To send feedback,report a beta bug, or request a code for a login ID, please use
this form and we will try to address the issue as quickly as we can.
We are looking for moderators for this forum. If you want a quality forum, and you feel your fellow posters will respect and support you as a moderator, please step up and volunteer. If you are interested in this, please use this form and describe yourself a little.
We are still having issues with Hotmail sending our mail to their junk/spam folders. If you've requested a code in the past and never received one, please request again with an alternate email OR make sure you check and approve our address in your spam folders/filters. If you still experience problems, please email us through this form describing the problem.
The stock holders are the ones losing big on this. -- Jasper, 06:40:06 12/14/09 Mon
Bloomberg reported: ‘Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.’…
Tree in the Forest requires -- Caper (), 05:42:33 12/14/09 Mon
remedial lessons in Canadian geography including all matters Canadian.
May wish also to increase learning as it relates to self administered Voy site Control Panel in order to be able to not only restrict posting but to impose permanent banning towards IP addresses
Got Freedom of speech mozel?
Hardly
Last edited by author: Mon December 14, 2009 06:39:16
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
not/cliffs battle- minesite -- mugwump, 05:45:53 12/14/09 Mon
Over to the junior side, and the battle for Freewest Resources Canada and its chromite assets in Ontario’s so-called “Ring of Fire” has turned nasty. Cliffs Natural Resources came out with a brutal attack on the credibility and integrity of rival bidder Noront Resources. This was followed up by yet another increased offer from Cliffs, which is now offering C$1.00 per Freewest share. Cliffs now has 10.5 per cent of the outstanding shares locked up, but Noront continues to have support of many shareholders. Noront is offering two Noront shares for every seven Freewest shares tendered, plus one Noront warrant. The warrants will have a strike price of C$4.00 per share and have a five year term.
Minews. Interestingly, Freewest's senior management is willing to reduce the C$6.5 million change of control payment due to management under the Cliffs deal to C$2.5 million, but is not willing to reduce it for the Noront offer.
CC. There are some personal issues involved here. That said, shareholders will vote with their pocket books, and based on the performance of Noront’s stock, the Cliffs offer seems even more compelling. Noront’s proposal expires at midnight on Friday. Freewest ended the week up C$0.08 at C$0.96, while Noront lost C$0.48 to close at C$2.09.
european nickel/endeavor update- minesite -- mugwump, 05:43:51 12/14/09 Mon
AIM: ENK) also had a good week, putting in a rise of 17.8 per cent to end at 8.75p after it announced that it had managed to change the terms of a loan from Endeavour Financial Corporation so that repayment is now due at the beginning of March 2010. The loan had previously been due at the end of November 2009. The loan is essentially bridging finance to keep the company going whilst it waits for its deal with Jiangxi to complete. Jiangxi plans to buy into European Nickel's Caldag nickel heap leach project in Turkey. As with many Chinese deals, this has been a very slow process indeed, but the deal is now expected to complete in the first quarter of 2010.
will ccj take over paladin??- minesite -- mugwump, 05:40:02 12/14/09 Mon
Meanwhile, Cameco inked a deal to sell its 48.5 per cent interest in Centerra Gold for a cool C$872 million. The price is pegged at C$10.25 per share and it will give the uranium miner a huge war chest for potential acquisitions.
Minews. Paladin Energy and Denison Mines have been two names bandied about in that context.
CC. Denison has sold 17 per cent of itself to the Koreans and arranged an off-take agreement in the process, so it’s now a less likely target, but a combination with Paladin makes some sense. Cameco ended the week down C$0.08 at C$32.57.
@Stiglitz and SDR -- Smythe, 03:39:58 12/14/09 Mon
One world currency for a one world govt. SDR issued and controlled by the IMF. Soros is also pushing this , but in relation to Climate Scam. Not sure what will happen to POG if we wake up one fine morning and they tell us we have to go to the IMF ATM from now on.
When in Economic Trouble, Invent a Gold Mine -- doran, 02:22:18 12/14/09 Mon
Stiglitz observes (in the current issue of the Washington journal The National Interest) that the dollar is finding it very difficult to bear up as the world’s reserve currency, and argues that prudent governments should begin considering another reserve currency.
This is not too hard a problem to solve. You create it. Stiglitz is calling for a new issue by the International Monetary Fund of what has been called Special Drawing Rights (or “Bancor,” which is what John Maynard Keynes, who first thought of it, called the fresh creation of imaginary money). The leading nations, assembled at the IMF headquarters in Washington, in their sovereign splendor, wave a wand and declare that a new sum of money henceforth exists.
Stiglitz says that it would be rather like declaring that a massive gold mine has been discovered under the IMF building, yielding perhaps $600 billion a year. In accordance with a particular formula based on income, the IMF would send out letters to its members telling them how much of this gold they own and that they should begin augmenting their currency supply, to be backed by this gold, in full confidence that the new money will be honored. “All that matters is trust, the willingness of governments to exchange the paper gold.” World liquidity would be vastly increased, demand would be multiplied, industry would resume production. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/when_in_economic_trouble_invent_a_goldmine_20091210/
Prof Howard Hayden's letter to EPA .. -- Delta-au, 02:16:57 12/14/09 Mon
Howard C. Hayden
785 S. McCoy Drive
Pueblo West, CO 81007
October 27, 2009
The Honorable Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460
Dear Administrator Jackson:
I write in regard to the Proposed Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act, Proposed Rule, 74 Fed. Reg. 18,886 (Apr. 24, 2009), the so-called “Endangerment Finding.”
It has been often said that the “science is settled” on the issue of CO2 and climate. Let me put this claim to rest with a simple one-letter proof that it is false.
The letter is s, the one that changes model into models. If the science were settled, there would be precisely one model, and it would be in agreement with measurements.
Alternatively, one may ask which one of the twenty-some models settled the science so that all the rest could be discarded along with the research funds that have kept those models alive.
We can take this further. Not a single climate model predicted the current cooling phase. If the science were settled, the model (singular) would have predicted it.
Let me next address the horror story that we are approaching (or have passed) a “tipping point.” Anybody who has worked with amplifiers knows about tipping points. The output “goes to the rail.” Not only that, but it stays there. That’s the official worry coming from the likes of James Hansen (of NASAGISS) and Al Gore.
But therein lies the proof that we are nowhere near a tipping point. The earth, it seems, has seen times when the CO2 concentration was up to 8,000 ppm, and that did not lead to a tipping point. If it did, we would not be here talking about it. In fact, seen on the long scale, the CO2 concentration in the present cycle of glacials (ca. 200 ppm) and interglacials (ca. 300-400 ppm) is lower than it has been for the last 300 million years.
Global-warming alarmists tell us that the rising CO2 concentration is (A) anthropogenic and (B) leading to global warming.
(A) CO2 concentration has risen and fallen in the past with no help from mankind. The present rise began in the 1700s, long before humans could have made a meaningful contribution. Alarmists have failed to ask, let alone answer, what the CO2 level would be today if we had never burned any fuels. They simply assume that it would be the “pre-industrial” value.
* The solubility of CO2 in water decreases as water warms, and increases as water cools. The warming of the earth since the Little Ice Age has thus caused the oceans to emit CO2 into the atmosphere.
(B) The first principle of causality is that the cause has to come before the effect. The historical record shows that climate changes precede CO2 changes. How, then, can one conclude that CO2 is responsible for the current warming?
Nobody doubts that CO2 has some greenhouse effect, and nobody doubts that CO2 concentration is increasing. But what would we have to fear if CO2 and temperature actually increased?
* A warmer world is a better world. Look at weather-related death rates in winter and in summer, and the case is overwhelming that warmer is better.
* The higher the CO2 levels, the more vibrant is the biosphere, as numerous experiments in greenhouses have shown. But a quick trip to the museum can make that case in spades. Those huge dinosaurs could not exist anywhere on the earth today because the land is not productive enough. CO2 is plant food, pure and simple.
* CO2 is not pollution by any reasonable definition.
* A warmer world begets more precipitation.
* All computer models predict a smaller temperature gradient between the poles and the equator. Necessarily, this would mean fewer and less violent storms.
* The melting point of ice is 0 ºC in Antarctica, just as it is everywhere else. The highest recorded temperature at the South Pole is –14 ºC, and the lowest is –117 ºC. How, pray, will a putative few degrees of warming melt all the ice and inundate Florida, as is claimed by the warming alarmists?
Consider the change in vocabulary that has occurred. The term global warming has given way to the term climate change, because the former is not supported by the data. The latter term, climate change, admits of all kinds of illogical attributions. If it warms up, that’s climate change. If it cools down, ditto. Any change whatsoever can be said by alarmists to be proof of climate change.
In a way, we have been here before. Lord Kelvin “proved” that the earth could not possibly be as old as the geologists said. He “proved” it using the conservation of energy. What he didn’t know was that nuclear energy, not gravitation, provides the internal heat of the sun and the earth.
Similarly, the global-warming alarmists have “proved” that CO2 causes global warming.
Except when it doesn’t.
To put it fairly but bluntly, the global-warming alarmists have relied on a pathetic version of science in which computer models take precedence over data, and numerical averages of computer outputs are believed to be able to predict the future climate. It would be a travesty if the EPA were to countenance such nonsense.
Best Regards,
Howard C. Hayden
Professor Emeritus of Physics, UConn
AU_NB: Thanks for posting today. -- ballgame, 02:14:20 12/14/09 Mon
Wow. USD index election cycle is pretty clearly a strong down for the upcoming year. Why would anyone be anywhere but PM's? However, the DOW election cycle shows a sideways trend so on that basis maybe the metal will outshine the mines.
@I can believe there is garbage all over Mexico ... -- mozel, 02:11:26 12/14/09 Mon
I can believe there is garbage all over Newfoundland ... but that's not global
Yen Favored for Carry Trades as Japan Faces Deflation -- doran, 02:05:02 12/14/09 Mon
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The yen is poised to replace the dollar as the top funding currency for investments in cities from Sydney to Sao Paulo after borrowing from Japan became almost as cheap as U.S. loans for the first time in four months. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aIf0OWDzVKMM
Dollar retreats after a two-month high -- doran, 02:02:23 12/14/09 Mon
News Monday that Dubai received $10 billion in financing from Abu Dhabi to pay part of the debt held by conglomerate Dubai World and its property unit Nakheel helped alleviate concerns over potential growth in sovereign debt defaults, and also contributed to weakness in the dollar. Read more on Abu Dhabi's financing for Dubai http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-retreats-from-a-two-month-high-2009-12-14
Abu Dhabi gives Dubai $10bn to help meet pay debts -- doran, 01:57:31 12/14/09 Mon
It will use $4.1bn (£2.5bn) of the money to bail out the government-owned investment company Dubai World. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8411215.stm
@"I really don't think there is any argument with the fact that -- mozel, 01:49:58 12/14/09 Mon
the world has been warming up ..."
----------------------
Not if you accept data diddling fraud as science, I suppose
For The Climate Denier$ & Believer$ -- Gila_Bob, 01:23:02 12/14/09 Mon
Friends:
The 0NLY Relevant Que$ti0n I$..............................
Am I G0NNA MAKE A PILE OF CA$H
Outta Thi$ Deal 0r Not??????????????????
And Thee An$wer I$...............
Why YE$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ye$, I WILL...............
And I Already Have....................
And I Will Make A L0T M0RE...............
cAU$e I'm Greedy & Mercenary
$ew g00d Luck with Thee
Ultimate Truth....................
Whatever That May Bee.....................
Big Bob
(or C0Ntinue ta Whine........A$ it $uit$ Ya)
Too bad there is so much focus on CO2 debate -- Mikikis (), 01:02:01 12/14/09 Mon
And too little on the fact that we have garbage everywhere (including huge masses of plastics floating in the ocean), our water is contaminated (above and below ground), our air is polluted and much of our soil is full of toxins. 100% result of human activity.
Our "impression" upon this planet all too often mimics what cancer does in the human body.
Last edited by author: Mon December 14, 2009 01:04:34
Edited 2 times. [Edit]
For the climate denialists -- ItemInSpace -- Permabear1, 00:45:03 12/14/09 Mon
I really don't think there is any argument with the fact that the world has been warming up, the issue is whether human CO2 release is responsible for this and if de-industrialization efforts need to be implemented to save the planet.
There are a couple of very bright meteorology professors that have taken all the hysteria on global warming on.
For the climate denialists -- ItemInSpace, 00:34:05 12/14/09 Mon
Have a look at this post and then have a go at discussing it there. You might actually get some real answers not some conspiracy theory. But you may not want that...
Johnny - bleeding politicos -- Mikikis, 00:24:43 12/14/09 Mon
Yup. Of course if we were to mention even more entertaining things that could happen to them we would end up on special lists.....
Just watched a little over a dozen shooting stars -- Mikikis, 23:41:43 12/13/09 Sun
On my terrace with my son. Meteor shower tonight. Recommend it to anybody that has clear skies above tonight to go out and watch a bit.
@Tree In The Forest -- Caper, 23:30:28 12/13/09 Sun
How come you don't do Facebook style poking on your Forum however provide it consistently here? http://www.voy.com/218910/
US Kids Represent Psychiatric Drug Goldmine -- doran, 22:59:22 12/13/09 Sun
Prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the US, and 73 percent among adults, from 1996 to 2006, according to a study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same issue of Health Affairs found spending for mental health care grew more than 30 percent over the same ten-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs. http://www.truthout.org/1213091
Turkmenistan-China pipeline to start Monday -- doran, 22:38:42 12/13/09 Sun
The route stretches around 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) from Turkmenistan to the Kazakh border and then extends more than 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) into China itself. http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1131886&lang=eng_news
ok .. we have a T.A. DENIER in our midst .. -- Delta-au, 21:09:25 12/13/09 Sun
TA - Give me a break -- morbius, 20:01:45
-------------------------------------------
Well wot's it to be ???
