Timely information on the world's most exciting markets.

investing in diamonds loose diamonds exclusive jewelry featured diamond

World Financial Report – February 3rd, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

Charts of the Week-Quotes-Quick Hits
RareColoredDiamonds.com
Gold
Silver
Sovereign Debt
U.S. Debt-Deficit
Banking
MF Global
GDP
Jobs
Real Estate
Geopolitical

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: The Incredible Inflation Of Super Bowl Ad Prices Since ‘67. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fzbxz7

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Here’s A Look At Super Bowl Ticket Prices Through The Years. If you want to get a ticket to the biggest football event of the year, you have to be prepared to shell out some serious cash. But years ago, tickets were much more affordable. Even back in 2001, you could get a ticket for as cheap as $350. As the NFL has gained popularity though, the prices have gone up and up. This year, tickets at face value range from $600-$1,200, which is about the same as the 2011 Super Bowl. Here’s a look at the prices of face value Super Bowl tickets through the years. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7exzpnl

-”I cannot predict how long policymakers can hold economic Armageddon at bay with spin, money creation, currency swaps, intervention in gold and silver markets, and outright lies. The onset could be sudden and take place this year, but we shouldn’t underestimate the power of spin over a gullible public that trusts ‘their’ government and fervently believes that Muslim terrorists are out to get them and that the demise of the Constitution, the product of a eight hundred year struggle that produced Anglo-American civil liberty, is worth the price of ’safety.’ There is no safety in a police state and a debauched currency. The comfortable world that Americans have known is falling apart at the seams.” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts January 6, 2012

-Volcker: “Confidence in Government is Shaky.” Together they have 120 years experience in financial markets. John Bogle, 82, popularized index investing. Paul Volcker, 84, broke the back of 15 percent inflation as Federal Reserve chairman in the 1980s. Today, they shared the same stage in New York and this view: confidence in the U.S. financial system is broken. “There’s no question that confidence in government is shaky,” Volcker said. Washington is “filled up with law firms that cover whole city blocks. Lobbying firms. And it’s all living off the influence of the government.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nafm7p

-Fed’s Dudley Sees ‘Significant Impediments’ to Economic Recovery This Year. Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C. Dudley said the U.S. economy will probably slow this year while confronting risks “skewed to the downside.” “It is unlikely that the faster growth experienced in the fourth quarter of 2011 will be matched in the first half of 2012,” Dudley said today in remarks in New York. “In addition to the temporary nature of some of the recent improvement, there are significant impediments to a robust recovery.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7k7b9bb

-Gross Says Zero Rates Leading to Death of Abundance, Birth of Austerity. Bill Gross said the zero-bound interest rate policies embraced by central banks including the Federal Reserve may end up killing as opposed to creating credit and developed economies may suffer accordingly.

Zero-bound interest rates don’t always force investors to take more risk by purchasing stocks or real estate, Gross said. When investors are more concerned about the return of, rather than returns on, their money, the liquidity being provided by central bankers can instead be “trapped” in a mattress, bank account or Treasury bills, he wrote. “We are witnessing the death of abundance and the borning of austerity, for what may be a long, long time,” Gross said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eq8d62

-BlackRock’s Doll Says QE3 Unlikely in Contrast to Gross. BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, says the Federal Reserve will refrain from conducting a third round of debt purchases as the economy grows.

The outlook contrasts with that of Bill Gross, who runs the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co. and says the Fed may buy several more times. The central bank has purchased $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of quantitative easing known as QE1 and QE2 as it seeks to support the world’s biggest economy.

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Jan. 25 that he’s considering another program of purchases. “QE3 will be seen only if the U.S. economy flags,” Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at BlackRock said. “Ben Bernanke will use it if we have a rainy day and only then,” said Doll. Gross wrote that a third, fourth and fifth round of easing “lie ahead,” in a Twitter post last week. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kdzjbk

-Harvard’s Feldstein Sees Slow Growth While Doubting Fed Easing. U.S. economic growth may not top 2 percent this year and a third round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve would have little effect, said Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University. “We’re going to have a hard time reaching 2 percent this coming year,” he said in an interview.

The economy is still in a “danger zone,” Feldstein said, even as the recession risk “is less now than it was.” Feldstein, a member of the committee that dates recessions, said any move by the Fed to conduct a third round of quantitative easing, known as QE3, is “not the solution.” The economy wouldn’t “get much help from more monetary stimulus,” he said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7w3jjza

-Gary Shilling: China’s economy is headed for a “hard landing” this year as weaker demand overseas chokes off exports, said Shilling, who correctly forecast the U.S. recession that began in December 2007. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88mylb5

-Greg Hunter: Mainstream Media Keeps Putting Lipstick on Pig Economy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74cdydq

-Wind Investments to Decline $14 Billion in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7o9rp6a

-Is U.S. President Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88ojd2a

-Rinehart is Asia Pacific’s Richest Woman. Gina Rinehart, the Australian mining heiress and media investor, doubled her fortune to $18 billion from last year to become the richest woman in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Forbes magazine. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8ym5k4g

-Zuckerberg Tops Google Founders With $28.4B Facebook Haul. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h86vkj

-These Brothers Are Auctioning Off The Contents Of One Of America’s Wildest Private Museums. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6m44×35

-Auto Hacking Seen as Growing Risk With Electronics Frenzy. Drivers can talk with each other via Bluetooth phone connections, ask their cars for directions and dial up satellite radio. The same cars use electronic components to signal the gas pedal to accelerate and control stability. What increasingly worries scientists is that entertainment computers could be manipulated to tell the safety computers what to do. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l56rgq

-A Rare Ferrari GTO Just Sold For A Jaw-Dropping $32 Million. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7347mq7

-China Snapped Up Every Single One Of Rolls-Royce’s $1.2 Million ‘Dragon’ Models. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78po5kr

-Cybersecurity Disaster Seen in U.S. Survey Citing Spending Gaps. Companies including utilities, banks and phone carriers would have to spend almost nine times more on cybersecurity to prevent a digital Pearl Harbor from plunging millions into darkness, paralyzing the financial system or cutting communications, a Bloomberg Government study found. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82ld3uv

