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World Financial Report – February 17th, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Jeff Gundlach Says The US Has A Roman-Style Military Budget. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vv7sf6

-Here’s The Presentation Where Jeff Gundlach Dares To Compare The US To The Roman Empire. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7g2onxk


www.chartoftheday.com

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Cost of Living Survey. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79urz7q

-”As we know, they (central planners) are going to do everything they can to drive the price of gold. It’s not in their best interest for people to bail out of their worthless paper or digital money and buy something like silver and gold that’s a real tangible asset or even diamonds. That’s why you are seeing the price going up on that (diamonds) as well.” Gerald Celente

-Robert Fitzwilson: The Entire Planet’s Financial System is at Stake. “I’ve been doing this for almost 40 years and this is an incredibly dynamic situation, but investors need to have a long-term view. Unfortunately, because of the mainstream media, people have adopted a trader’s mentality and that’s ultimately destructive.

I would describe our approach as being one of a turtle because we believe there is going to be this massive transfer of wealth, from paper to real assets. Investors need to have a large percentage of their assets in things that will survive and also prosper during this wealth transfer period. There is a wealth transfer going on, all the time, when you print money.

“If someone can tell me when the printing is going to stop, then I can tell you when to sell gold. But there is no evidence of that. In fact the printing is accelerating. What historically triggers a problem is people come to the conclusion the money is no longer trustworthy and at that point, you get the panic. Everybody tries to get out of paper and into hard assets.

So that’s what’s going on and the vast majority of people don’t realize that their money is being diluted every time the printing presses are called into action. Gradually the currency is going down, but history tells us at some point in the future it accelerates and then gold goes up exponentially. But by the time everybody figures it out it’s too late. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6os87tm

-Art Cashin: Forget Greece, Traders Are Worried About Something That Could Send Us Back To The Middle Ages. A Greek default has been on everyone’s minds lately. But the traders Cashin has talked to think that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The bigger fear is what happens in the credit default swap (CDS) markets. No one knows how big it is, who the counterparties are, and, worst of all, whether the CDS contracts will actually trigger in what many would consider a default. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76yhdrl

-A credit default swap (CDS) is an agreement that the seller of the CDS will compensate the buyer in the event of a loan default. The buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments (the CDS “fee” or “spread”) to the seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if the loan defaults. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/2mwqg2

-New CBO Report Decimates ‘Obamanomics’: Real Unemployment Hits 15%. “The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014.

The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent.

Compounding the problem of high unemployment, the share of unemployed people looking for work for more than six months referred to as the long-term unemployed topped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s5crfu

-U.S. to hit debt limit before election day. The United States Department of Treasury will reach the statutory limit it is allowed to borrow money before election day, according to a new study by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio., former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6snkcjg

-The Commitment-Phobic U.S. Consumer. A growing fear is stalking the post-recession U.S. fear of commitment. Americans are balking at all sorts of long-term entanglements, whether financial, romantic or even parental. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p3l2ob

-John Williams: The US Edges Closer to Collapse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xqtzfd

-MF Global Brokerage Has $1.6 Billion Shortfall to Pay Claims, Trustee Says. The trustee liquidating MF Global Inc. brokerage said the firm has a shortfall of at least $1.6 billion to pay commodity customers’ claims. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84yzuuy

-Apple Vaults Google in Image as Buffett’s Berkshire Slips. Apple Inc., burnished by the iPhone’s success and memorials to Steve Jobs, displaced Google Inc. as top company in Harris Interactives poll of corporate images. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Johnson & Johnson dropped. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t3msem

-These Guys Have Made More Than $100k For Every Hour They’ve Been Alive. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7mcnfmn

-11 Inspirational Quotes From Legendary Billionaires. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r7dhs9

-Rothko Boosts $611 Million Auctions as Price Rises Lure Sellers. Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon paintings will boost auctions this month that may raise more than $611 million as sellers are spurred by rising prices for museum-quality works. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/742t288

-Peak Water: The Rise and Fall of Cheap, Clean H2O. The Earth’s surface is mostly water, yet across increasingly large swaths of the planet, H2O reservoirs are drying up. This isn’t a metaphor, and it’s not hyperbole. It’s a fact that’s changing the destinies of companies and nations. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kolyr8

-Scarred Hearts Can Be Mended With Stem Cell Therapy, Study Shows. Stem cells grown from patients’ own cardiac tissue can heal damage once thought to be permanent after a heart attack, according to a study that suggests the experimental approach may one day help stave off heart failure. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88cyglq

-‘Dragon Tattoo’ Named Year’s Riskiest Movie on Motorcycle, Torture Scenes. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” the film featuring motorcycle, fight and torture scenes, was named 2011’s riskiest movie by Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74xu4wf

-Chinese Hackers Had Years of Access to Nortel Computers, Journal Reports. Nortel Networks Corp. lost data for years to hackers based in China who penetrated the company’s network by stealing executives’ passwords, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a former employee. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jrw8zd

-Anonymous knocks CIA website offline. The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77f77hg

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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 oval cut fancy vivid yellow internally flawless Diamond. Since records were first kept at the beginning of the 1970s, prices for the highest grades of colored diamonds have increased in value by an average of between 10%-15% per year, with rarer colors and higher grades enjoying the greatest price appreciation. This appreciation has statistically been non-correlated to the stock and bond markets, an important consideration for investors seeking a diversified portfolio. Harold Seigel-Watch video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/6g37q2r

-Sotheby’s New York Jewels Sale Tops $10M. A 5-carat, VS1, heart-shaped fancy orangy-pink diamond pendant-necklace achieved $632,500, or $126,500 per carat. With the record result for a February sale in New York, Sotheby’s stated that it is looking forward to the auction of Magnificent Jewels in April. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82aot6d

-Colored Diamond Auction Results, Sotheby’s Important Jewels Sale, New York Feb 9 2012. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/7odm66e

-According to Martin Rapaport’s “Diamond Price Statistics Annual Report 2011,” every $1,000 spent on a 5-carat white diamond 10 years ago would have returned $1,645 in 2011. A decade-long diamond investment outpaced returns in the yen, euro, and Nasdaq or Dow Jones indices, according to the report. CNBC

-”There’s a value to diamonds you don’t find in other investments. You can’t melt a diamond, they don’t burn, aren’t made of paper and are very easy to transport.” Moneca Kaufmann-President of Kaufmann de Suisse Jewelers

-”You can put a million dollars [worth of diamonds] in your pocket and get on a plane and no one will notice. There isn’t too much else you can do that with. You can’t really do that with money, you can’t do that with bonds, you can’t do that with gold, but you can do that with diamonds.” John Bianco-Director of Circa in Palm Beach

-Tobina Kahn, Vice President of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago, said many clients are beginning to see the purchase of large diamonds as a way to preserve their wealth. She tells the story of a client who lost a fortune in the markets and told her husband not to buy stocks or bonds. She wanted a diamond instead. “And a big one!” “So people are seeing specific events that are going on in the United States and around the world and saying, ‘Gee, I want something that I can see, touch and feel and can store as a value of wealth.’ ” Palmbeachdailynews.com

-Elizabeth Taylor auctions raise $183 million. Paintings, jewelry and fashions belonging to the late Elizabeth Taylor have sold for more than $183 million, with all of the more than 1,800 items on offer snapped up, Christie’s auction house said. Christie’s said 1,817 lots were sold at a series of auctions in New York and London, some at 50 times their pre-sale estimates.

New York sales of jewelry, fashion and memorabilia in December raised more than $156 million, with a buyer paying $8.8 million for a 33.19-carat diamond ring given to Taylor by actor Richard Burton, whom she married twice. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l9g6dk

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HSFINEAUCTIONS.COM

-Next Auction is Monday Feb 27 8PM Eastern 6PM Mountain. See more here-http://www.hsfineauctions.com/

-Limited Edition Oprah Pendant sells for $35K. On January 16, 2012, HSFineAuctions.com sold one of the Limited Edition O pendants, a much coveted piece of jewelry. Only 100 of these pendants were produced worldwide, with the pink diamonds coming from the Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Australia. This exclusive piece of jewelry received 29 bids in under 6 minutes and sold for $35,000.00 USD, reflecting the increasing appreciation of the value of rare colored diamonds.

HSFineAuctions.com is the world’s premiere rare colored diamond and fine collectibles live auction website. It brings together a diverse collection of rare colored diamonds and fine collectibles from across the globe for investors and collectors alike. Founder and owner, Harold Seigel is an expert on rare colored diamonds, precious metals and fine collectibles investments. He has been featured on CNN, CNBC, Rush Limbaugh, and The Michael Campbell Show, to name just a few. He is also the owner of RareColoredDiamonds.com and hosts The World Financial Report on HESRadio.com to educate investors on the rapidly growing rare colored diamond market. 

HSFineAcutions.com was developed by Relentless Technology based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The site was designed to host live auctions, complete with streaming live audio and real-time bidding.

The first-ever live auction opened on Monday, November 21st at 7:00 EST and was an overwhelming success.  All 10 lots sold in just under an hour, fetching fantastic prices and generating lots of excitement. The bidding was fast and furious as investors raced to take advantage of the first ever rare colored diamond and fine collectibles live auction. To date, 90% of all products listed in the auctions have sold. Collectibles such as silver coin sets have been fetching three times intrinsic market value.

The auctions are open to everyone. To find out more about H. Seigel Fine Auctions, or to sign up for the next live auction, visit HSFineAuctions.com.

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GOLD

-”2012 started off with a bang. Gold and silver had their best start to a new year since 1983. This ongoing debt crisis practically guarantees a higher gold price for the next few years.” Aden Sisters

-”It’s extremely important to have physical gold in this environment. It’s not good enough to own gold in an ETF. You need to have something you can put your hands on. You need to have gold and you need to have silver, something that will protect your wealth if the whole system goes down. The bottom line is this may not happen. But even if things get very stressed in the system, it will be incredibly difficult for people to get their hands on physical gold or silver.” Keith Barron

-”Gold appears to be in the early stages of a powerful cycle that could target $2100, $2500, and finally $2800 by March of 2013. On this historic 2006-2007 consolidation chart I have highlighted key characteristics of that time frame to show you how it compares to the current consolidation.” Morris Hubbartt

-Richard Russell: A Bitter Pill to Swallow, Austerity or Inflation. Inflation is the central banks’ method of avoiding the pain of austerity. Inflation is the current economic narcotic that is used by modern nations. It’s the old ‘beggar thy neighbor’ system, and it will ultimately result either in all out hyperinflation and a collapse of the fiat currency system or a corrective deflationary crash. Either way, the last currency standing will be gold.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7osbces

-60 Minutes: Precious metal, India’s love affair with gold. India’s love for gold is almost a religion. Beyond being a symbol of wealth and status, gold is part of worship and culture a tradition that goes back thousands of years. From birth to death, for men and women, among rich and poor acquiring gold is a goal for the people of India. All of which has made India the world’s largest consumer of gold and thus a powerhouse in industry. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/765blhp Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/799buxq

-China to Surpass India as Biggest Gold Market This Year, World Gold Council Predicts. China, the world’s largest consumer of energy and base metals, is set to displace India this year as the biggest gold user on an annual basis as surging incomes drive increased demand for jewelry and investments.

Demand in China jumped 20 percent to 769.8 metric tons in 2011, while consumption in India fell 7 percent to 933.4 tons, according to a report from the producer-funded World Gold Council. “It is likely that China will emerge as the largest gold market in the world for the first time in 2012,” said Marcus Grubb, managing director of investment. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7p8mp8t Full report here-http://tinyurl.com/7h5wt6s

-Peter Grandich: Mother of all gold bull markets remains intact. I have called this the mother of all gold bull markets. I don’t think we’ll see a bull market like this again in our lifetime. However, it’s also been the most stealth bull market. North Americans, and particularly Americans, have shown little or no participation, yet the price has increased five to six fold.

All the fundamentals remain in place: central banks have gone from big sellers to net buyers and major producers don’t forward sell much anymore. The news that the Fed plans to continue flooding the system with cheap paper is just another example of why gold’s path of least resistance is to the upside. I believe an all-time high, not just a nominal high, but adjusted for inflation, could reach $2,350-2,500/ounce (oz).

The mother of all gold bull markets remains intact. The bears have once again been bloodied and they’ll go into hiding until we go through $2,000/oz and then they’ll come out again. Then the media will flock to them to tell us for the 19th time why gold has topped out. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/742ytls

-John Embry: Is Greece’s Situation Bad for Gold? “Gold is in a bit of a stranglehold here and has been since almost the beginning of February. It sort of coincides with this whole Greek saga where they seem to have a solution every morning and by the end of the day somebody points out another flaw. I think this is extremely bullish for gold.”

“People say keep an eye on Greece because if they don’t come up with a solution it’s bad for gold. I think that’s ridiculous. The fact is if the price weren’t so manipulated it would be continuing to roll ahead because there are no solutions to these various problems that are plaguing most areas of the world today. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78sj4l5

-John Embry: Debt saturation ensures much higher gold and silver. I believe that investors can’t own enough gold and silver. Don’t be concerned about daily fluctuations in price. Focus only on how many ounces of gold and silver you own and, above all, make sure it is in physical form or in a well-documented fully allocated paper vehicle. Avoid at all costs paper gold and silver, which isn’t what it purports to be and is, in effect backed by gold and silver that has been hypothecated and rehypothecated so many times that there is almost no backing whatsoever. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10996

-John Embry: Feb Gold and Silver Commentary. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87y73r7

-Jim Sinclair: CB’s Trying to Keep Gold from Rising Violently. I am not a member of the school that believes central banks are trying to keep the price of gold from rising. Central banks are trying to keep the price from rising violently. Volatility is the key. Price is secondary to the volatility of the gold market as it challenges currency markets and creates an imperative to action.

The attempts and activities of the central banks, in gold, are not by any matter of means to control price, as they are to control volatility. (This is being done so they don’t have to) unmask the mechanism of what is bringing to you a new monetary system. The mechanism is called liquidity. Gold is liquidity. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7werqnr

-Jim Sinclair: Gold Heading Back Towards A Monetary System, Not Away. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72sc2ct

-Jim Sinclair: The Terminal Beginning Of The Western Financial World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/876qz9z

-James Turk: Gold Panic Buying & Pulling Banks Back from the Brink. We’ve been in a consolidation with a trading range extending from about $1,710 to $1,750. You’ve really got to get excited about what is happening here. Think about it a minute, gold climbed from $1,525 to $1,755 or $230 and instead of retracing, it’s just moving sideways in a very powerful consolidation. Gold is only $30 or so from breaking out of this trading range, which I expect to happen within the next week or two. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ykeg2x

-Gerald Celente: Gold, Silver, War, Systemic Collapse & Social Unrest. Celente had this to say about an increased number of investors that have been crowding into gold and other hard assets: “The smart people are (buying gold) and more and more people are waking up to it. So the people that are going to survive and thrive are going to be the ones that are prepared, the ones that are going to see history before it happens and get ready for it and there are very few.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h2s6lr

-Martin Mesicek: We are Nearing the End of the Gold Consolidation Phase. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zooy4e

-Rick Rule: Here is What I am Doing With My Money Right Now. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8687vjd

-Darryl Robert Schoon. Gold Fire Sale Buy Now Sale Ends Soon. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7b6f2f4

-Roger Wiegand: Gold, Silver Heading Up. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r7hgjv

-Bill Bonner: Tune out. Buy gold. Be happy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p95pe8

-Vietnam has written the book on gold; the West should read it. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10983

-What’s crazier than creationism and gold? It’s in your wallet. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10982

-David Cottle: Gold has humbled smart men before. Gold may well annoy the likes of Mr. Buffett, and swashbuckling investors everywhere, who will probably continue to reap better rewards elsewhere. Good luck to them. But in a world short of trustworthy governments, gold will remain a more important and permanent part of portfolios than it was in the pre-crisis days of innocence. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10989

-Why Warren Buffett still doesn’t like investing in gold. The Oracle of Omaha is certain that 100 years from now, when people are fearful, they will still rush into gold but, he still prefers stocks and productive assets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7y7wbv3

-How Listening To Warren Buffett Can Be Dangerous For Your Portfolio. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6q8yr3l

-If You Had Listened To Warren Buffett On Bonds One Year Ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73vny4n

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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

-”Let me confess one of my greatest fears about a potential future bubble in silver. If a silver bubble does develop, by definition large numbers of uninformed investors will join in the fray, eager to capture sure profits. The concerns for risk will be cast aside, as they are in any bubble. Undoubtedly, many of my former bullish arguments for buying silver will be trotted out as current reasons for buying even as price and risk grow.

I doubt very much that I will be pounding the table to buy in a silver bubble and instead will probably be way too early in suggesting its sale. Yet new uniformed buyers will mistakenly view my past pronouncements as reasons to buy after a bubble is formed. The thought that I will inadvertently be responsible for damage to the latecomers is troubling.”

“Of course, the risk to latecomers only grows deep into the bubble, should it form. The risk of a silver bubble bursting now is remote, because it hasn’t formed yet. Yes, there is always the risk of short term sell-offs for reasons related to manipulative activities on the COMEX, but those sell-offs should be viewed as buying opportunities as has been the case for the life of the silver bull market to date.

In terms of a bubble-like collapse in silver prices, that risk will not exist until a bubble first forms.” “In the meantime, since a bubble has not yet formed in silver, what are the possible effects on the price should a silver bubble form? Certainly, I have not been particularly surprised by the 8 to 10 fold increase in price over the past 5 to 10 years. If anything, the price performance to date in silver, given all the facts, has been somewhat muted.

Leaving out a possible bubble forming, it would not surprise me to see eventual long term silver prices at $100 or even $200. That’s without a bubble. If a silver bubble does form, it is hard for me not to imagine some multiple of those prices.” Ted Butler via Ed Steer Casey Research-Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/787yje4

-Ted Butler: Short position in SLV has fallen substantially. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10998

-”My low-side minimum forecast for silver in the first half of 2012 is $38.85/oz. We have a pretty good chance of getting up to $41.44/oz. If things really begin to get quite volatile this year, I think you could break $50/oz. Our next higher number for silver is $59.85/oz. Some of our smart analyst friends who are a little bolder, have numbers in the $60s and one is even above $70/oz.” Roger Wiegand

-Citi Sees Silver As Underpriced, Due To Lead. In a note to clients, Citigroup analysts asserted that silver looks underpriced relative to gold and has room to outperform over the short-term. The firm’s analysts pointed out that the gold-silver ratio measuring the number of silver ounces that can be bought for the price of one ounce of gold is currently trading around 51.

That’s well above levels seen in the gold and silver bull market of 1970-1980, when the ratio fell below 16, the bank noted. “We would not be surprised to see gold underperform silver here,” Citi added. “The 200-day (gold/silver ratio) moving average is at 47.64, which we suspect will be tested.”

In terms of silver’s technical outlook, a key resistance level to watch is the $35.66 to $36.55 an ounce range, said Citi. A weekly close above that level, the research piece predicted, would open the way for a medium-term silver rally toward $45.30 an ounce. That would represent about a 35% jump from current levels. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79m22vj

-James Turk: Silver Update. “I keep going back to that weekly silver chart that we’ve been talking about now for a couple of months. With each passing day, the base in silver continues to build. We should view this base as a launch pad from which silver will rocket higher. It’s taking a little patience, but once that $35 level is broken, it’s blastoff for silver.” Instead of thinking about falling precious metals prices, investors should instead be prepared for panic buying when gold breaks above $1,750 and silver takes out $35.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ykeg2x

-David Morgan at the California Resource Investment Conference: “Myths in the Silver Market.” Watch here-http://tinyurl.com/7zz34nj

-Hubert Moolman: Analysis of the Long-term Silver Chart. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77g6etd

-Hubert Moolman: Silver Update: Is Silver Outperforming The Gold Fractal? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xaau6s

-Andover voters to decide on silver dollars as pay alternative for town employees. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vrkujn

-Eric McWhinnie: Warren Buffett Trashes Gold, But What About Silver? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86pqe49

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QE

-SocGen: QE3 Is Coming Soon, But First The S&P Is Going To Tank. SocGen has put out a big special report titled: QE3 delayed, but still likely. Their high level overview of where things stand right now looks like this: QE3 has been delayed by the recent bout of good news from the US economy: SG is now in line with the consensus, expecting the launch in Q2 (24-25 April FOMC meeting). Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s2kn2a

-Fed’s Williams Says U.S. Monetary Policy Throttle Should Be Kept Wide Open. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said the U.S. central bank should keep trying to boost growth because it’s missing its goals for employment and price stability, while stopping short of calling for more asset purchases for now. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8892xp8

-Jim Grant: Fed Should Heed Lessons of 1920 Recession Response. Responding to a severe economic downturn from 1920 to 1921, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates and the national budget was balanced, moves that kept the painful recession short, New York-based Grant said. In contrast, he said U.S. policy makers are prolonging the pain of the so-called Great Recession by intervening in markets and running unprecedented federal budget deficits.

“The Fed is not content to let interest rates find their levels, they must repress them, and they are not content to let housing prices find their levels, they seek to intervene to prop them up,” Grant said. “The results of all this intervention is not to cure what ails us, but prolongs the symptoms of what distresses us.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lxfsvm

-Fed’s Fisher: Congress, Not Fed, Should Spur Jobs. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said more Fed easing may backfire and that Congress and the Obama administration should streamline tax and regulatory policies to spur long-term job growth.

“No amount of monetary accommodation will change the pathology” businesses face, Fisher said in a speech. “Excessive monetary accommodation might only add a further dosage of angst, fueling fears of future inflation.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7k4s7o2

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Moody’s Cuts European Sovereigns. Moody’s Investors Service cut the debt ratings of six European countries including Italy, Spain and Portugal and revised its outlook on the U.K.’s and France’s top Aaa ratings to “negative,” citing Europe’s debt crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7smeqsv

-Germany Targets Approval for Greek Rescue Feb. 20. Germany wants euro-area finance ministers to consider the 130 billion-euro ($170 billion) rescue for Greece at their meeting Feb. 20 along with a bond swap to cut the nation’s debt load, coalition lawmakers were told by German government officials in a briefing. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75shj88

-Nigel Farage: Greece Descending into Total Chaos & Violence. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yktu5w

-George Soros: Greek Bailout Won’t Rid Europe of Danger. Billionaire investor George Soros predicted weak growth and lingering political tension that could shatter Europe’s economic union even if Greece agrees to austerity measures. “Right now the European Union and particularly the heavily indebted countries face a lost decade,” Soros said.

“It might actually be longer than a decade because Japan that had a similar situation with the real estate boom and the banking crisis has had now 25 years of no growth,” Soros said. “That will create tensions within the European Union, which could destroy the European Union,” he said. “And that’s a real danger.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nqxx4x

-Soros: Merkel taking Europe in wrong direction. Billionaire George Soros slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview, warning that her policies could lead to a repeat of the Great Depression. Soros warned against addressing the crisis with spending cuts, urging the injection of funds instead. “Otherwise we will repeat the mistakes that plunged America into the Great Depression in 1929. That’s what Angela Merkel doesn’t understand,” he said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r49azh

-Paulson Says Euro Will Probably Unravel. Paulson & Co., the $23 billion hedge fund run by John Paulson, said the euro is structurally flawed and will eventually fall apart, according to a letter the firm sent to its investors. The collapse could be triggered by a Greek default, which would then throw the world in recession and financial disorder. “We believe a Greek payment default could be a greater shock to the system that Lehman’s failure, immediately causing global economies to contract and markets to decline,” Paulson said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tggkqb

-Hank Paulson: Europe Crisis Will Take Years to Sort Out. Although there are similarities with what the United States went through at the onset of the financial crisis, the issues in Europe are more complex and will take years to resolve, Henry Paulson, former Treasury Secretary and founder of the Paulson Institute told CNBC. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6wtbj4n

-Greece Needs Years to Mend From Crisis, JPMorgan’s Frenkel Says. Greece, facing doubts from European officials about its commitment to reduce deficits, will take years to emerge from its debt crisis, JPMorgan Chase International Chairman Jacob Frenkel said.

“What we’re talking now about is not a magic wand that in one day will change the face of the country,” Frenkel, a former governor of the Bank of Israel, said. “Those expectations will be frustrated unless it is communicated very clearly that problems that arose over years need to be corrected over years.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/876sfry

-Wen Says China Ready to Be More ‘Deeply‘ Involved in Solution for Europe. China said it will “get more involved” in supporting Europe and sustain its holdings of euro assets, spurring gains in the currency and Asian stocks on optimism the debt crisis will be overcome.

“China will always adhere to the principle of holding assets of EU sovereign debt,” People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in Beijing. “We would participate in resolving the euro debt crisis,” he said, echoing comments by Premier Wen Jiabao. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75tzp8w

-Italian Government Debt Increases to $2.5 Trillion With Euro Bailout Costs. Italian government debt rose 4 percent in 2011 to 1.897 trillion euros ($2.5 trillion) on funding for European bailouts and a weaker euro that increased the cost of servicing foreign-denominated debt, the Bank of Italy said in a report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tqss7v

-Spain’s ghost towns: Built during the boom years but now lying empty as jobless total tops Five Million. Spain has highest jobless rate in Europe with 22.9% unemployed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wkgalz

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Obama Sends $3.8 Trillion Election-Year Budget to Congress. President Barack Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget plan with stimulus spending and tax increases for the wealthiest Americans, spelling out election-year priorities that drew immediate Republican opposition. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rfo8cv

-Obama’s 2013 Budget Projects $901 Billion Deficit in Proposal to Congress. President Barack Obama will revive proposals for $1.5 trillion in tax increases as well as spending to boost jobs as part of a 2013 budget request that projects the deficit shrinking next year to $901 billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79ucud7

-Infographic: How Much Does the U.S. Government Spend? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tfvu75

-Obama’s deficit spending $17k per person, $70k per family. Here are the actual or projected deficit tallies for the four years in which Obama has submitted budgets are as follows: $1.293 trillion in 2010, $1.300 trillion in 2011, $1.327 trillion in 2012, and $901 billion in 2013. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78brl7b

-U.S. Budget Gap for January was 27.4 Billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8a2kzek

-Boehner’s ‘Take to the Bank‘ Resolve to Fizzle. U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said 78 days ago that lawmakers could “take to the bank the fact that” a payroll tax cut extension “will be paid for.” That resolve fizzled yesterday when he agreed to support a deal that would add about $100 billion to the budget deficit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yg5qs8

-Calif. Jan. Tax Revenue $528M Below Estimate. California collected $528 million less in taxes in January than Governor Jerry Brown estimated in his latest budget, Controller John Chiang said. The majority of the shortfall was in income taxes, down $525 million, or 6.3 percent less than projected in the spending plan Brown released Jan. 5, Chiang said. Corporate taxes were down $127.9 million, while sales taxes were up $42.8 million. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xouwjc

-Calpers Actuary: Consider Lower Assumed Return. California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension, should consider changing its assumed rate of investment return, its actuary said. Trimming the forecast may add to taxpayer costs.

The rate, now 7.75 percent, is used to calculate how much money the $234 billion fund expects to have and how much it needs to cover benefits promised to workers, as well as the size of annual contributions by state and local government.

Rising public-employee retiree costs are straining the budgets of states such as California and cities across the U.S. still coping with tax revenue reduced by the longest recession since the Great Depression. Public funds have come under fire for using assumptions that hide the true size of shortfalls. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s88esx

-Obama: Let’s Save Money By Making Coins With Cheaper Metals. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74s7ffg

-Student Loans Near $1 Trillion Hurt Young Buyers. Roshell Schenck has a PhD in pharmacy and earns $125,000 a year, yet can’t qualify for a mortgage for a house for herself and her 9-year-old daughter. The 2008 graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Erie, Pennsylvania, has more than $110,000 in student debt. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bta2dk

-Trade Deficit in U.S. Rose in December to Six-Month High on Import Growth. The trade deficit in the U.S. widened in December to a six-month high as a strengthening economy prompted bigger gains in imports than exports. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/732mfcf

-China Reduces Holdings of U.S. Treasuries to Lowest Level Since June 2010. China, the largest foreign lender to the U.S., reduced its holdings of Treasuries in December to the least since June 2010 amid efforts to assist Europe in addressing its debt crisis.

The world’s second-largest economy decreased its U.S. debt securities by $31.9 billion from November, or 2.8 percent, to $1.11 trillion, according to Treasury Department data released. Its position in longer-term notes and bonds also fell $32.5 billion, or 2.8 percent, to $1.1 trillion, the least since June 2010. Japan, the second biggest buyer, increased its holding by $3.5 billion to $1.04 trillion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84w7abk

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OIL-GAS

-Risks to Global Oil Supply Rival Late 1970s. The potential threats to the global oil supply especially Iran’s vow to close the Strait of Hormuz have not been this great since the Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq War three decades ago, according to a report by Deutsche Bank. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tbjnle

-Gas Prices Are Up 83% During Obama’s Term. CNSNews.com

-Get Ready for $5 Gas This Year: Ex-Shell CEO. John Hofmeister former CEO of Shell Oil’s U.S. operations, warned that there is a “better than 50 percent chance” the price of gas will spike on continued heavy demand in emerging markets and weak public policy at home. He also sees West Texas crude prices touching “the midteens to $120 a barrel sometime this year.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7678eb7

-Liepert Says Alberta Needs Many Pipeline Outlets to Avoid Landlocked Oil. Alberta Finance Minister Ron Liepert said the province needs multiple pipelines to ensure its crude doesn’t become “landlocked” as oil companies prepare to ramp up production. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73mfl2m

-Vancouver Could Take Larger Tankers, More Kinder Morgan Oil, Port CEO Says. Vancouver would be able to handle larger tankers that could receive crude oil from an expanded Kinder Morgan Inc. pipeline, allowing Canada to boost energy shipments to Asia, the head of the city’s port authority said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eek2y2

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STOCK MARKET

-Mark Hulbert: The insiders are selling heavily, July was last time insiders were equally as bearish. Corporate insiders are now selling their companies’ stock at a rate not seen since late last July. That’s a scary parallel indeed, since that late-July spike in selling came just days before one of the more painful two-week periods in the stock market in years.

In early August, as you may recall, the U.S. government lost its triple-A credit rating, and the bottom dropped out of the stock market. Between the last week of July and the second week of August, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,000 points. To be sure, heavy insider selling doesn’t always lead to this much market weakness, or this immediately.

And there were a lot of other things going on last summer that aren’t present today. Still, on the theory that corporate insiders officers, directors and largest shareholders know more about their firms’ prospects than do the rest of us, it can’t be good news that they are selling at such a heavy pace.

Consider a ratio calculated by Argus Research of the number of shares insiders have sold in the open market to the number that they have bought. Last week, according to the latest issue of Argus’ service, the Vickers Weekly Insider Report, this sell-to-buy ratio stood at 5.77-to-1. And among insiders at companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange, this ratio was even more lopsided at 8.2-to-1.

Making these recent readings even more worrisome, according to Argus Research, is that they came on markedly stepped-up activity among corporate insiders. This increases our confidence that the ratio accurately reflects prevailing sentiment among a broad cross-section of the insiders.

In fact, Vickers is so alarmed by recent insider trends that this week it is selling big chunks of its two model portfolios and putting the proceeds in cash. After the sales, its “Insider Model Portfolio” will be nearly 30% in cash and its “Risk Model Portfolio” will be more than 60% in cash. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xaobl3

-Dow Theory Sending ‘Troubling Sign’ for Stock Rally. Transportation stocks are sending a troubling signal for Dow theorists in particular that the four-month market rally is nearing its end. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hzenkp

-Barron’s: The Dow Is Going To 15,000 And Beyond. Last weekend’s Barron’s cover story is sure to provoke people wondering if, perhaps, the new-found market euphoria isn’t perhaps a bit overdone. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nark9t

-Fink: Investors Should Be 100% in Equities. BlackRock Inc. Laurence D. Fink, who urged investors this week to put all their money in equities, said his call was aimed at getting cash back into the capital markets. “It’s important to get cash off the sidelines and back into the markets so people can get the returns they need and we can get our economies moving again.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s8bgyl and http://tinyurl.com/7snjayk

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BONDS

-Jeremy Grantham: ‘We Are Literally Running Out Of Superlatives To Describe How Much We Hate Bonds.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7axqj8m

-Fed Playing Favorites With Wall Street in Secretive Bond Deals. The Federal Reserve secretly selected a handful of banks to bid for debt securities acquired by taxpayers in the U.S. bailout of American International Group Inc., and the rest of Wall Street is wondering what happened to the transparency the central bank said it was committed to upholding. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84fnz44

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BANKING

-Bank failures in Ill, Ind bring 2012 total to 9. Regulators on Friday closed small banks in Illinois and Indiana, increasing to nine the number of U.S. bank failures this year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74vesrd

-World Bank’s Zoellick to step down June 30. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday he plans to step down when his term ends on June 30, raising questions whether the United States will insist on holding on to a job that has always gone to an American. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xeapy2

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REAL ESTATE

-Bernanke Says Housing Market Holds Back Fed Efforts to Boost U.S. Economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank’s efforts to spur economic growth are being blunted by impediments to mortgage lending, and he called for further steps to heal the housing market. “We have helped lower mortgage rates to the lowest point in many, many decades,” Bernanke told homebuilders in Orlando, Florida. “Yet we are not seeing as much activity as we would like to see.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t7sekk

-Southern California home prices keep dropping; it’s a time tunnel. In 2008, the median home price in Southern California was $340,000. Home prices are still nowhere close to that level and, in fact, continue to fall. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pjy2kj

-Windows Reveal the True Housing Market. Maybe the clearest way to look at the housing market is through a nice glass window. Susan Marvin, president of Marvin Windows and Doors, a small, privately held family company based in Warroad, Minn., wants to believe that the housing market is improving, but the numbers say otherwise. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xlnnms

-New American Dream is renting to get rich. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eyb9tl

-Banks pay delinquent borrowers $35,000 to sell their homes. In an effort to cut their losses, banks are paying some struggling homeowners as much as $35,000 to sell their homes before they end up in foreclosure. The deals are aimed at incentivizing homeowners who owe more on their home than it is worth and who are seriously delinquent on their payments to sell their homes in a short sale. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75cvwrq

-Foreclosures on the Rise Again. After a year-long reprieve from rising foreclosures, the numbers are going up again. One in every 624 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in January, up 3 percent from the previous month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. Foreclosure activity froze in many states in 2011, due to processing delays after fraud, or so-called “Robo-signing,” were uncovered in the fall of 2010. The thaw is now on. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vzhedp

-The U.S. foreclosure crisis, Beverly Hills-style. The careworn house not far from Santa Monica Boulevard resembles millions of other homes that have been foreclosed on since the calamitous U.S. housing crash four years ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wg66cd

-Foreclosure Deal to Spur New Wave of U.S. Home Seizures, Help Heal Market. The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may result in a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ojynbo

-Banks Not Off Hook With $25B Mortgage Deal. U.S. lenders including Bank of America Corp. still face years of litigation and billions of dollars in liabilities tied to the housing collapse after agreeing to settle a probe of abusive foreclosure practices. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tweeol

-Greg Hunter: Mortgage Settlement Will Plunge Real Estate Values. It is official. State and federal governments have condoned forgery, perjury and fraud in what’s been called the “robo-signing” foreclosure debacle. Last week, the five biggest banks in America signed on to a $26 billion deal that, basically, lets them off with a slap on the wrist for fraudulently foreclosing on homes in the last few years. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pfkcgt

-Canadian January Existing Home Sales Fall 4.5%, Realtor Group Says. Canadian existing home sales declined last month at the fastest pace since July 2010, the country’s main realtor group said.

Sales dropped 4.5 percent in January from December, the first decline in five months, the Canadian Real Estate Association said today from Ottawa. From a year earlier, the average resale price rose 1.2 percent to C$348,178 and sales increased 4 percent, the slowest pace since May 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77hyx5n

-Toronto Bubble Risk Tops New York in Condos. A sliver of land wedged between Toronto’s elevated expressway and an off-ramp that pumps traffic into downtown may become the epicenter for a Canadian housing bubble. In four years, this site that’s now used as a parking lot and police impound near the shores of Lake Ontario will be home to Ten York, a 75-story glass building that would be the country’s third-tallest condo tower.

Toronto has more skyscrapers and high-rises under construction than any North American city almost three times as many as New York stoking debate on whether the condominium market in Canada’s largest city is headed for a U.S.-style correction as prices rise and household borrowing hits a record. Canadian lenders including Toronto-Dominion Bank last week raised mortgage rates to cool off the housing market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r7uncz

-Infographic: The Difference Between American And Canadian Homeowners. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/7dsfqvk

-The Most Overpriced Housing Markets In The Developed World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/798qu93

-NYC apartment sells for a record $88 million. The most expensive apartment ever sold in Manhattan went for a cool $88 million this week. The penthouse apartment on Central Park West was formerly owned by Citigroup founder Sanford Weill. It was bought for the original asking price in a deal that closed Feb. 15. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7k9eujp

-Mortgage problems? Turn your house into a billboard. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7e8ml6e

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Iran is ready for nuclear talks, negotiator tells EU. Iran is offering to resume talks over the country’s nuclear program as soon as possible, according to a letter the nation’s nuclear negotiator sent to the European Union. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tqt65m

-Iran Says It Loaded Locally Made Fuel to Nuke. Iran loaded locally built fuel plates into its nuclear research reactor in Tehran, state-run Press TV reported today, showing images of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inside the facility. Only a handful of countries, including France and the U.S., have the technology to build the 20-percent enriched fuel plates needed for the reactor, according to Iranian officials. Ahmadinejad described the step as a “major” nuclear feat. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6m2jyjn

-Iran Unlikely to Strike First, U.S. Official Says. The Iranian military is unlikely to intentionally provoke a conflict with the West, the top U.S. military intelligence official said. Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said Iran probably has the ability to “temporarily close the Strait of Hormuz with its naval forces,” as some Iranian officials have threatened to do if attacked or in response to sanctions on its oil exports by the U.S. and European Union.

