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| RATIOS & INDEXES |
| Gold / Silver | 63.65 |
| Gold / Oil | 13.93 |
| Dowjones / Gold | 11.24 |
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 | Opinions and Analysis |  |
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 | Charleston Voice |
| From the Trojan Horse to the Golden Calf—the Power of Deceit |
| When we consider what might have been, we may weep for the innocents slaughtered in the fulfillment of the Zionist dream that took America to war against Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and Syria, and the ultimate goal of Israel, Iran, we will understand that our youth fought to save Israel's soldiers from facing the death that awaited them on these battlefields while we watched the people of the world turn against the American values that gave us credibility throughout the world and lashedMonday, June 10, 2013 |
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 | Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Australian Dollar Plunges as Home Loans Dive; Australia Insolvencies Hit Record; Worst is Yet to Com |
| Curve Watchers Anonymous has its eye on the Australian dollar. As expected, it has taken a big dive in conjunction with a housing bust and a slowdown in China that impacts the demand for commodities.
click on chart for sharper image
The only thing surprising to me about this plunge is how long it took, but here we are.
Aussie Falls to Lowest in More Than Two Years
Bloomberg reports Aussie Falls to Lowest in More Than Two Years as Home Loans Slow
Australia’s dollar fell to the lowest in mTuesday, June 11, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Do You Trust Banks? Country by County Comparison |
| Here is an interesting Gallup poll that came my way today from a friend "BC". The poll was taken last month. It shows European Countries Lead World in Distrust of Banks.
Thirteen percent of Greeks said they had confidence in their country's banks or financial institutions in 2012, leading the nearly all-European list of countries where trust in financial institutions was among the worst in the world last year. Seven European Union countries had trust levels lower than 30%, far below the medianMonday, June 17, 2013 |
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 | Mac Slavo - ShtfPlan |
| Detroit Goes Under: “There Is No Way Out But Collapse” |
| Though most Americans go through their day thinking everything is now returning to normal, the fact of the matter is the situation is anything but stable.
With crime rates skyrocketing, home prices dropping to under $500 for a house, and the local government out of solutions, the city of Detroit is the latest to join the likes of Stockton, California, having just defaulted on its loans from creditors.
Despite promises to the contrary, it should come as no surprise that the city is unable to meetMonday, June 17, 2013 |
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| Charleston Voice |
| Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data |
| Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 9 June 2013 10.08 EDT
Revealed: The NSA's powerful tool for cataloguing global surveillance data – including figures on US collection
The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). Note the '2007' date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top sMonday, June 10, 2013 |
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| Mac Slavo - ShtfPlan |
| Real Life Spy Drama On U.S. Bound Plane: “I’m Dead Already, They’re Gonna Kill Me” *VIDE |
| (Passenger Daniel Perry is escorted off of a United Flight originating in Hong Kong.
Is he a national intelligence asset?)
To add further drama and confusion to the story of Edward Snowden, NSA Spying and Central Intelligence Agency involvement, a passenger on a U.S. bound flight out of Hong Kong Monday claimed that intelligence agents had detained him, were going to kidnap him, take him to a safe house, and that they planned to kill him because of his knowledge about the recently released leaksWednesday, June 19, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| California, Illinois on Brink of Pension Crisis; New Actuarial Rules Will Force States to Admit Prob |
| Many states, especially California and Illinois, have had severe pension underfunding problems for many years.
However, new actuarial pension rules will finally force states to admit the problem. Thus, it should not be surprising that talk of "technical bankruptcy" and “service insolvency” is growing.
Here are some pertinent ideas from California on the Brink: Pension Crisis About to Get Worse
Moody’s new credit standards for public pensions would nearly double the unfunded liabilities for sThursday, June 13, 2013 |
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 | Steve Keen - Debt Deflation |
| The Neoclassical conspiracy against Post Keynesian Economics |
| Tweet
TweetPaul Krugman recently posted on predictions of the crisis before it happened, in a piece entitled “Non-prophet Economics”. It had a set of propositions about how one should evaluate such claims with which I completely and utterly agree. I’ll quote it in its entirety, because it’s an eminently suitable starting point for evaluating whether a prediction was in fact made:
“So as I see it, we should first of all be evaluating models, not individuals; obviouslyTuesday, June 11, 2013 |
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 | Rick Ackerman |
| The Economic Recovery’s ‘Elephant in the Room’ |
| Well, that’s two straight Tuesdays that U.S. stocks have fallen. Has Wall Street finally noticed that the real estate sector – the only big winner in American’s sham “recovery” besides the stock market itself – is starting to deteriorate? Hard to say, although lately we’ve had our doubts that yield-crazed U.S. investors would lose a beat even if an epidemic were to wipe out half of the world’s population. They barely flinched a couple of weeks ago when Japan’s stock market was freefalling. And Thursday, June 13, 2013 |
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| Rick Ackerman |
| Bear-Market Odds |
| Are U.S. stocks in a bear market? Although we don’t pretend to have a crystal ball, the chart below could soon give us enough information to quote odds on it. From a technical standpoint, using our proprietary method of analysis, the key feature is the 14953 low made last week. Thursday’s swoon to that number overshot an important “Hidden Pivot” correction target at 14962 (aka ‘p’) by a hair – i.e., nine points, or 0.10 percent. That’s not enough to regard the support as having been violated,Monday, June 17, 2013 |
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 | Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
 Does It Really Get Better? |
| Lost in Friday’s jobs report amid the expectations game and the immediate reaction by financial markets to the headline numbers came more evidence that the jobs being created in this economic recovery are not much to write home about. Nearly a quarter of the increase in nonfarm payrolls came from the “food service and drinking establishments” category.
