Yeah-man!

 It sure seems convenient that we have another bomb scare within a week of the election.  Hmmmmm.

"Yemen officials arrested a suspect Saturday in the alleged plot to mail bombs to two synagogues in Chicago, but clues also lead to a bombmaker for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), reports say."
Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Yemen somehow comes to the forefront again.

"How con-VEEN-ient!"
The Church Lady - Saturday Night Live

Chaotic Collisions

"Instead of unfolding in a nice, linear, straightforward manner, these colliding events will happen quite rapidly and chaotically.  By mentally accepting that this proposition is not only possible, but probable, we are free to make different choices and take actions that can preserve and protect our wealth and mitigate our risks."
Chris Martenson

Boobus Americanus

James Quinn may have come up with one better than "sheeple".  Boobus Americanus...why didn't I think of that one?
"Today’s Keynesian economists have convinced boobus Americanus that the Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve being too tight with monetary policy and the Hoover administration not providing enough fiscal stimulus. Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama used this line of reasoning to ram through an $850 billion pork-laden stimulus package, as well as the purchase of $1.2 trillion of toxic mortgages by the Federal Reserve.  The only trouble is that this storyline is a complete sham.  The fact that colossal stimulus spending, zero interest rates, the purchase of over a trillion in toxic assets by the Fed, and the loosest monetary policy in history have done absolutely nothing to revitalize the economy, has proven that Keynesian policies have been a wretched failure. This is not a surprise to Austrian school economists.  Keynesian policies failed during the Great Depression, and they are failing today. An economic catastrophe caused by loose monetary policies, crushing levels of debt, and appalling lending practices cannot be solved by looser monetary policies, issuance of twice as much debt, and government commanding banks (or, in the case of Fannie and Freddie, “commandeering”) to make more bad loans.  The Great Depression was caused by Federal Reserve expansion of the money supply in the 1920s that led to an unsustainable credit-driven boom. When the Federal Reserve belatedly tightened in 1928, it was too late to avoid financial collapse. According to Murray Rothbard, in his book America’s Great Depression, the artificial interference in the economy was a disaster prior to the depression, and government efforts to prop up the economy after the crash of 1929 only made things worse. Government intervention delayed the market’s adjustment and made the road to complete recovery more difficult."
James Quinn, The Burning Platform

the entire article:
http://www.theburningplatform.com/

Korean Games In The DMZ

Rekindle, reignite...it's all the same thing. My prediction on this one was that when the tide lowers, it's easy to pick a fight with an old foe. It usually takes a small spark."
Random Roving, March 8, 2009

"Tensions escalated along the North Korea-South Korea border on Friday after the North fired two rounds at its southern neighbour. South Korean troops immediately fired back, an official told The Associated Press. The shots from North Korea were fired towards a South Korean guard post in the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul told AP. No one was injured and it wasn't clear whether the shots represented a military action or were an accident. However the shots came just hours after the North vowed to retaliate after the South rejected a Pyongyang proposal for military talks. It's the latest escalation in an ongoing game of military brinksmanship that hit a high point when North Korea sunk the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors. Earlier this week Pyongyang demanded that Seoul resume large-scale food aid shipments despite the current tensions. The demand came after the North seized a South Korean fishing vessel earlier in the month. And in August, tensions were once again high after the North fired 110 rounds near the disputed border. All the shells landed harmlessly in the water within the North's territory. Earlier that month, South Korea held five days of naval drills off the west coast of the divided peninsula, that the south called a rehearsal for invasion."
Source: CTV Calgary

Misleading Beliefs

"The most important part of this story is getting our minds to accept reality without our passionate beliefs interfering. By ‘beliefs’ I mean statements like these:
•“Things always get better and are never as bad as they seem.”
•“If Peak Oil were ‘real,’ I would be hearing about it from my trusted sources.”
•“Dwelling on the negative is self-fulfilling.”
While each of these things might be true, they also might be false and therefore misleading, especially during periods of transition. Our job is to remain as dispassionate and logical as possible."
Chris Martenson

Boudreaux & Mbah Maridjan

When I read this story, I couldn't help but think of my friend Boudreaux.  Why is it that we refuse to listen to the alerts?  Is it like the car alarm in the mall parking lot?  Is it the boy that cried wolf?