-Study: Workers Spend $1,000 Yearly on Coffee. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xvs6wb

-World lacks enough food, fuel as population soars: U.N. The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/867ggvo

-Forget about global warming its global freezing we need to worry about. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/724xv4s

-The World’s First Sports-Betting Hedge Fund Has Collapsed After Losing $2.5 Million. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ovw4oz

-Ex-RBS Chief Goodwin Stripped of Knighthood. Fred Goodwin, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s former chief executive officer, was stripped of his knighthood by the U.K. authorities after he led the 285-year-old lender into the world’s biggest bank bailout. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7dr2gsf

-15 Inspirational Quotes From The Greatest Business Movies Of All Time. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p84ylb

-US Treasure Hunter Says He Has Found A Sunken British Ship With $3 Billion Worth Of Platinum. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rxco52

RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

-The Rare Colored Diamonds Historical Value Tracker system is the perfect tool for investors to view the potential future value of a rare colored diamond based on the current market trend of a particular type of diamond. Track the potential future value of colored diamonds here-http://tinyurl.com/6l4thaf

-Rarecoloreddiamonds.com Featured Diamond of the Week. This week’s Diamond is a 1.03 carat radiant cut fancy intense yellow internally flawless Diamond. Colored diamonds are the world’s most concentrated form of wealth. A colored diamond portfolio worth millions of dollars fits inside an envelope and can easily be transported in your coat pocket. They can be transported quietly and legally, and sold globally in most major cities. These facts alone make colored diamonds worthy of consideration by investors/collectors seeking discreet investment ideas. Harold Seigel. See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/84jccrq

-How Diamond-Studded Magma Rises From Earth’s Depths. Carbonate-rich material likely helps gems race to the surface, study says. The recipe for making diamonds is no secret: Take carbon and squeeze it under the extremely high temperatures and pressures found deep inside the Earth. The mystery lies in how the prized gemstones then get delivered from the depths to parts of Earth’s crust that are accessible to miners. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yopaop

GOLD

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Severely depressed real estate prices continue to be a concern for investors. For some perspective on the magnitude of the decline in home prices, today’s chart presents the median single-family home price divided by the price of one ounce of gold. This results in the home-gold ratio or the cost of the median single-family home in ounces of gold.

For example, it currently takes a relatively low 105 ounces of gold to buy the median single-family home. This is dramatically less than the 601 ounces it took back in 2001. When priced in gold, the median single-family home is down over 80% from its 2001 peak, remains well within the confines of a six-year accelerated downtrend and remains very near its 1980 trough. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tmbs6e

www.chartoftheday.com

-”As every day goes by, I see deflation in the things you own and inflation in the things you need.” Kyle Bass

-Gold rose 11 percent in January, the largest one-month gain since August 2011 and the largest for the month of January since 1980, thanks to a combination of the weakness in the dollar from a Federal Reserve commitment to keep U.S. rates near zero and central bank purchases. The silver price rose by nearly 20 percent last month, in its largest monthly rally in nine months. Reuters

-”Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency and the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It’s not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.” Alan Greenspan, ex-US Federal Reserve Chairman, August 23, 2011

-One of my biggest technical themes is gold market sentiment. Negativity has been so great that it has driven even large and long-term players out of gold in droves. This type of sentiment situation has made the gold market ripe for price explosion to the upside.

It’s as simple as understanding that once the gold market money is out it really has only one direction to go eventually, and that’s right back into gold. That’s what happened Wednesday, as the Fed announced their extended ultra low interest rate policy.

I am looking for gold to move towards $1804.40 based upon sentiment analysis and superior volume performance since the Fed’s announcement. There is also strong potential for an inverse h&s pattern to be completed. My bigger target for gold this year is $2300, likely acquired in December. Morris Hubbartt

-James Turk: Gold Ready to Smash Through $2,000, Exploding Higher. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75thwuk

-Gold Report interviews Turk, who sees great deals on gold and silver. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10948

-Egon Von Greyerz: Gold Market Positioned for Massive Upside Move. “The move in gold, so far, looks extremely good. I’m always pleased that we don’t have a straight move up, although I do think we will have faster moves higher in the not too distant future. This is strong action with small corrections. We are at $1,730 today and I think within the next couple of months we will certainly be touching $1,900 and continuing higher from there. I don’t think $1,900 will be a stopping point for very long. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qt994o

-Richard Russell: Gold Threatening Dollar’s Reserve Currency Status. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84ppoac

-Jim Rickards: Gold May Super Spike as We See the End of the Dollar. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7htqj5d

-Rick Rule: Gold, Silver, Takeovers & 2,000% Gains. “I continue to believe that when rational people are confronted with the choice between owning dollars or euros or owning gold, increasingly people are owning gold. I continue to believe the intermediate and longer-term move in the gold price is higher. I think the gold price, in US dollar terms, moves inexorably higher.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yles5x

-Pento: Gold Shines as West Continues to Destabilize the World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7krhrhp

-Pento: Gold Spikes as the Fed Provides Target for Dollar Destruction. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hqqpd2

-Peter Schiff: Gold Headed Higher as Dollar to Continue Plunge. When asked about gold specifically, Schiff responded, “Well, you know we had the Dennis Gartman shakeout, although he is now wishing he was back in. He’s now bullish again but he doesn’t own it (gold) because he sold it near the lows.

But a lot of people got scared. I think the chart looks great for gold and silver, so I’m expecting a big rally. A lot of people were nervous about the markets in December. We had a lot of our own clients that got scared and we saw people moving into cash.

Again, timing the market is very difficult because as it turns out, January was the best January since 1994. So we had a huge move up in foreign stocks and if you couple that with the weakness in the dollar, the returns are amplified even more. Once we got everybody worried, the markets promptly went the other way.”