This story at CNBC probes the deeper meaning of developments like this.
The American Dream used to be a house to call your own that you paid forTuesday, June 11, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Kass: The Market Is Headed Lower |
| I’ve come to respect the opinion of Seabreeze Partners’ Doug Kass over the years and, in this CNBC interview from late last week, he maintains his recent view that equity markets may see some trouble ahead due to his dim view of the economy and corporate profits.
For the moment at least, last week’s bullishness is continuing as Japan stocks rose by nearly five percent earlier today, this following last Friday’s surge in U.S. equities. According to this Reuters report, the OECD says the world’s Monday, June 10, 2013 |
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| Charleston Voice |
| Arrests and Billion-Dollar Forgeries Swirl Around Failed Exchange |
| Kissinger & Greenberg
With the head villain in this being a former director of an AIG subsidiary, it certainly can peak one's curiousity what he learned under AIG CEO Hank Greenberg (CFR)!
By Carol Wickenkamp, Epoch Times | June 6, 2013
Barry Cheung (L) is pictured alongside his former boss, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Cheung is in trouble now that an exchange he ran is being investigated for financial irregularities; the arrest of a number of people from mainland CSunday, June 09, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Fierce Selloff in Emerging Market Currencies; India Intervenes to Stop Plunge in Rupee; Brazil Steps |
| I's hard not to laugh at the irony of recent central bank currency actions.
After complaining for years about the strength of the Real, the Brazilian central bank stepped up intervention actions hoping to stop a plunge in the currency.
Turkey now attempts to attract capital after taking measures for the past four years to stop the flow of money into the country.
In India, the central bank seeks to stop a plunge in the Rupee which is at a record low of record low 58.95 to the dollar.
The WallWednesday, June 12, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Southern California Home Prices Soar |
| It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with real estate prices in the months ahead as rising interest rates appear to have been the proximate cause of a buying stampede in many parts of the country that has resulted in prices moving sharply higher. Word came yesterday that Southern California home prices (where we lived for many years, up until 2007) are on a tear, up 25 percent from a year ago according to this report from Dataquick.
Those are some pretty hefty year-over-year increaseThursday, June 13, 2013 |
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 | Chris Powell - GATA |
| Bitcoin is 'real currency,' CFTC's Chilton tells Yahoo's 'Daily Ticker' |
| Dear Friend of GATA and gold:
U.S. commodity trading regulator Bart Chilton today tells Lauren Lyster of Yahoo's "Daily Ticker" that bitcoin is "real currency" and so has to be taken seriously by the government and regulated if it involves futures contracts or the purchase of contraband. Chilton, a member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, adds that new regulations have given the public a little more protection against getting cheated by operations like MF Global but admits that mMonday, June 17, 2013 |
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| Rick Ackerman |
| Bears Shouldn’t Despair |
| The chart below was posted in the chat room yesterday by a Rick’s Picks subscriber evidently at the point of despair over the stock market’s inability to muster a sell-off worthy of the name. The three-day downtrend reversed by yesterday’s swoon is a case in point. This was the first time this year that the Dow average had fallen for three consecutive sessions. And yet, the drop from high to low was a mere 250 points — barely enough to placate beleaguered permabears, let alone satisfy them. AnFriday, June 14, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Florida Repeals Renewable Fuel Standard; Silly Senator, Corn is for Food! |
| Last week Florida Governor Rick Scott signed HB 4001, repealing the state’s Renewable Fuel Standard. This has researchers seeking handouts at the expense of everyone else in a tizzy.
For example, the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO) says Repeal of Florida’s Renewable Fuel Standard Will Stifle Innovation, Investment and Jobs.
“Florida’s repeal of its RFS sends a chilling message that companies developing advanced biofuel and other biotechnology innovations are unwelcome in the state,” said Sunday, June 09, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Don't Worry, Trend Towards Hiring Temps is Only Temporary (And Not at All Related to Obamacare) |
| Wal-Mart has a new strategy of hiring temporary workers, everyday (seemingly to match everyday low pricing). Spokesman David Tovar says that the move is not related Obamacare, even though it could take a year or more for temporary workers to receive health care
benefits.
Let's dig deeper into Wal-Mart's Everyday Hiring Strategy to see if management claims pass the sniff test.