Stoning .. or justa simple stake-out with antz ???
How to achieve Inner Peace -- Jasper (), 20:25:46 12/13/09 Sun
Inner Peace
I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me today, and we all could probably use more calm in our lives.
Some doctor on tv this morning said that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started. So I looked around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished and so, before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of showvignong, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of vocka, a pockage of Prunglies, tha mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, the res of the Chesescke an a bx a choclets. Yu haf no idr ho fkin gud I fel. Peas sen dis orn to dem yu fee ar in ned ov inr pece.
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 20:27:11
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
folks been counting the irish and ytalian out many a century -- mercury, 20:20:19 12/13/09 Sun
hasn't happened yet.
Show me some pics of an occupying army in county Cork.
Keep at it Matt Taibbi -- crazytimes, 19:53:31 12/13/09 Sun
Credibility Default Swap
Obama: The best pitchman Goldman Sachs ever had
By MATT TAIBBI
“But Summers, a leading architect of the administration’s economic policies and response to the global recession, appears to have collected the most income. Financial institutions including JP Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch paid Summers for speaking appearances in 2008. Fees ranged from $45,000 for a Nov. 12 Merrill Lynch appearance to $135,000 for an April 16 visit to Goldman Sachs, according to his disclosure form.”
-- Washingtonpost.com
So I guess that $45,000 speaking fee from Merrill Lynch wasn’t technically a bribe because Summers wasn’t named to Obama’s economic transition team until Nov. 24 — a full 12 days later. I’m sure Larry Summers had absolutely no inkling whatsoever that he was going to be one of the key advisers to the new administration on Nov. 12.
It likewise makes perfect sense that Merrill Lynch, a company just months removed from having to be rescued from bankruptcy by an 11th-hour, pseudo-state-subsidized buyout by Bank of America, would decide to spend $45,000 on a speaking appearance by Summers because, well, they really valued his economic expertise and his proven ability to rally the troops with his stirring rhetoric.
It certainly had nothing to do with the fact that a) it was eight days after a Democrat was elected to the presidency; b) Summers had a long history of being one of the key policymakers in Democratic Party politics; and c) Merrill was absolutely not going to survive more than a few more months unless taxpayers forked over another 20 billion or so to cover the giant hole in Merrill’s balance sheet that was, at that time, still being hidden from Bank of America and its shareholders.
And how about that $135,000 appearance for Goldman Sachs in April, when Summers was already involved with Democratic Party politics again? That wasn’t a surreptitious campaign contribution at all!
But you have to give Goldman credit: it sure is thorough. It literally leaves no stone unturned.
One has to love the sequence of events here. Back in 2004, Goldman chief Hank Paulson goes to SEC chief William Donaldson and petitions to have lending restrictions relaxed for the top five investment banks. Donaldson rolls over, the restrictions are relaxed, and it’s a disaster, as the top five banks immediately overleverage themselves — two of the five, Bear Stearns and Lehman, would actually collapse, at least partially as a result of being insanely overleveraged.
In the midst of this disaster, Paulson is named Treasury secretary. He does nothing about the worsening financial crisis until it is far too late, then allows one of Goldman’s biggest competitors, Lehman, to fail while at the same time intervening on a huge scale to save AIG, which just happens to owe Goldman a ton of money.
When AIG is bailed out, its government regulator is not in the room, but the new chief of Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein, is. In fact, Goldman Sachs ultimately receives about $13 billion of the money paid to AIG by the government in the bailout, reportedly getting paid 100 cents on the dollar for its AIG exposure, despite the fact that the bank claimed it wasn’t going to suffer severe losses if AIG collapsed.
Later, another former Goldman executive, Ed Liddy, is installed as head of AIG -- which just happens to get bailed out twice more, the last time to the tune of $30 billion.
The last two bailouts of AIG take place after a former Goldman chief, Robert Rubin (who, incidentally, helped start this mess by ramming through a series of i-banker wet-dream deregulatory moves as Treasury secretary for Clinton in the 1990s), is named to the Obama transition team, joining Summers (who had already taken $135,000 from Goldman that year) and Timothy Geithner (a protege of another Goldman alum, John Thain, former president and chief operating officer and notorious scumbag).
When it comes time for new Treasury Secretary Geithner to name a chief of staff, he chooses Mark Patterson, who is less than a year removed from working as a lobbyist for … Goldman Sachs. Patterson’s great contribution to society as a Goldman lobbyist was opposing a 2007 measure introduced in the Senate by presidential candidate Barack Obama to rein in executive compensation.
I remember watching Obama the presidential candidate give a speech in Mason City, Iowa, in 2007. Obama had made a big show of not having registered lobbyists working for his campaign, and he promised that lobbyists “won’t work in my White House.” The line was a hit and became part of Obama’s stump speech. I must have heard it two dozen times.
A little over a year later, he put a registered lobbyist of a bailed-out investment bank into a job whose primary responsibility is administering bailout money.
It gets worse. According to a Glenn Greenwald piece I just read, even Gary Gensler is a former Goldman employee. That absolutely blows my mind. Genlser is Obama’s choice to head the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, whose purview is the derivatives market. The CFTC was the battleground where ages ago Rubin, Summers, and then-Rubin aide Gensler teamed up to whack CFTC chief Brooksley Born, who had serious concerns about the burgeoning derivatives market, in particular the credit-default swap market. Rubin overturned Born’s recommendations, and derivatives were freed from most regulation. That economic Alamo led almost directly to the AIG disaster.
Think about this for a moment. A former Goldman chief, Rubin, presses the CFTC to deregulate a type of derivative contract whose chief benefit to an investment bank like Goldman is that it allows it to lend more -- the CDS being most useful as a tool to move investment risk off a bank’s balance sheet.
Then another Goldman chief, Paulson, pushes for further relaxation of lending limits. Then Goldman jumps head first into the housing bubble, buying tens of billions in CDS protection to hedge its crazy investments. This massive explosion in lending by banks like Goldman, fueled in part by the use of derivatives like CDS and fueled still more by the 2004 change in rules, puts an enormous strain on the economy, leading to giant holes blown in its hull by the end of 2007 and on through 2008.
It follows that when Goldman’s chief partner in those CDS deals, AIG, collapses as part of this wave of crashes, Paulson — now Treasury secretary — rushes to the rescue, pumping billions in taxpayer money into AIG that is quickly funneled to Goldman. Then a Goldman alum is put in charge of AIG, while another bunch of Goldman alums funnels still more bailout money to AIG, and yet another Goldman alum is put in charge of regulating the derivatives market that is the focus of most of the bailout efforts.
In the midst of all of this, something amazing happens. Goldman Sachs, along with Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and a host of other “troubled” banks, reports a profit for its first quarter in 2009! How and why that happened is another fascinating story, for another time. For now, the only thing to remember is that all the ones who got us into this mess — Rubin, Summers, Goldman in general — are now being put in charge of the cleanup by a president who spent most of 18 months on the campaign trail pledging to end the influence of money in politics.
Add this to the obscene giveaway that is the toxic assets program Geithner has just devised (Goldman Sachs “expressed interest in participating in the plan as an investor,” according to the Wall Street Journal), and you have an amazing situation. Between the Bush and Obama administrations, you have a bailout program that has now figured three ways to funnel money to Goldman Sachs: via AIG, via TARP and now via this trillion-dollar “public-private investment program,” which basically lends huge amounts of money to investors and provides guarantees against heavy losses. It’s free money, state-subsidized profiteering at its most naked.
I hear all the time from people who complain that it’s naive to wonder why we put Wall Street executives in charge of policing Wall Street -- that this is actually quite a sensible policy, because we need people with experience in that world making these decisions.
The reason people say this has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with the fact that the financial markets are intimidatingly complex. When Enron buys a seat at the table to conduct energy policy under the Bush administration, everyone knows what that is. When Reagan hires notorious union busters to run the National Labor Relations Board, everyone knows what that is. And when we hire investment bankers to run banking policy, and put investment bankers in charge of handing out bailout money to investment banks, we ought to know what that is. But for some reason we don’t seem to see it the same way, not as clearly.
In my mind this officially ends the Obama honeymoon. I can maybe see one or two of these creeps in key positions. But this many -- it’s an undeniable pattern. He put William Lynn, a former Raytheon lobbyist, in the Pentagon as deputy defense secretary. A lot of people squawked about Obama’s early lean toward John Brennan as CIA director because of his role in establishing the “enhanced interrogation” policies, but to me more significant was the fact that Brennan was the former chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, which is sort of like the chamber of commerce of intelligence contractors.
Most importantly, I’m sensing in these economic appointments a kind of drearily cynical parsing of the approval-ratings situation -- Obama knows he’s still flying high with the “Yes We Can!” T-shirt crowd and knows that most people simply are not going to give a shit if he packs his Treasury Department with Goldman alums and lobbyists, despite the fact that he explicitly promised to do otherwise.
Canada freezes as 'one of the worst snow storms on record' -- skys39, -- ROAN, 19:44:08 12/13/09 Sun
Sounds. like a normal winter in Canada. We face this every year.
Hey Morbius -- Mikikis, 19:20:04 12/13/09 Sun
Nearly-local to you Hilo boy BJ Penn kicked some serious arse last night......bet folks around there are pretty psyched about that....
A question for you stock traders. -- wuhcuh, 18:28:04 12/13/09 Sun
A few months ago, a stock was mentioned on this board. It was CFU or CFCL. (CERAMIC FUEL CELLS) I would like to own some shares of it. It is only listed on the Australian exchange and the London exchange. What is an easy way to buy it online, as an American. Thanks.
2bro2b .. add the two eyes to that .. -- Delta-au, 17:54:40 12/13/09 Sun
Ireland and Italy ..
heard an adviser here say he thought there could be 2 currencies in euroland in 5-10 years ..
the "strong brands", and the also-rans .. interesting concept ..
just food for thought as we watch currency developments ..
No more Fed can do to cut unemployment - Greenspan -- doran, 17:16:27 12/13/09 Sun
'There's just so much ... the central bank can do'
"You cannot ask a central bank to do more than it is capable of without very dire consequences," Greenspan continued, saying the United States faced a serious long-term threat of inflation unless the Fed begins to pull back "all the stimulus it put into the economy." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1316211220091213
If TA works, it's only because people THINK it works, and act accordingly -- morbius, 17:07:12 12/13/09 Sun
and if people THINK it works and act accordingly, the White Shoe Boyz (flush with fiat and the fastest trading platforms on earth) will paint the charts for you, so you GATA ask yourself "Do I feel lucky today?"
@TA works 50% of the time -- Smythe, 17:02:18 12/13/09 Sun
that is good enough. As long as you make more money when you are correct than you lose when you are wrong, you can still win with a system that is correct 40% of the time.
GATA's "It don't matter what system you use, in gold, you BUY breakdowns and you SELL breakouts..." -- Kip, 16:40:38 12/13/09 Sun
what a pile of BS gibberish! ......past 30 yrs I see 12 obvious "breakouts & breakdowns" this chart. The ones marked in red (10) were winners, the blue (2) losers. There may be more, but my point is obvious.
AND, T.A. works perhaps 50% of the time ......such a stupid statement .......like saying prescription drugs work 50% of the time!
Bankruptcies pile up, for one northern Illinois city -- last-call, 15:59:39 12/13/09 Sun
Bankruptcies continue to mount
The number of residents and business owners filing for bankruptcy protection retreated slightly from October, but filings still topped 250 for the eighth time in the past nine months.
The number of bankruptcy filings is running nearly 30 percent ahead of 2008’s pace, with just December left.
With 2,800 bankruptcies filed through November, bankruptcies are sure to top 3,000 for the first time since 2005, when a federal law went into effect late in the year making it more difficult to erase debts through bankruptcy.
@'da scene -- Eldorado (), 15:49:05 12/13/09 Sun
They can only bail by printing. There's nothing else left.
I expect THAT fiat will be purchasing that which is worthy of buying. The 'forclosure' is at hand.
'We'll see if'n they can actually take possession. Heh heh...
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 15:49:56
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
-- -- Winston, 15:44:53 12/13/09 Sun
To Murph @ GATA:
I have been trading gold-related securities since 1979. Sometimes I trade futures and sometimes I trade senior golds and sometimes I trade options on gold but never - repeat - NEVER - do I use traditional T..A. to trade ANYTHING related to gold. The reason is that over the past 32 years in the investment business, I have learned to BUY "breakdowns" and SELL "breakouts" but until I joined GATA in 2007, I never actually understood the reason for it. It was simply an acquired observation that prompted such trading behaviour. After reading the superb commentary night after night for the past thirty months, it has slowly dawned upon me that the manipulations of the Cartel actually prey upon followers of T.A. in order to carry out the raids. If spot gold was being "spun" as having "major support" near some magical number, you could rest assured that gold would get hammered down through it. If there was "major resistance" at some other magical number, you could simply wait until it cleared "resistance" and then sell it because lo and behold, some mysteriously entity would put a punctuative HALT to the advance. This action is uniquely sinister.
An old pit trader I used to talk to back in the 80's told me that T.A. worked perhaps 50% of the time in the futures markets but, in his words, "It don't matter what system you use, in gold, you BUY breakdowns and you SELL breakouts...".