Schiff added this regarding the US dollar: “I think we’ve got a bigger decline coming. If we break 76.5 and then 74.5, if we take out that trendline we’ll be going for the lows from May, which was around 72. If we take that out we are going for the record lows of 70 and change from March of 2008.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7oor56f

-Caesar Bryan: Tidal Wave of Gold Buying as Confidence Lost. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m5ey8j

-Eveillard: Central Banks & Investors Crush Gold Technicals. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74jmmv3

-Rob Arnott: The Coming Inflation is Going to Destroy Fortunes. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jzs4ma

-Celente: War, Bank Runs, Riots & Gold Going Mainstream. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xg8or2

-Fleckenstein: Get Ready, Public to Enter Gold & Silver Markets. When asked if that new bid in gold and silver meant the metals could explode to the upside, Fleckenstein responded, “Sure, because a gigantic amount of buying in the metals has been from China and India. The average American has been more concerned about preservation of capital.

I’m suggesting that’s going to change and if you are going to have Americans buying gold, on top of the Chinese and the Indians, and the Europeans get involved, you are not going to be able to increase supply, so the only thing left to adjust is going to be price.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nhhrf2

-Martin Armstrong: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78rhyks

-Jim Sinclair: On Martin Armstrong’s Latest Gold Prediction. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/899skxa

-Clive Maund: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mmw2ow

-Gold better for diversification than commodities, Hinde Capital says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10944

-Spring festival sparks a gold rush in China. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10935

-Gordon G. Chang: Why Are the Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6swx5fm

-Robert Lenzner: Gold Is The Hottest Currency In The World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76zel64

-Gold in a bubble? Not in Europe, where public can’t sell fast enough. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10947

-Venezuela welcomes home final shipment of repatriated gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10941

-Lewis Lehrman calls on Republicans to unite on ’sound dollar’ platform. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10934

-Momentum is with gold’s move up, Norcini tells KWN weekly review. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10931

-No gold intervention in 40 years, Mr. Volcker? Rob Kirby disagrees. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10942

-More indications that official gold data is no good. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10949

-US-UK gold swap treaty disappears from UN Internet site, reappears at GATA’s. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10943 and http://www.gata.org/node/10945

-Central bank policy is obscuring market values, Kevin Warsh tells Stanford audience. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10927 and http://www.gata.org/node/10936

-Alasdair Macleod: FEDging the figures. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10932

-$3 million in gold nuggets stolen from Yreka courthouse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6w3wkfx

SILVER

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $40.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $50.00

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $66.67

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $100.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $2,000 the silver price would be $133.33

Gold to silver ratio at 50 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $50.00

Gold to silver ratio at 40 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $62.50

Gold to silver ratio at 30 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $83.33

Gold to silver ratio at 20 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $125.00

Gold to silver ratio at 15 to 1 with gold at $2,500 the silver price would be $166.67

-”I have been saying, once silver hurdles above $35, I expect to see $68-$70 in 2-to-3 months.” James Turk

-Leeb: Silver to Break $100 This Year & Gold Bull on the Move. “I don’t want to sound like a nut, but I think its pretty hard to be too bullish on silver right now. One major reason is China. To give you an update, we have seen China continue to ratchet up their goals for solar energy. Instead of looking for 20 gigawatts by the year 2020, now they are looking for 50 gigawatts.

And where there is solar there is going to be big demand for silver. We’ve seen a drawdown in inventories of silver and production growth has definitely slowed. I think the outlook for silver, both as an industrial metal and certainly as a monetary metal, is as bright as it can possibly be. I’m sticking with my target of at least $100, but I tell you, it will happen this year. We are definitely headed for triple digit silver in the not too distant future.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76holyw

-My commentary here for several weeks has been, “silver is my asset of choice under $30″. The opportunity has been there to get more silver at a great price. Price has started to move above $30. I am now targeting $36 in the shorter term. Longer term I’m looking for $60 by the end of the year, and at least $90 within 18-24 months.

Silver has a long way to go. I see $36 in the short term, where you should take some profits. I expect a pullback from that price area. I am projecting the completion of an inverse head and shoulders formation that will take silver straight back up to the $44 area, where you should do some more profit taking. Morris Hubbartt

-Alf Field: If Gold goes to $4,500, Where does Silver go? Thus the gain in wave 3 of Major Three should be larger than +464%. It should be a gain of at least 500%. Starting from the $26.39 low, a gain of 500% would produce a target price of $158.34 for silver. That is the number which equates with the $4500 price forecast for gold and produces a silver to gold ratio of 28.4 ($4500 divided by 158.34). Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73vgd5y

-Egon von Greyerz: Alf Field Calls for $158 Silver & Swiss Look to Gold. Here is what von Greyerz had to say about Alf Field’s call for $158 silver: Overnight I received an email from my good friend in Australia, Alf Field. To his amazement he found the silver chart, from an Elliott point of view, runs in parallel to the gold chart.

His count is now very clear that silver will, in the next move reach $158.” “Alf’s next target for gold is $4,500 and I think this silver target of $158 makes sense because that would put the gold/silver ratio just under 30. I think we could see Alf’s targets of $4,500 gold and $158 silver this year or certainly in the next 18 months. This is going to be a quick move.

In Elliott terms this is the 3 of 3, which is the strongest wave. I mentioned to you previously that gold has already broken out to the upside in its 3rd of a 3rd wave. Silver hasn’t quite broken out yet and we need to see silver break above the $36 to $37 area to establish silver has entered this next leg higher, which according to Alf targets $158.

