I am proud to be an American also but we must all work to save this country from the various “elements” that are destroying this country from within. I am talking about the Fed, the banksters, and the useless politicians who are dividing the riches of this country amongst themselves. Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
The message is all that matters.
So I agree with you.
aurum
|
Dylan could never sing but his lyrics made up for his voice.
Since you are not around - I get my choice.
aurum
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtkVGClqrT4
or Eddie singing
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2kk-v7NLr4
or Newport
or CCR
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNLu2gY2-uU
or or ….
Since Irish is busy traveling I thought I call for it. Maybe a breakthrough in POG due to lousy unemployment numbers coming out tomorrow morning.
What music should we have on this one night past the full moon?
aurum (night music)
Ode to my Friend .. Maya
And it came to pass
after all the hard work
the house
the home
the hand hewn
and aegis barn
the set right
and sown fields
he never looked back
tyranny .. wraith nearer
..
abtd
gold is over at Kitco…………..they are linked at the hip
Hi Bill,
Recently I heard the stunning news that the Federal Reserve is behind the “Cash for Gold” program. I had been scratching my head for a long time wondering what kind of a Company could afford prime time TV ads, plus all those newspaper ads across North America. I cannot forget the cost for GATA to run the one page, one day ad in the Wall Street Journal ($272,000). And here these ads are getting blasted daily over the internet, TV and newspapers. I understand it is working for them as people excitedly line up to cash in their gold at an all time ‘high’ and try to pay down their bills with their new found riches ($640 - $680. per oz). I understand the Federal Reserve is paying $!,350. oz and that makes sense because they know it is worth far higher than that. I call this ‘The US Voluntary Confiscation Program’.
It also appears we will not hear anything more about the Royal Canadian Mint’s missing gold. Since nobody can figure out how millions have been lost, they are filing insurance claims for their losses. No big deal, they are in the business of selling gold for fiat anyway. No doubt in my mind it was surreptitiously loaned out to our neighbours and there is no way we are going to ever see that gold again.
There is not a lot of great news out there however Mark Carney (GS/Governor of the Bank of Canada) made the official announcement last week that the recession is over for Canada! The numbers do not add up, nor do the charts on what lies ahead but it was nice of him to try and make people feel good for a day or so. I heard Alan Greenspan on TV offering similar optimism on your side as well.
We live in such interesting times and I feel we are getting very close to a break out in the metal prices as well as the gold and silver shares. Keep up the great work and it is always a pleasure reading what you and your contributors have to say – more importantly, keep well.
Regards,
Jane
Tomorrow we have the dreaded US jobs report. Normally it would be a no hoper day for gold and silver, but this late action might change the picture. It certainly picked up my spirits. If gold can take out $970 after the report and stay there for a while, we could see some FIREWORKS. So many successful tests of downside key support at $960 will not go unnoticed. It would appear our team has recruited some All-America type players to take on the bullies we have been fighting so long.
GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!
Yesterday I said “The Cartel tried hard again today. The bulls certainly didn’t blink. It was superb action because the break-out level of $960 was re-tested and it held…AND gold went higher in the after market. The Cartel didn’t blink but they are certainly rubbing their eyes tonight. The chance of a commercial signal failure just ratcheted up one more notch!”
Gold held the key $960 level for the regular COMEX session close. The sick and desperate puppies in the Gold Cartel went into action in the thinly traded aftermarket taking gold down to $955.4 but astonishingly some big buying showed up and took gold right back up to $964 and ABOVE the regular COMEX closing price. This is absolutely stunning and unprecedented. This is like Al Capone being ambushed, beaten up and left for dead by some boy scouts! This is extremely bad news for the Cartel. The ACCESS market is their own back yard and their raid failed! The bulls still haven’t blinked. The Cartel boyz will be furious and may well throw a tantrum and try again overnight and/or on the regular COMEX session tomorrow, but that might be ill-advised considering the enormous implications of their defeat today. If I were a Cartel groupie and short gold and depending on making profits by holding on to the coat tails of the commercials, I would have adrenaline running down my legs in large brown lumps about now! The chance of a commercial signal failure just ratcheted up yet one more notch! Make sure the champagne is chilled and stay tuned!
Cheers
Adrian
And the world is gradually waking up to the extent of the market manipulation in the United States. Richard Russell last night…
August 5, 2009 — I guess I should come clean and admit it. After reading all about Goldman Sachs and studying Paulson and Geithner and former NY Fed Chairman Friedman, I have become almost hopelessly cynical about the markets. Is anyone ethical? Is anyone honest? I’m starting to wonder. Where money is concerned, is there anything Wall Street or the bankers won’t try?
