Monday, February 27, 2017

Peak American Wealth – Revisited / Politics / Social Issues

By: Raul_I_Meijer

Let’s see. On February 18, I wrote an essay called “Not Nearly Enough Growth To Keep Growing”, in which I said “..the Automatic Earth has said for many years that the peak of our wealth was sometime in the 1970’s or even late 1960’s”.

That provoked a wonderfully written reaction from long-time Automatic Earth reader Ken Latta, which I published on February 23 as “When Was America’s Peak Wealth?”. Ken put peak wealth sometime in the late ’50s to early 60’s. As I said then, I really liked his definition of ‘wealth’ as being “best measured by the capacity to be utterly wasteful”. The article spawned a series of nice comments, for some reason largely by people in his age bracket (Ken’s 73).

Monday, February 27, 2017

Oscars Debacle – Movies More Costly As US Dollar Devalued / Currencies / Fiat Currency

By: GoldCore

• Cost of Best Picture winners show very significant devaluation of the dollar
• Average cost to make an Oscar winning film is over $43 million – in gold terms, this is over 106,000 ounces
• Four $15 million films show nearly 100% difference when priced in gold ounces
• Oscar fiasco was courtesy of error by accountants PWC
• Whilst the price of the films remained the same, the cost in gold ounces fell from 11.53% of the cost to make the Departed, in 2009 to just 6.4% in 2012
• In an error prone, irrational and volatile world, gold retains value over time …

Monday, February 27, 2017

Stock Market Short-Term Uncertainty As Stocks Fluctuate Along New Record High / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Paul_Rejczak

Briefly: In our opinion, speculative short positions are favored (with stop-loss at 2,410, and profit target at 2,200, S&P 500 index).

Our intraday outlook is now bearish, and our short-term outlook is bearish. Our medium-term outlook remains neutral, following S&P 500 index breakout above last year's all-time high:

Intraday outlook (next 24 hours): bearish
Short-term outlook (next 1-2 weeks): bearish
Medium-term outlook (next 1-3 months): neutral
Long-term outlook (next year): neutral

Monday, February 27, 2017

Top Fixed Rate Savings Bond Highest in 10 months / Personal_Finance / Saving Bonds

By: John_Mauldin

Challenger banks are causing a storm in the fixed rate bond market, with especially the highest rates in the market seeing an increase. The top one-year fixed rate bond has increased to 2.00%, up by 0.60% since January and the first time in 10 months a one-year fixed rate has stood at 2.00% or higher.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Reasons Why Investors Should Avoid Gold ETFs / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017

By: John_Mauldin

BY STEPHEN MCBRIDE : Gold may have ended 2016 on a negative note, but the yellow metal is now up 7% since January. A big contributor to its rise is the large inflows into gold exchange-traded funds (gold ETFs). In 2016, inflows into gold ETFs were the second highest on record and accounted for 34% of total investment demand.

With inflows showing continued strength in 2017, why should investors avoid gold ETFs?

Monday, February 27, 2017

The Border Adjustment Tax Will Make The Jobs Problem Worse / Politics / US Politics

By: John_Mauldin

Under the border adjustment tax (BAT) plan, imports will be penalized and exports rewarded… which theoretically, in a perfect world without pushback, would leave our economy nicely balanced and undisrupted.

But I doubt it will happen that way, because the importers and exporters are not the same businesses. I’ve written extensively about this topic in my three part series, "Tax Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Really Ugly" in Thoughts from the Frontline. (subscribe here for free.)

Monday, February 27, 2017

Dow vs Precious Metals : Where’s The Beef ? Where’s the Bull ? / Stock-Markets / Financial Crisis 2017

By: Rambus_Chartology

Before we look at some precious metals stocks I would like to show you a couple of charts which will help explain why I didn’t participate in this last rally in the precious metals stocks that started in December of last year. It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just the evidence shows that the $INDU, which I’m going to use as a proxy for the rest of the stock markets, is in a true bull market vs the precious metals stocks. As I have often said, ” you always want to trade in a bull market vs a bear market because it will save you from a bad trade if you enter it at the wrong time. If you enter into a long trade in a bear market it will be unforgiving and can take you to the cleaners before you know what hit you.”

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Stock Market Sentiment at ‘Extreme Greed’ / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Andre_Gratian

Current Position of the Market

SPX Long-term trend:  Uptrend continues.

SPX Intermediate trend:  A minor reversal at 2300 has been followed by a resumption of the uptrend targeting the 2400 area.

Analysis of the short-term trend is done on a daily-basis with the help of hourly charts. It is an important adjunct to the analysis of daily and weekly charts which discuss longer market trends.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Iran Holds Large Scale Naval Exercises / Politics / Iran

By: Stephen_Lendman

Iran is threatened by Israel and America’s regional military presence. In areas around the Persian Gulf, it has bases in every country except Iran - plus numerous others in North Africa and Central Asia.

Its actions destabilized much of the Middle East. It supports the region’s worst despots.

The late Chalmers Johnson said “the United States has been inexorably acquiring permanent military enclaves whose sole purpose appears to be the domination of one of the most strategically important areas of the world.”

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - God and Mammon and Power / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017

By: Jesse

"The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power.

There is the word. It is the king of words— Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power.”