So, we’re not far away and the way I see silver now it’s going to happen very quickly (the breakout). I agree also with James Turk that once silver clears the level I described, we could see $60 to $70 very quickly. But we should see the more aggressive target of $158 in the next 12 to 18 months.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6sdl6w2

-Egon von Greyerz: Silver Update. I really like the action of silver. Silver still hasn’t broken out like gold has, but as I said to you last time, I expect that to happen soon. It will break out around the $37 level. That’s going to happen very quickly because the gold/silver ratio is moving down nicely, but I think it will soon accelerate lower and silver will move a lot faster to the upside than gold. So I can see $37 being taken out within the next 30 days and then we will just start flying from there. It won’t take long to get up to $50 again.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qt994o

-Rick Rule: Silver Update. “Silver is already up nicely off its lows. It’s likely also that intermediate-term, that move is higher (in silver). I think we’re in a secular bull market. There are more people in the world wanting more stuff and they are more able to afford it. At the same time we are in a secular bear market in paper money. I see the next couple of years as being interesting in a positive sense for metals buyers and gold and silver share buyers.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yles5x

-Eric Sprott: 2012 Virtual Silver Conference Speech, Mania, Manipulation, and Meltdown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mnknb3

-James Turk: 2012 Virtual Silver Conference Speech, Reaffirms his $400 long-term silver target. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6q5vqnn

-David Morgan: 2012 Virtual Silver Conference Speech, Silver in the next Decade. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tayqfl

-Hubert Moolman: Silver And The Shift To Measuring Wealth In Ounces Instead Of Dollars. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73fmgdx

-Clive Maund: Silver Market Update. An important reversal has now completed in silver and it is in the early stages of what promises to be a powerful uptrend that should take it comfortably to new highs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/o4j7

-Steve St. Angelo: The Coming Paradigm Shift in Silver. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82d6jza

-Silver Powering 20 Million Homes as Glut Subsides. Record industrial demand for silver and resurging investor interest is diminishing a supply surplus, driving the metal used in everything from solar panels to batteries into its best start to a year in almost three decades. Silver may still be cheap relative to gold, with a price ratio of 52.2, down from 57.4 in December. It averaged 32.4 in 1980, when silver reached a record $50.35 in New York trading. In inflation-adjusted terms, that peak would be equal to $138.31 as of last year, according to a calculator from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ukpgdt

SOVEREIGN DEBT

-CHART OF THE WEEK: European Financial Stability Fund. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86d2mk5

-Italy, Spain Are Among Five Euro-Zone Nations Downgraded by Fitch Ratings. The credit ratings of Italy, Spain and three other euro-area countries were cut by Fitch Ratings, which said the five nations lack financing flexibility in the face of the regional debt crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rw6fbz

-Fitch: Portugal Not a Big Risk to Euro Zone. Portugal doesn’t present the risk of default that Greece does to the rest of the European Union because officials there are seeking to contain the nation’s financial crisis, according to Fitch Ratings. “The government there is committed and credible. The economy is highly indebted, but they are working on organizing a debt-for-equity swap,” David Riley, head of the sovereign-debt unit at Fitch Ratings, said at a conference in New York. “That is the right strategy and in the near term we don’t see them as a significant risk to the rest of the euro zone.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/728dmwo

-Investors fear mounting losses in Portugal as second rescue looms. Portugal is fighting a losing battle to contain its public debt and may be forced to impose haircuts of up to 50pc on private creditors, according to a top German institute. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83xl4gx

-Roubini Says Eurozone ‘Wreck’ May Force Greece Out in Year. Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the financial crisis, said Greece will probably leave Europe’s single currency within 12 months and could soon be followed by Portugal. “The euro zone is a slow-motion train wreck,” Roubini said in a panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland.

“Not only Greece, other countries as well are insolvent.” Roubini said he sees a severe recession in Europe and a 50 percent probability “that over the next three to five years the euro zone will break up.” “Not all the members are able to stay,” he said. “Greece and maybe Portugal may exit the euro zone Greece within the next 12 months. Portugal may take a while longer.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vt6npk

U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Rising Deficits Pose Major Threat to Economy: Bernanke. Rising federal budget deficits are posing a significant threat to the U.S. economy and are likely to cause a crisis if not brought under control, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday.

Calling the situation “unsustainable,” the central bank leader pointed out that surging health-care costs, along with the high level of government spending used to pull the economy out of recession, are creating fiscal hazard. “Having a large and increasing level of government debt relative to national income runs the risk of serious economic consequences,” Bernanke told the House Budget Committee.

“Over the longer term, the current trajectory of federal debt threatens to crowd out private capital formation and thus reduce productivity growth.” At the same time, he also warned Congress not to pull the reins too tightly so as to threaten growth. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7luqh7w

-Government Deficit Report Inflames, Illustrates Budget Debate. A report showing the government will run a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion for the fourth consecutive year inflamed a debate over the federal shortfall that’s unlikely to be resolved before the November election.

The Congressional Budget Office said it expects this year’s gap between spending and revenue to total $1.1 trillion, down from last year’s $1.3 trillion. It attributed the decline to stronger tax revenue and the smallest increase in spending in years.

The report illustrates the stakes in the presidential and congressional elections. It shows that future deficits may vary widely depending on budget decisions lawmakers are unlikely to make until after the November vote. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87ffk47

-The 5 Scariest Debt And Unemployment Charts From The CBO Report. The Congressional Budget Office has released its updated 10-year budget and economic forecast. Actually, the CBO offers two forecasts. It has a baseline forecast, which assumes current law stays in place. It also has an a “alternative” forecast which assumes current tax and spending policy stays in place as is even if the law says it must change in coming years. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zalxso

-Simpson Says ‘Terrified’ Obama Walked Away From Deficit Issue. President Barack Obama “walked away” from his bipartisan U.S. deficit-cutting commission’s plan “because he knew he’d be torn to bits,” said former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, who was co-chairman of the panel. Obama is “terrified” of the deficit issue, Simpson said in an interview. “He didn’t deal with it” in his annual State of the Union address to Congress on Jan. 24. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7oh56ru

-Illinois Faces ‘Potentially Paralyzing’ $35 Billion Unpaid Bill Backlog. Illinois’s unpaid bills may more than triple to $34.8 billion by 2017 unless lawmakers and Democratic Governor Pat Quinn immediately bring Medicaid and pension spending under control, said a research group.

