Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Owing More Than Half Of The World's Gold / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
Gold has bottomed in terms of just about everything like oil (in 2005), platinum (2008) and the Dow (1999). One important measure in terms of which it has not bottomed is the amount of currency (US adjusted monetary base).
This monetary base, as the name suggests, is at the root of debt or money creation in this debt-based monetary system. If this system was honest, then this monetary base would basically reflect gold available at the Treasury or Federal Reserve to redeem currency issued by the Federal Reserve.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Gold Holds Its Own As Media Stocks Collapse / Commodities / Gold and Silver Stocks 2015
Daily Prices
Today’s Gold prices were USD 1,113.25, EUR 1008.97 and GBP 713.74 per ounce.
Yesterday’s Gold prices were USD 1,094.80, EUR 998.50 and GBP 707.74 per ounce.
[LBMA AM prices]
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Why Change in Tax Relief for Landlords is Going to Impact Everybody / Housing-Market / UK Housing
Peter Scully writes: In the most recent budget, George Osborne cut tax relief on private rental properties. In the budget, private landlords had their tax relief on mortgage payments cut from the current 45% (or 40% in some cases) to 20%. This is a change which will come into place by April 2020. As you can probably guess, a huge change like this in the industry is going to have an absolutely huge impact on many people.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Are Stocks the Next Oil (or Uranium, Copper, Silver)? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
See: Oil collapse couldn't come at a worse time for industrySee: 2007, when everyone was convinced of 'Peak Oil' and there were websites named 'Peak Oil', 'Oil Drum', etc. constantly reinforcing the mania.
I remember being away on business one day in 2007, with nothing better to do in my hotel room than watch the congressional debates about 'peak oil' and what to do about the evil speculators that were driving prices up. I enjoy watching a good mania as much as the next guy. I realized that what we were seeing was 'Peak Hysteria' with respect to this phenomenon. I thought, 'Yup, Prechter's right'.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Will the Malaysian Ringgit and Stock Market goes Terminal Velocity? / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
It is a known fact that one of the hottest topics of discussion among Malaysians for past few months has been our Ringgit. Thanks to our current economic debacle, it helped raised our awareness of our economic situation. Despite the numerous propaganda engaged by our authorities assuring us of our economy’s resilience, it still failed to alleviate our suspicions. Cliché like high level of international reserves, current account surplus, solid domestic financial system and Ringgit reflecting our economic fundamentals were often used. Is it true that our economy is really that resilient and solid? This article aims to look into the current state of affairs of the Malaysian economy and also how it affects the Ringgit.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Debating the Morality of Hiroshima / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
Each year at this time — the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima — the world pauses. The pause is less to mourn the dead than to debate a moral question: whether the bombing was justified and, by extension, whether the United States unnecessarily slaughtered tens of thousands of people on Aug. 6, 1945. The debate rarely focuses on a careful analysis of war and morality and is more frequently framed by existing views of the United States. The debate is rarely about Hiroshima or about World War II. It is a debate about the moral character of the United States. This is not an illegitimate subject, and Hiroshima might be a useful point with which to begin the debate. But that isn't possible until after we consider the origins of Hiroshima, which can be found in the evolution of modern warfare.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Obama's Iran Nuclear Deal / Politics / Nuclear Weapons
Spending time analyzing the particulars of the agreement misses the point of the Iranian deal. It is not about preventing or even delaying the deployment of the bomb. The true intent of the P5+1 negotiation is to disrupt the unholy alliance between the war party and their Zionist overlords. The overwhelming reality is that U.S. foreign policy is based upon doing the bidding of Israel. What is transpiring is a fundamental push back coming from Barack Hussein Obama II. The Full text: Obama’s news conference on the Iran nuclear deal demonstrates this context.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Stocks Bear Market Investors Nightmare! / Stock-Markets / Stocks Bear Market
Ugly Outlook – Global Economics, Quantitative Easing and Equities - A take on the global economy and equities markets that paints a simple and clear pictures I think.
The DJIA index has recorded seven consecutive down days in a row! These 7 distribution days are a sign that many institutions are taking profits or establishing losses.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Thinking Outside the Commodity Box: Benchmark's Investment Primer for Lithium, Cobalt and Graphite / Commodities / Metals & Mining
It's often difficult to understand the global markets for critical minerals so The Gold Report narrowed it to three—lithium, cobalt and graphite—and brought in Simon Moores, managing director of London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, and the firm's analyst, Andrew Miller, to provide insight into minerals that they say need to shed their labels as traditional commodities and embrace their future as niche, raw-material solutions for a growing list of technology manufacturers. As Benchmark prepares to embark on its World Tour, Moores and Miller discuss supply chain visibility and the impact of disruptive technologies on these markets, as well as companies seeking to leverage lithium, cobalt and graphite into investable business models that will lure investors with a long-term outlook.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Closing the Sausage Factory - The New Normal / Economics / Economic Theory
“Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?”
