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Other • Reason to believe the next global economic crisis will star

Reason to believe the next global economic crisis will start in the East and not the West
Posted on 19 May 2013

Mirror, mirror on the wall where are the biggest bubbles of all? That is the question to ask when looking for where the next global economic crisis is most likely to erupt. It’s been five long years since the last crisis and we are about due for another. The long gap between the Asian financial crisis of the late 90s and the subprime debacle was a bit of an anomaly.

Sure the Fed appears to have saved the US from economic collapse and the death of the eurozone was greatly exaggerated. But what about the bubbles inflating in Asia today and the nationalistic governments unable to call on the moderate federalism of the US or even the eurozone to solve these problems?

Japan’s money printing

Japan is inflating its money supply three times faster than the Fed’s QE program. It is weakening the yen as intended and exporting deflation to its customers, making them less competitive. The sugar-rush effect is reflected in a booming Japanese stock market as profits from abroad will also now be higher in yen.

However, devaluation in a highly indebted economy is fraught with danger. Why hold a currency like the yen that pays almost zero interest rates if it collapsing in value? Besides the increased profits are coming to companies whose product lines are out-dated and at the cost of a ballooning money supply and inflation down the pike.

It’s also very bad news for Japan’s main trading partner China, though the response by nationalistic Chinese politicians has been to whip up public fervor over some disputed and uninhabited islands. That put a dent in Japanese car sales last year.

Of course, the situation is much worse on the Korean peninsula where the lunatics are running the assylum in the North. These guys have their triggers on nuclear weapons and can only stay in power by taking an increasingly aggressive stance.

Chinese banking crisis?

Then again the biggest threat to Asia could well turn out to be the Chinese banking system. Hedge fund manager Carson Block whose Muddy Waters Research has uncovered a series of huge financial scandals in China in recent years is now warning that the risks within China’s banking system are more severe than those in Western financial institutions before the crisis.

He told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Our view is that China is a massive asset bubble. This puts resource-based emerging market economies and Australia, Canada and New Zealand at direct risk. A China unwind will have significant knock-on effects in other developed markets too, likely implicating liquidity and asset prices. The severity of the effects in the rest of the developed world of course partly depend on the timing of the unwind.’

Timing is the tough call, all the same. Hedge fund billionaire Jim Chanos has been shorting China for a couple of years. Still if you want to spot the next global financial crisis perhaps you should be looking East and not West.

http://www.arabianmoney.net/islamic-fin … -the-west/

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Sun May 19, 2013 12:27 am


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

Debating Global Affairs in Doha

Doug Bandow

Qatar is much in the news, as the small Persian Gulf sheikdom attempts to extend its influence. It promoted revolution in Libya and is doing the same in Syria. Of course, the ruling family is less enthused with Iranian revolutionaries and looks askance at Shia democracy protestors in Bahrain. (So does the U.S., of course, which is threatening to bomb the regime in Tehran and has said little about Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy as it busily represses the country’s Shia majority.)

However, Qatar also engages in more mundane activities, such as hosting the annual Doha Forum, which brings together world leaders to discuss important international topics. Qatar takes the event seriously. Explains the official website: “Held in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, who will preside over the opening ceremony on May 20th, the forum will commence with an address by His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

Lesser personages also participate, which explains why I’ve been invited to attend. I will be flying over this weekend. The conference begins on Monday and sessions will cover international politics and the global economy, Arabs and the changing world, global economic development, challenges facing new Arab democracies, international cooperation, human rights, and digital media.

I’m looking forward to the event and, frankly, even more to discussions outside of the formal sessions. It has been several years since I’ve been to Qatar, so it will be interesting to see how the country is adjusting to the Arab Spring. It also will be illuminating to compare Qatar to Dubai, another small but ambitious Gulf state, which I visited last week.

The Persian Gulf remains the fulcrum of important world events and potential American military intervention. In fact, my nephew has been deployed there in recent weeks, though hopefully will be returning home soon. Although travel to the region doesn’t turn one into an instant expert, it does help give a practical feel to events which too often are viewed primarily through the skewed prism of Washington.

View full post on Cato @ Liberty

War and Conflict • Checkmate: From global makeover to takeover

The plate spinning of the Obama-Saudi-globalist cabal
Checkmate: From global makeover to takeover

By Doug Hagmann

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

We’re rapidly approaching a potential checkmate moment in the Mideast. There are 41 nations plus the U.S., for a total of 42 nations currently participating in military maneuvers off the coast of Iran. Despite all of the saber rattling about Iran, we are being deceived about the coming global battle, which will almost certainly begin in Syria, not Iran.

What we are seeing is both deadly serious and under-appreciated by most Westerners, who have grown weary of wars and rumors of wars in the Mideast long ago. Exhaustion aside, the events continue to march forward, the consolidation of forces and interests are forming until that final moment when we will have a single group of tyrannical global controllers left standing. A checkmate moment, where the aspirations of the globalists will have succeeded in a plan of global domination, consolidation of power, energy and wealth, all obtained from the blood and bodies of our family members fighting a war without our consent.

It was during the darkest hours of last Sunday morning, during the time that exists when sunrise seems so distant and the stillness of the night that keeps most of humanity in the Western hemisphere in a deep slumber. It was then I began to contemplate the best way to report the complexities behind the recent bombings near Damascus of missile storage facilities and the missiles themselves by Israel. Even at this early hour, the media already had their talking points well refined, preparing to hold captive their audience by asserting that the strikes took place in the readily accepted historical context of a limited Israeli action against their regional Arab enemy protagonists. A short, sharp, precise operation with a beginning and an end all in a tidy time period. Except it’s not. Not this time. We are seeing something much different… a step in the path to global war.

I was troubled by this inaccurate description of events, like many of you who are reading this, as we know that what we are seeing is part of something much larger and much more ominous take place. It was here, on this very site that I wrote about the beginning of World War III… and that it would not start with Iran, but with Syria. The death race to Damascus by an agenda so nefarious that it could only be ascribed to an unseen evil. Yet, my treatise was called hyperbole by some, and described as the writings of an alarmist by others. While I discount the former, I happily embrace characterizations of the latter knowing that we are witnessing events that cannot be “walked back.” We are watching the end stages of a larger agenda play out before us, while those in power and the media want us to believe otherwise.

It was during this darkness that I decided to turn on my television for updates from the media with which most Americans are so enamored, and by which they are so controlled. At this early hour, I stumbled across an infomercial selling DVDs of old television variety shows from a seemingly much simpler time, momentarily taking me away from my task.

Perhaps caught up by the motion of a man spinning several plates atop wooden sticks, my German Shepherd suddenly awoke from his light slumber and looked at the on-screen motion that seemed to be a staple of variety shows of the 1960’s. His gaze was captivated by the spinning motion of the plates and the man frantically moving from one side of the table to the other, trying to keep all of the plates spinning and airborne while adding even more. I watched my dog as he seemed mesmerized, staring at the television without even blinking for at least a full minute.

When the man finally lost control of the spinning plates and they all crashed to the floor amid the guffaws of the audience, my eyes met those of my Shepherd, who was now looking at me as if to ask what that was all about. It was actually an out-take of an act that was never broadcast, replaced instead by the successful act that concluded with all plates intact.

