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Northwestern Mutual Makes First Gold Buy in 152 Years
By Andrew Frye
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., the third-largest U.S. life insurer by 2008 sales, has bought gold for the first time the company’s 152-year history to hedge against further asset declines.
“Gold just seems to make sense; it’s a store of value,” Chief Executive Officer Edward Zore said in an interview following his comments at a conference hosted by Standard & Poor’s in Brooklyn. “In the Depression, gold did very, very well.”
Northwestern Mutual has accumulated about $400 million in gold, and Zore said the price could double or even rise fivefold if the economy continues to weaken. Gold gained 10 percent last month, the most since November. The commodity has more than tripled since 2000, rising for eight straight years. Gold futures for August delivery slipped $4.80 to $975.50 at 4:03 p.m. in New York.
“The downside risk is limited, but the upside is large,” Zore said. “We have stocks in our portfolio that lost 95 percent.” Gold “is not going down to $90.”
Policyholder-owned Northwestern Mutual, based in Milwaukee, ranks third by 2008 life insurance premiums according to data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The data excludes annuities.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in New York at afrye@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 1, 2009 16:34 EDT
Hi Heppie- planning to be there in Boston this fall. I am certainly looking forward to meeting everyone there at that time.
.......al
gold and silver on a mini tear today. how long before the ppt intervenes? or perhaps they are losing control.
..........al
from inventorspot.com:
http://inventorspot.com/articles/memorializing_your_legacy_quirky_caskets_and_earns_eternal_image_28115
2 nice images at the link
Once you die people honor your memory, and they grieve the loss. But who says once you die you have to give up the things that you believed in during your life - like your favorite sports teams, organizations, TV shows, or other cult phenomena? Well, until recently, traditional caskets and urns did by offering designs that don't allow the deceased to show off their personalities, even after death, to those that will forever carry the memory.
Star Trek EarnStar Trek Earn
Eternal Image ensures that no matter what happens, your memory is exactly what you want it to be, even after you have been placed in the grave. Their variety of unique caskets and earns include themes like the Vatican Library, Major League Baseball, Precious Moments, Star Trek, and Cat Fanciers which honor your favorite deceased feline and American Kennel Club to remember your beloved canine.
Major League Baseball EarnMajor League Baseball Earn
An added bonus when buying unique caskets and earns from Eternal Image, is that a portion of the purchase goes to a related charity or cause to help endorse the Vatican Library or the American Kennel Club. So, not only can you ensure that your legacy lives on after your death, you can support a worthy cause!
PMs on a small tear. According to Casey funds are loading up. What do they know?
.........al
and silver. eom.
We got a small write up today:
http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2009/05/20/after_death_decadence?page=full&comments=true
It’s a sure sign of decadence when a society treats dead bodies with callousness, mocking cruelty, levity and disrespect.
A recent headline in the New York Times gave evidence of such degradation while suggesting the sort of outrageous parody best suited for “The Onion.”
“CADAVER SEX EXHIBITION IN GERMANY IS CRITICIZED,” noted America’s Journal of Record and then reported on the latest ground-breaking show by the acclaimed artist, Gunther von Haugen. Herr von Haugen previously inspired controversy with his display “Bodies: The Exhibition,” which toured the United States and featured skinned and preserved human remains. His new triumph, “The Cycle of Life,” features actual corpses posed and frozen forever in a variety of simulated sex acts. While some critics in Berlin complained of the exhibit’s “tastelessness,” von Haugen and his supporters insisted that they used only bodies (and body parts) that came from “voluntary donors.”
The notion that any human being would view his own earthly remains so casually that he (or she) would welcome their deployment before gawking strangers as skinned sex toys in an avant garde art exhibit represents an appalling affront to human dignity.
Meanwhile, another (though far less ghastly) fad in the display of corpses illustrates a similarly unhealthy attitude in our own civilization.
A Michigan businessman recently launched a company called “Eternal Image” which encourages customers to journey to the next world adorned with the logo of their favorite baseball team. “Our goal is to take everyday household-brand names and integrate the design into funeral products,” says Clint Mytych. “We want to celebrate a person’s life.”
To facilitate that celebration, Mr. Mytych offers licensed Major League funeral urns, resembling large ceramic jars of baked beans, in which the ashes of the deceased are sealed with a replica of a regulation baseball. The urn rests on its own home plate, complete with the authorized MLB logo, suggesting that the departed has successfully rounded the bases and finally scored in the great beyond, now resting, appropriately, safe at home.
“We have sold so many baseball urns because people just want it around the house – they feel nothing will better honor their loved ones,” declared Mr. Mytych, a life-long Detroit Tigers fan. He reports that the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs provide the decoration for the most popular urns (suggested price $799). This fall, Eternal Image will begin offering Major League Baseball caskets (starting at $4,500) for fans choosing to avoid cremation. “It’s really a beautiful thing,” Dan Biggins, co-director of a funeral home in Rockland, Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe.
It’s easy to understand how the invocation of the innocence, purity and timelessness of baseball (without disturbing reminders of A-Rod and Barry Bonds, one hopes) could lighten mournful occasions with gentle smiles, but even the most committed fan ought to question the eternal significance of his team loyalty. Sure, I love my Seattle Mariners (and I grew up as a generally heart-broken devotee of the Philadelphia Phillies), but I’d hardly want my life’s deepest significance defined in terms of these recreational enthusiasms. When the promoters of Major League Funeral Urns suggest that the bereaved feel “nothing will better honor their loved ones” than the corporate logo of a favorite commercial franchise, it seems to trivialize the earthly journey of the departed.
In his new memoir “Losing Mum and Pup,” Christopher Buckley describes the death of his famous parents and recalls that his father, William F. Buckley, wanted his ashes planted in the midst of a huge metal cross in the garden of his long-time Connecticut home. One might question the tastefulness of such an arrangement or (as Christopher Buckley suggests) the reaction of future owners of the place, but it’s impossible to challenge the essential seriousness of WFB’s desire to associate himself, for eternity, with his Lord and Savior.
The yen for immortal connection with the Red Sox or Yankees, on the other hand (not to mention the Milwaukee Brewers or Minnesota Twins) seems to undermine rather than celebrate the idea of a life of purpose and meaning.
Touring historic grave yards (like the richly atmospheric Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven) evokes a time when even the most humble citizens hoped for a sense of family, community and continuity in their final resting places. A ceramic jar with a sports logo offers an artificial connection that constitutes a poor substitute for the after-death proximity of relatives and neighbors.
No, neither baseball-themed funerals, nor the wish of football enthusiasts to see their ashes scattered at the 50 yard line of favorite stadiums, amount to the hideous affront to decency demonstrated by Gunther von Haugen’s pornographic manipulation of shellacked cadavers in coitus.
But the common element involves a dismissive, materialist attitude that views the body as insignificant—unworthy of solemnity and respect. If our corpses amount to nothing more than dead flesh—a cheap collection of chemicals, ripe for decay – then there’s no reason to object to using those remains for after-death displays of sports mania or public exhibitions of aggressive eroticism. If we make light of our opportunities and obligations in life, then it stands to reason that we’ll shrug off our fate after death.
While our ancestors may wait through eternity for the arrival (or the return) of The Messiah, some of the honored dead of the present day anticipate with similarly fervent faith and altogether irrational certainty the long-promised re-appearance of the Chicago Cubs in the World Series.
Bob- that seems to be the hot item news right now in relation to the US dollar. Personally I think it's only a matter of time. I think I've stated it before on this board. The US won the cold war not with bombs and bullets, rather with simple economics. Don't think for one minute the Chinese aren't aware of that.
.......al
God bless Ron Paul:
By U.S. Rep. Ron Paul
Monday, May 18, 2009
http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20n...
I have been very pleased with the progress of my legislation, HR 1207, which calls for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve and removes many significant barriers towards transparency of our monetary system. This bill now has nearly 170 co-sponsors, with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a companion bill in the Senate S 604, which will hopefully begin to gain momentum as well. I am very encouraged to see so many of my colleagues in Congress stand with me for greater transparency in government.
Some have begun to push back against this bill, and I am very happy to address their concerns.
The main argument seems to be that congressional oversight over the Fed is government interference in the free market. This argument shows a misunderstanding of what a free market really is. Fundamentally, you cannot defend the Federal Reserve and the free market at the same time. The Fed negates the very foundation of a free market by artificially manipulating the price and supply of money -- the lifeblood of the economy. In a free market, interest rates, like the price of any other consumer good, are decentralized and set by the market. The only legitimate, constitutional role of government in monetary policy is to protect the integrity of the monetary unit and defend against counterfeiters.
Instead, Congress has abdicated this responsibility to a cabal of elite, quasi-governmental banks that, instead of stabilizing the economy, have destabilized it. It took less than two decades for the Federal Reserve to bring on the Great Depression of the 1930s. It has also inflated away the value of our currency by over 96 percent since its inception. It has invisibly stolen from the poor and given to the rich through this controlled inflation, and now openly stolen through recent bank bailouts. It has predictably exacerbated the very problems it was meant to solve.
Detractors have also argued that the Fed must remain immune from the political process, and that that more congressional oversight would distort their very important decisions. On the contrary, the Federal Reserve is already heavily entrenched in the political process, as the Fed chairman is a political appointee. High level officials routinely make the rounds between positions at the Fed, member banks, Treasury, and back again, taking care of friends and each other along the way.
As far as the foolishness of placing complex monetary policy decisions in the hands of politicians -- I couldn't agree more. No politician or central banker, no matter how brilliant, is smart enough to know more than the market itself. The failure of central economic planning has been witnessed over and over. It is frankly beyond me why we ever agreed to try it again.
