Americas Silver Corp fka USAPF

[NYBob]

Silver Extended to New 31-year Highs
Gold Surges to New Record Highs
by P. Grant
March 24, AM

Gold has finally pushed to new all-time highs above the early
March peak at 1444.60, led by hard-charging silver, which
has traded above $38.00.
The yellow metal had been fairly well contained for most
of the week as silver extended to new 31-year highs.
Heightening sovereign debt concerns in Europe, escalating
political unrest in Syria and a magnitude 6.8 earthquake
which hit Myanmar near its boarder with Thailand and China,
have all piled upon existing concerns over Japan and MENA.





In line with expectations, the Portuguese parliament rejected
the latest austerity budget late last night and PM Socrates
fulfilled his pledge to resign.
While Socrates is attending the EU summit in Brussels as the
"caretaker" of the Portuguese government, this latest turn of
events leaves the country essentially rudderless in the midst
of a major crisis.
Expectations are that Portugal will be forced to accept a
bailout, like Greece and Ireland before it, which is likely
to have further austerity measures attached to it anyway.

Just as eurozone leaders convene with the goal of preventing
contagion, the collapse -- and likely bailout -- of Portugal
has increased the Spanish risk.
The euro continues to hold up well though, underpinned by
sovereign demand and safe-haven bids.
However, a collapse of the monetary union should not
be completely discounted.
As Warren Buffett told CNBC, "You can't have three or four
or five countries that are in effect free-riding on the
other countries.
That won't work over time—they have to get their fiscal
houses in reasonable harmony."

Political unrest is escalating in Syria as the security forces
of President Bashar al-Assad reportedly fired on protesters
in the city of Deraa, killing at least 15.
This comes as coalition forces aligned against Libyan strongman
Muammar Gaddafi executed their most aggressive bombings of
the conflict, as rebel forces struggle to regroup.
The ongoing, and arguably rising, geopolitical and military
tensions in the Middle East and North Africa are expected
to keep oil prices elevated for some time to come,
creating risks to growth in the heavily energy dependent
industrialized world.
These risks to growth in turn increase the likelihood that
Western central banks will keep their monetary policies
loose, despite the simultaneous rise in inflation risks.

Workers in Japan continue their efforts to stabilize the stricken
nuclear plant at Fukushima amid concerns about their health
and the contamination impact.
The Japanese disaster has prompted a global debate about
the risks of nuclear power that may leave us even more
dependent on increasingly scarce carbon-based fuels.
This too will keep upward pressure on oil and gas prices,
threatening to derail nascent economic recoveries around
the world.
Clearly the Japanese economy is exceedingly vulnerable, but
so too is the US with a very well defined historical record
of recessions being triggered by spikes in energy prices.

Grant is resident economist and a well-known analyst globally
in the forex and precious metals markets.

Today the EE planned a raid in conjunction with the CME margin
hike that they probably arranged in advance.
This sort of thing would send most of us to jail.
They get bonuses.
Montanore, thanks good info

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