I go a step further in this assessment. If you think that recent trading in the gold futures pits has been frenzied, I would submit that in thirty years of battles in markets, I have NEVER seen more bizarre behaviour or "action" than in the SILVER futures pits. The move in gold from earlier this year from $880 to $1000-plus took SILVER to over $22 but the recent gold move to $1225 was accompanied by a move in SILVER barely above $19. I am astonished that the price action alone did not evoke a stronger cry of protest from the masses. You have a massive concentration of shorts all using JPM as the custodial broker and every $20 upward jolt in gold is accompanied by day after day after day of thump! thump! thump! as these thieves let all of the spotlights targeted on gold create the finest of all diversionary tactics (and that is what it was - a TACTIC) as they surgically manipulated the silver price and prevented the explosive move to $25 that would normally accompany a $200 advance in bullion.
Nothing in the text books of Technical Analysis 101 could ever explain this action. Nothing in Fundamental Analysis 101 could either. It CAN, however, be found in the playbook of the JPM's of the world. When they realized they were stuffed by the raw physical demand in the gold pits, they turned to its smaller, weaker schoolyard sibling (silver) and bullied it... http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?s=16376fa7bf7f193f0adcf1030b681c6c&t=150966&page=1077
"Climategate: the video everyone should see" -- oilboiler, 11:59:15 -- Kip, 15:43:46 12/13/09 Sun
darn interesting, but I found it a little hard to follow the automatic succession of the expanding time frame graphs in the animated gif .......so combined them to show in only one image* . . . (click on thumbnail size image to enlarge...)
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 15:33:39
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
-- -- Winston (), 15:28:46 12/13/09 Sun
If Greece were kicked out of the Euro would they then be tempted to switch from NATO to CSTO? So they have to be bailed. But if they're bailed what happens to Spain, Ireland & etc. etc. This Euro thing seems a risky scheme.
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 15:31:22
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
ClimateGate II -- Smythe, 15:15:17 12/13/09 Sun
A heist that will make sub-prime look like a picnic:
"The real gain to Corus(steel) from stopping production at Redcar(UK), however, is the saving it will make on its carbon allowances, allocated by the EU under its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). By ceasing to emit a potential six million tonnes of CO2 a year, Corus will benefit from carbon allowances which could soon, according to European Commission projections, be worth up to £600 million over the three years before current allocations expire.
But this is only half the story. In India, Corus's owner, Tata, plans to increase steel production from 53 million tonnes to 124 million over the same period. By replacing inefficient old plants with new ones which emit only "European levels" of CO2, Tata could claim a further £600 million under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, which is operated by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – the organisers of the Copenhagen conference. Under this scheme, organisations in developed countries such as Britain – ranging from electricity supply companies to the NHS – can buy the right to exceed their CO2 allocations from those in developing countries, such as India. The huge but hidden cost of these "carbon permits" will be passed on to all of us, notably through our electricity bills.
Thus, at the end of the day, Redcar will lose its biggest employer and one of the largest manufacturing plants left in Britain. Tata, having gained up to £1.2 billion from "carbon credits", will get its new steel plants – while the net amount of CO2 emitted worldwide will not have been reduced a jot.
And the connection with Dr Pachauri? Directly there is no connection at all. But it just happens that Dr Pachauri's other main job, apart from being chairman of the IPCC, is as director-general of the Tata Energy Research Institute, funded by Tata, which he has run since 1981."
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard...... "Euroland's revolt has begun. Greece has become the first country on the distressed fringes of Europe's monetary union to defy Brussels and reject the Dark Age leech-cure of wage deflation" . . . UK Telegraph article
ClimateGate I -- Smythe, 15:11:57 12/13/09 Sun
"The world must take action on climate change at Copenhagen even if the science is not correct, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister has suggested."
The farkin war criminal is deflecting from the increased baying for his head.
Sunday Charting -- AU_NB, 15:00:15 12/13/09 Sun
US Dollar: Has everyone rushed to the Buy Side of the Boat?
The Daily chart shows that significant resistance exists overhead and the short term momentum indicators are overbought. Recall that in bear markets, generally overbought indicators are more reliable to indicate tops than bottoms. It does appear that a little more work need be done before the turn actually occurs. But the rally, given the significant overhead resistance appears to be suspect.
The weekly Dollar chart shows the same overhead price resistance zone. Significantly, the dollar has not even touched its 25 week moving average which has proved formidable resistance in the past intermediate term down leg.
Seasonally, the Dollar is approaching a down period.
As for Gold, the mirror image appears to exist. On the Daily chart, the momentum indicators are extremely oversold. It is also the case that in bull markets, oversold indicators are more reliable to indicate bottoms than overbought indicators indicate tops.
On the weekly Gold chart, reversals of overbought readings have occurred, but in a bull market, such signals need not indicate a trend change. In 2007, similar levels have been reached and only a consolidation took place.
And "'Tis the Season" Gold to commence its move up.
And as to Gold Stocks, perhaps tax selling will come in, perhaps not. I would think that juniors that might have not moved as much as the majors could be candidates. Nevertheless, the XAU shows signs of setting up for reversal up.
On the Daily chart, a bit of work may be needed to complete the set up for reversal up. Could be accomplished in a few days. Could be a bit longer. However, the recent low appears to be at significant support on the weekly chart.
XAU Seasonals:
Bottom line, imo, Dollar is closer to top than a bottom. Gold is closer to a bottom than a top. And gold stocks, too, are closer to a bottom. In each case, a little more work may be required before significant reversal comes.
A Mumbai-based Indian multinational conglomerate with business ties -- mozel, 14:17:56 12/13/09 Sun
to Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman since 2002 of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, stands to make several hundred million dollars in European Union carbon credits simply by closing a steel production facility in Britain with the loss of 1,700 jobs."
Well, my point was somebody's got to buy this crap (then soaring long term treasuries). And buy it they did. At the behest of Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, the financial media and the full faith and credit of the United States of America. How are those compliant, convention-worshiping investors feeling right about now?
From NFTRH12, dated December 20, 2008:
Act of Desperation
The monetization of unserviceable debt has been in the Fed’s toolbox all along. Academic wunderkind Ben Bernanke has used many conventional interest rate and liquidity tools, but with the recent announcement that the Fed will buy long-term US Treasury bonds, he is opening the door to the nuclear option. This tool actually resides not in the toolbox but in a separate room, locked in a titanium-nickel composite alloy vault accessible by a secret algorithm code. From the Fed’s most recent monetary policy release on December 16:
“The Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote the resumption of sustainable economic growth and to preserve price stability. In particular, the Committee anticipates that weak economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for some time.”
This was of course, dictated by the t-bill market and is US Dollar non-supportive. But with Japan and the rest of the industrialized world falling right in line with this theme, it is truly going to be a race to the bottom for global currencies, not just the USD. I believe that people who focus grimly on the US Dollar are misallocating their energies. Given its heretofore status as ‘world reserve currency’ the Dollar is an important linchpin in the unraveling mess, but is by no means the only culprit in the global debt paper bubble now unwinding. In fact, it could be argued that the primary fundamental underpinning of the Dollar is the enormous albeit misguided demand for US Treasuries as the deflationary backdrop begins to take root.
As I listen to media commentators dissect Fed policy, the auto bailouts, the bank bailouts and speculate on all manner of would-be welfare to come from the new US administration and its new New Deal, I cannot help but think about how the entire outmoded apparatus is trying to pretend this is normal or at least readily subject to standard analysis. What I am trying to say is that we are down the rabbit hole, in Wonderland. This is abnormal, asymmetrical and just plain off the charts. Standard methods of quantifying an insane financial system will work against the masses that fall for it – yet again.
The Fed is talking about buying up unproductive legacy (debt) to stave off economic devastation, and that may be the only option now. But the same talking heads – the ones that never saw this coming – expert in their dissection of what is wrong and how to fix it, do not look ahead. They do not see, nor evidently care about the big picture.
Pictured above is the iShares long term treasury bond fund, TLT [chart not available for this excerpt]. Under the current shroud of deflation, Mr. Bernanke infers that the Fed will buy up the long term debt of a chronic and hopeless inflator and of course that is the green light for the next mania, for the frightened herds to come piling in. It’s deflation after all and in a deflation you own treasuries. Everyone knows that, especially now. “No matter that treasury bonds are over bought, at least we know we’ll get our ‘money’ back one day” says the compliant herd.
I am not here to bash treasuries. As you may know I have kept all cash equivalent funds in treasury money markets, t-bills and short term treasuries for years. I have done so because it is the safest haven from domino defaults that I have viewed as likely for years. Just this week however, with the manic chart above in mind, I have begun to scale into its ultra-short cousin, TBT. We will call this a little hedge on the t-bills and short term treasuries I continue to hold.
But the story here is one of cattle being branded, tended and herded toward that big, ominous looking building over there with the strange and terrible noises emanating from it. Fighting the Fed is a dangerous game in the short term and this mania has got some heavy hitters as sponsors. But what I see here is an instant market created for long dated treasuries by Bernanke’s jawbone and a disastrous economic backdrop that is going to get worse before it gets better.
Yes, buying long term treasuries is safe if you define safety as getting your money back with a little ‘income’ to boot. But in the big picture, it is the value of said money that is in question. As a nation, the US is committing to make whole $Trillions upon $Trillions in un-payable liabilities. This is being done by willing money into existence by various methods, with the treasury market front and center. The US is trading upon its rapidly disintegrating reputation. It’s debt is non-productive and its market carries on as long as the masses are willing to suspend reality and maintain confidence in the system.
The herd buys long bonds and does what it is supposed to do. Better (for we who would prepare for a whopper of an inflation problem to come) they do this in compliance with convention than after being compelled by government (IRA filled with 30, 60 or 100 year bonds anyone?) in the name of national interest. There is no patsy like a subservient, pliable patsy. People who are compelled into certain actions may tend to get a bit revolutionary, and we cannot have that, now can we?
That is why we are here, looking not for riches and joy, but rather for relative protection from the fate that awaits the vast herds now once again being led by carrots they don’t even understand.
Miniminer...........read your Mall shopping experience -- BUFFORD, 13:10:16 12/13/09 Sun
same here in central oHIo packed .......... must be O'Quinceez future healthcare saving$ kicking the ole shopping spirit into high gear.
Even new commercial retail construction underway on properties that were vacant & 4 sale for years
even lots of new healthcare yobz
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Clinic plans to add 1,800 jobs in 2010.
About 1,600 are to be at the Clinic's main campus in Cleveland and will include such jobs as doctors and support staff.
Cleveland Clinic had announced a hiring freeze in December 2008.
At the time, Chief Executive Dr. Toby Cosgrove also announced restrictions on spending and delayed construction projects.
The Clinic posted a loss of $62 million on $4.9 billion in revenue at the time, mostly because of investment losses during the fiscal crisis.
The number of patients increased in 2008, and so did revenue from work such as running tests, performing surgeries and providing care.
The nonprofit Cleveland Clinic has about 40,000 employees.
then operating under a non-usury based system.--Eldo -- Pyrite, 12:56:24 12/13/09 Sun
We need MORE usury, not less. With direct liability for it borne by the originators.
Gets EVERYONE sufficiently cautious and informed.
The whole problem was the appraisers who in collusion with the sellers of the debt drove it to TOO BIG!
Credit's fine when the creditor gets to set the loan amount.
Then keep and SERVICE it.
@Drugs - Winston -- Smythe, 12:54:40 12/13/09 Sun
The conspiracists will have you believe that the reason some big banks like Barclays and HBSC would not partake directly in the TARP type bailouts was because then they may have had to open their books, and given what they deal in, that may have been a touch embarrassing. After all, HSBC(Hong Kong Shangai Bank Corp) was formed to deal in opium proceeds a couple of hundred years ago.
Children as a Rationed Commodity? -- RIP, 11:55:35 12/13/09 Sun
...UN adviser Dr. Norman Myers has suggested that someday “people might be issued with a warrant entitling them to have a single child…. This warrant might even carry commercial value, allowing individuals to decide not to have children at all and to sell their entitlement to others wanting larger families….” http://www.prolibertate.us/index.php?blog=7&title=children_as_a_rationed_commodity_decembe_2009&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
...At Copenhagen, Third World countries are demanding hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations from the West for the consequences of the West’s fossil fuel burning, among them droughts and crop failures.
Third World countries have it backwards. The West’s CO2 emissions have been increasing crop yields while helping to ease the Third World’s water shortages. Rather than plead for reparations, Third World governments should offer a paean to Providence.
The bureaucrats at Copenhagen dread high CO2 levels. The biosphere craves them. Plants evolved when CO2 levels in the atmosphere stood at a healthy 1000 parts per million, two-to-three times today’s paltry level of about 380 parts per million. Plants crave CO2 so much that commercial greenhouse operators often enrich greenhouse air with CO2 — also known as nature’s fertilizer — to levels of 1500 parts per million, or four times that of our current atmosphere. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/12/12/lawrence-solomon-the-gas-of-life.asp
Jim Rogers: Gold Can’t Be in a Bubble if Nobody Even Owns it Yet -- doran, 10:53:15 12/13/09 Sun
According to Rogers, gold will power the great commodities bull run that will last for the next decade. With many people worried about the deficit and paper money, gold will be a great investment and relatively few people are invested in it. “So when you say it’s a bubble … nobody owns gold yet,” Rogers said. http://wallstreetpit.com/12827-jim-rogers-gold-cant-be-in-a-bubble-if-nobody-even-owns-it-yet
He was given "The Prize" for $hit-Canning thee BEEG bU$h pr0gram
Sew he has agreed to a limited m0bile Plan
In P0land (on land) & a m0re Exten$ive Eff0rt In
The North, Black & Mediterranean $ea$
Thee need for AN ADVANCED m0bile Intercept0r $y$tem
BecAU$e of thee Extremely Aggre$$ive & Accurate
Iranian Air, Naval & Mi$$ile Farce$ is well kn0wn...........