Rumors of manipulation have been around ever since I started writing Dow Theory Letters in 1958. I always pooh-poohed those rumors, believing that it was the losers who always blamed their losses on manipulation. But now I’m not so sure.
For instance, I watched yesterday’s close on the NYSE minute by minute. The Dow was fluctuating back and forth — up 5 points one minute, down 3 points the next minute. But with one minute to go, the Dow suddenly spurted 33 points higher. I stared at my computer screen in surprise, and I asked myself, “What the hell was that?” It seemed apparent that “somebody” wanted a noticeable higher Dow at the close.
The market can be manipulated on a daily basis or maybe for a week. But in the big picture, as to the primary trend, I don’t believe the stock market or the economy can be manipulated. Although heaven knows that Washington is trying — throwing unprecedented trillions of dollars at the US economy. It’s never been tried before, but won’t trillions of dollars be enough to manipulate the great tide or the primary trend of the market? Maybe for a few weeks or even a few months, but I still don’t believe that the primary trend can be halted or reversed, no matter who tries and no matter with how many Federal Reserve dollars.
The study of the market is part theoretical and part philosophical, and that is what makes it so fascinating. There are certain forces that are so giant, so irresistible that man has not been able to harness them. The tide of the ocean is one. The revolutions of the moon around the earth is another. And I believe the primary trend of the market is a third. The stock market is an invention of man, but although man invented it, like Frankenstein, the tide of the market, the great primary trend of the market, is beyond the power of its inventors to manipulate.
We can’t control the primary trend. Ironically the best we can do is to identify its direction, and even here there are doubts and arguments. Man has invented the X-ray and the Internet, but it’s ironic that man has not invented the fool-proof way to identify the direction of the primary trend of the stock market.
Some of the best minds in the nation have applied themselves to unraveling the mysteries of the stock market. Yet, to my knowledge nobody has come up with the ultimate method of beating the market. I’d say that the stock market is the ultimate mystery to which men have applied their intelligence. How do we know that no one, to date, has solved the mystery of how to beat the market? We know because the day someone discovers how to consistently beat the market, on that day the market will cease to exist. It won’t be a market — rather it will be a sure thing. And one man will be able to accumulate most of the wealth of the world.
I’ve worked for over 50 years with the Dow Theory. A basic tenet of Dow Theory is that it is not infallible. The good and the bad (frustrating) part of Dow Theory is that it requires interpretation. Robert Rhea wrote that “those who demand least from the Dow Theory gain the most from it.” I might add that those who demand most from the Dow Theory are the ones who will be most frustrated by it…..
-END-
DJ US Senate Votes 60-37 To Approve $2B Clunkers Extension
By Corey Boles
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The U.S. Senate voted on a razor thin margin to
approve a further $2 billion to extend the popular “Cash for Clunkers” program,
ensuring the voucher scheme will be able to continue through the rest of the
summer.
The vote was 60-37, the narrowest margin possible for passage of the
extension. Seven Republicans voted with the majority, while four Democrats
opposed the Clunkers’ extension.
With the Senate’s approval, President Barack Obama can sign the extension
into law, something he will do in the coming days.
The move to bolster the funds available to the program became necessary after
a panic last week by Department of Transportation officials who believed that
the initial $1 billion allocated to the clunkers scheme had been exhausted
after just one week.
The $2 billion is being transferred from the $787 billion economic stimulus
plan agreed to earlier by lawmakers earlier in the year. It was to have been
used to guarantee loans made for investments in renewable energy sources.
Cash for Clunkers offers vouchers between $3,500 and $4,500 to individuals
who trade in gas guzzlers for new, more fuel efficient vehicles. The scheme was
aimed at both providing a much needed boost to new car sales and at benefiting
the environment by removing heavy polluting cars off the road.
It has been widely seen as a success, so much so that its popularity clearly
took both the Obama administration and the auto industry by surprise.
Executives at car makers have said that vehicle stocks are running low, due
to the surge in sales over the last two weeks.
Citing the clunkers success, Neal Soss, an economist at the investment bank
Credit Suisse, upgraded his forecast for U.S. gross domestic product to 2% from
1.3% in the third quarter and to 2.5% from 2% in the fourth quarter.
A week after Transportation Ray LaHood told lawmakers he was pulling the plug
on the program because he feared the $1 billion had been spent, it is still
unclear exactly how many cars have been sold or how much taxpayer money has
been spent. LaHood was overruled by the White House, which insisted clunkers
would not been suspended.
