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In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
–John Adams
Dear CIGA Frustrated,
You voiced your concern of why participants in the gold and dollar market do what they do in modern times with all the information available to them.
The following video will clear up all your doubts. The music is the Comex band of jolly short of gold manipulators.
The people are of course the gold gang.
Sincerely,
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The madness continues. Consequences will not be avoided.
Freddie asks Treasury for $30.8 bln after big quarterly loss
By Alistair Barr
Last update: 4:38 p.m. EDT March 11, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Freddie Mac (FRE)asked the government for billions of dollars in extra support late Wednesday after reporting a fourth-quarter net loss of $23.9 billion, or $7.37 a share. That was a slight improvement from the third quarter of last year, when the mortgage giant suffered a net loss of $25.3 billion, or $19.44 a share. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Freddie, has asked the Treasury Department for $30.8 billion and the company said it expects to receive that money in March.
More… http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Freddie-asks-Treasury-308-bln/story.aspx?guid={218D6426-B7C9-43CC-A568-4D89BB173C78}
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Please refer back to the illustration posted yesterday showing what a trillion dollar looks like in 100 dollar bills.
Now consider that before the BIS changed their figures to Shiller’s BS computer cartoon value to maturity, the number they reported was ONE QUADRILLION ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED and 44 TRILLION
Now there is one major pile of toilet paper.
Regards,
Jim
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
It is not AIG that is being fed. The funds go in the front and out the back to the winners of the derivative which are not the brokerage firms someday to be named.
For every loss there is a gain. Note that the AIG monster is sitting on top of the OTC derivatives winners.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
I love this. At the Mesa, AZ, KFYI Radio and TV listeners brought signs telling Santa Obama that they wanted fair treatment equal to the fat cat bailouts of the Wall Street pigs.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Until the uptick short sale rule is reinstated and where it still exists is enforced, along with criminal charges for naked and pool short selling occurs, no equity rally will have good legs.
Tick-tock, the uptick rule is about to expire
Commentary: Implementation won’t save market, but it will help
By MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — As if it weren’t bad enough for hedge funds, now there’s credible talk that the uptick rule, which curbs some short selling, could be on its way back in a matter of mere weeks.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., told reporters at a press conference Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he expects the Securities and Exchange Commission to introduce a draft rule to reinstate the uptick rule next month.
Critics of short sellers, including Charles Schwab and the head of the New York Stock Exchange, Duncan Niederauer, have argued that the rule’s elimination has contributed to the economic downturn or is harmful to issuers.
Under the uptick rule, eliminated in 2007, short sellers were allowed to make their bets only when the price of a stock moves up. That would create a hurdle, but not a roadblock, for short sellers who in recent years have become a bigger part of the trading marketplace.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
In terms of hyperinflation, certain to occur, this article is valid.
DB Advisors Says Commodity ‘Bull Market’ Still Intact (Update1)
By Millie Munshi
March 10 (Bloomberg) — A “secular bull market” in commodities remains intact and prices of oil and copper will rebound in the second half, according to Theresa Gusman, the head of equity research for Deutsche Bank AG’s DB Advisors unit.
Government spending in China and the U.S. will boost infrastructure construction and spur gains in demand for industrial commodities, Gusman said today. Increasing cash injections will accelerate inflation and bring gains in gold prices, she said. Limited supplies and declines in exploration budgets will also help underpin raw materials, she said.
“Policy makers are hell-bent on stabilizing the financial system,” Gusman, who manages $215 billion, said at a meeting with reporters in New York. “This will bring greater demand for commodities and make prices go higher.”
Commodities have plunged in the past eight months as the global recession eroded demand. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials sank 56 percent from a record on July 3 before today. The declines began after the gauge posted 29 percent jump in the first half of 2008.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Here is another problem certain the blow its lid.
The rise & rise of Pakistan’s Taliban
11 Mar 2009, 0155 hrs IST, Subodh Varma, TNN
In the spring of 1994, a new military force appeared in Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires. Legend has it that its first public action was in Kandahar. A local warlord had abducted two girls for serving his troops. One night, a group of young, bearded Pashtuns, wearing black turbans emerged from the darkness, stormed the base, rescued the girls and hanged the warlord from the turret of a tank.
They were called the Taliban, and soon they stormed Kabul and established one of the most brutal regimes in the world, based on a narrow fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.