– Frank Herbert, Heretics of Dune
“Economies naturally grow. People innovate as they go through life. They also look around at what others are doing and adopt better practices or tools. They invest, accumulating financial, human and physical capital.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Real Education Reform Leaves the U.S. Government Behind / Politics / Educating Children
Among the items awaiting Congress when it returns from its August break is reconciling competing House and Senate bills reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. These bills passed early this spring. Each bill is being marketed as a huge step toward restoring state and local control over education. However, an examination of both bills shows that both provide local schools with only limited relief from a few federal mandates.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Dow Stocks Index Makes it Seven / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
Current Position of the Market
SPX: Long-term trend - Bull Market
Intermediate trend - SPX may have started an intermediate correction
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 discusses the course of longer market trends.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Stock Market Bubbles: What the Media Misunderstands / Stock-Markets / Stock Markets 2015
MoneyMorning.com D.R. Barton, Jr writes: Since the last bona fide financial bubble, the real estate and credit bubble of 2007 to 2009, it seems like every time anyone pays a few pennies too much for a stock, there is a flock of analysts ready to start crowing "bubble!" like so many birds on a wire.
I believe that any pundit who calls a sector or market a "bubble" when they really mean "fundamentally or technically overbought" should be banished from pontificating until the real bubble appears.
That's no hollow gripe: These talking heads can do serious damage with their flawed analyses. Regular investors who heed their bad advice can end up prematurely exiting what are in fact strong, lucrative positions, leaving billions in upside on the table.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Greenspan Warns Be Afraid of U.S. Bond Market Bubble / Interest-Rates / US Bonds
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke with Bloomberg's Tom Keene about the U.S. economy, bond market and Fed policy.
On how afraid we should be of bubbles, Greenspan said: "Very much so. I think we have a pending bond market bubble. If we merely substitute the structure of equity prices and we have the price of bonds and instead of expected equity return we do have expected interest rate return. That price earnings ratio is an extraordinarily unstable position."
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Game Theory and Retirement Choices / Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement
Game theory is a hot topic in many fields right now and for good reason - it can uncover better ways of making decisions, that are often otherwise missed. A particularly good example is the uncommon insights that game theory can deliver for us when it comes to making better retirement decisions.
For our decision-making "game", let's say there is a $1 million pool of money to be split between you and nine other people. If you wait until the end of ten years to cash out - you and everyone else are promised that you'll be equally entitled to $250,000 each.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Agricultural Commodities Peak Food / Commodities / Food Crisis
Last we visited on Agri-Foods the concept of Peak Food was introduced. That shift in the fundamentals of global food production was identified as adding support to Agri-Commodity prices. For despite the negative sentiment on commodities and "China is collapsing" group think, Agri- Commodity prices continue to show strong resilience, as shown in the chart below right. As prices of Agri-Commodities do not move in unison, the Agri-Food Price Index has been essentially unchanged for about three years. For example, recently hog prices have been weak while U.S. cash corn hit a new 52-week high.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
The War Between Physical Gold and Silver and Paper Hots Up / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
Gold and silver traded in a tight range this week on low futures volumes. Last Friday the gold price rallied from $1,080 to $1,101, last night it closed at $1,089. Silver also traded in a narrow range though both are slightly firmer in early European trade this morning.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Ignore the Commodity Message at Your Own Peril / Commodities / CRB Index
The Thompson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (CRB) is back down to the panic lows of early 2009. For those who think the CRB Index says nothing about global growth...invest accordingly at your own peril.
If you believe this commodity crunch is all about some temporary oil supply glut, think again. There are 19 commodities that make up the CRB Index: Aluminum, Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, Corn, Cotton, Crude Oil, Gold, Heating Oil, Lean Hogs, Live Cattle, Natural Gas, Nickel, Orange Juice, Silver, Soybeans, Sugar, Unleaded Gas and Wheat. The value of the weighted average of these commodities is screaming one thing loudly: the rate of global growth is plummeting just as it was at the height of the Great Recession.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Gold and Silver Halfway Home? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2015
First off I'm on a working one week family vacation down on the panhandle of Florida which is why I didn't get to post any late Friday Night Charts. It just so happened that this week was the best week to get the family together before school starts in a couple of weeks. I will still be watching the markets and posting each day but if nothing important is happening I may knock off a little early.
I also want to thank everyone who is posting at the forum. It really is a great place to share your idea's and ask question as we have some really talented folks there. As Sir Fullgoldcrown likes to say, "It's all for one and one for all." Whatever it takes to get an edge makes no difference to me as long as we get the edge.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Stock Market Crash, Bear Market Rally in Gold? / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2015
I'm attaching three charts today: One chart of the daily SPY shows the parallel between Friday and March 3, 2015. The next one, shows where it could go as far as price and time is concerned, and the third shows the weekly chart of the SPX and what I believe may be the eventual conclusion of the correction into October of this year.
Astro-cycle-wise, we have not yet seen the 100 TD low, commonly called the 20 week low, last seen on March 11, 2015. As of Friday we are at TD 104. The 100 TD low usually comes within about a 10% variance giving it about 10 TD's on either side (the longest I've seen was at about 115/116 TD's ).
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