Wednesday, the Department of Transportation said it has processed 184,304
transactions for vouchers worth $775.2 million. But a department spokeswoman
said officials believe some dealers haven’t yet submitted applications for
vouchers.
But according to J.D. Power & Associates, only 30,000 to 50,000 new car sales
are directly attributable to the clunkers program.
Gary Dilts, a senior vice president of global automotive operations at J.D.
Power, said the rest of the sales would have occurred with or without the
vouchers being offered.
He said, however, that “getting a 50,000 boost is a big deal.”
Dilts said he believed the rapid pace of sales would continue into the fall,
given the heightened attention the program has received.
Republicans argued that despite its popularity, lawmakers should pause before
extending the scheme to evaluate its economic and environmental impact.
Before they approved the extension, senators voted down six attempts by
Republican lawmakers to either change the clunkers program or attach unrelated
measures aimed at modifying other federal government programs to it.
Had any of those amendments been successful, it is almost certain the program
would have been halted, as any changes to the scheme would require the approval
of House lawmakers. The House began its month-long summer recess last week, and
it is unlikely lawmakers would have returned to town to vote on an amended
clunkers legislation.
The longer term future of the program is uncertain. Democratic lawmakers
declined to say whether a second extension was in the offing once the $2
billion is spent.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSmj3×32a2E&feature=related
now maybe you’ll,
buymore
“How society treats its dead says volumes about the way society lives,” he says. “Civilization requires intrinsically that we bury the dead. It distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom.”
I do not know about others here, but this story really saddens me greatly. This is not the United States of America I grew up in where respecting our elders was understood and respect for those who have passed on were treated with immediately without regard to cost for what so many gave to develop this great nation for future generations. At a minimum the government should step in and assist those families who need financial assistance to bury their loved ones … if the government can give away $4500 for clunckers the least they could do is provide financial assistance to those who are currently financially suffering. Where is the caring and concern?
I’m ashamed of our nation’s elected leaders and our current society who have come to feel it is alright to allow this situation to exist and persist. Where is the compassion for our fellow man? As this country travels deeper and deeper into this recession/depression, can we expect this situation to be found in more and more cities from the east coast to the west coast? This should not be acceptable or tolerated … if we can spend hundreds of millions to fight in wars abroad why then can’t we find a way to bury those who die on our own soil? We need to start getting our priorities right. I pray that a solution is found soon because this is a very bad reflection on our nation to others throughout the world.
Good point! but I guess the real ammendment to the bill is to limit it to:
“limit clunker rebates to individuals with annual incomes of 50 K or less”
Not sure how Stewart got to millionaires but it does sound better. 
“It does seem to be out of character for Democrats to support allowing millionaires access to borrowed money to buy cars,” said Don Stewart, spokesnan for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
I find it difficult to believe that “millionaires” have “clunkers” in their driveways to exchange.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports: The effort to inject another two billion dollars into Cash for Clunkers has hit a potential road block in the Senate that could kill the bill.
Republiicans are throwing their support behind an amendment offered by Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, that would limit clunker rebates to individuals with annual incomes of 50 K or less. With Republican support the amendment stands a good chance of passing unless the majority of Democrats, who mostly favor the amendment, vote against it.
Why is that a problem?
If any amendment passes it means the House has to take up the bill again and the House, of course, has already adjourned for its August recess.
The Democratic leadership is now scrambling to get rank- and -fille Democratic senators to vote against an amendment almost all of them favor. It would be a very tough vote.
“It does seem to be out of character for Democrats to support allowing millionaires access to borrowed money to buy cars,” said Don Stewart, spokesnan for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
This is being used by the 912 project to teach about our nation’s historical roots in liberty.
GREAT stuff.
Even more astonishing - this is used in the Houston public school system. And the early part is written/prepared by none other than Mark Skousen.
americanheritage.org/AHEF_National_High_Extraction_08_1_Introduction.pdf
by CalculatedRisk on 8/06/2009 06:03:00 PM
Fannie Mae Press Release: Loss of $14.8 Billion Driven by Credit-Related Expenses
Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) reported a loss of $14.8 billion, … in the second quarter of 2009, compared with a loss of $23.2 billion, … in the first quarter of 2009. Second-quarter results were driven primarily by $18.8 billion of credit-related expenses, reflecting the ongoing impact of adverse conditions in the housing market, as well as the economic recession and rising unemployment. Credit-related expenses were partially offset by fair value gains. The company also reported a substantial decrease in impairment losses on investment securities, which was due in part to the adoption of new accounting guidance.
