Best Of The Best Share Discussion Threads

[smelgy] 19/2/2010 21:41

.........Gold rules then! In spite of the Comex fiddles to not just put a cap on the price, but to drive it into the ground - both of which are amazingly unsuccessful, gold refuses to buckle. $1500 by summer 2010 is now on target.

[contrarian2investor] 19/2/2010 21:16

Dutch Alert,

I have been discussing the finer points of the US fiscal disconnection throughout the day on the TR32 thread. Please have a read if you are interested. The long and the short of it is the fact that the US is the most indebted country in the world. Hence the reason why they need a strong dollar, in order to keep their sales of treasuries going. Inspite of the fact that unemployment keeps rising and homes are still being repossessed.

c2i

[traderabc] 19/2/2010 19:30

Russia Today Interviews Jim Rogers this 18 February 2010 :

[dutch alert] 19/2/2010 13:00

Is it mainstream to think the US goes under and others will take the lead?
And contrarian to think the US will arise stronger from a mess that still
would be a lot worse as it is today?

Food for thought

[contrarian2investor] 18/2/2010 23:10

Those yanks know how to play the markets don't they.
How long before Gordon follows?

c2i
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Release Date: February 18, 2010
For release at 4:30 p.m. EDT

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced that in light of continued improvement in financial market conditions it had unanimously approved several modifications to the terms of its discount window lending programs.

Like the closure of a number of extraordinary credit programs earlier this month, these changes are intended as a further normalization of the Federal Reserve's lending facilities. The modifications are not expected to lead to tighter financial conditions for households and businesses and do not signal any change in the outlook for the economy or for monetary policy, which remains about as it was at the January meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). At that meeting, the Committee left its target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and said it anticipates that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.

The changes to the discount window facilities include Board approval of requests by the boards of directors of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks to increase the primary credit rate (generally referred to as the discount rate) from 1/2 percent to 3/4 percent. This action is effective on February 19.

In addition, the Board announced that, effective on March 18, the typical maximum maturity for primary credit loans will be shortened to overnight. Primary credit is provided by Reserve Banks on a fully secured basis to depository institutions that are in generally sound condition as a backup source of funds. Finally, the Board announced that it had raised the minimum bid rate for the Term Auction Facility (TAF) by 1/4 percentage point to 1/2 percent. The final TAF auction will be on March 8, 2010.

Easing the terms of primary credit was one of the Federal Reserve's first responses to the financial crisis. On August 17, 2007, the Federal Reserve reduced the spread of the primary credit rate over the FOMC's target for the federal funds rate to 1/2 percentage point, from 1 percentage point, and lengthened the typical maximum maturity from overnight to 30 days. On December 12, 2007, the Federal Reserve created the TAF to further improve the access of depository institutions to term funding. On March 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve lowered the spread of the primary credit rate over the target federal funds rate to 1/4 percentage point and extended the maximum maturity of primary credit loans to 90 days.

Subsequently, in response to improving conditions in wholesale funding markets, on June 25, 2009, the Federal Reserve initiated a gradual reduction in TAF auction sizes. As announced on November 17, 2009, and implemented on January 14, 2010, the Federal Reserve began the process of normalizing the terms on primary credit by reducing the typical maximum maturity to 28 days.

The increase in the discount rate announced Thursday widens the spread between the primary credit rate and the top of the FOMC's 0 to 1/4 percent target range for the federal funds rate to 1/2 percentage point. The increase in the spread and reduction in maximum maturity will encourage depository institutions to rely on private funding markets for short-term credit and to use the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility only as a backup source of funds. The Federal Reserve will assess over time whether further increases in the spread are appropriate in view of experience with the 1/2 percentage point spread.

[traderabc] 18/2/2010 12:42

Keiser Report – Markets! Finance! Scandal! – 18 February 2010

[traderabc] 18/2/2010 12:41

Taxman targets 100,000 top earners to claw back millions
Helen Nugent
24 Comments
Recommend? (5)

More than 200 years after rules on tax status were introduced to meet the cost of the Napoleonic wars, a new battle is being waged against Britons and foreign workers.

Scrutiny of the tax affairs of wealthy individuals, foreign workers, entrepreneurs and celebrities has gathered pace since the Labour Government came to power. High earners are being pursued with new vigour by the authorities, which are under immense presure to bolster Treasury coffers and deliver hundreds of millions of pounds.

Their persistence is paying off. According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

[chestnuts] 17/2/2010 15:10

Trader
George Soros is no fool its the people reading his words that are fools, he said we are in a Ultimate Bubble which is true, we will have a gold standard soon and sooner than ayone will imagine.
I have been doing cycles on gold for a long time now and the next top will be around the 18th of May between 1400 and 1650 ish, we are on a 5th wave, i think or it could be an extension of a 3rd wave won't know till May.

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 12:07

The Miracle of the Market


Jacob Hornberger
Campaign For Liberty
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

In preparation for the two recent back-to-back blizzards, D.C. residents were emptying the shelves of neighborhood grocery stores. Notwithstanding the pre-blizzard panic buying, what’s interesting is that no one was freaking out about whether the stores would be adequately stocked after the blizzards.

After all, think about it: there is absolutely no government planning that goes into what is stocked in grocery stores. No federal Department of Food. No local or state planning commission. No grocery boards. No bureaucrats or bureaucracies. No laws requiring grocery stores to be well-stocked. No rules and regulations dictating how much of each food item, including bread, milk, and chicken, needs to appear on the shelves.