To understand how unwise it is to have the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the magnitude of the privileges they have. They have been given the power to create money, by the trillions, and to give it to their friends, under any terms they wish, with little or no meaningful oversight or accountability. Thus the loudest arguments against greater transparency are likely to come from those friends, and understandably so.
However, it is the responsibility of every member of Congress to represent the interests of the people that sent them to Washington and find out what has been happening with our money. As the branch of government with the power of the purse, we really have no other reasonable choice when the economy is in the shape it is in.
Silver Surplus?
By: Theodore Butler
-- Posted 18 May, 2009 | Share this article | Discuss This Article - Comments: 1 Source: SilverSeek.com
First, a quick word on the current market structure, according to an analysis of the most recent Commitment of Traders Report (COT). The $2+ rally in silver prices off the recent lows was as a result of paper trading on the COMEX between the commercials and speculators, and not due to any notable developments in the real world of supply and demand. This is usually the case and was expected, given the nice COT set up I had written about previously http://www.investmentrarities.com/04-14-09.html Simply put, the short term price moves are still COMEX-generated.
Whereas there was very little price risk before the recent rally, commercial selling and speculator buying on the rally has moved us away from the very low-risk situation that previously existed. As expected, the raptors (the smaller commercials) did most of the selling, liquidating long positions, but there was also some new short selling from the big concentrated shorts (which I was hoping wouldn’t take place). Does this mean we could go down short term? Sure. Does this mean we could still go up short term? Sure. Does this mean if we do have a sharp sell-off it will only be due to manipulative tricks by the commercials on the COMEX? Absolutely. What does this have to do with the long term? Absolutely nothing. The long term has more to do with the subject of today’s article.
The release of the Silver Institute’s Annual World Survey has resulted in a rash of stories suggesting a large surplus of silver. According to the story, if it was not for record investment demand, the price of silver would have declined because of the surplus. As you probably know, analyzing the specifics of supply and demand is exactly what I do, so I am going to present the specifics as I see them.
Let’s define the words "surplus" and "deficit" in the context of this report. A surplus is where you end up with more of something than you started with, after all supply and demand factors are considered. A deficit means you ended up with less.
I’ve had much experience in dealing with alleged silver surpluses. In the mid-1980’s, the idea of a silver surplus was widely accepted as responsible for the low price. In private reports, I wrote this was bogus, and that the only surplus was in paper short positions by the big commercials on the COMEX, same as now. Back then, the CFTC would routinely dismiss my allegations of a short side manipulation by pointing to the supposed silver surplus as the cause for depressed prices.
With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear there was no silver surplus back then and that the CFTC and any others who clung to that supposition were dead wrong. My proof? The fact that we have much less silver bullion above ground today than we had back then, to the tune of billions of ounces. Billions of ounces don’t disappear in a surplus, only in a deficit. a hard look at the facts will confirm there was no surplus.
For the sake of this discussion, I’ll accept the figures provided in the survey, compiled by Gold Fields Mineral Services (GFMS) for the Silver Institute. But I must tell you that there is some doubt to the accuracy. There are some notable discrepancies in their figures compared with an earlier report by the CPM Group, another recognized statistical provider. One key discrepancy was the GFMS mine production figure of 681 million ounces, which was 130 million ounces, or 23% larger than CPM’s figure. Truth is that I feel both services understate the real fundamental situation in silver. From the figures, I don’t think a case can be made for a surplus. The survey can be found at www.silverinstitute.org Here is the pertinent table from the Silver Institute:
World Silver Supply and Demand (million ounces)
(totals may not add due to rounding)
Supply
2007
2008
Mine Production
664.2
680.9
Net Government Sales
42.3
30.9
Old Silver Scrap
181.9
176.6
Producer Hedging
-
-
Implied Net Disinvestment
-
-
Total Supply
888.4
888.4
Demand
2007
2008
Fabrication
Industrial Applications
453.5
447.2
Photography
124.8
104.8
Jewelry
163.5
158.3
Silverware
58.8
57.3
Coins & Medals
39.7
64.9
Total Fabrication
840.3
832.6
Producer De-hedging
23.5
5.6
Implied Net Investment
24.7
50.2
Total Demand
888.4
888.4
There are only a few key figures we need focus on. The first is the 2008 mine production number of 680.9 million ounces. Although it is not spelled out in the Survey’s highlights, to my knowledge, this is the largest amount of silver ever mined in history, a notable achievement.
Next, I’m going to ask you to jump to Total Fabrication. (I’ll come back to the other supply components in a moment). First, let’s define fabrication as the conversion of a raw material into a finished product. Total Fabrication for 2008 is 832.6 million ounces.
Let’s stop and compare the two numbers I have highlighted so far. According to the Survey, the world fabricated, or converted into finished products, 151.7 million more ounces of silver than it mined, even though it mined a record amount. This is an important point. As it has for more than 70 years, the world fabricated more silver than it mined. Every single ounce of mined silver was fabricated (consumed) and then some. No surplus so far.
Of course, you can’t use or fabricate silver that doesn’t exist. So after using all the silver that was mined, the 152 million ounces that were fabricated above and beyond mine production had to come from somewhere. That somewhere was from the other sources of supply. Those sources include recycled silver scrap of 176.6 million ounces and net government sales of 30.9 million ounces, or a total of 207.5 million ounces.
Adding this 207.5 million ounces to mine production of 680.9 million ounces, gives us a total supply of 888.4 million ounces, as indicated in the report. Subtracting total fabrication demand of 832.6 million ounces from total supply of 888.4 million ounces leaves a total of 55.8 million ounces. This 56 million ounces is what many are referring to as a surplus. Not so fast.
The 30.9 million ounces that came from net government sales is listed as supply, but this is clearly silver that came from existing inventories of silver, not new production. Therefore, it automatically reduces the amount of existing stocks by that same amount. Further, GFMS states elsewhere in their presentation that world government silver stocks are around 72 million ounces and near exhaustion. What they didn’t say is that these remaining government silver stocks are the lowest in more than 500 years. Remember our definition of "surplus?" Since this 30.9 million ounces of "supply" was just a withdrawal from existing inventory, we must subtract it from the 55.8 million ounce "surplus", because it didn’t add to the amount of silver in existence. This leaves us with a 24.9 million ounce surplus.
Likewise, a certain amount of the recycled old scrap of 176.6 million ounces undoubtedly came from silver from above ground stocks, thereby not qualifying as adding to a surplus. If we use a conservative 25 million ounces from above ground inventory, it means we had no surplus at all. The Silver Institute’s numbers prove no silver surplus, since no silver was added to bullion inventory.
Some may be disappointed that there was no big deficit in the silver market, as had been the case for more than 60 years. But no one should be surprised. This is something I started writing about more than two years ago http://www.investmentrarities.com/03-20-07.html The simple fact is that world silver inventories have been depleted to such an extent, some 95% over the past half-century, that there is little silver left to support a continued deficit. There are about one billion ounces of silver bullion equivalent inventories left in the world. This report shows no big additions or subtractions from that inventory.
Some may claim that the fabricated silver adds to the above ground inventory, particularly jewelry, silverware and coins, like American Silver Eagles. I agree that such silver still exists, but because it is not available for melting into bullion form at anywhere near current prices, it shouldn’t be counted as bullion-equivalent inventory. For instance, there must be near 200 million ounces of Silver Eagles fabricated over the life of the 23 year program from the US Mint, yet I doubt even a single Eagle has ever been melted for its silver content because they can be sold at a premium to their silver content. Why melt something to get less than you could sell it for? Same with the other forms of silver fabrication. Look at current recycling patterns, gold objects are being melted in record quantities, silver objects are not. When and if that changes, we’ll consider it as inventory.
Aside from proving there was no surplus in silver in 2008, the survey pointed out that investment demand was the dominant factor responsible for the price rise to the highest level in 28 years. Investment demand in silver is unique from other commodities. That’s because silver is both an industrial commodity and, as one of the two popular precious metals, a primary investment asset. No other commodity has that dual role. There is little direct investment in other industrial commodities, like crude oil, copper, zinc, or lead.
In gold, there is widespread investment buying, but little industrial consumption. That means that gold inventories always grow, while silver inventories have shrunk for 65 years. Funny, how there is little talk of surplus in gold, despite almost no industrial consumption, yet there is constant talk of surplus in silver, where every ounce mined and recycled is absorbed by industrial fabrication.
Net silver investment demand has been a very rare occurrence over the past 25 years. It only emerged over the past three years. What makes silver investment demand so unique is that virtually no current production and supply is available for investment. All of it is spoken for. The only quantities available for investment are from existing inventories provided by sales from existing silver owners. Considering how little silver remains in terms of ounces and in dollar amounts, it makes silver potentially explosive. Plus, the silver held today appears to be in strong and diverse hands. A relatively small amount of capital coming into silver can have an outsized impact.
The Silver Institute and GFMS do not address this possibility. They are not given to promoting silver. If anything, there is always a negative underlying tone regarding silver’s future price prospects in their reports. Why the silver miners support the Silver Institute and pay for that negative price tone is a mystery. They should form their own promotional organization, like the gold miners have done with the World Gold Council.
