Interesting Reading: Explaining the Federal Reserve Bank — Part 1

The world’s foremost Elliott wave expert goes “behind the scenes” on the Federal Reserve

October 13, 2011

By Elliott Wave International

The ongoing economic problems have made the central bank’s decisions — interest rates, quantitative easing, monetary stimulus, etc. — a permanent fixture on six-o’clock news.

Yet many of us don’t truly understand the role of the Federal Reserve.

For answers, let’s turn to someone who has spent a considerable amount of time studying the Fed and its functions: EWI president Robert Prechter.

Today we begin a 3-part series that, we believe, will help you understand the Fed as well as Prechter does. (Excerpted from Prechter’s Conquer the Crash and the free Club EWI report, “Understanding the Federal Reserve System.”)

Here is Part I; come back next week for Part II.


Money, Credit and the Federal Reserve Banking System
By Robert Prechter

An argument for deflation is not to be offered lightly because, given the nature of today’s money, certain aspects of money and credit creation cannot be forecast, only surmised. Before we can discuss these issues, we have to understand how money and credit come into being. This is a difficult chapter, but if you can assimilate what it says, you will have knowledge of the banking system that not one person in 10,000 has.

The Origin of Intangible Money

Originally, money was a tangible good freely chosen by society. For millennia, gold or silver provided this function, although sometimes other tangible goods (such as copper, brass and seashells) did. Originally, credit was the right to access that tangible money, whether by an ownership certificate or by borrowing.

Today, almost all money is intangible. It is not, nor does it even represent, a physical good. How it got that way is a long, complicated, disturbing story, which would take a full book to relate properly. It began about 300 years ago, when an English financier conceived the idea of a national central bank. Governments have often outlawed free-market determinations of what constitutes money and imposed their own versions upon society by law, but earlier schemes usually involved coinage. Under central banking, a government forces its citizens to accept its debt as the only form of legal tender. The Federal Reserve System assumed this monopoly role in the United States in 1913.

What Is a Dollar?

Originally, a dollar was defined as a certain amount of gold. Dollar bills and notes were promises to pay lawful money, which was gold. Anyone could present dollars to a bank and receive gold in exchange, and banks could get gold from the U.S. Treasury for dollar bills.

In 1933, President Roosevelt and Congress outlawed U.S. gold ownership and nullified and prohibited all domestic contracts denoted in gold, making Federal Reserve notes the legal tender of the land. In 1971, President Nixon halted gold payments from the U.S. Treasury to foreigners in exchange for dollars. Today, the Treasury will not give anyone anything tangible in exchange for a dollar. Even though Federal Reserve notes are defined as “obligations of the United States,” they are not obligations to do anything. Although a dollar is labeled a “note,” which means a debt contract, it is not a note for anything.

Congress claims that the dollar is “legally” 1/42.22 of an ounce of gold. Can you buy gold for $42.22 an ounce? No. This definition is bogus, and everyone knows it. If you bring a dollar to the U.S. Treasury, you will not collect any tangible good, much less 1/42.22 of an ounce of gold. You will be sent home.

Some authorities were quietly amazed that when the government progressively removed the tangible backing for the dollar, the currency continued to function. If you bring a dollar to the marketplace, you can still buy goods with it because the government says (by “fiat”) that it is money and because its long history of use has lulled people into accepting it as such. The volume of goods you can buy with it fluctuates according to the total volume of dollars — in both cash and credit — and their holders’ level of confidence that those values will remain intact.

Exactly what a dollar is and what backs it are difficult questions to answer because no official entity will provide a satisfying answer. It has no simultaneous actuality and definition. It may be defined as 1/42.22 of an ounce of gold, but it is not actually that. Whatever it actually is (if anything) may not be definable. To the extent that its physical backing, if any, may be officially definable in actuality, no one is talking.


Read the rest of this eye-opening report online now, free!

Understanding the Fed: How to protect yourself from the common and misleading myths about the U.S. Federal Reserve

It’s time to pull back the curtain on the Federal Reserve system. In this revealing 34-page ebook, you’ll learn how the Federal Reserve controls the money supply, you’ll pin-point a few critical points in Federal Reserve history, and you’ll uncover several important myths and misconceptions, like who owns the Federal Reserve Bank.

Representing more than 10 years of research by financial analyst Robert Prechter, this free report goes beyond Federal Reserve history and it’s government mandate and digs into the Fed’s real motivations for being the United States’ “lender of last resort.”

Take this important step toward understanding the Federal Reserve system — Download this FREE 34-page ebook now >>

RINO John McCain hearts the #OccupyWallStreet protesters

You are a #OccupyWallStreet protester and you are a confirmed leftist — all down with Mao and all that. Is this who you want being your spokesman?

The Occupy Wall Street movement is getting sympathy from an unlikely person: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The 2008 GOP presidential nominee said he understands the growing protest movement’s concerns over Washington bailouts of major financial institutions.

“Down in Arizona today, Maricopa County has the highest number of homes underwater of any place in this country,” he told reporters Wednesday. “And it’s disgraceful that we took care of the financial institutions, and we did nothing about the housing crisis. So I understand their frustration.”

He later quipped that he may be the “only” Republican does.

via John McCain feels protesters’ pain – On Congress – POLITICO.com.

No John, we should have not taken care of either. We should have let the banks fail, that were failing and we should have not messed with the housing market either; as both would have corrected themselves. This proves that which I and many others like me have believed for years, that John McCain is nothing more than a two-bit big government conservative or as we call them, Republican in Name Only or RINO.

Others: Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit and Michelle Malkin

Interesting Video and Article: What Personality Type Makes the Best Trader?