Jack London, The Iron Heel

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Do Gold Miners Need to Lead the Metals? / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017

By: Gary_Savage

It’s a common misconception that miners always lead the metals sector. As you can see in this chart the miners often produce false signals.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Trump’s Top Econ Guy Just ANNIHILATED the Stock Market’s Fantasy / Stock-Markets / Financial Crash

By: Graham_Summers

The single biggest story this morning is Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin pouring ice cold water on the market’s mania.

First and foremost, Mnunchin stated point blank that the Trump administration HOPES to implement tax reform by August.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Trump Relinquishes Control of Foreign Policy / Politics / US Politics

By: Mike_Whitney

The war party is back in power and the odds of normal relations with Russia have dropped to zero.

The appointment of Army Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster to the position of national security adviser indicates that Trump has done an about-face on his most critical foreign policy issue, normalizing relations with Russia. General Michael Flynn– who recently stepped down from the post following allegations of lying to Vice President Mike Pence –was the main proponent of easing tensions with Moscow which is a position that had been enthusiastically embraced by President Donald Trump. But McMaster does not support normalizing relations with Russia, in fact,  McMaster sees Russia as a “hostile revisionist power” that “annex(es) territory, intimidates our allies, develops nuclear weapons, and uses proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries.” So, what’s going on? Why has Trump put a Moscow-hating hawk like McMaster in a position where he’ll be able to intensify the pressure on Russia, increase the provocations and, very likely, trigger a conflagration between the two nuclear-armed superpowers?

Sunday, February 26, 2017

[Gratis] "Dark Money" Secrets Revealed! / Stock-Markets / Trading Systems

By: Submissions

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Ten KitKat Personalised Packs for FREE! / Personal_Finance / Freebies and Comps

By: Anika_Walayat

We have now received our 10 personalised kitkat packs, which apparently is the maximum number per address. This is supposed to be a competition but in reality kitkat are giving away 10 personalised packs per household given the large number of 1000 packs being made available per DAY! So do get your free personalised packs before the promotion ends on 29th of March 2017 and find out what you get in the post in our latest video in this series.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

A Damaging Week for U.S. Treasury Yield! / Interest-Rates / US Bonds

By: Mike_Paulenoff

What a weird and unsettling week. The equity indices for the most preserved their gains, albeit despite Thursday's divergent action, while the bond market went straight up (YIELD straight down), which is the more curious of the major asset class behavior as we head into the weekend...

Technically, the plunge in yield fom 2.46% on Tuesday to 2.30% on Friday (-6.5%) has broken the integrity of the Dec-Feb high-level coil/digestion pattern. It is threatening to morph all of the action since Dec 15 (2.64%) into an intermediate-term top formation that will project weaker yield into the area of the up-sloping 200 day eMA, now at 2.10%

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Stock Market SPX New All-time Highs Continue / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017

By: Tony_Caldaro

The SPX started the holiday shortened week at 2351. The market opened higher on Tuesday, rallied to a new high at SPX 2367, then pulled back to 2358 on Wednesday. After opening at another new high, SPX 2368, on Thursday, the market pulled back to 2353 on Friday before ending the week at 2367. For the week the SPX/DOW gained 0.85%, and the NDX/NAZ gained 0.25%. Economic reports for the week were sparse and mostly positive. On the downtick: the WLEI plus weekly jobless claims rose. On the uptick: existing/new home sales, consumer sentiment and the FHFA housing index. Next week’s reports will be highlighted by the FED’s beige book, the ISMs and the Q4 GDP second estimate.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

POWERFUL GOLD & SILVER COILED SPRINGS: Important Charts You Have To See / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: Steve_St_Angelo

According to the fundamentals, gold and silver are severely compressed coiled springs looking for an opportunity to release their tremendous power.  Yes, it is true, the precious metals still hold a great deal of power.  Which is why their prices are constantly controlled by market intervention.

Of course, the market intervention of gold and silver didn’t start recently.  Oh no, this has been going on for quite some time.  Even though the Central Banks and Gadflies on the financial networks have been able to BAMBOOZLE the public into believing gold is a “Barbarous relic”, fundamentals and the laws of nature can’t be broken forever… as serious consequences normally follow.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Underperformance in Gold Stocks Argues for Interim Peak / Commodities / Gold & Silver Stocks 2017

By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne

The early stages of Gold bull markets (this one included) are characterized by strong outperformance from the miners. They will lead the metals and turning points and register strong outperformance. We saw that in the early 2000s, late 2008 to early 2009 and we have seen it again over the past year. During the recent rebound, the miners rallied back to the “Trump” resistance while Gold is not yet close to doing so. However, unfortunately for bulls, while Gold is now pushing higher above key levels, the gold stocks are lagging. This new and recent underperformance suggests the gold stocks have made an interim peak and will remain entrenched in a correction or consolidation.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Watch What Happens When Silver Price Hits $26...  / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017

By: MoneyMetals

Mike Gleason: It is my privilege now to welcome in our good friend David Morgan of The Morgan Report. David, thanks so much for joining us. It's great to have you on, as always. How are you doing so far here in 2017?

David Morgan: I'm doing pretty good, Mike. It's great to be on your show. Thank you very much.

Mike Gleason: Well, as we begin here, David, we're off to another solid start to the year in the precious metals markets. Things look quite similar today to where they did a year ago. We also saw some early momentum in 2016.