Nowhere in the survey is any mention of the concentrated short position in COMEX silver, even though the amount held short is documented at running in the hundreds of millions of ounces. Nowhere in the survey is any mention of the constant debate about manipulation of the price of silver. It’s as if sticking their heads in the sand will make it go away for the Silver Institute and GFMS. Nowhere in the survey is there any mention of the investigation by the Enforcement Division of the CFTC. I’m not holding my breath that the incompetent CFTC will do the right thing, but nothing could be more important in any objective annual review of any commodity than the fact that the chief regulator of that commodity is conducting an active investigation concerning manipulation.
While the Silver Institute is reporting on record silver investment demand, they never predicted it. They have never made bullish predictions on silver, no matter what the facts. I, on the other hand, predicted the investment rush in silver http://www.investmentrarities.com/01-22-08.html I bring it up, not to pat myself on the back, but to explain why we should continue to see strong silver investment demand.
The silver story is so compelling, and the facts so clear, that more investors will learn of it as time passes. There will be lulls in investment buying and surges, as there has been in the past. But it will continue. The amount of silver coming out of the ground and through recycling is spoken for by fabrication and that’s not about to change. The amount of silver remaining in existing inventories and available for investment purchase is limited and not about to change. The number of investors who will come to learn of the remarkable facts concerning the silver story, however, must change and their buying will tilt the equation against the manipulators. As more people become educated to the real silver story, they will buy. Phony stories about surpluses won’t prevent that.
Finally, to set the record straight, I unintentionally snubbed a friend in last week’s article about President Johnson’s speech announcing the removal of silver from coinage in 1965. Charles Savoie wrote of this in great detail some three years ago. http://www.silver-investor.com/charlessavoie/cs_march06_lbjgwbsilver.htm I read the article back then, but it had slipped my mind. Sorry Charlie.
33 trillion dollar question, from John Mauldin. Too many charts to cut and paste, so I apologize and just post the link. This is a must read for anyone that thinks the worst is over.
......al
http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2009/05/11/the-33-000-000-000-000-question.aspx
WIFT- O/S from TA as of 4/22/09:
179,613,815
reality check-
As with most of us on board, I too am looking forward to the uplist. Tho perhaps we have differing reasons. What the uplist is to me is the 10K that will come with it and hopefully the 10Q for the quarter. To say I'm anxious to get a look at those documents is an understatement. Yes the uplist will open the stock to many more investors that won't touch a pinkie. Yes we will probably get a small spike in share price also. What we will not see is "to da moon" and with respect to those waiting for that moon shot, gratefully so. Remember parabolas fall just as fast as they rise. They also encourage daytraders and swing traders who can really distort the true value of a company's shares. I'm not against the traders as I've done my share(on other companies) in the past and will do so again. Some will most certainly disagree but I just think our company is worth more than a delight for daytraders. Those of you that are in for the long haul should read those numbers on the K and compare them to the recent Q. Each new one that comes out make more comparisons. That's where the real story is and always will be. Daily price movements? Mostly laughable at best. Ks and Qs showing increasing sales and revenues? Our bread and butter. So sit back, relax and have a beer with Heppie. 2012 is not that far away. Wish I could join you but I've got 5 acres of grass to cut. GL2 all here.
..........al
My previous post and I'm sure lurker will agree was NOT meant to start any reverse split rumors. It was mentioned in a previous reply post and I expounded on it a little.THERE ARE NO PLANS FOR ANY KIND OF REVERSE SPLIT NOR ARE THERE ANY RUMORS OF ONE.
.......al
Don- very good analysis. I've done numbers crunching in the past and came up with very similar results. Altho I worked it from a market capitalization viewpoint, the ratios worked out almost the same. It's a tough call IMHO. I've had penny stocks in the past that have skyrocketed to market caps of $500 million + on no sales or earnings, just potential. I would have to agree with lurker that a small R/S would be necessary to reach $2 share price, altho a buying frenzy could propel it there with the current share structure. I don't count on it tho. If they do have to R/S for a move to a higher exchange I would hope they handle it better than the last one. A better move would be a share buyback. Companies buying back shares are almost always a good sign of a profitable well run company. This is all in the future and I'm sure nothing is set in stone. What we need now are the K's and Q's. The delays in uplisting have not been healthy for the stock.
.........al
I have been following precious metals for a very long time and this is the first I've heard of this law:
Does Your State Prohibit You From Purchasing
Precious Metals Offshore?
By Mark Nestmann
An increasing number of Americans are concerned enough about the threat of precious metals confiscation that they want to store gold or silver overseas. But laws in effect in 21 states may stand in their way.
I learned about these laws a few weeks ago when I received a phone call from a Sovereign Society member in Arizona. He wanted to buy gold from a foreign dealer for storage offshore, but the dealer refused to sell to him. The reason: the Arizona Model Commodities Act.
After some research, I learned that 21 states have enacted the MCA or some variation of it: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
I looked into the Nevada law, which a lawyer in that state told me was typical of MCAs in other states. Basically, residents of Nevada can purchase "commodities" only under circumstances which effectively exclude having precious metals delivered a non-U.S. storage facility.
The MCA came into existence in the 1980s, after a series of commodities scams in the 1970s. One of the most notorious ones was International Gold Bullion Exchange (IGBE). Beginning in 1979, William and James Alderdice built their tiny jewelry business in Fort Lauderdale into a multi-million-dollar enterprise with over 1,000 employees.
IGBE advertised in The Wall Street Journal, Barrons, and many other respected financial publications. In exchange for discount prices, customers waited three months or more for delivery. But many customers never received anything. When authorities finally caught up with IGBE, much of the gold supposedly stored for customers turned out to be railroad ties painted gold. In the end, customers lost millions of dollars.
With this background, it's not surprising that states acted to protect their residents from commodities scams. But the laws appear to prohibit commodities purchases for delivery overseas.
Fortunately, companies that sell precious metals for storage overseas have developed some creative ways to deal with these laws. One option is for the buyer to use the address of a friend or family member in a non-MCA state. Another is to purchase the metals through an IRA with a custodian in a non-MCA state. A third is to sell the metals to an offshore structure that the buyer controls or is a beneficiary.
Ultimately, though, the lesson of IGBE and similar scams is "buyer beware." Wherever you buy, if you don't take physical possession of precious metals you purchase, make sure that the company you're dealing with is storing real gold, si
I read that same article earlier. My initial reaction was one of mild outrage. Then I really began to think about it in depth. Our lawmakers have failed us. The regulators that are supposed to protect our interests have failed us. Goldman Sachs and company are running the show in Washington. How much trust should we have left in the people that are supposed to be responsible to insure a level playing field? Is it possible that regulators that are not under the influence of politics and lobbyists with wads of money to dole out will do a better job protecting us from the fraud, graft and corruption that seems to be running rampant in our own domestic economy? I don't know. But it is the other side of the coin.
........al
interesting:
link to whole article with the graphs:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/Pfv1.cfm?pfvID=7787&SearchParam=Adrian%20Douglas
4/29 Adrian Douglas - BIG MONEY MOVING INTO COMEX GOLD & SILVER CALL OPTIONS
BIG MONEY MOVING INTO COMEX GOLD & SILVER CALL OPTIONS
By Adrian Douglas
In November 2005 when gold was trading about $450 I predicted the mega-move in gold up to $720/oz by noticing a very large build-up of call options in the HUI component shares http://www.marketforceanalysis.com/Pubished%20Articles/assets/Explosive%20Rise%20in%20Gold%20Mining%20Shares%20Coming.pdf)
In August 2007 I identified a massive Gold call option build-up in the COMEX DEC 2007 contract and predicted a big gold move (http://www.marketforceanalysis.com/Published_Articles07_assets/COMEX%20GOLD%20OPTION%20OI.pdf ). Gold was trading at $660/oz at the time and ran up to over $1000/oz by March 2008.
In July of 2008 I noticed a similar build-up in the COMEX December Call options indicating a major upward move in gold before the end of 2008. Considering what transpired in the financial markets from July to December 2008, after I made this prediction, it made perfect sense. We now know, however, that two large banks, probably JPMorgan and HSBC, sold a massive amount of futures short in July 2008 equivalent to 10% of global gold production and changed the intuitive direction of the gold market into a counter-intuitive one. As a result the CFTC was obliged to take note and commenced an investigation into both the silver and gold markets on the COMEX for manipulation. So I think a rain-check is deserved on the 2008 market call until the CFTC officially declares the manipulation or the market blows up (I think the latter will happen before the former!)
It just recently came to my attention from two different confidential sources that JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have been buying large amounts of Calls in gold and silver. This made me put on my gumshoes and take a serious poke around the COMEX option open interest once again.
Figure 1 shows the cumulative Open Interest across all strike prices for the COMEX Gold Call positions and the Put positions for the JUN 09 options.
Figure 1
If you read up vertically from any value of the strike price to the red line it says how many Put options are in-the-money at that price and on the green line the total number of Call option contracts that are in the money. For example, at a gold price of $750/oz a total of 40,000 Put option contracts would be in the money. For a gold price around $1000 a total of 60,000 Call options would be in the money.
The ratio of Calls to Puts is 1.81 so Bulls outnumber Bears dramatically. What is also remarkable is the amount of open interest. For example, 100,000 contracts would be in-the-money if the gold price runs to $1250/oz in the next 30 days. This is an astounding amount of option OI considering the open interest in all the futures contracts stands at only 345,000 contracts!
Let’s take a look at Figure 2 which is for DEC 2009
Figure 2
The bets by bulls outnumber those by the bears by a 2.3 to 1 ratio which is even more bullish than for JUN 2009. The Total Call option interest is 113,663 contracts which is very similar to JUN 09. Furthermore if gold is trading at around $1600 by DEC then 100,000 contracts will be in the money!
