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Rogue, When fear is this high I wouldn't short either silver or gold...
Lee,get yourself an Apple macbook for Xmas. Your entire life will improve.
Lee, Newlys explanation is ample. Slow down. If I can do it..so can you. Get the folder on your desk top. You have a MacBook correct ?
The media in this country are just hell bent to demean gold.
I shall leave it at that. The Wall St Journal for one example was
the single 'outlet' today on video no less.. to mention the meeting of the
European Union on Monday the 19th to agree to turn the printing presses on...
Behind the scenes Our Fed is buying their bonds ie Spain....
No one knows......
Gold and intervention....
Harvey Organ 12/14
Let’s summarize the facts. We had Western central banks totally running out of any gold to sell onto the market, with all gold sales having ceased for more than a year. Suddenly, we have the bullion banks announcing they have so much gold on their hands that they are doing more than just giving it away, they are literally paying people to “borrow” it – in the greatest “gold sale” in all of history.
We have the same bankers announcing that the gold of Greece was now “collateral” for its sovereign debts. We then had the Greek government defaulting on those debts, directly implying the seizure of that collateral.
We had the”rebels” of Libya on the verge of total annihilation, while Western governments claimed they were helpless to intervene because it was “against international law”. We suddenly saw the rebels create an official receptacle for their nations gold, and then had those same Western nationsinstantly launching a massive military intervention into Libya, where Western governments flagrantly disregarded international law while committing their war crimes.
You be the judge.
Fed Double Talk..
In The News Today
December 13, 2011, at 3:47 pm
by Jim Sinclair in the category In The News | Print This Post | Email This Post
My Dear Friends,
A Fed which has just made major swaps available to the ECB and today promised to keep rates near zero until at least mid 2013 also said they are not doing anything to further stimulate the economy. That is total double talk.
Regards,
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
John Williams confirms the Formula as Federal tax receipts falter.
- Faltering Tax Receipts Show Consumer Income Taking A New Hit
- November Retail Sales Change Not Meaningful
www.ShadowStats.com
Corzine and the other 2 men appear scared as hell imo...
We shall see in the coming weeks if, in fact, re-hypothecation is the cause of the problems. I’m convinced it is.
The rules on broker's ability to A) Hypothecate and B) Re-hypothecate in the USA are spelled out in Reg T. This set of rules has been established by our good friends at the Federal Reserve Bank. Let me provide some telling words on this re Reg. T rule 15c3-3: (emphasis mine/Link)
• Except as otherwise agreed in writing by the OTC derivatives dealer and the counterparty, the dealer may repledge or otherwise use the collateral in its business;
• In the event of the OTC derivatives dealer's failure, the counterparty will likely be considered an unsecured creditor of the dealer as to that collateral;
• The Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (15 U.S.C. 78aaa et seq.) does not protect the counterparty.
Well there you have it. Reg. T does permit the broker to “repledge” (AKA re-hypothecate). In the event of default by the broker, the counterparty will be considered an unsecured creditor. (AKA customers lose money). And SIPC provides zero protection to account holders in the event of a broker default.
For me, there is sufficient information to conclude that Reg. T is flawed and must be changed. I have to believe there is any army of lawyers over at the Federal Reserve looking into this as I write and they are struggling with what they can do to “fix” the problem.
For sure a fix is required. MFG has not, as yet, morphed into a systemic problem. But we are getting closer by the day. The Fed is aware of this. The risk is that customers start to withdraw funds and assets from other brokers. The deleveraging this would cause would be catastrophic. A significant chunk of the shadow banking system (about $10 trillion) is dependent on the liquidity that is created by hypothecation. (The situation is bigger and more problematic in the UK)
A month ago Fed governor James Bullard stated on CNBC that the issues with MFG did not constitute a systemic problem. I wrote about this at the time Bullard made those comments. I made a public bet with Bullard (a six pack of beer) that he would be forced to eat his words. I never did hear from him.
I’m re-doubling the bet this AM. If Reg. T is confirmed to be the source of customer losses at MFG then Reg. T will have to be gutted. The changes will have to take place fairly quickly. The consequences across all markets of these changes could prove to be a devastating blow.
The nice folks at the FRB are having a big meeting this week. Reg. T and MFG will almost certainly be on the agenda. I have to believe all those smart folks at the Fed have figured out that we have a problem. We may well get some announcement on this topic by Friday.