I suppose that seeing the reality of the events that never aired was the major selling point of the DVD. The things that are not broadcast during normal programming; the messes, the mistakes, breakage and what really takes place behind the scenes, but is carefully screened from the audience. I noticed that this man had two or three assistants who stood just outside of visual range, hidden from view, who quickly came to his aid after the broadcast feed was cut and once the curtain that separated the actor from the audience was closed. For my dog, however, the visual spell was broken once the plates stopped spinning and crashed to the floor.

There it is, I thought, in the dark of night and outside of the normal viewing times of network television, is the broader explanation of the events currently unfolding on the world stage.

The plate spinning of the Obama-Saudi-globalist cabal
If one looks beyond the two dimensionality of the media and the talking points from Washington, the three dimensional aspect of current events begins to emerge. Like the plate spinner whose first act began with one single plate on a stick, so too did the so-called “Arab Spring,” which would be more appropriately named the “Globalist Spring.” After the audience warm up act in Tunisia, the complete act opened with Egypt, after which more plates from the Obama-Saudi-Globalist agenda were added, further captivating the attention of the world.

Like my just-awakened dog and the on-screen action that captivated his stare, people have been watching the spinner add more and more plates, awestruck at this exhibit of talent. The audience anticipates a successful conclusion to this marvelous feat of balance and dexterity and is ready to cheer when the spinner removes the plates from their thin balancing posts, and the act successfully concludes neat and tidy to the television audience, with nothing broken.

Obama himself could be compared to the visible plate spinner in this act known as the Arab Spring. “Globalist Spring,” that is, where the fate of nations, like plates atop thin sticks, are spun as props entertaining a global audience. Captivating the world by the many plates on sticks, he is the front man entertaining the world audience while the producers, the media and the globalists, quickly edit out any missteps, or broken plates, keeping the reality from the captive audience. Some breakage, however, cannot be edited out by the media and must be explained away in a different manner. Such was the case with Benghazi, and as is the case with the Israeli airstrikes on the missiles in Syria. Their explanation in place of edits transcend the realm of perception to that of deception.

While the globalist controlled media and power elite do their best to divert the public’s attention from Benghazi and attempt to convince their captive audience that the Israeli missile strikes are limited, localized events, the truth is that both occurred during the same stage act. Different plates, but the stage and the show are the same.

Obama, the visible plate spinner, like his TV counterpart, has a revolving cadre of out-of-sight assistants that have included Hillary Rodham Clinton, Valerie Jarrett, and a long list of others. In addition to his assistants, we must also consider the executive producers for the show now underway. Some refer to them as the puppet masters, other, the paymasters. However defined, they are the ultimate producers of this and all of the stage acts we are seeing. They are the individuals who control the money and wealth, and now want to not only control, but own the future.

While the masses continue to watch the balancing act, what is taking place offstage that we’re not supposed to be seeing?

For those not as easily entertained…
Readers might recall my many reports about Benghazi, and that this entire operation was nothing more than a covert weapons-running operation to arm anti-Assad terrorists to destabilize and take down the Syrian government. Whether we refer to it as “Death Race Damascus” or “Obama’s real-world game of Risk,” the operation has placed the world in the beginning stages of World War III. Notice that the Israeli missile strikes took place just outside of Damascus, and Syria is Russia’s “red line” in the sand.

Benghazi and the Israeli strikes near Damascus are not unrelated. The Israeli attacks in Syria are collateral effects of our covert operations throughout the Middle East and North Africa and in that manner, tangentially related to Benghazi. Benghazi was, and is, all about Syria. And Syria is not Iraq or Afghanistan, or even Egypt or Libya. Those countries imploded, while Syria is set to explode, and therefore enjoin other nations into a regional and ultimately, a world war.

For this reason, people need to fully understand the significance and secrets that full disclosure about Benghazi would reveal. You see, opening the curtains to expose the planners and producers of the Benghazi stage act would reveal secrets so closely held that it threatens the agenda of the Obama regime who are working on behalf of the Saudis and their globalist handlers. Such a misstep of full disclosure about Benghazi could cause a critical setback of an agenda advancing across the world stage where timing is critical.

For those not easily entertained or intellectually challenged by spinning plates, the situation playing out before us may also be compared to a game of three dimensional chess. Using this analogy, we are able to view the multi-dimensional board and the movement of chess pieces required to set up World War III. One board consists of players involving North Korea, Japan and China, while the second of three boards represents the entirety of the Middle East, and all of the proxy nations of China, Russia and the United States. But what about the elusive but critically important third board? It is on this level where the real story exists.

The third board: Who benefits?
It is here that one must pay very close attention to everything that is not being reported over the very visible reports we are intended to see. As I have asserted many times, we are in the midst of a proxy war that has created some very unusual alliances, and some very dangerous opposition. Superpower nations are using allied nation-states to fight battles in order to jockey for their ultimate fighting positions. You can read about these alliances and the minutia of the battles elsewhere. Here, I am attempting to draw your attention to the larger picture, the end result, and the end game scenario… because the key to understanding the alliances and actions exists and only make sense in the larger picture of this 3-D global chess game.

The third board represents a field of play that is virtually misunderstood by most and therefore, rarely mentioned in the context of the nation building and reconfiguration we have watched unfold over the last several years. It is a process underway for a reason, but not for any of the noble causes we are being told to believe.

It is at this level where a select group of people are making their moves that prompt those of all others. It is at this level that the international bankers, the globalists, the secret cabal of unseen forces are at work and playing to win. It involves a currency war, and a currency war is as much a war as one with bombs and bullets. We can see it with the international transfer of wealth. the manipulation of the gold reserves, and in other areas—but only if we look.

Quite simply, the motives behind global conflict can be found within the military-industrial complex operated at the highest levels of the internationalists, the bankers and financiers—the same surnames have been present in nearly all conflicts throughout history.

There is a firewall that exists between these global power elite and their objectives. It is a sovereign United States of America, much as it always has been in modern times. Now, however, we have been weakened from within, and our sovereignty is being significantly eroded through multiple and tenacious assaults against our freedoms and liberties. This is the result of a collective acquiescence and our lack of resistance to tyranny disguised as security, and immorality in many forms presented as tolerance. We are thus left in a weakened state, with a collective majority unable to think clearly or fight to regain the Godly values upon which our nation was founded. This has been by design, not default.

As our national moral compass has been compromised, so too has our ability to recognize the other assaults to our sovereignty, or our willingness to speak out against our own destruction. Specifically, we have an occupant of the White House who, by the admission of an unnamed senior member of his own staff, has an agenda to “kill the U.S. dollar,” the most widely held currency in the allocated reserves of many nations. On what planet, on which stage, in what venue does the killing of our national currency make any sense whatsoever? That is a question that has yet to be answered.

The only sense one could possibly make of this treasonous act is the ultimate destruction of the United States as a nation, as the last firewall of freedom. Who better to usher in our demise, then, is a man whose past is shrouded in mystery, and whose future intent is becoming clearer with each passing day. Ultimately, though, who would benefit from our destruction? Who benefits from a third world war, where millions will most certainly perish. The answer is clear, as we see parallel agendas of wars fought with bullets and bombs, and wars fought with food and wealth.

Once the plates stop spinning and nations have fallen, or the chessboard is cleared of the pawns, the only clear winners will be the architects who are behind this global perversity of power realignment. The winners will be the power elite, whose goal has always been to lock in their future by taking away ours. They will usher in a global currency, and ultimately control the wealth of the world not only for this generation, but for future generations.