“Iran has also threatened to launch missiles against the United States and our allies in the region in response to an attack,” Burgess said in testimony prepared for a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It could also employ its terrorist surrogates worldwide. However, it is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict or launch a preemptive attack.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84j9h7s

-Attacks Raise Specter of Israel-Iran War. U.S. officials and defense analysts are concerned that a covert war of assassinations between Israel and Iran could escalate out of control. “Things are heating up and there is a surge” of assassination attempts, Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury Department official and now director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a interview. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8ytwa39

-Israel blames Iran after attacks on embassy staff. Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78bml8f

-Israel Raises State of Alert After Attacks on Diplomats in India, Georgia. Israeli police elevated alerts across the country following assaults against diplomats in India and Georgia, while Defense Minister Ehud Barak said a botched grenade attack in Thailand bolstered the case for blaming Iran. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eo6qa5

-Intelligence Reports Suggest Iran And Al Qaeda Are Teaming Up To Attack The West. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88alswh

-Heightened Security in US Over Iran Threat. With Iran allegedly striking out at Israeli citizens and Jewish targets around the world, Israeli and American security officials in the U.S. are on high alert. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ou9qsy

-Napolitano: Hezbollah Attack on U.S. Possible. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she is concerned that Iran-backed Hezbollah will attempt a terrorist attack on American soil. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75m5m2t

-Charles Krauthammer: Israel ‘will strike’ Iran to ‘prevent a second holocaust.’ “Our own secretary of Defense has said it’s highly likely and he gave a timeframe April, May, June which means the Israelis think that the moment, the zone of immunity where they can no longer attack successfully, is approaching,” Krauthammer said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8922sbw

-Israel Likely to Bomb Iran This Year: Political Analyst. Israel will bomb Iran and it’s increasingly likely to happen this year, according to Alastair Newton, Senior Political Analyst at Nomura. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/853jyh7

-Israeli attack on Iran would be complex operation. If Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, the strike would probably take the form of a complex air assault involving scores of planes that would have to penetrate Iranian air defenses and attack up to a couple of dozen targets simultaneously, analysts say. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r39fal

-U.S. carrier crosses Hormuz amid rising Gulf tensions. A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group sailed through the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday more than a month after Iran warned a different carrier USS John C. Stennis not to return to the Gulf as Iranian navy boats sailed by. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qcgenq

-Iranian Boats Shadow USS Aircraft Carrier in Gulf. The American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, shadowed by Iranian patrol boats. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xu8v2d

-U.S. Navy: Iran prepares suicide bomb boats in Gulf. Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pc55of

-U.S. Would Block Iran From Mining Hormuz Strait, Commander Says. The U.S. Navy would move to stop any Iranian attempt to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz or Persian Gulf as an “act of war” the international community wouldn’t tolerate, the U.S. Navy’s top Gulf commander said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fs87l6

-Iran Sanctions Tightening as OSG to Frontline Halt Shipping Nation’s Crude. Sanctions on Iran are tightening after Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., Frontline Ltd. and owners controlling more than 100 supertankers said they would stop loading cargoes from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-largest producer. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s33fx5

-Iran May Disrupt Hormuz Shipping, Supporting Oil Price, S&P Says. Iran might respond to sanctions with low-level provocation such as slowing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, keeping oil prices at “their currently high level,” according to three Standard & Poor’s reports. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ccpesq

-Iran government cuts off internet access as hardline regime makes a stand. Iran has demonstrated further evidence of its strict regime after the government cut internet links leaving millions without email and social networks. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85tyhqm

-Syria Bars Text Messages With Irish-Made Gear. As unrest in Syria erupted into public demonstrations and a bloody crackdown that has claimed over 6,000 lives in the last year, the regime of Bashar al-Assad sought to neutralize one of the most potent tools in the protesters’ arsenal: text messages sent via mobile phones. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kea9q6

-Iran presses ahead with attack on dollar. Last week the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vision of economic war with the West. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10987

-Muslim Brotherhood Warns U.S. Aid Cut May Affect Egypt’s Peace Treaty With Israel. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6v4ntr4

-Russia faced major nuclear disaster in 2011. Russia came close to nuclear disaster in late December when a blaze engulfed a nuclear-powered submarine carrying atomic weapons, a leading Russian magazine reported, contradicting official assurances that it was not armed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75sxxe6

-Est. 3,500 Somalis Working as Pirates: UN. There are about 3,500 Somali people working as pirates, attacking and hijacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, according to Wayne Miller, an official from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6odl9jx

-Bin Laden Told His Kids To ‘Go To The US And Live In Peace.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7cy9jln

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – February 17th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, February 17, 2012

World Financial Report – February 10th, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Facebook’s IPO Could Make Zuckerberg One Of America’s Ten Wealthiest. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74wg3kq

-Facebook Is Valued at $94 Billion in Auction of Shares on Private Market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7c8fb3k


www.chartoftheday.com

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Facebook Stakes. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nla89u

-CHART OF THE WEEK: More Than Half of Facebook Users Need Their Dose Daily. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pjruq6

-CHART OF THE WEEK: World’s Ageing Population. Standard & Poor’s warned it may downgrade “a number of highly rated” group of 20 countries as of 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising health-care spending and other costs related to ageing populations. Today’s chart shows a number of graphs indicating an older population. Read more here- http://tinyurl.com/7kyua8w

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Rogue Trading. Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli will stand trial in September after pleading not guilty on charges related to the loss of more than $2 billion on trades the Swiss bank says were unauthorized. Adoboli has been charged with two counts of fraud and two of false accounting, in one of the world’s biggest cases of alleged “rogue trading”. Today’s chart looks at some of the most notable instances of rogue trading since 1992. Does any particular case stand out? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zyutcb

-Buffett: Bonds Among Most Dangerous Assets. Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said low interest rates and inflation should dissuade investors from buying bonds and other holdings tied to currencies. “They are among the most dangerous of assets,” Buffett said in an adaptation of his annual letter to shareholders that appeared on Fortune magazine’s website. “Over the past century these instruments have destroyed the purchasing power of investors in many countries, even as these holders continued to receive timely payments of interest and principal.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/867hfad

-Cigarette Smugglers Prosper in Spain With Smokers Squeezed by Rising Taxes. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a6unck

-Meet The Mysterious 58-Year-Old Monk Who’s Making Billions From 5-Hour Energy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rwnpfb

-Clint Eastwood Heralds Comeback in Detroit With Chrysler’s Super Bowl Ad, Halftime In America. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tnx6vc

-Dependency Index Surges 23% Under President Obama. The American public’s dependence on the federal government shot up 23% in just two years under President Obama, with 67 million now relying on some federal program, according to a newly released study. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/782cdp9

-‘Very Poor’ at Highest in 35 Years as Safety Gaps Grow. More than 20 million Americans live in a household with income of less than half the federal poverty rate, the level social scientists often use as a category for the very poor, according to census data for 2010. Last year that meant an annual income below $11,057 for a family of four. The portion of the population in that category was the highest in at least 35 years and has almost doubled since 1975, from 3.7 percent then to 6.7 percent in 2010. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tz6ykr

-January was USA’s 4th-warmest on record. The warmth last month wasn’t a mirage: January 2012 was the USA’s 4th-warmest January on record, federal climate scientists announced. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vj6kst

-Earth’s Polar Ice Melting Less Than Thought. Better technology yields better data. The bad news is the extra water from 2003-2010 would fill Lake Erie eight times. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gn9xnu

-Somali Pirates Attacks Reach Record. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tymlsw

-Extraordinary top secret call between FBI and Scotland Yard ‘tapped’ by Anonymous. A confidential call between the FBI and Scotland Yard was recorded by hacking group Anonymous – the very people they were trying to catch, it was revealed. The group released a 15-minute tape of what appears to be a conference call last month about tracking and prosecuting the group’s members. The top-secret conversation begins with a bizarre exchange between the U.S. and British agents, where they talk about cheese and eating ‘McDonald’s at the Pentagon’. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p9fsts

-Hacker releases Symantec source code. A hacker released the source code for antivirus firm Symantec’s pcAnywhere utility on Tuesday, raising fears that others could find security holes in the product and attempt takeovers of customer computers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pyxgxr and http://tinyurl.com/7jsdute

-Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ylouwp

-Spying on Europe’s farms with satellites and drones. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pnwjmc

-FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists. Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7f9f3ut

-’Doomsday Preppers’ highlights extreme survival techniques. 61% of Americans believe the country will experience a major catastrophic event within the next 20 years, but only 15% feel they are fully prepared for it. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6txg3mx

-Congress’s Job-Approval Reaches Another Low. The public’s contempt for the U.S. Congress continues to grow. The Gallup Poll’s latest gauge of public sentiment for the job Congress is doing sank to a record low, with just 10 percent of Americans registering approval. That’s down from 13 percent in January and a previous low of 11 percent in December. A full 86 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the job Congress is doing. That ties with a record disapproval rating set in December. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wz9zny

-Super Bowl Quant Firm Won’t Quit Day Job as Giants Win Puts End to Streak. The New York Giants’ Super Bowl victory ended an eight-year winning streak by the quantitative money management firm whose model for picking the team to bet on went with the favored New England Patriots. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7q6aeb2

-Here’s The First Thing 47% Of People Said They’d Do If They Won The Lottery. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72adds3

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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

-Rarecoloreddiamond.com Featured Diamond of the Week. This week’s Diamond is a 0.85 carat radiant cut fancy vivid Yellow internally flawless diamond. “Diamond prices are going up and they are going to continue to go up. Supply is going to dwindle as new diamond deposits become harder to find.” CNBC. Harold Seigel-See video the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/7jzrd8g

-Richard Russell: Massive Money Going Into Tangibles. “I just went through the latest Rapaport jewelry and diamond magazine, and I was frankly amazed at the record prices paid at auction. Obviously, big money is investing in valuable tangibles. The prices that some of these jewels have gone for are at simply mind-blowing heights.”

“I list just a few examples to show subscribers that big (huge) money is investing in almost priceless, rare tangibles. These stones are often handed down from generation to generation, and only appear when one generation puts a stone up for auction.

1) The Elizabeth Taylor diamond, sold at Christie’s NYC, Dec., 2011, estimated sale price $2.3 million, it sold for $8.8 million.

2) Graff pink 24 carat pink diamond, sold a Sotheby’s, estimated at $27 million, sold for $46.1 million, November 2010.

3) A blue 38 carat diamond auctioned at Christie’s, estimate $15 million, sold Dec. 2008 for $34.3 million.

4) A 24 carat pink diamond auctioned at Sotheby’s estimate $27 million, sold Nov. 2010 for $46.15 million.

Note many of these rare jewels are one of a kind, and have never been put up for auction before. The magazine lists over 30 of these fantastic jewels with almost all selling far above estimates. The fact is that today there are thousands of millionaires around the world and hundreds of billionaires.

These people have enormous buying power, and their greatest problem is protecting their fortunes and their purchasing power. Hoarding great jewels is one way to do it. For instance, compare a $60 million rare one-of-a-kind diamond that weighs less than an ounce with $60 million worth of gold. And the diamond is smaller than the smallest joint of your little finger. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/884gewq

-Henri Barguirdjian CEO of Graff’s: Diamonds becoming a Part of the Ultra Rich’s Investment Portfolio.

LL: You recently mentioned to me you are seeing an interesting trend developing on Wall Street where diamonds are now be considered an investment. Can you please explain?

HB: This is something that has never happened before. We are being approached by money managers of very wealthy clients, or the wealthy clients themselves who are all considering investing a small percentage of their portfolio in diamonds. This is something we have never seen in the past. These people never considered diamonds as an investment.

They considered them as something very beautiful and nice to own, it made their wife happy and its gorgeous to look at but they always neglected the financial aspect of the transaction. And now when they see what has happened with the price of diamonds and they realize it is not so much a silly idea.

This is why financial institutions are seriously studying the diamond market. We have been getting lots of calls by people who are doing reports on this and they want charts and price history so they can formulate their research.

LL: What kind of price range are these investors looking at?

HB: You are talking about people in the Forbes 400 and they all invest $50-100 million in diamonds which is a small percentage of their net worth but in our business 50 to 100 million dollars is a very large transaction. These transactions are enough to push up the price of diamonds up very, very high. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/3dc7www

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GOLD

-CHART OF THE WEEK: What It Would Take To Buy A Manhattan Apartment With Ounces Of Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7aurrsb

-“In 1969, at the housing peak, 660 ounces of gold purchased a house at the median price. At the low in 1979, the cost of such a dwelling was 80 ounces of gold. In 2001, the cost was 610 ounces. Currently, a little over 100 ounces buys a home.” Marketwatch

-Technically, the gold price action this week is just what the doctor ordered. It started with a light volume pull back that I projected would follow the breakout from the falling wedge price pattern. I have set $1803 as the upside target of the first stage of this move. From that price area, I see a bigger pull back, again on light volume.

From $1803, I’m projecting that gold will drop to about $1680, complete an inverse head and shoulders pattern, and then rise to $2100. June is the most likely timeframe that sees gold touch $2100. $2300 is likely by December, 2012. Morris Hubbartt

-Greyerz: Gold Price to Hit $5,000 in 24 Months & Silver $166. Here is what von Greyerz had to say about central bank activity and how it will impact gold and silver prices: “If you look at every central bank in the world they are in an absolute mess and they need to print unlimited amounts of money. So we will have a lot of zeros after the price of gold in many currencies.

But even in today’s money I see gold going up many times from here.” “The risks are enormous. The risk that many banks will fail is major. The authorities and central banks, around the world, are going to try to rescue them, but it’s not certain they can or will.

That’s why, again, it’s important to hold assets outside the banking system, whether it’s gold or silver or assets in the ground. That’s the way to protect yourself because if the system survives in the next couple of years, it will only be because there is massive money printing.

“Without that they cannot survive. But because of the massive risks to the financial system, I think it’s absolutely critical that investors hold a major part of their funds outside of the banking system. We are in this for the long-term. We got into it (gold) in 2002 at $300. We’re telling clients today, at $1,750, that right now gold is cheap.

We’re holding gold to protect our purchasing power and gold is just beginning a very major move. That move will take time. In the next two years I could see $5,000 (gold). We could see it before the next 24 months. That is just an intermediate top. We will have a bigger correction after that. But I’ve said for some time that gold could reach $10,000, and that’s in today’s money.

And I’m absolutely convinced that we won’t have today’s money in the future. If gold goes up to let’s say $5,000, the (gold/silver) ratio will come back down to at least where it was in 2011, which is 30. I would say that’s a minimum. Then you’re talking about silver at $166.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vgfbaz

-James Turk: Is gold in a bubble? Clearly gold is not in a bubble. It does not follow the pattern of bubbles. Gold is not widely owned today, which stands in stark contrast to what would be expected if it were in a bubble. More importantly, instead of gold owners trying to rationalise a high price, people who do not own gold are giving reasons not own it.

There is a bubble today, but it is not gold. It is the debt instruments of the US government and indeed, other governments that have also made far too many financial promises. Many of these promises will be broken and many debts repudiated, but most people do not understand or refuse to accept this reality. Ignoring prudent financial analysis and even the lessons of history, they still believe government debt is a safe haven. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jy7y63

-John Embry: Gold’s Rise Will Shock Market Participants This Year. “The fact that sentiment is so poor with gold at these levels just indicates that people don’t realize what’s really unfolding. I think the price action to begin the year has been exemplary. It was interesting as gold was getting a head of steam going last week, out comes that bogus jobs report that led to the one day reversal in gold and silver.”

“Accompanying the phony jobs number were all sorts of wonderful headlines in the mainstream press about how the US economy was firm and there were signs of recovery and so on. The fact they said there were 243,000 jobs created is ridiculous. When you couple all of this with the fact that sentiment in gold and silver is so bad, this sort of quiet gain, I mean gold has risen the better part of $200 since the end of the year, that’s a lot in a short period of time.

I still believe this is all just a precursor to what will be the finest year we’ve ever had in this bull market. The best up year, so far, in this gold bull was 36% and I would be surprised if that number were not obliterated this year. This will continue to be a very strong year for the precious metals and it will leave many market participants shocked.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/736pr8w

-James Turk: Corrective Action in Gold is Prelude to Bullish Explosion. Here is what Turk had to say about money on the sidelines and where gold and silver are headed: “Sooner or later that money is going to realize the train is pulling away from the station. Whether this money comes in next week or the week after, I do very much like this trading action. I’m very bullish here short-term on gold and silver, it looks very, very good.”

When asked about a continued wealth transfer to those owning gold and silver, Turk stated, “Gold doesn’t really create wealth, it’s just a sterile asset. It doesn’t have a cash flow and it doesn’t have a balance sheet or a P/E ratio. When the gold price is rising, what you are doing is taking wealth that’s already been created and is in the hands of people who own a fiat currency and it’s taking the wealth away from the people who own that fiat currency and putting it into the hands of people who own gold.

So you have this wealth transfer taking place. My expectation is that this wealth transfer is going to be one of the most phenomenal ones in monetary history. And to be part of it you have to own physical gold and silver, this is what you need to do to take advantage of it.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7crg428

-Richard Russell: Watch Gold, 2012 Fated to be a Monster Year. I’ve been sensing something Big and ominous is in the offing. What could it be? Ah, a front page article in Sunday’s NY Times supplies the answer. Israel will attack Iran with nuclear bombs. Israel must attack this year for this is the year when Iran will have nuclear capabilities.

If Israel attacks, the Mid-East will go up in flames. Suggestion dollars and gold. If the dollar collapses, gold will make up for the losses by sky-rocketing. The next target for gold to trade into the 1800s, and it’s getting close. 2012 is fated to be a monster year. Keep your eyes on the dollar and gold, and the newspaper headlines!” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79rrk6c

-Ben Davies: Fair Value on Gold Today is Over $4,000. The high net worth and retail investor is really starting to accept that gold is here to stay. They are beginning to understand it should be part of your portfolio. So I’m really constructive over the course of this year.

I would not be surprised if 2012 is the year we really start to get that retail momentum into the (gold) market. So it’s not inconceivable the numbers I have posted in later years, that we start getting back to what I consider fair value relative to the monetary base, which is, of course, over $4,000.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fzwpkn

-Rick Rule: Critical Differences Between Gold Bull Today vs. 70s. Rule also had this to say about how this will end: “It is my belief today that we have a chance to go substantially higher in the gold market. In the 70s the world economies were in better condition to deal with the stresses they experienced in the late 1970s than they are today. And as a consequence of heading into serious difficulties, with weakened national balance sheets, the potential for an upside blowout in the metal’s price is stronger now than it was in the 1970s.

Given that the world economic condition is far more precarious now than it was at the end of the 1970s, the response by fiat currencies to black swans or asymptomatic shocks could very well be much more dramatic. Because of this it’s possible that you will see more dramatic upside moves in both gold and silver than what we witnessed in the decade of the 70s.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/735nc9h

-Hathaway: People Are Right to be Scared & Gold is a Necessity. “About those employment numbers, when you strip away all of the seasonal adjustment and other touches the BLS added to them, you can conclude they weren’t very strong at all. I think Bernanke knows that.

For the CNBC crowd who is cheering the economy on, I don’t think the January employment numbers made any difference in the bigger picture because they weren’t that strong. There were actually 2.6 million jobs lost in January and the BLS is actually able to cover that up with adjustments for factors like people who had to stay away from work because of weather.

So the jobs data is among the most corrupt and lacking in credibility of any stats the government puts out and Bernanke knows that. I don’t think Bernanke is going to budge from his policy of zero interest rates for the next couple of years. But the big picture is the Fed is going to stay easy until Bernanke is no longer the Fed Chairman.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8y3g6cu

-Caesar Bryan: Strong Gold Buying from Asia on Any Weakness. “The gold market is actually very healthy. We had the pullback into the new year and consequently, to start the year, it was coming off a decent pullback and now we’ve made up quite a bit of ground. Demand in the Far East is strong and gold is being accumulated by investors and central banks.”

I think this is the quiet time before more central bank action. We are currently in the eye of the storm and the storm is still raging. Gold has broken out of the downtrend and we expect money printing to light the fire of the next leg higher in gold.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6oytchj

-Norcini: Continued Dollar Selling to Keep a Firm Bid for Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72n59o6

-Stephen Leeb: US Government Desperate & Scared Regarding Gold. Leeb told King World News the US government is now showing signs of desperation and fear regarding the gold market. Leeb is concerned the US is destroying its own currency and was not at all impressed by government efforts to label goldugs as terrorists.

When asked how he responds to the government labeling him and others as potential terrorists for owning gold and suggesting people buy gold because the US is going broke after going off the gold standard, Leeb stated, “The nature of a comment like that strikes me as desperation.

When you are turning up the printing presses, common sense tells you that you are destroying your own currency.” “You could probably get away with that if there were not an alternative currency out there but there is and it’s called gold. People are scared to death and whoever is saying that in the United States is scared to death that people will pick up on gold as an alternative currency.

They are also probably scared that China is buying so much gold. So when you hear these kinds of comments coming out it tells me that somebody is really worried. But clearly those kinds of comments speak of some kind of desperation, that’s how I see it.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gy96y4

-Louise Yamada: Gold & Silver Closing in on Bullish Breakouts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fkz97x

-Greg Weldon: The Fed is Hoping to Avoid a Nightmare. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/787qlkj

-Michael Pento: Bernanke Sends Gold & Oil Surging in War Against Middle Class. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6quzj63

-Michael Pento: Bond Bubble to Destroy US Dollar & Restore Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xnkegs

-Jim Sinclair: Interviewed on currency market rigging and gold’s monetary role. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/7u6kk8h

-Jim Sinclair: Interviewed by Ellis Martin, Consolidate Your Holdings and Save Your Money. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/7nkb2zr

-Frank Holmes: In the Bullring With Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7p7jhq7

-States seek currencies made of silver and gold. A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold. Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option.

Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place. “In the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System the State’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos,” said North Carolina Republican Representative Glen Bradley in a currency bill he introduced last year. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10953

-Hong Kong gold flow to China more than triples in 2011. Hong Kong’s shipments of gold to mainland China in 2011 grew more than three times from a year earlier, confirming China’s rapidly growing appetite for bullion, despite a sharp drop in December. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7n2585q

-Alasdair Macleod: Gold and silver price shakeout. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v6r5ck

-Lars Schall: No more gold answers from Volcker. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10961

-Murray Pollitt’s final commentary: Money mountain. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10964

-Haynes and Norcini analyze another volatile week in the precious metals. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10959

-NYTimes patronizes gold, whitewashes fiat, overlooks the big questions. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10951

-Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance: A reply to the NYTimes’ patronizing of gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10955

-Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance: An adult approach. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10969

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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

-When silver was trading at its recent lows near $26 late last year, I suggested you engage in a series of timed accumulation buys. I bought physical silver in my own accounts, paying an average of under $30, with one very uncomfortable buy coming right into the low.

Since then, this market is up substantially. In the larger picture silver has likely just started the move higher. My trading model is targeting $36 for this move, followed by a pullback to about $31. From there, I am projecting a strong move towards $44, with that target likely acquired by the end of the first quarter. Morris Hubbartt

-Silver bullet for cancer: Metal can kill some tumours better than chemotherapy with fewer side effects. Silver can kill some cancers as effectively as chemotherapy and with potentially fewer side effects, new research claims. Scientists say that old wives tales about the precious metal being a ‘silver bullet’ to beat the Big C could be true.

The metal already has a wide range of medicinal uses and is a common antiseptic, antibiotic and means of purifying water in the third world. And British researchers now say that silver compounds are as effective at killing certain cancer cells as a leading chemotherapy drug, but with potentially far fewer side-effects. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6sxl42f

-John Embry: “At Sprott, as you know, we are very bullish on silver. Silver is just biding its time and it’s building a massive base in here. There has been a huge short position in the paper market, which has had a huge impact on the price. I think that will pass and right now as the physical market has become extremely tight.

This indicates, to me, the paper shenanigans that have really plagued the silver market have a finite life now. “I will not be at all surprised when silver clears $35 to $37, that it could sprint right back to the all-time high area. I have no problem with silver moving into the $60s over the next 12 to 18 months.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/736pr8w

-Indian investor interest in silver surging. With the predicted 7% expansion in global demand in 2012 to an unprecedented 968 million ounces, investors in India are using silver as an inflation hedge hoping that demand will be sustained by global concerns. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vyamnf

-Ted Butler: Silver Update, Enough is Enough. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ub9e23

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QE

-CHART OF THE WEEK: In Times Like These, It’s Time To Remember This Great Chart From Japan. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vzoood

-Bud Conrad: The Fed Resumes Printing. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7t3xu25

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Greek Leaders Reach Austerity Agreement. Greek political leaders announced agreement on austerity measures, clearing the way for a deal to cut the nation’s debt and win its second rescue in two years. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6u5y4cz

-Pimco: Greece Agreement May Be Questionable. The agreement reached by Greek political leaders to win the nation’s second bailout may be “analytically questionable,” Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Mohamed A. El-Erian said.

“It is very unlikely to lead to growth, jobs, financial stability and new investments,” El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer of the world’s biggest manager of bond funds, said in a interview. “This agreement will be very difficult to sell when the principals, those who have agreed, have to go to their constituents.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xxuwqc

-Most Germans want Greece to quit euro: poll. The majority of Germans feel the euro currency bloc would be better off if debt-crippled Greece left it, a poll published in mass-selling newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed. The Emnid poll said 53 percent of Germans surveyed thought Greece should return to its former currency, the drachma, while only 34 percent felt it should keep the euro. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h99u8s

-‘Greece Should Default Instantly,’ Economics Professor Says. according to one Greek economics professor, the country should simply default as soon as possible to provide some kind of relief to the region’s debt crisis. “This bailout is certainly not the answer for anyone, for Greece, for the euro zone, for the world,” Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics at University of Athens, told CNBC. “Greece should default instantly, immediately, without any talk of leaving the euro.

“Here we have a typical bankruptcy problem which we’ve had for two years now,” Varoufakis said. According to him, Greece’s first bailout back in May 2010 was not the illiquidity problem leaders perceived and they should stop “throwing good money after bad,” ballooning Greece’s deficit and “destroying the economy” thereby leaving it incapable creating income to repay its debt. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74fjzhs

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Cuts drive Greek unemployment to record high. Greece’s jobless rate rose to a fresh record of 20.9 percent in November, highlighting the pain imposed by austerity on ordinary Greeks as the country negotiates a new pain-for-gain package with its EU and IMF lenders. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77×7zfm

-ECB Keeps 1% Rate; Focus Turns to Greece. The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold and altered its assessment of risks to the economic outlook as investors focus on the bank’s possible role in helping Greece avoid default.

“The economic outlook remains subject to high uncertainty and downside risks,” ECB President Mario Draghi said at a press conference in Frankfurt after policy makers left the benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent. Last month, he said the outlook was subject to “substantial” downside risks. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78u3qt5

-Romania’s population falls by 12% as three million flock to richer European countries including Britain. Population has fallen to 19million as workers leave. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pcofh9

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Student Debt Could Be Next ‘Bomb,’ U.S. Bankruptcy Lawyers Say. Almost half of U.S. bankruptcy attorneys representing consumers say that potential clients with student-loan debt have “significantly increased” over the past three to four years, a survey found.

“Take it from those of us on the frontline of economic distress in America,” William E. Brewer, Jr., president of The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said. “This could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tpqlmb

-John Chambers: U.S. Faces Downgrade If No Plan. The U.S., lacking a plan to contain $1 trillion deficits, faces the prospect of another rating cut in six to 24 months depending on the outcome of November elections, according to John Chambers of Standard & Poor’s.

America has had an AA+ rating with a negative outlook since Aug. 5 when the New York-based unit of McGraw-Hill Cos. stripped the nation of its AAA ranking for the first time, citing the government’s failure to agree on a path to reduce deficits. The U.S. has a one-in-three chance of another downgrade, Chamber said today during an S&P sponsored Webcast.

“What the U.S. needs is not so much a short-term fiscal tightening, but it has to have a credible medium-term fiscal plan,” said Chambers, managing director of sovereign ratings. “That is going to have to say something about entitlements, and that is probably going to have to say something about revenues.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/854c7ua

-USPS Loses $3.3B, Warns of Cash Drain. The U.S. Postal Service said it lost $3.3 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31 typically its strongest and that it expects to run out of cash in October unless Congress agrees to cuts in facilities and employees. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h6crjk

-U.S. Consumer Credit Climbed by $19.3B in Dec. Consumer borrowing in the U.S. rose more than forecast in December, driven by demand for auto and student loans. Credit increased by $19.3 billion to $2.5 trillion, Federal Reserve figures showed today in Washington. The gain topped the $7 billion median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and followed a $20.4 billion advance the prior month. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t5n7kz

-INFOGRAPHIC: See The History Of Americans’ Addiction To Credit Debt. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77h95he

-Los Angeles’s $100,000 Carpenters Show Influence of Water Department Union. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had the highest-paid public employees in the city, earning on average 40 percent more than other municipal workers, even those with identical job titles.

The utility’s 10,782 employees earned an average of $96,805 annually in 2010, the most recent year for which data was available, according to compensation statistics provided by state Controller John Chiang. The city’s 44,781 other employees took home $68,822 on average.

From nurses to prison guards, California public employees earn more than their counterparts in other states even as it has grappled with budget deficits that forced layoffs of teachers and cut services for children and the elderly. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nhhme9

-With Pensions Like This, No Kidding Providence Rhode Island Faces ‘Bankruptcy By June.’ Rhode Island’s capital city Providence will be in bankruptcy by June if it doesn’t get help resolving its financial crisis. This statement says it all “Fire Chief Gilbert McLaughlin, now receives an annual pension of $196,813 a year. He retired with an annual salary of $63,510. At the current rate of growth, McLaughlin’s pension will total roughly $796,871 annually if he lives to the age of 100. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nhejja

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FED

-Bernanke Holds to 2014 Low Rate Pledge Even as Unemployment Rate Declines. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is holding to his pledge to keep borrowing costs close to zero at least through late 2014 even after unemployment unexpectedly fell to a three-year low. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75vvthk

-Payrolls Jump Casts Doubt on Fed’s Rate Pledge. The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell in January to the lowest in three years as payrolls climbed more than forecast, casting doubt on the Federal Reserve’s plan to keep interest rates low until late 2014. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6r7fq3o

-Fed Twists Yields for McDonald’s Record Low Rate. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s Operation Twist is paying dividends in the corporate bond market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74hlo2y

-Bernanke: Fed will protect U.S. economy from Europe. The recovery remains “frustratingly slow” in the United States, and now Europe’s debt crisis is posing additional challenges, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress. “Risks remain that developments in Europe or elsewhere may unfold unfavorably and could worsen economic prospects here at home,” Bernanke told the House Budget Committee.

But he also assured lawmakers that the Fed is doing everything in its power to prevent an economic slowdown in the U.S. “We are in frequent contact with European authorities, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely and take every available step to protect the U.S. financial system and the economy,” Bernanke said. Europe’s debt problems started in Greece more than two years ago, and the situation there has yet to be fully resolved. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75wu3vw

-Charles Kadlec: Fed’s explicit goal is to devalue dollar 33%. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10966

-Bernanke-Led Economy Shows Critics Wrong About Fed. The numbers are proving Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s critics wrong. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79t56b9

-If The Federal Reserve Is Abolished, What Then? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7swg9gx

-Paul Capturing Delegates Could Force Fed Changes on Republicans. Ron Paul, trailing in delegates needed for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, could be positioning himself to force his party to accept changes in the way the Federal Reserve operates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7utohbm

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U.S. DOLLAR

-CHART OF THE WEEK: How The U.S. Dollar Got To Be Worth Just 3.8 Cents. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8abpnhe

-Greg Hunter: Dollar and America on the Road to Ruin. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8×4hxuh

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JOBS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: John Williams Says Unemployment Rate at a Staggering 22.5%. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76va5b6

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Slower Job Growth Seen as Banks Tighten Credit. Companies are poised to create jobs more slowly later this year because bankers have become less inclined to lend them money, according to Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup Inc.’s chief U.S. equity strategist. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m6algq

-Mike Shedlock: Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%. Participation Rate fell .3 to 63.7%, taking out a 1984 low. In January, those “Not in Labor Force” rose by an amazing 1,177,000. If you are not in the labor force, you are not counted as unemployed. In January, the Civilian Labor Force rose by 508,000.

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 3,565,000. Yet the labor force only rose by 1,145,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 2,420,000. Some of those labor force numbers are due to annual revisions. However, the point remains: People are dropping out of the labor force at an astounding, almost unbelievable rate, holding the unemployment rate artificially low. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73nfy8j

-Jobless Decline Masks Drop in U.S. Labor Force. The unemployment rate’s unexpected drop to a three-year low has overshadowed a less-positive labor-market development: fewer Americans are looking for work. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6r28gtk

-Bernanke: Labor Market ‘Long Way’ From Normal. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke repeated that the job market is still far from healthy after signs of economic improvement over the past year, and he called on lawmakers to reduce the long-term budget deficit.

“We still have a long way to go before the labor market can be said to be operating normally,” Bernanke said in testimony prepared for the Senate Budget Committee that is identical to remarks he gave on Feb. 2 to the House Budget panel. “Particularly troubling is the unusually high level of long-term unemployment.”

In response to a question, Bernanke said the unemployment rate of 8.3% understates the weakness of the labor market. He said it’s important to also look at other gauges of the labor market, including underemployment. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a2kq74 and http://tinyurl.com/7twmhq7

-David Stockman: It’s True, The BLS Data Is Made Up. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72nnvly

-Greg Hunter: 8.3% Unemployment Lie. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ueeggb

-Rick Santelli: Here’s What’s Wrong With the Jobs Number. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/84u2ga6

-Pimco’s El-Erian Calls 8.3% Jobless Rate “Welcome.” Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7paldxw and http://tinyurl.com/7gb7dk2

-Vedran Vuk: Mixed Messages in Last Week’s Unemployment Report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7n99cks

-US Jobs Gap Between Young and Old Is Widest Ever. Squeezed by a tight job market, young Americans are especially struggling. They have suffered bigger income losses than other age groups and are less likely to be employed than at any time since World War II. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/876s8lu

-Irish Urge Children to Leave as Export Gain Masks Lost Jobs. Anthony Roche is urging his unemployed son to emigrate to Australia from Ireland to escape joblessness stemming from the country’s economic collapse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73tgr5l

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OIL-GAS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Iran Crude Ban Difficult Without India, China. The U.S. and European Union may struggle to enforce a ban on Iranian crude because of Asia’s reliance on supplies from the Persian Gulf state, according to Global Insight Inc. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nladx2

-Saudi Arabia Will Not Let OilGo Above $100: Prince. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86zb5az

-Iran Sanctions Bid Targets Oil, Tanker Companies to Cut Exports. A U.S. proposal to sanction Iran’s state-owned oil company and its main tanker fleet may ensnare any person or business in the world involved in purchasing or shipping Iranian oil. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xkgk58

-China buys up Saudi, Russian oil to squeeze Iran. China is scouring the world for alternative oil supplies to replace a fall in its imports from Iran, as it seeks to negotiate lower prices from Tehran, and has been drawing heavily on Saudi Arabia. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6svofdn

-Iran says to go green as oil sanctions tighten. Iran should invest in renewable energy to preserve its hydrocarbon reserves, Iranian energy minister Rostam Qasemi said, as tightening sanctions make it increasingly difficult for Tehran to sell oil. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kppcjx

-Americans Gaining Energy Independence With U.S. as Top Producer. The U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency, a goal the nation has been pursuing since the 1973 Arab oil embargo triggered a recession and led to lines at gasoline stations.

Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ogzl8e

-Gas Prices in All 50 States Back Above $3 a Gallon. Gas prices in all 50 states this week are back above $3 per gallon for the first time since December 15, when regular unleaded gasoline remained at this level for nearly 10 months. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7485vto

-U.S. Gas prices to spike 60 cents or more by May. Get ready for another round of pain at the pump: $4 (or higher) gasoline. After rising 19 cents a gallon in the past four weeks, regular unleaded gasoline now averages $3.48 a gallon, vs. $3.12 a year ago and $2.67 in February 2010.

Prices could spike another 60 cents or more by May. “I think it’s going to be a chaotic spring, with huge price increases in some places,” says Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. Kloza expects average prices to peak at $4.05, although he and other industry trackers say prices could be sharply higher in some markets. Rising prices are an annual spring ritual, largely because of seasonal demand. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vk5e8n

-Gail Tverberg: The Reality Is, Our Economy Runs On Oil And We Need More. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vr95o6

-Debunking The Myth That America Has 100 Years Of Natural Gas Supply. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h6mhta

-Pentagon Oil Spending May Snarl Efforts to Trim $490 Billion. The U.S. military’s appetite for oil may snarl efforts to pare defense spending by about $490 billion in the next decade. The Pentagon, the world’s single largest consumer of energy excluding countries, spent $17.3 billion on petroleum in fiscal 2011, a 26 percent increase from $13.7 billion the previous year, according to Department of Defense data provided to Bloomberg Government.

World oil prices will average an estimated $145 a barrel in 2035 in 2010 dollars, up from between roughly $85 and $110, according to Energy Department statistics. Such an increase might force the military to dedicate more of its budget to fuel while still trying to cut total spending, said Russell Rumbaugh, a defense budget analyst. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hlhloy

-Refinery Closing Threatens Virgin Islands’ Debt, Employment. The U.S. Virgin Islands will confront the threat of a debt downgrade when one of the region’s largest oil refineries shuts down this month, doubling joblessness on St. Croix, the archipelago’s poorest island.

About 2,000 workers will lose their jobs when the 350,000- barrel-a-day Hovensa LLC refinery, a partnership of Hess Corp. and Petroleos de Venezuela SA, closes in mid-February to stem $1.3 billion in losses over the last three years. The decision leaves the Virgin Islands without its biggest private employer and facing a widening budget deficit and higher energy costs as some of its best-paid jobs disappear. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6r645cg

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MF GLOBAL

-MF Global Trustee Finds That Company “Did Not Always Record Cash Movements.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86s8a97

-MF Brokerage Trustee Traced $105 Billion in Cash Movements in Final Week. A trustee’s investigation found that the $1.2 billion in missing MF Global Inc. customer funds began to flow out of the brokerage on Oct. 26, five days before its collapse, as computers and employees fell behind margin calls and demands for collateral. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7dcmz9r

-MF Global’s $310 Million Margin Call on Last Day Exceeded Its Market Value. MF Global Holdings Ltd., the futures broker that filed the eighth-largest bankruptcy in October, faced a $310 million margin call on its final day that exceeded its market value. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qmfcyp

-SEC is avoiding tough sanctions for large banks. Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10958

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REAL ESTATE

-Michelle Meyer: If You’re Counting On Housing To Save The Economy, You’ll Be Disappointed. Meyer writes, “Housing construction should increase this year, but home prices are likely to fall further.” Meyer recently wrote that she expected U.S. home prices to fall another 7% through 2013. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73dwcjm

-Government Bailout Actually Hurt Housing Recovery: Zell. Government intervention has prevented the real estate market from healing, with the commercial sector hit especially hard, investor Sam Zell said. “Rather than let the elements of the business world take care of the problems, we basically stopped the process of creating market clearing,” Zell said in a CNBC interview. “Had we allowed the market to clear without trying to stop reality we would have a healthy housing market today.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lw47ra

-History says home real estate is a bad investment. While the housing bust showed many people the dangers of investing in residential real estate, investors could have realized this long before, simply by paying attention to history. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nsquvr

-BofA Plaza Goes for $235M in Auction. Bank of America Plaza, the tallest tower in the U.S. Southeast, was sold at a public auction today on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse after landlord BentleyForbes missed mortgage payments.

BentleyForbes, based in Los Angeles, paid $436 million to acquire the 55-story Atlanta skyscraper in 2006 from Bank of America Corp. and Cousins Properties Inc. in the city’s biggest property deal. Since the property market peaked a year after the purchase, the 1.25 million-square-foot (116,000-square-meter) building’s value has tumbled with tenants, including namesake Bank of America, reducing space. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xxzt7f

-Banks Paying Homeowners to Avoid Foreclosures. Banks, accelerating efforts to move troubled mortgages off their books, are offering as much as $35,000 or more in cash to delinquent homeowners to sell their properties for less than they owe. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73wxl85

-U.S. Mortgage Servicers in $26B Settlement. Five U.S. banks will pay more than $25 billion in the biggest civil settlement involving states and the federal government to end a probe of abusive foreclosure practices stemming from the collapse of the housing bubble.

The U.S. Justice Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the resolution of the 16-month nationwide state and federal probe. Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. are among the banks the nation’s five largest servicers participating so far.

With 49 state attorneys general on board, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the agreement the largest federal-state civil settlement in U.S. history. “This agreement establishes significant new homeowner protections,” Holder said at a press conference. “It also provides substantial financial assistance to victim borrowers.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7uyzxb9

-Foreclosure Deal to Spur U.S. Home Seizures. The $25 billion settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses may trigger a wave of home seizures, inflicting short-term pain on delinquent U.S. borrowers while making a long-term housing recovery more likely. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ojynbo

-A Mortgage Tornado Warning, Unheeded. Years before the housing bust before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83yr85o

-Obama administration to move forward with closing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. The Obama administration plans to push forward this spring with efforts to wind down government-backed housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and attract more private funding to mortgage markets, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84qgkfj

-China Central Bank Pledges Housing Market Support as Curbs Bite. China’s central bank pledged support for first-home buyers as a crackdown on real-estate speculation threatens to trigger a property slump in the world’s second-biggest economy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78rqxkk

-Toronto-Dominion Bank’s Clark Says Canada’s Housing Boom Is a ’Concern.’ Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark said Canada’s banks have a “genuine concern” about the country’s housing boom and rising debt levels among consumers. “Household debt numbers are coming up to U.S. levels, so that is causing us a concern,” Clark, 64, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tjtvqv

-The World’s Tallest Building Is Now A ‘Distressed’ Property. At 2,717 feet, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, but since its opening two years ago, it has struggled to profit from its grand reputation. Investors are calling the Burj “distressed,” as the building has not yet bounced back from a 40 percent downturn in apartment prices it suffered in 2010. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85be7cj

-13 Detroit Houses You Can Buy For Less Than $100. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76s7or9

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FOOD

-Era of Food Prices Always Falling Seen at End as World’s Population Grows. The era of falling food prices has come to an end with the world population set to add another 2 billion people, according to Cargill Inc., the U.S. farm commodities trader.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has said global food output must rise 70 percent by 2050 to feed a world population expected to grow to 9 billion from 7 billion now and as increasingly wealthy consumers in developing economies eat more meat. Food prices tracked by the FAO climbed to the highest ever a year ago on surging grain prices.

“You don’t have to be a reviving bull on commodities to believe that the era, which went from the 50’s, 60’s to 70’s and early 80s, of ever decreasing food prices in real terms has probably come to an end,” Paul Conway, vice chairman of Cargill, said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lv4k3m

-Farmers Plan Biggest U.S. Crop Boost Since 1984, Led by Corn. U.S. farmers will plant the most acres in a generation this year, led by the biggest corn crop since World War II, taking advantage of the highest agricultural prices in at least four decades. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6n2lhat

-Bees are still mysteriously dying. There’s good news and bad news on the honeybee beat. First the bad news. Bees are still mysteriously dying. Over the last five years roughly 30% of captive honeybees, which pollinate much of the food we eat, wind up dead at the end of each winter.