L0L
Thee P0le$ & Ukrainian$ ain't w0rried ab0ut Iranian
Jack $hit.......................
Butttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
They are a Tad c0ncerned Ab0ut
Russian Gas-Bill c0llect0r$............L0L
Big Bob
(Thee n0n-Interventi0ni$t n0bel C0mmittee
G0t beat ab0ut Thee Head & $h0ulder$ in this 0ne
Bee Intere$ting ta $ea H0w Thi$ $hake$ 0ut
mebbe Putin gets Next Years Prize
for Ge0rgian Tank Di$intermediati0n & Di$mantlement
He give$ a Better $peech..............
And he'd $tay f0r The Party.........
No matter WHAT he did THAT DAY.........L0L)
@Hyperinflation -- Smythe, 10:22:02 12/13/09 Sun
No prospect of that as far as the horizon IMO
The notional(net) value of outstanding derivatives, now valued at less than 6c in the dollar, has a face value(obligation) of over $1300Trillion. The notional becomes actual when the counterparties start defaulting. The debt was shifted off the banks' books onto the sovereign books, now sovereigns are starting the domino defaults. After Dubai, how about Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Pakistan, Venzuela, Argentina, Ukraine, State of California, Spain to go belly up ? And once they go how many more will they take down ? This thing is far bigger than even the puny world GDP of +-$50Trillion, and that is in good times.
We are beyond help. Nature has a way of reverting to the mean, and there is nothing we can do about it at this point.IMO
Bernanke's Faux Recovery -- doran, 10:05:20 12/13/09 Sun
The Fed's monetary intervention has created a bifurcated market. Stocks rise on an ocean of central bank liquidity while the real economy continues to languish in a small "d" depression. The disparity between financial markets and the underlying "productive" economy has never been greater. Nor has the "wealth gap", the gross inequality exacerbated by decades of "monetarist" supply side policies. Bernanke simply has no other choice but to try to inflate another gigantic bubble that will lift the economy from the doldrums on a speculative wave of zero-rate liquidity. The problem is, according to Bernanke himself, the strategy is not working. Here's an excerpt form Bernanke's speech this week to Economic Club of New York: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24162.htm
@'da scene -- Eldorado, 10:04:09 12/13/09 Sun
There isn't ever going to be anything to 'bail out' the system except for total debt repudiation and a total reset; and then operating under a non-usury based system.
Derivatives collapse -- wuhcuh, 09:35:23 12/13/09 Sun
"So what do you think is going to happen to the stock prices of these banks - and stockmarkets generally, when the world wakes up and acknowledges this reality - when the shockwave hits?? Small wonder that the charts for Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan look very like the market charts before the '87 crash, but that was "small potatoes" compared to what is coming down the pipe this time." http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article15609.html
The Devil and Mr. Obama ...By Joe Bageant -- doran, 09:31:04 12/13/09 Sun
December 11, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- Well lookee here! An invite from my limey comrades to recap Barack Obama's first year in office. Well comrades, I can do this thing two ways. I can simply state that the great mocha hope turned out to be a Trojan horse for Wall Street and the Pentagon. Or I can lay in an all-night stock of tequila, limes and reefer and puke up the entire miserable tale like some 5,000 word tequila purged Congolese stomach worm. I have chosen to do the latter.
As you may know, Obama's public approval ratings are taking a beating. Millions of his former cult members have awakened with a splitting hangover to find their pockets turned inside out and eviction notices on the doors of their 4,000 square foot subprime mortgaged cardboard fuck boxes. Many who voted for Obama out of disgust for the Bush regime are now listening to the Republicans again on their car radios as they drive around looking for a suitable place to hide their vehicles from the repo man. Don't construe this as support for the GOP. It's just the standard ping ponging of disappointment and disgust that comes after the honeymoon is over with any administration. Most Americans' party affiliations are the same as they were when Bush was elected. After all, Obama did not get elected on a landslide by any means; he got 51% of the vote.
Right now his approval ratings are in the 40th percentile and would be headed for the basement of the league were it not for the residual effect of the Kool-Aid love fest a year ago. However, millions of American liberals remain faithful, and believe Obama will arise from the dead in the third year and ascend to glory. You will find them at Huffington Post. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24161.htm
jU$t $h0w Me Gila_Bob... Frankly GILA... I like your shit. It's all about depth perception. -- wuhcuh (), 04:15:40 12/13/09 Sun
christianizing my writing You have an excellent writing style, and I can't leave that last post out there for posterity.
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 09:30:27
Edited 3 times. [Edit]
0 d0ubt the Gl0bal Warming Whack-J0b$ -- Gila_Bob -- wuhcuh (), 04:19:02 12/13/09 Sun
Oh my... did I write that?
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 09:23:11
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Conservatives threaten to sue city over atheist councilman -- doran, 09:18:13 12/13/09 Sun
"My father was a Baptist minister. I'm a Christian man. I have problems with people who don't believe in God," said Edgerton, a former local NAACP president and founder of Southern Heritage 411, an organization that promotes the interests of black southerners.
The head of a conservative weekly newspaper says city officials shirked their duty to uphold the state's laws by swearing in Bothwell. David Morgan, editor of the Asheville Tribune, said he's tired of seeing his state Constitution "trashed." http://rawstory.com/2009/12/atheist-councilman/
Tony Blair admits: I would have invaded Iraq anyway -- doran, 09:06:31 12/13/09 Sun
Tony Blair has said he would have invaded Iraq even without evidence of weapons of mass destruction and would have found a way to justify the war to parliament and the public. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/12/tony-blair-iraq-chilcot-inquiry
Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor -- doran, 08:56:56 12/13/09 Sun
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.
"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered. http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
The interview was interesting as are Keen's writings.
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 08:13:55
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
hi- i live in greenland -- mugwump, 07:30:40 12/13/09 Sun
most of the time we laze around beating our wives and killing polar bears, but hey, in the summer we dig up gold nuggets and send them to china........
china- private gold investment- ash -- mugwump, 07:14:07 12/13/09 Sun
Basis the GFMS consultancy's data, Chinese households spent more on gold jewelry and physical investment during the third quarter of '09 than during all of full-year 2005. Spending a total of US$3.7 billion on the metal, Chinese consumers confirmed their world-beating demand for 2009-to-date, overtaking Indian households as the world's No.1 buyers.
Considering that jewelry taxes were only relaxed in 2002, and investment was allowed only from 2005, that's some move to now top the table, even for the world's most populous nation. And on our analysis here at BullionVault – based on World Bank estimates and GFMS figures – private mainland gold demand now equals some 2.0% of China's famously massive household savings, up from 1.0% ten years ago...and even as annual household savings have more than trebled.
Most critically, private mainland demand over the last five years has been almost four times what the People's Bank acquired from 2003-2009, piling up a massive 1775 tonnes in private hands. Cumulative buying rose 16% by value in the first 9 months of this year versus the same period in '08. But how much Beijing's easy-money and fiscal stimulus is to thank – rather than cultural trust in gold and quasi-religious auspicion, both polished by private wealth accumulation – who can say...?
CO2 is what its all about and ozone depletion. -- WIFFO, 04:55:42 12/13/09 Sun
Ozone depletion is realy far important than CO2 levels, becuase for every pig that farts you can plant a tree and still make a buck. But destroying ozone with flourochemicals and other shieze is almost irreverversable.
Besides carbon taxes are a stupid tax on human productivity to what benefit I do not know.
Kip -- Mikikis (), 00:57:12 12/13/09 Sun
I cannot imagine anything more useful and enjoyable than infusing your life with meaning and significance. I really do believe that the possibilities of choice and action are vast and only limited by creativity and physical limitations (and grace to a certain extent). Sounds like you have been inspired somehow - how very fortunate.
Last edited by author: Sun December 13, 2009 00:58:08
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Do you know what a Miner's Inch is? -- mercury, 00:40:55 12/13/09 Sun
Kinda like a 'carbon credit' but different...
bevan -- mugwump, 00:16:31 12/13/09 Sun
Paul Volcker said that holdings of US dollars have reached “uncomfortable levels” at central banks around the world. That short simple warning says it all. Us small guys must get out of it before the big Central Banks begin to dump it in earnest. What to exchange it for is simple in my view. Hard assets, with physical nearby gold and silver being at the top of that list.
The US Mint ended sales of the Buffalo gold coins after having their inventory depleted. They do not plan to produce any more this year. Even while they were not offered for sale until mid-October the total sales still beat out both 2008 and 2007. Interestingly, fractional gold eagle sales were launched Thursday and in just one day eclipsed the 2008 total. That’s not too surprising since as much as they’d produce would be taken up by dealers to be sold to the public. But still, it shows how eager and anxious investors and dealer are.
Soon enough platinum coins will not be available from the US mint. As of December 3, 7,207 of an allotted 8,000 one ounce platinum coins have been sold. It’s as of yet unclear when the next coins will be struck and sold, if at all.
South Africa's woes continue as mining output for October dropped 8.5% year over year. Gold production fell 5.8% and platinum group metals production dropped a huge 19.3%. Other production falls were copper, diamonds and chrome while two metals, nickel and iron-ore, saw production rise.
Sri Lank is said to be open to buying more IMF gold. Good for them, I don’t blame them.
This week’s “good one” is China’s execution of a trader who embezzled millions. That would be a sure way to deter fraud in America!
Ok, what do they NOT want people to see? -- crazytimes, 00:11:40 12/13/09 Sun
I read on another forum the last time there was this much "tabloid" coverage about a celebrity scandal was when Georgia FIRST attacked South Ossetia but then later used the deception that Putin attacked Georgia first.
Of note:
(2008 figures)
US 77B
China 1.995T
Japan 1.011T
Isreal 42B (50% increase from 28B~07)
Malta 373M (07~3.789B -90%)
Russia 428B
Luxenburg 387M (+45%, from 205M
To graduate (with honors) -- mercury, 00:05:51 12/13/09 Sun
from Lisk-Wilmerding High School in 1918, one had to pass the following subjects:
English
Spanish
History: History, Medieval, Modern and US (Govt)
Algebra: Theory and Elementary
Plane Geometry
Trigonometry
General Science
Electrical Theory
Mechanical Theory
Physics
Chemistry
Drawing and Instruments
Woodwork
Forge Work
Molding
Machine Shop
Sheet Metal
Auto Shop
Electrical Shop
But hey, today the kiddies know about Chad with Two Dads; Global Warming; Scales and Bling; Sexting and Computers (with lab); Consumerism; and English.
From the US Congressional Record, Oct 11, 1940 -- mercury, 23:56:50 12/12/09 Sat
S844 : An act to simplify the accounts of the Treasurer of the Unites Sates, and for other purposes.
Makes you wonder what those 'other purposes' were.
The passed that damn same law every single congress to simplify the Treasury Accounts.
12.12.09 Back in the 1920's People were very Familiar with Metal Prices -- mercury, 23:49:04 12/12/09 Sat
The Nevada State Journal posted metal prices on Page One, Header. On April 6, 1926 A bar of Silver was 65 5/8 cents; Copper (dull) was 1c on the Electolytic spot and futures; Lead was spot $8.20 ask $8.30.
Can you guess what the unit weights for those prices were?
They weren't posted in the paper, because people knew - automatically.
In the 1920's Reno public high schools taught common law.
People knew the law and metal and money, automatically.
It's kind of like today, people know who Tiger's major sponsors are. Same thing, really.
Winston -- oilboiler, 23:40:13 12/12/09 Sat
I thought I was the only one who noticed Putin's speech at Davos. Here is the transcript, from the Wall St Journal
:-: -- Kip, 23:29:15 12/12/09 Sat
mozel.... wasn't not directed to anyone,
more of a question to my self , I suppose.
where do I want to direct my energy/talents/knowledge the remainder my life here.
what good can I do, what concerns me, who, what do I care about
who of my lifelong friends, lovers, acquaintances do I really share something in common with that we both know is deep and good, that is harmonious with LIFE and LOVE.
I have come to some conclusions tonight. Made some decisions. Or is it the decisions made me.
-- -- Winston, 23:20:49 12/12/09 Sat
mudturtle - thanks for the Max Keiser video...is it not telling that Max Keiser is given a 30 minute show by Russia Today, but is shunned by CNBC & the rest of the bankster media. Let us remember the words of the RUSSIAN President who gave friendly advice to America not to take the socialist path...ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Jr. fireman's bicycle- -- lonestar (), 22:38:03 12/12/09 Sat
Whenever i was about 9 years old the $hithead kid down the street from me got a new Schwinn bicycle. I had a pre WWII bicycle with tires that didn't inflate (hard tires). Actually, i didn't wish him any evil because i could still beat him in a race. What burned my a$$ was his continually saying nananananana. So i concocted a plan. When he came by with his bike i had a 1/2 can of red paint. I told him that i had gone by the fire station and Stink Foot Wilson let me ride in the fire truck and then gave me the paint and told me that if i painted my bicycle, then i would be a junior fireman and that i could ride behind the truck whenever that went to a fire.