I consider option players highly sophisticated speculators. Such large bets are likely being made by some large money interests who are buying out of the money options BEFORE going into the futures market. Buying long futures in large volumes will rapidly drive up the gold price but the massive open interest in the Call Options then allow access to much more futures contracts at the same price by exercising the options and then perhaps taking delivery of the gold. This is bolstered by sources revealing that JPM and GS are buying in quantity. So on the part of JPM this is likely a ploy to try to cover a chunk of their massive short position.
Let’s now look at silver. Figure 3 shows the cumulative Open Interest across all strike prices for the COMEX Silver Call positions and the Put positions for the JUL 09 options. The ratio of Calls to Puts is 1.80 so Bulls outnumber Bears by 80%. What is also remarkable is the amount of open interest. For example, 18,800 contracts would be in-the-money if the silver price runs to $25/oz in the next 60 days. This is an extraordinary amount of option OI considering the open interest in all the futures contracts stands at only 94,000 contracts!
Figure 3
Figure 4 shows the cumulative Open Interest across all strike prices for the COMEX Silver Call positions and the Put positions for the DEC 09 options. The ratio of Calls to Puts is 1.68 so Bulls outnumber Bears by 68%. Again the total Open Interest in Calls is high at almost 25,000 contracts when the Open Interest in all futures currently stands at 94,000 contracts.
Figure 4
I conclude that smart money is being placed for a massive rise in the gold price in the next 30 days and silver in the next 60 days (which probably means within 30 days for both metals) and again by December. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a pullback in between the two events. This money could not go in to the futures market without blowing the lid off the price as it would represent such a large increase in open interest. Going into the out-of-the-money option market allows flying below the radar.
The CALL/PUT ratio on the stock market is usually a contrarian indicator because the average, unsophisticated retail investor will buy options and the average retail investor gets it wrong and chases the market move most of the time. Only sophisticated traders tend to be in the precious metals option market so when there is a huge build up betting on a particular direction that is typically a directional indicator as I have shown was the case for the last two big moves in the precious metal bull.
The flat contango in gold and silver suggests there is a shortage developing of precious metals for delivery. We know that two large banks hold almost 100% of the commercial net short position. They need desperately to cover their exposure if the market is about to make a big move. It looks as if that is precisely what is happening.
Adrian Douglas
April 29, 2009
www.marketforceanalysis.com
Market Force Analysis is a unique analysis method which provides reliable indications of market turning points and when is a good time to enter, take some profits or exit a market. Subscribers receive bi-weekly bulletins on the markets to which they subscribe.
Copyright 1999 - 2009 Le Metropole Cafe. All rights reserved.
I hope this part is accurate- nice find btw
One company, Eternal Image, already turns over in excess of 600k annually in this niche business.
..........al
Chrysler to file bankruptcy- simple greed by hedge funds seems to be the cause.
.....al
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chrysler LLC is going to file for bankruptcy, an administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.
The filing comes after some of the company's smaller lenders refused a Treasury Department demand to reduce the amount of money the troubled automaker owed them.
Chrysler officials had no comment on the bankruptcy report. The company faces a Thursday deadline from the Treasury Department to reach deals with creditors who had loaned the company about $7 billion.
But the filing will not mean the halt of operations or liquidation for the troubled 85-year old automaker. Instead, the administration expects to use the bankruptcy process to join Chrysler with Italian automaker Fiat.
In addition, the United Auto Workers union announced late Wednesday night that its membership at Chrysler had overwhelmingly ratified a concession contract reached between the company and union leadership on Sunday night.
President Obama said during a press conference Wednesday night that he was more confident than he had been 30 days ago that Chrysler would be able to emerge from the process as a healthy, competitive company. He is set to comment on the state of the auto industry at noon on Thursday.
The administration said Wednesday evening that talks with the smaller lenders broke down when they refused to meet a deadline set by the Treasury Department to accept pennies on the dollars they had loaned the company.
"After a month of tireless negotiations, the Administration went into yesterday afternoon with the full support of Chrysler's key stakeholders, including the [United Auto Workers union] and the largest creditors. That support remains," said an administration official.
Major banks such as Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) agreed to reduce their portion of $7 billion in secured loans to a more manageable $2.25 billion, according to the administration official. But some smaller lenders, including hedge funds, refused to accept the deal.
"The agreement of all other key stakeholders ensured that no hedge fund could have a veto over Chrysler's future success," said the administration official.
"Their failure to act in either their own economic interest or the national interest does not diminish the accomplishments made by Chrysler, Fiat and its stakeholders nor will it impede the new opportunity Chrysler now has to restructure and emerge stronger going forward," the official added.
Chrysler and the rest of the auto industry have been hit by a sharp plunge in sales due to the global recession and tighter credit. Chrysler's U.S. sales during the first three months of this year were down 46% from year ago levels. That followed an industry-worst 30% slide in sales last year.
Being privately held, Chrysler has not released its financial results for recent years. But the company needed a $4 billion federal loan in the closing days of the Bush administration to avoid running out of cash, while rival General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) received the first of what turned out to be $15.4 billion in federal loans so far.
Those federal bailouts staved off an uncontrolled bankruptcy at Chrysler that could have caused a rash of failures across the auto supplier industry and disrupted production at other automakers. Chrysler owes its suppliers about $7 billion, according to the latest figures available from the company. Some of those suppliers could still be hurt by the bankruptcy filing.
Chrysler asked Treasury for $6 billion in additional help in order to stay in business and weather the current crisis. But that amount assumed that Chrysler would not need to file for bankruptcy. It is possible that even more federal help may be required to fund operations during a bankruptcy reorganization.
Chrysler is only a fraction of its former self. It has about 39,000 U.S. employees, only about 40% of the total it had at the beginning of the decade. It has fallen behind not only Toyota Motor (TM) in sales, but it is close to being overtaken by Honda (HMC) for the No. 4 spot for U.S. sales.
The company also has about 3,300 dealers who between them have 140,000 employees. It also has 65,000 U.S. retirees as well as their family members who depend upon the company for pension benefits and heath care coverage.
It is not yet certain how many employees at Chrysler and its dealers will be affected by the company's bankruptcy.
Captain Jim- there is something seriously wrong if that is accepted as OT by admin. Please keep us informed. Thanks
........al
From GATA this morning
By Patrick A. Heller
Numismaster.com, Iola, Wisconsin
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=663...
Several major news stories broke last week that all should have sent the price of gold soaring. Gold did rise 5.3 percent, which did not reflect the importance of the developments.
There is a theme to the eight news items cited here. China has been buying large amounts of gold, it wants even more and the U.S. banking system is still in dire straits.
What this means is obvious, but if you are willing to dive in with me here, the details follow.
Let's look at these news items, then discuss why the price of gold, in my judgment, did not fully react.
Story 1: About 10 days ago, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee filed a new set of Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to seek information on the U.S. government's gold swap activities. The first attempt to dislodge this information was filed in December 2007, with dismal results. After carefully analyzing the loopholes used by the Treasury and Federal Reserve to avoid disclosing the requested information, these revised FOIA requests include detailed instructions to overcome the government's obstacles. For example, one FOIA request noted that the agency was unable to uncover where its own public Web site discussed gold swaps.
Story 2: The federal government has conducted "stress tests" of individual banks to help find out which were financially strong, or average, or in serious trouble. It was reported that these tests were completed a few weeks ago, but the government was slow to release the results.
On April 19, the Turner Radio network reported that it had obtained a copy of the results of the stress tests and passed along a summary of more than 10 points. Among these summaries were statements that 16 of the nation's largest banks were already technically insolvent and that the failure of any two of these institutions would wipe out the current assets of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
On April 20, the Treasury Department issued a statement claiming that it was not possible for Turner to have had the information as the Treasury Department itself had not yet seen the information. Release of the information was promised for April 24.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve prohibited any banks from discussing the results of their stress test.
In mid-week the Associated Press reported that it also had obtained a copy of the bank stress test report and confirmed the information reported by Turner Radio. It also said that the Treasury Department was lying when it claimed on the 20th to have not yet seen the test results.
On April 24, the official unveiling of the stress test results only included the bare minimum information, stating that large banks should beef up their capital to strengthen the entire financial system. The reports neglected to cover the specific points listed by the Turner Radio network. The mainstream media dutifully picked up the government's spoon-fed version of the stress test results without any serious questioning.
Story 3: On April 24, Bloomberg reported an analysis released by Washington Service of Bethesda, Md., stating that insiders at New York Stock Exchange-listed companies in the first 20 days of April had sold more than eight times the amount of stock that they had purchased.
According to William Stone, the Chief Investment Strategist for PNC Financial Services Group Inc., "They should know more than outsiders would, so you could take it as a signal that there is something wrong if they're selling."
This was the fastest rate of insider selling since stocks hit a major peak in October 2007. The rate of insider purchases was on track to be the lowest for any month since July 1992. In the past, such lopsided insider selling versus buying has been followed by stock market declines.
Story 4: Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis testified under oath for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that last December he had notified the federal government that the bank had discovered huge new losses ("material adverse changes") at Merrill Lynch and was going to exercise an escape clause to cancel the bank's takeover of the brokerage firm. Upon hearing this, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson blatantly told Lewis, at the behest of Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, that Bank of America had to go through with the takeover or all of the bank's directors and senior management would be fired. The federal government did not want the public to become aware of the weakness of Merrill Lynch and the U.S. banking system that the cancellation of the transaction might expose. Bank of America then closed the Merrill Lynch purchase deal.
Paulson's testimony to Cuomo largely confirms the details of Lewis' testimony.