Any changes to Reg. T will have profound effects on global markets. Not only the exchanges/asset prices will be affected, this has the potential to derail the global economy. We are already in a very dangerous liquidity situation. If the Fed is forced to change margin rules, liquidity will dry up for an extended period of time. Forced changes in Reg. T will prove to be a Black Swan event.
Note:
Should we get a confirmation of the foregoing discussion and the Fed is forced to react and make regulatory changes, there will be significant long term implications for the Fed. The Fed will have to shoulder the blame for the flaws in Reg. T. They will also have to take responsibility for the broader economic consequences that will surely follow those changes.
The possibility exits for the Fed to lose any credibility they may still have in the US and abroad. The completely unregulated Federal Reserve may lose its independence as a result.
There are big downsides to significant revisions to margin rules. The upside is that the Fed’s supreme power over the global economy would be finally checked.
I will see you tomorrow
all the best
harvey
We now have martial law in America...maybe ..
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Suspend habeas corpus and enact martial law?
By Chris Powell
Published: Monday, December 12, 2011 1:40 PM EST
Americans seem ready to forfeit their most basic civil liberty -- actually, all their civil liberties -- without a whimper.
By a vote of 93-7 the Senate this month approved a military appropriations bill empowering the government to designate any U.S. citizen within the country as a terrorist and to have the military hold him indefinitely without trial and without the right to habeas corpus, the right to be brought before a court for a judgment on the legality of one's imprisonment.
In effect the legislation is a declaration of martial law throughout the country.
The bill still has to be reconciled by a conference committee with a different version passed by the House of Representatives. But even Connecticut U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, a liberal Democrat and a member of the committee, plans to support the martial law provision and expects it to be enacted. Courtney, who used to be a lawyer, cites as consolation the money contained in the bill for Connecticut military contractors, tens of millions of dollars for jet fighter engines manufactured by the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Corp. in East Hartford and for nuclear submarines made by the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Groton.
At least Connecticut’s junior senator, Richard Blumenthal, was one of 38 senators who voted to try to remove the martial law provision from the bill. Connecticut’s senior senator, Joseph I. Lieberman, who also used to be a lawyer but now is the Senate’s foremost advocate of perpetual imperial war, voted for martial law.
The Constitution prohibits suspension of the right of habeas corpus "unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it." While habeas corpus was suspended in certain circumstances during the Civil War, there is no rebellion or invasion now and no impairment of the criminal-justice system, and the mere danger of terrorism does not constitute rebellion or invasion.
President Obama is threatening to veto the legislation but not so much for its suspension of habeas corpus. Rather, the bill is objectionable to the president because it would prevent the government from transferring terrorism suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to installations in the United States, even for trial.
If the bill becomes law the president and his successors will gain dictatorial power, the power exercised by the worst tyrants in history -- Hitler, Stalin, and Mao -- the power to kidnap anyone off the street or out of his own home and lock him away incommunicado forever. The president will be able to do that even to members of Congress themselves, and while it would suit them right for enacting such an abomination, Americans better rise up and stop it if they don't want the country to slip into totalitarianism as Germany did in similar circumstances in 1933.
First the German people were demoralized and deprived of economic security by hyperinflation and depression. Then they were frightened into submission by the burning of the parliament building in Berlin, which was opportunistically depicted by the National Socialist-dominated coalition government as Communist Party terrorism and used as the pretext for a proclamation, issued the next day, suspending all civil liberties, including, specifically, habeas corpus. Three weeks later the Nazis persuaded parliament to surrender its power through the infamous Enabling Act, allowing the Nazi chancellor to rule by decree. He did so for 12 more years.
Eventually one of those decrees was the "Night and Fog" decree, under which people across Europe simply disappeared, never to be seen again.
Americans may have some vague awareness of the horror perpetrated by Germany back then. But do they have any idea of how closely they are following the Germans in what led to it? Our politicians don't seem to have any idea.
Republicans who scream about the supposed oppressiveness of a government that would require everyone to have medical insurance are rushing to give that government the power to make people disappear. And Democrats who chafe at the government's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage are ready to forfeit the longest-established and most substantial liberties because a free society can never eliminate the danger that someone can plant a bomb somewhere -- though a totalitarian society can't eliminate it either.
No amount of military contracting in Connecticut can be worth even a day without due process of law. The purpose of military contracting is to protect the country, and without due process of law the country will not be worth protecting.
-----
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer.
Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report
harveyorgan.blogspot.com
Please read this every night for reality guidance. Usually
at 7:30 p.m.
