful reforms in taxing and spending. This has convinced them to prioritize short term politics over long term goals. I believe that this strategy is wishful thinking at best. It magnifies both the GOP’s electoral prospects (especially after alienating the energetic wing of their party) and their willingness to make politically difficult decisions if they were to gain majority power (recent Bush Administration history should provide ample evidence of the party’s true colors). Their strategy suggests that Republicans (just like the Democrats) have just two priorities: hold onto their own jobs, and to make their own party a majority so as to increase their currency among lobbyists and donors. This is politics at its most meaningless.  I believe public approval ratings for Congress have fallen to single digit levels not because of the heightened partisanship, but because of blatant cowardice and dishonesty. Their dereliction of responsibility will not translate to respect or popularity. Real fiscal conservatives should continue to focus on the dangers that we continue to face and look to constructive solutions. Honesty, consistency and courage are the only real options. 

In the meantime we are given yet another opportunity to bask in Washington’s naked cynicism. Congress proposes cuts in the future while eliminating cuts in the present that it promised to make in the past! The Congressional Budget Office (which many believe is too optimistic) projects that over the next 10 years the Federal government will create $6.38 trillion in new publicly held debt (intra-governmental debt is excluded from the projections). This week’s deal is projected to trim just $22 billion over that time frame, or just 3 tenths of 1 percent of this growth. This rounding error is not even as good as that. The $22 billion in savings comes from replacing $63 billion in automatic “sequestration” cuts that were slated to occur over the next two years, with $85 billion in cuts spread over 10 years. As we have seen on countless occasions, long term policies rarely occur as planned, since future legislators consistently prioritize their own political needs over the promises made by predecessors.

The lack of new taxes, which is the deal’s other apparent virtue, is merely a semantic achievement. The bill includes billions of dollars in new Federal airline passenger “user fees” (the exact difference between a “fee” and a “tax” may be just as hard to define as the difference between Obamacare “taxes” and a “penalties” that required a Supreme Court case to decide). But just like a tax, these fees will take more money directly from consumer’s wallets. The bigger issue is the trillions that the government will likely take indirectly through debt and inflation.

The good news for Washington watchers is that this deal could finally bring to an end the redundant “can-kicking” exercises that have frustrated the Beltway over the last few years. Going forward all the major players have agreed to pretend that the can just doesn’t exist. In making this leap they are similar to Wall Street investors who ignore the economy’s obvious dependence on the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program as well as the dangers that will result from any draw down of the Fed’s $4 trillion balance sheet.

The recent slew of employment and GDP reports have convinced the vast majority of market watchers that the Fed will begin tapering its $85 billion per month bond purchases either later this month or possibly by March of 2014. Many also expect that the program will be fully wound down by the end of next year. However, that has not caused any widespread concerns that the current record prices of U.S. markets are in danger. Additionally, given the Fed’s current centrality in the market for both Treasury and Mortgage bonds, I believe the market has failed to adequately allow for severe spikes in interest rates if the Fed were to reduce its purchasing activities. With little fanfare yields on the 10 year and 30 year Treasury bonds are already approaching multi-year highs. Few are sparing thoughts for yield spikes that could result if the Fed were to slow, or stop, its buying binge.

So America blissfully sails on, ignoring the obvious fiscal, monetary, and financial shoals that lay ahead in plain sight. I believe that will continue this dangerous course until powers outside the United States finally force the issue by refusing to expand their holding of U.S. debt. That will finally bring on the debt and currency crisis that we have created by our current cowardice.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/bf12rUwErjU/story01.htm Tyler Durden

David Stockman’s exclamation at the “betrayal” realized within the latest so-called “festerng fiscal” budget deal is taken a step further with Peter Schiff’s head-shaking diatribe on Congress’ inability to show that it is truly “capable of tackling our chronic and dangerous debt problems.” So America blissfully sails on, ignoring the obvious fiscal, monetary, and financial shoals that lay ahead in plain sight. I believe that will continue this dangerous course until powers outside the United States finally force the issue by refusing to expand their holding of U.S. debt. That will finally bring on the debt and currency crisis that we have created by our current cowardice.

Submitted by Peter Schiff via Euro Pacific Capital,

They Bravely Chickened Out

Earlier this week Congress tried to show that it is capable of tackling our chronic and dangerous debt problems. Despite the great fanfare I believe they have accomplished almost nothing. Supporters say that the budget truce created by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray will provide the economy with badly needed certainty. But I think the only surety this feeble and fictitious deal offers is that Washington will never make any real moves to change the trajectory of our finances, and that future solutions will be forced on us by calamity rather than agreement.