Taking into account unrealized gains on available-for-sale securities during the second quarter and an adjustment to our deferred tax assets due to the new accounting guidance, the loss resulted in a net worth deficit of $10.6 billion as of June 30, 2009. As a result, on August 6, 2009, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which has been acting as our conservator since September 6, 2008, submitted a request for $10.7 billion from the U.S. Department of the Treasury on our behalf under the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreement between Fannie Mae and the Treasury in order to eliminate our net worth deficit. FHFA has requested that Treasury provide the funds on or prior to September 30, 2009.
…
Credit-related expenses, which are the total provision for credit losses plus foreclosed property expense, were $18.8 billion, compared with $20.9 billion in the first quarter of 2009. Our provision for credit losses was $18.2 billion, compared with $20.3 billion in the first quarter of 2009. The reduction in the provision for credit losses in the second quarter was attributable to a slower rate of increase in both our estimated default rate and average loss severity, or average initial charge-off per default, as compared with the first quarter. Our provision exceeded net charge-offs of $4.8 billion by $13.4 billion, as we continued to build our combined loss reserves, which represent our current estimate of probable losses inherent in our guaranty book of business as of June 30, 2009.Combined loss reserves were $55.1 billion on June 30, 2009, up from $41.7 billion on March 31, 2009, and $24.8 billion on December 31, 2008. …
We are experiencing increases in delinquency and default rates for our entire guaranty book of business, including on loans with fewer risk layers. Risk layering is the combination of risk characteristics that could increase the likelihood of default, such as higher loan-to-value ratios, lower FICO credit scores, higher debt-to-income ratios and adjustable-rate mortgages. This general deterioration in our guaranty book of business is a result of the stress on a broader segment of borrowers due to the rise in unemployment and the decline in home prices. Certain states, higher risk loan categories and our 2006 and 2007 loan vintages continue to account for a disproportionate share of our foreclosures and chargeoffs.
Total nonperforming loans in our guaranty book of business were $171.0 billion on June 30, 2009, compared with $144.9 billion on March 31, 2009, and $119.2 billion on December 31, 2008. The carrying value of our foreclosed properties was $6.2 billion, compared with $6.4 billion on March 31, 2009, and $6.6 billion on December 31, 2008.
emphasis added
Fannie Mae has reserved seating at the confessional. NPLs of $171.0 billion. Wow.
AP | JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS | August 6, 2009 at 05:36 PM
WASHINGTON — Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday as the nation’s first Hispanic Supreme Court justice in a history-making Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics. She’ll be sworn in Saturday as the court’s 111th justice, third woman and first nominee by a Democrat in 15 years. The Senate vote was 68-31 to confirm Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee.
Goldie… I think you protected your karma!
he is currently in the great state of texas and will arrive here at high noon tomorrow. (assuming not intervention by law enforcement)
rno
Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said yesterday he plans to leave the agency this month and return to business.
The Treasury Department has committed as much as $400 billion to keep the two companies afloat while President Barack Obama’s policy makers figure out how to restructure their operations. Among options under consideration are turning them into public utilities, liquidation or separating them into a “good bank” of strong assets and a “bad bank” of weak ones.
Let’s see….
Deutche Bank says that nearly half of all mortgages, including prime ones, will be underwater by 2011.
Fannie and Freddie’s “performance” has been going bad at a parabolic rate. And while the default rate is (so far) relatively small numerically, the fact remains that the rate of change is parabolic to the upside and these firms are carrying leverage well in excess of 80:1 and have been consuming bailout funds like a voracious bonfire.
During Lockhart’s tenure, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages from lenders, posted $150 billion in combined losses as the housing market plummeted, leading to their takeover by the government in September. They have received $84.9 billion in federal aid since November, which Lockhart said last month they won’t be able to repay in full.
“Everybody that was involved in the mortgage markets regrets that we didn’t see how bad things were going to get,” Lockhart said in an interview yesterday.
Let’s see, $150 billion in “private” capital down the hole, another $85 billion out of the $400 billion consumed, there is no expectation that the $85 will be repaid in full and the default rate is continuing to ramp on a parabolic basis…..
I have to wonder - is this about to happen?
Oh by the way, that’s a $5.4 trillion dollar bomb they’re sitting on, and if we see an explosion some time in the next couple of months don’t be surprised.
These sorts of “departures” are rarely a coincidence.