"Even after an eruption alert was issued and most villagers on the slopes of Java's Mount Merapi had been evacuated, 83-year old Mbah (grandfather) Maridjan stayed put. The spiritual guardian of the mountain, his battle to tame one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes ended on Wednesday when he was buried by the mountain's thick ash.  He was reportedly found dead in a prayer position in his house, as rescuers also dug out more than two dozen more victims in the area - many who had also refused to leave.  In the wake of the eruption, houses and fields were left blanketed in thick, white ash, while leaves had been singed off trees.  Villagers say they will mourn the loss of a respected elder who was as important to them as the mountain itself."

Source: BBC

Eruption alerts are everywhere and the sheeple continue to graze with no concern.

The Fourth Turning Cleansing

"People often talk of the Fourth Turning as this cataclysm and it's horrible and so on. It begins the world again.  It tears down institutions that don't work and rebuilds it successfully.  It replaces them with institutions that do work.  It starts our community and social life fresh again."
Neil Howe, Author, "The Fourth Turning" (Interview with Jim Puplava)

Sooner Or Later

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought on by credit and fiat monetary expansion. The only question is whether the crisis should come sooner in the form of a recession or later as a final and total catastrophe of depression as the currency systems crumble.”
Ludwig von Mises

I Pity The Fool

Could this be the ultimate sign of a market top in gold?  I don't think so. Sell when Drago starts doing commercials for Russian gold!

The Challenge Of The Weatherman

"So often people make the observation that we can't tell what the weather is going to be tomorrow so how can you possibly say anything about what the weather is going to be like in three months. Well obviously you can't.  Seasons change.  So it's not a question of having a rainy day today and a sunny day tomorrow.  It's the broader shift.  You can't predict the breaking of each wave on the seashore.  You can't predict the tides. You see what I mean.  This is looking more broadly at changes.  When you refocus your field of vision, not on the breaking events today and tomorrow, but on a longer term field of view, these changes become pretty clear."
Neil Howe, Author, "The Fourth Turning" (Interview with Jim Puplava)

Tis The Season To Be......

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Book of Ecclesiastes

C'est La France

Les jeunes français prennent en charge.

The Delusional Election

"If you think all the game-changing decisions to be made on November 2 will be by voters at the ballot boxes, think again! In his latest online presentation, Monty Agarwal reminds us that, on that very same Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will ... corral together the other voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee ...send any dissenters off to the shearing shed, and ...before the following day, close the deal on QE2 — the next major round of mass money printing.  How ironic the twists and turns of history can be!  while millions of voters will likely vote to transform Capitol Hill into a new stable of fiscal conservatives ...Just 12 men — meeting two and a half miles away — will be voting to transform America into a field of money trees.  Strangely ...The vote at the polls will put the padlock on America's fiscal stimulus. But ...The vote at the Fed will unleash a whole new round of monetary stimulus, potentially driving more liquidity into gold, commodities, foreign currencies, and emerging markets.  End result: One of the greatest disconnects of all time between ...A sinking economy on the one side, and ...The real possibility of roaring bull markets in certain asset classes on the other side."
Martin Weiss, Weiss Research

Weather & Wind

"You don't have to be a weatherman to know which direction the wind is blowing."
Unknown

The French Join The Trend

Last month it was the Spaniards, now the French rise up.

"After days of rail disruption, unions are putting on the pressure before Wednesday’s Senate vote on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s unpopular pension reforms. He is refusing to back down over a two-year retirement age hike, but so too are the unions.  Didier Le Reste of the CGT union warned of more strike action.  The start of the week will see a widening of the strike, with more sustained action in sectors such as road transport, energy, postal and telecommunications and public service and commerce,” he said.  Fears that the two major airports in Paris could run out of fuel in the next 48 hours have been dispelled by the government despite blockades at France’s 12 refineries. However supply shortages could hit elsewhere by mid-week with depots in the south west already depleted by an unrelated stoppage."
Source: Euronews
 
"In a downward trending mass social mood, it's very likely that labor strikes will become very popular again. We might even see a professional sports strike in the next few years. An angry mob loves a strike and a picket line. The cycle will likely bring unions back to strength as fear and anger 'drives the herd closer together'."

Random Roving, November 24, 2009, "Three Strikes You're Out"

Jobs Update

An updated view of the job situation.