I then said that there was only enough for one bicycle so he couldn't be a jr. fireman. I then went into the house and watched from the window as he painted his whole bike: fenders, handle bars, seat and tires. I then went out and said that i was now going to have to ask Stink Foot for more paint, but in the meantime i knew where there were a lot of dewberries to pick and eat. By the time we returned the paint was really dry and hard. Pretty soon his daddy came to my house and my daddy said something which ended with "well, 'book bucket,' it looks like you owe me about a 1/2 can of red paint. " He said angrily, 'book bucket' " and some other crap then stormed off. My daddy had hated that old boy since grade sahool. Nothing ever happened to me for doing that.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 23:06:44
Edited 2 times. [Edit]
little baby love child Tigers -- Goldfish, 22:57:48 12/12/09 Sat
little gold mines
Faith is a strong conviction in something -- Ophiuchus, 22:33:47 12/12/09 Sat
watch out for those faith driven peeps willing to use violence, diversion and lies to impose their 'convictions'............. lol
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 22:05:19
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
colon comments .. -- Delta-au, 21:47:48 12/12/09 Sat
The dollar rally was initially spurred by a Bureau of Labor
Statistics report of surprisingly low job losses for the
month of November. Jeff Nielson, however, points out that
their monthly figure of 10,000 job losses does not tally with
weekly layoff stats. The market is in equilibrium (with zero
job losses) when weekly layoffs are around the 300,000 mark,
but November layoffs have been averaging close to 500,000 per
week — which would indicate job losses of around 1 million
for the month. Let us hope that this is not another BLS
conjuring trick.
Siempre- I and my family thank you -- lonestar, 21:40:55 12/12/09 Sat
[Edit]
:-: -- Kip, 21:32:43 12/12/09 Sat
interested..... if you were on the look-out for something, some cause, some condition on our planet you'd like to see differently......... what would it be?
I grew up in a world in which Indians and Chinese, who could afford clothes, -- mozel, 21:10:01 12/12/09 Sat
wore odd looking suits, if they were politicians.
These two societies are about as modern as buggy whips made of reeds and grasses.
One of them is an impenetrable thicket of red tape supported by socialist bureaucrats demanding bribes and the other is an impenetrable thicket of reds demanding bribes without the expense of tape.
Faith is a strong conviction in something -- Earl, 21:00:11 12/12/09 Sat
............ even when evidence to the contrary suggests that faith is unjustified.
@Caper @Nice you appreciate the attempts at humor ... -- mozel, 20:55:11 12/12/09 Sat
perhaps I shall post as Canopee at your Tree in a Forest forum, if I have an arboreal impulse.
[KR04] Keiser Report with Steve Keen -- mudturtle, 20:28:44 12/12/09 Sat
Keen has gotten a lot of attention, rightfully so, for his long term call on the crash. This interview with Max Keiser is really worth your time. It is jargon free enough to run it past those that you know that are looking for answers on what happened. Max doesn't get as crazy hyped as usual, although that is a large part of his charm. I find Stacy Herbert to be pretty hot as a smart woman, but that's just me. http://maxkeiser.com/2009/12/10/kr04-keiser-report-with-steve-keen/
"I grew up in a world in which India was poverty-stricken. " -- MichaelH, 19:32:59 12/12/09 Sat
And Africa is poverty striken.
Why they were both brutally invaded/robbed/slavery capture/etc repeatedly. All they need for success is the collapse of the Western economies who wouldn't be able to hold them back.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 17:53:57
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
n0 d0ubt the Gl0bal Warming Whack-J0b$ -- Gila_Bob (), 17:51:42 12/12/09 Sat
Friends:
Are U$ing thee de$picable Debate C0N-troll & Pr0paganda Technique$
Pi0neered by the like$ of Glenn Dreck & John $tuffel
In thee Run-Up t0 the Inva$i0n of IRAQ
Dreck, $tuffel, Limp-Bawl & Blandity have a REAL Pr0blem Here, though
"Hoi$ted on Their Own Petard" as it Were
Big Bob
(Ittsa What-Goes-Around thingy............L0L)
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 17:52:12
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Isaw a movie once where a guy created a job opening for himself ... -- mozel, -- Caper, 17:50:30 12/12/09 Sat
That's funny Mozel-I wish you would share similar laughter on our Tree in a Forest site with other Canucks onboard
This is part of the unpayable millstone on our necks -- mudturtle, 17:31:21 12/12/09 Sat
The special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which recently reviewed the New York Fed's effort to stanch collateral calls last year, said Goldman officials said the company believed it would have been fully protected had AIG been allowed to fail because of collateral it had amassed and the additional insurance it had bought against an AIG default.
aurator: There's stoopid, then there's american stoopid.... -- MichaelH (), 15:35:12 12/12/09 Sat
stoopid, you left out:
and finally New Zealand stoopid :-)
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 16:08:55
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Isaw a movie once where a guy created a job opening for himself ... -- mozel, 15:52:22 12/12/09 Sat
Canadian film, as I recall, but might have been Ewe See-land.
is that that a bear trap towards the end of 2007? They "pull" future wealth into US market, borrowed from India during this time?
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 15:46:56
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Permabear1, 13:45:06 12/12/09 Sat I think Obama's use to the word HOPE -- LilDevil (), 15:40:22 12/12/09 Sat
The peeps have grown accustomed to the 'happy talk' and soft cuing sounds emanating from the tv. Obama, Sarah, Bill, Dick etc all got a nice friendly smile and a warm 'how can we help' demeanor. Ignorance is bliss and 'they' seem so nice, its hard to choose and it's all so confusing.
Creating well paying jobs
Keeping 'Merka safe!
Change we can believe in.
While at least its a start!
Yes we Can!
Keep'n d'kids safe from drugs!
Saving the Earth.
God Blessa Merka.
Give'em the tools to do d'job.
Support D'troops!
No wonder 'they' assume control. When the peeps are easily distracted by shiny objects and candy (Fads, religions, showbiz, gossip etc) its easy pickings.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 15:45:21
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
- -- faloffal, 15:38:19 12/12/09 Sat
Lonestar...I hear yeah, our police are hamstrung like most civil servants. The crzy control mechanisms are deeply imbedded.
mudturtle - You sound just like Uncle Miltie (Friedman) -- morbius, 15:34:22 12/12/09 Sat
Interest rates are meaningless without taking into consideration increases in the money supply. Thinking you can fine tune this thing with I-rate manipulation is what got us into this mess in the first place.
faloffal- Once whenever i was visiting my brother in -- lonestar, 15:30:25 12/12/09 Sat
Cal. about 40 years ago, i was walking my dogs about 1:00am and saw two guys stealing a fire extinguisher. The next day there was a county mounty asking questions of the neighbors, so i told him that i had seen two Mexicans stealing it. He said with a supercilious and haughty manner, " and if it was 1:00am in the morning how do you know they were Mexicans?" I said well...they were driving a car with Mexican tags on it, they were speaking Spanish and they were dark and shaped like a tortilla. He had nothing more to say.
One other time I was describing someone and i was corrected by the a$$-hole saying "do you mean that he was African-American?" I replied that he did indeed appear to be African since he was balck and had kinky hair but the American part is what i was unsure about since he could have been from France, Germany, Canada, South America or even Africa and that the last option would have made him an "African-African.
5% Real i-Rate$ wood empty-the-bleacher$ @ Thi$ PlacE -- mudturtle, 15:24:16 12/12/09 Sat
5% real rates would BK most governments. 3% would take down Japan.
- -- faloffal, 15:15:02 12/12/09 Sat
i won't be posting much next week, I've got a good line on a full time position. Went to the company christmas party last night. I work with some very fine people. And the single gals... I think they 'want' something.
Hey moribus I'm sick or your referring to Democrats as -- lonestar (), 15:11:56 12/12/09 Sat
"democraps." this is both totally unnecessary and inexcusable. There are lots of good folks who are Democrats. In the future please refer to them as "demoncraps."
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 15:13:17
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
- -- faloffal, 15:12:34 12/12/09 Sat
There was a suspicious death in the neighbourhood Thursday night. A Murder. male victim. But I don't know much. Althought the constable had plenty of questions for me this morning. I had a few unusual dreams that night. Maybe he comes back and ask
Maybe I will tell those a$$holes who flood the tube -- lonestar, 15:07:39 12/12/09 Sat
with ads regarding the number of animals who are killed each year with the fact that creatures on the food chain eat each other by the gazillions on a daily basis
@Lil Devil @Satan deceives all flesh, the whole world, ... all ... there are gods many ... -- mozel, 15:06:31 12/12/09 Sat
and the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe the gospel of The Lord Jesus Christ ...
Gila - It ain't that it's not true - I'll see your shoe and raise you a beam. -- morbius (), 14:51:02 12/12/09 Sat
Most of what Rushbo says (about DemoCRAPS, anyway) is true as well. Here is the problem:
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? / Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.”
BTW - I hate that gasbag Limbaugh, and haven't listened to him since Clinton. When he criticizes the Dems, he is right on. When the Repubs get in, he suddenly goes blind (he's deaf already).
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 14:55:59
Edited 2 times. [Edit]
Waliac GDXJ My initial purchase was 1000 shares -- lonestar, 14:51:25 12/12/09 Sat
I picked some smaller lots since then. Will watch it to decide if i want more or of it, or if I want more of HGU.TO.
What to do, what to do...???
back from the mall -- Miniminer, 14:42:58 12/12/09 Sat
wow, what a frenzy....the stores are smokin busy. JCPenny had an hour line for checkout, Kohls checkout line was all the way through the store and it stunk like people. parking was insane, had to walk 4 blocks.....very impressive sales from my pov.
A RepublicRAP will believe ANYTHING -- morbius (), 14:36:32 12/12/09 Sat
As opposed to DemoCRAPS, who are of course, the very soul of perspicacity (as their continued support of Bush III in black face, demonstrates).
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 14:37:01
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
P00p-lava comin' outta the Chry$ali$ -- Gila_Bob, 14:28:51 12/12/09 Sat
Friends:
Thee 2nd Hour C0Ntain$ m0re Bee E$$ than I can St0mach
Here'$ thee $h0rt-Take:
DEFICIT$ ARE BAD...........If I d0n't Get a Tax Break
DEFICIT$ ARE G00D...........If I d0 Get a Tax Break
THE FED I$ BAD............If I d0n't Get a Tax Break
The FED is G00D..............If I d0 Get a Tax Break
Thee sew-called Wannutski--Mundel-Laffer-Bartlett Can-0-cRAP
Would never have been $ucce$$ful
Without the $AUdi C0llap$e of thee Oil Price
(CONveniently Ignored during the Whole Ode to Palm-Grea$ing)
Which continued from 1984 - 1998
It Made for 2-Term Presidencies for
Reagan While Deficit$ $0ared &
Clinton While Marginal Tax-Rates Increased
M0ral 0f the $t0ry???????????????????????
A RepublicRAP will believe ANYTHING
As long as U grea$e his $kid$
0n the Weigh 0ut thee d00r.....................
Even gets a Palin End0r$e-Mint Inn @ Thee End a la muzzle
becAU$e she is dumb-enuff ta BELIEVE & Re-di$tribute thi$ El t0rr0 p00-p00
And u guyzz call yer$elve$ "Hard Munney" adv0cate$........
L0L
Big Bob
(m0re like MY MUNNEY Adv0cate$
5% Real i-Rate$ wood empty-the-bleacher$ @ Thi$ PlacE
Wouldn't even bee a whi$per About
"Thee $ad $tate 0f thee Unempl0yed & Thee p00r $eni0r Citizen$ 0n Fixed Inc0me$"
Obama 'Yes WE Can' = Thank You Satan -- LilDevil -- Permabear1, 13:45:06 12/12/09 Sat
I think Obama's use to the word HOPE in his campaign was significant in that it identified where his loyalties were.
mudturtle @ yer daughter -- Pyrite, 13:17:12 12/12/09 Sat
Your rant was worthy of stealing for another forum.
However, I do feel that you must share some of the responsibility for her plight. Your noted perspicacity re current events should have alerted her to the probability that LARGE animals would likely be candidates for feed lots rather than vanity "farms" as were popular in the 80's.
Hell, even the cats and dogs are more likely to find their highest and best use in a bowl rather than in a skoochy bed in plush bedrooms.
Don't make me search the archives to prove my point.
HOWEVER.... It is not TOO LATE!
Her talents and professional training should EASILY slide her post haste into elder care. I'd rather have my fetlocks examined and my hooves trimmed than the fate most likely to be administered by MY progeny.
I fully expect to be consigned to a Filipino "converted" private residence as was my mother in law. Being that the facility was located in a ghetto that we were leery of parking at, its rates were perfect for preserving the estate of the old lady whose temporary misery was justified by a remainder trust of over $600,000 which amount constitutes a far more important consideration than a doped up old lady.
Hell, I'd probly be your first resident. The casserole and the meat loaf profferred to me during the month ago pickup of Sondra's Sterling set and china has somehow been completely consumed by my tendency to gluttony.
Now if I could just find some hovel where someone might groom me once a week and change my hay and water bucket, I'd sleep much better.
This could even be a reasonable segue from your draining machine shop. Old folks can be entertaining. And if they're not, you can dope them up.
So tell her to BUCK UP!
It's not so bad. She just has to adjust to the times.
Mudturtle and Daughter Sunshine Senior Sanitarium.
It's catchy.
However, being that you speak English, you should charge a tad more than the Tagalogs did.
There was a feller like you in the boarding house with Andrew Jackson - mozel, 03:12:28 12/12/09 Sat -- LilDevil, 12:58:55 12/12/09 Sat
"...................The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting 'America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me.'......................"
The way they drive, they're gonna need em. -- lonestar, -- Carmack, 12:49:08 12/12/09 Sat
Have a friend who is in the RCMP and stationed in Vancouver. She says its a given that whenever there is even the slightest snowfall there are always many dozens of Pakistanis involved in accidents ! Indians in particular are notorious for being bad drivers .