In effect, Lewis labeled Paulson and Bernanke as blackmailers. Their actions in this matter also show them as liars in repeatedly stating that the U.S. banking system is sound and solid.
The letter with these details released by Cuomo's office puts the Bank of America and possibly the federal government at risk of being sued by bank shareholders for actions taken against the best interest of the bank's owners. Note: Bernanke has denied making any of the statements in the letter that are attributed to him.
Story 5: At the G20 meeting, the International Monetary Fund was pressed to sell 403 tons of its gold reserves to be used to ease the global financial crisis. China has since gone on record as advocating that the IMF sell its entire 3,217 tons of gold holdings. The Chinese central bank may be looking to purchase another 4,000 tons of gold, which is a larger amount than all the gold reserves reported by the IMF, and is also larger than those held by all but a handful of the world's central banks. At a price of $1,000 per ounce, China would need barely five percent of its central bank reserves to buy this much gold.
In effect, if the IMF does not sell a lot of gold, and sell it soon, that supply shortage could help drive up the price of gold.
A reason that China may be pressing the IMF to sell gold and why the Chinese central bank may want to add gold reserves is a long-term plan to revalue gold, similar to what U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt did in 1933.
Story 6: In 2008, 1.7 million American homes were lost to foreclosure. In 2009 Lazard Asset Management forecasts 2.1 million U.S. home losses. Despite regular news reports trying to portray positive news about the real estate market, the truth is that foreclosure rates should continue rising at least until early summer. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. All you have to do is look at delinquency rates and foreclosure notices. How will the U.S. financial system react to this surge in bad debts?
Story 7: After so much fuss was made at the G20 meeting about the IMF possibly selling gold, the subject has either been dropped or been reclassified as a very low priority task. In the last few days, the IMF has said instead that it plans to sell bonds to finance its activities. Several years ago, these fund-raising activities were supposedly being done to help the world's poor people. Now the IMF is raising funds to support central banks and governments. This shift in emphasis at the IMF adds credence to the assertions by several analysts, including me, that the IMF gold sale will never occur.
Story 8: On April 24, the Xinhua News Agency reported that China's gold reserves had increased from 600 tons at the end of 2002 to 1,054 tons, a rise of 76 percent. Until this announcement, the Chinese central bank had continued to report only the 600 tons in reserves. The spokesman claimed that all gold had been purchased from domestic mine sources.
This 14.6 million ounce increase in reserves has been almost precisely reported by GATA ever since September 2003. GATA has a confidential source that was told in 2003 by a man, who insisted on speaking behind a screen to avoid disclosing his identity, that there was a large buyer of gold entering the market. This source was able to identify the agent acting on behalf of the buyer and quickly deduced that the buyer was from the Far East and almost certainly Chinese.
Over the years, this confidential source was able to learn the price levels at which the buyer was planning to make purchases, and the approximate size of purchases being planned. With the revelations by the Chinese central bank, the information reported by GATA (some on GATA's Web site and some on GATA chairman Bill Murphy's LeMetropoleCafe.com subscription Web site ) has largely been confirmed.
The impact of this announcement has ramifications far beyond that fact that China has been buying gold without reporting it. The World Gold Council and major precious metals consultancies such at GFMS regularly report gold supply and demand statistics that are widely quoted in the financial press. None of their reports include the Chinese central bank gold purchases as part of gold demand. Even more damaging to their reputations, these reports do not show any gold supply to cover what the Chinese have purchased.
Let me make this explicit. The gold purchased by the Chinese could not have come from mine production, recycling, investor liquidation, or announced government sales. Almost certainly the gold bought by the Chinese had to come from other central banks that secretly sneaked these supplies on the market.
In other words, the supply-and-demand statistics used by the mainstream financial press have been wrong for years. The question is how large are the errors. GATA researchers assert that the annual supply and demand statistics reported by the World Gold Council and GFMS could easily be off by 50 percent. With GATA's enhanced credibility confirmed by China's admission of their gold purchases, the mainstream financial press should seriously examine their data.
By the way, the way the Chinese government operates is not open and direct. Changes in policy are signaled by speeches or papers by lesser officials. And has been shown repeatedly, when the Chinese government issues a statement that it is considering something such as purchasing gold, they really mean they have already been actively doing it. It is entirely possible that China's central bank gold reserves are much higher than they now confirm. (GATA has documented higher purchases than the Chinese have admitted.)
Another note: GATA's special source says that the Chinese are looking to remain a buyer of gold as long as the price is under the $940-$960 range.
One last note on this subject: All the implications of the increase in Chinese gold reserves are positive for higher gold prices and negative for the U.S. dollar. So naturally the U.S. government has a huge interest in seeing this story get as little coverage as possible. In the weekend edition of the Financial Times of London, this story was front-page news. At the same time, The Wall Street Journal buried this news on Page B-6. My local newspaper, issued in Michigan's capital, did not even include this news.
So with all this positive news for the price of gold, why did the price only rise 5.3 percent last week? I think the answer is obvious. The U.S. government is trying to hold off further financial crises as long as possible. One way to accomplish this is to suppress the price of gold. Gold serves as a report card on the value of the U.S. dollar. As long as the price of gold can be held in check, then it is easier to prop up the dollar. If the dollar starts to drop significantly, interest rates will soar, and foreign central banks will become more aggressive in dumping their dollar reserves.
U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., already revealed that the U.S. financial system was perilously close to collapse at 2 p.m. last Sept. 18, 2008. With all the above news hitting in such a short time, it is entirely possible that the U.S. economy could have crashed last week.
If you still don't think it's time to consider owning gold or silver, you probably never will.
Just a little first hand DD:
Last week my wife and I returned from our daughter's wedding held in Tampa, Fla. The last part of the trip was a wedding cruise out of Tampa to Cozumel, Mexico and back. So in Cozumel she shopped until I dropped ( a little sympathy if you please ). Hopefully the flu bug wasn't there yet back then. Today she tells me that every other time she was in Mexico there were always little stands and shops in the large verandas loaded with Mexican silver items. It seemed that everybody had silver for sale, not surprising in Mexico. This time with the rare exception of a few small shops, the only silver available was in the larger jewelry stores on the main drag. Everything I've been saying to her came together with one little thought about a recent trip. If silver is hard to come by in Mexico, how bad is it in the rest of the world?
............al
Gotta love our Canadian neighbors:
http://www.torontosun.com/sports/othersports/2009/04/28/9272701-sun.html
Sports Other Sports
Blue Jays trying to corner the market on surgeries
By GARY LOEWEN
Last Updated: 28th April 2009, 3:03am
Just wondering: In a Stanley Cup playoff game, couldn't we, just once please, have a linesman waved out of the faceoff circle?
Pitching glitch
The past couple of seasons, the Blue Jays pitching staff has gone down harder than a team full of Cristiano Ronaldos.
Surgery for Casey Janssen, Shawn Marcum, Dustin McGowan ... other ailments sideline Jesse Litsch and B.J. Ryan ... even Ricky Romero's oblique strain is nothing to sneeze at.
You have to wonder if the Blue Jays have arranged a package deal with orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews:
Buy four Tommy John tendon transfers and get one free rotator cuff operation.
Gesundheit
That Ricky Romero sneezing injury seems kind of improbable.
Obviously, it was quite a blow.
But for a well-conditioned, young athlete to pull a muscle while sneezing -- well, if it wasn't so embarrassing you might think Romero made it up.
A better story might be that he was at a salad bar and wheezed wide of the sneeze guard, spraying the spaghetti squash.
Another diner took offence and poked Romero in the abs.
Rules of engagement
We get consistent complaints from a segment of the hockey viewing populace that Pierre (No Dead Air) McGuire gives their ears too much of a workout.
McGuire can be entertaining and does have interesting insights but he ought to consider idling the chatter occasionally.
The phrase that is wearing me out these playoffs is how players are "engaged."
The "engaged" word has been spouted so often you'd swear Pierre was reporting on Jennifer Aniston.
Dead ball era
You may have noticed a weekend story about a cemetery in Chicago that has erected a brick wall on its memorial grounds that is a replica of dead centre at Wrigley Field. The wall has "skyboxes" to accommodate the ashes of 228 Chicago Cubs ticket holders.
But you don't have to be a Cubs fan to die with your spikes on.
A company called Eternal Image is selling a line of official Major League Baseball urns, caskets and headstone markers.
They're for, y'know, the die-hard fans.
Pitching In
Good timing for Toronto FC coach John Carver officially leaving the team after a 1-0 win over Chivas in a game that featured shenanigans in the crowd at BMO Field.
Have to admit that Carver went out with a flare
Joe Shows
Hey, Joe Thornton, welcome to the playoffs. What happened on Saturday anyway?
Your golf game get cancelled?.
Lions history
The Detroit Lions may be rebuilding but they stuck with a bit of tradition -- having a Williams at wide receiver.
With the departures of Roy Williams (first round, 2004) and Mike Williams (first round, 2005) the Lions found a replacement, drafting Derrick Williams of Penn State in the third round yesterday.
GARY.LOEWEN@SUNMEDIA.CA
Captain Jim- that's great idea, however, I don't think it would pass Ihub muster when we start naming names, LOL. I keep those handles in a separate file so I can see where the dump will be taking place. Wish we could name names. It would save a lot of people a lot of $$$.
.......al
Hello all- still around too. Unfortunately not much to say at this point. Didn't need the loss last year and hopefully I'll need quite a few of them this year, LOL. Still enjoy reading the posts here.