For whatever reason probably a combination of pesticides, parasites, disease and poor nutrition honeybees have been dying off at an alarming rate. The exact cause is still not known. Now for the good news. Beekeepers have been able to rejuvenate their hives each year so that by summer the population is back to previous levels.

There’s another bit of good news, too. Agricultural yields are rising, which means that while rejuvenating beehives is costly, the cost isn’t making its way to the supermarket. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73s7mub

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Ayatollah: Kill all Jews, annihilate Israel. Iran lays out legal case for genocidal attack against ‘cancerous tumor.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6lzau7g

-Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel, U.S. Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: We’ll help any nation or group that confronts “cancerous tumor” Israel. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mvywmq

-Iran warns world of coming great event. Says ‘evil hegemony’ soon will be defeated by power of Allah. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/847cxgt

-Obama: Diplomacy ‘preferred solution’ with Iran. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/89rpqxd

-Israel, U.S. Divided Over Timing of Potential Military Strike Against Iran. The U.S. and Israel are publicly disagreeing over timing for a potential attack on Iran’s disputed nuclear facilities, as that nation’s leader said it won’t back down.

The U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from attack, Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, said. “There’s a growing concern more than a concern that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” he said in an interview. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yqontu

-Israel Warns US Jews: Iran Could Strike Here. Israeli facilities in North America and around the world are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lvqpo6

-Is Iran trying to develop a missile that could reach America? An Iranian missile under construction, caught up in a mysterious blast in November, had a range of 6,000 miles, a senior Israeli official said in a speech outside Tel Aviv. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78v4pv2

-Israel embassies preparing for Iran strike? Diplomats stationed in Israel request gas masks, prepare contingency plans in case of missile attacks; envoys fear that thousands of dual-citizenship Israelis will seek evacuation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rpv766

-Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kel3pz

-Netanyahu Says Only Military Strength Guarantees Security in Middle East. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who yesterday announced plans to visit the U.S. in March, said turmoil in neighboring Arab states and threats from Iran show that Israel must build up its military. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7thfbk9

-Obama Freezes Iranian Government Assets Under Mandate Passed by Lawmakers. President Barack Obama ordered a freeze on all Iranian government and financial institutions’ assets that are under U.S. jurisdiction, the White House said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6u72rw4

-Iran turns to barter for food as sanctions cripple imports. Iran is turning to barter offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil in return for food as new financial sanctions have hurt its ability to import basic staples for its 74 million people, commodities traders said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6nufonj

-Ahmadinejad seeks rebound in Iranian elections. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kwnqs4

-Niall Ferguson: Israel And The US Should Bomb Iran It Will Be Easy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77trwlh

-BBC: Iran ‘detaining’ relatives of journalists. The Iranian government has arrested relatives of Persian-language journalists working abroad for the BBC in a bid to silence them, the British Broadcasting Corporation said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wcpmmk

-Jim Rickards: Iran, The Dollar And Financial Warfare. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72dag3p

-Doug Short: The Demographic Pyramid Points Toward Revolution In Syria.

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – February 10th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, February 10, 2012

World Financial Report – February 3rd, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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MF GLOBAL

-After a Delay, MF Global’sMissing 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

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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

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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. Citieswithhighest and lowestunemployment rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/797vcrf

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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

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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 AttackOn 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

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© 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

Radio Show Newsletter

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

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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 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

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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

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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

-”You should also own silver because it’s definitely going into three digit territory.” Stephen Leeb

-James Turk: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Turk replied, “I’m really getting quite excited about the near-term prospects for silver. We’ve been talking now for a couple of months about the flag formation being formed on the weekly silver chart. The support in the low 30s is big enough to provide the base to launch silver through overhead resistance near $35.

As I said to you before, Eric, once we take out $35, I expect to see $68 to $70 in two to three months. We could have one more dip down to the $30.5 to $31 area, but if we do, I see support in that area as strong as the $1,650 level for gold.” Turk also added: “From a bigger picture perspective, the only thing we can do is let the market tell its own story. What that means is we just need to watch silver day by day to see how it develops. But as I said, we’ve been on this story now for a couple of months and it is beginning to look better and better.

With the financial world around us imploding because of sovereign debt and currency crises, I think people are going to be surprised at how well gold and silver do, not only this year, but in the near-term as well. So far this market hasn’t given much opportunity for people to enter. Sometimes you just have to take the dips, even if they are shallow, and buy them.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84k3zvw

-Egon Von Greyerz: Silver Update. “Silver is leading and the gold/silver ratio is coming down quite rapidly. I think we will see a strong fall in the gold/silver ratio. This just means silver will continue to go up faster than gold. When looking at gold, on a closing basis, it has already broken out.

We might see some sideways action around these levels, but gold is breaking out and is on its way to new highs in my view. Silver has a little way to go before it breaks out, that’s around the $37 level (the breakout). But, again, the action in silver is very good and I think we could go higher quite quickly. So, overall, very good action and I think it will continue.

“I think the next few months we will see very strong action and I could see a rapid move back to the highs of $50 and then through that level, to new highs, after a bit of consolidation. So gold and silver are going to move very quickly to the upside.

This is more of a dollar move right now. If you look at gold in other currencies, it is more or less going sideways here. So the fall of the dollar is helping with this move. For gold to rise against all currencies at once is unusual, but longer-term gold will continue to rise against all of the currencies.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89cbb7q

-Morris Hubbartt: Silver Set To Soar Against Everything? The fundamentals for silver are solid. Physical silver inventories are being tapped and it is questionable as to how fast they are being replaced. My dealer reports a very tight physical market. Some analysts claim that the ratio of silver being consumed vs. mined is greater than 10 to 1. I don’t know about the validity of that statement, but certainly the enormous growth in the Asian middle class and the Asian economies is a reason to hold some silver. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qqmprf

-Steve St. Angelo: Silver Sales Up As Supply Slips. For the first time in history, Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf sales will surpass domestic silver production in the U.S. and Canada in 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rke7th

-Hubert Moolman: I Stand By $140 Silver In 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88cqsmc

-Peter Cooper: $58-60 silver price by September says Dubai silver trader. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86bcssn

-David Morgan: Vancouver Resource Investment Conference Speech on Silver. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jue6dr

-In KWN weekly review, Norcini sees bullish signs for silver. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10906

-Frank Holmes: Presentation On The China Boom, And What It Means For Commodities. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/867hdu3

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QE

-Fed: Benchmark Rate Will Stay Low Until Late 2014. Federal Reserve officials said their benchmark interest rate will stay low until at least late 2014 and anticipate that unemployment will remain high and inflation “subdued.” “The Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement released in Washington.

The Fed extended its previous pledge to keep rates low at least until the middle of 2013 as inflation remains tame and more than two years of economic growth have failed to push unemployment below 8.5 percent. Some Fed officials have said further easing might be needed to put more Americans back to work and revive the housing market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72g6e7w

-Bernanke Makes Case for More Bond Buying. Ben S. Bernanke laid the groundwork for a third round of large-scale asset purchases should unemployment remain higher than the Federal Reserve would like while inflation falls below a newly-established target. The Federal Open Market Committee “recognizes the hardships imposed by high and persistent unemployment in an underperforming economy, and it is prepared to provide further monetary accommodation,” Bernanke said at a press conference in Washington. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79wbe56

-PIMCO’S Gross says Fed easing occurring. Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of bond fund giant PIMCO, told CNBC that the Federal Reserve will continue to keep its monetary policy accommodative for the next 2-5 years, calling it “QE 2.5.” Gross said: “Not only will the Fed eventually buy additional securities, but it will keep this policy rate constant at 25 basis points for two, three, four, perhaps even five years. It basically signifies that the front end of the curve the twos, threes, fours, and fives, will do very well.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77mrdog

-Fed’s QE3 May Be Preferred Over QE2 for Asia. U.S. monetary stimulus, blamed in 2010 for spurring speculative capital flows to emerging markets, may find less opposition this time round in Asia as the region’s focus shifts to supporting economic growth. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ov5s5h

-Roubini: Europe Needs ‘Massive Monetary Easing.’ Europe needs “massive monetary easing” to get out of its debt crisis, otherwise Greece will likely abandon the euro in a year and a half, famous economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC. “Greece is going to be the first country to restructure its debt, I don’t think it’s going to be the last one,” Roubini said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7etbvdb

-Printing Money to Lead to ‘Uglier’ End-Game: Rogoff. The euro zone is nowhere near finding a solution to the debt crisis plaguing it and needs deep restructuring as well as a new constitution as part of an effective long-term remedy as printing money will not solve its problems, Kenneth Rogoff, Professor at Harvard University told CNBC.

Rogoff said he expected to see a slow and precarious global economic recovery, with “ground zero” Europe posing the greatest risk. “They’re printing money but that doesn’t work,” Rogoff said. “I think they’re printing money and buying time and that can work for a while although it leads to an uglier end-game.” The European Central Bank has come under pressure to print money, as the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have done, to ease the crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wuymny

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-EU ratchets up pressure with Greek default threat. European Union officials have stepped up pressure on Greece and its creditor banks in a complex game of three-way brinkmanship, signalling that they will allow a Greek default to run its course unless both sides accept more pain. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6swl4dc

-Greek default is essentially a given: S&P. Greece will eventually default on its debts, even if the nation reaches a deal with the private sector to restructure its debts, according to a panel of experts. John Chambers, head of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor’s, said that the deal being negotiated between Greece and private sector investors would “in all likelihood” qualify as a default. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lfdrcl

-Steve Hanke: Greek Economy on Track to Implode. Whether or not Greece is able to reach an agreement on the restructuring of its debt, the country is set to “implode” as the economy contracts, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Steve Hanke. “The game is completely over,” Hanke, professor of applied economics. “All the calculations are nonsense and have been since day one. Since the crisis began the money supply has been shrinking and the economy is going to implode, no matter what they do in the short run.” Money supply is shrinking at an annual rate of about 16 percent in Greece, meaning there won’t be growth needed to support debt payments, Hanke said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74mlqv5

-Greek Default: Why Europe Thinks It May Not Be So Bad. European leaders are beginning to accept the idea that Greece will be forced to default on its debt, causing a long-feared “credit event” that triggers billions of dollars of credit default swaps.

Financial markets have been worried for months about such an event, fearing that it would spark another financial crisis similar to the one that was triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. But European leaders are becoming less worried about the impact such an event would have on the global financial system.

There are two reasons for this: an involuntary Greek default would not come as a surprise to financial markets, and the amount of money involved would be relatively small. Back in September 2008, almost no one believed the government would allow Lehman to fail, and when it did, it took market participants by surprise. Greece on the other hand has been a train wreck in slow motion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jkn5y9

-Banks Hoarding ECB Cash to Double Company Defaults. Corporate defaults may almost double in Europe as companies struggle to refinance debt and banks hoard cash borrowed from the European Central Bank or use it to buy government bonds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ync5y3

-European banks prepare for worst, hoard cash. European banks are preparing for a potential worsening of the region’s sovereign and banking crisis, with many firms stockpiling cash and cutting back on loans to new clients as they seek to protect themselves against a possible seizing-up of financial markets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rpdmrs

-Big banks to avoid sovereign debt: S&P. Europe’s biggest banks are unlikely to use the funding made available through the European Central Bank’s three-year lending facility to buy sovereign bonds because of concern about their volatility, a Standard & Poor’s bank analyst said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72qaxfo

-George Soros Has Hard Words for European Union. Soros said that Europe is mired in a “spiral of decline” that reinforces itself, adding that, as things stand, “Weaker members of the euro zone are being left as Third World countries that borrowed in foreign currencies.”

“I’m not sure if authorities (in the EU) are deliberately prolonging the crisis, or if this is being driven by divergent views,” he said. He pointed to Hungary, currently bogged down in its own financial crisis, as a “precursor of what is stake” if the EU continues its current policies. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7q9g6so

-British National Debt Just Blew Past The £1 Trillion Mark. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7llgghz

-Britain has sunk deeper into debt. Three years after bubble burst, the UK has barely begun to tackle the crushing burden left by Gordon Brown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tx2t89

-U.K. Teeters on Brink of Recession as King Signals More Stimulus. The U.K. economy shrank more than economists forecast in the fourth quarter as manufacturers cut output and services stagnated, leaving Britain on the brink of another recession. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74pbfg6

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OIL

-CHART OF THE WEEK: New World Oil Demand Blasts Past Old World. Oil demand is markedly different in the old world, which refers to the U.S., western Europe and Japan; and the new world, which is identified as the rest of the world, according to Ed Yardeni. Crude oil use in the old world has slipped back to the recession lows of 2009, while demand in the new world surged to 51.5 million barrels per day last year, according to Yardeni.

New world oil demand grew 2.8% in 2011, compared with a 1.2% decline in the old world. In fact, new world oil demand now exceeds old world demand by 36%. Unsurprisingly, oil demand was the lowest in Western Europe, falling to the lowest level since the end of 1994. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6psps5v

-Canada Doesn’t Have Enough Workers To Tap The Oil Sands, And The Shortage Is Getting Worse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7unmfe5

-Harper Builds Oil Links With China After Obama ‘Slap’ on Keystone Pipeline. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bjq46b

-EU Agrees to Ban Iran Oil Imports to Target Nuclear Program. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7u4uw85

-North Dakota Oil Boom Brings Pain With Growth as Housing, Food Costs Soar. The gravel road that borders Dave Hynek’s North Dakota farm is designed to carry 10 tractor- trailer trucks a day. In a recent 24-hour period, about 800 passed by. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xl8twj

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STOCK MARKET

-Stock Trading Lowest in U.S. Since 2008 After Fund Withdrawals, Job Cuts. Trading in U.S. stocks fell to the lowest level since at least 2008 amid mutual fund withdrawals and Wall Street job cuts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75hum5u

-Notorious Market Timer Joe Granville Predicts A 50% Plunge. Joseph Granville, whose “sell everything” call in 1981 sparked a decline in U.S. stocks, said the Dow Jones Industrial Average will drop toward 8,000 this year because of waning momentum and volume.

“Volume precedes prices,” Granville, 88, a technical analyst who has been publishing the Granville Market Letter from Kansas City, Missouri for about 50 years, said in an interview. “You are seeing much lower volume. That tells you that prices are going to go much lower, much lower than most people think possible and very few people have projected.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sgpkmu

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REAL ESTATE

-New Home Sales in U.S. Fell in December. Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly declined in December for the first time in four months, capping the slowest year on record for builders. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82q844x

-U.S. Pending Home Sales Fell 3.5% in December. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76cmpsg

-Sales of Previously Owned U.S. Houses Finish 2011 on a High Note. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7dr4jzs

-Hamptons Home Prices Fall 13% as Buyers Balk. Home prices in New York’s Hamptons, the beachside retreat of financiers and celebrities, declined 13 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as buyers opted for less-expensive properties. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qb2pqk

-Old mortgages rise from the dead, haunt homeowners. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6py4bu7

-Foreclosures made up 20% of home sales in 3Q. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85jl6l4

-Foreclosures: America’s hardest hit neighborhoods. The housing collapse has dramatically changed the nation’s foreclosure landscape. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6noe3c2

-Foreclosure nightmares: 3 families fight for their homes. With more than 200,000 households receiving foreclosure notices each month, there are bound to be a few mistakes. But for some unlucky homeowners, these blunders carry some serious consequences. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sveq64

-Vancouver Displaces Sydney as Second-Costliest Housing Market in Survey. Vancouver displaced Sydney as the least-affordable housing market after Hong Kong among large English-speaking cities, as home prices rose faster than incomes, a study of 325 metropolitan areas worldwide showed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/877yv7n

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Ahmadinejad says Iran ready for nuclear talks. Iran is ready to revive talks with the world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear program. Even so, he insisted that the pressures will not force Iran to give up its demands, including to continue enriching uranium, that led to the collapse of dialogue last year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77l2d4u

-Iran ‘definitely’ closing Strait of Hormuz over EU oil embargo. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74bv7tr

-Even without Hormuz blockade, Iran has options. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pcm9tc

-Iran Said to Seek Yen Oil Payments From India Amid Sanctions. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6v5ny99

-Iran devalues in bid to stop rial slide. Iran announced an 8 percent devaluation of the rial on Thursday and said it would enforce a single exchange rate, aiming to stamp out a black market where dollars have soared due to fears over new sanctions imposed by the West. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87q9jon

-Iran’s Ahmadinejad ups rates to stem money crisis. Iran increased bank interest rates up to 21 percent and indicated it would further restrict sales of foreign currency, hoping to halt a spiralling currency crisis after new Western sanctions accelerated a dash for dollars by Iranians worried about their economic future. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a4lmz2

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – January 27th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, January 27, 2012

World Financial Report – January 20th, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Asset performance in 2012. Reuters

-CHART OF THE WEEK: S&P 500 Profit Season Has Worst Start in Years. U.S. companies that beat analysts’ earnings estimates are an exception, rather than the rule, for the fourth-quarter reporting season getting under way.

Only 47.1 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that posted quarterly results between Dec. 1 and yesterday exceeded the average projection, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are among those that trailed estimates.

As the chart illustrates, so-called positive surprises have surpassed 50 percent at a comparable point in every other quarterly reporting period for the past four years. The previous low was 51.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008, when a global financial crisis was taking hold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nv6qvo

-CHART OF THE WEEK: China Rivals Global Leaders for Oil Shipments. China expanded its share of global crude oil shipments in 2011, with government-owned trader China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp. rivaling Royal Dutch Shell Plc, currently the world’s largest charterer. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6sqps5u

-CHART OF THE WEEK: This Worrying Demographic Trend Is Bad News For Consumer Spending. Doug Short pointed us to this worrying trend. The alarm is being sound by Harry Dent, who notes that the demographic of those in their peak spending years (age 46 to 50) has been on the decline since 2009. Based on Census data, this trend should continue until 2022.

This is bad news when you consider the fact that personal consumption expenditures account for around 70% of GDP. According to Doug Short, Bloomberg’s recent interview with Harry Dent teased with “S&P 500 to Fall 30-50% in 2012.” Dent argues that investors should get out of all risk assets and move into Treasury bills. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/797fhvu

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Super Bowl Chicken Wings Flying to Record High. Chicken wings, a staple food of Super Bowl parties in the U.S., will be the most expensive ever during this year’s National Football League championship game as demand rises and processors cut output to trim losses. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6olxag7

-”We are already moving into a police state (evidenced most recently by the Senate’s Nov. 2 vote allowing the military to indefinitely incarcerate anyone they accuse of terrorism). But at least it’s a police state with a fairly high standard of living, one with Walmarts, McDonalds, and SUVs at least for the time being.” Doug Casey

-Fed’s Latest Easing Could Cost $1 Trillion: Economists. The Federal Reserve is likely to step in with $1 trillion worth of easing that could be announced as soon as this month, according to a growing consensus of economists who see the recent uptick in economic growth as unsustainable.

With the Fed’s Open Market Committee set to meet next week, expectations are rising that the languishing housing market will drive the central bank to buy up mortgage-backed securities. The goal of the purchases will be to drive down interest rates even further from current record-low levels, and, less obviously, to spur confidence that more monetary tools remain to stimulate the economy.

Of course, the announcement also could push stock prices higher, as did the Fed’s last balance sheet expansion begun in November 2010. Just a few months ago, market observers speculated that another round of quantitative easing QE3, in this case would be politically infeasible and probably unnecessary given hopes for better growth in 2012. But with housing stuck in neutral and a European recession on the horizon, economists believe QE3 is all but certain. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l42uf5

-The pool of Americans relying on government benefits rose to record highs last year as an increasing share of families tapped aid in a weak economy. Some 48.6% of the population lived in a household receiving some type of government benefit in the second quarter of 2010, up a notch from 48.5% in the first quarter, according to Census data. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7×3xt76

-The Nation’s Long-Term Unemployed. Nationally, as of December, nearly 3.9 million people had been without work for at least a year and were still looking. See what percentage of the unemployed have been out of work for more than 27 or 52 weeks in the largest metro areas around the country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6om4mjj

-Few U.S. Cities Recoup Jobs in Recovery. More than 90 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas have failed to recoup the jobs lost during the recession that ended in 2009, a report found, underscoring the slow pace of recovery by urban economies.

Only 26 of 363 U.S. metropolitan areas have seen employment rebound to pre-recession peaks, according to the report, prepared by forecaster IHS Global Insight and released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors today. Nearly 80 areas aren’t expected to see such a recovery for more than five years.

“It’s very clear that there is a great deal of economic malaise throughout the country,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who is president of the mayors’ group, told reporters in Washington. “Most of our cities will be struggling with their economies for another five years.”

The spotty pace of recovery has left many cities still struggling two-and-a-half years after the end of the recession, which reduced tax collections and forced mayors to fire workers, scuttle public-works projects and raise fees to eliminate deficits. Even with revenue rebounding, local governments have eliminated 533,000 workers since their payrolls peaked in 2008, Labor Department data show. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86k26gq

-Evans Says Jobless Rate May Rise as Progress ‘Transitory.’ Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent may be partially reversed in coming months. “I’m a little concerned that the most recent improvement is going to be transitory and it might move up above 8.5 percent.” Evans said he forecasts that “at the end of the year, we’re not going to be very different from 8.5 percent unemployment.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7u6nf3g

-24 Stats To Crush Anyone Who Thinks America Has A Bright Economic Future. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wmaatm

-Apocalypse How? Dire 2012 Forecasts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6meexee

-Eric Sprott: The Financial System is a Farce Part Three. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l425dw

-Kodak Files for Bankruptcy Protection. Eastman Kodak Co., the photography pioneer that introduced its $1 Brownie Camera more than a century ago, filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors after consumers worldwide moved from film to digital technology. The Rochester, New York-based company, which traces its roots to 1880, listed assets of $5.1 billion and debt of $6.8 billion in Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s9eqfh

-Swiss Franc The Most Overvalued Currency In The World According To Big Mac Index. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7mrmldk

-Rob Kirby: U.S. rigs bond market with derivatives. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10880

-Canada Retains Benchmark Rate at 1% Amid ‘More Modest’ Economic Recovery. The Bank of Canada kept its main interest rate unchanged for an 11th consecutive meeting and said economic growth will be “more modest” amid a weaker outlook for the U.S. and Europe. The central bank left the target for overnight loans between commercial banks at 1 percent, where it has been since September 2010. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xnb8bo

-MF Global Commodity Customers Must Be Paid First, CFTC Says. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82tgctk

-In MF Global, JPMorgan again at center of a financial failure. In late October, as MF Global Holdings Ltd teetered toward bankruptcy, Jon Corzine phoned his close-knit circle of Wall Street friends for help. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78an57o

-Bloomberg Suffers, Too, in Collapse of MF Global. The collapse of MF Global has wreaked havoc on farmers, ranchers and other investors who were clients of the brokerage firm, prompting a loud outcry over the disappearance of $1.2 billion in customer cash. But they are not the only ones to suffer.

The financial information giant Bloomberg lost about 600 subscriptions to its computer terminals which translates to nearly $1 million in monthly revenue after MF Global filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31. The sudden loss of business caused Bloomberg employees to miss their target sales by 12 percent in 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ovgzd7

-Recovery at risk as Americans raid savings. More than four years after the United States fell into recession, many Americans have resorted to raiding their savings to get them through the stop-start economic recovery. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/868wakx

-Disapproval of Congress hits new high: poll. A record 84 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the way the Congress is doing its job compared with just 13 percent who approve of how things are going, according to a Washington Post/ABC News public opinion poll. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85a9dof

-’Impressed’ and ‘Delighted’ Warren Buffett Matches GOP Rep’s Deficit Donations. Warren Buffett will be writing a check made out to the United States Treasury for just over $49,000 to help pay down the national debt. He’s matching voluntary contributions made this year and last year by Rep. Scott Rigell, a Republican representing Virginia.

In a letter to Rep. Rigell released by Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett writes he’s “particularly impressed that you took this action before my challenge.” In his challenge, issued in a Time Magazine interview last week, Buffett promises to match voluntary contributions aimed at reducing the deficit by “all Republican members of Congress, and I’ll even go three for one with (Senate Minority Leader Mitch) McConnell.”

McConnell, and other critics of Buffett’s call for higher tax rates on the super-rich, have been suggesting that if Buffett thinks he’s not taxed enough then he should “send in a check” to the Treasury. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pwetjm

-Hackers Assault Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Websites, Causing Slowdown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6opgyhr

-Coca-Cola Retains Title as World’s Most Valuable Brand. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tvh6ll

-How Ireland’s Richest Man Went From $6 Billion To -$3.5 Billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83ond49

-Check Out The Apartment IKEA Just Built In The Middle Of A Paris Metro Station. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83mzawn

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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 3.18 carat pear cut fancy yellow internally flawless Diamond. Last year the world’s largest fancy vivid yellow sold at auction. The 110.3 carat pear-shaped diamond called Sun Drop sold for $10.9m at Sotheby’s. Harold Seigel-See video of the Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/6rvqk6x

-Rio Tinto’s Diamond Production -7% in 4Q. Rio Tinto’s diamond production fell 7 percent year on year to 2.967 million carats in the fourth quarter of 2011. The decline was mainly due to slow output at the company’s flagship Argyle mine, which incurred various maintenance shutdowns in the processing plant during the period. Production at Argyle dropped 14 percent to 1.918 million carats. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7smdpnu

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GOLD

-”Gold has demonstrated time and time again its ability to hold purchasing power. It looks expensive and people talk about bubbles, but it’s not.” Ross Norman CEO of Sharps Pixley Ltd

-”We are seeing steady demand, even as gold was turning down at the end of the year. Now, in January, we are seeing demand keeping up, extremely strong. So, there seems to be a totally different attitude to gold now and I expect for there to be incredible demand for 2012. We are just seeing the very beginning of it.” Egon von Greyerz

-CHART OF THE WEEK: With gold more than $250 off its August 2011 peak, today’s chart provides some long-term perspective in regards to the gold market. Today’s chart provides an illustration of the bull market in gold that began back in 2001. As today’s chart illustrates, the pace of the nearly 11-year bull market has increased over time.

However, over the past four and a half months the price of an ounce of the shiny metal has declined more than at any point since 2008. This latest pullback has brought gold down to support (green line) of its three-year accelerated trend channel. So while the upward trend in gold is still intact, the accelerated trend is currently being tested. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vyyhq2


www.chartoftheday.com

-London Trader: Staggering Gold Demand Creating Shortages. If we get a pit close above $1,650 you could see a lot of scared shorts begin to cover. This could create a very quick move higher in the gold price. Also, if we get a pit close above $1,650, we are going to see a very large tranche of unfilled wholesale orders moving a lot higher with their bids, and that will become a base.

There are massive orders for sovereign entities under the market here. The Chinese are long-term thinkers and they really don’t care whether they are paying $1,600 or $1,700 for gold. What they do is get the best price they can. When the new floor eventually becomes $1,700, they will buy everything available at that price.

When it becomes $1,800 they will buy at that price. They are just looking to accumulate gold and they are never sellers, never. There are two things here. Yes, China wants a cheap gold price and they’ve been enjoying the fact the gold market was taken down.

They have recently taken another roughly 150 tons away from the Western central banks. The Western central banks essentially donated that gold in an attempt to prop up their paper currencies. Yet again these traitorous Western central bankers have given away more power.

I see gold as power and once again they have given it away to the Eastern Hemisphere. The Chinese continue to laugh. As much as the Chinese would like to have a cheap gold price and have this manipulation keep going, they also want to bring the renminbi to the center stage.

To them, it’s more important the Chinese currency becomes the world’s currency. The dollar, despite the latest rally, is dying, we all know it’s dying. So, the Chinese are moving to become the international currency of the world and the best way to do that is through gold. It’s a very clever tactic. Every time more gold arrives in China, the more their currency is backed, the closer they move technically to becoming the world’s reserve currency.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lga8ly

-John Embry: Gold to Rapidly Triple in Price on This Move. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qnpulh

-Jim Sinclair: There Will Be a Run on Gold Stored in the US. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75cujwb

-Keith Barron: Physical Gold & Silver to Crush Paper Markets. Here is what Barron said about a coming mania: “Oh yes, that’s coming. I met with a gentleman last week, I’m not going to mention his name because a lot of listeners would know who he is and he was saying to me, ‘Look, we haven’t even got to first base yet.’

He thinks gold is going to between $3,500 to $5,000. You get all of this talk in the media, especially on CNBC, saying that gold is in a bubble. Every time it goes up a couple hundred dollars it’s in a bubble again. It’s not in a bubble because the average Joe is not buying.”

“I remember when gold really did hit a bubble kind of market and was moving up $50 a day, that was a lot of money back then. They were lined up all the way outside the Bank of Nova Scotia, where a lot of gold sales were made, all the way out from the basement of the bank, where the vault was, up the stairs, out the main door and two times around the building. That’s around the whole block.

People were buying and selling places in line so they could get in the bank sooner and buy. We’re a long, long way from a mania like that, but we will see it. The American government, as we know, is cooking the books as far as the inflation numbers go. Anyone who buys groceries or gasoline certainly knows it’s getting more expensive every day.

“That’s just going to continue on. We are going to see it in Europe as well. The only way these various governments can create jobs and spend largesse is too print money. That’s very inflationary and that will take gold and silver much, much higher.

I’m extremely bullish on gold and we have seen some chop, but what I would be doing is just buying (physical gold) and holding. Then sit back and wait for the next crisis to unfold. That’s what is going to take it back up. I could see $2,000 to $2,500 later this year.

The catalysts are going to be international events and fear of inflation. You can see right now (President) Obama asked the debt ceiling to be raised in the US, the Greek debt crisis is exploding again and France is being downgraded. The whole (financial and economic) situation is looking really sick. The only way to bail these various countries out of the messes they are in is to print more money.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zr7usf

-Egon Von Greyerz: Silver Shortages & Gold to Accelerate Higher. When asked about the recent action in gold, von Greyerz said, “We like the action and it’s exactly what we’ve been predicting. My view is that we have bottomed and we are on the way to much higher levels. We are seeing a bit of sideways action here, but it’s sideways to upward and I think that will continue.

I like the pace, the fact that it’s not going up too fast, but I think we will see an acceleration to the upside in short order.” Central bankers don’t even understand gold. Most of them don’t even understand why they have it. If you listen to (Fed Chairman) Bernanke, he doesn’t have a clue as to why the US has it. As a matter of fact, as you know, he probably doesn’t have it anyway.

The US simply doesn’t have the 8,100 tons of gold they say they possess. “So the West doesn’t understand gold. The West has sold most of their gold holdings. There is only one game for Western central planners and that is staying in power and therefore printing more money. That’s the only game they know and gold doesn’t really play a role in that game.

Gold will play a role in the future when they realize the paper money is worthless, but, at that point, we will not see these present governments in power. The East understands gold, China understands gold, India understands gold, but the West doesn’t and sadly that trend will continue.

Individuals will become more and more aware of the fact that gold is the only way to protect them from what is going to happen. But at this point, of course, it’s only a very, very small minority that understands that. That will change as we go further along in this cycle. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/846yw3u

-Yamada: Gold Strong, Bear Market in Stocks to Last Until 2022. Gold had a 96% advance from the breakout of the 2008/2009 period. That was an impressive rise and we had a subsequent, roughly, 20% decline. Amazingly, the uptrend from the 2008 low is still intact. So, I would say as long as gold holds above $1,600 or the slight breach that it made down to $1,560, that could be the initiation of a new consolidation.

Gold’s strength has been quite impressive, but it’s hard to go up 96%, come down (about) 22% and say you are going to race right off to a new high. I think it needs some time to go sideways at the very least. What we might have seen is gold was an easy profit center and toward the end of the year you saw some losses offset with gold. But I will say the 2008 decline took about 5 to 7 months, so we don’t want to get too ahead of the game here in saying it’s ready to turn up.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6o49f82

-Adam Hamilton: The bottom line is the recent gold correction was amplified and accelerated by a couple major surges in the US dollar. This helped simultaneously drive gold to very-oversold levels and the dollar to very-overbought levels. But neither the excessive bearishness in gold nor the excessive bullishness in the dollar is sustainable.

The necessary reversals of both extremes are super-bullish for gold in the coming months. While an overbought dollar selling off and helping to catapult gold higher is very old-school, the resulting buying opportunities are as awesome today as they were back in the early 2000s.

As gold gains steam, more and more capital will flock back to it. And the universally-hated gold stocks, many hammered to ridiculous levels last year, are likely to stage a massive rally as the dollar once again launches gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zcaek3

-Rick Rule: $100 Floor in Oil Now, Gold Strong, Juniors to Soar. When asked about gold, Rule responded, “You know, from a physical point of view, that is holding physical gold and silver bullion, I need to tell you I am a lot more comfortable owning gold, than not owning it. Volatility does not even move the needle for me (emotionally), what I am concerned about, personally and for my customers, is that we stay liquid. We want to have large amounts of liquidity and I consider bullion to be the ultimate form of liquidity. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6sfpvrg

-Chris Whalen: We Have Panic Right Now & Flight Into Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8a8xpcl

-James Turk: 2012 to See Much Deeper Banking & Currency Collapse. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nhr85t

-Jim Rickards: Currency Wars, Gold & Inflation Worse than 1970s. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84myt5f

-Jim Rickards: War With Iran has Begun, Gold to Break $2,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xdt7gs

-Pento: US to Default, Crushing Dollar & Creating Gold Explosion. U.S. debt and deficits are running over $1 trillion per annum and amount to over 700% of Federal revenue. And just last week, we learned that the monthly budget deficit climbed to $85.97 billion in December, from $78.13 billion in the same month a year earlier.

The only relief from such debt will be a default on the part of the United States. A sovereign U.S. default would be pernicious for the dollar and massively bullish for gold. The simple truth is the U.S. dollar is under increased assault from negative real interest rates, increased counterfeiting from the Fed and a national debt the government is attempting to inflate away.

That truth isn’t made less painful just because a European vacation is getting cheaper. Since the intrinsic value of the dollar continues to deteriorate, investors would do well to ignore the dollar’s temporary and beneficial measurement against the Euro and focus on its true fundamentals, which are forcing investors towards gold.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m73yaz

-China’s banks urge man on the street to invest in gold. With gold consumption in China expected to overtake that of India in the next few years, some of the country’s leading banks are already reaping the benefits as customers flock to new gold products. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jsrlug

-Did China just overtake India as the world’s largest gold consumer? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10881

-David Levenstein: Chinese demand, macroeconomic tensions to drive gold prices. Tensions between Iran and USA, the Eurozone Crisis, and Robust Demand from China will Push the Price of Gold to New All-time Highs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ppevex

-Clive Maund: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nsgmnt

-Frank Holmes: Makes the Investment Case for Gold on CNBC. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7cggtfl

-Frank Holmes: What the Next Decade Holds for Commodities. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s4kojf

-Hubert Moolman: Fractal Analysis Suggests Massive Gold Rally Is Coming. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qnrrv7

-John Browne: Fed Plays PR Games. It is widely known that the Fed uses its policy tools and public proclamations in order to influence the U.S. Treasury market. It is far less understood how its moves are equally directed at the stock market. From my perspective, it appears that the Fed have unstated policy directives to keep the Dow Jones index above 10,000.

At the same time it seems it has striven mightily to keep the price of gold from rising too fast. The markets are not free, but the Fed talks as if they were. The Fed’s negative interest rate policy forces yield-starved investors into the equity market. Not content with offering negative real interest rates as a means of forcing people to accept greater risks against their better judgment, it appears that the Fed intends now to use its economic forecasts as added inducement.

It is hard to see this as a legitimate activity for a central bank, least of all the world’s most powerful. Prudent investors are becoming wary. Already, many have lost faith in home ownership as a store of wealth and prefer to rent. Evidence indicates a growing distrust of equity markets as a source of capital enhancement.

If inflation becomes undeniably virulent, as some forecast it will be later this or next year, the Fed’s carefully constructed models will be completely discredited. Investors’ holdings of U.S. Treasuries or U.S. stocks, who had been convinced of the Fed’s forecasts, stand to be crushed. Precious metals offer one way out. However, the Government, the Fed and mainline media do all in their power to distort and discredit such investments. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/729qh8f

-Morris Hubbartt: Many investors are convinced that the bottom is falling out of gold, and the gold bull market is finished. The weight of the technical and fundamental evidence suggests they are probably quite premature in making these statements. I would argue that gold is undervalued just based on the amount of fiat currency that has been printed over the past few years.

Much more money printing is likely to come. Technically, gold is exhibiting a textbook-style double bottom, which is very bullish. Look at the volume patterns on this chart, and the long-tailed candles that mark each bottom. Gold has also recaptured the 200 day moving average, which is another bullish event.

This chart shows no evidence of a top in gold. Quite the opposite is the case; gold is likely putting in a substantial bottom, and is poised to rise dramatically from this large double bottom formation. I have two scenarios for gold bullion prices. The first is a run straight to $2300 area by mid-year, with very little correction in the price.

The second scenario has gold also rising to $2300, but in December of this year. In the short term, it seems likely that gold will trade up to about $1700 on this move. At that point I expect a pullback accompanied by substantial commercial buying, as we have seen on every pullback over the last several months. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vgc7sf

-Gold May Hit $2,000 an Ounce, Consultancy Says. Gold may reach a record high above $2,000 an ounce in late 2012 or early 2013, but the precious metal is nearing the end of a decade-long run that has lifted prices by more than 600 percent, metals consultancy GFMS said on Tuesday.

Gold has been a top-performing asset since 2001 as portfolio diversification, concerns over sovereign risk and rock-bottom interest rates have helped lift prices from a low near $250 an ounce in 2001 to a peak above $1,920 in September 2011. It is likely to surpass that level in the final quarter of 2012 or the first three months of next year, GFMS said, potentially breaking through the $2,000 an ounce level. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/767y7xo

-Miners see gold peaking around $2,000/oz in 2012. Gold miners expect the price of the metal to continue climbing in 2012, with most respondents expecting a peak around $2,000 an ounce, according to a survey of gold companies by consultants PwC. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bhxxvz

-Is Bullion Back? ‘Gold Is Still In a Super Bull Market.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ot3ncj

-One Huge Chart That Has Everything You Need To Know About Gold. Morgan Stanley has made it no secret that they’re bearish on stocks and the economy. However, in this backdrop, they’ve also made it very clear that they favor gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s682s6

-King World News: Bill Haynes of CMI Gold and Silver and futures market analyst Dan Norcini provide the weekly precious metals review. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10885

-Gingrich Goes for Gold. The call by Newt Gingrich for the creation of a commission on gold to examine how America can return to a system of hard money is a step forward for him and the Republican Party. The former speaker issued his call at Columbia, South Carolina, at a policy forum on American global leadership. He used the phrase “hard money” to speak of a gold standard of the kind the Founders of America had in mind. It would mean, he said, “you can’t just hide from your problems. You’ve got to solve them.” Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10896

-Fox Business interviews Grandich about $2 million gold price bet. Watch more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10894

-J.S. Kim: Last year’s price suppression to fuel this year’s explosion. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10890

-More traders notice gold’s regularly counterintuitive behavior. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10883

-At last Financial Times notices that central banks do shady things with gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10893

-New York Sun: Secrets of the Fed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74a4um7

-With luck this soon will be an important estate-planning question. Leaving your gold fillings to your heirs. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10877

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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

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Silver Coin Sales May Signal Bear-Market End. The surge in the U.S. Mint’s sales of American Eagle silver coins in January may signal an end to the bear market in the metal. The chart shows the Mint sold 4.26 million ounces of the coins to authorized purchasers Jan. 3 through Jan. 10. At this pace, full-month deliveries may reach 14.2 million ounces, more than twice the record 6.422 million ounces sold in January 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83pc2ld

-Morris Hubbartt: Silver is my asset of choice. The price has just appreciated by about 10%. You could wait for further light weakness to add to positions, but I want you to think about the enormous upside implications of this flag pattern. The MACD is positioned to drive the silver price up and out of the flag pattern. The slow “stokes” (Stochastics) look good, and the commercial buying and short-covering into the lows is incredibly bullish. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vgc7sf

-”The total dollar value of the world’s three billion ounces of gold bullion has reached ridiculous levels relative to the dollar value of the world’s one billion ounces of silver bullion. At current prices, the dollar value of gold is 165 times greater than the value of the world’s silver. That’s way too much for two items so closely similar. Here’s another way of looking at it. Last week’s $23 rise in the gold price increased the value of the world’s gold bullion by almost $70 billion.