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Find out why traders fail, the three phases of a trader’s education, and how to make yourself a better trader with lessons on the Wave Principle, bar patterns, Fibonacci sequences, and more!

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This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline What Personality Type Makes the Best Trader?. EWI is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

Some sound investment advice

Evaporation of Wealth on a Vast Scale
How $1-million can disappear
September 19, 2011

By Elliott Wave International

The bursting of the “debt bubble” which started in 2008 is far from over.

It’s the financial story of our age and it’s happening before our eyes. The full scope is hard to keep up with because it’s unfolding at various levels.

The top level is the sovereign debt crisis:

  • National governments: Several in Europe and even the U.S.

 

  • State and local governments: services slashed; vendors waiting to get paid.

 

  • Corporations: financial institutions at home and abroad remain in questionable health. PIMCO Chief tells Bloomberg (9/13) “We’re getting close to a full-blown banking crisis in Europe.” And CNBC reports (9/14) “Moody’s Investors Service said…it downgraded the credit ratings of Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.”

 

  • Individual Households: “under-water” mortgages; “new conservatism” toward spending.

As the credit bubble continues to deflate, the evaporation of vast wealth may follow on a historic scale. Please read this excerpt from the second edition of Conquer the Crash (pp. 94-95):

“…a lender starts with a million dollars and the borrower starts with zero. Upon extending the loan, the borrower possesses the million dollars, yet the lender feels that he still owns the million dollars that he lent out. If anyone asks the lender what he is worth, he says, ‘a million dollars,’ and shows the note to prove it. Because of this conviction, there is, in the minds of the debtor and the creditor combined, two million dollars worth of value where before there was only one. When the lender calls in the debt and the borrower pays it, he gets back his million dollars. If the borrower can’t pay it, the value of the note goes to zero. Either way, the extra value disappears…

“The dynamics of value expansion and contraction explain why a bear market can bankrupt millions of people. At the peak of a credit expansion or a bull market, assets have been valued upward, and all participants are wealthy — both the people who sold the assets and the people who hold the assets. The latter group is far larger than the former, because the total supply of money has been relatively stable while the total value of financial assets has ballooned. When the market turns down, the dynamic goes into reverse. Only a very few owners of a collapsing financial asset trade it for money at 90 percent of peak value. Some others may get out at 80 percent, 50 percent or 30 percent of peak value. In each case, sellers are simply transforming the remaining future value losses to someone else. In a bear market, the vast, vast majority does nothing and gets stuck holding assets with low or non-existent valuations. The ‘million dollars’ that a wealthy investor might have thought he had in his bond portfolio or at a stock’s peak value can quite rapidly become $50,000 or $5000 or $50. The rest of it just disappears. You see, he never really had a million dollars; all he had was IOUs or stock certificates. The idea that it had a certain financial value was in his head and the heads of others who agreed. When the point of agreement changed, so did the value. Poof! Gone in a flash of aggregated neurons. This is exactly what happens to most investment assets in a period of deflation.”

Now is the time to prepare for a deflationary depression by reading the 90-page Free Report titled Deflation Survival Guide. This eBook is now updated with Robert Prechter’s most important analysis and forecasts regarding deflation.

You can read this free financial guide right away as a Club EWI Member (membership is free). Joining Club EWI is easy and just takes moments. See the Deflation Survival Guide on your screen by following this link>>

Bob Prechter explains current stock trends

(Video) Bob Prechter Explains ‘Triple Top’ Forming in U.S. Stock Market

This excerpt from the special video issue of the August Elliott Wave
Theorist
brings you Bob Prechter’s analysis of the triple top
that has been forming in the U.S. stock market over the past 12 years.
Watch as Bob himself explains what this pattern means for you and the markets.

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about the recent market moves with Elliott Wave International’s FREE
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You’ll get a glimpse into the in-depth analysis Robert Prechter presents
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his most recent issues.

Don’t let extreme market volatility leave you confused and scared. Prepare
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Read Bob Prechter’s FREE report “Reality Check: Studying the Past to Bring Clarity to the Future.”

Great: The United States is now borrowing more than the GDP

This is unreal… 🙄

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country’s spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.

Public debt subject to the official debt limit — a slightly tighter definition — was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier.

Treasury had used extraordinary measures to hold under the $14.29 trillion cap since reaching it on May 16, while politicians battled over it and over addressing the country’s bloating deficit.

The official limit was hiked $400 billion on Tuesday and will be increased in stages over the next 18 months.

via US borrowing tops 100% of GDP: Treasury – Yahoo! News.

Chew on that one for a few seconds or longer. The USA is borrowing more money from China, that the United States makes as a whole. For the reading up on the GDP, click here. I also recommend that you read up on the Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Income. All of that above, factors into our economy; and believe me when I tell you — we are circling the drain my friends.

There is a bunch more on this subject; and for what it is worth, I do not claim to be an expert on this stuff at all — So, I recommend you read following related articles:

U.S. debt shoots up $239 billion -- in one day!
Gov't will borrow $72B next week...
Obama, Bernanke out of ammo to boost jobs, growth...
Scary Market Chart Pattern Suggests More Selling on Way...
Economy struggles to find footing...
Gold at $2,000 by year-end...

Speaking of Gold, this would be a good time to get into investing in Gold, It would also be good to stock up on  Guns and Ammo!

What I will tell you is; because I am an honest blogger and not some partisan shill for a particular party – is this here.  Many on the right wing Blogosphere will be quick to put this entire situation on President Obama.  I cannot and will not do that; the truth is folks, we did have and still do have two wars that we are fighting; and those cost money too.  We also did have the bailout of the banks and tarp bailouts, the trap loans to the big three, being a fraction of the total cost.