.......al
I posted this on another board in response to the article that China has been buying gold for some time now. I thought you would appreciate it:
Been saying that for years. Unlike the bozos we end up sending to Washington the Chinese have that longer term outlook. I'm just an average ordinary and very novice economist and I would have started spending all those depreciating dollars on gold long ago, which now coming to light is what they were doing. Also don't forget how we "won" the cold war with Russia. It was not with bullets and bombs. We forced them to strangle their economy trying to keep up militarily. Don't for one minute think the leadership of China did not see this. So they take millions of jobs away from American manufacturing and flood the country with cheap imports ( thank you Walmart ) putting more and more small businesses out of business. What may even be far worse is our own home grown greed much highlighted recently on Wall Street and the banking industry. Add in regulators willing to turn a blind eye and lawmakers that seem to only answer to big money lobbies and golly, is the current US economic situation a surprise to anyone? Will it get worse as more and more trillions of dollars are thrown at the mess? Who will be saying " what happenned and why " when large scale inflation rears it's ugly head? I'm sure as now going on in Washington fingers pointing to blame will be directed everywhere except to the mirrors where they belong. Your only protection from the coming demise is gold and silver. Have no trust in 3rd parties and keep it in your posession.
.........al
Been saying that for years. Unlike the bozos we end up sending to Washington the Chinese have that longer term outlook. I'm just an average ordinary and very novice economist and I would have started spending all those depreciating dollars on gold long ago, which now coming to light is what they were doing. Also don't forget how we "won" the cold war with Russia. It was not with bullets and bombs. We forced them to strangle their economy trying to keep up militarily. Don't for one minute think the leadership of China did not see this. So they take millions of jobs away from American manufacturing and flood the country with cheap imports ( thank you Walmart ) putting more and more small businesses out of business. What may even be far worse is our own home grown greed much highlighted recently on Wall Street and the banking industry. Add in regulators willing to turn a blind eye and lawmakers that seem to only answer to big money lobbies and golly, is the current US economic situation a surprise to anyone? Will it get worse as more and more trillions of dollars are thrown at the mess? Who will be saying " what happenned and why " when large scale inflation rears it's ugly head? I'm sure as now going on in Washington fingers pointing to blame will be directed everywhere except to the mirrors where they belong. Your only protection from the coming demise is gold and silver. Have no trust in 3rd parties and keep it in your posession.
.........al
ESPN Chicago:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/columns/story?columnist=drehs_wayne&id=4090319
Originally Published: April 23, 2009
For some fans, Cubs are an undying love
Drehs By Wayne Drehs
ESPNChicago.com
CHICAGO -- There was no "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," or "Go Cubs Go," no visit from Ernie Banks or autograph signing with Ron Santo. Instead, there was Dennis Mascari, welcoming Cubs fans to the Bohemian National Cemetery and insisting no one leave without grabbing a free doughnut.
Wayne Drehs for ESPN.comEven in death, Cubs fans now have the chance to stay loyal to their team.
Despite his lack of celebrity, Mascari was the reason everyone was here. He was the reason red and blue balloons lined the cemetery driveway. He was the reason four Wrigley Field seats had been hammered into the cemetery lawn. And he was the reason a 24-foot tall Wrigley-inspired brick wall now stood in the middle of the cemetery, patiently waiting for its first "perpetual season-ticket holder."
It was a little more than a year ago when Mascari came up with the idea of building a Wrigley-inspired columbarium, a structure to hold the ashes of the dead. After fighting Mother Nature and a lack of funds, the structure officially opened Wednesday afternoon at -- when else? -- the popular Cubs start time of 1:20 p.m. CT.
"It's been a tough road," Mascari said. "I borrowed money from my parents, my friends, anyone I could think of. And to stand here and see this, to see this wall, to know that I've helped give die-hard Cubs fans a way to forever support their team, it was worth every microwave dinner, every cup of Asian noodles."
Mascari said he came up with the idea after realizing that every time he visited his father's mausoleum, he walked out more depressed than when he walked in. He was watching an ESPN "Outside the Lines" story on the growing business of sports-themed urns and caskets when the idea of a Wrigley columbarium popped into his head.
"That mausoleum is just room after room of name after name after name," he said. "It's so depressing. I figured there had to be something better, a way people could visit their loved ones without being miserable."
Last fall, as the Cubs entered the playoffs as the NL's top seed, Wayne Drehs examined 100 years of undying passion from Cubs fans in a video retrospective with 11 of the team's most loyal supporters.
Mascari placed an ad on Craigslist seeking an artist to draw his brainchild. A mere $50 later, he had exactly what he wanted. And a year later, he opened the structure to the public. The red brick wall features a stained glass image of the famed Wrigley scoreboard, the yellow "400" mark and eventually, ivy.
At the base of the wall are pavers that came from outside of Wrigley Field, as well as four box seats and a bench that Mascari said was once used in the Cubs' bullpen. Mascari added that the sod at the base of the wall is from Wrigley as well.
Mascari said he believes it's the only such structure in the country. Eight of the 288 niches have already been sold, including one to Chuck Betzold for his father Rudy.
"As soon as my Dad heard about it, he made up his mind," Betzold said. "I showed him a picture the other day and he was like 'Man, I can't wait.' I had to settle him down, remind him that, 'Dad, that would mean you're dead. You can wait.'"
Jim Simkins, whose family has operated Simkins Funeral Home in suburban Morton Grove for 70 years, believes the idea is a long time coming.
"All you have to do is read the death notices in the paper," Simkins said. "Every day there is someone who is a longtime Cubs fan, who couldn't wait long enough for the team to win a World Series. I can't tell you how often we bury someone in a Cubs hat or a Cubs jersey or tie. I think it's a great idea."
Niches, or "eternal sky boxes" as Mascari likes to call them, start at $1,295 and go up to $2,595, depending on size as well as how close the box is to eye level. On the outside of the wall, there is the option of adding a nameplate or "baseball card," complete with lifetime statistics (date of birth, date of death) as well as favorite player and favorite Cubs moment. The name plates range from $595 to $895.
Wayne Drehs for ESPN.comFor a little extra money, clients can add a Cubs nameplate to commemorate their "career" as a fan.
The Cubs organization has no affiliation with the project. Mascari was able to secure licensing for the nameplates by working with Eternal Images, which owns the licensing for Major League Baseball-inspired urns, caskets and headstone markers.
Bohemian National Cemetery, which is on the list of National Historic Places, agreed to let Mascari build his wall on their grounds because of the positive publicity they thought the wall would bring. The only thing they've said no to is the broadcasting of Cubs games on a speaker near the wall.
"This has been a great project for us that we're real excited about," Bohemian National Vice President Bill Hudecek said. "But this is a cemetery after all. We don't want a bunch of people coming here to visit their loved ones being forced to listen to a baseball game. We might have a recording once in awhile, but not every day. The idea is to be respectful, not tacky."
On Wednesday afternoon, after he pointed out the free doughnuts and thanked everyone from his family and friends to his investors and landscapers, Mascari, a lifelong Cubs fan, was asked about White Sox fans.
Why not a wall for them?
"Somebody asked if I could include White Sox fans on the back side of the wall and I simply told them no," Mascari said. "Cub fans have been through enough. I want these people to be able to rest in peace."
Wayne Drehs is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPNChicago.com. You can reach him at wayne.drehs@espn3.com and follow his Twitter feed at ESPNWayneDrehs.
Hello fivestar- I wish I had an answer to that question readily available, but I don't. No one really does. What I can relate is some micro caps in the past that I have seen go to hundreds of $millions in market capitalization with far less going for them- no sales but a lot of prospects. These situations were mainly caused by buying frenzies due to some major news from the company. Do I think it will happen here? As a shareholder I can hope and dream, but reality has shown in the past that altho it happens, it's definately not the norm. Those aforementioned examples also came down almost as fast as they went up. Most parabolic moves do. $1 per share is a good possibility here, but not in the near future. It's also not within the self imposed time limits of most of the investors either I would speculate. It will take a lot of hard work and long hours by the ones running the company to become a successful enterprise. The Ks and Qs will be the proof, either way. I'm still around because I liked the concept and the product line. Albeit not without some bumps, I believe the management is going in the right direction. It's been a long road with much longer to go. I am in the red like everyone else at this pps, but I am not worried about day to day share price. I have always maintained this is a long termer and will reward those with the patience to stick it out.
.........al
It's a funny thing. I was just talking to someone a few weeks back on confiscation. Last year at this time if you had mentioned the possibility of confiscation I would have said no way it ain't gonna happen. Yet as events unfold daily, I have softened that stance. I might sell if the price and times are right but would never give it up to the gov't without a fight.
.......al
Absolutely. Gold leasing has been in sub news classes for years and will probably only come into the spoylight when there is no more left to lease and the taxpayers find out their gold is gone.
........al
This is a great if rather long read. I can only post the link as my computer skills haven't mastered a copy and paste on a PDF file.
........al
http://www.silverstockreport.com/2009/Armstrong.pdf
share count updated in iBox. Been away for a couple of weeks, hope everyone is well.
.........al
Why Gold Owners Are Targets of the Government
Gary North
If you own gold, you are in a war. You are under assault. You had better figure this out early.
There is a full-scale war against you. The politicians and central bankers who are conducting this war against you are determined to see that you lose money on your investment.
I have written a detailed report on this: The Gold Wars." You can download it free of charge here:
http://www.GaryNorth.com/GoldWars.pdf
The reason why you are under assault is because you have demonstrated by your purchase of gold or a gold-related investment that you do not trust the monetary policies of your nation's central bank. If you are an American, this means you do not trust the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve System. You have taken a step that confirms your lack of trust in the government and its central bank. If you think the government and the central bank will sit quietly, while millions of citizens buy gold as a way to hedge against government and central bank policies, you are terminally naive.