Source: Bud Conrad, Casey Research

A Current Pulse On The Puzzle Pieces

This blogger summarizes the current state in 12 Ominous Signs For World Financial Markets:

#1 Corporate insiders are getting out of the U.S. stock market at an absolutely blinding pace. It is being reported that the ratio of corporate insider selling to corporate insider buying last week was 1,411 to 1, and this week the ratio has soared even higher and is at 2,341 to 1.
#2 Many of the world's wealthiest people are buying absolutely massive quantities of gold right now.
#3 It is being reported that J.P. Morgan is gobbling up the rights to as much physical gold as it possibly can.
#4 The United States Mint has announced that it has run out of 1-ounce, 24-karat American Buffalo gold bullion coins and that it will not be selling any more of them in 2010.
#5 It is becoming increasingly difficult to explain the unusually high option volume that we are witnessing right now.
#6 Some very large investors are making massive bets that the S&P 500 is going to take a serious tumble during the month of October.
#7 On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan shocked world financial markets by cutting interest rates even closer to zero and by setting up a 5 trillion yen quantitative easing fund.
#8 The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago are both publicly urging the Fed to do much more to stimulate the U.S. economy, including beginning a new round of quantitative easing, even if it means a significant rise in the U.S. inflation rate.
#9 Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told reporters on Tuesday that the loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are throwing the world into "chaos".
#10 At the end of September, federal regulators announced a $30 billion bailout of the U.S. wholesale credit union system.
#11 Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Mortgage have all suspended foreclosures in many U.S. states due to serious concerns about foreclosure procedures. Now, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is actually demanding that all mortgage servicing companies in the state of Texas immediately suspend all foreclosures, the selling of foreclosed properties and the eviction of people living in foreclosed properties until they have completed a review of their foreclosure procedures.
#12 Not only that, but Nancy Pelosi and 30 other members of Congress are requesting a federal investigation of the foreclosure practices of U.S. mortgage lenders. Needless to say, this controversy has the potential to turn the entire U.S. mortgage industry into an absolute quagmire.


So are dark days ahead for world financial markets?  Well, yeah, but it is incredibly hard to predict exactly when things are going to fall apart.  The truth is that there are going to be a whole lot more "crashes" and "collapses" in the years ahead.  The important thing, as discussed yesterday, is to keep your eye on the long-term trends.  The U.S. economy is undeniably in decline. The only thing keeping the economy going at this point is a rapidly growing sea of red ink. Debt is literally everywhere. It is what our entire financial system is based on in 2010. In the months and years to come, the major players are going to try very hard to keep all the balls in the air and to continue the massive shell game that is going on, but in the end the whole thing is going to collapse like a house of cards.  Unfortunately, we have been destroying the U.S. economy for decades and there is simply not going to be a happy ending to this story.

The entire post:
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/12-ominous-signs-for-world-financial-markets

Martenson's Status Report

An update from Chris Martenson:
"By my analysis, we are not yet on the final path to recovery, and there are one or more financial 'breaks' coming in the future. Underlying structural weaknesses have not been resolved, and the kick-the-can-down-the-road plan is going to encounter a hard wall in the not-too-distant future. When the next moment of discontinuity finally arrives, events will unfold much more rapidly than most people expect. My work centers on figuring out which macro trends are in play and then helping people to adjust accordingly. Based on trends in fiscal and monetary policy, I began advising accumulation of gold and silver in 2003 and 2004. I shorted homebuilder stocks beginning in 2006 and ending in 2008. These were not ‘great' calls; they were simply spotting trends in play, one beginning and one certain to end, and then taking appropriate actions based on those trends. We happen to live in a non-linear world; a core concept of the Crash Course. But far too many people expect events to unfold in a more or less orderly manner, with plenty of time to adjust along the way. In other words, linearly. The world does not always cooperate, and my concern rests on the observation that we still face the convergence of multiple trends, each of which alone has the power to permanently transform our economic landscape and standards of living. Three such trends (out of the many I track) that will shape our immediate future are: Peak Oil, Sovereign insolvency, and Currency debasement.  Individually, these worry me quite a bit; collectively, they have my full attention."

The entire article:
http://financialsense.com/contributors/chris-martenson/prediction-things-may-unravel-faster-than-you-think

Steve Covey On Change

"If there's one thing that certain in business today, it is change. And as soon as companies are hit by change, Covey says, they face four key hazards — failure to execute, a crisis of trust, loss of focus and debilitating fear. A perfect recipe for downfall."
Source: The Economic Times

The Marketing of Madness

One of my personal "flags" is when someone creates a catchy phrase or name for something that seems to be too important to be summarized by that catchy name.  A few examples might be "War On Terror", "WMD's", "Axis of Evil", "Shock and Awe", and "Main St. vs Wall St.".  When we were kids, we called it the "atomic bomb". That quickly presented images of a mushroom cloud. WMD's sounds really high tech and not really intimidating. "War On Terror" is nice and vague. It's better than saying "waging war on people that don't think like us". That's just too many words. "Shock and Awe" sounded really cool. Who wants to say "dropping missiles in a Middle Eastern city so that we can obtain control of oil reserves". That's just too complex.  Then we had "Desert Storm" and "Desert Shield".  With Mexico we now have the "Battle on The Border".  Main Street and Wall Street is perfect because it quickly creates a victim-villian relationship.  BP provided us with "Top Kill" and "Static Kill".
 