So, while your focus is being directed to the flash-bangs of bombings designed to leave you stunned, understand the real objective. It’s a fight for the future—your future—and the future of your offspring, who we have permitted to be sold into bondage through perpetual shooting wars and money wars. It is imperative that you see we are in the beginning stages of a global makeover, and prepare accordingly.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/55034

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Wed May 08, 2013 12:29 am


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

Agriculture • Starving The World For Power And Profit: The Global Agribus

Starving The World For Power And Profit: The Global Agribusiness Model
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2013
Contributed by Don Quijones, a freelance writer and translator based in Barcelona, Spain. His blog, Raging Bull-Shit, is a modest attempt to challenge some of the wishful thinking and scrub away the lathers of soft soap peddled by our political and business leaders and their loyal mainstream media.

A daily ration of bread is now beyond the reach of roughly a billion people on planet Earth. What’s more, hunger is spreading like a pandemic, making incursions from its traditional strongholds in the global south to towns and cities across depression-hit Southern Europe. In Greece reports are growing of young children having to scrounge for food from classmates, while in Spain city dwellers have become all but inured to the daily spectacle of people of all ages, genders and walks of life rummaging in rubbish bins for a bite to eat.

Some people point to this 21st century hunger pandemic as evidence of the unsustainability of current population growth — and to an extent they’re probably right. After all, there’s only so many people that the world’s rapidly declining resources can sustain. However, as Esther Vivas of the Pompeu Fabra University’s Centre of Studies on Social Movements points out (video), the crude reality is that many of us continue to live in a world of food abundance.

The problem of world hunger, she says, is the result of the acute inefficiencies of a global agribusiness model geared purely at generating ever larger profits for the handful of businesses that now control the global food chain. Tragically, all too often the human cost is measured in the lives of those who don’t have enough money to pay the rapidly escalating prices of basic foodstuffs. And it’s a heavy cost indeed: according to some estimates, one person dies of hunger every 8-12 seconds.

Vivas offers sharp insights on a global industry that prioritizes, at pretty much every turn, profits and power over human welfare. Unfortunately, the video is only available in Spanish and without English subtitles, so for those of you whose linguistic talents don’t quite extend to the Spanish tongue, here’s a brief summary of the highlights:

Supermarket Dominance

Like most countries, the distribution, wholesale and retail of food is dominated by a handful of supermarket chains which, through their oligopolistic structures, are able to more or less dictate what people eat, how much they pay for their food and how much farmers receive for their produce. Needless to say, it is a model that is wiping out small local farmers throughout Europe and the U.S., as well as leaving a terrible toll on the environment due to the vast distances much of our food has to travel before reaching our plates.

Food Speculation

The same people who kindly brought us the subprime crisis and the resultant Great Recession are now speculating vast quantities of money on the price of basic foods on the international commodity exchanges. As a result, the prices on these exchanges are no longer determined by real-world conditions of supply and demand but rather by the financial interests and whims of a small but extremely powerful group of big banks and hedge funds, many of whom have been gorging at the trough of taxpayer largesse for the last five years (for more information on the financialisation revolution, read this).

The Fatal Cost of Price Shocks

In countries like Ethiopia and Somalia, the price of essential foodstuffs more than doubled in the space of just a couple of months in the summer of 2011. In these countries many families spend as much as 80 percent of their disposable income on food, so when the price doubles, they go without.

The Famine Myth

Whenever famines take place, the media tends to pin the blame on meteorological problems, droughts or war, often ignoring the elephant in the room: the wholly inefficient and inhumane global agribusiness. Indeed, what we’re rarely told is that many countries in the global south were largely self-sufficient in food production until the late 1970s.

In the 80s and 90s, however, the rise of the global “free trade” movement meant that many local farmers suddenly faced fierce competition from some of the world’s biggest food producers — companies which received vast subsidies from the U.S. government or E.U. and were thus able to produce huge food surpluses, which they them dumped on some of the world’s poorest countries at below-cost price.

The result was all too predictable: peasant farmers and small holders were priced out of the market and countries which had for centuries been self-sufficient in food production became wholly dependent on food imports — hence their stark vulnerability today to food price shocks.

The Privatization of Virtually Everything

The breakneck pace of privatisation of land and seeds in the last 30 years has massively enriched the political and economic elites of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, at the expense of the general population. As much as 70 percent of the world’s seeds now belong to a handful of huge multinational conglomerates, granting them virtual control over the global food chain. Seeds, which for millenia have been a common good to be shared out and improved among small communities of farmers, are now almost the sole preserve of companies like Monsanto and Syngenta, which brings us to:

The GM Revolution

As global hunger rises, ever-greater pressure is being brought to bear on countries to embrace GM technologies — despite clear evidence of the risks they pose. [According to an international study from 2008, the industrialisation of agriculture, of which GM is a part, has led to the heavy use of artificial fertilisers and other chemicals. These have in turn harmed the soil structure and polluted water ways. What's more, the leaching of the soil of essential minerals means food is less healthy than 60 years ago].

Perhaps most importantly, legitimate concerns remain about the impact on GM foods on human health. For this reason, countries across Europe including Germany, France, Switzerland and Greece continue to prohibit sales of GM food. But not so in Spain, where GM crops are routinely tested, grown and sold to unsuspecting consumers. [Indeed, Spain has more large-scale plantations of genetically modified seeds than any other country in the European Union (EU), accounting for 42 percent of all field trials of genetically modified crops in the EU, according to figures from the European Commission Joint Research Centre].

We Are What We Eat

Clearly, if we regularly consume GM products or food with high levels of pesticides, flavorings and chemical fertilizers, the long-term toll on our health will be heavy indeed. But despite what we are often told by Agribusiness representatives, there are alternatives out there. We can choose to buy healthier options such as local organic food, and in turn help to support local farmers. We can even develop our own urban allotments, as more and more city dwellers are choosing to do. The most important thing is not to descend into apathy and resignation, for that is precisely what the world’s major food corporations want.

http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/201 … busin.html

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon May 06, 2013 6:11 am


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

What Would War Between Israel And Syria Do To The Already Fragile Global Economy?

War Between Israel And Syria?War is a horrible thing.  Just ask anyone that has ever been in the middle of it.  And in this day and age governments around the world possess weapons of such incalculable power that war should be unthinkable.  In future wars, we could literally see millions of people killed on a single day.  Nobody should want that or look forward to that.  Unfortunately, the next major regional war in the Middle East appears to be closer than ever.  But nobody should want it to actually happen.  During the next major regional war in the Middle East we will likely see death on a scale that is unprecedented.  It won’t be like the wars of 1967 or 1973.  It will likely be a fight to the death where nothing is held back.  You see, the truth is that most Americans have no idea what is really going on in the Middle East.  There are ancient grudges and ancient hatreds that go back for thousands of years.  There is no “peace plan” that is going to suddenly make everything okay.  The Middle East is a simmering volcano of hate and resentment that could erupt at any moment.  That is why what is happening in Syria right now is so important.  An Israeli airstrike in Damascus that reportedly was attempting to destroy a shipment of Fateh-110 missiles that Iran was sending to Hezbollah has brought Israel and Syria to the brink of war.  In fact, Syria is calling the airstrike a “declaration of war” and is vowing retaliation.  The Syrian government is saying that “Israeli aggression opens the door to all possibilities“, but they have not provided any specifics about what they plan to do.  Meanwhile, Israel has made it very clear that they will do whatever is necessary to keep Fateh-110 missiles from getting into the hands of Hezbollah.  With those missiles, Iranian-backed Hezbollah would have the capability of striking the heart of Tel Aviv with a very high degree of accuracy.  So it is definitely understandable why Israel would not want Hezbollah to have those missiles.  Just think about it – would you want Russia or China to deploy highly advanced missile systems in northern Mexico which could rain down hell on Los Angeles and Dallas in less than five minutes?  Unfortunately, this gives Iran the perfect way to provoke a war between Israel and Syria.  All they have to do is keep rolling trucks loaded with Fateh-110 missiles through war-torn Syria toward Hezbollah bases in Lebanon.  Israel will feel forced to intervene, and the rest of the Islamic world will get angrier and angrier.