Truth is my friends; we are here because of foolishness of our elected leaders — Republican and Democratic Party.  Both sides have steered this Nation over a cliff.  President Obama tried and ultimately failed to bring an economic revival to the Country.  Now we have to pay the proverbial piper.  It is going to be a painful process; the tap is turned off and we are now going to have embrace austerity.

It is a horrible thing to endure, but it is something that we are going to have to endure — if we are going to continue as a Country, as we know it now.

Update: This is now a Memeorandum Thread: Others covering: Washington Times, Scared Monkeys, Conservatives4Palin, Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers, Fausta’s Blog, Power Line and The Lonely Conservative

In case you thought I was kidding about buying Gold

Here we go!

Remember when I said to buy Gold?

I was not kidding.

Check this out from the U.K. Telegraph:


As the twin pillars of international monetary system threaten to come tumbling down in unison, gold has reclaimed its ancient status as the anchor of stability. The spot price surged to an all-time high of $1,594 an ounce in London, lifting silver to $39 in its train.

On one side of the Atlantic, the eurozone debt crisis has spread to the countries that may be too big to save – Spain and Italy – though RBS thinks a €3.5 trillion rescue fund would ensure survival of Europe’s currency union.

On the other side, the recovery has sputtered out and the printing presses are being oiled again. Brinkmanship between the Congress and the White House over the US debt ceiling has compelled Moody’s to warn of a “very small but rising risk” that the world’s paramount power may default within two weeks. “The unthinkable is now thinkable,” said Ross Norman, director of thebulliondesk.com.

Fed chair Ben Bernanke confessed to Congress that growth has failed to gain traction. “Deflationary risks might re-emerge, implying a need for additional policy support,” he said.

The bar to QE3 – yet more bond purchases – is even lower than markets had thought. The new intake of hard-money men on the voting committee has not shifted Fed thinking, despite global anger at dollar debasement under QE2.

•snip•

“One of the big US banks texted me today to say that if QE3 actually happens, we could see gold at $5,000 and silver at $1,000. I feel terribly sorry for anybody on fixed incomes tied to a fiat currency because they are not going to be able to buy things with that paper money.”

•snip•

Step by step, the world is edging towards a revived Gold Standard as it becomes clearer that Japan and the West have reached debt saturation. World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said it was time to “consider employing gold as an international reference point.” The Swiss parliament is to hold hearings on a parallel “Gold Franc”. Utah has recognised gold as legal tender for tax payments.

A new Gold Standard would probably be based on a variant of the ‘Bancor’ proposed by Keynes in the late 1940s. This was a basket of 30 commodities intended to be less deflationary than pure gold, which had compounded in the Great Depression. The idea was revived by China’s central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan two years ago as a way of curbing the “credit-based” excess.

Mr Bernanke himself was grilled by Congress this week on the role of gold. Why do people by gold? “As protection against of what we call tail risks: really, really bad outcomes,” he replied.

Indeed.

 

My friends, if this is not the time to buy gold; I really do not know what is.

Click this link to find out how to get into gold today

A Reminder: Go Gold

Just a follow up to yesterday’s posting; it would seem that this would be a good time to invest in gold, even if you cannot afford the expensive stuff, a small investment in the cheaper stuff would be smart.

As you know I am an affiliate for GoldSilver.com  and they offer some great coins and bullion for those who wish to invest in that sort of the thing.

GoldSilver.com offers

You can also check out their Silver Products Here

Want more proof? Check out this video from Russian TV:

I think it is time to invest in Gold. I mean, when the fed chairman says he does not believe that Gold is money; something is horribly wrong.

Jobs report bleak, Democrats still clueless as ever

Now I see why Rick Santelli is ranting and raving!

First of all, here is the lovely report via the NYT:

For the second month in a row, employers added a dismally small number of jobs, showing that the United States economy is barely creaking along despite being two years into the official recovery.

With all levels of government laying off workers, the Labor Department reported that employers eked out just 18,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs in June. The already low number of jobs created in May was also revised downward to just 25,000, less than half what was originally reported last month.

Even as the government’s survey of employers showed that they were adding an anemic number of jobs, a survey of households showed that more people were out of work, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 9.2 percent.

Economists were stunned since they had been expecting June to show stronger job creation as oil prices eased and supply disruptions receded in the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake. Instead, the government’s monthly snapshot of the labor market showed that several sectors, including construction, finance and temporary services, actually shed workers. At the same time, leading indicators like wages and the length of the average workweek, which tend to grow before employers begin adding more jobs, actually contracted.

“Even the wild-eyed optimists out there have nothing to grasp onto in this report except to say, ‘Ah, this too shall pass,’ ” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR Inc.

Meanwhile the stupidity continues on the left. A perfect example is found over at The Hill:

President Obama’s senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won’t vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate.

Plouffe should probably hope that’s the case, since dismal job figures aren’t expected to get any better for Obama and the economy on Friday.

Most economists expect a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show that the nation added about 100,000 jobs in June. That’s not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone lower the unemployment rate or make a dent in the 9 million jobs lost during the so called Great Recession.

[UPDATED: The jobs report released on Friday showed the economy added only 18,000 jobs, much less than anticipated. The unemployment rate creeped up to 9.2 percent.]

It’s looking more and more like Obama will have to do something no president has done since Franklin Roosevelt: Win reelection with unemployment around 8 percent.

I have a sinking feeling that Plouffe is making a seriously stupid miscalculation ; and one that the Republican Party is going to take full advantage of, come November 2012.