That’s more than twice as much as the total value of what all of the world’s silver bullion is worth. I’m talking about the change for one week in gold being twice the total value of all the silver in the world. That’s crazy and is due to silver being artificially manipulated in price.” Ted Butler via Ed Steer-Casey Research-Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79ta8lx

-”The important takeaway is that a decent size chunk of physical silver will be taken off the market. It’s an open speculation as to what impact this will have on the price of silver, both short and long term. My guess is that while it certainly can’t be considered negative in any way, there are obvious forces that would prefer to make it look like it has no effect.

These forces will do what they can to mute the impact of a fairly large physical purchase. Unfortunately, these commercial crooks may have built up some physical reserves over the past six months or so and may be able to accommodate Sprott’s physical purchase without too much difficulty. A couple or a few more similar-sized purchases would have a big price impact, in my opinion.”

“I hope I’m wrong, but my sense is that Sprott is likely to get fairly quick delivery of whatever silver it purchases so as to avoid a repeat of the delivery delays that occurred the last time they purchased a chunk of silver. Eric Sprott has become an outspoken advocate of silver and antagonist against the silver manipulation and I doubt the suppliers will risk delivery delays to his fund and give him the opportunity to point to tightness. I think that tightness is there, just that the sellers will be able to hide it a bit longer.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6r83h2l

-Keith Barron: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Barron replied, “I really do think it’s possible to see $50 silver again this year. There have been various things in the press about potential oversupply of silver right now. I don’t see that in the numbers. My sources tell me that physical silver buying is very much intact.

The US Mint is selling silver American eagles like there is no tomorrow. The only thing that might be holding silver back are the games that are played in the paper market. I certainly see, in the future, a breaking away of the gold and silver, physical markets, away from the paper market. All it takes is for a big order to take delivery and the silver and the gold is not there in the vaults and this whole thing gets exploded wide open.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zr7usf

-Louise Yamada: Silver Market Update. When asked about silver specifically, Yamada remarked, “I think silver looks very similar to gold in the sense that it needs to consolidate a little bit more. It’s a smaller market so it was affected to an even greater degree. It went up 70% and it came down 46%. When you have come down to that degree you need a longer period of consolidation. A consolidation that stays above $25 would be nice. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6o49f82

-Egon von Greyerz: Silver update. When asked about silver specifically, von Greyerz stated, “There are shortages of silver. It’s more difficult to get hold of silver. We can see the intervention (manipulation), every day, in the silver market. It trades down in Europe and then up in the East. In spite of that the trend is clearly up. I can see silver exploding in the next few months. It should double in price in the next three to six months.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/846yw3u

-Andrey Dashkov: When Will Silver Make a New High? If there’s anything that sticks out from this bird’s-eye view of the past ten years of data, it’s that corrections are normal. And just as obvious is the fact that corrections end. As with gold, the silver bull market is far from over, regardless of any weakness we may see in the near term.

Don’t be the impatient investor who gives up too early. And trying to time the market for a short-term profit shouldn’t be the strategy in the midst of a long-term bull market. Instead, keep silver’s fundamentals in mind: its industrial uses are growing and, like gold, silver is money.

That said, we believe that the window for buying silver at $30 won’t be open for too long. The profit you someday realize from silver will be made buying now, when the price is low. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/829yhhu

-Stephen Leeb: Why Gold & Silver are About to Soar. Leeb brought up the fact that we are seeing shortages in silver and, importantly, that gold production is declining. “What people don’t realize about silver is how illiquid silver is, and how little physical silver that is available in the market.

Now you have the Canadian, (Eric) Sprott, who has really been spot on for more than a decade, Sprott has just raised money and needs to take delivery of another 10 million ounces of silver. My question is, from whom? That’s the question.”

“Who is he going to buy it from? The Chinese, who need it for solar? It’s not around. 10 million ounces doesn’t sound like such a big number, but when you have such illiquid markets, it is a big number. In reality, it’s a very big number, especially when you already have shortages. People are already hoarding silver. The Chinese are also hoarding silver.

When you have a situation like that, you haven’t seen anything yet in the way of a bull market in silver. There’s no way of saying how high silver is going to go, but this is going to become an exceptionally scarce commodity.

I’m going to tell you right here that I think gold will end the year close to $3,000. Silver will end the year at all-time highs. My guess is the price of silver will end 2012 at $60, $70 or $80, and that will surprise a lot of people.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tmaqtp

-David Morgan: The Great Silver Market Myth! Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7su2smv

-Clive Maund: Silver Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/o4j7

-Hubert Moolman: Fractal Analysis Suggests Higher Silver Prices Are Coming. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ddqm6t

-Przemyslaw Radomski: A Short-lived Pause in the Silver Rally is More Than Likely. The next major targets for tops in silver $75 and $120. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7atts2b

-Steve St. Angelo: Silver coin production in U.S., Canada exceeds mine output. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10882

-Silver Institute: Silver Newsletter for Dec 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77ngwq5

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Fitch Says Greece to Default, Believes Will Be Orderly. Rating agency Fitch said on Tuesday that Greece would default on its debt, although it said that such a default was likely to take place in an orderly manner. “It is going to happen. Greece is insolvent so it will default,” Edward Parker, Managing Director for Fitch’s Sovereign and Supranational Group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the Swedish capital.

“So in that sense it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.” The Fitch comments come after Moritz Kraemer, head of Standard & Poor’s rating agency’s European sovereign ratings unit, said on Monday Greece would default shortly on its debt obligations. Parker said that Fitch believed that even a voluntary agreement by private investors to take a haircut on Greek debt would constitute a default. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79s79ox

-Greece euro exit worse than catastrophic. A Greek exit from the euro zone would be worse than catastrophic and could provoke greater social unrest, Zimbabwe-style inflation and a military coup, said London-based hedge fund firm Toscafund. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/886efcl

-Pimco’s Gross Says Greece to Default Following Downgrades. Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Greece is heading for default. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a3omnr

-World Bank fears Europe’s crisis could set off deeper global slump than Lehman collapse. The World Bank has slashed its global growth forecast and told developing nations to prepare for the worst, warning that Europe’s debt crisis could trigger an even deeper slump than the post-Lehman collapse three years ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86j6dq6

-S&P Cuts Credit Ratings for Nine Euro Zone Nations. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday 13th for the troubled single currency area. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79rhsvd

-Stiglitz says European austerity plans are a ’suicide pact.’ European governments have signed a “suicide pact” by imposing fiscal austerity plans that will collapse their economies, Joseph Stiglitz, the liberal economist, has warned. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88retp5

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Doug Casey: The US Government Is Bankrupt. Everyone knows that the US government is bankrupt and has been for many years. But I thought it might be instructive to see what its current cash-flow situation actually is. At least insofar as it’s possible to get a clear picture.

But rest assured that if the situation evolves the way I expect, the standard of living will drop steeply, financial markets are going to become chaotic and the US will become a quite repressive place for some time at least as long as the War on Terror lasts. I will bet you money on this. In fact, I am betting money on it.

So what can you do about it? Well, actually, there is nothing you can do about it. At least as far as changing the course of history is concerned. The best you can do is to speculate intelligently on further, new distortions that will be cranked into the system, as well as others that are inevitably going to be liquidated.

It seems to me that this is a trend that can no longer be turned around. The US government’s budget is, in fact, the biggest thing in the world; it won’t be turned around, because it is like a gigantic snowball rolling down a hill. It will only stop when it smashes into the village at the bottom of the valley. The best thing you can do is capitalize on it as well as you can and get out of its way while you do. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72fdz5o

-Treasury dips into pension funds to avoid debt. The Treasury on Tuesday started dipping into federal pension funds in order to give the Obama administration more credit to pay government bills. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7o5aj6d

-Illinois’ Unpaid Bill Crisis Just Keeps Getting Worse. Illinois keeps falling farther behind on its debt, officially the state has a backlog of more than $4.25 billion in unpaid bills. Illinois State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka says when one factors in other bills, the figure is closer to around $8.5 billion. Those other outstanding bills include tax refunds, employee health insurance, and bills that have not yet reached her desk. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s44pgx

-Congress’s Benefits Add to $674B Pension Gap. Almost 15,000 federal retirees, including former leaders of Congress, a university president and a banker, are receiving six-figure pensions from a system that faces a $674.2 billion shortfall. About one of every 125 retired federal civilian workers collects more than $100,000 in benefits annually. They include physicians, postal workers and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, according to data obtained by Bloomberg News under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7dfvt5g

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REAL ESTATE

-U.S. Housing Starts Drop 4.1%, Worse Than Forecast. Builders began work on fewer houses than forecast in December, capping the worst year on record for single-family home construction and signaling recovery in the industry will take time. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xfdmbg

-The 10 States That Are Still Getting Crushed By Foreclosures. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rboyge

-Fed blew the housing bubble, then sought to pop it, transcripts show. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10876

-Canada Bubble Seen as IMF Risk With Record Low Rates: Mortgages. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7j4gg5h

-Phoenix Housing Rises as Canadian Buyers Seek 55% Discount in the Desert. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7t9qrvj

-China Developers Ease Home Sales. China’s biggest developers slowed home sales toward the end of 2011, bracing for the worst property market in three years as the government vows to keep real-estate curbs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ub7bul

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Russia says strike on Iran would be ‘catastrophe.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6sed5wz

-Iran Threatens U.S., Persian Gulf Cities with Missile Attacks. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7p2yaqd

-Iran’s UN Envoy Says Closing Strait of Hormuz Is an Option If Threatened. Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said closing the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for about a fifth of the world’s oil trade, is an option if his country’s security is endangered. “There is no decision to block and close the Strait of Hormuz unless Iran is threatened seriously and somebody wants to tighten the noose,” Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said on the Charlie Rose show, according to a transcript of the interview. “All the options are or would be on the table.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zv6f7w

-Wen: China “completely rejects” Iran developing nuclear weapons and supports the so-called five-plus one talks to find a solution to the issue, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at a press conference in Doha, Qatar. The nation is implementing United Nations resolutions on Iran, and opposes any “extreme” actions in the Strait of Hormuz that would damage world interests, Wen said.

Still, China’s oil trade with Iran is “normal” and doesn’t worry him, Wen said. China, which counts Iran as one of its top petroleum suppliers, last week snubbed U.S. efforts to tighten restrictions on Iran, with a vice foreign minister saying his nation “opposes imposing pressure and sanctions.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r77uhl

-Iran Threatens U.S., U.K., Israel After Assassination of Nuclear Scientist. Iran’s intelligence minister warned of a “firm response” to the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist and a senior military adviser said “every means” will be used to defend “national interests” as the country faces growing pressure to curtail its nuclear program. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6o6q4q8

-Iranian currency and economy collapsing under tighter U.S. trade sanctions. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10887

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – January 20th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, January 20, 2012

World Financial Report – January 13th, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: This 15-Year Stock Market Cycle Signals 4 More Years Of Pain. Floyd Norris has discovered a freakish cycle in S&P 500 real returns over the past 70 years that makes the rest of this decade look rather gloomy.

Calculating overall gains after inflation, he found that since 1980 stocks have moved in a nearly identical,15-years-up/15-years-down pattern to their performance between 1943 and 1980. Says Norris: In June 1964, the real return over the previous 15 years averaged 15.6 percent a year, the highest that figure had ever been.

The stock market did not begin to fall then, but it could no longer maintain the torrid pace, and the 15-year return figures began to decline. Sounds familiar. While between 1984 and 1999 total compound annual return was more than 15 percent, since 1996, overall returns are just 3 percent. If the 15/15 cycle holds, then we have at least four more years of negative overall returns. Whatever gains stocks make in the short-term will be short-lived. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zm6a3m

-CHART OF THE WEEK: The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever. Once again, we must bring you this jobs chart from Calculated Risk which nicely puts this jobs “recovery” into context. It shows the percent job losses in post-WWII recessions and recoveries, and nicely shows how slow this current recovery has been compared to every single other one. We’ve dubbed it the scariest jobs chart ever. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lkg4aa

-CHART OF THE WEEK: U.S. Jobs. The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) increased by 200,000 in December. For some perspective, today’s chart illustrates the percent increase in the number of jobs for every decade since the 1940s (the data goes back to 1939).

Today’s chart illustrates that up until this millennium, the number of jobs at the end of a decade has always been at least 20% greater than 10 years prior. During the last decade (2000s), not only was that 20% plus growth not achieved, the decade actually ended with less jobs than when it began. This negative job growth is particularly noteworthy due to the fact that the US population had increased by 10% during the same time frame.

Two years into the current decade (see gray column), today’s chart illustrates that job growth is positive. If job growth during the current decade were to increase at the same pace as what occurred during the first two years, the decade would end with a 10% gain in jobs (see gray dot). This is certainly better than the decade just passed, however, it is well off the 20% plus pace of decades past. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qyvxzh


www.chartoftheday.com

-CHART OF THE WEEK: It’s Pretty Obvious What’s Driving Unemployment. The connection seems pretty unmistakable. If you want to improve unemployment, convince companies that more sales are on the way. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ej7975

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Feeling gloomy, More bad news for Europe’s troubled economies. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6us2ksz

-”That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” Aldous Huxley

-”The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” George Bernard Shaw

-”There’s plenty of money out there. They print more and more of it every day. But that ticket? There are only five of them, and that’s all there’s ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?” Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Grandpa George convincing Charlie not to sell the golden ticket

-”I am constantly reminded by events to keep the big picture in mind. We must avoid being gripped by the laughably short sighted emotions of the moment.” Monty Guild

-”The ultimate crime in investing is not being wrong it’s staying wrong!” Peter Grandich

-”The United States only remains solvent because the Congress in Washington keeps raising the debt ceiling.” Der Spiegel

-The 75 trillion dollar unfunded liability budget deficit is future debt that must be paid. It is a debt bomb in the early stages of detonation. Debts must be paid, but how must they be paid? Wall Street and Washington believe the electronic printing press can replace your constitution. They are wrong, but they are in control.

National debt numbers are exploding upwards; debt is up about 50% in four short years. The debt rating agencies are warning of future downgrades. America was the greatest creditor in the history of the world. Now we are the greatest debtor in the history of the world. The American dream has become a worldwide nightmare. Morris Hubbartt

-”The financial industry in my view is going to shrink by about 150,000 people over the next 12 to 18 months.” Dick Bove

-”Quite frankly, 2012 is going to be annus horribilis (year of horrors) for those with a conventional view on economics and finance. There is a degree of complacency, right now, that I find eery. There is no reason for this complacency. It’s a testament to the power of the mainstream media, hoodwinking the public and the government chipping in with their bogus statistics. At this point people have no real appreciation of how bad things are going to get and I think it’s going to hit big-time this year.” John Embry

-U.S. Economy’s Challenges Greater This Year Than Last, Gluskin Sheff Says. David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc., said the U.S. economy faces more challenges in 2012 than last year, while he backed away from his prediction the nation was facing a near- certain recession.

“Certainly, we’re not in a recession right now,” Rosenberg said in an interview on Bloomberg. Nonetheless, he said, “I still believe the economy is still fragile and this recovery is still quite spotty.” The effects of the European recession and a slowdown in China will weigh on U.S. exports and industrial production this year, he said.

Even last week’s stronger-than-forecast jobs growth number of 200,000 for December may end up being revised down to about 140,000, when holiday hiring at delivery companies and other seasonal factors are taken into account, he said.

“As challenging as the year was in 2011, I expect 2012 is going to be even more challenging,” Rosenberg said in the interview from Toronto. “When you consider all the headwinds coming from overseas: Europe is in a recession now, it was not in a recession a year ago; we’re now talking about hard-landing risks in China, we weren’t talking about that a year ago.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7q7z65v and http://tinyurl.com/88u8×86

-Goldman sees massive upside risk in oil prices. Oil, gold and base metals are Goldman Sachs’ top commodity picks this year, with big upside risk in oil due to tight fundamentals and a potential Iranian conflict, the investment bank said Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sxn4cq

-Forget inflation: Is deflation the real threat? Ask most investors what they worry about, and they’ll tell you it’s inflation specifically, a period of soaring prices that destroys the value of the dollar. But a growing number of economists and money managers are starting to worry about the opposite of inflation: deflation, a period of falling prices and declining incomes.

Sure, the government’s consumer price index has gained 3.5% the past 12 months. Even stripping out food and energy, the CPI is up 2.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. And anyone who lives in the real world knows you can’t live without food and energy.

But other prices have been moving relentlessly downward, from refrigerators to stocks to houses and salaries. Economist Gary Shilling argues that many of the factors for deflation are already in place, and that people overlook falling prices because they are so focused on the items they use the most. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7llu9pj

-Iran Bazaar Sees Rush to Dump Rials. The rush for hard currency shows those tensions spreading among Iranians, even before the latest sanctions are fully implemented. The U.S. and European Union are moving toward an embargo on oil purchases from the world’s third-biggest exporter and restricting dealings with its central bank. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6wpdd65

-Rail Traffic Surge Shows Canada Economy May Beat Growth Forecasts: Freight. A boom in traffic at Canadian National Railways Co. and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., the country’s two largest rail companies, may mean Canada’s recovery will be buoyant even after economists and the Bank of Canada pared their outlook for growth this year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h8663l

-U.S. Jobless Claims Rise More Than Forecast. More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, raising the possibility that a greater-than-usual increase in temporary holiday hiring boosted December payrolls. Jobless claims climbed by 24,000 to 399,000 in the week ended Jan. 7, Labor Department figures showed in Washington. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mwxu9y

-Retail Sales in U.S. Rose Less Than Forecast. Sales at U.S. retailers in December rose less than forecast, restrained by cheaper fuel prices and holiday discounting that helped hold down the value of goods sold. The 0.1 percent gain followed a 0.4 percent advance in November that was more than initially reported, Commerce Department figures showed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7raetpk

-William D. Cohan: How Wall Street Turned a Crisis Into a Cartel. Almost 65 years ago, in 1947, the U.S. government sued 17 leading Wall Street investment banks, charging them with effectively colluding in violation of antitrust laws. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xdhpas

-Cohan: Did Psychopaths Take Over Wall Street Asylum? It took a relatively obscure former British academic to propagate a theory of the financial crisis that would confirm what many people suspected all along: The “corporate psychopaths” at the helm of our financial institutions are to blame. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h6s6g8

-Dylan Ratigan: Encouraging the Right Kind of Greed Among Banks. The financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear-power plant needs a cooling agent for its radioactive fuel rods. If safety rules are enforced and the heat of the rods is properly controlled, the result can be clean, abundant energy. But if that cooling process is neglected, there could be a meltdown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lg3xky

-Theft, RICO lawsuit targets MF Global, CME Group, MorganChase. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10875

-CFTC acts to protect trader collateral, endorses ‘Volcker rule.’ Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10871

-U.S. Inquiry of MF Global Gains Speed. The investigation into MF Global is intensifying as federal authorities unearth new details and confront potential obstacles in their hunt for roughly $1.2 billion in customer money that disappeared from the brokerage firm. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t4njwj

-The Neverending MF Global Story: Regulators Block The Truth. Instead of looking out for MF Global investors and customers who are still waiting for their money it looks like regulators and the bankruptcy trustees are busy suppressing information. Instead of full transparency, regulators and the trustees are holding onto crucial details that might tell us all who was asleep at the wheel when the broker/dealer and futures commission merchant (FCM) headed over the cliff. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jkstdg

-Corzine Sued by Montana Farmers Over MF Global Futures Account Money. Jon Corzine, former chief executive officer of collapsed commodity brokerage MF Global Holdings Ltd., was sued for fraud by Montana farmers who claim he oversaw the misappropriation of their commodity trading account funds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6w6mv4v

-Apple said Chief Executive Officer Timothy Cook received $378 million in 2011 compensation, including $376.2 million in stock awards. Reuters

-Buffett Offers GOP Donation Challenge. Billionaire Warren Buffett will match voluntary contributions by congressional Republicans to the U.S. government, he told Time magazine. Buffett, who has said the tax system favors the rich, made his offer after Republicans, including U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann, suggested he donate his fortune to the government. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p4uojo

-Orange juice futures rose the most in five years on speculation that citrus groves in Florida suffered more frost damage than expected last week, with some forecasters predicting more cold weather. Bloomberg

-Twinkie-Maker Hostess Files for Bankruptcy. Hostess Brands Inc. the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder bread, fell back into bankruptcy about three years after completing an earlier restructuring. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6px5ox8

-Bankrupt Solyndra seeking to pay bonuses. Now seems an unlikely time for handing out bonuses at bankrupt Solyndra, but that’s the plan of company attorneys intending to dole out up to a half-million dollars to persuade key employees to stay put. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lvvlvm

-White-Collar Workers Join Crowd Straining Food Banks. “We’re seeing many faces from the middle class who had been donors who now need support from our food bank,” said Terry Shannon, president and chief executive officer of the Phoenix, Arizona-based St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/863xuab

-Sept. 11 Bracelets Come From China. For last year’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, U.S. Transportation Security Administration officials wanted their workers to remember the thousands who died. So the agency bought 70,000 commemorative bracelets made in China. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yaqdwb

-Greek Crisis Has Pharmacists Pleading for Aspirin. For patients and pharmacists in financially stricken Greece, even finding aspirin has turned into a headache. Read more here-

-Bordeaux Prices To Dip on Weak Demand. Prices of top Bordeaux such as Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Petrus may drop further at Hong Kong sales this month as demand declines on concern about economic weakness and financial-market volatility. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xxgpns

-Old Penny Sells For $1.38 Million. As Benjamin Franklin once wrote ‘A penny saved is a penny earned.’ In Orlando on Saturday an old penny saved was sold for $1.38 million. The one-cent copper coin was made at the Mint in Philadelphia in 1793, the first year that the U.S. made its own coins. James Halperin of Texas-based Heritage Auctions said the sale was “the most a United States copper coin has ever sold for at auction.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/786xugy

-Millionaires in China Like LV Gifts Best: Hurun. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zdazld

-A Look Inside The World’s Most Expensive Building. Constructed from 1999 to 2004 at a cost of $1.8 billion, Taipei 101 is the most expensive skyscraper ever built. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7p42e79

-The Most Expensive Buildings In The World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88fc9lr

-This Unassuming California Junkyard Contains A Hidden Collection Of Incredible Cars. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yfjp3t

-12 Infected With New Swine Flu Strain. The days of medical masks at airports and widespread panic may be coming back—that’s because at least 12 humans are believed to have been infected with a new strain of swine flu that’s not covered by this season’s vaccine. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bz7brj

-Next ice age not likely before 1,500 years: study. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qqmh8q

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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

-”Fancy is a term in the diamond business for a well-highlighted colored stone.”

-”The name diamond derives from the ancient Greek adamas Impossible to tame.”

-Rarecoloreddiamonds.com Featured Diamond of the Week. This week’s Diamond is a 0.30 carat round brilliant cut fancy intense pink Diamond. Pink color in a Diamond is thought to have been caused by them absorbing light in an unusual way when they were formed deep inside the earth over millions of years. Pink Diamonds are nature’s art, add this masterpiece to your portfolio/collection today. Harold Seigel-See video of the Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/6n7hcpa

-Jeweler: Expect Significant Price Increases For Diamonds. Intense sparkle may not be the only thing that deserves a double take when it comes to diamonds. Take a look at the price-tag. Jewelers say you can expect to see price increases ranging from 10 percent to 20 percent depending on the quality of the diamond. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ut2mux

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GOLD

-”European sovereign-debt risk and the geopolitical risk of the Iranian situation escalating should support gold. Gold’s safe-haven attributes will continue to be in demand.” Mark O’Byrne-GoldCore

-”A number of people have approached me recently and said they wished they had listened five years ago. They feel they have missed the boat, that it’s too late to buy gold. For those who feel that way, let me close with a Chinese proverb I discovered last year: The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” Nick Barisheff

-”Too many people talk about the price of gold or the price of silver and what we really need to be focused on is not the price, but the value. Assets can be overvalued or undervalued and over the past ten years gold has been undervalued and it remains undervalued, even though the price is rising.

It remains undervalued because central bank actions are continuing to debase national currencies around the world. At some point in time, in the future, when you get a mania and your next door neighbor is telling you to buy gold and silver, that’s when the market will be peaking out. But that’s still way, way down the road. It’s a long time in the future.” James Turk

-For those who feel precious metals are in a bubble now, they ain’t seen nothing yet. At the moment prices are merely adjusting to where they should have been all along. For years gold languished in obscurity as investors instead placed their faith in the wisdom, independence, and integrity of central bankers. That misplaced confidence will soon shatter and investors will once again embrace gold, as they discover nothing more than politicians with printing presses lurking behind the curtains. Peter Schiff

-Aubie Baltin: Riding The “Golden” Bull. Traders vs. Investors. Should you be a trader or a long term Investor? Good question. How many of you that got into the gold market made a ton of money trading it from its $35 low in 1973 to its 1976 high of $200 had any profit left over when it suddenly dropped back to$100 in 1977?

I’m willing to bet that not one of you got back in when gold soared passed $200 or passed $300 in 1978 and then just kept on climbing past $500 by the fall of 1979? But then after watching most of that Bull Market roll by most everyone began jumping in as gold gapped up as much as $30 a day into its ultimate high of $850+ into January 1980. Instead of reaping fortunes most traders ended up in the hole while those few slow dumb and not nearly so greedy investors who just grabbed on to that Golden Bull and hung on became very rich. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tlcr5w

-Precious metals analysts expect gold prices to rise for a 12th year in a row and to reach a record high in 2012. The LBMA’s survey of 26 contributors showed all but 3 participants expected gold to hit an all-time high in 2012, with a majority of 19 of them forecasting gold to reach a high above $2,000 an ounce. They also forecast gold to average $1,766.00 an ounce this year, compared with an average of $1,572.00 in 2011, the survey showed. The gold price rose to a record $1,920.30 an ounce in September and gained 10 percent in price in an 11th consecutive year of gains in 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s82dfs and http://tinyurl.com/7hfmbcg

-Gold Is Investors’ Favorite Asset in 2012: Poll. Gold is investors’ favorite asset for 2012 according to a poll carried out by Japanese investment bank Nomura. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83au79y

-Gold Could Hit $1,940 an Ounce in ‘12: Goldman. Gold futures traded on the Comex in New York may climb to $1,940 an ounce in 12 months as U.S. interest rates and inflation are expected to remain low, Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research, said at the company’s Strategy Conference 2012 in London, repeating the bank’s December forecast. Gold has dropped 16 percent from a record in September. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nxlusn

-McEwen: Gold to hit $2,000 & Accelerate, Silver $150-$300. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7voojwr

-Nick Barisheff: Why Rising Debt Will Lead to $10,000 Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rj7o7a

-Alf Fields: Gold Correction Is Over. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qz57oe

-James Turk: There is a War Going on in the Gold Market. “There is a war going on with regard to gold and people are lined up on both sides. The central planners want gold to disappear, but gold is not going to disappear because it’s been money for 5,000 years. What the central planners and the manipulators and government agents and everybody else are doing is they are putting out a lot of anti-gold propaganda.”

“Eventually that erodes people’s emotions and causes them to turn negative. In the early 1980s I worked with one of the top commodity traders in the world. The things that Jesse Livermore talked about, this guy used to put together. It was just holding those positions for the long-term bull market and that’s how you make the really big money. The reason so few people make the big money, when it comes to the markets, is they let the emotion and the noise, that comes from day to day, interfere with their long-term focus.

The main thing is the problems that have been plaguing the international monetary system for the past several years, they haven’t gone away. They haven’t been solved. In fact, they are not even being properly addressed with solutions to solve these problems. So we have to assume we are going to continue down this same road we’ve been on, which ultimately means currency debasement and consequently higher metals prices.

As I’m fond of saying, We always have to be focusing on the big picture. Particularly now when emotions run wild six months after a correction in both of the precious metals prices. We cannot lose sight of the big picture. The reasons for owning gold and silver now are probably just as good as they were when gold and silver were half the price they are today. They are still very undervalued and we still have a long way to go in this bull market.

This is exactly what you see during these deep corrections in bull markets. Apple had 5 deep corrections and it shook out a lot of people and then the market moved up without them getting back in. Once you are out, it’s very difficult to jump back in on the buy side. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/784eopz

-Louise Yamada: Gold & Silver Bulls to Continue Stampede. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/734fqrz

-Jim Sinclair: Hathaway Correct, Gold Shorts to get Squeezed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tyk2mk

-Jim Sinclair: How to Get Past Emotion and Make a Smart Investment Decision. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/84e4oc2

-Hathaway: Short Squeeze in Gold to Crush Naked Shorts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tgxaqc

-Hathaway: Huge Rally in Gold & Silver, 2012 Outlook. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qccf5n

-Rick Rule: Gold Now Set for Dramatic 1970s Style Up-Moves. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t6drul

-John Embry Gold and Silver Commentary: Over the past 11 years, both metals have not only shot up in price, but have dramatically outperformed every fiat currency on earth. In sizing up gold and silver, ignore naysayers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7qf3w6b

-Richard Russell: Gold Scaring Weak Hands. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7aadts3

-Paul Brodsky: Gold, Silver, Lost Confidence & Systemic Failure. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7una3on

-Nigel Farage: Gold to See Its Biggest Spike in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6utdj9e

-Clive Maund: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ormp2q

-Jeff Clark: Gold Will Make a New High on This Date. Some investors are frustrated and a few are worried that gold seems stuck in a rut. This stall in price has happened before, of course, but since 2001 it’s always eventually powered to a new high. Unless one thinks the gold bull market is over, it’s natural to wonder how long might we have to wait before seeing another new high. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7t7sx6n

-Infographic: Everything You Wanted to Know About Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t73s5m

-U.S. Mint Eagle Gold Coins May Pace Silver Sales, Dealer Says. The U.S. Mint’s sales of American Eagle gold coins may keep pace with silver coins later this year, according to Dillon Gage Metals, one of 11 dealers authorized to purchase silver coins in the U.S. directly from the mint. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7r8vzgp

-China Gold Imports From Hong Kong Hit Record. China’s gold imports from Hong Kong, a proxy for overseas buying, set a record in November for the fifth consecutive month as demand from the world’s largest gold consumer continued to defy expectations. China’s gold imports have soared in recent months, as Chinese investors pour their savings into popular gold bars and consumers start to buy gold gifts for Chinese New Year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eucty7

-Dutch central bank admits 90% of its gold is abroad. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10855

-Fund manager Ned Naylor-Leyland on gold price. Read more and listen here-http://tinyurl.com/6penyn8

-Gold Bear Market at $1,300 Signaled by Moving Averages: Technical Analysis. Gold prices, down 16 percent from a record in September, are headed into a bear market at $1,300 an ounce this year, according to technical analysis by Lance Roberts at Streettalk Advisors. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/88wf9vt

-GATA board member Ed Steer interviewed by Dave Janda. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10868

-Dave Janda interviews GATA Chairman Murphy. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10863

-Alasdair Macleod: Financial repression, what does it mean? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10857 and http://tinyurl.com/6tqq922

-The buzz builds: Reuters columnist rationalizes ‘financial repression.’ Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10859

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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

-LBMA’s Silver Survey. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hfmbcg

-John Embry: Silver to Break $100 in 12 to 24 Months. “I think silver is a rocket ride here and it is priced way below where it should be. It’s been put there by the paper criminals and this will correct itself violently because there is no physical silver available, of any magnitude.

All it will take is some significant buying in the physical silver market to unleash this beast and when it gets going people will look on in astonishment. I don’t have any problem with silver blowing through its all-time high this year and heading towards $100. Once it clears $50 there is no overhead resistance and then things will really get interesting.

I believe silver will hit $100 in 12 to 24 months. As you know I have been a great proponent of a falling gold/silver ratio, which is currently in the range of 55/1. It will hit 10/1 or 15/1 before this bull market is over. Silver will rise two to three times faster than gold, and as you know I am extremely optimistic about where the gold price is headed long-term.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ryj6dr

-Rob McEwen: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, McEwen stated, “Well, I was just thinking about silver. It does have an industrial component to it, but there is a growing demand. It’s just easier to get into, there’s a lower price point. That’s why I see silver being an exciting area to have exposure. It (silver) could (eventually) be from $150 to $300.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7voojwr

-Rick Rule: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Rule stated, “I certainly believe in the set of circumstances that Eric Sprott describes, which is 100 times more silver being traded than is available for delivery. If there is a failure to deliver in the futures markets and silver goes to a cash basis, you can pick a price to the upside.

It would certainly be a price that would make silver producers ecstatic. Further to that, Eric Sprott has urged silver producers to hold some of their cash in physical silver. We think withholding silver from the market increases the probability for a failure to deliver in the futures markets, which, of course, we think would be a very interesting event for silver speculators.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t6drul

-KWN: Silver Eagle Sales Are Exploding, “Demand is Shocking.” Bill Haynes, President and owner of CMI Gold & Silver had this to say about the situation: “Silver eagle sales by the US Mint are absolutely exploding in January. I think that’s an indication of more widespread recognition of the financial problems the world is facing and that’s an easy, convenient coin for investors to buy. This could turn out to be another record year for silver eagle sales by the US Mint, maybe in the neighborhood of 40 million ounces.”

“I’m shocked by the demand for eagles. As an example we just had a buyer who picked up $1.5 million of one ounce silver eagles and that’s all he wanted the eagles. The significant thing I’m seeing here, Eric, is there is next to no selling by retail customers. It would appear the gold and silver, held by the public, is in extremely strong hands.

People who are buying these metals are buying and they are holding on. To me this is an indication we are still in the very early stages of a precious metals bull market. This is especially the case for buyers of silver eagles, they buy and they hold. They simply do not come back into the market to sell. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7n9uy6o

-On any further “risk on” general asset price weakness, silver is my asset of choice. I bought physical silver a week ago at a spot price of about $27 and have orders with my dealer to buy more around $22.50. To be an owner of silver one must be prepared to leave some purchasing cash on the table. You should have a plan to keep buying the metal in the case of an unforeseen market decline. I see silver hitting new highs in 12-18 months.

These quick and hard declines have often occurred with little or no warning, and I expect them to continue happening for a long time. MACD looks very good here, but RSI can still drop a little lower. I would not be surprised to see silver move sideways or even decline for 2 to 3 more weeks, but I think the next big move will be up, rather than down! Morris Hubbartt

-Gene Arensberg: Silver, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Arensberg gets out his charts and sees an explosion building for silver. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10858

-Clive Maund: Silver Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86wsgse

-Keiser Report: Interviews David Morgan on Silver and Debt. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eqx8rz

-Keith Weiner: March Silver in Backwardation. March silver has been flirting with backwardation since the end of 2011, and today it has moved more firmly into backwardated territory. This is extremely bullish for silver, and let me explain why. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p4fv7c

-Przemyslaw Radomski: Silver Confirms the Bullish Outlook for Precious Metals. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l2zcqe

-Jeff Nielson: Gold-Silver Price Ratio Getting Silly Again. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6w35pzb

-Dr. Jeff Lewis and Grant Williams: Outlook for 2012 and Keeping Your Emotions Away From Your Silver. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77r6ymu

-Hubert Moolman: Why Silver For A Monetary Collapse? Part 2. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rtms5f

-Ted Butler: Three Elements of Manipulation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84mu5wv

-Haynes, Norcini review precious metals week for KWN. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10856

-Michael Snyder: How To Prepare For An Economic Collapse. How should people prepare for the difficult years that are coming? I get asked about that a lot. Once people really examine the facts, it is not too hard to convince them that an economic collapse is coming. But once they accept that reality, most of them want to know what they can do to prepare themselves and their families for the hard times that are ahead. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/826nus3

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QE

-Total assets on the Fed’s balance sheet stood at a near-record $2.92 trillion on Jan. 4. The central bank expanded its portfolio by purchasing $2.3 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt, mortgage-backed securities and housing agency debt to push down longer-term interest rates once its benchmark lending rate hit zero in December 2008. The Fed expanded its portfolio in two rounds of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing. Bloomberg

-Central Banks ‘Printing Money Like Gangbusters’: Gross. The world’s central banks are “printing money like gangbusters,” which could revive the threat of inflation, Pimco founder Bill Gross told CNBC. By putting “hundreds of billions” in currency in circulation, the central banks “can produce reflation that’s why we’re seeing the pop in oil, gold” and other commodities, he said. At the same time, “there’s the potential for deflation if the private credit markets can’t produce some sort of confidence and solvency going forward,” Gross said. “So we’re at great risk here, not only in the U.S. but on a global basis.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v2qsjj

-Bernanke Doubles Down on Fed Mortgage Bet. Ben S. Bernanke is signaling his willingness to double down on a three-year bet that’s failed to revive housing, showing the extent of the Federal Reserve chairman’s effort to wrest a recovery from the deepest recession.

Since the Fed started buying $1.25 trillion of mortgage bonds in January 2009, the value of U.S. housing has fallen 4.1 percent, and is down 32 percent from its 2006 peak, according to an S&P/Case-Shiller index.

The central bank is poised to buy about $200 billion this year, or more than 20 percent of new loans, as it reinvests debt that’s being paid off. Some Fed officials have said they may support additional purchases that Barclays Capital estimates could total as much as $750 billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qhsc38

-Fed Officials Say Housing Market Needs More Aid to Boost Growth. Three Federal Reserve policy makers said the U.S. government should try new ways to spur the housing market without agreeing about how much more the central bank needs to do to bring down interest rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7×9u9lo

-Fed Officials Present Contrasting Views of Bank’s Policy of Accommodation. Two Federal Reserve officials laid out contrasting views of Fed attempts to bolster the economy, with one seeing a need for more asset purchases and another warning that current accommodation risks provoking instability. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rouz5m

-Evans Says ‘Only Modest’ Pickup in Economy Warrants Federal Reserve Action. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said signs of improvement in the economy are modest and the central bank should push forward with “substantial” monetary stimulus. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h6jofc

-Fed’s Lockhart Avoids a ‘Rigid Position’ on Further Easing. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said that while the economy should improve this year, he’s not taking a firm stance on whether the central bank should try to lower interest rates again. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rd39ll

-Fed officials signal more action may be needed. Federal Reserve officials signaled more help for the U.S. economy may be necessary. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zvd7ae

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Worst ahead for euro zone, but it will survive: Reuters poll. The worst is yet to come in the euro zone’s debt crisis but the currency union will survive 2012 intact, according to a Reuters poll of economists who say France will probably lose its top-notch credit rating. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7434tg5

-Greece should quit euro unless “massive” funding given: Czech. Greece should leave the euro zone and devalue its new currency unless Europe is willing to provide “massive” funding for the indebted country, Czech central bank Governor Miroslav Singer said in an interview. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6wwuv7q

-Greek Euro Exit Weighed By German Lawmakers. Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party are stepping up pressure on Greece as it struggles to meet the terms of its second bailout, saying that a Greek exit from the euro region would be manageable. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7a7onl8

-ECB must do more to avert euro collapse: Fitch. The European Central Bank should ramp up its buying of troubled euro zone debt to support Italy and prevent a “cataclysmic” collapse of the euro, David Riley, the head of sovereign ratings for Fitch, said.

Speaking to investors as part of a European roadshow, Riley said a collapse of the euro would be disastrous for the global economy, and while it is not Fitch’s baseline scenario, it could happen if Italy did not find a way out of its debt problems. “The end of the euro would be cataclysmic. The euro is a reserve currency,” Riley said.

“What would that do in terms of financial and political stability?” “It is hard to believe the euro will survive if Italy does not make it through,” he said, adding that while many saw Italy as too politically and economically important to be allowed to fail, “one might also argue that it is too big to rescue.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ez9fen

-Soros says EU break-up would be catastrophic: report. A collapse of the euro and break-up of the European Union would have catastrophic consequences for the global financial system, billionaire investor George Soros was quoted as saying. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rsaj3q

-Soros Says Europe’s Debt Woes ‘More Serious’ Than 2008 Crisis. Billionaire investor George Soros said Europe’s sovereign-debt woes are “more serious” than the financial crisis of 2008 and that the world faces the prospect of a “vicious circle” of deflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pw866g

-Germany Is Now Officially Getting Paid To Borrow Money. This is how desperate European investors are for a safe-haven: They’re paying Germany to “borrow” money. Germany just held a 3.9 billion EUR auction of 6 month bills. The interest rate: -0.0122%. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87atpba

-Ponzi Planet, The Danger Debt Poses to the Western World. Countries around the world, particularly in the West, are hopelessly in the red, with debt rising every day. Even worse, politicians seem paralyzed, unable or unwilling to do anything about it. It is a global disaster that threatens the immediate future. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7d3lpn8

-Europe Banks Resist Draghi Bid to Lend. Banks are hoarding the European Central Bank’s record 489 billion-euro ($625 billion) injection into the banking system, thwarting attempts by policy makers to avert a credit crunch in the region. Almost all of the money loaned to 523 euro-area lenders last month wound up back on deposit at the Frankfurt-based central bank instead of pouring into the financial system, ECB data show. Banks will use most of the three-year loans to meet their refinancing needs for this year and next, analysts at Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc estimate. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77k3lax

-Mafia now “Italy’s No.1 bank” as crisis bites: report. Organized crime has tightened its grip on the Italian economy during the economic crisis, making the Mafia the country’s biggest “bank” and squeezing the life out of thousands of small firms, according to a report. Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a “national emergency,” said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yyda6t

-Borrowers turn lenders as banks tap firms for cash. Blue-chip names like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Peugeot are among firms bailing out Europe’s ailing banks in a reversal of the established roles of clients and lenders. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jmr9d3

-Swiss central bank chairmanquits over wife’s currency trade. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10860

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Obama formally requests debt limit increase. President Barack Obama on Thursday issued a formal request to the U.S. Congress for the next increase in the national debt ceiling. Obama, in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, said “further borrowing is required to meet existing commitments.”