Their origins lay in the western border areas of Pakistan, where thousands of Afghans, mainly Pashtuns, had fled during the decade-long jihad against the Soviet army. A whole generation of boys grew up in refugee camps in tribal areas, learning the ideology of hate and revenge. The camps and seminaries were organised by the Pakistani government, with funds received covertly from the US (for fighting communism) and openly from Saudi Arabian armchair jihadists who wanted to spread Islam. Because of their origins in madrassas, these fighters were called the "Taliban", or students.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Our CIGA Gold Delivery Man, JB Slear, is famous!
Where can private investors buy the cheapest gold?
By Rob Mackinlay
"Unlike futures-backed investment products which never actually take delivery of gold and silver, but continuously renew their investments in the paper markets, sophisticated investors wanting to get their hands on the real thing, buy the contract in the deliverable month and wait for it to expire.
JB Slear, a gold and silver broker based in Arizona specialises in helping high net worth clients take delivery of gold and silver futures contracts. He said that overseas buyers could face particular problems: "We’re finding more restrictions being applied to overseas buyers, seems one of the four warehouses will not allow overseas deliveries. We have just been told this by one of the Comex warehouses today. I don’t know if this is a lack of communication or not so, for the sake of all, we need to consider this a rumour till we have more people claiming the same problem."
Slear tells his clients that they may have to wait more than two weeks to take delivery as delays and complications in the process have become increasingly commonplace more so now than during the Christmas season. In some cases this has fuelled concern that stockpiles are running out. Slear is not convinced by this explanation and blames skeleton warehouse staffing for most of the delays.
But he said that the level of interest in this method of buying gold and silver had increased significantly between November and December.
The reason for the interest is obvious. Slear said: "I know of no other place in this country that offers a price equal to the Comex exchange, nothing comes close. Even with my Premium Delivery Service added, it’s far more reasonable to buy from Comex."
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
More on the miscreants:
The Most Dangerous Neighborhood in the United States
"Be careful."
"Keep your wallet safe."
"Don’t get your money stolen."
"Stay out of dangerous neighborhoods."
My parents used to say that to me when I was first going out on my own. I never got the definition of what a "dangerous neighborhood" was – you were just supposed to know. It was a place where people preyed on you. Predators, like jackals circling, waiting to pounce, ready to take your hard earned money from you. That’s what happens in dangerous neighborhoods. That’s why you should stay away from places like that.
As I got older, I wondered what exactly is a "dangerous neighborhood"? Most of us grew up assuming it was an area where poor people lived, people who didn’t dress well, didn’t have nice homes, didn’t have nice cars, didn’t have any interest in working for a living. People who just take and assume they’ll never get caught or even worse, don’t care if they do. However, that is a highly subjective criteria. How does one quantify that and determine the kind of place where you will most likely be separated from your money?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation provides statistics that may help us gain insight into where and how you are most likely to have your money stolen.
The FBI defines robbery as the taking of anything of value from a person by force or threat of violence. Robberies cost victims an estimated $588 million in 2007.
The FBI defines larceny-theft as the stealing of any property or article that is not taken by force or by fraud. In 2007 there were an estimated 6.6 million larceny-thefts, costing victims an estimated $5.8 billion dollars.
Securities fraud refers to deceptive practices in the stock and commodity markets including Ponzi schemes, high yield investment and hedge fund fraud and just about any way it is possible to lie about the promise of big returns on a variety of investment instruments. In 2006, the most recent year a total was listed, the FBI estimated losses at $40 billion.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
In times past crowds dragged bankers out of their offices on Wall Street and hung them from lamp posts.
CORRECTED-Protesters target U.S. foreclosed-homes auctioneer
Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:19pm EDT
In March 8 story "Protesters target U.S. foreclosed-homes auctioneer," corrects story to include company’s response to protest in paragraphs 6 and 9.
NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) – An auction of foreclosed homes in New York City on Sunday drew protesters who blamed banks for an epidemic of home losses and called for a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.
Two dozen people marched outside a Manhattan convention center where Real Estate Disposition Corp was auctioning off several hundred foreclosed homes, chanting and carrying signs reading "Banks get bailed out, people get thrown out."
The protesters said their argument was not with would-be homebuyers, who streamed into the auction without taking much notice, but with banks that had reaped benefits of government bailout funds after years of irresponsible lending practices.
"We’re not angry at the people who are looking for a cheaper home," said Larry Holmes, a spokesman for the Bail Out the People Movement, which staged the demonstration.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
They predict inflation. I guarantee you hyperinflation.
Pimco Predicts Inflation, Joining Buffett, Marc Faber (Update3)
By Wes Goodman
March 11 (Bloomberg) — Pacific Investment Management Co. which runs the world’s biggest bond fund, joined investors Warren Buffett and Marc Faberin saying inflation will quicken, sounding a warning for Treasury investors.