The explosions that rocked northern Damascus on Sunday were absolutely massive.  It is being reported that they registered about two or three on the Richter scale, and enormous balls of fire that lit up the sky could be seen from all over Damascus.

The following is how the Washington Post described the attack…

Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday for the second time in recent days, according to Syrian state media and reports from activists, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between the neighboring countries that had already been exacerbated by the conflict raging in Syria.

Videos posted on the Internet by activists showed a huge fireball erupting on Mount Qassioun, a landmark hill overlooking the capital on which the Syrian government has deployed much of the firepower it is using against rebel-controlled areas surrounding the city.

So why did Israel do this?

Despite what the anti-Israel crowd is suggesting, Israel did not do this just to be mean.  As Reuters is reporting, Israel was specifically targeting Fateh-110 missiles that were on their way to Hezbollah…

Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly – a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals. But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama said had been justified.

A Western intelligence source told Reuters: “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah.”

These missiles would significantly change the balance of power if they got into the hands of Hezbollah.  According to the Times of Israel, Fateh-110 missiles would be a very serious threat not only to Tel Aviv – these missiles would also threaten cities all the way down to Beersheba…

Uzi Rubin, a missile expert and former Defense Ministry official, told the Associated Press that if the target was a consignment of Fatah-110 missiles, then such weaponry did constitute a “game-changer”: Fired from Syria or south Lebanon, these missiles, he said, could reach almost anywhere in Israel with high accuracy.

Rubin emphasized that he was speaking as a rocket expert and had no details about the reported strikes.

“If fired from southern Lebanon, they can reach Tel Aviv and even [the southern city of] Beersheba,” Rubin said. He said the rockets are much five times more accurate than the Scud missiles that Hezbollah has fired in the past. “It is a game-changer because they are a threat to Israel’s infrastructure and military installations,” he said.

So that is why Israel carried out these airstrikes.  They feel like they simply cannot allow Hezbollah to have these weapons.  And with Hezbollah’s track record, that is very understandable.

Unfortunately, these airstrikes have also brought the Middle East much closer to the next war.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Syria is positioning units for a potential conflict with Israel…

Syria has stationed missile batteries aimed at Israel in the aftermath of alleged Israeli air strikes in the country, the website of Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV, considered close to the regime of President Bashar Assad, quoted a top Syrian official as saying on Sunday.

In response, Israel has deployed two Iron Dome batteries to northern Israel, they have closed off airspace in northern Israel to commercial traffic, and Israeli embassies around the world have been put on high alert.

But Syria may choose not to retaliate against Israel directly.  According to WND, Syria may decide to allow jihadist groups to carry out their vengeance for them…

The Syrian government will soon declare it is opening its borders with Israel for Palestinian and other jihad groups to carry out attacks against the Jewish state, a senior Syrian official told WND.

Separately, informed Middle Eastern security officials said the Syrian army held a meeting Sunday afternoon with the leaders of the military wing of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist group to discuss retaliation against Israel for the recent air strikes near Damascus.

According to those officials, Islamic Jihad and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah are coordinating a possible reaction to Israel’s reported strikes.

In any event, things are definitely becoming more unstable over in the Middle East.

So what would a war between Israel and Syria do to the already fragile global economy?

Well, a war between Israel and Syria would likely paralyze the entire region.  Hezbollah and Hamas would almost certainly jump into the war on the side of Syria, and there is the potential that nations such as Iran, Egypt and even Jordan could get involved as well.

In such a scenario, the flow of oil from the Middle East could become interrupted for an extended period of time, and that would have serious consequences for the global economy.

But the bigger threat to the global economy would be the fear that a regional war in the Middle East would create.  Global financial markets respond very badly to fear, and right now the world economy is already teetering on the brink of disaster.  Much of Europe has already descended into a full-blown economic depression, and there are signs that the greatest debt bubble in the history of the planet is starting to burst.

The next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching, and a major regional war in the Middle East would greatly accelerate our economic problems.

Unfortunately, it appears that such a conflict is inevitable.

I don’t believe that it will happen yet though.  For the moment, I believe that cooler headers will prevail.

But as tensions continue to rise, I believe that we will see tempers boil over and the Middle East will descend into full-blown warfare at some point within the next several years.

Of course I could always be wrong about this.  We will just have to wait and see what happens.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that we will see a regional war in the Middle East soon?

Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…

The Beginning Of The End by Michael Snyder

View full post on The Economic Collapse

Other • The Global Status Quo Strategy: Do More of What Has Failed

The Global Status Quo Strategy: Do More of What Has Failed Spectacularly
April 23, 2013

The global Status Quo–the U.S., the E.U., China, Japan, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, et al.–has only one choice: do more of what has failed spectacularly.

A key goal of propaganda is to mystify and obscure the Power Elites’ real quandary and agenda. For example: we’re just trying to help you out here, folks, by inflating another "wealth effect" bubble that will make you feel more prosperous. You’re gonna love the warm fuzzy feeling of a return to the good times, even if you own zip-zero-nada in the way of productive assets.

Or: we’re raising your taxes and expropriating your money via inflation to stabilize the system that benefits you. (And yes, you may kneel and kiss Janet Yellen’s ring.)

The current level of mystification is truly extraordinary. But fortunately, oftwominds.com owns a demystification device that scrubs out the mystification, leaving only stark, unforgiving reality:

1. The global Power Elites know reform is necessary, but the risks of reform are unacceptably high. Why are they unacceptably high? The Status Quo players might lose power and perquisites, and that is unacceptable. These include crony capitalists, cartels, quasi-monopolies, public unions, state fiefdoms, the banking sector and assorted other predators and parasites.

In other words, real reform is impossible because that would implode the Status Quo.

2. Doing nothing will also bring down the Status Quo. Now that the global Status Quo is entirely dependent on rising debt to fund state deficits and marginal growth of investment and consumption, the Status Quo has been backed into a corner: expand debt or die.

Since households and companies can decide not to borrow more money even if they qualify to borrow more, it falls on the central states to borrow and blow money to keep their economies from imploding. This stupendous borrowing then falls on the central banks, which must monetize most of the state debt to keep interest rates low and force investors to chase risky assets and savers to squander their precious capital on gew-gaws and trifles, otherwise known as "aggregate demand" to the Keynesian Cargo Cultists dancing around Krugman’s campfire.

3. Since the only endgames to ballooning debts and declining household incomes are runaway inflation or renunciation of debt, the Status Quo has only one choice left to preserve its neofeudal arrangement: do more of what has failed spectacularly, i.e. inflate more asset bubbles as a way to mask the system’s phantom collateral for a few more months or perhaps years.