Congress is unlikely to block the expected $1.2 trillion increase request, which is meant to ensure the debt limit will not be reached again until after November’s presidential election. It was allowed for in an August deal between Obama’s Democrats and Republican lawmakers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gcgmha

-U.S. Budget Deficit Widened 10% to $86 Billion in December. The U.S. government’s budget deficit widened 10 percent in December as spending rose more quickly than tax revenue. The gap expanded to $86 billion, from a $78.1 billion shortfall in December 2010, according to Treasury Department data released in Washington. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ud6cv2

-34 Facts About The National Debt That Should Set America On Fire With Rage. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6q6mvw9

1) During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government spent 3.7 trillion dollars but it only brought in 2.4 trillion dollars.

2) When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was less than 1 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt is over 15.2 trillion dollars.

3) During 2011, U.S. debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP for the first time ever.

4) According to Wikipedia, the monetary base “consists of coins, paper money (both as bank vault cash and as currency circulating in the public), and commercial banks’ reserves with the central bank.” Currently the U.S. monetary base is sitting somewhere around 2.7 trillion dollars. So if you went out and gathered all of that money up it would only make a small dent in our national debt. But afterwards there would be no currency for anyone to use.

5) The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011.

6) The U.S. government has total assets of 2.7 trillion dollars and has total liabilities of 17.5 trillion dollars. The liabilities do not even count 4.7 trillion dollars of intragovernmental debt that is currently outstanding.

7) During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

8) It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will surpass 23 trillion dollars in 2015.

9) According to the GAO, the U.S. government is facing 34 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities for social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare. These are obligations that we have already committed ourselves to but that we do not have any money for.

10) Others estimate that the unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government now total over 117 trillion dollars.

-Size of U.S. debt is now the same as its entire economy: $15.23 Trillion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84bqv9b

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PENSION CRISIS

-Europe’s $39 Trillion Pension Threat Grows as Regional Economies Sputter. Even before the euro crisis, people were worried about Europe’s pension bomb. State-funded pension obligations in 19 of the European Union nations were about five times higher than their combined gross debt, according to a study commissioned by the European Central Bank.

The countries in the report compiled by the Research Center for Generational Contracts at Freiburg University in 2009 had almost 30 trillion euros ($39.3 trillion) of projected obligations to their existing populations. Germany accounted for 7.6 trillion euros and France 6.7 trillion euros of the liabilities, authors Christoph Mueller, Bernd Raffelhueschen and Olaf Weddige said in the report.

“This is a totally unsustainable situation that quite clearly has to be reversed,” Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in a telephone interview. A recession threatening the world’s second-biggest economic bloc, along with efforts to reduce debt across Europe, is exacerbating the financial risks.

Stable or falling birthrates, plus rising life expectancies, are adding to pressures, with the proportion of economic output devoted to spending on retirement benefits projected to rise by a quarter to 14 percent by 2060, according to the ECB report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bvz22t

-There’s A 82% Chance That California’s Public Pension System Will Run Out Of Money. New study finds California’s big government worker retirement funds short $498 billion. California is on a destructive path of grossly expanding debt to finance public worker pensions, much like many European nations. Unless dramatic steps are taken soon, the Golden State will suffer its own version of Greek tragedy.

The state’s public worker pension problem has worsened since last year when the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research reported obligations far outstripped the state’s ability to pay benefits owed for the three major retirement systems the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teacher Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP).

The three systems collectively have promised $498 billion in payments they can’t fully pay, the Stanford study concluded. That’s a 17 percent increase in two years. Putting off a solution adds about $3.4 million to the tab for each day of delay. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cblsxze

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REAL ESTATE

-Government Set to Sell Foreclosures in Bulk. The Obama administration, in conjunction with federal regulators and led by the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is very close to announcing a pilot program to sell government owned foreclosures in bulk to investors as rentals, according to administration officials. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/855xp7z

-Home prices fall in November for 4th month: CoreLogic. Home prices fell for a fourth straight month in November as distressed sales continued to weigh on prices, data analysis firm CoreLogic said. CoreLogic’s home price index fell 1.4 percent in November from the previous month. Compared with November of last year, prices were down 4.3 percent, steeper than the 3.7 percent year-over-year decline seen in October. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jaagy5

-Home Seizures May Jump 25% as U.S. Foreclosures Resume, RealtyTrac Says. Banks may seize more than 1 million U.S. homes this year after legal scrutiny of their foreclosure practices slowed actions against delinquent property owners in 2011, RealtyTrac Inc. said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73boxqt

-U.S. says housing market still “fragile.” Another 26,877 Homeowners won permanent reductions in their mortgages in November under the Obama administration’s main foreclosure prevention program but the housing market remains fragile, a report said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7w2lb8j

-As home prices fall, more borrowers walk away. A survey last year by two Chicago-area finance professors, Paola Sapienza at Northwestern University and Luigi Zingales at the University of Chicago, found that roughly three out of 10 mortgage defaults in 2010 were by homeowners who could afford to make their payments, up from 22 percent in 2009. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/75r4h35

-Foreclosures Worsen in New York, New Jersey as Arizona Improves. The number of homes in the foreclosure pipeline is increasing in states including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, where the process is slowed by courts, as Arizona, California and Nevada digest their backlog.

Home loans that were delinquent or in foreclosure fell in three states hit hard by the housing market collapse, dropping 19 percent in Nevada, 21 percent in California and 25 percent in Arizona in the year through Nov. 30, Lender Processing Services Inc. reported today. At the same time, they rose 7.4 percent in New Jersey, 5.2 percent in Connecticut and 2 percent in New York, as mandatory judicial procedures delayed seizures. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72atyb8

-Foreigners Seek Haven in London Luxury Homes. Luxury-home prices in central London gained for a 14th consecutive month in December as overseas buyers sought safer investments and competed for a smaller number of properties for sale, Knight Frank LLP said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7me7657

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Kelley: Nuclear Arms Charge Against Iran Is No Slam Dunk. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6owgwrr

-Magnetic bomb kills nuclear scientist in Iran; Israel accused. Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and wounding two people. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yzbg2c

-Obama Ready to Use Military Force to Stop Nuclear Iran, Ex-Adviser Says. No one should doubt that President Barack Obama is prepared to use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon if sanctions and diplomacy fail, the president’s former special assistant on Iran said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ajsawq

-China says war over Iran will bring disaster. A top Chinese diplomat said war over the Iranian nuclear issue would bring disaster to the world economy and urged all nations involved to exercise restraint and prevent hostilities. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v2y8xj

-EU Considering Moving Iran Embargo Discussion to Jan. 23, Diplomat Says. The European Union is considering bringing forward a meeting of foreign ministers to Jan. 23, from Jan. 30, that will discuss a possible embargo on imports of Iranian oil, an EU diplomat said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ek48js

-Iran Able to Block Strait of Hormuz, General Dempsey Says on CBS. Iran has the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time,” and the U.S. would take action to reopen it, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8774v56

-West readies oil plan in case of Iran crisis. Western powers this week readied a contingency plan to tap a record volume from emergency stockpiles to replace nearly all the Gulf oil that would be lost if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pwpde5

-Hormuz Bypass Oil Pipeline Is Delayed Amid Iran Tensions. A pipeline that would allow crude oil from the United Arab Emirates to bypass the Strait of Hormuz separating it from Iran has been delayed because of construction difficulties, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/74m5sg6

-Israel preparing for nuclear Iran: report. Israel is preparing for Iran to become a nuclear power and has accepted it may happen within a year, the London Times reported citing an Israeli security report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/765nnzz

-Iran Sentences American to Death Amid Tensions Over Hormuz. An Iranian court sentenced a former U.S. soldier of Iranian descent to death for spying amid rising tensions over concern the Persian Gulf nation may try to close the Strait of Hormuz if Western sanctions are imposed. The revolutionary court found Amir Mirzaei Hekmati guilty of collaborating “with a hostile country and spying for the Central Intelligence Agency,” Iran’s state-controlled Fars news agency said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76at7ct

-Iran and Russia drop dollar for their own currencies in bilateral trade. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10854

-China warns U.S. to be “careful” in military refocus. China’s Ministry of Defence warned the United States to be “careful in its words and actions” after announcing a defence rethink that stresses responding to China’s rise by shoring up U.S. alliances and bases across Asia. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7alykqf

-Al-Qaeda Members Gripe Over Cash Crunch as U.S. Targets Funding. Few people noticed Saudi Arabia’s three-day conference in September on disrupting terrorism financing. For a team at the U.S. Treasury Department, though, it was a long-sought victory in the fight against al-Qaeda. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72hjj8s

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – January 13th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, January 13, 2012

World Financial Report – January 6th, 2012

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: 2011 Final Numbers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m4ydct

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Global Inflation Numbers. Reuters

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Iran Oil Exports By Country. Reuters

-What OPEC, the IEA Say About an Iran Embargo. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7clo9sj

-”Never in the history of the world has there been a situation so bad that the government can’t make it worse.” Henry Morganthau Jr.

-Just 55.3 percent of Americans between 16 and 29 have jobs. And earlier this year, Americans’ student loan debt surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever. CNNMoney

-Morgan Stanley Makes A Very Specific QE3 Prediction. We believe that a package of Treasury and MBS purchases of US$500-750 billion will arrive sometime between March and June. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6s9wntp

-$6.3 Trillion Wiped Off Global Markets in 2011. Almost $6.3 trillion was erased from global stock markets this year as the euro zone financial crisis reverberated across the world in the latter half of 2011, calling into question the future of the world’s largest currency bloc. Global stock market capitalization dropped 12.1 percent to $45.7 trillion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83lvr4q

-World’s Biggest Economies Face $7.6 Trillion Bond Tab as Rally Seen Fading. Governments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs. Led by Japan’s $3 trillion and the U.S.’s $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year. Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7yxm4f7

-’True Revolution’ Ahead for US Fiscal Future: Greenspan. The United States faces a “true revolution” in the choices it will have to make to secure its fiscal future now that the welfare state has run up against a “brick wall of economic reality,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.

“Cutting back on benefits that are ‘entitled’ is going to be a far harder political task than curbing federal discretionary spending. We have created a level of entitlements that will require a greater share of real resources to fulfill than the economy seems likely to be able to supply,” he said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rz5pgm

-30 Statistics That Show The Middle Class Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, that is rapidly changing. The statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the U.S. middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012.

The decline of the middle class is not something that has happened all of a sudden. Rather, there has been a relentless grinding down of the middle class over the last several decades. Millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas, the rate of inflation has far outpaced the rate that our wages have grown, and overwhelming debt has choked the financial life out of millions of American families. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83c6rck

-U.S. Companies Added 325,000 Jobs: ADP. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hcwv3z

-Initial Jobless Claims in U.S. Fall to 372,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6v5p759

-El-Erian Says There’s No Appetite to Raise Global Rates in 2012. Policy makers are unlikely to raise borrowing costs in 2012, with benchmark rates to stay at or close to zero in the U.S. and Europe, according to PIMCO’s Mohamed A. El-Erian. “You’ll see policy rates in the U.S. and Europe floored at or near zero,” El-Erian said. “I don’t think there will be any appetite or need to raise interest rates in the U.S. and Europe.”

The Federal Reserve has said it will keep its target rate for overnight loans between banks between zero and 0.25 percent through mid-2013, and is now selling $400 billion of its short- term Treasuries and reinvesting the proceeds into longer-term government debt in a program traders dubbed Operation Twist. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gggxhg

-Gross predicts “paranormal” market activity in 2012. Most developed economies have not, in fact, deleveraged since 2008 and credit remains resilient because of the multitude of monetary stimulus packages being made available through central banks in the U.S. and Europe, Gross wrote. This risks leading to unraveling of financial markets if policy makers are unable to foster growth and inflation accelerates, he said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kpbn9p

-Dollar’s Demise Exaggerated as 13% Gain Since 2008 Proves Currency’s Value. Moves by the Federal Reserve to flood the world with dollars are doing little to dent the currency’s value, bolstering the appeal of U.S. assets at a time when the government needs the support of foreign investors the most.

The U.S. Dollar Index has appreciated 13 percent from a record low in March 2008 even as the Fed kept interest rates at about zero and printed cash to buy $2.3 trillion of Treasury and mortgage-related bonds, and is little changed since 1991. The IMF said that the greenback’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves rose in the third quarter by the most since 2008. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6wgah34

-Byron Wien’s Ten Predictions For 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h98l6k

-Jeffrey Gundlach: This Presentation Has Every Chart You Need To Understand The Global Financial Markets And Economy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79w9lcu

-Barry Ritholtz: 10 Forecasts As To What The Forecasters Will Be Forecasting. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7f2yanu

-The spectre of 1932: How a loss of faith in politicians and democracy could make 2012 the most frightening year in living memory. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8ysuul2

-MF Global Sold Assets to Goldman Before Collapse. MF Global unloaded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of securities to Goldman Sachs in the days leading up to its collapse, according to two former MF Global employees with direct knowledge of the transactions. But it did not immediately receive payment from its clearing firm and lender, JPMorgan Chase & Co one of the sources said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/899rcwn

-Swiss central banker dumped francs on eve of devaluation. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10847

-Hong Kong Keeps Ban on Some Chinese Poultry Imports After Flu Link Found. Poultry imports from the part of southern China where a man died from the H5N1 virus remain banned in Hong Kong after genetic tests linked the man’s strain of the disease to the version found in wild birds in the city. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7tvpy6l

-China’s ‘Demographic Tsunami’ Begins. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/87y4esq

-NBC Gets $4 Million for Super Bowl Ads, Sells Out Inventory. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79odeot

-Anonymous exposes 75,000 credit card numbers. Hacker collective Anonymous has just dumped 200 GB of names, email addresses and passwords for around 860,000 Stratfor users. Anonymous also exposed credit card numbers for 75,000 paying customers of Stratfor. Stratfor, a security think tank, provides reports on international security and related threats to government and military personnel as well as to the private sector. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xkvjkm

-Bentley Sells More Cars in China Than U.K. Volkswagen AG’s super-luxury Bentley brand sold more cars in China than Britain for the first time in its 92-year history and said it’s seeking to capitalize on wealthy customers reopening their wallets this year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bn9fl2

-Top executives take 3 hours to make an average worker’s yearly salary. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7brzurx

-Americans make up half of the world’s richest 1%. The United States holds a disproportionate amount of the world’s rich people. It only takes $34,000 a year, after taxes, to be among the richest 1% in the world. That’s for each person living under the same roof, including children. (So a family of four, for example, needs to make $136,000.) Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78xmb26

-Mark Cuban: There’s Only One Thing In Life You Can Control: Your Own Effort. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78yvteu

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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 .26 fancy intense Pink emerald cut VS1. Very rarely do you come across a pure intense Pink Argyle diamond that is an emerald cut and VS1 clarity. Most of the Diamonds from argyle are not even graded on clarity as most are not eye clean. This Diamond would be an excellent investment for any investor/collector. Harold Seigel-Watch video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/73xwfq5

-Buckingham Palace to Host Diamond Exhibition. Exhibition held in honor of Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and displays unprecedented number of her personal jewels. Among the pieces in the exhibition is the Williamson Brooch which features a rare pink diamond set by Cartier in a jonquil-shaped brooch with 200 small diamonds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6oz677k

-Check Out The $300,000 Rock LeBron James Put On His Fiancé’s Finger. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7f4ct8d

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GOLD

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Gold price rises again its 11th consecutive year. Gold has done it again. For the eleventh year in a row, the gold price rose in terms of US dollars. Gold’s rate of exchange to the US dollar climbed 10.2% in 2011, so an arithmetic average of its annual rate of appreciation for the last eleven years when measured in the world’s reserve currency is a truly remarkable 17.7%. Gold also rose in 2011 against each of the eight other major world currencies presented in the following table. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m4pmhn

-Dennis Gartman admits he made a bad call on gold. The investment letter writer has declared that he was wrong about gold. In his daily investment letter, Mr. Gartman officially reversed his outlook for gold, saying he now views the precious metal as being in a bull market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rkp2y6 and http://www.gata.org/node/10850

-”Gold gained 10 percent in 2011, rallying for an 11th year, as investors bought gold to protect their wealth from market volatility due to the Euro zone debt crisis.” Bloomberg

-”Unlimited government requires unlimited funding. The unfunded liabilities of the USA are staggering. Over the next 20-25 years there is probably a gigantic $75 trillion unfunded liability problem for the US government. Think of the move in gold against the dollar with a debt of $15 trillion. Can you imagine the action in gold with a debt five times the current size?” Morris Hubbartt

-”While nothing is a sure thing, this chart shows the potential for gold to move towards the $2300 area by around mid-year. This past summer saw gold up and out of a fairly large uptrend channel, with a push into the $1900 area. My expectations are to see gold blast into the super highway zone, and begin a new trajectory to much higher prices.” Morris Hubbartt

-Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities Inc. in Toronto, believes gold will trade around $1,550 (U.S.) in the first quarter as investors continue to favour the U.S. dollar for safety amid concerns over Europe’s finances and easing gold demand from China and India. He expects the metal to rise to around $2,100 (U.S.) in the fourth quarter after governments and central banks act to fix Europe and stimulate economic growth. Globe and Mail

-Barclays Capital: Gold’s High in 2012 Seen At $2,200 Oz, Silver At $45. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bvdpq7

-“Assets are flowing to the most liquid asset in the world right now, which is the U.S. currency,” said Paul de Sousa, head of business development at Bullion Management Group Inc. in Toronto. “Gold is always a haven in times of uncertainty, and what’s been happening in the past few weeks and months doesn’t negate that. Ultimately, the world’s reserve currency is issued by the world’s largest debtor nation. Isn’t that ironic?” Globe and Mail

-Commodities Rebound Seen as Economy Skirts Slump. Gold is predicted to reach a record in 2012, rising as much as 33 percent to $2,140 an ounce. Silver, the precious metal most used in industry, will advance as much as 44 percent to $42.20 an ounce, a price last reached in September. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77akztt

-Blackstone Group’s Byron Wien, who correctly predicted last year’s gain in gold, said the metal will rally 15 percent in 2012 to $1,800 an ounce. Silver will rise to $40 this year, said Wien. “Accommodative monetary policies throughout the developed world cause a renewed migration to hard assets by individual investors and sovereign-wealth funds,” Wien of Blackstone said in a report. Bloomberg

-Gold may rally to $2,400 this year, Citigroup said. The record was $1,923.70 on Sept. 6. Bloomberg

-Gold reserves increased in November at Belarus, Turkey, Tajikistan, Macedonia, Mauritius and Morocco, and declined in Mexico, according to data on the International Monetary Fund’s website. Turkey’s holdings increased to 5.758 million ounces from 4.429 million ounces and Mexico’s declined to 3.413 million ounces from 3.417 million ounces in October, the data showed. Morocco’s holdings were 710,000 ounces in November compared with 708,800 ounces in October, according to the data. Bloomberg

-Alena Bialevich and Jeff Clark: 2011: Dud or Springboard? 2011 was remarkable in many ways for the precious metals markets. Gold soared to new highs in early September, hitting at an intraday record of $1,920/ounce on the fifth. Silver screamed to within a hair of $50 on April 28. Corrections ensued, and the metals ended the year on a disappointing note for silver and an underwhelming note for gold. Equities for the sector were down, to way down for junior ventures, logging their worst annual return since 2008. Here’s a table of 2011 returns from most major asset classes.

The Fundamental Case for Gold Remains Rock Solid. Gold demand from investment and central banks grew tremendously last year. Further, the geography of gold buying was widespread, with big purchases coming from Europe during the initial bouts of their crisis and Japan after the Fukushima accident.

Small investors and monetary authorities alike purchased gold due to economic, financial, monetary, and political concerns. Quite frankly, we see none of these factors changing anytime soon. Further, many countries continue to debase their currencies at phenomenal rates.

While US Treasuries may be a good temporary parking spot for cash, don’t kid yourself about what’s behind it all: nothing. The dollar is a fiat currency, no more. A true safe haven is something that cannot be debased, devalued, or destroyed by any government. After accounting for inflation, your dollars are worth less every year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pgn5ko

-Jeff Clark: Why Has Gold Been Down? After all, in spite of some short-term fixes, there remains no real resolution to the sovereign debt issues in many European countries. We’re certainly not spending less money in the US, and now we’re bailing out Europe via currency swaps with the European Central Bank. Shouldn’t gold be rising? Yes, but nothing happens in a vacuum. There are some simple explanations as to why gold remains in a funk.

  1. The MF Global bankruptcy, the seventh-largest in US history, forced a high degree of liquidation of commodities futures contracts, including gold. Many institutional investors had to sell whether they wanted to or not. This is similar to why big declines in the stock market can force funds and other large investors to sell some gold to raise cash for margin calls or meet redemption requests.
  2. The dollar has been rising. Money fleeing the Eurozone has to go somewhere, and some of it is heading into US bonds, which means first converting the foreign currency into dollars.
  3. It’s tax-loss selling season, something that’s also impacting gold stocks. Funds and individual investors are selling underwater positions for tax purposes. Funds also sell their big winners to lock in gains for the year and dress up quarterly reports.

These forces have all acted to depress the gold price. Notice I didn’t say that gold has suddenly become viewed as a poor safe haven. Nor that many of the world’s major currencies are no longer being debased. nor that global sovereign debt issues are resolved nor that interest rates are positive.

No, the fundamental reasons for owning gold are still intact. So don’t let the selling depress you. Let’s put gold’s recent price action into perspective. It peaked on September 5 at $1,895 and has thus been in decline for about three months. Yet look at the bull market’s biggest three-month correction in relationship to the ultimate trend.

Gold fell 20% from August 1 to October 31, 2008, the biggest rolling three-month decline in our current bull market. And yet, it eventually powered much higher, in spite of many investors and industry experts thinking it had peaked at the time. The final quarter of 2011 ended down 5.5% over the previous quarter. The point? Don’t confuse short-term volatility with long-term forces.

The investor who looks only at today’s headlines is prone to making ill-timed decisions. I realize that prices could trade lower but this is why we keep a high level of cash. By the time this bull market is over, our current pullback will probably look something like the small red box in the chart above, with far higher prices in the intervening months and years.

Which makes current prices a buying opportunity. I don’t know if we’re at the bottom of our recent decline or not but I do know where gold and silver are ultimately headed Casey Research’s Chief Economist and Editor of The Casey Report, Bud Conrad, is convinced gold will hit $2,000 in the first half of this year. If he is right, the opportunity to buy at today’s levels will be fleeting.

In the meantime, stay the course with your precious metals investments, no matter how the short-term picture looks. Gold stocks remain undervalued, and these are turbulent times. They appear to be far from over. Gold remains the #1 asset protector. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86uv544

-John Embry: Gold Will Not Trade Below $1,500 Ever Again. “I do think there is a strong probability that the end of 2011 marked the bottom for gold and silver and that may be the lows that will ever be seen. That’s a strong statement, but the reality is gold and silver may never trade lower than that again.”

“When gold broke through $1,000, I said it would never trade below $1,000 again and it hasn’t. I now think that, unless we have a complete and total financial collapse in the world, I would be surprised if gold ever traded below $1,500 ever again.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qa7t64

-James Turk; Gold in 2012. To end as I began, the future is unknowable. Consequently, we do not have solutions for today’s problems; we only have choices. For 5,000 years, gold has been the world’s preferred money. Being tested time and again over the millennia, gold’s proven record continues to make it the preferred choice for a future that is always uncertain. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wo8ezh

-Richard Russell: We are Watching Market History in Gold. “This year’s close for gold marks the 11th year for higher year end gold closing. To my knowledge this is the longest bull market of any kind in history in which each year’s close was above the previous year. This fabulous bull market will not end with a whisper and a fizzle.

I continue to believe that the upside gold crescendo of this bull market lies ahead. We are watching market history.” “I note the frustration and anger of the anti-gold crowd. To miss 12 years of rising prices is enough to make any investor furious with himself. I would guess that 99 percent of Americans have never participated in the gold bull market. Thus, sour grapes is the sentiment of the gold-haters.

Happy to say my subscribers who listened to me in the early years of the gold bull market have enjoyed the riches bestowed upon them by the greatest bull market in history. Below are the last day of the year quotes for gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vdt5t6

-John Hathaway: Decline in Gold & the Shares Has Run its Course. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79b8d7y

-Jim Rickards: US to go to War with Iran, Oil & Gold to Spike. When asked about the call, from Egon von Greyerz, for gold to move into the $3,000 to $5,000 range in 2012, Rickards responded, “Well, it’s certainly possible, I would not rule it out. I definitely see it in that range, so I agree completely with Egon that’s where it is heading.

Timing is always tricky. I have the direction and the magnitude right, but I see it as 2013, then going into 2014, I can definitely see it (gold) getting to that level. 2012 might be a stretch, but it could happen. Look, I would absolutely not rule it out, but it’s probably more in the next two years, rather than in the next year.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cbwzxb4

-Jim Sinclair: Keep Your Eye On The Ball Of Gold Fundamentals. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/86trn5m

-Jim Sinclair: Negativity In Gold Reaches Epic Levels. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lhe72k

-Michael Pento: Gold is The Last Reserve Chute to Be Deployed. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72eaaa3

-Stephen Leeb: Gold Update. I’ll give you my target for gold at the end of 2012, it’s going to be trading somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000. This correction, in other words, is a non-event. The rubber band analogy applies here, for every dollar down on gold, it will mean an extra dollar on the upside when we get the reversal. It’s so important for investors that are not seasoned, it’s so important not to get shaken out of your position here. And if you have extra money on the side, this is a great buying opportunity. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6w6dokj

-China gold exchange restrictions will cut risk, not appetite. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10837

-Indian Gold Imports Plunge in Fourth Quarter. Gold imports by India, the world’s top consumer, plunged 56 percent to 125 metric tons in the fourth quarter, cutting full-year imports by 8.4 percent as record high prices and high interest rates hit demand, the head of India’s leading bullion body said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tycngy

-India gold jewellery move may boost demand. India has made hallmarking gold jewellery mandatory, a senior government minister said, a move that could boost demand in the world’s biggest gold market by taking care of quality worries. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jy7hne

-Jim Rogers: Gold could go to $1,200-$1,300/oz. Rogers believes investors are currently a little too bearish on the euro and that gold is overdue for a correction but, he remains bullish on commodities in general. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hkwgbh

-Peter Schiff: Was 2011 The End of the Gold Rush? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ntfsvk

-Peter Brimelow: Gold bugs’ unmerry Christmas. But radical bugs say they know why. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7naa6ck

-Weekly precious metals market review at King World News. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10841

-Paul cites ’shenanigans’ with loaned gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10840

-Ex-Fed Governor Warsh again confirms gold price suppression. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10839

-American Banker notes GATA’s efforts to clarify Blinder’s position. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10844

-Lars Schall: A gold exercise in futility, Thank you for contacting the New York Fed. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10846

-’Financial repression’ is gold price suppression. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10835

-GoldSeek Radio interviews GATA Chairman Bill Murphy. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10849

-Peter Grandich: The big crime isn’t being wrong but staying wrong. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10851

-Peter Grandich doubles his gold price challenge to Kitco’s Jon Nadler. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10838

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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

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Silver in 2011. Even though its price declined last year, silver has generated average annual rates of appreciation in all nine currencies that are higher than gold. So silver also fits well within a long-term accumulation plan, but only if you are prepared to accept the volatility that comes with it. That volatility is evident from the above table. But the reward for accumulating silver will be its continuing outperformance against gold over the long-run. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m4pmhn

-”Silver is a volatile metal, but there is a compelling opportunity to transfer other assets to silver in these times of extreme weakness of silver against the dollar. Silver is currently my favorite investment. I prefer to buy the physical metal and store it securely. Buyers of silver are in good company, because the net positions of the commercials traders are now actually larger than 2008 when price got as low as about $9! Buy the metal and wait patiently. If you are looking for triple digits, as I am, it is important to hold physical metal because the volatility is probably as “here to stay” as silver itself!” Morris Hubbartt

-”Silver is likely to be subject to strong incoming liquidity flows because this is an election year. Government people want to “juice” the stock markets higher. Silver is an industrial metal as well as a precious metal, and 2012 could see silver mount a very big rally against the dollar.” Stewart Thomson

-”The big commercial silver shorts had a near death experience when the price approached $50 in April. They were at the end of their rope and needed to do something in a hurry. That’s why they rigged prices lower; so that they could buy and save themselves. These well-connected commercials knew, perhaps for the very first time, just how tight the silver market had become and how close we were to a profound physical shortage.

The key is that the silver shortage wasn’t caused by excessive speculative buying or a bubble or a mania. The extreme tightness and near shortage in silver was as a result of the gradual and cumulative impact of normal investment buying over the past five years. There is nothing to suggest that the long term and steady silver investment buying has ended.”

“Because there was no bubble or mania in silver, there was no bubble to burst. The orchestrated takedowns of the price by the big commercial interests were simply so that these commercials could buy and rid themselves of silver short positions. That’s done now. That means that the silver market is now in the best possible shape.”

“What lies ahead for silver is exciting. While we have not witnessed a bubble in silver yet, we will some day. The silver story and the dynamics of the market are too compelling for an investment mania not to emerge at some point. If anything, speculative sentiment has been completely wrung out from silver, clearing the way for speculators and investors to enter the market with a vengeance.

At some point, enough of the world’s industrial silver users will panic as prices climb and attempt to build physical silver inventories. This user buying, something that never kicked in during the run to $50 will create a silver shortage, the likes of which never witnessed before. It seems that the big commercial interests have come to learn the real silver story and they appear to want no part of the short side again. The major pressure of selling has passed and the way seems clear for higher prices. By the time the next chapter in the silver story plays out, $50 could look cheap.” Ted Butler via Ed Steer-Casey Research-Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7kp2bj4

-James Turk: Gold is Great, But Silver is the Next Apple. “Whenever I look at silver I keep going back to the wonderful blog piece you wrote on October 18th, titled, ‘Is Silver the Next Apple?’ That long-term chart of Apple conveys an important message. Despite five major corrections, over ten years, shares of Apple, nevertheless, rose 70 fold.

If you were shaken out on any of those corrections, you would have missed one of greatest bull moves in history.” If anything, the pattern has now become stronger because silver is now testing support in the high 20s and looks like it is forming a double bottom. I still think this flag pattern will send silver to $70 in three months, once silver has broken out to the upside.

Because it is a descending flag pattern, the breakout pattern has now moved down to $37.50, but $35 is the more important resistance level. Once theses two levels are taken out, that three month move to $70 begins. So, as I see it, just keep accumulating physical silver here. The fundamentals for silver continue to remain very bullish and only time will if silver is the next Apple.

I continue to expect that silver will go much higher and reach my $400 per ounce forecast. “If we go back a decade ago in silver and start the bull market in the mid 4s, and silver reaches my long-term target, it will have actually outperformed shares of Apple.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/775cbmo

-John Embry: Silver Update. “I think the smash in paper has made the physical silver market that much tighter. I’m a huge believer in the gold/silver ratio dropping significantly as we move through this bull market. I think the next leg up in the gold price will be accompanied by a falling gold/silver ratio to a level of 10/1 or 15/1.

That just means the silver price will run three times faster than the gold price. The potential in silver is enormous and people are discouraged because of the smash the cartel laid on it. I wouldn’t be, I think it’s a great time to buy physical silver.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qa7t64

-Stephen Leeb: Expect $5 Gas, $60 Silver & $3,000 Gold in 2012. Segueing into silver, silver is even better here. The Chinese have started to stockpile silver, sort of hidden in an announcement they made the other day. They are not going to export any silver. China is not going to export, according to their latest announcement, not even one ounce of silver. So, if I were to target silver for the end of 2012, I’m going to be very, very conservative and say silver will finish 2012 at $60. It’s going to make new all-time highs.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6w6dokj

-The Possibility of $1,000 Silver before Hyperinflation. 2011 was both an amazing and disappointing year for silver investors. The most disappointed of all are those who bought in during the April highs, when silver almost reached $50. However, what these investors need to remember is that not too long ago, people were fretting over changes in prices of ten cents or less. Not too far down the road, the difference between $29 silver and $50 silver will also seem rather minimal. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8abzj7f

-Silver Sales Up As Supply Slips. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rke7th

-Silver’s average annual price reaches record high in 2011. With a 74% gain over 2010, silver outperformed all other precious metals last year in terms of average annual price increases boosted largely by investment demand. The average annual silver price of $35.12 per ounce last year, set a new price record, a 74% gain over the 2010 average annual price of $20.19 per ounce.

The Silver Institute observed Wednesday silver’s average annual price has increased an astounding 703% since 2001. Silver outperformed all other precious metals in terms of average annual price increases. Palladium recorded a 39% gain last year, while gold was 28% higher and platinum rose 7% over 2010 data, the Silver Institute reported. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85j5×6d

-Wealthy to Invest More in Commodities: Survey. Wealthy investors plan to increase their allocations to commodities and private companies while decreasing their cash holdings this year, according to a survey released. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7u93dag

-Indians innovate to keep a shine as silver prices soar. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sjv5yt

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Europe Bonds in Biggest Rally Since Euro Start. Euro-area government bonds had their best month on record in December as Spanish and Italian debt surged in response to unprecedented action from the European Central Bank and political leaders to stem the debt crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/84hxv5n

-Papademos: Greece Faces Default Without Deal. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told business and union leaders today that a disorderly default in March was possible if his government didn’t secure agreement with international creditors on a new economic plan.

“In mid-January, talks begin with the troika which focus on shaping a credible economic adjustment plan for 2012 to 2015,” Papademos said. “The implementation of the agreement to reduce the debt and continuation of financing of the country depends on that. Without this agreement with the troika and subsequent financing, Greece in March faces the immediate risk of a disorderly default.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xrlzc2

-Papademos Warns Fellow Greeks Economic Collapse Looms Without Sacrifice. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told Greeks that cuts in income are the only way to stay in the euro and get more financing from international creditors to avert an economic collapse that may otherwise come as soon as March. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77p39lg

-Greek, Italian cash heads for hills, or under pool. Greeks and Italians are taking their money and running, moving it abroad or even burying it underground for fear the euro zone crisis will topple banks and wipe out what remains of their savings.

Bankers in Greece say worries about the resilience of local banks, coupled with a rise in burglaries, has helped trigger a surge in demand for safe deposit boxes for those who have yet to set up accounts outside in the country. Some are even building their own. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77okvjc

-Paul Mason: Three big questions for the eurozone. Starting from where we are now, there are three big questions:

  • Is the ECB’s unofficial money printing operation – a massively expanded bond-buying venture combined with unlimited provision of cash by global central banks – going to be enough to prevent a second credit crunch, centred on Italy?
  • Does Greece spiral finally into default, social crisis and chaos, raising the prospect of the near-dictatorial economic policies needed if you have to exit the Euro?
  • Do the French banks take so many losses on the sovereign debt of southern Europe that they have to be part nationalised, thus removing the country’s AAA credit rating and the all-important financial parity between Germany and France that lies at the heart of the European system?

Right now my answers to these questions would be yes, yes and yes. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ds8fxh

-Alasdair Macleod: Europe’s future. We are probably witnessing the death-throes of the European Union in its current form, as “the project” to gradually replace national governments and currencies has hit a brick wall. The stark choice between massive government spending cuts and full-scale default are likely to make governments inward-looking and protectionist, and the real fear for the “Eurocracy” is the eventual collapse of the union. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7hxfpss

-Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: 2012 could be the year Germany lets the euro die. So we enter Year IV of the Long Slump, the cruellest yet though not the most acute. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qeny2g

-Eurozone is closer to break-up, warns Standard Chartered’s Peter Sands. The chief executive of Standard Chartered has warned that there is an increasing likelihood of a country falling out of the eurozone because of the inability of politicians to resolve the crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76qg6ut

-Everyone Is Starting To Realize The Size Of Britain’s Debt Crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/732y3jl

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Yes, It’s A New Year And The United States Is Still Broke. The U.S. ran a $1.3 trillion budget deficit in 2011, flat with 2010 and the third year in a row of deficits over $1.3 trillion. The U.S. federal debt load continues to climb as a percentage of GDP and is expected to explode over the next few decades. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vsumzg

-Falling home values mean budget crunches for cities. Baltimore collected $815 million in property taxes during the most recent fiscal year, according to Bill Voorhees, Baltimore’s director of revenue and tax analysis. Next year, the figure is predicted to shrink to $803.5 million. The following year, $773 million. The year after that, $735.7 million. The year after that, $729.4 million. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7mao4ba

-Bailout concerns mounting for federal housing agency. Concerns are growing that the Federal Housing Administration will need to be bailed out by taxpayers. The agency’s latest monthly outlook report revealed a spike in serious delinquencies for FHA-insured loans, posing a further threat to the agency’s already depleted cash reserves. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/884qn5e

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REAL ESTATE

-“Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets, says he is not buying the recent positive data on US housing. He sees US home prices dropping another 10%–30% in 2012.” Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/78hhpvf

-Manhattan Apartment Sales Fall 12%. Manhattan apartment sales fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier as Europe’s debt crisis and sluggish U.S. job growth dimmed buyer appetites. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/786a2xn

-Renter Nation Rages On As New Reality. Despite record low mortgage rates reported today and rising affordability in most U.S. housing markets, rent is the new reality for former home owners and new households alike. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qpo6zf

-6 Reasons Why Buying A Home Is Like Throwing Away Money. Most people see buying a home as a part of the “American Dream”, well for most it’s become a nightmare. Buying a home is pretty much the best way to throw your money away and here’s why. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8949zgo

-FHA says: Flip that house. Flippers, the real estate investors who buy homes on the cheap and quickly resell them at a profit, just got a reprieve from the Federal Housing Administration. In an effort to help stabilize housing prices and unload some of the foreclosures that are flooding low-income communities, the mortgage insurer extended a waiver of its anti-flipping regulations through 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gzse8t

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Iran Makes First Nuclear Fuel Rod. Iran produced its first nuclear fuel rod, state-run news agencies reported, as the country offered to restart international talks over its atomic program. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wkyu5p

-Iran Warns U.S. Against Sending Aircraft Carrier Back to Gulf. The head of Iran’s army warned the U.S. against sending an aircraft carrier back to the Persian Gulf after it passed through the Strait of Hormuz a week ago. “We usually don’t repeat our warning, and we warn only once,” Ataollah Salehi was cited as saying by the state-run Fars news agency. “We recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8aa37ms

-U.S. Spurns Iran’s Demand to Keep Aircraft Carrier Out of the Persian Gulf. The U.S. rebuffed Iran’s demand not to return an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf, a “warning” from Tehran. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h7y4tn

-Pento: Expect $7 or $8 a Gallon Gasoline if Iran Closes Straits. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qcgcd3

-Sanctions imposed on Iran. U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions against financial institutions dealing with Iran’s central bank, which if fully implemented could hamper Tehran’s ability to sell oil on international markets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7jyzdux

-In major blow, EU agrees embargo on Iranian oil. European governments have agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil, EU diplomats said Wednesday, dealing a potentially heavy blow to Tehran that crowns new Western economic sanctions imposing real pain just months before an Iranian election.