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 12:03

A Sucker Still Being Born Every Minute
February 15th, 2010 by stacyherbert
Respond

Stacy Summary: With appearance from MaxKeiser.com favorite, Janet Tavakoli. The episode explores how ponzi schemes thrive.





On the subject of pigeons (off topic)

Pigeon: Impossible

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 11:59

Max Keiser Goes Mad On US Toilet Paper Deals

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 11:06

chestnuts, looks like you were perfectly right about his call, well done.


Stacy Summary: Re: the Soros story . . . remember that at the same time he was doubling his stake in GLD, he was dissing gold as an investment in many interviews warning that gold was the ‘ultimate bubble;’ and as you can see from this headline in the Telegraph, the newspaper warned gold was about to crash based on Soros’ warning.

Soros More Than Doubled Gold ETF Stake in 4th Quarter (Update1) Share Business Exchange



By Katherine Burton and Glenys Sim


Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire George Soros’s Soros Fund Management LLC more than doubled its holding in the biggest gold exchange-traded fund in the fourth quarter after bullion advanced 8.9 percent to a record.

The $25 billion New York-based firm became the fourth- largest holder in the SPDR Gold Trust, adding 3.728 million shares valued at $421 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. Its investment was worth about $663 million, the fund’s largest single investment, as of Dec. 31.

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 11:04

Gold’s Bull Market Turns 9 Years Old


Mary Anne & Pamela Aden
Kitco
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Gold, silver and the metals group are coming down from their January highs, on the eve of gold’s nine year bull market run. Considering the gold price has had nine consistent yearly gains, and it’s still above $1000 is a feat in itself. Gold’s bull market is solid, a new phase has begun and it’s currently declining in a sharp, yet normal downward correction.

Corrections tend to cause fear. And considering the volatility we’ve seen in recent years, the fear level rises fast. The word bubble is the buzz word, and it’s understandable since we’ve had so many over the last decade. The tech bubble was followed by the housing bubble, the credit bubble, and the debt bubble that continues to grow.

The debt bubble is an ongoing reality; it’s international in scope and it’s the biggest ever. This is hanging over our heads and over the markets, and it isn’t going away, it’s just getting bigger.

[traderabc] 17/2/2010 10:48

Gold & the New World Order

Jim Roache
Feb 16, 2010

I believe the discipline of Economics has a fatal flaw - it assumes a degree of rationality of which our specie is devoid. It also assumes you can reason with power - you cannot. Finally, and fatally, it has failed to integrate globalization into any of its fundamental schools of thought.

All the rational argument in the world will not convince those in power (by wealth, social position or politics) to act rationally because 1. it would not be in their interest to do so 2. because that minority, elite, rich, powerful, many sociopaths and/or - already know the rational positions of the various schools, and they have made it their business to circumvent them or bend them to serve their own purposes, and 3. they hold the rest of us in complete and utter contempt - expressed in private often using terminology that is shocking, demeaning and exasperating to the listener.

[apdi71] 17/2/2010 08:55

Interview with eponymous Art Laffer on 16 Feb 2010 edition of Glenn Beck:

www.watchglennbeck.com

[apdi71] 16/2/2010 09:09

Hi traderabc, I too doubt that Schiff can defeat the vested interests and get elected, but he will have done the honorable thing and given it his best effort.

I occasionally watch Glenn Beck - a focus of hate and derision of the progressive media and political elite over in the States:

www.watchglennbeck.com

Also, a good quote from a blog(Watts up) that I recently read:

"We only learn about the future by understanding the past. If the past has been distorted either by politicians or by some other method of distortion then we cannot know anything about the future. Alas, also, we can only ever make reasonable predictions about perfectly linear systems. They do not exist in the natural world. "

[traderabc] 15/2/2010 20:14

Ron Paul Discusses The Greece Bailout On Texas Straight Talk 2/15/10

[traderabc] 15/2/2010 10:42

That was a great lecture apdi71, I loved his response to the question about global warming.
Time is running out, I fear Schiff won't make it to the Senate and his predictions will come true.
Here he is again at min 43 speaking to Jim Pulplava

[apdi71] 14/2/2010 16:42

Peter Schiff at Yale:

[traderabc] 13/2/2010 19:37

Hyperinflationary depression and more war...

Faber-America is Going Bust-Gold is the Savior




Faber-World Economy Is Doomed Part II

[traderabc] 13/2/2010 19:33

The Last Man Standing

Richard Russell snippet
Dow Theory Letters
posted Feb 15, 2010

February 12, 2010 -- A final thought. One could stay in US dollars and gold. If the dollar goes to hell, rising gold could make up for the loss in purchasing power.

A hundred years ago gold and silver were the only items accepted as money. Paper money was carried around because it was convenient as opposed to gold and silver, which are heavy. Besides, if you had any doubt about your paper, you could turn it in at any national bank for gold, "the dollar was as good as gold." Furthermore, the dollar was backed by one of the strongest and most prosperous nations on earth.

Today the dollar is backed only by "the full faith and credit of the United States," the greatest debtor the world has ever seen. Questions are now arising about the credit-worthiness of sovereign debt. Many analysts believe that the US will never, ever, be able to pay off its debt, which is now not only rising but is compounding.

[traderabc] 13/2/2010 13:33

Keiser 'Chilly Moscow' Report: Kremlin Special