EXCELLENT
why would they want him gone...? they elected him/
same deal with clinton...
bush jr. got in only because the supreme court elected him.
The big boys have 2 factions...
the headlines would be stunning....the public would know then.
You got it...planned all the time to shore up JPM ,Goldman,etc.
Corzine the slime knows the whole story. The silver lining is
that he is a pariah now. With the other slime bags. IMO if
they put him behind bars..Obama wins in nov.
Futures are not covered, I suspect the same applies to options..
Just In>>>>>
The Denials Begin: Interactive Brokers Is First To Claim It Has Not Engaged In Commingling Rehypothecation
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/11/2011 - 11:24
Counterparties Credit Suisse Fail Goldman Sachs goldman sachs MF Global Morgan Stanley Reuters Sovereign Debt Stock Recall Volkswagen Wells Fargo
Now that the rehypothecation bogeyman has been let loose, and the question of just how many paper (and apparently physical) assets have been double, triple, and n-counted (where n can be a number up to "infinity") by the infinitely daisy-chained modern global financial system in which one's liability is someone else's asset....apparently up to infinity times, the next logical step was for the firms named in the original Reuters article to step up and begin denials they had anything to do with anything. Sure enough, below is the first (of many) such response, by Interactive Brokers, claiming it has been greatly misunderstood and unlike MF Global, it has done nothing wrong at all. Of note is that IB was simply one of many brokers mentioned in the Reuters piece, where we read that "Engaging in hyper-hypothecation have been Goldman Sachs ($28.17 billion re-hypothecated in 2011), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (re-pledged $72 billion in client assets), Royal Bank of Canada (re-pledged $53.8 billion of $126.7 billion available for re-pledging), Oppenheimer Holdings ($15.3 million), Credit Suisse (CHF 332 billion), Knight Capital Group ($1.17 billion),Interactive Brokers ($14.5 billion), Wells Fargo ($19.6 billion), JP Morgan($546.2 billion) and Morgan Stanley ($410 billion)." Sure enough, we predicted a firm would have to promptly step up and "deny all charges." To wit: "Oh Jefferies, Jefferies, Jefferies. Barely did you manage to escape the gauntlet of accusation of untenable gross (if not net) sovereign exposure, that you will soon, potentially as early as tomorrow, have to defend your zany rehypothecation practices." As it turns out Jefferies, and all the other mentioned banks tried to avoid this festering can of worms by completely ignoring the topic... until Interactive Brokers' response now demands that every single named bank has to do the same and come out with an outright explanation of why it has billions in hyper-hypothecation, or else not journalists and bloggers, but the market itself will suddenly start asking questions. Something tells us it will not be nearly as easy enough for the others to deny all charges...Incidentally, if this indeed becomes "the next big thing", what the potential collapse of (re) hypothection means is that PBs will be unable to lend out shares anymore, in effect collapsing stock shorting as there is one giant short stock recall/forced buy in. Ironicaly the unwind of the biggest market fraud could result in the entire market pulling one last "Volkswagen"style hurrah, before all hell breaks loose.
Appreciate the education today Newly and Lee.Please do keep this information coming.
Thank you Newly.
Silver---Zero Hedge
In what is likely the most logical follow up to our post of the day, namely the news of the lawsuit between HSBC and MF Global over double-counted gold, or physical - not paper - that was "commingled" via rehypothecating or otherwise, we present readers with the monthly note by Eric Sprott titled "Silver Producers: A Call to Action" in which the Canadian commodities asset manager has had enough of what he perceives as subtle and/or not so subtle manipulation of the precious metal market, and in not so many words calls the silver miners of the world "to spring to action" and effectively establish supply controls to silver extraction to counteract paper market manipulation in the paper realm by treating their product as a currency and retaining it as "cash". To wit: "instead of selling all their silver for cash and depositing that cash in a levered bank, silver miners should seriously consider storing a portion of their reserves in physical silver OUTSIDE OF THE BANKING SYSTEM. Why take on all the risks of the bank when you can hold hard cash through the very metal that you mine? Given the current environment, we see much greater risk holding cash in a bank than we do in holding precious metals. And it serves to remember that thanks to 0% interest rates, banks don’t pay their customers to take on those risks today." And the math: "If silver miners were therefore to reinvest 25% of their 2011 earnings back into physical silver, they could potentially account for 21% of the approximate 300 million ounces (~$9 billion) available for investment in 2011. If they were to reinvest all their earnings back into silver, it would shrink available 2011 investment supply by 82%. This is a purely hypothetical exercise of course, but can you imagine the impact this practice would have on silver prices?" And there you go: Sprott 'reputable' entity to propose to fight manipulation with what is effectively collusion, which in the grand scheme of things is perfectly normal - after all, all is fair in love and war over a dying monetary model. Who could have thought that the jump from "proletariats" to "silver miners" would be so short.