The prospective embargo from the European Union, along with tough U.S. financial measures signed into law by President Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve, form a concerted Western campaign to impose sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran says its nuclear program is strictly peaceful, but Western countries say a November U.N. report shows it has sought to build an atomic bomb. Talks between Tehran and major powers broke down a year ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8y4k5yh

-Iraq War Lives on as U.S. Conflict Fuels Debt. The war in Iraq is officially over. The costs will go on. Eight years of dodging improvised explosive devices, repelling insurgent ambushes and quelling sectarian strife already has drained the U.S. of more treasure than any conflict in the nation’s history except World War II. Even though the last U.S. combat troops have left Iraq, American taxpayers will face decades of additional expenses, from veterans’ health care and disability benefits to interest on the debt accumulated to finance the war. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77ozgvh

-Palestinians Weigh ‘Harsh Measures’ for Israel If Talks Fail, Abbas Says. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he may take “harsh measures” if talks with Israel that started today in Jordan do not lead to a halt in West Bank settlement construction by Jan. 26. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/82vx627

-Pentagon Emphasizes Asia-Pacific, Cyber. President Barack Obama presented a revamped U.S. military strategy for an era of budget cuts that pledges to emphasize Asia and space and cyber capabilities while preserving missions such as defeating al-Qaeda. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xt8wkn

-After Tumult of 2011, Here Are Some Global Hotspots to Watch in 2012. Could the world in 2012 surprise us more than it did in 2011? Certainly, after Japan’s earthquake, the Middle East’s upheavals and Osama bin Laden’s death, the bar on shockers will be high. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/76eud8a

© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – January 6th, 2012
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, January 6, 2012

World Financial Report – December 30th, 2011

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Minimum Wage in U.S. Fails to Beat Inflation. Workers in the U.S. earning the minimum wage are worse off now than they were four decades ago. The chart shows that after adjusting for inflation, the federal minimum wage dropped 20 percent from 1967 to 2010, even as the nominal figure climbed to $7.25 an hour from $1.40, a 418 percent gain. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c8d23p9

-CHART OF THE WEEK: China Stocks to Drop on ‘Pretty Bleak’ Economy. China stocks, trading at their biggest discount to global equities in more than five years, may extend the world’s worst two-year loss into 2012 as economic growth slows and money supply tightens. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxwbkol

-”Political priorities run the Western world. If you really believe that QE is not and will not occur to infinity you are an ostrich with your head stuck in the ground. If you think there is willingness to address the debt problem via austerity anywhere in the Western world you are in for a shock.” Jim Sinclair

-“My own feeling is that we’re just repeating the housing bubble in a different form. We’ve substituted an unsustainable buildup of government debt for what is an unsustainable buildup of consumer debt. This one really feels worse to me and more dangerous. I think we’re living in a time of false prosperity.” Robert Goldfarb-Sequoia Fund

-John Williams of ShadowStats.com, using GAAP-Based 2011 U.S. Financial Data, The Actual 2011 Federal Deficit Topped $5.0 Trillion, U.S. Government Debt and Obligations Top $80 Trillion, and Long-Term U.S. Insolvency/Hyperinflation Remain Virtual Certainty. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dxcr9ha

-John Williams: The US Has $100 Trillion in Debts & Obligations. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c5ywx6x

-”With the economy, I’m cautious. I don’t expect a boom in consumer spending over the next two or three years. People don’t have the wherewithal to spend a lot more, and in today’s world, they don’t have the confidence. Confidence can change overnight, but wherewithal cannot.” John Bogle

-”If you’re investing in stocks with the idea of a one-year outcome, you should not invest. You can lose a lot. If you invest in stocks with a five-year outlook, I would think it is highly debatable if you should do that. You have to think about more than just the probabilities of a market crash. You have to consider the consequences for your savings, and whether you’d be decimated.” John Bogle

-Analyst: The Stock Market Is About To Crash. United-ICAP senior technical analyst Walter Zimmerman says the S&P 500 could rally a little further into January before beginning a “traumatic decline” for the rest of 2012, dragged down by weakness in Europe. How traumatic? You might want to sit down for this one.

He thinks the index will reach its 2012 peak in the 1293-1311 zone, then start a “sharp and sustained drop” until December. His downside target is around 579.57. 579.57! The index would have to wipe out the March 2009 lows and fall by more than 50% current levels to reach that target.

And the last time the S&P 500 traded below 600 was in the mid 1990s, when the Backstreet Boys burst on the scene and bell-bottom jeans were making a comeback. Zimmerman’s reasoning is Europe is in an even worse shape now than it was at the beginning of the year.

“If the history of debt tells us anything it is that one cannot solve a debt crisis by lending more money to the bankrupt and the insolvent,” Zimmerman says. He expects 2012′s price action will mirror what the S&P 500 did from its Oct 2007 peak until it bottomed in March 2009.

“The technical patterns suggest that 2012 will be a terrible year for holding stocks. Even if by some miracle the euro zone hangs together, it is already falling into a deep and enduring recession,” says Zimmerman. “We expect this recession will drag down both the USA and China.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cdmph3s

-Gillian Tett: Flash crash threatens to return with a vengeance. Think about it for a moment. A full 18 months have passed since the strange episode that caused the Dow Jones to tumble 650 points in half an hour, wiping $850-billion (U.S.) off share prices, before rebounding. Since then, the issue has faded from view amid the euro zone drama.

But to this day, nobody has fully explained what really happened on May 6. Nor is there any evidence that the fundamental problems that caused the flash crash have been resolved. That leaves some scientists fearing that not only is a repeat of that flash crash possible, but it is probable and next time round, it could be even more damaging. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/buxw744

-Milk Outshines Gold as Top Commodity Performer. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/crubye9

-Avery Goodman: Euro zone gets vast bond monetization through the back door. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10814

-Gerald P. O’Driscoll Jr: The Fed’s covert bailout of Europe. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10825

-Gillian Tett: Ties Between Sovereigns and Banks Set to Deepen. Welcome to a key theme of 2012. During the past four decades, it was widely assumed in the Western world that the main role of banks and asset managers was to provide funding to the private sector, rather than act as a piggy bank for the state. But now that assumption like so many of the other ideas that dominated before 2007 is quietly crumbling. And not just in Japan. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10828

-ECB Has More Scope to Cut Rates. The European Central Bank has more room to cut interest rates to a record low early next year after reports showed the sovereign debt crisis is damping inflation pressures. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cq5658q

-U.S. State, Local Pensions Drop 8.5 Percent. U.S. public pension-fund assets fell in the third quarter by the most since 2008 as stocks sank amid concern that Europe’s debt crisis would curb economic growth, Census Bureau data showed.

Assets of the 100 largest public-worker plans decreased $237 billion, or 8.5 percent, from the prior quarter to $2.53 trillion by Sept. 30, the bureau said in a report. It marks the first decline since the second quarter of 2010 and the biggest since the last three months of 2008, when holdings slid 13 percent during Wall Street’s credit crisis.

The setback may strain state and local governments that have set aside more money to cover retirement benefits. That’s pressured governments already coping with diminished tax collections and has propelled efforts to reduce benefit costs.

The asset decline was driven by losses in stock holdings, which slipped $134.7 billion to $769.6 billion, the Census Bureau said. The value of holdings of corporate bonds, U.S. treasuries, and international securities also fell. The third-quarter (SPC) rout pushed the pensions’ assets back to where they were during the last three months of 2010, wiping out gains this year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c9yphau

-U.S. Retail Sales Rose 4.5% Before Christmas. Sales at U.S. retailers rose 4.5 percent last week from a year earlier, as shoppers snapped up last-minute purchases for Christmas and took advantage of some chains extending hours. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lwdlbv

-U.S. Stores Ramp Up Bargains as Sales Lag. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zc4weh

-Austerity Fuels Worst Christmas in 10 Years for Italy’s Retailers. Italian retailers had the worst Christmas in 10 years, consumer group Codacons said, as austerity measures to combat the sovereign debt crisis prompted households to cut spending. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c8v2v8c

-Sears Tumbles After Retailer Plans to Close 120 Stores Amid Weak Economy. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7e9weza

-BRIC Decade Ends as Growth Peaked. In the past decade, mutual funds poured almost $70 billion into Brazil, Russia, India and China, stocks more than quadrupled gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the economies grew four times faster than America’s. Now Goldman Sachs Group Inc. which coined the term BRIC, says the best is over for the largest emerging markets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xraxn5

-Brazil overtakes UK as sixth biggest economy as Britain falls behind a South American nation for the first time. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7vsdyss

-Women Beating Men to Japanese Service Jobs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3yvzat

-China, Japan to back direct trade of currencies, sidestepping dollar. Japan and China will promote direct trading of yen and yuan without using dollars and will encourage the development of a market for the exchange, to cut costs for companies, the Japanese government said. Japan will also apply to buy Chinese bonds next year, the Japanese government said in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10818

-Japan, India Seal $15 Billion Currency Deal. Japan agreed to make $15 billion available to India in a currency swap arrangement as Europe’s deepening debt crisis threatens to curtail developing Asia’s access to dollar funding. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cyq73wn

-U.S. Seeks RMB Gains; Avoids ‘Manipulator’ Talk. The Obama administration said it will press for further appreciation of the yuan and called the currency undervalued, while declining to brand China a manipulator of its exchange rate. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c25moqd

-Jim Rickards sees ‘Currency Wars’ destroying dollar. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10819

-French Nov jobless total hits 12-year high. The number of jobless people in France hit a 12-year high in November in the latest sign the French job market is deteriorating ahead of the April-May presidential election. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cpjop8n

-Alberta Oil Makes Canada Energy Superpower. Alberta, one of only two land-locked Canadian provinces, is turning a farming and cowboy image on its head as the booming energy sector attracts global attention to its oil sands. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l44rlk

-Getting Worse: 40 Undeniable Pieces Of Evidence That Show That America Is In Decline. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cbkvytw

-Doug Kass’s 15 Surprises For 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cznmfbj

-U.S. Congress Is Getting Richer. A new analysis from The New York Times shows that members of Congress have gotten richer during the financial crisis, while the people they represent have seen their incomes decline. The median congressional net worth rose from $800,000 in 2004 to $1.2 million in 2010, while that of the general public declined from $108,000 to $100,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c5yobzy

-U.S. Congress Insider Trading Run Amok: When They’re Not Trading On Private Information, They’re Selling It! Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/76qzflb

-Wendy’s Adds Foie Gras Burger in Japan Return. Wendy’s Co., the third-biggest U.S. fast-food chain, added goose-liver pate and truffles to burgers as it invests as much as $200 million on a return to Japan two years after leaving the country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d4f5d2k

-Stress-Medication Sales Hold Up as Economy Gives Heartburn to U.S. Jobless. If you think the economy is giving you heartburn, you may not be alone. Use of acid reflux medications showed a 93 percent correlation with the U.S. unemployment rate over the last five years, according to a study by Bloomberg Rankings. Drugs for high blood pressure and antidepressants had correlation rates of 92 percent and 85 percent respectively, the data show. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7af242x

-Infographic: The Truth About 95% Of So-Called ‘Green’ Products. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/d32e3kh

-Allen Stanford’s Bid to Delay Trial Denied. R. Allen Stanford’s request for more time to prepare to face charges he led a $7 billion investment fraud scheme was denied by the judge who declared him mentally fit for trial. Jury selection will begin in Houston federal court on Jan. 23.

“This case needs to be tried,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner said in an eight-page ruling. “This trial will decide not just whether Stanford is guilty of the criminal charges, but also whether hundreds of millions of dollars of investor funds currently frozen may be forfeited and returned to his alleged victims.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ckyedgs

-Madoff Son Must Face Suit in Bankruptcy Court. Bernard Madoff’s son Andrew must submit to a bankruptcy judge’s decision to permit a $198 million lawsuit to go forward because he sought that court’s protection when he filed a claim against his father’s estate, a federal judge said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bp4omku

-China Punishes Officials Over Fatal Rail Crash. China punished 54 officials and ordered the railway ministry to improve management of its high- speed rail system after a government investigation found a fatal train crash was caused by mismanagement and design flaws. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dy7yex4

-America’s Dirty Little Housing Secret Is Rocking The Suburbs. For years, the food pantry in Crystal Lake, Ill., a bedroom community 50 miles west of Chicago, has catered to the suburban area’s poor, homeless and unemployed. But Cate Williams, the head of the pantry, has noticed a striking change in the makeup of the needy in the past year or two. Some families that once pulled down six-figure incomes and drove flashy cars are now turning to the pantry for help. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79aadrs

-Cruise recreating Titanic’s fateful voyage is sold out. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/czh3wj3

-The 19 Smartest People The World Has Ever Seen. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c29ujww

-Nothing Predicted Happened in 2011. Rampaging natural catastrophes, global financial calamities, the deaths of despots and desperados, the passing of America’s greatest modern technical innovator and roiling protests that shook the Arab world and occupied Wall Street they made 2011 a year that will be remembered for its almost unrelenting turmoil. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c7qom76

-2011: A Year of Firsts Remembered. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cc2cnbx

-Year of Misfortune: Top 12 Billion-Dollar U.S. Disasters. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/czr39v4

-7 Famous Works Of Art That Are Stashed In The Collections Of The Super Rich. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cb43jbc

-Jan. 1 Giants-Cowboys Tickets Hit $2,500. The New York Giants’ postseason fate rides on winning this weekend’s regular-season finale against the Dallas Cowboys, driving ticket prices up more than 56 percent to an average of $481. The most paid so far is $2,500 for a field-level spot behind the Giants’ bench, and ticket resellers said prices are matching those usually attached to postseason games. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cmujtm2

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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 1.81ct fancy intense, internally flawless, cushion cut Yellow. The color of this diamond is amazing and it’s proportions make it appear much larger than its actual size. Harold Seigel-See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/c39eqss

-Diamonds to Outpace Gold on Asian Spending. Diamond prices are poised to rise for the next four years, outpacing gold, as increased spending on luxury goods in China, India and the Middle East outpaces supplies of the precious stone, analysts said.

Demand for diamonds may grow at double the pace of supply through 2020 because of an expanding middle class in China and India, Bain & Co. said this month in a report. The two countries, and the Middle East, will account for 40 percent of global diamond consumption by 2015, up from about 8 percent in 2005, according to Anglo American Plc, which controls De Beers, the world’s largest diamond miner.

“We expect emerging nations, first and foremost India and China, to drive demand for diamonds in the upcoming years, while consumption among developed nations is likely to moderate,” said Vladimir Sergievskiy, an analyst at Moscow-based Finam Investment. “On the supply side, the commissioning of new mines should be largely offset by depletion of mature ones.”

Global demand for diamonds will probably outstrip supply by 7 million carats in 2016, compared with a shortage of 1 million carats this year, Sergievskiy said. Rough diamonds have advanced 24 percent this year, according to an index compiled by PolishedPrices.com. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d6jgx3f

-Australia’s Diamond Production -6% in FY1Q. Australia’s diamond production fell by 6 percent year on year to 2.335 million carats during the first fiscal quarter that ended on September 30, 2011. The largest diamond mine in the country is Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine, where production fell 5 percent to 2.302 million carats during the period, according to Rio Tinto data. Other significant mines include the Ellendale mine operated by Gem Diamonds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bpsd54z

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GOLD

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Check Out The Correlation Between Market Volatility And Google Searches For ‘Gold.’ his chart from The Economist shows just how correlated popular interest in gold and market craziness are. A great reminder that market data has a broad definition and comes from diverse sources.

-”Be careful about thinking you can outsmart the gold bull. Prices decline in every market, at times. This gold market has been hit with selling and fear, but it is a necessary cleansing process that puts gold into stronger hands. No gold investor enjoys this process, but gold should make new highs, many more times before this bull market ends.

Gold is the ultimate long term winner in any debt crisis, and selling out because Europe’s debt woes are growing simply makes no sense at all. All signals look good to see gold $2330 in 2012 and likely by mid-year.” Morris Hubbartt

-”Technically and fundamentally, there is no damage to gold when you view the long-term trends. This decline appears to be nothing more than a healthy digestion or consolidation of gains. This movement should actually prolong the long-term trend as it builds a new support area.” James Carrillo-Swiss America Trading Corporation

-“The ‘cash is king’ crowd is at the heights of its popularity, investors have been selling precious metals, hoarding cash and Treasurys instead. That will change. Already, the European Central Bank is literally seducing troubled financial institutions, dangling newly printed money before their waiting eyes. Essentially, the ECB has inflated their books by 20% and this may only be the beginning as the moribund European economy will probably require further oxygen.” Jeb Handwerger-GoldStockTrades.com

-Gold has outrun the Dow pretty handily over the last few years. Over the last two years, prices of gold futures are up roughly 41% versus a total return of 22% for the Dow industrials. And over the last 10 years? Gold futures are up 465%, versus 54% total return for the Dow, according to data from FactSet. WSJ

-“Gold is going to go higher, but it’s not going to go in a straight line. Gold has given positive returns, but it doesn’t necessarily do it in the way that gives comfort, and that makes people nervous.” Martin Murenbeeld-DundeeWealth

-“The bubble is in paper currency creation, not in physical gold. Calls for a top in the market are premature.” Ben Davies-Hinde Gold Fund

-“The longer-term trends, mainly government fiscal and monetary policies, haven’t changed. Gold has that preservation-of-wealth role and was probably used quite a bit in the last several weeks.” Tom Winmill-Midas Funds

-”The drop in gold may spur more buying from central banks, putting a floor under prices. The banks may add 600 tons to reserves next year, the most since at least 1970, according to Goldman Sachs. Adrian Day-Adrian Day Asset Management

-”Gold and oil are likely to suffer in this intense deflationary environment, until it becomes clear that the big honchos do not intend to lose control to deflation, and will print their currencies into oblivion. Then gold will soar (or, more accurately, retain its purchasing power while fiat currencies become worthless). If the massive asset deflation strikes before the November 2012 elections, it probably will affect the outcome of the elections; and if before August, the selection of the Republican presidential candidate.” Nick Chase

-”Let me tell you that when this year is over, the only hands left holding physical gold and gold shares are the strongest hands on the planet. Every possible weak hand has been shaken out. Every person with emotions even latently capable of overwhelming their intellect, overwhelming their judgement, will have already been overwhelmed. The people who are left are people who will never give up their positions.” James Sinclair

-Jim Sinclair: A Modest $1700-$2100 Gold Price In 2012. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/cdyb6bz

-China central bank researcher says gold is only safe haven now. China should further diversify its foreign-exchange portfolio and make more gold purchases when the metal’s price dips but is still at a relatively high level, a senior central bank official said.

“The Chinese government should not only be cautious of the imported risk caused by rising global inflation, but also further optimize its foreign-exchange portfolio and purchase gold assets when the gold price shows a favorable fluctuation,” said Zhang Jianhua, director of the research bureau affiliated with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).

He made the remarks in an article in the Beijing-based Financial News, a newspaper run by the PBOC. Zhang said bleak economic conditions, increasing international liquidity as countries turned to monetary easing, and the resulting high inflation had dampened investors’ confidence. He said that gold had become the only “safe haven” for risk-averse investors. “No asset is safe now. The only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency gold.” Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10821

-Free market in gold starts scaring China too. Gold exchanges in China outside of two in Shanghai are to be banned, authorities said in a statement released. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10823

-2012 Outlook: Gold Is Battered, Bruised, But Not Beaten. Like a prizefighter who has taken a few upper cut blows, gold might be a bit woozy, but the metal’s longer-term uptrend is hardly on the ropes. As in many financial sectors, gold’s price direction has been guided by headlines, particularly out of Europe on the sovereign debt situation, and the volatility caused by swiftly changing news has made many markets a bit punch-drunk.

The December price break for gold came as several events aligned. First, the market was never able to retest its all-time nominal high in August of $1,923.70 an ounce. Second, gold was one of the few star performers this year and when equity and other markets soured, money managers needed to raise cash to meet margin calls and shore up positions elsewhere.

Third, with investors spooked by the continued inability for eurozone leaders to convincingly shore up their union, these investors sought safety in the most liquid vehicle available cash again pulling profits from gold. Gold might be down about 16% from the August highs, but it’s still up roughly 10% from the 2010 settlement of $1,421.40, basis the nearby futures, which still makes it one of the best performers this year.

The yellow metal may be in a consolidation mode for the time being, resting and building a base to rally again, just like that prizefighter whose corner man keeps him in shape to go the distance. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bm76azu

- Myra P. Saefong: New year offers gold another shot at $2,000. “This year was about liquidation when portfolios were falling and participants needed capital, they turned to selling off precious metals that came off a solid first half,” said “Precious Metals Investing for Dummies” author Paul Mladjenovic.

“In other words, precious metals were over bought in the first 6 months and oversold in the last 6 months.” “2,000 gold can be delayed in the short term, but the fundamentals will carry it there sooner or later,” Mladjenovic said. “2012 has very bullish conditions so higher gold prices are more plausible.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/caa2w5y

-James Turk: What to Expect from Gold & Silver in 2012. When asked what investors in gold and silver should expect in 2012, Turk stated, “Yeah, I think the big theme in 2012, is going to be the continuing problems here in Europe. Not only with the sovereign debts, but I think you are going to see increasing focus on the insolvency in the banks themselves. That’s going to be the big story in 2012.”

“The major drivers for the metals have been banking and financial problems worldwide. So, I see no reason to suspect that the metals are going to do anything except go higher next year. As we speak, gold is up 17% (for this year), so if we finish around here that will be the eleventh year gold has traded higher. The average annual rate of appreciation over those eleven years is just about 17% per annum.

But I’m actually looking for something much better than average next year, simply because people are increasingly understanding that Europe is spinning out of control. The US government’s own financial condition is (also) spinning out of control, Japan is spinning out of control, the UK is spinning out of control, there are no safe havens, except the precious metals.”

When asked about the recent smash in both gold and silver, Turk responded, “You know, Eric, we’ve seen so many of these takedowns over the past ten years and they are so contrived.  They basically go to the various technical points that cause people to sell and you get all of the gurus on television saying the bull market (in gold) is over and we are starting a new bear market.

But you have to ask yourself, ‘What fundamentally has changed to make me want to sell my precious metals?’ If anything the fundamentals have become even better than they were at the beginning of the year, given the fact there are so many problems out there that haven’t been solved.

Given the fact that when you own physical gold or physical silver you don’t have counterparty risk, that’s going to become an increasing issue in 2012 as well. The last couple of weeks are no different than what we’ve seen many, many times before and to me, even if you look at it from a technical perspective, gold is still in an uptrend.

(Also), that flag formation on silver is still forming very, very nicely.  When we break out of that flag, I think you are going to see the price of silver double in (roughly) three months. So, $70 silver by the end of March, is that realistic? Yes, I think so. Gold over $2,000 in 2012, probably in the first quarter, yeah.

That’s very realistic as well because the things which have been driving the metals are still very much in place.  So forget about a downdraft here and there, just see it as a buying opportunity. View gold and silver as a form of savings and when is all said and done a few years from now, you are going to be very, very happy acquiring the precious metals at these prices.

I think the insights the ‘London Trader’ discussed with you are truly remarkable and I really recommend that everybody read that interview a couple of times to make sure all of the points he is making sink in. Yes there is tightness (in the physical market) and you see it in the interest rates.

There is nothing I can see out there that’s bearish for gold at the moment. In fact, the way I look at it is everything I see is very bullish and we are down to the level that you are starting to see that huge physical demand. That’s usually been a good sign you are at a major low and likely to go higher.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c8tlcj3

-Paul Brodsky: Gold Could See Five Digits in 2012. When asked about his outlook for the gold price in 2012, Brodsky stated, “My partner Lee Quaintance and I are bullish on the price of gold and silver in currency terms. We think precious metals are going to appreciate as central banks in Europe, and the Fed as well, are going to be forced to print more money and dilute their currencies.

There’s just no way around it, we have to deleverage the global financial system. As far as price goes, certainly over $2,000 (for gold).  It’s not out of the question that it could get to $10,000 if there’s a formal devaluation.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7h46non

-John Embry: Physical Gold & Silver Tight Because of Eastern Buying. When asked about the action in gold, Embry said, “It’s disappointing in the sense that it shouldn’t be happening. I can’t say that I’m totally surprised, you are in the quietest period of the year. These guys (manipulators) are sociopaths.

They’ve basically taken the opportunity here to just take gold and silver to the cleaners in the paper market in an extraordinarily quiet period.” I think it’s clear the economic decay will accelerate and as a result, given the debt overload in the system, the only way that it can be supported without a total collapse, is by massive amounts of quantitative easing.

This latest thing in Europe where they trotted out 480 billion euros, call it what you will, that was pure quantitative easing. I just think we’ll see more of that going forward. The physical markets for both gold and silver are tight because of Eastern buying. What it underwrites, for sure, is the greatest percentage gains in this bull market for 2012.

I would be very surprised if gold weren’t up at least 60% from current levels. Silver will be more explosive. What they have done to silver is astounding. In the longer-run it just ensures even greater physical shortages and when that manifests itself, I think the silver price will easily double.

So I think it will be a big year next year. These (metals) are both as sold out as I can remember and the sentiment gets worse and worse, if that’s possible. These are all precursors to a major move and I think it could get started quite quickly. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bl56obq

-Hathaway: Central Banks to Begin Dumping Dollars for Gold. “The action is what you would expect in a thin market like this, the moves are exaggerated. The people that have shorts on, which has been the right trade for the last several months, they are just pushing it to the limit (on the downside) to make their year. Obviously it’s uncomfortable to see this kind of action, but, to some extent, you have to look at the context in which you see it.”

So I look for next year to be turbulent financial markets that will be contentious on the political front. Probably anemic economic activity and it looks to me like Europe and Japan are heading into recession. You wonder what kind of feedback that will have for the US.  All of this will end up with mobs of people screaming for money printing and I think that’s going to be the flash point for gold.

Obviously the gold price has to make a stand at some point, but I do think we are seeing panic liquidation. I think we’re at the point where you’re going to see central banks start dumping dollars for gold. The dollar really isn’t strong, it’s just relatively strong to the euro, but ultimately the dollar is caught up in the same mess. I think the ones that will start driving the price of gold substantially higher will be central banks who start worrying about all of their dollar reserve assets that are being overtly debased.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bpenj2a

-Egon Von Greyerz: Gold Will Trade $3,000-$5,000 in 2012. “Well, I’m not really surprised because last time I talked to you I did say gold could go down to $1,550 support and maybe even $1,420.  In my view that would be quite normal in a very thin market and I said that would probably happen by the year end.”

“But this is all a thin paper market, we have not seen one single physical seller of gold or silver at these prices. So it’s just manipulation and panic in a paper market at the year end. Of course, it’s easy for anyone who wants to intervene to push the price down even further in a thin market. So I think that’s what’s happening and I wouldn’t worry the slightest bit.

Gold is up for the year in all currencies and 2012 will be another fantastic year. I could see the first three to five months (of 2012) being dramatic. You know the financing requirements worldwide are just mind-boggling. We’re talking about trillions here if you combine sovereign, corporate and bank requirements. The requirements are so high they just have to start printing money and they will.

The combination of strong buyers (physical) at these lower levels and the fact that we will see massive money printing, starting next year, will lift gold and silver very quickly in my view. When asked where he sees gold heading in 2012, von Greyerz responded, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see several thousand dollars (for gold), let’s say between $3,000 and $5,000 next year.  I see that as the next move and fundamentally everything supports that.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bs8xgk5

-James West: Don’t Let Short-Term Volatility Inform Investment Decisions. I have unrestrained bullishness for the future of the gold price. I look at the 10-year picture: Gold has increased every year by 21%, and 2011 is no exception. Let’s take the well-known pundit Dennis Gartman, who said on CNBC this week that he has completely exited his gold positions because he thinks gold is going to $1,450 an ounce (oz).

If you were to look at all of the times that he has gone on CNBC and said that anytime I hear Dennis Gartman say it’s time to sell, that’s when I start buying gold again! When he says he’s bullish on gold, he’s trying to catch a falling knife. He has done that repeatedly in the five years that I’ve been tracking those statements. He must have very bloody hands and no fingers left because he is consistently wrong. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c2g2fct

-Peter Schiff: 2012 Will Be the Year of Reckoning. The price of gold should move quite a bit higher next year. We should decisively take out $2,000. It’s hard to say how high gold will go, but it should trade above $2,500. I think gold will have an even better year in 2013. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8769e9j

-Pento: Here is Why Gold Price Will Stay Strong & Not Retreat. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ws29xq

-Simon Black: Here’s Why Gold Would Work In A Deflationary Environment. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/brec8n9

-Alasdair Macleod: Gold price set for hyperbolic increase. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c87j9ls

-Peter Grant: Gold near-term outlook 2012. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10830

-Martin Armstrong: Gold Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c5pxdbm

-WSJ: Gold left some investors in the dust. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10826

-Turkey sharply increases its gold reserves. Turkey lifted its gold reserves by a hefty 1.328 million troy ounces, or 30 percent, last month as central banks around the world maintained their positions as net buyers of the precious metal. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10815

-Roman Baudzus: Iranians flee to gold. Following the US and European Union’s decision to tighten sanctions against Iran, the Iranian rial has started depreciating dramatically. Many Iranians fear that the rial will continue to lose value. Last week Iranian television showed images of people camping overnight at the doors of the national banks in order to recover their savings. Large sums of these savings are flowing into the US dollar and into gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bq2uktz

-U.S. Mint says has enough gold, silver Eagles coins. The United States Mint said it has enough American Eagle gold and silver bullion coins to meet demand and does not expect to allocate them in early 2012. Sales of the U.S. gold and silver bullion coins have slowed in the fourth quarter as precious metals prices retreated from record highs, bucking a trend earlier this year when investors flocked to physical gold and silver as safe havens. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cn5ft2z

-J.S. Kim: Did bankers crash MF Global to crash gold and silver? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10822

-The weekly precious metals review at King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10816

-Resource Clips does comprehensive interview with GATA Chairman Murphy. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10827

-John Lee: Fire sale on the rich man’s gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10831

-A beauty secret worth its weight in gold: New cream contains 23 carat of the precious metal. It is the beauty secret that really could be worth its weight in gold. According to scientists, using the precious metal on the skin can slow the ageing process and brighten the complexion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bsbpw2r

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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

-”It’s no fun for silver investors to have to live through the current slam down in prices. Knowing that the sell-off is intentional makes the pain more acute. The sell-off this week, in particular, has taken on the characteristics of an historic bottom. Since the predominance of the evidence indicates that silver is oversold on an absolute basis and relative to just about everything else, the most logical investment approach is to treat it as a bottom. A deliberately created bottom, but a bottom nevertheless. That means holding or buying, not selling.” Ted Butler via Ed Steer-Casey Research-Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxa5kx9

-”The silver bottom may very well be in, but if it’s not, the chart gives a clear indication of where the bottom will likely be found. I continue to see the likelihood that silver is ready to begin its next ascent, but the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement line sits near $25, and that is a key buying area, if it happens. If it does happen, my plan is to dramatically enlarge my already-large silver position. I am holding most of my silver for triple digit targets (more than $100 per ounce).” Morris Hubbartt

-”Its price is going to be one-sixteenth of the gold price so it’s already undervalued by at least two-thirds. Gold and silver are both going to continue to appreciate. I agree with Eric Sprott when he says that silver is going to outperform gold.” James West

-”Every company that produces silver should hold it on the balance sheet as opposed to cash. It’s the smart thing to do. If you subscribe to the ideas that the gold:silver price is going to be 16:1 and precious metals have nowhere to go but up because of the debasement of currencies in growing numbers of sovereign jurisdictions, it makes perfect sense.” James West

-Got Gold Report: Trader positions in silver most bullish in 10 years. The Got Gold Report’s Gene Arensberg reports that the largest commercial traders have brought their short position in silver down by 44 percent, the smallest it has been in 10 years, a situation Arensberg describes as extremely bullish, at least for the medium and long term. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10824

-Peter Cooper: Why we are sticking with silver as our top pick for 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/brarkur

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-ECB Balance Sheet Increases to a Record $3.55 Trillion on Loans to Banks. The European Central Bank’s balance sheet soared to a record 2.73 trillion euros ($3.55 trillion) after it lent financial institutions more money last week to keep credit flowing to the economy during the debt crisis.

Lending to euro-area banks jumped 214 billion euros to 879 billion euros in the week ended Dec. 23, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in a statement. The balance sheet increased by 239 billion euros in the week and was 553 billion euros higher than three months ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d2bybcm

-Zerohedge: Flowcharting The True Cause Of The Eurozone Crisis. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ce38vx4

-Forget Europe, Japan Is Still The Biggest Debt Crisis In The World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d9fxt42

-Max Keiser: The Shocking Real Debt To GDP Ratio Of Britain. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cwaetu9

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-CHART OF THE WEEK: 2011’s Great News For Government Spending. Republicans were swept into office in 2010 with a mandate to eliminate “out of control” spending in Washington DC. And of course the deficit is a salient political issue. But as we learned in the debt ceiling fight, the Super-Committee flop, and the recent payroll tax imbroglio, there just isn’t the political will to do any real deficit cutting, whether it be through higher taxes or lower spending.

As the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein notes, while summarizing Obama’s 2011: The government did not shut down not once and the deal Democrats cut to keep it from shutting down ended up being a nothingburger. The $38.5 billion in cuts ended up being more like $20-$25 billion, with less than $400 million falling in 2011. Some people are disgusted by all this, but it’s actually a good thing, since the last thing the US economy needs is deficit cutting at a time when the private sector is deleveraging and cutting back.

And really, the situation is probably going to repeat itself. If you can’t even get a decrease in government spending, and the most anti-deficits year in a long time, when is it going to happen? Expect lots more years like this: Lots of bluster that in the end result in “nothingburgers.” Here’s a look at quarterly federal government spending through the end of Q3. Sure Q3 is down a hair, but it’s obvious which way the trend is still going. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3kv9zb

source: http://www.chartoftheday.com

-Obama to ask for debt limit hike: Treasury official. The White House plans to ask Congress by the end of the week for an increase in the government’s debt ceiling to allow the United States to pay its bills on time, according to a senior Treasury Department official. The approval is expected to go through without a challenge, given that Congress is in recess until later in January and the request is in line with an agreement to keep the U.S. government funded into 2013.

The debt is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current cap by December 30, when the United States has $82 billion in interest on its debt and payments such as Social Security coming due. President Barack Obama is expected to ask for authority to increase the borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion, part of the spending authority that was negotiated between Congress and the White House this summer. The debt limit currently stands at $15.194 trillion and would increase to $16.394 trillion with the request. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/czlu2e7

-Net liabilities hit $14.8 trillion in FY11: Treasury. The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2011 with net liabilities swelling more than $1 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed. The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government’s liabilities exceeded assets by $14.785 trillion. That compared with a $13.473 trillion gap a year earlier. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mvkt2q

-Fed Once-Secret Loan Crisis Data Compiled by Bloomberg Released to Public. Bloomberg News released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6qyxdce

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REAL ESTATE

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Home Prices Are Still Falling. The October Case-Shiller 20-city home price index missed economists’ expectations, falling 3.4% year-over-year. Only two cities saw prices increase: Detroit and Washington. Month-over-month, the 20-city index fell 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis. This too was worse than the 0.4% decline forecasted by economists. So, although home prices seem like they’re forming a bottom, they’re still not in the clear. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cussu8w

source: http://www.chartoftheday.com

-Sales of New Homes in November Rise. Sales of new U.S. homes rose in November to a seven-month high, adding to evidence of stabilization in the housing market. Purchases of single-family properties increased 1.6 percent to a 315,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed in Washington. The gain pushed the number of new homes on the market to a record low. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/couqghb

-Home Sales in U.S. Beat Forecasts. The number of Americans signing contracts to buy previously owned homes rose more than forecast in November as falling prices and low borrowing costs boosted demand. The index of pending home sales increased 7.3 percent to the highest level since April 2010 after climbing 10.4 percent the prior month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ctsemlq

-U.S. Home Prices Fell 2.8% in October From Prior Year, FHFA Says. U.S. home prices fell 2.8 percent in October from a year earlier, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said, as foreclosures continued to depress real estate values. The slump was led by the regions that include Nevada and Arizona, and California and Washington, which both had a 5.5 percent decrease, the agency said  in a report from Washington. The region that includes Illinois and Ohio had the second-largest decline of 3.9 percent.

The U.S. housing market must absorb more than 14 million distressed properties before the foreclosure crisis eases, according to RealtyTrac Inc. The total includes 1.5 million homes in the foreclosure process, 3.5 million with delinquent mortgages and at least 10 million in which the borrower is “underwater,” or owes more than the house is worth, data from the Irvine, California-based researcher show. Distressed properties sell at a discount and undermine real estate values. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/blp8od2

-Foreclosure free ride: 3 years, no payments. Delinquent borrowers facing foreclosure are learning that they can stay in their homes for years, as long as they’re willing to put up a fight. Among the tactics: Challenging the bank’s actions, waiting to file paperwork right up until the deadline, requesting the lender dig up original paperwork or, in some extreme cases, declaring bankruptcy.

Nationwide, the average time it takes to process a foreclosure from the first missed payment to the final foreclosure auction has climbed to 674 days from 253 days just four years ago, according to LPS Applied Analytics. It takes much longer than that in Florida, where the process averages 1,027 days, nearly 3 years. In D.C., foreclosure averages 1,053 days and delinquent borrowers in New York often stay in their homes for an average of 906 days. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6rqtjfe

-U.S. rental demand lifts housing sector. Brian Keith is busier than ever as the architecture firm he works for rushes to wrap up work on a 300-unit apartment complex in Dallas. The project is one of dozens the firm, JHP Architecture, has on its hands a surge of business driven by a rise in demand in the United States for rental properties. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bqd4rad

-Spanish Mortgages Decline for the 18th Straight Month as Bad Loans Surged. Spanish residential mortgages decreased for an 18th month in October as banks reined in lending amid a surge in borrowing costs and bad loans. The number of home loans fell 43.6 percent from a year earlier after a 42 percent drop in September, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said in an statement. Total capital lent on all mortgages fell 40.6 percent, it said. Spain is struggling to digest a glut of 700,000 unsold new homes since the collapse of the building boom that has pushed the unemployment rate to 23 percent. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/br6e9ra

-U.K. House prices ‘will slump by 3% as they drop in 2012 for the fifth year running’. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cynvl3d

-Chinese Bloggers Have Discovered Another Abandoned Luxury Housing Development. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7px6yyw

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GEOPOLITICAL

-U.S., Israel Discuss Triggers for Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Infrastructure. The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines” while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cq6u5af

-Iran to Block Oil Through Hormuz If Sanctioned, IRNA Reports. Iran will block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions are imposed on its crude exports, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi. “We are not interested in any hostility and our motto is friendship and brotherhood, but westerners are not willing to abandon their plots,” IRNA cited Rahimi as saying.

About 15.5 million barrels of oil a day, or a sixth of global consumption, flows through the waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Iran’s navy started a 10-day exercise east of the passage that involved the use of submarines, ground-to- sea missile systems and torpedoes, Press TV said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cvvse8c

-U.S. Fifth Fleet says won’t allow Hormuz disruption. The U.S. Fifth Fleet said it would not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the world’s most important oil route. “Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated,” the Bahrain-based fleet said in an e-mail. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3xjusc

-Iran Regime Profiting From Currency Decline, U.S. Treasury Says. The Obama administration is accusing the elite of Iran’s regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of profiting “on the back of the average Iranian” as the nation’s currency plunges under pressure from international sanctions. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/chtbdca

-Israel Didn’t Know High-Tech Gear Was Sent to Iran. The clandestine arrangement worked smoothly for years. The Israeli company shipped its Internet- monitoring equipment to a distributor in Denmark. Once there, workers stripped away the packaging and removed the labels. Then they sent it to a man named “Hossein” in Iran, an amiable technology distributor known to them only by his first name and impeccable English, say his partners in Israel and Denmark. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d7cky9a

-Putin Promises Fair Election as ‘New Year’s Gift.’ Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised fair presidential elections in March as a poll showed that 44 percent of people support recent protests over alleged voter fraud.

“Honest presidential elections in 2012,” Putin told reporters in Moscow, when asked what he can offer to Russians as a New Year’s gift. The premier said he was ready for dialogue with the country’s opposition groups, though they need to articulate a coherent platform.

Putin, 59, is facing the biggest demonstrations since he came to power more than a decade ago over accusations of ballot-rigging in Dec. 4 parliamentary elections. He’s seeking to return to the presidency in March 4 polls after pushing aside his protege, President Dmitry Medvedev. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/boeply8

-Chavez: U.S. May Be Behind S. America Leaders’ Cancer. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hinted that the U.S. may be behind a “very strange” bout of cancer affecting several leaders aligned with him in South America. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/co4ro76

-Intelligence Service Stratfor Suffered A Devastating Hacking Attack On Christmas Eve. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cehbxlt

-Hackers could shut down train lines: expert. Hackers who have shut down websites by overwhelming them with Web traffic could use the same approach to shut down the computers that control train switching systems, a security expert said at a hacking conference in Berlin. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d548vrg

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – December 30th, 2011
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, December 30, 2011

World Financial Report – December 28th, 2011

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: World Interest Rates. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cpcjz7b

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Disaster Losses for 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7s8r66m

-”I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people under pretence of taking care of them.” Thomas Jefferson

-”At some point, the absurdity of what Jim Grant calls the “return-free risk” of lending money to the US government in order to lock in a negative real return will wear thin on investors. Why on Earth should people freely lend money to Uncle Sam, if they are only going to be repaid in grossly devalued dollars, with a yield that is well below the US inflation rate?” Goldmoney

-ECB cash to give indirect boost via banks. The European Central Bank’s offer of cheap long-term cash is an attempt to prevent a rapid bank deleveraging shock rather than U.S. style money printing that will filter through to the real economy and leach into other markets.