The stupidity continues over at the NYT, again with the stupidest Economist ever to be allowed to write for a paper:

Ugh. That was a seriously ugly jobs report. Almost no job creation, with slow private-sector growth offset by falling public-sector employment; a falling employment-population ratio; and (I don’t know how many people have picked this up), an actual decline in wages, albeit a small one.

Let me emphasize that last point. My bottom line on the inflation-deflation issue has always been to look at wages; you can’t have a wage-price spiral if wages ain’t spiraling. And they aren’t, to say the least.

It’s important to realize, by the way, that stagnant wages are NOT good for recovery; all they do is ensure that the burden of debt relative to income remains high, keeping demand and employment down.

The situation cries out for aggressively expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. Instead, however, all the political push is in the opposite direction.

The underlined part and the part above it; is where the stupidity really kicks in here. That stupidity above, is why this damned Nation is in the place that it is now. Because of stupid people like Krugman. These idiots, in a sane World, would be tossed out of this Country for causing one of the most horrible economic collapses in this Nation, since the great depression, which caused many Americans; Conservative and Liberal, to lose money that they rightly earned or invested in and profited from.

This is not to say that the Republican was not to blame; they too stood by and did nothing and for that they paid a price during the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. However, America was not fooled the Democrats proceeded to make some of, if not more, of the same mistakes that the Republican Party made, while in power. For this, they paid in 2010 and will pay again in 2012.

Further more, it was the DEMOCRATS, not the Republicans, who sought to game the housing market, with the Community Reinvestment act of 1973. Of which the Democrats added the sub-prime cause, which caused the Housing Market to become unstable; which essentially caused the markets to collapse. Yes, regulation was ripped out; but it was the adding of the sub-prime clause that caused the major problems that set the housing market up for a horrible downfall. I know, I watched it all happen here, in real-time, while blogging it all.

In fairness, I will say this; because I am not an overly partisan blogger. It also was the Neo-Conservatives, with their one war, that was totally unjustified in their idiotic visions of a Democratic middle east and the quagmire that it created, not to mention the millions spent and the lives lost; that also created this mess as well. If we would have fought the Afghanistan properly and not like we did Iraq; the war would have been much shorter and would have cost us much less money.

Others: The Atlantic Online, Hot Air, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, The Nation, Calculated Risk, New Deal 2.0, Booman Tribune, Freakonomics, Economix, Free exchange, Speaker, AmSpecBlog, JustOneMinute, Oliver Willis, Gothamist, Hugh Hewitt’s TownHall Blog, Economist’s View, Shakesville, Lynn Sweet, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Truthdig, Emptywheel, AMERICAblog News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, FrumForumThe Huffington Post, The Note, The Hill, And So it Goes in Shreveport, AMERICAblog News, Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, Pajamas Media, Scared Monkeys, Outside the Beltway, NetRight Daily, The Western Experience, GOP 12, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, National Review, The Lonely Conservative, americanthinker.com, msnbc.com and FrumForum and more via Memeorandum

Video: This is why I like Rick Santelli

No, he is not crazy……Just slightly animated.

(via Mediate)

Republicans say “No Mas!” to debt ceiling talks

Looks like the Republicans have had enough.

This comes via ABC’s The Note:

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., will also drop out of the debt talks, a source within his office confirms today. The Arizona Republican’s office will issue a formal statement shortly.

After House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) dropped out of the talks this morning, Senator Kyl was the lone Republican in the group left. And with his withdrawal late this morning, the group does not have a Republican negotiator left in the room.

The group was set to meet for the 11th time this afternoon with Vice President Biden, their third meeting of the week.

The group started as six – but is now down to four members from Congress. The remaining members are: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Assistant House Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and House Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

This is nothing more, than the Republicans finally growing a pair and telling the Democrats, “you made this bed; now lay in it!!”

What I find amusing is this idiot spin by the Democrats:

UPDATE 12:00 p.m. – A Senior Democratic aide says, “Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be a need for revenues and Cantor and Kyl don’t want to be the ones to make that deal.”

More liberal spin and bullcrap. The Republicans; unlike liberals, know that raising taxes on the Nation’s top earners is NOT a smart way to create jobs and generate revenue for the Country. The way to do this properly is to lower taxes for the top earners and remove regulation for the aspiring entrepreneur, who wants to follow the American dream and be his own boss.

But, no, the Democrats want to TAX the crap out of EVERYONE; not just the top earners, but everyone, to pay for their ill-conceived and hair-brained plans like so-called “economic stimulus” that did not work at all. This is why the Republicans walked out on these talks.

Allahpundit over at HotAir.com snarks:

Note to self: Buy gold.

…….and seeing that the Republicans and Democrats are not willing to come together to fix this problem. That is most likely not a very bad idea……

Is Gold in a bubble? Perhaps Not

Sounds like a good endorsement to me!: (H/T HotAir)

Gold is in a bubble. Anyone will tell you that. They’ve been saying it since gold was about, oh, $500 an ounce.

But it’s a funny kind of a bubble. It’s the only one I’ve encountered where so few people seem to own the asset in question.

During the dot-com bubble, you met lots of people with tech stocks. Taxi drivers told you what dot-coms they owned.

During the housing bubble you met normal, ordinary people who were trading up to expensive homes using adjustable-rate mortgages, buying new condos off plan to flip, and cashing out their fictional “equity” through a refinance mortgage.

But who actually owns gold? I keep hearing about the gold bubble, but every time I ask people if they own any themselves, they say, “no, no, of course not, it’s a bubble.”

Some bubble.

Now take a look at our chart.

It’s an updated version of one I ran nearly a year ago, when gold was $1,176 an ounce.