U.S. government and Federal Reserve efforts to snap the recession will increase costs for goods and services as soon as 2010, Pimco said in a report today on its Web site by Chris Caltagirone and Bob Greer. Commodity producers are also delaying projects, which may limit supply and lead to higher prices when global growth resumes, according to Pimco.
“Inflation will rise,” Pimco said. Treasury securities that give investors protection against higher prices in the economy are “attractive now.”
Pimco is among a growing list of investors who are warning that programs to counter the U.S. slump will increase consumer prices as the economy starts to revive. Investor Jim Rogers, author of the books “Hot Commodities” and “Adventure Capitalist,” said this week U.S. policies will hurt conventional Treasuries, those that don’t offer inflation protection.
President Barack Obama is asking Congress to pass a budget that will result in a record $1.75 trillion deficit. He has already signed into law a $787 billion package of tax cuts and government spending.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Every day for the past few weeks the most consistent green figure has been the Libor Rate.
Libor’s Creep Shows Credit Markets at Risk of Seizure
By Gabrielle Coppola and Liz Capo McCormick
March 11 (Bloomberg) — The cost of borrowing in dollars is rising as the global recession deepens and central bank efforts to prop up the financial system fail to prevent a growing number of banks from requiring government bailouts.
The London interbank offered rate, orLibor, that banks say they charge each other for three-month loans stayed at 1.33 percent today, near the highest level since Jan. 8 and up from this year’s low of 1.08 percent on Jan. 14, the British Bankers’ Association said. The Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of bank reluctance to lend, widened to the most since Jan. 9.
Short-term borrowing costs are increasing as banks hoard cash and governments struggle to thaw credit markets after finance companies reported almost $1.2 trillion of writedowns and losses since the start of 2007. Banco Popolare SC yesterday became Italy’s first lender to seek state aid. Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest mortgage provider, ceded control to the government March 7. U.S. regulators seized 17 failing banks so far this year.
“The market is beginning to think that the solution is either not politically possible, or we can’t afford it, or maybe there isn’t a solution,” said Bob Baur, chief global economist at Des Moines, Iowa-based Principal Global Investors, which manages $198 billion of assets. Libor’s rise “is just another indication of that concern,” he said.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
IMF sales in the 70s proved the most bullish thing for gold as it allowed major buyers in a singular prices.
Central bank gold sales never see the marketplace. This time they will provide an excellent vehicle for central banks wishing to diversify out of the US dollar.
This is no factor to the price of gold.
European Central Banks May Announce Gold Sales Accord, UBS Says
By Claudia Carpenter
March 10 (Bloomberg) — European central bankers may extend their so-called Washington Agreement, capping gold sales, with an announcement as early as this month, according to UBS AG.
The accord that caps sales at 500 metric tons a year through September 2009 was announced in March 2004 at a meeting of the Group of 10 nations. A new agreement would most likely keep that 500-ton limit, according to John Reade, UBS analyst.
“If it doesn’t happen this month it could lead to a bit of uncertainty” in the gold market, Reade said by phone today.
Banks sold 358 tons of gold in the fourth year of the agreement through September last year, and another 48 tons through Jan. 7, according to the World Gold Council. There are 17 banks in the agreement, with the Central Bank of Cyprus the latest to join in January, according to the European Central Bank, itself a member.
UPDATE 1-Singapore’s GIC sees more distress in markets
Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:35am EDT
By Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar
SINGAPORE, March 10 (Reuters) – An official from the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) said he expects more weakness in financial markets in the next 12-18 months, and recommended investors hold gold and other safe assets such as government bonds.
GIC, one of the world’s largest sovereign funds with an estimated $200 billion-plus in assets, has invested aggressively in troubled global lenders, picking up multi-billion dollar stakes in Citigroup (C.N) and UBS (UBSN.VX) in late 2007 and early 2008.
There is "systemic capital inadequacy globally", and the world will probably see "three years of a very vicious downcycle," GIC’s director of economics and strategy, Yeoh Lam Keong, told the Investment Management Association of Singapore conference on Tuesday
"This is a very destructive process for assets."
Yeoh, who said he was speaking in his personal capacity, showed a slide prepared by GIC that indicated global writedowns in the financial sector could reach $3.8 trillion by 2013 and that only about 30 percent of the losses had been booked so far.
Bad news on Sesame Street
Posted by Tracy Alloway on Mar 11 16:54
Sesame Workshop is cutting 20 per cent of its workforce…