Unfortunately for central banks and their politico cronies, serial asset bubbles face the headwinds of diminishing returns. All the Fed and Federal agencies had to do to launch the first housing bubble was lower interest rates and encourage subprime mortgages.

Now it takes the Fed buying trillions of dollars in impaired mortgages, lowering interest rates to zero, guaranteeing FHA loans to anyone with a pulse and a paycheck, etc. just to keep housing from flatlining. See that little blip up that trillions of dollars in subsidies and intervention bought the Status Quo?

Image

The other serial bubble in progress is of course stocks, which recently scored nominal new highs even as the adjusted-for-inflation (consumer price index) market notched a classic diminishing-return lower high:

Image

4. The only metrics that count are debt and the ability to service that debt. Households have this tiny little problem known as declining income that makes it impossible to service more debt unless interest rates fall to near-zero. Presto-magico, real interest rates (adjusted for inflation) are near-zero, and can’t fall any lower.

Image

(Note that this is median income, and since only the top 5% have seen an increase in income, the lower 95% have actually experienced a steeper decline than shown here.)

That means the Fed has run out of room to lower rates. From here on, households will only be able to service more debt if their income rises. Alas, with full-time employment (the only measure that counts–sorry, Federal bean-counters, political lackeys and media toadies, 12-hour a week minimum-wage barista jobs and self-employed people with net earnings of $154 a year don’t count) back to 1980 levels, that is not even a remote possibility.

Image

That leaves the global Status Quo–the U.S., the E.U., China, Japan, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, et al.–only one choice: do more of what has failed spectacularly. Yes, it will fail spectacularly again, but until then, the mystification machine is running full tilt.

http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:02 pm


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

Gold and Silver • Unprecedented Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver

10 Signs The Takedown Of Paper Gold Has Unleashed An Unprecedented Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver
By Michael, on April 18th, 2013
The crash of the price of paper gold on Monday has unleashed an unprecedented global frenzy to buy physical gold and silver. All over the planet, people are recognizing that this is a unique opportunity to be able to acquire large amounts of gold and silver at a bargain price. So precious metals dealers now find themselves being overwhelmed with orders in the United States, in Canada, in Europe and over in Asia. Will this massive run on physical gold and silver soon lead to widespread shortages of those metals? Instead of frightening people away from gold and silver, the takedown of paper gold seems to have had just the opposite effect. People just can’t seem to get enough physical gold and silver right now. Those that wish that they had gotten into gold when it was less than $1400 an ounce are able to do so now, and it is absolutely insane that silver is sitting at about $23 an ounce. If the big banks continue to play games with the price of gold, we are going to see existing supplies of physical gold and silver dry up very quickly. And once reports of physical shortages of gold and silver become widespread, it is going to absolutely rock the financial world. But this is what happens when you manipulate free markets – it often has unintended consequences far beyond anything that you ever imagined.

The following are 10 signs that the takedown of paper gold has unleashed an unprecedented global run on physical gold and silver…

#1 According to Zero Hedge, the U.S. Mint set a new all-time record for the number of gold ounces sold on Wednesday…

According to today’s data from the US Mint, a record 63,500 ounces, or a whopping 2 tons, of gold were reported sold on April 17th alone, bringing the total sales for the month to a whopping 147,000 ounces or more than the previous two months combined with just half of the month gone.
#2 Precious metals dealers all over the United States are having a really hard time keeping up with demand right now. According to Chris Martenson, many are warning customers to expect waiting times of five to six weeks at this point…

In the U.S., all of the dealers I talk to are reporting huge demand and brisk buying. Silver in any form is quite hard to come by unless you want to pay premiums of 20%+ per ounce above spot price. Delivery times are 5 to 6 weeks out now – that’s an unusual situation. If this recent slam was designed to scare people away from gold, it did not have that desired outcome; in fact, just the opposite.
#3 Individual dealers all over the country are confirming that we are seeing a voracious appetite for precious metals at the moment. For example, the following is what a spokesperson for JM Bullion had to say…

We still have certain things in stock, like 10 oz bars, while others, like Silver Eagles, are a bit of revolving inventory.

The shipments are going out as soon as inventory comes in.

Our main challenge right now is actually getting the silver into the boxes and shipped out – we have been experiencing astounding volume.
This appears to be a widespread phenomenon. Just check out what other dealers are reporting…

“There has been a marked increase in demand since the plunge,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director at Dublin-based investment and bullion specialist GoldCore, referring to the drop in gold prices seen Friday and Monday. Gold futures lost more than $200 an ounce, or over 13%, on those two days. They were at $1,392 an ounce, moving higher ahead of the close on Thursday.

GoldCore has seen more buying than selling on Wednesday and Thursday, with buy orders “lumpier and from high net worth clients, and with most of the selling in small orders of less than 50 ounces, said O’Byrne.

On Wednesday, David Beahm, executive vice president at Blanchard & Co., said his precious-metals investment firm has seen “2008-like demand” for gold since Monday.
#4 Large international banks are also experiencing tremendous demand for physical gold and silver by customers right now. The following is what Keith Barron told King World News about what he is hearing…

At the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto the gold window has been absolutely swamped. I have confirmed there were people lined up in droves recently for multiple-hours at a time to buy gold and silver bars and coins….

I then confirmed with UBS today in Zurich, Switzerland, that they are experiencing exactly the same thing. They told me people are waiting in long lines for bullion related bars and coins. The physical market is incredibly tight, and there is a huge buying opportunity right here.

The damage in gold will not be long-term because physical supply is already drying up. Asian countries have been aggressively buying gold. This really is an unprecedented opportunity for investors. This takedown in the metals has created incredible demand for both gold and silver, and anyone who wants to unload dollars or euros and put them into gold because they don’t trust the currency, now is the time to do it.
#5 The demand for physical gold and silver is heating up over in Europe as well. For example, the following is from an emergency message posted on the website of a precious metals dealer in the UK…

Due to the unprecedented demand triggered by the recent fall in the Gold Price we are currently not able to guarantee Next Day Delivery of orders.

We anticipate that all orders will be delivered within 7 days of receipt by us.

Whilst we appreciate that these delays are frustrating for our customers we would like to stress that all accepted orders are guaranteed at the order price and will be dispatched as soon as possible.

It is necessary for all of our staff to be utilised in fulfilling orders and we ask for your cooperation by not calling us to query delivery times. If you do need to contact us, please do so by e-mail and we will endeavour to respond within 48hrs.
#6 On the other side of the globe, demand for precious metals is skyrocketing as well. According to Bloomberg, people are "running through the gate" to get gold in Australia…

Gold sales from Australia’s Perth Mint, which refines nearly all of the nation’s bullion, surged after prices plunged, adding to signs that the metal’s slump to a two-year low is spurring increased demand.

“The volume of business that we’re putting through is way in excess of double what we did last week,” Treasurer Nigel Moffatt said by phone, without giving precise figures. “There’s been people running through the gate.”
#7 Reuters is reporting that customers are waiting for up to three hours to buy gold in Japan…

A week ago, as the yen-denominated price neared a new peak, jewelry stores and gold merchants across Japan saw long lines of mostly older Japanese looking to cash in on unwanted jewelry and other items that they had held for years.