It compares the bull market in gold with the last two undisputed “bubbles,” namely tech stocks and housing. It shows the gold price since 2001, the Nasdaq Composite COMP (^IXIC – News) from 1989 to 2001, and Standard & Poor’s index of Homebuilding stocks from 1995 to 2007.

The picture is pretty remarkable.

If gold is a “bubble,” it doesn’t look like it’s peaked yet. Indeed it looks like it might be just about to enter its big, blow-off phase.

via gold-bubble-marketwatch: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.

Numbers and Charts do not lie.

Director Blue writes:

Gold is a quirky investment, to be sure, and I’m about the last person to advise anyone on anything when it comes to financial matters.

But one thing is certain: the administration’s policy of “Quantitative Easing” (or, as I like to call it, “Quantitative Bankrupting of America’s Future”) has unleashed the Treasury’s printing press like nothing ever seen in world history.

Trillions in cash has materialized from thin air as the Treasury Department issues IOUs and the Federal Reserve purchases them on the open market. Which, by the way, enriches Goldman Sachs (and other so-called “primary dealers”) with tens of millions of dollars in needless commissions each month.

Until the money-printing stops, until the deficit spending is brought under control, and until the dollar is rescued from the most radical administration in American history, I would hold some precious metals like gold.

It’s a hedge against governmental stupidity — and heaven knows we need it now more than ever.

I got two words; Invest Now.

As you all know, I advertise for a small compensation, if you buy something, from GoldSilver.com; here are the products that are offered:

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  7. Gold Austrian Philharmonic
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  11. Credit Suisse 10 Oz Gold Bar
  12. 1 Kilo Johnson Matthey Gold Bar
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….and also, check out GoldSilver.com‘s Silver products as well. Silver is an emerging alternative to the high priced gold investments.  Either it is, as Doug ross very well put it; a hedge against Governmental stupidity and we all need protection from that. 😀

Some related videos to watch:

Can the government take your savings? from Rich Dad on Vimeo.

I’ve learned more about Economics, Investing and the stock market; than I ever intended to, after the big stock market crash in 2008. It was as if the stock market, politics and Government were involved in a multi-car pile up and we bloggers were left to sift though the wreckage. It was a mess, to say the least! many people lost money and the best the political people could do was point fingers at one another. Having said all of that, I highly recommend that you check out GoldSilver.com, it is the place to buy REAL gold!

Could the DOW Could Fall 6,000 Points??!?!

Someone thinks so… (H/T GoldSilver.com)

Video:

The Story via Business Insider:

There’s a distinct possibility the U.S. stock market could plunge as much as 6,000 points if the U.S. continues to rack up record amounts of debt, causing the dollar to lose its reserve currency status, says Daily Ticker favorite Howard Davidowitz. (See video below)

“The dollar has never been at greater risk,” he tells Henry in the accompanying clip. Davidowitz is confident that if Washington doesn’t cool its spending habits, interest rates will spike and inflation will soar. Look at the value of the dollar, and the crisis is already brewing, with foreigners and sovereign nations diversifying away from dollar-denominated assets, he says.

What’s an investor to do in this scenario?

Buy hard assets, he suggests. Davidowitz says investors should own physical gold, silver and diamonds. He also thinks land is a winning bet, even suggesting young adults buy and work farmland. “I think investment in farmland with water on it is a great investment. Finance will be less important,” in the future, he says.

Sounds like a good time to buy gold to me!

It all goes back to the Federal Reserve

I thought I would share this one with you all.

It seems that food prices are going up. I spotted this blog posting over at HotAir.com; which is, a Neo-Conservative Blog. Anyhow, Ed Morrissey points out that food prices are going up. Ed points to this story by the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February — double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January’s 0.5 percent rise.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

Energy prices rose 3.3 percent last month, led by a 3.7 percent increase in gasoline costs.

Separately, the Commerce Department said home construction plunged to a seasonally adjusted 479,000 homes last month, down 22.5 percent from the previous month. It was lowest level since April 2009, and the second-lowest on records dating back more than a half-century.

The building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy.

There was little sign of inflationary pressures outside of food and energy. Core prices have increased 1.8 percent in the past 12 months.

Still consumers are paying more for the basic necessities.

Why is it that prices are going up? Well, I can tell you why…. It’s called inflation. Something this guy here has been talking about for years:

Of course, Ed Morrissey, tries to credit the shrieking harpy and two bit phony Sarah Palin for this; but we thinking Americans know better. Sarah Palin most likely cannot even program her own VCR, much less understand the workings of the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul was saying this sort of stuff, when Sarah Palin was still playing with dolls and dreaming of being someone in politics as a child.

Scott Johnson over at Powerline, smartly and very accurately points to the federal reserve bank for this rise in food costs, he also points to a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed that warned of this sort of a thing happening. Yes, I know, Powerline Blog is decidedly Neo-Conservative; but when it comes to this sort of stuff, those guys are in the right frame of mind. I just wish I could convince them that imperialism is a sad mistake —- As are unconstitutionally declared wars.

It also turns out, that the Federal Reserve Bank is not the only part of the Federal Government that is a danger to it’s citizens. There is also other things that we should be, as citizens, worried about; like the ill-conceived and improperly named “Patriot Act.” As this video shows, that act is being used against citizens in a very bad way: (H/T RTR.Org)

The part about the raid on Walter Reddy, the founder of the modern Committees of Safety is in this video. I do encourage you all to watch it. If this man’s story is true. If someone does not like you; they can go to your local police department and makes up actual lies about you and cause the police to conduct a raid on your home. That my friends, is insanity.