The borrowing of 490 billion Euros by over 500 banks the largest ever amount of liquidity pumped into the financial system represents nearly two thirds of all the European bank bonds maturing in 2012. It is almost 1-1/2 times the 2012 combined sovereign bond issuance of Spain and Italy. The ECB will follow up with another similar operation in February in a move designed to directly help banks which need to raise capital. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/83hrc4y

-Five Things Investors Have to Worry About in 2012. Here are five areas to watch for 2012: 1) Conflict with Iran, 2) North Korea’s New Kim, 3) Iraq Civil War?, 4) Pakistan-U.S. alliance weakens, 5) Russian Election Uncertainty. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bt8auc4

-Gary Shilling Sees ‘Severe’ Recession for Europe. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/coy7d78

-Gerald Celente: Sneak Peak of the Top Trends for 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bmgz8bz

-50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xbbtuf

-There’s A 82% Chance That California’s Public Pension System Will Run Out Of Money. New study finds California’s big government worker retirement funds short $498 billion. California is on a destructive path of grossly expanding debt to finance public worker pensions, much like many European nations. Unless dramatic steps are taken soon, the Golden State will suffer its own version of Greek tragedy.

The state’s public worker pension problem has worsened since last year when the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research reported obligations far outstripped the state’s ability to pay benefits owed for the three major retirement systems the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), California State Teacher Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the University of California Retirement Plan (UCRP).

The three systems collectively have promised $498 billion in payments they can’t fully pay, the Stanford study concluded. That’s a 17 percent increase in two years. Putting off a solution adds about $3.4 million to the tab for each day of delay. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cblsxze

-Missing $4,155? It Went Into Your Gas Tank This Year. It’s been 30 years since gasoline took such a big bite out of the family budget. When the gifts from Grandma are unloaded and holiday travel is over, the typical American household will have spent $4,155 filling up this year, a record.

That is 8.4 percent of what the median family takes in, the highest share since 1981. Gas averaged more than $3.50 a gallon this year, another unfortunate record. And next year isn’t likely to bring relief. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqfno5v

-Stolen Credit Cards Go for $3.50 at Amazon-like Online Bazaar. In mid-September, a European hacker nicknamed Poxxie broke into the computer network of a U.S. company and, he said, grabbed 1,400 credit-card numbers, the account holders’ names and addresses, and the security code that comes with each card.

With little trouble, he sold the numbers for $3.50 each on his own seller’s site, called CVV2s.in, to underworld buyers who have come to trust the quality of his goods, he said. “The main thing in any business is honesty,” Poxxie said, without any trace of irony. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l4j5c4

-U.S. population grows at slowest rate since 1940s: Census. The population of the United States is growing at its slowest rate in more than 70 years, the U.S. Census Bureau said. The country’s population increased by an estimated 2.8 million to 311.6 million from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2011. The growth rate of 0.92 percent was the lowest since the mid-1940s. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnwfman

-Allen Stanford Found Mentally Fit for Fraud Trial. R. Allen Stanford is mentally fit to stand trial and will face a jury next month on charges he swindled investors of more than $7 billion, a U.S. judge ruled. The trial is to begin with jury selection on Jan. 23. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dyvecu3

-Even The Ancient Roman Empire Wasn’t As Unequal As America Today. Rome’s top 1% controlled 16 percent of the wealth, compared to modern America where the top 1% controls 40 percent of the wealth. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7wbaadl

-Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Imbecile’ Attack on Top 1%. Jamie Dimon, the highest-paid chief executive officer among the heads of the six biggest U.S. banks, turned a question at an investors’ conference in New York this month into an occasion to defend wealth.

“Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it,” the JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO told an audience member who asked about hostility toward bankers. “Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dxw4vyn

-US Asks Journals to Censor Articles on Flu Virus. For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7d8mxd9

-Bird Flu in H.K. Sparks Culling of 19,451 Birds. Hong Kong culled 19,451 birds and banned the sale and import of live poultry until Jan. 12 after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was found in a chicken carcass at a wholesale market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/blf3dx9

-As markets plunge, Asia’s wealthy flock to art. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxgtlrv

-£1 million 24-carat gold Rolls-Royce is unveiled. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dy5e7vy

-London Penthouse Said to Sell for About $157M. A penthouse apartment in London’s Knightsbridge neighborhood was purchased for about 100 million pounds ($157 million), a person with knowledge of the transaction said. The undisclosed buyer paid about 7,000 pounds a square foot for the unfurnished duplex in the Bulgari Hotel and Residences, according to the person, who requested anonymity because the deal was private. A second penthouse unit in the development is on the market for 69 million pounds, the person said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cgnglb5

-15 Of The World’s Most Bizarre Vending Machines. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7reqn7w

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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 0.37 carat radiant cut fancy intense purplish pink Argyle Diamond. The Argyle mine supplies 90% of the world’s pink Diamonds. With the mine set to shutdown in 6 short years, pink Argyle Diamonds have the ability to jump substantially in price in the years ahead. Harold Seigel-See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/cjkhn76

-At the recent Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels Sale, Oct 18 2011, New York, Rockefeller Plaza. Lot 325 was a ring set with a pear-shaped fancy purplish pink diamond, weighing approximately 8.20 carats, flanked on either side by a modified triangular-cut diamond, mounted in platinum signed Tiffany & Co. Estimate $1,250,000-$1,800,000. Price Realized $2,042,500. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/6hl45l5

-Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels Sale, Dec 7 2011, New York. Auction Results here-http://tinyurl.com/cjxkvvn or http://tinyurl.com/cwtjtgv

-Petra Sells Blue Diamond for $300K Per Carat. Diamond achieves highest price per carat for a rough diamond sold by the company. Petra Diamonds sold a 4.8-carat blue diamond for $1.45 million or $300,000 per carat at its most recent tender held in December, the company reported. The diamond was mined at the company’s Cullinan mine in South Africa and achieved the highest price per carat for a rough stone sold by Petra to date. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwchlxb

-For wise investors, diamonds are forever. Gold may have been the commodity story of the year, but now diamonds are also being touted as an investor’s best friend with demand rising in India, China and the Middle East. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxou29r

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GOLD

-”It certainly gets lonely out there when the voices of gold all turn negative.” Jim Sinclair

-”Close your eyes, cover up with puppies, turn the heat down, light a wood fire and take a nap. Gold is headed for $4,500 in the normal manner it always does 5 steps forward and 4 back. Relax!” Jim Sinclair

-Jim Sinclair: The Gold Panic & What to Expect in 2012. When KWN asked if he has ever seen this kind of fear and panic in the gold market, Sinclair responded, “Not in the first gold market (1970s), not in the gold market we are in now, not in the correction (in ‘08 & ‘09), which took us down after the first move through $1,000 and back under $800.”

When asked what to expect from gold in 2012, Sinclair stated, “Well into the high $2,000s. And as Truman said, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, you’ve got to get out of the kitchen.’ But let me tell you that when this year is over, the only hands left holding physical gold and gold shares are the strongest hands on the planet.

Every possible weak hand has been shaken out. Every person with emotions even latently capable of overwhelming their intellect, overwhelming their judgement, will have already overwhelmed it this week. After this week, the people who are left are people who will never give up their positions.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bo9ta6f

-Jim Sinclair: The Bearish Gold Predictions Forget One Important Market Reality. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vknqge

-”Debasement of the dollar will become increasingly clear in 2012. As a consequence, it is logical to expect much higher prices for gold and silver in the year ahead.” James Turk

-”Despite the sharp shakedown seen on December 14 gold remains in a bull market. The conditions that created the gold bull market remain in place. The global debt deleveraging remains a work in progress and as governments print money in an attempt to slow down or stave off the collapse their currencies are devalued. These remain ideal conditions for gold as an alternative currency.” David Chapman

-”We know this decline is unnerving but keep focused on the big picture and hold your open positions. Gold is oversold and this is still the time to be buying and accumulating during weakness.” Aden Sisters

-Richard Russell: I Will Stay with Gold & Gold Stocks to the End. My advice sell any stocks you still own sell into all rallies, or stay out of stocks completely. I continue to like gold in all its forms, but I’m afraid that gold mining stocks will tend to go with the general market. Personally, I’m staying with my gold mining stocks until the bitter end.

I continue to believe that we’ll see a final hysterical blow-off in gold (the metal) that will carry the mining stocks with it. I see my pen-pal Dennis Gartman, has turned bearish on gold and has sold all his holdings. Sorry, Dennis, I disagree with you. Gold is not in a bear market.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c6n3kau

-James Turk: Gold Set to Close Higher for 11th Straight Year. I can’t count how many times over the past decade we’ve seen gold and silver take a drubbing, like the one we just witnessed over the last couple of weeks, only for the metals to climb back off the canvas and fight their way to higher prices.

The sentiment numbers show that we’ve not been this negative on gold and silver since the days of the Lehman collapse. I find that quite ironic, given that nothing fundamental has changed to suggest the bull market in precious metals has ended. If anything, the case for owning gold and silver is getting stronger as the Western world’s banking system continues to disintegrate.

I keep coming back to the theme that we’ve stressed together so many times over the years, to not let emotion impact your investment decisions, but instead to use logic. In this regard, gold, silver and the mining shares are all exceptionally undervalued. In light of all of this, it is reasonable to expect much higher prices for them in 2012.

Gold is set to close higher for the eleventh straight year. The fact that there is such extreme pessimism, notwithstanding the fact that gold is 17% higher year to date and up for eleven years in a row, is absolutely stunning.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cuprsdy

-London Trader: We are Witnessing a Historic Bottom in Gold. “The Chinese have continued to take delivery of both physical gold and silver directly from the ETF’s GLD and SLV. They are also going directly to producers. Entities are bypassing the COMEX altogether and going straight to gold mining companies. Every single month producers have a certain amount of gold and silver they sell.

Normally they sell it to the bullion banks and the bullion banks, of course, leverage this gold and sell up to 100 times that in paper markets to control prices.” Interestingly, so many people are bearish on gold right now and looking for a collapse in the price of gold. They don’t understand what is happening in the physical market. The bullish fundamentals I just described to you have enormous implications.

We are making a historic bottom right now. The paper gold, or virtual gold market, has diverged so far from the physical market that it’s no longer a credible marketplace. That’s the key thing that came out of a very important meeting I was in yesterday where we had some serious players. The people I was meeting with are all on the buy side and have been since the lows last week.

There are massive physical orders, sitting, waiting for any more discounts, and yet everyone else seems to be short. So you have huge fuel for a rally here. You have to keep in mind this recent plunge was orchestrated with borrowed gold and that borrowed gold is now gone. That’s why gold can’t go much lower. Any dips in price will be aggressively purchased. As I said earlier, right now we are witnessing a historic bottom.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bs69zck

-Pierre Lassonde: This Gold Bull Market is Far From Over. When asked about the plunge in gold, Lassonde responded, “On the correction, I would say to people don’t panic. If you look back at history, for example, the 1970s bull market, between 1971 to 1980 there were no less than nine corrections. The corrections ranged from 11% to 43%. A lot of them were in the 15%, 20%, 28%, 30% (range).”

“This bull market now, since 2001, has had six corrections, this is the seventh one. Nothing unusual at all. I would say this is just par for the course, the climbing of the famous wall of worry and I suspect we are going to have a few more corrections before this bull market is over.

My feeling is that the gold price will have a bit of a headwind for the coming six to twelve months. It will have headwinds coming from Europe. The Germans are so insistent on deflating the European economies that they are in recession, but they are flirting with, literally, depression. That is not good for gold in the short-run.

In the long-run what are they going to do? They are going to print money. You just have to look at the European Central Bank reserve and their reserves have doubled in the last three years, which means they are printing money. But they are not telling anybody.

My personal view is that it might be challenging for the gold price in the short-run, the next six to nine months, to do a heck of a lot better than it did last year. When asked where he sees a floor in the price of gold, Lassonde responded, “Around the $1,500 mark. I think there’s an 80% chance the gold price will bottom out in the $1,500s. After this consolidation we will resume the gold bull market. It’s not over, far from it.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dygwg6k

-Jeff Clark: Look for an Entrance, Not an Exit. It wasn’t a fun week for gold. By the close on Friday, the metal was down 6.7% (based on London PM fix prices), the biggest weekly decline since September. It got downright irritating when the mainstream media seemingly rejoiced at gold’s decline. Economist Nouriel Roubini poked fun at gold bugs in a Tweet.

Über investor Dennis Gartman said he sold his holdings. CNBC ran an article proclaiming gold was no longer a safe-haven asset (talk about an overreaction). While the worry may have been real, let’s focus on facts. Have the reasons for gold’s bull market changed in any material way such that we should consider exiting?

Instead of me providing an answer, ask yourself some basic questions: Is the current support for the US dollar an honest indication of its health? Are the sovereign debt problems in Europe solved? How will the US repay its $15 trillion debt load without some level of currency dilution? Is there likely to be more money printing in the future, or less?

Are real interest rates positive yet? Has gold really lost its safe haven status as a result of one bad week? And one more: What is the mainstream media’s record on forecasting precious metals prices? Our take won’t surprise you: not one fact relating to the trend for gold changed last week. We remain strongly bullish.

Would I buy now? Given that each metal has already met its average decline, and that both have seen more corrections this year than any other, we’re likely closer to the bottom than the top. Either way, my advice is to spend a little more time watching the drivers for gold and a little less time worrying about the price. Until those things change, look for an entrance, not an exit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c4lsh9d

-Many market participants and non gold and silver experts tend to focus on the daily fluctuations and “noise” of the market and not see the “big picture” major change in the fundamental supply and demand situation in the gold and silver bullion markets particularly due to investment and central bank demand from China, the rest of an increasingly wealthy Asia and creditor nation central banks.

Support for the price of gold should come from the rising global money supply coupled with increasing investor and central bank purchases which have been driven by falling real interest rates and concerns about the euro, the dollar and other fiat currencies as stores of value. Tighter monetary policies, as seen in the late 1970’s, would likely help alleviate fears of further currency debasement but it is extremely unlikely that this will be seen in 2012.

Indeed, ultra loose monetary policies, debt monetization, competitive currency devaluations and global currency wars look set to continue if not intensify. Gold will likely reward investors internationally in 2012 as it did in 2011 and will again be an essential diversification for anyone wishing to protect and grow wealth in what will be a very volatile 2012 and in the coming volatile years. Goldcore

-Aden Sister: A Year For The History Books. As the year draws to a close, it’s easy to say that it’s been a difficult one. That’s mainly because of the high volatility in the markets, in reaction to the daily ups and downs on the world stage. All of this drama and volatility have both raised many questions. And following are some of the most frequently asked questions we’ve recently received. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dyyynzf

Q. If gold is a “safe haven,” why does it go up and down so often with the stock market?

A. Great question and that has been the case lately. This happens at times but over the long haul, gold is the ultimate safe haven and it will go its own way, based on the underlying fundamentals. Over the past decade, for example, gold has risen 645% while the Dow Industrials has only gained 13%. We believe this will continue based on the vulnerable global debt situation, the weak currency markets and many other factors we’ve often discussed. In fact, gold has maintained its safe haven status for thousands of years and there is not another investment, including any currency, that can make that claim.

Q. When you say, use weakness to accumulate gold, does that also apply to silver?

A. Yes.

Q. Is gold manipulated?

A. Probably yes, at times. But since the major trend is always more powerful, manipulation effects will be temporary.

-Jeffrey Nichols: Twelve bullish factors driving gold to $2,000 and higher despite recent setback. I have no doubt that gold will move up sharply in the years ahead, reaching heights that might lead some to label me a “gold bug.” I believe that the price of gold will, over the course of this decade, reach a multiple of recently prevailing prices.

Prices of $3,000, $4,000, and even $5,000 an ounce are very likely during the course of this long-lasting bull market, a bull market that still has years of life left to it. Notwithstanding the recent sharp price decline, I’d be very surprised to see gold dip into “three-digit” territory that is below $1,000 an ounce ever again. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ced64tq

-Gold Could Hit $2,500 Next Year. Gold prices will rally again in 2012 to reach $2,000 to $2,500 per ounce because demand is still strong and the precious metal is still seen as a safe haven, according to Sabine Schels, a commodities strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6p2vr58

-Gold bottoming around $1,600, $2,100 likely early in 2012, Hinde report says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10808

-Chris Whalen: Expect Bank Holidays in Europe & Higher Gold. When asked if that meant gold is going higher, Whalen responded, “Oh definitely. I don’t trade it, I don’t advise clients on it, but I think all commodities, whether it’s gold or platinum or any of the big industrial metals, are going to continue to be your best hedge against inflation. Some real estate, to a degree, but remembering location, location, location. I think that’s where I would tell my clients to hide their money. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnoake2

-Rick Rule: I Personally Bought Over $10 Million This Week. When asked about the recent plunge in the price of gold, silver and the mining shares, Rule replied, “For a lot of the financial interests in gold, they’ve had their credit lines cut, they can’t hold it. We saw that in 2008 also. Because of recent weakness in the euro, the dollar has become the safe haven trade. So there has been strength in the dollar, hence the weakness in gold.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvpzlr3

-Rick Rule: Here is What Investors Need to Look for in 2012. KWN wanted to find out from Rule what investors and speculators should be looking for in 2012. Here is what Rule had to say: “It’s going to be an interesting time. This is going to be a really good year for gold and silver stock speculators and for gold and silver owners.

I think the gold price goes higher and the silver prices goes higher over the next two years, but I think it goes higher in extremely choppy fashion.” This means you will have plenty of opportunity to buy on sales. For people who aren’t good at dealing with volatility, it’s going to be a rough couple of years. For people who are good at dealing with volatility, it’s going to be a very good couple of years.

I think you are going to see some temporary solution to the problems facing the eurozone, in terms of public debts. When I say temporary, I really do mean temporary because those economies are over-indebted. But you’re going to see a bit of confidence returning to the system, which I think will be bad for the gold and silver price.

That is good for people who have a long-term or intermediate-term interest in gold and silver because it gives you the opportunity to add to your positions at advantageous prices. I do think gold and silver bullion over the next year or two will do well. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/blm2z2s

-Michael Pento: Here’s How Central Planners will Impact Gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7edmvsl

-Jim Rickards: This Will Send the Price of Gold to the Moon. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ty6twy

-Jim Rickards: The US Treasury Shorts the Dollar. “Well, I always think it’s important to separate fundamentals and long-term trends. That’s one thing you have to understand and get right. But there are short-term technical factors as well. Gold responds to both.

In the long-run the fundamentals will prevail, but in the short-run the technicals can definitely dominate and this was a week where the technicals dominated.” “Let me explain what I mean by that. One thing that is going on is there is a massive run on the banks globally. It is primarily centered in Europe, but also around the world. There is a huge demand for dollars.

There’s a liquidity shortage and people just need dollars. So let’s just say, hypothetically, I have gold and I like gold for the long-run and think it’s a good investment. I’m a bank let’s say and they (depositors) are withdrawing money and I need dollars. Well, I will sell the gold to get the dollars, even though I like my gold position and I think it’s going higher.

I may have to sell it to get cash to meet these other obligations in a liquidity crisis and we are seeing a liquidity crisis. So the action this week is technically driven, but the fundamentals are still intact. The fundamentals have everything to do with the excess of paper money relative to gold and the potential loss of confidence in paper money that’s coming from over-printing.

The ECB will print when they see some deflation. “The Fed will print if the dollar gets stronger because the Fed needs the dollar to be weaker. With all of this printing coming on stream, you can rest assured the price of gold is going to go a lot higher.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/caob9fv

-John Williams: Gold to Prevail as System Falls into Disorder. “Dollar Debasement Has Just Begun. Despite all of Wall Street’s negative hoopla over gold during the price volatility of the last week, the precious metal still is on track to outperform the Dow Jones Industrial average, meaningfully, for the year. That would be the eighth consecutive year of doing so.

Irrespective of any recent or future extreme price swings, however, I look at gold as the long-term hedge against all that has started to unfold in the ultimate debasement and destruction of the U.S. dollar.” “My outlook has not changed a bit. The underlying fundamentals have not changed a bit.

The domestic and global financial systems, however, appear to be on the brink of massive instabilities. This environment is one where prudent investors in a U.S. dollar-denominated world should be looking to preserve their wealth and assets, using assets that are liquid and that preserve the purchasing power of invested funds.

Accordingly, gold, and related hedges such as silver; and stronger currencies such as the Swiss franc, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar; should be held for the long term. Irrespective of short-term market instabilities, such assets will prevail as the system falls into disorder.

A much weaker dollar and higher oil prices are likely in the near future, as the Fed remains locked in a position where it likely will be forced to act publicly in support of the banking system, with some new round of systemic liquefaction or easing. The effects of that should push the exchange rate value of the U.S. dollar much lower and push oil prices, domestic inflation and the price of gold much higher. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7sxx9az

-Gene Arensberg: Gold’s testing its 200-day moving average again. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10793

-Clive Maund: Gold Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yzq5b3

-Martin Armstrong: What’s Up With Gold? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/chrtsmy

-Martin Armstrong: Money is Not Safe Here, Buffett’s Silver Play. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c7k3rr8

-Bullion Stacks Up Better Than Coins For Gold Investors. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cjgrt6r

-Brett Arends: Will the Europeans have to sell their gold? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10802

-Central banks are steadily losing their cover in the gold market. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10789

-Some Experts Warn Gold Could Drop to $1,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d9v4upo

-Gold to drop in Q1, far from retesting record high: Reuters poll. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqs853m

-Zero Hedge: Did GLD and other gold ETFs kill gold stocks? Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10797

-Lawrence Williams: Gold the protector as democracies move toward totalitarianism. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10804

-Peter Brimelow: Even bullion bank UBS now hints that central banks torpedoed gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10795

-New Thunder Road Report denounces market intervention, cites GATA. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10796

-Gold market manipulation losing force, Grandich tells Resource Clips. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10812

-Naylor-Leyland tells CNBC Europe that gold is ‘a rigged market.’ Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10811

-KWN: The weekly precious metals review with Bill Haynes and Dan Norcini. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10791

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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

-”Buying silver under $30 today is like buying it at $5 ten years ago.” Colin Hayward, Gearology

-London Trader: There are Tremendous Silver Shortages. “It is so tight, the silver market is so tight that we’ve been waiting three weeks plus, before this takedown, for deliveries of size to arrive. I’m talking about tonnage orders. This is also key, most of the silver being delivered was refined after the orders had been placed, and again, that was before the takedown. You can just imagine how long the wait times will be going forward.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7brdbx3

-Rick Rule: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Rule stated, “Eric (Sprott) continues to point, I think wisely, to the fact that there is a very, very broad paper market in silver and a much more constrained physical market in silver. He (Sprott) has also said that to the extent the silver price has declined, financial interests would continue to buy silver and this is exactly what has taken place.

The tipping point where the paper longs exhaust the physicals could come and if we had a failure to deliver in the futures market, the upside would be truly explosive. If it does occur it will be a spectacular financial event.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvpzlr3

-Myra P. Saefong: Silver’s a bargain under $30, but watch volatility. Silver is ready to finish a dramatic year near the level it started, and some analysts predict big gains, and heavy volatility, for the white metal in 2012. “Silver went parabolic when it broke above $29 back in March of this year,” said James Carrillo, senior portfolio adviser for Swiss America Trading Corporation. “It fulfilled its parabolic blow off at $50 shortly thereafter and is now testing the break point.”

“In the latter half of the year, panic selling at both the personal level and institutional level brought silver down as investors had increased anxiety over world economic events,” said Paul Mladjenovic, author of “Precious Metals Investing for Dummies.” The white metal hasn’t held up as well as gold because silver’s dual nature kicks in, he said. “Since silver is also an industrial metal and silver is a smaller market, panic selling has a more pronounced effect and the moves are more violent.”

“When people need money to cover margin increases, debt or other liability, they will sell and silver was part of this dynamic,” said Mladjenovic. But “nothing changed in the fundamentals for silver they, in fact, keep getting better.” Futures prices for gold are poised to end the year with a gain of around 11%, while silver’s trading 5% lower which would be its smallest year-on-year decline since 2001, according to data from FactSet Research. Starting in 2002, silver had gained every year except 2008.

If prices hold above $28, silver may “resume its upward march next year,” said Carrillo. “I would be a buyer of physical gold and silver at these levels, with gold being massively supported at $1,500 and silver at $28,” he said. Colin Hayward, who’s been a precious metals investor for more than 30 years, said the odds greatly favor silver finding a bottom in the short term, within the next one month to three months, considering the “extreme pessimism of silver bugs today.”

Silver will then begin a run similar to what occurred after the 2008 “correction.” When the commodities sector bottomed in 2008, silver bottomed around $9 and then marched all the way to $49 over the next 31 months, representing a rise of over 5.5 times “a bull market advance if ever there was one,” he said, adding that gold’s advance was about 2.8 times or around half that of silver’s. Silver is a bargain below $30, said Hayward, who’s also president of Gearology, which sells gold and silver-themed consumer products.

“Buying silver under $30 today is like buying it at $5 ten years ago.” With silver oversold during the second half of 2011, Mladjenovic expects to see a strong rebound in the metal, which could take out $50 during the first half of 2012 and during the rest of the next year, see support at that level and challenge the $60 level by the fall.

“Demand for physical silver is relentless as individual buyers across the globe and industrial buyers in Asia continue taking advantage of silver’s relatively low price,” said Mladjenovic, who believes this “will overcome the paper market’s current pullback.” “If demand changes or if the manipulation lawsuit is resolved (or both), you could see silver in the $75-$100 range,” he said, referring to the ongoing Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation of possible manipulation in silver markets. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c432nk8

-David Morgan: $60 Silver and $2,500 Gold for 2012. Listen here-http://tinyurl.com/cjpmqdj

-Silver to average 34/oz in 2012 and $37/oz in 2013: BofAML. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) estimated that there is a good upside potential in 2012 Silver prices. As per the bank, prices should average $34/oz, followed by $37/oz in 2013, because of continued interest in the metal. Also, the bank believes that $30/oz silver is justifiable at present. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gg8xts

-Paul Tracy: Why Silver Could Take-Off From Current Levels. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cczo7dz

-Clive Maund: Silver Market Update. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/892ql33

-Sprott’s Call for Silver Producers to Hold Back Metal Strikes Chord. “I think the price should already be substantially higher,” Sprott said. “The trade should be 16:1 gold-silver ratio. That implies that at $1,600/oz gold, silver should be $100/oz. At $3,200/oz gold, silver should be $200/oz. The outlook for gold is phenomenal and silver is going to go up even faster. That is why I think that this next decade will be the decade for silver,” Sprott predicted. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cz39y5o

-Ted Butler: Don’t stop complaining about shorting of SLV. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10799

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QE

-Draghi Tells Financial Times Bond Buying Unlikely as ECB Abides by Mandate. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi damped expectations that the bank will step up bond purchases to tame the sovereign debt crisis, saying it can’t overstep its mandate.

“People have to accept that we have to, and always will, act in accordance with our mandate and within our legal foundations,” Draghi told the Financial Times in an interview, confirmed by the Frankfurt-based ECB. “The important thing is to restore the trust of the people citizens as well as investors in our continent. We won’t achieve that by destroying the credibility of the ECB.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cndufdu and http://tinyurl.com/cmofd4e

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Euro’s Preservation Worth Costs, Nobel Laureate Sims Says. Nobel Economics Laureate Christopher A. Sims said Europe needs to preserve the euro and that the only obstacle to a functioning currency union is better fiscal coordination. “It’s worth paying a price to preserve the euro,” Sims, who is in Stockholm to attend an award ceremony for the Nobel economics prize he won in October together with Thomas J. Sargent, said in an interview. “It needs to be a true fiscal union. That means there should be some kind of euro-wide tax instrument. There should be euro bonds.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwkc9h3

-Europe Channels $195 Billion to IMF. Europe bolstered its anti-crisis arsenal, channelling 150 billion Euros ($195 billion) to the International Monetary Fund as the European Central Bank widened its support for sagging bond markets. Four countries not using the single currency also pledged to add to the IMF war chest while Britain refused to commit, in a sign of the difficulty of attracting outside cash to ease the euro area’s home-grown debt burdens. The U.K. will “define its contribution” in early 2012, euro finance ministers said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7stwrve

-’Bubblegum’ treaty will mean the end of Euro within 12 months. London Mayor Boris Johnson said European leaders should abandon ‘hysterical’ efforts to rescue the eurozone and recognise that some countries have to drop the single currency. ‘I would be amazed if we were all sitting here next year and the euro had not undergone some sort of change.’ ‘I think it highly likely that there will be a realignment in the sense that some countries will fall out and we all know who the likely candidates are. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c65kzbw

-Greece’s Creditors Resist Push for More Losses. Greece’s creditors are resisting pressure from the International Monetary Fund to accept bigger losses on holdings of the indebted nation’s government bonds, said three people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

Lenders want the 70 billion euros ($91 billion) of new bonds the government will issue in return for existing securities to carry a coupon of about 5 percent, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d38kz37

-European CEOs Move Cash to Germany In Case of Euro Breakup. Grupo Gowex a Spanish provider of Wi-Fi wireless services, is moving funds to Germany because it expects Spain to exit the euro. German machinery maker GEA Group AG is setting maximum amounts held at any one bank.

“I don’t trust Spain will remain in the euro zone,” said Jenaro Garcia, founder and chief executive officer of Madrid- based Grupo Gowex, which provides Wi-Fi access in 15 countries. “We moved our cash and deposits to Germany because Spain will come back to the peseta.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwhcqqc

-Britain draws up plans to rescue expats if Spain and Portugal are hit by financial oblivion. Evacuation plans for British expats stranded in Spain and Portugal if their banking systems collapse are being drawn up by the Foreign Office.

The contingency plans are being put in place to help thousands of Britons if they were unable to get to their money in the event of a catastrophic banking collapse in two of the most vulnerable eurozone economies. Around one million British expats live in Spain, particularly around Marbella and Malaga, and some 50,000 in Portugal. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cly3j2e

-Drachma Threat Confronts Greeks as Country Teeters on Edge of Losing Euro. Athens restaurant owner Mike Zoulas says generations of his family have paid the price for a divided Europe and now is the time to fight to keep it together. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/csly46w

-China Debts Dwarf Official Data With Too-Big-to-Finish Alarm. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bpakjc7

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Congress Clears $1 Trillion Budget Measure in Rare Bipartisan Compromise. The U.S. Congress cleared a $1 trillion spending bill to avert a government shutdown. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ckw9rr9

-James Turk: In the first two months of the current fiscal year that began on October 1st, the US national debt has grown $320 billion. That is $21 billion more than the same 2-month period last year, which illustrates that the growth of the national debt continues to accelerate. The reason of course is the federal government’s huge operating deficit, which is not getting any smaller. This point is illustrated in the following chart.

Hyperinflation is always the outcome of unchecked government spending. The spending leads to ever greater deficits, which requires the government to borrow ever greater amounts of money. Eventually a point is reached when the government needs to borrow more money than lenders have the capacity or willingness to lend. Thereafter the government can take either of two alternative paths.

Either the government cuts back its spending, facing the reality that it has run out of money. Or the central bank steps in to create ‘out of thin air’ the money the government wants to spend. This second alternative inevitably leads to hyperinflation. A government’s decision to take the hyperinflationary alternative is what I call the “Havenstein moment”, with the dubious distinction going to the ill-fated governor of the Reichsbank whose decisions lead to the massive hyperinflation that destroyed the economy and devastated the middle class of 1920s Germany. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bngemb

-Alasdair Macleod: Money supply explosion will lead to accelerating inflation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cg63ff5

-U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Releases New Report on Wasteful Government Spending in 2011: “Wastebook 2011.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/89qxmy6

-Million-Dollar Nurses Show California’s Struggle to Cut Payroll. California has paid Lina Manglicmot $1.5 million since 2005, an average of $253,530 a year, to work as a prison nurse in the agricultural town of Soledad. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d5s7j7p

-Detroit Faces Review in ‘Probable Financial Stress.’ Detroit’s finances need a more thorough review that may lead to state intervention or a takeover, Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon said. The city of 714,000 is in “probable financial stress” and may run out of cash by April, Dillon said today in a preliminary state examination, citing more than $12 billion in long-term liabilities. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clals93

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BANKING

-ECB to Lend Greater-Than-Forecast $645 Billion as Banks Line Up for Funds. The European Central Bank will lend euro-area banks a record amount for three years in its latest attempt to keep credit flowing to the economy during the sovereign debt crisis. The Frankfurt-based ECB awarded 489 billion Euros ($645 billion) in 1,134-day loans.

The ECB said 523 banks asked for the funds, which will be lent at the average of its benchmark interest rate currently 1 percent over the period of the loans. “It was obviously an offer the banks could not refuse,” said Laurent Fransolet, head of fixed-income strategy at Barclays Capital in London. “It shows the ECB is not out of ammunition and it gives banks security on liquidity for a few years. On the other hand it means banks will rely on the ECB for longer.”

Europe’s debt crisis has increased the risk of government and bank defaults, making institutions wary of lending to each other and driving up the cost of credit. The ECB is trying to ensure that banks have access to cheap cash for the medium term so that they can keep lending to companies and households. In addition to the longer-term loans, the ECB has widened the pool of collateral banks can use to secure the funds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bwg37gj and http://tinyurl.com/cd8qael

-French Banks Struggling to Raise $48 Billion for First-Quarter Debt Needs. BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale SA, Credit Agricole SA and Groupe BPCE, France’s biggest banks, are struggling to fund about 37 billion euros ($48 billion) of debt payments due in the first quarter. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d5vsk9u

-Regulators Close Banks in Arizona, Florida. Regulators on Friday closed a bank in Arizona and another in Florida, bringing the nationwide tally of bank failures up to 92 for the year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bujjexb

-Bank Failures Cost U.S. $88 Billion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yqh7un

-Fed ‘Punted’ on Capital, Liquidity Limits. The Federal Reserve’s plan to boost supervision for U.S. banks stopped short of setting minimum liquidity levels and delayed decisions on risk-based capital and leverage until international regulators weigh in. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/77qqqhr

-Fed Strengthens Its Tools for Preventing Collapse of Large Financial Firms. The Federal Reserve sought to curb the threat of financial turmoil by compelling the biggest banks to follow a tougher standard for risk management and demanding stricter oversight by companies’ boards of directors.

The proposed rules would set triggers for regulatory enforcement for weak firms and require boards of directors to oversee and approve plans for limiting liquidity risk. The Fed delayed releasing rules for supervision of foreign firms and for risk-based capital and leverage requirements. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8ymlr7z

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MF GLOBAL

-Barry Ritholtz: The systemic risk revealed by MF Global’s collapse. Watching the MF Global saga unfold, I had to wonder: “How was it possible for a broker dealer to tap segregated client monies to speculate in risky assets and lose billions?” MF Global’s story, as you will soon understand it, raises serious concerns for any investor.

That the activities that led to MF Global’s collapse were possibly legal is stunning. The details are complex, but follow them through to the end and you will see all of the problems of our system political corruption, excess leverage, focus on short-term profit at the expense of survival in one sordid affair. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8×72xl2

-Missing MF Global customer money ended up with JPMorgan, NY Times says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10806

-Lots of gold and silver went missing at MF Global. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10798

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OIL

-Oil: Iran’s Hormuz Strait Threats Could Wreak Global Economic Havoc. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7rtkmat

-Saudi Oil Breakeven Now at $91, says Alia Moubayed, senior economist at Barclays Capital. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cw5r7to

-Canada Is ‘Very Serious’ About Selling Oil to Asian Markets, Harper Says. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is ‘very serious’ about the idea of selling the country’s oil to markets in Asia, and that Canada no longer wants to export its energy only to the United States. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ccycza7

-Cuba Oil Drilling Tests U.S. on Protecting Florida. Four U.S. inspectors armed with safety glasses and notebooks will set out on a mission next month to protect Florida’s beaches from a Cuban threat. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvl42ob

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STOCK MARKET

-‘Raging Bull’ Powers Citigroup U.S. Stock Call. Stocks are poised to begin a “raging bull” market within 18 months as the children of baby boomers reach their peak savings years, according to Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup Inc.’s chief U.S. equity strategist. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cahqgda

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Missing ‘January Effect’ May Be Lost for 2012. Anyone expecting the so-called January effect to turn shares of smaller U.S. companies into market leaders may end up waiting in vain, according to Steven G. DeSanctis, a strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We do not think we will see a January effect occur in the remainder of this month or next month,” DeSanctis wrote in a report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7v35dve

-Younger Investors Not Shy About Stocks. More younger U.S. workers saving for retirement have a higher allocation to stocks than a decade ago, two groups that studied buying patterns said. About 60 percent of 401(k) investors in their twenties had more than 80 percent of their accounts invested in equities at the end of 2010 compared with about 55 percent of investors in 2000, according to a report by the Investment Company Institute, a trade group for the mutual-fund industry, and the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonprofit. “Younger investors are pursuing a diversified investment strategy that still relies heavily on stocks,” said Sarah Holden, senior director of retirement and investor research at ICI. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cl8mnnr

-Investors Lose Faith in Stocks as Billions Pour Out of Funds. Investors appeared to have lost faith in stocks this year. Just over a week ago, equity mutual funds globally had the second-biggest one-day outflow of money in 2011, capping four straight weeks of net redemptions, according to data from EPFR Global. Worldwide, investors have yanked $34 billion out of equity funds this year and put $75 billion into bonds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pudozj

-China Pension Fund to Spend $1.6 Billion to Boost Stocks. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bqd2ex6

-FBI Pulls Off ‘Perfect Hedge’ to Nab New Insider Trading Class. Almost five years ago, in a conference room 23 stories above the plaza, FBI agents David Chaves and Patrick Carroll surveyed the midtown skyline to the north, home to much of the world’s financial industry. They had received some disturbing intelligence: a surge in profits at hedge funds might be the result of an epidemic of insider trading. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/73qtwof

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REAL ESTATE

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Single-Family Home Building Headed For Worst Year on Record. More than two years after the U.S. recession ended in June 2009, construction of single-family homes is heading for its worst year on record. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ykgtvw

-U.S. Existing Homes Sold Since ‘07 Revised Down by 14%. The number of existing homes sold in the U.S. was revised down by an average 14 percent since 2007, magnifying the depth of the slump that contributed to the last recession. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7z952vx

-U.S. Housing Starts Jump 9.3%, to Highest in Year. Builders broke ground in November on more houses than at any time in the past 19 months, led by a surge in multifamily units, signaling the market is stabilizing heading into 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c895m3d

-Smallest Drop in Home Values in Four Years: Zillow. U.S. home values probably will have their smallest decrease in four years in 2011 after the decline in property prices slowed, Zillow Inc. said. The total value of the country’s housing probably fell by more than $681 billion, about 35 percent less than the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010. A projected decline of $227 billion from July to the end of this month compares with $454 billion lost in the first half of the year, according to Zillow. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7y4m5lc

-Zillow CEO on housing market: ‘Not good’. Watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cgepljt

-60 Minutes: There Goes the Neighborhood. Across America, recession-fueled foreclosures and plummeting home values have left countless properties abandoned and vulnerable to looting. As Scott Pelley reports, the problem has gotten so bad in Cleveland, Ohio, that county officials have demolished more than 1,000 homes this year – and plan to demolish 20,000 more – rather than let the blight spread and render nearby homes worthless. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/7fkxrq9

-Cleveland Disassembles Itself in Face of Property-Value Plunge. Demolition contractor Craig Crawford has a foundation-level view of Cleveland’s housing market, and he sees a lot of unbuilding ahead. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bvp9mgm

-U.S. Foreclosures May Delay Housing Rebound. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6t2blnc

-This Woman Re-Occupied Her Foreclosure After Getting Evicted 11 Months Ago. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clz7szw

-No Relief for Homeowners Shut Out by U.S. Marc and Emily De La Torre would love to lower their mortgage bills to offset the costs of raising their 3-month-old baby. Instead, they’re among millions of Americans left out as the government tries again to make refinancing possible for borrowers with little or no equity. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/863wq3q

-BofA Agrees to $335M Lending Settlement. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) agreed to a record $335 million settlement of a U.S. Justice Department probe into fair-lending lapses at its Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage unit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zx3pqp

-Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Sued by California Attorney General. Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac were accused in a lawsuit by California Attorney General Kamala Harris of hindering her probe into mortgage lending and foreclosure practices. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ckczwmk

-China’s November Home Prices Post Worst Performance This Year Amid Curbs. China’s home prices posted their worst performance this year with more than half of the 70 biggest cities monitored in November recording declines after the government reiterated plans to maintain property curbs. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d28kk9w

-U.K. Home Sellers Cut Property Asking Prices in December, Rightmove Says. U.K. home sellers cut asking prices in December, according to Rightmove Plc, which said the property market will remain “challenging” next year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bnnmot4

-Canadian housing market showing signs of a classic bubble: Merrill Lynch. A report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch says Canadian home prices are now showing many of the signs of a “classic bubble.” “We estimate the housing market nationwide is about 10 per cent over valued.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cd8ggw7

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GEOPOLITICAL

-Panetta: Iran will not be allowed nukes. The U.S. Secretary of Defense said that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. In an interview, Leon Panetta, said despite the efforts to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians have reached a point where they can assemble a bomb in a year or potentially less. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/6ljd9fl

-U.S. Joins EU in Push for Iran Oil Embargo in Effort to Stop Nuclear Plans. The Obama administration and European governments are seeking help from Arab and Asian allies to reduce Iran’s oil revenues in the dispute over its nuclear program, while trying to avoid causing a surge in prices that may threaten the global economic recovery. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d2aooyu

-Baghdad Blasts Kill 57 as Political Tensions Rise. Civilians were targeted in bombings across Baghdad that killed 57 people amid an escalation of political infighting in Iraq that has followed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c2rbdmh

-Afghans Negotiating Long U.S. Presence: Karzai. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government is negotiating with the U.S. to establish an “enduring partnership” that may entail a long-term presence of U.S. forces in the South Asian country. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cbrsjjk

-Chavez Rolls Back Seizures as Shortages Hurt Re-Election Bid. Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is enlisting Mexico’s Gruma SAB, French retailer Casino and other international companies to boost supplies of milk, corn flour and cement as shortages threaten to dent his bid for re-election in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cytcm8k

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – December 28th, 2011
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Wednesday, December 28, 2011

World Financial Report – December 16th, 2011

Radio Show Newsletter

CHARTS OF THE WEEK-QUOTES-QUICK HITS

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Guess Which Country Spends The Most On Holiday Gifts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cztnfql

-CHART OF THE WEEK: U.S. Oil Independence Beckons as Exports Rise. U.S. net exports of oil products such as diesel will more than double in the next decade from record levels as slowing domestic consumption cuts the nation’s dependence on foreign energy, Citigroup Inc. said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bt7nt67

-”Since the financial crisis of 2008 exposed Wall Street’s reckless casino culture where profits are privatized and losses are socialized the public has grown increasingly tired of corporate greed and blatant disregard for the interests of shareholders and the public at large.” Gary Lamphier

-Most Economists Expect Another Global Recession. So acute are the risks that few economists are now willing to bet heavily against another global recession in 2012. By common consent, the world economic outlook is much darker today than it appeared in the early autumn.