There can be little doubt that the deal resulted from a decision by Republicans, who may be still traumatized by the public relations drubbing they took with the government shutdown, to make the 2014 and 2016 elections a simple referendum on Obamacare. Given the ongoing failures of the President’s signature health care plan, and the likelihood that new problems and outrages will come to light in the near future, the Republicans have decided to clear the field of any obstacles that could distract voters from their anger with Obama and his defenders in Congress. The GOP smells a political winner and all other issues can wait. It is no accident the Republican press conference on the budget deal was dominated by prepared remarks focusing on the ills of Obamacare. 

Although he had crafted his reputation as a hard nosed deficit hawk, Paul Ryan claimed that the agreement advances core Republican principles of deficit reduction and tax containment. While technically true, the claim is substantively hollow. In my opinion the more honest Republicans are arguing that the Party is simply making a tactical retreat in order to make a major charge in the years ahead. They argue that Republicans will need majorities in both houses in 2014, and the White House in 2016, in order to pass meaningful reforms in taxing and spending. This has convinced them to prioritize short term politics over long term goals. I believe that this strategy is wishful thinking at best. It magnifies both the GOP’s electoral prospects (especially after alienating the energetic wing of their party) and their willingness to make politically difficult decisions if they were to gain majority power (recent Bush Administration history should provide ample evidence of the party’s true colors). Their strategy suggests that Republicans (just like the Democrats) have just two priorities: hold onto their own jobs, and to make their own party a majority so as to increase their currency among lobbyists and donors. This is politics at its most meaningless.  I believe public approval ratings for Congress have fallen to single digit levels not because of the heightened partisanship, but because of blatant cowardice and dishonesty. Their dereliction of responsibility will not translate to respect or popularity. Real fiscal conservatives should continue to focus on the dangers that we continue to face and look to constructive solutions. Honesty, consistency and courage are the only real options. 

In the meantime we are given yet another opportunity to bask in Washington’s naked cynicism. Congress proposes cuts in the future while eliminating cuts in the present that it promised to make in the past! The Congressional Budget Office (which many believe is too optimistic) projects that over the next 10 years the Federal government will create $6.38 trillion in new publicly held debt (intra-governmental debt is excluded from the projections). This week’s deal is projected to trim just $22 billion over that time frame, or just 3 tenths of 1 percent of this growth. This rounding error is not even as good as that. The $22 billion in savings comes from replacing $63 billion in automatic “sequestration” cuts that were slated to occur over the next two years, with $85 billion in cuts spread over 10 years. As we have seen on countless occasions, long term policies rarely occur as planned, since future legislators consistently prioritize their own political needs over the promises made by predecessors.

The lack of new taxes, which is the deal’s other apparent virtue, is merely a semantic achievement. The bill includes billions of dollars in new Federal airline passenger “user fees” (the exact difference between a “fee” and a “tax” may be just as hard to define as the difference between Obamacare “taxes” and a “penalties” that required a Supreme Court case to decide). But just like a tax, these fees will take more money directly from consumer’s wallets. The bigger issue is the trillions that the government will likely take indirectly through debt and inflation.

The good news for Washington watchers is that this deal could finally bring to an end the redundant “can-kicking” exercises that have frustrated the Beltway over the last few years. Going forward all the major players have agreed to pretend that the can just doesn’t exist. In making this leap they are similar to Wall Street investors who ignore the economy’s obvious dependence on the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program as well as the dangers that will result from any draw down of the Fed’s $4 trillion balance sheet.

The recent slew of employment and GDP reports have convinced the vast majority of market watchers that the Fed will begin tapering its $85 billion per month bond purchases either later this month or possibly by March of 2014. Many also expect that the program will be fully wound down by the end of next year. However, that has not caused any widespread concerns that the current record prices of U.S. markets are in danger. Additionally, given the Fed’s current centrality in the market for both Treasury and Mortgage bonds, I believe the market has failed to adequately allow for severe spikes in interest rates if the Fed were to reduce its purchasing activities. With little fanfare yields on the 10 year and 30 year Treasury bonds are already approaching multi-year highs. Few are sparing thoughts for yield spikes that could result if the Fed were to slow, or stop, its buying binge.

So America blissfully sails on, ignoring the obvious fiscal, monetary, and financial shoals that lay ahead in plain sight. I believe that will continue this dangerous course until powers outside the United States finally force the issue by refusing to expand their holding of U.S. debt. That will finally bring on the debt and currency crisis that we have created by our current cowardice.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/bf12rUwErjU/story01.htm Tyler Durden