The “potentially paralyzing” backlog, projected to reach $9.2 billion when this fiscal year ends June 30, would be fueled by an “unsustainable” increase in Medicaid spending, according to the Civic Federation, which calls itself a nonpartisan government research organization. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86j5zmu

-California Faces Cash Shortfall by March on Low Receipts, Controller Says. California’s cash may be exhausted by March as tax collections trail budgeted amounts, Controller John Chiang said in a letter to lawmakers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8878gk9

-California Will Borrow Up to $1B to Skirt Crisis. California’s will seek a loan from Wall Street of as much as $1 billion to pay bills as the most populous U.S. state’s tax collections trail budgeted amounts, according to the treasurer’s office. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72c79ta

BANKING

-Regulators close banks in Tennessee, Florida, Minnesota, making 7 bank failures in 2012. Regulators on Friday closed banks in Tennessee, Florida and Minnesota, lifting to seven the number of U.S. bank failures this year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7f4wn9q

-Jim Sinclair: The Impending Undeclared Default Of 5 Major US Banks. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/7u9o2pb

-Spain to Unveil Bank Overhaul to Clean Up Real Estate. Spain will give struggling banks more time to take their share of 50 billion euros ($65.7 billion) in real estate charges if they agree to merge with other lenders. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6oxnjgk

-Wegelin clients pulled $4 bln, prompting sale-paper. The break-up of Switzerland’s oldest bank Wegelin, involved in a row with U.S. authorities over tax cheats, became necessary when clients pulled 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.35 billion) of wealth, Der Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing unspecified sources.

Under pressure from the investigation, the 270-year-old institution moved assets of 21 billion Swiss francs ($22.9 billion) to a subsidiary Notenstein Privatbank, which was then bought by cooperative bank Raiffeisen. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pbfh5s

-Incredible Shrinking Bankers at Davos Humbler Amid Austerity. Leaders of the world’s biggest banks touted the virtues of austerity at the World Economic Forum in Davos for themselves, not just for over-indebted governments. Many arrived in the Swiss Alps following a year marked by weak revenue, declining stock prices and cuts in jobs and compensation.

The finance and banking industries remain the “least trusted” for the second consecutive year, according to a 20-country survey released earlier this week by public relations firm Edelman. “Last year every bank thought they could grow their way out of trouble,” Huw van Steenis, who oversees European bank research for Morgan Stanley in London, said between meetings with investors and policy makers in Davos. “Now they realize they have to shrink their way out of trouble.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wmst3r

MF GLOBAL

-After a Delay, MF Global’s Missing Money Is Traced. Investigators have determined what happened to nearly all of the customer money that disappeared from MF Global around the time of its bankruptcy last Oct. 31, but have not publicly disclosed their progress, fearing that doing so might cripple efforts to recover the cash and pursue potential wrongdoing, people briefed on the investigation said. While authorities have traced hundreds of millions of dollars to banks, MF Global’s trading partners and even the firm’s securities customers, investigators remain uncertain about whether they can retrieve the money. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vet2n2

-MF Global U.K. Clients Getting Initial Payout. MF Global Holding Ltd.’s U.K. administrators plan to make the first payment to British clients of the failed brokerage, returning 26 cents on the dollar. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6n6lepd

-MF Global Told S&P It Had ‘Never Been Stronger’ One Week Before Collapse. A week before MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed, its chief financial officer told Standard & Poor’s in an e-mail that the futures broker had “never been stronger.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/865e4u9

-MF Global Risk Chief Switch Stalled Euro Debt Cut by Six Months. U.S. lawmakers questioned whether MF Global Holding Ltd’s decision to replace Michael Roseman as chief risk officer a year ago was driven by his warnings over bets on European debt that helped push the firm to bankruptcy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78gaqva

GDP

-CHART OF THE WEEK: ‘Core Economic Growth Slowed Sharply In Q4.’ In regards to last week’s mediocre GDP report, Nomura cuts right to the chase in a note titled ‘Core Economic Growth Slowed Sharply’ in Q4. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bxtn24

-U.S. Economy Grows 2.8%, Less Than Forecast. Restrained spending by consumers held growth in the U.S. economy to a 2.8% annual pace in the fourth quarter, slower than economists forecast while still the fastest pace in more than a year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pqoeos

-2011 GDP: 1.7%. That’s the final, pathetic growth number for 2011. From the just-released GDP report: Real GDP increased 1.7 percent in 2011 (that is, from the 2010 annual level to the 2011 annual level), compared with an increase of 3.0 percent in 2010. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88dx7jt

-Canada’s Economy Records Surprise 0.1% Drop in November on Energy Declines. Canada’s gross domestic product posted an unanticipated decline in November, shrinking for the first time in six months on maintenance shutdowns by crude oil producers and lower natural gas extraction. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6top9kr

JOBS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Shocking European Youth Jobless Rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7uhvlt5

-Euro zone jobless hits highest level since birth of euro. Euro zone unemployment has risen to its highest level since before the euro was introduced, data showed on Tuesday, a day after EU leaders promised to focus on creating millions of new jobs to try to kickstart Europe’s floundering economy.

Joblessness among the 17 countries sharing the single currency rose to 10.4 percent in December, on a par with an upwardly revised November figure, the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said in its release of seasonally-adjusted data. It was the highest rate since June 1998, before the euro was introduced in 1999.

“We’re looking at a further increase over the coming months, so that is worrying,” said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING. “Look at Greece, where unemployment is some 20 percent, and it is 23 percent in Spain. At a certain point this could lead to political unrest.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s7elwv

-Europe’s lost generation: how it feels to be young and struggling in the EU. Viola Caon left her Italian home to find work. Now she returns to see how her former classmates are faring and in the week that shocking figures showed how badly Europe’s youth is being hit by the unemployment crisis, we also talk to hard-hit twentysomethings in Athens and Madrid. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6llqxu4

-U.S. Cities with highest and lowest unemployment rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/797vcrf

REAL ESTATE

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Your Dreams Of A Housing Rebound Just Got Smashed. Maybe Robert Shiller who just told us that there’s no housing rebound on the horizon is right. His own housing index, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, came out this morning, and it will dash the hopes of people who think we’re on the cusp of a rebound. After a little blip upwards, prices resumed their downward slide in November. Depressing. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vjjdh3

-Case Shiller Home-Price Index Falls 3.7%. Residential real estate prices fell more than forecast in November, showing distressed properties are hampering improvement in the U.S. housing market. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities declined 3.7 percent from November 2010 after decreasing 3.4 percent in the year ended in October, the group said in New York. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72cwqys