A PERPETUAL WAR
Governments and central banks for almost a century have done whatever they could to keep citizens from using gold as a way to hedge their economic futures against the taxation policies of the government and the inflation policies of central banks.
The war escalated a few days after the outbreak of World War I in August of 1914. At that time, central banks authorized commercial banks to cease redeeming paper money for gold at a fixed rate of exchange. For most of the world, that prohibition extended during the war, after the war, during the Great Depression, during World War II, up to today.
The United States government forbade American citizens from owning gold, beginning in 1933 and extending to the end of 1974.
Today, no government is restrained by a gold standard. No government, no central bank, and no commercial bank is required by law to redeem paper money or bank accounts for gold at a fixed rate of exchange.
This has freed governments and central banks from the limit which the traditional gold standard had imposed on them. When they inflated the currency, people who understood what was going on would go to their local bank and exchange paper money or bank account entries for gold or silver coins. They understood that the increased money supply would lead to a rise in prices, and that gold would flow out of the commercial banks and the central bank of the nation in question. They lined up early to get their gold, so they would not be stiffed by the commercial banking system and the central bank, which they knew would be the case if the central bank continued to inflate the currency.
People who own gold coins are skeptics regarding the fiscal and monetary policies of the government. There are people who buy gold as a temporary speculation, the same way that they would buy copper, but I am talking about people who buy gold coins and take delivery. These people are professional skeptics regarding governments and central banks. They are the sworn enemies of governments and central banks. The very fact that they would go to a coin store and purchase bullion gold coins testifies to their lack of trust in governments and central banks.
Politicians and central bankers regard such people as enemies of the state. They will do whatever is possible to impose losses on these people, so that others in the society will not perceive that those who are skeptics about government fiscal policies and central bank monetary policies are making money. The worst thing that can happen from the point of view of a government or central bank is the people who are completely skeptical about governments and central banks should get rich as a result of the policies of governments and central banks.
The goal of the politicians and central bankers to make certain that the public is anesthetized regarding the disastrous effects of severe monetary inflation on the wealth of individuals. A rising price of gold sends a signal to those members of society who trust the integrity and good judgment of politicians and central bankers. The signal says: "Skeptics are making money. You're losing money. Buy gold."
FROM JOHNSON TO OBAMA
The government of the United States has had a problem with gold-buying skeptics ever since the Vietnam War. Late in Johnson's administration, foreign central banks, especially the central bank of France, began cashing in dollars and demanding delivery of gold at $35 an ounce. This led to a gold run on the Treasury, which was in effect a gold run on the Federal Reserve System. This sent a signal to investors that central banks no longer fully trusted the United States government to be able to meet its contractual obligations to governments and foreign central banks.
Nixon closed the gold window on August 15, 1971. He broke contract with all foreign nations and central banks. He did exactly what the skeptics had predicted that the government would do: refuse to deliver gold at $35 an ounce.
That sent a signal to investors that the Nixon administration was going to require the Federal Reserve System to inflate the currency. This is exactly what the Nixon administration did. So did Carter's. The 1970s were the worst period of price inflation in peacetime American history.
By the end of the decade, January 1980, gold rose for one day above $800 an ounce. But the central bank under Paul Volcker had reversed policy in October of 1979. The Federal Reserve began to tighten money. This led to the collapse of gold and silver prices in January 1980, and also to the 1980 recession. That cost Jimmy Carter his presidency.
There is a legitimate way for central banks to fight gold and inflict losses. The way to do this is for central banks to stop increasing the money supply. That is a perfectly legitimate policy. That is what the traditional gold standard required of central banks. When central banks followed policies of monetary inflation, and the price of gold rose as a result, the run on gold would begin.
Paul Volcker fought gold investors from 1979 to 1982. The Federal Reserve reduced the increase of the money supply. This was what the traditional gold standard always did. It forced central banks to stop inflating. If they did not stop inflating, there would be a run on the supply of gold by a small minority of investors. They would bring in IOUs to gold and take their gold home.
Central bankers do not want to fight gold investors in this way. They want to continue to expand the money supply but not face the consequences in the arena of public opinion. They seek ways to force down the price of gold because the price of gold is an indicator of central bank monetary policy. Central bankers today have a number of anti-gold investor policies.
ANTI-GOLD INVESTOR POLICIES
The most common policy is to lease gold to a specialized group of insiders known as bullion banks. The central banks call this leasing, but it is operationally a form of gold sales.
The central bank leases gold at well under 1% per annum to bullion banks. Bullion banks then sell the gold into the private market, take the money, and invest it in government bonds or other investments that pay far more than 1% per year.
That gold is gone. To get the gold back, the central banks would have to demand payment in gold by the bullion banks. The bullion banks could not repay this gold without going into the gold market and purchasing it. This would drive up the price of gold. It would bankrupt the bullion banks.
So, central banks do not require the bullion banks to repay the gold which the bullion banks borrowed from the central banks. The central banks simply roll the loans over, year after year, and the bullion banks invest the money that they get from selling the gold. These central bank sales are not recorded as sales by the central banks. The public remains oblivious.
The central banks maintain the fiction that they still own the gold. They report their holdings of gold as not having changed. But, from an economic standpoint, the gold is gone, and there is no possibility of central banks will ever get it back from the bullion banks.
Another way that central banks and governments battle investors in gold is to announce, from time to time, that the central bank is contemplating the sale of gold. This scares some gold investors, who sell their goal. Of course, other investors who know the name of the game buy the gold. By threatening to sell gold, central banks are attempting to push down the price of gold.
The latest example of this came at the G20 meeting on April 2. An announcement was made that the International Monetary Fund will make available special drawing rights (SDRs), which will serve as money for central banks. To raise some of this money, the IMF will sell some of its gold. That was the official announcement.
The IMF has been threatening to sell gold for several years. To do this takes a majority vote of the member nations of the IMF. It is clear that the member nations are willing to allow the IMF to do this. Previously, this was not clear.
The figure quoted by the press regarding the amount of gold be sold is 400 tonnes. World production of gold each year is in the range of 2500 tonnes. It is unlikely that the IMF will sell all of this gold at the same time. It is likely that these sales will be stretched out over at least a two-year period. So, the sales are likely to increase the supply of available gold by perhaps 8% for two years. In a time when central banks are increasing the monetary base by 100% per annum or more, this increase in the supply of gold available for purchase is not substantial.
There is another issue to consider. It is likely that most of this gold will be purchased by other central banks. If this should turn out to be the case, then the actual supply of gold coming into the public domain will not change. Nevertheless, the announcement was made that these sales will take place. This put downward pressure on the price of gold.
Why would a central bank or the IMF say in advance that it planned to sell a large portion of its gold holdings? When a large holder of commodities is going to sell the commodity into the open market, he does not announce this in advance. His goal is to maximize the amount of money he gains by the sale of the asset. If he warns the world in advance how much he plans to sell and over which time period, this will depress the price if the sale constitutes a significant quantity. It is economically irrational for a seller of commodity to say in advance how much she plans to sell. I say "economically irrational" on the assumption that the goal is to make a profit. But if the goal is not to make a profit, but rather to inflict economic harm on people who hold a particular commodity as an investment, the announcement makes eminently good sense.
The fact that the IMF sale was announced by the IMF for years preceding the G20 meeting, and the fact that it was announced at the G20 meeting, indicate the degree of the hostility of the IMF and the central bankers to people who invest in gold. They were willing to take a loss in terms of the amount of money they could have obtained for the gold by quiet, unannounced sales. They are willing to take this loss because they believe that it is more important to create uncertainty in the gold market than it is to maximize the amount of fiat money gained by the sale of gold. So committed are these people to inflicting financial losses on gold investors that they are willing to suffer hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. After all, it's not their money.
The classic example of this was Gordon Brown's decision in the late 1990s to sell half of the gold reserves held by the Bank of England in trust for Great Britain. In terms of today's price of gold, his decision cost the government something in the range of $10 billion. He drove down the price of gold to a little under $260 an ounce in 2001. He inflicted damage on a tiny minority of investors in gold, and he inflicted enormous damage on economic reserves of his country. He did this as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Today, he is the Prime Minister. He is now pressuring the Bank of England to inflate at unprecedented rates in order to save the banking system.
Any suggestion that Gordon Brown understands economics is laughable. Any suggestion that Gordon Brown is envious against investors in gold seems to be substantiated by his public career. He is representative of virtually every national politician and every central banker. He hates the fact that investors in gold can drive up the price of gold, thereby embarrassing the government and the central bank.
The rising price of gold warns the general public that the government's tax policies and the central bank's monetary policies cannot be trusted. Worse, a rising price of gold transmits the availability of a profit opportunity: get rid of fiat money and purchase gold.
Politicians and central bankers are frantic today to keep the general public from being aware of the enormous increase this taken place in the monetary base of every Western industrial nation. They do not want the public to perceive that the central banks are in panic mode because of the disaster has taken place in commercial bank balance sheets. Large commercial banks around the Western world are bordering on bankruptcy. Central banks and governments are intervening frantically to keep the banks' doors open, in order to keep the public confused about the implications of the worldwide economic recession that has come as a result of worldwide monetary expansion by central banks from the year 2000 until 2004.