As you might expect, I post this video with a disclaimer; Just because I post this, does not mean that endorse the products being sold or the overall conspiratorial tone of the video. I simply post this for informational purposes only.

Update: Mark this on your calendars; this one of the rare times, when I actually agree with Lew Rockwell.

Video: Las Vegas Boom & Bust – A Preview for Singapore & China?

This comes via GoldSiver.com:

Wouldn’t it be a good time to invest in Gold and Silver and beat the rush?

Interesting Information on the economic meltdown

(H/T to HotAir, who I railed on earlierhey, just because I holler at ’em, does not mean that I do not like ’em! 😀 )

Okay to set this properly. I will simply say this. We cannot prove for sure that something like this did happen. However, we cannot really prove that it did not happen either.  That is the crazy part.

The PJ Tatler has the highlights from a very long document:

Evidence outlined in a Pentagon contractor report suggests that financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations, contributed to the 2008 economic crash by covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.

The unclassified 2009 report “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses” by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that “a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy.”

While economic analysts and a final report from the federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blame the crash on such economic factors as high-risk mortgage lending practices and poor federal regulation and supervision, the Pentagon contractor adds a new element: “outside forces,” a factor the commission did not examine.

“There is sufficient justification to question whether outside forces triggered, capitalized upon or magnified the economic difficulties of 2008,” the report says, explaining that those domestic economic factors would have caused a “normal downturn” but not the “near collapse” of the global economic system that took place.

Suspects include financial enemies in Middle Eastern states, Islamic terrorists, hostile members of the Chinese military, or government and organized crime groups in Russia, Venezuela or Iran. Chinese military officials publicly have suggested using economic warfare against the U.S.

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Freeman said his report provided enough theoretical evidence for an economic warfare attack that further forensic study was warranted.

“The new battle space is the economy,” he said. “We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons systems each year. But a relatively small amount of money focused against our financial markets through leveraged derivatives or cyber efforts can result in trillions of dollars in losses. And, the perpetrators can remain undiscovered.”

If you would like to dive in and look at 111 pages of this document, feel free.

Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses by Kevin D. Freeman

Now Ed Morrissey. is a good guy, when he is not writing bogus headlines, like me; is not so convinced — I’ll quite just a snippet here of his response:

The report is very useful in underscoring the potential vulnerabilities in our system, especially in relation to sovereign-wealth funds, and should get attention from policymakers in protecting the US from financial wars.  However, just because something is possible doesn’t mean it happened.

Which is true; but I think we need to look at this much closer and maybe even look at this report and consider the info in it.

 

Wow: The New York Times proves that Glenn Beck and Ron Paul are not crazy

It is not everyday that the paper of record comes out and basically vindicates Ron Paul and Glenn Beck. But it has happened.

This a bit of a follow up to a previous blog posting that I wrote earlier; it turns out, that not only are clothes going up, but everything is going up. 😮

From the “Business Day” section of the New York Times:

A package of Oscar Mayer cold cuts. A pair of Nine West boots. A Whirlpool washing machine.

By the fall, people will most likely be paying more for each of them, as rising prices hit most consumer goods, say retailers, food companies and manufacturers of consumer products.

Cotton prices are near their highest level in more than a decade, after adjusting for inflation, and leather and polyester costs are jumping as well. Copper recently hit its highest level in about 40 years, and iron ore, used for steel, is fetching extremely high prices. Prices for corn, sugar, wheat, beef, pork and coffee are soaring. Labor overseas is becoming more expensive, meanwhile, and so are the utility bills to keep a factory running.

“There are cost pressures from virtually everywhere,” said Wesley R. Card, the chief executive of the Jones Group, whose brands include Nine West and Anne Klein. After trying to keep retail prices flat or even lower during the recession, Jones says prices for its brands will climb 15 to 20 percent by autumn.

When commodity prices started to rise last summer, many manufacturers and retailers absorbed the costs, worried that shoppers would not pay higher prices during the competitive holiday season or while the economy was still fragile.

Many big companies, including Kraft, Polo Ralph Lauren and Hanes, say they cannot hold off any longer and must raise prices to protect some profits.

Whether shoppers will pay is unclear. “Consumers are not exactly in the frame of mind or economic circumstances to say ‘Oh, pay whatever they ask,’ ” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR Inc. “There’s going to be pushback.”

As to why this is all happening? Buried, oh so very far down into the story, there’s this:

Economists say the increases may eventually show up as inflation, though they are not yet projecting rates that would set off alarms. Despite some fears, inflation has been extremely low, at a rate of just 1.4 percent annually in December. Data for January will be released Thursday, but economists expect inflation will run about 2.5 percent this year.

Some do see the creeping signs of higher inflation, and warn that the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates or at least stop pumping more money into the economy. Others argue that such moves would choke off economic growth sorely needed to get companies hiring again.

For consumers, higher prices in stores means there will be a little less extra cash to spend. For companies, profits may be squeezed, making them a little less likely to invest in equipment or to hire aggressively.

“Despite some fears?” Wow. That is about the biggest amount of liberal spin that I have ever seen, I am reminded of this cartoon; where the man is surrounded by a barbed wire fence and he’s say, “we must rise up against this tyranny” or something to that effect and a hand comes down and slaps a record player on his head and it’s repeating, “Everything is fine….Everything is fine…” over and over.

I suggest you go read that entire article and if you happen to watch Glenn Beck’s show; think of everything he has said in the past in regards to the Economy, the bailouts and inflation. Think also of what Ron Paul has said here for the last 30 years about what our Government has done to explode our economy. Turns out, maybe, just maybe; that Ron Paul is not not so crazy after all.