A Reuters survey of 52 stores run by the largest U.S. private employer in the past month, including one in every U.S.Friday, June 14, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| More Disturbing Data on Seniors in Debt |
| The latest news about the high cost of living in retirement (and the resulting dwindling pile of inheritance money for retiring baby boomers) serves as a timely reminder that, like the situation with student loans in the U.S., personal finances are changing in ways that few would have predicted a decade or two ago.
This Fiscal Times story details the latest developments in the ongoing saga of seniors in debt and they are none-too-pretty, not only for seniors but for those expecting an inheritancWednesday, June 12, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Chinese Economy Grows at Slowest Pace in 13 Years; What's Next for China? |
| Inquiring minds note the growth slowdown in China: China's economy stumbles in May, growth seen sliding in Q2.
China's economy grew at its slowest pace for 13 years in 2012 and so far this year economic data has surprised on the downside, bringing warnings from some analysts that the country could miss its growth target of 7.5 percent for this year.
"Growth remains unconvincing and the momentum seems to have lost pace in May," Louis Kuijs, an economist at RBS, said in a note. "The short-term Monday, June 10, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| German Constitutional Court to Rule Whether ECB Actions Violate German Law; Irrelevant Arguments and |
| The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, heard arguments on Tuesday on whether ECB measures to contain the eurozone crisis violate German law.
The court does not have the power to block the ECB, but it does have the power to restrict German participation in various funding schemes.
The New York Times dramatically states German Court Debates Fate of Euro.
Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, a retired law professor and well-known euro opponent, told the court he hoped that “the euro adventurTuesday, June 11, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Wednesday Morning Links |
| MUST READS
Traders Said to Rig Currency Rates – Bloomberg
Turkey’s central bank acts to stabilize lira – MarketWatch
India’s central bank intervenes to stem rupee fall – CNA
Sales of Orwell’s ‘1984′ spike after NSA leak – CNN/Money
Greece First Developed Market Cut to Emerging at MSCI – Bloomberg
Analysis: Asia’s ticking time bonds; time to cut and run? – Reuters
Can Bernanke Avoid a Meltdown in the Bond Market? – Bloomberg
Just How Frightened Are Bond Investors? – Barron’s
Reminder That Debt CeWednesday, June 12, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Kass: The Market Headed Lower |
| I’ve come to respect the opinion of Seabreeze Partners’ Doug Kass over the years and, in this CNBC interview from late last week, he maintains his recent view that equity markets may see some trouble ahead due to his dim view of the economy and corporate profits.
For the moment at least, last week’s bullishness is continuing as Japan stocks rose by nearly five percent earlier today, this following last Friday’s surge in U.S. equities. According to this Reuters report, the OECD says the world’s Monday, June 10, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Emails From French and Canadian Readers on "Preserving Culture" and the "Language Police" |
| I received still more emails from French and Canadian readers on preserving culture. Since it's a slow news day, let's take a look at them.
Olivier writes "Wouldn't a true conservative pay at least some respect to local cultural norms instead of trying to impose some economic diktat from on down?"
Talk about getting things ass backwards. It is the social police attempting to impose cultural and economic diktats to preserve the local bookstore and the local farm to the point of absolute absurdiSunday, June 09, 2013 |
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| Mish - Global Economic Analysis |
| Mortgage Refis Plunge Following 76 Basis Point Rise in 30-Year Rate; Treasury Yield Reaches 14-Month |
| Curve Watchers Anonymous has been watching the rise in interest rates across much of the yield curve.
Yield Curve as of 2013-06-11
click on chart for sharper image
As one should suspect, mortgage rates have been rising in conjunction with the rise in treasury rates. Here is a chart from Steen Jakobsen, Chief economist at Saxo Bank in Denmark.
Note the annotation "30 Yr mortgages rate is up 76 basis points on the year with no growth increase". the phrase "no growth" pertains to lack of gWednesday, June 12, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Monday Morning Links |
| MUST READS
India’s rupee in “freefall” – Channel News Asia
Decisive Days for Euro: High Court Considers ECB Bond Buys – Spiegel
Eurozone crisis is over, declares French president Hollande – Telegraph
Japan Revises Growth to Annual 4.1% in Boost for Abe’s Campaign – Bloomberg
Frustration with ‘Abenomics’ starts to build among LDP lawmakers – Japan Times
Most economists see Fed scaling back bond buys by year-end: Reuters poll – Reuters
Four reasons Bernanke may be world’s best central banker – WalMonday, June 10, 2013 |
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| Tim Iacono - Iacono Research |
| Visualizing Gold Demand In China |
| This report in China Daily the other day that included the stunning photos shown below offers another example of the sharp contrast between the “physical” gold market in Asia and the “paper” gold market here in the U.S.
There appear to have been hundreds of people lined up outside of a gold store in Jinan City in East China’s Shandong province on Tuesday, all there to buy gold at a discount.
Customers were limited to 15 minutes inside the store to make their purchases, what must have seemFriday, June 14, 2013 |
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