GM was very badly managed etc. Unions etc. Internal malfunction.
Mining companies, well managed are a world apart from GM.
I think we basically agree.
Newly, at least the mining shares have real assets .
ETFs I'm not sure what they have besides paper...
No one can disagree with you Newly. However, owning silver & gold mining shares is
very close to the actual physical.At a point soon..the mining shares will excel more than the bullion..Not buying silver miners here is imo going to leave people breathless.
all in mho.
sally
Olivut mining is run by Pierre Lassonde's daughter.
It is very low priced right now.
Lassonde was behind Newmont Gold.
He is head of New Gold at present.
i have a tiny position in Olivut.
I trade miners stocks Newly and I do just fine.
protesters can hire attorneys to sue the judge...
Europe- excerpt
Central Bank Disaster Planning
December 7th, 2011 | Author Pater Tenebrarum
Central Banks 'Planning for Euro Area Break-Up'
Before launching into the chart update, here are a few items that caught our attention. One was a Reuters report that European central banks that are members of the euro-system are quietly planning for a 'shock' that could lead to a break-up of the currency union.
As Reuters reports:
„Euro zone central bankers are looking at the possibility of a shock to the currency area that could trigger its partial break up and their priority in such a scenario would be to preserve the system's survivors, central bank officials say.
[…]
In private, euro zone central bank officials say a lot of the pieces in Europe's policy puzzle need to fall into place to calm financial markets and see off the crisis. An official at one of the bloc's 17 national central banks identified a collapse in a peripheral euro zone country's banking system as something that could trigger a break-up of the bloc in its existing form.
The ECB hosted a crisis communications exercise with officials from national euro zone central banks late last month that included a commercial bank collapse scenario. In the event of such a banking collapse leading to a country defaulting and – in a worst case scenario – leaving the euro zone, the central bank official said policymakers' priority would be to protect the rest of the bloc.
"In such a situation, we have to safeguard the rest of the system," the official said, adding that this could involve reshaping the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund and recapitalizing banks. Another euro zone central bank official pointed to Franco-German group Dexia as an example of a euro zone bank that recently got into trouble, requiring a government rescue, although the wider impact was limited.
The likely burden of bailing out Dexia led ratings agency Moody's to warn Belgium its Aa1 government bond ratings may fall. Standard & Poor's subsequently downgraded Belgium, saying funding and market risk pressures were raising the chances its financial sector will need more support.
HUSH HUSH
Euro zone central bank officials have privately cited market expectations for a 20-25 percent chance of a euro zone break-up, though they believe markets will turn more positive if governments deliver the tougher fiscal rules the ECB wants. They are loathe to speak about a "Plan B" – or crisis contingency planning – with heavy ECB involvement for fear that this will reduce governments' incentive to push ahead with "Plan A": implementing economic reforms, kick-starting the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund and adopting tighter fiscal rules.
"What I think is important at the moment is not showing politicians that there might be an alternative, because in their mind that might be less costly than the options they have," the central bank official said.
The ECB wants euro zone governments to agree a new "fiscal compact" and a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday is an opportunity to agree on treaty change to anchor coercive budget discipline in the bloc. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, however, that the "marathon" crisis will take years to solve.
In Britain, top officials are not waiting to see if their euro zone peers can deal with what Merkel says could be Europe's toughest hour since World War Two. Instead they are already discussing a potential euro zone break-up scenario.
"The government together with the FSA and the Bank of England are making contingency plans against a wide range of contingencies," Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week, without detailing the nature of the plans.“
(emphasis added)
Some contingency planning probably makes eminent sense at this point. Note in the portions of the article highlighted above that the 'disaster scenario' proceeds from the idea of a large commercial bank failure. This is testament to how rickety the banking system has become and makes Mario Monti's decision to enforce 'electronic payments' on amounts exceeding € 1,000 all the more odious. While this is officially clad as an attempt to create obstacles to tax evasion, it has the unfortunate side effect of forcing people to use the banking system whether or not they like to do so. One feels a bit reminded of the attempts of Sweden's socialist commissar-bureaucrats to create a 'cash-less' society (see 'Sweden Discusses Cash Ban' from last year) by forbidding cash transactions altogether – using the flimsiest of reasoning as their justification.