But on Tuesday, buyers outnumbered sellers by a wide margin. At Ginza Tanaka, the headquarters shop of Tanaka Holdings, gold buyers waited for as long as three hours for a chance to complete a transaction.
#8 According to a Chinese article quoted by the Blaze, there is a mad rush to buy gold in China right now…

People have to rush to buy gold … gold bullion out of stock yesterday, investors yesterday to spend as much as 600 million yuan to buy 20 kilograms of gold bars

The mad pursuit gold insufficiency is not just a game for the rich. Yesterday, the Yangcheng Evening News reporter learned from the East flowers to Bay store, many growers, pork traffickers, fishmonger recently put down his job went straight to the mall to buy gold.
#9 According to Reuters, dealers in Singapore are having significant trouble finding enough of a supply to keep up with the intense demand for gold that has erupted this week…

"People are actually buying everything, gold bars, gold coins. People are rushing to get a hand on it. We have a problem meeting the demand because we are unable to get new supply," said Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd in Singapore.
#10 Bloomberg is reporting that over in India people are "flocking to stores" to purchase gold jewelry and coins…

Gold buyers in India, the world’s biggest consumer, are flocking to stores to buy jewelry and coins, betting a selloff that plunged bullion to a two-year low may be overdone.

“My daughter is just six months old, but I think it is never too early to buy gold,” said Sharmila Shirodkar, a 28- year-old housewife, while displaying a new pair of earrings she bought from a store in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar. “I had been asking my husband every day if prices will go down more. I couldn’t wait anymore.”
If the big banks were trying to scare people away from gold and silver by crashing paper prices for those metals then they have utterly failed.

Instead of being frightened away, the global appetite for physical gold and silver is now more voracious than ever.

If the prices for gold and silver stay this low, we are eventually going to start seeing some very serious shortages in the marketplace.

And once reports of shortages of the actual physical metals become widely circulated, it will cause an "adjustment" in the marketplace that will shock everyone.

So hold on to your hats. We are entering a period of time when there will be unprecedented volatility for the prices of precious metals. It will be quite a roller coaster ride, but if you can handle the ups and downs it will be worth it in the end.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … and-silver

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Thu Apr 18, 2013 6:58 pm


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

10 Signs The Takedown Of Paper Gold Has Unleashed An Unprecedented Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver

A Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver Has BegunThe crash of the price of paper gold on Monday has unleashed an unprecedented global frenzy to buy physical gold and silver.  All over the planet, people are recognizing that this is a unique opportunity to be able to acquire large amounts of gold and silver at a bargain price.  So precious metals dealers now find themselves being overwhelmed with orders in the United States, in Canada, in Europe and over in Asia.  Will this massive run on physical gold and silver soon lead to widespread shortages of those metals?  Instead of frightening people away from gold and silver, the takedown of paper gold seems to have had just the opposite effect.  People just can’t seem to get enough physical gold and silver right now.  Those that wish that they had gotten into gold when it was less than $1400 an ounce are able to do so now, and it is absolutely insane that silver is sitting at about $23 an ounce.  If the big banks continue to play games with the price of gold, we are going to see existing supplies of physical gold and silver dry up very quickly.  And once reports of physical shortages of gold and silver become widespread, it is going to absolutely rock the financial world.  But this is what happens when you manipulate free markets – it often has unintended consequences far beyond anything that you ever imagined.

The following are 10 signs that the takedown of paper gold has unleashed an unprecedented global run on physical gold and silver…

#1 According to Zero Hedge, the U.S. Mint set a new all-time record for the number of gold ounces sold on Wednesday…

According to today’s data from the US Mint, a record 63,500 ounces, or a whopping 2 tons, of gold were reported sold on April 17th alone, bringing the total sales for the month to a whopping 147,000 ounces or more than the previous two months combined with just half of the month gone.

#2 Precious metals dealers all over the United States are having a really hard time keeping up with demand right now.  According to Chris Martenson, many are warning customers to expect waiting times of five to six weeks at this point…

In the U.S., all of the dealers I talk to are reporting huge demand and brisk buying. Silver in any form is quite hard to come by unless you want to pay premiums of 20%+ per ounce above spot price. Delivery times are 5 to 6 weeks out now that’s an unusual situation.  If this recent slam was designed to scare people away from gold, it did not have that desired outcome; in fact, just the opposite.

#3 Individual dealers all over the country are confirming that we are seeing a voracious appetite for precious metals at the moment.  For example, the following is what a spokesperson for JM Bullion had to say…

We still have certain things in stock, like 10 oz bars, while others, like Silver Eagles, are a bit of revolving inventory.

The shipments are going out as soon as inventory comes in.

Our main challenge right now is actually getting the silver into the boxes and shipped out – we have been experiencing astounding volume.

This appears to be a widespread phenomenon.  Just check out what other dealers are reporting

“There has been a marked increase in demand since the plunge,” said Mark O’Byrne, executive director at Dublin-based investment and bullion specialist GoldCore, referring to the drop in gold prices seen Friday and Monday. Gold futures lost more than $200 an ounce, or over 13%, on those two days. They were at $1,392 an ounce, moving higher ahead of the close on Thursday.

GoldCore has seen more buying than selling on Wednesday and Thursday, with buy orders “lumpier and from high net worth clients, and with most of the selling in small orders of less than 50 ounces, said O’Byrne.

On Wednesday, David Beahm, executive vice president at Blanchard & Co., said his precious-metals investment firm has seen “2008-like demand” for gold since Monday.

#4 Large international banks are also experiencing tremendous demand for physical gold and silver by customers right now.  The following is what Keith Barron told King World News about what he is hearing…

At the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto the gold window has been absolutely swamped. I have confirmed there were people lined up in droves recently for multiple-hours at a time to buy gold and silver bars and coins….

I then confirmed with UBS today in Zurich, Switzerland, that they are experiencing exactly the same thing. They told me people are waiting in long lines for bullion related bars and coins. The physical market is incredibly tight, and there is a huge buying opportunity right here.

The damage in gold will not be long-term because physical supply is already drying up. Asian countries have been aggressively buying gold. This really is an unprecedented opportunity for investors. This takedown in the metals has created incredible demand for both gold and silver, and anyone who wants to unload dollars or euros and put them into gold because they don’t trust the currency, now is the time to do it.

#5 The demand for physical gold and silver is heating up over in Europe as well.  For example, the following is from an emergency message posted on the website of a precious metals dealer in the UK…

Due to the unprecedented demand triggered by the recent fall in the Gold Price we are currently not able to guarantee Next Day Delivery of orders.

We anticipate that all orders will be delivered within 7 days of receipt by us.

Whilst we appreciate that these delays are frustrating for our customers we would like to stress that all accepted orders are guaranteed at the order price and will be dispatched as soon as possible.

It is necessary for all of our staff to be utilised in fulfilling orders and we ask for your cooperation by not calling us to query delivery times. If you do need to contact us, please do so by e-mail and we will endeavour to respond within 48hrs.

#6 On the other side of the globe, demand for precious metals is skyrocketing as well.  According to Bloomberg, people are “running through the gate” to get gold in Australia…

Gold sales from Australia’s Perth Mint, which refines nearly all of the nation’s bullion, surged after prices plunged, adding to signs that the metal’s slump to a two-year low is spurring increased demand.

“The volume of business that we’re putting through is way in excess of double what we did last week,” Treasurer Nigel Moffatt said by phone, without giving precise figures. “There’s been people running through the gate.”