Stock and Trading Advice: Yen and Dollar…rally ahead?

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Gold and Silver rise after Bernanke says Government will continue path to ruin

This is not very shocking…but, it’s news:

Gold and silver prices rose Thursday after the chairman of the Federal Reserve said the economy won’t recover fully until more jobs are created.

The economy likely will grow more quickly this year as companies and consumers spend more, but it will take several years for unemployment to fall to more normal levels, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the National Press Club.

His speech suggested the Fed will continue its $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program aimed at bolstering the economy.

Earlier Thursday, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said inflationary pressures in the 17 nations that use the euro are in check despite rising prices due to higher energy and commodity costs. The bank’s governing council decided unanimously to leave the main interest rate unchanged at 1 percent.

CPM Group analyst Carlos Sanchez said the combination of Bernanke and Trichet comments prompted more investors to buy gold and silver, which often are seen as safer assets to hold during uncertain economic times.

Sanchez said he expects gold prices to continue to rise in the next several months as global economic issues are addressed.

via News from The Associated Press.

You can expect prices on Gold and Silver to rise, as long as this Government continues to buy it’s own debit. As I have said before, this is a good time to get into Gold.

Please, check out GoldSilver.com and protect your nest egg today!

Video: Investor Alert: Avoiding Pyramid Schemes

The Video:

The News Article via GoldSilver.com:

Join silver expert David Morgan of Silver-Investor.Com and Michael Maloney in Las Vegas, where the famous Luxor Casino pyramid provides the perfect backdrop for a discussion of the latest gold and silver investment pyramid schemes.

Gold and silver are “honest money,” David says, but “like any financial instrument there’s good and bad in it.” Among the bad: pyramid schemes luring unwary investors with promises of rich profits on silver coins and numismatics.

The basic premise is this, Mike explains: the new investor comes in on the bottom of the pyramid, agreeing to purchase one or two or 10 coins each month at a certain price, which is considerably higher than retail price of the bullion or the collectable premium of the coin. The new investor also brings in two new buyers to join the club. When the two new buyers purchase their coins at the same ridiculously high price, the original investor who recruited them receives a small cut of the profit, and the bulk of the profit gets passed up the line to the top of the pyramid. The idea is that as the investor works his way up the pyramid, his take grows larger and larger, eventually covering the cost of his own monthly coin purchase.

There are several problems with this model, Mike explains. For one thing, “what happens is, there comes an end to every bull market. And 82% of the people that have come in don’t end up breaking even. They end up transferring some of their wealth to the top 18%.”

The “entrepreneurs” who started the pyramid sit at the top, skimming the majority of the profit. “They’re the ones that are really getting wealthy off of this,” Mike says. “Everybody is paying them, and they never go out of the top of this pyramid. They are sitting at the top permanently.”

Bottom line—know what you’re doing, David says.  “Keep it simple, know what you’re buying, pay a fair price to the dealer, start small until you’re comfortable, and go on from there. These types of schemes, to my knowledge, never work out for you. After all, Mike and I are looking out for you.”

What is a Pyramid Scheme?

Pyramid schemes now come in so many forms it makes spotting them difficult though they share in one overriding characteristic. They promise investors huge profits from recruiting others to join their program, rather than proceeds from real investments or sales of goods. Some pyramids claim to sell products, but they often simply use the merchandise to hide their pyramid structure.

There are two telltale signs for these schemes: inventory front-loading plus a lack of retail sales.

Inventory front-loading is when a firm’s incentive program forces a recruit to buy loads of products, often at inflated prices. If this occurs in the company’s distribution system, the people at the top of the pyramid reap substantial profits, regardless of the fact that little or no product is sold to the market. While folks at the bottom make excessive payments for inventory which simply accumulates.

Lackluster retail selling is also a red flag that a pyramid exists. Pyramid schemes typically claim their product is selling in huge volume but upon close examination, the sales either occur between people who are inside the pyramid or to new recruits who are joining the pyramid con, not to consumers out in the general public.

In a pyramid scheme, the pitch can be quite seductive as delivery on a high rate of return to a few early investors over a short period of time can produce temporary credibility and testimonials. Yet, pyramid schemes are illegal for a reason… they inevitably must fall apart. When the scheme collapses, most investors find themselves at the bottom, unable to recoup their losses.

How to Spot a Pyramid Scheme?

1. Beware of plans with exaggerated earnings claims, especially when there are no underlying product sales or investment profits.

2. Be careful of any plan that offers commissions for recruiting new sellers, particularly when there is no product involved or when there is a distinct, up-front membership fee. Also don’t assume that a presence of products or services, removes all danger.  The Federal Trade Commission has caught pyramids offering investment opportunities, charity benefits, off-shore credit cards, jewelry, women’s underclothing, makeups, cleaning supplies, and even energy.

3. If a plan purports to sell a product or service, check to see whether its price is inflated, if new members must buy costly inventory, or whether members make most “sales” to other members instead of the public. If these conditions exist, the purported “sale” of the product or service may simply mask a pyramid scheme that promotes an endless chain of recruiting and inventory loading.

4. Beware of programs that claim to have secret plans, foreign connections or special relationships that are difficult to verify.

5. Beware of any plans that delay meeting its commitments while asking members to hang in there.  Many pyramid schemes advertise that they are in the preliminary launch phase, yet they never can nor do launch for by definition a pyramid scheme can never fulfill its obligations to all its participants. To survive, pyramids need to keep and attract as many members as possible. Thus, promoters try to appeal to a sense of community or solidarity keeping its marketing arm intact, while rebuking outsiders or doubters.