The latest one that I like has even been shortened to an abbreviation, "Q.E.".  Yes, quantitative easing.  This cute phrase represents the process where the Federal Reserve prints a bunch of money and we quickly go spend it on things we believe that we have to have.  The short term result is economic stimulation and a facade of economic strength.  The media now just calls the upcoming "printing event" QE2.  Sounds like a ship named after a British queen.  Get prepared for QE2.  The timing with an election only appears to be a  coincident.  Wink wink.

"The economy is weak. So you print money. The money pushes up asset prices.  People think they are wealthier. They think there’s a real boom going on.  They invest. They hire. They spend.  Then, there is a real boom!  Do you believe it works like that, dear reader? If you do, you should be an economist. Or a doorstop. There’s no doubt that printing money can create a boom. But it’s a phony boom, not a real one. And when it blows up…which it inevitably does…people are worse off than they were before.   It’s one thing to introduce small amounts of extra “money” into a growing, prosperous economy. It’s a fraud. It’s a mistake. But it doesn’t blow-up the system. It’s petty larceny; nobody cares.  It’s another thing to introduce large amounts of new currency into a funky, struggling economy."
Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning

Bernanke's Vision

"U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation."
Ben Bernanke, 2002

Now That's What I'm Talkin' Bout

And the Tea Party is fired up about 86,000 people at the Glenn Beck "love-fest"???  The French are leading the charge.

"In the fourth such protest in a little over a month, unions estimated that 3.5 million people had taken to the streets against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension bill – a 20 per cent rise from previous marches and what they called an 'exceptional' figure."
Source: Telegraph UK

Now we're starting to talk about something tangible!

"In a downward trending mass social mood, it's very likely that labor strikes will become very popular again. We might even see a professional sports strike in the next few years. An angry mob loves a strike and a picket line. The cycle will likely bring unions back to strength as fear and anger 'drives the herd closer together'."
Random Roving, "Three Strikes You're Out", November 29, 2009

Trouble On The Back Nine

Dana Carvey said on his fortieth birthday that he was "starting to play the back nine".  Some of these superstars might have wished they were out of the limelight for the back nine.  Maybe the downward trending curve of mass social mood has swept them up.

"Brett Favre may have put in an admirable showing even as the Vikings fell to the Jets Monday night, but it was the quarterback's sex scandal that dominated headlines after the game. 'If you want to talk about what happened in the football game tonight, I'd love to,' Favre said when asked whether the allegations against him were true. The married quarterback notched his 501st touchdown pass during the game, but then faced a throng of reporters asking questions about whether he sent nude pictures of himself to a former New York Jets game-day host and propositioned a masseuse. When asked what he told his teammates before the game, Favre snapped, 'That's between me and my teammates.'"

Source: ABC News

"People inside Lance Armstrong’s inner circle of friends and colleagues are being called to testify in front of a grand jury investigating suspected doping and fraud in professional cycling, raising the intensity of the inquiry into the possibility of Armstrong’s involvement in crimes while he rode for the United States Postal Service team."
Source: New York Times

"Brett Favre has retired again. I'm one that felt that he would have been best to retire as a Packer, but it's hard to retire the mindset of a competitor, champion, and legend.....ask Lance Armstrong about that. LA might have just destroyed the whole concept of retiring before you get past your prime. Hopefully Brett will find peace hanging out on his ranch in Kiln, MS. Weekend touch football games in his Levis should keep the spirit alive."
Random Roving, July 29, 2009

Ferrell On The Future

Paul Farrell provides this bleak forecast:

"Yes, big warning, the Second American Revolution will extract painful austerity, not the “happy days are here again” future touted by tea-baggers. For years it’ll be impossible for most of America’s 95 million investors to develop a successful investment or logical retirement strategy. Why? Political chaos will translate into extreme volatility and a highly unpredictable stock market. Result: Wall Street will lose another 20% of the value of your retirement portfolio in the next decade, just as Wall Street did the last decade. So if you think you’re “mad as hell” now, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”
Here’s the timeline:
Stage 1: The Dems just put the nail in their coffin by confirming they are wimps, refusing to force the GOP to filibuster the Bush tax cuts for America’s richest.
Stage 2: The GOP takes over the House, expanding its war to destroy Obama with its new policy of “complete gridlock,” even “shutting down government.”
Stage 3: Obama goes lame-duck.
Stage 4: The GOP wins back the White House and Senate in 2012. Health care returns to insurers. Free market financial deregulation returns.
Stage 5: Under the new president, Wall Street’s insatiable greed triggers the catastrophic third meltdown of the 21st century Shiller predicted, with defaults on dollar-denominated debt.
Stage 6: The Second American Revolution explodes into a brutal full-scale class war rebelling against the out-of-touch, out-of-control greedy conspiracy-of-the-rich now running America.
Stage 7: Domestic class warfare is compounded by Pentagon’s prediction that by 2020 'an ancient pattern of desperate, all-out wars over food, water, and energy supplies would emerge' worldwide and 'warfare is defining human life.'"
The entire article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/america-on-the-brink-of-a-second-revolution-2010-09-28?pagenumber=1

A Chilling Irish Reminder

"Northern Ireland police said Saturday they were investigating a car bomb that exploded overnight in the city of Derry, about 70 miles northwest of Belfast. No one was hurt in the bombing, which happened in the city center shortly after midnight and left the car on fire, police said. The explosion followed an attack Friday in which masked gunmen in Belfast fatally shot a man at point-blank range on a busy shopping street. A police spokesman said the attack was a 'chilling reminder of a violent past that everyone in the community hoped we had left behind.'"
Source: CNN

"When will N. Ireland re-ignite?
Random Roving, January 12, 2009

"The events of the past week indicate that more trouble could lie ahead."
Random Roving, March 10, 2009

Ten Years Of Zero

I've posted about the "boiling frog" a few times in the past.  The chart below really sums it up.  If I "Jay-walked" and stopped the average Joe on the street and asked them what % the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained in the last 10 years, I would bet that over 90% of the people would respond with a positive number....probably a very positive number.  This chart is more evidence that the "buy and hold" strategy died a decade ago.

Dow Jones Industrial Average - Last 10 years

The Simpler The Better

"We must make things as simple as possible, but not simpler."
Albert Einstein

The Avalanche Risk

"Like everybody else, I have no idea exactly what’s going to happen, or precisely when. Anybody who says they do know should be greeted with a furrowed brow and a frown of suspicion. As my long-time readers know, I prefer to assess the risks and then take steps to mitigate those risks based on likelihood and impact.  Which means that although we cannot predict the size (exactly how much) or the timing (precisely when) of economic shifts or world-changing events, we can certainly understand the risks and the dimensions of what might happen. Just as we cannot predict when an avalanche will release from steep slope, or even where or how big it will be, we can readily predict that constant snowfall coupled with the right temperature conditions will lead to an avalanche sooner or later, and more likely in this gully than that one. Given certain conditions, we might expect one that is larger or smaller than normal. Although we don't know exactly when or how much, we do know that when snow accumulates, so do the risks of more frequent and/or larger avalanches."
Chris Martenson

The entire article:
http://financialsense.com/contributors/chris-martenson/prediction-things-may-unravel-faster-than-you-think

Sheeple Alert #143

It's mornings like this when I read Google News and say "Wow". Lady GaGa, Beyonce, and Ellen???!?! How does Lady Nancy feel about her spot at #11?



FORBES Worlds Most Powerful Women



Martenson On Mood

"Social moods are steady for long periods, and then they shift.  This is what we should train ourselves to expect."
Chris Martenson

Golden Rocket

It seems like yesterday when I made a post about gold breaking the $1300/ounce barrier. Yesterday it rocketed upwards almost breaking $1350.  But, keep in mind that everything has made a strong move up.  As Robert Prechter has said in the past, "all the same".  Stocks and commodities are very in sync which is not the norm.  Similar behavior and patterns occurred leading up to the fall of 2008. 

Yesterday's Gold price in RED

Texas Pirates

Back in November, 2008, I made a post related to the pirates off the coast of Somalia. It looks like the pirates are invading the Republic of Texas.