#7 Reuters is reporting that customers are waiting for up to three hours to buy gold in Japan…

A week ago, as the yen-denominated price neared a new peak, jewelry stores and gold merchants across Japan saw long lines of mostly older Japanese looking to cash in on unwanted jewelry and other items that they had held for years.

But on Tuesday, buyers outnumbered sellers by a wide margin. At Ginza Tanaka, the headquarters shop of Tanaka Holdings, gold buyers waited for as long as three hours for a chance to complete a transaction.

#8 According to a Chinese article quoted by the Blaze, there is a mad rush to buy gold in China right now…

People have to rush to buy gold … gold bullion out of stock yesterday, investors yesterday to spend as much as 600 million yuan to buy 20 kilograms of gold bars

The mad pursuit gold insufficiency is not just a game for the rich. Yesterday, the Yangcheng Evening News reporter learned from the East flowers to Bay store, many growers, pork traffickers, fishmonger recently put down his job went straight to the mall to buy gold.

#9 According to Reuters, dealers in Singapore are having significant trouble finding enough of a supply to keep up with the intense demand for gold that has erupted this week…

“People are actually buying everything, gold bars, gold coins. People are rushing to get a hand on it. We have a problem meeting the demand because we are unable to get new supply,” said Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd in Singapore.

#10 Bloomberg is reporting that over in India people are “flocking to stores” to purchase gold jewelry and coins…

Gold buyers in India, the world’s biggest consumer, are flocking to stores to buy jewelry and coins, betting a selloff that plunged bullion to a two-year low may be overdone.

“My daughter is just six months old, but I think it is never too early to buy gold,” said Sharmila Shirodkar, a 28- year-old housewife, while displaying a new pair of earrings she bought from a store in Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar. “I had been asking my husband every day if prices will go down more. I couldn’t wait anymore.”

If the big banks were trying to scare people away from gold and silver by crashing paper prices for those metals then they have utterly failed.

Instead of being frightened away, the global appetite for physical gold and silver is now more voracious than ever.

If the prices for gold and silver stay this low, we are eventually going to start seeing some very serious shortages in the marketplace.

And once reports of shortages of the actual physical metals become widely circulated, it will cause an “adjustment” in the marketplace that will shock everyone.

So hold on to your hats.  We are entering a period of time when there will be unprecedented volatility for the prices of precious metals.  It will be quite a roller coaster ride, but if you can handle the ups and downs it will be worth it in the end.

They Have Unleashed A Frenzy To Get Gold And Silver

View full post on The Economic Collapse

Gold and Silver • Is The Takedown Of Gold A Sign That The Entire Global Financ

Is The Takedown Of Gold A Sign That The Entire Global Financial System Is About To Crash?
By Michael, on April 15th, 2013
Somebody out there is sure getting prepared for something really big. We have just witnessed a takedown of gold and silver unlike anything that we have witnessed in decades. On Monday, the price of gold had fallen by more than 10 percent at one point. It shocked investors all over the globe, and overall what we have just seen was the largest two day decline in the price of gold in 30 years. The price of silver dropped even more rapidly on Monday. It was down more than 14 percent at one point. There was an atmosphere of "panic selling" as investors and financial institutions raced to liquidate their holdings of silver and gold. But was this exactly what someone out there wanted? As I wrote about the other day, big banks and news outlets all over the world have been boldly proclaiming for weeks that gold is entering a "bear market" and that now is the time for all of us to sell our gold. In particular, Goldman Sachs reportedly told their clients earlier this month that they "recommend initiating a short COMEX gold position". Was that just a "good guess" on their part, or was something else going on? Were they actually trying to help create a "selling frenzy" that would drive the price of gold much lower?

What we witnessed on Monday was absolutely jaw-dropping. Just check out this chart of the price of gold over the past 10 years. The takedown of gold on Monday sticks out like a sore thumb…

Image

And that chart does not even show the full extent of the collapse. As I write this, the price of gold is sitting at $1355.20.

But this is just the beginning for gold and silver. As I have warned repeatedly, the price of gold and the price of silver will experience wild swings in the years ahead.

For example, the following is what I wrote about gold and silver on August 7th, 2012…

I like precious metals myself, but if you are going to invest you need to get educated so that you know what you are doing. If you go in blindly you are likely to get burned at some point.

In addition, you need to be prepared for wild fluctuations in price over the coming years. There will be times when gold and silver absolutely soar and there will be times when they drop like a rock.

So if you are going to play the game you need to be able to handle the ride.

Monday was an example of what I meant when I said that "you need to be able to handle the ride". There are going to be a lot more days like Monday (both up and down) for gold and silver in the years ahead.

The foolish people are those that are scared out of their wits and that are selling off all of their gold and silver right now.

Sadly, there was reportedly a tremendous amount of panic selling of gold and silver during this collapse. The following is what Dennis Gartman told CNBC on Monday…

"There are a lot of people throwing up their hands. Throwing positions overboard. Panic is everywhere," Gartman said in a "Squawk Box" interview on Monday. "I’ve never seen anything like this. I mean it."

It just shows that there are a lot of stupid people out there. The following is an excerpt from another CNBC report about the panic selling that was happening on Monday…

"I think the last $20 has been margin selling. The market is falling like a knife. People are saying, ‘Get me out now,’ " Phoenix Futures President Kevin Grady said. "You’re also seeing people selling energy profits to pay for metals losses. You’re seeing a tremendous amount of gold liquidation today."

According to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, all of this panic selling is the result of an orchestrated takedown of gold and silver…

This is an orchestration (the smash in gold). It’s been going on now from the beginning of April. Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance.

Then, a couple of days ago, Goldman Sachs announced there would be further departures from gold. So what they are trying to do is scare the individual investor out of bullion. Clearly there is something desperate going on…

So who is behind all of this orchestration? Well, according to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, it is actually the Federal Reserve…

The Federal Reserve began its April Fool’s assault on gold by sending the word to brokerage houses, which quickly went out to clients, that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that clients should get out of the precious metal market prior to these sales. As this inside information was the government’s own strategy, individuals cannot be prosecuted for acting on it. By this operation, the Federal Reserve, a totally corrupt entity, was able to combine individual flight with institutional flight. Bullion prices took a big hit, and bullishness departed from the gold and silver markets. The flow of dollars into bullion, which threatened to become a torrent, was stopped.

In fact, Dr. Roberts says that former Goldman Sachs trader Andrew Maguire is reporting that the Fed orchestrated the dumping of 500 tons of naked gold shorts into the market on Friday…

According to Andrew Maguire, on Friday, April 12, the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.

As Dr. Roberts noted, this represents an absolutely massive amount of gold…

Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.

Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?

If any of the allegations above are even remotely true, then a whole lot of people need to be criminally investigated.

Meanwhile, many are considering this takedown of gold to be an ominous sign that another major financial crisis may be heading our way.

Just remember what happened back in 2008. As Zero Hedge noted on Monday, the price of gold suddenly plunged 21 percent in July 2008. That was just a couple of months before the U.S. stock market crashed in the fall…

The rapidity of gold’s drop is impressive, concerning, and disorderly. We have seen two other such instances of disorderly ‘hurried’ selling in the last five years. In July 2008, gold quickly dropped 21% – seemingly pre-empting the Lehman debacle and the collapse of the western banking system.