Is It All Over For Commerzbank?
Speaking of euro area banks in trouble, Germany's second largest bank, Commerzbank, appears to be in quite a bit of trouble. After revealing that it will need € 5 billion (at least) to remain in business and fulfill the new core tier one capital ratio requirements, rumors of the bank's imminent nationalization have begun to fly. The German government already owns 25% of the bank due to a previous bailout attempt.
As 'Der Spiegel' reports:
“Europe's banks urgently need fresh capital to meet tougher EU rules, but they will have problems raising it amid the current crisis of confidence plaguing the euro zone. The survival of Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest bank, is at stake, and Berlin is considering a full nationalization of the bank if necessary.
[..]
According to government sources, if Commerzbank doesn't manage to raise sufficient capital on its own by next summer, Berlin will reactivate the Special Fund for Financial Market Stabilization (Soffin) and purchase additional shares in the bank. The sources say that they assume the government would acquire a majority of the bank's shares in a capital increase.
But things haven't reached that stage yet – and they won't necessarily have to, either. Commerzbank management is working round the clock to solve the problem without government aid. It's a difficult job that will mainly have to be tackled by the new Chief financial Officer, Stephan Engels, who was appointed by the supervisory board last Friday.
If Commerzbank fails to meet the challenge, though, Blessing's days at the head of the commercial lending giant may very well be numbered. "I'm not going there again," he recently said, in reference to a government bailout of €16.2 billion ($21.7 billion) that the bank received in 2009. His statement was not well received in Berlin.”
We are as bad off here..... why do you think THEY are getting all the attention?
Maybe to deflect from us here....ya think..? Plus we as taxpayers pay for their bailouts...
Start tuning into Zero Hedge.I am from Cinti and the media there is really square..
Pants, hes on my list now
How much $ did you pull in today?
Thanks Panty
Canny- go to Harvey Organ.com read the Peter Tchir piece on Europe.Its the most accurate.
Pour yrself a triple brandy or--the equivalent.
As usual da boyz will grab all the cheap assets.
Another ominous view of the EU was reported by NewsMax.com on Friday. The story said, “Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King has told banks to get ready for a Eurozone collapse, according to The Courier newspaper in the United Kingdom. . . . “Maybe it won’t break up, maybe it will continue in various forms, but maybe there will still be questions of default.” (Click here for the complete story.) The default probability was echoed by Nigel Farage, Member of the European Parliament, who said Sunday the big intervention spearheaded last week by the Fed spells trouble. Farage said, “I think what it tells you is there must be, there just has to be, some very major banks that are teetering on the edge of collapse.” (Click here for more from Mr. Farage from King World News.)
Economist John Williams from Shadowstats.com said in his latest post, the downfall of the European Union is not near as troublesome to the world as a collapse of the U.S. dollar. Williams said, “In contrast, the deliberate debasement of the U.S. dollar, and the unwillingness or inability of the U.S. government to address its long-range insolvency, promise an ultimate collapse of the U.S. currency that will leave the U.S. dollar absolutely worthless to its holders. The hoopla out of the major central banks, on November 30th, over renewed coordinated global efforts at maintaining banking-system liquidity, suggested a rapidly deteriorating circumstance. Further, the continued lack of meaningful growth in either the U.S. broad money supply measure, or in domestic bank lending, remains suggestive of deteriorating banking stability in the United States.” (Click here to go to the Shadowstats.com homepage.)
More…
I was going to say..why sell now??
Canny, So now they can print euros....good fer gold..
what about the U.S. ??
Canny, Can you please give us a clue as to what you are alluding to...?
Thanks-
it doesn't have a fee ..ok then. I said I was ignorant.
Thank you.
Pants, Pardon my ignorance. How long do you stay in SDS...
and what about the fee..? all new to me.
Thanks
Portugal raids pension funds to meet deficit targets
Portugal has raided €5.6bn (£4.8bn) of pension fund assets in a controversial scramble to meet its deficit targets.
The Telegraph
Last Warning:
The two ETF's that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
Thus a default at either of the LBMA, or Comex will trigger a catastrophic event.
Harvey Organ
byyank--you don't blame Corzine...
what planet do you live on..?
Pants, your rambling is always appreciated. Keep it going.