The eurozone crisis has worsened with contagion spreading through Italy and Spain and now lapping at the door of France. Recoveries remain feeble in other advanced economies. And emerging markets are beginning to feel the pressure. Policymakers are worried.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund repeatedly warned in September that the world economy had entered a “dangerous phase.” By December, she said those threats were materializing. “The global economic outlook will be lower, and in certain parts much lower than what we had initially envisaged.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6vjtv3p

-IMF’s Lagarde: Europe Crisis ‘Escalating.’ The European debt crisis is growing to the point that it won’t be solved by one group of countries, Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said today. Lagarde said that if countries don’t work together, the world will face a situation similar to the 1930s, before the world slid into World War II.

“There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super- advanced economies that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding, but escalating at a point where everybody would actually have to focus on what it can do,” Lagarde said.

If the international community doesn’t work together, “the risk from an economic point of view is that of retraction, rising protectionism, isolation,” Lagarde said. “This is exactly the description of what happened in the ’30s and what followed is not something we are looking forward to.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/co5fwbd

-BlackRock Says Euro Area Headed for ‘Full-Fledged’ Recession. BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, said European nations including France and Germany are headed for a recession as the prolonged debt crisis has prompted companies to cut spending and stop hiring. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/brvqymq

-Kyle Bass : For Europe, Only Way Out Is to Break Up. With no workable solutions in sight and a sovereign debt crisis only likely to get worse, the European Union is likely to see an ultimate breakup, widely followed hedge fund executive Kyle Bass told CNBC.

Bass said last week’s EU summit produced “a blank piece of paper” on which “there are no details,” causing him to conclude, “It won’t work.” “They’re going to have to restructure a lot of their debt. Eventually the EU is going to have to break up,” he said. “The adjustment mechanism that these countries need is a much weaker currency.

It’s very difficult to go through a hard restructuring and become competitive once again as a nation unless you have a currency adjustment mechanism that’s associated with your restructuring.” Under current EMU rules, individual countries cannot devalue their currencies because they are all tied to the euro. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cq9cx3z

-Kyle Bass: Europe to Face Run on Banks. Kyle Bass, the Dallas-based hedge fund manager who said in 2009 that governments would default within three years, said Greek, Portuguese and Spanish depositors will withdraw money from banks in the coming months.

“Just as Latvians ran to the ATMs this weekend, so will depositors all over peripheral Europe in the months ahead,” Bass, who runs Hayman Capital Management LP, said in an investor letter. “Deposits are now declining at an accelerated pace. What’s surprising is that it hasn’t happened much sooner.”

In Greece, business and household bank deposits have slumped 26 percent in the past two years to 176 billion euros ($229 billion), and fell in October by the most since the nation joined the euro, according to the Bank of Greece. There were 2.24 trillion euros of overnight deposits with euro-region financial institutions at the end of September, down from 2.26 trillion in July. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cnbm9hz

-Latvians withdrew, transferred and were paid out about $328.5 million from local Swedbank AB automatic teller machines on Dec. 11 and 12 on speculation customers wouldn’t be able to access their funds. Clients withdrew about 10 percent of total deposits on Dec. 11/12, the Swedish bank said in a statement. Bloomberg-Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cmrwz5s

-$1.6B Missing, a Bankrupt Baltic Bank, and Soccer. Vladimir Antonov, whose grandfather worked on the Soviet atomic bomb, opted for a career in banking when he arrived in Moscow in the early 1990s. Almost two decades later, the fallout from that choice is being played out across Europe as authorities try to trace the whereabouts of more than $1.6 billion missing from banks owned by the 36-year-old Russian in Lithuania and Latvia. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cxn7hz3

-BIS: Derivatives Dealers Have Transferred Credit Risk To Shadow Banks Since 2010. Derivatives dealers have transferred large amounts of credit risk to opaque and largely unregulated parts of the financial system, often using instruments that were themselves opaque, the Bank for International Settlements said in its quarterly report. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cnyb5bh

-Venezuela’s annual inflation increases to more than 27 percent. Venezuela’s Central Bank says the country’s annual inflation has risen to 27.6 percent. Monthly inflation was 2.2 percent in November, up from 1.8 percent in October. Annual inflation rose slightly from the 26.9 percent rate recorded in October. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clg933g

-Average US Family Lost $21K in 6 Months Due To Property Values, Stock Market. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pb64cg

-Household wealth took its biggest hit since the height of the 2008 financial meltdown during the third quarter, weakened by a downturn in stocks, according to a report issued. The Federal Reserve said the net worth of households fell by $2.2 trillion, or 4.1%, to end at $57.4 trillion. The decline comes to about $7,800 for every U.S. resident. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/899bf3p

-Rich Man, Poor Man: Connecticut Tops U.S. Wealth Gap. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/csrd7j6

-Richest NJ County Leads Rise in Food Stamps. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cy7bqf8

-Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cv2kehg

-Lance Roberts: A Million Dollars Ain’t What It Used To Be. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cs2vob4

-Is 80 The New Retirement Age? Many Americans Think So. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cc6ndpl

-US presidential dollar coins victims of budget crunch. Searching for savings in a tough economy, the White House said that the U.S. Mint would scrap automatic production of millions of dollar coins bearing the image of deceased American presidents at a saving of $50 million a year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bm85kex

-Jeff Gundlach’s Latest Presentation On Markets, The Economy And Society. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3u5jgr

-Paul B. Farrell: Our decade from hell will get worse in 2012. Market crash, political gridlock, revolution, new class wars. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78zbhns

-Matthew Lynn: This slump won’t end until 2031. Our predicament parallels the Long Depression of 1870s. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c8kyo2d

-Felix Zulauf: Watch Out for These Events in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d763yxz

-Morgan Stanley Reveals Its Commodity Predictions For 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c87fc4m

-Holiday Online Spending in U.S. Gains 15%. U.S. online retail spending rose 15 percent to $26.8 billion in the holiday season through Dec. 12, according to ComScore Inc. a sign more consumers are taking advantage of discounts available through e-commerce providers. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bmx9h8d

-The Simple Way To Save Big On All Your Christmas Shopping. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d956unq

-Norway butter shortage threatens Christmas treats. An acute butter shortage in Norway, one of the world’s richest countries, has left people worrying how to bake their Christmas goodies with store shelves emptied and prices through the roof. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dyja4cl

-A Russian Man Was Caught Trying To Smuggle 200 Pounds Of Butter Into Norway. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85lgyq3

-42% Of All Luxury Boats In Italy Are Owned By People Who Claim To Earn Less Than €20,000 A Year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bt2manf

-A German Janitor Just Made The Discovery Of The Century. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85pzhx7

-Italian black cat becomes a fat cat after inheriting 10 million Euros. A black cat in Italy has lived up to its reputation for good luck after inheriting 10 million Euros (£8.5 million) from his adoptive owner, a widowed heiress. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cm87glq

-An Eerie Tour Of The Knockoff Disney World That China Abandoned A Decade Ago. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/csj66mj

-7 Predictions For The Year 2011 From 1931 Visionaries. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/br7wnwc

-Time Magazine’s Person Of The Year Is The Protester. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cfyvqcf

-’Creative’ The Buzzword for 2011. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3g7woz

-Poll Results: 1 in 3 Viewers Despises Television And Wants To See It Die. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ebwve3

-TV Viewers Spared From Loud Ads as Stations Told to Watch Volume. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gblrty

-Founding Apple Contract Signed by Jobs Soars to $1.6 Million at Sotheby’s. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pch559

-Scientists Get Closer to Locating ‘God Particle‘ in Collider Experiments. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cyaakqy

-U.S. Winter to Miss Cold of Past Two Seasons. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bmojbl4

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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 1.52 carat cushion cut fancy intense Yellow internally flawless Diamond. Yellow Diamonds have had a great year at auction with more price appreciation to come in the years ahead, add a Yellow to your portfolio/collection today. Harold Seigel-See video of the Featured Diamond here-http://tinyurl.com/ce3usxp

-Diamonds to Rise as Demand Expands at Double Supply, Bain Says. Diamond prices are poised to rise as demand grows at double the pace of supply through 2020 because of expanding middle class populations in China and India, said Bain & Co. in a report for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

World demand is expected to expand an average 6.4 percent a year to almost 247 million carats by 2020 while production grows an annual 2.8 percent to 175 million carats, it said in the report. Output totalled 133 million carats last year, it said. “Historically such supply-demand imbalances have provided the foundation for firm prices in the industry,” the Boston, Massachusetts-based consultant wrote in the report.

Rough-diamond prices rose 49 percent in the first half, accelerating after two straight years of more than 30 percent growth as stagnant output failed to meet Asian demand, according to data from PolishedPrices.com. China and India will increase their share of world diamond demand to about 30 percent by 2020, from 21 percent, as middle class populations in the two countries will more than double to 469 million people, according to Bain & Co. World demand will grow to $23 billion in 10 years from $12 billion last year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7bmbzcv

-Elizabeth Taylor’s Incredible Jewelry Collection Sold For A Record-Breaking $116 Million. On the first night of the sale for The Elizabeth Taylor Collection, the actress’ jewelry sold for $115.9 million a world record for a private jewelry collection sold at auction.

The famed Elizabeth Taylor Diamond sold for $8.8 million. The 33.19 carat ring, a gift from Richard Burton, was originally estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million. The proceeds will go to The Elizabeth Taylor Foundation. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d4bmy3q

-Bonhams London Jewelry Sale Garners $6M. Diamonds achieve strong prices. A rare, un-mounted, 3.64-carat, cushion-shaped diamond of fancy intense bluish-green sold for $395,000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cy66ysq

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GOLD

-”Gold still up nicely for the year. Don’t forget gold plummeted then rallied in 2008-2009 and you had to keep buying.” Jim Cramer

-”Traders, hedge funds, proprietary desks of banks and more speculative players many of whom are driven by technicals and momentum, rather than fundamentals, have been selling gold and going to cash due to the real risk of a monetary and systemic crisis.” Goldcore

-”Gold fell after the Fed statement failed to hint at further quantitative easing despite acknowledging slowing global growth.” Suki Cooper, an analyst at Barclays Capital in New York

-”People are fearful of everything that’s going on, so once something starts selling off, selling begets selling. The safe haven of choice continues to be the U.S. dollar.” Rachel Benepe, portfolio manager at First Eagle Investment Management

-”Gold should be looked at as insurance. Selling your physical gold now would be like driving your car or living in your home without an insurance policy.” Greg Hunter

-”Those who were frightened by news out of Europe and dumped gold this week could soon wind up sorry, as a known seasonal period of strength for the metal is right around the corner.” Tom Aspray

-”The metal remains one of the top commodity picks for 2012 as “most of the factors that pushed gold higher in 2011 are not going away,” according to UBS AG, which expects it to average $2,050 an ounce next year. “So long as uncertainty abounds, gold has a fighting chance of outpacing many asset classes,” analysts including Julien Garran wrote in a report. Bloomberg

-Citi Predicts Gold At $3400 In “The Next Two Years”, Potential For Move As High As $6000. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xdjna7

-Despite current commodity doldrums, Rob McEwen stands pat on $5,000 gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dxcbdkb

-Battle lines drawn in gold price direction predictions. While some headlines are predicting the end of the bull market for gold, many commentators remain bullish on the yellow metal and all agree that more volatility should be expected. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/ccwrnoe

-”Not all is gloom and doom. A look at past periods when gold has closed below its 200-day moving average shows the metal has often rebounded, averaging gains with positive returns two-thirds of the time.” Bespoke Investment Group

-CHART OF THE WEEK: The Carnage Accelerates, As Gold Breaks Through A Level Not Seen In Years. The buzz today is all about gold, and how it continues to look like it’s running out of steam. Of particular note. Gold just broke through its 200-day moving average a line that a lot of people watch For the first time since early 2009. It’s undeniable that gold has had one crazy run: Not just over the last few years, but basically over the last decade. Suddenly people are wondering whether it’s over. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d9mr9ma

-CHART OF THE WEEK: Forget The 200-Day Moving Average, Here’s How You’ll Know The Gold Bull Market Is Over. Everyone is talking about this event, even people who don’t normally think technical analysis is a big deal. Well, forget the 200-day, according to Ron Griess of The Chart Store it’s the 300-day moving average that’s really proved to be a big support line for gold. And for what it’s worth, the current 300-day moving average right now is somewhere around $1538/oz. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c66m8su

-Death of Gold Bull Market Seen by Gartman. Gold, in the 11th year of its longest winning streak in at least nine decades, is poised to enter a bear market, according to Dennis Gartman, who correctly predicted the slump in commodities in 2008. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7juffce

-Dennis Gartman’s short term calls on gold and silver have been wrong more often than not in recent years. He tends to turn bearish after gold has already experienced a correction and is close to bottoming. Those wishing to diversify and add gold to their portfolio will use his call as a contrarian signal that we may be getting close to a low in this most recent sell off. Our advice is to ignore gurus, price predictions and noise up and down and focus on the real fundamentals driving the gold market. Having an allocation to and owning physical gold will again protect and preserve wealth in 2012. Goldcore

-Doug Short: Are We Really Seeing The Death Of The Gold Bull Market? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d74hb3p

-Jim Sinclair: Why Gold Was Smashed & What’s Next. When asked about the action in gold, Sinclair stated, “Statements made by Mrs. Merkel, in Germany, this morning, would have us believe that both the US Fed and Germany’s influence on the ECB would result in a willingness to accept a severe deflation, rather than willingness to accept a severe inflation.

The selling (in gold) sent some of the fundamental guys out of their positions in gold, which affected the technicals.” “Technical analysis, when looked at, is really everybody looking at the same thing. So the sellers are chasing each other trying to find the bid. I believe that what started all of this is purely political in nature.

I firmly believe there is no political will on the planet anywhere, but especially in the Western world, to invite a severe deflation. As the deflationary forces continue to surface you will see the absolute opposite. I firmly believe you are more apt to have QE to infinity than you are to welcome rising unemployment and declining business activity.”

When asked about the technical damage in the gold market, Sinclair stated, “It isn’t really longer-term. The technical damage right here and now is something that from today’s lows could be corrected in a few days, easily repairable. You’ve got support between $1,549 and $1,577. You’ve also got it overlaying $1,519 to $1,572.

There is every possibility that you’ve seen the absolute worst of this as we’re talking now. The most important thing is volatility. One thing this shows you, and it increases continually, is this is the wildest chop we’ve ever been in, in the history of trading gold, in terms of ups and downs. It means to me that gold is going to rise to prices even higher than I expected. “I don’t see gold trading significantly lower than it is trading at right now.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d3kzjbs

-Mark Hulbert: The gold bugs are throwing in the towel. Contrarians detect strong wall of worry in gold market. There’s another reason to expect bullion to soon begin rallying: The end-of-year period historically has been a strong one for gold.

Indeed, Ned Davis senior equity analyst John LaForge told me that the bulk of gold’s return over the last decade has been produced in the last several weeks of the calendar year. We haven’t seen any such seasonal strength this year, needless to say. But gold’s seasonal tendencies are yet more evidence pointing in the same direction as contrarian analysis: Gold is due for a strong rally. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqxqjm7

-Jeff Clark: Pullbacks in Perspective. If you’re bullish about the long term for gold and silver, it’s mouthwatering to watch them undergo a major correction after taking earlier profits that added to your deployable cash. For a little historical perspective on pullbacks, consider the following charts.

The current 15.6% gold decline, while considered a “major” correction, is not out of the ordinary, particularly following the late summer spike. And after each big selloff, there was a price consolidation phase that in every instance led to higher prices. The message: hold on, and buy the big dips.

Not surprisingly, silver’s biggest corrections are larger than gold’s. This is also true for the rebounds; they’ve been quite dramatic. If we apply the biggest three-month recovery of 44.3% to the current correction, that would take silver to $40.63, meaning we probably shouldn’t expect $60 silver by year-end. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cc9bmvf

-Greg Hunter: Is the Gold Bull Really Dead? I think Mr. Gartman is a trader at heart, but there is a big difference between a gold trader and a gold investor. Traders are usually looking at the short term, and in the short term, Gartman is probably correct. The price of gold will probably sell off some more before this move is through, but the gold bull is hardly finished.

I say this because of two main reasons. Unprecedented global debt is reason number one. Let’s not forget the war wild card. Countries such as Syria, China, Russia and Israel are all making news on a possible war in the Middle East. If you are a trader, then, by all means, listen to Dennis Gartman.

Short term, he may be correct. If you are buying gold for protection and insurance against calamity, then this price pull back is nothing more than an opportunity to buy more insurance. How much protection you need and can afford is entirely up to you. I think the wildcards are so extreme that it’s foolish to be without insurance. I hear a bull snorting in the distance. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c6bnpbo

-John Embry: This Gold Smash Will Pass, the Case for Fiat is Zero. “You’re always surprised at the viciousness of a decline like this. I mean this all started in the wake of the failed European Summit. At one point, after the initial communiqué, gold shot up to $1,760 and now it’s roughly $200 lower. The reality has barely changed, but the perception of the reality appears to have swung dramatically.”

When asked what he would say to calm the nerves of gold and silver investors globally, Embry remarked, “As I’ve said all along, if you don’t like gold and silver, you like the prospects for fiat paper currency. With a world that’s tens of trillions of dollars in deficit and can’t service the existing debt, the case for fiat paper currency is zero. You can’t make a case for it.

So on that basis gold and silver, which is the real money, can only do one thing in the future and that is move higher. I’ve been through this so many times with these guys (the cartel) who can take the gold market apart and scare the life out of most humans, and it’s just noise. It’s gone on over and over and over again. In the end this will pass like they all have and gold will move on to new highs.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gurpu9

-Michael Pento: When Extreme Volatility in Gold & Commodities will Hit. Investors should be aware that gold and other commodities will experience extreme volatility in 2012 even more than what was witnessed in 2011. However, the timing for the next move to new highs will hang on the ECB’s deployment of its ultimate plan of massive monetization of unsterilized European debt.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/czpnq8w

-John Hathaway: Media & Gartman Attacks on Gold are Bullish. “The gist of an article today was, ‘Is there a bear market in gold?’ I think the media is playing this up. Bloomberg is obsessing about the falling gold price. That’s generally the tone of what I see, so it is consistent with the sentiment numbers for gold and silver and to me it’s a pretty good sign.”

“This summer, when we got up to $1,900, gold was overcooked and sentiment was bullish. All of the front page stories were about the reasons to own gold. The usual suspects were bulling it like (Dennis) Gartman, to give one example. Now Gartman is calling it a bear market in gold and that is a good contrarian indicator. This is the time when you want to put some money to work, particularly in the metals.

Basically, we have to take our cue from gold when looking at silver. The things that are going to drive gold are going to drive silver, but as always, silver will get a bigger percentage move. Don’t lose sight of the long-term rationale for investing in precious metals and that is monetary debasement. I see nothing to suggest anything has changed. I listened to (Jim) Sinclair’s interview and he was saying there is no way that austerity is going to last as something that is politically acceptable.

I couldn’t agree more with him. Austerity is deflationary and it means people lose jobs, benefits are cut back. Uncertainty at the consumer level has to be undermined by a program of austerity. It’s kind of like the flavor of the month in political policy, but I give these guys about six months, the technocrats, and even Merkel in Germany.

We are not going to have an advance word of when they are going to turn on the printing presses. “Therefore you can’t time it if you are dispirited in gold or the mining shares. You just can’t get in ahead of that moment when everything goes ballistic. You have to be in already and endure the pain that we are all feeling.”

The bigger picture is gold continues to be in a long-term bull market. This correction is well within the confines of what you can tolerate to say gold is still in a bull market. Frankly, this is exactly what we need to set up a base for going to new highs. I think we are going to be done with this by the end of the year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ahwbmd

-Richard Russell: Gold Trading Above $1,500 is Bullish Action. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cu6hnl3

-Bill Fleckenstein: Gold Update. “I don’t know that anyone thinks corrections are that much fun, they are only healthy in hindsight. It just happens. This has happened over and over and over again. It’s just part of the process. It seems to me that sentiment is rather poor. There has been tremendous liquidation in the futures market, both for gold and silver.

Obviously more liquidation could take place. What has been interesting, though, is the fact that at least in gold the number of ounces held by the ETF continues to be near a peak, while the futures market keeps seeing the longs shrink.

So it would appear people who are buying the ETF, which is more of a physical mindset, continue to buy and hot money types continue to sell. So next time gold goes on a huge run you can be sure that some of the same firms that are selling it down here will probably be buying it up there, that’s the way it goes.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bqxljx3

-Stephen Leeb: Gold Bull & Germany Flirting with Depression. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to see the world coming apart and gold going down. We are seeing liquidation by some hedge funds and maybe even banks to some extent that need liquidity.

You have to go back to 2008 and I think the drop in 2008 was probably in the neighborhood of 30% and then gold just started taking off again.” “The catalyst after the drop in 2008 was recognition there were problems that had to be solved by extraordinary means. And once that was recognized, gold just shot up like a missile and really didn’t look back.

I think this is probably a similar kind of correction, except now it’s not the US financial system that is in peril, it’s the eurozone that’s in peril. The treaty or so-called treaty they struck last week is a joke. To assume countries that have been fighting for 300 years, and share absolutely nothing culturally, are suddenly going to come together and sign a piece of paper and all agree to think alike, it’s crazy.

What I think will happen, one way or the other, is Germany will decide it’s going to have to print money. That’s really the only way out. You have to have growth or you are never going to get rid of these deficits. My big picture is that Merkel and the Germans will allow the printing of money and once that happens, just as it happened in 2008, once you get a sign, that’s blastoff time for gold.

Gold and silver will shoot up like rockets. In my opinion gold will close 2012 at $2,500 or above, probably above. Gold could easily double from here in the next 12 months if you get the kind of money printing that I expect to happen in Europe. So how low gold will go here is literally meaningless.

My advice to investors is don’t try to catch a bottom and be a hero. It could happen any time. It could be happening as we speak, it could be happening today. But it’s really irrelevant. Let’s say gold is at $3000, $4,000 or $5,000 in three or four years, which I think is very, very likely are you really even going to remember that it went to $1,650 or $1,550? No.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7m68jqo

-James Turk: Lehman II in Progress as Financial System Implodes. When asked about the implications for gold and silver, Turk stated, “I see the outcome of this mess as inflationary because central banks have only one answer to everything, and that is print, print and then print some more.

But even if I am wrong and some central bank keeps its currency from inflating and actually deflates, you will still be better off owning gold and silver. Their price may go down, but the price of everything else would go down even more, so you would still be better off owning the precious metals.

And even more importantly, physical gold and silver do not have a counterparty risk, so you never need to worry about the precious metals defaulting on some promise. As I see it, if you don’t own some physical gold and silver, you are going to be in a bad way as the impact of the MF Global collapse continues to ripple through the markets.

All of us are facing some difficult times in the weeks and months ahead as this global financial bust plays itself out, but trying to contend with this fallout without owning physical gold and silver is like going into a war without any bullets.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cfky9ym

-Von Greyerz: Currency Collapse, Hyperinflation & Social Unrest. “It was very clear to me, for quite a long time, well before 2002, that this was going to end badly. There was no chance the world would survive with the banking system intact or even the financial system intact.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c2lter7

-Frank Holmes: You Can’t Print More Gold. “When great nations mature and over-extend themselves, they revert to the paths of least resistance: borrow and/or print money. They all did it and they all failed; this time will be no different.” The beneficiary of this type of event has historically been gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3xlt5a

-Chinese still buying gold big time huge imports in October. Chinese citizens continue to buy gold in record volumes with October the fourth successive record month for imports via Hong Kong. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d8wt7ov

-Gold bar sales outstripping jewellery in India. Retail demand for kilo and 100 gram gold bars is not just limited to India rich anymore, as savvy investors buy gold bars on dips and sell them for a profit. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7l5z7ac

-Indians increasingly monetize gold as collateral for loans. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10764

-3 criteria for EU QE and why it would be explosive for gold. UBS believes that if three criteria are filled over the coming months, Europe could well see quantitative easing and that would be very good for gold. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7nfunzs

-Louis James: Gold: Supply Crunch? What Supply Crunch? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8xot4a5

-Gijsbert Groenewegen: JP Morgan, “Gold is money, everything else is credit” or no credibility! Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c24p7q4

-Alix Steel: Deflation Can Be Good for Gold. Read and watch more here-http://tinyurl.com/cvobdlw

-European nations’ debts overwhelm their gold reserves. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10772

-FT’s John Dizard: Gold borrowed from governments or ETFs may be propping up European banks. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10771

-Just sold for $7.4 million, rare 1787 U.S. gold coin up 147% in seven years. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10765

-The 10 Biggest Gold-Hoarding Countries In The World. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d8c8kf4

-Oil already may be getting priced in gold, analyst says. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bw9t87g

-Gold buyers tempt Greeks facing hard times. Greece has seen an upsurge in small companies and shops offering to buy gold, driven by record prices and the need many people have to raise cash during hard times when jobs are uncertain and money scarce. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c5skajz

-Market News International retracts report about central bank gold sales. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10758

-Jeff Nielson: The bankers’ new gold. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10783

-Weekly metals review, audio of Sinclair and Davies at King World News. Listen here-http://www.gata.org/node/10760

-Irked by GATA, Bank of England denies gold loans, swaps since 2007. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10778

-No takers for Grandich’s million-dollar gold price challenge. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10786

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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

-Silver offers solid value. I see silver becoming a stand-out asset over the next two years. You can own it in physical form. It is a great asset to buy and simply wait for a higher price. If you store it yourself you avoid fees. One way to measure silver’s value is the gold/silver ratio; it currently takes about 53 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold. The ratio could get worse for silver enthusiasts, but the current ratio is at a level where silver represents very good long term value. Morris Hubbartt

-John Embry: Silver Update. When asked about silver specifically, Embry stated, “The physical silver market is as tight as can be. The people who are short the paper market (in silver) are bankrupt, almost to a man. Consequently, their actions are not those of rational men, they are those of desperate men.

JP Morgan is trying to protect their short positions and so this move down has a very finite life. So you are going to have days like this and I still say silver will be $60 within the next three to six months. As much as I love the gold story, the silver story is much stronger because of the lack of above ground supply. In the future, there won’t be enough silver to fill the demand for investment purposes and the price is going to go berserk to the upside.” Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7gurpu9

-David Morgan: Balancing Small Silver with Big Payoffs. I do see silver’s price going above $50/oz in 2012. I forecast $65–75/oz silver by the end of 2012. I don’t foresee a big rush into price appreciation for gold or silver in the first quarter of 2012 (Q1-12), which is seasonal.

Typically, there is a very strong boost to the price of metals in the first quarter of every year. However, this year I’m suspect because of what’s going on in the Eurozone and all the paper pushing between the central banks of the world. I’m reserved about what’s going to happen over the next three months. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bqbzrg3

-David Morgan: Silver consolidation to continue as investors rush to cash. Morgan believes that while, longer term, silver prices will continue, we are currently facing a long consolidation phase for the metal. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cjxmbe2

-Matt Badiali: Buy Silver Now! Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c3ypaja

-Fiona Bond and Darshini Shah: Silver set to shine in 2012. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6pg99kr

-Silver demand growing with old and new uses. Electronics, solar power, health care and nano-particles, along with more traditional uses, will keep silver a good investment despite latest setback. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cqm2kcz

-Hubert Moolman: Where Is Silver Going? Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/d3jrjs3

-Royal Canadian Mint considers offering silver bullion receipts. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10777

-Dramatic new video cites paper market’s silver price suppression. Watch more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10762

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QE

-Bernanke Signals Risks From Europe Crisis Keep Fed Ready for More Easing. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signalled he’s concerned Europe’s crisis will hobble a 2 1/2-year U.S. expansion that may need another boost from the central bank. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6n353dr

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SOVEREIGN DEBT

-Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. What remarkable petulance and stupidity. The leaders of France and Germany have more or less bulldozed Britain out of the European Union for the sake of a treaty that offers absolutely no solution to the crisis at hand, or indeed any future crisis. It is EU institutional chair shuffling at its worst, with venom for good measure. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/79nnzma

-Pondering a Dire Day: Leaving the Euro. It would be Europe’s worst nightmare: after weeks of rumors, the Greek prime minister announces late on a Saturday night that the country will abandon the euro currency and return to the drachma. Instead of business as usual on Monday morning, lines of angry Greeks form at the shuttered doors of the country’s banks, trying to get at their frozen deposits.

The drachma’s value plummets more than 60 percent against the euro, and prices soar at the few shops willing to open. Soon, the country’s international credit lines are cut after Greece, as part of the prime minister’s move, defaults on its debt. As the country descends into chaos, the military seizes control of the government.

This scary chain of events might never come to pass. But the danger that Greece or some other deeply damaged country in the euro zone could leave the single-currency union can no longer be ruled out. And it was largely this prospect that drove leaders last week to agree to adopt strict fiscal rules that they hope will wrap the 17 European Union nations that use the euro into an even tighter embrace. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/clab2ny

-Eurozone crisis poses military risk, warns defence chief General Sir David Richards. Defence chiefs are drawing up plans to cope with the potential military fallout from the eurozone crisis, according to General Richards. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c2psqlu

-Italy risks “social explosion” over austerity: union chief. Italy risks a “social explosion” over the government’s austerity measures and unions plan more protests against them, said Susanna Camusso the head of the country’s largest labor federation CGIL. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/78qn7×9

-Bernanke: No Fed Plans to Aid European Banks. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Republican senators the Fed plans no additional aid to European banks amid the region’s sovereign debt crisis, according to two lawmakers who attended the meeting. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7lcqjsv

-No One Telling Who Took $586 Billion in Swaps With Fed Condoning Anonymity. For all the transparency forced on the Federal Reserve by Congress and the courts, one of the central bank’s emergency-lending programs remains so secretive that names of borrowers may be hidden from the Fed itself.

As part of a currency-swap plan active from 2007 to 2010 and revived to fight the European debt crisis, the Fed lends dollars to other central banks, which auction them to local commercial banks. Lending peaked at $586 billion in December 2008. While the transactions with other central banks are all disclosed, the Fed doesn’t track where the dollars ultimately end up, and European officials don’t share borrowers’ identities outside the continent. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/czlysfh

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U.S. DEBT-DEFICIT

-Everything You Need To Know About Federal Debt And Deficits In One Graphic. See more here-http://tinyurl.com/8935puw

-U.S. runs $137 billion deficit in November. The federal government ran a budget deficit of $137 billion in November, the Treasury Department reported, keeping its finances in the red in the second month of the fiscal year. The government spent $290 billion in the month and took in $152 billion, pushing the fiscal year-to-date deficit to $236 billion. The Treasury continues to project a deficit for fiscal 2012 of nearly $1 trillion. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6lh6zdv

-U.S. Debt Has Climbed $48,994.13 Every Single Second Under President Obama. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c64u3j6

-California’s Revenue Shortfall Will Force Brown to Seek $1 Billion of Cuts. California Governor Jerry Brown will cut $1 billion in spending from the current budget, saying the economy won’t produce revenue he built into the plan in June, triggering automatic reductions. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c8xyy5l

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INTEREST RATES

-Fed Says U.S. Economy Is ‘Expanding Moderately,’ Policy Remains Unchanged. Federal Reserve policy makers said the U.S. economy is maintaining its expansion even as the global economy slows, while refraining from taking new actions to lower borrowing costs.

The Fed left unchanged its statement that economic conditions are likely to warrant “exceptionally low” interest rates “at least through mid-2013.” The central bank lowered its target overnight interest rate to a range of zero to 0.25 percent in December 2008. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6mok86q

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MF GLOBAL

-Corzine Tells Senate Hearing He Didn’t Order Misuse of Funds at MF Global. Jon S. Corzine, the former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., told lawmakers he “never gave any instructions to misuse customer funds” and didn’t give orders that could be misconstrued.

Corzine made the comments today at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing in Washington where lawmakers questioned him and two other top MF Global officials about the whereabouts of as much as $1.2 billion missing from customer accounts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/c4dgcym

-Corzine: MF Staff Said Fund Transfer Was Legal. Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., told lawmakers that the firm’s back-office staff “explicitly” informed him that funds transfers made before the company filed for bankruptcy were legal. Lawmakers and U.S. authorities are investigating what happened to as much as $1.2 billion in customer funds that is missing from MF Global accounts. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/boe5rla

-Corzine Knew MF Used Client Accounts. Jon Corzine, the former chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., knew that the company made a loan out of segregated customer accounts before it went bankrupt, CME Group Inc. chairman Terrence Duffy told the U.S. Senate.

Duffy, whose company is MF Global’s regulator and principal exchange, faced questions about a shortfall of some $1.2 billion in missing customer funds. CME and Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff had been told a discrepancy existed in the customer funds, which by law are required to be kept separate from company funds. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7zqxgol

-MF Global Probe May Weigh Illegal Use of Funds. Regulators are investigating whether MF Global Holdings Ltd. intentionally used customer funds to cover the bankrupt firm’s margin payments on European government bond trades, bolstering their ability to retrieve the missing money, people with knowledge of the probe said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/br92×2t

-Regulators know where MF Global funds went. Regulators now have a more complete picture of money transfers in the final days of bankrupt brokerage MF Global, but must sort out which transactions were legitimate before more money can be released to customers, a top official told Reuters. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/738rk3c

-MF Global: A romance with risk that brought on a panic. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10770

-MF Global collapse will push commodity trading to Asia, Rogers says. Read more here-http://www.gata.org/node/10767

-A Risk Once Unthinkable. Are customer accounts at brokerage firms safe? Until the collapse of MF Global, that’s a question I thought I’d never have to ask. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/72b9p8z

-CME won’t guarantee funds that remain missing from MF Global. CME Group Chief Operating Officer Bryan Durkin said on Monday the exchange will not guarantee the funds that remain missing from customer accounts at bankrupt brokerage MF Global after they are reimbursed by the bankruptcy trustee. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cemaoka

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REAL ESTATE

-Realtors: We Overcounted Home Sales for Five Years. Data on sales of previously owned U.S. homes from 2007 through October this year will be revised down next week because of double counting, indicating a much weaker housing market than previously thought. The National Association of Realtors said a benchmarking exercise had revealed that some properties were listed more than once, and in some instances, new home sales were also captured.

“All the sales and inventory data that have been reported since January 2007 are being downwardly revised. Sales were weaker than people thought,” NAR spokesman Walter Malony told Reuters. “We’re capturing some new home data that should have been filtered out and we also discovered that some properties were being listed in more than one list.”

The benchmark revisions will be published next Wednesday and will not affect house prices. Early this year, the Realtors group was accused of overcounting existing homes sales, with California-based real estate analysis firm CoreLogic claiming sales could have been overstated by as much as 20 percent. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/dx4qgd8

-Foreclosures fall, but outlook isn’t bright. Foreclosure filings may have fallen in November but the number of homes scheduled for bank auctions grew significantly, indicating that a new wave of foreclosures are set to take place in the New Year. The number of foreclosure filings dropped to 224,394 properties in November, a 3% decline from October and a 14% drop year-over-year, according to RealtyTrac. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cdkgqfa

-The King of All Vegas Real Estate Scams. A twisted tale of how homeowners were bilked by those they least suspected: their neighbors. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/br28blw

-Patrick Chovanec: The Chinese Real Estate Downturn: The Evidence Is Overwhelming. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bo3t3hp

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GEOPOLITICAL

-U.S. Worried Iran on Verge of Enriching Uranium. The Obama administration is concerned Iran is on the verge of being able to enrich uranium at a facility deep underground near the Muslim holy city of Qom, which may strengthen those advocating tougher action to stop Iran’s suspected atomic weapons program. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/85ustsg

-Obama Says U.S. Has Asked for Iran to Return Downed Drone. President Barack Obama said the U.S. has asked Iran to return a drone aircraft that U.S. controllers lost contact with on Dec. 4. At a White House news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Obama said he wouldn’t comment directly on the loss of the pilot-less spy plane. “We have asked for it back,” he said. “We’ll see how the Iranians respond.” Iran said it is studying the craft and is close to accessing information stored in it. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7pfdmzc

-Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer. In an exclusive interview, an engineer working to unlock the secrets of the captured RQ-170 Sentinel says they exploited a known vulnerability and tricked the US drone into landing in Iran. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/6tbdzw3

-Iran says Obama should apologize for downed drone. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/brbg483

-U.S. drone crashes in Seychelles: embassy. A U.S. drone aircraft crashed at Seychelles International Airport on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy in Mauritius said. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7ml2g75

-The Iranian Army Says It Will ‘Practice’ Shutting Down The Strait Of Hormuz. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cs9ws3w

-Iran Lodges Complaint With Interpol Over U.S. ‘Assassination Threats.’ Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/bts6saw

-U.S. to leave Iraqi airspace clear for strategic Israeli route to Iran. The U.S. military’s fast-approaching Dec. 31 exit from Iraq, which has no way to defend its airspace, puts Israel in a better place strategically to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Iraq has yet to assemble a force of jet fighters, and since the shortest route for Israeli strike fighters to Iran is through Iraqi airspace, observers conclude that the U.S. exit makes the Jewish state’s mission planning a lot easier. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/8yv3sqf

-China-Based Hacking of 760 Companies Reflects an Undeclared Cyber Cold War. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cuam8vv

-Billionaire Prokhorov to Challenge Putin. Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov plans to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency in March elections after the biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade emboldened Russia’s opposition. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7xw3klt

-Putin Hits Back at Opposition Protests. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hit back at protests over alleged electoral fraud even as Russia’s biggest street demonstrations in a decade threaten to complicate his bid to return to the Kremlin next year. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/7eorbl8

-U.S. Military Rushes to Ship Iraq War Gear. Read more here-http://tinyurl.com/cka4xdl

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© 2011 Rare Colored Diamonds.
www.rarecoloreddiamonds.com

World Financial Report – December 16th, 2011
posted by Rare Colored Diamonds on Friday, December 16, 2011

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