Pyrite- The way they drive, they're gonna need em. -- lonestar, 12:30:22 12/12/09 Sat
You are right on, Whenever we go to Houston we always visit the Asian section. It's like the bumper car ride at the carnival. They come from every direction at whatever speed they choose and stop whenever they please. Next time I go, I plan to tie used tires around my truck like tugboats do.
obama screwing seniors -- mugwump, 12:29:28 12/12/09 Sat
“Obama recently approved a 2% salary increase for all federal employees effective January 1, 2010. Members of the executive, legislative and judicial branch are due for an automatic pay increase in January as well. All this on the backs of seniors who will not incur any COLA increases for several years.
For the first time in history, the Congress will not allow an increase in the social security COLA (cost of living adjustment).
In fact, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation predicts there may not be any COLA for the next three years.
However, the per person monthly Medicare insurance premium will be increased from the 2009 premium of $96.40 to $104.20 in 2010 and to $ 120.20 for the year 2011.
Send this to all seniors that you know. Remind them to not vote for the incumbent senators who supported this measure.”
Birth of grandson- To SilverFox as well as others who -- lonestar, 12:17:33 12/12/09 Sat
sent private messages. Our grandson shows steady signs of improvement. I am enclosing a snippet from hes daddy regarding his progress. Thanks to all for your prayers and support:
Patrick was born yesterday via Caesarian and measured 20.5", 6#15oz.
Anne is doing wonderfully after her fourth sectioning. Patrick has had respiratory distress and has pulmonary infiltrates on his X-ray and has remained in neonatal ICU for ventilatory and oxygenation support. He has shown some improvement from yesterday so we are praying for the little guy that he is able to continue this trend. Anne and I wish to thank everyone for all of the help and support we've received thus far. Take care and God bless.
mudturtle -- Carmack (), 11:55:13 12/12/09 Sat
For the record they were not "low priced" !! Ha !
Just because you have large animals running around on your front lawn its no reason to be pizzed off at the world ! Try getting a tranquilizer gun .lol
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 11:56:25
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
I hear that Tiger has been dropped by Gillette. -- lonestar, 11:55:54 12/12/09 Sat
But don't despair, he will most likely be picked up for making condom adds
Carmack, I threw in that link because you are enthralled -- mudturtle, -- Carmack, 11:44:35 12/12/09 Sat
Hmmmm the Shit Turtle just relieved a lot of sewer pressure from his pathetically tortured mind. And all on a false pretense since in reality I was responding to our crystal ball gazing,patting himself on the back friend from Mexico .
If however Senior Magikkis were to provide "you" with free gratis marriage counselling I'm almost certain he would advise you to grow a pair of gonads or at least borrow a set , go out and get laid yourself and stop whining, complaining and blubbering like a little girlie, to you zero friends here on Voy about your own wife !!!!
the coal mine in the canary -- 2bro2b (), 11:09:43 12/12/09 Sat
Today, one in four Greek workers is employed by the state, a result of decades of public hiring to stave off social unrest.
The Papandreou administration has said that in 2010 it will hire only one new state worker for every five who retire. But that, too, poses problems. Savas Robolis, a member of the main labor union, the Greek General Confederation of Labor, who serves on a government committee on pension reform, called the pension situation a “time bomb.”
He said Greece had only enough money to pay pensions for one more year. If the country does not replenish the pension funds, “then we will face a huge social crisis in 10 years,” Mr. Robolis said.
Fears of cutbacks are causing widespread anxiety. Lambrini, who works in the Health Ministry and would give only her first name, said a possible freeze on her $1,300 monthly salary was a real concern for her and her husband, a municipal worker.
She said she had never joined a labor protest before, but would take to the streets if her salary was frozen or cut. “I’ll be there,” she said. “And so will half the population.”
'With big banks returning to health' by transferring their self-injected sickness into bigger central banks. Was that a bond vigilante sighting, the long thought to be extinct bond ghoul, an actual bond coelacanth? Goodness, will wonders never cease. Up from the deepest, murkiest depths. There ought to be law regarding cryptozoological specimens
like a Volckeropterix emerging unexpectedly and one can expect there surely will be. Fossil evidence supports previous existence but reported sightings remain fodder
only for the lunatic fringe.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 11:32:46
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Spending bill at 1.1 Trillion for FY10. -- 2bro2b, 10:40:12 12/12/09 Sat
As with Japan the US is spending twice revenues, borrowing half. In the budget document--
A New Era of Responsibility
Renewing America’s Promise
A reading of the President's Message followed by A Legacy of Misplaced Priorities leaves one in a quandary as to whom would be more proud, Orwell or Goebbels. There are many more sections. The tables at the end are turned sideways for neck-craning difficulty. This year's actuals are rather dismal. The predicted and forecast are considerably rosier. Of course, if history serves guide, and one has paid even the least amount of attention, what isn't done in the current year and is left to ensuing is synonomous with never. It is left to next year.
In our household, supposing an income of $50k and an
outgo of $100k, one would need to increase the one or
decrease the other dramatically because the situation is
deteriorating so rapidly. Oddly enough, instead as the one
decreases substantially the decision is to increase the
other dramatically.
If one got beyond 3rd grade education, or forgot what was learned there or it somehow got overwritten,
particularly in secondary education, then all this is probably overly confusing.
mudturtle....tigra.............well done! -- AZAU (), 22:54:25 12/11/09 Fri
we knew it would come to this...
for it always does.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 10:04:11
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
Valuing gold independent of fiat currencies -- Dabchyk, 10:00:03 12/12/09 Sat
Dabchick Gold Index figures [London trade. ( Basis : Jan 1982 = 100 )] for the past week:-
High - 209.9 Low - 199.3 Close - 199.3 for the week ending 11 Dec 2009
NB The index is a ratio of the change in the Real Value of Gold relative to what it was in January 1982. The calculation has incorporated the real value of the USD's trade-weighted index (the inflation-adjusted $TWI). This enables the index to show the real changes in gold's value since 1982, regardless of fiat currencies, by discounting the unreal price-raising effects which governments can cause to the fiat price of anything by the debasement of their fiat currencies.
Spending bill at 1.1 Trillion for FY10. -- AZAU (), 09:55:27 12/12/09 Sat
With the national debt ceiling raise to 14T (a 1.8T increase), which will last a little more than a year, the US is now on a track of borrowing every dollar it spends. Plus interest. We're There !
Down the TEWBS!
_____________________________________________________
Senate poised to clear away GOP obstacle to $1.1 trillion bill funding federal agencies
* By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer
* On 7:51 am EST, Saturday December 12, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate is poised to clear away a Republican filibuster of a huge end-of-year spending bill rewarding most federal agencies with generous budget boosts.
AP - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, ...
AP - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Md. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, ...
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
MTLQQ.PK 0.59 +0.01
Chart for MOTORS LIQUIDATION
{"s" : "mtlqq.pk","k" : "c10,l10,p20,t10","o" : "","j" : ""}
The $1.1 trillion measure combines much of the year's unfinished budget work -- only a $626 billion Pentagon spending measure would remain -- into a 1,000-plus-page catchall spending bill that would give Cabinet departments such as Education, Health and Human Services and State increases far exceeding inflation.
After a 60-36 test vote on Friday in which Democrats and a handful of Republicans helped the measure clear another GOP obstacle, the bill was expected to win on Saturday the 60 Senate votes necessary to guarantee passage. A final vote is expected Sunday.
The measure provides spending increases averaging about 10 percent to programs under immediate control of Congress, blending increases for veterans' programs, NASA and the FBI with a pay raise for federal workers and help for car dealers.
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 09:57:52
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
- -- 2bro2b, 09:39:45 12/12/09 Sat
After all, for the first time ever, China is going to be buying more vehicles than
Americans will this year — 12.8 million units in China compared to 10.3 million in the U.S.
And it’s not even fair to compare appliances any more either with consumption in
China now up to 185 million (we are talking about washers, dryers, refrigerators,
etc) versus an expected 137 million in the American market.
In Q3, Chinese consumers bought more computers (7.2 million) than the U.S.A.
too (6.6 million). So while China is indeed still export-dependant and relies
heavily on government infrastructure projects, there may be something to be
said, at the margin, that consumer demand is also becoming an important
contributor to its economic growth.
China’s strategy of deploying its surpluses in assets around the world is quite a
bit different than what Japan did with its surpluses in the 1980s. China is not
into golf courses or movie studios as much as in gaining ownership of global
resources in the ground. At last count, the country has signed trade deals with
Africa to the tune of $60 billion (heck, that’s only 8% of the size of TARP, which
is now going to be diverted towards a government-led job creation program in
the U.S.A.).
chris weber -- mugwump, 09:13:39 12/12/09 Sat
I Don't Waste My Time Thinking About When to Sell My Gold
By Chris Weber, editor, The Weber Global Opportunities Report
I've been getting a lot of people asking me when I'll sell my gold...
First, I have to tell you it is much, much too early to focus on this. This is a time when very few people have gold, and it is still at least half the cost of the peak it reached back in January 1980, when I sold the last time.
When I sold gold and silver back then, I bought a currency that was on the mend and was paying a huge yield. Short-term money paid nearly 20% a year, and longer-term bonds paid around 12%. I believed that as interest rates fell, due to inflationary fears falling, the bond prices would rise. And this is what happened. I lived well all through the 1980s on just what I did during the early months of that decade.
-- -- Winston, 08:58:22 12/12/09 Sat
SILVER TOO CHEAP FOR THE C-WAVE TO BE OVER
At the recent top silver was still too cheap. As a matter of fact it was too cheap for that to be a final top.
That is the kind of sentiment you see at intermediate term bottoms. And that is the kind of sentiment that will spawn a second leg up in this C-wave that I expect will dwarf anything we've seen up to this point.
great pick up line- hi, my name is prezsmylaw -- mugwump, 08:51:04 12/12/09 Sat
This means that although HUI may appear oversold on a short-term basis, it doesn't seem that the bottom has been put just yet. After all, the history tends to repeat itself or at least it rhymes, and the previous corrections have been bigger than what we've seen so far - especially that the move preceding the top had been substantial.
Summing up, precious metals have been correcting this week and it seems that we are in the early part of the decline, which unfortunately means that much is still unclear about the way the situation is going to develop from here. Many clues suggest that this decline is about 50% over, but I will not be able to make detailed extrapolations of the first part of the decline, until we are certain that it has been indeed completed. However, the fact is that we are not at the top, so if you are risk averse (and the risk in PMs is to be out of the market) and long-term oriented then you may not want to wait too long before re-purchasing your PM investments.
Nothing ventured nothing gained I guess. Except, in econospeak, negative progress drained into the homeownership gap through which the Roving eye sees more Rove than Frank, brutally. A game of Clue under the tree would be appropriate, hung with white not candy canes, and a set of Exploding Heads noise-cancelling headphones that selectively filter in everything selectively filtered out.
Then God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen after cleaning up the mess.
lord jim -- mugwump, 08:23:00 12/12/09 Sat
Food Stamps Go to a Record 37.2 Million, USDA Says
By Alan Bjerga
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — A record 37.2 million people, or about one out of every eight Americans, received food stamps in September, as the recession drove a surging jobless rate, according to a government report.
Recipients of the subsidy for retail-food purchases climbed 18 percent from a year earlier, according to a statement posted today on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Web site. Participation has set records for 10 straight months.
The government boosted food aid as unemployment soared, heading to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. The jobless rate cooled to 10 percent last month, the Labor Department said on Dec. 4.
“We’ve been working to get that money out the door” to families that need assistance, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said last week in an interview.
Nevada had the biggest increase in food-stamp participation rates from a year earlier, surging 54 percent, followed by a 46.5 percent jump in Utah, according to the USDA. Texas had the most recipients at 3.1 million, followed by California with 2.9 million and New York with 2.6 million.
australia- minesite -- mugwump, 08:13:29 12/12/09 Sat
Just one more general news item before prices. First Quantum’s decision to buy the mothballed Ravensthorpe nickel mine from BHP Billiton was the big mining event down this way. While some critics see it as an overly ambitious step, others recognise it as an opportunity for First Quantum to cut its excessive exposure to some of Africa’s more dodgy countries, and that acquiring a US$3 billion factory at 10 cents in the dollar has its attractions. Even after spending on rehabilitation the world-scale project will have been brought back into production for around US$600 million, an entry price sufficiently low to make a profit even if nickel prices stay low and production is limited to half the theoretical output of 50,000 tonnes of metal in concentrate from Ravensthorpe per year. In other words, this could be a company-transforming deal for First Quantum, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see some of its investments offloaded to allow it to focus on Ravensthorpe. Such as its stake in Equinox Minerals (EQN).
flow of funds -- mugwump, 08:09:42 12/12/09 Sat
Not surprisingly, the massive inflation of government debt has worked to stabilize system incomes. National Income increased $133bn during the quarter to $12.352 TN SAAR, the strongest expansion in six quarters. National Income was down 3.4% year-over-year. Total Compensation expanded $22bn during the quarter to $7.838 TN SAAR. Total Compensation was down a modest 2.9% from a year earlier.
Massive government borrowings have also helped reflate the Household balance sheet. For the quarter, Household Assets jumped $3.104 TN, or 19.3% annualized, to $67.485 TN. And with Liabilities little changed at $14.061 TN, Household Net Worth rose a notable $3.116 TN to $53.424 TN (one-year high). Real Estate holdings were up $295bn during the quarter (to $18.25TN), the first gain in almost three years. Holding of Financial Assets surged $2.36 TN (22.4% annualized) for the quarter to $44.415 TN. For the past year, Household Net Worth declined - a not disastrous - $3.388 TN, or 6.0%. Over the year Real Estate assets declined $2.140 TN, or 10.5%, and Financial Assets dropped $1.740 TN, or 3.8%.