-Lance Roberts: Why The Housing Market Has Much Farther To Fall. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88766rm

-Homeownership rates fall to 66% as downturn nears a bottom. Fewer Americans own homes and many of them are continuing to see values decline. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the nation’s homeownership rate fell to 66% in the fourth quarter, continuing a seven-year drop from a fourth-quarter peak of 69.2% in 2004. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7z2wd9r

-Foreclosures Draw Private Equity as U.S. Sells Homes. Private equity firms are jumping into distressed housing as the U.S. government plans to market 200,000 foreclosed homes as rentals to speed up the economic recovery. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ooy4sk

-Robo-Reality: Final Foreclosures Fall as Pipeline Swells. The number of new foreclosures in 2011 dropped nearly 40 percent, according to year-end numbers just released by Lender Processing Services; there is, however, little cause for celebration. The fall is largely due to moratoria and process reviews stemming from the so-called “robo-signing” foreclosure paperwork scandal.

Mortgage delinquency rates were largely unchanged from last year, which means all that distress will be pushed forward to 2012 and beyond. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7w7egvy

-Fed Members Laughed As Housing Bubble Grew. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/849t6um

-Hong Kong Homes Face 25% Drop in Year of the Dragon. The Year of the Dragon, representing wealth and power in China, is shaping up to be the opposite for the world’s costliest housing market, Hong Kong. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85q3jxf

-Brisbane Paces Australia-Wide Home Price Decline With 6.8% Slide in 2011. Brisbane home prices plunged the most among Australian capital cities in 2011, as lagging demand weighed on an oversupplied market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jq2l2v

-Corzine’s Penthouse $2.9 Million Listing Marks 11% Below Purchase Price. A Hoboken, New Jersey, penthouse belonging to Jon Corzine, the former chairman of bankrupt MF Global Holdings Ltd., is on the market with a $2.9 million asking price, 11 percent less than Corzine paid in 2008. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7aekvqw

-Trump Opens Canada’s Tallest Condo Tower With $6 Million Toronto Suites. Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto, Canada’s tallest residential building opens capping a seven-year effort to bring the brand of billionaire Donald Trump to the country’s largest city. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a28r8e

-Seller Wants $158 Million for London Billionaires Row Home. A home in the U.K.’s most expensive neighborhood is being offered for more than 100 million pounds ($158 million), according to the broker handling the sale. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74nfrze

-Broke Irishman Builds Billion-Euro House Out of Shredded Bills. Frank Buckley may not be made of money, but his Dublin house literally is. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bf5daf

GEOPOLITICAL

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Doomsday Clock. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89r4o3y

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Where All The Terrorist Attacks Happen In America. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rc4c96

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Oil in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xazllv

-New Intelligence Report Says Iran Is Willing To Attack On US Soil. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nk2hgo

-Israeli: Iran creating missile to hit U.S. East Coast in reach. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76mlagq

-Israel warns time is running out before it launches strike on Iran. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76k7snp

-Israel Must be Ready to Strike Iran: Army Chief. Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz said his country must build up its military capabilities and be prepared to strike if economic sanctions fail to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Israel must be “willing to deploy” its military assets because Iran may be within a year of gaining nuclear weapons capability, Gantz said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84rueyo

-Iran’s Oil, Tanker Firms Targeted for Sanctions. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87a92eq

-Doug Casey on the Coming War with Iran. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7c3lhgw

-Greg Hunter: State of Denial in Coming War Catastrophe. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7mth42r

-Taliban “poised to retake Afghanistan” after NATO pullout. The U.S. military said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6udlg2k

© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – February 3rd, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, February 3, 2012

World Financial Report – January 27th, 2012

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: With $97.6 billion, Apple has more cash than? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nlnr2e

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Apple tops Exxon as most valuable U.S. company. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vnxgdr

-If the entire financial system does not come down upon our heads and if we do not have another war, global growth is going nowhere in the years ahead. We had a mini-recovery, but it cost $1.8 trillion. We had a second recovery and that cost $1.5 trillion. We are entering a third of what is becoming yearly recoveries that will probably cost $1.3 trillion. In other worlds without these massive injections of money and credit we would probably be in a deflationary depression. Bob Chapman

-George Soros Warns Of Financial Collapse, Class Warfare And The Rise Of Evil. “At times like these, survival is the most important thing,” he says, peering through his owlish glasses and brushing wisps of gray hair off his forehead. He doesn’t just mean it’s time to protect your assets. He means it’s time to stave off disaster.

As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history a period of “evil.” Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether. “I am not here to cheer you up.

The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xvbrbt

-IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast; Sees Recession. The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth and warned that the European debt crisis threatens to derail the world economy. “The epicenter of the danger is Europe but the rest of the world is increasingly affected,” Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s chief economist, said at a news conference in Washington. “There’s an even greater danger, namely that the European crisis intensifies. In this case the world could be plunged into another recession.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7cw5enn

-Goldman Says U.S. Data May Look Better Than They Are. A decline in unemployment and pickup in manufacturing point to accelerating U.S. growth. Some economists say the numbers may not be as good as they look. One reason: the severity of the economy’s plunge in late 2008 and early 2009 after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed threw a wrench into models used to smooth the data for seasonal changes, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Nomura Securities International Inc. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88mumk6

-Obama Calls for Higher Taxes on Wealthy. President Barack Obama, offering an election-year prescription to spur the economy, said the wealthiest Americans should pay more taxes in the name of fairness, to bring down the deficit and ensure those trying to make ends meet don’t have to “make up the difference.” In his State of the Union address, Obama called on Congress to embrace a tax plan named for billionaire Warren Buffett that would require those making $1 million or more pay at least 30 percent in taxes. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7cnyqno

-Under Obama, Price of Gas Has Jumped 83 Percent, Ground Beef 24 Percent, Bacon 22 Percent. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7owycdr

-US Post Office Needs to Cut 260,000 Jobs: Rep. Issa. The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its “financially insolvent” condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said. Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89srlnw