PRICES CONVEY INFORMATION
Prices convey information about economic conditions. The price of gold conveys information about the likelihood of future price inflation. This information governments and central banks want to distort. They do this by manipulating the price of gold through leases that are actually sales and sales that are announced in advance.
When an individual invests in gold, he is making a statement. He is saying that he does not trust the powers that be. The powers that be deeply resent this. So, an individual who actively takes steps to increase the price of gold, which he does by buying it, should be aware in advance that he and people like him will be the targets of deception, envy, and ridicule. Buying gold is not the same as buying other commodities. Other commodities are not perceived as touchstones of central bank monetary policy. The price of gold is, even though most of the gold in private hands winds up as jewelry to be used in dowries in India. Far more than central banks, Indian fathers set the price of gold. At the margin, however, central banks do affect the price of gold.
With the rising productivity of India, the gold market has received a long-term increase in demand. This can be offset by the worldwide recession, which is now in progress. When Indian fathers decide that times are getting better, they will start buying gold again. Today's policies of monetary expansion, which lower real wages and therefore get people back to work, will begin to affect the worldwide labor markets. This will increase the demand of gold in India. It is unlikely that a tradition governing marriage that has prevailed for thousands of years is likely to change just because a relatively small fraction of the Indian population has moved into modern urban capitalism. On the contrary, there is likely to be increased demand for gold, because fathers will be enabled to purchase more gold for their daughters than before because they are making more money than ever before.
This is why the attempt of governments and central banks to lower the price of gold will backfire. Eventually, governments will run out of gold to sell, and so will the IMF. They will run out of gold to lease. While I do not think the politicians will ever catch on to the fact that their nations' gold is gone, leaving only IOUs for gold written by bullion banks that are on the verge of bankruptcy anyway, I do think that at some point the central banks will stop leasing gold. They will stop leasing it because they will not have enough to lease to substantially affect the price of gold.
I do not think the central banks will ever demand repayment of their gold by the bullion banks. The bullion banks would simply declare bankruptcy, and be done with it. That would publicly expose the central bankers as economic idiots, which happens to be the case, and the idiots don't want the bad publicity. So, the gold is gone, and the public will not find out that the gold is gone. The gold is nevertheless gone. Gone in the sense of outside of control by central banks. It is inside the dowries of women in India and a small handful of goldbug investors.
At some point, the number of investors who figure out that they had better buy gold is going to go from less than 1% of the public to 5%. When that happens, the supply of gold will not increase, and the price of gold will skyrocket. If as many as 10% of the investing public tries to put 10% of their assets in gold, I suspect the price of gold would go to $10,000 an ounce. The gold market is so marginal in the overall commodities market that the attempted 10% of investors to increase their holdings of gold to 10% of their assets would make today's holders of gold very rich and very happy. I think at some point this is going to happen, but I think it is going to happen in a time of price inflation so bad that the purchasing power of the currencies will decline so fast and so far that the fact that you can get rich in fiat money by selling your gold will not persuade you to sell your gold.
CONCLUSION
Who is going to win the gold wars? Holders of gold. The big winners will be Indian wives whose fathers gave them a lot of gold as a dowry. The rest of us gold bugs will also do well. The general public will never catch on in time, and by the time that it occurs to even 10% or 20% of investors that they better by gold, it will cost them so much to get into the market that they will not make the kinds of profits that today's gold investors are going to make.
Governments and central banks can continue to fight the gold war by means of gold leasing, outright gold sales, and threats of gold sales, but for as long as they inflate the money supply to obfuscate the price of economic depression, they will be running out of ammunition. They are in a war in which ordinance is in fixed supply. They cannot go into the gold market and replenish the supply of gold without driving up price of gold.
Central banks are expanding the money supply, which is providing ammunition for those of us who want to fight the gold war by buying more gold. In contrast, central banks are not expanding their holdings of gold, but rather depleting them, and so they will not be able to fight this fight indefinitely.
They may be able to fight it for as long as the threat of recession hangs over the world economy. But when the recession ends, or appears to end, as a result of the massive monetary inflation and massive deficits that the governments of the world are running, there will be a new market for gold that is unprecedented in its intensity. This does not mean that everybody is going to buy gold. It probably does not mean that even 20% of investors will buy gold. All it will take is about 10% of investors decide to put 10% of their holdings in gold. Governments and central banks are going to lose the war on gold because they refuse to fight gold by the one technique that can give them victory: stop printing money.
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Thought I'd put this here also. It seems Obushma has given the bankers total control
.....al
FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT
Obama's G20 plan kisses off Declaration of Independence
New international board to intervene in decisions about U.S. companies
Posted: April 08, 2009
8:32 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of "The Late Great USA," a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation's sovereignty.
At the G20 meeting in London, President Obama agreed to create of an international board with authority to intervene in U.S. corporations by dictating executive compensation and approving or disapproving business management decisions, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
Political consultant Dick Morris said that by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, Obama is a "willing accomplice" to a decision that effectively repealed the U.S. Declaration of Independence and abrogated the sovereignty of the United States.
(Story continues below)
The final communiqués coming out of the G20 meeting in London April 2 included a document entitled "Declaration on Strengthening the Financial System."
"By agreeing to the stipulations in this document, President Obama gave the blessing of the United States to the G20 decision to elevate the Financial Stability Forum into the Financial Stability Board," Corsi wrote. "The United States has only one vote in the newly constituted Financial Stability Board, a group that will be largely controlled by European central bankers."
The new global regulator now has the authority to examine all U.S. banks, brokerage firms and corporations – including non-financial companies such as the Big Three automakers – to examine operations and determine risk.
The Financial Stability Board then has the international authority to set policies in these corporations, including compensation packages the private boards of directors in the examined companies decide to pay top executives and senior managers.
Morris charged that the Obama administration, by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, has gone beyond nationalizing U.S. corporations, to "internationalize" U.S.-based corporations under the control of this new global regulator.
While the G20 focused on regulating risks in hedge funds and derivatives, the authority of the Financial Stability Board extends to any banking, brokerage or business practice by a major U.S. corporation that the Financial Stability Board on its own authority determines is unduly risky.
Under the premise that the IMF and the Financial Stability Board would have the ability to make loans to important U.S. corporations, the IMF and the Financial Stability Board become the effective global regulators over the corporate world, superseding all U.S. governmental authorities, including the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a host of corporate regulators, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, said no appeal procedure to any U.S. court or regulator is specified by the G20 communiqué as recourse for a U.S. company that wants to contest a decision by the Financial Stability Board as incorrect, unfounded or otherwise overreaching.
Corsi received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.
In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
For more information on "internationalizing" U.S.-based corporations and for financial guidance during difficult times, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."
If this is true it has far reaching consequences
.....al
FROM JEROME CORSI'S RED ALERT
Obama's G20 plan kisses off Declaration of Independence
New international board to intervene in decisions about U.S. companies
Posted: April 08, 2009
8:32 pm Eastern
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium online newsletter published by the current No. 1 best-selling author, WND staff writer and columnist. Subscriptions are $99 a year or $9.95 per month for credit card users. Annual subscribers will receive a free autographed copy of "The Late Great USA," a book about the careful deceptions of a powerful elite who want to undermine our nation's sovereignty.
At the G20 meeting in London, President Obama agreed to create of an international board with authority to intervene in U.S. corporations by dictating executive compensation and approving or disapproving business management decisions, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
Political consultant Dick Morris said that by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, Obama is a "willing accomplice" to a decision that effectively repealed the U.S. Declaration of Independence and abrogated the sovereignty of the United States.
(Story continues below)
The final communiqués coming out of the G20 meeting in London April 2 included a document entitled "Declaration on Strengthening the Financial System."
"By agreeing to the stipulations in this document, President Obama gave the blessing of the United States to the G20 decision to elevate the Financial Stability Forum into the Financial Stability Board," Corsi wrote. "The United States has only one vote in the newly constituted Financial Stability Board, a group that will be largely controlled by European central bankers."
The new global regulator now has the authority to examine all U.S. banks, brokerage firms and corporations – including non-financial companies such as the Big Three automakers – to examine operations and determine risk.
The Financial Stability Board then has the international authority to set policies in these corporations, including compensation packages the private boards of directors in the examined companies decide to pay top executives and senior managers.
Morris charged that the Obama administration, by agreeing to create the Financial Stability Board, has gone beyond nationalizing U.S. corporations, to "internationalize" U.S.-based corporations under the control of this new global regulator.
While the G20 focused on regulating risks in hedge funds and derivatives, the authority of the Financial Stability Board extends to any banking, brokerage or business practice by a major U.S. corporation that the Financial Stability Board on its own authority determines is unduly risky.
Under the premise that the IMF and the Financial Stability Board would have the ability to make loans to important U.S. corporations, the IMF and the Financial Stability Board become the effective global regulators over the corporate world, superseding all U.S. governmental authorities, including the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and a host of corporate regulators, including the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor.
Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, said no appeal procedure to any U.S. court or regulator is specified by the G20 communiqué as recourse for a U.S. company that wants to contest a decision by the Financial Stability Board as incorrect, unfounded or otherwise overreaching.
Corsi received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.
In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
For more information on "internationalizing" U.S.-based corporations and for financial guidance during difficult times, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."
You haven't been paying attention to what I post. That assumption was never in my stated thoughts on the possible consequences of the uplisting. Take some time and read back on my posts on this board. I state any "hedge" right there when I write the post. Unlike some posters, I'll also state and apologize when I'm wrong, not just disappear until the dust settles and they can find something else to complain about.
...........al
Yes, same strategy will apply. MMs will play games with any penny stock no matter what exchange it's on.
.......al