There were no big surprises in this quarter's "flow of funds" data. I was somewhat surprised by non-financial debt growth below 3%. Watching weekly corporate and municipal debt issuance, I expected stronger debt expansion from these sectors. I view the continued contraction in mortgage and consumer debt as supporting the thesis of a very atypical reflation and recovery. Considering the degree of monetary and fiscal stimulus, the general financial and economic response continues to be disconcerting. There is as yet no indication that massive government pump-priming is fostering a self-reinforcing private-sector Credit recovery.
got oil?? -- mugwump, 08:05:24 12/12/09 Sat
December 8 - Bloomberg (Tushar Dhara and Vipin V. Nair): "India's passenger car sales rose the most in more than five years in November as cheaper loan rates and economic expansion lifted demand... Sales totaled 133,687 units in November, 61% more than the 83,121 sold a year earlier..."
got oil?? -- mugwump (), 08:03:59 12/12/09 Sat
December 8 - Bloomberg: "China's passenger-car sales surged 98% last month, the most in at least five years, as government incentives spurred demand in an auto market poised to surpass the U.S. as the world's biggest this year. Sales of cars, sport-utility vehicles and minivans rose to 1.04 million last mont..."
Last edited by author: Sat December 12, 2009 08:04:13
Edited 1 time. [Edit]
it's hard to figure the value of gold -- mugwump, 07:50:57 12/12/09 Sat
Another bull argument of interventionist central planners is that dropping interest rates to near zero, doubling the broad money supply since the internet bubble, and letting government spending spiral out of control had almost no effect upon inflation, and in fact produced a great moderation. We should target outcomes, not the supply of money, so they did. What the heck if it produced the greatest indebtedness seen in the last century or more. Surprise, surprise: gold prices scraped along the basement floor by the end of the roaring 1990s because anybody with half a brain knew more money could be made chasing internet stocks. Now that the system proved itself to be unstable, they are utterly mystified that gold would be the only decent performing asset, preferred to holding deposits backed by the full faith and credit of a strapped government and collateral that is a commodity suffering from years if not decades of government-favored malinvestment. Tisk, tisk! For most of this year, gold rose even though there were definite signs of green shoots!
Gold’s price reaction to specific events continues to confound cheerleaders of the interventionists and the reporters who choose to curry favor with them. It refuses to fit neatly into black boxes like those that so effectively measured risks for LTCM, statistical arbitrageurs, or anyone else stupid enough to plug in data generated during a period of gluttony for levered returns and think correlations would protect them when the movie began to run in reverse. It refuses to behave, because it wants to become money rather than jewelry. The story of King Midas is not an ode to the bling looted by the captains of Wall Street, but an age-old preference of the common man for rationality and dependability rather than manipulation and fraud. Maybe gold can’t be easily valued, but then paper or electrons can, and they are worthless.
William Baker Author of Endless Money: The Moral Hazards of Socialism
schiff -- mugwump, 07:44:39 12/12/09 Sat
Schonberger: So then you're actually calling for a collapse in the dollar relatively soon?
Schiff: Relatively soon, yes. Maybe not tomorrow, but I think it will happen soon. I think it will happen before Barack Obama leaves office even if he's only a one-termer. The first initial collapse in the dollar will be about a 50%, 60%, or 70% decline in dollar value. That collapse will usher in the new leg -- the much more severe leg of our economic downturn. Not only will we have a financial crisis, but we'll also have a currency and economic crisis.
Hopefully that will be the tough medicine, the shock that finally causes Congress and the Fed to abandon its current policy and start doing the right thing. If it doesn't -- if they respond to that big drop in the dollar by creating more inflation, and if they fail to raise interest rates aggressively and withdraw liquidity -- then they will turn the dollar into confetti. Then we will have hyperinflation. If we go down that road, gold prices aren't just going to $5,000, they'll go to $50,000, or $500,000. I hope that cooler heads will prevail before we go down that road, but from this point that's still a possibility if we don't change policies.
palha- govt lies -- mugwump, 07:35:33 12/12/09 Sat
The Government's report appears to be suspect. Jim Rogers openly states that all government statistics are blatant lies. Our belief is that the numbers are manipulated but the degree and depth of the manipulation is increasingly and becoming more open.
ADP conducts are much broader based and more in-depth survey and this survey is based on hard facts. They reported private pay roll losses of 169,000 for November. The monster Job employment index which measures on line job demand also dropped. These two reports completely dispute the sudden drop in unemployment from 10.2 to 10% and also make one question the government’s claims that only 11,000 jobs were shed in Nov. To make matters worse, the government revised the Oct numbers to 111,000 from 190,000 and September’s numbers were revised to 139,000 from 219,000. Why did it take them almost 3 months to get the facts straight and then how could they be off by such a wide margin? Something is not quite right. Now economists are using these readjusted numbers to paint a rosier picture.
If one examines the number of long term unemployed individuals one finds that their numbers are growing. This number grew by 293,000 pushing the total to over 6 million. Anyone looking for a job for over 27 weeks or more falls under this category. According to the New York Times, the unofficial employment rate is 17.5%
Carmack, I threw in that link because you are enthralled -- mudturtle -- Nuggets, 06:21:31 12/12/09 Sat
...The response is going to be fascinating reading...
Kabul mayor snubs conviction -- doran, 04:35:32 12/12/09 Sat
"They have made a total mockery of the whole rule of law - the fact that he is not in jail shows the weaknesses that we have in terms of our ability to enforce the rule of law," he told Al Jazeera.
The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name -- doran, 04:23:01 12/12/09 Sat
On any given day, the rowhouse at 133 C St. SE -- well appointed, with American flag flying, white-and-green-trimmed windows and a pleasant garden -- fills with talk of power and the Lord. At least five congressmen live there, quietly renting upstairs rooms from an organization affiliated with "the Fellowship," the obsessively secretive Arlington spiritual group that organizes the National Day of Prayer breakfast, an event routinely attended by legions of top government officials. Other politicians come to the house for group spirituality sessions, prayer meetings or to simply share their troubles. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/25/AR2009062504480.html
Does marriage stink? Part II: Jenny Sanford files for divorce from South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford -- doran, 04:18:28 12/12/09 Sat
In case you too are tired of reading about the numerous illicit rendezvous of public figures and missed this one, Top of the Ticket and D.C. Now have reported that despite Gov. Mark Sanford’s reported desire to reconcile with his wife, Jenny Sanford is taking her four sons, ages 11 to 17, and her dignity and getting out. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2009/12/jenny-sanford-mark-sanford-divorce-does-marriage-stink.html
Carmack, I threw in that link because you are enthralled -- mudturtle, 03:18:25 12/12/09 Sat
with the golfer.
As for me, I don't give a shit. His marital problems are of no concern to me.
I do see that you are a racist twerp. The golfer and Mr. Obama are of a halfbreed status that seems to be a very big deal in their lives and yours. Mr. Woods does all of this on his own dime whereas the politician sells out most everyone for his aggrandizement.
There is nothing left for what once was the middle class in the USA and it is coming to your place soon enough. The whore chasers in Copenghagen are going to sell your sorry ass for some blow and some pussy. Your posturing on political parties and race baiting is just what they want from you so that they can further their enslavement of just about anyone other than themselves.
You know dick about what is going on there other than yourself having some experience with low priced hookers.
Why don't you drop the nigra/blonde gal crap and focus on what is in store for the disaster that is North American trade and finance. You have no child that has busted butt to get to her goal of learning medical care for large animals. I never could have done what she has taken on in order to reach that goal. The parasites in our conjoined economies are over there sealing the fates of me and my daughters. The goomint predators have already assigned the last breakback load of unpayable debts in order to glean the last increment from the middle class productive.
I don't care about golf and Tiger Woods. It gets fabulous play now in order to entertain the boobs that cannot be concerned with the abject giveaway that the US Congreff voted today.
The bastards declared a fight to finish today on what is left of the productives. You can be sure that the goo will get away with this usurpation of the rights of man because they will do it under cover of lurid sex stories and the materialism of this time of year.
Tiger Wood's fucking adventures are a godsend to the same sort of maggots that passed the Feral Reserve Act on a December twenty-fourth.
@Lil Devil @There was a feller like you in the boarding house with Andrew Jackson -- mozel, 03:12:28 12/12/09 Sat
before he was President. He had a religious experience similar to the following ...
A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses was taught by a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.
One day the professor shocked the class when
he came in.
He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you 15 min."
The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting."
It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was down and out, cold.
The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you do that?'
The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So He sent me.'
last one.... -- crazytimes, 02:59:28 12/12/09 Sat
AN OPEN LETTER TO
WILLIAM KRISTOL ,
RICHARD PERLE, AND
PRESIDENT BUSH'S
OTHER NEOCONSERVATIVE
PUPPETMASTERS
Dear Bill, Dick, et al:
Why didn't you tell President Bush to invade Western Australia first?
I've been playing Risk: The Game of Global Domination since I was eight years old and never, never have I seen someone win the game by massing their forces in the Middle East at the beginning of the game. Too many borders! Impossible to reinforce! Enemies from all directions! Australia, on the other hand, is easily conquered. Start in Western Australia, make a straight-line march through eastern Australia, then on into New Zealand and New Guinea, and finally up to Siam, sealing the entire continent and guaranteeing an extra two armies per turn for the duration of game. (Ask Secretary Rumsfeld if those would come in handy.) Once in Siam, you can leave the remainder of your provinces virtually unguarded and mass your armies of the Far East to eventually move north into Siberia, Irkutsk and Kamchatka, ultimately overtaking the entire Asian continent (seven extra armies per turn), including, finally, the Middle East.
Starting in South America is okay, too, if your brat cousin Ronald refuses to play if he doesn't get to go first, and Africa will do in a pinch if you want to change things up, but you better roll some sixes, mutherfuckers, or you'll be knocked out of the game, which means you're available to do stuff like pick up the dog crap in the backyard, or wax your grandfather's back, "since you're just watching." (Thanks, Mom.)
I hear that, after watching President Bush's press conference, Mr. Kristol was "depressed." If he was depressed, think about the rest of us, who weren't part of the shadowy extra-governmental cabal that helped install him in the White House in the first place.
The history books will write your epitaphs and they won't be pretty: "Neoconservatives: A late-twentieth-, early-twenty-first-century American political movement that stressed the supremacy of the American empire, but was too stupid to invade Australia first."
another -- crazytimes, 02:49:21 12/12/09 Sat
AN OPEN LETTER
TO SHIRLEY MACLAINE
FROM A FORMER 11-YEAR-OLD
WHO WAS SENT TO HER
APARTMENT BY GEORGE
MCGOVERN'S PRESIDENTIAL
CAMPAIGN IN 1972
Dear Ms. MacLaine,
In the spring of 1972, when I was an 11-year-old volunteer with Senator George McGovern's presidential campaign in Manhattan, I was sent to your apartment (I believe it was on East 54th Street) to return a book you had sent to his campaign office.
While I can't remember your address precisely, I am certain I remember, verbatim, the title of the book. It was called Adultery and Its Compatibility With Marriage.
Now that I'm older, I have to ask you: What in the world were you doing sending George McGovern a book entitled Adultery and Its Compatibility With Marriage?
I recall, some years back, much speculation about the identity of the "prominent politician" with whom, according to your book Out on a Limb, you had an affair.
I don't care who that was. I just want to know why you sent George McGovern's campaign a book called Adultery and Its Compatibility With Marriage.
At your apartment, I did not meet you. I was met at your front door by an African-American maid, in full uniform, who took the book and quickly closed the door.
Were you trying to convince Senator McGovern that adultery with you would be compatible with his marriage with Eleanor? Is that how a movie star tries to seduce a presidential candidate, with a book sent to his campaign headquarters?
Couldn't you have asked for a private meeting with him, about fundraising perhaps, and introduced the subject in private? Did simply putting that book in anyone else's hands ever succeed in convincing a married person to have an affair with you?
I don't remember who the idiot was, at the campaign headquarters, who, having failed to do the really intelligent thing and simply throw the book away, didn't at least put the book in a sealed envelope or some such before sending me to your place to return it, so I can't write an open letter to that person about that indiscretion.
So, please, after 36 years, would you be so kind as to end my curiosity and bewilderment and tell me why the hell you sent Senator McGovern a book entitled Adultery and Its Compatibility With Marriage?
Your fan and former messenger,
David L. Steinhardt
AN OPEN LETTER TO KEITH RICHARDS' IMMUNE SYSTEM. -- crazytimes, 02:43:18 12/12/09 Sat
Dear Keith Richards' Immune System,
Hey! How are you? I know you're busy sustaining four packs a day of Gitanes and overcoming the long-term effects of black-tar heroin, but here's the thing: I need your help.
I have an illness, CFIDS, that suppresses my immune system, and I don't like it. I get fevers that last a month and I'm allergic to 72 foods. (Food, the thing that sustains life, frequently makes me sick.) But I'm not writing on my behalf. No, what keeps me up at night is that AIDS is enveloping Africa, Asia, and Russia with horrifying speed. Tens of millions of individuals—people with families and middle names and private jokes and birthdays—are dying, and all science has been able to do is slow things down a bit.
Here's where you come in. Out of the 6.1 billion human immune systems on the planet, you're clearly the strongest. You've triumphed over the aforementioned tobacco and opiates, and over Mick's preening vocals on "Hot Stuff." What other immune system can claim the same?
On behalf of the immuno-compromised populace, I'm asking that you allow epidemiologists to study your molecular activity before it's too late. Had researchers pounced while Charles Bukowski and William Burroughs were alive, millions could have been saved and I might eat eggs without throwing up.
To paraphrase Princess Leia: Help us, Keith Richards' Immune System. You're our only hope.
