U.S. Hegemony, Oil, and Precious Metals
The Underground Investor has an interesting interview concerning the Federal Reserve and the banks that own it, and how they have been controlling the world economy since 1913 using leveraged futures contracts on the oil, silver, and gold commodities markets in New York and London. The interview goes on to discuss how Europe, in concert with Russia and China could break Read more
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s Plato Apology
Shut Down the Fed (Part II)
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing.
My pathetic assumption was that Ben Bernanke would deploy further QE only to stave off DEFLATION, not to create INFLATION. If the Federal Open Market Committee cannot see the difference, God help America.
We now learn from last week’s minutes that the Fed is willing “to provide additional accommodation if needed to … return inflation, over time, to levels consistent with its mandate.”
NO, NO, NO, this cannot possibly be true. Read more
Gold Breaks 30-year High in Swiss Francs
Gold trading on Wednesday broke the 30-year high against the Swiss Franc, rising to CHF 44,400 per kilo in brisk trading.
Although inflation has not been officially recognized as a problem so far, the National Inflation Assocation pegs inflation between 5.31% and 6.31%.
Clearly the combination of high government debt bond yields, extreme volatility Read more
Austrian Mint says Gold Sales Soaring on Panic Buying
The Austrian Mint today announced that since April 26th the mint has sold 243,500 ounces of gold compared to slightly over 200,000 ounces in the first 3 months of the year. They believe this is panic buying Read more
Fed Posts Terms Of Unlimited Foreign Exchange Swaps With Bank of England, European Central Bank And Swiss National Bank
Late yesterday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York posted the full terms of the various foreign exchange swaps that it instituted as part of the bailout of the Euro, and of various French and German banks. The specifics Read more
Zero Hedge Feed- SEC Begins Poking At Private Equity Asset Valuations February 12, 2012
- Investor Sentiment: Heading Into the Final Stages February 12, 2012
- Trade Data: Is China Losing Its Steam? February 12, 2012
- Euro Analogy Three-peat February 12, 2012
- For Greece, Bailout Two Is Just The Beginning February 12, 2012
- 24hr Gold Feed
- Violent Protests in Greece; LAOS leader "I Would Rather Starve Than be Under German Jackboot"; February 11, 2012
- The Dollar Confirms a Possible Silver Pullback February 11, 2012
- Of Jobs, Debts and Budgets February 11, 2012
- Buying Opportunity Coming? February 11, 2012
- Damien hirst platinum and diamond skull will be centre stage at tate modern February 11, 2012
24 Hr Gold Chart (CAD$)
- Gold Money Feed
- Katastrophenhausse February 11, 2012
- World Mining Investment Congress 2012 February 10, 2012
- Hayek on Money: let the people choose February 10, 2012
- Greek deal still out of reach February 10, 2012
- Why our currency will fail February 9, 2012
- OANDA Forex Blog
- Can the BoJ breath a little easier? February 11, 2012The BoJ is expected to keep its policy rate near zero and leave its asset buying program at Y55t at its two day meeting starting on Monday. Consensus has us believing that economic conditions from policy makers perspective has not changed. Unless something out of the ordinary happens this weekend in Europe, then we should be expecting the board members to ma […]
- Reported US Trade Deficit Widens February 10, 2012The US trade deficit for December 2011 (reported by the US Commerce Department) widened by almost 50 billion USD, the most month over month increase since last June. The recent relative weakness of the dollar, coupled with the improving US economy, increased the demand for imports. More than half of the 2011 deficit came from trade with China. This report co […]
- Loonie Loosens the Death Grip February 10, 2012The loonie has finally broken out of that death grip range that we were beginning to become accustomed to midweek. At the time it seemed that everyone was afraid to do anything. However, once the risk adverse trading strategies again became in vogue, especially after the Euro finance minister agreed to hold back Greek aid, the dollar got its second wind and […]
- Week in FX Europe Feb 5-10 February 10, 2012Despite the EUR’s sell off in the final trading session of the week, the single currency has managed to regain some lost ground against most of the G10 and EM currencies. Analysts agree that the “policy process and the firewall thats been built around Greece” have been contributing to the “excessive degree of benefit of doubt” which in turn has helped promot […]
- Greek doubts and Portuguese concerns support Swiss Franc February 10, 2012Read the full article on forexblog.oanda.com. […]
- Eurozone Holds Back a Rescue Package for Greece February 10, 2012Eurozone finance ministers dismissed as incomplete a €3.3bn package of Greek budget cuts necessary to secure a €130bn bailout for Greece. Greek finance minister was given a new set of demands and an urgent deadline, February 15th. The lenders are demanding from Greece €325m in further cuts to this year’s budget, parliamentary approval of a comprehensive refo […]
- EUR to lose Faith? February 10, 2012Buy the rumor sell the fact, there was none of that. There was no euphoria when the austerity deal was finally struck on the Greek side. Global equities did happen to receive a small bid, fixed income yield remained rather flat, but that was it, no ticker tape parade. One certainly gets the feeling that no one believes in it, and that is the reason why the E […]
- Euro Gains on Greek Deal February 9, 2012By Sam Mattera Benzinga Guest Writer Finally! The Greek situation has been put to bed! Or has it? On Thursday morning, Greek leaders announced that they had finally reached a deal with their private creditors to avoid an outright default. The EUR/USD currency pair instantly rallied on the news, spiking over 0.30% to break strongly above the $1.32 price level […]
- ECB, Bank of England Leave Rates Unchanged February 9, 2012Both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB) opted to leave their respective benchmark lending rates unchanged. The ECB rate will remain at 1.0 percent, while the Bank of England rate was held steady at 0.5 percent. The rate announcements came just hours before the news was made public that the Greek coalition government had reached a deal on […]
- UK Industrial Output Increases Above Forecast February 9, 2012U.K. manufacturing increased in December by five times more than economists forecasted, and the total trade deficit shrank to the smallest since 2003, pointing to signs of economic strength at the end of last year. According to the Office for National Statistics, factory output increased 1 percent from the previous month, and out of 13 categories of U.K. man […]
- Can the BoJ breath a little easier? February 11, 2012