Is this collapse in the price of gold a harbinger of another major stock market crash?

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, many average Americans are wondering if they should dump their gold and silver while they still can.

As I mentioned above, gold and silver are going to experience wild fluctuations over the next few years. When the next stock market crash comes, gold and silver are probably going to go even lower than they are today for a short time. But in the long run gold and silver are going to soar to unprecedented heights.

Investing in gold and silver is not for the faint of heart. If you cannot handle the ride, you should sit on the sidelines. We are entering a period of tremendous financial instability, and holding gold and silver is going to be like riding a roller coaster. The ups and downs are going to shake a lot of people up, but the rewards are going to be great for those that stick with it the entire time.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … t-to-crash

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:13 am


View full post on opinions.caduceusx.com

Gold and Silver • Is The Takedown Of Gold A Sign That The Entire Global Financ

Is The Takedown Of Gold A Sign That The Entire Global Financial System Is About To Crash?
By Michael, on April 15th, 2013
Somebody out there is sure getting prepared for something really big. We have just witnessed a takedown of gold and silver unlike anything that we have witnessed in decades. On Monday, the price of gold had fallen by more than 10 percent at one point. It shocked investors all over the globe, and overall what we have just seen was the largest two day decline in the price of gold in 30 years. The price of silver dropped even more rapidly on Monday. It was down more than 14 percent at one point. There was an atmosphere of "panic selling" as investors and financial institutions raced to liquidate their holdings of silver and gold. But was this exactly what someone out there wanted? As I wrote about the other day, big banks and news outlets all over the world have been boldly proclaiming for weeks that gold is entering a "bear market" and that now is the time for all of us to sell our gold. In particular, Goldman Sachs reportedly told their clients earlier this month that they "recommend initiating a short COMEX gold position". Was that just a "good guess" on their part, or was something else going on? Were they actually trying to help create a "selling frenzy" that would drive the price of gold much lower?

What we witnessed on Monday was absolutely jaw-dropping. Just check out this chart of the price of gold over the past 10 years. The takedown of gold on Monday sticks out like a sore thumb…

Image

And that chart does not even show the full extent of the collapse. As I write this, the price of gold is sitting at $1355.20.

But this is just the beginning for gold and silver. As I have warned repeatedly, the price of gold and the price of silver will experience wild swings in the years ahead.

For example, the following is what I wrote about gold and silver on August 7th, 2012…

I like precious metals myself, but if you are going to invest you need to get educated so that you know what you are doing. If you go in blindly you are likely to get burned at some point.

In addition, you need to be prepared for wild fluctuations in price over the coming years. There will be times when gold and silver absolutely soar and there will be times when they drop like a rock.

So if you are going to play the game you need to be able to handle the ride.

Monday was an example of what I meant when I said that "you need to be able to handle the ride". There are going to be a lot more days like Monday (both up and down) for gold and silver in the years ahead.

The foolish people are those that are scared out of their wits and that are selling off all of their gold and silver right now.

Sadly, there was reportedly a tremendous amount of panic selling of gold and silver during this collapse. The following is what Dennis Gartman told CNBC on Monday…

"There are a lot of people throwing up their hands. Throwing positions overboard. Panic is everywhere," Gartman said in a "Squawk Box" interview on Monday. "I’ve never seen anything like this. I mean it."

It just shows that there are a lot of stupid people out there. The following is an excerpt from another CNBC report about the panic selling that was happening on Monday…

"I think the last $20 has been margin selling. The market is falling like a knife. People are saying, ‘Get me out now,’ " Phoenix Futures President Kevin Grady said. "You’re also seeing people selling energy profits to pay for metals losses. You’re seeing a tremendous amount of gold liquidation today."

According to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, all of this panic selling is the result of an orchestrated takedown of gold and silver…

This is an orchestration (the smash in gold). It’s been going on now from the beginning of April. Brokerage houses told their individual clients the word was out that hedge funds and institutional investors were going to be dumping gold and that they should get out in advance.

Then, a couple of days ago, Goldman Sachs announced there would be further departures from gold. So what they are trying to do is scare the individual investor out of bullion. Clearly there is something desperate going on…

So who is behind all of this orchestration? Well, according to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, it is actually the Federal Reserve…

The Federal Reserve began its April Fool’s assault on gold by sending the word to brokerage houses, which quickly went out to clients, that hedge funds and other large investors were going to unload their gold positions and that clients should get out of the precious metal market prior to these sales. As this inside information was the government’s own strategy, individuals cannot be prosecuted for acting on it. By this operation, the Federal Reserve, a totally corrupt entity, was able to combine individual flight with institutional flight. Bullion prices took a big hit, and bullishness departed from the gold and silver markets. The flow of dollars into bullion, which threatened to become a torrent, was stopped.

In fact, Dr. Roberts says that former Goldman Sachs trader Andrew Maguire is reporting that the Fed orchestrated the dumping of 500 tons of naked gold shorts into the market on Friday…

According to Andrew Maguire, on Friday, April 12, the Fed’s agents hit the market with 500 tons of naked shorts. Normally, a short is when an investor thinks the price of a stock or commodity is going to fall. He wants to sell the item in advance of the fall, pocket the money, and then buy the item back after it falls in price, thus making money on the short sale. If he doesn’t have the item, he borrows it from someone who does, putting up cash collateral equal to the current market price. Then he sells the item, waits for it to fall in price, buys it back at the lower price and returns it to the owner who returns his collateral. If enough shorts are sold, the result can be to drive down the market price.

As Dr. Roberts noted, this represents an absolutely massive amount of gold…

Consider the 500 tons of paper gold sold on Friday. Begin with the question, how many ounces is 500 tons? There are 2,000 pounds to one ton. 500 tons equal 1,000,000 pounds. There are 16 ounces to one pound, which comes to 16 million ounces of short sales on Friday.

Who has 16 million ounces of gold? At the beginning gold price that day of about $1,550, that comes to $24,800,000,000. Who has that kind of money?

If any of the allegations above are even remotely true, then a whole lot of people need to be criminally investigated.

Meanwhile, many are considering this takedown of gold to be an ominous sign that another major financial crisis may be heading our way.

Just remember what happened back in 2008. As Zero Hedge noted on Monday, the price of gold suddenly plunged 21 percent in July 2008. That was just a couple of months before the U.S. stock market crashed in the fall…

The rapidity of gold’s drop is impressive, concerning, and disorderly. We have seen two other such instances of disorderly ‘hurried’ selling in the last five years. In July 2008, gold quickly dropped 21% – seemingly pre-empting the Lehman debacle and the collapse of the western banking system.

Is this collapse in the price of gold a harbinger of another major stock market crash?

Time will tell.

Meanwhile, many average Americans are wondering if they should dump their gold and silver while they still can.

As I mentioned above, gold and silver are going to experience wild fluctuations over the next few years. When the next stock market crash comes, gold and silver are probably going to go even lower than they are today for a short time. But in the long run gold and silver are going to soar to unprecedented heights.

Investing in gold and silver is not for the faint of heart. If you cannot handle the ride, you should sit on the sidelines. We are entering a period of tremendous financial instability, and holding gold and silver is going to be like riding a roller coaster. The ups and downs are going to shake a lot of people up, but the rewards are going to be great for those that stick with it the entire time.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch … t-to-crash

Statistics: Posted by yoda — Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:13 am


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