Thanks and much continued success,
Litsa Dremousis
Mikikis -- Carmack, 02:09:08 12/12/09 Sat
Just marvelous Magikkis you were right,you were right !!!!!
If she is that stupid its her problem !!! His problem is not whether he plays golf its that he "wants" to play 18 holes with 18 different women . Not playing golf won't change anything. He'll still be a nasty, selfish little nigra !!!!
Very true, but the rest of the world has known this for a long time..... -- aurator, 00:31:03 12/12/09 Sat
"We thought we were smart, savvy and intelligent but in reality we have been dumbed down beyond belief."
There's stoopid, then there's american stoopid....
The unexamined life is not worth living. Good on ya for starting the journey.
The hidden (Talmudic/Cabalistic) agenda of Judaism and Freemasonry -- mozel, 00:11:51 12/12/09 Sat
is to supplant the natural and spiritual laws of the universe (God) with the tyranny of the Illuminati bankers. They will define reality. For example, homosexuality, bestiality, incest etc. are being normalized. What is healthy (i.e. marriage, family) is deemed sick; what is false (i.e. climate change) is deemed true; what is obscene and ugly (modern art, entertainment) is deemed beautiful.
"Tiger Woods -- Mikikis (), 09:45:18 12/11/09 Fri
It could be said that the only thing left to prove is that he has the capacity to be a decent husband and father going forward. Don't think that his wife will make him stay out of the golf world for more than a year or two even if he does do as she requests. He has nothing left to prove on the golf pitch.
Last edited by author: Fri December 11, 2009 09:45:36 Edited 1 time.
[Edit]"
Last edited by author: Fri December 11, 2009 23:57:42
Edited 2 times. [Edit]
Just watched an interesting film -- Mikikis, 23:57:01 12/11/09 Fri
Revolver with Jason Statham...anybody here seen it? Quite a bit more interesting then I expected it to be.
Winston -- kapex, 23:37:54 12/11/09 Fri
It just seemed impossible to US.
We have been controlled and cpnditioned by the media for decades.
We thought we were smart, savvy and intelligent but in reality we have been dumbed down beyond belief.
The ironic thing is that so many "think" they have a handle on whats going on.
-- -- Winston, 23:30:35 12/11/09 Fri
few if any thought in December 1989 that the mighty Soviet Union would simply collapse and pass out of existence in 20 months' time. Completely impossible. But it happened.
RE mounties in Washington -- Carmack, 23:27:11 12/11/09 Fri
Funny but I must have missed the red serge parade that the mounties had for the Polish immigrant that they willfully taseded to death at the Vancouver airport .
"When Mr. Dziekanski, exhausted after being lost in the terminal for hours, brandished a stapler, he was tasered. He died of cardiac arrest."
You gotta know it was that fecker Harper that ordered this show of excess in Washington to cozy up the Obamas's black arse !!!!!
All things must end... -- AZAU, 23:19:52 12/11/09 Fri
[Edit]
Date Posted: 20:37:59 12/10/09 Thu
Author: AZAU
Subject: Raising the Debt Ceiling 1.8 Trillion to 14 T.
This will likely be the endgame. There are not enough buyers to absorb another 1.8 T of US debt, even if they wanted to. Thus it will necessitate even larger buying by the fed, and well, you know the old wiemar thing. Very near the end here, because the US debt bubble is now in its climax stage.
The number and extent of the bubbles created by econophysicists and the like -- AZAU, 23:06:47 12/11/09 Fri
are leaving a swath of thermonuclear destruction in the financial world, from which the world simply cannot recover. Like Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" of the nuclear cold war era, it takes time for us all to die-off.
'I'm on Interpol's most wanted list, but the police won't arrest me' -- doran, 23:03:00 12/11/09 Fri
He is one of thousands of ex-pats who have quit the troubled emirate after a drastic change in their personal circumstances caused by the collapse of the city's property boom. Authorities in Dubai have found more than 3,000 luxury cars parked outside the international airport in recent months, left behind by jobless foreign workers who could no longer afford the payments on the top-of-the-range Porsches, BMWs and Mercedes, and did not want to risk imprisonment by defaulting on loans. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/im-on-interpols-most-wanted-list-but-the-police-wont-arrest-me-1838763.html
Health Care ............has nothing to do with health....or care.......... -- AZAU, 22:58:49 12/11/09 Fri
but only $dough. The congress is so inept and corrupt that it is pathetic to watch the death dance of extinguished legislative branch as prescribed by the Constitution.
Figured it out aye Sherlock -- APOLLO, 22:52:41 12/11/09 Fri
THey will slam it through anyway, because its not about health care or helping people, its about power & controlling 33MM votes to advance abortion, gay marriage, "no tree left behind", etc. They will tell themselves by passing this, it will assure that no one like "Bush the necon" ever gets to the oval office again - all the while Obam-the-peace/nobel-man is doing the same thing now in Afgan. down the tewbs we go...
US health care tab to keep growing under overhaul
Gov't analysis finds health spending would keep growing; casts doubt on Medicare savings
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Writer
On 8:31 pm EST, Friday December 11, 2009
Buzz up! 7 Print
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats trying to push President Barack Obama's health care overhaul plan through the Senate got a sober warning Friday that costs will keep going up and proposed Medicare savings may harm the program.
AP - From left, Sen. Christopher Dodd., D-Conn., Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., and Sen. Paul Kirk, ...
A new report from government economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department found that the nation's $2.5 trillion annual health care tab won't shrink under the Democratic blueprint that senators are debating. Instead, it would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress does nothing.
More troubling was the report's assessment that the Democrats' plan to squeeze Medicare for $493 billion over 10 years in savings relies on specific policy changes that "may be unrealistic" and could lead to cuts in services. The Medicare savings are expected to cover about half the nearly $1 trillion, 10-year cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured.
In still more bad news, the report starkly warned that a new long-term care insurance plan included in the legislation could "face a significant risk of failure" because it would attract people in poor health, leading to higher and higher premiums, and eventually triggering an "insurance death spiral." Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., brushed that aside, pointing to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office that found the program would be solvent for 75 years.
The one bright note: The bill would provide coverage to 93 percent of U.S. residents, reducing the number of uninsured people by about 33 million, the report said.
The analysis from the Office of the Actuary, which does long-range cost estimates for Medicare, was prefaced by a disclaimer saying it does not represent the official position of the Obama administration. Unlike estimates from the budget office, which have mainly focused on the legislation's impact on the federal deficit, the actuaries looked at total public and private costs over the next 10 years.
The analysts also used their years of experience with Medicare's finances to make a judgment call on whether the cuts proposed in the Democratic bills are politically sustainable. When previous Congresses have cut Medicare too deeply, providers have usually convinced lawmakers in subsequent years to restore at least some of the money. That same scenario is playing out this year as doctors try to persuade Congress to permanently repeal automatic spending cuts that would reduce their Medicare fees 21 percent next year.
The actuaries' analysis of the Senate bill echoes their previously released reports about the House bill. It addresses core provisions of both bills, and is unlikely to be affected by the latest changes Senate Democrats are proposing.
Republicans seized on the report as validation of their concerns that the overhaul bill is both unaffordable and unrealistic.
"This report confirms what we've long known -- the Democrat plan will increase costs, raise premiums, and slash Medicare. That's not reform. This analysis speaks for itself. This bill is a sham," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said release of the report was "almost like Pearl Harbor -- a day of infamy."
Democrats have sought to deflect the criticism by playing up the conclusions of the budget office, which show the bills would reduce the federal deficit and are not likely to drive up premiums for most people with job based coverage.
The actuaries' report projected that national health care spending would rise by an additional 0.7 percent under the bill from 2010-2019, mainly because newly insured people would be able to receive medical care they wouldn't otherwise have gotten.
In response, White House health care spokeswoman Linda Douglass emphasized the report's finding that "reform will have 'a significant downward impact on future health care cost growth rates.' As savings from reform kick in, national health expenditures are projected to increase at a slower annual rate under the Senate bill than under the status quo."
The findings on Medicare are a bigger problem for Democrats. The report suggests the Democratic plan hit the brakes too hard trying to hold down the growth of payments to hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and other service providers. And that could reduce access for seniors.
"Providers for whom Medicare constitutes a substantive portion of their business could find it difficult to remain profitable," the report said. "Absent legislative intervention, (they) might end their participation in the program, possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries."
If the cuts stay in place, about one-in-five hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies could find themselves going in the red, the report said.
Also Friday, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas., head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, sent a memo to Republican senators and candidates suggesting it was good politics to oppose the health overhaul, citing polling showing it is unpopular with the public.
"The Democrats' massive health care bill, coupled with their support for out-of-control government spending, are quickly developing into potent political issues for us," Cornyn wrote, urging Republicans to "continue to stand together in opposition to the Democrats' bill."
And in the latest offensive by foes of the overhaul effort, two business groups have begun airing a multimillion dollar TV ad campaign attacking the health legislation as a threat to the economy. The ads are scheduled to run through next Wednesday on national cable and in nine states whose senators are seen as wavering or politically vulnerable on the issue, including Arkansas, Connecticut and Maine.
"Congress' latest health care bill makes a tough economy even worse," says one of the two commercials. The spots are sponsored by Employers for a Health Economy and Start Over!, coalitions that between them represent more than 200 large and small business associations.
Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
Buzz up! 7 SendSharePrintShare this page
DeliciousTwitterMyspaceDiggStumbleUponFacebook
For Carmack -- mudturtle, -- Carmack, 22:51:02 12/11/09 Fri
Hey pretty cool . That should teach that nasty little nigra to exercise a little caution around a blondie Anglo Saxon dollie with a golf stick at the ready !
S Turtle I do take back all the ugly things that you ever said about me . I do make myself laugh at times. lol
It is amazing that the goo has orchestrated such a controlled landing, or crash, for the -- AZAU, 22:50:43 12/11/09 Fri
US economy. But we know it's going down. Debt like gravity is the severe arbiter of all things financial. The Debt is Dead! Long live the Debt!
miniminer..........it is not the silver you hate; it is the weight [wait].. -- AZAU, 22:47:43 12/11/09 Fri
Gold has long been unfolding in its rise since the nadir in 98 or so. Silver the junior metal holds promise through its utility in things like batteries. Hold on to that charge!
Alll must realize that, like O'bomba taking the peace prize "poison pill", so also -- AZAU, 22:43:59 12/11/09 Fri
the capitalists have taken the "poison pill" of socialism via the TARP and bailouts and cahoots with the goo.
More toxic assets,,,,,,,hahahahahahhahahahaha... -- AZAU, 22:40:16 12/11/09 Fri
Regulators shut banks in Florida, Arizona, Kansas
Regulators closes banks in Fla., Ariz., Kans., bringing total US failures to 133 this year
* By Ieva M. Augstums and Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writers
* On 7:49 pm EST, Friday December 11, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Regulators on Friday shut down banks in Florida, Arizona and Kansas, bringing to 133 the number of U.S. banks that have failed to hold up this year against the struggling economy and a cascade of loan defaults.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Miami-based Republic Federal Bank, with $433 million in assets and $352.7 million in deposits. A bank based in Boca Raton, Fla., 1st United Bank, agreed to assume all the deposits and $267.1 million of the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.
In addition, the FDIC and 1st United Bank agreed to share losses on $210.4 million of Republic Federal's loans and other assets.
___________________
this bullshit will not end....
It is the cancer, the consumption of all remaining assets in the economy. This MUST occur for the cleansing collapse to proceed.
@makes the 50lb boxes even less appealing -- Miniminer, 22:33:32 12/11/09 Fri
in fact, I think I hate the chit.....actually, I know I hate the silver chit
who's got a bottle of JackDaniels? light me up please.
CoralCalcium -- Miniminer, 22:18:40 12/11/09 Fri
unfortunately you are right.....makes the 50lb boxes even less appealing.....I was dreaming of a 10 bagger from $10 and lost a decimal point
$100 silver in 10 years? (not)- Miniminer -- CoralCalcium, 22:08:37 12/11/09 Fri
At 10% interest per year for 10 years, we would not come close to $100 silver, even if we started it at $20 silver instead of the $17 it is trading at now
Start $20
year 1 $22
year 2 $24.20
year 3 $26.62
year 4 $29.282
year 5 $32.21
year 6 $35.43
year 7 $38.97
year 8 $42.87
year 9 $47.16
year 10 $51.88
seimpre -- Miniminer, 21:24:48 12/11/09 Fri
cash will be important for a time......I won't live long enough for silver to reach the Semp$750/silver goal....I still think we'll see silver well over $100 oz within a decade though...that would be about 10% per annum and quite possible.
I still got a bunch buried and haven't sold it because of the trouble retrieving it....gold is sooo much easier to handle...one tube gold for a 50lb box of sludge would have served me better for sure---too late now.
The ongoing Depression is finally making Americans wonder why they stand in unemployment lines while government workers enjoy lavish pay, perks, and benefits. And cases of brutality are making many wonder why police and prosecutors have been given such excessive powers.
Almost didn't post this cause skinee might see it.
follow the money...it's been flowing from west
toward the east....India & China could be called
"the usual suspects"....or how about anybody else
with lotsa uninvested money, esp. those not
trusting the stock markets...
as much as I love Ag....yeah, I think it's going down
for an indefinite period....could be longer than
most anyone thinks before it comes back....
I've bee n a seller up through yesterday, including
all of my 90% quarters....
now I wait for a good buy price to jump back in...
![[Most Recent USD from www.kitco.com]](http://www.weblinks247.com/indexes/idx24_usd_en_2.gif)
Jasper, 06:40:06 12/14/09 Mon 
For The Climate Denier$ & Believer$ -- 