6. Finally, beware of programs that attempt to capitalize on the public’s interest in newly deregulated markets or high technology.

Bottom Line: Every investor fantasizes about becoming wealthy overnight, but in fact, getting rich is usually the result of enterprising ideas and hard intelligent work.  If it sounds too good to be true, chances are high that a con is going on.

—-

Of course, you can avoid all that by buying from a source of Gold and Silver with a good reputation. So, why wait till prices go back through the roof again? Buy from GoldSilver.com!

Trading Advice: What Most People Don’t Realize About The Fed’s Superpowers

Bob Prechter’s Conquer The Crash reveals whether the Fed really can rescue the US economy
January 27, 2011

By Elliott Wave International

Since its creation in 1913, the primary intended role of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank has been that of protector. In theory, the central bank was bestowed with the power to shape monetary policy in a way that would keep both booms and busts in check. The two main tools at its disposal — interest rates and money creation — would provide a “ceiling of normalcy” above expansions AND a “net of safety” below contractions.

To this day, the financial mainstream holds great faith in the Fed’s ability to fulfill its save-the-day duties — as these recent news items make plain:

  • “Why Raising Fed Funds Rate Is Positive For Equities.” (Seeking Alpha)
  • “Fed’s Moves Lift All Asset Classes.” (Associated Press)
  • “US Stocks Erasing Losses: The aggressive moves of the Fed have been an important driver for the stabilization of stock prices.” (Bloomberg)

But of all the variables the Fed creators took into account, there’s one glaring factor they neglected to consider: Namely, it cannot force consumers to spend, creditors to lend, or businesses to borrow. The events of 2007-2009 “credit crunch” and the subsequent “Great Recession” made that obvious. Remember how the government was upset at banks for sitting on the bailout funds instead of lending them out to consumers? And consumers weren’t exactly lining up on the street to get a loan, either.

The Fed’s inability to change social mood is the central theme in Chapter 13 of EWI President Bob Prechter’s NY Times business bestseller book Conquer the Crash. There, Bob describes the Fed’s strategy of lowering the federal funds rate to stimulate spending to be as effective as “pushing on a string.” Writes Bob:

“The primary basis for today’s belief in perpetual prosperity and inflation with an occasional recession is what I call the ‘Potent Directors Fallacy.’ It is nearly impossible to find a treatise on macroeconomics today that does not assert or assume that the Federal Reserve Board has learned to control both our money and our economy. Many believe that it also possesses the immense power to manipulate the stock market. The very idea that it can do these things is false.”

And so begins one of the most groundbreaking studies into the very real INABILITY of the Fed to fell the great bears of economic declines, or to feed the great bulls of economic vigor.

The best part is, you can read Chapter 13 of Conquer the Crash in its entirety FREE via a Club EWI resource “You Can Survive And Prosper In A Deflationary Depression.” The free report also includes SEVEN other chapters of Conquer the Crash that shed equal light on some of the most misleading notions of mainstream economic wisdom.

Don’t stay in the dark. Read all 8 chapters today by joining the rapidly expanding free Club EWI community today. Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • Chapter 10: Money, Credit and the Federal Reserve Banking System
  • Chapter 13: Can the Fed Stop Deflation?
  • Chapter 23: What To Do With Your Pension Plan
  • Chapter 28: How to Identify a Safe Haven
  • Chapter 29: Calling in Loans and Paying off Debt
  • Chapter 30: What You Should Do If You Run a Business
  • Chapter 32: Should You Rely on Government to Protect You?
  • Chapter 33: A Short List of Imperative “Do’s” and Crucial “Don’ts”

Keep reading this free report now — all you need to do is create a free Club EWI profile.

Video: Ron Paul talks with John Stossel on the SOTU address

This comes via The Daily Paul:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Comments are Welcome!

How a Simple Line Can Improve Your Trading Success

Elliott Wave International’s Jeffrey Kennedy explains many ways to use this basic tool
January 19, 2011

By Elliott Wave International

The following trading lesson has been adapted from Jeffrey Kennedy’s eBook, Trading the Line – 5 Ways You Can Use Trendlines to Improve Your Trading Decisions. Now through February 7, you can download the 14-page eBook free. Learn more here.

“How to draw a trendline” is one of the first things people learn when they study technical analysis. Typically, they quickly move on to more advanced topics and too often discard this simplest of all technical tools.

Yet you’d be amazed at the value a simple line can offer when you analyze a market. As Jeffrey Kennedy, Elliott Wave International’s Chief Commodity Analyst, puts it:

“A trendline represents the psychology of the market, specifically, the psychology between the bulls and the bears. If the trendline slopes upward, the bulls are in control. If the trendline slopes downward, the bears are in control. Moreover, the actual angle or slope of a trendline can determine whether or not the market is extremely optimistic or extremely pessimistic.”

In other words, a trendline can help you identify the market’s trend. Consider this example in the price chart of Google.

That one trendline — drawn between the lows in 2004 and the lows in 2005 — provided support for a number of retracements over the next two years.

That’s pretty basic. But there are many more ways to draw trendlines. When a market is in a correction, you can draw a trendline and then draw a parallel line: in turn, these two parallel lines can create a channel that often “contains” the corrective price action. When price breaks out of this channel, there’s a good chance the correction is over and the main trend has resumed. Here’s an example in a chart of Soybeans. Notice how the upper trendline provided support for the subsequent move.

For more free trading lessons on trendlines, download Jeffrey Kennedy’s free 14-page eBook, Trading the Line – 5 Ways You Can Use Trendlines to Improve Your Trading Decisions. It explains the power of simple trendlines, how to draw them, and how to determine when the trend has actually changed. Download your free eBook.