"As the survivor of what's being called a pirate assault on Falcon Lake, Texas, recounts the harrowing ordeal that likely took her husband's life, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is leading calls for a tough US response to spillover violence from Mexico's bloody drug wars onto American soil. The Falcon Lake attack, where three boats likely connected to the Zeta drug-running gang reportedly shot at 30-year-old David Hartley and his wife, Tiffany Hartley, while they rode personal watercraft, now threatens to become an international incident. The pirates, brandishing AK-47s, so far have confronted and robbed five US bass-fishing boats that have wandered into Mexican waters, which the Americans are allowed to do on the jointly administered lake. In some of those instances, the Zeta pirates have identified themselves as "federales," but their well-known and visible Z tattoos indicate that they're brigands, not Mexican officials. On Tuesday the mother of Mr. Hartley begged US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to intervene in efforts to try to locate his still-missing body. The pleas from the border came as authorities in Texas reported other evidence of Mexican drug violence in the US, including a bullet-riddled truck found on the US side of the border last week with the bodies of two Mexican nationals inside – an act of violence that Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia described as a cartel-ordered 'hit.' 'The larger significance of [the pirate attack] is whether it's an indicator of what we greatly fear, which is that violence would spill over [the US border] in a direct way,' says Robert Chesney, a national security law expert at the University of Texas, in Austin."

Source: Christian Science Monitor

"During the contraction phase of the cycle, the 'have nots' will seek what they feel entitled to from the 'haves'. This will likely occur on all scales. As the mass social mood continues to shift down, what protective measures will be taken by governments and individuals to protect themselves?"

Random Roving, November 24, 2008

Eye Of The Storm

"We are in the eye of the storm. That little bit of blue sky Washington is pumping up is no different from the patch of blue at the eye of a hurricane. The next arm of the storm is on the way."

Doug Casey, Casey Research

Maybe October?

Well I couldn't have been more wrong about September. It was the best September in 71 years!
Shall I dare post some lyrics about October?

OCTOBER, U2
October

And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on

Gold and A Candy Bar Please

"A German firm called “Gold to go” plans to introduce gold vending machines in the US before the end of the year. The timing is no doubt intended to coincide with both US elections and the holiday shopping season. The company has already installed machines in Abu Dhabi, and around Europe, with plans to have 35 machines in place by the end of December. The first US machines will be installed in Florida and Las Vegas. Customers will be able to use debit cards to buy gold in 1-, 5-, and 10-gram and 1-ounce bars. The machines will also sell South African Krugerrands, Australian Kangaroos, and the Canadian Maple Leaf gold coins. At about $1,300/ounce, a 1-gram bar will set you back about $46. All bars and coins come in a “precious gift box,” according to the company’s web site. A perfect little stocking stuffer. The company is missing a great opportunity by not installing one outside the New York Stock Exchange. What better way to get a read on market sentiment than to check the length of the line waiting to buy gold from a machine?"
Paul Ausick

Silver & Gold

I've spent a lot of time pitching gold, but not enough on silver. It's been on fire lately. The ETF "SLV" provides a nice purchase option.  A bag of junk silver provides a good compliment.

Dumbing Down The Masses

My buddy JD always says "they're dumbing down the operation".  James Quinn on http://www.theburningplatform.com/ just shared these statistics:

-33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
-42% of college graduates never read another book after college.
-80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
-70% of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
-57% of new books are not read to completion.
-There are over 17,000 radio stations and over 2,000 TV stations in America today.
-Each day in the U.S., people spend on average 4.7 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
-The projected average number of hours an individual (12 and older) will spend watching television this year is 1,750.
-In a 65-year life, the average person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.
-Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child – 20,000
-Number of videos rented daily in the U.S. – 6 million
-Number of public library items checked out daily – 3 million
-Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges – 59%
-Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court – 17%

Sound Banking

"A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him."

John Maynard Keynes (1931), "The Consequences to the Banks of the Collapse of Money Values"

The Supersize Me Era

Team Blue and Team Red continue to point the finger at one another in the blame game.  Twenty eight years of debt accumulation and we want to blame those in power today.  It all kicked off with the "morning in America".  How steep can the curve get before it rolls over?  As a wise man once said "don't try to catch the falling arrow".



"The Keynesian school argues that 'money supply' is the driver of the economy and, in times of cooling economic activity, deficit spending will kick start it again. This behaviour has been in place since the Reagan years and the net result has been the emergence of a debt mountain.  The Austrian school argues that “the market” should be allowed to breathe in and out without interference and that mindlessly throwing money at the economy will result in nothing other than malinvestment. A corollary to this school of thought is that there needs to be an external discipline exerted on banker behaviour in the form of formal constraints regarding the quantum of money in circulation. Logically (it is argued by growing number of people) the most sensible constraint will be a gold standard in some form."

Brian Bloom