-Regulators close banks in Florida and Georgia. Financial regulators on Friday shuttered banks in Florida and Georgia, marking the first two bank closures of 2012. Authorities shut down Central Florida State Bank in Belleview, Fla. and the First State Bank of Stockbridge, Ga. In 2011, a total of 92 banks collapsed, compared with 157 in 2010. Marketwatch.com

-Citigroup sued for fraud over $1 billion of CDOs. Citigroup Inc was sued for fraud by Loreley Financing over nearly $1 billion worth of collateralized debt obligations purchased in 2006 and 2007. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vsaf9h

-One Third of New Yorkers Can’t Retire. About one third of New York City residents nearing retirement age won’t be able to quit or will have to rely entirely on Social Security because they have less than $10,000 in savings, according to a study released. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6wx2lh6

-Police Use of GPS Devices to Track People Limited by U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court for the first time limited police power to track people using GPS devices, ruling in a case that will shape the privacy rights Americans should expect from a new generation of wireless electronics. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ybhe9p

-Rich Shoppers Are as Bargain-Hungry as Less Affluent. When it comes to shopping, the wealthy are just as interested in clipping coupons, hunting down deals, and keeping spending in check with shopping lists as less affluent consumers, according to the findings of a recent survey. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vjmld3

-Economy in U.S. Preferred by Investors: Poll. Investors are turning increasingly bullish on U.S. markets as they declare its economy in better health than major rivals from Europe to Asia, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kdd6k5

-Capitalism Seen in Crisis by Investors Citing Inequalities. International investors say capitalism is in crisis, with almost one in three backing radical changes to the system, according to a Bloomberg survey. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6v8m8nz

-Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization’s collapse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kxcxlo

-Today it pays to owe money, while U.S. savers suffer. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74makd8

-Female Bodyguards At $45,000 A Year Are High In Demand In China. Female security details have become quite popular in China, especially among wealthy women and celebrities. About 30% of all millionaires in China are now women and they increasingly select female bodyguards for protection of their families and children instead of male bodyguards. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xzvbtj

-Who Guitarist Townshend Sells Song Catalog. Pete Townshend, guitarist for the rock band The Who, sold his interest in a song catalog including “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Riley” to Spirit Music Group. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83wvsfv

-JFK hearse sells for $160,000. A Cadillac hearse that carried the body of President John F. Kennedy to Air Force One following his assassination in Dallas was sold at a Scottsdale, Ariz., auction for $160,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7×39f99

-Giants-Patriots Super Bowl Rematch Ticket Sells for $11,883 on NFL Site. At least one ticket to the Super Bowl rematch between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots has sold for $11,883, according to the National Football League’s official resale site. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7luxx8z

RARECOLOREDDIAMONDS.COM

-Rarecoloreddiamonds.com Featured Diamond of the Week. This week’s Diamond is a 0.77 carat emerald cut fancy vivid yellow internally flawless. Diamonds are a way of storing wealth and moving money around easily. The best part of diamonds as an investment is enjoying it while you wait for it to appreciate. CNBC. Harold Seigel-See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/77wdn2w

-A five-carat fancy yellow diamond increased in value by 180 percent from 2001 to 2011. Compared that to Berkshire Hathaway stock, which increased by 52 percent for that 10-year period and Coca Cola, which grew 42.5 percent. A $600,000 investment in a five-carat fancy pink diamond would yield about $3 million today. Forbes

-Sotheby’s Jewelry Auction Spotlights Colored Diamonds. Gary Schuler, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of the auction house’s jewelry department, is on a never-ending quest to procure fresh examples of some of the rarest gems on the planet: colored diamonds.

The first major sale of 2012, the Important Jewels auction in New York, to be held on February 12, wouldn’t be complete without a selection of these colored stones, which Sotheby’s clients a mash-up of hedge-fund managers, entrepreneurs, celebrities, Russian oligarchs, and China’s nouveau riche compete to acquire.

“There never seem to be enough to go around, which makes my job that much harder,” Schuler says. “Whether it’s their visual appeal, the prospect of seeing a big jump in value, or just the desire to own something that almost nobody else in the world possesses, these have become the gems that everyone covets.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yrgqx6

GOLD

-CHART OF THE WEEK: The Gold Tree. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7982egs

-Gold for Iranian Oil? Government Denies Any Comment. A reputed Israeli intelligence Internet site has claimed that India is opting for gold to repay crude oil supplies from Iran. Given the US and EU embargo on Iran, payment in hard currency, such as the US dollar or euro, is very difficult; hence, this barter. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10922

-EU won’t trade gold with Iran anymore; could it really still be money after all? At a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, EU governments also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank and to ban all trade in diamonds, gold, and other precious metals with the bank and other public bodies. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10912

-Eric Sprott: Aggressive Chinese Buying Will Spike Gold Price. Eric Sprott, Chairman of Sprott Asset Management, had this to say about Chinese purchases of gold and the recent announcement that Iranian oil will be acquired using gold: “There are two things I think are important about that. One, it’s a statement that gold is a currency.

That is by far the most important thing. I think the other thing is, if it actually transpires that way, what does it mean for the demand for gold? Because now it’s considered currency, it’s, in essence, your working capital.

You have to have it. It’s like a store, you have to have money in the till.” “So it’s obviously going to increase the demand for gold and we have seen some data that China has been a rather large buyer of gold. People will consider it a currency and it has to necessitate more buying.

You know, I think one of the really interesting things that happened was the imports of gold into China, from Hong Kong, which always were less than 20 tons a month, all of the sudden, beginning about 5 months ago, went 20 (tons), 30, 40, 80 and in November 102 tons.

102 tons is a staggering number. The world mines, excluding China, less than 200 tons a month. China cannot continue to buy 102 tons and not have the price escalate dramatically.” Sprott had this to say about the Fed announcement that it will leave rates at zero until late 2014: “Obviously it’s dramatic what has happened.

It would appear there will be no restraint whatsoever on the part of the Fed. Assuming this announcement causes gold to break its declining wedge, which I believe it has, I expect some serious fireworks to the upside.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p4bsuc

-John Embry: Gold is the Cure to Epic Monetary Debasement. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ussg26

-Jim Sinclair: Mainstream Entities Will Now Enter Gold Market. “Today is an important day. There are many days we talk but this is a mile-marker. What the Fed did today is they turned on the light of what will be QE to infinity. Today the light went on with regards to the intentions of the Fed. They did that for very specific reasons, we have troubles people can’t see and this is one of the ways out.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l2lqqd

-Leeb: Fed Game Changer Sparks 2nd Leg of Gold & Silver Bulls. “I think what the Fed said yesterday is game-changing. They are opting for inflation and what really strikes me here, is they described their dual mandate in terms of employment first and price stability second. I don’t know any central bank that would put maximum employment in front of price stability.

That’s not the mission of a central bank. Again, I think this is absolutely a game-changer.” “Inflation will be let out of the bag, maybe for the next three to four years. In this environment gold and silver are the best investments around. Resistance points on charts don’t even count anymore when you are talking about a game-changing event like this.

We are really talking about the next leg higher in this bull market. I think yesterday will go down as the beginning of the next major leg higher in the bull market. This is the leg I expect to take gold to $3,000 before the end of 2012. This is a very big change. Just step back for a moment, the Fed is keeping interest rates at zero until the end of 2014. That’s almost three years.

This is as aggressive as it gets and as bullish as it gets for gold. When you are looking at resistance points, that was pre-yesterday. Today is a new chapter that starts with the title ‘Inflation is out of the bag.’ So the question becomes where does that take gold?. Well, look at the 1970s bull in gold. After inflation really started to assert itself, gold went up another eight fold.

I think this is a critical point, the move we’ve had in gold, over the past decade, has been in anticipation of inflation. We really haven’t seen gold react yet because inflation is still tame. We’ve had eleven years of a first leg in gold. Now we get the second leg and I say hold on to your hats because ultimately you are going to put another digit on the gold price.

This is more compelling than the 70s. Keep in mind, during the 70s when real rates were decidedly negative for a long period of time gold went up eight fold. Today that kind of advance would take us well over $10,000. I maintain what we’ve seen so far is just preparation for what we are going to witness over the next five or six years as inflation ramps.

And once inflation starts to take off it will be very hard to stop. Remember, China wants to eventually back the yuan with gold. This is why they have been accumulating massive amounts of gold. I predict in two or three years you will see oil priced in yuan or some basket in which the yuan is the central currency. When the yuan becomes the world’s reserve currency they will control the game. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v77ny8

-Brodsky: We’re Headed to a Point Where Gold Will Go Parabolic. We’ve made our bets and whether the market for gold is $1,500 spot or $2,000 spot or $2,500 spot, it doesn’t matter to us. We see gold is already extraordinarily undervalued given past inflation. The price of gold should be over five times than where it is currently trading. The fact that central planners are going to print more money means it should be even that much higher.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89kyk9h

-Ben Davies: Funds Will Pile into Gold after Missing the Rally. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7md6mht

-James Turk: Greek Default Imminent as Financial Crisis Propels Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84k3zvw

-James Turk: Fear Index shows that gold is undervalued. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7todw29

-Eveillard: We are Headed for Enormous Inflation & Higher Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7huwdop

-Richard Russell: COMEX Gold & Silver Shorts in Do-or-Die Battle. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zelarj

-John Williams: Gold, Silver, Economy & Inflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a98fmd

-John Williams: Accelerating Great Collapse & Hyperinflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/849tzlr

-Rule: Monetary System is Based on Confidence, Fraud & Force. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/888nx8t

-James Dines: This Will be a Dangerous Collapse & Endgame. The world continues to slide into what I’ve been calling ‘The Coming Great Deflation.’ We are in a deflation and you need to prepare for it. So that’s what’s happening in terms of gold. It’s very bullish. We’re on a short-term buy signal and a long-term buy signal. The long-term Super Major uptrend is intact.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76hhlzu

-Michael Pento: Money Supply to Hit $24 Trillion, More Bubbles & Higher Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74tkr2r

-Intervention in Libya was largely about gold, Rickards tells Future Money Trends. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10904

-J.S. Kim: You won’t go wrong just buying real metal on the dips. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10925

-Murray Pollitt: Gold is the uninvited guest. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10918

-Gold does best among commodities even when adjusted for volatility. Gold provided the best returns of all commodities in the past five years when adjusted for volatility, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says the rally will continue as options traders signal no change in the metal’s relatively low risk. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10920

-GMO: Gold prices driven by Asia, not inflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73exlat

-Gold to keep rising until real rates go positive, Sprott’s Franklin tells MineWeb. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10911

-Year of Dragon lifts China gold demand. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10910

-Bullion banking system ‘not fully backed,’ Naylor-Leyland tells CNBC Europe. Watch more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10901

-Gingrich’s proposed gold standard won’t happen Murenbeeld. Dundee Wealth’s Martin Murenbeeld says GOP Presidential candidates Ron Paul’s and Newt Gingrich call for a U.S. gold standard is not realistic. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tl7s8g

-How realistic are the chances of a return to a gold standard? While economists broadly do not favour a return to such a system, the general population in the US seems to be increasingly warming to the idea. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v2bo72

-Gary North: Auditing the Fed’s gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10903

-The overnight gold trade that is up 1,700% since 2001. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10924

-Resource Clips interview with GATA’s Bill Murphy and Chris Powell. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10914

-Chris Powell: Gold-market rigging has many whistleblowers; they’re just always ignored. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10909

-Volcker confirms central bank need to suppress gold to stabilize exchange rates at ‘critical point.’ Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10926

-Andrey Dashkov: Platinum Industrial Man’s Gold. Platinum sometimes called “the richer man’s gold,” has been generating a lot of buzz lately. Historically platinum has sold for more than gold, but today it’s selling for considerably less than gold. Is this an anomaly worth betting money on? Or have market forces changed, causing a shift in the apparent price relationship between the two? To attempt an answer to these questions, let’s have a look at platinum fundamentals. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84b4rn7